Transnational Bankruptcy: archive

To current file on Articles <<<

Yahoo!News: "Prosecutor: Gaza probe goes on without Israeli OK"

Former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone said Wednesday he will go ahead with his U.N. investigation into possiblewar crimes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over Gaza, even thoughIsrael has withheld its approval over what it calls an "intrinsically flawed" probe. (...) Israel objected to the mission ordered by the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council in January because the original instructions were only to check what Israelis did to Palestinians.  (...) >>>

May 20, 2009
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Does anyone realize this Maoist coalition government was 'mediated' by the UN? The "Evil Empire" has been relativized out of transnational existence:

Washington Times: "EDITORIAL: Nepal's Maoist double-cross"

So the chairman of Nepal's Maoist radicals brags that he and his fellow-travellers tricked United Nations officials and admits that the 2006 peace deal was a sham - and gets caught on videotape doing it. The video of the recently resigned Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was shot in January 2008 and just surfaced.Revealingly, he instructs his fellow communists not to be fooled by the compromises struck with Nepal's democratic government. Seizing total power, he makes clear, remains the communist goal. (...) >>>

May 7th, 2009
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A posting by Carl in Jerusalem combines comments from a number of quarters that are worth following: Rosett, Bayefsky, Phillips, and Bolton ... read it all - FEATURE 

Israel Matzav: "Is the State Department ashamed?"

There are people in Israel who believe that the Obama-Clinton-Rice (Susan) State Department is ashamed of its decision to join the UN 'Human Rights Council.' Just because they ought to be ashamed of it, doesn't mean that we should assume that they are. Please allow me to explain.

What I'm referring to is the headlineof athis story ("US defends rejoining anti-Israel UN human rights body"). Here's what they mean by it (...) I'm not happy with that headline because it pulls the wool over our eyes about the Obama administration's real intentions. (...) >>>

Apr 4, 2009
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CNSNews: "U.S. Decision to Seek a Seat on Flawed Human Rights Council Stokes Debate"

(...) For the first time since the council was established in 2006, the U.S. will run for a seat this year, in keeping with the administration’s “new era of engagement” with other nations, the State Department said Tuesday. The full 192-member General Assembly in New York will vote to fill 18 council seats in mid-May. (...) >>>

Apr 1, 2009

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AP: "UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism"

The U.N.'s top human-rights body approved a proposal backed by Muslims nations Thursday urging the passage of laws around the world protecting religion from criticism.The proposal by Pakistan had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies. A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven mostly Western nations opposed it and 13 countries abstained.The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

"It is individuals who have rights and not religions," said Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier. Canada's criticism was echoed by European Union countries, all of which voted against the proposal.The council is dominated by Muslim and African countries. Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech."Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," the resolution said. (...) >>>

Mar 30, 2009

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Washington Times: "The U.N. tackles religion"

Will the United Nations soon be issuing fatwas? Today the U.N. Human Rights Council is expected to vote on a resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to combat defamation of religion, in particular Islam. This resolution is part of an effort begun in 1999 to establish an international framework that would in practice legitimize religious oppression. It is an assault on the rights of the individual and freedom of conscience. The language of the resolution seems benign enough, condemning stereotyping, inflammatory statements and so forth.

But very troubling is the elasticity of the term "defamation." It is used to silence social critics and other liberal voices in countries where the law is captive of the official religion. "Anti-blasphemy" statutes in Shariah-based legal systems squelch debate over the rights of women, the right to free speech and expression, privacy, criminal justice and a variety of other off-limits issues. This U.N. resolution would give further international sanction to every authoritarian regime that hides its oppression behind the veil of faith. The OIC also plans to introduce binding resolutions that will require states to punish religious defamers. In practice this could target almost anyone with an opinion. (...) >>>

Mar 27, 2009

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After the US, Israel and Canada, Italy has announced it too is pulling out of Durban II. The UK, France and the Netherlands are still holding off, hoping against hope that antisemitism and Anti-Zionism will be struck from the declaration ...

