The most interesting story of the day concerns the “blood emeralds” of the Swat Valley. Reminiscent of the blood diamonds of equatorial Africa, they are reportedly being sold in large quantities by the Taliban to finance their operations.In other news, the British military has lost a laptop containing top-secret information about the SAS, including soldiers’ names.
Thanks to ACT for America, C. Cantoni, CSP, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, Steen, TB, The Observer, TV, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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The Final Plucking of America’s Financial and Economic Sovereignty
Fourthly, we need to understand that the Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory System introduced by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in March, 2007, calls for the complete shift of America’s financial and economic national sovereignty to the care and oversight of the Federal Reserve, independent of Congress. The Blueprint, when issued, received the approval of then New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner, now our imminent treasury secretary. Has Obama changed the Blueprint? No, it is just tweaked here and there. The Blueprint calls for a new Federal Bank Charter which would put under Federal Reserve control financial institutions that are currently not regulated by them: savings and loans, credit unions, state chartered banks, and credit unions; it would provide for the insurance industry currently regulated on a state by state basis to be also put under federal control with Federal Reserve oversight; and it calls for the mortgage industry, which has not had any oversight, to be put under Federal Reserve oversight. There are calls for the Federal Reserve to have oversight over the entire Payment and Settlement system of Wall Street and for the Fed to act as “Market Stability Regulator.”
[…]
The Financial Stability Board will not be just a meeting of representatives from the G7 countries, which would include the Central Bank governor, the treasury secretary and representatives from regulatory agencies , but it will now have its own structure with a steering committee and plenary. It will work with the International Monetary Fund on Early Warning exercises and it will be expanded to the G20 countries plus Spain, and the European Commission. Its goal will be to harmonize changes in national regulatory structures—risk, market integrity, consumer protection, infrastructure, accounting and auditing, to conform to a global structure. Perhaps we can look upon them as some type of “Global Security and Exchange Commission.”
In other words, the “teeth” are being added to the international level: the Financial Stability Board, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Countries will now be ACCOUNTABLE and there will be repercussions if they are not. This constitutes another level in the transfer of national sovereignty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Bill Could Trigger Lawsuit Landslide
Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who “expect to suffer” from it — from beachfront property owners to asthmatics — for the first time would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the House climate bill.
Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new cottage industry for lawyers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Destroy Electoral College and Wipe Out Freedom
A new campaign has begun to destroy the Electoral College and “let the people elect the president.” A group called National Popular Vote has won commitments from four states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. These include, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois and Hawaii. That means the movement to make the Electoral College irrelevant already has 20 percent of the votes needed. There is National Popular Vote legislation in nearly every state. It could be a done deal by 2016.
[…]
Our Founding Fathers went to a lot of trouble to give us a government that was fair, representing all the people in every state — to protect a minority of one against the will of a mob which isn’t too concerned about the rights of someone standing in their way. Hence, the Electoral College.
The abolishment of the Electoral College would, in fact, establish an election tyranny giving control of the government to the massive population centers of the nation’s Northeastern sector and the area around Los Angeles. If these sections of the nation were to control the election of our nation’s leaders, the voice of the ranchers and farmers of the Mid and Far West would be lost, along with the values and virtues of the South. It would also mean the end of the 10th Amendment and state sovereignty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Disagree With Obama?
Gov’t has eyes on you
On Feb. 20, 2009, Missouri’s Department of Public Safety issued a report to all law enforcement in the state entitled “Missouri Information Analysis Center Strategic Report: The Modern Militia Movement.”
The report linked people holding conservative views on immigration, abortion, the U.N., the New World Order, etc., to dangerous and violent “militias” that Missouri law enforcement were instructed to be on guard against. Conservative opinions were demonized and made the subject of law enforcement scrutiny.
The report was leaked. National and state public reaction was strong and negative, and Missouri retracted the report and apologized.
This victory was short lived. The substance of the report is back, this time distributed to “federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials …” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an “assessment” dated April 7, 2009, entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
The entire assessment is available at the Roger Hedgecock website.
The assessment states it was “prepared by the Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division” and “coordinated with the FBI.”
It admits that “The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic right wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence.” Nonetheless, it states that “right wing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about … the economic downturn and the election of the first African-American President …”
The report elaborates that …”right wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms and use.”
So, if you disagree with Obama on amnesty for illegals or stand up for the Second Amendment, you are branded a “rightwing extremist” by the Department of Homeland Security and become the subject of scrutiny by some 850,000 local and state law enforcement personnel.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Raids 3 Minneapolis Money-Transfer Shops
Abdirahman Omar managed the counter at Mustaqbal Express in Minneapolis with his daughter, Sumay, 3, while behind them, business continued Wednesday at the shop’s money-transfer service.
Agents wouldn’t say whether the raids were connected to several missing Somali men.
Federal agents raided three Minneapolis money transfer businesses that mainly serve the Somali community Wednesday, seeking records of financial transactions to several African and Middle East countries.
E.K. Wilson, a special agent for the FBI in Minneapolis, confirmed that agents searched the businesses on the city’s south side to track money transactions, but wouldn’t disclose any further details.
The businesses are Qaran Express and Aaran Financial, both in the Karmel Mall, near W. Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue S., and North American Money Transfer Inc., also known as Mustaqbal Express, at the Village Market Mall, at E. 24th Street and Chicago Avenue S.
While it’s not clear that the raid was directly connected to a continuing federal investigation into the possible link between terrorist groups and the disappearances of seven to 20 young Somali men in the Twin Cities over the past two years, it appears to be part of an effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to crack down on financial connections to terrorist networks and operations overseas.
Two months after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, federal agents froze the assets of five Somali-related operations at three locations in Minneapolis because of suspicions that they were laundering money to Osama bin Laden or his terrorist organization Al-Qaida. In the end, none was the subject of federal criminal indictments.
Somali residents had bemoaned the shutdowns, saying that the businesses were their only way of getting money to impoverished relatives in Somalia.
“We’ve been through this before,” said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul. “What happened today is the beginning of a long story, so we don’t want the community to panic.”…
| — Hat tip: ACT for America | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Obama’s Unreal Nuclear Agenda
When it comes to security policy, it seems everyone wants to be a “realist” these days. If that term has any meaning at all, though, Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons and missile defense policies certainly would not qualify.
