The Western Word

If Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has his way, former Bush Administration officials Douglas Feith, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld will soon be standing trial in Spain for war crimes related torture of Guantanomo Bay detainees.

If Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories, has his way, Israeli generals such as Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other Israeli political and military leaders, will soon be brought before the International Criminal Court to face war crimes charges for the actions of the IDF in Gaza in January, 2009.

The effects of these indictments are to render it next to impossible for many of these leaders to travel overseas or to step foot on foreign soil. This was clearly demonstrated when former U.S Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was forced to leave France in January, 2007 when a French human rights group sought to charge him with war crimes in Iraq.

These claims draw their inspiration from the unparalleled respect rendered to international human rights law which gives almost any judge in any country, the jurisdiction to order the indictment of individuals who have violated what she or he believes be a breach of the law.

The rebuttal to the spurious claims mentioned above have been dealt with ably by Feith and Ashkenazi in their own editorials while being absolutely rejected by many international jurists.

What remains, however, is the troubling intrusion of this relatively new and amorphous body of law into domestic legal systems and the radical assault on the sovereignty of nations.

As the 65th anniversary of the Dumbarton Oaks conference grows near(October,1944) it might pay, then, to recall how wildly out of control the global governance movement has grown since its inception.

Dumbarton Oaks, the Washington D.C. conference where Franklin Delano Roosevelt convened a meeting of the Western allies to kick start the United Nations, remains a monument of reverence for global governance enthusiasts. After all, it was the first time that all the major nation states of the world ( including the United States itself which had elected not to join the earlier League of Nations) agreed to establish a supranational body that would adjudicate international disputes and establish international bodies to oversee matters of global concern.

The idea itself was not new.

It was first mooted in Thomas More's Utopia in the 16th century and brandished with equal enthusiasm by the polymath and futurist H.G. Wells in the 20th. Wells foresaw a centralized world government which would cover criminal law, prisons, registration of births and deaths, and the right to direct people to work in whatever part of the world it determined best. Everyone would have identity documents bearing their thumb-print; the official language would be English and primary alleigence would be to a world government. " It is the system of nationalist individualism and uncoordinated enterprise," he stated in The New World Order(1940)," that is the world’s disease, and it is the whole system that has to go. It has to be reconditioned down to its foundations or replaced. It cannot hope to "muddle through" amiably, wastefully and dangerously, a second time."

Curiously enough it is "nationalist individualism," - the very concept of the nation state and its right to regulate its own affairs and enforce its own laws, which is widely under assault today.

These attacks are being led by unelected and undemocratic supranational organizations such as the United Nations, radical activist human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and activist judges such as Baltazar Garzon. For the global governance enthusiasts, the very idea of a nation state is anathema and they are taking full advantage of the opportunities to enforce laws that many democracies have unknowingly embraced through treaties within their own legal systems.

An example of this is the Geneva Convention. The Convention, promulgated in the Hague in 1953, was ratified by the U.S. Congress in 1954 became part of American law, a law that the United States justice system is obliged to enforce if violations are proven. It is under Article 3 that the matter of Guantanomo Bay detainees has been referred to the International Criminal Court,seeking the indictment of members of the Bush Administration as war criminals.
That article proscribes " outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment" of captured belligerents.

The Convention allows for domestic courts to take action where it finds possible violations but says nothing about supranational bodies adjudicating such matters. The great innovation of international human rights law is its claim that where a domestic justice system has remained silent, another jurisdiction has both the right and duty to bring indictments that would effectuate justice.

This notion has no basis in customary international law and is proven by the fact that such a recently established international judicial body as the International Criminal Court is restricted in its ability to hear cases and has not until now, though founded in 1998, actually delivered a full ruling.

What is happening, of course, is that politics - and namely radical politics, which is anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Semitic, is being given an effective weapon to subvert the actions of democratic nations who might be at war or might be fighting for their own survival. What is certain is that global governance is insidiously worming its way into our legal systems and into the very fabric of our political dialogue.

