The Obama inaugural is dominating the news, even here. But if you think we’re bad, visit any major American news outlet — at least 75% of the top stories are adulatory pieces about The One.Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, JW, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Eligibility Battle Rages on 3 Fronts
Court, Congress and college challenged on constitutionality
Officials at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., have been served with a demand to produce records concerning Barack Obama’s attendance there during the 1980s because they could document whether he was attending as a foreign national — in one of three fronts now established by those contesting the president-elect’s constitutional eligibility for the Oval Office.
The Supreme Court and Congress also both are being challenged to address the worries that Obama doesn’t meet the requirements of the U.S. Constitution that the president be a “natural born” citizen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leader of ‘Hamas-Linked’ Group to Deliver Prayer
Government claims organization is supported by terrorist Muslim Brotherhood
[Comment from JD: This story falls in the category of “Jawdropper of the day”.]
For at least the second time since last summer, those close to President-elect Barack Obama are defending the selection of the leader of a Muslim group, linked by the U.S. government to terrorists, to play a leading role in an ecumenical religious service.
Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is one of several religious leaders scheduled to speak at the inaugural prayer service Wednesday at Washington’s National Cathedral.
As WND reported in August, Mattson spoke at the Democratic National Convention’s “interfaith gathering” in Denver.
At the time, Fox News reported ISNA was suspected of having ties to radical terrorism worldwide and during last year’s Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial was regarded as an “unindicted co-conspirator” by the U.S. government.
The government alleged documents show ISNA is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has called for “jihad” against the West.
Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy told Fox the Muslim Brotherhood seeks “our destruction.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Make Yourself at Home, Barack: the Precise Job of Decorating the Obama Oval Office
Each new president is given $100,000 (£68,000) with which to decorate the room and his private residential quarters. He can bring in his own carpet, curtains, paintings, sculptures and furniture.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mayor of Las Vegas Oscar Goodman Plans Museum to the Mob
Last year it was the “Bridge to Nowhere” that outraged America. This year it’s the “Mob Museum”.
The Mayor of Las Vegas has a plan to save his city. Unfortunately, the rest of the country does not share his vision. In fact, Oscar Goodman’s proposal to use up to $55 million of federal stimulus funds to build a museum celebrating the Mafia’s influence over Sin City — part of it will presumably be dedicated to the Mayor himself who, in a previous career as a defence lawyer, represented many of the city’s most notorious gangsters — has become something of a national joke.
[…]
It is a particularly shameless example, say critics, of how Barack Obama’s proposed $800 billion economic rescue package will be abused to fund “pet projects” that reward politically connected contractors while doing zero for the country’s economic health.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Hosting Pricey Party in a Dicey Economy
AP WASHINGTON — Unemployment is up. The stock market is down. Let’s party.
The price tag for President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration gala is expected to break records, with some estimates reaching as high as $150 million. Despite the bleak economy, however, Democrats who called on President George W. Bush to be frugal four years ago are issuing no such demands now that an inaugural weekend of rock concerts and star-studded parties has begun.
Obama’s inaugural committee has raised more than $41 million to cover events ranging from a Philadelphia-to-Washington train ride to a megastar concert with Beyonce, U2 and Bruce Springsteen to 10 official inaugural balls. Add to that the massive costs of security and transportation — costs absorbed by U.S. taxpayers — and the historic inauguration will produce an equally historic bill.
In 2005, Reps. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., asked Bush to show a little less pomp and be a little more circumspect at his party.
“President Roosevelt held his 1945 inaugural at the White House, making a short speech and serving guests cold chicken salad and plain pound cake,” the two lawmakers wrote in a letter. “During World War I, President Wilson did not have any parties at his 1917 inaugural, saying that such festivities would be undignified.”
The thinking was that, with the nation at war, excessive celebration was inappropriate. Four years later, the nation is still at war. Unemployment has risen sharply. And Obama pressed Congress to release the second half of a $700 billion bailout package in hopes of rescuing a faltering banking industry.
Obama’s inauguration committee says it is mindful of the times and is not worried people will see the four days of festivities as excessive.
“That is probably not the way the country is going to be looking at it,” said committee spokeswoman Linda Douglass. “It is not a celebration of an election. It is a celebration of our common values.”
Douglass said the campaign sought to keep costs down by having the same decorations at each of the 10 balls, eliminating floral arrangements and negotiating prices on food.
“Those at the Obama administration are trying to be reflective of the climate,” McDermott’s spokesman, Mike DeCeasar, said Saturday.
The festivities began Saturday with a speech at Philadelphia’s historic 30th Street train as Obama’s trip began.
Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial includes performances by Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks and others. Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah will read historic passages. HBO paid $2.5 million for the exclusive rights to broadcast the concert.
Monday, the inaugural committee is hosting a national day of service, followed by three “bipartisan dinners” and a concert at the Verizon Center honoring military families. The Disney Channel will broadcast the concert, which includes performances by teen stars Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, as part of a $2 million deal that also gave ABC the exclusive rights to broadcast one inaugural ball.
The television deals allowed the committee to recoup about $5 million of the $15 million production costs for the televised events, Douglass said.
Security and transportation costs are being paid by taxpayers. And with millions of tourists expected to descend on Washington for Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony, Bush declared a state of emergency, allowing the district to recover some costs for the event.
The inauguration committee is paying for 10 stadium-style screens to broadcast the inauguration ceremony on the National Mall. It is also hiring garbage and recycling services and renting thousands of portable toilets for what one supplier called “the largest temporary restroom event in the history of the United States.”
Obama has pledged transparency in his inauguration fundraising. He has disclosed inaugural donors as the fundraising continued, though he is not required to do so until after the ceremony.
Many of the fundraisers are well-known moneymen and women in Democratic circles. Those leading the list raised at least $300,000. They include two of Obama’s top campaign fundraisers: Louis Susman, who retired this month as vice chairman of banking giant and government bailout recipient Citigroup, and billionaire Hyatt hotel heiress Penny Pritzker.
| — Hat tip: JW | [Return to headlines] |
State to Spend $100k Upgrading TVs for Prisoners
Florida is poised to spend about $100,000 in tax money to upgrade 1,500 prison televisions so they’ll work Feb. 17, when the nation switches from analog to digital broadcasts.
The expenditure — a fraction of the Florida Department of Corrections’ nearly $2.3 billion budget — comes as education, social and health programs are being squeezed because of Florida’s budget woes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Invader Imports South African Crime Wave to Britain
A teenage illegal invader from South Africa who imported a mini-version of that country’s shocking crime plague to Britain has been jailed after being convicted of 23 knife attacks in Birmingham.
Terashiya Chiloane, a 19-year-old black South African living illegally in Maw Street, Walsall, was sent to prison for three and a half years and told he would be deported when he had completed his prison sentence. Chiloane was but one of an entire street gang who carried out the knife-point robberies. None of the other offenders have been arrested.
Recorder Andrew Lockhart told Chiloane the gang targeted vulnerable young people aged between 12 and 21 in Walsall and took mobile telephones, jewellery and money. “Some of you wore disguises while others carried knives,” the Recorder said. “You all knew what was going on and you lent your support to what was frightening and despicable behaviour.”
The Recorder went on: “It was planned; it was concerted and it must have been incredibly frightening to your victims. It was prevalent offending and these people were put in fear by what was organised gang activity.” Chiloane admitted seven charges of robbery and asked for 16 other robberies to be taken into consideration at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Mark Rees, prosecuting, said the robberies all took place in seven separate incidents, with the gang threatening their victims with knives before stealing property.
Chiloane, who claimed to be a student at Walsall College of Art, was arrested after he was recognised by a number of victims.. The court heard Chiloane told police the gang went to his home where they shared out the property they had stolen.
* Chiloane’s country of origin has one of the highest crime rates in the world, with over 20,000 murders every year, a rape every three minutes and a robbery every 30 seconds.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
The Colonisation of Britain by Islam: Another Pub to be Converted Into Mosque
The Islamic colonisation of Britain continues apace. Yet another Nottingham pub is set to be converted into a mosque after a local Islamic group, which shares its name with Pakistan’s hard line fundamentalists, has applied to have a temporary use grant made permanent.
The group, named Jamiat Ahle Hadith, have applied to Nottingham Council to permanently use the old Le Grand pub in Hyson Green as a mosque.
The group was given permission to use the old Le Grand pub as a temporary mosque in November 2007. The permission, which allowed the group to worship there and use it as a learning centre, was originally granted for just 12 months. Now the group is applying to permanently use the pub at the corner of Alfreton Road and Gregory Boulevard, between Hyson Green and Radford, as a place of worship.
