While in Rome over the weekend, Muammar Ghadafi threw a little party and invited some 200… ahem… paid escorts, whom he then attempted to convert to Islam. The Libyan dictator had so much fun that he decided to stage a repeat of the event the following night. The young ladies who attend will receive free Korans in addition to monetary payment for their attendance.In other news, a CNN reporter was detained by the authorities in Shanghai while attempting to tape a feature about the infamous “Obamao” T-shirt.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Esther, Fausta, Gaia, Insubria, JD, JH, JP, Nilk, Paul Green, RRW, Sean O’Brian, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Obama Stimulus Bill ‘Saves or Creates” Thousands of Green Manufacturing Jobs… In China
When the Obama White House is not “saving or creating” fantasy jobs here at home they’re “saving or creating” manufacturing jobs in China. wind farm The Obama Stimulus Plan will help pay for a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas. The project will mean thousands of new jobs for wind turbine manufacturers… in China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Secret of Oz’ Exposes Devious Financial Wizards
Documentary reveals government-corporate conspiracy of epic proportions
“Morgan is just trying to reinflate the real-estate bubble to try to get out of the giant crater of bad debt it is already in,” says the director of the award-winning documentary “The Secret of Oz” that is shaking up the established economic paradigms. “Of course JPMorgan is willing to hand out mortgage loans liberally. It has nothing to lose. The government — is backing it.”
According to the latest numbers from the Treasury Department, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are holding the bag on 60 percent of the world’s derivatives — an astonishing $120 trillion between them, Still reports.
[…]
JPMorgan was the biggest winner in the government bailouts, after receiving a $25 billion loan, it gobbled up Bear Stearns’ assets for about two cents on the dollar and then the assets of Washington Mutual — the nation’s largest failed bank — for less than a penny on the dollar. Goldman Sachs received approximately $50 billion, but both firms have now repaid the government.
In the last three months, both Morgan and Goldman have reported record corporate profits that are averaging above $1 billion a month each.
“Now, we, the taxpayers, will be insuring these new mortgages as Morgan and Goldman try to dig themselves out of their toxic derivatives hole,” said Still. “They can’t lose because Congress is going to back them. They are privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. Any money they gain from those who actually pay their mortgages, they pocket as profit, but they pass on the bad loans to the government and we, the people, end up paying for them in increased taxes. They can’t get any more bankrupt than they are now.”
[…]
“This is not incentive-driven capitalism! That’s the problem,” said Still. “It’s a hybrid somewhere between socialism and plutocracy. Big money controls the government so that it no longer does the will of the people, it gives these huge financial monopolies whatever they want. People sense it, they just can’t put their finger on where the center of the problem is.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will GM Spend Taxpayer Bailout Money on Overseas Operations?
U.S. Operations Received $50 Billion in Taxpayer Funds — And Now May Send Millions of Dollars Overseas
At a meeting with President Obama Monday morning, Communist Party Secretary Yu Xheng Sheng told the U.S. president how well General Motors’ Chinese division was doing.
“The business of GM in Shanghai is pretty good,” Secretary Yu told the president. “By the end of October this year their sales has increased by 40 percent over the same period of last year. I think that the fantastic performance here in Shanghai is definitely a boost to their business in the United States.”
“Absolutely,” said President Obama. “I think they can learn from their operations here in terms of increasing sales back in the United States.”
But some critics wonder if GM is a little too focused on its international operations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Speaker to Muslims: OK to Attack Fort Bragg
Exhorts Islamic faithful to target planes carrying ‘82nd Airborne’
A Council on American-Islamic Relations adviser and regular speaker at its events has suggested Islamic law permits Muslims to attack C-130 military transport planes carrying the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a stunning new book exposing Washington-based CAIR’s inner workings.
Radical Islamic cleric Zaid Shakir, a frequent guest speaker at CAIR events, tells his Muslim audiences: “Jihad is physically fighting the enemies of Islam to protect and advance the religion of Islam. This is jihad.”
Acceptable targets of jihad, he says, include U.S. military aircraft.
“Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people,” Shakir once told a Muslim audience. However, “If you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.”
The 82nd Airborne Division’s elite paratroopers fly out of Fort Bragg, N.C., which is part of North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw’s district. Shaw is CAIR’s new chairman…
| — Hat tip: JH | [Return to headlines] |
Cap-and-Trade and Virginia’s Manufacturers
October 28, Brett Vassey, president and CEO of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works that a cap-and-trade system “allows political leaders to choose ‘winners and losers’ in the economy.” In Vassey’s view, Virginia’s manufacturers would be among the losers, for cap-and-trade poses “too much risk for global manufacturers who are making decisions about their future capital investments today.” “Virginia and other states,” Vassey said, “will lose opportunities to compete and create jobs in the future as long as the threat of [cap-and-trade] exists in the public debate.”
Vassey’s written testimony neatly and succinctly captures the “truth” about cap-and-trade for Virginia’s manufacturers:
“Proponents of ‘cap & trade’ believe immediate regulation will force industry to stop using traditional sources of energy. Unfortunately, this position demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of global manufacturing today. The truth is ‘cap & trade’ is just another tax on businesses and consumers-regressively so on manufacturing-and it does nothing to stop ‘leakage’ to nations with more favorable conditions. For example, even if Virginia limited all of its CO2 emissions, China’s CO2 emissions growth alone would replace all of Virginia’s CO2 emissions in only 77 days. Virginia is .44% of global GHG emissions.” (Link to written testimony).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Green’ Speakers: Obama Adviser, Pentagon Bomber
Radical keynotes environmental festival; Ayers, Dohrn address related program
JERUSALEM — A radical who served as an adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign keynoted an environmental activist festival whose satellite event was addressed by former Weather Underground terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Cornel West, a professor at Princeton University, addressed the Washington DC Green Festival over the weekend, an event promoting environmental awareness whose speaker list is teeming with radicals. Ayers and Dohrn keynoted the satellite Green Festival in Chicago, alongside Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now, a far-left, pro-socialist news organization.
[…]
A scan of YouTube clips found West introducing Obama at the fundraiser while stating the “American empire is in such a deep crisis” and slamming the “racist criminal justice system” and “disgraceful schools in our city.”
“He is my brother and my companion and comrade,” said West of Obama.
WND found a video that shows Obama taking the stage just after West’s introduction, expressing his gratitude to West, calling him “not only a genius, a public intellectual, a preacher, an oracle … he’s also a loving person.”
Obama asked the audience for a round of applause for West.
West has branded the U.S. a “racist patriarchal” nation where “white supremacy” continues to define everyday life. He once stated the 9/11 attacks gave whites a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the U.S.
From a young age, West proclaimed he admired “the sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party … and the livid black [liberation] theology of James Cone.”
Cone’s theology spawned Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial pastor for 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ. West was a strong defender of Wright when the pastor’s extreme remarks became national news during last year’s campaign season.
[Comments from JD: see article for video links]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newsweek Admits 74 Percent of Gore Letters Are Critical, But Fails to Publish Any
Newsweek has done it again: a few weeks after acknowledging half its letters were critical of Joe Biden (but publishing none of them), they proclaimed their Al Gore cover was unpopular. Forty-six percent of their letter writers wrote on the subject of Gore, and 74 percent of them were critical. Still, Newsweek ran only positive letters. The first, most prominent one (in larger red type) read: “Until each nation makes responsibility for this earth a priority, we will continue to devastate it — and ourselves.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Officials: Major Hasan Sought ‘War Crimes’ Prosecution of U.S. Soldiers
Rebuffed, Accused Fort Hood Shooter Took Extra Target Practice, Closed Bank Safety Deposit Box in Final Days, Investigators Say
Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open criminal prosecutions of soldiers he claimed had confessed to “war crimes” during psychiatric counseling, according to investigative reports circulated among federal law enforcement officials.
On Nov. 4, the day after his last attempt to raise the issue, he took extra target practice at Stan’s shooting range in nearby Florence, Texas and then closed a safe deposit box he had at a Bank of America branch in Killeen, according to the reports. A bank employee told investigators Hasan appeared nervous and said, “You’ll never see me again.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There is No “Out, “ There is Only “In?”
I was watching a pilot show on television [AMC] Sunday evening.
It was a re-make of the old 1967 mini-series starring Patrick McGoohan called “The Prisoner.” The original series pitted McGoohan, a man struggling to maintain his wits, sanity and sanctity of self, against an almost omniscient, largely invisible force of controllers.
[…]
It remains to be seen how well the rest of the series conforms to this theme. But one testy exchange change between Number Two and Number Six impressed me, so I jotted it down. It went:
Number Two: “Number Six … What do you want?” Number Six: “ I want out.” Number Two. “There is no ‘Out,’ there is only ‘In.’ “
The Dilemma.
I sat up and thought for a moment. “Yes,” I thought, “I want out.”
I want out of this prison, this collective, this “village” that Barack Obama is building. Glenn Beck has been saying that he thinks that some framework or superstructure is being set up over our society. It is a deception, a great Potemkin Village. Barack Obama and his Progressive Socialist minions are building structures that overlay our present social, economic and cultural heritages. These structures are meant to re-order American Society in their image, and diminish your and my freedoms.
[…]
But then, I pondered a dark thought, “What if it is too late? What if [like in “The Prisoner”] there is no ‘Out,’ there is only ‘In?”
The Answer.
Shazam! Eureka! That’s it! THEY want US to believe that there is no ‘Out,’ that there is only ‘In!’
No. I simply refuse to go along. They can go to hell!
We are Americans. We are Exceptional. This is a battle of ideas: a war over our freedom and sanity. If our opponents want us to change, go away, become slaves, or die, then our opponents had better be even more exceptional than we are.
But they are not. No way. No how.
Do you want to know the mortal truth about those imposing Obama Figureheads … the men and women behind that curtain in Oz? They, and not you, are the ones without a clue. You see, they gave up on God a long time ago and traded him in for the State. My friend; I chose God a long time ago. I also chose American Exceptionalism. I chose Freedom. I chose the Truth, and we all know that the Truth is a Person!
So, now that you are fully awakened, what can you do? This is on many minds out there across America. I’ll offer a few suggestions:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Where Have All the Protests Gone? US Students in Limbo
AFP — When student Hemnecher Amen joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took notice.
“There’s a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what’s going on in world affairs,” the frustrated Howard University junior told AFP as some 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march.
“Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money. That’s essentially the bottom line.”
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Officials Worried Group in Canada Went to Join Islamic Radicals in Somalia
TORONTO — Counterterrorism officials are investigating a group of youths who allegedly left Canada for East Africa two weeks ago, amid concerns they may have gone to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabab.
Two sources familiar with the case said investigators had been canvassing Toronto’s large Somali-Canadian community for information about as many as five men who departed Canada together in early November.
They are believed to have flown to Kenya, the sources said. Kenya borders the region of southern Somalia controlled by Al-Shabab, an Islamist militia aligned with al-Qaeda and sometimes likened to the Taliban.
The investigation comes as the Somali conflict has become a key focus of North American counterterrorism officials. Several Somali-American youths have left the Midwestern United States to join the Shabab, and the commissioner of the RCMP said in a speech last month he is concerned about a similar trend in Canada.
“Radicalization within the U.S. Somali community may be an indicator of similar processes at work in Canada,” Commissioner William Elliott said in his Oct. 30 address to the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies in Ottawa.
“As you know, we have one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the Western world. The potential follow-on threat, from a Canadian and RCMP perspective, is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action.”
Al-Shabab, which means “youth,” is an armed extremist group that has emerged from the lawlessness and chaos of Somalia and aims to establish an Islamic state.
It has been battling pro-government forces and African Union peacekeepers, and now holds the country’s south and most of the capital of Mogadishu, where it has imposed harsh laws and carried out beheadings and stonings.
A handful of Canadians have fought with armed Somali groups in recent years, including Abdullah Ali Afrah, a former Toronto businessman who was killed last year while leading an ambush against Ethiopian troops.
The directors of the Khalid Mosque, one of the most popular places of worship for Somali-Canadians in Toronto, said in a statement to the National Post in September they had no knowledge of any youths who had traveled to Somalia to fight.
