This Week's Editorial
THE CHARMED LIFE OF BINYAM MOHAMED
By Avi Davis
No one ever knew that becoming a terrorist would offer such an effortless path to fame and celebrity. Certainly not Binyam Mohammed.
Mr. Mohamed is today the center of British national attention, having acquired the dubious prestige of being tortured at the hands of both M15 and the CIA.
How did he do it? He was believed to be involved in a plot to detonate a radioactive bomb in an American or British city. Arrested in Pakistan in 2002, he was shackled, threatened, deprived of sleep, and questioned by officers from MI5. He was subsequently “rendered” by the CIA to a prison in Morocco, where he was allegedly subjected to torture. Mr. Mohamed thereafter spent six years at Guantanomo Bay before being repatriated to the United Kingdom in 2009.
He told investigators he had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in an attempt to kick a drug addiction, but was accused of links to Al-Qaeda and charged with plotting to blow up a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the US. The charges were later dropped when the US admitted its case was based on confessions obtained using torture.
Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed, 31, who was granted refugee status when he came to Britain in 1994, is now alive and apparently flourishing somewhere in Devon. But at least one MI5 officer is being investigated, and could face trial, simply for asking him questions while he was held in custody in Pakistan. And MI5 is under taack, not for what is did, but for what it allowed to occur without protest.
A U.K. police inquiry into the officer, which began last July at the request of Attorney General Baroness Scotland, is understood to be at an advanced stage, and lawyers have discussed whether the officer could be charged under the Human Rights Act, which prohibits torture. An MI6 officer is also under investigation over an unrelated case.
But Mr. Mohamed’s true elevation to star status arrived last week when the U.K. Court of Appeal ordered the disclosure of seven paragraphs of evidence which showed that MI5 knew Mohamed was being mistreated by the CIA.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, had tried to prevent the publication of the material. But to no avail. In his judgement, (an unpublished draft of which was somewhow leaked to the press) Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls, and the second most senior judge inthe country, found that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights or denounce torture and had engaged in a culture of suppression about the information.
Now where have we heard this before? Read More
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog The Intermediate Zone
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at adavis@americanfreedomalliance.org
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
New York Terror Suspect Expected to Plead Guilty- EVAN PEREZ
An Afghan national charged in last year's alleged al Qaeda plot to bomb New York City on the Sept. 11 anniversary is expected to plead guilty later Monday, people familiar with the matter said. Najibullah Zazi, an airport-shuttle driver in Aurora, Colo., is accused by prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., of training at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan in 2008 and plotting with several others to make explosives from ingredients bought at beauty supply and home improvement stores. A person who answered the telephone at the offices of Mr. Zazi's attorney, William Stampur, declined to comment. The alleged plot was considered one of the most serious to emanate from al Qaeda in years. The case was followed months later by the Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt by a Nigerian man who worked with an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, according to authorities. U.S. prosecutors alleged that Mr. Zazi, who is a legal permanent resident in the U.S., had recipes for the explosives in his laptop that were emailed to accounts that he controlled while he was in Pakistan. (WSJ)
Quebec court hands Namouh life sentence for al Qaida-linked bomb plot-Sidhartha Banerjee (CP)
MONTREAL — A small-town Quebec man who plotted international terrorist attacks with a group tied to al-Qaida remains a real danger to society, a judge declared as he rendered the toughest possible sentence in Canadian law. Said Namouh, who spread jihadist propaganda on the Internet and had visions of martyrdom, received a life sentence Wednesday. The Moroccan-born man will not be eligible for parole for at least 10 years. It was only the second time in Canadian legal history - and, ironically, the second time in less than a month - that a person was sentenced to life for terrorism charges in a Canadian court. Last last month, one of the members of the so-called 'Toronto 18' received the same sentence. Namouh, age 37, was found guilty last October of four charges related to a vaguely defined plan to bomb targets in Germany and Austria.
The terror conspiracy was motivated by those countries' military presence in Afghanistan. From his home in a rural Quebec town, Namouh was heavily involved in the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). The organization, recognized by the court as a terrorist group, is involved in propaganda and jihad recruitment.
The GIMF is described as an al-Qaida media tool and is one of the most prominent online jihadist media organizations. (Canadianpress)
Oslo: Tabligh mosque recruiting among youth
Several young Muslims from the Holmlia district in Oslo told NRK there's active missionizing among young Muslim boys. Young men with long beards and robes stop Muslim boys in the neighborhood or visit them at home and recruit them to the mosques. "Some of the missionaries who have approached us, have had extreme attitudes towards Norwegians and also to other Muslim minorities like Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims," says one of the youth NRK spoke with. None of them wished their name or image be published.
