Year: 2010

U.K. Muslim inmates refuse therapy claiming discussing crime is haram

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Of course it is only haram for Muslims to speak of their crimes with infidels, but halal to pray against these same infidels with fellow Muslims. The good part is, is that as long as they refuse to comply with therapy, chances are better they will be held to full sentence.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Muslim prisoners ‘refuse to take part in group therapy as it’s against religion’

Muslim prisoners are refusing to take part in group therapy sessions saying it’s against their religion to talk about their ‘past crimes’ in front of others.

Published: 9:19AM GMT 11 Jan 2010

Scores of Britain’s 10,000 Muslim prisoners – one in eight of all inmates – are refusing to take part in Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBPs ), claiming it is ‘forbidden’ or ‘Haraam’.

Haraam refers to anything that is prohibited by faith, and in Islamic culture criminals are barred from discussing their offences with others.

Previously, Muslim prisoners refused to take part in Sex Offender Treatment Programmes because it involved talking about offences against women, but now some are refusing to take part in all rehabilitation sessions where they have to ‘open up’ in front of other cons.

Among the courses some Muslims are declining to take part in are the Cognitive Self Change Programme (CSCP), just one of 13 OBPs on offer from the prison service.

The CSCP, which treats 7,000 prisoners each year, targets ‘high risk violent offenders’ and offers individual and group sessions to prisoners.

The course claims to: “Equip prisoners with skills to help them control their violence and avoid reconviction.

“It is aimed at offenders with a history of violent behaviour and is suitable for those whose violence is reactive and/or instrumental.”

Other programmes on offer include Enhanced Thinking Skills, Cognitive Skills Booster Programme, Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage it and various motivational courses.

One Muslim prisoner, Abu Dira, a maximum security prisoner at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, said this week: “Muslims cannot speak about their past crimes in a group setting.

“It is an established concept within the Sharia that a Muslim must not speak about the Haraam – prohibited things – and certainly should not advertise past mistakes to their peers.”

He says that it is clear from the words of Islamic prophet Muhammad, called a Hadith, that it was wrong to talk about past crimes. Continue Reading →

Chavez closes 70 businesses for raising prices

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Venezuela: Military Shuts Down Businesses For Increasing Prices After Devaluation

From STRATFOR:

January 11, 2010
The Venezuelan government has temporarily closed 70 businesses for allegedly increasing prices in the wake of a massive devaluation of the bolivar, Globovision reported Jan. 11. The closures occurred after inspections of 96 businesses by officials from the Institute for Defense of the Access of Persons to Goods and Services (INDEBAPIS).

‘Toronto 18’ terror suspect pleads not guilty

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 CBCNEWS… A 34-year-old man accused of being one of the conspirators in the “Toronto 18” terrorist bomb plot pleaded not guilty Monday as his trial began.

Shareef Abdelhaleem, a computer engineer, is charged with participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He is being tried by a judge, without a jury in a Brampton, Ont., courtroom.

Abdelhaleem and 17 others were arrested in 2006 and accused of plotting to detonate bombs at several targets in Ontario, including the CN Tower, the Toronto Stock Exchange and the office of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS.

Of those 18 people, five had their charges dropped or stayed, four pleaded guilty, one was found guilty and five are still awaiting trial.

The Crown alleged Abdelhaleem tried to buy ingredients to make explosives and exchanged cash with police informant Shaher Elsohemy as a down payment for ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make explosives. Continue Reading →

Stratfor: The Khost Attack and the Intelligence War Challenge

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By George Friedman and Scott Stewart of STRATFOR:

As Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi exited the vehicle that brought him onto Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2009, security guards noticed he was behaving strangely. They moved toward al-Balawi and screamed demands that he take his hand out of his pocket, but instead of complying with the officers’ commands, al-Balawi detonated the suicide device he was wearing.

