America - Being Disliked is Good

Another Victor Hanson must read.

Snippet.

The Egyptian autocracy may have received $57 billion in aggregate American aid over the last three decades. But that largess still does not prevent the Mubarak dynasty from damning indigenous democratic reformers by dubbing them American stooges. In differing ways, the Saudi royal family exhibits about the same level of antagonism toward the U.S. as do the Islamic fascists of al Qaeda — both deeply terrified by what is going on in Iraq. Mostly this animus arises because we are distancing ourselves from corrupt grandees, even as we have become despised as incendiary democratizers by the Islamists. Is that risky and dangerous? Yes. Bad? Hardly

At the U.N. it is said that a ruling hierarchy mistrusts the United States and that a culture of anti-Americanism has become endemic within the organization. No wonder — the Americans alone push for more facts about the Oil-for-Food scandal, question Kofi Annan's breaches of ethics, and want investigations about U.N. crimes in Africa. If we are mistrusted for caring about those thousands who are inhumanely treated by a supposedly humane organization, then why in the world should we wish to be liked by such a group?

Read the rest.
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Saudi Arabia - Muslim Intolerance

MEMRI reports.

The Saudi daily Al-Jazirah reported that 40 men, women, and children with Pakistani citizenship were arrested on April 21, 2005 after performing Christian religious rites in an apartment in the Thaharat Al-Badi'a neighborhood in western Riyadh. The arrest was part of a sweeping police operation by the Riyadh District Police, at the order of Riyadh Governor Prince Salman bin Abd Al-'Aziz.

What was the reason given for their arrest?

A Saudi religious police source explained the reason for the arrest: "These people tried to spread the poison and their beliefs to others, by means of distributing pamphlets and [missionary] publications." He said that all the detainees "had been transferred to the relevant bodies for investigation."

Remember this next time a Muslim tells you Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance.
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Britain - Muslim Vote a Means to an End

Anas Altikriti, a national spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, writes about the Muslim vote in Britain.

There have been attempts in recent weeks by small groups of extremists to intimidate Muslims into staying at home next Thursday, arguing that it is somehow "unIslamic" to vote in the general election. They have disrupted meetings in London and Luton, but with little effect. The vast majority of Muslim organisations and authorities regard their claims as utterly wrong: far from being unIslamic, it is the duty of Muslims to vote, and the Muslim community remains adamant that it will leave its stamp on the election this time round.

Notice how Altikriti avoids calling the extremists, Muslim extremists. And I think Galloway would disagree with the "but with little effect" observation.

Muslim authorities may regard voting as a duty of Muslims but they claim western democracy incompatible with Sharia law. This from a commenter:

Late last night Channel 4 had a programme called "Shariah TV" (maybe a regular prog, but not seen/noticed before last night).

A panel of learned Muslims were questioned by young UK Muslims.

Is western democracy incompatible with Sharia law? Yes.
Should sharia law be introduced in the UK? Yes.
Do we want the restoration of the Caliphate? Yes.

And as Front Page points out:

Democracy implies equality. But equality is unacceptable in Islam. Un-believers cannot be equal to believers and women are not equal to men. Even the non-Muslims are not deemed to be equal. The People of the Book (Jews and Christians) are accepted as second class citizens and allowed to live in an Islamic state provided they pay the protection tax; Jizyah. But the pagans, atheists and idolaters are not regarded as fully humans. According to the Quran, the idolaters are to be killed wherever they are found. (9:5)

So, how does Altikriti feel about the state of British democracy?

Britain is suffering from a lack of viable political options, just as the US suffered from the lack of a credible opponent to George Bush . More and more often, the British people are having to settle for the best of the worst.

British Muslims are playing their part in correcting this fault. Next week they will vote for those who responded to their challenge: if you want our votes, work for them. Once British people issue that challenge to all politicians, then we will no longer be forced to settle for the slightly better of the evils.

Got that? Bush won, not because Americans backed his policies - overwhelmingly -, but because there was not a "credible opponent".

Never fear. British Muslims are doing their part to fix things while the British people do nothing. The distinction Altikriti makes between "British Muslims" and "British people" is telling. And notice how Altikriti thinks all British politicians are the worst and evil? You see? Us unbelievers are not equal to Muslims.

Altikriti and the Muslim Association of Britain see voting as a means to elect Muslim friendly politicians, begin the introduction of Islamic law and turn Britain into an Islamic state.
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Britain - Anti-Israeli Boycott Backfiring

Melanie Phillips has been covering the Association of University Teachers (UK) boycott of Israeli universities and the repercussions. Looks like it's starting to blow up in their faces. Good!

Just start at the top and scroll down.
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Iraq - Lessons From Vietnam

The Australian reports on lessons the anti-war movement need to learn from Vietnam. The first thing they need to do is admit they were wrong and then apologize. Not much chance of that as John Kerry illustrated during his campaign.

Following their victory in 1975, the communists, hailed as liberators by their sympathisers, put more than 1million people in concentration camps, appropriated property, nationalised all means of production, evicted people from their homes and stripped people of their savings. Before the end of the war, South Vietnam was at par with other developing countries in the region. Now, after 30 years of "liberation", Vietnam ranks with the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world.

After 30 years of peace, intellectuals, artists, Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, tribal people, even communist war heroes, are subject to arrest, torture, harassment and imprisonment for peacefully demanding freedom and democracy.

What is occurring in Vietnam sparks protests from human rights organisations around the world. Amid all of these voices of protest, the deadening silence from the anti-war camp is telling. Those who supported the communists still refuse to see the stark evidence.

It was the pressure from the anti-war elite that forced the US administration to pull troops out of Vietnam. The hasty US retreat made South Vietnam prey to a ruthless enemy still fat with Soviet largesse and left behind it a trail of indescribable human suffering culminating in the boat people tragedy.

In fact, the North Vietnamese credit the anti-war movement for their success.

Even Giap admitted in his memoirs that news media reporting of the war and the anti-war demonstrations that ensued in America surprised him. Instead of negotiating what he called a conditional surrender, Giap said they would now go the limit because America's resolve was weakening and the possibility of complete victory was within Hanoi's grasp.

And the North Vietnamese used the anti-war movement in their war strategy.

Bui Tin, who served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese army, received South Vietnam's unconditional surrender on April 30, 1975. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal after his retirement, he made clear the anti-war movement in the United States, which led to the collapse of political will in Washington, was "essential to our strategy."

The anti-war movement continues to be controlled by communists to this day.

The anti-war movement and the left are responsible for far more deaths and suffering than the US and UK military. They will never learn because they are controlled by communists.
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France - Fertile Soil For Muslim Terrorists

The New York Times reports on "Tablighi Jamaat, or Preaching Party, a global army of Muslim missionaries helping to expand their religion and reinforce their faith".

European terrorism officials who follow Tablighi closely say they know many cases in which terrorists have emerged from the movement, but they say they have never been able to penetrate the group sufficiently to prove that it plays any direct role. "It is definitely fertile ground for breeding terrorism," said a French intelligence official who has traced many militants' religious awakening to their membership in the movement.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, was once a Tablighi adherent in France. Hervé Djamel Loiseau, a young Frenchman who died fleeing the 2001 American bombardment of Tora Bora in Afghanistan was, too. Djamel Beghal, an Algerian-born Frenchman and confessed Qaeda member recently convicted in Paris for plotting to blow up the American Embassy, was a Tablighi follower in the French town of Corbeil a decade ago.

In fact, Europe has emerged as the new headquarters for terrorists operations, replacing Afghanistan.

Mr. Vidino says Europe-based Islamist groups play an essential role in money laundering, supplying weapons and false documents, and recruitment, adding it would not be an exaggeration to describe Europe as a new headquarters of operations for terrorists, as Afghanistan was before the ouster of the Taliban.