They say that many of those recruited into radical Muslim communities were petty criminals in the past, also in the gang community. Nadeem Butt (Labor), head of the district committee of the Søndre Nordstrand district confirms the phenomenon. "There's some missionizing among Muslims,a nd we've had this type of missionizing here in the district in the past," says Butt. He says that the missionaries are mostly Muslim men who turn to other Muslim men. "They also approach Muslim boys out on the town," says Butt. According to Butt the missionaries are linked to the local mosque in Holmlia, a mosque which belongs to the Tabliqi movement. The movement belongs to the Wahabi denomination in Islam. (Islamineurope)
 Defence chiefs fight plans to build £3m giant mosque that 'will loom over Sandhurst' -Dan Newling
Generals are trying to block plans to build a mosque with two 100ft minarets next to Sandhurst.
The £3million building would have a clear view over the military academy and is just 400 yards from its parade ground. Senior officers oppose the project saying it could pose a security threat to cadets. Yesterday an Army source said: 'This has gone right to the top of the chain of command. 'There is very real concern that if this thing gets built then soldiers could be put at risk. 'It is outrageous to even think that the officers of the future would have to watch their backs while they are still in training.' Hundreds of newly-commissioned Army officers take to the parade ground each year for the academy's passing out ceremony. The event attracts senior members of the Royal Family, including the Queen when her grandson Prince Harry was commissioned in 2006. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Dad accused in 'honor killing' will not face death penalty-Dustin Gardiner
A Glendale man accused of slaying his daughter in an "honor killing" will not face the death penalty. After sparring with the suspect's defense attorney over its death penalty review process, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has said it will not seek death for Faleh Almaleki, 49. The Iraqi immigrant is accused of slaying his daughter, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, for being "too Westernized." Police say he used his Jeep Cherokee to run down his daughter and another woman in a Peoria parking lot Oct. 20. Noor Almaleki later died of her injuries. Almaleki is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of leaving the scene of a serious accident. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The decision not to seek the death penalty comes after Almaleki's attorney, Billy Little, a public defender, asked a judge to take special precautions to ensure the County Attorney's Office wouldn't wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim. Little requested that the office make public the process it uses to determine whether to seek capital punishment. "An open process provides some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs," Little wrote, referring to County Attorney Andrew Thomas' Christian faith. (Arizonacentral)
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Exclusive: How One School's Experience Shows Islam is Not for Amateurs-Noa Bursie
I have the greatest job in the world; I am a teacher, and am proud to belong to this honorable profession. For more than 20 years I have been driven to educate young people and encourage them to discover the world and to confront ignorance with knowledge. An incident that occurred recently in a local high school disturbs me enough to bring it to the attention of other educators and the public. An individual was invited to give a presentation on Islam at a school in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. This man was asked by the school’s history department to offer clarification on practices and tenets of the faith that are thought, by some, to be misunderstood. It was hoped the lecture would provide greater understanding, and in doing so, diffuse what has come to be called “Islamophobia.” The PowerPoint presentation focused on the Koran’s Five Pillars, how a Muslim prays, the presenter’s trip to Mecca, and his beard and attire. Before long, however, the presentation deteriorated into a diatribe against U.S. foreign policy and support for Israel and an apologist's sentiment that appeared to justify the September 11th terrorist attacks and exonerate those who perpetrated them. (Familysecuritymatters)
 Students get ready to counter ‘apartheid lie’- RON CSILLAG, Special to The CJN
TORONTO — Jewish university students are dreading the annual ritual known as Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), slated to take place on campuses across the country March 1 to 7.
Poster from this year's Israel Apartheid Week
But this year, they’ll get a one-week head start on the anti-Israel informational campaign.
Starting the last week of February, Canadian university and college students will begin a pre-emptive, national initiative aimed at bolstering Israel’s image and countering negative propaganda. “Size Doesn’t Matter” will stress that for a small country, Israel has achieved global renown in science, medicine, technology, business, humanitarian aid and even on cultural fronts.
