Power to the Bloggers!

Something we haven’t seen before: the view from behind the “paramedics” who paraded with bodies for hours, staging and arranging them for an obviously very eager world media.
20070209qanapress.jpg

Remember ‘Green helmet man’ and the recycled bodies, the ambulance that never got hit by a rocket and the smoke over Beirut?

* Exposed thanks to Little Green Footballs

Why was this picture left in the editor’s kill file until now?

Because it really wrecks the suspension of disbelief that actors need to convince the audience.

It’s like seeing the scaffolds and lights and fake landscapes behind the scenes at a theater, in the middle of a performance.

The Qana photographs are some of the most gut-wrenching, heart-breaking images you could ever imagine. And that’s why it’s important to recognize that there are people with souls so dead and intentions so evil that they will cynically use these photographs to manipulate your feelings.

But imagine if pictures like the one above had the same 24/7 coverage as all those pictures with a weeping rescuer running alone down a dusty road. Context, anyone?

Ahh, lest we forget:

jamil.jpg

AP and the 67 news stories from ‘Jamil Hussein’ who couldn’t be found to this very day?

Swiss Embassy in Teheran under Siege & attacked

Because infidels are infidels, what’s the difference?

The Swiss Embassy in Tehran was besieged by a large number of aggravated demonstrators- the protest was directed at the US, whose interests are represented by the Swiss.

Iran: Sturm auf Schweizer Botschaft

Die Schweizer Botschaft in Teheran wurde heute von einer Masse wütender Demonstranten belagert. Der Protest richtete sich gegen die USA, deren Interessen die Schweiz im Iran vertritt.

Lets cook our own personal Islam, shall we?

From the Go-back-to sleep-department
and ‘Corriere della Sera’

*
Queen Rania of Jordan can’t see a war between Islam and the West, but rather ‘differences between extremists and moderates in all religions’.

The Swiss paper ‘20 Minutes‘ reported in the interview that she also said Islam doesn’t make the veil obligatory. Islam ‘doesn’t demand to dress one way or another,- to wear the veil is a free and personal decision…’

*Are you listening, Muslim women?

Are you making free and personal decisions already?


Königin Rania, Papst Benedikt XVI

Die jordanische Köngin Rania hat in der italienischen Zeitung “Corriere della Sierra” erklärt, dass sie keinen Krieg zwischen Muslimen und Nicht-Muslimen sehe sondern eine Auseinandersetzung zwischen Extremisten und Moderaten in allen Religionen. Wie die schweizerische “20 Minuten” berichtet, erklärte sie in dem Interview zudem, der Islam schreibe nicht das Tragen eines Schleiers vor. Der Islam verlange nicht, “sich in der einen oder anderen Weise zu kleiden.”

3 Italian Women Raped & Stoned, Kapverdic Islands

Update. Found the link in English:

2 Italians stoned to death on Cape Verde
By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago
ROME – Three Italian women were brutally attacked while vacationing on a resort island off the coast of West Africa, dragged into the woods, pelted with stones and left for dead at the bottom of a hole, the sole survivor said Saturday.

The bodies of two of the women were found half-buried near a beach Friday in the Cape Verde islands, police officer Vladmir Silva said.

Preliminary autopsy results found the victims, aged 28 and 33, died as a result of head injuries from blunt and sharp objects, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported. Cape Verde police said official autopsy results were expected to be released Sunday.

Police chief Oscar Tavares said three local men had been arrested and would soon appear in court, Lusa reported.

The women were part of a surfing group that arrived in the islands last Sunday for a weeklong vacation, said Italy’s honorary consul in Cape Verde, Luigi Zirpoli. The survivor — whom Italian news reports identified as a 17-year-old named Agnese — suffered fractures and needed 18 stitches in her head, Zirpoli said.

Speaking with Italy’s Sky TG24 TV from a hospital Saturday, Agnese recounted how she and the two other women had been invited to dinner by one of their attackers — a man who apparently had had a relationship with one of the victims.