The explosion killed al-Balawi, three security contractors, four CIA officers and the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) officer who was al-Balawi’s handler. The vehicle shielded several other CIA officers at the scene from the blast. The CIA officers killed included the chief of the base at Khost and an analyst from headquarters who reportedly was the agency’s foremost expert on al Qaeda. The agency’s second-ranking officer in Afghanistan was allegedly among the officers who survived.
Al-Balawi was a Jordanian doctor from Zarqa (the hometown of deceased al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). Under the alias Abu Dujanah al-Khurasani, he served as an administrator for Al-Hesbah, a popular Internet discussion forum for jihadists. Jordanian officers arrested him in 2007 because of his involvement with radical online forums, which is illegal in Jordan. The GID subsequently approached al-Balawi while he was in a Jordanian prison and recruited him to work as an intelligence asset.
Al-Balawi was sent to Pakistan less than a year ago as part of a joint GID/CIA mission. Under the cover of going to school to receive advanced medical training, al-Balawi established himself in Pakistan and began to reach out to jihadists in the region. Under his al-Khurasani pseudonym, al-Balawai announced in September 2009 in an interview on a jihadist Internet forum that he had officially joined the Afghan Taliban.

A Lucky Break for the TTP

It is unclear if al-Balawi was ever truly repentant. Perhaps he cooperated with the GID at first, but had a change of heart sometime after arriving in Pakistan. Either way, at some point al-Balawi approached the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the main Pakistani Taliban group, and offered to work with it against the CIA and GID. Al-Balawi confirmed this in a video statement recorded with TTP leader Hakeemullah Mehsud and released Jan. 9. This is significant because it means that al-Balawi’s appearance was a lucky break for the TTP, and not part of some larger, intentional intelligence operation orchestrated by the TTP or another jihadist entity like al Qaeda.
The TTP’s luck held when a group of 13 people gathered to meet al-Balawi upon his arrival at FOB Chapman. This allowed him to detonate his suicide device amid the crowd and create maximum carnage before he was able to be searched for weapons.
In the world of espionage, source meetings are almost always a dangerous activity for both the intelligence officer and the source. There are fears the source could be surveilled and followed to the meeting site, or that the meeting could be raided by host country authorities and the parties arrested. In the case of a terrorist source, the meeting site could be attacked and those involved in the meeting killed. Because of this, the CIA and other intelligence agencies exercise great care while conducting source meetings. Normally they will not bring the source into a CIA station or base. Instead, they will conduct the meeting at a secure, low-profile offsite location
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Operating in the wilds of Afghanistan is far different from operating out of an embassy in Vienna or Moscow, however. Khost province is Taliban territory, and it offers no refuge from the watching eyes and gunmen of the Taliban and their jihadist allies. Indeed, the province has few places safe enough even for a CIA base. And this is why the CIA base in Khost is located on a military base, FOB Chapman, named for the first American killed in Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion. Normally, an outer ring of Afghan security around the base searches persons entering FOB Chapman, who the U.S. military then searches again at the outer perimeter of the U.S. portion of the base. Al-Balawi, a high-value CIA asset, was allowed to skip these external layers of security to avoid exposing his identity to Afghan troops and U.S. military personnel. Instead, the team of Xe (the company formerly known as Blackwater) security contractors were to search al-Balawi as he arrived at the CIA’s facility.
A Failure to Follow Security Procedures

