Monday, December 28, 2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2009A man named Mohamed Ibrahim threatened to blow up several businesses in Memphis, and announced that he was going to start a jihad. When police arrested him he had a butcher knife concealed up his sleeve. He attempted to kick out the windows of the police car, and officers were forced to suppress him with pepper spray. He was charged with terrorism and released on $100 bond.

In other news, a poll taken in Sweden reveals that 56% of the public feel that immigration for the most part has been positive for the country.

Thanks to CSP, Esther, Insubria, JD, Sean O’Brian, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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USA
Dearborn: US Muslim Capital
Do You Feel Safe Now?
Frank Gaffney: Jihad 101
Let My Terrorists Go
Memphis Man Out on $100 Bail After Threatening Jihad in Memphis; Update: $50,000 Bail Now
Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats & Threatening to Start “Holy War”
Memphis Man Faces Terrorism Charge After Threats
Men Believed Behind Airplane Plot Were Freed From Gitmo
Officials: Only a Failed Detonator Saved Northwest Flight
Security Questioned After Jet Scare
US Orders Body Searches After Botched Airline Attack
 
Europe and the EU
Afghan Teens Dumped in Swedish Forest
Dutch Probe Claims of Nigerian Bomber Accomplice
Fiat: Termini Imerese Faces Sale, Chinese Chery Interested
France: South Stream: EDF Towards Payment in Electricity
Italy: Baroque Spectacular in Naples
Spain: Anchovy Fishing Resumes in Bay of Biscay
UK: ‘There Are Many More Like Me’: Jet Bomber’s Chilling Warning as MI5 Hunt Terror Cell Behind Failed Attack
UK: Bomb Plotter: ‘More Like Me’
UK: Escaped Criminal Taunts Police on Facebook as He Enjoys Christmas on the Run
UK: To Our Eternal Shame, Britain is Still a Hub for Islamic Terror
 
Balkans
Croatia: The Presidential Candidates
Croatia: Official Data Confirm Run-Off in Presidential Vote
 
North Africa
Archaeology: Tunisia, Former Foreign Minister’s Son Arrested
French Protestors Camp Out in Front of Cairo Embassy
Golf: 5 New Courses in Tunisia
Joint OIC-Arab League Committee Develops a Plan to Correct the Image of Arabs and Muslims in America
 
Israel and the Palestinians
Chutzpah! U.S. Demands Israel Explain Terrorists’ Deaths
Lieberman: No Peace Deal in Next 10 to 20 Years
‘Uprising’ Planned to Target West Bank Jews
 
Middle East
Al-Qaeda Warned of Imminent Bomb Attack
Chevrolet Increases Turkish Market Share by 82%
Gaza Aid Stuck in Jordan Amid Turkish Mediation
Lebanon: Chamber Speaker Fini Visits UNIFIL Mission
Stop Building Steel Wall, Nasrallah Tells Egypt
Swedish Ambassador on Iranian Protests
Turkey Seeks Return of Santa Claus’ Bones
U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, A Qaeda Bastion
 
Far East
Vietnam Sentences Democracy Activist to Prison
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
Abdulmutallab’s Bomb Plans Began With Classroom Defence of 9/11
Mauritania: Al Qaeda May be Behind Kidnapping of Italians
UN: Ugandan Rebel Attacks May Have Been War Crimes
 
Latin America
Brazil: More Halal Beef for Arab Countries
 
Immigration
Swedes Positive About Immigration: Poll
Video: Latin America See Influx of African Immigrants
 
Culture Wars
Spain: Law on Abortion Gains Large Majority in Congress
 
General
“Avatar”: The Suicide Fantasy

USA

Dearborn: US Muslim Capital

When the American car-maker Henry Ford opened his plant in Dearborn, Michigan, his legacy was more than an industrial one — he contributed to the formation of one of United States’ largest Middle Eastern communities.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Do You Feel Safe Now?

If you have traveled by airline lately — domestically or internationally — you know the meaning of the word “hassle.”

Ordinary people who pose no possible threat to life and limb are forced to take off their shoes, their belts, walk through metal detectors, get their bags X-rayed and stand on long security lines.

Meanwhile, as we saw last weekend, a man with “significant terrorist connections” boards a plan in Nigeria with the components of a bomb and nearly succeeds in detonating it as it approached Detroit.

In other words, all the best efforts of government’s politically correct, non-profiling of airline passengers proves worthless once again.

In fact, if it hadn’t been for the alert passengers on Flight 253, all 278 of them might have perished in the latest act of Islamic terrorism. Passengers, not crew members, jumped over one another to subdue the fiend. There was not a TSA agent or a sky marshal in sight.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


Frank Gaffney: Jihad 101

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came in for some well-deserved criticism for declaring over the weekend that “the system worked” with respect to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s effort to blow up the plane he was flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. By Monday, she was backpedalling, acknowledging that “our system did not work in this instance.”

In truth, for a lot of Americans, Ms. Napolitano has not had much credibility since she tried to ban “terrorism” from the official lexicon of her department. But arguably the most serious indication that she is wholly ill-equipped to carry out her present responsibilities can be found in another — as yet uncorrected — statement she made on Sunday. She told CNN’s “State of the Union” that, “Right now, we have no indication [that Abdulmutallab’s actions were] part of anything larger.”

Not “part of anything larger”? Is she serious? Does she take us for fools?

Read my lips, Secretary Napolitano: Abdulmutallab’s actions were absolutely, positively part of something larger. What they were part of is the comprehensive theo-political-legal program that authoritative Islam calls Shariah.