We should not pretend that this movement will end with mere attacks on the activities of the Bush Administration or the Israeli military.

What if, as Feith argues, a European judge doesn't like like the legal analyses prepared by U.S. officials on border security with Mexico? Would European judges feel similarly empowered to make determinations that contend that the United States is taking positions contrary to international law? Is Israel to refrain from defending itself from merciless rocket fire on its citizenry because a human rights activist in Malmo believes its methods to be unethical? Under these circumstances the very exigencies of defense are taken out of the hands of the governments charged with defending their citizens and placed in the hands of outside observers.

Across the whole spectrum of human affairs, from climate change to national security, from health issues to parent-child relations, global governance advocates are similarly seeking to intrude their way into our lives, making use of loopholes in international treaties to impose their own values on our society. An example can even be found in business. A number of NGOs, disappointed that transnational businesses are not taking the time to address practical human rights standards, are promoting a system of human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) that can be implemented on a piecemeal basis within targeted industries. Because they require company officials to “identify, understand and manage corporate impacts in the field of human rights,” these standards are regarded as having the potential to have a serious influence on the way companies do (or do not do) business and therefore a possible impediment to the flow of international commerce.

Well then, somewhere H.G. Wells must be smiling. At the height of the London Blitz, when the future of Western civilization itself was in doubt, he felt perfectly at ease to write:

"There must be no protection for leaders and organizations from the most searching criticism, on the plea that our country is or may be at war. Or on any pretense. The war is incidental; the need for revolutionary reconstruction is fundamental."

If the global governance advocates have their way, revolutionary reconstruction may coming to our homes, our schools and our political systems sooner than we, or even they, ever anticipated.

Obama: Islam Has Shaped the U.S.A.
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

“We will convey,” said Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament Monday, “our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.” Undeniably the Islamic faith has done a great deal to shape the world – a statement that makes no value judgment about exactly how it has shaped the world. It has formed the dominant culture in what is known as the Islamic world for centuries. But what on earth could Obama mean when he says that Islam has also “done so much” to shape his own country? Unless he considers himself an Indonesian, Obama’s statement was extraordinarily strange. After all, how has the Islamic faith shaped the United States? Were there Muslims along Paul Revere’s ride, or standing next to Patrick Henry when he proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death”? Were there Muslims among the framers or signers of the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men – not just Muslims, as Islamic law would have it – are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Were there Muslims among those who drafted the Constitution and vigorously debated its provisions, or among those who enumerated the Bill of Rights, which guarantees – again in contradiction to the tenets of Islamic law – that there should be no established national religion, and that the freedom of speech should not be infringed? There were not.

Abu Qatada smuggles out letters to extremists
Abu Qatada, the extremist cleric, has been issuing pro-jihad statements, including a 6,000-word rallying cry, to his followers from inside one of Britain's high security prisons.
The preacher, 48, praises the Mujahidin and the "martyrs of Hamas" while he claims his treatment is helping to radicalise a new generation of young British Muslims. Also boasting that prison has helped him lose more than 50lb in weight, he adds that Bilal Abdullah, the NHS doctor jailed for the car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow in 2007, was heavily influenced by his taped sermons. His statements were reportedly smuggled out of Long Lartin high-security jail, Worcestershire, and are circulating on jihadi websites and forums. The Palestinian preacher is classified as a high-risk Category A prisoner. He is being held in an isolation unit while all his telephone calls and letters are monitored. (Telegraph.co.uk)

'US OK with UK's overture to Hizbullah'-AP, The Jerusalem Post
The Obama administration is "comfortable" with the British government's attempts to engage Hizbullah, a senior British diplomat asserts. Bill Rammell, Britain's minister of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, said in a brief interview late last week that despite protests to the contrary, the new US administration doesn't object to the fledgling contacts with the "political win" of the Lebanon-based Shi'ite Muslim group, which also has a heavily armed militia. Britain likens the attempt to engage Hizbullah, launched quietly this year, to London's outreach to political leaders of the Irish Republican Army earlier - a move that helped quell the Northern Ireland conflict. "We have a different approach on this issue at the moment with the United States," he said. "But it's not an issue of disagreement in intentions. The feedback we had on Lebanon is that the Americans are comfortable with us doing things differently than they are at the moment." (Jpost)

