Ailing Spanish Bank Gets State Cash Injection
Spain’s struggling Caja Mediterraneo said Thursday it will receive 2.8 billion euros from a state-backed bank restructuring fund, leading to its nationalisation. The Caja Mediterraneo (CAM) is one of 91 banks in Europe, 25 of them Spanish, facing stress tests on Friday by the EU’s banking regulator. CAM had requested the aid from the state-financed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) in April in order to meet new banking requirements set by the government, after the failure of a merger with three other savings banks. The FROB “has confirmed to CAM it provide the pledged financial support of 2.8 billion euros (4.0 billion euros) requested last April 28 as part of its recapitalisation plan,” CAM said in a statement. “Caja Mediterraneo will thus have 5.164 billion euros in capital because it has another 2.364 million euros of its own capital.” Spain’s lenders, especially its regional savings banks which account for about half of all lending in the country, have been heavily exposed to bad debt since the collapse of the property sector at the end of 2008.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Barack ‘No Drama’ Obama Makes a Stand on Debt and Finally Loses His Cool
It has taken two and a half years, but Barack “no drama” Obama has finally lost his cool.
He walked out of a meeting with Republican congressional leaders on deficit reduction, telling them “enough was enough”.
It was the fourth such meeting in as many days to end fruitlessly, and the president’s mounting frustration had been clear.
In a press conference on Monday he ruled out a temporary agreement on raising the US debt limit, insisting “we might as well do it now — pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas”.
“They’re in one week and they’re out one week,” he said, making his irritation plain. “You need to be here. I’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis. You stay here. Let’s get it done.”
Liberals will ask what took him so long. Losing the public option on health care, failing to close Guantánamo, extending Bush tax cuts for the rich — none of this caused the famously cool operator in the White House to lose his rag. He has often been accused of excessive detachment, of failing to empathise with the plight of ordinary Americans.
But the prospect of the United States losing its top credit rating, of failing to make Social Security payments, of defaulting on loans, was too much. My hunch is that he may have picked the right issue on which to make a stand.
Mr Obama reportedly said before he stormed out that his presidency might be wrecked by failing to reach a deal, but the Republicans would be unwise to be saddled with the blame for driving the country further into the mire.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Can China Conquer Its Economic Challenges?
As the US and Europe grapple with their crises, the meteoric rise of China as an economic power is fueling debate over whether the country is headed for a crash. Economists say there are risks, but can they be managed? This is what an economic slowdown looks like in Beijing. The Chinese economy grew 9.5 percent in the second quarter compared to 9.7 percent in the first three months of the year, according to government figures. China’s factory output shot up 14.3 percent. Retail sales soared 16.8 percent in the first half of the year compared to 2010. To be sure, the current growth rate is the slowest expansion of the Chinese economy in almost two years, but it still was higher than analysts had expected. Staggering growth itself, however, is not the key risk but rather an indicator of other and more severe problems Beijing is facing, argue experts.
“I think the two major challenges are bad debt and inflation,” says Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing. Barbara Krug, director of the research center on China’s economy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, agrees and notes that those risks are more worrisome than the much-mentioned real estate bubble. Krug is particularly concerned about what is called debt overload in China, essentially an overinvestment by municipalities and counties in infrastructure projects ranging from railways and airports to new city halls. Since local governments are in control of local banks they have access to easy money without fretting about whether they will be able to pay it back, said Krug. “Therefore an increasing number of banks in China are overburdened with bad loans. And that will burst one day of course.” As the Financial Times reported earlier this month, according to the ratings agency Moody’s, Beijing “may have understated the debt load of local governments by Rmb 3,500 billion or $541 billion (380 billion euros), a hole in public finances that is likely to inflict damage on banks.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Caution: Storm Approaching
It was seven months ago that Mohammed Bouazizi, a vegetable peddler in Tunisia set himself and the Arab world on fire. The 26-year-old staged his suicidal protest on the steps of the local city hall after a municipal inspector took away his unlicensed vegetable cart thus denying him the ability to feed his family of eight.
Most depictions of the Arab revolutions that followed his act have cast them as struggles for freedom and good government. These depictions miss the main cause of these political upheavals. No doubt millions of Arabs are upset about the freedom deficit in Arab lands. But the fact is that economics has played a decisive role in all of them.
In Bouzizi’s case, his self-immolation was provoked by economic desperation. And if current trends continue, the revolutionary ferment we have seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, the political whirlwind will not be contained in the Middle East…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Anger Grows Towards US Debt Police
The German government fears that the big US credit ratings agencies are aggravating the eurozone’s debt crisis. But, as The Local’s David Wroe reports, the alternatives are not simple. Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch famously gave Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers and insurer AIG healthy ratings on the very eve of the global financial crisis in 2008. Yet despite having their reputations severely tarnished by past blunders, the major American credit ratings agencies are now playing a pivotal — and highly controversial — role in Europe’s debt crisis. Last week, Moody’s abruptly downgraded Portugal’s credit rating four levels to “junk” status, effectively ending the beleaguered nation’s hopes of issuing bonds in the near future — a move German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble branded “incomprehensible.” This followed what many European politicians considered to be poorly timed downgrades of Greek and Spanish debt last year.
On top of this, Standard & Poor’s recently torpedoed a French-German plan to have private banks voluntarily contribute to the next bailout of Greece, by warning that it would likely constitute a default by the debt-laden Mediterranean country. Anger is growing among European leaders, particularly in Germany. Former Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle, now the parliamentary leader for the pro-business Free Democratic Union, offered on Friday the latest and most detailed attack on the agencies. Brüderle said blind faith in the judgements of “the opinion oligopoly of the three big US agencies” was one reason why risks in financial markets have been recognised too late. He called for “more competition through the establishment of an independent and privately financed EU ratings agency,” business daily Handelsblatt reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy on Course for Fast-Track Approval of Budget
Italy’s lower house of parliament is set Friday for fast-track approval of a three-year austerity budget amid pressure from both the markets and other EU member states to take swift action. With senate approval (161 to 135 votes) given on Thursday, the lower house is expected to greenlight the measures designed to eliminate Italy’s budget deficit by 2014 through a combination of cuts and taxes amounting to €45bn. Fears that the eurozone crisis would spread to Italy came to the fore last week when markets became nervous that infighting in Rome would see tough budget decision postponed. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi added to the jitters by openly criticising his finance minister Giulio Tremonti. The markets responded last Friday with a strong sell-off of Italian stocks, prompting EU council president Herman Van Rompuy to call an emergency meeting of top eurozone officials at the beginning of the week to discuss the eurozone’s third largest economy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘One Household in Five Living in Poverty’
One in two large families in south says Istat
(ANSA) — Rome, July 15 — One Italian household in five is living in poverty, Istat said Friday.
For large families in the poorer south of the country, the figures rises to one in two, the national statistics agency said.
More than eight million people, or almost 14% of the Italian population, are living below the bread line and over three million, or 5%, are in a state of “absolute poverty”, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parliament Approves Four-Year Austerity Budget
Rome, 15 July (AKI) — Members of Italy’s lower house of parliament on Friday approved by 316 votes to 284 a 45 billion euro austerity package aimed at eliminating Italy’s budget deficit and quelling market fears over the country’s ability to curb its public debt. Two MPs abstained from the vote.
The Italian government had tabled the motion as a vote of confidence. The Senate upper house of parliament approved the plan in Thursday a confidence vote, and the austerity budget now needs to be signed by Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano to become law.
With Italy under intense international pressure to swiftly enact measures to avert an Italian debt crisis, opposition parties responded to pleas from Napolitano to cooperate in approving the austerity budget in record time, although they disapprove of many of its measures, including an increase in hospital fees and other public services.
The International Monetary Fund this week asked Italy to ensure “decisive implementation” of spending cuts to reduce the country’s debt.
