Eros all over Iran

The Eros B spy satellite, which was launched into space last week by Israel to monitor Iranian nuclear facilities and activities, has reportedly settled into orbit and has begun sending high-resolution images back to earth.
According to Israel’s Yedioth Ahranot newspaper, the Eros B satellite is fully operational and has begun sending images to earth from the different parts of the world, focusing particularly on Iran.
An Israeli intelligence official who wanted to remain anonymous told that the development of the satellite was “timely,” referring to Iran’s nuclear program; while Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz defined launching the satellite as a major accomplishment.
Mofaz told that Eros B would develop the country’s defense and help Israel stand strong on its own.
The launch took place at the Cosmodrome in Svobodni, Siberia by a Start 1 launcher.

Similar to EROS A, the EROS B will provide better performance. The new satellite is expected to provide services for 8-10 years.

Slightly larger and similar in appearance to EROS A, the new satellite weighs 290 kg and have superior capabilities compared to EROS A, including a larger camera of CCD/TDI type (Charge Coupled Device/Time Delay Integration), with standard panchromatic resolution of 0.70 m at an altitude of about 500 km, a larger on-board recorder, improved pointing accuracy and a faster data communication link.

source here

Rice Says Iran Playing Games

click pic to enlarge

WASHINGTON, AP - The United States rejects Iran's offer to allow a watchdog agency to inspect the country's nuclear facilities and will press ahead for U.N. penalties against Tehran, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

"They've had plenty of time to cooperate. I think they're playing games," Rice said.

Iran on Saturday offered to allow inspections to resume if the Security Council turned over the dispute to the U.N. nuclear monitor, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A report from the IAEA confirmed that Iran had successfully produced enriched uranium and defied the Security Council's Friday deadline to stop the process.

Rice said the offer to resume IAEA inspections suggests the Iranians "are indeed somewhat concerned" about actions the Security Council might take to further isolate Iran.
Read more here

Iran's Secret Plan

The bad news first

London, Asharq Al-Awsat

Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.
The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces' joint chief of staff headed by the veterinary doctor Hassan Firouzabadi,

The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day".

The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?

Amongst the leaders who visited were the head of one of the Iraqi armed group who was very clear and honest. He said his men would transform Iraq into a hell for the Americans if Iran were attacked.

The source also said that the military training camps of the Guards were opened for the fighters of the Mehdi army in Iran to receive the necessary training. Iran had also increased its financial assistance to Moqtada al Sadr to more than 20 million dollars.

The same applied to Islamic Jihad in Palestine which has received large sums of money, large quantities of arms and military training for its cadres in Isfahan, including street fighting methods.

As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah's arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.

continues here

click pic to enlarge

The good news

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2006 – Diplomacy remains America's choice in dealing with Iran, President Bush said today.

"We're forming a strong coalition of like-minded countries that believe that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon,"

he said during a White House press conference.

"And I've told the American people that diplomacy is my first choice, and it should be the first choice of every American president in order to solve a very difficult problem."

"It's very important for the Iranians to understand there's a ... common desire by a lot of nations of this world to convince them, peacefully convince them, that they ought to give up their weapons ambitions,"

Bush said.


continues here

Nightmare Italy

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A nightmare come true!

Incoming prime minister Romano Prodi's coalition candidate, communist Fausto Bertinotti, has been elected speaker of the Italian parliament's lower house.
A speaker has yet to be decided for Senate, where Mr Prodi has a tiny two-seat majority.

Mr Bertinotti with Arafat

Members of Mr Bertinotti's Partito della Rifondazione Comunista include Mr Francesco Caruso, leader of the Italian No-Global Movement
Mr Francesco Caruso

Vladimir Luxuria, an Italian transexual

Mr Oliviero Diliberto, strong Palestinian supporter
Mr O. Diliberto

And, for the first time in the history of the Italian Republic, two arab-muslims.
Mr Ali Rashid (Rifondazione Comunista), head of the Palestinian delegation in Italy, and Mr Khaled Fouad Allam (lista DL-La Margherita).
In an interview with il Giornale today, Israel Ambassador Gol affirms: "Mr Ali Rashid is "una persona senza onore, la sua candidatura è una vergogna per l’Italia, è una vergogna anche per i palestinesi" ("Mr Ali Rashid is a man without honor, an embarrassment for Italy and also for the same Palestinians").
Mr K.F.Allam

Please, oh please, wake me up!

Setback for Prodi

Useless! Absolutely useless!
Mr Prodi fails to secure victory for his new speaker.
The Italian Senate has failed to agree on the appointment of a new speaker.
The proceedings broke up in chaos after three separate votes that all proved inconclusive. A new ballot is expected on Saturday morning. (BBC)

NATO is ready.

click to enlarge pic


The UN not quite yet...as usual.

The IAEA is wasting time and money, again.

"Iran has ignored a UN Security Council demand to suspend all nuclear fuel enrichment",

the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has concluded today.

I knew that six weeks ago!

The good news comes from Sofia, Bulgaria, where Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met NATO ministers.

Condoleeza Rice won broad support from NATO allies for a tough diplomatic line on Iran if, as expected, Tehran fails to meet Friday's U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium for its nuclear program.
source here

Iran doesn't give a damn!

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Friday his country would pay no attention to international calls to halt its nuclear work, hours before the U.N. atomic watchdog reports on whether Tehran has met U.N. Security Council demands.

"Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right, should know that we do not give a damn to such resolutions,"

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in northwest Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is widely expected to tell the council and the agency's board on Friday that Iran has not stopped enriching uranium or fully answered IAEA queries as the U.N. body asked a month ago.

The West accuses Iran of pursuing a civilian nuclear program as a cover to acquire atomic bomb. Tehran denies it.

"Enemies think that by ... threatening us, launching psychological warfare or ... imposing embargoes can dissuade our nation to obtain nuclear technology,"

Ahmadinejad said in Zanjan province.

Iran said this month it had enriched uranium to the level used in power stations for the first time and has vowed to pursue large-scale enrichment of uranium.
source here
cartoon courtesy of consertivecrust.com

Voci sinistre

FIOM: RITIRO IMMEDIATO CONTINGENTE ITALIANO

La Fiom esprime ''dolore e cordoglio per le nuove e tragiche morti che colpiscono il contingente militare italiano in Iraq e piena solidarieta' ai familiari delle vittime''. Le tute blu della Cgil, inoltre, ''rinnovano con maggiore forza la richiesta di un immediato ritiro del contingente italiano dall'Iraq come primo atto di una nuova fase della politica internazionale''.

''I nuovi eventi luttuosi -scrive la Fiom in una nota- rinnovano il compianto per tutte le vittime militari e civili della guerra in Iraq. Tale guerra -evidenzia- si e' dimostrata, ancora una volta, la via peggiore e la piu' sbagliata per contrastare e fermare il terrorismo ed estendere la democrazia''.
(Adnkronos)

CANNAVO' (PRC), RITIRO IMMEDIATO TRUPPE ITALIANE (AGI)

"Ritiro immediato delle truppe
italiane, dall'Iraq ma anche dall'Afghanistan". Lo dice il
neodeputato di Rifondazione comunista, Salvatore Cannavo',
portavoce della minoranza interna Sinistra Critica, che
aggiunge: "Il 2 giugno si manifesti per questi due obiettivi.
Ancora come nel novembre del 2003 soldati italiani sono vittime
della guerra in Iraq: quella guerra voluta da Bush in
violazione del diritto internazionale e trasformatasi
nell'occupazione militare a cui partecipano le truppe italiane
per volonta' del governo Berlusconi".
Secondo Cannavo' "e' arrivato il momento della chiarezza e
della necessita' di una decisione politica precisa: le truppe
italiane devono essere ritirate dall'Iraq. Ma anche
dall'Afghanistan, dove la situazione appare identica e i rischi
analoghi. Solo quando sara' finita l'occupazione militare, -
prosegue Cannavo' - quando anche i nostri 'alleati' ritireranno
le loro truppe, sara' allora il momento in cui si potra'
contribuire alla ricostruzione materiale e sostenere la
riconciliazione politica e civile e il processo democratico
iracheno.

