Afternoon Posting.
- Britain declares end to 'war on Christmas'.The Communities and Local Government minister declared the "war on Christmas" over Saturday, urging local authorities to stop avoiding the festival's Christian basis."We should actively celebrate the Christian basis of Christmas, and not allow politically correct Grinches to marginalise Christianity and the importance of the birth of Christ," Eric Pickles said in a reference to the Christmas-hating character from a children's book."The war on Christmas is over, and the likes of Winterval, Winter Lights and Luminous deserve to be in the dustbin of history," he added.Despite the economic hard times in Britain, local councils should not be cutting down on Christmas festivities as it was in their own financial interest to encourage shoppers, he added."Shoppers want to see Christmas lights, Christmas trees, carol services and nativity scenes, and councils should not hesitate in supporting them."Hmmmm....now who would wage "war" on Christmas,now that they admit there's a "war" going on?Read the full story here.
- WikiLeaks: The revelations at a glance.America's diplomatic secrets have been laid bare in a flood of more than a quarter of a million classified cables.At a glance, here are some of the highlights:Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi being accompanied everywhere by a ‘voluptuous blonde’ Ukranian nurse.That's about the only one we didden't know by now.Read the rest here.
- HT:Big Goverment.Another Homeland Security Overreach: DHS Starts Seizing Websites.The sites were seized before the site’s owner heard any charges or had the chance to submit any counter evidence in court. The owners of the sites had their property seized without being allowed to defend themselves. I successfully avoided law school, so I don’t know the exact legal term, but this strikes me as an overstep in their enforcement authority.But, the article begs an even bigger question: What the hell do fake Guccis have to do with homeland security?In fact, the article notes that Congress hasn’t given this authority to the Attorney General:A controversial bill that would allow the Attorney General to shut down domains on similar grounds was recently derailed (temporarily) by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden.The Attorney General is the chief enforcer of federal law and, accordingly, is responsible for enforcing federal copyright protections. And, he doesn’t have the authority that Homeland Security is asserting for itself.Now, ask yourself this: What will the Agency be doing 10 years from now? Or, 20? In a little more than half a decade, DHS has morphed from protecting us from terrorists to protecting us from fake merchandise. Who is going to protect us from DHS?Read the full story here.Related :If they intend to implement everywhere these bodyscanners, then they will need extra
troops personnel is this provided by the Obama’s Civilian National Security Force?A.k.a. Obama Care.Are these the people ($chutz $taffels) who will operate these machines?Source.
- Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea.Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years ago, played a crucial role in the 2007 assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity. The missiles could for the first time give Iran the capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe or easily reach Moscow, and American officials warned that their advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.There has been scattered but persistent speculation on the topic since 2006, when fragmentary reports surfaced that North Korea might have sold Iran missiles based on a Russian design called the R-27, once used aboard Soviet submarines to carry nuclear warheads. In the unclassified world, many arms control experts concluded that isolated components made their way to Iran, but there has been little support for the idea that complete missiles, with their huge thrusters, had been secretly shipped.The cable added that Tehran could use the BM-25 technologies as “building blocks” for the production of long-range missiles. But it offered no information to back up that assessment.Hmmmm......Turkey....."Iran is no threat"yeah whatevah!Read the full story here.
- The Wikileaks.US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies.• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies• Hillary Clinton leads frantic 'damage limitation'.Among scores of other disclosures that are likely to cause uproar, the cables detail:• Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme • Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime.• Devastating criticism of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan.• Claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the British royal family.Read the full story here.
- The Wikileaks 2.Cables Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels.A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks intends to make the archive public on its Web site in batches, beginning Sunday.The anticipated disclosure of the cables is already sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could conceivably strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.Read the full story here.
- HT:Gawker.Wikileaks 3 .Wikileaks' Newest Leak Leaked on Twitter.Twitter has out-leaked the leakers. About 12 hours before Wikileaks latest enormous leak was scheduled to be released, a Twitter user bought a copy of a German news magazine outlining the leak after it was placed on newstands too early.According to tweets from German-speaking Twitter users who snagged an embargoed copy of this week's Der Spiegel (cover above), the cache of over 250,000 confidential diplomatic cables may be a bit of a let-down. At least from the German point of view there are no earth-shattering revelations, just a lot of candid talk about world leaders. Angela Merkel is praised as "teflon," though she "avoids risk and is rarely creative," and German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle is repeatedly bashed. There is talk of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's "wild parties," (duh) and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is likened to Hitler. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is called an "emperor with no clothes." The cables also show Obama has "no emotional relationship with Europe," focusing instead on Asian countries, according to Der Spiegel.It's the biggest leak since Kanye West's new album! But Wikileaks has bigger problems: They just tweeted "We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack." The attack has apparently brought Wikileaks.org down.Read the full story here.