This supremacist program requires its adherents to engage in jihad, or holy war, to bring about the triumph of Islam under a global theocracy, one that will impose Shariah on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Pursuant to Shariah, jihad should — wherever practicable — be pursued through the terrifying use of violence. Where violent jihad is impractical or would be counterproductive, Shariah directs faithful Muslims to use other means to advance the same goal. Koran expert Robert Spencer calls the latter “stealth jihad.”…

           — Hat tip: CSP[Return to headlines]


Let My Terrorists Go

The Bush Administration, that for all its faults that had at least cared about protecting Americans against Islamic terrorism, under pressure from the courts gave in, and when the official candidate of Islamic terrorists, MSNBC commentators and ACLU lawyers took office, it was all over but the suicide bombings. Barry Hussein signed the order closing Guantánamo Bay, released many of its residents, and gave civilian trials to others. And thus far of the terrorists who have been released, one in seven has returned to terrorist activity. And that number likely underestimates the true picture by quite a lot.

In 2006 Thomas Wilner, the lawyer for a number of the terrorists, penned an emotional article for the Los Angeles Times calling Gitmo, an American Gulag and a living nightmare. Naturally of course all his Kuwaiti clients were innocent little lambs who just happened to be hanging around Afghanistan before being snatched up into the cruel and unfeeling maw of the US military industrial complex, inhumanly tortured and deprived of their humanity.

Two years later after his release, one of Wilner’s innocent lambs, Abdallah al-Ajmi, hailed as the “Lion of Guantanamo” murdered 13 Iraqi policemen in a suicide bombing. Naturally instead of admitting that he had worked tirelessly to release a Jihadi terrorist from Gitmo, leaving him free to kill, Wilner instead blamed the US government for turning his formerly lamb-like client who had been picking flowers in the valley of Kandahar into a violent terrorist by imprisoning him in Guantánamo Bay.

[…]

The suicide bombings of Muslim terrorists today, like the Red Terror, are one of those necessary murders being committed by the Jack Abbotts with beards and keffiyahs running around the world today. After 13 dead in Mosul whose families he has never visited, his lawyer of course has no regrets. “Guantanamo took a kid—a kid who wasn’t all that bad—and it turned him into a hostile, hardened individual,” Wilner said. The kid in question being Abdallah al-Ajmi, a Jihadist who had tried to fight in Chechnya and then Afghanistan, threatened his own lawyer and on release, went to fight in Iraq and murdered 13 Iraqi police officers.

The real story of course as always is behind the scenes. Thomas Wilner and his prestigious law firm, Shearman & Sterling, are not some gang of bearded radicals huddling in an East Village basement office. They’re a prestigious law firm whose bill was footed by the Kuwaiti government. Shearman & Sterling did not simply have managing partners like Wilner represent captured terrorists, they launched a massive lobbying campaign on their behalf.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


Memphis Man Out on $100 Bail After Threatening Jihad in Memphis; Update: $50,000 Bail Now

Let’s play a little game of You’re The Judge. Police arrest a man who has told seven Memphis businesses that he would “blow [them] to pieces” if they didn’t close. When police pulled him over, they discover three cassettes with Islamic instruction on them, and discover that the suspect, Mohamed Ibrahim, has been telling people that he wants to conduct jihad in Memphis. When they arrest him, he kicks out the window of the police cruiser and has to be subdued with pepper spray.

Ibrahim is charged with commission of an act of terrorism, filing false reports, and disorderly conduct. Would you release him on $100 bond?

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats & Threatening to Start “Holy War”

MEMPHIS, TN — Tonight, Mohamed Ibrahim is out after posting $100 bond. Earlier in the day, he was arrested after police say he walked into several Memphis businesses and threatened to blow them up.

Court records show Ibrahim was also telling people he was Muslim, and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis.

Police say when they arrested him, he had a butcher knife hidden in one of his jacket sleeves.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]


Memphis Man Faces Terrorism Charge After Threats

Arrested after saying he’d bomb 7 businesses

A Memphis man was arrested Friday after he walked into seven local businesses and announced that he would bomb them if they didn’t close, according to a police affidavit.

The report states that Mohamed Ibrahim, 35, threatened businesses on Poplar Avenue, Summer Avenue, Mendenhall, Perkins and Danny Thomas Boulevard.

“If you don’t close this place up, I’m going to blow it to pieces,” Ibrahim told customers at the BP Gas Station on the 300 block of Poplar, according to the report.

A police officer pulled over the suspect’s black PT Cruiser on Poplar and arrested Ibrahim, who was “very nervous” and appeared as if “he was trying to hide something,” the report stated.

The suspect tried to kick out the windows of a patrol car during the arrest and police said they had to use pepper spray to subdue him.

The FBI found three Islamic cassette tapes and miscellaneous papers in the suspect’s car, which were removed for additional study, according to the affidavit. Police charged Ibrahim with commission of an act of terrorism, filing false reports and disorderly conduct. He posted $100 bond and was released, pending his court date on Monday.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]


Men Believed Behind Airplane Plot Were Freed From Gitmo

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, ABC News is reporting, quoting American officials and citing Department of Defense documents.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials, ABC News reported.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes[Return to headlines]


Officials: Only a Failed Detonator Saved Northwest Flight

Screening Machines May Need to Be Replaced; Al Qaeda Aware of ‘Achilles heel’

Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly.

Bomb experts say there was more than enough explosive to bring down the Northwest jet, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed, and the nation’s outdated airport screening machines may need to be upgraded.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


Security Questioned After Jet Scare

Privacy advocates have attempted to stop or at least slow the introduction of advanced checkpoint screening devices that use so-called millimeter waves to create an image of a passenger’s body, so officers can see under clothing to determine if a weapon or explosive has been hidden. Security officers, in a private area, review the images, which are not stored.

Law enforcement officials say Abdulmutallab hid a condom or condom-like pouch below his torso containing PETN, the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions.

Legislation is pending in the House that would prohibit the use of the millimeter wave equipment for routine passenger screening.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


US Orders Body Searches After Botched Airline Attack

New security measures introduced by the US Transport Security Administration for all flights into the US include pat-down searches at the airport gate, physical inspection of all bags and requiring passengers to stay in their seats without access to any personal items or overhead lockers for the final hour before landing.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Afghan Teens Dumped in Swedish Forest

Five chilled and hungry Afghan teenagers stumbled into a southern Swedish town on Christmas Eve after being left by smugglers in a deserted stretch of forest days earlier, a priest who had taken them in said Sunday.

