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REINVENTING THE UGLY AMERICAN
By Avi Davis
The Obama campaign had yet to see any crowd quite like it. Two hundred thousand people gathered in Berlin on July 23rd to hear the prospective Democratic candidate for President proclaim his implacable support for Euro-American rapprochement. That speech, which had no resounding moments like Kennedy’s (whose Bostonian accent actually mangled his historic 1961 declaration “ Ich bin ein Berliner,” making many Germans in the crowd think he had just described himself as a jelly donut) - or Reagan’s ( whose challenge to Mikhael Gorbachev in 1987 to dismantle the Berlin Wall was viewed in many European circles, lest we forget, as unnecessarily confrontational), still served its purpose. It galvanized European support for an Obama presidency.
Throughout Europe, the cognoscenti have gawked in astonishment as the eloquent black American has called for the institution of a new level of trust between the United States and its recalcitrant European allies. Indeed, the collapse of that relationship has been a central theme of the Obama campaign and resounding cry of the American left for the past eight years. One of the great travesties of the Bush Administration, according to this creed, is the unilateralism which has led to severe strains between the United States and the countries of the developed world. The invasion of Iraq is the first of many on the list, but equally the abrogation of the Kyoto Treaty, the resistance to the creation of the International Criminal Court and numerous other travesties of a unilateral flavor, have cast George Bush and his neo-conservative claque as a gang of international mobsters.
But the historical facts of Euro- American relations betray these positions. Forgotten by nearly all the Bush bashers is how every American president since Harry Truman has suffered the same level of distrust and opprobrium. George Bush was certainly not the first American president to be lampooned as a jingoistic cowboy. Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan were all corralled with that particular lasso. Even Bill Clinton, whose smarminess and womanizing actually won him European admirers, attracted a great deal of animus for his intervention in Bosnia and his bombing of Afghan terrorist bases in the late 1990s.
In fact, anti- Americanism pre-dates Bush by more than 350 years. In the 17th Century, the young settlement in the Americas was the subject of intense revulsion and distrust among European intellectuals. The fact of the Pilgrims’ desire to escape inherent European inequalities, injustice and persecution was cause enough for Europeans to view the upstart colonies as a threat to the prevailing hierarchical order. In the early 19th Century, the success of the American continent in forging a new variety of liberal democracy, wherein ordinary citizens could rise to positions of prominence and power, challenged the aristocratic prerogative of governance. The successful integration of millions of poor immigrants - the true cast offs of Europe - from the 1880s through to the early 1920s, heightened a sense of America’s parvenu status and its supposed willingness to employ the energies of these same disenfranchised masses in a new challenge to European global dominance. American intervention in both World Wars during the first half of the 20th Century and the collapse of the international financial system in 1929 (which was regarded as a consequence of the collapse of Wall Street), made it startlingly clear to the Europeans how much they were dependent on American goodwill, largesse and stability. Resentment and antipathy were natural corollaries of the realization that European nations, particularly after the end of the Second World War, had lost their position of world dominance.
American post-war ascendancy has attracted is own level of resistance, particularly among the French, whose major post-war political figure Charles de Gaulle, viewed American interference in European affairs with the utmost contempt. So too did the architects of the European Common Market ( and later the European Union) who saw in American financial growth a threat to European unity and cohesion.
European anti-Americanism truly crystallized after the epochal attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 and this is where we have learned the true extent of its animus and resentment. A Party of Democratic Socialism leaflet, widely distributed in Hamburg in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, proclaimed that
“ What goes around comes around ” , implying that that Americans got what they deserved. And while public expressions of horror and regret filled the European airwaves, in the drawing rooms and dinner parties of the elite, there was a smug acceptance that American hubris had been dealt a satisfying blow.
Coupled with this, is the vestiges of the pre-democratic European notion that the life of a democracy is too banal, ordinary and lacking in dignity to be accorded permanent ascendance over all other ideologies or political systems. To the refined European mind, the over reaching imperatives of free enterprise, free trade and free exchange of ideas, are gauche and lacking in character. This is perhaps the reason that socialism and socialist policies still offer an enormous attraction to European leaders and intellectuals – and that democratic capitalism, of which the United States is the most visible international symbol, is demonized as a retrograde and even destructive system within many European circles.
We should also not ignore the fact that modern anti- Americanism dovetails most noticeably with anti-Semitism. Since the Jews, in the simplistic anti-Semite’s world view, are seen as operating the levers of capitalism, the United States, as the locus of world capitalism, must, qua, be a country run by Jews. This abhorrent ( although time-honored) syllogism is a convenient way to identify the causes of the world’s most serious problems. It should not, therefore, seem unusual to hear European leaders, opinion makers and ordinary citizens regularly excoriating Israel and the United States as the twin ( and only) threats to world peace.
