Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II back in 1981, was released from a Turkish prison today. Mr. Agca’s much-anticipated “revelations” concern the fact that he is the real and eternal Jesus Christ, that the Trinity does not exist, that the world will end soon, and that he is going to write a perfect new Bible to correct the book’s many errors.In other news, an opinion poll indicates that Americans want a smaller government by a wide margin, 58% to 38%. All I can say is, “What’s wrong with you people? If that’s the way you feel, why did so many of you vote for Obama?” Sheesh.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Gaia, Henrik, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Sean O’Brian, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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1 Million Americans Give Up on Job Searches
Long-term unemployment and labor-force dropouts hit record highs
Nearly 1 million unemployed American workers, frustrated with a lack of available jobs, are dropping out of the labor force, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
Likewise, the number of individuals unemployed for more than 27 weeks dramatically worsened in the first year of the Obama administration. Discouraged workers are not counted in official unemployment statistics.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ECB Prepares Legal Ground for Euro Rupture as Greek Crisis Escalates
“Recent developments have, perhaps, increased the risk of secession (however modestly), as well as the urgency of addressing it as a possible scenario,” said the document, entitled Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU: some reflections.
The author makes a string of vaulting, Jesuitical, and mischievous claims, as EU lawyers often do. Half a century of ever-closer union has created a “new legal order” that transcends a “largely obsolete concept of sovereignty” and imposes a “permanent limitation” on the states’ rights.
Those who suspect that European Court has the power pretensions of the Medieval Papacy will find plenty to validate their fears in this astonishing text.
Crucially, he argues that eurozone exit entails expulsion from the European Union as well. All EU members must take part in EMU (except Britain and Denmark, with opt-outs). [Note: Sweden also has an opt-out from the Euro single currency — Sean]
This is a warning shot for Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain. If they fail to marshal public support for draconian austerity, they risk being cast into Icelandic oblivion. Or for Greece, back into the clammy embrace of Asia Minor.
ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet upped the ante, warning that the bank would not bend its collateral rules to support Greek debt. “No state can expect any special treatment,” he said. He might as well daub a death’s cross on the door of Greece’s debt management office.
[…]
As Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS) slide into deflation, their “real” interest rates will rise even higher. “It is tantamount to hiking rates in the already weak PIIGS,” he said. This is the crux. ECB policy will become “pro-cyclical”, too tight for the South, too loose for the North.
The City view is that the North-South split may cause trouble, but that there will always be a bail-out to prevent a domino effect. “If a rescue turns out to be necessary, a rescue will be mounted,” said Marco Annunziata from Unicredit.
It comes down to a bet that Berlin will do for Club Med what it did for East Germany: subsidise forever. It is a judgement on whether EMU is the binding coin of sacred solidarity, or just a fixed exchange rate system like others before it.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Pays Off Unions With Taxpayers’ Money
President Obama gives unions a sweetheart deal on health care — and everyone else the shaft
Congressional Democrats received another $68 million from unions in 2008, and $21 million more so far this year. And that doesn’t count the value of “in kind” contributions like phone banks, poll volunteers and independent advertising.
Looks like the unions are getting their money’s worth — with a sweetheart deal worth billions.
For most American workers, beginning in 2013, if your health care insurance plan is worth more than $8,900 for an individual and $24,000 for a family, that plan will be hit with a 40% excise tax. While technically the tax falls on the insurer, virtually all economists agree that the cost will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Moreover, because the threshold for the tax is indexed to ordinary inflation rather than the higher rate of medical inflation, even if your plan doesn’t get hit today, it may well be taxed in the future.
But that won’t happen to union members. Under an agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, congressional leaders, and union bosses behind closed doors, their policies will be exempt from the tax until 2018. Plans for state and local employees would also be exempted.
That’s right: if you have two workers doing identical jobs, earning the same wages, and receiving the same insurance plan, the one who doesn’t join the union gets hit with a 40% tax; the union worker doesn’t.
[…]
But exempting union workers from the tax will reduce revenue by an estimated $55 billion. With the cost of the health bill heading toward at least $1 trillion over 10 years, that lost revenue will have to be made up somewhere else. Most likely that will mean a tax on investment income, meaning there will be less capital available to create jobs (at a time of 10% unemployment) as well as lower returns for your 401(k).
Of course, there are other union goodies in the health care bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cass Sunstein — The Red General
Obama: Getting Ready to Regulate You
Sunstein, already making money on weird animal rights cases, is now after the general public, to silence them. He is the new ‘Regulatory Czar’. And Obama czars are a danger to every citizen’s income, life, thoughts and freedoms. (For a YouTube presentation go to adambitely.com and look for ‘Time to stand against Cass Sunstein’, before he regulates it off the internet).
Edward Cline (Capitalism magazine, 6th October 2009;) calls Sunstein a “fascist/socialist fellow traveller in the Obama administration endorsing the gagging of anyone who criticizes (it) and its agenda…”
Cline also discusses this form of fascism in ‘Thought Crime: The Logical End of Politically Correct Speech.’ He is right, because when the people allow PC to rule, it must increase in hatred towards those who speak freely, and end in crushing all free thought, which is attacked by law and financial penalty.
[…]
Mandatory Sunstein
It is very easy for a czar to make and break people, simply by inventing his own rules. And Sunstein does that in abundance. For example, included in ‘conspiracy theories’ that he wants Obama to make illegal, are the people who argue against climate change policies put forward by government. He wants to completely silence them because they are ‘criminals’.
Added to this, he wants to introduce mandatory “electronic sidewalks” to the internet. This means when an argument is put on a website, it will automatically be accompanied by links to opposing views in the side bar! Thus, a site specialising in, say, Christianity, can be inundated by sites that hate it, even though the Christian website is paid for by Christians. It means anyone who writes anything against climate change, will be swamped by green stuff.
The aim is not to give two sides to any story, but to dilute the power of opposition by mixing it with other views. It is a psychological ploy, not proper argumentation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Not Saying the Unsayable
Most sentient Americans had one question in the wake of the massacre at Fort Hood last November: How on earth could the Army have allowed to remain in its ranks a soldier known to espouse the supremacist, seditious ideology that justifies murderous jihad?
Now, thanks to a report submitted last Friday by an official inquiry, we have the answer. Incredibly, though, that answer is not to be found within the 86-page document issued by the “Department of Defense Independent Review Related to Fort Hood.” Rather, it is evident from what the report does not say.
Like its name, the independent review co-chaired by former Clinton Army Secretary Togo West and former Chief of Naval Operations Vern Clark elides the central fact: The murder of twelve servicemen and women and one civilian at Ft. Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009 was indeed an act of jihad, or Islamic “holy war.”
Incredibly, there is exactly one reference to the word “Islam” or its derivatives in the entire report. It is only to be found in a footnote, which cites a publication whose title is “Countering Violent Islamic Extremism.”
No mention is made at all of “jihad” or “Shariah,” the ideology that, according to authoritative Islam, requires its adherents to engage in holy war. Neither, for that matter, are the following terms ever used: “Muslim,” “Muslim Brotherhood,” “Salafi,” “al Qaeda” or “enemy.” Even President Obama’s favored euphemism, “violent extremism” is not employed, ever…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Martha Coakley Got A+ From ACORN
A June 12, 2008 press release from Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley ballyhoos the fact that she earned an “A+” from ACORN. Ironically, this perfect grade was awarded for “responding to the foreclosure crisis.” No single non-governmental entity is more responsible for the real estate meltdown than ACORN.
Coakley’s press release goes on to detail various prosecutions of shady subprime operators but, of course, there is not a word about any investigation or prosecution of ACORN.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Most Americans Say They Want a Smaller Government
Although the Washington Post’s Sunday story that focused primarily on a new Washington Post-ABC News poll—”Poll Shows Growing Disappointment, Polarization Over Obama’s Performance” by Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta—made no mention of the fact that the poll found that 58 percent of Americans say they favor a smaller government that provides fewer services, another story in Sunday’s Post—”One Year Later Assessing Obama; Testing the Promise of Pragmatism” by Dan Balz—did mention that finding.
The tenth paragraph of Balz’s story said: “The poll also shows how much ground Obama has lost during his first year of trying to convince the public that more government is the answer to the country’s problems. By 58 percent to 38 percent, Americans said they prefer smaller government and fewer services to larger government with more services. Since he won the Democratic nomination in June 2008, the margin between those favoring smaller over larger government has moved in Post-ABC polls from five points to 20 points.”]
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Obama’s Council of Governors
On January 11th, 2010 with virtually no fanfare or public announcement President Obama created by executive order what will amount to a hand picked governor panel for issues of homeland defense.
This executive order¹ creates a hand picked panel of 10 governors for the stated purpose of exchanging “views, information, or advice” on:
(a) Matters involving the National Guard of the various States; (b) Homeland defense; (c) Civil support; (d) Synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and (e) Other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.
