Neverland: “The level of hopelessness is very strong”

They could've had their state 60 fricking years ago... But they chose not to.

(Arab News) [T]he separation of Hamas-run Gaza and the Abbas-ruled West Bank is deepening. The rivals are not on speaking terms, and the two territories that were to make up the future state are cut off from one another by Israeli travel bans.

“The level of hopelessness is very strong,” said Palestinian pollster Jamil Rabih, adding that a recent survey indicates that half the Palestinians don’t expect to see a state established within the next 25 years. “There is nothing on the horizon for us,” he added.

The gloomy mood has been compounded by Israeli independence day parties.

Last week, Israel celebrated the Hebrew calendar anniversary of its May 14, 1948, founding with fireworks, picnics and air force flyovers. A second round of celebrations followed this week, with the participation of Bush.

Iraq detains nearly 1,000 in anti-al-Qaida crackdown

But will Pelosi, who is now visiting Iraq, continue to insist on the surge being a "failure" and on pulling our troops from Iraq?

BAGHDAD (AP) — Nearly 1,000 people have been detained in a sweep to break al-Qaida in Iraq's sway in Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, but many of the fighters have fled to nearby areas, where troops are hunting for them, Iraqi officials said Saturday.

Iraq's leaders presented the crackdown as a success so far in depriving the terror network of what has been its most prominent urban stronghold since it lost hold of cities in Iraq's western Anbar province.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said 1,068 people have been detained over the past week, but 94 were cleared and have since been released. Kashmola said most of those arrested were al-Qaida members.

The assault on the Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq group was launched in the wake of two other major crackdowns against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra and the Baghdad district of Sadr City in the past two months. Those two sweeps continue but uneasy truces with the powerful Shiite Mahdi Army militia have eased the heavy violence they sparked.

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Afghan journalist accused of being anti-Islamic and sentenced to death for questioning legality of poligamy

PUL-E CHARKHI, Afghanistan (AP) — The prison uniform Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh wears is emblazoned with crudely painted black scales of justice, but the young journalist insists on the eve of his appeal that he has yet to see justice done.

A court found Kambakhsh, 24, guilty on Jan. 22 of distributing an article that questioned the Muslim practice of polygamy. It handed him the maximum sentence on the charge of insulting Islam — death.

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As they keep on insisting, if only everyone would accept Islam, there would be peace, love and tranquility in the world.

Breaking: Ted Kennedy rushed to a hospital with what appears to be a stroke

Details are sketchy but things don't look too good for him given the family history - his father suffered an incapacitating stroke at the age of 73.

(CNN) -- Sen. Edward Kennedy was rushed to a hospital in Massachusetts Saturday morning, a well-informed, prominent Democratic source in that state told CNN.

Kennedy was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after spending less than an hour in the Cape Cod Hospital emergency room, a spokesman for the Cape Cod facility told CNN.

David Reilly said Kennedy was admitted to the Cape Cod emergency room around 9 a.m. ET. Massachusetts General said it had no information on Kennedy.

The source said the 76-year-old senator had "symptoms of a stroke" at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis.

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Update: It appears things are not that bad - he had 2 seizures, not a stroke.

How they protest Israel’s illegitimacy in the illegitimate country of Pakistan

Young supporters of Imamia Students Organisation hold toy guns as they sit on U.S. and Israeli flags during a rally to protest against the 60th anniversary of Israel, in Karachi May 16, 2008. REUTERS/Athar Hussain (PAKISTAN)

Supporters of Imamia Students Organisation burn U.S. and Israeli flags during a rally to protest against the 60th anniversary of Israel, in Karachi May 16, 2008. REUTERS/Athar Hussain (PAKISTAN)

Supporters of Shi'ite Muslims burn U.S. and Israeli flags during a protest on Israel's 60th anniversary in Islamabad May 16, 2008. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed (PAKISTAN)

“High-value target … an Arab” killed in Pakistan

Courtesy of Predator drones and Hellfire missiles.

(MSNBC) Senior U.S. and Pakistani officials tell NBC News that Wednesday’s Predator attack on a village in northwest Pakistan was not insignificant, that a “high-value target … an Arab” was among those killed. U.S. officials believe the unnamed target was planning attacks outside Pakistan, “so we nailed him,” in the words of one.

By all accounts, on Wednesday evening, two male guesthouses in the village of Damodola were struck by Hellfire missiles fired from Predator drones. The drones are normally operated by the CIA. Inside the guesthouses were local fighters along with several “foreigners,” including the Arab fighter, according to the U.S. officials and locals.