The prevailing notion, then, that eight years of the Bush Administration were the catalyst for the corrosion of the Euro-American alliance is simply untrue. The rot in the relationship had begun centuries before and has had new manifestations in the modern day. As Stanford University professor, Russell Berman, capably demonstrates in his book Anti- Americanism in Europe ( Hoover Press, 2003), contemporary anti- Americanism most strikingly revolves around current complaints that the United States refuses to surrender elements of its sovereignty to international bodies. Advocates of forms of international governance see American reluctance on this score as an unreasonable resistance to the world’s natural progression towards the institution of a world government.
Which brings us back to Barak Obama and his promise of a new relationship with America’s stalwart European allies. Robin Oakley, CNN's European political editor, reported following the Obama speech, that the Illinois Senator enjoyed widespread popularity in Europe and that “ after the unpopularity of George W. Bush, the world is waiting to love America again.” That comment is patent nonsense. Europe has rarely ever loved America. Obama’s reception in Germany and the rousing reception he received elsewhere, was not a promise of a revitalized relationship, but more like the first flush of an adolescent crush that could one day turn very sour. Obama, to many of these same sibilants, is revered precisely because he is not the face of America . He is not white; he is not part of the American establishment; he is not a hard nosed capitalist and nor is he pro-war.
But does all this mean that a President Obama would be more European in his thinking – less focused on American sovereignty and more open to accepting a role of equality with other nations?; Less prone to unilateralist policy making and more driven by a universalist ideology ? Almost certainly not. For whatever Barack Obama’s leftist leanings, he will be forced by the exigencies of modern political life to accept that the United States cannot afford to surrender its role as the leader of the free world for an abstract and dangerous notion of equality among peers. Congress, for all its own capriciousness, would be extremely hesitant to allow President Obama to steer the ship of state into the dangerous ideological waters of universalism. And a President Obama would risk his political life to deny American exceptionalism or the historic destiny of his country, as implied by the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution and the statements of every one of his predecessors, as a force for the advancement of human liberty and freedom.
In the end, no one should be fooled into thinking that centuries of European animus to the United States will disappear overnight , merely because the ship of state has passed into the hands of a new helmsman. Prevailing European resentments, jealousies and mistrust will be with us for many decades, if not centuries. The new president, whoever he might be, should fortify himself with the notion that even between faithful lovers, a perceived betrayal can quickly transform beauty into ugliness and love into hate. The Europeans are well schooled in that kind of thinking. Lets hope that the new President learns it too, before his own determination to be well loved abroad, generate policies of rapprochement that do little to inspire permanent love, but a great deal to weaken U.S. strength and credibility.
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance.
He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
On how a weak America will effect the world
 The Dangers of a Diminished America-Aaron Friedberg and Gabriel Schoenfeld
In the 1930s, isolationism and protectionism spurred the rise of fascism.
With the global financial system in serious trouble, is America's geostrategic dominance likely to diminish? If so, what would that mean? One immediate implication of the crisis that began on Wall Street and spread across the world is that the primary instruments of U.S. foreign policy will be crimped. The next president will face an entirely new and adverse fiscal position. Estimates of this year's federal budget deficit already show that it has jumped $237 billion from last year, to $407 billion. With families and businesses hurting, there will be calls for various and expensive domestic relief programs. In the face of this onrushing river of red ink, both Barack Obama and John McCain have been reluctant to lay out what portions of their programmatic wish list they might defer or delete. Only Joe Biden has suggested a possible reduction -- foreign aid. This would be one of the few popular cuts, but in budgetary terms it is a mere grain of sand. Still, Sen. Biden's comment hints at where we may be headed: toward a major reduction in America's world role, and perhaps even a new era of financially-induced isolationism. Pressures to cut defense spending, and to dodge the cost of waging two wars, already intense before this crisis, are likely to mount. Despite the success of the surge, the war in Iraq remains deeply unpopular. Precipitous withdrawal -- attractive to a sizable swath of the electorate before the financial implosion -- might well become even more popular with annual war bills running in the hundreds of billions. (WSJ)
UK aims to become a world provider in Sharia finance
UK LOOKS TO BECOME A GLOBAL PROVIDER OF ISLAMIC FINANCE-Natalie Holt
UK Trade & Investment, which incorporates the work of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, has leant its support to a breakfast briefing hosted by the Association of Corporate Treasurers. The aim of the briefing is to give financial companies more understanding of Islamic finance by explaining whom it applies to, how it can complement existing financial services strategy, and what the benefits are. Sharia Islamic law forbids the practice of making money from money, such as charging or paying interest. Sharia-compliant mortgages involve the bank buying the property with the buyer then buying it back and renting it at a slightly inflated price. Buyers also have to be sure that the money the bank is using to buy the property has come from permissible sources. The sector is currently thought to be worth $500bn (£294bn) and it is predicted the sector will grow by a further 15% per annum over the next few years. Andrew Cahn, chief executive of UK Trade & Investment, says: “In these tough times it's more important than ever that we make the most of growing sectors like Islamic finance. "That's why it is important the UK's financial industry provides an open door and positions London as a leading western financial centre for Islamic finance.” Richard Raeburn, chief executive of ACT, says: “A reduction in funding options with markets offering continually more expensive rates means that seeking alternative funding away from the traditional routes is an increasing trend. "Islamic funding may not have been at the forefront of borrowers’ minds but the credit crunch has made an understanding of this market essential.” (mortgagestrategy.co.uk)
Two men accused of ties to Al-Qaeda found guilty in terror plot
Denmark: Two men found guilty of terror plot
Copenhagen, 21 Oct. (AKI) - A Danish citizen of Pakistani origin and an Afghani national were found guilty on Tuesday of preparing a terrorist attack after they were filmed mixing explosives. Hammad Khuershid was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Abdoulghani Tokhi was sentenced to seven years by a court in the town of Glostrup, just outside the capital of Copenhagen. Both are in their early 20s. The men were arrested after an anti-terror raid that saw Danish agents filming them as they were carrying out a test blast. The explosives were reportedly the same as those used in the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people.
