Tonight’s important stories are about the Mediterranean Union. I wanted to blog on these, but never got the time. Look at the “Mediterranean Union” section below the fold.The most ominous one says this:
The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) has asked the foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) for more powers as well as the legal basis to sanction its role as their political arm. At a special meeting of the EMPA in Amman, representatives of the parliaments from both sides of the Mediterranean have approved a document to submit to the Euro-Med foreign ministers, who will meet in Marseille on 3 and 4 November: “we will ask ministers to make EMPA an integral part of the UfM, in terms of its parliamentary dimension”…
To our European readers: Make sure you read this stuff. It’s important. It’s a further power grab by Eurabia.
Watch out for the responses by the foreign ministers of your countries. This is how what little remains of your national sovereignty is being quietly taken away.
Thanks to Abu Elvis, BP, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, JF, KGS, Steen, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Did Biden Get it Wrong? You Betcha
By John R. Lott, Jr.
When you interview for a job, here is a hint: make sure you know what the job is. Joe Biden failed that test last Thursday. He couldn’t even get right what a vice president does, but the media didn’t notice.
The media is all over itself about how smart and experienced Biden is. Political analyst Charlie Cook is quoted in the Washington Post on Saturday as saying “Biden is clearly so much more knowledgeable, by a factor of about a million.” Saturday Night Live does a skit about Biden being smart, if slimy. Meanwhile, Governor Sarah Palin is treated as being nothing more than a simpleton.
Yet, take Biden’s statement from the debate on the role of the vice president:
Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.
The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.
One should be careful when throwing around terms such as “most dangerous” and “bizarre.” But Biden is confusing which part of the Constitution covers the Executive Branch (it is Article II, not Article I). More importantly, the notion that the vice president can preside over the Senate only when there is a tie vote is simply wrong. Nor is it true that the only legislative involvement the vice president has is to break tie votes. The vice president is the president of the Senate, where he interprets the rules and can only be overridden by a vote of 60 senators…
| — Hat tip: BP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Raised $1 Million for Foreign Thug’s Election
Democrat joined Libya’s Gadhafi among top contributors to Odinga
NEW YORK —Sen. Barack Obama, with a donation of nearly $1 million, and a son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi were among the biggest contributors to the presidential campaign of controversial Kenyan leader Raila Odinga, according to an internal document obtained by WND.
The memo was prepared by the head of Odinga’s campaign finance accounting section, Shakeel Shabbir, as an official report delivered to the national treasurer for Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement party, or ODM.
Among the 72 individuals and organizations that contributed money to Odinga’s 2007 presidential run in Kenya, Shabbir lists “Friends of Senator B.O.” as having donated 66,000,000 Kenyan schillings, about $950,000.
Saif el-Islam Gadhafi, the Libyan strongman’s second oldest son, reportedly donated 53,450,000 Kenyan schillings, about $765,000.
According to several highly credible ex-ODM sources WND interviewed in Kenya, the $950,000 raised for Odinga’s campaign came from a series of private meetings arranged for Odinga by Mark Lippert, a foreign policy adviser in Obama’s U.S. Senate office. The meetings with top-dollar Obama fundraisers and donors took place during Odinga’s 2006 trip to the U.S….
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The ACORN Never Falls Far From the Tree
Since 2004, the radical, far-left Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now [ACORN] admits it has registered over 1.7 million voters. Several States are now looking at the tactics being used by ACORN on behalf of the Obama Campaign to register new voters to vote for Democratic nominee Barack Hussein Obama. Using the Motor Voter Law which was created specifically to shelter from scrutiny people whose legal right to vote should at least be challenged, ACORN registered voters without scrutiny who simultaneously cast their vote by absentee ballot before their eligibility to participate in this election could be verified or challenged. The question before the nation today is: how many of those new voters were actually legally eligible to vote in those elections? On Oct. 10, 2008 CBS News reported that it was investigating allegations that ACORN was registering dead people.
“Voting the dead” is a practice that was introduced in presidential election politics by Chicago mayor Richard Daley in 1960. Historians learned after the election that Kennedy carried both Texas and Illinois only because of the votes cast by deceased people…
“Voting the dead” works only if your party controls the voting precincts. At the local level, in the elections of 2000 and 2004, almost 80% of the voting precincts nationwide were controlled by Democrats. While Democrats claimed that Republicans were committing vote fraud in Florida, allegations of voter fraud committed by Republicans cannot have validity if the Democratic party controled the county Canvas Boards since the Canvas Boards control the precincts and the balloting and vote counting process. It would be almost impossible for the party not controlling the voting precincts to commit voter fraud.
As we learned in the Election of 2000 when the Democratic Party attempted to engineer “Gore votes” in three solidly Democratic counties that Al Gore, Jr. had won handily and therefore could not legally challenge the ballots cast in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties to find enough votes to impact Statewide totals. The Gore Campaign and the DNC decided to discern what voters who did not vote for anyone at the top of the ticket were thinking, and recast their vote for Gore to make sure everone’s vote counted. The excesses of vote manipulation by the Canvas Boards were too much as Gore tried to steal enough votes to win the Election of 2000. The US Supreme Court was ultimately forced to step in and settle the case of the dancing chads.
There is a simple reality in American politics. The socialist far left that needs the cultural misfits to win, simply cannot muster more than 35% of the vote since that’s the sum total of far left ideologues. Adding swing voters who vote societal issues over fiscal responsibility and the rule of law, or who erroneously believe that Democrats stand for lower taxes for the middle class, the Democrats can squeak 42% of the vote…
The balance of the votes the far left wins at the top of the ticket comes from discouraged, low voter turnout on the right, vote fraud (voting the dead, giving illegals the key to ballot box and, of course, registering felons, children, and a few household pets.). On Oct. 2, Sean Cairncross, a lawyer for the Republican National Committee reported that ACORN’s voter registration affiliate, Project Vote, hired seven felons as voter registration workers in Milwaukee…
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The Left’s Big Blunder
The disastrously counter-productive strategy of Obama’s supporters
[…]
A substantial portion of the Left’s strategy during this campaign is to create the perception that as many people as possible are supporting Obama. They strive to not simply show that he has a lot of supporters (which, obviously, he has), but to purposely inflate or exaggerate the numbers in order to make his support seem larger than it really is. The drive to do this seems almost automatic; it is assumed by Obama’s supporters to be the most effective campaign strategy. It’s so automatic that they perhaps are no longer even aware that it is a strategy. But why? What purpose is possibly served by this behavior? Has anyone on the Left ever paused, stepped back, and asked, “Wait a minute — why are we doing this? Are we sure it’s the correct course of action?” Doing everything possible to inflate the perceived support of Democratic candidates has become so de rigueur that the Left has long ago forgotten why they’re even doing it.
This essay examines the underlying faulty assumptions of this strategy — and shows why it’s not only counter-productive, but could backfire disastrously…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
The O Jesse Knows
Jackson on Obama’s America
PREPARE for a new America: That’s the message that the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveyed to participants in the first World Policy Forum, held at this French lakeside resort last week.
He promised “fundamental changes” in US foreign policy — saying America must “heal wounds” it has caused to other nations, revive its alliances and apologize for the “arrogance of the Bush administration.”
The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where “decades of putting Israel’s interests first” would end.
Jackson believes that, although “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades” remain strong, they’ll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.
“Obama is about change,” Jackson told me in a wide-ranging conversation. “And the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it.”
Jackson warns that he isn’t an Obama confidant or adviser, “just a supporter.” But he adds that Obama has been “a neighbor or, better still, a member of the family.” Jackson’s son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson’s daughter went to school with Obama’s wife Michelle.
“We helped him start his career,” says Jackson. “And then we were always there to help him move ahead. He is the continuation of our struggle for justice not only for the black people but also for all those who have been wronged.”
Will Obama’s election close the chapter of black grievances linked to memories of slavery? The reverend takes a deep breath and waits a long time before responding.
“No, that chapter won’t be closed,” he says. “However, Obama’s victory will be a huge step in the direction we have wanted America to take for decades.”
Jackson rejects any suggestion that Obama was influenced by Marxist ideas in his youth. “I see no evidence of that,” he says. “Obama’s thirst for justice and equality is rooted in his black culture.”
But is Obama — who’s not a descendant of slaves — truly a typical American black?
Jackson emphatically answers yes: “You don’t need to be a descendant of slaves to experience the oppression, the suffocating injustice and the ugly racism that exists in our society,” he says. “Obama experienced the same environment as all American blacks did. It was nonsense to suggest that he was somehow not black enough to feel the pain.”
Is Jackson worried about the “Bradley effect” — that people may be telling pollsters they favor the black candidate, but won’t end up voting for him?
