Monday, June 23, 2008

Liberty Ditched for Sausages: boycott these cowards!

Last Friday we reported here that Jordan is seeking the extradition and prosecution of Dutch Freedom Party politician Geert Wilders on three counts:

- racism - incitement to hatred - insulting Muslims and Islam -

An Amman Court last Monday accepted the charges against Wilders on account of the short film "Fitna" pressed by a Jordanian group called "The Messenger of Allah Unites Us." "Fitna" outlines the dangers of radical Islam for democratic society. (Link to "Fitna")

Today we know which Dutch companies have 'distanced themselves' from Fitna. Politeia proposes a ban of its own against these companies which sell out democratic principles for sausages:
- Caption: "We WillNot Submit!" -
- Zwanenburg (Zwan sausages and luncheon meat)
- KLM (KLM-Air France-North West Airlines)
- Philips ("We make things better")
- Friesland Foods (dairy products:
- Friso (Nutricia, Olvarit, Nutrilon, Bambix dairy and baby foods)
- Milupa (Aptamil - we believe the latter two are all one and the same parent company Nutricia, now part of Danone)

The companies advertise their condemnation of Wilders' equation Islam=violence and distribute posters, stating that the film only serves to provoke.

President Zakaria Sheikh of "The Messenger of Allah Unites Us" is calling for the travel industry to ban KLM.

The publisher of weekly Fact International says the film has no relation with the freedom of expression. "Wilders has insulted all Muslims. He must be punished."

At the companies no one was available for comment, writes De Volkskrant. A KLM spokesman repeated an earlier statement that the airline is unrelated to political and religious movements and distances itself from this controversial film."

Post will be updated throughout.

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who
maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

Dante Alighieri
Italian national epic poet (1265 - 1321)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Tibet 1959: after 49 years, 49 days away


Free Tibet 2008:

With the start of the Beijing Olympics only 49 days away, SFT HQ is stepping up our Olympic campaign efforts. To ensure that you are kept up to date with news, analysis, and ways to participate in creative, strategic and effective actions for Tibet leading up to and during the Games, we are excited to launch SFT's Olympics website: http://www.FreeTibet2008.org.

Visit http://www.FreeTibet2008.org now and watch our new SFT Olympics Campaign video, a moving account of what is at stake inside Tibet and the power we have – as Tibetans, supporters, and people of conscience – to make history for Tibet at this crucial time.

We are about to enter the most critical stage in our organization's history, and indeed in the history of the Tibet movement, and we need your help.

After you watch SFT's new Olympics Campaign video, download it and share it with your friends and family. Post it on your Facebook page, send it to all your email contacts and encourage everyone you know to donate to SFT in this Olympic year.

With your help, we will raise the necessary funds to seize this once-in-a-lifetime Olympic opportunity to make history for Tibet.

Make a donation right now: http://www.FreeTibet2008.org/donate

As the Chinese government prepares to launch its single-largest propaganda exercise ever, all of us at SFT are working with ever-greater intensity to keep the world's attention focused on the Tibetan people's cries for freedom. Tibetans continue to speak out despite the terrible risks, and need you in this critical time.

Please support our efforts by donating to SFT's Olympics action fund now.

This is the most urgent time to support SFT as we effectively expend tremendous physical and financial resources toward realizing our goal – and the goal of the Tibetan people – human rights and freedom for Tibet.

This truly is the time. With your help, Tibet will be free.

Yours,
Lhadon Tethong

P.S. Please visit http://www.FreeTibet2008.org today. We've designed it as a one-stop resource for everything related to SFT's Olympics campaign, featuring a media center, a photo and video gallery, resources and tools to help you get involved and take action, and streamlined information and analysis from SFT's website and leading blogs.