In a report on Italy, the IMF said “only sustained growth will reduce the burden of public debt,” echoing earlier comments by Italy’s central bank governor and president-elect of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
The IMF comments came as concerns continue that Italy may be the next country to be hit by the eurozone’s escalating debt crisis.
Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy and has the second-highest debt of about 120 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Its deficit was 4.6 per cent of GDP last year.
Finance minister Giulio Tremonti has resisted pressure to resign from cabinet colleagues, fearing the tough budget will defeat the government at elections due in 2013. He claims the international community backs the austerity measures but national unity is needed to implement them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Warns Time Running Out on Debt Deal
Negotiations in Washington to raise the nation’s debt limit have faltered on the partisan political divide. Meanwhile, credit rating agencies and Beijing have warned the US to adopt responsible fiscal policies.
President Barack Obama warned Friday that the country was “running out of time” to resolve the impasse and reach a deal on raising the debt ceiling. At a White House press conference he said that he had urged Congress to come up with a viable plan over the next 24 to 36 hours. “If they show me a serious plan, I’m ready to move,” he said. Republicans and Democrats have reached an impasse in an escalating ideological battle over raising the US debt ceiling, with the rating agency Moody’s threatening to downgrade Washington’s credit worthiness if the two sides fail to find a compromise by August 2, a move that could destabilize the global economy.
“It’s the foundation of our financial system,” US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said during a congressional hearing. “The notion that it would become suddenly unreliable and illiquid would throw shock waves through the entire global financial system.” Both political parties agree in principle that the US must increase its $14.29 trillion (9.8 trillion euros) debt ceiling in order to continue paying its bills and avoid a short-term default on its financial obligations. Negotiations, however, have reached a stalemate due to a partisan divide over the appropriate balance between taxes and spending cuts. Republicans have preconditioned any debt limit increase on parallel cuts in spending while at the same time rejecting tax increases across the board. Democrats, meanwhile, have been reluctant to make cuts in social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that could alienate their electoral base, proposing instead to raise taxes on wealthier Americans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia: Hours Extended to Avoid Redundancies
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 15 — After the tightening imposed by Spain’s central government, which will see wages cut by 5% in an attempt to reduce deficit, Catalan public sector workers are now facing another round of measures from the regional government, which is studying proposals to increase working hours in an attempt to avoid redundancies. The move, which has been put forward by the regional economy chief, Andreu Mas-Colell, and explained in the press today, would see working hours extended by at least 15 minutes per day in the same economic conditions, a move that would save staff spending by 10% compared to 2010, and aims to reduce deficit from the 3.9% figure recorded at the end of last year to 2.66%, which would still be above the 2.5% ceiling imposed for 2011 by the central government. The austerity message, an encouragement for trade unions to accept the proposals, comes as the Generalitat (the regional Catalan government) is preparing an income support and redundancy plan targeting public companies for staff with contracts of indeterminate length, which represents 40% of public sector employment in Catalonia. At the same time, the regional government has suspended the turnover of pensioned staff or those with fixed-length contracts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Franc Reaches New Highs Against Dollar, Euro
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — The Swiss franc was being exchanged in Asia for $.81 and €1.14 shortly before midnight, TSR reports. Thursday’s exchange rates as listed by Reuters showed the franc trading at $.81 and €1.16 at 14:00 Swiss time Thursday. The Swiss currency was trading at new highs against the dollar and the euro, as concerns grow over the US debt ceiling, rising debt costs for Italy and the downgrading of Irish sovereign debt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘The US is Holding the Whole World Hostage’
With no solution to the US debt crisis in sight, the rest of the world is starting to get nervous. German commentators urge congressional leaders to get their act together. A US default would have catastrophic consequences, they warn. Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are threatening to downgrade the country’s debt amid fears of a national insolvency. But for once it is not a debt-stricken euro-zone member that has come into the crosshairs of the powerful rating agencies. This time it is the United States, the world’s largest economy, that is at risk of going bust. The US needs to raise its debt ceiling, currently set at $14.3 trillion (€10.1 trillion), by Aug. 2, otherwise the country will run out of money. But negotiations between President Barack Obama and top Republicans and Democrats have so far failed to make progress.
Obama has now given congressional leaders until Saturday morning to reconsider their positions. “It’s decision time. We need concrete plans to move this forward,” Obama said on Thursday, the fifth day of talks, following an inconclusive negotiating session. Financial markets, which have previously viewed the negotiations with calm, are beginning to get nervous amid fears that Republicans and Democrats may be unable to reach an agreement by Aug. 2. Any default on the part of the US could have incalculable effects on global financial markets and could hurt the fragile recovery in the US. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have warned they may cut the country’s top AAA credit rating if a solution isn’t reached.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Justice Opens Probe Against Credit Suisse
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said Friday that it is being investigated by the US Department of Justice over private banking services provided to US taxpayers. “On July 14, 2011, Credit Suisse received a letter notifying it that it is a target of the Department of Justice investigation,” said the bank in a statement. “It has been reported that the US authorities are conducting a broader industry inquiry,” it said, adding that the probe “concerns historical private banking services provided on a cross-border basis to US persons.” “Subject to our Swiss legal obligations, we will continue to cooperate with the US authorities in an effort to resolve these matters,” said the bank. The United States indicted four Credit Suisse bankers in February on charges of helping US taxpayers hide money in secret Swiss accounts to avoid US taxes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Disarmed by Shariah: Political Correctness Prevents Army From Recognizing Sedition
The mind-numbing disease of political correctness has so infected the American military leadership that it is a threat in itself. The political correctness mentality was the principal reason why Fort Hood’s alleged murderer, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was not cashiered out of the Army after a shocking June 2007 PowerPoint presentation he gave as part of his psychiatric residency program. In that presentation, he reportedly warned his Army colleagues and supervisor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center of “adverse events” that would occur if the Army did not accept the precepts of Islamic Shariah law and grant Muslims serving in the Army conscientious objector status.
He went on to describe what he meant by adverse events, citing previous cases of Muslims murdering their fellow soldiers, spying against the United States, deserting their units and refusing to deploy. None of his fellow doctors or his supervisor reported his remarks, most likely out of fear of being labeled a bigot or racist, which in today’s military could end one’s career.
Now it seems the Army has embraced Maj. Hasan’s position in an incredible decision made last month by the secretary of the Army to grant conscientious objector status to Pfc. Naser Abdo. He is a 21-year-old soldier, a member of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., who refused to deploy to Afghanistan, claiming that Shariah law prevented him from killing other Muslims.
The fact that Shariah law is totally incompatible with the U.S. Constitution and has no legal basis in the United States was somehow overlooked in the Army’s decision process. Shariah is a totalitarian legal-military-political system that is designed to control every aspect of an individual’s life and is antithetical to our concept of freedom and democracy. By its dictates, Shariah is seditious.
By acceding to the dictates of Shariah, the Army has tacitly endorsed an absurd position that in effect sanctions Muslim service members to kill non-Muslims but forbids them to kill Muslims. Further, it is an unbelievable basis on which to classify them as conscientious objectors.
When Pfc. Abdo enlisted, he stated he initially believed that he could be a soldier and a Muslim at the same time. What changed his vision? He stated that his understanding of Islam “changed” as he went through training ahead of a planned deployment to Afghanistan. He worried whether going to war was the right thing to do.
This would indicate that someone in the Army training process for an overseas deployment in the 2009-10 time frame was indoctrinating Pfc. Abdo and other Muslim soldiers. Could it have been one of the Muslim chaplains personally selected by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who currently is serving a 23-year sentence in a federal prison? He was convicted of terrorism-related charges and was proved to be a senior al Qaeda financier as well as a strong supporter of the terrorists groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
As a result of his close connections in the Clinton White House, Alamoudi had the lead role in establishing the Muslim chaplain program. He nominated and approved which Muslim chaplains could serve in the U.S. military. The chaplains have never been vetted. This, together with a review of how Muslim military personnel currently are being indoctrinated, needs to be examined on an expedited basis.
