The War Against Something or Other

The British government has abandoned the phrase of a 'war on terror.' It's so Tony, so old fashioned. New Labour is famous being a party of Newspeak and the cherished leftist belief that by language manipulation you can change a core of human or social behaviour.

Orwell made clear Newspeak's basic theory: if something cannot be said, then it cannot be thought, and if it cannot be thought, it could never be done. If you can manipulate the meaning of words, then you can control the thoughts and actions of others.

Such manipulations by the left range from the gross, as in a North Korean radio broadcast to the subtle, as in the utterances of rising New Labour apparatchik Hilary Benn, son of famed loony-tune radical Tony Benn. To Benn the Younger, a phrase like "War on Terror" is doubleplusungood.

In a recent speech that shows the next generation of New Labour thinking, Benn informs us that if we use terms like "war on terror" we will aggrandize terrorists. Being careful to avoid the "I" word, Benn tells us the current state of world terrorism is not a war or struggle, just most individuals in the world "against",

a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common apart from their identification with others who share their distorted view of the world and their idea of being part of something bigger.

What these groups want is to force their individual and narrow values on others, without dialogue, without debate, through violence. And by letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength

Though some might see contradiction between the “disparate” groups with “shared" views, Benn postulates that by invoking a ‘war on terror’, we are actually strengthening terrorists. He does not explain how you combat people who will not debate or indulge in dialogue and only use violence. Presumably, once you have “a majority of people against loose, disparate groups” instead of a “war on terror”, the problem will ameliorate..

No doubt, this airbrushing will impact on the “disparate groups” self-esteem, that other beloved Newspeak creation of the left. In this thinking, you don’t have to have achievements or character as a person or group. You must simply believe you are an achiever and have others tell you so, even when you are a total tosspot or wastrel. If this fatuity were true then the reverse holds. Once Islamic terrorists are no longer told they are part of a big worldwide movement, their morale will crumble.

This is like the theory of modern nursery school teachers: if a child does not start every day yelling , “I’m good, I’m clever, I’m meeeeeeee…..” in assembly, they will suffer irreversible socio-psychic harm for life.

You can read all of Benn’s ramblings here. Meanwhile it is comforting to know that Osama Bin Laden in his cave, Hizbollah in their bunkers and Islamic terrorists cells everywhere are discussing surrender or disbandment as they realise they are merely “disparate groups” with “little in common” facing the mighty majority of the world’s people who are armed with “values and ideas”.

With the EU having banned all thoughtcrime phrases like "Islamic terror" and "jihad" from official discourse, and with rampaging Muslims from Sweden to Belgium to Paris now called "youths", the Australians are not to be left out. During the Cronulla riots in 2006 , police were not able to issue bulletins describing Middle Easterners as other than "youths" with a "mullet hairstyle". Where I come from a mullet is something you eat.

Benn's terminology joins this honourable list of descriptors that have so enriched our language. We await the future headline: ' Youthful disparate groups of fish blow up the House of Commons".

ANOTHER CRICKET WORLD CUP SHOCK

LATEST CRICKET RESULT: Iran 896-0 (Ahmedinejad 498 n.o), England 2-10 (Bliar 1,Beckett 1)

England slumped to a disastrous shock defeat at the hands of newcomers Iran, with their new star A.Ahamedinejad scoring a world record for one day cricket of 498 not out, which included 80 boundries (status disputed).

England was not helped by the defection of their entire team, less Blair and Beckett, to the Iranian side. England's start player Faye Turney found the going difficult as she tried to bowl in a full length chador-shemeez and was the first to give up and go over to Ahamedinejad's rampant side.

It is rumoured this is Englands gratest humiliation since they were beaten by one J. Ceasar;s team in 256 B.C.

ITerrorists Use Poison Gas - MSM Yawns

The BBC reports that Iraqi terrorists are using a banned chemical weapon from WW1, Chlorine gas. This it seems only "concerns" them and the rest of the MSM are silent. Can we imagine the outrage if the coalition even released a whiff of Mustard gas, Phosgene and other WW1 horrors? Chlorine gas kills or maims by burning victims lungs. A whole truckload was found wired to go and obviously more is on the way.

Seemingly MSM and The Beeb's bland reporters can't be bothered to look up Wikipedia here.

What's worse is it's use against civilians in Baghdad. Just imagine if they got ahold of Sarin!

Obamania Part 1

Now that Barack Obama has finally announced his precocious candidacy for the US Presidency, sections of the Kenya media will be agog with every development. Many Kenyans understandably have pride in his Kenyan connection via his father but will probably make the mistake of analysing his prospects through the usual lenses employed in local politics. These are always firmly fixed on identity obsessions (i.e. tribalism). Thus Kenyan commentators are already fixating on race identity, gloomily wondering if Americans will ever elect a "black" President.

They will miss the fact that Americans by and large are keen to vote for a black President which would, they hope, finally put the bear of race into a long and perhaps terminal hibernation. What many can't differentiate is that being "black" is not sufficient on it's own. Policies in the USA, unlike simple identity poltics in Kenya, actually count. Colin Powell might well have won the Presidency but that does not mean Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson would. The same holds for Obama, who leans far left of the political spectrum when most Americans are moderate or even centre-right. Americans are not at all against a "black" candidate - the question is, which one and is it a figure like Obama?

Obama may also have a harder time capturing the African-American vote than his formidable rivals like Hilary Clinton. He is not actually a "black" candidate at all, unless one accepts the basic racism inherent in the idea that a white woman can always give birth to a black child, but a black woman can never give birth to white one. Blacks in America appear upset that Obama has had a privileged childhood, exotic and international and not at all one that took in the historical sufferings of African-Americans, as they see it.

How does this likeable young man position himself? He cannot move towards the centre of US political ideas, as that is already occupied firmly by Clinton and other Democratic prospects. To do so would fatally undermine his credibility, as he would find it impossible to explain away his leftist positions on everything from Iraq to healthcare. The possibility will be that he ends up the candidate of the moonbat left, the liberal media and Hollywood elites- already Stephen Spielberg has jumped ship to raise money for him. This is hardly a base which will carry him to the Presidency unless the US veers so far left as to cause the greatest shift in modern political history. That is not going to happen.

Is he ready for prime time? His tasteless jibes at Australia's John Howard, where he attacked and ridiculed a staunch ally of the USA shows in the very infancy of his run that he seems determined to appease America's enemies and insult it's best friends. Asking Australia to "ginny up" and provide a further 20,000 troops to Iraq is just the first error to show his absolute inexperience, beyond a couple of years as a junior Senator. It's early days yet, but the chances are Obama will discover that Americans would be much happier voting for a non-white candidate who shows reliable centrism or even mildly rightist policy ideas than the narrow voter base he is obviously reaching for.

Yankee Come Home

Confirmation about something many suspected and which our blatantly anti-American big media has hardly commented on: the BBC undertook a worldwide sample of some 29,000 respondents showing Kenyans have the highest positive view of the USA of any country surveyed, a stunning 70% rating.

Compare this to the miserly 16% of Germans who believe the USA has a mainly positive role in the world. The Germans got magnanimity after World War II in the Marshall Plan, and an underwriting for the cost of their defence against communism, allowing them to concentrate on becoming rich and peaceful, thanks to America. Despite the unspeakable atrocities the Germans visited on the world with their war, less than 20 of it’s worst leaders were hung as war criminals. Forgive and rebuild was the watchword. As we say in Kiswahili, asante ya punda ni teke; the thanks of a donkey are kicks.

