The Greek riots continue to escalate. See the additional reports collected here: police stations were attacked, banks were firebombed, and businesses were destroyed.Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, ESW, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, MESI, MNA, RRW, Steen, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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ATF: Accelerant Poured Around Palin’s Church
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Federal investigators in Alaska say an accelerant was poured around the exterior of Gov. Sarah Palin’s home church before it was heavily damaged by a fire.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday that the accelerant was poured at several locations around the church, including entrances.
Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent Nick Starcevic says laboratory tests will determine what the accelerant was.
The blaze was set at the main entrance of the Wasilla Bible Church on Friday evening while a small group, including two children, were inside. No one was injured.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dinner With Bill and Bernadine Ayers: $450
The group Area Chicago last weekend held a benefit auction of goods include a backpack, a massage, and “dinner for 4 from Bill Ayers at Bill and Bernadine’s house,” which started at $30.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Reserve Sued for Funding Shariah Products
A lawsuit has been filed against the Federal Reserve Board and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. over Wall Street bailout money going to American International Group, which is funding Shariah-compliant insurance and products.
WND reported a week ago that AIG has benefited from two major bailout agreements with the U.S. government giving $152.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to the company. Then it confirmed it is stepping up its dealings with Islamic finance offering homeowners insurance that complies with Islam’s religious Shariah laws.
[…]
“This lawsuit not only raises significant constitutional issues, it also shines a light on serious national security issues that our own government has created by direct financial support and ownership of a business that supports anti-American, radical Islamic activities,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, which is handling the case.
“Make no mistake, there is an internal cultural jihad under way against our great nation, and I fear that many of our political leaders are unwittingly complicit in it,” he said today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fitzgerald Renews Interest in Rezko-Obama Deal
Since arresting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has renewed interest in convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko’s part in the purchase of Barack Obama’s Chicago mansion, according to a former real estate analyst who says he was interviewed by the federal prosecutor in the past 10 days.
Kenneth J. Conner told WND he was interviewed by investigators from Fitzgerald’s office regarding the purchase of the Obama mansion and the adjacent vacant lot that Rezko’s wife, Rita, purchased simultaneously. As WND reported last week, Connor filed a civil complaint in October with the Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County alleging he was fired by Mutual Bank of Harvey, Ill., because he objected to land appraisals submitted on behalf of the Rezkos and the Obamas, with the complicity of the bank.
[…]
“The entire deal amounted to a $125,000 payoff from Tony Rezko to Barack Obama,” Conner previously told WND.
Get the book that started it all, Jerome Corsi’s No. 1 New York Times best seller, “The Obama Nation” ? only $4.95 today ? a fantastic $23 discount!
He explained: “If in fact the entire deal was a payoff from Tony Rezko to Barack Obama, a payoff or kickback, use whatever word you like, then for the deal to work, what had to happen was that Rezko had to over-pay for the vacant lot by as much as possible, or by the desired amount of the payoff, in any event.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Sides With Foreigners — Again
Presumably, the companies that will “take their place,” when GM, Ford and Chrysler die, are German, Japanese or Korean, like the ones lured into Shelby’s state of Alabama, with the bait of subsidies free-market Republicans are supposed to abhor.
In 1993, Alabama put together a $258 million package to bring a Mercedes plant in. In 1999, Honda was offered $158 million to build a plant there. In 2002, Alabama won a Hyundai plant by offering a $252 million subsidy.
“We have a number of profitable automakers in America, and they should not be disadvantaged for making wise business decisions while failure is rewarded,” says Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
DeMint is referring to “profitable automakers” like BMW, which sited a plant in Spartanburg, after South Carolina offered the Germans a $150 million subsidy and $80 million to expand.
Be it BMW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi or Hyundai, the South has become a sanctuary for foreign assembly plants, for which Southern states have been paying subsidies.
[…]
Do these Southern senators understand why the foreign automakers suddenly up and decided to build plants in the United States?
It was the economic nationalism of Ronald Reagan.
When an icon of American industry, Harley-Davidson, was being run out of business by cutthroat Japanese dumping of big bikes to kill the “Harley Hog,” Reagan slapped 50 percent tariffs on their motorcycles and imposed quotas on imported Japanese cars. Message to Tokyo: If you folks want to keep selling cars here, start building them here.
Fear of Reaganism brought those foreign automakers, lickety-split, to America’s shores, not any love of Southern cooking.
Do the Republicans not yet understand how they lost the New Majority coalition that gave them three landslides and five victories in six presidential races from 1968 to 1988? Do they not know why the Reagan Democrats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are going home?
The Republican Party gave their jobs away!
How? By telling U.S. manufacturers they could shut plants here, get rid of their U.S. workers, build factories in Mexico, Asia or China, and ship their products back, free of charge.
Republican globalists gave U.S. manufacturers every incentive to go abroad and take their jobs with them, the jobs of Middle America.
And, for 30 years, that is what U.S. manufacturers have been forced to do, as their competitors closed down and moved their plants abroad in search of low-wage Third World labor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Official: Barack Obama Elected 44th President
More than 131 million voters cast ballots — the most ever in a presidential election. But Obama’s election is not complete until Congress tallies the outcome of Monday’s Electoral College vote at a joint session scheduled for Jan. 6.
Monday’s voting was largely ceremonial, the results preordained by Obama’s Nov. 4 victory over Republican Sen. John McCain. Obama won 365 electoral votes, to 173 for McCain. With every state reporting, all the electors had cast ballots in accordance with the popular votes in their states.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Picks Dream Green Team
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama has made his most decisive break so far with the past eight years of George Bush by appointing a Nobel laureate in science and a supporter of Al Gore to head his energy and environment team.
[…]
Whereas Mr Bush relied on personnel from the oil and chemical industries, Dr Chu, 60, comes from the science world; his work has focused on advanced technology and renewable energy. He won his Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 and is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is outspoken on climate change dangers.
The greater responsibility for dealing with issues of energy and climate change falls to Ms Browner, who will co-ordinate the government agencies that deal with energy policy.
She was head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Bill Clinton and has worked with Mr Gore.
Mr Obama’s economic team has been criticised for being strongly allied with Wall Street. But he has given repeated signals he intends to deal with climate change.