She said the attackers sprayed the women with something and immobilized them before taking them to the woods where a hole had been dug in the ground. Speaking in a stunned voice, she said they were pelted with stones and she blacked out. When she awoke, she climbed out of the hole and walked down a road until she found help.

“I don’t know how I managed to recover after he threw a stone at my head,” she told Sky.

The story of the attack has shocked Italians, many of whom consider the archipelago a paradise for beachgoers and windsurfers.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said the two women had been “barbarously murdered” and dispatched a diplomat from its embassy in Senegal “to ensure that those responsible for this tragic aggression are brought swiftly to justice.”

Italian Premier Romano Prodi said he was “stunned” and “aghast” by the killings, the Italian news agency Apcom reported.

Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony, is located about 500 miles to the west of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, in the Atlantic Ocean.

___

Associated Press Writer Joana Mateus in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

From Spiegel online: In German

Here’s the link:

*

Drei italienische Frauen sind auf einer der Kapverdischen
Inseln vor der Küste Westafrikas brutal angegriffen worden. Nur eine der drei Frauen überlebten die Attacke, die beiden andern wurden zu Tode gesteinigt.

*

Die drei Frauen hatten auf der Atlantikinsel Urlaub gemacht. Sie wurden in einen Wald verschleppt und in einem Loch im Waldboden zurückgelassen, weil man sie offenbar für tot hielt. Die einzige Überlebende, eine 17-Jährige, konnte schließlich Hilfe holen. Ihre beiden Begleiterinnen, 28 und 33 Jahre alt, seien zu Tode gesteinigt worden.

Eine vorläufige Autopsie ergab, dass die Opfer an vielfachen Kopfverletzungen von stumpfen und spitzen Gegenständen gestorben sind, berichtet die portugiesische Nachrichtenagentur Lusa. In Italien hat das Verbrechen Entsetzen ausgelöst. Viele Italiener schätzen die Kapverdischen Inseln als Urlaubsparadies.

A brief/short translation of the basic facts:

*
The 3 women were on holidays and had dinner with some native men who took them to a forest where they were raped. After that they were stoned and left for dead in a hole in the ground. One of the women survived the ordeal and 3 men have been arrested.

The Struggle of Orhan Pamuk and Turkey’s Intellectuals

Turkey calls Islamic Jihad ‘Nationalism’-DEADLY NATIONALISM

From Spiegel Online

*
The culture war in Turkey against critical authors and journalists is intensifying, as murderous nationalists agitate against dissidents. Many liberals are under threat, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who has now left the country. By Annette Grossbongardt in Istanbul more…

The re-Islamization of ‘secular’ Turkey is well on the way. Tayyib Erdogan, the present prime minister,  is a convicted jihadist who did jail-time and his wife wears the veil. He has the hide to call Europe a ‘Christian Club’…

Here’s the link…

Life Insurance for Pali-Suicide Bombers

ARAB BANK PAYS OUT BLOOD MONEY

By Christoph Schult, Britta Sandberg and Ansgar Mertin

From Spiegel Online

0102079847100.jpg
By Christoph Schult, Britta Sandberg and Ansgar Mertin
*
An important bank in the Arab world offers accounts paying a type of life insurance to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. But now it could soon face a lawsuit from American lawyers representing the victims.

“The EU needs to look within itself to counter discrimination, Islamophobia and xenophobia”

Pakistan asks EU to look inwards to stop radicalization

handsome.jpg

Advice from Pakistan, a failed nation based on Islam and Islam alone.