Updated: 19th June 2008
~

International Campaign for Tibet

The still unfolding demonstrations and unrest in Tibet are bigger than anything since the Dalai Lama fled in 1959.
After 49 years of rule by China, Tibetans throughout the country are showing how they feel about the “progress” China has brought. And it is a resounding vote of "no confidence." ... read on >>>

Update: 19th Mar 2008

~
(...) There are now many reports of Tibetans being killed in the streets of Lhasa by security personnel. And many reports of Tibetans damaging Chinese stores. We now have photos of security vehicles overturned and in flames. ... more >>>

Updated: Mar 15th 2008
~

CNN: "Clashes leave 10 dead in Tibet" (includes video material)

Violent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa have left at least 10 people dead as protesters calling for an end to Chinese rule in the region planned more demonstrations in India and Tibet. (...) "The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," an official with the regional government told Xinhua.

Indian police surrounded the Tibetan community in old Delhi Friday, effectively sealing it to prevent anyone from going in or out after a Friday night protest, a spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress told CNN. Police arrested 61 people at the protest Friday night, including four who demonstrated at the Chinese embassy, said Youth Congress spokesman Komchok Yarphel. Yarphel also said that protesters planned to restart a march from the northern Indian city of Dharmsala to the Tibet border that was forcibly stopped Thursday by Indian authorities. Those 100 protesters have been jailed for 14 days, but Yarphel said another 100 will begin the march from Dehra, where the first attempt ended after only three days and 75km. Police have banned the march and are likely to stop it again. The protesters planned to reach the border for a confrontation with Chinese authorities in time for the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August. Dharmsala is home to the Tibetan exile government and the Dalai Lama.

Meanwhile, five days of protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa turned violent late Friday, and at least 10 people were killed, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported, quoting the Tibetan government. Those protests began Monday when hundreds of monks rallied on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Beijing that forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Police used gunfire and tear gas to quell the Lhasa protest, according to witnesses, human rights groups and Xinhua. A main market in Lhasa, Tromsikhang Market, was set on fire, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet. The market has many Chinese traders, and she said Tibetans have been concerned about the influx of Chinese into the area. Some ethnic Tibetan shopkeepers hung scarves outside their stores in an effort to spare them from the protesters' wrath, a witness reported.

Chinese bloggers and U.S.-based human rights groups said Chinese security forces had sealed off the three main monasteries around Lhasa after the violence broke out. The bloggers also said police wearing armored vests were moving toward Lhasa in armored personnel carriers. (...) CNN sought permission to enter Tibet on Friday, but the permission had not been granted by Friday evening Beijing time. CNN reporting on Tibet was being blacked out Friday in mainland China. Chinese authorities blamed the Dalai Lama for the unrest, but the Dalai Lama said the protesters were simply acting out of "deep-rooted resentment" of the Chinese government. (...) >>>

Dated: 15th Mar 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

Iran Updates, by the Committee for the Present Danger





DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN
Another diplomatic overture, another Iranian rebuke

On June 14th, the European Union’s foreign policy czar, Javier Solana, visited Tehran to offer Iran’s leaders a new diplomatic package designed to defuse the international crisis over their nuclear program. The generous offer included, among other things, a plan to establish a uranium enrichment consortium in Iran to help the Islamic Republic develop civilian nuclear energy. In return, Iran would suspend uranium enrichment while it negotiated with the West – a process European officials say will be measured in “months,” not years.

The offer was clearly weighted in Iran ’s favor so, not surprisingly, the “5+1” countries (Russia, China, the United States, France, Britain and Germany) were optimistic about its prospects. “I hope that the answer will be soon and positive,” Solana told reporters after presenting the offer to Iranian leaders.Iran’s ayatollahs, however, appear to have other ideas. “If the package includes suspension it is not debatable at all,” an Iranian government spokesman announced just hours after his government received the new proposal. The message could not be clearer: Iran now views nuclear capability as non-negotiable, and its leaders see greater security in continuing to enrich uranium than in any deal they might be able to hammer out with the West. All of which should give pause to the politicians, analysts, and statesmen now expounding the virtues of unconditional “engagement” with the Islamic Republic, since their preferred course of action will virtually guarantee that a nuclear Iran becomes a reality. But don’t bet on it.


