A priest in the Russian Orthodox Church was shot and killed in his parish church in Moscow on Thursday night. The Rev. Daniil Sysoyev was known to promote missionary work among Russia’s Muslims, and the authorities have not ruled out a Muslim connection as the reason for the shooting.In other news, computer security at the Hadley Climate Research Unit in the UK was breached by hackers, and the center’s emails were posted online. Some of the emails contain potentially scandalous evidence that researchers deliberately fudged climate data to hide evidence that global temperatures were dropping.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, David, Diana West, Gaia, Insubria, JD, JP, RRW, Swenglish Rantings, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Establishment Efforts to Kill Move Toward Fed Transparency Are Crushed
The vote acknowledges the fact that representatives on both sides of the political spectrum are sick to the back teeth of the the incessant pillaging of America’s economic security by a handful of financial elites who have bought and paid for the leadership of both parties.
The power the Fed now holds has vastly increased over the past twelve months owing to the fallout of the financial crisis, yet it continues to operate in total secrecy. Its chairman and other officials act as if their unfettered power is a god given right, and they express loathing and contempt when they are simply asked to describe and explain their actions to Congress and the American people.
The establishment was forced to move against the tide of momentum to audit the Fed by introducing it’s own watered down legislation. However, they acted too late and they have been thoroughly crushed.
“Today was Waterloo for Fed secrecy,” a victorious Grayson noted following the vote.
Predictably, in response to this victory, the Fed has come out in force in today’s press with former chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, along with former vice chairman Alan S. Blinder all penning attack pieces about how harmful the move to audit the Fed remains.
While Binder’s piece appeared in the Washington Post, Greenspan and Volcker sent their letter to the Financial Committee’s chairman and ranking Republicans.
Knowing that the tired counter of “this is harmful to the Fed’s independence” would be wheeled out again, Ron Paul addressed his detractors on the issue during the hearings yesterday, making it clear that the argument holds no weight, noting that H.R. 1207 and the amendment are not about regulation of the Federal Reserve, the powers it holds or political influence on monetary policy.
“‘Independence’ means secrecy, it doesn’t mean anything else.” Paul noted.
“We live in an age where the American people are sick and tired of this. They are sick and tired of secret government and government out of control and Congress passing TARP funds and on and on with nobody knowing what happened.” the Congressman asserted.
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Plan to Audit Secretive Federal Reserve Revived
Rep. Ron Paul’s review proposal approved by committee
A proposal by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to audit the Federal Reserve has been revived with the approval by the House Financial Services Committee of an amendment to a larger bill that reportedly is intended to address federal government management of large or failing financial institutions.
According to a statement this afternoon from Paul, the Texas congressman worked with Rep. Alan Grayson, R-Fla., on the plan based on the original Fed audit proposal, H.R. 1207.
The amendment, on a 43-26 committee vote, was added to H.R. 3996 by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. It has not yet been it made available to the public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Major Disaster Named Hasan
Some friends were trying to convince me that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will surely be executed for conducting his one-man massacre at Fort Hood. I was willing to bet he wouldn’t be. For one thing, why would he be the exception? Sirhan Sirhan wasn’t executed, Charles Manson wasn’t executed, even Jeffrey Dahmer wasn’t executed by the state; it took a fellow inmate to dole out justice to a real-life Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.
For another thing, Barack Obama, who had wasted no time denouncing the Cambridge Police Department as stupid and bigoted when his pal professor Louis Gates was momentarily inconvenienced, merely cautioned all of us not to jump to any conclusions in this matter. In spite of the fact that Maj. Hasan was a fellow who made no secret of the fact he was a devout Muslim who had no use for America and had just murdered a number of soldiers, Obama urged us to keep an open mind. At least the president stopped short of calling for a shout-out for the major.
At the same time, the head of Homeland Security, Janet “The Cannibal” Napolitano, was working overtime to guarantee there would be no backlash directed at American Muslims.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Somalia in U.S.: Supporters Blamed for Ohio Arson
Leaders of a nonviolent Columbus mosque finger local al-Shabaab supporters — who want control of the mosque — for intimidation by arson.
In the early morning of October 19, a fire ravaged through the property surrounding Masjid Salama, a growing Columbus, Ohio, mosque frequented primarily by members of the local Somali community. Several Somali-owned businesses surrounding the mosque were heavily damaged, but the mosque itself was not touched. However, because of the surrounding damage, the mosque itself has not been cleared for reopening.
As reported by the Columbus Dispatch, fire investigators immediately determined that arson was to blame for the blaze.
But rather than blaming the arson on unknown anti-Muslim individuals engaged in a religious hate crime, many inside the Columbus Somali community are fixing their suspicions on leaders of another local Somali mosque, Masjid Ibn Taymiya. This mosque is dominated by supporters of the al-Shabaab terrorist group, and members have made repeated attempts to take over the rapidly growing Salama congregation through an unsuccessful campaign of legal and physical intimidation.
Following the blaze, I met with two leaders of Masjid Salama, who described the ongoing efforts by the leaders of Ibn Taymiya to take over their burgeoning year-and-a-half-old congregation. On November 12, the Salama leaders had to obtain a temporary restraining order to prevent the bulldozing of their rented facility by a leader of the Ibn Taymiya mosque, Mohamed Hassan, who, they say, is the ringleader of the campaign.
“The first thing Hassan did was to obtain the lease rights to the property we rented, and then use his contacts in City Hall to try to illegally evict us,” one of the Salama leaders said. In fact, Hassan took the Salama mosque to court earlier this month, only two weeks after the arson at the mosque property, claiming that they had not paid rent — a claim that was soundly rejected by the judge when the Salama leaders provided canceled copies of the rent checks for the past year. Hassan had also rejected checks for the past three months rent.
But Hassan’s harassment campaign began earlier this year when he obtained trespassing orders from the Columbus prosecutor’s office. According to the Salama leaders, Hassan hoped to force them from the mosque property, change the locks overnight, and reopen the mosque the following day with a new imam appointed by Ibn Taymiya. That plan failed when it was pointed out that the mosque property wasn’t even in the Columbus prosecutor’s jurisdiction, making the orders invalid.
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Whither American Jewry?
During a recent speaking tour in Canada, MK Nahman Shai (Kadima) shocked some of his hosts when he said that his primary goal in politics today is to bring down the Netanyahu government. Although indelicate, Shai’s comment was not surprising. Kadima is in the opposition. And like all opposition parties in all parliamentary democracies, the primary goal of its members is to bring down the government so that they can take power.
Given that this is the case, it is unsurprising that until this week, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni tried to blame Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for US President Barack Obama’s hostility towards Israel. Far more newsworthy than her criticism of Netanyahu was her public rebuke of Obama this week for his attempt to strong-arm Israel into barring Jewish construction in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: MB vs. VA Via WP
This week’s column is a case study in psyops — an examination of what amounts to a domestic jihadist operation in to suppress and demonize critics of Islamic supremacism and expansionism in Virginia via a widely respected, or, at least, widely accepted media outlet.
The operation — which we may think of as a Muslim Brotherhood, ISNA, CAIR affair — was mainly a success due to two factors: the gullibility/culpability of the Washington Post, which allowed MB-linked mouthpieces to remain unidentified as such and turn Pat Robertson’s wholly rational critique of Islam into a cause demanding “repudiation” and “apology” from Robertson-ally and governor-elect of Virginia Bob McDonnell. The second factor is the reaction of the governor-elect himself. After a couple of days of sidestepping the matter, McDonnell issued the requisite statement attesting to his “respect” for the Muslim faith — “respect” being the all-important code word signalling submission to Islamic apologetics on jihad and dhimmitude, the institutions of Islam that wholly vindicate the Robertson soundbyte.
Would that McDonnell had taken the Post reporter’s queries and turned them around and at the very least replied: I don’t respond to charges issued by individuals associated with groups identified by the US government as Muslim Brotherhood entities and unindicted co-conspirators in the largest terrorism financing trial in history in which five defendants were found guilty on all counts. I suggest you read the MB manifesto calling for a jihad in America to destroy the West and make Islam supreme before you ask your next question….
SIgh.
The column:
“Media Still Rely on “Jihad” Apologists”
You might have missed it, but for much of this past week, the Islamic apology-police were on the case of the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell. It seems that following the jihadist attack on Fort Hood, Pat Robertson, a longtime ally of McDonnell’s, criticized Islam on his TV show. And no one in these not just politically, but also Islamically, correct times is permitted to do that — not even, as we have learned to our horror, senior Army personnel when presented with incontrovertible evidence that a jihadist is in their ranks.
Speaking on “The 700 Club,” Robertson called Islam “a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination.” Given what we know of Islamic law (Sharia), which, for example, punishes “leaving Islam” with death; given what we know of the bloody history of Islamic expansionism; given what we know of current Islamic attitudes toward both Sharia and the caliphate — almost exactly two-thirds of Muslims in four countries polled in a 2007 survey by University of Maryland/WorldPublicOpinion.org favored both — and given what we know of the Muslim Brotherhood manifesto for “a grand Jihad” in America for “destroying the Western civilization from within” so that Islam is “victorious over all other religions,” Robertson’s statement could be considered humdrum were it not verboten for Americans to say anything about Islam that is not air-fresh sanitized.
But in bizarro world as we know it, Robertson’s statement — particularly the part about Islam being “a violent political system” — showed up as so much political smoke around McDonnell, carefully tended for days by the Washington Post and a rogue’s gallery of Muslim Brotherhood associates.
Not that the newspaper identified them as such. To the Washington Post, Mohamed Magid (“disappointed” that McDonnell had not repudiated Robertson) was “imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society,” and not also vice president of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a known Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator in the landmark Holy Land Foundation (HLF) terrorism financing trial that last year convicted five defendants on all counts. To the Washington Post, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) (calling for McDonnell to disavow Robertson) was “a Washington-based civil rights group for Muslims,” not a Hamas-linked, known Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator in the same landmark terrorism trial. To the Washington Post, Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-Va.) demand for an apology from Robertson represented growing “political implications,” not political payback from someone whom “Muslim Mafia” co-author Paul Sperry calls “the Saudi’s new man in Congress” for Connolly’s dogged defense of a bona fide Saudi madrassa in Fairfax Country coinciding with, as Sperry writes, “what appears to be an orchestrated outpouring of donations from Islamists with Saudi connections.”
This is crucial information to deny readers..
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Expert: Bigmouth Prez Helps Defense
WASHINGTON — By vigorously defending their decision to try 9/11 terrorists in federal court in New York, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have given defense lawyers ammunition to argue their clients can’t get a fair trial, a legal expert said yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hoffman Alleges Vote Fraud in Ny 23
Even as he faces near-impossible odds of pulling ahead in the count, Doug Hoffman announced Wednesday night that he is officially revoking his concession from Election Night, and is accusing labor unions and ACORN of stealing the election for Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.).
Hoffman posted a message on his campaign site Wednesday alleging dirty tricks by Democrats, and is asking for additional campaign contributions to fund a legal challenge to the election results.
“As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate. ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens,” Hoffman wrote on his campaign site. “Rest assured, they will not succeed, and I am therefore revoking my statement of concession.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Lieberman Slams Public Option, Brushes Off Critics
Sen. Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster any health care bill with a public option could kill health reform this year — and embolden Democratic challengers who’d like to send him packing in 2012.
But Lieberman doesn’t seem worried.
