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THE 21ST CENTURY’S LAPSE OF MEMORY
By Avi Davis
 If you had spoken in the year 1899 to a 20-year-old man and told him that the coming century would wreak more damage and take more human life than all the European wars until that time combined, he might have laughed at you. It would have seemed unthinkable to an enlightened mind at the end of the 19th Century that peaceful Europe could be convulsed by a mechanized horror on a level mankind had never before witnessed. How could he, or others, conceive of an international conflict which would consume the lives of 45 million people, eradicate hundreds of ancient villages and cities and sweep away some of the most powerful monarchies on earth? Perhaps in Africa or Asia. But surely not in civilized Europe.
Now, if you told a man in 1920 that twenty years later the world would be visited by a renewed horror, but this time on a far broader and more desperate scale, he might have taken you a little more seriously. That’s because the experiences of the First World War left a deep scar on the consciousness of the post war generation, awakening it to the perils of high technology and the devastation that human beings could now wreak upon one another. It strengthened its leaders’ resolve to prevent war of any such kind in the future.
Most of us living in the comfortable early years of the 21st Century have no real memory of true hardship or of cataclysmic conflicts which once gripped the world and transformed it forever. Our last great existential crisis, the Cold War, stretched for 43 years, but ironically had only a marginal impact on the pace and enjoyment of life in the West. Except for small intervals, the economic success of the post-war years has largely inoculated us against the kind of despair our forefathers experienced during the first half of the 20th Century. The Great Depression, with its searing images of bread lines, 15 % unemployment and dust bowl poverty, is now a very distant memory, fading into meaninglessness when viewed through the prism of modern life.
Memory in “live for the moment’ western society does not tend to stretch beyond a generation or two. Yet if there is one thing that the recent economic collapse has reminded us it is that good times do not and cannot go on forever. Wars, natural disasters and economic landslides are part of the natural progression of history and every generation should expect to be visited by them. Seen in this light, the major catastrophes which punctuated the Bush years - the attacks of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the economic crisis of 2008, were part of the historical continuum, not outliers. Our lack of physical and psychological preparedness for them and the panic they spread was far more a function of the absence of historical memory than a dearth of good intelligence, accurate weather forecasting or effective market regulation.
So if we cast our minds back to that Gilded Age man and think for a moment about his world view, we might find it fairly easy to identify with his skeptical outlook. While it may be true that the past eight years have produced events that have deeply shaken us, they have not been quite so cataclysmic as to strip us of hope for the future or faith in our political system and way of life. Yes, the United States mainland was attacked for the first time in 189 years and 3,000 innocents lost their lives. But there are very few, even in the highest echelons of government, who believe that another attack, even if it is a localized nuclear attack, would wipe out our civilization.
That is an enormous miscalculation.
Today the United States is completely unprepared for the event of an electromagnetic pulse attack. Such an attack, known to the United States military since 1963, occurs when an enemy vessel outside U.S. territorial waters launches a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead which detonates some 100 miles in the atmosphere above the continental United States. If plotted correctly, the electro magnetic current from this explosion, while perhaps causing no fatalities on the ground , would generate such a voluminous shockwave that it would effectively short circuit the country’s electrical grid. The devastating impact can barely be imagined: No communications; no transportation; no refrigeration; no water supply; no heat nor air conditioning and no possibility of immediate repair.
Within a short time most families, who are provisioned with an average three days worth of food, would be reduced to desperate measures. Looting, riots, murder and destruction would grip most cities. Within a few a months, parts of the United States of America would to begin to resemble the landscape portrayed in Cormac McCarthy’s post apocalyptic novel The Road – a devastated populace with mass starvationand roaming gangs who have no compunction about killing for food.
Who is capable of carrying out such an attack? According to a report presented to Congress in 2004, Russia and China already have the capacity for such a strike and North Korea could acquire the technology by 2015. Iranian technicians have apparently known for years that an EMP attack on the United States is by far the most effective means of eliminating a U.S. military threat to Iran.