Here in Kenya, our local newspapers also own TV and radio outlets. The biggest is the Nation Group comprising daily papers, the business tabloid The East African and broadcast media. It’s owned by Muslims, albeit the moderate Aga Khan Foundation. The Standard Group undersells it considerably, and both exhibit unrelenting anti-Americanism from the editors downwards.

Kenyans are bombarded with stories written by Islamists, tranzis and anti-democrats. In the Standard last year, a column on the “only hope” for Iraq was, wait for it, to have the UN reinstate Saddam. Jihadi journalist Salim Lone informs readers in The Daily Nation that “hardly anyone” believes in Islamist plots to blow up airliners and that these are “inventions of Bush and Blair”. The recent collapse of the Somali Islamists (fervently wished for by Kenyans) was greeted with serious media alarm, followed by derision directed at the USA.

This is the normal journalistic meal served up to Kenyan readers, a country where Christians are the overwhelming majority and print is still king. The blogosphere has hardly any readers at all. All the more surprising then that Kenyans have weathered this propaganda effort and still favour the USA.

Gunship Hash Fry-Up

The January 13^th issue of The East African editorializes; “US Makes A Hash Of It Again” referring to Somalia. Claiming the "US adventure is Somali is going off the rails, raising fears of another Iraq being enacted right here in East Africa", it minimizes the Islamist support o'f Eritrean and foreign mercenaries, the long history of Somali-Ethiopian wars, the massive influx of arms into Mogadishu from mischievous countries and Kenya’s own interests in eradicating terrorists. It’s all Uncle Sam’s blunder, again.

Facts are abandoned. There are no reports, as the editor would have it, of “US fighter jets” or “Blackhawk helicopters” operating in Somalia. There was a solitary AC-130 gunship that could have done many favours if it had eradicated the Al-Qaeda cell leaders. Their attacks killed hundreds and wounded thousands in Kenya. This nearly bankrupted our tourist industry and entire economy twice. There are a few Special Forces boots on the ground and these, plus the British SAS , have been welcomed by all parties except the Islamists and their allies and dupes in the Kenyan media.

Also, since it does not fit The East African’s favoured anti-American narrative, the paper fails no mention the ICU attacked Baidoa and the TNG on December 16^th despite endless international warnings and thus sealed their own fate.

The US has publicly stated it is willing to work with non-Al Qaeda Islami c Courts Unionparties in Somalia – a big shift in policy. It strongly backs an AU force and stays as much in the background as possible – unlike for example Eritrea or Al-Qaeda itself, which called for global terrorists to come to the ICU’s aid. The US has kept it’s military footprint very small. No doubt most regional countries would like to see the irredentist ICU dismantled. Moderate Somalis in Hargeisha and Puntland are whooping with delight.

Rather than “hashing” the job, it is more likely the US has learned valuable past lessons and kept the problem at arm’s length. One is not sure why The East African would want to inflame jihadi passions by asserting otherwise.

Somalia is both an inter-African and regional failure. America is justifiably interested in the capture or death of a limited group of Al-Qaeda terrorists. The US left Somali alone for a dozen years after “Blackhawk Down”. During this time did Africans solve their own problems? Did the EU or UN come to rescue the country? Not at all.

The result was the ICU and more civil war, with the possibility of an Afghanistan- in Africa. This was intolerable to all in Kenya except a handful of Islamists and their mouthpieces like jihadi supporter Salim Lone of The Daily Nation. In truth there is no simple solution in Somalia and making people believe that the American bogeyman is behind all the woe implies it will vanish should the US ignore Somalia for another decade. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A week after this "editorial", which reads more like a shill for the ICU, the moderate leader of the ICU surrendered peacefully to Kenyan authorities and was reported headed for Nairobi for talks with US State Department officials. The real question is, why do Kenyans have to read over and again these hopelessly biased and innacurate anti-American rants, in the guise of "editorials"?

A Massacre Of The Guilty

Is it useful for Kenyan authorities detain 6 suspected Kenyan Islamists allegedly fighting in Somalia ? If they had on them cell-phones with recorded messages to Osama Bin Laden, Idd cards signed by Al-Qaeda leader Al Zwahiri, notebooks detailing intimate conversations between themselves and terrorists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq and details of suspected targets worldwide, there is nothing whatsoever, besides letting them go, that Kenyan authorities could do. This is because Kenya refuses, in a weird mixture of misplaced nationalism, incoherent anti-Americanism among it's elites and naked Muslim vote-buying in an election year, to pass anti-terrorist legislation.

Every terrorism suspect that has been brought to court since 2001 has been freed. The record of Kenya, a nominally Christian country, in convicting jihadi terrorists is actually worse than most Muslim nations. The former Moi government used to hand over terrorists to the USA and seek the active assistance of American law agencies like the FBI. The chances of the Kibaki government doing the same seems nil. Strident anti-American/pro-terrorist propaganda is staple fare of many in Kenya's news media and readers are delivered daily barrages of articles that are strongly sympathetic to the terrorist world viewpoint. Al-Jazeera is being given a license to operate it's TV programming in Kenya. Kenya is the only nation in the world to have suffered repeated and devastating terrorist attacks without passing a single piece of anti-terrorist law. The majority of Kenyans desire such laws, but the elite and pressure groups have so far resisted passing any.

An entire Muslim network ( or fifth column) of street demonstrators, mullahs, preachers and "activists " has sprung up to denounce any proposed anti-terror laws, to demand the disbandment of the Kenya Police Terrorism Unit and rail against the USA/Israel at every opportunity. Coupled with the notorious corruption of the Kenya Police and Immigration officers, it is no wonder the Islamists in Somalia have made a dash for the Kenyan border. There is little assurance that dozens will not, and have not already, slipped into the country. The only thing in their way seems to the the AC-130 gunships and special ops forces the US bases in nearby Djibouti.

Todays news of the death of 1998 Embassy bombing mastermind Fazul Mohammed who also plotted the 2002 Kikambala Hotel attack in Malindi and simultaneous attempt to bring down an Israeli airliner at the airport will be more than welcome to the staggering number of Kenyan victims of Al-Qaeda and their relatives. Over 200 Kenyans have been murdered by Al-Qaeda and a shocking 5000 injured, often ghastly lacerations from flying glass after bombings.

The Ethiopians, Somali government and US forces have driven the Al-Qaeda remnants to a no-win penninsula of isolated headlands and rocky islets around Ras Komboni in south Somlia. It is rare for the US to get Al-Qaeda in it's sights in such a hopeless position. Worse for the Islamists, they are cut-off from their bleating supporters in the world media, though the "they are killing only civilians" reports are naturally being circulated. There is every indication the US forces are going to kill or capture all Al-Qaeda trapped on Ras Komboni. The entire event is a complete humiliation of the jihadi juggernaut that claimed such invincibility. Maybe Kenya won't need those anti-terrorist laws at all after a few more days of gunships, Predators and special forces operations.

