Morning Posting.
- Syria Live Blog - May 16. Here .(Al-Jazeera).
- Libya Live Blog - May 16. Here (Al-Jazeera).
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan today 4.7 activity. More info here.
- Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 112.On 16.05.2011 at 03:13 GMT+2
Japanese officials have found an Olympic swimming pool-sized pond of radioactive water in the basement of a unit at the Fukushima nuclear plant crippled by the March earthquake and tsunami. The discovery has forced officials to abandon their original plan to bring the No 1 reactor under control. Now they will focus on how to deal with the rising pool that some experts see as a threat to groundwater and the Pacific coast. Despite the setback, safety officials and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power, hope to stabilise the plant by January.
Situation Update No. 111 - On 15.05.2011 at 15:29 GMT+2
Substantial damage to the fuel cores at two other reactors of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has taken place, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday, further complicating the already daunting task of bringing the reactors to a safe shutdown while avoiding the release of high levels of radioactivity. The revelation followed an acknowledgement on Thursday that a similar meltdown of the core took place at Unit No. 1. The operator, known as Tepco, said that unit lost its reactor core 16 hours after the plant was struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake and a giant tsunami on the afternoon of March 11. Workers also found that the No. 1 Unit's reactor building is flooded in the basement, reinforcing the suspicion that the containment vessel is damaged and leaking highly radioactive water. The revelations are likely to force an overhaul of the six-to-nine-month blueprint for bringing the reactors to a safe shutdown stage and end the release of radioactive materials. The original plan, announced in mid-April, was due to be revised May 17. The pressure vessel, a cylindrical steel container that holds nuclear fuel, "is likely to be damaged and leaking water at Units Nos. 2-3," said Junichi Matsumoto, Tepco spokesman on nuclear issues, in a news briefing Sunday. He also said there could be far less cooling water in the pressure vessels of Unit Nos. 2-3, indicating that there are holes at the bottom of these vessels, with thousands of tons of water that was pumped into these reactors mostly leaking out.
Tepco found the basement of the Unit No. 1 reactor building is flooded with 4.2 meters of water. It isn't clear where the water came from, but leaks are suspected in pipes running in and out of the containment vessel, a beaker-shaped steel structure that holds the pressure vessel. The water flooding the basement is believed to be highly radioactive. Workers were unable to observe the flooding situation due to strong radiation coming out of the water, Tepco said. A survey conducted by an unmanned robot Friday found radiation levels of 1,000-2,000 millisieverts per hour in some parts of the ground level of Unit No. 1, a level that would be highly dangerous for any worker nearby. Japan has placed an annual allowable dosage limit of 250 millisieverts for workers. The high level of radioactivity means even more challenges for Tepco's bid to set up a continuous cooling system that won't threaten radiation leaks into the environment. Tepco separately released its analysis on the timeline of the meltdown at Unit No. 1. According to the analysis, the reactor core, or the nuclear fuel, was exposed to the air within five hours after the plant was struck by the earthquake. The temperature inside the core reached 2,800 degrees Celsius in six hours, causing the fuel pellets to melt away rapidly.
Within 16 hours, the reactor core melted, dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and created a hole there. But by then, an operation to pump water into the reactor got under way. This prevented the worst-case scenario, in which the overheating fuel would melt its way through the vessels and discharge large volumes of radiation outside. The nuclear industry lacks a technical definition for a full meltdown, but the term is generally understood to mean that radioactive fuel has breached containment measures, resulting in a massive release of fuel. "Without the injection of water [by fire trucks], a more disastrous event could have ensued," said Mr. Matsumoto. Tepco also released its analysis of a hydrogen explosion that occurred at Unit No. 4, despite the fact that the unit was in maintenance and that nuclear fuel stored in the storage pool was largely intact. According to Tepco, hyrogen produced in the overheating of the reactor core at Unit 3 flowed through a gas treatment line and entered Unit No. 4 due to a breakdown of valves. Hydrogen leaked from ducts in the second, third and fourth floors of the reactor building at Unit 4 and ignited a massive explosion.