“Members of the Khalid mosque congregation have not reported to us any missing children,” the directors said in the statement, a response to questions posed by the Post.
“Our message to the Toronto Somali youth regarding the Somalia conflict is: your parents left Somalia to escape the raging war in the homeland and to provide their families a better life. Do not even entertain the idea of returning to Somalia to fight. Somalia has seen more than its share of bloodletting.
“If you want to help yourself, your family and Somalia, hold fast to your faith, focus on and excel in your academic studies and become a productive member of the Somali community in particular and Canadian society in general.”
But since about 2006, the fight in Somalia has drawn several foreign youths. Earlier this year, two young men told a news conference they were Americans and had traveled to Africa “to fight alongside our brothers of Al-Shabab” and “to be killed for the sake of God.”
An Al-Shabab fighter who claims to be an American is also featured on several videos posted on the Internet that show him leading an ambush. The video is accompanied by rap music about keeping non-Muslims “living in fear.”
Al-Shabab has become a priority in Washington since the families of several Minnesota youths came forward to complain that their young relatives were being radicalized and recruited into Al-Shabab.
At least two Americans have already died in Somalia. Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Minneapolis college student, became the first known U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing when he blew himself up in Somalia last year, killing 30 people. Another American youth was allegedly shot dead as he was preparing to return to the United States.
Canada is home to about 150,000 ethnic Somalis, according to a report by Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre. Most are moderates but the report says that, “Some Somali-Canadians have fought as Islamist extremists in Somalia.”
Canadian investigators have been trying to determine who may have been recruiting the youths. Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said in March that “to get involved in terrorist organizations or jihadist movements, obviously that’s inconsistent with our values and it’s something that’s alarming and that we watch.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Ontario’s Deadly Swine Flu Surge, 24 Dead in 72 Hours
OTTAWA — In a shocking surge, 24 Ontario residents have died in less than 72 hours from Swine Flu, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported on its website.
Ontario’s startling fatalities reported between November 10 and 11 a.m. EST on November 12 catapults the death toll from 37 reported on Nov. 10 to a total of 61. That is twice the figure of dead in Quebec and the highest of any province in Canada.
See also: B.C. Hospitals working over capacity.
Hospitals from coast to coast are swamped with admissions and visits to emergency departments in the past week with other provinces reporting record admissions from Swine Flu since its outbreak was noticed in April.
Nova Scotia and Manitoba reported one death each between Nov. 10 and Nov. 12 to take Canada’s national fatality toll to 161 with much of the spike happening since the second wave of Swine Flu began in October.
On November 10 at 11 a.m. EST, Ontario’s death toll stood at 37 and the Canadian national total was at 135.
46 Canadians have died between November 5 and November 12 with heavy rates of hospitalizations across the country.
Ontario government officials could not be reached last night to comment about the 24 deaths.
The latest federal figures show B.C. has 23 deaths with eight occurring in just one week, Alberta has 20, Saskatchewan 5, Manitoba 8, Ontario 61, Quebec 35, Nova Scotia 2, Newfoundland and Labrador 5 and one each in Yukon and Nunavut.
In B.C., more than 200 people have been admitted to hospital in just one week. But provincial health officials say they are keeping their fingers crossed that the sickness from Swine Flu has reached a plateau.
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Afghan Asylum Seeker Wins Right to Stay in Britain After Converting to Christianity
An Afghani who arrived in Britain on a hijacked jet has been granted asylum after converting to Christianity.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, used human rights rules to overturn a Home Office decision to throw him out of the country.
In a landmark case, the former Kabul hotel worker claimed that he could be executed under Sharia Law if he returned home after switching religions.
He was a passenger on the Boeing 727 that was taken over by nine Afghans in February 2000 and forced to fly to Stansted in Essex.
The 49-year-old father of two, who was not one of the hijackers, was a Muslim, but baptized as a Christian five years after arriving in the UK and now regularly attends church and bible classes in Hounslow, west London.
His lawyers said there were fears that, as an apostate — one who rejects the Muslim religion — would face persecution or even death if he returned to Afghanistan.
His conversion had already led to hostility from other Afghans and Muslims in London who spat at him in the street when rumours spread about his change of faith, the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Tribunal was told.
He was even threatened with death by two Afghans with whom he had shared a house in London and warned by others that he would be killed if he went back to Afghanistan.
Although the Afghan Constitution allows non-Muslims to practise their faith, the small Christian community practises exclusively underground and it is forbidden for Afghans to abandon Islam.
Lawyers for the Home Office argued he would be able to practise his faith if he found like-minded Christians in Kabul and ‘kept his head down’.
But Senior Immigration Judge Nichols ruled that going home would expose him to a ‘real risk of persecution’ which violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
He said: ‘The individual would have to keep his faith completely secret; he would have to live a lie.
‘He may be forced to forego contact with others of his faith because of the danger and, significantly, would be constantly looking over his shoulder to avoid discovery in fear of the consequences.
‘He faces a real risk of, at the very least, detention because of his religion and, at worst, trial before a Sharia Court and harsh punishment unless the he recanted his conversion.
‘He could not rely on any intervention by the Afghan authority in that process and would not in any event be safe in Afghanistan, even if the government were able to intervene.’
The nine men who hijacked the airliner threatening to kill all 160 passengers unless they were granted asylum.
The gang were later jailed but cleared on appeal and freed to live comfortable lives in London with their families on benefits worth £150,000 a year.
In 2006, the gang were given ‘discretionary leave’ to remain in Britain as Afghanistan was ‘unsafe’ to return to.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Gives Grim Warning on European Prospects
THE CIA has predicted that the European Union will break-up within 15 years unless it radically reforms its ailing welfare systems.
The report by the intelligence agency, which forecasts how the world will look in 2020, warns that Europe could be dragged into economic decline by its ageing population. It also predicts the end of Nato and post-1945 military alliances.
In a devastating indictment of EU economic prospects, the report warns: “The current EU welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalisation could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the EU, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role.”
It adds that the EU’s economic growth rate is dragged down by Germany and its restrictive labour laws. Reforms there — and in France and Italy to lesser extents — remain key to whether the EU as a whole can break out of its “slow-growth pattern”.
Reflecting growing fears in the US that the pain of any proper reform would be too much to bear, the report adds that the experts it consulted “are dubious that the present political leadership is prepared to make even this partial break, believing a looming budgetary crisis in the next five years would be the more likely trigger for reform”.
The EU is also set for a looming demographic crisis because of a drop in birth rates and increased longevity, with devastating economic consequences.
The report says: “Either European countries adapt their workforces, reform their social welfare, education and tax systems, and accommodate growing immigrant populations [chiefly from Muslim countries] or they face a period of protracted economic stasis.”
As a result of the increased immigration needed, the report predicts that Europe’s Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025, potentially triggering tensions.
The report predicts that America’s relationships with Europe will be “dramatically altered” over the next 15 years, in a move away from post-Second World War institutions. Nato could disappear and be replaced by increased EU action.
“The EU, rather than Nato, will increasingly become the primary institution for Europe, and the role Europeans shape for themselves on the world stage is most likely to be projected through it,” the report adds. “Whether the EU will develop an army is an open question.”
Defence spending by individual European countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, is likely to fall further behind China and other countries over the next 15 years. Collectively these countries will outspend all others except the US and possibly China.
The expected next technological revolution will involve the convergence of nano, bio, information and materials technology and will further bolster China and India’s prospects, the study predicts. Both countries are investing in basic research in these fields and are well placed to be leaders. But whereas the US will retain its overall lead, the report warns “Europe risks slipping behind Asia in some of these technologies”.
For Europe, an increasing preference for natural gas may reinforce regional relationships, such as those with Russia or North Africa, given the inter-dependence of pipeline delivery, the report argues. But this means the EU will have to deal with Russia, which the report also warns “faces a severe demographic crisis resulting from low birth rates, poor medical care and a potentially explosive Aids situation”.
Russia also borders an “unstable region” in the Caucasus and Central Asia, “the effects of which — Muslim extremism, terrorism and endemic conflict — are likely to continue spilling over into Russia”.
The report also largely en dorses forecasts that by 2020 China’s gross domestic product will exceed that of individual western economic powers except for the US. India’s GDP will have overtaken or be overtaking European economies.
Because of the sheer size of China’s and India’s populations their standard of living need not approach European and western levels to become important economic powers.
The economies of other developing countries, such as Brazil, could surpass all but the largest European countries by 2020.
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Dutch Mosque Design Misunderstood
Traditional mosques with domes and minarets express unwillingness to integrate. That is what Dutch people often think. But research by architectural historian Eric Roose shows that those who commission the design of Dutch mosques only want to express what Islamic movement they belong to.
Mosques are an increasingly prominent feature of the Dutch landscape. Some Dutch people feel annoyed by this, especially when the mosques are richly equipped with oriental embellishments, domes and minarets. Others, however, feel that Muslims are now part of Dutch society and have the right to mark their identity in the Dutch landscape.
Anthropologist and architectural historian Eric Roose takes an original position in this debate. In his dissertation he meticulously describes the decision-making process around the design of twelve Dutch mosques. The patrons who commission the design of these mosques, it turns out, have motives beyond the desire to assimilate into Dutch society or not.
***
-Traditional mosques in the Netherlands are a sign of failing integration. What is your comment?
Eric Roose: The Dutch people are obsessed by the issue of integration of Muslims. Many can only understand Dutch mosque design from that perspective. Traditional Dutch mosques are either viewed as a sign of failing integration or as a sign of emancipation of Muslims in Dutch society. My research challenges this perspective. It reveals that the patrons who commission the design of the mosques are not in the least preoccupied with these issues. What they want with their design is to express their allegiance to some Islamic views and movements as opposed to others.
-One of the mosques described in your dissertation is the El-Islam mosque in The Hague. Don’t you think that the design of that mosque is a typical sample of nostalgia architecture?
The El-Islam mosque indeed has a typical Moroccan design. The patrons wanted their design to remind people of the official Islam of the Moroccan royal family. But as you know, many Dutch Moroccans are of Berber origin and have strong reservations against the royal family. So in fact the design has very little to do with nostalgia or homesickness.
With the Assalam mosque in Rotterdam, another of the mosques I investigated, the opposite is the case. The patron is close to the international Muslim Brotherhood. He wants to express a pan-Islamic vision and his dislike of the typical Moroccan Islam. His design is based on the modern Mosque of the prophet in Medina, which in his view is a culmination of all Islamic architectural styles.
-Also the Salafism movement purports to be an Islam that is detached from its regional cultural context. Is there a good example of a Salafist mosque in the Netherlands?
The Furqan mosque in Eindhoven comes closest to it. There you see that the architect at first brings all kinds of Moroccan elements into the design. But the patron removes these elements one by one, because the design must be plain and sober. The fundamentalist Salafis do not like the exuberant design of later centuries. They want to return to the sobriety of the first generations of Muslims.
-So the patrons want to demonstrate their position within Islam. But does that necessarily mean that they cannot also make a statement to Dutch society?
No, it doesn’t. But such statements are usually rhetorical. The integration debate is a reality they have to deal with. You see that in the beginning of the design process the issue is not discussed, but when the patrons are questioned by journalists and local officials, they start to invent reasons why their design is a statement of integration in Dutch society. The patron of the Essalam mosque in Rotterdam, for instance, once said that his mosque fits very well into the surroundings because if you remove the dome and minarets, it looks like the Rotterdam city hall. These are rationalisations in hindsight.
-Is there more freedom in Europe to express your religious identity in the design of a mosque than there is in Muslim countries?
I think so, yes. The Essalam mosque in Rotterdam could probably not have been built in Morocco, where the building of mosques is subject to strong regulations. Having said this, however, I must emphasize that local authorities in Dutch towns are getting increasingly critical and stubborn where it comes to domes and minarets. So the freedom to express one’s religious identity in mosque design is eroding in the Netherlands.
Eric Roose is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Turks Tired of Muezzins
Dutch newspaper Trouw reports on the Turks who are tired of the muezzins.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
EU Threat to the Union Jack and National Anthem
THE favourite to become President of the European Union is determined to replace Britain’s Union Flag and national anthem with “European symbols”.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy believes separate national emblems should be scrapped in a drive to create a new Euro identity.
