Senate Passes Debt Plan, Averting Default But Leaving Fissures
The Senate put an end to months of partisan impasse on Tuesday, passing a landmark budget agreement to raise the debt ceiling and sending the measure to the White House for President Obama’s signature — just hours before the government’s borrowing authority was set to run out at midnight.
The bipartisan vote was 74-26, a margin that belied the intensity of a fight that has left both parties bruised and exhausted.With the ambivalent support of Congressional leaders in both parties and Mr. Obama, the compromise, which passed the House with bipartisan support on Monday night, averts a potential default on the government’s debt and provides for increases in the debt ceiling to be phased in, with compensating budget cuts, lasting beyond the 2012 elections.
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Senate Fails to End Partial Shutdown at F.A.A.
After dealing with the debt crisis, Senate negotiators tried and failed Tuesday to end a stalemate over temporary funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, leaving 4,000 F.A.A. employees out of work and relying on airport safety inspectors to continue working without pay.
The partial F.A.A. shutdown, which began July 23 and is likely to continue at least through Labor Day, has also idled tens of thousands of construction workers on airport projects around the country. Dozens of airport inspectors have been asked by the F.A.A. to work without pay and to charge their government travel expenses to their personal credit cards to keep airports operating safely.
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Spain: The Miracle That Turned Into a Nightmare
El País Madrid
The flamboyant economy of the noughties failed to survive the explosion of the financial bubble — a setback that early general elections announced for November are unlikely to remedy.
Alejandro Bolaños
Reeling in state of technical knockout and too winded to endure another blow, the Spanish economy is crawling towards the next milestone, which will be the end of the line for the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Over the last few months, the socialist leader has been experimenting with a radical change in economic policy in the hoping of overcoming the crisis.
But the figures stubbornly show that in a best-case scenario, the plethora of reforms undertaken by the current government will no real impact before the end of its mandate. Just three hours before Zapatero announced the early general election [scheduled for 20 November], we were treated to one of the key figures that summarises the plight of the country: 4.8 million unemployed.
For the Zapatero government, the issue of the economy has been like a ladder to paradise, which collapsed beneath its feet when the country was plunged into the worst recession since the Spanish Civil War. On the eve of the 2008 elections, it could boast of the lowest rate of unemployment since Franco (8% at the end of 2007), budgetary surpluses, and steady and stable growth that had propelled Spain into the Champions League of the world economy. With a level of per capita income that had overtaken Italy, convergence with heavyweight European economies of France and Germany had ceased to be a pipe dream for Zapatero.
A mirage swamped by the crisis
But sadly, this idyllic vision of the Spanish economy failed to survive for the duration of his administration. In 2008, the mirage was swamped by the global financial crisis. When the waters finally settled, Spain had been transformed into a country laid-low by recession with spiraling unemployment and spectacularly out-of-control public spending… The clique of Anglo-Saxon analysts, speculators and specialist journalists who determine the mood on the markets ceased to speak of the “Spanish economic miracle,” and instead banished the country to face an unenviable future among the PIGS…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stocks Slump More Than 2% Despite U.S. Debt Vote
A Senate vote to pass the debt ceiling plan on Tuesday may have averted the potential for the United States to default on its obligations, but it failed to lift investors’ spirits. The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 264 points by the close of trading.
Within minutes of the news of the vote on the budget agreement, which had already passed the House on Monday, the three main indexes on Wall Street were down more than 1 percent.
Stocks had slumped since the morning opening as investors weighed recent data that drove home the challenges the economy faces. Their next step: weighing the debt limit agreement’s impact on the economy and whether it could possibly slow growth.
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First Response to Norway Tragedy Sparks Outcry
Outraged by the knee-jerk finger-pointing that proved to be entirely false in the aftermath of the 22/7 terrorist attack in Norway, the Islamic world is mobilising to push back against rampant discrimination and profiling that has so far gone almost unchecked in the travel chain.
Ever since 9/11, Muslims and those mistaken to be Muslims have faced extensive problems, from racial profiling at airports to special scrutiny of visa applications. So far, there has been no recourse to seek accountability, and no channels through which to do so. That is set to change.
Numerous Islamic organisations and travel industry associations are beginning to monitor discrimination more closely in preparation to take name-and-shame actions, both legally and via the media, against countries and companies that ignore Islamophobia in the travel sector, workplaces, schools, etc.
The 22/7 attack was a stark wake-up call to the entire travel industry because the terrorist, a blond-haired blue-eyed xenophobe, railed against multi-culturalism, which lies at the very heart of tourism.
Countries everywhere seek to highlight the friendliness of their people and multi-cultural heritage as a major factor in attracting visitors.
The tourist boards of the European countries, especially those with home-grown far-right extremist movements, have a lot to worry. Today, Europe is swarming with Indian and Chinese visitors. The sight of thousands of them swarming all over the downtown areas and popular tourist spots of Europe is probably not going down too well with the xenophobes.
A number of attacks have been reported in places such as Germany. Future incidents will no doubt attract extensive coverage in the Asian and Islamic media, and European tourism boards will end up facing the same image problems once faced almost exclusively by the Asian and African countries.
Some of the Asian countries will be tempted to impose advisories against European countries and seek accountability about what they are doing to protect Asians from these attacks.
As often reported in previous columns, one of the most important travel trends in recent years has been a major shift in visitors from the Arab/Islamic countries to destinations where they feel they will be treated with less suspicion and more respect. European countries have so far done little to assess the monumental damage of this shift to their national economies.
Their loss has been Asia’s gain. Thailand and other Asean countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia are benefiting from this shift away from Europe and the United States, once the favourite summer-holiday destinations of outbound visitors from the Middle East.