A member of the church had found the five boys, aged 14 to 18, in the southern town of Sävsjö on Thursday, Christmas Eve, local pastor Jonas Nyström told AFP.

Nyström said the police had asked the local Högland parish to look after the teenagers until the social services opened on Monday following a Christmas break.

“They were cold, they were tired and they were starving,” Nyström said.

The group had been “abandoned in the forest by a smuggler who did not want to be seen with them, and they were able to get to Sävsjö by following a railway line,” he said.

A Swedish radio report said they had travelled across Europe hidden in a container.

Nyström said the Afghans did not speak English and he had communicated with them using translation software and through other Afghans in Sweden.

“Some of their parents had been killed by the Taliban,” he said.

Many Afghans use illegal people smugglers to flee their dangerous and destitute country, with Europe the main destination.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Dutch Probe Claims of Nigerian Bomber Accomplice

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — Dutch military police are investigating the possibility that an accomplice may have helped the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, a spokesman said on Monday.

A U.S. couple on the flight, Kurt and Lori Haskell, told Reuters and other news agencies that they saw a tall, well-dressed man aged about 50 with the suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Friday morning at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The Haskells have claimed the man spoke for Abdulmutallab and attempted to get him aboard Northwest flight 253 without a passport.

“At this moment we have no information on whether there was another guy,” the military police spokesman said. “We are checking all clues and information we get.”

The spokesman added that the military police and the counter-terrorism agency NCTb were reviewing CCTV video and other evidence to see if the accomplice story bears out.

The military police have already said Abdulmutallab did not go through passport control at Schiphol when he arrived from Lagos.

But the spokesman said it would be unlikely the man could board the plane without showing his passport at some point in the boarding process.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]


Fiat: Termini Imerese Faces Sale, Chinese Chery Interested

(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, DECEMBER 23 — Chinese group Chery is willing to evaluate the Termini Imerese dossier if Fiat puts the Sicilian factory on the market, after a decision to discontinue car production from 2012 at the industrial site, say union sources, the day after the meeting at Palazzo Chigi, where managing director Sergio Marchionne presented Fiat’s industrial plan. Various government representatives confirmed outside the meeting that the Chery groups interest is real. The factory in Sicily represents an outpost for the Chinese for producing cars in Europe, and above all, because of its geographical position, an important junction for the north African market, an area which Beijing is extremely interested in. The plan presented yesterday by Fiat to the government and unions is an ambitious one for Italy, with investments worth 8 billion in the next two years, an increase in car production which could rise to one million, with the launch of 17 new products and the upgrade of 13 existing models. The plan also brought confirmation of the most negative news: Termini Imerese will cease production in December 2011 because the competitive disadvantages and structural difficulties mean the factory continues to make a loss. At the Pomigliano factory, where the new Panda could be produced, the change in production will not be painless: the factory in Campania requires considerable resources and will bring further inactivity for workers. Today the workers at the two factories are on strike. Termini Imerese must not close said national secretary of the Ugl mechanics union Giovanni Centrella. This is the only economic source for the whole territory and a stop in production is unthinkable.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


France: South Stream: EDF Towards Payment in Electricity

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 23 — The French energy company EDF could “pay in electricity” for its stake in the South Stream company, charged with the construction of the underwater tract of the gas pipeline of the same name and today held in an equal term joint venture with Gazprom and ENI, as well as “for the gas that will be supplied through the new conduits”, maintains the French economic newspaper Les Echos, quoting sources close to the dossier. The mechanism, the same source explained, would bring notable advantages to the French group, which on the basis of the agreement signed at the end of November should acquire between 10 and 20% of South Stream, with an investment superior to 2.5 billion euros. By paying through what it produces and not in capital, it would avoid making its high debt at the moment even worse. Gazprom, on the other hand, from a similar system would obtain access to the French electricity market: with energy purchased from EDF it could serve new clients in France, obtain drawing rights or even purchase stakes in nuclear power plants. The possibility has not been affirmed by the company, but coherent with the diversification strategy that has characterised its activities in recent months, with the acquisition of 4 Russian electricity companies and the coal producer Siberian Energy and Coal Company. It remains to be understood, the source went on to specify, in which measure the Russian giant will seek to profit from this payment mechanism. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Italy: Baroque Spectacular in Naples

Sweeping initiative encompasses 13 exhibitions

(ANSA) — Naples, December 23 — Naples is celebrating the Baroque movement with a sweeping initiative encompassing 13 exhibitions and hundreds of artistic and decorative masterpieces. Six of the southern city’s museums are each hosting shows spanning a period of 150 years in total, starting with Caravaggio’s arrival in Naples in 1606.

Over 350 items are on display in the exhibitions, many of which recently restored or rarely shown pieces. In addition to artwork, including paintings, drawings and sculpture, the initiative features jewellery, fabrics, furniture, ceramics and porcelain.

The centrepiece of the event is an exhibition at Naples’ prestigious Capodimonte Museum, showcasing a selection of paintings by some of the most famous Baroque names, including Caravaggio, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.

Covering the period 1606 to 1750, it includes works by artists operating in all the main strands of Baroque: Caravaggio-inspired naturalism, classical and Rococo.

The Capodimonte will also host a side event devoted entirely to drawings by famous Neapolitan painters of the era, with rarely shown pieces on loan from public and private collections, held both in Italy and abroad.

Castel Sant’Elmo is showing two exhibitions. The first of these features 17th-century paintings, sculptures and furniture from local churches and museums restored over the last decade but which, for various reasons, have not gone on show before. The second event spotlights images by contemporary photographer Luciano Pedicini, who has documented the Baroque aspects of Neapolitan architecture, from hidden decorative detail to the showily grandiose. The Certosa di San Martino complex is itself an architectural temple to Baroque, which is explored in the first of three initiatives on show there.