“I don’t think this is how things will turn out,” he says. “We have a collapsing economy and a war that we have lost in Iraq. In Afghanistan, we face a resurgent Taliban. New threats are looming in Pakistan. Our liberties have been trampled under feet . . . Today, most Americans want change, and know that only Barack can deliver what they want. Young Americans are especially determined to make sure that Obama wins.”
He sees a broad public loss of confidence in the nation’s institutions: “We have lost confidence in our president, our Congress, our banking system, our Wall Street and our legal system to protect our individual freedoms. . . I don’t see how we could regain confidence in all those institutions without a radical change of direction.”
Jackson declines to be more concrete about possible policy changes. After all, he insists, he isn’t part of Obama’s policy team. Yet he clearly hopes that his views, reflecting the position of many Democrats, would be reflected in the policies of an Obama administration…
| — Hat tip: JF | [Return to headlines] |
US Communists Say Their Time Has Come
NEW YORK (AFP) — A rare bird in the political world, the US Communist Party is feeling rather smug in these days of capitalist turmoil.
At the party’s New York headquarters on 23rd Street in Manhattan, regional party chairman Libero Della Piana, 36, laid out why he thinks Marxist-Leninism’s time has finally come.
“We are very excited, we feel that we are at a turning point,” Della Piana, an imposing half-Italian, half-African American with a pony tail, told AFP.
“We can afford to be less on the defensive for the first time since Ronald Reagan, and we can say our word in rebuilding America on a new basis, rebuilding a better world, instead of one based on the greed of the few.”
The US Communist Party was founded in 1919 and never really took off. It was ostracized during the Cold War and members faced discrimination, even firing from their work, during the anti-Communist drive of the 1950s.
Today, the party claims to have 3,000 to 3,500 members — seemingly not a threat to the giant Democratic and Republican parties contesting next month’s White House election.
But American communists think that the collapse of Wall Street and huge disillusionment among the public with the economy has put them on a roll.
“We receive more and more phone calls, we have more inquiries from people, we see an increase in interest,” Della Piana said. “We hope to be part of the discussion. I can see a role for the Communist Party in this next period.”
“The crisis’ number one lesson: the market cannot regulate itself,” he said. “Otherwise it goes out of control.”
Communist youth coordinator Erica Smiley, 28, said “the major issues for the young are: peace, jobs, health care, education, and we provide them with answers.”
Whether the communists will be able to deliver remains open to question.
One plus is that their recently renovated New York headquarters, featuring the obligatory tomes of Lenin and Marx, is prime real estate — a serious and very capitalist nest egg.
But few people were about during a visit by AFP on Monday and the atmosphere was collegial and slightly sleepy, rather than revolutionary.
“They are all out working to get people to vote,” explained Bill Davis, 65, who has been a faithful member for 37 years.
There is no communist running for the White House and the Communist Party does not endorse Democrat Barack Obama.
Yet many staff here wore his picture on lapel buttons, while Republican John McCain was relegated to a box of tissues — the tissues being pulled through his mouth.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Former CSIS Man Explains Islamic Infiltration of Canadian Politics
Canada’s awakening to radical-Islamist penetration of its political, bureaucratic and social infrastructure, reached a watershed moment this month.
Quebec’s new French-language anti-Islamist website, Point de Bascule — “tipping point” — sponsored a dramatic press conference in Montreal Oct. 2 on the dangers of hard-line Islamist penetration of Canada. But this was consciousness-raising with a powerful difference.
All three panelists were moderate Canadian Muslims. All three face death fatwas. And all three spoke unsparingly — some giving names and startling specifics — of the Sharia surge and stealth jihad in Quebec and the rest of Canada. Indeed, detailed allegations were heard about Islamist inroads into the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada’s social democratic party, and about infiltration of a government commission with power to define and silence “hate” speech. These were momentous claims in the context of Canada’s national election campaign — the national vote takes place today. As evidenced by the number of journalists in attendance, the Quebec media were galvanized.
India-born Dr. Salim Mansur of the University of Western Ontario opened by calling on Canadians to end the political correctness and self-censorship that has muffled efforts to debate the stealth jihad — the gradual radical-Islamicizing of Canadian society. Like other speakers, he distinguished between moderate Muslims and Islamists, and warned of accelerating fundamentalist efforts “to establish a parallel society within Quebec and within Canada, as they are doing in Europe, that will be administered on the basis of Sharia.”
Mansur cited Islamist demands, “in our multicultural society,” “for gender exclusion … for legal arbitration on the basis of Sharia in Ontario and Quebec, the promotion of Sharia finance.” He pointed to demands for the right to have “veiled voting” in elections, complete with male-free zones in voting stations and female-only government cadres to verify veiled-voters’ identity.
Professor Mansur warned stirringly of increasing radical penetration of Canada’s political and social infrastructure…
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“Swede” Killed by US Forces in Iraq
A 43-year-old Swedish citizen has been killed by US forces in Iraq. The man died at the beginning of October and is suspected of having led an Islamist network, according to the Swedish Security Service (Säpo).
The foreign ministry was made aware of the incident on Tuesday night and is currently looking into the circumstances surrounding the man’s death. .
“We are making contact with the American authorities,” foreign ministry spokesperson Miriam Mannbro told The Local.
The ministry was reluctant to release any further details until the family of the victim has been informed.
“But this could be difficult because they are probably abroad,” said Mannbro.
Sweden does not have any troops posted in Iraq.
According to Säpo, the man died in a fire fight with American forces when they tried to capture him in northern Iraq.
“We’ve known about the man since the 199s. He’s suspected of having led an Islamist network which has supported terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, and North Africa,” said Säpo spokesperson Tina Israelsson to the TT news agency
Among other activities, the network is believed to have sent jihadist volunteer fighters to Iraq, with the man having used Sweden as a base of operations.
“He came to Sweden in the middle of the 1980s, became a Swedish citizen in the mid-1990s and was here until 2006. In May 2006 he traveled to Iraq and hasn’t returned since,” said Israelsson.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
A Turk at the Top
Politician Cem Özdemir is set to soon become Germany’s first national party leader of Turkish descent. As head of the Green Party, he will break through a glass ceiling that still persists for most of the country’s estimated 2.5 million ethnic Turks.
Cem Özdemir raises his vodka-orange and winks.
“Serefe .”
He seems to relax. There was a crowd outside the bar, packed into Berlin’s KulturBrauerei for the mid-September Radio Multikulti festival, and the way to the small upstairs table had been full of random greetings and handshakes.
Özdemir became a political cult hero in 1994, when, at 28, he became the first person of Turkish descent to enter Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag. Now an influential member of the European Parliament in Brussels with three books and countless public appearances under his belt, the charismatic politician recently acquired the aura of a future titan within the country’s influential Green Party…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Boss Says Islam Should be Treated More Sensitively Than Christianity
Islam should be treated more sensitively by the media than Christianity, according to the director general of the BBC.
Mark Thompson claimed that because Muslims are a religious minority in Britain and also often from ethnic minorities, their faith should be given different coverage to that of more established groups.
His comments come after the comedian Ben Elton accused the BBC of being scared of making jokes about Islam, while Hindus have claimed it favours Muslims over other religions.
But Mr Thompson, speaking at the annual public theology lecture of the religion think-tank Theos, insisted the state broadcaster would show programmes that criticised Islam if they were of sufficient quality.
The director general, whose corporation faced accusations of blasphemy from Christians after it allowed the transmission of the musical Jerry Springer -The Opera, also said his Christian beliefs guided his judgments and disclosed that he had never watched the Monty Python film Life of Brian which satirises the story of Jesus.
In his speech last night, Mr Thompson claimed there are now more programmes about religion on BBC television and radio than there have been in recent decades, whereas coverage has declined on ITV.
But asked whether it was correct that the BBC “let vicar gags pass but not imam gags”, as Elton claimed, he admitted it did take a different approach to Islam, which has 1.6million followers in Britain, compared to its approach to the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi’s Popularity Up Again
Approval rating hits 62%, government stable
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — The popularity of Premier Silvio Berlusconi continues to climb and after breaking the threshold of 60% last month, his approval rating in October climbed to a new record of 62%, according to the monthly poll by IPR Marketing for the website of the Rome daily La Repubblica.
The approval rating of Berlusconi’s government remained stable this month at 54%.
The current financial crisis gave the approval rating of Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti a healthy boost from 58% to 63%, the highest among government ministers.
Last month’s most popular government member, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, held on to his approval rating of 62% and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stayed at 60%, where he was joined by Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta who climbed up from 58%.
Compared to September, the IPR poll found that eight out of 21 ministers saw their approval ratings rise including Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini, up four percentage points, and the ministers for transport and agriculture, Altero Matteoli and Luca Zaia respectively, who each gained three percentage points.
