German investigators are probing a coke-smuggling ring run by Hezbollah that has been raising funds for jihad by bringing the drug into Frankfurt airport from Lebanon. It is now believed that dope-running has made a lot of money for the terrorist cause.In other news, the commander of the Al-Shabab militia in Somalia was executed by another radical Islamic group, who say that he was “an infidel”.
Thanks to Aeneas, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Gaia, Henrik, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, KGS, LN, Sean O’Brian, Steen, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Egypt: Attack a Religious Vendetta, Catholic Priest
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 8 — A genuine “show-down between religions” is how a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, Father Rafiq Greiche, defines the attack that took place on Christmas Day in Upper Egypt. “This was by no means the act of an individual as the police are saying,” he emphasised to ANSA, “It was a completely planned and organised action”. And even if “it wasn’t an act of terrorism, such as those of the Jihad or al Qaeda,” it is nonetheless a “settling of scores based on religious fanaticism”. But the police, the priest complains, are deserting their duty and “remaining inactive” in the face of this deed. And yet they knew the condition of Nagaa Amay, he stressed, following his accusations that a Christian has abused a young muslim in the nearby town of Faitouh, and the church should have been guarded. The whole atmosphere in Egypt, the Father Greiche continued, “promotes a vicious cycle of inter-faith sedition, ignorance, fanaticism, unemployment, bad attitudes”. And in this atmosphere “every attack is followed by a tit-for-tat, every deed provokes its reaction”. And the state, the priest complained, is to blame for not having taken a sociological approach and made a background analysis “to root out fanaticism”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Other Plot to Wreck America
By FRANK RICH
THERE may not be a person in America without a strong opinion about what coulda, shoulda been done to prevent the underwear bomber from boarding that Christmas flight to Detroit. In the years since 9/11, we’ve all become counterterrorists. But in the 16 months since that other calamity in downtown New York — the crash precipitated by the 9/15 failure of Lehman Brothers — most of us are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the “financial weapons of mass destruction” that wrecked our economy. Fluent as we are in Al Qaeda and body scanners, when it comes to synthetic C.D.O.’s and credit-default swaps, not so much.
What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks — secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses…
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit Bomber ‘Singing Like a Canary’ Before Arrest
President Barack Obama is under fire over claims that the Christmas Day underwear bomber was “singing like a canary” until he was treated as an ordinary criminal and advised of his right to silence.
The chance to secure crucial information about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen was lost because the Obama administration decided to charge and prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, critics say. He is said to have reduced his co-operation with FBI interrogators on the advice of his government-appointed defence counsel.
The potential significance became chillingly clear this weekend when it was reported that shortly after his detention, he boasted that 20 more young Muslim men were being prepared for similar murderous missions in the Yemen.
[…]
“He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up,” Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I find it incomprehensible that this administration is treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue. The president has finally said that we are at war with al-Qaeda. Well, if this is a war, then Abdulmutallab should be treated as a combatant not a criminal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered
KPRC news in Houston recently filmed a secret experiment by law enforcement agencies including the Dept. of Homeland Security of a drone intended to spy on Americans.
The drone uncovered during this investigation are not like the large, expensive models used by the military for targeted strikes on militants half a world away. These are manufactured by Insitu out of Bingen, Washington (corporate offices located in Australia), only weigh about 40 pounds (18.1 kg) before monitoring equipment is installed. This model has the capacity to stay airborne for up to a day.
The Houston Police Department responded with the following statement, “Potential public safety applications include mobility, evacuations, homeland security, search and rescue, as well as tactical.”
Such benign excuses were also used during the passage of draconian bills such as FISA and the Patriot Act before it was revealed the much more insidious and rampant applications of those tools.
| [Return to headlines] |
‘Jihad’ Jitters at Met
Mohammed art gone
Is the Met afraid of Mohammed?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition area slated to open in 2011, The Post has learned.
The museum said the controversial images — objected to by conservative Muslims who say their religion forbids images of their holy founder — were “under review.”
Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.
“This is typical of the Met — trying to avoid any controversy,” said a source with inside knowledge of the museum.
The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them.
“We have a very small space at the moment in which to display the whole sweep of Islamic art,” said spokeswoman Egle Zygas. “They didn’t fit the theme of the current installation.”
But it’s not certain Mohammed will go on display when the Met finishes its $50 million renovation in 2011.
Three years ago, the Met changed its “Primitive Art Galleries” to the “Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas” for the sake of political correctness, said author Michael Gross, author of “Rogues’ Gallery,” a book about the Met.
Just recently, it decided its highly anticipated “Islamic Galleries” will be given an awkward new name ahead of the 2011 opening. Visitors will stroll around rooms dedicated to art from “Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia,” according to a museum press release.
Islamic art expert Kishwar Rizvi said the Met — which has one of the world’s best Islamic collections — has nothing to fear from Mohammed.
“Museums shouldn’t shy away from showing this in a historical context,” said Rizvi, historian of Islamic Art at Yale University.
Rizvi said it was “a shame” the museum dropped the word Islamic from the title.
“It’s cumbersome and problematic to base it on nationalistic boundaries,” the historian said.
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Reid Vows to Run for Re-Election Despite Dismal Polls
Senator’s unfavorable rating 19 points higher than favorable
After hitting a new low in a state poll, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissed speculation that he would pull a Dodd — and follow in the footsteps of Democratic colleague Christopher Dodd, who announced his retirement this week in the face of a losing re-election bid.
“I am absolutely running for re-election,” the Nevada Democrat told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which commissioned a new poll that found more than half of Nevadans are unhappy with his performance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rising an Open Letter to Democrat Politicians
There seems to be some very nervous politicians, libs, leftists, hyphenated-Americans, and other die-hard Obama supporters who still don’t get it. A recent video on YouTube called “America Rising An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians” seems to be getting some interesting attention. Most of that attention is supportive and “Right ON!”. However, some of those viewing the video seem to be uncomfortable with that whole “Freedom of Speech” thing and have done all they can to get this video repeatedly removed from YouTube sites.
The YouTube.com site RSN found the video still up and running and included some astute observations in the “More Info” section…
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Scott Brown Swearing-in Would be Stalled to Pass Health-Care Reform
If Republican state Sen. Scott Brown wins, the entire national health-care reform debate may hinge on when he takes over as senator. Brown has vowed to be the crucial 41st vote in the Senate that would block the bill. The U.S. Senate ultimately will schedule the swearing-in of Kirk’s successor, but not until the state certifies the election.
“This is a stunning admission by interim Sen. Paul Kirk and the Beacon Hill political machine,” said Brown in a statement. “Paul Kirk appears to be suggesting that he, (Massachusetts Governor) Deval Patrick, and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid intend to stall the election certification until the health care bill is rammed through Congress, even if that means defying the will of the people of Massachusetts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Polls Show Massachusetts Senate Race as Toss Up — Scott Brown Surging
Surging Republican Scott Brown told Sean Hannity last night that he will vote against Obamacare: Now check this out… Public Policy Polling reported today that the Massachusetts Senate race is now a toss up. Buoyed by a huge advantage with independents and relative disinterest from Democratic voters in the state, Republican Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 48-47. Here are the major factors leading to this surprising state of affairs:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Judge Comes to Rescue of Terrorist, Throws Out Confession
Get ready folks because this is the world of terrorist coddling that Barack Obama is setting up for us from now on. A left-wing, multicultural-loving, half-wit federal judge has sided with those who would kill us all by throwing out most of the evidence as well as the confession of a terrorist ensconced in Guantanamo Bay.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said in a ruling that the government failed to prove that the statements made by Musa’ab Omar Al Madhwani were made free of coercion. I suppose this wonderful judge asked the terrorist if he was coerced and the terrorist unsurprisingly said, “uh, yeah, dat’s what happened. Dey que-orced me!”
Fortunately, this lame, idiot judge decided in his infinite wisdom that we should still hold the terrorist because other things he told authorities at other times was deemed important and accurate. So it could have been worse. At least this time, a hack judge didn’t let a killer free to roam about the United States at will… oh, but it’s coming.
This is what Obama has set up, America. He has set up a situation where terrorists will be loosed on an unsuspecting American public because some soft-in-the-head judge feels sorry for them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Undressing the Terror Threat
Running the numbers on the conflict with terrorists suggests that the rules of the game should change
I’m not much of a basketball player. Middle-age, with a shaky set shot and a bad knee, I can’t hold my own in a YMCA pickup game, let alone against more organized competition. But I could definitely beat LeBron James in a game of one-on-one. The game just needs to feature two special rules: It lasts until I score, and when I score, I win.
We might have to play for a few days, and Mr. James’s point total could well be creeping toward five figures before the contest ended, but eventually the gritty gutty competitor with a lunch-bucket work ethic (me) would subject the world’s greatest basketball player to a humiliating defeat.
The world’s greatest nation seems bent on subjecting itself to a similarly humiliating defeat, by playing a game that could be called Terrorball. The first two rules of Terrorball are:
(1) The game lasts as long as there are terrorists who want to harm Americans; and
(2) If terrorists should manage to kill or injure or seriously frighten any of us, they win.
These rules help explain the otherwise inexplicable wave of hysteria that has swept over our government in the wake of the failed attempt by a rather pathetic aspiring terrorist to blow up a plane on Christmas Day. For two weeks now, this mildly troubling but essentially minor incident has dominated headlines and airwaves, and sent politicians from the president on down scurrying to outdo each other with statements that such incidents are “unacceptable,” and that all sorts of new and better procedures will be implemented to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
Meanwhile, millions of travelers are being subjected to increasingly pointless and invasive searches and the resultant delays, such as the one that practically shut down Newark Liberty International Airport last week, after a man accidentally walked through the wrong gate, or Tuesday’s incident at a California airport, which closed for hours after a “potentially explosive substance” was found in a traveler’s luggage. (It turned out to be honey.)
As to the question of what the government should do rather than keep playing Terrorball, the answer is simple: stop treating Americans like idiots and cowards…
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Radicalization Not Linked to Integration, Somalis Most Radicalized
The problem with the news reports on this new study is that they don’t actually say what ‘radicalization’ means. As the study I bring at the bottom shows, there is disagreement on that point as well…
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Germans Trace Hezbollah Coke Smuggling Profits
German investigators are uncovering the drug-smuggling business of the Syrian-backed Lebanese militant organisation Hezbollah, moving cocaine from Beirut into Europe via Frankfurt airport.
A report in Der Spiegel magazine this weekend says initial suspicions that Hezbollah was raising funds by smuggling cocaine were raised in May 2008 when around €8.7 million in cash was found in the luggage of four Lebanese men at Frankfurt airport.