Obviously the federal government is charged with the defense of the nation. The assistance provided by the states through the National Guard (a Federal military Reserve element) is well known. We have a newly formed “combatant command” called Northern Command that is tasked for providing military support in defense of the homeland who is partnered with Canadian Command — another combatant command from Canada to assist Northern Command in its duties to support the civil authorities.
With all this manpower, equipment, intelligence and material support what further need does the federal government have with creating a council for homeland defense made up of state Governors?
Logically one would have to think that there would be a “reason” that necessitated this particular move at this particular time. After all we would not assume that the federal government is creating a council and utilizing resources and manpower without having some idea that it will be needed.
Let’s take a look at the short list above that these governors are going to provide input on…
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The Body Scanner Scam
Why invading our physical privacy at airports won’t make us safe.
By EDWARD N. LUTTWAK
All males have a body cavity. Females have two body cavities. In prisons, these body cavities are habitually used to smuggle drugs and improvised weapons past body searches, including complete nudity strip searches.
Given the power of widely available explosives, the amount that can be carried inside a body cavity—let alone two—is sufficient to destroy ordinary pressurized airliners at normal flight altitudes. That makes “pat downs,” or indeed any form of physical inspection that is remotely feasible in any airport of any normal country, entirely futile. That alone rules out scanners as a solution unless they are both very-high definition and pat downs are not allowed as an alternative.
Futility has not of course deterred the United States from creating and operating a vast Transportation Security Administration apparatus critically dependent on metal detectors. At enormous cost, and by inflicting enormous inconvenience, it almost guarantees the detection of any explosive device—so long as it is firmly attached to a nail clipper.
Reliance on metal detectors was dubious from the start not only because they cannot detect explosives as such, but because they cannot even detect knives if they are made out of ceramic. Some manufacturers of ceramic knives add metal to them specifically to allow detection. Others do not and their knives are just as lethal—certainly more so than the short box cutters used by the 9/11 terrorists.
The scanners that are now to be acquired would perpetuate futility at even greater cost. True, it is perfectly feasible to design very high definition scanners that could detect objects inside body cavities, and at least one manufacturer already claims that capability. But to use those scanners would throw out any pretense of preserving privacy. It also would mean subjecting every passenger to whatever level of radiation those machines will emit. Recent research has demonstrated that the cancer risks of radiation have been grossly underestimated, even for medical equipment operated by qualified radiologists and their trained technicians. It is therefore no good showing that in the manufacturer’s tests the level of radiation is only moderately harmful, because once distributed at airports, those machines will not necessarily be perfectly calibrated, nor will they be operated correctly by experts.
All along the alternative—which costs much less, inflicts much less inconvenience and would have a much higher probability of intercepting terrorists before the fact—has been staring us in the face. To screen passengers as persons instead of their bodies and belongings has an overwhelming advantage: It can detect a would-be terrorist even if the specific technique he tries to employ is not previously known. To inspect all shoes after a shoe bomber almost succeeded, or to pat down passengers after the underwear bomber almost succeeded, provides no defense against the next techniques that could be tried at any time.
To screen passengers as persons would reduce costs and inconvenience very greatly, because entire categories of passengers could be waived through with a rapid examination of travel documents and a few random checks now and then. These include a variety of easily recognizable groups that not even the most ingenious terrorists could simulate: touring senior citizens traveling together (a category that contains a good portion of all American, European and East Asian tourist traffic), airline flying personnel who come to the security gate as a crew, families complete with children, and more. In each case, the critical procedure would be to ask the group’s members to recognize each other as such.
Many individuals could also be included in the document examination plus random check category: frequent travelers who have multiyear travel records with airline alliances, whose travel history could instantly be determined by the TSA. Evidently some travel histories would require further probing, in effect returning those passengers to the general category of travelers. They are the ones whose bodies and belongings would be checked with whatever detectors or manual methods are at hand, but who would also be asked a specific set of nonarbitrary questions laid down by frequently changed protocols. The aim would be to identify innocent travelers as quickly as possible to send them on their way, while being ready to persist with further questions that might even end with the denial of boarding and a referral to police authorities.
With such a system that would discriminate only positively—only in favor of groups and categories of passengers, and never against them—we could have real security at a drastically lower cost in money and inconvenience.
Mr. Luttwak, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is author of the recently published “The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire” (Harvard)
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Three Held in Palmview Home Invasion
Three men are being held for a Palmview home invasion where an 11-year-old boy was shot defending his mother.
Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office deputies told Action 4 News that it happened off Minnesota Road and 8 Mile Line between Palmview and Mission around 12:30 a.m. Friday.
The homeowner said she and her 11-year-old son were in bed when she heard banging coming from the front door.
She got up to check and she saw two Hispanic males men wearing masks and armed with handguns walking towards her.
She quickly closed the bedroom door but one of the men allegedly tried to force it open.
The masked man kept telling her to open the door and she would not open the door.
The woman told deputies that the home invaders shot through the door and hit her son on the left hip area.
Her son had a 22 cal. Rifle and shot back at the alleged robbers.
[…]
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials told Action 4 News that they have filed immigration detainers against the two men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Policy Now Targeting ‘Homophobia’
Goal is to squash belief homosexuality is immoral
Opponents of “hate crimes” legislation, who have frequently pointed to Canada as an example of how such laws are used to increasingly suppress moral objections to homosexuality, now have more fuel for their fire in the form of the “Quebec Policy Against Homophobia.”
The policy, released last month by Quebec’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Kathleen Weil, assigns the government the task of eliminating all forms of “homophobia” and “heterosexism” — including the belief that homosexuality is immoral — from society as a whole.
The text and specifics of the policy are steeped in vague bureaucratic language about “coordination” and “synergy,” but the goal is spelled out clearly: to enlist the government to normalize homosexuality in society and to quell common criticisms levied against “sexual minorities,” a term the policy uses to inclusively describe “lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgenders.”
[…]
Georges Buscemi, president of Campaign Quebec-Vie, a Quebec pro-life group, told LifeSiteNews.com it is “obvious” that the policy would impose homosexuality training on children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Teen Stabs Classmate to Stop Bullying
Schoolgirl tells court of three year bullying campaign against her which eventually drove her to stab her tormentor
A 15-year-old schoolgirl has been remanded to an underage correctional facility for four weeks and will undergo mental evaluation after stabbing a classmate on Friday.
The girl has been charged with attempted murder after she stabbed a boy who she said had been bullying her for the last three years.
The incident took place around lunch time in the Samsøgade School in Århus when the girl was asked to clean up alongside her alleged tormentor. She stabbed him in the back with a knife she had brought from home.
She admitted that she had planned and carried out the attack but denied the charge of attempted murder, saying she had already avoided attacking him earlier in the day for fear of stabbing him in the heart. The 15-year-old also said she carried out the attack during school hours as she knew the boy would quickly receive medical attention.
The boy’s injuries are not said to be life threatening but the court was told that it could have been fatal if the wound had been a centimetre to the side.
‘Right afterwards I was so happy, but the others in the class were scared or panicked,’ the girl explained at her preliminary judicial hearing.
According to the girl, she had repeatedly gone to teachers for help with the bully, but they did not pay attention. The most recent case took place the day before the attack.
However, school principal Peter Gaard Sørensen denied the school had a serious bullying problem. He said that after speaking with fellow students and teachers following the incident, none were aware of anyone bullying the girl.
‘None of her teachers were contacted, not even in the last week as was said. I can’t take away from the girl that she felt bullied but I have to say that there are 20 other viewpoints that point in a different direction.’
‘They agree that the girl had had a lot of conflicts with different students, but not especially with the boy who was stabbed,’ he added.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders vs the Poet and the Lawyer
“You have to be tolerant about tolerance,” says South African poet Antjie Krog. “There have to be clear regulations about how people deal with one another,” says lawyer Gerard Spong. A court case against Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV, starts next week. Mr Wilders has been accused of discrimination and inciting hate. It’s a case that also explores the boundaries of tolerance.
Krog is a guest at Winternachten, an annual literary festival held in The Hague. In her opening address, she called for tolerance and interconnectedness, the notion that everything and everyone on the planet is reciprocally connected.
Overwhelmed
In 1989, she made her first visit to the Netherlands from what was then a racist, apartheid South Africa and she still remembers it well, “I was overwhelmed by the tolerance. On the front page of a newspaper I read an article about the rights of lesbians and gays in an old people’s home. And I thought, what an amazingly free country this is. Real freedom. At home, one didn’t even dare say homosexual out loud. But, with the passing of years, the Netherlands sounds more and more like apartheid South Africa”.
Radical
She continues, “Apartheid radicalised black South Africans. Black people felt forced to turn against whites and to fight them. I’m very worried now because Muslims are becoming more radical. The way that the western world deals with Islam, forces people to take sides. It doesn’t help them solve their own problems. Many people feel forced to wear a headscarf, otherwise they won’t be real Muslims. Outward expressions of religious belief should never be suppressed”.
