August 12, 2006

Aug. 12, 2006: #3

Doesn't this just brighten your day?

CSIS can't screen 90% of immigrants -- Most applicants from terror hotbeds escape scrunity, No. 2 spy admits, James Gordon, The Ottawa Citizen, May 30, 2006
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=
39ab13f9-9fdf-4919-9064-5398dc4d5f69&k=21422



About 90 per cent of immigration applicants from Pakistan and Afghanistan -- hotbeds for Islamic fundamentalism and central in the fight against terrorism -- haven't been adequately screened for security concerns over the past five years, Canada's spy agency said yesterday.

The No. 2 man at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said his organization simply doesn't have the resources necessary to do all the security checks it would like.

Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations for the service, told a Senate national security committee about 20,000 immigrants have come from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Canada since 2001.

[....] One senator asked why Canada was fighting in Afghanistan, where there are approximately 2,300 Canadian Forces personnel, if it can't even close its own borders to outside threats.

Mr. Hooper argued regional dynamics a world away have effects here as well. He said following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, foreign intelligence began pouring in about threats to Canada. Each individual identified, he said, had some connection to Afghanistan. [....]




To end this war, disarm Hezbollah , National Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=8ea9dbd2-a986-4875-acc2-fa544648994d


[....] Two years ago, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution upholding the independence and territorial integrity of Lebanon. In particular, Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament and dismantling of private militias such as Hezbollah, which is essentially a division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps. Yet Hezbollah never turned in its guns. Far from it, the group amassed an arsenal larger than that of many nations, and turned southern Lebanon into an armed camp from which to attack Israel -- all under the noses of UN observers.

[....] Defenders of last night's deal will point to the fact that the international peacekeeping force will be assisted by Lebanon's own small army, which Western powers hope will one day exert normal sovereign Lebanese authority over what is now Hezbollahland. But for now, at least, no one should depend on that outcome. Since the 1970s, Beirut has permitted either Syria or Israel or one of the region's many Christian or Islamic militias to defend the sovereignty of south Lebanon. Sending the actual Lebanese army to the region is therefore something of an untested novelty. In any case, the army's officer corps is known to be shot through with Hezbollah-friendly Shiites and Damascene stooges left over from the Syrian occupation. [....]






A Hezbollah victory in UN resolution, National Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=edb389e8-f221-46f1-98da-20e964c33333

More here , National Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=c46bcbdc-633e-4613-b847-9b8a0ffa1e49



Andre Ouellet

Former Liberal minister sues Ottawa over breach of contract -- Claiming he was fired by former prime minister Paul Martin's administration and asked to make it look like a resignation, former Canada Post president Andre Ouellet is suing the federal government for $3.2 million.
www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=83daa960-
1182-4f75-803c-10a2ef611eb5&k=52211





AIDS & Celebrities: "Celebrity, almost by definition, is trivial"

Conference boasts star power like no other health cause -- Entertainers were involved early when many victims were gay , Tom Blackwell, National Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=2f47693d-3d9d-4f60-827d-9b7a045b04e6



It is unlikely there will ever be a Parkinson's film festival, an official Crohn's disease sculpture at the Royal Ontario Museum or a concert for prostate cancer headlined by U.S. pop star Alicia Keys.

But all that spectacle and more is part of the huge, and oddly fashionable, International AIDS Conference that gets underway tomorrow in Toronto.

With its many cultural events and celebrity appearances, the conference underlines how HIV and AIDS have been embraced by the arts and entertainment world like no other health-care cause. [....]




Lewis calls on Ottawa to fight spread of AIDS -- United Nations envoy Stephen Lewis has called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a stand against HIV/AIDS and implement a four-step plan to stop the disease from spreading. , CTV.ca News Staff, Aug. 9 2006 11:25 PM ET



[....] The initiative calls for a timetable to increase Canada's assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross national income.

The plan also asks Canada to put more money into the health care systems of developing countries, cancel their debts, invest more money to fight AIDS and to follow through on commitments to make medicines more affordable.


Why are so many of us not worried about getting AIDS? Maybe behaviour has something to do with it? Put that money into finding a cure for any number of diseases that have already struck or might strike Canadians (e.g. cancer) or train and hire more doctors, for example.



[....] Gerry Barr, of the Make Poverty History campaign, said, "There is no better time or place than here in Toronto at the International AIDS Conference for Canada to announce that it will step to the mark.''

The conference, which expects more than 20,000 delegates, begins Sunday.


When I read of the celebrities involved, it just turns me off any organization fronted by one of them. Do these people actually bring in donors? Amazing.

After all, Paris Hilton is a "celebrity". Even with good looks, if she were Josie Doe from the poverty patch, she wouldn't be a celebrity. How do these people get to be celebrities? Money? Outrageous behaviour? People stupid? ...




Canada criticized on AIDS funding


"Canada is not meeting its commitments,'' Zeitz said, adding Canada's spending of about $250 million this year falls $60 million short of its fair share of the Global Fund's needs.




With $250 million I'LL go to Africa as a missionary. My mission? To design and implement a program of castration for any man who 'can't be convinced to use a condom'. There you go, the African AIDS problem solved. [rosemarie59, 8/11/2006 12:08:15]


I concur ... AIDS needs decisive and effective action ... instead of AIDS activists blaming everything on poverty and canvassing Canadians for more $$$. As for Stephen Lewis, spare me. He's a front man for keeping the UN alive with more talkfests.



Think of the millions wasted in bringing thousands to Toronto from all over the world and for what? Any news of advances made in fighting aids can be spread all over the world in minutes for all to read. It seems to me that the thousands attending are on the social teat and the whole thing is a big social event.

Millions wasted just to listen to Stephen Lewis whine.


Bingo!




The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party , Publisher: Nelson Current (August 2006) Language: English ISBN: 1595550445
www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595550445
/104-5520935-8220762?redirect=true
It gets mixed reviews.



In Shadow Party, [the authors] reveal behind-the-scenes details the left desperately doesn't want you to know, such as:

The vast network of private think tanks, foundations, unions, stealth PACs, and other front groups through which the Shadow Party operates in America. [I would argue that they extend into Canada.]

The Shadow Party's plan to rewrite the US Constitution.

How the Shadow Party overthrows foreign governments -- and why it may attempt to use the same methods here.

The network's voluminous contributions to the Democrats, which totaled more than $300 million in the 2004 elections, and its growing influence over the party's message and policy.

The politicians on both sides of the aisle who have exchanged political favors with George Soros and his "government-in-the-wings."

The Shadow Party's efforts to conceal its radical agenda behind the "moderate" pose of Hillary Clinton and other public figures.

The radical network's plan to seize power in 2008.


Read online:
The Shadow Party: Part I
The Shadow Party: Part 2
The Shadow Party: Part 3

Aug. 12, 2006: #2

Phelps Dodge Profit Drops, Miners Stand by Inco Deal
www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=21971

Xstrata's bid was cleared by Canadian foreign-ownership regulators Tuesday, in a move that made Xstrata's offer is lower-risk and, analysts said, could precipitate withdrawal of shares tendered to Inco's bid. [Someone wrote that they always clear these deals, so what good are the regulators, if that is the case?]

[....] Barry Allan, an analyst with Research Capital Corp., has maintained Inco will do whatever it takes to get the Falconbridge deal done, and said Wednesday that Inco may still have a trick or two up its sleeve.

But, he added ''it's not clear that Inco is in the driver's seat here at all in securing its three-way merger.''

The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at both Falconbridge and Inco, blasted Ottawa's decision to give Xstrata the green light Wednesday, pointing to a potential loss of Canadian resources and jobs.



Stock markets lower despite strong retail data; new bid surfaces for Inco , Malcolm Morrison, Canadian Press, August 11, 2006
www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.ht
ml?id=6a47517a-b6b8-4bbd-985d-33d3e438f98e&k=8419

[....] Brazil's CVRD (NYSE:RIO) is bidding $17 billion or $86 a share for nickel giant Inco. Vancouver-based Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) previously made a cash-stock bid for Inco worth about $86 a share, while Inco has backed a similar takeover bid by U.S.-based Phelps Dodge (NYSE:PD).

Inco shares were up $2.19 to $88.44 while Teck shares jumped $2.38 to $78.57.

