Thanks to Abu Elvis, ACT for America, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Conservative Swede, Fausta, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, MF, RP, RRW, Steen, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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CAIR Attempts to Sabotage Law Enforcement Terrorism Training
(The following is based on material obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.)
The Council for American Islamic Relations has been trying in vain to stop a counter- terrorism program in Sarasota Florida, aimed at providing first responders with information on subjects such as building safety, suicide terrorism, technologies against terrorism and more.
This is part of CAIR’s program to stop Security Solutions International (SSI) — an organization that has trained more than 500 Federal, State and Local agencies since 2004.
SSI officials, CAIR attempted to stop a training program for cops and security personnel in Seattle last Memorial Day. Fortunately, they failed.
“As Americans, we can not allow the civil liberties of our great country to be exploited by groups that are intent on creating a fundamentalist Islamic regime here in the USA”, says Sol Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, the organizers of the Sarasota Sheriffs 3rd Annual Gulf Coast Terrorism conference being held in Sarasota from the 15th to the 19th of September for the benefit of Homeland Security professionals — coming from as far as Australia to attend what is being called the most innovative terrorism prevention conference in the USA.
| — Hat tip: ACT for America | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Goes on Special Alert
Agents watching for al-Qaida op involving Turkish terrorists, homegrown jihadists
As the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nears, Homeland Security agents are on heightened alert for young Turkish Muslims who may be trying to enter the U.S. as part of an al-Qaida terrorist operation, WND has learned from counterterrorism officials and internal agency documents.
Meanwhile, agents are monitoring more than 20,000 suspected homegrown terrorists on the FBI’s watchlist to prevent them from boarding commercial aircraft.
All of the individuals are American citizens or permanent legal residents “who have some relationship with terrorist activity,” said Leonard Boyle, who heads the FBI’s terrorism screening center in McLean, Va.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Did We Get So Many Somali Refugees — the Numbers Are Telling
I finally got around to something I’ve been promising to do for weeks (months!) and that is go over all the records of Somali resettlement numbers.
I do want to remind readers that these numbers are only for the Refugee Resettlement Program of the US State Department. We just had a commenter to another post suggesting that the numbers are much larger then the government statistics indicate for immigration to the US. I don’t doubt that. But, again, these are the numbers that the Office of Refugee Resettlement must present to Congress each year for that special category “refugees.”
Much to my surprise, the numbers (and patterns) for Somali refugees admitted to the US are even more shocking then I had originally guessed…
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
JBS Swift Muslim Workers Protest Ramadan Reversal
More than 150 Muslim workers didn’t report to their meatpacking plant jobs Monday in the wake of what they called JBS Swift & Co.’s sudden reversal of accommodation for their religious fasting during Ramadan.
The workers initially planned a two-mile march from downtown Greeley’s Lincoln Park to the plant, but a gathering that formed mid-morning never left the park. Throughout the day, several Greeley police officers watched from the park’s edge.
Company officials met with several workers Monday afternoon at the plant, and Somali representatives later spoke with workers in downtown Greeley.
Graen Isse, a Swift worker and group spokesman, said the workers would not discuss details of their grievances, which were supplied to Swift in writing, until the company responded. He said he expected to hear from Swift Tuesday morning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NYC: Racism is Charged of Opponents of Voting Rights for Noncitizens
In advance of the 2009 citywide elections, a coalition of immigrant and advocacy organizations is reigniting a fight to give noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections, drawing the ire of opponents who argue that voting is a right for American citizens only.
At a rally outside City Hall yesterday organized by the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights, supporters of a City Council bill that would extend voting rights to 1.3 million noncitizen New Yorkers said it’s unfair that immigrant residents pay more than $18 billion in state income taxes when they can’t vote for their representatives. The group is planning to pressure elected officials to back the legislation, which has been on file for more than two years but hasn’t moved forward.
A supporter of the bill, Council Member Robert Jackson of Harlem, said in his district alone there are about 40,000 people who are paying taxes and don’t have the right to vote. He said the coalition needed to publicize the position of every council member on the proposal and the reasons for their stances.
He suggested that those opposed to giving noncitizens the right to vote might be motivated by racism, and noted that in the early years of American history noncitizens were allowed to vote. That ended after World War I.
“This was the law in the United States of America for many, many years and why don’t they support it now? Is it what somebody said earlier — because if you look at the skin complexion of the immigrants now they are mainly people of color versus 100 years ago, when they mainly were white,” he said. “These are questions that people have to start asking.”
The question of whether noncitizens should be allowed to vote has surfaced in the city within the past few years, but has never gained sufficient momentum among the city’s elected officials. Supporters of the plan said yesterday that they aim to capitalize on the attention that will be paid to the 2009 municipal elections, when every citywide office will be up for grabs, as well as 36 council seats.
Noncitizens in New York with children in public school had been allowed to vote in school board elections until the boards were abolished in 2002.
Any campaign to extend voting rights to noncitizens would be expected to face fierce opposition from the mayor and other council members who have held back their support from the bill.
A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stuart Loeser, wrote in an e-mail message yesterday that the mayor “is superlatively pro-immigration and vehemently disagrees with those who demonize immigrants to score cheap points, but he believes just as strongly that the right to vote is a privilege and a responsibility for citizens only.”
The Republican leader of the council, James Oddo of Staten Island, said it’s a ridiculous idea to allow noncitizens to vote, and that supporters of the council bill should be using their energy to help noncitizens become citizens.
“Citizenship is a privilege that gives birth to certain rights and included in that is the ability to vote in these elections,” he said. Mr. Oddo said he’d rather focus on “aggressively weeding out” the noncitizens who have registered to vote.
