Winds of Jihad

* International pressure had nothing to do with it, its just because the Wahabite King has such a good heart:

Saudi Arabian Justice Minister says pardon does not mean king doubted country’s judges.

RIYADH – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has pardoned a female rape victim who had been sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes, a Saudi newspaper reported Monday.

Saudi Justice Minister Abdullah bin Muhammed al-Sheik told al-Jazirah newspaper that the pardon does not mean the king doubted the country’s judges, but instead acted in the “interests of the people.”

“The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair,” al-Jazirah quoted al-Sheik as saying.

* Press reports say King Abdullah’s move “did not mean the sentence was wrong.”

* The question no is: where will she go now? Her own brother has already promised to kill her because she ‘brought shame on his family’- perhaps Norway can exchange her for Mullah Krekar, how about it?

*

Gaddafi Swine Watch

Misguided Sarkozy-Gaddafi -Circus-Watch: we know Sarkozy will deliver, but will Gaddafi pay?

Islamic scholar opposes ban on female circumcision

Marwa Al-A’Sar | Cairo, Egypt

In an act that has sparked outrage among Egyptian women’s rights activists, a controversial Islamic scholar filed a lawsuit against the minister of health protesting against a recent ban on female circumcision, a practice referred to by rights groups as female genital mutilation (FGM).

Egyptian Sheikh Youssif al-Badri claims the ministerial decree violates the Egyptian Constitution as well as Islamic principles.

Conservative Muslim and Christian Egyptian families have their daughters circumcised as a means to preserve their chastity. Recent studies revealed that about 90% of Egyptian women have been subjected to the practice.

In June, the Health Ministry banned doctors and nurses from carrying out the procedure. The announcement followed the death of an 11-year-old girl in Upper Egypt as a result of the procedure. Medics who carry out circumcisions may face imprisonment and being stripped of their medical licences.

While al-Badri argues that the practice is necessary in curbing women’s sexual inclinations, women’s rights activists and physicians disapprove of his view.

“Many of the circumcised women who seek our help were traumatised, having no ability to lead a normal sex life, which affects their relationships with their husbands,” said Nihad Abul-Qomsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights.

She accused Muslim sheikhs in the Arab world of being distracted from the vital issues. “No one of the sheikhs coming up with such arguments has ever considered in his agenda the deteriorating socio-economic conditions we are undergoing,” she noted. “Instead they try to play the role of the Islam advocates.”

Egypt’s top Islamic and Christian authorities were quick to voice support for the ban, saying the practice had no basis either in the Qur’an or in the Bible.

“The Constitution is based on the Islamic sharia law, which does not stipulate FGM, giving a wife the right to enjoy sex with her husband,” Khalil Mustafa Khalil, who holds a master’s degree in FGM legislation, told the independent al-Badeel newspaper.

* Wow! A ‘masters degree in FGM legislation’- talk about job creation!

In the 1950s, the Egyptian government tried to stop midwives from performing the procedure, while allowing doctors to do so, in a bid to minimise the risk of families who insist on circumcising their daughters doing so in unsafe conditions.

Public outcry followed the 1994 CNN television broadcast of the procedure being performed on a nine-year-old girl by a barber.

The minister of health at the time decreed that female circumcisions should be performed only one day a week at government facilities, and by trained medical practitioners, only in the event that they failed to persuade the parents from going through with it.

According to the World Health Organisation, FGM comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons.

A more minor form of the procedure is also undertaken in some parts of the Middle East and South Asia. — Sapa-dpa

*

More Muslim Pussy Watch:

Why one Muslim girl became a born-again virgin for her wedding night

When Aisha Salim marries her fiance in Pakistan next March, it will be the wedding of her dreams.
Wearing a veil and gown, she will be every inch the fairytale virgin bride and as befits her strict Muslim religion, after the ceremony, she will hand her blooded wedding-night sheets to her in-laws as proof of her virginity.

But far from being the traditional untouched bride that many Muslim families demand, she is a modern-day university graduate who has smoked, drunk, made love to – and even lived with – a previous English boyfriend.

To disguise the fact that she has had sex, she has paid for painful surgery to “restore” her virginity.

“My virginity was restored in a delicate operation just last week, and I honestly view it as life-saving surgery,” says Aisha. 