Abdication of responsiblity

*

With thanks to Dhimmi Watch

ISLAMABAD – EU and Pakistani counter-terrorism experts concluded three days of talks in Islamabad on Friday with a pledge to deepen cooperation and tackle the radicalization that breeds terrorism.
The growing phenomenon of radicalization needed to be countered anywhere it takes place, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gijs de Vries told Pakistani counterparts, stressing the value of bilateral ties.
“Pakistan is a moderate and modern Muslim country (crack me up!)and has a very important role to play in the world, especially at a time when there are so many misperceptions,” the EU official was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

* ‘misperception here: 45-yr-old divorces 4-yr-old wife

The Pakistani side urged the EU to take a frank look at problems in the union contributing to the growth of radicalization. (What they mean is the EU resisting the spread of Islam)


The European Union causes radicalization! Bad dhimmis!

“The EU needs to look within itself to counter discrimination, Islamophobia and xenophobia,” the statement said.

Islamic School Update & the lunacy of the Islamic Scholar


DNC’s Imam Al-Husainy Melts Down on the Air

Imam Husham Al-Husainy, who delivered the now-infamous lines about doom, oppression, and occupation at the DNC winter meeting with party chairman Howard Dean standing at his side, was interviewed yesterday on Sean Hannity’s radio show.

Absolute must-listen mp3 of the DNC’s imam Husham Al-Husainy on Hannity’s radio show.

Hannity keeps trying to ask him two questions: Is Hizballah a terrorist group? and Is Ahmadinejad an antisemite? Note Al-Husainy’s reaction: not only does he squirm and dance, but he starts accusing Hannity of hating him, hating peace, hating God.
This is an extraordinarily common reaction, and is akin to the predictable response that always follows any discussion of the elements of Islam that give rise to violence, supremacism, fanaticism: instead of dealing with those elements of Islam and working to formulate some positive way to mitigate their destructive force, Islamic apologists routinely shift the focus to the one raising the questions, accusing him of hatemongering, bigotry, racism, “Islamophobia.” And there is always the accusation that the questioner is worse than, or equivalent to, the terrorists.
This is a very effective tactic, which is why they keep doing it. It makes naive and uninformed people turn away from the alleged bigot without considering what he is saying, and it deflects attention away from the Islamic roots of jihadist violence, so as to allow the jihadists to continue their work without harsh scrutiny.

Here are some of the things Al-Husainy says to Hannity — all in response to one or both of those questions:

You paid to talk like this.
God my witness, you are breaking the law and you are accusing me…Because you are breaking the peace of this world, you wanted to create animosity between the religions, Christian and Muslim and Jewish…

(Do you support Ahmadinejad?) I won’t answer you unless you just withdraw the question…

See? See now? See, “ducking the question” — this is an insult. See? …You are Christian, let’s follow Jesus’ rule. If you are a Jewish, let’s follow Moses’ rule. Please just follow God’s rule, not insult each other.

People like you, my friend, you are playing with fire.

Honest to God, you need to bring the peace to this world, you need to bring God to this world, you are out of the spiritual circle. You are justifying politics and the world is really burning. Let’s cool it down. Let’s go back to the law of Abraham and Muhammad and Jesus and Moses…But don’t insult, please. Don’t insult nobody.

You belong to a minority of people burning the world. You just have to come back to God. Go read the Bible. Go read the Torah. And let’s talk, is that the language, is that the behavior of Jesus and Moses? You are really away of your faith. So let’s go back to the moral value of the Bible. And let’s see: does the Bible teach [unintelligible] each other like that? We are Muslim, a billion and a half just like the Christians. Is that the way we aggravate each other, trouble each other? You are really making God mad at you, making Jesus mad at you, making Moses mad at you…

Give me time, I will answer it. But let’s respect each other. The trouble is, you are humiliating me and God is against that. Jesus against that…

You are. You are against prophet Muhammad. You are against the faith of Muslims. You are against Qur’an. And God is my witness. And God’s gonna get mad at you. Jesus gonna get mad at you. You are working against the unity of the world. And the unity of Muslims, and Jewish, and Christians. You are working against America. You are disturbing the peace between East and West. You are really, you are the anti-peace person.

And then the Imam hung up on Hannity.

And the imam had a shrieking, sputtering, complete meltdown. This one is a real hoot.