Preparing The New Kristallnacht

Jimmy Carter is arguably the worst President ever elected in US history. While the MSM, Euro-paranoids and others rant on about George Bush and "fudamentalist Christians" taking over the USA, it's worth remembering that Carter is something of a hardline Christian from the Deep South himself. Presumably because he's a Democrat however, he gets a free media ride. That's why the sinister side to this failed man hardly gets examined. Many Southern Christians basically fall into two camps: those who are anti-Semitic (Jews as Christ-killers etc) and those who, for their own odd scriptural reasons, support the existence of the state of Israel.

Carter's racist new book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” shows him firmly to be in the "Jews -Are-Evil" camp of Christian fundamentalists. Who does Carter most remind one of? A creep like Yusuf "Cat Stevens" Islam who, in a perfectly reasonable and calm voice, can spew out hatred and venom, smiling all the time. Even the liberal media cannot spare Carter. His book has been condemned as “moronic” (Slate), “anti-historical” (The Washington Post)and “laughable” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Carter is of course doing nothing more than many of the worst sort of Christians have done for almost two millennia: demonizing Jews and dehumanising them, to prepare them for killing or persecution. I wonder what it sounds like to the average Israeli, with his memories of the combined pogroms of Europe, this constant stream of racist propaganda directed at his tiny minority? The slow, steady preparation of justification for a new Kristallnacht.

One hears it in the assertions of the left and Arab nationalists who subscribe to the nonsense that the "key to peace in the Middle East is solving the Palestine problem". What they are promising is the illusion of peace, with Israel as the scarifical lamb. If only Israel ceased to exist we would all live in peace and be happy and prosperous. Anyone who believes this of the Middle East is easily duped.

Those who cannot spot the similarity to this racist nonsense and Hitler's assertion that Germany (and Europe) could only achieve the levels of Utopia when cleansed of Jewish "control" needs to think deeply indeed.

It's not enough that Jews be compared to South African racists. When asked whether he believed that Israel’s “persecution” of Palestinians was “[e]ven worse . . . than a place like Rwanda,” Carter answered, “Yes. I think — yes.” ... Thus this disgraceful man, who Americans threw out of office in revulsion, prepares the ancient ghost of debased Christianity: the Jew-devil, the Evil One, the Scapegoat. It is part of a pattern that has been going on in Europe too for a good while.

Many now take it as axiomatic that Israel is the key (or rather obstacle) to all problems in the Arab world - even to Shiites and Sunnis slaughtering each other in Baghdad. World opinion is being softened up for a new Kistallnact and anyone with a Christian heritage should look very hard, with the largest moral magnifying glass they can find, at this latest round of Jew-baiting from the "deeply CXhristian" Jummy carter

Kenyan Athlete Finally Loses

It's hard to feel sympathy for either side in this story:

Authorities have revoked the Bahraini citizenship of a Kenyan-born athlete who ran in an Israeli marathon, the nation's athletic union said Saturday.

Bahraini runner Mushir Salem Jawher competed and won the Tiberias Marathon in Israel on Thursday, ending the race in just over 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Gulf Arab states are all over Kenya getting Christian athletes to defect for huge sums of money, so as to build their athletics programs. And what is so wrong with that, given Kenya has a surplus of runners and high poverty levels? What is wrong is that the Gulf states make the Kenyans abandon their Christian religion and convert to Islam. They are also required to adopt fully Arab names.

Now imagine the outcry if, say, the talented Sudanese basketball players coming to the USA were required to give up their names and convert to Christianity. However as usual it's one rule for the West and another for everyone else.

EU Issues Shock Christophobia Report

The EU nomenklatura is at it again with a new report that claims a rise in "Islamophobia" in Europe. However the Brussels mob have yet to issue any report on rising "Christophobia" in Europe by Muslim immigrants, evidence for which is more than just a matter of feelings or perceptions.

The very solid grounds for rising Christophobia in Europe includes multiple suicide bombings in London last summer, increasing calls for Sharia law, the small matter of the Danish Mohammed cartoons and wordwide bloody riots that ensued, let alone numerous thwarted plots involving dozens of Islamic terrorists. The latter extended to countries which had become anti-US in their foreign policy, such as Spain, Germany and France. Even Sweden experienced riots.

Fear of Islamic violence caused the cancellation of many arts events in 2006, including a performance of Mozart in his homeland. A French Jew was tortured to death in Paris for no other reason than his religion.

Meanwhile, Muslims in Europe threatened to kill the Pope, behead homosexuals and declare Muslim "no-go" areas in various European cities. Honour killings, often involving cross-religious love relationships, increased.

The same EU politicians that issued the "Islamophobia" report are the ones who in 2004 supressed an EU report of rising anti-Semitic attacks because it named young Muslim Europeans as the chief perpetrators.

Obama and the M Word

Reading the thoughts of Joshua Marshall on Talking Points regarding some Republican bottom-feeders already going on about Barack Obama's middle name being "Hussein" leads to some thoughts on his ability to ever get elected President and what the Muslim world would think of this?

Obama's late Kenyan father was a nominal Muslim, hence his Kenyan name of Mbarak Hussein Obama. His mother is an American Christian. Obama himself is an observant and fervent Christian and brought up that way.

My understanding of sharia is that all children born between a Muslim father and non-Muslim mother are considered Muslims automatically, regardless of whatever religion the actually observe and to deny this makes them potential apostates - which can carry severe sanction, including death, in the eyes of very many traditional Muslims. This does not hold,however, if a Muslim woman marries a Jew or Christian. It only applies to the male sire.

This question is going to come up if Obama ever makes a run for President: what is the Muslim world going to make of his candidacy? Chances are he will be considered a Muslim candidate, which will look fine in say, Saudi Arabia but not look neccesarily the same in the USA. Vocal and radical claims that Obama is either a Muslim or worse, an apostate worthy of death, are bound to issue from the Muslim world.

The impact on Obama as a candidate is likely to be fatal. Not only would various bonehead elements in the GOP and electorate generally try to stir this issue, but so will the Muslim press. Al-Jazeera's take is to be imagined. The potentially bitter cat-calls of racism,Islamophobia , mullahs propounding on Koranic sharia and all the rest are bound to command media attention, and this in a candidate who is meant to bring novel freshness to the political scene.

I don't know if Obama's staff see this one coming, but it's certainly on my radar and will have a fascinating life of it's own sooner rather than later. People may see Obama as the new Kennedy, but JFK's "Catholic" problem was nothing compared to what might be on the horizon.

A Tale of Two Bad Guys

I confess I had not read the Washington Post's excellent editorial on the death of Pinochet when I got to wondering about the following political poser:

Pinochet's 1973 coup against a communist take-over of Chile had 3000 killed (on both sides) and over 10,000 detentions. Yet it turned Chile into South Americas most successful economy to this day. He resigned in 1988 after 15 years in power when he lost a referendum on his rule. Chile is now South America's healthiest democracy. Everywhere he went in later life, he was hounded by human rights activists and judges. Would Chile be in the same place today if the communist coup had succeeded?

Castro's 1959 coup against an odious Cuban right-wing dictator resulted in 17,000 killed and a gulag of over 150,000 prisoners. Cuba developed a complete basket-case economy, which remains to this day. Three million have fled. Everywhere, even internationally, he gets standing ovations and mass adulation from the media. Castro has never had a referendum on his rule and will only resign in his coffin. The country remains a totalitarian state. Would Cuba be in the same place today if Castro had resigned in 1974?

