The financial crisis in Greece continues. In response to the Greek government’s creative bookkeeping during its accumulation of massive debt, the European Union has invoked the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and removed Greece’s voting rights.Greece has experienced a 2% drop in GDP, and faces unemployment and severe inflation. But the crisis in the EU is not confined to Greece: Spain has issued fifteen-year bonds under an increasing credit risk, and Italy’s exports are down more than 20%, the worst figures in forty years.
In other news, an imam named Louay Safi will no longer be permitted to give lectures explaining Islam to soldiers on U.S. Army bases. Dr. Safi, who is associated with ISNA — a Muslim Brotherhood front — has given lectures at Fort Hood, among other places.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, DT, ESW, Fjordman, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, ICLA, Insubria, JD, Kitman, Nilk, Perla, REP, Sean O’Brian, Takuan Seiyo, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Greece: GDP -2%, Rise in Inflation and Unemployment
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 16 — Economic indicators provided today by Greek statistics offices confirm the serious condition of Greek public accounts. According to what has been provided by the Greek office of statistics, Greeces GDP figures for the third quarter of 2009 dropped in real terms by 2.6% compared to the same period of 2008 (-0.7%, taking into consideration current prices). On an annual basis, again in real terms, the drop amounted to 2%. Inflation on the rise: last January the consumer price index settled at 2.4%, 0.6% more than the same period of 2009 (1.8%). The greatest increase concerned the transport sector (9%), followed by alcoholic drinks and tobacco (6.3%), construction (4.6%) and health (3.3%). The trend was bucked by the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector, where prices dropped by 1.9% during the month of reference. Always in January, the deficit of the State Budget dropped by 39% compared to the same period of 2009, settling at 818 million euros compared to the previous 1,342 million euros (figures provided by the Bank of Greece). In Greece the number of unemployed people increased to 531,953 (+146,965), most of which in the regions of the southern Aegean (17.8%), western Macedonia (14.3%) and eastern Macedonia-Thrace (14.2%). The unemployment rate for November 2009 settled at 10.6%, approximately 2.8% more than during the same period of 2008. An increasing number of women is without work (13.3% compared to 11.6% in November 2008). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Loses EU Voting Power in Blow to Sovereignty
The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state.
The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty.
While the symbolic move to suspend Greece of its voting rights at one meeting makes no practical difference, it marks a constitutional watershed and represents a crushing loss of sovereignty.
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Leinster shed bottlers tag with brilliant display to dismantle Munster”We certainly won’t let them off the hook,” said Austria’s finance minister, Josef Proll, echoing views shared by colleagues in Northern Europe. Some German officials have called for Greece to be denied a vote in all EU matter until it emerges from “receivership”.
The EU has still refused to reveal details of how it might help Greece raise €30bn (£26bn) from global debt markets by the end of June. Investors are unsure whether this is part of Kabuki play of “constructive ambiguity” to pressure Greece and keep markets guessing, or reflects the deep reluctance by Germany to be drawn deeper in an EU fiscal union. Greek bonds sold off as ten-year yields jumped to 6.42pc, but the euro rallied to $1.3765 against the dollar as broader issues resurfaced in currency markets.
Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup, hinted that ministers have already agreed on a support mechanism, should it be necessary. It will most likely involve by bilateral aid by eurozone states. He said proposals for an IMF bailout — backed by Britain — were “absurd” and would shatter the credibility of monetary union.
Many Germans disagree, including Otmar Issing, once the backbone of the European Central Bank. He said an EU rescue for Greece would be fatal, arguing that unflinching rigour is the only way to hold monetary union together without political union.
Tuesday’s EU verdict amounted to a thumbs down on Greece’s earlier austerity efforts, viewed as too reliant on one-off measures and too light on spending cuts. Greece must reduce its deficit from 12.7pc of GDP to 3pc in three years. Greek customs officials expressed their anger by kicking off a three-day strike, the first of many stoppages set to culminate in a general strike next week.
However, premier George Papandreou has won support from key political parties and a majority of the people. Greece may yet surprise critics by mustering its Spartan Spirit.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 2009 Export Down 20.7%, Worst Result Since 1970
(ANSAmed) — ROME — In 2009, Italian exports plunged by 20.7% compared with 2008, Italian statistics office ISTAT reports. The office adds that this decline is the worst result since 1970, the start of the historic series. In 2009 Italy recorded a trade deficit of 4,109 million euros, after the 11,478 million euro deficit recorded in 2008. In December 2009, exports fell by 1.9% and imports by 3% from December 2008. The trade balance showed a deficit of 123 million euros, lower than the 415 million euros in the same month in 2008. These figures, ISTAT points out, show a “recovery” compared with the previous data. All sectors saw a decline in exports in 2009, compared with the previous year, particularly in the energy sector. Imports fell as well, most importantly in the sectors of energy, intermediate goods and instrumental goods. In 2009 imports of crude oil represented 8.2% of total imports of fossil fuels (10.6% in 2008), followed by natural gas (5.9%, 6% in 2008). Italy’s trade balance without crude oil and natural gas shows a surplus of 37.7 billion euros, lower than the 49.9 billion euro surplus recorded in 2008.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 15-Year Bond Issue Amid Rising Credit Risk
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 16 — Spain is preparing a 15-year bond issue at a time when the cost to insure itself against defaulting on its bonds is on the rise. According to data from Cma DataVision, the credit default swap prices on Spanish 5-year bonds increased by 1.5 basis points today to 141 points. On February 8, contracts jumped to an all-time high of 173.5 points, reports Bloomberg. Madrid chose BBVA, Credit Agricole, Hsbc, Banco Santander and Societé Generale to issue bonds on the market. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Home Prices to Fall Another 5%, Or 40%?
There were a couple of articles out this past week predicting the future of home prices. One claimed that U.S. home prices should drop another 5%, the other went with 40%. Which one is likely to be closer?
Let’s start with Shawn Tully’s article in CNN and his 5% figure. [Thanks John for bringing this to my attention!] He extolls the virtues of comparing the cost of renting versus buying as a metric for determining home prices:…
| — Hat tip: REP | [Return to headlines] |
Another Newsweek Conspiracy Theory Claim Debunked
Another of Newsweek’s ridiculous “conspiracy theory” claims has been debunked after a prominent former Mexican foreign office minister called for a North American Union and a single unified currency, adding to the voluminous reams of evidence that confirm an EU-style integration is being developed for the Americas, a notion Newsweek dismissed as “discredited” in their feeble “Know Your Conspiracies” hit piece. As we detailed on Monday, Newsweek bosses gave intern David A. Graham the job of debunking the most prevalent “conspiracy theories” circulating today, but the result was a feeble, embarrassing and self-defeating example of lazy journalism that served to make Newsweek look like the real conspiracy theorists, since the majority of issues they denied are manifestly provable and openly admitted, such as the march towards global governance. One of the claims made in the article was that the implementation of the North American Union and the Amero single currency was a “discredited theory”. However, prolific Mexican politician and intellectual Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s foreign minister from 2000-2003 and a global distinguished professor of politics at New York University, wasn’t discrediting the move towards a North American Union in a recent interview with the BigThink.com website, he was staunchly advocating it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Census Reaches Out to Hispanics, Illegal Immigrants
The high-stakes head count of Census 2010 is weeks away, and many state officials across the South and Southwest worry about getting an accurate count of the Hispanic population; and, more specifically, the illegal immigrant population.
Census officials say the illegal immigrant population is key in this year’s census, not only from a statistical standpoint but also because much-needed federal money hangs in the balance.
“We have many people who are in Arizona who are not here legally but whose children attend our schools and go to hospitals, and those are all affected by the census results and the federal dollars that come back to Arizona,” Phoenix Census Bureau manager Al Nieto said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
D.C. Magazine Hawks ‘Intifada Boy’ Pins
Foreign policy journal sells anti-Israel, Palestinian ‘solidarity’ items
While an influential Washington foreign-policy magazine claims to provide “balanced” coverage of the Mideast, its parent company sells Palestinian “solidarity items” celebrating the “Intifada,” the bloody anti-Israel uprising led by Hamas terrorists.
The items, which include key chains, pins and T-shirts, also depict the state of Israel wiped off the map.
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs — a slick, 100-page monthly magazine — is published by the American Educational Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit group, “to disseminate information and promote understanding of Middle Eastern people and cultures,” according to AET’s tax filings.
Critics say the periodical is a shill for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and the radical Muslim Brotherhood, whose stated goals are to destroy Israel and America.
They say WRMEA routinely runs stories sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, while championing Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is linked to its website.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Daniel Pipes: Should We Believe Rashad Hussain?
Rashad Hussain, Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has run into a problem: He appears to be an Islamist. The evidence largely concerns a public statement he made six years ago, as Josh Gerstein reports in Politico:
Hussain, now a deputy associate White House counsel, was quoted back in 2004 decrying the prosecution of a Florida professor accused of ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian. However, the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report noted Sunday that the article quoting Hussain, published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, was subsequently sanitized on the Web to remove the quotes and all other references to Hussain. The changes appear to have taken place in 2007 or later.
According to the original story, Hussain told a panel discussion at a Muslim Students Association conference in ‘04 that the criminal case against Al-Arian was one of a series of “politically motivated persecutions.” Hussain also reportedly asserted that Al-Arian was being “used politically to squash dissent.”
Of course, this not at all the case: Sami Al-Arian was an accessory to terrorism by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and he sits at this moment in a U.S. jail for his actions.
At this point, Hussain’s views hinge on the reliability of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Its news editor, Delinda Hanley, explained that his
quotes were taken down because the quotes attributed to him actually came from Al-Arian’s daughter, Laila Al-Arian, who took part in the same panel discussion. “Laila Al-Arian said the things attributed to Rashad Hussain, and an intern who attended the event and wrote up the article made an error, which was corrected on our Web site by deleting the two quotes in their entirety,” Hanley wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO.
However, the author of the article, Shereen Kandil, said Tuesday that she stood by her original report. “When I worked as a reporter, I understood how important it was to quote the right person, and accurately,” Kandil wrote in response to an e-mailed query from POLITICO asking about the possibility of a misquotation.
As someone who has experienced first-hand the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs’ grossly inaccurate reporting, I should like to voice an opinion here.
In July 2001, the magazine reported on a panel I took part in at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. It ascribed to me the statement that “The Palestinians are a miserable people … and they deserve to be.” I had not said this and immediately responded to the article. WRMEA (snidely) published my letter to the editor in its October 2001 in which I denied having made this statement, said it’s “not how I think, speak, or write,” and quoted from an article of mine published six days after the panel to show my actual views about Palestinians.
Now, the WRMEA, an obsessively anti-Zionist publication that believes Israel’s Mossad killed Kennedy, overthrew Nixon, and considered assassinating George H. W. Bush, clearly likes Hussain more with than me, so his misquote eventually got pulled while mine, eight-plus years later, yet languishes on its website, and is still used against me.
But that should now divert attention from WRMEA’s reliance on amateur ideologues to “report” on events for it and the publication’s lack of credibility. In an argument between Hussain and WRMEA, therefore, I am inclined to believe the former. (February 17, 2010)
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Editorials: Target GOP With Violence?
CNN column says president should go ‘gangsta’
Editorials on two news sites popular with a liberal audience have begun calling for violence, at least rhetorically, against the Republican Party, which although in the minority in Congress has derailed some of the president’s major agenda items.
The calls from a CNN editorial and Huffington Post piece were highlighted on the BigGovernment.com website.
Kristinn Taylor wrote at BigGovernment.com that the two news outlets “would be well-advised to retract the calls to violence and issue apologies to Republicans before Obama supporters are incited by their violent rhetoric and start going gangsta and break kneecaps of Republicans.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Keith Ellison, Where Are You?
The leftist magazine Tikkun, in its January—February 2010 issue, carries an “Interview with Keith Ellison” in which the magazine’s editor asks the Democratic congressman from Minnesota about my recent article “Islamism 2.0”:
MICHAEL LERNER: You are aware that the Jerusalem Post printed an article by Daniel Pipes identifying you and Tariq Ramadan as intellectual challengers to American values who are even more significant than the physical attack from terrorists. And I wonder if you have any response to that, or what you thought of that?
KEITH ELLISON: I think that it is a paranoid and conspiratorial point of view and that it is absolutely devoid of any factual support. And that it should not be considered a serious observation.
Here is the thing: I believe in democracy. I believe conflict in society should be resolved through election. I believe in the rights of women and minorities. I believe in equality in front of the law for all people. These are not the views of an extremist. I believe in religious tolerance. I support interfaith dialogue everywhere. I support Israel. I support the Palestinian people and I support their aspiration for a state. I support Israel’s aspiration to live in peace and security but side-by-side with that state. So Daniel Pipes’s point of view is simply not accurate.
I make no personal ad hominem attacks against Mr. Pipes — I don’t know Mr. Pipes — and I am sure he has reasons for thinking what he thinks; I am not suggesting they are legitimate reasons, I am sure they are not. But I am sure he has justification for his thoughts. I wouldn’t mind talking to the man one day because anybody so seriously incorrect really needs some time and attention with people who can help him develop a greater level of understanding. That is all I have to say about that.
Okay, I am paranoid, conspiratorial, not serious yet seriously incorrect, not accurate, and in need of being talked to by Keith Ellison. In response, I wrote him on January 13, 2010, both at his Washington office and via Tikkun’s editor:
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Muslim Suspended From Delivering Islam Lessons to Army
Decision comes following complaint over 3 days of teaching at Fort Hood
A Muslim hired to give Islamic lectures to members of the U.S. Army on military bases has been suspended from that work pending an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, authorities have confirmed.
Military officials told the Dallas Morning News that Louay Safi, who works with the Islamic Society of North America’s leadership development team, came under scrutiny as he gave a series of lectures at Fort Hood in Texas only a short time after 13 adults and an unborn child died in an attack attributed to Muslim activist Maj. Nidahl Malik Hasan.
Ed Buice, an NCIS spokesman, declined to elaborate on the reason for the suspension and subject of the investigation, but the newspaper quoted other military officials saying the inquiry began after a complaint in December as Safi concluded three days of lectures at Fort Hood, according to The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report.
