Al Qaeda has announced that it is targeting British soldiers who return from Afghanistan, particularly snipers. There are also reports that the families of snipers are being threatened.In other news, according to the American Enterprise Institute, government losses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will reach $400 billion, and the US taxpayer will be the one to foot the bill.
Thanks to AA, Barry Rubin, Insubria, JD, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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20 Million-Plus Collect Unemployment Checks in ‘09
A record 20 million-plus people collected unemployment benefits at some point in 2009, a year that ended with the jobless rate at 10 percent.
As the pace of layoffs slows, the number of new applicants visiting unemployment offices has been on the decline in recent months. But limited hiring means the ranks of the long-term unemployed continues to grow, with more than 5.8 million people out of work for more than six months.
[…]
Thursday’s report illustrates the two different trends: first-time jobless claims are falling as layoffs ease, but the total number of people collecting unemployment checks is still rising.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. To Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says
Taxpayer losses from supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will top $400 billion, according to Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The situation is they are losing gobs of money, up to $400 billion in mortgages,” Wallison said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Treasury Department recognized last week that losses will be more than $400 billion when it raised its limit on federal support for the two government-sponsored enterprises, he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Connecting the Terror Dots
As detailed by Dave Macy and published on Canada Free Press Friday, police in Houston responding to a domestic disturbance found something they did not expect: an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher that can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.
Channel 2 in Houston also reported that police found Islamic terrorist literature at the same location. According to news reports, the items belong to Nabilaye I. YANSANE, who was charged with criminal trespassing related only to the domestic incident. No charges were filed for possession of the launcher or the literature. (A video provided by KPRC Channel 2 in Houston can be viewed at this link).
[…]
The misdemeanor charges notwithstanding, further investigation conducted over the last several days with area residents familiar with YANSANE indicates a possible “connection” with the Al-Maghrib Institute in Houston, an Islamic center located less than 6 miles from his home. According to two area residents, YANSANE might have some level of involvement with the Institute, participating in classes or events at that location within the past year.
If the al Maghrib Institute sounds familiar, it should. As we previously reported, the Al Maghrib Institute is the Islamic center that terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab, the Muslim terrorist who attempted to bomb Delta-Northwest flight 253 out of the sky on Christmas Day, attended in 2008.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Homeland Security Chief Argues for Whole-Body Imaging
During my time as secretary of homeland security, the Transportation Security Administration began working to replace the 1970s-era metal detectors used at airports across America with modern technology able to detect non-metal weapons concealed by terrorists on their bodies — even in their underwear, where Abdulmutallab allegedly hid his bomb. The latest versions of these machines — sometimes called whole-body imagers — are deployed at 19 airports, and the TSA is attempting to place them throughout the nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Low Favorables: Dems Rip Rasmussen
Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.
The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report of 2nd Man Cuffed From Flight 253 Confirmed
U.S. Customs and Border official apologizes, reverses himself — ‘This is the FBI’s 4th story’
After several days of denying eyewitness reports of a second man from Northwest Flight 253 being arrested following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the plane by a Nigerian passenger linked to al-Qaida, the chief U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit area has admitted another passenger was taken into custody.
Ronald G. Smith sent an e-mail to the Detroit News, the paper reported, apologizing that the information provided to federal investigators by two attorneys aboard the plane had not been made available earlier.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Target British Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan
British-based Islamist radicals are targeting Army soldiers — especially snipers — returning from fighting in southern Afghanistan, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
In one case, a police armed response unit was called to the home of a sniper last September amid fears he was about to be murdered or abducted by al-Qaeda terrorists.
The Corporal, serving with a Scottish Regiment, was one of a two-man sniping team which shot dead 32 Taliban fighters during a six-month tour of Afghanistan.
The soldier — whom this newspaper has agreed not to name — was temporarily forced to leave home his wife and family after details of his service in Afghanistan were made public.
It can also be disclosed that a second sniper who recently returned home to the Glasgow area received death threats from suspected British-based al-Qaeda sympathisers after his personal details became known.
The threats were deemed so serious that an armed response unit was sent to his home in case terrorists tried to kidnap or kill him or members of his family.
Defence chiefs now see the situation as so serious that they have asked newspapers and broadcasters not to publicise the names or personal details of snipers serving in Helmand or of those who have recently returned.
It is understood that senior commanders believe Army snipers are being specifically targeted because they are often used to seek out and kill Taliban commanders.
In November, The Sunday Telegraph interviewed two snipers, who were not named for security reasons, serving in the reconnaissance platoon of the 1st battalion Grenadier Guards.
Both soldiers had taken part in an ambush of a Taliban force as the insurgents prepared to attack a British patrol base.
The two snipers were used to initiate the ambush by shooting dead a Taliban commander who was positioning his troops prior to a planned dawn attack in the Nad-e’Ali area of central Helmand.
After more than 12 hours of fighting both soldiers said that believed that they had killed at least two insurgents each. One of the snipers also admitted that he had lost count of the number of insurgents he had killed since arriving in Helmand two months earlier but believed the number was “well into double figures”.
