The big news of the day came from the IOC, but Dymphna has kept you up to date on that story, so I didn’t include it here.But there’s plenty of other juicy news available, such as the television appearance of Ms. Patrizia D’Addario, Silvio Berlusconi’s
News flash for all you old hippies out there: Thanks to a federal grant, the Grateful Dead Archive, now housed at the UCSC library, will soon be available online.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Lurker from Tulsa, Sean O’Brian, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Spain: Golden Pension for BBVA Operating Officer Criticised
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 30 — The controversy continues unabated in Spain over a golden handshake worth 52.49 million euros, which will be handed out, despite the serious economic crisis, to Chief Operating Officer of the BBVA, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, as he takes early retirement at 55. The latest to comment was Minister for Infrastructure José Blanco, who said today in statements to the media that “this type of payment should be subject to a higher level of tax”. The news was given ample space throughout the media today. The Chief Operating Officer, who chose to retire after the confirmation of Francisco Gonzalez as president of the BBVA for the next five years, will receive an annual pension of around 3 million euros before tax. The Coordinator of the Observatory for Social Responsibility, Orencio Vazquez, called for a law to force bonus and severance terms of board members and other top managers under the scrutiny of the General shareholders’ Committee, where the company’s property lies. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The IMF Catapults From Shunned Agency to Global Central Bank
The IMF may have catapulted to a more exalted status than that. According to Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for scientific consulting firm Omnis, the unannounced purpose of last week’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh was that “the IMF is being anointed as the global central bank.” In a CNBC interview on September 25, Rickards said, “They’ve issued debt for the first time in history. They’re issuing SDRs. The last SDRs came out around 1980 or ‘81, $30 billion. Now they’re issuing $300 billion. When I say issuing, it’s printing money; there’s nothing behind these SDRs.”
SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, are a synthetic currency originally created by the IMF to replace gold and silver in large international transactions. But they have been little used until now. Why does the world suddenly need a new global fiat currency and global central bank? Rickards says it because of “Triffin’s Dilemma,” a problem first noted by economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s. When the world went off the gold standard, a reserve currency had to be provided by some large-currency country to service global trade. But leaving its currency out there for international purposes meant that the country would have to continually run large deficits, and that meant it would eventually go broke. The U.S. has fueled the world economy for the last 50 years, but now it is going broke. The U.S. can settle its debts and get its own house in order, but that would cause world trade to contract. A substitute global reserve currency is needed to fuel the global economy while the U.S. solves its debt problems, and that new currency is to be the IMF’s SDRs.
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Tulsa City Council Approves Cops Grant With 7 to 2 Vote
TULSA, OK — The Tulsa City Council voted Thursday night 7-2 to accept a $3.5 million COPS stimulus grant that would pay the salaries of 18 new officers for three years. After that, the salary would come out of the city budget.
Some city councilors were concerned about the long-term costs to the city: $665,000 for the officers’ fourth year on the job.
9/15/2009 Related story: Tulsa May Accept Grant To Hire Police Officers
Councilors debated the issue for close to 45 minutes then voted to approve accepting the stimulus funds.
“The addition of these 18 officers will go a great — a long, great way to help us with our public safety efforts,” said Deputy Chief of Police Mark McCrory.
The catch, though, is the grant requires the city to keep the officers on the payroll for at least one year after it expires. The Oklahoma Impact Team learned the cost to the city for that additional year will run $1.3 million.
Councilors Bill Martinson and Rick Westcott say the financial risk is too much for the city to accept the grant and voted against it.
“I’m not prepared to make that kind of gamble with the taxpayers money,” said Tulsa City Councilor Rick Westcott. “Our sales tax revenues will have to increase by 15% over the next three years for us to afford that fourth year salary.”
“I’ve been saying I’m not supportive of this from the get-go because we’ve got that commitment out there that I don’t think we can honor,” said Bill Martinson, Tulsa City Councilor.
But Councilor Bill Christiansen says the financial climate could change in four years, and the opportunity to add 18 officers to the police force at virtually no cost to the city is too great to pass up.
“Public safety is the foundation for the city of Tulsa and the citizens of Tulsa and I think it’s important that we have as many officers on the street as we can have,” Christiansen said.
The city will also have to pay $397,000 for equipment and training for the news officers.
The next Police Academy is scheduled to begin next January.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
ACORN Legal Memo Confirms Depths of Troubles
ACORN’s lawyer warned ACORN 15 months ago to begin fixing its massive internal problems or face certain catastrophe. It chose to do nothing.
The advice from Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg Eisenberg LLP came in the form of an eerily prophetic legal memo to ACORN dated June 19, 2008, the day before ACORN’s national board fired disgraced founder Wade Rathke.
[…]
The memo is a kind of Holy Grail for ACORN researchers. One source of mine keeps a copy in a safety deposit box. I’ve lost track of how many people have asked me over the last year if I knew how to get ahold of it. One source told me that there are many people who would “kill” to gain possession of it. This is a bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but not much.
Having read this categorically damning memo, I now understand what all the fuss is about.
Full story on the ACORN memo is at American Spectator, here: spectator.org/archives/2009/10/01/acorns-prophetic-lawyer
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Analyst: Expect Democrat Trickery to Force Obamacare
Suggests maneuver will allow simple majority vote on health-industry takeover
An analyst whose responsibilities include working with members of the U.S. Senate for The Heritage Foundation is suggesting that U.S. lawmakers are so intent on passing President Obama’s “comprehensive health care reform” that they will use procedural maneuvers and trickery to accomplish it.
In an analysis posted on Human Events, Brian Darling, the Heritage Foundation’s director of U.S. Senate relations, outlines a four-step scenario he believes is possible.
“Despite the potential political risks to moderate Democrats, the president and his left-wing leadership in Congress are determined to pass the measure using a rare parliamentary procedure,” he said.
“The Senate plans to attach Obamacare to a House-passed non-healthcare bill,” he warned. He explained that would take a simple majority vote once the discussion on a bill is opened, and it could be approved by the House also by a simple majority.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cap and Trade Looms Large
The Waxman-Markey bill is a cap and trade bill similar to what most European Nations imposed in 2005. The bill imposes a declining ceiling, or cap, on greenhouse gas emissions — primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) over the next 40 years. This reduction amounts to 3 percent below 2005 levels by 2012, 17 percent by 2020, 42 percent by 2030, and 83 percent by 2050. Each regulated industry is given a percentage of the allocated “allowances” defined for the cap that year. The remaining percentage will be auctioned off, with revenues going to the federal government. In other words, it is a hidden tax.
Cap and trade allows industries like the electric power sector to buy and sell carbon credits. Thus a company can continue to emit high levels of CO2 above the cap by buying credits from more efficient companies whose emissions are below the cap. That’s the theory anyway. It turns out the application is far worse. Carbon credits can be bought and sold on the stock market, where mega profits will be made by speculators, hedge funds — the same characters that brought us the global economic crisis.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the cost per family to only be $175 per year. EPA’s estimate is even lower than that. However, the Heritage Foundation analyzed the CBO/ EPA computations and found that they conveniently left out major economic costs. Although the Heritage Foundation stopped short of accusing these government agencies of cooking the books to minimize the economic costs, their own computations showed the cost to be a minimum of $1,288 per year for an average family of three and $1,900 for a family of four.
[…]
A study by King Juan Carlos University in Spain found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed in other areas of the economy for every green job created by government decree. Further, it cost $754,000 for every green job created. Applying simple math, Obama’s 5 million new green jobs will only come at a cost of 11 million existing jobs. Worse, 90 percent of those green jobs are construction jobs that will be lost once the infrastructure nears completion. The study concluded that Spain’s renewable policies were “terribly economically counterproductive.” The authors warn the US that “the Spanish/EU-style ‘green jobs’ agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress’s Secret Plan to Pass Obamacare
President Obama and liberals in Congress seem intent on passing comprehensive health care reform, even though polls suggest it is unpopular with the American people. And despite the potential political risks to moderate Democrats, the President and left-wing leadership in Congress are determined to pass the measure using a rare parliamentary procedure.