“I don’t think about that stuff,” Lieberman told POLITICO this week. “I’m just — I’m being a legislator. After what I went through in 2006, there’s nothing much more that anybody [who] disagrees with me can try to do.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minneapolis: Sixth Area Somali Man is Indicted in Probe
The suspect is linked to other young men recruited to train and fight in Somalia.
A 24-year-old local Somali man has been indicted in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on charges of conspiring to provide support to terrorists.
Omer Abdi Mohamed, an unemployed employment counselor and father of a 2-month-old boy, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to “kill, kidnap, maim or injure” people in foreign countries, according to an indictment filed Tuesday but made public Thursday.
Mohamed, of Minneapolis, is the sixth Somali man with local ties to be charged in connection with a two-year-old federal counterterrorism investigation aimed at finding out who recruited as many as 20 area men of Somali descent to return to their homeland and train and fight with the terrorist group, Al-Shabaab. The probe is considered to be one of the most sweeping international counterterrorism investigations since Sept. 11, 2001.
When asked if investigators allege that Mohamed was a recruiter, Peter Wold, his attorney, said: “In the end, I think you’ll see that certainly wasn’t the case.”
The indictment released Thursday provides few details, but it links Mohamed to a broad conspiracy involving other men who returned to Somalia to fight or train with terrorists, including Shirwa Ahmed, a 26-year-old Minneapolis man believed to be the first U.S. suicide bomber.
According to the indictment, others connected to the conspiracy include: Salah Osman Ahmed, Kamal Said Hassan, Ahmed Ali Omar, Abdifatah Isse and Khalid Mohamud Abshir — all of whom left the United States in December 2007 with a final destination of Somalia. Ahmed, Hassan and Isse all have pleaded guilty to the same charges Mohamed faces.
Wold said after the hearing Thursday that his client knew the other men through the mosque where they prayed. Isse Hussein, Mohamed’s cousin, said Mohamed prayed “a lot” at Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center in south Minneapolis.
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Obama May Put Americans Under World Judges’ Power
International Criminal Court issues are focus of delegation to The Hague
President Obama has dispatched a delegation this week to The Hague to explore issues involving the United States’ possible participation in the International Criminal Court, an organization critics charge could be used to prosecute Americans under international legal standards for actions that are not crimes in the U.S.
[…]
Critics, however, warn that they believe former U.S. war crimes prosecutor Ambassador Stephen Rapp is on a trip that involves more than just the definition of a word.
“The Obama administration would like the U.S. to be a party to the court,” said Brett Schaefer, an international regulatory expert with the Heritage Foundation.
“The Obama administration would like to establish closer ties with the ICC if it turns out the U. S. can join the court. The objective here is to address the major objections to the U. S. joining the court,” he said.
[…]
“This administration is globalist and transnationalist and wants to bring this country into the global system. The U.S. stands to have its citizens being prosecuted by the international court in The Hague and have its citizens come under the world court’s jurisdiction,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rise in Soldier Suicides Concerns Pentagon
American soldiers are committing suicide in the greatest numbers since official records began in 1980, with the US Army at a loss to explain the phenomenon since a third of the dead have never been deployed in combat.
Suicides in the army alone have passed last year’s record of 140 — 141 in 2009 so far — in what campaigners called a “perfect storm” of stress, poor co-ordination between the branches of the Pentagon’s healthcare apparatus and the stigma attached to seeking psychiatric help in the military.
The upward trend has defied efforts to improve access to appropriate counselling for veterans returning from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure for the first ten months of the year excludes 71 suicides among troops taken off active duty in 2009, and 42 in the US Marine Corps.
“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,” General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, said at a Pentagon briefing held to mark one of the bleakest statistical landmarks in eight years of war.
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Your Smart Meter is Watching
Technology’s ability to reveal intimate details makes useful conservation tool a threat to privacy
Smart meters record and report electricity consumption on an hourly basis — even at the appliance level. Consumers can access their meter data and make individual choices about their energy use, benefitting by taking advantage of future rates.
While this technology is clearly beneficial in terms of valuable efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce consumers’ energy bills, it will also give rise to a new challenge — privacy protection. Privacy is the smart grid’s sleeper issue. Whenever technology is utilized that targets individual consumers, there is invariably a dramatic increase in the amount of personally identifiable information that is collected and stored, leading to very real concerns regarding privacy. This is why we need to bake privacy into the smart grid at the design stage — known as “privacy by design” — a concept developed to ensure the protection of privacy by making privacy the default in the design of new technologies and business practices.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baroness Ashton Ticks All the Right EU Boxes
Just because you have never heard of her, that does not mean that Baroness Ashton, the new EU foreign minister, is negligible, says Gerald Warner.
Bang go the reputations of Metternich and Talleyrand. European diplomacy has a dynamic new exponent and it is none other than Baroness Ashton of Upholland (not, apparently, a derogatory remark made about the Netherlands No voters in their Lisbon Treaty referendum), the newly anointed High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union.
And, wow, does this lady tick all the boxes. Just because you have never heard of her, that does not mean she is negligible. Hers is a CV to die for. Her first political office was as vice-chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; now she is in charge of European security policy. As Director of Business in the Community she worked with business to abolish inequality (that is why she is a baroness, unlike less equal people). From there she rose to global realpolitik, chairing Hertfordshire Health Authority, not to mention the board of governors of her children’s school.
After that, her career went stratospheric as she became successively Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families (an iconic post, that), Leader of the House of Lords (thus successfully abolishing at least her own inequality) and UK European Commissioner in succession to the Grand Duke Mandy. She was also voted Politician of the Year by Stonewall, thus reinforcing her PC credentials. Now comes the final apotheosis, as successor to Richelieu, Bonaparte and Bismarck in shaping the destinies of Europe.
What’s not to like? From a Eurofederalist, right-on, PC, anti-Little Englander point of view? But the more discerning observers will already have noted the Baroness’s supreme qualification for Europower and endorsement by the elite: she is totally untainted by any experience of democratic election at any stage in her career — unless you are small-minded enough to count her coronation by EU leaders as a momentary brush with a miniscule ballot box. Horses for courses: this serial appointee is custom-made for high EU office.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
EU Foreign Minister: Lady Ashton to Prove She is ‘Best Person for the Job’
Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the Labour peer who emerged as the surprise choice to be Europe’s first foreign minister, has declared she is determined to prove she is the best person for the job.
Lady Ashton, the EU trade commissioner who has never held elected office, said she was “humbled” to have been picked by EU leaders for the new post of High Representative.
Her appointment was announced on Thursday night at a special summit in Brussels where another largely unknown figure — Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy — became the first EU President.
What will Europe’s foreign minister Baroness Ashton do?
Profile: Baroness Ashton Lady Ashton acknowledged that there had been other candidates who could have done the job of High Representative, but insisted she was ready to join the foreign ministers of the world’s most powerful nations at the “top table”.
“Over the next few months and years I aim to show that I am the best person for the job,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I think for quite a few people they would say that I am the best person for the job and I was chosen because I am, but I absolutely recognise there are a number of candidates around, all of whom would have been extremely good, extremely able.
“I hope that my particular set of skills will show that in the end I am the best choice.”
She pointed out that since becoming trade commissioner last year when Peter Mandelson was recalled from Brussels to rejoin the Government, she has already taken the lead for the EU in high level trade talks with China.
Europe’s new political double act face a baptism of fire over their credentials for two of the most important EU posts ever created.
Gordon Brown, who had originally backed Tony Blair as the best choice for president, said Mr Rompuy had “integrity and resolve”, while Lady Ashton’s appointment gave Britain a “powerful voice” at the EU top table.
Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader and EU commissioner, said that the EU leaders had made “good choices”.
“What they have gone for with the Belgian Prime Minister Rompuy and with Cathy Ashton is high quality, functional effectiveness, not flamboyance,” he told Today.
“These are very substantial figures who will demonstrate their outstanding qualities in the jobs which realistically exist, not the jobs that were imagined to exist by Euro-neurotics of various kinds.”
But critics said the pair were lightweights who would have little international clout.
Both were swiftly and unanimously anointed after Mr Brown acknowledged that Mr Blair could not get enough support — even from Socialist EU leaders.
He switched allegiance to Lady Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and soon after, the summit rallied round Mr Van Rompuy for the presidential role.
The jobs were created under the Lisbon Treaty, designed to streamline EU decision-making.
Months of inconclusive wrangling over candidates threatened to turn the summit into a marathon.
But within a couple of hours over dinner, EU leaders had completed the historic process of naming the first two holders of offices designed to help the Union punch its weight on the world stage.
Mr Rompuy was close to retirement when plucked from political obscurity last December to hold together a fractious, crumbling, coalition Belgian government. Within months he was being touted as a potential nominee for the new EU job if and when the Lisbon Treaty was ratified — a consensus-builder unlikely to upstage national leaders.
Although Lady Ashton has never held elected office, she was deemed to have done well in Brussels after leaving the Lords, where she had steered the passage of the Lisbon Treaty.
Fellow Tory MEP Robert Sturdy said: ““Baroness Ashton is a very nice person and was a good trade minister, but whether she is up to this new role remains to be seen. I am rather concerned it is a question of appointing people who are not qualified.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
EU President: European Press Laments ‘Dull’ Choice
Many European newspapers were dismayed by the EU’s choice of Herman Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton as its first president and foreign minister. They lamented that the Belgian and Briton lack the star power required for the high-profile jobs. Newspapers claimed that the new president — the Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy — and the new High Representative — the EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton — do not carry the weight needed to compete on the world stage with the US and China.
“Herman Who?” said Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper in an editorial. “This means that the EU will again have an unknown figure whom few Europeans can identify with.” It added that the “situation would have been different” had EU leaders picked the former British prime minister Tony Blair. Spain’s El Pais said the EU will be “led by two dull and low-profile figures.”
Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau claimed the 27-nation bloc will be represented by “leaders with no sparkle, without a vision and even without experience in the required fields”. France’s Liberation newspaper noted that EU leaders had rejected candidates from the bloc’s newest members in eastern Europe but had at least chosen a woman to fill one of the posts. “While they did not name a representative from the ‘New Europe’, the 27 were at least able to name a woman, but not the most brilliant one,” it said.
The Belgian press, however, expressed pride over Mr Van Rompuy’s appointment. “The Coronation,” wrote Le Soir newspaper, while a headline in De Standaard said: “A New Star for Europe.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Stitch-Up is a Slap in the Face for Voters
At last we approach the final act of the squalidly anti-democratic Brussels farce that began when the idea of a European Constitution was first mooted. Last night, after meetings behind closed doors, the European Union chose a President and a High Representative — an unthreatening title for someone who will preside over Europe’s foreign policy, superseding our own government. Although Tony Blair’s candidacy for president has failed — so, at least there is a God in Heaven — Gordon Brown has hailed a huge success for Britain, as someone called Baroness Ashton, who is apparently our European Commissioner, has emerged as the High Representative.
But the entire exercise — from the jobs themselves to the way they have been filled to the people who have filled them — is a slap in the face for the fundamental principles of British democracy. First, the UK electorate never wanted a President or a High Representative, but its views became irrelevant when our government went back on its promise of a referendum on the Constitution. And although there might be those who take heart that the two jobs have been filled by non-entities — one of them British — that would be a profound mistake.
