At an emergency UN Security Council meeting, the Arab League pushed for a resolution requiring an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza, but the UK and the USA have rejected the idea. Meanwhile, a senior Hamas leader and much of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike.In other news, Front Page Magazine has named Geert Wilders “Man of the Year”.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, Insubria, JD, VH, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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AOL: Growing Majority Worried Over Eligibility
Even half in Illinois say issue should be reviewed, resolved
An unscientific poll being conducted by America Online reveals more and more people are having second thoughts about Barack Obama’s eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.
Those who raised questions about his vague history before the election largely drew scorn from the mainstream media, which cited an online image from Obama’s campaign that purportedly proved his U.S. citizenship with a Hawaiian “Certification of Live Birth.”
But the latest results from the America Online poll reveal that nationwide only 41 percent of the participants now believe there is no issue to be investigated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Blago Pick: Not Seating Me Could Appear Racist
Nominee for Obama’s vacant seat would be only black member of Senate
If Senate Democrats refuse to seat Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, some people could view it as racism, Burris said Wednesday.
“It could give the appearance to a lot of individuals — not only African-Americans,” Burris told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Wednesday in an exclusive interview. “Is it racism that’s taking place? That’s the question that someone else could raise.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Molotov Cocktail Thrown at Chicago Shul
No one was hurt in the fire bomb attack on Temple Sholom of Chicago, located in a North Side neighborhood of the city, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Police were notified just before 2 a.m. Monday of a fire at the synagogue. When they arrived, they discovered a small fire in a fenced-in playground area.
The newspaper reported that someone had thrown a bottle stuffed with a rag soaked in an unidentified liquid accelerant toward the building. Almost no damage to the wall was visible after the fire was put out.
The attack may have been related to Operation Cast Lead, the current IDF operation in the Gaza Strip.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Protect the Secret Ballot
A few years ago, 16 of Congress’ most liberal members wrote Mexico’s government, “We understand that the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required, by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose.”
The nominee as new U.S. secretary of labor, Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., in 2007 protested that a secret ballot should be used by the congressional Hispanic caucus to pick its new chairman.
But all these members of Congress reversed course when American labor union bosses asked for a change in the law so they could bypass secret ballots by workers when deciding whether to organize a union. And the unions backing the change had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the last elections, trying to reverse the rapid decline of unionism in America.
They got their way when the U.S. House voted by 241-185 to approve the Employee Freedom of Choice Act — which actually reduces that very freedom. Rather than requiring secret ballot elections on joining a union, the law permits the unions to circulate “pledge cards” for workers to sign, even visiting their homes at midnight to “persuade” them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect in Aspen Bomb Plot Kills Himself
Officials say Jim Blanning, 72, planted two bombs in banks, shutting down the Colorado resort town on New Year’s Eve. He had feuded with local authorities in the past.
Reporting from Denver — A 72-year-old man who planted two bombs in banks, shutting down party-happy Aspen on New Year’s Eve, was found dead early today after he shot himself to death, police said.
The body of Jim Blanning, an Aspen native who had feuded with local authorities, was found in his Jeep in the hills east of the ritzy resort town, said Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn. The county sheriff recognized Blanning from bank surveillance tapes as the man who in 1995 had threatened to hang himself from the roof of the courthouse in a protest against local elites.
Blanning, who had been convicted of land fraud and served prison time, left a profanity-laden note at the Aspen Times on Wednesday night: “For the first two years I was in prison I woke up every [sic] wishing I was dead,” he wrote. “Now it comes to pass. I was and am a good man.”
Linn said Blanning left four packages, two at each bank. They contained rubber bladders that held five gallons of gasoline, a device that appeared to be a cellular trigger and a mousetrap-type device to stop the explosives from being disarmed. He said it was unclear whether the devices would have worked but that a bomb squad detonated one that “resulted in a pretty big fireball.”
On Wednesday night, police cordoned off the center of Aspen, closing dozens of swanky nightclubs and restaurants as they prepared for the New Year’s celebrations that draw thousands to the town annually…
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Britain May Take in Guantanamo Prisoners in Deal to Help Obama Close Notorious Jail
Britain could take in foreign terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay in order to allow incoming US President Barack Obama to shut the prison camp down, it is claimed.
Negotiations are ongoing in Whitehall with the Foreign Office pushing for a deal, according to reports. The final decision is expected to be made by the Cabinet.
President-elect Obama has pledged to close the notorious prison camp on Cuba, which holds detainees arrested as part of the war on terror.
