The big news of the day concerns the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. There has been horrific destruction and tremendous loss of life, with estimates of up to half a million dead.Take a quick scan through the headlines and notice the number of airline bomb scares, airline bomb plots, and attempted laser attacks on airplanes. It seems to be a jihad version of Cloward-Piven strategy.
In other news, Congress has subpoenaed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s records about his dealings with AIG and the big banks from back in the days when he was president of the New York Fed.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Esther, Fjordman, Henrik, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, Sean O’Brian, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Automotive: Turkey’s Exports Down 35 Percent
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — Turkey’s automotive exports were down 35% in 2009 over 2008, a report indicated on Wednesday. The Automotive Industry Association (OSD) released a foreign trade report regarding the automotive industry in December 2009, based on the figures of Uludag Exporters’ Association (UIB) and Central Anatolian Exporters’ Association (OAIB). The report said that Turkey’s automotive exports were down 35%, and the decrease in automobile exports was 19% in 2009 over 2008. However, automotive exports were up 10% in December over November 2009, and Turkey earned USD 1.4 billion from its exports. Turkey exported automobiles worth USD 14.5 billion in 2009, according to the report. Also, Turkey’s automotive spare part exports were down 30% to USD 4.9 billion. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: 2008 Debt Figures Unreliable
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 12 — Eurostat is unable to confirm Greeces deficit and debt figures for 2008 and “probably even for previous years due to the unreliability of the statistical data provided by Athens in the past. That is the conclusion of a EU Commission report published today in the Greek press. The report points out that doubts on the actual reliability of the statistics provided by Greece will continue to be raised until “systemic deficiencies and weakness” in the collection of macroeconomic data are addressed. “They dont believe them!” leads Socialist newspaper To Vima, while both conservative Kathimerini and pro-government Ta Nea report that “Greek statistics do not satisfy Eurostat. The countrys new Socialist government , which was sworn in last October, revised up the 2009 deficit to 12.7% of GDP from 3.7%. The Commissions report was disclosed following a recent mission of EU inspectors to Greece to define the ‘stabilisation plan that Athens will have to submit to Brussels at the end of this month. Later today, EU President Herman Van Rompuy will travel to Greece, and a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was announced to study possible technical assistance. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
House Subpoenas Geithner’s AIG E-Mails, Phone Logs
WASHINGTON — A House committee probing bailout deals has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for correspondence from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other officials.
The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee is examining New York Fed decisions that funneled billions of dollars to big banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
Geithner was president of the New York Fed at the time. He approved decisions involving the money from the bailout of failed insurer American International Group Inc., according to an earlier watchdog audit.
In a statement Wednesday, committee chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., said he had subpoenaed the New York Fed for documents about the decision to pay off AIG’s business partners and keep their names secret.
The subpoena demands e-mails, phone logs and meeting notes from Geithner; Stephen Friedman, who succeeded him as New York Fed president; New York Fed general counsel Thomas Baxter; and Sarah Dahlgren, the New York Fed’s top manager on AIG.
The November audit said the bank payoffs might have cost taxpayers billions more than necessary because Geithner did not demand concessions from AIG’s business partners.
Towns has called for Geithner and Baxter to testify at a hearing later this month. It remains unclear whether they will appear.
Towns criticized the deals’ secrecy, saying in a statement that they protected Wall Street at taxpayer expense.
“When average people were losing their homes and their jobs, the Bush administration decided to use taxpayer dollars to give a backdoor bailout to the biggest players on Wall Street,” Towns said.
“We need to understand why and how taxpayer dollars were used to bailout the same people who helped cause the financial crisis in the first place.”
The subpoena also demands correspondence about the Fed’s decision not to name the banks that benefited from the deals. Federal Reserve officials refused to name the banks that benefited from AIG’s money. They said releasing the names would undermine market confidence and make it harder to recoup the money committed to AIG, which eventually totaled $182 billion.
When the Fed reversed course and released the details, the financial markets took it in stride, the November audit pointed out.
California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the committee, asked Towns to subpoena the New York Fed after the Fed blocked a separate request for documents.
Administration officials have defended Geithner in the AIG matter by saying he wasn’t involved in the e-mails released last week. But the subpoena makes clear that the committee probe involves separate decisions Geithner made.
A Treasury spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. A New York Fed spokesman said in a statement that the bank “will work with the committee to provide relevant information as appropriate.”
Issa’s office had asked the bailout watchdog, Neil Barofsky, for documents he used to prepare the report on AIG’s payments to other banks. Barofsky has said the Fed “has directed us not to provide you with the documents that it has provided to us.”
That prompted Issa’s call for the subpoena.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Trade: Turkey Eager to Enter Japanese Market
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 8 — After 10 years of absence, Turkey may re-enter the Japanese market, as daily Hurriyet reports today. Turkeys talks with Japan Bank for International Cooperation, or JBIC, executives have been progressing positively, and the Japanese have welcomed Turkey’s initiatives to re-enter their market. Turkish bonds were previously traded in the Japanese market in the early 2000s. The Turkish Treasury had issued bonds worth 140 billion Japanese Yen ($1.5 billion) within the scope of its borrowing program in the year 2000. The Japanese market then closed to Turkey and developing countries due to the growing risks in those markets. The decision was made particularly after Argentina wanted restructuring of its debts as it could not repay them. Japan launched a new program to re-open its market with the recent global crisis, and this time started to examine whether the applicant countries had an appropriate economic and financial structure. Japan, which closed its market to all developing countries after the crisis in Argentina, is seeking “A” ratings to issue bonds. Executives say Turkey can issue long-term bonds, and JBIC can be more positive about Turkey, thanks to the rise of Turkey’s rating by two levels despite the economic crisis. Turkey forecasts $9 billion of external debt in 2010. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Amish Families Exempt From Insurance Mandate
WASHINGTON — Federal health care reform will require most Northern New Yorkers — but not all, it turns out — to carry health insurance or risk a fine.
Hundreds of Amish families in the region are likely to be free from that requirement.
The Amish, as well as some other religious sects, are covered by a “religious conscience” exemption, which allows people with religious objections to insurance to opt out of the mandate. It is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, making its appearance in the final version routine unless there are last-minute objections.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An Independent Study of Jihad & Shariah
Following a commentary by Frank Gaffney on YouTube, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) sent a letter to President Obama suggesting an independent group to review the threat of Jihad and Shariah to America’s national security.
In this video— captured throughout the day Tuesday— Fox News’ James Rosen discusses the concept and provides some historical perspective.
‘Team B’ was a project of the CIA in the mid-70s that analyzed the threat of the Soviet Union, specifically their strategic objectives. Upon Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 many of Team B’s recommendations were implemented.
It’s high time we do the same with our current enemy’s doctrines.
This would be a great start.
Watch the video…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Birthers, Is Secret Service Watching You?
Agents pay visits to those who question Obama’s eligibility
In blogs, interviews and e-mails, “birthers” around the country are reporting surveillance and visits from the U.S. Secret Service, whose agents have questioned — or, as some report, intimidated — them over their insistence that Barack Obama prove his constitutional eligibility to serve as president.
As WND reported, Stephen Pidgeon, an attorney for Washington state plaintiffs challenging Obama’s eligibility, grew suspicious in March when his wife and coworkers reported being shadowed by police and three, black SUVs.
“We are definitely under surveillance and it’s coordinated with Homeland Security,” Pidgeon alleged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Cover-Up of Food Shortage Feared
Reports show demand growing, production declines estimated at 30%
While trend experts, economists and investment gurus have been predicting food shortages for some time, new evidence indicates the U.S. Department of Agriculture may be covering up the greatest food shortage in modern history.
Beginning in 2009, global agricultural markets faced a supply and demand imbalance, caused by a substantial drop in output resulting from the financial crisis and extreme weather around the world.
At the same time, growing economies in Asia have begun consuming record amounts of raw goods, particularly food staples as consumers move to higher protein, higher calorie diets. When supplies are reduced and demand is constant or growing, prices normally rise. Industry observers and economists remained mystified by the low agricultural prices in spite of this trend.
One analyst, Eric deCarbonnel from MarketSkeptics.com believes the answer is found in data he believes the U.S. Department of Agriculture has manipulated to keep food prices low.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Miranda for Jihadists?
Here’s another reason why al Qaeda terrorists don’t belong in US civilian courts: the right to a speedy trial.
The lawyer for embassy bomber Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to receive a civilian trial, this week claimed that his client’s years in detention violated his right to a timely adjudication of the case.
He’s demanding Ghailani’s release.
Insane? You betcha.
But it’s the predictable consequence of Team Obama’s efforts to shoehorn Islamist cutthroats into a justice system that was never designed for them.
Consider: POWs — uniformed soldiers of a belligerent state — can be legally held for the duration of the conflict.
Terrorists like Ghailani and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad are due far fewer rights.
And, lest there be any mistake, al Qaeda has yet to sue for peace.
Judge Lewis Kaplan may still dismiss Ghailani’s motion — as he ought. (If he doesn’t, expect KSM & Co. to employ the exact same argument when their trials start.)
But whatever happens, the fact that arguments for the release of an al Qaeda terrorist are given serious attention in a US courtroom is repugnant on its face.
Didn’t President Obama just say that “we are at war” with these folks?
Besides, the speedy-trial argument is just the start: American criminal law is riddled with procedural protections completely incongruous to wartime realities.
Was Ghailani not told that he had the right to remain silent? Well?
How much you want to bet that some where in the fine print, some terrorist lawyer finds his get-out-of-jail-free card?
The nightmare is just beginning.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Group CAIR Sued (Yet Again) By Former Clients for Fraud and Breach of Fiduciary Duties
January 13, 2010 — Washington, DC: Five former clients of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have filed two separate lawsuits in federal court alleging criminal fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against CAIR, a self-described Muslim public interest civil rights law firm. These two lawsuits follow an earlier lawsuit which had also alleged that CAIR’s fraudulent conduct amounted to racketeering, a federal RICO crime. In that case, the court dismissed the RICO counts concluding that CAIR’s conduct as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO. The plaintiffs in that case have appealed and are awaiting the Circuit Court’s briefing schedule.
The two new federal civil complaints were filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia on January 6, 2010, and served on January 13, 2010.
Both lawsuits arise out of the same facts. The lawsuits allege that Morris Days, the “Resident Attorney” and “Manager for Civil Rights” at the now defunct CAIR MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for legal representation. CAIR knew of this fraud and purposefully conspired with Days to keep the CAIR clients from discovering that their legal matters were being mishandled or not handled at all.
While attorney David Yerushalmi represents the five plaintiffs in these two lawsuits, three of whom are Muslim Americans, the complaints allege that according to CAIR internal documents, there were hundreds of victims of the CAIR fraud scheme.
According to the complaints, CAIR knew or should have known that Days was not a lawyer when it hired him. But, like many criminal organizations, things got worse when CAIR officials were confronted with clear evidence of Days’ fraudulent conduct. Rather than come clean and attempt to rectify past wrongs, CAIR conspired with Days to conceal and further the fraud.
To this end, CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media. When CAIR did get irate calls from clients about Days’ failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived their clients about Days’ relationship to CAIR, suggesting he was never actually employed by CAIR, and even concealed the fact that CAIR had fired him once some of the victims began threatening to sue.
“The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.,” Mr. Yerushalmi said referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Extends Power Over Governors
As Kurt Nimmo wrote in his article Obama Expands Federal Power Over the States with Executive Order, “The order, signed on January 11 2010, further diminishes the sovereignty of the states and builds on a framework for possible martial law. The executive order was completely ignored by the corporate media.”
Ten Governors are required to meet whenever called. What if they refuse? As the executive orders mandates, The Council shall meet at the call of the Secretary of Defense or the Co-Chairs
This authorizes the federal government, whenever they wish, to round up ten Governors. What if they refuse? Will they be arrested or taken by force?
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Terror Threat to City Water
The main disinfectant in the drinking water of nearly 1 million D.C. and Northern Virginia residents is being switched by the Army Corps of Engineers to thwart the threat of terrorists releasing deadly chlorine gas.
The switch will be from chlorine gas to a liquid form of chlorine called sodium hypochlorite. Both are equally effective, according to the Washington Aqueduct, an arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But the liquid, “is considered much safer to transport, store and use than gaseous chlorine,” said an official.
Chlorine and water disinfection “may be the best thing to happen to the world” in the last 100 years, Thomas Jacobus, Washington Aqueduct general manager, told The Examiner. But the gaseous chlorine that currently is being used is potentially deadly if released; it was used in World War I as a choking agent.
“If you’ve got individuals or movements who want to try to use your own products against you, if someone were to intercept a rail car, reroute it and release its contents, it could be devastating,” Jacobus said.
The aqueduct provides roughly 180 million gallons of drinking water a day to about 1 million residents in the District, Arlington and Falls Church.
The switch is “absolutely a good sign” for homeland security in the nation’s capital, said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee.
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Wow! Scott Brown Cuts Coakley’s Lead to 2 in Latest Rasmussen Poll; Union Workers Paid By Coakley Are Voting Brown
From the report:
Scott Brown is a class act. He marched up the road with a banner and a group of supporters, stopping to shake everyone’s hand along the way. There were chants of “Go Scott, go!” the entire time. Coakley, per elitist fashion, whisked up in a stealthy and anonymous car.
One of the union workers actually turned around and said “I’m paid to be here, but I’m voting for Scott Brown. I just need the money, but don’t tell anyone.”
More… Obama’s SEIU friends just dumped $685,000 into the Coakley campaign.
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Amsterdam Flight Diverted After Bomb Threat
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — An ArkeFly flight from Amsterdam to Aruba in the Caribbean was diverted to Ireland on Wednesday after a passenger made a bomb threat during the flight.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Cinema: Controversy Over Law on Catalan Language Films
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 12 — Today the Catalonian Generalitat government gave the green light to a controversial law for the film industry, which aims to impose Catalan language films on the market. The test calls for films, whether they be subtitled or dubbed, to have at least 50% of the copies distributed in the Catalan language. The only exception will be for Spanish language films or films that have less than 15 copies distributed. The law, which has been met with stiff opposition from the large distribution companies, will now go through the parliamentary process, where various groups can amend or modify or modify the law before it is approved. Afterwards, the sector will have one year to adapt to the new regulations. One of the main points of controversy is the introduction of fines of up to 75,000 euros, which depend on the seriousness of the infraction. If the percentage of copies that are not in the Catalan language is less than 5%, sanctions of 1,000 euros per copy will be imposed; if over 15% of the copies are not in Catalan, fines will increase to 5,000 euros per copy. For example, if a highly successful film at the box office such as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, which distributed 100,000 copies in Spain, had only 40 copies that were subtitled or dubbed in Catalan, with the new law, the distributor would have to pay 200,000 euros. The purpose of the new regulations is to make it easier for distributors, who attempt to sidestep the law, to observe regulations. Aside from the opposition of the distribution companies, the new regulation has also met opposition from the Catalonian Association of Film Entrepreneurs and the Federation of Film Distributors, which say that Catalan language does not attract a sufficient amount of people to make subtitling or dubbing in Catalan economically feasible. The two film associations presented a counterproposal to create a Catalan language film network; 53 theatres in the region dedicated to screening films in Catalan, making the current figure of 3% increase to 8%, which is still a far cry from the 50% imposed by the Generalitat. According to the president of Association of Film Entrepreneurs, Camilo Tarrazon, the new law will result in fewer products, less spectators, and the closing of more theatres. The Catalonian Partido Popular and the Ciutadans Party are also opposed to the new law. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus Media Tycoon Slain
The gangland-style execution on Monday night of prominent Cypriot publisher Andy Hadjicostis appears to bear the hallmarks of the island’s mafia, according to police who noted that the 41-year-old media figure had received warnings of a possible attack against him.
According to police, Hadjicostis, the owner of the Dias publishing group and Sigma television channel, was shot twice at point-blank range while getting out of his car near his home in an upmarket part of central Nicosia. The assassin used a double-barreled sawn-off shotgun in the attack before fleeing on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice, police said.