Who helped the Army come to this inconceivable position on classifying Pfc. Abdo as a conscientious objector? My guess would be the Army received “guidance” from its Muslim “outreach partners,” who it believes are operating in America’s best interest. This would be classic stealth jihad at its finest.
By granting conscientious objector status to Pfc. Abdo, the Army is tacitly accepting a key tenet of the Islamic doctrine of jihad, as embraced by al Qaeda and other terrorists groups, which states that any incursion by non-Muslims into the Islamic lands makes it the duty for all Muslims to fight the “occupiers.” This view is shared by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has challenged American efforts in Afghanistan as “unwelcome outsiders,” in effect, occupiers.
The U.S. military is the finest in the world. It represents the best of America. We have many Muslims serving honorably in the U.S. military and their service should not be tainted by Pfc. Abdo’s conscientious objector designation. His discharge from the Army is currently on hold because he has been charged with possession of child pornography. That should not be surprising: Shariah sanctions marriage of girls 9 years old and younger, in effect, legalized pedophilia.
[Retired Navy Adm. James A. Lyons was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.]
| [Return to headlines] |
Freeing Al Qaeda? DOJ Moves to Cut Prison Term for Alamoudi
By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Just when you thought it was not possible for the Holder Justice Department to become any more hostile to the national and homeland security interests of the American people, along comes yet another travesty. This one threatens both, as it apparently would involve turning loose in America a convicted terrorist known to be a top Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic) operative and al Qaeda financier: Abdurahman Alamoudi.
According to a short Associated Press report on July 8th:
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to cut the 23-year prison term being served by an American Muslim activist who admitted participation in a Libyan plot to assassinate King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Alamoudi — who famously declared his support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a rally in Lafayette Square in October 2000 and was recognized by the Justice Department as a Muslim Brother — has been incarcerated with other top terrorists in the Supermax facility in Colorado. As an American citizen, he would presumably be allowed to stay in this country upon his release.
Alamoudi at Large
Can it be precluded that, once he is freed, Alamoudi would take up again with those he did so much to help sponsor, foster and run as one of the leading Muslim Brothers in the country? Lest we forget, as a driving force behind many of the myriad MB front organizations in the United States, he previously was deeply involved with the fulfillment of the Ikhwan’s mission here as described in its 1991 strategic plan.
That plan, which was found by the FBI in 2004 when they discovered the secret archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in Annandale, Virginia, is entitled An Explanatory Memorandum On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America. (It is reprinted in its entirety as Appendix 2 of Shariah: The Threat to America, ShariahtheThreat.com.) According to this memorandum, the Brotherhood’s mission in America is “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within…by their [read, our] hands and the hands of the believers.”
This objective is, of course, identical to that of al Qaeda, the other jihadist enterprise for whom Alamoudi previously worked. Who knows, if freed, could he rejoin its ranks, too?
At the very least, one has to assume that Abdurahman Alamoudi would be able to reconnect with the Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military and prison systems whom the Clinton administration allowed him to recruit, train and credential. As no evident effort has been made to relieve his hand-picked folks from their clerical responsibilities ministering to such exceedingly sensitive populations, putting Alamoudi back in business — or at least back in touch — with them could intensify the grave security threat they might pose even now.
Why Would Alamoudi be Freed?
So what possible justification could the Holder Justice Department have for releasing such an individual just nine years into a twenty-three year sentence? The AP story notes that, “The documents explaining why prosecutors want to cut Alamoudi’s sentence are under seal, but such reductions are allowed only when a defendant provides substantial assistance to the government.”
We can only speculate about what such “assistance” might be. Could Alamoudi be telling the feds insights about his former paymaster, Qaddafi, that could be helpful in removing the latter from power? As it is not entirely clear whether such an outcome is actually the goal of the United States, France or NATO in Libya at this point, it is hard to see that possible help as justification for running the serious risks associated with springing so dangerous an individual.
Perhaps, alternatively, Alamoudi might have spilled the beans about his friends in the Brotherhood’s vast North American infrastructure. Did he provide further confirmation of the subversive role being played as part of what the Ikhwan calls its “civilization jihad” by, for example, organizations and members of: the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Community Association (MCA), the Islamic Council of North America (ICNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Fiqh Council?
Such insights seem unlikely to have been valued by the Obama administration, though, since it continues to have extensive dealings with such groups and individuals associated with them. If anything, such ties with MB fronts and operatives will be intensifying, now that Team Obama has decided formally to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood’s mother ship in Egypt.
Unfortunately, given this trend — to say nothing of the mindlessness of the Holder Justice Department when it comes to matters of national security — a more probable explanation for its willingness to give Alamoudi a get-out-of-jail-free pass is that the Obama administration is anxious to remove an irritant in relations with its friends in the Muslim Brotherhood and to demonstrate that a new day is dawning in those ties.
Alamoudi’s GOP Influence Operation
As it happens, in the aftermath of the Alamoudi announcement, one of his most successful pre-incarceration influence operations bore fresh fruit. In 1998, Alamoudi personally provided seed money to enable libertarian anti-tax activist Grover Norquist to establish the Islamic Free Market Institute (better known as the Islamic Institute or II). The Institute served the purpose of credentialing Muslim Brotherhood operatives like Khalid Saffuri, Alamoudi’s longtime deputy at the American Muslim Council (AMC), who became II’s founding executive director — as “conservatives” and enabling them to infiltrate the George W. Bush 2000 campaign and administration.
After the incarceration of his sponsor on terrorism charges, Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, has continued to promote Muslim Brotherhood personnel and agendas inside Republican circles. For instance, just this week, at the July 13th meeting of his so-called “Center-Right Coalition” in Washington, Norquist staged a denunciation of legislation now being debated in state legislatures across the country: the American Laws for American Courts (ALAC) legislation.
MB Priority: Stopping American Laws from Governing in American Courts
The Muslim Brotherhood is outraged that three states have already enacted one version or another of the ALAC bill designed to preclude foreign laws (including, but not limited to, shariah) from being used in that state’s courts if doing so would deny constitutional rights or otherwise conflict with state public policy. It has been introduced in some twenty others states and, to date, has passed in one house or another of four of them.
Such successes have been achieved by Americans all over the country because there simply is no good argument for opposing this affirmation of our civil liberties for all Americans — including American Muslim women and children whose rights are frequently being impinged upon by the application of shariah. (See ShariahinAmericanCourts.com, a study of twenty-seven cases in twenty-three states where shariah was allowed to trump American laws.)
Last Wednesday, Norquist arranged for three speakers — self-described Jews or Christians — to promote the Muslim Brotherhood line that free practice of religion, including that of non-Muslims, would be denied were ALAC to be adopted. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the legislation itself makes clear (See PublicPolicyAlliance.com). But it is instructive that the GOP influence operation Alamoudi spawned continues to serve his intended purpose: dividing and suborning conservatives in the best tradition of the stealth jihad at which he and his Brothers have long excelled.
Perhaps another venue in which we can expect to see Abdurahman Alamoudi should the Obama administration actually get away with freeing this al Qaeda terrorist will be as a featured speaker at Grover Norquist’s Wednesday meeting?
