South Korea, in the wake of recent short-range missile tests by North Korea, is planning to build shelter facilities protected against EMPs that might be generated by a nuclear attack.In other news, a married Saudi princess has been given asylum in the UK after bearing an illegitimate child fathered by a British man. She is afraid that she faces execution if she returns to Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, CSP, Gaia, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Italy: Footwear Exports in 1st 4 Months -12%
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 17 — Business turnover of the Made in Italy footwear sector exports has fallen by nearly 2 billion euros, a drop of some 12%, according to a study carried out by the Trend Calzaturiero agency which compared the first four months of 2009 to the same period in 2008. The negative trend was caused mainly by the reduction of exports towards the United States and Russia by 23% and 27% respectively. Also declining dramatically were sales in Germany (down 6.6%), while exports were however up 1% to France, which remains the main reference market for the Italian sector. On imports, the Trend study found by contrast an increase in purchasing foreign products. Italian imports in fact went up 7.2% compared to the first quarter of 2008. Overall the balance of trade showed a reduction of almost 30% in the balance.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Affiliate Welcomed to USA Under ObamaRule
Under any US President — I presume even Franklin D. Roosevelt — the sworn enemy of the United States of America would not be allowed (let alone welcomed with open arms) into the country. But, under Dictator Obama’s rule, that’s what is now occurring and encouraged terrorist groups are coming out into the open — with no reprisals whatsoever.
The terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir — an admitted Al-Qaeda affiliate — is actually holding an Islamist Hate-and-Destroy-the-USA-and-Capitalism Conference at a Hilton Hotel just outside of Chicago. Note: Looks as if they’re joining their brother Obama in the same quest. Remember that Chicago was for years our dictator’s base of operations. With the area’s and hotel’s embracing those who would destroy our country — Obama included — it seems that Chicago and surrounding environs are the places to go if you want to plan and schedule blowing up something in the US. Apparently, it is actively working on welcoming and embracing all terrorists and the dregs of the world to their doorsteps and into their homes. But then, it has a long and rich history of doing so.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: An Avoidable Catastrophe
Amidst all the congressional to-ing and fro-ing associated with the President’s controversial health care, cap-and-trade and “hate crimes” initiatives, it would be easy for most legislators to overlook a hearing the House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. If Congress fails to address the subject of that hearing, however, it literally will not matter whether the government addresses any of those other, disproportionately prominent agenda items.
The title of the hearing — “Securing the Modern Electric Grid from Physical and Cyber Attacks” — fails to communicate the magnitude of the danger, and the imperative for urgent corrective action. One thing is sure, though: By the time the lead-off witness, Dr. William Graham, is finished testifying, no one present will be under any illusion on either score…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Shariah Studies by Stealth
Under some pressure from parents, California’s Education Department is reviewing its guidelines for teaching Islamic Studies to seventh-graders in its public schools. We wrote about this trend six years ago when we discovered that, though the California standards require the study of all religions, Islam is examined disproportionately.
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The Alarming Growth of Federal Government
At some point of embittering clarity, Americans will open their eyes to the glaring significance of the Obama era and see the Power Grab Years for what they are. Whether this realization comes in time to stave off the eradication of the United States as we thought we knew it, or whether it comes too late, I predict it will surely come.
If it comes in time, the realization that the nation dodged history’s bullet will produce massive waves of relief. If it comes too late, the understanding of our fallen state will live on as the lost lore, not of a subject people exactly, but of a self-subjected people. That’s because in this strange historical instance, the American people, beginning with but not limited to those of us who voted Barack Obama into the White House, seem to have agreed to shoulder the heavy, costly yoke of exponentially increasing government control of our lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Gangs Growing in Prison
The number of gang members in prison has grown dramatically and re-socialisation is proving difficult.
The conflict between the Hells Angels and immigrant gangs is not only a problem outside prisons, but also inside, according to a spokesman for the Danish Prison Service Association, who says prisons are having major difficulties in preventing gang recruitment and providing resocialisation programmes.
“The gangs are not only maintained within prisons, they develop and grow. That puts added pressure on the prison service,” Prison Service Association Chairman John Hatting tells Berlingske Tidende.
Hatting’s members are prison teachers, social educators and social workers.
Understaffed
The average number of gang members in prison institutions in recent years has been at 80. There are currently, however, 130 behind bars. Hatting says that gang members are some of the most difficult to re-socialise and prepare for a life outside prison.
“These people are going to get out again, and if we are to prevent relapse into crime they must have personal successes, new tools and extensive education,” he tells Berlingske Tidende, adding that too few are offered new knowledge and education in prison.
“The prison service has about 65 teachers and 10 careers advisers for some 10,000 inmates. That’s just not enough,” Hatting says.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Home Guard Does About Face on Headscarves
Political pressure forces home guard to change position on wearing Muslim headscarves while on duty
The Home Guard was forced to publicly announce a ban on headscarves this weekend, after it emerged that a Muslim volunteer had carried out her training exercises wearing one.
Maria Mawla and her camouflage headscarf were featured in one of the Home Guard’s own news articles. That article has since been removed from the guard’s website.
Ulrik Kragh, MP for the Danish People’s Party and head of the Home Guard Committee, underscored that uniform guidelines have to be upheld and that Mawla will be expelled from the guard if she refuses to remove the headscarf while at the training camp.
Kragh that while he was pleased to see Muslims aking an interest in the Home Guard, headscarves are incompatible with official military approved uniforms.
‘It was an error that the woman in question was allowed to conduct her courses wearing a headscarf,’ he stated on the Home Guard website. ‘Uniform regulations apply to all guard members, primarily for security reasons.’
But Kragh was contradicted by his own party’s defence spokesman, Karsten Nonbo, who said that as long as the headscarf was in keeping with the uniform’s design and colours, he could see no reason Mawla should not be allowed to wear it.
Should the issue not be sufficiently resolved, the Danish People’s Party has requested the matter be put before Defence Minister Søren Gade for a final decision.
The issue of whether public employees should be allowed to wear headscarves has been a recurrent one, most notably when judges were banned from wearing them last year.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU Commissioner: People Are Too Stupid for Referendums
Spanish EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has told El Mundo that the Lisbon Treaty is too complex to be submitted to a referendum.
He said: “I think matters which are as complex as a constitution or similar must be discussed in the systems available to democracy, or rather, in parliaments”.
He added that it is not “very democratic” to hold a referendum on issues which require a specific knowledge from the citizen. He said “It doesn’t seem to me that this procedure is the best example of democracy because referendums, in order for them to genuinely be something which citizens feel comfortable with and not pressured, they must be presented with very clear and simple questions”. He had previously said “presenting someone with a treaty with around 300 articles which require, to be understood, a certain education in European law is very complex”.
What’s so hard? The EU institutions are desperate to keep people under the illusion that everything the EU does is far too high-brow and complicated for them to worry their little wooden heads about. Yes, the Treaty is ridiculously long and complex, full of boring EU jargon (whose fault is that?) But it’s not difficult to wittle it down to the simple question — do you want to give the EU more power, or not?
Anyway, why is he saying all this? It’s not as if Spain is toying with the idea of a referendum. No, he is just joining a long list of European politicians sticking their oar into the upcoming Irish vote.
Perhaps the most interesting thing though is the seamless interchangeability of the words “EU Constitution” and “Lisbon Treaty”, which he, just like everyone else, knows is exactly the same thing. Even the headline reads: “Only MPs should vote on the European Constitution”. Funny that.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
If You Value Your Irish Identity Then It’s Time to Snub Europe
By Kevin Myers
There’s something almost sweetly irrelevant about the latest Government proposals to insist on fluency in English before we grant Irish nationality to immigrants.
Because the vast majority of immigrants to this country don’t need Irish nationality. They are citizens of EU countries and can come and go as they please. Of course the proposal isn’t meant to be a realistic way of dealing with the issue of immigration, but is a nice piece of window-dressing to enable that cheery chappy at the department for immigration, Conor Lenihan, to declare that the Government is taking action, sorry, The Government Is Taking Action!!!!
It’s not, and it can’t — not while we are members of an economic union which allows free movement of populations across national boundaries.
You cannot confine one kind of water to one corner of an open bath, which is what the EU now is. And this is the very reason why I would halt the advance of the European project before the lunacy becomes quite unmanageable: but that’s just me. There are about four deep-dyed Euro-sceptics in Ireland, one of whom is Patricia McKenna, who is as barking as a Pekinese: so maybe I’m barking also. But I don’t think so.
To be sure, it was only through Europe that our barbaric laws against male homosexual acts, or the discrimination against women in the workplace, or the ban on the sale of condoms, were reversed. Furthermore, the EEC/EU helped transform our economy; and we can’t forget the debt we owe Europe from the 1970s onwards.
But merely because someone’s our friend doesn’t mean that we should stay shackled to them as they leap off the cliffs of Moher. And the European project is such a leap, which we are uniquely free to reject next year in the new EU Treaty referendum. Which is in essence, the Old Dead Constitution by another name; ie, Euro-Lazarus.
