Notice all the news stories about Gaza tonight: major trouble seems to be brewing there.Also, the articles about the real estate situation in the Gulf reveal the depth of the current financial crisis.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Conservative Swede, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Paul Green, RRW, Steen, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Big City Paper Finally Catches on to African Immigration Fraud Story
Well, can you believe it! The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the hometown paper of the Somali capital of the USA, has finally written about the worldwide suspension of the State Department’s P-3 family reunification program—suspended due to widespread fraud in Africa. We told you about this bombshell story two weeks ago. Our very first mention was back in July here, but we didn’t know the full extent of the fraud until recently.
A day late and a dollar short, the Star Tribune published a report yesterday, November 28th, a full 12 days after the little Shelbyville, TN Times Gazette had the scoop. Wouldn’t you think that the Minneapolis paper, in light of the Somali terrorist investigation going on, might have been right on top of this story.
The Star Tribune doesn’t add much more than we already know, but our now favorite Somali mouthpiece is all over this story too. What, don’t you reporters have anyone else you can go to than a Somali guy who was convicted of lying to get into the US? Any chance he might not be straight with you now? Nah! Oh, yes, I forgot, the Star Tribune thinks this is the modern day West Side Story.
Omar Jamal with lots of column inches:
Immigrant groups in the Twin Cities acknowledge…
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Adviser Who Called Clinton ‘Monster’ Returns
Samantha Powers 1 or 14 members of ‘Agency Review Team’ for State Department
A former adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign who once called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a “monster” is now working on the transition team for the agency that Clinton may lead.
State Department officials said Friday that Samantha Power is among foreign policy experts the president-elect’s office selected to help the incoming administration prepare for Clinton’s anticipated nomination as secretary of state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Appoints University of Starbucks Economics Department
Ever walk into a Starbucks and see a bunch of people sitting there debating textbook theories and solving all the world’s problems over a mocha java? If so, then you’ve visited a University of Starbucks campus.
These are precisely the kind of people who have gotten America into the current economic mess. That?s because when there’s a serious problem to deal with, their instinct is to theorize and philosophize. If their corduroys were on fire, they would sit there pondering the nature and deeper meaning of the flames.
Now, the sophisticated intelligentsia of Team Grande Venti — which means something like “large” and “bucket size” in Starbucks-Italian, but I prefer the French version of “grand” meaning “big”, and “vent” meaning “wind” — are about to set up campus in Obama’s White House to advise him on economic issues.
Let’s take a look at some of the players….
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s One-Trick Wizards
One wants to ask the Wall Street wizards who comprise the talent pool for the incoming administration, “If you so smart, how come you ain’t rich no more?”
Manhattan’s toniest private schools, harder to get into than Harvard, quietly are looking for full-tuition pupils now that the children of sacked Wall Street bankers are departing for public schools in cheaper suburbs. Harvard University president Drew Faust has warned of budget cuts to come due to “unprecedented losses” to its US$39 billion endowment.
[…]
The cleverest people in the United States, the Ivy-pedigreed investment bankers, have fouled their own nests as well as their own net worth, and persuaded the taxpayers to bail them out. If these are the best and the brightest of 2008, America is in very deep trouble.
The one-trick wizards of Wall Street had one idea, which was to ride the trend and pile on as much leverage as credulous investors and crony regulators would allow. It has gone pear-shaped, and those who didn’t cash out early along with the cynics are poor. Fortunately for them, Obama will let them play with the budget of the US federal government for the next four years.
Failed financiers run the Obama transition team. It used to be that the heads of great industrial companies got the top Cabinet posts. Now it is the one-trick wizards. After George W Bush fired former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who had run Alcoa, the last survivor of the species was Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton. Obama’s bevy of talent comes from finance. American industrialists have become figures of ridicule, like the pathetic chief executive of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, begging for a government loan…
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Social Engineering: National Suicide
Social engineering by government always ends in disaster.
Social engineering occurs when government passes laws and regulations that force citizens to behave the way government thinks they should behave. Prohibition is a great example of social engineering. In 1919, government decided that its citizens should not drink “intoxicating liquors.” This “government-knows-best” idea produced more than a decade of lawlessness far worse than citizen intoxication. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Free people in a free market always produce the best products, most efficiently, at the lowest price. Every time government “engineering” intrudes into the market, products, efficiency, price — and consumers — ultimately suffer.
Social engineering is always proposed with the best of intentions and sold with grandiose utopian promises. The promises are rarely realized, and the unintended consequences are never anticipated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Decides to Accept Total of 10,000 Iraqis for Resettlement
European countries have decided to let a total of 10,000 Iraqi refugees from Syria and Jordan resettle on their territories. According to several participants of an EU interior ministers’ meeting on Thursday, the 27-member bloc agreed to respond to a demand by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for a permanent resettlement program for some of the most vulnerable individuals and families who were forced to flee Iraq in the aftermath of the American invasion in 2003.
Up to now, only the United States has given home to a greater number of Iraqi refugees. The US took about 11,000 in the period from 2007 to September 2008. Sweden was the biggest host in Europe; it sheltered 540 in the same period.
The number agreed on is a sign for an increased engagement by the EU. However, the figures of 10,000 includes about 5,000 refugees who are already part of different national programs. According to estimates by the Syrian and Jordanian government, between 1.5 million and 2 million Iraqis have taken refuge in their countries, most fleeing sectarian violence.
The UNHCR has repeatedly warned that the situation of Iraqis in Jordan and Syria was getting worse, as they had no right to work and their initial financial resources were depleted. An EU factfinding mission conducted to Syria and Jordan had confirmed the need for resettlement. The UNHCR estimates that about 75,000 Iraqi cannot remain in Syria or Jordan and cannot return home.
The EU’s decision follows months of discussion among member states. Initially, Germany’s government had proposed to only take Christians, but this was refused by the UNHCR and other EU members. […]
The EU’s fact-finding mission had also identified up to 3,000 Palestinians living in camps along the border between Syria and Iraq as particularly vulnerable. It remained unclear on Thursday if or how the EU was planning to help them.
Schaeuble defended his government’s stance on Christians on Thursday. “Nobody ever said ‘only Christians,’“ he said according to German news agency DPA. “But religious minorities in Iraq are rather Christians than members of other religious groups,” he added. According to sources familiar with the situation, the largest group of Iraqis accepted by the US were Christians.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Convert Turns to Politics in Italy
ROME (AP) — An Egyptian-born writer who renounced Islam and was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he has formed a political party that would enter candidates in next year’s EU elections.
Magdi Cristiano Allam said his “Protagonists for Christian Europe” party would work to defend Europe’s Christian values, which he sees threatened by secularism and moral relativism. He said his new party would be open to people of all faiths and would be close to the conservative European People’s Party.
Allam built his career in Italy as commentator and book author attacking Islamic extremism and supporting Israel.
In March, Allam angered some in the Muslim world with a high-profile conversion during an Easter vigil service led by the pope in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Allam, who took the name Cristiano upon converting, has credited Benedict with being instrumental in his decision to become a Catholic and has said the pope had baptized him to support freedom of religion.