More

*

A target rich environment

* Krekar lies whenever he opens his mouth:

OSLO, Norway, Dec. 15 (UPI) — An Islamic leader facing deportation from Norway wrote a defense published in the newspaper Aftenposten, saying he is ‘being punished for talking freely.’

Mullah Krekar, who was born Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad in Iraq, remains in Norway because authorities are unsure of his safety if he returns to his native country.

* Norwegian authorities better start growing some balls: this scumbag has been costing the taxpayers millions already. Time to make an end to it….
In his letter, published Friday, Krekar said his ultimate ambition is to “return home for good, sit on a mountain in peaceful Kurdistan and die a good Muslim.”

He suggested his presence ‘may be keeping Norway safe from terrorist attacks.’

Krekar said ‘he opposes violent actions in European countries.’ He specifically mentioned the bombings of commuter trains in Madrid and public transport in London.

“Islam forbids the killing of civilians, destruction of religious temples, churches, the cutting of trees and the extermination of animals,” he said. “Therefore I hereby declare any action on Norwegian soil — terrorism. But mercenaries in Iraq are not civilians.”

* The soldiers of Allah have 1400 years of history of destroying temples, churches and killing unbelievers and Jooozzz, regardless. Koran 8:7 : ‘Wipe the unbelievers out to the last’ and (Tabari IX:69)“Killing disbelievers is a small matter to us” … Have no unbelieving friends. Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them. Q :89 … are clear commandments in the Koran. Besides, unbelievers are not ‘civilians or innocent’- because they already ‘live in sin for not submitting to Islam.’

* “Unbelievers are not innocent, there is no such thing as civilians” sez Anjem Chaudary

Mullah Krekar, Islamo-Ratbag par excellence, threatens host country with terrorist attack if deported

*

* You know they will not be executed because they’re ‘good Muslims’, don’t you?

TEACHER & STUDENT: Cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir (back to camera) talks Saturday with Bali bomber Imam Samudera at the Nusakambangan prison

*

Ba’asyir pays homage to Bali bombers in jail

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Cilacap

Hard-line Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir visited three Bali bombers on death row at their prison Saturday, warning that Indonesia would suffer a “big disaster” if the militants were executed.

Should the government, the Supreme Court and prosecutors — who are all Muslims — execute Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Muchlas, they would be “apostates”, Ba’asyir said.

The cleric was speaking to journalists on his way to Nusakambangan, an island prison complex in Cilacap, Central Java, where the three are awaiting execution. Ba’asyir was accompanied by Muslim lawyer Achmad Michdan and dozens of his followers from the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, as well as family members of the three convicted terrorists. Imam, Amrozi and Muchlas were sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, mostly Western tourists.

“I’m worried that if they are executed there will be a big disaster in Indonesia,”

Ba’asyir said without elaborating. He said the visit to the three bombers was to show “concern among Muslims who are being tortured”. Once again, he did not elaborate. The cleric called the three convicts “mujahid”, an Arabic term for holy warrior, despite the fact that the Bali bombings killed innocent people.

“They were not terrorists but counter- terrorists.”

He said that during the visit he wanted to advise the convicts to be patient and to seek God’s forgiveness if they had done wrong. “I would advise them that if their methods were true, they should be patient. But if their methods were wrong, they must repent to God.” According to Ba’asyir, the three convicts felt guilty of using the Bali bombs to “defend” Islam as innocent Muslims were among the dead. “That is why they are now fasting for two months to make up for the loss of innocent lives,” he said. The cleric did not say if the innocent lives included those of foreign holidaymakers, the majority of the victims killed during the attacks. No date has been set for the execution of the three Bali bombers, although the Supreme Court has rejected their final appeals. Ba’asyir was once convicted of conspiracy in the Bali bombings, and served 2 1/2 years in prison before being freed in June 2006 after the Supreme Court quashed the conspiracy conviction on appeal. The Bali bombings and several other deadly attacks have been blamed on militants from Jamaah Islamiyah, of which Ba’asyir was alleged to have been the spiritual leader and co-founder. Although there have been no major bomb attacks since 2005, police say Indonesia still faces a considerable threat from militants.

* Something makes me think that targeted assignations are a good way for disposing of poisonous filth like that.

*

Anti-dhimmitude in Berlin

* Trouble is that it should have never been allowed in the first place.

BERLIN: A conservative German state governor is considering a ban on students wearing the all-encompassing Muslim burqa in schools, according to an interview published on Sunday ahead of regional elections next month.