Now a number of experts say the investigation is too little, too late.
“The NCIS is conducting an investigation into Safi, and in my opinion, the investigation is several days late and many dollars short,” terrorism expert Christopher Holton, an analyst with the Center for Security Policy, told WND.
[…]
The Hudson Institute’s Hillel Fradkin describes the International Institute of Islamic Thought.
“It’s a shame that the IIIT has gotten as far as it has in the U. S. The IIIT is a front organization for the Muslim Brotherood,” Fradkin said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
N.J. Police Search for Baby After Father Claims He Threw Her Off Bridge
SAYREVILLE, N.J. — New Jersey State Police are searching for a 3-month-old girl after her father told them he threw his daughter off a bridge and into a river.
The search Wednesday is centered around the Garden State Parkway’s Driscoll Bridge, which spans the Raritan River between Sayreville and Woodbridge, and is across the bay from New York’s Staten Island.
Authorities say Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem grabbed the girl from the child’s grandmother in East Orange Tuesday afternoon and fled.
Police found 21-year-old Abdur-Raheem at a relative’s home about five hours later.
Winslow police Lt. Michael Hoffman says the man told officers he had been driving south on the parkway when he pulled over and threw his daughter off the bridge.
Abdur-Raheem did not have custody of his daughter, and he and the child’s mother are not married.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
N.J. Man Accused of Throwing Infant Daughter From Parkway Bridge Had Restraining Order
EAST ORANGE — A 21-year-old Atlantic County man who is accused of throwing his 3-month-old daughter from the Garden State Parkway’s Driscoll Bridge into the Raritan River Tuesday night apparently had an accomplice drive him off after kidnapping the infant from her grandmother’s apartment, a witness said today.
Chris Bailey, the superintendent of the East Orange apartment building the child’s grandmother lived in, said he found the grandmother right after the kidnapping and she described her desperate attempts to stop the abduction.
Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem, of Galloway Township, who does not have custody rights for his daughter, is accused of abducting Zara Malani-Lin Abdur-Raheem Tuesday from her grandmother in East Orange after an argument, authorities said.
Rescue crews were out all night and continued to search the river this morning, said Stephen Jones, spokesperson for the New Jersey State Police. Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon by East Orange police.
State Police spokesman Sgt. Julian Castellanos said the suspect was in custody in East Orange. Police continue to search the river today even though they had no independent eyewitness to the baby being thrown into the river. Bailey said he saw Abdur-Raheem walk into the building at about 1 p.m. talking on his cellphone. The baby’s grandmother, whose last name is Benjamin, told Bailey that the suspect then barged into the apartment and took the baby.
“He pushed his way in and knocked her to the floor,” Bailey said according to Benjamin.
The grandmother, wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants and no shoes, ran after Abdur-Raheem, who was clutching the baby, all the way to the lobby and outside. At one point, Bailey said, she tried to snatch the infant, but the 21-year-old overpowered her.
Abdur-Raheem then allegedly ran outside and into a minivan on the passenger’s side, Bailey said. A male driver had been waiting for him, Bailey said. The grandmother jumped onto the hood of the minivan, but the vehicle managed to shake her off.
Patti Sapone/The Star Ledger Rescue crews search Raritan River for three-month old Zara Malani-Lin Abdur-Raheem.
Bailey said the grandmother is in her early 50s, and the child’s mother, Venetta Benjamin, recently moved out of the East Orange apartment. Venetta Benjamin is a graduate student in her early to mid- 20s. He said much of the tight-knit family is originally from the Caribbean islands.
Bailey said the girlfriend allegedly had a restraining order against Abdur-Raheem and that there was friction before the kidnapping Tuesday night.
“It’s a tragedy for a father to cause this kind of discord,” Bailey said.
Abdur-Raheem told police he then drove south and threw Zara Malani-Lin from the Driscoll Bridge, which spans Raritan River on the Garden State Parkway, as he was driving south, Hoffman said.
Abdur-Raheem drove down to Atlantic County where he went to see an Imam, Jones said. He then drove to Camden County, where police found him at a Winslow Township home of a family member of Abdur-Raheem four hours after the alleged kidnapping.
The infant girl was last seen wearing only green pajamas, authorities said.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Orders NASA to Work With Muslim Countries
(Yes, NASA and No, This Isn’t From The Onion)…
How about dragging them out of the 7th century before we start blasting them into space?….
WASHINGTON —NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.
“In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.
Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s National Defence Review Ignores Iran and Islam in Favour Of… Climate Change!
By James Corum
Under American law, every four years the US Defence Department must present to Congress a comprehensive review of the security threats and challenges to America. The security picture presented in the review provides the justification for planning and creating the appropriate military forces and capabilities. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is supposed to be a non-partisan and objective strategic document — free of partisan politics. After all, the duty to protect the nation and its citizens is supposed to take a higher priority than subsidies to labour unions, or hand-outs to party loyalists.
Last week the Defence Department released the 2010 QDR. It is a remarkable document. As guidance for American strategy it might even take a historical place alongside some of the great assessments of the Bush administration—such as the 2003 Congressional testimony by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that a war in Iraq could be waged at little cost.
The 128-page Defence Review says some important things. It outlines the problems with maintaining the US military’s technological lead over potential adversaries. It discusses the need to counter terrorism. The threat to Western cyber systems is noted. The proliferation of Russian high-tech anti-aircraft missiles around the world is noted as a problem.
However, it’s not what is in the document that surprises the reader — it’s what was left out. There presence of two elephants in their living room apparently escaped the notice of American’s top civilian and military leaders. Islamic radicalism does not receive any mention whatsoever in the American Defence Review and the threat posed by a nuclear Iran is mentioned in only one general sentence at the end of a document (page 101). To put this lack of discussion in proportion, contrast this non-discussion with other security issues mentioned in the document. For example, the security effects of climate change are highlighted and discussed in depth in eight pages of the document.
I would not have thought it possible that one could publish a book-length assessment of America’s security challenges and responses and NOT address the problem of Islamic radicalism or the Iranian bomb — but that’s just what Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen have done. From this one can draw one of two possible conclusions: these men are really, really stupid (not very likely), or they have deliberately minimised the current security threats to please the Obama administration and support the President’s desire to cut defence spending. The smart money is on the latter explanation.
Obama’s plan is to spend, spend, and spend on domestic entitlement and welfare programmes. His next budget contains a deficit of $1.6 trillion — almost as much as Bill Clinton’s whole government budget of 2000. But Obama is under pressure to make some budget cuts somewhere. Clearly the massive domestic budget with really necessary items like a $35 billion General Motors bailout can’t be touched without offending essential groups such as the United Auto Workers Union.
However, President Obama HAS finally found the place to cut waste — defence! In late January he demanded that Congress cut $2.5 billion from the defence budget for the purchase of C-17 transport planes. Obama declared the money for military transport was “waste, pure and simple”.
Of course, “waste” is a matter of interpretation…
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Publication Denies Cover-Up on OIC Envoy, Implies Anti-Muslim Bias Lies Behind Story
A Washington-based publication said Tuesday that it incorrectly quoted President Barack Obama’s newly appointed envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference as saying in 2004 that an American who aided a Palestinian terrorist group was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions.”
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) was responding to queries about why an archived story quoting Rashad Hussain as making the controversial comments was altered years later.
WRMEA News Editor and Executive Director Delinda Hanley denied there was a “cover-up,” and implied that anti-Muslim discrimination was behind the fact this was now being raised.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Schoolbook Glorifies Communists
Anti-American radicals upheld as ‘role models for citizenship’
A book for high-school students glorifies communists, socialists and at least one activist who has called for “resistance” against the U.S. government, WND has learned.
The work, “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” has been used in schools across the U.S., according to its author. The book, however, does not inform readers of the extremist backgrounds of the personalities upheld as heroes.
Robert Shatterly, creator of the book project, told WND the work features portraits and brief descriptions of dozens of personalities who are “role models for citizenship in the attempt to win democracy.”
Shatterly said his book, and a related traveling art exhibit featuring the same personalities, have been featured in many U.S. schools. He also posted an online curriculum for educators to teach American history through the lives of the personalities in his book.
Kathleen Jackson, who teaches 7th and 8th grades at Marin Country Day School in California, said she has used the book for her students.
In an e-mail interview with WND, Jackson said she is pleased with the reaction of children who read “Americans Who Tell the Truth.”
“Once (students) enter the book, see the faces and read the personal beliefs and biographies of those Rob has painted, a new world begins to open for them,” Jackson said. “They ask about strip mining, war, pesticides, corporations, freedom of speech, racism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: The B-Cast Interview: Was Obama a Committed Marxist in College?
Dr John C. Drew joins us to discuss his impressions of the young Barack Obama and their extensive discussions of Marxist theory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: College Acquaintance: Young Obama Was ‘Pure Marxist Socialist’
“He definitely saw America as the enemy.”
Editor’s note: The B-Cast conducted an hour-long interview with John C. Drew last Friday. That extended interview can be found in the related links section below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Family Flees ‘Horrific’ Abuse
Given asylum in Canada after couple’s daughter was raped as toddler in Pakistan
A seven-year-old Pakistani girl and her family have been given asylum in Canada after reports the child was raped and left to die when her Christian father refused to convert to Islam.
The identities of Baby Neeha and her family are being protected by immigration officials, said human rights lawyer Chantal Desloges and One Free World International, a church that was instrumental in getting the family here.
The family arrived in Canada on Dec. 12 after a three-year battle by organizers to spirit them out of danger in Pakistan.
They are living in the Mississauga area and will be visited next month by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who was so touched by the family’s plight that he doled out a ministerial permit, of which he has only issued two.
Church founder Rev. Majed El Shafie said the family of seven have been hiding from extremists in Pakistan for about three years.
Baby Neeha, at the age of 21/2, was raped by the son of her father’s employer and left to die by the roadside, he said. No one was arrested for the crime.
“These horrific events took place because her father, who was Christian, refused to give in to pressure from his Muslim employer to convert to Islam,” El Shafie said.
The family went underground in Pakistan to hide from Muslim extremists who were seeking revenge for their non-conversion, he said.
“The family has lived for years in hiding and in constant fear of being discovered by the employer’s family or Islamic extremists,” El Shafie said. “We are thrilled that she’s finally in Canada.”
Organizers said the case touched Kenney who decided to help the family.
“This case truly broke his heart and he (Kenney) considers himself lucky to have it within his powers to intervene,” Kenney’s spokesman Alykhan Velshi said yesterday. “Fortunately, they are now safely in Canada.”
Kenney found out about the family’s plight six months ago, Velshi said.
“He personally issued a special ministerial permit,” he said. “There were significant difficulties in getting them out of Pakistan.”
The family can now apply for permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, Velshi said.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Damages for Catholic Abuse Could Cost Millions
As more victims of sexual abuse by priests in the German Catholic church in the 1970s and 80s come forward, their lawyers said on Tuesday that compensation could reach into the millions.
Berlin lawyer Manuela Groll, who represents nine victims, told daily Die Welt that sums between €5,000 and €10,000 are under discussion.
“My clients are not happy with an apology, and instead expect compensation from the orders,” Groll told the paper. “An agreement out of court would be the right signal to the victims.”
Prosecutors have said that the alleged abuse probably happened too long ago for criminal charges to be an option.
Klaus Mertes, head of the elite Canisius Catholic secondary school in Berlin, where the scandal erupted in January, acknowledged that the church may compensate victims.
“But this question needs to be ruled upon by church leadership in Munich or even Rome,” Mertes told Die Welt.
Since Mertes sent a letter to some 600 former students at Canisius College who he believed may have been victims of at least two priests on staff in the 1970s and 80s, news of sexual abuse in other Catholic schools and organisations has spread throughout Germany.
Mertes told Die Welt that he believed the number of victims could be more than 100. Already more than 50 people have come forward.
“I have always said that it wasn’t about isolated cases, but that a certain system was behind this issue,” he said, adding that the church needs to recognize the terrible truth.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Estonian Journalists Fear for Their Sources
In Estonia, new draft legislation would allow journalists to be incarcerated for up to one year for protecting their sources. Protection of journalists’ sources is clearly stated in European Human rights practice. This does, apparently, not prevent new attempts to hamper this particular and crucial part of press freedom.
Should the Act be adopted in the given form in the Riigikogu, investigating the mischief of public authorities and public officials would become very complicated for journalists. Much easier, obviously, to write about topics which do not entail the looming breach of source protection for the journalist.
In the summer 2008, Minister of Justice Rein Lang formed a “working group on media freedom legislation”, which went unnoticed by the public. The Ministry remained silent as to the group’s duties.
In November 2009, the representative of the Ministry of Justice proclaimed at a seminar of the Estonian Newspaper Association that following the European example, Estonian journalists too would have their right to protect their sources.
Rein Lang evidently states the opposite. The draft legislation, signed by the Minister, lists over 50 exceptions which oblige journalists to disclose their source to the police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the court. Upon failure to do so, one can be punished with a fine that equals up to 500 daily salaries. Or even face a year in jail, which today seems quite unbelievable. But, if this punishment is not intended to be used, why include it in the law?
After 2004, the press hasn’t been requested to disclose their sources in Estonia. It was then that the Tallinn police brought charges against Eesti Pöevaleht reporter Sergo Selder in order to find out the name of the waiter who spat on a cutlet.
During the interrogation, Selder had to endure the policeman’s threats, and was also photographed against the mug-shot background like a prisoner. The investigation was concluded when the Prosecutor’s Office stepped in.
If Lang’s draft legislation had been adopted last year, the silence of the Estonian journalists could have entailed their prosecution and conviction. At the moment, The Code of Ethics of the Estonian Press obliges a journalist to protect confidential information sources.