The ministers making gains, IPR noted, were the ones most in the news and on TV.
This also appeared to be the case of Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna whose recent TV appearances are believed to be responsible for her reversing a downward trend and recovering two percentage points in one month, leveling out at 44%. This month’s IPR poll added four new categories for evaluating ministers: sincerity, competence, ability to communicate and determination.
The results showed Tremonti on top for competence while Brunetta was first for sincerity and determination and Maroni was viewed as the minister who communicated the best. In regard to Italy’s political parties, IPR said the approval rating of the fledgling government People of Freedom party (PDL) — a union of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, the right-wing National Alliance and conservative ex-Christian Democrats — rose another percentage point to a new high of 54%, while ally the Northern League’s rating was stable at 30%.
The opposition centrist UDC climbed five percentage points in one month to its highest rating ever of 25%, while the Democratic Party (PD), the biggest opposition force, saw its popularity fall for the first time below 30% to 29%, its worst ever.
Former Clean Hands prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro’s Italy of Values party (IDV), the most vocal opposition party in parliament, saw a turnaround from last month and climbed two percentage points to 46%.
IPR Marketing pointed out that the approval ratings were not the same as voter intention.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Confrontational Architecture
Europe’s Mosques Move from Back Alleys to Boulevards
There are plans to build several hundred new and often magnificent mosques throughout Europe — particularly in Germany. Architecture has become the field of a fierce ideological battle about the visibility of Europe’s 16 million Muslims.
Just a few minutes ago, Mubashra Ilyas was still standing on her dusty construction site. Now the 30-year-old architect is striding through a gallery in the back courtyard of a building in Berlin’s Mitte district in elegant black boots. As the room slowly fills up, Ilyas continues to stand out: She’s the only woman wearing a headscarf.
PHOTO GALLERY: NEW MOSQUES IN GERMANY
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
France to Halt Games When Anthem is Booed
PARIS (AFP) — Any football match in France before which the country’s national anthem is booed will now be “immediately stopped”, French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot said Wednesday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The dramatic move followed the booing of “La Marseillaise” during France’s 3-1 friendly win over Tunisia at the Stade de France in Paris on Tuesday.
“Any match when our national anthem is whistled will be stopped immediately,” Bachelot said after talks with Sarkozy and French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes.
“Government members will immediately leave the arena where our national anthem has been whistled.
“When whistling of our national anthem happens, all friendly games with the country concerned will be suspended for a period yet to be determined by the federation president.”
“The president has committed himself to seeing that measures are taken,” said Escalettes, who said the authorities had to think of the security implications if such behaviour were allowed to pass.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France’s War With Jihadis
While one of Europe’s largest democracies is heading toward winning that battle of words by actually using them and understanding them, the most powerful democracy in the war on terror has abandoned one of the most efficient tools to “see” the enemy, and to educate its own public about it.
Note that the French minister uses these terms in a very precise way. She used “Islamists” when needed and Salafists when she wanted to be more specific about the doctrine.
In France, as I noted through my discussions this summer and as we can read widely in the media and academia, the terms jihadists, Islamists and Salafists are used with confidence and on solid academic grounds.
Furthermore, French-Muslim intellectuals and officials use these terms very naturally as these words are well understood in the Muslim community of France, the largest in Europe, unlike what some apologists claim in the United States: that these words, allegedly, touches the sensitivities of the community. However, the French use of these words is very focused and avoids the hyphenations and generalizations, which can indeed have a negative impact on the cultural dialogue.
In conclusion, the French battle with Salafist jihadism is widening, though not well publicized overseas. In the next months and years, it is expected that escalation would covers the areas mentioned by the French minister: Afghanistan, Sahel and North Africa as well as France itself.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Marseillaise Booed at French Soccer Match
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leading political figures reacted with shock and anger Wednesday after the country’s national anthem was booed in Tuesday’s friendly win over Tunisia.The Elysee Palace announced that the president had summoned French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes following the “scandalous incidents which occurred at the Stade de France.” He told reporters he was scandalised and hurt by the affair, which he slammed as “intolerable.”
“Let’s stop the hypocrisy — let’s just stop doing these matches,” “We cannot tolerate our Marseillaise being jeered.” Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Front, opined the jeering was proof of the failure of multiculturalism. Le Pen said he concluded that as those who jeered the anthem might have French papers but clearly did not identify with France he believed the “integration of foreign masses to our culture culture is a failure as it is a utopia.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: National Hero Led Double Life
Jens Christian Hauge continues to rank as one of the great Norwegian heroes of World War II, but a new book reveals another side of the Resistance leader who went on to play powerful roles in Norway’s post-war years.
The biography of Hauge by Olav Njølstad describes Hauge as a great strategist and “gigantic” leader. It also notes that Hauge lied and bluffed his way to power, and consciously misled both the Norwegian Parliament and important government commissions.
He was active in building up a post-war surveillance system, for example, and contributed to the illegal surveillance of communists. He denied this, however, even while addressing Parliament. He also lied about his surveillance involvement 40 years later when interviewed by the Lund Commission, which was investigating the illegal surveillance…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Red Brigade: Violante, Petrella Case, Abel Has to Speak
(AGI) — Rome, Oct 14 — “We were surprised” by the measure taken by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, now “we want to listen to Abel” because “Cain has spoken too much”. This is what Luciano Violante, president of the Borsellino award, commented about the decision taken by Sarkozy to deny extradition for Marina Petrella. “We believe and think that there was an excess of self-promotion by Cain — explained Violante — we would like to therefore let Abel speak, restoring a hierarchy of values”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Consider Tougher Sentences for Violent Crime
Sweden needs to have tougher punishments for violent crime and recidivism, and make changes to the range of sanctions for serious cases of abuse and blackmail, according to a new report from a government commission.
The investigative commission on sentencing levels, led by prosecutor Anders Perklev, presented its finding to justice minister Beatrice Ask on Wednesday.
Ask is satisfied with the findings and sees the commission’s recommendations as a way for the government to fulfill one of its campaign promises.
“I think the suggestions are very much in line with the Alliance government’s ambitions and the directives we gave to the investigator,” said Ask.
She believes that implementing the commission’s proposals is important for maintaining public confidence in the justice system.
“It’s important that the sanctions handed down by the courts are proportional the severity of the crime and there the investigator states that we undervalue to some extent violent crime and the serious effects it has for people and society,” said Ask.
The report also proposes that during trials, prosecutors should always submit a formal proposal regarding an appropriate punishment for a crime.
“According to the commission, there are several reasons to judge violent crimes more harshly than they are at present. One such reason is that society’s acceptance of violence had been decreasing steadily,” said the commission in a statement.
As a part of its work, the commission compared sentencing in Sweden with the guidelines in place in the other Nordic countries, as well as Germany, France, and the UK.
“Sweden, if you look in aggregate and also look at the guidelines for conditional release, has a sentencing level which isn’t lower than other countries,” said Perklev.
One of the commission’s experts, Uppsala University law professor Petter Asp, writes in a special appendix that he agrees with most of the body’s findings. However, he regrets that the commission’s directive didn’t provide scope for it to explore other solutions.
He writes that he would have rather seen a wider overhaul “which isn’t only based on increasing repressive measures”.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gun Threat Against Doc Over Baby Sex Test
A father-to-be from Hallstahammar in central Sweden has been sentenced to pay 4000 kronor ($555) in fines after threatening to put a gun to a doctor’s head if he didn’t tell the man the gender of his unborn child.
The father to be and his wife had requested an amniocentesis test last November with the understanding that the test would reveal the child’s sex, reports the Vestmanlands Läns Tidning newspaper.
Already parents to more than one daughter, the couple didn’t want to have yet another girl.
During previous pregnancies, the couple had learned of their child’s gender automatically through the test, which is administered primarily to determine whether the fetus has any birth defects.
Since then, however, the testing procedures have changed and information about the child’s gender is only recorded upon a special request from a doctor.
But no one had informed the couple of the change, so when the test results came back without any indication as to whether they would be having a boy or a girl, the couple became very upset and the man immediately contacted the doctor.
During the subsequent conversation, the man explained that the only reason the couple requested the test was to learn about their child’s gender.
When the doctor said that amniocentesis is not a reason for checking the child’s gender the man shot back, “Well what if I come over and put a gun to your head?”
The doctor later received a call on his personal mobile phone from the man, who told the doctor he knew where he lived and demanded that the doctor help the couple determine their unborn child’s gender.
In court, the man admitted to asking the question involving the gun, but denied that he was issuing a threat towards the doctor.
But the district court sided with the doctor’s interpretation of events, finding that the man’s words and actions were obviously threatening.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Footballer Mido Defends Islam After Racist Chants
The English Premier League’s Egyptian striker Ahmed Houssam, better known as Mido, has spoken out against racism in football in a new documentary movie called “Islamophobia.”
