Target Centermass

Category: Europe

  • Violence Mars Germany’s May Day

    Ah, I miss the pageantry of the martial May Day parades in Moscow. Instead, now it’s replaced by idiocy on parade in Germany.

    German riot police battled masked left-wing anarchists in Berlin and Leipzig on Sunday as sporadic violence once again marred May Day celebrations.

    About 100 people in the two cities were arrested, but police in Berlin said the extent of the damage was less extensive than in previous years.

    Throwing stones, bottles and signal rockets at police, a group of anarchists overturned a car in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district near the government quarter but were chased away by police before they could set it on fire.

    Kreuzberg — a Bohemian district populated with a mixture of immigrants, students and squatters — has been the scene of May Day violence for the past 18 years despite extensive prevention efforts by police.

    “We had predicted it would be quieter this year, but not completely without incident and that’s what’s happened,” a police spokesman said.

    The most tense moment came shortly before sunset on Sunday when a group of about 1,500 anarchists, many of them masked and wearing dark hoods, tried to march toward the Berlin headquarters of the Axel Springer publishing company.

    “Everything for everyone and everything for free,” they chanted.

    They were stopped by squads of riot police from getting closer than 150 yards to the building, where several conservative newspapers are published. About a dozen anarchists then tipped over a car and smashed its windows in front of photographers and journalists.

    “Everything has been peaceful up until now,” another police official said. “We had a few youths who got a bit over-excited and had too much to drink, but it’s calmed down again now.”

    After sunset, anarchists made another shortlived attack on police, hurling bottles and stones at police near a street festival.

    Ten were arrested in Berlin on Sunday evening after 65 were arrested late on Saturday and early Sunday.

    Earlier on Sunday, police in Leipzig turned water cannon on left-wing demonstrators who battled riot police. Thirty leftists were arrested for acts of violence to disrupt a court-approved march of 1,000 right-wing demonstrators.

    Everything for everyone and everything for free?!! These are not true principles of anarchy. Rather, this is the rallying cry of a bunch of spoiled babies coddled too long by a nanny state — kids fearing to face the competition of a successful and free capitalistic system. The world should be handed to them, doled out free of sacrifice or effort. Without a government, how would everything be freely distributed to everybody short of sheer and absolute theft which would, in turn, remove any incentive for an individual to be productive? With no government, no means to ensure goods are produced and distributed freely. With a government, no anarchy. These are not anarchists, but lazy socialists who dig the circle-A logo and the X Game approach to political displays.

    These fools are no better than the other deniers of human nature — the socialists that are dragging down the economies of Europe and the lingering communists still idealistically yearning for a workers’ paradise that could never truly be.

    Modern Europe needs some work before it’s again ready for an economically competitive real world.

  • Gallipoli Dead Remembered at Dawn

    Ninety years ago tomorrow, one of the bloodiest blunders in military history began. At dawn, the World War I star-crossed campaign of Gallipoli will be honored.

    The bloody World War I landing of Australian and New Zealand troops in Gallipoli will be remembered at a solemn dawn ceremony on Monday.

    Australian Prime Minister John Howard, his New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark and Britain’s Prince Charles will make the pilgrimage to the Turkish bay.

    The campaign was aimed at capturing Istanbul and providing a supply line to Russia 90 years ago.

    But more than 100,000, including 20,000 Irish and British, never returned home.

    The site of the down service is named Anzac cove after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who landed there on 25 April 1915.

    Thousands of visitors from the two countries are expected to attend the largest gathering ever at the site.

    The campaign ended eight months later, when the Allied Forces abandoned the peninsula.

    “To walk on the battlefields of Gallipoli is to walk on ground where so much blood was shed it has become almost sacred soil,” Helen Clark said at a ceremony to honour Turkey’s fallen troops on Sunday.

    “For New Zealand as for Australia it was at Gallipoli that our young nations came of age.”

    Go read for much more on the tragic campaign. I would also recommend the Mel Gibson flick of the same name.