Both men claimed the explosives were going to be used for fireworks. At the trial prosecutors alleged that Khuershid had ties to an Al-Qaeda operative but they were unsure whether the attack was going to take place in Denmark or abroad. Investigators claimed to have found bomb-making manuals in the men's homes. Tokhi has a residency permit to live legally in Denmark, but authorities said he would be deported after completing his sentence. There have been several anti-terrorism raids, arrests of terrorism suspects and a terrorism trial in Denmark since 2005. That was the same year that the country attracted widespread condemnation from Muslims around the world after Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Denmark is also involved in the war in Afghanistan and maintains a small contingent of troops in Iraq. (AKI)
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
NY Judge Prevents teachers from wearing campaign buttons in the classroom
  Judge Says No to Teachers’ Campaign Buttons, but Yes to Certain Politicking-Javier C. Hernandez
A federal judge on Friday upheld New York City’s policy prohibiting public school teachers from wearing political buttons in the classroom, but said the teachers could place campaign material into colleagues’ mailboxes and hang posters on bulletin boards maintained by their union, as long as they were in areas off-limits to students. The split decision came after the union, the United Federation of Teachers, sued over a city rule that requires teachers to remain neutral about politics while on duty to avoid any sense of pressure among students to echo their views. The union, which has endorsed Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, argued that the longstanding regulation had never been enforced and that it curtailed teachers’ right of free speech. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan said that it should be up to individual school districts to determine whether buttons in the classroom interfered with learning. He cautioned, however, that “school officials may not take a sledgehammer to freedom of expression and then avoid all scrutiny by invoking alleged professional judgment.” The judge said that while a majority of students would probably understand that a button represented a teacher’s personal view, there would be “inevitable misperceptions on the part of a minority.” Ann Forte, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said, “We won on the issue that was most paramount to us,” and she called the mailbox and bulletin board rulings “secondary issues.” Norman Siegel, the civil liberties lawyer representing the teachers’ union, said that the union was pleased about Judge Kaplan’s recognition of some First Amendment rights for teachers and that it would continue to push for the right to wear buttons. There have been conflicting court rulings over how far the government can go in regulating what teachers say in the classroom ever since the Supreme Court’s Tinker case, four decades ago, which proclaimed that neither teachers nor students “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” (NYT)
Should universities be above the law? Three lawsuits warn they shouldn’t be
Are Universities Above the Law? For the sake of liberal education they shouldn't be. Peter Berkowitz
Three lawsuits--against Dartmouth College and Duke and Princeton universities--may be the best things to happen to higher education in decades. The Dartmouth suit, though recently withdrawn, focused attention on the role of alumni in college affairs. The Duke case raises the question of the extent to which courts will require universities to observe their own rules and regulations. The Princeton case puts at issue the enforceability of restricted gifts. All three expose the often opaque governing structures under which colleges and universities operate and bring into focus the need for transparency and accountability in higher education. More than the scope of universities' legal responsibilities is at stake here. That's because upholding the rule of law on campus can contribute to the reform of university governance--and the reform of university governance is an indispensable precondition for the restoration of a liberal education -worthy of the name. Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College v. Trustees of Dartmouth College, filed in the autumn of 2007 by the association's executive committee, sought to prevent college president James Wright, his administration, and the eight "charter trustees"--a self-perpetuating, life-tenure, insider group--from packing the college's board of trustees with friendly members. The board-packing scheme, plaintiffs contended, violated an 1891 written agreement on the basis of which, for over a century, the board had selected half the trustees (the "charter" trustees) and Dartmouth alumni had elected half. By diluting elected-alumni representation on the board, the administration aimed to discourage others from following in the footsteps of Silicon Valley entrepreneur T. J. Rogers, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Robinson, George Mason law professor Todd Zywicki, and University of Virginia law professor Steven Smith. Over the last few years, all ran successful write-in candidacies for election to the board of trustees on platforms--apparently regarded by the Dartmouth administration as subversive--calling on the college to protect campus freedom of speech, preserve high intellectual standards, and keep the emphasis at Dartmouth on undergraduate education. (Weeklystandard.com)
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
“CAIR's main congressional allies either don't know or don't seem to care about these allegations and connections. They appear unconcerned that CAIR's founders discussed the need to mislead Americans about their true objectives.”