Xmas Shorts

On Barack Obama, "Black" hope: As pointed out in the National Review in April, 2000, "the United States is the only country in the world in which a white woman can give birth to a black baby but a black woman cannot give birth to a white baby."

Those Stupid Republicans: Incoming Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee Silvestre Reyes doesn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Or what Hezbollah is.

Those Stupid Republicans, Part II: Trent Lott, the veteran Republican senator from Mississippi, said only last September that “It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people.”

“Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion?” wondered Lott, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after a meeting with Bush.

“Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference?

“They all look the same to me,” Lott said.

Gay Taliban?

One of the things the MSM never brings to our notice is the well known fact that the Taliban are bi-sexual, if not exactly gay. Bi-sexuality has deep roots in Afghanistan for reasons that may have to do with with it's conquest by Alexander the Great and subsequent long period as a Greek colony. It is widely accepted that the Macedonians and other ancient Greeks, including the Spartans, were bi-sexual. In some cases, bi-sexual lovers fought and lived together and this practise was common, if not the military norm. Even as far back as Homer, we have Achilles and his lover. However all Greek warriors were also expected to maintain a heterosexual family with wife and kids, rather like today's Taliban do.

In the early part of the Afghan campaign, a British daily reported that a Northern Afghan warlord was particularly pleased the British Royal Marines were replacing American troops in his sector as they were, he said, "far more handsome to look at". In case this sounds like a fantasy, a new copy of the Taliban Rules and Code of Conduct has been obtained and translated by a Swiss specialist, exclusively published in the Swiss journal Die Weltwoche. Here is Rule 19,obviously aimed at something more than the US Army's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy:

"Mujahideen are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair onto the battlefield or into their private quarters."

Somalia Cooks Up Trouble

The reports of 3 suicide car bombs detonated in the Somali town of Baidoa bring a new and ominous escalation in the growing threat of Islamism in Eastern Africa. Though fanatically brave and careless of their lives in battle, Somalis have never been known as methodical suicide jihadis. Newswire suggestions than non-Somalis were captured at the site indicate Al-Qaeda involvement. As is usual with Somalia, the situation is endlessly opaque and confusing, with the ICU going so far as to invite the USA to officially visit Mogadishu for talks!

Kenya is a non-aggressive nation, known for the excellent professionalism of it's armed peacekeepers in Bosnia, Sierra Leone and elsewhere with a foreign policy that stresses regional dialogue and agreed solutions. Kenya has been instrumental in helping end the genocidal Southern Sudan conflict, among many. For years Kenya coaxed the quarrelsome and boisterous Somalis into forming their Provisional Government. All that work is undone by the advance of the shadowy, sinister Islamic Courts Union forces.

The Guardian and other leftist MSM outlets repeat the clueless canard that somehow, when the US gave cash to non- ICU warlords in a futile attempt to stem the ICU takeover of Mogadisu last summer, this "exacerbated" the Islamist advance. Such thinking blames America-as-usual, forgetting that the groundwork of trained forces, superior weapons, advanced tactics and foreign cadres of the ICU took months, if not years, of careful planning. The blame game also ignores the most likely cause of the Islamist assault: it coincided with and would plainly forestall, the final establishment of the internationally backed, African Union approved Provisional Somali Government.

While ideologues look to their bogeyman in the USA, others note that Islamism in Somalia could revive the murderous regional violence of the 1960's and 70's when Somali nationalists tried to take over territory in Kenya and Ethiopia. These have large ethnic Somali minorities. There are uncomfortable signs that "Greater Somalia" is longed for by some of the ICU top leadership. It's hard to see how the ICU will not eventually go for the racial expansion of Somalia, which would have disastrous repercussions in Kenya's north east, heavily populated by native and refugee Somalis. Throw in the ICU acting as proxies for Eritrea, Ethiopia's belligerent refusal, backed by a huge army, to countenance Islamist takeover, Iranian mischief, Al-Qaeda elements, mystery arms flights into Mogadishu, new suicide bombers and one has a cauldron of bitter ingredients that could scald an entire region.

Kenya meanwhile tries to play the peaceful middleman, desperate to avoid being caught in any situation that would demand it abandon perceived neutrality in face of a need to balance acute national interests. It's something Kenya diplomats are very skilled at, but for how much longer before somthing lights the fire and the Somali pot finally boils into open regional conflict?

Koffi's Klimate Kalamity

One of my biggest problems with the climate change doomsayers is that they try and couch global warming in terms of morality, when actually it's all about money. Environmentalism is becoming the new moral touchstone. Anyone who questions that the developing world is being made to suffer disproportionate devastation by greedy rich nations spewing carbon into the atmosphere is looked upon about as badly as someone who grabs a megaphone and starts hollering the "n" word in public.

Yet green is the new colour prejudice, whereby everyone who is not a shade of Ireland is an ignorant,selfish,dangerous and wicked person.

Morality is a subject that is endlessly relative: one man's probity is another's perversion. However money is something that, at least since the collapse of Marxism, we can all more or less agree upon. It's hard to argue that more government equals less economic growth, that free markets trump closed ones, that wealth must be generated before it can be shared and so on. Except when it comes to global climate change and environmentalism.

Ron Bailey asks the excellent question: Is global warming worse than what governments might try to do about it? If the UN joins in, as with the recently concluded Nairobi UN Conference on climate change, we should pause. When Kofi Annan delivers yet another one of his passive aggressive lectures along the lines of "the debate is over, we are all going to die and rich people are the cause of that", then global warming should give over to global worrying.

He has the UK government's Stern Review to back him, showing how little,supposedly, it will take of world GDP to stabilize greenhouse emissions over the next 100 years. Only 1% per annum to avoid the ecological apocalypse that awaits us all! It all sounds so reasonable. However most developing countries cannot gain GDP increase over their population growth.

Kenya has hardly managed more than 1.5% annual growth in GDP vs +3.5% population increase for two decades. Imagine Kenya sustains 4% GDP growth over the next 20 years. Adding 1% cost of "environmental management" actually will mean that Kenya will remain considerably poorer two decades hence than it is now, on paper at least.

Yet poor countries maintain, not unreasonably, than they cannot affcord any cut in their already precarious GDP growth, so the green management costs would have to be borne by the developed world. This will put the actual cost to developed countries at something more like 2-3% of their annual GDP. However, various developed countries like many in Europe and Japan for years, have managed less that 2% GDP increase per annum. What sounds reasonable suddenly becomes politically impossible.

These are the sort of sobering facts that should enlighten the climate change debate, not as at present a cross between a scientific Inquisition and a morality play.

The realm of climate change and the infamous Kyoto Protocol abound in similar perversities. For example, Kyoto gives rich countries carbon credits for preserving forests which soak up carbon dioxide, but no incentive whatsoever for developing countries to do the same. That helps account for the incineration of the tropical forests in Indonesia,Malasia and Borneo which are, you guessed it, adding to global warming.

Ron Bailey asks if the hundreds of trillions of dollars that the Stern Report "modest proposal" actually means in GDP terms was put to use on building wealth and technology, what would be the result? Arguably that poor countries could grow richer and therefore afford to handle the results of global warming (the way Holland manages rising sea levels with an economy worth only $500 billion a year).

Unlike what Kofi Annan says when using the UN Climate Change Conference as a moral wedge for more power us by the United Nations, the debate is far from over. It is in fact just beginning.

