Sodomy now a cultural difference" in Afghanistan

World court inquiry sought in Afghan rapes 

Rick Westhead
STAFF REPORTER
The Star
December 15, 2008

The International Criminal Court should probe allegations some Canadian officers serving in Afghanistan told subordinates to look the other way when Afghan soldiers and local interpreters sodomized young boys, says one of Canada's leading human-rights lawyers.

University of British Columbia international law and politics expert Michael Byers, who was among a group of academics who sought to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet detained as a war criminal, said he plans to ask the ICC to begin its own inquiry into the charges.

In a story published yesterday in the Star, former Canadian soldier Tyrel Braaten said that during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006, he witnessed Afghan interpreters bringing young boys inside buildings at Forward Operating Base Wilson, a remote Canadian base outside Kandahar. The boys were then sodomized by the interpreters and Afghan soldiers, Braaten said.

Other Canadian soldiers have complained to chaplains and military medical personnel that officers told them not to get involved because the sodomy was tantamount to "cultural differences."

If the allegations are true, Byers said, they will reflect more poorly on the Canadian military than the scandal in the 1993 in Somalia when Canadian soldiers tortured and murdered a Somali teenager who snuck into a Canadian base.

"We're spending $18 billion on this mission in Afghanistan and it's engaged the hearts and minds of 33 million Canadians in different ways," Byers said in a phone interview from London. "The rape of children in a conflict zone is at least as serious as the torture of that young Somalian during the Canadian mission there."

Also yesterday, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada said the Ministry of Defence in Kabul is aware of the allegations levelled by Braaten and others, but won't act until it receives more detailed information from Canada. "These allegations go back to 2006, not something that occurred just last week," said Ambassador Omar Samad. "We don't have names, dates and legal testimony."

The Canadian Forces' National Investigation Service is investigating the allegations and is expected to complete its probe in the spring. A military board of inquiry, meantime, is also investigating and is going to extraordinary lengths to find prospective witnesses. In some instances, the board's investigating officers are using Facebook to obtain soldiers' lists of friends and contacting them to ask about the alleged rapes, according to several soldiers contacted in this manner.

Still, Byers said he wants the ICC to investigate because he has "concerns about self-investigation and the demonstrated delays in the Canadian military's investigation of alleged detainee abuse."

Based in The Hague and established in 2002, the ICC can investigate, prosecute and punish serious violations of international law, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues during the Clinton administration, David Scheffer, said in an interview it would be difficult to coax the ICC to pursue rape allegations "unless a real case could be made that Canada is unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate its own military conduct."

As lawyers yesterday debated murky legal questions, such as whether Canada has jurisdiction to charge Afghan citizens who work for Canada as interpreters, some military sources said they weren't surprised by Braaten's claims.

"It's common knowledge that young boys are used in this way in Afghanistan," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "It's the great dichotomy of Afghanistan. Homosexuality is treated as a cardinal sin, but it's still common for men to have sex with boys."

Moreover, Adams said he wasn't surprised that some Canadian soldiers say they were told to ignore cases of abuse."

"I think (Western soldiers) look the other way about a number of things, like opium production and warlordism. They are looking the other way on almost everything."

During 2006, FOB was regularly being attacked by Taliban armed with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, a possible reason why abuse accusations haven't garnered more scrutiny until now.

"I think it's safe to say that they had other worries, like how they were staying alive," said retired Canadian major-general Lewis MacKenzie.

MacKenzie said while the interpreters would have travelled on and off the base freely, after they were screened by Canadian security, young boys would be another matter. "It would have been abnormal for them to have been allowed on the base."

Asked about protocol for allowing civilians on bases in Afghanistan, a CF spokesperson described it as a "rigorous and robust" program.

Chaplain says senior officer aware of rapes by Afghans

Soldier recalls cries from boy brought onto Canadian base

The Star

Dec 14, 2008

"The boy was no more than 12. He wore a wig, lipstick and perfume and was dressed in a flowing robe when an Afghan interpreter escorted him to the entrance of the Canadian base in remote Afghanistan.

It was June 2006 and it was one of Tyrel Braaten's first days at Forward Operating Base Wilson, about 30 kilometres outside Kandahar.

Braaten watched as the local interpreter, who worked for the Canadians, ushered the boy through the security checkpoint and led him inside a nearby building.