The 56-year-old Allam has lived most of his adult life in Italy, becoming a citizen in 1986. In recent years he was given a police escort after receiving death threats from radical Islamic groups.
While working to encourage tolerance between cultures he has also grown increasingly critical of his former faith.
He said in leading daily Corriere della Sera, where he has worked as deputy editor, that the “root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Galicia and Portugal, Euroregion is Born
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 23 — Galicia and northern Portugal as of yesterday are a little bit closer, after ratifying the birth of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC): a new cooperation entity envisaged by the legal order of the European Union, which mitigates the administrative borders between the two regions and represents an economic and technological engine for the area. This is the third Euroregion recognised by the EU, the first in the Iberian peninsula. The new cooperation tool, the media reported today, was officially presented by the president of the council of Galicia, Emilio Perez Tourino, and by the president of the regional coordination and development Commission of northern Portugal, Carlos Lage, in the eighth meeting of the work group of the Euroregion, which took place yesterday in Galicia. The Euroregion, with its own judicial autonomy, will allow the two administrations “to launch joint projects and to overcome the difficulties generated by the centralised nature of the Portuguese state”, the promoters explained. The new entity, which will be based in the ancient rectorate of Vigo, in Galicia, will have a budget of 97 million euro for four years, allocated by Brussels to finance cross-border projects in the sectors of innovation, transport, university research and environment. Through the technical Secretariat of cross-border cooperation, which will be based in Badajoz (Estremadura), the Euroregion Galicia-Northern Portugal will have to carry out by the end of October the first analysis of the 200 joint projects presented so far and select the financed ones already in 2009. But it is not just a matter of allocating the funds coming from Brussels, as sources of the Galician council explained. The Euroregion, in fact, has among its targets the alleviation of the consequences of the end of the allocation of the European structural funds in a bilateral logic, so that when the EU funds finish, the two countries will be able to channel investments through the new administrative tool. In presiding over the meeting for the setting up of the new entity, the European Commission representative Eusebio Murillo wished that Galicia and northern Portugal “become ambitious” in the planning of their projects and “do not limit themselves to the initiatives financed by the EU”. Perez Tourino assured that Galicia “will be a pioneer in the European construction with this second-generation cooperation model”. In tune with this position was the state secretary for regional development of Portugal, Rui Balairas, who pointed out that “the cooperation must go beyond EU funds”. The birth of the new European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation was attended also by the Spanish Public Administration Minister Elena Espinosa, who expressed “the enthusiastic support of the Spanish government for the initiative”, which will be “a future reference point for other communities with similar characteristics”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The UK, Conservative Party, and Modern Stalinism
Stalin had lost his pipe, and ordered his police chief to investigate the matter, so goes one old anti-Stalin joke. After some time, however, the Soviet leader discovered it under the sofa, and called him back. On being told of its discovery, the chief remarked, “This is impossible! Three people have already confessed to this crime!” This joke — though not particularly funny — illustrates two points of relevance here: (1) the police of the USSR were politicized, and (2) that even in private, people under Stalin feared to criticize him directly.
A creeping McCarthyism — that has made any discussion of such subjects as immigration not only taboo but potentially very damaging to any political career — is showing the first signs of turning Stalinesque. The British public, it is probably true to say, has always been suspicious of that “American” notion of free speech without any restrictions. And as we dislike hate speech, calls for mass murder, etc., this appears to make sense. The general public is probably also largely unconcerned that British National Party (BNP) members are fired from their employment simply because of their membership of this legal party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK Epidemic — Muslim Taxi Drivers Raping British Girls & Women
Recently a BBC announcer was sacked/fired for requesting a “non Asian taxi driver” to transport her young unaccompanied 14 year old daughter. (Out of concern for her daughter’s fears/mental well being & safety)
Of course, the “racist” club was trotted out by the mainstream media and others to verbally bludgeon Sam Mason for having the audacity to demand an “English driver”. But was Sam Mason really exposing her racism or was she reacting, as any mother would, to the facts that there is a ongoing epidemic of muslim taxi driver rapes in the UK? (Note: the media prefers the more vague term “Asian”)
Not surprising — the mainstream media, is aiding and abetting these rapes, by refusing to “connect the dots” and report on the clear evidence: The growing numbers of predatory muslim taxi drivers (some posing as taxi drivers)raping British girls and women.
Here are some — but far from all — examples of muslim taxi driver rapists…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Turkish Airlines Buys 49% Stake of Air Bosnia
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 24 — The Bosnian government approved the sale of a 49% stake in Air Bosnia to Turkish Airlines (Thy), Anatolia news agency reported. “We are still continuing talks with Bosnian counterparts to finalize the sale and the deal with Air Bosnia on the transfer of shares will be signed soon”, Thy’s chairman, Candan Karlitekin, said. “We expect to get a voice in the European aviation market with the Air Bosnia agreement and even if it’s a small company this deal represents an important step for bringing Thy closer to its goal of having an effective presence in the global market”, Karlitekin added. “Air Bosnia company has 14% market share in Bosnia and we expect to increase this threefold with the new investments that we plan to make”, Thy chairman declared. Thy will have three representatives in the Air Bosnia executive board and they do not plan to go beyond the 49$ share they are currently working on. Thy aims to increase flights between Balkan countries, as well as flights to London’s Heathrow Airport, the largest airport in England. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Commerce: Virgin and Carrefour in Syria From 2009
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, NOVEMBER 18 — The English Virgin Megastores and the French Carrefour will enter the Syrian market at the beginning of 2009, when the Shahba Mall shopping centre opens in Aleppo. This is reported in a statement from the Italian trade commission in Damascus, which clarifies that the two chains will operate with a long-term contract signed with the Syrian Jordanian Company for Tourism and Real Estate Investment (SJC), which owns the shopping centre. Shahba Mall, which is SJC’s first project, includes: a four-star hotel with 250 rooms, a seven-storey shopping centre, an eight-screen cinema, business space and 36 restaurants and cafes. It is expected to open in the last quarter of 2009. Shahba Mall is located to the north of Aleppo, close to the motorway which links it to the Turkish town of Ghazi Intab, and it will be the largest commercial and entertainment complex in Syria. The total cost of the investment is estimated at USD 70 million. The total area covered will be 125,000 square metres. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Made in Italy: Urso, Development Plan Focuses on Maghreb