Cartoon strip aimed at under-12s depicts Christian boy as Islamaphobe thug-Jonathan Petre
A Government-funded charity was at the centre of a row last night after a magazine it publishes for children appeared to depict Christians as Islamaphobes who regard Muslims as terrorists. In a cartoon strip, a boy wearing a large cross around his neck is shown telling a friend that a smiling Muslim girl in a veil looks like a terrorist. He later confronts her and shouts: ‘Hey, whatever your name is, what are you hiding under your turban?’ She replies that the garment is called a hijab and it is part of her religion, ‘like that cross you wear’.
The girl is then shown standing up for another boy, who is being bullied, and her behaviour is contrasted with that of the boy wearing the cross. The cartoon story, entitled Standing Up For What You Believe In, appears in the latest issue of Klic!, a quarterly magazine aimed at children in care aged from eight to 12.
Published by the Who Cares? Trust, a charity set up in 1992, it is described on the cover as ‘the best ever mag for kids in care’ and is widely distributed by town halls. The charity received £100,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, headed by Ed Balls, in both 2007 and 2008, and £80,000 this year. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Shari’a Infiltrates German Courts, Schools, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Dr. Sami Alrabaa
Once again a German court ruled by referring to Shrai’a (Islamic law), which predominantly incites to denigration of women, hatred, violence. Most recently, Lisa, a German woman (46) married to an Egyptian, called the police seeking protection for herself and her 17-year-old daughter from assaults by her husband. Magdi, Lisa’s husband, threatened to kill their daughter who had been raped by a man. Magdi, a practicing Muslim, believes that his daughter committed “Zena” (adultery). He told his wife that he was always suspicious of his daughter who clandestinely had a German boyfriend. Lisa filed a divorce case against her husband, and requested deporting him. The judge, Matthias Rau, at a court in Hanover, Germany, ruled (Jan. 21, 2009), Lisa had to wait for at least one year before she is legally divorced. Her husband cannot be deported. “He must be re-educated, in hopes he would renounce his Islamic understanding of “Zena”, the judge said. The German judge argued, “Muslims have a different understanding of rape than Europeans, and this must be taken into account.” (Canadafreepress)

Boubakeur's pro-Israel comments anger France's Muslims-ALGIERS (Ramadan Belamry)
French Muslims slam preacher over statement
Members of France’s Muslim community called for ousting the director of the Paris Grand Mosque after comments he had made in a French magazine that were interpreted as praising Israel and justifying its latest offensive in Gaza. In an interview Wednesday with the tourist magazine SVP-Israel, the Paris Grand Mosque imam Dalil Boubakeur lashed out at Hamas for firing missiles at Israel and implied that Israel's reaction was justified. “Concerning the latest event in Gaza, I personally believe that when organizations like Hamas bomb Israel over several years, they essentially generate Israeli reactions and expose the Palestinian population to reprisals,” he told the magazine.
Demanding explanation
The mosque sought to distance itself from his comments Saturday and reaffirmed its support for the Palestinian people. The mosque has been inundated with calls, from religious organizations to prominent leftist politicians, about his statements, an official at the Paris Mosque told AlArabiya.net. "They all wanted an explanation to this anti-Palestinian stance despite the fact that Algeria is known for supporting just causes," said Abdullah Zikri, who is also a member of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, which Broubaker heads. (Alarabiya)