GRASSI (PRC), VIA SUBITO DALL'IRAQ

"Al contrario di quanto ripetutamente dichiarato dal governo americano e dal governo italiano, la guerra in Iraq non e' mai finita. Non dimentichiamoci che la guerra e' stata unilateralmente decisa dagli Usa tre anni fa contro l'Onu e la comunita' internazionale". Lo dice Claudio Grassi, senatore Prc e coordinatore coordinatore nazionale dell'area dell'Ernesto, che aggiunge: "La motivazione per la quale in Iraq erano nascoste armi di distruzione di massa si e' rivelata totalmente falsa e infondata. Dopo tre anni di guerra il paese si trova in una situazione di ingovernabilita' e di guerra civile. Se si vogliono evitare altri attentati come quello avvenuto a Nassiriya, non c'e' che una strada: opporsi alla politica di guerra del governo americano, che ha alimentato il terrorismo e la tensione internazionale, e ritirare immediatamente le truppe dall'Iraq. Questo e' l'impegno prioritario che dovra' praticare il nuovo governo Prodi appena sara' insediato".
(AGI)

CARUSO, VIA DALL'IRAQ SUBITO

"Non ci devono essere tentennamenti ne' ambiguita' da parte del centrosinistra: le truppe italiane vanno ritirate immediatamente dall'Iraq e il paese va restituito agli iracheni, su questo non transigo". Cosi' Francesco Caruso, eletto nelle liste di Rifondazione Comunista e leader dei 'disobbedienti' napoletani, a Controcorrente, l'approfondimento di SKY TG24 curato e condotto da Corrado Formigli, in onda stasera alle 22.35. Caruso si dice "pronto a qualunque iniziativa convenzionale e non, se questo provvedimento non sara' tra i primi adottati dal nuovo governo". "Nel programma dell'Unione si parla di ritiro delle truppe italiane dall'Iraq sempre con una certa sfumatura e sempre con ambiguita' - osserva il neodeputato - io credo invece che su questo punto si debba fare una scelta radicale, senza se e senza ma". Tra i metodi 'non convenzionali', Caruso arriva a ipotizzare l'occupazione di basi militari: "Durante una di quelle ispezioni all'interno di una base permesse ai parlamentari si potrebbe rimanere dentro e dichiararsi prigionieri politici" dice ai micorofoni di Controcorrente. Quanto all'attentato di Nassiriya, Caruso lo definisce un atto "ignobile e deprecabile, ma che va contestualizzato". "Come quelli dei kamikaze - secondo l'esponente Prc - sono atti di disperazione ed esasperazione, non per questo giustificabili, ma che fanno parte di una strategia scelta da gruppi armati per contrastare le forze occupanti e tra queste ci sono anche quelle italiane, non perche' lo dico io ma perche' lo dice il diritto internazionale".

(AGI)

"The West cannot fight without Israel" by Jose Maria Aznar

If we trace the line between the West and the rest, Israel is on the same side as Europe, the U.S., Japan, and Australia. We defend the same values against the same enemies.

Now it is imperative to defend our values and way of life against a new threat: Islamic extremism and terrorism. The new mission of NATO should be clear: to combat jihadism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

If the Allies want to prevail collectively over the gathering threats, NATO must refocus itself on fighting terror, the major threat today.

If defending our own values against the radical Islamists is the future of NATO, we must change the way the Alliance is conceived geographically and open its doors to those nations that share our values, that defend them on the ground, and that are willing to join in the fight against jihadism. Thus, NATO should invite Japan, Australia, and Israel to become full members.

Treating Israel as if it were not an integral part of the Western world is a big mistake that will affect our ability to prevail in this long war against jihadism. I think it is in our mutual interests to have Israel as a formal ally. The West cannot fight this radical tide without Israel.

read more here

"Ecco chi sono i veri martiri di Nassirya". Lettura shock!

Ci hanno ammazzato dei ragazzi oggi a Nassirya.
Dei ragazzi giusto come noi, che parlavano la nostra lingua, che amavano l'Italia e la vita come l'amiamo noi, che desideravano fare del bene a quei poveri disgraziati di Iracheni, che volevano ritornare a casa loro, chi dai genitori chi dai propri figli in trepidante attesa.
Oggi ce li hanno ammazzati. Il Paese intero li piange, come ha pianto per i precedenti morti di Nassirya.

Scusate, ho commesso un errore! Ho scritto che il Paese intero li piange, ma ho sbagliato. Solo una parte del Paese li piange. Me ne sono accorto oggi leggendo un articolo scritto da un Italiano come quelli morti a Nassirya.
Io ancora non voglio credere a quello che leggo. Mi rivolgo a voi. Leggetelo voi e poi ditemi se mi sono sbagliato, se ho pensato "a male".

Che sia ben chiara la premessa: i soldati italiani sono stati mandati a Nassiriya per il petrolio, per l'Eni. I soldati italiani che a Nassiriya sono stati ammazzati, quelli che a Nassiriya hanno ammazzato. I civili ammazzati a Nassiriya dai soldati italiani.
Questo è il punto: i nostri soldati hanno ammazzato dei civili.

l'intervento militare italiano in Iraq dovrebbe costituire l'infamia peggiore per antonomasia.

L'anno scorso, di passaggio in una non particolarmente amena località del centro-nord, mi sono ritrovato davanti a un cartello: "Piazza dei martiri di Nassiriya". Per un attimo ho irresistibilmente pensato – sarà stata forse l'assonanza – che in un momento di follia il consiglio comunale avesse dedicato il posto (più che una piazza vera e propria si trattava del parcheggio della stazione) a qualche organizzazione paramilitare palestinese.
Generalmente non mi piace la parola "martire": suona sempre o troppo cristiana o troppo jihadista. Ma se non si può proprio fare a meno di usarla, allora so chi sono per me i veri martiri di Nassiriya.

link qui per leggerlo tutto.

Di quei giorni di dolore, mi piace ricordare Franco Frattini il quale, all'indomani della tragedia di Nassirya del Novembre 2003 ebbe a dire: "La nostra in Iraq è una presenza di pace fin dal primo giorno...Non dobbiamo più parlare di resistenza irachena perché questi sono terroristi che si battono contro la pace"

George Bush, dal canto suo, partecipo' il dolore del popolo americano affermando: "L'Italia ha perso alcuni dei suoi coraggiosi figli mentre erano in servizio per la libertà e la pace".

La risposta di Oliviero Diliberto invece fu durissima: "Il segretario dei Comunisti italiani ha definito la politica del Governo "preoccupante" e lo ha accusato di aver mandato i soldati italiani allo sbaraglio senza la necessaria copertura politico-diplomatica. "La politica estera di questo governo è quella delle cene nelle ville della Costa Smeralda, delle pacche sulle spalle e delle canzoni di Apicella. Tutto è sfuggito al controllo, in una politica estera fondata sulla guerra e sulla cancellazione del diritto internazionale".

"Signori del Governo - ha concluso Diliberto -voi dovreste soltanto vergognarvi"

Sono dell'opinione che ognuno abbia il diritto di pensarla come vuole. Sono fortunato, vivendo all'estero, di non aver mai incontrato personalmente un Italiano come l'autore di questo articolo. Ma oggi, sebbene indirettamente, l'ho conosciuto, e sono stato male. Mi auguro solo che in Italia persone come lui siano una rarita'.

Liberation Day Hijacked

Excuses! Apologies! Condemnation!

It's what we are getting this morning from the centre-left coalition of Mr Prodi!

In one word: Hypocrisy!

Nothing more than shallow verbal retreat from the sheer madness which marked Liberation Day in Italy.

Israel’s ambassador in Rome said on Wednesday he was filled with “shame and rage” after two Israeli flags were burned during a demonstration commemorating the liberation of Italy at the end of World War Two.

The flags were set ablaze by a small group of left-wing demonstrators, who also shouted “Zionists, assassins” and “free Palestine” at a Jewish delegation which took part in the largely peaceful march in Milan on Tuesday.

The Vatican newspaper called the trampling and burning of Israeli flags a "disgusting" offense to all Jews".

"To offend a flag means to offend the people for whom it is a symbol, and therefore in this case it was an offense to the entire Jewish people, precisely on the day in which we celebrate liberation from their infamous oppressors,"

the L'Osservatore Romano newspaper wrote.

Condemnation also for booing at the same march of Education Minister Letizia Moratti, a prominent Berlusconi ally who is seeking election as Milan’s mayor in a forthcoming vote.

She attended the march with her wheel-chair bound father, a former partisan who survived deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, but decided to abandon the event after the protests.

Many members of Prodi’s coalition, which spans from Roman Catholic moderates to hardline Communists, criticized the jeering, but not everyone.