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 31 — “A commercial offensive is being launched starting with Tunisia to promote the Made in Italy label which will also spread to Morocco, Libya and Algeria over the next six months”. This is according to the undersecretary for economic development with responsibility for foreign trade, Adolfo Urso, who is leaving on a mission to Tunisia to promote Italian investments in the North African country and to sign an agreement in the fishing sector between the region of Sicily and the Tunisian ministry for fishing and agriculture. Urso will also meet a delegation of Italian manufacturers from the fashion district of Kelibia, where clothes and accessories are produced for large brands with the Made in Italy label and which provides work for 24,000 people in an area of 60 km. “The Maghrib”, states Urso, “is destined to become our preferred partner, it will be a bit like the Balkans were to Italian industry in the nineties. Prospects in infrastructure, opportunities in manufacturing and cooperation in the development of the fishing and tourism sectors”. In particular, the undersecretary emphasizes that “Tunisia represents an extremely interesting market for Italy. In the current year, the International Monetary Fund expects that the GDP will increase by 5.5% for Tunisia, which to all intents and purposes entered into the European free trade area in January this year. As of today, 760 Italian companies operate in Tunisia, most of which are concentrated in the textile and clothing sectors (260 firms). Italy is one of Tunisia’s main trading partners after France. In 2007, Italian exports to the country had a value of 2.9 billion euro, an increase of 13% compared to 2006, while imports from Tunisia were worth 2.5 billion euro, a rise of 17%”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Morocco; 625 Mln Euros From France for TGV
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 14 — France has agreed to loan Morocco 625 million euros for the payment of part of the machinery for the future high speed train line (TGV) that will allow travel between Tangiers and Casablanca (350 kilometres apart) in one and a half hours. The news was relayed by French diplomatic sources in Rabat. The agreement for the concession of the loan has been signed this morning by the French secretary of state for foreign trade, Anne-Marie Idrac, and the Moroccan economy and finance minister, Salaheddine Mezouar. An agreement over the construction of the train line (which will cost around two billion dollars up to Casablanca) goes back to the visit of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to the country in October 2007. In 2030 the TGV will also connect Tangiers with Agadir (south of Casablanca). For the entire project the estimated costs are at around 100 billio dirham (around 9.1 billion euros) and will be half-financed by French partners, as indicated by the Moroccan Transport Ministry. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Abu Zayd, War on Terrorism Helps Radical Islam
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 20 — The effect of the war on terrorism in Egypt, allied with US policy has “given greater power to radical Muslims” who are not terrorists, but draw on the same fundamentalist culture to “terrorise with words rather than actions”. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, the Egyptian Islamic intellectual in Italy for a number of conferences organised by ResetDoc, sees this as how the country has changed since 1995, when a sentence for apostasy forced him to move to Holland. Since then, he says “the country has worsened, from the point of view of Islamic discourse: traditionalism has become stronger and the Government is competing with the fundamentalists to prove that it is also fundamentalist. This does not leave room for critical thought”. US policies in this period, according to Abu Zayd, have had an effect on relations between the Governments of Islamic countries with radical Islam and religious institutions. “Many Islamic Governments, even Saudi Arabia, are ready to follow the USA in the war on terrorism. But to do this needs the support of a religious debate, of the ulemas. But these gain greater social influence and the power “to hunt down intellectuals, a certain poetry, a declaration, and the government ends up under the control of orthodox institutions”. To the point which if the sentence undergone for his theses in favour of a historical-critical approach to Islam was passed today “I would only have 10% of the support which I had from intellectuals at the time”. Not that in Egypt you cannot read “critical articles on politics, economics, social problems, but when it is about Islam there is no freedom of thought”. And compared to then, says Abu Zayd, who has returned to his country now and then since 2000 “conversions, to Christianity or Islam, has become a real social problem”. If someone converts, it unleashes the rage of the religious community concerned, which accuses the other side of proselytism. Other religious minorities “are deprived of their rights, while people are identified not in terms of citizenship but of religion. A very worrying fact, with regard to Egypt as a nation. And Egypt is not an exception in the Arab world”. Abu Zayd, in Genoa today and Milan on Saturday, does not hide his pessimism over the new influence of radical Islam on Egyptian society. “You see it often on TV, even national channels, someone says that we don’t live according to Islam, that we are not Muslims, that we need to be re-islamised”. Discussions which influence so many “young people with lots of problems which indirectly inspire them to act as terrorists to change things”. With the inheritance of “the first terrorist groups in Egypt with the myth of Egira, the abandonment of this society to seek purification and fight to change it. This is the link between radical debate and violent action, terrorism”. A red line which began long ago, passing through the birth of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s. “In Egypt now there is a debate produced by fundamentalism and the Government. But the Bush administration, in its search for allies in the Arab countries over the new international emergencies, has stopped talking about the reform of Islam, democracy and human rights”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In the Aftermath of Abu-Fana Crisis
Unjustly held
Despite a ruling by Minya Criminal Court on Saturday 15 November to release the detained brothers Rifaat and Ibrahim Fawzy on bail of EGP3000 each, and despite the fact that the bail money was paid, Minya security authorities are still holding the Fawzy brothers in detention. The Fawzys had been charged with killing Mohamed Khalil on the evening of 30 May, during the attack waged against Abu-Fana monastery in Mallawi, Minya, by the ‘Arabs’—the desert dwellers in the area, a date on which the Fawzys were not at the monastery in the first place. The charge was based upon the testimony of the dead man’s father and another Arab, but the after-death investigation on Khalil’s body proved the testimony false; the Fawzys could never have committed the murder.
The Fawzy’s lawyer Zakary Kamal told Watani, as the paper prepared to go to press, that he was filing a claim against the head of Mallawi Investigation, accusing him of falsifying official reports. The investigation officer had arrested the brothers with no legal warrant and questioned them on 1 June, as proved in the prosecution report, but wrote in his report that he arrested them on 4 June. Mr Kamal said he was also filing a claim of false testimony against the witnesses, and was demanding a recompense of one million Egyptian pounds for the moral damages the brothers had incurred.
