Syrian Slaughter Is A Family Tradition

BLUF

Since 1963 the Assad family has been conducting its own apartheid regime. The Assad family appears to be Alawite, a Shi’ia sect. I say this because, since 1963, Sunni’s have been the target of the Assad vulgarities and tortures. Hafiz al-Assad took over and scrubbed the military and intelligence apparatus of Sunni muslims.

It would appear that the State Department and the White House are tongue tied as to what to say about the Shi'ite violence against Sunnis in Syria. Where did we see this before ... Iran, 2009 or so?  

Foreign aid to Syria was only just recently halted.

BACKGROUND

“While the international trend is heading progressively towards promoting respect for human rights, the Syrian regime is moving against history and the spirit of the age, in a direction contrary to the Syrian, Arab, and international public opinion. Thus, the repressive nature of this regime represents the utmost setback to values and principles acknowledged by international legitimacy.”

Many of the articles and assessments of Syria’s human rights practices, including the current Clintonian State Department, use words like “poor” and “struggling” as descriptors. I use the term abysmal. Since 1963 Syria has suffered horrendously under an iron fist. For the UN to look at the last five months and urge, insist, and demand the violence against his own people stop is ludicrous seeing that the impotent international body knew of Syria’s apartheid policies and practices for decades, not years but decades.

This year al-Assad has slaughtered approximately 2,200 people. This number ignores the people who were tortured, raped, and worse. Amnesty International reported that during the period of 1979 to 1999 Syria used at least 38 different forms of torture. Of these forms of torture, water boarding and sleep deprivation are the least horrific used.

Opening an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Ms Pillay said: "The gravity of ongoing violations and brutal attacks against the peaceful protesters in that country demand your continued attention." It would appear that the victims of these attacks are largely Sunni and that the perpetrators are entrenched Alawites, a Shi’ite sect. Where else have we recently witnessed Shi’ites slaughtering there citizens? Oh, yes, Iran in 2009. Again, nothing said and nothing done.

"It's troubling that he has not kept his words," Mr Ban told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. "I sincerely hope that he heeds... all [the] international community's appeals and calls." Troubling, to say the least; the impotence of the UN and the depravity which is being allowed to continue, paid for in no small part by US Tax Dollars, is troubling to the UN. It is enough to make me vomit.

In previous posts I pointed out the largest and most powerful voting bloc in the UN is comprised of OIC/OPEC states. On the Human Rights Council sit, among others, Jordan Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia which apparently voted in support of Assad. Again, the UN fails human rights and humanity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14620671

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/syria-un-ban-idUSN1E77L0PO20110822

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/un-rights-body-demands-1132416.html

http://www.shrc.org/data/pdf/1275.pdf

http://www.shrc.org/data/pdf/1275.pdf

Syria

A few weeks ago I said that al-Assad would not step down. As time passed, videos, and reports came out depicting the slaughter being unleashed against the Syrian people.  As bodies were dumped off pick-up trucks into the ocean protestors continued. I suppose when you know that you are going to die you may as well go down screaming what you believe.

It was not until after UN leadership spoke about alleged atrocities ongoing in Syria that US leadership spoke up at all. The feeling I had was that our leadership was going to wait for the UN to say what was wrong and then we would lock step and parrot the weak and watery leadership for the UN. Blogs and tweets showed up relentlessly at White House pages. Finally, the page 8 articles from Lames Stream Media were noticed. Clinton spoke out and an international coalition was being built to do something. The coalition, US, EU, and UN (the UN being largely OIC and OPEC) spoke out against al-Assad.

This coalition called for a cease to hostilities and for al-Assad to step down. The threat of criminal charges in the International Criminal Court would appear to have been noticed. New sanctions were not seen as threatening enough by the regime, as Assad had clearly said that he could get all the resources he needed. Clearly, the political solution that Assad had insisted was going to come from his people was more the rest of the world tapping on his shoulder.

Al-Assad said that he stopped the killing of his people on the 18^th. The weekend would appear to have been quiet; however, Monday morning brings more bodies in fresh blood. I am (sarcastically) quite certain that these two protestors were shot either accidentally (which will, of course result in the troops being severely dealt with) or they were violent and well armed Syrian versions of Schwarzenegger from the movie Commando and these guards had simply acted in accordance with protecting themselves.

Al-Assad will not step down. He will continue to scoff and throw shoes at the rest of the world. He knows that, like al-Bashir the president of Sudan (indicted for war crimes and crimes against his own people due to committing similar attacks as al-Assad), he will not be apprehended. No one is going to go into Syria to catch him. Any country he goes to quietly will not turn him over to the ICC. And, like al-Bashir, the Obama administration and Clinton State Department will likely move to restore relations with al-Assad within the year.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/middleeast/22syria.xml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/18/syria-assad-claims-military-operations-stopped

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14577333

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-08/22/c_131064442.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/un-rights-chief-likely-to-call-for-syria-to-be-referred-to-international-criminal-court/2011/08/17/gIQA7Iz2LJ_story.html

I cannot wait for the horror stoires and the accounts of mass rapes and mutilations to begin.