La notizia fa il giro del mondo. Grazie Prodi.

La notizia delle vergognose manifestazioni di ieri 25 Aprile sta facendo il giro del mondo.
Noi Italiani, che ci guardiamo bene dall'appoggiare un governo come quello di Prodi, chiediamo spiegazioni agli organizzatori della manifestazione di Milano, sia per quanto accaduto sia per le ripercussioni negative all'immagine che l'Italia si e' costruita negli ultimi anni col governo Berlusconi!
Il Jerusalem Post la riporta qua
YNET la riporta qua
JTA qua

Ma il danno peggiore e' che le vigliaccate di ieri vengono riportate da Little Green Footballs qua

Mr Prodi (cosi' lo chiamano i suoi amici d'oltremanica e a lui piace tanto) dovra' credermi: entro domani non vi sara' Paese al mondo che non mostrera' immagini della manifestazione comunista di ieri a Milano o che non riportera' l'accaduto con tantissima enfasi sulle azioni degli estremisti italici.
Chi e' che paga per il danno che avete arrecato all'immagine dell'Italia?

"Fascisti Tinti Di Rosso"

Si nascondono adesso i fascistelli tinti di rosso. Si compiacciono tra di loro bevendo Lambrusco e mangiando pane e salsiccia. Ma e' dovere di chi ha a cuore la democrazia del Paese denunciarli all'opinione pubblica con qualsiasi mezzo a disposizione!.

"Non è la prima volta che si bruciano le bandiere israeliane." sostiene Victor Magiar Assessore alla cultura della Comunità ebraica di Roma. "Le condanne, le parole non bastano più. Occorre che le forze del centrosinistra isolino materialmente nei fatti la marmaglia che fa appropriazione indebita di un valore, che ci permette di vivere in libertà. Fra l’altro, quella bandiera con i simboli israeliani è la stessa della brigata palestinese, che agiva sotto il comando dell’Ottava armata inglese durante la lotta di liberazione dell’Italia, e che ha combattuto oltre che in Nord Africa, anche in Italia ed è arrivata fino a Berlino."
"Il 25 aprile- continua Magiar- vorrei ricordare, che è la festa della liberazione da una dottrina che voleva sterminare gli ebrei come individui e come nazione, mentre oggi i nuovi fanatici vogliono bruciare lo stato degli ebrei. Le parole, insomma, non bastano più, bisogna emarginare questi fascisti tinti di rosso."

Curzi attacca la RAI

Cosi', di fronte all'evidenza, si difendono i comunisti. Attaccando gli organi d'informazione che riportano con chiara veridicita' i fatti indegni, per un paese civile, che sono accaduti ieri!

''Vedo che su molti organi di informazione e, purtroppo, anche nel servizio pubblico televisivo c'e' stato chi - a fronte dello straordinario spettacolo di unita' e di impegno per la liberta' e la democrazia fornito dagli italiani in occasione del 25 aprile - ha isolato, sciaguratamente enfatizzato e anche ridotto a strumento di propaganda di parte gli incidenti causati da isolatissimi gruppi di teppisti, naziskin e provocatori''. La denuncia e' del consigliere d'amministrazione Rai Sandro Curzi. ''Si e' arrivati ad accreditare una contiguita' politica di tali gruppi assolutamente immotivata, smentita dai fatti e negata dal coro unanime delle dichiarazioni di condanna. E' preoccupante e grave che - aggiunge Curzi - solo per strumentalizzarli nel suk della politica, si sia irresponsabilmente sovradimensionato episodi che vanno invece isolati e condannati da tutti, facendo da cassa di risonanza ed alimentandone artificialmente la portata. Ed e' evidentemente tanto piu' grave e preoccupante che messaggi di questo tipo siano arrivati ai telespettatori anche da un servizio pubblico, che d'altro canto ha praticamente ignorato il 25 aprile''.

SOURCE HERE

Se costui e' il consigliere d'amministrazione della Rai...poveri Italiani miei!

I Fascisti Della Sinistra

Dopo i fattacci di ieri che hanno umiliato la Storia del 25 Aprile sia in Italia che all'estero, sorge spontanea la domanda da rivolgere a chi deve salvaguardare il patrimonio storico, sociale ed istituzionale del Paese: "Esiste, come si sussurra da piu' parti, il rischio di una guerra civile nel Bel Paese? Sono preparate le istituzioni italiane a combattere lo sforzo alla rottura del Paese che larghe componenti sociali propugnano neanche piu' velatamente? Vorremmo sapere se gli Italiani possono contare ancora sui servizi di intelligence che avrebbero il compito di fornire garanzie di stabilita' e di ordine al popolo Italiano, prevenendo gli sfasci storici e sociali ai quali assistiamo attoniti con cadenza quasi giornaliera. Vuoi vedere che sotto sotto aveva ragione il Presidente Cossiga qualche anno fa...?

La condanna è ferma. «Vergogna» e «rabbia» sono stati espressi dall'ambasciatore israeliano in Italia Ehud Gol, di fronte al «barbaro comportamento» dei «fascisti» della sinistra estremista che hanno bruciato alcune bandiere israeliane durante la manifestazione a Milano per il 25 aprile.

source here


LA PROTESTA DI ISRAELE - «Da ebreo e israeliano, ieri, mi sono colmato di vergogna e di rabbia alla vista del barbaro comportamento dei fascisti della sinistra estremista che hanno profanato la sacralitá della festa della liberazione del 25 aprile, assieme alla memoria dei caduti della Brigata Ebraica in Italia, dando alle fiamme le bandiere dello Stato d'Israele nel corso del corteo di Milano», ha affermato Gol in un comunicato stampa diffuso dall'ambasciata a Roma.

I fatti accaduti ieri a Milano parlano da soli: non solo dei facinorosi hanno bruciato una bandiera con la stella di Davide in campo blu, hanno pure costretto il drappello della comunità ebraica meneghina a non sventolare quelle bandiere che, nel 1943, furono portate dagli azionisti sbarcati in Sicilia con l'esercito inglese per battersi contro i nazisti. I soliti autononmi dei centri sociali che, trattenuti da un cordone di poliziotti e tra gli applausi di molti manifestanti, inneggiano alla "Palestina libra, Palestina rossa". Uno slogan chiarisce il loro pensiero: "Stato di Israele, stato terrorista".
source here

Leggi la Storia della Brigata Ebraica
source here and here

Le Due Italie Del 25 Aprile

Cosi' hanno celebrato la festa del 25 Aprile gli amici di Prodi.
Esponete le vostro foto, affinche' il mondo conosca chi governera' l'Italia durante i prossimi cinque anni!
Facciamoci anche noi dei piccoli Financial Times del Paese piu' bello del mondo!

"Una cosa intollerabile: attacchi agli ebrei, attacchi alla Moratti, slogan violenti e antisemiti: questa sinistra, Prodi in testa, è di una intolleranza assolutamente intollerabile in una paese civile!".

Il riferimento citato da Calderoli è al grave episodio che ha macchiato la manifestazione milanese. Attimi di tensione che si sono ripetuti quando la brigata ebraica è passata per piazza San Babila sventolando le bandiere di Israele e da un gruppo di autonomi sono partiti cori e insulti: "Stato di Israele, stato terrorista" e "sionisti, sionisti!" sono stati gli slogan più gridati. Urla in parte soffocate dagli applausi della maggioranza dei manifestanti. I contestatori sono stati tenuti a distanza dal cordone di polizia, ma secondo quanto ha denunciato il portavoce della comunità ebraica di Milano, Yasha Reibma, avrebbero fatto in tempo a bruciare una bandiera israeliana. "Un fatto gravissimo - ha commentato allarmato il presidente dell'Unione delle comunità ebraiche Claudio Morpurgo - Ed è chiaro che la nostra Resistenza non è quella di questi facinorosi".

25 APRIL CELEBRATIONS OF MR PRODI'S ELECTORATE




Cosi' invece lo vogliono celebrare gli Italiani del Centrodestra.

25 APRIL CELEBRATIONS OF BERLUSCONI'S COALITION

'Tangible Proof' al-Qaida Deploying Nukes

From bad to worse
souce WorldNetDaily via americastruthforum

A terrorism symposium featuring leading experts will begin with presentation of "tangible proof" al-Qaida not only has developed an arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons but also has begun to deploy them for use in its jihad against the United States and Israel. Paul L. Williams, author of "The Al Connection" and "The Dunces of Doomsday," will present his findings at the National Press Club in Washington at the conclusion of a public debate with Wall Street Journal correspondent Richard Miniter on al-Qaida's nuclear weaponry. The debate, Friday at 10 a.m., will be moderated by Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard and regular contributor to the Fox News Channel. The public is invited to attend.