President van Rompuy may be largely unknown, but the one certainty about him is that he is a rabid federalist, who believes in rapidly transferring more powers to Brussels — including the right for the EU to impose direct taxes — and will use his new job to further these aims. And Baroness Ashton, a lady for whom no one has voted, but whose appointment is supposedly a British victory, has been selected precisely because those in Brussels know that she has neither the political influence nor the determination to stand up for our interests. Last night well-fed European leaders were no doubt congratulating themselves without so much as a thought for their disenfranchised electorates. But this grubby stitch-up has made a profound clash between Britain and Brussels more inevitable than ever.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Seek Special Status at UN
The proposal to enhance the EU’s status is contained in a draft paper prepared by the EU presidency and backed by Britain, now under discussion in Brussels. A final decision on the initiative will be taken by the bloc’s Political and Security Committee.
The proposal is favoured by a delegation from the European Parliament that visited the UN this week.
Richard Howitt, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament and the only British MEP on the delegation, said the new EU high representative should not be forced to speak after Zimbabwe, a UN member state.
“A special resolution of the UN General Assembly to recognise the European Union’s new status needs to be passed in time for the new High Representative to speak to the annual session next year,” he said.
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EU: Baroness Ashton as EU Foreign Minister — is This the Most Ridiculous Appointment in the History of the European Union?
When Henry Kissinger famously remarked that Washington should have a single telephone number to call in Europe, I don’t think it was Labour peer Catherine Ashton he envisioned on the other line. I very much doubt that before today the former Secretary of State had even heard of Baroness Ashton of Upholland, and nor had I’m sure almost every person in Europe, including in her home country of Britain.
Admittedly I’m very relieved that David Miliband won’t be getting the post. He’s doing enough damage already as British foreign secretary, let alone inflicting further embarrassment on the UK from a new perch in Brussels. But what were the 27 EU heads of state thinking when they appointed someone with practically no experience whatsoever of foreign affairs to represent more than 500 million people?
I’m sure you could find 22-year old interns in the House of Commons who are far more knowledgeable on foreign policy than Baroness Ashton. She has a grand total of one year working in the international arena, as European Commissioner in Trade. Nor has she ever held elected office and is massively unqualified. Here is her less than impressive CV on the European Commission’s website. Ashton’s meteoric rise to power in Brussels is a damning indictment of the fundamentally undemocratic political process within the EU, and its utter contempt for public opinion.
There are though some positives in what is a spectacularly silly appointment. Perhaps the Obama administration might dampen its immensely naive enthusiasm for a federal Europe if it knows it has to deal with the less than dynamic duo of Catherine Ashton and new EU President Herman Van Rompuy. Somehow I don’t quite see Hillary Clinton and Lady Ashton as the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of international affairs — or even Cagney and Lacey for that matter.
It is also in Britain’s national interest to have an EU President and EU Foreign Minister who are political lightweights with zero international name recognition. Tony Blair after all would have given Europe a far higher political profile on the world stage, and been a force to be reckoned with at the negotiating table. Blair was by far the most qualified man for the job, but experience and real world qualifications count for very little in Brussels.
This may well be the most ridiculous appointment in EU history, but it will fortunately help set back European ambitions to be a major actor on the world stage. It is hugely ironic that after decades of slaving away at crafting the foundations of a European superstate, the Eurofederalists have been left with two of the dullest politicians on earth as the public face of the European Union.
Anything that undermines the Lisbon vision of the EU as a powerful supranational force is a good thing, and the appointments of both Baroness Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy will do that in spades. Better a weak non-entity as foreign minister or president than a powerhouse Henry Kissinger at the helm if the nefarious European Project is to be defeated. Europe doesn’t need a President, and nor does it need a Foreign Minister. What it needs is greater sovereignty, democracy, free enterprise and political accountability, all best preserved by the nation state.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Rompuy’s Farewell
Does this mean Herman Van Rompuy thinks he’s got the Big Job in his grasp? Word here in the depths of the Justus Lipsius is that the nearby Belgian Parliament has just given him what appears to be a send-off. Apparentley MPs read out (and I’m not making this up) Japanese haikus to their premier before he arrived at the EU Summit. Is that cockiness…or do they know something we don’t?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Top Job Appointments Draw Mixed Response
Brussels, 20 Nov. (AKI) — The appointment of two low profile leaders to European Union’s top posts has drawn a mixed response. Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy was appointed the new top post of European Council president and Britain’s Baroness Catherine Ashton was chosen for the top foreign policy job late Thursday in the Belgian capital Brussels.
Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi did not immediately comment on the appointment of Ashton over Italy’s candidate Massimo D’Alema for the post of high foreign policy representative.
However, Italy’s former prime minister Romano Prodi said he was “disappointed” that D’Alema, a former foreign minister, had not been chosen for the EU foreign minister post.
“These are low-profile appointments. If this is how it’s going to be it’s not a good sign for Europe,” commented Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of Italy’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Party.
The United States welcomed the appointments.
US President Barack Obama said the appointments would “strengthen the EU and enable it to be an even stronger partner to the United States”.
He said the US had “no stronger partner than Europe in advancing security and prosperity around the world”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also reacted positively saying Van Rompuy would bring consensus and political competence to the presidency.
Ashton and Van Rompuy were chosen unanimously by the 27 EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
Both have been seen as consensual politicians with limited foreign policy experience.
The president of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, also praised the appointments, saying it would be “impossible to find a better choice than those personalities for the European Union leadership”.
The appointments were decided quickly at a dinner of EU leaders on Thursday and an expected marathon session was averted after weeks of speculation.
The deadlock was broken when British prime minister Gordon Brown abandoned his support for former prime minister Tony Blair at a meeting of Socialist leaders before the summit.
But the protracted behind closed doors negotiations undermined the EU’s credibility as a united, transparent, democratic institution, according to some observers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris: Delanoe Breaks Taboo, Hotel De Ville for Rent
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 18 — The Hotel de Ville in Paris is up for rent for banquets, ceremonies, cocktails and receptions. To respond to the economic crisis, the socialist mayor of the French capital, Bertrand Delanoe, decided to dare to do what was considered taboo up to the present: rent some of the rooms of the historic seat of the most important city in France, in the heart of the city next to the Seine. It is an absolute first of its kind. Until the present taking advantage of the building for private initiatives was practically impossible. According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the Delanoe team intends to illustrate the idea, which consists in the renting of rooms to private companies, as soon as the City Council meeting scheduled to take place next Monday. “The idea is to make those who have the means pay. Next year we hope to earn 500,000 euros. They are earnings which could finance new initiatives for all Parisians”, affirmed Christian Sautter, the mayor’s right hand man. “It is a novelty, it is true. But intervening in a particular context in which the crisis has had a serious effect”, Sautter explained. The deputy mayor highlighted that the measure would not involve “either municipal associations or activities. The rooms will continue to be available for the free use of all Parisians”. The ball room has a 13 metre ceiling and is the most beautiful interior of the building, which was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1871. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
I’ll Prove I’m the Best Person for the Job, Says Shock EU No.2 Baroness Ashtonby Mail Foreign Service
The little-known Labour peer who emerged as the surprise choice to be Europe’s first ‘foreign minister’ declared today that she was determined to prove she was the best person for the job.
Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU trade commissioner who has never held elected office, said she was ‘humbled’ to have been picked by EU leaders for the new post of High Representative.
Her appointment was announced last night at a special summit in Brussels where another largely unknown figure — Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy — became the first EU President.
Lady Ashton acknowledged that there had been other candidates who could have done the job of High Representative, but insisted she was ready to join the foreign ministers of the world’s most powerful nations at the ‘top table’.
‘Over the next few months and years I aim to show that I am the best person for the job,’ she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘I think for quite a few people they would say that I am the best person for the job and I was chosen because I am, but I absolutely recognise there are a number of candidates around, all of whom would have been extremely good, extremely able.
‘I hope that my particular set of skills will show that in the end I am the best choice.’
She pointed out that since becoming trade commissioner last year when Peter Mandelson was recalled from Brussels to rejoin the Government, she has already taken the lead for the EU in high level trade talks with China.
But having served for a number of years as a Labour minister in the House of Lords — including as Leader of the Lords — she has not had the experience of being directly elected.
‘I am humbled by it, in that I am very conscious of those who have been elected so it’s why I spend a lot of time in the European Parliament,’ she said.
‘It’s why when I was leader of the House of Lords I was very conscious of the role of the House of Commons, of MPs and the importance of those elected representatives.’
She said she had discovered only in the past few days that she was being discussed as a possible candidate for High Representative.
Lady Ashton said: ‘I was told that there was a great deal of support for me … and then that translated into further meetings with other prime ministers right across the political spectrum and across Europe, and then finally unanimity.’
She added: ‘They reached a conclusion that, certainly from last night’s experience, I think they are very comfortable with.’
She said she would draw her authority in international negotiations from the general affairs council of EU foreign ministers, which she will now chair.
‘The council will deliberate, will determine the views, with my support, I hope with my input and my expertise, and that will be the voice I will speak with,’ she said.
Lady Ashton is a science fiction fan who keeps a full-size replica Dalek in her living room.
The quirky prop was a 50th birthday present from her husband, pollster Peter Kellner, and still startles visitors to their family home in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
As well as Dr Who, she is also a fan of the X-Factor, although she freely admits that she lacks the ‘star quality’ of many top politicians. Her entry in Who’s Who lists her recreations as theatre and family.
Mr Brown last night welcomed Lady Ashton’s appointment.
‘It gives Britain a powerful voice both within the council and the commission,’ Mr Brown said. ‘It will ensure, of course, that Britain’s voice is very loud and clear.’
But, adding to the sense that Lady Ashton had been plucked from obscurity, Mr Brown repeatedly referred to her as ‘Cathy Ashdown’.
Lady Ashton had to be called on the telephone to see if she would accept the job once Mr Brown dropped his backing for Mr Blair.
Lady Ashton will head up a 5,000-strong EU diplomatic service with 120 embassies around the globe, and have a say in the allocation of the bloc’s £6.5billion foreign aid budget.
The job is expected to attract a salary of more than £200,000 a year, along with a grace-and-favour home and lavish expenses.
A former employee of CND, Lady Ashton will now be responsible for Europe’s security and defence policy.
The Prime Minister said he still felt that Mr Blair — whom he backed for the presidency — would have been ‘excellent’.
But he added: ‘As the week went by it became clear that the EPP [the centre-right grouping in the European Parliament] wanted to have one of their own members as president of the council.’
A senior No 10 source said Mr Brown’s backing of Mr Blair, long after his chances had faded, had given Britain ‘leverage’ to get Lady Ashton the job as the second most powerful figure in the EU.
Friends of the bruised former prime minister — nicknamed ‘Boney Blair’ for his Napoleonic ambitions — said he was deeply disappointed by his rejection.
Mr Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon said the former prime minister was so angry over the Tories’ decision to try to torpedo his bid that he is willing to set aside his differences with Mr Brown and campaign for him in next year’s General Election.
But he said Mr Blair’s failure to get the EU post had also ‘whetted his appetite for another big international role’.
Some EU leaders feared that they might be overshadowed by Mr Blair’s grandstanding on the world stage.
Leaked documents yesterday revealed that the new president will have a salary of £320,000, far in excess of the £197,000 paid to Mr Brown or the £245,000 received by U.S. president Barack Obama.
The total cost of the president and his team to the taxpayer is expected to top £5.5million a year.
Mr Van Rompuy somewhat cryptically promised to listen to all EU members.
