The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

ROMAN POLANSKI: HUNTED AND DEFENDED
By Avi Davis

When is a law, not a law? When you are a celebrity and have a body of work behind you which labels you a major world artist.

That is the divine word that came down the pike this week after a petition, signed by some of the world’s most accomplished directors, actors and producers demanded that the director Roman Polanski be released from Swiss custody. He is held after being apprehended in that country for the commission of a 32 -year -old crime of statutory rape in the United States.
.
The petition is long on names of men and women from whom we might have expected better. French intellectuals Claude Lanzmann and Bernard Henri Levy, two men who have made names for themselves in defending victims of outrageous crimes, signed this petition. So did Pedro Almodovar whose Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down caused an international uproar with its trivialization of rape. And so did Salman Rushdie, who actually committed no crime but was nonetheless on the run for years from an adversary vowed to his elimination.

Where, I wonder , were these same tribunes of morality after the decapitation of Dutch documentary film maker Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam five years ago by a knife wielding jihadist? Were they as overwhelmed with indignation when that filmmaker lost his life for no other reason than speaking his mind? Unfortunately the majority of the same cognoscenti,(Rushdie apart),so vocal in support of a rapist and pedophile, could not bring themselves to mumble much of a response to this unfathomably serious crime.

Polanski certainly has many friends – not just in the film industry but among the elites of Europe. He is the ultimate cosmopolitan and a renowned charmer. That perhaps accounts for a great deal of his support. It would be difficult indeed to ignore the plight of a member of your own circle – particularly a man whose work you admire and whose freedom to produce more masterpieces should, you believe, be protected – the same as you would receive should you find yourself in a similar predicament.

But this should not cloak reality. Polanski is an international fugitive whose crime was not simply to ply his 13-year-old victim with drugs and alcohol before sexually assaulting her. Nor was it just that he skipped bail and spent 32 years on the lam. His true crime is that he never took responsibility for any of it. He never apologized for the actions that might have ruined the life of the young girl in question; He has never acknowledged that he then consciously re-established his own life of glamour and artistic success as an effective bulwark against the reach of the U.S. justice system.

Instead he did quite the opposite. In 1979, in an interview with the British author Martin Amis, published in Tatler Magazine, he sought to exculpate his actions by declaring himself an everyman who merely did what everyone else wants to do: “If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

This implied Lolita Syndrome does not exactly have its feet firmly planted in hard empirical data and personally I can’t remember ever experiencing or harboring such a desire. If it holds true at all, it is only in that rarefied world of celebrity where ennui and tedium encourages the pursuit of any new thrill.

Which brings us to the question that must be asked – not about the correctness of the man’s extradition, but about the nature of the crime itself. What led a 44- year-old man, lionized as one of the great filmmakers of his era , who sported the reputation of being able to seduce almost any woman of his fancy, decide to prey on a minor who had no resources to protect herself and only a thin understanding of what Polanski was demanding of her?

The answer is that to a man like Polanski, who had personally witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust and experienced the murder of his wife and her friends in one of the most gruesome crimes in American history, rules and conventional modes of personal conduct represent meaningless restrictions on personal freedom. To seduce a minor might have seemed to him the ultimate thrill – not because the experience itself would be so elevating, but because Polanski, like many contemporary entertainment, sporting and political personalities, is driven by his sense of personal power. For men such as Polanski, the ultimate challenge is not to seduce a particular girl or boy, but to defy convention – to add one more shattered barrier to their scorecard, as if it is proof of personal invincibility.

In some ways Polanski’s case bares a striking resemblance to another long term fugitive who similarly evaded justice. Ronald Biggs was a part of the conspiracy that resulted in the largest train heist in British history known as The Great Train Robbery. While his co-conspirators were eventually apprehended, the wily Biggs fled the country, becoming a high profile (and much sought after) fugitive in Rio de Janeiro where he spent forty years foiling kidnapping attempts, raising a new family and proving that the law enforcement arm of the United Kingdom was no match for his guile.

But late in life Biggs recognized that the glamorous life of an international fugitive carried unexpected burdens of conscience. In 2001, nearly forty years after the commission of the crime, sick and beaten, he gave himself up to British authorities. Many reasons have been offered for Biggs’ decision , among them the availability of free British health care, ensuing poverty and pure homesickness. But Biggs’ case perhaps tends to prove that one might be able to run from the law indefinitely but one cannot run from his own sense of guilt.

One of the main reasons fugitives such as Roman Polanski and Ronald Biggs remain fascinating is precisely because of their ability to evade the law. Just as murderers, thieves and hatchet men such as Al Capone, Jesse James and the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly have had legends spun from their confrontations with the law, so too Polanski and Biggs only added to their notoriety by successfully dodging their pursuers. Living lives of celebrity, continuing to brazenly seduce women and attracting an ever flowing audience of international visitors, their plights became the stuff of legend, their stature elevated to that of the heroic. They became poster boys for the ineffectiveness of Western law and the ease with which it can be flouted.