Council planners have recommended the request to change the use of the pub to a centre of worship be approved. Jamiat Ahle Hadith raised £350,000 in donations to buy the building. This is how the colonisation process works: first, large numbers of immigrants settle in an area, and then apply for “temporary” permission to create an “Islamic Information Centre” or even a “temporary Mosque”.
The large number of immigrants drawn to such centres then ensures that indigenous British people flee the area. This then opens the way for a justification of the “temporary” permission to be made permanent because it “fulfils the needs of the local community.”
Mohammed Yousif, who submitted the original application on behalf of Jamiat Ahle Hadith, said the idea of turning a bar into a place of worship was not new. “It’s new to Nottingham that a pub has been turned into a masjid (place of worship) but in terms of the Muslim community we have already turned cinemas in the UK into masjids and there may be a lot of pubs outside Nottingham.”
* It is not clear if Jamiat Ahle Hadith has any clear links with the organisation of the same name in Pakistan.
The Jamiat Ahle Hadith (Assembly of followers the way of the prophet) is a religio-political party in Pakistan, part of the Islamic fundamentalist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which won at the last legislative elections in that country. The MMA seeks to establish a complete theocracy in Pakistan and does not believe in democracy.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harry’s ‘Paki Friend’ Revealed to be Taliban Ambush Hero Who Saved Wounded Colleagues Despite Being Shot
Prince Harry dismissively called him “our little Paki friend” — but the cadet army officer he demeaned has since distinguished himself as a soldier of astonishing courage under fire by saving wounded colleagues, despite being shot in a Taliban ambush.
In a drama far outside Prince Harry’s experience of military life, Ahmed Raza Khan — now a captain in the Pakistani army — was shot in the shoulder and then spent an hour desperately fighting off a band of Islamic militant gunmen in Pakistan’s lawless northwest frontier.
At about the time Prince Harry was being kept out of Iraq because of fears for his safety and those of his colleagues, his fellow Sandhurst graduate — who was raised in a humble village — came within inches of death when he was caught in an ambush near the Afghanistan border.
Seventeen soldiers were killed and 13 others injured when a convoy of Captain Khan’s border regiment was targeted with a roadside bomb and then peppered with small arms fire in North Waziristan in July 2007.
The ambush was one of the bloodiest incidents of recent years in the Pakistani army’s efforts to keep its northern borders free of Taliban forces after aligning itself with America in the fight against terrorism.
Captain Khan, who had passed out from Sandhurst at the same time as the Prince just 15 months earlier, was in the passenger seat of an army car at the head of the convoy.
He was hit by a bullet which smashed the windscreen then passed clean through his shoulder, his relatives in Pakistan told The Mail on Sunday.
Displaying courage and cool-headedness, however, the young officer managed to kick open his door and roll out of the vehicle to escape the spray of bullets being directed at the convoy and then help his injured colleagues.
He quickly regrouped with other officers to shield the wounded and return fire at the attackers for a desperate hour before reinforcements reached the bloody scene in the Madakhel area on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Five Taliban fighters died in the exchanges.
Captain Khan, now 24, was given a commendation by the army for his outstanding bravery during the ambush.
The drama took place at around the same time as Prince Harry was on exercise at a British Army training base in Canada — where he made headlines for visiting a nightclub hosted by well-endowed barmaids.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Muslim March the BBC Didn’t Let You See
Special in-depth feature by Nick Griffin on the efforts of the far-left to spark a Muslim intifada on our streets.
Flicking burning matches into boxes of gelignite! That’s the only way to describe the irresponsible antics of the far-left as they use the distant conflict in Gaza as an excuse to wind up young Muslims. Their aim is to spark clashes with the police that would ‘radicalise’ the Muslim community in the hope that they could then be recruited to Marxist revolutionary organisations such as the Socialist Workers Party and Respect.
Just how frighteningly close these white atheist cranks are to sparking riots that could tear many parts of Britain apart can be judged from the two pieces of video footage accompanying this report.
The first was filmed outside the Israeli Embassy in London a fortnight ago. It shows graphically the extent to which the police have lost the ability and the will to face down threats and violence from angry Muslims (compare this pathetic retreat with the truncheon-wielding head-cracking of peaceful Countryside Alliance demonstrators outside Parliament).
The second five minutes of film was shot by an iron-nerved team from BNPtv in Blackburn on Sunday 11th January. As you’ll see the first short section is silent, but still gives a good impression of the scale of the protest.
Despite — or rather, because of — the size of the demo, and its exclusively Muslim nature, none of the broadcast media or national newspapers carried a single word on the story. The BBC in particular gave extensive air-time to rival pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests in London over the same weekend, and mentioned a left-wing rally in Manchester, but all covered up what was probably the largest Islamic protest march in the UK since the Bradford book-burnings against Salman Rushdie and free speech twenty years ago.
The main camera crew, which included Burnley BNP Councillor Derek Dawson and former Blackburn BNP Councillor Robin Evans, were threatened with arrest and escorted out of the town by the police. A second back-up crew with an amateur video camera, however, were not picked up by the police and managed to attend the protest rally itself. This was held in Blackburn’s Corporation Park and included a short but inflammatory speech by Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth, which was recorded under very difficult circumstances by our brave volunteers.
Self-confessed Marxist
A self-confessed life-long Marxist, Lauren Booth speaks for the far-left front group the so-called Stop the War Coalition. Last year she joined Respect’s George Galloway on a fund-raising stunt for them, which was praised in Socialist Worker.
Ms Booth addressed the almost totally male Muslim crowd with a large part of her hair and head covered with a woolly hat, and she also pointedly made no reference to her thoroughly unIslamic support for feminism, atheism, abortion on demand and the abolition of the family. She did, however, make a fiery speech attacking Israel, complete with what at present appear to be totally unsubstantiated allegations about the women and children of Gaza being ‘blasted’ with chemical weapons. Making things up as she goes along is nothing new for Ms Booth — last year she visited Gaza and claimed that she was forbidden to leave by Jewish soldiers, even though the checkpoint in question was manned by the Egyptians.
Addressing the huge and already wound up crowd in Blackburn, she attacked the authorities for making them meet in the park, and called on the Muslim community to bring 40,000 next time and “go to the centre of your city and stay there” until the Government agreed to close down the Israeli Embassy in London.
“Today we are all Palestinians”, she ranted, “Israel is the nation of hate”. Displaying the coded anti-Semitism which pervades so much of the left, she then used the plural (thus showing she was addressing Jews rather than Israel) “you are the criminals that we detest”.
“Chemical are weapons raining down on Gaza …. we want Israel out of this country”. Not, note, just the Israeli Embassy. She and her Red-Green alliance would like to go much further than that.
The near hysterical crowd loved it all of course. Ms Booth had her few minutes of revolutionary glory and then went home to her posh pad in Islington. The event ended, as far as we know, peacefully.
But the far left are playing a very dangerous game here. They think that their propagandists and ‘spokespeople’ can play on Muslim anger and paranoia, turning it on and off like a tap in a bid for votes, recruits and donations.
Left sparked Bradford riot
This is what they were trying to do in Bradford in 2001 when they seized on the empty threat of a National Front march to bring thousands of young Muslims onto the streets, wind them up into a frenzy with wild tales of threatened racist attacks and alleged official indifference to the mythical ‘threat’ to their community.
Job done, the SWP-run Anti-Nazi League then made their excuses and departed — leaving the angry mob to attack innocent local whites and cause £20 Million-worth of damage in the riot that sparked a wave of unrest, anti-white racist attacks and destruction across northern England.
Note the SWP posters in this video footage; they’re at it again. Whatever their petty internal differences, the various far-left fractions are united in their desire to bring mayhem to the streets of Britain. Their targets? The police, any institution or business with an Israeli connection, and the British National Party. These people provide the organisation and the manpower for the Labour party’s systematic and repeated efforts to undermine and pervert the democratic process by smearing and harassing the BNP at every election in which we stand.
Increasingly frantic over the failure of their propaganda offensives to stop our votes rising, the left’s strategists are seeking to incite their foot-soldiers and ethnic minority allies to use violence in a last ditch attempt to stop us. Unfortunately for them, however, the average crowd of middle class student protesters may think they look menacing when they put scarves over their faces, but in truth couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. Hence the attraction of trying to recruit young ‘street’ Muslims, who are generally obsessed with martial arts training and weapons.