But he faces the problem of having to re-settle around 60 inmates who have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their home countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Church of England Puts Its Faith in Al Gore’s Investment Arm
On Nov 18 the First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith reported that in late September the Commissioners had placed the funds with Gore’s boutique management firm which follows an “environmentally sustainable global equities mandate.” Funding for the investment came from “cash and Treasury bills”, he said, and not from the sale of UK equities as initially planned.
[…]
The firm invests in companies that follow “socially responsible” business model such as insulin manufacturer Novo Nordisk, Swiss food conglomerate Nestlé, and San Francisco’s New Resource Bank —- a “green” lender in the US.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Definitive Proof That the Bank of England Saw the Financial Crisis Coming
Looking back in our archives this Christmas I came across a rather important article which I had half forgotten about. It dates from 2006, when the credit crisis was a mere apple in the financial system’s eye and the City was enjoying one of its biggest booms in history. The article, which can be found here, reveals that the Bank of England knew precisely what risk was posed by the dangerous build-up of debt which was brewing in the economy.
More strikingly, its Financial Stability Report from 2006 was as far as I can tell the first major institutional missive explicitly warning about the dangerous funding gap building up in the British banking system.
As we wrote in our City Comment that day: “One statistic in particular shows precisely how exposed the City is to the bursting of the household debt bubble. At the beginning of 2001, our banks were not lending customers any more than the total amount of deposits they held. By the end of 2005, banks were lending customers £500bn in cash which simply wasn’t in the vaults. Should customers default on their loans, these banks could be in trouble, having to resort to borrowing chunks of money at penal interbank rates.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Secretary of Rome Mosque, Too Much Imam Anarchy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 16 — “Fundamentalism begins with the cult. Today there is too much anarchy amongst Italy’s Imams. There are even self-proclaimed Imams. Almost all of them issue opinions and interpretations of the religious laws. But we say that they should only be advising on prayer”. General secretary of the Rome mosque, Abdallah Redouane, was speaking in an interview with ‘Christian Family’, which devotes its next issue to Islam in Italy. “Sooner or later we must provide a centre for training Imams in Italy, which I believe should depend on the Grand Mosque in Rome” said Redouane. He believes that Lombardy is “one of the most anarchic areas”. But it was “the logic of conflict” he adds which “caused a lot of damage. Muslims were pushed into a ghetto” and extremists had “a stage at their disposal”. With more prepared Imams, says Redouane, referring to recent arrests on terrorism charges in Macherio, “there would be less deviance. We are working to add as many prayer rooms as possible to the Grand Mosque, in Lombardy as well”. On the question of the veil, he adds “there is no obligation. Obligations are imposed by local Imams”. The Secretary general asks Italy “to approve laws on religious freedom. And we ask certain political forces to stop building walls against walls. It is not true that there are no interlocutors amongst muslims. President of the House Fini, was here when he was Foreign Minister. We talk with the Holy See”. They asked for a meeting with Minister Maroni, “but so far we have had no response. But I do not despair. I have news of encouraging signs. But I cannot say more than that”. As for the Lega, “It is an interlocutor for us, even though we do not agree with anything the Lega says. Invite them to the Mosque? We are not putting up any barriers, we only want to reason on the meaning of any visit. Because if you invite someone to your house, but you know that he will continue to insult you, he is really not welcome”. Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, president of the Muslim Intellectuals, insists on the need for an officiale agreement between the State and the muslim community which “would solve the problems and bring a criterion of moderation to any discussion”. Christian Family also interviews Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, bishop of Terni and President of the CEI Commission for dialogue. For him, Islam in Italy “has many representatives. There has always been an excellent relationship with the Grand Mosque in Rome. But it does not represent everyone, in some mosques there is completely different behaviour than prayer. Islam is not only the Mosque on viale Jenner in Milan. We hope for the construction of true mosques, where Imams can speak with authority and other prayer centres are coordinated by central mosques”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Private Firm May Track All Email and Calls
‘Hellhouse’ of personal data will be created, warns former DPP
[Comments from JD: Tracking of email story: Ironic. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software was created to protect those living in Stasi-like states. As it turn out it’s creation was prescient as western countries adopt Stasi tactics. PGP and GnuPG will only increase in popularity, so watch for the authorities to outlaw encryption of emails as the next step…]
The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.
A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.
