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By Nick, May 19, 2013 3:39 am

(AP) — A string of attacks killed at least 16 people in Iraq on Saturday, while gunmen abducted eight policemen guarding a post on the country’s main highway to Jordan and Syria, the latest in a wave of violence to grip the country.

The shootings and bombings follow three days of attacks that killed 130 people in both Shiite and Sunni areas in scenes reminiscent of retaliatory attacks between the two groups that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007. The spike in bloodshed in recent weeks has raised fears the country may be heading toward a new round of sectarian conflict.

Tensions have been worsening since Iraq’s minority Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government, including random detentions and neglect. The mass demonstrations, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23.

Majority Shiites control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias in the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida have frequently targeted them with large-scale attacks. But the sharp jump in attacks on Sunni areas, including bombings on Friday that killed at least 76 people, has fueled concerns of renewed retaliatory killings.

In Saturday’s deadliest attack, gunmen broke into the house of an anti-terrorism police captain in the southern suburbs of Baghdad, killing the officer and his family in their sleep. Police officials identified the dead as Cap. Adnan Ibrahim, his wife and two children, aged eight and 10.

The attackers fled the scene, and killed another policeman who tried to stop them at a nearby checkpoint.

Meanwhile in the western Sunni province of Anbar, gunmen kidnapped eight policemen who were guarding a post on the main highway linking Iraq to both Jordan and Syria, according to two police officials.

Earlier in the day, security forces and gunmen clashed in the area after police tried to arrest a Sunni tribal sheik suspected of being behind the killing of three army intelligence soldiers stopped by gunmen near a protest site in the city of Ramadi last month. Iraqi authorities had offered a bounty for the arrest or information leading to the arrest of the sheik, Khamis Abu Risha, and two other people they say were linked to the killings.

The fighting near Abu Risha’s house north of Ramadi left three people wounded. No arrests were made. Later, gunmen deployed near the main entrance of Anbar Operations Command headquarters in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad.

Hours later, Ramadi police said a bomb placed under stalls in a small stadium exploded, killing four people who were watching a local soccer match.

Shortly before sunset, a car bomb went off near a small market in in the town of Latifiyah south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 12.

Elsewhere, in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra in southern Iraq, gunmen shot and killed a Sunni cleric, Assad Nassir, as he was leaving his house, police said.

Two Iraqi soldiers were also killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb struck a group of soldiers arriving to inspect the scene of a blast that took place earlier in the northern city of Mosul.

A security official said a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the northern suburbs of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding two others.

Health officials confirmed the death tolls. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

By Sameer N. Yacoub

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, May 18, 2013 4:51 am

The lost history of Christians forced to convert to Islam–or die–is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the BBC: “Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony [last Sunday] at the Vatican–a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.”

The BBC adds in a sidebar: “The ‘Martyrs of Otranto’ were 813 Italians beheaded for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity. The Turks had been sent by Mohammed II, who had already captured the ‘second Rome’ of Constantinople.”

Historical texts throughout the centuries are filled with similar anecdotes, including the “60 Martyrs of Gaza,” Christian soldiers who were executed for refusing Islam during the 7^th century Islamic invasion of Jerusalem. Seven centuries later, during the Islamic invasion of Georgia, Christians refusing to convert were forced into their church and set on fire. Witnesses for Christ lists 200 anecdotes of Christians killed–including by being burned at the stake, thrown on iron spikes, dismembered, stoned, stabbed, shot at, drowned, pummeled to death, impaled and crucified–for refusing to embrace Islam.

If history is shocking, the fact is, today, Christians–men, women, and children–are still being forced to convert to Islam. Pope Francis alluded to their sufferings during the same ceremony: “As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.”

Consider some recent anecdotes:

In Pakistan, a “devoted Christian” was butchered by Muslim men “with multiple axe blows [24 per autopsy] for refusing to convert to Islam.” Another two Christian men returning from church were accosted by six Muslims who tried to force them to convert to Islam, but “the two refused to renounce Christianity.” Accordingly, the Muslims severely beat them, yelling they must either convert “or be prepared to die. . . . the two Christians fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed them.”

