An actor named Farshad Kholghi and Morten Messerschmidt, an MEP and member of the Danish People’s Party, have reported former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to the Danish police in advance of the latter’s visit to Denmark. The two complainants accuse Mr. Khatami of “mass crimes” against the people of Iran.In other news, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been hospitalized in Hawaii with chest pains. As of this writing, the only information available is that he is in serious condition.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Insubria, JD, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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As the World Waits for Hyperinflation and a World Government, Bernanke Becomes “Person of the Year
Time Magazine has made a premature choice. Economic recovery is either missing or else it is only due to spending cuts and layoffs. Unemployment in the United States and China is rising fast. A solution to the US public debt crisis can only come through hyperinflation, which will destabilise the world system.
Milan (AsiaNews) — US newsmagazine Time chose Ben Shlomo Bernanke, chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, as its Person of the Year for 2009. At face value, the choice can be seen in a number of ways. In fact, it could be due to the return of stock and security markets to almost normal levels. The rebound of the US stock market, which gained almost 60 per cent in the last nine months, was especially noteworthy.
From this angle, Time’s decision to put Bernanke on its front cover seems straightforward, in line with its official motivation. It recognises the man who, after Bear Stearns’ near death experience, the rescue of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GMAC and AIG[1], and the isolated but traumatic collapse of financial services firm Lehman Brothers, saved with public monies[2] the bulk of the US (Citibank, Bank of America, etc.) and international banking systems from collapse (or the certainty that they would inevitably crumble). What better achievement to put in the resume of an otherwise average economics professor from Princeton, without much theoretical work or publications to his name. Hence, like Hector or Achilles in epic times, Bernanke is a hero of finance, a hero for our times, which is certainly not epic because it bases everything on economics and money.
Stunted or non-existent economic recovery
If this assumption is correct, Time’s choice is, to say the least, premature. The rebound of the US stock market makes little sense because, with few exceptions, most firms in the United States and the rest of the world are just limping alone. Corporate balance sheets have not yet been published, but few believe they will show such results as to justify the stock market rally.
In developed nations, those sectors that did not get any public aid have seen their output decline, 20-30 per cent on average, with peaks of 50 per cent in some cases.[3] However creative one can be with a company’s accounts, it is hard to see how the real economy can generate such profits as to justify current stock market levels. Even when firms are able to limit losses, any good result is less likely the result of higher sales than of lower costs. In fact, aggregate (household, corporate and public) demand declined; spending by middle- and lower-income households dropped an estimated 20 per cent.[4]
Unemployment in the United States and China
Cutting costs has meant limiting losses by slashing operational costs and product research and development budgets. It has also meant laying off workers. Despite Obama’s much-vaunted stimulus package, US unemployment levels have risen to 9 per cent according to official figures; to over 20 per cent if the more rigorous econometric criteria applied in the pre-Clinton era are used.
Things are not that much better in other countries. In China, for instance, migrant workers, who have borne the brunt of the crisis, have not benefitted in terms of employment. Their jobs were tied to high levels of exports made possible by a yuan renminbi deliberately undervalued against the US dollar and other convertible currencies.[5]
The two main stimulus packages of 2009, that of the United States and that of China, have had no real impact, at least on employment levels, which was their ostensible goal. No surprise here, since the two countries are in a symbiotic relationship. One is the “world’s workshop” because of an exchange rate arbitrarily set by the Chinese Communist Party. The other one is the world’s largest consumer. With about 70 per cent of the US GDP going into consumption paid on borrowed money, no wonder that the US foreign trade, public treasury, household savings and corporate foreign debt are in the red.
This was inevitable. On the surface, things might appear different and hopes rekindled because of the race of the new US president or the skyscrapers and modernisation of the Chinese regime. In reality, they are illusions created by the two countries’ propaganda machines for no one wanted or wants to change the system built-in distortions.
This was inevitable because globalisation could only lead to an unbalanced interdependence, a Hegelian synthesis of two “modern” antitheses, a legacy of the 19th century that gave us two opposite but equally unbalanced materialisms.
The ghost of hyperinflation
If at one level, the rebound of the US stock market makes no sense, it makes sense at another. However, this one has sinister implications because it suggests that financial markets are expecting and anticipating hyperinflation.
Let us be clear, a company’s worth is not only measured by its capacity to generate profits but also by the value of its tangible assets like land, buildings, etc. A company’s value in the stock market is thus a measure of its expected profits as well as its assets. Under the present circumstances, it is hard to imagine a 60 per cent rise in corporate profits in the near future; any rebound in the stock market can only make sense if the value of assets rises because of inflation. In that case, if market forecasts and stock market values are correct, inflation must jump quite a bit, much more than 60 per cent to meet current and future losses.
From an overall economic point of view, this means that a period of double, triple and even quadruple digit inflation is likely to follow the current phase of great depression. This is one of the most destructive social phenomena: economists call it hyperinflation. Historically, this brings back memories of the Weimar Republic, which led to Hitler’s regime, as well as the more recent disasters that befell Zimbabwe. However, this is no unwarranted gloom-and-doom scenario, but rather a way to interpret rationally the rise of the stock market, which cannot be explained by company profits.
If we assume that current stock values in the United States are inflated compared to profits, we might expect another great collapse just around the corner.
The sinkhole of the US public debt
Although AsiaNews does not pretend to be a journal of financial forecasting, this second proposition does not appear very convincing, and this even if we admit high market volatility. The reason lies in the abnormally high level of debt of the US financial system, both in terms of formally issued debt as well as debt covenants. In September 2008, after Bernanke’ initial financial rescue plans were put into place, AsiaNews estimated that the total US public debt, including state and local government as well public capital corporations, stood at “at 59.3 trillion dollars, meaning 200,060 in public debt per capita, including the elderly, disabled, and children: 429.37% of GDP.”[6] Other economists, like John Williams, have said the figure is even higher, around US$ 75 trillion[7], five times the US GDP.
If we consider that US household debt is among the highest in the world, at about 99 per cent of GDP, that US corporate debt is also the highest in the world at 300 per cent of GDP, and that 95 per cent of US foreign debt is held by foreign residents, about half in Japan and China, it is very likely that the US Treasury will not be able to meet its commitments by raising taxes but will have to print more money instead. Thus, the conditions for hyperinflation are already in place. Any political event, however minor it might be, could act as the trigger.[8] It is hard to see how it can be avoided. Should this happen, it will have momentous political consequences not only for the United States, but also for Europe, Asia and the rest of the world.