CNSNews: "Italy Withdraws From ‘Durban II’"

Italy has become the first European Union country to withdraw from next month’s United Nations racism conference, echoing Washington’s stance that it could not take part in the event based on an outcome document that attacks Israel as racist. Other E.U. members, including the Netherlands and France, have criticized aspects of the document, including what they see as attempts to shield Islam from criticism on the pretext of combating religious “defamation.” They have indicated that unless the outcome document changes, they will stay away from the April 20-24 Durban Review Conference in Geneva. (...) >>>

Mar 6, 2009
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(and they haven't even started yet!) The US has shunned the ICC, for good reasons as we shall see. It raises two very serious specters: 1. the looming pitfalls of accusations of racism, which may result in actual racist show trials so as to 'balance' the racial books (see article); 2. violation of the principle of national sovereignty with which tranzies hope to subvert the integrity of the modern state as we know it. The US may utter an 'I told you so', but it should never have come this far ... a measure of the idealistic stupidity of the tranzies ...

Yahoo!News: "ICC warrant raises questions on leaders targeted"

The International Criminal Court's decision to pursue a sitting head of state on war crimes charges puts others around the world on notice, but it's also raising questions about which leaders are being targeted. African and Arab nations say they will support Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (...) they question why only Africans have been charged since the ICC — branded "the white man's court" by Sudan's information ministry (...) The chairman of the 52-state African Union has accused the court of "double standards," asking why no cases have emerged from conflicts in the Caucasus, Iraq or Gaza. "The African states were the strongest supporters of establishing the ICC. It wouldn't have been possible without them. But there has been a significant shift in the past year," said Christopher Hall, senior legal adviser to Amnesty International. (...) >>>

Mar 5, 2009
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A series of posts on the continuing saga of Durban II ...

Another update on the previous entry, that the Obama admin is in fact double dealing ...

Update on the previous entry, the Obama admin sees the light ...

JTA: "U.S. pulling out of ‘Durban II’ conference"

Feb 29, 2009
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Obama embraces Zionism=apartheid. You can sign the petition to President Obama here ...

NRO/The Corner: "Obama Naïveté at the U.N.", by Anne Bayefsky

In a major foreign-policy decision taken over the weekend, President Obama has decided to legitimize the United Nations’s “anti-racism” forum known as Durban II. State Department officials announced in a press release buried on Saturday, that starting today the United States will attend for the first time the preparatory meetings of this controversial U.N. conference. The “Durban Review Conference,” scheduled for April in Geneva, is the progenitor of the anti-semitic hatefest that took place in South Africa in early September 2001. (...) >>>

Feb 17, 2009
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Get today's gigantic headlines in the press from hell, not ...

RTT News: "UNRWA School Not Hit By Israel: U.N."

The United Nations Thursday backed down from a claim that one of its school in Gaza was hit by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) mortar attack last month, correcting its earlier media statements that a massacre occurred within the U.N. education facility, media reports said.

The U.N.'s latest field report reads, "The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school."

The revelation reinforces the Israeli assertions that the militant organization, Hamas had been attacking the Israeli forces from civilian locations, thus the high civilian casualties from Israeli retaliation.

The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) January 7 said that "43 persons were killed following an attack on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school transformed into a refugee site for displaced persons." (...) >>>

Feb 6, 2009
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Only now the tools at the UN come up with this. At the time the accessories kept mum (amoral bstds) ...

Haaretz: "Top UN official blasts Hamas for 'cynical' use of civilian facilities"

United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Chief John Holmes blasted Hamas Tuesday for its "cynical" use of civilian facilities during recent hostilities in the Gaza Strip. "The reckless and cynical use of civilian installations by Hamas and indiscriminate firing of rockets against civilian populations are clear violations of international humanitarian law," Holmes told the UN Security Council. Israel came under harsh criticism from the UN for firing on its facilities during Operation Cast Lead. (...) Israel says Palestinian gunmen used the facilities as bases from which to attack its troops. According to Palestinian sources, bombings of UN facilities killed nearly 50 people in Israel's three-week long offensive in the Gaza Strip. (...) >>>

Jan 29, 209
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NGO Monitor: "The NGO Front in the Gaza War: Debate over Palestinian Casualties"

Since the end of the IDF's operation in Gaza, there is a growing debate over Palestinian casualty claims. While the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health have announced that the majority of fatalities were civilians, the IDF has estimated that "more than two-thirds of [the deaths] were Hamas members." (The Jerusalem Post has reported that "IDF Military Intelligence has set up a team to produce a comprehensive list of Palestinian fatalities… It will be completed within two weeks, officials said, but it is not clear whether it will be made public." The International Herald Tribune claimed that "Israel … said it has the names of more than 700 Hamas militants killed in fighting.") PCHR is a highly politicized NGO, a leader in the anti-Israel "lawfare" movement (...) >>>