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Egypt - Pro Democracy Protests Spread

The AP reports on the spreading protests outside of Cairo.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Hundreds of pro-democracy activists protested in 15 Egyptian cities and towns Wednesday, drawing out large numbers of riot police who briefly detained 75 protesters, organizers said.

Witnesses in some cities, including Suez in the east and Benha in the Nile Delta, reported that police beat protesters with batons to disperse them.

The organizers said they were pleased that the protest had spread from Cairo, where they've held numerous protests during the past five months. "We are expanding to cover all of Egypt," said Amin Iskandar, a leader of the group, Egyptian Movement for Change.

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Islam - Washington Tries To Reform Islam

Daniel Pipes reports that Washington is finally waking up to the peril Islam poses.

In fact, things were better than they seemed, as David E. Kaplan establishes in an important investigation in U.S. News & World Report, based on over 100 interviews and the review of a dozen internal documents. Earlier arguments over the nature of the enemy – terrorism vs. radical Islam – have been resolved: America's highest officials widely agree that the country's "greatest ideological foe is a highly politicized form of radical Islam and that Washington and its allies cannot afford to stand by" as it gains in strength. To fight this ideology, the U.S. government now promotes a non-radical interpretation of Islam.

In "Hearts, Minds, and Dollars: In an Unseen Front in the War on Terrorism, America is Spending Millions to Change the Very Face of Islam," dated today, Kaplan explains that Washington recognizes it has a security interest not just within the Muslim world but within Islam. Therefore, it must engage in shaping the very religion of Islam. Washington has focused on the root causes of terrorism – not poverty or U.S. foreign policy, but a compelling political ideology.

Just as Islam tries to defeat America from within, so must America try to defeat Islam from within as well as without.

Be sure to read the whole article.
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Iraq - Germany In UN Scandal

Yesterday it was the French. TodaySpigel reports on the German connection.

Bankers in the city along the Rhone River did brisk business with Saddam, even during the United Nations embargo. Saddam's followers secretly demanded their piece of the pie: those "pieces" were shares of inflated bills issued to corporations planning to supply goods to Baghdad as part of the oil-for-food program. As one of several channels, one account held at the tony Geneva private bank Safdie could be used to transfer these kickbacks.

Now you know why they were against the war.
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America - Another Clinton Cover UP

Fox News reports on the Democrats trying another Clinton cover up.

Dorgan’s bill would shut down the 10-year probe conducted by Independent Counsel David Barrett’s investigation, but it would add something unprecedented in the case of special or independent counsels: it would prevent the publication of the counsel’s report on the case. A decade’s worth of investigations — sworn testimony, documentation of alleged abuses, grand-jury proceedings, etc. — would vanish without a trace.

In this instance, that would mean burying charges that key officials in the Justice Department and the IRS abused their power by going easy on Cisneros and targeting political opponents of Bill Clinton. Those charges — not the Cisneros case — have served as the focal point of Barrett’s investigation for the last several years. While Senator Dorgan and his colleagues may not know this, lawyers for Henry Cisneros and other Clinton-era public servants do. They also know that Barrett is the first man ever to receive grand-jury subpoena power to look at the inner workings of the IRS.

Will slick Willie get out of this one too?
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Iraq - New Government Birthday Gift For Saddam

The BBC reports on Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years. But true to form the BBC have to pour cold water on this monumental day.

Mr Jaafari was under huge pressure to produce a government and, in the end, it had to be a flawed result, the BBC's Jim Muir says.

Yeah, like Saddam's government was perfect.

And the BBC note this odd twist:

By an odd twist of fate, the new government has been born on the 68th birthday of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Happy Birthday Saddam and I hope you like your present!
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Islam - Euro-Islamist threats

Interesting article from UPI.

European police and intelligence services have documented fundamentalists preaching hate in many European mosques, with youth associations often acting as front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mounting anti-Semitism in some areas has made teaching the history of the Holocaust in schools attended by young Muslims impossible, and Muslims students are openly questioning the theory of the origin of life. Europe's prisons on the other hand, have seen the increase of its Muslim population, which is frequently in the majority.

All of that is happening every day in Europe and here in Britain.

The article goes on to echo something I've read many times recently and that is the growing Muslim threat from Europe.

What we are now expecting, warns Moniquet, "is the emergence of a new generation of terrorists: kids who were 12 to 15 years old on September 11 2001...." The threat against the interests of the United States from European terrorists is also very real, he warns, with U.S. interests, embassies, consulates, military personnel, hotels and companies being natural targets.

But there is more: most of the second-generation people and almost all of the third-generation now hold European passports, allowing them to travel freely to the United States or anywhere else they want to.

The article also points out the changing role of al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaida did have a "historical role" to play: "to build an international terrorist coalition uniting dozens of organizations." Now, however, individual Moroccan, Algerian, Chechen, Pakistani, Saudi, Iraqi and other organizations, often collaborate in very sophisticated projects.

Now, the counter-terrorism expert believes al-Qaida's role is to set "the general framework." This includes designating targets and giving "lawful authorization" -- or fatwas -- to act.

Recent successes by European intelligence services indicate the security services are getting better. Still, all Islamist groups and cells must be considered able to carry out terrorist attacks.

And their weapons of choice are set to be WMDs.

"What is more worrying" is some of the failed attacks in Europe (in France and Britain) were to use weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical products, he said.

Intelligence further indicates suspected terrorists have shown great interest in recent years in nuclear facilities, suggesting they are hoping to develop and use a "dirty bomb."

The clock is ticking.

UPDATE

Voice of America has more including Real Player downloads of testimony to Congress.

Lorenzo Vidino, Deputy Director of The Investigative Project, notes that a significant part of planning by al-Qaida for the September 11, 2001 attacks took place in Europe.

He points to a troubling escalation of Islamist terrorist and extremist activities attributable to these factors developing over the past 10 years. "Lax immigration policies that have allowed known Islamic radicals to settle in Europe. The radicalization of significant segments of the continent's growing Muslim population. And the European law enforcement agencies inability to effectively dismantle terrorist networks, due to poor attention to the problem and or the lack of proper legal tools."

Mr. Vidino says Europe-based Islamist groups play an essential role in money laundering, supplying weapons and false documents, and recruitment, adding it would not be an exaggeration to describe Europe as a new headquarters of operations for terrorists, as Afghanistan was before the ouster of the Taliban.

Pretty strong words, no?

In the view of Claude Moniquet this concern is fully justified and offers this chilling prediction. "It is hard to be optimistic. The threats both against Europe, and from Europe to the United States will remain at a very high level (for) the foreseeable future," he said. "And I am afraid that a tragedy will be necessary for the European authorities to face the realities and to really address the problem posed by Islamists. The question in my view is no more and no longer if the tragedy will happen but when it will happen."

In his testimony to the committee, terrorism expert Peter Bergen told lawmakers he expects that future attacks are more likely to mirror those that took place in Madrid last year.

Two weeks ago, AMIR TAHERI, writing in the New York Post had this to say:

And the terror underworld has recently been abuzz with rumors of a coming spectacular attack in Britain, to achieve another change of government in a major Western democracy.

At that time I predicted that day would be April 29th - tomorrow. That day is just six days before the election and just over one year since the Madrid bombings. And like the Madrid bombings, the roads and trains will be clogged with commuters trying to get away for the long holiday weekend.

Let's hope I'm wrong.
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Britain - Stem Cells Restore Sight

This sounds like good news.

A woman who was blinded after she was attacked with acid has had her eyesight almost totally restored.

Deborah Catlyn thought she would never set eyes on her toddler daughter, Miracle, believing her vision might be permanently lost.