But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a “hellhouse” of personal private information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Friuli-Veneto, Euroregion With Slovenia, Croatian Counties
(ANSAmed) — TRIESTE, DECEMBER 31 — “The Euroregion will include Slovenia and the two Croatian counties” said the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Renzo Tondo, yesterday in Trieste. The president mentioned his recent meeting in Villach (Austria) with the president of Veneto, Giancarlo Galan, and the governor of Carinthia. “We have re-launched the project” said Tondo “starting with the things we want to do. But it is clear that the Euroregion must also include Slovenia and the Croatian counties”. “If we don’t do it” he concluded “we will do something else. Not the Euroregion”. The birth of the Euroregion, according to Galan, could be the best way to peace for the Mediterranean people at a time like this in which a conflict has been resumed after more than 60 years. “The shared political will expressed various times by me and my friend Renzo Tondo regarding the rapid installation of the Euroregion” added Galan, “represent hope for a peaceful 2009”. “In fact” he specified “I consider our Euroregion, that is the birth of a political institutional body which further unites its people and countries which up to a few decades ago have been at war, the best augury for people and countries which have a right to live in peace”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Serbia: Meeting in Friuli With Local Entrepreneurs
(ANSAmed) — TRIESTE, OCTOBER 31 — The president of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia, Renzo Tondo, has agreed with the Serbian ambassador to Italy, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, to organize a meeting between the economic system of the extreme North-East and the top institutional representatives in Serbia. The president said that “the meeting will take place in Friuli Venezia Giulia and will be aimed at getting to know the new investment and development opportunities offered by the Republic of Serbia more closely, in particular tax breaks for trade with Russia guaranteed by the agreement on free trade stipulated by the Belgrade and Moscow governments”. Raskovic disclosed to Tondo that the tax reduction regime applied to businesses located in Serbia with commercial relations with the Russian Federation. From Russia, he added, there are continuous requests for a large range of products — including wine — which are to be supplied in large quantities but also with the required quality. “Politics does not guide the economy”, commented the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia, “but vice versa, the production system has a dynamism which allows it to act quickly, eased by the institutions which are required to facilitate it and certify its actions”. Wishing for a “ever greater overall stabilization in Serbia”, Tondo then expressed his intention to intensify and expand the relations between the respective realities, estimating that “trade will be more frequent and induced above all by contacts aimed at favouring development of firms”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Vetoes UN Motion Against Gaza Attacks Hours Before Israel Kills Top Hamas Political Leader
Britain and the US have rejected a draft UN resolution demanding a halt to Israeli strikes at an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
It came as Gaza suffered a sixth day of violence today after hopes of the UN-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas foundered.
One air strike killed senior Hamas political leader, Nizar Rayyan — an outspoken advocate of suicide bombings against the Jewish state. Four others were also killed.
This is the first time aircraft have targeted a high-level member of the group.
Earlier, the UK and the US had refused to back the resolution because it made no mention of ended Hamas rocket attacks, which they claim started the latest hostilities.
[…]
As Britain pledged £7million in emergency aid, the Prime Minister urged both sides to accept proposals being discussed by the Arab League, which he said offered ‘the best way forward’.
He warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eichmann Trial Transcripts Now Available on Justice Ministry Web Site
The Hebrew translation of the full transcripts of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in the Jerusalem District Court and the subsequent appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court, as well as additional material related to the trial, have been posted on the Justice Ministry’s Web site.
The publication of the transcripts online was made possible by the Trust for the Publication of the Proceedings of the Eichmann Trial.
The English version of the transcripts are at www.nizkor.org
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
EU Commission Gives 12 Mln Euro to Palestine People and Iraq
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 23 — The EU Commission allocated 7.4 million euro in humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population and 5 million to the Iraqis. The funds will mainly be used for food and first aid and are an answer to the UN appeal to increase assistance also because of growing food prices. Some 1.9 million people will benefit from this assistance. Humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel said that “Many Palestinians and Iraqis depend on the international community to satisfy primary necessities such as food”. The funds will be handed over to NGOs, UN agencies and the Red Cross. Since 2006 the Commission, which is the largest single donator to the Palestinian population, made available 223.6 million euro to the occupied territories. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Heeding David Littman: Confronting Hamas’ Genocidal Jew-Hatred (Part 1)
January 1st, 2009 by Andrew Bostom
As my colleague Robert Spencer observed, Israeli President Shimon Peres appeared flummoxed by Hamas’ intransigence in comments made to Haaretz, reported December 30, 2008. “This shooting has no point, no logic, and no chance,” Peres told Haaretz after Hamas’ open renunciation of the ceasefire agreement (not to mention its prior extensive violations throughout the course of the so-called “tahdiah”), and brazen resumption of missile and mortar attacks into southern Israel—which has triggered a dramatic, aggressive Israeli military response. Worse still, the elder statesman remains dangerously ignorant of Hamas’ intimately related motivations—the genocidal destruction of Israel’s Jews, as a prelude to regional, then global jihad conquest. “Nobody in this world understands what are Hamas’goals and why it continues to fire missiles,” Peres asserted.