There was speculation in the Cypriot media that the murder might have been politically motivated as Hadjicostis’s media group had criticized a United Nations blueprint for the reunification of the divided island, rejected by the Greek Cypriots in 2004. But police sources said they believed a likelier scenario was a financial dispute with a convict serving time in a Cypriot jail.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Defence Cuts ‘Will Shrink UK Armed Forces’
The British armed forces could be forced to shrink by up to a fifth because of a lack of money, a military think tank has predicted.
The Royal United Services Institute said the number of trained military personnel could fall from 175,000 to little more than 140,000 by 2016.
Its report said the cost of troops and equipment was rising, and major cuts were “inevitable”.
The Ministry of Defence said budgets would not be cut at all next year.
Defence review
The report’s author, defence expert Professor Malcolm Chalmers, warned hard choices lay ahead and efficiency savings would not be enough to put Britain’s defences on a sustainable footing.
He said even being “cautiously optimistic”, intense pressure on government finances meant the MoD’s budget was likely to fall by 11% in real terms by 2017.
And he said a much deeper reduction of about 15% over the next three years could not be ruled out.
Professor Chalmers warned the problem would be made worse because the costs of employing troops and civilian personnel have been rising in real terms, as has buying and running equipment.
Cuts to the available budget combined with growing costs meant the next six years were likely to see a reduction of about 20% in the number of service personnel, the report said.
Military capabilities in terms of ships, aircraft and ground formations would also be reduced by a similar amount.
Professor Chalmers indicated that major cuts would be inevitable whichever party was in power later this year.
He said there would be a strong temptation for a new government to postpone making tough, potentially unpopular choices, perhaps by only looking a few years ahead, rather than a whole decade, when reviewing defence.
He warned ministers would face the choice between suffering the “political pain” of defence cuts all at once, or in “successive small doses”.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Disillusioned by Bulgaria and Romania, Brussels Raises the Bar to Entry
If you raise the subject of the European Union’s Balkan expansion plans with officials in Brussels, it does not take long before talk turns to corruption and organised crime. These scourges are an important cause of apprehension in members of the 27-nation bloc, especially richer western ones, on accelerating the pace of enlargement.
The root of the matter lies in the EU’s decision to admit Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, in spite of well founded suspicions that both governments were too weak or reluctant to tackle problems stemming from decades of poverty and arbitrary state authority under communism. The experience has been so disillusioning that the EU has raised the bar for future Balkan entrants. “The lesson . . . is that the process has to be rigorous if it is to be successful overall,” says Rosa Balfour of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre.
In July 2008 the European Commission, having lost patience with Bulgaria, took the unprecedented step of suspending hundreds of millions of euros in aid and banning two state agencies from receiving EU funds. Matters improved somewhat after prime minister Boyko Borissov took office in July on a platform of cracking down on corruption. But the murder last week of a radio presenter who wrote about his country’s powerful crime groups — and who himself boasted of connections to gangsters — was a reminder that the problem refuses to go away. There have been more than 150 gangland killings in Bulgaria since 2001 but no convictions.
As for Romania, EU officials praise new criminal and civil codes but say the judiciary should be allowed to pursue its anti- corruption work more independently.
Brussels detects some progress in Balkan countries hoping to jointhis decade but is taking a cautious line nonetheless. In its latest report on Serbia, which applied last month, the Commission said in October: “The law enforcement authorities have shown higher commitment to fighting corruption, leading to the arrests of a number of suspects.”
However, the Commission added: “Final convictions in corruption cases are rare. Sustained efforts are needed in the fight against organised crime and to ensure the independence, accountability and efficiency of the judicial system.”
For some Balkan citizens, the lofty tone smacks of hypocrisy, given that corruption is hardly unknown in some of the EU’s biggest and oldest countries.
It is a fair point but no excuse for foot-dragging, says Jana Mittermaier, head of the Brussels office of Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog. “Joining the EU is not a magic bullet against corruption. We recommend anti-corruption progress reports for all future and even current EU member states.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch National Arrested Aboard Aruba-Bound Plane in Ireland
AMSTERDAM (BNO NEWS) — An ArkeFly passenger plane carrying 224 passengers made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland on Wednesday morning, authorities said.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
East European Criminals and Politicians Taking ‘Libel Tourism’ Trips to UK
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Organised criminals, businessmen and politicians, particularly from eastern Europe, are flocking to the UK courts to file libel cases to punish and scare off journalists who ask too many awkward questions, threatening the very existence of publications in the east that engage in investigative journalism.
English and Welsh courts, where the burden of proof is borne by the accused rather than the complainant, have become the jurisdiction of choice for oligarchs and mafiosi. Saudi billionaires and even totalitarian governments regularly take advantage of UK laws that say that a journalist is guilty until proven innocent, according to a report by an editor with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina (CIN), Drew Sullivan.
The report, published last week by the US-based Center for International Media Assistance, says that while the problem of “libel tourism” is an old one, in recent years as daily newspapers, which to a greater or lesser extent had the funds to stand up for their reporters in court, have abandoned investigative reporting, the baton has been taken up by smaller, non-profit web-publishing outfits that are in a much more precarious situation.
“By publishing online, a media organisation faces the risk of libel and defamation suits in just about every jurisdiction in the world,” the report says.
“[The UK’s] plaintiff-friendly laws, high defamation awards, strong willingness of British courts to accept jurisdiction, and exorbitant cost of legal fees make the United Kingdom perfect for oligarchs, organised crime figures, and wealthy businessmen.”
Ireland and France too are increasingly popular stopovers on the libel tourism trail, although Paris is attractive not because of the size of the awards (which are capped at â‚12,000), but because libel is still considered a criminal case. A journalist branded a criminal sometimes serves a complainant’s interests much more than bankrupting him or her.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Turkey: Enlargement Commissioner, Yes to Membership
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANUARY 12 — In the opinion of Commissioner Designate for Enlargement, the Czech Republics Stefan Fule, the future of Turkey lies in the European Union and not in partnership, as requested by several countries who oppose Ankaras membership, including France, Germany and Austria. In a speech today in the European Parliament, which will vote on the new Commission, Fule explained that he was in favour of membership, but not forgetting the issue of Cyprus. The EU will continue to support Ankara and its negotiations, but the substantial progress made remains tied to the normalisation of relations with Cyprus. Turkey has still not applied the so-called Ankara protocol to Cyprus, that is, it only allows ships and flights from North Cyprus to enter the country. Turkey is the only country to recognise the Republic of North Cyprus. Until the Turks resolve the Cyprus issue I will fight to convince them that it is the only solution, said Fule, explaining that he sees Turkey in Europe in the future. 47-year-old Fule is the former Czech Minister for European Affairs. His Communist past and his studies at the Soviet Institute for International Relations in Moscow have been the cause of controversy. Everyone has a personal history, and mine is linked to the era I grew up in, says the Commissioner. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Plane Makes Emergency Landing at Shannon Airport
A transatlantic flight carrying 224 passengers has been forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland after a security alert.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Plane Grounded After Emergency Landing
An aircraft which was forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport because of an unruly passenger has now been grounded at Shannon after garda decided to carry out a search of the plane.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Man Arrested After Plane Emergency Landing
The flight was about two hours into its journey and around 210 nautical miles north west of Shannon when the request to land was received.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Arrest Follows Shannon Emergency Landing
The police said that a 44-year-old Dutch national has been arrested under the Air Navigation and Transport Act and is currently detained under Section 4 of Criminal Justice Act at Shannon Garda Station.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Long-Lived and Multiethnic
But too few women at work, statistics office says
(ANSA) — Rome, January 12 — A snapshot of Italy in statistics released Tuesday depicted a healthy though ageing nation where immigrants represent an ever greater part of the economy but where women still struggle to make headway in the workforce.
The study by national statistics bureau Istat showed life expectancy in Italy among the highest in the European Union, while birth rates remained among the lowest.
Italian women live to be an average of 84 years old putting them in third place behind women in Spain (84.3) and France (84.4).
The average Italian man can expect to reach 78.6 years, second only to men in Sweden who live to 79.
However, birth rates in Italy hover near the bottom of EU averages at 9.6 per thousand, just slightly above bottom-ranking Germany. As a result, seniors over 65 outnumber kids under 15 by 1.4 to one, making Italy the second ‘oldest’ country in the EU, again after Germany.
The Italian population nonetheless continued growing at the rate of 0.7% thanks largely to a surge of nearly half a million immigrants last year.
Istat estimated a total of 4.8 million immigrants in 2009, some 6.3% of the Italian population (60.2 million) and nearly twice as many as in 2001. Immigrants also shored up the size of the Italian electorate with over 44,000 gaining citizenship in 2008, most of them after marrying an Italian.
IMMIGRANTS A GROWING PART OF ITALIAN ECONOMY.
Two out of three immigrants are legally employed, some 67% against 58.7% of native-born Italians.
Foreign citizens make up an estimated 8% of Italy’s labour force, Istat said. The unemployment rate, described as the percentage of people actively looking for work, was also higher among immigrants. Some 8.5% were estimated to be job hunting against 6.7% of Italians. Istat explained the findings were typical of countries with a relatively short history of large-scale immigration and thus comparable to figures in Portugal and Spain. In other countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands the trend has since inverted with the immigrant employment rate dropping below that of native-born residents. The report confirms estimates released earlier by Catholic charity Caritas estimating that immigrants produce upwards of 10% of Italy’s gross domestic product and contribute over 10.2 billion euros in income tax revenue. Despite the ever greater presence of foreigners in the workforce, women are still largely underrepresented.
Fewer than half of Italian women work compared to 70% of men, the study said, confounding targets laid out in 2000 aiming for 60% by the end of the decade.
According to international credit rating agency Fitch, low levels of employment among women are among key factors hampering productivity.
Another is the enduring spectre of illegal labor, a phenomenon reaching epidemic proportions in the nation’s economically flagging south.
Istat estimated that one in five jobs in southern Italy are off the books compared to a national average of 12%.
In Calabria, over 27% of workers were estimated to be earning under the table.
Undocumented labor is more than twice as common in the regions south of Rome than those north of the Po River, the study added.
The central regions in between averaged just over 10%. The report said the illegal work was most concentrated in the agricultural sector and that more than 25% of farm laborers worked illegally.
“These figures fail to overturn the stereotype of virtuous employers in the north and unscrupulous ones in the south,” Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Probed in WWII Greek Island Atrocity
Ex-Wermacht soldiers linked to Kefalonia Massacre
(ANSA) — Rome, January 11 — Two new suspects have emerged in a probe into the WWII execution of Italian soldiers by German forces on the Greek island of Kefalonia, Italian military judicial sources told ANSA Monday.
The sources named the two as former Wermacht soldiers Gregor Steffens and Peter Werner, both 86, suspected of involvement in the biggest slaying of Italian troops by German soldiers during the Second World War.
The Kefalonia (Cephallonia) Massacre is thought to have been the second-largest slaughter of prisoners of war during World War II.
The incident formed part of the backdrop to Louis de Bernieres’ 1993 bestselling book Captain Corelli’s Violin, turned into a Hollywood film in 2001.
Rome military prosecutor Antonino Intelisano confirmed to ANSA that two men were under investigation but declined to give further information.
The sources, however, said that Steffens and Werner had already been questioned at their homes in Germany and had reasserted their innocence.
They had already been the subject of an Italian probe in the late 1950s, which was unable to fully identify them, and a Dortmund investigation in the mid-’60s which was eventually shelved, the sources said.
According to the sources, investigators came across the names while putting together their case against ex-lieutenant Ottmar Muhlhauser, whose trial collapsed after he died at his Munich home in July.
The sources said they had uncovered a report by military chaplain Father Luigi Ghilardini, drafted soon after the massacre, which said “the soldiers Steffens Gregor and Werner Peter, who had previously been prisoners of ours…boasted that they shot 170 unarmed soldiers who had surrendered” on a road on the island.
The identification of the suspects reopens the Kefalonia case, which had remained unpunished after the death of Muhlhauser apart from a commander who served three years after Nuremberg.
Mulhauser, who would have turned 89 in September, was accused of having headed a team tasked with executing officers from Italy’s Acqui Division on Kefalonia when Italy switched sides in the war in 1943.
At the time of his indictment, Muhlhauser was the only surviving officer from the German division.
His commanding officer, General Hubert Lanz, was sentenced to 12 years at Nuremberg, mainly for the Kefalonia Massacre, and served three years.
Of the 11,500 Italian soldiers stationed on the island, thousands were killed during fighting, shot or drowned.
The precise number of fatalities is unclear but at least 2,300 are known to have died over the course of two weeks.
Some historians have put the figure as high as 9,400.
EVENTS FUELLED BY ARMISTICE.
The events were fuelled by the Italian Armistice on September 8, 1943, which left Italian soldiers who had been fighting alongside and under Germans in an extremely difficult position.
The commander of the Italian division on Kefalonia initially received contrasting orders and then reportedly dithered about whether to surrender, resist or join the German troops nearby.
He eventually decided to resist, and hundreds of his men died in the ensuing battle, which started on September 15.
But the massacre itself only started once the Italians were defeated and surrendered, on September 21.
Accounts from the few survivors and the diary of an Austrian soldier involved in the massacre suggest thousands of soldiers were either gunned down while trying to surrender or summarily executed after being taken prisoner.
Although long-standing international laws of war strictly prohibit the execution of enemy prisoners of war, the Germans had apparently received orders to execute the men as traitors.
Muhlhauser also believed this, according to interviews conducted in 1967 when German authorities started investigating the incident.
During the interviews, which are now part of the Italian record, Muhlhauser defended his actions, calling the Italian “traitors”. The German prosecution resulted in the acquittal of Muhlhauser and his co-defendants on the basis he had not committed the charge of “aggravated murder”.
Interviewed again in 2004, Muhlhauser said the Germans had also received a direct order “from the Fuhrer”.
Earlier last year, Italy’s top military prosecutor expressed anger at the fact former Nazis sentenced to life by Italian courts for their part in other atrocities are not serving time.
He specifically pointed to sentences against 15 ex-Nazis who continue to live in Germany and Austria, despite their convictions in Italy and the issue of European arrest warrants by Italian prosecutors.
Only three former Nazis have ever been jailed in Italy for war crimes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Mosque Blocks Mobile Phone Traffic During Prayer
TILBURG, 13/01/10 — A mosque in Tilburg has been found to have halted all mobile telephone traffic in the area in order to be able to pray in peace. A judge has fined the mosque 650 euros for interfering with the phone traffic, local newspaper BN/De Stem reported yesterday.
The Islamic Foundation for Training and Transfer of Imam Salam used a GSM jammer, as it is called, which sends out strong radio signals which make phoning in the immediate vicinity impossible. Such equipment is banned. The telecom providers own the frequency on which it is sent out.
People in the vicinity had complained that they could not phone any more. Additionally, the telephone lines of all emergency services were blocked. The judge ruled that the mosque would be better to put up a notice requesting the neighbourhood for quiet during prayers.
The mosque is known as extremist. Scientists at the University of Tilburg concluded last year that although Salam does not pose an immediate danger to security in relation to the Netherlands’ democracy or constitutional state, his fundamentalist beliefs clash with Dutch standards and values.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Plane Diverted to Ireland After Dutch Man Cries Bomb — Reports
AN Aruba-bound flight was forced to re-route to Ireland on Wednesday after an unruly passenger claimed there was a bomb on board, Ulster TV reported.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Seeks to Arrest Swede in Auschwitz Theft
WARSAW, Poland — Polish prosecutors say they have identified the Swedish mastermind of the theft from Auschwitz of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign and will seek his arrest and extradition to Poland.
Prosecutor Artur Wrona said Wednesday that Swedish prosecutors have confirmed the identity of the suspect as Anders H.
Polish prosecutors withheld the suspect’s last name, as required by Polish law.
Wrona said the man must be brought to Poland before charges can be filed and said prosecutors will issue a European arrest warrant.
