Entries Tagged 'Iraq' ↓

Originally posted on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

US Government Wasted Billions in Rebuilding Iraq
h/t: NoThreat2U

By Kim Gamel, AP

KHAN BANI SAAD, Iraq — A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

Read it all.

What a waste!

We need to rebuild America, and we can do it only by restraining our spending, by cutting the deficit, by deregulating, and by lowering taxes.

“Foreign aid” is one place where we need to stop spending money. I do not mean that we should merely “cut” spending, I mean that we should stop entirely. That also means not a penny more for QUANGOs or NGOs such as USAID.

Nation-building = EPIC FAIL

Presidents in both parties like to use the often illusory and temporary benefits that the US government provides for overseas beneficiaries as a PR move and sometimes a backdrop for photo ops. Too bad nobody ever asks the American people whether we want or can afford to spend this money.

The amount of waste, graft, and simple incompetence taking place place on government projects overseas tends to be even higher than that which takes place on the same type of government project at home. One reason is that distance is always and everywhere the enemy of accountability. The other reason is that the US has so often been trying to modernize Islamic countries, which is inherently impossible to do without eliminating Islam. This is one area where I do fault George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Due to their backgrounds in the oil industry, and due to their indoctrination in the fraudulent Wilsonian ideology, neither one of them is intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually capable of comprehending the threat that is Islam.

Money sent to Islamic nations is not received with gratitude. It is interpreted either as an attempt at manipulation on the part of the Judaeo-Christian West, or as a form of jizya and a sign of weakness and dhimmitude.

Any US government spending overseas costs us heavily at home. We cannot afford it; more often than not, it is counterproductive; and the sooner we put an end to it, the better.

GWB and the Republican Party have paid the price for these fruitless attempts at ‘nation-building’.

The exchange of comments that appeared on a prior thread on 2.0: The Blogmocracy, regarding this very issue, underline my point:

1389AD wrote:

Speranza wrote:

Rodan wrote:

@ 1389AD:
Bush has a Progressive Pro-Islamic Wilsonian foreign policy. He really believed they would love Democracy.

Islam and democarcy are not compatible.

Islam and anything other than Islam (with the proven historical exception of Nazism) are not compatible.

(Visit this link to read the other comments.)

What to do?

Our politicians must be taught the lesson that ‘nation-building’ is always and everywhere doomed to fail. But that will happen if, and only if, people like ourselves hold their feet to the fire.

If you are an American, I ask that you write, call, or better yet, VISIT the offices of your US Senators and your US Representative. Tell them NO more tax dollars should go to foreign aid or nation-building, and that the money should go instead toward deficit and tax reduction. If you visit their district offices, you will usually be able to talk with a staffer. That’s just fine – the staffers relay constituent concerns to the legislator, and your message will get through.

Keep those cards and letters coming!

From the 1389 Blog Mailbox:

From: slvrfox55
Subject: WHY MICHELLE CAME HOME
Date: August 11, 2010 2:16:17 PM EDT

Sheppard Smith, Fox News:

“If you check President Obama’s last trip over-seas, his wife left just after their visit to France…She has yet to accompany him to any Arab country. Think about it. Why is Michelle returning to the states when ‘official’ trips to foreign countries generally include the First Lady.”

Here’s one thought on the matter.

While in a Blockbuster renting videos I came across a video called “Obama”. There were two men standing next to me and we talked about President Obama. These guys were Arabs, so I asked them why they thought Michele Obama headed home following the President’s recent visit to France instead of traveling on to Saudi Arabia and Turkey with her husband. They told me she could not go to Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Iraq…I said “Why not,(?) Laura Bush went to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Dubai..” They said that Obama is a Muslim and therefore he is not allowed to bring his wife into countries that adhere to Sharia Law.

Two points of interest here:

1. I thought it interesting that two American Arabs at Blockbuster believe that our President is a Muslim, who follows a strict Islamic creed.
2. They also said that’s the reason he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia. It was a signal to the Muslim world, acknowledging his religion.

For further consideration, here is a response from Dr. Jim Murk, a Middle Eastern Scholar and expert on Islam. This is his explanation of what the Arab Americans were saying.

“An orthodox Muslim man would never take his wife on a politically oriented trip to any nation which practices Sharia law, particularly Saudi Arabia where the Wahhabi sect is dominant. This is true and it is why Obama left Michelle in Europe. She will stay home when he visits Arab countries. He knows Muslim protocol; this includes, bowing to the Saudi King. Obama is regarded as a Muslim in the Arab world, because he was born to a Muslim father; he acknowledged his Muslim faith with George Stephanopoulus. Note that he downplays his involvement with Christianity, by not publicly joining a Christian church in D.C. And occasionally attending the chapel for services at Camp David. He also played down the fact that America is a Christian country and said, unbelievably, that it was one of the largest Muslim nations in the world, which is nonsense.