Mr. Peres is tragically emblematic of Israeli leaders and policymaking elites who for generations have ignored how the living institution of jihad war—conjoined in Israel’s unique case to Islamic Jew-hatred—were always, past and present, the primary motivations for those masses in the Arab and non-Arab Muslim world seeking the Jewish State’s destruction. Indeed, what was billed as the first discussion of global jihadism by the Israeli security cabinet even in the current world (not to mention local Israeli) environment was only just held at the end of this past July, 2008. The open jihad against Israel waged continuously for two decades by Hamas, since the jihad terror organization’s founding in 1988, combined with the astonishing ignorance and/or denial of this phenomenon by Peres (and the lost legions who share his mindset), represents the apotheosis of this alarming trend.
Contra Shimon Peres et al, and underscoring their corrosive folly, historian David Littman has waged an heroic personal campaign—in public, at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, since January, 1989—to elucidate key aspects of Hamas’ genocidal ideology, demonstrating unapologetically how this annihilationist hatred is sanctioned by Islam’s foundational texts. Littman reminded us why it is so critical to focus on Hamas’ odious foundational covenant as a binding documentary record of the organization’s specific beliefs and goals…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
IAF Hits Mosque Storing Rockets
As Hamas continued to bombard the South with dozens of rockets on Wednesday, senior defense officials said a ground operation was “days away.”
The air force struck Wednesday at more than 25 targets throughout the Strip, including a Gaza City mosque that the army said was being used to hide Kassam rockets.. The IAF reported several secondary explosions following the strike.
A number of Hamas outposts and command posts were also destroyed, as well as a tunnel in Khan Younis that was used to covertly move weapons throughout southern Gaza. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Strike Kills Senior Hamas Leader
GAZA (Reuters) — Israel killed a senior Hamas leader in an air attack on his home on Thursday, striking its first deadly blow against the top ranks of the Islamist group in a Gaza offensive that has claimed more than 400 Palestinian lives.
Nizar Rayyan, a cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas’s most hardline political leaders, had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Medical officials, confirming his death, said two of his four wives and seven of his children were killed in the bombing, in Jabalya refugee camp.
Hundreds of supporters scrambling over the concrete rubble vowed revenge as the mangled bodies, covered in blood and cement dust, were extracted from the wreckage.
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Apologising to the Armenians
‘Eroding One of Turkey’s Biggest Taboos’
More than 25,000 Turks have added their names to an online statement apologizing for Ottoman war crimes committed during World War I.
SPIEGEL spoke with campaign initiator Baskin Oran.
SPIEGEL: Since the beginning of your online campaign, more than 25,000 Turks have signed a statement apologizing for war crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. More than a million Armenians lost their lives in the catastrophic events, which began in 1915. Is this the beginning of a critical examination of the past? […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Bahraini Lawmakers Split Over Arrest of Terror Suspects
Manama: Bahrain’s lower house has again moved along sectarian fault lines with a furious standoff over the merit of issuing a communiqué on the arrest of alleged terror plotters.
However, it was reunited as it issued a statement condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Bahrainis have been divided, mostly along sectarian lines, over the arrest of the 14 accused, all Shiites, announced on Saturday by the interior minister.
The division was deepened after the airing by Bahrain state television of the confessions of 12 people and the divergence is now clearly reflected in local newspapers, with some of them calling for a zero-tolerance policy towards the accused with others focusing on their rights and condemning prejudiced views. […]
Denounced
Al Asala, Islamic Menbar and Future blocs as well as independent MPs said that the plot should be denounced by the representatives of the people because it targeted innocent people celebrating National Day. However, Al Wefaq, the sole Shiite bloc in the lower house, rejected the call, saying that it was discriminatory and arguing that no similar communiqués had been issued when a Sunni terror cell was uncovered in Bahrain in 2003. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Protesters Breach British Embassy
TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (UPI) — British authorities say everyone at the country’s embassy in Tehran is safe after hundreds of Iranian radicals stormed and briefly entered the compound.
