Inflation in Zimbabwe has made a 100 trillion dollar note necessary. Those are Zimbabwean dollars, needless to say. There’s not much you can buy with them.Also, there’s a proposal afoot in Congress to repeal the 22nd Amendment so that Barack Hussein Obama can be re-elected every four years until… whenever.
Thanks to Abu Elvis, C. Cantoni, CB, Fausta, Insubria, JD, Tuan Jim, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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A North Texas Imam is Calling on Muslims to Take Up Arms
‘Fatwas on Gaza’
A North Texas imam is calling on Muslims to take up arms in defense of Palestinians in Gaza. Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, director of the Islamic Center of South Plains in Lubbock, Texas, participated in an online chat, “Fatwas on Gaza,” at the web site IslamOnline.net.
El-Shinqiti encouraged readers to fight — or if they can’t, to send money to those who are fighting — in response to six out of the eight questions posed to him in the online chat. When asked what can be done to help the people in Gaza, El-Shinqiti emphasized war over sending food or medicine or other supplies that might directly help people:
“For Muslims who have access to the battlefield, their duty is to join the resistance to defend the oppressed. For those who don’t have access to the battlefield, their duty is to use all possible ways of lending support for the oppressed such as donation, the media, communication and first and foremost du’a’“. . . .
Taking El-Shinqiti’s advice would mean joining forces with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Israel’s incursion into Gaza is in its third week, prompted by a new wave of rockets sent by Hamas into Israeli cities. The fighting has left more than 900 Palestinians dead — most of them Hamas fighters — yet Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israeli towns..
U.S. law prohibits providing material support to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Last November, five men who worked with a Dallas-area charity [Holy Land Foundation] were convicted on 108 counts of illegally supporting Hamas.
Such speech is well within First Amendment protections, said Bob Blitzer, who served as the FBI’s domestic terrorism chief in the 1990s. The line is crossed when the suggestions advance into providing instructions on how to join the fight or whom to contact.
El-Shinqiti never mentioned Hamas by name. But in response to a reader’s question, he said Hamas “resistance” was not the problem: “The oppression of the Palestinian people did not start today. It started six decades ago. And if we suppose that the resistance stops now, the oppression will continue, in the form of an ugly occupation and starving siege.
What the world does not know, because of the Zionist propaganda, is that 70% of Gazan people are refugees from other parts of Palestine that were swallowed by the Zionist state, and they have been living in desperate situation for decades. Moreover, the indigenous Gazans themselves have been under occupation since 1967.
Therefore, what is needed today is to stop the oppression, not to stop the resistance.”
Attending rallies and issuing statements of support are important, he wrote, but: “anyone who can move from expression to action in support the oppressed Gazan people, he or she has to do so.
Allah asks Muslim [sic] to use their own souls and their property in the defence of the oppressed: “And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who being weak are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men women and children whose cry is: Our Lord! rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from Thee one who will protect; and raise for us from Thee one who will help!” (Holy Qu’ran 4:75) (Emphasis original)
An Egyptian reader asked whether it would be considered suicide, against Islamic law, to try forcing open the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Such an effort likely would end in death. But El-Shinqiti said such an action was an obligation:
“It is not only allowed for Egyptians to march out to open Rafah crossing point by force, it is their Islamic obligation. Even if some of them get killed, people of Egypt have no option but to break the siege on Gaza.. What would be the response to Allah Almighty if 75 million Muslims of Egypt continue watching the atrocities of Gaza, while they are the only people on earth who can break the siege?”
Women should be a part of the fight, too, he said. “The role of Muslim woman is this crisis in exactly the same like the role of men. The consensus of Muslim scholars is that if Muslims are attacked in this lands, women can join the battlefield if this is applicable,” or they should engage in financial and political support.
Previously, El-Shinqiti expressed some fairly open-minded views, including an acknowledgement to the local Lubbock newspaper that he didn’t feel comfortable earlier in his career teaching at a strict Wahhabi school in Yemen.
“I am totally against punishing someone for apostasy,” he told the newspaper. Forcing others to say they believe a certain way “can only make them hypocrites, but not believers.”
However, in past writing, El-Shinqiti has defined “holy war” as something rooted in the Torah and used originally by Jews: “Thousands of innocent people, including women and children, were indiscriminately slaughtered in order to prepare the ground for the Israelites’ entry into the Holy Land. These Israelite wars of extermination were not in any sense justifiable self-defense, but an offensive war at the order of God —— a God Who is presented in the Torah as a warrior.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Hail King Obama: President for Life
As Inauguration Day approaches and Barack Obama prepares to assume his first term as president, some in Congress are hoping to make it possible for the Democrat to not only seek a second term in office, but a third and fourth as well.
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary is considering a bill that would repeal the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment prohibiting a president from being elected to more than two terms in office.
Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., earlier this month introduced the bill, H. J. Res. 5, which, according to the bill’s language, proposes “an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.”
In the past, some presidents have been critical of the 22nd Amendment, including Eisenhower, Clinton and Reagan.
In 1807 Thomas Jefferson, however, warned that presidents not bound by term limits could use their popularity and power to become kings.
“If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied in practice,” Jefferson wrote to the Legislature of Vermont, “his office, nominally for years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance.”
[…]
H. J. Res. 5 is not the first attempt by Serrano to repeal the 22nd Amendment. In 2003, Serrano introduced H. J. Res. 11 to the 108th Congress to accomplish the same purpose. A similar resolution, H.J. Res. 25, was also proposed the same year and received co-sponsorship from a bipartisan group of six other representatives. In 1987, during Reagan’s term of office, Earl Michener, R-Mich., also proposed a repeal of the 22nd Amendment.
At the current time, H.J. Res. 5 has not tallied any cosponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean You’re Wrong
Patrice Lewis shouts it out: Guns are to protect us from the state
Recently, a friend sent me a sobering video clip. It features Texas State Rep. Dr. Susan Gratia-Hupp testifying before the U.S. Senate on the Second Amendment. It was sobering because Ms. Gratia-Hupp described the fatal mistake of not carrying her handgun the day she went with her parents to a cafeteria. An insane gunman burst in, spraying gunfire and killing both her parents along with many others.
When something tragic like this happens, people interpret it in one of two ways. Politicians and liberals think, “Aha. An insane gunman burst into a cafeteria and sprayed it with gunfire, killing many people. We need to ban guns. Of course, this won’t keep insane gunmen from getting guns, but that’s OK.” Constitutionalists and (ahem) normal people think, “Aha. An insane gunman burst into a cafeteria and sprayed it with gunfire, killing many people. We need to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry guns so this guy could have been taken down.”
There is a fundamental difference between these two responses. Unfortunately, it’s the former and not the latter response that gets turned into laws. This is because the latter position gives power to the people. The former position gives power to the government. Of course the government will choose the former. Duh.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Put World Ahead of America
[JD: Read the full article for details on more policies that are in the Obama pipeline.]
Most of the world is giddy about the inauguration of the first black president of the United States. The media have invested unprecedented airtime to transform this man into a modern messiah. The celebration is not because he is black. Far better qualified black candidates, such as Condoleezza Rice, Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell would not be celebrated, nor even welcomed as president. In fact, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, both black secretaries of state, were ridiculed as “Uncle Tom” and “Aunt Jemima” by many of the same people who celebrate Obama.