“To me, that’s unacceptable,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Osama’s Nephew Escaped Without Any Questioning
Book charges: FBI evacuated terror suspect Omar bin Laden
Just days after the 9/11 attacks, the FBI allowed a nephew of Osama bin Laden under prior investigation for terrorism to leave the U.S. on a Saudi Arabian-chartered jet without questioning, a new book on the bin Ladens reveals.
Another bin Laden nephew living in the U.S. was protected from terrorism prosecution after the Saudi embassy stepped in and gave him diplomatic immunity.
The revelations by the Pulitzer-winning author, a former Washington Post editor, are sure to fuel suspicions the Saudi Arabian government has escaped rigorous investigation into the role it has played in terrorism, including any relevant information it had about the 9/11 operation.
Omar bin Laden was one of several members of the bin Laden family whom FBI agents were ordered to personally escort to safety and help evacuate from the country, along with dozens of well-connected members of the Saudi royal family — none of whom were subjected to “serious interviews or interrogations,” former senior FBI official Dale Watson has acknowledged, even though most of the hijackers were Saudis. Watson fielded calls directly from the Saudi embassy while helping coordinate the post-9/11 evacuation.
Omar was the only passenger known to have been the subject of an FBI investigation before 9/11, says Steve Coll, author of “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.” Yet agents did not question him at all about the attacks before, during or after he boarded a specially chartered evacuation flight at Washington Dulles International Airport on Sept. 19, 2001…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Revolution You Can Believe in
by Melanie Phillips
In her game-changing convention speech, Sarah Palin took a swipe at Obama for having been nothing more in his life than a ‘community organiser’.
This prompted the Obama campaign to issue a pained defence of community organisation as a way of promoting social change ‘from the bottom up’. The impression is that community organising is a worthy if woolly and ultimately ineffectual grassroots activity. This is to miss something of the greatest importance: that in the world of Barack Obama, community organisers are a key strategy in a different game altogether; and the name of that game is revolutionary Marxism.
The seditious role of the community organiser was developed by an extreme left intellectual called Saul Alinsky. He was a radical Chicago activist who, by the time he died in 1972, had had a profound influence on the highest levels of the Democratic party. Alinsky was a ‘transformational Marxist’ in the mould of Antonio Gramsci, who promoted the strategy of a ‘long march through the institutions’ by capturing the culture and turning it inside out as the most effective means of overturning western society. In similar vein, Alinsky condemned the New Left for alienating the general public by its demonstrations and outlandish appearance. The revolution had to be carried out through stealth and deception. Its proponents had to cultivate an image of centrism and pragmatism. A master of infiltration, Alinsky wooed Chicago mobsters and Wall Street financiers alike. And successive Democratic politicians fell under his spell.
His creed was set out in his book ‘Rules for Radicals’ — a book he dedicated to Lucifer, whom he called the ‘first radical’. It was Alinsky for whom ‘change’ was his mantra. And by ‘change’, he meant a Marxist revolution achieved by slow, incremental, Machiavellian means which turned society inside out. This had to be done through systematic deception, winning the trust of the naively idealistic middle class by using the language of morality to conceal an agenda designed to destroy it. And the way to do this, he said, was through ‘people’s organisations’.
Community organisers would mobilise direct action by the oppressed masses against their capitalist oppressors.
| — Hat tip: MF | [Return to headlines] |
Air Hell for Five Years: No End to Anti-Terror Baggage Measures Despite Jury Verdicts
Air passengers face five more years of bans on carrying liquids in their hand luggage, it has emerged. The news comes despite the result of a high-profile court trial on Monday which saw eight suspects escape conviction over an alleged plot to blow up planes.
The prosecution alleged they had plotted to target transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
But the jury failed to return a verdict on that charge, instead convicting three of conspiracy to murder and clearing one man of all charges.
After the men were arrested in August 2006, restrictions on liquids were brought into place overnight, causing immediate chaos and lengthy delays for travellers at airports across the country.
On Tuesday airlines called for a review of the rules, with the most vociferous comments coming from Virgin Atlantic. […]
But the Department for Transport ruled out any relaxation of security in the short term, claiming a terror threat still exists. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels: Public Debate on the Role of Multilingualism in Europe
Multilingualism and Intercultural Dialogue will be in the spotlight on Wednesday 10 September in the fifth Brussels Debate of the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The debate entitled “Multilingualism — a bridge or a barrier for intercultural dialogue?” is organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). It will take place at 18:30h in the Residence Palace and will be opened by EU Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban.
This fifth Brussels Debate for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 will focus on the role of multilingualism in Europe and on the influence of the multiplicity of languages on European integration. Is multilingualism a source of enrichment or a source of tension?
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Comes Home to the Shock of a Demographic Bombshell
LONDON — In France, they call it la retour, the day in early September when the entire population of Europe coagulates the continent’s highways and asphyxiates its airports by returning from four- and six-week vacations all at once. It’s considered a sombre and melancholy day, a moment to contemplate your depleted finances and advancing age.
Never more so than this week. Aside from a slumping euro and a collapsing real-estate market, residents of most European countries returned from the beaches to discover that their grey hairs and their improved lives have led their countries to a looming demographic and fiscal catastrophe.
Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics body, created a continent-wide frisson of alarm over the Aug. 31 weekend with a study bearing the innocuous title “Population and social conditions.”
The statisticians discovered that it will be only seven years — not 20 or more years as previously thought — until a population milestone is reached, the point at which deaths will outnumber births across the continent, something that has not occurred since the disease-ridden years of the 18th century.
In other words, as of 2015, Europe’s population will no longer increase naturally. And, even with immigration at its current levels, that means that within the next generation, the European population will begin shrinking.