The Danish government, sickened by one reverse in a plebiscite, has already declared that it will not put the revised treaty to a referendum, because the new treaty will “not constitute a surrender of political sovereignty”. This is rather like assuring the person you’re manacled to that gravity doesn’t exist one foot away from the edge of the cliffs of Moher. And once you’ve taken the leap, it really doesn’t matter what you thought or said a second ago.
Charlie McCreevy has said that we’d be the laughing stock of Europe if we voted ‘no’ to the new Euro treaty: and if the price to be paid for ensuring the survival of a vaguely Irish Ireland is some hilarity at our expense, then so be it. For within a generation, as cultural miscegenation and mass population movements across mainland Europe spell the end of the old nation state, our children might be glad that we were prepared to put up with a bit of ridicule in order to protect some sense of national self.
I have been banging this drum futilely for years now, so much so that some weeks ago I decided to abandon the campaign altogether, and never mention immigration again. But I find at am drawn back to the subject like the bleeding tip of the tongue wriggles back to a broken tooth, to caress the razor-sharp shard just a little more. And I do so because almost every day, fresh and terrifying news about the consequences of uncontrolled immigration comes from our neighbouring isle.
Last weekend it emerged that English is the minority language in 1,300 English schools. In nearly 600 schools, English is the first language of less than 30pc of pupils. In the London borough of Newham, English is a first language for just 10pc of pupils.
In central London, only 10pc of the population are of white British ethnic origin. I don’t
know the figures for here, because no one does. But one teacher told me pupils in her school in west Dublin share a total of 34 mother tongues. Now this is plain idiocy: you cannot educate children in the basic three Rs in such circumstances, when the primary (and virtually impossible) task of the teachers is to teach the children to speak English.
But, since we are an island, does it not make sense for the people of the entire island, from both north and south, to protect its distinctive and insular quality — the one which makes people want to come here in the first place? This would require the DUP and Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Fine Gael, agreeing that we must have an island-wide immigration policy, which would include controlling movement from Britain into Northern Ireland. This, no doubt, would be a political step too far for unionists, who are probably too stupid to realise that Irish nationalism is now their best and only friend.
Now, if we sign up to this European constitution, through demographics and population movements, the island of Ireland could well not be recognisably Irish in, say, 30 years’ time. And you might consider such a future to be perfectly splendid, which is fine. But can anyone assure us that it isn’t?
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Italy: Rome Mosque Basis for Islam Federation
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROMA, JULY 14 — Instituting a Federation of Italian Islam endowed with its own statute capable of opening serious negotiations with the State in view of the signing of an agreement; creating a centre for the training of Imams in Italy, but also setting up an Institute for the Arab World like the famous one in Paris. These are objective ambitions in today’s difficult times when relations between the interior ministry, led by Roberto Maroni, and the Islamic Consultative Council are stalled, but according to the Islamic Cultural Centre for Italy secretary general, Abdellah Redouane, they can be achieved, also thanks to a propelling push by the body he heads. That body “is subject to Italian law by a 1974 decree from the President of the Republic, and so it is to all intents and purposes an Italian centre by law,” he noted. Hence it is exactly from there that the process of creating a federation of Italian Islam has to start, overcoming divisions within the country’s Muslim community and capable of acting, added Redouane, “in full respect and promotion of the values enshrined in the Italian Constitution and specified in the Charter of Values.” Yesterday infact a new meeting took place of some members of the Islamic Council who March 13, 2008, presented the then interior minister, Giuliano Amato, with a declaration of intentions including the aim of setting up a federative body capable of “representing moderate and pluralist Islam.” The meeting picked up the thread of reasoning in order to prepare a “draft statute that then will have to be discussed, proposed and presented to all the Islamic realities present in Italy,” he said. The basic idea is of a body that includes most associations and can propose concrete measures, setting off waves after the stall that set in after the change of the guard at the top of the interior ministry, led now Roberto Maroni of the Northern League, with the final aim being to achieve through the federative initiative an understanding with the Italian State. “If we manage to federate not all but at least the majority of associations it would effectively be our right to ask the authorities to open negotiations,” says the secretary general. The meeting gathered Ambassador Mario Scialoja, a councillor in the Islamic Centre’s Board of Directors, and other six members of the Islamic Council: Yahya Pallavicini, Mohamed Saady, MP Souad Sbai, Ejaz Ahmad, Younis Tawfik and Gulshan Antivalle. “But all the associations that agree to subscribe to the statute drawn up by the promoters will be welcome,” Redouane added. The doors will be open, then, also for the Union of Islamic Organisations and Communities in Italy (Ucoii), with the risk, however, Redouane concedes, that some Government members will find the presence of that organization, (often controversial because it is accused of taking radical positions, ed.), too much to swallow.” “The promoters will have to evaluate membership on this point preventively so as to avoid some of them blocking talks with the State.” But at the moment, he adds, this is just a hypothesis. As for the creation of the centre for training imams, “the key point is financial support”, Redouane added. Finally Italy’s Islamic Cultural Centre also could weigh in to supporting an Institute of the Arab World modeled on the Parisian one, in the interests of spreading a less stereotyped knowledge of the Muslim world and Islamic culture. “Today Italy has many friends in the Arab world who could finance a project of this kind. If one had a building for it, one could create the Italian Institute for the Arab World within six months.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia Opens Door to Autonomous Funding
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 13 — The Esquerra Repubblicana di Catalogna (Erc) has given its agreement to the new system of finance for the autonomous regions, claiming the credit for getting 3.8 billion euros for Catalonia. If this sum is added to investments in infrastructure provided through the Catalan Statute for autonomy, the region will obtain 5 billion euros in 2012. “People can see that, if we work and put pressure on, politics is useful” said leader of the Erc, Joan Puigcercos, to the media: “We took on the State and we won” he said, adding that “the definitive system continues to be economic dialogue and even better, the independence of Catalonia”. The agreement from the pro-independence formation, allies of the socialists in the government, arrived after a weekend of high-level talks, including the intervention of prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to unblock negotiations. The new funding agreement, which doesn’t include the Basque countries and Navarra, who have their own tax systems, will cost the State more than 11 billion extra, with around 4 destined for Catalonia, which the government will hand out gradually — 70% in 2009, 85% in 2010 and 100% in 2011. They will be added to the resources included in the 2009 budget. In 2007, the most recent figure available, 114 billion was distributed to the autonomous regions. Minister for the economy, Elena Salgado, confirmed that the new system “will not increase the State’s deficit, which could increase by about one-tenth”, but will reduce the deficit of the communities “guaranteeing greater equity”. Salgado stressed the fact that the new model, which will be updated annually, guarantees that funding per head will be equal throughout the territories, while stimulating the responsibility of regional government, which will have more taxes to manage. A system of adjustment is also included, with 75% of the money distributed between the communities so that they all have the same funding levels per inhabitant, to guarantee every citizen the same level of access to public services. After 11 months of negotiations, the new funding will be approved by the communities under the Socialists and by the tri-party Catalonia government, something which will allow the Zapatero executive to come out of its isolation in Parliament during the first year of legislature. In fact, it can now count on the support of the Erc, which was withholding it until a “satisfactory agreement” on funding for Catalonia was reached. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Topless Bathers Conspicuously Absent at Malmö Pools
Despite winning the right to bathe topless at all of the municipal swimming pools in Malmö, bare-breasted female bathers have remained conspicuous by their absence.
Few women it seems have rushed to exploit a recent ruling by the city’s sports and recreation committee, in which it rejected a call for women to be obliged to cover their breasts while taking a dip in local pools.
“We haven’t noticed any significant difference. My colleagues and I have not seen any women who have made use of the possibility to swim topless — not while we have been on duty anyway,” said Zakrea El-Falou at Aqua-va-kul in central Malmö to The Local on Monday.
Neither has the warm summer weather encouraged Malmö’s female bathers to take a stand as the news from the city’s outdoor facilities is much the same.
“I haven’t seen a single woman bathing topless during any of my shifts,” Robert Nilsson at open-air Lindängsbadet said to The Local.
The Local reported in June that the Malmö council committee had been forced into taking a stand on the issue after a spate of visits by the feminist direct action group Bara Bröst ( which means both ‘Just Breasts’ and ‘Bare Breasts’) had opened political gulfs over the issue.
“Everyone is required to have a swimsuit when visiting the city’s indoor pools and if it doesn’t cover the upper body, that’s OK too,” Bengt Forsberg, chair of the sports and recreation committee on recreation, told The Local after the decision.
But it now seems that the stand was a false dawn for the liberty of the female form.
The Bara Bröst network launched a campaign in 2007 to raise awareness over the issue and calls for new legislation to “break the culture of discrimination” and which “stands on the side of the victim and not the side of the sex offender”.