In Bangladesh some 300 Christian children were abducted in 2012 and sold to Islamic schools, where “imams force them to abjure Christianity.” The children are then instructed in Islam and beaten. After full indoctrination they are asked if they are “ready to give their lives for Islam,” presumably by becoming jihadi suicide-bombers. (Even here the historic patterns are undeniable: for centuries, Christian children were forcibly taken, converted to and indoctrinated in Islam, trained to be jihadis extraordinaire, and then unleashed on their former Christian families. Such were the Janissaries and Mamelukes.)

In Palestine in 2012, Christians in Gaza protested over the “kidnappings and forced conversions of some former believers to Islam.” The ever-dwindling Christian community banged on a church bell while chanting, “With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus.”

Just as happened throughout history, Muslims today regularly “invite” Christians to Islam, often presenting it as the only cure to their sufferings–sufferings caused by Muslims in the first place.

In Pakistan, a Christian couple was arrested on a false charge and severely beaten by police. The pregnant wife was “punched, kicked and beat” as her interrogators threatened to kill her unborn baby. A policeman offered to drop the theft charge if the husband would only “renounce Christianity and convert to Islam,” but the man refused.

In Uzbekistan, a 26-year-old Christian woman, partially paralyzed from youth, and her elderly mother were violently attacked by invaders who ransacked their home, confiscating “icons, Bibles, religious calendars, and prayer books.” At the police department, the paralyzed woman was “offered to convert to Islam.” She refused, and the judge “decided that the women had resisted police and had stored the banned religious literature at home and conducted missionary activities. He fined them 20 minimum monthly wages each.”

In Sudan, Muslims kidnapped a 15-year-old Christian girl; they raped, beat and ordered her to convert to Islam. When her mother went to police to open a case, the Muslim officer of the so-called “Family and Child Protection Unit,” told her: “You must convert to Islam if you want your daughter back.”

Indeed, because Christian females are the most vulnerable segments of Islamic societies, they are especially targeted for forced conversions. In 2012, U.S. Congress heard testimony about the “escalating abduction, coerced conversion and forced marriage of Coptic Christian women and girls [550 cases in the last five years alone].Those women are being terrorized and, consequently, marginalized, in the formation of the new Egypt.”

As my new book Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians documents, wherever there are large numbers of Muslims–whether in the Arab World, Africa, Asia, or even in the West–Christians are being persecuted. Forced conversions are the tip of the iceberg, and certainly not anomalies of history.

By Raymond Ibrahim
http://www.theblaze.com

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 11:09 pm

There can be honest differences of opinion on many subjects. But there can also be dishonest differences. Last week’s testimony under oath about events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 makes painfully clear that what the Obama administration told the American people about those events were lies out of whole cloth.

What we were told repeatedly last year by the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the American ambassador to the U.N., was that there was a protest demonstration in Benghazi against an anti-Islamic video produced by an American, and that this protest demonstration simply escalated out of control.

This “spontaneous protest” story did not originate in Libya but in Washington. Neither the Americans on duty in Libya during the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, nor officials of the Libyan government, said anything about a protest demonstration.

The highest American diplomat on the scene in Libya spoke directly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by phone, and told her that it was a terrorist attack. The president of Libya announced that it was a terrorist attack. The C.I.A. told the Obama administration that it was a terrorist attack.

With lies, as with potato chips, it is hard to stop with just one. After the “spontaneous protest” story was discredited, the next claim was that this was the best information available at the time from intelligence sources.

But that claim cannot survive scrutiny, now that the 12 drafts of the Obama administration’s talking points about Benghazi have belatedly come to light. As draft after draft of the talking points were made, e-mails from the State Department pressured the intelligence services to omit from these drafts their clear and unequivocal statement from the outset that this was a terrorist attack.

Attempts to make it seem that Ambassador Susan Rice’s false story about a “spontaneous protest” was the result of her not having accurate information from the intelligence services have now been exposed as a second lie to excuse the first lie.

Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loudly proclaimed question “What difference, at this point, does it make?” the difference is between an honest mistake and a calculated lie to deceive the American people, in order to win an election.

Barack Obama’s election campaign oratory had proclaimed the death of Osama bin Laden as an accomplishment of his administration, as part of a general defeat of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists. To admit that these terrorists were still in action, and strong enough to kill an American ambassador and three other Americans in a well-coordinated military style attack, would be a politically devastating admission during the election campaign.