IFAW's Eurocentric Conservation

I welcome "Lynn" who comments on my "Wildlife Woes" blog:

'I was surprised to read your misrepresentation of IFAW as an organization of "extremist weirdness." You clearly are unaware of IFAW's unusually moderate approach to issues of wildlife and habitat protection. The truth is that IFAW is NOT against all consumptive use of animals, nor opposed to scientific research. It is IFAW's position on a number of highly complex issues, however, that consumption and science must be sustainable.'

The trouble is, for IFAW consumptive use is always "unsustainable", at least in Africa. For a useful overview of these issues, other scientists have opposing and valid points.

However, "Lynn" has not answered why IFAW continues to block, by any means fair or foul, all attempts to re-introduce limited sports hunting into Kenya? This would benefit marginal wildlife areas that cannot compete for tourist dollars, yet have, as local people see it, a problem with "useless" wild animals that the Kenya government protects by law, but does nothing to protect them from.

It is obscene for foreign conservationists to insist on hugely expensive, Eurocentric conservation programmes like "elephant contraception" and "helicopter herding" of animals, whose budgets run into millions of Kenya shillings, when peasants could build entire primary schools and clinics from the licensed proceeds of a few hundred animals shot on a "Campfires"

IFAW does promote many interesting conservation programmes world-wide,but it's insistance on non-consumption (perhaps not yet of chickens and beef), it's absolute stand against controlled sport-hunting (itself recognised by the WWF and IUCN/WCU as a conservation tool if properly used) certainly qualify it for "weirdness".

As a 3rd generation tourist professional who lives in Africa, I see the dwindling wildlife numbers outside and inside National Parks. I know the attitudes of local tribes to the wildlife they do not own, but the government and conservationists mysteriously do. And I also know that it is common knowledge in Kenya conservation and tourism circles that IFAW spends immense efforts and cash in ensuring any attempts to introduce even the most modest type community sports hunting programme. This would as effectively control animal numbers and profit local people.pilot scheme of sustainable sports hunting are blocked time and again. This is patronizing, racist and arrogant.

For just one example of a World Wildlife Fund successful community hunting programme of immense benefit to local people, "Lynn" should go here.

IFAW opposes sports-hunting and even government culling in Africa. The results are devastating in some areas, for example Kruger National Park in South Africa which has a superbly monitored culling programme = now elephant overpopulation is wrecking Kruger. Contraception for elephants, at perhaps $5000 cost per animal, while next door to the park Africans die of AIDS and poverty, is something IFAW would no doubt support. A humane bullet costs about $1 and better yet, sports-hunting would actually pay African villagers about $5000 per elephant.

Why does one of the largest and most respected conservation bodies , the World Conservation Union (formerly IUCN), deny IFAW membership? I think we know.

More Climate Emissions

Nairobi is hosting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is meant to be looking into about a post-Kyoto Protocol world and what is to be done about it. Already the meeting has been an enormous success on two fronts. Foreign activists managed to rent members of Kenya's colourful tribes, in some cases probable pre-literate ones and parade them around with "Wanted, George Bush The Toxic Texan" placards. This will guarantee more fauxphoto opportunities for the MSM. Next, every news media in Kenya and internationally has been able to spin stories about Bush "renouncing Kyoto" to stoke anti-Americanism.

Of course, it was Bill Clinton who shelved the Kyoto Protocol in 1999, before Bush was even elected, after the US senate voted 95-0 that they would never ratify it. True, Clinton, in a typically showbiz gesture, signed an intent of the Kyoto Protocol in Rio in 1998. Democratic senator Byrd, from Clinton's own party, co-sponsored the motion in the senate.

The good news is that China will surpass the USA as the world's largest emitter of CO2 sometime in 2009. Will anyone in the world media notice?

There is no doubt that climate change has been damaging Africa's human viability for the past 14,000 years of inter-glacial warming, and also no contention that such warming has quickened and will have a devastating effect on marginal Africa. The grand irony is that African countries are queuing up to sell all the CO2 laden oil and mineral products they can to China, who will soon be polluting them out of existence.

African environmentalists might be doing wise things like insisting that any energy and minerals sold to China as raw materials be subject to verifiable lower CO2 emissions. Instead most of them are too busy blaming America.

No wonder the US senate resolution that passed so resoundingly in 1999 repudiating the Kyoto Protocol said it:

"would not ratify the Protocol unless rapidly developing countries such as China were included in its requirements to reduce greenhouse gases. The Clinton Administration announced it would not send the treaty to the Senate for ratification."

Meanwhile The Guardian, haven of America-bashing, announces that the oh-so-Green Europeans have totally failed to meet their Kyoto obligations. We can say one thing for George Bush, he sure gets around.

Wildlife Woes

More evidence that foreign wildlife extremists completely control Kenya's policies came today as Vice President Moody Awori sang loudly from the International Fund for Animal Welfare song-book. He was inaugurating a wildlife fence partly funded by IFAW in north Kenya.

IFAW, who have not been allowed to join major bodies like the IUCN/World Conservation Union due to their extremist weirdness, are completely against any consumptive use of animals, including scientific culling. The "F" in IFAW stands for "fund", and the huge financial clout of these urban eco-huggers means they can buy their way to influence in many countries. Kenya is the foremost of those and IFAW pays journalists and politicians to support it's ideology,some say.

Thanks to IFAW, elephants are now devastating South Africa's Kruger National Park again. IFAW forced a ban on the successful Kruger culling programme. Bowing to IFAW, Awori announced Kenya will not re-introduce sport hunting. Thus we remain the sole major wildlife destination in Africa without a regulated sport hunting industry.

The reasons Awori gave are pure IFAW-speak. Sport hunting is "elitist" ( yet exclusive luxury tourism in Kenya is not) he said. It cannot "benefit the local community" (dozens of studies in Africa say exactly the opposite). Sport hunting will make controlling "bushmeat trades" more difficult (those wealthy hunters come here to eat mouldy old bull buffalo meat). It would be "difficult to control" (investors earning a good return from sports hunting just can't wait to exterminate all their animal capital). And more.

The oddest idea expressed was when Awori said allowing animals to "regulate themselves" as in former times was the best way and would help the environment in a time of climate change.

Kenya's animals are being "regulated" to alarmingly low levels by unremitting poaching and bushmeat trade , undertaken by those who have zero personal or community incentive to preserve animals on private or communal land. A regulated hunting industry is one of the ways of combating such wildlife attrition. Though IFAW does some useful projects in conservation, their hidden agenda is to stop all consumptive use of animals, regardless of consequences to local people.

Respectable conservationsists know this, but IFAW is more renowned, some say, for buying their way to the top of the policy ladder in traditional African fashion.

Gibberish Generator

Ever tried to figure out what modern "scholars" actually mean in their post-modern, deconstructed theses and studies? Are you going for an senior NGO job or looking forward to possible employment in the social services? Perhaps you have a Modern Literature exam looming and are short of the correct trendy ideas?

A superb Postmodern Generator is available, free and just a mouse click away. Now you will be able to construct essay after essay of meaningless post-modern jargon based on the warped ideas of whacko French mental masturbators like Jaques Derrida and the immortal Foucalt, heirs to the great intellectual tradition that includes the Marquis de Sade and Rousseau.

