Today is the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I’ll bow to Guy at Snugg Harbor to honor the date and examine the horror here and here. WARNING: Guy posts that images in the second link are not safe for work, though I disagree. I put it at PG-13, and a must-see and a must-remember for all older.
Category: Europe
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Italy To Return Ethiopian Obelisk
In post-9/11 America, much has been made of the appeasement that preceded World War II, especially the case of the Sudetenland and the Munich Agreement. Somewhat lost in the sands of time are the military conflicts in the years leading up to the outbreak of the war. Chief among these are the Sino-Japanese War, with the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and a wealth of atrocities that make Abu Graib look like a four-year-old’s birthday party, and the Spanish Civil War, the proving ground for the troops, equipment and tactics of the Soviets, Germans and Italians. Even more obscure is the invasion of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) by Benito Mussolini’s Italy in 1935. That aggression may finally be finding a closure.
An Ethiopian national treasure, the ancient Axum Obelisk that was plundered by Italian fascist invaders in 1937, will be returned by Rome in April, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The 24-meter obelisk, believed to be at least 1,700 years old, was split in three and hauled off when Italy under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1937.
Italy promised in 1947 to return the 200-tongranite column, a symbol of the dawn of Ethiopian civilization, but arguments and logistical problems delayed it until November last year when the two countries finally agreed to fly it home.
[…]
Returning the segments of the monument and the machinery to put it back together is a gargantuan logistical task.
Landlocked Ethiopia has had to build a special runway for the only aircraft big enough to carry the pieces, the U.S.-built C-5 Galaxy and Russian-made Antonov 124. The Antonov was the plane finally chosen to bring the obelisk home.
It’s surprising that the massive artifact took around a year to remove and over a half-century to return. For no reason at all, I blame the recent resurgence of trucker hats.
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Suspected Islamists held in Paris
The French have detained several apparent Islamist terrorist wannabes before they could make their way to Iraq.
A total of 11 suspected Islamic militants have been detained in Paris this week by intelligence agents who believe they have foiled an operation to send volunteers to fight against the US army in Iraq, officials said.
Four young men arrested early yesterday were being held at the headquarters of the domestic intelligence service DST, along with six of the seven people detained on Monday in an high-immigration neighborhood in the northeast of the capital.
One of two women detained on Monday was released yesterday morning, police said.
The identities of the detainees were not disclosed, but officials said that eight of the nine men — all aged between 20 and 24 — were of north African, mainly Algerian, origin with French nationality and all born in Paris. The other was a French convert to Islam.
They were arrested as part of an anti-terrorist investigation launched last September after evidence emerged of a so-called “Iraqi network” recruiting Islamic militants to fight US forces there.
One of those held is considered by police to be a recruiter of young men willing to fight in Iraq. He was described as the brother-in-law of a a member of a terrorist group which was dismantled on the eve of the 1998 football World Cup which France hosted.
Two of his charges were said to be on the point of leaving for Iraq.
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“At the moment it would be wrong to speak of organised networks like there were with Afghanistan,” said a senior official.
“But we are determined to stop young people going to make jihad in Iraq because if they come back they will have greatly enhanced prestige, and be in a position to recruit more people to the cause — or even mount terrorist operations,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Couple this with the recent bust in Germany of two suspected al-Qaida members and tell me Europe doesn’t have a problem. It seems, however, that the Euros are only willing to treat the symptoms rather than actually tackling the disease.
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Germany Nabs 2 Suspected al-Qaida Members
I find this story especially interesting because of the financial twist.
German police arrested two suspected al-Qaida members Sunday believed to have plotted a suicide attack in Iraq — with a side venture in insurance fraud, taking out a policy on the suicide bomber to use the money to fund the terror organization.
The chief suspect, 29-year-old Iraqi Ibrahim Mohamed K., is also believed to have tried to obtain nearly two ounces of uranium in Luxembourg.
He also “played a not unimportant role in al-Qaida, because he showed signs of contact with Osama bin Laden and met with Ramzi Binalshibh,” one of the plotters of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, chief federal prosecutor Kay Nehm told reporters.
The Iraqi, a resident of Mainz, was arrested on suspicion of recruiting suicide attackers in Germany and providing logistical help to al-Qaida, Nehm said.
The other suspect, a 31-year-old Palestinian, identified as Yasser Abu S., was allegedly recruited by the Iraqi to be a suicide bomber in an attack in Iraq. The Palestinian is a Bonn medical student, who was born in Libya and has an Egyptian passport, Nehm said.
Prosecutors said the Iraqi took out a $1 million life insurance policy on the medical student, who was then to fake his death in a car accident in Egypt. The majority of the insurance payoff was to fund al-Qaida activities, they said.
After the faked death, the Palestinian was to go to Iraq to carry out a suicide bombing, the prosecutor said.
The story goes on to point out that the Iraqi suspect had trained multiple times at the al-Queda camps in Afghanistan before the terror-loving Taliban regime was toppled. Details of other recent German moves against radical Islamists within their borders are also listed.
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Inauguration Speech
I missed it. You know, work, earning a living, all that jazz. I’m going to read it tonight or tomorrow but I’ve caught enough bits and pieces to feel I can approve of the gist of it.
Strike that. After reading some of the British media reaction, I feel safe in saying I strongly approve.
