Mar. 17, 2007: Security

Everyone needs to feel secure

Jihad.com , Sunday, March 11, 2007

60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/47/jihad_online

Afghanistan and Iraq are half a world away from the United States, but the most important front in the war on terror may just be a mouse click away. Correspondent Scott Pelly takes an in-depth look at the world of Jihad online, including how ordinary Americans are fighting back. [....]

Freedom of speech row as talk on Islamic extremists is banned , By John Steele, 5/03/2007, The Telegraph

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=3236&mforum=elwoodpdowd

A leading university has been accused of "selling out" academic freedom of speech by scrapping a talk on links between the Nazis and Islamic anti-semitism after allegedly receiving emails from Muslims protesting about the event.

Matthias Küntzel, a German author and political scientist who specialises in the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, was told yesterday by the University of Leeds that a talk scheduled for yesterday evening, and a two-day workshop, on Hitler's Legacy: Islamic Anti-semitism in the Middle East, had been cancelled because of security fears.

[....] "My impression was that they wanted to avoid the issue in order to keep the situation calm. My feeling is that this is a kind of censorship.''

He has given the talk at Yale and in universities in Jerusalem and Vienna. [....]

Daniel Pipes: receives a Free Speech Award
“The Rushdie Rules: Will the West Accept Islamic Law?” , Mar. 3, 2007, Sponsor: Trykkefrihedsselskabet

gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/03/
www.trykkefrihed.dk/kalender-trykkefrihedspris2007.htm



Natana DeLong-Bas: American Professor, Wahhabi Apologist -- here , by Stephen Schwartz, Real Clear Politics, January 19, 2007

www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3035

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/
2007/01/natana_delongbas_american_prof.html

[....] DeLong-Bas is a professional apologist for Saudi extremism. .... had found "no convincing evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center." Her interview was made public in translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) at www.memri.org.

In a long colloquy clearly intended to flatter her Saudi patrons, DeLong-Bas claimed that she had been studying the works of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi sect, for a decade, and had read all of them. But she was forced by a persistent Saudi reporter to admit that she had never read the Islamist preacher's correspondence, which critics of Wahhabism and other Saudis consider key to understanding him. She rambled on, claiming that Islamist terror has nothing to do with radical religious interpretations, and with an almost absurd predictability blamed everything wrong in the Muslim and Arab world on the U.S. and Israel. She even described the "democracy" of terrorist groups like Hamas and the Wahhabi agents in Somalia as superior in achievement to U.S. democratization efforts.

Intellectually, Natana DeLong-Bas fits comfortably in the philosophical milieu of contemporary MES. For the majority of MES scholars in the U.S., certain cliches--little more than slogans--have become the foundation for teaching a new generation of American scholars. These truisms include the claim that radical Islam is a construct fabricated by Western "Orientalists," that all the problems of the Arab and Muslim nations are caused by Western economic rapacity, and, of course, that American support for Israel is the principal cause of Arab and Muslim discontent. [....]

List of articles by Douglas Farah

Pakistan's Downward Spiral , By Douglas Farah

counterterrorismblog.org/2007/03/pakistan_downward_spiral.php

Sudan Found Liable for Terrorism in USS Cole Trial , By Douglas Farah, March 14, 2007

counterterrorismblog.org/2007/03/
sudan_accused_of_terrorism_in.php#trackbacks

A federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia today found the government of Sudan liable for terrorism for the Oct. 12, 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen. "There is substantial evidence in this case presented by... [....]

The 1,400-year war: On Wednesday, Key Porter books released reflections on Islam ideas, opinions, arguments, by National Post columnist George Jonas, National Post, March 16, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.ht
ml?id=c2727806-3212-4217-944b-7144baebacf5

[....] The melodious ditty would be viewed as offensive to "diversity" today. We meant to give no offence to anyone -- none of us had ever seen a Turkish lad -- but we did associate the song with what we had been told about the Turkish occupation of Hungary -- the Turkish hodoltsag or bondage, as we invariably referred to it, just as Palestinians refer to the creation of Israel as nakba, or catastrophe.

Being in thrall to the Turk meant being in thrall to Islam. This was worse than being in thrall to the German -- Hungary's other great historical trauma -- for Germans were at least kin in Christ, while Turks were Muslims.

Christianity's roots in Hungary were not very deep, but they did go back to the 9th century (with pagan revolts extending into the 11th). The Magyars, a coalition of seven tribes of nomadic horsemen from Siberia, kept riding west until they emerged from familiar Asia and found themselves in alien Europe. This happened shortly before the end of the first millennium. The Magyar chieftains concluded that they had no choice but to adopt Christianity and settle in the fertile lands along both banks of the river Danube, in a region the Romans had called Pannonia.

The chieftains did not realize that they had picked a natural conflict zone. They pitched their tents in the borderlands between civilizations. Buda Castle was still a long way from being built in 895 AD, but the grey Danube (it was never blue) roiling at the foot of the future seat of Hungary's kings was the last in a series of moats between East and West, Asia and Europe, paganism and monotheism. In due course, it became a moat between Islamand Christendom. [....]

Mar. 17, 2007: Happy St. Patrick's Day

Abdullah Almalki -- Ottawa man's name comes up in U.S. terror trial , Andrew Duffy, CanWest / Ottawa Citizen, March 14, 2007

www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=
3dfde3e5-9d24-48d3-a3e9-9a2572886af6

[....] "Among the items shipped to Elzahabi's New York business," the FBI affidavit reads, "were large quantities of portable field radios or walkie-talkies suitable for communications in extreme rural locations without regular or even cellular telephone service."

[....] One of the documents taken in the RCMP raid and filed in the Elzahabi case is a fax from Almalki dated April 17, 1996.

The fax, which is addressed to "Mr. Zahabi," directs him to remove the labels from various communications components, repackage them with stickers from Almalki's company, Dawn Services, and ship it to Micro Electronics International in Lahore, Pakistan. The goods were insured for $298,000 US.

U.S. authorities have suggested the shipments were intentionally disguised and destined for Afghanistan.

But Almalki said ... destined for the Pakistani military ... low-tech and required assembly by a skilled firm, such as Micro Electronics, to be turned into field radios. [....]

Almalki, 36, a Carleton University graduate, was a principal target of an RCMP national security investigation that ensnared Maher Arar and ultimately led to his deportation and torture in Syria.

Almalki, too, was arrested in Syria while visiting relatives in April 2002. He spent 22 months in Syrian prisons, where he was questioned and tortured, he says, based on information that could only have originated with Canadian security agencies.

I suspect another lawsuit coming up ... After all, Maher Arar got over $10-million, based on his word, essentially.



9/11 confession -- 'I was responsible for the 9/11 operation' -- Al Qaeda suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has claimed he organized the September 11 attacks on the United States

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=
c41e178d-7733-4859-9667-6cbe29f31206

[Articles]
Mohammed says killed U.S. reporter Pearl: transcript
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation." Excerpts from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's testimony
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in his own words
Archive: Arrest may bring more attacks
Archive: Interrogation reveals Pearl details

Memory Lane: Frost Hits the Rhubarb July 18, 2005
Are Muslims here to escape the Third World or to re-create it?