Far better, politically, to come up with a story about a protest demonstration that just got out of hand. This could be presented as an isolated, one-time event, rather than part of a continuing pattern of terrorism by groups that were still active, despite President Obama’s spin suggesting that they were not.

The problem with telling a lie, or even a succession of lies, is that a very small dose of the truth can sometimes make the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. The State Department’s own foreign service officer Gregory Hicks was in Libya during the attack, so he knew the truth. When threats were not enough to silence him, it was then necessary to try to discredit him.

After years of getting glowing job evaluations, and awards of honors from the State Department for his work in various parts of the world, Mr. Hicks suddenly began to get bad job evaluations and was demoted to a desk job in Washington after he spoke with a Congressman about what he knew. The truth is dangerous to liars.

The Obama administration’s excuse for not trying to get help to the Americans in Benghazi while they were under attack — namely, that it would take too long — is as shaky as its other statements. A small fighting unit in Tripoli was ready to get on a plane to Benghazi when they were ordered to “stand down.” Other fighting units located outside of Libya are designed precisely for fast deployment — and nobody knew how many hours the attack would last.

But it will take more investigations to determine who gave the order to “stand down,” and why. How many new lies that will generate is another question.

By Thomas Sowell
Human Events

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 5:29 pm

Millions of Iraqis made national history last month when they voted in provincial elections secured entirely by the Iraqi army and police. For a country that was in the depths of a vicious sectarian civil war only six years ago, merely defending a nationwide vote is a big accomplishment.

But to say that Iraq is turning a page from its dysfunctional past—a past riddled with violence between Sunnis and Shia—would be entirely premature. Terrorism remains a tremendous problem in Iraq today, despite billions of dollars in U.S. and international investment and the growth of Iraqi security forces. Before the provincial elections, al Qaeda in Iraq was rejuvenated enough to send a dire warning to the Iraqi government last December about an impending terrorist offensive.

Spurred on by the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians each month this year, and by persistent complains about the government’s poor performance and rising authoritarianism, demonstrators are now taking matters into their own hands. 

Multiple protests have popped up against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with most of them occurring in Sunni-populated provinces such as Anbar, Salahuddin, and Nineveh. Indeed, with ever louder chants of effective governance from certain sectors of the country, what Iraq may be going through is its own version of the Arab Spring movement—smaller and less universal, but equally empowering to those who are in the middle of it. 

To Shia, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is simply dysfunctional, corrupt, and underperforming. But to Sunnis, that same government is oppressive, authoritarian, and actively working to exclude them from the political process. 

Residents of Anbar Province, the vast stretch of desert in western Iraq where the bulk of the country’s Sunni population resides, have been vocally protesting against Maliki since the beginning of the year, over issues ranging from the treatment of Sunni detainees in Iraqi jails to an anti-terrorism law that seems to arrest more Sunnis than Shias. The Iraqi government’s decision to postpone the provincial elections in Anbar for security reasons only drove those protests to new heights, convincing many that the move was an attempt by Maliki to shut down a looming electoral defeat in the province.

In a country like Iraq—the victim of nearly 10 years of sectarian violence and al Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks—peaceful demonstrations can quickly degenerate into violence, which challenges the very strength and legitimacy of the government. The Iraqi army’s forceful entry into a protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23, which sparked clashes with Sunni gunmen in the area and resulted in the deaths of nearly 40 people, is a perfect microcosm of the vindictive view that the Maliki administration has taken with the protest movement—one that refuses to die. 

Were it not for the deaths of so many people, the army’s shutting down of the protest camp in al-Hawija may not have elicited such a strong reaction from the Sunni community. But by using force, Maliki has not only put his political fortunes at risk, but has endangered the tenuous calm that has prevailed in Iraq, despite the withdrawal of U.S. troops and a raging sectarian civil war in neighboring Syria. Indeed, with tribal chiefs in Anbar and Sunni clerics beginning to sanction the use of violence against the Iraqi security forces and warning of possible fighting ahead, it’s becoming quite clear that the Iraqi army has soured the atmosphere right after an historic election.