“We’re starting a week before [the IAW kick-off] on all campuses,” says Shirin Ezekiel, director of Israel affairs for Hillel of Greater Toronto. “Each day will highlight a different achievement and contribution from Israel.” The second national push, to run concurrently with IAW, will be called “The Truth Campaign,” and will feature toy building block-themed posters with the messages, “Don’t Twist the Truth” and “Don’t Play With the Truth.” They’re intended to counter the five central themes of this year’s anti-Israel IAW programming: the ongoing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) drive against the Jewish state; fallout from the United Nations’ Goldstone report on Israel’s incursion into Gaza in last winter; the attack on Gaza itself, known as Operation Cast Lead; Israel’s security barrier, often tagged by opponents as the “Apartheid Wall”; and the central accusation that Israel practises apartheid against Arabs and Palestinians, which the counter-measures will term “the apartheid lie.” (Canadianjewishnews)
The Absurdity of "Sustainability" in Economics Education-Tyler Watts
The sustainability movement is growing faster than the greenhouse gas emissions its adherents dread. As an instructor at one of America’s most sustainability-conscious universities, I can’t help but notice that “sustainability” is being pushed relentlessly from the top-down, and that it has begun to infiltrate all aspects of life and work at the university. I'm sensing the next item on the agenda is a deliberate push to force-feed sustainability into multiple academic disciplines. Indeed, the sustainability advocacy group Second Nature explicitly proclaims its mission as supporting leaders in higher education in "making healthy, just, and sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education." The growing number of sustainability-themed classes, seminars, campus activities, and degree programs further attest to the rise of this movement. The concept of sustainability may sound well and good—after all, what could be wrong with making the world a more sustainable place? Yet as a teacher in higher education, I'm none too excited about being asked to propagandize for sustainability in my classroom. What's my beef with sustainability, you ask? Don't I care about "the environment?" I do, but I care about education, too; I want to caution my colleagues against thinking that this creeping curricularization of sustainability across academic disciplines is benign because at least “it’s a good cause.” That sustainability is, indeed, a cause—is precisely what should trouble serious scientists and educators and lead those of us who care about the ultimate purpose of higher education to seriously question the rapid pace at which sustainability is scaling the ivory tower. (NAS)
MEDIA BIAS
Climategate: The World’s Biggest Story, Everywhere but Here-Charlie Martin
It’s been called the “biggest scientific scandal in history.” It has everything to learn Pulitzer consideration: lies and misconduct in high places, political implications, even massive financial transactions that may or may not be legitimate or even legal. It’s big news … as long as you read the Telegraph, the Guardian, the London Times, or even major Indian papers. It’s no news at all if you read the U.S. mainstream media. In the ninety days — three months exactly at the time of this writing — since the Climategate files story broke, there has been an amazing amount of breakout in the climate science story, with major error after major error being uncovered in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report IV (AR4). There has been the discovery of suspicious conflicts of interest on the part of the chair of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, and the expanding story of the financial connections between the carbon trading cabal and the scientific climate clique in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Dr. Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has “stepped aside” while under investigation, after which the UK government said it appeared there may have been criminality in CRU’s refusal to fulfill Freedom of Information requests. Scientist members of the IPCC have resigned, not wishing to continue to be associated with the poor quality of work being revealed. (Pajamasmedia)
 BBC blasted for ‘bigoted fear-mongering’-HAVIV RETTIG GUR
UK broadcaster allowed claim 500,000 Diaspora Jews ready to help Mossad in hits.