The Estonian Parliament Riigikogu will start the discussions about the new draft legislation most likely in near future.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Turkey: Frattini, Don’t Refuse Them Just Because Muslims
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, FEBRUARY 16 — “We began talking about admitting Turkey 16 years ago, we cannot change now, after we asked Turkey to change its rules in order to enter into Europe”, said Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, in answer to questions from Political Science students in Paris. “We cannot tell the Turks that we have changed our minds now because they are a Muslim country”, said Frattini, when asked why Italy does not agree with the no from Paris. “There is another interest as well — he added — Turkey is politically present in the Caucasus, a key region, as we have seen with Georgia, Armenia, and the countries of the Black Sea. And it is the only Muslim country which has relations with Israel. Turkey can also help Europe as a political lever with key countries in terms of European security such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq”. “Therefore we cannot give this message to 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide, that we are closing the door to you because this is a Christian Europe and you are Muslims. I cannot accept that this door is closed to Muslims because they are Muslim”, he continued. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Only Hamburgers for Muslims, Controversy
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, FEBRUARY 17 — In France, a fast food chain in Roubaix has decided to only sell halal hamburgers for Muslims, meaning that they have been prepared according to Islamic law. A controversy on the matter has broken out, with the mayor of the northern city denouncing the decision as discriminatory. René Vandierendonck, the socialist mayor of Roubaix, also threatened to turn to anti-discrimination authority Halde: “offering halal products does not create any problem for me,” he said, “but when only this sort of product is offered, it becomes discriminatory, it is unacceptable”. Fast food restaurant Quick has been experimenting since last fall with the idea of offering only halal products in its establishments in all of France, including in the centre of Roubaix, their only location in the city. Here pork has been entirely replaced with turkey. The issue is creating reactions in Sarkozy’s UMP party, with MP Richard Mallié calling Quick’s decision “scandalous”. “This is an unacceptable decision because non-Muslim clients cannot choose anymore. In the end, there won’t be any bacon for anyone, just turkey,” explained Mallié. Government spokesman Luc Chatel limited himself to saying, “I am not a supporter of communitarianism”, when asked about the issue by RTL radio. “I am not a supporter of communitarianism, I respect the traditions, including those that are food-related, of all communities, but I do not think that French society, its history and its culture, is communitarianism,” said Chatel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France Leapfrogs Past Australia in Big Brother Stakes
Lock up your kids and lock down your PC’s
France yesterday put in its bid for an unlikely prize, becoming the first western country to make even Australia look liberal when it comes to state powers of internet censorship.
In the teeth of fierce opposition both inside and outside parliament, the National Assembly approved, by 312 votes to 214 against, a first reading of a bill on Internal Security — the quaintly titled “LOPPSI 2”.
LOPPSI — otherwise known as Loi d’Orientation et de Programmation pour la Sècuritè Intèrieure (pdf)- is a ragbag of measures designed to make France a safer place. Like similar UK legislation — most notably the various Criminal Justice acts brought in over the last decade — LOPPSI brings together a number of apparently unrelated proposals which would severely restrict individual rights in all walks of life.
Last week, for instance, the Assembly agreed to include within the new law a measure that would allow Prefects to sign off on a curfew for children aged under 13, out unaccompanied between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am.
The bill also includes measures that would increase police spend on “security”, create additional penalties for counterfeiting and ID theft, increase CCTV surveillance, and widen access to the Police DNA database.
However, it is in the online area that some of the most radical proposals are to be found, with the criminalisation of online ID theft, provision for the police to tap online connections in the course of investigations, and most controversially of all, allowing the state to order ISPs to block (filter) specific internet URLs according to ministerial diktat.
It has also been suggested that the state should have the right to plant covert trojans to monitor individual PC usage.
Whilst the latter measures are put forward on the grounds of child protection, critics have been quick to point out that, in the absence of any judicial oversight mechanism, this is a power just waiting to be abused.
A broad coalition of groups and individuals outside the French parliamentary system have been scathing in their condemnation. LOPPSI, a site dedicated to this law, writes: “The French Government has got it worked out. To place limits on the free space that is the internet, they have to control it: but how can they destroy such a space without fierce resistance?”
The dishonest answer, according to this site, is to use the paedophile as a pretext. Because, they say “the whole world is instantly terrified”. Despite this, the measures proposed will do little to safeguard children — and nothing to prevent anyone who can afford to spend €5 a month from accessing the same material via VPN.
Similar arguments have been put forward in the Assembly by a number of Deputies. Patrick Braouzec and Michel VaxËs proposed the deletion of this power, arguing that it does not really solve the child pornography issue. They argued that this approach could be a mistake as filtering will allow hiding the evolution of the phenomenon, whilst Paedophiles who use the internet are very capable of getting around any filtering techniques by using crypting and anonymisation methods, thus being “paradoxically, better protected”. Amendments along the same lines were also put forward by Deputies Lionel Tardy and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
Meanwhile, the French Data Protection Authority, CNIL, has made plain its concerns with several of the proposed measures. CNIL expressed fears related to several provisions of the draft, especially in relation to the collection and retention of data, installation of Trojan horses on computers and the surveillance of public access to the Internet.
The legislation still has some way to go. However, the sentiment contained within the draft that passed yesterday is populist and, on the voting evidence so far, many Deputies are clearly well aware of that.
| [Return to headlines] |
France Wine Producers Guilty of US Scandal
A dozen French winemakers and traders have been found guilty of a massive scam to sell 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to a leading US buyer.
The judge in Carcassonne, south-west France, said the producers and traders had severely damaged the reputation of the Langedoc region.
The 12 more than doubled profits passing off the wine to E and J Gallo under its Red Bicyclette brand.
E and J Gallo was not involved in the court case.
In a statement on its website it said it was “deeply disappointed” to learn its supplier, Sieur d’Arques, had been found guilty of selling falsely labelled French Pinot Noir.
‘No complaints’
The court ruled the 12 had deliberately and repeatedly mislabelled the wine as one of the more expensive varieties of grape in order to get a better price from E and J Gallo.
The Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir single grape wine is hugely popular in the United States.
French Customs officers spotted the swindle and called in investigators.
They found the amount of Pinot Noir being sold to Gallo was far more than the region produced.
Some of those in the scandal were not even Pinot Noir producers.
The judge handed out suspended jail sentences ranging from one month to six months for the most prominent wine trader and ordered all the defendants to pay fines.
The fines ranged from 1,500 euros ($2,050; £1,300) to the top figure of 180,000 euros ($247,050; £156,500) for Sieur d’Arques. The judge said that the accused together made seven million euros in profits from the scam.
The judge said: “The scale of the fraud caused severe damage for the wines of the Languedoc for which the United States is an important outlet.”
A lawyer for Sieur d’Arques, Jean-Marie Bourland, told Agence France-Presse: “There is no prejudice. Not a single American consumer complained.”
A lawyer for three other defendants argued his clients had delivered a wine that had Pinot Noir characteristics.
E and J Gallo said it was no longer selling any of the wine to its customers.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
In Italy, North-South Differences in IQ Predict Differences in Income, Education, Infant Mortality, Stature, And Literacy
Richard Lynn, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Regional differences in IQ are presented for 12 regions of Italy showing that IQs are highest in the north and lowest in the south. Regional IQs obtained in 2006 are highly correlated with average incomes at r = 0.937, and with stature, infant mortality, literacy and education. The lower IQ in southern Italy may be attributable to genetic admixture with populations from the Near East and North Africa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cat-Meat Recipe Sparks Furor
TV food expert suspended for hailing ‘tender, white cat meat’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 15 — The co-host of a popular daytime cooking show was suspended on Monday for extolling the delights of cat meat during an episode last week.
Beppe Bigazzi, a food expert on La Prova del Cuoco (The Cooks’ Challenge), enraged animal rights experts around the country when he gave advice on preparing “tender, white cat meat” in a portion of the show usually reserved for advice about nutrition.
The Italian Animal Protection Agency said they were “satisfied” with the timeliness of Bigazzi’s suspension in view of World Cat Day on February 17.
The measure came soon after Health Undersecretary and vocal animal rights activist Francesca Martini slammed Bigazzi’s comments as “offensive to the growing number of people who care about the way we treat animals,” she said.
She added that it was “shameful” for a state television employee to recommend a notion as “despicable” as eating cats on national TV.
Martini said that killing and cooking cats was not only illegal from a health and sanitation perspective, but in clear violation of norms protecting pets.
“Anyone who goes on television to promote the taste of cat meat is guilty of instigating viewers to commit an act of cruelty to animals, a crime punishable by up to 18 months in jail,” she said. According to a recent report, there are an estimated 44 million pets living in Italy, 7.5 million of them cats.
Despite their popularity, however, around 150,000 animals are abandoned each year by their owners and there are at least 73,000 annual reports of mistreatment or abuse.
The report also found that 50,000 stray cats have to be rescued and sterilized by local authorities each year.
While cat meat is illegal in Italy, it is a popular winter dish throughout China and much of Southeast Asia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: G8 Maddalena: Judge Lupo, 4 Suspects to Stay in Prison
(AGI) — Florence, 16 Feb. — Requests for the release from prison of Angelo Balducci, Mauro Della Giovampaola and Diego Anemone, implicated in the inquiry into the G8 tenders, have been turned down. Fabio De Santis, the only one not to have applied for release, also remains in jail. The news was confirmed by Florence Examining Judge, Rosario Lupo, who stressed that “all the reasons for custodial remand remain unchanged”. ..
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Regional Elections: Berlusconi Rallies Electorate
(AGI) — Rome, 16 Feb — During his press conference presentation of the PDL’s four latest regional election candidates, a bombastic Berlusconi submitted that “Italian, yet again, are being called upon to choose which side they’re on: whether they’re on the side of getting things done or on the side of the ‘nothing but talk’ Left; on the side of a government that gets things done or on the side of the opposition that loves to always say no; on the side of reforms or ont the side that spreads pessimism”. Berlusconi confidently went on to suggest that “we stand a strong chance of winning over traditionally ‘red’ regions”. .
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 16 Year Old in Coma for Appendicitis
[Translated by our Italian correspondent Perla]
Condemned to a vegetative state, after an appendectomy. The ordeal without hope of the 16 year-old, from one emergency room to another, first to understand the cause of her abdominal pains, then for the operation, then to be torn from the oblivion of unconsciousness, has finished in a coma without any hope of returning to consciousness.
The odyssey of Sara, a teenager from Torrevechia Pia, in the province of Pavia, began on 10 January, when she arrived at the emergency room of the hospital San Matteo di Pavia, in pain and vomiting. She was diagnosed with cystitis and released on 11 January. On 12 January her parents brought her to the hospital in Vizzolo. Here, the doctors decided to put her in the paediatric department and, 2 days later, to operate: appendicitis was the diagnosis. According to the denunciation report filed in the past few days by Sara’s family, something went very wrong. “The teenage girl was vomiting, agitated and restless, and no one intervened,” say her family members — until she had a respiratory crisis and her heart stopped. Sara ended up needing resuscitation. But the situation got even worse. The hospital in Vizzolo asked for the help of the resuscitation team of the San Gerardo hospital, in Monza. The San Gerardo team arrived at the hospital of Vizzolo and manage to resuscitate Sara: her heart started beating again. But her brain had suffered irreparable damage. Sara was transferred from the hospital in Vizzolo to the hospital in Monza. Two days ago, the verdict of the neurosurgeons of the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute of Milan was as follows: vegetative state. A return to consciousness would be a miracle.
| — Hat tip: Perla | [Return to headlines] |
Landslides Ravage Calabria, Sicily
Thousands evacuated as heavy rains unleash debris
(ANSA) — Messina, February 16 — A rash of mudslides unleashed by heavy downpours this weekend continued wreaking havoc in towns in Sicily and Calabria on Tuesday as unremitting rainfall doused southern Italy.
Authorities in Calabria reported that all 2,300 residents of the Calabrian town of Maierato were forced to evacuate when a section of hillside broke off on Tuesday morning, burying their homes under rubble and debris.
“We were out looking at a small rockslide which had blocked a road when the whole hillside came down,” said Mayor Sergio Rizzo.
“I’ll never forget it,” he said.
Though there were no injuries or deaths, relief workers on the scene described “apocalyptic” devastation and said that Maierato had been reduced to a “ghost town”.
Prosecutors in Reggio Calabria on Tuesday announced they had opened an investigation into the causes of the mudslide, which many experts blamed on unregulated building and inadequate soil engineering.
The president of the Calabria region, Agazio Loiero, called on the government to enact a nationwide public works program to safeguard areas at risk of natural disasters.
“We don’t need a bridge to Sicily,” said the center-left governor, referring to the government’s project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge connecting the island to the mainland.
“What we need is to protect people who live in towns and cities under the continual threat of landslides and floods”.
The landslides in Maierato were among over 200 other around the region since Sunday, which have also seen evacuations in outlying areas around the city of Cosenza.
Flooding and debris was also responsible for a number of broken water mains around the region which have left thousands of area faucets running dry. The area around Catanzaro was also dogged by mudflows, which have reportedly cut off 27 thoroughfares leading into the city forcing emergency traffic onto secondary roads.
According to Italian environmental protection group Legambiente, every town and city in Calabria has areas at risk of flooding or landslides. The study estimated that 60% of those towns have zoned areas at high flood risk for heavy industry. As many as a quarter reported hospitals, schools and hotels in high-risk areas.
While over 70% had emergency plans in case of these disasters, Legambiente said more than half of them needed updating.
LANDSLIDE-HIT TOWN IN SICILY BRACES FOR MORE RAIN.
In Sicily, residents of a town near Messina prepared for the worst as a slow-moving mudflow on the move since Saturday night threatened to bury the town. Authorities said the landslide flowing through San Fratello, which has already forced over 1,500 people from their homes, came to a near halt on Monday during a brief respite from the rain.
But another cloudburst on Tuesday and more wet weather in store has experts worrying the mud could start flowing again.
“This is a nasty situation,” said National Institute of Geophysics director Domenico Patane’.
“The layer of destabilized soil here is very deep and about a kilometre wide,” he said.
Patane’ warned that if the hillside started sliding again, the western half the town could be destroyed.
Hundreds of other buildings have already been damaged, including the town’s Renaissance-era San Nicola Church, whose 15th-century crucifix was delivered to safety this weekend by parishioners.
On Sunday, residents took the cross and a statue of San Nicola, the town’s patron saint, on a procession through areas still untouched by the landslides.