The bombardier was bewildered. He asked another interpreter standing next to him who the boy was. The interpreter shrugged that the boy was one of "the bitches."

"I said, `What do you mean?' and he made the motion with his hips, like you know," said Braaten, 24. "I remember saying, `Are we on Mars? Does this s--- go on all the time?'"

Al-Qaeda accused of using male rape to 'create' suicide bombers

By Staff Writer,
PinkNews.co.uk
February 4, 2009 - 13:56

Islamic terrorists are raping young men in order to drive them into suicide bombings.

The Sun quotes Algerian militant Abu Baçir El Assimi:

"The sexual act on young recruits aged between 16 to 19 was a means to urge them to commit suicide operations."

The paper claims that "intense social stigma and fear of more gay sex attacks leaves Muslims prepared to die."

Rape and homosexual acts are punishable by death under Sharia law.

A suspected terrorist bomber killed in an attempted attack on a security installation in the Tizi Ouzou province of Algeria last month may have been raped, an autopsy revealed.

News source Ennahar Online said there was "a large tear in the anus of the terrorist, which confirms the sexual abuse. In addition, semen analysis is underway to determine the perpetrator.

"The young terrorist subject of sexual abuse, was aged 22, from Diar El Djemaâ, ElHarrach. He would have joined terrorist groups in March 2008.

"He was a candidate to execute a suicide operation in the region of Boumerdes."

The al-Qaeda terrorist movement is a loose association spread across nations from Algeria to Iraq.

Terrorists have been trained in camps in Sudan and Afghanistan.

Cells operating in the US and western Europe have claimed responsibility for a range of suicide attacks including the attacks on New York and Washington DC on September 11th 2001. Al-Qaeda has also been linked to an insurgency in Algeria.

Characteristic al-Qaeda techniques include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.

Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords
Reuters
Sun Nov 18, 2007PUL-E KHUMRI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - They are known as "bacha bereesh", boys without beards, teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.
It's an age old practice that has led to some of the boy dancers being turned into sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, often former warlords, who dress the boys up as girls, shower them with gifts and keep them as "mistresses".
Afghan police are battling to crackdown on the practice which has angered Islamic clerics who say those involved should be stoned for sodomy, forbidden under Islamic law. In a society where the sexes are strictly segregated, it is common for men to dance for other men at weddings in Afghanistan.

But in northern Afghanistan, former warlords and mujahideen commanders have taken that a step further with competitions for their dancing boys. "Every boy tries to be the first. They are dressed in women's clothes, have bells on their feet and have artificial breasts," said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern town of Pul-e Khumri.

The practice, called "bacha bazi" -- literally "boy play" -- has a long history in northern Afghanistan, but sometimes it does not stop with just dancing. "I very much enjoy hugging a boy. His smell and fragrance kills me," said Yawar.

The 38-year-old businessman said he recruited a 15-year-old boy three years ago to help him with his work. "I have had him for at least three years, since he was only 15. He was looking for a job and I gave him somewhere to stay," said Yawar, showing the boy's picture. "I don't have a wife. He is like my wife. I dress him in women's clothes and have him sleep beside me. I enjoy him and he is my everything," he said, kissing the photograph.

MARK OF PRESTIGE
Having the best-looking boy and the best dancer is a mark of prestige. "Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome and good-looking boy," said a former mujahideen commander, who declined to be named. "Sometimes we gather and make our boys dance and whoever wins, his boy will be the best boy."
Former mujahideen commanders hold such parties in and around Pul-e Khumri about once a week. "Having a boy has become a custom for us. Whoever wants to show off, should have a boy," said Enayatullah, a 42-year-old landowner in Baghlan province. "I was married to a woman 20 years ago, she left me because of my boy," he said. "I was playing with my boy every night and was away from home, eventually my wife decided to leave me. I am happy with my decision, because I am used to sleeping and entertaining with my young boy." The men say they lavish money and gifts on their boys.

"I was only 14-years-old when a former Uzbek commander forced me to have sex with him," said Shir Mohammad in Sar-e Pol province. "Later, I quit my family and became his secretary. I have been with him for 10 years, I am now grown up, but he still loves me and I sleep with him." Ahmad Jawad, aged 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years. "I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner," he said. Asked what he would do when he got older, he said: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys."