The Senate plans to attach Obamacare to a House-passed non-healthcare bill. Ironically, nobody knows what that legislation looks like, because it has not yet been written. Yet many members plan to rubber-stamp Obamacare without reading or understanding the bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Fraud: Porn Addicts at NSF
Remember when the excuse for legalizing pornography was “I don’t care what people do in the privacy of their own homes so long as it doesn’t cost me money and harm”?
Now, roughly $6 billion a year from American taxpayers to the National Science Foundation is inadequate for NSF expenses. Why? Too many NSF folks are “porn surfing,” hooked on porn, an endogenous drug. This fact should stir questions about the NSF history of bias against honest pornography research.
The NSF Statutory Mission reads, “To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.” Really?
This “mission” is impossible if a critical mass of NSF leaders and staff are pornography addicts. Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, called the situation “inexcusable.”
“What kind of oversight is there when they have to shift people from looking at grant fraud to watch for people looking at pornography?” she said. Well, by definition, NSF leaders and workers are themselves using their granting funds to defraud the state while allegedly looking for grant fraud.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Rep. Says Military Officials May Quit
Top U.S. military officials may retire or resign unless President Obama quickly sets forth a clear plan on winning the war in Afghanistan, including whether to send more troop to stop insurgents, says Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican.
“If he doesn’t deploy a successful strategy that might happen,” said Mr. Ryan, ranking member of the House Budget Committee. “The president has time to think this through, but not a lot of time because right now we have a strategy that’s not working.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Grant Gives Grateful Dead Archive New Life Online
SANTA CRUZ — The Grateful Dead Archive has taken another step in its long strange trip, from the UC Santa Cruz library to its own Web site, The Virtual Terrapin Station.
One of the most popular bands in rock ‘n’ roll history will have its legacy including photos, show tickets, toys, posters and recordings preserved online thanks to a federal grant. The Grateful Dead Archive, housed at the McHenry Library, has been awarded $615,175 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to photograph and scan collection images and upload them. The public will be able to access the online collection and offer fans the opportunity to contribute to the collection by digitally submitting photos.
Christine Bunting, head of special collections and archives at McHenry, said the school will use the grant over 21/2 years to archive what she said is the world’s largest public collection of Dead memorabilia.
“The ultimate goal of making the archive digital is that everyone will have a Grateful Dead experience,” Bunting said.
Allowing the public to contribute was inspired by the band’s spirit of openness, according to Bunting.
“The idea for the Web site came from the sharing of Grateful Dead music and keeping up with their tradition,” Bunting said.
The extensive collection consumes nearly 600 feet and includes thousands of pictures, documents and pieces of memorabilia, Bunting said. Archived materials like band member journals show the band’s creativity and influence in contemporary music history. The archives also contain paraphernalia related to the band’s extensive social network of devoted fans and the group’s highly unusual and successful business ventures.
Two-thirds of all the Dead material held by the school were donated by surviving band members in 2008, according to Bunting. The rest comes from Deadheads.
UCSC was one of 51 institutions nationwide that received National Leadership Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services this year totaling nearly $18 million, according to the organization’s Web site.
“This is a first for the UCSC library, and the grant gives us the opportunity to create a new model for Web-based archives that will include traditional materials from our Grateful Dead Archive,” said Librarian Virginia Steel. “Along with materials contributed by scholars and Deadheads around the world.”
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How Democracy is Being Used to Destroy Our Republic
“Democracy is the road to socialism”
Contrary to popular public education propaganda, the United States of America is NOT, has never been, and should never be a “democracy.” It is and must always be, a constitutional representative republic, and yes, there is a VERY significant difference.
Don’t confuse the term “democratic society” with “democracy.” A representative republic is a “democratic” form of self-governance — of, by and for “the people.” In the case of the Unites States, we have a system limited by the scope and authority granted to the Fed in the US Constitution.
In a representative republic, the term “the people” is interpreted to mean, “the individual citizen[s],” at large.
But a “democracy” as Thomas Jefferson said so well, “is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” In other words, the term “the people” means the “ruling mob” in a “democracy.”
And, so it is today!
[…]
The Communist and Socialist Parties of old, now work through the Democratic Socialists of America, who control the leadership of today’s Democratic Party via their two congressional leadership committees, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus.
Card carrying Socialist Bernie Sanders founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus for DSA, and card carrying Communist John Conyers founded the Congressional Black Caucus.
Contrary to leftist propaganda, which aims to paint all dissent against their Marxist agenda as an act of “racism” or “hate,” the problem with these organizations and their members isn’t the color of their skin, but rather the anti-American color of their agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Huge Threat to Power Grid’
Homeland Security official admits vulnerability
WASHINGTON — Department of Homeland Security official John Verrico admitted that a Chinese researcher had detailed precisely how vulnerable the U.S. electric grid is to a cyber-terrorist attack.
The disclosure reveals the government’s familiarity with a report released more than six months ago, in which Jian-Wei Wang used publicly available data to explain exactly how the United States’ West Coast grid was connected and how the computers that control the grid could be easily sabotaged.
[…]
Some experts believe the 2003 blackout was in fact caused by a hacker — a software bug within an operating system responsible for managing alarm systems led operators to believe systems were functioning normally when, in fact, they were on the verge of collapse. The “worm” inside the computer system at just one facility contributed to the scale of the catastrophe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Letter: Cartoonist’s Invitation Contrary to Yale’s Religious Acceptance
Although we recognize that a single faculty member may have the right to invite anyone he chooses to speak on campus, we find Branford College Master Steven Smith’s hosting of the controversial Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard highly exasperating, given the significant efforts by the University to make the campus a place that truly welcomes and embraces those of every religion.
This event takes the focus off the most important facts: Yale is better off because of the contributions of its Muslim students, faculty and staff and the deepening understanding and appreciation of Islam.
We have a thriving Muslim Students Association led by a thoughtful, committed board and guided by a full-time coordinator of Muslim life who is a full partner in the work of the University Chaplaincy.
The University has added a new academic major on modern Middle East studies and added new faculty whose courses help everyone on campus develop a greater understanding and appreciation of a diversity of religious traditions. The campus Muslim community is a vibrant part of Yale life, witnessed by the fact that two weeks ago over 500 people of numerous religious traditions attended the annual Ramadan Banquet.
We cannot allow this event to undermine the progress that Yale is making to build a community of true religious understanding.
Sharon Kugler and Omer Bajwa
Oct. 1
The writers are the University Chaplain and the coordinator of Muslim Life for the University, respectively.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maine Fines Group for Criticizing Islam
Christian organization files lawsuit to challenge censorship
A Christian organization in Maine has filed a lawsuit to challenge a bureaucratic decision to impose a $4,000 fine for its “criticism” of Islam, expressed in a mailing to supporters.
The action was taken on behalf of the Christian Action Network by Liberty Counsel, where founder Mathew Staver said the state is out of line.
“The chief purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent the government from licensing the press,” Staver said. “Citizens do not need permission to petition government officials or to protest government policies.”
The issue developed following a Christian Action Network fundraising letter several months ago. The letter exposed “how some public schools were promoting Islam by providing instruction on the Five Pillars of Islam and the Quran,” according to the complaint against the state.
“The letter pointed out that some schools have provided a ‘prayer room’ for Muslims and one textbook that told seventh grade students they ‘will become Muslim.’ The letter listed Gov. John Baldacci as a person who is over the public schools and someone to whom the recipients of the letter should voice their opinion,” the complaint said.
[…]
“Clearly this is a case based on selective prosecution using a law that is patently unconstitutional,” he said at the time.
He said the motive, however, is clear.
“The state of Maine believes our letter is offensive to Muslims and they want us to shut up or pay up. They are accusing us of ‘hate speech’ without directly calling it ‘hate speech.’ They want to set a legal precedent which other states can follow for suppressing free speech they find offensive,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Eligibility to See Its Day in Court?
Pivotal hearing decides whether ‘birther’ case will be trashed, heard on merits
A hearing Monday is set to determine whether the U.S. Justice Department will get its motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutional eligibility of Barack Obama to hold the office of president or whether the case will move forward to be heard on its merits.