Situation Update No. 110 - On 15.05.2011 at 13:11 GMT+2
The Japanese authorities have started evacuation of people who live outside the 20 kilometer radius from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, NHK TV channel reported on Sunday. Families with babies and children up to kindergarten age and pregnant women are the first of the 7,700 residents of two towns to evacuate, the TV channel said. Municipal officials have said they have secured temporary housing for almost all of the residents who want it. Some farmers cannot evacuate soon as they have not been able to find places to move their cattle. Some families cannot move together to designated temporary housing or cannot decide on the place to go as they would be far from work or school, the TV channel said. The Japanese government has expanded the evacuation zone around the plant to areas where cumulative radiation levels are 20 millisieverts or higher per year, the TV channel said. An earthquake and a tsunami that swept northeastern Japan two months ago damaged the cooling system at Fukushima, which resulted in serious meltdown. In mid-April, Japan's nuclear authorities assigned the highest level of danger to the Fukushima nuclear disaster for the first time after the devastating Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union in 1986. Source : Here .
- Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.
- Obama's Lawless Thugocracy.(WolfHowling).Somebody explain to me why the Obama regime should not be counted among the most lawless and corrupt we have seen in this country. Here are some examples:
- Under Obama, the National Labor Relations Board, ostensibly a neutral organization, has become radically pro-Union. They have outrageously brought suit against Boeing to force the company to keep all production in unionized Washington. This is an Orwellian assault on capitalism, and indeed, it is an act that ignores both law and seven decades of precedent interpreting that law.
- Obama's newly radicalized NLRB has also brought suit against Arizona because that state passed a law requiring secret ballots for unionizaiton. A secret ballot is the single most basic procedure guaranteeing fair and free elections in any democracy. The only reason to allow any other procedure is to make room for thuggery and intimidation by unions.
- In perhaps his most thuggish act to date, Obama has proposed to sign an Executive Order that would require "all companies (and their officers) . . . to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts." What that means is that "[c]ompanies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether—which is the White House's real aim." This is not just thuggery taken to a new level, it seems a clear violation of the First Amendment.
- Immediately after a Federal Court declared Obamacare unconstitutional in toto, the Obama regime announced their intent to ignore the decision and continue implementing Obamacare.
- A federal judge today ruled that the Obama regime acted with “determined disregard” for the law "by lifting and reinstituting a series of policy changes that restricted offshore drilling" after the policy was struck down by the court.
- The regime is now stonewalling Congress, refusing to respond to document requests from the House Oversight Committee. This should be viewed in conjunction with the Obama Justice Dept. refusal to respond lawful subpoenas from the Civil Rights Commission.
- Obama is deeply involved in crony capitalism, picking the winners and losers in our economy. Now we learn that the Obama EPA, which started enforcing draconian new regulations on our energy sector in January, has issued the first waiver to those regulations. The recipient - the biggest of Obama's cronies, GE.
- Obama fired Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General of AmeriCorps, after he caught an Obama crony involved in corruption.
- Obama decided to make recess appointments without even submitting individuals for Congressional confirmation - and at the same time justified his acts as necessary because of Republican obstructionism.
- Obama is in the midst of unilateral, massive land and ocean grabs specifically aimed at shutting off new mining or drilling as part of his jihad on our energy sector. It is Constitutional according to black letter precedent, but yet again Obama is shutting Congress out of the decision making loop.Hmmmm.......Dictatorship?Did you know that only Hitler and Obama have their own Symbols?Read the full story here.