Five Poles are under arrest after confessing to taking part in the theft Dec. 18 of the sign, which says “Work Sets You Free” in German. The symbol of Nazi World War II atrocities was found Dec. 20 cut into three pieces.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: ‘Laser Louts’ Target Aircraft Landing at Glasgow Airport
Glasgow has emerged as a hotspot for the dangerous trend of shining laser beams in the eyes of pilots as they take off and land.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia the Most Lay, Only 18.7% Go to Church
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 11 — In 30 years of democracy in Spain, and in Catalonia in particular, a radical change has taken place in religious habits above all in the very young, to the point that Catholicism is practiced by a minority of the population. This is the result that comes out of the publication “Has Catalonia quit being Catholic?”, by the dean of the progressive university of Catalonia, Jordi Serrano, who compares the data on religion from the 1970’s, the last years of Francoism, with the current data. If formerly 87% of Spaniards declared themselves to be practicing Catholic and 9% non-practicing Catholic, today these percentages have changed passing, respectively, to 36.3% (therefore a clear drop) and 37.5% (a figure four times that of the past), while, in Catalonia only 18.7% declares themselves practicing Catholic and 48.4% non-practicing. Non-believers have passed from 2% in 1970 to 19.7% in Spain and to 29.1% in Catalonia. The region confirms itself as the most agnostic in Spain, from ‘the moment that the number of practicing Catholics decreased by 15 points from 1980 to 2007, passing from 33.8% to 18.7%. It is data that is also reflected in tax contributions to the Catholic Church, equal to 0.52%, passing from 30.8% of tax payers in 1991 to 13.7 in 2002, when 42.9% of Catalonians dedicated their payments to social spending. Analysis per gender indicates that religion continues to be more common among women: in Catalonia, the percentage of practicing Catholics is 15 points above the figure for men, while the difference in Spain is 21 points. It is a difference that is practically nullified among the very young, in that 75% of the total of Catalonian young men declare themselves to be non-religious or atheist, compared to 67% among young women. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The BBC Smears a Devout Roman Catholic European…No Surprise
The EU’s new foreign secretary, Baroness Ashton, was at the European Parliament today, being questioned by MEPs. Since she will also be a new vice-president of the Commission as well as ‘High Representative for Foreign Affairs,’ (no, I still can’t believe it either) she had to submit to questioning like all the other members of the new Commission.
The BBC on-line news service reported on her appearance at the parliament. They had absolutely nothing bad to say about this unelected New Labour Nobody.
But the BBC couldn’t resist the chance to use the story to fire off a drive-by smear at Rocco Buttiglione, a Roman Catholic professor of political science, a former professor of philosophy and a former Christian Democrat Minister for EU Affairs in the Italian government.
Buttiglione was no where near Brussels today, and has nothing to do with any of the EU institutions. But in 2004 he was appointed by the Italian prime minister to be Italy’s European Commissioner, and was in line for the justice portfolio. Then after parliamentary hearings he was forced to withdraw from his nomination because of an attack by the parliament’s left-wingers and Greens. The BBC couldn’t resist going over this defeat of a conservative European, saying he was forced to withdraw because ‘MEPs objected to Mr Buttiglione’s opposition to gay rights.’
That is a smear by the BBC. Buttiglione never opposed anyone’s rights.
He was questioned at the parliament about his ideas on homosexuality because the MEPs had been briefed he was a devout Catholic, father of four and a close friend of the Pope. Or as the BBC patronisingly described him at the time,he is ‘God-fearing.’ That was enough to set the parliamentary mob running.
Here is what he actually said to the MEPs (as opposed to what the BBC wants you to believe he said): ‘I may think of homosexuality as a sin, but it has no effect unless I say it is a crime. The state has no right to stick its nose in this area…The rights of homosexuals should be defended on the same basis as the rights of all other European citizens. But I don’t accept that homosexuals are a category deserving of special protection.’
In other words Buttiglione was saying that he believes all men are created equal, and so all men should have equal protection of the laws of the land. Sounds perfectly right to me. Indeed, sounds like an expression of classical liberal thinking.
Actually, it wouldn’t have mattered what Buttiglione said at the parliamentary hearing. The left-wingers and the Greens — who by the way continue to be happy to have among their number the French Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a man with an open history of engaging with very young children in mutual zips-down genital touching, and who maintains this was perfectly-okay behaviour while he was a teacher — were out to block any devout Christian from any senior post in any EU institution.
What the MEPs were doing was demonstrating their intolerance of anyone who does not share their anti-Christian views. Buttiglione is an academic, a man who has studied the ancient philosophy and moral laws of his Church, and who chooses to live his own private life by those moral laws. That he also chooses to protect the right of other men to live their own private lives by their own moral laws was irrelevant to the intolerant mob at the parliament: no devout Christians are to be allowed in the Commission — or anywhere else, if the Jacobins of the Strasbourg Gravy Train can help it.
And right along side the intolerant mob runs the BBC, twisting the truth.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anjem Choudary Gets 24 Hour Police Guard
BANNED Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary is getting 24-hour police protection — and you are paying for it.
His threat to march in Wootton Bassett whipped up so much fury senior officers have stepped in to defend him from hate mobs.
On Sunday, 200 English Defence League supporters descended on the Wiltshire town which honours Britain’s war dead after rumours of a demo by his Islam4UK organisation.
The radical group was banned by the Home Secretary on Tuesday.
And police chiefs are diverting men from essential duties to guarantee Choudary’s safety after far-right nuts made death threats against him.
Gloating Choudary, 42, even cranked up the hatred against him by claiming the £25,000 benefits he gets every year, and the £325,000 house he lives in, were provided by “Allah” and not the British taxpayer.
The bill to guard Choudary could cost as much as £100,000 a year.
But the trained lawyer said he was proud to milk the system, adding: “I am not doing anything illegal.
“If we were living under the shariah there would be free food, clothing and shelter for all. The money belongs to Allah and if it is given you can take it.
“You don’t lie and you don’t cheat — that is what the prophet said.”
But Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are going to be shocked to hear the police are having to waste time they should be spending fighting terrorism looking after Anjem Choudary.”
And Tory MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons sub- committee on counter-terrorism, slammed Choudary as a publicity-seeker.
He said: “He’s drawing constant attention to himself and diverting resources from their proper use.”
A police source warned: “Choudary has deliberately made himself a target among far-right groups and his plans to protest at Wootton Bassett stirred up even more anger.
“Senior officers are frightened of having a race war on their hands. If something were to happen to him, we would be blamed.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Businessman is Arrested in Front of Wife and Son… For ‘Anti-Gipsy’ Email That He Didn’t Even Write
A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies — but which he had not even written.
The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the ‘do as you likey’ attitude that I am against.’
Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.
The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.
But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.
The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.
He said two uniformed officers came to his house on a Sunday afternoon and said he would be handcuffed if he did not accompany them to the police station.
His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.
The email, from a computer at his company, was sent last August to a website at Rother District Council, in East Sussex, on which the public can comment on planning applications.
It referred to an appeal by gipsy Linda Smith, who wants to keep a mobile home in an area of outstanding beauty overlooking the Battle of Hastings site.
The email also read: ‘Get a job, get planning permission but more to the point get out of the neighbourhood.’
The businessman, a father of two, said last night: ‘I had a sense of total disbelief. My wife and I decided to tell my 11-year-old son I had to go with the police because I had witnessed a road accident.
‘Even though the officers were fairly pleasant to me, I was informed I would be handcuffed if I didn’t go voluntarily. They then confiscated my computer and my wife’s computer and took them to the police station.
‘I was extremely angry. I was relaxing in the comfort of my home on a Sunday afternoon and then I was in a police car under arrest — all for an innocent comment by a colleague.’
He was driven five miles to Hastings police station.
He said: ‘I have never had any criminal record and try my best to teach my children right from wrong. This was a ridiculously heavy-handed police reaction to what they perceived as a racist comment. I am not the least bit racist and neither is Paul Osmond. The gipsy family concerned did not complain.
‘I did nothing wrong yet ended up in a police cell for four hours with my DNA stored on a criminal database.’
The arrest happened on November 15 and followed a three-year battle by a gipsy family to win planning permission for the mobile home on land outside the town of Battle.
The family bought a field from a farmer, put down a concrete base, and installed the mobile home at the end of a short driveway. Rother Council issued an enforcement notice against the building.
The businessman said he also objected to the council over the location of the mobile home, which is near his property.
He said: ‘It seems I have to get planning permission for everything I do right down to dead-heading the daffodils.
‘It seems they can erect this home with impunity. But I made my objections entirely through the proper channels and I have absolutely nothing against anyone in the gipsy community.’
The case finally ended last week when Mr Osmond, who had been arrested and bailed, was told there would be no further police action. The planning case is continuing.
Mr Osmond, 39, of Icklesham, said: ‘I made it clear to them I am absolutely not racist. I said I was simply registering my objection to this application because it is 200ft from the most important and historical battlefield in the country.
‘I now feel I am not even able to express an opinion for fear of being arrested by the police.
‘One of my closest friends is an Irish traveller and he uses the term ‘pikey’ all the time. This is the ultimate in political correctness going off the scale.’
Sussex Police said they had arrested the businessman over ‘suspicion of committing a racial or religious-aggravated offence’.
After consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, it was decided to take no further action against Mr Osmond.
Chief Inspector Heather Keating said: ‘Sussex Police have a legal duty to promote community cohesion and tackle unlawful discrimination.
‘We are satisfied we acted appropriately in identifying the owner of the computer used and through this, the identity of the writer of the offending line.’
Police said they would hold the innocent men’s DNA indefinitely, which they said was in line with national policy.
A council spokesman said: ‘As far as we were concerned it was an offensive comment, so we got in touch with the police.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Elderly Couple Murdered in Luxury Seafront Flat: Woman Victim ‘Worked for the Saudi Royal Family’
One of the murder victims found dead in an exclusive block of flats in Torquay had links to the Saudi royal family it was revealed today.
Rosemary Windle, 72, used to travel regularly to Saudi Arabia where she was employed as a seamstress in the royal household.
A friend of the couple — Rosemary and her partner, Maurece Smith — revealed the link as police hinted they may have known their killer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Leeds-Bradford Airport Incidents Help Inspire New Law
A potentially dangerous craze of dazzling aircraft pilots with lasers has been outlawed under new legislation, it was announced today.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Met Chief Ali Dizaei Threatened to ‘F**k Up My Life’ Claims Web Designer Who Confronted Him Over Unpaid Bill
A senior Scotland Yard officer changed from being a ‘respectable man to a monster’ after an IT expert challenged him over an unpaid bill, a court heard yesterday.
Commander Ali Dizaei, 47, flew into a rage when Iraq-born Waad al-Baghdadi confronted him over a £600 debt for designing his personal website, it was claimed.
The pair rowed outside a Persian restaurant in Kensington, west London, where Dizaei allegedly threatened him saying ‘I’m going to f**k your life’.
The £90,000 a year officer, who was head of the National Black Police Association, boasted: ‘You’re like my soldier. I’ll pay you whatever I want to.
‘I don’t have a pizza shop, I’m responsible for 5,000 officers. I’m a busy man.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslims Say Leaving Islam OK, But is it Really?
British team suggests Shariah only ‘frowns’ on apostasy cases
A new report from a team of Muslim leaders in Britain contends that Shariah law allows Muslims to leave Islam — despite the multitude of apostasy laws throughout the Islamic world that prescribe the death penalty.
The report, “Contextualizing Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives,” was assembled by a team led by Yasir Suleiman, director of the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center of Islamic Studies at Cambridge.
Addressing what it means to “live faithfully” as a Muslim in Britain, it is the result of the work of “a group of scholars, social scientists, religious and community leaders and educationists” in a project sponsored by the British government.
[…]
However, an expert on Islam says the report appears to be little more than posturing by Muslim leaders who are “giving highly apologetic and tendentious explanations” that are “designed to reassure Westerners.”
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, told WND the report includes explanations of jihad, Shariah, the nature of Islam and other issues that simply don’t align with the reality of the Islamic world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: My Benefits Belong to Allah: Hate Preacher Choudary Defends £25,000 a Year Payments From British Taxpayers
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed he is proud to receive £25,000 a year in benefits from the British taxpayer because the money ‘belongs to Allah’.
The extremist cleric was speaking hours after Home Secretary Alan Johnson banned Choudary’s Islam4UK group, making it a criminal offence to be a member.
[…]
The Mail revealed today that Choudary is being given round-the-clock police protection following his controversial threat to march through Wootton Basset.
Even though the extremist cleric has now called off plans to stage the protest, he still receives hourly security checks at his East London home.
Metropolitan police officers have been told to give his protection priority above other local policing jobs such as muggings, theft and foot patrols.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Massive Rise in People Shining Lasers at Planes
The number of incidents of people shining lasers at planes has increased more than twenty-five fold over the last two years.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP MEP Quits Eurosceptic Group
UK Independence Party MEP Nikki Sinclaire is quitting the eurosceptic group her Ukip colleagues have joined in the European Parliament — citing the breakdown of her relationship with former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
A resignation letter on her website also attacks the “variety of extremist views” of other right-wing parties in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping — including “anti-Semitism, violence and the espousal of a single European policy on immigration”.
The EFD group was formed in Strasbourg after last summer’s euro-elections, in which Nikki Sinclaire was one of 13 Ukip members who held or won seats.
Since then Mr Farage has stepped down from the party leadership to concentrate on fighting John Bercow’s Buckingham seat in the forthcoming general election, hoping to become Ukip’s first Westminster MP. Meanwhile, he remains an MEP and leader of Ukip’s members in Strasbourg.
Ms Sinclaire said she would still support Mr Farage in his Westminster bid, because of its importance to the party.
And she insists she has not left Ukip — just moved out of the EFD group, of which Ukip is one of nine national political parties, to sit with the so-called “non-attached” MEPs who have joined no particular grouping.
Her letter says she will leave the EFD on January 18: “I have decided to move to this non-attached group as I have found it increasingly difficult to justify sitting alongside one or two of the European parties within the EFD group who have a variety of extremist views which includes anti-Semitism, violence and the espousal of a single European policy on immigration.”
She names in particular Liga Nord, the right-wing party which is part of the Italian governing coalition. Liga Nord and Ukip are the two biggest factions in the EFD and hold the EFD presidency jointly.
On Mr Farage, Ms Sinclaire’s letter says: “My working relationship and trust with EFD co-president, Nigel Farage has broken down since his personal admittance to me recently that he wished I had not been elected. The comment ‘I wish I had only 12 not 13 MEPs’ was made to many people in the aftermath of the European elections. I have found this personal animosity difficult to work with.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Weather: After Years Icebreaker Reappears in Paris Canals
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 12 — After four years of inactivity, an icebreaker boat returned to Paris’ canals, frozen after several days of intense cold hitting the French capital. “Its goal is preventative,” said the head of Paris’ canals, explaining that “the layer of ice in certain points has reached 5 centimetres and seems to be solid, but in reality it is extremely dangerous to walk on the ice.” “The icebreaker completely destroys the layer of ice to keep dare-devils from attempting to cross the canals on foot,” he added. In addition to the Seine, the city of Paris owns and manages 130km of navigable rivers. The network of canals includes the following navigable stretches: the Ourcq Canal, the Saint-Martin Canal, and the Saint-Denis Canal. The construction of the latter two canals was decided by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Josipovic, Country’s Problems Corruption and Crisis
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 12 — “Croatia has two problems: the economic crisis and enormous corruption”, Ivo Josipovic, winner of the presidential elections in Croatia, has said in an interview with Il Corriere della Sera, in which he explains that, in the 1990’s, “in Croatia several men linked to the State acquired enormous wealth and power and this profoundly altered our conscience, and above all that of the young”. The new president intends to act on two levels: with suppression involving “the police, magistrates, secret services and then convincing people that corruption is not necessary”. Regarding the charges of genocide levelled at Serbia, of which Josipovic was head of a legal team which drafted the charges, the president announced that he will try to negotiate with Belgrade on information relating to disappeared people, on trials for war crimes and on the restitution of looted cultural heritage. If Belgrade respects these conditions, the Croatian president sees no reason to continue with the charges of genocide. And finally, with regard to the criteria for Croatia’s entry to the EU, Josipovic commented: “It is true that they are higher than for others in the past. But that’s okay, will manage to meet them”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Looming Demise
By Pamela Geller
“The Europe as you know it from visiting, from your parents or friends is on the verge of collapsing,” Geert Wilders said in a speech in the United States last year.
The leader of the Netherlands’ populist Party for Freedom added: “We are now witnessing profound changes that will forever alter Europe’s destiny and might send the Continent in what Ronald Reagan called ‘a thousand years of darkness.’ “ And not just Europe, but America as well.