Fogh Rasmussen reaches out, but doesn’t apologise
Anders Fogh Rasmussen sought to smooth Muslim reservations during first international appearance after being nominated to become Nato’s next leader
Former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated today that he condemns the demonising of cultural groups, but did not fulfil expectations that he might issue an apology for the 2005 publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Rasmussen was nominated as Nato’s next secretary general on Saturday after weeks of Turkish reservations about his handling of the Muslim protests of the cartoons’ publication, and it was expected by some in the Muslim world that as part of a tit-for-tat deal to secure Turkey’s support he would apologise during a scheduled appearance at the UN Alliance of Civilisations conference in Istanbul today. But Rasmussen said his position had remained unchanged. ‘Freedom of speech is essential. Deep respect for religious sensitivities is also essential, and that is the balance we need to find.’ Before the conference began, Rasmussen made it clear that an apology would not be forthcoming. ‘Everyone knows that a prime minister cannot apologise for something a newspaper has done.’ (Cphpost.dk)

Letter to VT from Virginia Association of Scholars-Carey Stronach
Dr. Charles W. Steger
Office of the President
210 Burruss Hall
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Dear Dr. Steger,

I am writing on behalf of the Virginia Association of Scholars (VAS). We are a group of nearly 300 scholars, mostly current and retired faculty members, who live in Virginia. More than a dozen of us are members of the Virginia Tech faculty. The VAS, founded in the 1980s, is an affiliate of the National Association of Scholars, an organization of college and university faculty and independent scholars dedicated to upholding high academic standards and traditional scholarship. The NAS and VAS oppose the politicization of academia and pressure to promote "political correctness" therein. We endorse the concept of colorblind procedures in admission and retention of students and in hiring and promotion of faculty. (NAS)

Hirsi Ali says Islam cannot be reformed- Kyle Weidleman Writer
Claims that pluralistic, secular society is not enough to reform Islam drew a strong reaction from audience members in a talk on Tuesday. Ayaan Hirsi Ali presented “Ladies First” in an extremely crowded Trout Auditorium as the second part of the new Bucknell Forum series, “Global Leadership: Questions for the 21st Century.” “Most Muslim women who get the opportunity to write to me or to talk to me and who recognize the problems or acknowledge the problems that I talk about, say, ‘Will you please talk about these problems and be our voice; but will you not criticize Islam,’” said Hirsi Ali in a press event before the speech. “I tell them that I will.” Hirsi Ali began her speech by telling the audience it could not understand Muslim women’s plight unless it first understood the basics of Islam. She then split perceptions of Islam into two theories. (Bucknell.edu)

Media Bias

Jake Tapper Isn’t Letting Go-Mark Hemingway
Keeping the White House accountable.
Jake Tapper isn’t the easiest guy to interview. After all, when your interview subject is a competent journalist, he or she already knows all the tricks of the trade — the subtle flatteries, the ever-so-slightly leading questions — so Tapper isn’t about to say any more than he has to about his personal politics or what goes on behind the scenes of his job as ABC News White House correspondent. Or it’s possible Tapper doesn’t want to talk about these things because he’s one of the last remaining journalists in America who take the responsibilities of their jobs seriously, and thus place a premium on their credibility. What we can say for certain is that Tapper isn’t afraid to go against the grain of the liberal consensus in pursuit of a story. Whether he was pointing out that Barack Obama was a “one-man gaffe machine,” factchecking Obama on the surge, or chiding him for blaming any and all mistakes on his staff, no mainstream journalist was tougher on Obama during the campaign. Considering the fact that much of the media gave Obama the kid-glove treatment, Tapper’s reporting was essential. (Nationalreview)

New York Times’s Cohen Strikes Israel Again- Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com) The New York Times journalist Roger Cohen, who recently has published controversial articles against Israel, wrote on Sunday an article warmly praising Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for stating, “Hamas must be represented at the negotiating table. Only then can you get a solution.” Cohen said that the Turkish leader told him, "You will get nowhere by talking only to [Mahmoud] Abbas,” referring the chairman of the Palestinian Authority. “This is what I tell our Western friends.” The journalist called Turkey “Israel’s best friend in the Muslim Middle East.” Cohen recently drew severe criticism for articles in which he dismissed charges that Iran is comparable with Nazi Germany, attacked Israel’s new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for “hateful ultranationalist rhetoric” and promoted the view that Hamas and Hizbullah are "organizations now entrenched [as] political and social movements without whose involvement regional peace is impossible." (INN)