- WikiLeaks: Arabs asked for Iran strike.Documents released to press after much hype say Netanyahu, Mubarak agreed that nuclear Iran would be as dangerous as Cuban missile crisis; leaders from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and UAE called Islamic Republic 'evil'.The secret documents leaked by the controversial Web entity also show that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said a nuclear Iran would lead to an arms race in the Middle East. Netanyahu, who was the source that informed the US of the proceedings, said Mubarak had agreed that a nuclear Iran would constitute the largest threat since the Cuban missile crisis. Saudi King Abdullah and other Arab leaders also toed the line with this view, according to the secret files, and asked the US to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.The leaders of Jordan and Bahrain called on the US to put a stop to the program, even if it means using military means, the files say. "Leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran as 'evil', an 'existential threat' and a power that 'is going to take us to war', the Guardian reported. Source.
- N. Korea deploys SA-2 surface-to-air missiles near Yellow Sea border.North Korea has deployed SA-2 surface-to-air missiles to its west coast near the Yellow Sea border with South Korea as U.S.-led naval drills got underway in a show of force against the North’s deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island earlier last week, government sources said Sunday. “(The missiles) appear to be targeting our fighter jets that fly near the Northern Limit Line (NLL),” the source said on customary condition of anonymity, referring to the Yellow Sea border.Read the full story here.
- HT:TundraTabloids.Viennese classroom showing signs of Turkish grey wolves.From the German language website for ESW’s Save Free Speech: A source who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, sent us the following class photo in the 2nd Viennese school District. At first glance, it is a picture of happy children. Those who look closer to discover, the greeting of the Grey Wolves.As enemies they have, especially Jews, Christians, Armenians, Greeks, Communists, Zionists, Freemasons, the Vatican, Kurds, Persians and the United States are mentioned. In the fight against racism in Vienna could start new red-green city government the same time with the public arising from Turkish racists who indoctrinate their children. A court trial for incitement and against Sabaditsch-Elisabeth Wolff will be there but not enough.Turkish Fascists out in the open the day the Mavi Marmara headed off to Gaza.Read and see the whole story here.
- HT:Memri.Video.Former Pakistani Lawmaker Javed Ibrahim Paracha: Osama Bin Laden Is Alive and Well and Often Rides to the Mosque on Horseback to Lead the Friday Prayers.Read and see the whole thing here.
- Psychiatrist warns of destructive impact of mass media on families.Despite being widely perceived as a defender of rights and freedoms, the media may turn into a means strong enough to spoil the structure of the family, cautioned Professor Aytekin Sır, a psychiatrist who attended a family conference in Antalya. Titled “Family as a Value in terms of Religion, Tradition and Modernity,” the international conference was held by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) on Nov. 26-27. Around 600 scholars from 50 countries around the globe attended the event.Sır underlined that it is not only TV series that pose a danger to traditional family values. What is probably more dangerous is the morning TV shows geared towards women.“A woman who appears on a live TV show may divulge even the most personal sides of her family. I believe such shows, geared towards women, should not be broadcast live. They should be broadcast only after they are screened by a supervisory body,” the professor noted. He also said a similar precaution should be taken against TV shows such as “Big Brother” and matchmaking programs.Another form of media activity that threatens the family structure, according to the professor, is reports on violence. He said earlier research showed that the more newspaper readers read or TV audiences watch about violence, the more violent they tend to be.There have long been calls for media outlets to avoid providing detailed coverage of cases of violence as detailed reports promote similar cases of violence and violate the personal rights of both victims and suspects. “We should also discuss how to present reports of suicide. Such reports should not be given in an encouraging manner or on the front pages of newspapers or magazines. They should find a place on the third page, but without any images or photos,” Sır stated.Hmmmm...Yeah that might work lets cover it up that 39 % of Turkish women complain of domestic violence.Read the full story here.
- Iranian Opposition Leader's Wife Decries Violence Against Women.Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi's wife has written an open letter to judiciary head Ali Larijani condemning political violence in the country, especially against women. In her letter, Rahnavard writes that Iran has become "a detention center" where the environment is that of a "police state."Kian noted that Rahnavard has been fighting for women's rights for the 20 years, especially when she was chancellor of the University of Alzahra.Kian says that along with the hard work of other Iranian women, Rahnavard is one of the main people promoting women's issues in Iran -- with the help of her husband -- during and after his 2009 presidential election campaign."She has criticized the past 30 years of the Iranian system [since the Islamic Revolution], which includes the period when her husband was prime minister," Kian says.Kian adds that Rahnavard has a large following. "She is influential not only among the higher-educated class of women [in Iran], but also among the traditional ones," she says.Read the full story here.