‘Even though our unity is our strength, our diversity remains our wealth,’ he said. He is expected to take office on January 1.
Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: ‘The EU has this evening appointed two political pygmies who have the power to remove the last vestiges of democracy from the UK.
‘Baroness Ashton is ideal for the role. She’s never had a proper job, and never been elected to public office.’
Lorraine Mullally, director of the think-tank Open Europe, said: ‘This is an outrageous stitch-up by Europe’s elite.
‘Meeting over a nice big dinner and behind closed doors 27 people in Brussels will decide on the two biggest jobs in Europe while the 500million citizens they are supposed to represent are expected just to hang on and wait for the outcome.’
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, however, congratulated Mr Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton on their appointments.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Millions of Taxes Being Directed to Catholic Projects
Rome, 17 Nov. (AKI) — Catholic churches and monasteries this year received 10.6 million euros from Italian taxpayers set aside for “humanitarian, voluntary work and non-religious purposes including cultural assets,” according to figures published on Tuesday.
The Italian daily, La Repubblica, said the funds were for 26 church projects while another 19 million euros had been set aside for areas affected by earthquakes in central Italy.
Of that amount, 14 million euros have been allocated in the quake stricken region of Abruzzo.
But the report noted that almost all the funding requests preceded the devastating earthquake that struck the region on 6 April.
“The finance requests related to Abruzzo precede the earthquake of 6 April 2009 and so it would be timely to check these with the works sought after the earthquake,” said Northern League MP and head of the budget committee in the lower house.
The funds are provided under a mechanism known as the “Eight per thousand”, a decree under which the Italian tax payers can choose to allocate 8 euros out of every thousand euros of income tax they pay to the Italian state or to religious denominations for disasters, refugee assistance and cultural preservation.
The Catholic church receives more than 80 percent the income tax revenues allocated to religious dominations.
According to La Repubblica, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome received 459,000 euros in 2009, while the Church of Saints Severinus and Sossio in Naples received 1.2 million euros for the restoration of frescoes and other work.
The list of projects in the decree fills 17 pages and and is signed by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italian taxpayers paid close to 44 million euros to the Italian state under the “Eight per thousand” tax arrangement in 2009 and the funds were to be used for humanitarian or voluntary aid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Burqa and ‘Indian’ Barbie Dolls Go Under the Hammer
Florence, 18 Nov. (AKI) — Barbie dolls wearing the Muslim burqa, the Indian sari and the Japanese kimono are among a collection due to go under the hammer in the central Italian city of Florence on Friday. London-based Sotheby’s are organising the auction, the proceeds of which will go to charity.
The collection of 500 Barbie dolls will from Thursday be on show at Florence’s Il Serraglio gallery.
The dolls’ outfits have been designed by Italian designer Eliana Lorena, who has worked for fashion labels such as Mandarina Duck, Poltrona Frau and Fila.
The show is being sponsored by Barbie’s manufacturer Mattel’s Italian subsidiary and marks the 50th anniversary of Barbie, the world’s most popular doll.
The veiled ‘Fullah’ Islamic Barbie doll (right in photo) hit toystores in 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Abu Dhabi Royal Family ‘Not Interested’ In Pm’s Villa
Rome, 18 Nov. (AKI) — The Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi’s royal family has denied claims it wants to buy the luxurious Sardinian villa of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, where in June, a Spanish newspaper published paparazzi photographs showing naked and semi-naked guests at Villa Certosa.
According to Adnkronos International (AKI), the Al-Nahyan family was “astonished” at recent reports in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, saying the royal family showed interest in paying 450 million euros for the Sardinian villa.
Corriere della Sera said it was “probable” that Berlusconi would discuss the matter during his upcoming trip to the nearby emirate of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
However, Berlusconi has delayed the visit to the UAE which was due to take place on 21 November, sources told AKI. The trip has now been postponed until next year and Berlusconi will instead visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Berlusconi has in recent months been at the centre of embarrassing allegations that he slept with prostitutes, threw parties attended by escorts at his various residences, including Villa Certosa, and frequented under-age girls.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Country Becoming ‘More Corrupt’
Berlin, 17 Nov. (AKI) — The incidence of corruption in Italy is getting worse, according to a leading international research group. In its latest report, Transparency International said that Italy had fallen eight places and was now rated number 63, out of 180 countries in the rate of corruption.
The figures were released in Transparency’s 2009 corruption perceptions index which is based on perceptions of public sector corruption. Last year Italy ranked 55 and rated 41 in 2007.
Italy’s individual score — ranked from zero to ten — fell from 4.8 in 2008 to 4.3 in 2009, which underscored its worsening corruption level.
Italy was ranked lower than Turkey, Cuba, Namibia, South Africa, Malaysia and Bhutan and others. Its ranking equalled that of Saudi Arabia.
Transparency said the vast majority of the 180 countries included in the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score below five on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).
“At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast-track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world, it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycle” said Huguette Labelle, chairman of the organisation.
New Zealand was rated the least corrupt country with a score of 9.4, overtaking Denmark with 9.3 at number two. Denmark was last year’s top scorer.
Afghanistan and Somalia were rated the most corrupt out of 180 countries.
According to Transparency International, the CPI is based on 13 independent surveys. However, not all surveys include all countries.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Tax Fraud Trial Re-Opens
Milan, 16 Nov. (AKI) — Court proceedings resumed against Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday in the northern city of Milan over tax fraud charges relating to his Mediaset broadcaster’s purchase of TV rights in the United States. Berlusconi did not appear in court as he was attending a UN food summit in Rome.
The proceedings were adjourned until 18 January after the court accepted the premier’s claim he was not free until that date.
“There is no wish to delay the trial,” Berlusconi’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, stated.
The trial was put on hold for 14 months after Berlusconi’s conservative government passed a controversial law granting immunity from prosecution to the prime minister and Italy’s three other top office-bearers.
It resumed on Monday after Italy’s highest court dismissed the law declaring it unconstitutional last month.
After the decision Berlusconi and his supporters immediately sought new measures to limit court proceedings and the length of trials.
The government last week introduced a controversial new bill on the floor of the Italian parliament that would shorten the duration of trials.
This would affect Berlusconi’s Mediaset trial and a second trial in which he is accused of paying British tax lawyer David Mills 600,000 dollars to lie in court.
Berlusconi denies all charges against him, saying he is the victim of “Communist” magistrates with a political agenda.
The prime minister’s opponents accuse him of tampering with the legal system to solve his problems with the law.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marrazzo Case Prostitute Found Dead
Transsexual ‘was suicidal’, co-workers claim
(ANSA) — Rome, November 20 — A transsexual prostitute linked to an Italian regional governor who resigned in a sex scandal last month was found dead in her burned-out apartment Friday.
A bottle of whisky and packed suitcases were found near the semi-naked and burned body of the Brazilian transsexual, who called herself Brenda.
Brenda was one of two transsexual prostitutes involved in the case of former Lazio governor Piero Marrazzo who resigned on October 27 after it emerged he was being blackmailed by rogue cops.
The other prostitute, Natalie, appeared in the video with Marrazzo, which was shot on August 3 after two of a gang of four Carabinieri broke into her apartment.
Marrazzo’s lawyer, Luca Petrucci, said “the affair is taking a tragic and worrying turn” and called for Natalie to be placed under police protection.
Brenda had the work number of Marrazzo and used to phone him there while Natalie used to contact him on his cellphone.
The dead transsexual, who has denied having sex with the ex-governor, was questioned in the Marrazzo case on November 2 about the possible existence of a second video.
A week later, on November 9, she was found lying drunk and bruised on a Rome street claiming she had been robbed by a gang of eastern Europeans.
Police had to stop her banging her head off a car.
She was taken to hospital where she tried to attack a doctor with a scissors.
Two prostitutes told police Friday that Brenda had “often” spoken about suicide.
Another, Barbara, said “they killed her, I don’t know who”.
“She was psychologically ill, she wanted to return to Brazil. Now they must find who did this,” she said.
Brenda is the second person linked to the Marrazzo case to die.
The other, an elderly and obese drug pusher popular among the prostitutes, Gianguarino Cafasso, had a fatal heart attack in September.
Police are awaiting the results of final tests to corroborate if his death was caused, as believed, by an overdose.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Knox Hated Kercher, Prosecution Says
American student wanted to punish her ‘snobby’ British roomate
(ANSA) — Rome, November 20 — A US student accused of the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, hated her “snobby” roommate and meant to punish her, prosecutors said Friday while delivering their final arguments.
Amanda Knox, 22, is on trial together with her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 26, for stabbing Kercher while forcing her to participate in what prosecutors described as a “perverse sex game” in November 2007.
The two then allegedly broke a window in an attempt to simulate a break in.
Recapping the accusations against them, lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said that disagreements over money, friends and money led to resentment between the two girls.
He said that the American girl was bent on “punishing” her and enlisted the help of Sollecito and Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede. According to the prosecution, Knox and Sollecito met with Guede on the night of Kercher’s murder, “possibly for drugs”, and then went to the two girls’ house where the victim was home alone.
“At that point, there was an argument about money, or perhaps because Meredith wasn’t happy about Guede coming over, followed by an attempt to get her involved in some kind of sex game. And that’s when her ordeal began,” said Mignini.
According a the prosecution’s reconstruction, Sollecito held Kercher down while Knox held a knife to her throat and Guede tried to sexually assault her, before Knox slit her throat.
Guede was convicted during a separate trial in March and was given a 30-year-sentence, which an appeals court began examining on Thursday.
The prosecution described him as an “unofficial defendant” in the current trial, with both Knox and Sollecitos’ legal teams casting him as the “lone killer”.
Sollecito’s legal team last month presented medical evidence purporting to show that a bloody footprint found in the house was not his, but Guede’s.
Guede admits that he was in the house at the time of Kercher’s murder, but says he was in the bathroom listening to music, when he heard Knox return home and begin an argument about money.
But Knox maintains that she spent the whole night in Sollecito’s house in another part of Perugia, while he claims to have been in front of the computer all night.
Sollecito has said he doesn’t remember whether Knox spent the whole night at his house.
Knox’s defense team has also suggested that police have the wrong murder weapon. They said the 17-cm inch knife was too long to be compatible with the 8-cm wound found on Kercher’s throat The knife was found in Sollecito’s house shortly after the murder and police say it has Kercher’s DNA on the tip and Knox’s on the handle.
Defence lawyers said the DNA was contaminated.
Minigni also reminded the court that Kercher faced charges for wrongly accusing Perugia-based musician Patrick Lumumba, who was later cleared of all involvement in the case.
“She knowingly accused an innocent man of murder, content to let him languish in jail,” the prosecutor said.
Mignoni also made mention of the “parallel media trial on three continents” which he said had twisted and obscured many of the fact of the case.
“But the only trial that matters, is the one today in this court room,” he said.
On Saturday, the prosecution will rest its case and ask for a sentence. Judicial sources say a verdict is expected in early December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Teen Girls Convicted for Harassing Refugees
Two teenage girls have been convicted for their role in terrorizing refugees in Vännäs in northern Sweden last May in what was described at the time as a “lynch mob”.
The girls, aged 16 and 17 when the incident took place, were sentenced to juvenile care by the district court in Umeå for harassment and vandalism, Sveriges Radio (SR) reports.
The charges stem from a May 9th incident in which a group of 30 to 50 young people shouted and threw stones at an apartment building housing a large number of refugee tenants, predominantly from Iraq.