"The beat goes on," said John Kinsey, portfolio manager at Caldwell Securities.

"Their market seems to be anticipating that either one or both of Phelps and Teck will extend and raise their offers." [....]






COMPANHIA VALE DO RIO DOCE (CVRD)

Madrid bolsa: CVRD info
www.bolsamadrid.es/comun/fichaemp
/fichavalor.asp?isin=BRVALEACNPA3&id=ing

Incorporated on June 1, 1942 as a state owned company and privatized on May7, 1997, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce - CVRD is one of the most important and productive business groups in Brazil, with international operations and customers in more than 30 countries. CVRD today maintains commercial offices in North America (New York), Europe (Brussels) and Asia (Tokyo and Shanghai), the locations of its principal customers.






www.cvrd.com.br/files/factsheeti.pdf

CVRD Overview

Incorporated in 1942, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) isthe largest diversified mining company in the Americas and the fifth largest company in the global metals & mining industry, with a market capitalization of approximately US$ 20billion. CVRD shares are traded on the New York StockExchange - NYSE (RIO and RIOPR), on the BOVESPA (Vale3and Vale5) and on Latibex (XVALP and XVALO). Average dailytrading is close to US$ 80 million. The ADR depositary agent isJP Morgan Chase.

CVRD is the largest global producer and exporter of iron ore and pellets with a participation of 33% of the seaborne market. It is the world’s second largest producer of manganese and ferro alloys and have a participation of 11% of the manganese seaborne market. Bothironore andmanganese are very important raw materials for steelmaking.

CVRD is one of the world’s lowest cost integrated producers of aluminum (bauxite, alumina and primary aluminum), and is a large producer of kaolin, used for paper coating, and potash, a raw material for the fertilizer industry. In July 2004, CVRD inaugurated the Sossego copper mine, its first copper project from a series to be implemented until 2010. It is also starting to develop nickel projects aiming to become one of the three largest global mining companies by the end of this decade.

It is a natural resources powerhouse, with vast reserves of iron ore, bauxite, copper/gold, kaolin, manganese, nickel andpotash. Its iron ore resources support current production of 200 million tons per year for the next 200 years. CVRD holds 11% of the total estimated global bauxite reserves and mineral rights to an area equivalent to 2.5 times the size of Belgium.

CVRD is the largest logistics player in Brazil, owning and operating several railroads and ports.

Up to 89% of its revenues are US dollar denominated while less than 30% of costs are US dollar denominated. Therefore, this characteristic of the Company cashflow provides a natural currency hedge.

CVRD headquarters and main assets and operations are located in Brazil, with offices in New York, Brussels, Tokyo and Shanghai. It owns companies in the USA (California Steel Industry, San Bernardino, Ca.), France (RDME, Dunkerque), Norway (RDMN, Mo I Rana) and Bahrain (GIIC).

Looking Forward

CVRD growth strategy is focused on shareholder value creation through emphasis in profitable organic growth. TheCompany believes that organic growth is the most important driver of cash generation. It has a US$ 8.5 billion project pipeline of low-cost profitable projects to be developed from 2004 to 2010. Acquisitions also may generate value to the shareholders and the Company is always analyzing good opportunities.

Company Fact Sheet Companhia Vale do Rio Doce

High Quality Portfolio
Iron Ore and Pellets
Aluminum - Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminum
Manganese and Ferro Alloys
Industrial Minerals - Kaolin and Potash
Copper/Gold and Nickel
Railroads and Ports
Stakes in world class steel companies
[....]





Brazil's CVRD makes $16.67B play for inco -- Two-year search for partner , Drew Hasselback, Financial Post / National Post, August 12, 2006
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost
/story.html?id=8f27343e-414d-4b04-8865-0fde9b49e6ae&k=73594

[....] CVRD's bid for Inco is the Brazilian company's third significant foray into the Canadian mining world. In February, CVRD bought Vancouver-based Canico Resource Corp. for $765-million. The transaction gave CVRD control over the Onca-Puma nickel project in Brazil. Inco was a 14% shareholder in Canico, and retains royalty rights on future production.

Less successful was CVRD's attempt in 2004 to buy what was then Canada's largest mining company, Noranda Inc. After those talks failed, Noranda ultimately merged with Toronto-based Falconbridge Ltd. Switzerland-based Xstrata PLC is poised to acquire Falconbridge next week with a friendly all-cash offer of $18.6-billion.

[....] "Would I like to get into iron ore? I'd love it," [Scott Hand, Inco's CEO] said. "One of the things that I've always said -- and I'll say it until they put me in the wooden box -- is that you want to be in the metals and materials that China needs and doesn't have."

Miners like the iron business because it uses contracts that fix prices for one-year terms. By contrast, base metals such as nickel and copper are sold at spot prices, which can fluctuate wildly. [....]


CVRD already has an office in Shanghai ... all set. Does it partner with a Chinese or Canadian Chinese company? I notice students have been doing internships in Brazil at CVRD -- part of the UBC mining engineering course. UBC 4th Year Mining Engineering Trip to Brazil: Sponsor report Package -- pdf

Check further; there might be other liberally interesting ties ... perhaps not. Was there any taxpayer funding for a "center of excellence"? I have noted that descriptor used for "initiatives" closely connected to a previous government's own aims and/or businesses and friends, using taxpayer cash.




One family's shares hold Teck's future -- Last chance for Inco?: If Keevils switch to common shares, 'that would sway a lot of investors' , Boyd Erman, Financial Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.ht
ml?id=3fc015bf-16aa-4965-8417-67d0d8ad0770

The next few days will reveal how badly Teck Cominco Ltd.'s controlling Keevil family wants to be a global force in the mining industry.

Teck's bid for nickel miner Inco Ltd. is on life support after Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce yesterday unveiled an $86 a share bid that's comparable in face value, but is all cash rather than the mix of $40 cash and the balance in shares that Teck is offering.

[....] The Keevils took control of the company in 1959, and today share a majority voting stake with Sumitomo of Japan, using super voting stock.

That setup is distasteful to many shareholders who would otherwise consider supporting Teck. Should the Keevils and Sumitomo pledge to give up their super voting shares in return for common shares, they will give their company a shot at winning Inco and vaulting into the top tier of miners.
[....]







David Kilgour and David Matas: Investigators into Organ Harvesting Reply to Chinese Regime , Aug 10, 2006
www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-10/44796.html


Editor's Note: On July 6 former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas released the report of their independent investigation into the allegations that large scale organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners was taking place in China. They reported these allegations to be credible. In a response issued by the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa on the day the same day their report was released, and again in another response issued by the Embassy on July 26, Kilgour and Matas were subjected to criticism. This statement is their response to the Chinese regime's statements.

[....] Our sole concerns are respect for the truth and human rights.

10. Both Chinese statements say:

"China has consistently abided by the relevant guiding principles of the World Health Organization endorsed in 1991, prohibiting the sale of human organs and stipulating that donors' written consent must be obtained beforehand and donors are entitled to refuse the donation at last minute."

This statement was belied by the facts. The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre Website until April of this year set out a price list for transplants. The price list was removed from the website in April, but is still archived. To see the web site now, go to
http://en.zoukiishoku.com
.
To see the archived site, go to
http://archive.edoors.com/render.php?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fen.zoukiishoku.com%2Flist%2Fcost.htm+&x=16&y=11
.
As well, many individuals can attest to paying for organ transplants in China.

11. The statement in both responses that China has consistently abided by the principle stipulating that donors' written consent must be obtained beforehand is also belied by the facts. Human Rights Watch has reported that consent is obtained from executed prisoners in only a minority of cases. The organization writes that even in this minority of cases

"the abusive circumstances of detention and incarceration in China, from the time a person is first accused of a capital offense until the moment of his or her execution, are such as to render absurd any notion of "free and voluntary consent."

Organ Procurement and Judicial Execution in China, August 1994.

12. Both Chinese statements say:

"China has issued a regulation on human organ transplants, explicitly banning the sale of organs and introducing a set of medical standards for organ transplants in an effort to guarantee medical safety and the health of patients. The regulation requires medical institution which is qualified for practising human organ transplant to register at provincial level health department. Unregistered medical institutions are forbidden to practice human organ transplant. If the government finds any registered institution violating the regulation, it will cancel the registration and punish the people responsible."