Islamo-fascism in Canada--a compendium of viewpoints

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005/07/
are-muslims-here-to-escape-third-world.html

Scroll down to:

[....] Mr. El-Nashar, the Eygptian chemist,

[....] El-Nashar was once arrested in Eygpt in connection with the Luxor tourist attack that claimed 58 lives and temporarily crippled Eygpt's tourist industry. As well, Sidique Khan, one of the suicide bombers, is connected to a terrorist assassination by another British-Muslim in Israel, and a thwarted attack in London in 2004.

[....] Pakistani madrassas extoll suicide attacks and preach a virulent anti-western message.

[....] As George Jonas writes, one commentator who did get it was the British parliamentarian, Enoch Powell, who was universally despised by the western left-wing. In 1958, he gave a speech criticizing Britain's policy of mass immigration from the Third World. As a classical Greek scholar, Powell made reference to Virgil's poetic line: "Like the Roman, I see the the river Tiber foaming with much blood." Powell saw that the British culture could not sustain large immigration by people, who not only didn't believe in that culture, but secretly despised it. Instead of nipping this anti-western sentiment in the bud, the government pushed a multicultural policy. This policy, like ours here, encouraged people to keep their cultural values, rather than assimalate. It funded cultural centers such as the one that the terrorist Khan ran. Rather than being a false prophet, Enoch Powell has been shown to be extremely prescient. Thirty-seven years have passed and now one out of eight Londoners is Muslim. Mosques like the infamous one in Finsbury Park have become training grounds for terrorists and the true crazies are allowed to openly preach sedition and murder in Hyde Park. The British political and media elites, who vilified Powell for the remainder of his life, will never admit their disgraceful misjudgement, but you won't hear them mouthing their multicultural platitudes anymore either. As Jonas puts it, "Are (the Muslims) here to escape the Third World, or to recreate it?"

Jerusalem on the Jukebox--Playing the same old sad tune

Maybe it time to disabuse ourselves of a Palestinian-Israel peace solution. [....]

B.C. man in terror probe
Accused of financing Afghanistan camps , Stewart Bell And Nathan Vanderklippe, National Post, with files from Brian Hutchinson, Adrian Humphreys and CanWest, March 13, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=74bda148-2b97-4fdf-8331-64fd6f3d29ab&k=44803

A Canadian under investigation in British Columbia and Ontario for allegedly scamming millions from investors was arrested in Spain yesterday for his suspected role in financing terrorist training camps.

[....] Neither the FBI nor Spanish authorities would provide details of the allegations yesterday, but the National Post has confirmed that Canadian securities regulators have also been investigating Mr. Anderson.

The B.C. Securities Commission said it had been holding hearings into Mr. Anderson's financial dealings since April, 2006. A spokesman for the commission, Andrew Poon, said the man arrested in Spain is the same man being investigated by the commission.

The connection between Mr. Anderson's alleged investment scheme and terrorist financing surfaced at a hearing held on Feb. 26, when the commission introduced as evidence the U.S. allegations. The Ontario Securities Commission has also accused Mr. Anderson of violating provincial securities law. [....]

CANADIAN EXECUTIVES
members.canada.com/services/newsletters.aspx?site=
cc&provider=canada&brand=members

High-profile corporate scandals involving Nortel Networks Corp. and Conrad Black may be under the spotlight in Canada. But a new survey reveals Canadian business chiefs are failing to comply with securities reforms designed to protect investors and bring corporate governance here in line with the United States. Only one in ten executives at public companies say their peers are ready to deal with the new rules being introduced by the Canadian Securities Administrators to mimic legislation in the United States known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX [....]

UN predicts huge migration to rich countries , By David Blair,16/03/2007

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=3227&mforum=elwoodpdowd

Can the UK cope with nine million more people?

At least 2.2 million migrants will arrive in the rich world every year from now until 2050, the United Nations said yesterday. [....]

I am not convinced of the wonders of immigration, particularly from certain areas. Fix what is broken first.



Alberta and Ontario singled out in air pollution study , Mike De Souza, CanWest, March 15, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=
01d3021e-f35c-4c58-b46a-24579b61728e&k=59202

OTTAWA -- Alberta and Ontario have found themselves singled out in a new evaluation of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions across Canada.

According to the survey, Alberta produced more than a quarter of Canada's total air pollutants and about 40 per cent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, while Ontario represented 21 per cent and 28 per cent of total emissions, respectively, in the those categories for the same year.

The rankings were part of a PollutionWatch study [www.pollutionwatch.org/], published Thursday by Environmental Defence and the Canadian Environmental Law Association, based on an evaluation of statistics collected by the federal government. [....]

Dion backtracks on reverse-onus crime bill -- The federal Liberals unveiled a new emphasis on law and order Wednesday with a platform aimed at blunting Conservative charges they're soft on crime.

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=
1b874b81-3e82-400a-bf78-854bc5c2eef4&k=62292

Target: Alberta's oilpatch -- Menacing comments from a top Liberal critic put the province's oil industry on guard , Terry O'Neill - March 12, 2007

www.westernstandard.ca/website/
index.cfm?page=article&article_id=2355

[....] Foremost in Klein's mind were comments made the week previous by the federal Liberal party's newly minted natural resources critic, Ontario MP Mark Holland, who suggested in a radio interview that a Liberal government would take over the Alberta oilsands if need be to fight global warming, and said later that a Liberal government would not be satisfied with the sort of soft "intensity targets" the Conservative government favours for slowly whittling down the oilpatch's carbon dioxide emissions. These targets, still being negotiated, aim to reduce the amount of emissions per barrel of oil produced, not the actual number of barrels.

The Conservative approach is something the oilpatch can live with. "We understand the public pressure that's out there, that people want to take action, that Canada needs to be doing its global share," says Pierre Alvarez of Calgary, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "We agree with that." What the Grits have in mind, though, is another story. As specified by Holland, the Liberals would order energy companies to cut actual production from the bountiful oilsands deposits around Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. This, Holland said, was necessary to help the country meet its Kyoto Protocol commitment to reduce, by 2012, CO2 emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels. However, by the time Parliament ratified the deal, in December 2002, total GHG emissions had increased by 24 per cent since 1990. The emissions just kept rising under the big-talking but do-nothing Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. [....]

Memory Lane: Hezbollah and the West African Diamond Trade , MEIB staff, June - July 2004

www.meib.org/articles/0407_l2.htm

Drug Production and the Environment in Lebanon -- trafficking, transshipment, and money laundering , by Alexander H. Joffe, 2000 Middle East Intelligence Bulletin

www.meib.org/articles/0010_l1.htm

A.H. Joffe taught in the Department of Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University from 1995 to 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and has written on modern Middle Eastern topics, including truth and reconciliation commissions, intelligence reform, and weapons of mass destruction for Middle East Quarterly and Crime, Law, and Social Change.

The good news is that, according to U.S. government sources, drug production in Lebanon has vastly decreased from its peak during the late 1980's and early 1990's.2 The bad news is that Lebanon is now a center for trafficking, transshipment, and money laundering.