To the contrary, these examples of what some call “progressive realism” constitute a near-parody of the ideologically driven disarmament agenda of the radical left. If the implications were not so serious, the discrepancy between Mr. Obama’s plans and real world conditions would be hilarious.
Take, for example, Mr. Obama’s announced intention to rid the planet of nuclear weapons. The truth is that, no matter how many world leaders, elder statesmen and other advocates champion this goal, it is not going to happen. The associated technology is too widely available, the strategic value of nuclear weapons too great and the possibilities of concealment in closed societies too immutable for all nations actually to forego the temptation to retain covert arsenals.
There is only one country on earth that Team Obama can absolutely, positively denuclearize: Ours. To be sure, the President professes his realism by recognizing that, even as he declares a goal of no nukes, he emphasizes it is unlikely to be achieved any time soon. Still, the cumulative effect of his nuclear agenda would be to advance inexorably the denuclearization of the United States…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Congresswoman Warns About Americorps
Rep. Michele Bachmann, a second-term conservative Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, has become the target of an increasingly vicious smear campaign by liberal bloggers for daring to openly criticize her Democratic colleagues and President Obama’s plans for the United States. The latest bash-Bachmann-fest springs from concerns she expressed on a local radio talk show that the AmericaCorps program, which is to be overhauled and vastly expanded through recently passed federal legislation, will morph into a mandatory service program, with young people sent to indoctrination centers for “re-education.”
“It’s under the guise of — quote — volunteerism,” Bachmann told host Sue Jeffers on KTLK-AM in Minneapolis during an interview April 3. “But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. We had about 75,000 people involved in AmeriCorps before, this adds another 250,000 people, so more government employees — but what’s even more concerning about it is the focus is on young people.”
[…]
But it was her comments about AmeriCorps, in a segment just over two minutes long, that triggered a splenetic outburst of rage across the blogosphere with comments ranging from snarky to obscene.
[…]
NewsWithViews.com contacted Prof. Alan Charles Kors, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and noted a authority on indoctrination, particularly of students, for his observations to Bachmann’s comments.
“I think that Rep. Bachmann’s prudent and reasonable concerns are not that young people will be herded into ‘camps’ whose goal is ‘re-education,’ but that the ‘training’ for an expanded AmeriCorps, given the growing penchant for highly partisan, politicized, and indecently intrusive ‘sensitivity’ and ‘diversity’ training, will move in an Orwellian direction,” he replied in an e-mail.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Fierce Blonde Behind Obama Eligibility Lawsuits
Soviet Union survivor: President spits in face of every U.S. citizen
Drawing on her experiences under a communist regime, she told WND she is determined to do her part to stop America from following in the all-too-familiar footsteps of her former homeland.
Life under communism
She described her life in a communist nation: Markets were bare, people had no desire to work and the government forced young children into slave labor.
“We’d stop at the store, and the food stores were empty,” she said. “I remember we had to stand in lines for hours in the cold. We were in a bus, going home and suddenly we’d see a line. We wouldn’t even know what they were selling, but we knew something would be there — some food. We’d stand for two hours to buy maybe a pound of salami or a half a pound of butter.”
As a young child, Taitz asked her father why the market shelves were empty.
“In America, they have everything,” he would tell her. “The stores are full..”
Her father explained that Americans were interested in working and received paychecks based on their productivity. However, in the Soviet Union, farmers were part of a socialist system of collective farming and were compensated equally — regardless of output.
[…]
She said that, much like President Obama’s proposed brigade of youth organizers, the Soviet Union used children for slave labor.
“They would put us on trucks, and we would go to the countryside,” she said. “We were told to go and pick tomatoes.”
[…]
“It is interesting that when we go to court challenging Obama’s eligibility, I experience such a déjà vu, like I am in the communist Soviet Union again,” Taitz said. “I feel, my God, I am back in a totalitarian regime. I’m shocked by the total and complete idiocy of those judges who come up with such idiotic excuses about why they refuse to sign a subpoena — something so basic to their jobs — to get his records.”
Asked what motivates her continue fighting the eligibility battle, Taitz replied, “I feel that this man is arrogantly spitting in the face of each and every American citizen. I feel like he has just spit in my face. I take it personally that he is trampling on our Constitution and on our laws.”
She continued, “Having the experience that I had in the Soviet Union — seeing lack of freedom, lack of a system of justice, lack of judicial integrity, lack of press with integrity, an economic system in shambles — when I saw all that, I began fighting.”
Taitz said mainstream media in the United States are becoming much like the Soviet Union press, because they do not provide truthful information about Obama and have pushed for his socialist society. She offered a suggestion for dealing with “detached” and “ignorant” reporters who advocate such a system..
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Private Terror Probe: 50 Mosques in 50 Days
Former special agent visiting each U.S. state to assess threat
A Middle East expert and former Air Force special agent is set to launch a “counter-terrorism tour” across America in which he plans to visit a mosque in each state in 50 days to assess their threat to the nation’s security.
Dave Gaubatz told WND the ultimate aim of his project, which begins April 16, is to shut down Islamic centers “that advocate violence against America” and to prosecute the Islamic leaders “for sedition or treason if they are encouraging their worshippers to attack America from the ‘inside.’“
“This objective will only be met if American citizens become involved in their communities and say ‘no more,’“ Gaubatz said.
He said he receives contact almost daily from citizens who complain that law enforcement officials are not listening to their concerns.
In fact, he said, intelligence on the Islamic centers he plans to visit has been provided by concerned Christian, Jewish and Muslim citizens.
[…]
Gaubatz said he will declare his intentions at each of the pre-selected mosques in a professional manner, hand the leaders his card and confront them on any violent material he observes or on any information they distribute that advocates an Islamic state in the U.S.
“It is important to understand not all mosques and Islamic leaders advocate violence against the U.S., but initial research and intelligence obtained from sources indicate many do,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tainted Chinese Drywall Shows Up in Katrina Homes
Thomas Stone and his wife rebuilt after their home was flooded by six feet of water during Hurricane Katrina, never dreaming they would face the agony of tearing it apart all over again.
They tapped Lauren Stone’s 401(k) retirement savings and saved $1,000 by installing Chinese-made drywall throughout their two-story home. Now the Stones are among hundreds of Katrina victims facing another, this time unnatural, disaster.
Sulfur-emitting wallboard from China is wreaking havoc in homes, charring electrical wires, eating away at jewelry, silverware and other valuables, and possibly even sickening families.