Been to Europe lately? Thought it was bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet. The passage of the Lisbon Treaty, hailed by President Obama, nailed the coffin shut on national sovereignty in Europe. The people of Europe fought it, but were overwhelmed by their political elites and the lack of American leadership in this age of our rather Marxist, collectivist U.S. president.
Come Jan. 1, 2010, a disastrous and suicidal pact called the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Europe/Mediterranean) goes into effect with little fanfare or examination. It boggles the mind that such a consequential and seismic cultural shift could be mandated and put into play without so much as a murmur from the mainstream media.
Why should Americans care about this? Americans have to care because this global gobbledygook is coming to our shores, thanks to our globalist president…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Jeune Afrique: Tunisians Expelled From Libya
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 12 — Dozens of Tunisian citizens were expelled from Libya and flown back to their country last December, website Jeune Afrique reported without mentioning the reasons behind the repatriation. The website explained that, according to recent regulations, visitors to Libya are requested to pay a 78 euro tax to enter the country and have a cash availability of at least one thousand dollars, or the equivalent amount in euro). “Furious at the new restrictions, the Tunisians, who traditionally live on exchanges between the two countries, vented their rage, the website reported. On the contrary, Libyan citizens are allowed to enter Tunisia freely. About 1.5 million of them travelled to Tunisia in 2009. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maghreb: Miss Kabylie Joins Berber New Year’s
(by Laura De Santi) (ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JANUARY 12 — In Algeria, from the oases of the deep south to the mountains of the Kabylie region, but also for the Berber people of the whole of North Africa, from Egypt to Libya, passing through Morocco and Tunisia, today the ‘Tawurt n usegwaa’, in Amazigh ‘the door of the year’ or Yennayer, is being celebrated. If with the Gregorian calendar we have just entered 2010 and for the Islamic calendar it is now 1431, for the calendar of the Imazighens, the ‘free men’, based on the agricultural seasons, the entrance into 2960 is being celebrated. A feast, which has survived over the centuries despite the clashing with and often imposition of Arab-Islamic culture, not yet celebrated officially in Algeria, in contrast to the Islamic new year. As for the rest, Amazigh — one of the tens of variations of Berber spoken by some 20% of the population — recognised, after a long and occasionally bloody battle conducted principally by the community of villages of the Kabylie regions (the Arch), as a national language in 2002, but not official like Arabic. The numerous rituals and ancestral traditions practiced in the different regions to usher in a year of fertility and abundance: whilst in the Aures (Eastern Algeria), the women sprinkle grain and honey, the Cherchem, on the vineyards and the fruit trees to guarantee a rich harvest and in Kabylie, an animal — usually a cock — is slaughtered at midnight as a good omen. “This feast has a relation to the agricultural calendar, explained Cherifa Belamara, of the High Commission for Amazigh, it signals the end of the provisions accumulated for winter and the start of a new season of blossoming. For this, we hope for a year full of hope and richness”. Common to the various Berber populations is the tradition of tipping a shower of sweets and dried fruit at the youngest member of the family as soon as he or she wakes up, as is the inevitable lunch based on the Berber dish par excellence: ‘cous cous’. Typical dishes for the first day of the year: cous cous with seven vegetables, a symbol of fertility and abundance, and the ‘baghrir’, a sort of traditional lightly leavened pancake. Much more recent, but now part of the modern traditions, is the election during the Yennayer day of Miss Kabylie. After a pre-selection stage, in which dozens of girls from the Berber region participated, announced the show organisers, Mourad Ait Ahmed e Ferial, today the finalists will model traditional dresses in Tizi Ouzou, the capital of the Kabylie region, where Miss 2010 will be elected. The origins of Yennayer remain confused but, according to most historians, the tradition was born in Egypt in 951 BC when the Imazighens, involved in Egyptian battles, obtained an astounding political success, securing from the Pharaohs the right to observe their rites, above all of funereal cults and spiritual practices. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 100 Coptic Christian Teenagers Arrested in Egypt
by Mary Abdelmassih
Egypt (AINA) — Egyptian State Security has intensified its intimidation of the Coptic Church and Christians in Nag Hammadi, and neighboring Bahgoura, by carrying out random arrests of Christian youth. The campaign against Christians started on Friday January 7, 2010 and is continuing; multiple members of families have been arrested without warrants. Most arrests are being carried at dawn. More than one hundred Christian youth have been arrested without charge.
Arrests of Copts after every sedition is the usual scenario as a pressure card in the hands of State Security to force the church and Copts to accept “reconciliation”, in which Coptic victims give up all criminal and civil charges against the perpetrators. Because of the reaction in Egypt and worldwide to the shootings and the role of the State Security, Bishop Kyrollos was asked issue statements downplaying the negligence of State Security. It is believed the arrests of the Coptic youth is a pressure tactic to force him to recant his accusations.
Anwar Samuel, a head teacher from Nag Hammadi, told Freecopts that State Security came to their home at four o’clock in the morning, looking for his nephew Mohareb, who happened to be in Kuwait. “Instead they arrested my three other nephews, Fadi, Tanios and Wael Milad Samuel, and took them away in their pajamas.” He said they have been subjected to electric shocks.
Coptic News Bulletin contacted several families who confirmed that males as young as 16 were taken away by the police. In an aired interviews, affected families told how the Police tricked their sons into going with them, by telling them that Bishop Kyrollos wanted them to do so for their safety.
Habib Tanios was arrested on charges of firing on people who burnt his home in Bahgoura, although he has no rifle.
Families of the arrested Copts congregated all day near police station waiting for news
According to sources close to Freecopts, strict state security instructions were issued to the clergy in the parish of Nag Hamadi, to suppress any move by the Copts affected by the events and the families of those killed, to demonstrate or protest, accompanied by explicit threats that police will be using live ammunition.
After the Nag Hammadi shooting on January 6, in which 8 Copts were killed and 15 injured as they came out of Coptic Christmas Eve mass (AINA 1-7-2010, 1-10-2010). Bishop Kyrollos of Nag Hammadi Diocese criticized the lack of police protection of the church, which is usual during such events. He held State Security responsible especially that he had received death threats, and was the intended target of the shootings.
Conflict between State Security and Bishop Kyrollos arose due to his insistence on compensation for the Copts of Farshout who lost property and businesses caused by Muslim mob violence against them end November 2009 (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009, 11-29-2009). None of the state officials attended the celebrations at Church which many took as a sign of their knowledge of the forthcoming shootings.
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Quality of Life, Tunisia Top Amongst Arab Countries
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 12 — For the second consecutive year, Tunisia is in first place amongst Arab countries in terms of quality of life, with 59 out of 100 points, a three-point improvement on 2009. The index, drawn up by the International Living magazine and which rates and ranks 194 countries, is based on a series of elements such as: the cost of living, the economy, the environment, culture, entertainment, freedom, health, infrastructures, risks, security and climate. Tunisia gained its highest marks in the sectors of security and risk (86/100), health (73/100), climate (85/100) and cost of living (63/100). As for other Arab countries, after Tunisia we find Jordan (55 points), Kuwait (55), Lebanon, Morocco and Bahrain, all with 54 points. At world level, France is top for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Australia, Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand. For the last 30 years, International Living has focused particular attention on the world of all those pensioners who aspire to have a better quality of life with an appropriate cost of living. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cast Lead: Press, Israel Preparing Counter Report
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 12 — Israel is preparing a detailed report on Operation Cast Lead (the operation conducted a year ago against Hamas in Gaza) which should show the groundlessness of the accusations levelled against the country by the Goldstone Report by the UN Human Rights Council. Daily newspaper Maariv has revealed as one of its top news story that the publication of the counter report is scheduled for the coming weeks. The newspaper has learnt that, according to the report by the Israeli armed forces, there were ‘distorted testimonies’ at the heart of the accusations against Israel of carrying out war crimes. The examination of the criticism of Israel was detailed. The newspaper reports that ‘not one case in which a soldier intentionally hit innocent people has been found.’ The text prepared by the army is now being examined by Israeli political leaders, who could publish it in the very near future. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Foreign Min., Israeli Wall Doesn’t Involve US
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 11 — The construction of a barrier to fight illegal immigration to Israel is an internal affair and does not involve Egypt, stressed a statement from Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, who reported that there is no relation between this wall and the work in course along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, where Cairo is reportedly building a barrier to stop the construction of tunnels carried out by Palestinians. Regarding the possibility that Israel is preparing a new military operation in Gaza, which a pro-government newspaper in Egypt spoke of today in light of the warning addressed to Hamas yesterday against the launching of rockets from the Strip, Abul Gheit warned Tel Aviv, according to declarations quoted by Mena, to not carry out any operations in the Strip, but also asked Hamas to stop provocations. Abul Gheit declared in the end, that Egypt knows very well the names of the Palestinian “sharp shooters” who in recent days hit a young military border officer along the border in Rafah and announced that he will officially ask for their arrest. “We will see”, he added, “how to behave towards Hamas”. The results of the autopsy of the young soldier’s body did not exclude that he, hit from behind, was possibly killed by friendly fire. According to witness accounts of the events reported to ANSA at the scene, some Palestinians were trying to reach the guard tower where the soldier was positioned when his fellow soldiers began shooting in that direction. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Woman Escapes Abusive Gaza Husband
Woman who married Arab and moved to Rafah re-enters Israel through Erez border crossing along with her four children
An Israeli woman who married an Arab and lived with him in Gaza returned to Israel through the Erez border crossing on Tuesday along with her four children.
The woman, 27, originally form Ashdod, met the Arab-Israeli man a few years ago, and after a while the couple moved to Egypt.
About a year ago, after the woman gave birth to her fourth baby, the couple moved to Rafah, a town located in the southern part of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. Shortly thereafter she began complaining to her sisters in Israel of her husband’s abusive behavior, which included physical violence.
Her family turned to the Yad L’Achim organization, which helps rescue Israeli women from “hostile Arab villages” in the Palestinian Authority and sets them up in safe houses around the country, “where they can build new lives for themselves.”
On Tuesday morning she took advantage of the fact that her husband was out of the house, gathered her children and took a cab to the Erez crossing.
During the cab ride her husband phoned her and threatened to kill her if she leaves him. The woman’s sister and brother-in-law greeted her on the Israeli side of the border.
She was interrogated at the Sderot police station and then taken to a safe house.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama Criticised for Nuclear Deal With UAE
A senior Democratic congressman has demanded that President Obama delay a nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates after a member of its Royal Family was acquitted despite a videotape showing him subjecting another man to torture.
Jim McGovern, who heads the US House of Representatives Human Rights Committee, expressed outrage over the not guilty verdict and decried Washington’s decision to press ahead with the nuclear deal despite what he called a laughable court ruling.
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Energy: World Giants Eye USD 20 Bln Nuclear Market in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — Turkey is preparing to hold another tender for the construction and operation of the country’s first nuclear power plant after canceling the last one, as Today’s Zaman reports. Several corporations from the United States, South Korea, France and China as well as Canada, Russia and Japan are showing keen interest in the new tender. The Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Company (TETAS) held the tender for the construction and first 15 years of operation of the nuclear power plant on September 24, 2008, which a consortium composed of Russian companies Atomstroyexport and Inter RAO UES and the Ciner Groups Park Teknik won as the sole bidder. The Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) approved the technical aspects of the consortiums bid and sent the bid for the Cabinets evaluation. The Cabinet sent its opinion to TETAS, which announced that it canceled the tender on November 20. The decision to cancel the tender was no surprise as it was already in jeopardy due to a recent verdict by the Council of State which ruled the tender legally invalid over issues such as power prices. Upon intense criticism over the high price of the bid, the consortium lowered its offer. Their new price was $0.134-$0.154 per kilowatt hour (kWh), 27% lower than its original bid but still approximately double the current rates. After Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz declared that they will start over with Turkeys dreams of having a nuclear power station, the ministry decided to launch another tender in March 2010. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exhibits: Iran and Turkey, 2000 Years of Common Heritage
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL — Divided by politics, which at times make them competitors on the Middle Eastern panorama, Turkey and Iran have united to celebrate thousands of years of common culture. For the first time in history, the National Iranian Museum loaned out hundreds of artefacts, which will be displayed in the coming weeks at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul in an exhibit entitled,”10,000 years of Iranian civilisation — 2,000 years of common heritage”. The exhibit hosted in the palace complex, which from 1465 until 1856 was the residence of the Ottoman Sultans, is divided into two periods of time: the pre-Islamic era and the period following the spread of Islam throughout the region. About 300 artefacts were put out on loan by Iran for the exhibit, as well as others coming from archaeological museums including Turkish art, Islamic art, and military art from Istanbul and from the Sadberk Hanim complex. Jewels, jars, ceramic vases with geometric, floral, and anthropomorphic figures from the Elamite and Achaemenid eras; decorative golden plates, earrings, and bracelets made with extraordinary craftsmanship (from 1000BC); silver coins from the Sassanian era. Ceramics, oil lamps broaches, statuettes, trays, and bronze vases, precious manuscripts, ancient copies of the Koran, texts with Persian poetry that have never been translated, and miniatures, as well as fabrics, caftans, and cookery/glassware, all from the Islamic era will also be on display. Hundreds of objects that testify to the social, religious, cultural, economic-commercial, political, and diplomatic cohesion of the various Iranian civilisations that over the course of thousands of years came into contact with Turkish and Ottoman civilisation until the end of the 19th century. “For thousands of years,” pointed out the President of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Ilber Ortayli, in the introduction of the prestigious catalogue, “Turkey was under Iran’s cultural influence: history, religion, political and philosophical concepts, administrative and military organisation, literature and language melded together.” Thanks to the Persians, he continued, “Islamic and Arab terminology entered into the Turkish language. However, over the course of the centuries, hundreds of Turkish words were used in the Persian language; so many and to such an extent that they could have filled an entire dictionary.” Many of the artefacts in Turkish museums,” said Ortayli, “are the result of an intense trading of gifts between Ottoman and Persian delegations. So many findings have been excluded from this exhibit, which will be the subject of future displays,” assured Ortayli, stressing the great efforts regarding their openness that Iran has made. Recently, Iranian officials have allowed exhibits to take place in 15 different countries. Inaugurated on December 2, 2009, the exhibit at the Topkapi Museum, which will end on February 5, is part of various initiatives organised by the governments in Ankara and Tehran for the 50th anniversary of the cultural agreement signed by the two countries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Trade: Italy, Turkey’s 4th Partner in Trade
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 8 — >From January to November of 2009, Turkey’s trade with the rest of the world totalled 217.7 billion dollars, a 30.9% decrease compared to the same period last year, according to data from Turkey’s statistics office (TUIK), elaborated by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Istanbul. The data shows that imports totalled 125.6 billion dollars (-34.1%), while exports reached 92.1 billion dollars (-25.9%), resulting in a negative balance of 33.5 billion dollars, compared to 66.3 billion in the same period in 2008 (-49.5%). The trade deficit is largely representative of the difficult economic situation in the country, with the GDP in decline by 8.4% in the first nine months of 2009. Germany was Turkey’s top trade partner, with total trade at 21.4 billion dollars, followed by Russia with 20.6 billion, China with 12.6 billion, and Italy with 12.1 billion (France — while decreasing its trade — demonstrated signs of vitality in bilateral trade relations, and is now gaining on Italy with trade totalling 11.9 billion dollars). Italy is Turkey’s fourth most important trade partner with 12.1 billion dollars (-31.5%, 2009 on 2008), with exports of 6.8 billion (-34.7%, 2009 on 2008) and imports for 5.3 billion (-28.4%, 2009 on 2008). Italy’s trade balance with Turkey is positive by 1.5 billion dollars. Italy’s market share on the total of Turkey’s imports globally is 5.4%. Italy is Turkey’s fifth supplier after Russia, which supplies Turkey with over 65% of its energy requirements, followed by Germany, China, and the U.S. Also, Italy is the third most important outlet for Turkish goods, following Germany and France.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Bahais Begin Spying Trials
Seven members of the Bahai faith have been put on trial in Iran.
The defendants face charges of spying for foreigners, cooperating with Israel and “corruption on Earth”, a charged which carries the death sentence.
The Bahai religion is banned by the Islamic revolutionary leadership of Iran which considers it heretical.
The group have been held since their arrest in 2008. The US government has condemned the trial, expressing concern about Iran’s treatment of Bahais.