Iranian women demand legal equality

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has ordered authorities to allow women to enter sports stadiums and attend national football games. Conservatives have deemed it un-Islamic for women to attend men's sporting events.

RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari talked on April 24 with a prominent women's rights activist, Mahboubeh Abbass-Gholizadeh, about the reversal. She calls the decision the result of pressure by activists.

RFE/RL: You and many other women in Iran have been fighting for the right to enter stadiums and attend football matches. Your leg was actually broken last year when you and a group of activists tried to push your way into Tehran stadium. How do you feel today, now that President Ahmadinejad has ordered that women be allowed into stadiums?

Mahboubeh Abbass-Gholizadeh: Our reaction -- the reaction of many of those who have been involved in this campaign, and we've been talking about it -- is first of all [happiness]. We are all happy that the women's movement could successfully reach [at least] one of its least important demands. We consider this a victory for the women's movement. But this is happening at a time when there are many pressures with regard to [restrictions on] women's clothing. This achievement is for us a result of the efforts of our women and girls, especially since last year. It was necessary, but [it is] not enough.

RFE/RL: What are your other demands?

Abbass-Gholizadeh: Women should have access to all public places, and their rights should be [defended]. Under the current conditions -- in which a woman who wants to travel needs her husband's permission, in which academic places, universities, scientific locations, and recreational places like coffee shops are segregated -- women or young girls cannot easily gain access to public places. And this segregation shows that we cannot say that women and men use public places equally. Some places in Iran are generally designated "For Men Only"....

RFE/RL: Does this small victory make you and other activists more determined and more active in seeking your demands and achieving equal rights?

Abbass-Gholizadeh: This is an achievement by the women's movement -- and not because the president is a democrat and, for example, gives importance to women's rights. The activities of women have made this possible. Our argument is not only limited to women entering stadiums, but we believe that women have the right to access public places that under the Islamic republic have become places solely for men.
continues here

Iranian women have been at the forefront of a long and protracted social struggle that has been going on in different spheres of society, from the first months of the Islamic Republic.
It seems that Iranian women are sending a clear signal to the regime and the world that they will no longer take silently such discriminations against their humanity. We salute Iranian women and stand in solidarity with them!

Democracy cannot be realized without freedom and equal human rights for women.

Egypt is for all!

Again bad news from the land of the Pharaoh.
Muslim terrorists spread death and terror today in Northern Egypt.

At least 22 people were killed and 150 wounded as three blasts rocked a market and a busy restaurant area in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Dahab during the high tourism season, state television said.
There was no immediate word on the nationality of the victims, in the third such attack in the Sinai in 18 months.

The Dahab resort is popular with Western backpackers and budget Israeli tourists.
The Times of London said three bombs exploded one after another shortly after 7:15 p.m., Egyptian time, as vacationers packed the popular resort between Sharm el-Sheikh and Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba during the Coptic Easter holiday.

My offer to these heinous cowards is the response of the Egyptian people who rallied at a demonstration in Cairo a few days ago, protesting the recent events in Alexandria and calling for a "one nation for all, Muslims and Christians".

Egypt is a wonderful country. Egyptians have always been warm and good people.
They don't want Al-Qaida. They don't want islamic fundamentalism. They do not want the Muslim Brotherhood!

See if you like it!


(it says: Long live the crescent and the cross)

(I have taken this pic from the excellent Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh)

Iranian women can watch football now

Good news for Iranian football fans: Iranian women can watch national and important football matches in stadiums/
As you may recall, I mentioned in one of my previous posts that Iranian women were strongly advised not to attend football matches here.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Monday said that Iranian women can watch national and important matches in stadiums.

In his directive, Ahmadinejad urged Physical Education Organization (PEO) Head Mohammad Aliabadi to outline an appropriate plan and give women the best stands of the stadiums where national and important games are played.

"Contrary to propaganda, experience has proven that the massive presence of women and families in public sites has created an ethical atmosphere," read the letter.

The president ordered the PEO to do the job in association with Interior Ministry.
source IRNA

Mushroom cloud on its way

Latest from the Middle Ages.

A New York rally by the Islamic Thinkers Society outside the Israeli consulate yesterday featured chants of

"The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real holocaust is on its way!"

The demonstration by the Queens-based group was monitored by the Investigative Project on Terrorism whose members noted signs including "Islam will Dominate" and a picture with an Islamic flag flying over the White House.

The chants were in Arabic and translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, headed by Steve Emerson, a former reporter for CNN.

Here are some excerpts from the chants:
Leader (in Arabic): "With our blood and our lives we will liberate al Aqsa!"
[the rest also respond in Arabic:] "With our blood and our lives we will liberate alAqsa!
Israeli Zionists What do you say? The real Holocaust is on its way"
"Takbeer!"
Response: "Allahu Akbar!"
"Takbeer!"
Response: "Allahu Akbar!"
source here

Civil War Has Started

...and it has started!
As I said yesterday, civil war between Fatah and Hamas is inevitable.

Supporters of the Fatah and Hamas exchanged gunfire and hurled firebombs at each other on Saturday after Hamas' political chief hinted that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah was a traitor.
Dozens of Palestinian protesters were injured in the clashes. Fighting started after student supporters of the factions hurled stones at one another outside Gaza universities and intensified when gunmen joined in. Medics said 20 people were injured.

continue reading here

I have only one question to ask: will they use suicide bombers against one another?

Fatah says Hamas ”preparing for civil war”

Fatah's Revolutionary Council issued a statement late Friday condemning comments made by Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal, accusing him of "igniting and preparing for civil war." Speaking in Damascus, Meshal attacked Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas after the latter had reportedly blocked Hamas bid to set up a new security force.

Meshal vowed, "The military-security coup supported by Zionists and Americans will not happen." He reaffirmed Hamas' position regarding Israel. "We will not recognize Israel," he said.

"Meshal is inciting a Palestinian civil war. He shouldn't interfere with what is going on in the Palestinian territories," a Fatah spokesperson was quoted as saying. "We are the ones who live here and are more aware of what the Palestinian interest is. He should let us solve our problems here in the territories without interfering."

Meshaal made his comments at a rally in Damascus commemorating the 2004 assassinations of Hamas' leading members Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi. "We can understand that Israel and America are persecuting us, and seeking ways to besiege and starve us, but what about the sons of our people who are plotting against us, who are following a studied plan to make us fail," he said. "Today is not the time to expose them, but I say the day will come soon when we will reveal to all the truth," Mashal said.

Meanwhile, Hamas said Friday night it would stand by its appointment of a senior activist wanted by Israel to supervise the interior ministry even after Abbas said he would cancel the posting.

Late on Friday, government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told a news conference in Gaza the appointment of Samhadana would stand. According to Hamad, "The decision was taken in accordance with the basic law, which gives the interior minister the right to take measures in order to maintain security and public law and order." "We will resolve the differences [with Abbas] with dialogue," Hamad added.

souce albawaba.com

Islamic lesson for Christian Copts

Cops beating Copts. Muslim police teach an Egyptian Christian his place in Islamic society.

According to Mubarak, life for the Copts in Egypt is back to normal!

Moving Towards Sanctions

Diplomacy. Sanctions. Military action. These are the three steps that the international community will be required to take against Iran, if Ahmadinejad does not stop the race towards political suicide.

As diplomacy has already failed, sanctions will be soon imposed on the Iranian regime before the last and final step.

We are going to discuss here the social, political and economical implications of such a measure.

If the United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran, domestic support for Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad will wane, according to ALEX VATANKA, Eurasia editor for Jane's Information Group.

Vatanka told a February 24 RFE/RL briefing that "economic sanctions will hurt the average Iranian" and, consequently, many "will blame the ruling clerics" for making life difficult and "impairing the country's long term development."

Vatanka said sanctions would be a serious challenge to the Iranian government. If harsh economic sanctions were imposed, Iran's poorest population will be hurt the hardest -- and might react "as they did in the 1970s and protest in the streets." Sanctions on travel, Vatanka said, would hurt a many Iranians because "Iran is a nation of small traders" who depend on the ability to travel to earn an income. According to Vatanka, unemployment in Iran is estimated at 30 percent, "so small trading is essential to survival." Although current U.S. sanctions "haven't worked," he said, "Iranians fear an oil embargo." He stressed that "oil revenues are a major part of the economy, so it is critical to look at this sector."