Wouldn’t most of these countries fear U.S. retaliation? Well, yes. But the beauty of an EMP attack for the aggressor is that the victim never quite knows who has launched the strike. Terror sponsoring states could easily unload responsibility for it onto the backs of one of the many terrorist organizations salivating to deliver such a blow. The identity of the perpetrating group could remain hidden for years, leaving no real target for retaliation.
What can be done to prevent such an attack? An effective missile defense system, for one thing, designed specifically to interdict such ballistic weapons at launch phase. Another important measure is to mandate that all electrical generators throughout the country be sufficiently ‘hardened’ against such an attack – an operation that is relatively cost effective. According to the 2004 Congressional report, depending on the power level involved, points of entry into electrical generators can sometimes be protected from an electromagnetic pulse by using specially designed surge protectors, special wire termination procedures, screened isolated transformers, spark gaps, or other types of specially-designed electrical filters. Critical systems may also be protected by increasing the number of backup units, and by keeping these units dispersed and out of range of the electromagnetic pulse source.
So, then, what is being done to address EMP threats? In a word, nothing. Although the Congressional Report made clear that an EMP is the most lethal threat the United States currently faces, no one at the senior level of the Department of Defense seems to have read the report and top government leaders, including former President Bush, seem blissfully unaware of the magnitude of the threat.
A normal reaction to such a scenario as the one presented here is that it is too wild a prospect, too beyond believability. And that is indeed what our leaders probably think. But return now to the Gilded Age man. Think of his incredulity to the prospect of an absolute destruction of his civilization. Think about the risks of doing nothing in preaparation. And consider that if it happens, there may not be many of us left to recall how arrogant we were, or how shallow was our memory, in accepting that it could never really happen to us.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ new blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
Robert Spencer- Obama selects a Muslim with ties to Hamas to pray at the inauguration
by Robert Spencer
Barack Obama isn’t wasting any time making an impression: he has selected the leader of a group that has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case to present a prayer during his inauguration festivities. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), will offer a prayer at the National Cathedral Tuesday.Superficially, Obama’s choice is understandable: Ingrid Mattson is a Canadian convert to Islam who has carefully cultivated the image of a moderate spokesperson. Yet her organization’s record is not entirely clean. Federal prosecutors last summer rejected claims that ISNA was unfairly named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. And ISNA has even admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, complaining only that the government’s evidence for those ties came from old documents, but offering no proof that the organization had reversed course. In a memorandum on the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy in the United States, a Muslim Brotherhood operative named ISNA as an allied organization in what it called “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
 U.S. Army War College Publishes Apologia for Hamas-IPT
The U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) published a monograph last month by Sherifa Zuhur entitled, "Hamas and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics," a fairly bland heading that only hints at its deeply disturbing content. This monograph is more accurately described as an apologia for Hamas, a violent Islamist organization dedicated tojihad and the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas was first designated by the United States (U.S.) government as a terrorist organization in 1995 by a presidential executive order and then again as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 1997. Hamas has remained on the FTO list ever since. The essay also consistently demonizes Israel and its legitimate defense of national sovereignty under international law.
The U.S. Army War College is an official educational facility of the Department of Defense, and is accredited by the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania-based War College is to prepare its students for strategic leadership positions in the U.S. military and senior levels of civilian policymaking. American taxpayers fund the War College and its Strategic Studies Institute. (IPT)
Amsterdam Court of Appeal orders the criminal prosecution of the Member of Parliament of the Dutch Second Chamber Geert Wilders
Amsterdam Court of Appeal orders the criminal prosecution of the Member of Parliament of the Dutch
On 21 January 2009 the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ordered the criminal prosecution of the member of parliament Geert Wilders for the incitement to hatred and discrimination based on his statements in various media about moslims and their belief. In addition, the Court of Appeal considers criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers because of the comparisons made by Wilders of the islam with the nazism.
The Court of Appeal rendered judgment as a consequence of a number of complaints about the non-prosecution of Wilders for his statements in various media about moslims and their belief. The complainants did not agree with the decision of the public prosecution which decided not to give effect to their report against Wilders.
