Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Islam - Forces of Evil Gathering

World War IV continues unabated and now the forces of evil are gathering.

Muslims, ACLU join forces.

They are Muslims, anarchists and peace activists. They may not have much in common, but two dozen groups and individuals in the St. Louis area united this month to denounce the FBI, claiming the agency is carrying out unwarranted investigations for religious or political reasons.


There are other Unholy Alliances

Mohammad Basirul Haq Sinha: "You often call for uniting Muslim and progressive forces globally. How far is it possible under current situation?"

Galloway: "Not only do I think it's possible but I think it is vitally necessary and I think it is happening already. It is possible because the progressive movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies. Their enemies are the Zionist occupation, American occupation, British occupation of poor countries mainly Muslim countries.


And the world's media have opened a new front for the terrorists.

It's become increasingly clear in recent weeks that a second front has opened in the War on Terror. Now, not only is the United States battling Islamic terrorism and its state supporters, it's facing another enemy. That enemy is the mainstream news media that is aided by its allies among so-called international human rights organizations, the anti-American left, and detractors within our own military, government and intelligence services who are leaking as much dirt as they can muster. The mainstream news media is doing all it can to defeat the United States abroad.


While the communist led anti-war movement act as cheerleaders.

The enemy is cunning, well funded and has a great war plan.

Despite all our success in Afghanistan and Iraq we have yet to fully engage the enemy.

In short, as the presidentÂ’s critics are rightly reminding him, more time has passed since 9/11 than transpired between Pearl Harbor and the surrender of the Japanese empire, and our most lethal enemies are still in power and still killing our people and our friends. It is good that the desire for freedom is now manifest among the oppressed peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia, and it is very good that dramatic strides toward self-government have been taken by the Georgians, Kyrgistanis, Ukrainians, Iraqis, and Lebanese. But it is not good enough. Indeed, it is shameful that we have yet to seriously challenge the legitimacy of the terror masters in Tehran and Damascus, who represent the keystone of the terrorist edifice.

Our enemies know this, because, to their delight and perhaps their surprise as well, they are still in power throughout the Middle East. Until and unless they are removed, the terror war will continue, our friends in the region will be killed, tortured, and incarcerated, and the president’s vision of regional democratic revolution will go down the memory hole. He is at yet another great turning point, and, as after the fall of Afghanistan and again after the defenestration of Saddam’s Baghdad, he is drifting, perhaps hoping that he has risked enough, that history is firmly on his side, and even — although it is hard to imagine — that the Europeans are helping the spread of freedom.

It is not so. In matters of war, peace, and revolution, winners are characterized by the constancy of their vision and the relentlessness of their pursuit of it. The French, Germans, and British are trying to restrain the revolution, not to encourage it, as their pathetic vaudeville-style negotiations with Iran abundantly demonstrate. One expects to hear one of their foreign ministers on the evening news, pronouncing Groucho’s immortal words: "I got principles. And if you don’t like ‘em, I got other principles..."


This is a war the likes of which no one has ever seen before and too many people are unaware of the gathering evil. Hiding in the guise of a religion, our enemy preys upon our freedoms, uses our laws against us and gathers an unholy alliance from within and without to defeat us.

Wake up people, wake up.
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America - New Front in War on Terror

Front Page nails it.

It's become increasingly clear in recent weeks that a second front has opened in the War on Terror. Now, not only is the United States battling Islamic terrorism and its state supporters, it's facing another enemy. That enemy is the mainstream news media that is aided by its allies among so-called international human rights organizations, the anti-American left, and detractors within our own military, government and intelligence services who are leaking as much dirt as they can muster. The mainstream news media is doing all it can to defeat the United States abroad.

The mainstream news media for the most part has long had it out for President Bush as well as being transparently opposed to the war in Iraq. But beginning with the Abu Ghraib story, it started focusing almost solely on the U.S. military. The obsession with Abu Ghraib began a narrative in which U.S. soldiers were always the bad guys and the terrorists they fought just innocent victims of American "oppression" or even "imperialism."


A must read.
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Middle East - Palestinians Don't Want Peace

Want proof? Ok.

Abu Mazen says that "Without Progress, We Will Return to Armed Resistance".

But how can there be progress when Hamas "rejects Abbas call to renounce violence".

GAZA CITY (AFP) - The radical Islamist group Hamas rejected calls from Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas for the movement to renounce violence and hold dialogue with the ruling Fatah party.

"We think that the past experience of our people with the Israeli occupation confirms that resistance is the main language that this occupation understands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP in Gaza City.


And Hamas is busy turning Gaza into its own state.

The intelligence agencies of the US and Israel are aware of the fact stated by Dichter and the outgoing IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, that large quantities of weapons are being constantly smuggled to the Gaza Strip. In 2004 alone about 10,000 automatic rifles and a 1,000 RPG anti-tank weapons were smuggled in.

The dimensions of the smuggling have now reached a new peak since the IDF is hesitant to carry out military operations in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are digging additional tunnels both for smuggling weapons and for perpetrating terrorist attacks against IDF bases and the settlements that are about to be uprooted.


Meanwhile the Palestinians are busy murdering anyone who would try and create peace.

Murdered Al-Rantissi is one of the main Palestinian figures who drafted the controversial Geneva agreement between Israeli and Palestinian figures Including Abd Rabbou.


Anyone who thought the death of Arafat would be a watershed for peace, had better think again.
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Europe - an indulgence we can't afford

At his usual best, Mark Steyn writes on why the French voted no to the EU constitution and why "Europe" is a failure.

He sums it up this way:

They're gone now. But their spirit lives on in the EU, critically admired (at least by the Guardian and Le Monde) but not making any money, and clinging to the theory that if you merge enough weak economies they add up to one global superpower. The big story of the past three decades is that the more it's mired itself in the creation of a centralised pseudo-state, the more "Europe" has fallen behind America in every important long-term indicator, from economic growth to demographics. "Europe" is an indulgence the real Europe can't afford. The followers recognise that, even if the leaders don't.


Which is one of the reasons why "they hate us".
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Korea - Stealth Fighters to the South

Earlier this month I noted the US had moved stealth bombers to Guam - indefinitely.

Now comes news that stealth fighters have been deployed to South Korea.

Stealth bombers on Guam and stealth fighters in South Korea are things that make you go "mmmmm".

UPDATE

The Telegraph (UK) reports US Vice President Cheney launches tirade against N Korea just 48 hours after the US announced it was sending 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters to South Korea - for an undetermined period.

So, the bombers are on Guam indefinitely and the fighters are in South Korea for an undetermined period. Interesting.

And this comment from Cheney is telling:

But Pyongyang would need to "understand that they're not going to have normal relationships with the outside world in terms of commerce, industry and trade if they become a nuclear power".


Tucked way down in the article is this little nugget:

It has also quietly ended food aid to the regime amid suspicions that the North Koreans were using it to feed the country's elite.


While China threatens Taiwan the US threatens North Korea. The difference however, is Taiwan doesn't have nuclear ambitions. Do you think Bush would make a trade with China? China gets Taiwan and the US "gets" North Korea.
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Monday, May 30, 2005

Lite blogging today

Lite blogging today as I'm off to bury a dear friend and then give him a good send off at the pub.

Charlie was 75 and died in his sleep, which is how I want to go.

Charlie was the type of guy that gives a pub it's character. He visited often, did his crossword and had a wee bet on the horses; he even won sometimes.

Even though he was a pensioner with a modest income, Charlie always offered to stand his hand. Most refused and instead bought Charlie one.

I never heard Charlie ever speak ill of anyone.

He was in declining health these last few years but he still managed a smile and cheerful attitude.

Charlie will be missed by all.

RIP my friend.
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Bangladesh - Muslims Behead Christian

Jihad Watch reports.

