Iran’s envoy to the IAEA made a slip of the tongue when he asserted that Iran had a right to obtain nuclear weapons. President Ahmadinejad says that Iran’s elections were “fair”. And Egypt deported four Chechen students.In other news, Halal salami is now available for Muslims.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CB, ESW, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, Lexington, Srdja Trifkovic, The Frozen North, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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BRIC Nations Call for Change in the Global Financial System
But there is disagreement on immediate measures. Russia wants to replace the dollar as the reserve currency; Beijing prefers a gradual change over. National differences are brought to bear, such as the unresolved border dispute between India and China.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) yesterday ended their historic 1st summit saying the world needs a more diversified international monetary system that is less dependent on the dollar. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who hosted the summit in Yekaterinburg, invited the 4 emerging nations to “create the conditions for a fairer world order”. But experts observe that their differences still outweigh their common interests.
The four BRIC countries account for 40% of the world’s population and 15% of the global economy, for which they claim a greater voice and representation in international financial institutions”. They there was a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified global monetary system and urged support for a more democratic and just “multipolar” world order. There was no explicit mention of the US dollar or the United States in the statement, but the desire to remove it from the role of dominant International currency is evident.
However, a common vision on immediate steps is lacking. Medvedev called for a “more diversified” monetary system yesterday to reduce dependency on the world’s reserve currency. But China has over 2 billion US dollars in its reserve and does not want the American currency to loose its value now. Instead Beijing is in favour of a progressive extension of Yuan value across neighbouring states: yesterday the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, explained in an editorial that the substitution of the dollar with other currencies had already begun through bi- or multilateral agreements between states and that the process will be gradual.
Analysts observe that the differences between BRIC nations far out weigh their common interests. During the summit Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh spoke of the unresolved issue between the two states of the 3500 km long border. On June 15th only hours before the leaders arrival at the summit India moved an estimated 15-30 thousand troops to the border area as well as aircraft. Beijing lays claims to entire regions which India has no intention of ceding.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Think Exit Strategies Says Draghi
Crisis- driven expansionary policies will have to be curbed
(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Leading economies should start thinking about exit strategies from the recession, Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi said Tuesday.
In a speech in Berlin, Draghi said it was too soon to withdraw the monetary and fiscal stimulus pumped into the world’s economy over the last year but plans should still be made so that an exit strategy can be implemented as soon as economies are on the mend. “Even if it is premature to implement these exit strategies now, it is not too soon to begin designing them and to reflect on what conditions will need to be in place for their enactment,” said Draghi, who heads the powerful international Financial Stability Board. Group of Eight finance ministers on Saturday asked the International Monetary Fund to prepare recommendations on how exit strategies should be implemented when recovery is assured. “Exit from overly expansionary fiscal policies to reduce public debts and exit from the current stance of monetary policies to anchor inflation expectations are essential for both price stability and financial stability,’ Draghi said. “And finally, exit from the micro policies supporting banks.’ Only if consensus can be achieved on the cause of the crisis will there be a common view on the lessons to be learned, Draghi said.
He said “serious regulatory flaws” had played a major role in the financial meltdown, citing two examples: the removal in 2004 of the limit on leverage for investment banks; and the possibility for triple-A rated entities to underwrite Credit Default Swaps without posting any collateral.
Next month’s G8 in Italy had hoped to frame ‘golden rules’ proposed by Italy to prevent any recurrence of the present crisis but officials have said it is too early to learn enough lessons from the crisis to firm up such rules.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Latvia’s Budget Quarrel
Latvia’s health minister resigned Wednesday, saying he was unwilling to carry out deep budget cuts, in a sign of the political tensions emerging from the Baltic nation’s attempts to elude bankruptcy and win international aid.
The Latvian parliament on Tuesday passed a bill tightening the 2009 government budget by €700 million ($968 million), including cuts to education, health care, pensions and public-sector wages. Without the cuts, the country’s deficit was expected to balloon, as taxes fell while the Latvian economy contracted an expected 20% this year.
Trade unions plan a demonstration Thursday in the capital, Riga, to protest the budget, and the teachers’ union has called for Education Minister Tatjana Koke to step down.
“The cuts are terrible,” said Ariana Abeltina, spokeswoman for the Latvian Free Confederation of Trade Unions, which is organizing Thursday’s rally. “No one can survive,” she said, referring to plans for 50% wage cuts for teachers, an expected 20% reduction in other government workers’ salaries and a 10% decrease in pension payments.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis accepted the resignation of Health Minister Ivars Eglitis, the prime minister’s office said. Mr. Eglitis was unwilling to carry out deep cuts to Latvian health-care services.
Despite the cuts’ unpopularity, Latvian lawmakers Tuesday agreed to them at the urging of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The new budget is expected to satisfy the EU and IMF enough to win more than €1 billion in the next few weeks, the second tranche of an €7.5 billion emergency loan program established in December. The two institutions in separate statements Tuesday commended Latvia for its “courageous” action.
Tuesday’s budget move increased confidence among market watchers that the aid will stave off national bankruptcy and the abandonment of Latvia’s peg to the euro.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Keeps Car Sales Stimulus in War Bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U..S. Senate rejected on Thursday an attempt to strip a $1 billion program aimed at spurring flagging U.S. car sales from a pending $106 billion war funding bill.
The Senate voted 60-36 to keep the program that would provide vouchers of up to $4,500 for consumers to trade in their less fuel-efficient cars for ones that get better mileage, a program known as “cash for clunkers.”
Republican Senator Judd Gregg had raised an objection to including it in the legislation because it did not include cuts elsewhere to cover the costs. He also complained the program also was not in the original versions of the war funding bills that the Senate and House of Representatives passed.
“There are innumerable places in this government, which is spending trillions of dollars a year, to find $1 billion to pay for this bill if it was a priority,” Gregg said during the floor debate.
The federal deficit is expected to reach $1.8 trillion this fiscal year, but other lawmakers emphasized that the autos program would cut pollution and stem job losses.
“We’ve seen the largest decline in automobile sales in 50 years,” said Democratic Senator Richard Durbin. “Plummeting auto sales have reduced production and it’s had a ripple effect across the economy, forcing dealerships and factories to close.”
A few senators complained that the requirements for improved fuel efficiency in the program were too small, as little as two miles per gallon, and tried unsuccessfully to push a more stringent program.
The overall bill, which is primarily focused on funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, is expected to pass the Senate later on Thursday. The House approved the war funding bill on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
CAIRing About the Truth
If you watch or read a report on Islam or Muslims in the United States, you will probably come across the acronym CAIR, which stands for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is the unofficial voice of Islam in America, mostly because government officials and the media treat it as such.
This leads to the question: Should they? My friend Congressman Frank Wolf says “no,” and he has very good reasons—as he told Congress last Friday.
Wolf’s interest in CAIR was piqued when he learned that the FBI had severed “its once-close ties with” CAIR “amid mounting evidence that it has links to a support network for Hamas.” Since Hamas “is on the current list of U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations,” such an allegation, if proven, wouldn’t only warrant the severing of ties, it would also call CAIR’s credibility into question.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Media Opt for Government Control
Last month, I argued that big media are anything but “mainstream” in their reporting. I suggested they be called what they really are: Democrat media.
Anyone who still doubts that assessment hasn’t seen this June 16, 2009, Drudgereport headline: “ABC Turns Programming Over To Obama; News To Be Anchored From Inside White House.”
That’s right: The federal government’s planned takeover of private doctors, clinics and hospitals will be covered by a “news organization” that has turned its programming over to the federal government. “Questions” will be taken from those physically present in the White House “audience.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Journalist Threatened for Exposing Cover-Ups
A journalist who has uncovered evidence of al-Qaeda involvement in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 has been threatened with a lawsuit by powerful U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
[…]
The Lance book, Triple Cross, originally published in 2006 and now issued in paperback, includes a timeline, also on his website, tracing the history of some of the perpetrators of these terrorist acts going back to 1981. His book goes into substantial detail about the TWA 800 and Oklahoma City bombing cases and how government officials covered up the nature of these crimes. (Timeline website: web.me.com/netgraph1/peterlance.com/Home/Home.html)
[…]
Lance argues that one of the biggest intelligence failures involved the handling of al-Qaeda agent and former Egyptian Army commando Ali Mohamed, whose face appears on the cover of the book and who worked for the CIA, the Army Green Berets, and the FBI, even while he was helping al Qaeda prepare terrorist acts against Americans. He was eventually arrested on terrorism charges, convicted and sentenced to prison.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Welcomes Berlusconi — “Great to See You, My Friend”
Italian premier meets US president. Agreement over Guantanamo. Three detainees to be moved to Italy
WASHINGTON — “Great to see you, my friend!” was the welcome awaiting Silvio Berlusconi at the White House from Barack Obama, as the US president put both hands on Mr Berlusconi’s shoulders. The American president and the head of Italy’s government talked for over an hour and a half — longer than scheduled — in the West Wing of the White House.
GUANTANAMO DETAINEES — After the meeting, Mr Obama called Italy a “crucial ally” and announced that the Bel Paese would be taking three detainees from the prison at Guantanamo. Mr Berlusconi’s offer had evidently been accepted by the United States. In the afternoon, sources said that the possibility of taking prisoners would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In the past, the United States had requested that Italy should take two prisoners of Tunisian origin.
“JUST LIKE WITH BUSH” — Among the topics discussed at the White House was the upcoming G8 meeting at L’Aquila. Mr Berlusconi expressed the hope that the summit would help to overcome the impasse in negotiations for the Doha round, the world trade talks that have been on hold for some time. On the subject of US-Italian relations, Mr Berlusconi said he was “bound by a pledge of gratitude to the United States, which gave Italy back its freedom after the Second World War. I am here to collaborate with President Obama, as was the case before with presidents Clinton and Bush”. He added: “I would be very happy if in the course of our relations we could arrive at a friendship. I would say we have started off well”. For his part, Mr Obama said that “Berlusconi is a great friend” and that ties between the two countries were now “stronger”. “We have made a good start”, said Mr Obama. “I always expect from Prime Minister Berlusconi a frank and honest opinion”. “Apart from the fact that I like Premier Berlusconi personally, our peoples also like each other, have deep ties and share a deep community of values”.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Historically Challenged President
Barack Obama, as Victor Hanson recently documented, may be our most historically challenged president ever. Some might think that the inaccuracies Hanson identifies are no big deal, but there are several reasons to be troubled by such ignorance.