Wilders trial
The trial of PVV leader Geert Wilders begins next week. He has called Islam a backward religion and frequently agitates against headscarves and the number of mosques in the Netherlands. The far right politician has been accused of inciting hatred and discriminating against Muslims. His political party enjoys a great deal of support among the Dutch electorate.
Mr Wilders was brought to trial after a number of people filed complaints against him. One of them is the well-known Dutch criminal defence lawyer Gerard Spong. Although Mr Spong has refused to comment on the trial, he did deliver a lecture on regulation at Winternachten.
“I’m calling for clearer regulation in the law,” says Mr Spong. “The article in the constitution on freedom of expression has led to a maze of legal rulings. A vast number of ethnic and religious communities want to live here in peaceful co-operation. In order to make this extremely complicated society governable, we need explicit, clear-cut regulations about what is and what is not permissible. We have to treat each other decently. It doesn’t matter whether that stems from good manners, the law of the land or religious belief, but we have to treat each other decently.”
Convince people
Antjie Krog is disturbed by the trial of Mr Wilders, “I want to live in country where people care about each other. If you have to use the law to force people to allow others the space to be themselves… well, I’d find that absolutely awful “.
The poet has first-hand experience of how apartheid divided South Africa. She says that South Africa’s apartheid regime was similar to intolerance because it shut some people out, “intolerance leads to destruction. My country is not a paradise of tolerance, but we know very well that intolerance will destroy you in the end”.
Krog consistently calls for tolerance, “you want newcomers to the country accept the liberal, tolerant values. If someone comes here who doesn’t share those values, then you have to find a tolerant manner to convince people to accept them. In order to survive here, it’s important that they accept liberalism and toleration.”
In the square in front of the lower house of parliament she sees an article from the constitution, carved into a long stone bench. It’s the article that says that everybody in the Netherlands is equal. “That is fantastic,” says Krog, “there isn’t a better foundation than that”.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Hackers Shut Down Jewish Website in Britain
(IsraelNN.com) Anti-Semitic hackers shut down the London Jewish Chronicle website for 18 hours until Monday morning and posted an Arab flag, hate slogans and messages from the Koran. The computer vandals called themselves “Palestinian Mujaheeds.”
The hackers’ address was identified as being in Turkey, whose official statements have been increasingly anti-Israeli the past year. Turkey and Israel were involved in a diplomatic row last week after one of its television stations showed an anti-Zionist soap opera and Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister responded with a diplomatic snub of Ankara’s envoy.
“Arent you ashamed of giving tolerance to Jewish who is the main actor of wars with being of children killers?” [sic] the hackers posted on the website. “Arent you ashamed of giving support to vampire who doesn’t care any human life? Arent you ashamed of showing respect to Jewish who makes revenge, hatred and rivality feelings between the people?”
Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard said, “It’s a pretty self-defeating attempt to silence us. Our site was down for a few hours, but as a result we will get more readers than ever before.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Crackdown on ‘Big Babies’
Italy’s minister for public administration has suggested a new law to force grown-up children to leave their parents’ home.
Renato Brunetta was speaking after a judge ordered a father to carry on paying a living allowance to his 32-year-old live-in daughter.
The average age of home-leavers in Italy is one of the highest in Europe.
Mr Brunetta has been tasked with reforming Italy’s notoriously inefficient bureaucracy.
He seems to be on a one-man crusade to shake up Italy.
He has already declared war on the fanulloni — the skivers — who abuse their safe state jobs by sloping off for long lunch breaks and the like.
Now he has turned his fire on young adults who refuse to leave the parental home. They should be forced out at 18, he says — if needs be by law.
Bamboccioni
His comments follow a court order forcing a father, Giancarlo Casagrande, 60, from Bergamo, to help pay his 32-year-old daughter’s living expenses — eight years after she had finished her university studies.
Mr Brunetta’s idea has been dismissed on all sides as a step too far.
But he has highlighted an increasing trend in Italy for grown children to remain at home — even into early middle age.
A survey last month by the national statistics office found that more than seven out of 10 18-39-year olds still lived with their parents.
The recession — and the difficulty of finding a secure, full-time job — has made it harder than ever for young Italians to find a place of their own.
And, for all his enthusiasm, Mr Brunetta cannot afford to be too hard on the bamboccioni — or “big babies” — as they are known.
He was once one himself — admitting that before he left home at 30 he had not even learned how to make his own bed.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pope in Synagogue: Calms Tensions, Pius XII Still an Issue
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Tensions seem to somewhat assuaged, but the issue of Pius XII has yet to be resolved in relations between the Jewish community — which would like time to reflect on the words said yesterday — and Pope Benedict XVI, the day after his historic visit to the Rome synagogue. At the end of an intense day — 24 years after the first visit by the Pope to the temple of the oldest community in the Diaspora — the dialogue between the two religions seems reinvigorated and both sides confirm the validity of the historic visit which, over the past few weeks, had seemed in question after the Pope’s decision to recognise the “heroic virtues” of Pius XII, and which had divided the community itself — for example, with the opposition of the former rabbi of Milan Giuseppe Laras. In a very crowded synagogue (including Gianni Letta for the government and Chamber of Deputies president Gianfranco Fini) with some representatives of the Islamic community present, Benedict XVI made his entrance to a standing ovation, walking down a long yellow carpet after pausing before the plaque commemorating Jews deported from Rome on 16 October 1943 (when Pope Pacelli was in the Vatican) and that commemorating Stefano Gay Tache’, a boy killed by Palestinian terrorists in front of the synagogue — but not before greeting rabbi emeritus Elio Toaff, who had also welcomed the Pope’s predecessor Jean Paul II. His warning against anti-Semitism was clear and unmistakable, as was his greeting to those who had suffered deportation and were seated in the front row: “That the sores of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism be healed forever”, he said, noting that the Church had always deplored the “failings of its sons and daughters, asking for forgiveness for everything that may have fostered in one way or another the scourges of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism”. However, afterwards in speaking on the deportation of Roman Jews and the “horrendous suffering” to which they were subjected when killed in Auschwitz, he noted that the “Holy See provided aid, oftentimes in a hidden and discrete manner”. It was a reference to the sharp cry of pain from an emotional Ricardo Pacifici, president of Rome’s Jewish community, whose father was saved by the Santa Marta nuns in Florence, and who instead had shortly before remarked that “Pius XII’s silence over the Holocaust still stings as a missed action. Perhaps he would not have stopped the trains of death, but he would have conveyed a sign.” And shortly thereafter Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, though not directly mentioning Pope Pacelli, had underscored that “God’s silence or our inability to hear His voice before the ills of the world are an impenetrable mystery. But man’s silence is on a different level: it questions us, challenges us and does not escape judgment.” And so, on this point the confrontation has yet to come or has already passed, though representatives of the community as well as those of the Israeli government have forcefully asked for the opening of Vatican archives to come to a “common” judgment on Pope Pacelli. What instead seems to have been gained is a sense of community and dialogue: Benedict XVI reiterated in his speech the “common roots” of the Bible, humanity’s ethical base in the 10 Commandments and the need to “go forward together despite differences”. As did Di Segni: “A grateful welcome to the Pope,” he said in opening the event, noting the urgency of focusing on “shared objectives” and the fact that friendship cannot exclude other religions of Abraham’s descendents. “Jews, Christians and Muslims,” he said, “are called upon without exception to peace as a responsibility. The image of respect and friendship arising from this meeting should be taken as an example for all those observing us.” It is an assessment that was confirmed — with a note of caution — at the end of the meeting in a press conference held by the chief rabbi and the president Pacifici: the former said that the Pope’s visit to the synagogue is “undoubtedly positive, but we must reflect further on it. I think that in his speech the Pope said a number of very important things and that he has done his part towards calming down tensions. A more divided response came from Jews outside of the Temple: some, though speaking favorably about what the visit meant, noted the lack of any mention of Pius XII by the Pope and Ratzinger’s sincerity. In addition, the visit was held in the period in the Roman Jewish tradition called “Moed di Piombo”, in memory of the days in January 1793 when a crowd of rebels tried to set fire to the ghetto and were halted only by a storm sent by Providence.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Red Brigade Founder’s Son Arrested
Rome, 18 Jan. (AKI) — The Marxist-Lenninist Red Brigades founder Pierino Morlacchi’s son and another suspected member of the far-left terrorist group were arrested in the northern Italian city of Milan on Monday. Anti-terrorism police in Milan have begun questioning the suspects, who are accused of belonging to an armed group aimed at subversion.
Police said Morlacchi and Virgilio had taken part in “strategic meetings” and were linked to the New Red Brigades, the far-left successors to the Red Brigades, who in the 1970s and 1980s carried out kidnappings and murders in Italy including that of former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978.