JALALPUR, Bangladesh - A Baptist lay pastor has been beheaded in Bangladesh, the second Christian leader to lose his life in that country in a year, according to a Christian news organization.

Dulal Sarkar, 35, was attacked as he returned home from discussing his faith with local villagers, reported Compass Direct, which tracks incidents of Christian persecution. One source later identified the assailants as a group of 10 local Muslim extremists. After reporting the incident, Sarkur's wife, mother and five children have been forced to move from place to place in fear for their lives.


Tell me again how Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance.
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America - Re-writing History for Muslims

Thomas F. Madden notes Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, re-writes history for Muslims.

But I am not a film critic; I am a historian. As a historian it naturally irritates me that there are people who will leave theaters certain that Scott and his writer, William Monahan, have served up something that approximates reality in the Middle Ages. They haven’t. In fact, there is very little that is medieval about The Kingdom of Heaven. It is instead a mixture of 19th-century Romanticism and modern Hollywood wishful-thinking. The real Crusades began in 1095 as a response to centuries of Muslim conquests of Christian lands. Their purpose was to restore those territories, including the Holy Land, to Christian control. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was established by the First Crusade in 1099, was an outpost of European Christians planted in a largely Muslim world for the purpose of safeguarding the holy sites. Subsequent major Crusades were called in response to subsequent Muslim conquests.


He ends with this:

Ridley Scott has repeatedly said that this movie is “not a documentary” but a “story based on history.” The problem is that the story is poor and the history is worse. Based on media interviews, Scott, Monahan, and the leading actors clearly believe that their story can help bring peace to the world today. Lasting peace, though, would be better served by candidly facing the truths of our shared past, however politically incorrect those might be.


Yes it would.
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Middle East - The Truth About the Crusades

From Jihad Watch.

Proper context for the Crusades must begin at the beginning, with the First Crusade (1096-1099). Yet - and here is the point - even the First Crusade was not the real beginning of the story.

The real beginning came in the century following the death of Muhammad in 632. During that incredible hundred years, Muslims spread their religion by force throughout Arabia, and into the modern Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, as well as into Egypt, north Africa, and Spain. Further progress into Western Europe was stopped cold by Charles Martel and his Frankish warriors at the battle of Poitiers/Tours in 732.

It is easily forgotten that some of these territories had been heavily Christian when the Muslims took them over. No one today thinks of Syria and Egypt as Christian centers, but in the seventh century they certainly were. The ancient city of Antioch had been home to a school of Christian thought second only to that of Alexandria, and Egypt had been the birthplace of Christian monasticism...

As they say, read the rest.
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Israel - BBC Supporting Terrorists

Check out this mis-leading headline from the BBC.

Israel strikes Gaza refugee camp

Notice how the BBC portray Israel as the aggressor and evil for striking a "refugee camp". Just five words and you are left with the impression that Israel is striking at poor defenseless refugees. An impression created deliberately by the terrorist loving BBC.

It is not until the third paragraph that we are told this:

An Israeli military source said the strike targeted militants who were preparing a mortar attack.


So, the headline should read "Israel strikes Palestinian terrorists in Gaza". But that would be the truth - something that continually eludes the BBC.
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Sunday, May 29, 2005

Yemen - Supporting al Qaeda

Jihad Watch reports on the trouble with Yemen.

The Yemeni Ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani, is attempting to defect to the UK. He says that members of Al-Qaeda are in the highest ranks of Yemen's military and security forces. Al-Hasani says that it is very likely that President Ali Abdullah Saleh "knew in advance of the Cole explosion" which killed 17 U.S. servicemen. Indeed, Freedom House in 2003 reported that Saleh refused to even investigate the Cole bombing until the United States threatened military action. Also in 2003, al-Qaeda praised President Saleh as the only Arab and Muslim leader who is not an agent for the West or the East.

Currently President Saleh is refusing to act against terrorist financing, probably earning him more praise. Only one bank account in Yemen was frozen in response to a 2003 UN Security Council Sanctions Committee directive to freeze 144 terrorist affiliated accounts of persons, companies, and organizations. The other 143 terrorist associated bank accounts in Yemen remain fully functional. In 2004, the UN Sanctions Committee list of al-Qaeda owned Yemeni bank accounts was not even issued by the Yemeni government to Yemeni banks...


As they say, read the rest.
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Canada - Muslim's Reject Islamic Law

Good for them! Even better, this is being reported in The Daily Times of Pakistan.

Washington: The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has welcomed the Quebec National Assembly’s unanimous adoption of a motion declaring that no Muslim tribunals for family matters will be allowed in the province, and that the laws of Quebec will apply to all its residents, regardless of religion, ethnicity or culture.

The Council said, “This public motion is a courageous act and though it may be criticised by some, its message is strong that religious women will not be isolated and placed under any other form of law. Quebec has clearly understood that different laws for different citizens lead to discrimination and have nothing to do with multiculturalism or Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedom. Our regret is that the motion did not include a statement that no religious laws shall be used. This move towards separate laws, according to religion, is being advocated by other religious groups and is not restricted to Muslims only. We hope that Ontario will follow the same reasoning and demonstrate courage to state unequivocally that all Ontario families must be treated equally under the laws of the land.


And it's good to hear Muslims rejecting Islamic law.

Earlier, Liberal Party member of the Quebec Assembly Fatima Houda-Pepin, who introduced the motion, said sharia law would discriminate against women. She said fringe Muslim religious groups are seeking to use the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to impose religious values that undermine Canada’s democratic institutions. “Demanding the implementation of the sharia in Canada is a tantamount to a takeover attempt aimed at undermining our democracy, our system of justice.” Ms. Houda-Pepin, who is a Morocco-born Muslim, said that for the last few years, Canada has become the stage of an intensive battle for control of the Muslim community.


More of this please.
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Lebanon - Sunnis call for poll boycott

Gulf News reports.

Lebanon's Jama'a Islameyya has asked its supporters to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections because "they are fixed by the American and French governments".


Go ahead, look how well that worked out for you in Iraq.
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Britain - BBC Calls US Senators "Twats"

In a truly amazing display of anti-Americanism and bias, presenters of BBC Radio Scotland's "Off the Ball" football coverage are heard denigrating the US Senators who recently questioned George Galloway and at one point referred to them as "American twats".

The presenters were all over themselves sucking up to Galloway. They even tried to show how it was impossible for Galloway to have taken millions of barrels of oil from Saddam. Repeatedly asking him where he could store all those millions of barrels. Galloway responding by saying he would be the richest man in Britain if he had sold all those barrels at $25 a barrel.

What these idiots failed to grasp is that Galloway is not charged with taking possession of the barrels or getting the entire price for selling each barrel. He is charged with receiving vouchers for the oil which entitled him to a fraction of the price of each barrel.

Until it is removed you can listen to this disgusting display of anti-Americanism by the BBC here.

I'm an American married to a Scottish wife and live in Scotland. We have never heard such an appalling radio broadcast. The BBC owe all of Scotland and America an apology.

And the BBC claim they are not biased.

HT Biased BBC.
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America - Desecrating the Flag

The next time anyone reads a Koran desecration story, email a copy of this to the paper/reporter and remind them that Muslims burn our flag all the time. Our Flag is not a sacred book but it is sacred to us none the less. Even more so since it flies over all Americans - Muslims included.
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Iraq - Zarqawi Has Lost

There is mounting evidence that Zarqwai has lost the battle for Iraq.

First, he is running out of suicide bombers and now has to lie or decieve these mass murderers in order to get them to do his bidding. He has even had to start using dogs as replacements. Same thing really.

Next, he has failed to ignite a sectarian war as the Sunnis have joined the Army and the political process. More damage to Zarqawi's hopes comes from an agreement between two of Iraq's most influential Shiite and Sunni organizations.