But revolutionary stem cell treatment has helped her regain 80 per cent of her vision and could hold the key for thousands of others. [...]

Doctors believe the stem cells they transplant into damaged eye somehow stimulated the patients' bodies to produce their own stem cells.

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Iraq - UN Obstructs US Investigation

I just heard on Fox News that the UN is refusing to allow Robert Parton, one of the two lead investigators who quit in protest over the UN's investigation, to testify before congress.

Now why do you suppose Annan would do that?

As I said yesterday:

Here is some of the evidence Volcker continues to overlook that may have prompted the two investigators to quit in protest.

And since Annan's right hand man destroyed 3 years worth of oil for food documents, the day after Volcker was appointed to head the investigation, it looks like it's up to Congress to get to the bottom of the UN scandal.

But Annan is going to do everything he can to stop Congress.

I say the US should stop funding this corrupt organization until it gets cleaned up; if that's possible.
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Iraq - French Connection To UN Scandal

The Financial Times (UK) reports "Charles Pasqua, a former French minister of interior, has emerged as one of the highest-ranking targets of the widening investigations into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal."

No, that would be Kofi Annan.

United Nations, US and French investigators are examining Iraqi documents that show officials in Baghdad were instructed to transfer his lucrative oil allocations to an offshore company, to shield him from criticism.

Mr Pasqua's alleged role has emerged as inquiries turn to the role of foreign governments in the corruption within the humanitarian aid programme. France and Russia, which opposed the 2003 invasion, have long been accused in the US of being too close to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Early on Tuesday, Bernard Guillet, Mr Pasqua's diplomatic adviser, was arrested at home in Paris in connection with the oil-for-food inquiry, on the orders of Philippe Courroye, a French investigative judge. Mr Guillet was yesterday in police custody.

It was this corruption that led to the deaths of thousands of women, children and the elderly in Iraq and not the santions themselves as the liberal press would have you believe.

Now we know why France, Russia and China objected to the war.
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Iraq - Volcker "Annan Not Exonerated"

It appears to me that the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has been caught red handed lying. Here is what Annan said.

"After so many distressing and untrue allegations have been made against me, this exoneration by the Independent Inquiry Committee obviously comes as a great relief," Annan said.

However,

But soon after that press conference, a member of the inquiry committee, Mark Pieth, said that the secretary-general had gone too far. Pieth had been standing outside the room where Annan made the comments.

"We did not exonerate Kofi Annan," Pieth said then. "We should not brush this off. A certain mea culpa would have been appropriate."

Then, two of the three lead investigators quit in protest over the committees findings.

Now, Roger Simon quotes the New York Sun saying even Volcker now says he did not exonerate Annan. Scroll down to this: Oil-for-Food Follies Continued

In an interview with Fox News' Eric Shawn, to be broadcast today, Mr. Volcker said of Mr. Annan, "I thought we criticized him rather severely. I would not call that an exoneration."

Here is some of the evidence Volcker continues to overlook that may have prompted the two investigators to quit in protest.

And since Annan's right hand man destroyed 3 years worth of oil for food documents, the day after Volcker was appointed to head the investigation, it looks like it's up to Congress to get to the bottom of the UN scandal.

Whatever happens, it is way beyond time for Annan to quit and it's high time the world admitted what a corrupt organization the UN is.
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Britain - BBC Enemy Number One

That's my opinion. Here is my Case against the BBC.

Melanie Phillips has more.

Well, what a surprise. The Power of Nightmares, the TV series which articulated the malevolent conspiracy theory that the threat of of Islamist terror has been deliberately and artificially whipped up by American neo-conservatives who have spent the past thirty years confecting one phantom enemy after another for their own power-crazed ends, has won a BAFTA award. No surprise, because Britain has now been consumed by a culture of lies, where palpable untruths win public acclaim and prizes because they play to a vicious set of prejudices against America and the Jews. Thus the BBC's Orla Guerin gets the MBE; and 'My Name is Rachel Corrie', the London play which draws on the writings of the ISM activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer, has become a sell-out. The Observer reported that the play was attracting young people who were avid for its message:

Read the rest.
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Iraq - Blair Told Truth On WMDs

Melanie Phillips has the proof.
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Iraq - Good News Round Up

Chrenkoff's latest Good News Iraq round up is now available.
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America - Muslim cleric convicted

CNN reports.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A prominent Washington-area Muslim cleric was convicted Tuesday of urging his followers, days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to go to Afghanistan and help the Taliban fight U.S. military forces.

Ali al-Timimi, 41, was convicted on all 10 counts of an indictment brought in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty called the verdict a victory in the war on terrorism. In a written statement, he called al-Timimi "a kingpin of hate against America."

"He not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause at a time when our country was mourning the loss of more than 3,000 people who were murdered in a heinous act of terrorism," McNulty said.

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Blogging - Time Off

I'm off to the Isle of Mull tommorrow for two days. Blogging will resume when I return.

Cheers,

Marc
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Iraq - UN Investigator Quit Over Cover Up

CNN reports.

One of two investigators who resigned earlier this week from the commission probing fraud at the United Nations' oil-for-food program released a statement Saturday in which he disputed a report that he did so because his work was finished.

Instead, Robert Parton said in the statement, he resigned "on principle."

So, once again, the UN lied.

And one of three leaders of the committee, Mark Pieth, denies Volckers report exonerated Annan.

Parton is one of the two "senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program" to quit.

Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday.

The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee.

"You follow a trail and you want to see people pick it up," Pieth told The Associated Press, referring to the two top investigators who left. The committee "told the story" that the investigators presented, "but we made different conclusions than they would have."

And now we learn that Volcker himself, as well as the Canadian Prime Minister, are linked to the Scandal.

Let's hope Congress's investigation gets more results and Annan is forced to go.

UPDATE

Glenn Reynolds has more and notes this:

I'm just interested in seeing how money seemed to be flowing from Saddam Hussein to pretty much every government that took an active role in opposing the Iraq war. And I wonder where else the money was going. I suspect we'll find out, in time.

I hope so.

UPDATE

More from Business Week

A senior investigator from Paul Volcker's independent committee into allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program criticized his former employer Saturday for misrepresenting the grounds for his resignation earlier this month.

The investigator, Robert Parton, confirmed a report by The Associated Press earlier this week that he had resigned along with another investigator to protest recent findings by the committee that cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion program.

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Britain - BBC Caught Hiring Hecklers

The BBC has been caught red handed hiring hecklers to disrupt Tory leader Michael Howard's speeches.

Strangely, This report is from the BBC itself. Damage limitation exercise, I suppose.

The Tory party has demanded an apology from the BBC over a programme which it says encouraged heckling at a meeting where Michael Howard was speaking.

The Sunday Telegraph says it accused the BBC of "serious misconduct" after producers equipped hecklers in Horwich, near Bolton, with radio microphones.

But the corporation said it was making a legitimate programme on the history and art of political heckling.

Come on, pull the other one.

The Telegraph notes the important bit the BBC usually leave out.

Last night, the BBC claimed that the exercise was part of a "completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling" and said that other parties' meetings were being "observed". However, The Telegraph has established that none of Tony Blair's meetings was infiltrated or disrupted in similar fashion.

And

Tory officials became suspicious at the meeting in Horwich, near Bolton, last Wednesday, when they saw BBC camera crew focusing on the hecklers rather than Mr Howard. They twice challenged the two men and a woman involved, and discovered they had been equipped with radio microphones.

Mr Black said that they described themselves as "shoppers". In fact, they were under direction from a BBC team making a programme called The History of Heckling for the BBC3 channel. The programme, whose producer is Paul Woolwich, is in the process of being edited.