First there’s the double standard of a mainstream media that for eight years scorned George Bush as a syntactically challenged ignoramus, and now gush over a president touted as an eloquent intellectual. Of course, the media have to ignore the fact that Obama’s eloquence is dependent on the teleprompter, or that he refuses to publicize his college transcripts, not to mention the numerous errors of fact evident both in his campaign and presidential speeches. Their assertions of his brilliance, despite gaffes such as those on display in Cairo, are like their assertions of Bush’s stupidity: wish-fulfilling myths serving partisan ends.
But more important is the danger to our foreign policy that such an ignorance of history represents. Particularly in our fight against radical Islam, history supposedly provides the basis of Muslim grievances against the West, especially the United States. Colonial occupation, imperialist aggression, the Western imposition of Israel on the “Palestinian homeland” in order to atone for the Holocaust——these sins of the West against the House of Islam are constantly put forth as rationalizations and justifications for violence against Western interests.
If history is to provide the foundation of grievance, however, then all of history is on the table, and that history must be factually accurate and judged by consistent standards. If, for example, the enslavement of Africans is an evil for which the West must take responsibility, then all slavery everywhere must be condemned equally. But when do we ever hear about Islamic slavery? In the three-century long heyday of Western slavery, some 10 million slaves crossed the Atlantic. Yet in the 14-century-long existence of Islamic slavery——still going on today in Africa in places such as Sudan——an equal number of black Africans were enslaved by Muslims. We hear all the time about the horrors of the “middle passage” across the Atlantic, but never about the forced marches of Africans across the Sahara desert, where thousands died of disease, exhaustion, and malnutrition. We never hear about the African men who had been castrated to be sold as eunuchs, if they were lucky enough to survive an operation in which not just their testicles, but all their external genitalia were cut off.
And don’t forget that slavery in the West was ended by movements of emancipation backed up by the British navy, movements that have not arisen from within Islam simply because the Koran does not forbid slavery…
| — Hat tip: CB | [Return to headlines] |
The Reality of the Sotomayor Nomination
Sotomayor has no more business on the Supreme Court than Daffy Duck, Pluto or Mickey Mouse. At least those three have not had 60% of their decisions overturned on appeal; a good indicator of what Sotomayor knows about the law and what consideration she gives to the rule of law when rendering decisions. And while all three are obvious minorities, they didn’t find it necessary to join radical ethnically-based groups like the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF, sister organization to MALDEF) or La Raza (means “The Race”), a group solidly behind the Reconquista movement—repatriating much of the west and southwest to Mexico.
[…]
Instead of being a melting pot as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, and as this country was for almost 200 years, we are now a pluralistic society, a society of many tribes of people, all identified along ethnic and religious lines. To this end, we have hyphenated Americans: Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Muslim-Americans and so forth, each demanding rights specific to their tribe; rights which are not in the common good and only serve to rend the fabric of the society as a whole.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Military Teaches ‘Protesters’ Are ‘Low-Level Terrorists’
Become ‘dangerous citizen’ by ‘repeating the very phrases Founding Fathers used’
Just weeks after a scandal erupted over a Department of Homeland Security report that described as “right-wing extremists” those who oppose abortion and support secure national borders, another report is revealing that the Department of Defense is teaching that protesters are “low-level terrorists..”
The newest action to define those who disagree with positions adopted by the government or administration of the United States was revealed by blogger Dennis Loo at Salon.com.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Proposes New Powers to Police Internet
The Canadian government on Thursday unveiled new legislation to allow police to intercept data sent over the Internet and access web subscriber information in order to fight cybercrimes.
“High tech criminals will be met by high tech police,” said Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.
The proposed Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act would require Internet service providers to add interception capabilities in their networks.
Providers would also be required to provide basic subscriber information to law enforcement agencies and to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, upon request.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi: Anthropologically Different From Hateful Leftwing
(AGI) — Rome, 17 June — “I hope that next Sunday’s second ballots will represent the continuation of the victory at the European elections and confirm Italy’s preponderance which is not found in the leftwing, which is only full of envy, hate and jealousy”, said Silvio Berlusconi in an interview with the director of the Lunaset-Telenostra-Buongiorno Campania, Franco Genzale group. “The latest developments” Berlusconi continued in yesterday’s interview at Palazzo Grazioli “confirm that the left is focusing on personal attacks, while we are talking about programmes and projects. We are anthropologically different. Who looks at the others, appreciates the work of the others and loves freedom can only vote for the PDL party”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Birth Rate Continues to Fall Below Replacement Level
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 17 — Population and marriages in Cyprus are on the rise, while divorces and births are on the decline, Cyprus Mail reports quoting statistics released yesterday. The 2007 Demographic Report, published by the Statistical Service showed that the number of births decreased to 8,575 in 2007, compared with 8,731 in 2006. The total fertility rate (mean number of children per woman) was estimated at 1.39 in 2007, continuing to fall below the replacement level of 2.10 since 1995. For the period of 2006-2007, life expectancy at birth was estimated at 78.3 years for males and 81.9 years for females. Compared to 5,127 deaths in 2006, the number of deaths increased to 5,380 in 2007. The number of marriages increased from 12,617 in 2006 to 13,422 in 2007. Church marriages increased from 3,799 in 2006, to 4,444 in 2007, and civil marriages went up from 8,818 in 2006 to 8,978 in 2007. The number of divorces decreased from 1,753 in 2006 to 1,648 in 2008. In the government-controlled areas, the population rose from 778,700 in 2006 to 789,300 at the end of 2007, an increase of 1.4%. This increase was likely due to an increased net migration balance of 7,390 people, and to a smaller extent by a natural increase of 3,195 people. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Presidency Misses the Boat
The Czech Republic’s six month presidency of the EU has been much talked about. For all the wrong reasons, argues political analyst Lukáš Macek in Mladá Fronta DNES.
It was supposed to be the grand finale of the Czech presidency of the EU: this June’s European Council summit, with all the EU heads of state in attendance. Instead, a boring summit is being held today under the presidency of a man [acting Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer] most of the conferees have never met before. And like as not, all they are thinking is: “At least it isn’t Klaus” [the Eurosceptical Czech president].
For all the EU countries but the Czech Republic, this is just another high-level meeting. A summit without any great ambitions in the life of the European institutions, though it might come up with some answers to current European issues. It might formulate some EU commitments to Ireland with regard to the Treaty of Lisbon. It might make some headway on the preparations for the upcoming climate summit, on the regulation of the financial markets, even on the nomination of the European Commission’s next president. But the meatier matters will be tackled under the Swedish presidency [in the second half of the year].
From our point of view, this was an opportunity passed up. It’s sad to see how low the expectations are for this major “Czech” summit. In discussing this Council meeting, the European press broaches all manner of questions, but says virtually nothing about the Czech presidency. And what about the Czech government’s press conference, where the government vaunted their “extraordinary” summit agenda involving “issues of extraordinary importance” and the fact that, “given the extraordinary complexity of the agenda”, the prime minister had paid visits to all his European partners to prepare for it? Regrettably, this relentlessly reiterated word “extraordinary” is extraordinarily at odds with the reality. And the meetings attended by the acting prime minister of this “government of experts” have precious little to do with the political action one might expect a European Council president to take.
Fischer’s government has one saving grace, though: it averted the worst. After the fall of Mirek Topolánek’s government [in March], many people were wondering what would happen if Václav Klaus were to chair the European Council in June. Thanks to Fischer’s government and Klaus’s ultimately conciliatory stance, at least we dodged disgrace and an international crisis. This grey formal situation in which we find ourselves has allowed everyone to save face.
In truth, this scenario reflects the whole trouble with our relationship to the European Union: we always manage to avoid the worst, but far too seldom succeed in making the most of our potential. Leaving aside the “We’ll sweeten Europe” campaign [an ambiguous slogan, also meaning in Czech something like “We’ll give Europe a taste of its own medicine”] and Entropa [a controversial sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny playing on national stereotypes], as well as the bland, passive course of the Czech political helmsmanship, all things considered the machinery of the Topolánek presidency, serviced by competent officials, functioned fairly well.
We are always complaining about being a small nation incapable of asserting itself. And so we do nothing, telling ourselves contentedly: “There you go: as we’ve always said, the French and the Germans call the shots!”
The EU presidency could have given us some self-confidence. It could have shown that we are a European country that knows how to earn the respect of other nations and how to get results. Our response to the “gas crisis” was auspicious. But after that, zilch.
Thanks to the professionalism of our officials in Prague and our diplomats in Brussels, we have scored some points. But absent worthy political representation, their efforts are for all intents and purposes invisible. It is above all our politicians who make — or break — the Czech Republic’s reputation in the European Union and give our country some sway. And they have failed the test of Europe.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Food is Adapting, Halal Salami for Muslims
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 11 — From Halal salami to attract customers amongst the 1.4 million Muslims now living in Italy, to ‘cow pooling’ (buying beef in bulk to save money) and garden products delivered by boat through the Venetian canals. These are only a few of the young entrepreneurs’ ideas to fight the economical crisis that were mentioned during the ‘Oscar Green’, the agricultural innovation awards sponsored by the younger members of the Italian Farmer Federation (Coldiretti), with the patronage of the President of the Republic. Winners received their awards during a ceremony in Palazzo Rospigliosi. With the number of immigrants having doubled over the last 10 years, Halal food is a market on the rise, with a 67 billion USD turnover in Europe. That is why Antonio Fernando Salis (Exporting for the Territory award) from the La Genuina di Ploaghe farm (Sassari) decided to prepare cured meats according to Halal rules (for Muslims) and Kosher rules (for Jewish), with lamb and goat meat. All products are checked and approved by an imam and a rabbi. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian President Allegedly Involved in Vienna Murders
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was part of a death squad that killed three Kurds in Austria, it was claimed today (Thurs).