- Maid torturer in Saudi was born in Cairo: report.Widow remains in custody as maid is moved out of intensive care.A widow who has been arrested for severely torturing her Indonesian housemaid in Saudi Arabia was born in Cairo and has seven children, the Saudi Arabic language newspaper Okaz reported on Sunday.The paper also said the 23-year-old maid was moved out of the intensive care unit at King Fahd Hospital in the central town of Madina after undergoing a surgery on her badly damaged scalp.“The widow has undergone psychiatric tests and is still in confinement with no visitors allowed…Okaz has learned that the woman was born in Cairo and has one son and six daughters aged between 19 and 24 years,” the paper said, without making clear if the woman is Saudi or Egyptian.Read the full story here.
- HT:Memri.Ali Akbar Salehi: Iran Has Produced 35 Kilos of 20%-Enriched Uranium.Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran would turn to Russia to import radioactive materials for medicinal purposes, due to a shortage of these materials in the country.He added that Iran has produced 35 kilograms of 20%-enriched uranium, and would continue to produce three kilos of enriched uranium per month.Read the full story here.
- Saudi Women Sue Male Guardians Blocking Marriage.More Saudi Women Come Forward With Cases of Male Guardianship, Described by Rights Advocate as a "Form of Slavery". Year after year, the 42-year-old Saudi surgeon remains single, against her will. Her father keeps turning down marriage proposals, and her hefty salary keeps going directly to his bank account. The surgeon in the holy city of Medina knows her father, also her male guardian, is violating Islamic law by forcibly keeping her single, a practice known as "adhl." So she has sued him in court, with questionable success. Adhl cases reflect the many challenges facing single women in Saudi Arabia. But what has changed is that more women are now coming forward with their cases to the media and the law. Dozens of women have challenged their guardians in court over adhl, and one has even set up a Facebook group for victims of the practice. The backlash comes as Saudi Arabia has just secured a seat on the governing board of the new United Nations Women's Rights Council - a move many activists have decried because of the desert kingdom's poor record on treatment of women. Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar describes male guardianship as "a form of slavery.""A Saudi woman can't even buy a phone without the guardian's permission," said al-Hawaidar, who has been banned from writing or appearing on Saudi television networks because of her vocal support of women's rights. "This law deals with women as juveniles who can't be in charge of themselves at the same time it gives all powers to men."Giving Saudi Arabia a seat on the governing board of the new United Nations Women's Rights Council is saying Welcome to A.D. 620.Read the full story here.
- Video :Afghan Women Defy Taliban with Soccer.A group of courageous Afghan women continue to play soccer despite receiving death threats from the Taliban. As Mandy Clark reports, these fearless athletes continue to try and push the boundaries.Hmmm...women with "balls"? Read and see the full story here.
Morning Posting.
- Obama: I pray every night, read the Bible. He's at it again?Hmmmm....For a guy who prays to a Christian God he surely can't stop speaking about that great Islamic religion, how does that saying go's again" Out of the overflow of the mouth the heart speaks - a Christian perspective. What's in our hearts will always influence the way we act." Amen to that !Source.
- Canada - Montreal.The Dorval mosque has been targetted four times in the past year.This time the doors of Dorval Mosque were sprayed with graffiti that read "Koran 551," a reference to a controversial passage in the Koran. The Koranic verse says: (Quran 5:51-52)“O believers, do not take the Jews and the Christians as your friends and protectors, they are friends of each other. And whoever makes them a friend then he is from amongst them. Verily God does not guide the unjust people. And you will see that those (Muslims) in whose hearts is a disease run towards them saying ‘We fear that a calamity may befall us.’ So God will soon bring victory or a decision from Him, causing them regret on account of the thoughts they harbored in their hearts."They are trying to take us back 1500 years ago, these people. We do not agree with them. We have very peaceful relations with Jews and Christians," said Deger. ”But despite the graffiti, the mosque's religious leader is still willing to sit down with the vandal. Imam Shafaat says he would welcome the chance to discuss Islam. "It is an act of violence that you're doing. If there is some issue that you have, why not come forward and discuss it?"Hmmm...It's taking us back 1500 years,so does he mean it's obsolete?So why not remove the "old" no longer applicable texts Iman?Read the full story here.