An now, even ordinary Iraqis are fighting Zarqawi.

Meanwhile the Iraqi government has switched from a defensive posture to an offensive one with the announcement that 40,000 Iraqi troops are to deploy in and around Baghdad. The Iraqis will deny Zarqawi santuary in Baghdad while the US denies him santurary in the rest of Iraq - a classic squeeze play.

While the US rebuilds the country, the Sunnis join the military and political process and forge ties to the Shites, ordinary Iraqis turn on him, the Iraqi and US military denies him santuary, Zaraqwi lies mortally wounded.

Zarqawi is still a danger and more will die before he gets his, but there is no doubt that he has lost in Iraq.

UPDATE

And between US troops killing them and Syria arresting would be jihadists, Zarqawi will start to run out of troops.
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America - Purging Kerry's Military Files

The media and the blogsphere have been all abuzz lately about presidential wannabe John Kerry's claim that he has signed Form 180 which would allow the Navy to release all his military records; something he refused to do during the election. Some people point to this as proof Kerry has something to hide. Those people are holding their breath waiting for the records to become available. Well you can exhale. I don't think we are ever going to see "all" of his military records. The proof comes from Kerry himself who admits, on Don Imus's radio show this past Feb. 7th, that he intends to hide some of the records.

Last week the 2008 presidential hopeful suggested he wanted to review his full Navy file to make sure of "what is in the record and what isn't in the record" before signing Form 180.

"I'm going to sit down with them and make sure that they are clear and I am clear as to what is in the record and what isn't in the record and we'll put it out," he told "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert.

Kerry did not explain his reference to "what isn't in the record," though questions arose late in the campaign about why he received his honorable discharge six years after leaving the service.


What's with this we stuff, Kimosabe? You got mouse in pocket white man?

Note Kerry says, "clear as to what is in the record and what isn't in the record". I can hear the shredder from here in Scotland.

I'm no expert on military records and Form 180, but I have read recently that Kerry can advise the Navy as to which records he does not want released. I don't know if that's true or not, but this exchange with Imus sounds like Kerry is having his records purged of any damaging evidence.

UPDATE

Michelle provides this link which shows how "nuanced" Kerry will be able to claim that he has signed Form 180, as promised, and released "all" of his military records, as promised, while still not releasing all of his records, as promised. You watch.

2. Restrictions on release of information. Release of information is subject to restrictions imposed by the military services consistent with Department of Defense regulations and the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act of 1974. The service member (either past or present) or the member’s legal guardian has access to almost any information contained in that member’s own record. Others requesting information from military personnel/health records must have the release authorization in Section III of the SF 180 signed by the member or legal guardian, but if the appropriate signature cannot be obtained, only limited types of information can be provided. If the former member is deceased, surviving next of kin may, under certain circumstances, be entitled to greater access to a deceased veteran’s records than a member of the public. The next of kin may be any of the following: unremarried surviving spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, sister, or brother. Employers and others needing proof of military service are expected to accept the information shown on documents issued by the military service departments at the time a service member is separated.
Form SF 180


So, the new question to Kerry is, "have you signed section III?".
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Cuba - Communism Doesn't Work

Here's more proof from "the only one-party communist country in the Americas."

Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia had a somewhat discouraging bottom line: Cuba's power plants are obsolescent and require complex maintenance, which adds to the number of blackouts.

She said there are no spare parts readily available for the mostly vintage 1960s and 1970s Soviet- and Czech-technology plants. "You have to special-order them," which also contributes to blackout woes, she said.

Yet "May and June are very difficult months, with a lot of tensions," she said, and power simply will not be able to be kept flowing at all times.

She said blackouts would continue for now, but did not give a date as to when they might stop.

Castro grilled state power company officials on the program, and they revealed that they need to replace 17,000 kilometers (10,563 miles) of power lines and 44,000 power line poles to modernize the country's distribution system.

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Iraq - Zarqawi's Clash With Local Sunnis

The Washington Post reports on local Iraqis fighting Zarqawi.

BAGHDAD, May 28 -- For four days this month, U.S. Marines were onlookers at just the kind of fight they had hoped to see: a battle between suspected followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a foreign-born insurgent, and Iraqi Sunni tribal fighters at the western frontier town of Husaybah.

In clashes sparked by the assassination of a tribal sheik, which was commissioned by Zarqawi, the foreign insurgents and the Iraqi tribal fighters pounded one another with small weapons and mortars in the town's streets as the U.S. military watched from a distance, tribal members and the U.S. military said.


Things are not looking too good for Zarqawi.
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Saturday, May 28, 2005

America - Foleygate Heating Up

Yesterday I posted about Thomas Lipscomb's email to his collegues wherein he asked them:

This is a key moment in media history. So far NO ONE in MSM is covering this but my Chicago Sun-Times story and an item in the Washington Times. WHY? How do you account for it? Are you going to let this drop?


Looks like his email is getting some response.

I take my membership in the Guild very seriously. That's why I was dismayed to learn that you, the president of my union, made a speech on May 13 in which you asserted that the US military has deliberately killed journalists. The relevant portion of the speech was videotaped and is available for viewing here.

Since then, you have failed to provide supporting evidence for your remarks, but neither have you retracted them. I spoke with you at 11:10 AM today by telephone; union secretary-treasurer Bernard Lunzer was also on the call.

When I told you that I would publish your response to me on the Internet, you declined further comment--except for the following: "I am not going to discuss this with you on the eve of Memorial Day weekend."

This remark strikes me as extremely odd. I can't think of a better time to redeem the honor of the US military by beginning a serious investigation of outrageous conduct on its part. If our soldiers are deliberately killing journalists, it's our duty to publicize it, so that such a terrible stain on our nation's integrity may be quickly cleansed.


But as Lipscomb notes: Her spokesperson, Candice Johnson, told me Foley can provide “no evidence” to support her charges either.

Keep the heat up.
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America - CNN Listening to bloggers?

Fresh Bilge reports on a show he caught recently on CNN.

Flipping cable channels yesterday afternoon, I chanced upon a CNN feature that astonished me. It was a roundup of opinion by leading blogs. Is this where the 'news' stations are headed? The screenshot sampler predictably began on the hard left, with Daily Kos, then it edged reluctantly rightward -- calling Andrew Sullivan a 'conservative,' which might be true in Britain, but not in the US. Eventually CNN reached the neo-cons of Power Line. It even included USS Neverdock, a site reciprocally linked by Fresh Bilge. Perhaps I should have gone wholly into politics from the start, like these other bloggers. Then I could get quoted by CNN. But I would not be free to describe Doggy Heaven, or to snarl like the Imperial Rottweiler, although I rarely do that. Poor CNN doesn't even rate a curled lip any more. It would be cruel to snarl at a chihuahua.


I'm no fan of CNN but we all need publicity.

Wouldn't it be great if MSM started getting input from bloggers?
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Islam - resisting dhimmitude

Diana West writes about Hollywood's bowing to Muslim pressure when it comes to how Muslims are portrayed. She also notes the wider implications.

Still, maybe the creators of "24" deserve a medal, considering the total silence of their fellow movie- and television-makers when it comes to the war on jihadist terror. War, what war? Culture clash? What culture clash? Freedom — what kind of freedom? Hollywood and the media may be "brave" and "bold" in fearlessly depicting sexuality, violence and the perversions therein, but they're cultural cowards when it comes to depicting — even mentioning — matters of war, Islam and jihad. Call it dhimmitude, Hollywood-style.

While the term dhimmitude, coined by historian Bat Ye'or, refers to the inferior status of Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule, she also points to disturbing signs of dhimmitude throughout the free West. These range from the politically correct fear of giving offense, which curtails freedom of speech (think Fox punting Islam), to the fear of jihadist violence, which curtails freedom of movement, and even the free practice of religion (think armed guards at synagogues).