“This time must be different,” Mr Obama said.
“This will be a leading priority of my presidency and a defining test of our time. We cannot accept complacency, nor any more broken promises.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Official: Emanuel Fast-Tracked Immigrants to Get Votes
A former INS official who attended meetings with Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel was a White House aide says the hard-charging Democrat relaxed rules to naturalize even criminal immigrants and secure their votes for President Clinton ahead of the 1996 presidential election.
President-elect Barack Obama, who has chosen Emanuel to run White House operations as his chief of staff, has promised to sign legislation that loosens immigration and puts even illegal aliens on a fast track to citizenship.
Emanuel coordinated with Hispanic community organizers in Chicago to rubberstamp immigrants for citizenship, the INS official said in an exclusive interview with WND.
It turns out the long-time Chicago political operative was the behind-the-scenes catalyst for Citizenship USA, a project run out of then-Vice President Al Gore’s office.
“Rahm was doing it under the guise of Al Gore’s Reinventing Government program,” said the official, who helped direct INS security policy. “He was definitely the point man and was past his neck in the scandal at INS.”
[…]
“They had immigration ceremonies at stadiums with DNC (Democratic National Committee) staff registering them as voters right there,” he added.
At one Chicago ceremony held inside Soldier Field, some 11,000 new citizens were sworn in.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
President Bush Thinking of Border Agent Pardons?
As president, George W. Bush has pardoned or commuted sentences for 32 drug dealers, 12 thieves, seven embezzlers, an arsonist, an armed bank robber and eight Thanksgiving turkeys, among others — but U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean remain in prison this Christmas, praying for their release.
[…]
Ramos was segregated from the general prison population after he was assaulted in a Yazoo City, Miss., federal penitentiary following an “America’s Most Wanted” episode that detailed the agents’ struggles.
“A couple of the inmates in general population on the night it aired recognized my husband on TV,” Ramos said. “They approached him shortly after the airing right when it was time to go to sleep, and five illegals just beat him severely.”
The agent suffered three herniated disks and a fractured shoulder from the assault.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Police Find Dynamite in Paris Department Store
Police in Paris today found five sticks of dynamite hidden in one of the city’s best-known department stores, apparently planted there by a previously unknown group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
The Printemps-Haussmann à Paris store, in the ninth arrondissement, was evacuated this morning and part of the street sealed off following a warning that explosives had been planted in the building.
A police sniffer dog found five sticks of dynamite on the third floor of the men’s section of the shop, the AFP news agency reported.
Later, the French interior ministry said the explosives had no detonators and were therefore not primed to explode.
“As far as we know, these were not explosives intended to detonate,” the interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie said. “We are still pursuing our inquiries.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Youths Attack Athens Police Building
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Masked youths attacked the Greek riot police headquarters in Athens and protesters clashed with police in a northern city Tuesday, in a revival of violence sparked by a teenager’s shooting.
Police said a group of 30 youths threw petrol bombs and stones at the building, causing extensive damage to seven cars and a police bus parked outside. The central Athens building is also used by traffic police.
After a two-day lull, violence flared across Athens on Tuesday. Schoolchildren blocked streets and dozens of teenagers gathered outside the capital’s main court complex and a maximum security prison — where some threw stones at police. Similar protests were planned in other parts of town later in the day.
Protesters also briefly occupied a state NET television studio, and interrupted a news bulletin holding banners calling for mass participation in the demonstrations. Footage of a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was suddenly replaced by some 10 youths in the studio.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Protesters Occupy State TV, Interrupt News
ATHENS (Reuters) — About 20 student protesters occupied Greece’s state television channel on Tuesday, interrupting a news broadcast in a demonstration against the police killing of a teenager.
“They came peacefully. There was no force used and they asked to protest on the air about the 15-year-old’s killing,” said a police official, who asked not to be identitied.
The channel showed images of the protesters for several moments before quickly cutting to advertisements and footage of the prime minister talking to his legislators in parliament earlier on Tuesday, the eleventh day of demonstrations following the shooting.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Riots: The Undercover News
The anarchist-radical network of disoriented youth is very strong in Europe as the riots in 2005 showed where the radicals and the Muslims joined forces to damage Sarkozy’s image to no avail. In France recently it was announced by the Ministry of Interior that French anarchists that were in contact with Greek and Italian counterparts, tried to sabotage the railway network (TGV trains). The inability of the western goverments to comprehend what is really at stake already has grave consequences for Europe. Moreover the deals being made between European and Russian energy companies that will increase natural gas imports by the former, greatly diminishes the influence of the Saudis in Europe along with their long-term income. The new American Administration should really understand that it has been used for a number of years by Riyad (and others) that has already managed to throw American forces into the Iraqi and Afgani battlefields were the new 21st century Mujahedeen forces are being molded. They will be used against Europe in a few years in a play that surpasses the ability of the Western capitals to deal with this kind of war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fini Blasts Fascism’s Racial Laws
Church criticised for silence over anti- Semitic policy
(ANSA) — Rome, December 16 — Parliament Speaker Gianfranco Fini on Tuesday criticised the Catholic Church for its silence when Fascist Italy adopted its anti-Semitic racial laws in 1938.
Speaking at a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the laws, Fini, who began his political career in the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), said that ‘‘Fascist ideology alone is not enough to explain these infamous racial laws and one must ask oneself why Italian society as a whole did not stand up against the anti-Jewish legislation’’. ‘‘And the same goes, and it pains me to say this, for the Catholic Church,’’ the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies added.
‘‘Today we remember this chapter in Italian history. Those laws represent one of this country’s darkest moments,’’ Fini observed.
Italy’s 1938 ‘laws for the protection of the Italian race,’ were drawn up along the lines of the anti-Semitic laws passed earlier in Germany and were in part responsible for more than 7,000 Italian Jews being killed in Nazi death camps.
Although there has been no official reaction from the Church to Fini’s statements, Father Giovanni Sale from the Jesuit magazine Civilta’ Cattolica told ANSA that his observations were ‘‘disconcerting’’.