Should negotiations with the European Union and the UN fail, Vatanka believes that Iran would follow a "North Korea model," since Ahmadinejad's base of support among the "Islamist militias" has been "urging withdrawal from the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]." The Iranian government's "tactic" so far, Vatanka said, is governed by the belief that "by shouting the loudest, you'll get concessions [from the West]."
source here

Cristiani Afgani nelle catacombe di Kabul

Ecco un bel post apparso su Marianne ieri 19.4.2006.
Riguarda le difficolta' e i pericoli quotidiani che incontrano i pochi Cristiani Afgani in quel paese a stragrande maggioranza musulmana.
Leggendo il racconto di un ex-mullah afgano ritornano alla mente i primi Cristiani di Roma.

Un ami m'a donné une Bible...", se souvient cet ingénieur afghan de 34 ans, qui affirme avoir participé à "la guerre sainte" contre les Soviétiques et qui a travaillé avec de nombreux chrétiens dans une organisation humanitaire.

La Bible "nous dit d'aimer nos ennemis alors que l'islam nous dit de les tuer. Cela m'a touché", raconte cet homme qui, comme tous ceux présents dimanche, refuse de dévoiler son identité.

Dans une maison anonyme de Kaboul, ils sont des dizaines à célébrer la résurrection du Christ en ce dimanche de Pâques, mais pour ces Afghans vivre leur foi c'est s'exposer aux brimades ou pire, dans un pays où la loi condamne en théorie à la mort ceux qui abandonnent l'islam.

Le risque est trop grand. L'arrestation le mois dernier d'Abdul Rahman, un Afghan chrétien, et les appels à le condamner à mort parce qu'il avait abjuré l'islam, est dans toutes les mémoires. La justice afghane l'avait finalement libéré, estimant qu'il était inapte à être jugé et il a trouvé refuge en Italie après d'intenses pressions de la communauté internationale.

Ces afghans ont appris à vivre leur foi en secret et n'accueillent les inconnus qu'avec méfiance. Ils font état de brimades de la police, de téléphones sur écoute et parfois même de menaces de mort. L'attitude des autorités en général et de la justice (un bastion du conservatisme musulman) rend l'exercice de leur religion très difficile, même si la peine de mort n'est pas appliquée.

Selon un Américain, qui travaille pour une organisation humanitaire et qui vit depuis six ans en Afghanistan, le christianisme fait de plus en plus d'adeptes, même si leur nombre total ne dépasse probablement pas 500 personnes à Kaboul et un millier dans tout le pays.

"Cela croît d'année en année", estime-t-il, à cause, selon lui, d'une certaine lassitude face aux extrémistes islamiques."

Selon La Croix

Che il buon Dio protegga questi nostri fratelli e una Chiesa, quella Afgana, che prega e che spera un giorno di potere uscire dalle catacombe.
fonte here

Iran: Women To Be Cracked Down

TEHERAN: Iran’s police force outlined plans for a renewed onslaught against women who show off too much of their bodies in the streets of Teheran. Teheran’s police chief, Morteza Talai, said here on 18th April.

In their campaign, the police will confront women showing their bare legs in short pants.

The police is also going to combat women wearing skimpy headscarves, short and form-fitting coats. The police will crackdown those ones walking with pets in parks and streets.

Every post-pubescent female in Iran, regardless of her nationality or religion, is obliged to observe the Islamic dress code and cover her shape and hair whenever outside the home.
source here

Orrore! Dopo i Buddha di Bamian il Cimitero di Jugha.

Dopo i Budda di Bamian, distrutti dai talebani nel 2001, ora un altro monumento di valore indicibile, il Cimitero Armeno di Jugha, che oggi si trova in Azerbajian, e' stato fatto sparire dalla faccia della terra.
L'Institute for war and peace reporting che ha visitato l'antica localita' armena ha dovuto ammettere che non vi e' piu' traccia del famoso cimitero cristiano.
Le pietre tombali del cimitero, vero e proprio capolavoro d'arte medievale, erano tutte egregiamente scolpite ed erette una accanto all'altra tanto da dare l'impressione, visto dall'alto, di reggimenti schierati e coperti. Le croci scolpite nella pietra erano cosi' numerose da ricoprire due colline adiacenti.
Di queste pietre tombali, che gli Armeni chiamano “khachkars”, ve ne erano circa 2000 negli anni '80.
Lo storico Argam Aivazian, il piu' grande esperto di monumenti armeni del Nakhichevan, riferisce che Jugha era l'unico monumento d'arte medievale e il piu' grande cimitero armeno in esistenza.
Gli Armeni accusano gli Azeri di un atto deliberatamente vandalico.

Il Parlamento Europeo, l 'Unesco e la Camera dei Lords inglese vogliono far luce su questo accaduto. Una delegazione del Parlamento Europeo che si trova in visita nel sud del Caucaso non ha potuto ancora avere accesso all'area del cimitero.
Se gli osservatori internazionali confermeranno che il cimitero e' stato distrutto si teme che le tensioni tra Armenia ed Azerbajian diverranno impossibili da controllare.
Mentre dal lato azero continuano le patetiche smentite, col Presidente Aliev che con tono minaccioso dichiara che quelle armene sono "bugie e provocazioni", dall'altro comincia a trasparire qualche notizia che conferma la veridicita' dei fatti.
Se verra' confermata la distruzione di un'opera d'arte cosi' importante, i due Paesi, che fino a qualche tempo fa si combattevano nel Nagorny Karabkah, non ci penseranno due volte prima di riprendere una guerra che e' finita solo all'apparenza.
fonte IWPR

You make me sick!

Palestinian men put up posters proclaiming 18-year-old suicide bomber Sami Salim Hamad as a martyr outside Hamad’s family’s house in the West Bank village of Arakah near Jenin April 18, 2006. Hamad killed nine people and wounded 60 others in a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Iran and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is a relatively small, radical, Islamic-oriented terrorist organization, whose ideology is a combination of religious Islamic fanaticism and extremist nationalism. It views terrorist attacks against Israel as the only means for achieving its goals, the first of which are the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a religious Islamic Palestinian state in the area they refer to as "Filisteen" (by which they mean the Land of Israel). During the ongoing violent Palestinian-Israeli confrontation PIJ has perpetrated a series of murderous suicide bombing attacks, the most prominent of which was at the Maxim Restaurant in October 2003.

Both the United States and the European Union have designated the PIJ as a terrorist organization. However, as a rule, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has avoided confrontations with the PIJ and Hamas, thus allowing both movements, which view themselves as the PA's eventual replacement, to increase their strength and to consolidate their positions with the indigenous Palestinian population.

Of all the Palestinian terrorist organizations, the PIJ is the one with the closest ties to Iran and which receives more Iranian aid, especially financial, than any other. For Iran (and for other countries which support international terror), money is one of the most important tools for operating terrorist infrastructures, in this case in the PA-administered territories as well as for encouraging the activities of various Palestinian terrorist organizations. According both to captured PA documents and the statements of terrorists arrested and interrogated, the terrorist organizations operating with Iranian support, that is, the PIJ, Hamas and Hezbollah, regularly receive large sums of money from Iran.

With that it mind, it should be noted that Iran is practically the PIJ's only source of funding. The organization's annual budget has been estimated at several million dollars, a large percentage of which is earmarked for funding terrorist attacks carried out by its operatives against Israel and maintaining its terrorist apparatus: offices, salaries, weapons and explosives, as well as financial aid to the families of casualties and detainees. In July, 2003, the Palestinian security forces claimed that they had confiscated $3 million in cash which Iran had transferred to the PIJ (a considerable sum of money even according to the PIJ's criteria).

In Israeli assessment, only an extremely small amount of the organization's budget is allotted to funding its civilian infrastructure (much smaller than the amounts allotted by Hamas for the same purpose). The PIJ's civilian infrastructure includes a number of societies in the West Bank (al-Ihsan, al-Naqa' for women and the Islamic youth club in Bethlehem) and in the Gaza Strip (seven branches of al-Ihsan). The societies operate in the fields of health, welfare and religious Islamic education.