Congress Cozying Up to CAIR-Steve Emerson
Politicians normally are pretty protective of their public images. They might take campaign money from some shady characters, but common sense dictates that they avoid too many public associations that can prove embarrassing. One exception seems to be when the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is involved. Growing public evidence shows that CAIR has been dishonest about its roots and its ultimate objective. But that fact has done nothing to give pause to several members of Congress who continue to speak at CAIR functions and support the group's political agenda. CAIR has established roots in the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a group found to be a front for Hamas. In June 2007 federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).[1] The " List of Unindicted Co-conspirator and/or Joint Venturers" designates CAIR as a co-conspirator because of its associations with the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee.[2] Prosecutors say that the Palestine Committee was created specifically to help Hamas through financial and political support in the United States. CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad (its current chairman emeritus) is listed as an individual committee member and is an unindicted co-conspirator, too. In other cases, CAIR employees have been prosecuted for engaging in their own conspiracies.
Despite these facts, several members of Congress maintain close ties with CAIR without addressing or condemning the organization's radical affiliations and disconcerting history. In doing so, these elected officials bestow legitimacy upon CAIR while assisting the organization to evade pertinent questions about its radical roots. For example, on July 14, 2007, less than a month after CAIR's designation in the HLF case, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) expressed his wholehearted support for CAIR at a CAIR-Seattle Banquet: "I always enjoy being with people like CAIR because you inspire me really to keep fighting… And I think that's why this kind of an organization is so important for people to understand that you have a right in America to say whatever you believe. And I think you ought to exercise that. That's being a real American."
Members of CAIR have done just this: expressed their right to say whatever they believe. It is clear they believe that virtually all U.S. counter-terror investigations are erroneous, flawed, and discriminatory. While that consistent opposition to U.S. terror cases is troubling, the record shows it may not reflect the depth of terror support held by some CAIR leaders. Most notably, before he became CAIR's Chairman, Omar Ahmad expressed his support for "Samah" (Hamas spelled backward) at a secret 1993 Philadelphia meeting of Hamas members and supporters: (Familysecuritymatters)
A new report by U.S. Central Command backs the use of terms such as ‘jihad’
Military report: Terms 'jihad,' 'Islamist' needed-Bill Gertz
Team sees no reason to soften words
EXCLUSIVE:
A U.S. military "Red Team" charged with challenging conventional thinking says that words like "jihad" and "Islamist" are needed in discussing 21st-century terrorism and that federal agencies that avoid the words soft-pedaled the link between religious extremism and violent acts. "We must reject the notion that Islam and Arabic stand apart as bodies of knowledge that cannot be critiqued or discussed as elements of understanding our enemies in this conflict," said the internal report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. The report, "Freedom of Speech in Jihad Analysis: Debunking the Myth of Offensive Words," was written by unnamed civilian analysts and contractors for the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East and South Asia. It is thought to be the first official document to challenge those in the government who seek to downplay the role of Islam in inspiring some terrorist violence. "The fact is our enemies cite the source of Islam as the foundation for their global jihad," the report said. "We are left with the responsibility of portraying our enemies in an honest and accurate fashion." The report contributes to an ongoing debate within the U.S. government and military over the roots of terrorism, its relationship to Islam and how best to counter extremist ideology.