Had proper security procedures been followed, the attack should only have killed the security contractors, the vehicle driver and perhaps the Jordanian GID officer. But proper security measures were not followed, and several CIA officers rushed out to greet the unscreened Jordanian source. Reports indicate that the source had alerted his Jordanian handler that he had intelligence pertaining to the location of al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri. (There are also reports that al-Balawi had given his handlers highly accurate battle damage assessments on drone strikes in Pakistan, indicating that he had access to high-level jihadist sources.) The prospect of finally receiving such crucial and long-sought information likely explains the presence of the high-profile visitors from CIA headquarters in Langley and the station in Kabul — and their exuberance over receiving such coveted intelligence probably explains their eager rush to meet the source before he had been properly screened.
The attack, the most deadly against CIA personnel since the 1983 Beirut bombing, was clearly avoidable, or at least mitigable. But human intelligence is a risky business, and collecting human intelligence against jihadist groups can be flat-out deadly. The CIA officers in Khost the day of the bombing had grown complacent, and violated a number of security procedures. The attack thus serves as a stark reminder to the rest of the clandestine service of the dangers they face and of the need to adhere to time-tested security procedures.
A better process might have prevented some of the deaths, but it would not have solved the fundamental problem: The CIA had an asset who turned out to be a double agent. When he turned is less important than that he was turned into — assuming he had not always been — a double agent. His mission was to gain the confidence of the CIA as to his bona fides, and then create an event in which large numbers of CIA agents were present, especially the top al Qaeda analyst at the CIA. He knew that high-value targets would be present because he had set the stage for the meeting by dangling vital information before the agency. He went to the meeting to carry out his true mission, which was to deliver a blow against the CIA. He succeeded.
The Obama Strategy’s Weakness

In discussing the core weakness in the Afghan strategy U.S. President Barack Obama has chosen, we identified the basic problem as the intelligence war. We argued that establishing an effective Afghan army would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the Americans and their NATO allies lacked knowledge and sophistication in distinguishing friend from foe among those being recruited into the army. This problem is compounded by the fact that there are very few written documents in a country like Afghanistan that could corroborate identities. The Taliban would seed the Afghan army with its own operatives and supporters, potentially exposing the army’s operations to al Qaeda.
This case takes the problem a step further. The United States relied on Jordanian intelligence to turn a jihadist operative into a double agent. They were dependent on the Jordanian handler’s skills at debriefing, vetting and testing the now-double agent. It is now reasonable to assume the agent allowed himself to be doubled in an attempt to gain the trust of the handler. The Jordanians offered the source to the Americans, who obviously grabbed him, and the source passed all the tests to which he was undoubtedly subjected. Yet in the end, his contacts with the Taliban were not designed to provide intelligence to the Americans. The intelligence provided to the Americans was designed to win their trust and set up the suicide bombing. It is therefore difficult to avoid the conclusion that al-Balawi was playing the GID all along and that his willingness to reject his jihadist beliefs was simply an opportunistic strategy for surviving and striking.
Even though encountering al-Balawi was a stroke of luck for the TTP, the group’s exploitation of this lucky break was a very sophisticated operation. The TTP had to provide valuable intelligence to allow al-Balawi to build his credibility. It had to create the clustering of CIA agents by promising extraordinarily valuable intelligence. It then had to provide al-Balawi with an effective suicide device needed for the strike. And it had to do this without being detected by the CIA. Al-Balawi had a credible cover for meeting TTP agents; that was his job. But what al-Balawi told his handlers about his meetings with the TTP, and where he went between meetings, clearly did not indicate to the handlers that he was providing fabricated information or posed a threat.
In handling a double agent, it is necessary to track every step he takes. He cannot be trusted because of his history; the suspicion that he is still loyal to his original cause must always be assumed. Therefore, the most valuable moments in evaluating a double agent are provided by intense scrutiny of his patterns and conduct away from his handlers and new friends. Obviously, if this scrutiny was applied, al-Balawi and his TTP handlers were still able to confuse their observers. If it was not applied, then the CIA was setting itself up for disappointment. Again, such scrutiny is far more difficult to conduct in the Pakistani badlands, where resources to surveil a source are very scarce. In such a case, the intuition and judgment of the agent’s handler are critical, and al-Balawi was obviously able to fool his Jordanian handler.
Given his enthusiastic welcome at FOB Chapman, it would seem al-Balawi was regarded not only as extremely valuable but also as extremely reliable. Whatever process might have been used at the meeting, the central problem was that he was regarded as a highly trusted source when he shouldn’t have been. Whether this happened because the CIA relied entirely on the Jordanian GID for evaluation or because American interrogators and counterintelligence specialists did not have the skills needed to pick up the cues can’t be known. What is known is that the TTP ran circles around the CIA in converting al-Balawi to its uses.
The United States cannot hope to reach any satisfactory solution in Afghanistan unless it can win the intelligence war. But the damage done to the CIA in this attack cannot be underestimated. At least one of the agency’s top analysts on al Qaeda was killed. In an intelligence war, this is the equivalent of sinking an aircraft carrier in a naval war. The United States can’t afford this kind of loss. There will now be endless reviews, shifts in personnel and re-evaluations. In the meantime, the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan will be attempting to exploit the opportunity presented by this disruption.
Casualties happen in war, and casualties are not an argument against war. However, when the center of gravity in a war is intelligence, and an episode like this occurs, the ability to prevail becomes a serious question. We have argued that in any insurgency, the insurgents have a built-in advantage. It is their country and their culture, and they are indistinguishable from everyone else. Keeping them from infiltrating is difficult.
This was a different matter. Al-Balawi was Jordanian; his penetration of the CIA was less like the product of an insurgency than an operation carried out by a national intelligence service. And this is the most troubling aspect of this incident for the United States. The operation was by all accounts a masterful piece of tradecraft beyond the known abilities of a group like the TTP. Even though al-Balawi’s appearance was a lucky break for the TTP, not the result of an intentional, long-term operation, the execution of the operation that arose as a result of that lucky break was skillfully done — and it was good enough to deliver a body blow to the CIA. The Pakistani Taliban would thus appear far more skilled than we would have thought, which is the most important takeaway from this incident, and something to ponder