Watch this video until the end.

But Shir Mohammad, at 24, was already getting too old to be a dancing boy. "I am grown up now and do not have the beauty of former years. So, I proposed to marry my lord's daughter and he has agreed to it."

POVERTY
Many local residents have called for a crackdown, but are skeptical it will work as many of the men are powerful and well-armed former commanders. Jahan Shah, who lives in Pul-e Khumri, said government and security officials should take tough action against unIslamic and immoral acts. "If they don't stop this, it will become a custom and hundreds of other boys will be involved in it," he said.

Police and security officials in northern Afghanistan say they have been doing their best to arrest the men involved. "It is sad to state that this practice that includes making boys dance, sexual abuse and sometimes even selling boys, has been going on for years," said General Asadollah Amarkhil, the security chief of Kunduz province. "We have taken steps to stop it to the extent that we are able," he said. Amarkhil said poverty, widespread in Afghanistan after nearly three decades of war, forced teenage boys into compliance. "We have taken very strict measures to save the lives of the boys and punish the men," he said. "We are monitoring to find out where these men and boys gather, then go there and arrest them."

Those found guilty of abuse would be jailed for at least 15 years, said Baghlan chief prosecutor Hafizullah Khaliqyar. "We have 25 cases of such immoral acts. They are being processed and we are trying our utmost to tackle the problem," he said. Islamic scholars recommended harsher punishment. "Those who do this are the devil," said Mawlawi Mohammad Sadiq Sadiqyar, a scholar and prayer leader in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

"Under Islamic law, those who practice this should be stoned to death." But some of the men say they are not interested in women. "We know it is immoral and unIslamic, but how can we quit? We do not like women, we just want boys," said Chaman Gul, aged 35 of Takhar province.

Abuse of Afghan Boys
My Pet Jawa
July 11, 2008

In a world where political correctness dictates cultural equivalency, it's impossible for me to understand how the PC crowd can ignore reports like this one.
Afghanistan must do more to end an age-old practice of young boys being kept as sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons,
the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict said on Monday.



Radhika Coomaraswamy said the practice, called "bacha bazi" -- literally "boy play" -- was a taboo subject, but she had heard reports of warlords and military commanders keeping young boys and "exploiting them in terrible ways."
"What I found was nobody talks about it; everyone says 'Well, you know, it's been there for 1,000 years so why do we want to raise this now?'" she told a news conference at U.N. headquarters, reporting on a visit to Afghanistan last week.
"That seems to be the general attitude among everyone, but somebody has to raise it and it has to be dealt with."
Known as "bacha bereesh," boys without beards, the victims of such abuse are teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.

Cultural equivalency? I don't think so. Even the UN is against it.

Who said Islamic "men" feel threatened by women ..........?

If you are revolted by the material in this post ask yourself why the Leftist apologists and facilitators for Islam in the west, demand that you be forbidden to express your revultion, publicly, why would those who demand you accept that "Islam is a Religion of Peace" under threat of death or mutilation object to this type of behavior and much much worse, been rejected by you and your children ?
Worse still why would they demand that you live along side of and respect the followers of this "Religion of Peace" under threat of criminal sanction via the Multicutural /Cultural Diversity /Anti Discrimination / Religious /Racial Intolerance legislation?

Islam, the United Nation's rabid Mad Dog, off the leash and running, what better way to destroy Judeo / Christian western society, than to allow the injection of savage,violent stone age cultures with their stone age Godless practice's, all promoted and facilitated under the International Socialist Cultural Diversity / Multiculturalism "all cultures are equal" philosophy.

I read a quote that went along the lines of "Great civilizations are not conqured they simply commit suicide",how fitting to describe the last 40 years of western society.

A slow creeping death of our values,standards and institutions.

“ If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.

“There may be even a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves”

Winston Churchill. Pg.310 “The Hell Makers” John C. Grover ISBN # 0 7316 1918 8

Just how much heat can a Koala Bear ?

It has been so hot in Maude,SA for over a week...40+ degrees Celsius everyday, very dry also.

A little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat relief. so the owners filled up a bucket and this is what happened!





Thanks to Lynn for the above story and pics.