The Local has on Monday tried to contact representatives for the network for a comment on recent developments, but without success.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The Social Conservatism of Soviet Marxism
With the daily sinking of the Anglo-West into the morass of Marxism, it is now common to find on various websites, the few remaining conservatives (and many who supported Bush’s socialism but oppose Obama’s Marxism) decry that the absolute rot of values and culture in America, Canada, England and to a smaller degree, all of Western Europe, is just like the things were in the Soviet Union. It is thus equally interesting to see that 18 years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of the achieves, the westerners know even less about the Soviet Union than they did 18 years ago.
Outside of Market Economics and Religion (even that is questionable both in that the Soviet Union was far from Athiest and the Anglo-Sphere is far from Christian), and a brief do what you please period during the middle 1920s, the Soviet Union had a lot in common with the the social conservatives in the modern West.
Ok, I will now let you take a moment to get off the floor, drink water, pound your fists, grind your teeth, before we go on.
On the topic of marraige, population control and families. The Soviets were very much so family oriented. They spent large sums of money ideolizing the childhood and promoting large families. Stalin, though a murderous bastard indeed, even banned abortions. Abortion was legalized later and used as birth control, but only because the defunct Soviet economy could not produce things such as condoms. Regardless, abortions were never promoted or pushed. Indeed, the award of the Hero Mother was given to women with many children and they were lionized as the saviors of Soviet society. This is of course not to say that women did not work, they did and a lot worked in the heaviest industry, but none the less, the mother was always placed high.
Family was put on a pedestal and children taught to honor their parents. Abandonment of the old in nursing homes was almost unheard of.
To add to this, infrastructure for children was everywhere. Outside of every apartment building were play grounds for children. Parks were built everywhere. Children’s theaters, clubs, sports associations were the norm. Much of this fell apart, unfortunately, during the Yeltsin era of Wall Street backed kelptocracy.
Education was also a very high standard. Sure there was the mandatory indoctrination. But in comparison to what American children suffer, it was rather minor. Most attention was given to reading, writing, mathematics, physics and so on. Even today, with a much lower standard than that of the Soviets, modern Russian education in math alone is 2-3 years ahead of American public schools and literacy is on a much higher rate than the US average of 6 grade. History, geography, literature, sciences, what was considered in the West as classical education, is the norm still in Russia.
Perversion was also not tolerated in the Soviet Union. Be it lethargy, sloth or lust, all were decreed as subhuman and to be fought against by the enlightened man. Hard work was always heralded as a great virtue. Of course when hard work was not rewarded monetary, the call to work hard fell on deaf ears. Exercise and physical fitness was also important, again, something that fell victim in the Yeltsin era is only starting to come back.
As mentioned earlier, family was of great importance, so perversions, like homosexuality was not tolerated and treated as a mental illness to be treated by psychologists not entertained by society or put upon a pedestal. Even Playboy was forbidden as derogatory to women. Childrens cartoons were rarely any bit violent and violence in movies was kept to a minimal where possible.
Of course, without sanctioning religion, Orthodox Christianity to be specific, the Soviets under cut their own goals and desires, just as well as denying the human nature to succeed in work and be rewarded for it, they undercut the ability to move forward economically.
So, the Marxist extremes in the West, those beyond socialistic economic controls and anti religious policies, are not equivalent in Soviet Marxism. The use of abortions for population controls, the Green movements, the State taking the children for “proper” education of the lowest denominator, homosexuality and all other perversions of human nature and the many new and less than wondrous additions that spring up every night and day in the West, such as euthanasia, are not and never did have an equivalent in Soviet Marxism but are a creation all onto the West itself.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BNP to Use EU Taxpayers’ Money to Fund Chosen Causes
The BNP is to funnel tens of thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ money to its chosen causes, as the far-right party attempts to boost its support in the run-up to the next election.
Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, the party’s two MEPs, will skim off part of their expenses and salaries to fund a party-controlled “community chest”, they told the Daily Telegraph.
People in their European constituencies — North-West England and Yorkshire & The Humber — will then be able to apply for the money in order to fund “worthwhile” local projects, including St George’s Day celebrations.
The plan, which is against the European Parliament’s rules, is likely to prompt concerns that public funds will be spent on racist groups or other controversial activities.
It is also likely to raise fears that the BNP will misuse public money to broaden its domestic appeal ahead of the general election, at which it plans to aggressively target a dozen constituencies.
Both Mr Griffin, the party leader, and Mr Brons will put 10 per cent of their £80,000 annual salary, as well as thousands more from unused accomodation and travel allowances, into the constituency fund, they said.
Mr Griffin said: “When we’ve got money left over, we’re putting it back into our constituencies. We’ve pledged to do so, and we will do so. It will be good for people in our area.”
“We’ll set up a bank account in the names of three of our members, who will decide to spend it on what we consider worthwhile projects … things like St George’s Day celebrations,” added Mr Brons, a former chairman of the National Front. “Anything surplus will go into this community chest”.
A spokesman for the European Parliament said: “That would not be allowed. The rules are quite clear. Allowances can not be used for things that are not set out in the guidance.”
MEPs are given a generous allowances package worth about £363,000 a year, including a £261 daily subsistence allowance simply for turning up to work. Unlike MPs in Westminster, they do not have to claim the money but are instead given the maximum amount as a lump sum.
However according to the European Parliament guidance, MEPs must use the money only to pay for their offices, staff, food, accomodation and travel.
St George’s Day is likely to fall during the campaign for the next general election, which is expected in May next year. Funding celebrations of it in this way could leave the BNP open to accusations of misuse of public money.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother Banned From School for Confronting Bully Who Used Son as ‘Human Punch Bag’
A mother has been banned from a primary school after confronting a bully who used her five-year- old son as a ‘human punch bag’.
Christine Hart, 38, calmly asked the pupil to ‘please stop hitting’ her son Arthur after he endured months of bullying despite several complaints to teachers.
But a teaching assistant saw and hauled her off to the headmistress, who told her not to cross the school gates and to attend a hearing with the governors to discuss her conduct.
Miss Hart spoke to the pupil last week when she dropped Arthur off at his classroom at Orleans Infants School, which serves a well-to-do catchment area in Twickenham, South-West London.
She has been warned she could face a further six-month ban for ‘verbally abusing’ the pupil and interrupting a class.
She was also told that causing a ‘nuisance’ at school could constitute a criminal offence and that any further incidents will be reported to police.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MOD Accused of Wasting Millions
The Ministry of Defence has been accused of wasting millions of pounds by government auditors.
The National Audit Office said £155m of spending on radio systems used in Afghanistan could not be accounted for.
It also said its payroll system was inefficient and open to fraud, leading one senior Conservative MP to say the department must “get a grip”.
Officials said that while central tracking of equipment was difficult it did not mean any items were missing.
With the debate over military equipment raging after the sharp increase in British deaths in Afghanistan, the BBC’s political correspondent Jo Coburn said the criticism was damaging.
The National Audit Office, which scrutinises government expenditure, said the location of secure Bowman radios being used in Afghanistan could not be accounted for at the moment.
In its review of the MoD’s accounts, published on Monday, it said it was vital for the MoD to have “accurate records” for all its assets due to current demands on the armed forces.
It noted that defence officials believed a significant proportion of the radio sets are currently being repaired.
“This is an asset tracking issue and does not mean equipment is missing,” an MoD spokesman said.
“Since December 2008, auditing has shown visibility of 90% of Bowman equipment but we continue to work to improve this.”
The NAO said a quality system for managing the MoD’s stocks and supplies around the world was vital for ensuring proper logistical support for troops in the frontline.
But it said there was evidence of discrepancies between physical and electronic records at the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, which controls two-thirds of its inventory of supplies.
James Arbuthnot, chairman of the defence select committee, said the MoD needed to “get a grip” on its spending.
“There are real concerns, given the importance of what the armed forces are doing, and the sacrifices they are making on our behalf, that the Ministry of Defence is almost breaking apart.”
Ministers say the armed forces are better equipped than ever before but senior commanders believe more troops and equipment are needed to ensure that progress in Nato’s offensive against the Taliban in the south of the country is maintained.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Serbs Guilty of Burnings
Two Bosnian Serb commanders have been found guilty of war crimes, including burning women and children alive, during the Bosnian civil war.
Cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic were members of a paramilitary group called the White Eagles, or the Avengers.
They were accused of murder, persecution, extermination and other inhumane acts against Bosnian Muslims near Visegrad between 1992 and 1994.
Judges at The Hague jailed Milan Lukic for life, and Sredoje to 30 years.
Judge Patrick Robinson, reading his verdict, said: “The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Stredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterised by a callous and vicious disregard for human life.”
The burning alive of Muslims, he said, was extraordinarily brutal, and “exemplified the worst acts of humanity that one person may inflict on others”.
Ringleader
The court ruled that Milan Lukic, the leader of the White Eagles paramilitary force, was the ringleader of the attacks.
He herded about 130 women, children and elderly men in to two houses — both in or near the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad — before setting fire to them.
All those who tried to escape were shot.
He was also found guilty of murdering 12 Muslim civilian men, and beating Muslims at a detention camp.