In spite of the economic sanctions against it, Iran is proving to be a surprisingly strong source of outbound travel, especially to Thailand and Malaysia.
Another area is visa applications. It is now well-known in the travel industry that Muslims have been singled out for discriminatory visa checks. This is also unlikely to go unquestioned in future. Islamic travel industry associations, websites, and social media, among others, are getting active in spreading the word about blatant discrimination and racial profiling.
The Islamic world is gearing up to seek greater accountability about Muslims being harassed at airports. This has been a huge problem in the United States where the Immigration authorities have become well-known for singling out Muslims, and those mistaken for Muslims.
A recent report by the Washington DC-based Council of American-Islamic Relations reported several incidents of imams and other passengers being removed from aircraft after ignorant fellow passengers or cabin crew reported “suspicious behaviour”.
Victims of such harassment are being urged to take legal action, and provided with the necessary help and support.
One important area in which tables will turn is visa-free regimes.
Today, the need to attract tourists has forced many Asian and Islamic countries to offer visa-free access to citizens of countries in Europe, North America and others seen as being “rich”.
This liberal one-way privilege is certain to come under further scrutiny..
It is deplorable that extremists from these countries, along with many other unwanted elements such as paedophiles, mafia gangsters, drug addicts, football hooligans, etc, can walk into visa-free countries, even though they pose the same threat as they do in their own countries.
Indeed, the entire “security” threat has been a financial gold mine for the defence/military/intelligence establishment which has found new markets in the civilian sector to offload obsolete and largely useless security equipment and create lucrative consultancy jobs for their legions of retiring personnel.
The huge treasure trove of information provided to the embassies for visa applications is also a bonanza for intelligence agencies, with almost no check-and-balance mechanisms to govern who has access to this data.
All these restrictions have been for the most part a one-way street, with the “rich” countries citing “security” to protect themselves from the “threat” in developing countries.
The Norway attack has proved that security is a two-way street. A European awakening has emerged about the extremist terrorists in their own backyard. The Asian/Islamic countries have every reason to be equally mindful of this threat.
| — Hat tip: Frontinus | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: In South 410,000 Children Live in ‘Absolute Poverty’
Naples, 2 Aug. (AKI) — Italy’s south is the home to more 410 thousand children who live in “absolute poverty,” representing about 10 percent of the that region’s youth in Europe’s fourth richest nation, according to organisation Save the Children.
Of Italy’s 10.23 million children younger than 18 years old, almost 4 million live in the country’s south where industry and employment are dwarfed by the north were company’s like carmaker Fiat are located.
“The situation is aggravated by a fragmented educational system, child worker exploitation and the involvement of minors in criminal networks, and limited spending on child programmes and educational services,” said Italy’s Save the Children.
The economic production in Southern Italy — colloquially called Il Mezzogiorno, or Midday — in 2009 was worth 242 billion euros, compared with 480 billion euros in Italy’s northwest where Turin and Milan are located, according to national statistics agency Istat.
That same year, according to Istat, almost 23 percent Italy’s south was living in poverty, compared with almost 5 percent in the north.
“I can’t just stand back and watch, year after year, inequality for children’s rights reach unacceptable levels,” said Raffaela Milano, who directs the Save the Children’s Italy-Europe programmes, in the statement, ahead of a three-day conference on children in Italy’s south, scheduled to open on 30 September in Naples.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Burqa Ban’ Moves Forward
Bill to go before House in September
(ANSA) — Rome, August 2 — The prospect of Italy following France and Belgium with a ‘burqa ban’ moved a step forward Tuesday when a bill backed by the centre-right ruling coalition was approved by a parliamentary committee.
The bill, the product of eight separate proposals by Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party (PdL) and the rightwing Northern League party, its junior partner, got the green light from the House Constitutional Affairs committee.
It will go before the full House in September, political sources said. The bill was framed amid heated debate about the security implications of Islamic face coverings and after several moves by the League against the burqa at local level. The draft law, which makes no mention of religion, would also ban the niqab, which covers the bottom part of the face only, and other head-covering garments “of ethnic origin”.
The penalty for transgressors will be a fine of between 150 and 300 euros or alternatively some kind of community service “aimed at encouraging integration”.
The bill is even more severe in aiming to discourage anyone “who forces someone else to wear it, using either physical or psychological violence”.
This offence would be punishable by a year in prison and a 30,000-euro fine.
The bill’s rapporteur, Suad Sbai of the Pdl, said Tuesday’s vote, in which the centre-left opposition Democratic Party was the only party to vote No, was “a decisive push for a measure (promoting) freedom and civilised values”.
“We won’t stop, on the road towards the liberation of women who are segregated and without rights,” she said. A 1975 law already prohibits any mask or clothing that makes it impossible to identify the wearer.
In its current form, it permits exceptions for ‘justified cause’, which has been interpreted as including religious reasons in court rulings against local attempts to ban the burqa and niqab.
A recent survey from polling institute Panel Data suggested 73% of Italians thought Islamic face coverings should not be worn in public.
Of the 1,000 adults polled, nearly a third were opposed because they felt such veils were a degrading practice imposed on women by others.
Just under 30% blamed the burqa and niqab for lower levels of integration, while 20% cited security concerns.
There are no estimates of how many women wear the face veil in Italy, where Islam is the second-largest religion after Catholicism with around 1.2 million faithful.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lithuanian Mayor Stamps Out Bad Parking
The mayor of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius has taken his frustration over motorists parking in bicycle lanes into his own hands — by driving an armoured personnel carrier over a Mercedes.