• Read the internal report, "Freedom of Speech in Jihad Analysis." (download pdf)
It cites two Bush administration documents that appear to minimize anylink between radical Islam and terrorism. A January 2008 memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties stated that unidentified American Muslims recommended that the U.S. government avoid using the terms "jihadist," "Islamic terrorist," "Islamist" or "holy warrior," asserting that would create a "negative climate" and spawn acts of harassment and discrimination. Dan Sutherland, Homeland Security officer for civil rights and civil liberties, said the document is not department policy. (washingtontimes)
Lebanese mother flees Sharia law and granted asylum in UK
Woman who fled Islamic law granted asylum in UK-AP
LONDON: A Lebanese mother and her child who fled to Britain to avoid being separated under their country's Islamic law and should be allowed to remain in the U.K., Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday. The divorced woman, identified only as EM, sought asylum in Britain for herself and her 8-year-old son after fleeing Lebanon on false papers in December 2004. She told immigration officials her allegedly abusive ex-husband would gain custody of their child under Lebanon's Shariah law. While religious laws are not applied in Lebanon's criminal code, Shariah does apply to Lebanese Muslims on civil issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Christian communities have their own religious courts. Shariah only allows divorced mothers custody of their children until their 7th birthday, at which point custody reverts to the father. The mother's application was denied in 2005, but she appealed to the House of Lords, Britain's supreme court. In a submission to the court made in July, human rights group Liberty argued that the Lebanese law "amounts to a flagrant breach of the mother's (and child's) rights." The court agreed, calling the woman a fugitive from Shariah law. "It is ... the product of a religious and cultural tradition that is respected and observed throughout much of the world," James Hope, writing for the court, said in his judgment. "But by our standards the system is arbitrary because the law permits of no exceptions to its application. ... It is discriminatory too because it denies women custody of their children after they have reached the age of custodial transfer simply because they are women." Liberty said the judgment meant the woman could now stay in Britain with her son. Her lawyer, Sanjeev Sharma, said she was due to be granted up to three years' leave to remain in Britain, and that that was likely to be renewed. Neither the woman, 36, nor her son, now 12, have been identified, out of concern for their safety. (AP)
"Sharia law doesn't allow freedom of speech. It does not allow separation of church and state," Darwish said. "Sharia law is a dictator's dream. It is dictator-friendly."
Writer addresses annual YAF event-Gabriella Schwarz Hatachet Reporter
Author and activist Nonie Darwish spoke about the threat of radical Islam on Thursday as part of the Young America's Foundation Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Speaking to about 150 students in the Jack Morton Auditorium, Darwish discussed the origins of Islamic and Sharia law, the Sharia culture in the Middle East and her fears that radical Islam will spread to Western democracies. "Sharia law doesn't allow freedom of speech. It does not allow separation of church and state," Darwish said. "Sharia law is a dictator's dream. It is dictator-friendly." Darwish lived in Egypt for 30 years as the daughter of an Egyptian lieutenant general, witnessing the country's wars with Israel in 1956, 1967 and 1973. It was not until she moved to the United States in 1979 that she was able to vote and began to speak out against Sharia law and the jihad, she said. The activist said Sharia law was created 150 years after the death of Mohammed to create "a sense of control under one unified law." This law governs many countries in the Middle East and is advocated by some Muslim leaders in Western Europe and the United States. "Jihad is to ward against non-Muslims to establish the religion," Darwish said. "That is the meaning of jihad according to Islamic Sharia." She added that under Sharia law it is the responsibility of Muslim leaders to organize jihad against any non-Muslim governments and "make war on Jews and Christians until they become Muslim." (gwhatchet.com)
ANTISEMITISM
"One Jewish cemetery each week is vandalized in Germany"
 German Politicians Divided over Anti-Semitism
The German parliament wanted to pass a unanimous resolution against anti-Semitism to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Night of the Broken Glass. But the effort has become a victim of political bickering.
On Sept. 29, it was Berlin's turn. Just one week after the Jewish cemetery in the city's central Mitte district was reopened following renovation work, an information plaque was daubed with anti-Semitic slogans. An investigation was immediately begun to try and find the perpetrators, but little progress has been made.It is the same story across the country. On average, according to statistics cited by members of the federal parliament, one Jewish cemetery each week is vandalized in Germany. Last week in Potsdam, a mini-sidewalk monument to a Jewish family deported during the Holocaust was smeared with a swastika. Two weeks ago in the eastern German town of Jena, anti-Semitic chants were sung at a regional league football match. The list ( in German) goes on.
Potentially more damning, however, is the fact that anti-Semitism in the country appears to be on the rise. A number of studies in recent years have reached the conclusion that anti-Semitism is not just a fringe problem in Germany. A September study released by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. came to the conclusion that fully 25 percent of Germans had unfavorable views of Jews. While that is far less than the 46 percent result in Spain or the 36 percent in Poland, it is up from the 20 percent result found in Germany in 2004.
German politicians are listening. Indeed, since the beginning of the year, a working group made up of all parties in the German parliament, the Bundestag, have been busy formulating a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in Germany. The idea was to have it ready for the 70th anniversary of the Nov. 9, 1938 Nazi pogrom known as the Night of the Broken Glass. Political infighting, however, has delayed the project -- and now threatens to torpedo it altogether. (SpeigelOnline)
Senior Iranian officials pushing for preemptive strike against Israel
Top Iran officials recommend preemptive strike against Israel-Barak Ravid
Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London. The official, Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, said recent threats by Israeli authorities strengthened this position, but that as of yet, a preemptive strike has not been integrated into Iranian policy. Safavi is head of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies in Tehran, and an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The institute is directly affiliated with Khamenei's office and with the Revolutionary Guards, and advises both on foreign policy issues. Safavi is also the brother of Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was the head of the Revolutionary Guards until a year ago and now is an adviser to Khamenei, and holds significant influence on security matters in the Iranian government. An Israeli political official said senior Jerusalem officials were shown Safavi's remarks, which are considered highly sensitive. The source said the briefing in London dealt with a number of issues, primarily a potential Israeli attack on an Iranian reactor. Safavi said a small, experienced group of officials is lobbying for a preemptive strike against Israel. "The recent Israeli declarations and harsh rhetoric on a strike against Iran put ammunition in these individuals' hands," he said. (Haaretz)
“The Waffen SS are "decent individuals with character, who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition and remain true to them today as well.”