All of the above provide a clear illustration of how, by means of a relatively "insignificant" investment, Iran bought itself power over a small, "quality" terrorist organization and takes advantage of it to influence its terrorist-operative members to continue their attacks against Israel inside and outside of the PA-administered territories. The organization's suicide bombing attacks are therefore a clear indication of the political success of Iranian support of terror, all of it done without leaving any clear Iranian "fingerprints."
source here

GM keeps it up

DETROIT — The little blue pill is leaving General Motors Corp. with a very large bill.

The world's largest automaker, which lost $10.6 billion last year, is shelling out $17 million annually for impotence drugs such as Viagra and Cialis, said GM spokeswoman Sharon Baldwin. While the so-called "lifestyle drugs" make up a small fraction of GM's overall health care costs — now hovering at $5.6 billion each year, or about $1,500 of every vehicle it builds — company executives often use the example to illustrate how out-of-control health care costs have become in America.

GM, which provides health care for 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents, is the world's largest private purchaser of Viagra, the popular erectile dysfunction drug produced by Pfizer Inc., whose sales reached $1.65 billion last year. The pill is covered under GM's labor agreement with United Auto Workers, as well as benefit plans for salaried workers.

Ford Motor Co. declined to say how much it spends on erectile dysfunction drugs, and a Chrysler spokesman could not provide figures.
Read it all on The Detroit News

Lettera dell'Opus Dei alla Sony

TOKYO - Un annuncio prima della proiezione per chiarire che ci si trova davanti a un'opera di fantasia e che qualsiasi somiglianza con la realtà è puramente casuale. E' la richiesta contenuta in una lettera inviata dall'Opus Dei alla Sony in vista dell'uscita sul grande schermo del film "Il Codice da Vinci", tratto dal romanzo di Dan Brown.

La mossa dell'Opus Dei non è isolata. Durante la celebrazione per la Passione del Signore avvenuta venerdì nel Basilica di San Pietro alla presenza di Benedetto XVI, il Predicatore della Casa pontificia, padre Raniero Cantalamessa, aveva dichiarato: «Cristo viene ancora venduto, non più ai capi del sinedrio per trenta denari, ma a editori e librai per miliardi di denari. Nessuno riuscirà a fermare quest’ondata speculativa, che anzi registrerà un’impennata con l’uscita imminente di un certo film».

E visto che e' Pasqua anche per il sottoscritto, peccatore e blogger, voglio nel mio piccolo contribuire anch'io alla diffusione di questa "giustissima" lettera.

Lettera alla Sony

13 aprile 2006

Agli azionisti, dirigenti e impiegati della Sony Corporation

Gentili signori,

Vi porgiamo i nostri saluti, nella speranza che vi trovino in piena serenità e buona salute.

Ci rivolgiamo a voi dall'Ufficio Informazioni dell'Opus Dei in Giappone, a motivo della annunciata uscita, prevista per il mese di maggio, del film "Il Codice da Vinci", prodotto dalla Sony-Columbia.

Prima di tutto, desideriamo chiarire che questa lettera non ha alcun intento polemico, ma solo informativo. La inviamo, con il massimo rispetto, ai membri di una società giapponese di grande tradizioni, per i motivi che spieghiamo qui di seguito.

È molto probabile che negli ultimi mesi abbiate sentito parlare dell'Opus Dei, nel contesto del film in questione. Ed è altrettanto probabile che per molte persone sia stata questa la prima volta in cui hanno avuto occasione di sentire il nome di questa istituzione della Chiesa, e se ne siano interessati. Per questo motivo, l'Ufficio Informazioni si sente in dovere di manifestare la propria disponibilità per informare chiunque desideri conoscere la realtà dell'Opus Dei, che non ha nulla a che vedere con l'immagine diffusa dal film. Chiunque di voi desideri una qualsiasi informazione, non ha che da rivolgersi a questo Ufficio e gli sarà risposto nel più breve tempo possibile e con grande piacere: abbiamo le porte spalancate.

Nella pagina web uffìciale (http://www.opusdei.org/) potrete trovare molti dati su questa istituzione della Chiesa cattolica. Potrete verificare che l'essenza del suo messaggio consiste nell'annunciare che il lavoro professionale, di qualsiasi tipo, è una via di santità, cioè un luogo adeguato per vivere le fede cristiana.

Come probabilmente sapete già, vi sono vari aspetti del romanzo "il Codice da Vinci" che deformano la figura di Cristo, e che investono le credenze religiose dei cristiani. Inoltre, nel libro si afferma che la Fede cristiana è fondata su una grande menzogna e che la Chiesa cattolica si è servita lungo i secoli di mezzi delinquenziali e violenti per tenere le persone immerse nell'ignoranza. Il romanzo mescola realtà e finzione e alla fine non si capisce dove venga fissato il limite fra la realtà e l'invenzione, tanto che un lettore ignorante dei fatti storici può giungere a conclusioni erronee e può pure essere spinto a guardare la Chiesa con minore simpatia, quando invece essa merita indubbiamente molto rispetto.

Tutte le corporazioni imprenditoriali, oltre al proprio patrimonio materiale, possiedono una serie di valori intoccabili, che nascono dal modo appropriato di trattare i dipendenti, dalla qualità dei prodotti, dalla cura della clientela, dell'ambiente e altre cose simili. Queste caratteristiche esprimono la responsabilità sociale di una impresa e non nascono dall'interesse, ma dalla convinzione, e tuttavia è sicuro che anche tali valori intangibili contribuiscono a far sì che le corporazioni siano circondate da stima e anche a che ne sia consolidato il valore economico nel mercato dei capitali perché sono garanzie di stabilità. Uno degli importanti valori non materiali, è il comportamento rispettoso dell'impresa nei confronti delle credenze dei cittadini: nelle nostre società libere, essere responsabile implica l'essere rispettoso. Un tale obbligo riguarda soprattutto le grandi corporazioni, che si muovono in ambiti multinazionali e multiculturali, che richiedono particolare attenzione.

Sappiamo, da varie dichiarazioni pubbliche di persone che partecipano al progetto, che la Sony-Columbia desidera vivamente che questo film non ferisca la sensibilità religiosa degli spettatori e desidera evitare che la sua uscita divenga motivo di divisione in un mondo già fin troppo diviso. Questo orientamento rispettoso esprime bene la fama e la cultura della Sony. Alcuni mezzi di comunicazione hanno scritto che la Sony sta esaminando la possibilità di porre all'inizio del film un annuncio per chiarire che ci si trova davanti a un'opera di fantasia e che qualsiasi somiglianza con la realtà è puramente casuale. Una simile decisione della Sony sarebbe un gesto di rispetto verso la figura di Gesù, verso la storia della Chiesa e le credenze religiose degli spettatori.

Una considerazione finale: purtroppo oggi non è raro che venga usato il nome di Dio per giustificare l'odio e la violenza. Proprio per questo ci sentiamo di fare un nuovo appello alla pace, che è nel cuore della Chiesa cattolica e nell'anima di tutti i cristiani.

Chiediamo scusa se è stata utilizzata qualche espressione non adeguata. Rivolgiamo i migliori saluti esprimendo auspici di pace, salute e prosperità.

Molte grazie

Seizo Inahata

Ufficio Informazioni dell'Opus Dei in Giappone

Ashiya, 6 aprile 2006

source here

Easter surprise gift from Mubarak

I post two articles below. One is from Reuters, one is from a well known Christian website. You can see that the difference in reporting between the two is considerable.


ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, April 15 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas on Saturday to stop clashes in Alexandria between Muslims and Christians angered by the killing of an elderly Copt a day earlier by a Muslim, witnesses said.

Hundreds of Christians turned out for the funeral of the 67-year-old man. His assailant wounded five other people in the knife attack on worshippers in two churches.

Thirty people were wounded in Saturday's fighting, medical and police sources said. Rocks and sticks were used in the clashes, which the state news agency MENA said started after the funeral.

Two cars were torched, shop windows were smashed and police arrested 15 people, MENA said.

Tensions between Egypt's Christians and Muslims occasionally boil over into violence. In 1999, 22 people where killed in sectarian strife in the southern village of Kosheh.

An Interior Ministry source said the 25-year-old man who carried out Friday's attack said he was taking revenge for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, apparently a reference to cartoons of the Prophet published mainly in European newspapers.

The authorities said the attacker was mentally ill (There were at least four attacks! Were the terrorists ALL INSANE?).
But Christian demonstrators in Alexandria said the authorities were trying to make excuses for what some Copts saw as increasing attacks on Christians (100% true!).