Mr Kamal said that matters have taken a more complicated turn, since the family of Khalil was asking the Fawzys to pay five million Egyptian pounds in blood money but, he said, the Fawzys are adamant in not paying a penny to absolve themselves of a murder they never committed
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi Confirms Abolition of Ministries
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 11 — Libya’s leader, Muammar Gadafi, has asserted that his resolve to abolish several administrative institutions, including some ministries, and to distribute oil revenues directly to the population, is ‘‘beyond discussion’’, says the country’s official press agency, Jana. ‘‘The decision to distribute oil revenues — its only resource — directly to the population, is beyond debate’’, stated Colonel Gadafi yesterday evening on receiving his Prime Minister, Baghdadi Mahmoudi and the General Secretary of the Popular Congress. ‘‘The administrative organism that managed this income in favour of the population wishes to re-assign the funds to the population’’, he added, admitting the operation would be ‘‘sensitive, complex and requiring a technical-administrative management to be enacted’’. Gaddafi had on 1 September announced his decision to close some administrative institutions as of the beginning of 2009 and to redistribute oil income directly. Since then regular meetings have been held at the ministries and various institutions to look into ways of applying this ‘‘revolutionary decision’’, a one-off of its kind. Speaking on the 39th anniversary of the revolution that brought him to power, (1st September, 1969), Libya’s ‘‘Revolutionary Guide’’ pointed out that, with the exceptions of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of Defence and Security and that of Justice, other departments would be annulled. In the opinion of Colonel Gaddafi, ‘‘worldwide, corruption is linked to administration’’. His solution is to enact a decisive suppression of the Ministries and the direct transfer ‘‘of money to the people so that they can manage their affaire on their own’’. He warned, however, that there would be some ‘‘confusion’’ for the first two years, but that, in his opinion, society would learn to organise itself a little at a time. In March, the Colonel called for the closure of the ministries in a drive against corruption. According to Libya’s leader, the country pays 37 billion dollars to each of these ministries, but management has run aground. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Real Estate: Libya; Gulf Bank Launches ‘City of Energy’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 10 — The starting of a real estate project worth five billion dollars was announced yesterday by one of the primary Islamic banks in the Gulf, Gulf Finance House (Gfh). It will be built in Libya in an area of 600 hectares along the coast in the region of Sabratha, 80 km from Tripoli, and it will be called “The City of Energy”, Gfh’s president, Issam Janahi, said during a press conference. The financing for the project will be 60% supported by Gfh, which is based in Bahrein, and 40% by the Libyan Social and Economic Development Fund. Work is expected to begin in the first months of 2009 and the finish is expected for a period of time ranging from three to five years, Janahi specified, also emphasising the importance of this “regional project” in Libya. The Gfh has already financed other cities of energy in Qatar and India and has the intention of building another one in Kazakistan. For the project in Libya, a first phase of 18 months will serve to prepare the infrastructure, with an expected cost of 400 million dollars. To be built “respecting the environment and the characteristics of the Libyan coastline”, Hamed Al-Hadhiri, president of the Development Fund, emphasised, that which is defined as the “intelligent city” will consist of residential and office constructions, hotels, and shopping and cultural centres. Today, lacking the infrastructure to welcome foreign companies, Libya, as Africàs third producer of oil with over two million barrels a day, hopes to attract an ever increasing number of foreign investors. The objective, Al-Hadhiri declares, is to reach production of three million barrels by 2013. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Morocco; 10 Years Asked for Ex-Guantanamo Detainee
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 14 — The anti-terrorism magistrate’s court in Morocco has asked for a ten year sentence for an ex-Guantanamo detainee after having been accused of “acts of sabotage against the foreign interests in the north of the country”. Said Boujaadia, 39, was arrested in 2001 on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, for seven years he was detained in Guantanamo and then delivered to Moroccan authorities in May of 2008. According to the accusations of the prosecutor, Boujaadia, trained in Cecenia, was in contact with the leaders of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and with a cell of three Saudìs arrested in 2002 who were preparing an attack against NATO ships in the Strait of Gibraltar. The lawyer of the man asked for acquittal affirming that Said Boujaadia already served his sentence with the seven years in Guantanamo. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Army Pays Price for Honoring International Law’
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog finally appeared in London on Wednesday, even if it was only to address a conference via a satellite link. In 2005, Almog avoided arrest at Heathrow Airport after he was warned not to disembark from his El Al flight, because British detectives were waiting to arrest him on war-crime charges.
Using a loophole in Britain’s Universal Jurisdiction Law, pro-Palestinian campaigners had filed a private criminal complaint, accusing him of committing a crime by ordering the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza in 2002. On Wednesday, Almog addressed a conference in Westminster, central London, titled “Ending Impunity or Decreasing Accountability: Averting Abuse of Universal Jurisdiction.”
To show that the IDF deferred to the judicial system, Almog said that while he headed the Southern Command, he requested the demolition of a certain house in Gaza. His request was turned down by the legal echelons of the IDF.
In June 2006, that house served as cover for the tunnel from Gaza into Israel that was used to kidnap Gilad Schalit.
Co-hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the Henry Jackson Society and the Legacy Heritage Fund, the conference examined the status of “universal jurisdiction” and whether current the legislation is serving its purpose or being abused for political purposes. Experts from three continents joined senior politicians from both houses of Parliament, officials from the Foreign Office and nongovernmental organizations as well as legal experts and academics.
The Universal Jurisdiction Law has been used by pro-Palestinian activists to try to arrest former IDF personnel on war-crime charges when they visit the UK. The loophole affects military personnel, even if they are citizens of other countries and the alleged offenses were not committed on British soil.
Irit Kohn, former director of the Israeli Justice Ministry’s International Department, spoke about how controversial the law is in the legal world. She said it had been exploited to further political agendas.
In 2006, then-Gaza Division commander Brig.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi was scheduled to study at the Royal College of Defense Studies in London. Warned by an IDF judge that he could be arrested on arrival, he canceled his trip. Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Avi Dichter, now public security minister, also canceled a trip last year out of concern that a warrant might be issued for his arrest.
Wednesday’s conference looked at the inner workings of the law and examined the use of universal jurisdiction legislation in recent years, both in recognized war-zones and in areas where genocide or acts of genocide have occurred. It also reviewed cases where lawsuits have been initiated against Western political and military figures.
Almog spoke passionately about his case, reminding participants that he had been going to the UK at the time to raise money for Aleh, which provides residential and rehabilitative facilities for mentally and physically disabled adults and children in Israel. His son Eran was cared for at one of Aleh’s three facilities, the Moriah Center in Gedera, from age 13 until he died at age 23 in 2007. “I arrived in London because I wanted to build a better future for the weakest sectors in society,” Almog said.
Almog said that ironically, Israel based its military law on the British Mandate’s system. He also said that all IDF soldiers were taught to have a high respect for international law and that there were legal officers integrated at all levels of the army hierarchy.
Almog said Israeli groups were involved in the attempt to arrest him. “Groups like Yesh Gvul conspired with groups in London to bypass the Israeli legal system,” he said. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs president and former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold spoke about how the Universal Jurisdiction Law created enormous dilemmas. “The law has to differentiate between those who are war criminals and those who combat terrorism,” he said.
Speaking on “Piracy and the Puzzle of Universal Jurisdiction,” Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, from Northwestern University, said universal jurisdiction was originally meant to deal solely with piracy. “For 400 years, piracy was the only crime under universal jurisdiction,” he said.. “Ironically, the UK has told its navy not to arrest pirates for fear of them requesting asylum once captured. “Piracy, the original cause of universal jurisdiction, has to be addressed before the more ‘sexy’ causes like genocide and crimes against humanity,” Kontorovich said..
The use of universal jurisdiction expanded in 1998, when a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet while he was in the UK for medical treatment. The House of Lords’ rejection of head-of-state immunity for Pinochet was seen at the time as a landmark in the acceptance of universal jurisdiction and the rejection of sovereign rights.
In years since, courts in some Western nations have invoked universal jurisdiction to entertain suits against senior political figures such as Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Ariel Sharon and Henry Kissinger, as well as participants in the Rwandan genocide and Argentinean death squads. Many of these cases have been set aside due to diplomatic objections.
Supporters have hailed the spread of trials and civil suits based on universal jurisdiction as the end of impunity for gross violations of human rights and terrible crimes. Opponents have attacked the burgeoning universal jurisdiction for undermining state sovereignty, selective and politicized prosecution, undermining human rights and peace-making efforts, and failing to deter future crimes.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Prevents Muslim Pilgrims From Leaving Gaza
Hamas police set up checkpoints across Gaza on Saturday to prevent pilgrims from leaving for a holy Muslim ritual in Saudi Arabia, beating some who tried to dodge barriers, witnesses said.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, was upset that the pilgrims had coordinated their journey with Hamas’ rival, the Palestinian Authority. The authority, based in the West Bank, is run by Hamas’ bitter rival, the Fatah movement. The crackdown on the pilgrims highlights the depth of the bitterness between the two groups. Egypt criticized Hamas’s actions as unbecoming of an Islamic movement.[…]
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the Hamas rulers of Gaza submitted separate lists of Gaza pilgrims to the Saudi authorities for visa approvals in the weeks leading to the pilgrimage, which will take place in December.