A world banking government to the “rescue”
The current crisis is not only worse than that of 1929-33, but if it leads to hyperinflation, it will wipe out public debt and private savings. More importantly, it will undermine existing institutional structures. Perhaps, this is the real secret goal Federal Reserve chairmen, including Bernanke, have pursued in the past 20 years.[9] Perhaps, they sought all along to lay the ground for hyperinflation, in the bipolar world when the USSR still existed, and later unilaterally in order to secretly impose a world central bank and create a world government. With more than six billion people in the world, the creation of a world empire can only mean the end to all illusions we might have had about democracy or freedom, however modest they might have been. Except for some unlikely last minute Thermopylae, Xerxes’ dream of world order, tolerance and harmony can thus become reality in our times.
Time’s decision to place Bernanke on its front cover could thus be seen as embodying a second proposition. Although not very likely, bestowing him such an honour is such a paradox that it leads one to think that it could be a warning to a world that has fallen under the dominion of deceit.
[1] These are private capital but government-sponsored enterprises set up under President Roosevelt 70 years ago. They guarantee mortgages in the United States, whilst the AIG ensured loans on financial markets.
[2] According Neil Barofsky, Special Treasury Department Inspector General in charge of Troubled Asset Relief Program, the total cost will reach US$ 23.7 trillion, or just under 165 per cent of the US GDP.
[3] This means that if output dropped 30 per cent in some cases, it could be 70 per cent in other. Such losses mean almost inevitable closing or insolvency for any company.
[4] See the latest Gallup poll, in Dennis Jacobe, “Upper-Income Spending Reverts to New Normal,” Gallup, 10 December 2009. Despite the rosy title, the author writes, “consumer spending by both income groups — middle and lower-income — continues to trail year-ago levels by 20 per cent. “
[5] For more on China’s domestic purchasing power parity, see Maurizio d’Orlando, “G8, toxic securities, US and Chinese addictions, in AsiaNews.it, 7 July 2009.
[6] See Maurizio d’Orlando, “Depth of the abyss of economic, social, political chaos,” in AsiaNews.it, 30 November 2008.
[7] See Phil Maymin, “We’re Screwed! Interview with John Williams,” in Fairfield County Weekly, 31 December 2009.
[8] In the case of the Weimar Republic, the trigger was the occupation of the Ruhr Valley by French and Belgian troops, starting in March 1921, in reaction to Germany’s failure to pay war reparations as required by the Versailles Peace Treaty signed after the First World War.
[9] See Maurizio d’Orlando, “War scenarios: Iran, oil embargo and the collapse of the world’s financial system,” in AsiaNews.it, 07 August 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: White House Stonewalling on Obama’s Executive Order Unleashing Interpol
“Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?” is the question Andy McCarthy asks in commenting on the Executive Order that President Obama issued on December 17 to lift restraints on the international police agency. Andy goes on to describe these restraints first put in place in 1983 by President Reagan to bring Interpol under key aspects of American law when investigating Americans and American interests:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
More Guns, Less Crime in ‘09
Americans went on binges buying guns and ammunition in early 2009, worried that a radical leftist president and Democrat-dominated Congress would violate their Second-Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. The effects? Less murder, robbery, rape, and property crime, according to an FBI report released Monday. This gives the young president and Democrat Congress at least one proud but unintended accomplishment for which they’ll never claim credit.
Indeed, gun buyers were out in droves in late 2008 and early 2009. While it’s easy to infer that increased gun ownership figures align precisely with the drop in crime in the same calendar period, you won’t see that headline in the New York Times, despite their penchant for such inferences about increases in crime coinciding with increasing “guns on the street.”
[…]
(This is a good place to note that “new guns on the street” is just a liberal scare cliché we should not carelessly adopt. These statistics indicate the real dynamic: gun purchases and concealed licenses acquisitions are made predominantly by law-abiding citizens taking their guns home with them from the store, for self-defense, hunting, and target-shooting purposes.)
[…]
The newspapers west of the Hudson River are chock full of stories in which law-abiding citizens protected themselves by using guns. And these are just the incidents that are reported. The Armed Citizen blog does a great job of capturing these stories in their raw form, and every thinking American needs to make his own inferences about the value of guns in these situations: They prevent people from becoming statistics. Go through the news reports compiled on the Armed Citizen blog and make your own count of people who refused to become statistics.
For instance, in May, eleven students in Atlanta avoided becoming murder statistics thanks to the bravery of one among them who had a gun in his backpack. He used it to kill one robber and injure another. Chillingly, the news reports describe how the robbers were counting their bullets to make sure they had enough to kill their victims. One of the robbers was about to rape a woman as well. That’s at least thirteen fewer violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery) that did not need to be included in the FBI’s crime report for the first half of 2009.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Slams Security Breach
Reports, Intercepts Suggested Attack Preparations; Multiple Agencies Had Warning
WASHINGTON — The U.S. had multiple pieces of information about alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, according to senior U.S. officials, including intelligence reports and communications intercepts suggesting a Nigerian was being prepped for a terror strike by al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
The intercepts were collected piecemeal by the National Security Agency, which has been monitoring al Qaeda militants in that country, including former Guantanamo detainees believed to be leaders there.
In addition, the father of Mr. Abdulmutallab met with the Central Intelligence Agency at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, Nov. 19, and told of his son’s likely radicalization, U.S. officials say. That led to a broader gathering of agencies the next day, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department, in which the information was shared, a U.S. official said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Totalitarian Sentimentality
Conservatives recognize that social order is hard to achieve and easy to destroy, that it is held in place by discipline and sacrifice, and that the indulgence of criminality and vice is not an act of kindness but an injustice for which all of us will pay. Conservatives therefore maintain severe and — to many people — unattractive attitudes. They favor retributive punishment in the criminal law; they uphold traditional marriage and the sacrifices that it requires; they believe in discipline in schools and the value of hard work and military service. They believe in the family and think that the father is an essential part in it. They see welfare provisions as necessary, but also as a potential threat to genuine charity, and a way both of rewarding antisocial conduct and creating a culture of dependency. They value the hard-won legal and constitutional inheritance of their country and believe that immigrants must also value it if they are to be allowed to settle here. Conservatives do not think that war is caused by military strength, but on the contrary by military weakness, of a kind that tempts adventurers and tyrants. And a properly ordered society must be prepared to fight wars — even wars in foreign parts — if it is to enjoy a lasting peace in its homeland. In short conservatives are a hard and unfriendly bunch who, in the world in which we live, must steel themselves to be reviled and despised by all people who make compassion into the cornerstone of the moral life.