[...]

Militants quickly disposed of the bodies, with locals saying dozens of their number “suddenly appeared” and surrounded the entire town. They wouldn’t allow villagers to enter the building before all the bodies were retrieved from the rubble of the two-room guesthouse, part of a compound owned by a local leader.

“As usual, militants retrieved bodies of the foreigners and buried them at an undisclosed location,” claimed a local resident of Damodola who is close to tribal militants. U.S. officials have said the quick burial is done partly for religious reasons, but also to hinder the identification of those killed.

Villagers claimed that before the attack around 30 people, some of them Arabs, were staying in the compound. The death toll estimates ranged from 11 to as many as 30, but with so many bodies disposed of so quickly there was no official count.

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Our friends the Saudis see no reason to raise oil production now

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

It was Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, head of the monarchy that rules this desert kingdom that is a longtime prime U.S. ally and home to the world's largest oil reserves. But Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president's national security adviser told reporters.

"Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices topped $127 a barrel, continuing to set records. "What the Saudis wanted to tell us was we're doing everything we can do ... to meet this problem, but it's a complicated problem."

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In this case, we really should consider raising price for grain and other food essentials we export to our Middle Eastern "friends". Fair is fair.

10 suspects linked to al-Qaeda arrested in Europe

6 of them are Turks. You know, that "moderate Islamic country" that demands to be part of Europe.

Paris, 16 May (AKI) - Police in France, Germany and the Netherlands have arrested 10 people suspected of financial links with an Uzbek organisation linked to al-Qaeda.

Sources said eight suspects were detained in the eastern French city of Mulhouse and the Rhone region of eastern France.

Six of them were reportedly Turkish or of Turkish origin, as were two others arrested in Germany and the Netherlands.

The suspects are accused of supporting a network that helped finance a group linked to al-Qaeda in Uzbekistan.

The investigation is continuing in cooperation with the German and Dutch authorities, the French source added.

On Wednesday a Paris court sentenced seven men to prison terms of up to seven years for recruiting French youths to fight with insurgents in Iraq.

Yemen: Al-Qaeda says killing non-Muslim foreigners in the Arabian peninsula is "religiously right"

If that doesn't tell you that Islam is a Religion of Peace™, I don't know what would.

Sanaa, 16 May (AKI) - An al-Qaeda cell in Yemen has issued a threat against non-Muslim foreign tourists, particularly those from the West, who visit the Arabian Peninsula.

"We warn all the unbelievers who enter the Arabian Peninsula that [targeting] their money and their blood are religiously right for us," said al-Qaeda of the Jihad in the South of the Arabian Peninsula in a statement that was published in its e-magazine entitled "Epic Echo".

"We want to tell you that if you enter the Arabian Peninsula under any name or cover, whether as tourists, diplomats, university professors or journalists, know that we are justified in targeting you," said the statement.

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"Oh Allah, we beg in Your Court for his death"

Yesterday I wrote about how an undercover investigation into the promulgation of racial hatred in British mosques resulted not in the persecution of the religious bigots, but rather in an allegation of selective editing by the producers and the very real waste of public money by the police in investigating Channel 4 for racial hatred. Which, as I reported, resulted in a retraction and the payment of a large fine by the police to ‘Dispatchers’.

Well, in another example of racial hatred in the UK the Pakistani TV station Geo TV UK has been rebuked by Ofcom (the independent regulator and competition authority for UK communications) for broadcasting a prayer in which a Muslim bigot called for God to “ruin” Salman Rushdie.

Dr. Aamer Liaquat Hussain said:

“O God I beg you for the sake of this night; ruin those who have blasphemed against Your beloved Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon Him. "Ruin them. Ruin Rushdie, I beg you for his death. O God, give him death, O Provider; he has blasphemed your beloved. Oh God, we beg in Your Court for his death."

Thankfully, two viewers reported this hate speech to Ofcom which resulted in Geo TV getting its hands smacked. I’m just waiting for the British police to investigate Ofcom for ‘Islamophobia’ for slapping down yet another example of the intolerance which is passed off as the religion of peace.

Only in England can hijackers find work at an airport

In February 2000 a gang of hijackers commandeered an airliner and had it flown from Afghanistan to London where they threatened to blow up the plane along with the 173 passengers and crew unless they were given political asylum.

So the British government acquiesced to their demands, and allowed them the right to a fair hearing which resulted in 89 passengers demanding asylum and the hijackers going to jail.