As in previous crises, the United States and the United Nations need to take a proactive role in the dispute, lest a few isolated gun battles between Iraqi troops and upset Sunnis expand into a new round of open warfare between a primarily Shia-composed army and a revived Sunni insurgency. The longer that the schism goes on, the greater the likelihood that Sunni insurgent groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Naqshibandi Army will take advantage of the situation by drawing recruits from the ranks of an angry Sunni protest movement. Staying on the sidelines and waiting for the crisis to burn itself out is not a feasible option.

Fortunately, the UN’s permanent representative to Iraq, Martin Kobler, has been blunt in public about the potential of the violence in Iraq getting out of hand. But as strong as his words have been thus far, words alone will not temper an escalating crisis. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon needs to become personally involved in Iraq, which would signal to the Iraqi government and people alike that the UN has a vested interest in an Iraqi government that is stable, fair, and representative.

And as much as the United States would like to forget that the Iraq war ever happened, the Obama administration needs to demonstrate a renewed willingness to engage Iraqi leaders across the political spectrum, from Prime Minister Maliki to the leaders of Iraq’s other electoral blocs. Sunni representation in the Iraqi government and cabinet is certainly not as great as those of Maliki’s Shia allies, but it is the Sunni community that is driving the current protest movement. One cannot hope to resolve the dilemma peacefully if all sides are not being consulted.

Of course, Sunni tribal and religious leaders have a responsibility as well to harshly condemn and discourage any attack by Sunnis on Iraqi troops. Ambushes of Iraqi army checkpoints around the cities of Ramadi and Abu Ghraib are simply irresponsible and dangerous, and Washington must sternly say so. 

Prime Minister Maliki has long been the one man that the west has counted on to bring a measure of stability to post-war Iraq. Yet with the latest outburst of violence, initiated by his own army, it is now time to send a direct and bold message to Maliki: restrain your security forces; punish those officers who ordered the crackdown on the camp, regardless of sectarian affiliation or party loyalty; and start taking Sunni grievances seriously. Confrontation will only beget more confrontation.

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 5:27 pm

BEIRUT (Reuters) — The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader.

Al Qaeda’s Iraq-based wing, which nurtured Nusra in the early stages of the rebellion against Assad, has moved in and sidelined the organization, Nusra sources and other rebels say.

Al Qaeda in Iraq includes thousands of foreign fighters whose ultimate goal is not toppling Assad but the anti-Western jihad of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri – a shift which could extend Syria’s conflict well beyond any political accord between Assad and his foes. The fighting has already cost 90,000 lives.

The break-up of an important part of Syria’s opposition, already splintered into hundreds of armed groups, worsens the dilemma faced by the West as it debates whether intervention to support the rebels will result in arms being placed in the hands of hostile Islamist militants. And if the West were to intervene, it may now be under pressure to attack al Qaeda opposition forces rather than Assad.

“Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al Qaeda’s agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad,” said a senior rebel commander in Syria who has close ties to the Nusra Front.

“It is disintegrating from within.”

Others said that Nusra’s Syrian contingent has already effectively collapsed, with its leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani keeping a low profile and his fighters drifting off to join other rebel groups.

Nusra fighters have claimed responsibility for the deadliest bombings of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and their brigades have led some of the most successful rebel offensives against Assad’s forces.

The group was formally designated a terrorist organization by the United States six months ago, a step which Washington said was vindicated by a declaration in April that it was merging with al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq. Washington now says Nusra is little more than an al Qaeda front.

A U.S. official said on Friday: “We continue to be concerned about the influence of extremist groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq. This is why we have been coordinating and discussing with partners the need to continue to strengthen the moderate opposition and channel any assistance through the moderate opposition, including the Supreme Military Council.”

The U.S. moves to isolate Nusra have drawn criticism from Syrian rebels and opposition leaders, reflecting the fact that Nusra was able to win grudging support beyond its core Islamist base because of its fighters’ discipline and battlefield successes.

Many Syrians turned a blind eye to the growing presence of foreign and Arab jihadi fighters in its ranks because Nusra fighters cooperated with other rebel brigades, worked to curb looting and provided help for displaced Syrians.

By contrast the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has moved into northern Syria to take tighter control over al Qaeda operations in the country, has few admirers among Syrian fighters.