Green party security spokesman Peter Pilz said Ahmadinejad had been involved in the killings in Vienna in 1989 and may have actually shot one of the trio.
Pilz said: “I have no doubt he was involved”, adding he may have pulled the trigger on one of the guns used to kill the men.
Pilz said new eye-witnesses had come forward who had identified Ahmadinejad as being involved in the assassination of Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran chief Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, his deputy Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar and Austria-born Fadel Rasoul on 13 July 1989.
He said a German weapons dealer had told Austrian investigators there had been a meeting in the Iranian embassy in Vienna during the first week of July 1989 at which a certain “Mohamed” who later became president of Iran had been present.
The dealer said the purpose of the embassy meeting had been to discuss illegal arms deliveries.
Pilz claimed there had been two Iranian teams involved in the assassinations — a negotiations team and an execution team. Pilz said Ahmadinejad had been responsible for gathering and preparing the weapons used and had been a member of the execution team.
Pilz said he had passed on documents on the case that had been translated into German to the interior ministry and the state prosecutor’s office.
Former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr has also claimed Ahmadinejad had belonged to the execution team in Vienna, and a number of media reports implicated him in the murder of the three Kurds.
The Iranians suspected of having killed the Kurds took refuge in the Iranian embassy after the murders and were allowed to leave Austria after the Austrian government came under massive pressure from the Iranian government.
The Greens spokesman called for a foreign-policy initiative to support democratic forces in Iran and warned: “A president who has probably engaged in massive election fraud, been responsible for the deaths of many journalists and Kurds in Iran and strongly suspected of murder in Vienna is not someone capable of respecting democracy and human rights.
“The European Union should not consider him credible.”
Meanwhile, more than 700 Iranians demonstrated in Vienna on Tuesday in support of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mussawi.
The demonstrators, who walked from the Heldenplatz to the Iranian Embassy, carried posters with slogans such as “where is my vote, election fraud in Iran, and time for a change” and chanted “freedom, freedom” and “free elections, free people” in Farsi and German.
Police said the gathering had been peaceful and passed without incident.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Prison Plan Ready for Approval
Overcrowding to be eased by 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — A plan to build new prisons in Italy in order to ease chronic overcrowding will soon be presented to the cabinet for approval, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said on Wednesday.
The minister said a total of 48 new cell blocks would be added to existing penitentiaries, two prisons would be renovated and 24 new county jails would be built by 2012 to create room for 17,891 inmates.
Because of the increase in the number and size of prisons, Alfano added, an “extraordinary recruitment program” would be needed to hire guards and wardens.
According to the head of Italy’s department of prisons, Franco Ionta, overcrowding in the country’s penitentiaries has created a condition of “maximum alert” because the prison population is rapidly reaching the level of “tolerability”.
As of May 31, he said, in Italy’s 206 prisons there were 62,961 inmates while the threshold of tolerability was 63,702 in structures designed to house 43,210.
In order to ease overcrowding, Ionta urged greater recourse to prison alternatives which he said was also more effective to reduce the number of repeat offenders. Unions and associations representing prison wardens, guards and other staff have been warning for months that the situation in Italian prisons has become a “time bomb” ready to explode.
Last week the secretary of the OSAPP guards’ union, Leo Beneduci, warned that “we are at the limits of the respect of human rights”.
“There isn’t a single bed available, only standing room only as we’ve exhausted all the mattresses too,” he said.
His warning came on the heels of a report from AMAPI, an association representing prison doctors, that 22 inmates committed suicide in Italian prisons in the first four months of the year — already half the total number of suicides in 2008.
AMAPI also stressed that record overcrowding had created a “time bomb ready to explode” and that inmates’ human rights were threatened.
Last month, the UIL trade union warned that Italy’s prison system risked “imploding” now that the maximum acceptable level of 63,000 had been surpassed and indications were that the prison population would swell to over 70,000 before the end of the year.
This followed a similar warning from the SAPPE police union which predicted that, at this rate, the prison population would surpass 100,000 within three years.
In order to deal with the current situation, SAPPE urged not only greater recourse to prison alternatives but also reorganising how inmates are housed based on their crimes.
The union also accused Italy’s politicians of failing to take advantage of a 2006 prisoner pardon issued to relieve overcrowding to make structural interventions.
On Wednesday, the Unknown Inmate Association, which is linked to the Radical Party, said that the situation in Italian prisons cannot wait until 2012 and that another pardon was needed to ease overcrowding.
The group said that such an initiative “would be a sign of good government”.
According to AMAPI, there are currently 16,000 drug addicts in Italian prisons, 21,400 non-European inmates, 5,200 suffering form viral hepatitis, 2,500 HIV positive and 6,500 with mental health problems.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands Looking to French-Style Crack-Down on Internet Piracy
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — In the wake of France’s imposition of its controversial three-strikes legislation aiming to crush internet piracy, the Dutch parliament has called on the government to also deal harshly with offenders.
A cross-party commission investigating the subject of downloading copyright content without permission found that such behaviour is rampant amongst young people.
The commission, bringing together MPs from the ruling Christian Democrats, their Labour Party coalition partners, the conservative VVD and the far-left Socialists, issued a report on Thursday (18 June) that revealed that it has become a kind of sport to download films from the internet before they have even been released in movie theatres.
Currently in the Netherlands, only the uploading of such content to the internet is a punishable offence, but not downloading.
The MPs want the government to bring in new legislation to change that situation and calls on justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin and economy minister Maria van der Hoeven to crack down on internet piracy.
The report argues that parents should be held responsible for the downloading activity of their children.
Campaigners against the French three strikes bill fear that the country is inspiring copycat legislation elsewhere in Europe and attacked the Dutch MPs report.
“Governments must realise that the cost of repression exceeds by far the benefits and most of the time harms civil liberties,” Jeremie Zimmerman of La Quadrature du Net, an internet freedom pressure group, told EUobserver in reaction to the release of the report.
“File-sharing is unstoppable anyway. The real question will be about how to use it to find new ways of funding creation. All conservative and repressive measures are bound to fail.”
The commission’s report also recommended that a new licensing framework be introduced in which music, films and video games could be downloaded for a fee.
The report also calls for the elimination of the levy imposed on CDs and DVDs within three years to reduce consumer prices.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
New Lisbon Divisions Mar EU Talks
EU talks on the Lisbon Treaty have been marred by a rift over demands made by the Republic of Ireland — which rejected the treaty in a 2008 vote.
Irish PM Brian Cowen wants a protocol put into the EU’s founding treaty to safeguard Ireland’s sovereignty over its military, tax and abortion laws.
Some EU countries fear reopening the debate may encourage treaty opponents.
The EU leaders did agree in principle to a new framework of rules to oversee the financial sector.
And they also gave unanimous backing to a motion nominating Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as president of the European Commission.
Second referendum?
The Lisbon Treaty is a complex set of institutional changes aimed at making the enlarged EU more efficient. It replaced the EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
Supporters want to avoid any new round of referendums on it, after years of negotiations.
Opponents see the treaty as part of a federalist agenda aimed at weakening national sovereignty.
The treaty has been ratified in most EU countries and the second Irish referendum — expected to be in October — is the biggest remaining hurdle.
“ I just want to make sure it solves their problem without creating problems for anyone else “
Fredrik Reinfeldt Swedish Prime Minister
The Irish government says fears that the EU might be able to override Irish policies on military neutrality, tax and abortion were among factors prompting voters to reject the treaty in a referendum last year.
The EU guarantees — still under discussion — are designed to allay such fears.
“This is necessary if I am to call, and win, a second referendum,” Mr Cowen said in a letter to UK leader Gordon Brown.
Even though it has passed their parliaments, the Eurosceptic Czech and Polish presidents have refused to sign the treaty unless it passes the Irish referendum.
But the British Conservatives’ pledge to hold a referendum, if elected, means pro-treaty governments now face a race against time, says the BBC’s Laurence Peter in Brussels.
Sweden, which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency next month, does not want any further delays over Lisbon.
Referring to the Irish guarantees, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said: “I just want to make sure it solves their problem without creating problems for anyone else.”
Czech PM Jan Fischer, chairing the summit, said there was a “sound basis” for an agreement with Ireland.
“There won’t be any reopening of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The positions are getting closer. The question is how to construe the word ‘protocol’,” he said.
Financial watchdog
EU officials say there is a deal in principle on a new EU-wide system of financial supervision, with even Mr Brown accepting the need for harmonised rules.
But the UK does not want the European Central Bank to have the key supervisory role in a new European Systemic Risk Board, which will look out for any threats to financial stability across the EU.
There are also concerns that new European regulators would be able to overrule a national government, for example by instructing it to bail out a particular firm.
The delegations are now working to establish the new supervisors’ competencies, before the fine details are worked out by the Commission.
Many of the delegations called for Commission proposals on financial regulation before September, EU officials said.
The discussions centre on recommendations by an expert panel headed by Jacques de Larosiere, a former IMF managing director.
The leaders had the easier task of nominating the conservative Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as EU Commission president.
He had no rival — and even had backing from some centre-left leaders.
Sweden’s PM Fredrik Reinfeldt said: “This is not the time to make confusions in the EU leadership… he has broad support.”
The summit will also touch on preparations for the UN conference on climate change, coming up in December.
The Czech Republic, chairing its last summit as EU president, wants the debate to focus on EU support for developing countries, to help them mitigate the effects of climate change.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
One in Five Austrians Want a ‘Strong Leader’
A study reveals that six per cent of Austrians would welcome a military dictatorship.
The analysis, conducted by group of political analyst led by Christian Friesl, also found that half of Austrians are unhappy with democracy.
One in five people interviewed expressed a desire for a “strong leader,” while 50 per cent said they would like foreigners kicked out of the country if the situation in the labour market worsened.