San Fratello is just across the northeastern tip of Sicily from towns near Messina devastated by flash floods in October that killed 37 people. Legambiente on Monday said that deforestation and shortsighted urban planning were to blame for both calamities, which it warned would keep recurring unless the government took measures to prevent them. A spokesman for the civil protection agency, Bernardo De Bernardinis on Tuesday agreed that “we need to acknowledge Sicily’s vulnerability on this front and do something about it”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Spanish SMEs Worst in Eurozone for Access to Credit
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 16 — Spains small and medium-sized businesses, compared to the main economies in the Eurozone, are experiencing the most difficulty in access to finance, and have the highest rate of refusal of requests for credit, according to an investigation by the European Central Bank (ECB) on access to finance for SMEs, relating to the second half of 2009, which was carried out between November 19 and December 18 on 5,320 businesses in the Eurozone, 1,004 of them Spanish, which was quoted today by economic daily Expansion. Of the four largest Eurozone economies — Germany, France, Italy and Spain — conditions for access to credit by Spanish SMEs continue to be the most negative. The rate of refusal of requests for credit in the second half of the year was 25%, compared to 20% in the first six months, compared to 7% in France (12% in the first six months). The enquiry infers that there has been a deterioration in the availability of credit to SMEs throughout the Eurozone. In the second half of 2009, 59% of German SMEs and 80% of French ones saw their requests for credit completely satisfied, above the average for the Eurozone, which Italian SMEs are in line with (56%); however, the percentage of Spanish SMEs whose loan requests were granted was just 44%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Italy: More Arrivals at Christmas But Shorter Stays
(ANSAmed) — ROME,
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cossor Ali Wrote of Bomb Plotter’s ‘Martyrdom Wish’
There is “no doubt” the wife of a terrorist plotter wrote about her husband’s desire for martyrdom in her diary, an interpreter has told a court.
Adal Abdalla told Inner London Crown Court the context showed this was what Cossor Ali meant by the word “shahada”.
Defence barristers say it can be translated simply as “a good death”.
Mrs Ali, 28, of Walthamstow, east London, denies failing to pass on information that would be useful in preventing an act of terrorism.
Her husband, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, was in September convicted of plotting to blow up transatlantic passenger jets using liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
Mr Abdalla referred to a notebook the prosecution claim proves Mrs Ali had known of her husband’s plot since he had written his will in March 2004.
She wrote, in 2005, that she wanted to join her husband’s “quest” and hoped he was granted the “highest level of shahada”.
Mr Abdalla said: “When you look at this page in this context I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that means martyrdom.”
Defence barrister Baroness Helena Kennedy QC said shahada meant a “good death” in the eyes of Allah and not necessarily fighting.
She told Mr Abdalla: “You are bringing to your interpretation a hoard of other material extraneous to the actual text that you’re supposed to be interpreting.”
Video reaction
The notes were found in the flat Mrs Ali shared with her husband.
In one entry she said she had read a book about military commander Tariq bin Ziyad, and went on: “After reading it I am even happier with what you are doing. It makes me more eager to join you on your quest.”
The court was also shown footage of a police interview in 2006 where Mrs Ali watched her husband’s pre-suicide video.
In it, he said it was a Muslim’s “obligation” to wage jihad.
Setting out reasons for the plan, he said: “It is to punish and humiliate the kufr (non-believers) and to teach them a lesson they will never forget.”
He went on: “Now the time has come for you to be destroyed. You have nothing to expect but floods of martyrdom operations.”
In the footage from the police station, Mrs Ali seemed to show little reaction apart from occasionally putting a hand to her mouth.
The trial continues tomorrow.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Father Whose Face Was Shattered in Hammer Attack Smiling Just Two Months After Skull Was Rebuilt
This is the shocking X-ray picture of the skull of a father-of-three who incredibly survived horrendous injuries sustained in a brutal hammer attack.
David Barry, 41, was with his brother Thomas, 46, outside a pub when they were savagely set upon by a gang of around 30 thugs.
Just two months after the vicious assault, he remarkably shows no outward signs of his physical ordeal — despite his face is being held together by metal plates and nuts and bolts.
The brothers were battered too, within inches of their lives, by the hammer-wielding youths and both had emergency expert surgery to rebuild their faces.
But David came off far worse and was left with a snapped palate, shattered eye socket, smashed cheekbone and his jaw was broken in six places.
The surgeon treating him said the injuries to his face were the worst he had ever seen on someone who had survived an attack.
David, a communications engineer from Ilford, East London, said: ‘It was one of the most frightening experience of my life seeing hammers raining down on me.
‘I was out cold after the first few blows but witnesses told me they continued to hit me when I was unconscious and helpless.
‘My face was in pieces when I came round and when I got to hospital doctors said it was a miracle my brother and I had survived.
‘The roof of my mouth was snapped in half which caused the right side of my face to drop.
‘My eyes weren’t level either and half my teeth weren’t in the right place. Everything was about an inch lower.
‘It was unbelievable I survived to be honest.’
The brothers were outside the Angel and Crown pub in Bethnal Green, East London, on New Year’s Eve (2009) when they spotted Thomas’s son Chris, 18, being threatened by the gang just before 10.30pm.
When the pair tried to stop them, four of the group pulled out hammers and began to exact blows upon them before running off.
Thomas was left unconscious in the street while David managed to stumble back into the pub and, remarkably, even ordered himself a pint.
David added: ‘When I woke up I was aware I had been attacked but didn’t know how bad my face was until I walked back into the pub to get a beer.
‘I was obviously in complete shock.
‘But people soon told me how bad I looked and told me I had to go to hospital as half of my face was lower than the other side.’
The brothers were soon both rushed to hospital where they were examined by surgeons.
Thomas, a French polisher from Bow, East London, was told he had suffered four blows to the head and needed surgery on a shattered eye socket.
Incredibly, two months after the attack David’s face shows virtually no sign of the attack
He said: ‘What the surgeons did was incredible.
‘They went in through the inside of my mouth and popped my eye out of its socket so they could fit the plates in my cheek.
‘Now I’ve got absolutely no scarring because it was all done from inside.
‘But the nerves in my face were so badly damaged that I’m never going to get it back and my eyes are still slightly out of alignment.’
Both brothers are set to feature in a Channel 4 TV documentary about the work done by the Maxillofacial department at the Royal London Hospital.
| — Hat tip: DT | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Inflation Has Nearly Doubled in Two Months: Bills Are Soaring But Incomes Are Frozen or Falling
The figures mean that families already struggling to pay the bills as wages fall are being hit with huge increases on food essentials compared to January last year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother Fined £50 ‘After Toddler Dropped Banana From Pram’
A mother was issued with a £50 fine when her toddler dropped the end of a banana out of his pram, she claimed today.
Kirsty Allen, 29, said she was appalled by the fine issued by North East Lincolnshire Council.
The mother claimed she was hit with the fine after she was stopped by a council warden while walking with 16-month-old Lennon.
She said she was given the ticket after the warden saw the piece of fruit fall out of the youngster’s pram.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Starling Flock Forms Shape of Rabbit
Flocks of starlings are renowned for producing one of nature’s most impressive sights as they move in unison with unpredictable speed.
Only when captured on camera can the bizarre shapes the birds form be seen clearly.
These starlings put on their evening display to deter a nearby falcon.
Kevin Hill, 59, a wildlife enthusiast and his wife Carol, 61, spotted the birds on the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall near Glastonbury at 4:30pm on Monday.
Mr Hill, a keen wildlife watcher from Somerset, said: “It was absolutely amazing and when they sweep over the top of your head you can hear their wings beat.
“They make these peculiar shapes if they are worried about being an easy supper for a peregrine falcon. When a peregrine is around the starlings sense that there is danger and wheel and dive as protection against predators.
“No starling wants to be on the outside on their own. Unfortunately, on this occasion it didn’t work and a starling was taken, but that’s nature.”
The starlings, which arrived in late October from Europe, rest overnight at the reserve. At dawn they will go out into the countryside to feed in small flocks before returning an hour before dusk.
The birds will have migrated back to Europe by the middle of March.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Threatened With Court Action Over 1p Debt Owed to the Government
Mary Gibson, 50, was given until Thursday to pay the remainder of a crisis loan from the Department for Work and Pensions she took out eight years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Drug Trafficking Provokes Diplomatic Row
Belgrade, 16 Feb.(AKI) — Serbia and Montenegro have engaged in a bitter war of words in connection with cocaine smuggling from South America, accusing each other of hampering inquiries and protecting suspects. Serbian state prosecutor Miljko Radosavljevic said on Tuesday he had credible evidence that the prime suspect in a drug trafficking operation was hiding in Montenegro, after escaping arrest in Paris.
Radosavljevic’s comments contradict Montenegro police who have said Darko Saric was not in the country, but believed to be hiding in a European country.
“Montenegro is an asylum for criminals,” Belgrade daily Kurir said in a front page banner on Tuesday, while a Montenegran political opposition figure accused his country’s ruling government of being a Saric ally.
Relations between Montenegro and Serbia have been tense since Montenegro’s secession from a state union with Serbia in 2006.
The situation has been further aggravated by Montenegro’s recognition of the independence of former Serbian Kosovo province.
Montenegro opposition leader Nebojsa Medojevic said he had been subjected to “brutal attacks” and branded a traitor after appearing on Serbian television accusing his country’s government of protecting Saric.
He said Saric poured millions of euros into shady business deals in Montenegro.
“Montenegro authorities and some media have become a part of narcotics cartel,” Medojevic said. “It’s unrealistic to expect that Milo Djukanovic would arrest Saric.”
Serbia has arrested nine people in connection with a drug smuggling scheme, but at least 10 others, including Saric, are still at large.
Uruguayan authorities and several Balkan countries last October seized 2.1 tonnes of cocaine destined for European markets.
The drugs, estimated to be worth 250 million euros, were destined for Western Europe, according to police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Two Years of Independence, Uphill Struggle
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 16 — Tomorrow, Kosovo celebrates two years since its declaration of independence from Serbia in a continuing climate of uncertainty, with the economic crisis impacting ever more seriously and with a worrying increase in corruption and organised crime which casts a shadow over the future of the country. In reality everyone is waiting for the verdict of the International Court of Justice, which has been asked by Serbia to pronounce over the legitimacy of the independence proclaimed unilaterally by Pristina on February 17 2008. The verdict, which should arrive in the coming months, is not legally binding, although the process of recognising the independence of Kosovo has slowed down noticeably, with the international community waiting to hear the Court’s position. Only eleven countries recognised Pristina’s independence in 2009, compared with 54 in 2008. So far a total of 65 countries out of 200 represented in the United Nations have agreed with Kosovo’s independence, including the USA and 22 out of 27 European Union members, including Italy. Spain, Romania, Greece, Slovakia and Cyprus have not recognised Kosovo’s independence. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Optimistic on EU Prospects Two Years After Independence
EUOBSERVER / PRISTINA — Kosovo predicts that it will be an EU member before 2020. But two years after its declaration of independence, its EU integration process is facing problems.
Asked by Austrian daily Der Standard in an interview on Tuesday (16 February) whether Kosovo will get into the EU by the end of this decade, its foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, said: “I am optimistic that we will be in before that.”
Mr Hyseni forecast that the five remaining EU countries that do not recognise Kosovo — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain — will reconsider their position after the international court in the Hague rules on the legality of its status, a move expected in June.
“My impression is that those states who don’t recognise [Kosovo] can expect friendly pressure from others. Greece is going in the right direction,” he explained.
The EU is deeply engaged in Kosovo.
Its rule-of-law mission, Eulex, is the bloc’s largest in the world, with 2,600 people on the ground. Twenty EU countries take part in the International Steering Group, which helps oversee the Kosovo government. It has pumped in over €5 billion of aid since 1999.
Despite the non-recognition issue, EU states have opened tentative talks on visa-free travel. A so-called “tracking” group meets around three times a year to pave the way for a pre-accession treaty, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA).
One of the most frequently cited problems on Kosovo’s path to normalcy is the well-funded separatist ethnic Serb movement in the north of Kosovo. But despite the EU’s investment in Pristina, tensions between Eulex and ethnic Albanians are also on the rise.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: 8 Mln Euro to Improve Position of Roma Population
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 10 — Deputy PM Bozidar Djelic attended a session of a council set up to improve the position of the Roma population in Serbia, reports radio B92. The realization of inclusion projects for the members for this ethnic minority will be financed with 8 million euro from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds, he said. The realization of the European projects, which will be financed from the IPA funds Education for All and Social Inclusion, will also provide the financing for other initiatives, Djelic’s office said in a statement. At the council session, chaired by the deputy prime minister, it was concluded that Serbia made significant progress in 2009, the year of its presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, by adopting the Strategy for improving the position of Roma and the action plan for its implementation. The next session will be held at the start of April, just ahead of the European Roma Summit in Cordoba, Spain, where the Serbian delegation will propose the adoption of a Europe-wide strategy for Roma inclusion. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: South Korean Firm Takes Over Zastava Elektro
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 16 — Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic announced in Kragujevac that the South Korean company Yura, an automobile parts manufacturer, will take over the Raca-based factory for electrical goods Zastava Elektro by the end of March, reports Tanjug news agency. According to Dinkic, the production in Zastava Elektro, after the takeover, could start in June, with the engagement of about a thousand workers. Given the fact that Zastava Elektro now has around 280 workers, mostly women, the minister called on the National Employment Service to find the work force needed for the factory. Zastava Elektro from Raca was unsuccessfully privatized, and after several months of strike the privatization was annulled. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Thomas Cook Interested in Serbia
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 11 — Belgian tour operator Thomas Cook has expressed interest in learning about Serbia’s tourism potential and announced it will take part in a tourism fair in Belgrade, the Tourism Organization of Serbia stated, reports BETA news agency. According to the statement, talks with representatives of the largest Belgian tour operator took place in Brussels, while Tourist Organization representatives were at the Vakantiesalon international tourism show in the Belgian capital. The organization pointed out that Thomas Cook(www.thomascook.be) organizes more than 50% of travel arrangements sold in Belgium. The Tourism Organization of Serbia stand at the fair in Brussels was also visited by a representative of Time to Travel, a Dutch tour operator that offers Serbia as a holiday destination. At the tourism show, which took place from Feb. 4 to 8 and was attended by 113,000 people, the Tourism Organization of Serbia was present in cooperation with the Tourism Organization of Belgrade.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Government Attempts to Silence Coptic Diaspora
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — The drive-by shooting of Copts as they left Christmas Eve mass on January 6 in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi has shocked and enraged Copts all over the world. (http://www.aina.org/news/20100107150122.htm) International condemnations poured in after the attack, which left six Copts dead and nine injured, with Italy, Canada, France, the Vatican, the US Congress, and the European Parliament, expressing their concerns about the safety the Copts in Egypt. In reply, a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said, “It is an internal Egyptian matter that no foreign party is allowed to consider.”