- Another Damaging Power Grab by the Obama Administration.(BigGovernment).Earlier this year, under the title “Who Needs Congress: Legislation by Regulatory Fiat,” we expressed concern that the Obama Administration was moving to checkmate the 2010 Republican electoral sweep by getting its acolytes and bureaucrats in the regulatory agencies, which the Administration controls, to do its legislative work for them. We cited our fears that the agency bureaucrats, most of whom aren’t even confirmed by Congress, would use their almost unlimited power to write regulations and make legal interpretations of, ambiguous at best, legislative language to determine the “will” of Congress in passing legislation it never even read. The common thread, we feared, was to transfer more and more control over the private sector to the Federal government.According to the Washington Examiner’s April 22 edition:“Americans are leaving states with heavy union influence and choosing to live in ‘right-to-work’ states with higher job growth where they cannot be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. With the 2010 census, nine congressional seats will move to right‑to‑work states from forced unionization states. And Americans elected a substantial majority of Republicans to the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. People will be safe in 2011‑12 from the Employee Free Choice Act, a union‑supported bill that would take away workers’ rights to a secret ballot in union elections and impose mandatory contracts between newly unionized firms and workers. But the Obama‑controlled National Labor Relations Board isn’t listening. It wants to do everything in its power to tilt the playing field toward unionization, even if it means lost jobs … Despite a national unemployment rate [in excess of 9 percent] and Americans’ unequivocal preferences for jobs, the board is taking matters into its own hands to expand union power.”So what was the NLRB’s rationale for this unprecedented power grab? The general counsel of the Board claimed that a Boeing executive, by citing the numerous strikes against Boeing at its Puget Sound facility, had shown anti‑union animus, thereby violating federal law. Never mind that numerous companies have, over the last 50 years, moved their facilities or built new ones in right to work states. Job growth in the last 25 years in right to work states has increased while decreasing in non‑right to work states.Of course, we all know that President Obama is focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. Unemployment rose again last month to 9 percent, which is higher than when the president took office in 2009. His anti‑business labor policy sounds more like the marines who after being forced through a punitive workout are required to shout, “May I have another sir?”In short there are countless precedents of businesses relocating to right to work states. No doubt, in this global economy that has kept millions of jobs in America, notwithstanding our non‑competitive corporate tax rates. To tell Boeing, perhaps the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer and one of the dwindling number of major American manufacturers who have not yet outsourced most manufacturing to less expensive locales, where it can and cannot build its production facilities, is not only an illegal and unprecedented expansion of regulatory authority, but it is both a stupid and venal decision. Boeing has, even with the planned Dreamliner shift to South Carolina, actually significantly increased the number of its employees in the state of Washington.One would expect forced labor location decisions in Russia, or China during the Cultural Revolution. This latest Obama administration outrage eclipses almost all of this president’s and his administration’s other power grabs. Hopefully the courts will slap him down and the electorate will remember in 2012 this attempt by the Administration as a serious attempt to override the clear cut law of the land. If not, don’t expect too much investment by business in America when they clearly have other choices. If this power grab stands, our downward economic trajectory will continue and steepen for years to come.Hmmmm.....Democracy ,Thugocracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.
- Canada - Firestorm rages through Alberta town.(Macleans).SLAVE LAKE, Alta. - Thousands of people were fleeing their homes Sunday evening as strong winds fanned an out-of-control wildfire into a northern Alberta town where hundreds of buildings were destroyed and many roads to safety were blocked.The Town of Slave Lake advised the community of about 7,000 people to protect themselves from the wildfire by heading for parking lots, beaches or large, green open spaces.A general evacuation was underway."The town is on fire. Apparently there have been a lot of homes that have burned down," said RCMP spokeswoman Doris Stapleton."There's been no loss of life. There's been no injuries we're aware of," she added.Authorities warned residents to not try to flee on the highways since they were closed.Stapleton said the RCMP have called in all available resources to assist in getting people out.Staff-Sergeant Mike Proctor of Slave Lake RCMP said later "probably 30 per cent of the structures" had been destroyed by the fire.He said when the fire hit the town, it was nine square kilometres in size.Although Proctor said two roads leading out of Slave Lake are closed, residents can get out through the road leading to Athabasca.He said the mandatory evacuation was proceeding "as smoothly as it can go."Local radio station 92.7 Lake FM reported on its website that its studio in Slave Lake, as well as the city hall and hundreds of buildings had been lost to the flames.Duncan MacDonnell, a spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said firefighting aircraft cannot fly over Slave Lake because there are wind gusts of up to 100 km/h and the smoke is too thick."The weather conditions there are freakish — the perfect conditions for a firestorm," MacDonnell said.Nearly 30 patients at the hospital in Slave Lake were transported to facilities in other communities, said John Muir, a spokesman with Alberta Emergency Management.The province said equipment and approximately 200 firefighters from B.C. and Ontario are expected to arrive by Tuesday to help Alberta with its fires.Muir said 70 firefighters from the Edmonton area were on their way up to Slave Lake late Sunday night to help.Slave Lake had declared a state of local emergency earlier on Sunday and was taking in evacuees from surrounding communities.Getting out of town on Sunday evening wasn't easy, according to one Slave Lake resident, who said the lineup of vehicles was long."It's crazy," said Scott, who didn't want his last name used. "We've seen a whole lot of vehicles go to the west and then get redirected back to the east."Numerous other blazes burned throughout Alberta on the weekend.A wildfire near Peace River forced cleanup operations at the site of a huge oil pipeline spill last month to be suspended. Plains Midstream Canada, the pipeline operator, said the decision to remove their staff was made after county officials issued an evacuation order Sunday morning.The company said it had also shut the flow on its Rainbow pipeline, which carries crude from its Nipisi terminal to Edmonton, as a precaution.The Lubicon Lake Nation, which is near the area, has evacuated elders, women, children and people with health conditions.Read the full story here,live report here ,photogallery here.