Europeans are freaking out…
| — Hat tip: RP | [Return to headlines] |
Euthanasia: Spain; Dignified Death Law, Polemics on Sanction
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 4 — The sanctions against doctors who prolong the agony of terminally ill patients with aggressive nursing, envisaged under a bill regarding the right to dignified death, promoted by the Andalusia government, have provoked sharp criticism on the part of professional organisations and sector associations. Doctors, most of who approve the bill which regulates the rights of patients and families, have complained that fines, instead of being an instrument for legal protection of the medics and patients, represent sword of Damocles adding stress to their work. The most severe criticism came from the president of the Andalusian Council of the Doctors’ Association, Carlos Gonzalez-Vilardell, who said he considered “dangerous” the fact that doctors “would be forced to work in fear”, El Pais reported today. According to Gonzalez-Vilardell, in this sense the law “is unnecessary” because “doctors are trained” and “professional ethics is enough”. “I have never heard of a case of aggressive nursing. What doctors would oppose to the will of a patient’s family if they see no hope for treatment?”, he asked. On the other hand, according to the regional health councillor, this is a “guarantee law” which will protect professionals. The organisations of Andalusian doctors have started studying the regulations to be able to contribute to the discussion in the Andalusian parliament. However, they have distanced themselves from the system of sanctions introduced. According to Francisco Javier Monlleo, the medical director of the hospital in Granada, to which a woman, Immacolata Echevarria, was transferred in March 2006 in order to have the ventilator that had kept her alive for ten years pulled, the law is “appropriate and necessary”. “Bringing clarity in this matter is to everyonés benefit. I hope that when the law is adopted doctors will know better what to do so that cases such as that of Immacolata Echevarria do not happen again,” he said. The woman, affected by serious tetraplegia, had been forced to move from a religious medical centre, where she had spent a decade, to a public hospital, which guaranteed the necessary assistance and a dignified death. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands Launches Human Rights Tulip Award
THE HAGUE, 10/09/08 — Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has introduced the Human Rights Tulip. This will be presented annually to an individual “who has shown great moral courage in the protection and fostering of the rights of his or her fellow-citizens.”
The prize will be presented for the first time this year during a ceremony in the Knights Hall of Parliament in The Hague on 10 December. “The Human Rights Tulip is a way to honour and rescue people from anonymity who carry out a difficult battle, sometimes endangering their own lives,” Verhagen stated.
The prize consists of a picture of a tulip, an individual prize of 10,000 euros, and 100,000 euros for a project to support the work of the winner. Some 100 candidates have been nominated via www.mensenrechtentulp.nl.
The jury chairwoman is journalist Cisca Dresselhuys, until recently the chief editor of feminist monthly Opzij. The jury will nominate three candidates, one of whom the minister will select as the winner.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Our “Knowledge-Economy” is Doing Great, Just Great [Translated by VH]
The Netherlands anno 2008. Time draw up the balance sheet once again on the eve of “Budget Day”. How, for example, is our famous “knowledge economy” doing? Well, here it is:
15,000 Young people annually disappear in the Wajong [benefit for mentally or physically disabled young people]. Another 5,000 young people knock at the doors of the Bureaus of Youth Care, and 10,000 at the doors of Mental Health Care. Around 7,000 young people wander about the streets. They should have learned a job. Because that is precisely where the shoe pinches: each year a further 50,000 young people leave school without any qualifications at all.
Of course the problem groups above overlap each other, but there are fewer and fewer young people employable for the “knowledge economy”.
Add to that the 852,400 so-called WAO-ers [benefit for those who are mentally or physically unable to work], the 217,300 on unemployment benefits, the 317,800 people on the dole, 2,632,200 AOW-ers [state pensions for all], the 26,000 intercontinental bargain-hunters [asylum seekers], the 950,000 civil servants and voilà! Over ten million little hands that have to be fed.
Please note that we have disregarded the vutters [VUT, early leave for pension], those on long furlough and on long-term sickness for convenience.
As you can see, our knowledge economy is just doing great, as long you work you’re a** off. So, alt F4 and to work! The Netherlands counts on you!
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Sword-Wielding Man Shot by Gothenburg Police
A man under the influence of drugs and armed with a sword was shot twice in the leg by police on Hisingen in Gothenburg on Tuesday night.
The man attacked people who passed by and who were standing at a bus stop on Sägengatan near Selma Lagerlöfs torg.
“He acted threatening and went after people who were nearby with the sword,” said commissioner Björn Englom to the TT news agency.
“His whole manner of behaving indicated that he was under the influence of narcotics and he’s also a person with whom we’re already familiar.”
The man continued toward Selma Lagerlöfs torg prompting a number of calls to police reporting the incident.
Several police patrols were directed to the area and police first tried to talk to the man.
“That didn’t work and they instead used pepper spray,” said Engblom.
But that didn’t help stop the man, who then started to attack the police at which point two of them fired their drawn weapons.
The man was hit by two shots. It’s unclear if both shots hit one leg, or if he was hit in both legs.
He was taken to Sahlgrenska University Hospital for treatment.