But here’s the catch, the 9 hijackers had their convictions quashed in 2003, were released from jail and now live on benefits in London to the tune of £150,000 annually to the taxpayer (which works out at around £15000, or $30000 each a year)

Well, it only gets better, the ring leader of this band of merry freedom fighters was stopped by a routine police check at Heathrow airport and found to be working as a cleaner there. Let me get this right: a man who hijacked an aircraft, who was going to kill the passengers if his demands weren’t met, and, it has now been revealed, was bailed last year for assault, is working at one of the world’s major airports. No wonder the Islamic world thinks it will prevail in its so-called campaign in which to rule the world. We, in the name of human rights, will let them.

Jordanian University Lecturer Suggests Sending Suicide-Bombers Armed with "Small Nuclear Bombs" to Israel

Courtesy of MEMRI:

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Jordanian university lecturer Dr. Ibrahim 'Alloush, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on May 13, 2008.

Click the image to watch the video

Dr. Ibrahim 'Alloush: Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona armed with conventional explosives should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives and perhaps even small nuclear bombs. We should think in this direction.

What BBC Bias? (Part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about the BBC’s somewhat polarised reporting from Israel. In that reporting I stated that the BBC paints this picture that Arabs can only be victims and that Jews can only be evil.

Today is the 15th of May 2008. It is also the date (according to the UN) when Israel came into being. On that note, here is the BBC headline on its Middle-Eastern web page.


Notice how the BBC only celebrates ‘al-Nakba.’ In fact, looking at that BBC News page, there are 21 stories about Israel, and only 2 shed a positive light on the Jews. The rest portray them as evil. What is even more damming is that there are 49 stories on that page. Tiny Israel takes up nearly 50% of the BBC’s coverage of the Middle East.

Seeing as there are nearly 300 million people in the Middle East, I find it totally amazing that the BBC devotes so much time and effort in which to demonise 6 million people as evil. So what other stories does the BBC promote on the other 50%?

Well, there is this story about how Jordan is clamping down on Honour killings.
There is one about how Islamists are waiting patiently to take power in Egypt.
And also this one about how Italy’s PM has been called in a rendition court case.

Yup, according to the BBC, anything Muslims do or achieve in the Middle East (around 294 million of them) is only for the good of mankind. But that the news coming out of tiny little Israel (all 6 million of them) can only be bad.

Shame how in all that coverage of tiny little Israel the BBC leaves out the Birth of Israel.

Police apologise to Undercover Mosque documentary makers

Last year Channel 4 in the UK aired an undercover documentary on what is actually being taught inside British Mosques. This documentary (video here) showed that contrary to the message of peace that people are led to believe is getting passed onto the faith, the actual message was of xenophobia, hatred towards the unbeliever and that only one bunch of people deserve to live on this earth. (Two guesses who?)

The initial reaction of the British Muslims was of disbelief. Then anger (always anger) then character assassination by way of financial compensation (in other words, police action, then sue).

So the police under the instructions of the Crown prosecution service who themselves were under the instructions of the political elite who themselves are under the control of a certain ethic minority (it’s all votes at the end of the day) pulled out all the stops in which to say that this program was nothing more than a huge distortion of the truth and that they were going to investigate the program makers on charges of racial hatred based on telling pork pies.

Yup, welcome to the UK where reporting the promulgation of racial hatred not only has the full weight of the law on your neck, but actually puts the frighteners on others from turning the spotlight on religious bigots willing to kill others because they are different.

Well, guess what?

The program makers took the police to court and won. Yes, folks, the police have not only been forced to apologise to the makers of ‘Uncover Mosque’, they have been stung to the tune of £100,000.

Here is that apology:

CHANNEL 4 UNDERCOVER MOSQUE - AN APOLOGY

15 May 2008

On 8 August 2007 we published, jointly with the Crown Prosecution Service, a press release relating to the Channel Four Dispatches programme “Undercover Mosque”. This press release alleged that footage of the speakers shown had been so “heavily edited” and taken out of context that it had “completely distorted” their meaning. Reference was made to the CPS having been asked to consider (although against advice) instituting proceedings against those involved in making the programme for inciting racial hatred.

Following an independent investigation by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, we now accept that we were wrong to make these allegations. We now accept that there was no evidence that the broadcaster or programme makers had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity. A review of the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts) by Ofcom demonstrated that the programme had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context.

We accept, without reservation, the conclusions of Ofcom and apologise to the programme makers for the damage and distress caused by our original press release.

Hopefully this will send the message that discussing the unsavoury mores of Islam isn’t racist and that telling the truth isn’t a crime.