Almost as bad is the fact that behind virtually every illicit drug is a chemical process that results in a variety of hazardous wastes. These problems have not yet been fully documented in Lebanon. But strong a circumstantial case can be made that extensive drug production in Lebanon, past, present, and future, will have a highly detrimental impact on an already fragile environment.

Background

Drugs have been present in the Middle East since remote antiquity. Opium was cultivated and widely traded during the Bronze Age, if not earlier, while cannabis is likely to have originated in Central Asia and is well documented archaeologically in the Near East by the first millennium BC.2 In contrast, coca does not occur naturally in the Old World. The drugs that were available were widely used and traded as medicinals and for use in rituals, but recreational use may be suspected. There are no data which speak directly to the scale of production of use in antiquity.

Modern production and use of drugs in the Middle East has not been addressed by historians, but whatever small-scale production existed in the early 20th century increased dramatically during the 1970's and 1980's in response to rising global demand. By the 1980's, production and export of drugs in Lebanon had become a massive industry. During the 1980's, cultivation of cannabis and opium poppies expanded tremendously throughout Lebanon due to growing international demand and the breakdown of central government controls. A key role was taken by occupying Syrian military and intelligence officials, with at least tacit support from Damascus. A number of high ranking officials, including Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, were directly implicated, giving permission to smugglers to travel unhindered throughout Syria and Lebanon. According to some estimates, the industry generated over $2,000,000,000 a year in profits.3

The profits collected by Syrians served the Assad regime by cementing the allegiance of primarily Alawite officials. [....]

B.C. auditor general fed up with addicts , CanWest, March 15, 2007

www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=
b8a8ee50-4bd0-406e-95bf-94b0fb6a6f3f

Addicts are having sex and shooting up drugs outside the downtown Victoria office of the B.C. Auditor General, and he -- like many others -- is fed up with the situation. In a tersely-worded letter to Victoria city council and police, Arn van Iersel expressed his "great concern" over safety issues in and around the alleys of Bastion Square, and said the number of police must be increased in the area.

"Just last week we had a couple fornicating outside our training room," writes van Iersel in a letter dated Feb. 13. "We also again had people shooting up drugs outside our back door. This is not the workplace I or my staff would like to have, and certainly not the image we want to have about Victoria." [....]

Ah, gee. Who says there is no good news?

Watchdog warns CBC could go off the air for 1.5 million viewers , Tim Naumetz, CanWest / Ottawa Citizen, March 14, 2007

www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=
ac38d522-e4d8-422b-a1a8-b77d05c1c110&k=85165

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is warning the Commons heritage committee today the Crown broadcasting corporation is set to "unplug" hundreds of thousands of viewers in small cities and rural areas across the country.

The Canadian-content watchdog [Think of heavy handed social engineering and propaganda] is basing its concerns on a little-noticed submission the CBC made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last fall suggesting smaller communities now rely heavily on satellite or cable TV. [....]

Search: A Canadian Media Research Inc. survey done for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting

Think of how that could be skewed to give the answers wanted. Why does a taxpayer funded broadcaster need "Friends of...", except for keeping jobs for those involved, for pushing propaganda, and, of course, for their activist causes for the left. Bah! Humbug.

What programming does CBC provide that resonates with rural Canada? That speaks to rural Canada's political or other concerns? CBC is more likely to be telling us of the wonders of multiculturalism, heart warming stories of immigrants to Canada--preferably non-white, non-Christian, and how we must learn to accept their ways, along with their demands. Programming tends to follow liberal leftist values -- Da Vinci and the safe heroin injection sites, for example. When was the last time rural Canada was presented positively in a CBC program which reinforces rural values? There may be items concerning urban crime, Canadians' unfairness to natives, how the poor need and want more, problems with racism, etc. We are to welcome diversity no matter how much the representatives of that diversity offend our ways and are less than tolerant of our ways. Think of Little Mosque on the Prairie; the only stupid, intolerant characters are white Canadian prairie small town citizens. Frankly, most of what rural Canada values is undervalued. Why should we care? Frankly, CBC, we don't give a d***. And another thought: Burn baby, burn.



Diversion: That's only 51 years ago!

Comments made in the year 1955:



"I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are,
it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20."

"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long
before $2000 will only buy a used one."

"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter
a pack is ridiculous."

"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just
to mail a letter?"

"If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire
outside help at the store."

"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would
someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the
garage."

"Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it
impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair
as long as the girls."

"I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they
let Clark Gable get by with saying 'damn' in 'Gone With The Wind,' it seems
every new movie has either "hell" or "damn" in it.

"I read the other day where some scientist think it's possible to
put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows
they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas ."

"Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for
$75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be
making more than the president."

"I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be
electric. They are even making electric typewriters now."

"It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few
married women are having to work to make ends meet."

"It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire
someone to watch their kids so they can both work."

"Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more; those Hollywood stars seem
to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat."

"I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a
whole lot of foreign business."

"Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government
takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best
people to congress."

"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I
seriously doubt they will ever catch on."

"There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend.
It costs nearly $15 a night to stay in a hotel."

"No one can afford to be sick any more; $35 a day in the hospital is
too rich for my blood."

"If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it."


Thanks to a friend for this.

Mar. 15, 2007: Bud Talkinghorn

The same-sex marriage bill--the Liberals said this couldn't happen, but it has.

Tucked away on page A-6, bottom one inch column of The Globe and Mail (March, 15) is this little Bill 37 amendment. In the N.B. legislature there was a proposed amendment to the new Marriage Act, which would exempt clergy and civil servants from performing a marriage that was against their beliefs. The Liberal majority defeated it. To quote the Attorney-General, one TJ Burk, he said the bill amendment was "flawed and would be a step backward for New Brunswick". Allowing people to have freedom of belief is "backward"?

Almost everything connected with the same-sex bill was tainted with fraud or coercion. First the committee to investigate public opinion on this was stacked with same-sex supporters. Many groups were given advance warning to mobilize their support. Then the committee disbanded before its term was up. Supposedly, because the courts had made a ruling on it. A small sidebar: Isn't it interesting how the superior courts' (or Supreme Court) manages to weigh in on the side of the Liberal's positions? Every time the opposition to same-sex marriages brought up freedom of religious conscience they were pooh-poohed. "Never can happen," the Liberals/Bloc/ NDP leaders assured them. "The Charter wouldn't allow that."

Well, I'm sure there were protections in the original Nazi Party's constitution for citizens' beliefs. But Hitler didn't want to appear, as TJ Burk would put it, "backward". Therefore, new interpretations of the old laws would now apply. I can only hope that the religious challenge this. But where can it get justice? The Supreme Court?

© Bud Talkinghorn--The clergy, in particular, were supposedly protected. What a travesty!