Obama’s color may be a bonus, but it is his philosophy that much of the world celebrates.
Much of the world sees Obama not simply as the first black president, but as the first president to accept global governance to be more important than U..S. governance. His Berlin speech last July promised “a new global partnership” and a new “global commitment” to “save the planet.”
To implement his commitment to global governance, Obama has nominated Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state. In addition to her book, “It Takes a Village,” Hillary is on record in support of the World Federalist Association’s efforts to establish a world government, and publicly applauded Walter Cronkite’s receipt of the WFA “Global Governance” award.
Obama has named Carol Browner to the new position of energy czar. This woman, until last week, was a commissioner for the Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society. Browner’s new position requires no confirmation and is beyond congressional oversight. She will be empowered to administratively implement Obama’s philosophy across all federal agencies.
Obama chose Erick Schwartz to coordinate his transition team’s interface with agencies that deal with the United Nations. Schwartz is, among other things, the person in the Clinton administration who “managed the White House review that resulted in the U.S. signature of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” In an effort to influence the Obama administration’s global governance agenda, Citizens for Global Solutions set up a conference call with the transition team. These organizations are advocates of global governance and are deeply embedded throughout the Obama administration. […]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secret List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo
Pendleton, Leavenworth, Miramar Included as Possible New Home for 250 Detainees
The U.S. military has prepared a list of U.S. military bases that could be used to house as many as 250 detainees currently being held at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, military officials tell ABCNews.com.
The list — which includes Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas; the Marine Air Station in Miramar, California; and the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina — has been circulated in a classified brief to members of Congress and was prepared by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Texas, DOT, Playing Possum Over “Trans Texas Corridor”
[JD: This method of renaming then hiding the agenda is always used by elites. Just look at the case of the EU constitution being hidden and renamed as the Lisbon Treaty.]
Key to the real agenda is this quote from the news report: “Each of the dozens of projects that were linked together under the rubric of the TTC — including the Loop 9 project in Dallas and the I-69 project in the south — will remain as stand-alone projects.” That’s an obvious smokescreen to make Texans think the TTC is dead.
TTC opponents are not falling for the TxDot claim of surrender. Terri Hall, Founder/Director of “Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom” (TURF) and a major activist against the TTC said, “It’s clear from the TxDOT Director’s speech, that it’s only a name change and the Trans Texas Corridor is, in reality, going underground. Hall cited a quote from the Austin American Statesman newspaper which said “Those ‘smaller projects’ will apparently include the 300-plus miles of what has been called TTC-35 from San Antonio to the Oklahoma border and the I-69 project from the Rio Grande Valley to Texarkana. But they will not be called the Trans-Texas Corridor.”
As The Houston Chronicle put it, “The renewed effort now will operate under the name ‘Innovative Connectivity Plan.”
Said Hall, “No law has been changed, no minute order rescinded, no environmental document re-done (as is required by federal law), and there are still two contracts signed giving two Spanish companies the right of first refusal on segments of the corridor previously known as TTC-35 & TTC-69. So by every real measure, the Trans Texas Corridor goes on full steam ahead. What today’s hype was about is a political ploy to make the public go back to sleep while it gets built under a different name. While we welcome genuine responsiveness from TxDOT and a true repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor, this hardly qualifies.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Big Money Behind Geithner
A guy who can’t figure out his own taxes is supposed to fix the economy? This is the absurd rationale being offered by media figures such as Andrea Mitchell of NBC News for confirming Timothy Geithner as Obama’s Treasury Secretary after it was disclosed that he was a serial tax evader. He did his own taxes for a couple years and got into trouble, Mitchell chuckled. And everybody can relate to that, right? Mitchell is the one who deserves to be laughed at. This guy is supposed to be so smart we can entrust him with managing the entire U.S. economy? She must be kidding. Does she seriously expect us to believe that?
Anybody watching this bizarre spectacle unfold has to suspect there is something more to the story. Who is behind Geithner and why? And why does Obama want him? This is where the media fear to tread. As we have pointed out, major media companies such as GE (parent of NBC News) and the Washington Post Company have their own connections to Geithner through their own officials and board members. They have a conflict of interest that will never be reported by the news organizations themselves.
The real story, which can only emerge through talk radio and alternative media, is that Geithner has very powerful political and financial connections, not only to the media but the banking interests and lobbies that try to orchestrate U.S. policy behind the scenes.
The President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the Chinese-speaking Geithner is an associate of Henry Kissinger who can be counted on to convince the Chinese Communists to continue to buy U.S. debt and finance Obama’s massive expansion of federal government power. That is why Obama and his fellow Democrats are putting so much faith in him.
As Henry Kissinger recently put it, when he was celebrating U.S.-China relations on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Obama’s mission is to usher in a “New World Order.” He forgot to mention, of course, that it is a China-dominated New World Order in which the U.S. has become a subsidiary of China Inc. […]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Die Jews!’. the Transition From Peace Demonstration to Anti-Semitic Rally
Jungle World 16.01.2009
The transition from peace demonstration to anti-Semitic rally has become seamless, writes Alex Feuerherdt in response to the protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “In Berlin around 7000 overwhelmingly Palestinian demonstrators marched through the Mitte district. According to eye-witness reports, 100 or so of them at the tail-end of the demonstration were performing the Hitler salute and shouting: ‘Die Jews!’ During a demonstration in Hanover, in which around 3000 people participated, an Israeli flag was burned to enthusiastic applause and shouts of ‘Death! Death to Israel!’ as well as ‘Juden raus!’ (Jews out). And when individual demonstrators performed the Hitler salute, the police saw no reason to intervene.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France Condemns New Anti-Semitic Attack: Jew Stabbed in Paris Suburb
PARIS (AFP)—-A Jewish man was stabbed four times in a Paris suburb in an anti-Semitic attack, officials said Friday, as the Israeli offensive in Gaza continued to stoke tension in France.
The 24-year-old man was beaten up late Thursday by two robbers who wanted to steal his car and, after they discovered he was Jewish, pulled out a knife and stabbed him, in the latest in a spate of such attacks.
“After noticing he was wearing a Jewish religious symbol, the aggressors made anti-Semitic threats and stabbed him four times with a knife,” Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a statement..
The man suffered minor wounds from the attack in Fontenay-sous-Bois, southwest of Paris, according to police sources.
Alliot-Marie condemned the assault and vowed: “Everything will be done to arrest the perpetrators. All acts of racism and anti-Semitism are contrary to the values of the republic.”
Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim and Jewish populations, France has recorded scores of anti-Semitic incidents since Israel launched its Gaza offensive late last month, drawing appeals for calm from politicians and religious leaders.
Three synagogues have been fire-bombed in the past two weeks and vandals have daubed anti-Israeli graffiti on at least two more.
Vandals wrote “Israel Nazi” and other graffiti overnight near a kosher restaurant in the southern city of Toulouse where a synagogue was attacked two weeks ago.