For that reason, the extradition of Roman Polanski is an important test case for the West. Already four separate countries are involved in the tussle over Polanski’s fate. Both the French and the Polish governments (of which the filmmaker is a dual citizen) at first expressed outrage at the arrest but have since lowered the volume on their protests. Perhaps they realize it is not just the U.S justice system which is being mocked, but also their own.

As for the potentates of political correctness, those petitioners who see the need to circle the wagons around one of their own, no matter his culpability for a crime, they too may come to understand exactly what is at stake. A glimmer of this was seen when the Wall Street Journal this Friday quoted Kevin Smith , the writer-director of Chasing Amy and Clerks. “ Look, I dig Rosemary’s Baby but rape’s rape. Do the crime, do the time.” Actress Kirstie Alley wrote on Twitter "Just for the record....rape is rape...this is one Hollywood star who does not celebrate or defend Roman Polanski..His ART did not rape her.”

You can bet that there are thousands of other Hollywood mums and dads out there who are looking at their 13- year- old daughters and recognizing exactly how they would have reacted if Samantha Geimer had been their own child. No niceties about Polanski’s great service to mankind. No refrences to the long passage of time nor the forgiveness doled out by the victim. Polanski’s act was a crime against not one person but against American society and our commonly held Western values.

And for that his punishment is long overdue.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Islam on Capitol Hill: A Missed Opportunity
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

The organizers of the “Islam on Capitol Hill” event last Friday came only about 47,000 people short of their goal of bringing 50,000 Muslims to Washington to pray in front of the Capitol building. Although the event received a great deal of publicity, it didn’t receive the backing of the leading American Muslim advocacy groups -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council – and apparently that was enough to keep it from drawing Muslims to Capitol Hill in the numbers the organizers would have liked. Nonetheless, the event went on, peacefully, under skies that initially threatened rain but then turned brilliantly sunny. Still, it was a huge missed opportunity for American Muslims, and not just because the turnout was far smaller than expected. Organizer Hassen Abdellah had explained before the event that it was designed “to show we are not terrorists, but that most of us Muslims here love America and abide by its laws.” And it took place against a backdrop of a sharp increase in violent jihad activity in the United States. In the week leading up to the Islam on Capitol Hill prayer meeting, two Muslims, including an imam, were arrested for their alleged roles in an elaborate plot involving numerous other Muslims in New York City and Denver, who were evidently planning a major jihad attack at a sports stadium. Another Muslim, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested after placing an inert car bomb at a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas. Yet another Muslim, an American convert who calls himself Talib Islam, was arrested for plotting to blow up the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield, Illinois. (Humanevents)

Gutting the PATRIOT Act-Steve Emerson
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) have introduced legislation that would effectively gut the USA PATRIOT Act. Last week, against the backdrop of multiple domestic terrorism-related investigations and arrests, Leahy and Feingold tried to use hearings on extending the PATRIOT Act to advance legislation that would substantially weaken it. The reauthorization hearings focused on three controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Act set to expire on December 31, 2009. If legislators fail to act, the laws will expire automatically. Following the September 11th attacks, members of the Legislative and Executive branches came together to review the tools available to United States counterterrorism officials. They found that existing statutes were inadequate in combating the asymmetrical threat posed by international terrorist organizations and that consequently, new laws were necessary. Within 45 days, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act, a comprehensive counter-terrorism bill. Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees convened this week to discuss the reauthorization of three controversial provisions of the national security legislation. (Familysecuritymatters)

Netherlands: Cut off welfare benefits if burka prevents getting a job
Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen said in an interview Monday in Dutch newspaper Trouw that a woman who will not take off her burka in order to get work, will not get welfare. National politicians meanwhile support this proposal. In 2007 the court in Amsterdam said that the Diemen municipality was wrong to cut off welfare benefits for a woman wearing a burka. In response the parliament, with the support of the PVV, VDD, and SP parties, voted to enable cutting down on benefits for burka wearers The vote to cut off welfare completely was only supported by the PVV and did not pass. The CDA party said Monday that they could agree with Cohen's ideas. The PvdA also says they support him: first cutting down and then stopping. Jeroen Dijsselbloem sees analogies to somebody with 'fourteen piercings in his face'. "It's all well, but then also no benefits." There is every indication that such a vote would now get a majority. "Personally I think it's dreadful to see a woman walking in a burka. But whether I think it's not pleasant, is not a criteria to ban it," according to Cohen in Trouw Monday. In situations where contact is necessary with other people, such as school or work, the situation is completely different, he says. "I agree that if you can't find work because of the burka, you also can't come to ask for welfare." (Islamineurope)