A further €500,000 was found in the flat of one of the suspects, in the Rhineland Pfalz town of Speyer.
Two Lebanese men were arrested in October 2009 when customs officers and federal criminal police agents raided a house in Speyer.
The magazine says the suspicion is that family members have been regularly moving millions of euros raised in the European cocaine trade, via Frankfurt to Beirut. Those receiving the money in Lebanon are said to be members of a family with contacts with the highest levels of Hezbollah command including leader Hassan Nasrallah.
A close relation of the suspects has rejected all the allegations, the magazine says.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Pope Hopes for Increased Trust Among Peoples
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 7 — Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his hope that dialogue between Christians and Muslims will lead to greater trust among individuals, communities and peoples, especially in the tormented regions of the Middle East. As he welcomed the new Turkish Ambassador to the Holy See, the Pope remembered his journey to Istanbul in 2006, his first as Pope in a mainly Muslim country. I am happy that I was able to express my high regard for Muslims and repeat the Catholic Churchs commitment to taking forward inter-faith dialogue in a spirit of mutual respect and friendship, by sharing the declaration of faith in God which characterises Christians and Muslims, and committing himself even more in a mutual consciousness which strengthens the bonds of affection which unite us. Pope Ratzinger then expressed his heartfelt prayer that this process leads to greater trust between individuals, communities and peoples, especially in the tormented regions of the Middle East.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrantes: We Believe in Gelmini’s Good Faith
(AGI) — Vatican City, 8 Jan. — The director of the pastoral staff for migrants and refugees of the Migrantes foundation (promoted by the Italian Episcopal Conference), father Gianromano Gnesotto, said that “we want to believe in the good faith of minister Gelmini when she said that the decision to set a ceiling for the number of foreign students in each classroom is just aimed at moving the others to nearby schools”. “The minister’s decision reflects a political approach towards migrants whereby actions should not to be driven by emotions and personal feelings” he added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ten Muslims — Ten Ways to Believe
[translated by LN]
[Comment from LN: Today is Muslim-popularizing day in the big Swedish dailies. Here is what the Svenska Dagbladet finds suitable to tell us.]
Swedish muslims — one microcosmos of different trends inside one faith, a mix of attitudes that even increases when more and more grows up here. This paper has met ten Swedish muslims who tell us about their relation to their religion.
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Church Losing 1 Million Members by 2020
The Church of Sweden says it will lose 1 million members within 10 years.
A prognosis cited by the official church magazine Kyrkans Tidning said the Church of Sweden, as the nation’s dominant religious body, will have six million members in 2020 compared to the present seven million. The Church of Sweden (Evangelical Lutheran) was the official state church in Sweden until the link was formally severed in 2000.
The decline in membership is expected to be 1.2 per cent every year until 2020, the prognosis said. Loss of revenues would approach 1 billion kronor ($140,000) by 2020.
Kykans Tidning did not state the specific reasons for the steady decline. It is known that since 1996 newly-borns no longer become automatic members of the denomination, which was formally separated from the State in 2000.
The Church is mainly supported through the “church tax” incorporated in personal income taxation, and which is voluntary. Taxpayers can opt out.
The projections are not catastrophic, according to Church Planning Director Erika Brundin, but “the Church must prepare itself for the changes that are anticipated.” This includes inter-church coordination of activities such as baptisms and confirmations as a cost-saving mechanism.
“I believe the Church’s most marginalized period will be behind us after 2020, and that its relevance can increase,” said Brundin. “The number of religiously-inclined citizens should then rise, and the role of the Church in the lives of younger people can become more considerable.
“But I don’t think that means we’ll have more members.”
External link: www.kyrkanstidning.se
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Ready to Join EU, Pope Told
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 7 — Turkey is ready to become a full member of the European Union where it could play a key role in preventing and resolving conflicts between the West and the Islamic world, Ankara’s new ambassador to the Holy See told Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday. During the presentation of his credentials, Ambassador Kenan Gursoy told the pope that his country is a “democratic and secular republic which is progressing down the path set by its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to make Turkey part of the modern world. And it is in line with this vocation that Turkey aspires to become a full member of the EU”. “Our Constitution guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms, including those for religion and worship, without any discrimination in regard to language, race, sex, ethnic heritage or faith,” he added. Turkey, the ambassador recalled, “has already assumed its responsibilities” in regard to the Middle East peace process and joined in peace-keeping operations under the aegis of the EU and NATO. Turkey became an associated member of the European Community, the EU’s predecessor, in 1963, and formally applied for full membership in April 1987. It was recognised as a member candidate in December 1999 and formal accession negotiations, expected to last 10 years, began in October 2005. The accession negotiations focus on whether Turkish laws are in line with those of the EU in regard to such areas as human rights, press freedom, labor protection and customs. In Turkey’s specific case, the talks also center on the situation on the island of Cyprus, where a separate Turkish state was created in the north after Turkey invaded in 1974 to block Greece’s announced intention to annex the island. Since then Ankara has refused to recognise the Republic of Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, as the sole authority on the island. Although they are historic rivals, Greece has joined Italy and Britain in backing Turkey’s EU membership bid, which is opposed by another historic rival, Austria, and France. All of the EU’s now 27 members must agree on letting any new member in. Turkey, which has had a customs accord with the EU since 1995, is already a member of such European bodies as the Council of Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and is an associate member of the Western European Union, a intergovernmental defense organization expected to be scraped under the EU’s new governing Lisbon Treaty which calls for a common EU defense policy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Britons Are Suspicious Towards Muslims, Study Finds
The British public are concerned at the rise of Islam in the UK and fear that the country is deeply divided along religious lines, according to a major survey.
A large proportion of the country believes that the multicultural experiment has failed, with 52 per cent considering that Britain is deeply divided along religious lines and 45 per cent saying that religious diversity has had a negative impact.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Home Office Bans Islamic Preacher’s Extremist Groups
AN EXTREMIST Islamic group planning to march through a war heroes’ town will be OUTLAWED this week.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson will use his powers to smash warped organisations run by hate-preacher Anjem Choudary.
He is expected to impose anti-terror laws as early as tomorrow to ban al-Muhajiroun and its latest offshoot Islam4UK.
The move will make it a criminal offence — punishable by up to TEN YEARS in jail — to become a member or to attend or address any meetings.
Fanatics
It also allows the authorities to tear down websites used by the groups to spread hate, promote violence and recruit new members. The action will also make it a criminal offence to raise funds.
Twisted Choudary, 42, has sparked outrage by threatening to march his followers through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett, where crowds gather regularly to honour Britain’s fallen squaddies as their coffins are returned home from Afghanistan in hearses.
He has called on his henchmen to carry up to 500 coffins in a sick plan to symbolise thousands of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But his attempt to mobilise fanatics will be seriously hampered when Mr Johnson bans the two groups under the 2000 Terrorism Act.
Home Office lawyers have been secretly scouring the rule books to find ways of making the two groups illegal.
An Whitehall insider said last night: “The decision to proscribe the groups was made a few months ago — well before the march was even announced.
“We have been monitoring the output from the websites and comments made by senior members and have come to the conclusion that they are clearly acting outside the Act.
“A file is being prepared for the Home Secretary and all that remains now is for him to act.” The action will be applauded by forces families and moderate Muslims demanding that extremists are denied the oxygen of publicity.
Al-Muhajiroun leaders have enraged Brits and Americans with their outrageous outpourings. They described the 9/11 bombers as “magnificent” and claim the flag of Islam would one day fly above 10 Downing Street.
Five young Muslims convicted in 2007 of the fertiliser bombing plot which could have killed hundreds of Brits all had links with al-Muhajiroun.
Reviled
And a man who bombed a cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing three people in 2004 had also attended some of its circles.
The group was disbanded in 2004 by its reviled founder Omar Bakri Mohammad before he fled Britain to live in exile in Lebanon. But activists regrouped under its original name in the summer under Bakri disciple Choudary.
He has hailed the 9/11 bombers as martyrs, wants Sharia law imposed in the UK and gleefully admits: “I am the most hated man in Britain.”
Islam4UK was set up as a “platform” for promoting the views of its extremist parent organisation, al-Muhajiroun. Crazed Choudary has demanded an Islamic revolution in Britain and wants Business Secretary Lord Mandelson stoned to death for being gay.
He has followed up his plans for a Wootton Bassett demo by organising a sick letter-writing campaign to families of fallen British heroes.
Lawyer Choudary and his supporters say they will write to the families of British troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan urging them to renounce their religions and convert to Islam. The letters urge them to embrace Islam to save themselves “from the hellfire”.
About 20 of his supporters have already staged a protest during a welcome home parade for soldiers in Luton.
Parents have also complained that members were promoting extremism at a primary school.
Wiltshire politicians have urged him to abandon his latest protest, and a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march has attracted more than 120,000 members.
Gordon Brown has branded the planned march “abhorrent and offensive” — and Mr Johnson said he would have no hesitation in banning it.
Fanatic’s vile words of bile
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary has made a career out of insulting British troops and their families.
He has branded heroes returning from Afghanistan “brutal murderers” and “cowards”.
Jobless Choudary, 42, lives in a £350,000 house in Leytonstone, east London, and claims State handouts of £25,740 a year — but spends most of his time spouting hatred.
He once claimed Muslims in Britain were “oppressed” and had the right to defend themselves “by whatever means”.
He has tried to brainwash his followers by claiming it is an “obligation” upon Muslims everywhere to join a holy war against those who fight those who occupy Muslim land.
Last March, he posted a message on an extremist Islamic website calling a homecoming parade of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, a “vile parade” of “brutal murderers”.
The servicemen — who had lost 12 comrades in tours of Iraq and Afghanistan — were later confronted with placards branding them killers, rapists and terrorists as they marched through Luton, Beds.
Choudary has also urged Muslims to refuse to co-operate with police in tackling terrorism and called for the assassination of the Pope.
The British-born son of a Pakistani immigrant market trader, he was raised in a semi at Welling, Kent. After his A-levels, he began a medical degree but switched to law after failing his first-year exams.
He qualified as a solicitor and was chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers — but was removed from the Roll of Solicitors in 2002.
Choudary later embraced radical Islamism and co-founded al-Muhajiroun with the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Mohammad.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hate March Cancelled But Radical Calls Stunt a ‘Victory’
A HATE march in a town that welcomes home fallen soldiers has been called off.
But Muslim radical Omar Bakri-Mohammed claims that just talking about the sickening stunt was “a glorious victory”.
And we can reveal that Muslim leaders were never serious about marching through Wootton Bassett.
They only wanted to cause public outrage and hurt to the families of dead squaddies by parading through the Wiltshire town carrying pretend coffins.