Five guilty for Islamist protests in Luton

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Under a banner held up by a supporter saying “Islam will dominate the world. Freedom can go to hell”, Choudhury said that the trial showed the failure of freedom of speech and democracy.

TIMESONLINE… Five Muslim men who accused British soldiers of being rapists, murderers and baby killers during a homecoming parade were found guilty today of making threats.

The five, all from Luton, were convicted of using threatening, abusive or insulting words and behaviour likely to cause harassment and distress during a march by the Royal Anglian Regiment through Luton town centre in March last year.

Jalal Ahmed, 21, Yousaf Bashir, 29, Ziaur Rahman, 32, Shajjadar Choudhury, 31, Munim Abdul, 28, were found guilty at Luton Magistrates’ Court. Ibrahim Anderson, 32, and Jubair Ahmed, 19, also from Luton, were found not guilty. All had denied the charges.

The five men found guilty were given two-year conditional discharges and ordered to pay contributions towards costs of £500 each.

District judge Carolyn Mellanby said: “I have no doubt it is abusive and insulting to tell soldiers to ‘Go to hell’, to call soldiers murderers, rapists and baby killers. It is not just insulting to the soldiers but to the citizens of Luton who were out on the streets that day to honour and welcome soldiers home.”

Ms Mellanby added: “The fact that they say they did not intend their remarks to be insulting does not amount to defence in law. They were fully aware that shocking phrases in such circumstances would inevitably cause distress.”

She rejected arguments that they were merely exercising their right to freedom of speech as enshrined in the Human Rights Act, saying that their behaviour “went beyond reasonable, legitimate protest”.

Avirup Chaudhuri, for the prosecution, said that as the local regiment, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, passed, the group of protesters jeered “British Army murderers”, “British soldiers burn in hell” and “Baby killers”. They also denounced the troops as terrorists.

Lawyers defending the men said that their clients discussed their plans to protest with police beforehand, had agreed to a time and a place to do so and officers had not objected at the time. This implied consent by the police and to prosecute them retrospectively was not right, the lawyers said.

Outside court the defendants responded defiantly to the verdict.

Under a banner held up by a supporter saying “Islam will dominate the world. Freedom can go to hell”, Choudhury said that the trial showed the failure of freedom of speech and democracy.

Terry Glavin: Afghanistan: A Quagmire Of Confidence, Progress And Optimism.