Fini, he added, ‘‘does not know a page of this nation’s history which saw Mussolini and Pope Pius XI on opposing sides… Or perhaps he is seeking to divert responsibilites which have something to do with his own past, even if not a recent one’’. Words of appreciation for Fini’s observations were voiced by the former president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Amos Luzzatto.
‘‘This was important not only because it came from the third-highest official of the state, but because it also recalled how at the time the Church took no official position against the Shoah,’’ he said.
After rising to the top of the MSI, Fini, 56, was responsible for cutting the party’s Fascist roots and moving it into the conservative political mainstream as the National Alliance, which he first defined as a ‘post-Fascist’ party and later as a right-wing, pro-democracy party.
Fini’s condemnation of Fascism’s anti-Semitic policies were among the reasons which led hard-right elements to break away from the party.
The National Alliance leader, who once claimed that Mussolini was the greatest statesman of the 20th century, said that every effort should be made to ensure that Italy ‘‘unanimously condemns these obscene and tragic pages of our past.’’ His position against Fascist policies was consolidated in 2003 when, while deputy premier in an previous center-right government, he paid a ground-breaking visit to Israel.
The National Alliance will soon be merged into the fledgling People of Freedom Party (PdL), a conservative union with Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party and other center-right groups.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Centre-Right Wins Abruzzo Elections
Opposition suffers from regional scandals
(ANSA) — Pescara, December 16 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party has swept to victory in regional elections in Abruzzo, where the previous centre-left Democratic Party (PD) governor had to step down earlier this year following an alleged public health scam.
Centre-right candidate Gianni Chiodi won with 48.8% of the vote while Carlo Costantini of the small Italy of Values (IDV) party, being fielded by a centre-left coalition including the main opposition Democratic Party (PD), garnered 42.7%.
The PDL hailed Monday evening’s result as a crushing defeat for the PD, which received only 19.6% of votes — a drop from 35.3% in the last regional elections in 2005.
IDV was meanwhile celebrating a leap in popularity with 15%, up from just 2.4% in 2005.
Turn-out was unusually low at only 53% — a 16% drop from the last regional elections.
Chiodi was among observers who said the ‘‘ethical issue’’ had played a part in his victory, while the scandal-hit local PD continued to unravel right up until the ballots closed.
Regional elections had to be called after Abruzzo’s former PD governor Ottaviano del Turco stepped down in July after being arrested in connection with the alleged public health scam in which he is suspected of taking a bribe of almost six million euros.
He denies any wrongdoing.
On Monday evening the PD suffered another blow as the party’s regional secretary, Pescara Mayor Luciano D’Alfonso, was also placed under house arrest in a separate alleged kickback scandal.
Chiodi said the poor turn-out at the ballots demonstrated the electorate’s ‘‘disaffection with politics’’ and that changing opinion would be his ‘‘first challenge’’ as governor.
PDL HAILS ‘COLLAPSE’ OF OPPOSITION.
Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli said the election result was ‘‘the first test, brilliantly passed, by the Berlusconi government’’, while other observers said it was indicative of failings in the opposition.
PDL Senate whip Maurizio Gasparri described the PD’s loss as a sign of ‘‘the political and moral collapse of the Italian left’’.
‘‘The defeat of the PD in Abruzzi has been total, in the numbers, in moral judgement, even with the arrest of (PD leader Walter) Veltroni’s regional secretary as the ballots closed,’’ he said.
Northern League MP Giacomo Stucchi said the result cemented the ‘‘definitive defeat’’ of Veltroni’s political line since April’s elections as well as his ‘‘gifting of the opposition leadership’’ to IDV leader Antonio Di Pietro.
Veltroni admitted the defeat was ‘‘a particularly negative result’’. ‘‘It was a vote that indicates reasons for social disquiet and criticism towards a certain way of doing politics,’’ he said.
Former judicial graftbuster Di Pietro hailed the increase in votes for IDV but pointed out that because of the low voter turn-out Chiodi will govern the region ‘‘with a meagre 25% consensus of those who had the right to vote’’.
‘‘In Abruzzo the abstainers’ party won with 47% of the non-votes,’’ he added.
Photo: Gianni Chiodi and Silvio Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Prepare to Join European Open Borders Area
GENEVA — Swiss border guards primed travellers yesterday for the end of systematic border controls as the country joins Europe’s continent-wide zone of open frontiers.
Switzerland’s accession to the borderless travel zone today will close a gap at the heart of a 24-nation area that stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean.
The move will allow travellers to freely cross Switzerland’s land borders from France, Germany, Italy or Austria, all of whom have implemented the so-called Schengen agreement.
Airport checks on planes arriving from Schengen countries will be dropped from March 29 next year. The agreement is named after a small town in Luxembourg where it was first signed in 1985.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doctor Guilty of British Bomb Plots
AN Iraqi doctor was found guilty last night of trying to murder hundreds of people in failed attacks on London and Glasgow last year — the investigation of which led to the Haneef affair in Australia.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, was also found guilty in Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to cause explosions.
But after 24 hours and 15 minutes of deliberations, the jury cleared co-defendant Mohammed Asha, a 28-year-old Jordanian neurologist, of both offences, finding he had known nothing of his friend’s plans.
The Iraqi, who faces a life sentence, had admitted to the south London court that he was a “terrorist”, but accused the British government of terrorism too, and maintained that he was not trying to kill or injure anyone.
Lawyers for Dr Asha had said that he would not have fitted in with the alleged attackers because he was too brainy.
They argued that Abdulla and would-be Indian terrorist Kafeel Ahmed looked down on Dr Asha because of his concentration on his work at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
Abdulla, who will be sentenced tonight, showed no reaction as the verdicts were read out. Dr Asha is likely to be released from prison early today and deported to Jordan.
Police discovered two Mercedes-Benz cars loaded with gas cylinders, petrol and nails outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub off London’s Piccadilly Circus on June 29, 2007. The devices failed to explode because of faulty connections in mobile phones being used as detonators and the smothering effect of petrol and gas fumes, jurors heard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Innocent Britons ‘May be Branded Criminals Abroad’ After Big Brother Databases Agreement
Innocent British citizens may be drawn into foreign criminal investigations after the Government agreed to EU-wide access to its ‘Big Brother’ databases, the Conservatives have warned.