From his bolthole in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, Bakri-Mohammed, 51, gloated: “Without spending a penny we have forced the issue of British soldiers and their occupation of Muslim lands to the top of the public debate. We have achieved the target already. We have exposed the British Government’s foreign policy for what it is.”
“We have exposed the anti-war campaigners for their lack of action and we have shown Al-Muhajiroun is alive and well.”
“We cannot do more than that. We have achieved our aim without the march going ahead. This is our greatest victory.”
Once dubbed the “Tottenham Ayatollah”, the Syrian-born cleric was refused entry back into the UK following outspoken remarks after the 7/7 terror attacks in London in 2005.
In the same year the Government banned Bakri- Mohammed’s extremist Al- Muhajiroun organisation from operating in the UK.
But Bakri-Mohammed says the group has simply been rebranded as Islam4uk — and that he still pulls the strings.
And yesterday British-based henchman Anjem Choudary, 42, continued the work of his boss — with another hate-filled rant against British soldiers.
In a second letter to the families of those who have lost loved ones in Iraq andAfghanistan, he branded their actions “evil”.
Meanwhile, the mother of a teenage soldier killed in Afghanistan said yesterday Choudary and his pals were “extremist nutcases”.
Mother-of-four Lorraine McClure, 38, of Ipswich, Suffolk, whose son Aaron, 19, died in August 2007, added: “They are inciting anger and hatred in this country. I t has to be stopped.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jihadists Groom Children Under 10
Police have identified children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism, with some expressing a wish to become suicide bombers.
Up to 10 primary school pupils, aged between seven and 10, have been placed on a government outreach programme for individuals considered at risk of being radicalised and turning to violence.
Some have taken inspiration from jihadi websites or after viewing extremist material in Islamic bookshops.
One child was referred to the programme by his teacher after writing on a school book: “I want to be a suicide bomber.”
Other youngsters were identified by their parents after suddenly adopting traditional Muslim dress or espousing extremist views.
At least 228 people, mostly teenagers and young men aged 15-24, have been referred to the anti-terrorism Channel project after being singled out as “potentially vulnerable to violent extremism”.
“For people to be identified there have to be distinct changes in behaviour and warning signs,” said Craig Denholm, deputy chief constable of Surrey police who oversees the programme. “We assess each one on its own merits. There is a very small number of children aged seven, eight and nine.”
The Channel project was launched after the 7/7 suicide attacks in London in 2005, when 52 commuters died.
It is run by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers, but also involves schools, social workers and youth workers. Those displaying “concerning behaviour” are monitored by police, their parents are alerted and some are provided with mentors with moderate views.
“The programme is not appropriate for people who are dangerous or have passed over into violent extremism,” said Denholm. “The whole purpose is to persuade.”
Community policing tactics have been used in an attempt to divert them from an extremist path. Some of the children are offered “diversionary” activities, such as football coaching, or are sent on outdoor adventure courses to try to integrate them into mainstream society.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Myleene Klass Warned After Brandishing Knife to Deter Intruders
Police tell TV presenter she was acting illegally in waving kitchen knife at youths who were peering in window late at night
Myleene Klass is said to be ‘aghast’ after receiving a police warning for using a kitchen knife to scare intruders at her Hertfordshire home. Photograph: Richard Saker
The TV presenter and Marks & Spencer model Myleene Klass has been warned by police for waving a knife at teenagers who were peering into a window of her house late at night.
Klass was in the kitchen with her daughter upstairs when she spotted the youths in her garden just after midnight on Friday. She grabbed a knife and banged the windows before they ran away.
Hertfordshire police warned her she should not have used a knife to scare off the youths because carrying an “offensive weapon”, even in her own home, was illegal.
Klass’s spokesman, Jonathan Shalit, said the former Hear’Say singer was “utterly terrified” by the intruders and “aghast” at the police warning. “All she did was scream loudly and wave the knife to try and frighten them off,” he told the Sunday Telegraph. “She is not looking to be a vigilante, and has the utmost respect for the law, but when the police explained to her that even if you’re at home alone and you have an intruder, you are not allowed to protect yourself, she was bemused.”
The warning issued to the model comes after a pledge by the Conservative party last month that they would make it more difficult for people who tackle burglars to be prosecuted.
The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, spoke out after Munir Hussain was jailed for beating a man who tied up his family in their home. He and his brother used a cricket bat to beat one of the intruders, who was left with a permanent brain injury.
A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire police said no reference was made in the Klass incident report about a weapon. She said the incident was being treated as trespass and “words of advice were given in relation to ensuring suspicious behaviour is reported immediately”.
Klass, whose fiance, Graham Quinn, was away on business at the time of the scare, plans to step up security at the property, near Potters Bar.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: War March Fanatic Anjem Choudary Runs Secret Sharia ‘Weddings’
The Muslim extremist planning a march through Wootton Bassett runs a secret sharia court where he marries hundreds of couples — then tells them not to register their weddings.
Anjem Choudary tells them that registering their marriages is forbidden in Islam, as it would be recognition of British law.
But critics said he was leaving women open to abuse, as they could not go to a normal court to escape a violent husband or win their share in a divorce.
Mr Choudary’s Islam 4 UK group wants to carry 500 coffins through the Wiltshire town to remember Afghans killed by Britain and America.
He styles himself the judge of the UK Sharia Court and principal lecturer of the London School of Sharia and has claimed that he runs a network of Islamic courts in London, Luton, Birmingham, Derby and Leicester.
He claims that he has married more than 1,800 couples across Britain in less than ten years and conducted hundreds of divorces.
He spoke out to Douglas Murray, who has written a research paper on sharia law in the UK for the Charles Douglas Home Memorial Prize.
Mr Choudary, 42, did not give addresses for any of his sharia courts or his college.
Asked if he told newly-weds to register their weddings, he said: ‘No. Because once you’ve gone down that road of registering the marriage…you are automatically really saying, “Look, we are accepting the [non-Islamic] system that goes with it”.’
Last night women’s groups and moderate Muslims accused Mr Choudary of giving ‘dangerous’ advice to couples.
They said if marriages are not registered, men can take further wives.
Mr Murray said: ‘There are lots of very vulnerable women who have been deceived by this man. They are being told not to register their marriages so that they don’t have any rights as a wife in the eyes of the law in Britain.
‘The Government must not be frightened by accusations of Islamophobia and political correctness and ensure there is one law followed in Britain.’
Imam Shahid Raza, one of Britain’s leading sharia judges, said: ‘As far as I know, Mr Choudary does not have the right qualifications to qualify as a sharia judge.’ He said this ‘could not be condoned’.
Mr Choudary, estimated to claim £25,000 a year benefits, has written to dead soldiers’ families, saying he has ‘no sympathy for them whatsoever’.
This weekend he could not be reached for comment.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Social Democrat Tipped to be New President
Zagreb, 8 Jan. (AKI) — The Social Democratic Party’s candidate Ivo Josipovic was tipped to win Sunday’s presidential run-off, according to surveys published on Friday. Josipovic won the first election round on 28 December with 32.4 percent of the vote, followed by Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic, who ran as independent, with 14.84 percent.
The two candidates were to face off on Sunday, but no survey has given Bandic any chance of winning.
Bandic is also a former member of SDP, but was expelled from the party after he decided to run as independent.
The Candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Andrija Hebrang, ran third and did not qualify for the run-off.
The latest survey conducted by “Totus-Opiniometar” agency tipped Josipovic to win 68.9 percent of the vote in the run-off and Bandic 31.1 percent.
The surveys do not take account of voters abroad, especially in Bosnia, where they account for 3.5 percent of the total. Bosnian-born Bandic is likely to carry most Bosnian Croats votes, analysts said.
Current president Stipe Mesic’s second term expires in February and under the constitution he is not eligible for a third term.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
As Copts Die in Egypt, Their Church Remains Silent
Six died in an attack on Coptic Christians last Wednesday in Egypt. Violence against the minority is common, but shrouded by a veil of silence.
By Alexander Weissink
Katreen cheerfully opened the door. She receives few visitors at her shelter in Cairo, where she lives with her two children. Father Mathias greeted her warmly. Katreen kissed the priest’s hand. Back inside, Katreen fell apart. Since she converted to Christianity, she had felt alone and abandoned. The Coptic priest quietly listened to her plight.
Muslims who convert to Christianity are outcasts in Egypt, a country with a Muslim majority. Their ID-cards still read ‘Muslim,’ in spite of their conversion, since apostasy is strictly forbidden in Islam. The children of converts are obliged to follow the Islamic curriculum in school.
Copts are menaced almost weekly
Death threats by fundamentalist Muslims are not uncommon for converts. That is why many of them fled the country in the past, but now Western nations no longer offer them asylum, they usually seek shelter in Egypt, fearing violence.
Violence against Christians, converts or not, is common in Egypt, but often goes unreported. Most attacks occur in the towns and villages south of Cairo, as did Wednesday’s shooting (see box) in which six Copts were killed. According to a report published by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, attacks on Copts occur four times a month on average.
Most conflicts originate in the non-religious sphere, relating to earthly matters like love affairs, kidnappings or rapes. But as soon as word gets out that the victim and the perpetrator are of different faiths, the entire Coptic community can become a target.
The regime claims that sectarian violence does not exist. Incidents are dismissed as little more than neighbourly spats that have spun out of control. But the fact that security forces are massively deployed following each incident proves that Egypt’s rulers know the tension is real.
Copts and Muslims: world’s apart
The number of people who convert annually is a mystery. “A few hundred at least,” father Mathias said, but that might be mere wishful thinking. Even the total number of Copts is a closely guarded secret in Egypt, though it should be easy for the government to estimate the figure, since it keeps records of citizens’ religious affiliation. It is commonly estimated that eight million Copts live in Egypt, comprising about ten percent of the population. This makes the Copts the Middle East’s largest Christian minority by far.
Socially however, Muslims and Copts are slowly drifting apart, already inhabiting different worlds. Many Copts feel like strangers in their own land. Within their church, a call for a more confrontational stance is gathering strength.
Currently, Katreen cannot count on her church for protection. “They are afraid to get into trouble with the regime,” said Matias, a priest with a rebellious reputation. The church enjoys the protection of the state as long as it remains on the sidelines and does not try to convert people, he explained. So much so, that some see the Coptic Pope Shenouda III as a stooge of president Hosni Mubarak.
A dangerous loss of faith
Katreen was baptised in July. Before the ceremony she went by the name of Nagla al-Iman. “I began to notice that violence against women was often justified by citing the Koran or other teachings,” she said, trying to explain why her faith first began to waver. She started working for an organisation committed to helping women who had fallen victim to abuse.