The appointed justices have done their liberal duty. To do what those who appointed them wished was, IMHO, a major reason why they rose from the bottom of the legal pool. All along the way, they make evident their leftist/liberal/Liberal bona fides until, in the fulness of time, they reach the pinnacle of the judicial system. The culmination is the SCOC, a politicized, appointed group who do what they were advanced to do. So what else is new in Canada? Freedom of religion, particularly Christianity, or freedom of conscience in the face of the leftist and Liberal juggernaut which held sway for years? No contest. FHTR


Conrad Black--An appreciation

Perhaps Conrad will turn out to be a big time embezzler, who demanded to live like Louis the Sun King. Certainly the liberal media misses no opportunity to point out his foibles and "predatory" nature in business. An example of that hatchet job they are presenting was in full evidence last night on CBC's "Life and Times" program. Peter C. Newman managed to inject his usual venom with comments like "A mafia don" as well as insinuating that Barbara Amiel, his wife, was a nympho. A few of Black's old acquaintances were trotted out as character references; however, the entire thrust was what a shady egotist Black was. The liberal left delights in his current situation and their media coverage shows it in spades. It vindicates Black's comment that, "In Canada they always want to cut down the tall poppies."

Another Conradian statement was that "Canada is the true home of political correctness". It wasn't just what he said, but how he went about creating a conservative antidote to that scourge. Black built up a newspaper empire that attacked those who had foisted this odious political correctness upon us. The creation of The National Post was his crowning glory. It tackled this suffocating victimology that The Toronto Star, the CBC/CTV, and The Globe and Mail stuff their content with. It was a big spear to skewer the sacred liberal cows of aboriginal policy, the radical feminist movement and, yikes, even The Supreme Court. The Liberal Party was a favourite target, especially as they wallowed in the sleaze of Adscam. By its role in elevating Stephen Harper and the Conservatives to power, the liberal media had found a worthy, if despised, opponent.

So even if the Blacks had a "let the shareholders eat cake" mentality, Conrad will be remembered by Canadian and British conservatives--large C and small--as a champion.

© Bud Talkinghorn

Mar. 15, 2007: Missing screen capture

Update Mar. 15, 2007: I just discovered that, for some reason, this screen capture was no longer visible in this post (Mar. 13, 2007: Banking Update-Pakistan-Afghanistan). I have put it up again, but I could not post it so I am re-posting here. There are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun by the men who moil for ... whatever. FHTR

Double click to enlarge; back to return.




Banking, Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Citigroup, ABN-Amro, Pakistan, Habib Bank

Foreign Banks May Spend $1 Billion on Pakistan Stakes (Update1) , By Warren Giles, Feb. 2, 2007 (Bloomberg)

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a_C_PAnJs58U

Overseas banks, including Citigroup Inc. and ABN Amro Holding NV, may spend as much as $1 billion to buy stakes in Pakistani banks and take advantage of the rising demand for credit in the South Asian nation.

[....] Citigroup and ABN-Amro will consider acquisitions to catch up in Pakistan with Standard Chartered Plc, which bought Union Bank Ltd. in September for $487 million to cement its place as the biggest overseas lender in a nation of 160 million people.

On Sept. 5, in Pakistan's largest banking transaction, London-based lender Standard Chartered bought a 95.37 percent stake in Union Bank for $487 million to create Pakistan's sixth- largest lender by assets. In 2003, Pakistan sold a 51 percent stake in Habib Bank Ltd., the nation's second-biggest lender, to the Geneva-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development for $390 million. [....]

Citigroup Will Consider Acquisition of Pakistani Bank (Update3) , By Naween A. Mangi, Nov. 23, 2006 (Bloomberg)

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=
newsarchive&sid=afUHuOn7VkXE

Citigroup Inc. will consider the acquisition of a Pakistani bank as it seeks to close the gap with the U.K.'s Standard Chartered Plc in South Asia's second- biggest economy.

The biggest U.S. bank will also double branches in Pakistan in a year as it capitalizes on rising loan demand from consumers and small companies, [....]

The Union Bank purchase by Standard Chartered was the largest in Pakistan's banking industry. In 2003, Pakistan sold a 51 percent stake in Habib Bank Ltd., the nation's second-biggest lender, to the Geneva-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development for $390 million.

[....] Citibank plans to treble lending to small and medium Pakistani enterprises .... bank targets more buyers of cars and apartments.

Soomro said Citibank will also consider starting Islamic financial services in Pakistan, a nation where 97 percent of the population is Muslim. Islamic law, or Shariah, bans the payment and receipt of interest and stresses profit-sharing.

``This is an area of real opportunity,'' said Soomro, who arranged a $600 million Islamic bond sale for the government in January 2005. Citigroup also arranged the country's first Islamic corporate debt sale in February 2006 for Water & Power Development Authority. [....]

If interest is verboten, how will they make money? Check further ... Maybe it leads to other businesses?

All for the good of humanity ...

In trying to find out more about the recipient of $30-Million Canadian tax dollars, the Aga Khan through his foundation (The international wing is "private", not run by an elected Board of Directors responsible to shareholders nor to the Canadian government, so who tracks what happens?), I have been overwhelmed by the number of positive articles listed by Google. Then, on posting something, I received an anonymous comment, obviously from an Aga Khan accolyte, a believer who perhaps is tasked with ensuring that the media do not dig into the world's "official humanitarians". Well, apart from making a mistake concerning the AK's birthplace which I have corrected and noted more than once, I have not found anyone disputing the substance of what I have found. Even "righteous philanthropists" who receive taxpayer money need to be checked to find out where taxpayer money has gone ... Anonymous spurred me to check further.

Double click to enlarge; then "back" to return


There was a screen capture here but someone with more clout than your humble blogger removed the possibility of its being seen. How ... expected. Never cross the powerful ... international do gooders and humanitarians ... or their anonymous acolytes.

I shall check whether this new copy is here tomorrow.




Related:


Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 25 2007

re: Global Development
Microcredit - CIDA - Aga Khan Foundation - Taxpayer Input - Public-Private Partnerships - Transparency - Ramifications - Private Microbank - AKCA / AKF


frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2007_02_25_archive.html

Scroll down; assume [...] after each

Feb. 27, 2007: Introduction

Private Microbank

The Micro Finance Bank Ltd set up by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program , the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development

CIDA: a partner with the Aga Khan Development Network

Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM), an arm of the Aga Khan Development Network
[....]

Feb. 26, 2007: Innovations in Microcredit

This is intended to provide more background to other posts ... on aid, microcredit, development, foundations, banking endeavours, and taxpayer money.

Feb. 26: 2007: Global Development ....

There is more and also links to other posts from months ago.


Frost Hits the Rhubarb Jan. 14 - 20, 2007

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2007_01_14_archive.html

Banking and microcredit related -- Search:

Update-additions: Jan. 13, 2007: Financing Disaster #2 Introduction

Jan. 13, 2007: #1 CIDA Evidence to Senate Committee [i.e. Where has Canada's Foreign Aid been going in Afghanistan? - Continued below]

Jan. 13, 2007: #2 CIDA Evidence to Senate Committee [52-million-dollar micro-financing program in Afghanistan - $100 million per year - supervised by ARTF and the World Bank - Middle Eastern accounting firms - women trained in communication and media - radio - $3-Million out of $90-Million for basic education for girls]

Jan. 13, 2007: #3 CIDA - ARTF [Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program ... - officials from the Canadian International Development Agency: Hau Sing Tse, Vice-President of the Asia Branch, and Phillip Baker, Director of the Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka Division - Afghan ARTF Expatriates Services Program - artfexpat.gov.af which leads to iom.int or the International Organization for Migration - Lateral Entry Program to place 100 lateral entrants from NGOs and international organizations in middle- and senior-level line positions in government ministries and agencies]

Mar. 14, 2007: Updated: Mining, Copper-Gold, DRC, Gobi

I moved a post from yesterday to go with this update.