The New York-based American Jewish Committee blasted the BBC on Sunday for airing an accusation that Jews around the world assist in supposed Mossad assassinations. The AJC said in a statement that it was “dismayed that a guest on BBC Radio 4 was allowed to state unchallenged” that the Mossad relies on Jews for assassination plots. “This baseless accusation crosses every red line between legitimate public discussion and bigoted fear-mongering,” said AJC executive director David Harris. “In less than a minute, the BBC has cast a shadow on the lives of Jews worldwide.” BBC Radio 4’s PM program interviewed Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon’s Spies, a book about the Mossad, about the January 20 assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Local authorities and many international media outlets believe that the killing of Mabhouh, who bought rockets for Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, was carried out by the Mossad. In explaining the Mossad’s operating methods outside Israel, Thomas told PM host Eddie Mair, “They have a whole backup system called ‘asylum.’ These are people, local residents, Jewish people, who help the Mossad. It is estimated to be in the world about half a million; some people say a million; I tend to say it’s about half a million, all of them Mossad people.” (Jpost)
The War of Ideas Ends in Bizarro World-IPT News
Al Qaeda's ideology is defeated. Didn't you hear? We didn't either, but Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria insists. The closing lines of his absurdly sub-titled article, "How moderate Muslim leaders waged war on extremists—and won," read: "Al Qaeda has already lost in the realm of ideology. What remains is the battle to defeat it in the nooks, crannies, and crevices of the real world." Maybe this is the case in Bizarro World ("Us do opposite of all earthly things!"), but the picture is starkly different here in reality. Unfortunately, to argue that Al Qaeda has already lost in the realm of ideology is not just bizarre, it is dangerous. For such a highly influential commentator to foster this sense of complacency (Don't worry about ideology! It's okay now!) is irresponsible and negligent. This is not to say that extremists have not been confronted by a variety of social and religious leaders in Muslim communities, but Zakaria didn't identify them and they certainly haven't yet won. (IPT)
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
 When Free Speech Died-Richard L. Cravatts
Of the many intellectual perversions currently taking root on college campuses, perhaps none is more contradictory to what should be one of higher education’s core values than the suppression of free speech. With alarming regularity, speakers are shouted down, booed, jeered, and barrage with vitriol, all at the hands of groups who give lip service the notion of academic free speech, and who demand it when their speech is at issue, but have no interest in listening to, or letting others listen to, ideas that contradict their own world view. Coincidentally, just recently two Israeli officials, Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon and ambassador to the United States Michael Oren had the unpleasant experience of confronting virulent anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian Muslim students whose ideology on academic debate seems to be “free speech for me, but not for thee.” Ayalon, who spoke at Oxford University, had his speech interrupted by several audience members, including one who yelled incessantly and called Ayalon a “racist” and “a war criminal” while waving a Palestinian flag, another student who loudly read passages of the incendiary Goldstone Report, calls from one charming scholar to “slaughter the Jews,” the intrusion of a third student who remained standing for the entire balance of the lecture while she hurled anti-Israel invective, and another radical brat who threatened to Ayalon that “we will do to you what we did to Milosevic.” (Frontpagemagazine)
Simon Singh: it is too late for me, but libel laws must change for the public good-Simon Singh
It's time to stop English law being used by the rich and powerful to stifle honest criticism, says Simon Singh
On Tuesday morning I will appear at the Court of Appeal in the latest round of a libel battle that has already lasted almost two years, and which could easily continue for another two years. It has cost me more than £100,000 in legal fees and this could double before we reach a final judgment. What did I write that was so terrible? I published a newspaper article raising concerns about chiropractors who use spinal manipulation to treat children for conditions such as colic, ear infections and asthma. I thought that it was important that parents were aware of the shortage of evidence surrounding such treatments, but the British Chiropractic Association disagreed and sued me personally for libel. On Monday, I spent the evening with Dr Peter Wilmshurst, who is in a very similar predicament. Wilmshurst, an eminent British cardiologist, is being sued for libel by an American corporation called NMT for questioning trial data relating to a new device. Starflex is supposed to close a hole between the right and left atriums of the heart and help reduce migraine, but Peter is not convinced. Dr Wilmshurst is not a scaremonger, but a doctor of the highest integrity who won the 2003 HealthWatch award for his courage in challenging misconduct in medical research. However, his reward this time has been a two-year legal battle that could bankrupt him. (Telegraph.co.uk)
ANTISEMITISM
2010 Jerusalem Conference at the Regency Hotel, Jerusalem, February 16, 2010
GOLDSTONE REPORT AND LAWFARE’S ANTI-ISRAEL THEOLOGICAL TWIN
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Palestinians and their supporters have launched new campaigns to delegitimize the Jewish State. As Palestinians know they cannot defeat Israel militarily, neither in conventional battle nor even in asymmetrical terrorist warfare, they have unleashed a multi-pronged campaign to wound and weaken, and cause irrecoverable damage, politically, morally and economically. Today the state of Israel and her supporters are understandably focused on the diplomatic front and the Lawfare campaign against the Jewish State, with the so-called Goldstone Report the “legal” tipping point against Israel. Fast-tracked through the United Nations with the help of the 57- member OIC, it will, by hook or by crook, make its way to The Hague, where “respected” jurists will muse and reflect over whether even Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other prominent Israeli officials are indeed guilty of crimes against humanity the crime of defending fellow citizens against terrorist wannabe genociders. So palpable is the smell of blood in the geo-political waters, that a peer in the House of Lords can urge an investigation of Israeli behavior in Haiti—no not for the Red Cross and NGOs to learn how to deploy a 21st century hospital amidst total devastation but to check if those clever Jews were really there to steal Haitians’ body parts. No telling what these Israelis are capable of. (Simonwiesenthalcenter)
 Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes-Nick Meo
Sweden's reputation as a tolerant, liberal nation is being threatened by a steep rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city of Malmo.