‘Zero tolerance’
President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed “zero tolerance” for hate violence and warned against attempts to import the Arab-Israeli conflict in Gaza.
But as reports of violence continue, the Jewish central Consistoire, the umbrella representative of religious institutions, called on France to take action to end anti-Semitic attacks, saying 66 incidents had been recorded over the past three weeks.
“Are we waiting for the irreparable to happen before we act?” asked the top Jewish body.
Muslim members of the Jewish-Muslim Frendship Association resigned on Friday after accusing their Jewish counterparts of remaining silent in the face of Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza, said co-president Djelloul Seddiki.
“All of the Muslim members left on Thursday,” he said, confirming that those leaving included the head of the Paris Grand Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur.
“We aren’t talking to each other anymore,” confirmed rabbi Michel Serfaty.
But 15 other anti-racism organisations banded together and issued an appeal for French residents of all faiths to “live together” and to “oppose hate”.
“Ramming a car into the gates of a synagogue or attacking north African students is not the way to help Palestinians or Israelis live together,” the authors of the appeal said.
Around 600,000 Jews live in France.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Police Protest Outside Parliament
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 15 — Two separate demonstrations took place today in the centre of Athens, by two diametrically opposite groups, the police unions and groups of left-wing radicals and extraparliamentary left-wingers. The police unions protested outside the Greek parliament calling for an end to violence against them and against violence in general “wherever it comes from”, while not far away, in the main square of the University of Athens students were protesting against the Government’s education policy and the law which would allow private universities in Greece. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Holocaust:100 Photos of the Children of the Ghetto of Lodz
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 15 — One hundred photographs taken in the in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland, to remember the horrors of the Shoah and tell the life story of adults and particularly children, a prelude to hell. Sixty-five years after the liberation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto — as Hitler renamed the Polish city — the Cultural Association Polandia bezGranic and the Roman School of Photography (which hosts the event) organise from January 24 to February 7, in the capital, an exhibition to remember the tragic deportation of its inhabitants. The exhibition is titled “The children of the ghetto of Lodz. Memory of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto”. The photos have been made by two official photographers, Mendel Grosman and Henryk Ross, from April 1940 (when the quarter was completed) to June 1944 (when the Germans decided to start deportations to the concentration camps of Chelmno-on-Ner and Auschwitz — Birkenau). The images tell the story through the years from the old city to the arrival of the Nazi in Lodz, from the decree against Jews at the start of the occupation to their move to the ghetto in the winter of 1940. A story of hunger, the schools, the arrival of new deported, the ‘big roundup’ of September 1942 — as the action prepared by the Germans to eliminate the weakest and those unable to work was called: the old, the sick, the children — the last goodbye, the work. “ 200,000 Polish Jews and more than 20,000 Jews from Germany, Luxemburg, Austria and Czechoslovakia were moved to Lodz” said curator of the exhibition Agnieszka Zakrzewicz. “For the first time in Italy” she adds “the photos kept in the State Archive of Lodz, one of the most important of Europe, will be presented”. Not only the photos are unique, also the many written testimonies: diaries, poems and drawings in which the young of the ghetto — the second-biggest after the ghetto of Warsaw — tried to create their own world. Among the exposed documents, translated into Italian, are the stories and poems of Abram Cyran — today kept in the Wiesenthal Museum in Los Angeles — and those of Abram Koplowicz — normally in Jerusalem in the Yad Vashem Memory Institute -, both died in Auschwitz in 1944. There are also the diaries of David Sierakowiak who died with hunger in August ‘43. ‘‘Despite the human tragedy, famine, cold and inhuman labour” said Agnieszka Zakrzewicz “the children of the ghetto of Litzmannstadt studied, played, laughed, read, wrote poetry and made drawings. Looking at the future and life they continued to dream of a better world. We dedicate the second edition of this exhibition realised in Lodz in 2004 to them”. The little Sara Ziskind who miraculously survived the concentration camps wrote in the years in Lodz: “Then I was no longer the little innocent girl who believed the bad people would be punished and that the earth would burst open below their feet and swallow them up. The earth opened below our feet. We were the bad people, because we were the Jews”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Parliamentarians Rally for Israel
Around 100 Italian Parliament members rallied in Rome at the Piazza Montecitorio for Israel.
A friend passed this on—
Fiamma Nirenstein, a journalist and some-time resident of Jerusalem, is a new Member
of the Italian Parliament who is outspoken on Israel’s behalf. She writes below that there is increasing understanding of what Israel is facing in its current war.
Dear friends,
We didn’t expect what you see now in the picture. This is the square of the Italian Parliament in Rome, Piazza Montecitorio: you can see the Palace on top of the square, and in front a lot of Israeli flags. That was yesterday night from 6,30 to 9,30 pm. What you cannot see here, is the extraordinary number and variety of members of the Parliament, about 100 from all political sides, that took the stage during our marathon: for about three hours we have been speaking about the role of Israel, its right to self defense, its moral height, its fight in name of all of us, of our civilization and values, against the wild hate of the Islamic jihad represented by hamas. It seems to me that for the first time in the too long history of the arab Israeli conflict, apart from a minority of crazy leftists and fascists that took the street on anti-Semitic slogans, we have obtained a huge consensus about one critical point: this is not an episode of a local conflict, there is nothing in it that reminds the land for peace theme that has characterized the Palestinian issue. This is an episode of the attack agains the western world, and Iran has a lot to do with it.
The change of attitude is great: the dictatorial religious nature of Hamas and the democratic, civilized nature of Israel are seen face to face for what they are at least by the European elite at large, dead and wounded notwithstanding, and there rises an identification with Israel against a regime that uses human shields and promises slaughters of Jews in its charter.
What happens today, at least in Italy, is the defeat and fall of the leftist ideologies: ideology has been the fig leaf that has allowed to justify all the most violent crimes and most disgusting verbal attacks. If Arafat launched the terrorist Intifada, if he promoted the martyrdom of children in public speeches, the ideologists were ready to justify him with the issues of occupation, the Palestinian misery and loss of any hope. Not the same with Hamas. History, in Italy, has brought to a profound crisis the ideology of revolution and the justification of any cruel attack against a pretended unjust imperialist order. That time is in good part over, nobody will see Hamas as the resolution of the problem and not as the problem itself. I also think that the word “peace” has lost that healing meaning that it had until yesterday. The new non-ideological point of view sees that there is no peace when one of the contenders doesn’t want it, and that even if the world in the short run asks for a truce, in the long run requests a defeat of Hamas.
Well, yesterday night many people, Ministers and Members of Parliament, composed a very new, interesting puzzle of opinions. I think that when you are not overwhelmed by exotic thirdworldism, the images of children educated as hate machines, the speeches of jihad leaders, from Ahmadinejad to Nasrallah, to Hanje, that deny the holocaust and promise death to Jewish and Christians too, have on us a result of great disgust. Westerners, thanks God, can still be disgusted by an uncivilized level of political speech.
But most of all, in the Parliament square, many of the Parliament Members said: “I love Israel”. You can’t imagine how many.