Liberals are of course very different. They see criminals as victims of social hierarchy and unequal power, people who should be cured by kindness and not threatened with punishment. They wish all privileges to be shared by everyone, the privileges of marriage included. And if marriage can be reformed so as to remove the cost of it, so much the better. Children should be allowed to play and express their love of life; the last thing they need is discipline. Learning comes — didn’t Dewey prove as much? — from self-expression; and as for sex education, which gives the heebie-jeebies to social conservatives, no better way has ever been found of liberating children from the grip of the family and teaching them to enjoy their bodily rights. Immigrants are just migrants, victims of economic necessity, and if they are forced to come here illegally that only increases their claim on our compassion. Welfare provisions are not rewards to those who receive them, but costs to those who give — something that we owe to those less fortunate than ourselves. As for the legal and constitutional inheritance of the country, this is certainly to be respected — but it must “adapt” to new situations, so as to extend its protection to the new victim class. Wars are caused by military strength, by “boys with their toys,” who cannot resist the desire to flex their muscles, once they have acquired them. The way to peace is to get rid of the weapons, to reduce the army, and to educate children in the ways of soft power. In the world in which we live liberals are self-evidently lovable — emphasizing in all their words and gestures that, unlike the social conservatives, they are in every issue on the side of those who need protecting, and against the hierarchies that oppress them.
[…]
Why am I repeating those elementary truths, you ask? The answer is simple. The USA has descended from its special position as the principled guardian of Western civilization and joined the club of sentimentalists who have until now depended on American power. In the administration of President Obama we see the very same totalitarian sentimentality that has been at work in Europe, and which has replaced civil society with the state, the family with the adoption agency, work with welfare, and patriotic duty with universal “rights.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Iranian President Reported to Danish Police
Nationalistic politician reports former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to the police for crimes against humanity
Morten Messerschmidt, a European Parliament and Danish People’s Party representative, and actor Farshad Kholghi have reported former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to the police.
Khatami is due to visit Denmark on 27 January to receive the Århus Global Dialogue Prize, worth 500,000 kroner. But he may risk being arrested due to Messerschmidt and Danish-Iranian actor Kholghi having reported him to the authorities for committing ‘mass crimes’ against the Iranian public.
‘We have asked the police director in Århus to ensure that Mohammad Khatami is arrested and detained when he arrives in this country,’ Messerschmidt and Kholghi write in a Jyllands-Posten newspaper column published today.
The pair is requesting a police investigation of Khatami’s role in crimes against the Iranian people under his leadership and has suggested using paragraph 8a, which gives the police power to arrest people for crimes abroad, so long as they are within the parameters of the International Court of Justice.
Messerschmidt rejected the notion that he was meddling with the high-profile dialogue prize.
‘They can give their prize to whichever criminal they like. But if Khatami comes to Denmark, he should be held accountable for his crimes. He has blood on his hands.’
The sponsor of the prize, Grundfos, has required that the prize recipient accepts the prize in person. Khatami still hasn’t confirmed his attendance, however. The company’s communications director, Kim Nøhr Skibsted, declined to comment on Messerschmidt and Kholghi’s indictment.
Global Dialogue Prize coordinator Dr. Johanna Seibt from Aarhus University is perplexed about Khatami being reported to the police.
‘It must stem from ignorance. I simply don’t think Morten Messerschmidt and Farshad Kholghi have looked into who Mohammad Khatami is. If they had, they would not report him to the police,’ she said.
Jørgen Ilum, commissioner of eastern Jutland police, confirmed Khatami had been reported, but he refused to comment on what the police in Århus plan to do about it.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France: Carbon Tax Arrives, Risk of Fiscal Inequalities
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — The carbon tax has arrived in France, adopted by Nicolas Sarkozy’s government to combat global warming and to try to achieve the goal of reducing current emissions levels by one-fourth by 2050. The new tax, which will be effective on January 1, risks creating inequalities among taxpayers. The idea is to make citizens pay for their CO2 emissions, produced mainly by their cars and heating, in order to provide them with incentives to pollute less. Avoiding the new tax from having negative effects on French consumers purchasing power, which vary based on residency and the number of dependants does not always translate into the zero impact that has been promised for household budgets. The taxe carbone, as it’s called in French, will cost 17 euros per tonne of CO2 produced (a figure that is destined to increase in the coming year) and for the consumers this will translate into an increase in the price of petrol of 4 cents per liter, and 4.5 cents for diesel fuel. To deal with these increases, compensations include a 46-euro tax deduction for each resident adult in urban areas and 62 euros for those living in rural zones. Another 10 euros will be added to this for each dependant, while non-taxable individuals will benefit from a green check. According to calculations made by the Environmental Ministry in Paris, a couple with two children living in the countryside in a 160-square meter house heated with diesel fuel that drives 18,000km per year with a diesel fuelled car will pay 143 euros per year for their CO2 emissions. The state will reimburse them 142 euros. One less euro will certainly not make the difference, but a comparison shows that a single person living in the city in a 60-square meter apartment heated with gas, who goes to work on the bus, will pay 31 euros for the carbon tax and will benefit from a 46-euro tax break. Those who pollute less gain more according to the regulation, although the government promised to not increase taxes in France. There will be effects on purchasing power: the national statistics institute (INSEE) calculates that first it will increase by 0.7% thanks to the tax credits included in the compensation plan, but in the second half of 2010, purchasing power will decline by 0.3%.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Taxes: Revenue From Enterprises Better Than Expected
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 29 — Fiscal revenue from the tax on enterprises (IS) in France was larger than expected due to a recovery in the financial sector, announced Budget Minister Eric Woerth in confirming the data released in advance by the economic paper Les Echos. The figures (not yet definitive) cite revenue of between 20.5 and 21 billion euros, compared with a previous forecast of 19. The figures are encouraging but in any case less than those in 2008, when revenue reached 50 billion euros. According to the ministry, it is a “positive sign” for the state balance sheet, but it is still too soon to say whether this will enable it to keep the deficit under the record high expected of 141 billion euros.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Father and Brother Jailed for ‘Honour Killing’
A 50-year-old Turkish man was jailed for life in Germany on Tuesday over the brutal “honour killing” of his 20-year-old daughter, a murder carried out together with the victim’s twin brother.
Gülsüm Semin’s brother was sentenced to nine and a half years behind bars, while a 32-year-old Russian accomplice was given seven and a half years by the court in Kleve, western Germany, a spokeswoman said.