Child Soldiers In Somalia

Reports coming from the Horn of Africa indicate that al-Shabaab, one of the more influentially destructive forces to humanity in the region, has long been taking children and using them as soldiers. The name “al-Shabaab” is Arabic for “The Youth”. Amnesty International, other human rights groups, and I are finally being heard in this disgusting act of war on the most innocent of the world, its children.

Let’s put the point of Youth into perspective for the Western World readers. Somalia has an average life expectancy of 48 years for males. This is nothing new. The environment is harsh and unforgiving. Life there is also hard and unforgiving. If you are not harder than the environment, you die. Again, the average life span in Somalia is 48 years. What is middle age in this culture? Mathematically it comes out to be 24. In Western cultures this is just out of college and still in the phase of heavy drinking every weekend. By age 24, in most parts of Africa, children have been tending the herd, minding the store, and hunting to help support their brothers and sisters and mother and father. They do not have anything that we could really call a childhood.

Al-Shabaab started off as the militant wing of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia during the ICU reign in 2006 and into 2007. ICU left and al-Shabaab remained. They said from the start that they would fight to the death. Children were used as disposable items if they did not meet the standards set for them. This use of children is despicable, illegal, and utterly disgusting.

It is not just in Somalia. Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, has its share of child soldiers, also. Chad has only just put together a plan to demobilize its child soldiers. The Philippines just passed a bill against it after muslims rebels talked with the UN about weaning their child soldiers from war. Yemen uses child soldiers regularly.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/08/11/Al-Shabaab-conscripting-child-soldiers/UPI-52341313077780/

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/08/11/myanmar.child.soldier/

Secret Talks

BLUF

The bottom line up front for holding Secret Talks with any terrorist is to say "Let me save face as I offer you a surrender." Look at Somalia, peace talks are also used as a time to re-arm. In that book they read it talks about the Peace of Salah Din. In this peace agreement, those who quietly offered surrender were slaughtered once they lay down their arms.

How much of our tax dollars went to pay for a failed surrender attempt?

Secret peace talks between US and Taliban collapse over leaks

Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph. 

By Dean Nelson, Ben Farmer in Kabul

9:00PM BST 10 Aug 2011

The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures.

Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The talks were described as a preliminary exercise aimed at agreeing a series of confidence-building measures to persuade the Taliban that the United States and its allies are serious about a negotiated settlement, sources close to the talks told The Daily Telegraph.

They said Taliban leaders were extremely nervous about entering talks because of widespread scepticism among their own commanders who believed the Americans were only seeking dialogue to divide their movement and fears that any discussions would damage their own credibility.

But after only three sessions details of two meetings in Germany and one in Qatar – held in March and April - were leaked to the Washington Post and Der Spiegel news magazine which named Tayeb Agha as the key Taliban negotiator.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8693247/Secret-peace-talks-between-US-and-Taliban-collapse-over-leaks.html

Honor Killings

Honour killing: Father kills daughter

HYDERABAD: In yet another suspected case of honour killing, a father forced his daughter to consume pesticide for allegedly falling in love with a person of another caste in the neighbouring Mahabubnagar district.

Though it was alleged that the girl was killed for falling in love, the girl's relatives complained that she was killed as her father and stepmother does not want to bear the burden of performing her marriage.

The incident took place in Vatvarlapally village on the Hyderabad-Srisailam road late Monday night. The 16-year-old girl, Padma, recently completed her SSC.

Her father D Mallaiah was an agriculturalist. Mallaiah was married thrice and the victim is the daughter of his first wife.

According to police, Mallaiah suspected that the girl fell in love with a boy of the same village. “We are yet to ascertain whether the girl was in love with the boy or not,” Amrabad DSP P Karunakar said. Locals, however, alleged that Mallaiah was angry that his daughter fell in love with a boy who does not belong to their caste.

On Monday night, Mallaiah and his wife Tirupatamma forced the girl to consume pesticide in the house.

She died within minutes after consuming the pesticide.

Villagers informed the matter to the girl's relatives who in turn called the police on Tuesday morning.

“The girl's relatives complained that she was killed by her parents as they felt it was a burden to perform her marriage,'' Karunakar said.

Police registered a case and investigations are on

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/honour-killing-father-kills-daughter/174452-60-121.html

Ariz. Honor Killing: Police Worried Family Members Might Have Tried to Attack Daughter Again

In 2009, 20-year-old Noor Al-Maleki was killed after her father, Faleh Al-Maleki, ran her over with his car in Peoria, Ariz. She suffered multiple injuries and went into a coma. She was taken off life support and died less than two weeks later.