He also supports a huge extension of EU influence over town halls, schools and sports, and he wants “green taxes” to be imposed across all 27 member nations.
Details of his staunch Euro federalist views emerged yesterday as Brussels sources confirmed he is almost certain to be installed as EU President on Thursday.
But opponents warned that his appointment is certain to bring a fresh wave of unacceptable interference in Britain’s affairs.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “Any attempt to move the EU further towards a federal state would be unacceptable.
“The British people never had a chance to give their view on whether the job of president should exist at all.”
Tory MP Douglas Carswell, a leading Eurosceptic, said: “It is pretty shocking that there is a chance that the EU is about to be led by a man who wants to erase symbols of national identity.
“This shows that the European superstate has arrived. If we are serious about doing something about this threat, we should stop complaining and starting holding a referendum on Britain’s future relationship with the EU.”
Mr Van Rompuy, 62, has overtaken Tony Blair as the favourite for the presidency, which was created under the Lisbon Treaty.European leaders will name the winner in Brussels.
Many see Mr Van Rompuy as a less divisive and flashy figure than Mr Blair — someone who will not overshadow leaders such as France’s Nicolas Sarkozy or Germany’s Angela Merkel.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
EU: A Flawed Candidate
Herman Van Rompuy may become president of the European Council for purely negative reasons. An effective diplomat needs a stronger record of achievement
There is a hoary parlour game that dwells on the supposed paucity of famous Belgians. It thereby retails a falsehood as well as a cliché. Since its founding in 1830, Belgium has produced notable figures in diplomacy, culture and other fields. Its statesmen, moreover, are experienced in dealing with one of the dominant issues of global politics: maintaining the unity of a society riven by communal and linguistic rivalries.
A Belgian prime minister ought thus to be well equipped to become president of the European Council, representing the 27 EU member states. But Herman Van Rompuy, who has quickly emerged as the favourite for the job, gives scant sign of being suitable for it. His qualifications are obscure beyond having the support of President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel. His anonymity is such that the disinterested observer even becomes enthusiastic for the alternative candidature of Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister. EU leaders should think again and choose Mr Balkenende.
The problem is that there is no precedent for a president. The post has been created under the Treaty of Lisbon, but the treaty is vague on the president’s responsibilities. In any new role, the personality of the officeholder will determine the profile of the office. This is a post, moreover, that has been created by a treaty that few European citizens have voted for. Owing to that lack of democratic legitimacy, the president of the European Council ought to be an effective chairman and figurehead rather than a policymaker.
That is the appeal of Mr Van Rompuy. He will not overshadow the political leaders of the main EU states. But his record contains little to suggest any more pressing attribute. He does not excite strong feelings and is largely unrecognised outside Belgium. If the EU is to have an administrative more than an executive president, then some visible accomplishment in the arts of diplomacy would inspire confidence.
Yet Mr Van Rompuy lacks that experience. His attainments are geared to the politics of Belgium. A member of the centre-right Christian Democrats, Mr Van Rompuy exemplifies the principle of moderate conservatism. Nowhere is this more evident than in his approach to fiscal policy. He served as a quietly efficient Economics Minister in the 1990s, cutting the budget deficit and thereby securing Belgium’s position as a member of the euro zone.
In his 11 months as Prime Minister, Mr Van Rompuy has held together a five-party governing coalition. In a country whose politics are bedevilled by tensions between the predominantly French-speaking Walloons and Flemish-speaking Flamands, that record evinces Mr Van Rompuy’s skills as a mediator. He became Prime Minister, amid political instability: his predecessor, embroiled in a scandal over a bank rescue, resigned after nine months. Mr Van Rompuy has given solidity to a fragile Government.
This is not a negligible record, but it is a parochial one. Even an international civil servant — say, Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees — is aided by an international reputation. Mr Van Rompuy lacks one.
Mr Van Rompuy has proposed new environmental and financial taxes to fund the EU. That would cut across the principle that national governments retain control of fiscal policy. And as serious as the demerits of Mr Van Rompuy’s proposals was the venue at which he reportedly advanced them: a dinner held under the auspices of the Bilderberg group. That organisation is a perennial target of crank conspiracy theorists, whose views are ridiculous. But it is significant that Mr Van Rompuy made an important proposal at a private rather than a public forum. It is a bad augury for a flawed candidature.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Food Summit: Gaddafi Asks Women to Convert to Islam
Rome, 16 Nov. (AKI) — Libya’s controversial leader Muammar Gaddafi has created headlines in Italy after inviting 200 women to a party and inviting them to convert to Islam. Gaddafi who is in Rome for the United Nations-sponsored global food summit, held the party at the house of the Libyan ambassador, Hafed Gaddur, on Sunday.
“Convert to Islam. Jesus was sent to the Jews, not for you. Mohammed, on the other hand, was sent for all human beings,” he reportedly said.
“Whoever goes in a different direction than Mohammed is wrong. God’s religion is Islam and whomever follows a different one, in the end, will lose,” said Gaddafi quoted by Italian daily La Stampa.
After arriving an hour late, Gaddafi began distributing gifts to the women, who were reportedly all Italian.
They were also each given a copy of the Islamic holy book the Koran as well as the Libyan leader’s Green Book, which outlines the Libyan leader’s view on political philosophy and democracy.
He then sat next to Libya’s ambassador to Italy Hafed Gaddur and an interpreter with two of his renowned female guards, known as ‘Amazon Guards’.
Gaddafi then began a speech in which he invited the women to convert to Islam, emphasising his support for equal rights but not equal duties.
According to the Libyan leader, women must do only “what their physical condition allows them” and spoke about the role that women played during World War II.
Gaddafi criticised the West, saying that women there “have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice.”
Gaddafi also invited the women attending the party to travel to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The Italian media said that the women came from an agency that provides “hostesses from good families” between the age of 18 to 35. They were reportedly paid 50 euros.
Reports said the women were not given anything to eat or drink before, during or after Gaddafi’s speech.
The women — who were very well dressed were told that short skirts and cleavage were forbidden — met at a hotel in the centre of Rome and were then escorted to the Libyan ambassador’s home.
Gaddafi is in Rome for the world food summit organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that opened on Monday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi: Crucifix? We Don’t Impose Half-Moon
(by Marina Perna) (ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 17 — From the parties at Berlusconi’s vacation home at Villa Certosa to the crucifix in public places, many questions were asked of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, last night in Rome during his second meeting with about 200 Italian women recruited from a hostess agency and taken to a villa in the capital where the Colonel set up his famous Bedouin tent. On the crucifix in public places, a very current issue in Italy, Gaddafi expressed his laicism: “religion is a path between man and God”, he stated in response to a question. “It is important not to mix religion and state: in Libya no one is obligated to put up the Muslim half-moon. Those who wish to do so”, he added dryly. The leader showed himself even more terse when he was asked a malicious question on the “parties at Villa Certosa”. A half smile and a finger over his mouth in a gesture to express silence. Again yesterday evening Gaddafi called many women together — young, beautiful, tall, thin and well dressed — to the villa and guest quarters of the Libyan embassy in Rome, for a new encounter after that of the day before yesterday with more Italian beauties. But the format was different: Sunday night the women situated in a semicircle around the leader, were a part of a true to the word lesson on Islam delivered by the Colonel and the role of women in the Islamic world. Yesterday was the same location but a different scene: a more traditional room with rows o seats in the villa’s living room. The rhythm of the evening was also different: rather than a lesson there was an open debate during which the women — many of whom had university degrees, all eager to press the leader — assaulted him with questions. Gaddafi offered an invitation to the conversion to Islam, also offering those who decide to do so his support and a trip to Mecca. He addressed the theme of the optimal relations between Libya and Italy after the friendship pact stressing that they are now working towards “cooperation between the two countries”. He also called for more integration between the new generations. Even through mixed marriages: those of Italian men with Libyan women and vice-versa. For better “immigration arriving from Africa”, he ended with a joke.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi: Another Gala This Evening, Plenty of Requests
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 16 — After last night’s success, there will be a replay tonight: another gala evening for Colonel Gaddafi surrounded by beautiful Italian girls. The conversation also this evening will probably focus on Islam and the role of women in the Muslim world. The Hostessweb.it agency who brought about 200 young women to a villa in Rome where they listened to a lesson from the colonel was back at work today. The aim, according the first reports, is to gather 250 young women tall, pretty, slim (candidates were requested to send a full length photo and not wear more than a 42 to 44 size dress), well dressed but not showy, the same as yesterday evening. Most likely today’s work was easier, as far as can be understood, the agency has had a boom in requests; helped by the media reports last night, the phones in the offices have been ringing all day. There are many requests for an engagement that pays 75 euros gross, more of less 60 euros net (just over that 50 paid last night). For the young women, expected to be lectured on the Koran by the colonel this evening as well and also invited to convert to Islam. The event is at 7:00 pm. The organisers are substantially certain about the appointment, however, with the colonel and his sudden whims, nothing is ever sure. But this evening, at the moment, the new ‘gala party’ has been confirmed and should start as soon as Gaddafi finishes his meeting with premier Silvio Berlusconi, who expects him for dinner. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How Hitler’s Nazi Propaganda Machine Tried to Take Christ Out of Christmas
Nazi Germany celebrated Christmas without Christ with the help of swastika tree baubles, ‘Germanic’ cookies and a host of manufactured traditions, a new exhibition has shown.
The way the celebration was gradually taken over and exploited for propaganda purposes by Hitler’s Nazis is detailed in a new exhibition.
Rita Breuer has spent years scouring flea markets for old German Christmas ornaments.
She and her daughter Judith developed a fascination with the way Christmas was used by the atheist Nazis, who tried to turn it into a pagan winter solstice celebration.
Selected objects from the family’s enormous collection have gone on show at the National Socialism Documentation Centre in Cologne.
‘Christmas was a provocation for the Nazis — after all, the baby Jesus was a Jewish child,’ Judith Breuer told the German newspaper Spiegel. ‘The most important celebration in the year didn’t fit with their racist beliefs so they had to react, by trying to make it less Christian.’
The exhibition includes swastika-shaped cookie-cutters and Christmas tree baubles shaped like Iron Cross medals.
The Nazis attempted to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of swastikas, and they replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas, who traditionally brings German children treats on December 6, with the Norse god Odin.
The symbol that posed a particular problem for the Nazis was the star, which traditionally decorates Christmas trees.
‘Either it was a six-pointed star, which was a symbol of the Jews, or it was a five-pointed star, which represented the Soviets,’ Breuer said. It had to go.
In the 1930s, the Nazis tried to change the ideology of Christmas. But when World War II started, the focus became more practical.
Civilians were ordered to send Christmas cards to the soldiers at the front. There were also tips on how to make Christmas cookies in the face of food shortages.
In 1944-1945, the Nazis tried to reinvent the festival once again as a day to commemorate the dead, in particular fallen soldiers. ‘By then nobody felt like celebrating,’ Breuer explained.
Happily, t5he German people mostly ignored the clumsy propaganda efforts and continued with the same traditions as before.
The is a legacy of the Nazi Christmas. The wartime version of the traditional Christmas carol ‘Unto us a time has come’ is still sung. ‘The Nazis took out the references to Jesus and made it into a song about walking through the snow,’ Breuer said.
Surprisingly, German churches put up little opposition to the Nazification of Christmas. ‘You would have expected them to protest loudly and insist that it was a Christian festival,’ said Breuer. ‘But instead they largely kept quiet, out of fear.’
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Death Penalty Should be Revisited, Says Ex-Judge
THE QUESTION of the death penalty for certain kinds of murder, for example those committed during armed robberies, should be revisited, according to the former president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson.
Speaking to The Irish Times , the judge said: “The Government should look at it. Then if the people want it they should have it.”
A constitutional ban on the death penalty was introduced as the 21st amendment to the Constitution in 2001. Another referendum would be necessary if the death penalty were to be legislated for.
“I am not totally in favour of it. But it should be revisited,” the former judge said. “It would have to be for specific offences. If people arm up and go out to rob and decide to take out anyone who gets in their way, they should pay the price. It should be a matter for each individual case.”