Update - More re: Mining, Copper, Congo, Gobi, Myanmar, Africa, Gold, Banro, AMEC, Peter Lighthall -- who was mentioned below in "Mining Africa Congo DRC" as being with "global engineering consultants AMEC" -- The complete article is worth reading before the update article.

What intrigued me were phrases such as "the social and community aspects of mining" and the mention of the environment, environmental monitoring, communications in Africa, concern for natives or Africans, that kind of thing ... how shall I put it? As I read, a certain tone, "doing good", "responsible development", while mining and making money. It just draws some of us like a flies to honey.

If you search Banro or Banro, AMEC, there are some articles of interest. For example:

Nothing Like it on Planet Earth - Robert Friedland's Tour d' Tolgoi , By Resource Investor, 07 Mar 2005 at 09:03 AM GMT-05:00 -- or here

www.resourceinves
tor.com/pebble.asp?relid=9010

www.google.com/search?q=cache:6qRD5wxW_28J:www.resource
investor.com/pebble.asp%3Frelid%3D9010+Banro,+
AMEC&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=ca

Note: this address was delivered at the BMO Nesbitt Burns 2005 Global Resources Conference, Tampa, Fla. Stream the audio recording of this presentation -- The audio may be no longer available.

files.presentation-direct.com/presentations/
200502/BMO_resources_02282005/ivan
hoe/player/launch_audio.asx

I believe that, previously, I have mentioned Warren Buffet buying up coal or coal bearing areas.

Note: Myanmar, Gobi, China, copper, gold, diamonds, steel, coal ... and more.

[....] Ivanhoe Mines recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades in Toronto. We want to remind you that we really are an international mining company. We produce copper in Myanmar, we're the lowest cost primary copper mine in the world according to Brook-Hunt.

We are also developing our Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project which I am going to be telling you about in Mongolia, and we are still own a very large gold asset in Kazakhstan which we are going to be daylighting.

Our project in Myanmar [....]

We recently discovered what we believe is the richest copper discovery in the world.

[....] Now I'm going to tell you a little about Oyu Tolgoi in the south Gobi region. This is in fact at this conference, the only world class development project. As have been saying year in and year out, the real wealth in this industry is generated by developing a new resource; the real money for shareholders.

Mongolia is three times the size of France, twice the size of Texas, 2.6 million people, and our lands there in yellow are about the same size as Japan, or Italy, about 135,000 square kilometres, the largest land position in the mining industry. When we staked it for copper and we had copper on the brain, we never dreamed that we wound find metallurgical and steam coal. But we are now an energy company as well as a mining company. We own the coal rights, the nickel rights, the zinc rights, the copper and the gold rights throughout this highly mineralised region rich.

.... But we're not in China, we're in the independent country of Mongolia. So we're of China, but not in China. Mongolia is big, [....]

We still believe that we haven't found the guts of the Oyu Tolgoi ore body. There is a danger that subsequent drilling is vectoring in on extremely high grade gold zones. They are supported by this form of mineralization, and we've had geologists from the likes of Phelps Dodge and Rio Tinto hold our core in their hands and said, “never on Plant Earth has anything like this been found!”

[....Ladies] and gentlemen, what we are looking at here is a copper factory. But the interesting thing about it is, in order to build our copper factory, we need steel from China, and in order to build the steel, we need iron ore and in order to make the iron ore, we need metallurgical coal. And we just had a 71.5% increase in iron ore prices. Now this is a very boring commodity, iron, but in the last two years it’s up 100%. Iron has out-performed gold.

Virtually everything has out-performed gold. [....]

Thinking people want exposure to stuff the world needs like cooper, and of course, it's often said, real men mine copper, not gold. Gold is you know, it’s okay, it’s okay, it's okay as a byproduct, but what you really want is this commodity, copper, which has far out-performed gold.

And the great gold mines - like Wheaton River has exposure to buy at Alumbrera or Newmont was rescued by its Btu Hijau holding; they’re really just copper mines in disguise. So I still would want to tell you that I would much rather own a copper mine than a gold mine. [....]

End of Update

---

Mining Africa Congo DRC

Africa's DRC back on map for miners -- 'Companies who are there are going to reap rewards' , Drew Hasselback, Financial Post, March 05, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.ht
ml?id=f5c44cc4-72af-4add-a718-034410ca0b7b&k=86256

The Democratic Republic of Congo was once one of the world's largest copper producers. .... mining was responsible for one-quarter of the African nation's gross domestic product.

A brutal civil war in the 1990s ... Canadian miners are helping lead the way.

[....] "I think the conditions are difficult," says Jamie Kneen, a spokesman for Ottawa-based industry critic Mining Watch. "I think there needs to be much better evidence of the way things are being done. When you look at the Gecamines arrangements, they don't look terribly advantageous to the Congolese government or the Congolese people."

[....] A Parliamentary committee last summer held a series of round tables that among other things tried to shed some light on the practices of Canadian-based mining companies operating in developing countries. Such attention is gold for industry critics who are keen to use a surge of public attention to advance their agendas.

[....] "Probably the thing we're growing fastest right now is working with clients on talking about the social and community aspects of mining," says Peter Lighthall, a Vancouver-based vice-president with global engineering consultants AMEC. "That means helping develop relations with First Nations or indigenous communities, either in Canada or overseas. I think that's something that has been very good business for us, but also a great necessity for our clients."

[....] Banro's Mr. Cowley believes the return of a mining industry will spark development of other aspects of the DRC's economy. The country needs private investment to make that happen, he says.

"It's on the back of the private sector that the country will develop. It's gone through torrid times and it's really just come out of it no w," Mr. Cowley said. "Besides the minerals, I know some of the South African communications and mobile phone companies think there's extraordinary and huge potential."

Search: Kinross Gold Corp. , former Kinross executive, Art Ditto , Katanga Mining Ltd., which acquired that copper- cobalt project , free elections , Vancouver-based Tenke Mining Corp., Paul Conibear, president of Tenke. , Arizona-based Phelps Dodge Corp. , Lundins' Congolese project , Toronto-based Banro , 3.7 million ounces of gold at its four properties in the DRC.

Why did I expect the next words to be "sustainable development", along with the "private investment"?

Mar. 14, 2007: Quality, Not Quantity

Population: Quantity or Quality?

This is worth reading and discussing since Andrew Coyne makes valid points about larger vs smaller populations. My caveat is that, until we have the security aspect straightened out, immigration and acceptance of questionable refugees must be considered first, in the interests of Canadian citizens. Questionable entrants, those immigrants and refugees who do not choose to be tolerant and to accommodate themselves to Western culture, as well as those questionable because of their criminal backgrounds and/or criminal gang ties, such as the triad members who have entered, must be prevented from entering Canada and remaining. Get that Charter amended, reign in the courts who accord rights in defiance of logic; do something to protect us from that aspect of the Trudeaupean folly that would put the rights of strangers ahead of the rights of Canadian citizens. Because of lack of security checks or other laxity, immigration has been far from an unalloyed blessing.