On March 2 the young woman, who had recently had an abortion, was lured to a patch of wasteland where her brother and the accomplice strangled her with a cord and beat her in the face with a club and a tree branch, the court found.
The father, who was not named, was found to be the main instigator.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Motor Vehicle Tax Increases, Many Turn in Plates
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS DECEMBER 29 — Thousands of Greek citizens who own private automobiles have recently been flooding into government offices to turn in their license plates in order to not have to pay the 2010 motor vehicle tax, which was increased to deal with the environmental protection expenses, which many believe are not economically sustainable. These are mainly owners of older automobiles, registered before 1999, but also others who have two or more cars and have decided to do without their oldest vehicle. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Brunello Authenticity Controls Continue
Agriculture ministry initiative ensures exports to the USA
(ANSA) — Rome, December 29 — The agriculture ministry will continue to be responsible for guaranteeing the authenticity of the prized Italian wine Brunello di Montalcino at least until June 30 of next year, Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said on Tuesday.
“We decided to extend our controls on Brunello for a further six months to ensure the flow of exports to the United States,” Zaia explained.
The ministry took over responsibility for certifying Brunello after the US threatened to block imports of the wine because some producers were apparently blending in theirs grapes other than Sangiovese grown inside of Montalcino in Tuscany.
This meant that the wine would not qualify for the official Brunello DOCG designation, established by the consortium of Brunello producers, and could represent a case of fraud.
In order to appease American authorities, Italy last year stripped the Brunello consortium of its power to certify the authenticity of the wine, a task which was passed to the agriculture ministry’s department of inspectors.
Italy also introduced a certificate of label approval (COLA) which states that the product’s vintage and brand meet the requirements for Brunello di Montalcino DOCG denomination and respects all standards for sale in Italy.
Although it no longer has the authority to certify the wine’s authenticity, the Brunello producers’ consortium can change the requirements for the wine’s DOCG denomination should it decide to officially recognise that Sangiovese grapes other than those grown in Montalcino can be used.
Brunello di Montalcino is perhaps Italy’s finest wine and certainly among the best in the world.
Its popularity has been rising steadily in the US which, despite a weak dollar, consumes 25% of the Brunello on the market and some 45% of all quality wine produced in Tuscany, the so-called ‘Super Tuscans’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Amnesty Nets 95 Billion Euros
Treasury expects 98% of assets to be repatriated
(ANSA) — Rome, December 29 — Italians have already declared at least 95 billion euros in assets hidden abroad thanks to the government’s tax amnesty plan of which 98% is expected to be repatriated to Italy, the Treasury reported on Tuesday.
The amount, calculated as of December 15, far surpassed the forecast made by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti last week that over 80 billion euros would be declared and is equal to more than 6% of Italy’s GDP.
The amnesty allows Italians a chance to legalize their hidden assets and accounts without having to pay back taxes, only a one-off 5% penalty fee on their value.
The controversial initiative also shields them from prosecution for related crimes like accounting fraud and illegally exporting capital.
The government hopes that the assets repatriated to Italy will give a boost to the national economy, which has only recently begun to recover from the recession brought on by the global economic downturn.
The measure was originally set to expire on December 15 but the deadline was extended this month to April 30, a date which the Treasury said in a statement on Tuesday was “definitive and final”.
Tremonti explained last week that the move was necessary “because the amount of assets being declared and the paperwork involved was too much for us to process in time”.
According to the Treasury, the success of the amnesty was in part thanks to efforts of leading countries in the Group of 20 to work together in cracking down on tax havens.
“The era of tax havens is over forever. To hold assets in these havens is no loner convenient, neither economically nor in regard to taxes. The return is too low and the risks too high,” the statement observed.
Based on the figures released on Tuesday, the Treasury stands to receive upwards of five billion euro from the penalty fees, more than the 4.5 billion euros it had originally expected.
The terms of the amnesty deadline extension raises to 6% the penalty on assets declared by the end of February and 7% until the end of April and Treasury sources believe a further 30 billion euros in assets will be declared.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Seborga Principality’ Court Blow
Ruling against tiny self-proclaimed state after 2 deaths
(ANSA) — Seborga, December 29 — The tiny, self-proclaimed principality of Seborga has suffered a further blow to its ambitions for independence, after a court ordered the eviction of its government from a local building. The rulers of the ‘principality’, a small village in the northern region of Liguria, have been told to return the rented building to its owner at the end of a long-running dispute over the tenancy contract.
The news comes after a month in which both Seborga’s prince and the man tipped as his successor died. Giorgio Carbone, a former flower grower, was elected to the post by the 364 inhabitants of Seborga in 1963.
His death at the end of November after a long illness was followed two weeks later by that of Seborga’s ‘foreign minister’, 61-year restaurant owner Walter Ferrari, who suffered a fatal heart attack.
But Seborga ‘Secretary of State’ Alberto Romano, who has assumed temporary leadership of the self-declared principality ahead of elections, said inhabitants were not daunted by the court’s decision. “We have already rented another building, a few dozen metres away,” he said.
“Besides, the former building was run down and needed maintenance work”. Romano also recalled he had lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights, asking it to consider the principality’s fight for independence. Seborga was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1079 until 1729, when it was acquired by Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont and King of Sardinia.
The Seborgans still have the luigino, which is accepted in the village shops and bars, as well as their own stamps and their own flag — a white cross on a blue background.
A sign at the entrance to the village reads ‘Principality of Seborga’. Carbone, whose official title was His Tremendousness Giorgio I, boasted that Seborga was the oldest independent principality in Europe and made numerous attempts to obtain international recognition for his breakaway principality.
He claimed Seborga was not listed as a Savoy possession when Italy was united under the Savoy dynasty in 1861 and had therefore never been part of the modern Italian state.
But the people of Seborga continue to pay taxes to the Italian state and the village has a mayor, Franco Fogliarini, who like all other Italian mayors swears allegiance to the Republic.
He had taken a laissez-faire attitude towards the activity and proclamations of Carbone, partly because so many of the inhabitants seemed to be behind him. “If it helps bring in tourists, then it’s fine by me,” Fogliarini said, adding that there might well be some truth in the historical claims.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Help Sought in Auschwitz Theft Probe
Polish authorities investigating possible Swedish ties to the theft of the Auschwitz “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign planned to formally ask for help from the Swedish justice ministry, the Polish justice ministry said on Wednesday.
Polish Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski spoke with his Swedish counterpart Beatrice Ask, the Polish ministry said in a statement.