Jan 27, 2009
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Fox News: "U.N. Agency That Runs School Hit in Gaza Employed Hamas and Islamic Jihad Members"

The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

A growing chorus of critics has taken aim at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in recent years, although momentum on Capitol Hill has been slow. But last week's incident, which Israel maintains was prompted by Hamas operatives firing mortars at Israelis from a location near the school, has prompted some lawmakers to scrutinize the U.N. agency. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., introduced a resolution in the fall calling for greater transparency and accountability at UNRWA.(...) >>>

Jan 15, 2009
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Act for America: "Petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: The UN Can No Longer Be Silent About The Abuse of Children in the Gaza Strip"

Add your name to the group of 5,541 people who have already signed using the Internet! Please read our petition and fill in the form below to add your signature. Then, forward this petition to your friends and family.

Video evidence now leaves no doubt that countless children in the Gaza Strip are being abused and exploited by radical Muslims associated with Hamas. Children as young as one year old dressed in suicide belts and paraded about; kindergarten children being taught to kill; children being used as human shields to protect terrorists from opposing fire. The following three minute and thirty second video, posted on YouTube, provides dramatic evidence that children in the Gaza Strip are being brainwashed, trained for terrorist activities, and used as human shields.

We the undersigned believe that abuse and exploitation of children in these ways violates the most basic of human rights. We believe such actions by adults perpetrated on children constitutes child abuse and cannot be justified. Therefore, we the undersigned call on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to end the UN’s silence and initiate a thorough UN investigation (...) >>>

Jan 15, 2009
~ Facebook: "How they vote in the UN", by Shona Darress

How they vote in the United Nations: Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records (...) Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid. (...) Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes. ( and buy groceries and gasoline ) and Israel votes with the U.S. over 95% of the time)
Disgusting isn't it? (...) >>>

Jan 2, 2009
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All American Blogger: "The Non-Defining of Terrorism and the UN’s Ethical Relativism"

Whereas founded as a diplomatic forum to prevent armed conflict between states, the UN as yet has failed to define terror or terrorism (...) Even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the UN failed to produce objective definitions on which there was agreement. (...) The impasse has prevented the adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. The prime reason is the standoff with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), who seek to define terrorism in terms that are sympathetic to armed campaigns waged by the Palestinians against Israel. (...)
The UN, egged on by the relativist world view that every intent goes to self-determination, ignore the reality that entire populations are enslaved to evil and the whims of power-hungry collectivists. In the end, surprised and caught off guard they can but stand by helplessly and condemn the latest instance of mass human rights violations, waiving their deontological ‘get-out-of-jail’ cards to absolve themselves from the bad consequences despite the good intentions. (...)

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” is relativist bromide that plasters over all distinctions in intent. The fallacy is a mental enemy which prevents us from making moral distinctions, prevents us from defending against such evils. The good has nothing to gain from evil, evil has everything to gain from the good. The UN is the primary global platform for diplomatic relativism. In the ethical vacuum that ensues, the wannabe world government cannot be entrusted to pass judgment even on the most basic of questions, the condemnation of human sacrifice to the gods of tribalistic ideology. >>>

Dec 24, 2008
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In this article we see the magic tranzy diplomacy in full action! The ideal, they say, can be achieved by negotiating with the scum of the earth ...

World Security Network: "Colombia: Hugo Chavez, cocaine and how to contain FARC terrorists", by Heinz Lustig

This article intends to give real solutions to the conflict that is taking place in Colombia by making use of the Complex Interdependence Theory suggested by professors Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye. Furthermore, it takes a new look at the problem by suggesting the FARC be granted a position in Colombian politics. (...) The main question to be answered by this short analysis is: How to solve this conflict? The answer to this is by creating a complex interdependence between the FARC and the Colombian society. (...) >>>

Dec 13, 2008
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Atlas Shrugs: "UN HOAX: BARBARIANS MASQUERADE AS HUMAN BEINGS" (includes video material)

(...) The UN Hoax: The World's Worst Violators of Freedom of Religion Given a UN Global Megaphone to Masquerade as Believers in Religious Liberty (...) >>>

Dec 12, 2008
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... it may be useful to clarify that the present UN General Assembly's President is the Nicaraguan outcast Sandinista priest, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann; he was also Ortega’s Foreign Minister when Nicaragua was fighting the Contras and the Americans and, as such, was awarded Moscow’s Lenin Peace Prize in 1985 ... a fine transnational specimen ...