When she first arrived in Sweden after her rescue from a Nazi concentration camp, Judith Popinski was treated with great kindness. She raised a family in the city of Malmo, and for the next six decades lived happily in her adopted homeland - until last year. In 2009, a chapel serving the city's 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and "Hitler" was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.
"I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway," Mrs Popinski toldThe Sunday Telegraph. "This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now."
Malmo's Jews, however, do not just point the finger at bigoted Muslims and their fellow racists in the country's Neo-Nazi fringe. They also accuse Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor who has been in power for 15 years, of failing to protect them. Mr Reepalu, who is blamed for lax policing, is at the centre of a growing controversy for saying that what the Jews perceive as naked anti-Semitism is in fact just a sad, but understandable consequence of Israeli policy in the Middle East. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Molotov cocktail thrown at Cairo synagogue
CAIRO (AFP-EJP)--- An unidentified assailant threw a firebomb at a downtown Cairo synagogue on Sunday morning, causing no casualties or damage, security officials said.
The man tried to throw the improvised weapon at the Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in a busy Cairo street. But it landed on the pavement opposite the synagogue causing a small fire, a security official told MENA. The man had checked into a small hotel opposite the synagogue and hurled a bag containing the bomb from the fourth floor lobby before fleeing, the official said. "There were no tour groups visiting the synagogue when the incident happened. There were no casualties or damage, " he said, adding that police were searching for the assailant. A judicial source said a witness who was staying in the hotel told a prosecutor investigating the attack that the man appeared to be in his 40s. Police guarding tourists sites went on alert across Egypt after the early morning attack, an official told AFP, as a hunt for the attacker was underway. Security is generally tight around the synagogue, which is protected by a gate and barriers on the pavement. The Shaar Hashamayim (Gate of Heaven) synagogue is the largest synagogue in Egypt – the only one that still conducts High Holy Day services. It was in built in 1899. (EJP)
Another genocidal murderer wiped out? Britain knows who's really guilty-Melanie Phillips
As self-righteous uproar against Israel rises in Britain over Mossad’s supposed use of stolen British passport identities for the hit-squad which assassinated senior Hamas operative Mahmoud Mabhouh, one or two solitary voices have been trying to introduce a little realism into this latest excuse for frighteningly unhinged Israel-bashing (see the newspaper comment threads, from the moment Dubai published the passport details, for the eruption of a hatred that seizes any and every opportunity to give vent to this bigotry). Tom Gross (who has circulated the picture above of one of Mabhouh's victims, a child murdered by a Hamas missile in Sderot) has written an excellent resuméof the madness (this article being a notable exception), pointing out that much of the British media in particular has jumped to the conclusion that this was indeed a Mossad operation even though there is a possibility that Israel may have been set up.Some of this coverage surely amounts to incitement to racial hatred. Douglas Murray draws attention here to the astonishing suggestion broadcast on BBC Radio Four’s PM programme that up to one million Jews worldwide might be on hand to assist Mossad in executions a claim which turns every Jew in the diaspora into a potential suspected killer and thus a target for hatred and violence. In my view this claim should be brought to the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions. (Spectator.co.uk)
TERRORISM, security and policy
Top UN official calls for talks with Mullah Omar-Ben Farmer in Kabul and Dean Nelson in New Delhi
The top UN official in Afghanistan has called for direct peace talks with Mullah Omar's Taliban leadership to find a political settlement to the eight year war.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Kai Eide said plans to use financial incentives to persuade militants to abandon their war would not succeed without negotiations with their leaders. His comments challenge President Barack Obama's "carrot and stick" strategy of military surge while offering jobs, retraining, resettlement and protection to Taliban figures who break away from Mullah Omar's insurgency. According to Mr Eide, who will stand down as the UN Secretary General's special representative next month, the strategy could actually strengthen the insurgency. He said the West has underestimated the number of Taliban fighters driven by conviction rather than simply money. He said attempting to bribe them may actually backfire. "Often, such motivation stems from a conviction that the [Afghan] government is corrupt and unable to provide law and order combined with a sense of foreign invasion – not only in military terms, but in terms of disrespect for Afghanistan's culture, values and religion," he said.