Certain groups have brought their extremism and hatreds with them. I do not think we should be importing any more of them. Fill in for yourself which groups have proven to be part of what I describe. It may be politically incorrect to mention this but, since I am hardly pc, I am saying stop! until we decide as a country what our values are and what we are willing to protect to maintain our Western freedoms and democracy. Catering to disaffected entrants who hate us but want our prosperity or the space Canada affords is not the answer. Turf the worst and consider the best, for a change.

Disregard the leftist/liberal/Liberal need for voters which has unduly influenced immigration, buttressed by the appointment of immigration commissioners and members of the courts with a left/Lib slant, a need for voters which has been blatantly fulfilled to the detriment of the long term good of Canada. Don't call me racist; I am concerned about Western values, not colour. There is a difference. Canada must draw immigrants who will add positively to Canada, not come here, then whinge about their rights which, if they don't get what they want, all of a sudden become accusations of racism. Getting CBC to rant on about diversity and multiculturalism will not always paper over the problems anyone with ears to hear and eyes to read can learn. Canadians are talking and turning off the LiberalPropagandaOrgan in droves.


Let's be the Alberta of the G8
Immigration has made us wealthy in people, too , Andrew Coyne, National Post, March 14, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=1410adfc-f59f-43eb-b5ef-e753524989e4

In recent times, the Prime Minister has taken to referring to Canada as an "emerging energy superpower," a reference to our bounteous oil wealth. But perhaps it's time to start reckoning our assets in a new way, in terms of the only productive resource that really matters: people. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Canada, the emerging population superpower.

[....] More than that, numbers do count in this world. Bigger countries, as a rule, are more exciting, diverse, consequential places than smaller ones. France is more interesting than Liechtenstein. Japan has more impact on the world than Bermuda. Bigger countries not only have a greater chance, statistically, of producing those truly extraordinary individuals, an Einstein or a Bill Gates, they also attract more talented people, in the same way and for the same reason that people move to the big city from smaller centres. They allow people to live larger lives, both individually and, in the clout they wield in the world, collectively. Alberta's rapid population growth in recent years has made it a force to be reckoned with in confederation. Why should we not aim to be the Alberta of the G8?

Perhaps if we had one-fifth the United States' population, rather than a 10th, we would look upon our neighbours with less defensiveness, less envy disguised as disdain. Perhaps we might begin to treat them less as big brothers, and more as rivals, for indeed we would then be theirs. Perhaps the 21st century might belong to Canada, where the 20th passed us by.

Andrew, I do not necessarily think bigger is better, nor do I wish Canada to be a world power. Has it ever occurred to you and others like you, perhaps with visions of dollars dancing in your heads, as Canada becomes even more prosperous, that prosperity for some of us is not reckoned in dollar terms? There is a quality of life which a Hong Kong (yes, prosperous, but unbearably noisy, for example) or a Paris (great art, great galleries and museums, extraordinarily rude restaurant personnel, of which I have met the rudest samples ever, from North Africa), a New York (Yes, it has the Metropolitan or Lincoln Centre, but have you ever made the mistake of trying to read a newspaper in a NY restaurant, while eating breakfast when the waiter wants you to leave so he might do ... whatever?). I could go on. I love Canada without some of what wealth and power bring. With the seeming death of rural areas, particularly where the farmers are not big business farms, the death of small towns, I would protest that loss.

My Canada needs to be a haven of relative peace, quiet, contemplation, time for family and friends (You can't make loads of money that way!), time for families to play with children, to join them at games, music, all the activities which make for healthy families and happy people. Money and business are not everything. Some of us want just enough to live a decent life without frills and luxury, but such that it gives a life that, at its end, may be described as rich. Another loonie in the pocket won't do it and massive immigration so that more people may make more and more loonies definitely won't do it.

It's quality, not quantity, that I want. Maybe others feel the same. The least you could do is ask. Memo to the Immigration Minister: Ask us!






Conrad and the CBC

Mention of the CBC above reminds me of the CBC glee today, emanating from all corners, in endlessly talking, under the guise of reporting news, anything negative that may be dredged up about Conrad Black. You will hear the "news" repeated endlessly. I don't know whether Black has done anything wrong or not, but CBC's bias is enough to have me at least tending toward Conrad Black's camp. At least Black produced good newspapers, for which he will always be remembered fondly, along with his mode of speech.

Mar. 14, 2007: Canada - India , UN

Free trade agreement with India will boost Canada's prosperity and security , CCD Press Release on 10:24:41 2007/03/13
In Reply to: Ottawa pitching trade deal to India posted by STEVEN CHASE, Globe and Mail

canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/21768.shtml

Ottawa, Canada - The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) welcomes the decision of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Government to begin negotiating a "high-quality free trade agreement" with India. This initiative was announced by Parliamentary Secretary Ted Menzies on behalf of International Trade Minister David Emerson in India on Monday night.

"This is a significant step towards realigning Canadian foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region with the realities of the 21st century," said Dr. Salim Mansur, CCD's Senior Fellow and professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario.

“A free trade agreement, if signed over the next few years, will pave the way for advancing economic, cultural, educational, and social ties between Canada and India. ....

[....] Canadian foreign policy had its "golden age" some half century ago .... Canada's strong partnership with India within the Commonwealth and the United Nations was a key component of Ottawa's middle power diplomacy. Since then, the relationship between the two countries, despite the common heritage of parliamentary democracy, rule of law and English as an official language, has not been sufficiently nurtured. Today, India is world's largest democracy, the 12th largest economy and by 2025 expected to likely become the 4th largest economy, and a global power with more than a sixth of the world's population and a rising middle class of around 400 million.

"Looking ahead, the need for a Canada-India partnership is vital for both countries in the pursuit of common interests in wealth creation, global peace, regional stability and supporting the growth of democracies in the greater Middle East, Central and South Asia, Africa and the coastal states of the Pacific region," added Mansur. "We also note that Canada's commitment to Afghanistan is matched by India's economic contribution, while Ottawa and New Delhi share similar concerns on UN reform." [....]

Suggestion: Why not turf connections with the UN for reasons which have been enumerated many times, its uselessness for anything but expanding itself and talking being paramount. End its expansion into Canada. Set up a United Democracies and see whether that would be of use. Set a time limit for its re-assessment. If UD proves no better, end it, and go it alone, making what treaties and agreements Canada's government might make. Get out of the business of supporting failure and hot air.

Mar. 13, 2007: Various

I have moved the section on mining to a new post with update, above. Mar. 14, 2007



Natives

Bill C-257 will hurt Canada's natives , Matthew Coon Come, National Post, March 07, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/
story.html?id=9e8367c7-51bf-42cd-893b-ad3531ac5899

Matthew Coon Come is chairman and CEO of Cree C3 Management Corporation and was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations from 2000-2003.

Parliament is currently considering C-257, a private member's bill that seeks to enhance labour rights by banning replacement workers in federally regulated industries. It should not pass. While such provisions sound superficially appealing, the reality is that this legislation is fundamentally flawed. Its enactment would do severe harm to rural and remote communities in general, and Cree and other aboriginal Canadians in particular.