Residents are reportedly tired of luxury car owners parking with impunity and have requested the local council do something about it.
In a publicity stunt to reassure the public that the city authorities is addressing the issue, Arturas Zuokas jumped in an army troop carrier and drove over an old Mercedes-Benz S-Class that had been parked in a bus lane.
“I wanted to send a message” Mr Zuokas told the media. “I want to point out that if you have a car and more money it doesn’t mean that you can park it everywhere. Recently there’s been an increase in this type of parking violations, and it shows a lack of respect for others”.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Terror Suspect Demands Army Command, Japanese Shrinks
The man suspected of murdering 77 people in Norway last month has made jailhouse demands so unusual and unrealistic his lawyer said it shows he “does not know how society works.”
Geir Lippestad, attorney for accused mass murderer Anders Breivik, told reporters Tuesday his client had made two lists of demands — one for practical jailhouse items like cigarettes and clothes, and another with far more bizarre requests. Breivik has told police he can exchange information on two other terror cells in Norway and several others around the world.
For one, Brievik is demanding the complete overthrow of the Norwegian and European societies, starting with the resignation of the Norwegian government. When the societies are rebuilt, Breivik said, he wants to play a key role.
He also said that if he were to undergo a mental health evaluation, it should be done by Japanese specialists because they “understand the idea and values of honor,” Lippestad said, according to a report by The Associated Press. Breivik had previously requested he be allowed to appear in court in full military uniform and, during questioning, demanded to be made the head of the country’s armed forces, Norway’s NRK reported.
The demands are “unrealistic — far, far from the real world and shows he doesn’t know how society works,” Lippestad said. “They are completely impossible to fulfill.”
Breivik is accused of killing eight people in a bombing at a government building in Oslo hours before attacking unarmed teens at a Labour Party summer camp outside the capitol. There he gunned down 69 people before he surrendered to police. Police said today that Breivik had been one of the people to call them the day of the attack, according to local news reports.
In a 1,500-page manifesto apparently published by Breivik hours before the attack, Breivik claims to be just one warrior in a widespread crusade against Muslim immigration and integration in Norwegian and European society that will take 60 years to complete. The meticulous manifesto detailed Breivik’s years-long preparations for the attack and presents an academic-style argument against what he called multicultural Marxism and Islamic colonization. In it, he says being arrested is all part of the plan.
“Your arrest will mark the initiation of the propaganda phase,” Breivik writes. “Your trial offers you a stage to the world.”
Breivik also mentions a plan to escape prison and execute a “bonus operation.”
If convicted, Breivik could face a maximum sentence of up to 21 years in prison, but Norwegian authorities retain the right to evaluate whether he is fit for release at that point. Police have not found evidence of wider conspiracy.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
OIC: West Pledge to Combat Intolerance
ISTANBUL: In what can rightly be described as a seminal step in relations between the Muslim world and the Western world, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the leading nations of the Western world led by the United States and the European Union agreed Saturday to take concrete steps to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.
The high-level meeting was held at the historic Yildiz Palace in Istanbul. It was attended by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Cathrine Ashton along with foreign ministers and officials from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan, the Vatican, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Arab League and African Union. The meeting was co-chaired by OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ever since he took office, the OIC secretary-general has been working on formulating ways and means to stop acts of religious intolerance.
“It was during my address to the 15th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that I outlined a new approach toward evolving a consensus against incitement to violence and intolerance on religious grounds that could endanger peaceful coexistence and must be viewed as a direct contrast to the very notion of a globalized world,” said Ihsanoglu. “I am glad that the eight points in the proposed approach found resonance with all the negotiating partners. They formed the basis of the consensus reflected in Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18. The importance of the consensual adoption of this resolution should be duly recognized.”
He said challenges remain.
“However, the test would lie in the implementation. Having been successful at consensus building, we must now act in concert to build on the consensus. The adoption of the resolution does not mark the end of the road. It rather signifies a beginning based on a new approach to deal with the whole set of interrelated issues,” said Ihsanoglu. “Resolution 16/18 provides a good basis for concerted action by states, at both national and international levels and must be utilized accordingly. Otherwise, we would be faced with the unaffordable risk of the agenda being hijacked and set by radicals and non-state actors.”
Ihsanoglu said there was a delicate balance between freedom of expression and incendiary speech.
“We continue to be particularly disturbed by attitudes of certain individuals or groups exploiting the freedom of expression to incite hatred by demonizing purposefully the religions and their followers. Though we respect their freedom of opinion and expression, we find these attitudes politically and ethically incorrect and insensitive.”
At the meeting, Clinton discussed how to build on a UN Human Rights Council resolution passed on March 24 that calls for promoting tolerance and respect for diversity of beliefs, without restricting legitimate free speech.
Clinton agreed to pursue a new religious tolerance agreement, which respects free expression of religious beliefs in order to resolve debates over religion between the West and the Islamic world.
“Together we have begun to overcome the false divide that pits religious sensitivities against freedom of religion,” Clinton said. “We are pursuing a new approach based on concrete steps to fight intolerance wherever it occurs.”
Speaking of the United States, Clinton said: “We have seen in the United States how the incendiary actions of just a very few people can create wide ripples of intolerance, so we are focused on promoting interfaith education and collaboration, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, protecting the rights of all people to worship as they choose, and to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”
She recalled a dialogue with Ihsanoglu and leaders of Istanbul’s diverse religious communities 15 years ago.