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From Terry Glavin’s blog. A word of advice to any0ne interested in the issue of Afghanistan and the NATO mission there. Do not solidify an opinion until you have read Terry Glavin on the subject. I include myself in this admonishon as I myself have changed my views a fair amount after reading Terry.
Eeyore for Vlad:
This latest poll is the now the 14th survey of which I am aware that wholly defies the received wisdom (which is to say the fashionable delusions and popular frenzies) abroad in the rich countries of the world about Afghanistan, and about “what Afghans think.” I am aware of no poll – not one – that supports the self-obsessed and fraudulent “anti-war” opinion in Canada on these subjects, or that does not expose bourgeois “left-wing” opinion to be objectively far-right, reactionary, and in opposition to the hopes and aspirations of the Afghan people.

‘Troops Out Now!’

Sixty-one per cent of the Afghan respondents support the U.S./NATO “surge” of 37,000 troops. Only 25 per cent agree with the American (and Canadian) plan to start withdrawing troops in 18 months, and while 22 per cent say foreign troops should start to pull out sooner, 21 per cent say foreign troops should in fact stay longer, and 29 per cent (the most sensible cohort, in my view) say troop withdrawals should depend on the security situation at the time. More than 70 per cent of Afghans rate the performance of American and other NATO/ISAF troops as excellent, good or fair.

‘Why Do They Hate Us?’

They don’t, so all those drippy Californian society ladies who hold such sway over “progressive” opinion in Canada should avail themselves of their hankies and smelling salts and shut their gobs. Continue Reading →

Algerian French Patriot Exposes the EUROMED Mindset: Europe is Uninhabited

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The EU
Burning a candle at both ends

By way of the ever reliable Reinhard. The Tundra Tabloids is handed an excellent example of the EUROMED agenda, which seeks to populate (read = help colonize) an aging Europe with peoples from “the South”, or in other words, people from Muslim N.Africa and from the rest of the Levant.

The blog Gallia Watch reports of a meeting that took place in which Malika Sorel, an Algerian who takes a rare pro-France and pro-nationhood position ”wrote an assessment of a meeting of European ministers organized by the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity, Eric Besson.”

To get an understanding of just where Malika Sorel is coming from, take a look at a recent post o in which she exposes the stark differences in the views of François Fillon and Eric Besson concerning the French national identity.

The French national identity

“François Fillon, closing the discussion “What is being French?” At the Institut Montaigne, December 4, 2009: “We have our morals and a certain lifestyle […] La France, it ‘ is not a fiction without respect and without face […] By the power of the state, the communion of the language, the price of blood and the flame of memory and myth, under the seal finally a democratic and secular Republic, the French identity was achieved step by step […] ”

Eric Besson, La Courneuve, January 5, 2010: “La France is neither a nation nor a language nor a territory, nor a religion, it is a conglomerate of people who want to live together. There is no French-born, there is a blending of France.”

Both statements are radically opposed.”

Now you begin to understand the mindset of Eric Besson, and where he is coming from, the man is for the complete erasure of the nation state’s identity. Besson represents the EUROMED mentality in full. This is what >Bat Ye’or, and many others in the counterjihad who have taken her words seriously, have been banging the drum about for some time now.

Just recently Pamela Geller over at Atlas Shrugs has been running a series on the EURO-MED partnership, with most recent one titled, The last nail in Europeäs coffin, which highlighted it being less of a partnership and more like a suicide pact. Read what this Algerian born French patriot has to say about the EURO-MED meeting that she was covering. To those who believe that the EU is a benevolent insitution that only seeks to secure a safer, more prosperous Europe, for Europeans…..think again. KGS


GalliaWatch: ” “To them, we no longer exist…”


Yesterday morning I attended a ministerial seminar organized by Eric Besson on the theme “The migrations in the lands of the Mediterranean: constructing a space of shared prosperity“. Insofar as many journalists covered the seminar, I feel safe in sharing with you a few high points.

The ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, and Egypt were among the guests.