The public prosecution is of the view, amongst others, that part of the statements of Wilders do not relate to a group of worshippers, but consists of criticism as regards the Islamic belief, as a result of which neither the self-esteem of this group of worshippers is affected nor is this group brought into discredit. Some statements of Wilders can be regarded as offending, but since these were made (outside the Dutch Second Chamber) as a contribution to a social debate there is no longer a ground for punishableness of those statements according to the public prosecution. (Rechtspraak.nl)
Palestinians threaten Europe with Muslim minority
Since when are European Muslims a weapon? Threatening that European Muslims will use violence to get their wishes is a very dangerous double edged sword. Unless they want to be seen and treated as a foreign weapon, it is a threat that European Muslims should strongly reject.
A couple of warnings from the Palestinians. First, from the PLO representative in the EU, Leila Shahid, regarding the compromise resolution accepted by the EU in Strasbourg. Shahid was concerned that the statement did not mention article 2 of the Euro-Mediterranean agreement with Israel, which states the relations between the two will be based on respect for human rights. (Islamineurope)
 Muslim civil servant suspended over 'killing British troops is justified' blog--Simon Walters and Jason Lewis
A senior Muslim civil servant has launched an astonishing verbal onslaught against the Government over its response to Israel’s military strikes in Gaza – and has suggested that killing British troops in Iraq is justified.
Treasury official Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, now faces the sack over the remarks.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell – who is the patron of the society – acted immediately after being alerted to the comments by The Mail on Sunday.
Shortly after this newspaper contacted the Cabinet Office, a senior official disclosed that Mr Ali had been suspended for the remarks made on his personal internet blog.
In it he:
• Quotes an Islamic extremist who says it is his ‘obligation’ to kill British and American soldiers in Iraq;
• Accuses the Government of failing to condemn the ‘Zionist terrorist state of Israel’; and
• Attacks moderate British Muslims as ‘self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians’. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Spanish police arrest 10 suspected Islamic extremists-AFP
Spanish police arrested 10 suspected Islamic extremists in a series of raids Tuesday in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, a source close to the inquiry said.
MADRID—The operation was ordered by Spain's top anti-terrorist judge Baltazar Garzon and was still ongoing, the source told AFP. Six arrests took place in Barcelona, although all of those concerned had travelled from different parts of Spain, said another source. They are suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out thefts and sending the money they raised from their criminal activities to Pakistan, the judicial source added. Neither source provided the nationality of those arrested. In March 2004, early morning bomb attacks on three packed commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people in Europe’s worst Islamic-linked terror attack. (AFP)
Paris ready to discuss with Hamas if the Islamist group renounces violence-EJP
PARIS/BRUSSELS (EJP)---France is ready to talk with a Palestinian government which would include members of Hamas if it acts in favour of peace with Israel, the French foreign ministry said.
“We are ready to work with a national union government which would respect the principle of the peace process and would engage in negotiations with Israel leading to the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security," Eric Chevallier, the ministry’s spokesman, said Tuesday. Asked by journalists if France still demands, prior to any contact with Hamas, renunciation of violence, recognition of Israel and acknowledgment of past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, Chevallier responded: "There is absolutely one major element, it’s renunciation of violence.”According to Le Figaro newspaper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to convene a wide-ranging international Middle East peace conference in Paris. (EJP)
Government gives £1m to anti-extremist think-tank Quilliam Foundation-Richard Kerbaj
Almost £1 million of public money is being given to a think-tank run by two former Islamic extremists, despite reservations being expressed by members of the Government and the Opposition. The funding is for the Quilliam Foundation — a counter-extremism think-tank set up nine months ago by Ed Husain, a bestselling author, and Maajid Nawaz, a former political prisoner in Egypt — as part of the Government’s strategy to combat the radicalisation of British Muslims. The scale of the funding has aroused concerns that the Government is relying too heavily on a relatively unknown organisation in its desperation to counter extremism.The Times understands that the foundation, which has 18 full-time staff, is paying about £110,000 a year to rent offices at one of Central London’s most prestigious addresses, which, for security reasons, have no name plate or sign outside. Inside, the offices are expensively furnished with state-of-the-art computers and plasma screen televisions. Mr Husain and Mr Nawaz, the organisation’s directors, are believed to be receiving salaries of about £85,000 each a year. The foundation refused to discuss individual earnings. (Timesonline.co.uk)
New Terrorist Threats Worry German Officials
A new video from al-Qaida directly threatening German soldiers has surfaced on the Internet, raising concerns in Berlin about a possible terrorist attack on German soil.