“Their discussion focused on a request for judicial assistance being drawn up by regional prosecutors in Krakow,” the southern Polish city where the probe is being steered, it said.
The relatively rare step of involving ministers came “because of the importance of the case”, it added.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in Krakow, Boguslawa Marcinkowska, said the request would be made on Wednesday, but declined to provide any further details, the Polish PAP news agency reported.
Five men are currently being held in Poland in connection with December 18th theft of the iconic, five metre long sign, which translates from German to “Work sets you free”.
Polish police are also hunting for a sixth person, reportedly based in Sweden, who they believe may have acted as an intermediary for whoever ordered the theft of the sign, an unnamed source told PAP.
Sources close to the investigation added that four of the thieves now in custody claim they were unaware of the sign’s historical significance.
While Polish investigators said the mastermind of the theft lived abroad, they have consistently refused to confirm media reports that the individual is in Sweden.
They have also refused to say whether his or her name is known to Polish justice authorities, or that they plan to ask the Swedes for an arrest.
Poland had contacted Interpol and its European Union equivalent Europol in the wake of the theft at the former World War II death camp, on the edge of the southern Polish city of Oswiecim.
Police recovered the metal sign two days later in northern Poland, charging the five suspects with theft and damage. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
The men, aged 20 to 39, have criminal records for theft or violence, but none appeared to be neo-Nazis although they may have been working for neo-Nazis, police have said.
According to the BBC, police began to suspect the theft had a Swedish connection following the arrest of two of the suspects in the Polish port of Gdynia, which has ferry connections to Sweden.
Unconfirmed reports that the theft was carried out at the behest a Swedish collector surfaced at the same time that the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported last week that an extremist group was plotting a politically-motivated attack against the Swedish parliament, the foreign ministry, and the prime minister’s residence.
Citing unidentified sources, the tabloid said the attack was meant to be financed by the sale of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign.
Swedish intelligence agency Säpo said last Thursday it was investigating a far-right attack plot on the Swedish parliament and prime minister’s residence.
“I can confirm the fact that we have some information about alleged plots on the parliament and prime minister’s residence,” Säpo spokesman Patrik Peter told AFP.
However, Peter couldn’t confirm whether there was a connection between the plot and the theft of the sign from the main gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“I have no information to give you about that,” the intelligence agency’s spokesperson said.
When it was recovered, the sign had been cut into three pieces, with the letter “i” from “Frei” abandoned at the camp, a Polish state-run museum and memorial since 1947.
The sign has long symbolised the horror of the camp, created by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940 and run until Soviet troops liberated it in 1945.
This was where 1.1 million mainly Jewish prisoners from across Europe died during World War II: some from overwork and starvation, but mostly in the camp’s notorious gas chambers. Among the other victims were non-Jewish Poles, Roma and captured Soviet soldiers.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Universities Are Now Hotbeds of Islamic Extremism
WE like to think of our universities as havens of reflection and study — institutions in which our brightest youngsters can prepare for the rest of their lives.
So it’s shocking to discover that universities can harbour the likes of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Nigerian plane bomber who, it emerges, graduated from University College London in 2008 and was president of its Islamic Society.
But no one should be shocked because the role of British universities in breeding andfomenting extremism is one of our country’s most shameful secrets.
Take the shady area of Islamic study centres linked to British universities. According to a report by the terror expert
Prof Anthony Glees, since 1995 eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5million from Saudi and Muslim sources to operate study centres, by far the largest amount of external funding given to UK universities.
Although both universities and donors say that they are simply promoting understanding between the West and the Islamic world, Prof Glees claimsthat the study centres lead to the propagation of one-sided views of Islam and spew out anti-Western propaganda.
This, even if unintentionally, softens up students for recruitment by extremist groups with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fuelling the radicalisation of many undergraduates.
In a recent interview a student member of the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir described universities as “bread-and-butter” recruiting grounds for extremist groups.
This is the most dangerous aspect of all. According to an earlier report, up to 48 universities have been infiltrated by
fundamentalists. UCL was not named as one of those 48, which shows that even in universities not previously thought of as harbouring extremists, the threat exists.
And it’s not just the obviously radical students who are a problem. Yesterday the Provost of UCL Malcolm Grant said of Abdulmutallab that: “There was nothing about his conduct that gave his tutors cause for concern.”
Last year, the Government issued new guidance to universities urging academics and students to report suspicionsover extremism. The then Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said it was a “real and serious threat”.
A poll by the Centre for Social Cohesion last year found that almost one in every three Muslim students in the UK said that killing in the name of religion was justified.The same number also believed in a worldwide Islamic caliphate (a united Islamic state), based on sharia law.
But when the Government asked the university authorities to vet speakers and to look out for student societies which could be used by radical preachers, the response from the universities was to complain
about government interference and the threat to free speech.
Universities have traditionally been places where hotheaded students can demonstrate their radicalism, often to
the anger of the rest of society.
But it’s critically important to distinguish between radical student politics and the extremism of militant Islam.
Not that the Government itself can claim to take terror seriously. It refuses to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, one of the main
groups that infiltrates student societies and then preaches the takeover of its form of Islam.
And its willful failure to take any action over the abuse of student visas is one of the biggest factors behind the
UK’s status as a fulcrum of extremism. Take Dhiren Barot, described as Osama bin Laden’s “UK general”, who in 2006 was jailed for 40 years for planning terrorist attacks. He used a false identity in order to study at Brunel University.
In 2008, the UK issued almost a quarter of a million student visas. A further 144,000 studentswere admitted as student “visitors” and almost the same number were allowed to extend their stay.
Though procedures have been tightened almost anyone who wants a visa can get one by ticking a few boxes on a form. With universities desperate for the cash from foreign students, it’s effectively open house for all sorts to come to study here.
So when we read about Mr Abdulmutallab we should place him in this context. His is thename we now know. But the extremists are working to ensure that while he may have failed, others will succeed. And the authorities still — despite 9/11, despite the 2005 Tube bombings, despite other terrorist plots — refuse to root out extremism.
Barely a week goes by without an extremist preacher being allowed into the UK. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day, for example, two Saudi Imams, Sheikh Faisal al-Jassim and Sheikh Abdul Aziz As-Sadhan, spoke at Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, despite having a record of anti-Semitism and regularly calling for holy war.
The Home Secretary knew full well what they stood for. He chose to allow them in.
As for those already resident here, the cry of “human rights”goes up whenever anyone suggests that they should be
returned to their own country.