The British Foreign Office said the “security breach” was contained quickly by Iranian police after hard-line Iranian students, who often stage noisy protests outside the British Embassy in Tehran, breached diplomatic territory and entered the compound Tuesday night, The Times of London reported.
Protesting the Israeli military assault on Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Iranian radicals stormed the compound, replacing the British flag with a Palestinian one, witnesses said.
British officials said it was the first time in decades Iranian protesters have breached diplomatic territory.
The Times said a hard-line Iranian news agency has indicated the protests against Britain and Egypt, whose embassy was also targeted Tuesday, would continue.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Mid-East: Gaza, Mubarak Rejects Israeli Plan to Divide Lands
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 30 — “We reject the Israeli plan to separate Gaza from the West Bank, which will cause the consequences of the division to fall on Egypt”, said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a message broadcast live on State TV. He added that “we in Egypt will not join in the favouring of the division on Palestinians by reopening the Rafah pass without the Palestinian Authority or EU observers, in violation of the agreement signed in 2005”. “I told the Israeli leaders that their bloodstained hands are causing all hopes of peace to vanish, I told the Palestinians to join together and put their differences aside — he added — I say frankly that resistance against the occupation is a legitimate and inalienable right, but this resistance is always responsible for the people who will evaluate the results, that is the gains and the losses”. Noting that he had ordered the reopening of the Rafah pass only for humanitarian purposes, the Egyptian President added that he would continue his efforts with Israel to open the other six border passes. “Egypt will not fall into Israel’s trap” he continued. “And it will not help to reinforce the separation of the two territories, which for us are occupied lands on which the Palestinian State will be created. The situation in Gaza saw a division last summer between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, a situation which opens the doors to Israel to continue their plans to separate Gaza from the West Bank. A situation which has extremely dangerous repercussions for the Palestinian people. I say again to Israel’s leaders: stop your aggression towards this people, stop your indifference over the Palestinian blood which is flowing. The occupation will end one day and the Palestinian cause will remain. Egypt will not give up its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE President Exempts Palestinians From Residency Charges
Dubai: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday ordered the exemption of all Palestinian passport and document holders from residency and immigration charges.
Also, Palestinian visitors, who are unable to go back home due to the situation in Gaza Strip, have been given a grace period.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Mohammad Orders Cancellation of New Year Celebrations
Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered the cancellation of all forms of celebrations marking the New Year in Dubai emirate, as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
In support of the Palestinians in Gaza, who are enduring all kinds of killing, destruction and displacement by the Israeli military machinery, Shaikh Mohammad instructed all concerned authorities in Dubai to put this order in place and take necessary procedures to circulate the decision to all concerned parties.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Bloggers Try to Counter Anti-Israel Russian Media Bias
The use of blogs for Israeli information campaigns in Russia started with a basic text posted by Marek Bibichkov, a former advisor to Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak, on his blog in which he offered a simple explanation about the war in Gaza and the reasons for it. 20,000 hits a day indicated a news vacuum existed.
“The information office” of the bloggers, most of whom worked for political parties in Israel looking for a way to win the Russian vote, organized spontaneously and operates independently, but receives backing and quiet cooperation from official information agencies that have identified the potential.
After a few successful days of blog public relations efforts, the phenomenon is also spreading to other languages, such as English, Belarus and Spanish.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Islamabad Finds Link Between LeT and India Attacks
Islamabad: Pakistani investigators have unearthed substantive links between the gunmen who attacked Mumbai in November and a banned Pakistani Islamist militant group, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ten gunmen killed 179 people in the attack on India’s financial hub that India has blamed on the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group was set up by Pakistani security agencies in the late 1980s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir but was banned in 2002, after Pakistan signed up to the US-led campaign against terrorism.
The Journal said in an online report yesterday at least one top LeT leader, Zarar Shah, captured in a raid last month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, had confessed to the group’s involvement in the attack. “He is singing,” an unidentified Pakistani security official told the newspaper, referring to Shah. […]
Shah told interrogators that he was one of the main planners of the assault and he had spoken to the attackers during the rampage to give them advice and keep them focused, the newspaper cited a second person familiar with the investigation as saying.
Shah had implicated other LeT members, and had broadly confirmed the account the sole captured gunman told Indian investigators, the second person told the newspaper. […]
Pakistani authorities did not have evidence that the LeT was involved in the attacks before the militants were arrested in Kashmir, the security official told the newspaper.