Oktoberfest beer festival security beefed up after al-Qaeda video threats-Roger Boyes in Berlin
The Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest open-air beer festival, is supposed to celebrate the rarely glimpsed easygoing side to Germany. Yesterday it resembled a fortified stockade as Germany fretted over recent al-Qaeda threats of terrorist attack. The skies above the annual festival in Munich were patrolled by Tornado jets, the number of armed police officers had been doubled to 700 and no cars or vans were allowed inside a large “red zone” adjacent to the festival to thwart suicide bombers. The measures are in response to six videos that have appeared on the internet on al-Qaeda propaganda sites, all warning of reprisals against German targets if voters elected a government that kept the country’s 4,200 troops in Afghanistan. Angela Merkel was re-elected Chancellor on Sunday; yesterday Guido Westerwelle, the man tipped to be the foreign minister, said that German troops should stay in Afghanistan until its security could be assured. “Withdrawing from Afghanistan now would mean again abandoning the country to radical Islamists who first terrorise their own people and then extend their terrorism to the world at large,” he said. Two of the videos, either spoken in German or carrying German subtitles, alluded to the beer festival and one faded in a picture of the beer tents. Another featured a 32-year-old German-Moroccan student called Bekkay Harrach, once based in Bonn but now believed to be living in Waziristan on the Pakistani-Afghan border. (Timesonline.co.uk)

France seeks to woo Islamic finance-APF/Expatica
The French parliament this month has approved changes to legislation to allow Islamic "sukuk" bonds to be issued and the Qatar Islamic Bank has applied to be the first such bank to open in France. Paris -- As France debates whether to ban the burqa, the government is leading a drive to attract billions in investment from Muslim countries by turning Paris into the European capital of Islamic finance.The French parliament this month has approved changes to legislation to allow Islamic "sukuk" bonds to be issued and the Qatar Islamic Bank has applied to be the first such bank to open in France. Home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, France is hoping to unseat London as the European hub for Islamic banking, offering products that comply with Sharia law and meet the needs of big investors mostly from Gulf countries. But the drive is raising hackles, with some opposition politicians accusing the government of undermining France's much prized secularism to accommodate wealthy interests. "When rich Muslims are concerned, we welcome them. But when they are poor, we put them on planes and deport them. This is all very upsetting," said Socialist deputy Henri Emmanuelli. (Expatica)

Terror Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Bomb Plot-Chris Herring
Zazi Is Ordered Held Without Bail; His Lawyer Says Prosecutors Haven't Shown Evidence of a Conspiracy
NEW YORK -- An airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the U.S. similar to those that previously hit the transit systems in London and Madrid pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of conspiracy. An attorney for Najibullah Zazi, 24 years old, entered his plea in a packed federal courtroom in Brooklyn. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Mr. Zazi bought hair products in Colorado that contained hydrogen peroxide and acetone, chemicals that can be used to make bombs. They also alleged that bomb-building instructions were found on his computer. Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie during the Tuesday hearing that they believed Mr. Zazi is a flight risk who should be placed under close surveillance. Mr. Zazi is a legal immigrant from Afghanistan. The judge ordered Mr. Zazi held without bail. His next court appearance is set for Dec. 3. Mr. Zazi was indicted last week on a charge that alleges he conspired with others to use explosive devices against persons or property in the U.S. A defense attorney for Mr. Zazi, J. Michael Dowling, told reporters after the hearing that prosecutors hadn't shown enough evidence to back the conspiracy charge against his client. "You can't convict him of the conspiracy charge he's under without someone else," Mr. Dowling said. "The government will have to come up with someone else to make it a conspiracy." Investigators have identified three other people believed to have been in on the alleged scheme, according to people familiar with the matter. The three haven't been named publicly. (WSJ)

Columbia's shame: Won't admit giving tenure to anti-Semitic crackpot Massad
In a terrible breach of faith with its students, faculty and community, Columbia University has granted tenure to a classroom bully and Jew-basher. Joseph Massad, who has been on the teaching roster for more than nine years, lacks the temperament and scholarship to merit lifetime appointment at any respectable institution of higher learning. Let alone in the Ivy League. Let alone in New York, a city with a major Jewish population. Columbia's trustees and President Lee Bollinger cannot be proud of having bestowed such an honor on Massad. Their distaste cries out from the secrecy that shrouded their actions. The school has refused all requests to discuss Massad's status. There are many interested parties, among them $51,000-a-year enrollees, faculty, alumni and alumnae and potential donors. Yet, the public relations office retreats behind a "longstanding policy not to comment on tenure cases." Other major universities put tenure decisions out for public consumption. Yale provided the status of three junior faculty members upon the Daily News' request. Princeton publishes faculty promotions in the Princeton University Bulletin and posts them online. Referring to tenure, a spokesman for the American Association of University Professors said: "I don't know of a situation where it wouldn't be disclosed." Well, Massad is that situation. (Nydailynews)

Campus Reform Looks Forward-Ashley Thorne
Last night was the premiere of a new ABC television series called FlashForward. The premise of the show is that in the first episode, every person on the globe blacks out at once, and that during the black out, each person experiences a vision—they see themselves six months in the future. Hours after the blackouts, FBI agents trying to put the pieces together decide to create a website where people around the world can compare their visions and seek answers. The scope and detail necessary to create such a website is hard to imagine—until you visit CampusReform.org. This website does not try to make sense of a global disaster, but it does confront a problem in the world of higher education. It won’t be used by the whole world, but it’s big enough that it could. It doesn’t seek to reconcile 6.8 billion visions of the future, but it does unite one common vision: making the conservative voice heard on campus. CampusReform.org was created by the Leadership Institute, which trains students in conservative activism, to be “a one-stop resource, networking, and instruction center for conservative activists to take back their campuses from leftist domination.” Students who want to create or sustain a conservative campus group can use the site to connect with like-minded others and “fight for the hearts and minds of the next generation.” (NAS)