“The United States strongly condemns the Iranian government’s decision to commence the espionage trial against seven leaders of the Iranian Bahai community,” said US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.
“We are deeply concerned about Iran’s ongoing persecution of Bahais and treatment of other members of religious minorities who continue to be targeted solely on the basis of their beliefs,” Mr Crowley added.
Iran origin
The group are being tried in a revolutionary court in Tehran.
“All the activities of the outlawed Bahai’s sect in Iran is being led by its global centre based in Israel,” a statement from the trial, cited by state news agency ISNA said.
“Based on the evidence and the defendants’ confessions, they held meetings with ambassadors of different Western countries and discussed information and actions with them,” it added.
The Bahai faith was founded in Iran in the 19th Century but it has long been banned in its country of origin.
The Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God. Followers of the Bahai faith have faced discrimination in Iran both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Bahai groups say some 30,000 members remain in Iran. Hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since 1979, the Bahai International Community says.
Iran denies it has detained or executed people because of their faith.
The religion has a large temple in Haifa, northern Israel, a country which has very fraught relations with Iran.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Mosul: Christian Merchant Killed as “Ethnic Cleansing” Continues
A 75-year-old greengrocer is shot dead in front of his house. The abduction of a Christian female student is still shrouded in mystery. A wave of violence that includes attacks against churches, abductions and targeted killings of Christians is trying to force them into a mass exodus.
Mosul (AsiaNews) — Mosul’s Christian community has been the victim of another targeted killing. Hikmat Sleiman, a 75-year-old greengrocer, was killed yesterday. His death follows a wave of violence against Iraqi Christians that included a number of attacks over the past few weeks against churches and convents as well as abductions and execution-style murders. Local bishops have slammed the trend, calling it a plan of “ethnic cleansing” at Christians’ expense.
The store owner “was assassinated in front of his house,” sources in Mosul told AsiaNews. “Hikmat Sleiman, 75, owned a small greengrocery across from the Dominican convent in Sa’a neighbourhood, said the source who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“After closing his store, he went home. A group of criminals was waiting for him and opened fire,” he added. The victim died instantly.
Yesterday’s murder is further evidence that Iraqi Christians are the victims of a plan of “ethnic cleansing” designed to force them to leave the country. The central government and the local governatorate are powerless against such attacks as the various ethnic groups, Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen as well as extremist cells, blame each other.
On 23 December of last year, the Church of Saint George of the Chaldeans and the Syro-Orthodox Church of Saint Thomas were hit in separate attacks. Three people were killed in the first attack. On Christmas Eve, a man was killed in front of his house, whilst on 31 December an Islamic group abducted a Christian female student whose fate is still unknown. Two days later, on 2 January, a local Christian man was also abducted.
Back in December, four churches and the convent of the Dominican nuns were attacked in Mosul. The explosions caused by car bombs and other explosive devices caused major damage to the surrounding buildings and homes. Many homes belonging to Christians as well as Muslims were destroyed.
After the attacks, a Christian source in the city sounded the alarm, saying “the community is destined to day”. Indeed in Mosul, many believe that the attacks are mafia-style “warnings” designed to provoke a mass exodus of the community.
“Families fled north, in Kurdistan, where they have no work or life prospects. The Christian community is destined to die,” the source said.
Since 2003, the year when Saddam Hussein fell, at least 1,960 Christians have been killed in Iraq. The community has been cut by half as Christians fled for safer areas inside the country (Kurdistan) or abroad. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Troops Retake Village From Yemen Houthi Rebels
Saudi troops have regained control of a border village occupied by Yemeni Shia rebels since November, the kingdom’s deputy defence minister has said.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan told state TV that four Saudi soldiers and “hundreds” of rebels were killed in the clashes.
He said the overall death toll of Saudi soldiers in the border conflict with Yemen’s Houthi rebels now stood at 82.
Riyadh began operations against the rebels in November after a Saudi soldier was killed along the border.
Regional threat
Prince Khaled bin Sultan said Yemeni rebels had “inflicted upon themselves hundreds of deaths” in the border village of al-Jabiri after ignoring a 48-hour deadline to quit their positions, the Reuters news agency reports.
“The infiltrators have been eliminated from al-Jabiri and the whole district has been taken under control,” he told state-owned al-Ekhbariya television, adding that 21 Saudi soldiers were missing.
The rebels have repeatedly accused Saudi forces of targeting their villages and killing civilians, but Riyadh says its military operations have been confined to Saudi territory.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Crisis With Israel; Erdogan Threatens Response
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 12 — The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said today that Israel would face a reciprocal stance from Turkey if it continued to assume its actual attitude towards Turkey, Anatolia news agency reports. Turkey’s Premier Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that if the Israeli administration continued to assume its actual stance, Turkey would always give a reciprocal response. Erdogan said Turkey had always showed tolerance to the Israeli people and the Jews. Erdogan’s remarks came after Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed uneasiness over a popular Turkish TV series, “Kurtlar Vadisi” (‘The Valley of the Wolves’), through diplomatic channels. Turkish Ambassador in Tel Aviv Oguz Celikkol was summoned to Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israeli diplomats said the TV drama had contained anti-Israel messages. At a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri the same day in Ankara, Erdogan criticized Israel for its offensive against Gaza and for violating UN resolutions. He said Israel never denied that it possessed nuclear weapons, calling on the five permanent members of the UN security Council to be fair, and follow up on nuclear weapons of Israel, just like they did with Iran. In response to Erdogan’s remarks, Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel respected Turkey and was interested in continued normal relations between the two states, but expected the Turkish side to reciprocate with a similar approach towards Israel. Earlier today, Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry for an explanation over Israel’s recent statements criticizing Turkey. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Crisis With Israel; Ankara Asks for Apologies
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 12 — Turkey conveyed its protest note to Israeli ambassador regarding Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s attitude at a meeting with Turkish Ambassador in Tel Aviv Oguz Celikkol, Anatolia news agency reports. A statement by Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Gabby was given a note of protest. “Gabby was told that Turkey expects an explanation and apology on the matter,” it said. “We hope that Israeli Foreign Ministry which assumed undiplomatic attitude with its statements will comply with diplomatic courtesy rules,” the statement said. The statement added that Turkey expected Israel to take compensatory steps regarding attitude toward Celikkol. Yesterday Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed uneasiness over a popular Turkish TV series, “Kurtlar Vadisi” (The Valley of The Wolves), through diplomatic channels. Turkish Ambassador in Tel Aviv Oguz Celikkol was summoned to Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israeli diplomats said the TV drama had contained anti-Israel messages. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: CHP Deputy Moves to Suspend Current Smoking Ban
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — A deputy from Turkey’s main opposition party on Wednesday submitted a draft law to Parliament to suspend the comprehensive smoking ban that caused anger among owners of bars, restaurants and coffee shops. The draft law — as daily Hurriyet reports — calls for the ban to be suspended for five years. At a press conference in Parliament, Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, deputy Algan Hacaloglu, who is not a smoker, said though the current law was right in terms of public health it entered into force without broad evaluation. There is no doubt that smoking is dangerous for peoples health. But it is also a fact that the owners of the little coffee shops are in a really difficult situation, he said. Recalling that there are around 500,000 coffee shops that employ 1.5 million people in the country, Hacaloglu argued a transition period was needed. My draft suggests suspension of the implementation of this law until 2015, he said. This draft of mine was also endorsed by my party. The current law prohibits smoking in all public enclosed locations, including bars, restaurants and all public transportation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Premier Given Nobel Prize of Arab World
(ANSAmed) — JEDDAH — Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is announced the winner of “King Faisal International Prize” which is considered the “Nobel prize” of the Arab world, Anatolia news agency reports. The award, which is given every year by Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal Foundation, is presented to scientists and people who create positive differences in the world and make contributions to Islam. This year’s winners were announced at a ceremony held in Riyadh. Erdogan was selected by the foundation for “his services to Islam”. King Faisal Foundation was established in 1976 by the eight sons of the late King Faisal ibn Abd Al Aziz, a son of Saudi Arabia’s founder and the Kingdom’s third monarch. Of the many philanthropic activities of the foundation, the “King Faisal International Prize” is the most widely known. Each year, the selection committees designate subjects in Islamic Studies, Arabic Literature and Medicine. Nominations for the prizes are accepted from international institutions and organizations only, and not from individuals or political parties. Winners of the “Prize for Service to Islam” are chosen directly by the respective selection committee. Each of the prize categories consists of a certificate, hand written in Diwani calligraphy, summarizing the laureate’s work; a commemorative 24 carat, 200 gram gold medal, uniquely cast for each Prize; and a cash endowment of SR 750,000 (USD 200,000). Co-winners in any category share the monetary grant. The prizes are awarded during a ceremony in Riyadh, under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Forces ‘Kill Al-Qaeda Chief’
The alleged leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen has been killed in an exchange of fire with security forces, according to a provincial governor.
Abdullah Mehdar is said to have been the leader of an al-Qaeda group in the province of Shabwa, 375 miles (600km) east of the capital, Sanaa.
Reports said four other members of the same cell had been arrested.
In another incident, two soldiers were reportedly killed in an ambush near Ataq, the provincial capital.
The governor of Shabwa, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, said: “Abdullah Mehdar was killed last night by security forces, which had besieged the house he hid in.”
Under pressure
Security officials said Yemeni forces had surrounded the house, in a mountainous region, and exchanged fire with some 20 militants inside.
The remaining militants escaped. The Spanish news agency, EFE, said one member of the security forces had been killed in the operation.
It quoted local news agencies saying the dead militant had been one of the top al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen.
But a local tribal leader told Associated Press news agency Mehdar and the arrested men were not “active members” of al-Qaeda.
“They were young men who went astray, but I don’t think they were really members of al-Qaeda,” Sheik Atiq Baadha said.
He said local leaders could have handed over the men if they had been approached, and warned that sympathy for al-Qaeda could increase if government forces continued with their current tactics.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
High Increase in Turkey’s Textile Exports to Russia
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 8 — The Turkish textile industry has been among those severely hit by the global economic crisis and, in line with that fact, the industry ended last year with a contraction of 25%. The industrys total export for the year was worth $77 million, as daily Hurriyet reports quoting data by the Antalya Textile Exporters Union. Despite the general downward trend in the industry, its exports to Russia rose 169% last year when compared to the previous year. The industrys exports to Russia skyrocketed in 2009, making the country Turkeys sixth-largest customer, said Azize Kalkavan, chairwoman of the Antalya Textile Exporters Union. In terms of overall trade volume, Russia ranked 15th among countries importing from Turkey. Turkish textile companies exports to Russia totaled to $4 million in 2009, said Kalkavan. Germany kept its lead as Turkeys biggest textile importer in 2009, she said. Germanys textile imports from Turkey amounted to almost $19 million last year, Kalkavan added. France was the runner up in the list of countries Turkish textile companies exported to the most. Frances textile exports from Turkey totaled $8.5 million. France was followed by the United Kingdom with $7.5 million. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Cuts Gas Supplies in Dagestan, Russia
More than 200,000 people in the Russian republic of Dagestan have been left without gas supplies after a bomb attack on a gas pipeline.
The explosion destroyed part of the pipeline late on Tuesday, and it was expected to take up to 48 hours to restore supplies.
Dagestan is facing a growing insurgency and has suffered numerous attacks on its infrastructure and security forces.
Last week a suicide bomber killed six policemen in the republic.
Tuesday’s blast hit the Mozdok-Kazimagomed pipeline and knocked out supplies to the major town of Derbent as well as surrounding districts, officials said.
President Dmitry Medvedev says the violence in the North Caucasus is Russia’s biggest domestic problem.
While in the last few years Chechnya has been more peaceful, the republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia have seen a violent Islamist insurgency spread.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Anger Over ‘Koran Burning’ In Kandahar
Protesters alleging that foreign troops burned a copy of the Koran have clashed with Afghan and coalition troops in Helmand province, police say.
They said that at least six people were killed in the violence which took place in Garmsir district.
Nato denied foreign troops had desecrated the Koran and said there was no evidence civilians had been killed.
Violence in the south has risen recently as UK and US forces continue their offensive against the Taliban.
Violence erupted on Tuesday in the Garmsir district over rumours that Nato-led forces had defiled a copy of the Muslim holy book during a military operation, local residents and police said.
According to reports, more than 1,000 protesters gathered to demonstrate.
The shooting of the protesters occurred after an Afghan national guardsman was killed by gunfire “from the demonstrators’ side”, the AFP news agency quoted deputy provincial police chief Khamal Dinkhan as saying.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement on Tuesday that its troops had shot dead an “insurgent sniper” who had shot an Afghan official in the Garmsir area.
“While denying these allegations, we take them very seriously and support a combined investigation with local Afghan authorities,” Isaf spokesman Maj-Gen Michael Regner said.
“Isaf is an international force that includes Muslim soldiers, and we deplore such an action under any circumstances.”
A Nato spokesman said there was no information to back up claims of civilian deaths in the incident.
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops have led to widespread anger among Afghans.
President Hamid Karzai has previously said that such deaths were damaging to the fight against militancy.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: West Java: Denial of Religious Freedom Pushes Christians Before the Human Rights Commission
The Protestant community of Bekasi complains about Muslim hard-liners and the authorities’ decision to stop their activities. Christian leader is bitter but hopeful. Interfaith dialogue activist warns that tensions might lead to violence.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Hundreds of members of the Huria Batak Protestant Christians Group (HKBP) of Bekasi, West Java, streamed before the National Human Right Commission (Komnas Ham) to demand that their right to religious freedom be upheld. They complain that Muslim hard-line groups and their local authorities have forcibly stopped their activities and cancelled their Sunday services.
At the end of the meeting between the Komnas Ham and the HBKP, an umbrella organisation for a number of Protestant groups in Indonesia, Rev Palti Panjaitan said he was hopeful that “our requests will be heeded,” and that “local authorities would rescind their decision to suspend our activities.”
“The decision by Bekasi officials is against the law” and violates fundamental human rights, including freedom of religion. More importantly, it “is contrary to the constitution,” Rev Panjaitan insisted.
Worshippers at the HKBP church in Pondok Timur Indah, Mustika Jaya sub-district in East Bekasi, were notified of the decision last Sunday during the liturgical service. The letter ordering them to stop was issued on 31 December, and informed them that they had to suspend services as of 1 January 2010.
The clergyman said he was bitter about the decision because “more than 1,500 people have no place to worship anymore.”
The struggle of the Protestant community in Bekasi is but one of many pitting the country’s Muslim majority and Christian minority. Although Islam in Indonesia tends to be moderate, there have been cases of intolerance and attacks against religious minorities. Some areas are hotbeds of violence.
On 3 January, hundreds of residents of the North Tambun sub district, also in West Java, prevented members of the HKBP Filadefia church from taking part in religious services.
Previously, at the start of the Islamic New Year, a mob of extremists attacked and damaged Saint Albert Catholic Church in Harapan Indah, also in Bekasi Regency.
Thousands of demonstrators, including women and children, stormed the building, which was still under construction, and set on fire objects of cult and other items.
According to interfaith dialogue activist Theophillus Bella, the situation could degenerate. In Tangerang, the Protestant community has been the victim of “provocations” by residents.
Another potential hotspot is Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung, Bogor Regency, where Muslims have taken to the streets to protest against a permanent church.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Google Threatens to Leave China After Attacks on Activists’ E-Mail
[Note from JD: The cnet article on the news tips only talks about Google and was a little vague on the true extent of the attacks. The daily mail link below reveals more on this truly massive spying and hacking operation.]
Google said Tuesday that it may pull out of China because of a sophisticated computer network attack originating there and targeting its e-mail service and corporate infrastructure, a threat that could rattle U.S.-China relations, as well as China’s business community.
The company said it has evidence to suggest that “a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists,” but it said that at least 20 other large companies, including finance, media and chemical firms, have been the targets of similar attacks. Google said it discovered the attack in December.
“It’s clear that this attack was so pervasive and so essential to the core of Google’s intellectual property that only in such a situation would they contemplate pulling the plug on their entire business model in China,” said James Mulvenon, a China cyber expert with Defense Group Inc.
Congressional sources said the other companies include Adobe and possibly Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical. Industry sources said the attacks were even broader, affecting 34 firms.