Their arrest was based only on initial guidance from US and British authorities, the newspaper cited the official as saying.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Brawl in Temporary Shelter in Siracusa, 20 Arrests, 6 Injured
(AGI) — Siracusa, 31 Dec. — A violent brawl, perhaps staged to cover an escape attempt, broke out last night among immigrants in the temporary shelter of Cassiile, near Siracusa. The police had trouble controlling the situation and at some point two policemen were held by some immigrants. The fight ended with the arrest of 20 North Africans. Six immigrants were injured, one was taken to the hospital of Noto with a fractured pelvis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Changing of the Guard
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has done little to protect the state from illegal immigration, and under her leadership Arizona is now tied for last place in the nation for emergency disaster preparedness.
[…]
Although Arizona has the highest rate of illegal immigration in the country, and the highest number of illegal immigrants proportionate to the general population of any state, Napolitano vetoed seven bills as governor that would have cracked down on illegal immigration. She supported drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants, and took away funding from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that he was using to enforce illegal immigration laws. She opposes a border fence, laughingly dismissing it, “you show me a 50 foot fence, I’ll show you a 51 foot ladder.”
Napolitano has made only two symbolic efforts to combat illegal immigration, repeatedly touted by her proponents as evidence she is tough on illegal immigration. The first was sending the National Guard to the border, which she was forced into doing after first vetoing a bill ordering her to. She initially tried to get out of it by claiming it was the federal government’s responsibility to fund the National Guard at the border. Ultimately she sabotaged the effort by limiting the role of the National Guard to administrative functions, not illegal immigration law enforcement.
[…]
Napolitano’s accomplishments prior to becoming governor of Arizona were unimpressive. She was tapped by former President Bill Clinton for U.S. attorney after she came to public prominence representing Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas at his judicial confirmation hearings. In his book, The Real Anita Hill, David Brock documented how Napolitano put a witness on the stand who wasn’t corroborating Hill’s version of the facts, so Napolitano took her off the stand and had her return and claim amnesia. After leaving the U.S. attorney’s office, Napolitano became state attorney general, where her only memorable accomplishment was banning Christmas decorations from the public areas of the office, which received national attention and protest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Tripoli, We Lack the Means to Stop Flows
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 30 — Libya is “worried” about the continual landings of illegal immigrants on the south coasts of Europe, many of which actually originate from Libya. However it has reasserted that it does not have the logistical means to stop the phenomenon of illegal immigration. This conclusion was reached at the technical meeting on immigration which took place yesterday in Tripoli in the presence of the Libyan Minister for European Affairs, Ramadan Bark. Delegations from Italy and France, the EU representative to Tunis and a member of Frontex (the European agency for the management of the borders and external borders of the EU) were also present at the meeting, which was organised by France, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Libya has again requested 300 million euro from the EU to be able to properly control the country’s desert borders at the south of the country. On this subject, minister Bark complained that the European Union has still not handed over the funds provided for by the Memorandum of Agreement between the EU and Libya, signed in July 2007 by Commissioner Ferrero Waldner. The aim of the meeting was to listen to the requests and evaluate Libyàs capabilities in terms of managing, monitoring and controlling the borders in the south of the country, in relation to the transit of illegal immigrants to its coasts. During the meeting, Mr. Bark underlined the good relations between Italy and Libya which has brought the 2007 bilateral accord on the joint patrolling of the coast in which the Italian government also committed to work alongside the EU to support cooperation programmes with Libya, with particular reference to illegal immigration. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migration: Italy, +75% Landings in 2008, First Repatrations
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 31 — A charter flight with 44 Egyptian immigrants on board took off last night from Lampedusa, final destination Cairo. It is the first ‘direct’ repatriation flight after the announcement from Interior Minister Roberto Maroni. In the meantime, the latest data confirm a strong increase in the number of landings this year along the Italian coast: +75% compared to 2007. Libya warns: we don’t have the means to control the flow. ‘‘Those who land in Lampedusa will be sent back within a few days, directly from Lampedusa, without being transferred to other Italian centres’’, Maroni said yesterday. Yesterday evening a charter took off from the island with a group of non-EU’s on board, 44 Egyptians among them: after a stop-over in Catania, where other immigrants were let off for the Pian del Lago Centre (Caltanissetta), the plane went on to