Just visit the Postmodern Generator and every time you refresh the screen, a new and densly brilliant essay, featuring the most up-to-date leftist thinking, is prepared; original, pioneering and exceptionally penetrative.

Unnatural Adoptions (Part 2)

Typical of comments which do not support my post on the Maddona adoption is an anonymous one:

It is shameful that so many people (i.e Rightspeak) are condeming celebrities who find the kindness in their heart to save a child from a life a hell!!! It would be far worse for these celebrities to travel to the war and aids striken countries and not leave with a child."

This adoption bypassed Malawi laws, as the link in my post highlights, and brought much protest from Malawi adoption agencies and authorities. The father felt "powerless" to stop the adoption by someone so "rich and famous".

Here is my point - that celebrities spending great sums of money to arrange these adoptions (which also bring huge publicity to themselves) could as easily helped many hundreds of similar children by donating money to institutions and charities in Africa, rather than "power-adopting" a single child.

It seems many are ignorant of the fact that that most celebrities do nearly everything for publicity and career boosts. It's all part of a carefully choreographed "media process".

There are celebs and rich people who adopt children, or who even better donate to help Africans, like this boy`s father, take care of their own children and orphans. Some of them never seek any publicity for it and go through the normal channels of adoption. Madonna is not in that category, and which African would like a child to be brought up by someone who is, in African cultural terms, blasphemous and sexually weird? African children are not commodities to be bought for PR reasons.

A Different Guide

This is a dose of welcome humour in the developmenet debate, thanks to African Christian blog Two & Two Makes 5.

Unnatural Adoptions

Although there are thousands of genuine families who adopt and raise African children in the West, the sad story of Madonna's disgusting power-adoption of a young Malawian boy is about as stomach-churning a story as one can get.

Madonna could have spent equivalent money on funding thousands of AIDS orphans through infancy and primary school for the same cost as her celebrity adoption. However, that would not have brought her headlines and publicity. The poor Malawian boy will also be exposed to the weird lifestyles of Hollywood and pop stars. Surely life in Malawi is far less cruel ? No wonder his father looks so glum.

Sometimes the leftist "entertainagensia's" actions towards Africa are shameful. Malawaians and Africans generally should stop this child-theft by weirdo showbiz types and insist instead Madonna and her ilk spend money on NGO child projects.

Compulsive Conversion

Members of the Religion of Peace are fond of quoting to us Mohammed’s Koranic statement ( actually only part of a heavily qualified sentence), "There is no compulsion in religion".

Quite how this squares with the forced conversion to Islam, under pain of death, of Fox newsmen Steve Sentani and Olaf Wiig, would be an interesting debate with your local mullah. However, not a single Muslim religious figure worldwide has so far condemned the "conversion." Debate on this subject down at the mosque is, it seems, out.

According to the New York Times, the men were "unharmed" by their ordeal. However, in the West if a junior school teacher shouts at a pupil for spitballing little Miss Goody Twoshoes at the next desk, said teacher will probably be forced to undergo "counselling" for "harming" little Dennis the Menace with "verbal violence". If the same teacher held a knife at Dennis' throat and made him do pee-pee on an image of the Virgin Mary while reciting, "I renounce Jesus and all his works", that presumably would be, in NYT-speak, "unharmful".

Here’s another hot news story you maybe missed last week: " Two Muslim detainees released from Guantanamo Bay detention, Ali Shabazzi and Mohammed Yusuf, related how their US military captors forced them to convert to Christianity at gunpoint. Said Yusuf, "They would have killed us if we did not convert." How far would the MSM and the mullahs run with that particular football?

The great Mark Steyn perhaps has the last word on this subject:

"Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism."

Proportional Nonsense

Few calls by UN officials, European appeasers and various anti-Israeli elements are as empty of substance as the repeated carping for the IDF to show a "proportional reponse" in Lebanese hostilities towards the terrorist organization Hizbollah. We will not go into the fact that Hizbollah violates the Geneva Conventions in it's very structure, designed as it is to attack from and hide amongst civilians.

Hizbollah's main backer's, Syria and Iran have between them a population of 82 million. There are only some 5.25 million Jews in Israel liable for military service. As of today the casualty figures in the Southern Lebabnon war are 51 Israelis and some 450 Lebanese. This includes civilians on both sides. The ratio of Israelis killed is thus about 1:9 vs Lebanese, wheras the population ratio of the two countries that created and support Hizbollah, Iran and Syria, and who both wish Israel to be "wiped off the map", is some 15.75 to one Israeli.

Working on polls the MSM always tell us are "reliable", we also know that some 80% of the over 150 million Arabs in the Middle East do not accept the existance of Israel and wish to see it eliminated. Presumably these also back Hizbollah. In this case the ratio of populations soars, by simple math, to almost 30:1. If the casualty figures were 1530 Lebanese to 51 Israelis, then we would be approaching a truer proportional response by Israel to it's enemies. Rather, the figures to date show the amazing restraint and skill of the IDF ,with far more casualties "proportionally".

Looking at the number of sworn ememies of Israel that surround it in Arab countries and Iran we get some 230 million people who wish to eliminate 5.25 million Jews. If the IDF was inflicting "proportional casualties" based on this ratio, today's dead and wounded would have to reach 2117 dead Lebanese/Hizbollah to every 51 Israelis killed.

The dim and biased mainstream media have never recognised the call for "proportional response" for what it is, an idea that would suit Israel's enemies very well. A strictly "proportional response" in this case would rapidly see Israel depopulated and overrun in any conflict with Arab states.

Som(me)bre

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The British Army lost 60,000 casualties in the first 12 hours of fighting. 20,000 dead and 40,000 wounded, the greatest loss in their history. More poignantly, many of the volonteer army had joined in 'buddy' outfits, according to their trades. You had regiments of bakers, companies of miners and so on, often all from the same close knit towns and villages. They were mown down by the Germans, like grass before a scythe.

When deaths in Iraq of coalition troops do not equal the amount of accidental deaths in the US armed forces in a year, we have to remind ourselves of what our grandfathers and great grandfathers went through in a few hours.

The Best Policy Is No Policy

This bleak assessement on Somalia by J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University and an academic fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies:

After they make short shift of Somalia’s shambolic government—notwithstanding the last ditch attempt at the U.N. this week to shore it up with the appointment of a new International Contact Group—the (Islamic Courts) Union will turn its attention to destabilizing (neighbouring) Somaliland, whose democratically elected, secular government has already been declared anathema by the Union’s chief ideologist, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the al Qaeda-linked head of al-Ittihad. (This month alone, the Somaliland government has intercepted two major arms shipments destined for Union-aligned jihadis from well-wishers in Arabia.) Then the Union will turn on Ethiopia and Kenya, both countries with large ethnic Somali populations with significant pockets of jihadi infiltration.

Can the US do much about this potential situation? Nearly anything the US does in Somalia, covert or overt, will be used to blame and discredit it regionally with moderate, important countries like Kenya. Already this is the media reaction locally. It is basically misplaced criticism, but it sells in the global anti-American market.

The US should rather rely on the natural ability of Somalis to implode and their penchant for pissing off everyone who happens to be their neighbour. This the Islamic Courts militia will surely do, sooner or later.