    I, for one, will mark the day with the haunting tune “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the Pogues.

    But the band played Waltzing Matilda
    As we stopped to bury our slain
    We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
    Then we started all over again

    Full lyrics can be found here.

  • Oui or Non, EU Constitution Will Persist

    Even if the French vote down the European Union’s proposed constitution, which may well happen next month and would theoretically doom the proposal, its supporters in the EU have a plan to carry on with the ratification process.

    The key to their “Plan B” is to insist that countries due to hold votes later this year – or even next year, like Britain – carry on regardless of the result in France until all 25 member states have been given a chance to ratify the treaty.

    On the surface, there is no basis for holding further referendums if the French vote No. The draft European Union constitution must be ratified by all member states, and a French No should effectively kill the treaty.

    However, the EU was not built by letting details like No votes sway its founding fathers from their mission. After the Maastricht Treaty was voted down in Denmark and Ireland, both countries were invited to vote again, and finally voted Yes.

    “No means no” has no meaning to the EU. Instead it means keep plying the subject with drinks until the subject slurs yes or passes out. Either is taken as acquiescence and means that the EU can have its way and then proceed to its next target.

    Faced with 21 consecutive opinion polls showing the No camp ahead in France, pro-constitution EU leaders have begun asserting that there is a moral, political and even a legal obligation to carry on voting – an argument aimed squarely at Britain.

    Reversing his previous categorical assurances that a referendum would be held in Britain come what may, Tony Blair is now hinting at a change of course. He said on Monday that if France were to reject the constitutional treaty on May 29 there might be nothing for the British electorate to vote on.

    Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, whose tiny nation holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said: “The French vote is important but I don’t believe it should stop the ratification process under way in other countries.”

    A vote that should, in theory, derail the constitution is “important but” not enough to stop the process. Trust me, in the eyes of the EU supporters, no votes in all 25 countries would be a “hurdle but” nothing that couldn’t be overcome.

    Senior eurocrats have started murmuring that Britain and other waverers are obliged to continue the ratification process.

    Their argument is founded on an obscure declaration tacked on to the end of the draft constitution that says that if, by December 2006, four fifths of the 25 states have ratified the treaty but “one of more member states have encountered difficulties in proceeding with ratification”, then “the matter will be referred” to a summit of EU heads of state and government.

    Ah yes, the little-known codicil that will allow them to place non-ratifying countries on double-secret probation.

    Françoise le Bail, the chief spokesman of the commission, yesterday insisted that such a summit could only gauge the true depth of EU support for the constitution if voting continued, making that clause “the tangible element, if you will, that seems to suggest that the process of ratification should continue to the end”.

    Her analysis is not shared by all EU governments. One EU diplomat said: “It’s obvious that if the French vote No there will be an immediate discussion between the governments. If President Chirac says the French won’t vote twice, then the idea that other countries are going to go on to ratify is laughable. For one thing, how exactly do you go about winning a Yes campaign in another country, if the French have made clear they are going to veto the constitution at the end?”

    It is my opinion that this diplomat has not read the writing on the wall. This constitution will, one way or another, be ratified in its current or a very slightly modified form. The national referendums are only a formality, one especially easily overcome if the EU can get 20 yes votes by December 2006.

    This is not exactly without precedent. The United States’ Articles of Confederation required approval by all states for amendment. However, the Constitution set is own lower barrier for acceptance, declaring the Articles moot and itself the supreme law of the land at the approval of only nine of the thirteen states. The EU’s proposed constitution has set itself up for a similar maneuver, though I don’t expect the reward to be anywhere near as great for following generations who will live under its law.

  • Courts Take on Terrorists

    Moussaoui Pleads Guilty, Says bin Laden Chose Him for Attacks

    Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty today to conspiring with the September Eleventh hijackers to kill Americans and declared that he was personally chosen by Osama bin Laden to fly a plane into the White House during a later attack.
    Moussaoui admitted guilt in front of a packed courtroom only a few miles from where one of the four hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in 2001.

    He pleaded to six counts, four of which could bring the death penalty, and said he had not been promised a lighter sentence for his pleas and expected no leniency.

    The judge accepted the plea, making the French citizen the lone person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with the attacks that killed nearly three thousand.

    Moussaoui will have his sentence determined at a later date.

    Chad at In the Bullpen notes that Moussaoui expects no leniency in his sentencing. Chad then goes on to take the court to task.

    In my view this trial took completely too long […] Moussaoui should have served as a lesson to terrorists around the world that the American justice system will react harshly when this country is attacked, but it did not.

    You may also find the case’s Statement of Facts an interesting read.

    13 Years for Shoe Bomb Plotter

    A British Muslim who took part in a “shoe bomb” plot to blow up two transatlantic airliners was jailed for 13 years yesterday.

    Saajid Badat, 25, an Islamic scholar whose anger at the treatment of Muslims led him to become a potential “courier of death” after attending Taliban training camps in Afghanistan, would have faced a 50-year sentence had he not backed out of the conspiracy.

    His fellow potential shoe bomber, Richard Reid, a former Brixton street criminal who converted to Islam and became a follower of the al-Qa’eda leader Osama bin Laden, tried and failed to detonate his footwear on a Paris-Miami flight just months after the September 11 attacks on New York. Reid has been jailed for life in the US.

    Badat, however, threw away his shoe and hid an amount of explosive at his family home in Gloucester in December 2001. Like Reid’s device it would have been capable of blowing a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft, almost certainly bringing it down.

    At the Old Bailey yesterday Mr Justice Fulford told Badat, who had admitted conspiring to blow up an airliner at a hearing in February, “that the plot was truly appalling”.

    ”Your joint objective was the murder of hundreds of unsuspecting men, women and children who happened by chance and bad luck to be travelling on the airliner selected by the conspiracy.”

    Badat had remained in the plot, which involved him and Reid blowing themselves up on flights from Europe to America, shortly before Christmas 2001, until “very late in its evolution”, the court heard. His continued participation may have encouraged Reid. However, in the end Badat turned his back on the plan and tried to return to a normal life and hoped the affair would “go away”.

    […]

    [Michael Mansfield, QC, defending,] said: “It was his faith which in a sense took him to the brink of disaster and at the same time it was his faith in the end which pulled him back.” Badat, he added, wanted to send a message to those minded to use force, that “they should have the courage to turn away”.

    Was it faith that stopped him? Not the faith of a man who would would travel to Afghanistan for terrorist training under bin Laden. No, I’d say it was more likely cowardice. Badat and Reid, coward and incompetent. Talk about your pair of jokers.

    Missile Accused a Clown, Says Lawyer

    A Briton charged with selling a shoulder-launched missile to terrorists for use in the US was described by his lawyer today as “a joke, a clown”, who was strung along by undercover agents in a case of entrapment.

    Defence lawyer Henry Klingeman portrayed Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, as a failed businessman who “couldn’t finish a deal if his life depended on it”.

    Mr Lakhani, arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation, was charged with trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and money laundering. He could face 25 years in prison.

    US District Judge Katharine Hayden scheduled the New Jersey jury to begin deliberations on Tuesday.

    […]

    While the prosecution depicted him as an enthusiastic broker eager to supply a terrorist group, the defence said he was a victim of the Government’s overzealous law enforcement in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

    “He may be a fool, a charlatan, but he’s no arms dealer,” said Mr Klingeman, who said there was nothing in Lakhani’s background to suggest involvement with terrorists and no criminal record of that sort.

    The defence lawyer said Mr Lakhani was a failed businessman who had declared bankruptcy, owed taxes on his house, was evicted from the office where he ran his clothing business, and owed money on bounced cheques.

    Prosecutor Stuart Rabner countered that Mr Lakhani had freely offered to arrange the sale of 50 more missiles.

    “There was no coercion. No threats, no guns to the defendant’s head,” said Mr Rabner. “You don’t have to be sophisticated to be a criminal. You can be a dumb criminal.”

    The prosecution produced hours of videotapes and taped telephone conversations of Mr Lakhani allegedly making the deal with an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant, and evidence of negotiations with Russian law enforcement officers posing as Ukrainian arms suppliers.

    An interesting strategy there by the defense. It might have been effective had Lakhani been charged with being a genius. Unfortunately, willfully trying to aid terrorists is a bit more serious matter. It’s also something idiots are quite capable of doing. Since we can’t kill him, I hope the jury locks him away for the max. Maybe others behind bars can complete the justice Lakhani deserves.

    As an aside, isn’t that just a craptastic headline?

  • Keeping with the Theme o’ the Day

    Religion. Religion. Religion.

    Air Force Cadets See Religious Harassment

    Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

    There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet.

    The 4,300-student school recently started requiring staff members and cadets to take a 50-minute religious-tolerance class.

    “There are things that have happened that have been inappropriate. And they have been addressed and resolved,” said Col. Michael Whittington, the academy’s chief chaplain.

    More than 90 percent of the cadets identify themselves as Christian. A cadet survey in 2003 found that half had heard religious slurs and jokes, and that many non-Christians believed Christians get special treatment.

    […]

    Critics of the academy say the sometimes-public endorsement of Christianity by high-ranking staff has contributed to a climate of fear and violates the constitutional separation of church and state at a taxpayer-supported school whose mission is to produce Air Force leaders.
    […]

    “They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don’t have another situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of the academy,” said Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the younger, Curtis, has been called a “filthy Jew” many times.

    There’s more examples of complaints, both vague and specific, in the story. Even those of a religious bent who boisterously proclaim, “There’s no atheists in a foxhole” have to admit that any foxholes around Colorado Springs are relatively safe. The military has an obligation to respect and protect the individual religious beliefs or non-beliefs of its personnel, as long as they do not interfere with the mission.

    I do recommend that, during the initial weeks of basic training, atheists joining the Army may do well to become religious. That treasured hour or two on Sunday morning may be your only break from the drill sergeants for a while.

    China Calls for New Pope to Break Taiwan Ties

    Beijing called on new Pope Benedict XVI to break ties with Taiwan and stay out of China’s internal affairs to create the conditions for better Sino-Vatican relations.

    “We are willing to improve the relationship between China and the Vatican on the basis of two principles,” said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang of ties that were ruptured in 1951 when China expelled the Vatican’s ambassador.

    “One is that Joseph Ratzinger should break off the so-called diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and recognise that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government which represents China and that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.

    “The second is that Ratzinger should not interfere in internal Chinese affairs, including in the name of religion.

    “We hope that with a new Pope, the Vatican can create conditions to improve China-Vatican relations.”

    Despite not recognizing the authority of the Pope, the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association had sent a congratulatory telegram “in the name of the Bishops and believers of the whole country,” the ministry said.

    It added that congregations had been told to pray for Pope Benedict XVI.

    China’s Roman Catholics are divided into two churches — the government-approved “patriotic” church which does not recognize the authority of the Pope, and the underground church where adherents accept the pontiff as leader.

    The government church has about four million worshippers, according to official figures, while the underground church has about 10 million, based on Vatican estimates.

    Breaking through half-a-century of enmity to re-establish relations with China may be the greatest diplomatic challenge facing Pope Benedict XVI as he takes on the mantle as leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

    Fixing broken ties with China would spread the new pontiff’s spiritual realm to the most populous nation on earth, home to 1.3 billion people. But it is precisely that global influence that scares Beijing.

    China sent no representative to Pope John Paul II’s funeral in Rome on April 8 to protest the presence of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian at the event. Any hint of recognition of Taipei infuriates China, which considers the island a rebel province.

    The spat obscured mounting signs of an effort by the Vatican to crack China’s resistance to the Roman Catholic Church.

    Does anybody know how to say, “Um, yeah, right, whatever, talk to the ring” in Latin?

  • Today’s Big News and Some Frivolities

    I’m in a rather mellow mood right now, so let’s keep it light.

    The big story of the day went up in smoke — white smoke, that is, as a new pope has been elected. I’m not Catholic, or even religious for that matter, but I do recognize the importance of the position in international and American affairs. That said, I’ll leave it to someone much spiritually closer to the matter, Phil over at Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum), who seems quite excited about the choice of Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger as the man with the cool hats.

    Wow.

    I have to admit, I am very excited and happy by this turn of events. Cardinal Ratzinger is a brilliant man, and an ardent defender of the faith. The Church is in good hands with him in charge. I have about four of his books collecting dust on my shelf right now, so I best get about to looking at them again.

    Phil goes on to look in more depth at what the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger means, both to devout Catholics and to those who were hoping for a great change in Catholic orthodox.

    Now, on to those frivolities.

    Jeff at Protein Wisdom has the first Pope Benedict XVI joke.

    I posted before that Eric’s fine blog has a new site and new name. He now has a new look. Please feel free to drop by his new digs and make fun of the banners he’s added. Yes, I have a personal interest in this.

    Go pick a fight with the monster that is TexasBestGrok.

    Who needs Dances with Wolves when there’s Travels with Chicken?!

    Once again, Khan!!!

    And to bring it back full circle, Hog on Ice‘s Steve is pushing for a grass-roots campaign to have the pope recalled.

  • An Anniversary Sadly Marked

    Today is the sixtieth anniversary of the discovery by British troops of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the site where Anne Frank spent her final days.

    Thanks to Alan at Petrified Truth for the reminder and this set of relevant links.

  • Soldiers Cleared in Sgrena Shooting … or Not

    From MSNBC (hat tip to the Jawa Report):

    Report Clears U.S. in Friendly Fire Incident

    The friendly fire shooting at a U.S. military checkpoint last month in Baghdad wounded Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed intelligence agent Nicola Calipari.

    Now, NBC News has learned that a preliminary report from a joint U.S.-Italian investigation has cleared the American soldiers of any wrongdoing and provides new details into the shooting.

    […]

    It was dark when the Italians turned onto a ramp leading to the airport road where the U.S. military had set up a temporary checkpoint.

    The investigation found the car was about 130 yards from the checkpoint when the soldiers flashed their lights as a warning to stop. But the car kept coming and, at 90 yards, warning shots were fired. At 65 yards, when the car failed to stop, the soldiers used lethal force — a machine gun burst that killed Calipari and wounded Sgrena and the driver.

    Senior U.S. military officials say it took only about four seconds from the first warning to the fatal shots, but insist the soldiers acted properly under the current rules of engagement.

    The investigation failed, however, to resolve one critical dispute: The Americans claim the car was racing toward the checkpoint at about 50 miles per hour, the Italians say it was traveling at a much slower speed.

    Wait, the Associated Press says not yet:

    Italy, U.S. Disagree Over Agent Shooting

    Reluctance by Italian investigators to accept the U.S. version of the killing of an Italian security agent by American troops in Iraq last month is holding up the conclusion of a joint inquiry into the shooting, Italian newspapers said Thursday.

    Also Thursday, the U.S. State Department said the investigation was ongoing and denied an NBC report that the U.S.-Italian commission had completed a preliminary report clearing the Americans of any wrongdoing in the killing.

    […]

    “Anyone asserting that conclusions have been reached, or anyone claiming that conclusions have been reached, and they know what they are, must be misinformed,” State Department press officer Thomas Casey said.

    Casey noted that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said on Wednesday after a meeting Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini that the most important thing was to do the investigation right, not to do it fast.

    An Italian Foreign Ministry official said the commission was continuing its work. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to comment on the reports of a clash among the investigators.

    For once, she of the ever–changing story is quiet:

    Sgrena: I Won’t Comment on Leaks

    “We’ll keep doing whatever we can to find out what happened on March 4 near Baghdad’s airport” Giuliana Sgrena said speaking in the offices of the Province of Rome where she is taking part in a demonstration promoted by the Press Federation to call for the release of Florence Aubese, the correspondent of French newspaper ‘Liberation’ who was kidnapped in Iraq 100 days ago. Giuliana Sgrena chose not to comment the first leaks from the Italy-US Investigating Committee (“I’ll comment only on the conclusions of final official sources”).

    Well, if her version that mentioned 300 to 400 rounds fired or her version where she scooped shells off the seat were true, this would’ve been a pretty cut-and-dried investigation.

    Keep quiet, liar.

  • Chirac Gives Latest Pro-EU Argument

    Do it to piss off the Brits and the Americans.

    A French Non to the EU constitution will “boomerang” against France and delight “Anglo-Saxon” opponents of a powerful Europe, President Jacques Chirac said.

    In his first major contribution to France’s increasingly sour EU referendum campaign, President Chirac made it clear that, if the country votes “no”, he will ignore the precedent set by his political idol Charles de Gaulle and refuse to resign.

    Debating with 83 young people in a two-hour television political chat show, M. Chirac put up a spirited – if often vague – defence of the proposed new European Union constitution.

    France’s voice in Europe would be “silenced” and “Anglo-Saxon” enemies of the EU – in both Britain and America – would be delighted if the French reject a constitution “largely inspired by France and French values,” he said.

    Far from being a surrender to “liberal” (ie capitalist) values, as left-wing opponents claim, President Chirac said that the constitution enshrined the French view that market forces were essential but should be “organised” and “humanised”.

    […]

    In 13 consecutive opinion polls in the past month, French voters have said that they are planning to reject the EU constitution in a referendum on 29 May. A French Non would in effect wreck the treaty and leave the enlarged EU to struggle on with its existing system of decision-making.

    Opposition to the treaty is especially strong on the left. In part this is a protest vote against 10 per cent unemployment, President Chirac and the floundering centre-right government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

    […]

    One young woman asked M. Chirac to give “two or three concrete” examples of how the constitution would benefit France. M. Chirac struggled to give a simple answer. He mentioned a boom in French trade with eastern Europe; the fact that the treaty would enshrine women’s rights; and would increase co-operation against international crime.

    But he kept coming back to his central message: France had nothing to fear; this was a French text, hated by “les Anglo Saxons”.

    M. Chirac was asked if he would follow the example General de Gaulle, who resigned as president in 1969 after losing a referendum on regional government. President Chirac said that he could reply to that question in one word: Non.

    While it seems to be a traditional rallying cry of the French, it is hardly a stirring endorsement of the EU constitution.

  • U.S. Indicts Three in Terror Plot

    The U.S. has brought charges against three potential terrorists who are alleged to have been aiming at key American financial targets.

    Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Tuesday against three men in British custody in connection with scouting financial targets in the United States as preparation for a possible terrorist attack.

    Officials have identified the targets as the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, and Prudential headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.

    The three men — all British nationals — were arrested in England in August. At the time, U.S. law enforcement officials raised the terror threat level, citing evidence from “multiple sources” that al Qaeda members were planning another attack on the United States before Election Day.

    It will happen here again, though we stand a better chance now of catching grandiose schemes such as this than previously. The tragedy of 9/11 has objectively been more of a defeat than a victory for the radical Islamist terrorists, both in its enticement to them for greater acts more easily detected and in its spurring our bringing the war to them. That said, as I’ve repeatedly posted before, I believe it will happen here on a smaller, more personal scale.

    We need to steel ourselves to that eventuality. Also, we must remember that, no matter the effort, a huge tragedy could get through the defenses. We have to be right one hundred percent of the time; they only have to slip through once for a wealth of evil glory.