Ynet: " UN General Assembly president calls for boycott of Israel"

After his controversial embrace with Iran's Ahmadinejad, UN General Assembly president sparks Jerusalem's ire once more after calling for international boycott on Israel (...) Israel filed a formal complaint with the United Nations on Tuesday (...) The United Nations is currently marking its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is set on the anniversary of the 1947 date it adopted Resolution 181, calling for the partition of the land under British control into two states – Jewish and Arab. Over the course of two days the General Assembly will host a series of anti-Israel venues, including exhibits on Palestinian suffering and films comparing Israel to the Nazi regime. (...) >>>

Nov 27, 2008
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... here's the key in this sort of confused discussions: it's (almost always!) individual rights versus collectivism ... which countries stand by Denmark? this will promise to be a revelation ...

The New Republic: "Hooray for Denmark!"

From UN Watch:

UN Bans "Defamation of Religion" in Islamic Bid to Curb Free Speech

But advocacy campaign reduces support from 108 to 85 votes

Geneva, November 24, 2008 — By a vote of 85 to 50, with 42 abstaining, the UN General Assembly today adopted a draft resolution calling on all countries to alter their legal and constitutional systems to prevent "defamation of religions," asserting that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." Click here for GA draft resolution

The decision, sponsored by Islamic states with the support of Venezuela and Belarus, drew immediate protests from human rights activists and legal experts. "This is just the latest shot in an intensifying campaign of UN resolutions that dangerously seek to import Islamic anti-blasphemy prohibitions into the discourse of international human rights law," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an indpendent human rights monitoring group in Geneva.

"Human rights were designed to protect individuals -- to guarantee every person free speech and free exercise of religion -- but most certainly not to shield any set of beliefs, religion included." (...) Proponents of free speech celebrated one small victory, however. Successful campaigning by an international human rights coalition, including the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and UN Watch, led to a decline in support for the resolution compared to last year's vote, which had garnered 108 in support, 51 against, and 25 abstentions.

The proposed draft declaration for the UN's April 2009 "Durban II" conference on racism includes numerous provisions on the "defamation" of Islam. Denmark has threatened to walk out if they are included. >>>

Nov 25, 2008
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Politeia: "Just What the World Needs: Another En-Gee-O, the Jee Twenty"

Initial research learns that the G20 have emerged from the the Doha Trade Round, set up on the basis of a Brazilian initiative in the run-up to the Cancun Conference. Apart of the states making up the G8, G20 member states include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the EU and European Central Bank, and the NGOs IMF, the World Bank and their Development Committee. (...) With the notable exception of South Korea neither of these countries has a principled tradition of free market capitalism. All, until recently suffered, or are still bowing under the rule of theocrats, autocrats, dictators, a collective, or all of the above.

The Third World is slowly crawling on to the world stage, out of its largely self-imposed, poverty ridden, Marxism or theocracy driven lethargy. But swathes of Latin America are already in danger of regressing back into darkness, even before having fully emerged from it; Socialist as well as Islamic beginnings are simply antithetical to individual rights, the moral requirement for a fully functioning free-market democracy. (...) What can be expected of such a global, economic governing body? They cannot even be trusted to handle a trade round, let alone lead, run and reform the world's economic and financial system. How would they do that ... by committee, by revelation, or by decree?! (...)

The situation is hardly better in the state of Europe, which is steadily desolving into a post-democratic, Hegelian Absolute. European states are challenging American leadership of the global economy, calling on President-Elect Obama to embrace Europe as America’s equal partner. On the economy the French - as most Europeans - can be fully trusted to commit a coup of state against the private sector. Soeren Kern: "Self-regulation to solve all problems, it’s finished,” Sarkozy says. “Laissez-faire, it’s finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it’s finished…. It is necessary then for the state to intervene.”

