[Iran Press TV Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says Cairo will not tolerate "those who threaten the country's national security".
"After these powers and their hirelings have encroached on Egypt's security and sovereignty, I say clearly that I don't allow this and will not tolerate those who try to tamper with Egypt's security and stability," Mubarak warned in a speech on Wednesday.
"The Arab region is passing through a delicate and hard stage ... and facing the threats of known regional powers that embrace terrorism and extremism and clearly brag of animosity to peace," The Jerusalem Post quoted the Egyptian president as saying.
The remarks were made as Egypt recently launched a campaign against the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, accusing the group of conspiring to destabilize the country.
The allegations came after Cairo claimed its security forces had arrested a group-- with suspected links to Hezbollah-- on charges of masterminding attacks in the country.
Cairo later made new charges against Hezbollah, accusing the movement of being in cahoots with an Egyptian opposition group --the Muslim Brotherhood-- and other Arab groups to stage a coup against the Egyptian government.
Hezbollah however has denied the allegations, saying the arrests were politically motivated and aimed at harming the movement ahead of the June elections in Lebanon.
Cairo has also been under fire over its performance in the Gaza war. The country kept its borders with Gaza closed during the war.
According to Egyptian sources, the group will be brought before the court next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION IRAN-DAILY > IIRC VENEZUELA? has just recalled its Ambassador to Peru???
Hugo's angry about BRAZIL blocking his way to the Atlantic, hence redirect to the Pacific???
[Maghrebia] Algerian police and National Gendarmerie officials will launch a formal inquiry Wednesday (April 29th) into recent sectarian clashes between Maliki and Ibadi youth in Ghardaia province, Echorouk reported. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia will supervise the security commission and submit a final report to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The inquiry follows an April 20th visit to Berriane by Algerian National Police Chief Ali Tounsi and other government officials. On April 16th -- less than two weeks after local elders signed a reconciliation statement -- violence resumed in Oued M'zab, injuring some 20 people and destroying several homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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LONDON, April 29 (UPI) -- The British Ministry of Defense announced plans for a new intelligence facility to strengthen operational and strategic threat-assessment capabilities.
Bob Ainsworth, British minister for the armed forces, announced in a statement Wednesday that the British Defense Intelligence Service and the Intelligence Collection Group's operations would be consolidated in a new state-of-the-art facility designed to improve support for military forces, the British Ministry of Defense reported.
Ainsworth said the project will relocate the Headquarters Intelligence Collection Group, the National Imagery Exploitation Center, the Headquarters Joint Aeronautical and Geospatial Organization and other units to a new facility at the Royal Air Force's Wyton installation in Cambridgeshire, England.
"This important investment project at RAF Wyton will improve our ability to support our front-line operations by both advancing and enhancing our intelligence support by collocating key capabilities together," Ainsworth said in a statement.
"We will, as a result, become more effective at supporting our armed forces and providing commanders with accurate and timely intelligence."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Libya and Britain agreed to transfer prisoners on Wednesday, opening a legal window for the repatriation of a former Libyan agent jailed for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing as his lawyers launched an appeal against his conviction.
The deal to allow the transfer of prisoners between the two countries was one of four agreements on judicial cooperation ratified in Tripoli, and removes an obstacle to any future deal to send home Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.
He was convicted in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and sentenced to life in prison. He is currently in a Scottish jail.
All 259 people on board the Pan Am Boeing 747 en route from London to New York died, along with 11 people on the ground at Lockerbie as a result of falling debris.
"The agreements are effective as of today," said a statement released by the Tripoli government shortly after the signing by Libya's Foreign Ministry judicial department director Mohammed es-Sagaier and Britain's ambassador to Libya, Vincent Fean.
The Libyan statement said the four agreements covered the exchange of wanted suspects, prisoner transfers, judicial cooperation on civil and commercial affairs, and legal aid in criminal cases.