In the movie, which was produced by the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ charity, Mido criticized racism that frequently prevails in English stadiums and defended Islam, stressing that terrorism completely contradicts the religion of peace.
The documentary was screened at Newcastle United’s St James Park stadium, where last season the Middlesborough striker was subject to racism as fans began chanting “Mido’s got a bomb” after he scored the first goal.
The film discussed the racism Muslims have been exposed to in England, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and the July 7 underground bombing in London, Saudi paper Al Watan reported.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Albania: Dones, My Virgin and Her Companions
(by correspondent Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — COSENZA, OCTOBER 14 — They still live in the mountains to the north of Albania, the cursed Mountains, “and there are at least thirty, even though a true census has never been taken”. They are the companions of Hana Doda, the Sworn Virgin whom Elvira Dones describes in her book of the same name (Feltrinelli), victims and heroes of the ancient code of honour, the ‘Kanun’, where a woman is brutally submissive but who can regain pride and dignity if she decides to change into a man, destroying her femininity and taking on the clothes and behaviour of the dominant male world. “Most of them are now in their 80s, the youngest is 30-35”. For the book, Elvira Dones — originally from Valona, who lived in Switzerland from 1988 to 2004 and now lives in the USA — went to the mountain to film a documentary of their lives (which RAI has expressed interest in): an adventure where she tells how she had access to the life of crime and arms trafficking which dominates the area, and where she gathered the stories of these women “separated from me by five centuries of history”. Women who — perhaps to submit like Hana to an arranged marriage without muddying the clan’s name, or to stand in for a son who was never born — they smoked, drank raki, shot and drove lorries. They gave up themselves, their own bodies and their women’s feelings, but they managed to play the part of those who are free to move and act, those who do not have to wash the feet of all the men in the family, those who are not just a womb to inseminate. She tells the bitter but proud tale of one woman in particular, Sanie, almost 50 years old. “It’s true that she accepted the denial of herself” says the writer, in Cosenza to receive one of the prizes by the Fondazione Carical Grinzane Cavour per la Cultura euromediterranea — “but she also performed an act of rebellion. The sex she renounced was just an act of five minutes, which other men, feeling her ‘equal’ told her.”. Sanie could still have a future, if she could go abroad, maybe to Italy, as Elvira Dones hopes to help her to do. As happened to Hana who, in the book, gets to America, to Washington where she fought another tiring battle, once again with herself and her identity, to try to rediscover the body and femininity she had denied. “I tried to understand what happens to the soul of these women” says the author — “in the absolute solitude in which they find themselves because they cannot confide even in women without breaking the code of honour, while their flesh dries up and they torment themselves with their self-abuse. However, Albania has changed in recent years, stresses the author, and although change is slower in the mountains “even men in the north have softened. Mobile phones, television, satellite have played their part”. But in Albania as in all the Balkan coutnries, there is still a lot to do about the condition of women. “They need to ‘feminise’ a society which is still too masculine. Balkan men are chauvinists, women are still under-represented, not just in politics.” (ANSAmed).
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Balkans: Italy Prepares Eulex Mission to Kosovo
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 14 — A “reconnaissance mission” to the Western Balkans to evaluate the situation surrounding Kosovo and the relations with countries ajoining Pristina and Belgrade, in preparation for the deployment of the European Eulex mission. This is the main goal of the diplomatic tour of Foreign Undersecretary Alfredo Mantica, in Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia today and tomorrow, for institutional meetings. The independence of Kosovo continues to cause tension and political crises in the area, as shown in yesterday evening’s clashes in Podgorica, and Serbiàs reaction to the recent recognition by Montenegro and Macedonia governments of its controversial independence. For its part, Italy has recognised the new Balkan Republic, but has also assured Belgrade — in a recent visit by Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, — of its support for integration in Europe. It remains to be seen though, explained Mantica, what will happen after the decision of the International Court of Justice in Hague, which last week was asked by the UN General Assembly to give an opinion on the legitimacy of Kosovòs declaration of independence. In any case, maintained the Foreign Undersecretary, the Eulex mission, which will substitute that of the UN in Kosovo (UNMIK), and which Italy will participate in with 200 troops, is now “a compulsory route which should however be taken with caution: on one hand without irritating the Serbs, on the other, without cheating the Kosovans”. (ANSAmed).
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Kosovo: Stefani and Giorgetti, UN Declaration Reopens Issue
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 9 — “The declaration of the General Assembly of the United Nations shows that as an issue, Kosovo cannot be considered a closed chapter after their unilateral declaration of independence last February”. For Stafano Stefani, president of the Foreign Affairs Commission in the Lower House, the fact that the UN has decided to legitimize the request of a declaration of the Court of Justice on the legitimateness of the unilateral succession confirmed the move by Pristina represents another element that needs to be verified by international law. At this point, added Giancarlo Giorgetti, president of the Balance Commission and representative of the Northern League, “needs to ask if the recognition of Kosovòs sovereignty was proceeded upon too quickly by European and international capitals, after UN resolution 1441, that guaranteed the territorial integrity of Serbia. “We have sustained since the beginning — added Giorgetti — that the Kosovo issue was managed too quickly, was not coherent and was not far-sighted; in light of the declaration made by the General Assembly of the UN, it is now opportune that the recognition process and bilateral relations with Kosovo are suspended in anticipation of the Court’s declaration”. (ANSAmed).
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Kosovo: Slovakia, Hague Has to Sanction Secession
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, OCTOBER 13 — Slovakia believes that the unilateral independence declared by Kosovo on February 17th occurred “in contrast to international law” and is confiding in the International Court of Justice of the Hague to sanction it once and for all. This was confirmed today in Belgrade by the premier of the Slavic country (one of the EU members hostile to the recognition of the secession of Pristina), Robert Fico. “If a minimum amount of justice exists in the world, the Court will have to express itself in this way”, underlined Fico after a meeting with his Serbian counterpart, Mirko Cvetkovic. Words that confirm the full support of Bratislava towards Belgrade — in the confrontation against the independence of the Albanian majority ex-province-, as well as recent Serbian diplomatic initiatives resulting in a favourable vote from the majority of the countries of the Assembly General of the UN for the request of a declaration from the Court of Justice on the contested legitimacy of February’s split. (ANSAmed)
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Kosovo: Serb Villagers Bleak About Future
Velika Hoca, 14 Oct. (AKI) — By Vjekoslav Radovic — Just 600 Serbs now live in Kosovo’s Velika Hoca enclave and many houses now stand empty after their owners moved to Serbia in search of a more secure and better life.
The isolated 12th-century village lies some 60 kilometres southwest of Kosovo’s capital Pristina, amid rolling hills that are dotted with vineyards.
“My family roots here are centuries old, and I want to remain and raise my children in this place, but it’s not going to be easy,” Marko Spasic, 24, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
An elementary school art teacher in Velika Hoca, Spasic is one of some 200 young people who decided to stay in this isolated remote village when the Serbian army and police pulled out of Kosovo after NATO’s airstrikes in 1999 and it was placed under United Nations control.
Even Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in February has not weakened the determination of Spasic and others to stay.
“Apart from security, though, the key problem here is what to do and how to survive economically. There are no jobs. We can cultivate only about 20 percent of our land and we can’t move far away from the village,” Spasic told AKI.
To make things worse, electricity and water shortages are a part of every day life. “We measure time here by the hours when there is electricity, and when there is not,” Spasic added.
But Spasic finds encouragement in the fact that there are 64 pupils currently attending the local elementary school. For high school, they will have to move from the isolated village to Serbia, or the ethnically divided northern Kosovar city of Mitrovica.
“Only God knows how many will return and decide to seek their future here,” said Spasic.
The nearby city of Prizren was the seat of the Serbian medieval state, founded by Stefan Nemanja. Wine growing in the area dates back to the same era and is a Serb tradition.
Neglected vineyards are a sure reminder that there is no one to tend them and that their Serb owners had fled.
Three Serbs were killed while working their vineyards in Velika Hoca and Swiss peace-keepers from the international peacekeeping force (KFOR) stationed in Kosovo are now guarding the area from a hilltop above the village.
Before 1999, Kosovo produced some of the best wines in the former Yugoslavia, deriving mostly from area around Velika Hoca and from Suva Reka in the Prizren district of southern Kosovo.
Now, the villagers produce delicious, full-bodied, dry, red wine for their own use, although there is more wine than can be consumed.
“We live here like Martians,” says 67-year-old Dimitrije Micic, the head of the village office.
“No one can come to visit us, nor can we go out without police escort.”
Driving through Kosovo with Serbian number plates is very risky and Velika Hoca’s villagers are escorted by KFOR peacekeepers when they take a bus to the Serbian part of Mitrovica for supplies.