Meanwhile it should support openly the efforts of the regional AU group (IGAD) and the UN/European contact groups that are trying to build ( how I hate the word!) an "inclusive" solution.

I doubt they will succeed, but if then the Jihadis anger enough neighbours and clans, the US can use covert means, with proxy allies, to keep Somalia tied up in endless clan warfare, which traditionally renders them strategically harmless.

If an agressive, expansionist Jihadi state did emerge via the Islamic Courts, you would be surprised how quickly the US would be asked for help by various currently lukewarm "allies" like Kenya and Ethiopia.

I dont think Somalia seriously threatens any shipping lanes and is a poor choice for terrorist hideouts. The region is not vital to world energy or security, but due to large minorities of Somalis in Kenya and Ethiopia, plus Islamic ambitions to destabilize the Horn of Africa, the last thing the US should have is a searchlights-and-trumpets prescence, which will then be used by Islamists to rally a regional cause.

Tread softly, carry a big stick, shut up and keep one's eyes open. That's about it for US policy now.

UN: Some Kenyans Are More Kenyan

Despite being the oldest group of humans yet researched by New Zealand's Massey University DNA project Kenya's Turkana people are not, according to the United Nations, 'indigenous'. Having some 35,000 years of history won't quite qualify one for favoured treatment by the UN's new Human Rights Council. Yet if you arrived in Kenya 500 years ago, you will get General Assembly recognition and special 'rights'.

This is the useful conclusion of the UN's newest body. Gone from the disbanded old Human Rights Commission are champions of humanity like Saddam's Iraq ( which once chaired it),Syria and Zimbabwe. In are new champions of humanity like Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia.

Saudi Arabia is busy modernizing it's image and industry with oil-boom cash. The kingdom just exported a batch of Hand Amputation Machines to Nigeria's sharia Kano State.

Meanhile the new UN Rights Council has the urgent task of sending to the General Assembly a 'vital' bill guaranteeing the rights of 'indigenous peoples'.

To most people, 'indigenous' has the simple meaning of people who were the original inhabitants of a land. Thus in Africa the Bushmen, Pygmies, Baka, Berbers and other groups are rightly nominated in the UN list of indigenes. However it also pays to be colourful, exotic and live next to the world's greatest wildlife parks, even if you are Tribesman-Come-Lately.

Thus Mjikenda and related Swahili Kenyans, who have lived around Mombasa for at least a millenium, are not indigenous enough. They don't wear lion's manes, red-ochre and wave long spears, but rather shapeless, white cotton tunics called kanzu.

Maybe Kenya's Agikuyu who arrived there around 1100 AD are indigenous? If you've been checking out the fate of the 35,000 year old Turkana, you will know this answer. The fact that we have have 1 million year old ancestor hominid sites at Lake Turkana, where live the You-know-who tribe , still won't swing it for those "non-natives".

They drink an awful lot of coffee in the corridors of the UN - what else is there to do in Diploland? Like Legoland it's a place where only fantasies take shape. This leads to reading lots of coffee-table books. There have been more big glossy books written about Kenya's Maasai people (arrived in Kenya around 1450 AD via Chad and Sudan)than any other East African tribe. No surprise then that the only people in Kenya who qualify for 'indigenous', in the UN's report, are the Maasai. There is talking turkey. Then there is talking Turkana, and the Unocrats have the balance right.

How the Kenya Government will vote when the Human Rights Council bill reaches the General Assembly, nobody knows. Hopefully it will be in favour of a bill which declares 90% of their own Kenyans 'foreigners'. Kenyans of Maasai origin are good, normal citizens and frankly need no special affirmation compared to any other inhabitants.

Stand by for waves of professional Masaai activists clad in beads and shukas claiming back the whole country they once ruthlessly conquered from the 'pre-indigenous' people who were inconveniently in Kenya before them. One of the special UN rights for the 'indigenous' is naturally land. That's material enough for 56 more books, 3 mini-series and "Maasai, The Movie!".

Somalia's Endless Sorrows

The recent victories by the Somali Islamic Courts militia over various "Anti-Terrorist Alliance" warlords, supposedly funded by the USA, may seem a small story in these days of Iran, Al-Zarquawi and such. However, it has the potential to become a very large issue in the global war on terror, for Kenya regionally and for Al-Qaeda. The BBC has an excellent primer on the situation here.

East African countries have reacted by making the losing warlords persona non grata, calling for their trial at the ICC, freezing assets and other measures, led by Kenya. This they may later come to regret, if the Islamic Courts militia harden their stance to implementing a Sharia style "Taliban" state on Kenya's borders - a move that could have devastating consequences. It could easily extend to Kenya's north eastern tribes demanding a similar Sharia sytem in Kenya itself. However, in face of the Islamic Courts winning hand, there seems little to do for Kenya but offer them a cautious welcome and see what's next.

There is no doubt the Islamic Courts militia are sheltering a Al-Qaeda members, including one involved in the vicious East African embassy bombings of 1998. The Islamic Courts militia have certainly received training from outside Somalia. The defeated warlords might have remained a card in the deck to temper the courts and could re-emerge in Somalia's chaotic snakepit of clan politics.

On the other hand Kenya via the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development has employed immense time and effort to get the provisional Somali government off the ground, and the fractured,fractious body actually has set up in the town of Baidoa - but the capital Mogadishu is held by the Islamic Courts and the Somali government has no armed forces at all. If anything the warlords alliance was their "armed force". The Islamic Courts militia could crush the provisional government in a day. Ominously, the Islamic Courts have rejected a Somali government idea for African peacekeepers.

All the more reason to heed the 1858 "Compedium of African Geography", when that vintage book said that the inhabitants of the Somali coast are "violent, boisterous and turblulent" and "best left well alone".

Beeb Boob

It's nice that even the BBC corrects it's bias now and then. Regarding the open distortion of the "Hadji Girl" U.S. Marine song I said to BBC Newsonline:

"Kill Iraqis Marine Song" by Adam Brookes Updated 21:53 GMT 13/06/06 contains a crucial omission. Nowhere does it state the Marines song is about insurgents killing children (not Marines) and Marines trying to save the children and kill the insurgents.

In fact it gives the complete opposite "hint" that it is the Marines who are killing children and enjoying it. Seeing the song ( as I have) shows very clearly the Marines are singing about killing hostage taking/human shield type of insurgents.

Is this not a totally crucial piece of information? Why the omission that makes the story seem biased?"

Rightspeak was surprised and delighted to receive the following reply from the BBC:

"Thank you for your comments. We accept that our initial story was deficient and should have made it much clearer what the killing in the song lyrics referred to. We revised the story in the light of this. We subsequently did an updated story to include the marine's apology, which spelt out much more clearly the thrust of the song.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5081930.stm

But you made a fair criticism about our first story. We do aim to cover stories as objectively and accurately as possible."

Kind regards
BBC News website

Red-Faced Ken

Elsewhere in the blog is noted the low-life Mayor of London, "Red" Ken Livingstone, and his lavish welcome of anti-semitic, suicide-bomber blessing "moderate" sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi in 2005. Such is the quality of public life in UK that creatures like Livingstone and George Galloway thrive in politics. The left apparently sees no disconnect between the anti-feminism,anti-sexuality,anti-democracy and anti-free speech of radical Islam and itself.