John Gizzi on Human Events goes as far as saying the G20 meeting was in effect Sarkozy's summit, clarifying "that the goal of the French President, was future international economic summits that include many more nations beside the traditional G8 industrial titans. His secondary goal was to assimilate discretionary bondholders (countries that hold U.S. debt) into the summits (...) >>>

Nov 17, 2008
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... just stumbled upon an extraordinary post on an extraordinary blog - or rather the combination is rather odd - believe it to be a sample by Wordpress - neverthess, it has a piece of old news, opportune moral diplomatic equivalence, worthy of being put on record - scene: the last days of Saddam Hussein; China, Russia and France veto American proposals in the Security Council to take military action in reprisal of Saddam's continued flouting of the cease fire agreement which ended his rape of Kuwait; we now know that the three countries were upto their eye balls in Saddam's oil-for-food scam - here it is: we have no objective standard for proper government and killing 200 political prisoners a day doesn't warrant (Serbia on the other hand ....)

Sodium Butyrate: "Vive la France"

(...) As Dominique de Villepin, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, put it: “The idea of regime change [in Iraq] introduces into international relations an instability whose consequences we have to assess. Whose job would it be to decide that a regime is good or that a regime is bad? What would be the first factor denoting an unacceptable regime? What would stop a regime being acceptable?” (...) >>> (the rest is anti American hate projection, best left for what it is)

27th Oct 2008
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The Spectator: "Sadder -- but wiser?"

So appalling has the UN become that even its slavish worshippers in Europe are beginning to notice. The Guardian reports that, according to a new study by the European Council on Foreign Relations, "The west's efforts to use the United Nations to promote its values and shape the global agenda are failing... Fancy! (...) Well, who’da thunk it. Soft power doesn't bring about utopia after all. >>>
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... poison dwarfs, demented trolls, psychotic zombies everywhere you look ...

NY Sun: "Ahmadinejad Hones Hate Message in General Assembly Lead-up"

(...) Iran's president is honing his anti-America and anti-Israel message in what may be a ploy for attention at the annual event. Iran has emerged as a central player in a group of countries that have turned their defiance of America into a major policy plank, and diplomats will be watching closely next week as leaders of this group, including Sudan, Venezuela, and Cuba, deliver speeches at the General Assembly. But none will be scrutinized as intensely as President Ahmadinejad.

While mainstream American politicians have ostracized him, and evangelical Christians have called for his prosecution for allegedly fomenting genocide, other Christian groups are planning to honor the Iranian leader at a dinner that will feature the new president of the General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, as a speaker. And while a major protest against Mr. Ahmadinejad's attendance at the assembly session will take place on Monday, the group Code Pink is preparing its own protest on Tuesday in front of the United Nations, where it will demand the arrest of President Bush on charges of "war crimes." Mr. Bush will deliver his final speech at the world body as president on Tuesday. (...) >>>

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19th Sep 2008
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... the good has nothing to gain from evil; evil has everything to gain from the good--Ayn Rand ... evil condoned, is evil embraced ...

Muslims Against Sharia: "The 'Blessed' Terrorist Martyrs"

For years, the Islamic fanatics and their allies have blocked any attempt by the United Nations General Assembly to even define the word “terrorism”. In the words of Lebanese Islamist sheikh Omar Bakri, “there are two types of terrorism: Blessed and deplorable, the violence the mujahideen use for defense and retaliation is meant to protect lives and defend honor. Their terrorism is blessed.” (MEMRI, September 12, 2008)

In the pathological parallel universe that Islamic terrorists and their sympathizers occupy, any murders of innocent civilians which Islamic terrorists commit - 9/11 included - are part of a just war of liberation to defend Allah against Zionist and American imperialism. Any actions by Israel and the West to repel, go after and kill these murderers are condemned by the Islamic fanatics as state terrorism. And they simply do not say whether the many instances of Muslim-on-Muslim killings - the genocide of black Muslims by Arab Muslims in Sudan or the Shiite-Sunni massacres, for example - constitute ‘blessed’ or ‘deplorable’ terrorism (...) >>>

Updated: 16th Sep 2008
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BBC Sport: "Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics"

Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced. The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees. Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence. (...) "The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts." (...) "I swear those athletes who have been training - they phoned me today and they were crying and were very upset." The Iraq government dissolved the National Olympic Committee in May and the interim IOC ban was put in place on 4 June. (...) The Iraqi government said it took the decision to appoint a new committee because the previous one was corrupt and had not been functioning properly.
Ahmad al-Samarra'i, chairman of the committee dismissed by the government, and several other members had previously been abducted by gunmen while attending a meeting in central Baghdad in July 2006. They have not been seen since. >>>

Updated: 25th July 2008
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The Brussels Journal: "Has Lord Ashdown Heard of the Phrase: “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic has predictably produced its crop of outrageous remarks from people who ought to know better but who, predictably, are incapable observing the niceties. Thus the likes of Lord Ashdown, Richard Holbrooke, David Miliband and a raft of others all speak of Karadzic as if he had already been tried and convicted. The little matter of holding a trial concerns them not. They have already pronounced him guilty, very guilty (...)