Bette Midler Warns Glenn Beck Could Set Off a Rwanda-Like Civil War in U.S.-Jeff Poor
It's just what the primetime cable news lineup needed - another hour-long program tilted toward left-of-center politics with character assassination on conservatives. CNN Headline News debuted its "The Joy Behar Show" on Sept. 29 [1], which included appearances by lefty comedian Jeanane Garofalo, CNN's Jack Cafferty and actress Bette Midler. Garofalo doubled down on her low regard for conservative 9/12 and tea party protesters, labeling them as racists. Cafferty went after President Barack Obama for his disregard of the carbon footprint his lobbying efforts in Copenhagen for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, actress-turned-Vegas entertainer Bette Midler went straight after former CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck. She was prodded by host Joy Behar, who mentioned Beck as someone who is encouraging a breakdown in so-called "political discourse." "Someone like Glenn Beck has made gazillions of dollars because he's out there being sort of hateful in many ways," Behar said. "He calls himself a clown and a comedian. Do you think it's funny?" Midler confirmed what one would probably expect - she's not a fan of Beck at all. "I don't think he's funny even a little bit," Midler said. "I've never had a laugh from Glenn Beck. In fact, I find him terrifying. I find him terrifying. He's like an old school demagogue, and it's really frightening." What did Midler compare Beck to? She likened the popular Fox News host to the instigators of the Rwandan civil war, which was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide where an estimated 800,000 to 1 million lost their lives. (Newsbusters

Hollywood Burning-Jack Dunphy
The Polanski affair reveals selective outrage among the film crowd.
So it has come to this: Drugging and raping a 13-year-old is now a “so-called crime,” for which artistic talent, the approbation of peers, and the passage of time can coalesce to earn the rapist immunity from official sanction, if indeed any was called for in the first place. “Whatever you think about the so-called crime, [Roman] Polanski has served his time,” says film producer Harvey Weinstein in The Independent. His piece is notable not only for its moral obtuseness but also for its sickeningly unctuous tone. “I was with him the day he won the Legion of Honour in France,” writes Weinstein, “which was a spectacular day. I remember the incredible love and affection that people have for him.” Mr. Weinstein overlooks the fact that the history of mankind is liberally dotted with despicable men who could draw an adoring throng. Even so, there is another, more compelling (at least to Weinstein) reason Polanski should be freed: His peers in show business demand it. “I hope the US government acts swiftly,” he writes, “because film makers are looking for justice to be properly served. I will be organizing the effort myself by emailing everybody I know to sign the petition.” By justice being properly served, Weinstein means that Polanski should be freed from Swiss custody and the original rape charge against him should be dismissed. This opinion is evidently shared by a growing number of people affiliated with the movie business, including Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, and that paragon of virtue Woody Allen, all of whom have added their names to a petition in which they “demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.” (Nationalreview)

English libel laws facilitate libel tourism-Rachel Ehrenfeld
English libel laws dating back to 1849 allow foreigners to sue other foreigners in English courts a practice known as “libel tourism”. in addition, England’s plaintiff-friendly libel law is at loggerheads with American principles of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Libel Tourism is used a weapon to silence foreign publishers and writers in print and on the internet. Moreover, Britain's libel law silence free expression. In July 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Committee stated it was “concerned” that Britain’s libel law had “served to discourage critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest”. It does so by use of two absurd presumptions: that defamatory (i.e. critical) statements are always false, and that defamations always do significant damage. These two presumptions of “falsity and damage are both in terms illogical, but are in law irrebuttable and further proof that English law disfavours free speech,” said Mark Stephens, a London-based libel expert. The case that led U.S. legislatures to pass laws to protect American writers and publishers from such lawsuit, was Khalid bin Mahfouz – a Saudi billionaire lawsuit against Rachel Ehrenfeld, an American author, for statement she made in her book: Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It. The book was not published in the U.K. or even marketed there. (Europenews.dk)

All Not Quiet on the European Front: Filip Dewinter Fights On-Diana West
As readers of this site well know, the Flemish politician Filip Dewinter of the Vlaams Belang party in Belgium is one of the great heroes of the movement to stop the Islamization of Europe. Thanks to Gates of Vienna, here is an English translation of Filip Dewinter's latest speech. It is, as I'm sure they don't say in Dutch, a barn-barner. A little background: Flemish schools in Belgium recently instituted a head scarf ban, Muslims have rioted over Filip's speech (below) in Antwerp, and Moroccan security services rolled up an al Qaeda network with ties to Belgium and other European countries -- in other words, a typical week in the Western war zone.
Speech by Filip Dewinter September 24, 2009 Ladies and Gentlemen, “The Islamic expansion is a fact. It is controlled by the divine hand.” [GVA-June 25, 2009]. This quote, expressed by a young Muslim woman from the Antwerp Atheneum, perfectly summarizes why a headscarf ban is necessary. The headscarf ban not only has to do with respect for the equality between men and women and the rejection of discrimination against women, but must also be a signal call for a halt to the Islamization of our society. For the headscarf has become the symbol of the Islamic conquest. The headscarf is the propaganda weapon of choice for the establishment of an Islamic society in Europe. Who defends the headscarf out of reasons of tolerance and pluralism, has little or no understanding of Islam. The hidden agenda behind the veil leads to segregation, to a cultural, social, and religious apartheid-regime Islam wants to control our civilization with and eventually dominate it. (Dianawestnet)