He has publicly taken the side of the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel and he ignored the National Day of Prayer, something no other President has ever done. He is bad news! He conceals his true faith to the detriment of the American people.” — Jim Murk, Doctor of Philosophy in Middle Eastern Culture & Religion.

ACTIONS speak louder than words. Another interesting item regarding Sharia Law. Why has Barack Hussein Obama insisted that the U.S. Attorney General hold the trials of the 911 Muslim Terrorists in Civilian Courts as Common Criminals instead of as Terrorists who attacked the United States of America ? If the Muslim Terrorists are tried in Military Tribunals, convicted and sentenced to death, by LAW, Barack Hussein Obama, as President of the United States, would be required to sign their Death Warrants. He would not be required to sign the death warrants if they are sentenced to death by a Civilian Court…Recently, Muslim Jihadist, Army Major Hassan slaughtered non-Muslim, soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas rather than go to Afghanistan and be a part of anything that could lead to the deaths of fellow Muslims. He stated that Muslims ‘could not and should not kill fellow Muslims.’ Is the motive for Barack Hussein Obama’s insistence on civilian trials, to make sure he doesn’t have to sign the death warrants for the Muslim Terrorists? Why would he, as President of the United States, not sign the death warrants for Muslim Terrorists who attacked the United States and murdered over 3,000 U. S. Citizens on 9/11? Could it be that he is FORBIDDEN by his RELIGION to authorize the execution of Muslims?

Think about that! Open your eyes, ears and mind to who the President is, how he behaves and what he is doing.

Originally published at 2.0: The Blogmocracy.

by 1389AD

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. – Ephesians 6:12 (King James Version)

In General Casey obscures the pellucid air of Aspen, Fitzgerald of Jihad Watch gets it almost completely right. After roundly condemning George Casey for his dhimmitude under the guise of “diversity,” he proceeds to question America’s entire vision of what we are up against. And rightly so:

Former Vice President Cheney famously said that this would be a “Long War.”

And now General Casey, and those behind and above him, say that at the very least, this war in Afghanistan alone may go on for another five or ten years. And hearing this, we may ask ourselves where else will this war, fought this way, be taken – will it go to Somalia, or to Yemen? Will these be the next Stations of the National Cross we are collectively made to bear, because those who rule over us do not know, and do not want to know, and may even not know that they do not know, what is necessary if a sensible policy of managing the war of self-defense against all those who take the duty and doctrine of Jihad seriously can be constructed and applied?

That war of self-defense is not a “Long War.” It is not a war that might go on for “five” or maybe “ten” more years, in Afghanistan or anywhere else, and then be over with.. It is a permanent war, a war without end, because the doctrine of Jihad is a permanent, and central, not tangential, part of Islam. The duty to engage, directly or indirectly, in Jihad – which should not be thought of only as involving terrorism or other forms of violence – does not disappear. It did not disappear in the century-and-a-half, from roughly 1800 to 1950, when Muslims were so obviously weak that those who wanted to engage in Jihad simply could not. But now things have unalterably changed: the OPEC trillions (more than 13 trillion dollars since 1973 alone to the Muslim members of OPEC), with more piling up every year, and the millions of Muslims foolishly allowed in, through the casually criminal negligence of political and media elites, to the countries of Western Europe. All this, and then the exploitation of Western technology that is useful in the dissemination of the message of Islam, both to Muslims (some of whom might heretofore have been unaware of the full message of Islam, but can remain so now only with difficulty) and to non-Muslims who might be seduced by the siren-song of whatever melody (e.g., “social justice”) that Muslims conducting Da’wa might wish to underhum.