She was married to a professor of Islamic law who taught at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the oldest and most renowned Sunni institution of learning in the world. She was able to hide her religious doubts from her husband until he caught her reading the Bible. They went their separate ways five years ago.
Katreen is not afraid of her husband, but she cannot say the same of his social circle. “When my conversion became public knowledge, he was immediately offered a job in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “on the condition he would take the kids with him.”
He refused, but outside meddling did not stop here. “When we were negotiating a custodial arrangement a lawyer working for the Muslim Brotherhood tried to interfere,” Katreen said. “They want to preserve the children for Islam; that is their sole motive.”
A mother fears her children may be kidnapped
In the meanwhile, her son Ibrahim (10) sat at the computer chatting on paltalk.com. “We are exchanging pictures of Father Shenouda,” he said excitedly, referring to the 89-year old Coptic pope. In his online chat-group, Ibrahim had adopted the nickname “Little Convert.” His mother said she feared that her son might be snatched from her in an unguarded moment.
Like Katreen, he is a great fan of the highly confrontational Coptic priest, Zakaria Boutros, a very vocal critic of Islam. Boutros fled to the US in the 1990s and has been calling on Egyptian Copts to defend themselves since 2003 on a satellite TV-channel.
The church’s leadership has publicly denounced Boutros, as it has the Coptic diaspora who oppose Mubarak’s regime and anti-Christian violence in Egypt from abroad. The Church’s argument against them is the same as the regime’s: their actions give Egypt a bad name.
For those that speak out: an uncertain fate
Katreen spoke to Boutros through paltalk.com. He encouraged her to convert to Christianity. “It took a while before I found someone willing to baptise me,” she said. “A lot of priests were afraid of me, afraid of the trouble I might bring and afraid for their careers.” Matias shook his head in disapproval. “It is a crying shame that the church is leaving new believers to their own devices just so they can keep the peace,” he said.
When government security agents arrested the 28-year old Coptic blogger Hani Nazeer last year, dissenting voices were all but absent. He has been imprisoned ever since, without trial or even formal charges. The fate of Father Wahba offers another cautionary tale. He married an Islamic woman and a Christian man without knowing the women’s true identity. The bride had pretended to be Christian. Still, the priest was sentenced to five years in jail. The Church has remained silent on the matter.
Father Matias is ready. “I say what the Church dare not. I do what the Church fails to do.” He does not expect any support when he gets in trouble with the Egyptian regime. “Only God can help me.’“
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Killing of Christians; Arrests Good News, Frattini
(ANSAmed ) — ROME, JANUARY 8 — “Appreciation to the Egyptian authorities” was expressed by Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, “for having rapidly delivered to justice the persons suspected of being behind the savage carnage that occured in Nagaa Hamadi”. “An adequate safeguarding of a basic human right such at that of freedom of religion presupposes an efficient operation of the forces of intervention and investigation,” the Minister said. “No effort should be spared in identifying the aggressors and extremists”. “News of the arrest of suspects bears witness to the efforts made by our Egyptian friends in combatting religious intolerance: it is a disturbing phenomenon which should be headed-off and nipped in the bud. I am certain,” Frattini concluded, “that on the Egyptian side there will be no lack of a continued effort in this direction”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Frattini ‘Shocked’ By Attack on Christians in Egypt
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 7 — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Thursday voiced his “shock and horror” over the attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt which left at least seven dead and perhaps as many as a dozen injured. “The violence perpetrated against the Coptic Christian community in Egypt provoked horror and condemnation,” Frattini said in a statement. “The international community cannot remain indifferent nor ever let down its guard before such religious intolerance, which represents an extremely grave violation of fundamental rights. Italy intends to continue to defend the principle of religious freedom, an absolute and inalienable civil right,” he added. “Episodes of violence and discrimination against religious minorities like what took place yesterday in Egypt are cause for extreme concern. I intend to personally discuss the need to adopt necessary measures to protect the Coptic community in that country when I meet with my Egyptian counterpart, Aboul Gheit, in Cairo at the end of next week,” Frattini said. The attack took place while Coptic Christians were celebrating their Orthodox Christmas, which coincides with the Catholic Epiphany holiday, with a midnight mass in Nag Hamadi, some 65km from the Temple of Luxor in Upper Egypt. The town has been the scene of violence between Muslims and Christians which began with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in November. There are conflicting reports on the dynamics of the Christmas attack which some witnesses said was a drive-by shooting, while others claim it was carried out by one or more men who fled in the chaos that followed. Christians make up some 10% of Egypt’s population and the vast majority of them are Orthodox Copts, the Middle East’s largest and oldest Christian community. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican — Egypt — Islam: The Vatican With the Coptic Patriarch: United in Face of Oppression
Letter of solidarity from the card. Kasper Shenouda III after the attack on the church of Naj Hammadi. The police announce arrest of three leaders of the Christmas massacre.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — “ All Christians must stand united in the face of oppression and seek together the peace that only Christ can give”. This is one of the salient sentences of a letter from Card. Walter Kasper to the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III to express the Vatican’s closeness in the aftermath of the attacks on Coptic Christians of Naj Hammadi (Upper Egypt) at the end of vigil celebrations for the Orthodox Christmas.
Two cars, driven by 3 young men, fired volleys of gunfire, killing 6 people and a security guard of the Christian church. Police said they have arrested the three murders, but the situation in Egypt is very tense and Christians are accusing the security services of negligence for failing to prevent the planned attack, after the many threats received by the bishop and the community.
In his letter, Card. Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, expresses “sadness” for “the tragic news of the death and wounding of several Coptic Christians” and claims to be “united in prayer with all the Coptic Church.
Praying for the dead and all the wounded, the cardinal writes: “Whenever our Christians suffer unjustly it is a wound to the Body of Christ in which all believers share. Together we share this sadness, and together we pray for healing, peace and justice. All Christians must stand united in the face of oppression and seek together the peace that only Christ can give”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Nuncio: ‘Difficult’ Situation in Egypt
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 8 — This week’s bloody attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt was evidence of a “difficult situation” for Christians in that country, according to the Vatican’s chief envoy there. “Tensions exist and these acts of violence occur with a certain frequency and this would indicate that the situation there is not as rosy as authorities there would have you believe,” Msgr Michael Fitzgerald, the papal nuncio to Egypt and the Holy See’s representative to the Arab League, told the Catholic news agency SIR on Friday. Although the exact motive for the attack is still not known, Fitzgerald indicated that he tended to agree with the Coptic bishop of Luxor, Msgr Youhannes Zakaria, that it may have been part of “a plan to promote political Islam by certain forces”. “I would have nothing to add to his words. He is there on the ground and knows the situation better than I do,” the Vatican diplomat said. “More than focusing on dialogue, what needs to be done is improve conditions for peaceful coexistence and build mutual trust. These conditions are a prerequisite for any dialogue,” Fitzgerald observed. Eight Copts and a policeman were killed in what appeared to have been a drive-by shooting after a midnight mass to mark Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday. The attack took place in Nag Hammadi, some 65km from the Temple of Luxor in Upper Egypt. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Against Christians Continues in Egypt After Christmas Eve Shootings
by Mary Abdelmassih
Egypt (AINA) — Violence broke out in the evening of January 8, 2010, in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, in the main market and ‘Bein el Mehatat’ area, spreading as well to the neighbouring town of Bahgoura. Muslim mobs used swords, butane gas cylinders for explosions and Molotov cocktails to loot and torch Coptic-owned homes, shops and cars (video).
Mary Om Boktor Kyrollos, a Coptic widow from Bahgoura, died of fumes after her home was torched yesterday by Muslims while she was indoors. She was buried in the early hours of January 09, 2010.
Reverend Misaeel, pastor of the church in Bahgoura told Coptic News that violence started on Friday at 20:00. In Bahgoura, 3 kilometers from Nag Hammadi, where most of the violence took place, inhabitants confirmed that water and electricity were disconnected in the evening, during the fires. “Fire brigades arrive 90 minutes late, and the vehicles which arrived had empty tanks.”
Eyewitnesses said the perpetrators were chanting “Allah is Great” and “No God except Allah” while destroying, looting and torching Coptic property.
“When the State Security forces are not present, the Muslims come to loot and burn, and when the forces return to the area, the Muslims disappear. They simply do not arrest them, they just tell them to go away,” an eye witnesses told Coptic News Bulletin in an interview. “State Security is only present in front of the Coptic Diocese.”
Complete absence of security forces was confirmed by another eyewitness. “All Copts are terrified and are staying indoors,” he said.
According to Free Copts, Muslims mobs were led by elements loyal to the first defendant in the Christmas Eve Massacre on January 6, 2010, when the Christian congregation was sprayed with bullets as they came out of church after celebrating the Coptic Christmas Eve mass. 8 were killed and 15 wounded (AINA 1-7-2010).
Funeral services for the victims of the Christmas shootings took place on Thursday, led by Bishop Kyrillos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese, and was attended by several thousand Copts. (video of funeral). It was reported that Muslims pelted the funeral procession with stones.
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Israelis Reject George Mitchell Loan Guarantee ‘Threat’
Israeli officials have shrugged off a suggestion that the US could withhold loan guarantees to pressure Israel over the Middle East peace process.
The finance minister said Israel did not need the guarantees, while the prime minister accused the Palestinians of holding up peace negotiations.
US envoy George Mitchell said this week the US could withhold loan guarantees to extract concessions from Israel.
The guarantees allow Israel to raise money cheaply overseas.
‘Doing fine’
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz reacted by saying the Israeli economy was doing well.
“We don’t need to use these guarantees,” he was quoted by Israeli media as saying.
“We are doing just fine. But several months ago we agreed with the American treasury on guarantees for 2010 and 2011, and there were no conditions.”
In response to Mr Mitchell’s comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said: “Everyone knows that the Palestinian Authority is refusing to renew the peace talks, while Israel has taken important and significant steps to kickstart the process.”
Palestinian officials say Israel must completely halt settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which it occupied during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, before negotiations can resume.
Since he came to office in 2008, President Barack Obama has focused closely on trying to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks moving, but with little success.
Mr Mitchell, who is due to return to the Middle East this month in his latest attempt to restart negotiations, was asked on Wednesday in an interview with America’s PBS how the US could bring pressure to bear on Israel.
“Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel,” he said.
[…]
In 1991, $10bn of loan guarantees were withheld under former President George H W Bush to pressure Israel over the peace process.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
The “Why Can’t Everyone Just be Friends” Narrative of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, Evenhandedness Gone Mad
by Barry Rubin
It’s a heartening story just made for this season and the Western media : two seriously injured children, one Israeli and one Palestinian, becoming friends together in a hospital, with an innocence that transcends the hatred of their peoples. The New York Times article is written precisely balanced, two families, two causes, absolutely identical. Oh how foolish is this unnecessary conflict. What folly drives humanity!