A German-speaker wearing a black turban and facecloth that left only his eyes visible spoke in the 30-minute video recently surfaced on the Internet.The message, delivered by a man calling himself "Abu Talha, the German," made no direct threats against Germany, but said the country was "gullible and naive" to believe it could "emerge unscathed" from having the third-biggest contingent of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
"Letting me blow myself up in the name of Allah has been my wish since 1993," the man said. "Time is running out for the Germans. I say to the German people 'arise and become just again.' (DW.World)
Will Obama's Administration Legitimize Islamic Supremacism?-Jeffrey Imm
In March 2008, I challenged Sen. Barack Obama to expand on his August 2007 comments that terrorists "seek to create a repressive caliphate... To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for." In his August 2007 speech, Sen. Obama stated that terrorists "distort Islam."But Barack Obama never recognized that such an Islamic supremacist caliphate is a central goal of the Islamic supremacist ideology itself. \Moreover, instead of demonstrating an understanding of the enemy and condemning those who support such an Islamic supremacist caliphate, thus far Barack Obama has continued to send signals to legitimize Islamic supremacist supporters. (Familysecuritymatters)
Academic freedom
FIRE Pens Open Letter to President Obama-FIRE Press Release
Asks for Help Fighting Unconstitutional Speech Codes on College Campuses
WASHINGTON, January 20, 2009—This Inauguration Day, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has sent President Barack Obama an open letter requesting that, as a constitutional lawyer and the leader of the nation's executive branch, he and his administration join the fight against college and university speech codes that are infringing on the rights of millions of our nation's college students. "Millions of American students are being taught that colleges have the power to censor and punish speech that the Bill of Rights protects," Greg Lukianoff, FIRE's president, said. "Failing to educate an entire generation about our constitutional ideals of liberty—and, still worse, actually teaching students that they have a duty to censor opinions with which they disagree—means that it will not be long before these illiberal attitudes result in severe consequences for our Republic." (FIRE)
NAS Conference Keynote Speaker: "Western Culture is Unique"-Simon Walters and Jason Lewis
Video: Victor Davis Hanson, champion of Western civilization, addressed the NAS conference on January 9, 2009. (NAS)
Media Bias
UK paper: Can Israel be compared to Nazis?Jonny Paul
A British newspaper has issued an apology after receiving complaints about a poll published Monday in which it asked if Israel can be compared to the Nazis. Metro, a free morning paper distributed across the UK, asked the question, "Can Israel be compared to the Nazis?" in its daily poll. The newspaper claims the poll was in response to comments made by a Jewish-born MP who, in a debate in the House of Commons last Thursday, accused Israel of behaving like the Nazis. Responding to IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich's remarks on Sky News last week, Labor MP Gerald Kaufman said: "On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Maj. Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians, the total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that 500 of them were militants." He added: "That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose that the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto could have been dismissed as militants." Following numerous telephone and e-mail complaints to Metro, the newspaper reworded the question and issued an apology. "The overzealous paraphrasing of Mr. Kaufman's comment in an earlier version of this poll may have caused offense to some Metro readers. We apologize for this," the paper said. The poll now reads, "Was Jewish MP Gerald Kaufman justified in making his comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last week?" (Jpost)
 Africa’s forgotten wars shame the media-Russia Today
The world is holding its breath that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds. Three weeks of violence killed and injured thousands, many of them civilians. The casualties in Gaza, however, pale in comparison with the numbers killed in Africa’s many ongoing wars – many of which go unreported.