Updated: 16th June 2008
~

Confronting Iran: U.S. options: Harnessing All Elements of U.S. Power

How can the United States prevent the emergence of an emboldened Iran with nuclear weapons? By harnessing all elements of U.S. power “into a strategy that focuses on three key concrete goals…counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency,” says a new report from the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

If successful, the strategy would prevent Iran from developing the nuclear capability on which it is making real progress, curtail its ability to sponsor terrorist groups that increasingly destabilize the region, and curb its meddling in Iraq, according to Confronting Iran: U.S. Options[i], the product of a working group co-chaired by McCormick’s Brig. Gen David L. Grange (ret.) and AFPC’s Ilan Berman (a member of the Committee on the Present Danger).

Such a strategy requires action in four key areas. Those areas, and the steps required in each, include:

Diplomatic and international efforts to:
· Educate Americans about the threat of Iran;
· Enhance broadcasting into Iran;
· Spread Western ideas across Iran;
· Use new media to better communicate with Iran’s next generation of leaders;
· De-legitimize the current regime;
· Empower the regime’s opponents; and
· Clearly inform the regime about the costs of its continued rogue behavior.

Intelligence initiatives to:
· Revive human intelligence capabilities within Iran;
· Obtain better access to Iran-related information from our allies;
· Reform the intelligence bureaucracy to respond to, and plan against, the regime; and
· Create a more flexible legal framework to conduct intelligence operations.

Economic measures to:
· Increase the pressure on Iran’s trading partners;
· Enforce unilateral sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran;
· Consider embargos and blockades, particularly on Iran’s energy sector; and
· Elevate divestment efforts from state government to the federal government.

Military steps to:
· Comprehensively assess Iran’s operational and tactic vulnerabilities;
· Build the capacity for unconventional warfare within Iran;
· Target Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal to downgrade its offensive and nuclear capabilities; and
· Cut the regime’s ties to its terrorist proxies, with force if necessary.

Updated: 28th Nov. 2007
~

E
ducation – Iranian Style Prepping for War Against US and West Through School Texts"

Iran is using its school textbooks to indoctrinate its children in a global war against the “enemies of Islam,” with a special focus on the United States and the West, according to a comprehensive and alarming report from the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.

As you will see by reading the report or a summary, both available online at CMIP, Iran is training 15 million children to strive for “martyrdom” in attacks against the United States. In fact, the declared goal of the school curriculum is to prepare students for an armed struggle against the United States to put an end to “Western dominion” and establish the reign of Islam.

Now, in order to continue the Islamic Revolution,” says a book for 7th graders, “it is our duty to continue with all [our] power our revolt against the Arrogant Ones [i.e., the United States], and the oppressors, and not cease until all Islam’s commandments and the spread of the redeeming message of ‘there is no god except Allah’ are realized in the whole world.”

For 11th graders, the message is, “America is known as an Imperialist country, which embarks on military intervention wherever it sees that its interests are in danger. It does not refrain from massacring people, burying alive the soldiers of the opposite side and using weapons of mass destruction (as it did in Iraq). It makes use of atomic bombs (the bombardment of Japan). It uses the weapons of human rights in order to suppress the justice seekers (as it does in its abuses against Islamic Iran). It creates the greatest dictatorships and the most violent and torturing security-oriented regimes, and defends them.

The 11th graders are called to action: “O Muslims of all countries of the world! Since under the foreigners’ dominance gradual death has been inflicted on you, you should overcome the fear of death and make use of the existence of the passionate and the martyrdom-seeking youths, who are ready to smash the borders of unbelief. Do not think of keeping the status quo.”

This study is important – and directly relevant to the current debates in Washington and in other Western capitals about whether to confront or negotiate with Tehran – because it provides important insights into the regime’s long-term ambitions. We recommend it highly.

Updated: 12th Oct. 2007


Contact: Larry Haas,