We acknowledge that this is so, and wrote about it in our report. We also note that this legislation came into force only a few days before our report was released on July 1st. It is not an answer to our findings about what happened before that date. Moreover, in China, there is a huge gap between enacting legislation and enforcing it.

Our first reply, issued long before the second Chinese response, made this point. Yet, the second Chinese response just repeats word for word what was in their first response on this point.

It is an error to refer to a law which came into effect after the relevant period to deny that something happened earlier. When this error is pointed out to the Government of China and the Government persists in the error nonetheless, we can only conclude that this error is deliberate. [....]





Airport security measures may be here to stay, CTV.ca News Staff, Aug. 11 2006 11:35 PM ET
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews
/20060810/airport_delays_060811/20060811?hub=Canada

[....] The federal government announced proposed regulations Friday under the Explosives Act that would require companies selling the restricted materials to register with the government, keep meticulous inventory records, and notify police if they believe a customer will use the materials to make bombs.

The chemicals include:

Ammonium nitrate in solid form, at a concentration of 28 per cent to 34 per cent nitrogen;
Nitric acid at a concentration of at least 68 per cent;
Nitromethane;
Hydrogen peroxide at a concentration of at least 30 per cent;
Potassium nitrate;
Sodium nitrate;
Potassium chlorate;
Sodium chlorate; and
Potassium perchlorate.
Hydrogen peroxide is the only chemical on the list readily available to consumers in drug stores as a disinfectant -- but at far weaker concentrations that would not be covered by the proposed regulations.

Electronics

Duchesneau advised travellers to arrive early, pack light, and requested that passengers put laptop computers and other electronic devices in checked bags -- though they are not required to do so.

But he also said his agency is considering a number of new measures, including the possibility of banning such gear from cabins. [....]





Music to annoy the savage beast , George Jonas, National Post, August 12, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=f01edcc4-129a-44c0-b790-d065367603d0

[....] I'm listening to steel drums as I'm writing this. A nearby schoolyard has been infested by a Caribbean-style steel band, whose members use the summer months to try achieving a level of adequacy on their bizarre instruments. If they succeed, the sound they produce may be a tad less annoying than acid rock, though more annoying than Scottish or Greek bagpipes, designed to grate on the enemy's nerves under battlefield conditions. Before reaching that level of competence, steel bands sound like an industrial accident in progress.

[....] One person's nuisance is another person's musical experience for a variety of reasons, the most important of which may defy analysis. I think Albert Camus was right when he wrote that: "Truly fertile music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a music conducive to dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason." [....]

Aug. 12, 2006: #1

Three Middle Eastern Men Found With 1000 Cell Phones, Now Face Charges , Sam Licavoli II, Edited By Doug Moiles, Aug. 11, 06, WNEM TV5, via JacksNewswatch.info
www.wnem.com/Global/story.asp?S=5269589

(TV5) -- The three suspects are now facing two counts each of Homeland Security Terrorism charges. All three suspects are due to be arraigned August 12th.

Around 1:00am August 11th the three men purchased cell phones from the Wal-Mart store on M-81 near the corner of M-24 in Caro. Wal-Mart places a limit on the number of cell phones that can be purchased at once, that number is three. The three men allegedly bought 80 by purchasing them three at time so that an alert wouldn't be triggered by the cash register. They also paid cash. [....]

The phones were Nokia TracFones selling for $20 at Wal-Mart. For your twenty dollars you receive a phone charger and 40 minutes of airtime. The phones do not have to be registered with a name. Also discovered was a laptop with store addresses and store logos.

Tim Nausler with the Michigan State Police bomb squad says this has all the tell tale signs of using cell phones to detonate bombs. He says you need two phones to detonate a bomb one to be with the explosive and the other to make the call to that phone. In some instances he says you can detonate with one phone using the alarm clock function.

The TracFones are a nationwide prepaid wireless phone service and are even offered with international long distance. These phones according to www.tracfone.com don't even have coverage in the Thumb area where they were purchased. [....]




Security's off the rails , Earl McRae, Aug. 12, 06
www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/McRae_Earl
/2006/08/12/1750547.html

Jean Christoff, temporary manager of the Ottawa [railway] station, admitted: "No, we don't check carry-on bags." Shouldn't they? "It'd be easier for us if we had scanners like at the airports, but we don't. I don't know why, exactly." But added: "We do have surveillance cameras though inside, at the platform, and in the parking lot. For about four months now. And we play a message saying to be aware and keep your luggage beside you."

What help is that if the person keeping his weapon-laden luggage beside him is a terrorist?





How partisan, how Liberal , "Khan agrees to quit Liberal caucus while advising Harper", Aug. 12, 06
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=9f9a1aea-be25-43b8-a71e-1ace11e42999

Liberal MP Wajid Khan bowed to critical colleagues yesterday, withdrawing from Liberal caucus duties while he is serving as special adviser to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the Middle East and Afghanistan. His statement, written with assistance from the office of interim Liberal leader Bill Graham [....]


My guess is that Graham or someone in his office prepared it and demanded Khan sign it. Obviously, there is little trust within the Liberal Opposition.



Why the secrecy on this?

Montreal Web host receives complaint about pro-Hezbollah site -- closes it down, Aug. 12, 06
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=f004670a-624c-4d59-907f-6c0c8fd69044



'It's their hospital' -- Some 70 children were asked for suggestions ... hundreds of ideas poured in , Don Martin, National Post, August 12, 2006




It is time for a United Nations of Democracies; the present UN is completely biased against the one democracy in the Middle East.

Where Israel still = racism , Hillel Neuer, Jerusalem Post, August 10, 2006
The writer is executive director of UN Watch, and editor of its Web site, www.unwatch.org.

The convening Friday of a UN Human Right Council emergency session to condemn "gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon" caps a month-long mad rush by the world body's human rights institutions to single out Israel for special censure.

The Muslim states that initiated the meeting dominate the large African and Asian blocs, guaranteeing the adoption of an anti-Israel motion that will become only the third country resolution of the new council - all of which have targeted the Jewish state to the exclusion of the UN's other 191 member states.

A typical example of how key UN human rights bodies are being subverted is the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

If you thought the UN's 1991 repeal of the "Zionism is Racism" resolution, achieved by the determined efforts of then assistant secretary of state John Bolton, marked an end to the world body's promotion of this canard, guess again. On the same day that Iran's President Ahmadinejad renewed his call for the destruction of the Jewish state, the UN's top racism committee supplied Teheran with renewed international moral justification for that goal.

Last Thursday, the CERD suspended its normal work to address "the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon."

Not only is this topic entirely outside CERD's mandate, but it was framed in a lopsided manner, so that the humanitarian suffering of Israeli civilians would be entirely ignored.

Since July 12, when Hizbullah ignited the crisis by crossing the international border to murder and kidnap Israeli soldiers, the Iran-sponsored terrorist organization has fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel. A million Israelis are either displaced or living in and out of bomb shelters, dozens have been killed, while a further 2,000 have been injured or required hospital treatment. Yet one would not know any of this from the CERD's presentation of the issue. [....]




LGF Exclusive: How Much Does It Cost to Buy Global TV News?
littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22055_LGF_Exclusive-_How_Much_Does_It_Cost_to_Buy_Global_TV_News&only

An LGF reader who worked for Associated Press TV News sent me the following article explaining how APTN works, and suggesting a reason why their coverage of the Middle East is so overwhelmingly biased against Israel: [....]



Major Public Service shakeup aims to revitalize top ranks , Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen, August 12, 2006

The most speculated move involved Maryatonett Flumian, the tough-minded and sometimes controversial boss at the new Service Canada who often found herself in the spotlight for her stint as the head of the much-maligned gun registry. Ms. Flumian, who was appointed the first deputy head of Service Canada by the Martin government, was moved to the PCO as a "special adviser" while waiting for a new assignment.

She is being replaced by up-and-comer Helene Gosselin, now the associate deputy minister at Health Canada.

Longtime bureaucrat Andre Juneau, deputy minister of Infrastructure and Communities, moves to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development as director for Canada and Morocco. His job will be rolled into the duties of Transport Deputy Minister Louis Ranger.

