a href=”http://stratfor.com” target=”_blank”>Iran: U.S., France Call For New Sanctions
February 8, 2010
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Feb. 8 that Iran has left the international community no choice but to pursue new sanctions against the country, Reuters reported. Gates, at a joint news conference with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, said a peaceful resolution to the issue of Iran’s nuclear program is possible, but “it will require all of the international community to work together.” Morin said France is in “complete agreement” with the United States, BBC reported.
Category Archives: West fights back
No French citizenship for man who forced wife to don burqa
From The Telegraph U.K.
France denies citizenship to foreigner who made wife wear a veil
The French government has refused to give citizenship to a foreigner who has forced his French wife to wear a full-face Islamic veil.
Published: 7:00AM GMT 03 Feb 2010
The announcement came just days after a parliamentary commission called for a law to ban the wearing of head-to-toe veils in public places, such as schools, hospitals and government offices.
Immigration Minister Eric Besson said that investigations had shown that the foreign man, whose name was not given, was making his French wife wear the veil.
“He was depriving her of her liberty to come and go with her face uncovered and rejected the principles of secularism and equality between men and women,” he said.
Le Figaro newspaper said the man, who needs French citizenship to settle here with his wife, came from Morocco.
The debate over whether to ban the full-face veil has proved highly controversial, with critics arguing that it risked stereotyping France’s large Muslim community.
French police say only about 1,900 women wear the full veils, known here as burqas although almost all are Arab-style niqabs showing the eyes.
The French Catholic Church warned the government on Monday against banning the veils, saying France must respect the rights of its Muslims if it wanted Islamic countries to do the same for their Christian minorities.
Russia moves towards West on Iran
Russia Signals Unity With West After Iranian Rocket Launch
Feb 4 2010
By Lucian Kim
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Russia is moving closer to the West on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program following a rocket launch by the Islamic republic, said Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the foreign relations committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament.
“Mutual understanding between Russia and its international partners on additional sanctions has clearly improved,” Kosachyov said in an interview with state broadcaster Rossiya 24 today. “The situation is beginning to alarm us increasingly.”
Iran fired a satellite into space yesterday at a ceremony attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The launch prompted Western concern that the rocket technology, like Iran’s nuclear program, could have military applications. Iran maintains it has only peaceful intentions.
Russia, a member of the six-country contact group with Iran, has made contradictory statements on the need for more United Nations economic sanctions. President Dmitry Medvedev has indicated a willingness to toughen the trade embargo, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has held off from new threats.
“What Iran is trying to do now raises concern because it’s classic dual-use technology,” said Kosachyov. Should Iran one day start producing nuclear warheads, the situation would be even more dangerous if the country had medium- and long-range missiles, he said. Continue Reading →
Knight takes pawn: U.S. sends in Aegis ships to Iranian waters
US raises stakes on Iran by sending in ships and missiles
A Patriot missile is launched during an Israeli-US military excercise in the Negev desert in southern Israel in February 2001. Photograph: Reuters
Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran.
The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to four countries – Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait – and keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. Washington is also helping Saudi Arabia develop a force to protect its oil installations.
American officials said the move is aimed at deterring an attack by Iran and reassuring Gulf states fearful that Tehran might react to sanctions by striking at US allies in the region. Washington is also seeking to discourage Israel from a strike against Iran by demonstrating that the US is prepared to contain any threat.
The deployment comes after Obama’s attempts to emphasise diplomacy over confrontation in dealing with Iran – a contrast to the Bush administration’s approach – have failed to persuade Tehran to open its nuclear installations to international controls. The White House is now trying to engineer agreement for sanctions focused on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, believed to be in charge of the atomic programme.
Washington has not formally announced the deployment of the Patriots and other anti-missile systems, but by leaking it to American newspapers the administration is evidently seeking to alert Tehran to a hardening of its position.
The administration is deploying two Patriot batteries, capable of shooting down incoming missiles, in each of the four Gulf countries. Kuwait already has an older version of the missile, deployed after Iraq’s invasion. Saudi Arabia has long had the missiles, as has Israel. Continue Reading →
Jan 30 Toronto protest for the Copts
It is wonderful to see people finally starting to react to the horrific and brutal treatment the Coptic peoples of Egypt have had at the hands of the Muslim Egyptians especially in the past few decades. Thanks Miss Trixie for posting the link on another post so I could find this video. More information there. Check it out.