About one half of Kosovo’s 100,000 remaining Serbs are concentrated in the north of Mitrovica, next to Serbia, and they have barely felt the effects of Kosovo’s independence.
But the rest are dispersed in isolated enclaves throughout Kosovo protected by peacekeepers.
Last week an escorted bus was stoned in the nearby town of Malisevo. Some Serbs have acquired Kosovar automobile licence plates and travel unescorted.
“But what do you do if you get stuck in a hostile Albanian village? You may just vanish,” says Novica Savelic.
Three thousand Serbs have been killed or have disappeared since since 1999, according to the Red Cross.
“There are still some good Albanians,” says Bogoljub Stosic, sipping his exquisite home-made grape brandy rakija with his visitors. “There are good and bad people everywhere.”
His pre-war Albanian friend from nearby town of Orahovac calls at least once a week and asks if he needs anything. “Occasionally he drops in and brings supplies,” says Stosic’s wife Vida.
Their two sons have immigrated to Norway and started a new life there. They had paid 1,200 euros each to mediators to get visas. Thousands have emigrated over the past several years, villagers said.
“There is no life here, just bare survival,” says Micic. Serbia is fighting a diplomatic battle to retain Kosovo under its control and is paying each family in the enclaves an equivalent of 150 euros per month in Serbian dinars to help them stay.
In the enclaves much trading is still done in dinars, although euros are the official currency throughout Kosovo. But the help from Belgrade is not enough — even to survive economically, Micic said.
“The future here is very bleak,” Micic, a retired economist, said. “As long as there is any Serbian state presence here, there is some hope. But if that vanishes, the village will simply die away.”
Apart from wine, Velika Hoca is famous for its 13 churches, some dating back to the medieval time, dedicated to various Serbian Orthodox saints. But there are no longer enough parishioners to fill them.
Last weekend Velika Hoca celebrated its patron saint St. Cyriac the Ascetic. Serbs from other enclaves came escorted by the KFOR to join the celebration, which lasted until the small hours.
Kosovo’s Archbishop Artemije held a special outdoor mass (photo), local youngsters performed traditional folk dances and children sang old Serbian songs
A young French diplomat who came from Pristina, felt uneasy about France’s recognition of Kosovo independence.
He referred to the long-standing friendship between Serbs and the French, pointing out that France was “always on the side of the oppressed.”
“In 1999 it seemed to be the ethnic Albanians, but now the situation is completely reversed,” he said.
“The killing had to stop, but now the only hope for the future of Kosovo is that ethnic Albanians treat Serbs correctly,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
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EU-Morocco: New Cooperation With Advanced Status to Begin
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 13 — The two shores of the Mediterranean are even closer, thanks to a political step taken today by the European Union which granted an “advanced association status” to Morocco, a recognition from Brussels for the reforms carried out in the past years by the north-African kingdom. The agreement, the first special association status granted by the EU to a third country, was ratified today by the EU Foreign Affairs Council of Ministers, with the presence of French Foreign Minister Bernerd Kouchner, and the Moroccan plenipotentiary, Taieb Fassi Fihri. What will be the concrete changes for Morocco after this important step forward, which Rabat has been waiting for since 2004? First of all, from a political perspective, EU-Morocco summits will be organized and the two sides will put together an agreement in which the Moroccan government will be able to collaborate in European crisis management operations. Morocco will be admitted to participate in some of the meetings of EU institutions (for example, the EU Foreign Affairs Council of Ministers) and various European agencies: Europol, Eurojust, the European agency for air safety and the observatory on drugs and drug addicts. From the EU’s perspective, it will be able to increase its economic aid to Rabat, which is already the top beneficiary of European funds for neighbouring countries with 657 million euro in the period of 2007-2010. The special association establishes the objective of creating a common economic space between Europe and Morocco that respects the same rules as the common European space (EU plus, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), in order to arrive — in the long term — to the progressive integration of Morocco in the internal market of the EU. Relations between Europe and Morocco have been regulated up until now by the association agreement signed in 1996 and enacted since 2000. Pleased with the strengthening of the partnership was the European Commissioner of External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. “Morocco is committed in a vast series of reforms in all sectors — the Commissioner stated in a message — and has asked for stronger ties to Europe to consolidate the progress made and to give impulse to the process of modernization and democratic transition”. Israel is also a candidate to obtain a special association status. (ANSAmed)
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Med Union: EMPA Asks Foreign Ministers for More Powers
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 13 — The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) has asked the foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) for more powers as well as the legal basis to sanction its role as their political arm. At a special meeting of the EMPA in Amman, representatives of the parliaments from both sides of the Mediterranean have approved a document to submit to the Euro-Med foreign ministers, who will meet in Marseille on 3 and 4 November: “we will ask ministers to make EMPA an integral part of the UfM, in terms of its parliamentary dimension”. The ministers of the UpM must provide the deputies of EMPA — led by the President of the EU Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering — with “a legal basis, setting the nature and the timescale of meetings between the two institutions”. EMPA intends to carry out “the role of consultant”, which is not binding, but obliges the ministers and heads of state of the UfM to take note of their resolutions and recommendations on the agenda of their meetings. (ANSAmed).
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Mediterranean: Burgos Forum, Euro-Maghrebi Youth Proposals
(ANSAmed) — BURGOS (SPAIN), OCTOBER 13 — The fourth Euro-Maghrebi Youth Forum, organised by the Euro-Maghrebi Youth Union (UJEM), concluded in Burgos, Spain, after being host to delegations from European and Maghrebi countries and their efforts in addressing concrete problems, above all in light of the current global crisis. In the final document released by the forum, the youth members claim “the importance of the Euro-Mediterranean area, and in particular, the Euro-Maghrebi area as a place of common roots from which to redeem a system of shared values in order to avoid compromising the future”. The young people who participated in the meeting formulated, in particular, five “concrete proposals”. In the first, they ask for “the creation of the ‘Maison des Alliances’ in Naples: a symbolic place where managers and decision makers of institutions and international bodies can meet systematically and periodically to achieve common action in order to avoid the duplication and waste of resources. The creation of the project was entrusted to the Mediterranean Foundation”, and therefore also, “the organisation in Naples, near the ‘Maison de la Mediterranee’, the offices of the Mediterranean Foundation, of the next Euro-Maghrebi Forum on the Mediterranean’s northern coast”. Moreover, they will be entrusted with the organisation, in 2010, of the “Euro-Maghrebi Caravan for the free exchange of youth”, in partnership with the Mediterranean Foundation. The objective of the ‘Caravan’ will be the promotion of “youth’s social and human capital” through: the “adjustment of university diplomas to the employment market”; “youth training in the country of origin”; and the “development of employment opportunities in the country of origin through new technology”. The last two proposals regard the creation of a Euro-Maghrebi radio in the Moroccan city of Oujda and the acceptance of the Euro-Maghrebi Youth Union to the Mediterranean Foundation network. (ANSAmed).
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I Did Not Convert: Son of Egyptian Sunni Preacher
Poet Abdul-Rahman Yusuf, son of prominent Egyptian preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, denied rumors circulating on several websites that he had converted to the Shiite faith.
In a poem entitled “Too Much for You,” published Tuesday in the Egyptian independent al-Dostor, Yusuf called for the unity of the Muslim nation in the face of a common enemy that does not distinguish between sects and which strives to destroy both Sunnis and Shiites while they are busy fighting each other.
Some websites attributed to Lebanese preacher Ali al-Kourani statements indicating that Qaradwi lashed out at what he called “the Shiite infiltration” because of his indignation at his son’s conversion to the Shiite faith.
This allegation was followed by a denial from Qatari sources close to Qaradawi and from Mohamed al-Derini, leader of Egyptian Shiites. But Yusuf’s silence stirred more controversy, especially after a statement he posted on his website denying that he had talked to the press about the rumors…
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40% of Arab Gazans Want to Leave
(IsraelNN.com) 40 percent of the Arab residents of Gaza would leave Gaza if they were only given the opportunity to do so, according to an Arab poll.
62 percent said have not enjoyed freedom of speech in the past year. 87 percent said that they are suffering greatly as a result of a shortage in food and medicines.