No one else was injured in the confrontation.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Strong Investment Flow to Former Enemy Serbia
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, AUGUST 27 — Despite the apparently unfavourable climate, just over ten years after the end of the conflict between Zagreb and Belgrade, Croatian entrepreneurs are not conditioned by the nationalistic disagreements and keep the flow of capitals towards the former Yugoslavian enemy going. The latest data showed in fact that investments in Serbia account for 17.4% of the total investments abroad of the Croatian economy. In real figures, they amount to just 390 million euro, which are anyway a relevant sum for a young economy, still very much receptive, both in investments and imports, like the Croatian one. On the Serbian territory, according to data from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HGK), are operating 120 companies, and the structure of investments reflects the economic profile of Croatia: the food sector dominates, along with construction and trade. The “prince” of the Croatian businessmen is the king of Croatian supermarkets, Ivica Todoric, owner of the agrifood consortium Agrokor, one of the three major companies in the country. Three years ago, the company wanted to set up, together with the other sector leaders, Serbian Delta and Slovenian Mercator, a Balkan super-consortium for all the former Yugoslavian countries, thus believing it could oppose the “huge wave” of western supermarket chains which are taking over the region. The project failed, partly because of grudges and disagreements of nationalistic origin, partly because each one of the three wanted to keep the biggest share in the new chain. Todoric, however, has never given up on the promising Serbian market and since 2003 he has continued to buy companies in trouble, building up a small agrifood empire. He started with the frozen foods producer Frikom, then he moved on to oil company Dijamant, to flour and bread producers in the fertile Vojvodina and an entire series of small and medium-sized companies connected to supermarkets, where now Agrokor places its Serbian products, also in Croatia. In the past few days, the group offered 4 million euro to acquire another important operator of the agrifood sector in Serbia, Nova Sloga, which would enable it to reach the announced target to have a market share of 20% in the distribution and sale of agrifood products in Serbia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Iranian Company Interested in New Plants in Bosnia
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 10 — During the meeting between the representatives of Iranian company Farab, the Prime Minister and the minister of Energy, Mining and Industry of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina held last week in Sarajevo, the possible investments of the company in the energy sector of the country were discussed, Sarajevòs office of the Italian Foreign Trade Institute (ICE) announced. Farab, Iranian leader in the water power plants construction, is interested in the construction of power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, the construction of water power plants on the Bosnia River was discussed. The Iranian company presented two models of project financing. The first one envisages a subsidised loan by the Iranian Development Bank to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The executor of the works in this case would be Farab and the local companies of the sector. The second model envisages signing of an order contract with the Iranian company and financing of the project through a direct investment by the same company. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Parliament Endorses Closer EU Ties and ‘Historic’ Russian Gas Deal
Belgrade, 9 Sept. (AKI) — Serbian MPs on Tuesday ratified a pre-entry accord with the European Union and a deal with Russia to build a gas pipeline to transport gas to the West, which the government hailed as historic.
The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU still needs to be ratified by the parliaments of the bloc’s 27 member countries.
It will give Serbia access to EU funds and will liberalise trade and visa regimes and abolish customs duties..
The approval, voted by 140 deputies of president Boris Tadic’s ruling coalition, was preceded by months of political wrangling, which ultimately led to a split in the main opposition group, the nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS).
SRS deputies abstained from the vote and 28 deputies of former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s centre-right Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and his coalition partner the New Serbia party voted against.
Kostunica, who as prime minister paved the way for signing the SAA, changed his mind after most EU countries recognised Kosovo when its majority ethnic Albanian politicians declared independence in February.
Belgrade opposes Kosovo’s secession from Serbia and Kostunica had insisted that the SAA should clearly state that Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia — a provision Brussels had refused.
The deal with key ally Russia allows for a pan-European pipeline to run through Serbia and for Russia to buy Serbia’s state oil monopoly NIS for 400 million euros.
The parliament (photo) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the gas deal, but opposition politicians have warned it will give Russia full control over Serbia’s energy sector.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Turkish Airlines Bids for Bosnia’s Flag Carrier
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 10 — Turkey’s national airline company has submitted a bid for the airline company of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the director general of the Turkish Airlines (THY) said today, as daily Hurriyet reports. “We will be a partner to a European company and it will be a good beginning,” Temel Kotil told a press conference in Hamburg, Germany. Kotil said that the bid would be concluded within two weeks and THY was also interested in the Austrian airline company, he also said. The Bosnian government said previously that the Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector and Croatian and Malaysian firms were also interested in bidding. The federation government owns 99% of the company, with 1% held by regional engineering group Energoinvest. BH Airlines went bankrupt in 2003, but resumed operations in 2005 after a deal with Hypo Alpe Adria bank to settle most of its debt. The company employs 89 people and transported some 70,000 passengers in 2007. Kotil also said THY would start flying to new destinations and announced that the number of THY fleet would climb to 123 aircraft by the end of this year and aimed to carry 23.5 million passengers in 2008. He added that the company gained a great deal of its revenues from its foreign offices, and forecast this year’s revenue from foreign offices around $3 billion. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Books: Latest Work by Yasmina Kadra Debuts in France
(by Antonella Tarquini) (ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 9 — After several novels set against the backdrop of Islamic terrorism, which covered his country with blood in the ‘90s, Yasmina Kadra now tackles colonial Algeria and describes in his latest work, ‘Ce que le jour doit à la nuit’, the coexistence of French and Algerians, the friendship relation between pieds-noir, Muslims and Jews before the independence war and the ensuing lacerations. The book appears almost normal after the violence of novels such as ‘A quoi revent les loups?’ in which he tells of the drifting towards terrorism of a young man, who decides to go underground when he cannot fulfil his dreams. And yet this latest novel is just as tough, with a different kind of violence, more emotional and psychological. Yasmina Kadra (the first two names of his wife) is the pseudonym chosen in 1997 by Mohamed Moulessehoul, former officer of the Algerian army, who fought against the armed fundamentalists in his country before taking refuge in France, where today he manages the French Cultural Centre. In ‘Ce que le jour doit a’ la nuit’ the author of ‘The woman terrorist’, ‘The swallows of Kabul’ and ‘The sirens of Baghdad’ talks about colonial Algeria between 1930 and 1962, seen through the eyes of Younes, brought up by a chemist uncle, perfectly integrated in the pieds-noir community of a town next to Oran. Here the boy is renamed Jonas (the double name is a symbol of the schizophrenia of identity) and become the inseparable companion of the young settlers. With them he shares the dreams of privileged teenagers, but the Algerian revolution which will lead to independence in 1962 will be for Younes-Jonas, in love with Emilie, bloody and fratricidal. A continuous laceration between the loyalty to the friendship with his pieds-noir friends, and the relations with his uncles who gave him a better life, between the respect of the given promises and the pride for his peoplés traditions, between his being Arab and the European friends. Younes-Jonas does not find the courage to choose on which side to be, “but he knows that history will do it for him”, the author says, “independence was inevitable and if France had understood it and left Algeria to the Algerians, to all the Algerians-French, Jews, Greeks, Italians, the country would today be a superpower”. Yasmina Kadra retraces the conflict which opposed two people in love with the same country, defending the double French-Algerian culture which history, on both sides, has too often tried to deny. Surely, in his colonial Algeria there was also hatred, racism among the communities, but also laughter and conviviality, although, the author explains, “it was ordinary racism, due to lack of information and education”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Palestinian Factions Use Calm With Israel to Train New Fighters
Shortly after nightfall, blinding heavy dust suddenly rises over the Al-Sikkah Street, which is adjacent from the western side to the Birkat al-Wazz, to the west of the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, the sound of heavy fire can be heard, while minutes later, tens of men belonging to the al-Qassam Brigades, military wing of the Hamas Movement, are seen moving fast in columns in the street with their full military gear.