Australia,Indonesia warns Kevin 07 "more illegal immigrants on the way"

Thanks to Kevin 07.......Australian Prime Minister, Kevin "I have never been a Socialist" Rudd,and his Socialist government for sending the message world wide, at every opportunity they can, that he and his government are soft on illegals.
I guess we should take Indonesia at their word / threat.

And the challenge of migration?

SMH
Paul Sheehan
August 4, 2008

Did you know the Rudd Government is implementing the biggest immigration program since the end of World War II, and the biggest intake, in absolute numbers of permanent immigrants and temporary workers, in Australia's history?

Did you know the migration program for 2008-09 has set a target of 190,300 places, a robust 20 per cent increase over the financial year just ended?

On budget night, May 13, amid the avalanche of material released by the Government, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, issued a press release stating, among other things: "The use of 457 visas to employ temporary skilled migrant workers has grown rapidly in recent years. A total of 39,500 subclass 457 visas was granted in 2003-04 compared with an expected 100,000 places in each of 2007-08 and 2008-09." That is a 150 per cent increase in four years.

Did you know the number of overseas students coming to Australia is also at a record high, with 228,592 student visas granted in 2006-07, a 20 per cent increase over the previous year?

Under the Rudd Government, Australia's net immigration intake is now larger than Britain's, even though it has almost three times the population of Australia. To put all this in perspective, the immigration program in the Rudd Government's first year is 150 per cent bigger than it was in the Howard government's first year. The immigration intake is running almost 60 per cent higher than it was three years ago.

On November 14 last year, when Kevin Rudd launched Labor's election campaign, he mentioned at length the challenges of climate change and water shortages: "It is irresponsible for any national government of Australia to stand idly by while our major cities are threatened by the insecurity of water supply." While presenting a commendable shift away from John Howard's inertia on these issues, his policy is breathtakingly inconsistent. Not only did Rudd commit to a policy of building high-energy desalination plants for Australia's main cities, he has also committed Australia to record levels of immigration.

Talk about shifting sands. To quote Rudd in this same keynote speech: "Mr Howard lacked the decency to even mention Work Choices at all during his 4400-word policy speech on Monday. Work Choices has become the industrial relations law that now dare not speak its name."

Rudd did not have the decency to mention immigration once in his 4300-word campaign launch. It is the most glaring inconsistency of his Government.

The immigration figures quoted above do not even include New Zealanders, who are not counted as part of Australia's annual migration program, nor do they include people who have overstayed their visas. Add another 50,000 or so people to an equation which will see a million people added to the population during the three-year term of the Rudd Government. The only element in Australia's immigration program that is not going gangbusters is the refugee and humanitarian intake, which remains static at 13,500 places a year.

It was not until Evans made his first key policy speech last week that I began to appreciate the scale of the Government's selective silences. He began with a ritual bashing of his Liberal predecessor as minister, Kevin Andrews, who is now not even in the Opposition shadow outer ministry and would do his party a favour if he retired.

After the point-scoring Evans got to the essence: "Today I want to announce … [that] mandatory detention is an essential component of strong border control … [but] children and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre … Detention that is indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable … Detention in immigration detention centres is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time …"

It was not until the last paragraph of his long speech that Evans got to the core point: "In the future, the immigration system will be characterised by strong border security, firm deterrence of unauthorised arrivals, effective and robust immigration processes and respect for the rule of law and the humanity of those seeking migration outcomes."

Sounds like Howard. In other words, the fundamentals of the system are not going to be changed. The Rudd Labor Government is not dismantling the detention system first set up by the Keating Labor. It is not ending the excision of Australian territory from the Immigration Act, which prevents asylum-seekers from entering Australian territory via offshore islands. It is not ending the detention of adults until security and health checks are completed. It is not cutting funding for navy border patrols. It is maintaining the new Christmas Island detention centre, far from Australia's shores, and capable of housing 800 people short-term, as a place to warehouse any new wave of boat people.

The fundamentals have not changed because they cannot change. The electorate holds dear the principle that people cannot determine when and how they will move to a new country, bypassing immigration controls or refugee programs. This is elementary to a nation's sovereignty.

The hysterics in the refugee and mandatory detention debates have always thrown around words like "shame" and "gulags" and engaged in moral relativism, comparing Howard to Saddam Hussein, while refusing to recognise that there are real consequences of failures of immigration policy. Thousands of Australian have paid a heavy price for the failed refugee-vetting processes in the 1970s and 1980s, when many people who should never have been allowed into the country were approved. We are still paying the price.