Fiamma Nirenstein
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants in Venice
Venice, 16 Jan. (AKI) — Police in the northern Italian city of Venice hunted down illegal immigrants on Friday in an operation codenamed ‘Hospitable East’. Over 40 police aboard took part in the operation which also targeted slum landlords who are exploiting immigrants.
Police launched ‘Hospitable East’ after they uncovered Chinese-run rental apartments turned into dormitories in the area around the lagoon city’s landmark, St Mark’s Square earlier this week.
Police investigators found the landlords had filled each apartment with dozens and dozens of beds that they were renting out individually, cramming many immigrants into each room. The landlords were also running internet cafes.
Many immigrants seek work in the Veneto region, one of the wealthiest and most industrialised in Italy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Museum of Jewish Refugees in Italy Opens
(ANSAmed) — NARDO’ (LECCE), JANUARY 14 — A new museum dedicated to thousands of concentration camp survivors who travelled through Italy on their way to Israel after WWII. It is the Museum of Memory and Welcome which was opened today in the small town of Nardò, near Lecce in Puglia, through which some 150,000 Jews passed between 1943 and 1947. The town is twinned with the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, where most refugees first stayed after making the sea crossing from Italy. The museum houses all the material relating to the time from the town council archives, including witness reports, photographs and videos, as well as a multimedia room and a library. Taking pride of place in the collection are three restored murals found in an abandoned building that were painted by the Romanian Jew Zivi Miller, who lost his wife and daughter in concentration camps. One mural shows a menorah with candles lit, another the voyage of the Jews from southern Italy to Israel, and a third a Jewish mother with her baby asking an English soldier permission to enter Israel. Nardò received the Civil Protection Gold Medal from then Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2005 in recognition of the hospitality it provided to the Jewish refugees. Ciampi said at the time that the medal commemorated the “religious and cultural tolerance” of the town, and the fact that “it worked to alleviate the suffering of the exiles and offer them buildings where they could freely practice their religion”. The new museum has been created by Italian architect Luca Zevi in a former 1970s school building. Together with another Italian architect, Giorgio Tamburini, Zevi is also involved in the creation of a National Shoah Museum in Rome, for which a city council board gave the definitive go-ahead last year. The museum is to be built in the landscaped gardens of Villa Torlonia, the grand neoclassical residence where Mussolini and his family lived between 1925 and 1943. The museum will have the names of Italian Jews deported to Nazi concentration camps during WWII etched on the walls. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno has said he hopes the museum would be completed by 2011. (ANSamed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pirates Tried Under Never Used Dutch Law
Many countries are currently struggling to decide what to do with pirates after their capture. The Netherlands thinks it can try those who attacked a ship sailing under the Dutch Antilles flag. The suspected pirates are currently held on a Danish navy ship.
The Netherlands aims to bring five Somali pirates who recently attacked the cargo ship Samanyulo in the Gulf of Aden to trial. That would involve calling upon an article in the Dutch criminal code which has never been used before, the public procecutions office told Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
On January 2, the crew of the Dutch-Antilles vessel had managed to foil an attack by firing flares at the small pirate vessel which then caught fire. The pirates jumped overboard and were later picked up by the Danish navy. Now the Netherlands has asked Denmark to extradite the pirates to bring them to justice.
Pirate law
Never before has anyone in the Netherlands been tried for piracy, RNW reports. This means that the country might soon see article 381 of the criminal code, which outlaws piracy, being put to use for the first time. According to this article, the captain of a pirate ship can be sentenced to up to 12 years, while crewmembers can receive up to nine years.
Wim de Bruin, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office, believes the Somali pirates will be able to be tried based on this law. “This is about piracy and that is illegal in our criminal justice system. Because the merchant ship was sailing under a Netherlands Antilles flag, that means that the Netherlands can start preparing a case for trial,” Bruin says…..
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Poking Fun at Europe: Czech Sculpture No Laughing Matter in Brussels
A new sculpture in Brussels, commissioned by the Czech Republic in honor of its stint as holder of the European Union presidency, has rankled some EU members. The artwork depicts countries using stereotypes, not all of them terribly flattering.
It’s no secret that the Czech Republic is one of the more euro-skeptic members of the European Union. The country’s president, Vaclav Klaus — who, as it happens, is the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency — called in 2005 for the bloc to be “scrapped” and was a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which was rejected by Irish voters in 2008 before the Czech Republic had a chance could torpedo it.
PHOTO GALLERY: A SCULPTURE OF EUROPEAN STEREOTYPES
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (11 Photos)
Still, a new art project commissioned by Prague in honor of its six-month stint at the head of the 27-member bloc has caused the Czechs to blush with embarrassment. Called “Entropa,” the piece is a €373,000 over-sized mosaic map of Europe that relies on stereotypes to depict each country. And a number of countries are furious about it.
“It is preposterous, a disgrace,” Betina Joteva, press officer for Bulgaria’s permanent representation in Brussels told the euobserver Web site. “It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an offence to national dignity.”
Joteva has, perhaps, reason to be upset. Her country is depicted in the eight-ton sculpture as a Turkish toilet. Many speculated that the reference might be to the centuries Bulgaria spent under Turkish rule.
But in a conversation with SPIEGEL ONLINE, the artist responsible for the sculpture, David Cerny, said it was intended to point to one of the things that is most obviously different for people who travel to Bulgaria. “No other country in Europe has those kinds of toilets,” he said, before adding that he had officially apologized to Bulgaria for offending them.
Bulgaria’s depiction, though, wasn’t the only part of the sculpture that created controversy. Germany is shown as being criss-crossed by autobahns — and some thought they recognized a slightly deformed swastika in the resulting design.
Cerny was categorical in his denial. “It has nothing to do with the swastika,” he said. It is about highways and Germany’s obsession with cars. Nothing else.” Cerny said that the autobahn belts on the sculpture will move once turned on, meaning that the pieces had to be straight, thus leading to the misunderstanding.
Still, other depictions make it clear that flattery was not one of Cerny’s goals. Romania is shown as a Dracula theme park; Spain is merely a slab of concrete, in reference to its recently burst real-estate bubble; Holland is shown as being flooded over with only a few minarets poking out above the waves; Luxembourg is a gold nugget with a huge “For Sale” sign sticking out of it; and France is covered with a large sign reading “strike,” an allusion to that country’s frequent labor battles.
The Czech government commissioned the work in the belief that it would be completed by artists from the 27 EU member-states. That, at least, is what Czech artist David Cerny promised in his project application. Instead, Cerny made up the names of the European artists supposedly participating in the project and put it together with a couple of friends.
“We were hoping that it wouldn’t be taken with the kind of seriousness that it has been and that it would be fun,” Cerny said. “It wasn’t about insulting anyone. I am shocked that certain states don’t have a sense of humor.”
The piece was unveiled on Tuesday after having been carted to Brussels in three trailer trucks. But it is unclear how much longer it will remain on display. Bulgaria has demanded that it be removed from the sculpture and Czech Republic Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said his government would be deciding on Thursday how to proceed. “The full responsibility for violating this assignment … lies with David Cerny,” he said.
Not all countries are angered by the piece. Sweden is depicted by an IKEA cardboard box and Belgium is a box of chocolates, both references to popular exports from those countries.