But senior commanders requested that the two snipers not be identified in reports of the battle amid fears that the troops or their families might be attacked when they returned to Britain.
In January 2007, a plot by a Birmingham-based al-Qaeda cell to kidnap a British soldier and behead him was discovered.
The six-man cell was led by Paviz Khan, a 37-year-old father of three, who planned to kidnap a Muslim soldier and post a film of him being beheaded on the internet in a bid to deter other members of the faith from joining the British Army.
The plan was thwarted by a year-long surveillance operation by MI5 and members of the West Midlands counter-terrorist unit. Khan was later jailed for life.
A senior defence source said snipers were being targeted because theirs sole role in Afghanistan was to kill.
He added: “Sniping is a cold and calculating art. You have to be prepared to kill someone at a long range who may not be posing any direct threat to you. Every sniper who deploys to Helmand will return with several kills, many will be into double figures and this is something which is not lost on al-Qaeda or their sympathisers. Islamists would see targeting snipers as something is “acceptable” because they are killing a soldier who has killed one of their brothers.”
| [Return to headlines] |
Danish Muslims Question Cartoonist Attack
CAIRO — The alleged attack on the Danish cartoonist who drew lampooning pictures of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) raises questions among Denmark’s Muslim community who are puzzled and disturbed by emerging details of the latest episode of the cartoons crisis.
“There are many questions in this case,” Bilal H Assaad, chairman of the Islamic Faith Society, said in a comment on the website of Scandinavian Waqfs, Denmark’s main Muslim body on Sunday, January 3.
The Danish authorities are accusing a Somali man of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard, one of the Danish cartoonists who drew offensive pictures of the prophet in 2005.
According to the police, the 28-year-old asylum seeker, whose name has not been released under Danish law, was shot twice by police on Friday night as he tried to break-in Westergaard’s home while armed with an axe and a knife.
Intelligence agencies said on Sunday that the man has links to al-Qaeda network and the al-Shabaab group in his homeland.
He had “close ties to the Somali terror organization al-Shebaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa”, the Danish security and intelligence service (PET) said in a statement.
Danish newspapers also reported that he was arrested over a planned attack on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Africa last summer, according to intelligence sources.
The incident is raising eyebrows among the Muslim community who question the timing and the emerging details.
“Why would the Danish intelligence leave such man free though they claim he has close connections to ‘Qaeda leaders in Africa,’“ said Assaad.
“And is that al-Qaeda style, a screaming man targeting a heavily-guarded house in the middle of the night with a knife?”
The Somali was carried into a court on Saturday to face two charges of attempted manslaughter, which he denied.
He was ordered held for four weeks on preliminary charges of attempting to murder the cartoonist.
Unfinished Business
Danish Muslims, however, condemned the alleged attack and was keen to distance themselves from it.
“The Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts,” an umbrella organization for Muslims in Denmark said in a statement, reported the Observer.
But Assaad, of the Islamic Faith Society, believes that the latest episode of the cartoons controversy is not going to be the last in the Scandinavian country as long as Muslims are being wrongly treated.
“This did not come out of nowhere,” he said. “The government is still unable of having a fair policy in treating the Muslim minority.
“Even those who seek to climb the political ladder resort to assaulting Muslims in order to get fame and be recognized.”
Danish Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around three per cent of Denmark’s 5.4 million.
Islam is Denmark’s second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country’s population.
When Jyllands-Posten daily commissioned and published the 12 blasphemous drawings in 2005, it triggered a storm of protests across the Muslim world and straining ties with Muslim countries, but Danish Muslims vowed to astute reaction.
In 2008, however, 17 newspapers reprinted one of the lampooning drawings, reigniting the controversy.
“We have always affirmed that we reject violence with all its kinds,” said Assaad.
“But as long as some are trying hard to marginalize the Muslim community and link it to ignorance, violence and backwardness, the cartoons crisis will remain an unfinished business for years to come.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Cartoonist Intruder: ‘Links to Islamic Terrorists’
An intruder who was shot and wounded by police after breaking into the Denmark home of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has links to Islamic terrorists, according to Danish intelligence.
The 28-year-old Somali man is connected to the radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, claims Denmark’s PET intelligence service.
[…]
The suspect, who is being treated in hospital for injuries to his hand and knee, will be charged with attempted murder, according to Jakob Scharf, head of PET.
Scharf, said the attack was “terror related” and that the Somalian had been under surveillance for activities unrelated to Westergaard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Panic Room Saved Artist Kurt Westergaard From Islamist Assassin
He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a “panic room”, a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted “swear words, really crude words” and shrieked about “blood” and “revenge”, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door.
“I feared for my grandchild,” he told Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that had commissioned the cartoon. “But she did great. I knew that he wouldn’t do anything to her.” He went on: “It was close, really close. But we did it.”
The attacker, who was also carrying a knife, shouted, “I’ll be back”, before going outside to confront police. He smashed a police car window with the axe and was shot in the hand and a knee when he threw the axe at an officer. He appeared in court on a stretcher yesterday to be charged with the attempted murder of Westergaard and the policeman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Are Planned Airport Scanners Just a Scam?