"We want justice. Christ is the winner," they chanted as they marched through the city on Egypt's northern coast.

"Why can't we live in peace?" read a banner held by mourners at the funeral. "No to oppression", read another.

Three people died in Alexandria in clashes with the police in October during protests by Muslims over a church play which they said was offensive to Islam (Were they also "insane"?).

Coptic Christians comprise between 5 and 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.

President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt would confront any attempts to harm national unity.

"Egypt is considered a model of national unity and religious tolerance," Mubarak said in comments published in state press. "The occurrence of an individual incident (WHAT?) or problem cannot disturb the serenity and strength of this relationship between the two elements of the nation," he said (There are now three elements in Egypt, Hosni!).

04/14/2006 From Christians Under Attack

CAIRO, Egypt - Worshippers at three Christian churches came under attack from knife-wielding assailants during Mass Friday. Police said one worshipper was killed (NUSHI ATTA GIRGIS) and more than a dozen wounded in the simultaneous attacks in the northern city of Alexandria.

Police said they had arrested three men in Friday's attacks (Were they all "insane"?). One was said to have attacked two churches; one assaulted a third church; and the other was arrested during a foiled attack on a fourth church (But the President said that it was an "individual incident!).

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, characterized the men as "insane" and said they were carrying tranquilizing medication. (Here we go again! Terrorists in Egypt are all "insane"!)

One worshipper, Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, was killed, according to the semiofficial Middle East News Agency.

The agency said three people were injured. Initial police reports said a total of 17 people were injured: 10 at the Saints Church in downtown Alexandria and three at the nearby Mar Girgis Church. Four worshippers were wounded at a church in Abu Qir, a few miles to the east.

Police said a fourth attack was foiled by policemen guarding another church in Egypt's second-largest city.

Father Augustinos, who heads a different Mar Girgis Church, said the attacks occurred just after Mass began at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT).

"They could be Islamic activists. They consider this as jihad," he said of the attackers, who broke through regularly stationed security barriers and police to enter the churches. (How did they do that???!!!)
But Abdullah Osman, an official with the ruling National Democratic Party, questioned the sanity of the attackers (Ha..ha..ha!!!)

"They are only insane people, and insane people can do anything. They are not normal," (sic!!!)he said.

The government and church officials were trying to calm the angry crowds who gathered to protest the attacks. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims in the Sidi Bishr neighborhood, near Saints Church.

"We are trying to calm the situation after many of our youth started protesting," Father Augustinos said. "We are telling them to calm down. It doesn't do any good for the country to make protests. We want to live in peace and tranquility but these are people who had their family members killed or wounded. We are doing our best."

Osman said NDP officials and legislators were also doing what they could to restore calm.

"They went to the churches to explain that the attackers are insane (sic!!!) and that the people should not blow things (out of proportion)," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Alexandria.

The attack comes on what is Good Friday to many of the world's Christians. However, Egypt's Copts and other followers of the Greek Orthodox church, celebrate the holiday a week later.

Coptic Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 72 million and generally live in harmony with the Muslim majority, though violence flares occasionally.

Egypt's last sectarian clashes were in Alexandria last October, when Muslims attacked churches and shops over the distribution of a DVD of a play deemed offensive to their religion. Four people were killed in weeklong riots (According to the Egyptian authorities terrorists in that country are "insane"!)
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE CHURCHS FOR MORE INFO

VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH ( EL HADRAH) 4201976

EL KIDISEN CHRUCH (SIDI BESHR) 5508395

VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH (JANAKLES) 5731002

PLEASE IF YOU ARE IN THE US DIAL 011203


The following article gives more info on what really happened.

Egyptian security forces were deployed around Coptic churches in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on Saturday after attacks that killed one person, the official MENA news agency reported.

The move came as Noshi Atta Girgis, fatally stabbed on Friday by a man officials said was mentally unstable, was to be buried. At least five others were wounded in the attacks on three churches.
The interior ministry said Mahmoud Abdul Razak Salah Eddin Hussein, 25, had been arrested.
Alexandria Judge Samy Breik ordered Abdul Razak to be held in custody for four days, charged with murder, illegal entry into a place of worship and illegal possession of weapons.
While the ministry spoke of only one assailant, police said there were in fact two attackers carrying knives and put the number of wounded at 12 (All "insane"?).

Witnesses said Abdul Razak shouted, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God," a statement that is one of the main tenets of Islam, as he carried out his attacks.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria denounced the attacks (Oh..oh..!).
"We consider this crime an attack against all the Egyptian people, Muslim and Copt," a statement said, calling on security forces to protect places of worship.

It also warned against using the incident to "threaten the unity of the Egyptian people".
Egyptian Copts typically attend weekly Mass on Friday, which is also the Muslim holy day and marks the beginning of the weekend.

Coptic faithful, religious leaders and intellectuals expressed fear of further harassment after the gains of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary elections last autumn (So we have three elements in Egypt, not just two, Mr Mubarak!).
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Issam al-Aryan expressed disbelief over the security forces' failure to prevent the attack.
"It's very sad news. I cannot understand what the security and police were doing. (Neither do I!)
They are supposed to be guarding the churches," he said.

The deadliest recent communal clashes occurred in October, when Muslim protestors attacked a church in Alexandria that they said hosted a play they deemed offensive to Islam. Three people were killed in the fighting.

Egypt, Mubarak, Islamic fundamentalists, the Muslim Brotherhood...
Dark days are looming on the Egyptian horizon!

U.S. Pressures Germany To Accept Uighurs

BERLIN, April 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government wants to deport a group of Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo prison camp to Germany and is pressuring Chancellor Angela Merkel to take in the ethnic Uighurs, a newspaper reported on Friday.

The German daily Die Welt quoted diplomatic sources saying Merkel's government has resisted the U.S. pressure to accept the 15 Uighurs from the restive, predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang in China's northwest.

The German government has resisted the U.S. pressure so far, the daily said, because it does not want to put strains on its relations with China and fears accepting the Uighurs would be seen in Beijing as a hostile act.

Despite the Bush administration's subsequent admission in 2004 that it got it wrong and that the men are no threat to national security, the Uygurs remain trapped at Guantanamo with nowhere to go.

Washington has acknowledged that China cannot be trusted to handle them humanely if they return there.

"The US has made it clear that it does not expel, return or extradite individuals to other countries where it believes that it is 'more likely than not' that they will be tortured or subject to persecution,"

says the Pentagon.

In December, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the men's continued detention was illegal since they were no longer considered enemy combatants.

Read the story of one of these Uighurs, which was reported by the South China Morning Post on 12/3/2006

The unluckiest of the unlucky

"Abu Bakkar Qassim and his friends are given bottled water to drink at Camp Iguana, but the brand name could not be more inappropriate, given the circumstances. It is called Freedom Springs.

Hemmed in by military guards and razor-wire fences, freedom is frustratingly elusive for Qassim and the four other Uygur men detained with him. Ironically, it was a quest for liberty and independence that caused them to flee their Chinese homeland in the first place, but after more than four years on US territory they still have neither.

"We heard a lot of good things about the US in the past, about democracy and human rights. Now they treat us differently and I don't understand that," Qassim told his US military interrogators, according to newly released Pentagon transcripts.

Captured by bounty hunters in Pakistan in 2001 and sold to US forces as alleged associates of al-Qaeda or the Taleban, they ended up at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, on the southern tip of Cuba, with more than 500 other alleged "enemy combatants".

Mark Denbeaux of Seton Hall University Law School, New Jersey, who has studied their plight, has a different description: "The unluckiest of the unlucky."

Despite the Bush administration's subsequent admission in 2004 that it got it wrong and that the men are no threat to national security, the Uygurs remain trapped at Guantanamo with nowhere to go.

Washington has acknowledged that China cannot be trusted to handle them humanely if they return there. "The US has made it clear that it does not expel, return or extradite individuals to other countries where it believes that it is 'more likely than not' that they will be tortured or subject to persecution," says the Pentagon.

But it has refused to transfer them to the US mainland, where they could apply for asylum, and blames the delay in releasing them on other countries' failure to give them status instead.

"The Uygurs really are in the ultimate Catch-22," said Jumana Musa, an advocacy director with Amnesty USA.

For Qassim, the saga began early in 2000, when he left his home in Xinjiang province to sell leather goods at a market in Kyrgyzstan and learn the Koran. "If people try to teach the Koran [in China], they are executed by the Chinese government," he told his interrogators.