 Austrians praise deceased Nazi admirer Haider-Benjamin Weinthal
"He was a remarkable person" and one should "pay tribute to him," was how Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer described right-wing extremist politician Joerg Haider at Haider's funeral ceremony in Klagenfurt, Austria on Saturday. While local Austrian authorities declared an inebriated Haider to have died as the result a high-speed car crash last week, Karlheinz Klement, a former member of Haider's ex-party, the Freedom Party, asserted that the Mossad had assassinated him. Klement's conspiracy thesis is circulating among Austrian neo-Nazi and right-wing internet forums. In the mid 1990s, Haider proclaimed the Freedom Party "to be the PLO of Austria" at a party event. He split from the Freedom Party in 2005 and formed the Alliance for the Future of Austria, a hard-line, reactionary and anti-foreigner party based in the Federal State of Carinthia, where he served as governor. Haider was notorious for his praise of Nazi employment policies and the Waffen SS, an organization devoted to exterminating European Jewry. The Waffen SS are "decent individuals with character, who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition and remain true to them today as well. That is a good basis, my dear friends, for us younger people to inherit," said Haider at meeting of the Veterans of the Waffen SS in Carinthia, Austria. Haider's funeral turned into a day of national mourning and 30,000 Austrians flocked to the Carinthian capital of Klagenfurt to attend the service, which was covered live by Austria's national broadcaster, ORF. Given Haider's anti-Semitic and xenophobic views, and taking into account that he represents a rallying point for Europe's radical right, it was an astonishing show of political solidarity as Austria's heads of state and political parties paid tribute to him. Chancellor Gusenbauer said Haider had had "an excellent feeling for what needs to be changed" in Austrian politics. Heinz Fischer, the Social Democratic president, said Haider's death was a "human tragedy," and that he had been a "politician with great talents." (Jpost.com)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Eric Breininger, Convert to Islam Surfaces in Jihadist Video
German Islamist Resurfaces by Video from Afghanistan-Yassin Musharbash
 Eric Breininger has been one of Germany's most-wanted men since he joined the Islamist Jihad Union terrorist organization. He's now resurfaced in a video from Afghanistan. His message: He has no plans for an attack against Germany.
German officials have been looking for the young man for months. It is a search that has spanned the globe, but which had largely been fruitless. Until Tuesday that is, when Eric Breininger, a young German man from the western state of Saarland, popped up in an Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) terror video claiming he is currently in Afghanistan. In the video, Breininger -- a 21-year-old convert to Islam who has adopted the nom de guerre Abdulgaffar el Almani -- sounds little like the terrorist German officials suspect he has become. Indeed, in the six-minute-long clip, which was posted on the IJU Web site on Tuesday, he sounds more like a young schoolboy reading his homework out loud in front of the class. The mini-movie is called "A Call from Hindu Kush," and its message is clear: "I am currently in Afghanistan and am not personally planning an attack on the country of Germany," Breininger says into the camera. The statement seems to be a direct response to growing concerns that Breininger was preparing to do just that -- and that such an attack could be imminent. Much of that fear stems from knowledge of the group Breininger has joined. The IJU had close contacts with three terror suspects arrested in the western German region of Sauerland last year. The three, Fritz Gelowicz, Adem Yilmaz and Daniel Schneider, stand accused of trying to build a bomb for at attack in Germany. The IJU was also responsible for a suicide attack in Khost, Afghanistan carried out by Cüneyit C. from Bavaria. The March attack killed four people. It is difficult to determine from the video whether Breininger is indeed in Afghanistan as he claims, though it matches up with conclusions drawn by German authorities as to his whereabouts. Just last month, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office launched a manhunt for Breininger after indications that he had been spotted in the Balkans and was on his way to Germany. That search was discontinued shortly thereafter. Breininger's video is not unlike others in the genre. He accuses the German government of double standards for promoting democracy in some parts of the world but not standing up for Muslims when they are treated poorly. He says that Germany is a potential target for Islamists because the country's military, the Bundeswehr, is stationed in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and that pulling soldiers out of those countries would reduce the danger of an attack. He warns that he and his comrades will wage "war against the occupiers" until the countries occupied are "liberated." Any country that is a military ally of the United States, he says, should expect to be attacked. (SpeigelOnline)
Terrorist group Hezbollah has links with Colombian drug cartel
 Islamic terror group Hezbollah linked to Colombian drug cartel-Daily Mail Reporter