Thirty-nine year-old Morlacchi and 34-year-old Virgilio were arrested at their apartments in Milan, where they worked for a company offering archive management services. Their arrested were ordered by anti-terrorism prosecutors in the Italian capital, Rome.
The two men’s homes had been searched in anti-terror raids last June as part of a probe in which police arrested five other suspected New Red Brigades members in Rome and in the northern port city of Genoa and seized a ‘sizeable’ weapons cache.
“The quantities of weapons and above all the documentation uncovered, demonstrate the intention of this group to take up the armed struggle waged by the Red Brigades,” said the head of anti-terror police in Rome, Lamberto Giannini.
Morlacchi in 2007 published a biography of his father, who died in 1999. Pierino Morlacchi founded the Red Brigades together with Renato Curcio.
Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni congratulated police on Monday’s arrests, but warned against a return to the extreme leftwing and rightwing violence seen in the country during the 1970s and 1980s.
“We must keep up our guard against all forms of terrorism, be it domestic or international,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders on Trial: Who’s Funding His Defence?
The long-awaited trial of Dutch politician Geert Wilders begins this week. Charged with inciting hatred, Wilders could be facing several months — or even years — of court hearings. But Wilders is not independently wealthy, so where will he get the money to pay for his defence? Geert Wilders sees no need to disclose the source of his funds, as he has explained:
“I don’t know why anyone should know. The one thing that’s important is that the lawyers’ bills should be paid. Where I get my money and from whom is nobody’s business.”
Wilders trial: the run-up
In 2007 and 2008 the Public Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly decided not to bring charges against Geert Wilders. The Supreme Court confirmed these decisions in 2008.
In January 2009, an Amsterdam court charged Wilders with inciting hatred toward Muslims and racial discrimination.
Last week the court added a charge of inciting hatred toward Moroccans.
However, there is a public interest involved in how and where Mr Wilders raises money. He is already an influential figure in Dutch politics, and that influence looks sure to grow. For ten months now opinion polls have consistently shown his Freedom Party to be one of the largest in the Netherlands. So, voters may be curious as to who is backing him financially.
Across the Atlantic
An important source of funding for his legal defence comes from supporters in the United States. He has travelled there frequently: showing his anti-Islam film Fitna, giving speeches, accepting awards. And raising money.
Neither Mr Wilders nor many of those involved in organizing fundraisers for him are prepared to indicate how much money he has raised.
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, has raised money for Geert Wilders’ legal defence through The Legal Project.
“The Legal Project engages in various efforts for individuals who talk about this bundle of issues: Muslims and Islam. Wilders is one of those that we have helped both financially and in other ways. I have helped him in terms of law and in terms of fundraising. But I can’t tell you amounts… It’s not my concern.”
Although Mr Pipes is not prepared to talk in more detail about money raised for Wilders, he has told a Dutch magazine that Wilders raised a six-figure amount during a recent US trip.
“Great personal risk”
Another enthusiastic supporter, Pamela Geller, writes a blog called Atlas Shrugs.
“It’s not a business, it’s a calling. People who support Wilders: it’s a calling… it’s respect that somebody’s standing up at great personal risk. At what is arguably one of the most dangerous crossroads in human history.”
Robert Spencer, another blogger, is also a familiar face at Wilders’ events in the US. His blog Jihad Watch also solicits money for Wilders’ legal defence.
The blog includes the following message from the Freedom Party: “The Freedom Party (PVV) and Geert Wilders are faced with an all-out assault. Exploding legal expenses might cripple the continuation of the battle for our liberties. The survival of the Freedom Party and Geert Wilders’ struggle for the defence of the West are now in jeopardy.”
Send money
Readers are asked to send money to a bank account of the Friends of the Freedom Party Foundation. This is the same foundation which funds Freedom Party* activities.
Apparently, Mr Wilders has not set up a separate foundation for his legal defence. According to Dutch daily de Volkskrant, Mr Wilders instead re-wrote the statute of the existing Freedom Party foundation to include his legal defence. This would mean there is no division between donations for Mr Wilders’ personal legal defence and the Freedom Party’s political activities.
This is hard to prove. Neither Mr Wilders nor the Freedom Party provide outsiders access to any financial information. Nor do they have to. Dutch law governing funding for political parties is quite lax.
Done nothing wrong
Ruud Koole is a professor of political science at the University of Leiden and an expert in party financing. He says neither Mr Wilders nor his Freedom Party has done anything wrong.
“The income from parties can come from any source. Even from a foundation that has received the money for other purposes. As long as you don’t receive state subsidies, you are not obliged to disclose it.”
So, under Dutch law, funds raised for Mr Wilders’ legal defence could be used for Freedom Party purposes.
Greco, an anti-corruption body and part of The Council of Europe, reprimanded the Netherlands in 2007 for the lack of transparency regarding political donations. A new law governing political parties and how they are financed is in the making. But as it now stands, Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party have very few limits on how and where they can raise money. And he has no obligation to reveal his money sources.
* The Freedom Party does not receive state subsidies and gets no membership fees because Geert Wilders is the only member. The party is entirely dependent on its own sources of funding.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Asian Youths in Battle With Stoke Police
Police came under a hail of bricks, bottles and broken paving stones as Asian youths took to the streets in Stoke-on-Trent yesterday.
About 100 youths had gathered in Waterloo Road in the Cobridge area of Stoke shortly after 4.30pm amid rumours of a British National Party march, which did not take place.
The trouble followed four days of rioting in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in which more than 200 police officers were injured. Witnesses said that at the peak of the trouble about 300 people were involved.
There were no reported injuries on either side, but 20 people were arrested in connection with public order offences.
Police declined to say how many officers had been deployed to the troubled area, but said they were remaining in the area to prevent any further flare-up.
A police spokeswoman said last night: ‘We are in contact with local community leaders in the area and are keeping an eye on the situation.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Baddiel’s the Infidel is (Almost) The Most Important Movie of the Year
To Mayfair for a screening of The Infidel, the comedy movie due for general release in April which somewhat ambitiously aims to get a laugh out of anti-semitism and Muslim fundalmentalism. We’re told that the guest list for the screening is titled “Cultural Influences”, which I suppose is meant to include me, but which more accurately could be aimed at the film. We know satire is a potent political weapon and taking the mickey out of the religiously bigoted in Judaism and Islam, collectively responsible for the greatest contemporary threat to world peace, is a worthy enterprise.
And the movie goes a long way to encouraging an appropriate response to clowns such as Anjem Choudhary, whose FruitcakesRus (or whatever) supposedly planned an anti-war, pro-loony march through Wootton Bassett the other day. That was taken way too seriously by the Government, which has proscribed the organisation in a bid to win some of the BNP vote back ahead of the election. Far better would have been to do what The Infidel does to the knobs of religious extremism — laugh and point at them.
The movie is well worth catching. It’s carried by the central performances of Omid Djalili (who isn’t Alexei Sayle) as Mahmud Nasir, a recreational Muslim who discovers he was born Solly Shimshillewitz, and Richard Schiff as the American-Jewish cab driver who rehabilitates him. It’s written by David Baddiel, who is clearly still no slouch at the keyboard. It’s not just very funny, but it avoids (just) degenerating into a burqas ‘n’ bagels cartoon romp, with some dark Holocaust and Jihadist stuff bubbling under almost throughout.
Its weakness is that the initial energy proves unsustainable and everyone, including Baddiel, seems to have got a bit tired by the end. The result is the well-worn (from Norman Wisdom to Hugh Grant) tear-jerker speech from our hero, in this case of the it’s-all-the-same-god variety, and an all-in-it-together denouement. Our villain, the wicked Muslim-fundamentalist step-father, is also like your most avuncular maitre d’ in the local Lebanese restaurant.
He should have been more like Choudhary — not to score a political point, but just because it would have been funnier. And as for him turning out to be — look away now if you don’t want to know — an Eighties New Romantic with an anger-management problem, that’s a contrived plot twist about as far-fetched as Choudhary being anti-war.
That’s all a shame, because it makes The Infidel a bit Richard Curtis. And it’s better than that. Though as I left and walked along Piccadilly, weirdly I bumped into Bill Nighy, so maybe it’s me that’s in the Richard Curtis plot. In which case The Infidel is welcome relief from this reality. I’ll go and see it again and I suggest you do too
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Father Stabbed to Death in Own Home After Confronting Gang Stealing His TV
A homeowner has been stabbed to death in his own living room after he confronted a gang trying to steal his television.
Keith Redpath, 46, was attacked in his bungalow before collapsing in the street outside.
He was taken to Sunderland Royal Infirmary after a passer-by called an ambulance but he died later from a single stab wound to his chest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Frustrated Air Passenger Arrested Under Terrorism Act After Twitter Joke About Bombing Airport
An air passenger was arrested under the Terrorism Act and held in a police cell for seven hours after joking on Twitter he would blow an airport ‘sky high’ if his flight was delayed.
Paul Chambers, 26, posted the message after snowfall threatened to delay his plans to travel from Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport to Ireland on January 15.