The rival Palestinian governments each claim to be legitimate, and their wrangle over who has the authority to send Gaza pilgrims to Mecca is a measure of sovereignty. So far Saudi Arabia has rebuffed the Hamas list. […] “They called us traitor pilgrims,” said a man who identified himself as a pilgrim to a Gaza television station.
Some pilgrims managed to dodge checkpoints by taking back roads to the Rafah crossing with Egypt. There, Hamas police beat up those who refused to leave, said pilgrims speaking on a call-in show on the pro-Fatah Palestine Television.
“They were beating us with sticks and their rifle butts,” said one man who identified himself as a pilgrim. “There was tear gas. It looked like an action movie,” he said. A woman called in, saying her mother, a pilgrim, was beaten on her hand and needed treatment. Witnesses would not give their names, for fear of retribution by Hamas police. Hamas police did not allow reporters into the area close to the border crossing. […]
“Regrettably, there is a dispute in Gaza,” said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki. “Hamas is dramatizing the issue …. and this can damage the reputation of an Islamic movement.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: the New Route for Eritreans Refugees
ROME — At least 185 migrants and asylum seekers have died during the month of June 2008 along the EU borders, 173 of them just in the Strait of Sicily. Four people died in the Canary Islands, after their arrival. In Italy, two Iraqis were found dead in the port of Venice inside containers on two different ferries coming from Greece. In Turkey two migrants have died after the truck where they were travelling hidden had an accident in the eastern province of Dogubayazit, and a Somali was shot dead during a riot in the migrant detention camp of Kirklareli, near the Bulgarian border. Three other refugees were shot dead along the Egyptian border with Israel. One of the victims was a seven years old Sudanese girl, killed on June 28th.
Sinai confirms to be the new route for Eritreans and Sudaneses refugees, who instead of the Libyan prisons and the death in the sea prefer the Jewish state. In 2007, according to the UNHCR, about 5,000 asylum seekers entered Israel. Meanwhile, Egypt has reinforced its control devices, allowing the border police to open fire on the migrants. Since the beginning of 2008 at least 16 people have been shot dead. Since Israel asked Egypt for a greater effort to prevent the problem, a vast operation of arrests and deportations´has been launched, in particular against the Eritreans. According to Amnesty International 1,600 Eritrean have been arrested and 810 of them have already been deported in the second half of June. It is the biggest deportation program of the recent years in Egypt and it could represent the beginning of a new time of harsh repression against African refugees. Meanwhile who managed to cross the Sinai looks for a new life in Israel…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mid-East: Gaza; Wounded in University Campus Unrest
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, NOVEMBER 28 — Serious unrest has occurred in recent days on two university campuses in the Gaza Strip, according to what the Palestinian humanitarian organisation, PCHR-Gaza, reports. In a statement the non-government organisation reports on the behaviour of Hamas security forces which apparently resorted to violence. The first incident — specifies PCHR-Gaza — happened on the 24th of November at al-Azhar College at the University of Gaza, in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, where Islamic students clashed with political rivals. During the fray one Islamist student pulled out a pistol and shot in the direction of a rival without hitting him. The day after, adds PCHR-Gaza, other incidents between supporters of al-Fatah and Hamas occurred in Khan Yunes, at the University of al-Aqsa. Hamas security forces intervened with great force, added the Palestinian NGO, and as a result some of the students were injured. The spokesman for the Interior Minister of Hamas in Gaza, IsmailShahwan, told PCHR-Gaza that an investigation has been opened to shed light on the dynamics of the events and that various students are being held. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vilna’i: Large-Scale Gaza Op Looming
Israel is quickly approaching a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said Saturday, in response to a mortar attack the previous night on an IDF base that wounded eight soldiers.
Two soldiers — one of whom lost a leg — were in serious condition after a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit inside the base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday afternoon, a Kassam rocket struck a field south of Ashkelon.. Sgt. Noam Nakash of Beersheba, a member of the base’s C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) team, was seriously wounded in the mortar attack. Doctors initially feared they would have to remove both of Nakash’s legs but in the end they only amputated the right one.
Another soldier, who was initially reported to be in critical condition, underwent a number of operations overnight Friday, and on Saturday his condition was described as stable. Six other soldiers, including two women, were lightly-to-moderately wounded.
In response to the Kassam and mortar attacks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to close all the crossings into the Gaza Strip on Sunday. “The cease-fire [which expires on December 19] is important to us and to them since we are in control of the crossings and the other side is afraid of the IDF’s might,” Vilna’i said during a public appearance in Beersheba. “We must find the right time for action and their provocations do not leave us with many choices.”
Vilna’i said there was no doubt “that we are getting close to launching a wide-scale operation in Gaza.” He said it would be different than previous operations. Turning to negotiations with the Palestinians, Vilna’i rejected Hamas as a viable partner since the terrorist group refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Earlier Friday, Palestinian gunmen clashed with IDF troops along the Gaza border. The IDF said troops spotted a group of gunmen trying to plant a bomb along the security fence. The Gazans opened fire as the patrol approached, and soldiers shot back, hitting one of the gunmen.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
“Drivers” Shirt, Cake With Toy Car: Protest of Saudi Women Drivers
Women who want to drive protest in the only country in the world where this is prohibited. In their view, the question concerns the recognition of their liberties.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) — A shirt with the word “drivers” on it, a cake with a car on top, a group photo: this is how about fifty Saudi women demonstrated this year, commemorating the protest that on November 6, 1990, saw a group of 47 female drivers in a convoy that for half an hour drove around Riyadh. They were then stopped by the police, because Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world where women are forbidden to drive, although this summer government officials maintained that they are studying the possibility of a decree that, by the end of the year, would abolish the ban.
The reaction of the authorities was harsh. All of the female drivers and their husbands (who fulfill the role of the “guardian” that every woman must have) were prohibited to leave the country for one year, and the women who were public employees were fired, but as Fawzia al Bakr, a professor who was one of the drivers, tells NPR, “wherever you work, you are labeled as a ‘driver’ and you will never be promoted, no matter how good you are.”