"The agreements are standard deals ... They allow the transfer of prisoners after final court verdicts to permit them to spend the remainder of their prison terms near their families," Libyan Cooperation Minister Mohamed Tahar Sayala said, when asked if Megrahi would benefit from the deals.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The victims of the Lockerbie massacre do not get to spend time near their families.
#2
Not far from Lockerbie along the Dumfries road, a quiet countryside cemetery where flowers are placed along the wall daily. Here. Click on photo to enlarge.
[Kyodo: Korea] The United States expressed support Tuesday for JapanŽs stance on Japanese nationals who have been kidnapped by North Korea, while urging Pyongyang to improve its human rights record and return to the six-way talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korea Peninsula. ŽŽThe United States wholeheartedly supports JapanŽs position on the abductee issue,ŽŽ State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. ŽŽWe have not forgotten and weŽll never forget the suffering of the abductees and their families.ŽŽ
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed Wednesday to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue within the framework of the six-party talks, officials familiar with their talks said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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TOPIX > IRAN VERSUS NORTH KOREA ON THE AXIS OF EVIL [pole position].
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea on Wednesday issued a statement saying the country will conduct another nuclear test and test-launch ballistic missiles if the U.N. Security Council does not apologize for its condemnation of PyongyangŽs rocket launch earlier this month, according to a Korean Central News Agency report. The statement, issued by a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said the UNSC ŽŽshould promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative ŽresolutionsŽ and decisions adopted against the DPRK,ŽŽ according to the KCNA report.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Whatever.... you are are going to do it regardless of what we say. Face it Kim Jong Il: you are insignificant and no one cares except Seoul. I cant wait till the youngest Kim takes over soon!
#2
Dear Kim and Company,
Nuclear isotopes, kim chi, and shallow leaky below ground plumbing smell good. You might consider distilling the smell and exporting it as "eau de korea parfum." Maybe the west coast of the U.S. can get a lucky whiff if you atomize it far enough up into the atmosphere.
[Kyodo: Korea] The U.N. Security Council does not either retract its adoption of a presidential statement over North KoreaŽs rocket launch or apologize for the adoption, a U.N. diplomatic source said Wednesday. ŽŽBasically it is impossible for the Security Council to retract or apologizeŽŽ for the adopted statement, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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PARIS (JTA) -- A French court rejected pleas for a public trial of the gang members accused of kidnapping and murdering Ilan Halimi because he was Jewish.
Wednesday's decision, on the first day of a nationally anticipated case, was a blow to the Halimi family and Jewish institutions. They have argued in favor of a public trial because they say it would reveal the xenophobia behind the killing and its national significance. Outside the courtroom, a crowd of about 100 Jewish youth, mostly members of the Jewish Defense League, and adults wearing Jewish symbols protested the day's anticipated closed-door ruling.
A closed trial will take the tone of a family drama, whereas we needed a trial about prejudices capable of killing and about 21st century anti-Semitism, said Raphael Haddad, head of the French Jewish Student Union in an interview with the French daily Le Monde.
French law forbids the trial be made public because two of the 27 suspects were minors when the crime took place.
Defense lawyers told JTA that their clients did not necessarily object to a public trial because it might have helped influence opinion in their favor.
On July 10, judges will ultimately rule whether anti-Semitism is to blame for the fate of Halimi, 23, who was held for ransom and savagely tortured to death in 2006. Though suspects told police the kidnapping was planned under the pretense that Jews were rich and worth a larger ransom, some police investigators and opinions expressed in the media have maintained that the accused did not act out of hatred for Jews.
During Halimis capture, police also denied anti-Semitism was a motive for the crime.