What they either don’t realise, or don’t care about, however, is the fact that anti-Kuffar racism and hatred is so strong among the new generation of young Muslims that any trouble that starts as a protest against Israel or the British National Party has the very real potential to become a pogrom against all non-Muslims and the detonator not for a Marxist-style popular uprising but for a Muslim intifada and communal violence on a truly horrific scale
If the far-left don’t grow up and get responsible, if the police fail to put a stop to their provocations and incitement, and if the liberal-left TV companies don’t temper their nightly one-sided propaganda orgy of dead and injured Palestinian school-children, this could all end in blood as well as tears.
Lesson from Brixton
Indeed, it may already be too late to stop — the circumstances were rather different, but we’ve been here before. On 18th January 1981, a reveller who had been thrown out of a party in New Cross, South London, returned and set fire to the house. Thirteen innocent black youngsters were burned to death, in what the (mainly white) far-left set about insisting was a racist attack.
On 2nd March, 10,000 angry black protesters marched, with about 1,000 nervous white leftists bringing up the rear, from Lewisham to central London.. I joined the march about a mile south of the Thames and watched as groups repeatedly broke off to raid building sites and skips to collect bricks and lumps of wood. The police took no action, marching stony-faced to their front, increasingly covered with gobs of spit.
Only as the angry mob reached Blackfriars Bridge did the police try to stop them going any further, with a three deep police riot shield line blocking the bridge. As the mood grew more and more ugly, every last one of the leftists vanished, leaving me as virtually the only non-uniformed white face to watch as a big lorry carrying a Rasta sound system smashed through the police lines and the huge crowd poured in to the City of London. “Babylon must fall! Murder, murder, Babylon must fall!”
Fleet Street was quickly strewn with the empty wallets of mugging victims, and jewellers and other shops were later looted in the West End. All the police either could or would do was to keep the mob out of Whitehall and Downing Street. The authorities were beaten and humiliated, the mob swaggered, drunk on power.
The next morning I gave my eye-witness account to the colleagues with whom in those days I produced the monthly magazine Nationalism Today. I also predicted that the scale of the young black community’s victory over the Metropolitan police was such that it guaranteed an explosion of further violence within a matter of weeks. Having beaten brushed aside the police of the English ‘Babylon’ like bluebottles, it was obvious that the angry black ‘street’ would now apply its new-found confidence by using force to stop the hated police Stop and Search routine. It was only a matter of time before the attempted arrest of one young black lad would draw a crowd and spark serious trouble.
A few weeks later, this was precisely what happened. The Brixton riots of April 1981 left hundreds of policemen injured, saw enormous damage to looted and firebombed shops and pubs, and sparked off a wave of riots in Afro-Caribbean communities all over England.
Urban uprising?
Now the far-left hope to inflame young Muslims into being their shock-troops for an urban uprising that would far outdo the troubles of 1981. If a fresh truce in Gaza removes that particular excuse for mass mayhem, then they will switch to Plan B — using scare-stories and demonstrations about the BNP’s European Election campaign to mobilise and excite the mob, sparking attacks on the police which are all too likely to spill over into attacks on local white residents and Jewish-owned businesses
In an effort to hamper this cynical exercise in provocation, and to press for the law to be applied equitably, I have today written to the Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary making an official complaint against Lauren Booth and her speech, which was clearly likely under the circumstances to incite racial hatred against members of the Jewish community in Britain..
Time for Action
If a spokesman for a group on the neo-Nazi fringe had made such a speech to an angry crowd of ten thousand working class English football fans, describing the entire Pakistani community as “criminals” who should be driven from Britain, then he would be in court faster than you can say ‘race hate’. Why should Lauren Booth be allowed to get away with inciting violence just because she is the sister-in-law of Tony Blair and her targets are Jewish?
Finally, while on the subject of big-mouthed Marxists, if Jo Brand and the BBC programmer responsible for her Saturday Night Live at the Apollo comedy slot think that they can incite people to send ‘poo’ to BNP members without incurring consequences, they’ve got another think coming. We’re organising at a new level now, and part of that involves a determination to ensure that anyone who tries to persecute our people will find that there is a serious price to pay for doing so.
The following letter has today been emailed and posted to Chief Constable Steve Finnigan at Lancashire Police HQ, Preston.
For Urgent Attention, Chief Constable, Lancashire Constabulary
Police HQ
Hutton
Preston
PR4 5SB
17th January 2009
Dear Chief Constable Finnigan,
I wish to make a formal allegation of incitement to racial hatred, contrary to S.5 of the Public Order Act, whereby it is an offence to use words intended or, having regards to all the circumstances, likely to incite racial hatred.
The offence was, I believe, committed by Lauren Booth in the course of her speech to the Muslims for Gaza rally in Corporation Park, Blackburn, on Sunday 11th January 2009, a copy of which may be found on the BNPtv footage posted together with my analysis of the speech and situation on the main news section of www.bnp.org.uk on Saturday 17th January.
As you should already be aware, this rally was attended by many thousands of mainly young Muslim men, already in a high state of anger as a result of media coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in Gaza. As one of Britain’s leading experts in this particular piece of legislation, I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a prima facie case against Ms Booth. In particular, her use of the plural in the phrase “you are the criminals we detest”, juxtaposed with comments such as “we want Israel out of this country”, (not, please note, “the Israeli Embassy”, but simply “Israel”) are clearly likely — if not intended — to be taken by those present as a green light for hatred, indeed quite possibly actual physical violence, against individual Jews and against Jewish businesses in our High Streets.
That she intended mischief is indicated by her deliberately setting out to enrage the audience with stories — totally fictitious as far as any news reports coming out of Gaza would suggest — of “chemical weapons” being used by Israel in the targeted attacks on Hamas terrorists which she presents as random attacks aimed at innocent women and children.
Given the deep-rooted traditional hostility to Jews, simply on account of their being Jews, in the Koran and the Haddith, to make such a speech to a large Muslim audience can only incite hatred against Jews; the legal threshold of ‘likelihood’ cannot fail to be crossed.
If it should be that a ‘softly softly’ policing policy meant that you did not feel able to station a police video team in the park to capture speeches as evidence in the event (clearly foreseeable under the circumstances) of incitements to violence or racial or religious hatred, then you only need to ask and BNPtv will supply you with the original footage recorded by our camera crew in the park. Although it is shaky it is clearly audible throughout and the speaker can be very clearly identified.
I am also told that Wayman Bennett of the criminal conspiracy operation ‘Unite Against Fascism’ addressed the same rally and said, among other provocative statements that “Israeli Jews should go back to wherever they came from — New York or wherever it is”. I have not seen this footage myself, but urge that you also investigate this.
As the Gold Commander during the 1981 Burnley riots, you must have a very good appreciation of the very serious danger involved here, with outside agitators doing their very best to increase tensions in Blackburn. Should the situation in Gaza not be permanently resolved very soon, it is highly likely that Ms Booth’s call for a far larger demonstration in the town will be answered. That being the case, it is vital if the peace is to be maintained and the law upheld that the police force take action now to show that incitement to racial hatred and violence is unacceptable not only if the alleged victims are Pakistani Muslims, but also members of other races and religions.
I look forward to hearing that you have set in motion the appropriate action very shortly, not least because — as my analysis which accompanies the video makes clear — we do not have much time left in which to damp down the growing hysteria and alienation being produced by agitators such as Ms Booth.
Yours sincerely
Nick Griffin
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The ‘Brown Bounce’ is Over as Polls Show Biggest Lead for Conservatives Since October
The Conservative Party has surged to its biggest lead over Labour since October and more voters would trust them with the economy, according to a new poll.
The YouGov survey put the Conservatives up four percentage points from last month at 45 percent, with Labour down three on 32 percent.
Tory leader David Cameron and his finance spokesman George Osborne regained their poll lead over Prime Minister Gordon Brown and finance minister Alistair Darling when people were asked which pair would handle the economy more competently.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican to Get Own YouTube Channel
The Vatican will soon have its own channel on the video sharing site YouTube where the Catholic faithful or the curious will be able to see Pope Benedict or Church events, a Vatican source said on Saturday.
The details of the accord are due to be presented on Friday at a news conference attended by Vatican officials as well as Henrique de Castro, managing director of media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube.
The initiative will involve Google, the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio. It will mark the Vatican’s deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican opened up its website in 1995.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Jihad Cinema
A half-hour long film about a Muslim sniper who is killing American soldiers in Iraq is being shown in Bosnia, reports Bosnian Muslim television.
The film is shown in central Bosnia where concentration of radical Islamists is the greatest, reports Bosnian government TV station.
The film is about a mysterious Muslim named Juba who is using a sniper to kill an American soldier once every day. The sniper has been doing this for several years now and each soldier is hit with one bullet in the forehead, the movie shows.