Far from being “realistic” in their supposedly “glum” assessments, Cheney with his “Long War” and General Casey with his “five or ten more years in Afghanistan” are actually misleading themselves, and us. For they are refusing to grasp the nature of the war. They are thinking in terms that do not make sense. To wit: It might take us “five or ten years” to stamp out Al Qaeda, and the Taliban, in both its Afghani and Pakistani versions, and then, supposedly, we will have our “victory,” we will have “won.” But no “victory” in the conventional sense is possible. And there is to be no “winning” but only, rather, the minimizing of the threat and the conceivable damage, from Muslims. Why? Because there is no sell-by date to the doctrine and duty of Jihad. It goes on forever. And when anyone tells you, with a sober mien that is supposed to convey the message that “I’m not naïve, I’m a grim realist, I know this is going to be a long hard slog and it might take five years, ten years, twenty years, in Af-Pak and the Horn of Africa,” you should not think to yourself that at long last someone has dared to tell the truth, someone in authority is leveling with you…

Fitzgerald then pokes some well-deserved holes into the unalloyed madness and idiocy that passes for long-term strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan:

And a second part of the Aspen speech by George Casey also merits attention: “Casey highlighted job, education and economic growth as essential to success in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

This is what we are so drearily familiar with, the idea that we should do with Muslim lands what we did with the countries of Western Europe after World War II with the Marshall Plan (indeed, Al-Jaafari and others in Iraq have more than once called for a “New Marshall Plan” for Iraq, in which the United States taxpayers foot the bill; “Marshall Plan” is a phrase strangely familiar to many Arabs and Muslims). We have an official unemployment rate of nearly 10% in this country (and more, if one counts those who have given up looking for work, and still more, if one counts all the greatly under-employed). We have a collapsing educational system. We do not have economic growth. But Casey, and those for whom Casey also speaks, thinks that Americans should pay for “jobs and education and economic growth” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never mind that Iraq has the second or possibly first largest reserves of oil in the world, and thanks to the United States had its entire debt of nearly $100 billion cancelled by the Western nations (but notice that the Arab creditors did not cancel what was owed to them), and will be raking in hundreds of billions. Never mind that “education” may make an enemy more formidable, not less, and if “education” never questions the teachings of Islam, but merely makes Muslims more dangerous because better educated, why is this something we should encourage?

After facing all of this horror head-on, Fitzgerald reaches a conclusion that is far rosier than his own evidence warrants:

Is there time for Obama to begin to see things differently, and to get rid of the brennans and bring on board the ship of state, now a dangerously listing Narrenschiff or S. S. Naufragium, others, less ignorant and less self-deceived? Yes. There is time. But only just.

No, there is no time, simply because Obama is not one of us; he is among our enemies. He sympathizes with the jihadis and he will continue to do everything he can to ensure that they win.

Read the rest.

Originally published at 2.0: The Blogmocracy.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. – Matthew 24:6 (King James Version)

In his new article, The Immorality of the Moral High Ground, Sultan Knish explains why Israel and the West keeps losing, and the jihadis keep winning. It’s because we have been manipulated into trying to claim the moral high ground in a struggle that leaves no room for morality. The eventual result is capitulation to evil.

We can’t win the War on Terror so long as we hold to liberal definitions of the Moral High Ground. We can’t even begin to really fight it. What’s worse, is that not only does this warped understanding of morality result in more American deaths, it results in more deaths of both fighters and civilians on the enemy side. Because where the soldier understand that the most moral way to win a war is, quickly. The bleeding heart liberal thinks that the most moral way to win a war is, never. To a liberal if we must fight a war, we should do it with our hands tied behind our backs, and after a decade of senseless bloodshed, we’ll finally come to realize that war is a bad thing.

As the Biblical quotation reminds us, war has always been, and always will be, part of the earthly human condition. Violent conflict is a part of the fallen nature of mankind, which is the very thing that the “progressives” attempt to deny by insisting that they can perfect mankind by perfecting the structure of society. This is why the efforts of so many people to prevent war, or to legislate rules for fighting war, serve only to worsen it when it inevitably happens.

Putting liberals in charge of determining what soldiers can do in a war is like putting die hard big government advocates in charge of privatizing the government. Not only will they see that the whole thing fails, they’ll make sure that it fails as painfully and horribly as possible in order to serve as a lesson to any future government that might flirt with any similar notion. They did it with the War on Terror, intimidating military interrogators with threats of legal action and exposure, while helping the terrorists realize that all they need to do is claim torture in order to be set free. They did it brilliantly in Iraq, subverting the reconstruction in the aftermath of a successful war, from within, until the entire thing collapsed into squabbling factions. They did it on Iran, feeding false claims that there was no nuclear program long enough for Bush to leave office.

But of course, the liberals never apply the same moral standards to our enemies.

Why? Because they want our enemies to win, that’s why.