To the north of that neighborhood, lies the garrison of “Battalion 13”, which is the main training location of the al-Qassam Brigades in the area. In the past, this site belonged to the security agencies of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, but it was seized during the decisive military action that ended with Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Since the calm agreement between Israel and Hamas came into play, it has been clearly evident that Palestinian resistance factions, without exception, have taken advantage of the ceasefire by conducting military training for their recruits. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Olympics: Israeli Olympian Calls Chinese ‘Shits’
Israel’s sole medallist at the 2008 Olympics stirred a diplomatic row after describing the Chinese as shits, complaining they had funny accents and grumbling he could not buy hummus in China.
Shahar Zubari, 22, who won a bronze medal in windsurfing, showed little Olympic spirit towards his hosts in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth
When asked to describe the Chinese in one word he chose “shits”.
“They are difficult,” he said.
“They don’t speak the language, their rituals are strange and even their pronunciation is weird.”
He hated the diet in China and only felt happy when a friend turned up with some hummus from home.
“I don’t like [Chinese] food, I don’t eat pig,” he said.
“Give me home-cooked food, especially hummus.
“I can live off hummus.”
The Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv protested by cancelling today’s celebratory reception for the Israeli Olympic delegation…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Protests to UN Over Israeli Threats
Tehran demands ‘firm action’ by UN over Tel Aviv’s war and kidnapping threats. Iran has protested to the United Nations over an Israeli minister’s suggestion that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be abducted, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday…
Khazaei also denounced remarks by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who said in August that Israel would use “all options,” against Iran’s nuclear programme.
He demanded “firm action” by the UN Security Council over the threats from Israel, one of its main enemies along with the United States.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Palestinian Prisoners May be Exchanged for Captive Soldier
Jerusalem, 10 Sept. (AKI) — Israel is expected to free the 40 Hamas Palestinian parliament members held in Israeli prisons, as part of a deal to release captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The Israeli daily, Haaretz, said if Israel freed the prisoners before the end of 2009, the move would bring Mahmoud Abbas’ term as Palestinian president to an early close in a legal sense, though not necessarily in practice.
The legislators’ release would give Hamas a majority — 74 out of 132 seats — in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The parliament is expected to convene after its Hamas-affiliated members are released, and to decide not to extend Abbas’ term beyond January.
Abbas is not expected to resign, although the Hamas position would seriously threaten his legitimacy.
Hamas is demanding the lawmakers’ release as part of the first stage of a deal to release Shalit. Most of the 40 legislators were arrested after the 25 June 2006 cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip that resulted in Shalit’s abduction, although some were elected while serving time in prison.
Israel is expected to allow the release of the legislators, since most were arrested because they are members of Hamas, and are not considered terrorists.
According to Haaretz, the previous Fatah-run parliament passed a law shortly before the 2006 elections won by Hamas stipulating that Abbas’ term should run five years — until January 2010 when both parliamentary and presidential elections would be held.
But Hamas and several experts in Palestinian law say that the Palestinian election law can be amended by a two-thirds majority, rendering the one-year extension unconstitutional.
Hamas says that Abbas’ presidency should end this January, unless he wins a new presidential election.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ahmadinejad Faces Discipline for Aide’s ‘Zionism’
(IsraelNN.com) Forty Iranian legislators have demanded that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be disciplined because vice president Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei said that Iran was a “friend of the Israeli people.” Discipline, which consists of Ahmadinejad being summoned by the parliament, is rarely used.