Bosnian TV news show 60 Minutes reports that the mysterious sniper has killed several hundred Americans so far. After each killing, the sniper leaves one shell and a message in Arabic that says “What’s taken by blood cannot be brought back without blood.”
The DVD also says that Bosnian Muslim Jihad veterans from the notorious Bosnian Muslim Army unit El Mujaheed are also volunteers among the Jihadists in Iraq that are killing the Americans.
Clip showing an American solder falling dead from a sniper
During the Bosnian civil war in the 1990s, United States blamed and then bombed the Bosnian Serbs who were targets of massacres by the El Mujahedeen units and other Bosnian Muslim government forces.
The film about Juba is also sold as a DVD in Bosnia, and is narrated in the so-called Bosnian language, reports Bosnian TV.
Parts of the movie are also available on the Bosnian Muslim religious site islamika.net where it shares space along with Islamic hutbas, or teachings.
Some analysts say that the purpose of the movie is to be used to recruit Bosnian Muslims into al Qaeda.
These analysts say that Bosnian Muslims are especially prized by al-Qaeda leadership because of their European features that can blend into Western society much more easily and be less noticeable during Islamic terrorist planning.
Bosnian TV says that there are increasing number of visits by Wahabis from Austria and Germany into central Bosnia where the film is being shown.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: KFOR Italy, 50 Health and Training Projects Planned
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, JANUARY 15 — The Italian KFOR (the Nato-led Kosovo Force) will continue to support the people living in the six municipalities of the Dukagjini region in 2009 through various projects, above all in the areas of training and health. This was announced by the Commander of the Multinational Task Force — West, General Giovanni Armentani, confirming that the Italian government has to decided to get at least 50 projects underway in 2009 through its own military forces in Kosovo. Having met the Mayor of Peja, Ali Berisha, Armentani said that ten large projects in the Peja municipality would be created, costing 241,000 euro, whilst overall there will be 50 projects for a value of 850,000 euro. Berisha has welcomed the news and expressed the readiness of the Peja town hall to take part in the projects which will be realised alongside the Italian authorities in KFOR. Pursuant to this, an agreement is to be signed shortly. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo [Ex-Terrorist] Army to be Launched Next Week, NATO
A new multiethnic, North Atlantic Treaty Organization-trained Kosovo police and security force will be launched next week to eventually replace the disbanding Albanian-run local police force, NATO said Wednesday. “On Jan. 20, the KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps) will be disbanded. On the 21st of January, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) will be stood up,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters in Brussels.
The lightly armed KSF will have 2,500 officers and 800 reservists. While the new force will come into existence and begin training next Friday, Appathurai said it was unlikely to become a fully functioning force “before the middle of the year.”
NATO has agreed to train up the force, which includes military and civilian members, as well as to oversee the dissolution of the existing police force, which is largely made up of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), the separatist guerrilla group which fought Serb forces in 1998-99.
Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia, declared its independence last February, almost nine years after NATO bombing drove out Serbian forces waging a crackdown on separatists from its ethnic Albanian majority. It has since been recognized by more then 50 countries, including most of the European Union states and the U.S.
However, Serbia and the Serb minority — the estimated 100,000 people who stayed in Kosovo after the end of 1998-99 war — oppose the move.
“Training for the civilian elements of the Kosovo Security Force will begin immediately and at a certain stage, I think relatively soon, interviews for the military personnel will take place,” said Appathurai. The force will be led by Kosovar authorities “but with a role for (NATO’s) KFOR as well, to ensure that the KSF is democratically controlled, multiethnic and meeting the appropriate legal and other standards.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Hackers Target Israeli Websites to Protest Over Gaza
Rabat, 16 Jan. (AKI) — (By Hamza Boccolini) — A group of Moroccan computer hackers have united in an aggressive campaign of internet piracy in a bid to influence Israeli public opinion in relation to the country’s three week military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The group, known as Marocco Snipers, includes dozens of technology experts from the North African country.
According to local media, these Moroccan hackers have entered at least 80 Israeli sites in the past few days, blocking their servers and changing their home pages.
There are many important sites that belong to the country’s institutions and companies. Several of these sites have been destroyed, while others have only been modified.
In one incident, they published a series of photos that depict Gaza children who were injured in Israeli bomb attacks to show Israelis what was happening in the coastal territory and push them to intervene to stop the air raids.
The only limit on the activities on the Moroccan Internet pirates are local laws that provide for the punishment of technological pirates and threaten sanctions for anyone who is identified as a hacker.
However, the country’s Ulema or Muslim scholars, who have called the Internet activity ‘electronic jihad’, have given their blessing saying it is legal on the basis of Sharia law.
Sheikh Bin Salim Bahsha, member of the Moroccan Ulema Council, said the hackers activities was “ a real jihad” that had the organisation’s blessing.
Another important Moroccan imam, Abu Zaid, also said the action was justified.
“It is true there are laws that ban hacking and prohibit attacks on Internet sites, but they find themselves in a war situation against Israel and it’s the right of Muslims to use every means, legal or illegal, to respond to the enemy,” he said.
Communications expert, Yahya al-Yahawi, fears that the Moroccan Snipers may be identified and arrested by police once there is an end to the Gaza conflict.
“Their attacks can potentially strike sites that are also considered sensitive for security and the national economy,” he said.
“If they were identified and sent for justice, in the absence of a specific hacking law, they risk five years in prison based on article 124 of the penal code.”
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI said on Thursday he would not attend Arab summits on Israel’s offensive in Gaza because they would not do much to help the Palestinian people.
However since the Israeli military offensive began on 27 December, Moroccans have staged several demonstrations and raised funds for Palestinians affected by military attacks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Anti-Semitism Sweeps Europe in Wake of Gaza Operation
A second front to the conflict in the Gaza Strip has opened up in Europe, where a wave of reprisal attacks against Jewish targets is stoking fears of a wider resurgence of anti-Semitism on the continent. Far from simply being a spate of isolated incidents, as many Europeans claim, anti-Semitic violence is becoming more commonplace in every country in Europe. At the same time, anti-Israel demonstrations, which have strong anti-Semitic overtones, are being held with alarming frequency in cities across Europe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gas Found Near Cyprus Reports Israeli Media
Reports from Israel suggest that a US based drilling has company has discovered a massive reserve of gas between Israel and Cyprus. Israeli Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that the find was of “historic proportions,” and that it could change the face of Israel’s economy.
Arutz 7 Radio reports that the Houston-based Noble Energy company, drilling for Israel’s Delek fuel company, announced that it has discovered a huge deposit of natural gas under the Mediterranean Sea near Haifa. If verified, the news will come as a welcome surprise to the government in Nicosia, which last year announced their own data indicated that there are oil and gas deposits in a sea area separating the island from Egypt to its south and Lebanon to its east.
According to Arutz 7, 87 billion cubic meters, or nearly 3.1 trillion cubic feet, of high-quality gas are estimated to be in three deposits in the Tamar Drilling site.
The gas is located 90 kilometers west of Haifa, between Israel and Cyprus, but the rights to the Cypriot drilling sites are also owned by an Israeli company. The depth of the water above the find is 1.7 kilometers, over a mile, and the gas is located another 4.9 kilometers deep in an area 140 meters wide.
The Cyprus government signed agreements with Egypt in 2005 and Lebanon in early January this year delineating their sea boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean to facilitate future underwater oil and gas exploration. In November the government accused Turkey of harassing two Panamanian-flagged oil research vessels in international waters.
The dispute came as little surprise to many political commentators, some of whom have long predicted that oil and gas exploration by either side would stoke tensions in the region. Turkish Cypriots have strongly objected to any exploration by the Greek Cypriots and said that any natural reserves discovered belong to both sides.
Some studies suggest that there could be undersea reserves of up to eight billion barrels of crude oil off Cyprus.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Give to Obama What Belongs to Obama
Andrea Holzer and Brittany Toscano
It is not great news that Walter Veltroni is a big time Obama Fan. Nor it is shocking to say that the Democratic party was named after the American one. It is at least peculiar though that, with the election of Barack Obama in the Us, the Italian Democratic Party seems to have found its new leader, or at least a model to follow.
Actually, having a model to follow wouldn’t be so strange, even for a political party. The problem is that Uòlter (Walter Veltroni’s new nickname is associated with the sound of his first name as if it was pronounced by an American) seems convinced that the new President of the US is a member of his party.
“Berlusconi is joking about our enthusiasm and claims: ‘it seems like Obama is a PD’s man?’ — said Veltroni in an interview with La Repubblica, yesterday — well, he’s wrong cause he doesn’t seem, he is really one of us”.