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Growing US War-Weariness Defies Traditional Partisan Divide
Conservatives and progressives in the US have become odd bedfellows as they begin to question America’s costly military interventions in the Muslim world. But Congress remains unlikely to force an end to the conflicts. For 10 years, the United States has waged war in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq without a conclusive victory. The military interventions in Central Asia and the Middle East have cost America nearly $4 trillion (2.8 trillion euros) and the lives of over 6,000 troops. Around 225,000 people have died directly from the wars, according to a recent study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. The high cost and low return on these conflicts has worn down the political will among many members of Congress who represent an increasingly war-weary public. In May, a congressional resolution calling for an accelerated withdrawal from Afghanistan narrowly failed in the House of Representatives in a 204 — 215 vote. The House also recently refused to authorize President Obama’s intervention in Libya for one year, although representatives shied away from defunding the operation. The vote was the first such congressional rebuff of a president since the House refused to authorize the military action in Kosovo in 1999.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Probe Set to Orbit Huge Asteroid Vesta Tonight
A NASA spacecraft is poised to slide into orbit around the massive asteroid Vesta tonight (July 15), marking the start of the first extended visit by a probe to a large space rock. After traveling more than 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers), NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is expected to be captured by Vesta’s gravity at about 10 p.m. PDT Friday (1 a.m. EDT Saturday), NASA officials said. Dawn will circle the Arizona-size asteroid for the next year, making observations that could help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar system and the processes that formed and shaped rocky planets like Earth and Mars. “We’ve been waiting a long time to get here,” said Dawn project manager Robert Mase, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Everybody’s really excited as we’re starting to inch closer and closer.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The TSA Protects You From Donald Rumsfeld
The TSA: protecting you from former Secretaries of Defense, six-year-olds, and 95-year-old, wheelchair-bound leukemia patients. Think of all the millions, if not billions, of dollars that have been spent on this charade, all in service of the politically correct fantasy that any person of any background is just as likely as anyone else to commit a terrorist attack. The fact that young Arab and Pakistani Muslim males have been responsible for virtually all of the incidents that have made all this air security necessary is not to be the subject of any official notice whatsoever — that would be racism! Profiling! Islamophobia!
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle: Muslims to Protest Mistreatment at US-Canada Border
Some Seattle—area Muslims claim discrimination and harassment at Canadian border crossings has worsened in the past few years. They plan to protest this Sunday at the Peace Arch in Blaine. KUOW’s Liz Jones reports.
Lynnwood resident Jeff Siddiqui says he gets an uneasy feeling at the US—Canada border, but just when he’s crossing back home, into the US.
Siddiqui: “There’s a knot in my gut. I’m just expecting them to say something.”
Siddiqui moved here from Pakistan in the late 1970s. He’s been a US citizen for 25 years. He’s a real estate agent and a well—known representative of the local Muslim community.
Siddiqui says, every couple weeks, another Muslim will tell him about their negative border experience and the questions customs officers ask them:
Siddiqui: “What mosque do you go to? What do you pray there? Why are you Muslim? Do you intend to commit terrorist acts in America? I mean, these are ridiculous questions.”
Siddiqui says the situation’s been tense for Muslims at the border since 9/11. And he thinks it just keeps getting worse. On a recent trip home from Canada, Siddiqui says he was infuriated when a US Customs officer asked him:
Siddiqui: “‘You have anything in your van that you don’t want me to find?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, like terrorists, or guns or grenades under the seat?’“
Siddiqui filed a complaint. He says he got a form—letter response.
Statistics about whether complaints like this are on the rise were not immediately available from US Customs. Thomas Schreiber is a spokesman for the federal agency. He says complaints are taken seriously and profiling is not tolerated. He also explains that customs officers don’t follow any set line of questioning.
Schreiber: “What we do is we take what’s known intelligence out there, we look at travel patterns, behavior responses, audio queuing and visual observations during the inspection process. But there is no set pattern.”
Schreiber says all customs officers receive training about diversity and Arab cultures. But he suggests some people may stray from the guidelines.
Schreiber: “We are in a people—based environment and you cannot engineer out human nature. You can only provide continual training, leadership and oversight. And that’s what we strive to do.”
Jeff Siddiqui acknowledges he’s also had good exchanges with US Customs officers. He just wants that to become more of the rule, not the exception. I’m Liz Jones, KUOW News.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
A Fifth of Spain’s Young Jobseekers ‘Lack Basic Qualifications’, Says Government
NEARLY a million of Spain’s unemployed youngsters are ‘not in conditions’ to find a job — or even to start vocational or professional training, says Secretary of State for Employment, Mari Luz Rodríguez. She explained that around 20 per cent of the country’s jobseekers are victims of the economic boom which saw the construction industry crying out for workers between 1997 and 2006 and, now that the sector is barely trading, have no real possibilities of finding work. Rodríguez says these people left school at 16 and worked their way up ‘on the job’ in the building trade and related industries, enjoying the fruits of the mass development that saw much of Spain’s coastline become buried in concrete.
None of them went on to study for their Bachillerato — Spain’s answer to A-levels — and some did not even finish their ESO, or GCSEs. As a result, these young people — now aged between 21 and 30 — would not be accepted on any professional training courses, because they do not have the basic academic qualifications necessary to do so. Spain’s government says efforts should be channelled into getting these 900,000 jobseekers back into education, rather than employment, since the economy is now changing and its growth will see an upsurge in job vacancies that require highly-qualified candidates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Absent Danish Controls Greet EU Border Mission
A mission of European officials visiting Denmark’s controversial border controls on Thursday found no sign of the customs officers deployed earlier this month, the Danish Ritzau news agency reported. The first stop on the European Commission’s working group was on the Öresund bridge linking Denmark with Sweden, but Danish customs officers were conspicuous by their absence. However, this did not seem to hinder the delegation from carrying out their inspections. “We chose to come on a day that suited the authorities, and we understand that they have a control system that is not public, and we do not want to have such controls carried out artificially,” Belinda Pyke, the director for migration and borders at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Home Affairs, told Ritzau. She explained the working group’s visit was part of a continued dialogue with the Danish government about how the new customs controls were being implemented.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Accounts for 85% of Fake Goods Seized in EU
European customs intercepted one billion euros worth of counterfeit goods last year, with 85 percent of the fakes originating from China, the European Commission said Thursday. The figures highlighted the rise of Chinese counterfeit goods, which had accounted for 64 percent of the fake articles seized in the 27-nation European Union in 2009. China is by far the biggest exporter of such goods in a list that includes India, the source of counterfeit drugs, and Hong Kong, which supplies counterfeit memory cards, as well as Turkey and Thailand.
A total of 103 million counterfeit goods were seized at EU borders last year, down from 117 million in 2009 and 178 million in 2008. But the amount of fakes shipped by post rose dramatically, with seizures almost doubling to 80,000 last year from 43,500 in 2009, a trend linked to the increase of online purchases, the commission said. Cigarettes represented 34 percent of the articles stopped by customs, followed by household products (14.5 percent) such as shampoo, soap, medicine or household appliances such as hair dryers, shavers and computer parts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christians Should Learn How to be a ‘Minority’ From Muslims, Bishop Says
Christians should learn from Muslims how to exist as a “minority” culture in British cities that are increasingly dominated by immigrant communities, a Church of England bishop has said.
The Rt Rev Nick Baines, the Bishop of Bradford, said some parishes in his diocese were 95% Muslim but that this should not be seen as “a problem”.
“This is a fantastic opportunity,” he told the General Synod, the Church of England’s national assembly, in York.
“It is a challenge, yes, but it’s an opportunity to rethink what it means to be a Christian community. We often ask Muslims to learn what it is to be a Muslim as a minority culture.
“Maybe we could benefit from learning some of the same lessons in some of our cities.”
His comments came as Church leaders at the assembly were warned that Britain’s increasingly diverse society could undermine the position of the Church of England as the “established” faith of the nation.