An army of journalists are leaving with the Israeli soldiers – about 1,500 have been reporting on Israel’s war in Gaza, mostly from the same spot on the Israeli-Gaza border. Israel didn't allow journalists into Gaza during the offensive. The question is: where is the world's media circus heading next? Not to Africa, for sure. While the cameras focused on the Israel-Gaza border for the 22 days of the conflict, human tragedies were unfolding on another continent. Thousands were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebel fighting continues. In Darfur, 3,461 people died in the civil war; while in Zimbabwe, 1,500 died from cholera. However, very few cameras were recording these tragedies. (Russiatoday)
Freedom of Speech
BBC host: Christ is real, but I can't say so on air
BBC presenter Jeremy Vine believes that Christ is who he says he is, but doesn’t think he could say so on his show. The Radio 2 host, who also fronts TV shows Panorama and Points of View, says society is becoming increasingly intolerant of Christian views. He told Reform Magazine that it has become “almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God”. “You can’t express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago,” he said. “Arguably, the parameters of what you might call ‘right thinking’ are probably closing.”Mr Vine is a practising Anglican, but he says he is unable to discuss his faith on air. “One of the things that I think, which may sound bizarre, is that Christ is who he said he was,” he said. “I don’t think I’d put that out on my show; I suppose there’s a bit of a firewall between thinking that and doing the job I do.” Mr Vine is the latest public figure to highlight the increasing hostility facing Christians, particularly from the media. (Christian.org.uk)
Britain’s surrender-Melanie Phillips
Wall Street Journal (Europe), 20 January 2009
In Britain, the war in Gaza has revealed the extent to which the media, intelligentsia and political class have simply crumbled in the face of the global jihad. The U.K. is a major player in European and world politics and is America’s most significant strategic ally. Until now, it has been considered one of Israel’s firm supporters and a linchpin of the Western defense against the world-wide Islamist onslaught. With the reaction to Gaza, however, that reputation is no longer sustainable. Years of demonizing Israel and appeasing Islamist extremism within Britain have now coalesced, as a result of the media misrepresentation of the Gaza war as an atrocity against civilians, in an unprecedented wave of hatred against Israel and a sharp rise in attacks on British Jews. Throughout the war, London’s streets have witnessed a hallucinatory level of violent and explicit support for Hamas from Muslims, members of the far left and supposedly progressive individuals. (MelaniePhillips)
ANTISEMITISM
Wiesenthal Centre Joins UNESCO and French Memorial to the Shoah in Response to Ahmadinejad's Genocidal Message that "The Holocaust Is a Lie, Let Us Make It a Reality!"
Paris, 20 January 2009
In a letter to UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, and to the President of the French Memorial to the Shoah, Baron Eric de Rothschild, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, confirmed that, "while UNESCO and the Memorial will be marking the International Holocaust Commemoration Day 2009 in Paris, our Centre – together with Verbe et Lumière-Vigilance and the Russian Holocaust Centre – will be holding a parallel session, under the auspices of UNESCO, on 27 February 2009 in Moscow." Samuels noted that "the Centre's membership is outraged that, simultaneously, a ceremony is to be held in Tehran to launch English and Arabic versions of a book of caricatures, based on the 2006 Iranian international competition of cartoons denying, satirizing and profaning the Holocaust. This hatefest is to be attended by government officials and regaled with a message on 'The Holocaust Fiction' by Iranian President Ahmadinejad – a violator of Article II(4) of the United Nations Charter and Articles III and IV of the Genocide Convention in his 'direct and public incitement for the annihilation of a Member State'." (SimonWiesenthalCenter)
 Norwegian envoy: Israel, Nazis are same-Etgar Lefkovits
A Norwegian diplomat based in Saudi Arabia has sent out e-mails from her Foreign Ministry e-mail account equating Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza with the systematic mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazis. The e-mail, sent out by Trine Lilleng, a first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh, includes a juxtaposition of black-and-white pictures from the Holocaust with color images of Operation Cast Lead. "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany," the e-mail states. A copy of the e-mail was obtained by The Jerusalem Post. The 40-plus pictures included as attachments in the e-mail include the famous image of a Jewish boy with his hands raised as a German soldier points his gun at him, next to an image of an Israeli soldier aiming his weapon at a Palestinian boy. Another depicts a German soldier firing his weapon, next to an IDF soldier shooting his, while others juxtapose the barbed wire surrounding ghettos and concentration camps to the fence around Gaza, and the West Bank security barrier. The e-mail asks recipients to forward the message to others. (Jpost)