- Putin says Russia might one day join the eurozone.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday he was confident in the euro despite Europe's debt crisis and said his country might even join the currency block itself one day.Putin also sharply criticized the dollar's dominance as a world reserve currency.Despite the problems in some heavily indebted eurozone countries, the euro has proven itself "a stable world currency," Putin said."We have to get away from the overwhelming dollar monopoly. It makes the world economy vulnerable," he told a gathering of business leaders in Berlin through a translator.The 16-nation common currency slipped below $1.32 in afternoon European trading due to worries the debt crisis could spread from Ireland to Portugal and Spain.Putin said he was confident the euro would outlast the challenges brought by the sovereign debt crisis, and he praised the efforts of the European Central Bank and the eurozone member states to preserve the currency.Asked about the possibility of Russia one day adopting the euro as a currency, Putin did not rule it out."The rapprochement of Russia and Europe is inevitable," he said.Merkel called that a "vision for the future," and stressed the need for close economic cooperation as a first step."But the closer our economies are linked, the easier and the more interesting it will be to adjust also the currency policy," Merkel said.In his call to reduce the dollar's dominance in the world economy, Putin noted an agreement Russia signed this week with China to use their respective currencies, the ruble and yuan, for bilateral trade in the future.Read the full story here.
- Turkish FM says he envisions one Israeli-Palestinian state under Ankara’s protection.(Read Turkish NATO troops ?).Israel will not be able to remain over time an independent country, and a bi-national state will be established on all of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in which Jews and Palestinians will live,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a number of meetings that he held with journalists and academics, including a number of Israeli academics. Davutoglu’s vision, which he revisited a number of times, is for Turkey to become a dominant force in the Middle East and further, that it will be the protector state of the above-cited bi-national state within a number of years.Davutoglu, a professor of international relations, is considered to be the principal ideologue of the AKP, the party that is headed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Hmmm....this is exactly the kind of plan that i've been warning for months ago,something Obama might impose in the end when no solution is found.Read the full story here.
- HT:AmericanThinker.The Unholy U.S./Muslim Alliance.The Islamic countries can do no wrong. They have all the oil and money. Israel can do no right. They are a pain in the globalist's butt.You need not wonder anymore why the U.S. embraces CAIR, invites Muslim immigration, integrates Muslims into the government, has sensitivity training for members of the FBI, and calls Islam a religion of peace, notwithstanding 9/11. Or why the U.S. permits the radicalization of most of the mosques in America by Saudi Arabia, its Muslim partner.The establishment in America embraces the U.N., the International Court of Justice, and other international bodies. Plans are underway to create a North American Common Market including Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. All of these things and many more international initiatives require the relinquishment of U.S. sovereignty. But that's okay. The establishment prefers globalization and the New World Order. Islam also denies sovereignty and democracy in favor of a world Caliphate ruled by Sharia Law. Thus, the globalists and Islam make good bedfellows. Just as the Roman Empire co-opted the Catholic Church to control the people, so the globalists employ Islam.Hmmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.
- HT:NewsRealBlog.Michelle Obama Tells Barbara Walters She Slept Through “Shellacking”.Michelle Obama told Barbara Walters that she didn’t lose any sleep on November 2. In a post-Thanksgiving interview airing Friday, the First Lady described the night of the Republican tsunami: The “shellacking” her husband received didn’t register on the worry-scale for Mrs. Obama, whom the President described as his “chief advisor.” The midterm election turned out to be a referendum on the last two years of Obama’s big government policies. But for Lady Mac-chelle the poor and misguided Americans who voted on November 2 didn’t understand what had been accomplished for their own good.Michelle advised Barack to “focus on what needs to get done” and not indulge those pitiful commoners who rejected his fundamental transformation plans. The first lady’s heedless loftiness has indeed reached Shakespearean proportions. She “gave this country healthcare” and “invested” in the Department of Education’s new program.Besides acting as an Obama infomercial, the Walters interview revealed who’s really running the show. With David Axelrod, and Rahm Emanuel going or already gone, the people will continue to witness their own leftist Lady Macbeth in action.Hmmm....."I can still take your foodstamps"?Read the full story here.
- HT:AmericanThinker.President Obama, It's Business, Not Personal.President Obama has no comprehension of the phrase: "not personal." To him, everything is about Obama, and his definition of "we" is "me, myself and I." Never having had much of a real job other than campaigning and community organizing, he also doesn't grasp the concept of "business." Obama seems oblivious of his job description (defined by the oath of office), he displays scant loyalty to his company (America), and appears unconcerned with the product it produces (freedom and liberty). Yes, fellow citizens (shareholders), Obama works for you. He was correct when he once offered, "You've got me," but now, several bills, regulations, lies, deals, executive orders and appointments later, we find he meant something much different than "I work for you." Obama's primary job, which he swore twice to do as he took office, is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. It is not to look and act like the Newsweek cover parody of the Hindu god, the destroyer Nataraja, juggling depictions of "all things" while dancing over a representation of ignorance. Instead of embracing our Constitution, Obama has danced around it. He has failed to defend it and our country from competitors -- enemies both within and without our borders. Instead of standing up to them for us, Obama has bowed and apologized.Obama appears alien, even adversarial at times, to the America he works for, and his heart seems to be someplace else.Read the full story here.