Sredoje Lukic was found guilty of aiding and abetting one of the house fires.
Prosecutors told the tribunal that the White Eagles carried out a campaign of ethnic cleaning.
One prosecutor, Dermot Groome, said the cousins took part in a “widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population”.
Top fugitives
The cousins had denied the charges at their trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, which ended in May.
The defence had called for an acquittal because of what it called “inconsistencies” in the prosecution evidence.
But the court found the testimonies of surviving witnesses to be credible.
In 2005, Milan and Sredoje Lukic were two of The Hague tribunal’s top fugitives.
Milan Lukic, 41, went on the run for seven years after being indicted on war crimes charges, but was arrested in Argentina in August 2005 and was handed over to the tribunal after being extradited.
Sredoje Lukic, 48, surrendered to the Bosnian Serb authorities the following month..
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Visa Removal, Bosnian Press Points to Muslim ‘Ghetto’
(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, JULY 16 — Today local Bosnian press wrote that those responsible for the exclusion of Bosnia from the abolition of entry visas, which was proposed yesterday by the European Commission for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, are Bosnia’s politicians, but in effect Europe is setting up a ‘ghetto’ for Muslims. People who hold both Croatian and Bosnian citizenship can already travel freely in the Schengen area. There are not many Bosnian Serbs who have Serbian citizenship, but the press quoted Belgrade’s home minister, Ivica Dacic, saying that Bosnia’s Serbs will have no trouble in getting Serbia’s new biometric passports. Sarajevo daily ‘Dnevni avaz’ reported that “If the EU Commission’s proposal is accepted by member States, who will express themselves next October together with the European parliament, as of 1 January 2010 Europe will remain off-limits to Albanians and Bosnian Muslims”. The newspaper complained about “the morally unacceptable silence of politicians”, who together with Brussels are responsible for the ‘quarantine’ that will affect “the population targeted for genocide” in the war in the 1990s. Newspaper ‘Vecernji list’ reported that once again “Europe is humiliating the victims”. The EU set equal conditions that have to be met by Balkan countries in terms of secure travel papers, border checks and greater efforts in combatting organised crime and corruption. Of the 174 points set by Brussels, Bosnia still has to deal with two dozen, and the new biometric passport was submitted only yesterday, said a “very saddened” Valentin Inzko, high representative for the international community. The Austrian diplomat noted that, since this is a technical issue, he hopes that the country will meet the objective in six months, emphasising that a delay of one year would be “a catastrophe”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
NATO: Italian Jet Fighters to Patrol Albanian Airspace
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 16 — From tomorrow, jet fighters belonging to the Italian air force will be contributing to guaranteeing air security in the skies above Albania. NATO has called on Italy and Greece to contribute to ‘air policing’ for the new partner country. According to the head of Italy’s air defence staff, “air policing activities consist of deploying interceptor aircraft during peacetime for the surveillance of a specific airspace and to protect territorial integrity”. Since 2007, the Italian air force has been deploying its aircraft to protect Slovenian airspace. For Albania, surveillance is to be ensured through the deployment of Eurofighters from the 36th “Stormo di Gioia del Colle” squadron, stationed in Bari, alternating with F-16 hunters of the Greek air force and alongside the Otranto (Lecce) and Licola (Naples) radar groups.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Trafficking Into Italy, 24 Held
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 16 — In a joint operation with forces from neighbouring states, Serb police have dismantled a gang of human traffickers specialising in smuggling people into Italy. 24 persons have been placed under arrest. According to reports in the Belgrade media today, which cite Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, the gang specialised in the smuggling of Turkish and Albanian citizens into various EU countries on a route from Albania crossing Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia and arriving in Trieste. The operation involved police from countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. The fight against corruption, organised crime and illegal immigration is one of the main tasks taken on by Serbia ahead of the easing of visa requirements for visitors to countries in the Schengen area — as was proposed by the EU Commission yesterday — and which is to come into force at the beginning of next year. Along with Serbia, the visa requirement is to be dispensed with for Montenegro and Macedonia.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Launches ‘Mediterranean Davos’
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME — A fresh start for the Mediterranean Union involving concrete measures following the slow-down inflicted by Israel’s military operation in Gaza. And a new start with at least two ambitions: to make Milan a sort of Davos of the Mediterranean with an annual economic and financial meeting and the candidacy of the same city as the headquarters for the Agency for small and medium-sized enterprises: an Italo-Spanish project envisaged as a “network of already-existing entities” aimed at supporting this model of development. On the eve of the event’s opening (on Monday July 20 in Milan), Italy’s undersecretary for foreign affairs, Stefania Craxi, speaks of the Economic and Financial Forum for the Mediterranean which is due to be inaugurated at Palazzo Mezzanotte by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The list of Italian and foreign politicians attending the two-day event in Milan is a long one, as is that of the international financiers and entrepeneurs who will be focusing on the three areas of energy, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and infrastructure. The opening will be attended by Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and French minister Christine Lagarde (the two countries holding the rotating presidency of the MU) along with Sweden’s Deputy Premier, Maud Olofsson representing the presidency of the EU. Other guests include EIB president Philippe Maystadt and European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani. The long list of Italian (Tremonti, Scajola, Matteoli and Frattini, as well as deputy minister Urso) and foreign ministers (as Algeria’s Chakib Khelil, Morocco’s Amina Benkhadra and Turkey’s Taner Indiz) is complemented by that of representatives of the world of business adn finance : from ENI’s CEO Paolo Scaroni to ENEL Chair Paolo Gnudi; from Marco Tronchetti Provera, the head of Pirelli, to Alessandro Profumo, Unicredit’s MD, to mention the principal Italians. This is because the Milano Med Forum 2009 “is not just going to be a ministerial chin-wag, but a forum for concrete action”, said Stefania Craxi, speaking from her Foreign Ministry office. She noted how the meeting is the “main event” since the foundation of the MU on July 13 2008. Another focus of debate will be Inframed, the Franco-Italian fund aimed at financing infrastructure projects on the southern shore of the Mediterranean: “The most concrete instrument” that the MU as yet come up with, the fruit of an accord between Italy’s state investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and France’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations, to which should be added Germany’s KWF and other investors from other countries such as Spain, Morocco and Egypt. It’s a fund whose governance is currently being defined, the Undersecretary noted, and which will finance infrastructure investments such as in energy and transport. The Agency for SMEs sees “Italy stepping forward as a reference point of a model of development and social stability,” Ms Craxi continued, while Milan is proposing itself as a “hub” for this entrepreneurial network, which needs “not only access to credit, but also cost-cutting”. There will be two kinds of national participation: that of a political-institutional character such as of Maghreb, and the economic operator type of the Mideast area, including Israel. Italy is the EU’s leading trading partner with the Mediterranean area (traded volumes in 2008 exceeded 62 billion euros), but, along with France and Spain, it needs to deepen its investment activities in the area, Ms Craxi said. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean: Frattini, Both Cultural Seed and Fruit
(ANSAmed) — ROMA, JULY 14 — The Mediterranean is not just “a geographical place, nor solely an area established in the mind like a mere intellectual matter — it is the complex result of two elements, physical and cultural, in which from one millennium to another, following exchange after exchange, causes and effects have lost a clear and certain identification. The Mediterranean is, in sum, content and container, both cultural seed and cultural fruit.” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini exclaimed these words in his speech for the inauguration of the exhibit entitled “Mediterranean convergences,” featuring works by Arab and Italian artists being held at the Regina room in the Chamber of Deputies building at the Montecitorio Palace. “As Italians we have a duty to favour and to continue to nourish the Euro-Mediterrean dialogue, underlining the positive interactions undergone in various sectors with Mediterrean countries with Islamic culture, to remember the past so as to assure the future. Italy enjoys a privileged relationship with the Arab world and the project is designed to create new scope for comparison to promote knowledge of the cultural, social and identity reality so as to reinforce shared values and interests and improve the existing climate of mutual understanding and collaboration.” The aim of the idea, Frattini stressed, is “to show the history and the importance of the influence of our artistic culture on the Arab-Meditteranean world and vice versa — the works of Arab artists are placed in comparison with those of their Italian reference point, master or whatever cultural reference point.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Trade Grows Between EU and Med States
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 17 — Trade between EU countries and the Mediterranean area (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey) reached a total value of 280 billion euros in 2008. The figure is highlighted by Promos, the company set up by Milan’s Chamber of Commerce for international activities during the Economic and Financial Forum for the Mediterranean lasting from July 20 to 21. Promos figures show how trade in the Mediterranean area has strengthened markedly thanks to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership set up in Barcelona in1995 with the main objective of creating a free-trade area by 2010. Trading relations between the EU and the area have consistently grown, a fact confirmed by European Commission data. Total numbers of exports rose in fact by 10% per year from 2000, while imports from the area are up by around 4%. Italy is the EU’s leading trading partner with the Mediterranean area: in 2008, which saw a decline in Italy’s trading with the rest of the world, trade with the region passed the 62-billion-euro mark. For its part, the Milan Chamber of Commerce, which is organising the Forum alongside the Lombardy Region and Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Promos vehicle, has been active in the area for over a decade. In the first quarter of 2009 it set up 17 missions by small and medium-sized enterprises and developed numerous supply-chain projects in the sectors of handicrafts, infrastructure and transport, agri-business and renewable energy. The Milan Forum figured among the priority projects of the EU summit held in Marseille last November and is part of the project for renewing cooperation between the two areas. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Will Translate Books by Israeli Authors Into Arabic, But Not Directly From Hebrew
Neue Zürcher Zeitung 23.06.2009
Kristina Bergmann reports that Egypt has finally decided to translate books by Israeli authors into Arabic. 27 authors have been selected for the privilege, among them David Grossman and Amos Oz. Bergman suspects that this might have something to do with the nomination of the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Faruk Hosni, for UN general director: “Hosni recently assured the Egyptian parliament that there were no Israeli books in Egyptian libraries and if he heard evidence to the contrary, he would see to it personally that they were burned. There followed a storm of protest against his nomination and eventually Hosni apologised.” To lubricate this u-turn, the books will not be translated directly from Hebrew but from a European language.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Frees Insult Poet
An Egyptian court has overturned a three-year jail sentence given to a poet for insulting the president.