One expert set the tone right away by declaring that since the European population was aging, three possibilities ensued. I quote them:

1. We delay the age of retirement. Not a very popular measure.

2. We put more women in the workplace. That would have a negative effect on the birth rate.

3. We organize international migrations.

And with these words, obviously intended to allow the ministers to begin their well-prepared speeches, the main theme of the morning was set: since the North was not producing children, and the South producing many (they actually said it), it was necessary to agree to organize migratory waves from the South to the North. Several ministers even declared that since immigration, in any case, was occurring illegally when it was not authorized, it would be preferable to legalize and organize it. They also said that 75% of the youth of Tunisia were considering leaving their country…

Here is a sampling of the words uttered by the ministers from northern countries:

– “The countries of the North need labor.”

– “Immigration increases the competitiveness of the countries of the North.”

– “Immigration benefits the countries of the South as well as those of the North.”

– “Since labor from the South is unskilled and since the North will need more and more a supply of skilled labor, the Northern countries must help train the labor from the South so that it can fulfill the requirements.”

– “We must have a flexible policy of visas in order to facilitate the movement of these immigration influxes.”

– “We must facilitate the ability of the immigrants to remain in contact with their homelands and to transfer a part of their earnings.”

– “We must organize welcoming committees in such a way that they recognize their diversity. At any rate, it’s the example that will be used everywhere. Priority must be given to the fight against discrimination.”

– “A world without immigration would be a world more divided, more radical.”

– “Poverty and the lack of development were caused by colonization.”

“Immigration is perhaps the solution to the crisis,” a Swedish minister said solemnly.

The two ministers from the South asked that their nationals be well-treated in the host countries, and that in the rush to organize migratory influxes from the South into the North, care be taken to maintain the powerful ties with the homeland, in order for migrants to transfer money back to their country of origin (…) The Moroccan minister emphasized that these migrants (the Moroccan community abroad) constituted a diaspora, and that Morocco would actively take care of them. The Egyptian minister began his speech with “In the name of Allah the most merciful…” and formulated the hope that the Arabic language become more common in the future in the Mediterranean bassin.

Eric Besson concluded the meeting thus: “We must accelerate and increase the mass movements.”

All the ministers signed the “Paris recommendation on the promotion of the mobility of young persons in the Mediterranean space,” of which this is an excerpt: “Reaffirming their determination to build a common Mediterranean future, they agree on the necessity to give priority to youth in the construction of a Mediterranean space for the movement of persons, of knowledge and of skills.”

A Mediterranean office of youth will be created by January 1, 2011. Its goal will be to facilitate the free movement of students of certain universities, and to provide them with grants. (…)

During this entire morning it was patently clear that European peoples were of no interest to the European ministers. It was as if Europe was an uninhabited land, or soon to become one, and there was a need to people it. The only moment when you felt that Europeans still existed in the minds of these ministers was when mention was made of the need to fight against the discrimination that these migrants would be victims of…

This morning showed me, as if it was still necessary to do so, the extent to which this European “elite” was sometimes more concerned about the interests of foreign populations that about those of their own people. It is indeed this elite that is responsible for the current situation, and not the immigrants.
Henceforth, only the European populations themselves will be able to spare their countries chaos, and at the same time save their lives and those of their descendants, for it is clear that what is being planned for us by leaders who don’t even realize it, is a proliferation of Balkan States throughout the European Union. We are indeed far away from the dreams of the founding fathers!

NOTE: This was a comment that the TT posted before, but in spite of the commentor’s original foolish intent, (to describe national, ethnic survival as a racist intention) it remains nevertheless a clear warning for us all.

“However, I do have some advice for Europeans who hate Muslim foreigners: HAVE BABIES! You need immigrants because the average age of Europeans now stands around 41, Is that the fault of Muslim immigrants? No, it’s the fault of an inheritantly selfish-materialist-consumerist culture. Let’s propose you drive out all the foreigners, who is going to run these huge geriatric colonies that the EU will become very soon? Like it or not; the median age in Turkey, Iran, Yemen, Morocco,Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt is about 17, In Denmark, Sweden,UK, Hungary, France, Germany and Spain the average age is 41! In the passion of your hatred, try to be realistic: ISLAM IS THE FUTURE OF EUROPE!”