Responses from Great Britain, Cerny reports, have likewise been quite positive. The historically euro-skeptic country was left off the sculpture altogether.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Convicted Paedophile Can Continue Naked Alton Towers Trips, Rules Judge
A convicted paedophile has been told by a judge that he can carry on going on naked trips to the Alton Towers theme park.
The decision has “disappointed” police who wanted to prevent Robert Enright, 51, from mixing with younger members of British Naturism.
Enright, the one-time head of an engineering company, has convictions for indecent assault and the making of indecent photographs of children.
Detectives learned of his involvement with British Naturism after raiding his home and finding details of his membership.
Subsequent enquiries revealed that he had gone on organised trips to both Alton Towers and Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent.
But Judge Beverley Lunt, sitting at Burnley Crown Court, ruled that that there no evidence he had associated with children under 16. She therefore rejected the prosecution claim that he had breached his sexual offences order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Civil Servant Suspended Over ‘Killing British Troops is Justified’ Blog
A senior Muslim civil servant has launched an astonishing verbal onslaught against the Government over its response to Israel’s military strikes in Gaza — and has suggested that killing British troops in Iraq is justified.
Treasury official Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, now faces the sack over the remarks.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell — who is the patron of the society — acted immediately after being alerted to the comments by The Mail on Sunday.
Shortly after this newspaper contacted the Cabinet Office, a senior official disclosed that Mr Ali had been suspended for the remarks made on his personal internet blog.
In it he:
Quotes an Islamic extremist who says it is his ‘obligation’ to kill British and American soldiers in Iraq;
Accuses the Government of failing to condemn the ‘Zionist terrorist state of Israel’; and
Attacks moderate British Muslims as ‘self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians’.
The Treasury lists Mr Ali’s title as ‘Business Partner’. He is understood to work as an IT administrator.
On the Civil Service Islamic Society’s official website, Mr Ali declares that it is bound by strict rules that say Whitehall special-interest groups must be ‘non-partisan and non-political’ and act with ‘honesty, impartiality and integrity’.
But there is no such restraint on his personal blog, which highlights his civil service role and provides a link to its Whitehall website.
Azad Ali’s blog suggests that the killing of British troops is justified (file picture)
He takes a far more hardline approach, using the most provocative language, and appears to challenge the Whitehall code of practice that restricts mandarins’ political activities.
In one posting, ‘Defeating extremism by promoting balance’, he appears to condone the killing of British and US troops in Iraq.
He said there was ‘much truth’ in an interview with an Islamic militant who said: ‘If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier’s uniform inside Iraq I would kill him because that is my obligation.
‘If I found the same soldier over the border in Jordan I wouldn’t touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier, here he is not. This is my religion and I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad.’
Last week Mr Ali wrote on the ‘Between the Lines’ site: ‘We are the Resistance. The Zionist terrorist state of Israel had only one aim, to destroy all semblance of resistance. We have yet to hear any condemnation from our government.’
He pours scorn on the British Government’s call for a ceasefire and mocks official representatives of moderate British ‘Muslims’ (his quotation marks) who support them.
| — Hat tip: CB | [Return to headlines] |
Security: Italian Police Chief Meets Albanian Premier
(ANSAmed) — TIRANA, JANUARY 14 — The coordination centre for all the offices of the Italian police and European police in the western Balkan states is to be in Tirana; mixed Italian-Albanian investigatory teams to tackle organised crime; the setting up of a team of police for the Balkans: these are the proposals presented in Tirana by the Italian chief of police, Antonio Manganelli during meetings with the Albanian authorities and with police chiefs from Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. ‘It has been an intensive day’’ said Manganelli at a press conference in Tirana, adding that ‘today the will to give greater strength to cooperation between the police forces of the Balkan countries has been confirmed’’. He wanted to highlight the results achieved by the Albanian police ‘with figures that cannot be compared with other countries in the area’’. The bilateral cooperation agreement in the fight against crime which came into effect last December will help to give a new boost to the already close relationship between Albaniàs and Italy’s security forces. The idea of creating mixed teams has been discussed for some time, but Manganelli explained to ANSA that now the project should be complete in a short time. The same wish was also expressed by the head of Albaniàs police force Ahmet Prenci, who thanked Italy for its consistent support towards the Albanian police force, noting in particular ‘the excellent role played by the Interforce office for the Italian police in Tirana. An office which should become the focal point for the Italian offices in the western Balkans. ‘Albania will be the epicentre for strategies to tackle organised crime” said Manganelli during a meeting with Premier Sali Berisha, accompanied by Italy’s Ambassador in Albania Saba d’Elia. The same office in Tirana should serve as a coordination centre for other European police forces present in the region. ‘I have also asked European countries to unite their forces and move together with the same will and determination’’ said the head of the Italian police force. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Council of Europe: Integration White Book in Arabic
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 15 — To exceed models of assimilation and “parallel development” of minorities in European countries: this is one of the objectives of the White Book “Living together in equal dignity” published by the Council of Europe and presented this morning in a press conference at the Italian House of Parliament. The White Book — already translated into Arabic at the initiative of Isesco (Islamic Organisation for education, cultur and science) — is a “fundamental document for understanding the situation in which we live and for defining a different future” said Minister for for Cultural Heritage and Activities Sandro Bondi at the presentation. The translation of the book into Italian, which was previewed in Rome, was done by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage. An initiative which gained the support of the Foreign Minister. Riccardo Guariglia, vice director general for Europe of the Foreign Office expressed “appreciation” for the effort by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage which “is fully in line with Italian foreign policy”. The translation into Arabic, explained Gabriella Battaini Dragoni, the coordinator for intercultural dialogue at the Council of Europe “was an autonomous initiative by Isesco, which is a sort of Muslim Unesco which includes many more countries from the Arab Leagu, all the countries of the south shore of the Mediterranean, including Libya and the whole of the Middle East, except for Israel, of course”. Jordan was ahead of everyone, translating the book first on the initiative of the Minister for Culture in Amman. These countries, added Battaini Dragoni “were enthusiastic about our work. Now we need to move towards putting the various recommendations into action”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Captured Hamas Terrorists Admit Israel’s Offensive is Striking Fear Into Them
Captured Hamas terrorists are apparently speaking some truth while in custody, revealing Israel’s effectiveness in this latest reluctantly fought defensive war. According to an article published by Arutz Sheva Israel National News,”Iranian Unit Destroyed, Hamas was Suprised,” captured terrorists are stating that they did not expect the level of intensity Israel was prepared to fight them with:
“Hamas took a gamble. We thought, at worst Israel will come and do something from the air — something superficial. They’ll come in and go out. We never thought that we would reach the point where fear will swallow the heart and the feet will want to flee. You [Israel] are fighting like you fought in ‘48. What got into you all of a sudden?”