Some Holy Books Are More Equal Than Others- David J. Rusin
Does the Koran enjoy a protected status in the West that other holy books, such as the Bible, do not? Consider a pair of news items that emerged from Great Britain over the summer:
• A publicly funded art exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, invited visitors to deface a copy of the Bible, stating: "If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it." According to the Times, people filled the book with "abuse and obscenity." The show also was reported to include "a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers, and mouth."
• In an interview that ran on August 23, author Sebastian Faulks described the Koran as "a depressing book" with "no ethical dimension" and "no new plan for life," just "the rantings of a schizophrenic." But one day later Faulks was in full retreat, offering saccharine apologies and assurances that he believes Islam's ethics to "have become the equal of other religions." Furthermore, he explained, "To me the idea that anyone could have achieved what the Prophet achieved in military and political — let alone religious — terms while suffering from an acute illness of any kind seems completely absurd."
Free people must retain the right to critique all holy books and even to disrespect them in the crudest of ways — though taxpayers should never be forced into bankrolling such acts. However, one religious text appears to benefit from special protections in the public square. (Islamwatch)

New FCC Chairman Targets internet-James G. Lakely
New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski could have used a few more dollops of genuine humility in his Monday speech advocating enforceable "network neutrality" rules for the Internet. Despite declaring "we cannot know what tomorrow holds on the Internet," he showed he intends to lead the FCC as if it were all-knowing. That will only end up choking the greatest engine of innovation in modern times. Genachowski laid out his plans in a highly anticipated speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. The mostly voluntary concept of net neutrality -- which encourages the free flow of content across the Internet -- would be transformed into formal rules Internet service providers (ISPs) would violate at their peril. Instead of managing traffic in response to market forces, ISPs would be forced to cede such decisions to the FCC, which would decide which practices are "fair" and "reasonable" on a "case-by-case basis." But it would be foolish to replace the swift judgment of millions of consumers with the dictates of a handful of slow-footed, uninformed, unaccountable bureaucrats. For one thing, the FCC has proven either unwilling or unable to competently regulate its current spheres of influence. The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit provided Exhibit A in an August decision that can be described only as a public embarrassment. (Americanthinker)

Iran's missiles are ‘ready to destroy Israel’-AFP, Reuters
Iran warned Israel yesterday that it faces destruction if it attacks the Islamic republic, only hours after Tehran provocatively test-fired missiles capable of hitting targets across the Middle East. “If this [an Israeli attack] happens, which, of course, we do not foresee, its ultimate result would be to expedite the last breath of the Zionist regime,” Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Defence Minister, said on state television. His defiant comments came after Western leaders dismissed a second day of rocket launches by Iran, calling them a “reprehensible” distraction from critical talks this week that will determine whether Tehran is ready to negotiate over its nuclear programme, or face biting new sanctions. Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s White House spokesman, called the missile tests “provocative”. He added: “This is an important day and an important week for Iran.” He demanded unfettered access to a new nuclear facility that Iran appeared to have concealed from international inspectors, but finally admitted to last week. “They can continue on the path they’ve been on . . . or make a decision to step away from a nuclear weapons programme, and enter into a meaningful relationship with the world, based on their own security but not based on nuclear weapons.” (Timesonline.co.uk)

Double Standard Watch: Goldstone investigation undercuts human rights-Alan. M. Dershowitz
Richard Goldstone - the primary author of a one-sided United Nations attack on Israeli actions during the Gaza war - has now become a full-fledged member of the international bash-Israel chorus. His name will forever be linked in infamy with such distorters of history and truth as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Jimmy Carter. The so-called report commissioned by the notorious United Nations Human Rights Council and issued under his name is so filled with lies, distortions and blood libels that it could have been drafted by Hamas extremists. Wait - in effect, it was! One member of the group is an Hamas lackey who before being appointed as an "objective" judge had already reached the conclusion - without conducting any investigation or hearing any evidence - that Israel's military actions "amount to aggression, not self defense" and that "the manner and scale of its operations in Gaza amount to an act of aggression and is contrary to international law." So much for objectivity. Many human rights experts urged her to recuse herself because of her prejudgment, but she was on a mission on behalf of her "client" - Hamas. And she did a good job as an advocate. But as a judge, she employed an Alice-In-Wonderland conception of justice: verdict first, trial to support the verdict. (Jpost)