“That conversation took place just a few months after the signing of the Dayton Accords. We were all deeply concerned about the sectarian tensions and violence, and we were all troubled by what we had seen happen in the Balkans,” she said. “I had come from Sarajevo and Tuzla, where I had met with Bosnians, Serbs, Croats, and Muslims all together, and I will never forget one woman saying that neighbor began turning on neighbor because of religious and ethnic differences. And this woman asked a friend from another religious background, ‘We’ve known each other for so long; we have celebrated each other’s weddings; we’ve buried each other’s family; why is this happening?’ And her friend replied: ‘We were told that if we did not do this to you, you would do it to us.’ And it was as clear a statement of what incitement to violence and hatred can lead to as any that I have heard. And the conflict proved so costly, we are still living with the consequences today.”
She commended the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for its work securing the passage of Resolution 16/18 at the Human Rights Council.
“Resolution 16/18 calls upon states to protect freedom of religion, to counter offensive expression through education, interfaith dialogue, and public debate, and to prohibit discrimination, profiling, and hate crimes, but not to criminalize speech unless there is an incitement to imminent violence. We will be looking to all countries to hold themselves accountable and to join us in reporting to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights on their progress in taking these steps.”
| — Hat tip: EF | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Mini-Marshall Plan “Unfair and Divisive”
Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, 2 August 2011
“EU Marshall Plan encourages bankrupts,” complains the front page of DGP, which reports on a European Commission plan to increase EU funding for farming, regional and infrastructure projects from 85% to 95% for member states severely hit by the debt crisis: Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Hungary and Latvia. As they are unable to fulfill the requirement for national government contributions to EU-sponsored projects, these countries are currently unable to avail of most of the structural funds allotted to them by the EU. For example, Romania has so far used only 2.9% of its allocation, while Greece has only been able to take advantage of 7.9% of the EU structural aid granted under the 2007-2013 budget. “First, the EU floods bankrupt European states with financial aid, and now it is offering them special terms for structural aid… Instead of being rewarded for not indebting itself beyond reasonable limits, Poland is to be punished”, argues DGP’s angry editorial, which describes the the decision by the EU Commission as a measure that is “unfair,” which is destined to “divide the Union instead of uniting it”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Conspiracy Theories Kill
by Nick Cohen
Andrew Neather of the Evening Standard was — and, for all I know, still is — a decent man. Although he worked as a speech writer for Jack Straw around the turn of the millennium, by the time I knew him he in the late 2000s, he had sensibly decided that bicycling was more interesting than politics. I could never have imagined him at the centre of a political controversy until 2009, when Neather wrote an article that sparked a conspiracy theory. As Joe Murphy, the Standard’s political editor, reported a week later:
“Pressure was growing today for an independent inquiry into claims that immigration was encouraged by Labour for political gain. It followed the charge by a former Government adviser that a policy change to welcome economic migrants was partly designed to wrongfoot Conservative opponents of immigration. Andrew Neather, a former speechwriter for Tony Blair and Home Office adviser, revealed in last week’s Standard that in confidential meetings ministers gave the impression they wanted to encourage multiculturalism for partisan reasons, as well as the stated aim of helping businesses fill vacancies in the booming economy. Mr Neather, now the Standard’s Comment editor, wrote: ‘I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended — even if this wasn’t its main purpose — to run the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.’“
Well, you can imagine how fantasists seized on what they inevitably called “Neathergate”. Labour was deliberately flooding the country with immigrants to boost its electoral chances; undermining Britishness and imposing alien cultures on the subject peoples of these islands just to wrong foot the Conservative opposition. The right wing press and blogosphere went wild with delighted fury. The Standard had confirmed their worst suspicions.
I spoke to Neather at the time and he said words to the effect that the people who found evidence of a plot in his piece were nuts. He told his old boss Jack Straw that his “views have been twisted out of all recognition”. Straw replied in the Standard:
“I read the original stories, and more comment on it yesterday, with incredulity, since they are the reverse of the truth. I spent my time as Home Secretary seeking better to control immigration, by new laws and more effective administration. My 1998 Immigration and Asylum Bill was not heralded by anyone as an ‘open door’ policy, because it was the opposite. I was damned by many on the Left for my pains.”
I can assure you that Straw was telling the truth because I was one of those on the Left who damned him for building a system which closed the airports to genuine refugees as well as bogus asylum seekers. Whatever happened later in the decade, the policy when Neather worked for him was to clampdown hard. But Straw also knew that whatever he said, the damage had been done. “Myths can be halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,” he sighed, and no more so than in the age of the Web. There was enough in the original piece to feed paranoid delusions. I don’t know how it got there, but as someone who once worked for the Standard, and was mightily relieved when we parted company, I can say that when presented with a piece of writing its old bosses had the unfortunate habit of — how to put this politely? — throwing one too many eggs into the pudding bowl.
The excellent journalists on the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang are reporting everything they can find about Anders Behring, the extreme rightist accused of massacring their countrymen and women. Here courtesy of the anti-fascist site Harry’s Place is an account from VG of Behring raving that the British Labour party sought to annihilate Europeans with its multicultural policies. (Harry’s Place resisted the temptation to tidy up the English Google Translate produced because it thought that the document was too important to fiddle with.) Behring wrote:
“Labour adviser said the Government opened up the UK borders Mostly to humiliate Right-wing opponents of immigration. This proves therefore that some of the motivation for mass immigration is not based on humanism (cloak) but more due. direct hatred of people with conservative values — us, the cultural conservatives. A large part of them hate all European and want to destroy it through multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is an anti-European hate ideology designed to destroy a European culture / traditions, identity, Christianity and the Nations sovereignty. The goal is a utopian Marxist superstate. To accomplish this, the first all European annihilated. […] Has anyone tried to make an estimate of our opponent’s intentions? This will be relevant to a possible future Nurnbergprosess. It is of course difficult to prove this, because almost everyone uses kulturmarxister humanistic tire alibis.”