California judge David Carter scheduled a tentative trial date for the case for Jan. 26, 2010. But, to meet that trial date, the case must survive an Oct. 5 hearing on the Department of Justice motion to dismiss.
The California lawsuit is brought by several political candidates and party officials, including former U.S. ambassador Alan Keyes and Wiley Drake and Markham Robinson of the American Independent Party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Palin Co-Author Probed, Obama’s Ignored
News outlets silent about fresh evidence terrorist Ayers wrote ‘Dreams’
Politico’s Ben Smith found it newsworthy that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin chose a “partisan evangelical” Christian to co-author her upcoming instant best-seller, but somehow he and the mainstream media have decided that serious evidence suggesting an unrepentant Marxist terrorist had a primary role in President Obama’s highly acclaimed literary memoir is of no interest.
Not a single mainstream reviewer or political editor has so much as mentioned the controversy over authorship of “Dreams from My Father” that was resurrected last week when a major new book reported Obama sought the literary assistance of William Ayers, founder of the radical Weather Underground group, points out WND columnist Jack Cashill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Total Control Over Our Lives
Recently I interviewed Michael Connelly, a constitutional attorney who had read every page of the proposed government health care bill and its various attachments and maneuvers. He said that it was a vivid breach of the 4th, 5th, 9th and 10th amendments of our constitution, a complete violation of our right to privacy and protection from search and seizure.
What about the latest… The Baucus Bill?
According to Michael Connelly, this is so far called the Chairman’s Mark of America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. The bottom line is it is more of the same and very similar to what is already being proposed, except with 500 amendments being added to it.
It still forces everyone to buy health insurance whether you want to or not. Seniors should be horrified since it would cut Medicare to help pay for the forced program. Also, say good by to Medicare Advantage, allowing seniors to buy supplemental insurance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danish EU Vote Hinges on Irish Outcome
EU supporters hope Irish approval of the Lisbon Treaty forces a vote on Denmark’s EU opt-outs Should Irish voters approve the Lisbon Treaty today, Danish voters are likely to be heading to the polls themselves to decide the fate of…
Should Irish voters approve the Lisbon Treaty today, Danish voters are likely to be heading to the polls themselves to decide the fate of the country’s EU opt-outs.
According to Foreign Minister Per Stig Möller, the government will gather parliament’s pro-EU parties to discuss what impact the results of the vote will have on Denmark’s exemption from participation in EU defence and justice affairs, as well as its decision not to swap the krone for the euro.
‘Clarification about the Lisbon Treaty means a Danish referendum is moving closer,’ Möller told Politiken newspaper.
He indicated, however, that a decision to hold a referendum could only be made after a final date was set for the treaty to come into effect. Prime Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen has said no EU vote will be held before 2011.
Should it come to a referendum, Möller said he hoped all three opt-outs could be voted on in a single ballot.
‘We were granted the opt-outs together, and we can also eliminate them together,’ he said. ‘I believe we should vote on them all at once, but you could argue either way.’
Opposition pro-EU parties, led by the Social Democrats, are ready to vote on the defence and the justice opt-outs.
Both the previous and current prime ministers have expressed their wish to do away with the opt-outs, but they have also made it clear that a vote would only be held if it is certain voters will approve eliminating them.
Attitudes toward the euro have warmed since voters rejected adopting it in a 2000 referendum. Pressure on the krone caused by the financial crisis last autumn have helped fuel a surge euro supporters.
Even with the growing support, Rasmussen has stated he will hold a referendum on whether to adopt the euro only after the Socialist People’s Party dropped its resistance.
Denmark was granted its EU opt-outs in 1992 after voters rejected the Maastricht Treaty.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
French Atomic Pique
Sarkozy unloads on Obama’s ‘virtual’ disarmament reality.
President Obama wants a unified front against Iran, and to that end he stood together with Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown in Pittsburgh on Friday morning to reveal the news about Tehran’s secret facility to build bomb-grade fuel. But now we hear that the French and British leaders were quietly seething on stage, annoyed by America’s handling of the announcement.
Both countries wanted to confront Iran a day earlier at the United Nations. Mr. Obama was, after all, chairing a Security Council session devoted to nonproliferation. The latest evidence of Iran’s illegal moves toward acquiring a nuclear weapon was in hand. With the world’s leaders gathered in New York, the timing and venue would be a dramatic way to rally international opinion.
President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been “frustrated” for months about Mr. Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn’t want to “spoil the image of success” for Mr. Obama’s debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy.
Le Monde’s diplomatic correspondent, Natalie Nougayrède, reports that a draft of Mr. Sarkozy’s speech to the Security Council Thursday included a section on Iran’s latest deception. Forced to scrap that bit, the French President let his frustration show with undiplomatic gusto in his formal remarks, laying into what he called the “dream” of disarmament. The address takes on added meaning now that we know the backroom discussions.
“We are right to talk about the future,” Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. “But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises,” i.e., Iran and North Korea. “We live in the real world, not in a virtual one.” No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Genital Mutilation: Over 1000 Girls in Italy Affected
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 30 — Over 1000 between little girls and adolescents, immigrants from African countries, have already undergone the operation for genital mutilation, or are currently at risk of the operation in our country. And almost 35,000 women were subjected to the operation before reaching Italy or as soon as they got here. The accusations are part of a report of July 2009 by the Ministry for Equal Opportunities, presented today at a meeting with radical organization “Non c’é pace senza giustizia” (No peace without justice), on female genital mutilation, coordinated by the deputy president of Senate, Emma Bonino. In Italy, there are 110,000 women coming from the 26 African countries in which female genital mutilation are part of a “widespread cultural and tribal practice”. Out of these, 35,000 have already been mutilated. It is some of their daughters, 4,600 girls aged 17 or less, that will become, or are already part of the estimated 1000 that will have for their whole life the horrific signs of the mutilation and will suffer from the extremely serious related health issues. It is a problem that must be faced, in Italy and around the world, at various level and with everyone’s involvement: parliament, local administrations, society. The aim of the campaign of “Non c’é pace senza giustizia” is to obtain, by the end of this year, a resolution from the UN General Assembly to ban female genital mutilation. Such a resolution, said Emma Bonino, “would not be binding, but it is part of a process” which also sees the involvement of Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Al-Qaida Recruiter Nabbed With Bomb Materials
German authorities said on Friday that they had arrested a Turkish-German man on suspicion of obtaining bomb-making materials and recruiting people for Islamist terror network al-Qaida.
Police raided a flat in Offenbach and a business in nearby Frankfurt and recovered a small amount of an explosive mixture and a homemade electronic device thought to be a detonator, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They also turned up other materials and devices durrent his arrest, which took place on Thursday.
The man, who has both German and Turkish citizenship, was named only as Adnan V. He is suspected of trying to recruit members and supporters of the Islamic militant group al-Qaida on the Internet with propaganda materials.
Currently, however, he is not thought to be linked to a number of videos ahead of last Sunday’s general election threatening Germany with attacks.
The videos prompted heightened security measures at airports and main train stations around the country, as well as sites popular with tourists like Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate or the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich.
They warned Germany of attacks unless it withdrew its 4,200 troops from Afghanistan, where they are fighting an increasingly tough insurgency as part of a 100,000-strong US and NATO mission.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Braces for Protest in Defence of Press Freedom
Rome, 2 October (AKI) — Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was due to face protests on Saturday in the Italian capital Rome, demanding media freedom. The protest will take place a day after Britain’s influential The Economist magazine compared the government’s meddling in the press to that of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
“Not since Mussolini’s time has an Italian government’s interference with the media been more blatant or alarming. Journalists, and other Italians, have ever reason to protest,” said The Economist in its latest issue on Friday.
James Walston, professor of international relations at the American University of Rome, admitted that Italy is in a dangerous situation.
“Control of the media is not as blatant or serious as it was under fascism. But we are in a dangerous position,” Walston told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“Today’s Italy should not be compared to fascism or the Soviet Union, or Pinochet’s Chile. There is not the open violence of fascism, but Berlusconi would indeed like to control the media like Mussolini did, and that is clear.”