He believes the death penalty had a deterrent effect in the past.
“When I was growing up if a murder took place there were headlines in the press for a week. Now no one notices. Murder is no longer shocking anybody. People have far less respect for each other than they used to,” he said.
Some of this he blames on the prevalence of sex and violence in advertising and the media. “We’re becoming unshockable,” he said.
However, he acknowledged it was very difficult to be absolutely certain a person was guilty of murder, and that he would be deeply concerned about wrong convictions. “If the death penalty existed in Britain the Birmingham Six would have been executed,” he said.
The last person executed in Ireland was in 1954, when Michael Manning was hanged, with the sentence being carried out by English official hangman Albert Pierrepoint. No further executions were carried out and it was abolished in law in 1990.
The abolition of capital punishment is also a condition of EU membership and exists in a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ireland is a signatory.
The 21st amendment inserted a clause preventing the Oireachtas from reintroducing the death penalty without a further referendum. It was passed in a referendum held the same day as the first Nice referendum by 62 per cent of those who voted, with 38 per cent voting against the ban. Voters also voted that day for Ireland to sign up to the International Criminal Court.
The former judge also said that there was a “culture of dishonesty” in Ireland. “In England they are just as dishonest, but once they are found out they are gone,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Libyan Leader to Invite Young People to Rome Event
Rome, 16 Nov. (AKI) — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was planning to invite young men and women from Italy and other European countries to a party in Rome late Monday. The event was due to be staged a day after he invited at least 150 women to a party in the Italian capital late Sunday and asked them to convert to Islam.
“This evening there should be a repeat. However there should be more than the 150 women from yesterday,” Ivonne Di Vito, human resources coordinator of HostessWeb, told Adnkronos.
HostessWeb is an Italian agency which sourced the women for Sunday’s event which was held at the home of the Libyan ambassador, Hafed Gaddur.
“Gaddafi wants women from all of Italy’s cities and some from other European capitals,” Di Vito said.
On Sunday, the Libyan leader invited women to a party where he invited them to convert to Islam, while emphasising his support for equal rights.
During his speech, Gaddafi criticised the West, saying that women there “have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice.”
According to the president of HostessWeb, Alessandro Londero, several women were struck by Gaddafi’s speech about women and Islam and were likely to go to Libya to deepen their understanding of Islam.
“Some of them will meet Gaddafi in Libya. Two or three of them were struck by Gaddafi and began speaking to him. He seemed to have an incredible charisma and they wanted to deepen their understanding of Islam,” Londero told Adnkronos.
“Gaddafi got their phone numbers and told them he would personally call them after giving them time to read the Koran. If after reading it they remained interested, they would become his guests, along with their family, in Libya,” said Londero.
Gaddafi who is in Rome for the United Nations-sponsored global food summit, held the party at the house of the Libyan ambassador, Hafed Gaddur, on Sunday.
The women were given a copy of the Islamic holy book the Koran as well as the Libyan leader’s Green Book, which outlines Gaddafi’s view on political philosophy and democracy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Libyan Bomber ‘Targeted’ Berlusconi and Other Politicians
Rome, 13 Nov. (AKI) — The Libyan man who partly detonated his explosives at an army barracks in the Italian city of Milan in October, apparently had a dossier containing information on Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and other politicians, Italian media reports said on Friday.
According to joint investigations by Italy’s anti-terror police and a special branch of the paramilitary police, would-be suicide bomber Mohammed Game had carried out painstaking Internet research on at least 15 politicians who were supposed to be his ‘potential targets’.
Game (photo) is said to have created a dossier on Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa, interior minister Roberto Maroni and minister without portfolio Roberto Calderoli of the anti-immigrant Northern League party and Italy’s senate speaker Gianfranco Fini among others.
Reports said Game specifically tried to obtain information about Calderoli’s police escort. He also used online applications such as Google Maps and Google Video to obtain information about Calderoli’s home in the northern province of Bergamo, near Milan.
According to Italian weekly L’Espresso, police found in Game’s laptop computer information on the politicians public and private activities, types of transport and habits.
Calderoli — known for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islam stance — in 2007 proposed a regular “pig day” in which he threatened to take his pet pig for a walk on land in the Northern League stronghold of the Veneto region where mosques were planned.
Pigs are considered unclean in the Muslim and Jewish faiths.
Early in October, an Italian soldier was injured after 35-year-old Game exploded a bomb at the entrance of the ‘Santa Barbara’ barracks using rudimentary explosives reportedly made of solid nitrate. However, not all of the explosives detonated.
Two other alleged accomplices, an Egyptian and a Libyan, were arrested after the attack.
More than 100 kilogrammes of explosive materials including 40 kilogrammes of ammonium nitrate and other chemicals were seized at an apartment near Game’s.
While Game suffered severe injuries to his face and his hand was amputated, no other people were injured in his botched bombing attempt.
Game is still under arrest while recovering at a hospital in Milan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya-Italy: Gaddafi Calls on Girls to Convert to Islam
(by Marina Perna and Paola Lo Mele) (ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 16 — A party was what the 200 Italian girls under 35, beautiful and well-dressed (though restricted in what they could wear: mini-skirts and low-neck attire were forbidden), had been led to expect. Instead, they found themselves listening to a lecture on the Koran, the superiority of Islam and the role of women in the Arab world. The idea was that of Muammar Gaddafi, who on his arrival in Rome yesterday afternoon — to take part in the FAO summit set to begin today — requested an audience for one of his speeches. His staff immediately got down to work and contacted a hostess agency, which in only a few hours managed to round up the young, attractive women. The over 200 young women — some of whom rejected due to their being dressed in an inappropriate manner or “too short” — were given an appointment in front of one of the capital’s hotels and then taken on buses to the Libyan ambassador’s villa in a residential zone of the city. Expecting a party, the girls — after having been through a metal detector — found themselves in a hall with chairs arranged in a semi-circle where, after an hour’s wait, the Libyan leader appeared in a black suit and beret. The latter sat in the middle of the hall and, after having asked his audience some questions, began his ‘lecture’ while his all-female staff handed out gifts to the women: a copy of the Koran and one of his well-known “green books”. It was therefore a surprise evening for the young women — who were also paid about 50 euros net for their trouble — in which Gaddafi openly urged them to “convert” to Islam. Telling them that he “supported and was in solidarity with women”, he said he was for equality as concerns rights and not duties. Duties, he added, are what women’s “physical constitution allows them to do”. And after having provided his interpretation of the role of women in the West, where WW II obliged them to take the place of men who had left for the front, the Colonel stressed also criticism of “the Orient, where they are often used simply as a piece of furniture, to be changed when the man so desires it. And this is unjust.” After having urged the women “to convert”, Gaddafi offered those present a possible trip to the Mecca, necessary for every good Muslim woman. Astonishment, some “dismay” as well as a “great deal of interest” was seen at the end of the meeting when the girls, on leaving the villa where they had met with Gaddafi, headed for the buses which brought them back to the city centre. “I had been expecting a party and not a lesson, but it was an interesting experience,” said L.M., tottering on her 12-inch heels down the cobblestone path. Much more critical and “dumbfounded” was a small blond girl beside her, saying that she felt her religion had been “offended” , pulling her fake rabbit fur coat tightly around her. The Colonel had said “you believe that Jesus was crucified but it didn’t happen, God took him to the sky. They crucified someone who looked like him”, as well as “Jews tried to kill Jesus because he wanted to put Moses’ religion back on the right track”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Hostage Tells of His Experience
From Norwegian: “He spoke about cutting our heads off and of eating the flesh of non-Muslim people.”
Refsdal refuses to say whether he converted to Islam. His interpreter says he did, and that they had a big party afterward.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia, Mosque Offers to Host Referendum
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 17 — In Catalonia 130 municipalities will hold a referendum on independence, two months after the first referendum organised in the Catalan municipality of Arenys de Munt. The central government has forbidden the municipalities to hold the election in local institutions or town councils. In Manlleu a mosque has offered to have people vote within the building, the newspaper El Mundo reported today. In Ripoll, the organising committees reported, polling will take place in the La Vedruna school, managed by Carmelite monks. Wherever people vote, the question they must answer is always the same: Do you agree with Catalonia becoming an independent, democratic and social State and member of the European Union? To this question 96% of inhabitants of Arenys de Munt said yes on September 13. The municipality of Girona will be the first province capital to hold a referendum, on December 13.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Trial Starts of 2 Somalis From Alakrana
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 16 — The presiding judge of Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, Santiago Pedraz, has today opened the trial of the two Somalis arrested for the seizure of the fishing boat Alakkrana, 36 facing charges of illegal imprisonment, robbery with violence and possessing arms, with a prospect of sentencing in two weeks. According to sources inside the judiciary cited by the Europa Press agency, the judge took the decision on advice from the public prosecutor and has withdrawn the charge of conspiracy to commit a crime, which may block the expulsion of the two Somalis from the country. The freeing of the two alleged kidnappers in exchange for the crew of 36 is one of the conditions demanded by pirates who have been holding the Alakrana in their power for the past 42 days. Once they have been tried, the two Somalis are due to be expelled to carry out their sentences in their country of origin. The debate before the Audiencia Nacional could take place in the last week of November.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Sad Reflection on Society’: Neighbours Ignored Death Cries of Man Trapped in Drain Thinking it Was a Drunken Prank
The death cries of a man trapped head-first down a storm drain went ignored by his neighbours in what a coroner today described as a ‘sad reflection on society’.
Mark Wells shouted and screamed ‘please help me’ for up to an hour in the middle of the night, but no-one came to his aid because they thought they were hearing drunken antics.
It was not until the next morning that the 32-year-old’s body was found with his leg sticking out of the 2ft-by-1ft drain.
He had suffocated in the mud and slime at the bottom of the drain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Archbishop Says More Tax Could Do Us Good
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that higher taxation could be used as a means of improving the human “habitat”.
Addressing a TUC meeting on economics, Dr Rowan Williams also said that tax breaks could be used to promote environmentalist technology. “We should be thinking about taxation neither as an unreasonable burden on enterprise nor as a simple mechanism of redistribution but as a potentially sophisticated tool for long-term economy — housekeeping. Taxation builds a habitat — already, quite properly, through state welfare provision, but potentially in other less familiar ways.” He said that the use of the market as an independent entity had left “a ruinous legacy for heavily indebted countries” and “large-scale and costly social disruption even in developed economies”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Afghanistan: How Westminster and the Public Differ
New PoliticsHome research reveals the extent of the difference of opinion between the Westminster political community and the public over the war in Afghanistan.
The scale of the challenge facing the Prime Minister as he seeks to convince a sceptical public that it is worthwhile keeping British troops in the country is revealed today by PoliticsHome, the only opinion research organisation to track and compare opinion between the general public and the political community. The same key questions on the war were put to both the Phi100 panel of political insiders (which includes MPs and peers, journalists, party strategists and think tank directors from all parties) and a sample of 1,295 voters across the country.
A fundamental disagreement?
Political insiders were inclined to believe that the West’s involvement in Afghanistan has helped to combat global terrorism: forty four per cent of the panel took this view, compared to fifteen per cent believing that it had contributed to the rise of terrorism.
Among the public, the opposite view — that involvement in Afghanistan had contributed to the rise of global terrorism — was favoured by a margin of thirty six to twenty one. In both cases, a large proportion of people held the view that it was impossible to say either way.
The government has argued that failure in Afghanistan would lead to Al Qaida re-establishing itself in the country and a consequent increase in terrorist attacks on Western countries. While sixty two per cent of insiders agree with this view to some degree, the public are much more divided. Forty seven per cent either ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ agreed with the argument, but a similar proportion (forty six per cent) were unconvinced, saying that the argument was ‘not really’ or ‘not at all’ valid. These differences may trouble policymakers as they point to a fundamental disagreement over the very validity of the campaign itself.
Troop numbers
Both groups were polled on the number of extra US troops they would like President Obama to announce. The public were significantly less keen on an increase in troop levels: forty per cent wanted either an overall reduction in troop levels, or no significant increase. The proportion of insiders taking the same view was twenty nine per cent.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother of Two Receptionist Dies After Being Dumped in the Street With Her Hand Chopped Off
This is the first picture of the radio station receptionist who was found mutilated and dying just yards from her childminder’s front door.
Mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, was found by a passerby slumped on the ground in Greenford, West London, at 7pm on Monday night.
Witnesses said she had serious head injuries and one of her hands had been cut off.
She was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, but was pronounced dead just over four hours later at 11.20pm.
Her estranged husband is understood to be among six men arrested in connection with the incident and police are appealing for witnesses.
Geeta’s friend and colleague Seema Sidha, 31, had walked home together from the Southall offices of community station Sunrise Radio where they both worked before she went to catch a bus to collect her children.
She described Geeta — a mother of two sons, aged eight and nine — as a ‘very happy person’.
Ms Sidha, a producer who works on news and current affairs programmes, said: ‘I was with her last night when we walked home together before I caught the train.
‘She said she was going to pick her children up from the childminder’s. That is the last time I saw her and it was about 6.30pm. I believe it happened half-an-hour later.
Ms Sidha said: ‘That was her normal routine. She would drop her kids off in the morning and pick them up after work. She was a very helpful, very happy person, always smiling.
‘All of us are very confused and very surprised to hear the news of what happened.
‘Why someone would do this to her I have no idea. It is something you never expect to report about your colleague. It is an absolute shock for everyone.
‘Her youngest son has just turned eight and she told me she surprised him and took him out to celebrate. I spoke to the childminder and she said she was waiting for her.
‘She texted her and phone her and then she realised there were police outside her house. That is how she found out.
‘The kids are in social care at the moment before being returned to the family.’
She added that British-born Geeta was separated from her India- born husband who lives in the area.
She had recently returned from the Punjab area of India where she had attended a cousin’s wedding.
Ms Sidha said: ‘I know she was separated from her husband, but that was something she never talked about.
‘She was my friend. We used to go out for drinks. I just cannot get my head around it. I wish I had stayed with her last night.’
It is believed Geeta’s brother also lives in the area, as well as her ex husband.
A 29-year-old staff member at Sunrise radio, who asked not to be named, said: ‘This morning we found out and we are all totally shocked. The whole building is on shock.
‘She was a normal woman, a jolly woman who did not get angry and did not have anything bad about her.
‘You walk into the office and expect to see her sitting there, saying hello. But not today. We were friends and I am devastated.’
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Chalmers, who is leading the inquiry, appealed for help from the public.
He said: ‘When the victim was found, we know that a lot of people were in the street and that several people may have tried to administer first aid before the police or ambulance arrived.
‘These people left the scene before speaking to police and I would ask that anyone who was there, or anyone else who has information about the incident, call us in the strictest of confidence.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesman added: ‘Officers believe they know the woman’s identity and have informed next of kin, however, we await formal identification.
‘A post mortem examination will take place later today. Officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command at Hendon are investigating.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech Will be a Mockery, Delivered to a House of the Walking Dead
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is seldom a fount of wisdom, but yesterday he talked sense, even though it will go unheeded. He urged cancellation of tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech, announcing government legislation for the forthcoming session of Parliament, because its fine promises will be blown away with the leaves. Few of its measures can be enacted, when each takes an average 240 parliamentary days to reach the statute book, and only a likely 70 remain before a general election.
Labour will use the Speech simply to trail crowd-pleasers, such as a Bill to curb City bonuses. This has no more chance of stifling bankers’ greed than does the Dangerous Dogs’ Act of saving Lord Mandelson’s trousers from a rottweiler.
Ministers know this, but we have entered a political phase insulting to the electorate. The Government has lost the will, capacity, and popular support to run Britain effectively.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Tadic: Serbia Will Never Give Up Its Integrity
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 13 — “Italy and Serbia agree on everything, but “not on Kosovo. Serbia will not step back regarding its territorial integrity. We will fight with all legal means,” said Serbian President Boris Tadic in a press conference with Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi at Chigi Palace at the end of a intergovernmental summit. Italy recognises Kosovo’s unilateral independence declared in 2008, which Belgrade considers to still be one of its provinces. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ministers Give Nod to Albania’s EU Application
Albania has advanced another step on the road to European Union membership, with EU foreign ministers on Monday (16 November) backing the Balkan country’s request for official candidate status.
The ministers gave the nod to Tirana after ambassadors from the 27 member states endorsed the move at a meeting in Brussels last week.
The ball is now in the court of the European Commission, which must assess whether Albania is ready to start talks. The assessment process can last up to one year.
“The Council [of ministers] re-affirms that the future of the western Balkans lies in the European Union,” the foreign ministers said in a statement.
Albania first applied for candidate status in April, shortly after having been admitted to Nato. The country’s long wait for approval stands in contrast to Iceland’s application, which was waved through in a matter of days.
Despite the development, it is certain that Tirana is looking at years of talks before it can join the European bloc.
In the EU executive’s most recent assessment of the country, it found that Albania still had a long way to go in the battle against corruption and to set up an independent judiciary.
Few advances in tackling organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering also remain core concerns of the commission, as well as freedom of the press.
Albania is currently confronted with a boycott by the opposition Socialists, who have refused to take up their seats in parliament since the June elections in which the governing Democrats won by a narrow margin.
The commission has said that the boycott issue needs to be resolved before it can give Tirana a clean bill of health.
The EU executive nevertheless felt that Albania had made progress in the last year.
If the country does win candidate status, it will need to begin to implement substantial political and economic reforms.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Obituary: Serbian Patriarch Pavle — May His Memory be Eternal
by Srdja Trifkovic
Let us guard against inhumans, but let us guard even more against becoming inhuman ourselves. — Patriarch Pavle
When the man destined to become the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church was conceived in the the winter 1913-1914, horses and steam moved the world. That world appeared ordered and stable. The calamities of the 20th century — two world wars, revolutions and civil wars, genocides and expulsions, and the suffering of tens of millions of Christian New Martyrs — could not be foreseen. In the Old World the Serbian nation, although divided into two small kingdoms and two mighty alien empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, appeared vigorous and full of hope for the future.
Shortly after “the lights went out over Europe,” on September 11, 1914 (n.s.) — the Feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist — a boy was born to the Stojcevic family in the village of Kucanci, in today’s eastern Croatia. The family’s ancestors came to the Turk-devastated borderlands of the Habsburg Monarchy with the Great Serb Migration of 1690 from Kosovo, the martyred Serbian province with which the future Patriarch’s life was destined to be closely intertwined.
The weeks that followed the outbreak of World War I were a trying time for the Serbs in the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy: they were collectively blamed for the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo and subjected to mob violence and police persecution. For newborn Gojko’s mother Ana, however, the main worry was the fact that the war was raging, the prices were soaring, and her husband Stevan was far away: he had left for America only months earlier in search of work.
In early 1917, just before the United States joined the fray and made the war truly global, Stevan Stojcevic came back home — without a penny to his name — to die of tuberculosis contracted in the workshops and rented rooms of western Pennsylvania. A year later Ana remarried but died in childbirth soon thereafter. Gojko and his elder brother Dušan were left in the care of their paternal aunt who raised them as her own children. He was a sickly child unfit for farm work, but the aunt recognized his aptitude for learning and — although poor herself — endeavored to give him a good education.
After graduating from the Fourth Gymnasium (high school) in Belgrade young Gojko enrolled at the Orthodox Seminary in Sarajevo. During World War II, suffering from tuberculosis, he took refuge in the Holy Trinity monastery in Ovcar, in central Serbia. In 1944 he was given only three months to live. His recovery, miraculous in those pre-penicillin times, prompted him to take monastic vows in 1946 and assume the name of his favorite saint, Pavle (Paul)..
The Serbian Orthodox Church, which had a quarter of its shrines destroyed and a fifth of its clergy killed during World War II, was left in 1945 at the mercy of Tito’s militantly atheist clique. Most of its property was confiscated immediately after the war, religious education was effectively banned, and the political cost of liturgical attendance was high, often prohibitive. Yet monk Pavle visibly thrived in those years, spiritually and intellectually. In 1954 he was ordained hieromonk. After completing postgraduate studies in Athens (1955-1957) he became archimandrite, and only months later elected the Bishop of Ras and Prizren. Bishop Pavle remained at the helm of that ancient diocese, which includes Kosovo and Metohija, for 33 years — until he was elected Patriarch in 1990.
The long decades of Tito’s autocracy were a trying time for the Serbian Orthodox Church…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Egypt: Spidla, Closer Cooperation on Social Affairs
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 13 — European Commissioner for Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla said during his visit to Egypt that the country is “a crucial partner of the EU in the Mediterranean region”. His goal is closer cooperation in the field of labour and social affairs. The commissioner will and his visit on Monday. He will have meetings with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and the ministers of welfare, migration, family and population. “We ask Egypt” said Spidla “to continue its reforms on the lines of the goals on which we have agreed within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Through our cooperation we can transform the Mediterranean area into a peaceful, democratic and prosperous region”. The goals mentioned by Spidla include cooperation against poverty, discrimination and for the promotion of equal opportunities. The commissioner’s visit is an opportunity for both parties to assess the progress that has been made and the impact of the crisis on social level and on employment, and to consolidate collaboration between the Commission and Egypt as president of the Mediterranean Union. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
15 Year Old Egyptian Convert to Christianity Sends Plea to Obama
by Mary Abdelmassih
Cairo (AINA) — 15-year-old Egyptian girl Dina el-Gowhary, who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation. “Mr President Obama,” she writes, “we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country.”
The handwritten Arabic letter, posted on Coptic websites, also says “I am 15 years old but I still have hope that my message will reach President Obama.”
The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority (AINA 9-26-200).
Dina, is the daughter of 57-year-old Maher el-Gowhary, also known by his Christian name Peter Athanasius, who embraced Christianity secretly 35 years ago. In August, 2008 he filed the second ever lawsuit of a Muslim-born Egyptian against the Egyptian Government to officially alter his identification documents to reflect his new Christian identity. He lost the case in June 2009. According to the Court ruling, the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the “Public Order” in Egypt. (AINA 6-16-2009). He appealed the ruling.
Maher and Dina have been living in hiding ever since he filed his lawsuit because Muslim clerics have called him an apostate and several Fatwas (religious edicts), for ‘spilling his blood’ have been issued. He frequently changes where he lives to evade being killed, and friends supply him with food. “We cannot sleep, eat or go out in the street,” he said. He believes that the authorities are putting pressure on them (he and Dina) to re-convert back to Islam, “but this will never happen, even if we have to live on the streets. We love our Lord Jesus, and we have left Islam for good.”
The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), in conjunction with Copts United, presented el-Gowhary’s case to the UN Human Rights Council in its 12th session in September 2009.
Maher lashed out today at the Egyptian Government, asking for his Egyptian nationality to be taken away if it is the reason why the Government is adamant on depriving him of his basic rights as an Egyptian citizen. He told Copts United “if the Egyptian nationality is the cause of my imprisonment within my home and being unable to move, then I do not want it.” He added that it would be more honorable for him to hold the nationality of any other country rather than the Egyptian one “Where I live together with my daughter suffering imprisonment within the walls of my apartment and without any freedom.”
| [Return to headlines] |
Football: Egyptian Press, Aggression Exaggerated
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 13 — Scepticism and accusations prevailed today in the Egyptian press against Algeria for having exaggerated the aggression that the national team’s players suffered yesterday while they were travelling to their hotel by bus before tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier. In an interview with a state-run TV station, the driver of the bus that was attacked yesterday by a group of Egyptian fans, Khairi Hassan, denied that the Egyptian fans threw rocks at the vehicle, and said that the Algerians broke the glass from the inside with hammers place there in case of emergency. While the bus was nearing the hotel, he said, the Egyptian fans were about a hundred metres away and were chanting victory slogans. The Algerian team reacted by insulting them and breaking the windows of the bus to make themselves heard. Pro-government newspaper, Al Ahram, spoke today about “a strange incident”, where the Algerians broke the windows of the bus and pretended to be victims. The driver was also quoted in another official newspaper, Al-Ghomourya, stating that the Algerians attacked him. Independent newspaper, Al-Chourouq, spoke about a “complete deception” and another independent daily, Al Masri Al Yom, defined the episode as “comical”. In this case it was not denied that a few children threw some rocks at the bus, but the daily states that the Algerians “took advantage of the situation”, with several of them pretending to be injured and breaking their own windows.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Tunisia: 200 Mln Barrels in Hammamet West
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 13 — The Hammamet West oil field, in the Gulf of Hammamet, has a potential of over 200,000,000 barrels of oil, as reported by the oil company Cooper Energy. The Hammamet West oil field was discovered in 1967 as part of the Bargou Exploration permit, and Cooper Energy has been the sole owner since 2005. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton: Muslims Are Out-Breeding You (2)
“You cannot get a divorce and move to another planet,” Clinton said.