The court accepted the argument of Moneer Said Hanna’s lawyer that he had been investigated and put on trial without having had access to a lawyer.
The case had gone largely unreported until his family asked a newspaper last week to publish an appeal for clemency.
Relatives of the amateur poet told the BBC he was delighted and would not be writing poems of this kind again.
Under Egyptian law, insulting the President, Hosni Mubarak, can cost the offender three years in jail and a fine.
Civil servant Mr Hanna, 56, had been ordered to pay 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,000; £11,000), which was also overturned by the appeals court in Adwa, Minya province.
None of the offending verses written by Mr Hanna has been published.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Marrakesh, Election of 1st Female Mayor Over-Ruled
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JULY 15 — City councillors of Morocco’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) in Marrakesh announced a 48 hour hunger strike today in protest against a court’s rejection of the election of the mayor, Fatima Zahra Mansouri, the first women to be elected to lead the city after the administrative elections of last June 12. The news comes in a memo from the party. Zahra Mansouri’s election was ruled null and void on Monday by the administrative court in Marrakesh due to irregularites after a complaint issued by the leader of the Democratic Force’s Front (FFD) who was a candidate for the same district. The court was not specific on the extent of the irregularities and stated that it is in favour of a new vote count. The statement released by PAM declared the proceedings as “a conspiracy against democracy” and announced that all of the cities governed by the party will participate in the strike. PAM, which was started in 2008 by the former Interior Minister Faud Ali El Himma (very close to the monarchy), won the administrative elections on June 12 in over 6,000 districts out of a total of 12,000. Fatima Zahra Mansouri would have been the first ever women to be elected as mayor of Marrakesh and the second case in the history of Morocco after the victory of Asmaa Chaabi, who was mayor of Essaouira from 2003 to 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barry Rubin: Don’t Believe in Truth? Don’t be a Reporter
A reporter just wrote me a letter that contains a single sentence which I think reflects on why the Western world is in such trouble today. After understandably discussing such real problems of reporting as short deadlines, complex issues, and the duty of the reporter to report what people say, the letter concludes with this sentence:
“And when it comes to the Middle East, one man’s [obscenity deleted] is another man’s truth.”
Woe to us that a journalist thinks this way. Of course, this is very similar to the older version that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
Recently, I heard that latter one from the Danish ambassador to the Council of Europe who said that Hamas and Hizballah were like the Danish resistance in World War Two. I replied, among other things, that I don’t remember the Danish or other World War Two European resistance movements bombing German kindergartens and glorying in getting Danish civilians killed as human shields.
I also don’t think that the Danes and other European resistance movements were attempting to commit genocide on the Germans. I do believe it was the other way around.
(PS: More Danes fought in the German army than in the Resistance, and that was true of other countries as well. Forgive me for remembering who was the main victim of terrorism and “freedom fighter” terrorists then and today. But I digress)
That a European country—and one of the more astute ones, to make matters worse—is represented by someone like that says something pretty sad about the state of the world today.
Regarding that dangerous kind of claim…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Debate in Israel Over TV Ad With Security Barrier
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JULY 13 — An advertisement, which shows Israeli soldiers playing football over the security barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank, has given rise to criticism and protest from Arab representatives — who have called for its removal. According to critics, the mobile telephony company Cellcom’s advertisement plays on the suffering that the barrier inflicts on Palestinians. Five years ago the barrier was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice. However, the company is set on defending the advertisement. The ad shows a ball fly over the barrier and fall near an Israeli Army vehicle. A soldier throws the ball back, but the ball returns and a game begins with the Palestinians, who remain invisible on the other side of the wall, and the Israeli soldiers, who in the meantime call for “reinforcements” by phone. Two smiling female soldiers arrive on the scene immediately. The ad ends with a voice saying “After all, what is it we are all looking for? Just a bit of fun”. Since the beginning of the campaign last week, embarrassing comments from Israelis have appeared on blogs and social networks, according to whom the ad shows how Israel does not understand the anger that Palestinians feel regarding the barrier. Ahmed Tibi, an Arab representative to the Israeli Parliament, has written to Cellcom to ask for the ad’s removal. (ANSamed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jerusalem Clashes, House Arrest for Mother Root of Tension
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JULY 17 — A Jerusalem court placed the woman, whose incarceration caused the clashes that took place in the city between religious militants and police, under house arrest today. The woman is an ultra-orthodox believer, accused of negligence in taking care of her son. The decision, which could calm the current climate of tension, was released at the end of the last court hearing. The woman is suspected of having systematically deprived, for reasons which remain obscure, the youngest of her five children, a three-year-old who has been reduced to a larva, of food. The boy is currently being treated in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital. She denies the charges and is supported by the protests carried out by her religious community (connected to the precepts of a rigorist and anti-Zionist Jewish sect) who claim that the little boy is in his current condition due to incorrect cures and experimentation suffered at the same hospital. The issue has caused controversy and tumult in recent days which have erupted into violent clashes in the streets between police and ultra-orthodox demonstrators, not to mention the stoning of city offices to which the mayor reacted with a controversial collective punishment (the suspension of public transport and other services) in areas inhabited by ‘zealots’. This morning, before the conciliatory step taken by the court, Shimon Peres, suggested a temporary compromise that provided for the release of the woman and her delivery into the custody of a Rabbi of proven importance, as well as the transfer of the boy from Hadassah to another hospital.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu ‘Surprised’ By U.S. Demand
‘I told Obama I could not accept any limitations on our sovereignty in Jerusalem’
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was taken by “surprise” by a U.S. demand over the weekend to immediately halt a Jewish constriction project in eastern Jerusalem.
“I was surprised by the U.S. move,” Netanyahu was quoted by his advisers as saying yesterday. “In my conversation with [U.S. President Barack] Obama in Washington, I told him that I could not accept any limitations on our sovereignty in Jerusalem. I told him Jerusalem is not a settlement, and it has nothing to do with discussions on a freeze.”
According to a source in Netanyahu’s office speaking to WND, the Israeli leader has been disappointed by a lack of communication between his office and key U.S. government institutions, including the White House.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Damascus Hopes in a Visit by Obama, Abdullah and Hariri
The Iranian crisis sees Syria increasingly the focus of international countries that have an interest in “detaching” it from Tehran. Assad has invited the U.S. President, while there is talk of reopening the Saudi embassy and a visit by the Lebanese premier.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Barack Obama wants “progress” in relations with Syria, Saudi Arabia is preparing to reopen its embassy in Damascus, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, speaking from the Syrian capital said that Bashar al Assad wants a freely chosen Lebanese government, and the possibility of a tripartite Summit — Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon — held in Damascus is being hypothesised, which could remarkably include the presence of King Abdullah and Saad Hariri.
Syria is increasingly the focus of international efforts regarding the Middle East, at least in part connected with the crisis —deeply rooted — that Tehran, the principal ally of Damascus, is currently experiencing.
With the aim of breaking, or at least weakening the relationship between Assad and Ahmadinejad, the United States have given Damascus reason to hope not only in economic support but also in possible pressure on Israel for the return of the Golan Heights, Syria lost in the War of 1967. The recovery, a forbidden dream for 40 years, would benefit the low popularity of Assad, as well as having importance, both economically and politically. For their part, the Saudis have a fundamental interest in recovering the role of main regional power against the growing weight of Iran, including in relation to the influence of Shiites through Hezbollah in Lebanon, the enemies of Sunnis, for the time being the election winners with Saad Hariri. The latter, according to the pro-Syrian Lebanese daily As Safir, said recently that “sooner or later” he will meet Assad, (generally considered the political author of the murder of his father, former premier Rafic Hariri), “because Lebanon needs good relations with Syria and I intend to travel this road, which is essential for both countries. “
Thus in theory, Obama, King Abdullah and Hariri may one day visit Damascus. Assad has invited the U.S. President who, in an interview to English Sky News, spoke of “behavioural aspects” of Syria that “lead to anxiety,” but who also added that he “hoped to see progress on the diplomatic front”. For its part, the influential Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat writes that “the Syrian capital is preparing to receive the Custodian of the Two Mosques”, the Saudi King Abdullah, “in a new atmosphere in far- reaching Arab reconciliation.”
Relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia suffered a blow after the assassination of Hariri, a great friend of the Saudis, and reached their lowest point in 2008, when Riyadh withdrew its ambassador and has not participated at the annual summit Arab held in Damascus since. Syria’s attitude during the Lebanese elections, its deference from interference, has given grounds for a new improvement. As well as the victory of Hariri.
The rapprochement between the Syrians and the Arab world, if so, could have positive effects on the climate in the region, including the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, given the weight that Damascus has in particular with Hamas, whose political leader, Khaled Mashaal , lives in the Syrian capital. (PD)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Spies Refuted the 2007 NIE Report
‘Work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003’
President Obama has committed to trying diplomacy to stop the Iranian bomb. Time, though, is on the mullahs’ side, not least because so much of it was wasted after the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate made the improbable case that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. This assessment not only contradicted previous U.S. intelligence consensus but — as recent court documents show — also the conclusions of a key U.S. ally with excellent sources in Iran — Germany.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, has amassed evidence of a sophisticated Iranian nuclear weapons program that continued beyond 2003. This usually classified information comes courtesy of Germany’s highest state-security court. In a 30-page legal opinion on March 26 and a May 27 press release in a case about possible illegal trading with Iran, a special national security panel of the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe cites from a May 2008 BND report, saying the agency “showed comprehensively” that “development work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003.”
According to the judges, the BND supplemented its findings on August 28, 2008, showing “the development of a new missile launcher and the similarities between Iran’s acquisition efforts and those of countries with already known nuclear weapons programs, such as Pakistan and North Korea.”
It’s important to point out that this was no ordinary agency report, the kind that often consists just of open source material, hearsay and speculation. Rather, the BND submitted an “office testimony,” which consists of factual statements about the Iranian program that can be proved in a court of law. This is why, in their March 26 opinion, the judges wrote that “a preliminary assessment of the available evidence suggests that at the time of the crime [April to November 2007] nuclear weapons were being developed in Iran.” In their May press release, the judges come out even more clear, stating unequivocally that “Iran in 2007 worked on the development of nuclear weapons.”
The judges had been asked to consider an appeal in the case of a German-Iranian businessman accused of brokering supplies for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Federal Prosecutor had charged the defendant, identified by the authorities only as “Mohsen V.,” with violating Germany’s War Weapons Control Law and the Foreign Trade Act. A lower court in Frankfurt refused to try the case on the grounds that it was unlikely that Iran had a nuclear program at the time of the defendant’s activities in 2007, citing the NIE report as evidence.
That’s why the Supreme Court judges had to rule first on the question of whether that program exists at all. Having answered that question in the affirmative, the court had to rule next on the likelihood of the defendant to be found guilty in a trial. The supreme court’s conclusions are unusually strong.
“The results of the investigation do in fact provide sufficient indications that the accused aided the development of nuclear weapons in Iran through business dealings.”
The supreme court thus annulled the lower court’s decision to throw out the case, demanding that the Frankfurt-based judges try the defendant on the original charges.
The case itself sheds light on how these networks function. According to the supreme court judges, the businessman has brokered “industrial machines, equipment and raw materials primarily to Iranian customers,” for Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
According to the same decision, the defendant’s business partners in Tehran “dealt with acquiring military and nuclear-related goods for Iran and used various front companies, headquartered for example in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, to circumvent existing trade restrictions.” According to the judges, Mohsen V. also tried to supply to Tehran via front companies in Dubai “Geiger counters for radiation-resistant detectors constructed especially for protection against the effects of nuclear detonations.”
Defendant Mohsen V.’s various business contacts in Iran, Russia, Germany, and the Near and Middle East are listed in the prosecutor’s files and in the judges’ decision. So is information related to the secret supply of “two high-speed cameras needed to develop nuclear warheads. The delivery of the cameras to the final customers in Iran occurred on November 1, 2007 at the latest.” The Karlsruhe judges wrote that, by his own admission, Mohsen V. was “aware of the cameras’ possible use in the military arena.”
The court’s decision and the BND’s reports raise the question of how, or why, U.S. intelligence officials could have come to the conclusion that Iran suspended its program in 2003. German intelligence officials wonder themselves. BND sources have told me that they have shared their findings and documentation with their U.S. colleagues ahead of the 2007 NIE report — as is customary between these two allies. It appears the Americans have simply ignored this evidence despite repeated warnings from the BND. This suggests not so much a failure of U.S. intelligence but its sabotage.
The politicized 2007 NIE report undermined the Bush Administration’s efforts to rally international support for tough action against Iran. The world’s best hope is that the Obama Administration is not being fed the same false sense of security.
Mr. Schirra is an investigative reporter in Berlin and author of “Iran — Sprengstoff für Europe,” Iran — Explosives for Europe (Econ, 2006). Belinda Coopers translated this article from the German.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
No Happy Ending for Saudi Film Festival
Directors, writers and cinema buffs had arrived in Jeddah for what had been billed as a week-long festival of films from Saudi Arabia and neighbouring states.
The festival was due to begin on Saturday. But an hour before midnight on Friday the organisers were told by the Jeddah municipality to cancel it.
The only official explanation was that the event had not been sufficiently prepared.
But it is widely believed the ban is the latest victory for religious conservatives, who regard cinema as a form of Western moral pollution.
Jeddah — the Red Sea city which is also the Saudi business hub — has long been more liberal and open than the desert capital, Riyadh.
Its film festival started in 2006, as a conscious attempt by Saudi liberals to push the boundaries of cultural freedom.
Family feud
Behind closed doors, Saudis are avid consumers of movies — and there is no shortage of budding directors, actors and actresses.
Yet cinemas and theatres are banned, and conservatives are wary of efforts to get round the ban — for example, through officially sanctioned cultural festivals.
Conservatives are particularly hostile to the wealthy Prince Waleed bin Talal, whose Rotana entertainment group was the main sponsor of the Jeddah film festival.
The 54-year-old prince has been outspoken in his support for easing cultural restrictions and for greater women’s rights.
This has made him the target of conservative criticism.
Last month, in an unusually public display of discord within the ruling family, one of Prince Waleed’s brothers, Prince Khalid bin Talal, denounced his efforts to introduce cinema into Saudi society.
He even went as far as calling for his brother’s assets to be frozen.
Prince Khalid wants all film festivals to be banned.
Those who favour reform initially pinned their hopes on King Abdullah, who ascended the throne in 2005.
The king has been a cautious advocate of change. In February he removed the head of the religious police, in a re-shuffle that brought in the country’s first female junior minister.
But Abdullah has faced opposition from within the religious establishment and from his half-brother Prince Nayef, the powerful minister of the interior.
An anonymous official is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying the Jeddah film festival “was cancelled upon indirect instructions from the interior ministry”.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Undermines State in Syria Talks
Official claims White House traded ambassadorship for … nothing
JERUSALEM — The Obama administration did not extract any concessions from Syria in exchange for a decision last month to send a U.S. ambassador to Damascus, a top official from Syria’s Information Ministry told WND.
The official said Syria was in consultations with the State Department about the possibility of renewing an American ambassadorship to Syria in a major upgrade of relations with the Damascus regime. The official said the White House announcement on the ambassador came without Syria first agreeing to preconditions for the move.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Second Turkish ‘Plot’ Trial Opens
Fifty-six people, including two retired generals, journalists and academics, have gone on trial in Turkey accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
Prosecutors say they were members of a shadowy ultranationalist network — dubbed Ergenekon — which allegedly aimed to provoke a military coup.
The two generals, who are in their 60s, could face life in prison if convicted.
This is the second court case related to the Ergenekon case. Another 86 suspects went on trial in October.
The investigation has strained relations between the governing AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam, and the military, which considers itself the guardian of Turkey’s secular constitution.
Last week, President Abdullah Gul approved a new law giving civilian courts the power to try military personnel suspected of threatening national security or having links to organised crime.
‘Coup plans’
Forty-four of the defendants were present inside the courtroom at the heavily-guarded Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul on Monday to hear the charges against them read out.