Most of the legislators who signed the petition remained anonymous in the Iranian media.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: 8 Year-Old Files for Divorce, Judge Takes Time
(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, SEPTEMBER 10 — A Saudi judge asked to decide on the request for divorce between an eight-year-old girl and a man of 50 has taken his time until December 20 to rule on the case, a lawyer of the family said. The hearing on the divorce request, filed by the mother of the girl, was held yesterday in the town of Unaizah, 420 kilometres north of Riyadh. Lawyer Abdallah Jtili said that in the hearing the husband reiterated he did not agree with the breaking up of the marriage. “The judge said he wanted to reflect further on the matter and give time to the parties to reach a mutual agreement before ruling on the case,” the lawyer said. The marriage of the girl, who does not know yet that she has been given away as bride, was organised by the father. Some relatives of the child reported the case in August to a Saudi human rights association asking it to intervene in order to annul the marriage. Cases of girls given as brides to men are denounced from time to time in Saudi Arabia, an ultra-conservative kingdom which rigidly applies the fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam which allows polygamy. In neighbouring Yemen an eight-year-old girl obtained in April divorce after having denounced in the court her father who had forced her to marry a 28-year-old man. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Synthetic Drugs in Asia, Mideast on the Rise, Report Reveals
(ANSAmed) — VIENNA, SEPTEMBER 9 — The abuse of synthetic drugs is on the rise in the developing countries, mainly in south-east Asia and in the Middle East. This was revealed by the annual report on the consumption of amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), presented in Bangkok today. “The synthetic drugs are incorrectly considered harmless,” UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, said upon presenting the report. As a result there is “a tolerant attitude and sometimes indulgent in the prevention and control policies with the only real consequence to slow down the really needed activities”, he added, reminding the high risk of dependence and the serious mental disorders and cerebral injuries which these substances could provoke such as paranoia, collapse, violence and internal haemorrhage, among the most common effects. The consumption of these substances, on an annual basis, exceeds the one of cocaine and heroin taken together. According to UNODC, the world market of Amphetamine type stimulants (ATS) is some $65 billion considering both wholesale and retail. At global level, the ATS production appears to have stabilised worldwide at about 551 tonnes annually. Particularly alarming are the data for Saudi Arabia, where over 12 tonnes of amphetamines (the majority under the form of Captagon) were seized in 2006, equal to one quarter of the total seized substances at world level. It is still on the rise in 2007 when the total amount of seized amphetamines reached 14 tonnes. In South Africa the number of laboratories for preparation of methamphetamine seized in the last five years significantly increased, in line with the rise registered in the domestic consumption. According to Costa, the synthetic drugs today do not represent anymore a “cottage industry” as they did ten years ago but represent a “big business controlled by the organised crime”. (ANSAmed).
2008-09-09 17:04
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Arab World’s Intellectual Mess: a Case Study
by Barry Rubin
MEMRI has released report Number 1847 on September 8, 2008, entitled, “Egyptian Researcher Muhammad Al-Said Idris: The American Response to 9/11 Proves that the Official Version of Events Is False,” the transcript of an interview he gave on Al-Rafidein TV on September 8, 2008. http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1847.htm
This kind of talk, of course, is both silly and dangerous. Silly because to deny that al-Qaida planned and carried out the September 11, 2003, attacks is a lie not based on any evidence and quite contrary to a huge amount of evidence.
It is dangerous because people will die and terrorist acts committed motivated by such nonsense. Indeed, one day the accumulation of lies may bring down the government of Egypt itself, leading to tens or even hundreds of thousands of casualties.
But that much is obvious. What is interesting is to analyze this interview as a case study of what goes on in the Middle East—and sadly shows signs of spreading to the West—and determines a great deal of public opinion and national policy…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Reports: Russian Repeats Warning on Missile Site
The commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces has repeated warnings that Russian ballistic rockets could be aimed at U.S. missile defenses in Europe if the system is ever built, news agencies reported Wednesday.
Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov spoke a day before Russia’s foreign minister visits Poland, which has agreed to accept U.S. missile interceptors.
“I cannot rule out that, in case the top military-political leadership makes such a decision, both the missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic and other similar facilities in the future could be designated as targets for our ICBMs,’“ Solovtsov was quoted by ITAR-Tass and Interfax as saying.
Poland and the United States reached a deal last month on building the site for 10 U.S. missile interceptors by 2012. Observers said the conclusion of the deal, clinched after months of protracted negotiations, was prompted by Russia’s war last month with Georgia, which had alarmed former Soviet bloc countries and others neighboring Russia.
The United States has said the defenses are meant to protect Europe and America from attacks from Iran. But Russian officials have said repeatedly that they consider the site a threat and have threatened to attack Poland — a NATO member — possibly even with nuclear weapons. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Officials Split Over Caucasus Conflict
U.S. officials are divided over the recent violence in South Ossetia. The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing has cast Moscow as an aggressor but members of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs have sided with Russia. And making a decision will require from them assessing the U.S. foreign policy objectives, including those that have to do with Iran and the global war on terror.
At last, some U.S. voices have been raised against labeling Russia as the aggressor during the conflict in the Caucasus.
“The recent fighting in Georgia and its breakaway region was started by Georgia. The Georgians broke the truce, not the Russians! And no talk of provocation can change that fact,” said Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
Congressman Ron Paul added the U.S. is in Georgia “not for democracy”.
“We are not for democracy there — we are there to protect a pipeline. And that is tragic for me,” he said.
Nevertheless, no concrete proposals came except one — Senator Hillary Clinton called for the creation of a special commission to get the facts straight before judging Russia.
“Rather than seeking to isolate them — which I think is not a smart proposal — we should be more strategic. We have to answer for ourselves: Did we embolden the Georgians in any way? Did we send mixed signals to the Russians?” Hillary Clinton said.
The answer of U.S. officials was a ‘no’.
“For many months my colleagues and Secretary Rice had been telling the Georgians clearly and unequivocally that any military action initiated by them would be a mistake and would lead to a disaster,” Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman said.
And a denial came after Senator John Warner asked: “Were there any requests from the President of Georgia or other high-ranking officials for the U.S. to provide active military support for the Georgia military?”
Some also insisted that Georgia had not been promised membership in NATO.
Others though were quick to question the statement.
| — Hat tip: Conservative Swede | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Self-Immolation on the Rise Among Women
Herat, 10 Sept. (AKI) — Source IRIN — Sarah, 20, set herself ablaze in a desperate bid to end her life after four years of marriage to a drug addict in Sheendand District in western Afghanistan.