They see him as a brutal figure with little time for the intricacies of Syria’s struggle, focused less on toppling Assad and more on imposing a radical Islamist rule including religious courts and public executions. Many accuse him privately of hijacking their revolution.

“We reject his presence here on the ground. He should take his fighters and go back to Iraq,” said a Nusra source who is close to Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani. “We are not happy with the way he operates nor with his methods.”

BAGHDADI STEPS IN

Baghdadi’s announcement in early April that his Islamic State of Iraq was formally merging with Nusra to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant clearly took the Syrian Nusra rebels by surprise.

Golani said he had not been consulted and, while swearing allegiance to al Qaeda’s Zawahri, insisted his fighters would continue to operate under their own Nusra Front banner.

“Golani pledged religious allegiance to Zawahri, but not political or military (allegiance),” said the Nusra source close to Golani. “It was an attempt by Golani to keep his distance from Baghdadi.”

But the move did not help. Soon after, in a direct challenge to Golani, Baghdadi traveled from Iraq to a town in Syria’s Aleppo province, where he was joined by Arab and foreign jihadis who had formerly fought for Golani’s Nusra.

Rebels say the rift continued to widen and the foreign and Arab wing is now operating formally under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, while many Syrian Nusra fighters have dispersed to join other Islamist brigades.

“The situation has changed a lot. Baghdadi’s men are working but Nusra is not working formally anymore,” said another Nusra source. “Those with Baghdadi are the fiercest fighters of all. The brothers are trying to avoid them as much as possible.”

The source, and other Syrian Nusra fighters who spoke to Reuters, said they feared Baghdadi’s supporters would alienate Syrians in the same way that their hardline agenda turned Iraqis against them, paving the way for U.S.-backed Sahwa militias to turn the tide against al Qaeda in western Iraq in 2007.

“A TRAP FOR GOLANI”

Nusra sources said they were waiting for Zawahri to settle the issue, hoping he would call on Baghdadi to return to Iraq.

“We have two choices now. Either Zawahri announces the separation of Syria’s Nusra from Iraq’s Islamic State, or he orders Baghdadi to stay (in Syria) and if this happen then its a disaster,” said one Nusra source. “Baghdadi has harmed the Nusra Front. He caused great damage and broke up the front.”

But the Syrian rebel commander, who is from a Western-backed rebel group, said that Baghdadi already had Zawahri’s blessing when he moved in.

“They set a trap for Golani,” he said. “They wanted a foot inside (Syria) and helping Golani at the start with men and arms provided that, until they became stronger so they took over.”

In a telling video published this week, masked fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant executed three men they said were officers from Assad’s Alawite minority sect in the eastern town of Raqqa.

After the shootings there were only muted chants of support for the fighters and activists said that small protests broke out at night condemning the execution and calling on the fighters to fight Assad instead of executing people.

Several Nusra fighters said they feared that if Baghdadi’s influence continued to grow, his ultra-radical agenda would see the Iraqi Sahwa phenomenon played out again in Syria.

“We as Syrians do not want a repeat of that. The Baghdadi men have declared the Nusra fighters who left him… as infidels. We still reject his state, if Zawahri does not put an end to this then the situation will get worse,” one said.

The senior rebel commander said he even expected the growing clout of Baghdadi’s fighters would finally end the West’s reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria – not against Assad, but his hardline enemies.

“We expect soon drone attacks, like Yemen, to begin against al Qaeda members,” he said.

GOLANI GOES TO GROUND

Meanwhile Golani, who was formally declared a terrorist by Washington on Thursday, is now in hiding. “He has gone to ground until the problem is solved,” said a source close to Golani.

Even though few people even know what Golani looks like, and fewer still have met him, he has gained popularity among Syrians and songs have been written to celebrate his exploits.

His real name is not known even to some of his fighters and many people long suspected that he was a fictitious fighter created to give a Syrian ‘front’ to the Iraqi al Qaeda.

Sources say he is Syrian and in his 40s, roughly the same age as Baghdadi. He is currently in rural Damascus province, they say, accompanied by some of his remaining fighters.

Baghdadi, an Iraqi, helped fund Nusra fighters, who also had financial support from private donors in Arab Gulf countries. The Iraqi wing is financed from al Qaeda’s global support network.