Prosecutors said it was an honor killing, because the Iraqi-born young woman who immigrated to the United States had become “too Westernized” and brought shame to the family for eschewing traditional Iraqi values — shunning an arranged marriage and instead living with a boyfriend and his parents.

In February, Faleh was found not guilty of murder in the first degree, but was convicted of murder in the second degree. He is currently serving a 34 1/2 year sentence.

Now, audio records obtained by Fox News show that police believed Noor would be attacked again by family members, even as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed.

In one tape, Peoria police detective Bill Laing refuses to tell Noor’s mother, Seham Al-Maleki, where her daughter was until her father — who at first fled to the United Kingdom before being extradited back — was found. Laing tells Seham that her husband ran over Noor and her friend Amal Khalaf:

“I want to see my daughter!” Seham Al-Maleki screams on the tape.

“Until he [Noor’s father] is located, we are not mentioning where she is at,” responds Laing, who told the mother that witnesses in the parking lot identified her husband as the driver.

“This woman, she is lying, because she is dirty,” Seham says, referring to Noor’s friend Khalaf, who survived being hit by Al-Maleki’s jeep.

“You are a sick person,” Laing snaps.

Mohamed El-Sharkawy of the Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board told Fox News that authorities worried another family member might try to attack Noor again to be sure she was dead.

“They were afraid that, because he did not succeed, that somebody else, his son or a relative, will go and finish her off,” El-Sharkawy said.

Faleh Al-Maleki was convicted of second-degree murder for his daughter's killing. (Fox News)

Although Faleh was convicted of second-degree murder, because he was acquitted of first-degree murder, prosecutor Laura Reckart told Fox in an interview that she felt she had ultimately “failed” Noor.

“I’m not going to say I respect their verdict,” Reckart said.

During the trial, she played recorded prison phone calls of Faleh talking with his wife, discussing how “an Iraqi without honor is nothing” and even though he was in jail, Noor “is comfortable now” in her grave.

Still, Judge Roland Steinle told Fox he believed it was wrong to classify Noor’s murder as an honor killing:

“I think it sensationalizes what is nothing more than a parent killing a child,” he said.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ariz-honor-killing-police-worried-family-members-might-have-tried-to-attack-daughter-again/

Torture Camp In Zimbabwe

Witnesses told the BBC that it is Zimbabwe's police and military that run the torture camps.
Robert Mugabe, the country's president, has not responded to this report. Whie it is simgle source reporting, it falls within the realm of very likely as the regime is quite corrupt and violent.

8 August 2011 Last updated at 01:40 ET

Marange diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered

By Hilary Andersson BBC Panorama

A torture camp run by Zimbabwe's security forces is operating in the country's rich Marange diamond fields, BBC Panorama has found.

The programme heard from recent victims who told of severe beatings and sexual assault.

The claims come as the European Union pushes to let some banned diamonds from the country led by President Robert Mugabe back onto world markets.

The Zimbabwean government has not responded to the BBC's findings.

In an internal document seen by the BBC, the EU said it was confident that two mines in the area now meet international standards and it wants diamonds from those areas to be immediately approved for export, which would partially lift a trade ban dating back to 2009.

The ban was imposed by the Kimberley Process (KP), the international organisation that polices diamonds, following reports of large-scale killings and abuse by Zimbabwe's security forces in the Marange diamond fields.

'Forty whips'

The main torture camp uncovered by the programme is known locally as "Diamond Base". Witnesses said it is a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept.

It is near an area known as Zengeni in Marange, said to be one of the world's most significant diamond fields. The camp is about one mile from the main Mbada mine that the EU wants to approve exports from.

The company that runs the mine is headed by a personal friend of President Mugabe. A second camp is located in nearby Muchena

"It is the place of torture where sometimes miners are unable to walk on account of the beatings," a victim who was released from the main camp in February told the BBC.

All the released prisoners the BBC spoke to requested anonymity.

"They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening," said the man, who still could not use one of his arms after the beatings and could barely walk.

"They used logs to beat me here, under my feet, as I lay on the ground. They also used stones to beat my ankles."

“They would handcuff the prisoner, they would unleash the dogs so that he can bite”

End Quote Former paramilitary police on torture techniques used

He and other former captives said men are held in the camp for several days at a time, before new prisoners come in.

Women are released more quickly, often after being raped, witnesses said.

"Even if someone dies there, the soldiers do not disclose, because they do not want it known," an officer in Zimbabwe's military told the BBC, again on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the camps have been operating for at least three years.

In Marange, the police and military recruit civilians to illegally dig for diamonds for them. Those workers are taken to the camps for punishment if they demand too large a share of the profits.

Civilians caught mining for themselves are also punished in the camps.