Labor learned the hard way that to compromise border security is to invite political disaster. This is why the Rudd Government is still talking tough on border security, and has a major immigration policy but dare not speak its name.

Rudd Govt's Immigration Policy an Invitation to Chaos

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slid australia immigration

The Australian Labor Part, ALP, is the political arm of the Marxist based Australian Council of Trade Unions,ACTU,this organization supposedly represents the interests of "the workers" "working families" how is the ALP /ACTU's immigration policy in the interests of the workers?
The biggest insult to the workers is that not only are they forced to watch their jobs and standard of living go south, they are also forced to fund the political party that legislates to do so, the ACTU funded ALP.

Denmark's Warning to North America...Australia

Thanks to Canada's Human Rights Commissions, we've almost lost the battle before it can really begin. SALUTE to Denmark... this could very well happen here on our continent.

Salute the Danish Flag - It's a Symbol of Western Freedom

by Susan MacAllen

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark. But in 1978, even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants. The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.

Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism.

How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious.

Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves. As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.

An article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode. In the article they reported:

"Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending. Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes."

"Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane. Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem."

"Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim."

It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws. An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada: some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.

In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe. (Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of "racism" by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)

If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark's history, culture, and a Danish language test. You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship. You must demonstrate an intent to work, and have a job waiting. If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark, you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.

You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen. Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark, they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.

In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. "We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration.

The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now," he said. A large thorn in the side of Denmark's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, "The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,"

Hvilshøj says, "There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come."

And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, "In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others. We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech."

Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark. The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.

Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.

And meanwhile, Canadians clamor for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history... we would do well to look to Denmark, and say a prayer for her future and for our own.

I edited some details at the end of this article for security reasons only.

Australian Suzy Walsham, wins Empire State race again

Suzy Walsham wins Empire State race!!!!

China orders it's Military to obey Communist Party,"at any time, under any circumstances"

China warns of upheaval, calls for discipline

"........"We must make sure the army will follow the instruction of the [Central Military Commission] and the Communist Party at any time, under any circumstances,"
SMH
John Garnaut in Beijing
February 3, 2009

THE Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and his top generals have publicly ordered the military to obey the Communist Party "at any time, under any circumstances", as China enters its most politically fraught year since 1989.

Chinese officials yesterday warned of social instability as they raised their estimate of newly unemployed migrant workers to 20 million - triple the number they gave a month ago.

The huge economic and social dislocation coincides with a series of pressing political tests, including next month's 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama fleeing Tibet, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4 and a small but strident new democracy movement.

"We must make sure the army will follow the instruction of the [Central Military Commission] and the Communist Party at any time, under any circumstances," the commission said after a meeting chaired by Mr Hu. "We must always be sure of the army's stability and its unity," the commission said, in a statement read out on China Central Television's prime time news on Sunday night.

A senior military leader separately warned yesterday that China would "accelerate the building of our nuclear and conventional combat strength". This marks a sharp break from a three decades-old policy of maintaining a stable and relatively small nuclear arsenal while rapidly building its conventional forces.

The comments were penned by Jing Zhiyuan, the commander of the second artillery corps, in an article for the party's main journal on theory and policy.

Experts say Mr Hu's comments reveal the party's acute anxiety about potential uprisings rather than any immediate call to arms.


Chinese leaders sometimes exaggerate the risks to their hold on power to ensure the party sticks together in difficult times - a lesson learned after a top leadership split led to huge protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and a subsequent bloody crackdown.

But Sunday's military commission statement was unusual in its strident language and its prominent broadcast.

"When you have growing social unrest the party leadership always makes sure they have their coercive elements prepared in case they may be drafted in to stabilise things, like in 1989," said Tai Ming Cheung, an expert on the People's Liberation Army at the University of California. "I don't think this indicates any great distrust between the party and the military or that there is any significant tensions or possible unrest within the military ranks."

This week would normally mark the end of Chinese new year festivities, when rural migrants head back to their urban jobs at factories, construction sites and restaurants.

But China's leading rural expert said tens of millions would not make the journey this year.