An unlikely moviemaker who refuses to accept dhimmi conditions is Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ms. Ali is the amazingly courageous 35-year-old [tk] Somali-born ex-Muslim and Dutch parliamentarian whose first foray into moviemaking is a provocative 11-minute film called "Submission." Directed by Theo van Gogh — who was ritualistically murdered on an Amsterdam street last fall, his head nearly severed from his body, a jihadist rant pinned to his chest with a knife" — Submission" depicts the brutalized plight of all too many women at the hands of men under Islam, a political issue championed by Ms. Ali. For exercising her freedom of speech, Ms. Ali now lives under an Islamically imposed death sentence (fatwa). She also lives under lock and key, guarded 24 hours a day, and transported everywhere in an armored vehicle.

Such is the going price of freedom in Holland, just another ultra-liberal, Western country besieged by jihadists. "This fatwa isn't just directed against me," she explains, "but against Holland, against the entire Western world. We are all targets. In the eyes of radical Muslims, any country in which Muslims can be criticized openly is an enemy of Islam."


One thing these people can stop doing is blaiming all this on radical Muslims. Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hasani, a representative of Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, says.

"Freedom, democracy and stupidities of this type cannot be carried over to any part, and these concepts are out of sync with the principles of Islam..."


And Iqbal Sacranie, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, the so called moderate voice of Muslims in Britain, says there is no such thing as a Muslim terrorist.

The problem doesn't lie with just radical Muslims, it lies with all of Islam.
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Islam - Muslisms burning the Koran. Where are the Muslim protests over this? Muslims riot and rampage over a bogus allegation that the US desecrated the Koran but say nothing when Muslims burn the Koran? I suspect these protests have nothing to do with the Koran. Posted by Hello

Lebanon - Birth of a Nation

The Wall Street Journal reports on the new Lebanon.

What is remarkable is that what began as an alliance of convenience between Christians, Sunnis and Druze to expel Syria has not only survived Syria's departure, but has deepened into an alliance of shared convictions. Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik and likely the next prime minister, is running an interdenominational slate of candidates in the parliamentary elections tomorrow. Across nearly the entire political spectrum, candidates advocate the same things: Eradicate what remains of Syria's influence in the army, intelligence services and the government; establish an independent judiciary; use the discipline of Lebanon's $34 billion debt to trim the budget and privatize state-owned assets.

"We need to keep this momentum for reform going," says Yassin Jaber, a Shiite parliamentarian. "To the Arab world, the revolution in Ukraine meant nothing. But Lebanon really means something. If we're going to be the ones carrying the message of change, we have to make sure the change is good." Even more surprising is how wide the support is for ending the confessional system. "Muslims as well as Christians consider that they need to rebuild a country based on freedom and democracy beyond the logic of communities," says Amin Gemayal, a Maronite former president whose community has the most to lose from ending the system.


How long before the Syrians and Egyptians want their freedom?

As the Journal notes, there is no going back.

But perhaps the apparent nonchalance of most Lebanese is warranted. Wherever I go here, the impression is of a people intent on making up for lost time, and determined never again to be dragged down by extremism. It is these Lebanese, one senses, and not Hezbollah, who are making the country anew, and who are doing so, at long last, in the absence of fear.


Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, whose next?
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I've decided to give Ad Sense a try. We'll see how it goes.
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Islam - No to freedom and democracy

That's what Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hasani, a representative of Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, says.

"Freedom, democracy and stupidities of this type cannot be carried over to any part, and these concepts are out of sync with the principles of Islam," said Hasani, the imam who led Friday prayers in the main city of western Iranian Azerbaijian.

"Islam always spoke with the sword in the hand and I don't see why now we have changed attitudes and talk with the other civilisations."


And what type of sword does Hasani want?

"You need to vote for Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani," said Hasani. "This way we will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb to fairly stand up to Israeli weapons," said Hasani.


That clear enough for all the Muslim apologists out there?
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Iraq - Running out of suicide bombers?

Muslims terrorists in Iraq want us to believe that followers of Islam are so devout that they are willing to commit mass murder in order to drive the infidel Americans out of their holy land. The media portray the situation as a never ending supply of zealous Muslims prepared to be martyred in the name of Allah.

The reality is they are neither devout nor martyrs. Sometimes they are drivers hired to transport explosives and, unbeknownst to them, the explosives are remotely detonated when the truck passes the target. In short, they are hired and tricked into being a mass murderer.

Sometimes they are hired and lied to as to what the target is.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Wisam Younis' sole ambition in life, he said Friday, is to kill Americans. So he claimed surprise when he discovered his car bomb had killed eight Iraqis and wounded more than 80 outside a Baghdad restaurant. Younis and brothers Badr and Yassin Shakir are charged with murder and face the death penalty in the May 23 attack.

``We did not know that the attack would target innocent people and we were deceived. We were eluded by enthusiastic ideas and money,'' said Younis, barefooted and with bruised and swollen hands. An insurgent leader promised him $1,500 for the bombing, he said.


If he is such a devout Muslim and his sole ambition was to kill Americans, why did he need to be lured into the deed with the promise of money? Sounds capitalist to me.

In a sign of just how desperate the terrorists are, they are now using dogs for mass murder.

Come to think of it, that's what they've been using all along.
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America celebrates Memorial Day. Thanks to all our military men and women. Posted by Hello

Islam - Muslim hypocrisy

Indonesia bombing kills 19

Bomb kills 17 at Pakistan shrine

Muslims protest U.S. from Asia to Mideast over Alleged desecration of Quran
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Friday, May 27, 2005

America - Targeting Journalist: No Evidence

Linda Foley now admits she has no evidence that the US military targets journalists.

In a must read, Thomas Lipscomb hits every nail on the head with this article.

Foley had the advantage of seeing what happened to Jordan and, as the head of a powerful union of 35,000 journalists and media workers, she knew anything she said about targeting journalists would likely be scrutinized. So one would expect that she has a pretty solid case for her revival of the discredited Jordan charges? But one would be wrong. Her spokesperson, Candice Johnson, told me Foley can provide “no evidence” to support her charges either.


As Lipscomb points out:

Sherlock Holmes’s key clue to who stole the racehorse in “Silver Blaze” was a dog in the stall that didn’t bark. And something equally odd happened on the way to the Foley firestorm: To date, not a single pundit, editorial writer, or newspaper ran anything, with the exception of the Chicago Sun-Times story I wrote, a St. Paul Pioneer Press column by Mark Yost, and a Washington Times column item.

Clearly Foley was correct in assuming the Right was the only danger to her repetition of the statement that got Eason Jordan canned. The Mainstream Media couldn’t be bothered to cover “Easongate: The Sequel.” And positioning Foley as the gallant defender of the lives of journalists targeted by the U.S. military was inspired PR. After all, Sherlock Holmes’s dog didn’t bark because he was good friends with the thief.


He ends with this:

If the most basic tenets of Journalism 101 are now no longer important enough for the media itself to honor and defend against their own members who violate them, where is the professionalism and the authority that is our main claim to writing the indispensable “first draft of history” – much less its value for sale? And if we lose sight of that irretrievably, who needs us? There are bloggers out there today with more credibility than Dan Rather, Mary Mapes, Eason Jordan, and Linda Foley combined, and their audiences are growing.

If Foley is allowed to walk unchallenged from what Mencken might have called “a clear, simple, and” unproven statement, it will only accelerate the speed at which her members lose what is left of their credibility--and then their jobs. (Look at The New York Times newsroom downsizing this week.) If the press isn’t going to take its own standards seriously, it is hard to think of why anyone should take the press seriously enough to pay for it. In the meantime, Rupert Murdoch’s and Roger Ailes’s success offers a constant unpleasant reminder: the media market prefers dogs that bark.


Since she can't put up time to pack up.