It reveals much concerning the great and good of the liberal left. Can you imagine the fuss they would make if it was Fidel Castro who had been nabbed for transfer to the International Criminal Court? If they spoke at all their sentences would be liberally sprinkled with many 'allegeds' and reminders of the fact that one is innocent until proven guilty and that nothing has as yet been proved. But for an old-fashioned nationalist deemed by the left to be of Fascist inclination who is charged with killing Muslims, no such constraint is required. He is guilty in their eyes and the trial which is now to be held is a mere formality. Mind you the Tribunal itself is no great model (...) >>>

Updated: 23 July 2008
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BBC: "Arab nations 'agree Sudan action'"

Arab foreign ministers say they have agreed a plan of action to defuse the crisis between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC). They met in Cairo after the ICC's chief prosecutor said he would seek to indict Sudan's president on charges of war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
Ministers said the ICC move had set a dangerous precedent. Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said he would travel to Sudan on Sunday to discuss their plan. (...) >>>

Updated: 20th July 2008
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A RECOMMENDED READ ... Hannan understands the purpose of the
dialectics through subjectivism ...

Telegraph: "The International Criminal Court is a threat to democracy," by Daniel Hannan

A fearful blow has been struck against national sovereignty. The International Criminal Court has launched a prosecution against a head of state - a state, moreover, that has not signed the ICC treaty. International human rights apparatchiks are enjoying the warm glow of self-righteousness; but they have just made the world a darker and more dangerous place.Don't get me wrong: the man they have arraigned, Omar al-Bashir, is an unutterable swine. (...) The prosecution is a narcissistic act, intended to make liberal internationalists feel superior and to bolster the ICC's damaged reputation (...) That's the problem with these international law codes. By definition, the only countries on which they have any effect are democracies: tyrants simply ignore them. For the sake of being rude about Bashir - without any practical consequences - the ICC will substantively and genuinely diminish the sovereignty of free nations. (...) >>>

Updated: 16th July 2008
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Melanie Phillips: "Club of Tyranny"

Russia and China have vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose international sanctions on key members of Zimbabwe’s government. (...) This is a particular humiliation for Gordon Brown after he thought he had persuaded all the G8 countries — including Russia –to back punitive measures against the Mugabe regime. Our Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, says he is ‘very disappointed’. Is he really that wet behind the ears? Just what did he expect? Apart from what this denouement tells us about our worsening relations with Russia, it has long been clear that the UN is the very last place to look for action against despotism, terror or tyranny. (...) Of course, Russia and China are simply motivated by brazen cynicism and self-interest. Not only are they increasingly flexing their muscles, they also don’t want the UN poking its nose into their own human rights abuses. (...) The slap in the face he has received in response is all the more stinging because of the particular place the UN enjoys in the pantheon of ‘progressive’ politics. Western progressives have come to believe that the nation state is responsible for all the ills of the world, from prejudice to nationalism and war. The only legitimate institutions are therefore trans-national ones which purport to represent the brotherhood of man. (...) The UN was established after World War II with the most noble of aims, to ensure that the world never again allowed the horrors of Nazism to happen. But like all attempts to create Utopia, this produced instead a monster. (...) its moral mission was turned on its head so that, by 2003, only 75 UN members were free democracies. The result is a UN characterised by endemic incompetence, corruption and worse. It has repeatedly failed to prevent atrocities. (...) >>>

Updated: 14th July 2008
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Yahoo!News: "Hague tribunal should be phased out: Russia"

Russia said on Thursday the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague was biased and its activities should be phased out as soon as possible. Russia's Foreign Ministry said the case of Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, whose conviction was overturned by the court, showed the tribunal lacked impartiality. "The tribunal's decision simply confirms the necessity for the immediate realization of the already approved strategy to phase out its activities," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Oric's conviction of failing to stop the murder of Serbs near the enclave of Srebrenica early in the 1992-95 conflict was overturned earlier this month. (...) >>>

Updated: 10th July 2008
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Signandsight: "Boycott Durban II," by Pascal Bruckner

At the 2001 UN Conference against Racism in Durban, anti-colonialism bared its anti-Semitic face. Democracies should stay away from a repeat performance next year in Geneva. In September 2001 the South African city of Durban played host to the third United Nations World Conference against Racism, which was aimed at achieving recognition for crimes related to slavery and colonialism. The event's organisers hoped that the whole of mankind would use this ceremonious occasion to face up to its history and chronicle events with equanimity.