Gen Hursit Tolon, a former army commander, looked relaxed as he answered questions from the four-judge panel after being accused of masterminding a terrorist group and inciting armed rebellion against the government.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Christians in Sumatra: Jilbab Norm, An Excuse to Introduce the Shariah
The Mayor of Pekanbaru has issued a directive requiring students to wear traditional Muslim clothing. The Islands’ Christians stress that the law is unconstitutional and an “abuse of power.” Criticism from women: a burden on family budgets.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Jilbab is not part of Indonesian culture, but comes from the Arab tradition, to impose a form of dress that conforms to the precepts of Islam reveals “a project to introduce Shariah” and is a blatant “abuse of power.” That is the reaction of Christians in Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province, Sumatra, to the local mayor’s decision to make the traditional clothing that leaves only the face uncovered mandatory by law.
“ I strongly oppose the idea,” says a local Christian, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons — of imposing the Muslim attires to any students in Pekanbaru”. He stresses that the decision “is contrary to the Constitution of 1945” because all legislation must be “general” and not specifically relate “to a particular religious confession.” Another resident — also under conditions of anonymity — adds that “the introduction of the law is just one more step towards the full implementation of Islamic law in the city” and an example “of abuse of power.”
The dispute stems from the decision by Erizal Muluk, Mayor of Pekanbaru, to introduce a dress code that conforms to Islamic precepts for students in the city. The rule came into force July 13 last, and is valid for the school year 2009/10, involving students from elementary to higher school level.
The mayor says that the law applies to the families of Muslim faith and aims to “restore the local cultural identity”, as part of a larger project entitled Pekanbaru’s vision for 2021. It aims to transform the provincial capital into a centre for education, business and services Malay culture, closely bond to Muslim tradition. Favorevole alla legge la maggior parte degli esponenti della comunità islamica locale, che parlano di una “buona” decisione. Con alcune eccezioni: un gruppo di donne della città si lamenta perché la nuova norma — che impone il rinnovamento del guardaroba — ha “gravato in modo significativo” sul bilancio familiare.
Most representatives of the local Islamic community favour the law, describing it as a “good” decision. With some exceptions: a group of women from the town complain that the norm- which imposes a complete wardrobe change — places a “significant burden” on the family budget.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Muslim Cleric Re-Arrested Over Child Bride Scandal
Semarang, 16 July (AKI/The Jakarta Post) — Indonesian police have again arrested Muslim cleric, Pujiono Cahyono Widianto, in a continuing controversy over his marriage to a 12-year-old girl. Pujiono was rearrested for failing to cooperate following his marriage to Lutfiana Ulfa.
The police detained 44 year-old Syech Puji — who is also the head of an Islamic boarding school — along with his two employees, Dwi and Slamet, who were suspected to have damaged the police officers’ cars during the arrest.
Police were also trying to determine Ulfa’s whereabouts. Instead they brought in Ulfa’s father, Suroso, for further questioning.
The police chief of the city of Semarang, Comr. Edward Syah Pernong, demanded Syech Puji’s first wife and his lawyer Sinto Ariwibawa Umi Hani present Ulfa during the witness examination at the office.
In March, the police questioned the wealthy Muslim cleric who had married Ulfa seven months earlier.
The police then arrested him but later granted him probation at his lawyers request. Syech Puji, however, did not report to the police once a week as required by the officers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Surprise Confession by Surviving Mumbai Gunman
MUMBAI, India — The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks made a surprise confession at his trial Monday, saying he was recruited by a militant group inside Pakistan after he left a low-paying job and went looking for training to become a professional robber.
The confession by Ajmal Kasab bolstered India’s charges that terrorist groups in neighboring Pakistan were behind the well-planned attack, and that it is not doing enough to clamp down on them. The attack in which 166 people died severely strained relations and put the brakes on a peace process between the nuclear-armed enemies.
As part of the confession, Kasab described how he sprayed automatic gunfire at commuters while a comrade hurled grenades inside a railway station during one of India’s worst terrorist acts.
“I was in front of Abu Ismail who had taken such a position that no one could see him,” Kasab told the court. “We both fired, Abu Ismail and I. We fired on the public,” he said, speaking in Hindi.
Kasab, a Pakistani who had consistently denied a role in the November rampage, reversed himself without warning, shocking even his lawyer.
In a calmly delivered statement, Kasab described how the attackers were sent from Karachi, Pakistan, by four men — some of them known leaders with the Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
They traveled by boat arriving Nov. 26 in Mumbai, where they unleashed three days of mayhem. The 10 gunmen, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, split into pairs and killed people at a railway station, a Jewish center, a hospital and two five-star hotels, including the Taj Mahal.
Seema Desai, an analyst at the Eurasia Group in London, said Kasab’s assertions could “increase tensions between India and Pakistan.”
“Most likely Pakistan will not give his statements much credence and will question the circumstances under which he changed his story,” she said in an e-mail.
Kasab faces the death penalty if convicted on the charges of murder and waging war against the country.
As the 66th day of Kasab’s trial started Monday morning, he stood up just as a prosecution witness was to take the stand, and addressed the judge.
“Sir, I plead guilty to my crime,” said Kasab, 21, triggering a collective gasp in the courtroom.
After a debate on the legality of such a confession, Kasab’s statement was recorded, and the judge said he would have Kasab sign each page of the document, which would be reviewed by his lawyer, formally reversing his plea from innocent to guilty.
Kasab said he and Abu Ismail went to the Chatrapati Shivaji railway station in a taxi and left a bomb in the vehicle.
“I went to the restroom and attached a battery to a bomb and put it in a bag. Abu followed me to restroom and I asked him what I should do with the bomb.”
“‘Let’s see,’ Abu told me,” he said.
They moved to the railroad station hall, packed with commuters. Abu Ismail put the bag near a pillar and stood close to a wall where they began shooting at people. Soon, policemen joined the fight. The bomb never exploded.
“I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades … I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing from the police side,” Kasab said.
From the railway station, where they killed more than 50, the two went to Cama hospital. A few more were killed there. The pair then went to the Chowpatty beach in a hijacked vehicle where Ismail was killed and Kasab was captured after a shootout with the police.
Kasab was treated for wounds and has since been held in solitary confinement in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where the trial is being conducted.
The siege of Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, ended Nov. 29 with troops storming the Taj Mahal Hotel where some gunmen were holding hostages. All attackers except Kasab were killed.
Kasab said his confession was not coerced. “There is no pressure on me. I am making the statement of my own will,” he said.
As part of the confession, he told how he became involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said he became unhappy with his low wages as a shop assistant in the town of Jhelum in Pakistan, and left for Rawalpindi with the intention of becoming a professional robber.
While attending a festival in Rawalpindi, he and a friend decided to seek out the mujahedeen, who they thought could help train them as bandits. They went to a local bazaar and were directed to the local Lashkar office, he said.
Before being sent to India, Kasab said he lived in a house in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi for a month-and-a-half with 10 other young men. All of them were transferred to another home and taken to sea where they met four handlers.
One of them was an Indian, who taught the attackers Hindi, he said.
Kasab confessed after his capture, but later withdrew that statement, saying it had been made under duress.
Last week, the Pakistan government gave a dossier to India providing new evidence of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s role in the attack, and naming Kasab as a participant.
Asked by judge M.L. Tahiliyani why he confessed now, Kasab said it was because the Pakistani government recently acknowledged he was a Pakistani citizen, dealing a blow to his defense.
“If Pakistan has accepted me as its citizen, then end this case and punish me for my crime,” he said. “My request is that we end the trial and I be sentenced.”
Tahiliyani said no immediate judgment would be issued and the trial will resume Tuesday.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit declined to comment on Kasab’s court admission, but events took those at the hearing by surprise.
“Everybody in the court was shocked the moment he said he accepts his crime. It was unexpected,” public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said. “We have finally extracted the truth.”
Kasab said he killed fewer people than the prosecution alleges. Nikam said the confession could be a ploy to try for a lighter sentence.
An Indian court issued arrest warrants in June for 22 Pakistani nationals accused of masterminding the attacks, including Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and two other leaders of the group named by Kasab as being involved.
| [Return to headlines] |
Muslim World’s Rage Missing Over Uighurs’ Plight
Where are the fatwas? The angry marches in front of embassies, the indignant speeches? Where are al-Qaeda’s videos? In short, what does China have that Denmark did not? China has been actively discriminating against Muslims, and recently a number of them have been killed in violent street riots.
In Denmark a newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the Muslim world erupted in anger. Today that same Muslim world seems to be mute, deaf, and blind, and is oblivious to the violence and discrimination suffered by the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group, at the hands of the Chinese government.
The reaction to the cartoons was swift and furious. Eleven ambassadors from Muslim countries formally protested to the Danish government. The Danish Consulate in Beirut was burned, and several people died in street riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. Newspapers in Norway and elsewhere decided to print the cartoons in an act of solidarity, which fueled the wave of violence. Al-Qaeda’s videos and Web sites explained that the offensive cartoons were simply another example of the West’s crusade against Islam.
Meanwhile . . .
Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has been carrying out systematic policies that discriminate against Uighurs. Their language is forbidden in schools; government employees cannot have long beards or head scarves and are not allowed to pray or fast during working hours. Uighurs also face strong discriminatory practices in education, health care, housing, and employment. Young Uighurs are often forced to work in faraway provinces, while Han Chinese — who are about 90 percent of China’s population — are encouraged to move to Xinjiang, the autonomous region where Uighurs are the largest ethnic group. More than two million have settled there.