On one level, who can object to such a story, so fair, balanced, so humane and touching? Nowadays, to treat Israel on an equal footing with the Palestinians is rare enough and thus should be sufficient.
Yet something bothers me about this story, everything it leaves out and misleads about.
First, the basic tale. Orel was injured by a rocket fired from Gaza at Beersheva. Marya was injured in an Israeli missile which killed a terrorist leader. Both are eight.
The Times picks up the story:
“In a way, a friendship between two wounded children from opposing backgrounds is not that surprising. Neither understands the prolonged fight over land and identity that so divides people here. They are kids. They play.
“But for those who have spent time in their presence at Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem, it is almost more powerful to observe their parents, who do understand. They have developed a kinship that defies national struggle.”
Yet what does this leave out, at least in part?
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Ahmadinejad Demands WWII Reparations From Allied Powers
“You inflicted lots of damages to the Iranian nation, put your weight on the shoulders [of the Iranian people] and became victors in the World War II. You didn’t even share the war profits with Iran,” Ahmadinejad said. “If I say today that we will take full compensation … know that we will stand to the end and will take it.”
Ahmadinejad didn’t elaborate on the details but he had earlier said he would write to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ask that Iran be compensated for the damages caused to its people during the war and for the use of its territory and resources by Allied powers.
“A team has been assigned to calculate all the damages (inflicted on Iran) in the Second World War. This will be an invoice they (Allies powers) must pay to the Iranian nation,” said Ahmadinejad.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hezbollah Funded by Drug Trade in Europe
German police suspect the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, of using drug trafficking in Europe to fund part of its activities, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.
According to the report published on the magazine’s website, German police arrested two Lebanese citizens living in Germany last October after they transferred large sums of money to a family in Lebanon with connections to Hezbollah’s leadership, including the Shiite group’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jumblatt and Hezbollah Seal Lebanon Reconciliation Accord
BEIRUT — Hezbollah finalised a reconciliation agreement on Sunday with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt that has diffused tensions between the two Lebanese parties after deadly clashes in May 2008.
Leaders of the two sides emphasised their commitment to national unity in speeches broadcast on Hezbollah’s television station Al-Manar, with Jumblatt stressing the importance of ending the tensions.
“If the fighting had spread… the country would have fallen into a vicious cycle of violence that would have put an end to the co-existence” of Lebanon’s multiple religious communities, Jumblatt said at the reconciliation meeting in Shweifat, southeast of Beirut.
Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad praised Jumblatt’s courage.
He said the partnership was of “strategic interest” and that the two parties would “remain united on different issues, against the (Israeli) enemy that threatens us,” reading a speech on behalf of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The agreement crowns reconciliation efforts which were launched after the deadly clashes between Lebanon’s political majority and minority blocs, the worst since the country’s 1975-1990 civil war.
The fighting, which took place in the capital and other parts of Lebanon, pitted the Shiite party and its allies against supporters of current Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party.
Around 100 people were killed in a week.
Since August, Jumblatt has gradually distanced himself from the Western-backed parliamentary majority in Lebanon’s national unity government which Hariri formed in November.
The formation came after more than four months of tough negotiations with Hariri’s Hezbollah-led rivals.
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Trade: Turkey’s Exports to Iran Become $1.7 Bln, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 7 — Turkey’s exports to Iran has become 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2009, as Anatolia news agency reports quoting Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan as saying after meeting Iranian Minister of Industries & Mining Ali Akbar Mehrabian in Ankara. Caglayan said Iran was an important partner of Turkey and trade volume between the two countries has risen to 10 billion U.S. dollars in the last eight years. “We will work to boost commercial ties with Iran,” he said. Works have been under way for establishment of industrial zone or free trade zone on the border between Turkey and Iran, he said. In his part, Mehrabian said that Turkish and Iranian parties held constructive talks to enhance commercial ties and he was glad about Turkey’s strong will on improvement of relations. Iran was also glad about Turkish businessmen’s investments in the country, he added. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Turkey, Syria to Launch Passenger Rail Service
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 7 — Turkish State Railways, or TCDD, will cooperate with Syria’s railway authority to launch passenger train services between the Turkish city of Gaziantep and the Syrian city of Aleppo, Anatolia news agency reports today. TCDD completed maintenance and repair works at part of Hejaz Railway which was built almost a century ago to link Istanbul and Damascus to Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Passenger train services between Gaziantep and Aleppo will begin on Friday, TCDD officials said. Train services will run twice a week, on Friday and Sunday. It takes nearly 3 hours to travel between the two cities. Turkish officials expect to carry 1 million ton freight and 100,000 passengers along the line annually. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Syria Sign Protocol to Construct Dam on River Asi
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 7 — Turkey and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a “friendship dam” on River Asi, as Anatolia news agency reports. Turkey’s Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroglu and Syrian Minister of Irrigation Nadir al-Buni put their signatures under the memorandum in a ceremony in the Turkish capital of Ankara. “Turkey and Syria will make use of the dam 50-50% model,” Eroglu said during the ceremony. Eroglu said the dam would be used for energy and prevention of floods, not only for irrigation. Also, al-Buni said that two countries had agreed to jointly manage water resources and they would regard interests of all countries, including Iraq, when doing that. Al-Buni said Turkey and Syria would lay the foundation of the dam before the end of 2010. The dam, to be constructed on the part of River Asi in Turkey, will protect the agricultural fields and settlements in the two countries towards the sea from floods. The dam will irrigate some 10,000 hectares of agricultural fields and generate almost 16 million kw/hr energy p.a. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Aselsan Wins Military Contracts Worth $200 Mln
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — Turkey’s military electronics specialist Aselsan has won four new defense contracts from the Turkish government worth altogether more than $200 million, as daily Hurriyet reports. Aselsan, Turkey’s biggest defense company, said in a press release that the largest of the new deals is a $148 million contract for building an automated fire support system for the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, dubbed ADOP-2000. Under the ADOP-2000 project, Ankara-based Aselsan will build integrated field systems that will provide numerical communications between fire support elements, target spotting, assessment, planning and control systems and other battlefield functional systems like air defense, intelligence, electronic warfare and battle support units. Searately, Aselsan has won a $6 million contract to provide the Turkish Coast Guard with VHF broad band safe numerical communications systems. In a $4 million deal, Aselsan also will deliver a land navigation system for the Turkish Armed Forces’ AN/TPQ-36 V9 target spotting radar, according to the statement. In another statement from Dec. 29, Aselsan said it signed a $50 million contract with the Turkish government for the production of Kalkan (shield) air defense radar systems. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Leading Media Aydin Dogan Magnate Quits
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 4 — The owner of the Dogan Holding, which owns a series of prominent newspapers including the daily Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN Turk, said that he quitted from his post as the president of the executive board of the holding. In a statement, as reported by Anatolia news agency, the Dogan Holding said that Aydin Dogan left his post as of January 1, 2010. His daughter Arzuhan Yalcindag will replace him. Earlier this year, the Dogan holding, Turkey’s largest media company which controls around half of Turkey’s private media, faced a record tax fine of 4.8 billion Turkish lira (nearly USD 3.2 billion) over alleged tax irregularities. The holding failed to reach a settlement with the Ministry of Finance over the fine, the biggest in the history of Turkey. The company said last week that it was still working on the partial or complete sale of subsidiaries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Defense Contractor Signs USD 71 Mln Deal in Howitzer
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 7 — Turkey’s defense electronics equipment provider ASELSAN has signed a USD 71 million deal with the Turkish Defense Ministry as part of a howitzer project for the Turkish Armed Forces, as Anatolia news agency reports. ASELSAN said in a regulatory filing today that it would develop an ordnance transfer system for Turkey’s self-propelled howitzer, T-155 Firtina (or Storm), a Turkish variant of the South-Korean K-9 Thunder howitzers. The Turkish defense contractor said the ordnance transfer system would provide the Firtina with greater mobility and fire superiority against counterbattery fire. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE President’s Brother Acquitted of Attack on Businessman
A brother of the president of the United Arab Emirates filmed beating up a former business partner and running him over in a Mercedes SUV has been acquitted of assaulting him.
The failure to convict Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan will be a blow to the country’s attempts to improve the image of its legal system.
A court in Al Ain, second city of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, acquitted the sheikh of rape, endangering a life and causing bodily harm against the after his lawyer claimed he had been drugged at the time of the incident and had no recollection of it.
Sheikh Issa is a half-brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi who is also head of the federal UAE state.
Sheikh Issa is a businessman with no government role, but there was an international outcry from human rights groups when the video surfaced, particularly as the authorities at first appeared to brush it off.
It purported to show the sheikh, a security guard and others lashing Mohammed Shapour’s buttocks with a plank with nails in. They raped him with an electric baton, poured fuel on his genitals and set light to them.
Sheikh Issa then appeared to drive over him in his SUV.
The video was released in the United States by Bassam Nabulsi, a Lebanese-American businessman who is involved in court proceedings there against Sheikh Issa.
Mr Nabulsi and his brother Ghassan were convicted in absentia of drugging the sheikh and blackmailing him, and sentenced to five years’ jail. Three other defendants were also convicted of various charges.
The security guard, a Nepali, was acquitted.
Sheikh Issa’s laywer said his client had been taking prescription drugs, which caused anger, suicidal feelings and violence, as well as memory loss.
He also said the Nabulsi brothers had drugged the sheikh and set up the incident with a view to using it for blackmail.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Open to Al Qaeda Dialogue
SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s president said he is ready to open a dialogue with al-Qaida fighters who lay down their weapons and renounce violence, despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terror group.
The United States has complained in the past that Yemen struck deals with al-Qaida fighters and freed them from prison after they promised not to engage in terrorism. Some later broke those promises and are now believed to be active in al-Qaida’s offshoot in Yemen.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed that his government is “determined to stand up to the challenges” of al-Qaida and that his security forces will track down as many al-Qaida fighters as possible among those who refuse to stop violence.
But he left the door open for negotiations.
“Dialogue is the best way … even with al-Qaida, if they set aside their weapons and return to reason,” he said in an interview with Abu Dhabi TV aired late Saturday. “We are ready to reach (an) understanding with anyone who renounces violence and terrorism.”
The Obama administration says al-Qaida in Yemen has become a global threat after it allegedly plotted a failed attempt to bomb a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day. Washington has dramatically beefed up counterterrorism funds and training for Yemen to fight the terror group, and last month Yemeni forces carried out its heaviest strikes in years on al-Qaida strongholds.