To fully appreciate why, it is helpful to understand why certain sectors were first designated under federal law when our country's initial labour laws were drafted.
Industries such as telecommunications, broadcasting, banking and transport by air, rail and marine are unlike other sectors: Their proper function is critical to the health of our national economy and to the well-being of all Canadians. As is so often the case, what is potentially harmful to non-aboriginal Canadians is of even greater concern to Indian, Inuit and Metis people.

The effect of C-257 is that labour disputes could bring vital services -- in some cases, essential services -- to a dead halt. [....]

Canadian natives stress equal status as nation at London portrait exhibit -- "We are in a stage just on the verge of making some important roads of how well we survive as a people into the future with a distinct identity," , Tristan Stewart-Robertson, CP, March 07, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=99ebb56f-face-4166-8888-
62613b1203b8&k=22597

LONDON (CP) - Natives from Canada called on the British Crown to remind the Canadian government about indigenous "sovereignty" at the Tuesday night opening of a major exhibit of historical portraits in London.

Representatives of the Haudenosaunee - or Iroquois - Confederacy Council urged a renewal of the original agreement made almost 300 years ago when four indigenous envoys, whom the British at the time called "kings," were brought to England to meet Queen Anne.

[....] Keith Jamieson, a historian and curator from the Six Nations of the Grand River community, presented a formal statement from the confederacy, approved after several meetings in recent weeks. It calls for the renewal of agreements that recognized the Haudenosaunee as equal nations and partners as Britain fought to defeat the French in North America.

"We, the chiefs of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council in a full session at the Onondaga Council House, Grand River, would like to take this opportunity to remind our English allies that these portraits are an expression of our sovereignty as nations and that we ask the Crown in Britain to remind their representatives in Canada of the commitments that we have together," the statement reads.

The statement was made as tension continued between the Six Nations community at Caledonia in Ontario over land developments.

Three hundred years ago, the deal with the British eventually led to the Haudenosaunee leaving New York state as the United States declared independence, and their settlement in Ontario. [....]

Native studies ... bearing fruit.



Kyoto Global Warming Climate Change

Discussion thread: Scientists threatened for 'Climate denial'.

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=3153&mforum=elwoodpdowd




USS Clueless

Stardate 20020814.2036

(On Screen): I have just read an amazingly profound article, which now joins a select group along with Kagan, Mead and Peters as the most important I have read regarding international politics. (Update: here's a longer article by Fonte which goes into more detail.)

The very best analysis articles are those which take a lot of things which seem unrelated and show how they're actually part of the same thing, and what that implies. I try to do that here, but I've never written anything as profound as Fonte has. This article shows that a completely new international political movement has formed, which opposes liberal democracy as we in the US practice it. He refers to it as transnational progressivism and makes a persuasive case that it is the underlying philosophy behind such apparently disparate phenomena as the anti-globalist movement, the "sustainable development" movement, those who support the International Criminal Court, much of forces supporting "multiculturalism" in the liberal academia, the apparent hypocrisy of international human rights organizations who are eager to condemn the US while ignoring much worse abuse by third world nations, and the formation of the European Union and the structure of the European Commission in Brussels. It ties in the clear elitist elements that all of these demonstrate and the way that all of them are fundamentally undemocratic and demonstrably contemptuous of the opinions of the "common man". It also ties in with the entire idea that nations should have high taxes, central control and heavy social spending. These things don't seem to be related, but they all express the same fundamental political philosophy.

It explains why to some people there is no greater insult to throw at their opponents than "patriot". It explains the real basis of claims about "international law" and why those who use the term are so emphatic about insisting on it. [....]

The key concepts of transnational progressivism are:

Groups are what matter, not people. [....]

The goal of fairness is equality of result, not equality of opportunity. [....]

Being a victim is politically significant. [....]

Assimilation is evil. [....]

An ideal democracy is a coalition where political power is allocated among groups in proportion to their numbers. It has nothing to do with voting or with individual citizens expressing opinions, and in fact it doesn't require elections at all. A "winner take all" system, or one ruled by a majority, is profoundly repugnant because it disenfranchise minority groups of all kinds and deprives them of their proper share of power.

National identity is evil. [....]

He's got it. By God, I think he's got it.


B.C. man linked to terror camp

Investment scheme said to support terrorist activities , David Baines, Vancouver Sun, March 13, 2007, via newsbeat1

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=b8b4d168-9bb0-4b1e-b1f1-68cbd9d5b4f2&k=93106

A White Rock man arrested in Spain Monday is accused of helping run a fraudulent Islamist investment scheme that U.S. authorities allege was used to help finance Islamist terrorist activities, including a training camp in Afghanistan.

Brian David Anderson, 61, was arrested in a Madrid hotel by Spanish police who were collaborating with FBI agents.

Anderson has been linked to New York businessman Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, charged last month with terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and money laundering. [....]

Search: Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI) , Alishtari (a.k.a. "Michael Mixon"), from 1998 through 2004, Alishtari , Alpha Program , 100-per-cent interest per month, increasing to 200 per cent , Frontier Assets , Alpha Frontier Ltd., a company incorporated in the Dominican Republic.


Why Islam Forbids Pork? , By: Rashid Shamsi, (The Muslim World League Journal, Rajab 1420 - October 1999)

[....] Muslims are required to be selective and to distinguish between Halaal (Lawful) and Haraam (Unlawful) [....]

Moderate Muslims

Where were our media? Did they report on this effort by moderate Muslims?

Pulling Muslims from Dark Ages , Salim Mansur, Mar. 10, 2007

www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/
Mansur_Salim/2007/03/10/3725446.html

This past week individuals from various professions and different ethnicities sharing a connection with Islam gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla. The meeting was billed as Secular Islam Summit.

A statement -- The St. Petersburg Declaration -- was released which calls for an affirmation of individual rights and freedom of conscience for Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the Muslim world.

The declaration begins, "We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree." [....]

A successful Islamic reform will occur when many more Muslims insist on the "release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy."

Then Muslims might find for themselves "a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine" as the brave individuals gathered together at the first Secular Islam Summit dared publicly to imagine. [....]

Women, Feminism, Lesbianism, Saudi Arabia, Same-Sex Relationships

Saudi Daily Discusses the Phenomenon of Same-Sex Relationships in Some Saudi High Schools and Colleges , March 9, 2007, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1496

memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD149607#_edn1

The Saudi daily Arab News recently reported on the phenomenon of lesbian relationships among students in some Saudi high schools and colleges.

The following is the full text of the article as it appeared on the Arab News English website: [1]

Saudi Student: "Administration at Colleges Do Carry Out Random Inspections to Prevent Such Behavior From Happening"

[....] "'My relationship with my family isn’t very good and I don’t get the love and attention that I should be getting from them. My family is very disconnected and there are a lot of family problems,' she said, adding that she is not paying much attention to her coming marriage. Rather she says her attention is fixed on Uhoud.
"Uhoud, on the other hand, feels similarly and also pays very little attention to other students who frown at her relationship with Fawziya.