The state of Hesse — which includes Germany’s financial center, Frankfurt — already has the country’s widest-reaching legislation preventing public school teachers and civil servants from wearing head scarves at work.

Governor Roland Koch, a prominent member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, was quoted as telling the weekly Focus that his government “specifically encourages the integration of the Muslim population in our society.”

“Many Muslims feel that they are put under pressure from within their own ranks — that is not acceptable,” he said, according to the report. “That is why we are also thinking about a burqa ban in schools.”

“A fully veiled girl cannot participate equally in classes — she is massively obstructed in the development of her personality,” Koch was quoted as saying. “Every student must be able to show her face openly.”

Koch added that he has no intention of preventing female students from wearing head scarves at school.

Koch has governed Hesse since 1999, when he ousted a center-left regional administration following a campaign in which his party hit out at a federal government proposal to liberalise German citizenship laws.

Here’s what happened when Jack Straw tried to ban the burka in Britain

“Arrest Jack Straw”

* British dimmi’s, as we all know, backed off… 

*

“JEWS….. WE HAVE ALREADY DUG GRAVES FOR YOU”

* via JW

“Celebrating anniversary, Hamas warns of Intifada,” by Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters (thanks to Pamela):

200,000 rally for Hamas in Gaza

GAZA, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Hamas threatened to launch a new uprising against Israel on Saturday when hundreds of thousands of Islamist supporters rallied in Gaza City to mark the group’s 20th anniversary.

*
“Our people are capable of launching a third and a fourth intifada until the dawn of victory rises up,” said Khaled Meshaal, the group’s exiled leader, in a speech recorded on Friday at his base in Damascus.

The Tiny Minority of Extremistsâ„¢ is actually not so tiny.

The central square in Gaza City was awash with green flags and dozens of armed, masked men from the group’s military wing patrolled in a crowd estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000.
Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said the movement was growing more popular because of its stance against the United States and Israel.

“Today is the day of Jihad, resistance and uprising,” Haniyeh said.

* But don’t be concerned. Remember, jihad has many meanings, and is primarily an interior spiritual struggle. (Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: See, Ibrahim, I could do your job for you, my good man!)

“Those who remain committed to the constant rights of their people, those who make an enemy of America and the Zionist occupation (Israel) gain popularity. This is Hamas.” […]
Meshaal said Abbas, whose administration is backed by the West, lacked the support of the Palestinian people.

“Whoever thinks his legitimacy comes from the international backing is under an illusion, the legitimacy is the people,” Meshaal said.

Alluding to last month’s Israeli-Palestinian talks in Annapolis, Maryland, Haniyeh said conferences “will achieve nothing”.

“We will never cede our land … The choice of resistance and Jihad is the shortest way to liberate Palestine and return Jerusalem,” Haniyeh said.

* In other words, “f**k off, just send money!”

GRAVES ALREADY PREPARED

In another speech to the rally, senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri warned Israel to expect many casualties if troops invade the coastal territory in an attempt to stop almost daily rocket firing by militants into Israel.

“Jews, go back, because we have already dug graves for you,” Masri said. Israel carries out regular raids on Gaza and has killed dozens of militants in the past month.

The crowd featured many who are poor and devout, with many veiled women and masked men. Layali al-Kher, 27, said there was little money in her family, because restrictions on cement and raw materials have led to the closing of factories and a halt to construction. “But this siege was not imposed by Hamas but on them, so why should we criticize them?” she asked. “They’ve put Hamas in a bottle and they are trying to suffocate it. But they have achieved a lot: the streets are safe, the traffic is controlled. They have adapted quickly and have a strong will.”

A Hamas legislator, Mushir al-Masri, told the crowd that after 20 years, the roots of Hamas “stretch into the heart of the nation and every part of the land.”

“Twenty years,” Mr. Masri said, “from the stone to the knife, the bullet to the bomb, the mortar to the rocket, and from the martyrdom operations to the tunnels of hell.”

On Monday, in Paris, Mr. Abbas and Mr. Fayyad will attend a donors conference of Western countries who are likely to pledge the $5.6 billion in budgetary and development support over the next three years, in large part to try to show Gazans that Fatah’s willingness to negotiate a peace with Israel is a preferable path.

Steven Erlanger reported from Jerusalem, and Taghreed El-Khodary from Gaza City.