Israel has once again confounded its enemies by defending itself with greater vigor than it has in many years. Obviously, this is a positive development for Israel and Jews world-wide…
For if Israel’s enemies realize that the country will not surrender to the illegal, immoral aggression and war crimes used against her, perhaps Israel will be able to start rebuilding a once very positive national image that was weakened substantially by years of the false peace process. Just as Israel is finally demonstrating that after a certain point it will defend itself in a serious way, Jews still in the Galut must also show that we will also not be intimidated and will exert force when necessary to defend ourselves. Judging from the positive responses JDL has been getting at anti-Hamas protests, it appears that many more Jews are starting to see that JDL’s ideology is correct. All Jews need to wake up to the myriad of threatening world events and the domestic threats posed by those who dare to openly show their support for Hamas terrorism and realize that the typical establishment response has always failed in the past and will fail in the future. JDL is the answer.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: “Iranian Unit” Destroyed, Hamas Was Suprised
The so-called “Iranian Unit” of Hamas has been destroyed, according to Gaza sources cited Thursday by the Haaretz daily. The sources said most of the unit’s 100 members were killed in fighting in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City.
The terrorists had been trained in infantry tactics, the use of anti-tank missiles and the detonation of explosives, among other skills, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Hizbullah camps in Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley, as well as sites in Iran.
[…]
Two captured terrorists interviewed by Maariv/NRG say that Hamas was not expecting Israel’s response to the escalation in missile attacks on Israeli targets that preceded Operation Cast Lead. One of them, a 52-year-old victim of a premature detonation who had already done time in an Israeli jail, said, “Hamas took a gamble. We thought, at worst Israel will come and do something from the air — something superficial. They’ll come in and go out. We never thought that we would reach the point where fear will swallow the heart and the feet will want to flee. You [Israel] are fighting like you fought in ‘48. What got into you all of a sudden?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: the War Against Hamas: Why Does it Matter?
In these perilous times, it isn’t often that the EU, the U.N. and the U.S. agree on foreign policy issues, especially those related to defining terrorism and/or the threat of global jihad. For example, the U.S. considers Hezbollah (both civilian and military) a global terrorist organization, while the EU and U.N. do not. However, all three do agree (at least reluctantly) that Hamas is truly a “terrorist entity.”
For its part, Hamas has made no secret of its purpose for existence ? the destruction of Israel. As stated explicitly in the preamble of its 1988 Charter, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” What is often overlooked is the Charter’s declaration that Hamas is “one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine,” and that the “Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times.” It is important to recognize that Hamas — one among many active progeny of the malignant Brotherhood (Ikhwan) — has emerged as the pre-eminent, idealized representative of the global jihadist movement.
Why? Because Hamas stands at ground zero, at the epicenter of the jihadist theological universe, and it is directly engaged in the valiant existential (spiritual) battle that all jihadist groups yearn for. These “roaring lions of Hamas” personify a modern-day Salah Al-Din (Saladin) — as the new liberators of holy Al-Quds (Jerusalem) — while being conveniently appointed as the democratically legitimized arbiters and guardians of a new Islamic Millennium.
In other words, Hamas is the premier jihadist organization in the world today, primarily because of its ongoing face-to-face fight with Israel — Islam’s eternal enemy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Iran Green Lights ‘Escalation’
Fears Hamas will be severely damaged if truce not reached
JERUSALEM — Palestinian organizations in Lebanon were given a green light by Iran, Syria and by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia to escalate tension along Israel’s northern border if a truce is not reached over the weekend and if Israel’s continued war in Gaza begins to severely damage Hamas in the coming days, according to informed Israeli defense sources.
Hamas’ chief Kheled Meshaal announced yesterday at an Arab conference his group will not accept Israeli conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza and would continue attacking the Jewish state until the Israeli offensive in Gaza ends.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Journo Walks Off ‘Biased’ Show
ROME (JTA) — A leading Italian journalist walked off a TV talk show after denouncing the host for a program she said was “99.9 percent pro-Palestinian.”
Lucia Annunziata, a former president of the state broadcaster RAI, was a guest Thursday night on an episode of the RAI show Annozero dedicated to the situation in Gaza.
At one point she interrupted host Michele Santoro and sharply criticized him for the tone and bias of the show and its guests.
“So far, except for one girl, it has been 99.9 percent pro-Palestinian,” she said.
Santoro in turn shouted at Annunziata, calling her criticism “idiocy.” She stood up, detached her microphone and walked off the set.
The incident touched off a political firestorm. Both Santoro and Annunziata are leftists. Rightwing leader Gianfranco Fini, the president of the chamber of deputies, expressed “solidarity and appreciation” to Annunziata and said the Annozero show “surpassed the level of decency.”
Israeli Ambassador Gideon Meir also sent a protest over the show’s content to RAI management, saying it was a “shameful spectacle.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Soldiers Turn to Secret Weapon: Jewish Spirituality
Two soldiers made their way through the winding streets of Gaza City, carefully watching for booby traps. Their objective was to hunt down Hamas terrorists and locate caches of Kassam and Grad rockets and other arms.
As they deliberated whether to turn left or right at an intersection, a woman dressed from head to foot in black appeared from out of nowhere.
“Go this way,” she said, pointing to the right. For some reason, the two soldiers listened to her.
After proceeding for a few seconds, the pair heard a large explosion behind them, in the direction they had almost taken. A rigged house blew up, destroying everything in the vicinity.
The two soldiers asked the woman dressed in black who she was.
“I am the Matriarch Rachel,” she said, referring to the beloved wife of Jacob.
This story, whether true or not, is being circulated in religious circles — via Internet forums, SMS, e-mail and word of mouth — and is fast becoming an urban legend.
There is a tendency among the faithful to introduce metaphysical dimensions to the fighting in Gaza. Two-and-a-half weeks into Operation Cast Lead, religious faith has been integral to many soldiers’ morale.
“We are being swamped with demands, from religious and secular, kibbutzniks and yeshiva students, Sephardim and Ashkenazim,” for the names of soldiers to pray for, said Rabbanit Grossman, director of the Jewish Information Center in the capital’s Mea She’arim neighborhood. The haredi organization has created a special “prayer hotline” for soldiers…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Mosul: Fresh Anti Christian Violence. Murder and Torture
36-year old Chourik Bagrad, was massacred with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Another believer was kidnapped New Years eve: he was released on payment of a ransom of 50 thousand dollars. AsiaNews sources relay that Mosul is a “volcano about to explode”.
Mosul (AsiaNews) — The lifeless body of a young Christian was found yesterday by the army in Mosul (Northern Iraq). The abandoned body uncovered in a street in the east of the city was that of 36 year old Chourik Bagrad.
AsiaNews sources in Mosul — a city with one and a half million inhabitants, 360 km north of Baghdad — confirmed that it was a an execution style killing: multiple gunshot wounds to the head. His body was later discarded in al-Bakr district, where it was found by police and brought to the morgue for an autopsy. Chourik Bagrad was a Christian from the Armenian Church and his brother works in Mosul University.
The same sources refer that a Christian was also kidnapped New Years Eve in Mosul. The man, whose name we choose not to publish for security reasons, was kidnapped and held hostage for four days. He was only freed after the payment of 50 thousand dollars ransom. During his detention he was tortured over and over again. “If we hadn’t paid the ransom — the source confirms — they would certainly have killed him. They are criminal gangs, who kidnap for money. The want the Christian’s money”.