In some communities, Anglicans have become “beleaguered” because Christians are so outnumbered by members of other faiths, according to a report presented to the Synod yesterday.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Marseille Tighten Security After Player Burglaries
Marseille have set up security patrols outside the homes of their players after Brazilian defender Vitorino Hilton became the latest victim of burglaries targeting the club’s playing staff. The 33-year-old centre-back was at home with 10 members of his family on Tuesday evening when a six-strong gang of armed men broke in shortly before midnight. The masked intruders restrained those inside the property and escaped with cash and valuables including cameras, computers and jewels. Hilton was slightly injured in the incident after being struck with a gun butt but did not require hospital treatment. “Olympique Marseille can no longer tolerate and accept that some of their players should be victims of ‘home-jacking’,” read a club statement released on Wednesday. “The club, which guarantees their safety in the context of their profession, now seeks to extend that protection to their private lives.” Marseille added that security patrols outside their players’ properties would start “from tonight (Wednesday)”. Hilton is the latest in a growing list of Marseille players to have been targeted by armed robbers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Rail to Use Chemical Markers to Combat Metal Theft
Rising commodity prices have prompted thieves to target copper cables and other metal parts used by railways, forcing interruptions in train service in Germany and other European countries. Now, new invisible markers may help German rail get the upper hand. German trains, as everyone knows, have the reputation for being among the most punctual in the world. But that track record is increasingly in danger. With more and more track-side cables and metal parts being stolen and sold by thieves on the scrap metal market , travelers have been facing frequent cancellations and delays. Now, though, the country’s rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, is preparing to fight back. And it is using a weapon so advanced, it’s invisible. Liquid forensic markers, which are detectable only under a special light, will be applied to part of the railway’s metal infrastructure, such as the valuable copper cables, the company announced earlier this week. If those cables were to be stolen and then later resurfaced, the code in the liquid markers would allow police to pinpoint exactly where they came, a vital step for criminal investigators. eutsche Bahn officials would not give out details for security reasons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German-Jewish Literary Culture Returns From Exile
German Jews who fled Nazi persecution to what is now Israel took as many books as they could carry. But their descendants, many of whom don’t speak German, are left with cratefuls of heirlooms they can’t read. Now the Goethe Institute has started a project that sends the well-traveled books back to Germany as teaching materials for students. When Berlin-born Jewish journalist Cheskel Zwi Kloetzel fled Nazi Germany in 1933, he was only able to take a small number of his most cherished books. Even after resettling in what was then British-administered Palestine, he remained deeply attached to the German literary culture in which he had immersed himself as a child. His daughter Cary Kloetzel, who today lives in Israel amongst the vast collection of classics Cheskel Zwi Kloetzel amassed until his death in 1951, has donated a selection of his books as part of a new project making German-Jewish history and the history of Israel more tangible for German schoolchildren learning about the Holocaust. “This project represents for me the extension of a living chain of history for future generations,” she told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Union Calls for Lunchtime Naps
Germans should take a lunchtime nap at work to help reduce stress and recharge their batteries, a top trade union official say, in what would be a revolution in a country that espouses a strong work ethic. “A short lunchtime nap reduces the risk of a heart attack and helps renew energy,” Annelie Buntenbach, a member of the executive board of the DGB confederation of German trade unions said in an article to be published this weekend by the Tageszeitung newspaper. Before the industrial revolution, Germans used to take siestas, University of Regensburg sleep expert Jürgen Zulley told the newspaper. After such naps “we react faster, are more attentive, our memory is better and our mood also improves,” he added.
Buntenbach also said a debate was needed over the ever-higher work pace brought on by modern means of communications, including e-mails and phone calls. A recent study by the University of Athens Medical School in Greece and the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States suggested that Greeks who take at least three 30-minute siestas a week have a 37 percent lower risk of heart-disease-related death compared to those who skip a nap. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently criticized southern Europeans from debt-depressed countries for allegedly working less than Germans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Bank Robber Demands Money to Feeds His Children
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JULY 15 — An unknown individual wearing a helmet and holding a gun entered a Commercial Bank of Greece branch in the city of Rhodes on Rhodes island on Thursday and demanded from the teller to give him 2,700 euros. The man said he wanted the money to feed his children. Afterwards the perpetrator escaped on a motorbike. Police are conducting an investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Senator Di Girolamo Plea-Bargained 5 Years and 4 Mln
(AGI) Rome — Former senator Nicola Paolo Di Girolamo was condemned to 5 years of prison and to restore the sum of 4.4 million Euros in cash, real estate, company shares and luxury cars. The conviction is the result of plea barganing and requested several hearings. Di Girolamo was accused of conspiracy for tax fraud and transnational money-laundering and of vote buying.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Acquittal of Wilders Boosts Confidence in Judges
HILVERSUM, 15/07/11 — The acquittal of Geert Wilders has increased the level of confidence in the judiciary, according to research by the University of Amsterdam and TNS NIPO for TV programme Nieuwsuur. On 23 June, just before the district court in Amsterdam issued its verdict in the case against the Party for Freedom (PVV) leader, 57 percent of respondents said they had considerable confidence in the magistracy. After the acquittal of Wilders, the figure climbed to 62 percent. The researchers were surprised by the results. “We thought that we would get negative results,” said researcher Joost van Spanje. This expectation was based on the “relatively negative media reporting” on the trial. “This has evidently not had an influence on public opinion.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Opposition to Israeli Buses in Waterland
Israeli public transport company Egged has won the public tender to operate a regional bus service in the region of Waterland — just north of Amsterdam — from the end of this year. Newspaper Trouw writes that local action groups regard the situation as indirect Dutch support for Israel’s settlements policy in the West Bank. Egged is Israel’s main bus company which also operates an Israeli passengers-only bus service to the settlements in Palestinian territory. The Dutch action group ‘Working Together for Palestine’ says Egged clearly supports Israel’s controversial settlements policy. One of the activists says in Trouw that “ Egged makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians.” The action group would prefer to call for a boycott against Egged’s bus service in the Netherlands, but will refrain from such a move because there is no alternative bus service in Waterland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bye Bye Banksy! Iconic Painting Whitewashed by Bungling Worker After Building is Transformed Into Muslim Centre
But one man mistook the street art splashed on the side of his Muslim centre as vandalism and set about disguising it with white paint.
Unbeknown to Saeed Ahmed the ‘Gorilla in a Pink Mask’ stencil had been a familiar landmark in the artist’s hometown of Bristol for over 10 years.
Mr Ahmed who was transforming the former North Bristol social club on Fishponds Road into a cultural centre spotted the image which featured a large hairy gorilla holding up a pink eye mask to its face.
Claiming never to have heard of the elusive artist — whose identity remains a guarded secret — he set about whitewashing the wall.
He said: ‘I thought it was worthless.
‘I didn’t it know it was valuable. That’s why I painted over it. I really am sorry if people are upset.’
He is now exploring ways of recovering the painting and has enlisted the help of Richard Pelter the director and head conservator of the International Fine Art Conservation Studios.
Mr Pelter has previously carried out major restoration work on buildings including Kensington Palace and Westminster Cathedral and now he is doing his best to restore the popular gorilla image.
Banksy began work as a graffiti artist in Bristol in the early 1990s, using stencils to create striking and humorous images to convey politically-charged messages.
Neighbour Dean Meadows said: ‘It is a big, big shame.
‘It’s currently being shared around the world on Twitter, so hopefully Banksy will hear and replace it himself.’
One blogger Sociorobotics added: ‘On pretty much a daily basis I walk past this iconic Banksy Gorilla to get to one of my local shops, a familiar landmark which always raised a smile on my face…That was of course until today.’
Over recent years the elusive artist has become a household name — grossing millions from his work.
Last year he was nominated for an Oscar for his film Exit Through the Gift Shop, but in true Banksy style failed to make an appearance.
His other pieces that sweep the streets of Bristol include Reaper on the Thekla, Love Cheat, Police Sniper and Boy, The Mild Mild West, Click Clack Boom and Cat and Dog.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
‘World’s Oldest’ Wreck Found in Swedish Baltic
What looks very much like a cog, a ship used in the Baltic between the 12th and the 14th centuries, has been discovered in the waters between the islands of Gotland and Öland off the east coast of Sweden. The vessel showed up in sonar pictures of the area, causing experts on shipwrecks to believe that they may have the world’s oldest intact shipwreck on their hands. “The hairs at the back of my neck stood up when I first saw the pictures,” said shipwreck expert Erik Bjurström to the local Barometern daily. Because of the age of the ship and the location, historians cannot but wonder if it in fact could be the legendary ship that carried the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag home after his sacking of Visby on Gotland, in 1361 AD.