Egyptian police arrest 7 after Christian shops burned

* From Al Reuters. Read the last sentence: “Christians account for up to 10 percent of the population of Egypt and relations between them and the Muslim majority are usually harmonious. Disputes, most commonly over land, religious buildings or young women, sometimes lead to violence.”

* This is, of course, absolute bullshit. The Coptic Christian are the original inhabitants of Egypt and as dhimmi’s, they are constantly harassed and under siege. The plight of the Copt’s has been documented here and on many other anti-jihad sites, but is generally ignored by the main-stream-media or whitewashed with bullshit like above. There are no ‘disputes over young women’- what happens is that Muslims kidnap Christian women and force them into marriage with Muslims. Under the sharia courts of Egypt the Copt’s cannot get justice.

*
CAIRO, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Police arrested at least seven Egyptian Muslims after a riot in the southern city of Isna on Sunday that left at least 13 Christian-owned shops smashed up or burned and a church front damaged, security sources said.

They said a car and a motorcycle owned by Christians were also burned and it appeared the rioters had attempted to burn the church.

Tensions have been high in the city for several days with a number of incidents threatening to escalate into sectarian clashes. Police have upgraded their presence.

The tensions appear to have started when an angry crowd of Muslims surrounded and smashed up a Christian-owned store on Wednesday, where they suspected a Muslim girl was having sex with two Christian boys. Police beefed up security in the city after that incident.

Sunday’s riot comes after an altercation last night that saw a Christian shop-owner accuse a Muslim woman of stealing a mobile phone from his shop.

The woman was cleared by authorities and released.

(* of course! Stealing from Christians is not an offense!)

*
Egypt suffered its worst Christian-Muslim clashes in decades in 1999 in southern Egypt when 20 Christians were killed, 22 people wounded and scores of shops destroyed.

Last year, a 45-year-old Muslim man stabbed a Coptic Christian man to death and wounded five others in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, sparking three days of sectarian clashes in which one Muslim was killed. Egypt says the attacker was mentally ill.

* The ‘mentally ill’ attacker suffered from a condition called ‘sudden jihad syndrome’- which often afflicts Muslims when they come out of the mosques after Friday prayers. The ‘sectarian violence’ crock is just that: complete bullshit. Shameful, but typical distortions and falsehood from Al Reuters.
Christians account for up to 10 percent of the population of Egypt and relations between them and the Muslim majority are usually harmonious. Disputes, most commonly over land, religious buildings or young women, sometimes lead to violence. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

* More on dhimmitude here

 * . . . Of rather more significance are the regulations designed to show, and indeed to stress, that the dhimmis do not belong to the arms-bearing classes.

* The dhimmi must ride an ass, not a horse; he must not sit his beast astride but sidesaddle, like a woman.

* Most serious of all, he must carry no weapons, and is therefore always at the mercy of any who choose to attack him. While armed assault on dhimmis is comparatively rare, there is always a sense of danger, as well as of inferiority, for those who may not bear arms in a society where it is normal to do so. The dhimmi was not alone in this disability, which also affected some other social groups, notably in the Arabian peninsula. He was, however, the most vulnerable.

* The dhimmi cannot and indeed may not defend himself even against such petty but painful attacks as stone throwing, done mainly by children—a form of amusement recorded in many places from early until modern times.

* The dhimmi had to rely on the public authorities to protect him from attack or other harm, and while this protection was often, indeed usually, given, it inevitably faltered in times of trouble or disorder. The resulting feeling of endangerment, of precariousness, is frequently expressed in dhimmi writings. Id.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin 

The story is on page A3 of the Washington Post today and it should come as no surprise: Saudis have been as generous with the Clinton family as they have with the Bushes:

*
Bill Clinton’s presidential library raised more than 10 percent of the cost of its $165 million facility from foreign sources, with the most generous overseas donation coming from Saudi Arabia, according to interviews yesterday.

*
The royal family of Saudi Arabia gave the Clinton facility in Little Rock about $10 million, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush, according to people directly familiar with the contributions.

* Ten percent of the cost of the $165 million Bill Clinton presidential library is said to have come from foreign individuals and governments, sources said

*
The presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has for months faced questions about the source of the money for her husband’s presidential library. During a September debate, moderator Tim Russert asked the senator whether her husband would release a donor list. Clinton said she was sure her husband would “be happy to consider that,” though the former president later declined to provide a list of donors.