Cairo. ‘‘That given by the government today — said the mayor of Lampedusa, Bernardino De Rubeis, — is a strong signal for the criminal organisations that exploit the phenomenon of illegal immigration. It must be clear that, from now on, after the identification by the police, the illegal migrants will be repatriated. Finally Lampedusa can be known again as a tourist destination’’. The repatriation operation was possible thanks to the bilateral agreement between Italy and Egypt, which allows for the repatriation of some hundreds of illegal immigrants, but 2008 has shown itself to be a massive year for increases in the landings: according to the latest data from the Interior Ministry, 36,900 non-EU’s reached the Italian coast, about 75% more than 2007’s 20,500. This year, the large majority gathered on Lampedusa (about 31,000), where the immigration centre was on the verge of collapse after recent landings. It is for this reason that many of them were transferred to other centres: today’s number is over 200. There are still a thousand on Lampedusa. The core of the problem is Libya, from where the majority of the boats depart. Yesterday, on the line of behaviour to follow with Libya, controversy erupted between Minister Maroni and his counterpart in the Defence Ministry, Ignazio La Russa, the first supporter of the ‘‘hard line’’, the other of ‘‘mediation’’. Yesterday from Tripoli came the news that Libya ‘‘is worried’’ about illegal immigration, a phenomenon that it does not have the means to fight. This is what emerged from the technical meeting on immigration that took place two days ago in Tripoli, organised by the French turn of the European Presidency, with the Libyan Minister for European Affairs, Ramadan Bark, an Italian delegation and a delegation from Malta, a representative from the EU in Tunis and a member of Frontex, the European agency that manages the borders. Three hundred million euros: this is the sum that Libya asked for again from the EU to control the southern borders of the country. This is what was put forward by Minister Bark, complaining that the EU has still not given the funds laid down in the memorandum of the agreement between the EU and Libya signed in July 2007 by Commissioner Ferrero Waldner. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mother Has Healthy Baby Boy Despite Abortion Warning by Doctor
A mother who was twice advised to have an abortion by doctors has gone on to have a ‘perfectly’ healthy son.
Gaynor Purdy was warned her first child could have a fatal chromosome defect and a life threatening heart condition.
But she rejected two suggestions to terminate the pregnancy and she and her husband Lee are celebrating life with their “perfect” ten-month-old son.
Mrs Purdy, 28, a quality control inspector, said: “We refused to give up on him, and decided throughout the pregnancy that as long as he was fighting, we would continue fighting with him.”
The couple from S
horpe, Lincs, were delighted when they discovered they had conceived shortly before their first wedding anniversary.
Four months into the pregnancy doctors told them that part of their unborn child’s heart was narrow and underdeveloped and would mean open heart surgery if the baby was born.
They were warned the condition could worsen and around Christmas last year, an immediate termination should be considered.
Further tests conducted a few days later on New Year’s Eve suggested the baby could also have Edwards Syndrome — the presence of an 18th chromosome — with a life expectancy of only up to four months if birth is survived.
Consultants again recommended the couple consider aborting the baby, fearing he would little to no quality of life once he was born.
For the second time, Mrs Purdy and her husband, a 29 year old forklift driver, declined the suggestion.
Kai was born six weeks premature on March 5 at S
horpe General Hospital weighing just 2lb 6oz and immediately admitted to intensive care, but was discharged within six weeks.
One side of his heart was slightly bigger than the other which may need an operation to correct in the future, but regular tests have been showing the condition is constantly improving.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ski Manager Shot After Professing Christianity
Investigators: Gunman asked ‘ religion’ questions before fatal attack
NEDERLAND, Colo. — A gunman who broke into a staff meeting at a Colorado ski resort ranting about religion asked the manager what he believed and shot him twice when the victim responded he was Catholic, according to reports published today about the tragedy.
The gunman later was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in a firefight alongside a snowy mountain road, authorities confirmed.
The Boulder County coroner identified the gunman as Derik A. Bonestroo, 24, who had been living in Nederland. According to a report in the Boulder Daily Camera, witnesses said Bonestroo burst into the staff meeting yesterday at the Eldora Mountain Resort near here.
Sheriff Joe Pelle said Bonestroo was yelling something about religion to employees when resort General Manager Brian Mahon heard the commotion and came into the room. The Camera said witnesses reported the shooter asked Mahon which religion he believed, and when Mahon said he was Catholic, the shooter fired twice and killed him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Warm Turns
Climate Change: The Earth has been warming ever since the end of the Little Ice Age. But guess what: Researchers say mankind is to blame for that, too.
As we’ve noted, 2008 has been a year of records for cold and snowfall and may indeed be the coldest year of the 21st century thus far. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.