Another result of the research is that general interest in politics has decreased over the past ten years.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s History: Catalonia Rules on Opening Mass Graves
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — The Catalonian community will be the first in Spain to track down and exhume remains of victims and those who disappeared during Spain’s period of civil war and dictatorship thanks to a law that has been approved today. The bill, which was supported by tripartite PSC-ERC and ICV government and the CIU nationalists, while being opposed by the Popular party, recognises the rights of citizens to obtain information about the fates of disappeared family members. It also recognises their right to be informed about where the remains of family members have been buried and, if necessary, to have them recovered. Requests for exhumation have to be made by family members initially or by institutions or bodies dedicated to recovering historical records; a technical committee will then be charged with authorization after having verified the necessary documentary evidence. The report of the technical committee will then go to the Generalitat for its final decision. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Govt Vows to Take Guantanamo Detainees
Madrid, 17 June (AKI) — The Spanish government said on Wednesday it would host from three to five Guantanamo detainees to help United States president Barack Obama close the controversial military prison in Cuba. According to Spanish daily El Pais, Obama’s special envoy for the closure of Guantanamo, Daniel Fried, was on Wednesday due to present a list of detainees — of Syrian and Tunisian origin — who have voluntarily chosen to live in Spain.
Apart from the list, the Spanish government said it also wanted all available information on the detainees. This includes confidential information, such as the reason why they were detained and the level of risk for the host country.
Obama has pledged to close the controversial prison by early next year and his administration wants to transfer the detainees to other countries or US communities.
Unlike other European governments, Spain does not require that the detainees have any links with Spain, but instead, only that they chose Spain as their preferred destination and have no criminal record.
El Pais said it was not yet clear who would pay for the costs of the ex-Guantanamo inmates’ stay in Spain or their monitoring and the detainees would not be allowed to leave Spain.
Spain’s decision was revealed as Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi reaffirmed Italy’s commitment to accept three detainees from the US prison.
“We cannot say ‘Close the prison and then not give a hand’,” Berlusconi said in an Italian television interview on Wednesday.
“(Foreign affairs minister Francesco) Frattini convinced other colleagues to agree to accept them. The countries that have agreed to take the prisoners are apart from us Portugal, Spain, France and perhaps Poland. So this is already a good start.”
The European Union has endorsed a deal with Washington to transfer some inmates to Europe.
A joint statement by Brussels and Washington said the EU backed the decision by the United States to close Guantanamo and set out a framework for cooperation under which member states would be able to receive released detainees.
EU officials say member states could accept about 60 former detainees. The issue is controversial because Europe’s Schengen open borders mean a former inmate accepted by one state could travel freely through most of the region.
Last week, the US relocated nine detainees from the camp, transferring three to Saudi Arabia, four to Bermuda, one to Iraq and another to Chad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doctors Told to Give Priority to Gypsies
Gypsies and travellers should be given priority in NHS hospitals and GP surgeries, according to Government guidance.
They should be given longer consultations, and should be seen by GPs when they walk in without an appointment, even if doctors are fully-booked.
The average length of a consultation is five or ten minutes but travellers will be given 20 minutes and allowed to bring relatives into the consulting rooms.
The guidelines have been introduced because, under race laws, gypsies and travellers are defined as minority ethnic groups and the NHS is obliged to consider their special needs and circumstances.
Yet no special treatment is promised for other groups such as those from the Asian sub-continent or Africa, the Daily Mail reported.
The guidance forms part of the Primary Care Service Framework, drawn up by the NHS Primary Care Commissioning — an advisory service for local health trusts — to help all PCTs understand the Department of Health’s policy.
It will go on trial for between three and five years, Although PCTs do not necessarily have to follow the guidelines, they could be breaking human rights law and the Race Relations Act of 2000 if they do not.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: “No one should get priority treatment in the NHS apart from our Armed Forces, to whom we owe a special debt of gratitude.
“Decisions about who should be treated first should be based on a patient’s medical needs, not their ethnic group.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are aware that gypsies and travellers have experienced tremendous difficulties in accessing primary care.
“Partly as a result, community members experience the worst health inequalities of any disadvantaged group.
“The framework suggests fast-tracking for two reasons. First, as a matter of urgency, inroads need to be made into the health problems of gypsies and travellers.
“Second, if mobile community members are not seen quickly, the opportunity could be lost as they move on or are moved on. This should not be to the detriment of service provision to the settled community.”
| — Hat tip: Lexington | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hunt for Al-Qaida Targets Air France Crash
Suspects thought to be testing ‘rat hole’ into Britain
LONDON — Officers from the British intelligence service MI6 have flown to Buenos Aires to join the investigation of the crash of the ill-fated Air France Airbus A330 that plummeted into the water 700 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast with a loss of 228 lives because the names of two suspected terrorists are on the passenger list, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The Secret Intelligence Service investigators believe two of the passengers on the May 31 flight were al-Qaida terrorists who had boarded the flight to Paris and could have intended to travel on to London. They are suspected of being test passengers on a so-called “rat hole” into Britain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Use of Stop and Search “Unacceptable” Says Lord Carlile
The overuse of stop and search powers are damaging the credibility of terrorism laws and are being needlessly used to balance racial statistics, a review of anti-terror laws has shown.
In his annual report on the Terrorism Act 2000 and Part 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC said that police were using stop and search laws against people who were not even suspected of being a terrorist.
He warned that the “poor and unnecessary” use of special powers which gives police the ability to stop individuals without having “reasonable suspicion”, “severely damaged” the credibility of the law.
“I repeat my mantra that terrorism related powers should be used only for terrorism related purposes; otherwise their credibility is severely damaged. The damage to community relations if they are used incorrectly can be considerable,” the report states.
Lord Carlile said that the blanket use of searches under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 failed to show potential to prevent a terror attack and that he could see no reason for the whole of Greater London to be permanently designated for the use of the power.
Also in the report he draws attention to evidence that people are being stopped by police in order to ensure a racial balance for the official statistics.
“I believe that it is totally wrong for any person to be stopped in order to produce a racial balance in the Section 44 statistics. There is ample anecdotal evidence that this is happening,” he said.
While he said he understood that police were anxious to ensure they would not suffer from allegations of prejudice, “self evidently” unmerited searches was a waste of resources.
“It is also an invasion of the civil liberties of the person who has been stopped, simply to ‘balance’ the statistics,” the report said.
Lord Carlile said: “The criteria for section 44 stops should be objectively based, irrespective of racial considerations: if an objective basis happens to produce an ethnic imbalance, that may have to be regarded as a proportional consequence of operational policing.”
He continued “I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorist profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him or her being a terrorist and no other feature to justify the stop.”
“In one situation the basis of the stops being carried out was numerical only, which is almost certainly unlawful and in no way an intelligent use of the procedure.”
Lord Carlile called on chief police officers to always bear in mind that a stop under Section 44 is an invasion of a person’s freedom of movement.
He criticised the Metropolitan Police, which performed 90 per cent of the stops in 2007/08, for not limiting Section 44 use only to parts of London and said the number of searches being carried out by the force was “alarming”.
Recently however the use of stop and search powers have been limited within the capital.
He said: “The intention of the section was not to place London under permanent special search powers.
“The figures, and a little analysis of them, show that section 44 is being used as an instrument to aid non-terrorism policing on some occasions and this is unacceptable.”
A Home Office spokesman defended the use of the powers. He said: “Stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2000 is an important tool in the on-going fight against terrorism.
“As part of a structured anti-terrorist strategy, the powers help to deter terrorist activity by creating a hostile environment for would-be terrorists to operate.
“Countering the terrorist threat and ensuring good community relations are interdependent and we are continuing to work with the police to ensure that the use of stop and search powers strikes the right balance.”
Shadow Security Minister, Baroness Neville-Jones of the Conservative Party, said the report revealed how the misuse of stop and search powers “damage community relations”.
“It is a hallmark of this Government that powers available under terrorism legislation are used for reasons entirely unrelated to those for which they were put on the statute book. Inappropriate use of stop and search power is the surest way to lose public support and damage community relations. Lord Carlile rightly condemns this.
“The Government needs to make absolutely sure that anti-terrorism powers are used proportionately and only for terror-related purposes. But while producing more and more anti-terrorism legislation, we are concerned that the Government has not done enough to improve the capability of our police forces to respond to a Mumbai-style attack or to stop terrorist financing through international charities,” she said.
| — Hat tip: The Frozen North | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-Cyprus: Military Cooperation Agreement to be Signed
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 16 — The defence ministers of Serbia and Cyprus, Dragan Sutanovac and Costas Papacostas respectively, announced on that an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries would be signed by the end of the year, reports Tanjug news agency. Addressing a joint press conference, Sutanovac said that the document would be initialed during the next visit of the Cypriot defence minister to Belgrade, and that he “expects that the agreement will be signed by the end of the year”. The agreement on cooperation in the field of defence is a document which harmonises joint bilateral activities in a number of fields regarding the defence and military systems of the two countries. In this context, Sutanovac in particular pointed to the capacities of the Military Medial Academy and the Military Academy, which could offer qualitative education. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Visa-Free Regime Urged for Balkans
LUXEMBOURG — European Union foreign ministers issued a fresh recommendation Monday on easing visa requirements for travel in its member-states for citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout.
Ministers have encouraged the European Commission to annul visas by the end of the year, Kohout said on Monday in Luxembourg. The Czech Republic holds the EU presidency until June 30. “The Council encourages the European Commission to present as soon as possible a legislative proposal amending Regulation 539/2001, as it applies to the Member States, in order to achieve a visa free regime ideally by the end of 2009 with those countries that will have met all the benchmarks,” the Macedonian Information Agency quoted the ministers’ statement as saying.
Earlier this month, EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said five Western Balkan nations were on track for visa liberalization.
Barrot said Macedonia had shown “good progress” toward meeting the EU conditions, Serbia and Montenegro had shown “progress,” while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania had shown “some progress” but still had to improve in some areas.