Why does Israel have a terrorist problem, and not Jordan, which has the same Arab population that Israel does? It’s not simply because Israel is mostly Jewish and Jordan is mostly Muslim, though that is a contributing factor. A primary focus of Islamists is to take over countries with majority Muslim populations in order to build the Caliphate. The reason is because in 1970 when the terrorists began hijacking planes and declared that a part of Jordan belonged to them, King Hussein sent in the army. He didn’t kill a mere 52 Palestinian Arab terrorists, as Israel did in Jenin. Or a mere 107 in Deir Yassin. Not even the 800 or so killed in fighting between Arabs in Sabra and Shatilla. No, according to Arafat, King Hussein’s troops killed an estimated 25,000 Palestinian Arabs.

This wasn’t some sort of unique event by Middle Eastern standards. When the Islamists tried to stage an uprising in Hama, Syrian troops killed somewhere between 20,000 to 40,000 people. When Arafat sided with Saddam during the Gulf War, Kuwait expelled 400,000 Palestinian Arabs. Why did they do it? Because by 1990, Kuwait had some 564,000 native Arabs, and some 450,000 Palestinian Arabs. So the Kuwaitis began bombing Palestinian Arab neighborhoods, top officials boasted about “cleansing” Palestinian Arabs from Kuwait, and tanks and troops were sent into Palestinian Arab neighborhoods, setting up checkpoints, killing, imprisoning and torturing thousands. There were plenty of atrocities that got brief mentions in the media, before the Palestinian Arabs were gone from Kuwait, and everyone moved on.

Just to grasp the sheer scale of the double standard here, in the same year that the Bush Administration was pressuring Israel to negotiate with the PLO in the name of human rights, President H.W. Bush gave a blank check to the Kuwaiti royal family to do anything they wanted to the Palestinian Arabs in their country. He told the Kuwaiti ambassador, “The war wasn’t fought about democracy in Kuwait” and justified everything the royals were doing, saying, “I think we’re expecting a little much if we’re asking the people in Kuwait to take kindly to those that had spied on their countrymen that were left there, that had brutalized families there, and things of that nature.” The Kuwaiti government newspaper Sawt Al Kuwait, featured Bush’s comments under the headline, “We Would Be Asking a Lot, If We Asked Them to Show Mercy.”

And that just about says it all. The same Western governments which think it’s asking a lot to expect Muslims to show mercy, make those demands of Israel all the time. They make those demands of their own forces, while never expecting Muslims to show mercy.

Sultan Knish explains what we must do instead:

…In the same way, stamping out the first terrorist attacks will save you from engaging in a prolonged struggle. That means doing it with decisive finality. This is a simple truth that every Middle Eastern country, but Israel understands. And a simple fact that every Muslim country understands, but the United States does not. Throw a dart at any major Muslim nation, and you find repression, mass graves and even genocide. Indonesia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Turkey– it never ends. There’s a very simple reason for that. In Islam, force is the only real morality.

Mohammed is not the Prophet of Islam because he offended the Meccans and got killed for it. He’s the prophet of a worldwide religion, because he killed everyone in his path. And then his followers killed everyone in their path. And then their followers went on doing the same d— thing for over a thousand years, right into the present day– where Muslims are still killing and making war on everyone who isn’t a Muslim, and refuses to become one. Islam has only one real revelation, death. But it has to be death with a purpose. The purpose is the triumph of Islam. If victory is possible, then the Islamists have plenty of volunteers to die, because they believe in the Islamic paradise and its 72 virgins. If on the other hand, the Islamists get stomped into the dirt, their religious credibility runs at an all time low. When victory is impossible, Islam withers and goes into the long sleep of cultural hibernation to awaken in a more permissive time.

There’s only one way to defeat terrorists. To fight them without any more restraint than they impose on themselves. Under such conditions, superior force and technology makes the victory of the civilized side inevitable, and creates an incentive for the uncivilized side to become civilized, or pay the price. The Moral High Ground, the whole idea that restraint toward those who would kill you is the essence of morality, is one of the most perniciously self-destructive ideas ever coined. It is suicide with a slogan. The Moral High Ground is not moral and it is not the high ground, it is the way by which civilians go to their death over the cliff of their own warped ideals.

There is only one Moral High Ground that that can defeat, the moral high ground of standing up for civilization, against those who would drown it in the ichor of their own hate, the stench of their own greed, the lust of their own power and the blood of their endless murders. It is not moral to let your family be murdered, rather than harm the murderers. He who slays those who kill his loves ones, stands on the true moral high ground. The only true Moral High Ground that there is.

Read the rest.

Sadly, it is not only the dhimmis in the Obama administration (and in the administration of every US president since Reagan left office) who are to blame for our current predicament. It’s the fact that the US has let itself be fooled by the leftist elite, not only in Washington DC, but also the Ivy League, the think tanks, the NGOs, the Hollywood left, and the rest of the mainstream media. As Sultan Knish also mentions, Israel has its own left that exerts a pernicious influence, to the detriment of Israel’s security and survival. And as Gates of Vienna tells us every day, the same is true in the EU.