Chen Xiwen, a top rural planning official, told reporters yesterday: "Due to the economic downturn, about 20 million rural migrant workers have either lost their jobs or have not yet found employment and have gone home to the countryside.

"After returning to their village what do they do about revenue? About their lives? This is a new factor impacting this year's social stability."

Mr Chen said the number of newly unemployed rural migrant workers was likely to rise to about 25 million as new job seekers entered the market.

China in Africa: Developing ties
War is Not Far From Us and is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slid world war three germ warfare

Peter Costello rips Australian PM Kevin "I have never been a Socialist" Rudd.

You spin us right round, Kevin, right round …

SMH
Peter Costello
February 4, 2009

Every now and then you see a change in the political spin-cycle that is so audacious, so contradictory that you have to go back and check the facts - just to make sure you haven't imagined the whole thing.

That's what happened on the weekend, when newspapers reported Kevin Rudd's claim that "the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed" and "social democrats [will have] to save capitalism from itself".

That's what he's saying now, but 12 months ago, the Prime Minister, laid out the path for his Government as follows: "Prior to the election, we ran as fiscal conservatives. With the election behind us, we now intend to govern as fiscal conservatives … Today I announce a fiscal target that will guide our decision-making … a budget surplus of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP … This will require a determined, disciplined approach to spending."

Rudd, the fiscal conservative of last year, was attacking the Coalition government because it hadn't cut spending enough. He promised to do more. He wasn't worried about all those "neo-liberal" ideas on careful spending, balanced budgets and low debt. He was complaining it hadn't gone far enough.

And by the time of the May budget, he was boasting how much better he had done. The budget speech boasted a surplus of 1.8 per cent of GDP "built on disciplined spending with the lowest real increase … in nearly a decade".

Forget about all those namby-pamby Liberal Party budget surpluses. Labor would show who was really the tough economic manager. Last year Labor was billing itself as the true apostle of expenditure restraint and smaller government.

A budget is only a projection of what a government intends to do. The budget outcome records what occurred. Last year's budget bears no relation to what will happen. It should be filed with Labor's previous budget of 1996 - in the fiction area of the Parliamentary Library.

Then comes the change of the spin cycle. All those ideas of expenditure restraint and small government? Just a failed experiment, a load of nonsense. The biggest nonsense of all was the TV ad Labor ran before the 2007 election where a beaming Rudd declared: "A number of people have described me as an economic conservative. When it comes to public finance, it's a badge I wear with pride." You can still see it on YouTube.

Late last year the Government delivered more than $10 billion (1 per cent of GDP, 4 per cent of Commonwealth outlays) to pensioners and families and asked them to spend it before Christmas. Many didn't. Very sensibly, they thought they should pay off some debt or put away something for the future.

The Government urged them to spend it all at once so it could massage the retail figures in the December national accounts. Last week, the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, claimed the payment was successful because Woolworths had good sales results in that month. If the purpose of the payment was to boost sales at Woolworths, the Government should have bought the goods and distributed them to pensioners and families. But it is a low-quality use of $10 billion.

Now we are in the March quarter and there is nothing lasting to show for that money. So the Government is looking at new ways to massage this quarter's results. But in case everything goes wrong, it's not the fault of Rudd or his Government. It's all the fault of a great neo-liberal conspiracy - and you guessed it - the Liberal government.

No Australian bank has suffered a run or collapse. Our major commercial banks are all in the top credit bracket of the world's banks. Nor has there been any regulatory failure here. The only institutions that have had trouble are those debenture funds that had to freeze redemption because of Rudd's ill-considered deposit guarantee.

Rudd inherited a government with no net debt and a budget surplus of $20 billion. Which socialist or social democratic government did better than the Coalition? Name a country in a stronger position in 2007.

Rudd claims there has been a 30-year failure - enough to cover the Howard-Costello government, the Hawke-Keating government and the Fraser government, taking us right back to which economic success story?

You guessed it. Gough Whitlam.

It is hard to tell whether Rudd was always a big spending Whitlamite who managed to con the public with all that stuff about being an economic conservative or whether his dexterity results from the fact he has no strong economic convictions. His about face is a matter of wonder. By political standards it is a media spin that stands in a class of its own.

Peter Costello is a former Liberal federal treasurer and the member for Higgins.