Dog maulings

A former member of a paramilitary police unit who worked in the main camp in late 2008 told the BBC that at the time he tortured prisoners by mock-drowning them and whipping them on their genitals.

He also said that dogs were methodically ordered by a handler to maul prisoners.

"They would handcuff the prisoner, they would unleash the dogs so that he can bite," he said. "There was a lot of screaming".

He said one woman was bitten on the breast by the dogs whilst he was working in the camp.

"I do not think she survived," he said.

Another witness the BBC spoke to said he was locked up in Muchena camp in 2008 after police set dogs on him.

He was recaptured in November 2010.

"Nothing has changed between 2008 and 2010... a lot of people are still being beaten or bitten by dogs."
'Pandering'

Marange diamonds were banned in 2009 by the KP, the international initiative of the diamond industry, national governments and non-governmental organisations that attempts to keep conflict or so-called "blood" diamonds out of the lucrative market.

Representatives of the KP visited the area briefly in August 2010 and concluded that the situation in the diamond areas was still problematic but there had been significant progress.

The KP had previously requested that the Zimbabwean police secure the diamond area.

Witnesses told the BBC that it is Zimbabwe's police and military that run the torture camps.

Nick Westcott, spokesman for the Working Group on Monitoring of the KP, said of the BBC's discovery of the torture camps: "It is not something that has been notified to the Kimberley Process."

The EU's proposal to allow diamond sales from two key mines in Marange to resume is part of an attempt to broker a deal within the KP, which is in turmoil over the issue.

Find out more

Hilary Andersson presents Panorama: Mugabe's Blood Diamonds
BBC One, Monday, 8 August at 20:30 BST

In June, KP chairman Matieu Yamba formally announced that the export ban on the two key Marange mines was lifted with immediate effect. The EU, among others, did not accept his decision.

Now the EU's proposal, designed to break the deadlock, agrees with the partial lifting of the ban, but insists that international monitoring should continue throughout Marange.

Panorama asked the Foreign Office to comment on the EU's position.

In a statement, Henry Bellingham MP, Minister for Africa, said: "It is only from these locations that we support exports, subject to ongoing monitoring. From all other Marange mines, the UK and the EU continue to strongly oppose the resumption of exports until independent, international experts deem them to comply with the KP."

Critics have said it is a weak proposal.

Annie Dunneback of the advocacy group Global Witness said of the EU proposal: "It is the latest in a series of deals that have cast aside the principle of exports for progress and pandered to the demands of the Zimbabwean government."

Panorama: Mugabe's Blood Diamonds, BBC One, Monday, 8 August at 20:30 BST, then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215

China unrest: Xinjiang's Zhang Chunxian vows crackdown

Human rights? What? UNSC Standards, huh? If the US did this we would SO scream at them ...

The top Communist Party official in Xinjiang has promised a harsh crackdown on terrorism and religious extremism in the restive western region in China.

Zhang Chunxian was responding to unrest in two cities last month that left dozens of people dead and injured.

Beijing has blamed much of the violence on Uighur Islamic militants.

But exiled Uighur groups say resentment at decades of heavy-handed rule by Beijing - and the influx of majority Han Chinese - is the real cause.

"[We] must maintain a strike-hard policy in the crackdown against terrorists... to resolutely curb the continued occurrences of violent terrorist cases," Mr Zhang told party members at a meeting on Friday.
He also pledged to fight leaders of "religious extremist forces" and crack down on "the planning and implementation of terrorist violence that makes use of violence", AFP quoted a statement on the regional government website as saying.

The BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing says officials often link religious extremism with terrorism when they talk about Xinjiang.

Uighurs, who are Turkic-speaking Muslims with cultural and ethnic links to Central Asia, make up almost half of Xinjiang's population.

China has invested heavily in Xinjiang and the region's rich oil and gas deposits are vital to China's booming economy.

But many Uighurs complain that large-scale migration of Han Chinese workers from the east has forced them out of jobs and livelihoods.

In mid-July, a group of armed rioters attacked a police station in the south-western city of Hotan - leaving at least 18 people dead.

In the city of Kashgar, more than 20 people were killed in a weekend of violence at the end of July.
The detention of young men without trial after the anniversary of deadly rioting in the regional capital Urumqi in July 2009, the confiscation of farmland for redevelopment and the demolition of houses in Kashgar were some of the reasons given for the violence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14443274