The finance supervisor wrote: ‘C***! Robin Hood airport is closed.
‘You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high”
Police were alerted and Mr Chambers was arrested.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Newest Attack on Christianity: Just Shut Up!
Noise ordinances latest weapon against churches
A Christian legal organization in the United Kingdom is reporting a skirmish victory in the latest war against Christians and their churches — the demand that they essentially be silent in their worship.
Cases have cropped up in recent months both in the U.K. as well as the United States in which governmental bodies have demanded that Christian groups essentially be silent — so that no one can hear their worship.
The Christian Legal Centre in the U.K. is reporting a victory in a battle, although the war remains.
The group said this week there has been a “last-minute out of court settlement” that will allow a 600-member church in London to continue its worship.
[…]
The legal organization said another church, Immanuel House of Worship in London, also has been “silenced” by the government because the sound of its worship drew a complaint from a single Muslim neighbor.
That’s despite the fact the neighbor is living in what used to be a church house adjacent to the church itself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Plans for Big London Mosque Lapse
LONDON, Jan. 18 (UPI) — A British Muslim sect hoping to build Europe’s biggest mosque in London is not moving forward with the plans, local officials say.
A spokesman for London’s Newham Council said the organization, Tablighi Jamaat, has let deadlines lapse in its bid to build a 12,000-capacity mosque in East London close to the city’s 2012 Summer Olympics site, The Times of London reported.
The newspaper said the local council issued enforcement notices against the mosque trust last week after it missed its final deadline to file a master plan for the controversial building.
Strong opposition emerged to the plans when they were first unveiled in 2007, with critics calling the structure a “mega-mosque” and gathering more than 48,000 signatures in a petition to stop it, the newspaper said.
Critics hailed the news, but Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, told The Times: “We would hope that they will be able to work in cooperation with the local council if they wish to set up a mosque in the area. Tablighi Jamaat has no ties to terrorism. They have been subjected to some unfair coverage.”
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terror Suspects Set for Payout After Winning Landmark Human Rights Ruling Over Control Orders
Two terror suspects won a High Court ruling today that paves the way for the first compensation claims against the Home Secretary relating to control orders.
The two men, known as AF and AE, say the orders made against them were unlawful and they were entitled to damages from human rights violations.
A judge formally quashed all the orders today and opened the way for the men to claim damages for a period dating back to 2006, when the first orders restricting their movements were imposed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Thug Let Out of Jail to Chat Up Girls in Clubs After Serving Just a Third of His Sentence for Killing a Teenage Blonde
The smile on Adam Briggs’s face says it all.
He is having a great night out and has found himself a pretty girlfriend to snuggle up to — and all while serving time for manslaughter.
It has emerged that Briggs, 23, has been allowed out of prison for up to four weeks at a time under a controversial government release scheme.
He is just three-and-a-half years into his nine-year sentence for helping to arrange the death of a teenage girl.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Killing of Christians; Trial to Begin February 13
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 18 — On February 13 the trial against the three men accused of killing Christians on January 6 in Nagaa Hamadi is set to begin in the Qena High Court for State Security, as decided yesterday by the city’s Court of Appeals. On Saturday Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud ruled that the three — who could be sentenced to death — would undergo a summary trial before the High Court, a special court set up during emergency legislation in force since 1981. The ringleader of the three alleged murderers is Hamman Al Kammouni, a man with a criminal record who had been released from prison only a few days before the killings in which six Christians and one Muslim policeman lost their lives, according to the official figures. The prosecutor general is quoted by the press as saying that the three defendants acted on the pretext of wanting to take revenge for the rape of a Muslim girl by a young Christian man, as well as the spread of photos damaging to the reputation of young Muslim girls by Christians. The first incident dates back to November, while cases of inter-religious tensions over cell phone photos had been frequent in Upper Egypt over the past few months. Religious motives were also ruled out as the reason behind the crime by a parliamentary investigation committee sent to the crime scene, who also denied the possibility that others had ordered the killing. Meanwhile, the approximately 30 activists who had been arrested by the police on Friday, when they were trying to get to Nagaa Hamadi in a show of solidarity with the victims’ families, have been released. Human Rights Watch had spoken out in an attempt to secure the group’s release — which included bloggers, representatives of the liberal party Al Ghad and Esraa Abdel Fattah, founder on Facebook of the April 6 group. According to AFP, also US diplomacy — which had previously spoken out against the “atmosphere of intolerance in Egypt due to the attack in Nagaa Hamadi — had said it was “deeply concerned” over the arrests by way of a spokesman in Washington.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: First Statement of Mubarak on Christians Massacre
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — For the first time, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has made a public statement on the massacre of Christian citizens in Nagaa Hamadi some ten days ago. He called for the national unity of Christians ands Muslims without directly mentioning the January 6 shootout which left six Coptic Christians and a Muslim police officer dead, according to official figures. In the aftermath of the massacre, several Christians expected an official statement from Mubarak as did the thousands of Coptic Christians who last Wednesday demonstrated outside the cathedral in Cairo which is the seat of Pope Shenouda III. “Mubarak, where are you? Are you on their side, too?” demonstrators kept chanting meaning that failing to intervene the president implicitly admitted to taking sides with the attackers. So far, statements were made only by MPs and the Minster for Legal Affairs, Mofeed Shehab, along the usual official lines of playing down the religious aspect and make general calls for national unity. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also publicly spoke about the incident only to refer to an argument (eventually settled) with his Italian counterpart Frattini. “We are a people” said Mubarak quoted by newspaper Al Ahram, during a rally in Kafr el-Cheikh, north of Cairo . “We are not extremists and there are no differences between Egyptian Muslims, Christians and Jews.” Mubarak also urged to “close ranks because disunion must not be taken as an excuse by those who want to sow discord among us”. Finally, he confirmed his refusal of any form of religious tension and fundamentalism, emphasising that someone abroad is trying to stress differences between Muslims and Christians. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Agriculture: Syria; Food Sector Grew in 2009
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JANUARY 14 — In 2009 production in the Syrian agricultural sector was positive, accounting for 22% of GDP and supplying raw materials for the industrial food sector, which employs 18% of the active population. The Italian embassy noted in its newsletter that over the past 5 years good results have been seen as concerns the competitiveness and quality of agricultural products, as well as in terms of food security. Concerning the consistency of crops, in 2009 Syria produced 26,082 tonnes of cotton, 296,412 tonnes of grain, 25,000 tonnes of potatoes, 1,740 tonnes of lentils, 1,584 tonnes of peas, 1,080 tonnes of beans and 2,809 tonnes of corn. Forestland in the country also grew, with over 8.2 million trees planted on a surface area of 2,494 hectares. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Mosul: A Christian Businessman Killed as the Faithful Celebrate Their New Archbishop
Cold-blooded execution of a 52-year-old Syrian Catholic, married and father of two daughters. Local sources complain: a new attack to push the Christians toward the plain of Nineveh. Yesterday, Msgr. Emil Shimoun Nona, the new archbishop of Mosul, made his entry into the diocese.
Mosul (AsiaNews) — Another attack against the Christian community in Mosul, while the faithful celebrated the new archbishop of the diocese. Yesterday morning a Christian 52 years, married and father of two daughters was killed in cold blood. The murder coincided with the arrival of Msgr. Emil Shimoun Nona in the city, the ceremony was attended by personalities from the local government and leaders of the Muslim community.
Sources for AsiaNews in Mosul, asking for anonymity for security reasons, said the “persecution continues in the midst of general indifference.” Yesterday morning Saadallah Youssif Jorjis, a 52-year-old Syrian Catholic, was shot dead. The man, married and father of two daughters, was the owner of a shop selling fruit and vegetables in the neighborhood of Taqafa, near the university. “His wife is a nurse — the sources report — while Saadallah Youssif Jorjis owned a business near his home.”
Yesterday’s murder follows another “targeted execution” a few days ago. On 12 January, an armed group killed Hikmat Sleiman, 75, who also owned a small grocery store. The “ethnic cleansing” taking place today in Mosul, the sources told AsiaNews, is “very similar to what happened in 2008,” when many faithful, priests, and last diocesan Archbishop, Msgr. Paul Faraj Rahho died. “They want to push Christians to the plain of Nineveh — he explains — and the community has lost confidence in the future.”
Yesterday morning, meanwhile, Mgr. Emil Shimoun Nona, whose appointment of the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church was approved on 13 November by Pope Benedict XVI, took possession of the diocese. The ceremony was attended by local political leaders and representatives of the Muslim community. Since March 13 2008 the faithful of the archdiocese of Mosul were without a shepherd, following the death of Msgr. Rahho while he was in the hands of kidnappers. The Christian community was waiting the arrival of the new pastor with “anxiety and joy”, but “yet another murder has tainted celebration.” (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Solidarity Games Cancelled Over Gulf Dispute
The Islamic Solidarity Games, due to be held in Iran in April, have been called off because of a dispute with Arab countries over what to call the Gulf.