Still struggling to make ends meet after 18 months there, he heard about a Uygur-run leather factory in Turkey and, keen for more lucrative work, decided to head there. He went first to Pakistan to apply for a Turkish visa, but could not afford to stay while the paperwork was processed.

So he journeyed to Afghanistan where he had been told there was a Uygur-run "training camp" where he would get free bed and board and lessons on the Koran. In a development that proved key to his downfall, the camp also provided weapons training, with the Uygurs' separatist struggle in mind.

"I never trained at the camp to fight the US or coalition ... we Uygurs have more than 1 billion enemies, that is enough for us," said Qassim. "I trained against the Chinese government. I want to be free because 100,000 people are being used like slaves in prison in my country."
He added: "Is it a crime to want to save people from torture? Over the last 50 years, we've been suffering at Chinese hands like animals."
Adel Abdu Hakim, another of the Uygurs, said: "We didn't want to go right back to China after training to fight them. I was trying to go to Turkey to do my business. If something were to happen, then I would go back with other young Uygur men to fight the Chinese government, but I'm hoping that my country will be liberated peacefully. That would be great."

When the US bombed Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Qassim, Hakim and 16 other Uygurs fled through snow and fog to the border region with Pakistan. They were given sanctuary by local tribespeople, but not for long.

"Get wealth and power beyond your dreams. You can receive millions of dollars for helping the anti-Taleban force catch al-Qaeda and Taleban murderers," read the leaflets that rained on the region from US aircraft, printed to look like bank notes worth around US$4,200. "This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life, pay for livestock and doctors and schoolbooks and housing for all your people," the flyers urged.

The Uygurs were turned over to US forces in exchange for wads of cash and arrived at Guantanamo in January 2002, where they have remained ever since.

In a study of US Department of Defence records relating to 517 detainees there, Professor Denbeaux has established that just 5 per cent were actually captured by US forces. Only 8 per cent have been characterised in the US records as al-Qaeda fighters. Fifty-five per cent are deemed not to have committed any hostile act against the US or its allies.

Some were seized on the basis that they owned a Kalashnikov - as most people in Afghanistan did at the time, Professor Denbeaux's report found - or because they stayed at guesthouses, sported Casio watches or wore drab olive clothing - deemed by the US to be potential hallmarks of Taleban or al-Qaeda affiliation.

When Sabin Willett, a Boston-based lawyer who is acting pro bono for Qassim and Hakim, first met his clients at Guantanamo, they were in chains held down by a heavy iron bolt on the floor. Now they are at Camp Iguana, a separate part of the Guantanamo complex, where they live together in a wooden hut.

The Department of Defence says they are free to roam the area and have access to an "exercise/recreation yard, their own bunk house, activity room, television set with VCR and DVD capability, a stereo system, recreational items [such as soccer, volleyball, table tennis], unlimited access to a shower facility, air-conditioning, special food items and library materials."

Disturbingly, said Mr Willett, the US allowed a delegation from the Chinese government access to interrogate the men in late 2002 or early 2003. "They called us bastards and all this stuff," the transcripts quote an unidentified Uygur as saying.

Mr Willett said: "I think there was a period when the US needed Chinese support for the Iraq adventure and this was part of the deal. Isn't it interesting? The military won't permit media to go and talk to our guys, but they allow representatives of the PRC [People's Republic of China] to come in and yell at them."

The US will not explain why it is unwilling to give the men asylum, though reports have suggested that it does not wish to provoke Beijing and the fact that the men admitted they took weapons training does not sit comfortably with Washington's anti-terrorist agenda.

Nury Turkel, president of the Uygur Association of America, said: "It's very frustrating, it's very confusing. We are still hoping that some country will open up their doors to provide humanitarian assistance, but we know there's not much progress being made.

"I hate to use this term, but they will be turned into organ donors if they are sent home, that's how bad the situation is. Their fate will be unspeakable."

source here and here

Xinjiang Uighur to be executed

Ismail Semed, an ethnic Uighur from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China, is at risk of imminent execution after being sentenced to death on political charges.

Ismail Semed was convicted by the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court on 31 October 2005 for "attempting to split the motherland" and other charges related to possession of firearms and explosives. According to Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), a Washington DC-based human rights organization, there are unconfirmed reports that his appeal was heard in a closed session. If his appeal has already been rejected, he might have been executed. Execution in China normally takes place soon after the appeal hearing has concluded. However, given the political nature of the charges brought against Ismail Semed, his death sentence should be reviewed by China’s Supreme People’s Court.

According to UHRP, Ismail Semed first confessed to the charges during interrogations but then denied them during the trial. It is possible that the initial confession was extorted through torture.

The possession of firearms charges against Ismail Semed appear to have been based on old testimonies taken from other Uighurs, some of whom were reportedly executed in 1999. It is possible that their testimonies may have been extracted through torture. The charge of "splittism" was based on second-hand testimony which stated that Ismail Semed was a member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and attended one ETIM meeting in 1997 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. His alleged membership of ETIM and attendance at that meeting have reportedly been disputed by people who were present at the meeting. China has highlighted ETIM as one of the "East Turkestan terrorist organizations". In 2002, after repeated lobbying from China, the United States and the United Nations classified ETIM as a "terrorist" organisation. The grounds for this decision have not been substantiated with any credible evidence.

In the 1990s, Ismail Semed reportedly served two prison terms for participating in demonstrations in the XUAR (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region). He fled China for Pakistan following a demonstration in February 1997 in Gulja (Yining). According to local sources, the peaceful demonstration was sparked by growing levels of repression of Uighur culture and religion in and around Gulja and was brutally broken up by Chinese security sources, killing and seriously injuring dozens. Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people died or were seriously injured in the unrest that occurred the following day when thousands of people reportedly took to the streets to protest. Extra police were brought into the city and reportedly went through the streets arresting and beating people, including children. In some areas, protesters reportedly attacked police or Chinese residents and shops and set fire to some vehicles, while the security forces reportedly opened fire on protesters and bystanders. The exact number of people who died remains unknown, and an unknown number of people remain in prison in connection with these events. Ismail Semed was deported from Pakistan to China in 2003.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The political crackdown on the so-called "three evil forces" of "separatist, terrorist and religious extremists" in the XUAR is continuing to result in serious and widespread human rights violations directed against the region’s Uighur community, prompting many of them to flee the country. The crackdown has only intensified since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, as China uses the international "war on terror" as a pretext to justify its policies of repression in the region.
Over recent years, Amnesty International has monitored growing numbers of forced returns of Uighurs to China from several of its neighbouring countries, including Pakistan. There is evidence that China has been pressuring these countries to forcibly return Uighurs, and in some cases, the Chinese authorities appear to have been actively involved in effecting such returns. In some recent cases, returnees are reported to have been subjected to serious human rights violations, including torture, unfair trials and even execution.

The death penalty continues to be used extensively and arbitrarily in China. Amnesty International estimated that in 2004, over 3,000 people were executed and 6,000 sentenced to death. The true figures, which are classified as a "state secret", are believed to be much higher. A Chinese legal expert was recently quoted as stating the true figure for executions at approximately 8,000 per year. Except for one death penalty sentence for political crimes that was given outside of XUAR, XUAR is the only place in China where people have been sentenced to death for political crimes in recent years.

RECOMMENDED ACTION : Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Chinese or your own language :

urging the authorities to stop the execution of Ismael Semed ;

urging the authorities to commute the death sentence passed on Ismael Semed ;

calling on the authorities to re-try Ismael Semed in full accordance with the international fair trial standards ;

expressing concern at reports of extensive human rights violations in the XUAR ;

urging the authorities to remove the death penalty as a punishment for non-violent offences, make public full national statistics on death sentences and executions, and introduce a moratorium on executions as immediate steps towards full abolition of the death penalty in law.

APPEALS TO:

President of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional High People’s Court
MAIMAITI Rouzi Yuanzhang
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Gaoji Renmin Fayuan
81 Dongfenglu
Wulumuqishi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
Salutation : Dear President

President of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China : XIAO Yang Yuanzhang
Supreme People’s Court
27 Dongjiao Minxiang
Beijingshi 100006
People’s Republic of China
Fax : +86 10 65292345 (c/o Ministry of Communication)
Salutation : Dear President

Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China : WEN Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council
9 Xihuangcheng Genbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People’s Republic of China
Fax : +86 10 65292345 (c/o Ministry of Communication)
Email : gazette@mail.gov.cn

source UHRP