Some articles about the trial in NYC
It would appear that Obama has bowed to reality again and decided against having the trial of KSM in New York. I have to admire that. With a few more policy adjustments in the face of what is actually rational, Obama may look a lot like George W. at the end of the day. Meanwhile, here are a couple of rather interesting articles on why having this trial in New York is a bad idea, and what sort of people the detainees at Guantanamo really are.
First, from Michelle Malkin on the trial currently underway of an Al Queda suspect who is a microbiologist and was likely planning an attack on the US of a rather high magnitude, with the intention of doing as much harm and causing as much death as her skills as a graduate biologist could create.
Second, the personal story from the New York Post of a security guard at Guantanamo and how he was attacked and who resides there.
L.A. council woman shows a grasp of reality
Khadr repatriation overturned by top court
CBCNEWS… The Supreme Court of Canada has overturned lower-court orders that the federal government must try to repatriate Toronto-born Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
However, the top court agreed Canadian officials violated Khadr’s human rights, and that he continues to be threatened by the effect of those violations.
In a unanimous decision released Friday, the court declared that Canadian officials breached Khadr’s right to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
However, it concluded that ordering the government to ask the U.S. for Khadr’s repatriation to stop the continuing violation of his rights would interfere with the government’s jurisdiction over foreign relations. Therefore, it chose not to issue the order, even though it had the authority to do so.
“We … leave it to the government to decide how best to respond to this judgment in light of current information, its responsibility for foreign affairs and in conformity with the charter,” the ruling said.
Khadr, 23, has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he was arrested in Afghanistan at age 15, accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. He is scheduled to be tried in July by a U.S. military court on charges of murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism.
More crowd interviews from the Geert Wilders Trial
Original video can be found here at Croscream’s channel, who did the actual translation. I re did it as more normal subtitles. Please feel free to visit the original page if there is any confusion as to what you are seeing.
U.S. working to increase border security with respect to Venezuela
More grass roots resistance to the jihad: Australia
Some Australians seems also to have lost confidence in it’s government to reflect the values of the Australian people and set up an EDL like group. Governments world wide take note. If you do not serve the people who gave you money and power, you may lose it in ways you did not expect. The likely consequence? Governments will continue to use valuable security resources to monitor the Western liberal democrats and interfere with their resistance while funding cultural and religious ‘outreach’ programs which have so far to pretty much the exclusion of all else, been about promoting Islam, sharia law, the erasure and rewriting of history to favour Islam, recreating text books to make other religions look like quaint ideas while Islam is the truth, and so on ad nauseum.
Below, a video from the newly minted, Australian Defence League:
Wonderful video of Dutch people protesting for Geert.
This is heart warming. Maybe the Dutch aren’t such Dodo’s after all. I mean Dodo not in the sense of stupid, but in fact the Dodo was a very friendly and curious, trusting bird who in fact which was slaughtered into extinction, ironically by Dutch sailors, because they couldn’t resist walking up to them to see what all the fuss was.
Maybe Islam is the revenge of the Dodo. But in any case, its wonderful to see these ordinary folk of all ages come out and support freedom as personified by Geert Wilders. They have my deepest and most sincere affection, dodo jokes notwithstanding.
First suicide bomber comedy
Actually this looks really funny. H/T to A Millar for this excellent find
How we can all learn from Tunesia
17 year old Danish girl shows more cajones than most of Europe
One young Dane realizing that no Danish newspaper will print anything Kurt Westergaard has done, made a youtube video homage to the 70 year old cartoonist to show solidarity with his cause. Is this brilliant song writing or performing? not the point. What is the point comes near the end of this cute and fun little video where she says:
“Terrorism? who cares it happens without his drawings”
Nikki you are a brave girl. I hope Denmark and indeed all of Europe shows the kind of moral courage you do. Maybe someone needs to translate this into Dutch so those people can remember that the story of the little boy with his finger in the dyke means more than pleasing lesbians.
H/T Lars hedigaarrd. After some careful thought, I agree with you. This should be spread far and wide.
To see an interview with this young Dane, please click here. That is a machine translation from the original Danish.