The Palestinians, he warned the Israelis, are having children at a faster rate. “If you want to be a democracy and a Jewish state you have to cut a deal,” he said.
See also: Schwarzenegger and Lindsey Graham VIDEO
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton: Muslims Are Out-Breeding You (1)
He said that the Palestinians have more children than Israelis can have, adding that it is only a matter of time until Palestinian rockets have navigational systems, and they will be able to kill more people. Therefore, it is urgent that the Israelis and the Palestinians make peace, he said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
EU Rejects Calls for a Palestinian State
Brussels, 17 Nov. (AKI) — The European Union on Tuesday rejected calls by the Palestinian Authority to declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU, said conditions in the Palestinian territories “were not there yet” for such a move.
Bildt was speaking before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
He said in regard to the establishment of a Palestinian state that “…there has to be one first. We would be ready to recognise a Palestinian state, but conditions are not there as of yet.”
Bildt’s came after US state department spokesman Ian Kelly echoed similar concerns, saying “We support the creation of a Palestinian state that is contiguous…the best way to achieve that is negotiation between two parties.”
Earlier this week, Palestinian officials, led by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, announced that they would seek recognition of a state from the United Nations Security Council, without a solution to the conflict with Israel.
The US — Israel’s biggest ally — however, has veto power in the Security Council, and could in theory exercise it to prevent the unilateral declaration.
Israel’s continuous construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has increased distrust of Israel’s intentions among Palestinian negotiators.
Israeli settlements, checkpoints and the construction of the separation wall prevent the contiguity of a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority has demanded all settlement construction stop before it begins new peace negotiations, a move that hardline Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.
Israeli rights group, Peace Now, said in a report earlier this year that at least 285,000 settlers live east of the 1967 Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank.
The figures exclude East Jerusalem settlers which number over 191,000.
The first Jewish settlements — considered illegal under international law and a thorny issue between Israelis and Palestinians — were erected after the 1967 Six-Day war inside the so-called Green Line, demarcating a border between the West Bank and Israel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Too Early for UN to Recognise Palestinian State
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 17 — For the Swedish presidency of the EU it is “premature” for the Palestinians to request recognition of their state at the UN. “I don’t think that we will support the Palestinian request for the UN to formally recognise their state”, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, stated today upon entering the council where he will meet with his European colleagues. “Before recognising the Palestinian state one has to be born”, Bildt explained, judging as “premature” the request of the PA to the UN. According to the EU high representative for foreign policy, Javier Solana, the recognition process should “take its time” and develop “in tranquillity and at the right time”. “I don’t think that now is the time to talk about it”, Solana said. The same message came from the EU commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who stated that “it is too soon” to comment on the matter. Ferrero-Waldner stressed that the 1967 border for a future Palestinian state “would be important”. For Alexander Stubb, the Finnish foreign minister, the Palestinian request has above all a tactical motivation, aiming to put pressure on Israel in light of the re-launching of the peace process. The Palestinian Authority asked for diplomatic support from the EU and the international community to then go on to the UN Security Council to request recognition of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, within the boundaries that existed before the 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as the capital. Israel is opposed to the initiative. The US stated yesterday that it was also opposed to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Knesset Likely to Okay New Biometric ID Database
Barring any last-minute surprises, the Knesset will give final approval today to a controversial law that would set up a biometric database with information about every citizen of the country. The database would be used to issue “smart” identity cards.
Both supporters and opponents expect the bill to pass by a large majority, as the government is expected to impose coalition discipline in the voting. The main opposition party, Kadima, first proposed the bill when it was in power, and is thus expected to support it as well. And though the government postponed a scheduled vote on the legislation twice in the last few weeks, there are no indications that it will do so this time.
The bill would require all Israeli identity cards and passports to be “smart” documents, containing an electronic chip with the holder’s fingerprints and facial scan. That information would then be stored in a biometric database.
Opponents argue that such a database constitutes a real threat to Israelis’ welfare, as the data could too easily pass into the wrong hands. For instance, criminals might obtain an innocent person’s biometric data, and somehow plant them at a crime scene to cover their own tracks, or enemy states might obtain the data and use them to identify Israeli agents operating on their soil.
This argument is based in part on the latest State Comptroller’s Report, which found that items included in the extremely sensitive Population Registry database — which includes every Israeli’s ID number, address, and other personal and family information — were leaked to the Internet because the Interior Ministry had not protected it properly. Nor were police ever able to finger the culprits in this activity.
Under such circumstances, say opponents of the bill, what grounds are there for believing the government would do a better job of protecting the biometric database? Moreover, they charge, such a database would turn the government into “Big Brother.”
As the decisive vote nears, the atmosphere in the Knesset has become increasingly tense. The house has been rife with rumors about deals to ensure the law’s passage, and with reports of rifts between opponents and supporters within the same party.
If, for instance, the government imposes coalition discipline, Likud ministers Michael Eitan and Moshe Ya’alon, both of whom have spoken out against the law, would have to vote against their conscience. The same would be true of opponents within Kadima should that party impose faction discipline on its members — a decision it will make this morning.
Eitan, who has led the fight against the bill, said yesterday that he considered resigning from the cabinet over it, but backed down after concluding that his resignation would not prevent its passage. Therefore, he said, he would now vote for it if coalition discipline is imposed. “The truth is that my vote won’t make any difference,” he claimed.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) has promised that if the law passes, he will draft regulations to significantly limit use of the database and to create safeguards to prevent abuse. For instance, he is considering separating the fingerprint database from the facial scan database, and forbidding access to either without authorization signed by both the prime minister and the interior minister.
“Yishai believes the whole world is moving toward a similar step, and therefore, he’s promoting it,” said one associate. “But he would not vote for the law if he weren’t convinced he could protect the database via the regulations he intends to draft.”
The law also has many opponents outside the Knesset, particularly among human rights organizations. Attorney Avner Pinchuk of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, for instance, pointed out that other democracies have biometric passports, but no other democracy has a biometric database.
“This database, which has no parallel in any other democracy, is disastrous for democracy, human rights and security,” he said yesterday, adding that if the legislation passes, his organization would petition the High Court of Justice against it. “Everyone admits that a biometric database isn’t necessary to prevent forged identity cards.”
In fact, Pinchuk charged, Israel could have started issuing smart ID cards two years ago, but then interior minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) “admitted he delayed the move in order to use them to ‘sell’ the public on this dangerous and unnecessary biometric database.”
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Music: Jerusalem International Oud Fest Turns 10
(ANSAmed) — NAPLES, NOVEMBER 12 — Artists and composers from all music genres, from Israel and abroad, will take part from today until November 27 in the Jerusalem International Oud Festival, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Both in Jerusalem (until November 26) and Nazareth (from November 24-27), stars from Israeli’s ethnic, Jewish and Arab music scene will perform together with musicians from India, France and Mediterranean countries to present the public with a wide array of artistic patrimonies and to celebrate the chordophone, the ‘oud’, considered the ‘sultan’ of musical instruments in the Arab-Islamic world. Belonging to the short-necked lute family, the ‘oud’ according to legend was invented by the grandchild of Adam and Eve. Music historians on the other hand trace the instrument to ancient Egypt. The concerts will take place at the Confederation House, the Jerusalem Theatre, the Gerard Behar Center, Beit Avihai and the Shimson Center-Beit Shmuel in Jerusalem. Another four concerts are scheduled in the city of Nazareth. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
PA Confirms PLO to Take Over Parliament
Head of National Council verifies plan, revealed by Ynet, to transfer authorities of Hamas-controlled Legislative Council to Palestinian Liberation Organization
Political maneuver against Hamas: Salim Zanoun, chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), confirmed Sunday evening that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was planning to take over the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
The plan was first revealed by Ynet on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda: The Greatest Threat
[Note from JP: No it isn’t. It only masks the real threat from stealth jihad.]
Telegraph View: Mr Brown is proposing a conference to map out the transfer of power to the Afghans from next year. He deserves our support.
Two years ago, when Gordon Brown delivered his first foreign policy speech as Prime Minister at the Guildhall in London, he referred only fleetingly to what is now his most pressing preoccupation: the war in Afghanistan. That address, just a few months after his arrival in Downing Street, was intended to highlight Mr Brown’s Atlanticist credentials as a “lifelong admirer of America”. He defined his outlook as “hard-headed internationalism” that sometimes requires equally hard-headed intervention to fulfil the first duty of government — to protect and defend the country and its people from harm. For many years now, it has been apparent that the most immediate threat to life and limb has been posed by Islamists linked to al-Qaeda, either operating out of Afghanistan and Pakistan or taking their orders from there.
While the UK has many foreign-policy ambitions, this must remain the medium-term priority. It is also America’s; and Mr Brown seems confident that when President Obama finally makes known the future dispositions of US arms in Afghanistan, the approach adopted by our two countries will be similar — a counter-insurgency strategy aimed at bolstering the government of President Karzai and preventing al-Qaeda’s return, on the coat-tails of the Taliban, to their former haven. If the Nato mission in Afghanistan fails, it will encourage jihadis throughout the Middle East and the sub-continent, destabilise Pakistan and undermine the embryonic anti-clerical movement in Iran, a country whose nuclear ambitions remain the other great foreign policy headache. To that end, Mr Brown’s proposed London conference in January, which would map out a timetable for transferring power to the Afghans from next year, is welcome. It is important to establish clearly how success will be recognised.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Freedom for Imprisoned Christian ‘Apostates’
After 256 days, women told they’ll be released
After numerous prayers and petitions from around the world, two Iranian women jailed for no other reason than being Christian have been told they will be released from a Tehran prison today, a Christian ministry reports.
Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, have been imprisoned for 256 days — since March 5. They were repeatedly told to recant their faith and that they would be executed as “apostates,” solely because they are Christians.
But now the Christian ministry Elam has announced the women have been told they will be released today.
“We understand after their release they might have to attend court hearings,” a report from Elam explained. “We are rejoicing at the prospect of their release but would ask you to pray for their full and unconditional release, and for their safety and quick recovery.”
[Comments from JD: See article to read about their brave words at their trial.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Academics and Students Are Turning Against Darwin’s Theory
Muslims in many countries are increasingly rejecting Darwin’s theory of evolution, under the influence of conservative elements in Islam, a science conference was told yesterday. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, told the conference, being held in Egypt by the British Council, that in too many places students and academics believed they had to make a “binary choice” between evolution and creationism, rather than understanding that one could believe both in God and in Darwin’s theory.
Dr Guessoum, who is a Sunni Muslim, said that in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, only 15 per cent of those surveyed believed Darwin’s theory to be “true” or “probably true”. This stand was equally prevalent among students and teachers, from high school to university. Most alarmingly, he claimed, science teachers were misrepresenting the facts and theories of evolution by mixing it with religious ideologies.
A survey of 100 academics and 100 students that he conducted at his own university showed that 62 per cent of Muslim professors and students believed evolution to be an “unproven theory”, compared with 10 per cent of non-Muslim professors. “The rate of acceptance of evolution and of the idea of teaching evolution was extremely low,” he said. “I wondered, who are all these educated people rejecting evolution? They are even rejecting the fact that it should be taught as scientific knowledge.”
Evolution did not contradict Islamic beliefs, Dr Guessoum said, unless a literal reading of the texts were adopted. “Many Muslim scholars, from the golden age of Islam to today, adopted an evolutionary world view,” he said. Addressing the conference in Alexandria, organised for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, he said that concerns among Muslims about evolution were being fuelled by Christian creationists. People in Muslim countries would find creationist theses on the internet and, not realising that these were on the fringes of scientific debate, assume that creationism had scientific credibility in the West.