“I think it was worth it because we raised the issue of the women in Saudi Arabia and the consciousness about it,” says Aisha al Mana, a businesswoman. “We went through around a year of harassment because they thought we did something that is not acceptable by society.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis: Emirates, Bank Merger to Safeguard National Assets
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 24 — The financial moves approved during the weekend by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are a clear signal of the will to safeguard national assets, agree sector analysts today in the local press. Between Saturday and Sunday, the federal government of the UAE approved the merger of Amlak Finance and Tamweel — the two most important Islamic financial institutions to distribute mortgages — into Real Estate Bank (REB) and then the merger of this bank with Emirates Industrial Bank, all which becomes Emirates Development Bank. The new entity, explains the periodical Emirates Business, can count on capital injections from the federal government which will become a significant stakeholder. It will have the ability to answer to three difficult issues: liquidity, financing and solvency, even if the definitive profile of the bank is still unclear as well as which mechanisms it will use to emit funds into the Emirate real estate market. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt-Saudi Arabia: Trade Up by 350% in 3 Years, Minister
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 20 — The current international financial crisis has proved for one thing that the Arab region is safer for Arab investments, Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Rashid Mohamed Rashid said. “Trade exchange between Egypt and Saudi Arabia has increased 350% over the past three years and I hope that the figure will be doubled in the coming period”, he added. Cairo and Riyadh should adopt a unified stand vis-a-vis the crisis at international forums, he said. There is increased keenness on boosting cooperation to encourage trade and investments in the coming period, he concluded. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Kuwait Grants USD 1 Mln to Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 21 — Kuwait granted USD 1 million to Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency, offshoot of the Al Quds Committee which is chaired by king Mohammed VI of Morocco. As Map news agency reported, the grant was handed to the Director General of Bayt Mal Al Quds, Abdelkébir Alaoui M’daghri, by the ambassador of Kuwait in Rabat, Salah Mohamed Al-Baijane. In a statement, the Moroccan official said that this donation is “the fruit of efforts exerted by king Mohammed VI, Chairman of Al Quds committee, who asked me to request the support of the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, for Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency.” The favorable response of the Emir reflects the brotherly ties uniting the two leaders, he said, adding that this grant shows Kuwait’s support for the Palestinian cause and Al Quds (Jerusalem) inhabitants. For his part, the Kuwaiti diplomat hailed the initiatives of king Mohammed VI to preserve the Arab and Islamic identity of Al Quds Asharif and the efforts exerted to provide aid to the Palestinian people in both Al Quds and the other occupied territories. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Real Estate: Dubai Confirms Largest Projects, Some Others
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 10 — Dubai has enough credit to support its debts for at least another 21 months, but it is reconsidering priorities for future projects. This is what was declared by Mohammad Ali Alabbar, member of the executive city council of Dubai and president of Emaar Properties, the Emirate real estate giant which boasts, among other things, the construction of the Burj Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world. “The projects that are already underway will move forward at full speed, but we are reconsidering those that have yet to be presented,” Alabbar explained in a quotation from the newspaper The National, emphasising that the Emirate economy will not be influenced by the construction slow-down, because it is based solidly on import and re-export, tourism, trade, financial services and communications. In comparison with conditions on the global market, however, the most significant projects are guaranteed to proceed, especially those oriented to tourism, while the others will be re-evaluated and reoriented to the demand of the middle class. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Public Buildings on Sale to Attract Gulf Capital
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 19 — In an attempt to develop new financial instruments to attract interest-sensitive Gulf capital, Turkish government has almost completed its preparations for issuing rent securities which will provide their holders with continuous rent revenue from State-owned buildings, daily Today’s Zaman writes. Looking for new ways to handle liquidity problems during the current global economic crisis, the government has been working on a plan to create new tools to attract foreign capital from the Gulf region, where a huge accumulation of wealth has taken place thanks to soaring oil prices. A bill envisaging the creation of rent certificates and bills of real estate partnership has recently been sent to the Prime Ministry after being evaluated by the Treasury. The draft suggests that rent certificates be issued for public buildings with a total value equal to the value of the building. These certificates will be sold to domestic and foreign investors with a promise of continuous revenue from the buildings. An investor who buys a certificate will be the owner of a public building paper, but the public institution residing in the building will continue its operations there. The government will pay a reasonable rent for these buildings to certificate-holders. With this instrument, the government expects to reap revenue of at least $1 billion from the buildings on which rent certificates will initially be issued. Besides state office buildings, the government also plans to earn similar revenue from highways, bridges, unused land and even hydroelectric power plants. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Intelligence Agencies See Stronger, Islamic Turkey in 2025
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 24 — Turkey’s most likely course in the next 15 years involves a blending of Islamic and nationalist strains, according to a recent report titled “Global Trends 2025” by the National Intelligence Council, or Nic, which brings together all 16 United States intelligence agencies. Turkey, as Hurriyet daily reports, is likely to have a more prominent political and economic role internationally and economically in 2025, but it will also become more Islamic and more nationalist, the U.S. intelligence community predicted in a report released last week. According to Nic, the United States’ clout was likely to decline over the next 15 to 20 years, while China and India would have a strengthened position. Among Muslim countries, the NIC expected “to see the political and economic power of Indonesia, Iran, and Turkey increase. Over the next 15 years, Turkey’s most likely course involves a blending of Islamic and nationalist strains, which could serve as a model for other rapidly modernizing countries in the Middle East,” the report said adding that it expected secularism in the Middle East to decline in line with the Turkish example. “As in today’s Turkey, we could see both increased Islamization and greater emphasis on economic growth and modernization,” the NIC said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia’s Communists: Crisis Will Help Us Regain Power
‘The wind of history is blowing in our sails again … imperialism is starting to die’
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia’s Communists expect the global financial crisis will cause social unrest and help them challenge for power, the party’s leader said on Saturday.
Gennady Zyuganov told the party’s annual congress the Communists should make maximum use of the growing public discontent caused by the economic downturn to try to restore their political strength.
“The wind of history is blowing in our sails again … At this time of crisis the world of imperialism is starting to die. We are standing on the threshold of political and social shifts,” Zyuganov said in a 2-hour speech opening the congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Gazprom Cuts Gas Production
The economic crisis, lower industrial output and a warmer than usual fall have reduced European energy demands. This might lead to lower investments with the risk that production might prove insufficient in a few years.
Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Gazprom has decided to cut gas production projections for 2008 by about 10 billion m3. Russia’s leading energy producer said it was responding to the effects of the global economic crisis and an unusually warm fall which have reduce demand both in Russia and the European Union. Experts suggest instead it is trying to keep prices high.
Gazprom will produce 552-553 m3di gas this year, down from the originally planned figure of 561-563 m3. Unlike petrol, gas prices in the European Union have remained at their highest levels; in October, the average price of gas in Europe was above US$ 500 per 1,000 m3.
The impact of the world’s financial crisis on the metallurgic sector, the construction industry and power stations has forced companies to announce reductions in production volumes
Russian gas exports to EU countries have thus dropped; for example, by 19 per cent in Germany and 13 per cent in Poland.
Gas prices follow oil prices eventually, with a delay of several, and are expected to drop around February next year, another reason for buyers to put off purchases now.
But for the online journal EastWeek lower revenues from gas sales will exacerbate the problem of insufficient investments in developing new gas fields.
Indeed Gazprom has often been criticised for not investing enough in research and up scaling Russia’s gas fields, preferring instead to focus on foreign investment to ensure its leadership role in the world.
In Russia itself the authorities have given the energy giant a monopoly position at the expense of other gas producers.
Now its production cannot even cover the domestic market by 4 billion m3 which may reach 120 billion m3 in 2010 and 340 billion m3, this according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
On the short run, lower demand at present will allow Gazprom to create reserves, but without major investments the risk of a gas deficit in a few years will increase given the growing demands at home and in the European Union.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis Group Calls for Urgent Reforms in Post-War Georgia
By VOA News
A leading international research group says Georgia must implement urgent reforms, if the government is to survive the global economic downturn and public discontent over its failed conflict with Russia.