"Fawziya and Uhoud’s affair is not an isolated one. ....

"There are other examples of such relationships blooming behind the walls of schools run by the Education Ministry. ....

"'What is surprising is that there was a married girl in her seventh month of pregnancy who was pursuing other girls to satisfy her sexual needs. Administration at colleges do carry out random inspections to prevent such behavior from happening,' said Al-Ghamdi."

Saudi Student: "I Blame a Lack of Awareness Among Families Toward Their Daughters" [....]

[1] Arab News, February 21, 2007.

You will be relieved to learn: "Education Department Source: "The Ministry Has Not Outlined Punishment for Students Who Are Caught in Such Relationships"" and that "Saudi Specialist: "Such Girls Need Help and Treatment""

If they can "treat" lesbianism or homosexuality, is it innate or learned? Is it possible that the dreadful treatment of women in Saudi Arabia and throughout much--though I am assured, not all--of the Islamic world lends itself to female-female bonding, rather than male-female bonding? Can a Western women imagine what it must be like to be denied the freedoms she takes for granted, then to see Islam making inroads in the West, attempting to change our ways?

To which I say: no, no, no ... a thousand times NO!


Islam Jihad Afghanistan Iraq

Afghanistan: The Rising Threat against Education Targets , Stratfor, February 26, 2007 2007 GMT

www.stratfor.com/products/wtr/wtr.php

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Afghanistan from Pakistan on Feb. 26 on a surprise visit to the region. While in Islamabad visiting Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Cheney made a point of expressing concern about the resurgence of the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan. This resurgence, coupled with the approaching spring thaw, is likely to result in a greater number of attacks against schools and educators in the country.

Part of NATO and the U.S.-led coalition's reconstruction effort has been on rebuilding schools in Afghanistan's small towns and villages. [....]

Justice, Ralph Goodale, rights

A Must Read

We get letters! Steve Janke, Mar. 8, 2007 via newsbeat1
www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/000801.html

The other day, I got an email from Dr. Tom Flanagan, political science professor and close adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Dr. Flanagan writes:
This afternoon (March 6, 2007) I got a call from CBC TV news reporter Krista Erickson. She said she was desperately seeking someone to provide balance for a story she was doing on Christine Tell and the Saskatchewan Judicial Appointments Committee. [....]

Becoming a judge in Ralph Goodale's Saskatchewan (updated) , December 29, 2005

Screen capture of interest - justices and donations

www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/
donations-saskatchewan-judges.gif


Deadbeat Writes , David Warren - February 26, 2007

www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?pa
ge=article&article_id=2324

[....] Our entire society has an interest in reckless, ideologically motivated judges laying the "rights" groundwork for the court legislation of polygamy. Which is precisely what the Ontario Court of Appeal's "three parent" decision provided. Yet the justices, in their reasoning, could not be bothered to consider the consequences of what they were doing. The destruction of a society's entire moral order being not the sort of thing they feel the need to concern themselves with.

McMurtry is the same chief justice who presided over the creation of "same-sex marriage" through a court decision in June 2003--and was photographed partying with the plaintiffs afterward. A complaint about this behaviour from REAL Women of Canada was dismissed only last month by the Canadian Judicial Council. This review panel did not challenge the fact; they only failed to find anything wrong with it. And given mainstream media who are utterly unprepared to make an issue of that sort of thing, why should they worry? [....]

... "revolution against decency." I am one of tens of thousands of publicly labelled "deadbeat dads," created by a vicious Ontario bureaucracy with the Orwellian name "Family Responsibility Office."

A must read article.


How did this festival fare? That's Chutzpah! -- Tradition and modernity meet at Vancouver's eclectic festival of international Jewish culture and talent -- Vancouver's Chutzpah! Festival 2007, running February 17-March 3, 2007, Dina O'Meara - February 26, 2007

www.westernstandard.ca/website/
index.cfm?page=article&article_id=2327

Chutzpah! strives to live up to its name, which is a Yiddish word for unmitigated gall, or moxie, depending on your view. An old definition of chutzpah goes as follows: a young man who has killed his parents begs for leniency from the judge. "Have mercy," he pleads, "I'm an orphan!" Insolence, audacity; the word has many connotations, and Chutzpah! incorporates as many as possible. [....]

"It's a festival for everyone," Albert says. "Chutzpah! reflects a lot of collaborations, a range of culture. Its way of artists presenting themselves in secular, religious or traditional performances makes the festival a great meeting ground." Chutzpah! was launched in 2000 through the Norman Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, as a vehicle for Jewish artists to present their works. Funded through an endowment by David Levi in memory of his wife, Lisa Nemetz, the festival has gained steam and notoriety since 2005, when Albert decided to kick it up a few notches and present more international performances. "You don't want to just coast, as a festival," she says. "It's a competitive world out there for audiences and acts." [....]

As a gentile sheila, I love the word "chutzpah"; Canadians may need a little more chutzpah to do what has to be done to preserve our Western values.



If the eco-snobs had their way, none of us would go anywhere , By Janet Daley, Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 08/01/2007

www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jht
ml?xml=/opinion/2007/01/08/do0801.xml

[....] Just as ordinary working people had begun to enjoy the freedoms that the better-off have known for generations - the experience of other cultures, other cuisines, other climates - they are threatened with having those liberating possibilities priced out of their reach. [....]

The environment may or may not be at risk from those multitudes of ordinary Britons who can now afford to escape regularly from their parochial isolation and the narrow-minded ignorance that goes with it.

But before we give the eco-lobby the unconditional benefit of the doubt, can we just look at the balance sheet?

It is not just air travel for the poor that the green tax lobby is engineering: it is a restriction on any mobility. Clamping down on one form of movement, as the glib reformers have discovered, simply creates intolerable pressure on the others. [....]

The price of spin , National Post, March 13, 2007, via newsbeat1


www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
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Over the weekend, the Canadian Press revealed that the RCMP had paid an Ottawa communications consultancy, McLoughlin Media, nearly $25,000 to prepare then-commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli for his ill-fated Sept. 28, 2006 appearance before the House of Commons public safety committee. [....]

It was a waste because senior civil servants have no business spending tens of thousands of taxpayers' dollars to burnish their responses before Parliamentary committees or the media.

At $400 an hour [....]

Greg Weston: Envirowallet Attack , Mar. 13, 2007, via newsbeat1

www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/
Weston_Greg/2007/03/13/3742075-sun.html

While hitting up corporate eco-culprits for the massive costs of reversing global warming may seem perfectly fair and rational, those demanding polluters pay might want to be careful what they wish for.

In the long run, more green for Mother Nature could mean a lot less of it in the pockets of ordinary Canadians.

[....] The technology does exist to reduce emissions from oil extraction and refineries, and it is all enormously expensive.

Does anyone honestly believe the oil companies wouldn't pass along much of those costs to consumers?

Ditto for the single worst greenhouse polluters in the country, the giant coal-fired electrical generating stations. [....]

Maybe instead of Guilt and Victimology 101, Canadian students could learn something about economics, capitalism and how it works? People who know more than I tell me that when business is good, it lifts everybody's fortunes -- A rising tide lifts all boats.