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Cardinal Delly: the Situation in Iraq is Disastrous, Tragic, and Worse by the Day
The head of the Chaldean Church, speaking at the synod of bishops, describes a country in which “life is a Calvary,” “everyone is afraid of being kidnapped,” and the number of deaths caused by car bombings and suicide bombings is on the rise. Commemoration of Archbishop Rahho and Fr. Ganni.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — The dramatic situation of the Christians in Iraq echoed today in the hall of the synod of bishops, at the Vatican, described in strongly dramatic terms by Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, head of the synod of the Chaldean Church. It is a situation that has brought support, among political circles both inside and outside of Iraq, for the idea of creating a sort of Christian enclave in the province of Nineveh. But the idea has received scant support among the bishops and clergy of the country — the cardinal made no mention of it — in that it is contrary to the evangelical concept of the Church’s mission. “The situation in some parts of Iraq,” Cardinal Delly said, “is disastrous and tragic. Life is a Calvary: there is no peace or security, just as there is a lack of daily necessities. There are continuing shortages of electricity, water, gasoline, telephone communications are increasingly difficult, entire roads are blocked, schools are closed or always in danger, hospitals are on short staff, the people are afraid for their safety. Everyone is afraid of kidnapping, frightened by the intimidation. And what can be said of the unjustifiable kidnappings that take place on a daily basis, harming entire families and often depriving them of their loved ones, even though they have paid tens of thousands of dollars for a release that never happens? Not to mention the increasing number of deaths caused by car bombs and suicide bombings.”
“Living the word of God,” he continued, “for us means bearing witness even at the cost of our own lives, as has taken place and is still happening with the sacrifice of bishops, priests, and faithful. They remain in Iraq, strong in faith and love of Christ, thanks to the fire of the word of God. For this reason, I beg you to pray for us and with us to the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, and to share our concerns, our hopes, and the pain of our wounds, so that the Word of God made flesh may remain in his Church and with us as good news and as support. Sixteen of our priests and two of our bishops have been kidnapped and released after an extremely high ransom. Some of them belong to the ranks of the new martyrs who today pray for us in heaven: the archbishop of Mosul, Faraj Rahho, Fr. Raghid Ganni, two other priests, and six more young men.”
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Emirates: Residence for Property Buyers in Ajman
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, AUGUST 14 — The emerging emirates of the north, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah, play the card of residence in exchange for construction investments: one house one visa, this is the new policy adopted by the authorities of Ajman, ready to generously give guarantees in written to safeguard the investors. Dubai which has advertised so far the same policy has recently made a step back, freezing all rights to residence obtained through the acquisition of a property and drafting new criteria of selection, still in a stage of definition. Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in turn allows the foreigners to own property in leasing for 99 years in certain areas, the way the emirate of Umm Al Quwain does. There are no easy terms for foreigners in Fujairah, where full property and rights to residence are given only to citizens of the emirates and to the citizens of the states part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Oman. Ajman has also envisaged some requirements: the residence will be given only after the property of the real estate is transferred and the green light of the builder and will have an annual duration with an option to be renewed. (ANSAmed).
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Iranian Security Forces Destroy Villages in Baluchistan
According to reports from the Baluchistan People’s Front, part of the Sunni minority in Iran, dozens of villages in northern and western Baluchistan, in southeastern Iran, have been destroyed in wide-scale shelling by Iranian security forces.
The shelling followed a random clash between security forces and members of the Baluchi resistance movement.
The Baluchis say they have killed 50 security force personnel and destroyed an Iranian military base in Sarjangal, in eastern Baluchistan, with heavy weapons fire.
The regime has imposed a blackout on the details of the incident and the number of wounded from the security forces.
Gen. Barham Norozi, an Iranian who commands the Baluchistan police, said that armed bandits belonging to the Sunni-Baluchi Jondollah organization who had planned “terror operations” were killed in a clash with Iranian security forces, and that in clashes of the past day 10 “members of this terror organization” who had infiltrated into Iran via Pakistan were killed.
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Lebanon: Terrorists Planned Attacks on Security Forces
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 14 — The Lebanese army and other security forces were the target of terrorists, presumed to be Islamic extremists inspired by al-Qaeda, ready to add to the list of dynamite attacks in the country: this was the scenario described by Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ziad Barud. The Beirut press dedicated space to Barud’s words and also to the “confessions” of several of the five members (four Lebanese and one Palestinian) of a “terrorist cell” based in Tripoli (90 km north of Beirut) who were arrested in the last 48 hours as part of investigations into three attacks between May and September in the northern port of Lebanon. 24 people died during the three incidents, mostly soldiers. The ‘brains’ of the group, still at large, is Abd al-Ghani Jawhar, originally from Bebnin, a city in Akkar, the poorest province in Lebanon between Tripoli and Syria. Minister Barud has for the moment excluded any link between al-Ghanìs men and other Islamic extremist groups in the region, while yesterday, security sources confirmed that the ‘Tripoli cell’ was linked to Fatah al-Islam, a group of Islamic extremists inspired by Al-Qaida, whose founder, a Lordanian-Palestinian, went into hiding in Lebanon in 2005 after mysteriously managing to escape from a Syrian prison. (ANSAmed).
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Saudi Arrests Jordanians for ‘Pleasure Unions’
Saudi Arabia’s religious police arrested a Jordanian woman residing in Jeddah for arranging pleasure marriages and facilitating meetings between the opposite sex, local press reported Wednesday.
The Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice stormed the woman’s house after receiving reports about her alleged activities. Informants said she facilitated meetings between men and women under the pretext of arranging pleasure marriages, reported the Saudi newspaper Shams.
Such unions do not meet the requirements of a legitimate marriage contract in Saudi Arabia, which include having a marriage registrar and witnesses.
Three other women and a man were also arrested and confessed under interrogation, but refused to describe the activities as illegitimate.
According to statements by the accused, they were justly involved in the facilitation of a type of marriage, which is legitimate in other sects.
The offenders were referred to the prosecution, which in turn transferred the case to the penal court where a trial date will be set. In his statement, the prosecutor general called for applying a “deterrent” penalty.
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Turkey: Islamic Militant Convicted of Plot
ANKARA, Turkey: An Islamic militant has been convicted for a second time of planning to crash a plane into the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey.
Metin Kaplan was also convicted of attempting to overthrow Turkey’s secular regime following a retrial in Istanbul Wednesday. His life sentence was reconfirmed.
Kaplan was extradited from Germany and sentenced to life in prison in 2005, but an appeals court overturned the decision, citing insufficient investigation and procedural errors.
Kaplan had previously lived in Cologne, Germany. He led the group the Caliphate State, which wants to replace Turkey’s secular regime with an Islamic state. The group has been outlawed in Germany and Turkey.
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Iran’s Nukes Getting Russian Help
LONDON — Just as the Kremlin is releasing new confirmation it has tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that “perfectly hit their targets,” officers for Britain’s MI6 intelligence service say a key Russian scientist working on the missile program also has helped Iran in its weapons development, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The Kremlin confirmation came just last weekend.
Intelligence agents in Moscow and Tehran confirmed the Russian rocket scientist helped Iran design advanced detonators whose “only possible use would be in a nuclear weapon,” stated John Scarlett, the head of MI6, in a report to Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee…
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Russia and Georgia Hold Peace Talks
The European Union remains divided over how to deal with Russia’s incomplete withdrawal after the August war.
Tbilisi, Georgia — At his checkpoint along the road from Tbilisi to Akhalgori in South Ossetia, Russian Senior Lt. Boris Federov has orders to search cars and check passengers’ papers. He waves most locals through, but when an SUV full of European Union civilian monitors arrives, he politely tells them they can’t enter.
Lieutenant Federov chuckles as he watches the EU monitors awkwardly turn around on the narrow road.
Russian forces were supposed to leave South Ossetia by Oct. 10, and the checkpoint Federov commands is now one of the key issues being discussed at talks that began on Wednesday in Geneva. They are the first direct talks between Russians and Georgians since their five-day war in August over Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The EU delegates, however, still remain divided over how to deal with Russia over what’s seen as a less-than-complete withdrawal. Russia may try to exploit these divisions, say some regional analyts, even holding its energy resources over dependent European countries to prevent any substantive resolution.
“For Russia the best-case scenario is to delay any concrete decision that could be not in their favor,” says Zeyno Baran, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Eurasian Policy in Washington.
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“Not Repentant and Never Will,” Say Three Bali Bombers Whose Execution is Near
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — On the sixth anniversary of the Bali bombing that killed 202 people on 12 October 2002, the relatives of the victims (mostly foreigners) and Indonesian public opinion are wondering when the three men sentenced for the crime will be executed. They are Amrozi (see photo after the death sentence was pronounced), Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron. According to unconfirmed reports the three men underwent a medical check-up, a preliminary stage before they go before a firing squad.
Buyung Nasution SH, a well-known lawyer and legal adviser to the president, said that the Attorney General’s Office has no legal grounds to further delay the execution after the last legal manoeuvre by the three convicts was rejected. As Muslims they asked to be beheaded as recommended by Islamic law rather than by a firing squad.
“Foreign diplomats often ask me why Indonesia is so slow in carrying out the sentence,” Buyung said. “Why non Muslim convicts (like Christians Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu) were quickly executed even when they were still filing appeals?”