- North Korea threatens a 'sea of fire' as the South begins posturing war games with US.South Korean residents scrambled for cover today as North Korea threatened to launch a 'sea of fire' over military drills in the Yellow Sea with the US military.Residents were ordered into bomb shelters as the sound of artillery fire was heard just days after two of its soldiers were killed by North Korea shells.The tension between the two countries has escalated since North Korean artillery fire five days ago and the start of 'war games' in South Korea.But the rhetoric from North Korea escalated with new warnings of a 'merciless' assault if further provoked and a top Chinese official made a last-minute visit to Seoul to confer with South Korean president Lee Myung-bak.Fears of further conflict have grown since last week after South Korea's Marine commander Lieutenant General Yoo Nak Joon vowed 'thousand fold revenge' at the funeral for the two dead Marines.Washington and Seoul have urged China, North Korea's main ally and biggest benefactor, to step in to defuse the situation amid fears of all-out war.But a round or military drills and war games between the US and South Korea in the Yellow Sea will add to the tension in the area.Washington insists the drills involving the nuclear-powered USS George Washington supercarrier are routine and were planned well before Tuesday's attack.North Korea has expressed outrage over the Yellow Sea drills and issued a fresh warning today.'We will launch merciless counter-military strikes against any provocative moves that infringe upon our country's territorial waters,' the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.Read the full story here.
- HT:DirectorBlue.Photos: The Mass Executions in Gaza You Never Saw In Legacy Media.If you rely upon legacy media for the news, you'd think that Gaza was some kind of killing ground upon which innocent Palestinians are regularly targeted by Israelis. But in Gaza, as in most places around the Middle East, the most prolific murderers of Muslims are other Muslims.The following graphic screen-captures depict a mass execution of civilians in Gaza by members of the murderous gang of thugs known as Hamas.Hmmm....Send another "Freedom flotilla"to the biggest prison?Read the full story here.
- After Busting Lip, Obama Returns to the Hard Court -- as Spectator. It took 12 stitches to patch up that busted lip President Barack Obama got from a pickup basketball game -- and now he's back on the hard court, but this time as spectator.On Saturday the White House said Obama's injury required stitches to the left side of his lower lip. The day before, staffers said it was the president's upper lip that was sewn up. The White House offered no explanation for its error.Hmmmm....how many tribes of Israel where there?.....Oh yes 12, G_d works in mysterious ways?Read the full story here.
- HT:The Ahmadiyya Times.Pakistan: Blasphemy law is not God-given, it is man-made, says Taseer.LAHORE: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer has said that he went to meet Aasia Bibi for the sake of humanity only and the blasphemy law was man-made and not God-given, adding that his meeting with Aasia Bibi was being politicised, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.Talking during an interview with the channel, Taseer said no Muslim could even imagine blasphemy, adding that the issue important for him was reviewing the blasphemy law. “Even now, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, Nilofer Bakhtiar, Sherry Rehman and others have talked about bringing a change in this law,” he said, adding that he had conducted a complete investigation of the matter that the law was used against Aasia.He said he did not want to further comment on the issue, as it would be dealt in the high court. The governor said that the blasphemy itself, in his opinion, was an offence, but to misuse it by falsely accusing someone was a bigger offence. He rejected the opinion that he was doing political point scoring, saying that he was surely a liberal, but he could not understand the allegations of pro-Westernisation made against him.Read the full story here.
- HT:SavageInfidel.Israeli Doctors Help Sick in Maldives, Muslims Protest saying it is against Islam to have relations with Jews.The Islamic Foundation of the Maldives has called on the government to break off all diplomatic ties with Israel, a day after Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) announced that a team of seven Israeli doctors is due to arrive in the country to treat patients at the government hospital for a week.The Foundation requested the government terminate all ties with Israel saying ”we do not want any sort of assistance from Jews.”President of the Islamic Foundation Ibrahim Fauzy said that the organisation did not support accepting “any sort of assistance from Israel as long as they are in the lands of Palestine. We should fear that we might have to face the wrath of God.”Fauzy explained that the Islamic Foundation does not recognise Israel as a state as “they have stolen the lands of Palestine by power and force,” adding that “it also against our religion to have relationships with Jews.”In November last year, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed narrowly survived a no-confidence motion for his role in deciding to normalise relations with the Jewish state.In a press release yesterday, IGMH invited interested patients to register at their customer relations counter between November 28 and December 2 for appointments with the visiting Israeli doctors.Read the full story here.