Any protests against these practices are harshly repressed. The repression of the Uighurs intensified after the Sept. 11 attacks, when many of their political leaders were jailed, accused of having links with foreign Islamist terrorists. Since then, any individual or group convicted of terrorism, religious extremism, or separatism has received draconian sentences.
The recent troubles in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, have left 184 dead, about a thousand injured, and thousands more detained. These are official figures; Uighurs claim the real numbers are much larger.
What have Muslim leaders worldwide said or done so far? Not much.
Mullahs, imams, and assorted clerics found time to issue fatwas condemning among other practices, Pokémon cartoons, total nudity during sex for married couples, and the use of polio vaccines, not to mention Salman Rushdie. They have yet to find the time to say anything about China’s practices toward Uighurs.
The same applies to the Arab League, governments of Muslim countries (where are the 11 ambassadors who protested to the Danish government?), and Muslim organizations in Europe and Asia. They have either been mute or their reaction has been too little, too late.
Take, for example, the case of Turkey. Although the Uighurs have close ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties with the Turkish people, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not deemed their plea as urgent. At the same time that Erdogan was trying to get the international community to recognize Hamas, his government was denying a visa to Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the Uighurs (though recently Erdogan softened his posture and said that she would be allowed to visit Turkey). Only recently has Erdogan’s government expressed concern about the situation in Xinjiang. Ahmet Davutoglu, the new foreign affairs minister, said this month that Turkey “cannot remain silent in the face of what is happening [in Xinjiang].”
This did not go well in Beijing. On July 10, Global Times, an official Chinese press outlet, published an article titled “Turkey, another axis of evil!?” It noted: “After the riots in Xinjiang, many governments around the world are very cautious making comments, including the American government. But the Turkish government is an exception. As Urumqi is on its way to recovery, this arrogant country has never stopped lashing out at China. In fact, both the Turkish government and its nongovernmental organizations were harsh on China. . .. . Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, ‘We have always seen our Uygur [as] brothers, with whom we have historical and cultural ties . . .’ “
The article concluded: “Turkey’s support for the Uygur separatists and terrorists can only cause public indignation in China. If it does not want to ruin the relationship between two peoples, please stop standing behind those mobs and separatists, stop being an axis of evil!”
In politics, blindness and deafness are often induced by an acute awareness of where one’s main interests really lie. China will clearly make efforts to clarify to the governments that express too much concern for the Uighurs what their real interests are. And the continuous silence about the situation of the Uighurs that may ensue in coming months and years will offer an eloquent demonstration of Beijing’s ability to persuade.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
South Korea Plans to Build Shelters Against Possible North Korean Nuclear Attacks
New facilities should protect against electromagnetic pulse waves unleashed by a nuclear blast. Overall the new structures should cost about US$ 80 million. North Korea appears set to mark US Independence Day with new test launches.
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) — South Korea will spend tens of millions of dollars to protect against electromagnetic pulse (EMP) waves unleashed by a nuclear blast, an official said Friday. The decision comes after North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles off its east coast earlier this week and announced its intention to test-launch rockets on 4 July, US Independence Day.
The plan to build anti-EMP facilities by 2014 was recently confirmed by a top official in the South Korean military as part of a broader set of long-term plans developed in the wake of North Korea’s ongoing military testing. Overall the EMP facilities should cost about US$ 78 million and “the shelters will be like steel safes.”
Pyongyang yesterday in fact launched four short-range missiles, the first one at 5.20 pm local time, the second launched from a base in Sinsang-ni, in the eastern province of Yanggang.
South Korean sources expect new North Korean missile tests in the next few days. The first one could coincide with US Independence Day but the source did not say whether it will be a “mid- or long-range missile.”
In April Pyongyang announced new missile tests in response to what it described as a “policy of confrontation” by the South Korean government.
Since his election South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has made food and other aid to North Korea conditional on Pyongyang stopping its military testing.
In late May North Korea’s Communist regime also carried out an underground nuclear test (about 20 kilotons) equal to the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War Two.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mali Ex-Rebels to Tackle Al-Qaeda
The main group of Tuareg ex-rebels in Mali has agreed to help the army tackle al-Qaeda’s North African branch.
Both groups roam across the Sahara Desert and correspondents say the deal could prove significant.
The agreement was brokered by Algeria’s ambassador to Mali. Algeria is where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb stages most of its attacks.
Last month, the group killed a British hostage who was being held in Mali after being seized in Niger.
Two weeks later, after the president declared an all-out war on the group, the army said it had seized an al-Qaeda base near the border with Algeria.
However, the group remains active in the region and has also staged attacks in Niger and Mauritania.
The BBC’s Martin Vogl in Mali’s capital Bamako says the Malian and Algerian governments will both be pleased to have Tuareg forces as part of their offensive against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The Tuareg know how to operate in the desert perhaps better than anyone else and could be the government’s best hope of beating al-Qaeda in the region, he says.
US support
Under the deal, special units of fighters from the Alliance for Democracy and Change (ADC) are to be sent to the desert to tackle al-Qaeda.
Although the ADC signed a deal to end its rebellion three years ago, one of its factions is still active.
The Tuareg, a historically nomadic people living in the Sahara and Sahel regions of North Africa, have had militant groups in Mali and Niger engaged in sporadic armed struggles for several decades.
They have argued that their region has been ignored by the government in the south of the countries.
But there has been a history of animosity between the Tuareg groups and al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, Mali, Algeria and Libya have reportedly agreed to work more closely against the group.
Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure said he had agreed to share information and military resources with his two counterparts.
Correspondents say the US is giving substantial economic and military support to countries of the region which promise to tackle al-Qaeda.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Pushing Toward Amnesty, Part 1
If you think we’re getting the bums rush toward government control of our lives and businesses by the Obama administration — as my favorite uncle used to say — you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
If Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have their way, the next big project will be another nail in the “coffin of change” that the last election inflicted on us — U.S.
Just look at our borders and think “open door.” The Democrats want it and are just waiting until they’re done with medical care changes, after everything else they’ve changed.
What’s lingering in the background is called “comprehensive immigration reform.” It may be comprehensive, but it’s not “reform.” It’s flat-out amnesty, and while media avoid it, Democrats will put it on the front burner — so get ready, here it comes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Princess Given Asylum in UK Over Fears She Faces Execution for Having Illegitimate Child With British Lover
A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has been granted asylum here after claiming she would face the death penalty if she returned to her country.
The woman, who is married to a member of the Saudi royal family has been granted anonymity and was given refugee status after she told a judge her affair made her liable to death by stoning. She also feared the possibility of an honour killing.
She met her English boyfriend during a visit to London and became pregnant by him the following year.
Fearful of her elderly husband’s reaction, she returned to the UK to give birth in secret.
The arrangement is one of a number of claims for asylum brought by Saudi Arabian citizens which are not openly acknowledged by either government, according to the Independent newspaper.
The secrecy is thought to exist so as not to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia as this would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and create embarrassment for both governments.
The woman was granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum tribunal allowed her appeal.
She told the court she feared she and her baby would face flogging and stoning to death under Sharia law if they returned home.
Stoning is a technique used on married people convicted of adultery. The majority of executions are carried out by beheading in a public square.
Adulterers in the Gulf state can also face punishment by hanging or beheading.
There were at least 102 executions of men and women last year and according to human rights group Amnesty International, there are at least 136 people awaiting execution. Since 1990, 40 women have been executed.
Amnesty reported last year that one woman was currently facing the possibility of execution by stoning for adultery. She had been married to a Saudi who had died six years earlier. The woman was held in 2005 after giving birth to a girl.
The Home Office would not comment on the case and calls to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London were not returned.
The case has echoes of a similar situation in 30 years ago when another member of the Saudi royal family was executed after admitting adultery.
In 1977, 19-year-old Princess Mishaal bint Fahd, who was unmarried, was killed by gunshots to the head.
Her death is thought to have been ordered by her grandfather, the king’s older brother.
In 1980 a docu-drama, Death Of A Princess, was made of what had happened. The Saudi authorities tried to get it halted and when they failed they expelled the British ambassador. They also withdrew several hundred members of their royal family from Britain and cancelled export contracts worth millions.
Incidents such as the present one where the princess has been granted asylum put the relationship between Britain and Saudi Arabia under further strain.
Three years ago, a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into alleged bribes paid as part of a military aircraft deal between the two countries was halted after the intervention of then Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Saudi Arabia has consistently attracted controversy over its attitude towards women. Two years ago there was an international outcry when a woman was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail after being gang-raped. She was seen to have been in the wrong because she’d been unaccompanied when she got into a car with a former boyfriend.
Eventually, because the attention drawn to the case, she was pardoned.
That same year, the country’s King Abdullah II was booed during a state visit to Britain by demonstrators criticising Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
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