“The bathroom upstairs has a corroded shower-head, the door hinges are rusting out,” said 50-year-old Thomas Stone, the longtime fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans. And then there’s the stench, like rotten eggs, that seems to get worse with the heat and humidity.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will a ‘Red’ Help Blacks Go Green?
White House appoints ‘radical communist’ who sees environment as racial issue
The man appointed as a special environmental adviser to the White House recently was as an admitted radical communist and black nationalist leader.
[…]
Jones was a founder and leader of the communist revolutionary organization Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM. That organization had its roots in a grouping of black people organizing to protest the first Gulf War. STORM was formally founded in 1994, becoming one of the most influential and active radical groups in the San Francisco Bay area.
STORM worked with known communist leaders. It led the charge in black protests against various issues, including a local attempt to pass Proposition 21, a ballot initiative that sought to increase the penalties for violent crimes and require more juvenile offenders to be tried as adults.
The leftist blog Machete 48 identifies STORM’s influences as “third-worldist Marxism (and an often vulgar Maoism).”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Worst Hour
Something is rotten in Britain. Young men are stabbing each other to death at an unprecedented rate, the centres of many towns are no-go areas on weekends as drunks spill out of bars and terrorize passersby, and Britons are obsessed with celebrities such as Jade Goody, whose funeral last weekend led to scenes reminiscent of the death of Princess Diana.
[…]
Over the past 25 years, an incredible decline in unity has become evident in everything, from rioting at soccer games to the “alien nation” characterized by high numbers of immigrants in some areas, said Ninian Mellamphy, professor emeritus of English at the University of Western Ontario.
“It looks as if the whole nation has, to a greater sense, kind of lost its moral focus,” he added, noting this may reflect resentment at a loss of status resulting from the dissolution of the British Empire.
“[It took away] a kind of self-respect that had to do with British power and perhaps British arrogance, and so you have an arrogance now that has no relationship with power.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Economy: Number of Turkish Entrepreneurs in EU Top 131,500
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 9 — The number of Turkish entrepreneurs living in the European Union has reached 131,500 and their investments worth approximately 14.4 billion euros, Anatolia agency reported. In a written press release, the Turkish-German Education and Scientific Studies Foundation (Tavak) said that there are 4,217,000 Turkish immigrants living in 27 EU countries. Including the Turkish minority living in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, the total number of Turks living in the EU rises to approximately 5.2 million, Tavak noted. The annual sales made by Turkish entrepreneurs in Europe amounts to 48 billion euros and employ more than 500,000 people.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: EU Investigation on Port Reform
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 8 — Port reform in France is being scrutinised by the European Commission. Brussels decided today to open a detailed investigation on measures Paris wants to take in order to verify compatibility with the EU regulations for state aid. The reform in question was started by France in December 2008 to improve efficiency and competitiveness in the country’s ports. The Paris plan includes a series of measures, in particular handing over port handling activities to private operators. According to the Commission, some operators could be favoured by not having to buy the public handling equipment at market prices and then taking advantage of tax breaks. The scheme has raised questions in Brussels, which will also evaluate the possibility that the tax cut is incompatible with the common market rules and in particular with the regulations for state aid for the 2007-2013 period. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK to Train Pro-West Islamic Groups to Game Google
The British government’s Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to ‘flood the internet’ with ‘positive’ interpretations of Islam and plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimization techniques, which it is hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalization. A Home Office spokesman confirmed search engine optimization training is part of the government’s anti-radicalization strategy. ‘In order to support mainstream voices, we work with local partners to help develop their communication, representational and leadership skills. This support could include media training, which can help make their voices heard more widely, and support the development of skills which allow communities to be more effective in debate.’ However the effectiveness of search engine optimization in reducing traffic to extremist websites has been dismissed by academics. A report produced by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) said young Muslims were much more likely to be directed to extremist material online by web forums and offline associates than by Google or other search engines. ‘Tweaking the results for supposedly extremist terms would be largely ineffectual, not least because it is unlikely that any but the most callow wannabe terrorist would use a mainstream search engine to find banned material.’
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Laptop With Names of SAS Men is Missing
A laptop containing the names of SAS soldiers and their top-secret training exercises has gone missing, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.
The computer, which was not encrypted, went missing during a recent exercise in Britain.
It was being used by the Signals Regiment — who were attached to the elite force based in Hereford.
According to a source, it held sensitive information about the regiment’s military and counter-terrorism manoeuvres.
The loss came to light after military chiefs carried out a routine audit of kit and realised the computer was missing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Arrest 114 in ‘Power Demo’
More than 100 people have been arrested in Nottingham over a suspected plan to target a power station.
Police said 114 men and women were arrested in Sneinton Dale on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage.
Officers said they believed those arrested were planning to protest at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.
A spokesman said “specialist equipment” had been found by officers who feared a threat to the safety of the site.
He said police thought there was a “serious threat” to the power station.
There were no reported injuries.
‘Real bedlam’
City councillor David Mellen said the police raided the privately-run Iona School as a result of “an intelligence-led operation”.
He said: “I don’t know whether it was the school itself being used or the car park.
“Neighbours reported a lot of noise after midnight. It seems to have been used as a rendezvous for people from a wide area.”
No one at the school was available for comment.
Residents in the suburb of Sneinton contacted the BBC with reports of a large police presence in the area.
Tess Rearden, who lives near where the arrests were made, said she saw 20 police vehicles.
She said: “It was all slamming of doors and van doors and all these vans were coming up here — police vans, riot vans.
“My son came out of his bedroom and he said: ‘Have you seen what’s going on out front?’
“They were all up and down the roads here. It was bedlam, real bedlam.”
Eon, which operates the coal-fired power station, said it was helping the police with their investigation.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: They’ve Got Your Number
Every call made, email sent and website visited is now being logged under new regulations.