New technology that Gordon Brown relies on for his response to the Christmas Day bomb attack has been tested — and found wanting
The explosive device smuggled in the clothing of the Detroit bomb suspect would not have been detected by body-scanners set to be introduced in British airports, an expert on the technology warned last night.
The claim severely undermines Gordon Brown’s focus on hi-tech scanners for airline passengers as part of his review into airport security after the attempted attack on Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
The Independent on Sunday has also heard authoritative claims that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Home Office have already tested the scanners and were not persuaded that they would work comprehensively against terrorist threats to aviation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Air Passengers Face Two Body Searches
Extra body searches, new restrictions on moving around aircraft and greater use of sniffer dogs are among the security measures being planned by Britain following the Christmas Day bomb plot.
Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, also said airline staff should be free to target “high-risk” passengers — a move that could anger ethnic minority groups.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Body Scanner Wouldn’t Have Foiled Syringe Bomber, Says MP Who Worked on New Machines
Gordon Brown’s plans to foil terrorist attacks by installing body scanners at UK airports are doomed to failure, according to an MP who helped to design the machines.
Tory MP Ben Wallace, who worked on the scanners at defence research organisation QinetiQ before entering Parliament in 2005, said the £100,000 ‘millimetre wave’ machines would not have stopped syringe bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from trying to mount his attack on Christmas Day.
[…]
‘The millimetre wave technology is harmless, quick and can be deployed overtly or covertly. But it cannot detect chemicals or light plastics.
‘They have their uses. They give a sharper image of objects — especially metallic — than the “metal arch” scanners now in use.
‘And as they scan the whole body, they would speed up security checks as there would be less need for the “pat-down” search.
‘They are also able to scan crowds at a distance. But they cannot detect everything.’ He said that the only type of scanner that might be able to pick up concealed explosives were X-ray machines — but they pose health risks and are too slow to operate.
Mr Wallace, the Shadow Scottish Minister, added: ‘Scanners are only part of the solution. A method better than any scanner is profiling. Why is it at airports we all are put through security the same way?’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Billions Face Identity Fraud Threat After Hackers Crack Secret Mobile Phone Codes
Billions could have their mobile phone calls intercepted and recorded after computer hackers cracked the secret code used to protect 80 per cent of the world’s users.
The code was posted on the internet by German scientist Karsten Nohl, who said he organised the breach to demonstrate the weakness of mobiles’ security measures.
He claims an eavesdropper could be listening to calls within 15 minutes with just a laptop and two network cards.
There are now fears that half the world’s population could be left vulnerable to crime including identity fraud.
Nohl said: ‘We have given up hope that network operators will move to improve security on their own, but we are hoping that with this added attention, there will be increased demand from customers for them to do this.
‘This vulnerability should have been fixed 15 years ago. People should now try it out at home and see how vulnerable their calls are.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Detroit Bomber’s Mentor Continues to Influence British Mosques and Universities
Al-Awlaki has been accused by US counter terrorism officials and the Yemeni government of being one of the driving forces behind Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s conversion to an extreme form of Islam.
Today we can reveal al-Awlaki has spoken on at least seven occasions at five different venues around Britain via video-link in the last three years alone, despite being banned from entering this country in 2006.
On at least two occasions the American-born cleric addressed audiences at a Muslim centre which was receiving taxpayers money under Government’s programme to prevent violent extremism.
[…]
The true picture of the continued influence of Islamist extremism at British campuses has begun to emerge since the arrest of Abdulmutallab, who headed University College London’s Islamic Society between 2006-2007.
He is the fourth president of a university Islamic society to face terror charges in the past three years and Whitehall sources have confirmed that MI5 is now investigating his possible links with other radical individuals at UCL and with other Islamic student societies.
During his presidency, Muslim students at UCL tried to water down the student union rules on anti-semitism by including Islamophobia in its definition. The university’s Jewish society was forced to launch a campaign to stop the motion in February 2007.
Over the same period Abdulmutallab organised a series of events featuring a number of Islamic radicals. This newspaper can now disclose new details of controversial Muslim speakers who have been invited to address events organised by UCL Isoc — raising concerns of whether university authorities have taken sufficient measures to prevent violent extremism on campus.
[Comments from JD: A detailed investigative report. Well worth reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MI5 Knew of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s UK Extremist Links
The security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend.
Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists whom MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: No Joke! The Slapstick EU Class You Pay for Out of Your Taxes
British taxpayers are helping to fund basket-weaving and slapstick acting workshops for young people across Europe.
The projects, which include meetings about folk dancing and even a scheme to promote afternoon siestas, are part of an £800million EU programme to help people aged 13-30 ‘feel European’.
Because the UK Government provides ten per cent of the EU’s central budget, it is likely around £80million of the cash used to run the Youth In Action programme could have come from British taxpayers, even though only a handful of projects have benefited teenagers in this country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: This is the Decade When Britain Faces the Choice — Slow Death by the State, Or a Return to Self-Reliance
Britain has emerged as the biggest loser from the first decade of the 21st century.