Major UK Muslim Group Wallows in Anti-Semitism-Carol Gould
Over the past four years I have been following the progress of the [1] Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK. They have gone from strength to strength and are opening new offices across Britain. If you visit their site in April they are fuming about Zionists and “Zionazis” as if Great Britain were 90% Jewish. There are actually 260,000 Jews in Britain alongside some two million Muslims, one million Hindus, and roughly fifty-eight million Christians. MPACUK likes to claim responsibility for the defeat of two major female rising stars in Parliament, [2] Lorna Fitzsimons and [3] Oona King, and on their website in April they are urging their supporters to work to [4] eliminate another forty “Zionist” MPs. In December 2005 I decided to attend the Global Peace and Unity Event at the Excel Centre in Canary Wharf because it had been touted as a celebration of Islamic culture and food. What greeted me was a giant hall filled with some very angry young Muslims being whipped up by [5] Micahel Mansfield QC, [6] George Galloway MP, former Taliban hostage-turned-Islamist-activist [7] Yvonne Ridley, and the retired cricketer [8] Imran Khan. Keep in mind that this rally, sponsored by Western Union, the Metropolitan Police, and Emirates Airlines, occurred just five months after London’s Islamic terrorist attacks. The British journalist Melanie Phillips published [9] my account of the event on her website and the result was incendiary. MPACUK set up a “discussion” page about me and I received “How does it feel to be the world’s number one Islamophobe?” emails. (Pajamasmedia)

Two cheers for Lord Hoffmann-Melanie Phillips
Now he tells us! One of this country’s top judges has torn into the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Lord Hoffmann, the second most senior Law Lord, has questioned the court’s constitutional legitimacy, ridiculed its judgments and said it should get its nose out of our national affairs. Given the fact that human rights law has effectively become a secular religion for the higher judiciary, this is what you might call a flying wig moment. Some of us, after all, have been saying for years what Lord Hoffmann has now proclaimed. But before anyone gets carried away with elation that common sense has at last broken out among the judges, it should be realised that these comments stop well short of tackling the real problem. Certainly, Lord Hoffmann lobbed some well-aimed hits at the Strasbourg court, saying it had gone beyond the boundaries of its own jurisdiction and that it should not be allowed to intervene in this way in the detail of domestic law. He ridiculed the intellectual sloppiness of its rulings and the absurdity of deeming political or economic matters to be ‘human rights’ issues. As he scoffed, what possible business is it of the Strasbourg judges to decide, for example, whether the elected government of the United Kingdom has struck the right balance concerning night flights at Heathrow? (Melaniephillips)

ANTISEMITISM

Jewish community makes unified approach on ‘Durban II’ conference-EJP
NEW YORK (EJP)---The World Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations joined efforts to advocate a policy of non-participation in the upcoming United Nations Durban Review Conference in Geneva.
Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress and Alan Solow, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, announced that delegations representing both organizations have been meeting together with ambassadors to the United Nations from Europe and elsewhere over the past weeks. “We are grateful to all the organizations that joined this effort and we believe significant progress was made,” they said. The “Durban II” conference is scheduled to take place in the Swiss city April 20-24. (EJP)

UK Gov't Criticized for Admitting Jihadists to Parliament- Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) The government of the United Kingdom admitted a Lebanese Hizbullah member and a Belgian Muslim Arab anti-Semite to address a forum in the House of Commons last week. This week, the Home Office reversed itself, as the Hizbullah representative claimed a PR victory for his organization. Hussein Al-Hajj Hassan, a Hizbullah representative in the Lebanese legislature, and Dyab Abou Jahjah, an Arab nationalist and Muslim fundamentalist from Belgium, were invited by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Respect MP George Galloway over two months ago. The pair were asked to take part in the founding of a London branch of the International Union of Parliamentarians for the Defense of the Palestinian Cause. Corbyn claimed his invitation of Jahjah and Hassan was intended to "promote dialogue." A Home Office source was told News of the World that the Home Secretary was preparing to ban Jahjah, but "by the time officials had completed the paperwork he had already arrived." (INN)