Wanting to limit the power of the hanseatic trade league in the area, King Valdemar IV of Denmark decided to attack the Baltic island of Gotland. According to legend he hated the Gotlanders and especially the city of Visby, where he had heard that they had made up songs to mock him. Once in possession of the city of Visby, the Danish king, wanting to humble the burghers, allegedly set up three huge beer barrels saying that if the barrels weren’t filled with silver and gold within three days, he would turn his men loose to pillage the town. But the barrels were filled before nightfall of the first day and after the churches had been stripped of their riches, the loot was loaded on Danish ships and carried home. However, one ship was lost on the way and although sought by many a shipwreck expert, it has never been found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Fund Morocco’s Solar Energy Plan
A French minister said Monday that Paris was allocating 103 million euros (146 million dollars) to help finance Morocco’s solar energy plan. Industry and Energy Minister Eric Besson made the announcement on a visit to Rabat where he met his Moroccan counterpart Amina Benkhadra. He said the funds would be disbursed by the French Development Agency for a project he described as “the centerpiece of the Mediterranean solar plan”. Morocco announced in 2009 it was launching a project to produce 2,000 megawatts of solar-generated electricity at a cost of nine billion dollars.
The program is expected to become operational in 2020 when production will cover 42 percent of the country’s electricity needs. Besson said Paris and Rabat would seal a deal by year’s end for the long-term purchase of clean electricity from Morocco. France, Spain and Morocco will also cooperate to boost their electrical interconnection networks, with a summit on the issue planned before the end of the year, the French minister added. Besson was also due to hold talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri and Industry Minister Ahmed Chami.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Tested, Challenge Wariness
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 13 — Caution and concern reign on the Egyptian political scene whenever an assessment of the role and strength of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country comes up.
Speaking on the matter was political analyst Likà Makki on the Al Jazeera website. Some see Al Jama’a (the group) — as the Muslim Brotherhood is called in Egypt — as the most experience and organised party in the country, best able to mobilise the masses to win power in the next elections. Others consider it the political movement best able to appeal to religious sentiments in a country where religion is deeply-rooted. A third group considers it pragmatic and perhaps even opportunistic, skilled at attracting support and riding the tide. Yet another group feels that the Brotherhood is tries to impose religion by force, to the detriment of the secular state in Egypt. All Egyptian political parties and figures, beyond their names and ideologies, agree that Al Jama’a is a formidable adversary and in no way scarred by its 60 previous years of existence as an outlawed organisation, marked by disputes and periods seeing clashes with the previous regimes. Makki noted that the Muslim Brotherhood took part in the Egyptian revolution in January starting on its fourth day. Al Jama’a, continued Makki, had a very important role in the revolution’s success, a fact acknowledged even by its political adversaries. This success occurred before the dawn of a new era for the Brotherhood itself, with the founding of the Freedom and Justice party set to take part in the next elections. In order to dispel the wariness of other political parties, Al Jama’a began its political activities, noted the Muslim Brotherhood member Sa’ad Al Hussaini, with such reassuring actions as the announcement of not wanting to take part in either the current provisional government or the next presidential elections with the designation of a candidate, as well as stressing that it is not aiming for an absolute majority in the next parliament. “I understand the concerns of others,” commented Al-Hussseini, “but I believe that they are due to traces left in the collective imagination, the result of campaigns of denigration and intimidation against us by former regimes. Some of those that do not trust Al Jama’a need more information and time to change their minds. Others have always been hostile towards the Muslim Brotherhood and reject the idea of seeing them as leading players on the Egyptian political scene, even if they get there through elections. However, despite their substantial power in the media, the latter are few in number and enjoy little influence.” Makki underscored that Al Jama’a is currently walking on a razor’s edge. It supports those in revolt while at the same time not wanting to clash with the military council. They criticise the slow trials against members of the old regime but will never question actions by the military council or the provisional government. Any decision that Al Jama’a makes — whether to continue with the policy of not making too many enemies or to support the enthusiasm and radical stances of some groups of those in revolt — will come at a price. A price, concluded Makki, which is likely to be seen with much joy by one adversary or another, in the hope that it will lead to a decline in the Muslim Brotherhood’s power among the Egyptian people.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: More Refugees Crossing Into Tunisia
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 13 — After a period of relative stability, refugee flows from Libya to Tunisia are once again rising. Since the beginning of the week, arrivals seem to be around 7,000 per day and a new element, according to TAP, is that many women arrive at the border having driven their families there without men.
In decline on the other hand are Libyans who, having remained in Tunisia for some time, are returning to their home country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Camps in Tunisia Experiencing Crisis, Lack of Funds
(ANSA) — TUNIS, JULY 13 — The alarm raised by organisations and associations over the lack of funds to ensure assistance to the thousands of Libyan refugees in Tunisia is being confirmed in these days. The Red Cross of Tataouine has reported that financial difficulties (mostly linked to the lack of funding from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is jeopardising assistance to Libyans who fled their country and are staying in camps set up in Tunisia. The agreement concerns the Remada camp, which assist about a thousand people including ones even outside of the camp. The financial part of the agreement, a source from the Tunsian Red Cross told TAP, would make it possible to provide not only food to the refugees but also to pay staff salaries in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in August. In June the Tunisian Red Cross spent approximately 60,000 euros on a monthly basis to provide for the needs (both food and hygienic ones) of the refugees.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: HRW: Rebels Responsible for Human Rights Violations
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 13 — Libyan rebels are responsible for arson, pillaging and abusing civilian populations during their march toward Tripoli in June. Some of these violations occurred, according to Human Rights Watch, cited by ‘Al Quds Al Arabi’ newspaper, last week when the rebels headed toward the Jabal Naffousa area, south of Tripoli.
According to HRW, in the last month the rebels and their supporters caused significant material damage, lit homes on fire, pillaged hospitals, shops and homes in four cities in Jabal Naffousa.
The newspaper claims these violations damage the image of the rebels, who wanted to be viewed as human rights champions.
Said violations can raise embarrassing questions for NATO members who, on a UN resolution, support the rebels militarily to protects Libyan civilians.
“It is the rebels’ duty to protect civilians and their belongings and especially hospitals”, stated Joe Stork, HRW chief, adding that the rebels “will have to punish those responsible for these violations”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Emigrant Remittances down12% in Q1
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 14 — Currency remittances from emigrants dropped by 12% in the first quarter of the current year. It is a significant figure since remittances are the fourth largest source of currency revenues in Tunisia, after the mechanical and electrical industries, textiles and clothing and tourism. They also account for 4.5 of GDP and 20% of public savings. The drop, said Habib Mansour, assistant director of the National Office of Tunisians Abroad (OTE), was due “above all to the lack of visibility in this period and the uncertainty in business.” In 2010 investment by Tunisians abroad totalled 45 million dinars (about 23 million euros) and made it possible to carry out 900 projects.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Poll:45% Fear for Future of Democracy
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 15 — 45% of Israelis fear for the future of democracy in their country, according to a survey in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The study was carried out after the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) approved a law anticipating sanctions for anyone in Israel who organises boycotts “following geographical criteria” (especially regarding settlements in the West Bank), if such action leads to material damage. The law has been seen on the left as a serious limitation of freedom of expression.
In the newspaper’s opinion poll, the new law “against boycotts” is backed by 51% of readers, with 43% unfavourable.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, has expressed his opposition to the initiative from the Avigdor Lieberman’s radical right-wing Israel Beitenu party to launch an official parliamentary investigation into foreign financing of left-wing organisations. Netanyahu said that members of his Likud party would enjoy full voting freedom when the Knesset votes on the issue next Wednesday.