The Liberal Party in Australia is Australia's Conservative Party, the Labor Party is the Union / Marxist funded Socialist party.

Vintage Costello !!
Watch Peter Costello been 'interviewed" by Labor's public relations division, the publicly funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, on its Lateline program...
Peter please come back and do these arse clowns over,they have not got a clue.

Islamic Terrorism: Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil

Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil
When will our luminaries stop making excuses for terror?

By JUDEA PEARL

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the murder of our son, former
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. My wife Ruth and I wonder: Would
Danny have believed that today's world emerged after his tragedy?
WSJ
February 2, 2009

The answer does not come easily. Danny was an optimist, a true believer in
the goodness of mankind. Yet he was also a realist, and would not let
idealism bend the harshness of facts.

Neither he, nor the millions who were shocked by his murder, could have
possibly predicted that seven years later his abductor, Omar Saeed Sheikh,
according to several South Asian reports, would be planning terror acts from
the safety of a Pakistani jail. Or that his murderer, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, would proudly boast of his murder in a military
tribunal in March 2007 to the cheers of sympathetic jihadi supporters. Or
that this ideology of barbarism would be celebrated in European and American
universities, fueling rally after rally for Hamas, Hezbollah and other
heroes of "the resistance." Or that another kidnapped young man, Israeli
Gilad Shalit, would spend his 950th day of captivity with no Red Cross
visitation while world leaders seriously debate whether his kidnappers
deserve international recognition.

No. Those around the world who mourned for Danny in 2002 genuinely hoped
that Danny's murder would be a turning point in the history of man's
inhumanity to man, and that the targeting of innocents to transmit political
messages would quickly become, like slavery and human sacrifice, an
embarrassing relic of a bygone era.

But somehow, barbarism, often cloaked in the language of "resistance," has
gained acceptance in the most elite circles of our society. The words "war
on terror" cannot be uttered today without fear of offense. Civilized
society, so it seems, is so numbed by violence that it has lost its gift to
be disgusted by evil.

I believe it all started with well-meaning analysts, who in their zeal to
find creative solutions to terror decided that terror is not a real enemy,
but a tactic. Thus the basic engine that propels acts of terrorism -- the
ideological license to elevate one's grievances above the norms of civilized
society -- was wished away in favor of seemingly more manageable "tactical"
considerations.

This mentality of surrender then worked its way through politicians like the
former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. In July 2005 he told Sky News that
suicide bombing is almost man's second nature. "In an unfair balance, that's
what people use," explained Mr. Livingstone.

But the clearest endorsement of terror as a legitimate instrument of
political bargaining came from former President Jimmy Carter. In his book
"Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Mr. Carter appeals to the sponsors of
suicide bombing. "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all
significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide
bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the
ultimate goals of the Road-map for Peace are accepted by Israel." Acts of
terror, according to Mr. Carter, are no longer taboo, but effective tools
for terrorists to address perceived injustices.

Mr. Carter's logic has become the dominant paradigm in rationalizing terror.
When asked what Israel should do to stop Hamas's rockets aimed at innocent
civilians, the Syrian first lady, Asma Al-Assad, did not hesitate for a
moment in her response: "They should end the occupation." In other words,
terror must earn a dividend before it is stopped.

The media have played a major role in handing terrorism this victory of
acceptability. Qatari-based Al Jazeera television, for example, is still
providing Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi hours of free air time each week to spew
his hateful interpretation of the Koran, authorize suicide bombing, and call
for jihad against Jews and Americans.

Then came the August 2008 birthday of Samir Kuntar, the unrepentant killer
who, in 1979, smashed the head of a four-year-old Israeli girl with his
rifle after killing her father before her eyes. Al Jazeera elevated Kuntar
to heroic heights with orchestras, fireworks and sword dances, presenting
him to 50 million viewers as Arab society's role model. No mainstream
Western media outlet dared to expose Al Jazeera efforts to warp its young
viewers into the likes of Kuntar. Al Jazeera's management continues to
receive royal treatment in all major press clubs.