One Nusra fighter said he believed Baghdadi held a personal grudge against Golani because of his standing in Syria.

Golani, a radical Sunni Muslim, won popularity in Syria even among some Christians, according to the Nusra fighter. “Baghdadi did not like this,” the fighter said.

“Baghdadi and the (al Qaeda) leadership consider the Muslim Brotherhood, the Free Syrian Army and other factions including Christians as infidels and when they saw Golani was on good terms with them they were not happy.”

“That is why he announced the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant without any consultation with Golani, and he is in charge to operate in his old failed way.”

By Mariam Karouny

Editing by Dominic Evans, Giles Elgood and Peter Graff.

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 11:47 am

“When did the economy become more important than life itself?”

 In the new way of reckoning, a carbon tax to prevent the atmosphere’s temperature from rising to dangerous levels would be “too expensive.” So too would be a thorough cleanup after a nuclear attack or accident, which is why the White House has endorsed a plan to relax decontamination standards. The health of businesses, not of people, is what newscasters monitor daily, if not hourly — as if the Dow Jones Industrial Average took the pulse of the nation, rather than that of 30 corporations.

Your money or your life, Dawn Stover, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Does Peace Have to Be This Expensive?

… the nation’s nuclear weapons programs … has cost at least $ 9.8 trillion in 2013 dollars — costlier than all other government expenditures except Social Security and non-nuclear defense programs. … In short: Nuclear weapons have been the United States’ third-highest national priority since World War II, in terms of dollars, and we spend a fortune every year to manage and secure them. 

The Prophets of Oak Ridge, Dan Zak, the Washington Post

Democracy in Name Only

At some point shortly after the end of the Second World War, democracy reached its apex in countries such as Britain and the US. … it has been declining ever since [and] have reached the downward slope of the arc. The formal structures of democracy remain intact. People still vote. Political parties vie with each other in elections, and circulate in and out of government. Yet these acts of apparent choice have had their meaning hollowed out. The real decisions are taken elsewhere. We have become squatters in the ruins of the great democratic societies of the past.

There is no alternative, Henry Farrell, Aeon magazine

How Did Austerity Hawks Miss This?

… everybody cannot cut their way to growth at the same time. To put this in the European context, although it makes sense for any one state to reduce its debt, if all states in the currency union, which are one another’s major trading partners, cut their spending simultaneously, the result can only be a contraction of the regional economy as a whole. Proponents of austerity are blind to this danger because they get the relationship between saving and spending backward. They think that public frugality will eventually promote private spending. But someone has to spend for someone else to save, or else the saver will have no income to hold on to. Similarly, for a country to benefit from a reduction in its domestic wages, thus becoming more competitive on costs, there must be another country willing to spend its money on what the first country produces. If all states try to cut or save at once, as is the case in the eurozone today, then no one is left to do the necessary spending to drive growth.

The Austerity Delusion, Mark Blyth, Foreign Affairs

“He knew exactly which ones to push”

[Russian Foreign Minister] Lavrov had a particular knack for infuriating [Secretary of State Condoleeza] Rice: He had “perfected the art of irritating Rice,” wrote Glenn Kessler, who covered her for the Washington Post. “He knew how to push her buttons to get her annoyed,” said Kramer, Rice’s former assistant secretary. “He knew exactly which ones to push.”

Minister No, Susan Glasser, Foreign Policy

Priggishness Does Not Become Us

This isn’t an argument for using military force in Syria, or Iran, or anywhere else — maybe the use of force is justified and useful and maybe it’s not. But if we in fact intend to accept the “unacceptable” and tolerate the “intolerable,” we would be wise to develop a different and more nuanced vocabulary. … our absolutist rhetoric [is] just obnoxious — and its sheer obnoxiousness makes it dangerous. The rhetoric of “unacceptable” and “intolerable” risks generating and reinforcing the very bad behavior we’re trying to stop — not just because each empty threat further reduces our credibility, but because our general stance toward the world has become so hectoring and schoolmarmish.

Would Machiavelli Have Drawn a Red Line?, Rosa Brooks, Foreign Policy

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 11:45 am

Seven people from Pakistan, Singapore and Saudi Arabia — the country of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers — were caught trespassing in the middle of the night at a reservoir from which Boston draws its drinking water.