In the newspaper survey, 35% of those asked blamed Israeli left-wing organisations for the radicalisation of political debate in the country. Meanwhile, 34% believe that the responsibility lies at the feet of Netanyahu and his right-wing nationalist MPs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Only 73% of Palestinians Want Jews Annihilated as per Islam’s Canonical Hadith
[…]
Here are the salient, pathognomonic findings:
First, a mere 73% of the Palestinians surveyed agree with the annihilationist dictates of this canonical hadith (the words and deeds of Islam’s prophet Muhammad which have a weight often equal to the Koran[The one about Killing jews]), quoted in the Hamas Covenant.
Second, 80% agreed with the quoted sentiments expressed article 15 of the Hamas Covenant (subtitled, “Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is a Personal Duty”) which elucidates classical jihadist theory — including jihad martyrdom (i.e., homicide bombing) operations — as well as its practical modern application to the destruction of Israel by jihad…
Fourth, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding them hostage…
| — Hat tip: RB | [Return to headlines] |
Iran More Damaging With Suicide Bombers Than Missiles, Says Expert
Iran’s current capabilities do not justify the development of an extensive missile shield covering all Europe and the US, since Tehran poses more of a threat in the Gulf region and to Israel rather than Paris or Washington, a missile defence expert has said. “Iran isn’t really a threat to the US or Western Europe. Rather to Turkey, Israel and US forces based in the region. Possibly also to the very south-eastern corner of Europe — Greece, Romania, Bulgaria,” Michael Elleman, a Bahrain-based expert with the Institute for International Security Studies in London told this website.
Having jointly worked with US, European and Russian experts on an assessment of the missile threat to Europe, Elleman said the current deployment of warship-based interceptors in the Mediterranean was the best solution and the US should not continue with a bigger plan of putting land-based anti-ballistic missiles to cover the entire territory of Europe. “What we’ve concluded in our study is that if Iran was able to target London or Paris, it would have to develop a longer-range system and to test that, they would have to do it in flight. And you can’t hide that activity,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Amman: Dozens Hurt as Police and Demonstrators Clash
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, JULY 15 — Dozens of people were injured on Friday when security forces clashed with protesters calling for reform in downtown Amman.
Eye witnesses said they saw several people lying on the ground as police beat them with batons. Several people were arrested during the protest.
The government this week, through minister of interior Mazen Saket, warned protesters not to go to the streets saying their actions contradict with the country’s higher interest.
Opposition leaders accused the government of using brutal methods to stop protesters including arrests and beating. They called on the pro-west king Abdullah to dismiss the current prime minister Maruf Bakhit and appoint a new government to pave the way for political reform.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Medvedev Compares ‘Arab Spring’ To Fall of Berlin Wall
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday compared the likely consequences of the Arab Spring to those of the fall of the Berlin Wall as he underlined the necessity of timely reforms to avoid unrest. Revolts in the Middle East and North Africa “are of a historic character and can pave the way for transformations similar to those taking place in Central Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall”, the Russian leader told foreign ambassadors in the Kremlin. “Events in the Arab world once again proved … that socioeconomic reforms, reforms that would take into account the interests of the widest majority of the population, must be carried out in due time,” Medvedev added in remarks released by the Kremlin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Relatives Hail Estonian’s Release in Lebanon
The relatives of seven Estonian tourists whose four-month kidnap ordeal in Lebanon ended Thursday hailed their release, while officials thanked France and other allies for helping win their freedom. “Our father, sons, husbands and brothers are free! These four months were long and exhausting,” the men’s relatives said in a joint statement. “We thank everyone here in Estonia and elsewhere for their support. It helped. We thank Lebanese people and Lebanese state and also authorities of the many countries that helped free our loved ones,” they said. “But our endless thanks go to our own state and to all those who dealt with the release of our kidnapped relatives daily,” they said.
The men, in their 30s and early 40s, were kidnapped on March 23 while on a cycling holiday in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and held by a previously unknown group. Estonia turned to fellow European Union members and NATO allies, notably France, for help because the nation of 1.3 million has only a small diplomatic presence in the Middle East. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet on Thursday lauded Paris. “We are very thankful to France for the enormous assistance we received,” he said at a French embassy reception in Tallinn marking France’s annual Bastille Day. “It is symbolic that the Estonians were released on July 14, when we celebrate France’s national day,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Al Qaeda Group on Trial for Coup Conspiracy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 13 — Yesterday the Jeddah court accused 16 members of a clandestine group arrested over the past few months of attempting to seize power in Saudi Arabia through terrorist acts in collaboration with an (unidentified) “foreign secret service” and Al Qaeda cells in Iraq, among other charges.
The daily paper Assharq Alawsat quotes well-informed sources as saying that the secret organisation — on which the Saudi press reports — intended to promote Al Qaeda terrorism in Saudi Arabia through raising funds for a fraudulent charity project.
The group’s leader hosted Iraqi Al Qaeda members in a stop-over area of Jeddah, where they came in during last summer’s pilgrimage season. A number of young Saudis had taken part in the meeting, who thought they had been contacted to be sent to fight in Iraq. Some of them later died. In addition to creating a secret organisation aiming to destabilise power in the Saudi kingdom, the charges against the members of the organisation are funding terrorism, an attempt to create a union between the factions fighting in Iraq and the creation both in Saudi Arabia and abroad of a project called “generation” in order to finance subversive acts through the raising of funds camouflaged as charity. During yesterday’s hearing, three of the organisation’s members were heard by the court, according to advisor to the Saudi justice ministry Abdullah Assadan, quoted by the daily paper. “This case,” he said, “is based on the results of investigations into two groups: the first carried out illegal activities by raising donations in an irregular manner and transferring the donations abroad to be used in the enlisting of young Saudis to send to a number of war zones, while the second was tasked with destabilising the kingdom and spreading hostility towards the State.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck and Walid Phares Discuss Shape of a Future Mideast War
I recently taped a special episode of the Stakelbeck on Terror show with bestselling author and Fox News terrorism analyst Walid Phares.
The show took an in-depth look at the global rise of the Iranian-backed terror group, Hezbollah.
In one of the segments, Dr. Phares entered the “map room” to show what a future Middle East war would look like, highlighting the stunning growth of Iran’s influence in virtually every corner of the region.
You can watch the clip at the above link.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Says German Was Rusty as KGB Agent
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday conceded that his German language skills weren’t perfect at the start of his spy career in East Germany in the mid-1980s. He raised the issue during a videoconference with businesspeople, saying professional education standards must be good enough for a graduate to feel comfortable at a future workplace. As an example of the opposite, he recalled his time as a student at a college and, later, in the KGB. “I kind of studied German in school, then at the university, then at special courses at the KGB office, and then in an intelligence school,” Putin told about 200 businesspeople in Yekaterinburg. The result wasn’t impeccable, he admitted. “I went abroad afterward and thought that I was an idiot — I couldn’t speak the language properly after studying it for so many years, and I felt like I had to get out of there,” Putin said. “Yes, two, three or four months went by, and I felt confident and realized I belonged there.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Great Game is Evolving in Afghanistan
Afghanistan and Central Asia are abundant with natural resources worth billions. So far, they are largely untapped but the battle is raging for who will be able to exploit them in the 21st century. In the 19th century, it was the Russians and the British who wrestled for influence in Afghanistan and Central Asia in a highly-explosive endeavor known as the Great Game. Today, Afghanistan’s natural resources are estimated to be worth billions of dollars. The resources in the neighboring Central Asian states are thought to be worth even more — the cake is huge and as yet largely untouched. While the US and China want an especially large slice of it, neighboring states Iran, Pakistan, India and Russia all have their eyes on it as well. Most experts agree that a battle for natural resources is underway, alongside the war against terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Police Arrest Islamic Boarding School Chief After Blast
Jakarta, 15 July (AK/Jakarta) — Police announced Friday they had arrested Abrori, head of the Umar Bin Khatab Islamic boarding school in the eastern Indonesia, where a bomb exploded earlier this week.