“We are being suffocated”- A real howler from Gaza City!

captsgeaze94161206031038photo00photodefault-512x341.jpg

‘The outside world has to grasp that Palestinian infighting is the product of an intolerable blockade’

Sami Abdel-Shafi in Gaza City
Saturday February 10, 2007
The Guardian

It was a surreal but telling reflection of how lonely Palestinians have become as their leadership has seemingly been pushed into breakdown and failure, while Israel watched from the sidelines. Late one night, I was suddenly yelled at to stop my car, turn the lights off and roll down the windows. Two masked men, without any identifying insignias, closed in from the sides; one pointed his machine gun at me while the other, two steps behind, shouldered a loaded rocket-propelled grenade launcher. That was a week last Thursday, hours after fierce clashes erupted between Hamas and Fatah, ending the seventh ceasefire between the factions, and ushering in the deadliest power struggle yet.

To Palestinians it seemed sadly clear that the moral credit of their cause was being eroded: how must it look to the outside world that they had flip-flopped in one year between democratic elections and internecine violence?

*The “Palestinians” gave the majority of their votes to a party that is bent on genocide, and you wonder about their “Moral Credit”. You have the same amount of “Moral Credit” as a man who murders his daughter, to protect his “Honour”.

A day before this incident, a House of Commons development committee report warned of drastically deteriorating conditions in the occupied territories as a result of the US-led economic embargo in the wake of last year’s elections. The report questioned the proportionality of Israel’s own blockade and its implications for the prospects of a lasting peace. The Palestinian infighting only underlined the sense of those warnings.

The militiamen I had run into had no clear lines of authority. One turned out to be a recent accountancy graduate who had never been able to find a job and had been given no weapons training. Many such armed men simply need an income. Without any means to provide for their families, they join one of the many security outfits to secure a salary. The international community needs to grasp the dire consequences of maintaining what is the largest regional prison in the world: Camp Gaza Strip.

*Normally prisoners do not wander around with machine-guns and RPG’s. How about a dysfunctional proto-state run along fascists lines?

* A classic howler: ‘Pay us the Jiziyah, you owe us a living!’- Its not enough that the ‘International Community’ has already paid for 3 generations of murderous, fanatical Pali-Arabs who live for nothing other than to blow up Jooozzz, who learn nothing useful in this world but hatred and to rely on welfare from the West.

*The rest is equally pathetic and shows the home cooked reality of the Arabs:

Thursday’s agreement between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas in Mecca has contained the conflict and Gaza is now calm. But as Palestinians resumed constructive dialogue, Israel employed its classic approach of shifting the pressure between Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. For Israel to have begun an inflammatory dig at one of the entrances to the holy city of old Jerusalem – on the first day of the talks in Mecca – was clearly not without calculation. Yesterday, the morning after the Palestinian agreement had been reached, Israeli forces attacked Jerusalemites protesting at the project and barred Muslims from the al-Aqsa mosque.

Despite all this, the Quartet (the group, consisting of the US, EU, UN and Russia, entrusted with advancing Palestinian-Israeli peace) still appears unable to accept that no positive developments can be hoped for as long as the Gaza Strip remains sealed off, or the West Bank wall continues to be built. The current stance of the US and the EU is in practice an endorsement of Israel’s policy of blockading the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, and gobbling up West Bank and east Jerusalem territory. This can only guarantee the flight of the very people the international community says it counts on to forge peace: Palestinian “moderates”.

It is one thing for the Quartet to demand a Palestinian rejection of violence, but unless pressure is brought to bear on Israel to release its military grip from the Palestinian territories – which long predates the election of Hamas – it will suffocate Palestinian hope and show that the world is only chasing a phantom of peace. No political initiative can compensate the suppression of an entire people’s potential to develop in freedom.

· Sami Abdel-Shafi is the co-founder of Emerge Consulting Group, a management consultancy in Gaza City
sami.abdelshafi@emergeconsultants.com