The games federation in Saudi Arabia said the Iranian organisers had failed to address its concerns, particularly about the planned logo and medals.
These bear the words “Persian Gulf”, but Arab countries, who call it the Arabian Gulf, reject the term.
The games had been postponed in October in the hope of striking a deal.
The Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) in Riyadh said, after an emergency board meeting, Iran’s local organising committee “unilaterally took some decisions without asking the federation by writing some slogans on the medals and pamphlets of the games”.
Iran “did not abide by the rules of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation” and “did not follow the decisions taken by the general assembly of the federation at a previous meeting in Riyadh”, it said in a statement.
But Iran’s committee for the games disputed the decision.
“In spite of convincing arguments made to the ISSF executive committee, regrettably and without presenting any logical reasons, the ISSF committee decided not to hold the games with Iran as the host,” it said.
The games — which are meant to strengthen ties among Islamic countries — were first held in the Saudi city of Jeddah in 2005.
Iran has campaigned to ensure the body of water between Iran and the Arabian peninsula is known as the Persian, not the Arabian, Gulf.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Billionaire Eyes New Links With News Corp.
The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king and who was listed last year by Forbes as the world’s 22nd richest person, met with News Corp.’s chief executive Rupert Murdoch on Jan. 14 in a meeting that “touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp.,” according to a statement released by his Kingdom Holding Co. late Saturday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
THY-Barcelona Fc Sign Deal With a Political Connotation
(ANSAmed) — BARCELONA, JANUARY 18 — It is an economic agreement with a “political” connotation in which there will also be “an alliance between civilisations”, like those that have been talked about recently, and the European Union. The agreement, presented today with the obligatory backdrop of Camp Nou, is that which binds Barcelona Fc and the aircompany Turkish Airlines together for the next three seasons. The agreement was presented during a press conference given in three languages (English and Turkish, as well as Catalan) by the president of the football club, Joan Laporta, and the CEO of the airline, Temil Kotil. The agreement will end in June of 2012 and, as the managers of the Turkish company say, the hope is that Barcelona manages to repeat the exploits of this year with 6 trophies on the shelf: the three national titles (La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa), along with the three international titles (Champion’s League, European Supercup and the Club World Cup). Today’s press conference, filled with journalists from over 20 countries, also included issues that do not regard sport, like the fact that Laporta wanted to highlight the fact that the agreement binds the two countries, Catholic Spain and Islamic Turkey, which are very busy on the political dialogue front, but that are also inter-religious, based on dialogue, tolerance and solidarity. The details of the agreement were not released during the press conference, but it is certainly very rich, with Turkish Airlines becoming a part of the exclusive group (just four) of “Main Sponsors”, that is the economic allies that contribute the most. As Laporta explained, on the basis of the agreement, THY carriers will ensure long-range connections for Barcelona, and there will be a brand new plane painted with the colours of the Barcelona jersey. The CEO of Turkish Airlines, Kotil, insisted a lot on the not purely economic or athletic aspects of the agreement, stressing the role of the company which is now one of the top in Europe, with medium and long-term plans for which the Barcelona sponsorship is yet another prestigious showcase. The European Union also entered heavily in the press conference: Spain holds from this January its turn of the union’s presidency; and which Turkey would like to become a part of as soon as possible. The agreement is well inserted into the strategy to move closer. With this alliance, therefore, Turkish Airlines has taken another step on its way to the full realisation of its ambitious expansion plan. If the agreement with Barcelona is the most recent feather in its cap, the second most recent was at the beginning of this year with the purchase of 20 Airbus, 16 A321-200 and 6 A319-100, for passenger transport, the delivery of which will take place in 2013, the year in which the company will celebrate its 80th anniversary. There is also an option for the purchase of another 10. The commitment undertaken with Airbus, in a moment in which large companies have to reckon with the crisis, it might appear against the grain, even hazardous. But all of the figures support Turkish Airline’s plans and its management’s plans. By 2012 the company’s fleet will number 174 aircraft, 6 of which are for cargo traffic. Beginning in 1933 with just 5 aircraft, today TA is the fourth largest carrier in Europe for number of passengers carried. In Europe it is also the carrier that saw the number of passengers increase by 27 million. But the objective is even more ambitious: to reach, by 2012, 40 million passengers carried. There are also strong links (but also interests) for Turkish Airlines in Italy. Just a few weeks ago, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first connection between Italy and Turkey, daily direct flights from Bologna to Istanbul, the TA hub, were announced beginning from next May. The goal is to bring the current number of 49 to 200. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Agca Released, Rejected as Unfit for Military Service
(ANSA) — ANKARA — Ali Agca was rejected as unfit for the military service, tv channel Ntv reports quoting sources from the hospital where he had been transferred after his release. Agca, the Turkish ‘grey wolf’ who shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s square on May 13 1981, was released earlier this morning after serving a sentence of nine years and seven months for killing journalist Abdi Ipekci in Istanbul in 1979. Agca was rejected as unfit for the military service on January 16 2006 by doctors at the Gata military hospital, in Istanbul, where he had shown up after being released by mistake. At that time, doctors said that he was unfit for the military service because he was “an antisocial person” suffering from “serious personality disorders”. Outside the prison, Agca found about 200 reporters and cameramen as well as a small group of friends headed by his friend Ali’, Adnan, who greeted him while he was being driven off. A number of TV crew cars started following the police convoy and a number of accidents and pile-ups occurred, as a result. No one was injured. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Agca Out of Jail, Claims to be Jesus, ‘World’s End is Nigh’
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 18 — Mehmet Alì Agca, the Turkish “Grey Wolf” who on 13 May 1981 shot John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Square, has been released. The announcement was made by his lawyer. “The end of the world has arrived, everything will be destroyed by the end of this century.” “I am the everlasting Jesus, the Trinity does not exist.” “The Bible is full of errors, I will write the perfect Bible.” These are some of the parts of the document which Alì Agca wrote by hand in English and gave out to journalists on his leaving the Sincan jail. It is an incoherent message divided into five “Articles”: “Article 1: God is the only one to eternity. God is complete until eternity. The Trinity does not exist. Article 2: I am not God. I am not the Son of God. I am the eternal Jesus, the holy word reborn into flesh and blood. I am God’s everlasting higher servant, there is no such thing as the Trinity. Article 3: The Holy Spirit is only an angel created by God. The Trinity does not exist. Article 4: I declare that the end of the world has come. All of the world will be destroyed by the end of this century. Every man will die by the end of this century. Article 5: The Bible is full of errors. I will write the perfect Bible.” Along with the text, his lawyers also handed out a colour copy of the cover that the US weekly magazine Time dedicated to the meeting in prison between Alì Agca and Pope John Paul II.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Blackwater Lawsuit Signatures Sought by Iraq
Iraq has begun collecting signatures for a class action lawsuit on behalf of people killed or wounded in incidents involving US security firm Blackwater.
It will seek compensation for a number of such cases, the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
Incidents include the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square.
Last month, a US judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater guards over those killings, which Iraqi officials described as “regrettable”.
Immediately after the US decision, the Iraqi government issued several angry statements pledging that it would continue to “act forcefully and decisively to prosecute”.
It has become a notorious incident in Iraq, with the government now taking the initiative in organising the families of the victims to launch civil suits against Blackwater, says the BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad.
About 50 family members turned up at the prime minister’s office after being invited to a meeting at which most of them signed powers of attorney, authorising the government’s lawyers to sue the company on their behalf.
Some confirmed that they had already signed compensation agreements with Blackwater. Others said they had neither signed anything nor taken any compensation. They included a man whose son was killed in the Nisoor Square incident.
Lawyers for the five guards say they were acting in self-defence, but witnesses and family members of those killed maintain that the shooting on 16 September 2007 was unprovoked.
Investigations have produced no evidence to support the guards’ claim, our correspondent says.
The incident caused widespread public anger against foreign security companies operating in Iraq, and their activities have been severely curbed since then.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Wave of Taliban Suicide Bombers Strike at the Heart of Kabul in Commando-Style Attack
Taliban gunmen, some wearing suicide vests, launched a commando-style assault on government buildings in the centre of Kabul this morning.
Gunfire and loud explosions could be heard across the capital and a huge column of smoke was pouring out of a shopping centre that had been besieged by militants.
Afghan security forces regained control of the burning building this morning after a gunbattle. At least five people have been killed, and 38 people wounded. The Ministry of Public Health says those killed include one civilian and four military forces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: British Troops Get U.S. Rifles to Tackle the Taliban
British soldiers are to be given a powerful new U.S.-made rifle to take on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defence has spent £1.5million on 440 Sharpshooter semi-automatic rifles, which use 7.62mm ammunition that can kill at up to 900yards.