“I spent my entire life dreaming about having a party in Italy with the same name [of the American one], continued Veltroni”. Nevermind the fact that he began his career as a politician at the FGCI (Italian Federation of the Communist Youth) and — shortly afterwards — was named Regional Advisor for the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano).
Uòlter also thinks that “by choosing an afro-American President the Americans are looking forward” and that the election of Obama is a “lesson to the Italian politics…the Italian right looks more like Sarah Palin than John McCain” [?].
So, Walter Veltroni seems convinced that Barack Obama’s victory can be perceived as a victory of the Italian left, in other words — according to the “Veltronian Transatlantic Theory”, Democrats = Democratici.
In fact, the Italian Democrats spent the night of November 4 monitoring American exit polls at the “Tempio di Adriano”, a few steps away from the Pantheon. Piero Fassino (former trade union’s leader), Massimo D’Alema and Walter Veltroni, were among the other PD’s politicians waiting for “the change” to happen.
The next morning you could have seen Obama’s face smiling from the walls everywhere in the Eternal City, the PD covered Roman walls with the posters of its new leader.
Another former Major of Rome, Francesco Rutelli, does not agree with the PD’s leader: “Obama’s victory is the one of the American Democratic Party, not the Italian one” said Rutelli to La Stampa. Even though Rutelli wasn’t partying like Veltroni was the other day, he still thinks that the election of Obama means a lot for the Italian left. “This victory fulfills the third and last condition the PD needed in order to start from scratch”. The first condition being the end of the “honeymoon with the Italians” of Berlusconi’s new government. The PD’s health report — second condition — was made at the Circus Maximum two weeks ago, they say that almost 500 thousand people gathered there, to protest against Berlusconi. The third condition for the PD to be considered “alive” (after the catastrophic defeat at against the PDL in April), was, of course, Obama’s victory.
Not every single politician in Italy was enthusiastic about Obama’s victory. Maurizio Gasparri (President of PDL’s Senators) said that “al-Qaeda will be much happier now”, his comment sparked a discussion at the Senate and Anna Finocchiaro (President of the PD’s Group) questioned the validity of Gasparri’s ideas.
Maybe al-Qaeda won’t add more comments to Obama’s election, but Hamas did. One of its mouthpieces said yesterday that the victory of the Democratic candidate it’s good news for its political movement, as long as he gets rid of his Jewish consultants.
We don’t know whether the tide of Obama’s victory will reach our coasts, but there is something we need to point out: his victory belongs to himself and to the Americans. Massimo “The Philosopher” Cacciari the Mayor of Venice and a very well know leftwing politician, agrees with us: “I hope that no one would be so pathetic to consider Obama’s victory as its own. I also hope some of our govern representatives will keep that residual sense of modesty and will not claim that they look like Barack Obama. Not even the Democratic Party as anything to do with Obama, maybe once its renewal will be complete, but certainly not now”.
“It doesn’t matter how much I hold in esteem Veltroni — continued Cacciari — but comparing him with such an historical event would be comical”.
Fabrizio Cicchito, spokesman of the PDL, has a very strong opinion about PD’s attempt to join in Obama’s victory: “the PD’s attempt to turn Obama’s victory in its favor was neutralized from within, at times even with mocking words. They were just trying to transform their defeats into victories, using someone else’s ability”. Give Obama what belongs to Obama.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas: Resistance Will Continue
Group spokesman Fauzi Barhoum said that “a unilateral ceasefire does not mean an end to the aggression and siege, which also constitute components of war. Therefore, this means the resistance is not over yet.”
[…]
Turning his attention to Israeli attacks in Gaza, Hamadan added: “Hamas was not hurt?Hamas and the Palestinian organizations continue to rule Gaza. The victims of this war will be the basis for the continuation of the fighting and hostility vis-à-vis the Israeli side.”
The Hamas representative also disparaged the IDF, saying that “if this is all the strength they have, they failed in defeating the Palestinian people.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Hamas Announces Immediate Ceasefire and Gives Israel a Week to Leave Gaza
[Comment from JD: Note how “ceasefire” only applies to Israel. Rockets still fly and the leftists/islamists call it a “ceasefire”.]
Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire by its fighters and allied groups in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, senior Hamas official Ayman Taha said, adding that the Islamists give Israel a week to pull out its troops.
‘Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw,’ Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on a truce deal.
Hamas also demanded that Israel open all of the Gaza Strip’s border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the ‘basic needs for our people’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Should be Allowed to Finish the Job Against Hamas
Perceptive Defense of Israel By Spanish Think Tank
“The best contribution that the EU and the UN can make to peace and stability in the region is let Israel reach its goals.”
Dr. Rafael L. Bardaji, writing on behalf of Grupo de Estudiois Estrategicos, makes a compelling argument for the need for Israel to be allowed to finish the job against Hamas. While some have argued that Israel should cease fire immediately, Dr. Bardaji reminds us that although Hezbollah was bested on the battlefield its success in coming out of its conflict with Israel politically intact translated into a long-term victory for the Iranian backed terror group.
In the midst of his analysis, Dr. Bardaji deals with the distorted reports of casualties inflicted by Israel. News reports keep repeating Palestinian death counts (with no evidence as to their accuracy) as if every Palestinian killed is a civilian. Dr. Bardaji cites the United Nations, one of Israel’s fiercest critics, and concludes that at most 10% of the victims can be considered innocent victims while 90% are “would be leaders and militiamen of Hamas”. He goes on to note that Israel is doing a much better job than NATO in Afghanistan is in hitting military targets and avoiding non-military ones.
Dr. Bardaji concludes by urging the EU and the UN to allow Israel to complete its mission. He says, “International pressure should be focused on our enemies, and in this case on Hamas, not our friends and saviors. Israel should feel our support so that Hamas senses its isolation and feels that it is within the Israeli soldiers reach.”
For readers interested in informed security analyzes we highly recommend reading Dr. Bardaji and his colleagues on their GEES website in English and Spanish. Topics include European relations with the United States, the European Union, and the Middle East. It is a treasure trove of informed opinion and facts.
— Note: The article “Give Israel a Chance” can be read here
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Exchanges of Fire Puncture Fragile Gaza Truce
Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters have exchanged their first shots in Gaza, puncturing a tenuous ceasefire after the Jewish state halted a deadly war on the Hamas rulers of the enclave.
As the army carried out its first air raid on militants firing rockets, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the unilateral truce Israel had begun hours earlier was fragile and was being constantly reassessed.
“The Government’s decision allows Israel to respond and renew the fire if our enemy in the Gaza Strip continues its strikes,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
“This morning they again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute by minute basis.”
“We hope that the fire ends. If it continues, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will respond. It is prepared and deployed to do so.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Health: From Saudi Arabia to Forli to Study Drugs System
(ANSAmed) — FORLI’, JANUARY 15 — A study trip from Riyadh to Forlì to learn the philosophy of single-dose drug administration at the ‘Morgagni-Pierantoni’ hospital. A delegation from the King Khaled University Hospital in the Saudi capital visited the Forlì institution to study the organisational model chosen by the local health authority and evaluate how to reproduce it in their own clinic. The Saudi group, led by cardiologist and head of intensive care, Abdulaziz Alzeer, was made up of hospital pharmacists and surgeons, looked at the automated procedure of single dose drug administration with great interest. The ‘single dose project’ has been in use since May 2004, when the new hospital was opened. It is a method of automated administration of drugs characterised by the checking of every prescription and by the preparation in the pharmacy of daily therapies for each patient. The introduction of automatic systems for single doses, using barcodes, has cut down significantly on errors. Combined with computerised prescriptions, as in the case of Forlì, there is an 83% reduction in errors in the drugs administration chain. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Doha Summit of 300 Young Muslim Leaders
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY — In Doha today a summit of 300 young Muslim leaders opened, with representatives from 75 countries, with the aim “of making tomorrow”, a statement reads, “a day when Muslims are known throughout the world as peace-loving people”. The young leaders “will propose innovative solutions to the challenges which Muslims face in the world, such as the crisis of religious authorities, violent extremism, the crisis of values and tense relations with the West”. The meeting in Doha is part of the program of the MLT “Muslim leaders of Tomorrow”, which is a “global network of young, dynamic Muslims committed to bringing about positive social change”. The only Italian Muslim to take part in the meeting is the Vice President of COREIS, the Italian Islamic Religious Community, Yahya Pallavicini. The Imam of the al-Wahid Mosque in Milan, in a statement, underlines how, in this delicate international situation it is “vital to promote an intellectual and religious renewal within the Islamic world, which should be carried out in the light of traditional prinicipals, which should be wisely rejected in postmodern society.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mob Attacks Turkish Cypriot Cars in Cyprus Capital
Police are hunting a mob of hooded youths that went on an unprecedented spree of violence last night, targeting Turkish Cypriots cars in Nicosia. According to Cyprus state radio, cars with Turkish Cypriot number plates were singled out by the bikers who smashed wind screens and damaged cars at various locations across the city.