- Ohio State Economists: Obama’s “Stimulus” Bill Destroyed 500,000 Jobs.(Powerline) — Economists Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor have studied the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the purported stimulus bill) with great rigor. Earlier this week, they reported their findings in a paper titled “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Public Sector Jobs Saved, Private Sector Jobs Forestalled.” The paper is dense and rather lengthy, and requires considerable study. Here, however, is the bottom line:
Our benchmark results suggest that the ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to offset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases rather than boost private sector employment. The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services.Hmmmm......"CHANGE".Read the full story here.
- Video - Scores injured at 'Nakba' rally in Cairo.(Al-Jazeera).Security forces disperse "Nakba Day" demonstrators after group attempts to "storm" Israeli embassy in Egyptian capital.At least 120 people were injured when Egyptian security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at pro-Palestinian protesters who were trying to storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo.Thousands of protesters had gathered outside the embassy in the capital on Sunday to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" - the day Israel declared its independence and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes.Witnesses said a group of demonstrators later tried to storm the entrance of the embassy, prompting the police's response. At least 20 people were arrested.Al Jazeera's Rob Gilles, who was at the scene, said that some protesters responded by burning tires in the middle of the road and throwing stones."The security forces have made a charge outside the embassy to clear the street in front of it and most of the protesters are being forced back," he said."They've sealed off the main area into it but there is still a determined presence here; they are determined not to move, spurred on by the images they've seen of the Nakba protests in other parts of the Middle East."We've seen a few people laid out on the floor, mainly suffering from gas inhalation more than anything else."Read the full story here.
- Obama Worse than Carter? Barry Rubin points out that Obama may even be worse than Carter. "I'm not saying this lightly. For the first time, there is serious evidence not only for an Islamist-controlled parliament but even potentially for an Islamist president! It's iran all over again except in 1979 Carter didn't publicly demand the shah's overthrow and say he had no problem with Khomeini taking over. In fact, that's what Obama did in Egypt".Hmmmm......Never before there was such an Anti Jewish American President.Read the full story here.
- JW Files FOIA Lawsuit over Obama Justice Department’s Refusal to Defend Federal Marriage Law.(JudicialWatch).In one move in February, Barack Obama and Eric Holder overruled the U.S. Constitution and redefined the institution of marriage. And Judicial Watch wants to know everything about how and why this decision was made.Now we know what the Obama administration has said publicly about its decision.
On February 23, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Congress announcing that the Obama Justice Department would no longer defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (which defines marriage for federal purposes as the union of a man and a woman) in two recently-filed cases: Pederson v. Office of Personnel Management and Windsor v. United States.The Attorney General then took it a step further, announcing the Justice Department would not defend DOMA as applied to same-sex married couples in any other pending or future litigation:
The president has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The president has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional.
So there you have it. The president “has concluded,” and is now saying publicly, that the U.S. Congress, the American people and the U.S. Constitution are all dead wrong on this issue of gay marriage.
But what went on behind the scenes to lead to this sudden reversal in Justice Department policy?It appears Barack Obama and Eric Holder have arrogantly decided to ignore the Constitution and abandon their responsibility to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” — again! And adding insult to injury, they refuse to answer to the American people for their behavior. There is now little doubt that liberal special interest groups are pulling the strings at the DOJ and dictating the policies of the nation’s top law enforcement organization. You should know that the alliance isn’t only about ideology — it is also about campaign cash for Obama’s reelection. Politico ran a story last week entitled, “Gay donors fuel President Obama's 2012 campaign.” Sure enough, Obama is seeking campaign cash as payment for his abuse of office :
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign is banking on gay donors to make up the cash it’s losing from other groups of wealthy supporters who have been alienated and disappointed by elements of Obama’s first term.The article goes on to cite the abandonment of DOMA as one of several policy decisions that are spurring increased support from homosexual activists and that the Obama “campaign’s new fundraising apparatus appears designed to capitalize on their enthusiasm.”You can see why this issue is not only about the rule of law, but naked political corruption. The Justice Department must release these documents and tell the American people exactly why they made the shameful decision to shirk its constitutional obligation to defend DOMA and the interests of the American people.Hmmmmm....Democracy , thugocracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.