Forced conversions to Islam are rising

In the United States this is still called kidnapping and rape Pakistan: Bishop of Islamabad warns forced conversions to Islam are rising as another Christian girl is abducted As with the situation in Egypt, this is not at all the first time we have seen such behavior in Pakistan. Two such prominent cases in Pakistan have been those of Saba (or Sarah) and Anila Masih, and Farah Hatim. The news organization Fides has reported that "at least 700 Christian girls are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam every year." Hindu girls are targeted as well, and many cases go unreported, or are brushed aside by authorities. Here is yet another case. Thankfully, Mariam Gill was returned to her family, but not surprisingly, her thwarted captor is making threats. "Punjab: Christian woman forced to convert and marry her kidnapper," by Jibran Khan for AsiaNews, August 6 (thanks to Kenneth):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) – Another young Christian woman in Pakistan has been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry her kidnapper. Despite a formal complaint, police did not intervene because the author of the crime is a “respectable businessman”. Local Muslim religious authorities also claim that the woman’s conversion was legal. However, her case however is similar to that of Farah Hatim (see Jibran Khan, “The drama of Farah Hatim, common to many women in Pakistan,” in AsiaNews 25 July 2011) and is indicative of a climate of impunity for people who abuse Christian women. The bishop of Islamabad warns that the “the cases of forced conversion are rising at an alarming rate”.

Mariam is a young Christian woman from Kahota, a town some 20 kilometres from Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. She was abducted on Wednesday by one Muhammad Junaid, a local Muslim, who forcibly converted her to Islam and married her.

The young woman’s father, Munir Gill, said that Junaid is an “important businessman”. He had “his eyes on my daughter and asked her for marriage.” He complained to the man’s fathers “without results”.

“Mariam went to the market on Wednesday, but never returned,” said her brother Sohail Gill. “We searched for her everywhere. Some people in the market told us that they saw Muhammad Junaid forcefully taking Mariam from the market. We went to the police to register a case, but they delayed the application and showed no interest in the matter.”

Yesterday, a local Muslim religious leader, Maulana Hafeez Aziz, “converted Mariam to Islam and celebrated her marriage with Muhammad Junaid”.

The police are no help:

“Muhammad Junaid is a respectable Muslim businessman,” said Amir Mirza, a police officer in Kahota. “The young woman converted and married him of ‘her own free will’.

It would not be surprising if she were also forced to sign a document stating she converted freely, so that on paper, there was "no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256). Islamic law is replete with various means of coercion to attempt to induce non-Muslims to convert, and Sharia enforced on society ensures believers and non-believers at least go through the motions of observing the laws. Ultimately, those in power could care less about splitting hairs on where persuasion ends and "compulsion" begins, and challenging them could endanger life and limb.

For Maulana Hafeez Aziz, “Muhammad Junaid is a true follower of Prophet Muhammad. He has fulfilled Sharia. Converting a non-Muslim is a pious act. Only a true Muslim can do that.”

But:

Yesterday, Mariam Gill was interrogated by local officials. She told them that she was abducted and forced to convert and that she has no intention of abandoning Christianity.

At the end of the meeting, they decided to return the young woman to her family, urging the two sides to reach an agreement. However, Muhammad Junaid issued threats, saying that if he did not get the young woman back, there would be “terrible consequences” to pay.

Contacted by AsiaNews, the bishop of Islamabad Rufin Anthony described the case as “a dreadful incident”. In his view, “the cases of forced conversion are rising at an alarming rate. The matter needs to be checked, kidnapping of Christian girls is becoming a common practice in Punjab. Law enforcement agencies need to enforce the law.”

Young Christian women are not alone. Many young Hindu women have been forced to flee across the border into India in the face of government and police indifference.

“It is time to take concrete action to guarantee the safety of minorities in Pakistan,” the prelate said.

http://www.gnsec.com/modules/d3pipes/index.php?page=clipping&clipping_id=51465

Week In Review

This week has been busy for a number of people in a number of countries. 108 terror related bombings, which include those that were hoaxes and those which were found prior to detonation. The targets of these attacks include police, students, medical facilities, transit centers, and the like. Some of the bombings were dual attacks; that is to say, there was a second bomb timed to go off during the first responders arrival. One large attack in Iraq this week was timed to blow up people who were simply cashing their checks.

Syrian bodies, I presume Syrians, were reportedly being dumped into the ocean for disposal. Isn’t this some sort of environmental issue?

All these years later and people are still getting mysterious powders mailed in envelopes, why? Because fear works; that is the point of terrorism, to cause fear for a political gain.

Of course the United Nations is going to say nothing and do less in the wake of the attacks this week. The largest voting bloc in the UN is the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Countries; a group that has infiltrated and adopted its own policies which are contrary to all the principles of America. Yet, America still pays more than 25% of the UN operating budget and has paid to Middle Eastern states (which comprise the OIC) $33,486,000,000. That is nearly thirty three and a half BILLION dollars paid into the coffers of our enemies. That number, as shocking and sickening as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg.

The member states of the OIC are also U.N. members. Doesn’t this create a situation in which some states are represented twice while other member states are represented by one person?