- HT:TundraTabloids.Elisabeth Sabaditch - Wolff : we are being systematically silenced ,this is our time.Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, delivered the following speech at a conference today held in Copenhagen, sponsored by the International Free Press Society.Ladies and Gentlemen,I stand here before you in the city of Copenhagen in the year 2010. This is widely considered to be an enlightened country in the heart of an enlightened continent.Our basic freedoms have long been guaranteed — first by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as passed by the United Nations in 1948, and then buttressed by the Council of Europe in 1950 through the European Convention of Human Rights, which was later affirmed by the European Union. Our individual countries have additionally codified the same basic rights in their own constitutions.These rights include the freedom of individual conscience, the right to assemble peaceably, and the right to practice our religion freely, or to have no religion at all. And, perhaps most importantly of all, they include the right to voice our opinions freely and to publish them without hindrance.Yet freedom of speech is under attack today here in Denmark, as it is in my own country Austria, and indeed all across Europe. Today, in 21st century Western Europe, our right to free speech is being shut down quietly and systematically with an effectiveness that the commissars in the old Soviet Union could only dream of.A milestone in this ominous totalitarian trend will be reached tomorrow, 28 November 2010, when the member states of the European Union are required to implement an innocuous-sounding legal provision known as the “Framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia”, or, more fully, the “Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.” According to the final article of the Framework Decision, “Member States shall take the necessary measures to comply with the provisions of this Framework Decision by 28 November 2010.”These are the methods of a totalitarian state.They are more successful than those of the Nazis and the Fascists and the Communists because they are accomplished quietly and peacefully, with no need for concentration camps or gulags or mass graves or the shot in the back of the neck in the middle of the night.They are surgical strikes executed via our legal systems, and they are quite effective. Between the summary punishment carried out against Theo Van Gogh and the Framework Decision applied though our courts, there is no room left for us to maneuver.Hmmmm....now we will live like in the ex USSR laying fully dressed in bed ,suitcase packed,waiting for that inevitable knock on the door in the midst of the night?Read the full story here.
- HT:CreepingSharia.Texas: Lebanese-owned firm sent expired food to U.S. combat troops.A Texas businessman has agreed to pay $15 million to settle federal allegations that he and his company cheated the government by selling old and potentially dangerous food to the U.S. military to supply combat troops serving in Iraq and elsewhere.Prosecutors had alleged that Samir Mahmoud Itani and his company American Grocers Ltd. profited from the Middle East conflict by ripping off taxpayers and shortchanging U.S. soldiers in the mess hall. According to the government, Itani’s firm bought deeply discounted products whose freshness dates had expired or were nearing expiration. His workers then altered those dates and resold those supplies to the government for hefty markups, prosecutors alleged.Apparently it was the second time Samir Mahmoud Itani had duped the U.S. government – according to this FBI press release and indictment, unless they are one and the same. He was “charged in a 46-count indictment with conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims and with making false claims,” according to this DOJ press release.Hmmmm.....i wonder if he were Jewish what would have happened?Read the full story here.
- HT:BacktoBasics.Thankless in Obamaland.Meanwhile Turkey’s Islamist thug Erdogan “the minarets are our bayonets” is at it again, amping up the rhetoric and threatening war. This after the latest document releases suggest that Erdogan’s Turkey helped Al Qaeda. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock as Erdogan’s AKP party has Al Qaeda ties. Which shouldn’t be shocking either, as it’s funded by Saudi money.Erdogan’s “Support Hezbollah” visit to Lebanon was met with Armenian riots. In the past Erdogan had threatened to ethnically cleanse Armenians from Turkey. (hap tip Joshua Ivens)Erdogan is now making common cause with Islamic terrorists and he’s sabotaging Turkey’s ties to Israel and America, in order to fulfill his goal of integrating it with the Muslim world. In particularly those Middle Eastern countries which have funded his takeover of the media by his business partners and political allies. Ranting about standing up to Israel with “Allah’s Grace” shows how low Turkey has fallen from a formerly secular country that understood that the greatest threat to Turkish nationalism came from Islam.His trip to Lebanon was full of that kind of Caliphate prep work, for example“although we are talking different languages in this vast geography, we should not forget that we have one history, one culture and similar values. We have given a shape the history together. Be sure that we will give a shape to the future altogether.Erdogan said Turkey mutually removed visa requirements with Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Jordan. “We have not lost anything or met any problem. On the contrary, when we removed the visa requirements, we clearly saw that they were meaningless. We have not removed the visa requirements; we have removed a century old yearning among our people.”Whether Turks are actually yearning to import crime and unskilled labor from the Arab world is debatable, but that doesn’t really matter. What it means is that if Turkey joins the EU, Muslim terrorists and criminals from across the Arab world will have no trouble getting in.Erdogan then proposed an Islamic EU, a Schengen, to bridge the gap to the Caliphate.Hmmmm....Turkey an ally of NATO? Get Turkey out of NATO Now !Read the full story here.