But Saleh’s government has been weakened by the multiple wars and crises in the impoverished, fragmented nation. Mistrust of the United States is widespread among the population, as is Islamic extremism. So the government is wary that an overly harsh assault on al-Qaida — especially with overt American help — could raise opposition.
Hundreds of al-Qaida fighters — foreigners and Yemenis — are believed to be sheltered in Yemen’s mountainous regions where tribes angry at the central government hold sway. Yemenis in the group have tribal links that make if difficult for security forces to pursue them for fear of angering the well-armed tribes.
The regime has also struck alliances with hardline Islamists to ensure their followers’ support. In a prayer sermon on Friday, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani — one of the country’s most prominent clerics — railed against U.S. pressure to fight al-Qaida, accusing Washington and the United Nations of seeking to “impose an international occupation of Yemen.”
The U.S. has labeled al-Zindani “a specially designated global terrorist” for alleged links to al-Qaida. But he is a close ally of Saleh, and the government denies he is a member of the terror group.
One al-Qaida sympathizer, Ali Mohammed Omar, warns that “any movement against al-Qaida will lead to the fall of the Yemeni regime,” because it will be stretched between counterterrorism, its ongoing war against Shiite rebels in the north and secessionist turmoil in the south.
“When it fights al-Qaida, Yemen is seen as fighting on behalf of the Americans,” he told The Associated Press.
Omar is one of thousands of Yemenis who went to fight alongside other Islamic extremists against the Soviet military in Afghanistan in the 1990s. He puts the number at around 20,000 — not counting younger Yemenis who more recently fought against Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 42-year-old Omar, who said he is not a member of al-Qaida, warns of a bedrock of sympathy for the terror group among Yemenis that could turn to outright support, particularly if the United States becomes directly involved.
“An American intervention to fight al-Qaida will draw everyone to the side of al-Qaida,” he said. “The people are waiting. As soon as any American or British troops descend on Yemen, they will be torn to pieces.”
Omar, who said he met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden twice during his time in Afghanistan from 1990-1992, illustrates the San’a government’s complicated ties with extremists. He was jailed twice after his return to Yemen in 1992. But now Omar, based in the southern city of Aden, runs an organization against the south’s secession movement — apparently part of government attempts to break the movement, though he denies receiving direct support from San’a.
The government has used Islamic extremist fighters against secessionists in the past and is believed to be currently using them against Shiite rebels.
Yemeni officials have argued in the past that the policy of reconciling with al-Qaida fighters and extremists who are not members of the group is in part a necessity, given the realities in the country. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi, who is charge of security, said 600 veterans of the Afghan war of the 1980s and later conflicts there have gone through a rehabilitation program with clerics and officials and “are now good citizens.”
But others jailed by Yemen and later released have since returned to al-Qaida activities, such as Fahd al-Quso, who is wanted by the United States for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Yemen in 2005 but then released three years later.
Now he is on the run with other al-Qaida fighters in the eastern province of Shabwa, a known stronghold of the terror group, said the province’s governor, Ali Hassan al-Ahmar.
Until recently al-Quso was at his home in Aden and “wasn’t active,” al-Ahmar said in an interview Sunday with the Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. “He claimed that he was just staying at home, but it’s clear he was meeting with groups of al-Qaida elements, and perhaps with elements from outside Yemen. … It became clear that his location was a meeting place for al-Qaida.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Yemeni Leader Willing to Talk to Qaeda Fighters
Yemen’s government is “determined to stand up to the challenges” of Al Qaeda, but will be willing to talk to any Al Qaeda follower who “renounces violence and terrorism,” said the country’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in an interview broadcast late Saturday night.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Central Java: Islamic Radicalism on the Rise in Solo Mosques
The city is a hub of Islamic extremism. It was also the birthplace of radical Islamist leader Abu Bakar Bashir as well as the refuge of Malaysian terrorism Noordin Top. A radical version of Islam and self-imposed exclusivism favours spread of radicalism.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Extremism and religious fanaticism are blossoming in a number of mosques of Surakarta, a city popularly known as Solo, located in Central Java, this according to the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC), a research study centre associated with South Jakarta-based Islamic State University (UIN) Syarief Hidayatullah. Its findings further confirm that Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with a reputation of moderation, appears to be drifting towards radicalism.
Irfan Abubakar, researcher at the CSRC, said out of ten mosques the most radical are the Al Islam Mosque in the village of Gumuk (Banjarsari) and the Al-Kahfi Mosque in Mojosongo (Jebres).
Radical Islamist leader Abu Bakar Bashir was born and lived in Solo. Malaysian terrorist Noordin Moh Top, who masterminded the Jakarta and Bali bombings, found refuge in the village of Mojosongo where he died in shootout with police in September 2009.
“Both mosques, the Al Kahfi and Al Islam, are affiliated with two different radical hard-line Muslim organisations, the Islamic Youth Front (LPIS) and Hidayatullah,” Irfan Abubakar said.
Members of the two mosques tend to be socially exclusive in terms of clothing as well as behaviour. Neither accepts Muslims from other groups or mingle with them.
The other eight mosques are more open, and tend to follow the teachings of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s two largest moderate Muslim organisations.
Titled “Mapping Islamic ideologies in Solo’s mosques,” the CSRC research was carried out between September and December 2009. It focused on faith propagation at the congregation and mosque levels, government control, the concept of jihad or holy war, religious pluralism and the implementation of Sharia (Islamic Law).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar: Burmese Junta Sentences to Death Two Officials for Breach of State Secrecy
Charged with revealing “confidential information” relating to two diplomatic trips to North Korea and Russia. A third man will serve 20 years in prison. According to the indictment, the three have provided the media information on the network of tunnels built by the junta on the outskirts of the capital.
Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Burmese regime has sentenced to death two government officials for spreading state secrets. They are accused of revealing “confidential information” relating to two diplomatic trips to North Korea and Russia. A third man, a civilian, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a closed door trial that lasted two months. The three are also accused of leaking “military secrets” on the underground tunnels, which the junta has built around the capital, Naypyidaw, with the help of Pyongyang.
Yesterday, the Yangon court sentenced to death Win Naing Kyaw, a former army officer, personal assistant to former number two of the dictatorship, General Tin Oo. He was charged under the State Emergency Act III, for providing military secrets to foreign dissident media. The former officer has suffered a second sentence — 20 years in prison — for violating the Electronic Act and possession of foreign currency.
The second death sentence was imposed against Thura Kyaw, better known as Aung Aung, former top aide of the Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fifteen years in prison, finally, for Pyan Sein, who is also an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for violation of the Electronic Act
The three were arrested on charges of spreading photos and information regarding the trip of General Shwe Mann to North Korea and a senior representative of the regime to Russia. They have also provided information on the network of underground tunnels, which the junta has built around the capital with the help of technicians of the North Korean regime.
In recent days, finally, a Burmese court sentenced to 20 years in prison a TV journalist, working with foreign publications. Hla Hla Win, 25, was arrested in September last year, while taking some shots in a Buddhist monastery in Pakokku in the north of the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Copies Scientific Research as Well as Patents
Prestigious British journal The Lancet reports fraud by two teams of Chinese chemists, forced to retract 70 papers that had copied work by other scientists. Journal appeals to the Chinese government, saying that if China wants to become “a research superpower by 2020,” it “must assume stronger leadership in scientific integrity.”
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Chinese government must tighten measures against scientific fraud by its scientists. “For [President] Hu Jintao’s goal of China becoming a research superpower by 2020 to be credible, China must assume stronger leadership in scientific integrity,” leading British medical journal The Lancet warned after dozens of papers written by two teams of Chinese chemists were found to be fakes.
The papers were published in 2007 and the fraud came to light after a specialist journal called Acta Crystallographica Section E uncovered extensive fraud in Chinese-authored studies that purported to announce the invention of at least 70 structures in crystallography, i.e. the study of the arrangement of atoms in solids, when in fact bona-fide structures that had already been invented saw only one or two atoms changed to make the compound seem new. The fraud was spotted thanks to a computer programme that compares molecular structures.
Two groups, one led by Hua Zhong and the other by Tao Liu, are both based at Jinggangshan University, Jian, in Jiangsu. Zhong’s group has retracted 41 papers, and Liu’s group, 29, the journal said. However, the tally of 70 frauds “is likely” to rise further.
According to The Lancet, “China’s government needs to take this episode as a cue to reinvigorate standards for teaching research ethics and for the conduct of the research itself, as well as establishing robust and transparent procedures for handling allegations of scientific misconduct to prevent further instances of fraud.”
However, the whole system of peer review scientific publications has come in for criticism, especially now that many are open-access and available for free on the internet.
Peer review assessment of data by independent scientists of high standing is the traditional cornerstone of excellence in science publishing. But the string of scandals over the last six years has caused the system to be closely questioned.
The most notorious case is that of “pioneering” South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-Suk who hoodwinked the prestigious US journal Science in 2004 and 2005 with claims that he had created the world’s first stem-cell line from a cloned human embryo. The claims raised hopes of new treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s.
The journal eventually apologised and Hwang was expelled from Seoul University, but the lack of proper controls on research findings has created waves in the world of scientific publishing.
In the last few years, Chinese scientists have become prolific publishers. They accounted for 11.5 per cent of the 271,000 papers that graced science journals last year, according to monitoring organisations, but unlike the governments of the United Kingdom or the United States, the government of China does not check current research and discoveries by individual or groups of scientists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Opening to China
The growing power of the UN-based international community is one of the gravest emerging threats to Israel’s national security.
This threat stems from two sources. First, the UN-led system of global governance is working to redefine international law by on the one hand whitewashing war crimes by states associated with the majority, and on the other hand rendering it illegal for unpopular countries to take action to protect themselves against aggression. Second, and most important, Israel has become the scapegoat of the UN-led international community. The 57-member Islamic bloc has built an automatic majority for its unrelenting and ever-escalating assaults on Israel’s right to exist.
The new — and false — interpretation of international law gives every General Assembly resolution the weight of binding Security Council resolutions and international treaties. Among this new “legal” regime’s most dangerous features is its bid to overturn state sovereignty by subjecting leading citizens of weak states to politically-motivated criminal prosecutions under the rubric of universal jurisdiction.
With Israel’s right to exist — let alone to defend itself — being denied in an avalanche of General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions, the acceptance of universal jurisdiction is a short step away from turning every Jewish citizen of Israel into an international outlaw.
[…]
Lieberman should seek a diplomatic opening to China just as he has reached out to states in Africa, South America and the Balkans, as well as to Russia. With its Security Council veto,China would be a major asset to Israel in its bid to neutralize the UN-centered international community’s campaign to delegitimize its right to exist.
