Sunday, January 03, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary has vowed to go ahead with a protest march through Wootton Bassett claiming those who honour the war dead are no different to those who support the 7/7 Tube bombers.
The controversial cleric, who heads up Islam4UK, has organised a march of 500 people through the Wiltshire town, in memory of Muslims "murdered in the name of democracy and freedom".
Wootton Bassett has become the main focal point for the nation to show its respect to the troops killed in Afghanistan, with hundreds lining the streets each time a body is repatriated to nearby RAF Lyneham.
But Choudary said it was unacceptable to honour those killed in the conflict and he would march through the town with supporters to voice opposition at the gatherings.
Asked why he was against crowds honouring fallen British soldiers, he said: "The same could be said about the Germans fighting for Nazism in the Second World War. Those involved in 7/7 and 9/11 considered themselves to be soldiers. >>> Martin Evans | Sunday, January 03, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: 120,000 sign up to Facebook protest to stop Islamic extremist march through Wootton Bassett: More than 120,000 people had last night signed an internet petition protesting about plans by Islamic extremists to march through Wootton Bassett.
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary sparked outrage by saying his radical group Islam4UK would parade through the town renowned for honouring soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The firebrand cleric said 500 of his supporters would carry 'symbolic coffins' in memory of the Muslim civilians ' murdered by merciless' coalition forces. >>> Ian Drury and Andy Dolan | Monday, January 04, 2010
Islam4UK Letter to the Families of British Soldiers (who have died or who are currently in Afghanistan) >>>
Islam for the UK (Islam4UK) >>>
Islam vs Democracy, Freedom and Secularism >>>
20MINUTES.ch: Hinter dem Diebstahl des Schriftzuges «Arbeit macht frei» vom Eingangstor der KZ-Gedenkstätte Auschwitz steckt angeblich ein wohlhabender britischer Nazi-Sympathisant.
Das Schild sei gestohlen worden, um es an einen wohlhabenden Sammler von Nazi-Erinnerungen in Grossbritannien zu verkaufen. Der Schriftzug sollte demnach über eine Gruppe schwedischer Rechtsextremisten weiter an den Sammler gehen, berichtet das britische Boulevardblatt «Sunday Mirror». >>> sda | Sonntag, 03. Januar 2010
LE FIGARO: Dans la prison d'Evin, à Téhéran, les prisonniers de droit commun sont entassés dans des cellules collectives. Les détenus politiques échouent, eux, dans la fameuse section 209.
«L'Iran est devenu une prison. Evin est devenu une université !» Le slogan, répété à cor et à cri, lors de chaque manifestation iranienne, en dit long sur la répression en cours à Téhéran, à l'heure où de nombreux manifestants, intellectuels, étudiants, ténors du courant réformiste et journalistes s'entassent à Evin, un des plus importants centres de détention de la capitale iranienne. Combien sont-ils ? Les estimations varient de plusieurs centaines à plusieurs milliers, et selon la Campagne internationale pour les droits de l'homme en Iran, «plus de 1.000 personnes auraient été arrêtées pendant la nouvelle vague de l'Achoura» (en référence aux manifestations du week end).
Située sur les hauteurs de la ville, la prison d'Evin, dont la réputation n'est plus à faire, a été inaugurée en 1971, soit huit ans avant la révolution. Ironie du sort : un grand nombre de détenus actuels, à l'instar du défenseur des droits de l'homme Emadeddin Baghi, en sont familiers, pour y avoir déjà séjourné au temps du chah. En général, les prisonniers de droit commun sont répartis dans des cellules collectives. >>> Delphine Minoui, correspondante du Figaro au Moyen-Orient | Mercredi 30 Décembre 2009
WELT ONLINE: Islamisten aus den Unruhestaaten Afghanistan, Jemen, Pakistan, Somalia haben in den vergangen Tagen die westliche Welt in Atem gehalten. Für den Kampf gegen den Terror sollen nun Hunderte Millionen weitere Euro bereitgestellt werden. Dabei hilft gegen den demografischen Nachteil des Westens kein Geld der Welt.