All five countries are keen to join the EU, but their membership talks are at different stages. A continuing obstacle for Macedonia is the dispute with neighboring Greece over its name Äž and internationally it is still widely described as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Meanwhile, Macedonia said it is confident that its citizens will enjoy visa-free travel to EU countries by next January. The officials in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, said they were also working to meet the EU conditions.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: More Than a Million Incomplete Homes
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 17 — The law passed by the Algerian Government in July obliging all construction companies and landlords to finish off incomplete building projects looks to have had limited effectiveness. Indeed, there are still 1.17 million incomplete buildings waiting to be completed in the country. The National College of Architects (CNEA) has said that this exorbitant figure needs to be addressed through a country-wide strategy and accompanying measures to enforce the existing laws. The problem is not just to do with “the beauty and harmony of the landscape”, said the experts in a training day on the decree law, but also involves ‘safety” issues. The inability to finance the conclusion of the construction is, according to CNEA, the main reason behind Algeria’s current urban panorama of un-plastered houses and exposed cement — and that’s in the best cases. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Deports Chechen Students
CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt on Thursday forcibly deported four Chechen students to Russia, where Amnesty International says they risk being tortured, but a traffic jam prevented police from getting a key warlord’s son to the airport in time to join them.
Four students among dozens rounded up by security services on May 27 were put on a flight to Moscow.
But police transporting Maskhud Abdullaev, whose father Supyan is fighting Russian rule in Chechnya, were caught up in a traffic jam and the youth did not reach the the airport, a friend told AFP.
“A police officer took him to the airport but they were delayed on the way by a traffic jam and the plane had already taken off,” said Ruslan Mussayev.
“He doesn’t want to go to Russia; there’s a problem for him there,” Mussayev said of Abdullaev, who he said is now due to fly on Friday.
The students had been rounded up for suspected links to an alleged Al-Qaeda cell responsible for a February 22 bombing in Cairo’s tourist district which killed a French teenager.
Abdullaev, who had been studying at Cairo’s renowned Al-Azhar Islamic University since 2006, was initially held incommunicado at Egypt’s notorious Tora prison, London-based Amnesty said.
The students all claim to have refugee status in Azerbaijan but the Egyptian authorities insisted they return instead to Russia where they face torture or other ill-treatment, Amnesty said.
It added that four other students arrested at the same time were deported to Russia on June 9, where Russian and Chechen security forces handcuffed them and took them away on arrival.
One of the four has since disappeared and is believed to have been moved to Chechnya.
Amnesty says it regularly receives reports of detainees being tortured in Russia, while in Chechnya detainees are at risk of torture, extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance.
The predominantly Muslim region fought two wars with Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but it has achieved a measure of stability in recent years under the rule of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
North Caucsus security analyst Andrei Soldatov told AFP that Supyan Abdullaev is “pretty active” and believed to be part of the “inner circle” of Doku Umarov, the leader of Chechnya’s remaining separatist rebels.
Umarov’s fate is currently unknown, with the Russian authorities refusing to confirm a report on Monday that he had been killed in a special operation by Russian security forces.
“This is a very important character,” Soldatov said of Supyan, adding that he is currently believed to be in charge of Chechen rebel finances.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Media: Gaddafi Requests 8 Mln Euro From Moroccan Dailies
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 17 — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has asked three Moroccan daily newspapers for approximately 8 million euros (90 million dirham) as compensation for defamation. According to the Algerian press, which quotes legal sources, Colonel Gaddafi has filed against Arab-language daily newspapers Al Jarida Al Aoula, Al Ahdath Al Maghribia and Al Massae, asking each of them for 30 million dirham in damages His complaint was made through the Libyan Embassy in Morocco. The directors of the three newspapers Ali Anouzla, Mohamed Brini and Rachid Nini respectively, and two journalists, Moktar Labiouzi from Al Ahdath Al Maghribia and Yussef Meskine from El Massae, stand accused by the Libyan leader. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reports that the incident concerns several articles critical of Gaddafi, that were published in the period around the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. “After eliminating the freedom of press in Libya,” ANHRI points out, “he has focussed his attention and experience on persecuting Arab journalists beyond his country’s borders”. In 2007, the High Court in Algiers sentenced a journalist and the director of daily newspaper Echourouk, Ali Fhodil, to six-month suspended sentences for defamation of Gaddafi after they wrote about an alleged project in Libya to create a Tuareg State in the Sahara. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Jewish View of Netanyahu’s Speech
I am well aware of the political and rhetorical nature of Netanyahu’s speech. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that the conditions he laid down for the establishment of a Palestinian state will never be accepted by Arabs or Muslims; for unlike Mr. Netanyahu, they believe in a deity in whose name they are willing to sacrifice their lives.
I wonder whether the people of Israel understand the dreadful transgression Netanyahu committed by saying YES to a Palestinian state on Jewish land? Some observers, trained in law, may say that Netanyahu’s YES will not stand the test of international law; I leave this for them to explain. Others have already said that he has violated the coalition agreement that forms the basis of his government. What most disturbs me, however, is his projected violation of Jewish law.
[…]
Leaving this aside, I see in Netanyahu’s speech something overlooked by its author and thus far by commentators. Looking beyond his crafted rhetoric, Mr. Netanyahu, in my opinion, has given the Arab-Islamic world a great victory and has inflicted on the Jewish people a terrible defeat. For by agreeing to a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has given the democratic world to believe that the Arab claim to Judea and Samaria is superior to any put forth by the Jews! Arabs thus have all the more reason to despise the Jews and scorn the God of Israel! They will then have all the more incentive to persist in their territorial demands whose ultimate objective is to wipe Israel off the map of the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: End the Illegal Occupation of Jerusalem
Aaron Klein Exposes the Truth About Illegal Settlement Activity
I recently met my friend, Helen Freedman, at the U Café. This café on the upper east side is my local watering hole, an oasis, a village well, where I meet people for coffee. Sometimes, when it’s quiet, I just sit there and read, as if I lived in Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Vienna, Tel Aviv, or on the lower east side of NYC—but long ago, when a writer had a favorite cafe where he (or she) read their newspapers, pen articles and books, meet other writers to argue, plan revolutions, initiate love affairs, and to dream.
Freedman had just returned from one of her frequent trips to Israel. This time, what amazed her most were “all the illegal Arab settlements” which had grown exponentially “all over Jerusalem.”
Illegal Arab settlements?
This information is well documented in journalist Aaron Klein’s important new book: The Late, Great State of Israel. How Enemies Within and Without Threaten The Jewish Nation’s Survival. Klein’s book illuminates, infuriates, saddens, and cries out to both heaven and humanity.
[…]
Over the years, Israelis have allowed more than “100,000 Palestinian Arabs to occupy tens of thousands of illegally constructed housing units in eastern and northern Jerusalem.” Criminals, mercenaries, soldiers dressed as civilians, human bombs and their terrorist handlers, may all live among them. This other illegal occupation or settlement activity began long after 1967, when Israel won a third war of self-defense launched against it by the major Arab powers. These Palestinian Arab immigrants were not living in these places before 1948 or before 1967. Indeed, Klein documents that under Jordanian rule, one of these Jerusalem neighborhoods, Shoafat, was actually a forest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu: PNA Calls for International Pressure
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, JUNE 15 — Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, “is trying to eliminate any hopes of peace” and therefore “it is up to the international community to provide an adequate response,” said an advisor to Palestinian Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, in a radio interview today. In the eyes of Abed-Rabbo, secretary of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) executive committee, the Israeli premier did not foreshadow a future Palestinian state in his speech yesterday, he only spoke of “a section of land, a sort of ‘reserve’ under the control of Israeli hegemony, without borders or border crossings”. Abed-Rabbo added that for the Palestinians, it is a serious matter that Netanyahu “disregarded” the road map for peace and the Arab peace initiative, which was praised by USA President Barack Obama in his speech in Cairo in early June. According to the Palestinian official, Netanyahu “rejects peace and intends to continue military occupation and settlements, as well as sabotage Obama’s initiative”. As a result, he concluded, Palestinians are waiting for an appropriate reaction from the United States. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two Years of Hamas in Power in Gaza
(by Safwat Al-Kahlout) (ANSAmed) — GAZA — Two years after the bloody struggle for power in the Gaza Strip that was won in June 2007 by Hamas, Palestinian observers and political exponents of various origin all agree on one thing: Hamas was able to put a stop to chaos and anarchy in the Strip and to afford the population a relative degree of stability, albeit at a heavy price. Questioned by ANSA, Gaza’s Palestinians traced a balance of pros and cons under the Hamas regime which Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), president of the Palestinian National Authority, says came to power in a coup d’etat. Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesperson for the ministry of security of the de-facto Hamas government (which, with few exceptions, is not recognised by the international community), stated that before Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip there were 12 security services fighting against each other, and their “only purpose was to cause anarchy. Now a force of 14,000 people, approximately a quarter of the troops controlled by Fatah, managed to offer an undeniable degree of security to the population”. Talal Oukal, who teaches journalism in Gaza’s al-Zahar University, replied that this is true, but also added that the rift between Hamas and Fatah (with Gaza under the control of Hamas and the West Bank under the control — approved by Israel — of Fatah and the PNA) “came at great cost for the Palestinian people”. According to Oukal, the two lines of action against Israel, in other words the armed fight supported by Hamas, and dialogue supported by Fatah, have “both failed”. Furthermore, he added that Israel’s tight blockade of the Strip after Hamas took power has drastically worsened living conditions in Gaza, where unemployment and poverty levels are at world record levels. Marwan Khalil, a 35-year-old restaurant owner, reported that the Israeli blockade has made prices shoot up, resulting in the closure of shops. “We feel like we’re living in prison and we are afraid of illnesses because you cannot leave Gaza to seek medical treatment”. Even Khalil Abu Shamal, a human rights activist, accuses Israel and the international community (and not Hamas directly) of the dramatic socio-economic condition across the Strip. Notwithstanding the financial hardships, the blockade, damage caused by the Israeli offensive in January, it is undeniable that in two years Hamas managed to consolidate its hold over Gaza. This belief, expressed by Hamas exponent Ismail Radwan, is also shared by Mukhaimar Abu Saada, a political sciences teacher who stated that “It appears that Israel’s siege policy has failed to deliver the results which the Israelis expected. If anything it has consolidated Hamas’ power, if it hasn’t actually contributed to making Hamas more popular”. Fatah spokesperson Fehmi al-Za’arie blamed Hamas for “repressing personal and collective freedoms and the political rights of opposing forces”. Abu Shamala agrees that “human rights and cultural economic and social conditions have deteriorated”, but lays the blame on the rift between Hamas and Fatah. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bombshell: Iran Envoy in Nuclear Weapon Slip Up
VIENNA (AFP) — Iran’s envoy to the UN atomic watchdog caused a buzz among journalists on Wednesday when he apparently misspoke and said his country had the right to a nuclear weapon.