Want to be an investigative journalist of the future? You’ll need a pen and paper, pay-as-you-go phone, and a motorbike. We’ll explain the motorbike later. But you may be an endangered species. New regulations that came into force last week — requiring telephone and internet companies to keep logs of what numbers are called, and which websites and email services and internet telephony contacts are made — have left some wondering if investigative journalism, with its need to protect sources (and its sources’ need, often, for protection), has been dealt a killer blow.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Average Wage Stands at 703 Euros in February
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, APRIL 10 — The average wage earned by workers in Croatia stood at around 703.15 euros in the month of February, representing a clear fall of 0.8% in nominal terms on January’s level. The figures have been released by the Croatian Exchequer Agency (FINA), as relayed by the Italian Trade Commission in Zagreb. On an annual basis, FINA stresses, average take-home pay in February rose by 6.4% in nominal terms and by 2.1% in real terms compared to the same period in 2008. Lowest levels were reported in the fishing sector (around 540.13 euros), with the highest (around 1,013.15 euros) in the financial sector.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: French Technology for Tangiers-Casablanca TGV
(ANSAmed) RABAT, APRIL 10 — The French national rail company is to help Morocco build a high-speed train line (TGV) between Tangiers and Casablanca, with a contract worth 70 million euros. The news comes from the Moroccan Transport minister, Karim Ghellab. Once the works are complete, the 200 km dividing the Mediterranean coast from Morocco’s economic capital will be covered in 2 hours 10 minutes, as against the current 5 hours 45 minutes. The overall cost of the Casablance-Tangiers track will be 20 billion dirhams, (1.82 billion euros). In a second phase, in 2030, a second high-speed line will connect Tangiers with Agadir. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fraction Islamic Movement in Israel to Boycott Pope’s Visit
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 10 — The northern fraction of the Islamic Movement in Israel, headed by Sheikh Raed Sallah, has decided to boycott Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The Sheikh’s spokesperson, Zahi Nujeidat, announced the news to ANSA, adding that the decision was made following the lecture delivered in Regensburg in September 2006, when the Pope made a reference to the Prophet Mohammed, which the Islamic Movement in Israel believes has yet to be adequately corrected. It is expected that Pope Benedict XVI would be welcomed onto Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the Grand Mufti, the highest Palestinian Islamic authority. However, the leaders of the Islamic Movement in Israel have decided not to take part in the event, which they consider to be “out of place,” and will furthermore not be present at the Pope’s scheduled meetings with the Arab population in Galilee. “In any case we will not be organising any kind of demonstration” Nujeidat said. “In fact, our relations with the Christian community are characterised by friendship and cooperation. We have a lot in common with Christians in terms of our relationship with Israeli leaders.”Headed by Sheikh Sallah, the Islamic Movement (the northern fraction) has assumed a firm line of opposition in its dealings with the Israeli authorities and consequently boycotted the recent political elections. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IDF Chief Hails Naval Forces’ Vigilance
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Monday commended naval forces for meticulously following procedures, hours after a booby-trapped Palestinian fishing boat exploded off the Gaza coast as it headed north toward Israeli territory.
Ashkenazi said hundreds of kilograms of explosives were found on board the boat and that it appeared the vessel was meant to be used in an attack against the Navy.
The Navy spotted the boat, which it said was unmanned, and followed it for about an hour in the Monday morning incident.
When it was some 300 meters off the Gaza coast and making its way north, the boat blew up, the army said. No one was wounded.
The IDF speculated that terrorists had detonated explosives on board the boat from afar and, because of a thick fog, had failed to correctly calculate its position, missing their target, Army Radio reported.
Palestinians accused the Navy of firing a shell at the boat.
In 2002, four sailors were wounded when Palestinians detonated a fishing boat laden with explosives next to a navy patrol off the northern Gaza coast.
Two Palestinians seen on board were killed in the blast. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
PNA to Quartet, Israel Must Accept the ‘Two States’
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 10 — Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, said today that “in order for political negotiations to take place, Israel must accept the ‘two-state’ solution; recognise signed agreements, including that of Annapolis; and put an end to its settlements. Without these conditions, no negotiations can take place.” Erekat went on to confirm that these points have been forwarded to the Quartet (USA, EU, UN, Russia) by President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The PNA confirmed their position in part as a reaction to the declarations made by the new Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The Israeli foreign minister said that Israel is committed to the peace route (as established by the Quartet in 2002), but not to the Annapolis process, the conference organised in late 2007 by the then US President George Bush in an attempt to encourage the constitution of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. The Quartet’s emissary, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told the weekly publication Time Magazine that he had the impression the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu wanted to build a Palestinian state “from the ground up,” beginning with measures being taken in the Palestinian economy and security structures. “It is important that the Israeli government comes out and states that it wants a ‘two-state’ solution, but conditions have to be right” Blair commented. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Turkey; ENI, Calik to Build Pipeline for Caspian Oil
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 10 — A consortium made up of Italian Eni and Turkish Calik Energy expects to start building a pipeline that will carry Caspian oil to the Mediterranean by the first quarter of next year, daily Hurriyet reported quoting a consortium source. Eni is expected to finance 100% of the pipeline costing $4 billion and the company sees oil in its Kazakh Kashagan and Karachaganak fields as a start to the pipeline throughput. The line will run from the Black Sea port of Samsun to the Mediterranean energy hub of Ceyhan, bypassing Turkey’s increasingly congested Istanbul and Canakkale Straits. The project is in direct competition with the Russian-backed pipeline plan to take oil from the Bulgarian port of Bourgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis pipeline as a transit route for increasing supplies of Kazakh oil that currently fills tankers at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. “Once the construction of the pipeline will be in an advanced stage there will be growing interest”, the consortium source said. Earlier this week Eni said it was selling a stake in Gazprom’s oil arm Gazprom Neft for $4.2 billion. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Ban Lewd Licence Tags — Including ‘USA’
Saudi Arabia has banned auto licence tags whose Arabic characters spell out offensive words when romanised, with the list of banned combinations including “USA”, Al-Watan newspaper reported Sunday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Pilot Retires After Landing at Wrong Airport
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 10 — Mehmet Kesik, pilot of the passenger plane of Turkish Airlines which landed at a military base instead of the Tbilisi Airport by mistake, applied for retirement as soon as he returned to Turkey, daily Vatan reported. Last Wednesday a Turkish Airlines (THY) Boeing 737 passenger flight from Istanbul to Tbilisi landed by mistake at the Georgian capital military base instead than the civil airport. The military base is located some 17 km. from the main passenger airport and a pilot error caused probably the airplane to land to the wrong runway. “The plane was mistakenly landed at the military airport”, an aviation official said on condition of anonymity, adding that “it could be the pilot confused the airports”. THY declined to comment officially on the reported incident. The pilot has been working for Turkish Airlines for 12 years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: May 1 to Become Latest Public Holiday
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 10 — The Turkish government is readying to declare 1 May a public holiday, meeting decades-old expectations of workers and labor unions, daily Hurriyet reported. “‘We have started the legal procedures”, Labor Minister, Faruk Celik, told reporters before meeting with union representatives. Unions welcomed the government’s attempt even as they aired their requests for more rights and freedoms after the meeting. Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, announced that he instructed Celik to discuss the issue with the representatives of Labour Unions. The AKP ruling party last year decided to celebrate May 1 as the “Labor and Solidarity Day”, but disregarded requests to declare the day a national public holiday. Erdogan’s instructions came on the same day as Labour Unions requested to celebrate May 1 at Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which has a symbolic importance for Turkish workers. Turkey banned May 1 celebrations in Taksim square after 36 people were killed on 1 May 1977. The incident is considered a significant factor paving the way for the military coup in 1980. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German-Afghan Politician Assassinated in Kandahar
A German-Afghan woman who spent years in exile here before returning to Afghanistan to enter politics and fight for women’s rights has been assassinated in the southern city of Kandahar.