Global thermometers stopped rising after 1998, and have plummeted in the last two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. The 2007-2008 temperature drop was not predicted by global climate models. But it was predictable by a decline in sunspot activity since 2000.
When the sun is active, it’s not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop near zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year, the start of a new cycle, the sun has been eerily quiet.
The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913.
[…]
In a speech at Harvard last November, Harvard physicist John Holden, President-elect Obama’s choice to be his science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, presented a “top 10” list of warming solutions.
Topping the list was “limiting population,” as if man was a plague upon the earth. This is a major tenet of green dogma that bemoans the fact that the pestilence called mankind comes with cars, factories and overconsumption of fossil fuels and other resources.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK Environment Minister Sammy Wilson: Man-Made Climate Change is a Con
Spending billions on trying to reduce carbon emissions is one giant con that is depriving third world countries of vital funds to tackle famine, HIV and other diseases, Sammy Wilson said.
The DUP minister has been heavily criticised by environmentalists for claiming that ongoing climatic shifts are down to nature and not mankind.
But while acknowledging his views on global warming may not be popular, the East Antrim MP said he was not prepared to be bullied by eco fundamentalists.
“I’ll not be stopped saying what I believe needs to be said about climate change,” he said.
“Most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about it.
“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed hysteria I’ve got to say as well.
“I mean I get it in the Assembly all the time and most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about climate change, not read one book about climate change, if you asked them to explain how they believe there’s a connection between CO2 emission and the effects which they claim there’s going to be, if you ask them to explain the thought process or the modelling that is required and the assumptions behind that and how tenuous all the connections are, they wouldn’t have a clue.
“They simply get letters about it from all these lobby groups, it’s popular and therefore they go along with the flow — and that would be ok if there were no implications for it, but the implications are immense.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man of the Year: Geert Wilders
By FrontPage Magazine
It’s a safe bet that Geert Wilders won’t be Time magazine’s Man of the Year any time soon. If anything, the unusually coiffed Dutch MP is a favorite hate figure of the Western media, which has spent years vilifying him as a “reactionary,” a “particularly dangerous type of demagogue,” a “racist” and an “Islamophobe.” Wilders would almost certainly plead guilty to the last charge, and with ample reason. His tireless campaign to sound the alarm about the growing threat of Islamic radicalism in the West has turned him into a target of Islamic jihadists and the object of untold assassination plots. A 2006 death threat, one of hundreds he’s received, declared that his “infidel blood will flow freely on cursed Dutch streets.” Al-Qaeda has specifically singled him out for slaughter. […]
For his impressive personal courage, his steadfast political commitment, and his refreshing disdain for the suffocating pieties of political correctness, Geert Wilders is Front Page Magazine’s Man of the Year in 2008. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
Israeli Strike Kills Senior Hamas Leader
Hundreds of supporters scrambling over the concrete rubble vowed revenge as the mangled bodies, covered in blood and cement dust, were extracted from the wreckage.
Splendid logic there, "We must avenge the fact that our leader was a genocidal murderer". Does anyone honestly think that Israel would continue its military actions if the Palestinians simply halted all further aggression against the Jews?
The Muslim ability to perpetuate a constant cycle of violence is supreme in its moronic nature. There will never be peace with Islam, ever. Only the threat of Islam's complete and total extinction can possibly bring even a temporary halt to its predation upon our world.
Man of the Year: Geert Wilders
... the suffocating pieties of political correctness ...
Now that's a keeper!
Interesting article in the Brussels Journal, Live in the Ruins, which argues that we are in effect already living in the ruins of our formerly great civilisation, and living in denial about it. We do rather appear to be a civilisation in decline.
Is it possible that a consequence of civilizational collapse is a refusal of the afflicted to admit that disaster has overtaken them, or even to know that a calamity has taken place? The controversial psychologist-historian Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979), who traced events in Greek myth and Old Testament chronology to celestial mishaps such as a comet-strike or disturbances of the lunar orbit, argued that existential events on a world-scale that toppled societies and disrupted the civilization-continuum also produced a kind of collective amnesia in the survivors. I am not an advocate of Velikovsky’s Cosmic-Biblical literalism (many respectable people charge Velikovsky with being a crank), as articulated in the notorious Worlds in Collision, but I do think that the man’s theory of collective amnesia merits consideration. It is, after all, not so different from the theory advanced by the Egyptian priest on the occasion of Solon’s visit to Saïs.
Live should be life. Whoops. :)
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