Powerline has an email Lipscomb sent to his media colleagues.

This is a key moment in media history. So far NO ONE in MSM is covering this but my Chicago Sun-Times story and an item in the Washington Times. WHY? How do you account for it? Are you going to let this drop?

If we do… are you ready to support a Eason Jordan’s suit for reinstatement? HE did exactly the same thing as Linda Foley at the Newspaper Guild. Why the separate and unequal treatment?

Email me back off the record. I’d like your opinion as to what is going on here.

Good for Editor & Publisher for having the guts to run this...

I hope this helps tee up the issues… this is something we all better look into seriously before former American MSM employees are blogging for pennies.

And if we let this pass...we don’t deserve much more.


Brilliant!
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Iraq - Syrian intelligence officer captured

The Daily Star of Lebanon reports.

BEIRUT: A Syrian intelligence officer detained in Baghdad has admitted to launching the missile attack on the late premier Rafik Hariri's Future Television in June 2003, according to Al-Rai al-Aam Kuwaiti newspaper. In an article published on Wednesday, the newspaper said Hussein Ahmad Tah, 32, was arrested by Iraqi police when he was attempting to assassinate employees in an Iraqi public institution. Following his arrest, Tah decided to admit to his previous crimes, among which is the Future TV bombing.

Tah said he worked for Syrian intelligence services, adding that he worked for a long time in Lebanon where he perpetrated several attacks. He then moved to Iraq, where he committed several attacks against mosques and Iraqi civilians. Security sources in Iraq said that Tah recounted the details of the attack on Future TV. The television station, situated near Raouche in Beirut, was attacked on June 15, 2003, resulting in the destruction of one of the newsrooms. No casualties were reported. The attack was considered as a message to then-owner of the station, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Sources said the car used to perpetrate the crime was stolen in 1997 and hidden in a garage until the date of the attack. A previously unknown group called Jamaat Ansar Allah had held itself responsible for the attack in a statement issued the next day. However, Tah told Iraqi police that the group did not exist and that he had written and issued the statement.


And Captain's Quarters notes:

If this can be substantiated -- and that may be a tall order -- it would corroborate our intelligence that Syria has at least assisted in the insurgency that has gripped the Sunni Triangle in Iraq since the end of the war. Once substantiated, then we need to take some action against the Syrian dictator that will push him from power. In the meantime, I think we can afford to wait for further evidence to support or refute this claim.


Why? As Tigerhawk notes:

If Syria has, in fact, been able to arrest more than a thousand insurgents in just the last few weeks, why hasn't it been doing that for the last two years? Syria, in its braggodocio, has implicitly confessed that it has been able to stop insurgents from crossing the border all along, and effectively admitted the charges against it.


And there was plenty of evidence in Falluja that Syria was behind the terrorists there.

I'd say it's time to get tough with Syria, afterall they say they have stopped co-operating with us; if they ever were.
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Syria - Fessing Up

Tigerhawk thinks so.

The Associated Press, it seems, has written this story upside down. If Syria has, in fact, been able to arrest more than a thousand insurgents in just the last few weeks, why hasn't it been doing that for the last two years? Syria, in its braggodocio, has implicitly confessed that it has been able to stop insurgents from crossing the border all along, and effectively admitted the charges against it.


Yep.
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Canada - Quebec rejects sharia system

Good for them!

The Globe and Mail reports.

Quebec — Quebec has rejected the use of Islamic tribunals, which can be used to settle family disputes, in the province.

In a unanimous vote Thursday, the Quebec legislature passed a motion against allowing sharia to be used in the legal system.


Maybe Canada is not lost after all.
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Islam - All religions are not the same

Robert Spencer fisks Tom Regan's Christian Science Monitor Blog article on how "Islam [is] not only religion marred by violence".

A must read and he concludes with this:

All religions are not the same, and do not have the same capacity to inspire violence. As un-PC as that is, it is the truth. It must be faced. Regan reflects conventional PC wisdom, to be sure -- views that are held across the spectrum, from the New York Times to National Review -- and until this wisdom is seen for the hollow and deceptive thing it is, we are all that much more vulnerable.


We are indeed.
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America - Terrorism and the Human Rights Community

A must read article by one of Amnesty International's own. Nice to see people on the left starting to question where the left is headed.

While the sheer audacity of our Saudi "allies" to propagate these morally repugnant publications on American soil may have come as a shock to some, no less disconcerting was the failure of the US offices of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to join Freedom House Chairman of the Board R. James Woolsey in condemning the Saudi Arabian authorities for advocating and propagating an ideology of hatred that has "no place in a nation founded on religious freedom and toleration." Given that any advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence is prohibited under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the unwillingness of HRW and AIUSA to respond to these human rights violations appears to be yet another consequence of the increasing politicization and ideological drift that is undermining the effectiveness, reliability and credibility of these organizations, as well as the defense and promotion of human rights here in the United States.


A must read.

Here is another on the left who awoke from his self imposed trance, looked in the mirror, and realized the left was marching in the wrong direction.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere -- reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode.

My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.


We have a long way to go but there are some signs that people on the left are realizing that their position is untenable.

UPDATE

The Belmont Club remarks on AI's latest report.

I'd have to say that Amnesty International's Report claiming the US is the world's worst human rights violator condemns itself far more than it does the United States. Anyone who has lived in the Third World or any of the places which Amnesty International purports to care about knows -- and I mean knows for a fact -- what police abuse, torture, arbitrary detention, etc. really are and that it cannot be compared in any wise to the "Gulag" in Guantanamo Bay. Moreover, anyone who has lived in such places knows that the last place where victims can find practical help is from Amnesty International.

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Middle East - Rewarding Palestinian Hate

Bush's pledge of $325 million in aid to the Palestinians should have stings attached. For one, he should force Abas to stop hate speeches against America.

Recent sermons by Mr. Mudeiris include one from April 15, 2005, in which he said that Muslims prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan were forced to convert to Christianity. In his sermon on February 4, 2005, he called for Palestinians to conquer Israel. This year's New Year sermon was devoted to the destruction of America: "America has reached the top and we admit it, but it is headed for a bottomless pit, Allah willing. America, which is being led by its current president, to a bottomless pit. He leads it to death and destruction, Allah willing. America's grave was dug by Bush the day he invaded Afghanistan. Bush prepared this grave on the day he invaded Iraq."...

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Iraq - Harley Davidson to the rescue

It's nice to see a story of normal life in Iraq.

BAGHDAD -- When he belches around Baghdad's old quarter on his spotless Harley Davidson, Kadhem Sharif, a power-lifting champion sporting wraparound sunglasses, makes for an unlikely sight.

And the 53-year-old is fully aware that his passion for one of the most recognizable symbols of the American way of life is not to everybody's liking in post-war Iraq.

But his garage is a carbon copy of any Harley aficionado's den in the United States, complete with posters of naked "babes on bikes".

And his collection of 40-plus motorbikes provides a condensed history of 100 years of national turmoil.

"This Norton was built in 1914 and became part of the escort of King Faisal, Iraq's first monarch," says Sharif as he proudly gives a tour of his modest garage.

About half of his motorbikes are Harleys. "I was 12 when I sneaked out on my father's Harley for the first time. I bought my first one eight years later, a 1966 Fatboy," Sharif recalls.

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Britain - Court bans wearing "hoodie"

Relax Muslims.

The Guardian reports.

A teenager has been banned from wearing a hooded top or cap in public for five years after terrorising residents in a Manchester suburb.


I'm all for cracking down on these yobs but banning a hooded top or a cap?

I don't know about you, but women wearing a black hooded top that hides all but their eyes, scares the s**t out of me. Are they going to ban them next? Just asking.
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Pakistan - Muslim Shrine Blast America's Fault

The Scotsman reports that a man wearing a policman's uniform walked into the shrine and detonated a bomb that killed 20 so far and wounded 200.