The extremists may be the enemy of Western civilisation but in our failure to take the threat seriously, we are our own worst enemy.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Serb MPs Vote Against Foreign Prosecutors and Judges
Banjaluka, 29 Dec. (AKI) — The Bosnian Serb parliament has moved to remove foreign judges and prosecutors from Bosnian war crimes courts. A majority of Bosnian Serb MPs voted late Monday to reject a decision by Valentin Inzko, the international community’s top representative in Bosnia, to keep foreign judges and prosecutors in Bosnia’s courts for another three years.
Opposition leaders rejected Monday’s largely symbolic vote, saying it had no legal validity.
A number of foreign judges and prosecutors currently sit on Bosnian war crimes courts. But Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik (photo) claims the jurists have displayed anti-Serb bias.
Bosnian courts have sentenced local Serbs to 1,470 years in jail for war crimes, compared to Muslims who got a total of 40 years.
This showed Bosnian courts are “political, not judiciary organs,” Dodik claimed.
Dodik also claimed the presence of foreign judges and prosecutors was unconstitutional and showed Bosnia wasn’t an independent state, but an “international protectorate”.
Dodik, who is prime minister of Bosnian Serb entity, proposed to hold a referendum on the issue of foreign jurists staffing Bosnian courts.
Opposition leaders accused Dodik of political point-scoring, saying a referendum on the presence of foreign judges and prosecutors had no legal basis and there were more pressing issues at hand.
Mladen Bosic, president of the opposition Serb Democratic Party, said a referendum should be held on Bosnia’s membership of NATO and on Dodik’s longstanding vow to secede from Bosnia.
Dodik has threatened for the past several years to hold a referendum on independence if the central authorities continued to strip away powers granted to the Serb entity and Muslim-Croat federation under the Dayton peace accord that ended Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war ..
The Dayton accord divided Bosnia into two entities, the Serb entity and a Muslim-Croat federation with most state prerogatives.
But the international community, which still safeguards peace in Bosnia, has in recent years reduced the entities’ powers in a bid to strengthen Bosnia’s weak central government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Media: Greek Group Antenna Acquires Serbian Fox Televizija
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 29 — The Antenna group has reached an agreement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation group for the acquisition of 49% of the Serbian television network Fox Televizija. According to an Antenna group statement, the agreement is an important step in the realisation of strategic investments of the group in European media. The Antenna group’s decision to expand in Serbia is based on the conviction that the television market is in rapid growth and reflects a positive outlook for further development in all sectors, especially that of the media. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Sonatrach Discovers 5 New Oil Fields
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, DECEMBER 29 — Algerian hydrocarbon group, Sonatrach, has announced the discovery of five new oil fields in southern Algeria in the Berkine, Illizi, and Amguid/Hassi Messaoud basins. Three discoveries, said a statement made by the group, were made while surveying in the perimeter of Menzel Ledjmet and Zemoul El Kbar II in the Berkine basin. A fourth oil field was discovered in the El Ouar II perimeter in the Illizi basin and a fifth in the Hassi Dzabat perimeter. The number of oil fields located by Sonatrach is up to 16 since the beginning of 2009, 5 of which were discovered with foreign companies: three with Spanish consortium Repsol Exploration Algeria-Edison international, one with the Repsol-Gas Naturel group and one with Shell. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Canal Authority Announces New Suez Tariffs
(ANSAmed) ISMAILIA (EGYPT), DECEMBER 29 — In 2010 transit tariffs for the Suez Canal will be changed. According to reports from its president, Ahmed Ali Fadel, the Suez Canal authority is looking into the possibility of new tariffs to apply in early 2010. Every year the authority established the new tariffs on the basis of international trade flows. Variations to the tariffs will be presented by the authority president in a press conference to be held in the first half of January. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Pacifists Stuck, No Italians in Incidents
(ANSAmed) — ROME, 29 DEC — A new day of protest for the 1,400 pacifists who reached Egypt from all over the world to join the “Freedom March” towards the Gaza Strip, one year after the Israeli military operation Cast Lead. They were stopped by the authorities of Cairo, who have again not allowed any transit into Gaza. On the day in which the Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu is to meet the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in order to discuss the prospects of peace talks between Israel and Palestine, the delegations of activists, arriving from 43 countries, have given life to a number of protests in front of their respective embassies. Roberto Andervill, president of a Varese-based NGO, and Paola Mattavelli, part of the delegation — interviewed by ANSA over the phone — have said that none of the incidents involved Italians (who number about 140, from both Forum Palestina and Action for Peace), meeting in a permanent assembly under the diplomatic legation. The delegation has once again met with the first secretary of the Italian embassy in Cairo, proposing that at least a small delegation be allowed to go through in order to get the aid through for the structures and Palestinian population in Gaza: especially since Italy has pledged to help out the Palestinian hospital Al Awda in Jabalya, a wide-ranging commitment involving dozens of cities and associations. US activists have been beaten by Egyptian police, and have been entirely surrounded in front of their embassy. The French, instead, have sought refuge inside their diplomatic headquarters.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Two Journalists Convicted, Newspaper Closed Down
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, 29 DEC — A sentence of four years imprisonment for each journalist, with a conditional suspension of the sentence and a fine to pay. Such was the sentence issued by the Appeal Court of Casablanca for the editor of the Moroccan newspaper ‘Akhbar Al You’, Taoufiq Bouachrine, and for journalist-caricaturist Khalid Gueddar. The appeal sentence thus confirms the original one. According to the charges, the newspaper had published a caricature depicting a member of the royal family, a cousin to king Mohammed VI, prince Moulay Ismail, who will also receive 270,000 euro for damages. The court has further decide to close the newspaper down for good. Yesterday another two journalists writing for the newspaper ‘Al Jarida Al Aoula’, the editor Ali Anouzla and the writer Bouchra Eddou, had been found guilty by the Appeal Court of Rabat to a year and three month’s imprisonment respectively (with suspended sentence) for having published “false and untrue news” regarding king Mohammed VI’s state of health. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Competitors Fear New Pro-Netanyahu Dailyfree