[…]
They appeared to be after information on weapons systems from defense firms and were seeking companies’ “source code,” the most valuable form of intellectual property because it underlies the firms’ computer applications, he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Soldiers Headed to Middle East?
Plans for bases, deployment under consideration
China is considering setting up military bases and possibly deploying forces in the Middle East over the next decade as a means of protecting its access to strategic materials, especially oil, and sizeable investments in various Arab countries, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Middle East expert Patrick Seale said the Chinese influence in the Middle East is rising and its trade with Arab countries, which totaled $132 billion in 2008, will increase.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Linked to Rogue Aviation Network
TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) — In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called “the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11.”
The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa’s most unstable countries.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.
The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania.
Gunmen and bandits with links to AQIM have also stepped up kidnappings of Europeans for ransom, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.
The aircraft hopscotch across South American countries, picking up tons of cocaine and jet fuel, officials say.
They then soar across the Atlantic to West Africa and the Sahel, where the drugs are funneled across the Sahara Desert and into Europe.
An examination of documents and interviews with officials in the United States and three West African nations suggest that at least 10 aircraft have been discovered using this air route since 2006.
Officials warn that many of these aircraft were detected purely by chance. They caution that the real number involved in the networks is likely considerably higher.
Alexandre Schmidt, regional representative for West and Central Africa for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, cautioned in Dakar this week that the aviation network has expanded in the past 12 months and now likely includes several Boeing 727 aircraft.
“When you have this high capacity for transporting drugs into West Africa, this means that you have the capacity to transport as well other goods, so it is definitely a threat to security anywhere in the world,” said Schmidt.
The “other goods” officials are most worried about are weapons that militant organizations can smuggle on the jet aircraft.
A Boeing 727 can handle up to 10 tons of cargo. The U.S. official who wrote the report for the Department of Homeland Security said the al Qaeda connection was unclear at the time.
The official is a counter-narcotics aviation expert who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak on the record. He said he was dismayed by the lack of attention to the matter since he wrote the report.
“You’ve got an established terrorist connection on this side of the Atlantic. Now on the Africa side you have the al Qaeda connection and it’s extremely disturbing and a little bit mystifying that it’s not one of the top priorities of the government,” he said.
Since the September 11 attacks, the security system for passenger air traffic has been ratcheted up in the United States and throughout much of the rest of the world, with the latest measures imposed just weeks ago after a failed bomb attempt on a Detroit-bound plane on December 25.
“The bad guys have responded with their own aviation network that is out there everyday flying loads and moving contraband,” said the official, “and the government seems to be oblivious to it.”
The upshot, he said, is that militant organizations — including groups like the FARC and al Qaeda — have the “power to move people and material and contraband anywhere around the world with a couple of fuel stops.”
The lucrative drug trade is already having a deleterious impact on West African nations. Local authorities told Reuters they are increasingly outgunned and unable to stop the smugglers.
And significantly, many experts say, the drug trafficking is bringing in huge revenues to groups that say they are part of al Qaeda.
It’s swelling not just their coffers but also their ranks, they say, as drug money is becoming an effective recruiting tool in some of the world’s most desperately poor regions. U.S. President Barack Obama has chided his intelligence officials for not pooling information “to connect those dots” to prevent threats from being realized.
But these dots, scattered across two continents like flaring traces on a radar screen, remain largely unconnected and the fleets themselves are still flying.
THE AFRICAN CONNECTION
The deadly cocaine trade always follows the money, and its cash-flush traffickers seek out the routes that are the mostly lightly policed.
Beset by corruption and poverty, weak countries across West Africa have become staging platforms for transporting between 30 tons and 100 tons of cocaine each year that ends up in Europe, according to U.N. estimates.
Drug trafficking, though on a much smaller scale, has existed here and elsewhere on the continent since at least the late 1990s, according to local authorities and U.S. enforcement officials.
Earlier this decade, sea interdictions were stepped up. So smugglers developed an air fleet that is able to transport tons of cocaine from the Andes to African nations that include Mauritania, Mali, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.
What these countries have in common are numerous disused landing strips and makeshift runways — most without radar or police presence. Guinea Bissau has no aviation radar at all. As fleets grew, so, too, did the drug trade.
The DEA says all aircraft seized in West Africa had departed Venezuela.. That nation’s location on the Caribbean and Atlantic seaboard of South America makes it an ideal takeoff place for drug flights bound for Africa, they say.
A number of aircraft have been retrofitted with additional fuel tanks to allow in-flight refueling — a technique innovated by Mexico’s drug smugglers. (Cartel pilots there have been known to stretch an aircraft’s flight range by putting a water mattress filled with aviation fuel in the cabin, then stacking cargoes of marijuana bundles on top to act as an improvised fuel pump.)
Ploys used by the cartel aviators to mask the flights include fraudulent pilot certificates, false registration documents and altered tail numbers to steer clear of law enforcement lookout lists, investigators say.
Some aircraft have also been found without air-worthiness certificates or log books.
When smugglers are forced to abandon them, they torch them to destroy forensic and other evidence like serial numbers. The evidence suggests that some Africa-bound cocaine jets also file a regional flight plan to avoid arousing suspicion from investigators.
They then subsequently change them at the last minute, confident that their switch will go undetected.
One Gulfstream II jet, waiting with its engines running to take on 2.3 tons of cocaine at Margarita Island in Venezuela, requested a last-minute flight plan change to war-ravaged Sierra Leone in West Africa.
It was nabbed moments later by Venezuelan troops, the report seen by Reuters showed. Once airborne, the planes soar to altitudes used by commercial jets.
They have little fear of interdiction as there is no long-range radar coverage over the Atlantic. Current detection efforts by U.S. authorities, using fixed radar and P3 aircraft, are limited to traditional Caribbean and north Atlantic air and marine transit corridors.
The aircraft land at airports, disused runways or improvised air strips in Africa. One bearing a false Red Cross emblem touched down without authorization onto an unlit strip at Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone in 2008, according to a U.N. report.
Late last year a Boeing 727 landed on an improvised runway using the hard-packed sand of a Tuareg camel caravan route in Mali, where local officials said smugglers offloaded between 2 and 10 tons of cocaine before dousing the jet with fuel and burning it after it failed to take off again For years, traffickers in Mexico have bribed officials to allow them to land and offload cocaine flights at commercial airports. That’s now happening in Africa as well.
In July 2008, troops in coup-prone Guinea Bissau secured Bissau international airport to allow an unscheduled cocaine flight to land, according to Edmundo Mendes, a director with the Judicial Police.
“When we got there, the soldiers were protecting the aircraft,” said Mendes, who tried to nab the Gulfstream II jet packed with an estimated $50 million in cocaine but was blocked by the military.
“The soldiers verbally threatened us,” he said. The cocaine was never recovered. Just last week, Reuters photographed two aircraft at Osvaldo Vieira International Airport in Guinea Bissau — one had been dispatched by traffickers from Senegal to try to repair the other, a Gulfstream II jet, after it developed mechanical problems. Police seized the second aircraft.
FLYING BLIND
One of the clearest indications of how much this aviation network has advanced was the discovery, on November 2, of the burned out fuselage of an aging Boeing 727.
Local authorities found it resting on its side in rolling sands in Mali. In several ways, the use of such an aircraft marks a significant advance for smugglers.
Boeing jetliners, like the one discovered in Mali, can fly a cargo of several tons into remote areas.
They also require a three-man crew — a pilot, co pilot and flight engineer, primarily to manage the complex fuel system dating from an era before automation.
Hundreds of miles to the west, in the sultry, former Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau, national Interpol director Calvario Ahukharie said several abandoned airfields, including strips used at one time by the Portuguese military, had recently been restored by “drug mafias” for illicit flights.
“In the past, the planes coming from Latin America usually landed at Bissau airport,” Ahukharie said as a generator churned the feeble air-conditioning in his office during one of the city’s frequent blackouts.
“But now they land at airports in southern and eastern Bissau where the judicial police have no presence.”
Ahukharie said drug flights are landing at Cacine, in eastern Bissau, and Bubaque in the Bijagos Archipelago, a chain of more than 80 islands off the Atlantic coast.
Interpol said it hears about the flights from locals, although they have been unable to seize aircraft, citing a lack of resources. The drug trade, by both air and sea, has already had a devastating impact on Guinea Bissau.
A dispute over trafficking has been linked to the assassination of the military chief of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Wai in 2009. Hours later, the country’s president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, was hacked to death by machete in his home.
Asked how serious the issue of air trafficking remained for Guinea Bissau, Ahukharie was unambiguous: “The problem is grave.” The situation is potentially worse in the Sahel-Sahara, where cocaine is arriving by the ton.
There it is fed into well-established overland trafficking routes across the Sahara where government influence is limited and where factions of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have become increasingly active.
The group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, is raising millions of dollars from the kidnap of Europeans.
Analysts say militants strike deals of convenience with Tuareg rebels and smugglers of arms, cigarettes and drugs.
According to a growing pattern of evidence, the group may now be deriving hefty revenues from facilitating the smuggling of FARC-made cocaine to the shores of Europe.
UNHOLY ALLIANCE
In December, Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told a special session of the UN Security Council that drugs were being traded by “terrorists and anti-government forces” to fund their operations from the Andes, to Asia and the African Sahel.
“In the past, trade across the Sahara was by caravans,” he said. “Today it is larger in size, faster at delivery and more high-tech, as evidenced by the debris of a Boeing 727 found on November 2nd in the Gao region of Mali — an area affected by insurgency and terrorism.”
Just days later, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials arrested three West African men following a sting operation in Ghana. The men, all from Mali, were extradited to New York on December 16 on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abelrahman are accused of plotting to transport cocaine across Africa with the intent to support al Qaeda, its local affiliate AQIM and the FARC.
The charges provided evidence of what the DEA’s top official in Colombia described to a Reuters reporter as “an unholy alliance between South American narco-terrorists and Islamic extremists.”
Some experts are skeptical, however, that the men are any more than criminals. They questioned whether the drug dealers oversold their al Qaeda connections to get their hands on the cocaine.
In its criminal complaint, the DEA said Toure had led an armed group affiliated to al Qaeda that could move the cocaine from Ghana through North Africa to Spain for a fee of $2,000 per kilo for transportation and protection. Toure discussed two different overland routes with an undercover informant.
One was through Algeria and Morocco; the other via Algeria to Libya. He told the informer that the group had worked with al Qaeda to transport between one and two tons of hashish to Tunisia, as well as smuggle Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi migrants into Spain. In any event, AQIM has been gaining in notoriety.
Security analysts warn that cash stemming from the trans-Saharan coke trade could transform the organization — a small, agile group whose southern-Sahel wing is estimated to number between 100 and 200 men — into a more potent threat in the region that stretches from Mauritania to Niger.
It is an area with huge foreign investments in oil, mining and a possible trans-Sahara gas pipeline.
“These groups are going to have a lot more money than they’ve had before, and I think you are going to see them with much more sophisticated weapons,” said Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment Strategy Center, a Washington based security think-tank.
NARCOTIC INDUSTRIAL DEPOT
The Timbuktu region covers more than a third of northern Mali, where the parched, scrubby Sahel shades into the endless, rolling dunes of the Sahara Desert.
It is an area several times the size of Switzerland, much of it beyond state control.
Moulaye Haidara, the customs official, said the sharp influx of cocaine by air has transformed the area into an “industrial depot” for cocaine.
Sitting in a cool, dark, mud-brick office building in the city where nomadic Tuareg mingle with Arabs and African Songhay, Fulani and Mande peoples, Haidara expresses alarm at the challenge local law enforcement faces.
Using profits from the trade, the smugglers have already bought “automatic weapons, and they are very determined,” Haidara said.
He added that they “call themselves Al Qaeda,” though he believes the group had nothing to do with religion, but used it as “an ideological base.” Local authorities say four-wheel-drive Toyota SUVs outfitted with GPS navigation equipment and satellite telephones are standard issue for smugglers.
Residents say traffickers deflate the tires to gain better traction on the loose Saharan sands, and can travel at speeds of up to 70 miles-per-hour in convoys along routes to North Africa.
Timbuktu governor, Colonel Mamadou Mangara, said he believes traffickers have air-conditioned tents that enable them to operate in areas of the Sahara where summer temperatures are so fierce that they “scorch your shoes.”
He added that the army lacked such equipment. A growing number of people in the impoverished region, where transport by donkey cart and camel are still common, are being drawn to the trade.
They can earn 4 to 5 million CFA Francs (roughly $9-11,000) on just one coke run.
“Smuggling can be attractive to people here who can make only $100 or $200 a month,” said Mohamed Ag Hamalek, a Tuareg tourist guide in Timbuktu, whose family until recently earned their keep hauling rock salt by camel train, using the stars to navigate the Sahara. Haidara described northern Mali as a no-go area for the customs service.
“There is now a red line across northern Mali, nobody can go there,” he said, sketching a map of the country on a scrap of paper with a ballpoint pen. “If you go there with feeble means … you don’t come back.”
TWO-WAY TRADE
Speaking in Dakar this week, Schmidt, the U.N. official, said that growing clandestine air traffic required urgent action on the part of the international community.
“This should be the highest concern for governments … For West African countries, for West European countries, for Russia and the U.S., this should be very high on the agenda,” he said.
Stopping the trade, as the traffickers are undoubtedly aware, is a huge challenge — diplomatically, structurally and economically.
Venezuela, the takeoff or refueling point for aircraft making the trip, has a confrontational relationship with Colombia, where President Alvaro Uribe has focused on crushing the FARC’s 45-year-old insurgency.
The nation’s leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, won’t allow in the DEA to work in the country. In a measure of his hostility to Washington, he scrambled two F16 fighter jets last week to intercept an American P3 aircraft — a plane used to seek out and track drug traffickers — which he said had twice violated Venezuelan airspace.
He says the United States and Colombia are using anti-drug operations as a cover for a planned invasion of his oil-rich country. Washington and Bogota dismiss the allegation.
In terms of curbing trafficking, the DEA has by far the largest overseas presence of any U.S. federal law enforcement, with 83 offices in 62 countries. But it is spread thin in Africa where it has just four offices — in Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa — though there are plans to open a fifth office in Kenya.
Law enforcement agencies from Europe as well as Interpol are also at work to curb the trade. But locally, officials are quick to point out that Africa is losing the war on drugs.
The most glaring problem, as Mali’s example shows, is a lack of resources.
The only arrests made in connection with the Boeing came days after it was found in the desert — and those incarcerated turned out to be desert nomads cannibalizing the plane’s aluminum skin, probably to make cooking pots.
They were soon released. Police in Guinea Bissau, meanwhile, told Reuters they have few guns, no money for gas for vehicles given by donor governments and no high security prison to hold criminals.
Corruption is also a problem. The army has freed several traffickers charged or detained by authorities seeking to tackle the problem, police and rights groups said.
Serious questions remain about why Malian authorities took so long to report the Boeing’s discovery to the international law enforcement community. What is particularly worrying to U.S. interests is that the networks of aircraft are not just flying one way — hauling coke to Africa from Latin America — but are also flying back to the Americas.
The internal Department of Homeland Security memorandum reviewed by Reuters cited one instance in which an aircraft from Africa landed in Mexico with passengers and unexamined cargo.
The Gulfstream II jet arrived in Cancun, by way of Margarita Island, Venezuela, en route from Africa. The aircraft, which was on an aviation watch list, carried just two passengers.
One was a U.S. national with no luggage, the other a citizen of the Republic of Congo with a diplomatic passport and a briefcase, which was not searched.
“The obvious huge concern is that you have a transportation system that is capable of transporting tons of cocaine from west to east,” said the aviation specialist who wrote the Homeland Security report.
“But it’s reckless to assume that nothing is coming back, and when there’s terrorist organizations on either side of this pipeline, it should be a high priority to find out what is coming back on those airplanes.”