Die "New York Times" sieht den "Jemen im Chaos". Dort erhält Abdulmutallab aus Nigeria die Ausbildung für seinen Mordversuch an 289 Menschen, die an Weihnachten 2009 zwischen Amsterdam und Detroit unterwegs sind. Die Londoner "Times" beklagt den zeitgleich den "failed state" in Somalia, wo die Aufständischen hunderte von Kämpfern in den Jemen schicken wollen, um ihren dortigen Al-Qaida-Genossen gegen Amerika und die einheimische Regierung zu helfen. Die Pariser "Le Monde" erkennt am selben Tag ein "islamistisches Nest" in Pakistans Nordwesten, wo am 2. Januar 2010 bei einem Attentat auf ein Volleyballspiel fast 100 Menschen zerrissen werden.
Großbritanniens Premierminister Gordon Brown beruft daraufhin – parallel zum Afghanistan-Gipfel – eine Jemen-Konferenz zum 28. Januar 2010 nach London. Do[r]t sollen Hunderte Millionen Euro für die Lösung der "tiefer liegenden Probleme" (underlying causes, "Times") in all diesen Ländern bereitgestellt werden. Worin sie bestehen, wird allerdings nicht präzisiert.
Obwohl man gerne einmal etwas anderes vortragen würde, ist zu den ungenannten Problemen etwas sehr Simples in Erinnerung zu rufen. Das ganze Unruhequartett Afghanistan-Jemen-Pakistan-Somalia eliminiert auf die eine oder andere Weise überzählige junge Männer, kämpft also mit youth bulges, bei denen mindestens 30 Prozent der männlichen Bevölkerung 15 bis 29 Jahre alt ist. >>> Von Gunnar Heinsohn | Sonntag, 03. Januar 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Three Western embassies closed in Yemen today over security concerns about possible militant attacks after the failed bombing of a US-bound plane on Christmas Day.
The US Embassy said it had received a threat by al-Qaeda, which US intelligence agencies believe has a growing presence in the impoverished Arab country.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman cited security reasons for its the closure of its embassy, but declined to say if any specific threat had been made.
Spain has also decided to close its embassy in Sanaa on Monday and Tuesday, the newspaper El Mundo said, quoting embassy sources.
In Washington, a senior aide to President Obama said that the United States had information that al-Qaeda was planning an attack against a target in Sanaa.
John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, said there were “indications al-Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy".
A statement on the embassy’s website announcing the closure did not say how long it would remain closed.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said a decision would be taken later as to whether the British Embassy would reopen tomorrow.
The moves came after Mr Obama blamed a Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliate for masterminding an attempt by a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to detonate a bomb on a Detroit-bound passenger plane. >>> | Sunday, January 03, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The UK's official weather forecasters are determined that winters should be mild, in the face of the frozen facts, says Christopher Booker
Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, as 200,000 merrymakers were departing from the Thames after enjoying a spectacular fireworks show in sub-zero temperatures, flakes of snow began to fall on Whitehall. In light of the Met Office's prediction that this would be a "mild" winter, with temperatures above average, it seemed an apt way to start the New Year. But hasn't the time come for us to stop treating the serial inaccuracy of Met Office forecasts as just a joke and see it for what it is – a national scandal?
The reason the Met Office so persistently gets its seasonal forecasts wrong is that it has been hi-jacked from the role for which we pay it nearly £200 million a year, to become one of the world's major propaganda engines for the belief in man-made global warming. Over the past three years, it has become a laughing stock for forecasts which are invariably wrong in the same direction.
The year 2007, it predicted, would be "the warmest ever" – just before global tempratures plunged by more than the entire net warming of the 20th century, Three years running it predicted warmer than average winters – as large parts of the northern hemisphere endured record cold and snowfalls. Last year's "barbecue summer" was the third time running that predictions of a summer drier and warmer than average prefaced weeks of rain and cold. Last week the Met Office was again predicting that 2010 will be the "warmest year" on record, while Europe and the US look to be facing further weeks of intense cold. >>> Christopher Booker | Saturday, January 02, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Cold snap in Britain will continue 'for next 10 days' >>> | Sunday, January 03, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Snow paralyses Beijing as China braces for deep freeze: Snow storms paralysed Beijing on Sunday, leaving hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled, keeping schools closed, and bringing forecasts of some of the lowest temperatures in decades. >>> | Sunday, January 03, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Transport paralysed in Asia's worst winter in 60 years >>> Richard Lloyd Parry | Monday, January 04, 2010
Watch BBC video: Severe winter weather over Europe >>> | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain braced for heaviest snowfall in 50-years: The heaviest snowfall in almost 50 years is hitting parts of Britain as Arctic weather brought nationwide chaos. >>> Martin Evans | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Just when Denmark thought the worst was over, Islamic fury has come back to haunt it with an assassination attempt on the artist whose cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber had an explosive impact four years ago on the Muslim world.