*
…A handful of major donors’ names to the Clinton library were disclosed in 2004 when a New York Sun reporter accessed a public computer terminal at the library that provided a list of donors. Soon after the article appeared, the list of donors was removed.

*
The amount of the contribution from Saudi Arabia and several other countries, as well as the percentage of the total given by foreigners, had not been revealed.
The Post confirmed numerous seven-figure donors to the library through interviews and tax records of foundations. Several foreign governments gave at least $1 million, including the Middle Eastern nations of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the governments of Taiwan and Brunei.

*
In addition, a handful of Middle Eastern business executives and officials also gave at least $1 million each, according to the interviews. They include Saudi businessmen Abdullah al-Dabbagh, Nasser al-Rashid and Walid Juffali, as well as Issam Fares, a U.S. citizen who previously served as deputy prime minister of Lebanon.

*  What does that tell you? 

* Because that could ‘offend’ Muslims…

Christmas decorations have been removed from two offices at the entrance of the Brussels Court of Justice a few hours after they were installed. “We took them away so as not to scandalize anybody. We have to be neutral for the Muslims…”

*

Link

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Nigeria: Jihad Against Christians Continues 

TEN KILLED, THREE CHURCHES SET ABLAZE IN BAUCHI

Upset by damage to mosque under construction, Muslim students spark unrest.

(Compass Direct News) – Ten persons have been killed and three churches set on fire after Muslim high school students in this northern Nigerian city began a rampage on Tuesday (December 11) that spilled into the city. Today tensions were still high in the area.

An eyewitness at the high school said the Muslim students attacked their Christian peers after unidentified people pulled out two foundation blocks of a high school mosque under construction.

Area Muslims joined the attacking students, resulting in the deaths and damages in the city, including the burning of dozens of homes belonging to Christians.

The identity of nine of the 10 people killed has been kept secret as the Bauchi state government has ordered security agents to remove the corpses and bury them in a common grave. Eyewitnesses told Compass they were buried this morning.

The 10th person killed was a Christian security agent with the State Security Service, identified by eyewitnesses only by his surname, Bogoro, a member of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Yelwa.

The three churches set aflame in Bauchi after Muslim students began attacking Christian students at the Government Day Secondary School (also known as Baba Tanko Secondary School) in the Yelwa Tudu area of Bauchi are Pentecostal: Elim Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Assemblies of God Church.

In addition, area Muslims set fire to dozens of houses belonging to Christians. Among the houses burned was that of the Rev. Umaru Sule, associate pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA ) of Yelwa Makaranta, and that of the Rev. Maina Joshua of Kagadama.

A teacher at the Government Day Secondary School-Yelwa, who pleaded that his identity remain undisclosed out of fear of Muslim attack and government penalty, said he witnessed the sparking of the rampage when Muslim students claimed that the foundation of the school mosque had been pulled down.

The teacher told Compass that the Muslim students had won approval to build a mosque at the 3,655-student school on December 2 and began building its foundation the same day.

More 

From Arab News

“Brother Guide,” as the good colonel has let it be known he likes to be addressed, has just finished a rip-roaring state visit to the French capital. Invited for 3 days, he asked to stay two weeks. In the best traditions of diplomacy, a compromise was found and Qaddafi pitched his tent in the gardens of the Hotel Marigny for five days, plenty of time to enjoy the best that Paris has to offer, and you can be sure that his 400-strong delegation did not fail.

Not everyone was happy to see Qaddafi arrive in Paris. Rama Yade, the junior minister for human rights and a Sarkozy protégée was, to put it mildly, incensed. She stated that “Colonel Qaddafi must understand that our country is not a doormat upon which a leader, whether terrorist or not, can come and wipe from his feet the blood of his crimes. France must not receive the kiss of death.” Strong words indeed, the kind of words you’d expect to hear from the opposition.

Yade’s direct boss, Bernard Kouchner the foreign minister, wasn’t terribly keen on welcoming Brother Guide to France either. He stood by his outspoken junior minister. Slightly more tactful, the head of French diplomacy excused himself from the state dinner in honor of the Libyan leader because “fortunately” he already had a previous engagement in Brussels, which of course he could not possibly break!

Nor did the opposition parties welcome the Libyan leader with open arms. In fact, they noisily vacated the premises in protest when Qaddafi came to visit the French Parliament. Several members of the ruling UMP party also found convenient reasons not to attend.