Terrorists made in Australia MALCOLM BROWN, RICK FENELEY AND JACQUELINE MALEY
The ingredients for Sydney's terrorist conspiracy seemed so ordinary: a couple of small businessmen, an uncle and his nephew, a kid who fished from a ferry wharf. Malcolm Brown, Rick Feneley and Jacqueline Maley report.
Even in the days ASIO was watching him, he liked to fish. Even while his phone was tapped and he was recorded saying: ''I will kill John Howard.'' That call was made on August 27, 2005. Howard was prime minister and the young man under surveillance, at 21, was a familiar face among the anglers on the ferry wharf at Abbotsford on Sydney Harbour. This is where he had spent much of his teens, down the road from his father's home. On Friday and Saturday nights, from age 16, he would go fishing with his local shopkeeper, Tony. Tony, now 55, describes himself as a Catholic Chinese from Papua New Guinea. As he told the Herald this week, Abbotsford ''is not a Muslim suburb''. It is multicultural, but his friend was among few Muslims. From a family of eight boys and four girls, he was a ''good kid''. They would fish together for about five years. Until the police came. ''We'd catch some bream, but [he] was good at catching calamari,'' Tony recalled. ''He would give it away to the Italians, the Vietnamese.'' The second last time Tony saw his mate as a free man, his appearance had changed. He was wearing a traditional robe and growing a beard. ''It was not a very successful beard. He wasn't a very hairy guy. I laughed at him - 'You're wearing a dress!' - and he laughed too.'' The young man was not offended. Tony saw nothing that suggested a sudden turn to extremism. (Sydneymorningherald.au)
Lockerbie bomber Megrahi living in luxury villa six months after being at 'death's door'-Andrew Alderson and Robert Mendick
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is living with his family in a luxury villa in Libya six months after he was released from jail on compassionate grounds because he had less than three months to live.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, no longer receives hospital treatment after ending the course of chemotherapy that he had been given after returning to his homeland last August. Professor Karol Sikora, the London-based doctor who examined Megrahi and predicted he would be dead by last October, admitted this weekend that the fact the bomber is still alive might be "difficult" for the families of the 270 victims of the attack. The latest disclosure will incense many of the relatives of those who died in the bomb blast in December 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground.
Most did not want Megrahi released and they suspected he would live longer than the predicted three months. (Telegraph.co.uk)
 Wife of airline liquid bomb plotter 'prayed he would achieve highest level of martyrdom'-Daily Mail Reporter
The wife of the extremist who led the plot to kill hundreds of jet passengers prayed he would achieve the highest level of Islamic martyrdom, a court heard today. Cossor Ali, 28, wrote in her diary how she was desperate for Abdullah Ahmed Ali to kill himself for his cause, it is alleged. She even wrote of her hopes to be pregnant with a son by the time her husband was dead, jurors heard. 'I am growing more and more attached to the cause for which you are striving for, and the reason for which we are apart,' she wrote.
'I hope and pray Allah grants your wish and gives you the highest level of Shahada.' Ahmed Ali, also 28, and two other men were convicted of the murder plot in September last year following a trial, Inner London Crown Court heard. British-born Ali was told he would serve a minimum of 40 years for his role in ‘the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction’. The al-Qaida-inspired terror cell, jailed for conspiracy to murder on a mass scale, planned to detonate home-made liquid bombs on flights bound for major North American cities. Accomplices Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were also given life sentences. Sarwar was told he would serve a minimum of 36 years. Hussain will serve a minimum of 32 years.
Today, Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said Cossor Ali did not know the specific details of her husband's plan to murder innocent travellers over the Atlantic in August 2006. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Ft. Hood suspect was Army dilemma His extreme views possibly overlooked in favor of diversity-Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON - Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports. An obvious “problem child’’ spouting extremist views, Hasan made numerous statements that were not protected by the First Amendment and were grounds for discharge by violating his military oath, investigators found.
Examples of Hasan’s radical behavior have previously been disclosed in press accounts based on interviews with unnamed Army officials, including his defense of suicide bombings and assertions that Islamic law took priority over his allegiance to the United States. But the Pentagon’s careful documentation of individual episodes dating back to 2005 and the subsequent inaction of his superiors have not been made public before. The Globe was permitted to review the Army’s more complete findings on the condition that it not name supervisory officers who did not act, some of whom are facing possible disciplinary action. In searching for explanations for why superiors did not move to revoke Hasan’s security clearances or expel him from the Army, the report portrays colleagues and superiors as possibly reluctant to lose one of the Army’s few Muslim mental health specialists. (Bostonglobe)
Mali, a new Al Qaeda haven?-Olivier Guitta
If Mali doesn't get its act together and combat terrorism, years of good governance could give way to a hotbed of extremism.