‘Three Attacks on Synagogues in the Netherlands’-NIS
AMSTERDAM, 20/01/09 - Three attacks have been made on synagogues in the Netherlands in the past few days, says the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI). The government is to provide clarification of the incidents in the Lower House today. On Sunday morning, persons unknown started a small fire in an auction house in Amsterdam with a Molotov cocktail. A synagogue located in the same building was "undoubtedly" the intended target, CIDI director Ronny Naftaniel said yesterday. "There are Hebrew texts above the door of the building," he explained. Naftaniel said that earlier last week, the windows of a synagogue in Haaksbergen were broken. Additionally, persons unknown have tried to set fire to a synagogue in Arnhem, the CIDI director added. Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders will ask Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst and Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin during today's Question Time what exactly has happened in the past week and how the police have responded to this. The PVV is demanding immediate protection for all Jewish buildings. (NIS)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Al-Qaeda cell killed by Black Death 'was developing biological weapons’ -Telegraph
An al-Qaeda cell killed by the Black Death may have been developing biological weapons when it was infected, it has been reported.
The group of 40 terrorists were reported to have been killed by the plague at a training camp in Algeria earlier this month. It was initially believed that they could have caught the disease through fleas on rats attracted by poor living conditions in their forest hideout. But there are now claims the cell was developing the disease as a weapon to use against western cities. Experts said that the group was developing chemical and biological weapons.Dr Igor Khrupinov, a biological weapons expert at Georgia University, told The Sun: "Al-Qaeda is known to experiment with biological weapons. And this group has direct communication with other cells around the world. "Contagious diseases, like ebola and anthrax, occur in northern Africa. It makes sense that people are trying to use them against Western governments." Dr Khrupinov, who was once a weapons adviser to the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, added: "Instead of using bombs, people with infectious diseases could be walking through cities." It was reported last year that up to 100 potential terrorists had attempted to become postgraduate students in Britain in an attempt to use laboratories. Ian Kearns, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, told the newspaper: "The biological weapons threat is not going away. We're not ready for it." (Telegraph.co.uk)
Taliban bombs five schools in Pakistan-Isambard Wilkinson
The Taliban has bombed five schools in Pakistan's Swat valley in a campaign against educating girls.
Two of the five schools attacked on Monday were attended by girls, a government official said.
The attacks took place in the Swat valley, once a popular tourist destination that has fallen under the sway of the militants despite a year-long military operation by the Pakistani government. The Pakistani Taliban last week imposed an edict to close all girls' schools. Militants had already destroyed 122 schools in Swat, mostly for girls, in the past two years. The "ban" will affect 400 private schools and their 40,000 pupils, and 82,000 girls at state-run schools, along with 8,000 teachers who face losing their jobs if the schools are forced to close. (Telegraph.co.uk)
 Crown Heights, NY - NYPD Investigating Threat Against Chabad 770
Crown Heights, NY - NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly called Chanina Sperlin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council from the Presidential inauguration in Washington DC, this morning to discuss threats against 770 on the website www.revolutionmuslim.com. "The Commissioner is looking into the situation," said Sperlin, "The Crown Heights community was considered a target in the past, and whether or not this is serious remains to be seen." The site which features the threat is run by Yousef Al-Khattab, a New York City cabbie who operates an extremist Islamic anti-American Web site that features violent images on a daily basis : From the Statue of Liberty, with an ax blade cutting through her side; to a video mocking the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, entitled "Daniel Pearl I am Happy Your Dead :) "; or the latest speech from Sheikh Abdullah Faisal, an extremist Muslim cleric convicted in the UK and later deported for soliciting the murder of non-Muslims. (Vosizneias)
ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
 Glaciers melting so fast some could disappear by middle of the century-Louise Gray
Mountain ranges could lose their snowy peaks by the middle of the century, according to the lastest findings which show glaciers are melting faster than ever.