All 26 other member countries will be able to check against sensitive personal information held on driver registration, DNA and fingerprint computer systems.
Where there is a match, a suspect-could be extradited to face trial abroad or — at the least — be forced to explain their movements or provide an alibi to prove their innocence.
An example of the DNA kits used to take swabs from 4.6m members of the public, 800,000 of whom are innocent of any crime.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prison Bans Chapel Crucifix to Avoid Offending Muslims
A prison’s new chapel will not contain a crucifix to avoid offending Muslim inmates, it emerged today.
Bosses at HMP Lewes have been told the traditional Christian symbol, featuring Jesus nailed to a cross, must not be used in the Grade-II listed Victorian jail’s ‘multi-faith space’.
The room — part of a £1million new block — has been split in two, with one half featuring heated foot baths so Muslim worshippers can wash their feet before prayer.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Muslims Attempt Again to Attack Copts During Prayers
EGYPT (ANS) — Thousands of Muslims, who were angered by Copts celebrating mass in the Zagazig Diocese’s Hospitality Hall on Wednesday, December 10, gathered in the village of Kafr Farag Guirgis, in an attempt to attack the building.
Ashraf Ramelah, in a story written for Voice of the Copts, said, “The Muslim mob, which also included those from nearby villages, was armed with fire balls and gasoline bottles. The security forces had to intervene to contain the situation, closed the building and are still surrounded it.
“The more than 1300 Copts living in the village and who make up for more than 50% of the total inhabitants have no church to pray in, while the Muslims have four mosques. For over 12 years the Copts were celebrating mass in a place of around 100 square meters with no water or amenities. As the roof of that place became unsafe, they went to celebrate mass in the hall of the nearby newly built building for social services and hospitality, belonging to the Diocese of Zagazig. This angered the Muslims.”
A church deacon who was present during the incident told “Coptic News” that the people in the building did not want to leave the place and he added: “Our Coptic Church was built with the blood of martyrs, and we were ready to stay inside the building and be killed, however, we received orders from higher Church authorities to evacuate the place.”
Coptic lawyer Ashraf Edward said that it is now imperative to pass the law for the “Uniformity of the Construction of Places of Worship” which has been pending for the last sixteen years. He said that a group of Coptic lawyers and himself are now looking into the matter of this pending law from a legal perspective, and that “it is NOW time for action, and not for words.”
“It is worth noting that a similar incident happened on November 23rd when over 20,000 armed Muslims besieged 1000 Copts praying in the Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams, Cairo,” he concluded his story.
Note: Wikipedia reports that a Copt literally means an “Egyptian Christian”. Copts are not a cultural or ethnic minority but Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word “Coptic” was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general, but it has undergone semantic shift over the centuries to mean more specifically Egyptian Christian after the bulk of the Egyptian population converted to Islam. In modern usage, it is frequently applied to members of the Coptic Orthodox Church irrespective of ethnic origin. The Coptic Christian population in Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Christians represent around 10-20% of a population of over 80 million Egyptians, though estimations vary. Around 90% of them belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The remaining (around 800,000), are divided between the Coptic Catholic and the Coptic Protestant churches.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Meeting Blocked Between Top Arab and Israeli Official
Cairo, 15 Dec. (AKI) — Egyptian security officials are reported to have prevented a top Israeli defence official from meeting the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, in Cairo. The local daily, al-Misr al-Youm, said that Amos Gilad, advisor to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, had sought to meet Moussa (photo) while both were passing through the airport.
Security officials were apparently trying to avoid a repeat of the recent controversy when Egyptian cleric Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi shook hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi who is the head of Egypt’s al-Azhar University, came under fire from the Muslim Brotherhood after he greeted the Israeli president at a United Nations interfaith conference in New York in November.
Gilad conducted negotiations for Israel’s troubled truce with Hamas which took effect from June 19. He returned to Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian mediators but denied he was there to discuss renewing the truce.
“When we accepted a lull six months ago it was clearly understood that there was no end date,” Gilad told Israeli public radio on Monday.
“For Israel, the date December 19 has no significance.”
The Israeli army had taken advantage of the truce to make preparations for a possible operation into Gaza, said Gilad. But he warned against any attempt by Israel to take back control of the territory.
Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshal said in a television interview from Damascus with Hamas’s Al-Quds satellite television on Sunday: “The truce was limited to six months and ends on December 19.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Man Who Threw Shoes at Bush Hailed Hero
Demonstrations in support of journalist flood Sadr City, Basra, Najaf. Libyans and Palestinians also voice their support. In the past he had been kidnapped by a group suspected of links to al Qaeda. He is also well known as an exhibitionist.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Muntadar al-Zeidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W.Bush is being acclaimed a hero by many Iraqis and throughout Middle East nations.
Yesterday thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Sadr City, Basra and Najaf demanding his release, after he was stooped and arrested following his outburst during a press conference by the US President and Premier al Maliki.
The association of Iraqi journalists has described the journalist’s behaviour as “totally unprofessional”; the television network that employs him, al-Baghdadiya, has instead defended him saying he merely exercised his right to freedom of expression, one of the values that Americans came to Iraq to fight for. A Libyan organisation — led by Muhammar Gheddafi’s daughter — has awarded him a prize for courage. Palestinians and Saudis have also applauded his gesture.
Muntadar al-Zeidi is a 28 year-old Shiite, who graduated in 2005 from Baghdad University with a degree in journalism. In November of 2007, he was kidnapped for 3 days by a group suspected of having links to al Qaeda. His employer claims that no ransom was paid for his release. In January 2008 he was also stopped by American soldiers, who released him the next day with an official apology.
According to Muntadar al-Zeidi’s family he detests both the US presence in Iraq and Iranian influence in the nation. Many Iraqi’s feel that the US and Iran are fighting their war out on Iraqi soil.
Throwing his shoes at Bush the journalist shouted: “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!”.
According to his colleagues Muntadar al-Zeidi’s actions were also motivated by his exhibitionist character.