The second event is a series of paintings by Italian and international artists detailing the city’s Baroque style, with work by Gaspar van Wittel, Didier Barra and Antonio Joli among others. A selection of sculptures by Francesco Celebrano and Giuseppe Sanmartino, on loan from churches around Naples, make up the third event The Duca di Martina National Ceramics Museum focuses on the decorative aspects of Baroque and their interplay, displaying painting, sculpture, applied art, furniture, porcelain and silverwork. The Pignatelli Museum spotlights Baroque’s persistent links to still life, from its roots in naturalism, through its development into a full-blown exuberant movement, and then during its later transition towards neo-naturalism and rococo.

Luca Forte and Jacopo Nani are among the artists on show here. Palazzo Reale plays host to three exhibitions. The first comprises an array of maps, drawings and photography charting the development of the city, and examples of Baroque architecture over the centuries. The second carries visitors through rooms that were once royal apartments, with furniture, frescoes and wall hangings created by the greatest names of their day. The third event is a spectacular 210-figure nativity scene created in the 1700s by leading sculptors, while a selection of paintings from the same time recount the nativity story.

The initiative, Ritorno al Barocco (Return to Baroque) runs until April 11. For more information visit www.ritornoalbarocco.com. photo: Luca Giordano, The Rape of Europa.

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Spain: Anchovy Fishing Resumes in Bay of Biscay

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 16 — Anchovies will be back on Spanish and French markets after the four-and-a-half-year ban on fishing in the Bay of Biscay, which had been decided by the EU to reconstitute the resources of the species that was considered an endangered species. The Spanish fleet will be able to catch 5,400 tonnes of the total quota of 7,000 tonnes annually set in the agreement approved yesterday unanimously by EU Fisheries Ministries, stated the Minister for the Rural and Marine Environment, Elena Spinosa, to the press. Anchovy fishing will resume on January 1 2010, but fishermen will not be able to begin their activities until March 1, as was decided yesterday by France and Spain, the two countries affected by the measure. The 7,000-tonne quoted will be reviewed in the spring after the examination of scientific reports on the fish. The French-Spanish agreement, which allowed the European Commission to put an end to the ban, has established a division in the share of Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in the Bay of Biscay of 80% for Spain and 20% for France, plus a 200-tonnes compensation for French fishermen, compared with the previous division of 90% and 10%, respectively. In any case, it is a provisional quota — as Espinosa underlined — given that the definitive one will be established after the coming spring in the last council meeting of EU fisheries ministries under the Spanish presidency in June 2010. In outlining the agreement, the European Commissioner for Fisheries, Joe Borg, was quoted by the media as having warned that anchovy fishing will be closely monitored to prevent excessive exploitation and to achieve a reconstitution of the endangered species by 2015. More in general, the agreement finalised by the EU-27 provides for a 7% increase in the cod fishing in the north, in the Gran Sol region west of Scotland, Ireland and France, for which the European Commission had proposed a 10% reduction, while the status quo for fishing of the same species in southern European waters has remained unchanged. In the Gran Sol region, according to minister Espinosa, the quota of anglers has been increased by 10% and that of sole and bass has been upped by 5%. The quota of anchovies in the Gulf of Cadiz will remain at the same level as that seen in 2009. The initial proposal to reduce the fishing of squill by 30%, anglers by 25% bass and horse mackerel was in the end reduced to 10% for the first, 15% for anglers and 5% for the other species, according to the Spanish minister. Espinosa noted that the reopening of cod fishing in North Atlantic waters was positive, after 10 years in which it had been halted and after a great deal of effort to restore previous levels of the resource. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


UK: ‘There Are Many More Like Me’: Jet Bomber’s Chilling Warning as MI5 Hunt Terror Cell Behind Failed Attack

The would-be bomber accused of trying to blow up a flight to the U.S. on Christmas Day has declared there are ‘many more like me’ who are ready to strike.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with the attempting bombing of the Amsterdam-Detroit flight, warned FBI agents there are other terrorists waiting in Yemen, according to ABC News in the U.S.

His claims bolster fears of a link to a wider terrorist cell operating out of the Arabian country.

U.S. officials, who today released the first picture of Abdulmutallab since his arrest, say he told them he was trained on how to detonate explosives by Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


UK: Bomb Plotter: ‘More Like Me’

The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

[…]

The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London.


They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike

[…]

The 25 suspects, of Pakistani and Somali descent, were radicalised in UK mosques.

Some had been to university and studied engineering or computer sciences.

Others were former street gang members…

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


UK: Escaped Criminal Taunts Police on Facebook as He Enjoys Christmas on the Run

An escaped prisoner has celebrated his first Christmas on the run by taunting police with photos of himself on Facebook.

On Christmas Day, Craig ‘Lazie’ Lynch, 28, even posted a photo of himself adorned in tinsel, making a rude gesture and holding a turkey.

Lynch has been on the run from Suffolk’s Hollesley Bay Prison since September but rather than hide from police he has regularly updated them on his movements via the social networking service.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


UK: To Our Eternal Shame, Britain is Still a Hub for Islamic Terror

Who can be surprised? After all, this is ‘ Londonistan’ — the contemptuous term coined by the French security service back in the Nineties as they watched Britain become the central hub of Islamic terrorism in Europe.

Radicals flocked to the UK, attracted by Britain’s toxic combination of criminally lax immigration controls, generous health, education and welfare benefits and the ability to perpetuate their views through the British veneration of the principle of free speech.

Despite 9/11, the 2005 London Tube and bus attacks and the dozens of other Islamist plots uncovered in Britain, the astounding fact is that Islamic extremist networks are still allowed to flourish in Britain, largely through the obsession of its governing class with multiculturalism and ‘human rights’.

As a result, Britain remains — to its eternal shame — the biggest hub of Islamic radicalisation outside the Arab and Muslim world.