Our standing in the world has fallen faster than at any time since World War II.
Our economy has stagnated. Almost as important, the British reputation for honesty, fair dealing and decency has taken a number of very severe dents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Van Rompuy and the Secret Belgian Plot to Rule Britain
By Paul Belian, Belgian Lawyer And Historian
Perhaps, like many, you think Herman Van Rompuy, who took office as the first EU President on Friday, is a harmless figure of fun. Well, you’re wrong.
Van Rompuy, a former prime minister of Belgium, represents the ‘Belgianisation’ of Europe — a process which began 180 years ago and for which Britain has only itself to blame.
There is ominous symbolism in a Belgian ruling the EU. During the Second World War, Churchill called the Belgians ‘the most contemptible of all — a nation which vainly hoped to stay out of this war, no matter what they owed to those who had saved them in the last war’.
Yet the Belgian political model has since then stealthily conquered Britain, turning Brussels, not London, into the centre of power from which decisions are imposed on the British people.
Belgium was created by British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston in 1830-31. It is home to six million Flemings, three million Walloons and one million people in bilingual Brussels.
The country came about after French-speaking Walloons broke away from the Netherlands and tried to join France. Palmerston recognised the rebels on condition that they established a new state and remained neutral.
At first, everyone was sceptical about Palmerston’s creation. Even Belgium’s first king, Leopold I, said: ‘Belgium has no nationality and it can never have one. Basically, Belgium has no political reason to exist.’
By the late 19th Century the Belgian political elite had developed an ideology with a striking similarity to modern Europeanism. In 1904, the ideologist Leon Hennebicq wrote: ‘Have we not been called the laboratory of Europe? Indeed, we are a nation under construction… the solution is economic expansion, which can make us stronger by uniting us.’
His words foreshadowed the Europeanism of the Fifties, which aimed for political unification through economic integration.
But before this could be put into practice Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, forcing Britain to intervene in a Franco-German tussle to uphold Belgium’s neutrality. As neither the Flemings nor Walloons loved Belgium, they left Britain to do the fighting. The war left Britain with 700,000 military deaths.
After the war, the Belgian establishment put Hennebicq’s doctrine into practice. Since 1919, economic and social policies have not been decided in parliament, but between the government and so-called ‘social partners’, including the trade unions and the Federation of Belgian Employers.
Soon, the Belgians realised they could apply their ideas to Europe. In the Thirties, Henri De Man, leader of the Belgian Socialist Party, said his country’s ‘corporatist welfare state’ model should be turned into a European or even a global system.
When Hitler overran Europe in 1940, Queen Elisabeth, the widow of Belgium’s King Albert, described it as a ‘work of necessary destruction’.
Meanwhile, De Man saw the Second World War as a unique opportunity to establish a united Europe, asking his followers not to oppose the German victory because: ‘The Socialist Order will thereby be established, as the common good, in the name of a national solidarity that will soon be continental, if not worldwide.’
What was needed, he added, ‘was as much federalism and as little separatism as possible’.
De Man is now forgotten by history. His legacy, however, is very much alive thanks to his deputy, Paul-Henri Spaak, who settled in Britain during the summer of 1940.
He would go on to produce the Spaak Report which laid the foundation of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. It recommended the creation of a European Common Market, which would later become the European Union, as a step towards political unification and ‘an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe’. From the beginning, what these peoples might think was deemed unimportant.
Today’s EU is a shotgun marriage for the peoples of Europe. When the Danes voted against the Maastricht Treaty, and the Irish against Nice and Lisbon, they had to vote again. When the French and Dutch rejected the EU Constitution, their verdict was discarded.
Britain’s Government simply denied its people a say on the Lisbon Treaty, so Westminster is now legally obliged to ‘contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union’ — i.e. to further the interests of the EU, rather than those of its own people.
Make no mistake, the EU is an empire with global ambitions. In his acceptance speech, President Van Rompuy extolled ‘global governance’.
Legions of bureaucrats will rule the British from Brussels, the Belgian capital. Being proud of your Britishness will be criminalised, just as Brussels has always punished Flemings who put Flanders first.
Last November, Van Rompuy, although a Fleming himself, confessed in an interview: ‘I am a European because the European idea is an antidote for Flemish nationalism, an antivenin [an antitoxin against a snake’s venom] against the Flemish Movement.’