(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Mali, Alberto Dabo in Guinea Bissau and Hugh Bronstein in Colombia, editing by Jim Impoco and Claudia Parsons)
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Mauritania: Agreement to Help Access to Food
(ANSAmed) — NOUAKCHOTT, JANUARY 12 — More food and better access to food for the hungry populations of central and eastern regions of Mauritania. This is the goal of the “Agreement to fight food insecurity” signed in Nouakchott by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and his Mauritanian colleague Naha Mint Mouknass. Over 4.5 million euro to “strengthen the capacity of populations in the Saharan region and central and eastern areas of the country and enable them to address food emergencies also through an investment fund for the implementation of micro projects identified by cooperatives and associations”. In a country where desert areas account for 80% of the territory and crop lands account for just 1%, the project approved on December 10 (that will come into force next February) is important also for another reason. According to the head of the General Direction for Development Cooperation, Elisabetta Belloni, “it specifically targets the Arab populations of the central and eastern parts of the country which are traditionally neglected by international donors. Mauritania is ethnically divided into two groups: the Arab-Berber majority in the north and the black people in the south. Tensions have never eased between these two groups. Belloni explained that another objective is involving as many women as possible. In Mauritania, which is a moderate Islamic country, women enjoy a relatively good level of emancipation.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Suspect in Denmark Had Jumped Bail in Kenya
A terror suspect arrested in Denmark for attacking a cartoonist condemned by Muslim extremists jumped bail in Kenya and fled to Europe last September, the Sunday Nation can reveal.
The man — identified by Kenyan anti-terrorism officials as Muhidin Gelle — was in intelligence crosshairs while in Kenya and stands accused of planning a terror attack in Nairobi during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The anti-terrorism officials traced Mr Gelle to a residence in Eastleigh where he had gone to visit another man who is high on Kenya’s anti-terrorism watch list.
The man in whose company he was found, the Sunday Nation learnt, is a one-legged student of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who is believed to have been killed last September 14 in a US special forces commando strike south of Mogadishu.
As it turned out, Mr Gelle, who was suspected to be an Al Shabaab field commander, did not have any identification documents on him, but under interrogation, he gave his full name and claimed to be a Danish citizen.
Kenyan authorities contacted the Danish Embassy which confirmed that there was a passport holder with such a name.
In interviews with the Sunday Nation, anti-terrorism officials, who cannot be named without compromising their operations, charged that Mr Gelle’s stay in Kenya had been “well-facilitated by notorious logisticians who continue to operate with impunity, taking full advantage of the fact that Kenya has no anti-terrorism legislation”.
One of the officials told the Sunday Nation that: “He (Gelle), together with four others arrested with him, were charged with being in Kenya illegally and were released on bond. He jumped bail and went back to Denmark. The Embassy of Denmark was well-informed of his connections with Somalia and the Al Shabaab.”
The terror suspect arrived in Kenya just days before a high-profile visit by Mrs Clinton and was accused of planning to stage an attack in Nairobi somewhere between Kencom bus stage on City Hall Way, KICC and the Hotel Inter-Continental.
The Sunday Nation exclusively reported the arrest of the man, who was held for seven weeks before he fled to Denmark.
The same 28-year-old man resurfaced last week after he raided the home of 74-year-old Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who has been the target of Muslim ire since 2005 for his portrayal of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.
The attack took place late on January 1 when a man subsequently identified as Mr Belle broke into Mr Westergaard’s house in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city carrying a knife and an axe.
He fled with his granddaughter into a safe room and summoned police with a panic button.
The head of Denmark’s PET intelligence agency Jakob Scharf said in a statement that the attack was “terror-related”…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Chief Calls on World to Help Crisis-Hit Haiti
(CNN) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an urgent call Wednesday to the international community to assist Haiti, as the Caribbean island counted the cost of a devastating earthquake the day before.
Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude quake struck shortly before 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey reported. The International Red Cross estimated that over three million people in the impoverished nation had been affected.
“There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and that a major relief effort will be required,” Ban said in a statement on the U.N. Web site.
Expressing gratitude to nations rushing aid to the earthquake’s victims, he called for the world to “come to Haiti’s aid in this hour of need.”
The U.N., he said, has mobilized an emergency response team to help coordinate humanitarian relief efforts and is expected to be on the ground shortly.
He also reported that the U.N. mission chief and deputy special representative in the country were unaccounted for, after much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble.
“Many people are still trapped inside,” the secretary-general — who has been in close consultation with the governments of Haiti, the United States and others — noted.
The U.S., meanwhile, was the first to offer help, as President Barack Obama said his government would “stand ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
The earthquake there seems “cruel and incomprehensible,” he told reporters at the White House.
He said it was crucial to assess the condition of the airport at Port-au-Prince, so aid can start coming in. “God has given, God has taken away,” he said, urging that the living must be the priority right now.
His French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed his support and solidarity with the Haitian people as France — which governed Haiti until 1804 — dispatched two planeloads of rescue personnel to the country from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and Marseilles.
His foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the French embassy was in a “very serious state” and that the ambassador was “traumatized.” But he said contact with the embassy had been re-established by telephone.
The Pope lamented Haiti’s “tragic situation (involving) huge loss of human life, a great number of homeless and missing and considerable material damage,” according to quotes from Agence France-Presse.
“I appeal to the generosity of all to ensure our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community for these brothers and sisters who are living a time of need and suffering,” the pontiff said at the end of his weekly general audience.
He added that the Catholic Church’s extensive worldwide charity network would be immediately activated to help the victims, Reuters.com reported.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said “the thoughts of the world are with Haiti.” Speaking during his weekly question and answer session in Parliament, he added that Britain “will be sending support.”
The Canadian government plans to send a reconnaissance team to Haiti to determine how best to assist the devastated country, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said there has been no word on whether Canadians died in the quake, although roughly 6,000 Canadian citizens live in the country. Of these only 700 are registered with the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Cannon said.
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Egypt Asks Italy ‘To Protect Migrants’
Foreign minister to talk to Frattini after Rosarno riots
(ANSA) — Cairo, January 12 — Egypt on Tuesday asked Italy to protect immigrants from attack after a southern Italian town saw the country’s worst racial violence in years.
The Egyptian foreign ministry asked the Italian government to “take the necessary measures” to protect Arab and Muslim minorities and immigrants after race riots in the Calabrian city of Rosarno.
The ministry accused some Rosarno residents of “a campaign of aggression” against hundreds of Sub-Saharan and Muslim day labourers who were attacked after they rioted when three were shot with an air rifle.
It said the attacks, in which several migrants were kneecapped, assaulted and run over, were a sign of a “rising” trend of “similar” racist incidents across Italy, reported by international human rights groups.
The ministry also criticised immigrants’ “conditions of detention, the violation of their economic and social rights and the practice of forced expulsions”.
Egypt appealed to the international community to intervene on “religious and racial discrimination and hatred against foreigners to prevent such incidents recurring”.
The ministry said Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit would raise the issue with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini when he visits Cairo on January 16.
Foreign Undersecretary reacted to Egypt’s call with a no comment, saying it was only right that Frattini should respond, but added: “the events in Rosarno (were) certainly grave but I don’t think those events can change the overall judgement of Italians abroad”.
Rosarno was getting back to normal Tuesday as an operation went on to bulldoze an abandoned cheese factory and a warehouse where the estimated 2,000 immigrants once lived.
The migrants were bussed out over the weekend to three migrant processing centres in southern Italy.
One centre reported Monday that only four asylum seekers were still there while the remaining 400, all carrying residency permits, were heading to find work and friends in Italy’s main cities.
Some 53 people including 18 police were injured in the unrest at Rosarno, one of the strongholds of the Calabrian mafia ‘Ndrangheta, now Italy’s strongest ahead of Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples.
At least one clan-linked man was among those arrested for the attacks, which broke out after immigrants stormed through the city, torching cars and litter bins, in response to the air-rifle shooting.
The Italian government, which has taken a hard line on illegal immigrants through its controversial ‘push-back’ policy on boats of migrants and asylum seekers, aims to move illegals out of other high-crime areas near Naples and in Sicily.
Speaking Monday ahead of a seven-day, seven-nation tour of Mauritania, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt and Tunisia, Frattini said Italy wanted the European Union to take a “more incisive role” in Africa.
“Europe, more than any other continent, is exposed to the dangers of systemic instability in Africa created by the threats of terrorism, illegal trafficking and global warming which, unless they are resolved, will increase the flows of economic migrants towards our continent,” he said.
Italy has already helped Libya set up stiffer southern border controls, along with the EU’s control agency FOREX, as part of an accord which allows Rome to return migrants caught in international waters to Tripoli — a controversial ‘push-back’ policy decried by the Catholic Church and the United Nations.
Thousands of undocumented immigrants help the southern Italian economy by picking tomatoes and oranges for as little as 20 euros a day, many in labour scams in which the mafia, as in Rosarno, is believed to be involved.
An anti-racism march took place in Rosarno Monday, with residents and immigrants demonstrating together to combat an image of “a xenophobic, mafia and racist” town.
“We condemn violence from whatever quarter it comes,” they said.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said situations like those in Rosarno needed “long-term solutions” while Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said off-the-books labour had to be stopped.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Frattini Replies to Egypt: In Rosarno No Religious Motive
(ANSAmed) — NOUAKCHOTT — There is absolutely no religious motivation behind it. The problem of the Arab minorities was never raised, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has specified when he was asked about the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s stance on the incidents in Rosarno. In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign minister has condemned “the campaign of aggression” and “the violence” suffered by “immigrants and Arab and Muslim minorities in Italy” and called on the Italian government to “take the necessary measures to protect the minorities and immigrants”. “They were cases of normal violence to which the police force had to react — replied Frattini-: unacceptable violence which had nothing to do with Egypt and with the Egyptians who, as a community, usually respect Italian laws”. All of Italy, underlined the minister, all of Europe, I believe, saw people attacking houses or smashing and burning cars. This has nothing to do with religious motivations: it was unacceptable violence which was rightly defeated by the police force. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed that the issue will be raised by minister Aboul Gheit during the January 16 meeting with Frattini. The italian minister already said that “he is “ready to talk about anything with Egypt”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants Riot at Rosarno
Two rioters injured by shotgun pellets. Cars attacked. Skips torched. Italian child hurt
ROSARNO — Riots driven by frustration. Exasperated by ill-treatment, poor pay, abuse, insults and shotgun attacks, Rosarno’s immigrants finally fought back. Yesterday afternoon, street riots broke out after yet another shooting, this time near two separate immigrant reception facilities. Disturbances continued through the night.
Two immigrants were wounded by shotgun pellets fired by unidentified gunmen. Both men were taken to hospital but they are not on the danger list. News of the attack sparked the anger of about 120 other immigrants. Rosarno hosts about 1,500 immigrant workers, all of whom work as citrus fruit or vegetable pickers. Yesterday evening, three groups first blocked the Statale 18 road, which connects Rosarno and Gioia Tauro, forcing motorists to stop. Armed with iron bars, sticks and stones, they began to use the cars for target practice. A child in one car with his parents suffered injuries to the right ear from flying glass. The boy was given first aid but did not require hospitalisation. Twenty cars were damaged. Immigrants also tried to attack the motorists, many of whom ran off abandoning their vehicles.
Protesters then moved into the centre of Rosarno, where they began to empty skips and set them on fire. Many cars were damaged or overturned. The immigrants, almost all of whom were from Africa, then turned their attention to town centre shops, shattering glass windows. It was a terrifying scene. One or two rioters clambered onto balconies and threw plants and other objects into the street as residents locked their doors. Those who were outside at the time sought refuge in bars or shops and shuttered themselves in.
Initial action by police and Carabinieri officers failed to placate the protesters, serving only to fuel their already incandescent rage, and for a few hours, Rosarno became a miniature Beirut. However, the violence could have had even more tragic consequences. A number of local residents attempted to fight back but were forced to beat a retreat. Reggio Calabria’s chief of police sent in dozens of crime squads to deal with the disorders. Tear gas was used in police attempts to disperse the protesters, six of whom suffered minor injuries.
Two years ago, immigrants staged protests when two Africans were attacked but on that occasion the protesters, who live in appalling conditions in a former paper mill, took to the streets peacefully. They marched through Rosarno, stopping at the town hall to deliver a request to the prefectoral commissioner for more humane, dignified treatment. From the white community.
Carlo Macrì
08 gennaio 2010
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Egypt Attacks ‘Campaign of Aggression’ Against Migrants
Cairo, 12 Jan. (AKI) — Egypt has condemned the violent clashes in the southern Italian town of Rosarno that left dozens injured and led to the evacuation of 1,200 immigrants at the weekend. The Egyptian foreign ministry on Tuesday also asked the Italian government to “take the necessary measures” to protect Arab and Muslim minorities and immigrants after some of the worst racial conflict ever seen in Italy.
The ministry accused some Rosarno residents of “a campaign of aggression” against farm labourers, many of them African immigrants, who rioted after two of them were shot with an air rifle on Thursday.
In a statement on its website, the ministry also attacked immigrants’ “conditions of detention, the violation of their economic and social rights and the practice of forced expulsions”.
Egypt appealed to the international community to intervene on “religious and racial discrimination and hatred against foreigners to prevent such incidents recurring”.
The statement, attributed to ministry spokesman, Husam Zaki, also denounced other episodes of violence against immigrants in “several Italian cities” in which it noted many had been seriously injured.
The ministry said Egyptian foreign minister Aboul Gheit would raise the issue with Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini when he visits Cairo later this week.
The Vatican launched an attack on Italian racism on Monday condemning the violent attacks against immigrants.
In an article in the semi-official church newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican denounced what it called the persistence of “hatred” in 2010.
“More than disgusting, the racism that has ricocheted around the media take us back to the mute and savage hatred towards those with another coloured skin that we thought we had overcome,” the article said.
The attack was issued as residents in the southern Italian town of Rosarno conducted a street protest late Monday to counter perceptions they were “xenophobic, mafiosi, and racist” after violent clashes with immigrants last week.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Target Mafia After Violence in South
Reggio Calabria, 12 Jan. (AKI) — Italian police on Tuesday seized several million euros worth of assets and arrested 17 people with suspected links to the mafia in raids in the southern town that witnessed violent clashes with African immigrants last week. Officials said those arrested in the town of Rosarno were linked to the Bellocco family of the Calabrian mafia, or ‘Ndrangheta.
Some of those arrested by police were in the central northern region of Emilia Romagna where investigators believe mafia boss Carmelo Bellocco has expanded his business activities under an assumed name.
Those detained are facing charges of mafia association and other crimes.
Police also seized real estate, stores, cars and bank accounts linked to enterprises allegedly run by the Bellocco family through a network of front men.
On Monday, Rosarno residents conducted a street protest to counter perceptions they were “xenophobic, mafiosi, and racist” after violent clashes with immigrants last week.
Italian authorities evacuated more than 1,200 immigrants, many of them African farm workers, from the town at the weekend after dozens were injured in two days of violence.
Pope Benedict XVI denounced the violence while Italy’s hardline interior minister Roberto Maroni from the anti-immigrant Northern League pledged to deport any illegal immigrants involved in the violence.
The riots were among the worst seen in Italy in recent years and provoked a fierce political debate across the country.
They also raised serious questions about the role of the powerful Calabrian Mafia, ‘Ndrangheta, in the exploitation of illegal immigrants.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fini’s Appeal Sparks New Rumours
But aides deny rift with premier, say two will meet this week
(ANSA) — Rome, January 12 — House Speaker Gianfranco Fini urged the government on Tuesday not to dictate its agenda to parliament and respect the opposition’s role by involving it in matters of national interest. Fini’s latest appeal on parliamentary procedures reaped praise from the centre-left opposition but refuelled rumours of a rift within the majority People of Freedom (PdL) Party which he co-founded with Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Fini’s recent stances on a number of issues, including voting rights for immigrants and criticism of the government’s reliance on confidence votes to push its bills through parliament, have placed him at loggerheads with many majority MPs as well as PdL ally the Northern League.
He has also been repeatedly fingered by Milan daily Il Giornale, owned by Berlusconi’s brother Paolo, as a “leftie” and “traitor” against the centre right’s agenda. Berlusconi has, however, distanced himself from Il Giornale’s stance and has repeatedly denied reports of a rift with Fini.
“We shouldn’t forget that parliamentary debate gives full democratic legitimacy to political decisions. It’s only a mythological vision of democracy that construes that the government’s purpose is to ensure that its agenda is automatically and single-mindedly at unison with parliament’s,” Fini told a meeting on parliament’s role.
The speaker again cited the centre-right government’s propensity to steer bills through parliament via confidence votes or urgent decrees, saying this trend stifles and “muffles debate on major decisions of public interest”.