In the last year there has been a drastic reduction in violence throughout Iraq, even though attacks and conflicts continue, particularly in the North.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Denies Access to UN Envoy
[Translated by VH]
Actually it is not news at all. Israel refuses entry to an idiot that compares the country with Nazi Germany. Moreover a madman who says Bush was behind 9/11. But this is lunatic happens to be the human rights envoy of the United Nations …
Still Richard Falk could go buy a return ticket after he was denied access to Israel at Ben Gurion Airport. A good thing.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Turns Back Senior UN Official
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel has turned back UN human rights envoy Richard Falk upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport, authorities said on Monday, accusing him of “legitimizing Hamas terrorism.”
“Israel has made clear that Mr. Falk was not invited, nor would be welcome in Israel, under his capacity as special rapporteur” for human rights, the foreign ministry said.
Falk, who is the UN’s monitor of human rights in the Palestinian territories, last week prompted Israel’s ire when he said its policies against people in the territories amount to a “crime against humanity.”
UN officials said Falk was sent back to Zurich upon arrival at Ben Gurion, near Tel Aviv, on Sunday.
The Israeli ministry said Falk’s mandate is biased and that this is “further exacerbated by the highly politicized views of the rapporteur himself, in legitimizing Hamas terrorism and drawing shameful comparisons to the Holocaust.”
It also said Falk failed to follow procedures in arriving uninvited and while fully aware of “Israel’s clear reservation.”
On December 10, Falk called on the United Nations to make an “urgent effort” to “implement the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect’ a civilian population (in the Palestinian territories) being collectively punished by policies that amount to a crime against humanity.”
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip from all but basic goods since the Islamist movement Hamas, which is pledged to its destruction, seized power in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East: Top Officials Urge Israel to Ease Gaza Cash Shortage
Jerusalem, 15 Dec. (AKI) — Current restrictions on the transfer of cash to banks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are counter-productive and harmful to Palestinian moderates, top international aid officials warned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday in a letter.
The letter was signed by international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, by World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Zoellick, Blair and Strauss-Kahn said the Israeli restrictions were undermining the Palestinian banking sector, limiting Gazans’ access to the cash they need to cover basic needs and weakening the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The three officials warned that the current restrictions could boost the black market. Israel has tightened its blockade on the flow of goods and fuel into the Gaza Strip citing the clashes between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army that erupted there in early November.
The letter also expressed concern over a decision by two Israeli commercial banks to sever ties with Palestinian banks. The Israeli banks cited militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip last June as a reason for its action.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been unable to pay 77,000 Gazan government employees’ salaries in full and on time since Gaza banks shut their doors earlier this month citing a shortage of cash.
The payments help bolster support for Abbas in Gaza, sustain one-third of the Gaza Strip’s 1.4 million population, and prevent the collapse of its blockade-crippled economy.
International officials have deplored what they describe as the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the aid-dependent territory, where Israel has allowed in only a trickle of essential supplies since 5 November.
Israel last week allowed armoured trucks carrying 100 million shekels (26 million dollars) to partially ease the severe cash shortage. Defence Minister Ehud Barak reportedly approved the transfer after Israel’s central bank requested it saying the Palestinian banking system faced possible collapse.
The sum fell short of the 250 million shekels (65 million dollars) the Abbas government said it needed to pay all government workers in the Gaza Strip.
Barak’s decision was criticised by other members of the Israeli cabinet who said the cash should be withheld to increase pressure on Palestinian militants to free kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Militants snatched Shalit in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doctor Convicted of Car Bombings
London, 16 Dec. (AKI) — A British-Iraqi doctor, Bilal Abdulla, was on Tuesday convicted of conspiring to carry out car bomb attacks at Scotland’s Glasgow Airport and in central London last year. A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London convicted Abdulla of planning the abortive home-made bomb attacks and found him guilty of conspiracy to murder and cause explosions. He faces a life sentence.
Jordanian Mohammed Asha, a 28-year-old doctor, was cleared of all charges against him including abetting and funding the plot.
Another doctor who worked for the British health service, Kafeel Ahmed died from burns following the attack. In the attack, he and Abdulla attempted to ram a Jeep Cherokee, packed with fuel containers and gas canisters into the international terminal on 30 June.
The attack failed as the blazing Jeep became jammed in the terminal doors (photo). The court was told a note from Abdulla to Al-Qaeda was found inside the vehicle thanking it for teaching him “a love of death.”
Ahmed, a 28-year-old Indian engineering student, died a month after the Glasgow attack from burns, after dousing himself in petrol and setting himself alight at the scene.
A day earlier, Abdulla and Ahmed planned to detonate two vehicles packed with gas canisters, fuel containers and nails next to a nightclub and a bus stop in London’s busy West End district. The car bombs failed to detonate.
Prosecutors told the jury the two men had been intent on “committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale.”
At the time of the attacks, Abdulla was working as a junior doctor at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley near Glasgow. He admitted in court that he was a “terrorist” as defined by British law.
Abdulla, who returned to Baghdad with his family when he was five, told the court he was angry about brutality by western forces in Iraq, but never intended to injure or kill innocent people.
The prosecution said Abdulla was motivated by perceived injustices perpetrated against Muslims in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saudi-born Asha, 23, a neurologist at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, denied any knowledge of the attacks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
What They Say Isn’t What You Hear
by Barry Rubin
The full horror of contemporary Middle East politics and debate is comprehended by few in the West, largely because they aren’t informed by their political leaders, intellectuals, and media.
Occasionally, the truth emerges, as on September 11, 2003, but soon is reburied under mountains of obfuscation. After all, Iran’s president called for Israel to be wiped off the map, according to the official Iranian translation, and the New York Times publishes an article analyzing whether this ever happened.
I imagine exchanges like this:
Middle Easterner (in Arabic): “We’ll wipe you out, kill your children, and trample your cities into dust!”
Translator (in English): “He says that justified grievances about American aggression are creating hurt feelings which can only be resolved by Western policy changes.”
These thoughts are inspired by at least four examples this week.
First, an Arabic-speaker writes me, “Right now I’m watching Himam As-Sa’id, leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, on al-Aqsa TV giving a speech (or rather a rant). He’s screaming about how the Islamic armies will turn Palestine into a graveyard for the Jews.” This is followed by threatening the Jordan government as traitorous for making peace with Israel and “the usual clichés.”