The OIC has stood in the way of the US led Global War on Terror in many ways. One is by maintaining ccontradictions between OIC's and other U.N. member’s legal definition of terrorism. This has stymied efforts at the U.N. to produce a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

In 2008 OPEC/OIC states have received $11,734,000,000 US Tax Dollars. I don’t know about you, but I want to identify the elected representatives who insist on these monies being paid, and firing them. Those reps should not even be eligible for their ”pension” after doing this. That is just my opinion, for what it’s worth.

Korea is in charge of the U.N. Office of Disarmament and the head of the Iranian Guard Corps is now the president of OPEC. A gross and I do mean ‘gross’ violator of disarmament principles, human rights, and an armed psychopath who has threatened America with unprovoked nuclear attacks is now in charge of policing the world’s weapons.

The price of gas is only going to get worse. I really cannot summarize the threats illustrated by Wiki-Leaks which I posted earlier this week. I expect that Obama is going to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline project. All those jobs, union members and non-union alike, are going to not happen.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been busy ethnically cleansing itself. Enjoy the return on the investment of $963,000,000 dollars in 2008 in Pakistan.

The question is what now? What do we do now? We stop the leaks. Those bills, laws, acts, all that leaad to sending our money to our enemies need to be repealed, and the wirters/supporters removed. If the people who are in leadership positions can not love, honor, and respect this country and her citizens then they have no right being in those leadership positions.

Pakistan Kills Its Own

Yet ANOTHER government that is part of the United Nations is killing more of its own people based on ETHNICITY. What will the president say?

Fighting in Pakistani city of Karachi claims 34 lives

Shops and vehicles have been set ablaze

At least 34 people have been killed since Monday in the latest bout of ethnically fuelled violence in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi.

Officials said 11 people were shot dead on Tuesday, while 23 had been killed the previous day.

Targeted killings and clashes claimed more than 200 lives in Karachi in July.

Armed groups supported by Pakistan's main political parties are said to be responsible. Police officials say the groups are controlled by criminals.

But critics say that Pakistan's ruling coalition appears unwilling to bring them to account.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Karachi was enduring "a reign of terror and bloodshed", and that the government would pursue "every possible action to restore peace".

"We have ordered surveillance planes to be brought to Karachi for locating and weeding out the killers," he added.

Injured people have been pouring into hospitals

"I want to warn those... miscreants that... you have tested the government enough. Neither our people nor our government will tolerate any more of this. There will be strict action... I won't say anything else now. You will see the action yourself."

Provincial home department official Sharfuddin Memon said some bodies had been found riddled with bullets, and others showed signs of torture and were tied up in sacks.

"The criminals want to destabilise the efforts for a permanent peace in the city," he said.

Police said dozens of motorcycles were set alight inside a factory, and that a roadside restaurant and several vehicles were also torched.

In a recent report, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said 490 people had been killed in targeted killings in Karachi during the first half of the year, compared with 748 in 2010.

'Game of death and destruction'

The BBC's Syed Shoiab Hasan in Karachi says that the killings are becoming increasingly indiscriminate.

“Start Quote

Karachi is in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation”

End Quote

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Our correspondent says that it is not just political activists who are being targeted - shopkeepers, cafe owners, truck drivers and even pedestrians have all been gunned down.

Increasingly, he adds, there is an ethnic dimension to the violence - members of both the Pashtun and Urdu speaking communities have been targeted.

Shops and vehicles have been set ablaze and markets have been shut for several days in the affected areas.

Police officials say activists of the Pashtun-dominated Awami National Party (ANP) as well as those of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - supported by the majority Urdu speaking community in the city - are responsible for much of the violence.

The parties have continued what is increasingly a battle for land and votes - despite being partners in the country's ruling coalition.

Our correspondent says that the government appears helpless to stop the violence, which has wreaked havoc.

Security officials say this is because senior politicians are protecting many of those involved in the killings.

They say the violence will continue until security forces are allowed to arrest these men.

On Monday, the HRCP called for a political solution.

"Karachi is in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation that has greatly undermined its tradition of tolerance and good-neighbourliness," it said.

"While gangs of land-grabbers and mafias have tried to exploit the breakdown of law and order, they do not appear to be the main directors of the horrible game of death and destruction; that distinction belongs to more powerful political groups and it is they who hold the key to peace.”

Religious Intolerance

It was January 14^th, 2011 when Obama declared the 16^th to be Religious Freedom Day.

“My Administration continues to defend the cause of religious freedom in the United States and around the world … human right and to foster tolerance and peace with those whose beliefs differ from our own … The United States stands with those who advocate for free religious expression and works to protect the rights of all people to follow their conscience, free from persecution and discrimination.” In this proclamation Obama asserts that he, as President will support religious freedom and seek to prevent persecution of those who practice different beliefs. It all sounds nice; however, what does he mean by “seek”? To me, it means to look for. IT does not provide for finding or actively protecting that right.