Jewish group calls on Spain to reverse disqualification of West Bank-based Israeli researchers from solar competition-EJP
NEW YORK (EJP)---The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has contacted the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the government of Spain in an effort to have the disqualification of Israeli researchers from an international competition in Madrid overturned.Although the team of researchers from Ariel University Center of Samaria was announced as a finalist in the Solar Decathlon Europe, the Spanish government has disqualified the team from competing, apparently because the institution is located in the West Bank. "The decision by the Spanish government to disqualify the Israeli researchers is unwarranted, biased and clearly discriminatory," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director, in a statement. "This unacceptable action introduces politics into an important scientific competition where politics has no place," he said. Established through a joint agreement between the DOE and Spain’s Ministry of Housing, the competition has teams from around the world contending to build a solar-powered house. The prototypes will be assembled in Madrid and judged in June 2010. In a letter to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, ADL said his government’s claim that participation by the Israeli team would violate European Union policy relating to the West Bank was “spurious.” "We are unaware of any EU policy that would support this action," ADL wrote to Moratinos. "Respectfully, we urge Spain to reverse this outrageous decision." ADL also called on the US Department of Energy to reconsider its sponsorship of the competition should Spain refuse to reverse its decision. "We hope that the Department of Energy will make clear to its Spanish partners its strong disagreement with this decision. And if Spain does not permit the Israeli team to participate, consider withdrawing its sponsorship from the competition," the League said in a letter to US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. (EJP)

Israeli Minister Barak Escapes Arrest in England-Phyllis Chesler
British Lawyers Try to Have Israel’s Minister of Defense Arrested as a War Criminal
Really, guys, you can’t be serious. I am afraid they are maliciously, purposively serious. The noose continues to tighten around the collective Jewish neck, just as I feared it would. [1] The United Nations just listened to Qaddafi speak — Amadinejad too: they honored these terrorists, monsters, menaces to decent people everywhere, beginning with their own people. The monsters came, they left, and neither assassin nor legal eagle sent them on a one-way trip to Hell or to the Hague. But British [2] lawyers, acting on behalf of 16 Palestinians, just tried to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrested for his alleged “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza — partly based on their interpretation of the infamous Goldstone Report. How Goldstone could have lent his good name to this treacherous, ignoble document is slightly above my pay grade; only God can judge him now. Earlier today, Anne Bayefsky [3] referred to the Goldstone Report as a blood libel, quite equivalent to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I totally agree with her. Tayab Ali [4], who is representing the Palestinian groups, filed legal papers with London’s City of Westminster Magistrates Court. Ali accuses Minister Barak of “violating the Geneva conventions” as well. Let me emphasize: This lawsuit was brought by an individual, and not by the British government. (Pajamasmedia)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Al Qaeda in Yemen Worries the West- MARGARET COKER and SARAH CHILDRESS
Arab and Western officials worry that al Qaeda is securing a stronghold in Yemen, where the government's focus on quelling a rebel insurgency is allowing the terror group to strengthen its ability to destabilize neighbors in East Africa and the Mideast. Yemen's government, which has long struggled to assert control over the country's far-flung tribes and Islamic militant groups, launched a new offensive this summer against rebels living near its northern border with Saudi Arabia. The fighting, now in its seventh week, has shaken a fragile humanitarian situation. United Nations officials warned recently that food aid in the region is running low. A report released this month by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that Yemen is facing "unprecedented" levels of instability. The homeland of Osama bin Laden's father, Yemen has long been a top U.S. security concern. For years, al Qaeda militants -- including at least one Saudi released from U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- have taken refuge here. One complication surrounding the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo is what to do with the nearly 100 Yemeni detainees there. U.S. intelligence officials say they have little confidence in the Yemeni government's ability to keep them in prison back in their home country. (WSJ)

Al Qaeda Bombers Learn from Drug Smugglers-Sheila MacVicar
New Technique of Storing Bomb Materials Inside Body Cavity Nearly Kills a Saudi Prince
(CBS) Al Qaeda has developed a new tactic that allows suicide bombers to breach even the tightest security, as CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports. Inside a Saudi palace, the scene was the bloody aftermath of an al Qaeda attack in August aimed at killing Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counter terrorism operations. To get his bomb into this room, Abdullah Asieri, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, avoided detection by two sets of airport security including metal detectors and palace security. He spent 30 hours in the close company of the prince's own secret service agents - all without anyone suspecting a thing. How did he do it? Taking a trick from the narcotics trade - which has long smuggled drugs in body cavities - Asieri had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum. This was a meticulously planned operation with al Qaeda once again producing something new: this time, the Trojan bomber. (CBSnews)