The shootings triggered unprecedented protests by Copts inside Egypt and abroad. Explaining this Coptic reaction, Coptic intellectual Magdi Khalil said on Life TV on February 4 “This incident is not like the rest. Copts feel they are in danger, and a bigger one is forthcoming. They finally have realized that the crimes against them are not individual incidents but rather ‘crimes against humanity’ planned by the Egyptian State itself.”
Thousands of Copts participated in peaceful rallies in Western countries, voicing their grievances and exposing the Egyptian Regime’s infamy. For the first time Coptic clergy participated in the rallies, and in some countries members of parliament also attended. Petitions have gone out to most Western leaders, and a great number of Copts have contacted their Parliament representatives asking for support (video).
After the shootings, state security imposed a news blackout on Nag Hammadi. The media and rights activists were forbidden to enter the area, and those who did were arrested. To counteract this, Votoc and Middle East Christian Association, two Coptic advocacy groups from outside Egypt, exposed the false information given by the government using their heavily frequented Paltalk chat rooms. They carried out updates and live interviews with Coptic witnesses from the scenes. Their servers were hacked twice by government operators.
The outrage of the international community and the success of the Coptic immigrants in raising awareness of the serious situation of the Copts caused the Egyptian government to intensify its efforts to silence them.
The Coptic Diaspora has always been accused by the Egyptian regime of “tarnishing” Egypt’s image by presenting Coptic problems before foreign governments instead of solving them inside the country.
“Weakening their role as a pressure group abroad is a way to sabotage Coptic efforts in obtaining real gains,” Khalil said, “and depriving the Copts in Egypt from the lungs through which they breath. The real work for the Coptic Issue is done abroad, and not inside Egypt. Coptic emigrants are effective on the political and human rights levels.”
According to Khalil, the Foreign Minister, Ahmad Abu el-Gheit, held a secret meeting on January 19 with all his aides and ambassadors — excluding the two Coptic ambassadors — around the world to announce a “new strategy” to encounter the activities of the Coptic Diaspora. Abu el-Gheit said the Coptic Diaspora is a “fifth column,” “enemies of Egypt,” “who have a separate identity” and “all measures ought to be taken in all Egyptian Embassies around the world to curb their activities.” The second part of the “new strategy” is to “convince the homeland Copts that the activities of the Copts abroad will increase Muslim attacks on them, and the outside world will not be able to save them.” Khalil said that he got this information from a Muslim ambassador who attended the secret meeting and who disagreed with the policy..
Reacting to world pressure President Mubarak said on January 25, during his speech to mark national Police Day, that there have been “continued attempts” to disrupt national unity in Egypt and provoke sectarian strife in the country. “There exist extremists on both sides, and there are individuals who try to exploit Egypt’s ordinary people. We must resist these efforts with all our powers.” These comments were viewed as a threat directed at the Copts, particularly in North America, who are always vocal about the persecution of Egypt’s Copts.
Intensive media campaigns were waged to distort the reputation of Coptic migrants, accusing them of treason, fanaticism and of seeking “empowerment through foreign support,” a term invented by the government to intimidate and terrorize them.
Khalil criticized this moniker, saying “as American citizens, we use our constitutional rights to help our Coptic brethrens in Egypt to get their citizenship rights. We have not asked for any financial aid to be cut from Egypt, or sought military intervention from a foreign power. We are only asking that the Egyptian State honor its international obligations.”
It has been reported that a draft has recently been presented to parliament making “empowerment through foreign support” a criminal offense.
Outspoken journalist Salah Eissa of Dostor Newspaper wrote an article on February 5, claiming the Egyptian regime hired PLM Lobbying Group to influence members of Congress to support the Egyptian policy and the Mubarak regime. “The regime mounts a campaign against Copts in the Diaspora because they are knocking on the doors of Congress and sending letters to its members about conditions in Egypt,” wrote Eissa. “The regime wants to monopolize America for itself and prevents any of Egyptians, even U.S. citizens, from contacting anyone.”
For a long time the government has put pressure on the Coptic Church to discourage Coptic human rights activities in the West. It was infuriated by priests participating in the latest rallies.
In an article published on January 25, The Al-Gomhourya Newspaper accused Pope Shenouda of causing sedition by allowing the Coptic priests to join the rallies abroad. “We expected the Pope to instruct his chaplains to stop these demonstrations,” the article said.
A letter dated January 26 from the Egyptian Ambassador in Canada, Shamel Nasser, to Rev. Marcos, of St. Mark Church of Toronto, contained a veiled threat: “both Muslim and Christian preachers to adopt speeches that would assure and confirm the religious unity and equality between Muslims and Christians.” This letter was viewed as an indirect threat to priests not to join the rallies and to also discourage their congregations from joining the protests.
On January 30 the Toronto rally went out as planned with 10,000 Copts participating.
Egyptian Embassies abroad were known to have successfully terrorized Coptic participants in rallies, taking their photos threatening retaliation by state security when they visit Egypt.
“Copts in the West are not afraid of any kind of government threat and we are ready to face all challenges,” Khalil said. “We are not better than Martin Luther King, or the people who were martyred in Nag Hammadi.”
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Euthanasia: Tunisia Debates, Does Islam Allow it or Not?
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 15 — “Authorised by Islam — passive euthanasia is practiced in Tunisia”, was the headline today in French-language newspaper Le Quotidien, with a story that is bound to spark a debate. The story emerged from a survey conducted on blog “Asslema Tunisie”, according to which 65.52% of the population is against euthanasia, 31.03% is favourable, while 3.45% has no opinion. According to Le Quotidien, euthanasia “is not taboo in a Muslim country like ours, so the practice of passive euthanasia is not prohibited by our religion. In Islam, the body has a divine nature, something that does not allow us in any way to decide about how a person’s life is to end. But treating oneself medically is part of what is ‘allowed’, ‘moubah’, and therefore it is not required. Preacher Ahmed Gharbi is diametrically opposed to this perspective, saying that “in Islam euthanasia cannot be practiced because human beings do not have possession of their body, it belongs to Allah.” According to Gharbi, “euthanasia, in Islam, is similar to suicide” and he points out that the Prophet Mohamed “died after a long battle with a fever that consumed him. And if you tell me that passive euthanasia is allowed by Islam, I strongly doubt it”. For Khemals Tamallah, a sociology teacher in the Humanities Department at the University of Tunis, “we have not yet arrived at a cultural level that will allow for a reflection on the issue of euthanasia. The industrialised world is very advanced in relation to our medicine, film, literature, and in all aspects of life… there is a certain democracy that creates and allows for freedom of action and speech. Everything is said and done with respect for the diversity of others and with respect for religion. Our society,” said Tamallah “is regressing.” “This is also because,” he stressed, “there is a return to the family unit, because children cannot satisfy their daily needs without the help of their parents. They cannot separate from them. How can they reflect on such a delicate issue if they do not have their own material independence with respect to their family?” He concluded on a bitter note: “We can have a debate among intellectuals, but the common person is not prepared to discuss this sort of difficult issue, because for these people, religion has a dogmatic character.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Film: Amazigh Film Festival in Kabylie in March
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 16 — The tenth annual ‘Amazigh’ (Berber) Film Festival will be held from March 15 to 20 in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, the capital of the Berber region par excellence: Kabylie. Twelve films will compete in the festival, the event’s commissioner, Si El Hachemi Assad, announced. The festival “was created to promote Algerian films in the Berber language and to encourage artistic expression in this language”, the commissioner continued. The Berber language is spoken by around 20% of the population. This year’s festival is dedicated to the writer from Kabylie, Moloud Feraoun, author of works like ‘Le Fils du Pauvre’. Feraoun was killed in 1962 during the Algerian independence war against France. The twelve films will compete for the Golden Olive. During the festival, the documentary ‘Moloud Feraoun’ by Ali Mouzaou will be shown as well. A discussion about the author, a workshop on mixing and filming techniques, several films in the Berber language and concerts have been scheduled during the festival. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Algerian National Side in Italy for World Cup Camp
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 15 — The Algerian National Football team will be holding its training camp for the upcoming World Cup in Italy at the technical centre of the Italian Football Federation of Coverciano from May 20-28, announced the Algerian Football Federation (FAF), which specified that the greens will play a friendly match on March 3 in Algiers against Serbia. After training camp in Italy, the team will then go to Dublin where they will face the Irish National side on May 29. Finally, before heading to South Africa on June 6, they will complete their preparation with a training camp session in Algiers, which will conclude with a match against a team to be announced. The last time Algeria qualified for the final phase of the World Cup was 24 years ago. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Swiss Asked to Resolve Row With Libya
Italy and Malta say Schengen ‘black list’ must be dropped
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — Italy and Malta on Wednesday called on Switzerland to resolve its differences with Libya and to drop its ‘black list’ of people it wanted kept out of the border-free Schengen area, which included Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The appeal was made in a joint statement issued after a meeting here between the foreign ministers of Italy, Malta and Libya which focused on Tripoli’s decision to suspend business visas issued to citizens from the European Schengen area. A statement issued after the morning meeting between Italy’s Franco Frattini, Tonio Borg of Malta and Libya’s Musa Mohamed Kusa emphasized the importance of resolving the issue, which will be at the center of talks on Thursday between the Libya’s foreign minister and the Spanish European union presidency. Libya on Sunday night began to block entry into the North African country to Schengen citizens with business visas and the next day said that such visas would no longer be issued nor respected.
While the European Union has condemned the move, Italy from the start has criticised Switzerland with Frattini saying that Bern was holding the Schengen area “hostage” over its bilateral dispute with Tripoli.
He added, however, that the EU should work to help the Swiss resolve its “bilateral problem”.
The dispute between Libya and Switzerland began in July 2008 after the Swiss arrested a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Hannibal, and his wife for allegedly mistreating their domestic help. They were released after an out-of-court settlement was reached with the servants but Libya retaliated at the time by taking into custody two Swiss nationals on what appeared to be trumped-up charges. Frattini on Wednesday urged Tripoli to release the two Swiss engineers who have been held in Libya for 18 months.
After Switzerland joined Schengen, in December 2008, it issued a ‘black list’ of 188 ‘undesirables’ who should be denied entry into the border-free area and included Gaddafi, his family and even members of his government.
Since Sunday night ten Italians have been turned away on their arrival in Libya and repatriated. No Italians were denied entry into the country on Tuesday.
The Italian embassy in Tripoli said that relatives of Italians resident in Libya, tourists, workers and “normal” businessmen were being allowed in but that no guarantees could be made.
On Monday the Italian foreign ministry urged Italians to avoid travelling to Libya. The Schengen area includes all European Union countries with the exception of Britain and Ireland, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Frattini and Kouchner, EU Cannot be Hostage
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — The countries of the European Union cannot be hostages of a bilateral controversy, said Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini during a joint press conference with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner in Paris. “I will repeat my appeal to Libya and also to Switzerland for flexibility in resolving their bilateral problem, so that the rest of Europe is not held hostage”, Frattini said. “It is a problem which affects us all, I believe that Europe will be able to address this matter on Monday at a Foreign Ministerial level to resolve or help to resolve the matter, which affects French, Italian, and Belgian citizens who have nothing to do with this bilateral issue”, he added. “We have shown solidarity in trying to help Switzerland solve this major problem with Libya, but frankly, if someone stirs up a reaction from Libya, and I will say to the Libyans to keep calm, Switzerland must also do its bit”. Frattini also staded. “Is hostage too strong a word? Maybe, but if a Schengen country takes a decision without consulting the other Schengen Governments, as Switzerland has done, it becomes a problem”. Kouchner said that the diplomatic crisis between Libya and Switzerland cannot last. “This is a dispute between Libya and Switzerland, which is not completely our responsibility. Even though we want to resolve it”, Kouchner underscored. Malta’s Interior Minister, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, also spoke about the case. In a letter to his Swiss counterpart, he stressed that the decision to draw up a list of Libyan undesirables, which sparked the visa crisis with Libya violates the spirit of Schengen. “The refusal of a visa is solely an instrument for protecting our citizens and our national security”, he wrote. In his letter the Maltese Minister asked Berne to consult with the EU before taking unilateral decisions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: World Bank, 600 Mln Dollars in Funding for 2010
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, FEBRUARY 16 — 600 million dollars in finance will be given by the World Bank (WB) to Morocco in 2010, announced the Minister for Economic Affairs, Nizar Baraka, in Rabat today. According to indications from the World Bank the amount, double the sum of previous years, will go towards economic growth, competitiveness and jobs, the improvement of access to basic services and sustainable development in a context of climate change. Vice President of the WB for North Africa and the Middle East, Shamshad Akhtar, stressed Moroccos staying power over the last 18 months. Thanks to economic reforms put in place by the Government, Morocco has managed to maintain a solid economy compared to other countries, in an extremely difficult international context, he said, repeating the Banks willingness to support the country in terms of its economic growth. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Counter-Terror Adviser: Give Hezbollah More Power
Wants U.S. to encourage greater assimilation of Iranian-backed jihad group
The U.S. should encourage greater assimilation of the Hezbollah terrorist organization into the Lebanese government, argued President Obama’s counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan.