Coptic Christians are being murdered in Egypt, this being the new regime of the Muslim Brotherhood, I would say expect more of that. Girls are being taken, raped, and put into forced marriages. In one most horrific attack a toddler was sexually attacked in view of her parents to force their conversion. That child is likely physically crippled for life. She and her family are reported to be living in Canada now seeking asylum.

Obama had nothing to say at Easter; he did, though, have great and grand things to say yesterday about the coming Ramadan. Now, Obama misses an opportunity to comment on a gathering of national leaders from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Sudan and Jordan, representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian political establishment elements, as well as Hezbollah, and Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations coming together to talk. Aren’t some of these listed as terrorist groups or terror supporting entities? Where is the outrage? Obama must have had a speech written for this occasion. What will come from the White House regarding the slaughter of Syrians by their own government as the peaceful Ramadan comes along?

I do not believe that he will say anything. Even if he did, he would do much less.

Dalits ask govt to stop forced conversions

Zaib Azkaar HussainWednesday, July 27, 2011


Representatives of the Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network (PDSN), who held at a meeting at the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Centre, demanded of the government to take notice of alleged abduction of Dalit girls and then their forced conversion to Islam.

They expressed serious concern over alleged social and economic discrimination against scheduled castes arguing that well-organised and conscious attempts were being made to reduce the share of schedule castes in the overall population of Pakistan in the house counting and the coming census.

The representatives further alleged forced labour, abduction of Dalit girls, and forced conversions of religion and illegal occupation of religious places of minorities.

Dr Sono Khangharani of the Thardeep Rural Development Programme, Karamat Ali and Zulfiqar Shah of the Pakistan Institute of PILER, Malji Meghwar, Avinash Hari of the Upgrade Minorities for Integrated Development (UMID), Ramesh Jaipal, chairman of the Scheduled Caste Rights Movement Pakistan, and other representatives of the PDSN made speeches.

They expressed their concern over exclusion policies against scheduled caste population everywhere in Pakistan and demanded of the government to provide protection to Dalits and allot government land to landless peasants of the low-caste monitories. A large number of Dalit families are working on lands of big landlords, where they face torture and bonded labour.

The representatives of scheduled caste communities said that the share of Dalits in employment, educational scholarships, national resources, development schemes and in the parliament was inadequate and it should be enhanced according to their proportion in the population.

They noted that primary schools in many areas in Tharparkar district had been either closed or they were not functioning. Besides there were no health facilities in localities of Dalits, they added.

They decried that political parties were providing assembly tickets for the reserved seats of minorities to only upper caste Hindus, whereas actually the scheduled caste population was much more than the upper caste Hindus in Pakistan.

They feared that in the forthcoming census, the population ratio of Dalits among the minorities would further be reduced as many scheduled caste people could include themselves in “Hindus” categories, whereas a separate category of “scheduled caste” was also included in the religion column. They underlined the need to create awareness among Dalit families about getting them registered in the census as “scheduled caste.”

The speakers complained that influential people and landlords in rural areas abducted girls of poor Dalits and then marry them off, forcibly converting them to Islam.

“The parents of girls are not allowed to meet their daughters even in the case of conversion,” a member of the Dalit community complained. Moreover, he said that in many cases Dalit girls were forced to beg or become prostitutes, exploited and abused.

He demanded of the government to stop forcible conversations of Dalit girls.

Members of the Dalit community from Karachi complained that religious places of minorities in the city, particularly in Keamari and Clifton areas, were forcibly occupied by land grabbers and at many places they were not allowed to use the worship places.

They also complained that police were reluctant to register a case of murder of a Katchi Dalit community member. Moreover, in rural areas of Sindh and southern Punjab the graveyards of Dalits had been occupied by land mafias and housing schemes had been initiated at the land of graveyards, the speakers concluded.

Egypt hosts terror convention with Hamas, Hezbollah, more

Posted Jul 28 2011 20:21 CEST More from Israel Blogs - elderofziyon.blogspot.com More Bin Ladin, Egypt, Iran, Israel Palestine Conflict, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey - Go to post elderofziyon.blogspot.com - Comments (0)

From the ITIC:
On July 24-25 Egypt hosted a conference called the “Founding Conference of the Arab-Islamic Gathering to Support the Option of Resistance” [i.e., terrorism] to support the so-called “resistance” (i.e., terrorism and violence). It was held at the Egyptian Press Syndicate in Cairo. The Palestinian media reported that the conference was attended by representatives from 14 Islamic countries, among them Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Sudan and Jordan. Also present were representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian political establishment elements. In addition, there were representatives from Hezbollah, and Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations. The Hezbollah representative gave a speech in the name of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Qudspress and Ma’an News Agency, July 24, 2011).