These good intentions rapidly degenerated into one-upmanship among victims and bloodlust directed at Israeli organisations and anyone else suspected of being Jewish. The original intent, which was to heal the wounds of the past through a sort of collective therapy and arrive at new standards for human rights, twisted into an outburst of hatred which, in the wake of the September 11 attacks that followed only days later, disappeared from the public eye. (...) >>>

Updated: 23rd June 2008
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American Diplomacy: "The Ideological War Within the West," by John Fonte

"Nearly a year before the September 11 attacks, news stories provided a preview of the transnational politics of the future. In October 2000, in preparation for the UN Conference Against Racism, about fifty American nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) called on the UN "to hold the United States accountable for the intractable and persistent problem of discrimination. (...) Their spokesman stated that their demands "had been repeatedly raised with federal and state officials [in the U. S.] but to little effect. In frustration we now turn to the United Nations." In other words, the NGOs, unable to enact the policies they favored through the normal processes of American constitutional democracy—the Congress, state governments, even the federal courts—appealed to authority outside of American democracy and its Constitution. (...) >>>

Updated: 23rd June 2008
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Atlas Shrugs: "Dick Fruitcake: rapporteur on human rights on Pali territories is 9/11 Truther"
"I think [his beliefs are] fruitcake city, but among many delegations to the U.N. it's probably the conventional wisdom," said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. known for his straight talk on U.N. hypocrisy (...) Critics are calling for the resignation of a U.N. official who publicly supports investigating theories that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were an "inside job." Richard Falk, the special rapporteur (...) >>>
Updated: 21st June 2008
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EURSOC: "UK Should Hold Monarchy Referendum - UN"
The United Nations Human Rights Council says that Britain should hold referenda on abolishing the monarchy and on a written constitution. The UN HRC, which counts luminaries such as Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sri Lanka, said that the UK must "consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican". See The Telegraph for more. >>>
Updated: 17th June 2008
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Reuters: "US walking away from U.N. rights forum -diplomats"The United States has quietly informed Western allies of its intention to walk away from the U.N. Human Rights Council, diplomatic sources said on Friday. The U.S. delegation has observer status, with the right to speak, in the 47-member state forum, which meets in Geneva, and has never stood for election to the Council since it was set up two years ago. Diplomatic sources and rights activists said that U.S. officials had informed the European Union on Friday morning of its intention to halt its involvement in the Council. (...) >>>
Updated: 10th June 2008
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Politeia: "Cash-for-Kim: Confidential UN Report Published"Rotterdam newspaper NRC reports today on an as yet confidential UN report on violations in respect of relief efforts in North Korea. UNDP Development, where former Dutch Labour leader Ad Melkert is second in command, violated internal United Nations (UN) regulations in providing aid to the North Koreans. (...) The latter last surfaced when grinding Paul Wolfowitz to gerbil mix at the World Bank. Here's what we reported on 19th April 2007 in "Of Rats and Inner Voices, Mainly" (...) >>>
Updated: 2nd June 2008
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Didn't any of the combined geniuses of the over-paid, ethically relativized,
senior ex politicians - hearts in the right place for human suffering,
mealy-mouthed over human rights - see this major blot on the landscape taking
shape?