The report by the local CBS affiliate noted that the five men and two women said they were chemical engineers and were in the area because of “their education and career interests.”

Last week, WND reported the FBI alleged a Muslim man who was arrested in a recent terror plot in New York was planning to kill as many as 100,000 people by contaminating the air or water supply in a major U.S. city.

In that case, Ahmed Abassi, 26, was studying chemical engineering at Laval University in Quebec City, reported Canada’s CBC News.

Abassi’s plan did not materialize beyond discussions, but he also has been linked to Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two Canadian residents arrested in the alleged plot to derail a Via passenger train.

In the more recent case, authorities in Belchertown, Mass., told CBS that the seven were trespassing at Quabbin Reservoir, described as one of the country’s biggest man-made public water supplies.

Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs.

Massachusetts state police told the station “there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing.”

Authorities said the FBI was investigating and the inspections of the water supply have been increased. The suspects, who reported addresses from various cities, including Amherst and New York, were being summonsed for trespassing.

http://www.wnd.com

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 6:05 am

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By Nick, May 17, 2013 6:02 am

WEST BLOOMFIELD — The first ever General Chaldean National Conference hosted its opening session on Wednesday at the Shenandoah Country Club, attracting nearly 450 participants.

The 5-day Conference, which is hosted by the United Chaldean Democratic Forum, hopes to bring Chaldeans together from various political and national groups to discuss the plight of the members of their community in Iraq and around the world.

Chaldeans from across the U.S. and from various countries are expected to travel to Metro Detroit to attend the event, which will end on Sunday, May 19. Metro Detroit was chosen as the ideal location for the conference, as it is home to the largest concentration of Chaldeans outside of the Middle East. An estimated 120,000 reside in the region.

“Through this Conference we hope to gain our national and patriotic rights in our mother country of Iraq. With the unity and diversity of opinions, we advance our request to preserve our culture, traditions and heritage for generations to come,” said Rev. Ibrahim Ibrahim, Bishop of St. Thomas Apostle Chaldean Catholic Diocese-USA.

The Conference will also address the religious and ethnic intimidation that Chaldeans and other Iraqi Christians have faced, following the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq.

To date, an estimated 400,000 Christians remain in Iraq, compared to the more than one million that lived in the country prior to the invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians faced exile from their homeland and persecution after the war. A moment of silence was given to all the martyrs who have passed on. One sign displayed at the event read, “No Ethnic or National Rights in the Absence of Democracy.”

Chaldean American Yousif Gabrail of Sterling Heights, who has lived in the United States for 19 years, says that he hopes the conference sends a strong message, to both the United States and Iraqi governments, that Christians deserve the same human rights as all people who live in Iraq. Since the invasion, leaders in the Chaldean community have called on the United States government to help put an end to the mass persecution of Christians in Iraq.

“We want to be treated like everybody else, and we need adequate representation in Iraq’s government,” Gabrail said. Most Chaldeans trace their roots to the Iraqi Christian village of Telkaif. Today the village is home to very few of them.

“I feel so horrible, knowing my people have left our village because of discrimination,” United Chaldean Democratic Forum member Najib Jalou said.

The conference is also an effort to get Chaldeans, both nationally and internationally, to put their differences aside and unite as one. While divisions between Chaldeans in different parts of the world don’t seem apparent, they actually do exist. This is due, in part, to the fact that large communities in different areas have not worked closely enough together to address issues that affect the community.

“We need to really focus on putting any divisions behind us, and bring the Chaldean community and the Chaldean nation together to really protect where we all came from: Mesopotamia,” Auday Arabo, AFPD President and CEO said.

San Diego is home to the second largest concentration of Chaldeans, with an estimated 36,000 residing in the region. Chaldean media, religious leaders and members of the community from San Diego were also in attendance at the conference. The interaction may have marked the first time that Chaldeans from both communities have come together in such a way.

Arabo grew up in San Diego, and was born in Baghdad, Iraq. He noted that it remains unfortunate that Chaldeans don’t have representation in Iraq’s government, although they reportedly comprise 85 percent of the country’s Christian population.

Assyrian Bishop Mar Bawi Soro, who is also from San Diego, said that in the next 20 years, the number of Chaldeans living in the United States is expected to double.