The leader of the gang, known as the Barbarians, is expected to reassert in the coming weeks that he is not anti-Semitic. Upon entering court, a smiling Youssouf Fofana, 28, told the packed room that his last name was newly changed to ARABS, to stand for African Revolt Armed Barbarian Salafist.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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I think the whole idea behind closed door hearings is to prevent the murderers from being torn limb from limb by the Jews.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/30/2009 13:25 Comments ||
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Germany's Interior Ministry agreed to consider accepting former inmates from Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detention center for terrorism suspects that the Obama administration plans to shut down.
The change of position from Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who had resisted the idea, came after a meeting Wednesday with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
So what did we offer in return?
Mr. Holder said he will "relatively soon be reaching out to specific countries with specific detainees." He also visited the U.K. and Czech Republic to lay the groundwork for Guantanamo's closure. He said he hasn't formally requested that either of those countries receive detainees, and that none of his European counterparts refused to take former inmates.
President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo prison because it makes him unhappy it offers a propaganda boon for terrorist recruiters and weakens national security, Mr. Holder said. But the U.S. needs to find homes for the inmates, he said, making Germany's new willingness to consider acceptance of one or more inmates an important step to closing the detention facility.
The U.S. hopes to relocate detainees who are being set free as well as prisoners who could face trial in other venues. Mr. Holder said 30 detainees have been cleared for release from Guantanamo, out of the 241 people still at the military prison. Some of those remaining could face trial in federal court, he said.
Where they'll make a farce of our legal system, since that's what they're trained to do.
The German Interior Ministry said in a statement that it will give "careful consideration" to any U.S. request, although it prefers Guantanamo inmates be returned to their home countries ...
Unless there's even a small chance that they'd be 'tortured'.
... or be accepted by the U.S. The U.S. hasn't made a specific request for the release of any Guantanamo inmate to Germany, the statement said.
"Nein ist er eklig. Nein ist er auch eklig. Nein ist er auch eklig. ..."
Mr. Schäuble had previously said Germany shouldn't accept Guantanamo detainees, arguing that it was a U.S. problem to fix.
"We just want to complain, we don't want to help."
By contrast, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in January that Germany would be willing to take in individual detainees if it helped Mr. Obama close Guantanamo.
Previewing a speech he was to make in Berlin on Wednesday evening, Mr. Holder said "mistakes have been made" with regard to Guantanamo, and pledged the current administration would follow the rule of law.
Even though the Bush administration also followed the rule of law.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Dumkaufs.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2009 0:06 Comments ||
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And I'll 'consider' winning the Mega Millions tomorrow night...
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Spanish judge started a criminal investigation on Wednesday into alleged torture of detainees in the U.S. base at Guantanamo.
Judge Baltasar Garzon, who once tried to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, will probe the "perpetrators, the instigators, the necessary collaborators and accomplices" to crimes of torture at the prison at the U.S. naval base in southern Cuba, he said in ruling
The judge based his decision on statements by Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, known as the "Spanish Taliban" and three other former Guantanamo detainees -- a Moroccan, a Palestinian and a Libyan -- who alleged they had suffered torture at the camp.
"It seems that the documents declassified by the U.S. administration mentioned by the media have revealed what was previously a suspicion -- the existence of an authorized and systematic program of torture" at Guantanamo and other prisons including that in Bagram in Afghanistan, Garzon said
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Baltazar is a Spanish Attention Whore, not a judge. He should be on a no-fly list worldwide
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2009 19:20 Comments ||
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He should be on a no-fly fly-with-Mexicans list worldwide
Via JihadWatch
Esam Omeish's campaign web site is fairly typical for a candidate for state delegate. The big issues for his Fairfax County district are traffic congestion, growth issues and public education.
But Omeish, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 35th district, covering an area from Vienna west to Monument and Leehigh, is no ordinary candidate. He's a surgeon with a classic immigrant success story, having arrived in this country as a young boy who spoke no English, yet rose up through the Fairfax school system to attend Georgetown University.
And Omeish is also a Muslim fundamentalist rabble-rouser whose videotaped rants urging crowds of demonstrators to adopt "the jihad way" led to his resignation from Virginia's state Commission on Immigration just 24 hours or so after Gov. Tim Kaine appointed him to the panel last fall.