The International Crisis Group, in a report, says President Mikheil Saakashvili’s position is now secure.
But it says his standing will be “severely tested” in the months ahead, as the opposition continues asking “pointed questions” about Georgian government decisions ahead of Russia’s devastating military invasion in August.
The report urges the Saakashvili government to restore political stability necessary to encourage foreign investment and development. It also says Tbilisi must provide more social assistance, ensure an independent judiciary and increase freedoms for the broadcast news media. Additionally, it calls on the government to eliminate high-level corruption and implement what it calls “vital changes” to the electoral process.
The Saakashvili government came under harsh criticism this week, for faulty decisions that a top ex-diplomat says triggered the Russian invasion August 7.
Envoy Erosi Kitsmarishvili said the Georgian leader misread U.S. messages of support earlier this year as an endorsement for the use of force to regain control of the country’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from separatists. The diplomat served as Georgia’s ambassador to Moscow in the months before the Georgia-Russia conflict.
Kitsmarishvili also told a parliamentary panel that Georgia was planning to invade South Ossetia as early as April, and that President Saakashvili discussed such an attack in 2004. Wednesday, the office of the president issued a statement denying the accusations.
The president is scheduled to testify before a parliamentary panel Friday on decision-making linked to the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Conservative Swede | [Return to headlines] |
Georgia ‘May Have Staged’ Kaczynski Shooting
By Georgian Daily
Georgia may have staged the shooting of a convoy carrying the Polish and Georgian presidents, say leaked Polish security service reports.
South Ossetian paramilitaries fired shots near a motorcade carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to the border of the disputed Akhalgori district last weekend.
The incident highlighted the continuing presence of Russian-backed forces deep inside Georgia in violation of earlier peace treaties, but its impact has been dulled by suspicions that Tbilisi set up the events.
“At the current time and on the basis of the information obtained, the most likely scenario is that the situation may have been created by the Georgian side,” a leaked Situation Report by the Polish Internal Security Agency, the ABW, published in the Dziennik daily on Thursday (27 November), says.
The report points out that the Akhalgori visit was not consulted with Polish security services, that Mr Saakashvili stopped the convoy and asked Mr Kaczysnki to step outside the car near the checkpoint and that the Georgian president and his men showed no signs of distress when the shots rang out.
The ABW cites the “difficult situation of the Georgian president with the strengthening internal opposition in the country,” as a potential motive for any stunt.
The ABW report could further damage Tbilisi’s reputation among EU decision makers, amid a growing consensus in Brussels that Mr Saakashvili’s government was partly-responsible for the August war and has eroded its own democratic legitimacy by quashing opposition in the run up to the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Conservative Swede | [Return to headlines] |
Saakashvili Defends S Ossetia War
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has denied seeking a green light from Washington for his country’s assault on its breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into the conflict, Mr Saakashvili also denied planning the attack months in advance.
He insisted Russia made the first move, pouring tanks and men over the border.
There was an outcry this week when Georgia’s former ambassador to Moscow said Georgia started the war.
Erosi Kitsmarishvili also said Georgia believed it had received Washington’s approval for its attack.
The former envoy was condemned for his comments, and was nearly physically assaulted while giving evidence to the parliamentary hearing.
[…]
Even Mr Saakashvili’s fierce opposition critics swung behind him during the short war in August, but in recent weeks he has come under growing pressure.
Opposition parties have mounted rallies and called for early elections.
| — Hat tip: Conservative Swede | [Return to headlines] |
“I Want to Live” Says Captured Terrorist
His swaggering image as he walked around Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus was captured by Mumbai Mirror photo editor Sebastian D’Souza, and was the first glimpse of the terrorists who have held Mumbai hostage over the last 48 hours.
Now we can also tell you who this man is and how he has become the vital link for investigating agencies to crack the terror plot. His name is Azam Amir Kasav, he is 21 years old, speaks fluent English, hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Faridkot in Pakistan, and is the only terrorist from this audacious operation to have been captured alive. An ATS spokesperson confirmed that the man captured was indeed the one photographed by us.
On the night of Wednesday-Thursday, Azam and his colleague opened fire at CST before creating havoc at Metro and then moving on to Girgaum Chowpatty in a stolen Skoda, and where they were intercepted by a team from the Gamdevi police station. Azam shot dead assistant police inspector Tukaram Umbale.
But in that encounter, Azam’s colleague was killed and he himself was injured in the hand. He pretended to be dead giving rise to the news that two terrorists had been killed. However, as the “bodies” were being taken to Nair Hospital, the accompanying cops, figured that one of the men was breathing.
According to sources, the casualty ward of Nair hospital was evacuated and the Anti-Terror Squad moved in to interrogate him. Azam who was tightlipped initially, cracked upon seeing the mutilated body of his colleague and pleaded with the medical staff at Nair to save his life. “I do not want to die,” he reportedly said. “Please put me on saline.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Teams Sowed Chaos With Precision
One reason for the nervousness is that it seems likely that not nearly all the terrorists were caught or killed — and so far the whereabouts of the rest are a mystery. At least eight were confirmed dead on Friday, although more might be found as soldiers and the police combed through the two hotels. Security officials declared that they had taken control of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower on Saturday morning, killing three militants.
Estimates of the number of attackers have ranged from 20 to 40, with the number depending to a considerable extent on the number of boats involved. As security forces seek to reconstruct how the gunmen managed to inflict so much carnage so quickly, they have been turning their attention to how so many assailants managed to reach the heart of Mumbai undetected and with such a large collection of guns, ammunition and explosives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Shocked at Hostages’s Torture
They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai.
Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies, including that of the terrorists, were taken said they had not seen anything like this in their lives.
“Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing,” a doctor said.
Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: “It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatised. A bomb blast victim’s body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words,” he said.
Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: “It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood,” one doctor said.
The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Hindus, Jews, and Jihad Terror in Mumbai
By Andrew G. Bostom
Sixty hours of jihadist terror depradations throughout India’s financial capital, Mumbai — during which nearly 200 innocent victims were murdered, and 300 wounded — apparently ceased this Saturday, November 29, when Indian commandos slew the last three gunmen inside a luxury hotel, while it was still ablaze. Mainstream media coverage of these rampaging, cold-blooded murderous acts of jihad terrorism — perpetrated by a self-professed “mujahideen” organization (i.e., “The Deccan Mujahideen”) — consistently ignored the clear ideological linkage to Islam. Simply put, “mujahideen” are Muslim jihadists, “holy warriors,” because there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad, despite present day apologetics.
The root of the word jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminaries — from the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam, to ordinary people — meant and means “he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like.” As described by the seminal mid-19th century Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane, “Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers.” A contemporary definition, relevant to both modern jihadism and its shock troop “mujahideen” was provided at the Fourth International Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research at Al Azhar University, Cairo — Islam’s most important religious educational institution-in 1968, by Muhammad al-Sobki…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Liberalism Bombs Bombay
Who are these enemies of civilization? Yes, in India’s case, Islamic terrorists, but it goes deeper than that.