Perhaps most of all to blame is the UN and all of its pomps and all of its works. As I personally tried to warn everyone over a decade ago, Israel would be next in line to suffer the condemnation that was visited upon the Serbs for daring to defend themselves against the jihadi onslaught. And so it was.

There is no joy in pointing out that I was right, after it is too late to mitigate the damage. At least for me, to say “I told you so” is not so much a temptation, as Thomas Fleming once warned, to the sin of pride, but to that of despair.

Expansionist Islam is directly targeting Europe as a target for colonization and takeover. This is no secret; its spokesmen make no effort to hide their intentions.

From today’s mail:

By: Filip Dewinter

Published on : Cities against islamisation: Initiatives and in Dutch on Anjem Choudary: “België is zeer beloftevol. In de steden is een derde van de bevolking islamitisch: dat heb je nergens anders in Europa!”

“Belgium is a promising country. In the cities, one third of the population consists of muslims: that’s unique in Europe!”

During an interview with the Flemish magazine Humo, Anjem Choudary, the leader of the fundamentalist organisation Sharia4UK, announced that he would soon move to Belgium, because “Belgium is better than Great Britain.” “The laws there are less severe. In Belgium, I can say what I believe and do what I want.” According to Choudary, “Belgium is a promising country. If I’m not mistaken, one third of the population in cities as Antwerp and Brussels consists of muslims, and their number is constantly growing. That’s fabulous! That’s unique in Europe. Those people will no longer tolerate oppression.”

“I’ve been to neighbourhoods that are exclusively Islamic. It’s looking really good,” Choudary says. His intentions are clear as well: “We want the European people to understand that Islam is not just about spirituality, but it is a complete model of society, just like capitalism or communism (…) Islam is not a foreign invader: for centuries, we have controlled large parts of Europe. Spain, Portugal, the Balkan, parts of Switzerland and Austria,… That time will return.” Even more stunning is what Choudary thinks of terrorism: “There are two kinds of terrorists. The ones that kill innocent civilians, women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are against life. And then there are the terrorists that fight against the enemies of God, the enemies of Allah. They are pro life. Those terrorists are no terrorists.”

It is clear for Vlaams Belang that Anjem Choudary cannot be welcome in Belgium. Choudary, whose organisation is prohibited in Great Britain, is an enemy of our European Society and has to be regarded as an undesirable person. Who calls for violence and who supports, praises and minimizes terrorism has to be refused entrance to our country.

Kind regards,

Hans Verreyt
Cities Against Islamisation

By Gramfan

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Feminism is defined thus:

It was everywhere when it was first published in 1970.

It was virtually the next best thing that had happened to women since Emmeline Pankhurst and her Suffragettes worked to get women the vote. So we were told.

And certainly you cannot deny the benefits and progress that have come from these two women, and the many others who have taken over the baton and changed the lives of millions.

Many of today’s other famous feminists are living very comfortably on self-earned wealth: fine with me, it’s well-deserved.

They have turned their politics and activism into income sources by working in journalism and other media.

People listen to them.

They have power, enormous power.

Camille Paglia is but one of many whose opinions are highly respected, and it is easy to see why.

Germaine Greer is still going on strongly about all kinds of issues.

Gloria Steinem is another member of this esteemed crowd and there are also very many not-so-famous feminists.

These feminists are in almost all professions from politics to pianists, parents and yes, prostitutes – the oldest “profession” of them all!

Then of course there are the other women in the world who don’t occupy this rarified space but who have decided, and yes, it is a decison now, to become home-makers and mothers. Some of them decide to resume successful careers and some chose not to.

But I wonder if we all really received so many benefits from all these feminists? Some of us didn’t.

With all that is good and liberating in human progress there are often side effects and “unintended consequences”. Sadly there are goals that have not, and will not be achieved.

Certainly many of us get equal work for equal pay nowadays but not all of us. Then there are those who chose to be wives and mothers, who are often scorned, or looked down upon, for their choices.

They had jobs, but feminists weren’t satisfied; every other woman had to get one too. So they opened fire on homemakers with a savagery that still echoes throughout our culture. A housewife is a “parasite,” [Betty] Frieden writes; such women are “less than fully human” insofar as they “have never known a commitment to an idea.”

And….

Housewives, not men, were the prey in feminism’s sights when Kate Millett decreed in 1969 that the family must go. Feminists do not speak for traditional women. Men cannot know this, however, unless we tell them how we feel about them, our children, and our role in the home.