Her family extinguished the fire and took her to the hospital.
“I was sad when I opened my eyes in the hospital,” the severely burnt woman told IRIN. Sarah’s husband is a jobless drug addict who often beat her for alleged “insubordination”.
“I wanted to die and never come back to this life,” she told IRIN from her bed in the Herat city hospital.
Doctors said up to 40 percent of her body was severely burnt and it would take her months to recover.
Over the past six months, at least 47 self-immolation cases have been recorded by Herat city hospital alone, of whom seven were saved but 40 died…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Girl, Kidnapped and Converted by Muslims, Returned to Family
The alleged conversion has been found to be invalid, because the girl is just 10 years old. But her sister, who was also kidnapped, has been judged to have married by her own will, because she is “more than 16 years old”, although her relatives say she is only 13, and that they will appeal to the supreme court.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — The Multan bench of the Lahore high court ruled yesterday that Saba Younas, the Christian girl kidnapped together with her sister Aneela on June 26 by a group of Muslims, and forced to become a Muslim and to get married, is an adult, because she is over the age of 16. So her conversion and marriage to one of the kidnappers have been found to be “voluntary”, and the request that she be returned to her Christian family has been denied.
But judge Malak Saeed Eiaz has instead given Aneela back to her family, because she is only 10 years old.
“We are at least happy over Aneela”, her uncle Khalid Raheel comments to AsiaNews. “And for Saba’s custody, we will appeal to the supreme court”. Aneela has now been taken to a secret location, because the Muslims who kidnapped her insist that she converted “spontaneously”, and that there is a risk that her family will look for her.
“The girl told me”, her uncle continues, “that in order to convince her, some of the Muslims threatened her with death, in addition to promising her expensive presents”.
The two girls were kidnapped from the village of Chowk Munda, in the province of Punjab, while they were visiting their uncle. Afterward, the kidnappers stated that they had converted, and that the older one had married “of her own will”.
On July 14, the Christian parents asked the Muzaffargarh Sessions Court for custody of their daughters, but the tribunal responded that, since they had converted to Islam, they can no longer live with their Christian parents. This verdict was overturned by the high court in Aneela’s case, because she is only 10 years old. Her relatives say that Saba is only 13, as shown by official documents, but the court has accepted expert testimony that she is over 16 years old, and therefore capable of marrying “of her own will”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Ruling Party Suspends Official in Race Row
Malaysia’s main party on Wednesday suspended a party official at the centre of a bitter racial row after he labelled ethnic Chinese as “immigrants” and likened them to American Jews who he said were hungry for power.
The suspension for three years by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s party was stronger action than had been expected in a bid to soothe growing anger in the economically powerful Chinese community and among parties in his ruling coalition.
“The supreme council’s opinion in this matter is that the statement and actions of Ahmad (Ismail) had caused tension and raised objections and we view this seriously,” said Abdullah after a special meeting of his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
The case highlighted fragile race-relations in multi-racial Malaysia. In 1969, hundreds died in riots between majority Malays, who dominate politics but lack economic clout, and the Chinese.
The dispute has also exposed cracks in the 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition which has ruled for 50 years and is dominated by UMNO but also relies on ethnic Chinese and Indian parties.
Ahmad, an UMNO district leader in the state of Penang, a month ago labelled Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese “immigrants” and “squatters”.
Ahmad returned to the attack on Monday, saying ethnic Chinese, who comprise about a quarter of the 27-million population, were becoming like “the Jewish in America, where it is not enough that they control the economy, but they also want to dominate politics”.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
2 Russian Strategic Bombers Land in Venezuela
(found at IBD blog):
Two Russian strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of military maneuvers, the government said, announcing an unprecendented deployment to the territory of a new ally at a time of increasingly tense relations with the U.S.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the two Tu-160 bombers flew to Venezuela on a training mission. It said in a statement carried by the Russian news wires that the planes will conduct training flights over neutral waters over the next few days before heading back to Russia.
They’re conducting the training excercises over the next few days, and they don’t say for how long they’re staying:
In Moscow, Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky refused to say how long the Venezuela deployment will last or say whether the planes carried any weapons.
Hugo Chavez says he would be piloting one of the aircraft, as if the Russians will trust him with one of their planes…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Morales Protests Intensify in Bolivia
Protesters stormed public offices and blocked roads Tuesday as a dispute between President Evo Morales and Bolivia’s energy-rich provinces over tax revenues and a new constitution intensified — threatening natural gas exports.
Opposition groups in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija provinces — which are seeking greater autonomy from Morales’ leftist government — have staged a two-week long protest against his plans to redo the constitution and redirect natural gas revenues to the poor.
Morales has called the protests a “civil coup.” […]
Opposition leader Branco Marincovik said the only way out of the conflict is for the government is to not hold a Dec. 7 constitutional referendum. But Morales on Monday reiterated his call for dialogue with the rebel governors and said congress must decide on the referendum.
The opposition has threatened to shut off gas export routes to Brazil and Argentina.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
African Immigrants Riot in Spain
African immigrants have rioted in Spain after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death in the street of a southern town. Police said the rampage began in the early hours of Sunday, and led to houses and cars being set on fire. After the 28-year-old man was killed in a fight in Roquetas de Mar, an angry gathering “degenerated into violence and public disorder”, a statement said. Police said they did not know what led to the attack, but they were looking for a local man. A witness said the man was killed as he tried to intervene in a dispute between Senegalese and Roma (Gypsy) families in the area, Reuters reported. Rioters set fire to two homes of relatives of the man suspected of the killing, police said. They also said rioters attacked firefighters with stones, and clashed with police. There are a high proportion of immigrants in Roquetas de Mar, in the province of Almeria, many of whom work in the agricultural sector.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Woman TV Executive ‘Sacked by Al Jazeera for Being White, Christian, British Female’
Television journalist Jo Burgin had expected challenges when she became the most senior woman to work at the Arabic station Al Jazeera.