Walston drew a comparison between Berlusconi and Mussolini, once a political journalist, who liked to ‘correct’ newspaper headlines.
“Mussolini was a journalist, and when he was in power, he called newspapers at midnight and corrected some of the editions. He liked to play the editor-in-chief. Berlusconi on the other hand is a TV man, and does not like the idea of a prostitute whom he slept with, being interviewed on prime time.”
“He certainly doesn’t even like people making fun of him,” Walston concluded.
Italy’s main journalist’s union was due to hold a rally on Saturday in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo square to protest against what they say are Berlusconi’s attempts to control the press.
Berlusconi in August decided to sue two-left leaning dailies, La Repubblica and L’Unita for libel and intrusion of privacy.
Berlusconi’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini has also mentioned plans to sue Spanish daily El Pais as well as French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur.
La Repubblica has also pioneered a campaign to support freedom of the press in Italy by collecting more than 450,000 signatures, among them 11 Nobel laureates.
Meanwhile, the US-based non-governmental organisation Freedom House downgraded Italy to a country with a “Partly-Free” press.
Italy now ranks 73rd, behind the West African country of Benin, Israel in the Middle East and tied with the tiny South Pacific island of Tonga.
Berlusconi: “Controls three of Italy’s seven main terrestrial television channels; another three, operated by the state-owned RAI, answer to a parliament dominated by his supporters; and he or his family own a leading daily, Il Giornale, plus a weekly news magazine and the country’s biggest publishing house,” said The Economist.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘PM Knew I Was a Prostitute’ Escort Claims on TV
Rome, 2 October (AKI) — Italy’s flamboyant prime minister Silvio Berlusconi “knew” that escort Patrizia D’Addario was a call girl, D’Addario told a prime time TV chatshow watched by over 70 million people. D’Addario claims she slept with Berlusconi in November last year and made alleged tapes of their intimate pillow talk. Berlusconi has always denied he knew she was a prostitute.
“I confirm everything,” D’Addario told state broadcaster RAI’s ‘Annozero’ programme in her first live interview on Italian television aired on Thursday.
“He knew, everyone at the parties knew,” D’Addario said in the interview beamed live from her native southern city of Bari.
She was referring to parties purportedly hosted by the 73-year-old media mogul premier at his private residences in Rome and Sardinia attended by dozens of young women, many of them allegedly prostitutes.
Berlusconi has never explicitly denied sleeping with D’Addario but has always said he did not know she was a prostitute and claims he has never paid a woman for sex.
D’Addario appeared on a giant screen above the seated studio guests on Annozero. Clad in a little black dress, she flicked her dyed blonde hair nervously as she listened to Berlusconi supporters accusing her of exploiting and betraying him.
“I am not ashamed of what I have said or done. In Italy, women are manipulated,” she said.
D’Addario reiterated her claim she stayed the night at Berlusconi’s Palazzo Grazioli Rome residence once last November, but had attended two parties there and “was not the only escort present”.
She claimed Berlusconi was “an excellent and charming host”. She declined to give details of their alleged night together but said he had been “very affectionate, kind and caring.”
He had promised her help in getting planning permission for a residential development her family wanted to build in the Bari area but that help had not been forthcoming, she said.
D’Addario handed audio recordings of their pillow talk to prosecutors in Bari but in the Annozero interview denied she gave them to the press.
She said that Bari businessman Giampaolo Tarantini had asked her to go to Palazzo Grazioli and paid her 1,000 euros to stay the night there.
Tarantini, a Bari businessman under investigation for abetting prostitution, corruption and drug trafficking, has admitted inviting more than 30 women — many of them prostitutes — to attend a total of 18 parties organised by the prime minister.
Lawyers acting for Tarantini, who is currently under house arrest, made an unsuccessful bid to stop Thursday’s ‘Annozero’ programme being aired on the grounds it could prejudice the the investigation of their client.
The government has announced it is investigating the “impartiality” of ‘Annozero’. RAI could face fines amounting to millions of euros if it is found to have breached its public service remain on grounds of fairness and decency.
Berlusconi has dismissed the TV programme as a “criminal use of public television. “Inviting a prostitute on to throw mud at the prime minister is a disgrace,” he told La Stampa.
He has also rejected claims by his estranged wife Veronica Lario that he frequents minors, including Naples lingerie model and would-be starlet Noemi Letizia, who 18th birthday party he attended in April.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Poverty: EU: 20% at Risk in Italy, 10% Among the Employed
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 29 — In Italy 20% of the population risks living in a state of poverty compared to an average of 17% in the EU. The percentage is 10% among the employed, compared to 8% in the EU. Those with temporary contracts are more vulnerable (19% in Italy compared to 13% in the EU). The data, which goes back to 2007, was elaborated by the Social Welfare department of the European Commission, which stated that the data did not vary significantly over time. “Inequalities have increased and the poverty level has not changed over the years,” stressed EU employment director Jerome Vignon, while presenting the analysis on the impact that employment growth and development have had on decreasing poverty and protecting the most vulnerable people in society. As for the ability of social protection programmes to reduce poverty, Brussels demonstrated a two-tiered Europe, with Sweden at a high of 60% compared to 17% in Italy (among the lowest ranked countries) and an EU average just under 40%. “In Italy,” stressed Vignon, “a minimum income is lacking that is strong enough to combat poverty.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘President’ Blair Waits on Voters of Ireland
Tony Blair is in line to be proclaimed Europe’s first president within weeks if the Irish vote “yes” in today’s referendum.
Senior British sources have told The Times that President Sarkozy has decided that Mr Blair is the best candidate and that Angela Merkel has softened her opposition.
The former Prime Minister could be ushered into the European Union’s top post at a summit on October 29.
Ms Merkel, the German Chancellor, was opposed to Mr Blair because she believed that the post should go to a country that had adopted the euro but British sources said that she may now be “biddable” if Germany and France get plum posts in the new European Commission.
German sources insisted that it was far from clear that Ms Merkel had changed her mind and there were suggestions in Paris that Mr Sarkozy was happy to be seen to be backing Mr Blair because he knew that Ms Merkel would scupper the appointment.
Mr Blair, whose claims are being advanced by ministers in London, will not enter the race unless he is certain of winning. He is wary of giving up his many other commitments, spanning business, the Middle East, climate change and his Faith Foundation.
If the Irish ratify the Lisbon treaty — the result will be declared tomorrow — only the signatures of the Polish and Czech presidents will be needed for full ratification. Warsaw is expected to come on board swiftly. President Klaus is harder to predict but diplomatic sources expect him to agree quickly, possibly after receiving a sweetener from Germany.
The decision presents a dilemma for the Conservatives, whose conference takes place next week. David Cameron remains committed to a referendum on the treaty. He has declined to say what he would do if the treaty were ratified before the general election.
Despite pressure from Eurosceptics, he would be unlikely to hold a referendum if he came to power after ratification, which would mean renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU, but a Europe with Mr Blair at its head would worry Tories even more.
Ms Merkel has touted Jean-Claude Juncker, of Luxembourg, for the role, but the backroom dealer would hardly set European pulses racing. It is understood that President Sarkozy proposed Felipe González, of Spain, privately to Ms Merkel, but that she was suspicious of endorsing the Socialist.
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UK: £10,000 Payout for Turban Row PC
A Sikh police officer has been awarded £10,000 in compensation after he was ordered to remove his turban for riot training by Greater Manchester Police.
An employment tribunal ruled Gurmeal Singh, 31, had been subject to “indirect discrimination” and harassment.
The tribunal had been told a sergeant asked Pc Singh: “Can you take that thing off?”
Judge Murray Creed said this was a “violation” of his “dignity”.
He was awarded £3,500 for indirect discrimination and £6,500 for harassment after suffering psychological damage, injury to feelings and personal injury, the tribunal ruled.
The officer, who joined Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in 2004, is a baptised and practising Sikh and it is against his religion to remove his turban in public or modify it.
He said he suffered panic attacks, stress and palpitations and had to go off sick from work over the issue during a long-running dispute with his employers.
Out of the officer’s 15 grievances, two were ruled in his favour: Harassment from a superior and “indirect discrimination” because the rules around the riot training lacked “clarity”.