Extremists are still slipping into the country. The courts are still refusing to deport terrorists in order to protect their ‘human rights’ abroad.


[…]

Not only is no action taken against extremist mosques and madrassas, but many British universities have been turned into terrorism recruitment centres.

More than four years ago, the intelligence expert Professor Anthony Glees listed 24 British universities which he said had been infiltrated by militant jihadists.

[…]

The root cause of this madness is that British ministers and officials refuse to accept that what they are facing is religious fanaticism.

They insist that Islamic extremism and terrorism have got nothing to do with Islam but are rather a ‘perversion’ of Islam. And they believe that the antidote to this is ‘authentic’ Islam — which they then use taxpayers’ money to promote.

But what they fail to grasp is that ‘authentic’ Islam is currently dominated by a deeply politicised interpretation which promotes holy war to conquer ‘infidels’ and insufficiently pious Muslims.

And although many such Muslims abhor this and have nothing to do with violence or extremism, it is an interpretation backed up by Islamic theology and history and currently supported by the major religious authorities in the Islamic world.

That is what the government often ends up inadvertently funding — with catastrophic results. For when exposed to this, even many hitherto secular Muslims become radicalised.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]

Balkans

Croatia: The Presidential Candidates

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, DEC 28 — Ivo Josipovic, who won 32.44 pct of the votes in the first round of presidential elections in Croatia, represents the moderate left, the middle class, young people and the country’s most developed urban areas. He managed to win a third of the total votes tank to his reputation as a calm man devoted to safeguarding legality and fighting corruption. Josipovic is a professor of International law at Zagreb’s University and a classical music composer. He has served as a lower house deputy of the Social democrats (Sdp) for a number of terms. According to polls, he is likely to win also the decisive second ballot scheduled for January 10. His opponent, Milan Bandic, is well-known for his determination to promote economic prosperity both in Zagreb (the city where he has served as mayor for years) and the whole country which is soon to gain full membership of the EU. Thanks to a populist door-to-door campaign, especially in the poorest areas, he managed to overcome ideological differences and collect votes from both sides of the electorate. He is considered as the centre-right alternative to Josipovic, although, as late as two months ago, he was one of the most prominent members of the Sdp from which he was expelled following arguments with the party’s leadership. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Croatia: Official Data Confirm Run-Off in Presidential Vote

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, DEC 28 — The centre-left candidate in Croatia’s presidential elections, Social democrat Ivo Josipovic, has won 32.44 pct of the votes yesterday, but will have to face his former party colleague, Zagreb’s mayor Milan Bandic (who claimed 14.84 pct of the votes) in a run-off. That was clear after last night’s exit polls and was confirmed by the official data provided by the electoral commission after almost all votes have been counted. The turnout reached 44.07 pct. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]

North Africa

Archaeology: Tunisia, Former Foreign Minister’s Son Arrested

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 28 — As part of an inquiry into the international trafficking of Tunisian archaeological finds, the son of a former foreign minister has been arrested, though his name has not yet been released. The National Guard inquiry has led to the arrest of 25 people, some of whom are Italians with criminal records. Money laundering is another of the charges, in addition to that of trafficking in archaeological finds. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


French Protestors Camp Out in Front of Cairo Embassy

French protesters camped out in front of the their embassy in Cairo to protest a ban on them from travelling from Egypt to Gaza for a march in support of the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

About 300 protesters set up tents and blocked a road in front of the mission after buses they had rented to take them to El-Arish, a town close to the border with Gaza, never came.

They said they were told by the bus company that security authorities had banned the trip.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Golf: 5 New Courses in Tunisia

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 28 — Five new golf courses will be build as part of the national strategy to promote tourism in Tunisia. Golf is an important sector for the country, especially from the economic standpoint, and contributes to the diversification of the tourist sector for the entire year. The golf courses will be in a Raoued (Tunisi), Hergla (Sousse), Zarzis and Djerba, and will be in addition to the ten existing ones. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Joint OIC-Arab League Committee Develops a Plan to Correct the Image of Arabs and Muslims in America

The first meeting of the Joint High-level Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the League of Arab States (LAS) convened over 23rd and 24th December 2009 at LAS headquarters in Cairo, to discuss the best ways and means to correct the stereotyped image of Arabs and Muslims. The meeting, which brought together Arab and Islamic institutions, discussed OIC reports on Islamophobia as well as documents prepared by LAS General Secretariat and by other institutions on the cultural and media activities that have been conducted or could be implemented in the future to respond to the media spin campaigns targeting Islam and Islamic civilization.

The work program of the meeting included examination of documents on the ways and means likely to help correct the stereotypical image of Arabs and Muslims in the West, particularly in the US. The documents included notably a concept paper that laid forth the motives and background of existing stereotypes and a roaster of proposals for across-the-board action.

Participants in the meeting agreed on a principles paper on the key themes and components of the action plan to be undertaken in the US in terms of implementing an Arabo-Islamic cultural and media program in a bid to correct the image of Arabs and Muslims. The Joint Committee will meet in the near future at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to carry through its work.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Chutzpah! U.S. Demands Israel Explain Terrorists’ Deaths

Suspects were heavily armed, murdered Jewish civilian two days before

JERUSALEM — The Obama administration yesterday demanded the Israeli government explain why its military eliminated three terrorists in an operation this weekend.

“This is sheer chutzpah and is an unprecedented and strange request,” said an Israeli security official familiar with the U.S. request.

Over the weekend, three terrorist suspects, all members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization, were killed in an Israeli raid intended to arrest the suspects upon information they killed an Israeli civilian last Thursday. The three Fatah terrorists were heavily armed and refused to surrender to the Israeli soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

[…]

All three terrorists were members of the U.S.-trained and funded Fatah security forces.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]


Lieberman: No Peace Deal in Next 10 to 20 Years

Even as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is trying to lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday that he does not see any chance for a comprehensive agreement in the next 10 to 20 years.