What do the Muslims do? Blame America.

Hundreds of Shiite worshippers staged angry protests at the shrine and clashed with police after officers baton-charged the crowd to clear the way for ambulances.

Many of the Shiites also chanted, “Down with America!”


Could this be more hijacking a demonstration as noted in this New York Times article?

For me, after three years in southern Afghanistan, something felt not quite right about the more virulent demonstrations across the country. The instant tip-off was that they were initially led by university students. Afghans and Westerners living in Kandahar have often wondered at the number of Pakistani students in what passes for a university here. The place is pathetically dilapidated, the library a locked storeroom, the medical faculty bereft of the most elementary skeleton or model of the human body. Why would anyone come here to study from Pakistan? Our unshakable conclusion has been that the adroit Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, is planting operatives in the student body. These students can also provoke agitation at Pakistani officials' behest, while affording the government in Islamabad plausible deniability.


So what's Pakistans beef?

In other words, it's a mistake to focus on the Newsweek article as the cause of the recent demonstrations in Afghanistan. Instead, the reason was President Hamid Karzai's May 8 announcement that Afghanistan would enter a long-term strategic partnership with the United States.

Such an alliance discomfits Afghanistan's neighbors. Pakistan, for one, is used to treating Afghanistan as an all but subject territory. The events of Sept. 11 and the sudden arrival of the United States changed all that, to the muted chagrin of Islamabad. Although Pakistani officials have mastered their role as allies in the "war on terrorism" and play it convincingly, they would like nothing better than to see the United States pull out of Afghanistan. What better, then, than to project Afghanistan as a volatile place, hostile to Americans?


Tricky business, this war on terror.
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Iraq - Quality of Suicide Bombers Declining

I recently posted about how Suicide Bombers Hard To Come By and now here is evidence of just how desperate the terrorists are becoming.

Insurgents in Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.

The canine bomb went off but the only casualty was the unfortunate animal, said police.


Hey Joe, get me PETA on the phone, these terrorists are in for it now!
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Britain - Lecturers overturn Israel boycott

Good! Maybe people in this country are starting to stand up to these people.

The BBC in their usual bias, mis-represent what the boycott was about.

UK academics have voted to overturn a boycott of two Israeli universities accused of complying with anti-Palestinian polices.


That's not what the AUT accused them of. The original AUT webpage containing the accusation has been removed but here is the Google cache copy.

That on May 15, 2002 Dr. Ilan Pappe, senior lecturer in Political Science at Haifa University, was sent a letter notifying him that he faced trial and possible dismissal from his position. The charge was that he had violated 'the duties of an academic member of staff', that he had 'slandered departments and members in the humanities faculty, damaged their professional reputation and endangered the possible promotion of some of them.'

That these accusations related to Dr. Pappe's efforts to defend a 55 year old graduate student, Teddy Katz, whose Master's thesis was under attack by an Israeli veteran's organization because it documented a massacre of 200 unarmed civilians by the Haganah (the pre-state army of Israel) at a village called Tantura, near Haifa.

That the recriminations are still continuing and Dr. Pappe's job is still being threatened.


And as The Times (UK) notes:

The sponsors of the boycott maintain that Haifa University is threatening to sack a lecturer for supporting a student's thesis on an alleged Israeli massacre in 1948, and that Bar Ilan has links with a college based in a settlement in the West Bank. They say the academic boycott is a protest against discrimination, as valid as the widely supported ban by British universities on links with South African institutions during the apartheid years.

Such a claim is as laughable as it is inaccurate. Whereas many South African academics supported outside pressure on their government and almost all black students complained of discrimination, in Israel neither is true. In both universities, Jews and Arabs study together, and in Haifa especially there is a substantial number of Arab lecturers and students. Moreover, if Palestinian students themselves are not calling for a boycott, what is the point of such tokenism by the AUT?


The point is to be anti-Israeli.

UPDATE

Melanie Phillips notes more BBC bias and the Palestinians praise for the universities the AUT were against.
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Islam - Attacking Christianity

The world's media, acting like a pack of sharks, have repeatedly attacked our troops over unsubstantiated allegations of mis-handling the Koran by US troops. Hardly a day has gone by without a headline screaming for the US to apologize and prosecute the guilty ones. Turns out the guilty ones are the world media.

We now have reports that there were only 5 cases of "mis-handling" of the Koran over a 3 year period. In addition, the only allegations of flushing the Koran down the toilet has been retracted.

Now it's time for the world's media to report on real abuses of the Bible. Abuses like using the Bible as toilet paper. Or, like in Saudi Arabia where they burn and shred Bibles.

What is wrong with our media? They rush to accuse the US of crimes against Muslims based on rumors and unsubstantiated claims but say nothing of the real persecution against Christians in places like Saudi Arabia. And it is happening, not just in Saudi Arabia, but around the world Muslims desecrate Christian sites and shrines. Look at the sources for those reports and note none are from main stream media.

I'll tell you what's wrong with our media, they are part of Islam's war plan. Here is what a former Muslim, an insider, says is part of their plan:

American laws will protect us.

Democrats and Leftist will support us.

UNO will legitimize us. (United Nations Organization)

CAIR will incubate us. (Council on American-Islamic Relations)

ACLU will empower us. (American Civil Liberties Union)

Western Universities will educate us.

Mosques will shelter us

OPEC will finance us

Hollywood will love us.

Koffi Annan will pass politically correct sympathetic statement for Jihadists.”


Read each one of those and ask yourself, isn't each and everyone of those tactics being employed by Muslims in the US and around the world today?

Democratic Senator Conyers wants a law making it illegal to criticize Islam, the ACLU is behind the most recent Koran flushing stories, Hollywood's latest crusade movie rewrites history to make the Christians the bad guys, and on it goes.

Whether we like it or not we are at war with Islam, a war we did not start. And just as in wars past it is not enough to sit on the sidelines and watch the war progress in the media. We must get proactive and be involved. Use your vote to oppose those that would enact laws that would outlaw criticizing Muslims. Vote against enacting Sharia law. Write to the media and complain about their biased reporting and lack of reporting on crimes against Christians by Muslims. And by all means stand up to Muslims. As I said before:

Then stop being afraid to offend them. Stoning women, honor killings, attacks on Christians and Jews, and lack of women's rights are all wrong. Say so!

Killing or issuing death threats to those that criticize Islam is wrong and so are laws banning such criticism. Stand up to them.


America was founded on among other things, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Those liberties are under attack by Muslims as they seek to squelch criticism of Islam and convert the world to an Islamic state. They rely on the fact that most western countries believe in freedom of religion and as such they would not attack Islam even as Islam attacks them. And they will succeed if we do not stop them.

First we have to admit that we are at war and the enemy is Islam, distasteful as that is, it is accurate. Second, stand up to them as I said. Third write to the media and complain. Fourth, use your vote wisely. Fifth, educate yourself about the Koran in regards to the hate and intolerance it preaches.

This is not about the extermination of Islam and Muslims, this is about stopping the spread of this cancer that threatens our freedoms and beliefs. Muslims must come to understand that they can live in Western societies and practice their religion but they must co-exist with other religions and live under the law of the land - not the law of the Koran.
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Guantanamo - Koran Not Flushed: Inmate

Nice to see Reuters running this story.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Guantanamo detainee who told an FBI agent in 2002 that U.S. personnel there had flushed a Koran in a toilet retracted his allegation when questioned this month by military investigators, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

"We've gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation and he has said it didn't happen. So the underlying allegation, the detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn't happen," chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told a briefing.