- ‘Turkey does not regard Iran as a threat to the region’.“Turkey does not perceive Iran as a threat to Turkey or to NATO, so that is why Turkey made a great effort to not name Iran in this document (the NATO proposal for deployment of a missile defense system in Turkey),” Alagoz said in an interview with the Tehran Times on November 23 on the sidelines of the 20th international conference on the Persian Gulf in Bandar Abbas, in the southern province of Hormozgan.Q: As the last question, Iranian officials are concerned about the proposed NATO missile defense shield that is going to be deployed in Turkey. What is your view? A: I had the opportunity to listen to our president, Abdullah Gul, before I came to Iran, and he put great emphasis on the fact that Turkey does not perceive Iran as a threat to Turkey or to NATO, so that is why Turkey made a great effort to not name Iran in this document. But you should accept that Turkey is a NATO member… and has the right to conduct various activities with NATO. Maybe this missile system will raise some concerns for the Iranian side, but Iranians should keep in mind that Turkey has stood with Iran in many important platforms and Turkey has always confronted (Iran’s adversaries) during all these discussions.Hmmmmm...."Islamist together are thicker than NATO blood"?Read the full story here.
- KUHNER: Obama's police state.Now private parts are public province.President Obama is engaging in a relentless assault on our freedoms and constitutional government. The growing backlash against the newTransportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screening procedures signifies that Americans finally may have had enough.There is a grass-roots revolt against state-sanctioned sexual harassment. And who can blame the protesters? Children are stripped of their shirts, and their private parts are touched. Nuns and old ladies are groped by intrusive TSA agents. Breasts have been fondled. Men's crotches have been patted down. Full-body scanners show images of people naked - a clear violation of privacy and civil liberties.Islamic terrorism is not an open-ended, universal characteristic. Rather, it is a specific, narrowly defined phenomenon. It is fueled by Muslim extremists bent on waging a holy war against the West. Its perpetrators tend to be young adults from the Middle East, North Africa, the Arab world and the Muslim ghettos of Europe. Most jihadists fit this profile. What is needed is not more groping, crotch-grabbing or nude screening, but better intelligence-gathering, random checking and targeted profiling.Washington insists on perpetrating the illusion that a Christian grandmother in Iowa poses the same possible national security threat as a 19-year-old Yemenite exchange student majoring in Islamic studies. Hence, America is squandering precious resources and manpower, as well as abrogating basic civil liberties and humiliating its population, in order to appease the sensitivities of the Muslim lobby.The administration is not restricting its unprecedented power grab to airports. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently said that trains, boats and subways also may implement the same screening procedures. If the White House has its way, Americans will be getting felt up on the Metro and Amtrak every day - morning, afternoon and night.Hmmmm....that might need a separate Army to do that....ah yes that's also been taken care of in the Obama care.Read the full story here.
- French G20 agenda to push bigger yuan role.Weaning the global monetary system off its reliance on the dollar has eluded policy makers for decades, but the wind may now be blowing in France's favour as it seeks to build a consensus for change.Finding ways to diversify countries' international reserves away from the US currency is a key part of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to sketch out a blueprint for a more stable monetary system during France's year-long presidency of the Group of 20 nations, which began this month.In the wake of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, France, which has long argued dollar volatility damages European economies, is finding common cause with emerging powers such as China and Brazil."The time may have finally come because it's not just France thinking about this: the dollar is becoming destabilising for a lot of countries," said DeAnne Julius, chairman of London's Chatham House institute of international affairs. "France has a good chance of making significant progress."French officials say their agenda hinges on convincing the Chinese, whom Sarkozy has assiduously courted, to agree to a greater role for the yuan as a reserve currency. This would initially be done by having the yuan enter the Special Drawing Right, an International Monetary Fund accounting tool currently based on the values of the dollar, euro, yen and sterling.China's central bank chief proposed last year that the SDR be turned into an international currency based on John Maynard Keynes' 1944 idea of a "Bancor". The idea won backing from Brazil at a G20 summit meeting last month.No one expects a "big bang" move to a supranational currency; the shift away from the dollar would take many years, possibly decades. But France wants to revive the debate on the role of the SDR as part of a gradual move toward a multipolar currency system.Read the full story here.