Gunmen on motorbikes shot her as she left her house in the city on Sunday.
Sitara Achikzai, who had a seat on the provincial council, had fled the country for refuge in Germany during the Taliban rule, and secured German nationality.
She married a doctor and university lecturer and has two children who are still in Germany.
When the Taliban government was ousted, Achikzai returned to her home country to work to try to improve life there.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council and brother of Presiden Hamid Karzai, confirmed her murder.
“She has been martyred by two men on motorbikes and the case is under investigation,” he said.
A spokesman for the insurgent Taliban movement, Yousuf Ahmadi, that his militia had carried out the assassination. He said she was targeted because she did not have what he deemed a “good background”.
Provincial governor Turyalai Wesa praised his former colleague at a press conference, describing her as a “brave woman” who had left Germany with her husband to move to Aghanistan.
“They left their family, their children and their comfortable life behind in the West and came to Kandahar to live with their people and to serve their people,” he said.
The Taliban — which imposed restrictive policies against women when they were in government between 1996 and 2001, including barring them from work outside of the home — have carried out other similar assassinations in Kandahar.
They admitted to shooting dead the country’s most high-profile female police officer in the city last year and are also suspected of the 2006 assassination of the head of the provincial women’s affairs department.
The fundamentalists were also blamed for an attack in Kandahar in November last year in which acid was sprayed into the faces of schoolgirls, presumably to scare others off from going to school.
Afghanistan’s provincial councils are elected authorities that act as provincial parliaments and are a key facet of the war-torn country’s attempts to install democracy after the ouster of the Taliban government.
Kandahar province, from where the Taliban rose as a militia in the early 1990s, had three women on its provincial council.
One of them, Zarghona Kakar, survived an assassination attempt two years ago in which her husband was killed. A male member of the council was shot dead in 2006.
On April 1 this year, Taliban militants attacked the offices of the Kandahar provincial council on April 1 with four suicide attackers storming the building, some of them opening fire as they went, killing 13 people.
Council elections are due on August 20, coinciding with the presidential vote, and authorities are concerned that the Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban will target the polls.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is helping Afghanistan to fight the insurgency and extend government authority, has requested thousands of reinforcements to help shore up security for the vote.
Security forces reported meanwhile on Sunday that they had killed 40 Taliban militants in separate battles over the weekend.
In one, the rebels ambushed a joint Afghan and foreign forces patrol district of Zabul province late on Saturday, sparking an exchange of gunfire that left 22 rebels dead.
Separately, troops killed 18 insurgents in the north-eastern province of Kunar late Friday, ISAF said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan President Signs Off on Islamic Law Deal
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s pro-U.S. president signed a regulation late Monday to put a northwestern district under Islamic law as part of a peace deal with the Taliban, going along after coming under intense pressure from members of his own party and other lawmakers.
Asif Ali Zardari’s signature was a boon for Islamic militants who have brutalized the Swat Valley for nearly two years in demanding a new justice system. It was sure to further anger human rights activists and feed fears among the U.S. and other Western allies that the valley will turn into a sanctuary for militants close to Afghanistan.
Whatever criticism may come, Zardari can claim some political cover — the National Assembly voted unanimously Monday to adopt a resolution urging his signature, although at least one party boycotted. Earlier, a Taliban spokesman had warned lawmakers against opposing the deal.
Zardari’s spokeswoman, Farahnaz Ispahani, confirmed the president signed the regulation Monday night.
His signing implemented a deal agreed to in February by provincial officials to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for a cease-fire between security forces and the local Taliban.
Zardari had put off signing the agreement, saying he wouldn’t until peace was restored in Swat but never defining what that meant. The delay led a hard-line Muslim cleric mediating the agreement to leave Swat in anger last week and upset lawmakers from the region.
As pressure mounted, the federal government said over the weekend that Zardari wanted parliament first to debate the accord to implement an Islamic legal system, as long demanded by some residents disenchanted with inefficient regular courts.
Lawmakers made clear they believed the deal should go ahead, saying it would bring calm to the area after months of bloodshed that killed hundreds of people and displaced up to one-third of the valley’s 1.5 million residents.
“The whole nation is united in its support of the Swat regulation and wants the president to approve it,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said at the start of parliamentary debate Monday.
Even without the president’s approval, judges trained in Islamic law had begun hearing cases in Swat, and witnesses say Taliban fighters are in effective control of much of the region. The provincial government also agreed to other measures under the peace deal, such as cracking down on prostitution and sales of movies deemed “obscene.”
Supporters say the changes in the legal system will speed up justice, not lead to harsh punishments or restrict the rights of women. Critics say the agreement is a surrender to extremists whose tactics include beheading opponents and burning girls’ schools.
The events Monday “strengthened the militants,” said Mahmood Shah, an analyst and former top security official in northwest Pakistan.
Shah noted Taliban fighters in Swat recently staged a violent foray into the neighboring Buner district, possibly to put the heat on lawmakers and Zardari to support the deal. “They have really forced the government to do that,” he said.
Those brokering the deal have given few specifics about conditions placed on the Taliban in Swat, including whether they have to give up their weapons. But the Swat Taliban’s spokesman, Muslim Khan, suggested after the parliament vote that disarming was at least an option.
“We had picked up weapons for the sake of a justice system, and we will put them down for the sake of a justice system,” he said.