We are all anti-Semites now- Stuart Schwartz
"We are all socialists now" Newsweek famously declared in a February issue this year, letting the nation know that our Knowledge Elites -- the cultural establishment that dominates higher education, media, government and entertainment, and collectively fancies itself the agenda setter for the rest of us -- is now officially backing the statist horse in the economic race. Good bye free market, hello socialism. Why? Because we say so. Call them the Knowledge Elites (KE's), who use position and information to shape our culture. Socialism has become trendy -- witness Harvard's recent conference devoted to trashing the free market, or the Obama administration's war on the private sector. ‘Correct' thinking influences corrective behavior and, in tandem, the culture. And now it is time for Newsweek and the Knowledge Elites to make the next cultural realignment official: "We are all anti-Semites now." With the Obama administration's new stance on terrorism (it's Israel's fault) and its embrace of Jimmy Carter-style anti-Semitism (we are joining the notorious UN Human Rights Council, which spends most of its time denouncing Israel, Zionism and -- let's face it -- the Jews), and the universities and media piling on, it is obvious that the KE's have reached another consensus: the Jews -- as symbolized by the culture and politics of Israel and, in fact, by some obviously ‘Neocon' last names -- are simply out of step with the world as we wish it to be. Therefore, they must follow free markets, individualism, and Judeo-Christian values into oblivion. (Americanthinker)

Anti-Semitism and the Economic Crisis-Ira Stoll
Many people still blame Jews for capitalism's faults.
Walking down the street in my solidly upper-middle-class New York City neighborhood the other day was a neatly dressed man angrily cursing into his cell phone about "Jew Wall Street bankers." I was headed in the opposite direction and didn't stop to interview him about his particular grievances, but the brief encounter crystallized for me a foreboding that the financial crisis may trigger a new outbreak of anti-Semitism. It is a fear that is being articulated ever more widely. President Bill Clinton's secretary of labor, Robert Reich, frets on his blog, "History shows how effective demagogic ravings can be when a public is stressed economically." He warns that Jews, along with gays and blacks, could become victims of populist rage. In the New York Jewish Week newspaper, a column by Rabbi Ronald Price of the Union for Traditional Judaism begins, "In the 1930s, as Germany's economy collapsed, the finger was pointed at the Jews and the Nazis ascended to power. The famous Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jew was falsely accused of treason in France, followed on the heels of economic turmoil." (WSJ)

TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD

US spy agencies 'still plagued by same intelligence failures which led to 9/11'-Alex Spillius
America's spy agencies are still hamstrung by turf battles, computer compatibility problems and financial mismanagement, five years after a major shake-up designed to avoid a repeat of the intelligence failures that failed to stop the September 11 attacks, according to a damning internal report.
The report said that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created to enhance co-ordination between 16 agencies, had instead become "an additional layer of bureaucracy".
The report, compiled by the office's inspector General Edward Maguire, said that "the culture of protecting 'turf' remains a problem, and there are few, if any, consequences for failure to collaborate". A lack of information sharing was seen as central to the intelligence breakdown that failed to prevent the identification of the al-Qaeda plot against New York and Washington that claimed 3,000 lives. The Bush administration often touted its reform of the intelligence community as a contributory factor to the prevention of another terrorist attack on US. But inter-agency rivalry and suspicion has continued, according to the report. It said most intelligence analysts "still rely on personal relationships with counterparts to acquire much of their intelligence data,", while agencies "continue to control and limit access to data and products essential for analysis". (Telegraph.co.uk)