Authorities decided to evacuate about 40 refugees to avoid potential violence. Within two weeks, nearly half of the refugees had decided to leave the area permanently.
According to the Västerbotten-Kuriren newspaper, the incident stemmed from a dispute involving a group of local youths who confronted a refugee boy about the alleged assault of a local girl.
Tensions from the school yard confrontation escalated over several days, culminating in the assembling of what police described as a “lynch mob” outside the apartment building.
While dozens of young people were involved in the incident, prosecutors only succeeded in bringing charges against the two girls.
During the trail, prosecutor Lotta Sundström admitted that she wished she could have charged more people in connection with the incident.
“It’s not at all satisfying. We would have liked to have been able to connect more people to the crime, but we’ve failed to do so in our investigation,” she told SR.
The younger of the girls confessed that she threw rocks at the window of an apartment where a refugee family lived, but she denied her acts were racially motivated.
The older girl, however, didn’t admit to having any roll in the harassment or vandalism.
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ashton, Miliband and the Labour Party’s Future
What impact might the appointment of Cathy Ashton as EU High Representative have on the battle to lead the Labour Party after the election? If this seems like an odd question, I’ll explain. Friends of David Miliband have been arguing over the last couple of weeks that Miliband’s decision to stay in Britain rather than take the job made him a much stronger leadership candidate.
This was for two reasons. First, it showed he was a fighter and wanted to dedicate himself to the party. And second, the very offer (and it is clear there would have been one, I think) showed that he is a big figure. He was offered a big job after all.
In fact, a Blairite former Cabinet Minister told me that he believed that Miliband had even put himself in position to succeed before the election.
But now along comes Baroness Ashton. Whatever talent she may have, in British political eyes this reduces the prestige of the appointment. It suggests that Miliband did not need to be regarded as a major figure by other European governments in order to be appointed. I’d say that whatever edge the whole EU High Representative thing gave him, and it was quite an edge actually, he has now lost.
Ed Balls had a good day yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BNP Set to Sign First Non-White Member (He’s an Anti-Islamic Sikh Who Once Gave a Character Reference for Nick Griffin)
Rajinder Singh, an anti-Islamic activist who describes the religion as a ‘beast’, has lent his support to the far-right party for the last decade even though he currently remains barred from joining because of the colour of his skin.
But he will soon be able to sign up as a fully-fledged BNP member after the party last weekend began the process of changing its constitution so its membership rules do not discriminate on the grounds of race or religion.
Mr Singh once provided a character reference for Nick Griffin during his racial hatred trial. He said he would be ‘honoured’ to join the party.
However in the video posted at the bottom of this page, Mr Griffin suggests paying Sikhs to return to India.
He said: ‘Lots of Sikhs would go home and West London wouldn’t be so crowded at rush hour time. Everybody’s happy.’
BNP spokesman John Walker said Mr Singh would be the ideal first non-white candidate to join the party.
He said: ‘I suggested it myself — if we’re going to do this [open up BNP membership to non-whites] then Rajinder Singh would be a good person to sign up.’
‘Mr Singh has been supportive of the party for years.
‘He’s here [in Britain] not to throw his weight around, he’s here under our protection.
‘He fully accepted our membership criteria. He said “You have the right as a people to defend yourself in a ‘manly’ fashion.”‘
Mr Singh was born in Lahore, Pakistan, but fled communal tensions and came to Britain in 1967.
The former teacher from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, is openly anti-Muslim after his father was killed during the Partition of India in 1947.
He has believed for the last decade that the BNP can be persuaded to accept Sikhs as British.
‘I am a retired teacher, living a quiet life,’ he told The Independent. ‘I got in touch with the BNP on certain core policies that appeal to me.
‘I also admire them since they are on their own patch and do not wish to let anyone else oust them from the land of their ancestors.’
“I come from partitioned Punjab that saw a lot of bloodshed in 1947,’ he added. ‘Anyone escaping that genocide would pray to God, say never again and vote for BNP.’
Mainstream Sikh groups said they were appalled by Mr Singh’s involvement with the BNP.
Dr Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said: ‘Sikhism stresses equality for all human beings.
‘Therefore Sikhs who are true to their faith, will having nothing whatsoever to do with any party that favours any one section of the community.’
Martin Wingfield, the BNP’s communications and campaigns officer, is already preparing to welcome Mr Singh into the fold.
He wrote to members on the party’s website: ‘I say adapt and survive and give the brave and loyal Rajinder Singh the honour of becoming the first ethnic minority member of the BNP.’
In December 2001 Mr Singh and another Sikh from Slough who goes under the name of Ammo Singh announced their intention to set up an Asian Friends of the BNP group to act as a supporting body and conduit for funds for people sympathetic to the party’s anti-Islamic stance.
The party had little success and was widely condemned by Sikh and Hindu groups.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Children to Learn About Blogging and Climate Change as Government Reforms Relegate History in Curriculum
Traditional subjects such as history and geography are to be sidelined in the biggest shake-up of primary education for 20 years.
Ed Balls vowed to press ahead with changing the curriculum to more general themes and topics.
The controversial reforms have led to widespread concern, including opposition from Prince Charles.
[Comments from JD: This is done to remove pride and nationalism in the next generation. This is social engineering.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs Lose on Average 22% of Their Brightness Over Their Lifetime, A Study Has Found.
In some cases they emit just 60% as much light as traditional models which are being phased out of shops, it says.
The study in Engineering and Technology magazine concluded that consumers were being misled by the bulbs’ packaging.
Of the 18 energy-saving bulbs tested over 10,000 hours by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, three stopped altogether.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Grandfather Weighing 39 Stone Gets Specially-Designed Council House Costing the Taxpayer £300,000
An obese grandfather is having a specially-designed council house built for him at a cost of at least £300,000.
Michael Williment, 67, weighs in at 39 stone and is virtually housebound.
He requires two carers to get him out of bed in the morning and into a specially built armchair, where he sits for 11 hours a day.
The retired heating engineer will share the two-bedroom bungalow with wife Heather, 65, who is also disabled.
The custom-built Norwich property will feature over-sized corridors, extra-large bedrooms and en-suite facilities, along with two lifting hoists.
Mr Williment hopes to move in the New Year. He said: ‘They came round with a plan and we changed a few things and asked for different things for our own needs and any other future needs.
‘It can’t come quickly enough.’
Mr Williment, who lives just 40 miles away from the world’s heaviest man, 70-stone Paul Mason, 48, of Ipswich, was forced to retire through disability 20 years ago.
He puts his huge weight problem down to a course of steroid tablets he took as a teenager to combat eczema, as well as health problems including kidney failure, diabetes and glaucoma.
Mr Williment insisted he had not piled on the pounds by eating too much.
He said he had tried a string of diets in vain and had now given up losing weight.
‘I know there are many people in my situation,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to accept it and make the best of it.’
The couple have lived in their current sheltered housing bungalow, which has also been specially adapted, since 2005.
The father-of-two hopes his new home’s design will enable him to go into the garden and make it easier to get into a special ambulance that takes him to hospital every three months.
Mrs Williment said she would soon be able to sleep in the same room as her husband.
She added: ‘It will be a lot better for us as a married couple. There will be enough room in the kitchen to manoeuvre a wheelchair and I’m hoping Michael will be able to make me a cup of tea.’
Mrs Williment admitted her husband’s situation ‘got her down sometimes’. She added: ‘Occasionally I have to leave him on his own and I worry in case there’s a fire.
‘We have to have all family gatherings and kids’ parties here because he can’t get out.’
Norwich City Council said it had a legal obligation to eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote equality for disabled people, and take steps to meet their needs, even if it required more favourable treatment.
A spokesman said: ‘As a council, we have a duty to look after the needs of all our tenants and to make sure that in any resettlement programme people are treated equally.
‘Sometimes this will involve developing properties in partnership with housing associations for people with disabilities which are not available within our existing housing stock, and we are currently working with a housing association to provide a wheelchair-adapted home for another of our tenants.’
The new house is on land sold by the council to a Norfolk housing association.
Designed by architects Chaplin Farrant, it is being built for Flagship Housing by contractor Lovell, financed by a grant from the Homes and Communities Agency.
Lucy MacLeod, NHS Norfolk consultant in public health, said: ‘There is a very real cost to the NHS as a result of obesity-related diseases and conditions.
‘The main causes of obesity are known to be a lack of exercise and a high calorie diet, so NHS Norfolk is committed to working with our partners to encourage members of the public to become more active and facilitate their move towards healthier diets.’
Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said the council should be saluted for building Mr Williment a special new home — but that the council was ‘bailing out the NHS’.
‘I would prefer that nothing like this was needed because it’s horrendous to be that fat, but the council has been sensible about this,’ he said.
‘We have to have somewhere for this person to live and this house could well be an investment for the future because it can be used by other obese people when he is no longer using it.
‘There’s a real need for the NHS to catch these people before things ever get to this state. I would say Norwich City Council are bailing out the NHS.’
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UK: Hacked: Sensitive Documents Lifted From Hadley Climate Center
By Keith Johnson
Well, this should get interesting.
The Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain was hacked yesterday, apparently by Russian black hats, and thousands of sensitive documents, including emails from climate scientists dating back a decade, were posted online. More here.
Officials at Hadley, a leading global-warming research center, have apparently confirmed to an Australian publication that the documents are genuine.
The whole affair has much of the blogosphere alight. Blogs skeptical of man-made global warming see blood in the water.
Some of the old emails from scientists made public apparently make references to things like “hid[ing] the decline,” referring to global temperature series and different ways to slice and dice climate data.
In all, it seems there are more than 3,000 files in the hacked folders, which have been reposted in various places on the Internet.
The big Copenhagen summit had lost a lot of its appeal in recent days, as world leaders kept dialing down expectations for the climate talks. Maybe this will spice things up.
| — Hat tip: Swenglish Rantings | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Husband Strangled Wife in His Sleep After Stopping Medication
A devoted husband who strangled his wife as he dreamed he was fighting off an intruder walked free from court today after the prosecution withdrew the case against him.
Brian Thomas stopped taking anti-depressants so he could enjoy intimate nights with his wife Christine, 57, while they were on holiday in their camper van.
But in the night Mr Thomas, who suffers from a chronic sleep disorder known as automatism, killed his childhood sweetheart as he slept.
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UK: Just Say No to Sharia Law
Let us support the courageous Muslims who, often at great personal risk, are campaigning against religious extremism
This Saturday’s London rally against sharia law and all religious tyrannies should be huge. Millions of people are suffering at the hands of clerical regimes, especially our Muslim brothers and sisters in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Sadly, the turn out in Hyde Park will probably be quite small. This is odd. Most liberals and leftwingers would protest loud and strong if these persecutions were perpetrated by a western regime or by Christian fundamentalists. But they get squeamish when it comes to challenging human rights abuses committed in the name of Islam. They fear being denouned as Islamophobic. They confuse protests against fundamentalist, political Islam, which seeks to establish a religious dictatorship, with an attack on Muslim people and the Muslim faith. These are two very different things. Saturday’s protest is in defence of Muslim people — and all people everywhere — who are victims of any form of religious tyranny.