Two weeks later, he became the EU President. Van Rompuy is no harmless creature. He symbolises the conquest of Britain by Belgium, the monster created by Palmerston.
| — Hat tip: AA | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Two Golf Courses Planned for Dubrovnik
(ANSAmed) — ROME, 28 DEC — Two new course are to be created in Croatia, at Dubrovnik, on the Srd plateau, on approximately 310 hectares. The project has been entrusted to one of the prodigies of world golf, Greg Norman. The courses will be 18 and 6 holes, in accordance with the highest of worldwide professional standards, as well as a “Golf Academy” with a learning course led by Greg Norman himself. There are to be also a number of structures for sport and entertainment, such as a riding club , a wellness centre, cycling and walking circuits, open amphitheatres, the restoration of the Imperial Fort of Srd, which was seriously damaged during the war, as well as “the necessary related accommodation facilities”, such as villas, hotels, apartments and restaurants, to be place on an area of approximately 27 ha. Apart from the investment of 6.5 billion kune (approximately 900 million euro), it will be necessary to invest roughly 640 million kune in the nonexistent infrastructure of the Srd Plateau. A note informs that investors and the city’s authorities think that this project will allow Dubrovnik’s tourist season to become 10-11 month long, as well as being the occasion to change the type of accommodation currently available. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Croatia Increases Its Offer With ‘Wine Road’
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, DECEMBER 29 — Croatian tourism is increasing its offer in the county of Karlovac, where a new project, the 30-kilometre long Ozalj-Vivodina “Wine road’, managed to bring together eleven of the best known wine producers of this famous wine growing region. The project was developed by the association of vine-dressers, wine sellers and fruit sellers in cooperation with the tourist office of the county of Karlovac. Some 80 hectares of vineyards spread across the Ozalj-Vivodina area which is home to varieties such as Graevina, Sauvignon, Rajnski Rizling, Chardonnay, uti Mukat, Crni Pinot, Frankovka, Zweigelt and Mlado Vino Portugizac. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Sends Counter-Terrorist Forces to Yemen
The force is training Yemeni military and will assist in planning operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group which claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attack on a US airliner.
The disclosure comes as Western security analysts warn that the failed underwear bomb plot will serve as a test run for future overseas attacks by an increasingly sophisticated outfit still honing its terror techniques.
“The bomber was inexperienced, dispensable and an unknown quantity,” said a senior diplomat in Sana’a. “They would only have given him a 50-50 chance of succeeding. It was a proof of concept mission.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
John Kerry Denied Entry Into Iran
The Iranian Parliament today voted to deny John Kerry his request to visit Iran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan-Italy: Education, Universities to Collaborate
(ANSAmed) AMMAN, DECEMBER 30 — In order to develop cultural relations and relaunch cooperation in several sectors between Italy and Jordan, political and academic figures from Naples and representatives from Jordan’s Yarmouk University have met in the Hashemite Kingdom. According to sources at Jordan’s Ministry for Higher Education, Yarmouk’s president — Sultan Abu Erabi — has illustrated to the Italian delegation the state of the educational sector in Jordan and the university’s potential, the second most important in the country. The Italian delegation expressed the hope for the finalisation of an exchange agreement between the University of Naples and the Yarmouk University in the sectors of scientific research and teacher-student exchanges, said Erabi. Among the areas of cooperation are research on new techniques for olive oil extraction, produced in both countries on a large scale. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: 10 Arrested for Planning Attack on Tankers
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, DECEMBER 30 — Jordanian security forces have arrested ten men on charges of planning to blow up several oil tankers headed from Jordan to Iraq. Those arrested have been interrogated by the police and within the next week may stand trial, according to their lawyer Abdul Karim Shreideh. It is not yet clear whether the men had been working autonomously or whether they had links with Al Qaeda. After the crackdown by Jordanian authorities against Islamic extremists following attacks in Amman in 2005 — in which 60 were killed and 100 injured — Al Qaeda’s presence in the Hashemite Kingdom has been reduced to an insignificant size. The source reporting the news said that if the young men arrested are found guilty, they may be sentenced to life in prison. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim World: Iran —The End is Not Nigh
by Jonathan Spyer
The ongoing demonstrations in Iran are testimony to the continued strength and resilience of Iranian civil society. They make a mockery of the Islamic Republic’s ambition of offering a model for successful Muslim governance to the world.
The next major manifestation of the protests is likely to be February 11 — the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The seventh and 40th days following the deaths of those killed this week are also likely to witness dramatic scenes.
Still, the overheated punditry of the last week predicting the imminent demise of the regime, claiming that this is the beginning of the end for the Islamists in Teheran and that a “tipping point” has been passed is misleading and should be questioned.
Two parallel movements exist in Iran, each of which seeks to change the nature of the Islamic Republic as it has existed since 1979.
The first of these has been much in evidence this week, in the protests and demonstrations that have rocked Teheran and other cities. This is the so-called “Green movement.” It has no clear ideology beyond a deep dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. Within its ranks, one may find supporters of the reformist wing of the current regime, including former presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami.
The protest movement also undoubtedly includes individuals and groups with a far more determined and radical agenda, who would like to see the end of the regime established in 1979. But no credible, organized revolutionary leadership with a clear program for toppling the regime can yet be identified from within the broad mass of this movement.
THE SECOND “movement” exists within the regime itself. This is the trend whose most visible representative is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The coalition of hard-line conservative political associations which produced Ahmadinejad, along with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, have been steadily advancing in the institutions of the Islamic Republic over the last half-decade.