Threat to US Jewish population high as Iran tensions increase-Doug Hagmann
“You can’t separate the terrorists from their motives any more than you can change the actual threat by avoiding the use of certain words or phrases. It’s this backward thinking that cost us lives on 9/11, and they’re not only going back to that thinking at bureaucratic levels, they’re lying to themselves about it.”
4 April 2009: As tensions between Iran and Israel a half-world away rise over Iran’s nuclear arms, the threat to North American Jewish population centers rise proportionately. Factor in the sacred Jewish holiday of Passover that begins next week, the threat posed to synagogues, Jewish centers, and all Israeli religious, business and government centers in the US and Canada rises exponentially. But don’t expect to hear any public warnings from federal agencies, according to one official tied to NYPD’s counter-terrorism team. “I doubt that there will be any warnings made on a federal level, at least not until after the fact,” referring to a terrorist “event.” The threat of a “Mumbai style” terrorist attack against Jewish communities has never been higher, confided this intelligence official to Northeast Intelligence Network director and investigator Doug Hagmann on Friday. According to this official, Muslim terrorists, including Hezbollah operatives and those with close ties to Iran have been in the US “for years and have conducted surveillance of potential Jewish civilian, religious and diplomatic targets, many which have gone unreported to the public to avoid creating a ‘perception of mistrust’ of one particular group over another,” stated this official. “It’s idiotic at best and dishonest at worst,” referring to the lengths federal officials are downplaying the role that both geopolitical tensions and religious objectives play in the domestic threat level. (Homelandsecurityus)

Taliban jihad against West funded by emeralds from Pakistan-Ashfaq Yusufzai in Mingora, Isambard Wilkinson
Thousands of emeralds are pouring onto world gem markets from the Swat valley in Pakistan, sold to fund the Taliban's jihad against the West.
Militants have begun reopening lucrative emerald mines which had been closed by the government, since they took full control of the poor but picturesque region in the north of the country under a controversial peace deal last month. They are using revenue from the sale of the emeralds to help finance attacks on Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, and to support their drive to extend harsh sharia, including public whippings and summary executions, into more regions of Pakistan. Swat holds one of Asia's two largest-known deposits of high quality emeralds, from where the precious stones are smuggled to Jaipur, India, and transported to Bangkok, Switzerland and Israel. Here they are cut and polished into the lustrous gems that adorn the world's finest jewellery, sold to unsuspecting customers who have no idea that the money they are spending may end up financing the Taliban. "We receive one third of the profit, the rest goes to the workers," Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in Swat, told The Sunday Telegraph. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Jihad website debuts the first English Jihadi Magazine
This is the very first English Jihadi Magazine aimed at the laymen, students of knowledge, political activists, intellectuals and scholars of the Ummah. It will seek to educate the Ummah on a monthly basis as to the latest happenings in fields related to Politics, Society, Economy, Technology etc. as well as educate the Muslims on the worldview of the Jihadi current. This magazine will serve as a platform for the English speaking Muslim Community to discuss their ideas, differences and thoughts on various issues related to the Islamic world and the hot issues which many stay silent on. As a disclaimer, this magazine only intends to educate Muslims on their creed, political opinions of individual thinkers and writers, current events in light of objective criticism, as well as provide them with a source of understanding the battles in the international arena.

No Wonder Climate Alarmists Refuse to Debate-Marc Sheppard
When you hear the names Al Gore and James Hansen in the same sentence you immediately assume the subject to be manmade global warming panic. But there’s another distinction which links these two – they both steadfastly refuse to defend their positions in formal debate. And a recent performance by one of their own in just such a venue reminds us why. Roll Call TV has just posted video of the March 27th debate they hosted between Marc Morano, former communications director for Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), and Climate Progress's Joe Romm. Part one begins here at about the 3:45 mark and Part two begins here directly. The two philosophical adversaries arguing the heated subject of “Green Politics” makes for a fabulous show -- a must-see for all, particularly those still unsure why it is that the overwhelming majority of climate alarmists always find some excuse not to directly confront opposing opinion. And Romm wasted no time leaving no doubt, issuing these clumsily over the top words almost out of the gate: [my emphasis]. (Americanthinker)