MSM were in a frenzy to find proof that the story was real, will they be as eager to run the retraction? I doubt it.
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Thursday, May 26, 2005

America - Lt. Ilario Pantano Cleared

That's according to this post from the Free Republic quoting the AP wire service.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — A Marine Corps general dismissed all charges Thursday against a lieutenant accused of the murder of two Iraqis, the military announced.

The decision of Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, ends the prosecution 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano.


Great news! But watch for the media spin on this one.
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America - Oprah: Jihadi Sister

Debbie Schlussel takes Oprah to the wood shed for a well deserved spanking.

To add insult to injury, the latest issue, “O”'s June 2005 edition, demands that we understand the pain and turmoil of Yusra Abdu, a teen-age Palestinian would-be homicide bomber, fiancée of Hani Akad, leader of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group. Akad’s group, funded by Libya (one of “O” Mag’s “Five Places to See in Your Lifetime”), murdered 27 children and injured 134 when they attacked a Jewish school in Ma’a lot, Israel. Note the map of hate and swastika in the group’s May 22, 2005 Syrian-based newsletter.

But in Oprah’s world, Muslims aren’t terrorists, and terrorists aren’t Muslim (more on that, below). Instead, “O” calls Akad “a charismatic and young rebel.” “O” describes the cold-blooded, hateful Abdu and Akad as “a Shakespearean tragedy.” Yes, in Oprah’s world, Islamic terrorists aren’t terrorists. They’re James Deans, Romeos, and Juliets.

And it’s not their fault that they’re homicide bombers. Or Islam’s fault. “O” quotes Saudi-funded Islam apologist John Esposito blaming not Islam, but the desperate “context” of their lives. Reality: Most Palestinian homicide bombers, like the 9/11 hijackers, come from wealthy families, but they hate Jews, Christians, and Americans. That’s the “context.”


There's plenty more.
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Europe - Islam Silences the Critics

Faith Freedom.org reports "In an act of total insanity, the Council of Europe, decided to ban criticism of Islam equating it to anti-Semitism."

This is the beginning of the fall of Europe. Anti-Islamism is not the same as anti-Semitism. Islam is a belief system, Semites are a race. We canÂ’t equate a race to a doctrine. Racism is sheer evil. Apart from the fact that no race is better or worse than other races, unless one is Michael Jackson, one canÂ’t change his race. Instigating hate against a race is instigating hate against mankind. Doctrines that instigate racial hate must be condemned and those who engage in racial slurs must be brought to justice.

Prohibiting criticism of Islam is like prohibiting criticism of Judaism or Christianity. No one in his right mind would suggest criticism of these religions should be banned. The very fact that these religions have reformed and have adapted to modern times is because they were criticized. Only during the inquisition, criticism of Christianity was against the law. Are we trying to introduce Islamic inquisition to appease Muslims? Are we trying to institute the blasphemy law that is practiced in Saudi Arabia , Pakistan and Iran to make Muslims happy? This is insane!


Yes it is. But it's happening all around the world.Australia passed just such a law and now two Christian pastors are in jail for criticizing Islam. Britain wants to enact such laws. Even in the US the Democrats are trying to enact these barbaric laws.

Why are Muslims so intent on getting these laws on the books? The answer is in this statement:

The very fact that these religions have reformed and have adapted to modern times is because they were criticized.


And reforming Islam is something Muslims refuse to do even though it preaches hate and intolerance.

Be sure to read the rest of the article.
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Guantanamo Bay - Koran Not Flushed

Despite how much,Reuters, The Washington Post, The AP, the ACLU and all the lefties in the world, want the story to be true, it's not and it's old news.

As Just One Minute points out these are unsubstantiated claims by prisoners trained to make such statements.

These repositories of supposedly brilliant minds also want you to overlook the physical impossibility of flushing the Koran down these high tech toilets.

As usual, bloggers are all over MSM's renewed attempt to attack our troops. See Powerline, Just One Minute, and Podhoretz who notes these are the type of things the al Qaeda training manual told them to say.

How many more people are now going to die because of MSM's unrelenting attack on our troops?
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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Iraq - 2 Zarqawi Aides Arrested

That's according to this report.

If true, I find this bit revealing:

A US army announcement confirmed that Mullah Kamel al-Assawadi, who is described as "one of the most wanted people in northern Iraq", was captured while trying to bribe his way past an Iraqi checkpoint in Balad town 70 km outside of Bagdat (Baghdad).


So now even bribes aren't working for the terrorists. Just another sign Iraqis have had enough of these terrorists and hopefully soon we'll get Zarqawi.

UPDATE

And another one. This one on Monday.

"The Iraqi security forces backed by US troops captured on Monday Agha Umar, a top aide for Zarqawi, in Baquba, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Closing in?
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America - Targeting Journalist Lie

For years the world's media have been making unsubstantiated claims that US troops deliberately target journalists. Eason Jordan of CNN was one of the latest to make the claim and was forced to resign when he couldn't produce the evidence.

Linda Foley, President of the Newspaper Guild and Communication Workers of America, is the latest to make the claim and it remains to be seen if she has any evidence or will resign.

I recently posted about a new site dedicated to exposing these bogus claims and other biased reporting on our troops. I just emailed one of the founders of the site and pointed out that this targeting nonsense has been around for a very long time and involves big time media organizations, like CNN and the BBC, teaming up to spread the lie. I sent them a link to this site as a good starting place for researching this subject.

Hopefully, someone will do a well researched article and expose the media's attack on our troops.
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Lebanon - resolving the clash of civilizations

Michael J. Totten writes about his recent trip to Lebanon and finds some very encouraging signs. This one stood out for me.

Beirut may be the only place in the world where you can buy a necklace with a Christian cross and a Muslim crescent moon fused together as one. It's an unofficial symbol of Lebanon's nascent national unity. What other country would even think of making something like this? I've never seen one before. But now I own two. After growing up in the 1980s with sectarian Beirut as the poster child for urban disaster zones, it was really something to see.

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America - Foleygate Repeat of Easongate

Main stream media seem unable or unwilling to learn.

Eason Jordan was fired for making unsubstantiated claims that US troops target jounalists. Bloggers challenged Jordan to provide evidence to back up his claim or resign. He resigned.

Last week I posted about Linda Foley's, President of the Newspaper Guild and Communication Workers of America, repeat of that claim. Now from the people who brought you Easongate.com comes MediaSlander.com, whose initial purpose is to have Foley provide evidence for her claim or resign.

Thanks to Steve of www.WordUnheard.com for the tip.

Media Slander's statement of purpose says in part:

The goal of Media Slander is to hold journalists and bloggers to high ethical standards regarding coverage of the War on Terror and other military-related issues. We plan to achieve this by highlighting bias, rumor and falsehoods that have been creeping into military coverage under the guise of objective news.


Be sure to bookmark and blogroll them.
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America - Professor disputes Holocaust

The Rocky Mountain Telegram reports on another dim wit teaching our kids.

Finally, the question was rephrased again — Do you believe that the Germans and their allies engaged in a systematic program to kill Jews during World War II?

"If there was a systematic program to kill Jews, it was done in collaboration with the Zionists," Christensen answered.


Note the "if" qualifier.

Why is she still teaching?
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America - Fabricating News in Detroit

Debbie Schlussel continues exposing news fabrication in Detroit. Ironically, this post deals with a journalism professor at Wayne State University, Jack Lessenberry.

Ismael Ahmed, chief of Islamic welfare agency ACCESS (which has strong terror ties), blames me for losing his bid to become University of Michigan Regent. In his zeal to pander to Ahmed and attack me, Lessenberry described Ahmed's Army "hitch in Vietnam" to show that Ahmed is a "A Real American" and defame me as a "vulgar . . . creature" who tells "lies." Lessenberry again presented Ahmed's lie as fact in another column: "He enlisted and was sent to Vietnam".

Problem is, Lessenberry and Ahmed made it up. (It’s a lie Ahmed’s lawyer, Shereef Akeel, repeated in a threatening letter, trying to silence me.)