But do not be misled, despite all the noise and gesturing, Col. Qaddafi was made very welcome in France. His every whim was catered for, from the erection of the Bedouin tent in which he stayed, to closing off all of Paris’s bridges when he took a river cruise. When he said he wanted to meet working class people, they took him to visit a Renault factory. When he said he wanted to meet 200 women, they invited the most successful women in French politics, business and culture to a reception in his honor.

There can be no doubt about it, France has given Col. Qaddafi the bells and whistles welcome he wanted. Though the last four years have seen Libya rehabilitated into the international arena, it still has dubious status. Libya is attractive enough to forge economic ties with but not respectable enough to roll out the red carpet for. France is the first Western country to grant Col. Qaddafi a state visit.

So what’s in it for France? President Sarkozy jumps up and gesticulates in excitement: “10 billion euros!” He rages at those who dared criticize. The deals signed with the Libyans translate into some 30,000 jobs. Airbus has signed contracts for the sale of 21 aircraft. A nuclear cooperation accord was signed which will see France sell at least one nuclear reactor to Libya, for peaceful purposes of course. Libya has also signed an agreement to negotiate exclusively with France for future military purchases.

All of this translates into jobs and money for the French economy, so what if Libya does not have an exemplary track record on human rights? Sarkozy’s message is stark and simple. He welcomed Hu Jintao. He welcomed President Putin. Why should he not welcome Col. Qaddafi? Business is business after all.

So does Sarkozy think that human rights issues are irrelevant to foreign affairs? No, that charge would be unfair. He argues — and to a large extent he is right to do so — that it is better to engage in dialogue than to close doors in people’s faces. He wants to “encourage those who renounce terrorism”, as Libya did in 2003. Much better to use this opportunity to discuss human rights rather than simply to condemn. He assured us that he had a frank and forceful discussion on human rights with Col. Qaddafi. He encouraged Qaddafi to make “progress on the path of human rights.”

Pretty sound rhetoric, except that his guest did not seem to play on cue. You can accuse Qaddafi of being many things, but boring and predictable is not one of them. In his one televised interview, he was asked about his discussions on human rights with the French president. “Human rights? No we did not discuss this subject!” he countered. Oops, there goes diplomacy.

But on Wednesday, the terrorist attacks in Algeria gave him an opportunity to make good. He was quick to condemn the attacks and to declare Al-Qaeda criminals. The French presidency breathed a sigh of relief.

As for Rama Yade, she was summoned for a 30-minute put down by Sarkozy. She was not sacked, nor did she apologize. She has, however, softened her stance. It seems she still has the support of her mentor. She certainly has the support of the French people. The latest poll found that 81 percent agreed with her statement and 87 percent thought she should not be fired. This youngest and most outspoken member of Sarkozy’s team has shown once again this week that speaking your mind might put your job on the line but it gains you respect.

*

* In other news:

Terror Suspect Escapes Let Loose In Pakistan

Rashid Rauf, Accused In Airliner Bomb Plot, Slips Away From Police Custody

(AP) Rashid Rauf, a British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners, escaped from police custody in Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.

Rauf escaped after appearing before a judge at a court in the capital, Islamabad, said Khalid Pervez, a city police official.

Pervez said Rauf managed to open his handcuffs and evade two police guards who were taking him back to jail in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.

“We do not know how he escaped. But we do know he has escaped and the two policemen have been taken into custody for negligence,” Pervez told The Associated Press.

Federal Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said he had been informed of the escape, but said he had no details.

The British government this week denied media reports that Rauf was to be extradited from Pakistan as part of a secret deal involving the arrest in Britain of two suspects wanted by Pakistan.

“I don’t know anything – I’m shocked,” Rauf’s father, Abdul Rauf, told The Associated Press by telephone from Birmingham, 200 miles (321 kilometers) north of London.

Rauf, who also has a Pakistani passport, was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agents in August on a tip from their British counterparts.

He has been described as a key suspect in a purported plot to blow up jetliners flying from Britain to the United States, which prompted a major security alert at airports worldwide and increased restrictions on carry-on items.

Rauf was arrested and charged in Pakistan with possessing chemicals that could be used in making explosives and with carrying forged travel documents.

The prosecution later withdrew the case against him and held him accountable only for possessing bomb-making materials and living in Pakistan without valid documents. Later, a higher court – acting on an appeal by Pakistani authorities – suspended the anti-terrorism court’s ruling until Jan. 15.

A judge then extended his detention until Jan. 19.

Read it all