Pc Singh is still employed by the force on “recuperative duties” but hopes to return to full operational duties.
He was also awarded payment for loss of earnings of £1,914 and, including interest on the award, the total amount he will receive is £12,636.
Speaking after the hearing Pc Singh said: “I’m just pleased, really pleased, that it is all over.
“I’m looking to return to work and see how GMP accommodate me.”
Uniform recommendation
The officer said he would be donating 10% of the award to a children’s charity.
During the hearing it emerged there was confusion within GMP, which has three Sikh officers out of almost 13,000 staff, about the policy on turbans.
Pc Singh was told at various points he would not have to do the riot training, only to be told by others that it was mandatory.
Awarding the compensation, Judge Creed said that GMP should amend its police uniform and equipment policy to take into account the requirement of Sikh officers.
Julia Rogers, GMP’s assistant chief officer, said: “We felt we acted in the officer’s best interests, but accept the findings from this tribunal and have already updated the policies this relates to.”
She said the force would be working with the newly formed British Police Sikh Association in an effort to resolve any ongoing issues.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC Report to Stay Confidential
A bid to force publication of a review by the BBC of its Middle East coverage has been rejected in the High Court.
London lawyer Steven Sugar wanted the Balen report, which was drawn up in 2004, to be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
But Mr Justice Irwin ruled that, as the material was held “for the purposes of journalism, art or literature”, the corporation had no duty to disclose it.
He also ruled the BBC did not have to disclose information about expenditure.
The judgement followed requests for budget details of the BBC’s news and sport coverage as well as programmes including EastEnders and Top Gear.
Public gaze
In 2004, senior news editor Malcolm Balen examined hundreds of hours of television and radio broadcasts to compile the 20,000-word report.
Mr Sugar, from Putney, south London, wanted it to be part of the debate about alleged anti-Israeli bias at the BBC.
He has argued that the Freedom of Information Act was badly drafted and prevented disclosure of material which should be publicly available.
But the BBC said the report was always intended as an internal review of programme content, to inform future output.
It has said it was vital for independent journalism that debates among its staff about how it covers stories do not have to be opened up to the public gaze.
In his judgment on the Steven Sugar case, the judge said he had taken account of the fact that the BBC was a public body under the Act which was publicly funded, adding that there was a public interest in accessing information about its activities.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nightclub Owner and ‘Tantric Master’ To Stand as Tory Candidate at Next Election
A nightclub owner who calls himself a ‘tantric master’ has been selected to contest a seat for the Conservatives at the next election.
Andrew Charalambous, 38, who also goes by the alias ‘Dr Earth’, claims ‘all you have to do is dance to save the world’ and runs nights at clubs with a hi-tech floor which generates electricity from the movement of dancers.
He has been selected for the Edmonton seat in London, currently held by Labour.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Issues Lisbon Treaty Warning to Irish Voters
The Vatican has made an unexpected last-minute intervention on the eve of Ireland’s Lisbon Treaty referendum with a warning the European Union threatens the country’s “identity, traditions and history”.
As Irish voters go the polls for a second time on the treaty, “No” campaigners have seized on comments made by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, during the Pope’s visit to the Czech Republic.
The comments followed unhappiness in the Vatican that the EU refused to recognise Europe’s Christian heritage in the text of the Lisbon Treaty.
The EU has also upset Catholics in the past by ruling abortion provision should be treated as a “medical service” no different from any other treatment.
“Individual European countries have their own identity. The EU prescribes its laws or views to them and they do not have to fit with their traditions and history. Some countries are logically resisting this — for example, Ireland,” said Cardinal Bertone.
“If Europe recognised homosexual couples as equal to marriage, for example, it would go against its own history. And it would be right to stand against it. The Church wants to encourage states in this.”
Coir, a Catholic group that has claimed that religious faith and Ireland’s anti-abortion laws are under threat from the EU, welcomed the comments.
“We are very pleased that Cardinal Bertone has come out and said explicitly that the EU is imposing secular values on Ireland,” said spokesman Brian Hickey. “It is because the EU has a secular agenda that we are resisting the Lisbon Treaty.
Noel Treanor, the Bishop of Down and Connor, last week lined up with mainstream political parties to tell churchgoers that they could vote for the Lisbon Treaty “without reserve and in good conscience”.
But Declan Ganley, the leader of Libertas, which is campaigning for a No vote, said Cardinal Bertone represented the Church’s true position.
“I welcome these comments and encourage all practicing Catholics to take them on board before they cast their ballots,” he said.
The Irish are voting on the treaty for a second time after rejecting it in a referendum last June.
Brian Cowen, the Irish Prime Minister, has promised voters that he has secured “legal guarantees” from the EU that Ireland’s traditional Catholic stance on the family and abortion will remain untouched.
“Europe has listened to the concerns of the Irish people as expressed by them in last year’s vote,” he said.
Many shoppers in Galway, which registered a strong No vote last year, yesterday (THURS) rejected the claim that Europe, or Mr Cowen, had listened.
Sean Boyle, an unemployed man, aged 27, from Donegal, said: “It is still the same treaty, nothing has changed. We have already had our say — it was no.”
Sorcha O’Sullivan, Magaretta Cooney, Georgia Bull, Michelle Daly and Eimear Costello, five Galway based female students, agreed.
“Why don’t they listen? No still means no,” said Miss Costello.
Irish bookmakers have predicted a pro-treaty vote, a verdict backed up by opinion polls which give the “Yes” camp 55 per cent of the vote.
“It is looking like a foregone conclusion at this stage,” said Leon Blanche of Boylesports, which has already paid out to Yes vote backers.
Michael Martin, Ireland’s foreign minister, said the government would beat off popular anger over its handling of the economic and resentment over a rerun referendum to win the day.
“We are confident and hopeful that we will win the vote,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Head Dies
The last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, Marek Edelman, has died at the age of 90.
The uprising — triggered by the Nazis’ decision to send residents to concentration camps — lasted three weeks before it was crushed.
Mr Edelman, then 23, was one of 200 young Jews who fought German troops.
His friend, Paula Sawicka, told the Associated Press that he died “at home, among friends”.
Former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski paid tribute to him.
“He reached a good age. He left as a contented man even if he was always aware of the tragedy he went through,” he told the Gazeta Wyborcza paper.
“I don’t want to say he was irreplaceable, nobody is, but there are few people like Marek Edelman.”
Pitched battle
For nearly a month in the spring of 1943 a group of young Jews, armed with pistols and home-made bombs, held off the German army before the ghetto was razed to the ground.
By that time the Nazis had sent 300,000 Jewish residents of the ghetto to the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp.
The first clashes occurred at the start of 1943 as residents took up arms to prevent more Jews being sent to the camp.
The full-scale uprising began in April in response to Nazi plans to wipe out the 60,000 remaining inhabitants.
Thousands of Jews died in the fighting as Nazi troops resorted to explosives to destroy the ghetto — created by the German occupiers in 1940.
More than 55,000 people were then killed or deported to concentration camps when the uprising failed.
Mr Edelman escaped and helped coordinate anti-Nazi resistance. After the war he became a doctor and joined Poland’s democratic opposition, speaking out against racism and on human rights.
“He will remain in my memory as a fighting hero, a man of great courage,” Former Israeli ambassador to Poland Shevach Weiss said.