The conference attendees attempted to establish a link between the so-called “resistance” (i.e., the path of terrorism) and the popular protests in the Arab countries in recent months, stressing that the “resistance” was the only option for “liberating” Palestine. Osama Hamdan, responsible for Hamas’ international relations, said in a speech that “the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict will never end unless Israel ceased to exist,” and that Hamas would never recognize Israel (Al-Quds TV, July 24, 2011).

Syria: Over 100 killed as Ramadan starts

Syria Kills 145 on Ramadan Eve Amid International Condemnation

 Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — Syrian soldiers sought to reassert control over a restive nation yesterday, killing 145 people in one of the deadliest bouts of violence since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began four months ago, Al Jazeera reported.

The army took action the day before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayer. Tanks shelled Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, where at least 113 people were killed, the Qatari-based network said, citing the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

The regime “has been very frightened by Ramadan’s onset,” Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist who directs the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, said in a telephone interview.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “deeply concerned” by the reports of killings in Syria, his office said in a statement yesterday. The U.S., France, Turkey and the U.K. joined Ban in condemning the violence.

Activists, analysts and refugees have said they expect the uprising to intensify during the holy month. More than 1,950 protesters have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-March, according to Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Damascus- based Arab Organization for Human Rights, and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

Challenge to Assad

The unrest poses the biggest challenge to Assad’s rule since he inherited power from his father, Hafez al-Assad, 11 years ago.

“The unfolding crackdown is going to fuel people’s anger more, there is no doubt about it,” Landis said. “Clearly the regime believes they have got to use more force and they have to get on top of this before it expands into more towns and gets beyond the capabilities of the security forces to be in all places at all times.”

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was “appalled” by the Syrian government’s “use of violence and brutality against its own people.” He said the reports out of Hama “demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime,” adding that Assad has “shown he is completely incapable and unwilling to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people.”

Syria will be a “better place when a democratic transition goes forward,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. “In the days ahead, the United States will continue to increase our pressure on the Syrian regime, and work with others around the world to isolate the Assad government.”

French, Turkish Condemnations

France condemned the Syrian military repression and said the violence would lead to further instability, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Turkey said the events on the eve of Ramadan saddened the Islamic world and raised doubts over Assad’s commitment to a peaceful solution to the protesters’ demands. Ersat Hurmuzlu, an adviser to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, told Al Jazeera that his government was “shocked and disappointed,” calling the military action “part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

“The operations will not only make no contribution to securing public order, they also have an extremely negative impact on the process of necessary reform,” the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said in an e-mailed statement. “The events raise questions over the Syrian administration’s goodwill and sincerity in the search for a peaceful resolution.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “appalled” by the assault. “Assad is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis,” he said.

Previous Uprising

Hama, in western Syria, was the site of a 1982 uprising that the current president’s father crushed, leaving about 10,000 people dead, according to Human Rights Watch.

The city has been controlled largely by protesters for about the past month, Merhi said. Footage broadcast yesterday by Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera showed columns of black smoke billowing from the city. Gunfire and people screaming could be heard.

Al Jazeera, citing activists, said security forces opened fire on civilians next to a mosque in Daraa, killing three. Abdul-Karim Rihawi of the Syrian Human Rights League said at least 10 people were killed in Deir al-Zour, in northeastern Syria -- the same city where Syrian state television said an army colonel and two other soldiers were slain by armed men.

The unrest is likely to increase pressure on the country's economy, Chris Phillips, a London-based analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said in a telephone interview. Growth is expected to slow to 3 percent this year from 3.2 percent in 2010, the International Monetary Fund said in April. The Institute of International Finance says the economy may contract 3 percent this year.

No Tourists

The tourism industry, which accounts for about 10 percent of gross national product, is slumping, with virtually zero hotel-occupancy rates in Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo, Phillips said.

In Syria, as in other mostly Islamic countries, extended family and community groups typically gather to break the daily Ramadan fast after sunset, and people attend the mosque more frequently than in other months. Mosques have been rallying points for the Syrian protesters and greater attendance may help organizers get more people on the streets, Phillips said.

Calls for Democracy

Inspired by the overthrow of leaders in Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year, demonstrators are calling for democracy and increased civil rights in the country, which has been ruled by the Assad family for four decades. Syria has been a key opponent of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East and a power-broker in neighboring Lebanon.

Assad has blamed the protests on foreign-inspired plots, while conceding that some demonstrators have legitimate demands and pledging political changes.

The government last week approved laws that allow new political parties to exist alongside Assad's Baath Party, which has been in power since 1963, and the establishment of a commission to regulate parliamentary elections. Those moves and earlier steps toward change have failed to mollify protesters.

--With assistance from Nayla Razzouk in Amman, Alaa Shahine and Zahra Hankir in Dubai, Tara Patel in Paris, Steve Bryant in Ankara and Katarzyna Klimasinska, Mike Dorning, Flavia Krause- Jackson and Zaid Sabah Abd Alhamid in Washington. Editors: Leslie Hoffecker, Daniel Enoch