After saying as usual that Iran was only pursuing nuclear energy for civilian purposes, Ali Asghar Soltanieh strayed alarmingly from the Islamic republic’s usual line.
“The whole Iranian nation are united… on (the) inalienable right of (having a) nuclear weapon,” the envoy to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said.
He later got back on track, concluding: “We will not deprive our great nation from benefitting from peaceful uses of nuclear energy.”
The UN Security Council has ordered Iran to suspend all enrichment-related activities until the IAEA has been able to verify the exact nature of Tehran’s programme amid fears from Western powers that it wants to build an atomic bomb.
But Tehran has ignored such calls, insisting it wants to produce civilian nuclear energy.
| — Hat tip: CB | [Return to headlines] |
EU Envoy Says Turkey Takes “Tactical Step Backwards” on Armenia Thaw
ISTANBUL — Turkey has taken a “tactical step backwards” on normalizing relations with Armenia because of fierce domestic reaction to the move, the EU’s envoy to the region told Reuters in an interview published on Wednesday.
“A step back was taken by the Turkish side … but this is not a U-turn,” EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby said in the interview conducted at the end of a visit to Moscow last week.
“We expect the conversations will continue,” Semneby said.
Ankara and Yerevan agreed in April on a “road map” deal for U.S.-backed talks that could lead to the normalizing of ties and the opening of their border, which Turkey closed in a show of support to Azerbaijan in 1993 after Armenian occupation of Azeri territories in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkish officials, however, have said Turkey will not open its border with Armenia before the neighboring country ends its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, reassuring Azeri leaders that Ankara’s efforts to reconcile with Yerevan would not undermine the country’s interests.
Reconciliation talks with Yerevan, conducted before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also faced fierce criticism from the opposition parties and a number of political analysts in the country.
Semneby said it was important the “pause” in the peace process between Turkey and Armenia did not last too long because of the risk that impetus would be lost.
“The normalization (with Armenia) became the subject of quite widespread and heated discussion in Turkey,” he added in earlier remarks to a small group of reporters. “It seems to me, this discussion became more heated than was expected,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
“I see this as a Turkish tactical step backwards,” Semneby said. “But fundamentally, the new foreign policy that has been pursued by the Erdogan government, I don’t see that this policy is changing,” he added.
AZERI-ARMENIAN TALKS
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts — a frozen conflict legacy of the Soviet Union.
Both countries continue with fruitless peace negotiations. The OSCE Minsk Group, set up in 1992 and co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France, is engaged in efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Semneby, however, believes real progress is being made.
“It is clear that if you look at the negotiating process, it is intensifying,” he told Reuters. “We had in a month two meetings and there will be another relatively soon between the presidents.”
Armed clashes still occur regularly along the lines separating Azeri and Armenian troops. Asked about the risk of conflict, Semneby said it would be foolish to neglect it but he felt both sides understood the enormous costs which would be involved in any large-scale military engagement.
“Even with this very dangerous posturing that we see sometimes and the fact that the forces are not separated and there are incidents all the time, the two sides are by now used to managing incidents,” he said.
“If anything, the Georgia war (last year with Russia), demonstrated the risks of military engagement … it was also a wake-up call to both countries how vulnerable they are.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Ahmadinejad Says Election Was ‘Fair’
Tehran, 17 June (AKI) — Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reaffirmed that he was returned to office by the will of the people. In a statement published on the Iranian ISNA student news agency site, Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the election was fair.
The incumbent president was officially declared winner of Friday’s election by a margin of two-to-one over his main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Mousavi, a reformist candidate has accused the authorities of rigging the vote and his supporters have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest over the past five days.
But Ahmadinejad said that the result proved he has popular support.
“The fact is that the election was a referendum on the Islamic system in Iran by 40 million people,” he said during a government meeting.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appealed for calm and an end to protests which have left at least eight people dead in the most dramatic upheaval seen in the country since the 1979 revolution.
According to official Iranian media, Ahmadinejad received 62.3 percent of the vote, or 24.5 million votes, compared to Mousavi’s 33.7 percent or 13.2 million votes.
Official election results said a record 85 percent of eligible Iranians turned out to vote. Forty-six million people were eligible to vote in the presidential elections, the 10th since the Islamic revolution in
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Hopes “Down-to-Earth” Obama Drops Star Wars
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia hopes U.S. President Barack Obama will not pursue his predecessor’s plan to deploy weapons in space but Moscow is ready to respond appropriately to any such moves, a senior Russian general said on Wednesday.
Russia, negotiating with the United States a new treaty to curb nuclear arms to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) expiring in December, has argued against the “weaponization of space.”
President Dmitry Medvedev, due to receive Obama next month on his first visit to Moscow, has said Russia’s conditions for new nuclear arms accords include banning arms in space.
“As far as I know, today’s U.S. administration has somewhat different plans — they have become more down-to-earth and more realistic,” one of Russia’s deputy defense ministers Vladimir Popovkin, in charge of weapons, told a news conference.
He said Russia could find a cheap way of dealing with any potential U.S. space defense system.
“There is a more adequate response, and for this there is no need to put weapons in space,” he said. “It is not a big deal to shoot down a space satellite, and the Chinese have proven this by conducting a relevant experiment.”
Popovkin recalled how then U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s attempts to create a space-based anti-missile system had accelerated the Cold War arms race and helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“We were dragged into this escapade called ‘Star Wars’ under (U.S. President Ronald) Reagan, and you know well what the result was — this was one of the causes behind the collapse of the Soviet Union. We squandered a huge amount of money,” he said.
Former President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to start researching new anti-missile systems four years ago as a guard against a launch from North Korea or Iran.
Congress agreed a $5 million study of a possible space-based missile defense last October, a potential baby step toward a “Star Wars” system. The U.S. has spent more than $100 billion developing anti-missile systems on land, at sea, and in the air.
Russia believes the United States is concerned primarily about the safety of its orbital group of satellites which are vital for coordinating U.S.. troops deployed around the globe and in leading wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Popovkin said.
The deputy defense minister also said that Russia expected to successfully finish testing of its much-delayed Bulava strategic nuclear missile this year and make the first flight of its new fifth-generation fighter jet.
“The task is this year we must complete all flight tests of Bulava including from aboard the Yury Dolgoruky (nuclear submarine),” Popovkin said.
“As for the fifth-generation aircraft, it is set to take off this year and we have no reason to postpone this deadline. Its engine will be 4+++ but the plane itself and many of its key elements will be definitely fifth generation.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
India Does Not Allow Entry to the USA Commision on International Religious Freedom in Orissa and Gua
The Commission was to arrive in Delhi on the 12th of June, but they never received the necessary visa. Important Hindu personalities labeled the enquiry as an “interference in India’s internal affairs”. The Obama Administration do not press the issue.
Mumbay (AsiaNews) — The Indian Government did not issue the visas to the representatives of an American commission on International Religious Freedom who wanted to make an enquiry on the incidents that took place on Gujarat and Orissa.
The visit of the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). The two states of Gujarat and Orissa had been in the news recently for communal disorders. In the district of Kandhamal, last year there were wide spread riots, burning of churches, killing of people and displacement of entire villages. In the 2002 riots in Gujarat the Muslims were under attack.
The USCIRF, every year publishes a report pointing out the countries where violations of religious freedom had taken place. Before putting India in this list, the commission wanted to pay a visit, to interview people and to ascertain the facts.
A team of the commission was to arrive in Delhi on June 12 but they did not received the necessary visa. A USCIRF spokesperson said: “They knew we had the tickets for June 12 therefore it is clear that they don’t want us to visit.” The Indian Embassy in Washington, that was supposed to issue the visa, referred all questions to New Delhi while acknowledging that the USCIRF team had applied for visas. Government sources, without acknowledging that the visas had deliberately denied, it said that it was not the right time for such a visit.
Last week in Mumbai an inter-religious meeting was held between Hindu and Catholic representatives, with the participation of Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In this occasion, the leader of the Hindu delegation, Swami Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, came out strongly against the proposed visit of the US commission team in India, as “an intrusive mechanism of a foreign government which is interfering with the internal affairs of India”, and said the team must not be allowed to enter the country.
The Obama administration did not press the issue given that the US undersecretary of state, William Burns was in New Delhi and its secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, is going to visit India in July.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia’s Anwar Seeks to Block Sodomy Charge
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has asked a Malaysian court to throw out a sodomy charge against him, two weeks before the start of a trial that he maintains is politically motivated, his lawyer said Thursday.
The government has repeatedly denied Anwar’s claim that the charge was orchestrated to block him from leading a three-party opposition alliance that severely eroded the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority in the March 2008 election.
Anwar submitted a petition to the High Court on Wednesday that said the case was a conspiracy concocted by his foes in the government, his lawyer Sankara Nair said in a statement.
In his application, Anwar asserted that a medical report dated July 13 last year by a government hospital found no evidence of anal penetration on his accuser.
The charge “is a travesty, a complete farce and has absolutely no basis whatsoever, as there is no case against our client,” Nair said.
The High Court has set June 26 to hear Anwar’s petition, he said.
Anwar, 61, was charged last August with allegedly sodomizing a 23-year-old male former aide. The trial is due to begin July 1. Anwar faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sodomy, a crime in this Muslim-majority country.
Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, spent six years in prison after being convicted of corruption and an earlier sodomy charge, following his ouster from the Cabinet in 1998. He maintained his innocence all along and was freed in 2004 when Malaysia’s top court overturned the sodomy conviction.
Anwar revived his political career in last year’s elections when his alliance won more than one-third of the seats in Parliament amid public disenchantment with the National Front governing coalition, which has been in power since 1957.
If the High Court refuses to throw out the charge and the trial does take place, Anwar wants a postponement because his lawyers have not received key documents from the prosecution, Nair said.
The top government prosecutor for the case could not immediately be contacted, and a colleague declined to comment on Anwar’s move.
Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the man who accused Anwar of sodomizing him, wrote on a blog Thursday that “if it is fated for this case to be dropped in a court of this world, it is all right.”
“I accept it because Allah’s court will judge this matter” in the afterlife, he wrote.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Warns That North Korea May Fire Missile at U.S. on Independence Day
North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.
Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii’s main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.
Details of the launch came from the Japan’s best-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun.
Both Japanese intelligence and U.S. reconnaissance satellites have collated information pointing to the launch, according to the report.
This is North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile which has a range of 4,000 miles. Intelligence analysts do not believe it would be capable of hitting Hawaii which is 4,500 miles away
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspecting the command of the 7th Infantry Division of the North Korean Peoples Army
It is understood the communist state is likely to fire the missile between July 4 and 8. A launch on July 4 would coincide with Independence Day in the States.It would also be the 15th anniversary of North Korean president Kim Il-Sung’s death.
The Japanese newspaper also noted that North Korea had fired its first Taepodong-2 missile on July 4, 2006.
Officials had initially believed that North Korea might attempt to launch a similar device towards either Japan’s Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii.
But the ministry concluded launches toward Okinawa or Guam were ‘extremely unlikely’ because the first-stage booster could drop into waters off China, agitating Beijing, or hit western Japanese territory.
If the missile were fired in the direction of Hawaii, the booster could drop in the Sea of Japan.
News of the launch would put ‘enormous military pressure on the United States,’ the Yomiuri said, citing the ministry report.
A missile fired from North Korea would have to travel 4,500 miles before it reached the U.S. state of Hawaii
A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country’s main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.
Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen markedly since the North, led by Kim Jong-il, conducted two nuclear tests this year in defiance of repeated international warnings
The first rocket, fired in April, was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test. A second launch came on May 25.
U.S. satellite intelligence has shown that a missile launch pad had been erected at Dongchang-ri on North Korea’s north-west coast.
General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.
The UN Security Council last week authorised member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions against arms export.
On Saturday, in response to this declaration Pyongyang said it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war.
Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.
The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North’s army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.
ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.
‘If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,’ said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG’s representative in Seoul.
The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South Korea’s 49 million people and via missiles that could hit all of the country.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Officials: US Tracking Suspicious Ship From N Korea
By ANNE GEARAN and PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan And Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 29 mins ago
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is tracking a ship from North Korea that may be carrying illicit weapons, the first vessel monitored under tougher new United Nations rules meant to rein in and punish the communist government following a nuclear test, officials said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has ordered additional protections for Hawaii just in case North Korea launches a long-range missile over the Pacific Ocean.
The suspect ship could become a test case for interception of the North’s ships at sea, something the North has said it would consider an act of war.
Officials said the U.S. is monitoring the voyage of the North Korean-flagged Kang Nam, which left port in North Korea on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was traveling in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China, two officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
What the Kang Nam was carrying was not known, but the ship has been involved in weapons proliferation, one of the officials said.
The ship is among a group that is watched regularly but is the only one believed to have cargo that could potentially violate the U.N. resolution, the official said.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen did not specifically confirm that the U.S. was monitoring the ship when he was asked about it at a Pentagon news conference Thursday.
“We intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 to include options, to include, certainly, hail and query,” Mullen said. “If a vessel like this is queried and doesn’t allow a permissive search,” he noted, it can be directed into port.
The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas “if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo” contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.
If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel “to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities.”
The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a country refuses to order a vessel to a port for inspection, it would be in violation of the resolution and the country licensing the vessel would face possible sanctions by the Security Council.
Gates, speaking at the same news conference, said the Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a North Korean missile launch “in the direction of Hawaii.”
Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military’s ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their last stage of flight.
“We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,” Gates said.
A Japanese newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday.
A new missile launch — though not expected to reach U.S. territory — would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.
North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.
The missile now being readied in the North is believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles and would be launched from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, the Yomiuri newspaper said. It cited an analysis by Japan’s Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Soldier’s Death, Guantanamo Detainees Rattle Palau
NGARDMAU, Palau — The war in Afghanistan hit too close to home for the tiny village of Ngardmau in this remote, close-knit Pacific nation.
Hundreds throughout Palau, from children to the president, gathered Tuesday in sweltering heat to mourn Jasper Obakrairur, a 26-year-old U.S. Army sergeant and the first Palauan killed in Afghanistan. They wept as if he were one of their own.
And in a way, he is. For this archipelago of some 20,000 where families and acquaintances are deeply intertwined, just one casualty represents a collective tragedy. The young soldier’s death has shocked Palau’s core and left many questioning whether it was sacrificing too much for the U.S.-led effort.
“I’m always telling our leadership, us Palauans, we are very few,” said Queen Bilung Salii, the country’s highest-ranking female traditional leader. “And here we are sending our kids to war.”
As they bid farewell to their native son, Palauans at the funeral expressed anxiety over the expected arrival of 13 men detained as possible terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Their country leapt into headlines recently after agreeing to President Barack Obama’s request to take the group of Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, after other countries turned Washington down.
The Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs), a Turkic people from China’s far western region of Xinjiang, were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not “enemy combatants.”
Palau’s president, Johnson Toribiong, has described the agreement as a humanitarian gesture, in line with his people’s tradition of welcoming those in need.
Still, the decision does not sit well with Florencia Ebelau, who watched Obakrairur’s state funeral on a TV monitor outside the Capitol rotunda. Flags flew at half-staff, and Toribiong declared Tuesday a national day of mourning.
The proceedings were followed by a Palauan service in Obakrairur’s village in Ngardmau, on the western coast of the biggest island.
Ebelau, 64, worries that the Uighurs will threaten the tranquility and safety of Palau.
“It’s good to be nice to other people, but only as much as you can afford to,” said Ebelau, whose women’s group includes one of the fallen soldier’s relatives. “I don’t mean to be a nasty person, but we cannot afford that kind of thing.”
When asked about the president’s possible motives, she, along with many others, said, “Because the U.S. asked us to.”
Fermin Meriang, editor of the local Island Times newspaper, has been a vocal critic of the Uighur issue in his publication. The public should have been consulted before a final decision, he said.
“Otherwise, you get what’s happening right now — a backlash,” he said.
Palau is one of the world’s smallest countries, totaling 190 square miles (490 square kilometers) of lush tropical landscapes. Its economy depends heavily on tourism and foreign aid, mainly from Washington.
Toribiong has repeatedly denied that his country stands to benefit financially in exchange for accepting the Uighurs. But the arrangement coincides with the start of talks to review the agreement that governs Palau’s relationship with the U.S.
Under the Compact of Free Association, U.S. aid to Palau from 1995 to 2009 is expected to exceed $852 million, according to a report last year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It includes direct funding as well as access to U.S. postal, aviation and weather services.
The compact also allows Palauans to serve in the U.S. armed forces.
The military does not release specific numbers on how many Palauans are currently serving, but it has been a prominent option for young men seeking career, educational and travel opportunities unavailable at home.
Toribiong estimates that about 30 to 40 Palauans join the U.S. armed forces every year. Locals regularly claim that per capita, Palau sends more people to the military than the U.S.
Obakrairur was killed by a roadside bomb on June 1 in Nerkh, Afghanistan. Three other Palauans have been killed while serving in Iraq.
“In the past, a lot of Palauans joined the military, but nothing like this had ever happened,” said Vameline Singeo, who attended elementary school with Obakrairur. “Before it was more of a positive thing. Now that there have been deaths, people are more reserved in sending their kids.”
Obakrairur is his family’s only son. He was posthumously awarded a bronze star and purple heart Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
African View: Big Men Do Not Die
In our series of weekly viewpoints from African journalists, Elizabeth Ohene, a former presidential spokesperson in Ghana, considers the delicate issue of announcing a leader’s death as Gabon’s long-time leader Omar Bongo is buried.
I speak with authority when I say African leaders don’t ever get tired, or go on vacation, or need to see a doctor, or indeed ever die.
And I speak not only of our political leaders but of our traditional leaders as well.
Over the past week as the world has watched the government of Gabon struggle to deal with the news of the death of President Omar Bongo, I have been left wondering whether to laugh or to cry.
At the age of 73 and having been president for 42 years during which time it was never acknowledged that he ever took a day off work for ill health, it is not surprising that there was no easy way of announcing that the indestructible great man had died.
The sequence of events was a classical farce. On the 7 May, the Gabonese government announced that President Bongo had temporarily suspended his official duties and taken time off to mourn the death of his wife and rest in Spain.
Curiouser and curiouser
Once upon a time, that would have been that, but modern communications make news management a touch more difficult.
The international media promptly announced that President Bongo was seriously ill and undergoing treatment for cancer in hospital in Barcelona.
The Gabonese government yielded ground a bit and said that the president was in Spain for a few days of rest following the “intense emotional shock” of his wife’s death, and was “undergoing a medical check up”.
The international media then reported the president was being treated for intestinal cancer, which they said had reached “an advanced stage”.
On 7 June, the French media reported that President Bongo had died in Spain. The government of Gabon denied the report.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
EU Must Help Cyprus Tackle Illegal Immigration, Minister
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 16 — Cyprus Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou has insisted on tougher measures and greater support from the EU in order to combat the island’s escalating illegal immigration problem. CNA reports that Kyprianou has requested a balanced distribution of resources among EU member states to tackle the problem. Speaking at the EU General Affairs Council meeting on Monday in Luxembourg, Kyprianou said that Cyprus, due to its geographical location, receives a large number of illegal immigrants. He requested that new measures be introduced to strengthen current legislation, insisting that the handling of the problem should be based on solidarity among EU member states. Kyprianou said Cyprus was in favour of the adoption of a comprehensive package of measures, and requested that cooperation between EU member states and third countries be enhanced. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: One Dead and One Missing in Shipwreck
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — One Algerian has died and another is missing after a boat containing around ten illegal immigrants shipwrecked yesterday about 30 miles south of the coast of Cabo de Palos in Cartagena (Murcia), informed sources in Spain’s maritime rescue organisation. The 4.5-metre boat was seen at about 7:30PM yesterday by a Norwegian oil tanker, the SKS Trinity, while it was capsizing due to rough sea conditions with 4-metre high waves. The Norwegian vessel threw a life raft into the water in an attempt to save the Algerian passengers and managed to bring onboard nine of them, while a tenth passenger was lost. One of the immigrants died a few minutes after he was brought onboard the ship. A maritime rescue helicopter is still looking for the missing person at sea. The other immigrants, who landed last night at the Port of Santa Lucia de Cartagena, were aided by the Red Cross and transferred to temporary detention centres while awaiting to be repatriated. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Guess Who Fired Miss California
Publicist Roger Neal said the beauty queen refused to work with the pageant to attend scheduled events, so they kicked her out.