Samy Watson, the volatile and difficult former deputy minister of Environment, who was sidelined in the last shuffle, is being sent to the World Bank to replace former Liberal cabinet minister Marcel Masse as executive director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. [....]


Bringing in younger blood ... and perhaps a new perspective, since the civil service hiring has been done by Liberal governments for years.

Maybe some of them would like to work with the UN and Stephen Lewis in Africa on AIDS? We wouldn't want to deprive Africa of their expertise.



Three missing Egyptian students in custody: FBI , Updated Thu. Aug. 10 2006 8:30 AM ET, CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews
/20060809/egyptian_students_060809/20060810/

[....] Former FBI Special Agent George Bauries said the high number of disappearances is unusual.

"If you had one or two of the group that decided they were going off to see Disneyland or Las Vegas, that's understandable," said Bauries. "But for 11 individuals to basically fall off of the radar in the United States, that is a concern."

Cal Temple, of the Terrorism Research Center in Virginia, said the fact the missing students are Egyptian has added an extra incentive to the chase.

"Given the relationship between the al Qaeda network and Egyptians -- al Qaeda's number two guy (Ayman al-Zawahiri) is an Egyptian -- that probably added a little bit of additional urgency to find these guys," said Temple. [....]




AP, N.Y. Times raising the dead? -- News agencies run photographs of 'deceased' who 'appear alive' , Aug. 9, 06, WND.com
www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51456

An Associated Press photograph of a "dead man" who is sitting upright underneath a sheet and a New York Times series that appears to have one man as both rescuer and victim are prompting more questions about U.S. media coverage of the Mideast conflict. [....]




Caledonia

Ontario to appeal ruling on Caledonia standoff , (08/09/2006)
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews
/20060809/caledonia_ruling_060809/20060809

Ontario will appeal a Superior Court judge's order to end negotiations in a five-month long standoff over a land dispute in Caledonia, Ont.

Aug. 12, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn




Photo from the BC coast, thanks to a correspondent.


British-Muslims and terrorism

Timothy Garton Ash wrote an excellent article on this connection in The Globe and Mail (Aug 10, 06 A-13). He mentions a couple of polls taken in Britain since the London tube bombings, which cast light on why there is such nihilism in British-born Muslims--say as compared to the French-Muslims. He states: "In a Pew poll of Muslims world-wide, a gob-smacking 81% of British Muslims said they thought of themselves as Muslim first and citizens of their country only second....By contrast, only 46% of French-Muslims thought of themselves as Muslims first, as compared to 42% who felt themselves first and foremost citoyens....The younger, the greater the alienation. Shockingly, one of three British-Muslims between the ages of 18 and 24 said they would rather live under shariah law than under British law."

Ash contributes this cultural remoteness can be ethnically explained. Most of Britain's Muslim immigrants come from Pakistan, and many of those from the Kashmir region. France for instance gets most of its Muslims from North Africa. One has only to look at Pakistan and Kashmir today to see the fanaticism staring back. In Pakistan, the fundamentalist fervor is evident throughout the country as the various sects periodically slaughter each other. The NW of the country is modern only in its weaponry. Osama feels right at home there--although probably considered too moderate by some. Even the Pakistani intelligence service is loaded with extremists. While their top nuclear scientist runs around the Middle East giving nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, the Pakistani government still treats him as a hero, not a traitor. Kashmir has been in a constant state of terrorism for decades. Being a suicide bomber is a badge of honour there. All Hindus are righteous victims.

Perhaps, the most telling statistic was the one that showed that of British-Muslims, the 81% alienation from their citizenship was surpassed only by Pakistan's at 87%. This was even so when Jordan, Egypt and Turkey were included in the poll. Our alleged Canadian terrorists also are mainly of Pakistani descent. Co-incidence? Maybe, but it might be a valuable clue in helping profile future terrorist groups.

© Bud Talkinghorn


Bob Rae comes out of the NDP closet

Poor Bob, he just can't shake that flakey, appeasing doctrine of his old party. His ruinous rule as NDP premier of Ontrario will always dog him. However, now as a contender for the Liberal leadership, he has tried mightily to re-cast himself as more moderate. The last thing he would need is for him to come across as a mini-Jumping Jack Layton. However his comments on Harper's supposed foreign policy ineptitude and his own vague solutions to the Lebanese conflict show his true colours. Without honestly admitting it, Rae believes that Canada should treat Hezbollah--and that impotent rump in Beirut--as moral equals to Israel. That Hezbollah, when stripped of its mendaciousness, is just another murderous theocracatic group, seems to have eluded Rae. Hezbollah is not simply a threat to Israel, but down the line, to the West in general. We do not need a terrorist army that takes some of its direction from Syria and Iran. Besides, if Israel hadn't destroyed so much of Lebanon's infastructure, the rest of the country would be happy to see Israel pound Hezbollah to dust. The civil war memories are still fresh. For the Lebanese, the humiliation of having this dirt-poor, bone-ignorant, fundamentalist segment controlling their destiny is overwhelming. They have no choice but to pretend to back Hezbollah, as they can do nothing to rein them in.

Does Bob Rae really think that the Lebanese army can enforce a ceasefire? What percentage of that army is Shi'ite? The army is not going to kill their brethern to subdue them. More probably they would defect, along with their weapons, to the Hezbollah side. Bob needs to go back to Logic 101. If he were a true believer in democracy, he would have to support Israel, the only beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Hezbollah represents the worst of its opposite.

© Bud Talkinghorn


Should Canadians feel safe flying?

Not if they have read the Senator Kenny report on airline security, they shouldn't. Kenny has repeatedly pointed out that security is practically nil once you have a security badge. In the bowels of our airports are people who are connected to criminal gangs and others who are never searched before entering planes. Nobody knows what the caterers, groomers and other staff on the tarmac are up to. Recently, it was discovered at Trudeau airport that groomers were unloading drugs left in arriving planes by their foreign groomer counterparts. What would have stopped the them from planting a bomb on those planes? Or a sleeper cell caterer planting explosives, along with the rubber chicken entrees? Early reports suggest that at least one of the English terrorists worked at Heathrow. For him, job location is everything. Kenny also noted that the RCMP presence at our major airports is inadequate to any emergency. Even the first line of security defense could be easily evaded, considering that undercover agents succeeded in sneakiing guns, knives and fake bombs past checkers. His conclusion was that it was more good luck than good management that has spared us hideous airliner attacks. How these discrepancies could go uncorrected defies the imagination. Let us hope that the newly averted disaster in Britain will be the needed wake-up call to action.

© Bud Talkinghorn--I'll be crossing my fingers on the next flight.

I watched a TV appearance of Senator Kenny yesterday with Cindy Burgess (between 4-6pm) to once again, tell Canadians just how bad the security situation is ... yet, his Parliamentary Committee on security has been telling the government and any journalists in Ottawa this FOR YEARS! Naturally, when I checked, I could find out about the Middle East, the UK, Nasrallah or how Muslims feel, and the like, but Senator Kenny's words were not to be found (at least by me) on the website. While the security committee reported the situation more than once over years, the Liberals did little, talked a lot, and the mainstream media did not highlight it, though they occasionally mentioned it, usually paired with assurances from ex-Deputy PM and Min. responsible for security, Anne McLellan that everything was okay ... not to worry, that she had everything under control.

Well, she misspoke herself and so did all her Liberal colleagues who funded "initiatives" and tossed money to their friends, fellow Liberal voters and/or to anyone's pet project (Kyoto talk, UN, etc.) that would get them votes, but they did not adequately address security and policing needs. Now, we are paying the price and all the mainstream media (Star, Globe & Mail/Bell Globe Media and the CBC/Liberal propaganda organ) are fixated on bringing Prime Minister Harper's government down with any negative spin they can spew. To find out news, one has to look elsewhere ... with a few notable exceptions, a few good journalists who write. I am appalled at the low quality of the "news" available in the East. Do they think we're fools? Are we ... to accept without protest this travesty pawned off on us as "news"? NJC

August 11, 2006

Aug. 11, 2006: #2

Anti-Hizballah Rally - Toronto - Saturday, August 12 -- Meet at the Starbucks at 110 Bloor West (on the north side of Bloor, west of Bay) .... between 12:30 and 1PM, which is when the pro-Hizballah rally starts. At 1PM we will walk one block west to the Israeli consulate ...