Lawmakers from the Muttahida Quami Movement, a party based in the southern city of Karachi that has a strong anti-Taliban stance, walked out of the parliament session before the vote on the resolution. “We can’t accept Islamic law at gunpoint,” said Farooq Sattar, a top party leader.
Muslim Khan would not say if the Taliban would target legislators who opposed the deal, saying only that a militant council would discuss the matter. The Taliban warned before the vote that lawmakers against the deal were guilty of apostasy, or abandoning Islam, which carries the death penalty in some parts of the Muslim world.
Elsewhere, Pakistani authorities announced the arrest of another suspect in the deadly terrorist assault on the Indian city of Mumbai, which killed 164 people as well as nine of the 10 gunmen. Pakistan has acknowledged that the November attack was partly planned on its soil.
The Interior Ministry chief, Rehman Malik, said Shahid Jamil Riaz was arrested in Karachi on charges of maintaining financial accounts and helping plan the attack. Authorities now have five suspects in custody, he said.
Also Monday, visiting U.S. Sen. John Kerry met with Pakistan’s president, prime minister and other top officials, including Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, head of Pakistan’s most powerful spy service, Inter-Services Intelligence.
Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is spearheading a bill to increase nonmilitary aid to Pakistan, with the goal of helping it improve economic, educational and other sectors as a way to lessen the allure of Islamic extremism.
In a statement after the meeting, Gilani urged the U.S. not to attach conditions to aid funds, saying “strings attached would fail to generate the desired goodwill and results in Pakistan.”
During a news conference, Kerry took a friendly stance when asked about U.S. allegations that elements within Pakistan’s spy agencies are assisting militant groups, saying he had a good meeting with Pasha.
“I think that he and your government are making enormous efforts to guarantee the absolute cooperation and accountability of the intelligence efforts in this country,” Kerry said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sale of Swat’s Blood Emeralds Bankrolls Taliban Terrorism
Mingora/Islamabad: Thousands of emeralds are pouring into world gem markets from the Swat valley in Pakistan, sold to fund the Taliban’s jihad against the West.
Militants have begun reopening lucrative emerald mines that had been closed by the government, since they took control of the poor but picturesque region in the north of the country under a controversial peace deal last month.
They are using revenue from the sale of the emeralds to help finance attacks on Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, and to support their drive to extend the Sharia law, including public whippings and summary executions, into more regions of Pakistan.
Swat holds one of Asia’s two largest-known deposits of high-quality emeralds. From here, the precious stones are smuggled to Jaipur, India, and transported to Bangkok, Switzerland and Israel. They are cut and polished into the lustrous gems that adorn the world’s finest jewellery, and sold to customers who have no idea that the money they are spending may end up financing the Taliban.
“We receive one third of the profit, the rest goes to the workers,” Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in Swat, told The Sunday Telegraph.
The revelation that the Taliban are making huge profits from the emeralds will heighten fears among Pakistan’s middle class. Evidence of the militants’ growing stranglehold emerged last week in a gruesome video showing a 17-year-old girl screaming as she was beaten by radicals in Swat.
The unlicensed trade in the region’s emeralds provides the Taliban with cash to buy weapons for their struggle against Pakistan’s secular government, just as the Taliban in Afghanistan has thrived on the proceeds of opium.
Brigadier Mahmood Shah, the former chief of security for Pakistan’s tribal areas, said: “The Taliban use drug money for jihad in Afghanistan. The same thing is now happening in Swat. Money from emeralds is sponsoring their so-called jihad.”
The flow of precious stones promises to provide a rising stream of cash as the Taliban open more mines. Abdul Karim Shah, director of the Gems and Gemological Institute in Peshawar, estimated that the Taliban could already earn up to £2million a year from the mines now operating, with more to come as emerald deposits potentially worth billions are tapped into.
“They have engaged 1,000 people and the number is increasing,” a Taliban commander said. “It is a great opportunity for the people, as there is so much poverty and unemployment here.”
One of the workers, Shad Ali, 24, said: “I earn at least Rs1,000 per day. When I find a stone during digging, I take it to the Taliban’s office here. It’s weighed there and my share of the price is given to me.” He said the mine had proved a “blessing” to poor people in the area.
Mines in Pakistan and Afghanistan are thought to contain nearly 10 per cent of the world’s total emerald deposits, and during the 1980s the mines of Swat yielded a quarter of a million carats of the stones — worth £ 15 million in rough, uncut form. A government mining official in the area, who is powerless to enforce the government’s writ, said: “If the Taliban continue selling the emeralds they will become very strong and it will be impossible for the government to dislodge them.”
It is not only the mines of the Swat Valley where militants have changed the fabric of everyday life. In more peaceful times, “stranger danger” was not something that pupils at Islamabad’s Marghalla Higher Secondary School had to worry about. Today, it is uppermost in head teacher Saira Ahmad’s mind every morning, as she checks for suspicious characters lurking around the building. She fears gunmen might take an entire class hostage. “There are nearly 1,000 pupils in my school, and that is a huge responsibility,” said Ahmad, who asked that her name and that of her school be changed to avoid becoming a target.
“I have to come in 45 minutes before the school opens, and check around all the open areas in case there are any rogues who have sneaked into the compound. Instead of teaching, a lot of time is being consumed these days ensuring the security of my pupils.” She fears a classroom might become the next target of a militant “spectacular”.
The growing sense of fear has created a renewed business boom for Rajab Tonyo, an emigration consultant in Rawalpindi, who advises families seeking to move abroad.
Many were asking about Canada, Denmark and Australia, where visa restrictions are less stringent than for Britain. “Current conditions have compelled the people to look around for other options,” said Tonyo. “No emigration consultant is sitting idle these days.”
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban: Pakistani Politicians Not Backing Swat Deal Are Abandoning Islam
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani lawmakers passed a resolution Monday urging that the president sign a regulation that imposes Islamic rule in a northwestern valley in exchange for peace with the Taliban.
Meanwhile, authorities announced the arrest of a fifth suspect in the deadly siege of the Indian city of Mumbai last year.
Hours after a Taliban spokesman said lawmakers would be considered to have abandoned Islam if they opposed the Islamic law deal, the National Assembly unanimously approved the resolution aimed at President Asif Ali Zardari — though at least one party boycotted.
The provincial government in northwestern Pakistan agreed in February to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for a cease-fire with the local Taliban.