Outside of al-Qaida, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has the distinction of having killed the most Americans in terror attacks. It is also responsible for scores of terrorist actions targeting Israelis, including rocket launchings against civilian population centers. Hezbollah’s attacks against the Israeli north in 2006 killed 43 Israeli civilians and wounded more than 4,000.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ECHR Finds Turkey Unjust in Seizure Apollinaire’s Novel
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, FEBRUARY 16 — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Turkey violated the human rights convention in a lawsuit filed against seizure of a novel containing graphic descriptions of scenes of sexual intercourse, as Anatolia news agency reports. The court ruled that Turkey violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, regulating the freedom of expression. A Turkish publisher, Rahmi Akdas, applied to the ECHR in 2004 after all copies of the Turkish translation of the erotic novel “Les onze mille verges” (The Eleven Thousand Rods) by French writer Guillaume Apollinaire were seized and destructed. In 1999, Akdas was convicted under the Criminal Code of Turkey for “publishing obscene or immoral material liable to arouse and exploit sexual desire among the population”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran — Iraq: Iran Dominates the Iraqi Economy
Tehran is especially strong in the field of reconstruction of houses, schools, hotels, shops. Collaborations with Iraqi companies selected according to their proximity to Iranian policies. Tehran’s influence is greater today than at the time of Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) — The Iraqi government is calling on Iran to urgently meet the commitments made in the field of post-conflict reconstruction and that are waiting to be realized for over a year now. The projects cover major public works: some bridges, three highways and a new city. The Minister for Building and Reconstruction, Bayan Dazaai said that Iraq expected Iranian companies to open up sites as envisaged in the Memorandum of Understanding signed last year between the two majority Shiite nations.
Companies from the Islamic Republic are very active in Iraq, where the Iranian regime exerts a strong influence not only in politics. The aim of constraining the developments in Iraq is motivated by a number of strategic factors, but also by cultural and religious interests.
Iran is Iraq’s biggest trading partner with a trade volume that is forecast to exceed 5 billion dollars in 2010. The economic influence of Tehran has resulted in recent years with the invasion of the Iraqi market of cheap goods (mainly building materials and equipment). The Iranian government has maintained its export paying exporting firms 3% of the value of the product which they sell abroad. This has allowed the sale of Iranian goods below market price squeezing local competition and stifling development. The agricultural sector, once the central economy Iraq, has been impoverished because of the aggressive economic activity of Iran.
The construction sector is still the area where Tehran is most active. Many state companies have invested consistently in post-conflict reconstruction. In 2008, Iran offered a loan of one billion dollars for projects that use Iranian contractors and labour. In February 2009 Iran was awarded the 1.5 billion dollar contract for the proposed construction of a complex of houses, schools, hotels and shops in Basra.
The building projects in some cases are closely tied to religious tourism, another field in which the influence of the Islamic regime is very strong. Several companies have invested with public participation in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala pilgrimage sites for Shiite community worldwide. The governor of Najaf, speaks of about 20 million dollars a year for projects to improve infrastructure. The pilgrims who come from Iran each year number in their hundreds of thousands. The Iranian state-owned companies operating in the field t choose with what Iraqi companies to do business for the transport, environmental protection and housing for their clients. The choice is dictated largely by political affiliation, almost all of the Iraqi partner companies are tied to parties that are very close to the interests of Tehran.
Iran has also invested heavily in the banking sector in 2007 a Baghdad branch of the Bank Melli opened. This, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury, is one of the financial instruments through which the Islamic regime gathers material for its nuclear and missile program. The bank also offers financial services to the notorious “Quds” division of the Revolutionary Guard, which provides training to Iraqi militias. has also invested heavily in the banking sector in 2007 a Baghdad branch of the Bank Melli opened.
Seven years after the American invasion, Tehran has more influence over developments in post-Saddam Iraq than it ever had before.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Senior Cleric Deplores Christian Killings in North
Baghdad, 16 Feb. (AKI) — A senior Iraqi Christian cleric has condemned the killing of three Christians in the northern city of Mosul in recent days.
The central government and the authorities in surrounding Nineveh province must do their utmost to stop the sectarian killings, the auxiliary bishop of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church, Shlemon Warduni, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“We condemn every attack against any Iraqi citizen and we ask all Iraqis to spread peace and love with their neighbours,” Warduni told AKI.
“We particularly appeal to Nineveh’s governor, Athil al-Nujayfi to stop attacks against local Christians,” he said.
A man was killed and another was injured in an attack on Tuesday when a gunman opened fire on a group of students travelling in a car to the university campus before fleeing the scene.
Tuesday’s attack followed the killing on Monday of two Christian shopkeepers.
“We don’t know who is behind these attacks,” said Warduni.
“Life belongs to God and only He may take it away. No-one has the right to take someone else’s life,” Warduni said.
Around 40 Christians have been killed in Mosul in the past two months in bomb and gun attacks in a resurgence of the violence that in 2008 left 40 Christians dead.
In one of the most shocking Christian killings, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found dead in March 2003 after having been held captive for about two weeks.
Since the US-led invasion of 2003, hundreds of Iraq’s minority Christians have been killed and several churches have come under attack.
Over 12,000 Christians have have fled abroad or have moved to safer areas of the country.
There are now around 700,000 Christians in Iraq, compared with over a million before the US-led invasion in 2003, according to censuses carried out by the country’s dioceses.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Syria: Surplus for Italian Exports, +198 Mln Euro
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, FEBRUARY 11 — In the first ten months of 2009, according to data from the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT), processed by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Damascus, Italy exported products for 564.6 million euros to Syria, a 38% drop on the same period in 2008. Imports to Italy from Syria, on the other hand, totalled 366.3 million euros (-40.8%). Total import-export trade therefore reached 930.9 million euros (-39.1%). Despite the contraction in export, an exceptional surplus for Italy is reported (198.4 million euros, and a -32 %). This general reduction in value, according to the ICE, was essentially determined by the refined and crude oil products, which have an important impact on the trade between the two countries. The Italian import of crude and refined oil products in fact suffered a 39.5% drop (a value of 323.9 million compared to the 535.1 million of October 2008), like the Italian export of refined oil products, which has dropped by 77.2%, going from 384.1 million euros to just 87.4 million. This reduction has come about both because of the slowing of economic activities as a consequence of the international crisis, and the decrease in the price of oil. As far as general considerations go, adds the ICE, it can be stated that “Italian export towards Syria, during the first ten months of 2009, was increasingly diversified and holds, despite everything, in the sectors in which Italians traditionally specialise.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Saudi Arabia: ‘Ban Male Shop Assistants From Lingerie Shops’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 15 — Fed up with having to reveal what size they take in knickers and bras to male shop assistants, some Saudi activists have launched a Facebook campaign for a two-week boycott of lingerie shops. According to the BBC online, heading up the initiative is Rim Asaad, an economics professor living in the city of Jeddah. “If you truly have the rights of women at heart, avoid lingerie shops with male shop assistants for two weeks”, she urged on her page of the well-known social network. Since 2008, Rim Asaad has been involved in a personal crusade in defence of the privacy of other Saudi women, and has repeatedly requested that the government authorise female shop assistants in lingerie and underwear shops for both sexes. The activists say that it is, at the very least, contradictory that a woman be forced to discuss such private issues with someone unknown in a country in which a strict interpretation of Islam is in force and where, for this very reason, public contact with men not linked by family relationships is prohibited.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Army Officer Accused of Spying for Israel
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 16 — A Lebanese Army officer is facing the death penalty after being charged with spying for Israel. The report was made by Beirut and pan-Arabian newspapers. Daily paper Asharq Alawsat reported that major Ghazwan Shahin, native of Hermel, in the high eastern valley of Bekaa, a traditional stronghold of the anti-Israeli Shiite movement Hezbollah, was arrested approximately ten days ago with the charge of having handed over sensitive and secret information to the enemy, Israel. Beirut’s as Safir newspaper specified that the information which Shanin passed over to Israeli security services was also reportedly used during Israel’s military incursion in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Beirut’s military tribunal sent the Lebanese officer to trial. The newspaper reported that the officer had been enrolled by Israeli agents at the time of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon which ended in 2000 after 22 years.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Clashes in Refugee Camps, 2 Dead, One Woman
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 16 — A man and a woman were killed in the armed conflicts that took place in the past 24 hours in a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of Beirut, the Lebanese and pan-Arab press reported this morning. According to the newspaper al Hayat, Abed Fedda, a militiaman of Fatah al Islam, a fundamentalist group inspired by al Qaeda, opened fire last in the camp of Ayn al Helwe, near the southern port of Sidon. The militiaman shot and killed the Syrian Muhammad Tamim, an official of Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). In the following shootout, the newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour writes, a Palestinian refugee, Nejme Yussuf, was killed by a stray bullet. The daily adds that light weapons were used in the clash, as well as rocket launchers and grenades. The incident took place on the borders of the camp, in the sector of Hayy Taamir, traditionally inhabited by families of fundamentalist militias which are in conflict with Fatah leadership. According to the 1969 Cairo agreement between the Lebanese government and Palestinian militia, still in force today, the Lebanese army is not allowed to enter the Palestinian refugee camps. The army can only patrol the boundaries of these camps and control access to them. In the summer of 2007, around 400 people were killed in the battles fought by the Lebanese army against the Fatah al Islam militia that were entrenched in the Nahr al Bared refugee camp, near the northern port of Tripoli. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis to Obama Administration: We’re Scared of Iran and You’re Going Too Slow
by Barry Rubin
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to the Persian Gulf is generally being portrayed as a success in the media with the New York Times, for example, saying she “may have made some headway” in getting the Saudis to support sanctions.
Headway? They were supporting sanctions a year ago.
In fact, a genuine note of desperation crept into the press conference given by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. In front of Clinton he said:
“Sanctions are a long-term solution,” he said. “But we see the issue in the shorter term, maybe because we are closer to the threat. So we need an immediate resolution rather than a gradual resolution.”
[Fun fact: The Times and Wall Street Journal got the quote but the official State Department transcript didn’t. In that document, Faisal’s words make no sense. I don’t think this is on purpose but it is amusing that the State Department botched the most important thing Faisal said.]
What does Faisal’s statement signify? It means: You are going to slow, Iran is still going to get nuclear weapons, we’re right next door, what are you going to do about it real fast? Remember that the Saudis are very conservative and cautious. For Faisal to stand next to Clinton and voice such a sharp criticism-no matter how indirectly phrased-is like some ordinary foreign minister screaming for help.
One idea Clinton might have presented is for Saudi Arabia to guarantee China’s oil supply if it pushes for sanctions and Iran gets angry at Beijing. Like a lot of Obama foreign policy it sounds clever but does nothing. Even if the Saudis would do such a thin why should the Chinese take a risk for which they’ll get nothing more in return. Besides, they don’t just buy oil from Iran, they profit from developing fields in partnership with Iran. A new China-Iran oil deal has just been announced while the Chinese are also building a huge oil refinery there which would make Iran less vulnerable to foreign sanctions.
In analyzing Iran itself, Clinton pointed to increasing power by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over the regime, saying that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. If so, of course, engagement won’t work.
Why did she use the phrase “military dictatorship”?…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Human Rights, Communist Activist Arrested
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT- A Syrian political activist was arrested by authorities in her country while she was attempting to travel to Lebanon, according to the website of the pan-Arab satellite television channel Al-Jazeera. Quoting Syrian human rights watchdog ONDUS, Al-Jazeera said that 37-year-old Randa al Hassan was arrested last Wednesday by Syrian security services, as she was heading for the Lebanese border. Security agents also reportedly raided her home in Tartus (260 km northwest of Damascus), seizing her laptop which, according to ONDUS, contained files from the last novel written by the activist during her two years in prison between 1993 and 1995. Randa al Hassan, who is married to a Palestinian man and is the mother of two children, is a former political prisoner. She has spent time in jail for belonging to Syrias banned Communist Action party. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Trade: Italy to Give Turkish Businessmen Visa Facilities
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 15 — The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Consulate General in Istanbul have signed an agreement to provide Turkish businessmen with visa facilities. Under the agreement, as Anatolia news agency reports, Turkish businessmen will be able to get a five-year Schengen visa after applying to the Italian Consulate General with a recognition letter from the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. The Schengen visa will also enable Turkish businessmen to travel to the other European countries. Meanwhile, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Executive Board President Murat Yalcintas was awarded by the Italian president with Italy’s state medal of merit for his contributions to efforts to further improve Turkey-Italy relations. Italian Ambassador to Turkey Carlo Marsili decorated Yalcintas with the medal during the signing ceremony. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ergenekon, Chief Public Prosecutor Arrested
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 16 — For the first time in the history of modern Turkey a Chief Public Prosecutor has been arrested by police. The reason for the arrest, according to the magistrate’s legal representative, is his alleged connections with the Ergenekon affair, a suspected secret nationalist organisation which attempted to overthrow the Government of Premier Tayyip Erdogan, reports private TV station NTV, which reported the news as a newsflash, along with various websites. It reports that Ilhan Cihaner, Chief Public Prosecutor in the city of Erzincan, in the eastern part of the country, was arrested after searches of his office and home. However, the official reason for the arrest has not been given, although Cihaners legal advisor, Hamit Sekman, told NTV that the arrest of his client was connected to the investigation into Ergenekon. However, although NTV does not say so explicitly, it believes that the reason for the arrest lies elsewhere. The station points out that Cihaner came under the scrutiny of journalists last year when the Ministry for Justice opened an investigation into him when it appeared that he was investigating a number of Islamic sects active in Turkey with excessive zeal. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: NTV: Sexual Harassment, Ambassador to Rome Called Back
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 16 — An investigation into Turkey’s ambassador to Rome has found him guilty of alleged sexual harassment, broadcaster NTV reported TODAY, citing a Turkish Foreign Ministry source. The Turkish Foreign Ministry launched an internal investigation into Ambassador Ali Yakital after a complaint was filed against him for alleged sexual harassment. The probe found that he was guilty of the alleged misconduct. Yakital was called back to Ankara during the investigation, but he returned to Rome on Tuesday to collect his belongings. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official told NTV that he is expected to quit. Early retirement is also an option, NTV reported. Before his appointment to Rome, Yakital, a career diplomat for 37 years, worked in the Prime Ministry as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s main adviser on foreign-policy issues and was known to be part of the premier’s inner circle. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Brings Syria ‘In From the Cold’
The United States has been exploring the resumption of full diplomatic ties with Syria for some time. Syria remains a key player in the region and cannot be ignored.