While other faiths are also often oppressive, sharia law is especially oppressive. Its interpretations stipulate the execution of Muslims who commit adultery, renounce their faith (apostates) or have same-sex relationships. Sharia methods of execution, such as stoning, are particularly brutal and cruel — witness the stoning to death this week in Somalia of a 20-year-old woman divorcee who was accused of adultery. This is the fourth stoning of an adulterer in Somalia in the last year.
Somalia is an extreme example of the sharia oppression that exists in large parts of the Muslim world. As ever, Muslim women are often the main victims. Our rally is in support of Muslim women who are campaigning for equality. We cannot accept the way many Islamic states, including western allies like Saudi Arabia, restrict women’s freedom of movement, make women subject to the control of male guardians, deny women access to certain jobs and positions in government and enforce the compulsory veiling of women (the hijab, niqab, jilbab or burqa).
Speakers at Saturday’s One Law For All rally include philosopher AC Grayling, columnist Johann Hari, Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasrin, Rahila Gupta of Women Against Fundamentalism, Pragna Patel from Southall Black Sisters, Houzan Mahmoud of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and Muslim refugees from sharia law in Iran. The organisers have made it clear that supporters of the English Defence League and the British National party are not welcome. We reject their racist and anti-Muslim agenda.
This the key point of the protest is to show support for the many courageous, inspiring Muslims who are campaigning against the inequalities and inhumanities of ssharia law, often at great risk to their liberty and life. Contrary to the way our critics are trying to misrepresent our campaign, this is not an attack on Muslims or Islam. Nor are we uniquely condemning sharia law. We reject all religious laws and courts, including those inspired by Judaist and Christian fundamentalism.
In a democracy, everyone should be subject to the same laws, with the same rights and responsibilties. Religious rulings should not influence the laws or courts in any way. Britain cannot claim the moral high ground: it is not a secular democracy. The Church of England is the established church, the official state religion. Some of its bishops are granted automatic places in the House of Lords, by virtue of their religious office, and they are able to speak and vote on legislation. No other faith in Britain has such privileged law-making status and power.
When I speak at Saturday’s rally, I will defend Muslims and people of all faiths against hatred and discrimination. The victimisation of people because of their religious beliefs is just as wrong as victimising people because of their race, gender or sexuality.
However, it is important to acknowledge that the religious right, which exists in all faiths, is a serious threat to human freedom wherever it manifests itself — whether in the US, Iran, Russia, Italy, Uganda, Israel or the UK. This is why our protest supports secular democracy. We believe there should be a separation of religion from the state.. No faith should dominate any government and seek to impose its creed on the rest of society. When this happens, freedom of expression is diminished and minority faiths are victimised. We saw this happen when Protestantism became the state religion in England and Catholics suffered great persecution from the late 1500s. We also see it today in Iran where the Shia-dominated state persecutes the Sunni Muslim minority (especially the Arabs and Baluchs). The reverse happens in Sunni-ascendant Saudi Arabia, where Salafi and Wahhabi interpretations of Islam are enforced and Shia Muslims, and dissident Sunni Muslims, are the victims.
For these reasons, secularism is not only an important element of freedom of expression. It is also the best guarantee of religious freedom, as it prevents any one faith becoming politically dominant and abusing its powers to oppress people of other faiths.
The organisers of Saturday’s rally believe that Muslims and all peoples worldwide should have rights, freedoms and choices, in accordance with the principles of equality and non-discrimination that are enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are not “western values”. They are international humanitarian values, agreed by the global consensus of the member states of the UN.
It is wrong to tolerate the denial of human rights to non-white Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, when most of us would never tolerate the denial of these rights to white (and non-white) people in Britain. There should be no double standards. No cultural and moral relativism. Defend universal human rights. One law for all.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lord Howells: “The UK is Beginning to Look Like a Failed Nation”
The Shadow Deputy Leader of the Lords, Lord Howell of Guildford, gave a pretty robust yet dispiriting assessment of the state of the UK as the Upper House debated the Queen’s Speech yesterday:
A robust foreign policy should both define and unite us, yet, instead, with the most optimistic view, one is left with a dispiriting picture. At a time when we should be forging new alliances with new sources of power and influence that will affect our destiny intimately; at a time when we should be vigorously promoting new and more flexible structures regionally for the EU, instead of talking of more centralisation; at a time when we should be building up the Commonwealth as the ideal soft power network of the future; at a time when we should be massively strengthening and modernising our security forces to meet asymmetric threats; at a time when we should be redirecting our development and aid policies, and thinking clearly about whether aid really leads to development in all cases-which it does not; at a time when we should be reconstructing our overseas ministries to get a better resource balance and upgrading our whole diplomatic resources-at this time, we are doing none of those things.
Above all, these ambiguities in our world stance divide and confuse us here at home, as both the Afghan and, I am afraid, the Iraqi involvement have divided us, adding to the multicultural mayhem and planting of deep doubt within our society. With our staggering public debt and enormous budget deficit, with the prospect of head-on collision with international bond markets looming and with our lost purpose, we are beginning to look like-and outside commentators are beginning to describe us as-a failed nation.
The global context has changed. Within it we need a new foreign policy direction based on a deep and intelligent analysis of the world conditions. We need new government machinery and a new Government to operate it successfully and with confidence and vigour. Our amazing country, built on its amazing and dazzling past, and still full of talent and vitality, deserves nothing less.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Doctor Who Died as a Result of Labour’s ISTCs
Dr Hubley’s is just the most serious in a growing list of cases which raise serious concerns about the safety of ‘independent sector treatment centres’, writes Andrew Gilligan
Dr John Hubley’s operation to remove a gall bladder was supposed to take an hour, and he was expecting to be home the same evening. Instead, in a “torrent” of blood, he was dead. What killed him was not the operation, one of the simplest there is. Neither the pathologist at the inquest, nor one of the country’s most eminent experts in the field, had ever heard of it being fatal. No, what killed Dr Hubley was a Government initiative. If Dr Hubley had been treated at a proper hospital, heard the inquest, he would have lived. Instead, he was sent to one of New Labour’s “independent sector treatment centres” — clinics run by private companies, but taking only NHS patients and wholly funded by the state.
To ministers, ever questing for the quick fix, ever faithful when it came to privatisation’s magic healing powers, the ISTCs were a godsend. Ben Bradshaw, then a junior health minister, said they were “providing NHS patients with fast access to high-quality treatment and galvanising the NHS to raise its game”. There are now around 40, cutting waiting lists around the country. But many ISTCs are also cutting corners. Dr Hubley, for example, had a haemorrhage on the operating table — but the clinic, although it carried out dozens of operations a week, did not have enough swabs to stem the bleeding. Incredibly, it didn’t even hold any emergency blood stocks to replace the blood Dr Hubley had lost. The surgeons wanted to ring the local NHS hospital and ask for blood, but there wasn’t a phone in the operating theatre. Someone had to go outside and rummage around for his mobile. The blood took almost two hours to arrive in sufficient quantity. By that time, it was much too late.
Dr Hubley’s is just the most serious in a growing list of cases which raise serious concerns about the safety of these clinics. So far, these have mostly been local stories. It’s time to start joining them up. On Wednesday, this newspaper reported that ISTCs operated by a company called Clinicenta across North London had been closed by the NHS “in the interests of patient safety” after “a number of incidents” understood to include up to two deaths. This particular contract has only been going for six months, and has served just a handful of patients. Two deaths already, if that is the case, would seem poor odds. Clinicenta is part of Carillion, a construction company. What do builders know about surgery?
Earlier this year, a survey for the BBC in the West Country found that almost a third of leading trauma and orthopaedic surgeons believed their local ISTC did not operate safely. Four surgeons reported avoidable patient deaths. Twelve reported avoidable poor outcomes, with one saying: “The results are very poor and I have to redo the operations, with unhappy results.” Dr Mark Porter, of the BMA consultants’ committee, tells me: “We have been extremely concerned about where ISTCs get their staff from. They sometimes use short-term staff from abroad, whose quality control is questionable compared to an NHS consultant.” And the public is paying through the nose for it all. Earlier this year, Edinburgh University found that, under fixed-cost contracts, the ISTCs had been paid £1 billion for operations that never took place.
You may think private is better. If it’s the London Clinic, it probably is.. But these are new outfits, specifically set up to make money from the taxpayer. If someone tries to send you to one, just say no, because NHS patients are finding themselves transferred into a semi-private netherworld without the same checks and safeguards. The coroner condemned the ISTC where Dr Hubley died as a “Mickey Mouse” operation. The clinic responded: “We met all the criteria and all the regulations. [Blood] was not a requirement..”
Blood was not a requirement. Let that be the epitaph for this literally fatal wheeze.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: There Are Moral Absolutes: Aspects of Sharia Are Barbaric
Credit where credit’s due, Peter Tatchell wrote an article for the Guardian describing Sharia law as being “especially oppressive”. He says:
‘Its interpretations stipulate the execution of Muslims who commit adultery, renounce their faith (apostates) or have same-sex relationships. Sharia methods of execution, such as stoning, are particularly brutal and cruel — witness the stoning to death this week in Somalia of a 20-year-old woman divorcee who was accused of adultery. This is the fourth stoning of an adulterer in Somalia in the last year.
Somalia is an extreme example of the Sharia oppression that exists in large parts of the Muslim world. As ever, Muslim women are often the main victims. Our rally is in support of Muslim women who are campaigning for equality.’
There are moral absolutes. Ivan the Terrible would have considered Sharia’s corporal and capital retributions a little too right-on for his savage brand of tyranny. And Sharia’s prescription on marriage and some of its grounds for divorce, specifically denunciation, entrench misogyny. These fundamental injustices must be opposed wherever they are found.
Liberal voices on the left and right, regardless of nationality and faith, must not excuse inhumanity through silence and half-heartedness: Sharia is an attack on Islam, Muslims and enlightened society. Though I applaud his efforts, Tatchell and his campaign No to Sharia do give in. Halfway through his article, Tatchell argues that the Church of England should be disestablished:
‘Britain cannot claim the moral high ground: it is not a secular democracy. The Church of England is the established church, the official state religion. Some of its bishops are granted automatic places in the House of Lords, by virtue of their religious office, and they are able to speak and vote on legislation. No other faith in Britain has such privileged law-making status and power.
No faith should dominate any government and seek to impose its creed on the rest of society. When this happens, freedom of expression is diminished and minority faiths are victimised.’
There may be cause for disestablishment, but this is not it. For nearly 200 years, the Church of England has made up for its legislative and judicial irrelevance with narcoleptic discussions about its internal workings; the only it’s diminished is itself. Tatchell conflates the Church’s frankly quite tolerant past (by the standards of the time) with the barbaric elements of Sharia in the present — an apology engendered by political correctness and, more importantly, fear. This battle has nothing to do with apology and artificial concessions; the forces of moderate, compassionate civilisation across the world must be courageous and oppose what is inherently wrong.
[Note from JP: “Sharia is an attack on Islam” — this should make them roll with laughter in the mosques from Samarkand to Timbuctoo.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yes Mrs Palin, Britain Does Have NHS Death Panels
When Sarah Palin said Obama’s healthcare plan would result in “death panels” that would see bureaucrats making subjective judgements on life and death, she was furiously howled down by Obama supporters.
So how should we describe the expert panel of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which decided that patients will be denied a new cancer drug on the NHS under draft guidelines, because it is too expensive?
Charities are outraged people with advanced liver cancer are to be refused life-extending Nexavar. Andrew Dillon, of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said: “The drug does not provide enough benefit to justify its high cost.”