Western and Pakistani critics say the agreement represents a dangerous surrender to extremists behind a campaign of terrorism in the Swat Valley and more broadly across the border region with Afghanistan. Amid the criticism, Zardari has delayed signing the agreement.
His stance has long been that he won’t sign until peace is achieved in the area — but he hasn’t defined what that means. The delay led a hardline cleric mediating the agreement to leave Swat in anger last week while also upsetting lawmakers from the region.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The War Within Islam
“Leave me for the moment — you can beat me again later,” a 17-year-old girl begs between sobs in a video airing on Pakistan’s private television networks and circulating on the Internet. But the local Taliban commander continues to flog her without mercy as a group of village men watch in silence.
[…]
The recent U.S. strategic review, as well as learned tomes and countless op-ed columns, depict the struggle in the desolate Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier as being rooted in fierce nationalism, the region’s ancient warrior culture, the failures of nation-building and the rebirth of jihadist terrorism.
But this video reminds us of another driving force too often neglected or minimized in the analysis and commentary: the desire of Pakistani and Afghan men to be left in peace to deal with their womenfolk as they see fit. There may be no more important recruiting tool for the Taliban and other Islamic extremist organizations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Card Zen’s Last Pastoral Letter to the Church of Hong Kong and China
The cardinal sends a touching message to Hong Kong Catholics in support of the persecuted Church of China. He thanks priests, nuns and the faithful, with a special greeting to new Christians who will be baptised on Easter night.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Card Joseph Zen bids his diocese farewell in a pastoral letter issued on the occasion of Easter, one which he describes more as a “family letter” in which he remembers the 12 years he spent at the helm of the Hong Kong Bishopric and talks about his dedication to the persecuted Church of China.
The letter begins with a brief account of the activities of a committee, of which he is a member, set up by the Holy See concerning the Church in China whose focus is “the heavy cross being carried by our brothers and sisters in the mainland over the past 50 years.”
“The Church in China, the Church to which we belong, has had no freedom for over 50 years and has been persecuted. News came to us during our meeting that Bishop Jia Zhiguo, of Zhengding (Shijiazhuang), was arrested,” he wrote.
In retiring the prelate said that he will be able to devote more of his time to the Chinese Church which “needs our concern and care. The fact that the pope made me a cardinal also indicates that he wants me to help him in this area.”
“God is leading us in wonderful ways, his hand holds our hand, a hand that bears the mark of the nail, now no longer causing pain, but shining in glory forever.”
After thanking priests, nuns, men and women religious, seminarians and all of his faithful, he added: “God is not far away nor high above. He is in our midst. He is by our side. He is in our hearts. With him, we have the strength to carry our crosses in sickness, poverty, loneliness or persecution. With him, we are able to help those on the journey by our side to carry their crosses. With him, we are able to help our brothers and sisters in the mainland walk the way of the cross until the end.”
“Dear brothers and sisters; do not be afraid. We believe in the saviour, who is risen. The last word is not death, but life, the true life, the fullness of life, the eternal life. Peace be with you!”
“All you new Christians, who will be celebrating their baptism during the Easter Vigil, welcome to our big family. During the Scrutinies [of the catechumens] I had the opportunity to get a foretaste of your joy. Always keep the joy of baptism. You have joined a community of human beings, a community of sinners. Bear with one another. But this community is the Mystical Body of Christ. The grace of God is always in our midst. He loves you.”
“May the Holy Mother Mary keep you that you may persevere until the end.”
The official announcement of Cardinal Zen’s retirement should be made after Easter.
His successor is Mgr John Tong Hon.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Government Wants Tots to Learn More Social Skills
BABIES, toddlers and preschoolers across the country are set to become political activists under controversial new Federal Government guidelines.
The April 2009 draft Early Years Learning Framework wants teachers to make under-fives:
- Contribute in a meaningful way to reconciliation, including flying the Aboriginal flag and inviting elders to give talks.
- Use “social inclusion puppets” and “persona dolls” to explore exclusion and ethical issues.
- Challenge and resist bias and discrimination.
- Take action in unfair situations and learn to act when injustice occurs.
- Assess and act on power dynamics as they get older.
The political emphasis of the guidelines has divided early learning experts. Your say: Should kids be taught political correctness? Some, such as leading Melbourne educational consultant Kathy Walker, have questioned the merits of such issues being “rammed down the throats” of two, three and four-year olds.
“Although I welcome the emphasis on play-based learning, there is an air of political correctness about the document overall,” she said.
Others, such as Kindergarten Parents Victoria CEO Meredith Carter, believe it is merely an attempt to “include and welcome all families to join in preschool and kinder”.
“It’s not as if children will be harmed for life by this focus on difference and commonality,” she said.
Under the $700,000 new approach to early childhood education, the goal will be to “promote children’s civic participation and nurture socially responsible citizens for a future world,” a Federal Government February 2009 briefing paper states.
“The early childhood years are a time when children are developing understandings of community and citizenship and learning about democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizens,” it says.
There is also a strong emphasis on caring for the environment and reconciliation.
The briefing paper notes that “such a society values Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as a core part of the nation’s history, present and future” and stresses this as a key tenet of early childhood education.
Less controversially, the guidelines also focus strongly on play-based learning, the importance of communication and language, the role of the family in children’s lives, and social and emotional development.
But psychologist, author and speaker Evelyn Field questioned the need for role modelling using puppets and dolls, instead preferring teachers “keep it simple through encouraging children to play together”.
Melbourne clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller agreed the emphasis should be on children playing and learning through play.
“If we overwhelm children with a sense of broader issues, we could make them anxious and confused,” he said.
Welcoming the guidelines, Association for Children with a Disability CEO Elizabeth McGarry said the key was not to highlight negative differences between children, but positively promote diversity.
Community Childcare executive director Barbara Romeril also welcomed the focus on equity and getting children to challenge discrimination and disadvantage.
“Children are already dealing with these issues,” she said.
If adopted, the Department of Education guidelines would cover all kinders, childcare centres and other early childhood settings, and would provide the basis for the education and care of all Australian preschoolers.
The guidelines have just been tested in 29 settings, including a range of childcare centres.
Online consultation is still taking place.