Stem cells 'could help fight bowel cancer'-Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Targeting stem cells could help doctors fight bowel cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease.
Scientists believe that they are close to identifying abnormal stem cells in the gut which will go on to become cancerous, driving the growth of the disease. The finding would allow them to develop better treatments for bowel cancer, which kills more than 15,0000 patients a year. Prof Malcolm Alison, from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said: "We already know that bowel cancer can begin in the stem cells that normally line the gut and exist to replace and repair the tissue that is continuously worn away during digestion. "If cancer stem cells are responsible for cancer progression then this has important implications for the future early detection and treatment of cancer." He believes that drugs could be identified which could cause the cells to "self-destruct", cutting off the cancer at the root.Prof Alison has been leading research into how cells in the gut, including stem cells, spread to other parts of the body. (Telegraph.co.uk)

When All You Have Left Is Your Pride- BENEDICT CAREY
Look around you. On the train platform, at the bus stop, in the car pool lane: these days someone there is probably faking it, maintaining a job routine without having a job to go to. The Wall Street type in suspenders, with his bulging briefcase; the woman in pearls, thumbing her BlackBerry; the builder in his work boots and tool belt — they could all be headed for the same coffee shop, or bar, for the day. “I have a new client, a laid-off lawyer, who’s commuting in every day — to his Starbucks,” said Robert C. Chope, a professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and president of the employment division of the American Counseling Association. “He gets dressed up, meets with colleagues, networks; he calls it his Western White House. I have encouraged him to keep his routine.” The fine art of keeping up appearances may seem shallow and deceitful, the very embodiment of denial. But many psychologists beg to differ. To the extent that it sustains good habits and reflects personal pride, they say, this kind of play-acting can be an extremely effective social strategy, especially in uncertain times. (NYT)

German Films Delve into Difficult History- Lars-Olav Beier
The biopic genre is booming and new screen epics are in the works to celebrate a host of German icons. This week "John Rabe," a film about a Nazi who saved tens of thousands of lives, opened in cinemas across the country.
He looks anxiously at the sky, watching the low-flying fighter planes drop their bombs into the fleeing crowd. It is December 1937, and German businessman John Rabe, the representative of the Siemens Group in the eastern Chinese city of Nanking, is witnessing Japanese fighter pilots as they attack the company's facility there, killing helpless civilians. In that moment of despair, he suddenly has an idea. Rabe, a long-standing member of the Nazi Party, quickly orders his workers to unfurl an enormous swastika flag that the party had sent to him in China. Then Rabe and large numbers of Chinese crouch under the flag. The ruse works, and the Japanese, allied with the Germans, call off the attack. The film "John Rabe," a biography of the "good German of Nanking," tells the story of a man who was born in Hamburg in 1882 and is still revered as a national hero in China today. Director Florian Gallenberger, 38, paints a jarring image which is no less bizarre for all of its historical accuracy: The swastika, a symbol of Nazi barbarity, is used to save the lives of innocent people. (Spiegel.de)

Bob Dylan's Together Through Life-Neil McCormick
Bob Dylan's spirit of mischievous humour is still at work on his 33rd studio album Together Through Life.
Crooning and croaking like a bullfrog: Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan will release a new album, 'Together Through Life', at the end of April, his 33rd studio offering. How you feel about this probably depends on how closely you have followed his career. As one of the all time greats of popular music, a true original who has weaved a tangled web for five decades, Dylan has earned the right to go wherever his muse takes him. Even if that means sometimes just heading down to a border roadhouse to play some Tex Mex blues. Shifting from the dense electric blues sound and cut up lyrics of Modern Times, this is a more sedately paced, intimate and even whimsical affair. The theme is love in difficult times. Dylan's shattered voice is high in the mix, crooning and croaking like a bullfrog impersonating Dean Martin. A colourful accordion wheezes away in the middle, while jazzy acoustic guitars and grungy electrics float in an out. Its a quirky, old time sound with the flavour of antique 45s yet delivered with the forensic clarity of contemporary production. (Telegraph.co.uk)