http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/security-beefed-up-at-german-magazine-after-threat/article_01876c02-97e5-5102-85e0-a74b1a016888.html#ixzz1vcX5V5Xe “Germany’s intelligence and security agencies have been increasingly monitoring the actions of the Salafists, who number some 4,000 in Germany, in recent months.Overall, the officials said some 130 radical Muslims in Germany are known to authorities as being potentially violent, of whom 24 are part of the Salafist movement.” Security has been stepped up […]
I just want to drop you a note re US citizen Zack Shahin – now four years in prison in UAE/Dubai without bail, trial, or conviction. He’s been on a hunger strike for over a week (since Monday May 14). Tomorrow, Wednesday, he’ll have published as an ad in the Washington Times an Open Letter to President Obama and Governor Romney.
The gist of our complaint about Zack’s treatment is simple: why does our government publicly go to bat for all sorts of people around the world, most of whom are not even US citizens – Chen Guangcheng in China, Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Russia, Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine, etc., etc. – but the same officials, from the White House to Hillary Clinton on down, don’t raise a peep for a suffering US citizen whose life is now in danger?
Please see http://www.freezack.com/ for more background, including a short video (click on the big pic of Zack in his hospital bed on the homepage). Below is the text of the open letter that will appear tomorrow.
Anything you can do to call attention to this much appreciated. The Obama Administration and the State Department show they’re willing to grandstand on selected non-Americans (some who may well be worthy, others maybe not so much). But about Zack – well, he’s expendable.
Open Letter text below, followed by links to additional information:
“Dear President Obama:“Dear Governor Romney:
“I am writing to both of you, as the present and aspiring leaders of our country, to ask each of you to lend your voice publicly to my plea for fundamental fairness. I make this request respectfully and on the most urgent basis, fully aware that my life hangs in the balance.“My name is Zack Shahin. I am a citizen of the United States of America. I have been imprisoned in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), for over 1,500 days, without release on bail, without trial, and without conviction. I have never been given the opportunity to answer the baseless charges against me, stemming from my past position as a top executive at a real estate development company in Dubai.
“Instead of my ‘day in court,’ over the past four years following my original arrest and torture I have been on an endless treadmill of procedural court appearances – over 200 of them – of which only 17 lasted more than three minutes, and none was over 40 minutes or addressed the substance of the charges against me. I have on three occasions been “released” upon posting bond, only to be immediately re-arrested on new trumped-up accusations before leaving the court building.
“The U.S. Embassy in UAE and the Consulate in Dubai, and the Department of State in Washington, have assured me that they closely ‘monitor’ my ‘case’ and have voiced their ‘concerns’ to UAE/Dubai. These ‘concerns’ have been conveyed in at least four diplomatic notes and in person by at least two Cabinet-level U.S. officials – all tactfully in private, where they are dismissed as unserious by my captors, who conclude UAE and Dubai are too important to Washington to risk over one lone American.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4433
Israeli turns away from Everest summit to rescue Turkish climber
With just 300 meters to go, Israeli climber Nadav Ben Yehuda gives up dream to scale Mount Everest, saves injured Turkish climber instead • Had Ben Yehuda not turned back, he would have been youngest Israeli to reach summit of world’s tallest mountain. With recent reports of a degree of rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, comes a heartwarming tale of sacrifice, sportsmanship and humanity that could, hopefully, add to easing the rifts between the two former regional allies.
Israeli mountain climber Nadav Ben Yehuda gave up on his dream to climb Mt. Everest with just 300 meters to go before reaching the summit. Within sight of the summit, Ben Yehuda turned around to save an injured Turkish climber.
According to Israel Radio, which broke the story on Tuesday morning, Ben Yehuda himself sustained injuries during his rescue of the Turkish climber. According to the report, Ben Yehuda, 24, suffered severe frostbite and may lose his fingers.
The Muslim Brotherhood in America: A Video Course — on The Jamie Glazov Show
by Frontpagemag.com
Frank Gaffney discusses his new video course with callers from across the country.
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/23/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-america-a-video-course-on-the-jamie-glazov-show-tuesday-may-15-2012-8-9-pm-pacific-1-1-1/
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/23/smoke-and-mirrors-on-the-campaign-trail/
In his April 18th column for RealClearPolitics, Senior Elections Analyst Sean Trende notes that the upcoming presidential elections between the incumbent, Democratic President Barack Obama, and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, will be, as usual, “a referendum on the party in power.” That is, President Obama will be running, whether he wants to or not (and he clearly doesn’t), on his performance record.
Considering Mr. Obama’s poor presidential performance, particularly in the key area of the economy, he will have a difficult time selling his self-trumped-up success in turning around the economy since the great crash in September 2008 – the very crash that leveraged him into the White House (“everything is Bush’s fault”) – no matter what is written on his cue cards.
Without a doubt, Team Obama agrees, and their strategy is a combination of Mr. Obama running as if he isn’t the incumbent (“everything is always someone else’s fault” – President Bush, Congress, the Republican majority in the House, anybody and everybody who isn’t Barack Obama), and at the same time, trying to impugn the good name and record of his Republican challenger, Mr. Romney, so the voters will prefer Mr. Obama by comparison.
This explains the Bain Capital ads and other similar attacks. But, like everything else Team Obama has tried in the last two months, this strategy seems to have backfired. Even Obama supporter Newark Mayor Cory Booker, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this past Sunday, said, “I have to just say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity. To me, it’s just, we’re getting to a ridiculous point in America. Especially,” declared Mayor Booker, a Democrat, “that I know I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people invest in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses.”
Pronouncing “this kind of stuff” to be “nauseating to me…[and] to the American public,” Mayor Booker put it succinctly. “It undermines…what this country should be focused on. It’s a distraction from the real issues.”
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3073/saudi-fatwa-ban-christian-churches “How could the grand mufti issue a fatwa of such importance behind the back of his king?” In late April of this year, the Wahhabi grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdullah Aal Ash-Sheikh, who controls all Sunni Muslim clerics in the desert kingdom, announced that girls could be forced into […]
Why Are We Importing Any Energy? Energy imports are terribly expensive in money, balance of payments, jobs and cost of goods. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 showed how costly it can be for the economy and for military strength. The only justifiable reason to import energy is if you do not have the resources […]
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/05/21/losing-the-world-to-win-reelec It’s more and more difficult to write about the Islamist war against Western civilization. Not because there is too little to write, or because the fronts in that war are quiet. It’s tough to do because fewer people seem to give a damn each week. Maybe the stark ironies of the war could bestir […]
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ The debate over the Iraq War that was held in the United Nations, and in academic and foreign policy circles, could be broken down as the question whether it was Iraq or the United States that was the rogue nation. On the one hand, Iraq had defied multiple UN resolutions, but so had the […]
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=270896 For Palestinians, Arabs and most Muslims, a “peace process,” the “two-state solution” that accepts Israel, is a metaphor for defeat. The “peace process” between Israel and the Arabs, touted as part of a “two state” plan, failed not because of disagreements over settlements and boundaries, but because of a basic false assumption: that Palestinianism […]