“We think that if we make more concessions everything will work out,” he said at a speech to the country’s 140 ambassadors and consul-generals who are participating in a conference this week in Jerusalem.. “Even if we return the last grain of sand, and divide Jerusalem, and agree to all the demands, nothing will change and we will be in the same situation.”

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


‘Uprising’ Planned to Target West Bank Jews

Violent campaign comes amid U.S. pressure for Israel to evacuate territory

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority has decided to support and encourage a “low-level” popular uprising in the strategic West Bank, according to Palestinian and Jordanian intelligence sources.

The decision comes at a time of increased international pressure, including from the Obama administration, for Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at an eventual Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank. The determination also comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been enforcing a 10-month freeze on Jewish West Bank construction in line with U.S. demands.

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]

Middle East

Al-Qaeda Warned of Imminent Bomb Attack

An al-Qaeda terrorist in Yemen warned the United States “we are carrying a bomb” in a video posted online four days before the attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit.

“We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God,” the speaker said. “O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America.

“You should not defend these regimes. The soldiers and even Obama cannot put out the light of Islam.”

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Chevrolet Increases Turkish Market Share by 82%

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 24 — Chevrolet increased its market share by 82% in Turkey, as Anatolia news agency reports. Chevrolet announced Thursday that it was among Turkey’s fastest growing automakers, dedicated to the goal of becoming the most dynamic auto brand in Turkey. The company said it was the best selling auto brand in Turkey with an annual sales exceeding 10,000 vehicles. It said it’s ‘Cruze’ model reached a sales number of 4,000 in only seven months, and Chevrolet “Captiva” was the best selling 4WD SUV in the Turkish market with 1,700 vehicles sold in 2009. The company said it was getting ready to put new “Spark” — its latest model — on the market by February 2010. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Gaza Aid Stuck in Jordan Amid Turkish Mediation

An aid convoy trying to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip through Egypt was still stranded in Jordan on Sunday amid Cairo’s refusal to let it cross through its territory.

Members of the convoy, which is led by British MP George Galloway, were however hoping for a solution thanks to mediation by Turkey to enter Gaza through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba, the most direct route.

“We are still stuck in Aqaba, awaiting a solution to this problem, which was unfortunately created by Egypt,” Zaher Birawi, spokesmen for the convoy, told AFP.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Lebanon: Chamber Speaker Fini Visits UNIFIL Mission

(ANSAmed) — SHAMA (LEBANON), DECEMBER 28 — Italy’s Chamber of Deputies speaker Gianfranco Fini has arrived in Shama on a visit to the Italian contingent of the UNIFIL mission in the strip of land separating Lebanon from Israel. Fini will be having lunch with 500 of the 2,200 Italians taking part in the UNIFIL task force. The latter counts 12,000 men from three nations sent by the United Nations to the border between Lebanon and Israel after the conflict which broke out in July 2006 to keep the territory free of conflict and weapons, guarding it alongside Lebanese armed forces. The Chamber of Deputies speaker, after the welcoming ceremony, will meet with the commander of the Italian base, Luigi Francaville, and General Claudio Graziano, who for the past three years has been at the head of the UNIFIL mission and who will soon — at the end of January — be handing over the command of the general operations to Spanish general Alberto Asarta Cuevas. Accompanying the Chamber speaker, in the very days in which UN forces have seized 250 kilos of explosives in southern Lebanon, is General Tommaso Ferro, commander of the inter-forces operating command, and representatives from the Defence Committee, Federica Mogherini of the PD and Gianfranco Paglia of the PDL, as well as the international affairs advisor to Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, Alessandro Ruben.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


Stop Building Steel Wall, Nasrallah Tells Egypt

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has called on the Egyptian government to halt the construction of a huge steel wall along its border with the besieged Gaza Strip meant to cut supply tunnels.

“In addition to the siege, there has been news about [building] a steel wall … to terminate the thin veins which are giving some life and some hope to Gaza,” Nasrallah said in an address to thousands of people in Beirut on Sunday as part of ceremonies for Ashura, which is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hussein (PBUH).

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Swedish Ambassador on Iranian Protests

The Swedish Ambassador to Teheran, Magnus Wernstedt, has told Swedish Radio news that he was a witness to new, violent clashes near the university between anti-regime demonstrators and Iranian police using clubs and tear gas. He estimates that the demonstrators totalled 10,000, adds that he is not surprised over reports that four people have been shot to death, and that he fears that the violence will continue.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]


Turkey Seeks Return of Santa Claus’ Bones

A Turkish archaeologist has called on his government to demand that Italy return the bones of St Nicholas to their original resting place.

The 3rd Century saint — on whom Santa Claus was modelled — was buried in the modern-day town of Demre in Turkey.

But in the Middle Ages his bones were taken by Italian sailors and re-interred in the port of Bari.

The Turkish government said it was considering making a request to Rome for the return of the saint’s remains.

While Christmas is by and large not celebrated in Muslim Turkey, the Christmas figure of Santa Claus certainly is in the Mediterranean town of his birth.

He was born in what was then the Greek city of Myra in the third century, and went on to become the local bishop, with a reputation for performing miracles and secretly giving gold to the needy — on one occasion being forced to climb down a chimney to leave his donation.

After his death he was canonised as Saint Nicholas, and venerated in much of the Christian world. But when Myra was occupied by Arab forces in the 11th Century, Italian sailors came and took the saint’s bones to the port of Bari, where they remain interred to this day.

Prof Nevzat Cevik, head of archaeological research in Demre, says Saint Nicholas had made it clear during his life that he wanted to be buried in his home town.

Even without the bones, the town of Demre has not been shy about cashing in on its most famous native son — today visitors to the Byzantine church there are greeted by a large, plastic Santa statue, complete with beard and red snow-suit.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]


U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, A Qaeda Bastion

WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.