Men must understand that our feelings towards them and our children are derided by feminists and have earned us their enmity. Whether or not this understanding garners men’s support, traditional women must defend ourselves because the feminist offensive is, most essentially, a breach of solidarity with us, a disavowel of the obligation to honor the Women’s Pact [that religious celibates, professional women, and homemakers respect each other] that women in the movement owed to us (Source).

Oh yes, this site has more. Feminism today goes on and on, intellectualising and re-defining feminism to the extent where it is almost too difficult to follow, let alone comprehend.

Quite frankly I am more interested in the practical day-to-day realities. I take the two definitions at face value and I note it doesn’t specify any nationality,political allegiance or religion.

1. the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
2. organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests

It is true a lot of this has happened in the West but rather than have Greer et al espouse “intellectual yada yada” I would rather see these women get militant again and do something to help their long-suffering sisters who live in Islamic countries, and who can but only dream of the lifestyle many of their famous feminist sisters enjoy.

All too often I see stories of honour killings, rape, female genital mutilation, subservience, domestic (and other) violence, forced marriage and utter discrimination perpetrated against women in Muslim countries and now also in the West.

Some women are getting hymenoplasties and buying repair kits before they marry.

Some are being recruited as homicide bombers.

One is punished for drinking beer, others face lashings or stonings.

An Australian Islamist tries to justify polygamy for everyone.

There are women who suffer terribly from acid attacks quite frequently.

Women in Gaza are not allowed to ride motorcycles, and Somali women are being scrutinised when wearing a bra!

Where’s Germaine when you need her, or would this make her happy I wonder?

And recently we have the on-going case of Rifka Bary who, as a minor, cannot chose her religion, and could become a victim of honorcide for apostasy. If she is sent back to her parents her fate is unknown. If she is allowed to remain alive the Islamists can deny honorcide even exists. This is happening in the USA now.

Yet in spite of these incidents feminists like Naomi Wolf manage to defend discrimination towards women in Islam and it then takes a compassionate feminist, Phyllis Chesler, who has actually lived in a Muslim country, to sort it out for her!

I know many feminists, and women in general, can be fearless fighters.

Code Pink, for example, have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan. True, they are an anti-war movement, but perhaps, just perhaps, they could have drawn some attention to the women who live and suffer in the war zones they are so adamantly against.

They could have easily added one more mission statement to what is on their website which mentions “social justice”.

Indeed, any other anti-war group could easily have done the same. I know they do not define themselves as feminists per se, but why not do more?

Could they not have met with Malalai Joya and offered some help?

Indeed, could not some of our famous feminists, female politicians and celebrities who spend so much time choking on their own venom over Sarah Palin have done the same? Are they afraid?

Or are they simply not interested in the women’s issues of today because they think it is another culture and therefore they shouldn’t interfere. They know it isn’t right but they can turn a blind eye to it, even as it happens under their noses, in their own countries.

It’s a cop-out.

The improvement of the condition of women in Islam is, to me, a far loftier goal than getting to wear trousers, getting equal pay, getting an abortion on demand, and having a man treat a woman more like a man! This was definitely an “unintended consequence” for me: trivial as it may seem.

I am much heartened by the fact that progress is being made, albeit in small steps.

Kuwati women in parliament refuse to wear the veil.

An Egyptian Cleric wants to ban burqas and other facial coverings.

Honor killing or honoricide is getting more attention.

Lubna Hussein got a lot of media attention over her sentence for wearing trousers.

Najwa Bin Laden and her son, Omar, wrote a book about their husband and father, Osama, and seem to be fearless about it. They have provided a fascinating insight into this man.

I think the real “feminist” heroines now are the ones who have literally put their lives on the line, not only for women in Islam but for the world in general.

Their goals and committment are what is truly deserving of our respect and support.

I am referring to women like Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Supna Zaidi, Irshad Manji and women like them.

There is another one who would have possibly made it to this list: Neda Soltan.

Tragically she cannot, but in spirit she can inspire so much. I feel she deserves a mention among these brave, dedicated and fascinating women.

This is my challenge to todays feminists. Use your power again.

I am “just a Mom”. I do not have your platform and power.

This is indeed a most worthy cause to support and fight for.
With thanks to MuslimsAgainstSharia.

“Gramfan” has been blogging since 2002. She is “just a Mom” of two grown-up sons, and helps her husband of 38 years. She has occasionally written pieces for other ‘blogs, and posts comments. She now writes exclusively for Muslims Against Sharia.