Warning: The Jihadists are Mushrooming Inside America-Dr. Walid Phares
It is unprecedented in American counterterrorism annals: in one day, the nation was dealing with three separate jihadist plots to blow up civilian and other targets inside the homeland. Although the cases were addressed at different time periods by the FBI and other agencies, nevertheless, the thickening web of terror attempts breached the crossing line of U.S. national security. This past week, authorities revealed three conspiracies by American jihadists: Michael C. Finton, a 29-year-old man who wished to follow the steps of American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh, was arrested after trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian national, was arrested after placing what he believed was a bomb at a downtown Dallas skyscraper. But perhaps the most troubling case is of Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi, who set up shop in suburban Denver, scouting the Web and visiting beauty supply stores in a hunt for chemicals needed to build bombs for al Qaeda. Sources called the alleged plot one of the most significant terror threats to the U.S. since 9/11. Add to the list the North Carolina Jihad cell, led by Daniel Patrick “Saifullah” Boyd, which was planning on attacking civilian and military targets across the country. (Familysecuritymatters)

The Iran Attack Plan
Iran's acknowledgment that it is developing a second uranium-enrichment facility does little to dispel the view that the regime is developing a weapons program. Israel must consider not just whether to proceed with a strike against Iran—but how. By Anthony H. Cordesman. When the Israeli army's then-Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Halutz was asked in 2004 how far Israel would go to stop Iran's nuclear program, he replied: "2,000 kilometers," roughly the distance been the two countries. Israel's political and military leaders have long made it clear that they are considering taking decisive military action if Iran continues to develop its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the United Nations this week that "the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons." Reporting by the International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources has made it clear that whether or not Iran ties all of its efforts into a formal nuclear weapons program, it has acquired all of the elements necessary to make and deliver such weapons. Just Friday, Iran confirmed that it has been developing a second uranium-enrichment facility on a military base near Qom, doing little to dispel the long-standing concerns of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S. that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Iran has acquired North Korean and other nuclear weapons design data through sources like the sales network once led by the former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, A. Q. Khan. (WSJ)

CAIR Leader Tied to Nazi-Style Islamist Mosque-Joe Kaufman
This past July, a video [1] was posted to YouTube produced by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Michigan), featuring the group’s legal advisor and project coordinator, Melanie Elturk. On the video, Elturk cautions those who are “solicited by extremists” to “report suspicious activity.” However, what she doesn’t mention are the extremist institutions that she is involved with herself. Melanie Elturk has been with CAIR-Michigan since January of this year. Even though she is somewhat new to the organization, she holds a prominent position within it, listed on the CAIR-Michigan website as one of its top three leaders [2]. To attest to her leadership in the group, Elturk has been featured as the spokesperson for various CAIR-Michigan videos [3]. One of these videos asks and attempts to answer the question, “What should you do if you are approached by individuals soliciting politically extreme statements?” Of course, who is CAIR to be lecturing anyone on extremism, when CAIR itself is an extremist organization? (Pajamasmedia

The threat of 'stealth jihad'-Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas' tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill. Law enforcement authorities who successfully stymied these attacks have been at pains to emphasize that there are no connections between the three. Of course there are. Maybe it will prove to be the case that the three suspects at the heart of these interrupted plots - Najibullah Zazi, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi and Michael C. Finton (also known as Talib Islam) - had no connection in a tactical or operational sense. Still, it is absurd, and extremely dangerous, to insist that they are not connected in at least one way: What apparently animated all three of these suspects (and perhaps a number of others believed to have been involved in the New York plot who are still at large) is the seditious, supremacist theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls Shariah. (Washingtontimes)

Iran Has No Right to Nuclear Technology-MATTHIAS KÜNTZEL
Accepting Iran's "right" to nuclear power is a recipe for disaster.
The international community has treated the recent disclosure of another secret uranium enrichment facility in Iran the way it has treated Tehran's previous violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—with calls for yet more "dialogue." The continued pursuit of fruitless diplomacy at tomorrow's talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany is based on an incorrect understanding of international law, one that was spearheaded by the Europeans and is now unfortunately shared by the U.S. president. "Any nation—including Iran—should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power," Barack Obama declared in his famous Cairo speech, "if it complies with its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." The problem is that Iran is bound by its own constitution to violate the treaty, which is why insisting that the NPT still confers any rights on Iran is not only politically absurd but also wrong from a purely legal point of view. The treaty was signed by Iran in 1968 under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza. It aims, as outlined in its preamble, at "further easing of international tension and the strengthening of trust between states." Its purpose is thus to stabilize the international system. The Islamic Republic, though, wants to abolish this "Satanic" secular world order and replace it with a Sharia-based system of Islamic rule. "The struggle will continue," promised Ayatollah Khomeini, "until the calls 'There Is No God but God' and 'Muhammad Is the Messenger of God' are echoed all over the world." (WSJ)

On Friday Ireland Decides Europe’s Future-Paul Belien
This Friday, the Irish people are again being asked to sign away their sovereignty and freedom to the European Union authorities in Brussels. When the matter was put before them in a referendum in 2008, the Irish voted “No.” Now they have been told to vote again on the same matter. Ireland is the only country of the 27 EU member states where the people are allowed a direct vote about their future. In the other 26 countries which together with Ireland make up the European Union, the governments – not the people – have already decided to transfer national sovereignty to Brussels. The EU leaders want Ireland to vote “yes.” They are intent on forcing the Irish to vote again and again until they say “yes.” In the past weeks, politicians from all over Europe, including Ireland’s own government ministers, have been threatening the Irish people that a second “No”-vote will have serious economic repercussions, although it has not been specified what these repercussions will be. The referendum this Friday is Ireland’s second referendum in two years on the European Union’s 2007 Treaty of Lisbon. In June 2008, the Irish voted “No” and rejected the treaty. The fact that the Irish are being forced to hold a second referendum on the matter, is indicative of the nature of the EU and the way in which it “consults” its people. The EU is in the habit of giving recalcitrant populations another go if initially they fail to see that what the EU’s leaders have decided for them is best for them. (Brusselsjournal)