- How toxic is your currency if even Zimbawe doesn't want it?(DougRoss).THE central bank says the country must consider adopting a gold-backed Zimbabwean dollar warning that the US greenback’s days as the world’s reserve currency are numbered.Government ditched the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 after it had been rendered worthless by record inflation levels and adopted multiple foreign currencies with the US dollar, the South African Rand and the Botswana being the most widely used. “We need to re-think our gold-mining strategy, our gold-liberalisation and marketing strategies as a country. The world needs to and will most certainly move to a gold standard and Zimbabwe must lead the way.”Gono said the inflationary effects of United States’ deficit financing of its budget was likely to impact other countries to leading to a resistance of the green back as a base currency.... “The events of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis demand a new approach to self reliance and a stable mineral-backed currency and to me, Gold has proven over the years that it is a stable and most desired precious metal,” Gono said.“Zimbabwe is sitting on trillions worth of gold-reserves and it is time we start thinking outside the box, for our survival and prosperity.”Zimbabwe is only the latest of a series of countries, whose leaders are to the right of the Obama administration (like Red China, for instance), who are demanding an end to the insane levels of deficit spending.Hmmmm....."CHANGE" !Read the full story here
- FBI Task Force Refuses to Investigate New York City Synagogue Bombing Plot and calls the Terror Case Hyped.(Wnyc).WNYC has learned the lack of Federal participation in the high-profile case of two Queens men allegedly involved in a plot to blow up New York City synagogues and churches was related to concerns it was not a bona fide terrorism case.Two Federal law enforcement sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the FBI did not take the case of the two alleged Queens terrorists because the undercover operation was problematic and the end result was being over-hyped. They also expressed concern the case would ultimately not hold up in court as terrorism case. "Should guys that want to buy guns be off the street, absolutely," one of the Federal officials said.Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne rejected the Federal critique and said "When somebody acquires weapons and plans to bomb the largest synagogue in Manhattan he can find, what do you call it, mischief?"At the press conference announcing the arrests of Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh, local officials said the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force had the right of first refusal on all terrorism cases, but had opted out of this one. Officials characterized the case as one involving a "pair of lone wolves" who were not part of a broader global terrorism conspiracy. Both Federal and local terrorism officials have been increasingly concerned about the potential proliferation of such "home-grown" independent actors, likeFaisal Shahzad who tried to set off a car bomb in Time Square to avenge the death of Muslim civilians in US counter-terror strikes.Criminal defense attorney Allan Zegas worked on the elaborate Federal missile sting case that snagged Indian businessman Hemant Lakhani on terrorism charges.He says for a defense attorney, the lack of Federal engagement in this latest case is a major red flag. "Its odd and it is troubling,' said Zegas. "One of the things you don't want to see happening in these cases is for the state and federal governments to become involved in turf wars."Hmmmm....."Renewed outreach to Muslims"?Or CAIR pressuring the FBI?Read the full story here.
- Ayalon: Remember the Real 'Nakba'.(IsraelNationalNews).Arabs across Israel spent this weekend protesting the “nakba” – catastrophe, in Arabic – of the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the 63rd anniversary of which is May 15. Israel celebrates the event on its Hebrew date, which this year was early last week.Nevertheless, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon issued a statement Sunday calling on the public to remember what he called the “real nakba” – that of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.“Today, as the Palestinians and their supporters commemorate their so-called 'Nakba' it is imperative that the catastrophe that befell the Jews from Arab lands be remembered and recognized,” Ayalon said.“While the Arabs in 1948 were involved in hostilities against the Jews, the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa were not present in any theatre of war, yet overnight their citizenship was revoked, their assets stolen and they were expelled or forced to flee,” he noted.Ayalon said he is making the issue a central point within the Foreign Ministry and believes it should be added to any future negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.“In any future agreement with the Palestinians, the issue of the Jewish refugees should be recognized and those who fled, and their descendants, ought to receive redress,” Ayalon said.“This issue has been recognized by United Nations resolutions, peace agreements with our neighbors, in the U.S. Congress and the Knesset. The Palestinian refugee narrative has been allowed to stand uncontested, too few people know about the real “Nakba” that saw the dispossession of almost a million Jews – and it is about time for this to change.”Hmmmm.......Bravo.Read the full story here.