STRATFOR: 9th Malay church attacked

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Malaysia: Ninth Church Attack Reported

January 11, 2010
Malaysian church officials said a ninth church was attacked by arsonists, AFP reported Jan. 11. The senior pastor of the Sidang Injil Borneo Church in the central state of Negri Sembilan said a church member alerted him that the church door had been burned. Deputy State Police Chief Abdul Manan Mohamad Hassan confirmed the attack, stating that police are investigating the incident with the fire department. He said they have not discovered any Molotov cocktail in the compound and are still probing the cause of the fire.

Malaysia: Ninth Church Attack ReportedJanuary 11, 2010Malaysian church officials said a ninth church was attacked by arsonists, AFP reported Jan. 11. The senior pastor of the Sidang Injil Borneo Church in the central state of Negri Sembilan said a church member alerted him that the church door had been burned. Deputy State Police Chief Abdul Manan Mohamad Hassan confirmed the attack, stating that police are investigating the incident with the fire department. He said they have not discovered any Molotov cocktail in the compound and are still probing the cause of the fire.

Recent Attacks On “Counter Jihad” Websites

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Hamstrung by a culture of “political correctness” and afraid of litigation or violence, many mainstream media outlets now err on the side of extreme caution when reporting on radical Islam. One need only recall the reporting on the recent Fort Hood massacre, and the subsequent suggestion that the gunman had suffered from a previously unknown “pre-traumatic stress disorder,” or the way on which the Mohammed cartoons were reported upon in European and the US. If one wanted to see the “offending” images, one had to visit one of the smaller news and opinion sites or “counter jihad” blogs. Again, when LiveLeak temporarily removed Geert Wilders’ movie Fitna, these sites hosted it. They have also been at the forefront of exposing anti-Semitism on display at “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations, and in reporting on riots in France and other European states.

Despite severe restrictions on reporting inside Iran, that country’s pro-democracy dissidents have also been able to get the facts on the ground out via the internet, and, most famously, via the social networking site Twitter. In June, as Iranians took to the street to protest against the election results – widely regarded as rigged – the Obama administration asked Twitter to postpone its scheduled maintenance. Iranian protestors had been using the site to send messages to the outside world about the brutality the regime and its thugs were inflicting on them. Some of this information may well have been lifesaving, as Iranian Tweeters warned which hospitals had been turned into traps by the regime’s militia, and which embassies had been blocked.

In December, when pro-democracy protestors took to the streets again, Twitter was hacked and briefly taken over by a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army. This was the same month that the German broadcasting network Deutsche Welle was targeted with jamming signals, later found to have originated at Tehran. Continue Reading →

England exceeds Orwell’s wildest fantasies of big brother

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H/T A Millar for this.

Im still trying to cope with the multiple ramifications of this. Do the British have computers that check every single email anyone writes for words that rhyme with words that might be derogatory?

Cheeses clucking heist as a bigger do!

From the Daily Mail:

Businessman is arrested in front of wife and son… for ‘anti-gipsy’ email that he didn’t even write.

By James Millbank
Last updated at 10:04 AM on 10th January 2010

Paul Osmond who made a comment about a gypsy planning applicationPaul Osmond who made a comment about a gipsy planning application

A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the ‘do as you likey’ attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.

He said two uniformed officers came to his house on a Sunday afternoon and said he would be handcuffed if he did not accompany them to the police station.

His computer and other internet equipment were also seized. Continue Reading →

Chavez makes more threats against private business

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from STRATFOR:

January 10, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Jan. 10 that any Venezuelan business that raises prices following the devaluation of the bolivar will be seized, Bloomberg reported. Chavez said during his weekly television program that he would create an anti-speculation committee to monitor prices, and said that the government is the only authority able to dictate price increases.

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