[…]

The country has long been a refuge for jihadists, in part because Yemen’s government welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The Yemen port of Aden was the site of the audacious bombing of the American destroyer Cole in October 2000 by Qaeda militants, which killed 17 sailors.

But Qaeda militants have made much more focused efforts to build a base in Yemen in recent years, drawing recruits from throughout the region and mounting attacks more frequently on foreign embassies and other targets. The White House is seeking to nurture enduring ties with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and prod him to combat the local Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, even as his impoverished country grapples with seemingly intractable internal turmoil.

With fears also growing of a resurgent Islamist extremism in nearby Somalia and East Africa, administration officials and American lawmakers said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where the organization’s top leaders operate.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]

Far East

Vietnam Sentences Democracy Activist to Prison

A Vietnamese court has sentenced pro-democracy activist Tran Anh Kim to five-and-a-half years in prison for subversion against the communist state.

The former army officer was a member of the Democratic Party of Vietnam and the pro-democracy Bloc 8406, both of which are banned.

He was accused of publishing pro-democracy articles on the internet.

Four other activists are to be tried on similar charges in the latest round of dissident trials in Vietnam.

A number of other democracy activists have already been jailed this year in what some analysts say is a crackdown ahead of the next Communist Party Congress scheduled for early 2011.

‘Serious violation’

The 60-year-old Kim was arrested in July on charges of conducting propaganda against the state.

He was later indicted with the more serious crime of “conducting activities to overthrow the people’s administration” — charges that carry a maximum penalty of death.

“I joined the Democratic Party of Vietnam and Bloc 8406 to fight for democratic freedom and human rights for the Vietnamese nation through peaceful dialogue and non-violent means,” he said.

Journalists were allowed to cover the four-hour trial at the court house in the northern town of Thai Binh.

Judge Tran Van Loan said Kim’s activities had amounted to a “serious violation of national security”. He said he had worked with “reactionary Vietnamese and hostile forces in exile”.

The trial of four other pro-democracy activists — Le Cong Dinh, Nguyen Tien Trung, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Le Thang Long — on similar charges is to begin in Ho Chi Minh City on 20 January.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Abdulmutallab’s Bomb Plans Began With Classroom Defence of 9/11

The son of one of Africa’s richest families was called “Imam” by fellow students as he descended into fanaticism

The rich kid with a brilliant school record was a ticking time bomb even before he turned up as an international student living in his father’s mansion block apartment in Britain.

Classmates remember Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as such a pious youth that he was nicknamed “the Pope”.

Suicide bombers typically take half a dozen years to descend from religious fanaticism to “martyrdom”, which appears to be the case for this young Nigerian, a security expert said.

[…]

Their son was sent to the British International School at Lomé, in Togo, where he is remembered for his religious fervour. During Ramadan he declined to join fellow pupils going to a disco, telling them that it would be un-Islamic. He defended 9/11 as an act of war, saying that it might have been necessary because there were American troops on Saudi soil.

“He did have this saintly aura,” said Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught Mr Abdulmutallab history. Mr Rimmer added that sometimes he expressed religious opinions that were “a bit over the top”.

“In 2001 we had a number of class discussions about the Taleban. All the other Muslim kids thought they were a bunch of nutters, but Umar spoke in their defence.”

[…]

The rift with his family worsened because of his “extreme views about religion”, according to a brother quoted by the Nigerian newspaper This Day. He told his family that he wanted to go to an Arab country to learn Arabic.

For a while he was in Egypt, but his family encouraged him to take a postgraduate degree in business studies in Dubai. They hoped that the cosmopolitan atmosphere would prevent him from becoming even more extreme.

However, he abandoned the United Arab Emirates, saying that he had found an alternative course in Yemen that would take seven years to complete. When his mother asked him to reconsider, he told her to stay away because he had found a new life and was breaking all family ties.

“We know Farouk’s extreme views and were always apprehensive of where it may lead him to,” the unidentified brother said. “He has maintained his distance from us and we never bothered him much. He always wanted to be left alone, so we respect his wishes.” The brother said that the bomb suspect was “quiet, nice and gentle” and “morally upright”.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]


Mauritania: Al Qaeda May be Behind Kidnapping of Italians

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, Dec. 28 — Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the Italian couple in Mauritania in an audio message dated December 27 and broadcast today by satellite TV channel al Arabya. In the message, Slah Abu Mohammed, who says to be responsible for the media of the Qaeda group for Maghreb, explained that the kidnapping is a response to the “crimes committed by the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq”. The website of Al Arabyia also shows a photograph of the spouses taken in a desert area: behind them are with five men with covered faces and armed with machine guns. The face of Sergio Cicala (64-year-old from Sicily) is visible, while his wife Philomene Kabore’s is blurred. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]


UN: Ugandan Rebel Attacks May Have Been War Crimes

GENEVA — The U.N. on Monday accused the Ugandan-based Lord’s Resistance Army of killing, mutilating and raping villagers in Sudan and Congo in what may have been crimes against humanity.

The rebels killed at least 1,200 people and abducted 1,400, including children and women, in northeastern Congo from September 2008 to June 2009, said a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A separate report by the U.N.’s rights office said that, in at least 27 attacks on villages in southern Sudan, the Lord’s Resistance Army killed more than 80 civilians and kidnapped many others to use as child soldiers, sex slaves and spies.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]

Latin America

Brazil: More Halal Beef for Arab Countries

Arab countries in North Africa, such as Egypt, Libya and Algeria, should contribute to the recovery of Brazilian beef exports in 2010, said the president of the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec), Roberto Giannetti da Fonseca, in an interview to ANBA, after a press conference at the organization’s headquarters.

Fonseca explains that exports to Egypt, one of the five leading buyers of Brazilian beef, have decreased due to the crisis this year, but started to recover in the second half. “I believe that in 2010 we are going to export a similar or even slightly higher volume than in 2008, before the crisis,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Esther[Return to headlines]

Immigration

Swedes Positive About Immigration: Poll

A majority of the Swedish population is positive about immigration, according to a new Sifo opinion poll. Members of the Left Party were the most positive, while Sweden Democrats were the most negative.