“It is a serious problem,” he said. “It would be like going to my students and telling them the planets are not related to the stars, there is no relationship between them and gravitational pull or radiation, and they were all created on one day. We would not dream of describing the cosmos in such a ridiculous manner … We cannot allow people to go into the 21st century with no understanding of science.”
Science and faith
— Charles Darwin lost his faith, but did not become anti-religion. The Rev John Brodie Innes, his friend and parish priest, wrote: “I never saw a word in his writings which was an attack on Religion. He follows his own course as a Naturalist and leaves Moses to take care of himself”
— The trial in 1925 of John Scopes, who taught his high school class about evolution, tested a Tennessee law that made it illegal “to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of Man as taught in the Bible”. Scopes’s conviction was overturned on a technicality
— In 1968 Susan Epperson challenged the state of Arkansas for preventing her from teaching evolution to her students. The Supreme Court ruled in her favour
— Last year a Muslim creationist succeeded in getting the website of the leading atheist Richard Dawkins banned in Turkey. Adnan Oktar, from Ankara, offered £4.4 trillion to anyone who can point to a single fossil that proves evolution
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria-Italy: First ICE Course in Damascus for EDPA Training
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, NOVEMBER 12 — Strengthening bilateral trade relations between Italy and Syria by supporting Syrian institutions is the objective of the Italian trade Commission’s (ICE) training course for Syria’s Export Development Promotion Agency (EDPA) on November 22-25 2009. The initiative, pointed out the ICE office in Damascus, is the first tangible implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed by the Italian Trade Commission and the EDPA signed on October 31 in the Syrian capital. The course, which will include the participation of about 50 EDPA delegates, will be supervised Italian experts and will deal with the following topics: econometrics, data analysis and economic predisposition analysis, marketing and financial and insurance support for exports, and quality management. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Foreign Investments Down 57.6%
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 13 — Foreign investments in Turkey as of September 30 of this year have totalled 6 billion dollars, a decline of 57.6% compared to 2008, showed data provided by the Department of Foreign Investments revised by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Istanbul. Holland and France lead the main investing countries in 2009 with 640 and 568 million dollars respectively. However, investments from Holland are actually coming from other European or North American countries. Italy is the fourth ranked country with 240 million dollars in investments, a 13.2% increase on last year, making 4% of all foreign investments into Turkey. Germany is ranked third, with investments of 275 million dollars. Italy’s position confirms the excellent state of bilateral economic and trade relations with Turkey. Italian companies with a stable presence in Turkey total 750, or 3.3% of the number of foreign companies (23,057). Germany has the most businesses located in Turkey (3,955) followed by Great Britain (2,163), Holland (1,760), Iran (1,195), USA (1,001), France (845) and Azerbaijan (679). Of the 23,057 businesses present in Turkey, 12,483 operate in Istanbul (54.1%), 2,897 in Antalya (12.6%), 1,539 in Ankara (6.7%), 1,350 in Izmir (5.9%), 1,324 in Mugla (5.7%), and 468 in Bursa (2%). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British Army Tells Its Soldiers to ‘Bribe’ The Taleban
British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday.
Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.
The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and Nato forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date.
The new instructions came on the day that Gordon Brown went farther than before in setting out Britain’s exit strategy from Afghanistan. The Prime Minister stated explicitly last night that he wanted troops to begin handing over districts to Afghan authorities during next year — a general election year in Britain.
Addressing the issue of paying off the locals, the new manual states that army commanders should give away enough money to dissuade them from joining the enemy. The Taleban is known to pay about $10 (£5.95) a day to recruit local fighters.
Major-General Paul Newton said: “The best weapons to counter insurgents don’t shoot. In other words, use bags of gold in the short term to change the security dynamics. But you don’t just chuck gold at them, this has to be done wisely.”
British commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq have complained that their access to money on the battlefield — cash rather than literal gold — compares poorly with their US counterparts.
Adam Holloway, a former army officer and the Tory MP for Gravesham in Kent, said that the idea was a matter of “shutting the door after the horse has bolted”. He added: “I know that a number of generals thought in 2006 that, rather than send a British brigade to Helmand, they should buy off people in the tribal areas. Now it’s too late.”
Mr Brown told the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at Guildhall in the City last night that a summit of Nato allies would be held in London in January, which could set a timetable for the transfer of security control to the Afghans starting in 2010. Military sources said that the first areas to be involved would probably be in the north and west of Afghanistan — not in Helmand in the south, where British troops are based.
The counter-insurgency field manual also highlights the importance of talking to the enemy. “There’s no point in talking to people who don’t have blood on their hands,” General Newton said, launching the document in London.
Britain’s early experience of handing out cash in Afghanistan proved abortive. About £16 million in cash was given to farmers to stop them growing poppy crops for the heroin trade, which helps to fund the Taleban. The money is believed to have had little impact on the opium yields.
The manual says that money can be the answer, if it is prudently distributed. “Properly spent within a context of longer-term planning, money offers a cost-effective means for pulling community support away from the insurgents and provides the military with a much-needed economy of force.
measure,” it says. “Unemployed and under-employed military-aged males typically provide the richest vein from which insurgents recruit ‘foot soldiers’. Short-term, labour-intensive projects are therefore the best way to disrupt such recruiting.”
“The counter-insurgent should be careful not to be over-generous since this will distort local economic and social activity and may lead to unproductive dependency.”
The positive impact of military units going into battle with bags of cash at their disposal is underlined in the manual by the experience of a top British commander who served in Iraq. “The hoops that I had to jump through to get the very few UK pounds that were available were . . . amazing; the American divisional commanders were resourced and empowered in ways that we could only dream of,” he says.
“UK commanders on recent operations have not had quick access to the same levels of cash as . . . their US counterparts,” the manual says. “Where possible, mission command should apply to money as much as any other weapon or enabling system.”
It is more than eight years since the Army last published a counter-insurgency doctrine, when the main lessons contained in it arose from operations in Northern Ireland and the Balkans.
General Newton, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff Development Concepts and Doctrine, said that new ideas were needed to cope with the media-savvy insurgents who are fighting in Afghanistan and that there was no place for arrogance on the part of the British military hierarchy, relying on their experience of past campaigns.
The Americans complained in Iraq that the British in Basra too often referred to the lessons of Northern Ireland in dictating how the insurgency should be handled.
A bomb disposal specialist from 33 Regiment Royal Engineers was killed by an explosion near Gereshk in central Helmand province on Sunday, the Ministryof Defence said yesterday. He was part of the Counter-IED (improvised explosive device) Task Force and the 97th member of the Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan this year.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Brown Misjudges the Afghanistan Waiting Game
There’s something futile about Gordon Brown’s and, now, David Miliband’s speeches on Afghanistan. After all, the world is still waiting to hear what Obama’s strategy is for the country. Will he increase troop numbers — and by how much? What does he actually want to achieve with them? Until that’s known, it’s a little premature to talk about a “comprehensive political framework” for handing security responsibilities over to the Afghan army.
Worse, though, the PM’s statements may actually be damaging. Sure, it’s frustrating that the US President is leaving his allies hanging. But, in the meantime, any international talk about handovers and withdrawal — even if Downing Street maintain that they’re not talking about withdrawing troops just yet, and even if they’re ready to increase troop numbers themselves — could simply ramp up the pressure on Obama not to increase US troop numbers to the levels requested by military commanders. In the end, it all comes down to a vicious irony: talking about a timetable now could draw the whole process out.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gordon Brown Wants London Afghanistan Talks to Set Exit Timetable
Gordon Brown has promised to set a timetable for leaving Afghanistan in a bid to quell growing public scepticism of the British military mission in the run up to the next general election
The Prime Minister offered an upbeat assessment of the allied effort to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, claiming “long-lasting damage” was being done against their networks. It came as opinion polls continued to show that public opinion is turning against the war in Afghanistan. A survey this weekend showed that 71 per cent of British voters now back a phased withdrawal of British troops over the next year.
Mr Brown, in a speech to the Lord Mayor’s banquet, said he wanted an international summit to take place in London early next year to thrash out a full timetable for transferring power to the Afghans. He said: “I have offered London as a venue in January. I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished. It should identify a process for transferring district by district to full Afghan control and set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010.”
It is likely that the London conference would form the first stage of a two-part event, with the second round of talks held in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Mr Brown is keen for the Nato allies to agree a timetable which would see British troops restricted to a training and mentoring role, rather than front line fighting against the Taliban, by the end of November.
The British casualty rate, there have been 233 British deaths in the conflict, has led to calls for troops to come home. But Mr Brown said the aims of the bitter struggle with the Taliban remained and he pointed to a series of recent successes. He said: “Since January 2008 seven of the top dozen figures in al-Qaeda have been killed, depleting its reserve of experienced leaders and sapping its morale. And our security services report to me that there is now an opportunity to inflict significant and long-lasting damage to al-Qaeda. We understand the reality of the danger and the nature of the consequences if we do not succeed: we will never forget the fatal al-Qaeda-led attacks in London on 7 July 2005.”
In his speech Mr Brown also issued a thinly disguised attack on the Conservatives position on Europe by claiming they were unpatriotic by forming an alliance away from the main centre right grouping in the European Parliament.. He said: “Britain brings the influence that comes from being right at the heart of great international institutions and alliances — the EU, NATO, the UN, the Commonwealth, the G8 and G20. That unique position is an awesome privilege and a great responsibility — and no-one — whether narrow nationalist or instinctive isolationist — should consider themselves patriots if they would sacrifice or diminish our influence”.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has promised to try and wrestle back some powers form Europe in the wake of his decision not to commit to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty now that it has been ratified. He is also committed to remaining in the new grouping in the European Parliament despite attempts by Labour to “smear” their new partners.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hague Warns Against Fixed Timetable for Handover in Afghanistan
Mr Hague [Shadow Foreign Secretary] said he believed all parties agreed on the need to handover power to Afghan security forces, but added that it would be self-defeating to do so on a fixed timetable for all areas. “I don’t think we would be setting a fixed timetable now for the most difficult areas,” he said. “You give the Taliban a timetable to work too… that is probably a self-defeating thing to do.” He also criticised the lack of a figure to coordinate civilian strategy once troops have gained ground, and called on President Obama to “appoint or agree with the Afghans some such powerful coordinating figure to get that right”. He added that extra troops must be used to win over the the local population. “They have to be used to protect and win over the local population rather than just kill the enemy, to put it at its crudest,” he said. He insisted that if everything was done properly “it is still possible to make progress in Afghanistan”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Reporter Detained in Shanghai Over Obama-Mao T-Shirt
WASHINGTON — A CNN correspondent said Monday she was detained byChinese security guards in Shanghai for two hours for displaying a T-shirt on camera depicting US President Barack Obama as Mao Zedong.
Emily Chang, a Beijing-based correspondent for the US television network, said in a blog post on CNN.com that she hunted down the shirt after hearing they had been banned amid fears they “may offend the American president.”
The front of the shirt says “Serve the People” in Chinese, Chang said. “Oba-Mao” is written on the back in English.
Chang said she held the shirt up to the camera while filming a story in a Shanghai market.
“Two security guards happened to pass by at the moment I announced to the camera: ‘This is the T-shirt everybody is talking about,’“ she said.
“And that was it. They scrambled towards us and tried to pry the shirt out of my hands,” Chang said. “I didn’t give in.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyans Recruited to Fight in Somalia
DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — The recruits assembled by moonlight at a watering hole. Hundreds of boys and young Kenyan men were herded onto trucks, which were covered with heavy canvas, and driven through the night.
It was so hot inside they could hardly breathe. One recruit, Salad Dahir, said they banged the sides of the truck for water but got none. Some had to urinate where they stood.
Their destination: a secluded training camp deep in the Kenyan bush.