Unlike their opponents in the Green movement, this group has a clear and unifying set of ideas and goals. Their aim is a “second Islamic revolution,” which will revive the original fire of 1979. What they are aiming at is the replacement of clerical rule with a streamlined, brutal police-security state, under the banner of Islam. This state will be committed to a goal of building regional hegemony — through possession of a nuclear option and the backing of radical and terrorist movements.
This year has been mixed for the Iranian hard-line conservatives. On the one hand, the electoral “victory” of Ahmadinejad and the subsequent backing given to him by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei represented their biggest advance yet. Ahmadinejad later reinforced his victory by forming a cabinet packed with hard-line conservatives and Revolutionary Guardsmen. This cabinet is currently administering Iran.
There were gains further afield, too. The closest regional allies of the hard-line conservatives — Hizbullah — have become the effective governing force in Lebanon. Iran’s Palestinian clients, Hamas, are maintaining power in Gaza, as well.
But on the other hand, 2009 is also the year in which the limitations of the hard-liners and their ideas became apparent…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
The New Al-Qaeda Chiefs Bringing Terror to the World
Former Guantanamo prisoners have moved to Yemen to rejoin the fight against the West, says our correspondent
A large proportion of the population are, by western standards, drug addicts. A World Bank report in 2007 suggested that nearly three-quarters of Yemeni men and a third of women chew khat, a leaf that has an effect similar to amphetamines. This adds to the instability.
Into this morass has waded Al-Qaeda. Of particular concern to western intelligence agencies is the composition of the group’s leadership in Yemen.
Said Ali al-Shihri, a Saudi national, spent six years as prisoner number 372 at the US-run Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba after being captured on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in December 2001.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The OIC General Secretariat Condemns the Reported Attempt on the Life of Danish Cartoonist
A spokesman of the General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah condemned and expressed concern on the reported attempt on the life of the Danish cartoonist, who drawn the offensive and derogatory cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in 2005.
The OIC spokesperson stated that if the alleged attempt on the life of the Danish cartoonist is proven to have been committed as a reaction to the infamous cartoons of 2005, then it should be rejected and condemned by all Muslims unequivocally as it runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Has 9 Billion USD Trade Volume With UAE, Says Minister
(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, DECEMBER 30 — Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan said on Tuesday that there was 9 billion USD trade volume between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In an interview with the Anatolia news agency, Caglayan said UAE was a very important trade partner of Turkey and ranked the third in Turkey’s exports in 2008. “35 Turkish companies undertook 77 projects worth of 6.2 billion USD in the UAE and concluded some of them. There is a serious drop in Turkey’s foreign trade after global crisis. There is drop in Turkey’s iron and steel exports to the region as constructions particularly in this region slowed down,” he said. “The target of my visit was to communicate a message of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to Abu Dhabi’s Emir Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The message reaffirmed that Turkish industrialists, entrepreneurs and exporters would continue to work with businessmen of Abu Dhabi and that the investments would continue” he said. Caglayan said UAE’s investments in Turkey amounted to 5 billion USD, and noted that around 90 companies were acting in the UAE. Turkish companies mainly act in areas of jewellery, food, furniture, construction as well as ready-wear.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Soldiers Suspected of Plotting Against Govt Released
(ANSA) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 30 — The eight Turkish soldiers arrested over the last few days for an alleged anti-governmental plot calling for the assassination of deputy premier Bulent Arinc have all been released without having been charged, according to the state new agency Anadolu. The prosecutor’s office had requested that three of them be held in custody while awaiting trial but the court in charge of the case instead opted to release them. The other five had already been released on the proposal of the prosecutor’s office shortly before. The arrests have fostered speculation on the growing tension between the pro-Islamic party under Premier Tayyip Erdogan and the armed forces, which in Turkey are considered protectors of the constitution.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: ‘You’re Foreign and Should Go to Hell’
My guide, a young Yemeni, was showing me the spice market when an old man growled something. “He said you are foreign and should go to Hell,” my companion, keen to practise his language skills, translated. Later, another young man said something to my friend, and then hit him. I and another Yemeni man stepped in and pulled the two apart.
My companion said that the attacker had told him not to associate with foreigners and asked him for his identity card. My friend answered back and a fight instantly erupted. “It happens a lot,” the guide said. “People tell me not to be seen with foreigners, that they are non-Muslims and support America. That’s why I want to leave Yemen.”
It is not a sentiment that tour guides translate for the small groups of travellers still lured to Yemen’s natural beauty despite the risk of terrorist attacks. They do not want to see the last trickle of foreigners dry up.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Death Row Briton: I Was Tortured for Two Weeks Before Signing Murder Confession in Language I Can’t Speak
[Comments from JD: WARNING: Disturbing descriptions.]
A Briton who has spent more than five years facing execution in Pakistan has told of his ordeal for the first time, describing how days of brutal torture forced him to confess to murdering two men he says he barely knew.
Naheem Hussain, 24, spoke exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from the grim cell he shares with 39 others in Mirpur in Pakistani Kashmir.