The order follows concern that the Army’s standard issue SA80 A2 assault rifle, which fires smaller 5.56mm bullets, is less effective because its ‘kill’ range is limited to around 300yards.
It means that insurgents — who use 7.62mm ammunition for their AK47 rifles — back off and shoot at British troops from longer distances. Half the battles in Helmand province, where British troops are based, are fought at between 300 and 900yards.
Critics within the Army say the MoD’s decision to buy the Sharpshooters — also known as the L129A1 — is too little, too late.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cougar Sex Ad Lands Airline in Hot Water
A campaign that portrays single middle-aged women as cougars who prowl bars looking for sex with young men has landed Air New Zealand in hot water.
The country’s national carrier was already causing turbulence with its latest uniform range, which critics said made women look like drag queens in Russian military garb.
Now they’ve ruffled the feathers of women’s rights groups and rape-prevention organisations with a risque online promotion portraying the mating habits of the mature single woman.
In the Discovery Channel-style documentary clip complete with David Attenborough-esque voiceover, a so-called cougar is shown “starving itself on sparse vegetation during the day then hunting large slabs of meat at night” by stalking a young man at a bar.
Despite the man’s attempts to ward off the woman’s advances, the cougar has “not tasted fresh meat for days” and drags her prey to an inner-city apartment.
In the ad, the women, aged in their 30s, 40s and 50s, routinely prey on men in their 20s, many who “pretend to be gay” to avoid them, says the voiceover.
The promotion encourages women 35-plus to send in photographs of themselves out on the town with their “cougar mates” to go in the draw for a deal including a flight and ticket to a sporting event.
New Zealand’s Rape-Prevention Education has labelled the ad appalling, disgusting and degrading to women.
“We have also had complaints from male survivors who have been raped by women and they are very distressed that their situation is being laughed at and made out to be humorous,” director Kim McGregor said.
An airline spokeswoman said the campaign was supposed to be “light-hearted” but some older women had “taken a bit of offence to it”.
“(They) felt it was an unfair kind of blanket comment.”
Sixty women have signed up to go in to win flights, tickets and cougar costumes to attract the attention of young males.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Chavez Takes Control of Foreign Supermarket
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has seized control of a foreign supermarket chain, Exito, after he accused the company of hiking its prices.
The joint French-Colombian supermarket chain was guilty of breaking Venezuelan law on price controls and would now pass into state hands, Mr Chavez said.
He said any other company increasing prices also risked nationalisation.
Exito was among more than 200 stores accused of raising prices during the country’s recent currency devaluation.
The supermarket chain had already passed under temporary government control after the devaluation.
But now President Chavez has taken it a step further.
Accusing the Exito group of “violating numerous Venezuelan laws”, Mr Chavez said he had ordered the expropriation of the supermarket chain.
‘Socialist’ supermarkets
“How much longer are we going to allow transnational companies to come here to speculate with our prices?” the Venezuelan leader asked viewers of his weekly TV programme, Alo Presidente.
He went on to say that fines and temporary closures were not sufficient to prevent such alleged abuses and that the country’s commerce minister, Eduardo Saman, should consider expropriating more frequently as a deterrent.
So far there has been no comment on the move from the Exito supermarket chain, which is a joint French and Colombian-owned company.
It comes as Venezuela’s trade relations with Colombia are particularly poor following a dispute over Colombia’s decision to grant the US access to seven military bases on its soil, something Mr Chavez strongly opposes.
Mr Chavez suggested that Exito’s hypermarkets in Venezuela could become part of a newly announced “Corporation of Socialist Markets” which is intended to provide everything from restaurants to car dealerships at heavily subsidised prices.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Haiti: Relief Efforts ‘Complicated’, Bertolaso
Italy’s civil protection chief warns of possible ‘anger’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — Relief efforts following the devastating earthquake in Haiti will be “much more complicated” than they were after last April’s powerful quake in the Italian region of Abruzzo, Italy’s civil protection chief said on Thursday.
“Once the initial shock is over, the anger of the population will rise because people will not find the same type of aid and support that we are used to in other parts of the world,” Guido Bertolaso explained.
Tuesday’s earthquake, he observed, “was one of the most devastating in recent history and struck one of the poorest and least organised areas in the world ,and this will also complicate our efforts”.
The magnitude of the quake in Haiti was over 7.0, while the one in Abruzzo was 5.8.
Italy’s civil protection department has already sent a fact-finding advance team to Haiti and in 48 hours an action plan will be ready, Bertolaso said.
“Within two days we will have a good picture of the situation there and be able to decide on the makeup of the relief team to send in,” Bertolaso explained.
“This is a busy time for the department which is dealing with a number of emergencies including those in Albania, where there is widespread flooding, and others in many parts of Italy,” he added “Fortunately, we are well organised through the employment of regional forces, fire departments and other rescue squads and we can afford to set up a permanent mission in Haiti,” the civil protection chief said.
“We will not be going there to hand out candies but to offer relief through logistical bases which can deal with an emergency which, unfortunately, we ourselves recently experienced,” he added.
April’s earthquake in Abruzzo left some 300 dead and caused the destruction of many towns and the region’s capital, L’Aquila.
The civil protection advance team will be followed later Thursday by a C-130 military transport plane bringing a military field hospital and medical staff.
FOREIGN MINISTRY TRYING TO CONTACT ITALIANS.
The foreign ministry on Thursday said it had contacted 80 of the 191 Italians listed as residents in Haiti and asked that anyone with information about friends or relatives there to contact its special crisis unit.
“There is ample reason for concern because the number of people we have not been able to contact is higher than the number we have,” crisis unit director Fabrizio Romano said.
“And as Foreign Minister (Franco) Frattini has said: the fact we don’t have bad news unfortunately is not good news,” he added. While there has been no confirmation of any Italian casualties, there are fears that some Italians have have been in the Hotel Montana which collapsed in the quake. A foreign ministry envoy is expected to arrive in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday and Romano said he will immediately go to the hotel “to verify the possible presence of Italians there”.
According to Romano, some of the 191 listed at the Italian consul’s office in Haiti “may have left the country before the earthquake, but at the same time there may be some Italians who did not register their presence”.
Officials in Haiti fear that upwards of 100,000 people may have been killed by Tuesday’s earthquake.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain to Extradite ‘Dirty War’ Pilot to Argentina
A Spanish court has agreed to extradite a pilot held for his alleged role in Argentina’s “dirty war”.
Julio Alberto Poch, 57, an airline pilot, has been in custody in Madrid since his arrest last month.
He is wanted in Argentina for allegedly flying planes used to dump opponents of the military regime into the sea — known as “death flights”.
Some 30,000 people disappeared or died during the junta’s 1976-1983 rule. He denies the allegations.
Mr Poch was held during a short stopover at Valencia’s Manises airport on 22 September, while flying an aircraft for Dutch Transavia airlines, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM.
The 57-year-old, who has dual Dutch and Argentine nationalities, is said to have been a military pilot at Argentina’s notorious Naval Mechanics School — one of the biggest torture and detention centres of the Argentine military regime.
The court said in its ruling there were sufficient guarantees to ensure that Mr Poch would have a fair trial in Argentina.
In October last year, a judge rejected a request by Mr Poch’s lawyer to secure his release.
He argued that his client denied ever having been based at the Naval Mechanics School.
In 2005, Argentina’s Supreme Court struck down amnesty laws which had shielded alleged human rights abusers from prosecution.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
The Black Hole of Haiti
In 2009, the United States gave $290 million to Haiti. That was $28.90 for every single one of the 10 million-plus inhabitants of the island nation. It was also $290 million that the U.S. government neither had nor was constitutionally permitted to give. But then, that $290 million only represented about one-five-thousandths of the $1.42 trillion deficit created by the federal government over the course of 2009. It was also, obviously, financial aid that was provided prior to the earthquake that struck Jan. 12.
In the aftermath of the terrible earthquake and the reported large-scale loss of life, charities, celebrities, aid organizations and governments have geared up to pour even more money into Haiti. And while a portion of it will no doubt ameliorate the hellish lives of a small percentage of Haiti’s inhabitants for a short while, it should be recognized that the more significant and lasting result will be to provide funding for an international aid infrastructure that justifies its continued existence by keeping those it supposedly helps in a constant state of poverty and dependency.
It has been reported that one-third of the $13.5 billion that was raised for the victims of the 2004 tsunami that struck Thailand went to the aid organizations themselves. And more than one billion of the money that passed through those organizations remains unaccounted for. Approximately $500 million that went to Sri Lanka alone is still reported as having been lost. This suggests that even in a depressed global economy, “helping others” is one of the more profitable activities that remains outside of government-insured banking. Of course, if you listen to the commercials, the banks claim to be helping others, too.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitism May be Spurring Wave of Aliyah From Sweden
2009 may prove to be a peak year for immigration from Sweden, according to Jewish and Christian Zionist officials involved in facilitating this immigration, which they say may be connected with anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred in Sweden.