- Israel fires warning shots at Malaysia aid ship.(HurriyetDaily).Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at a Malaysian aid ship as it approached the Gaza Strip on Monday, forcing the vessel to retreat to Egypt, organizers and the Israeli military said."The MV Finch, carrying sewage pipes to Gaza, had warning shots fired at it by Israeli forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 6:54 am (0354 GMT)," said Shamsul Azhar from the Perdana Global Peace Foundation."The vessel was in the Palestinian security zone, about 400 meters from the Gaza shoreline, when they were intercepted by Israeli naval forces," he told AFP, adding it was now anchored 30 nautical miles away in Egyptian territory.An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that the vessel, flying a Moldovan flag, had been intercepted as it sailed from Egypt's El-Arish port, where it had been docked for several days. "A navy patrol boat contacted the vessel, which claimed to be heading for the Gaza shores. Once it crossed into Israeli naval territory and didn't answer calls to turn back, warning shots were fired in the air and it returned to El-Arish," she said.The Perdana Foundation is helmed by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, an 85-year-old firebrand who was a strident critic of the West and Israel over the treatment of Palestinians during his two decades in power.The organisation was also involved in the first "Freedom Flotilla," a 2010 attempt to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza, which ended in disaster when naval commandos raided the aid ships, killing nine Turks on board one of the vessels.Perdana Foundation officials said the MV Finch left the Port of Piraeus in Greece on May 11 for Gaza, carrying plastic pipes to help restore the "devastated" sewage system in Gaza. Alang Bendahara, a Malaysian journalist on board, told AFP that Israeli naval ships stopped the vessel with a volley of gunfire as it approached the shore."The Israeli naval vessel fired a warning shot at us upon approaching and asked us to leave the waters but the ship's captain refused and the Israelis fired again, circling the MV Finch before firing twice more," he said. "At that point they threatened the ship's captain that they would board the vessel and we were forced to turn back, it was lucky that no one was injured. "Two Egyptian naval vessels were monitoring us and they escorted us once we were in Egyptian waters," said Bendahara."They have now boarded our vessel and are inspecting our cargo to make sure there is nothing illegal on board. They will be escorting us to the port of El-Arish because they say they will detain the ship."The journalist said there were 12 people on board the vessel - seven Malaysians, two Irish nationals, two Indians and a Canadian - including anti-war activists and journalists. Israel has maintained a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2006, after militants there snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.It was tightened a year later when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Israel says the blockade is meant to stop the ruling Hamas movement from gaining access to weapons, money or material that could be used to attack Israel.Read the full story here.
- Trove of Shoah records goes online.(Ynet).With over 500,000 names and 1,000 photographs, searchable collection offers glimpses of lives of children who survived Holocaust to become moral and spiritual leaders, politicians and artists. A trove of papers and photographs documenting the lives of Holocaust victims and survivors includes notable names like Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. But Benzion Baumrind's name might have stayed forgotten to his descendants without the records kept by a humanitarian aid agency. A genealogist discovered Baumrind, one of six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, was in her family with one stray document buried in a database of historic papers and photos kept by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. With over 500,000 names, and more than 1,000 photographs, the searchable collection documents the relief organization's vast efforts during World War II and the postwar era in 24 countries, from China and Japan to the Dominican Republic and Bolivia. The records, being made available online for the first time, open a singular view into the lives of survivors that the JDC aided during that cataclysmic period. "We can get broader pictures of the actual everyday social life in the aftermath of war," Kenneth Waltzer, director of the Jewish Studies Department at Michigan State University, said of the collection.Until now, the organization's archive has been largely inaccessible to the public, kept at a private storage warehouse located a short subway ride out of Manhattan. Volunteers entered names in a database for over a year; rare, fragile documents were scanned into the computer system. Users of the site can submit names to identify people they recognize in the photographs, which may be later added to captions. "A website like this is where history meets technology," said Gideon Taylor, an executive with the New York-based committee. "It's taking history out of the dusty files... And bringing it out into the community." The committee plans to put even more documents from its archive online later this summer. The project is one of a growing number around the world aimed at making available on the Internet primary records about the Holocaust. "It is a world phenomenon that's launched by the technology," said David M. Kleiman, president of Heritage Muse Inc., a New York-based genealogy technology firm. Read the full story here.