Oddly enough, Omeish's campaign site somehow manages not to mention any of his activities on behalf of his brethren in the Middle East. But the evidence is all over the web. Here's the full speech Omeish gave at a Jerusalem Day rally in December, 2000, in which he says that "We, the Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area, are here today in sub-freezing temperatures to tell our brothers and sisters in Palestine that you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land. And we by standing here today... we are telling them that we are with you, we are supporting you, and we will do everything that we can, insha'allah, to help your cause." Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Being a jihadi is a feature not a bug for liberal No. Va. voters. But then again there are probably enough Muslims here, that he could get elected with only Muslim votes.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has invited Judge Jay Bybee to testify before the panel regarding his role in writing several "torture memos".
"By coming forward to testify, you will be able to explain your position with regard to these matters, including your involvement and your knowledge regarding how these memos were written and approved, what considerations went into that process, who was consulted in that process and the roles of various individuals," Leahy, D-Vt., said on Wednesday.
Bybee served as Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003 before taking his seat on the 9th Circuit. He signed two controversial August 2002 memoranda that outlined legal rationales behind the torture memos.
The Bybee memo, also known as "the torture memo" was a document prepared by the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in response to a CIA request to the White House.
It was submitted on August 1, 2002 and officially titled Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, from Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, and Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Bybee would be an idiot to agree to appear before Judiciary.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2009 9:35 Comments ||
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At least Bybee had backbone back in the day. If Bybee is left out in the cold, he could flip burgers for a living with his head held high in my book.
A prominent college for women in Lahore, Pakistan has barred students from wearing jeans or figure-hugging clothes in the wake of a reported terrorist threat.
Kinnaird College, which is among Lahore's oldest educational institutions, has imposed the strict dress code according to which students can attend classes in shalwar kameezes or loose trousers.
Wearing a dupatta has also been made mandatory. The college's Vice Principal Nikhat Khan told the Daily Times newspaper that the measures were in line with a government notification and had no connection with rumours about burqa-clad women issuing warnings to students.
Khan said jeans and tight dresses were banned at the college several years ago but the new principal was unaware of the ban and girls were using this to their advantage.
However, students said there was an "atmosphere of fear" after the introduction of the rules.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/30/2009 07:10 ||
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[Geo News] President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday said the aim of carrying out operations in Buner and Dir was to establish writ of the government. In a statement issued here, the President said: "The operations in Buner and Dir were undertaken to ensure security of Quad-i-Azam's Pakistan and to establish writ of the Constitution." He stressed that the security forces be extended complete cooperation by forgetting all the differences.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh President Shahi Syed, denouncing the killing in Karachi, appealed for an end to violence that killed more than 20 people on Wednesday. Speaking to Geo News here, he said that people should demonstrate patience and maintain peace. He called upon people to cooperate with rangers and police personnel. Â"Karachi is a mini Pakistan where peace is essential,Â" he said. Syed said that destroying peace in the city is a conspiracy against the country. ANP president said that it was strange that fight of land mafia spread across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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The Pakistan Army officers are afraid that if they ask the rank and file to fire on the Taliban too much, the whole army might disintegrate, Bruce Riedel, a senior Obama administration official, has said.
The Obama administration is considering expediting aid to Pakistan to block militants threatening a cluster of strategic installations, The Washington Times has reported.
Grip: Bruce Riedel, who chaired the Obama administration's recent review of policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said the Pakistani government and army are still not coming to grips with the crisis. "Some officials are in denial," he said.
Riedel expressed concern, however, about whether the Pakistani army would be willing to kill large numbers of the Taliban. Army's spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas has said the operation against around 500 Taliban could take a week.
Taliban leaders, he said, had faked a withdrawal from Buner to impress the media. The peace deal with the government in the Swat valley was also a trick, he said.