Despite government claims and reports proclaiming that security standards have improved, Mosul remains “a volcano ready to explode at any moment”.
The situation for Christians there is still tragic. In October alone 16 faithful were killed and 2000 families forced to flee. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda are operative in the area, targeting Christians in killing sprees, destroying their homes and properties, threatening them with letters, abductions and attacks. A hate campaign perfectly constructed to drive them from the land of their birth.
In 2007 Msgr. Paulo Farj Rahho, the Chaldean bishop of the diocese was killed, his body found on March 13th in abandoned land outside the city limits. During the attack that led to his kidnap the three men who were with him for his safety were killed. In 2007 the death toll of Mosul’s Christian community was 13: among them we remember Fr. Ragheed Gani massacred on June 3and another two priests. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Whole Family Jailed for Honor Killing Act
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 15 — A Turkish court has sentenced five members of the same family to life imprisonment for the honor killing of Naile Erdas, 16, who fell pregnant as a result of rape, Hurriyet daily reports. In its verdict the court of the eastern city of Van, sentenced the murder victim’s brother to life imprisonment for the 2006 murder said to have been committed to “cleanse the family honor”, the Van Women’s Association said. The girl’s father, mother and two uncles were also given life sentences for instigating the murder, while a third uncle was jailed for 16 years and eight months for failing to report the murder in one of the heaviest sentences handed down in Turkey for such a killing. Zelal Ozgokce, of the Van Women’s Association, welcomed the sentence as an appropriate deterrent. “It is very good that the entire family was punished for the crime”, she said, adding that “people will become aware that they will face the consequences of an honor killing”. Erdas fell pregnant as a result of rape but concealed her condition until she was hospitalized for a severe headache during which doctors discovered she was pregnant. When the family made threats and offered bribes to get the girl back, doctors decided to keep her in the hospital and informed police and the prosecutor’s office. One week after Erdas gave birth, the prosecutor agreed to send her home after the girl’s father promised she would not be harmed. But she was shot dead by her brother a few hours after returning home. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Moscow Denies Naval Bases in Syria, Libya, and Yemen
(ANSAmed) — MOSCOW, JANUARY 16- The spokesperson for the head of the Russian Navy, Igor Digalo, has denied news circulating that Moscow intends to build naval bases in Syria, Libya, and Yemen. “These statements do not represent the official position of the Defence Ministry or the Navy, and therefore are not reliable”, said Digalo, cited by Interfax. The news was released by state agencies Itar-Tass and Ria Novosti, citing an anonymous official of the General Staff of the Navy. Both agencies then spoke with the vice-chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Anatoli Nogovitsin, according to whom “it is premature to indicate a country for certain”. “It is still early to speak about the location of such bases, negotiations are ongoing with foreign government and such news can have negative effects on these negotiations”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Taliban Forces Closure of Girls’ Schools in North
Mingora, 16 Jan. (AKI) — Around 400 private girls’ schools in Pakistan’s restive northwestern Swat district have closed to comply with a Taliban deadline which expired on Thursday. Some parents have even begun moving to other parts of the country where their girls can attend school, Pakistan’s Geo News reported on Friday.
The closure of the private schools will deprive more than 40,000 students of their basic right to education. In addition, 84,248 girls students in state-run schools are unlikely to attend class because of fear of attacks by militants.
Private school owners in Swat say the schools will not reopen until the unrest in the picturesque valley ends or the Taliban revokes the ban.
School owners in Mingora, Swat’s central administrative district, say that even if they kept the schools open, parents would be unlikely to send their children there.
There are over 350 privately-owned schools in Swat, each with separate sections for boys and girls, according to data available from a local association of schools.
Over the past year, the Taliban has ordered most of the schools to close and destroyed nearly 150 schools.
Pakistani daily The News reported that following appeals to the Taliban, it has softened its stance, allowing girls to attain education up to the fourth grade.
However, local militant leader Maulana Fazlullah has renewed the Taliban’s threat to bomb educational institutions including 20 colleges, if any school continues to provide secondary education for the girls.
The Taliban’s central spokesman, Maulvi Omar, has distanced his movement from Taliban militants in Swat over their ban on girls’ schooling and urged Fazullah to withdraw the ban, The News reported.
Private schools also urged to the militants to withdraw the ultimatum in the interests of hundreds of female teachers, most of them lone breadwinners, as well as those of many thousands of female students affected by the ban.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Africa: Somali Executed for ‘Apostasy’
An Islamist militia has executed a Somali politician who they accused of betraying his religion by working with non-Muslim Ethiopian forces.
An Islamist spokesman in the port of Kismayo told the BBC that Abdirahman Ahmed was shot dead on Thursday.
Mr Ahmed was also accused of spying for Ethiopian forces, said to be backing the forces of warlord Barre Hiraale in trying to recapture Kismayo.
He is believed to be the first politician executed by the Islamists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Africa: Zimbabwe Rolls Out Z$100tr Note
Zimbabwe is introducing a Z$100 trillion note, currently worth about US$30 (£20), state media reports.
Other notes in trillion-dollar denominations of 10, 20 and 50 are also being released to help Zimbabweans cope with hyperinflation.
However, the dollarisation of the economy means that few products are available in the local currency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Kidnapped Nuns: Progress in Talks for Release
Kenyan sources have told MISNA that there has been some progress in the past few hours concerning the talks to secure the release of sisters Maria Teresa Olivero and Caterina Giraudo, who were kidnapped in Elwak, northern Kenya, last November 9, and then taken to Somalia by an unidentified armed group. The sources said that an official channel has been established — backed by the Italian government — through which to conclude the talks; the two missionaries from the Contemplative Movement ‘Charles de Foucauld’ in Cuneo, are said to be in good health and having limited freedom of movement within the area where thy are being held. The progress comes days after Italian MP Margherita Boniver led an Italian delegation to Kenya, where she had meetings with local political and civil leaders. Yesterday, the EU parliament appealed to the Somali government to work in favor of the release of the two nuns, condemning that which has happened; the appeal was part of a resolution over the situation in Somalia, in which it also asked the EU Council and Commission to support Somali institutions as well as the peace process heralded by the Djibouti accords last October.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Italian Missionary Killed in Nairobi
Church and Mission, Standard
“This morning between 11 and 12 two thieves entered the administrations office of the Philosophy Institute of the Consolata Missionaries, killing the administrator and founder Father Giuseppe Bertaina, after beating and gagging him”, said to MISNA from the Kenyan capital Father Luigi Anataloni, a confrere of the victim, confirming the circumstances of the death of the missionary in Langata, around 20km from Nairobi. “His body was discovered by one of the around 300 students of the Institute, who went to the administrations office for some documents”, explained the missionary, adding that based on a first reconstruction “the murder appears to have taken place in a robbery attempt: we are at the beginning of the trimester and the thieves probably thought they would find student inscription fees, without knowing that payments are made by check and that there is never any cash in the office”. Born October 3, 1927 in Madonna dell’Olmo, in the northern Italian Cuneo province, Fr. Bertaina was in Kenya since the 50’s, where he taught generations of students, especially among the Kikuyu people. He served as headmaster of St. Mary’s Secondary School of Nyeri and at the Sagana Technical Institute, and since the 90’s contributed to the foundation of the Institute of Philosophy (Consolata Philosophicum).