PARIS, France — The Sahel — this vast semi-arid region of North Africa south of the Sahara desert — is viewed by some experts as a “second Afghanistan.” This might be a stretch, but it is true that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is very active in the area, especially in Mali. Mali enjoys a very good reputation around the world. It boasts a vibrant democracy with a multi-party system, a market economy and a tradition of a moderate Islam. But things might be changing: Since 2001, worrying signs have emerged— for example, the proliferation of Osama bin Laden's photo in stalls at the Bamako market and the exponential increase of radio stations preaching radical Islam. AQIM has organized numerous kidnappings of Western citizens in the region. Interestingly, kidnapped hostages from all over the region usually end up in northern Mali. AQIM has been using northern Mali (in particular Timbuktu and Kidal) as a sanctuary for three reasons: first, it is a very inhospitable area with a difficult terrain making it tough for nations to monitor it; second, some Arab tribes are located there; and finally, the Malian regime is weak and has almost no financial resources. (Globalpost)
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM
 £60m bill for the CO2 of our political class-Christopher Booker
We pay billions of dollars to Asian countries for the right to continue emitting CO2 here in the West , says Christopher Booker.
One could not want a better vignette of the gulf that has opened up between our “political class” and the rest of us than a bizarre little item which emerged last week on an obscure part of the European Commission’s website. The British Government, as revealed by the EU’s Official Journal, has allocated £60 million of taxpayers’ money to be spent on buying carbon credits from the Third World for the use of government buildings and other official purposes – so that our civil servants can continue to benefit from the CO2 emissions needed to keep their offices warm and lit. The Government has contracted to buy these credits, mainly available from China and India, through 10 British and foreign companies, including Barclays Bank and a branch of J P Morgan rather oddly situated in a back street in Oxford. Our entire Government machine – politicians and civil servants alike – is now obsessively dedicated to the proposition that we must drastically cut our “carbon emissions” to save the planet, at virtually unlimited cost. But when it comes to the officials and politicians themselves having to make sacrifices, as our own fuel bills soar, they have quietly arranged for the rest of us to shell out £60 million to allow them to carry on much as before. (Telegraph.co.uk)
IPCC: INTERNATIONAL PACK OF CLIMATE CROOKS- Marc Sheppard
Unquestionably the world's final authority on the subject, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's findings and recommendations have formed the bedrock of literally every climate-related initiative worldwide for more than a decade. Likewise, virtually all such future endeavors -- be they Kyoto II, domestic cap-and-tax, or EPA carbon regulation, would inexorably be built upon the credibility of the same U.N. panel's "expert" counsel. But a glut of ongoing recent discoveries of systemic fraud has rocked that foundation, and the entire man-made global warming house of cards is now teetering on the verge of complete collapse. Simply stated, we've been swindled. We've been set up as marks by a gang of opportunistic hucksters who have exploited the naïvely altruistic intentions of the environmental movement in an effort to control international energy consumption while redistributing global wealth and (in many cases) greedily lining their own pockets in the process. Perhaps now, more people will finally understand what many have known for years: Man- made climate change was never really a problem -- but rather, a solution. For just as the science of the IPCC has been exposed as fraudulent, so have its apparent motives. The true ones became strikingly evident when the negotiating text for the "last chance to save the planet" International Climate Accord [PDF], put forth in Copenhagen in December, was found to contain as many paragraphs outlining the payment of "climate debt" reparations by Western nations under the watchful eye of a U.N.-controlled global government as it did emission reduction schemes.(Scienceandpublicpolicy)
SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Music Helps Stroke Victims Communicate, Study Finds- SHIRLEY S. WANG
SAN DIEGO—For the many stroke victims devastated by the loss of their ability to speak, music may hold the key to unlocking language, according to a new study. The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science here Saturday, produced often dramatic results in 12 patients whose speech was impaired after a stroke to the left hemisphere of the brain. Such patients struggle to communicate or cannot speak at all. In the study, patients who were taught to essentially sing their words improved their verbal abilities and maintained the improvement for up to a month after the end of the therapy, according to Gottfried Schlaug, a neurology professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. The patients may continue to speak in a more "sing-songy" way than a person with normal speech, but they are able to say functional phrases, such as that they are thirsty or where they live, according to Dr. Schlaug, whose work was met with enthusiastic applause after his presentation. The treatment, called melodic intonation therapy, was devised in the 1970s after clinicians observed that some patients who suffered strokes were no longer able to talk but could still sing. However, the therapy never really caught and its efficacy hasn't been fully assessed, Dr. Schlaug said. (WSJ)
Suspension of Conscience
Amnesty International has lost sight of its original purpose.