“We are seeing an upward trend in interest in aliyah (immigration to Israel) from Sweden, possibly owing in part at least to various attacks on Jews,” said Howard Flower, director of aliyah for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
According to Aryeh Jacobson, who represents the Jewish Agency in Sweden, 24 immigrants from Sweden finalized their aliyah during the first eight months of 2009 ? exceeding the total of 16 during all of 2008. This figure also tops the average number of Swedish immigrants per year, totaling 19 new arrivals.
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Flower, who heads the Russian branch of the Evangelical Zionist body from a permanent office in St. Petersburg, Russia, describes the anti-Israeli protests in Malmo in March surrounding a tennis match between Israeli and Swedish players as a watershed occurrence.
“There is suspicion that there maybe an increase in aliyah because of the events in Malmo,” said Flower, “but also because of other attacks by Islamic fundamentalists in Sweden and their non-Muslim Swedish sympathizers.”
Swedish police arrested more than 100 people in March at violent riots outside the arena where Sweden and Israel played in the Davis Cup. The matches were played without spectators because of the riots, which carried anti-Semitic overtones.
Flower’s organization has for several years been handling and subsidizing aliyah flights from Scandinavia and facilitating the arrival of Scandinavian Jews to Israel for the Jewish Agency, which does not have permanent staff of its own in that part of the world.
“In Malmo, it is not a good idea to walk with a skull cap or wear a Star of David in the street,” said Raffi Zender, a prospective new immigrant from the city who said the riots and “the atmosphere they represented” were “an important part” of his decision to leave, as well as some of his friends.
Zender — whose two older sisters immigrated to Israel over the past few years — added this month’s issue of the community’s publication focuses on anti-Semitism, and whether Malmo Jews should hide their Jewishness or advertise it in protest of the current situation.
Jacobson, the emissary for Bnei Akiva to Scandinavia ? who also represents the Jewish Agency ? says that some aliyah applicants from 2009 have already immigrated to Israel while others are expected to come within weeks.
The Jewish population of Sweden numbers roughly 18,000 people. Stockholm has the largest community, but Malmo with its 1,000-strong community is also an important center. Gothenburg, Borås, Helsingborg, Lund, and Uppsala also have Jewish communities.
In Sweden, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has taken on the Jewish Agency’s traditional role, and is currently organizing and paying in full for immigrant flights to Israel.
The Christian Zionist organization allows immigrants from Sweden to take aboard 75 kilograms of luggage instead of the usual 20 kilograms limit. The flights also offer certified kosher meals ? a rare commodity in Sweden. People from distant towns receive free boarding near the international airport while waiting for the flight to Israel.
“Since WWII, the Jews have enjoyed safety in Sweden,” says Flower, the organization’s aliyah manager. “But, it seems that temporarily, maybe now it is less pleasant for some Jews in Sweden, and young people are leading the way back to Israel.”
But Flower recognizes that some community members and leaders have a less alarmist view of the scale of anti-Israeli sentiment in Sweden, and the degree to which it affects the lives of Jews. “The Jewish community is very diversified and just about every opinion about this issue can be found in its spectrum of views,” he said.
Flower also noted that the recent scandalous publication of an article which accuses Israeli soldiers of killing Palestinians and harvesting their organs may push others to leave as well.
“People are not telling me that they decided to come to Israel from Sweden because of the riots in Malmo or anti-Israel sentiments,” said Jacobson, the 28-year-old son of veteran immigrants from Sweden who are now living in Jerusalem. Speaking from his office in Gothenburg, he added: “They tell me they wanted to come to Israel all along, and are now more confident about their decision.”
During Operation Cast Lead, Sweden saw a number of pro-Palestinian rallies, and an attempt to set fire to a synagogue. “The main voice heard in the media was the Palestinians and the images came from Al Jazeera,” Jacobson said. “What remained for the average Swede was to conjure up anti-Semitic hatred and go on radio talk shows to tell listeners that Jewish law preaches to kill anyone who isn’t Jewish.”
Jacobson nonetheless noted that Jews in Gothenburg “do not suffer too many expressions of anti-Semitism,” but added this may be connected to the fact that “they do not show their Jewishness.”
Two weeks passed before paramedic Raffi Zender from Malmo, Sweden, received permission to tell Israeli media about his close encounter with rowing champion Yasmin Feingold, immediately after her near-fatal drowning in the Yarkon Stream in May. But by then, the press had lost interest.
Zender, who will be making aliyah to Israel in a few weeks, was a paramedic for Magen David Adom while attending a Bnei Akiva program in Israel. He was the first paramedic to reach Feingold, a medal-winning athlete who inhaled the stream’s polluted water after flipping over with her kayak. But MDA officials allowed Zender to tell the story only 14 days later.
“She was unconscious and I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until she was taken away,” he recalls, telling the story to the media for the first time. “There was polluted water coming out of her mouth and no one there knew whether she would survive.”
Onlookers used their cellular phones to record videos of Feingold as she was drowning, explaining later they were afraid to jump in to rescue her because of the pollution, which in 1997 caused the death of three people who inhaled the water in the Maccabiah bridge collapse.
She fully recovered after being rescued by a passerby, Avi Toibin, 62, who leaped into the stream’s water ? now significantly detoxified — almost as soon as he saw her, suffering no medical problems as a result of the exposure.
Zender, 20 whose mother is Israeli and who speaks fluent Hebrew, says he wasn’t worried about coming into contact with the water on Feingold’s mouth. “I wasn’t aware of the pollution issue at the time. I would have jumped in to rescue her had I seen her drowning without understanding the problem at all.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy is Not a Racist Country, Maroni
(AGI) — Milan, 17 Jan. Roberto Maroni, Minister of theInterior, commented the recent events involving non-EUimmigrants in his interview at ‘Che tempo che fa’ TV show. Hestated categorically that “Italy is not a racist country,”however “opting for a soft solution,” he added, “would notalways go to the benefit of the immigrants.” The Minister alsorefuted the charges often addressed to Lega Nord of taking aracist attitude towards these issues.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six-Year Farce of Asylum Seeker Who Wants to Go Home and Has Been Trying to Escape From Britain
Unlike the many asylum seekers desperate to remain in Britain, all Rashid Ali wants is to leave and get out of the cold.
The 31-year-old Moroccan has spent the past six years trying to escape and has stowed away on cargo ships at least six times.
Yet more than 12 months after a judge vowed to ‘kick some backsides’ and get him deported, he remains stuck in the system.
He is being held in a detention centre costing taxpayers more than £100 a night.
Immigration officials say they will not send him home until he produces his passport, as the authorities in his native country will not allow him in without proof that he is one of its citizens.
But Ali ripped up his passport and identity papers on arriving in Britain in 2004, hoping he would have more chance of gaining asylum if he pretended to be Algerian.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Avatar Fans Naming Kids After Characters
Avatards rush to name sprogs Pandora
Film fans are reportedly rushing to celebrate world-changing, paradigm-busting 3D celluloid epic Avatar by naming their poor babies after characters from the Film That Changed The World Forever(tm).
According to a rather sketchy report in the Sun, some parents have inexplicably decided it’s a bright idea to name a kid Neytiri or Toruk or indeed Pandora. The latter is top choice in the US, “with UK parents set to follow”.
| [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
You still believe that the US Republicans reduced the size of Government?
UK: Asian Youths in Battle With Stoke Police
Police came under a hail of bricks, bottles and broken paving stones as Asian youths [read: YOUNG MUSLIMS] took to the streets in Stoke-on-Trent yesterday.
About 100 youths had gathered in Waterloo Road in the Cobridge area of Stoke shortly after 4.30pm amid rumours of a British National Party march, which did not take place.
It sounds like a lot more rumors need to be spread about possible BNP marches. This will bring out the Islamic hooligans en masse and allow them to present themselves in their usual worst light.
Ronnie --
No. I don't believe it. I've never believed it, and I've never said it.
The best Republicans ever manage to do is to slow the rate of growth of government, just a bit. But George W. Bush didn't even do that. The best we had was Reagan, and he only decreased the rate of metastasis a little bit at the margins.
As I said in the other thread: I hate Republicans. The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat.
I don't know if Italy's National Alliance party were ever a particular target of Charles XIV, Defender of Liberaldom, but here is an interesting excerpt from an entry on Mary Ellen Synon's blog about them:
"I was still there during the last elections, when Gianni Alemanno of the National Alliance party (a party descended from Mussolini's fascist party) stood in the election for mayor. The Jewish businessmen of Rome, and as far as I could see a big part of Ghetto, backed him: any anti-semitism is long gone from the party, and the Jews reckoned that Alemanno's free market attitudes and pro-Israel stance made him the man to support.
He won, and within just three or four days he made his first visit as mayor to Ghetto, where he was welcomed at the same Great Synagogue which welcomed the Pope yesterday. How things have changed around the Portico d'Ottavia."
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