Because of a small and stupid controversy in Britain two years ago, Behring thought that the Labour Party was out to destroy Europe via mass immigration. I’m sure if he had not had that fantasy in his mind, he would have found another one. But, still, the story reminds us to never ignore the conspiratorial screams that echo around the madhouse of the Web, or believe that they do not need to be answered roughly and with hard arguments. Every now and again, they kill
[Reader comment by Haldane at www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7136983/ on 1 August 2011, 12:36pm]
I have been cogitating on Nick Cohen’s blog titled Conspiracy theories kill (July 23rd). I apologise at the length of what follows but I want to share my take on this article and seek fellow CH’s views.
For those who haven’t the time to read all the related articles, I would remind you of some selected passages from Andrew Neather’s original Evening Standard article which appeared in October ‘09 and was subsequently mentioned in various national newspapers, and became known as Neathergate. “It didn’t just happen: the deliberate policy of ministers from late 2000 until at least February last year (2008 ed), when the Government introduced a points-based system, was to open up the UK to mass migration”. He went on to say:”Part by accident, part by design, the Government had created its longed-for immigration boom”. Neather “ clarified” his position three days later, again in the Standard, and seemed to pull back from much of what he had claimed — but not all:
‘But my sense from several discussions was there was also a subsidiary political purpose to it — boosting diversity and undermining the Right’s opposition to multiculturalism.
I was not comfortable with that.’
Cohen asserts that Neather’s original article was falsified by his superiors at the Standard and that this was a common practice at the paper. Is this true or was Neather leaned on to recant by his former Labour colleagues? How are we to know? One things for sure, if the Standard regularly twists his work then one would have thought he would have jumped ship by now — and he hasn’t.
As to a “plot”, there clearly was one if you accept the dictionary definition of plot as “a secret plan”. Surely the point Neather was making was that the government did have a secret plan? It was kept secret because they were worried about the public’s reaction had they known. Neather again:
“…their big immigration report was surrounded by an unusual air of both anticipation and secrecy. Drafts were handed out in summer 2000 only with extreme reluctance: there was a paranoia about it reaching the media”.
To debunk the whole conspiracy theory ,Cohen quotes Jack Straw (of all people!). He vouches for Straw’s ‘hard’ stance on immigration, using as evidence the 1998 Asylum Bill, but this dissembles the fact that Neather was categoric in saying it was only from late 2000 that the government embarked on its ‘open door’ initiative. The immigration policy that went before had been superseded; slippery Jack’s 1998 response to a crisis gave no clue as to the immigration policy Labour would implement for most of the the new decade. Migrationwatch has no doubts about Neather’s actions. In 2010, under a FOI request, they compared original documentation with was actually published by the Home Office. Sir Andrew Green stated:
“Andrew Neather later tried to play down the significance of his revelations but these documents show that his original account was correct. Labour had a political agenda which they sought to conceal for initiating mass immigration to Britain. Why else would they be so anxious to remove any mention of social aspects unless they feared that they would reveal their true motives?”
Never once does Mr Cohen criticise the original author of the supposed calumny, yet he condemns those who were silly/ malicious enough to believe the various newspaper reports. Those who found the articles so easy to believe are described as “fantasists”, suffering from “paranoid delusions”, compounded by being “wild with delighted fury” and indulging in “conspiratorial screams in the madhouse of the web”. But this vituperation is nothing compared to the overarching implication of Nick’s blog (and the title) — that because some were so gullible (or of evil intent) as to believe Neather, they fostered and promoted an inaccurate conspiracy theory (plot) that perhaps could have led to the Oslo massacre.
What a nasty piece of work.
[JP note: Cohen is not an Islam-hugger, but remains wedded to the Left — and, as Wilders so admirably put it, “the Left can get lost.”]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Girl of 17 Plied White Teenagers With Vodka Then Forced Them Into Sex With Gangs of Asian Men
A young woman lured two white teenage girls to be raped by three Asian men with the promise of a night out.
Stephanie Knight, then 17, told the pair they were going clubbing but instead plied them with vodka and drugs before forcing them to have sex with ‘her boys’.
After persuading them into her car she was heard to say ‘got them’ over her mobile phone as they travelled to a derelict house.
The two 16-year-old victims were then subjected to an appalling ordeal in which both were threatened and subjected to vile sex attacks.
The case is the latest featuring Asian sex attackers who preyed on vulnerable young white girls. A damning report published recently revealed one in four men accused of street grooming young girls for sex is Asian.
Politicians and police have repeatedly clashed over how best to tackle what some suspect is a potentially incendiary hidden crime wave.
Jack Straw, former home secretary, has accused some Pakistani men in Britain of seeing white girls as ‘easy meat’ for sexual abuse.
Knight, now aged 19, sobbed as she was convicted of conspiracy to rape at Burnley Crown Court yesterday.
At the time she was in council care and had taken the victims to a supermarket car park where they drank vodka and coke and smoked drugs in December 2009.
One girl later said she was ‘feeling smashed’ and the other said that on a scale of one to ten of drunkenness she rated a ten.
They were then taken to a dark and empty terraced house in Accrington, Lancashire, with no electricity where one of the attackers once lived.
Knight threatened one girl and ordered her to perform a sex act on one man before holding her back as the other girl screamed for help as she was raped nearby.
As the screaming continued, she told the girl her friend would suffer even more if she did not comply and said ‘she is chilling with my boys’.
The second girl was pulled into a number of rooms by the men who took turns to rape her throughout the night. One man used a wardrobe to barricade her inside.