It's an old story, but it bears retelling. One day at the dawn of the 1960s, a lawyer named Peter Benenson was reading the newspaper on the London subway. He came across a small item reporting that two students from Portugal—then still a fascist dictatorship running a filthy empire in Africa—had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for raising a toast to liberty in a public place in Lisbon. After a short cogitation, he decided to take action, and his open letter concerning "prisoners of conscience" was published on the front page of the London Observer. You may never have heard or read about this micro-event or its macro consequences, but I am willing to wager that you have heard of Amnesty International, which was the great tree that sprouted from this acorn. Its "branches"—the innumerable local groups that sprang into existence—have been responsible for the release of many political prisoners and the public shaming of many of the regimes that hold them. In common with all great ideas, the Amnesty concept was marvelously simple. Each local branch was asked to sponsor a minimum of three prisoners of conscience: one from a NATO country, one from a Warsaw Pact country, and one from the Third—or neutralist—World. In time, the organization also evolved policies that opposed the use of capital punishment or torture in all cases, but the definition of "prisoner of conscience" remained central. And it included a requirement that the prisoner in question be exactly that: a person jailed for the expression of an opinion. Amnesty did not adopt people who either used or advocated violence. (Slate)
The Art of Being Ruled-Jeffrey Collins
A political philosopher's attempt to make peace in 'the war of all against all.'
On Jan. 30, 1649, Charles I, king of England, mounted a hastily built scaffold. Thousands of his own subjects thronged before him, kept at bay by armed soldiers. After years of savage civil war against his own rebellious Parliament, Charles had been defeated and declared a traitor. In a brief speech he defended his now tattered royal powers. "I go," he proclaimed, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown." He then lay over the newly sawn boards, prayed and stretched out his arms. On this signal an ax cleaved the winter air and the king's head. As news of the regicide spread, the royal courts of Europe were thrown into black-draped mourning. Clergy turned to the book of Lamentations. But the most momentous reaction to the execution was a very different sort of book. From Paris, where he had sheltered himself for a decade, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes pondered the agonies of his native land and began to write his masterpiece. In 1651 he published it in London as "Leviathan." Hobbes's "Leviathan" is perhaps the greatest work of political theory in modern times. Scores of books have attempted to explain its meaning, but the latest to appear commands particular attention. "Hobbes and the Law of Nature" is the final work of Perez Zagorin, who died last April at the age of 88. For nearly six decades Mr. Zagorin was a leading historian of early modern Europe. He wrote accessibly and well, a public intellectual of the old school. This book, a slender and stylish introduction to Hobbes, caps his long career. (WSJ)
 Lessons from the jewels of the Jewish diaspora-Fiona Wilson
The Bodleian Library’s current exhibition, Crossing Borders, displays a selection of precious manuscripts which shows how Jews, Christians and Muslims contributed to the development of the book
The Bodleian Library in Oxford is renowned for its collection of Hebrew manuscripts. Although it houses one of the most extensive collections in the world, few people have the chance to see what lies beneath in the library’s vaults. However, some idea of what treasures there are may be gleaned from the library’s current exhibition, Crossing Borders, in which a selection of precious documents from the 13th to the 15th centuries has been chosen to show how Jews, Christians and Muslims contributed to the development of the book. Among the jewels on show in the Exhibition Room are scrolls, manuscripts and codices including the lavish Kennicott Bible, fragments from Maimonides’ draft of his legal code Mishneh Torah with the author’s corrections and the richly illustrated prayer book, the Oppenheimer Siddur. What emerges from this small yet fascinating show is that regional influence plays a larger part in the creation of a text than might be expected. At this point in history the Jewish diaspora was mainly in Spain, Italy and Northern Europe. Hebrew manuscripts were, therefore, being produced across a larger territorial range than their Greek, Latin or Arabic counterparts. Hebrew manuscripts often bore more similarities to non-Hebrew books produced in the same region than to each other, and such similarities are manifest in the distinctive decorative patterns and script and writing styles the manuscripts’ makers adopt. (Timesonline.co.uk)
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