CNN: "Bush wants $770 million more global food aid"U.S. President George W. Bush urged Congress on Thursday to approve $770 million in new global food aid to be made available beginning in October. President Bush said Thursday that "more needs to be done" about rising food prices. The sum would be in addition to $200 million in emergency food aid (...) Riots have broken out in Egypt, Haiti, Yemen, Bangladesh and other nations in response to the rising price of food, which has gone up 43 percent internationally over the past year, a White House official said. On Tuesday, the United Nations formed a task force to look at the problem. (...)The chief economist for the USDA, Joseph Glauber, told the committee that the overall price increase in 2007 was the largest annual jump in the United States since 1990. He blamed worldwide economic growth, bad weather, restrictions on food exports and the biofuels industry, which has diverted corn from dinner tables to production of ethanol. >>>
Updated: 2nd May 2008
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The Corner: "All reconstruction politics is local", by Mark Steyn
Clare Lockhart and Joseph Konzelmann write in The Washington Times that "Iraq needs an ownership surge":The military surge in Iraq has created conditions favorable for long-term stability. Now a new approach to economic reconstruction is needed to sustain the hard-fought military gains.The top-down model of the Iraq government and international donors isn't working: Last year Iraq spent only 4 percent of its $10 billion capital projects budget, according to the U.S. General Accountability Office. The problem is that Iraq lacks the national-level capacity to spend its money effectively. We propose a new approach — one predicated on local partnerships.I've been arguing for a highly decentralized approach to Iraq for five years now. One of the big obstacles to that is that the UN and the other transnational nannies are "top-down" by definition. That's why anything that has the misfortune to attract their attention turns into the geopolitical equivalent of a dysfunctional housing project to be managed in perpetuity (the Palestinian "refugee camps" celebrating their diamond jubilee under UN management being only the most conspicuous example). In Iraq, what works works locally and then percolates upward. That's true for most functioning societies. >>>
Updated: 13th Apr 2008
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Dr Sanity: "The Dream Has Become a Nightmare"
Siggy just found this YouTube video that unequivocally demonstrates the complete and absolute moral bankruptcy of the United Nations--particularly the Council on "Human Rights" and the current president of that council, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico. Please watch the entire atrocity. It is from last year, but its never too late to appreciate how worthless the UN has become and how far it has deviated from the lovely intentions of its founders. (...) Here is a transcript of the remarkable testimony of Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, who elicits the "Inadmissible" comment. (...) >>>
Updated: 16th Jan. 2008
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Int'l Humanist and Ethical Union: "Universality of Human Rights under attack at the UN"
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) representing the 56 Islamic States renewed its attack on the Universality of Human Rights at the 6th Session of the Human Rights Council that ended on 14 December. On Human Rights Day, 10 December, Ambassador Masood Khan, speaking on behalf of the OIC, claimed that the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam “.. is not an alternative, competing worldview on human rights. It complements the Universal Declaration as it addresses religious and cultural specificity of the Muslim countries”. Not an alternative? Even a cursory reading of the Cairo Declaration shows just how widely its definition of human rights differs from those of the UDHR. No “complementary” document (the word implies adding to, not subtracting from) should restrict the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Yet this is precisely what the Cairo Declaration does. Under Shari’ah law a woman has no personal autonomy. A women’s word or the word of a non-Muslim counts as half that of a Muslim man; and they are valued as half that of a Muslim man. No woman is considered an autonomous individual but needs a guardian: her father, husband, son or another male relative, and may not make autonomous decisions. Freedom of religion is limited to freedom to become and remain a Muslim. Apostasy and any actions or statements considered blasphemous are harshly punished, in some states by death. Ann Elizabeth Meijer in her classic analysis “Islam and Human Rights” describes the declaration as not so much a statement of human rights as a statement of man’s responsibilities towards God. According to Meyer (p66): (...) >>>
Updated: 15th Jan. 2008
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American Thinker: "Corruption at the World Bank", by Clarice Feldman
Today the Wall Street Journal details the corruption in five World Bank projects in India which former bank President Wolfowitz suspended and which anti-corruption chief Folsom has exposed to the Bank Board, to the enmity of the Bank members and staff who want to continue business as usual. (...) >>>
Updated: 13th Jan. 2008
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Accuracy in Media: "What Can You Do?"
Send the enclosed postcard to the rock star Bono asking him to request Congressional hearings into the fraudulent use of AIDS money by the United Nations.
Bonoc/o DATA
1400 Eye Street,
N.W. Suite 600Washington, DC 20005
Dear Bono:
You were quoted in the Washington Post as saying you put flesh and blood on AIDS statistics. The problem is that the U.N. cooked the books; the figures were inflated by the world body to the tune of millions of cases. This is now an acknowledged fact. >>>
Updated: 30th Dec. 2007

Accuracy in Media: "The U.N's Massive AIDS Scandal ", by Cliff Kincaid(...) the U.N.'s estimate of AIDS cases has been vastly overblown by millions. Which raises the question: (...) >>>
Dated: 27th Nov. 2007

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