But Prejean’s attorney, Charles Limandri, sees it another way.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, he said the head of the Miss California USA pageant is an open homosexual who does not approve of Prejean’s opposition to same-sex marriage — and that is the real reason he terminated her contract.
“He’s a militant gay activist who did a movie promoting same-sex marriage,” Limandri said. “This issue is very near and dear to his heart.”
O’Reilly asked, “Is he gay?”
Limandri responded, “He’s an openly gay man who did actually produce a movie in support of same-sex marriage. Since you’re asking me, I am telling you: He’s an ideologue, and he’s not going to tolerate someone with that viewpoint wearing a crown and sash. That’s what you see happening here.”
He is executive producer of a same-sex marriage movie titled “For the Bible Tells Me So.” In the film, producers attempt to discredit biblical teachings concerning homosexuality.
[…]
Prejean claims Lewis requested that she make numerous inappropriate appearances, including posing for Playboy and attending a homosexual movie premiere against her wishes.
Her attorney added, “When she declined that, he wrote her off.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Mom, Dad Better Than Certified Teachers’
Report says it’s ‘myth’ that ‘qualifications’ help
Not only do a long list of studies show that mom and dad can teach their own children as effectively as any “certified” teacher, there are indications that for some subjects, those “qualified” instructors actually deliver a negative impact to the performance of their students, according to a new assessment assembled by the Home School Legal Defense Association.
[…]
He reported, “Educational research does not indicate any positive correlation between teacher qualifications and student performance. Many courts have found teacher qualification requirements on homeschoolers to be too excessive or not appropriate. The trend in state legislatures across the country indicates an abandonment of teacher qualification requirements for homeschool teachers. In fact, Americans, in general, are realizing that the necessity of teacher qualifications is a myth. The teachers’ unions and other members of the educational establishment make up the small minority still lobbying for teacher certification in order to protect their disintegrating monopoly on education.”
[…]
“I have talked,” wrote Klicka, “with hundreds of school officials who cannot understand how a ‘mere mother’ with a high school diploma could possibly teach her own children. These officials literally take offense that parents would try to teach their children and actually think that they will do as well as teachers in the public school who have at least four years and sometimes seven years of higher education.
“Unfortunately, critics in the media have also believed this myth and will question the validity of homeschooling by asking, ‘But are the parents qualified?’ What is so laughable about this belief in teacher qualifications by public school authorities are the statistics which show the appalling decline in competency among certified public school teachers and the failure of the teacher colleges,” he wrote.
The assessment said, “One of the most significant studies in this area was performed by Dr. Eric Hanushek of the University of Rochester, who surveyed the results of 113 studies on the impact of teachers’ qualifications on their students’ academic achievement. Eighty-five percent of the studies found no positive correlation between the educational performance of the students and the teacher’s educational background.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terrified Teens and Twenties
It should be no surprise to those who are informed about the goals and teachings of the social sciences to learn that Teens and Twenties are so terrified about global warming that at least half a million of them would respond to an attempt to solve the “environmental crisis” through politics.
But somehow or another those young people should be told that for more than 150 years the main goal of the social sciences has been to control people by controlling their environment. Auguste Comte, the father of sociology wrote:
“In order then to regulate or to combine mankind, Religion must in the first instance place man under the influence of some external Power, possessed of superiority so irresistible as to leave no sort of uncertainty about it. This great principle of social science is at bottom merely the full development of that primary notion of sound Biology—the necessary subordination of every Organism to the Environment in which it is placed. A sound theory of Biology thus furnishes the Positive theory of Religion with a foundation wholly unassailable; for it proves the general necessity for the constant supremacy of an external Power as a condition of unity for man, even in his individual life.”
The social sciences use students by terrorizing them into becoming social activists for the environment. It was at a National Council for the Social Studies Regional Conference, April 25-27, 1974. that I learned how mean and uncaring social scientists can be. For example, a book called Grokking The Future was recommended to the more than 1000 social studies teachers in attendance. The book advised:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Warming? Temps on an 8-Year Decline
The Science & Public Policy Institute has released their monthly CO2 report for the month of May.
The monthly CO2 report is edited by Lord Christopher Monckton, who says the organization takes satellite and scientific data and presents them to the public without any alteration. He says the data collected shows a surprising trend. “Temperatures have now been declining quite rapidly for nearly eight years,” he notes. “And none of the U.N.’s models predicted that.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Srdja Trifkovic: Barack Hussein Obama’s Happy Muslim Rainbow Tour
“As the Holy [sic!] Koran tells us, Be conscious of God and speak always the truth,” President Obama told his audience at the beginning of his much heralded speech in Cairo last week.
It was a remarkable performance: not a single significant statement he made on the nature of Islam, or on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, or on the terrorist threat, complied with the quoted command of the prophet of Islam.
Obama’s two immediate predecessors have done a lot of respectful kowtowing, of course. Bill Clinton declared before the United Nations in September 1998, “There is no inherent clash between Islam and America.” Three years and several thousand American lives later, President Bush said, “there are millions of good Americans who practice the Muslim faith who love their country as much as I love the country.” Four years after 9-11 he continued insisting “the evil” unleashed on that day “is very different from the religion of Islam,” and its proponents “distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus.”
Obama brings a new quality to the continuum, however. He is developing the theme in Islam’s heartland. He is doing it in a manner likely to raise geopolitical expectations that cannot be fulfilled, and certain to cement even further the Muslim myth of blameless victimhood. It is the greatest favor any recruiter for the cause of global jihad could hope for.
Is Obama deluded or mendacious? In view of his middle name and family history, the question is more legitimate than it would have been with Clinton or Bush…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
The Immorality of Laws Regulating Technology
Wherever technology is used, it is subject to regulation.
Laws govern, constrain or otherwise regulate countless aspects of the consumer technology we use every day. We are so accustomed to this fact that we seldom question it. In many cases, technology is potentially harmful if misused. As a society, we understandably attempt to pre-empt harm to our citizens by setting guidelines for how potentially dangerous items may be used, how they may be kept and how they may be traded.
The problem with laws governing every aspect of commerce in, use of and ownership rights to a given piece of technology — from your cars, to your software, to your guns, to your phone, to your pocketknives, to your Internet service — is that quite often these laws constraining possession and operation of consumer technology are unconstitutional and immoral.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Universal Health Care: Evil in Camouflage
When I was a child and young adult, the chief archetype of evil in the world was the Soviet Union. The communist regime controlled every aspect of its citizens’ lives; their rulers had plenty, while workers — to whom they appealed in order to gain control — lived in poverty, suffering from diseases that developed nations had long since eradicated and disinfecting their tap water with bleach to make it potable.
As students, my schoolmates and I saw the photos of bread lines, heard the testimony of escaped dissidents and retreated to the school basement once a month to rehearse being dry-roasted by Soviet ICBMs.
A few asserted that our fear of the USSR was all the result of propaganda; even during the time I was growing up, one could find clusters of people in universities and coffee shops in places like Berkeley and Greenwich Village who argued that Marxism really was the way to go. All of that Russophobia was just rubbish; Russia, Eastern Europe and Cuba really functioned far more equitably and efficiently than the United States, and what America needed was that model of government.
While a lot of those people were very free with their speech on those campuses and in the coffee shops, in the real world they tended to keep to themselves. The reason for this was a very valid concern that failure to do so would result in some of their teeth being knocked down their throats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
Two Years of Hamas in Power in Gaza
There is little more, beyond supreme violence, that the Palestinian people could deserve besides Hamas rule. Let them choke upon it even as they spew their genocidal hatred.
Iran: Ahmadinejad Says Election Was ‘Fair’.
Few things could be more fair than one of this world's premier sponsors of international terrorism managing to confirm just how deserving they are of a sound drubbing at the hands of their avowed and disproportionately small opponent, Israel.
Imagine a country the size of Costa Rica beating America's military @ss like a cheap dime store drum.
That is the equivalent of Israel handing Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon their collective @sses on a plate.
In a region where humiliation is, literally, worse than death itself, one can only wonder just how agonizing Israel's continued existence must be. On a daily basis, no less.
It is difficult in the extreme not to eagerly await Israel's delivery of long overdue comeuppance to Iran.
The only regrettable aspect of it is that America did not take the lead in doling out such well-deserved punishment.
Russia Hopes “Down-to-Earth” Obama Drops Star Wars.
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia hopes U.S. President Barack Obama will not pursue his predecessor’s plan to deploy weapons in space but Moscow is ready to respond appropriately to any such moves, a senior Russian general said on Wednesday.
In other news, the Bank Robbers Union has passed a unanimous motion to illegalize all burglar alarms and law enforcement agencies.
I WORKED on one of the SDI ("Star Wars") projects. It was probably the Zenith Star project―no one ever told us for sure―and it involved an EARTH BASED 50 MEGAWATT FEL (Free Electron Laser), that could shoot down satellites IN ORBIT.
Remember, lasers of this wattage do not "melt" or "slag" their targets. The incoming beam, literally, slams into the intended object like a 100 MPH Mack truck.
Much like in the late 1980s, there is NO WAY that modern day Russia could match or AFFORD the development of such weapons. Their squawking is all about halting America from leap-frogging their puny abilities. It has nothing to do with preventing another arms race.
There was no such "space based arms race" in the the late 1980s, nor would there be anything of the sort right now.
Of course, none of the foregoing will prevent BHO from giving away the farm, even if it was one of the principal factors in winning the Cold War in the first place.
Perish the effing thought.
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