But then my friend concludes: “As we all know, this isn’t the sort of language the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood uses when speaking English.” For good measure, he inserts some links to Western newspaper articles that claim the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is really a moderate organization with which Western governments should dialogue.
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Draft Nuclear Accord Reached With US
Abu Dhabi, 15 Dec. (AKI) — The United Arab Emirates and the United States have completed negotiations on a draft agreement on nuclear energy. The UAE’s state news agency WAM said on Monday that the so-called ‘123 Agreement’ would allow for the transfer of nuclear-related components and materials between both countries.
The ‘123 Agreement’ refers to Section 123 of The United States Atomic Energy Act, entitled ‘Cooperation with other nations’.
“We are confident that the agreement highlights the transparency of the civilian nuclear energy programme the UAE is embarking on and should be lauded as the gold standard of nuclear cooperation agreements,” said Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s Ambassador to the US.
“It is the view of the UAE government that the proposed UAE 123 agreement sets a new standard in ensuring the highest standards of safety, security and non-proliferation within the UAE program.”
However, some US lawmakers have voiced their concern about the UAE’s alleged inaction in curbing Iran’s nuclear plans and US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the agreement still needs Congressional approval.
The UAE and Iran also have strong trade links. Iran has recently become its top trade partner with bilateral trade totalling 14 billion dollars.
The US and other western powers suspect Iran may covertly be building atomic weapons. However, Iran has consistently claimed its uranium enrichment programme is entirely peaceful and aimed solely at civilian nuclear power, in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The UAE already signed a nuclear cooperation deal with France in January and it was later endorsed in March during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. French companies Total, Suez and Areva have expressed interest in the development of two nuclear reactors in the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Warships Bound for Cuba in New Show of Strength
A group of Russian warships will from December 19-23 visit the Communist island of Cuba, a long-time adversary of the United States and Moscow’s ally in the Cold War, the Russian navy said on Monday.
“This will be the first visit to Cuba by Russian warships since the Soviet era,” the Russian naval headquarters said in a statement.
The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two other ships will visit Havana in what the navy described as a “significant practical step towards strengthening and developing ties between the two states’ navies.”
Russian ships have been touring countries close to US waters in what is seen as a riposte to Washington’s own moves in Russia’s Soviet-era sphere of influence, including US naval deployments in the Black Sea.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Honour Killings in Pakistan
by Tariq Ali
[…]
Consider the following. A man dreams his wife has betrayed him. He wakes up and sees her lying next to him. In a fury he kills her. This really happened in Pakistan and the killer escaped punishment. If dreams are to be treated as justification for an honour killing, what woman is safe? Since the police and the judicial system regard murder in the family as a private affair, most cases don’t get to court even if they’re reported. Society, it’s said, needs to protect its foundations. So mostly we rely on the information collected by the Human Rights Commission and on courageous lawyers like Hina Jilani and Asma Jehangir, two sisters both of whom have received numerous death threats.
In 1999, Hina Jilani was in her office with Samia Sarwar, a mother of two from Peshawar seeking a divorce from her husband, when Sarwar’s mother burst into the room with two armed men in tow and had her daughter shot dead. In 1989 Samia Sarwar had married a first cousin. For six years he beat her and kicked her. But after he threw her downstairs when she was pregnant with their second child, she went back to her parents’ house. The minute she told them she wanted a divorce they threatened to kill her. Yet they were educated and wealthy people.
One widely reported murder this year was that of Tasleem Solangi, the 17-year-old daughter of a livestock trader in the Khairpur District of Sindh. She wanted to go to university and become a doctor like her uncle, but instead agreed to marry a cousin in order to settle a protracted family dispute over property. Her mother, Zakara Bibi, tried to stop her, but Tasleem was determined. Her father-in-law, Zamir Solangi, came to collect her and swore on the Koran that no harm would befall her. A month after the marriage, Zakara had a message from her daughter: ‘Please forgive me, mother. I was wrong and you were right. I fear they will kill me.’ On 7 March, they did. She was eight months pregnant. The Koran-swearer accused her of infidelity and said the baby was not his son’s. She went into labour, her child was born and instantly thrown to the dogs. She pleaded for mercy, but the dogs were set on her as well and the terrified girl was then shot dead. On this occasion at least there was an inquiry. Her husband was charged with Tasleem’s murder and is currently awaiting trial.
Another case much discussed this year is that of five women in Baluchistan who were buried alive in Baba Kot village, about 250 miles east of Quetta, the Baluch capital. Three of the women were young and wanted to marry men they’d chosen for themselves; two older women were helping them. Three male relatives have been arrested. According to the local police chief, the brother of two of the girls has admitted that he shot three of the women and helped bury them, though they weren’t even dead. The trial date is awaited.
Traditionalists have always considered love to be something that brings shame on families: patriarchs should be the ones to decide who is to be married to whom, often for reasons to do with property.
| — Hat tip: MNA | [Return to headlines] |
India Gearing Up for Pakistan Attack
The Pentagon says that India becomes ready to attack Pakistan in retaliation for the recent Mumbai attacks that killed about 200 people.
Washington has information that India’s air force began preliminary preparations for a possible attack, three Pentagon officials told CNN on Monday.
One official said that India’s air force ‘went on alert’, giving no further details.
The US concluded these preliminary preparations could put India quickly in the position to launch air strikes against suspected terrorist camps and targets inside Pakistan, a second official said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal Increases Security Measures After Attacks in Mumbai
Checkpoints in the streets of the capital, high alert at the airport, controls around hotels where foreigners are staying. Increased deployment of security forces at the border with India. Nepalese citizens must carry identification documents in order to move around the country.
Kathmandu (AsianNews) — The capital and the major cities of the country are in a state of alert, checkpoints have been set up at regular intervals along the streets of Kathmandu, and more police have been deployed at the airport. After the attacks in Mumbai, Nepal has decided to increase its security measures.
The government headed by Maoist leader Prachanda has ordered people in transit to carry their identification documents at all times. The same obligation is extended to movement toward India, the borders of which remain open. The governments of the two countries have also doubled the number of soldiers posted at the frontier.