Artwork, including cultural paintings and sculptures from the Chaldean American Association of Fine Arts, was on display at the conference, along with literature.

The American, Iraqi and Chaldean national anthems were all sung, and some guests wore traditional Chaldean attire from Iraq. “Our unity will ensure the gain of our national and patriotic rights,” Arabo said. Members of the local Muslim American community, including religious leaders, also attended the conference.

The conference will continue on Friday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church in Southfield, and in the evening at 7 p.m., at St. Joseph Hall; On Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., members will convene at the Quality Inn in Southfield, and in the evening, at 8 p.m., at the Farmington Hills Manor. The last day, Sunday May 19, will take place at Camp Chaldean in Brighton.

Earlier this week, Chaldean Day was held in Lansing, and members of the community had the opportunity to meet with lawmakers in the State’s capitol to discuss important issues that affect them.

“A vast population of Chaldeans proudly call Michigan home, and we are grateful for their services and contributions to our State’s cultural and economic vitality,” Governor Rick Snyder said in a statement.

By Natasha Dado
http://www.arabamericannews.com

Assyrian International News Agency

Comments (0)

By Nick, May 16, 2013 7:17 am

A study by the Heritage Foundation maintained that Hispanic immigrants are deficient in I.Q. and thus disposed to rely on “government handouts.”

In 2007 the Heritage Foundation played a major role in derailing immigration reform. This year it tried to replicate its success by publishing a study claiming that unlawful immigration and amnesty would cost U.S. tax payers approximately $ 6.3 trillion dollars. However, their ploy to sabotage immigration reform failed in dramatic fashion. Not only were their exaggerated estimates on the cost of amnesty resoundingly refuted by both conservative and liberal groups, but their entire report appeared to hinge on a premise that reeked of racism.

According to the Heritage Foundation’s study, one of the primary reasons immigration reform would cost so much is that a typical undocumented immigrant lacks adequate education. And poorly educated individuals, according to the study, “are net tax consumers: the benefits they receive exceed the taxes they pay.”

This notion of the undocumented being “poorly educated” comes directly from Jason Richwine, one of the coauthors of the study. Richwine got his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, where he wrote a dissertation titled IQ and Immigration Policy. In it he claims that Hispanics have on average lower IQs than their Caucasian counterparts. Moreover, he writes, “[n]o one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.” In other words, Hispanics will probably never be as smart as white people.

Richwine goes on to say that the IQ disparity between the two races explains why Hispanics have never been able to fully assimilate into American culture and why they are more likely to accept government handouts: “When given the choice between a paycheck from a low-paying job and a welfare check, most intelligent people would realize that the welfare check offers them no potential for advancement. Low-IQ people do not internalize that fact nearly as well.”

There you have it: Hispanics are dumb. Dumb people rely more on government handouts. Therefore, Hispanics will use more government handouts than the average citizen and as a result they will drain the government of its resources. Keep them out!

To the Heritage Foundation’s credit, it is a straightforward argument.

Nevertheless, the argument is horribly flawed. This year Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college at higher rates than whites. There is a substantial income gap between whites and Hispanics, but each successive generation of Hispanics continues to narrow this gap. No to mention the fact that Hispanics have served in almost every U.S. war and have received 44 Medals of Honor, the third most for any ethnic group. Not bad for a people who failed to “assimilate.”

Despite the fact that the Heritage Foundation’s study is faulty at best and racist at worst, it’s still hugely informative. The study offers a genuine glimpse of what many, especially on the right, think about Hispanics. Many Hispanics, including this writer, have generally felt that opposition to immigration reform does not stem from some intellectual argument, but from visceral emotions driven by xenophobia. The study produced by the Heritage Foundation has proven this point to be correct.

Luckily, the Heritage Foundation is in the minority. According to a CNN/ORC international survey, 84% percent of Americans support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 

America is known as the melting pot of the world. Immigrants from across the globe call this place their home. The notion pushed by the Heritage Foundation that Hispanic immigrants need to assimilate is not only paradoxical but also deeply offensive. America is a country that embraces immigrants and all the diversity that comes with them; it doesn’t assimilate them into a homogenous stew. E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one. Most Americans seem to understand this, even if the Heritage Foundation does not.

Javier Rojo is the New Mexico Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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