UK terrorists ... uh ... alleged?

Three converts, one with an Iranian father and a pregnant Muslim wife.
news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13537091,00.html

Why are these guys shocked? I wasn't.
news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13537047,00.html

Evening update: Ever crazier details about terror plot emerge (Update: Suspects named) , Allahpundit, Aug. 10, 06
hotair.com/archives/2006/08/10/evening-update-ever-craz
ier-details-about-terror-plot-emerge/

A must read ... to the end.

Drugs & Grow ops

Realty agents face discipline , Anne Sutherland, The Gazette, August 09, 2006

www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.ht
ml?id=b3de4c9e-70aa-446e-ba3d-dc6edfa1adaa&k=11211

[....] Thi Thu Thuy Ho, listed as Alicia Ho on the website of her employer, Re-Max Alliance on Beaubien St., is accused of not informing buyers in 2005 and 2006 that properties she had listed had been used as grow ops.


[....] Suet-Yim Fung, listed as Debbie Fung on the website of Re-Max Platine in Brossard.[....]





The Phoniness of ceasefires by Thomas Sowell, in the Western Standard, Aug. 14, 06 -- Highly recommended article which I could not find online -- no more time to look. You may have better luck.

Kofi Annan would have called the U.S. response to Germany "disproportionate" since Hitler had never bombed U.S. cities.



Li Ka-shing’s Hutchinson Ports & Mexico

A must read.

China: NAFTA winner, August 9, 2006, Jerome R. Corsi
www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16407

Mr. Corsi is the author of several books, including "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry" (along with John O'Neill), "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil" (along with Craig R. Smith), and "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians," and most recently, "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders." He is a frequent guest on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show. He will soon co-author a new book with Jim Gilchrist on the Minuteman Project.


Red China is investing heavily in developing deep-water ports in Mexico to bring an unprecedented volume of containers into the U.S. along the emerging NAFTA Super Highway. This move signals China's emergence as the unexpected economic winner in the North American Union free market.

Hutchinson Ports, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's giant Hutchinson Whampoa Limited (HWL) is investing millions to expand the deep water ports the company manages at Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo on Mexico's Pacific coast

[....] “Li is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business influence to further the aims of the Chinese Government.” [....]

Li Ka-shing’s Hutchinson Ports also operates both ends of the Panama Canal, which we have previously documented was returned to Panama under the Carter administration by National Security Council advisor, Robert Pastor, whom we have called the “Father of the North American Union.” HWL also has business dealings with the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), China’s largest shipping line, which is owned by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In 1998, Congress blocked on national security grounds an attempt by the Clinton administration to allow COSCO to lease the abandoned Long Beach Naval Station. [....]


Lengthy and a must read article.

Carter was a blankety-blank fool short-sighted, perhaps naive, to have done that. Can't the leftists see through all this yet?



NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR , posted by WND, 2006/08/09
canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/18338.shtml



Reuters a patsy or collaborator?

This confirms what many of us have suspected. Put together a liar and a leftist press and what do you get? Some Canadians recognized it early ... Make a guess as to why.

Jihad Journalism?, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY, Posted 8/7/2006
www.investors.com/editorial/EditorialContent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=239841568183848&secure=1&show=1


Media Bias: Need a little anti-war, anti-Semitic buck-up? Try some Reuters coverage. The British news outlet will be only too happy to oblige.

Over the weekend, a Reuters photographer was caught trying to make one of Israel's defensive attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon look much more devastating than it was. The photo was eventually withdrawn and the photographer ostensibly fired.

The photo, an image of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, had apparently been altered to ....

[....] "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut." The so-far-unidentified person used "zionistpig" as his or her e-mail address.

Another anti-Semitic misstep and another Reuters statement. This time the news service confirmed that, yes, "an employee has been suspended pending further investigation."
[....]





The fatal mistake of Modernism -- part 1 -- The great fallacy about how man knows , July 22, 2006, Fred Hutchison, RenewAmerica analyst

www.renewamerica.us/columns/hutchison/060722


Every civilization has a theory about what man knows and how he knows it. The theory of a particular civilization will influence every area of human thought and action. Such fields as science, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, education, religion, and popular morality will be directly affected. Fields like art, music, poetry, and literature will be deeply, although indirectly, influenced, as well.

Theories about how man knows are found in a branch of metaphysics that philosophers call epistemology. Epistemology is a Greek compound word meaning the study of knowledge.

The intellectual leaders of the West took a sharp turn in the wrong direction in epistemology during the period 1750–1800, as a result of disillusionment with rationalism without understanding the fallacies of the rationalist philosophers. Empirical philosophy was offered as a substitute for rationalism, which had equally serious fallacies. [....]


The fatal mistake of Modernism -- part 2 -- Fallacies of reason and cultural decline , Aug. 9, 06
www.renewamerica.us/columns/hutchison/060809


During part one of this essay, we took a tour of history, beginning with the birth of European civilization and finishing with the high watermark in Western culture (1100–1750). We discovered how Europe began with an excellent foundation for reason and how false ways of thinking and knowing began to creep into Western thought during the seventeenth century.

In part two, we will consider how several fatal myths of Modernism took hold during the period 1750–1800. After 1800, several new ersatz philosophies were added. By 1850, Modernism as a comprehensive world view was essentially complete. Our historical tour of this two-part essay ends at 1850, because most of the key epistemological errors of Modernism had been made by then.

Economic Determinism, Marxism, Historicism, Darwinism, and Freudianism had appeared by 1900, but these were, in large part, new combinations of the elements of Modernism that were in place by 1850. New rearrangements of old fallacies also occurred in the twentieth century in several clusters of Modernist philosophy, including: (a) Pragmatism, Instrumentalism, Behaviorism, and Positivism, (b) Structuralism and Postmodern Deconstructionism, (c) Phenomenalism, Existentialism, Libertarianism, and New Age thought, and (d) Multiculturalism, Identity Politics, and the Root Causes Panaceas.

Before we begin the story of the decline of Western culture, let us take a quick look at the meridian splendor of the high culture from which we have fallen. [....]




B.C. court to split trial for Pickton -- Accused killer won't face all 26 counts at once -- Judge rules one massive trial too onerous on jurors, Aug. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?page
name=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=
1155161414043&call_pageid=968332188492


VANCOUVER—Accused serial killer Robert Pickton won't stand trial on 26 murder counts all at once but it's unclear which killings he will be tried for first.

Meanwhile, family members of some of the women Pickton is accused of killing reacted with anger to news some of the charges could be on hold. [....]


If he were really punished, that would be enough, but we know what happens in Canada. I wonder what his "root cause" was. Poverty?



In Canada, an Outcast Family Finds Support -- U.S. Detention of Teen Draws Concern , By Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, June 9, 2005; Page A01
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article
/2005/06/08/AR2005060802358.html


TORONTO -- The thundering F-16 and A-10 warplanes reduced the fighters' compound in Afghanistan to smoldering rubble. No one could still be alive, figured the U.S. soldiers crouched nearby. But inside, saved by a half-standing wall, a lanky 15-year-old waited as the wary soldiers neared.

As the Americans recount it, he leapt up, threw a grenade and was cut down by the soldiers' fire. The grenade scored: A 28-year-old sergeant was mortally wounded.

The boy was not, however. Blinded in one eye, his chest ripped opened by bullets, Omar Khadr lay on the ground and asked the soldiers to kill him -- in perfect English. [....]



Scroll down for information on the funding that ends up funding the teaching of these "Canadians" and others (e.g. Palestinians) to hate us and the rest of the Western world.


A lawyer for the Khadrs, Dennis Edney, has sued the government and also charged that officials have been negligent because they have made little effort to find another Khadr who has Canadian citizenship -- Omar's brother Abdullah, 24. He disappeared in Pakistan last fall, and the family has said he might be in Pakistani or U.S. custody.

"Canadian citizens should not be left beyond the reach of law," said Alex Neve, head of the Ottawa office of Amnesty International, a human rights group. [....]