- Noted Muslim Scholar Bassam Tibi Warns Against Turkish Accession to the EU.(StopTurkey).Bassam Tibi is a Syrian-born Muslim who moved to Germany, acquired German citizenship and became a professor of political science/international relations. He floated the concept of Euro-Islam, arguing that to become authentically European, Muslims in Europe had reform their understand of their religion, abandoning concepts like sharia and the jihad. Now, in this interview he gave to the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung (my translation) he seems to admit that this was a forlorn hope.
Mr Tibi, when you look at the revolutions in North Africa, what predominates, concern or joy?
TIBI: In English they would say it’s a mixed bag: hope and concern. The hope lies in the fact that large parts of the Arab population are on the streets, articulating their unhappiness without fear. My concern, however, is that the islamists, for example in Egypt, are already preparing to take power in the name of democratisation. The islamist movements are the only ones that know what they want. During the time of repression, they were the only opposition, working in the background and with their power bases in Europe: in Germany, Britain and the Scandinavian countries.
Would the EU be well-advised to offer Turkey the prospect of entry in order to prevent this alliance?
That is an incredibly naïve belief in Europe. People say that if Turkey would become a member of the European Union, Turkey would be democratised. But the EU is not a democratisation club. You fulfil the acceptance criteria or you don’t. Greece, too, became a member of the European single currency on the basis of falsified facts. And the EU doesn’t make the Greek economy better. That’s how it is with Turkey in relation to democracy. After the Wikileaks revelations we know this: Turkey’s foreign minister said privately we want to become a member of the EU the better to be able to spread Islam throughout Europe.
Are you completely against Turkey’s EU accession?
In 1998 I spoke out in favour of the accession. At that time the country was still not yet under Islamist rule. I still don’t say no but we need to observe very clearly what is happening there. If Turkey continues to be characterised by this tendency towards Islamism, Europeans should close the door. I don’t want a country controlled by islamists to break the EU like a Trojan horse.
President Abdullah Gül was in Austria on a state visit, and visited an islamist student union of all things. Is there something behind that?
Yes. When he was still foreign minister, Gül asked the German federal government to remove the Islamist movement “Milli Görüs” from the list of anti-constitutional and undemocratic movements. The German authorities pointed out to him that in a democracy, public authorities work independently. Gül didn’t understand that. When the former US President Bill Clinton had problems in the Lewinsky affair, the Syrian president asked the American ambassador why Clinton didn’t just have the prosecutor arrested. That’s exactly how Gül thinks.
20 years ago you invoked a Euro-Islam, a secular Islam that separates itself from the Sharia. Since then, have European Muslims come closer to this ideal?
I have supporters. Last year in Germany they founded a movement: the Association of European Democratic Muslims. I am not a one-man movement, but I have to say candidly that the islamists in Europe, also here in Austria, are stronger than we are. They have more money, more resources. The deceased interior minister Liese Prokop invited me to a dialogue with the former leader of the Muslim religious community. He explained that the association had come to the conclusion that my model had to be emphatically rejected. I said: “If you don’t want to have a European Islam, then you are not for integration.” I stood up and left in protest. You can’t have a serious discussion with these people.Hmmmm....As i said many times before "Keep Turkey out of the European Union and Get Them Out Of NATO!Read the full story here.