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Soon, Israel ha-Yom will be the top daily in Israel, said American businessman Shedon Edelson to his workers, the owner of a new free newspaper that is raising fears about the fate of informational pluralism and growing anxiety in the publications direct rivals, Yediot Ahronot, which has registered a decline in sales, and Maariv, which recently feared closing down. Believed to be one of the richest Jews in the world, Edelson, who is a personal friend of Premier Benyamin Netanyahu, believes that the Israeli press is not sufficiently patriotic and that it is necessary to create a newspaper that never forgets that we are Jews and Israelis. However, Edelson does not have Israeli citizenship: a situation that is creating increasing uneasiness. In Parliament, several MPs are now asking if it is acceptable for the owner of such an influential element in the media to live abroad. In one and a half years, Israel ha-Yom (Israel Today) has become the second leading newspaper in the country, according to a study published in July by TGI. Yediot Ahronot is still the top daily, with 34.2% readership, among those who read at least one newspaper per day. Israel ha-Yom is inching closer, with 26.9%. Maariv dropped to third place with 14.4%, while Haaretz is at 7.5%. To spread the new publication throughout Israel, Edelson chose a prestigious manager with significant experience in the sector, Dan Margalit, and working-class readers, mainly the commuters entering into Tel Aviv. In November the newspaper inaugurated a weekend edition, which is also free, with three supplements. Over 250,000 copies are in circulation. We are read each day by one million readers, said the editing office. At bus stations and on trains, the revolution is already palpable: many passengers show off their copy of Israel ha-Yom, a flashy newspaper with a modern graphic design, which can be read in a half an hour and is then left on the seat without regrets. Writers include left-wing representatives, but the daily mainly reflects Edelsons principles. In an attempt to curb the attack, in some areas, Yediot Ahronot and Maariv are already distributed for a nominal fee or even free of charge. The common fear is to lose a slice of the advertising market in 2010 due to Israel ha-Yom, which for both represents pure oxygen. Freedom of expression and democracy are now exposed to an unprecedented and destructive threat, warned columnist Ben Caspit in Maariv. Israel ha-Yoms goal is to destroy the free press in Israel, forcing it to compete in unfavorable conditions (due to competition from the internet and TV) with a free newspaper. At this point, according to Maariv, it is Knesset’s duty to adopt the necessary measures to protect the sector.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: the “Surge” And “Success, “ Pt. 2
So much for the lack of post-surge U.S. business benefits in Iraq, as I wrote last week. Now, what kind of post-surge ally is Iraq?
No kind.
I write in wonder that the ultimate failures of the surge strategy — which include the failure of anything resembling a U.S. ally to emerge in post-Saddam Iraq — have never entered national discourse. Rather, the strategy that “won Iraq” has been mythologized as a “success” to be repeated in Afghanistan.
It’s not that there aren’t hints to the contrary — as when U.S. ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill arrived at the Iraqi parliament in early December and “some deputies,” the New York Times reported, “demanded he be barred from the building.” Or when 42 percent of Iraqis polled by the BBC in March 2008 still thought it “acceptable” to attack U.S. forces. Or when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as U.S. forces transferred security responsibilities to Iraqi forces in June, obstreperously declared “victory” over those same U.S. forces! Such incidents convey hostility toward the United States inside Iraq, but there’s more. Of greater consequence are the positions against U.S. interests Iraq is taking in world affairs.
Take the foundational principle of freedom of speech, continuously under assault by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in the international arena. The OIC includes the world’s 57 Muslim nations as represented by kings, heads of state and governments, with policies overseen by the foreign ministers of these same 57 nations. Describing itself as the “collective voice of the Islamic world,” the OIC strives to extend Islamic law throughout the world, and to that end, is the driving force at the United Nations to outlaw criticism of Islam (which includes Islamic law) through proposed bans on the “defamation of religions” — namely, Islam. This is a malignant thrust at the mechanism of Western liberty. Where does post-surge Iraq come down in this crucial ideological struggle?
An OIC nation, Iraq is, with other OIC nations, a signatory to the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam. This declaration defines human rights according to Islamic law, which prohibits criticism of Islam. Indeed, Iraq’s U.S.-enabled 2004 constitution enshrines Islamic law above all. Little wonder Iraq consistently votes at the United Nations with the OIC and against the United States on this key ideological divide between Islam and the West, most recently in November.
Then there’s Iran…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hundreds of Al-Qaeda Militants Planning Attacks From Yemen’
Hundreds of al-Qaeda militants are planning terror attacks from Yemen, the country’s Foreign Minister said today.
Abu Bakr al-Qirbi appealed for more help from the international community to help to train and equip counter-terrorist forces.
[…]
The United States, Britain and the European Union could do a lot to improve Yemen’s response to militants on its own soil, he added.
“We have to work in a very joint fashion in partnership to combat terrorism,” he said. “If we do, the problem will be brought under control.
“There is support, but I must say it is inadequate. We need more training, we have to expand our counter-terrorism units and provide them with equipment and transportation like helicopters.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: British Hostage Peter Moore Released Alive in Baghdad After ‘Unspeakable’ Two-and-a-Half Years
Mystery surrounds release as Miliband says ‘we did no direct deal’
A British man held hostage in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half years has been freed.
Computer expert Peter Moore, 36, was seized along with his four British bodyguards at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.
Fears for his safety grew after the bodies of three of the security guards — Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan — were handed over to the UK authorities.
The body of the fourth security guard, Alan McMenemy, is still missing.
It is not clear what deal led to Mr Moore’s release, or who was responsible for securing the deal.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied any direct deal had been done.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait Ruler Warns Against Chaos, Social Rift
Kuwait’s Emir on Tuesday warned against chaos and social divisions amid heightened political turmoil and tribal and sectarian tensions that have rocked the oil-rich Gulf state.
“Democratic practice has its principles and limits … If it exceeds that it turns into chaos,” Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah said in televised speech, adding that such chaos is a threat to Kuwait’s security and stability.
“We must be aware of the dangers of hateful rifts … There are no winners in strife and the loser is always the nation,” he said.
But, he noted that the Kuwaiti constitution ensures the freedom of expression and speech, and correct parliamentary practices, leading up to the fulfillment of the public interest.
“We, in this country, firmly believe in the constitutional principles that should deepen sound practices through constitutional tools and under the dome of the National Assembly, rather than through stirring up sentiments and using sensational ways, intimidation and skepticism via speeches and diverse mass media,” he said.
Tensions have surfaced in OPEC’s fourth-largest producer over the past few weeks, with the emirate’s tribes staging two massive rallies last week to protest a controversial television program.
Opposition MPs, who earlier this month grilled the prime minister and three other cabinet members over allegations of corruption, have again threatened to grill the premier and other ministers.
“Recent regrettable practices in Kuwait have crossed all limits … they opened the door for chaos and fuelled tensions,” said the Emir, while appealing for national unity.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Loses Bet With Putin
Premier forced to buy Russian plant’s first SUV
(ANSA) — Vladivostok, December 29 — A lost bet against Vladimir Putin will cost Premier Silvio Berlusconi the price of a mid-sized SUV, the Russian prime minister said Tuesday.