An axe-wielding Somali extremist broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday night as the 75-year-old cartoonist was looking after Stephanie, his five-year-old granddaughter.
Westergaard, whose little ink drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban sparked riots throughout the Middle East in 2006, has received numerous death threats. He pressed an alarm button to summon police when the attacker entered the house in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, by breaking a window.
He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a “panic room”, a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted “swear words, really crude words” and shrieked about “blood” and “revenge”, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door. >>> Matthew Campbell | Sunday, January 03, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Crime author PD James has torn into the BBC, accusing it of losing direction, paying large salaries and ageism in an interview with director general Mark Thompson.
Baroness James of Holland Park, who is best known for creating the detective Adam Dalgliesh, repeatedly asked Mr Thompson to justify why so many managers were paid more than £100,000 a year.
The former governor of the BBC was questioning the director general in her role as a guest editor of the Today programme on Radio Four.
She likened the Corporation to a "large unwieldy ship" that was "bringing on more and more cargo and adding more decks, more officers - all comfortably cabined and usually on better salaries than their predecessors had enjoyed - and with customers feeling they paid too much for the journey and weren't sure where they were going".
The Conservative peer said the BBC had changed for the worse since its inception in the 1920s and was "very unwieldy, very bureacratic" and "less clear about what it should be doing".
There was “immense concern", she said, "about the salary structure – if indeed there is a structure – and the extraordinarily large salaries that are paid”. >>> Alastair Jamieson | Thursday, December 31, 2009 (New Year’s Eve)
THE TELEGRAPH: If you did not hear the interview conducted by PD James with BBC director general Mark Thompson on the Today programme today then I suggest you set aside 15 minutes or so to do so.
Reading the BBC news website’s account of this spectacular skewering you could be forgiven for believing that Mr Thompson gave a stout defence of the Corporation’s inflated salaries, oversized bureaucracy, patronising ageism and appalling reality TV shows. In fact, Thompson gave a faltering, stumbling performance, unable to answer in any convincing way the points that Lady James put to him, especially when she asked him to justify the huge salaries being paid to BBC executives. Thompson must have said “you know” more times than a footballer, and sounded even more inarticulate. >>> Philip Johnston | Thursday, December 31, 2009
LE FIGARO: Des documents déclassifiés, rendus public mercredi, montrent une «Dame de Fer» brutale avec ses collaborateurs, amatrice de whisky et un peu pingre.
L'ancien premier ministre britannique Margaret Thatcher fut bien plus tranchante et politiquement incorrecte que les historiens ne le soupçonnaient. Des documents déclassifiés couvrant son arrivée à Downing Street en 1979, ont dépeint, à la surprise de la presse d'outre-Manche, une «Dame de Fer» inflexible faisant preuve «d'un degré de racisme personnel choquant», d'après le Guardian. Les archives rendues publiques mercredi montrent notamment une Margaret Thatcher peu tolérante vis-à-vis des boat-people vietnamiens.
Le premier ministre «pensait que c'était une mauvaise idée d'attribuer à ces immigrés des logements sociaux alors que les citoyens blancs n'en recevaient pas. Cela créerait des émeutes», note un compte-rendu d'une rencontre entre Margaret Thatcher et son ministre des Affaires étrangères. Selon le Telegraph, qui relate l'anecdote, le ministre essaie de convaincre la «Dame de Fer» de laisser 10.000 réfugiés vietnamiens s'établir en Grande-Bretagne d'ici à 1981. «En accueillir moins renverrait une très mauvaise image de l'Angleterre», plaide-t-il. Mais pour la chef de file des Tories, la Grande-Bretagne abrite déjà trop d'immigrés. «A quelques exceptions près, il n'y avait aucune raison humanitaire pour autoriser l'entrée des 1,5 million habitants d'Asie du Sud et d'ailleurs qui sont là. Il faut bien établir une limite».