Berlusconi and Fini have been close allies since 1994, when the media magnate decided to step into politics, although Fini once formed a separate election alliance that did not win over voters.
Earlier this year Fini officially merged his rightwing National Alliance party with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to form the PdL.
Fini, however, has repeatedly voiced displeasure with the way the PdL is run, calling for more democracy, and complaining that the premier is caving in to Northern League leader Umberto Bossi on a number of issues.
The right to govern is not simply legitimised by the voting process but must be “strengthened day-to-day in dealing with and solving new and unexpected concrete problems” said Fini, urging the government to involve other parties in the democratic process.
Fini said this was particularly important in Italy, which “is historically inclined to division and de-legitimising opponents”.
The speaker’s call was hailed by opposition Democratic Party MP Michele Ventura, who said the centre right appears interested in “ramming through” its legislation and interpreting “its electoral consensus as a right to absolute power”.
FINI’S RIGHT-HAND MAN DISPELS TALK OF ‘POLITICAL DIVORCE’.
Fini’s call was so forthright that minutes later government spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti was forced to dismiss reports of a new rift with the premier.
He said the two would “meet over the next few days” to discuss a number of issues which have been blown up by media keen on seeing a split that isn’t going to happen.
Fini’s right-hand man also brushed off the rumours, saying the two have had their share of differences but would never break up their political partnership.
People of Freedom (PdL) Deputy House Whip Italo Bocchino confirmed that the two would meet later this week.
“Berlusconi and Fini are the longest-lasting partners in Italian political history…but they’re a complex pair. They’ve been together for 15 years, they’ve had a long engagement, spawned (political) children, ministers, undersecretaries, MPs. Comparing them to husband and wives who have spats, Bocchino said that they “can’t fight because their adult ‘offspring’ are keen to see them get along”.
“They have to get along and are obliged to do so because they cohabit”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants ‘Treated Badly in Italy’
MSF and UN say racism and poor conditions fuelled violence
(ANSA) — Rome, January 12 — Systemic problems in Italy helped fuel the violent unrest involving foreign farmhands in Calabria last week, representatives of two international organizations said Tuesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and two leading United Nations figures voiced separate concerns about the poor treatment of foreigners, following recent clashes in the town of Rosarno. Over 50 people were injured during the violence, which exploded after local youths shot at three African labourers.
Two days of clashes between locals and foreigners saw cars set alight and at least four more immigrants shot at. Others were beaten with bars or run over. Commenting on the riots, which ended with hundreds of farmhands being bussed out of Rosarno, MSF said subhuman living standards had contributed to immigrant anger. Speaking in Rome, MSF Italy spokesman Loris De Filippi said their appalling conditions, which he described as worse than many refugee camps in Africa, were far from isolated. He said MSF had been monitoring the living conditions of migrant agricultural labourers across southern Italy since 2003 and despite repeatedly issuing public warnings about the situation, nothing had changed. “They are subjected to living conditions far below the minimum standards needed for survival,” added MSF seasonal project coordinator Alessandra Tramontano. “They live in perpetual damp, with minimal, often non-existent hygiene, all of which spread infection”. De Filippi blamed widespread “hypocrisy” in Italy for the situation. “These people, around 70% of whom are irregular migrants, are reduced to virtual slavery and everyone knows about it but no one does anything,” he said. “The institutions, the police, employers and unions all know but they continue to pretend there’s nothing happening because the situation is convenient for them”. The UN representatives agreed that “wretched living conditions” were partly to blame but also pointed the finger at “ingrained racism”. The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants Jorge Bustamante and the Special Rapporteur on Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance Githu Muigai issued a joint statement describing the violence as “extremely worrying”. “It indicates serious and deeply ingrained problems of racism towards these immigrant workers,” the statement said.
Bustamente and Muigai urged the Italian government to “calm the increasingly xenophobic attitude towards migrant workers” and recalled that it had a duty to protect the human rights of everyone, “irrespective of their immigration status”.
The rapporteurs said it was “more urgent than ever that the Italian authorities step up their actions against racism, educate people about human rights, immediately denounce any hate speech and prosecute the racist actions and violence perpetrated by a few individuals”.
EXPOSE’ PROMPTED BILL WHICH FAILED. The last government introduced a bill designed specifically to tackle the issue of forced migrant labour and improve the conditions of foreign farm workers but it failed to win parliamentary approval.
The bill, which provided benefits for workers who reported abusive employers to the police, followed an expose’ by news weekly L’Espresso.
The Italian author of the article, who posed as an immigrant crop picker, described workers being beaten, threatened and forced to toil long hours with almost no breaks, food or water.
He said they were paid extremely low wages, often nothing at all, and were forced to sleep outdoors or in barns with no toilets, running water or electricity.
He also cited the case of a Bulgarian who was almost beaten to death after complaining about conditions The centre-right government has taken a hard line on illegal immigrants since coming to power in 2008.
Among its most controversial policies is a ‘push-back agreement’, under which migrant boats intercepted at sea by Italian patrols are forcibly escorted to Libya. Critics say Libya is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no asylum system. The government has also announced plans to move foreigners without residence permits out of other high-crime areas near Naples and in Sicily.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rosarno: Frattini, Egypt? No Link to Violence Against Copts
(ANSAmed) — NOUAKCHOTT (MAURITANIA), JANUARY 12 — “It has absolutely nothing to do with it,” answered Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, on a visit to Mauritania today, when asked whether the statement from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on events in Rosarno was in any way connected with protests following the recent violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt. The head of the Foreign Office reaffirmed the “rights of Christians not only to not be persecuted, but also to practice their religion”. And he said that he “congratulated Egypt for the prompt arrest of those responsible”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rosarno: Frattini, No Racism, Ready to Talk With Egypt
(ANSAmed) — NOUAKCHOTT, JANUARY 12 — Italy is not a racist country and “nobody can accuse us of i”, said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, rejecting accusations made this morning in a harsh statement from the Egyptian Government which have spread as far as Mauritania, where the Minister is spending his first stop on an African tour which will last the whole week, and which will take him to Egypt on January 15 and 16. “Nobody can accuse us of racism”, was Frattini’s response as soon as he heard of the Egyptian statement, during a series of visits in the Mauritanian capital to projects run by Italian cooperation. “The Egyptian people are those who above all enjoy quotas of regular immigration, which they respect, and which give no problems to Italy. So the problem is certainly not Egypt”, continued the Minister, playing down the tone of the row, and stressing his readiness to “talk about any matter” with his Egyptian counterpart Aboul Gheit, whom he will meet on Saturday morning. Events in Rosarno have re-ignited the row and set the tone for the “immigration=Islam=Racism” equation once again, which the Government in Cairo has in some part endorsed, by talking about violence and campaigns of aggression against immigrants, Arab minorities and Muslims. But Frattini was careful to clarify the terms of the issue: “the issue of Arab minorities has never been raised, there is absolutely no religious foundation. The whole of Italy, the whole of Europe I believe, has seen people attacking homes and smashing and burning cars. This is unacceptable violence which was rightly repelled by the police”. Connecting the violence against the Coptic Christians in Egypt with events in Rosarno would be an error of judgement, because “it has absolutely nothing to do with it”, confirmed Frattini, who affirmed “the rights of Christians not only to not be persecuted, but also to practice their faith”. He also said that he “congratulated Egypt for the prompt arrest of those responsible”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonian City to Deny Residence to Illegal Migrants
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 11 — The mayor of Vic (Catalonia), a city that is led by a coalition of socialists, ERC and CIU, stressed the decision today to deny residency to illegal migrants. In a press conference quoted by the EFE agency, Josep Vila d’Abadal, of the CIU, defended the city’s decision from criticism yesterday from the Minister of Labour and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, who indicated that refusing the illegal migrants residency “is illegal”. According to the mayor, article 25 of the new law regarding foreigners, which came into effect in December, requires all foreigners who enter Spain to be in possession of a passport or other travel document which establishes their identity and, moreover, a visa, apart from those who hold an identification card for foreigners or, in exceptional cases, the authorisation to return. As a consequence, the city of Vic intends to require the same documentation of all those who wish to reside in the city, the mayor stressed. It is a decision that automatically excludes illegal migrants. Vila d’Abadal indicated that the percentage of foreigners that do not have the requisites for residency is low and sits around 2% of the total number of immigrants. . The decision of the city of Vic also caused protests from the association SOS Racism, according to which no one must be left out of the city’s records office, because this would mean denying access to primary services, like healthcare, education and measures to integrate immigrants. Local associations and volunteer groups, including Caritas, Veus Diverses, immigrant coordination and labour organisations called for an afternoon meeting to decide which protest initiative can be taken against the city’s measures. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: First Ever Sex Change Operation on 16-Yr-Old Boy
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 12 — The first ever sex change operation on a boy under the age of 18 in Spain — and one of the few such operations on a minor in the world — has been carried out at the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona. The news was reported by hospital sources, quoted by the media. The operation, which was carried out last week, but which was reported only today, was authorised by a juvenile court judge in November following the examination of forensic expert reports on the minor, which were all in favour of the operation. The 16-year-old patient has been undergoing hormone and psychiatric treatment for over a year and a half, as is set out by the operation protocol, with the authorisation and support of his parents and doctors. The operation, which is being paid for by the patient’s family, was performed successfully and the young man has now become female. Spanish law only allows people aged 18 or over to have this type of operation, except in exceptional circumstances, such as in this case. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Top Scientist Finally Admits Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
In February 2003, Dr. Louise Brinton, the National Cancer Institute’s chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, served as chairperson at an NCI workshop in Bethesda, Md., to assess whether abortion was implicated as a breast cancer risk.
In the opinion of “over 100 of the world’s leading experts,” said the subsequent NCI report, including Dr. Brinton, the answer was no.
One expert disallowed from participating was Dr. Joel Brind, a biology and endocrinology professor who had co-authored a meta-analysis demonstrating an abortion/breast cancer (ABC) link.
Brind protested that the outcome was predetermined by “experts” handpicked by Dr. Brinton who either were not really experts, were dependent on the NCI or other government agencies for grants, or were pro-abortion extremists, such as two who had previously provided paid “expert” court testimony on behalf of abortionists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Catholic Ban on Women Priests ‘Illegal Under Harriet Harman Equality Bill’
The Roman Catholic ban on women entering the priesthood will become illegal under Harriet Harman’s controversial Equality Bill, according to Christian charity, CARE.
A new report by the leading charity — backed by a legal opinion from a leading QC — says the Bill will make it impossible for all churches and faith-based charities to insist that their senior staff lead private lives in accordance with their religious beliefs.
CARE said that, under the Bill, which will be considered by the House of Lords on Monday, it would be illegal for a Christian charity to sack a senior manager for adultery or living an openly gay lifestyle.
The same rules would, it added, apply to Muslim and Jewish churches and charities.
However, the biggest potential showdown is likely to be between the government and Britain’s 4.3 million Catholics over the church’s tradition of an all-male, celibate priesthood.
Previous legislation in 2007, also backed by Ms Harman, the Commons Leader and equality minister, forced the closure of two Catholic adoption agencies for refusing to comply with new laws requiring them to place children with gay couples.
CARE’s report — A Little Bit Against Discrimination? — warns that the proposals contained in the Bill are a serious threat to religious liberty in Britain.
John Bowers QC said in a legal opinion for CARE that the Bill could make it unlawful for a church to require a priest or minister to be male, celibate and unmarried, or not in a civil partnership.
When the Bill, which aims to wrap up all existing equality legislation in one piece of law, was debated in the Commons, ministers MPs tabled more than 100 amendments to it — but ministers imposed a “guillotine” on the Bill and prevented most of them being discussed.
The report’s author, Dr Daniel Boucher, said: “The Equality Bill is a direct assault on the freedom of all faith-based organisations, from churches to charities. This Bill will make it unlawful for those organisations to employ people who are committed to a particular set of religious beliefs.
“This Bill in its current form is a further blow to the faith-based voluntary sector and will leave many people unable to access services they always have.
“This legislation must be revised to recognise our plural society. It must recognise that there are many people in our country who have deeply held religious views and convictions, rather than trying to impose some modern day Stalinistic version of society where there is only ever one view that is right, the Government’s.”
Overall, the Bill is designed to deliver greater equality between people of different gender, race, religion and class.
However, it has attracted criticism, particularly from businesses. It paves the way for ‘gender pay audits’ in large companies, obliging employers to disclose the average hourly pay they award male and female workers.
The planned legislation would also allow employers to give preference to female or non-white job applicants over equally qualified white men.
Public bodies would have a legal duty to narrow the gap between the rich and poor in the provision of services. For example, local authorities would be expected to do more to help children from poorer backgrounds.
If passed, the Bill could also oblige public sector bodies to consider the “gender balance” among employees of companies bidding for all government contracts.
But Michael Foster, Minister for Equality on the Bill said: “The Equality Bill will still allow churches to hire only male clergy and will let faith-based charities continue to recruit people of the same faith where this is a requirement of the job, such as care staff who may also be asked to pray with the people they look after.
“We have been absolutely clear on this throughout the Bill’s passage, but as there has been some misunderstanding around our intentions we will amend the Bill to make this clear beyond doubt.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gay Man Who Tried to Poison Lesbian Neighbours With Slug Pellets Over Three-Legged Cat Feud Walks Free
A gay man who attempted to poison his lesbian neighbours by pouring slug pellets into their curry after they accused him of kidnapping their three-legged cat has walked free from court.
Gary Stewart, 37, had fallen out with his neighbours, Ann Marie Walton, 38, and Beverley Sales, 36.
But in an apparent bid to restore cordial relations with the pair he offered them a curry from a local Indian takeaway.
When the couple went to eat the meal they found the curry sauce was laced with dozens of tiny blue slug pellets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Avatar Script Reveals Cameron’s Hatred for Gun Owners
This appears to be accurate. Both Ain’t It Cool News and JoBlo.com have posted James Cameron’s full “Avatar” script. To triple-check I went to the 20th Century-Fox site and found that they posted the same script, as well. After being as careful as possible (wouldn’t want to smear Cameron like he did the U.S. Marines. NOTE for Leftist hair-splitters: former Marines), I bring you a scene written by James Cameron that was cut from the final film but serves as a glimpse at the director’s childish prejudices and mindset:
INT. ARMOR BAY — DAY
TROOPERS issue automatic weapons and magazines to a long line of mine workers. The miners lock and load like the redblooded redneck NRA supporters they are.
| [Return to headlines] |
Geoengineering Conference to Discuss Blocking Sun
As hundreds of people die worldwide as a result of record low temperatures in the midst of a savage winter, scientists are preparing for a conference in which they will discuss measures to use geoengineering to block out the sun.
“The summit of climate scientists, to be held in California in March, will examine drastic techniques for slowing climate change that are controversial and have been described as “geo-piracy,” reports the Telegraph.
“Most techniques focus on ways of reducing the sun’s rays by blocking them using mirrors orbiting in space or by spraying sulphur compounds into the high atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from earth.”
Another proposal involves sending spaceships into the upper atmosphere to spray seawater into the sky and reflect sunlight back into space, an idea that would seem more at home in the context of some bizarre alien invasion movie.
“Most of the talk about these geo-engineering techniques say they should be saved until we get to an emergency situation. Well, the people of the Arctic might say they are in an emergency situation now,” said conference organizer Mike MacCracken.
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Islam is Not a Religion Nor is it a Cult. It is a Complete System.
Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.
Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called “religious rights.”
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to “the reasonable” Muslim demands for their “religious rights,” they also get the other components under the table.Here’s how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked to Organ Failure, Study Reveals
In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
[…]
In the conclusion of the IJBS study, researchers wrote:
“Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity…These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.”
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1 comment:
The big news of the day concerns the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
We are now invited to witness The Chosen One™−like all of his predecessors−gift wrap another $100 MILLION IN AID for this Caribbean cess pit.
Permit me to suggest a paltry $1 Million dollar government aid package that sees the forcible removal of all Haitian leadership, preferrably feet first, and reallows this much beleaguered tropical island a chance to start over. Reapplication of similar aid could remain pending should such misprision of office reoccur.
This would go light years further than, once again, propping up what continues to be among one of the world's most corrupt nations.
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