By contrast, the Bali three’s last recourse was rejected in September 2007 and since then the only step remaining is execution.
For Bantarto Bandoro, a political expert at the University of Indonesia, the government might be delaying the execution to curry favour with voters ahead of the 2009 elections. Extremist political circles are in fact hoping that the passage of time might play in favour of the convicted terrorists with public opinion.
However, last week many Indonesians were incensed by arrogant statements made by Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron who said they were “not repentant and never will. . . . The Bali attack was necessary. Their destiny [to be killed because of the attack] has been decided from above (God).”
Parallel to this Amrozi said that his supporters and friends will immediately avenge his execution with an attack in Indonesia.
Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri is taking such threats seriously. He said that security forces will go on maximum alert as soon as the execution preparations get underway.
Indonesia’s Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said he delayed the execution until after the holy month of Ramadan which ended on 30 September. He explained that the execution will be carried out before the end of the year but did not specify the date.
Press sources have reported that Amrozi is set to meet his family, which might indicate that the execution is near.
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Pakistan: Suicide Attacks ‘UN-Islamic’ Say Muslim Clerics
Lahore, 15 Oct. (AKI/DAWN) — Pakistani Muslim scholars or ulema, have declared suicide attacks ‘haram’ or forbidden.
“It is a unanimous decree of the ulema that suicide attacks in Pakistan are haram and illegitimate,” said a joint declaration released to the media by exponents of Pakistan’s major schools of thought.
“But it seems as if the government is covertly backing these attacks so that patriotic citizens may not assemble and launch a mass drive for the defence of the country.”
It endorsed a decree earlier issued by religious scholars in the southern city of Karachi. It alleged that a US agenda was being pursued under the cover of terror acts.
The meeting called for convening an all-party conference, including representatives of parties outside parliament, for devising a joint strategy to steer the country out of the crisis.
It called upon ulema across the country to condemn the US policies in their sermons on Friday and prepare the people for a mass movement.
It pledged to send a delegation of ulema to the areas of Bajaur and Swat for bringing the ‘facts’ to light.
The ulema called upon the nation not to leave the survival of the country to the rulers and parliament alone and to play a role in this regard.
It asked the government to take along ulema and other notables in every area in efforts for apprehending criminals, anti-state elements and foreign agents.
It also urged all Muslim countries to de-link their currencies from the US dollar and float their own common currency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Courts Blocking Lawsuits in Melamine-Tainted Milk Scandal
Courts keep on hold or reject lawsuits claiming damages. Some lawyers are threatening class action suits. China’s justice system is geared to meet the needs of the Communist Party, not that of its ordinary citizens. In Shanghai a man on trial for murder becomes poster boy for the fight against the daily injustice inflicted by the system
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s courts have thwarted attempts by victims to claim compensation for the damages suffered by their infant children poisoned by melamine-tainted milk. In Shanghai people have taken to the streets on behalf of a convicted multiple police killer. Increasingly in China’s “harmonious society” more and more people cannot stand Communist Party-styled justice.
The parents of Yi Kaixuan, a toddled who died at the age of six months from melamine-tainted Sanlu powdered milk, filed a lawsuit in court demanding 1.1 million yuan (US$ 146,000) as compensation. Their attorney Dong Junming however said it is not yet certain whether the court will admit the suit.
Powdered milk by Sanlu and other companies contained high levels of melamine, a toxic chemical substance that killed at least four infants, causing kidney stones in 54,000 children, many now in serious conditions.
Some legal actions against Sanlu were taken in Henan on 22 September and in Guangzhou on 8 October, but so far no court has admitted any lawsuit even though under the law they have to decided whether to hear a case or not within seven days from the application. Many parents are complaining that their lawsuits have been thrown out of court as inadmissible.
Last week Premier Wen Jiabao urged everyone to learn a “deep lesson” from the melamine-tainted scandal, and pledged tough penalties for anyone who broke the law. But for many experts the Communist Party is trying to find a “political” solution to the crisis to avoid handing out compensation for 54,000 children.
In view of the inaction by the legal system, some like attorney Na Jun in Lanzhou said “either the government will handle the compensation at the policy level, or we will have to consider class action.”
At the same time exasperation over court injustice has driven many ordinary citizens into the street to protest.
Frustration and resentment against the authorities blew up in Shanghai where the appeal trial against a death row inmate is underway. On 1 July Yang Jia went inside a police station and with a knife killed six policemen, injuring another three. Since then he has become a sort of popular “hero” after allegations surfaced on the Internet claiming that he was beaten for no apparent reason by police in 2006 and then arrested and beaten again in October 2007 for allegedly stealing a bicycle.
Now people are up in arms saying that Yang’s trial was rife with irregularities, that his original defence attorney was first “consulted” by district authorities in Zhabei (where the incident took place) and for the fact that serious doubts have been raised with regards to the psychiatric examination that found him fit to stand trial.
Yesterday hundreds of people protested in front of the courthouse, tapping into the anger generated by police violence and unfairness. Some protesters sported T-shirts with Yang’s face; others chanted “Long live Yang Jia” and “Yang Jia is a hero”.
In one incident outside the court police pushed to the ground a man who was waving a banner claiming supporters had donated 200,000 yuan to pay for Yang’s defence, then took him away to the angry shouts of the crowd (photo: police stopping a protester).
“We are just ordinary people concerned about Yang Jia’s fate,” said Liang Yin, one of the protesters. “We want to know the truth but they were shutting off every access” to the courtroom.
In fact the trial is already underway behind closed door despite attempts by tens of people to attend the proceedings.
Huang Xuemin complained police beat her when she tried to enter the court premises.
“You see how police were treating us! You can imagine how badly Yang Jia must be treated,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Danish UN Observers Cannot Enter Sudan
Danish UN representatives cannot get Sudanese entry visas
Six Danish officers who should have travelled to Sudan in August as UN observers, still cannot get entry visas.
The Danish armed forces said there have been many problems getting Sudanese visas for Danes since President Omar al-Bashir declared during the latest Mohammed crisis that ‘not a single Danish foot will soil Sudan’s land.’
The defence minster, Søren Gade, explained that new visa procedures were introduced by the UN in the spring that allow the Danes to travel as international representatives rather than as Danish employees.
However, despite having Danish diplomatic passports and UN travel documentation the six observers are still unable to enter Sudan. The armed forces were unable to give further information on the case.
The Danish People’s Party has called on the government to issue a formal protest to the Sudanese, reports Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Greece, 59 Migrants Blocked in Aegean
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 14 — 59 illegal immigrants, all without documents, have been blocked by the Greek Coast Guard in the sea close to the islands of Farmakonisi, Samos and Corfù. According to Vice-chief of the Coast Guard, Admiral Teodoros Rentzeperis, the people arrested in the Aegean came from the Turkish coast on board small boats, while those who landed on Corfu, in the Ionian sea, arrived from Albania on motorboats. Official figures from the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry, 10,659 illegal immigrants and 173 traffickers were stopped by the Coast Guard between January and September 2008. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Tunisia, Three Youths Arrested
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 15 — Three young Tunisians, who had planned their illegal emigration to Italy, have been arrested by the police. The three were taken by surprise when, at night, they were trying to steal an outboard motor from a boat in the harbour of El Haouaria (Cape Bon); their plan was to mount it on another boat, in which they wanted to attempt the crossing. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants: Boat Adrift, 80 Assisted South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, OCTOBER 15 — Eighty immigrants, including 15 women, received assistance at sea 80 miles south of Lampedusa late yesterday, after having called for help by means of a satellite phone. The boat was going adrift and was first spotted by a motor trawler. Then, a patrol boat of the local port authority arrived, embarked the immigrants and took them to the island, where they arrived at around 10.30 p.m. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Algeria, 18 Arrests Off Coast Near Annaba
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, OCTOBER 15 — Eighteen Algerians were arrested last night off the coast near Annaba, 600 km to the east of Algiers, as they attempted to reach Italy on board a small homemade boat. According to a communication from the Algerian coastguard issued by APS, the young people, all between 18 and 32 years old and originally from the east of Algeria, were intercepted 4 miles from the coast. Last week, another 34 illegal emigrants were arrested, also off the coast of Annaba, from where boats leave in the direction of Italy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Albania: Napolitano, Risks Forestalled for Immigrants
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 14 — “At the time of the disorderly inflow of immigrants from Albania there was also the risk of wornd reactions by the Italian public opinion. Today the Albanian community is one of the best integrated communities, away from all risk”, Italy’s President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano said on Tuesday after meeting Albania’s President Bamir Topi. “Relations between our two countries — Napolitano added — are warm and friendly, born out of events we faced together in years not too far away. In the second half of the Nineties, a hard time for Albania, we overcame that period with firm relations. Italy — Napolitano went on — supported and keeps supporting the closing-in process of Albania to the European Unione and to NATO. The support by Italy is a steady feature also by different governments. President Topi and I discussed about the Balkans and we fully agreed on the fact that all problems in that area, including those connected with Kosovo’s independence, are to be dealt with in the framework of European cooperation”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: House OKs Classes for Foreign Kids
Opposition slams ‘xenophobia’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — A controversial government proposal to create special classes for immigrant children instead of allowing them to enter directly into Italian schools won approval in the House on Tuesday evening.