Thousands of people, including children, are being secretly recruited and trained inside Kenya to battle Islamic insurgents in neighboring Somalia, according to deserters, local officials, families of recruits and diplomats. Most recruits are Somalis living in crowded refugee camps and Kenyan nationals who are ethnic Somalis living nearby
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Pirates Free Spanish Boat
Somali pirates have released a Spanish fishing boat and its crew after holding it for six weeks, Spain’s prime minister has confirmed.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the pirates had abandoned the Alakrana tuna boat and that all 36 crew on board were “safe and sound”.
The pirates earlier told reporters they were leaving the ship after being promised a ransom of $3.5m (£2.1m).
There was no immediate government confirmation of money having been paid.
The case took on greater urgency after the Spanish navy captured two pirates and took them to Spain to face trial — prompting threats from the remaining pirates to kill the Alakrana’s crew.
Addressing a news conference in Madrid, a smiling Mr Zapatero said that he had “very good news” for the entire country.
“I can confirm that the Alakrana fishing trawler is sailing freely towards safer waters and that all of its crew members are safe and sound,” he said.
The Spanish prime minister did not comment on the reported ransom, saying only that the “government did what it had to do”.
By late on Tuesday, the Alakrana had made its way to the open sea accompanied by two Spanish warships, the EU naval force, Navfor, said in a statement.
Argi Galbarriatu, the sister of the vessel’s second-in-command, said she had spoken to her brother after the boat’s release.
“He told me the word to describe it is that they are relieved, and eager to get to port and come home,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Alakrana, Ransom Paid, End of Hijacking Soon
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 17 — The end of the Basque fishing vessel Alakrana, held for 47 days by pirates in the Indian Ocean, is imminent, according to statements today on Radio Cadena Ser by Capitan Ricardo Blanch. We are waiting for a call said Blach who explained that they are experiencing critical moments and that there are 63 pirates onboard. According to the on-line edition of El Mundo, the vessel has already been freed after the payment of a ransom of about 2.3 million euros, 4 million dollars. The Somali pirates are said to have already begun leaving the tuna-fishing vessel. Most of our companions have left the Spainish boat. We could free it today, said a pirate identified as Noor in a telephone conversation from the coast of Haradheere, cited by Il Mondo. The deal we reached with Spain seems satisfactory and we hope that it ends without incident, he added. President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero already telephoned the opposition PP leader Mariano Rajoy to inform him on the possible freeing of the ship. The premier will hold a press conference after a meeting with Hungarian president at the Moncloa. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
DPS: Mexican Cartels, Gangs Are Recruiting in Texas Schools
AUSTIN (November 17, 2009)—Schools and communities across the state are becoming recruiting grounds for Mexican drug cartels and gangs that lure young people with cars and cash and promising they’ll face minimal sentences if caught, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned Tuesday.
The cartels are looking for new ways to smuggle drugs and humans into the state using Texas-based gangs and young people to support operations on both sides of the border, the DPS said.
The DPS cites the case of Laredo natives Gabriel Cardona and Rosalio Reta who were in their teenagers when they were recruited to be hit men for the Zetas, a group composed primarily of former Mexican military commandos, which originally served as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, but which now is a cartel itself.
Teenagers in El Paso have been recruited to smuggle drugs across the border, often in packs taped to their bodies, the DPS said.
Young people who live in border counties are the most susceptible, the DPS said.
“As these dangerous organizations seek to co-opt our children to support their criminal operations, it is more important than ever that parents be aware of these risks, talk to their children and pay attention to any signs that they may have become involved in illegal activities,” said DPS Director Steven C. McCraw.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Militants and the Drug Trade
At the Washington Times, Islamic militants boosting role in drug trade:
The sea lanes of the South Atlantic have become a favored route for drug traffickers carrying narcotics from Latin America to West and North Africa, where al Qaeda-related groups are increasingly involved in transporting the drugs to Europe, intelligence officials and counternarcotics specialists say.
A Middle Eastern intelligence official said his agency has picked up “very worrisome reports” of rapidly growing cooperation between Islamic militants operating in North and West Africa and drug lords in Latin America. With U.S. attention focused on the Caribbean and Africans lacking the means to police their shores, the vast sea lanes of the South Atlantic are wide open to illegal navigation, the official said.
“The South Atlantic has become a no-man’s sea,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity owing to the nature of his work.
A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) confirmed the new route.
“The Colombians have shifted their focus from sending cocaine through the Caribbean, and they saw an opportunity to sell cocaine in Europe, transshipping it through the South Atlantic from Venezuela and then to Africa, through Spain and into Europe,” DEA spokesman Michael Sanders told The Washington Times. “That’s what we’re seeing. It’s just a new location. That’s the route they’re taking, for the most part.”
Islamists, the FARC and Venezuela are involved:…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
African Asylum Seekers Reaching South America, Hope to Get to the US
This is a Reuters story published in the New York Times yesterday about the increase in numbers of African asylum seekers getting into South American countries. Some settle into black Muslim communities there, others try to come across land through Mexico to the US.
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) — Stowed away on cargo ships and unsure where their dangerous journeys will take them, increasing numbers of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls…
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
LOL! Omar Jamal to Represent Somalia at the UN
The guy I have been calling the Somali Jesse Jackson, the same guy who was convicted of immigration fraud but never deported, the same guy who dashed off to NYC to defend the Somali pirate, the Somali mouthpiece from Minneapolis who has been on both sides of the Somali missing youth case has now been chosen to represent Somalia at the United Nations—that is priceless! Guess it goes to show you anyone can succeed in America!
Here is the whole story from AP…
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Traffickers Targeted in EU Raids
A gang suspected of bringing more than 2,000 illegal immigrants into Europe has been targeted by police in a series of raids across Europe.
In all, 23 suspected gang members have been arrested — five in the UK, 13 in France, two in the Netherlands, two in Greece and one in Italy.
Most of those allegedly trafficked are Iraqis and Afghans, officials said.
The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency said a number of illegal immigrants had also been detained in the raids.
Six of them were held in the UK.
Soca said searches at various addresses had recovered £14,000 in cash along with identity documents, Sim cards and mobile phones.
In the UK, arrests were made in Birmingham, Gloucester, Glasgow, Leeds and Stockport.
Soca deputy director Mark Phillips said they believed the criminal network was charging up to 4,000 euros (£3,500) for a “door-to-door service”.
In a statement, Soca said the investigation had been led by the French anti-illegal immigration unit, known as Ocriest, and supported by officers from other European countries as well as the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, Europol.
Europol, based in The Hague, said the investigation had revealed a smuggling route from Iraq to Sweden or the UK via France.
Soca said the four held in England would appear before Westminster magistrates on Wednesday, while the man held in Glasgow had already appeared in court.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Can’t We Bribe All Criminals to Leave the Country?
Over the years this column has paid the occasional visit to Slade Prison to investigate the state of Britain’s penal system through the eyes of Norman Stanley Fletcher. I’ve imagined inmates being allowed to take heroin, given access to pornography and being treated to New Age detox therapy. But no matter how far-fetched my flights of fancy, I’ve subsequently discovered that they’ve already beaten me to it. There was even one real case of a prisoner in the West Midlands being let out on day release to run a pub.
If the comic geniuses Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were to sit down today to write a 21st century version of Porridge, they’d find life behind bars almost impossible to satirise. Even they couldn’t invent an episode about the wash basin in a cell belonging to a psychotic preacher of hate being fitted with new taps at a cost of £650. Plumbers were called in to Belmarsh high security wing to replace the existing screw taps with some controlled by levers to make life easier for jihadist recruiting sergeant Abu Hamza, aka Captain Hook, as he awaits extradition to America on terrorism charges. Given that the Ayatollah of Finsbury Park has been in jail for almost four years, it makes you wonder how he’s managed up to now.
Maybe Belmarsh’s answer to Mr Barrowclough has been assigned to help him with his daily ablutions, a task which would be the runaway winner of any ‘What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?’ contest.
‘Would you like me to run your bath now, Effendi?’
‘Just don’t forget the Radox, you filthy infidel son of a whore.’
This is not so far-fetched when you recall Hooky also receives regular pedicures. ‘Can I interest you in an exfoliation and French polish while I’m down here?’
It has also been revealed that murderers, rapists and other prisoners, including Sixties cop killer Harry Roberts, are being granted up to 100 ‘holidays’ during their sentences to help ease prison overcrowding. They are entitled to four days a month in their own beds under a policy known as ROR — Resettlement Overnight Release — allegedly to help them reintegrate into society and reduce reoffending.
‘I’m sorry, Fletcher, we’re going to need your cell for the next few days. Would you mind awfully moving back home over the weekend. Mr Mackay will call you a cab.’
Yesterday we learned that a violent burglar who almost killed a probationary police officer with a crowbar had been granted day release from Spring Hill prison, near Aylesbury, just two years into an eight-year stretch so he can enrol at a local college.
Mark Connolly, from Warwickshire, is reported already to have been given a week’s home leave and is also applying for the reinstatement of his driving licence, which was suspended after he was caught in a stolen car. Inevitably, many of these prisoners commit fresh crimes while out on temporary licence.
Britain’s jails are running at 99 per cent capacity because of the Government’s failure to build enough prisons. That’s also the reason why most offenders are released after serving only half of their sentence. Life doesn’t mean life, it can mean as little as seven years.
There’s also the growing problem of foreign convicts, who now make up a record eight per cent of our prison population.
Even when they have served their time, it is increasingly difficult to deport them because of Labour’s pernicious ‘yuman rites’ racket. So the Government is reduced to bribing foreign criminals to leave the country.
An immigrant childminder convicted of killing a 17-month-old baby boy has just been given £4,500 to return to Malaysia.
Agnes Wong picked up the infant by the legs and flung him across the room. He died of head injuries and had also suffered bruising to the legs, a burn and bite marks. She was released after serving just two-and-half years of a five-year sentence for manslaughter — a derisory punishment for taking the life of an innocent child.
No wonder she worked out that Britain was such a soft touch and decided to stay on. While she appealed against deportation, Wong received a ‘voucher’ for job training, housing and free medical treatment. Officials said it was cheaper than keeping her in detention, which would have cost £100 a night. Wong eventually accepted the £4,500 bribe and a one-way air ticket, but there’s no guarantee she won’t be back. She’ll probably end up as Captain Hook’s pedicurist.
Come to think of it though, instead of spending money on taps, pedicures and building more prisons, we’d be better off bribing all criminals to leave the country.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaida Feared Targeting Superships
Confirmed: North Korea has provided sophisticated mines
LONDON — Agents for the British intelligence agency say they have established that Kim Jong-il’s regime in North Korea has supplied al-Qaida with sophisticated limpet mines they fear will be used against a “ghost fleet” of 500-plus ships and superships, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The agents, working in Asia to monitor the latest exchange of gunfire between North Korean and South Korean warships, have reported such an attack would have a disastrous effect on London’s shipping insurance market — with the potential of being far larger than the losses in last year’s market crash.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One in Four is Muslim, Study Says
A report from an American think-tank has estimated 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world — with 60% in Asia.
The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, took three years to compile, with census data from 232 countries and territories.
It showed that 20% of Muslims lived in the Middle East and North Africa.
The data also showed that there were more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, and more in Russia than in Jordan and Libya together.
Surprise
Researchers analysed approximately 1,500 sources including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys.
Senior researcher Brian Grim told CNN that the overall figure was a surprise and said: “Overall, the number is higher than I expected.”
MUSLIM POPULATION BY REGION
Asia and the Pacific: 61.9%
Middle East — North Africa: 20.1%
Sub-Saharan Africa: 15.3%
Europe: 2.4%
Americas: 0.3%
The report, published on Wednesday, also found that Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University, told the AP news agency: “This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report.”
Instead the report found that more than 300 million Muslims live in countries where Islam was not the majority religion.
Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims.
Most Shias live in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Europe is home to 38 million Muslims — around 5% of its population with European Muslims making up slightly more than 2% of the world’s Muslim population.
More than half of the 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas live in the US — however they make up just 0.8% of the population there.
The Pew Forum has said the findings will lay the foundation for a forthcoming study that will look at how Muslim populations worldwide have grown and what they may look like in the future.
It also plans to compile figures for the other major world religions.
According to internet-based group, Adherents, there are currently 2.1 billion Christians, 900 million Hindus and 14 million Jews worldwide.
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