She was promised Western-style working conditions in the Gulf as she headed planning at the service’s 24-hour English language channel which went live in November 2006.
But yesterday Miss Burgin, 49, told an employment tribunal that her Arab bosses had ‘publicly humiliated’ her and eventually sacked her for being a ‘white, Christian, British female’.
Launching a £1million compensation claim for race, sex and religious discrimination, Miss Burgin said the station’s deputy managing director Ibrahim Helal ‘harboured anti-Western sentiment’, could not relate to women and rolled his eyes whenever she spoke.
Previously an executive at ITN and Sky News, Miss Burgin told Central London employment tribunal that he shouted her down in meetings and ignored her in favour of her male deputies.
‘It left me publicly humiliated, deeply hurt and professionally smeared,’ she said.
While a blind eye was turned to Muslim couples working together, Miss Burgin claimed her relationship with director of news Steve Clark — now her husband — was given as the reason for her sacking in April last year. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Declares Coptic Priest Zakaria Botros “One of the Most Wanted Infidels in the World”
And offers 60 million for his head. More on Islam’s Public Enemy #1. “Exclusive: Al Qaeda targets leading Arab evangelist operating in the U.S. for preaching the Gospel to Muslims,” by Joel C. Rosenberg for Flashtraffic, September 9…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Consensus? What Consensus?
By Dr. Michael S. Coffman Ph. D.
We have all heard the litany in the news that 2,500 scientists working in conjunction with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agree with a 90 percent certainty that man is causing potentially catastrophic global warming. They even received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Al Gore, for their exemplary work in the field. This, we are told, is a solid consensus having very few dissenters. The problem is that this so-called consensus is a myth — it never existed. Ever!
| [Return to headlines] |
6 comments:
Aside from Mr. Rubin getting the year wrong for the 911 events, he apparently believes that people are so naive that they believe the official narrative of 911.
It is absurd to believe that the airlines were sufficient to cause the destruction at the World Trade Center.
"If you look at footage of the fall of each Tower--footage that's available on many sites online-you can see several phenomena that can't be explained by the building's potential gravitational energy. The acronym of E. P. V. S. S. helps to break down the phenomena that you can see. E for Explosiveness--the instantaneous, violent, horizontal thrust of matter at the very start of each Tower's destruction. P for Pulverization--90,000 tons of concrete slabs in each Tower blown to 100-micron particles instantaneously. V for Velocity--steel beams shot sideways as far as 500 feet at 100-feet-per-second early in each Tower's fall. One S for Speed--the rate at which the Towers fell, a rate close to free-fall, a rate identical for both matter falling through the footprint area of those 47 central steel columns and falling through the air outside each Tower's footprint area. And the last S for Symmetry--each Tower plummeting straight-down like a disintegrating elevator instead of toppling as dozens of other skyscrapers have in earthquakes." -
Don Paul
As much as I support free speech for all, the above troll is merely annoying without contributing anything to this conversation.
Latté island,
Facts are stubborn things. Pity you cannot deal with them.
teacher.paris --
Your theories remind me of the old saying: "we grow to deserve whatever it is we need to believe".
What you describe as "facts" are simply theories. They are your particular notions, derived from the writer you quote.
Or maybe you did a first-hand inspection for months of the Ground Zero site, the crater in Pennsylvania, and the destruction at the Pentagon? At the very least, this up close investigation must have taken you more than a year, right?
The collapse of the Towers was not "instantaneous", as you claim. Nor do your theories address what happened in D.C. and Pennsylvania, not to mention all the ancillary evidence left by the 9/11 murderers...going all the way back to Germany, where they began plotting this.
Latté Island is correct: you are being annoying. If you continue on this subject, I'll delete any further comments. We don't need or want troofer material degrading the comments section of our blog.
I have seen other bloggers tell you this and so I will add my voice to the chorus -- go get your own blog. You can build your cloud castles there.
You're free to believe that little gremlins lurking in the basements of the Twin Towers set off explosives. Whatever makes your clock tick...Just don't indulge those fantasies out loud on this blog again.
No more comments about the Twin Towers. None. Nada.
Consider yourself warned, teach.
Troofers have never heard of Occam's razor.
They spin fantasies that require enormous conspiracies the likes of which have never been successfully carried out in real life.
The Troofers' version of things would have required the silent co-operation of literally thousands of potential whistleblowers. Meanwhile, in the USA it is impossible to keep even CIA staff from leaking info to the New York Times to publish on its front pages that damages the administration and/or gives state secrets away to the terrorists. Bin Laden also had to be induced to take false credit for 9/11.
The fact that Troofers can't comprehend how bizarre their reasoning is makes one shudder. Hopefully it's a narrow band of mental disturbance that doesn't interfere in their daily life, a sort of para-psychosis (paranoid type).
I will never understand the Ron Pauls of the world who sigh tragically about protecting pipelines, for all the world as though the United States economy and world stability does not depend on unobstructed and easy accessibility to oil.
What planet are these people living on? Until oil is replaced as the lifeblood of both Western economies and the developing nations, it would be criminally negligent of the POTUS not to concern himself with the world oil situation.
Was Paul planning on returning to a primitive agrarian society (with loss of life in the millions if not billions)? Spilling some blood for oil is legitimate defense of one's country and fellow citizens as without oil based prosperity, blood will flow in more copious amounts as the world degenerates into fighting over subsistence living.
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