‘My torture lasted two weeks,’ he said. ‘Finally, I signed a confession written in Urdu — a language I can’t read or write. They told me it was the paper I had to sign to get released.
‘I’d seen the men I was supposed to have killed but never spoken to them, yet now I could be hanged. I miss my England so much. I wish you could take me home with you.’
Case files show that after Naheem and his cousin and co-accused Rehan Zaman, 25, both from Birmingham, confessed, police took them to a graveyard and told them to point to a spot, where officers then dug up two guns they said were the murder weapons. A police ballistics analysis has confirmed they do not match the bullets used.
[…]
He had gone back to the family’s ancestral home in Ratta, a village near Mirpur, to marry a local girl named Fauzia in 2003. When he returned to Birmingham, she stayed in Pakistan, waiting for her UK visa. Eight months later, he visited Ratta with his parents, to bring his bride back to Britain.
‘It was June 22, 2004,’ said Naheem. ‘We heard that Mohammed Majid [a distant cousin by marriage] and his son Shahed had been shot by masked men.’
Police arrested Naheem, his father Fazal, 53, and Rehan, claiming that although the killers wore masks, they had been recognised.
‘They put me in this filthy room,’ said Naheem. ‘This inspector hits me in the face and he goes, “You done the murders.” They tied me to a chair and were hitting me on the head, my legs and my back. Then they got me on the floor and started kicking me and burning my arms with cigarettes.’
In the adjoining room, Fazal could hear his son being tortured. ‘I heard his screams,’ he said. ‘When they let me see him, he was bleeding from his arms, legs and mouth.
‘The next day, they tied Naheem to a chair in front of me. They put more rope round his legs, put sticks through the loops and twisted it to cut off the circulation and crush his muscles. It was the most terrible thing I shall ever see. He was in agony.’
Afterwards, Naheem said, they tortured Fazal in front of him, beating him on the soles of his feet. Meanwhile, Rehan was receiving similar treatment.
Days before Naheem and Rehan signed their confessions, Fazal said, the family contacted the British High Commission, pleading in vain for help. According to Naheem, a British official even phoned him saying there was nothing he could do.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia to Appeal ‘Allah’ Ruling: Minister
Malaysia’s minister in charge of Muslim affairs has said the government will appeal a court ruling allowing a Catholic paper the right to use the word “Allah”.
Malaysia’s high court ruled last week the Herald weekly had the right to use the word “Allah” after a long-running dispute between the government and the newspaper in the Muslim-majority nation.
The paper has been using the word as a translation for “God” in its Malay-language section, but the government argued the word should be used only by Muslims.
Jamil Khir Johari said the country’s national fatwa council had ruled in May 2008 that “Allah” could only be used by Muslims in Malaysia, state news agency Bernama reported late Saturday.
“It is important for Muslims here to guard the use of the word and if there is any attempt to insult or misuse the word we must take all legal action as allowed under the federal constitution,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Premier Najib Razak urged people to remain calm, saying he was concerned about reactions to the court decision.
“The issue is very sensitive and touches on the feelings of Muslims, we need to be calm now and let the matter be resolved through the courts,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama Sunday.
Meanwhile the Herald’s website was hacked at the weekend, causing the site to shut down, editor Father Lawrence Andrew told AFP.
“Our website was attacked by hackers and was shut down and we suspect it was done by those unhappy with the present situation,” he said, while declining to comment on the government’s plan to appeal.
The court ruled on Thursday the Catholic paper had the “constitutional right” to use the word “Allah”, declaring the government’s ban on the word “illegal, null and void”.
Muslim groups have said they plan to protest the ruling.
Universiti Teknologi MARA political analyst Shahruddin Badaruddin said the main issue among Muslims was the fear that the use of the word by non-Muslims would inflame religious tensions.
“It is all about the fear that allowing use of the word will make it easier for Christians to convert the local population,” he told AFP.
Former premier Mahathir Mohamad said the use of the term had to be governed strictly but that Muslims would still be angry over the ruling, according to the New Straits Times.
The Herald is printed in four languages, with a circulation of 14,000 a week in a country with about 850,000 Catholics.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Concern as China Clams Down on Rare Earth Exports
Neodymium is one of 17 metals crucial to green technology. There’s only one snag — China produces 97% of the world’s supply. And they’re not selling
China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NZ’s Cyber Spies Win New Powers
New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone’s online life.
The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand.
In preparation, technicians have been installing specialist spying devices and software inside all telephone exchanges, internet companies and even fibre-optic data networks between cities and towns, providing police and spy agencies with the capability to monitor almost all communications.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Preacher of Hate Booted Out of Britain is Picked Up in Kenya
A preacher of hate who was booted out of Britain has been arrested by anti-terror police in Kenya.
Abdullah el-Faisal, 45, was seized on New Year’s Eve after speaking at a Mombasa mosque.
The fanatical Muslim cleric was jailed for nine years in Britain in 2003 after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans.
He had his sentence cut to seven years on appeal and became eligible for parole after serving half his term.