[BO]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: Accusations Against Presidente: Peace Process in Peril in South
“What effects would the incrimination of president el-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) have on the peace process?”, asks Salva Kiir Mayardit, Sudanese vice-president and president of South Sudan, during a conference in Juba, while the country awaits the conclusions of the ICC, expected by the end of January, over accusations of genocide and war crimes launched against the head of state last July by the prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. “What will happen to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) concluded between Sudan and South Sudan in 2005? Will the accords be pushed ahead even in the absence of el-Bashir?” said Kiir, who noted that there issues that the world “appears not to be asking even as they matter to millions of people in our country”. The ‘Sudan Tribune’ reported these first official positions by part of the South Sudanese government concerning the crisis between the ICC and president Omar Hassan al Bashir. “We exhort the National Congress of the People (NCP) to abide by the accords and work toward the common goal of maintaining stability in the country, no matter what happens” said Kiir, who noted that the CPI accords — which have provided for the formation of a national unity government ending over 20 years of war — provide for the organization, by the end of 2009, of general elections and by 2011, a referendum over the self-determination of South Sudan. The start of the crisis with the ICC began last July 14, when Ocampo issued a file containing accusations against the president, believed to be political in nature by many international diplomats, especially those from Arab and African countries who have expressed criticisms toward a justice system calibrated with” two sets of measures and weights” toward the North and South of the World. [AB]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco Shutting Embassy in Venezuela in Dispute
RABAT, Morocco: Morocco is to close its embassy in Venezuela because of a dispute over the North African kingdom’s control of the disputed Western Sahara.
Morocco’s Foreign Ministry cited the “growing hostility” of Venezuelan authorities toward Morocco’s territorial integrity, a reference to the Western Sahara.
An Algeria-based rebel group known as the Polisario Front is trying to secure independence for the local Sahrawi population of Western Sahara and create a republic. Both the rebels and Morocco lay claim to the mineral-rich region in a dispute that has lasted more than 30 years.
Morocco also pointed to unspecified measures taken by Venezuela’s government “to support the phony SADR” — the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic proclaimed by the rebels — in its statement Thursday. Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said it was moving the embassy in Venezuela to the Dominican Republic.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela: Reform on Re-Election of President Approved, Now Referendum Test
Venezuela’s parliament widely approved a constitutional amendment to the electoral charter lifting term limits for the President and other elected officials. The amendment will be submitted today to the National election board for the convocation of a referendum within 30 days. According to officials of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) of President Hugo Chavez, the amendments to articles160, 162, 174, 192 and 230 of the Constitution, “widen political rights of citizens”. Opposition parties instead reject the measure, indicating the risk of “institutionalising the monopoly of power”. Some aspects of the reform are different in respect to the version approved in a first review of Parliament last month; on January 5, the PSUV modified the law extending the principle of unlimited re-election of the President to all elected officials. In December 2007, a complex and articulate constitutional reform that also foresaw the immediate re-election of the Head of State was rejected by 50.7% of voters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
D.C. Orgy Confirmed by Homosexual Newspaper
Health officials asked to investigate possible risk from public sex
Caution: The following contains a report on activities many will find objectionable.
A Washington, D.C., inaugural week event that originally was described in an e-mail as a “pig sex” event has been confirmed by a homosexual publication as opponents ask the public health department to investigate the threats from the sex activities that apparently will take place.
WND reported the event was planned at a Washington hotel for three days culminating with Tuesday’s inauguration for President-elect Barack Obama. The first report came from Peter LaBarbera at Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, who obtained the information via e-mail from a source within the homosexual community.
“This Maneuvers is a PRIVATE and INVITATION-ONLY event. It will be held at the nearby Doubletree Hotel, located at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue NW. Go to the Second Floor, which is where all the Convention Rooms are,” said the instructions.
While hotel managers repeatedly have denied any such event is being held, a reporter for the Washington Blade confirmed in his report the plans for a “leather S&M party” at the hotel this weekend.
[…]
The original e-mail about the event said, “We’ve now got a KILLER line up of DEMOS, including super skilled rope bondage, sounds play, and flogging. LIVE Music and Sound is gonna be provided by THE BLACK PARTY DJ Rich King. So you can s—-, fist, rim, and [f—-] TO THE BEAT.”
Among a variety of features were “a bondage cross,” “a flogging station” and “rimming stations.” LaBarbera said the references to “fist” and “rim” refer to specific homosexual behaviors, which he explains graphically on his website.
“Doors open at 10 p.m. and will close at 12 midnight. No admission after 12. Play continues until 4am. “ said the e-mail.
The requirements, AFTAH said, included, “Masculine, friendly, and ready to play. Spectators who wanna run their mouths and socialize are not welcome at this event. We are here to enjoy the company of MEN.”
The online Urban Dictionary defines “pig sex” as “outrageously dirty such as water spots, defecation, male on male bondage, group-sex and bestiality,” although there was no indication that this event would involve animals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s ‘Gay’ Agenda for the Military
As Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in as commander in chief on Jan. 20, homosexual-rights activists are gleeful about changes he will bring to the armed services. Based on his campaign promises, Obama is expected to overturn the military’s policy regarding sexual conduct. Commonly referred to as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military prohibits the service of openly practicing homosexuals. This policy was created early in the Clinton administration after a long and divisive fight, and the hard-fought compromise has drawn the ire of liberals such as Obama ever since.
“It’s time to turn the page on the bitterness and bigotry that fill so much of today’s LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) rights debate,” Obama said while campaigning. “The rights of all Americans should be protected ? whether it’s at work or anyplace else. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ needs to be repealed because patriotism and a sense of duty should be the key tests for military service, not sexual orientation.”
Not reported in the media or discussed by advocates are the opinions of the men and women actually serving our country that would be affected by this change in policy. A poll of some 2,000 active-duty military taken in December by the Military Times found that 58 percent opposed a policy change. Of those polled, 10 percent said they would not re-enlist, and 14 percent reported they would consider not re-enlisting if the policy is changed to please homosexual activists.
Essentially, the United States military, the greatest fighting force ever assembled, has had a policy in place against homosexual conduct since its formation. This policy annoys certain liberals who want to force their social agenda on the rest of the country and ignore those affected.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Million Hit by Windows Worm
A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users.
The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.
Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.
Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft’s MS08-067 patch.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
I've not seen the news reports yet from today's rally in Melbournistan, but I do have a few pics here.
From what I hear, the msm are saying around 12000 people, but I can tell you now that is a complete crock of the proverbial.
There would have been a few thousand - 3000 max if you ask me. The fact that we could wander through the crowd at the State Library for the beginning of the march indicates that much.
It was a far from pleasant sunday afternoon, but one I am glad I got to see.
At least the only people who abused me were white! And they called themselves christian, but apparently if you support Israel you're evil and aren't allowed to call yourself christian.
Just as well I didn't carry my own signs.
I'll be getting more pics from my mates, and posting those in the next few days.
Oh, and I saw 3-4 policemen.
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