«Tous les citoyens qui ont envoyé un courrier disant soutenir les boat-people devraient en héberger un chez eux», poursuit-elle. Evoquant la situation en Rhodésie (ancien nom du Zimbabwe) dont Robert Mugabe, opposant au régime ségrégationniste d'alors, est devenu l'homme fort, elle confie en revanche «avoir moins d'objection à accueillir les réfugiés [blancs] de Rhodésie, de Pologne ou de Hongrie qui sont beaucoup plus faciles à assimiler».
Les archives de Downing Street dévoilent aussi les projets les plus étranges de la «Dame de Fer». Margaret Thatcher proposa ainsi à son homologue australien d'acheter en commun une île indonésienne ou philippine pour héberger les boat-people. L'hostilité de Singapour fera capoter le plan. Finalement face à la pression de l'ONU, le premier ministre acceptera d'ouvrir les frontières à 10.000 Vietnamiens sur trois ans, avec une préférence pour ceux parlant anglais. Annotations laconiques au vitriol >>> Constance Jamet (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Mercredi 30 Décembre 2009
It’s true that Britain has failed to come to grips with the problem of Islam; and the British government should take the blame for this. However, these senior US policymakers who seem to think that only Britain has the problem are living in cloud-cuckoo-land.
It is also true that Muslims in America are rather better integrated (for the moment at least); but long-term, we ALL have a huge problem with Muslims living here in the West. Truth to tell, we should never have allowed so many Muslims in. Fact is, Prophet Muhammad exhorted his followers NOT to INTEGRATE with the infidel; so American Muslim or British, they are ALL a problem for us here in the West. And this is an undeniable fact also.
So don’t be so smug and naïve over there, Stateside. You’ll have your troubles, too. Just wait; they are a-comin’. – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain has been accused of being a “menace to the outside world” as American anger over the UK’s perceived failure to tackle Islamic extremism intensified.
Senior policymakers in the United States said the attempted suicide bomb attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is thought to have become radicalised in London, was further evidence that one of the biggest threats to US security came from Britain, where the capital has been dubbed “Londonistan” by critics.
There was also criticism of the “ghettoisation” of British Muslims, compared with the “assimilation” of Muslims in America.
Muslim immigrants to the US were much better integrated in society and considered themselves Americans “within a generation” because the US embraced the “melting pot” concept, said Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for President George W Bush and a former Pentagon aide.
“That doesn’t exist in Europe in the same way and particularly in Britain, which is a more socially stratified society than the US,” he said. “They live in Muslim ghettoes and feel alienated from the larger society and not accepted.” >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
LE TEMPS: Des centaines de milliers de manifestants pro-gouvernementaux se sont rassemblés mercredi dans plusieurs villes d’Iran, à l’appel des autorités. Ils ont clamé leur fidélité au régime clérical et accusé les dirigeants d’opposition de semer le chaos dans la République islamique
Des dizaines de manifestations en province ont rassemblé des foules importantes, selon les médias officiels. Les manifestants dénonçaient «les hypocrites séditieux» et réclamaient parfois leur «pendaison», selon des images de la télévision iranienne.
A Téhéran, des centaines de milliers de personnes ont participé à plusieurs cortèges pour dénoncer le «complot» visant a «renverser le régime islamique», selon les termes d’un communiqué officiel. Des drapeaux américains et britanniques ont été brûlés.
Ces rassemblements ont été organisés à l’appel des autorités. Mais les administrations ont également appelé à descendre dans la rue, tout comme des corps officiels comme les Gardiens de la révolution, des écoles théologiques, des associations locales, certains bazars comme celui de Qom, qui a fermé, et certaines entreprises d’Etat.
Les médias étrangers, soumis à des restrictions, ne pouvaient pas couvrir les éventuels rassemblements d’opposition. «Mort à Moussavi» >>> ATS | Mercredi 30 Décembre 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Demonstranten in Teheran fordern Moussavis Tod:Oppositionsführer laut Staatsagentur aus Teheran geflüchtet – oder weggebracht >>> sda/dpa/afp/Reuters | Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The United States prevented Dutch authorities from installing full body scanners before the suspected Christmas Day bomb plotter passed through security at Amsterdam's airport, the Dutch government claimed today.
The Dutch claimed that they had been trying to install the machines for flights to the US since 2008 but had been blocked by US officials who wanted passengers to all destinations screened.