What cultural, societal, political philosophy allows a pseudo-religion like Islam to exist and grow in its midst? Liberalism. In my view the political madness of liberalism is the real culprit behind the bombs of Bombay.
How?
- Liberalism preaches a brand of egalitarianism that places all religions, beliefs and ideas on the same intellectual plane, but this contradicts the principle of rationality because all ideas and religions are not equal — some are evil.
- Nonetheless, under the liberal tenets existent at the founding of the League of Nations (President Woodrow Wilson, 1919) and United Nations (FDR, 1945), nations are mandated under international law to take the diplomatic route verses common sense tactics when their country suffers an unprovoked, naked act of religious-based terrorism.
- Therefore, liberalism prevented India from taking common sense action against her Muslim enemies when, in 1947, the U.N. formed Pakistan out of whole cloth, trying to stem the tide of Islamic fanaticism against the nation of India, but effectively leaving the country to be overrun by the more than 115 million Muslims living in India today.
Conservative intellectual, Ann Coulter eloquently prophesied the world’s pathetic reaction to an international crisis:
There are only two choices with savages: Fight or run. Democrats always want to run, but they dress it up in meaningless catchphrases like “diplomacy,” “détente,” “engagement,” “multilateral engagement,” “multilateral diplomacy,” “containment” and “going to the UN.”
Instead of exporting throughout the world the elements of a representative democracy and a republic rooted in the Judeo-Christian traditions of intellectual thought, America has since FDR exported a bastardized socialism — a diabolical brand of liberalism that is more akin to Marxism and communism than it is to republicanism and freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai Terrorists Trained by Renegade Westerners?
Mumbai killers’ tactics raise chilling prospect
LONDON — Agents for Britain’s MI5 intelligence service have concluded tactics used by the Mumbai terrorists have raised the chilling prospect that they were trained by someone who had acquired his skills in Western special forces — or had obtained its secret manuals on how to launch a full-scale surprise attack against one of the world’s largest cities, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
“We cannot rule out that the training of the killers could have been done by Muslims who had served in the Army, U.S. Special Forces or the Russian Spesnaz,” said an intelligence source.
While MI5 agents try to pin down if Britons actually were involved in the attack, a specialist team is working with the Ministry of Defense to comb the records of all those who served in the army and underwent specialist training.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Moves Army From Terror Front to India Border
Pakistan is withdrawing troops from the fight against al-Qa’ida and the Taliban to redeploy them to its border with India as tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations escalate over the terrorist massacre in Mumbai. […]
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari urged India not to “overreact” after Indian and US officials suggested the militants could have been from the Pakistan-based LET. The group was behind the deadly 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war.
“If something happens (amid the rising tensions with India), the war on terror cannot be our priority,” a senior Pakistani official told a media briefing yesterday. “We’ll take everything from the western border (with Afghanistan — the main area of al-Qa’ida and Taliban activity). We won’t leave anything there.”
Indian army sources said forces near Pakistan had been placed on a raised alert before a meeting that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called with security chiefs in New Delhi today. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Expert Says Mumbai Attackers Trained by US Funded Pakistanis
MOSCOW: A top Russian counter-terrorism expert on Sunday underlined that the Mumbai attackers were not “ordinary terrorists” and were probably trained by the special operations forces set up in Pakistan by the US intelligence prior to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The handwriting and character of the Mumbai events demonstrates that they were not ordinary terrorists,” said Vladimir Klyukin, an Afghan war veteran.
“Behind this terrorist attack there are ‘Green Flag’ special operations forces, which were created by the Americans in Pakistan, just an year before the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, and in the initial period were under full US control,” stressed Klyukin, a veteran of the special “Vympel” commando group of the former Soviet KGB.
He said for such guerrilla operations at least two-three years of preparatory work with the involvement of experienced instructors is required.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Macquarie Bank’s $500k-Plus Christmas Party in Sydney
THE financial world may be in meltdown, but Macquarie Bank has splashed out between $500,000 and $750,000 on one of the most lavish Christmas parties held in Sydney.
While other companies cancel or downgrade their end-of-year bashes as 2008 ends in financial disarray, the so-called “millionaire factory” spared no expense, hiring Cockatoo Island on Sydney Harbour to stage a gothic extravaganza last Thursday.
The company, which may be forced to shed jobs as the share price and the value of mum-and-dads’ portfolios crumble, transformed a huge hall into an eerie cathedral, complete with candelabras, coffins and church pews.
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Hundreds Dead in Nigerian Clashes
Hundreds were killed and thousands forced to flee their homes in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. About 400 bodies were brought to the mosque following the worst sectarian riots since President Umaru Yar’Adua took office last year, said Khaled Abubakar, imam of the central mosque in Jos.
“Families are coming to identify and claim the bodies, while those that cannot be identified or nobody claims them will be interred by the mosque,” he said. Road links to Jos from the Muslim-majority north were sealed yesterday, and flights to the city were cancelled. […]
Locals said several churches and mosques were razed in the violence, which started with a rumour that the All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost the local election to the federal ruling People’s Democratic Party. The ANPP is perceived in Jos to be a predominantly Muslim party, and the PDP to be mainly Christian. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Abu Zayd,West Should Get Rid of Fundamentalists Model
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 20 — “It is necessary for both Muslims and Westerners to get rid of the reference model which uses the monolithic talk of Islam, created indeed by the fundamentalists”. So stated the Egyptian intellectual Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. He repeated the need for both parties, in the West as well as in the Islamic world, to go back to using those skills for rational and critical analysis which forms part of the histories of both. Since 1995, he has been living in Holland after being sentenced for apostasy in his homeland. If this liberation does not take place, continued Abu Zayd, who was speaking at a meeting yesterday evening, promoted in Rome by ResetDoc and by the Centre for American studies, “we are destined to cultivate a mistaken idea of Islam, confusing it with the prevailing speech of the integralists, or rather combining an unrealistic and apologetic position, by de-contextualising Islam from past or present circumstances”. “In this way we should be convinced”, he added, “that this is a religion only of peace, detached from the violence that is so often perpetrated in its name”. A criticism, made by Abu Zayd, explicitly targeting the film Fitna by the Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders, with his “mirror image of the ideology of Osama Bin Laden”, but also involving politicians and western media who deny voice and visibility to the vast majority of Muslims. Against the traps of “demonization” or “idealization” of Islam, according to Abu Zayd, there is no other path than placing Islam “in the correct historic context” and bringing the Koran closer by means of an “objective historical prospect”, in a “mature, spiritual and contextualised” vision of the holy text. Only in this way, he maintains, can pluralism and tolerance become the “prevailing voices” in all Muslim societies. In these societies, he emphasizes “accusations of blasphemy and apostasy still represent crucial weapons in the arsenal of the fundamentalists” to prevent a path of reform of those same Muslim societies, and “they create a serious obstacle to the use of reason in exploring the contemporary ‘significance’ of the Koran’s message”. Thus releasing the ‘profound substance’ of the holy message. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
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