History of Heckling? Who would watch such a show?

The BBC try and claim this is much ado about nothing but as the Telegraph points out:

The [BBC] spokesman was unable to provide details of any other campaign meetings attended by the BBC3 crew. He said that the hecklers had not been paid a fee, but could not say whether they had received expenses.

What a pathetic, biased and bumbling organization the BBC has become.

See here for a long list of worse BBC sins.
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Iraq - Canadian PM Linked To UN Scandal

Canada Free Press reports on the link between Canadian PM Paul Martin and the UN oil for food scandal.

The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered.

Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam’s million by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s mentor Maurice Strong’s son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin’s assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003.

Among Martin’s Public Declaration of Declarable Assets are: "The Canada Steamship Lines Group Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned"; "Canada Steamship Lines Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned"–Cordex Petroleums Inc. (Alberta, Canada) 4.6 percent owned by the CSL Group Inc."

And Volcker, who has issued several interim reports white washing the UN's internal investigaiton, is implicated as well.

According to the today’s New York Sun, "the next chapter in the United Nations crisis may erupt over U.N. investigator Paul Volcker’s membership on the board of one of Canada’s biggest companies, Power Corporation, since a past president of the firm, Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong, is now tied to the oil-for-food scandal."

The missing facts are: Not only are Volcker and Strong hooked with the ties that bind to Power Corporation Inc., a company under investigation in the oil-for-food scandal, Prime Minister Paul Martin was launched into the business world with Canadian Steamship Lines by Paul Desmarais’s Power Corporation Inc. and his predecessor Jean Chretien’s daughter, France is married to Paul Desmarais’ son, Andre Desmarais.

Eh, all in the family.

Have you noticed the silence at the New York Times over all of this?
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Iraq - UN Scandal Continues

Trey Jackson has a video clip of the top three heavy weights who have been at the forefront of covering the UN oil for food scandal.

Austin Bay, Roger L. Simon and Claudia Rossett discuss the U.N. scandals, Koffi Annan and Paul Volcker on Kudlow & Company.


Click here to view the video. Requires Microsoft Media Player.
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Sweden - Muslims Threaten Christian Preacher

Islam Online reports.

STOCKHOLM, April 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A top Muslim scholar said the minority would abide by the Swedish law in confronting a Christian preacher who insulted Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), urging his fellow Swedish Muslims not to take the law into their own hands or commit any violent acts to avenge the repulsive remarks of the Christian cleric.

“We beg those who threatened (Runar) Sogaard, in the name of Islam, to let Swedish law judge between him and us,” Hassan Moussa, the head of Sweden’s council of imams, wrote in the Expressen newspaper, according to Reuters Friday, April 22.

“Do not under any circumstances take the law into your own hands.”

Celebrity evangelist preacher Runar Sogaard, in a sermon at Filadelfia church in Stockholm on March 20, repeated claims against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) – whose Birthday Muslims worldwide celebrated Thursday – saying the Seal of Prophets was “a confused pedophile” since his wives included a girl aged nine years old, alluding to the Prophet’s wife `Aisha.

Er, exactly what law is Sogaard accused of breaking? Telling the truth?


UPDATE

Robert Spencer chimes in.

Come on, Muzammil. It says she was nine in Bukhari, twice. Is not Bukhari the most reliable Hadith collection? Why would you use less well-attested hadith to overthrow well-attested ones?
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Malaysia - Escape from Islam

Vaudine England writes an excellent article about the problems with Islam.

``Malays are second-class citizens in this country when it comes to matters of faith,'' says her lawyer Haris Mohammed Ibrahim. Anyone trying to leave Islam faces loss of inheritance, family support and work, and banishment to a legal limbo where the religious label on one's identity card becomes a life-defining fact.

Less dramatic but more everyday examples of Islamic law intruding on ordinary people's lives - often to a startling degree - are rife in a country which likes to portray itself as a modern, moderate Muslim state.

Take the case of Lina Joy, who has for years been trying to get the word ``Islam'' removed from her ID card so that she can remarry, to a non-Muslim. Her case is in the Court of Appeal and no one will predict her chances of success.

Until the recent morality raids, such cases were seen as exceptions, regrettable perhaps but about which little could be done. But the outrage spreading among Muslim parents who now warn their children about the religious police is sparking new civil actions.

It used to be normal to be hypocritical, one Muslim housewife confides. It was better to go along in public with the rules of Muslim behavior - as interpreted by the state - and to think what one liked in private, she says.

Read the whole thing.
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Britain - Shoe bomber jailed

The Mirror (UK) reports.

British shoebomber Saajid Badat was today jailed for 13 years although he had backed out of the plan.

Badat, of Gloucester, admitted planning to explode a shoe bomb on a transatlantic flight at the same time as convicted shoebomber Richard Reid - in December 2001.

But the court heard that Badat, 25, could not face "being a courier of death" and had abandoned the plan.

At the Old Bailey today Mr Justice Fulford said Badat could have been facing a term of more than 50 years if he had gone ahead with the plan to blow up a passenger jet.

But he added: "It would not be in the public interest to send out a message that if would-be terrorist turn away from death and destruction before any lives are put at risk, the courts will not reflect in a significant and real way any such genuine change of heart in the sentence which is handed down."

Badat was arrested more than two years after Reid. A device, identical to the one found on Reid, was discovered in his flat. It had been dismantled. Reid failed to ignite his shoebomb in mid-air but he was later jailed for life in America.

Where does one begin with this one?

The guy backs out of the plan because he "could not face "being a courier of death". Since he didn't turn Reid in it seems he didn't mind if Reid was a courier of death. The BBC report that Badat "admitted conspiring with fellow Briton Richard Reid."

In the same BBC article it says "An e-mail from Badat to his family on 14 December 2001 indicated he intended to withdraw from the plot." So why isn't the family being prosecuted for failing to warn the police?


Judge, I also notice that Badat was arrested two years after Reid was caught. That would imply that Badat did not turn himself in at the time of Reid's capture. That two years would be plenty of time for Badat and Reids handlers to hide evidence and flee the country. Did you think about that judge?

And did I read that right, Badat was looking at only 50 years had gone ahead with his plan to blow up hundreds of innocent men, women and children?

Reid did not fail to ignite his shoebomb as the Mirror puts it. Reid was prevented from igniting it after a struggle with passengers and crew.

The article continues...

Badat admitted training in Afghanistan and being given the shoebomb at the same time as Reid. After having a change of heart, he told his handlers he had pulled out. The judge said the conspiracy was "truly appalling" but accepted that Badat was not willing to go through with it.

He said: "In December 2001 you posed a very grave risk indeed to the public. In April 2005, you no longer do.

"I hope that you now renounce this kind of activity and would encourage those minded to participate in it, to set their faces against it."

This guy was trained in Afghanistan, given a shoebomb at the same time as Reid but changes his mind and pulls out thereby failing his mission and endangering the Reid mission. And his terrorists handlers just said, Oh that's ok Badat, we understand, and let him live? That sound right to you?

So the judge wants Badat to encourage his handlers to "set their faces against it". Er, judge how about threatening Badat with life in prison if he doesn't give you the names of his handlers.

Now, now, now, you don't want to offend British Muslims do you?

And just a reminder...

The Muslim Council of Britain is considered "the" moderate voice of Muslims in Britain. Here is what their leader, Iqbal Sacranie, recently had to say about Muslim terrorists.

'There is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist. This is deeply offensive.

Now Iqbal, that just ain't so.
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Bloggers: The light at the end of the tunnel

Finally, someone in main stream media understands bloggers. LGF notes "Arizona Republic editor Phil Boas has a great article for journalist trade publication The Masthead: Bloggers: The light at the end of the newspaper’s tunnel."