- Saudi diplomat killed in Pakistan.(Al-Jazeera). Gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on official's vehicle in southern port city of Karachi, then fled.Gunmen have shot and killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, as he was driving to his country's consulate, police and Saudi embassy staff say.Hassan al-Khatani, a diplomat who worked at the Saudi consulate, was shot dead by two gunmen who were riding a motorcyle early on Monday morning, Pakistani police officials said."Two gunmen riding on a motorcycle showered the car with bullets," Zameer Husain Abbasi, a police official, said, adding that a 9mm pistol had been used in the attack.Police say al-Khatani was alone in the vehicle - a silver Toyota Corona - at the time of the attack, which took place about one kilometre from the Saudi consulate. They said he was driving to work from his residence, located nearby."The consulate employee died of multiple bullet wounds on the spot," said Fayaaz Leghari, the provincial police chief for Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.Sharfuddin Memon, a provincial home ministry official, said al-Khatani was a junior officer at the consulate."We condemn this attack. No one who carries out this kind of attack can be a Muslim," Abdul Aziz al-Ghadeer al-Ghadeer, the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, said."We are investigating if it was linked to the Abbottabad operation or was an isolated incident," Leghari said, referring to a May 2 raid by US special forces that killed Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, in Abbottabad."We trust the Pakistani authorities and hope they will identify the terrorists and bring them to justice," Ambassador al-Ghadeer said. The Saudi government described the shooting as a "criminal attack", Saudi state media reported. The government also said that the country would be participating in the investigation, alongside Pakistani police.A Saudi foreign ministry official, meanwhile, told Reuters that security would be raised for diplomats serving in countries deemed to be dangerous, starting with Pakistan.A statement from the ministry said that Saudi Arabia has asked Pakistani authorities to increase security around the Saudi embassy and consulate in Pakistan.Prince Saudi al-Faisal offered his condolences to the family of the man who was killed, the statement said.Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, and Rehman Malik, the country's interior minister, meanwhile, condemned the attack, with Malik saying that "complete security" had been ordered for Saudi nationals stationed in the city.On Wednesday, unidentified attackers hurled two hand grenades at the Saudi consulate in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub. The grenades exploded, but no one was hurt in the attack."It would be early to say that [there is a campaign against Saudi interests in Pakistan], even though the Interior Ministry is not ruling that out," reported Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad.Shortly after the attack on Monday, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said that while his group would not confirm that it was involved in the latest attack, it fully supported it."Whoever has done this, has done a very good job because, like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is also an American slave. In fact, it's two steps ahead of Pakistan. Whichever organisations are engaged in such activities, we fully support them," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the spokesman, by telephone from an undisclosed location.Read the full story here.
- Saudi sheik donates billions to charity.(Al-Jazeera).Sheikh Suleiman Al Rajhi, one of the world's richest men, plans to give away lion's share of his $6bn fortune.Saudi Arabia's Sheikh Suleiman Al Rajhi, one of the world's richest men, can now also lay claim to be one of the most generous.The businessman has announced he is donating away much of his $6 billion fortune to charity.It is not known whether the Skeikh had always planned to give away his fortune but the recent regional events may have played a role in his decision.Hmmmm.....With age comes wisdom?Read the full story here.
- Video - Hamas MP and Cleric Yunis Al-Astal: The Jews Were Brought to Palestine for the "Great Massacre" through which Allah Will "Relieve Humanity of Their Evil"(Memri).Read and see the full story here.
- Video - Former Afghan PM and Leader of the Islamic Party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Response to Bin Laden's Death: The Americans Are "Barbarians, Who Mutilate Bodies"(Memri).Read and see the full story here.
- Saudi woman defies driving ban.(BangkokPost). Saudi mother said Sunday she defied a ban on women drivers in the ultra-conservative kingdom by getting behind the wheel for four days without being stopped.Najla al-Hariri, a housewife in her mid-30s, said she drove non-stop for four days in the streets of the Red Sea city of Jeddah "to defend her belief that Saudi women should be allowed to drive.''"I don't fear being arrested because I am setting an example that my daughter and her friends are proud of,'' Hariri told AFP, adding she was offering driving lessons for women.Hariri said she was an experienced motorist as she had driven for five years in Egypt and another five years in Lebanon, while she could not drive in her own country.In addition to being banned from driving, Saudi women cannot travel without authorisation from their male guardians, and are also not allowed to vote in the municipal elections, the only public polls in the absolute monarchy.When in public, they are obliged to cover from head to toe.Hariri ridiculed the social belief that Saudi women are treated "like queens'' as they are driven around by their male relatives or drivers, saying "this is a big lie.''"We are always under their mercy to give us a lift,'' she said.Meanwhile, a group of Saudi women have launched a Internet-based campaign calling for a nationwide protest drive on June 17 in a bid to get rid of the ban once and for all."On Friday June 17th, we women in Saudi will start driving our cars by ourselves,'' says the Women2Drive page on Twitter.The page for the event on Facebook is entitled "I will drive starting June 17'' and has 1,998 supporters.Hmmmm.....But who has the keys?Read the full story here.