When is Amnesty International going to stand up for the right of the rest of Canadians not to be subjected to entry of any more jihadi families and their shaheeds? Even better, curtail Muslim immigration until more effective checks are done on those who have already come here and the thousands of people who were supposed to be deported are deported. The Khadrs voted against Canadian citizenship by their actions and their words ... I heard and saw the two women on TV. They are not citizens of Canada; they are simply passport holders, here for the freebies. Turf them!

This article has details of their backgrounds and history. Worth checking.



Terrorists are the greatest threat since Hitler, warns Reid , Aug. 10, 06
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht
ml?xml=/news/2006/08/10/nreid10.xml


John Reid rounded on judges, politicians and commentators yesterday for failing to grasp that today's terrorists pose the greatest threat to the civilised world since Adolf Hitler.

In his first speech on national security since becoming Home Secretary, Mr Reid said he had already found that those who should be "foremost in recognising the serious nature of the threat just don't get it".

[....] Addressing the think tank Demos, he said judges, British politicians and commentators had all failed to realise that liberties enshrined in the 20th century and bolstered after the Second World War could not all remain intact if today's high-tech, global terrorists were to be thwarted.
Ministers had "radically reformed" anti-terrorism legislation since 2000 and passed four new Acts which had helped the police and security services prevent terrorist atrocities.


Yet resistance from the legal, political and media establishment to further moves that would allow suspects to be detained or deported meant "we remain unable to adapt our institutions and legal orthodoxy as fast we need to".





Editorial: Mackay's honesty, CIDA funding terror , National Post, Aug/ 3. 06
canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/18385.shtml


Under the Liberals, Canada failed to oppose annual UN resolutions that condemned Israel as racist and war-mongering, while being silent on the atrocities perpetrated by Arab dictators and terrorists. We permitted the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to fund hate-mongering textbooks and school lessons in the West Bank and Gaza. We knowingly looked the other way when Palestinian leaders took our development money and either secreted it to their personal Swiss bank accounts or used it to buy rockets and guns to kill Israeli civilians rather than building roads and schools or feeding their own people.

While the Liberals might want to fool themselves into believing that this amounted to neutrality, it was in effect wilful blindness. And far from earning us the "honest broker" position the Liberals claim, it cost us our credibility and thus our ability to influence events in the region.

The Liberals are still at it, too. [....]




Canadians suffer from "biased media syndrome" so they do not easily learn the truth. To know what is going on, Canadians have to actively seek the information, for the MSM will hide much ... "lying by suppression" is one way of phrasing it.

Standing up for CIDA
canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/18386.shtml


CIDA does not fund "hate-mongering textbooks and school lessons." Canada, along with the U.S., Norway, the U.K and other donors, supports education in the region through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

UNRWA has created curriculum enrichment materials for teachers and designed extracurricular activities for students that focus on peace education, human rights tolerance and conflict resolution for use in the West Bank and Gaza. [....]

Secondly, there is no evidence to show that our development funds have been diverted by Palestinian leaders. Canadian aid dollars to the West Bank and Gaza are channelled through well-established international and Canadian aid organizations, which have effective techniques and accounting systems in place to monitor their programs. CIDA works with partners like World University Services of Canada, Federation of Canadian Municipalities and many UN agencies to deliver programs that focus on social development, governance, civil society capacity building and peace building.



No evidence? Read the posts below. Do you remember Papa Khadr's aid org? We have taxpayer funded aid organizations and NGO's.

Some organizations do similar, hatred-inspiring, "humanitarian" work, using funds supplied by taxpayers.



Reading from the Liberal playbook? -- Re: Standing Up for CIDA , National Post, August 09, 2006, Letters, Aug. 8.


It appears that International Co-operation Minister Josee Verner is reciting from the old Liberal briefing books she inherited six months ago when she defends the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority's education system, and claims that there is "no evidence to show that our development funds have been diverted by Palestinian leaders."

Ms. Verner's claim that Canada does not fund "hate-mongering textbooks and school lessons" is false. As recently as 2005, a report by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP) concluded that even the new textbooks for grades 5 and 10 produced by the Palestinian Authority do not "meet international standards as far as the attitude to the 'other' [Israel and Jews] and peace is concerned." While UNRWA does not produce these textbooks, it provides funding for them and pays the salaries of teachers and staff who are teaching anti-Jewish hatred.

Apart from indoctrinating the young, UNRWA also maintains a policy of "don't ask, don't tell, don't record" when it comes to Hamas members and affiliates on UNRWA payroll, and in UNRWA supported schools. Links between UNRWA, terrorists and those who glorify terrorism have been reported by the the Center for Near East Policy and other NGOs.
Given such reports, perhaps this minister, who is part of the Conservative Cabinet that cancelled aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, could explain why it is acceptable for Canadians to indirectly provide salaries for Hamas members and their affiliates.

Finally, Ms. Verner's claim that "there is no evidence" to show that development assistance funds have been diverted by Palestinian leaders is laughable. Even the EU no longer denies the misuse of funds paid to the Palestinian Authority.

The Minister would do well to toss out her Liberal briefing books and seek independent, third-party advice about the $300-million Canada has donated to the Palestinians since 1993. Ms. Verner and her Cabinet colleagues should be asking if these funds have helped to improve the conditions for peace and understanding amongst the Palestinians, or merely contributed to the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Western hatred spread by Fatah and Hamas members of the Palestinian Authority.

The answers will not be hard to find.


Joseph Shier, Senior Vice President, Canadian Coalition for Democracies.



Reading from the Liberal playbook? , National Post, August 09, 2006


[....] Unfortunately, CIDA funds Canadian charities that support the anti-Israel boycott. According to the 2004-05 federal Public Accounts, CIDA has given transfers to Alternatives, Inc. and SUCO, Inc. -- two charities that have signed a pledge to support the anti-Israel boycott. CIDA also gives financial support to the United Church of Canada, whose Task Group for Ethical Investment has recommended a boycott of Israeli goods.

Ms. Verner denies that CIDA subsidizes hate in Palestine. But CIDA does in fact subsidize Canadian NGOs supporting the world-wide anti-Israel boycott.

Prof. David Murrell, University of New Brunswick.





Information you won't see mentioned in the MSM
www.homa.org/Details.asp?Content
ID=2137352728&TOCID=2083225348

Aug. 11, 06: #1

A plan 'to commit unimaginable mass murder' -- "security sources indicated that the key event — thought to be the transfer of funds — had taken place overseas.", By Philip Webster, Sean O'Neill and Stewart Tendler
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2-2308087%2C00.html

# Assets of 19 suspects are frozen
# Pakistan money link investigated
# Martyrdom video is discovered


[....] These are the names of 19 suspects reportedly being held by the police after the foiled plot and whose assets the Treasury has sought to have frozen.

Umir Hussain, 24, London E14

Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17

Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17

Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17

Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe

Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17

Cossor Ali, 24, London E17

Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham

Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17

Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17

Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington

Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17

Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe

Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10

Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe

Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe

Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17

Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5

Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest





2 British nationals arrested in Pakistan over aircraft terror plot , Sadaqat Jan
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/08/11/1743902-ap.html

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Intelligence agents arrested two British nationals of Pakistani origin who provided information on the terror plot ....

[....] the hardline group's leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed ....

[....] Saeed formerly headed the militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba until 2002 when it was banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf because of suspected terrorist links. This April, Washington put Jamaat al-Dawat on a list of terrorist organizations for its links to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. [....]




24 held in raids ... including convert and young man with £300,000 Aug. 11, 06
thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1165972006

A TEENAGER who attended a well-known grammar school and recently converted to Islam was among the suspects arrested over the foiled terror plot, it emerged last night.

Neighbours said Don Stewart-Whyte had grown a beard and made different friends since he changed his beliefs.

[....] One friend of Mr [Khuram ] Ali last night said: "He did not used to be a radical, but he went to Pakistan two years ago and came back a changed man. [....]

"There were people coming to the [bungalow] at night-time, around midnight, almost every night. I have no idea what they were doing, but they certainly were not living there, as they left a few hours after they arrived." [....]




Terror Plot Linked to Exiled Cleric -- exiled cleric Shiekh Omar Bakri Mohammed
mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184273.p

The Syrian born Omar Bakri Mohammed was the leader of several Salafist organizations which many claim have ties to al Qaeda. In July, two splinter groups from Bakri's orignal Al-Muhajiroun organization were banned by the British government.