Likewise, Dan Rather thought he could stand down the bloggers. For twelve days he and CBS stonewalled on their now infamous scoop on George W. Bush's National Guard record. But with each day it became blindingly obvious that the story was constructed on myth.

The Power Line bloggers deserve and got much credit for becoming the information clearinghouse that ultimately exposed the fake memos behind the CBS story. But it was Charles Johnson on his blog Little Green Footballs (littlegreenfootballs.com) who I believe ultimately sank the CBS anchor. Johnson wasted no time in the days after the "60 Minutes" broadcast producing an exact duplicate of the CBS memos using the default font on Microsoft Word.

He then aligned copies of the so-called CBS original and his duplicate on his website, blinking them on and off alternately so the eye could see that everything-the font, the kerning, the leading, the superscript "th"-almost perfectly matched. CBS would have us believe three decades separated those two samples-one produced on a '70s-era typewriter and the other on a modern word processor. As was obvious to the eye, the charade was over.

To the CBS brain trust, Johnsons pulsing visual must have seemed the proverbial beating drum, drawing links from all corners of the Internet and demonstrating in utter simplicity that Dan Rather had been conned.

In those days when Rather was still stonewalling, you had to marvel at the confidence of the bloggers. They knew what Dan did not-that he and his network would ultimately blink.

Here's what newspaper editors and writers should know about this new Internet phenomenon. Bloggers don't have much respect for you. You are the "legacy media," the MSM. You're the Roman Catholic Church to their Martin Luther and his new high-speed cable modem.

To Hugh Hewitt (hughhewitt.com), the blogospheres leading cheerleader and one of its most polished practitioners, you are Stalingrad in 1944. Your institutions are hollowed out and your walls are scorched.

Be sure to read the whole thing, it's a great article.
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Here is the post where Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos said "screw" the American contractors who were murdered, mutilated and strung up outside Falluja. Kos is trying to erase all evidence that he said it. Here then is a snapshot of the page as proof. 

Iraq - "Screw" The Murdered Contractors

That's what Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos said last year regarding the contractors that were murdered, mutilated and then strung up outside Falluja. This link works for now but LGF says Kos is trying to erase all evidence that he said it.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos has done his best to make it hard to find the comment he posted on April 1, 2004, about the Americans who were torn apart and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. He erased it from the Google cache and the Internet Archive, and redirects the “permalink” on the page to an unrelated page at his site, but I managed to find a URL that still works—until the Daily Koward notices our referrals: Daily Kos: Corpses on the Cover.

I'll post a picture of the page after this post in case Kos manages to delete this link.

Here is what Kos posted on his site:

Every death should be on the front page (2.70 / 40)

Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

by kos on Thu Apr 1st, 2004 at 12:08:56 PDT

That's how sick the left is.
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Hillary Clinton - Wiretapped?

There has been a lot of buzz lately that there will be a Swift Boat Vets type of attack on Hillary Clinton should she run for president in 2008. There's is even talk of a forthcoming book with damaging allegations. The Democrats say it's all just a smear campaign and just more of a vast right wing conspiracy.

Besides, they point out that Hillary was scrutinized in intimate detail before her husband was elected president and any skeletons in the closet are already known about. That may be true but what if Hillary was caught on tape making incriminating statements? What's even more amazing is who was doing the recording.

Sen. Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law, who pled guilty to bank fraud charges yesterday in New Orleans, secretly tape recorded former top Hillary Clinton campaign aide David Rosen - and may have taped Hillary herself - as part of an FBI probe into an Aug. 12, 2000 gala fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign.

Ray Reggie, the brother of Kennedy's wife Victoria Reggie, was identified by prosecutors yesterday as the confidential witness who had been cooperating with investigators for three years as part of his bank fraud plea bargain.

No honor among thieves, eh?

During a June 2000 White House visit, the Clintons and the Reggies stayed up late into the night "chatting," the New York Post said.

Asked if Reggie may have also recorded one or both of the Clintons, attorney David Kendall "had no immediate response," the Sun said. The key government witness was "wearing a wire and making secret tapes as recently as last December," the Post said.

But, as slick Willy said, it depends on what the definition of "is" is.
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Iraq - Journalist Replies To Memory Hole

Last week I posted about the media's memory hole when it comes to Iraq. I was posting about this article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch by Sylvester Brown Jr. wherein he stated "I don't recall any prewar speeches about delivering democracy to the Middle East." In that post I said this:

Notice Brown is clever enough to say "I don't recall" and not pronounce that there were none. Brown either has a terrible memory or, more likely, he has a selective memory and wants to promote the Democrats "Bush lied" theme.

In addition to the post I emailed Brown, noted my concerns and gave him several links to speeches where Bush indeed spoke about "delivering democracy to the Middle East". Today I recieved a reply from Mr. Brown.

Sounds to me like you want us to buy into the Democrats ?Bush lied? lies. I notice you say ?I don?t recall?. Ever hear of Google, Mr. Brown?

I'm not asking you to buy into any Democratic mind set. If you noticed I said, "I don't recall," why are you suggesting I use Google. "Don't recall" means don't recall, don't remember. It doesn't mean "I couldn't find" or "there's no record." Perhaps if you stop letting "Instapundit" do your thinking, you'd see there's no logic in your insult. Oh, and by the way, Bush pushed the war based on Saddam's WMDs not "delivering democracy in the Middle East." -- SBJ

Here is my reply back to Mr. Brown:

Thanks for replying Mr. Brown.

I predicted on my blog on April 15th that you used “Don’t recall” as a clever cover for a selective memory.

“Notice Brown is clever enough to say "I don't recall" and not pronounce that there were none. Brown either has a terrible memory or, more likely, he has a selective memory and wants to promote the Democrats "Bush lied" theme.”

I suggested you use Google to refresh your memory, it’s called research – something Bloggers do and journalist used to do.

Bush gave several highly visible speeches giving his reasons for going to war in Iraq, including one at the UN - WMDs were just one of those reasons. You would have us believe that a journalist who opposes the President and the war in Iraq did not watch that speech, as well as the others, and did not read the transcripts in intimate detail. Further, you would have us believe that you “don’t recall” the world’s most powerful man speaking about his reasons (note the plural) for taking the world’s only superpower to war. Put simply Mr. Brown, we don’t believe you. That is called credibility – something journalists used to have.

Oh, and by the way, if you read the examples of Bush’s speeches I sent you, you will see that Bush did indeed push “delivering democracy in the Middle East”.

In a remarkable display of how out of touch you are, you asked this question in your email to Instapundit:

“When did the United States become the chief exporter of democracy to the Arab world?”

That would be 9/11 Mr. Brown, 9/11.

Now I put it to you, as someone so out of touch, with such a bad memory, poor research skills, poor reading skills and no credibility, is journalism really the right career for you?

One more thing Mr. Brown, as this email attests, I’m quite capable of reading, researching and thinking on my own and I’m just a blogger.

Sincerely,

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Iraq - UN Scandal Update

Wow! Roger Simon is steamed over the latest UN oil for food scandal revelations and he has inside information to prove the Volcker committee is lying.

The level of prevarication surrounding the recent resignation of investigators Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan from the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme is so great that even a blogger in farwaway Los Angeles can see that committee members responding to the resignations are lying through their teeth.

Strong words but Roger says he's willing to testify under oath to prove what he says is true.

Read the whole thing.
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Iraq - UN Scandal Deepens

Yesterday I noted Roger Simon is reporting two of the three investigators have quit the Volcker investigation because Volcker refuses to follow up leads.

Today the AP has the story.

Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday.

The investigators felt the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, played down findings critical of Annan when it released an interim report in late March related to his son, said Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee.