UN Chief's 11th Hour Climate Jihad-Peter Glover and Michael J. Economides
On the run-up to December’s Climate horror-fest in Copenhagen -- billed as the last chance saloon in man’s Quixotic tilt at rising carbon levels -- the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has, it seems, displaced Planet Gore as the world’s self-appointed Climate Czar. In a bid to assume world leadership and turn Copenhagen’s coming Emission Impossible into a personal triumph, Ban’s ‘choice’ for the role is about as desperate as Obama’s of Van Jones for Green Car Czar. If the Disney-like world of the UN were to be brought to the silver-screen, the part of the current UN Chief might best be portrayed by Tweedie-Pie, such is the level of Ban’s low-key, low-profile caricature of an effective diplomat. Dubbed the “invisible man” by parts of the media, the UN Chief’s speech in South Korea in mid-August was the opening salvo in a new campaign to boost his global leadership credentials on the run up to Copenhagen. But if that was the aim it fell short. The UK’s Daily Telegraph described the speech as a “PR stunt” redolent with the “sort of cataclysmic environmental statements doled out in scientifically dodgy disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow or the forthcoming 2012”. (Humanevents)

New Worlds: 'Virtual white cane' helps familiarize the blind with new environments-Judy Siegel-Itzkovich , THE JERUSALEM POST
Software developed at Tel Aviv University can help the blind and visually impaired maneuver through unfamiliar three-dimensional environments. Dr. Orly Lahav of TAU's School of Education and Porter School for Environmental Studies invented the new tool, which is connected to a joystick that interfaces with users through the sense of touch. Today the visually impaired are very limited in their movements, which necessarily influences their quality of life, says Lahav, but this solution could help them find new options, like shorter routes from train or bus stations to their homes. Users can can feel tension beneath their fingertips through the joystick as they navigate around a virtual environment. The joystick stiffens when the user meets a virtual wall or barrier. The software can also be programmed to emit sounds such as phones ringing when the explorer walks by a reception desk. Exploring 3D virtual worlds based on maps of real-world environments, the blind are able to "feel out" streets, sidewalks and hallways as they move the cursor like a white cane on the computer screen. Before going out alone, the device gives them the control, confidence and ability to explore new streets. It allows people who can't see to make mental maps in their mind. (Jpost)

Terrorism as an Aesthetic Choice- BRIAN M. CARNEY
About halfway through "The Baader Meinhof Complex," the eponymous German terrorists are found sunbathing on the roof of a building in a PLO training camp in Jordan. Their Palestinian hosts, nonplussed by their mostly nude Western guests, demand that they cover up, whereupon Andreas Baader, the group's charismatic leader, shouts a reply in German. Gudrun Ensslin, a founding member of the gang, translates Baader's words into English. Standing in the sun topless, blond and statuesque, she repeats, in a somewhat coarser alliteration than this newspaper will print, that sex and shooting go together. This declaration is as good a mission statement as any for West Germany's most notorious terrorist group as depicted in "The Baader Meinhof Complex," a German-made film currently in limited release in the U.S. The film's promotional materials, echoing a statement in the book on which it is based, claim that the movie does not make the case either "for the prosecution or the defense" of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. But, then, it doesn't have to—the Red Army Faction, as the group was formally styled, indicts itself. The "Complex" is not a documentary. One might call it historical fiction, and certain liberties are taken to streamline the tale told in Stefan Aust's 456-page book, titled simply "Baader-Meinhof." But a comparison with the book, which 24 years after its publication remains the definitive account of the terrorist group, reveals the movie to be remarkably faithful to its source. (WSJ)

International Blasphemy Day: from Danish cartoons to Jerry Springer - The Opera- Tom Chivers
It's International Blasphemy Day. We take a look at some of the key moments in the history of the profane.
International Blasphemy Day, 30 September, is intended “to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion”. It marks the anniversary of the 2005 publication of the 12 Danish cartoons that depicted Mohammed and led to worldwide riots. Its founders want to “dismantle the wall which exists between religion and criticism”. It has, of course, met with criticism – prominent US Catholic Bill Donohue accuses the movement of picking on Christianity: "The stated purpose of Blasphemy Day has nothing to do with any religion but Islam. So who have they chosen to mock? You guessed it - Christians." However, not all religious people take offence. “The Lord Jesus Christ was and is despised and rejected of men,” says Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not commanded to defend his honor, but to be willing to share in the scorn directed to him.” (Telegraph.co.uk)