The US has proposed giving Pakistan $1 billion in emergency aid and $1.5 billion a year in economic aid annually for five years.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
From the headline I assume that most of the Paki Army pulls double duty as Taliban, hence no army to fight taliban, they all go "Over".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/30/2009 13:30 Comments ||
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Day 8 into the 26/11 trial comes captured 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Qasab's wish list: Toothpaste, Urdu newspapers.. standard requests in all trials. But the most surprising one here is 'perfume'.
Says Qasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi: "Perhaps his cell is stinking because he has to answer nature's call there."
Qasab has also asked for the money found on him when he was arrested to be transferred to a jail account for his use.
When asked by the judge what he read in Pakistan, Qasab said Nawa-e-Waqt. Qasab also wants the police to allow him to get out of his cell for a quick walk.
In a letter written to his lawyer in Urdu, he says: "The police need not worry because that verandah is closed on all 4 sides. That is why I should be allowed to walk for some time. Staying in one room I might develop some psychological problems and things should not go out of hand."
The court has asked the Arthur Road jailor which of Qasab's requests can be granted. The toothpaste seems likely. But the perfume, far from it.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iraq has arrested a former deputy governor and charged him with terrorism over his alleged participation in deadly clashes between Shiite militiamen and police in 2007. "Jawad al-Hasnawi, the former deputy governor of Kerbala, has been arrested and charged with terrorism along with one of his assistants named Ali al-Silawi," provincial police chief Major General Ali Jassem Mohammad said.
"Hasnawi and his assistant will be arraigned in court on the charges of participating in the events of the Shaabania pilgrimage in Kerbala in 2007," he said, referring to a religious ceremony that turned into a bloodbath.
The government has issued arrest warrants for two other provincial officials it also suspects of involvement in the clashes. Hasnawi and the others are all members of the political movement of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Israel warned the European Union on Thursday to tone down its criticism of the new Israeli government or risk forfeiting the bloc's role as broker in Mideast peace efforts. The warning came after EU's commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, this week criticized Israel's refusal to endorse a Palestinian state. She said an upgrade in Israeli-EU relations would depend on Israel's commitment to the "two-state solution." It also came ahead of a planned trip to Europe next week by Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman -- his first official trip abroad. The ultranationalist Lieberman's comments about Arabs and Mideast peace have raised international concerns about the new Israeli Cabinet's intentions. "Thank you for your advice. Now bugger off."
This is connected to a delayed summit to upgrade Israel's commercial ties with Europe, with some EU countries now aiming to tie such upgrades to progress toward the 2-state thingy. Details in the article. Funny, the EU gives the Paleos a lot of support even though Hamas won't endorse a two-state solution ...
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Many in Nazareth are welcoming Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israel and the West Bank next month, which they anticipate will attract additional pilgrims and tourists, and perhaps even help calm this often tense region.
"I accept all religions," said Tawfik Awad, a parking attendant who is Muslim. "All of us are born in nine months. God created us all... When a man of religion comes and brings peace, we welcome him with our hearts."
Yolanda Tabri, a Christian, said the Benedict's visit would help create a positive atmosphere and even "increase the holiness of Nazareth," where the pope will lead the largest of three masses on May 14.
But some residents of this town - where the once majority Christians now make up roughly 35 percent of the population - have mixed feelings. Others have come out adamantly against the visit.
Sheikh Nazim Abu Salim, the fiery, long-bearded imam of the Shihab-e-Din Mosque in downtown Nazareth, has a long list of reasons for his opposition to the May 11-15 visit.
The pope, he said, "declared his war on Islam" and "defamed the prophet... and the nation of Islam" when he quoted a medieval text about the Prophet Muhammad and holy wars during a lecture at a German university in 2006. "We cannot accept whoever insults the prophet," Abu Salim told The Jerusalem Post this week after an evening prayer.