“He never ceased in his struggle for human freedom and for Poland’s freedom.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia-EU: Talks Re-Start — Aiming to End During 2010
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 2 — After a halt lasting almost one year caused by its border dispute with Slovenia, talks have re-started today in Brussels on Croatia’s application to join the EU. Zagreb’s objective has now become to end the negotiation phase by the middle of 2010, before entering the EU formally some time between the second half of 2011 the beginning of 2012. “This is an important day for Croatia in furthering its process of accession” noted Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt, who holds the current EU presidency, ‘as well as being a meaningful signal for the whole of the region”. For Europe’s Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, today has seen “a significant breakthrough: a threefold victory for the EU, Slovenia and for Croatia in having been able to free negotiations and see the border issue resolved”. With a total of 33 negotiating chapters, Croatia has today opened six of them and closed five, taking the total number open to 28 and the number of those provisionally closed to twelve. “We want to progress rapidly,” Bildt said, ‘and there is to be another accession conference before the end of the Swedish presidency, opening all the chapters: how many of them we shall be able to close depends on Croatia”. “We are aware of the challenge ahead of us, especially that of reform of the judiciary, of public administration and of agriculture” said Gordan Jandrokovic, Croatia’s foreign minister, underlining his strong commitment to collaborating with the International Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia, an indispensible condition for accession, ahead of the report by Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the Tribunal. The final lap of negotiations for Croatia started after the breakthrough on September 11, when Zagreb and Ljubljana reached an accord on the modalities for resolving their dispute over the sea border between the two countries in the northern Adriatic, an issue that had been smouldering for eighteen years. “We are close to a solution acceptable to both sides” Jandrokovic said. “We are talking and another technical meeting will be necessary,” added Samuel Zbogar , ‘before reaching an accord in the near future”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptians Nervous of Israeli Culture
Above one of the narrow streets that wind through al-Ataba, in downtown Cairo, there is a street sign that reads Harat al-Yahoud — the Alley of the Jews.
It’s a signpost to a period in Egypt’s history when this neighbourhood was filled with Jewish families.
Historically, the Jews of Egypt were a significant part of the intellectual and business classes; they sent their children to private schools and controlled many of Egypt’s largest banks and businesses.
But following the revolution in the 1950s, that brought Jamal Abdel Nasser to power, most of those businesses were confiscated by the state.
Houses were abandoned as tensions with Israel grew and today there are very few Jews still remaining in Cairo.
In Harat al-Yahoud the crumbling synagogue is about the only reminder.
It’s recently undergone some much needed restoration but the secrecy that surrounds projects like this reveals that in reality there is still enormous mistrust, even hatred, that exists for anything connected to Israel — and that includes Jewish culture.
Ostracised
Egypt’s Culture Minister Farouk’s Hosny, failed last month to become head of Unesco — the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — at least partly because of his views on Israel.
A minister for 22 years, he has refused to visit Israel, and his threat to burn any Israeli books he found in the Alexandria library, can hardly have helped.
But the vote at Unesco sparked an interesting debate — why is Egypt so opposed to any form of cultural normalisation?
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Alan Dershowitz: Ex-President for Sale
It now turns out that Jimmy Carter—who is accusing the Jews of buying the silence of the media and politicians regarding criticism of Israel—has been bought and paid for by Arab money. In his recent book tour to promote Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Carter has been peddling a particularly nasty bit of bigotry. The canard is that Jews own and control the media, and prevent newspapers and the broadcast media from presenting an objective assessment of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that Jews have bought and paid for every single member of Congress so as to prevent any of them from espousing a balanced position. How else can anyone understand Carter’s claims that it is impossible for the media and politicians to speak freely about Israel and the Middle East? The only explanation — and one that Carter tap dances around, but won’t come out and say directly — is that Jews control the media and buy politicians. Carter then presents himself as the sole heroic figure in American public life who is free of financial constraints to discuss Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israelis.
Listen carefully to what Carter says about the media: the plight of the Palestinians is “not something that has been acknowledged or even discussed in this country… You never hear anything about what is happening to the Palestinians by the Israelis.” He claims to have personally “witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts.” He implies that the Jews impose these “severe restraints.” He then goes on to say that the only reason his book—which has been universally savaged by reviewers—is receiving such negative reviews is because they are all being written by “representatives of Jewish organizations” (demonstrably false!). So much for the media.
Now here is what he says about politicians…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
‘American Training Will be Utilized to Kill Jews’
Muslim gunmen issue dire warning during sit-down interview with WND
NORTHERN WEST BANK — Training received at current American-run courses for Palestinian militia men will likely be utilized in the not too distant future to kill Israelis, U.S.-trained Palestinian gunmen told WND in an exclusive, in-person interview this week.
WND met seven members of the Palestinian Authority security forces who recently received training at U.S.-run bases as part of a stated effort to reform the PA’s militias. All seven of the interview subjects formerly were leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group; some are suspected of still being involved with Brigades activities. They were all granted amnesty by Israel as part of a gesture to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization against Hamas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
High Noon for Israel
Now that Iran has admitted that is has constructed a secret facility for producing enriched uranium — one very hard to destroy in a military strike — Israel must be feeling the sand slip through the hourglass. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad already has made clear that he wishes to see Israel destroyed, and now his regime has been caught building a hardened facility to produce nuclear weapons. What is Israel to do?
The American position is not encouraging. Although professing concern about the threat of an Iranian nuclear program, President Obama seems determined to push off making any decision to confront Iran. Even after the recent revelations, Obama would rather delay a day of reckoning through international diplomacy than challenge Tehran over its illicit nuclear program.
In its aversion take action, the U.S. is not alone. Russia and China don’t consider Iran a threat. On the contrary, both have used their veto power on the UN Security Council to prevent meaningful action from being taken against Iran. Major European powers, meanwhile, aren’t interested in a war. Canada considers Israel an ally, but doesn’t have the military capability to take on Iran.
Left to face confront the Iranian regime on its own, Israel is left with three main options. And none of them look good.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Officials Make Washington Visit
Bolton: Radicals ‘appear to be well on the way to seducing Western diplomats’
UNITED NATIONS — On the same day the Obama administration opened up talks with Iran in Geneva on its nuclear “research” program, Tehran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told reporters at the United Nations he had just returned from an unannounced visit to Washington, D.C.
The timing of the first direct face-to-face talks between U.S. and Iranian diplomats since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the first visit of a high-ranking Iranian official to Washington in over 30 years have led some diplomats to believe that Tehran is seeking to avoid a confrontation with the new White House.
[…]
Former U.S./U.N. ambassador John Bolton, who also headed the arms control section at the state department in the administration of George W. Bush, was not impressed by Mottaki’s statements:
“Yet again, Iran appears to be well on the way to seducing Western diplomats by vague generalities and promises to meet again. Iran is simply gaining more time to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Women’s Rights Activist Sentenced to Six Months in Jail
Tehran, 2 October (AKI) — A women’s rights activist and journalist has been sentenced to six months in jail by one of Iran’s Revolutionary Courts in the capital, Tehran, for having ‘endangered state security’.
Jelveh Javaheri, arrested in June 2008 for protesting in the centre of Tehran in favour of women’s political and civil rights, was subsequently freed from Iran’s notorious Evin prison and her sentence has only now been made public, Iran’s Radiofarda said.
She was charged with “acting against national security by spreading propaganda against the state.”
Javaheri had been previously arrested in May and was freed after posting a bail of 75.000 euros. She was the founding member of the Campaign for Equality.
Javaheri is part of a group of Iranian feminists that begun a national campaign two years ago to abolish all of of Iran’s discriminatory laws against women.
They also wanted to gather 1 million signatures urging the Iranian parliament to review parts of the civil and penal codes that in their present form could harm women’s rights
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: After Refusing, Islamic Woman Removes Veil in Court
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 28 — A week ago she refused to remove her veil in the courtroom in order to testify in front of the Audiencia Nacional in a trial against an alleged Islamic fundamentalist cell in Madrid. But today, Fatima Hassini, showed her face during questioning in front of the court presided by Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez in order to not be held in contempt of court. Court sources, cited by press agency EFE, informed that journalists and TV cameras were removed from the courtroom and the woman testified with her back turned to lawyers and the public, which was previously agreed upon with Judge Bermudez and is generally a practice used only for protected witnesses. Before entering into the courtroom, Fatima Hassini assured that the controversy raised by her refusal to uncover her face has been propagated by “ignorant people”. She assured that women wearing burqas are “looked upon more normally in other European countries”. Fatima is Hassan Hassini’s sister, who with other alleged components of an Islamic fundamentalist cell in Catalonia, believed to be part of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and close to the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat, carried out a suicide attack in Iraq in 2005. (ANSAmed).