The World Glacier Monitoring Service in Switzerland collected measurements on the thickness of ice on mountain ranges from New Zealand to the Alps. Heavy snowfall in Scandinavia meant the average loss in thickness in 2007 was 24 inches (0.6m) compared to a record 47 inches (1.2m) the year previously.
However, it is still the third biggest fall on record and after 18 years of uninterrupted loss around the world means the total mass of glaciers is thought to be at its lowest for several centuries. Dr Michael Zemp, who analyses the data at the WGMS, said if temperatures continue to rise, glaciers in certain regions where there is a warmer climate and low altitudes could disappear completely by the middle of the century. For example, ice on the Pyrenees and Rockies is at risk of disappearing. Where there are higher elevations the ice will only remain high up, for example the Alps. Only in the polar regions, where the tempearture is increasing from a very low point, will the ice remain longer. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Birds 'used brainpower to survive extinction'-Lewis Smith
Birds may have a reputation for being birdbrained - but it was superior brainpower that enabled them to survive when 85 per cent of animals around them were being wiped out, researchers have found. Dinosaurs and ancient flying creatures including pterosaurs died out during the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction 65 million years ago but modern birds survived and thrived. Analysis of fossil skulls using computer tomography (CT) scans has now revealed that modern birds were able to adapt to the new conditions because their brains were so well developed. It was the ability of birds to work out the solutions to problems, just as blue tits today learn to reach a creamy treat by pecking foil caps off milk bottles, that gave them the crucial edge. Others, such as members of the crow family, have even managed to learn to use tools. “Birdbrained is a dreadful misnomer," said Dr Angela Milner, of the Natural History Museum in London. "It’s really quite an insult to birds when you think how sophisticated a lot of modern birds are. (Timesonline.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
 How Jazz Helped Hasten the Civil-Rights Movement-Nat Hentoff
On Jan. 19, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Rockefeller Foundation, also focusing on the next day's presidential inauguration, will present at Kennedy Center "A Celebration of America." Headlining the cast are Sandra Day O'Connor and Wynton Marsalis. As Jazz at Lincoln Center declares, Dr. King called jazz "America's triumphant music," and the presence of Mr. Marsalis is to "illustrate that American democracy and America's music share the same tenets and embody the same potential for change, hope and renewal." This focus on jazz as well as President-elect Barack Obama (who, I'm told, has John Coltrane on his iPod) should help make Americans, including our historians, aware of the largely untold story of the key role of jazz in helping to shape and quicken the arrival of the civil-rights movement. For a long time, black and white jazz musicians were not allowed to perform together publicly. It was only at after-hours sessions that they jammed together, as Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke did in Chicago in the 1920s. (WSJ)
The 'toxic' Web generation: Children spend six hours a day in front of screens-Laura Clark
Youngsters are shunning books and outdoor games to spend up to six hours a day in front of a screen, a survey has revealed. Children as young as five are turning their bedrooms into multi-media 'hubs' with TVs, computers, games consoles, MP3 players and mobile phones all within easy reach. The trend triggered warnings that the next generation will struggle to compete in the adult world because they lack reading and writing skills. At the same time their mastery of technology is not widely appreciated by their parents.The market research involving 1,800 children aged five to 16 found that they spend an average of 2.7 hours a day watching TV, 1.5 on the internet and 1.3 playing on games consoles, although in some cases these activities are simultaneous, such as watching TV while playing on a console. In contrast, youngsters spend just over half an hour reading books, according to the survey by ChildWise. Almost a third take a games console to bed rather than a book, while a quarter never read in their own time. And instead of kicking a football around, more than a quarter of boys regularly meet in an online games 'environment' where they discuss tactics and technical problems. Parents justified internet access on the grounds that it would help with homework but the survey found education had become an 'afterthought', with only 9 per cent of youngsters looking up information for schoolwork the last time they went online. (Dailymail.co.uk)
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