"You follow a trail and you want to see people pick it up," Pieth told The Associated Press, referring to the two top investigators who left. The committee "told the story" that the investigators presented, "but we made different conclusions than they would have."

The investigators were identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan. [...]

Annan said the report exonerated him — something Pieth denied at the time — and the secretary-general said he had no plans to resign. The investigation into Kojo Annan continues. Volcker has promised to deliver a final oil-for-food investigation report in mid-summer.

Volcker may deliver his final report in mid-summer but this investigation is just getting started. Here is just some of the evidence that Volcker is choosing to ignore.
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Britain - Muslims Make It The New Holland

In Holland several Dutch politicians require around the clock protection from militant Muslims. One sleeps on a military base while the other stays in a prison. That's right. The politician is in a prison while the militant Muslims threatening him stays free.

These same Muslims murdered Dutch film maker Van Gogh for his movies critical of Islam. They shot him, stabbed him, tried to behead him and then pinned a warning note to others on his chest - with a knife.

All of this prompted the Danish Queen to remark:

"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance," she said.

I've asked the question many times on this blog - how long before such things happen in Britain? The answer is now.

Respect candidate George Galloway has been advised to stay away from his home after receiving a death threat.

At a hustings meeting on Wednesday Mr Galloway and his Labour opponent Oona King stood together to plead for less negative campaigning.

Both candidates, contesting the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, have required police protection. [...]

Mr Galloway and Miss King appeared together amid tight security at a meeting at the University of London on Wednesday evening.

So who is doing the threatening?

Mr Galloway was allegedly "threatened with death" by Islamic extremists at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

The 40-strong mob apparently locked the door and denounced him as a "false prophet" and declared the sentence for this was "death".

For some strange reason the BBC continue to refuse to name the radical Muslim group behind all of this - Hizb-Ut-Tahrir. Could that be because there is a link between Hizb-Ut-Tahrir and PM Tony Blair?

This is London reports "It [Hizb-Ut-Tahrir] also advised Shabina Begum, the Luton girl who recently won a High Court ruling that she was entitled to wear a head-to-toe jilbab to school."

And who represented Begum at her trial? Mrs. Tony Blair!

A singular feature of Shabina Begum’s case was the name of the advocate acting on her behalf: none other than Mrs. Tony Blair.

This same militant Islamic group recently attacked the so called "moderate" Muslim Council of Britain. What did the police do? The police turned a blind eye.

The group shouted militant slogans from the centre of the meeting room, surrounded by the media. As they left they were unchallenged by around 10 police officers standing outside.

Must not offend Muslims you know.

The BBC like to report on the "no go" areas of Iraq for US/UK forces. Given Bethnal Green and Bow's large Muslim population, is it now a "no go" area for British politicians?

Who will be the first British politician or film maker critical of Islam to be murdered by the religion of peace? Who will be the first "moderate" Muslim murdered for speaking out against militant Muslims?

People who raise such issues are said to be suffering from Islamophobia. And yet here we have British politicians in hiding for their lives, "moderate" Muslims attacked for practicing democracy and the police sit idly by.

Welcome to the new world order.
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Islamic Militants Linked to Blair

The militant Muslim group, Hizb-Ut-Tahrir, that attacked George Galloway has ties to Tony Blair.

This is London reports "It [Hizb-Ut-Tahrir] also advised Shabina Begum, the Luton girl who recently won a High Court ruling that she was entitled to wear a head-to-toe jilbab to school."

And who represented Begum at her trial? Mrs. Tony Blair!

A singular feature of Shabina Begum’s case was the name of the advocate acting on her behalf: none other than Mrs. Tony Blair. She obviously thought the case a very important one, for she goes into court relatively rarely these days, having so many other things to do. Could the preservation, indeed encouragement, of the culture I have described matter so very much to Cherie Blair, then, and if so, why? Why would the prime minister’s wife act for a young woman known to be supported by Muslim fundamentalists?

Why indeed?
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Iraq - UN Internal Investigation Collapses

Roger Simon is reporting two of the three investigators have quit the Volcker investigation because Volcker refuses to follow up leads.

Investigators Robert Parton (senior investigative counsel) and Miranda Duncan (deputy counsel) have resigned because information was not being followed up by the Volcker Committee!!! These are two of the top three field investigators for the committtee. Only Michael Cornacchia remains.

You can smell the stench from the UN all the way here in the UK.
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Italy - BERLUSCONI 'TO RESIGN'

Sky News is reporting:

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will resign after addressing the senate on the crisis enveloping his government, his Forza Italia party's top lawmaker in the senate told party colleagues, the ANSA news agency has reported.

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Galloway - Can't Get No RESPECT

Yesterday I posted about the confrontation between Iraqi blogger and Saddam supporter George Galloway at the launch of Galloway's RESPECT campaign. Chicken George ran when:

Challenged by Mr Pax that only 21% of Iraqis want US and UK troops out of their country, Mr Galloway said there was no point in engaging in discussion “because you and I will never agree”.

You would think that Galloway would have the support of British Muslims over his anti-war stance. But it seems Galloway just can't get no RESPECT.

Anti-war campaigner Mr Galloway was forced to take refuge from Islamic militants who denounced him as a "false prophet".

The former Labour MP said "the police saved my life" after supporters of radical group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir clashed with members of his Respect party last night.

Where's a Saddam thug when you need him, eh George?

Then again, George's RESPECT people don't seem to have a lot of respect for others.

Ms King came under attack from Respect supporters at the weekend, it emerged today. One Labour activist, Mohamed Chowdhury, said: "We left the area to chants of "Oona get out' and 'get out of our estate' and were attacked with eggs again. However, when we returned to the car in Toynbee Street we found it covered in eggs. As we got in the car, more eggs were thrown".

UPDATE

The BBC decide to engage in their usual bias by omission in this report of the same incident.

Three men were arrested after a group began fighting at a political meeting addressed by George Galloway.

Up to 30 men shouted as the Respect party's Bethnal Green and Bow candidate spoke in Globe Road, east London.

Amazingly nowhere in this BBC article does it mention that these were Islamic militants from the radical group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir. Since Galloway is such a big fan of Saddam and anti-war candidate you would think who these attackers were merits a mention.

Standard fare for the BBC - bias by omission. Yesterdays BBC report on the confrontation between Galloway and Iraqi blogger Salam Pax, failed to mention Pax's charge to Galloway:

The Scotsman reports on what the BBC leave out.

Challenged by Mr Pax that only 21% of Iraqis want US and UK troops out of their country, Mr Galloway said there was no point in engaging in discussion “because you and I will never agree”.

If it doesn't fit the BBC's agenda it doesn't get reported.
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Zacarias Moussaoui And His Media Defense

Recently I posted about MSM's credibility problem and faking news stories. Now Tim Blair reminds us of MSM's defense of Moussaoui and how wrong they were.

Moussaoui ‘cleared over attacks’—Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 2003

Just how bad is this Sydney Moring Herald article? Well, it is an Agence France-Presse release quoting Time magazine quoting "unidentified sources as saying the FBI"... .

So, to recap, thats AFP says Time says and unidentified source says the FBI says "FBI has long believed that the Moroccan-born Frenchman "played no part in the 9/11 scheme ...

No wonder the SMH is silent on Moussaoui Planning To Admit 9/11 Role.
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Islam Is Incompatible With Democracy

Front Page has some insights.

Democracy implies equality. But equality is unacceptable in Islam. Un-believers cannot be equal to believers and women are not equal to men. Even the non-Muslims are not deemed to be equal. The People of the Book (Jews and Christians) are accepted as second class citizens and allowed to live in an Islamic state provided they pay the protection tax; Jizyah. But the pagans, atheists and idolaters are not regarded as fully humans. According to the Quran, the idolaters are to be killed wherever they are found. (9:5)

In the April 9, 2002 issue, The Wall Street Journal published the concept of blood money in Saudi Arabia. If a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the latter has to pay blood money or compensation, as follow.