According to intelligence sources, Nepal was involved in the attacks in Mumbai, because of the presence of support bases for Pakistani terrorists of the group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The defense minister of Kathmandu, Ram Bahadur Thapa, has discussed anti-terrorism activity with the governments of Beijing and New Delhi. “The attacks in Mumbai are a cause of concern for us as well,” the minister said, “so we are proceeding with preventive action. We are helping India, and at the same time India is helping us. We don’t want to leave any room for anti-nationalist and terrorist activities in Nepal.”
The spokesman for the council of ministers, Modaraj Dottel, explains that the security alert also concerns foreigners, especially the hotels where they are staying in Nepal. He added, “we are more strict with the Islamic states and with the terrorist organizations that originate there.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Mystery Grows Over General’s Slaying
Pakistani newspapers gave prominent coverage on Monday to a British media report that a retired general gunned down in Islamabad last month planned to blow the whistle on fellow generals’ dealings with the Taliban.
Jang, Pakistan’s biggest selling Urdu-language newspaper, ran a story on its front page headlined: “Gen. Alavi was against pacts with Taliban, Musharraf had sacked him.”
The reports in Jang and other Pakistani dailies were based on a story published in the Sunday Times, and written by Carey Schofield.
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5337881.ece)
Major-General Amir Faisal Alavi, a brother-in-law of Nobel prize-winning British novelist V.S. Naipaul, was shot dead along with his driver on the outskirts of the capital on November 19.
[…]
Western and Pakistani analysts have long harboured suspicion that Pakistan has played a double game by supporting Taliban factions in the years since 2001, despite the heavy casualties suffered by its security forces fighting militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka: More Children Forced to Join Tamil Rebels, Says Report
Colombo, 15 Dec. (AKI) — Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger militants have increased the forced conscription of soldiers, including children, a human rights watchdog said on Monday. Human Rights Watch said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has also tightened restrictions on civilians trying to flee intense fighting in the country’s north.
In a report released on Monday, the New York-based group said the Tigers were “brutally abusing the Tamil population in areas under their control”.
“The LTTE claims to be fighting for the Tamil people, but it is responsible for much of the suffering of civilians in the Vanni (district),” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
“As the LTTE loses ground to advancing government forces, their treatment of the very people they say they are fighting for is getting worse.”
Using a coercive pass system to prevent civilians from leaving areas it controls, the LTTE has now completely prohibited movement out of the northern Vanni region, except for some medical emergencies, Human Rights Watch said.
The group estimated only about a thousand people have managed to flee the conflict zone since March 2008.
“By refusing to allow people their basic rights to freedom of movement, the LTTE has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians in a dangerous war zone,” said Adams.
Human Rights Watch says LTTE cadres have urged teenagers aged from 14 to 18 to join them.
As intense fighting between Tamil rebels and government forces continues in the north, the financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s credit rating to five levels below investment grade.
Concerns about security and ballooning debt lowered the long term foreign currency rating to B from B+ — the same level as the African countries of Cameroon and Burkina Faso.
Government forces claimed at the weekend they were poised to overrun the political headquarters of separatist Tamil Tiger militants.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US: India Prepared for Pakistan Attack, Say Pentagon Officials
Washington, 15 Dec. (AKI) — India began preparations to attack Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Pentagon officials told US media on Monday. Unnamed defence officials cited by CNN said the Indian Air Force was carrying out preliminary preparations for airstrikes, after the deadly bombings in India’s commercial capital that killed over 170 people and injured close to 300 in November.
One official said that India’s Air Force ‘went on alert’, while another said that preliminary preparations can put India in a position to launch airstrikes against suspected terror camps in Pakistan.
US officials made their remarks after an Indian aircraft reportedly violated Pakistani airspace twice on Saturday. Tensions between the nuclear neighbours have risen following the Mumbai attacks (Photo).
India says the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Toiba is to blame for the bombings that targeted two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. However, Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks, but has pledged to work with the Indian investigation.
Pakistan has arrested members of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, accused of being a front for Lashkar-e-Toiba militants allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UNHCR Recommendation: “a Europe Without Barriers”
UNHCR is issuing today a document entitled “A Europe Without Barriers,” containing its recommendations to the Czech Republic, which will take up the rotating Presidency of the European Union (EU) for a six-month period on January 1, 2009.
UNHCR remains seriously concerned that current laws and practice within the European Union mean that persons in need of international protection are not necessarily able to find it throughout the Union. In the document, UNHCR urges the Czech Presidency to ensure the outcome of negotiations among the EU member states is consistent with international refugee law and human rights law. Such negotiations, particularly on the amendments to the Dublin II Regulation and the Reception Conditions Directive should result in improved conditions for persons seeking protection in member states located at the EU’s external borders and facing particular migratory pressures.
UNHCR urges the Member States to tackle the widely divergent levels of protection available across the EU through legislative amendments and practical cooperation. In its recommendations, UNHCR endorses the proposed creation of a European Asylum Support Office to promote practical cooperation on asylum among Member States. Given its supervisory responsibility regarding implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, we consider that a formal role for UNHCR in relation to this support body is essential.
In its recommendations, UNHCR endorses the proposed creation of a European Asylum Support Office to promote practical cooperation on asylum among EU member states. Given its supervisory responsibility regarding implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, we consider that a formal role for UNHCR in relation to this support body is essential.
UNHCR also encourages the incoming EU Presidency to promote greater solidarity within the Union as well as with third countries. In particular, UNHCR urges greater EU engagement in refugee resettlement and the swift implementation of the November 2008 conclusions adopted by the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs for the resettlement of particularly vulnerable refugees from Iraq.
UNHCR hopes that the discussions on migration management during the Czech Presidency will acknowledge the vital need to ensure that responses to migration challenges incorporate safeguards for people seeking asylum in the EU.
UNHCR’s recommendations to the Czech EU Presidency can be found on our website: www.unhcr.org/eu
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
3 of 4 Universities Censor Speech
Universities across the nation are bastions of censorship, not education, according to a new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The organization’s 2009 report on campus speech codes charges colleges and universities routinely and systematically violate students’ and faculty members’ right to freedom of expression.