Islamic terror group Hezbollah has been linked to a Colombian drugs cartel, it has been revealed. More than 100 suspects were arrested in the South American country and overseas on charges they trafficked drugs and laundered cash for Colombia's Norte del Valle cartel and the outlawed paramilitaries. The network that stretched from South America to Asia, the attorney's general office said. 'The criminal organization used routes through Venezuela, Panama, Guatemala, Middle East and Europe, bringing in cash from the sale of these substances,' the statement said. Among those arrested in Colombia were three people suspected of coordinating drug smuggling to send some of their profits to groups such as Hezbollah, the office said. Those suspects -- Chekry Mahmoud Harb, Ali Mohamad Abdul Rahim and Zacaria Hussein Harb -- used front companies to send drug cash overseas, it said without providing further details. Colombia, a key U.S. ally, remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer, although over the last seven years Washington has sent more than $5 billion in aid that has helped weaken the country's FARC rebels and reduce violence from its conflict. Washington has often complained that Iran-backed Hezbollah and other Islamic groups that it considers terrorist organizations are active in Arab communities in South American countries such as Brazil and Venezuela. (DailyMail.co.uk)
Jihadist’s learning how to influence new recruits by imitating YouTube
When Hamas Met YouTube-Kathy Shaidle
The hugely popular video file-sharing site YouTube has changed politics, the law and society in general, in ways people are just beginning to understand. The power of YouTube, and sites like it, hasn’t escaped the attention of Muslim terrorists and their supporters. For example, Hamas recently launched a YouTube inspired site called AqsaTube (complete with a ripped off version of the American site’s red logo). Instead of the cute cat clips and stealth campaign videos you’ll find on YouTube, however, AqsaTube is “devoted entirely to propaganda and incitement,” according to the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. (IITIC)
In true Web 2.0 fashion, Amir Mizroch, the News Editor at The Jerusalem Post, broke this story on October 13 at his personal blog rather than in the pages of his own newspaper. He wrote: “[AqsaTube’s] contents, like those of other Hamas websites, are a reflection of its ideology and strategy. They include videos inciting against Israel, glorifying terrorism (the “resistance”) and preaching the doctrines of radical Islam. There is also a link to Hamas’s satellite channel, Al-Aqsa TV, which increases the number of its viewers and enables it to bypass restrictions on its broadcasts...”
According to the IITIC, AqsaTube was one of more than 20 websites, in eight languages, managed and directed by Hamas. AqsaTube’s videos are primarily produced the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military-terrorist wing. They depict “masked operatives firing rockets and training with weapons. One of them is devoted to one of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades special units, and is accompanied by a song encouraging suicide attacks: ‘Oh suicide bombers’ unit, oh heroes of the [terrorist] attacks…Our great hope is death for the sake of Allah.’” As the IITIC report explained, “the new AqsaTube website is another example of how Hamas, like other terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda, have learned to exploit the information revolution to wage the battle for hearts and minds.” Amir Mizroch noticed the troubling fact that AqsaTube was generating revenue by selling ad space through Google’s ubiquitous AdSense program – including ads for Israeli companies. He confronted Google via email and a few days later, Google removed its ads from the Hamas site. (Frontpagemag)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM
Financial crisis will halt policy on climate change for whoever wins the US election
Environment will wither whoever win US election-Tom Baldwin and Lucy Bannerman
Eager anticipation of the next American president offering a dramatically different policy on climate change is being tempered by the chill winds of the financial crisis. Barack Obama or John McCain will inherit a blighted economy, a ballooning deficit set to reach $1 trillion and a political landscape in upheaval from the market turmoil of recent weeks. Environmental groups are already bracing themselves for delays or disappointment on action to tackle global warming which, they say, will inevitably be seen as having an impact on American jobs. Steve Clemons, a director at the liberal think-tank The New America Foundation, said that whoever succeeds President Bush is “going to have a horrible time”. He added: “They are not going to be able to do everything they said they were going to do. The economic constraints were always going to be huge, even before the current crisis. Now, with the drama over the financial markets, when the next president is sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office he will have to weigh up different programmes, cut back and pare down.” Already there is talk of plans for universal healthcare or expensive tax cuts being reconsidered, while Britain is among the international governments alarmed over what the crisis may mean for hopes of getting a breakthrough deal on climate change. Mr Obama has proposed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 80 per cent by 2050 and wants to fund a ten-year, $150 billion energy independence programme by selling carbon-use permits to industry through a European-style cap and trade system. Mr McCain is not far behind, promising cuts of 60 per cent by 2050. Diplomats acknowledge that the prospects of securing Congressional agreement for such measures are diminished. Gordon Brown is known to be concerned about how little time the next president will have to focus on the issue before heading to Copenhagen in December next year where a new international treaty on climate change will be negotiated. (Timesonline.co.uk)
Suffering for the planet, meet the people committed to shrinking the carbon footprint
 Completely Unplugged, Fully Green-Joanne Kaufman