The measure, proposed by the Northern League and passed by 265 votes to 246, would require foreign children to pass a specially designed entrance test before being admitted to schools.
While those who passed would be able to join ‘normal’ classes, children who failed would be placed in so-called ‘bridge’ classes, where they would follow Italian language, law and citizenship courses as well as a basic curriculum until they could pass the test.
The measure would also require schools to ensure a ‘‘proportionate’’ distribution of foreign students in normal school classes ‘‘to facilitate full integration and prevent the risk of forming classes of foreign pupils alone’’.
‘‘The spirit of the measure voted yesterday is to guarantee equal opportunities to foreign students and facilitate integration,’’ said League House whip Roberto Cota.
‘‘We want a society in which people who arrive here have full rights, but respect our law and learn our language and our rules’’.
But the motion came under fire from opposition politicians, with Democratic Party senator Vincenzo Vita describing it as ‘‘an act of the worst xenophobia’’.
‘‘How is it possible to vote for such a text? It takes us back to the racism and hatred towards diversity that existed three centuries ago. This is a black page (in parliament’s history) that must be withdrawn immediately’’.
Italy of Values House whip Pierfelice Zazzera said rather than moving towards integration the measure ‘‘creates other walls, divides, excludes and segregates’’.
‘‘Today we create separate classes for foreign pupils, tomorrow for the disabled, the day after for homosexuals, and then separate classes for political affiliations,’’ he said.
The motion also drew concern from two members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party.
Alessandra Mussolini, who heads the Parliamentary Children’s Committee, and fellow MP Souad Sbai said they ‘‘felt the duty to ask for an urgent meeting’’ with Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini.
‘‘While we are aware of the problems of language and cultural diversity when introducing foreign students into schools, we maintain that the exchange of knowledge is fundamental for real integration,’’ they said.
Separate bridge classes ‘‘would risk transforming susceptible students into socially unequal citizens,’’ they added.
Cota hit back at criticism, saying that ‘‘people who maintain there is any wish to discriminate either haven’t read the text or are acting in bad faith’’.
The measure will have to be passed by the Senate before coming into effect.
According to the Italian Association of Italian Municipal Councils (ANCI), there are currently 690,000 foreign students from 190 different countries in Italian schools.
Earlier this year the government pledged to ensure that minors in the country’s Roma gypsy camps were sent to school.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Committee Appeals for Asylum Reception Near Country of Origin
THE HAGUE, 15/10/08 — The Advisory Committee on Aliens Affairs (ACVZ) is pleading that asylum seekers be received in a country near their country of origin. In addition, the committee is advising against measures to take away the second passport of Dutch people with dual nationality.
ACVZ chairman Teun van Os van den Abeelen is pleading for measures to stem the flow of asylum seekers. For example, an asylum seeker should not go through the asylum procedure in the Netherlands but in a country near their country of origin. “This would save enormous sums of money that could be spent on the countries where most of the refugees end up and on surrounding countries”, as the chairman stated in free newspaper De Pers yesterday.
The plan will form part of a recommendation to the cabinet which the ACVZ is currently working on, according to the chairman. The advice also states that the Netherlands should become more liberal towards people with dual nationalities.
Critics complain that the Netherlands is already liberal enough towards immigrants holding both a Dutch and a foreign passport. Even Prime Minister Balkenende’s government has two foreigners: a Moroccan (State Secretary Aboutaleb) and a Turk (State Secretary Albayrak).
ACVZ is however rejecting suggestions that loyalty conflicts might arise. “The Netherlands is an exception in its tendency to be increasingly strict about this issue. Throughout the world you can see this policy becoming more liberal and this is also the tenor of our recommendation. There are no indications whatsoever that a dual nationality affects a person’s loyalty”.
In his advice, Van Os van den Abeelen also returns to the ‘circular migration’ plan previously announced by State Secretary Albayrak (Immigration). Labour migrants should be granted entry for four years and then return to their country of origin with a bonus.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Third Jihad’: Documentary ‘Exposes the War the Media is Not Telling You About’
From Breitbart TV, an excerpt from the new documentary:
“The Third Jihad exposes the war the media is not telling you about. It reveals the enemy our government is too afraid to name. One person who is not afraid to tell you the truth is Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim American and former physician to the US Congress. After the FBI releases a radical Islamist manifesto describing how to destroy America from within, Dr. Jasser decides to investigate.”
Our tipster watched the twenty minute excerpt and says:
The film features Zuhdi Jasser, a self identified moderate Muslim, Bernard Lewis, Walid Phares, Rudi Giuliani, Senator Lieberman, Tom Ridge, Reverend Eugene Rivers/Pastor Aziza Christian Community@ Boston, Melanie Philips, Ray Kelly/Police Com. NYC, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and clips from the Glenn Beck program on CNN.. . .along with a list of who’s who in global jihad.
The following are two quotes from the film:
• Tawfik Hamid, Former member of Jamma’a Islameia Terror Group : “The real war is not a war against a bunch of terrorists. It’s a war between the values of freedom and democracy.
Democracy permits demographic shifts in societal politic — so I’m not seeing this as promising.
Responding to video of Palestinian mother Um Nidal,
• Manda Zand Ervin/founder President Alliance of Iranian Women:”When you have Muslims who are willing to kill their own children for political advantages, strap bombs on them and send them out — if you can kill your own children, what prevents you of killing my children, or prevents you killing millions of children of other people?”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kebab Boss Prepared Food as Worker Lay Dead Nearby
The boss of a Wolverhampton catering company was caught making kebabs while a dead body lay on a sofa just a few yards away in the same room.
Jaswinder Singh carried on cooking in a fly-infested prep room at Pappu Sweet Centre & Catering despite the sudden death of one of his workers.
The 45-year-old was banned from working with food again at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday.
District Judge Martin Brown said: “The facts in this case are extraordinarily serious, they are about as grave as one might get in such a case.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Wafa Sultan and Yaron Brook Speak on Islamic Totalitarianism at Uc Irvine
[see linked post for video]
She spoke at UC IRvine yesterday alongside Yaron Brook at a discussion panel on Totalitarian Islam and threat to Western Civilizatrion. I decided to show up considering I covered the same group (plus Daniel Pipes) last year at UCLA See my previous post here and more video from the event at UCLA here.
Funny, this time around, the usual protesting Islamists must not have heard about the event, because there were none. That’s quite unusual for UC Irvine, considering the history of Islamist support from student groups and faculty. But anyways, it was a pleasure to attend an un-interrupted event.
I must say, after hearing Wafa speak in person for the second time now, I now see the fear that she posesses in her daily life. While I’m used to her blasting Islamists on Al Jazeera, this time she spoke with a much more vulnerable tone in her voice.
There was a striking moment when she explained how she lives under a constant threat of death and that people email her on a daily basis threatening her and her family. When she spoke about the threat, like they know where she lives and where her kids go to school and how one day she and her family would suffer the consequences, her voice trembled as she spoke. She was genuinely afraid. She then said how this was her purpose, her mission, her responsibility.
I cannot describe the chills that went down my back when I heard her speak these things. She is one helluva brave woman and one that I’ll admire the rest of my life…
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3 comments:
Baron, abou the European Union, ecxept ten people, nobody knows a thing in Europe. And if you came here saying to the people that it is true, they will discard you as a mad man.
The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) has asked the foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) for more powers as well as the legal basis to sanction its role as their political arm.
So after all it might be possible in the future for the Islam critics in Europe to be prosecuted in the Muslim countries belonging to the "Euro-Mediterranean" Union. They are working on it.
Re Taheri's article in the New York Post about Jesse Jackson: Yesterday I posted the following comment on JihadWatch, which also featured that article:
Taheri identifies Jackson as "the Rev." But Jackson is no more a Rev. than I am. He was never ordained by any religious body. He awarded the title to himself to give an aura of authority to his actions and words, which they would never earn on their own merit. The truth about the spuriousness of Jackson's "Rev." credentials was shown at length several years ago in K. Timmerman's book Shakedown. I have written to editors again and again pointing out this error, but in vain. Taheri should be ashamed of himself for not doing his homework before writing this otherwise good article; owing to his laziness he is ignorantly helping to solidify Jackson's legitimacy as a religious leader.
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