100,000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man
50,000 riyals if a Muslim woman
50,000 riyals if a Christian man
25,000 riyals if a Christian woman
6,666 riyals if a Hindu man
3,333 riyals if a Hindu woman

According to this hierarchy, a Muslim man's life is worth 33 times that of a Hindu woman. This hierarchy is based on the Islamic definition of human rights and is rooted in the Quran and Sharia (Islamic law). How can we talk of democracy when the concept of equality in Islam is inexistent?

How indeed.
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Donaldson: Network News Dead

Broadcasting and Cable reports "Former ABC News reporter/anchor Sam Donaldson is ready to say the last rites for network news because it will soon lose its dominant position as Americans' primary source of news. "I think it's dead. Sorry," he said during a breakfast panel Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters' convention in Las Vegas. "The monster anchors are through."

At least they give credit to bloggers.

The three also agreed that that Internet bloggers have had a generally positive impact on news because mainstream reporters are forced to better verify their information and pare opinions out of their work or face he wrath of scrutinizing critics.

We're not quite that far yet.
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Iraq - Chicken George Runs

Welcome Instapundit readers! Thanks for the link Glenn! Please check out the rest of my blog at USS Neverdock

When confronted by an Iraqi who supports the US/UK liberation of his country, what did Geroge Galloway do? Chicken Geroge ran.

"I know who you are," said Mr Galloway, warily eyeing Mr Pax, whose weblog gave the world an insight into the lives of ordinary Iraqis in the run-up to the US-led invasion.

Mr Pax wanted to know why Mr Galloway wanted the immediate withdrawal of occupying troops from Iraq.

"I really don't think we are going to agree on this. You supported the war and I opposed it," said Mr Galloway.

"You welcomed the invasion of foreign armies into your country. I opposed it. So we are not going to agree on this, which is why I didn't think it would be productive to have a discussion with you and I do have to go now."

As is the usual case for the BBC they leave out a very important detail. The detail in this case had a direct bearing on the confrontation between Chicken George and Salam Pax. The Scotsman reports on what the BBC leave out.

Challenged by Mr Pax that only 21% of Iraqis want US and UK troops out of their country, Mr Galloway said there was no point in engaging in discussion “because you and I will never agree”.

Let's hope Chicken George loses and is discarded to the dustbin of history - until his Oil for food trial that is.

UPDATE

Galloway attacked by mob of Muslims!!
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UN - Another Annan Adviser Implicated

Yesterday Roger Simon noted a Claudia Rosett article speculating about the possible involvement of "Maurice Strong, special adviser to the secretary-general since 1999 and currently Mr. Annan's personal envoy to the Korean Peninsula" in the UN oil for food scandal.

The New York Sun is not asserting, or even suggesting, that Mr. Strong himself is one of the U.N. officials in question. But Mr. Strong's history indicates he might be especially well-placed to offer insights into at least the likely identity of U.N. official #2, who according to the indictment had family business ties to Canada, and along with U.N. official...

Now The Australian reports on more evidence.

KOFI Annan's leadership of the UN is under renewed pressure after one of his key advisers admitted to financial links with Tongsun Park, the shadowy South Korean businessman and former playboy spy at the centre of US investigations into Iraq's oil-for-food scandal.

Canadian Maurice Strong, a close adviser to Mr Annan and his special envoy to Korea, admitted Mr Park had invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997 - the first full year of the oil-for-food program - but denied the funding had anything to do with Iraq.

And the plot thickens.

The court documents also refer to a "UN Official No1", believed to be former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Dr Boutros-Ghali was heavily involved in the early planning for the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s, a period when he was known to be close to Mr Park.

UN insiders say the relationship was fostered by the late Ismat Kittani, Saddam's foreign minister and ambassador to the UN in the 1980s.

In the 1990s Mr Kittani was employed as an adviser by DrBoutros-Ghali and Mr Annan. Dr Boutros-Ghali has refused to comment.

Wait, there's more!

Revelations last night that Mr Strong had served with Mr Annan's disgraced son Kojo on the board of a Saudi-based company would further heighten the scepticism.

Strange Volcker missed all this.

Lots of fleas on this dog.
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Islam And The New Pope

While the old Pope was said to be reaching out to Islam, the new one may have a different agenda as this Telegraph article from last year points out.

If Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope, it is safe to assume that the reconversion of Europe would be his aim. But is this guardian of Vatican orthodoxy ready to consider compromise on matters of doctrine for the sake of a united Christian front against secularism and jihad? It is an enticing prospect.

We shall see.
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Islam - Protesters storm Muslim Council

ITV reports "Suspected Islamic militants have stormed a news conference being organised by the Muslim Council of Britain."

But a group of 15 men, two of them masked, broke into the mosque in Regent's Park and amid chaotic scenes condemned the Muslim Council as a "mouthpiece" for Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush.

The men said they represented the Saviour Sect, believed to contain former members of the disbanded al-Muhajiroun group and be headed by firebrand cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. [...]

One protester threw a punch at MCB secretary general Iqbal Sacranie but only succeeded in knocking off his glasses.

As I've said before:

There's Islam again, that religion of tolerance and peace. Strange, just yesterday the UK Met Chief assured us that 99.9% of Muslims are law-abiding.

The Muslim Council of Britain is considered "the" moderate voice of Muslims in Britain. Here is what their leader, Iqbal Sacranie, recently had to say about Muslim terrorists.

'There is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist. This is deeply offensive.

Still feel that way Iqbal?

UPDATE

Is it the case, as the Met Chief puts it, that 99.9% of Muslims are law abiding or is it a case of the police turning a blind eye?

The group shouted militant slogans from the centre of the meeting room, surrounded by the media. As they left they were unchallenged by around 10 police officers standing outside.

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Islam - 'The Trouble with Islam'

Irshad Manji is to speak in Britain on 12 May.

Muslim, lesbian, feminist, writer, scholar and TV personality - Irshad Manji is all these things and the controversial best-selling author of 'The Trouble with Islam...' She will be speaking in London on Thursday 12 May 2005, hosted by the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement and other organisations.

Let's see how the religion of peace and tolerance welcomes her.

In case you are not familiar with her, here is a good primer.

Hint:

"Irshad Manji does not drink alcohol and she does not eat pork. In every other respect, she is Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare."

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Iraq - Telegraph Galloway Ruling

Great news! The Telegraph reports "The Telegraph won permission yesterday to appeal against a High Court ruling in December that George Galloway, the former Labour MP, had been "seriously defamed" when the newspaper published documents about him that it found in Iraq two years ago today."

Note the original trial did not clear Galloway; the trial wasn't about that. The trial merely found:

Although the newspaper had never sought to prove that the information included in the documents was true, it claimed that it was entitled in the public interest to publish the documents and to comment on them. But the judge said the Telegraph had "embraced and embellished" the documents, instead of just reporting them neutrally.

Maybe the US will have more luck finding more documents to convict Galloway.
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Jihad at Manchester (US) Community College

Front Page has this disturbing story.

Earlier this year, Michael Abdelmessih was hired by Manchester Community College (MCC) in Connecticut to teach a noncredit course titled “Understanding Militant Islamic Fundamentalism.” As of last Friday, however, Abdelmessih, a Coptic Christian who holds an MS degree in Political Science from Southern Connecticut State University, is out of a job, replaced by a Muslim professor.

Not a peep from the ACLU. But someone is stepping up to help.