SIMON WOODS, who is 6, would like to play on a baseball team. His mother, Sharon Astyk, is sympathetic, but is also heavily committed to shrinking her family’s carbon footprint. “We haven’t been able to find a league that doesn’t involve a long drive,” she said. “I say that it isn’t good for the planet, so we play catch in the yard.” That is one way that Ms. Astyk, a mother of four, expresses her concern for the environment. She has unplugged the family refrigerator, using it as an icebox during warmer months by putting in frozen jugs of water as the coolant (in colder weather, she stores milk and butter outdoors). Her farmhouse in Knox, N.Y., has a homemade composting toilet and gets its heat from a wood stove; the average indoor winter temperature is 52 degrees. Many people who can comfortably use “carbon footprint,” “global warming” and “energy offset” in a sentence will toss a bottle or can into a blue recycling bin and call it a day. Those who are somewhat more committed may swap incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents, rely on cloth shopping bags and turn to mass transit. Then there are people like Ms. Astyk, 36, a writer and a farmer who is trying, with the aid of a specially designed calculator, to whittle her family’s energy use to 10 percent of the national average. She and her husband, Eric Woods, a college professor, grow virtually all their own produce, raise chickens and turkeys, and spend only $1,000 a year in consumer goods, most of which they buy used. They air-dry their clothes, and their four sons often sleep huddled together to pool body heat. They began this regimen in 2002. “My husband and I started to talk about climate change, and oil prices were going up,” Ms. Astyk said. “The other factor was a justice issue. There was a great disparity between the resources used by the third world and by us, so we decided we had to cut back.” Some people may view Ms. Astyk and her family as role models, pioneers who will lead us to a cleaner earth. Others may see them as colorful eccentrics, people with admirable intentions who have arrived at a way of life close to zealotry. To others they come across as “energy anorexics,” obsessing over personal carbon emissions to an unhealthy degree, the way crash dieters watch the bathroom scale. (NYT)
Society and CULTURE
Ten year old children to be given sex advice and condoms in Scout camp
Be prepared! Scout leaders to give sex advice and hand out 'emergency condoms' to children as young as ten-Sarah Harris
Parents waving their children off to Scout camp may soon have more to worry about than the youngsters swapping ghost stories after dark. In a move that has alarmed traditionalists, the Scout Association is to introduce sex education for its young members. Leaders will be able to give confidential contraceptive advice to under-16s and even hand out emergency condoms on trips. The Association insists the information will help Scouts resist peer pressure to have sex before they are ready. But critics claim it will encourage boys and girls to become sexually active earlier. Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'This will horrify a lot of parents. 'These things have nothing to do with Scouting. They should be sticking to the traditional activities of camp fires and sing- songs instead of learning about sexually transmitted diseases and emergency contraception.' The advice that leaders can give is outlined in a factsheet published today by the Scout Association, which has 60,000 girl members and 400,000 boys and young men. Scouts aged ten-and-a-half to 14 will be able to discuss where to get contraception and pregnancy testing and how to find sexual health clinics. Boys and girls aged 14 and above may be taken on tours of sexual health clinics and learn about diseases such as gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia. The factsheet makes it clear to leaders that it is 'only acceptable to have condoms/femedoms available to young people in line with the Fraser guidelines'. These guidelines give under-16s the right to have confidential advice about contraception without parental consent if certain criteria are met. They state that an 'adult should only provide contraception if they believe the young person is very likely to begin having intercourse with or without contraception'. A Scout Association spokesman attempted to play down the implications of the factsheet on Sunday, insisting that leaders will not want to hand out contraceptives as they are not health care professionals. (DailyMail.co.uk)
Sex education to be taught to five year old children under UK Government plan
Children aged five to get sex education
Children as young as five will be given sex education under Government plans to cut teenage pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.
Pupils will get basic classes in identifying body parts in the first few years of primary school.
In later years, they will be required to have more structured lessons about reproduction and relationships, a major review will recommend. At secondary level, schools should improve the way issues such as civil partnerships and the importance of marriage are covered. Teachers will also be given training in delivering lessons amid fears too many are embarrassed to discuss sex in the classroom. The Government has already admitted that sex and relationship education across England is too "patchy". However, the move will be opposed by family campaigners who accuse ministers of subjecting pupils to controversial issues before they are ready. To allay concerns, ministers are expected to announce a consultation ahead of the implentation of the lessons on whether or not to give parents an opportunity to withdraw their children.
In a further move, ministers will also announce a radical shake-up of the way children are taught about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, who has led the review, insisted exposure to sex education before puberty reduced teenage pregnancy rates. "It is important that we as a society allow better sex and relationship education in both primary and secondary schools without sexualising young people too early," he said. "It is right to share the responsibility between home and school." (Telegraph.co.uk)
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