The return of Operation Bojinka , Aug. 11,06
tammybruce.com/2006/08/remember_operation.php

We know that al-Qaida and Islamic Fascists in general pick targets and strategies that they like to return to. One of the very first major al-Qaida operations after the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was the 1994 plot of al-Qaida via Ramzi Yousef, to first, murder Pope John Paul II and then to blow up multiple airliners while in flight. Known as Operation Bojinka which means alternately in Arabic either chaos or explosion. [....]




Preventing the Unthinkable , By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. 8/10/2006 12:09:27 AM
spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10206

WASHINGTON -- It seems to me that the Islamofascists of Hezbollah have made a parlous mistake. They have demonstrated that they have missiles that can cause dreadful localized carnage and that they are continuing to improve those missiles. Someday these weapons will be able to cause widespread carnage. Hezbollah's killers have demonstrated that they will infiltrate their brutes into civilian neighborhoods and use suicide bombers. They have refused to abide by United Nations resolutions. They have revealed that they have powerful supporters in Syria and Iran. Actually the Syrians and Iranians have not been coy about showing their support for Hezbollah's brutal asymmetrical warfare, and here they too have made a mistake. In their unconscionable bellicosity Hezbollah's guerrillas, the Syrians, and the Iranians have all donned bull's-eyes. They have made themselves targets.




"Messrs. Coderre and Duceppe did not condemn terrorism"

The rise of Quebecistan , Barbara Kay, Aug. 9, 06
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas
/story.html?id=10524e16-36f2-4975-910d-9407471f2261

[....] On Sunday, 15,000 Quebecers, mostly Lebanese-Canadians, marched for "justice and peace" in Lebanon. That sounds benign, but in fact the march was a virulently anti-Israel rally, and scattered amongst the crowd were a number of Hezbollah flags and placards. Leading the parade were Bloc Quebecois chief Gilles Duceppe, Liberal MP Denis Coderre, PQ chief Andre Boisclair, and Amir Khadir, spokesman for the new far-left provincial party, Solidarite Quebec.

All four politicians had signed a statement by the organizers the day before the march, in which Israel is lambasted for its depredations in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank -- but the word "terrorism" is never mentioned, nor Hezbollah assigned any blame for the war.


A must read


A fitting companion piece: UN Human Rights Council to convene on Israel, Aug. 11, 06, AP
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=
1154525851310&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The new UN Human Rights Council [....]

to "consider and take action on the gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon," according to the request filed by Tunisia on behalf of the OIC. [....]




A Hezbollah Fighter: Nasrollah is Deputy of Leader of Iran , Shervin Sharei, 10 Aug 2006
roozonline.com/english/017017.shtml

[....] One of the speakers was Mohammad Mohsen, a fighetr from Lebanese Hezbollah.

[....] In his talk, Mohsen recalled a story from Nasrollah. “After the victory of 2000 and Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the leadership of Hezbollah came to Iran to meet the leadership and receive approval from it. When we arrived at Mr. Khamenei’s resident, he was happy and had a smile on his face. All our sufferings and martyrs equaled this smile because this is the smile of the Imam of our time,” Mohsen said. [....]

He also said that Hezbollah specialized forces had been trained by the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards of Iran, while there were currently no forces other than Hezbollah in the war zones in Lebanon. [....]





Sticks and Stones, August 10, 2006
powerlineblog.com/archives/014967.php

I don't get this. First, CAIR endlessly tells us that Muslims are peaceful and not terrorists. But then, in the next breath, it sticks up for the terrorists and objects to their being called fascists. Second, CAIR seems to object to any pejorative reference to Islamic terrorists. If we can't call them fascists, or militant jihadists, or Islamic radicals, or totalitarians or imperialists, what on earth are we supposed to call them?

Personally, I generally just call them terrorists.




9 charged in Asia-U.S. prostitution ring, Aug. 10, 06, AP
seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Human_Trafficking.html

SEATTLE -- Authorities said nine people were arrested Thursday as investigators broke an international sex-trafficking ring that smuggled Asian women into the U.S. in shipping containers.

[....] Authorities allege that [Yong Jun] Kang told confidential informants that women were being smuggled into the U.S. in shipping containers after paying as much as $50,000. Some of the women, investigators said, were brought into the United States by crossing the Canadian border.

The women came from China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Laos, and were forced to pay debts to smugglers by working in brothels, federal prosecutors said.

August 10, 2006

Aug. 10, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn -- Caledonia

Caledonia and the rule of law

There are a lot of laws that I don't agree with, but will respect nevertheless. Judge Marshall of Ontario ruled that the native barricades in Caledonia must come down. The OPP made an initial attempt to do so, but were rebuffed by the native "warriors". Thus a stalemate ensued. The non-native townspeople are infuriated that this continues, the OPP see another Ipperwash scenario looming and the provincial politicians are cowering. The chief Ontario negotiator, David Peterson, was interviewed on CBC about the judge's decision. Peterson thought the judge's ruling was "counter-productive". While Peterson admitted that his negotiations were going "slowly", (an understatement, that) he held out hope for a resolution conducive to all parties. The weasel words "sensitive" and "fragile" peppered his rationale for ignoring the judge's previous ruling to end the barricades.

What Peterson was really saying is that the writ of Canadian law can be ignored by natives.
He fears another Ipperwash or Oka situation, if police do their duty. Meanwhile the citizens of Caledonia are incensed that the cops and politicians have been foot-dragging for months, while they suffer. I lay the blame for this judicial paralysis at the feet of woolly-thinking Liberals and their cheerleading NDP sympathizers. They were the ones that came up with this "First Nations" appelation nonsense. An appelation which the liberals meant as a feel good gesture; nevertheless one which the aborigines took literally--well not enough to get off the government tit, of course. It is considered to be politically incorrect to mention that nationhood entails supporting your state's citizens through taxation and maintaining expensive government services.

Next up for criticism are the Supremes at the federal level and the top courts, provincially. These justices opened a Pandora's Box by sanctioning "oral history" claims in land disputes. Nobody except Indians can employ this dubious testimony. This dispensation is at the heart od Caledonia, as historical documents seem to prove that they have no legal claim on the disputed area. Nevertheless, the Ontario goverment has suggested buying the housing site from the developers and then turning it over to the six nations reserve. Again, the answer is to buy off any native discontent with lawful arbitration. The Ontario taxpayers will be on the hook again for this gutless acquiescence. Meanwhile the Indian lobby and its left-wing sympathizers will create new opportunities to seize land.

One other point of contention has been the Kelowna Accord, which allotted $5 million extra to the $9 billion which we shell out to natives already. This extra money was to be spent improving native education results, along with better health and housing. A typical "throw-money-at-the- problem approach of governments. The Tories scuttled this give-a-way scheme. They want more acountability for the monies dispensed. Naturally, Phil Fontaine and his cohorts were mightily displeased with this decision. He lives in a fantasy world, where this "neo-colonial" approach has no resonance with native reality. "Just give us the extra billions and we will decide how it gets spent", is his war cry. That track record has not proven to be successful in making a dent in the endless pathologies that afflict so many reserves or inner city native ghettoes. Any suggestion that assimilating to Canadian society is rejected out of hand. It is worth remembering that after the huge James Bay settlement with the Cree that 22 out of 23 reserved-based enterprises failed. Small reserve businesses simply cannot remain viable for long. Fontaine and his chiefs refuse to live in the real economic world. That mentality has to change fast or another generation of Indian youth will be lost.

Meanwhile we cannot allow Canadian law to be trumped by native threats to violently inflict their will on the populous.

© Bud Talkinghorn

Aug. 10, 2006: #6

Today's posts, unfortunately, have articles from the last week or so. Sorry, but I haven't had the time to group by date, nor to post earlier.



AIDS

Caveat: Some readers will not like what I write, perhaps, but I didn't start this blog to parrot what we are being told. This week I read somewhere (Globe and Mail?) about which groups were getting AIDS in Canada. Try to find it, but it is exactly what I expected and included groups who should know better by now. I suspect illegal drug use makes many careless.

Then, there has been talk of the AIDS conference ... and more UN lefties telling the rest of us what we owe the third World [so the socialists may swan about the world ... and look concerned while pointing fingers of blame at the rest of us] and how AIDS is all the result of poverty. Bilge!