The report, called “Spotlight on Speech Codes 2009: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses,” says policies at 364 colleges and universities were reviewed, and 74 percent “maintain policies that clearly restrict speech that, outside the borders of campus, is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
“Unfortunately, this year’s report demonstrates that ? despite decades of precedent declaring speech codes unlawful and two decisions this year alone ? the majority of colleges and universities brazenly maintain policies that violate students’ and faculty members’ fundamental rights,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “Everyone who values the free exchange of ideas should be deeply disturbed by these findings.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minorities: Express Shame for a Change
Gay pride. Jewish pride. Black pride. Hispanic pride.
Multiculturalism.
Ethnic pride. Minority rights vs. “tyranny of the majority.”
For a generation, America has been awash in the celebration of minorities and minorities’ celebration of themselves. Just recall “Black is Beautiful” or “I am a woman, I am invincible.”
At the same time, the majority group in America — white Christians — has been allowed to celebrate very little. Rather, they have constantly been reminded of what they should be ashamed of — their racism, sexism, homophobia, patriarchy and xenophobia — real and alleged.
But what about minority shame?
Why does one almost never hear expressions of group shame from members of any American group other than white Christians (specifically, white Christian male heterosexuals)? Are the only evildoers in America white male heterosexual Christians? Is there something inherently wrong about members of minorities expressing anything but group pride? Are there no minority sins worthy of shame? The latter is in fact the argument advanced by many intellectuals concerning black racism, for example. For a generation, college students have been taught that it is impossible for blacks to be racist because only the racial group in power, i.e. whites, can express racism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ending Impunity or Decreasing Accountability Averting Abuse of Universal Jurisdiction
[Video]
In 1998, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant against former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet while he was in the United Kingdom 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 j urisdiction and the rejection of sovereign rights. In years since, courts in some Western nations have invoked concepts of 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 furor. Courts in Jordan have purported to have the authority to try Danish journalists for “insulting the Prophet.” This litigation has yet to be resolved.
Supporters have hailed the spread of trials and civil suits based upon 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.
On the tenth anniversary of the Pinochet case, this conference will take stock of the record of universal jurisdiction, as well as the grounds for supporting and opposing it. At the conference, leading academic experts explored the law and theory of universal jurisdiction. A public closing panel of the conference presented the public with a critical look at the promise and perils of universal jurisdiction and a debate about its mixed record.
| — Hat tip: MESI | [Return to headlines] |
Google Wants Its Own Fast Track on the Web
The celebrated openness of the Internet — network providers are not supposed to give preferential treatment to any traffic — is quietly losing powerful defenders.
Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers.
At risk is a principle known as network neutrality: Cable and phone companies that operate the data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic the same — nobody is supposed to jump the line.
[…]
Separately, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have withdrawn quietly from a coalition formed two years ago to protect network neutrality. Each company has forged partnerships with the phone and cable companies. In addition, prominent Internet scholars, some of whom have advised President-elect Barack Obama on technology issues, have softened their views on the subject.
The contentious issue has wide ramifications for the Internet as a platform for new businesses. If companies like Google succeed in negotiating preferential treatment, the Internet could become a place where wealthy companies get faster and easier access to the Web than less affluent ones, according to advocates of network neutrality. That could choke off competition, they say.
For computer users, it could mean that Web sites by companies not able to strike fast-lane deals will respond more slowly than those by companies able to pay. In the worst-case scenario, the Internet could become a medium where large companies, such as Comcast Corp. in cable television, would control both distribution and content — and much of what users can access, according to neutrality advocates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Annual Muslim-Catholic Dialogue Conference Underway
Vatican City, 15 Dec. (AKI) — The 11th annual inter-faith dialogue conference organised between the Vatican and the Libyan-based World Islamic Call Society got under way in Rome on Monday. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Responsibility of leaders in times of crisis’. Catholic and Muslim scholars are attending the gathering, which is is taking place until Wednesday
A senior Vatican cardinal, Jean-Louis Tauran (photo), head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is leading a delegation of twelve Catholic experts attending the talks.
The World Islamic Call Society’s Secretary General, Mohamed Ahmed Sherif, is heading the 12-man strong Muslim delegation to the talks.
The conference is organised in five sessions, centred on three themes: religious responsibility; cultural and social responsibility; and the search for inter-faith dialogue in times of crisis. It will conclude on Wednesday when participants are received by Pope Benedict XVI.
The World Islamic Call Society is a non-profit entity made up of over 250 Muslim organisations from around the world. Founded in 1972, its stated mission is to bridge gaps among religions and bringing them closer by promoting interfaith dialogue as well as to promote moderate Islam.
Tauran last month led landmark talks at the Vatican between top Muslim scholars and Catholic officials aimed at easing tensions between the world’s two largest faiths.
Pope Benedict in 2006 angered Muslims with a speech implying Islam was violent and irrational. In response, 138 Muslim scholars invited Christian churches to open new dialogue to promote respect and better understanding of each other’s beliefs.
A year earlier, deadly protests broke out in Muslim countries after a Danish daily printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which were republished around the world. Over 50 people died in the clashes.
There are around two billion Christians worldwide, just over half of them Catholic, and 1.3 billion Muslims
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
I hope Bush pardons those border guards.
I never knew there were so many Christians in Egypt; they are very courageous and faithful people.
About those auto jobs. I'm pretty sure there weren't any Big 3 Auto plants anywhere down south where all the recent "foreign" companies have been starting up work. And it's not as though the state governments have the power to magically send jobs overseas the way Congress "magically" does ;p
Besides, if the big 3 were making cars folks actually wanted to buy maybe there'd be less demand for "foreign" autos - most of which are now nearly entirely assembled in the US with parts made in the US. I see that GM has been fairly successful with some models in Europe and Russia - but for some reason they haven't tried releasing those smaller, more fuel efficient models in the US....shoot yourself in the foot but don't come crying to me.
And a Russian naval presence in S. America - I wouldn't be too concerned if the most "capable" ship they can send down there is a guided missile cruiser (albeit nuclear power) - this is more of a test run for them to make sure they can actually physically operate outside Russian waters than anything else.
Kinda like when they sent *2* bombers to Venezuela - one of which was piloted by a senior Col (or jr. general - can't remember which) - that's really good operational training.
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