However, the left is not about "equality", "human rights" and "inclusion" but about a ruthless, self-righteous elite who hope to seize power and hold it through social coercion, in the name of a mythical and abstract "collective good". Therefore anything anti-American or anti-Western, however disgusting, is preferred in all circumstances. This is the real reason for the love affair between the radical left and radical Islam, which operates exactly the same way.

Even Red Ken might be taken aback by Qaradhawi's latest remarks, courtesy of the wonderful MEMRI service:

Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Kerry who ran against Bush, was supported by homosexuals and nudists. But it was Bush who won [the elections], because he is Christian, right-wing, tenacious, and unyielding. In other words, the religious overcame the perverted. So we cannot blame all Americans and Westerners.

Interviewer: How should a homosexual or a lesbian be punished? We mentioned the story of the people of Sodom and how Allah punished them, but how should someone who commits this abomination be punished today?

Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The schools of thought disagree about the punishment..... Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom. Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement. The important thing is to treat this act as a crime."

This is the sheik who Livingstone said was "just like" Pope John Paul II.

Crazed White Christians

Imagine a pair of Christian fundamentalists went around the East Coast of the USA, sniping and shooting dead ten non-white American Muslims. At their trial,notebooks and texts show where they had written how Jesus Christ inspired them to kill "black devils" and how other figures like Hitler were drawn in portrait, labelled "A Good Leader". Would you be hearing about this from the MSM and the left from now until.....hell froze over?

There is such a sensational case, but you will hardly hear details about it because it involves a pair of Muslim influenced killersshooting what they called "white devils" on behalf of one "Allah". These are the Beltway Killers who terrorized the Eastern USA a while back. The leader was John Muhammed and his acolyte Lee Malvo. Ample evidence was produced at the trial of the religious nature of the serial killings, including notebooks and other writings. Bin Laden was featured heavility in Malvo's notebooks as a "Good Muslim". Malvo confessed to Islamic indoctrination from Muhammed who repeatedly talked of "shooting white devils" at a level of six victims a day, if possible.

Going by stories on the BBC, AP and other agencies there is no mention whatsoever of any link with Islam in the John Muhammed case. Even minor media like the Richmond Times Dispatch of Virginia where the shooting occurred merely mention "indoctrination", without using any further description of what kind. The 'Religion of Peace' is unmentioned.

One victim of the shootings who survived still does not understand. He tells the Richmond newspaper,

"I never expected to understand 'why' they were doing what they did -- it's not socially rational behavior -- but I did find a sense of closure in hearing 'what' they were doing."

Even by Koranic standards, it was not religiously rational, but that religious impulse was the fire that stoked the killings.

Visiting Another World

Just returned from another of my pleasurable visits to Madagascar, a country that ranks much further down the poverty list to Kenya. It's a strange and beguiling place; Africa is so close, so many people seem African in looks (then again, many seem Polynesian) but it is not like Africa, or anywhere else. Some interesting contrasts to mainland Africa were:

* There appear to be no slums and the average Malagasy owns a house,most of them sturdy if traditional.

* Despite the obvious poverty, crime and especially violent crime, is a paltry fraction of Kenya's level.

* Many people openly state they wish they had been colonized by the British, not the French, when you say you are from Nairobi.

* The matatus are amazingly organized, with pre-booked seats for up-country travel(!), little offices for each company and no touts whatsoever.

* The women are beautiful and polyglot in novel ways, not that Kenyans lack beauty. The Malagasy generally are discreet and quiet - but not in the South.

* The dead are venerated, and regularly dug up and re-buried after a prolonged party. In Madagascar, the dead are more important than the living!

* There are almost no sects and tent churches, everyone attends a mainstream church.

The Last Word

From an interview today broadcast on UKs' Channel 4, Ms. Ayaan Ali Hirsi hits the nail and the truth squarely on the head:

Interviewer: "Some say that you have gained notoriety because you say what Westerners want you to say about Islam."

Ms. Ali: "On the contrary, I say what the Westerners do not want to hear about Islam. They do not want to confront (the reality of) what I say."

Perfect!

Dutch Courage

It seems Dutch MP Ayaan Ali Hirsi may not be moving to the USA any time soon, after witch-hunting Dutch immigration Minister Rita Verdonk was ordered by Parliament to hold back on cancelling Hirsi's Dutch citizenship.

The tale is more revealing of the culture wars in America than anything else. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think thank, welcomed Hirsi should she move countries. That is, American conservatives were willing to embrace a Third World black female who stands for religious tolerance and for women's rights, especially within Islam.

Contrast this to the leftist administrators of the USA's famed Yale University. Despite voiciferous objection, they granted a university place to high-school educated Ramtullah Hashemi. He is the former unrepentant official spokesman for the fanatical, misogynist Taliban 'government' of Afghanistan. Hashemi routinely defended stoning women to death for adultery and banning them from going to school or even from selling bread.

Thinkers say that the left long ago lost the battle of the mind in the West. Some even say the Western left is willing to appease the forces of intolerance, the way the intellectual classes of Europe fawned before fascism and Stalinism in the 1930's. Go figure.

Warmonger Fascist Bush Is.....Vindicated?

The gravest charge against George W. Bush is that he took the Coalition into war with Iraq in 2003, fully knowing Iraq had disposed of all it's WMD. However, now that volumes of captured documents from Iraq are becoming translated, it's clear that Saddam wanted to maintain to his own military, neighbouring countries, Iraq itself and the USA the belief that he had WMD until as late as December 2002.

An excellent article in the Christian Science Monitor reveals Saddam thought that the WMD he did possess in the 1991 Gulf War were the only things that kept the Coalition from toppling him then - and these would do so again in Gulf War II. He also needed to instill fear into the rebellious Shiites and Kurds he had previously gassed and terrorized, keep Iran guessing and maintain morale amongst his generals.

Saddam sent allies such as the Yemenis in 2002 to inform Dick Cheney that Iraq would retaliate with WMD if attacked, reinforcing belief that he possessed them. Vice President Tariq Aziz stated his generals were "stunned" and lost morale when he informed them in December 2002 that he actually had none and was bluffing. George Bush was not.

These documents of the innermost workings of Saddam's regime show that Bush made an error, but that he was right in saying every major intelligence agency in the world thought Saddam still had WMD and there was no reason to believe otherwise. Saddam wanted it that way.

Hold Her Down, You Zulu Warrior!

What is it about South African politicos that makes them turn into moonbats when it comes to HIV/AIDS? First we had the bizarro President, Thabo Mbeki, inviting all the AIDS cranks and wingding thinkers to conferences. There they doubted the existance of any virus. Mbeki thus enraged Nelson Mandela and became a laughing stock amongst African scientists.

Now disgraced ex-VP Jacob Zuma, on trial for rape, not only admits he had sex with an HIV positive woman whose status he knew of, but that he afterwards "took a shower" because that way the risk of AIDS was "very low".

The fact is that Zuma, a Zulu from a non-circumcising tribe, has a 6 to 8 fold higher chance of catching AIDS in any case. That the Vice President of a quasi-modern nation can propagate "unsafe sex followed by a shower" almost defies belief. This statement has undone years of work by safe-sex campaigners all over Southern Africa.

How should Zuma know his exceptional risk staus. Well, from a French medical study that confirmed beyond doubt that non-circumcised African males like Zuma are at extreme HIV risk. Where was this landmark study done? South Africa.