Both girls were then raped again as one of the men, whose partner was due to give birth at the time, drove them home to Blackburn. He threatened them with a knife.
Three men, brothers Amjad Hussain, 34, and Shahid Hussain, 37, and their cousin father-of-four Tanveer Butt, 39, were all convicted of rape.
The victims had only known Knight for a week and had not met any of their attackers before, the court heard…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
‘Kosovo Serbs Facing Food Shortages’
A trade embargo imposed by authorities in Pristina has led to severe shortages of food and medicine among ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo, media reports said on Sunday.
Suppliers from Serbia have been unable to deliver bread and milk to the towns of Lesak, Leposavic and northern Mitrovica, the Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported. Shops in the towns were also on the verge of selling out of meat and sugar products and customers have been stockpiling flour and yeast, it added. Supplies of bottled water were also running low, while doctors at the main health center in the major town of Mitrovica expressed concern over shortages of medicine, the Beta said. Long queues could also be seen at petrol stations throughout northern Kosovo.
The report came after the mainly ethnic Albanian government in Pristina decided earlier this month to implement a new ban on imports from Serbia, as they suspected ethnic Serb officers of turning a blind eye. NATO peacekeepers subsequently took control of the border crossings, which have been effectively closed since Thursday. But Serbian state television RTS reported Sunday that one of the crossings had been reopened to allow private cars to pass — but not trucks. Meanwhile police say assailants have smashed an Islamic center’s windows in a city in northern Serbia. Police say five attackers used wooden poles to smash the entrance door and another window on the center in Novi Sad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Rebels in Verge of Crisis
Libya’s shaken rebels rounded up at least 63 people allegedly linked to Gadhafi while trying to rid their ranks of enemies after the assassination last week of their military chief. The overnight battle in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi. killed four from each side and added to a sense of crisis within the rebel movement
Libyan rebel leaders said their forces hunted down and clashed with supporters of Moammar Gadhafi who had been posing as rebel fighters to infiltrate the opposition’s eastern stronghold.
As officials pieced together events leading up to Sunday’s gunbattle, they announced that a faction of fighters called al-Nidaa was actually made up of Gadhafi loyalists posing as rebels. The revelation could raise questions about the loyalty of other rebel factions and sap the movement of much-needed unity in its push to topple Gadhafi nearly six months after the revolt began. Suspicions about al-Nidaa were confirmed, a rebel security leader said, when intelligence officials determined the group was behind two prison breaks on Friday in the rebels’ de facto capital of Benghazi. The prison breaks freed 200 to 300 inmates, including pro-Gadhafi mercenaries, fighters and other regime loyalists. “These people took advantage of the chaos that resulted from the killing of Younis and entered and attacked the military prison and the (civilian) Kuwaitiya prison,” said the rebel’s deputy interior minister, Mustafa al-Sagezli. On Sunday before dawn, rebel forces tracked al-Nidaa members to a factory where they were hiding out and sent in negotiators to try to persuade them to surrender. When they refused, the rebel units besieged the factory, killing four of the rebels, said rebel Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam.
Rebels round up ‘pro-Gadhafi cell’
“We caught about 38 and later today more than 25,” the spokesman, Mustafa al-Sagazly, said late on Sunday. “Some of them ran away and we are trying to catch them all over the city,” he said. A battlefield commander said four of those posing as rebels were also killed. He described them as Libyans from the southern part of the country who belonged to the Gadhafi Brigades. “This is a hard hit for the fifth column,” he said. Rebel forces also seized 40 of the freed prisoners, who were found hiding out with the fighters. Talk of a fifth column, a group secretly sympathetic to the enemy, adds to the disarray that was set off with Thursday’s killing of the chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis. The leadership insists the slaying was the work of Gadhafi’s regime, but several witnesses have said Younis was killed by fellow rebels. Younis was Gadhafi’s interior minister before defecting to join the rebels.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Era of Concessions Over in Cyprus, PM Erdogan Says
To Turkish Cypriots: Have at least four children
The prime minister also appealed to Turkish Cypriot families to help increase the Turkish Cypriot population of the island. The daily Milliyet, whose reporter in the KKTC was among the group of journalists that met with Erdogan, reported that the prime minister asked journalists about how many children they had. When a female journalist revealed that she had been married for seven years but had no child, Erdogan said: “You don’t have babies and you also oppose us sending people [from Turkey to the KKTC]. If you don’t want us to send people, you need to have babies.”
Erdogan, who has repeatedly called on Turkish families to have at least three children, argued that Turkish Cypriot families must have at least four children.
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Iraq: Kirkuk Church Bombing Injures at Least 20
Kirkuk, 2 Aug. (AKI) — A priest and at least 19 others were injured Tuesday by an autobomb that detonated outside a church in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, according to comments made by the local police.
The attack took place in Kirkuk’s Shatterlo neighborhood at around 5:30 a.m., according to a police. More than 40 homes were damaged by the blast.
Terrorists in Iraq have stepped up attacks against the country’s minority Christian population. An attack against a Christian church in Baghdad on 31 October, left 58 worshippers dead including two priests. It was one of the worst in the spate of attacks that have targeted Iraqi Christians and have left scores dead.
There have been calls for Iraq to create an autonomous Christian region in the north of the country, where around 100,000 Christians have taken refuge since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.Many of Iraq’s approximately 500,000 remaining Christians are said to be living in fear of their lives.
Christians and other religious minorities make up less than 5 percent of Iraq’s population, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Christians “Sad and in Shock, “ Mgr Sako Says After Car Bomb Explodes at Kirkuk Church, Wounding 15
The bomb causes major damages to Syro-Catholic church. Children and clergymen are among the wounded. A second car bomb set to go off near an Evangelical church is defused. A “sacred place” and “innocent people” were targeted, Kirkuk archbishop says.