Some American pundits and TV anchors didn't seem much different from Al
Jazeera in their analysis of the recent war in Gaza. Bill Moyers was quick
to lend Hamas legitimacy as a "resistance" movement, together with honorary
membership in PBS's imaginary "cycle of violence." In his Jan. 9 TV show,
Mr. Moyers explained to his viewers that "each [side] greases the cycle of
violence, as one man's terrorism becomes another's resistance to
oppression." He then stated -- without blushing -- that for readers of the
Hebrew Bible "God-soaked violence became genetically coded." The "cycle of
violence" platitude allows analysts to empower terror with the guise of
reciprocity, and, amazingly, indict terror's victims for violence as
immutable as DNA.

When we ask ourselves what it is about the American psyche that enables
genocidal organizations like Hamas -- the charter of which would offend
every neuron in our brains -- to become tolerated in public discourse, we
should take a hard look at our universities and the way they are currently
being manipulated by terrorist sympathizers.

At my own university, UCLA, a symposium last week on human rights turned
into a Hamas recruitment rally by a clever academic gimmick. The director of
the Center for Near East Studies carefully selected only Israel bashers for
the panel, each of whom concluded that the Jewish state is the greatest
criminal in human history.

The primary purpose of the event was evident the morning after, when
unsuspecting, uninvolved students read an article in the campus newspaper
titled, "Scholars say: Israel is in violation of human rights in Gaza," to
which the good name of the University of California was attached. This is
where Hamas scored its main triumph -- another inch of academic
respectability, another inroad into Western minds.
Danny's picture is hanging just in front of me, his warm smile as reassuring
as ever. But I find it hard to look him straight in the eyes and say: You
did not die in vain.

Mr. Pearl, a professor of computer science at UCLA, is president of the
Daniel Pearl Foundation, founded in memory of his son to promote
cross-cultural understanding.

Thanks to Susan & Terri for this article.

Pakistan:Man abducted and raped by three women over for days.

Three women kidnap, drug and rape a man for four days

"“his condition is really bad ... his genitals are bleeding and he cannot walk properly.”
" the women belonged to rich families of Karachi’s Clifton area.
“It’s a complicated case ... but we are hoping that we will solve it soon,” he added. "

Strewth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Daily Telegraph
February 04, 2009 12:00am

POLICE are hunting for three women who kidnapped a man, drugged and raped him over four consecutive days before throwing him into a river in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

A 23-year-old man, known as Khalil, recently arrived in Karachi to live and picked up work as a waiter at a restaurant in the ritzy suburb of Clifton.

On the night of January 27, Khalil was sent to deliver food to a group of women sitting a car in the restaurant’s car park.

“I took the order to the car where the women – two of whom were young and the third was middle-aged – told me that they had recently shifted to the area,” Khalil told the Daily Times.

He said the women wanted him to deliver the food to their house every day and he agreed.

“They asked me to go along with them in the car ... they said they wanted to show me where their house was,” he said.

When they arrived at the house Khalil claims that “they gave me milk that had some drug mixed in it ... I fell unconscious after drinking it”.

Khalil said when he gained consciousness, he found that the women had undressed him, “and they were forcing themselves onto me”.

A police officer said the women assaulted Khalil sexually for the next four days, and then threw him near Qayyumabad River.

After making it to a nearby hospital a policeman said that Khalil’s “his condition is really bad ... his genitals are bleeding and he cannot walk properly.”

The officer said the women belonged to rich families of Karachi’s Clifton area.

“It’s a complicated case ... but we are hoping that we will solve it soon,” he added.

Woman organizes rape of 80 women to later recruite as suicide bombers

Iraqi woman had 80 women raped then recruited as suicide bombers
From correspondents in Baghdad News.com.au February 04, 2009 09:15am

A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.

Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks. In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets.

"We arrested Samira Jassim, known as 'Um al-Mumenin', the mother of the believers, who was responsible for recruiting 80 women'', Major General Qassim Atta said. "She confessed her responsibility for these actions, and she confirmed that 28 attempts had been made in one of the terrorists' strongholds,'' he said. Samira Jassim was arrested on January 21. She is allegedly linked to the Ansar al-Sunnah insurgent group.

Two of the attacks for which Samira Jassim admitted responsibility in the video confession took place in Diyala province, in central Iraq, which is considered one of the most dangerous areas of the country. The Associated Press reports US military figures indicate at least 36 female suicide bombers attempted or carried out 32 attacks last year. Women are often allowed through military checkpoints without being searched, making it easier for them to hide explosives under their traditional robes.