Andrew Dillon, the CEO of N.I.C.E., is a career bureaucrat, not a doctor or a scientist. He runs the system that says there is a cap of £30,000 per patient for a quality year of life. If the panel determines that a “quality year of life” will cost the NHS more than £30,000, you are dead…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Film: EU Funds Palestinian Women’s Festival
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 18 — Shashat will be in the spotlights this month, the fifth women’s film festival in Palestinian territory, the only annual event for women in the Arab world. The festival will be closed on November 30. A total of 84 films will be shown during the festival, reports the website of Enpi (www.enpi-info.eu). The event was made possible thanks to the 47 thousand euros contributed to the event by the European Union. The three protagonists of this year’s event are the city of Jerusalem, 2009 capital of Arab culture, History of Palestinian cinema and Woman and war. The European Union supports the film festival in all Mediterranean countries, organising events in Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan. European funds will also be used for the regional Euromed Audiovisual programme, created to contribute to inter-cultural dialogue and cultural diversity through the support to resources in the sector present in the region. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt-Algeria: Cairo Calls Algerian Ambassador
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 19 — Egypt has called the Algerian ambassador for consultation, reported the Mena agency. Today president Mubarak, in light of the “deplorable incidents” following the match for the World Cup yesterday, an official note reads, called for a special ministerial meeting including the participation of the Prime Minister, the ministers of the interior, civil aviation, foreign affairs, information and the home, together with the presidents of the two houses of parliament. There was also the head of secret services present at the meeting, the head of the presidential cabinet, the chief of staff of the armed forces and the president of the national council for sport. It was the same Mubarak who called for the foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to call the ambassador to Cairo, Abdul-Kader Hajjar, asking that Algeria take full responsibility for the protection of Egyptians and their interests in the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt-Algeria: Rivals in Football, Equals in Corruption
(ANSAmed) -CAIRO, NOVEMBER 19 — During the full-scale sporting-diplomatic war between Egypt and Algeria, and after Algeria beat their opponents in the World Cup qualifier, a report by the International Organisation for Transparency puts the two countries on the same level in terms of corruption, in 111th place. The most transparent Arab country — according to the report published in independent daily Al Masri al Yom — is Qatar, in 22nd place, followed by the United Arab Emirates (30), Oman (39), Bahrain (36), Saudi Arabia (62), Tunisia (65), Kuwait (66), Morocco (89), Yemen (154) and last of all, Somalia (180). Egypt, says the Transparency.org website, is one of 30 countries which signed the UN Convention against corruption, which came into effect in 2005. Much has been done by the Egyptian institutions to combat the phenomenon, the report admits, but it remains deep-rooted in all areas of society. For example, say the experts, the so-called wasta (social influence) remains important in getting anything, and under-the-counter payments are fundamental. The lack of transparency is also seen in issues such as conflict of interest and access to information for all, while there is a lack of ability to control society and journalists. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Algerian Press All for the ‘Green’
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 19 — Thank you!, Long live Algeria!. This is how all the Algerian papers opened this morning, after yesterday evening’s victory in Khartoum against Egypt (1-0) which will take Algeria to the World Cup in South Africa after a 24-year absence. Our heroes offer a 2010 World Cup qualification to the Algerian population, writes Liberte on the first page, dedicating half the paper to yesterday’s match and the night of explosive festivities throughout the Maghreb country. Blatter, wére in the World Cup! echoes El Watan, noting that despite the silence, the FIFA impartiality, and the numerous obstacles thrown at the Algerian national team, the fennec (desert foxes) managed to qualify. The cartoon in Liberte by noted Algerian illustrator, Ali Dilem, symbolically depicts an Egyptian national team player skewered on a pyramid. One to nothing, the Algerians are heroes, reads the El Khabar headline, while Ennahar talks about the day of revenge on the Pharaohs.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Egypt-Algeria; Accusations in Egyptian Press
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 19 — “We lost and will not be going to the World Cup for an Algerian goal and a never before seen climate of terror which caused our players to lose their concentration”. These were the words of the Egyptian government newspaper Al Shourouk regarding Egypt’s defeat yesterday against Algeria, highlighting the “Algerian provocations both before and after the match in spite of the rigid security measures”. Bitter tears for the Egyptian fans, the paper added, but also satisfaction for the level of the national team. “Bonjour tristesse”, however was the headline. Again in relation to the government publications of a “lost dream” read Al Gomhurey, while the accusations were more direct in Rose el Youssef (“Wave the flag high, Algerian violence won over Egypt’s tactics and enthusiasm”) and Al Mesaa (“Foolish attacks against our fans in Omdurman”). The independent paper Al Masri El Yom was more ironic, calling attention to the opinion an international report: “Egypt and Algeria are equals in corruption”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cooperation Israel-NATO, Amm. Di Paola in Tel Aviv
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 18 — Admiral Giampaolo di Paola, president of the NATO military committee, has begun a two day visit to Israel on the invitation of the Israeli chief of staff, Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi, a statement from Israeli military heralded. Admiral Di Paola, the spokesperson stated, will be received by Defence Minister Ehud Barak and high-ranking officials with whom he will examine the possibilities of “furthering military and defence cooperation between Israel and Nato”. The admiral will also visit the base in the area of Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv, and the special ‘Yahalom’ military unit. For Admiral Di Paola it is the third visit to Israel in the last 4 years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman: Gilo Neighbourhood Like Herzliya
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, NOVEMBER 19 — The Gilo neighbourhood is an integral part of Jerusalem and Israel, and is, in that respect, identical to Tel Aviv and Herzliya, has said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, who met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Jerusalem. Gilo is considered a settlement by the United Nations but a neighbourhood within the municipality of Jerusalem by Israel and the United States. Lieberman added that all the procedures required for issuing building permits in Gilo are carried out in accordance with the law by the planning and building committee, and the government does not intend to intervene in the process, which strictly adheres to the procedural regulations of the State of Israel. The two ministers also discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the situation with the Palestinians. Liberman thanked Kouchner for France’s fundamental and consistent position regarding the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Provisional Palestinian State, Peres-Barak Plan
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 19 — Israel’s Head of State Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak (Labour Party leader) have drawn up a peace plan, the first phase of which calls for the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state on about half of the West Bank, reports the daily paper Maariv. The paper did not explicitly refer to the Gaza Strip, under Hamas control. According to the paper, the plan — which seems to have been rejected by the Palestinian Authority — includes separate guarantees by the United States. Palestinians would be ensured that the negotiations on the definitive peace arrangement would not last more than one to two years, and that the definitive state would extend over an area similar to that of the Territories before the Israeli occupation in 1967. Israel, on the other hand, would be ensured of a “Jewish’ character, meaning that there would not be a return of Palestinian refugees to its territory. Ten years ago also the second-in-command of Kadima (opposition) Shaul Mofaz had presented a similar plan. Maariv added that Premier Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) “is aware of the Peres-Barak plan, and has not yet raised any objections.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Carrefour to Open New Markets in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 19 — French hypermarket chain Carrefour will open new markets and employ more people in Turkey, Anatolia news agency reports quoting an official of the chain as saying. Guillaume Deruyter, the director general of CarrefourSA Supermarkets, said the company would open three hypermarkets and 100 express markets in 2010 and employ 5,600 people. Deruyter is actually visiting Tarsus town of the southern Turkish city of Mersin to inaugurate the 160th CarrefourSA market. The CarrefourSA opened 55 express markets and four hypermarkets in Turkey in 2009. Carrefour owns 58.2% of shares in CarrefourSA and Sabanci Holding has 38.8% shares. The public owns the rest of shares. The third-largest food retailer in Turkey, first in Europe and second in the world, Carrefour group currently has over 15,500 stores, either company-operated or franchises. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Finmeccanica Joint Venture Signs Deal With Indonesian Airline
Dubai, 17 Nov. (AKI) — Italy’s leading aerospace and defence company, Finmeccanica, and its joint venture partner EADS have signed a 600 million dollar contract to supply 15 turbo-prop aircraft to the Indonesian passenger airline, Wings Air. In a statement released on Monday, ATR, the partners’ joint venture, is to deliver the aircraft with an option for 15 others to Wings Air, a subsidiary of Lion Air between 2009 and 2011.
The European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Company is European group based in the Netherlands.
Finmeccanica is playing a prominent role in the Dubai Airshow which opened on Sunday. The Italian aerospace giant is hoping to secure new deals in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
The company has just created an industrial partnership with the Abu Dhabi-based business development and investment firm, the Mubadala Development Company, to produce components for civil aircraft at a plant at Al Ain in the UAE.
The plant was opened in an official ceremony at the weekend.
Under the arrangement, Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica subsidiary, will provide technology, technical assistance and training as well as manufacturing for the new composites plant.
The United Arab Emirates government also recently announced the acquisition of 48 M-346 advanced lead-in fighter trainer aircraft to be manufactured by Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica company.
The agreement includes the creation of a joint venture to establish a final assembly line for the M-346. It is the result of close collaboration between the Italian government and the defence industry, which have worked together to capitalise on Italian excellence in the aeronautics high-tech sector.
“The selection of the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 by the United Arab Emirates government represents a huge success for the Italian high-tech industry” said Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chairman and chief executive officer of Finmeccanica.
“It is an endorsement of considerable strategic value for Finmeccanica, as it confirms the supremacy of this advanced next-generation trainer aircraft at international level and paves the way for further successes in the global markets, where others important campaigns are already under way.”
In a statement on its website, Finmeccanica said that the UAE also offered opportunities for Alenia Aeronautica’s C-27J tactical transport aircraft, which is generating considerable interest throughout the Gulf region.
The aircraft’s special features including a take-off and landing capability on short runways under 500 metres in length, made it particularly suitable for the region, the company said.
Alenia Aeronautica, the world leader in regional turboprop aircraft, also plans to promote the special versions of the ATR series: the ATR 42MP and ATR 72MP (for maritime patrol) and the ATR 72ASW (for anti-submarine warfare) during this week’s international show.
The UAE is of strategic interest to Finmeccanica, and it opened an office in Abu Dhabi last year. Finmeccanica has had a presence in the UAE for years and has numerous partnerships with Emirate companies.
In 2005, in association with Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), SELEX Sistemi Integrati set up the joint venture Abu Dhabi Systems Integration, ADSI, which is active in the defence and security sector.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Priest Killed in Church
MOSCOW — The Rev. Daniil Sysoyev, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church who was known for promoting missionary work among Muslims, was shot and killed in his parish church late Thursday night, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Father Sysoyev, 35, died at a Moscow hospital of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, RIA Novosti said. The Web site of the Moscow patriarchate confirmed his death. The parish’s choir director was wounded in the shootings at the Church of St. Thomas by the unidentified assailant.
A Moscow Patriarchate official called Father Sysoyev a “talented missionary” whose work among Muslims, including Tatars, might have been the motive for the shooting.
“I don’t exclude that the murder is connected to the fact that he preached among and baptized those who belong to Muslim culture,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the news media, said in a telephone interview.
Father Sysoyev had spoken out in opposition to Islam and had warned Russian women against marrying Muslim men.
Anatoly Bagmet, an official of the prosecutor’s office, said there was reason to believe that the shooting took place “on religious grounds,” the news agency reported.
Kirill Frolov, a prominent Orthodox missionary activist, said that Father Sysoyev had said that he had been receiving threats for several years.