If Ismael Ahmed ever went to Vietnam, it was as a tourist. His military record shows his service was mostly spent at Fort Knox—perhaps bravely guarding the gold. At least Dan Rather “tried” to verify the details of Bush's military service (and HE was forced to resign).


The maxim used to be "trust but verify". Now it's "verify first then trust".
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Iraq - Insurgency Infiltrated?

Winds of Change has the story.

Winds of Change thinks this could help us in the bigger war on terror.

Iraq is yielding another asset crucial to winning the War on Terror: a friendly Arab intelligence service that is highly motivated to destroy al Qaeda. Iraqi agents, trained in the culture and languages of the Middle East, have a much better chance than Americans at infiltrating al Qaeda's network and providing valuable intelligence on its membership, communications and operations.


Let's hope so.
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Iraq - Zarqawi wounded or smokescreen?

There are reports all over the internet by al Qaeda that their leader in Iraq is wounded. Why would they do that?

Could they be setting us up for an announcement that he is dead, all the while he makes his escape to Syria? Is it a coincidence that the Syrian government "has halted all cooperation with the United States in sharing information about the war on terror"?
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Iraq - U.S. military targets journalists

MSM finally report on what bloggers reported on five days ago! Namely, Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley's, unsubstantiated charges that the US military targets journalists. I say "US military" and not troops because Foley somehow thinks there is a distinction.

In an interview with Editor & Publisher magazine, Foley offered a clarification: "I was careful of not saying troops, I said U.S. military."


Thanks, that's much clearer now. ??

I agree with Retired Air Force General Thomas McInerney when he says:

It may be legitimate to investigate whether there may or may not have been an incident in which U.S. troops have targeted journalists, but there is no question at this point that major media figures are targeting the men and women of the United States military in Iraq, repeatedly and with no evidence,"

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Iraq - Oil For News Program

Town Hall reports on how Saddam bought Al Jazeera's news coverage.

Town Hall notes there is a video tape of "former managing director of the influential Qatar-based, government-subsidized satellite network Al Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali", indicating "that Al Jazeera had put into effect the directives that Uday had proffered in those previous meetings."

Ali was subsequently fired over allegations that al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi intelligence. The BBC saw things differently. BBC's Arabic station was the forerunner of Al Jazeera. But documents uncovered after the fall of Baghdad confirm the allegations.

Further, their best-known Arab correspondent, Tayssir Alouni, was arrested in Spain for ties to Al Qaeda.

Interestingly, six months after Ali was fired, al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Helal, resigned and joined the BBC.

And the circle was complete.
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Monday, May 23, 2005

Islam - What to do about it

This blog thinks they have the answer. But just like ALI AL-AHMED he misses the fundemental point that will doom all such notions. In order to change Islam you have to change the Koran and since Muslims believe the Koran is the very word of God they will never change it.

Here is what the blog says.

But all this is only a means to confuse the real and pressing issue facing the media, government and military. This issue is not who is most honest and who has what agenda, but what is to be done about Islam. No one from any institution of American life has as yet enunciated the dangers of failing to demand that Muslims the world over take control of their religion and either reform or eliminate those that would destroy a centuries-old spiritual path that boasts peaceful adherents in every country on earth, a tradition of scientific and cultural innovation and at least, a history of tolerance and peaceful respect of other religious practices.

When the president tosses yet another off-handed "Islam is Peace" remark he does no service to the thousands who have been slaughtered and oppressed so "peacefully." When the media refuses to use certain words (e.g. "terrorist") for fear of insulting Muslims and seeming to be on the side of the US government, thus inciting yet another Islamist riot, it hardly demonstrates an understanding of the stakes in this fight. Neither the government nor the media wish to call out the foe, no matter that that very same foe yells in our face each and every day what its intentions are.

We may be winning or losing this war; it's getting harder each day to tell. But if we lose, it will not be because the enemy is superior in strength, morality or guile. It will be because we have failed to take the threat with the seriousness and dead calm that an existential crisis demands. We have failed to identify the enemy and in doing so have turned the fight in on ourselves. The current spat between the government and the media would make for lively entertainment in another time. As we grow towards what is likely to be a showdown with thousands, maybe millions, of radicalized religious fanatics it might be a good idea for us to come to some agreement on whom we fight before it is too late.


Don't count on Muslims for help. The recent march against terrorism, organized by Muslims, in Washington attracted 50 people. Notice I said people. I would imagine that not all 50 were Muslims.

Look what happens when a Muslim tries to reform Islam.

A planned lecture by Islamic dissident Irshad Manji at the UK's University of Leicester has been cancelled for fear of Muslim-sponsored violent reactions.


And don't count on the press for help. Newsweek's bogus Koran desecration story should tell you that. If not, look at the way everyone involved in the Azza Basarudin Koran desecration story acted. The press were all over it, Amazon issued an apology and banned the used bookseller who sold the book. All on her word alone - just because she is a Muslim. A quick search of her reveals she is an Islamic activist opposed to the US liberation of Iraq.

So, the question becomes not only what to do about Islam, but what to do about the blinkered press.
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Muslims - Where's the Outrage?

Armstrong Williams wants to know.

Throughout Europe, people are standing idly by as Muslim women are being murdered for having the audacity to date, or to not wear their head scarves outside, or to yearn for a life outside of the home. The problem is most pronounced in Germany. Last month six German women were murdered by their Muslim families for flirting with Western culture. Most recently, Hatin Surucu, a twenty-three-year-old Turkish woman who had been forced into marrying her cousin at age 16, was gunned down at a German bus stop. The attack had been planned. The motive-- Surucu had divorced her husband, discarded her religious head scarf, and had begun dating German men. This was too much for her family to bear. So her three brothers killed her, and orphaned her five year old son.


Armstrong has a point when he says we should stop calling these murders "honor killings". There is no honor attached to these murders and that is just what they are. By using "honor killings" we are playing into the Muslim murder's hand that they are somehow the aggrieved party.

And he agrees with me that we need to stand up to Muslims.

Very simply, the culture of another people does not have to be accepted when it is subhuman! "Honor killings" are subhuman! And human rights activists need to address the situation in no uncertain terms. The practice of killing women for wanting to have lives of their own needs to be held up to public scrutiny. At the same time, the German government needs to engage in outreach programs to Muslim youths. They need to make sure that Muslim kids are not so alienated from mainstream society that they can simply be programmed by Mosques to hate and degrade women. Most of all the government needs to provide sanctuary to oppressed women and girls, instead of allowing Muslim extremists to hide their abuses behind a disingenuous veil of cultural relativity. Democratic societies like Germany can no longer give religious fanatics a free hand to abuse and murder non believers. Such action betrays contempt for the basic human rights which animate any democracy with meaning. In a democracy, we simply cannot allow the word “honor” to be attached to such brutal and archaic religious practices.


The world's media goes on a feeding frenzy over bogus allegations that US troops desecrated the Koran but say nothing of innocent women being murdered around the world. Where's the outrage? Such hypocrisy.
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Giggling in Baghdad Posted by Hello

Iraq - Muslims Outraged While Baghdad Giggles

Tim Blair points us to this article and picture (I'll post it next) of an Iraqi family giggling at the site of Saddam in his underpants.

Hamza Adnan, 8, Jinan Jassim, Ayah Faiz, 5, and Duha Munaf, 16, from left, watch Dubai-based satellite television station al-Arabiya in a house in the Karada area of Baghdad, Friday May 20, 2005, as it broadcasts Friday’s front page of Britain’s mass circulation tabloid newspaper, the Sun, showing Saddam Hussein standing in his white underwear while folding what appears to be a brown pair of trousers.


At least the media would have us believe Muslims are outraged. I suspect the majority giggled as well.
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