By supporting Israel, Beijing stands to lose nothing and gain a great deal. Just as China’s support for Iran has not harmed its trade ties — and its burgeoning military ties — with the likes of Saudi Arabia, so its support for Israel will likely have no impact on its ties in the Arab world. More important forChina, its support for Israel would enhance its ability to challenge the UN-besotted Obama White House in the great power game.
Ironically, to the extent that by supporting Israel China secures the rights of nation-states threatened by the rapidly expanding UN colossus, China will become a pivotal defender of embattled democracies on the world stage.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Korea: Pyongyang Takes Lessons in Capitalism
The North Korean government sends its engineers to China to study reforms and free market. A sign of the fragility of the economic system of the regime, which fears total collapse. The trip was paid for by Seoul, which does not want to find 22 million poor people on its back.
Seoul (AsiaNews) — A group of 48 leaders of the North Korean government was involved in a crash course on the dynamics of capitalism at the University of Dalian, China. The trip was paid by the government of the South, which fears a “Germany effect” in the event of reunification of the peninsula. The decision to grant the permit shows that the Pyongyang regime does not know what to do to stop the current economic crisis in the nation.
The Study Group comprised 23 members of the central government in the North — from the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Ministry — along with 15 businessmen and 8 lawyers and professors from Kim Il-sung University. The course was held in the utmost secrecy, between October and November 2009. Confirmation comes from the South Korean government, which yesterday also quantified the cost: 225 million won, for what was described as “a project of cooperation with North Korea”.
An unnamed government official in Seoul also explained the choice of the University: “We chose Dalian because the course would be approved only if held in China, the closest ally of Pyongyang. Our government has decided to remain in the background”. The low profile of South Korea is explained by the shared fear of the executive and population, of a possible reunification of the peninsula.
If this should happen, in fact, the economy of the Democratic part of the country would find itself suddenly with 22 million new citizens without any weight, or entrepreneurial knowledge. It would be a blow for a nation currently among the eight most developed countries in the world. To prevent this, the new Seoul government has decided to help the North in every way to develop its own economy.
The course was held in Dalian by academics and technicians who were the brains behind the quick reform of Chinese cities that have become top-level financial centres such as Shanghai. An executive of the Ministry of Finance explains: “For the North Koreans it was not important who their sponsor was. They applied themselves with great seriousness, determined to best prepare for the market economy. Their attitude clearly shows that the decision was made directly by Pyongyang”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Top Al-Shabaab Commander Executed in Somalia
Al-Qaeda’s proxy in Africa stationed in Somalia, Al-Shabaab, has suffered a big blow as one of its top-ranking commanders has been reportedly executed by another rebel group in the fight for control of the central regions of Somalia. Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca a pro-government militia, claimed that it had captured many Al-Shabaab rebels during fighting around Dusamareb, a central Somali town and has executed a top Al-Shabaab commander. Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf a spokesman for the group told reporters “We don’t normally kill al Shabaab members. We arrest them and make them understand that Islam means peace. We have detained and then released many of them,”
The Spokesman went on to say “This commander insisted that all people were infidels except his group, We will execute Al-Shabaab members who insist that it can be right to kill the innocent. What else are we supposed to do to those who believe they will go to paradise for killing us and the whole human race?” This was the first known execution by the Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca which is aligned with Somalia’s pro-west government.
Hizbul Islam, another terror group, together with Al-Shabaab, want to impose Sharia law in the country — a move that a huge percentage of the Somali people are against, as most of them view Sharia law as anti-Islamic, as it is a distorted version of the peaceful teachings of the Quran. The terror groups administration of Sharia law takes the form of executions, stoning and amputations. A brutal concept of a religion that is meant to be one of peace.
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Mexican Cartel Skins Rival’s Face & Sews it on Soccer Ball
The body of 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez was left on the streets of Los Mochis in seven pieces as a chilling threat to members of the Juarez drug cartel. A note read: “Happy New Year, because this will be your last.”
To drive home the point, the assailants skinned Hernandez’s face and stitched it onto a soccer ball.
The gruesome find, confirmed Friday by Sinaloa state prosecutors, represents a new level of brutality in Mexico’s drug war, in which torture and beheadings are almost daily occurrences.
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“To Them, We No Longer Exist…”
Writer Malika Sorel’s pro-France and pro-nationhood positions are unusually lucid and surprisingly candid. She stands far removed from many other Algerians in France who regularly manifest their hatred of their host country. Recently she wrote an assessment of a meeting of European ministers organized by the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity, Eric Besson (photo). Read more about Malika Sorel at the end:
Yesterday morning I attended a ministerial seminar organized by Eric Besson on the theme “The migrations in the lands of the Mediterranean: constructing a space of shared prosperity”. Insofar as many journalists covered the seminar, I feel safe in sharing with you a few high points.
The ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, and Egypt were among the guests.
One expert set the tone right away by declaring that since the European population was aging, three possibilities ensued. I quote them:
1. We delay the age of retirement. Not a very popular measure.
2. We put more women in the workplace. That would have a negative effect on the birth rate.
3. We organize international migrations.
And with these words, obviously intended to allow the ministers to begin their well-prepared speeches, the main theme of the morning was set: since the North was not producing children, and the South producing many (they actually said it), it was necessary to agree to organize migratory waves from the South to the North. Several ministers even declared that since immigration, in any case, was occurring illegally when it was not authorized, it would be preferable to legalize and organize it. They also said that 75% of the youth of Tunisia were considering leaving their country…
Here is a sampling of the words uttered by the ministers from northern countries…
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Australia: Asylum Seeker Situation ‘An Absolute Mess’
The Federal Opposition is calling on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to act immediately on illegal immigration, as another boat of asylum seekers are processed at Christmas Island.
A Customs boat intercepted a boat with 27 people and three crew members off the West Australia coast on Friday afternoon.
The Opposition’s immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says in the last six weeks, there has been an average of 100 people a week arriving in Australia illegally.
He says before the last election the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged to be tough on border security.
“Before the election Mr Rudd actually said that he would turn back seaworthy boats and he took every opportunity to echo Mr Howard on the issue of illegal boatload arrivals into Australia,” he said.
“Now in government we’ve had 75 boats arrive on his watch. We see failed policies, weak decisions and an absolute mess.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Border Fence Aimed at Flood of Illegal Immigrants
(IsraelNN.com) The Cabinet on Sunday approved the construction of three sections of fence at the Egyptian border aimed at preventing terrorist infiltration and a flood of illegal African immigrants. The cost of the 155-mile long barriers will be approximately $1.5 billion.
The fences will stretch from Eilat, at the southern tip of Eilat and on the west from near the border city of Rafiah. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers that Israel will continue to accept refugees from Darfur but will not allow the continued infiltration of thousands of illegal Sudanese.
Their presence at the Dead Sea hotel area and in the Negev city of Arad has forced many Israelis out of work and has added to the growing Bedouin population boom that threatens to create a non-Jewish majority in southern Israel.
The fence also would keep out terrorists as well as drug smugglers and human slave traders. Areas not closed with a physical fence will be patrolled with technological devices.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Task Force Set Up After Immigrant Riot
Govt vows to step up policing, improve conditions
(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — The Italian government on Friday set up a task force after two days of rioting by African immigrants following a shooting incident in the Calabrian town of Rosarno.
The interior ministry formed the task force with the welfare ministry and regional authorities in Calabria.
The task force, which has has been set up in the prefect’s office in Reggio Calabria, “will address not only policing but also the exploitation of immigrants and improving their living conditions,” the ministry said.
Hundreds of farm labourers wrecked cars and shop fronts and torched litter in Rosarno on Thursday night while 200 put up road blocks Friday morning before 2,000 marched through the town and demanding a meeting with a commissioner appointed when the council was dissolved for mafia infiltration last year.
The commissioner, Francesco Bagnato, promised to improve their rundown living conditions and prevent recurrences but said “just one more incident” might spark more disorder.
After the meeting, a small group of immigrants threw stones at a TV film crew as they walked back to their lodgings.
During the unrest, 14 immigrants were hurt and 18 police.
Seven immigrants were arrested as well as two Italians, a man who tried to run an immigrant over with a bulldozer and a youth who attacked a immigrant.
Another man was under investigation after firing a shot into the air when the protesters gathered under his house Friday.
Thursday’s shooting, in which several Africans were hit by air rifle fire, was not linked to the powerful local ‘Ndrangheta mafia but probably an “act of intolerance,” investigators say.
Local youths are believed to have been responsible.
The riot, in which immigrants shouted “we are not animals and waved placards saying “Italians here are racist,” led to a counter-protest by residents who mounted their own road-block and told reporters “we are no longer prepared to tolerate this situation”.
The local group also succeeded in meeting Bagnato who vowed to “do his utmost” to bring the situation under control.
Bagnato, appointed after the city council was dissolved last year because of mafia infiltration, said he had told the immigrants that police would protect them and “they must not confuse attacks by individuals with the attitude of the citizenry as a whole”. He said “just one more incident” might set off other riots and he was worried about the “immigrants’ violent reaction”.
Bagnato stressed that the town had recently improved living conditions by supplying chemical toilets and containers linked to the water mains.
“But the tension with the town population remains very high”.
Doctors without Borders spokesperson told ANSA the 2,500 immigrants at Rosarno were living in “unhealthy and degrading conditions”, Dr. Loris De Filipi said local volunteers with the organization described “highly unsanitary living conditions” in tent settlements and abandoned warehouses where the fruit and vegetable pickers hole up.
“We have made repeated attempts to bring the Calabria region’s attention to the serious humanitarian situation where these immigrants live,” he said.
De Filipi added that squalid living conditions were prevalent among immigrant settlements throughout the country and required immediate attention from the government.
Calabria Governor Agazio Loiero claimed the government had pledged funds for Rosarno but failed to deliver.
“I have reported this situation time and time again. The interior ministry agreed to send money but nothing happened”.
Trade unions called for a government probe into the way the workers were exploited.
POLICY TOO LENIENT TOO LONG, SAYS MARONI.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni argued that such incidents showed that Italy’s immigration policy had been too lenient for too long.
“In all these years illegal immigration has been tolerated without doing anything effective, an immigration that on the one hand has fed crime and on the other has led to situations of extreme squalor such as that at Rosarno”.
Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government, in which Maroni’s rightwing Northern League plays a key role, has moved strongly to stem immigration from north Africa.
Under a recent accord with Tripoli, criticised by human rights groups, immigrants are turned back in the open seas before they reach Italian waters.
Maroni said Friday the policy had been a success, stopping arrivals on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, and vowed to bring situations such as those Rosarno under control.
But the leader of the largest opposition party, Democratic Party (PD) chief Piero Bersani, accused Maroni of “passing the buck” on to illegal immigration and said Italy’s recent clampdown had exacerbated the problem by forcing immigrants underground.