“Police arrested Abrori at the home of his parents in Khananga village, Bolo district, at around 12:30 local time [1:30 p.m. Jakarta time],” said Indonesian national police spokesman Untung Yoga Ana in text messages sent to journalists on Friday.
Police will transfer Abrori from the Bima district in West Nusa Tenggara to the provincial capital of Mataram for further investigation, Yoga added.
Abrori fled the boarding school after a bomb blast on Monday claimed the life of Suryanto Abdullah, alias Adnan Firdaus, a teacher and the school’s treasurer.
Police finally entered the school building on Wednesday after being obstructed by dozens of locals carrying sharp weapons and home-made bombs.
Police said they found bomb materials along with weapons and DVDs on Muslim holy war or Jihad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Photos: Elusive Snow Leopards Thrive in Surprising Spot
Thanks to the vigilant eye of camera traps stationed high in Afghanistan’s remote northeast mountains, researchers have uncovered exciting news: A population of endangered snow leopards, one of the most elusive big cats on the planet, is thriving in the region. The big cats live among the dramatic peaks of the desolate Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of land 220 miles (354 kilometers) long, and sandwiched between Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the south, and a tiny border with China to the east. Camera traps captured shots of the spotted cats at 16 different locations across the region, the first time the technology has been used in Afghanistan to document the rare animals.
“This is a wonderful discovery; it shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan,” said Peter Zahler, deputy director for Asia Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, in a statement. Although snow leopards once roamed many of Central Asia’s mountain regions, the species has suffered declines as high as 20 percent in the last 16 years. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the organization that conducted the camera trap studies, say a mere 4,500 to 7,500 snow leopards still wander in the wild.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Jihadists Massacre Buddhists — “They Are All Innocent Victims, Guilty Only for Not Being Muslims”
“The Thai government cannot and must not remain indifferent to this conflict, which is also fueled by Islamic terrorist organizations abroad, from Pakistan and Bangladesh.” Yet the Thai government is unlikely to do anything effective; maybe they’re thinking that more origami would help.
As sources of Fides in southern Thailand inform- asking for anonymity for security reasons — recently a Buddhist family was massacred and two boys beheaded and left to bleed to death. “They are all innocent victims, guilty only for not being Muslims”, notes the source of Fides, referring to the text of a pamphlet distributed by the terrorist groups operating in the area: “We will kill, burn, and destroy all Buddhists: you will never be able to live in peace here”. “The Pattani Islamic guerrillas announce that they will never stop the slaughter of infidels of Siam until the land of Pattani does not become an Islamic state”, the text says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Court Forced to Name Girl, 2, After Warring Parents Could Not Decide What to Call Herby Frank Thorne
A court has been forced to step in and choose the name of a two-year-old girl after her parents split up before she was born and could not agree what to call her.
The little girl was yet to have her birth registered, with each parent calling her by a different name.
The Family Court of Australia decided the first name the mother chose should be used and ordered that the girl be registered by it.
She had already been known by her father’s surname.
Justice Colin Forrest was asked to rule on a name, as well as the amount of time the child and her brother spent with each of the parents.
He said: ‘I am drawn to the conclusion that the father’s opposition to the name (chosen by the mother) is yet another example of his determination to control the mother and her parenting of these two children.’
He said that if the child was known by two different names, it was likely she would become accustomed to that idiosyncrasy and learn to cope with it.
And he added that she would ultimately choose for herself which name she preferred to be called.
But, he added, the problem was the fact the birth had not been registered and that was why court intervention was needed.
The court heard the mother, who picked the girl’s name because of its meaning and the way the toddler looked when she was born, offered a compromise.
She suggested having the two names hyphenated, but the father vehemently opposed the suggestion.
The father also claimed the name the mother picked was blasphemous in his Islamic faith.
Justice Forrest said an imam gave evidence that there was nothing about the name that was offensive to Islam.
He also revealed the child was generally known to the world by the name the mother chose and that was also why the name should be registered.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqis Who Aided US War Effort Can’t Get Visas
Terrorism fears in the United States are all but halting visas for Iraqis, even those who risked their lives aiding the American war effort, making them especially vulnerable ahead of the planned American military withdrawal.
The Obama administration has required new background checks for visa applicants, reacting to a case in Kentucky in which two Iraqi immigrants were arrested on suspicion of ties to an insurgent group, according to American officials in Baghdad.
Advocates say that the administration is ignoring a directive from Congress to draft a contingency plan to expedite visas should those Iraqis who worked for the United States government, especially interpreters for the military, come under increased threat after American forces are drawn down at the end of the year.
“This is not a priority right now for anyone in the government,” said Becca Heller, who runs the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York. “Not enough people in the Obama administration care about this topic.”
| [Return to headlines] |
Sub-Saharan Immigrants Rescued Off Coast of Motril
COASTGUARD services rescued an incredible 67 would-be immigrants attempting to enter Spain via the ‘back door’ on a jerry-built raft on Monday. They were found 30 miles out to sea off the coast of Motril (Granada) and are said to be in a good state of health, despite their ordeal. The majority are sub-Saharan Africans, although there are also some Arabs from northern Africa and a few who appear to be of Chinese origin. Among the huge crew were two women — one of whom is pregnant — and a baby. Emergency services were tipped off on Sunday night by Moroccan authorities about a boat which had been seen leaving the Alhucemas area and heading for Spain. They were finally reached about 24 hours later, and given first aid by Red Cross volunteers once they had been brought to dry land,. All 67 of them have been placed in a National Police shelter, and will soon be sent to the Immigration Centre for the Andalucía region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Contradictory Studies: UN Climate Body Struggling to Pinpoint Rising Sea Levels
The United Nations’ forecast of how quickly global sea levels will rise this century is vital in determining how much money might be needed to combat the phenomenon. But predictions by researchers vary wildly, and the attempt to find consensus has become fractious.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dark-Energy Fingerprints Found in Ancient Radiation
Only cat burglars can match the stealth of dark energy, credited with speeding up the universe’s expansion over time, but now its fingerprints have been glimpsed in the universe’s oldest radiation. The strongest evidence for dark energy comes from supernovae, which suggest the universe is expanding faster now than in the past. But the force should also change the extent to which the cosmic microwave background (CMB), relic radiation from the big bang, is warped, or “lensed”, by the gravity from distant galaxies and dark matter. That’s because the accelerating expansion of the universe should prevent the growth of very massive structures. “In a universe with no dark energy, massive objects would just keep growing, which results in more gravitational lensing,” says Sudeep Das of the University of California, Berkeley.
Gravitational lensing is tough to pick out in the ancient radiation because the CMB contains random fluctuations. But Das and his colleagues have used a new type of mathematical analysis to reveal for the first time the distinctive distortions from gravitational lensing in the CMB. The measurement, while not breaking any records for accuracy, bolsters the case for dark energy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Galactic Beacons Not Formed by Intergalactic Crashes
What triggers the huge emission of light from supermassive black holes in distant galaxies? A long-held idea is that these so-called active galactic nuclei are the result of collisions between galaxies in the early universe. Now new evidence suggests that galactic mergers can’t be responsible. Instead, say astronomers, these galactic beacons must owe their brilliance to a more gentle process. Active galactic nuclei are compact regions at the centre of galaxies that are much brighter than expected. Astronomers think they are powered by black holes weighing millions or billions of times more than the sun. Gas orbiting the black holes heats up, glows brightly and emits X-rays before plunging into the hole. In extreme cases — known as quasars — the gas whirling around the black hole can radiate far more light than the entire Milky Way. Most quasars shone long ago, when the universe was smaller and more crowded; they arose after large galaxies smashed together and dumped gas into the black holes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment