| P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News |
JEDDAH, 4 March 2008 — Saudi Security forces have arrested 28 militants, who were involved in rebuilding the Al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia to launch another campaign of terror across the Kingdom, an Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement. The militants had been collecting funds on the pretext of supporting the needy in Pakistan and Afghanistan — money that was, in fact, being used “to finance their criminal activities,” said the spokesman. One of those arrested was carrying a recorded message of Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahri on the memory card of a cell phone. “The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers, therefore, please give him your donations to help hundreds of families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Al-Zawahri said in the audio recording aired by the Kingdom’s state television. The Interior Ministry spokesman added that a person visiting Makkah had brought the recording to the Kingdom. 56 Arrests Since December The latest arrests bring the total number of militants detained by Saudi authorities since December 2007 — when 28 people were arrested over alleged plans to attack sites outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the Haj season — to 56. The Interior Ministry statement added that the 56 men were of different nationalities and included the head of the group. The men had reportedly been close to establishing hide-outs for their cells, forging travel documents and launching a media campaign through the Internet to spread their deviant ideology. The spokesman said investigations proved that the newly detained militants belonged to Al-Qaeda and had been in contact with its leadership abroad. Those arrested were also recruiting young men and sending them to different regions of the Kingdom to participate in activities that undermine the security of Saudi Arabia. Clampdown on Al-Qaeda The latest arrests indicate that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist and extremist organizations are still trying to destabilize the Kingdom, the world’s largest oil supplier. A major sweep last April netted 172 militants, including pilots trained to carry out attacks on oil refineries using civilian planes. The Kingdom has orchestrated a heavy crackdown on Al-Qaeda since 2003. It has also been building a 35,000-strong rapid reaction force to protect oil installations after a failed Al-Qaeda attack in 2006 on the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has stressed that Saudi Arabia will root out terrorists from the country and has praised security forces for their work against militants. Interior Minister Prince Naif said his forces had foiled 95 percent of attacks and that 58 police officers have so far died in anti-terror operations. |
4 March 2008
28 Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Kingdom
2 March 2008
Poland and Malta Stand Up to European Union, United Nations on Abortion
by Samantha Singson
February 28, 2008
LifeNews.com Note: Samantha Singson writes for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. This article originally appeared in the pro-life group's Friday Fax publication.
The governments of Poland and Malta broke rank with the European Union on the question of abortion this week. The dissension occurred at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which convened it’s annual two-week meeting at UN headquarters in New York on Monday. The reaction of Poland and Malta happened after the EU tried to shift the meeting’s agenda to include the right to abortion.
On Tuesday Radoslaw Mleczko, the Polish Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, told the gathering of UN Member States that Poland generally aligned itself with the EU but that any EU reference to sexual and reproductive health could not include abortion.
On Thursday afternoon, the head of Malta’s mission to the UN, Ambassador Saviour F. Borg said, “Malta would like to clarify its position with respect to the language relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the [EU] statement. Malta firmly continues to maintain that any position taken or recommendations made regarding women’s empowerment and gender equality should not in any way create an obligation on any party to consider abortion as a legitimate form of reproductive health rights, services or commodities.”
The split in the European Union is significant because the EU hardly ever splits on questions of social policy at the UN. Even countries that are generally anti-abortion go along with the more radical approach taken by the United Kingdom, France and Germany. They do this as an agreement that the EU will always work out their differences behind closed doors and present a united front at UN negotiations.
This works to the advantage of the pro-abortion states since they outnumber the anti-abortion states.
Moreover, an EU that is divided is one that can be defeated on social policy questions. In fact, the last time the EU split in any significant way was in the UN cloning debate which resulted in the UN calling for the ban of all forms of human cloning, an effort opposed by the UK, France, Germany and other left-wing European governments. It is unclear how meaningful this current split will be in the negotiations which will begin in earnest tomorrow.
Pro-life and pro-family issues were also woven into UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s opening remarks to the commission on Monday when he criticized the now widespread practice of choosing abortions based on the sex of the baby, an issue that was all but taken off the agenda at last year’s CSW despite solid support from both civil society and numerous governmental delegations.
In his speech to launch the new UN multi-year campaign to end violence against women, the Secretary-General stressed, “Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge.”
The Secretary-General also highlighted the importance of families and children stating, “We know that violence against women compounds the enormous social and economic toll on families, communities, even whole nations. And we know that when we work to eradicate violence against women, we empower our greatest resource for development: mothers raising children.”
Among the many pro-life and pro-family lobbyists attending the CSW is a large contingent of high school girls from Overbrook Academy in Rhode Island. Fourteen year old Elsa Corripio told the Friday Fax, “We want these delegates to know that there are many young people who believe in respecting life.”
Ana Paola Rangel, 15, added, “Maybe we can't change the world, but we know we can make a difference.”
The CSW meeting continues through next week.Lies, more lies, and the truth of it
February 29, 2008
With Spain's general election looming, I've spent a little time searching out the inevitable anti-American ploy from the present incumbents. Those incumbents, as you may recall, were originally chosen to rule Spain for and on behalf of terrorists when three days before the election on March 14, 2004, their little helpers dealt their block vote, thus overturning yet another inevitable win that all major opinion polls had predicted. Since that time Spain's lunatic government have transformed this once great country, turning it almost overnight into a sleazy, crime ridden, and overrun, overpriced, Banana Republic. Its President recently described Hugo Chavez as a great patriot, and he always has a kind word to say about Infidel Castrato in Cuba, but not once has he had a kind word to say about the United States. And this is not solely because he's never been invited to the Whitehouse as he's persona non grata, I reckon he's never been invited because if he finds something that ain't been nailed down, it'll be winging its way back to the old banana plantation with him.
I've never encountered such an all-round bad government as this lot. Lying's their middle name, and if one were crazy enough to believe all the jive emanating from the pre-electoral PSOE government you'd get to thinking that the 1980's PSOE government, headed by Felipe Gonzalez, was the best thing since sliced terrorist, when in fact that bum and his chums destroyed the economy, so much so that when José Maria Aznar gained office in 1996, he soon discovered that the Spanish Pensions Fund was completely empty. He literally had to apply for a bank loan to supply the pension needs of Spain.
About three weeks back Zapatonto assured Spain that he would not form a new government if he did not receive a large majority, then this week in a TV interview, he stated that if need be he'd form pacts with other Left-wing parties. In my book this is a contradiction, but in Zappo's it's simply a way of life. The truth is, he and his unsavory and immoral, lying, cohorts, are getting worried about the outcome of the March 9 election, so worried that most of the leading lights, or darks, to be more exact, or maybe it's dorks, have taken on themselves the task of resurrecting the old hate America vote-promoting ploy. WMDs, George Bush and his "illegal Iraq war" are just two much-used recent examples, Aznar is another. During several TV debates Zapatonto took the space to rant on about the past; Franco and fascism, Aznar and terrorism, and his recent favorite of a non-existent "extreme Right-wing" on Spains political scene.
On the superb Antena 3 breakfast show, "Espejo Público," last Wednesday, one journalist remarked that Zappo and his crew are acting like those who ran the show in the United States during the so-called McCarthy witch-hunts, though in my view, Zappo and his loons are much worse on the witch-hunt stakes. They managed to exclude the Spanish Conservative party from attending any inter-party meetings in Catalonia by making secret agreements with Catalonia's most radical political movements. The truth came to light only when a secret jointly signed letter of agreement slipped out of their grasp. Then when two people were killed by a bomb blast at the T-4 Building of Madrid airport, December 30, 2006, planted by ETA, Zappo and his buddies continued secret negotiations with those terrorists, while telling the public that no negotiations were taking place. Zappo admitted this just several days back.
To make matters worse, he and his Leftist Loons have found themselves at war with the Spanish Church and major Christian organizations, over their gay civil marriage law, their new quickie divorce law, and numerous other little ditties that Christians in general do not approve of. Spain's Vice President, "De la Vaguely," rumored to be lesbian herself, (58 yet unmarried,) explained recently that neither the Catholic Church or anyone else will dictate morals to the government. Both herself and several other Leftist Loons, in reference to Christianity, are slipping in the term "ideology."
Truth be known, the "science of ideas" pitched against "spiritual faith and knowledge" are impossible to reconcile. For me the ideology tool holds no mysteries because those who think and act like beasts can never comprehend that spiritual dimension and its subsequent physical dynamics, whereas people like myself who can, find ourselves understanding where they're coming from too.
You see, personal taxation is a curse because it instills a false atmosphere of balance; if everyone pays their personal tax, and benefits and returns are available, such as marriage allowance, child allowance, adoption allowance, and so on, then those who live alternate sexual lifestyles and pay their full dues to Big Brother, start wondering why they're getting less out of that purse. I reckon that Alan Keyes' problems are due in great extent to his intention to abolish personal tax, for with personal and even small family business tax removed, the other side will find themselves without their pressure tool, for the very existence of personal taxation leads governments to offer handouts, and handouts can be fickle and contrived.
Finally, I guess, both the horizon of faith and of ideology join to become one, and folks increasingly become blind to obvious truths of spiritual harmony and balance, and I am not aware of any Western nation that does not use tax money to bribe it's servants prior to election time.
The first time I witnessed the ideology trick happening in Spain was about two months back on Tele Cinco's breakfast show, where Monseñor Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Catholic Church, delivered a superb round of points surrounding the church's opposition to the Anarchist Cause. In retaliation the other side not only slipped in the "ideology" tag, they also falsely accused the Spanish Church of telling their folks to vote Conservative, when in fact they were merely advising Catholics to vote for the party that promoted the same moral cause upheld by the church.
This false allegation left the other side open to attack on a charge of double standards, for in truth, the Socialist government were being promoted openly by Spain's Islamic Community leaders as the party to vote for, which is quite obvious as no future Islamic State could form with a Conservative government in place ... Al Andalus regained requires the pro-Islamic PSOE remaining in government, for that was the very purpose behind al Qaeda's "block vote" for Zappo, back in March 11, 2004, and I shouldn't have to remind you all that Gibraltar and Southern Spain are in the most strategic location in Europe, they form the gateway to the Mediterranean, though likewise, they could become a gateway for Europe's Islamic takeover.
Spain's present government are in place by terrorist favor, so next month's general election could prove to be of greater future historic interest than most would believe. For many years I've held the belief that Spain's present government, the PSOE, are nothing more than a stupid and unwitting arm on the body of Radical Islam, and when I say stupid it's used mildly, for the funny thing is that Radical Islam would reverse everything the PSOE government have been doing over the past four years, and I reckon it would take only three months to do it; Gay marriage would go, fast divorce, gay adoption rights, etc. In effect their unholy alliance will be the end of them.
I'm certain within myself that if the present incumbents are voted in for another destructive term, future historians will stand back in awe. They'll regard present-day Spain as the fulcrum point and successor to 1492, that was a fulcrum for Islam's expulsion from the Iberian Peninsular. Islam's Paradise Lost shall be turned to gain with a PSOE win next month. That's one thing I'm certain of. Yet already the Loon Regime's subjects are crying out against the huge immigration problem. This does not phase the government though, yet it should, because a recent poll found 71% of their own supporters and voters were worried too.
Spain, thanks to Zapatonto and his crew, is now second to United States in nations that receive the most immigrants, but Spain is a small country with just 45 million inhabitants ... or so we're told.
C S Lewis once said, "We laugh at honor, and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." And you know? There's a strong point there, and it's wisdom interconnects and weaves its way around world history and present-day world politics, because if someone's political career is flawed in the honors regime, then we'd be foolish to place our trust in them.
So come voting time the first thing any sensible person would do would be to check out the character and history of a prospective national leader, for after all, we're not their servants, they're ours. Our allegiance is not to them but their allegiance is meant to be to God and man.
Dr Alan Keyes is considering legal redress due to several cases of political stonewalling against him, and I'm with him all the way, as is the above quote by C S Lewis, for the point is here that I've yet to see the other candidates stand up and be counted, defending Alan Keyes' right to fight for the candidature. And if I was one of those candidates everyone would have to stick their fingers in their ears, for I'd be hollering from every high point in every State, saying, "I'm a man of honor. So I won't speak if he can't!" You see, without honor no one can be trusted. I reckon Alan's plight can be likened to some of King Solomon's judgments. I believe old Solomon would sit back and watch each and every candidate, then say, "One man spoke up and is thus deemed honorable, therefore, Alan Keyes and that man shall be the sole candidates." However, if no one spoke up, only Alan Keyes would be chosen. I firmly believe in spiritual wisdom and judgment, so I reckon if the others don't play fair in the honors stakes before the big day, how can we expect them to begin afterwards.
But maybe I see yet another lesson, another truth even, in various pre-electoral events that are taking place on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. For on both sides everything rests on figureheads, and each one is raised up and attacked from the other side.
"This thing Allegiance, as I suppose,
Is a ring fitted in the subject's nose,
Whereby that organ is kept rightly pointed
To smell the sweetness of the Lord's anointed."
— G.J.
Because God's invisible we've taken to hoisting up some straw man, and placed him in His stead; "One nation under God" becomes one nation under some man or woman, and we've failed to notice the stark truth of this. Other national leaders then find it easy to attack a nation completely by abusing and accusing it's leader, whereas with "one nation under God," it's entire people would feel a sense of righteous indignation, though sometimes I wonder why Americans en masse fail to take attacks against their leader as an attack against themselves, their families and their ancestry too. After all, this used to be the case way back when, in the days of good old Theocracy. Those were the days when true national faith led to true and positive change, and those changes were nigh on impossible for the enemy to deny.
Contact Johnny D. Symon at johnny_symon@yahoo.com
© Copyright 2008 by Johnny D. Symon
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/symon/080229