- Saudi 'regrets' Indonesian maid's mistreatment.An Indonesian maid badly beaten by her Saudi employer is recovering but faces more operations, an Indonesian diplomat said on Saturday, as the Saudi labour ministry said it regretted the case.Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, remains in hospital in Medina but faces more operations after being found two weeks ago suffering from stab wounds, burns to her scalp and other injuries from an abusive employer, said Diddi Wahyudi, an official of the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah."Sumiati is recovering now. She is in a good state of health... her appetite is good," Wahyudi told AFP."But she needs to be operated on at least once again, on her abdomen," he added.The case shocked and outraged rights groups and labour activists as another example of the paucity of protection for millions of mostly Asian domestic workers, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.Her employer, a Saudi woman who has since been arrested, allegedly beat the maid, causing internal bleeding and broken bones, put a hot iron to her head and stabbed and slashed her with scissors.On Saturday Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said in a statement it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident."She has nothing, she does not even have a single abaya," Wahyudi said of the black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public."She wants her employer to be punished severely," he added.Read the full story here.
- Warning grafic image.Prominent Saudi lawyer named for tortured maid.A prominent Saudi lawyer has been named for the case of an Indonesian housemaid who has been severely tortured by her Saudi female employer, the Arabic language daily 'Sharq' reported on Thursday.Saud bin Awad Al Hujaili, a well-known Saudi solicitor and a member of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, said he would do his best to guarantee the rights of the 23-year-old maid who has been lying at the intensive care unit (ICU) at King Fahd General Hospital in the central town of Madina, the paper said.“I will do my best within the framework of existing laws that guarantee the rights of all nationals and expatriates,” said the lawyer, who was appointed for the maid’s case by the Indonesian embassy in Saudi Arabia.Saudi newspapers said this week the 53-year-old widow confessed to the crime after her son told police during interrogation that his mother tortured the maid.The unnamed widow, who has been in police custody, was reported this week as saying she used a hot iron on the maid to cure her from a mental illness.Hmmmm...i'm surprised she doesn't try the "A genie made me do it" defence?Read the full story here.
- Timoshenko slams Ukrainian president over Holodomor famine positions.Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko criticized President Viktor Yanukovych for his positions on the 1932-1933 famine, known as the Holodomor in Ukraine, during her address at the events marking commemorating those, who died during the famine.Yanukovych said earlier this year that it is "unjust" to call the Stalin-era famine that killed millions across the Soviet Union a genocide of the Ukrainian people."It is a pity that the current leadership of Ukraine denies genocide, committing outrages upon the memory of millions of victims of Holodomor," Timoshenko said. "This is not an everyday violation of laws, this is a violation of universal norms of morality," she continued.Yanukovych's statement to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in April marked a complete reversal of the policy of his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who, along with Timoshenko, sought international recognition of the 1932-1933 Great Famine, known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor as genocide.The Ukrainian president said not only Ukrainian, but also Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh people starved during the famine.The Our Ukraine opposition party then accused Yanukovych of violating laws on the denial of the 1932-1933 famine. Under Ukrainian law, it is an offense to deny that the famine was an act of genocide committed by the Soviet state.Read the full story here.Click here for more on the Holodomor tragedy.
- Turkish transsexual trying to make her way in male dorm.Feminist transsexual Sema has been staying in male dorms since she left home to study. She wears lipstick but does not believe she has to shave. Although she studies at one of the most liberal universities in Istanbul, life is not very easy, she says. An uncertain future awaits her after graduation as Turkish society is far from accommodating toward transsexuals.Sema has been harassed and abused many times and has even struggled through a few occasions when people attempted to rape her. “I have to become more masculine as I become more feminine because I have to protect myself all the time.”There is one last question for Sema: What does she do when she needs to go to the restroom? Sema answers in laughter: “I go into the empty one,” she said. “Nobody says anything.”Read the full story here.
- Snow In China Arrives 40 Days Early – 700 Heads Of Livestock Die.Not only Europe is getting walloped by winter, so are some regions in China, where the most snow has fallen in 30 years.Snow has accumulated up to 30 cm deep in most parts of the region and a meter in some areas.The early snowstorms have isolated herdsman living in remote areas, see map, and Chinese relief services dispatched assistance.The snow was 40 days earlier than its usual arrival time and was the heaviest in 30 years.Read the full story here.