At the AIDS conference at the Univ. of Toronto, this week, the usual champagne socialists were on hand to try to get more money out of Canadians, along with a spreading huge dollop of poverty causes everything blather.


Yet, I had watched The Passionate Eye this week with its documentary on AIDS. Frankly, from what I learned about Africa's AIDS rate and the reasons, the men's careless attitude about their health and AIDS, if using a condom interfered with their sexual pleasure, along with their lack of responsibility toward their partners and any children that might result ... and it all leaves me cold about throwing more good money after bad. It's been 25 years, for heaven's sakes. If they're so stupid they don't get it when they're dying of AIDS, what good are the champagne socialists like Stephen Lewis and his UN crowd going to do? Talk is pointless in these situations.


In my opinion, the UN/WHO are attacking the problem incorrectly, given that there will never be enough money for what they want, that is, keeping people with AIDS alive who haven't learned a blinking thing yet, even when they're dying of AIDS -- as long as the West provides the drug cocktails free or at a reduced cost. As for the prostitutes subject to their culture controlled by men's desires, what can anyone do from outside that culture? They could at least try to protect themselves from AIDS. Is NO an impossible word in Africa? Help the young through education and administer drugs to the AIDS-afflicted ones born with AIDS; let the chips fall where they may for anyone who should have learned by now.




Living with AIDS, (DVD ) [2005] This is the program shown on the Passionate Eye, as far as I could find out.
www.ias.emory.edu/catalog.cfm?keyword=WHO

Abstract: In the third of his Living with... series, Sorious Samura works as an orderly in a hospital in Zambia , where the majority of the patients are HIV positive. Confronted on a daily basis with death, he describes his workplace as being like a frontline in a war zone. The staff works under horrendous conditions where protective gloves are a luxury and shrouds for the dead are stained with the blood of previous corpses. In this film, Samura exposes the untold story of AIDS --how poverty and the complex nature of African culture and sexuality are hampering efforts to eradicate this horrifying disease. He meets characters like Joshua and Lawson who continue to practice unprotected sex despite their HIV positive status, and Precious and Nancy, AIDS orphans who fend for themselves in a world where sex flesh to flesh pays well and offers an easy short term solution. Samura also meets heroines such as Bitonda, who at sixteen is in sole charge of her dying 14 year old brother, an AIDS orphaned cousin as well as her own child. After one month, Samura is left with the realization that for the war against HIV in Africa to be won, poverty, ignorance and African sexual attitudes have to be tackled head on.

Director: Sorious Samura Distributor: Insight News Television
Keywords: Zambia, children, HIV/AIDS, journalism, orphans


I would argue that poverty does not make one stupid, in Africa or elsewhere. Is anyone at the AIDS conference mentioning AIDS associated with illegal drug use? I would be interested in their solution to that.



AIDS -- Does anyone ever suggest prostitution is evil? Or are we just supposed to fund drugs to keep them alive ... and then they may live to pursue their business?

Dying of ignorance , Peter Goodspeed, National Post, August 05, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=9a8ee994-d8bc-4842-a8fa-98116a3816d5&k=71185


One in every eight people in the world infected with HIV lives in India, making it, after Africa, the second epicentre for AIDS. Senior International Affairs reporter Peter Goodspeed travelled there ahead of the International AIDS Conference.... In the first of three stories from there, he describes how prostitutes are on the front lines of the battle against the killer disease.
---

MUMBAI, India - The way Yellavva, a 30-year-old prostitute, describes it, she "lost her life" when she was only eight.

It was then, just as doctors were identifying India's first full-blown case of AIDS, that Yellavva's parents dedicated their only child to the Hindu goddess Yellamma, the Mother of All, in exchange for a wish for a son.

As a "temple virgin" initiated into the infamous and now illegal Devadasi cult, Yellavva became a slave girl to the gods. [and to the priests]


[....] once she entered puberty, Yellavva became a concubine to the temple priests, who regularly hire out the Devadasi to anyone who wants to sleep with them. [....]

HIV/AIDS IN INDIA BY THE NUMBERS [....]


Do not miss the staggering statistics. This ... in a country with so many educated citizens ... with call centers for Microsoft and programmers for any numbers of companies? Do Indians themselves not rail against this practice? Ye Gods!



PBS: AIDS -- Watch the Full Program Online
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/

CBC's Passionate Eye: I tried to find the program on their website, which led to this. It may or may not be the same program mentioned above -- a devastating vision of abysmal ignorance ... not ameliorated by all the best of intentions, it seems.

On the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of AIDS, FRONTLINE examines one of the worst pandemics the world has ever known in "The Age of AIDS." After a quarter century of political denial and social stigma, of stunning scientific breakthroughs, bitter policy battles and inadequate prevention campaigns, HIV/AIDS continues to spread rapidly throughout much of the world, particularly in developing nations. To date, some 30 million people worldwide have already died of AIDS. (more)


In the Passionate Eye program, the men dying of AIDS refused to see that condom use could have helped them ... still talked about wanting nothing between them and their desires. Women working in the sex trade simply charged more to those who did not use a condom, despite knowing the consequences.

With that attitude, would someone explain to me why Canadians' tax dollars should be sluiced to help people too selfish and stupid to help their fellows, if not themselves. Some African government ministers still don't admit what causes AIDS and what the individual can do to prevent it.

When people who have AIDS, even then, do not learn from their own experience, from others, from the news, from health professionals, from reading and act upon a desire to prevent further disastrous health consequences to their children and their fellows, please explain why the rest of us should give a hoot. It's like throwing money into a sewer of the mind.




Cuba, CBC & Propaganda for Fidel

How to farm in a police state , Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, August 05, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=393408d0-864b-45ff-86d0-02928146665e


Fidel Castro will die some day, but rest assured the CBC is on standby to make sure the murderous old totalitarian is mourned by Canadians as a benevolent dictator, the imperfect but lovable revolutionary who stuck it to the Americans. Last Tuesday night, with news of Castro's latest illness, The National hauled out Joe Schlesinger for a typical dose of Canadian folklore: Castro may have had his failings, but he has also in many ways been successful. "He put schools in places where there had not been any. He brought medical care to people who before him had none."

As if nobody else in the world had ever set a school where none existed before. But never mind, because that bit of whitewashing is nothing compared with David Suzuki's latest, a two-part propaganda homage to the greatness of Cuba's agricultural economy. The second of these runs Sunday night on The Nature of Things.

In Cuba: The Accidental Revolution, Suzuki portrays Cuba's messed-up food supply system as "the largest program of organic and sustainable agriculture ever undertaken,"
a system that offers "critical lessons for the developed world." Or at least those are the words Suzuki reads, words written by Ray Burley, a Canadian farm owner who also wrote and directed other Suzuki documentaries on the evils of modern agriculture.

The first hour of The Accidental Revolution regurgitates classic Cuban revolutionary myth (Batista, repression, prostitution). It takes us through Cuba's role as a Soviet satellite until its abrupt end in 1989. The fall of Soviet Communism left Cuba without oil supplies, equipment and resources. Castro's giant collectivized farm system collapsed. No fuel, no food. [....]

Cubans who operate larger rural farms must sell part of their production to the state. The rest they sell directly in city markets. But "in Cuba, there are no middlemen or wholesalers," says Suzuki, digging up some raw Marxism for recyling. Cuban farmers "get most of the money consumers pay for their products. Canadian farmers only get a tiny fraction." But Canadian farmers are thousands of times richer, thanks to middlemen -- it's known as the division of labour. [....]


Typical CBC leftist bilge.



RCMP

Mountie issued gag order over Mayerthorpe inquiry , Scott Sutherland, Aug. 4, 06
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2006/08/04/1719803-cp.html


"They are trying to control information to the public. It's all about spinning, about spin-doctoring that is, and making sure the image of the RCMP is not tarnished with fact."





Caledonia, policing and Gwen Boniface

Irish media reporting on Gwen Boniface's troubles in Caledonia, Steve Janke / AngryGWN
www.stevejanke.com/archives/189286.php#more


Gwen Boniface's handling of the Caledonia land dispute has made front page news in Ireland. [Boniface left, or was pushed to leave, and took a new job in Ireland. ]