Fifty-six percent responded in the affirmative to the question of whether or not immigration has been for the most part positive for Sweden. Around 30 percent answered that immigration was negative and 14 percent were doubtful or didn’t know.

With 76 percent its members responding that immigration had been good for the country, the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) was by far the most positive towards immigration.

The Sweden Democrat Party (Sverigedemokraterna) was the most pessimistic, with 93 percent answering that immigration had been negative for Sweden.

There was little variation between the other parties and small differences between the left and right.

The study, involving 1,000 randomly selected respondents, was commissioned by Riksdag & Departement magazine.

           — Hat tip: TB[Return to headlines]


Video: Latin America See Influx of African Immigrants

An increasing number of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls.

Many head to Mexico and Guatemala as a stepping stone to the United States, others land in the ports of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

Candace Piette reports from Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Spain: Law on Abortion Gains Large Majority in Congress

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 17 — The reform of the abortion law was approved today in Spains Congress with positive votes cast by Psoe, Pnv, Erc, Bng, Ium Icv and Na-Bai, and negative votes cast by PP, parts of Upn and by UpyD. The framework law on reproductive and sexual health and on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy gained 184 votes for, 158 against, and two abstentions. The law will not be examined by the Senate. The approved text includes the amendments proposed by Pnv to the article which allows girls under the ages of 16 and 17 to abort without parental permission. It is expected that in the final draft they will have to inform their parents or legal guardians, except in cases when there is reason to believe that the decision will lead to violence or that the minor will be abandoned by the family. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria[Return to headlines]

General

“Avatar”: The Suicide Fantasy

As quoted by Steyn, George Monbiot snarls, “Goodbye Africa, goodbye south Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest. It was nice knowing you. Not that we really cared.” Meanwhile, Polly Toynbee shrieks, “What would it take? A tidal wave destroying New York maybe — New Orleans was the wrong people — with London, St. Petersburg, and Shanghai wiped out all at once.”

Avatar is the CGI-enhanced, $400 million version of the dark dreams peddled by Monbiot and Toynbee. It’s a suicide fantasy, the Hollywood blockbuster equivalent of a troubled teenager’s notebook sketches, scribbled by someone who hates himself only marginally less than he hates the rest of the world. To elaborate further, I must include some mild spoilers from the movie’s plot — although, really, if you’re more than twelve years old, you already know exactly what happens in this film. The only element of mystery awaiting you is finding out who kills the bad guy. I promise not to ruin that.

Science fiction and fantasy provide a storyteller with the fantastic power of an infinite blank canvas, upon which any setting can be created, to sustain any sort of plot. In Avatar, James Cameron has created a world that justifies the smug arrogance and bitter alienation of the radical environmentalist.

[…]

No ambitions, no failures, no questions, no achievement, no future. These giant blue aliens leave absolutely no carbon footprint.

[…]

During the big battle scene, as dinosaurs were chowing down on soldiers, the middle-aged couple seated next to me were grinning happily… delighted by the defeat and destruction of their own miserable species. The dialogue in Avatar makes it clear that humanity’s future depended on the success of the Pandora mission. “We sent the aliens back to their dying world,” intones the hero, narrating scenes of the defeated humans as they’re perp-walked off the planet, just the way environmentalist radicals have dreamed of handling the executives of Exxon-Mobil. Earlier, the hero tells Pandora’s nature spirit about the evil of his fellow man: “They killed their mother, and they’ll kill you.” Good thing for the universe we’re doomed!

           — Hat tip: JD[Return to headlines]

2 comments:

Ron Russell said...

The sad truth of this seemingly minor event is that if you or idea did the same thing as Mohamed Ibrahim we would be in much more trouble and the bail certainly would be more than $100. I think there just may be some PC at work here.

In Hoc Signo Vinces† said...

@UK: To Our Eternal Shame, Britain is Still a Hub for Islamic Terror

"Radicals flocked to the UK, attracted by Britain’s toxic combination of criminally lax immigration controls, generous health, education and welfare benefits and the ability to perpetuate their views through the British veneration of the principle of free speech." - Melanie Phillips.


Have always enjoyed Melanie's words but here Melanie turns the anti-jihad argument upside down and in doing so propagates inverted jihad, all this from someone who should know better.

The quoted statement is politically subtle but dangerous, it shifts criminality away from those politicians responsible for mass-immigration while cloaking the real political agenda that motivated those crimes.

The trap Melanie has fallen into is straight out of the neoliberal logic manual, it is like ordering the demolishing of a shop and prosecuting the shopkeeper for displaying his goods and enticing shoplifters to commit an uncrime, but in this case the demolishing of the shop represents British institutions, the prosecution of the shopkeeper is the subversion of the democracy and the shoplifters equates to mass-immigration.

The British institutions Melanie falsely and subtly points the finger of criminality at are the very same institutions that neoliberals and islamists have the desire to destroy.

Melanie knows full well that the those institutions are not the cause of jihad or neoliberial mass-immigration. The institutions were democratically constituted and in operation LONG BEFORE both jihad and mass-immigration swamped Briton.

Melanie Phillips criminal charge that those British institutions are guilty because they exist and are abused is neoliberalism it also denies and conceals from the British public the biggest politically motivated conspiracy in their history.

The real crime is that those institutions where requisitioned and defrauded out of billions of pounds - to finance a neoliberal policy of mass-immigration and jihad without the mandate or consent of the British people.

YES! there is a debate to be had, but to spin that debate with the islamic threat and skew the platform with the weight of a beyond the powers mass-immigration policy will only be viewed by the British public with contempt and serve to alienate, demoralize and embitter a very large section of the indigenous British population.

In the meantime those institutions could be put on a emergency footing to deny beyond the powers immigrants access and succor until the air is clear for a honest and genuine debate.

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