From the video description:

WARNING: This video contains some strong language and graphic elements. It is intended for a mature audience.

---

Each day, I see events unfolding around the globe that cause me concern. Yet most of the people I encounter seem to be oblivious, or at best, only peripherally aware of the grave threats facing our nation – and civilization as a whole.

Our enemies are counting on our short attention spans, our over-confidence and our stubborn complacency to keep the blinders on our eyes until it’s too late.

Each day, the future of freedom and democracy in Europe seems bleaker… and the United States is already taking steps down the same path.

It’s time to wake up.
We are at war!

American Alienation

Disclaimer:

1389 Blog has posted this video because it makes many vital points – especially about the failure of the US and other western nations to acknowledge, investigate, and respond to suspicious incidents.

That said, we vehemently disagree with George W’s handling of foreign policy – though not for the same reasons as the liberals disagree with it. We claim – and we have repeatedly provided the facts to back up this claim – that GWB has, all too often, appeased jihadists when he should have stood against them.

More:

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Politeia, Saturday, January 12, 2008

The 11th European Police Congress, to be held in Berlin on 29-30th January is the target of a Balkan Al Qaeda franchise.

The convention will be inaugurated by Franco Frattini, Vice President of the European Commission, Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security. The second item on the agenda is “Global, European and National threats by Terrorists: National Concepts to face the Challenge.”

In a programme note (bottom Programme section) it is advised that one of the speakers, Dr Darko Trifunovic – a maverick young investigator from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Security Studies – will not be able to attend due to “pressure and death threats” made against him by radical groups that are under his investigation. He has decided not to “expose himself and the congress to further danger.”

Dr Darko Trifunovic has been conducting research into the origins, ambitions and operating methods of what he calls “white Al Qaeda”, the home grown branch of the terrorist franchise organization in the various areas of the Balkans.

It first took foothold in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the Western powers in the 90′s saw the influx of Afghan war veterans into the territory as an easy way to support the Bosnian Muslims. Since the Dayton Peace Accord Iranians as well as Saudi Wahhabis have flooded the statelet with funds, over-sized mosques and subversive organizations, one of which has members throughout the Bosniak diaspora in Europe, Canada and the US. One such is CNAB, the center of gravity of the present threats against Trifunovic.

Trifunovic has also found new links between Bosnia and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the London and Madrid train bombings. Specifically mentioned are Mohammed Atta, who coordinated the 9/11 outrage, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Bosnian citizenship holder and war veteran, former Al Qaeda ‘Operations Chief’, who – according to Dr Darko Trifunovic – took over the leadership of the Al Qaeda media campaign (‘the Committee’) during the planning of the 9/11. Atta’s place of residence was a Bosnian hamlet before launching off to Hamburg and the US for his fatal mission.

With the knowledge of the UN interim governors in Kosovo, Albanian-American radicals were actively recruiting terrorists for ‘the war against America’ prior to the 9/11 attack, of which they had foreknowledge. The UN however, did nothing.

The Foreign Area Officer Association FAOA posits that the Sarajevo based organization, AIO’s (Aktivna Islamska Omladina)[1] “(…) Islamic weekly magazine SAFF [2] and organization’s website have been fronts of radical Islamic preaching, gaining notoriety for publishing interviews with terrorists who have fought against US forces in Iraq and expressing solidarity with the jihadists and suicide bombers in Israel.” FAOA also links the AIO with members throughout the Bosniak diaspora in Europe and the US, one of which is the CNAB, now the center of gravity, threatening Trifunovic.

CNAB claims to represent some 350.000 Bosniak refugees in the US and Canada. Trifunovic qualifies them as a new jihadi organization. He specifies four members in particular, who are one way or another involved in Islamist activities. In Terror Finance Blog in “Bosnjaci.net Attacks on Darko Trifunovic” Trifunovic specifies as follows:

“Here is why Bosnjaci.net, an Islamist web site from Bosnia is attacking me.

One of Bosnjaci.net‘s favorite and honored members is Sakib Mahmuljin, who is a high-ranking Bosnian White Al Qaeda member, accused of war crimes. See this: “War crimes: “Vozuca case”, six years later”.

Izet Nanic is a former commander of the 505th Buzim Brigade with the Fifth Corps of the Bosnian Army which was an integral part was the “Hamze” unit. See here and here.