Michael Meunier, president of the Washington, D.C-based U.S. Coptic Association—and who knows Abdelmessih—vowed Abdelmessih "will not walk out of [MCC] without exposing the enormous power Muslim activists are having on the academic freedom we have in the U.S." Meunier’s office is working on the case and he hopes that it can have a coordinated response.

Many terrorists around the world are educated at Western universities. In fact Western universities and the ACLU are just two of the stated strategies in Islam's war plan for the west.

These strategies are being employed here in Britain as well.

HOSTILITY to Jewish students at British universities could escalate this week with moves by academics to boycott Israeli goods and set up links with Palestinian organisations.

Luciana Berger, 23, a close friend of Euan Blair, the prime minister’s son, described last week how she had been forced to resign from the executive committee of the National Union of Students (NUS) after being abused and spat at by left-wing undergraduates and Muslim activists because she is Jewish.

Ah, Islam, the religion of tolerance and peace.
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Palestinian Propaganda Promoted In Britain

Melanie Phillips writes on the British theatre promoting Palestinian propaganda.

‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’, a dramatised version of the writings of the International Solidarity Movement activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in disputed circumstances while attempting to prevent the destruction of Palestinian houses, has received the kind of enthusiastic reviews one would expect from an intelligentsia which has almost universally inverted victim and murderer in the Arab war against Israel.

As Melanie notes, only The Times (UK) refuses to join the Palestinian propaganda machine.

As she jots down thoughts in her notebook and fires off e-mails to her parents, she declares that “the vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance”. Even the late Yassir Arafat might have blushed at that one’.

Some of Melanie's readers remind us of the other "Rachels" killed by this "Gandhian non-violent resistance".

'1. My Name is Rachel Levy (Israeli girl age 17, blown up in a grocery store)
2. My Name is Rachel Thaler (Israeli girl aged 16, blown up in a pizzeria)
3. My Name is Rachel Levi (Israeli girl aged 19, murdered while waiting for the bus)
4. My Name is Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband and son while at home)
5. My Name is Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a cafe)
6. My Name is Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 6 while sitting at home)’

As Steven Plaut observes on his own website:

‘It would be interesting knowing how many of THESE Rachels were murdered with explosives smuggled in through the same tunnels that Rachel Corrie and her ISM pro-terrorist friends were "defending”!’

Front Page has a great round up of Corrie's and the ISM's background.

Melanie also points out in this article that people like Corrie are doing more harm than good.

Everyone assumes that the Palestinians all want nothing more than to live under Palestinian rule. But in this article, Daniel Pipes has assembled telling evidence that, on the contrary, many Arabs who are already living in Israel, in Jerusalem and in the 'Galilee triangle', view the prospect with horror. They would prefer, they say, to live under Israeli rule:

But in a sign of how far to the left Britain has moved, British academics want to boycott Israeli goods.

HOSTILITY to Jewish students at British universities could escalate this week with moves by academics to boycott Israeli goods and set up links with Palestinian organisations.

Luciana Berger, 23, a close friend of Euan Blair, the prime minister’s son, described last week how she had been forced to resign from the executive committee of the National Union of Students (NUS) after being abused and spat at by left-wing undergraduates and Muslim activists because she is Jewish.

There's Islam again, that religion of tolerance and peace. Strange, just yesterday the UK Met Chief assured us that 99.9% of Muslims are law-abiding. Maybe that doesn't apply to Jews.

The left continue to be on the wrong side of history.
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Air America Radio Founders

The LA Times reports on why liberal talk radio is so bad. They should have written about why right wing radio is so good.

The liberal Air America Radio, just past its first birthday, has probably enjoyed more free publicity than any enterprise in recent history. But don't believe the hype: Air America's left-wing answer to conservative talk radio is failing, just as previous efforts to find liberal Rush Limbaughs have failed.

At least they admit that the liberal media tried and failed to help their buddies at Air America.

So, why is liberal radio failing around the country? According to the LA Times, it's because right wingers are stupid.

So why do liberals fare so poorly on air? Some on the left say it's because liberals are, well, smarter and can't convey their sophisticated ideas to the rubes who listen to talk radio. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, whose own stint as a talk-show host was a ratings disaster, gave canonical expression to this self-serving view. Conservatives "write their messages with crayons," he maintained. "We use fine-point quills."

At least right wingers are smart enough to turn off Air America. We are told over and over how America is almost evenly split between liberals and conservatives. If that's the case how come liberals are not supporting liberal radio like conservatives support their stations? Is it that their ideas are sophisticated or just plain dumb?

Even while writing about the demise of liberal radio, The Times gets its digs in at the conservatives.

Yet even if we were to grant the premise that conservative talk radio can sometimes be crudely simplistic — a tough charge to make stick against, say, one-time philosophy professor Bennett or Clarence Thomas' former law clerk Laura Ingraham — how can anyone plausibly believe the right has a monopoly on misleading argument? Moreover, talk-show fans aren't dummies. Industry surveys show that talk-radio fans vote in greater percentages than the general public, tend to be college-educated and read more magazines and newspapers than the average American.

Let me get this straight - right wing radio is "crudely simplistic" and has "a monopoly on misleading argument" but is listened to by well educated people. See, told you liberals had dumb ideas.

The LAT goes on to explain why "Successful talk radio is conservative for three reasons".

Guess what the first reason is? Entertainment! The well educated people who read more magazines and newspapers listen to conservative radio to get a laugh. But surely liberals can be funny; just look at John Kerry. Not according to the LAT.

Besides, the triumph of political correctness on the left makes it hard for on-air liberals to lighten things up without offending anyone.

Anyone except people on the right.

At least the LAT nails National Public Radio for what it is.

The potential audience for Air America or similar ventures is thus pretty small — white liberals, basically. And they've already got NPR.

Which is why we should stop paying for NPR with tax payer dollars.

The LAT is finally getting closer to the real reason conservative radio and cable news, like Fox, is so successful.

Liberal bias in the old media. That's what birthed talk radio in the first place. People turn to it to help right the imbalance. Political scientist William Mayer, writing in the Public Interest, recently observed that liberals don't need talk radio because they've got the big three networks, most national and local daily newspapers and NPR.

Well, if "liberals don't need talk radio" why launch Air America in the first place?

The emerging conservative media is like an archeologist light being shown into a long locked tomb and seeing something no one else has seen for centuries - the truth. And as the article points out the left is so afraid of the truth getting out that they have taken to denouncing conservative media and calling for laws to regulate them.

The article reaches the right conclusion - finally.

Sure, talk radio is partisan, sometimes overheated. But it's also a source of argument and information. Together with Fox News and the blogosphere, it has given the right a chance to break through the liberal monoculture and be heard. For that, anyone who supports spirited public debate should be grateful.

But as we've just seen, the liberals are mad and afraid of public debate; something they've controlled for far too long.
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Islam - Holland Honour Killing

More from the so called religion of peace.

The victim was a non-practising Muslim and had a child in 2004 by her non-Muslim boyfriend. She was killed 15 days after the birth of the baby.

Her brother had allegedly regularly threatened the victim, and she had made a complaint to police in November 2004, shortly before her death.

Let's not forget Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam.

Theo van Gogh, a descendant of the brother of 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, was gunned down as he cycled to work in Amsterdam on Nov. 2. He begged for mercy but prosecutors say the accused shot and stabbed him before slashing his throat.

Seems the Danish Queen is right when she says:

"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance," she said.

Well said.

Meanwhile here in the UK, the Met Chief assures us things are just fine.

Speaking on the BBC show, he added: "99.9% of Muslims and 99.9% of Asians are law-abiding people and we've got to support them in that and understand the difference.

Well now Chief, it looks like someone forgot to tell the UK's Holy Men Of Hate.
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