Second, despite former US president George W. Bush having declared "a crusader war against the Islamic world" and waging bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the pope went to America and blessed it, Abu Salim said.
In addition, "The blood shed from [Israel's recent Gaza offensive] has still not dried," and yet the pope was visiting the government of Israel and its ministers, he said.
Salim said he was also against the pope's visit to the Western Wall, known as the Buraq wall to Muslims, which he considers "an inseparable part" of the Aksa Mosque. "He is legitimizing the occupation of the blessed al-Aksa," Salim said.
"Muslims must prevent him [from entering al-Aksa] just as we prevented (far-right activist Baruch] Marzel from entering Umm el-Fahm" to supervise a polling station in February, Abu Salim said. Due to security concerns, police prevented Marzel from entering the city.
Contrary to previous media reports, the pope is not scheduled to visit the Aksa Mosque, but is to visit the nearby Dome of the Rock.
When asked about the potential for violence, Abu Salim said, "We don't have the power to control people... We can't prevent people from expressing how they feel or the manner in which they express it."
The solution, he said, was for the pope not to come at all.
Another Muslim man, who was waiting for the evening prayer and identified himself only a 60-year-old "sheikh" with seven children, said, "We welcome the whole world to Nazareth, except the pope, because he insulted the prophet Muhammad, the most noble of prophets."
"The prophet is nobler than any pope," the man exclaimed to a round of applause from other worshipers.
Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy, a Christian who is serving his third term in the city, told the Post earlier this month that the pope had said "the wrong thing," but noted that he later explained that he didn't himself agree with what he quoted. The mistake should not be held against him forever, Jaraisy said. "He's a human being and in the end, mistakes can be corrected."
The pope aimed to create an atmosphere of coexistence between religions and his message here would be one of dialogue, Jaraisy said.
"He will be calling for a better life for human beings who were created in God's image," he said.
During his 2006 lecture in Germany, the pope reportedly quoted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, who said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhumane, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Following an eruption of anger and violence in Muslim nations, the pope apologized, saying he was "deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries" to the passages in his lecture and that the quote he cited "does not in any way express my personal thought."
He said he cited the text as an examination of the relationship between faith and reason.
Talib Nassar, who owns a downtown Nazareth shwarama and kebab restaurant, said Benedict's visit would be very good for the country because it would show tourists it was safe to visit.
But Nassar, a Muslim, also said the pope should have refused to come to Israel after the IDF's Gaza offensive and after a Channel 10 talk show in February poked fun at Jesus and Mary, who are also revered in Islam.
The Vatican filed an official complaint about the "blasphemous" program with the government, which apologized.
"I'm happier more than I am upset" about his visit, Nassar added. "We want [the pope] to bring a message to the State of Israel, calling for complete peace in Israel, with the Palestinians and with Israel's neighboring countries."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2009 00:00 ||
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No mention that Nazareth is the site of the very holy Church of the Annunciation. Muslims recently tried to build a mosque next to the Church from where they could use their inevitable and ubiquitious loudspeakers to interfere with Church services. Thankfully, the Iraeli government intervened and stopped the construction.
#3
...Ya know, it's just occurred to me - both the current and previous Popes were first-hand witnesses to horrors that the Muslims can only have wet dreams about. These kinds of men aren't likely to cave easily when faced with these idiots. They will of course say kindly and conciliatory things, but they can only be pushed so far.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2009 19:16 Comments ||
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#3
Hold up a minute. Wouldn't restoring ties with Syria put us in violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture? I demand that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate any gummint official who has written a memo saying that restoring ties with Syria might be legal.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/30/2009 7:55 Comments ||
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#4
On the other hand, what has Former President Carter been correct about in recent years? I'll believe it when I hear it from a more reliable source, eg Debka.
LA Times article about a Polish perfectionist pianist who is quitting touring the US with his music because of US foreign policy.
Imminently Fiskable material, but here is my question: Why try to tell journalists in the US Zimmerman's decision wasn't political when it clearly was political?
Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who is widely admired for his virtuosic performances and who famously tours with his own custom-altered Steinway, created a furor at Disney Hall on Sunday night when he stopped his recital to announce that this would be his last American appearance -- in protest of the nation's military policies overseas. Good for him. Put your money where your mouth is, dude.
In a low voice that could not be heard throughout the auditorium, Zimerman, universally considered among the world's finest pianists, made reference to Guantanamo Bay and U.S. military policies toward Poland. Yeah, Gawd forbid Poland doesn't get overrun by Russia or nuked by Iran. And let us not forget the incredible inhumane insanity of "three hots and a cot"
"Get your hands off my country," he said. Such brilliance!
Then he turned to the piano and played Szymanowski's "Variations on a Polish Folk Theme" with such passion and intensity that the stunned audience gave him multiple ovations. He got an ovation because he finally STFU about politics and played some music. If I wanted to hear about politics at a music concert I would have beat it out of him
Earlier, about 30 or 40 people in the audience had walked out after Zimerman's declaration, some shouting obscenities. You lost some fans, dude. Mebbe you should keep it down until the concert is finished, or better yet outside selling tickets before the concert even begins. The way you did it makes you sound just like a showman: there's a sucker born every minute,and 30 walked out on you.
"Yes," the pianist, known in Poland as "King Krystian the Glorious," answered, "some people, when they hear the word military, start marching." Brilliant!
#5
No, no ed - for throwing at concerts, you want *slightly* overripe fruit. Too overripe, and it'll come apart in your hands on the backswing, but not overripe enough, and it won't have any splatter radius.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/30/2009 12:23 Comments ||
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#6
Personally, if I'm going to throw something at someone, I prefer hand grenades. If I don't want to hurt anyone else but the idiot I'm throwing at, I throw rocks. Rotten or semi-overripe fruit may splatter and make a mess, but a fist-sized rock on the noggin can on occasion knock some sense into the head of an otherwise intolerable mental midget.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/30/2009 14:52 Comments ||
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#7
Problem with rocks being thrown, they can be thrown back at you.
Use something that cannot be returned, such as high velocity hot lead.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/30/2009 17:30 Comments ||
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#8
...Well, give the guy this: he is apparently acting in accordance with his beliefs, and had the stones to say it to our faces. Even if you don't agree with him, he's got that going for him. What I want to know is why now? Bambi's president, everybody is supposed to love us, remember?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2009 19:12 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says Cairo will not tolerate "those who threaten the country's national security". 
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea on Wednesday issued a statement saying the country will conduct another nuclear test and test-launch ballistic missiles if the U.N. Security Council does not apologize for its condemnation of PyongyangŽs rocket launch earlier this month, according to a Korean Central News Agency report. The statement, issued by a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said the UNSC ŽŽshould promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative ŽresolutionsŽ and decisions adopted against the DPRK,ŽŽ according to the KCNA report.
[Kyodo: Korea] The U.N. Security Council does not either retract its adoption of a presidential statement over North KoreaŽs rocket launch or apologize for the adoption, a U.N. diplomatic source said Wednesday. ŽŽBasically it is impossible for the Security Council to retract or apologizeŽŽ for the adopted statement, the source said.
Germany's Interior Ministry agreed to consider accepting former inmates from Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detention center for terrorism suspects that the Obama administration plans to shut down.
The Pakistan Army officers are afraid that if they ask the rank and file to fire on the Taliban too much, the whole army might disintegrate, Bruce Riedel, a senior Obama administration official, has said.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iraq has arrested a former deputy governor and charged him with terrorism over his alleged participation in deadly clashes between Shiite militiamen and police in 2007. "Jawad al-Hasnawi, the former deputy governor of Kerbala, has been arrested and charged with terrorism along with one of his assistants named Ali al-Silawi," provincial police chief Major General Ali Jassem Mohammad said.