In light of the failed attack all passengers travelling from Holland to the US will now have to go through full body scanners the Dutch Interior Minister announced following discussions with the Americans.
Guusje ter Horst said the millimetre wave scanners that can see beneath passengers' clothes will be in use at Schiphol airport within three weeks and remain a permanent fixture for all flights to the US. >>> Joanna Sugden | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The leader of Iran's opposition was to have fled Tehran, state media reported tonight.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, defeated in hotly disputed elections in June, was said to have left the Iranian capital on a day marked by pro-government rallies at which crowds chanted "Death to Mousavi". Another of the leaders, Mahdi Karroubi, was also said to have fled.
The news comes three days after Mr Mousavi's nephew, Ali, was killed during a protest against the regime in which at least eight lost their lives.
He was said to have been shot in the chest. Opposition figures have claimed he was deliberately targeted and had received a number of death threats. >>> Times Online | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: Iran's opposition leader flees as tens of thousands of government supporters swarm Tehran chanting 'death to Mousavi': Iran's police chief threatened to show 'no mercy' in crushing any new protests by the country's opposition supporters today.
Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam warned protesters to stay off the streets or face harsh consequences. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: Abroad, our reputation lies in shreds. At home, an exhausted government is drifting, rudderless, from one crisis to the next.
Unemployment is rising sharply. The public finances are in chaos. The unions are threatening havoc and inflation is set to soar...
No, this isn't the tail-end of 2009 - though the parallels are painfully obvious.
This is the Britain of early 1979, in the dying months of the last Labour administration, as brought vividly back to life by papers released today under the 30-year rule.
Then, as now, our country's problems were stacking up so fast that national ruin seemed inevitable.
But as the papers so graphically remind us, waiting in the wings in the spring of 1979 was a politician with a radical blueprint for revival and the indomitable courage to turn it into action.
Even 30 years on, Margaret Thatcher remains a hugely controversial figure.
For many on the bien-pensant Left, she is still the butt of sneers, reviled as the petit-bourgeois grocer's daughter who ruthlessly destroyed jobs in the old nationalised industries.
For growing numbers of others, however - and the Mail has been among them from the start - she is recognised as the woman who rescued Britain from the edge of the precipice and did more for ordinary workers than anyone since the war.
Whichever side you may be on, it's impossible not to admire the sheer vigour and straight-talking honesty, brought to light in the 30-year-rule papers, with which she stood up for Britain and set about her task of reconstruction.
Foreign presidents, Tory grandees and obstructive civil servants can hardly have known what hit them when this whirlwind blew into Downing Street on May 3, 1979. >>> Daily Mail Comment | Tuesday, December 29, 2009
“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.” – Margaret Thatcher (World in Action)
THE TELEGRAPH: Margaret Thatcher thought it was "quite wrong" for immigrants to get council houses ahead of "white citizens", previously unpublished government papers show.
Files released to the National Archives show that soon after becoming prime minister, Lady Thatcher privately complained that too many Asian immigrants were being allowed into Britain.
The documents, which are published today under the “30 year rule”, shed further light on Lady Thatcher’s attitudes on race and immigration, political issues that have remained controversial ever since.
They show that in July 1979, Lady Thatcher met Lord Carrington, her foreign secretary, and William Whitelaw, then home secretary, to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of "boat people" fleeing persecution in communist Vietnam.
The prime minister, who had publicly said that she sympathised with fears that Britain was being “swamped” by immigrant cultures, reacted sharply to the ministers’ suggestions that thousands of the Vietnamese refugees should be welcomed.
Lord Carrington, who had visited refugee camps in Hong Kong where some of the boat people were being held, gave a "vivid account" of the conditions there, the minutes show.
He suggested that Britain take 10,000 of them over two years. Failure to take a significant number would lead to a "damaging reaction" at home and abroad, he said, and anything less than 10,000 would be "difficult to sustain" on the world stage.
But Lady Thatcher said that there were already too many people coming into Britain, according to the minutes. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Files from 1979 too sensitive for release remain secret: Government files from 1979 regarded as too sensitive to release under the “30 year rule” were kept secret. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Lady Thatcher attacked French president over Europe funding: The French president received a “handbagging” from Lady Thatcher over Britain's funding of Europe within weeks of her entering Downing Street. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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