The most serious incident occurred on the main Makarios Avenue in Nicosia, when the youth attacked a car owned by a Turkish Cypriot couple who were stopped at a red light. The couple’s car was severely damaged, with the front, back and side windows being smashed, as they sat in the car. The couple, who were both shaken by the attack, were accompanied to a local police station by witnesses. Four cars parked at the Mall of Cyprus were also targeted by the same gang.
Cyprus government spokesman blasted the incidents as “mindless nationalistic violence.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Elder Son of Bin Laden Believed to be in Pakistan
WASHINGTON: A son of Osama bin Laden who spent years under Iranian house arrest has left Iran and is now probably operating inside Pakistan, a senior American intelligence official said on Friday.
The son, Saad bin Laden, is one of a number of senior operatives of Al-Qaeda detained inside Iran in recent years. American officials have long puzzled over the exact circumstances of their captivity, but they believe that Iran was holding the militants in part as a deterrent against a Qaeda attack on Iranian soil.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told reporters on Friday that Saad bin Laden was probably in Pakistan. He gave no details about whether bin Laden had escaped from custody, whether his departure reflected a deal between Iran and Al Qaeda or whether he was simply let go by Iranian officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Plans 300 Training Centres to Boost Job Market
(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, JANUARY 14 — Saudi officials have drawn up plans to build 300 technical and vocational centres to train local children up in a bid to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign workers in many sectors. Construction of some of the campuses are already underway, an official said, with a view to accommodating about 50,000 new trainees. The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), the government-run agency, has also embarked on a major project to revise the outdated curricula and training programmes. “It has become imperative to revise courses keeping in view the fundamental changes that have taken place in the texts, strategies and overall technical education system,” Ali al-Ghafees, TVTC governor, said in comments published by Arab News. Ghafees, speaking on the sidelines of the fifth Saudi Technical Conference and Exhibition, said the new training programmes were being formulated according to the needs of the local labour market. Referring to the establishment of new technical and vocational centers, he said plans are afoot to set up 36 higher learning facilities for young women. “Construction work is already under way for some campuses. There is an urgent need to polish the skills of young Saudi boys and girls, who will eventually enter the job market,” he told the paper. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas in India. “There Was No Room for Them at the Inn”
Thousands of victims of the anti-Christian pogroms are still sheltering in the woods. The Vatican authorities are mobilizing to oppose Hindu fanaticism. But they are elusive on Muslim terrorism. The Islamologist Troll denounces the dangers of this inertia
ROMA, January 13, 2009 — In the areas of Orissa that have been the theater of anti-Christian attacks, celebrations were held this Christmas without significant incidents. Unlike what happened at Christmas of 2007, when more than a hundred churches and a thousand homes were devastated and burned.
But about 20,000 Christians from the district of Kandhamal, the epicenter of the attacks, continue to stay away from their villages, which they fled in August and September. Their homes have been destroyed, and above all they do not feel sufficiently protected. They are living in tents on the edges of the forest, in a dozen refugee camps. The police are closing the camps one by one, forcing the refugees to go back home in exchange for 10,000 rupees (about 150 euros), 50 kilos of rice, and a roll of plastic to use as a shelter.
On January 4, the supreme court of India — after giving a hearing to the attorney of the archbishop of Bhubaneswar, Raphael Cheenath — criticized the government of Orissa for its late and feeble reaction to the anti-Christian pogrom last summer, and told it to “resign if it is incapable of protecting the minorities.” The government of Orissa is headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Biju Janata Dal, the two parties of reference for the Hindu groups that committed the violence.
At the same time as the supreme court was making its pronouncement, at the police station in Cuttack Sister Mena Barwa, the young religious who was raped on August 25 in the village of Nonagon by a group of fanatics, identified two of her rapists, among the ten men under arrest.
But John Dayal, president of the All India Christian Council and of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, warns that, four months after the pogrom, the danger of a resumption of the violence remains high. Especially after the end of January, when the 6,000 federal agents sent by the central authorities of Delhi will leave Orissa.
Benedict XVI, in the state of the world address that he delivered on January 8 to the diplomatic corps, dedicated just a few brief comments to India, the first alluding to the terrorist attack at the end of November in Mumbai, and the second to the anti-Christian pogroms in Orissa. But both of these events seriously worry Vatican authorities.
As for Hindu extremism, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue, spoke out in an interview with “L’Osservatore Romano” on January 4:
“In order to understand the dynamics of these events, one must go back to 1989, when the Hindu nationalist party came to power in the state of Orissa. More than a conflict of a religious nature, this is a problem of a social and political character. Catholics are criticized for paying attention to the lower castes, which provide the manual labor for the upper castes. It is objected that Christianity is also a factor of social emancipation. Obviously, we Catholics will continue with dialogue. A dialogue, it is worth emphasizing, that is carried forward above all by the local Church, under the attentive guidance of the bishops, with the help of the apostolic nuncio. I myself intend to visit India in the next few months for a meeting with the bishops and Hindu religious leaders, to get a grasp of the situation. Whatever the case, we will continue to call for respect for religious freedom, which presupposes the respect for freedom of conscience, meaning the possibility to choose one’s own religion or to change it, to practice it in private and in public. But at the same time, another dialogue must be carried forward with the public authorities, whose responsibility it is to guarantee the conditions for real and effective religious freedom, without discrimination or segregation, in free adherence to an organized religious community. All of this is nothing other than what is requested by international law and international conventions, to which India adheres. And finally, it is the responsibility of every government to guarantee the physical safety of its citizens, especially when some of them are the victims of physical violence, as in the case that we are talking about. I think, from a practical point of view, that everyone has an interest in effective respect for religious freedom: believers who feel that they are respected and defended in the profession of their faith will be even more willing to collaborate in the material, social, and spiritual well-being of the society in which they are full-fledged members. I would like to recall that the unjustifiable violence of which we are speaking does not concern the majority of Hindus and their leaders, who are traditionally peaceful. This is why, in my message on the occasion of the recent celebration of the Diwali, I wanted to reaffirm the necessity of Christians and Hindus working together in the light of the common principle of nonviolence.”
* * *
On the Muslim terrorism in India, however, the Vatican authorities are more elusive. In the past, there was never any particular friction between Christians and Muslims in India. On the contrary, these two minorities have been allies repeatedly in combating caste discrimination, and in defending themselves from the aggression of Hindu fanatics.
But the terrorist attack in Mumbai has dangerously changed the picture. And it has projected this on an international scale. The organizers of the attack were based in Pakistan, and the enemy target was definitively the Judeo-Christian West…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong: Migrant Workers in Hong Kong Against Israel
About 100 protesters, many of which are Muslim domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia, raise placards and shout slogans during a protest against Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip through a busy shopping district in Hong Kong, Sunday.
— Note: One of them carries a sign with “Helpers of Islam Group”. That is the Hong Kong based Jamiat-ul-Ansar-ul-Islam, with as chairwoman the Phillipine Muslim Madeenah Molina. They mostly are known for advocating more rights for Migrant workers, but also give Dawa courses.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Suggests Bombs Built
The North Korean military has declared an “all-out confrontational posture” against South Korea as an American scholar said North Korean officials told him they had “weaponised” enough plutonium for roughly four to six nuclear bombs.
US intelligence officials had previously estimated that the North had harvested enough fuel for six or more bombs, although it was never clear if the North constructed the weapons.
The scholar, Selig Harrison, said the officials had not defined what “weaponised” meant, but the implication was that they had built nuclear arms.
After the threats, made on Saturday, South Korea ordered its military to heighten vigilance along its heavily fortified border with North Korea, a spokesman with the South Korean military joint chiefs of staff said. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Miscarrying Mother Told ‘Life’s a Bitch’ by NSW Hospital Doctor
A SYDNEY woman was told “life’s a bitch” by a doctor as she was miscarrying her baby in a New South Wales hospital, her husband says.
She is the latest in a string of women to reveal their harrowing stories of poor treatment while miscarrying at NSW public hospitals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mrs Mugabe Assaults Our Photographer Outside Her Luxury Hong Kong Hotel
A Sunday Times photographer has been beaten up and punched repeatedly in the face by the wife of President Robert Mugabe.