Past US calls to isolate Damascus have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Washington’s European allies have pushed ahead in terms of bolstering both diplomatic ties and trading links, with France very much in the lead.
Continuing this policy of semi-isolation now seems counter-productive.
Illusory goal
The US initially set quite a high price for engagement with Damascus, wanting to extricate Syria from its Iranian embrace.
The Obama administration wanted Syria to toughen controls on its border with Iraq in order to distance itself from Tehran, and to cease support for radical armed groups in the region such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
But this goal has proved illusory. Washington has had to re-calibrate its expectations.
Indeed this fact probably explains why the gradual rapprochement with Syria has at times appeared somewhat half-hearted at best.
Some economic sanctions against Syria are still in force and the US has, for example, blocked the selling of European Airbus airliners to Syria because they contain US technology.
Reports suggest that France, in contrast, is eager to sell Syria regional passenger aircraft and French firms are busily expanding into Syria, notably in the cement and construction sector.
So for the Americans the resumption of full ties with Syria has for some time been a question not so much of ‘if’, but ‘when?’.
It clearly fits into President Barack Obama’s wider game-plan in the region of engaging with countries with whom Washington has had strained relations.
Syria is clearly eager to develop its economy.
Better relations with the US could open up greater foreign investment and clearly it will be hoping, in due course, to get the sanctions regime lifted.
A gamble
That of course may prove problematic, not least on Capitol Hill, where the Syria-Iran relationship still rings strong alarm bells.
Diplomatically, Syria also wants its voice heard more strongly where it matters. It is still determined to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.
With Turkish mediation having come close but failing to promote direct Israel-Syria talks, the bumpy relationship between Israel and Turkey suggests that some other form of mediation may be required and that might possibly include a US role.
For Washington, restoring full diplomatic relations is something of a gamble.
What will Syria give in return? The US clearly wants a stronger voice in Damascus.
It is worried about stability in Iraq and it is concerned about tensions between Israel and Syria, with the fear that renewed fighting could break out in Lebanon.
A resumption of full ties could also signal a growing US interest in the Israel-Syria track of the peace process; a deal that may prove elusive, but one that now may seem more attractive in Washington, given the poor state of Israel-Palestinian ties.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Official: Taliban Using Human Shields
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents are increasingly using civilians as human shields as they fight allied troops trying to take the militants’ southern stronghold of Marjah, an Afghan official said Wednesday as military squads resumed painstaking house-to-house searches.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Taliban ‘Using Human Shields’ — General
Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as “human shields” as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said.
Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them.
The joint offensive in southern Helmand province has entered its fifth day.
US Marines fighting to take the Taliban haven of Marjah have had to call in air support as they come under heavy fire.
They have faced sustained machine-gun fire from fighters hiding in bunkers and in buildings including homes and mosques.
Gen Ghori, the senior commander for Afghan troops in the area, accused the Taliban of taking civilians hostage in Marjah and putting them in the line of fire.
“Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window,” he is quoted by Associated Press as saying.
“They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians.”
As a result, his forces were having to make the choice either not to return fire, he said, or to advance much more slowly in order to distinguish militants from civilians.
Nato has stressed that the safety of civilians in the areas targeted in the joint Nato and Afghan Operation Moshtarak is its highest priority.
Journalist Jawad Dawari, based in Lashkar Gah, told BBC Pashto that Taliban fighters remained in many residential areas of Marjah and were defending their positions with heavy weapons.
“It is difficult for the Afghan army and Nato to storm Taliban-held areas because to do so may inflict heavy civilian casualties and there are still a lot of civilians in Marjah.
“Whenever they launch an attack, the Taliban take refuge in civilians’ homes.”
He had spoken to many local people in Marjah, he said, and they had all said the Nato offensive had made little progress since the first day.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Blindfolded and in Chains: The Latest Taliban Commander to be Captured in Pakistan After Deputy is Seized
Another suspected Taliban military leader was arrested in the Pakistan today just hours after it emerged the group’s second in command had been seized.
Abu Waqas was captured by police in Karachi, the same city where CIA agents helped find Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No. 2 behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Waqas, who is accused of commanding insurgents in Pakistan’s Bajaur region on the Afghan border, allegedly admitted recruiting several young girls as suicide bombers.
He was pictured shackled and blindfolded as he was led into security forces custody this afternoon.
The recent arrest represent a major victory against the insurgents as allied troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan.
Today President Barack Obama said it represented a ‘big success for our mutual efforts in the region.’
Baradar was held ten days ago in a joint U.S. and Pakistani operation and is now said to be talking to his interrogators.
He is the most senior Afghan Taliban leader arrested since the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001.
Pakistan’s spy agency has been accused in the past of protecting top Taliban leaders believed sheltering in the country, frustrating Washington.
Moving against Baradar could signal that Islamabad increasingly views the Afghan Taliban, or at least some of its members, as fair game.
There was also speculation that the arrest could be related in some way to a new push by the United States and its Nato allies to negotiate with moderate Afghan Taliban leaders as a way to end the eight-year war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has an important role in that process because of its close links with members of the movement, which it supported before the 9/11 attacks.
‘If Pakistani officials had wanted to arrest him, they could have done it at any time,’ said Sher Mohammad Akhud Zada, the former governor of Afghanistan’s Helmand province and a member of the Afghan parliament. ‘Why did they arrest him now?’
Baradar heads the Taliban’s military council and was elevated in the body after the 2006 death of military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani.
He is known to coordinate the movement’s military operations throughout the south and southwest of Afghanistan.
His area of direct responsibility stretches over Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.
According to Interpol, Baradar was the deputy defence minister in the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
It is thought Baradar had been living in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, where a Taliban leadership council is said to be based.
‘Sensing that he might be arrested, he somehow slipped out of Quetta and into Karachi, maybe in disguise,’ a Pakistani intelligence agent said.
‘That’s where we arrested him. He is with us and is being interrogated.’
Baradar probably hoped Karachi would have been a safe refuge.
It is Pakistan’s largest city and has been increasingly cited as a possible hiding place for top Afghan Taliban commanders in recent months.
It has a large population of Pashtuns, the ethnic group that makes up the Taliban, but it is on the Arabian Sea and far from the Afghan border.
A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan claimed Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.
‘We totally deny this rumour. He has not been arrested,’ Zabiullah Mujahid told a reporter by telephone.
He said the report was Western propaganda aimed at undercutting the Taliban fighting against an offensive in the southern Afghan town of Marjah, a Taliban haven.
‘The Taliban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralise the Taliban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan,’ he said.
The New York Times said it learned of the operation against Baradar last Thursday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials who argued that publicising it would end a valuable intelligence-gathering effort by making Baradar’s associates aware of his capture.
The newspaper said it decided to publish the news after White House officials acknowledged Baradar’s capture was becoming widely known in the region.
Word of Baradar’s capture came as U.S. Marine, British Army and Afghan units pressed deeper into Marjah, facing sporadic rocket and mortar fire as they moved through suspected insurgent neighbourhoods on the third day of a Nato offensive to reclaim the town.
U.S.-based global intelligence firm Stratfor said the reported arrest was a ‘major development,’ but cautioned it may not have a significant impact on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
‘It is unlikely that a single individual would be the umbilical cord between the leadership council and the military commanders in the field, particularly a guerrilla force such as the Taliban,’ it said in an analysis soon after news broke of the arrest.
Baradar was not known to be an especially moderate member of the Taliban open to the possibility of peace talks.
He gave a written interview to Newsweek last year in which he denied the Taliban’s leadership council was based in Pakistan and said the group did not see the point in reconciliation talks with the Afghan government or Washington.
‘Our basic problem with the Americans is that they have attacked our country,’ said Baradar. ‘They are offering talks, hoping that the mujahideen surrender before them. We see no benefit for the country and Islam in such kind of talks.’
ABDUL GHANI BARADAR
He is known as Mullah Baradar, meaning brother, due to close ties with Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, pictured above.
Became battle-hardened whilst fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s
While the Taliban were in power, he was overall commander of battle for the northern region during the invasion of U.S. forces in late 2001.
Mullah Baradar was reportedly arrested by a pro-U.S. commander when the Taliban were removed from power, but managed to escape.
In an interview with Newsweek last year, he spoke of his desire to drive foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Mullah Omar and Mullah Baradar once challenged each other to a traditional Afghan contact sport which involves hopping on one leg. Mullah Omar won after securing higher ground to lunge from.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta: Ulemas and Government Agree on Prison and Fines for Common Law Couples
Common law and polygamous couples could get up to three months in jail and fines of up to US$ 535,000. Religious Affairs Ministry drafts bill, backed by powerful Ulemas Council. Whilst legal in Islam, polygamy is seen as “bad” and a sign of selfishness.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Indonesia’s Ministry for Religious Affairs, backed by the powerful Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), plans to introduce a bill that would include jail time and fines for common law couples. The government also plans to crack down on contract marriages and polygamy—the latter is allowed in Islam but rejected by most people in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world. Should the bill become law, violations could entail up to three months in jail and fines of up to 5 million rupiahs (US$ 535,00o).
Maaruf Armin, a prominent MUI official, said that his organisation has backed the Ministry’s proposal since 2005. He said he wants to see the draft bill against unregistered marriages turned into law. Common law couples deserve to go to jail because of their “illegal” behaviour, he said.
The controversy re-emerged after Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali announced that the authorities would crack down on unregistered couples.
The cabinet outlined the proposal to the State Secretariat, which should vet the bill before sending in to the lower house for approval.
The law would entail penalties that vary according to the gravity of the crime, including up to three months in prison and fines of up to US$ 535,000 in cases of common law relationships, polygamy and contract marriage.
Unregistered couples, popularly known as Nikah Siri, have become a common practice in Indonesia, especially among celebrities, business people and politicians.
Polygamy, whilst legal in Islam, is largely rejected by public opinion in Indonesia. When it is practiced, it is done in great secret. For most Indonesians, it is something “bad”, a sign of selfishness because of its negative impact on women and children forced to live in illegal circumstances.
Marriage is legal in Indonesia if it is performed before a cleric. After that it must registered with the Catatan Sipil, the local civil bureau.
The bill before parliament has received the “moral support” of Mahfud MD, head of the Constitutional Court. “Marrying other women—despite the legal and moral right to practice polygamy in Islam—is nothing more than satisfying one’s selfish sexual lust,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: PM Backs Judges’ Independence
Islamabad, 16 Feb. (AKI) — Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on Tuesday said that the government did not want to do away with the judiciary or provoke a conflict with the country’s judges. In an address to the National Assembly, he said the Parliament should determine judicial appointments.
Gillani (photo) said he held consultations with legal experts for five hours before his speech.
The government was willing to grant the Parliament the autonomy to appoint colleagues to the bench without any interference from the president, the prime minister or the governor, Gillani said.
Pakistan was plunged into political turmoil over a
Lawyers and opposition parties took to the streets across the country on Monday to protest against the decision.
“President Asif Zardari tried to divide the judiciary but the conspiracy has failed,” prominent constitutional lawyer Nihal Hashmi told Adnkronos International (AKI).
There was heavy security on the streets as lawyers boycotted court proceedings and gathered in several cities, including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.
At least 66 bar associations across Pakistan passed a unanimous resolution on Monday declaring the presidential order regarding judicial appointments illegal and to back the chief justice.
Saquib Nisar, who was granted a promotion to chief justice of the Lahore High Court, and Khawaja Sharif, promoted to be a judge of the Supreme Court, declined their promotions without Chaudry’s consent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Over 15 Million Indigenous Filipinos Suffer From Hunger and Government Indifference
Filipino indigenous groups live on the margins of society and lack access to basic social services, they represent approximately 10% of the population. According to a recent UN document their life expectancy is 20 years less than that of the civilized world. The bishops are asking the government for more resources for indigenous peoples, especially in education and the preservation of their cultural identity.
Manila (AsiaNews) — About 15 million indigenous people (10% of the population) suffer from poverty and human rights violations and their life expectancy is 20 years shorter than that of civilized peoples. This is according to a recent report by the UN Development Program in the Philippines. “The indigenous Filipino are fighting every day against hunger and cultural degradation — says Jacqueline Badcock, UN coordinator in the Philippines — they have no access to basic social services such as education and healthcare.”
According to the document about 370 million indigenous people in the world live. These represent one third of the poor in the world, well below the poverty line. In the Philippines, the tribal groups are concentrated in the regions of Mindanao (61%) and Cordillera (33%), home to the country’s major natural resources. Because of this they are often forced to abandon their land to make way for industries and mines, amidst government indifference, which sees tribal peoples as an obstacle to economic interests (See AsiaNews.it, 14/11 / 09 “Protesters on hunger strike against mining on Mindoro Island”). This condition leads young people to enter the communist revolutionary groups, such as the New People’s Army (NPA). This is mainly active in the areas of the archipelago of the Visayas and northern Luzon and tribal groups are its prime recruiting pool.
“The government must devote more resources to indigenous people — says Msgr. Sergio Lasam Utleg, Bishop of Laoghaire and head of the Episcopal Commission for indigenous groups — especially in education, health and preservation of their cultural identity. “ “Often local governments are not interested in their needs — underlines the prelate — and force them to live on the margins of society.”
The conditions of extreme poverty and marginalization suffered by Aboriginal people in 1995 led the Catholic Church to create the Philippine Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples (ECIP). Its purpose is to defend the rights of minorities and to help them develop a relationship between their culture and the world. Among their initiatives a free program of informal education (nfe), which consists in teaching literacy and numeracy, considering the learning abilities of different groups of Aborigines. (See AsiaNews.it, 14/05/09 “Filipino bishops promoting education and integration for indigenous peoples).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jury Acquits Woman of Mother’s Murder
After more than three years of trying to clear her name, a Gold Coast woman has been found not guilty of murdering her mother and trying to kill her father.
A Queensland Supreme Court jury deliberated for just over an hour before acquitting Kaihana Tahseen Hussain, now 20, of the stabbing attacks in October 2006.
On Wednesday morning, they found Ms Hussain not guilty of murder and attempted murder, as well as the lesser alternative charges of manslaughter and malicious act with intent.