While visiting a new car plant in Siberia which builds the UAV Patriot, Putin told autoworkers he had made a bet with Berlusconi that the factory would be able to start production before the end of the year.
The wager arose from a conversation about the new UAZ plant in Vladivostok, a joint venture with Italian auto giant Fiat, during Berlusconi’s visit to St Petersburg in October.
“I told him we’d be turning out Patriots by New Year’s, but he didn’t believe me,” Putin said. Berlusconi was so convinced the Siberian plant would take longer, that he agreed to buy its first model if it came off the assembly line by New Year’s Day.
Putin said the premier’s new car was on the lot and ready to drive by early December.
Marketed as an affordable car for families, UAZ Patriots sell for less than 12,000 euros.
Putin said that while the Italian premier had graciously conceded defeat, “he immediately asked for a discount”.
“So we decided to take 10% of the price tag,” Putin said, underlining that “this isn’t a present, it’s business”.
In Berlusconi’s absence, Putin took a test drive of the premier’s new Patriot, a metallic gold model with velvet seats, a sunroof, automatic windows and power locks. Putin said he was sure the premier would be pleased by the car, but did not elaborate on how he could get it to Italy from the eastern edge of Siberia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Putin: U.S. Shield Disrupts Balance of Power
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday U.S. plans for a missile defense system were the main obstacle to reaching a new deal on reducing Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons.
[…]
“If we are not developing an anti-missile shield, then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such ‘an umbrella’, will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately,” Putin said.
“In order to preserve balance … we need to develop offensive weapons systems,” Putin said, echoing a pledge by Medvedev last week to develop a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Muslims Attack and Set Fire to a House of Prayers
The attack by unknown assailants occurred in early December in the village of Tlogowero, Bansari sub district (Java). Police issued a statement on the matter only yesterday. For residents, the incident was caused by Muslim objection to the presence of Christian buildings in their villages.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — A group of unknown assailants attacked and set fire to a house of prayer in early December in the village of Tlogowero in Bansari sub district (Java), local Police Chief Anthony Augustine Koylal said. “The motive is not yet known. We are still investigating the case with local authorities,” he added,
Police sources said the attack occurred late at night when a group of people stormed the building. After breaking windows and doors, they set fire to the building, which was razed to the ground. The attackers fled the scene when the house began burning.
The police chief also said that a similar incident occurred two years ago in the same area.
Local sources said that the main reason for the attack was the objection by local Muslims to the presence of a praying house for Christians near their villages.
So far, the authorities conducted out a cursory inquiry into the facts. No one who might have information on what happened has been interrogated.
This attack is just the latest in a long series of aggressions against Christians in Indonesia.
The most recent one dates back to less than two weeks ago. On 18 December in Begasi Regency, a mob of about a thousand people, including women and children, attacked Saint Albert’s Catholic Church.
Construction on the building started in 2008 after authorities issued a building permit to the local Catholic community. In this case, the reasons for the attack remain unknown.
However, there are signs of confessional détente in the village of Karangayar, Wiradesa district, also in Java.
On Christmas Day, District Chief Hajjah Siti Khomariyah paid a visit to the local Protestant and Catholic communities to deliever her Christmas greetings.
Ms Khomariyah expressed her personal support for local Christians who want to build their own places of worship.
“This official visit strengthens good relations between Christians and Muslims,” said Father Mardius from Wiradesa district, in what for him is a rare example of interfaith dialogue and good relations between Christians and Muslims.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Subs Get Boost From North Korea
U.S. Navy confirms rogue nation working on underwater stealth technology
The U.S. Navy, worried by Iran’s increasing underwater capability, has revealed for the first time that the rogue nation has acquired its submarine technology largely from North Korea, which has provided both mini-submarines and manufacturing know-how, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The revelation comes as the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, recently released its latest report on Iran’s conventional navy, with the observation that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is working on programs to achieve an underwater stealth capability.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnamese Bishop: Government Permitted Christmas Celebrations for First Time
A Vietnamese bishop is reporting that the government for the first time has permitted the free celebration of Christmas in three northwestern provinces. “I am very happy that local Catholics have the freedom to celebrate Christmas this year,” said Bishop Antoine Vu Huy Chuong of Hung Hoá, who ministers in an area of the nation where only 3.1% of residents are Catholic.
| [Return to headlines] |
Somali Arrested Last Month at Airport With Chemicals, Syringe
A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.
“We don’t know whether he’s linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed,” said Barise.
A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident in Somalia is similar to the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid — tools similar to those used in the Detroit attack. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he isn’t authorized to release the information.
Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the chemicals from the Somali suspect could have caused an explosion that would have caused air decompression inside the plane. However, Bahoku said he doesn’t believe an explosion would have brought the plane down.
A second international official familiar with the incident, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that the substances carried by the Somali passenger could have been used as an explosive device.
In the Detroit case, alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit. Like the captured Somali, Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. The substances seized from the Somali passenger are being tested.
The November incident garnered little attention before the Dec. 25 attack aboard a flight on final approach to Detroit. US officials have now learned of the Somali case and are hastening to investigate any possible links between it and the Detroit attack, though no officials would speak on the record about the probe.
US investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen — which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Similarly, large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an insurgent group, al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaida.
Western officials say many of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters in Somalia come in small boats across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. The officials also say that examination of equipment used in some Somali suicide attacks leads them to believe it was originally assembled in Yemen.
Law enforcement officials believe the suspect in the Detroit incident tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft.
A Somali security official involved in the capture of the suspect in Mogadishu said he had a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. The security official said the suspect was the last passenger to try to board.
Once security officials detected the powder chemicals and syringe, the suspect tried to bribe the security team that detained him, the Somali security official said. The security official said the suspect had a white shampoo bottle with a black acid-like substance in it. He also had a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance and a syringe containing a green liquid. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
The powdered material had the strong scent of ammonia, Bahoku said, and samples have been sent to London for testing.
The Somali security officials said the Daallo Airlines flight was scheduled to go from Mogadishu to Hargeisa, to Djibouti and then to Dubai.
A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials weren’t aware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Margaret Thatcher Complained About Asian Immigration to Britain
Margaret Thatcher thought it was “quite wrong” for immigrants to get council houses ahead of “white citizens”, previously unpublished government papers show.
[…]
“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture,” she told World In Action.
“If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it,” she added. “We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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