Another prominent individual on Bosnjaci.net is Nezim Halilovic-Muderis. He is imam at the Wal-Mart-sized, Wahhabi King Fahd mosque, which opened in 2000 on the outskirts of Sarajevo, built with Saudi money and named after the Saudi monarch. Nezim Halilovic-Muderis, a Bosnian extremist agitator whose antics I have been following since 1999. Muderis’s Friday sermons, available on Bosnian websites, are replete with incitement to violence in Israel, Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and the Philippines. He preaches the same line on the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, as is heard among the acolytes of the late terrorist leader of ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’, Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

It is, to say the least, bizarre: “In Falluja, according to statements from the U.S. command, spirits have appeared in the form of enormous spiders, weighing about a kilogram, that only attack U.S. soldiers, and the person who is bitten dies within seconds.” More information about this prominent Wahhabist is here.

Another Bosnian Muslim war criminal, protected and promoted by Bosnjaci.net is Rasim Delic. According to the indictment, Rasim Delic was aware that the jihadi members of the Bosnian army had a distinct tendency to commit crimes, especially against captured enemy combatants and civilians (…) Reportedly, however, he took no measures whatsoever to stop these acts taking place.

In an email Trifunovic has it that the web master of Bosnjaci.net, Afan Pasalic even openly confessed that he uses Trifunovic’ name to manipulate and and false emails and post comments in his name. Trifunovic qualifies the impersonation quite accurately as “shocking!!!!”

A brief insight into some of the more flowery death threats against Trifunovic, posted at Bosnjaci.net:

“Help us God to erase Trifunovic and entire his family from Earth – We must teach our kids from age of 5 how to use pistols and guns, and that they hold in one hand (knjiga) Ku’ran and in another hand a gun ready for use – If Darko Trifunovci goes to the 11th Police Congress in Berlin, God help that all Muslims finish him – Such individuals as Darko Trifunovic, we need to harass him, and we need to continue to discredit him by all means and to very end, until others dare not show up to talk about terrorism”

The manicheic character of the site is illustrated by the shocking death threats in one section, while another is reserved for “Dobri Bosnjaci” (good Bosniaks). The latter consists of a list of special members of the portal: dangerous Islamic fundamentalists and war criminals. Trifunovic: “We are dealing with pure criminals (…) I am planning to inform all EU, US and other relevant authorities regarding this unfortunate incident in order to prevent such thing from happening again in the future.” I don’t share his optimism.

Earlier this week a colleague of Trifunovic, analyst Ioannis Michaletos, released this media message on his behalf.

Up to now Dr Trifunovic has been able to conduct his investigations from the ivory tower of the University of Belgrade in relative tranquility. When it transpired however he was invited to speak during the upcoming 11th Police Congress and – as a consequence, the results of his research would reach the professional domain – no methods have been shunned to intimidate him, discredit him as a person and as a scholar.

With false accusations of ‘Srebrenica denial’ and ‘hate mongering’ – references to laws prohibiting Holocaust denial and inciting racial hatred – attempts have been made to get him banned from the police convention; impersonations and cyber manipulation being but the least methods of choice to muzzle. But it is my understanding that, far from denying the deplorable events at Srebrenica, Trifunovic has been further investigating the matter.

Apart from the personal injury done here, the public damage of this terrorist saga is two-fold: researchers are being harassed to prevent them from doing their jobs, thus interfering with the right of enquiry. The consequences of such actions on the academic level could well be considerable. The second part is even worse: the intimidation of officials conducting criminal enquiries, subverting the rule of law, leading ultimately to mob rule.

Let me wrap this up with some thoughts of my own. In the past few decades one of the greater mysteries has been the question, how the Holocaust on six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis could have taken place without the entire continent raising up in protest. At present, a sizable majority of people in the West surprisingly seem to be sharing views with the people who have declared against us. However treacherous and hard to fathom this may be, it is kinder on the persons harbouring such views: it is after all easier to be a voluntary accomplice – silent or otherwise – than it is to be a coward.

Recent posts on this subject:

- “Progress Report on Operation Western Deconstruct” (summary of the series)
- “Progress Report (3): the Assault on the Rule of Law”

- Filed on Articles in “Progress Report: Summary”, cat. Balkans/E.Europe, GWOT, Moral Legislation, Neo Totalitarianism, Terrorism -

Posted by Cassandra at 18:54

Update 1/15/08:

The Jawa Report: Bosnian Islamist Website Posts Death Threats, Gets Hacked

As of January 13, the website bosnjaci.net, which is said to be an al Qaeda support forum, is no longer functioning. In place of the normal display is a message saying that the site is closed, and that the hacker attack took place because Darko Trifunovic had to cancel his appearance at the Euro police convention.

We will continue to follow this story, which is proving to be very interesting indeed.

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