He was deported to his native Jamaica immediately after being released from prison in 2007.
Police in Kenya said El-Faisal had violated the terms of his tourist visa by preaching in mosques. He was arrested for allegedly breaching immigration regulations.
An Islamic human rights group blasted the move last night.
‘This is curtailing Sheikh Faisal’s freedoms of expression and association in a very discriminative manner that is totally unacceptable,’ said Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of the Muslim Human Rights Forum.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bombardment Kills at Least 18 Colombian Rebels
At least 18 Colombian FARC rebels were killed early yesterday when the country’s air force bombed a southern jungle camp where dozens of guerrillas were clandestinely celebrating the new year, officials said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jobs for Illegals at Home Office as Dozens of NHS and Public Bodies Ignore Immigration Laws
Illegal immigrants have been working at some of the most sensitive Government offices in the country — including the headquarters of the UK Border Agency — a Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered.
Following our enquiries, the Home Office admitted employing a dozen illegal foreign staff over the past four years — 11 Nigerians and a Ghanaian.
Ten of them secured cleaning jobs at Becket House, the headquarters of the UK Border Agency, which vets immigrants. The building in Croydon, South London, also serves as an immigration detention centre, holding up to 270 people awaiting deportation.
Two other illegal immigrants worked at the Whitehall headquarters of the Home Office, which houses the office of Home Secretary Alan Johnson. One was a chef in the canteen, while the other worked as a security guard on the front door for 19 months.
The Home Office headquarters is regarded as one of Britain’s most high-profile terrorist targets and receives round-the-clock police protection.
Eight of the 12 have since been deported, three are detained pending appeals and one was later granted leave to remain in the country.
The embarrassing disclosures come despite repeated pledges by Labour to crack down on illegal immigration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Two-Faced Truth About Immigration
New Labour has two separate immigration policies. The first is the one it endlessly proclaims to the public — of supposedly tough restrictions, raids on employers of illegal workers, expulsions of those with no right to stay here.
The second is the real one, unwisely disclosed a few weeks ago by the former Blairite functionary Andrew Neather. This is that mass immigration is an important part of the cultural revolution in which Britain is being dissolved into a new and different country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Another Liberal State Set to Crash
Arizona hosts enormous illegal immigrant population
Today’s feature article by Dave Levine relates to Arizona’s imminent crash.
It is so sad to see state after state unable to pay its bills. And yet, as the article Dave links to points out, the people of Arizona voted for programs they can’t pay for, and these programs are entitlements which are not optional.
For those who don’t know why this is happening, you need to bring yourself up to speed on the radical Cloward-Priven strategy, which aims to force Marxist change by killing capitalism with crises, creating demands that can no longer be met, forcing societal collapse.
This has been the Democrats’ underlying strategy for years, but Obama has brought it on in spades, doubling the national debt in just a few months after his election, making us beholden to China, an enemy of our way of life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Behind the Culture of Terrorism Denial
The ideological left view Islamic terrorism as a misguided protest movement against global poverty and imperialism that they can accompany as fellow travelers on the red brick road to a socialist utopia. Accordingly the ideological left is one of the most fervent traffickers in terrorism denial, insisting that the real fault lies with the imperialist countries that the terrorists have targeted. This sort of reasoning is not particularly new to the left, which in the early days of WW2 supported both Hitler and Tojo on the grounds that they were victims of Allied Imperialism. When German tanks invaded the USSR, the left suddenly switched sides, and the anti-war protests became pro-war protests, but the stench left behind of the willingness of the red and yellow to collaborate with the red and black, should be adequate reminder that the left will ally even with the most unlikely of bedfellows in the hopes of fulfilling their revolutionary fantasies of a Marxist world order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fides: 37 Catholic Missionaries Killed in 2009
(AGI) — Vatican City, 31 Dec. 37 Roman Catholic missionaries got killed in 2009, the highest figure in the past ten years, as indicated in the yearly report by Fides, a Vatican agency.
The report denounces the violent deaths of pastoral workers and namely 30 priests, 3 nuns, 2 seminarists and 3 lay volounteers of 16 different nationalities. It is almost a two-fold increase compared to last year’s figure. In the Americas 23 operators were killed — 6 in Brasil and in Colombia respectively. 11 got killed in Africa of whom 4 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in South Africa; 2 in Asia and a priest in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
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Al-Qaeda Target British Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan
British-based Islamist radicals are targeting Army soldiers — especially snipers — returning from fighting in southern Afghanistan, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
Al Qaeda has announced that it is targeting British soldiers who return from Afghanistan, particularly snipers. There are also reports that the families of snipers are being threatened.
Having just finished "Shooter" by Jack Coughlin, Casey Kuhlman and Donald A. Davis, I can safely say that this concept should be put in the "Really, Really Bad Idea" file. Only the sad fact that these unfortunate soldiers are located in the United Kingdom gives this ill-thought-out notion any traction.
In America, several of the assailants involved would most likely be wearing toe tags and already occupying a refrigerated slab at the local morgue.
Clash of civilizations in a small Dutch town: link
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