Ms Hussain sobbed in the dock and mouthed ‘thank you’ to the jury as the verdicts were read out.
She later hugged members of the jury, who wished her well, as she left the Brisbane court precinct.
Ms Hussain declined to make any comments to the waiting media.
It’s believed she will now return to South Australia to live with friends.
During the two-week trial, the crown had argued Ms Hussain stabbed her parents because she wanted to convert from Islam to Christianity and move to Sydney with her boyfriend.
However, Ms Hussain has always denied carrying out the attacks at the family’s rented unit on the Gold Coast on the evening of October 9, instead blaming Shaheda Hussain’s death on her father, Dr Muhammad Hussain.
In the days following the attack, Ms Hussain told police her father stabbed her mother after becoming enraged during an argument.
She described hearing her parents arguing and then seeing her father stab her mother.
Ms Hussain said her father then tried to attack her, but that she managed to avoid him and seek refuge with neighbours until police arrived.
Giving evidence in court, Dr Hussain — who sought a written agreement for protection against criminal charges before he would co-operate with detectives — denied being the perpetrator of the attacks.
He told the court he had previously fought with his daughter about her desire to change religion, and said he threatened to disown her if she did.
However, the former Adelaide-based Islamic community leader denied telling her he would kill her and then himself if she converted to Christianity.
He was not in court when his daughter was acquitted on all charges.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Malawi Launches Operation Against High-Profile Gay and Lesbian People
Fears of backlash across Africa as US evangelists accused of spreading religious zeal behind homophobic campaigns
Police in Malawi have launched an operation to hunt down and arrest high-profile gays and lesbians in the southern African state.
Fears of an anti-gay backlash across Africa are intensifying after the prosecution of the first gay couple to seek marriage in Malawi, and thousands of Ugandans demonstrated this week in support of a bill proposing the death penalty for some offences involving homosexual acts. Last week five men were arrested at an alleged gay wedding in Kenya.
Dave Chingwalu, a spokesman for police in Malawi, said a 60-year-old man was arrested yesterday and charged with sodomy. Chingwalu said he received a complaint from a young man that he had been asked to undress by the older man and was then sodomised. Police investigations had uncovered a network of high-profile people involved homosexual acts, investigations were under way “and we will arrest them all”, Chingwalu said.
Malawi has been criticised by international groups for the prosecution of Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, jailed in December for holding a wedding ceremony. The men were charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency and could be imprisoned for up to 14 years if found guilty.
A 21-year-old man was recently sentenced to two months’ community service for putting up pro-gay rights posters, and a senior minister expelled a woman from her town even after a court acquitted her on charges of having sex with two girls.
Campaigners in Malawi say homophobic legislation is driving gays and lesbians underground, making them hard to reach with information that could protect them from Aids.”In Malawi it’s a complete witch-hunt that denies the people the right to self-determination,” said Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, based in South Africa. “We are deeply concerned about this spate of homophobia across the continent.”
Mtetwa said the recent series of incidents was no accident but rather the work of US evangelical Christian groups. “It’s very well calculated. It’s exploding at the moment but it’s been happening for a year and a half. We have proof of American evangelical churches driving the religious fundamentalism in Uganda.”
The Ugandan parliament is considering a bill that would impose life imprisonment as the minimum punishment for anyone convicted of having gay sex. If the accused person is HIV positive or a serial offender, or a “person of authority” over the other partner, or if the “victim” is under 18, a conviction will result in the death penalty.
Members of the public are obliged to report any homosexual activity to police within 24 hours or risk up to three years in jail.
The legislation has earned international condemnation — Barack Obama described it as “odious” — but has received vocal backing within Uganda. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Jinja, about 40 miles east of the capital, Kampala, in the biggest demonstration against homosexuals since the bill was introduced.
Okware Romano, a protester, said: “I have a verse in the bible in Leviticus 20 verse 13. It says that homosexuals should be put to death … yes.”
Last week police in Kenya said they had arrested five men whom they believed were homosexual in Kikambala beach resort near Mombasa. District officer George Matandura said two of the men had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married.
“It is an offence, an unnatural offence, and also their behaviour is repugnant to the morality of the people,” Matandura said.
The other three men were turned in to the police by members of the public. Two of them had reportedly been beaten.
Gay sex is illegal in 36 countries in Africa. Only South Africa has legalised same sex marriage, and even there campaigners say the fight against bigotry is far from over.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Video: No Umma for Black Muslims
A Muslim victim of the Arab genocide in Darfur speaks candidly about how much “help” his people are getting from fellow Muslims — and which country is really providing the assistance.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina Toughens Shipping Rules in Falklands Oil Row
Argentina has announced new controls on ships passing through its waters to the Falkland Islands in a growing dispute over British oil drilling plans.
A permit will now be needed by ships using Argentine waters en route to the Falklands, South Georgia or the South Sandwich Islands — all UK controlled.
Argentina has protested to the UK about oil exploration due to begin next week.
The UK Foreign Office said the Falkland Islands’ waters were controlled by its authorities and would not be affected.
‘Pathetic and useless’
Buenos Aires claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, which it calls Islas Malvinas.
It has previously threatened that any company exploring for oil and gas in the waters around the territory will not be allowed to operate in Argentina.
On Tuesday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez signed a decree requiring all vessels travelling between Argentina and the islands, or those that want to cross Argentine territorial waters en route to the Falklands, to seek prior permission.
Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez said the decree sought to achieve “not only a defence of Argentine sovereignty but also of all the resources” in the area.
Last week, a ship carrying drilling equipment was detained by Argentine officials.
But a drilling rig from the Scottish highlands, the Ocean Guardian, is nearing the islands and due to start drilling next week, the UK-based company Desire Petroleum has said.
However, a spokesman for the company declined to comment on the growing dispute between the UK and Argentina over oil and gas exploration.
Chairman of the Parliamentary all-party Falklands group, Sir Nicholas Winterton, said the Argentine decree was “pathetic and useless” and designed simply to try to impede the economic progress of the islands.
He said he would seek a meeting with senior Foreign Office officials to discuss the issue next week.
BBC world affairs correspondent Peter Biles said Argentine anger over the issue had been “brewing for a while”.
He said: “The sabre-rattling over oil in the South Atlantic is just the latest episode in a dispute that’s remained unresolved since the Falklands War nearly 28 years ago.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Spartacus in Calabria
Clashes in Rosarno, reported by newspapers and television stations, were filled with images of rage, despair and shame. It was rather like watching a remake of Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus” in modern times. The dramatic situation in Rosarno was the result of the failure of agricultural policies in Southern Italy. The globalisation of markets has resulted in new challenges. Excessive reductions in production costs has led to a slave economy with foreign labourers working for no wages and constantly supervised and controlled by illegal recruiters often of the same nationality.
The news of immigrants revolting in Rosarno, in Calabria, raced around the world. In addition to media implications there was also a mini-diplomatic crisis, after the Egyptian government officially protested to the Italian government about the “aggressive campaign” against immigrants and “detention conditions, the violation of economic and social rights as well as the practice of forced deportation.” The statement by the Egyptian Foreign Minister remains an important precedent that should, to say the least, be reported. As far as Italy is concerned, the immigration issue is not exclusively internal but rather international.
The images of the clashes in Rosarno, reported by newspapers and television stations, were filled with images of rage, despair and shame. It was rather like watching a remake of Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus” in modern times. There are however significant differences between fiction and reality. The men led by Spartacus were slaves, real slaves. The immigrant labourers in Rosarno instead are instead, at least theoretically, free men. At a practical level, however, things change radically because these men are effectively reduced to slavery.
It is excessive to speak of slavery? Not at all. I believe that it is a correct and effective interpretation for understanding better the dramatic events in Rosarno. In his book “Uomini e caporali. Viaggio tra i nuovi schiavi nelle campagne del Sud” (Mondadori, 2008), Alessandro Leogrande explains extremely well this system involving the illegal hiring of farm labourers for very low wages through an agent, (in Italian known as caporalato), founded on the exploitation of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa. The ‘caporale’s’ role goes well beyond the organisation of labour, and mediating between producers and labourers, between supply and demand etc. The illegal hiring of farm labourers for very low wages through an agent has become a very dangerous form of crime, involving blackmail and threats to immigrants who, very often, have no protection because of their illegal status.
The dramatic situation in Rosarno was the result of the failure of agricultural policies in Southern Italy…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Time to Come Clean on the Real Immigration Numbers
Even some of Labour’s own councils are complaining to the Government that it is not being straight about the levels of immigration — and the resulting strain on public services.
The Government claims that 700,000 of the 1.5 million Poles and others from central and eastern Europe who have come to live here since 2004 have returned to their countries of origin. But council leaders suggest this is a fantasy and that overwhelmingly the new immigrants are still here.
The system is in such a mess that figures for population and immigration are entirely unreliable — so local councils are well placed to warn that their populations are much higher than the official figures show.
This puts public services under enormous strain, because the central Government grant to town halls is lower than it should be. Ministerial complacency about future immigration levels also disregards the increase in applications for work permits.
Among the most prominent councils in speaking out is Slough, which is under Labour control. Slough Council says it needs places for the equivalent of four primary schools. ‘There is massive concern,’ says Chief Executive Ruth Bagley. ‘In a couple of years we’re going to need a new secondary school.’
It’s not just about numbers but also the added challenge of children arriving without English as their first language. And although this problem has been going on for some time, the Government ignores it.
East London Labour MP Sir Robin Wales, the directly elected Mayor of Newham was warning of this three years ago. ‘Our electoral register has gone up by 23,000 over the past few years yet they’re saying it’s gone down. It’s ludicrous,’ he said.
‘We’ve nothing against migration — it is great for the economy and great for Newham. However, it needs to be properly funded. We would be willing to pay for a census just to rectify these figures. It would cost us a lot of money, but these inaccurate figures are costing us even more.’
The strain clearly falls unevenly. One of the Conservative councils which has not been funded to cope with extra population is Hammersmith and Fulham where I am a councillor. When we raised the issue our opponents accused us of ‘scapegoating’ the Polish community, who had increased in number since the last census — the figures we have to use to calculate the Government’s contribution to our Counci’s budget.
Jan Mokrzycki, the President of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, also had concerns. But when I pointed out to him what the council had actually said he responded: ‘I am happy to say that the blame for the strain which affects the council’s finances is placed where it should be i.e. on the use of outdated figures in the Government’s calculations.’ He added: ‘I therefore wholeheartedly support the efforts of the council to obtain adequate funding for the Borough.’
So, it is not a matter of being anti Polish. It is a matter of fairness. My borough is home to one of Britain’s oldest and longest established Polish Communities and so has naturally proved a particularly popular destination for workers from the accession states since EU enlargement in May 2004. The ward I represent includes the Polish Cultural Centre (POSK) only 400 yards from the town hall. We even have a Polish eagle on our Mayoral regalia.
Unfortunately, as with the rest of the country, official Government funding is still based on the borough’s population in the 2001 national census. We are not due another census until next year.
As our population is higher than the Government accepts, we are being short changed on funding for such services as refuse collection, libraries, parks, street cleaning and schools.
I would certainly agree that the immigration from eastern Europe has brought considerable economic benefits as well as costs. But the Labour Government has pocketed the increased tax revenue and refused to provide councils with the money for the extra services needed.
Don’t blame the Polish plumber or the Bulgarian nanny. Blame the Government.
| — Hat tip: ICLA | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Updates re:
N.J. Police Search for Baby After Father Claims He Threw Her Off Bridge
&
N.J. Man Accused of Throwing Infant Daughter From Parkway Bridge Had Restraining Order
link scroll down for report.
Synopsis:
Shamshiddin plead "not guilty" to charges of kidnapping and assault, aggravated assault, and endangering welfare of a child. He is also charged with attempted murder, but not in Essex County because the alleged incident took place outside the county. His public defender, Regina Lynch represented him during the 10 minute court hearing at Essex County Superior Court. Zara's mother, Venetta Benjamin, 29, was at the hearing with three friends. Shamshiddin was ordered held on $700k bail in the Essex County Jail.
*****
continued:
MSM reports are changing with regard to a suspected accomplice. Witnesses at the maternal grandmother’s apt. reported :
Quote: “. . .Chris Bailey, the superintendent of the East Orange apartment building the child’s grandmother lived in, said he”. . .”saw Abdur-Raheem walk into the building at about 1 p.m. talking on his cellphone. The baby’s grandmother, whose last name is Benjamin, told Bailey that the suspect then barged into the apartment and took the baby. “He pushed his way in and knocked her to the floor,” Bailey said according to Benjamin.The grandmother, wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants and no shoes, ran after Abdur-Raheem, who was clutching the baby, all the way to the lobby and outside. At one point, Bailey said, she tried to snatch the infant, but the 21-year-old overpowered her.
Abdur-Raheem then allegedly ran outside and into a minivan on the passenger’s side, Bailey said. A male driver had been waiting for him, Bailey said. The grandmother jumped onto the hood of the minivan, but the vehicle managed to shake her off.”
Shamshiddin then went to see two imams, neither of which informed the police. The second imam drove or drove with the suspect to his parents residence. The suspects father called the police. In video reports, neither of the paternal grandparents appear terribly upset.
video from NBC Philadelphia includes interview of paternal grandfather, mosque spokesman, and visuals of maternal grandmother’s apt. complex where kidnapping & assault took place, the GSP Driscoll Bridge, Masjid Muhammad’s Islamic Ctr. in Atlantic City, & the paternal grandfathers house.
MyFoxPhilly video report shows Shamshiddin’s mother (paternal grandmother of 3 month old Zara) coldly discussing her sons confession.
The paternal grandfather states in one of the video links that he hopes his son is lying. With the lapse of time between the kidnapping and the police being notified, and the paternal grandparents rather cold interviews, it appears there is a window of opportunity for Shamshiddin to have handed off Zara to someone else. Consider the involvement of a second mosque, Masjid un-Nur in Camden County (mosque identified by the suspects own father - a detail which appears to have been scrubbed from the NJ.com site) and a driver suspect described with very limited detail and later called into question by authorities.
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