Grace Mugabe, 43, known as the First Shopper of Zimbabwe, flew into a rage when she was spotted last week leaving the exclusive Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong. She has been staying there with her entourage at a cost of £2,000 a day while her country endures poverty, hunger and disease.
Holding a Jimmy Choo-style bag estimated to be worth at least £2,000, and hiding behind Cavalli rhine-stone-framed glasses with a red cashmere shawl over her head, she ordered her bodyguard to attack the photographer, Richard Jones.
While the guard tried to wrestle away Jones’s camera, she joined in the assault.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Alshabab — Monstrous Fanatics That Can Not be Allowed to Win
The grainy video picture does not lie. […] This is of course not a horror movie but the horrifying end of the life of a young Somali chap in the outskirts of Baidao whose alleged crime was to have been in the employment of the TFG. The heart-wrenching stories of the atrocities committed by Alshabab fanatics do not end here. Some of you may recall the young fourteen year old girl who was brutally gang- raped by Alshabab, only to be charged with adultery by Alshabab and then stoned to death.
This website also has the u-tube video of Alshabab, destroying much revered centuries old shrines. Their motive behind this sacrilege was their perceived fear that places of historical and religious interest which had been in existence for centuries somehow pose a grave danger their “Islamisation programme”.
The savagery perpetrated by this fanatical cult in the name of religion has of course its corresponding examples in the world. In Uganda, for example, in the form of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who, along with Alshabab, stand out in world rarity in committing the most heinous of crimes in the name of religion.
I was born and bred in Mogadishu and when I visited it in the immediate aftermath of the Ethiopian invasion was extremely appalled and angered by their presence in our soil. They were blazing a trail of destruction in their wake, bombing and firing at civilians at will and indiscriminately. It was a cruel twist of fate for our long-suffering people that occurred so often in our country and I could see the superficial appeal, in the eyes of many impressionable young Somalis, to join the so-called Jihad against the Ethiopian invaders and their TFG allies.
However, the Eithopian invasion was entirely avoiadable had it not been for the unfortunate hot-headedness of the then Union of the Islamic Courts and their doomed refusal to take part in a negotiated settlement to their dispute with the TFG.
Whilst the TFG and their Ethiopian allies have shown scant concern for our people and indeed there is overwhelming evidence supporting this, it is nothing compared to the contempt for human life by these religious Alshabab zealots whose perverted interpretation of Islam continues to poison and fatally subvert the minds of our young brothers and sisters. They promote a nihilistic doctrine of hatred for everyone and pose a far greater danger to our Somali way of life than any outside invader ever could.
It is therefore impossible to exaggerate the magnitude of the Alshabab danger to our civilization, religion, Somalinessnes and way of life. We have always been Muslims and do not need this Wahabbi propaganda and fanatical non-sense which, if not stopped, risks wiping out our entire heritage and subvert our Islamic teachings as we know them today in Somalia.
We also need to stand out to the hollow and dangerous efforts of the Alshabab apologists who seek to salvage some decency in this gruesome, deplorable and horrible tale of destruction being waged by Alshabab. Theirs is nothing to do with Ethiopia — Alshabab is a danger to us all.
As I write this article, I mourn the recent death of my distant uncle, a humanitarian aid worker, who was shot dead in front of his local mosque after prayers — his crime working for an infidel organization.
Alshabab is not therefore a nationalistic or religious insurgency group which is opposed to Ethiopia’s presence in our land, but a bunch of monstrous religious zealots who are laying the foundations for generations of virulent hatred and anti-somalinessnes. They, not the Ethiopians, remain a real threat to all Somalis. We must not allow them to win.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Islamists Attack African Peacekeepers
Somalia’s hardline Shebab insurgents on Saturday attacked African Union peacekeepers for the first time since Ethiopian troops pulled out from Mogadishu earlier this week, officials said.
The Islamist militia, which had vowed to target the AU following Ethiopia’s withdrawal, “opened gun and mortar fire on the Burundian contingent’s camp” at the former military academy, resident Abdullahi Moalim Ashkir told AFP. “They attacked our second battalion in the Kuliyadda area late this afternoon but there were no casualties,” said a Burundian army official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
“They are also firing mortar shells at the former parliament building where our forces are stationed but no casualties were reported,” Baridgye Bahuko, spokesman for the AU’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told AFP.
More than two years after invading Somalia to prop up a weak transitional administration and remove an Islamist movement from power, Ethiopian troops vacated their last positions in Mogadishu earlier this week.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico: in Ultra-Catholic Mexican City, Local Government Bans Public Kissing
[Comment from JD: Unofficial quote “Drug gang problem? What drug gang problem? Hey you, stop kissing.”]
MEXICO CITY — Kissing in public will be punished with fines and even jail time in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato under a new municipal ordinance that also bans begging, using rude words and street peddling.
The measure emerged Tuesday from a municipal government controlled by the rightist National Action Party, or PAN, which has been in power at the national level since 2000.
The ordinance also punishes tourism promoters who approach motorists, people who cross streets without using pedestrian bridges, those offering windshield-cleaning services and those who engage in street demonstrations.
For example, the law bans “obscene words and attitudes in public places that offend third parties, as well as touching obscenely in public spaces.”
Those who fail to abide by the ordinance can be punished with 36 hours in jail and fines up to 1,500 pesos ($108).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White Population of Brazil Now Minority for the First Time
Brazil has the largest African population in the Western Hemisphere and slaves were taken to Brazil from Africa, as far back as 1492, before Columbus had discovered America. It is estimated that 3.5 million slaves were transported to Brazil, that was a port of call on the North American slave-route from West Africa.
Brazil became independent of Portugal in 1822, however was treated as a colony until, the fall of the Portuguese Junta in 1975.Brazil was in the hands of Military Dictators at this time and the population was 47% African/ Indian origin. Distribution of wealth was 1% of the population, controlled 95% of the land and the wealth, the diet of the colored people like Africa was maize and chicken as it was all they afford.
Brazil was the last country in the world to abolish slavery in 1888. There was indeed an African State within Brazil named Palmares, between 1630 and 1697, made up of 30,000 ex slaves, the palace was named Zombi, where the word originates.
The Whiting rule came in to action after the abolishment of slavery in 1888, non whites were not allowed into the country, and it was encouraged that the whites inter marry with the natives to make the country Whiter, this was government policy, while it seems insane Australia had the same policy.
Colonial powers such as England, France, Germany and Spain did not inter marry like the Portuguese, who appear very reluctant to discuss the matter today.
Brazil is now 51 % African origin since 2007, having said this, there is no doubt African blood running through the veins of most of the population today. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Experts, Migrants 3% of World Population
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, JANUARY 16 — Migrants represent 3% of the world population. Besides immigration due to economic, political, religious, ethnic problems, and wars, there is now a new factor present today: migration due to environmental conditions such as earthquakes, drought, and other ecological disasters. This emerged during the conference “The Arab World in Latin America”, ongoing in Palermo, organised by the Latin Union in collaboration with Alecso (The Arab Organisation for Education, Culture, and the Sciences) and Fondazione Banco di Sicilia, which will include the participation of scholars and diplomats. “The growth of migratory groups in the past years is alarming”, stated professor Ali Mustafa of the cultural institute of the Province of Buenos Aires, speaking at the conference, “in 2000 there were 175 million migrants in the world while in 2005 this number grew to 191 million. In the United States, presidential candidates in their electoral campaigns promised immigration reform to improve the situation of the 12 million illegal immigrants; the EU has made its migratory policy more strict, generating reactions in regions like in Mercosur and in the countries Northern Africa”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Spain, Melilla Trafficking Ring Wiped Out
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 16 — One of the main illegal immigrant trafficking networks in Melilla was wiped out today as part of police operation “Gaviota”, with 15 Spaniards and two Moroccans arrested. According to sources from the civil guard and police which have been cited by news agencies, the operation is ongoing and could lead to further arrests in the next few hours. The ring used to find its customers amongst the hundreds of desperate people — mostly of sub-Saharan origin — camped out near the border between Melilla and Morocco, waiting for an opportunity to cross into Spain illegally. The immigrants were illegaly taken into the Spanish enclave on board vehicles with hidden compartments. The police seized a dozen of these immigrants during the course of today’s operation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Military Bows to ACLU Demand Against Preaching
Americans entering the military often receive Bibles, courtesy of the Gideons International. But the Gideons have been told that while they can leave complimentary Bibles at most military induction stations, they cannot stay there to proselytize or preach to the recruits.