“Over the course of two, three years Father Daniil, who was famous for his active missionary work, periodically received e-mails stating that if he didn’t stop his theological polemics with Islam, then he will be dealt with like an infidel,” Mr. Frolov told the Interfax news agency.
Missionary work and outreach to young people and non-churchgoers has become a keystone of the Moscow Patriarchate since Patriarch Kirill I became its leader 10 months ago. The church has been organizing rock concerts and trying to reach out to people through blogs.
Officials of the Russian Orthodox Church have complained in recent years about violence directed against churches and priests.
| — Hat tip: David | [Return to headlines] |
ILO Report: The Burmese Junta Increases Forced Labour and Child Soldiers
50% increase in complaints of forced labour and more than half involving children and young people enrolled in the army. The military junta has inserted a provision in the Constitution that authorizes the use of civilians in the construction of roads, infrastructure, such as porters or minesweepers.
Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The alleged cases of forced labour in Myanmar increased by 50% over the past five months, over half concerns the recruitment of children and young people among the ranks of the army. This is shown by a recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which admits the “ineffectiveness” of pressure to the Burmese government.
Last June, the ILO criticized a provision of the Constitution of Myanmar — which the junta drafted and ratified in a farce referendum in 2008 — that justifies the exploitation of forced labour as punishment for crimes or “in case of assignments entrusted by the Union [Myanmar], in accordance with law and in the public interest.”
As of 28 October, allegations of forced labour made to the ILO offices are 223. These are supplemented by the recruitment of 112 children in the army over the past seven months. Aye Myint, an activist for the rights of workers in Pegu, Bago division, told the dissident newspaper The Irrawaddy that the young people were recruited between May and November “and families have submitted complaints.
Defence of human rights groups confirm that the Burmese military junta continues a campaign of forced recruitment of minors into the army. Children are picked up from school, bars, cinemas or in the evening as they return home. They are threatened and beaten if they resist. Completed training, they are sent to war zones to fight against ethnic rebels.
The ILO document explains that, following complaints from families, “59 child soldiers were demobilized, 30 cases are currently pending and awaiting the start of the nine others”. Forced labour in Myanmar takes on many forms: construction of roads and infrastructure, use of civilians as porters for the army or minesweepers.
The government has signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization “not to punish” those who report cases of forced labour. In many cases happens, however, that local officials (civilian and military) retaliate, through harassment or violence against those who dare to rebel.
The Karen Human Rights Group (Khrg) is launching a new appeal for “a real step forward in defending the rights of children affected by war.” The problem of child soldiers has dragged on for years in Myanmar: a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2002 estimated that at least 70 thousand members of the Burmese army are under the age of 18.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Karzai Must Take ‘Decisive’ Action
Re-elected Afghan leader needs ‘transparent’ plan says Frattini
(ANSA) — Istanbul, November 18 — Re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai must take “decisive” action to convince the Afghan people he will be able to fight graft, boost the economy and ensure security, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.
Speaking at an Italian-Turkish forum ahead of a trip to Kabul Thursday for Karzai’s inauguration, Frattini called on Karzai to “take a decisive and transparent step towards the Afghan people, illustrating his government’s priorities”.
This plan, Frattini said, “should explain how he will relaunch the economy, defeat corruption and ensure security”.
Karzai was proclaimed the winner of a fraud-tainted August election last month after his rival Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of a runoff ordered by international monitors.
Frattini said efforts were needed to help boost Karzai’s credibility in the face of a twin threat from the Taliban and warlords who both control opium poppy crops.
Before Thursday’s inauguration, Frattini said the members of the NATO coalition fighting the Taliban would hold talks.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is helping President Barack Obama reassess the Afghan War, would “probably” be there, he said.
The Italian foreign minister also reaffirmed the need for an international conference under the aegis of the United Nations, to be held in Kabul.
Italy has been conferring closely with Karzai’s administration and Kabul’s ambassador to Italy, Musa M. Maroofi, visited Rome for talks last week. In a debate with Ambassador Massimo Iannucci, the Italian foreign ministry’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Maroofi stressed the imperative of defeating the Taliban “militarily”.
Maroofi said that ridding the country of the Taliban would “resolve 75% of our country’s problems”.
However, the Afghan diplomatic representative made it clear that he was only expressing his “personal views”.
He recalled that the official position of the Kabul government was to keep “the door open for dialogue and negotiations with the Taliban who repudiate violence and accept the Afghan constitution”.
“But this is a dream which will be difficult to achieve,” he added.
During the debate, Ambassador Maroofi said that the interests of the international community coincided with those of the Afghan government: combating corruption, greater transparency, rebuilding the country and defeating terrorism.
He also said that Karzai’s contested re-election had been “clean” and was “totally legitimate”.
Ambassador Maroofi made a point in the debate to thank the Italian government and people for their support and cooperation during the election period.
Italy sent an additional 400 troops to Afghanistan for the elections, in addition to the some 2,800 troops it has deployed with the NATO-led ISAF mission.
US President Obama has for months been re-evaluating American strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan and is expected to announce a new approach within weeks.
General Stanley A. McChrystal, the US commander, has asked for 40,000 extra troops but Obama is reportedly reluctant to send so many.
There are currently 68,000 US soldiers there, plus 40,000 from allied nations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Pope Calls for Sri Lankan Refugees to Return Home
Vatican City, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday called for Sri Lanka to respect human rights and enable refugees affected by the country’s long-running civil war to return home. The pope made the remarks during his Wednesday six months after the end of the conflict that divided the country.
“We note with satisfaction the efforts being made by the authorities over recent weeks, to facilitate the return home of people displaced by the war,” the pontiff said.
“I strongly encourage an acceleration in this process and ask all citizens to work towards rapid pacification in full respect for human rights, and towards a just political solution to the challenges still facing the country.”
“I trust, moreover, that the international community will strive to meet the humanitarian and economic needs of Sri Lanka.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan refugees bound for Australia are presently being held in Indonesia, waiting for countries in the region to decide what to do with them.
Both Australia and the Philippines have proposed alternative solutions.
The Tamil asylum-seekers on board a wooden boat bound for Australia were intercepted by Indonesian authorities last month and are anxiously waiting for a resolution of their case.
The wooden boat carried about 250 Tamil refugees who are now being held by the Indonesian government on a reported tip-off from the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Advisory Panel Warns of Rampant Chinese Spying
WASHINGTON — A U.S. congressional advisory panel said Thursday that Chinese spies are aggressively stealing American secrets to use in building Beijing’s military and economic strength.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to lawmakers that Beijing is building a navy that could block the U.S. military from getting to the region if fighting should break out between China and Taiwan, the self-governing island off China’s southeastern coast that China claims as its own.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil Investigating Battisti
Police say they have uncovered proof of terrorist activities
(ANSA) — Brasilia, November 20 — Cesare Battisti, the ex- terrorist that the Brazil supreme court has ruled should be extradited to Italy, was also involved in terrorist activities while in Brazil, local police told the country’s leading daily on Friday.
Folha de San Paulo quoted top police official Cleberson Almihana as saying that proof was uncovered during investigations on Battisti’s activities before his arrest. The 55-year-old Battisti was arrested in Brazil in April 2007, some five years after he had fled to that country to avoid extradition to Italy from France, where he had lived for 15 years and become a successful writer of crime novels.
According to Alminhana, the evidence was uncovered in his home in Rio de Janiero, in the city’s exclusive Copacabana district, after police went through his computer and CDs.
They also found two forged French passports with Battisti’s photos.
The material has been handed over to Brazil’s anti-terror police and to Interpol, Alminhana said.
Brazil’s supreme court, in a five-to-four decision, ruled on Wednesday that Battisti could be extradited to Italy but that President Inacio Lula da Silva should have the final word.
Lula was in Italy this week, to take part in a United Nations food security summit and discussed the Battisti case when he met with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on the sidelines of the gathering.
“I couldn’t come to Italy without addressing the Battisti case, but I don’t want to tell you what we said to each other,” Lula told journalists as he left the premier’s office.
In the past, Lula has come out against Battisti being returned to Italy, but he has also said he will respect the court’s decision.
Battisti was convicted in absentia for complicity in four murders committed by a leftist militant group in the 1970s.
In January, the Brazilian justice ministry granted Battisti political asylum on the grounds that he would face “political persecution” in Italy.
The ruling outraged the Italian government who demanded that it be appealed to the Brazilian supreme court.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bill Gives Immigrants Right to Vote in Local Polls
Rome, 19 Nov.(AKI) — A bill has been introduced in the Italian parliament granting immigrants from outside the European Union who have been legally resident in Italy for five years the right to vote in local elections.
The cross-party bill was tabled by MPs from Italy’s centre-left opposition and from the ruling conservative People of Freedom Party (PdL) of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Centre-left Democratic Party’s Walter Veltroni, the PdL’s Salvatore Vassallo, Leoluca Orlando from the centre-left Italy of Values party and Roberto Rao from the centrist Union of Christian and Centre Democrats party (UDC) presented the bill to the Italian lower house of parliament late on Wednesday.
“The bill meets an urgent need to ensure immigrants are included in our society and made to feel responsible for their lives,” said Veltroni, who is the former Democratic Party leader and ex-mayor of the Italian capital, Rome.
The PdL’s junior coalition partner, the anti-immigrant Northern League, opposes giving immigrants voting rights.
“Immigrants should go back home,” Northern League party leader Umberto Bossi said on Wednesday, commenting on the bill.
But Berlusconi’s key ally and lower house of parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini has stated his support for moves to give immigrants more rights.
At an immigration conference near the northern city of Treviso on Tuesday, Fini said he supported granting citizenship to the children of immigrants who are born and grow up in Italy and attend school.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Reid Joins Pelosi in Mandating ‘Abortion Premium’
House minority leader says Americans want health reform to ‘protect human life’
The 2,074-page health care proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., contains a monthly “abortion premium” just like the House plan originally endorsed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., according to House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio.
[…]
Today, Boehner confirmed, “Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new ‘abortion premium’ fee on Americans in the government-run plan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out
Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.
At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Internationalists Push for the Creation of World Spy Agency
Meanwhile officials unveiled a United Kingdom government security plan examined by reporters from the London-based Daily Telegraph, several countries — U.S., U.K., France, Germany, etc. — would submit classified information into a central intelligence unit so that any member nation will have access to it.
But the proposals risk hard won intelligence gathered by U.S. agents being leaked by less scrupulous security services, particularly in the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, according to security experts Bruno Waterfield and Duncan Gardham.
Although the Government has contributed to the proposals being drawn up as part of unifying European countries and their resources, Britain’s security services — MI5, its internal agency, and MI6, its foreign intelligence agency — will likely put up stiff opposition to these plans, claim Waterfield and Gardham.
“This is serious business even for the United States,” said former US Marine intelligence officer and NYPD detective Sid Frances.
“The United States shares top secret intelligence with the British intelligence and law enforcement agencies. That means that very soon, U.S. secrets will be distributed to nations that should not have access to our military and law enforcement secrets,” claims the decorated Marine and cop.
“What worries me is that the people who these Internationalists will spy on, just may be you and me,” he added.
[…]
“While the U.S. won’t directly be involved in consolidating intelligence, any secrets we share with Britain, France, Germany or other countries will be open to espionage by enemy nations or terrorist groups,” warns Det. Frances.
“Once we submit classified information to foreign entities, we no longer have control over what groups have access to our secrets,” he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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