They are due to be implemented in July.
| — Hat tip: The Observer | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Has Bloody Hands in Zimbabwe
Donald Trelford exposed Robert Mugabe’s murderous methods 25 years ago, but couldn’t persuade Whitehall to intervene
It was 25 years ago this month that I stumbled on the first direct evidence that Mugabe was a monster who would destroy his own people to preserve his hold on power. It seems extraordinary that it took nearly a quarter of a century for the world to catch on.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Now Somali Insurgents Fire Mortars at U.S. Congressman as He Flies Out of Mogadishu After High Seas Hostage Drama
Somali insurgents have fired mortars in an attack on a visiting U.S. congressman, just hours after pirates vowed revenge on America for killing three of their own during a high-seas standoff.
The insurgents fired one mortar at an airport when Donald Payne’s plane was due to take off.
They fired five others after his plane departed. No one at the airport was hurt, but three people were wounded when one of the mortars landed in a nearby neighbourhood.
Payne had taken the risky decision to fly to Mogadishu to discuss the problem of piracy with the government there.
He flew in hours after a ship captain being held hostage was freed last night after a dramatic shootout with the U.S. Navy.
The operation, which saw President Barack Obama twice give permission to use military force, left three of the Somali captors dead and a fourth in U.S. custody.
It emerged today that the pirates were taken out with technical precision, with U.S. Navy SEALS firing just three shots at their upper bodies.
Asked how the snipers could have killed each pirate with a single shot in the darkness, a spokesman described them as ‘extremely, extremely well-trained’.
Military officials were widely praising the snipers for three flawless shots, which they described as remarkable, coming at night and from the stern of a ship on rolling waters — and with at least one of the pirates actually inside the pilot house of the lifeboat.
The SEALS arrived on the scene by parachuting from their aircraft into the sea, and they were picked up by the Bainbridge, a senior U.S. official said.
Captain Richard Phillips, 53, escaped unhurt.
A fourth pirate is in U.S. custody after coming on board the Bainbridge earlier in the day yesterday to receive treatment for a wounded hand. Somali media were identifying him as 16-year-old Mohamed Abdi, according to the Somali Justic Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Now the U.S. military is looking to work with the fledgling Somali government and help train their security forces as well as set up a national coast guard, Bloomberg has reported.
But the angry pirates have vowed to retaliate for the deaths — with one promising: ‘In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.’
It is feared that they could take their revenge on the hundreds of other foreign nationals they still hold on seized ships.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on Payne.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Pirates Vow Retaliation After Captain Freed
Somali pirates on Monday vowed to retaliate for the deaths of three colleagues who were shot dead by U.S. Navy snipers hours before in a daring nighttime assault that freed a 53-year-old American captain.
The Navy Seals late Sunday rescued freighter Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held by pirates on a lifeboat that drifted in the Indian Ocean for five days.
“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” said Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town.
“In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” he told The Associated Press by telephone. “We will retaliate for the killings of our men.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Anti-Abortion Protests Disturb Holy Week
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 8 — Protest against a possible reform of the law on abortion, currently being examined by the Zapatero government, is continuing to create outcry and conflict in the traditional Holy Week processions in Spain. In Medina Sidonia (Cadiz), where the major archconfraternity, Cautivo de los Llanos, traditionally holds its procession, the parade met with whistles and insults after statements by organiser that Christ would not have worn the white ribbon (anti-abortion symbol), “in order to prevent the procession from taking on political overtones.” According to reports in El Pais today, the organisers have been accused by believers and the spiritual director of the confraternity of not respecting “the laws of the church”. In Granada, the procession of the Virgin by the All-Powerful Jesus and Our Lady of Hope confraternity took place yesterday with white ribbons. It is the first Andalusian city to get involved in anti-abortion protests following the Royal Federation of Confraternities’ approval of a manifesto to reject the reform of the abortion law on March 24. The archconfraternities of Seville, Jarez and Cordoba have published a manifesto over the past few days in which they state their opposition to abortion, thereby aligning themselves with the position of the Spanish Episcopal conference in defence of life. Reform to the law, which the government is currently considering, would make abortion legal for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, which could be extended to 22 weeks in case of irregular foetal development or risks to the psychological or physical health of the mother. The Episcopal Conference and other pro-life movements were involved in demonstrations which took part in Madrid and in 60 other Spanish cities on March 29. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Bloc Wants to Set Up Its Own Human Rights Body
(CNSNews.com) — A bloc of the world’s Islamic states, which has been accused of undermining human rights at the United Nations, is planning to establish its own “independent human rights commission.”
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the 57-nation bloc of Muslim nations at the U.N., held a conference Sunday at its headquarters in Saudi Arabia to discuss the plan.
OIC Secretary-General Eklemeddin Ihsanoglu in a speech stressed that “human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage,” according to an OIC statement.
International interest in the issue of human rights had grown exponentially over the past two decades, said Ihsanoglu, a Turkish academic. The complexity of the issue called for the need to refine the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights, he added, “in keeping with the current global human rights discourse.”
The 1990 declaration controversially states that all human rights and freedoms must be subject to Islamic law (shari’a), although senior Islamic leaders have over the years disputed the assertion that the Islamic document contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The OIC statement did not elaborate on how the bloc envisaged that the Cairo Declaration would be “refined.”
Among the OIC’s more active members are countries where shari’a is imposed to varying degrees. Critics say the tenets of Islamic law often result in discriminatory treatment of women, religious minorities, and converts from Islam to other faiths.
Arguing that Islam and Muslims are increasingly under attack, the OIC has over the past decade sponsored a string of controversial “defamation of religion” resolutions at the U.N. General Assembly and at the world body’s human rights agencies, the Commission on Human Rights and its successor Human Rights Council.
Opponents of the campaign say it amounts to an attempt to place Islam and some of the more controversial practices associated with it above criticism — to protect a religion, rather than its adherents, from “defamation.”
In his speech, Ihsanoglu said establishing an OIC human rights commission would pave the way for intellectual and political reform in OIC member states.
He said it would contribute to promoting “tolerance and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity.”
Only 14 of the OIC’s 57 members qualify as “electoral democracies,” according to criteria applied by Freedom House. None are Arab states.
And of the 57, only six — Benin, Guyana, Indonesia, Mali, Senegal and Suriname — are deemed “free” according to Freedom House assessment. The democracy watchdog scores all nations annually for political rights and civil liberties, classifying them as either “free,” “partly free” or “not free.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
What about the violence erupting in Thailand? The media has been maddeningly vague about who's protesting what. "The red-shirts are calling on the government to resign." Why? Are they communists? Are Moslems involved somehow? Inquiring minds want to know.
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