Kirkuk (AsiaNews) — Iraq’s Christians are “sad and in shock” because attackers targeted a “sacred place” and “innocent people”, said Mgr Louis Sako. The archbishop of Kirkuk, a city in northern Iraq, spoke to AsiaNews about the latest outrage against the country’s Christian community two days into Ramadan. Since the start of the Muslim holy month, attacks have been on the rise. This morning, a car bomb exploded near the Holy Family Syro-Catholic Church at about 5:30 am (0230 GMT), wounding 15 people. Some 30 homes were also damaged. A second bomb was also found.
According to local sources, Mati Shaba, a Christian man, is among the wounded, and is in serious conditions. Fr Imad Yelda, one of the church’s clergymen, was slightly injured. A 20-day-old baby and residents from the predominantly Christian and Turkmen neighbourhood of Shaterlo in northern Kirkuk were also hurt.
Fr Imad Hanna, who was also injured in the attack, said, “It is the first time that this church is the object of a terrorist attack.” The blast damaged the doors and inside the building (pictured), as well as cars and other buildings around the area.
This morning, Mgr Louis Sako, the archbishop of Kirkuk, visited the wounded in hospital. Many of them have already been released and gone home.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the prelate said that “Christians are sad and in shock” because “a sacred place” and “innocent people” were targeted. “Many cars caught fire” and there was widespread damage in the area, he added.
According to the archbishop, the attack has caused a great deal of sorrow because it occurred “at a holy time of fasting and prayer, [a time] of conversion.”
“We are shocked,” he explained, “because Christians play no role in the political games” of the city, its centres of power and economic interests. “We are always for what is good, for dialogue, and we have good relations with everyone.”
With a population of 900,000, Kirkuk is at the centre of an ethnic-political struggle between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds. The latter would like to see the city annexed to Kurdistan, whilst Arabs and Turkmen want it to remain linked to Iraq’s central government.
Local sources said that a second bomb was found in a car parked near a Presbyterian Evangelical church at al Mass, in central Kirkuk. The bomb was ready to explode but was defused.
Today’s bombs come a month after the opening of the first church built since the US invasion of 2003 (see Joseph Mahmoud, “New ‘Three Fountains Church’ near Kirkuk, a sign of hope,” in AsiaNews, 8 July 2011). (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Christian in Italy, Better the Devil You Know
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 2 — “Sanctions are of no use”.
Instead, international diplomacy should attempt to bring about dialogue between the interested parties, “meaning Alawites and Sunnis,” but without forgetting “that Syria also has a number of Arab Christians”. This is according to a Syrian intellectual living in Italy, where he is also a citizen. Like many of the sources behind the tragic events going on in the country, he has asked not to be named, as his family still live in Syria.
“The opposition that is taking to the streets is more dangerous than the government, which is certainly dictatorial and corrupt, but is not religious like those who protest as they leave the mosques,” says Z. I am not interested in democracy if it means that Islamic laws will be introduced and that the Constitution will be written by the Sunni majority. Better the devil you know”.
Among the protesters, there are a number of young seculars, “but the most honest are manipulated and paid agents from Saudi Arabia have certainly infiltrated them,” he says with conviction. The interpretation of the man, who lives in central Italy and is between 30 and 40, is probably similar to that of many Syrian Christians. The latest news of the violent repression by the regime means that he views the current spiral of death in the country with pessimism and concern. The President, Bashar Al Assad, has made a number of promises and concessions in recent months, he says, but “his mistake was not to be more convincing at the beginning”, while protests by people in Deraa, where the arrest of a few young demonstrators started the whole uprising, have been managed “shamefully”.
Assad, he says, is also the subject of significant pressure from his entourage and could be replaced.
The real conflict, he adds, is between the governing Alawite minority, which controls the armed forces, and the country’s Sunni majority. Even if dialogue were to be attempted, the country’s Christian minority would not have a say in proceedings and doesn’t even today. “For now we are protected by this government, but we do not know what would happen if it were to fall”. It is difficult to imagine the Alawites conceding power, Z comments, paving the way for a “civil war” scenario. Yet he is sceptical with regard to the West’s real desire to intervene, which he says would not serve any concrete interest.(
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: The NYT’s Andrea Elliott Strikes Again
On the frontpage of the New York Times today, there is a big story about sharia (Islamic law) — no, I don’t mean the below-the-fold story about the teen-aged couple in Afghanistan recently yanked from their car by a group of men (not cuddly “village elders”??) while some 300 surging, angry Afghans called the teens “adulterers” and demanded, a la sharia (Islamic law), “they be stoned to death or hanged.”
Indeed, on pp. 610 and 611 of Reliance of the Traveller, the authoritative, Al Ahzar University-approved, Sunni guide to Islamic law, I find that stoning to death is the penalty for “fornication or sodomy” (the index reference for “adultery” directs a reader to “See Fornication”).
I’m talking about the above-the-fold NYT story about sharia — namely, the story about my Team B II friend and colleague David Yerushalmi, who, I find by reading the caption under his picture, “has quietly led a national movement” against the incorporation of sharia into American law.
Well, hallelujah, happy day! Thanks to David’s toil, maybe we won’t live to see American teenagers (or, come to think of it, homosexual wedding couples fanfare-featured in the NYT) hauled from their cars and marked for public stoning.The Times should be thrilled, no?
No. The New York Times, in the person of reporter Andrea Elliott, is not amused. “Shariah means ‘the way to the watering hole.’” Elliott tells us. “It is Islam’s road map for living morally and achieving salvation.”