2009-09-28 17:24
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-EU: Davotoglu in Brussels, Restart Negotiations
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 2 — Agreements must be respected, whatever the outcome of the Irish referendum may be. The European Union is definitively bound for historic and geographic reasons to Turkey and this necessitates a political response: there will not be a future role as a global power for Europe without Ankara. And once these economic ties are established, the commitment made in 2004 must be honoured, which promised access to the 27-member EU. This was the message launched today by Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in his speech to a conference organised in Brussels by the European Policy Centre, before meeting with European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso. According to Davutoglu, the EU cannot barricade itself behind the current boundaries of the 27-member states because “there is no Great Wall of China between the EU and non-EU countries”, explaining how Turkey plays a key role geopolitically on more than one common front with Europe: “Turkey is a European country, but also the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Middle East, and at this point, the Gulf”. Essentially, “the crisis demonstrated that no prosperity is permanent and having a global vision means challenges. Ankara “in the past 7 years has worked on a proactive foreign policy. Our principle is economic integration with our neighbours,” explained the minister, “and this provides a prospect of stability. Economic interdependency and cultural co-existence are the best path to achieve peace”. Then he posed a question: “It is better to join Turkey’s potential to that of the EU or keep them separate? Differently from 10 years ago,” said the minister, “I believe that at this point we are all certain that we provide stability”. Without forgetting about their common destiny on other fronts, from energy security to environmental issues: “Turkey provides only advantages,” concluded the minister. The Nabucco project, which is strategic for Ankara, would not compromise EU-Russia relations, simply because it is complementary to others. “We are not thinking about two competing energy policies,” he added, “since we buy energy from Russia. We are talking about different gas pipelines: one goes from north to south and the other goes from east to west.” There are only two elements that complicate the panorama: Cyprus and Armenia, for which we will “continue to do everything possible” and negotiations are continuing. This does not take away from the fact that Cyprus’ entry into the EU has left a bad taste in their mouth. “If the Cyprus issue had been resolved back then,” said Davutoglu, “today there would not be a problem with the Customs Union, with Turkey’s ports and airports not being open to Greek-Cypriots and the embargo against Turkish Cypriots. But Ankara is not giving up and hope that negotiations to enter into the EU will be restarted after having evaluated their “continued efforts” on a diplomatic level. Certainly “we will not recognise Greek Cyprus if the matter is not resolved,” concluded Davutoglu. And as for the result of the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, “we are not worried because the European leaders’ commitment to grant access to Turkey was assumed in 2004 and “agreements must be respected”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UNESCO: Irina Bokova to Visit in Arab World
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 29 — The new director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, who the executive council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization chose over the controversial Egyptian minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, has announced that she will visit the Arab world as soon as possible “to dissipate tensions” which have arisen during the campaign for the appointment. “A page has been turned, after lengthy and transparent elections,” said Bokova during a TV5Monde-Rfi-Le Monde broadcast, denying rumours of a rift between the northern and southern countries. “I have already received congratulations from the Egyptian foreign minister and from numerous ministers from other Arab countries,” she added, indicated that she has personally spoken with Prince Fayçal, the Education minister of Saudi Arabia, and has declared herself “a friend of the Muslim world and the Arab world.” The upcoming trip to Muslim and Arab countries — she has yet to specify which ones — will help to dissipate any suspicion, any hesitation. Irina Bokova was appointed director general on September 22 during the fifth and final round of voting. The executive council’s appointment is due to be approved by the UNESCO general conference on October 15. Farouk Hosni, whose exclusion followed fierce controversy over his anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements, accused UNESCO of being “politicised” whilst the Egyptian press spoke of the responsibility of the Jewish lobby and the clash of civilisations.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: “Losing” Our Way to Victory
Today’s column is for all hawkish Americans currently wrestling with looming doubts about the pointlessness of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and clubbing those doubts down with the much-mentioned perils of leaving Afghanistan to “the terrorists.” In short, it’s about how to “lose” Afghanistan and win the war.
And what war would that be? Since 9/11, the answer to this question has eluded our leaders, civilian and military, but it remains the missing link to a cogent U.S. foreign policy.
It is not, as our presidents vaguely invoke, a war against “terrorism,” “radicalism” or “extremism”; and it is not, as the current hearts-and-minds-obsessed Afghanistan commander calls it, “a struggle to gain the support of the (Afghan) people.” It is something more specific than presidents describe, and it is something larger than the outlines of Iraq or Afghanistan. The war that has fallen to our generation is to halt the spread of Islamic law (Sharia) in the West, whether driven by the explosive belts of violent jihad, the morality-laundering of petro-dollars or decisive demographic shifts.
This mission demands a new line of battle around the West itself, one supported by a multilevel strategy in which the purpose of military action is not to nation-build in the Islamic world, but to nation-save in the Western one. Secure the borders, for starters, something “war president” George W. Bush should have done but never did. Eliminate the nuclear capabilities of jihadist nations such as Iran, another thing George W. Bush should have done but never did — Pakistan’s, too. Destroy jihadist actors, camps and havens wherever and whenever needed (the strategy in place and never executed by Bill Clinton in the run-up to 9/11). But not by basing, supplying and supporting a military colossus in Islamic, landlocked Central Asia. It is time, as Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely (USA ret.) first told me last April, to “let Afghanistan go.” It is not in our interests to civilize it.
But we would “lose face” in leaving Afghanistan, supporters say. News flash: We lose face every day in Afghanistan executing a costly, impotent policy based on massive state bribery, the public devaluation of American life (“population protection” trumps “force protection”), and deference to Islamic custom, as when women Marines are ordered to wind head scarves under their helmets for missions. And the point of this mass American supplication? To win a local popularity contest in which the only competition is the Taliban. Earth to military geniuses: The people are already with you, or they’re against you.
In other words, it’s time to toss the policy of standing up Sharia states such as Iraq and Afghanistan onto that ash heap of history…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Maoists Kill 16 Indian Villagers
Sixteen people have been killed by suspected Maoist rebels in a village in the Indian state of Bihar, police say.
The attack took place in Icharwa village in Khagaria district, 200km (124 miles) from the state capital, Patna, late on Thursday night.
A survivor, whose son was among the dead, told the BBC that the attackers tied up 16 people and shot them.
Correspondents say that this is the first major Maoist attack in the state for some time.
More than 6,000 people have been killed during their 20-year fight for a communist state.
The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and landless.
But the survivor of this attack told the BBC that this dispute was over the cultivation of farmland in the area.
‘Fell down’
Paro Singh told the BBC Hindi service that about 10 people armed with automatic weapons launched an attack.
“We were 17 of us. When they fired at us, I wasn’t hit, but I fell down on the ground and pretended to be dead. They shot dead all the others, including my son,” he said.
Mr Singh said the attackers were rebels from nearby villages.
The dead included five children, senior police official Neelmani told the BBC.
The victims were low-caste farmers and labourers, he said.
This is the first major attack in Bihar for a long time, the BBC Hindi’s Manikant Thakur in Patna says.
The rebels were not active in this area before but have recently extended their area of operation to cover these parts, our correspondent says.
The Maoists operate in large parts of central and eastern India and officials say they are active in a third of all Indian districts.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the Maoist insurgency the single biggest threat to India’s security.
Last month, Mr Singh said India was losing the battle against the rebels.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Extremists in Somalia Hunting Christians
Somalia (MNN) — Somalia’s Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15.
Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.
On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia. At a checkpoint controlled by al Shabaab—a rebel group linked with al Qaeda which has taken over large parts of the war-torn country—bus passengers were ordered to disembark for inspection.
Voice of the Martyrs Canada and Compass Direct reports agree on the events following the discovery of the Bibles.
The assailants used photos they found to determine if they could match the faces to any passengers. When they noticed a resemblance to Khalafe, they asked if the Bibles were his. The radicals shot and killed him when he did not respond.
Militants then displayed his body in Merca along with the Bibles as a warning to others. Later that day, a militant reported Khalafe’s death on a radio program.
Khalafe, who had been a Christian for 45 years, was active in sharing the Good News and baptizing converts from Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pirates Take Spanish Fishing Boat
A Spanish fishing boat with a crew of 36 has been attacked by a gang of Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, reports say.
Officials said that the Alakrana was seized in waters between Somalia and the Seychelles.