Daniel Trew, public information officer for the Military Entrance Processing Command, says the policy was recently established after concerns were raised by the American Civil Liberties Union.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Outrage, Complaints Shut Down D.C. Orgy
Hotel nixes homosexual ‘pig sex’ party celebrating Obama inauguration
Caution: The following contains a report on activities many will find objectionable.
A Washington, D.C., inaugural week event that originally was described as a “pig sex” homosexual orgy has been cancelled after concerned citizens complained to the Doubletree Hotel hosting the event, according to the organization spearheading the opposition.
“A big ‘Thanks’ to each of you who called the Doubletree and its parent company, Hilton Hotels,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, “urging them to not allow this unbelievably depraved and unhealthy homosexual event to occur in public conference rooms..”
LaBarbera continued, “We learned that thousands of concerned Americans called to complain in response to our reporting and follow-ups by WorldNetDaily.com, Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber and other conservative websites.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catholic Parents Against Campaign for Prophylactics
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 16- Prophylactics costing 0.20 cents each, in small packages and easy to find practically everywhere. This is the new initiative launched by the Health Minister, the third in the past weeks, which aims to create youth awareness about prophylactic use, with participation from producers and the pharmaceutical industry. A campaign that created a reaction from the National Catholic Confederation of parents, and fathers of families, which asked today for the plan’s “immediate withdrawal” because, “it presents condoms as a safe sex guarantee to young people in a very unrefined way, when data highlights that this is not the case”. According to the association “being hidden from adolescents is an estimated 14pct error of the condom according to studies by Oms and statistical studies from the same minister that also reveal an alarming increase in abortions, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases between adolescents”. The association of Catholic parents fears that the expenses of the campaign, with commercials, web pages, and the signing of an agreement with producers to reduce the price of prophylactics, weighs on “all Spanish people”. In Spain, every year between 150 and 22 million prophylactics are sold, 60% in pharmacies. 80% of young people, according to figures from the minister’s office, say that they use a condom. The health campaign, which also provides for free distribution through magazines dedicated to young people, is addressed to 20pct of adolescents that do not use condoms. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Watch Slams World Government for Putting Human Rights on the Backburner
The World Report 2009 lists violations in more than 90 countries. The Bush administration is accused of “hypocrisy; the European Union of having abdicated its responsibilities in defending human rights. The report also slams countries like China, India and Russia that use the language of human rights to support dictatorships and oppressors.
Washington (AsiaNews/HRW) — Human Rights Watch’s 19th annual report has been available online since yesterday. In more than 500-page the World Report 2009 looks at the conditions of human rights in more than 90 countries and territories around the world. Its authors call on US President-elect Barack Obama to end the human rights abuses caused by the fight against terrorism during the Bush administration; they accuse mainland China of breaking the promises it made before the Olympic Games and of increasing instead repression against its own people; they also criticises Hamas and Israel for the disastrous situation in Gaza.
In addition to the country by country run-down, the report offers an incisive introductory analysis by HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth who looks at the treatment of human rights 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
“A government’s respect for human rights must be measured not only by how it treats its own people but also by how it protects rights in its relations with other countries,” Roth writes.
The United Nations and its Human Rights Council, the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, India, and others come in for a critical review. Roth starts off noting how “the governments with the clearest vision and strategy are often those that seek to undermine enforcement”, then goes on to highlight US “hypocrisy” and European “abdication” on human rights but also developing countries’ use of big powers’ errors, ideological attitudes or self-interests to justify human rights violations within their own borders or among their allies.
For Roth these “governments tend to say that they support human rights in principle, but oppose only the way that rights are allegedly twisted, used, or perverted by more powerful nations. They mimic the language of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, or solidarity with the downtrodden, but in fact, the spoilers are no friends of the persecuted. They find common cause with the dictators and tyrants of the world, not with the ordinary people facing oppression. They invoke Southern solidarity, but behind the lofty rhetoric, the solidarity they have in mind is with repressive governments, not their Southern victims.”
Nations such as Algeria, China, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Russia and South Africa are among the countries that stand in the way of human rights, actively involved in muzzling the debate over human rights in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Sudan (Darfur) and Myanmar.
China is singled out for criticism for preventing five UN officials from visiting Tibet following a massacre in March of last year and for pushing Nepal to crack down on Tibetans demonstrating in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu.
Neither is India spared. In addition to tolerating violence against Christians, Muslims and other minorities within the country, New Delhi is criticised for trying to stop resolutions by the United Nations Human Rights Council against Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and Belorus and for always protecting the government of Myanmar.
Russia is slammed for steadfastly defending the government of Chechnya, headed by a pro-Putin leader.
Roth’s survey ends by asking Western democracies to act immediately and do more to defend human rights as well as examine their own conscience in order to make respect for human rights a truly universal endeavour.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel, You Are Serbia Now
So, do you regret siding with the West over Serbia ‘s Kosovo yet? If the answer is “no”, give it another week or two and you will. With screams of “Back to the Ovens” ringing out of American demonstrations and things equally vile from those in Western Europe, you should have figured out a long time ago where your friends lay. The Cold War is over, even if the US is trying to start a second. Time to grow up.
You are the only Jewish state in the world so you are not going to find new Jewish allies. Your choices lay pretty much as follows: Shiite Islamic allies, Sunnie Islamic allies, Secular allies, Catholic allies, Protestant allies, Orthodox allies, Hindu allies.
The Shiite and Sunnie Islamites are obviously out of the question, since they would rather strangle their own daughters than tolerate your existence. Secular allies, be they Egypt , Turkey , France or America are also becoming harder to find. Egypt is touchy, with a large Islamic Brotherhood insurgency and its own corruption fueling a possible revolution. Turkey ‘s secularism has been undermined and taken over by the Sunnie Islamites and its foreign policy has followed suit.
The Western European seculars hate you for several reasons: one, they hold the liberal idiocy that all people should live in perfect harmony and if that does not work out, than just squeeze out the one or two peoples that are causing problems and things will be fine again. Further, they have forcibly imported tens of millions of Islamites into their countries, against the will of their people, and are now in turn afraid of their modern day Danes. To that extent, they will do whatever is needed to avoid conflict in their lands and maintain peace, and sacrificing you is nothing to worry about. As for the Anglo-Marxist sphere, considering how much cash the Saudis spend on their politicians every year, do you really thing they care? If you are so delusional to think so, look at the fact that while the US arms you to $4 billion per year, it arms your surrounding enemies and possible enemies to $6 billion and with the latest and best equipment. Against whom do you think that will get used? They arm them even as they tell you to stand still while your neighbors toss missiles at you.
The Catholics are not much better. They are subject to the whims of the Popes and as these old men die off and new ones come in, their whims are open only to speculation and over all history has not been kind. The Protestants? They only love you because they believe they need you to force the Armageddon and thus bring Christ…as if mere mortals can force the will of God to anything. But you will be sacrificed in their drive to be the masters of God’s will and it will not be their children destroyed when their egotism is shown for the heresy it is.
The Hindus? Too far away. The Sino-Japanese nations of eastern Asia , equally disinterested, outside of getting some of your technology in trade.
So whom do you have left? […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Poverty? It’s Just a Lie the Left Uses to Destroy the Middle Class
Why do New Labour hate the middle class? For hate it they definitely do, as they have shown this week with their plans to discriminate against that class in education and employment.
Despite the smiling fraud of Blairism, which still fools an amazing number of people, one of the driving forces of this Government has been its near-communist urge to level down in the name of equality.
The propaganda gives it away. Those ridiculous claims about abolishing child poverty are a huge warning sign.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UNICEF: Queen Rania, Give Women Control of Their Lives
(ANSAmed) — JANUARY 15 — The death toll shown in UNICEF’s 2009 report on maternal and newborn health is “disconcerting”, according to Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, whose opinions were published in a paper in the same report bearing the title: “Create an atmosphere of support for Mothers and Newborns”. The queen, who is also UNICEF’s Eminent Advocate for children, claims that: “our world cannot allow itself to continue to sacrifice so many people and so much potential”. She said that “the increase to access to medicine is only one of the elements” which could improve the situation; “what is more important in the long term is to increase the empowerment of women across the world”. In too many places, Queen Rania continued, “women’s lives do not count as much as they should. As long as woman continue to be at a disadvantage in their societies, so will maternal and newborn health. But if we can manage to supply women with the tools to take control of their own lives, we will be able to create an atmosphere which gives more support to women and also to children”. “Empowerment”, said Queen Rania, “begins with education, which is the best way to invest in development, guaranteeing that little girls and little boys can go to primary school, teaching women to read and write and supplying education on public health”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
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