“I say what is needed now is to calm the situation in Rosarno. There is mafia, exploitation, xenophobia and racism there. You have to go to the roots”.
“But I’m very sorry Maroni did not miss a chance to pin the blame on illegal immigration,” Bersani said.
The Rosarno riot was Italy’s worst case of racial unrest since hundreds of immigrants rioted near Naples in September 2008 after the Camorra mafia killed eight North Africans.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Foreign Student Cap Sparks Polemics
Education minister says 30% limit to take effect next fall
(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Polemics flared on Friday after Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini announced a long-rumored 30% cap on the number of foreign students per classroom would take effect next fall.
Unveiling the new guidelines for the 2010-211 school year, Gelmini said the limit was essential to the integration of foreign students and to avoid the creation of “ghetto” classes.
“We’re ready to welcome children of different cultures from all over the world,” she said.
“But they’ve got to learn about Italian language and culture and the best place for them to do that is in an Italian classroom environment”.
The education minister added that schools had discretionary power to adjust the limit depending on how well their immigrant students spoke Italian.
Foreign pupils raised in Italy wouldn’t necessarily be affected by the limit whereas children with limited exposure to Italian might prosper from an even larger proportion of native schoolmates, she explained. The idea was first raised in March in response to growing concern among parents over the growing number of predominately foreign classrooms.
Gelmini noted that classes composed entirely of children born abroad or to immigrant parents were becoming increasingly common to the detriment of Italian and foreign students alike.
But opposition Democratic party pointwoman on the parliamentary social affairs committee, Liva Turco, said the cap was a simplistic solution to a complex problem.
“It’s obviously a good idea to keep foreign pupils from being segregated into separate classes, but what’s really needed are special orientation programs to help immigrant children and their families,” she said.
Turco argued that a simple classroom cap was “insufficient” to foster integration, a difficult task she accused the government of dumping on unassisted teachers.
The announcement also met with a tepid response from an Italian Bishops’ Council spokesman on immigration who said the plan was “ambivalent”.
“It purports to help people by discriminating against them,” said Msgr. Bruno Schettino.
But the education minister insisted that a cap would prevent the segregation of the Italian school system into native and non-native classes and ensure the classroom’s role as a cultural melting pot for future generations.
According to the Italian Association of Italian Municipal Councils (ANCI), there are currently 690,000 foreign students from 190 different countries in Italian schools.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two More Migrants Bludgeoned in Rosarno
(AGI) — Rosarno (Reggio Calabria), 8 Jan — Following yesterday’s unrest in Rosarno, featuring a rampage by angered migrant community members at attacks on fellow Africans, sources report the hospitalisation of one unnamed foreign national at Polistena hospital. The man is said to have taken a severe clubbing. A fellow victim is said to have been attacked by a group of men on his way back to an abandoned farmhouse.
Police are currently establishing a security cordon between Rosarno locals — several of whom picketing in front of the town hall — and the immigrant community.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Books: Migrants Have Dreams of Sand, Like Their Lives
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 8 — For African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, there are mainly two launch pads in Northern Africa: Libya and Algeria. The former is for those who are headed to Italy and the latter is a stop for those headed to Spain, with the African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla at the top of the list. One of these starting points, Algeria, was the focus of the NGO, Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP), which created a book, ‘Dreams of sand. Migrants’ stories’ (Infinito Edizioni). The proceeds from the book are supporting the CISP’s development projects. Between the southern city of Tamanrasset, the central city of In Salah, known for its extremely crowded prison, and the coast of Oran, CISP collected the stories, (many of which were created by Algerian writer and journalist, Mustapha Beufodil) and shot photographs (by Kays Djilali) of the many migrants that cross the desert from sub-Saharan Africa to make an attempt to enter the stronghold of Europe. Here, before departing, they encounter the first from of racism. Kahlouch (black) are what African migrants are called disdainfully by Algerians. There is always a someone further south; an Algerian living in London, Zacaria, explained the problem in sociological terms: “The Algerians treat the blacks like the Europeans treat the Arabs.” A sort of ethnic tax that is imposed on the weakest people. The stories are always the same. Presenting them is journalist Gad Lerner, who worked diligently years ago to obtain Italian citizenship. “Illegal immigration introjects, it is an existential secret that plagues us,” and creates “a conditioned reflex: always considering yourself without rights.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Wants Tighter Norms for Citizenship
Portuguese authorities have claimed that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to test the authenticity of Indian documents.
They, therefore, are recommending tighter nationality laws for applicants from Goa, Daman and Diu, Portugal’s former colonies.
According to reports in the Portuguese media, citing security concerns, the authorities in the Schengen-member country said they were worried that Portugal was turning into a gateway for illegal immigration into the European Union. Goans entitled to Portuguese nationality have to first prove they were born in Goa before the December 19, 1961, Liberation when Goa, Daman and Diu were still part of “Portuguese India.”
A cumbersome process then requires an applicant to register his claim before Portugal’s Central Registry in Lisbon. Some genuine applicants have spent decades trying to cut through the Portuguese red tape with little success, while some others did manage to circumvent the system quite easily.
A judicial ombudsman reviewing thousands of appeals from Goan applicants in a paper chase at the Lisbon Registry has now recommended that the Justice Ministry tighten rules for Indian applicants because of the “serious problem” of verifying documents from India, the newspaper “Correio do Minho” said.
The Portuguese Consulate in Goa and the Central Registry have handled several cases of fraud and impersonation, but have no powers to act in them, it said. Over 80,000 Indians are said to be living in Portugal, a large number of them came there from the former African colonies as well. Recent Portuguese nationality seekers have been looking to pastures beyond Portugal, though.
A huge number of Portuguese passport-holders from Goa have made it to the United Kingdom in the recent past, with some 8,000 Goans now resident in the industrial town of Swindon alone where they are employed in the car and chicken factories. Church services are held in Konkani for the Goan community here . DH News Service.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Elected Officials Bail on U.S. Marriage Law
Citizens must defend Constitution because attorney general refuses
In a case with implications for the entire country, California’s Proposition 8 defining marriage as between one man and one woman goes on trial Monday with only private citizens speaking up for the voter-passed constitutional amendment — because state officials have refused to defend it.
Much is riding on the case of Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, for the lawsuit is petitioning a federal court to overturn not just a law, but a constitutional amendment passed by the people and affirmed by the state’s Supreme Court. A victory for same-sex marriage advocates in the case could set a precedent for federal courts to overturn every law and amendment in the country currently protecting the traditional definition of marriage.
And yet, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Attorney General Jerry Brown are named as defendants in the suit, both have refused to act in defense of the amendment, leaving it up to the people of California to take a stand for their constitution on their own.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Airline Safety is an Illusion
SILVER DONALD CAMERON
‘I WISH,” said my friend Perry, “that someone would tell the public the truth about airline security.”
“Which is?” I asked.
“That it’s largely theatre,” said Perry, who spent a large chunk of his working life doing airline and airport security. “That the objective is to make people feel that their safety is assured, even though it’s not. There’s no way to make air travel really safe — not at any tolerable cost in money and inconvenience.”
“So they’re lying to us?” I said, remembering the security procedures I experienced in four countries last month.
“Not exactly, but they don’t admit that you can’t ratchet up security beyond a certain point,” he answered. “We could insist that you get to the airport six hours early, and that everyone going aboard, and every bag, be subjected to an intensive search, including body cavities. We could do that again at every station stop, or at every change of planes. We could assign squads of air marshals to every flight. We could forbid people from leaving their seats during the flight, for fear that they might get up to mischief in the washrooms. Hell, we could remove the washrooms.
“Do you think that even the airlines are eager for that level of security? If we had it, would anyone fly if they could possibly avoid it?”
True. Already the security process has made flying unpalatable.
“You bet,” said Perry. “In that sense, the terrorists have already won. They’ve thrown sand in the gears of commerce. But the system is still quite porous, and everyone in the security business knows it. Every country challenges its security system by trying to get people through it with weapons and explosives and so forth, and every country fails. The Americans used to publish their failure rate, which was about 33 per cent. So they don’t publish those numbers any more.”
Does that mean that of every three fake terrorists who attempt to get through security, one succeeds?
“Yep,” said Perry. “People also believe that the security folks are probably catching all kinds of would-be terrorists, but they aren’t telling us about the interceptions. Not true. They hardly ever catch anyone.
“Take this latest guy, who mainly managed to cook his own crotch on the flight to Detroit. The Americans are going on about ‘our’ failure, the failure of ‘our’ security systems, the terrorism attempt in ‘our own’ airspace. It wasn’t in their airspace — it was almost all in Canada’s airspace. If the guy had succeeded, there would have been a rain of aircraft parts over Labrador, not Michigan.
“And the failure wasn’t the Americans’, either. The guy boarded the plane in Lagos, Nigeria. Then he flew to Amsterdam and changed planes — but he didn’t have to go through security again, which is normal when you change planes in any major airport. You don’t leave the secure area. You just go from one plane to the other.
“So the only security screen he ever faced was in Lagos. How tight is the security system in Lagos? If it’s not very good — and I suspect it isn’t — then what do you do about it? Does the United States want to start pre-screening every flight that might connect into the United States, from every airport in the world? Indonesia? Syria? Dogkhatistan?”
Perry, I said, what do you think the public really needs to understand?
“If you fly, you may die,” he said promptly. “It’s not likely — there hasn’t been a successful terrorist attack on an airliner since 9-11, and millions of people have flown perfectly safely. But it’s just like presidential security. If someone is really determined to kill the president and doesn’t mind dying in the process, there’s a definite chance that the president will be killed. If someone clever is really determined to bring down a plane, there’s a definite chance that the plane will go down.
“I suppose everything would be perfect if everyone flew naked, without cabin baggage.”
“Bare Air,” I said. “Perry, do you fly, yourself?”
“Hell, yes,” he said. “I fly all the time. It’s far, far safer than driving.”
Already the security process has made flying unpalatable.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
"KPRC news in Houston recently filmed a secret experiment by law enforcement agencies including the Dept. of Homeland Security of a drone intended to spy on Americans."
Tss, tss. That's old hat. We've been doing that in France for a while.
And I think it's a good thing, too : the drones were used to watch over riotous Muslim suburbs. Much better than helicopters (noisy, expensive) or ground patrols (how about being pelted with concrete blocks thrown from rooftops of high-rise buildings ?).
Leftists were hopping mad, as you can imagine.
Naturally, once such extreme, war-like surveillance measures are deployed, they can also be used against the loyal, law-abiding, indigenous population.
Harbouring millions of traitors in your midst does entail some unfortunate consequences. We're discovering that everyday at our expense.
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