Gee, where can we all sign up?…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: People-Smugglers Tell Asylum Hopefuls to Send Children
PEOPLE-SMUGGLERS are trying to exploit likely exemptions to the Gillard government’s Malaysia Solution, telling potential boatpeople that unaccompanied children will not be deported from Australia.
As the government prepares a communications blitz, with videos of the transfer to Malaysia to be posted online and an ethnic media marketing campaign already under way, refugee agency sources have told The Australian there is a high degree of awareness among people-smugglers, and their potential customers, about the new arrangements.
But the government’s hopes of sending a stern deterrent message suffered an early blow from the announcement last week that all asylum-seekers who arrived after May 7 — the day the deal was announced — would be processed in Australia.
Mr Bowen had repeatedly insisted that those who arrived after the announcement date would be transferred to an undisclosed overseas country, partly to avoid a rush of boats putting to sea before the agreement took effect.
But the minister’s admission that the 560 people would in fact be processed in Australia was “exactly what the smugglers told their customers would happen”, one source said yesterday.
Sources contacted this week said the Gillard government had a deep credibility deficit that smuggling syndicates were exploiting by telling customers Australia would not send back unaccompanied minors and was unlikely to send back family groups with young children.
Once the children were settled in Australia, so the marketing line goes, parents and older siblings could be sponsored for visas.
Under the plan announced last week, Australia will deport 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia, taking in exchange 4000 declared refugees. The first boat to be subject to the plan — a vessel with 54 mainly Afghan asylum-seekers — was on the way to Christmas Island last night.
Mr Bowen has broadcast loudly that there will be no “blanket exemptions” to the arrangements in an effort to prevent smugglers exploiting loopholes. However, it is widely expected there will be some below-the-line filtering aimed at protecting vulnerable asylum-seekers from transfer.
Facing a business slowdown because of high refugee awareness of the new agreement, the syndicate agents are telling potential customers that Australian authorities will not send unaccompanied minors to Malaysia, and are less likely to do so for families with small children.
The strong sensitivity to the risks of being diverted to Malaysia has been confirmed by asylum-seekers waiting in Indonesia and refugee agency sources, who spoke to The Australian on condition of anonymity.
This awareness should have a deterrent effect, which the Immigration Department will reinforce by posting on YouTube a video of the first group sent to Malaysia.
Yesterday, the Refugee Council of Australia rounded on the department over its internet campaign. Council chief Paul Power accused it of hypocrisy over its use of the images. “The department has rightly taken a strong and clear line that asylum-seekers can’t be identified,” he said. “So it’s a considerable about-face. They’re doing almost the exact opposite of what they were doing before.”
The department has said it will blur the faces of people featured in the video, but Mr Power said that would not necessarily be obvious to the asylum-seekers themselves, who could panic when they became aware they were being filmed.
“The main thing will be the fear from the people about how the footage is going to be used.”
Mr Power said the dignity of those being filmed should also be considered.
Among asylum-seekers who heeded Ms Gillard’s May 7 warning and postponed their plans to board boats there is anger and disbelief of the government’s current position.
A Hazara asylum-seeker from Pakistan told The Australian most of his people were staying put until Canberra clarified its intentions in actions rather than words.
He said asylum-seekers already in detention on Christmas Island and the mainland and awaiting processing were phoning back to Indonesia advising relatives and friends against taking boats.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Senate Approves Illegal Migrant Repatriation Bill
(AGI) Rome — The Italian senate has approved a repatriation bill by a vote of 151 to 129 which now becomes law. The Northern League, PDL and National Cohesion voted for and the PD, IDV and Third Pole (API-FLI) voted against. The law, promoted by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, provides for the repatriation of illegal migrants, increased time in the Center for Identification and Expulsion from 6 to 18 months and an extension from 5 to 7 days during which time the foreigner must leave Italy on orders from the police commissioner in those cases when detention in the centers is not possible.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 98 Injured in Immigrants Protest in Bari, 28 Arrested
(AGI) Bari — At least 98 people were injured or wounded in a protest staged by immigrants at the asylum-seekers centre in Bari. Most of the injuries were caused by stone-throwing when immigrants at the asylum-seekers centre staged a protest yesterday blocking the bypass near Bari’s A-road 16 and the nearby railway network. One person reportedly suffered serious face injuries and tooth loss. Twenty-eight people were arrested accused of bodily harm, coercion and other offences.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Central, Eastern Europeans in Holland Than Expected, Say Ministers
The number of migrants from central and eastern Europe moving to the Netherlands is much greater than had been expected, social affairs minister Henk Kamp has told a parliamentary committee.
The sharp rise since 2004 is ‘the most important development’ in terms of migration, the minister said, according to a report in the Telegraaf.
The committee is looking into lessons which can be learned from recent patterns of migration, the paper says.
The government’s macro-economic think tank CPB says that in 2004 and 2005, an estimated 7,500 to 15,000 central and eastern Europeans came to the Netherlands. Now there are some 200,000 on local authority registers but it is unclear how many live beneath the official radar, the CPB says.
Social security
The minister also said the number of people claiming welfare benefits (bijstand) has gone up from 460 in 2008 to 1070 by the end of last year.
The number of unemployment benefit (ww) claims has risen from 107 in 2007 to 1,527 by December 2010. Everyone in work pays unemployment benefit employment premiums.
The government is planning to make it harder for eastern Europeans to claim welfare benefits by introducing language and other requirements.
It has also stopped market gardeners bringing in Romanians and Bulgarians on short contracts to pick fruit and vegetables, saying there are enough jobless people in the Netherlands who can do the work.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