The European Union’s anti-piracy naval force has begun an operation to make contact with the crew.
In the absence of any effective national government, pirate gangs have set up bases in parts of Somalia.
The gangs have made millions of dollars by holding crews to ransom.
International navies have been deployed to protect ships in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Armed presence
The Alakrana sent a distress call to another Spanish fishing boat in the area, which then alerted the EU’s anti-piracy force.
The British-based EU anti-piracy organisation then confirmed the hijack, which took place some 360 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia.
It said a patrol plane had reported there were no other vessels in the area apart from a fuel-laden skiff used by the pirates, being towed behind the Alakrana.
After the alert was sent out, two military planes flew over the area and confirmed there were armed people on board the vessel.
Spanish navy ships and a reconnaissance plane have been sent to the area.
The vessel, which is owned by Echebastar Fleet, escaped a similar attack just off the Seychelles on 4 September.
In a statement, the company, which is based in Spain’s Basque region, said it could not establish contact with the boat.
It has sent representatives to the country’s embassy in Nairobi in Kenya.
The crew is believed to comprise Spaniards, Indonesians, Ghanaians, Madagascans, Senegalese and Seychellois.
The Spanish government has formed a crisis committee to tackle the situation.
First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the priority was “preserving the safety of the crew”.
She said the committee wanted to resolve the situation as soon as possible but noted the vessel “was fishing beyond the agreed perimeter”.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico Makes Record Drugs Seizure
Mexican authorities say they have made their largest-ever seizure of chemicals used in the manufacturer of the synthetic drug methamphetamine.
A total of 37 tonnes were confiscated in two separate raids in different parts of the country.
Mexico, one of the world’s leading producers of the drug, says the seizure represents a blow to organised crime.
Some 20 tonnes of the psycho-stimulant drug were found on a boat entering the Pacific Coast port of Manzanillo.
A further 17 tonnes were uncovered in the city of Nuevo Laredo, close to the border with Texas.
Several arrests are understood to have been made.
Both the Mexican and US authorities have recently pointed to the fact that drug cartels in Mexico are increasingly diversifying their business into the manufacture and trafficking of methamphetamine.
It has the advantage over cocaine that it can be domestically produced in large quantities.
The precursor chemicals required to make the drug are, however, usually imported.
It is that part of the business which the Mexican authorities are currently targeting.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Electronic Patrols on Huelva Coast
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 1 — Radar and heat sensitive cameras from the Integrated Electronic Security System (SIVE) started watching over the coast from Huelva to Alicante, on Spain’s southern Mediterranean coastline yesterday. The system has been put in place to fight the organized clans that control drug and migrant trafficking. Overall, according to sources at the Interior Ministry, 42 electronic outposts have been installed along the coast at a cost of 8.5 million euros. The SIVE cameras and radar, installed for the first time by Spain in 2001 on the Gibraltar Camp coast, can detect the presence of small boats twenty kilometers from shore. The data is sent to a operations centre that coordinates the interventions against drug and human trafficking. The detection systems are integrated with four radar antennas installed at Cabo Roig (Orihuela), Cabo de Santa Pola and Sierra Helada (Benidorm) and Cabo San Antonio (Denia). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
State Sentenced to Bring Repatriated Minor Back to Spain
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 29 — Madrid’s prefecture was sentenced to bring back to Spain a Moroccan minor who was repatriated to Tangiers in 2007, in violation of the Spanish legal system and the minor’s fundamental rights. The sentence was issued by section 14 of Madrid’s administrative court for disputes. Cited by Radio Cadena Ser, it is the first ruling of this sort in Spain. The ruling dates back to September 2008, but only gained force last January when the administrative court issued a measure which ordered execution of the sentence within three months. Bilal El Meraoui, the Moroccan minor, has already returned to Spain, after being issued a visa by Madrid’s prefecture. At the time of repatriation Bilal was 17-years-old and, before being expelled, was following a carpentry training course in Madrid. Once back in he Tangiers he went to live with his mother, who is suffering from brain tumour. Interviewed by Ser, the 20-year-old assured that he wants to find a job and earn the 100 euros per month he needs to look after his mother’s health. Bilal received legal assistance by the Al Jaima Association, which assures that, pending in the Spanish courts, there are at least another 30 cases of immigrant minors who were expelled irregularly and in violation of their fundamental rights. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sen.Tom Harmon: The Case for Trying Roman Polanski
Content warning: This column contains a graphic description of child molestation.
When the Swiss police arrested fugitive Roman Polanski, hope revived that at long last, justice might be done. The crimes with which Polanski was charged by the grand jury are among the most despicable and heinous that can be leveled in a civilized society’s court of law — the drugging, raping and sodomizing of a 13-year-old child.
The crimes to which the young girl testified 31 years ago are of such a magnitude that no mere passage of time can absolve the predator, particularly when that predator not only became a fugitive from justice, but spent the intervening years living a life of fame and privilege abroad.
Is it not a rush to judgment to presume Polanski’s guilt since he fled the country before facing sentencing? No, it is not. He admitted guilt in a plea bargain, albeit to reduced charges. When the sentencing judge appeared ready to reject the plea bargain due to its leniency and the horrific nature of the crimes, Polanski cut and run.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
I just thought I'd share something that has just happened to me here. In fact I'm moved to do so more because I'm in a psychological state of shock more than anything else. I feel quite nauseous; and am having to wilfully repress the sensation of needing to be physically sick.
I live in the district of Camden Town in London. I'm not very keen on it, it's quite boozy and "alternative" and full of 1000s of tourists at the weekend taking advantage of the market.
At the centre is a crossroads with 7 corners from which I have just returned. At EACH of these were some (at minimum) 40 Muslims. Dressed up in their costume. 5 Burka clad lovelies at each corner too. They each had a trestle table, were approaching members of the public, distributing leaflets: while at the centre an Imam spouted nonsense upon nonsense from a loudhailer. How "wonderful" a Muslim UK will be. How Shariah promotes "peace." How we'd be perfectly free to be Christian under a Muslim state provided we obeyed the law etc.
Those foolish enough to approach me were dismissed with a well phrased, "get stuffed," on my part. But the whole thing has made me sick to my stomach. How I wished I'd have had the bravery to stand up and shout back, to call them on all their lies. To say I will not be a Dhimmi. To exercise the very right to free speech that they were and that would be denied me in a Muslim state, which IS DENIED ME because I KNOW it is I would be the one arrested for public order offences.
Perhaps that's the worst part, on my travels around I saw what were clearly, only two plain clothes policemen stationed far off. Sipping on Frapucinos.
There was not ONE uniformed officer to be seen. NOT ONE. To make the law abiding citizen feel free to walk past all this rubbish unintimidated, unthreatened and unmolested by those who would wish to enslave him and colonize him in his own land.
"To make the law abiding citizen feel free to walk past all this rubbish unintimidated, unthreatened and unmolested by those who would wish to enslave him and colonize him in his own land."
What makes you think it's your land? Do you think some people are less human than others? Don't you know all the world is One and we are all citizens of the world?
I am of course being sarcastic. But only yesterday the great and good (like the first "Black" president Bill Clinton) were arming the Bosnian Mujahideen with Iranian weaponry to enforce a unitary Bosnian state that Izetbegovic wanted to use to implement Sharia law. After all, we're all citizens of the world, and propositional multicultural Islam is far preferable to ethno-centric nationalism which all enlightened people know is Nazism.
I'm not labouring the point, because for us that's the real meaning of the collapse of Yugoslavia.
And I'm sure that the Potus will also arm the mujahedeen when Lord Ahmed calls for sharia to implemented in UK, all of it and not sharia lite as now. Just as when the serbs got the crapped bombed out of them by UN and NATU, the same will happen to the native britons if they dare to oppose the islamization of their own... sorry everybody else's country but the whites.
And I'm sure that the Potus will also arm the mujahedeen when Lord Ahmed calls for sharia to be implemented in UK, all of it and not sharia lite as now. Just as when the serbs got the crapped bombed out of them by UN and NATO, the same will happen to the native britons if they dare to oppose the islamization of their own... sorry everybody else's country but the whites.
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