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Calls for EU Ban on Nazi Symbols
You have to love when a stupid act causes an even more pinheaded reaction.
Several German lawmakers have called for a Europe-wide ban on Nazi insignia following widespread outrage after Britain’s Prince Harry wore a swastika as part of a costume at a high-society gathering.
Prince Harry, who went to a costume party dressed in an Afrika Korps uniform with a swastika armband, “really lacked taste,” said Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic parliamentary group.
Bosbach said it was possible European justice ministers at an upcoming meeting would discuss bringing in a European prohibition on displaying the swastika and other Nazi signs. These already are banned in Germany, which nonetheless has a worrying problem of xenophobic neo-Nazi activities, particularly in the former Communist east of the country.
“All of Europe has suffered in the past because of the crimes of the Nazis, therefore it would be logical for Nazi symbols to be banned all over Europe,” added Silvana Koch-Merin, who heads Germany’s liberal Free Democrats in the European Parliament. She also called for the question of a ban to be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of justice ministers.
This calls into question Ms. Koch-Merin’s grasp of the concept of logic.
The Social Democrats deputy parliamentary leader, Michael Müller, agreed that study was needed to find out how a German-style anti-Nazi law could be transposed to the rest of Europe. Dieter Wiefelspütz, a Social Democratic party specialist on justice questions, said Nazi symbols were reminders of a “humiliating” and “deathly” concept of humanity.
But expanding the ban on Nazi symbols across the EU is unlikely to happen, as many countries consider their display — no matter how repugnant — is protected by democratic principles of free speech.
The young prince’s choice of costume was indeed tasteless and poorly thought out for someone so much in the public’s eye. Also, it goes without saying that the history of the Nazis is obviously atrocious. However, to ban a symbol because of this history is ridiculous. What next, a ban on the letter “K” because of its prominent role in the acronym KKK? Beyond the free speech aspect, I would counter that to ban the swastika would only add to its attraction among those seeking to rebel against society.
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Hitler ‘Ordered Pope Kidnapped’
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler gave one of his generals a direct order to kidnap Pope Pius XII during World War II but the officer did not obey, Italy’s leading Roman Catholic newspaper reported.
Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, said new details of the plot had emerged in documents presented to the Vatican in favor of putting the controversial wartime Pontiff on the road to sainthood.
Elements of alleged plots to abduct the pope during Germany’s occupation of Italy have already emerged in the past from some historians, but Avvenire’s full-page report said its details were new.
Avvenire said Hitler feared the pope would be an obstacle to his plans for global domination and because the dictator wanted to eventually abolish Christianity and impose National Socialism as a sort of new global religion.
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It said that in 1944, shortly before the Germans retreated from Rome, SS General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff, a senior occupation officer in Italy, had been ordered by Hitler to kidnap the pope.
According to the newspaper, Wolff returned to Rome from his meeting with Hitler in Germany and arranged for a secret meeting with the pope. Wolff went to the Vatican in civilian clothes at night with the help of a priest.
The newspaper said Wolff told the pope of Hitler’s orders and assured him he had no intention of carrying them out himself, but warned the pontiff to be careful “because the situation (in Rome) was confused and full of risks.”
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Avvenire said the details of the plot are in testimony Wolff gave before he died in Germany to Church officials accumulating evidence to back efforts to have Pius eventually made a saint.
But the reports of Hitler’s contempt for Pius have contrasted with other versions by historians and authors who have depicted Pius as being pro-German and have accused him of intentionally turning a blind eye to the Holocaust.
The Vatican’s procedures to put Pius on the road to sainthood have not been slowed or shelved despite concerns from Jews, and they will enter a new phase in March when Vatican historians will begin discussing many volumes of documentation.
The Vatican maintains that Pius did not speak out more strongly because he feared it would worsen the fate of Catholics and Jews, and that he worked behind the scenes to save Jews.
Pius’s pontificate has been one of the trickiest problems in post-war Catholic-Jewish relations.
In 1998, there was widespread Jewish discontent with a Vatican document called “We Remember, a Reflection on the Shoah,” which effectively absolved Pius of accusations that he facilitated the Holocaust by remaining silent.
But the current pontiff, Pope John Paul, has strongly defended Pius and once called him “a great pope.”
Not sure I believe much of it, but it is interesting.
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NATO Organizing Shipment of Arms to Iraq
Iraq doesn’t need to go to the local military surplus store for a great deal on old equipment. How about some weapons for free?
NATO is organizing the shipment to Iraq of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, dozens of Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons as part of the alliance’s program to help train and equip the Iraqi military, officials said Wednesday.
Romania has offered 6,000 AK-47’s along with 500 machine guns, 300 sniper rifles and 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, while Estonia has offered 2,400 AK-47s and Denmark 104 pistols, alliance officials said.
NATO also is arranging the transport of 77 T-72 tanks from Hungary to Iraq, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
All arms and military hardware were being given as a donation.
The alliance agreed last year to help coordinate the supply of weapons to Iraq’s fledgling armed forces.
Several former Warsaw Pact nations that joined NATO last year have surpluses of Soviet-era equipment, which military experts say is ideal for the Iraqi military because it [sic] familiar with those weapons from the days of Saddam Hussein.
Okay, so they’re crappy tanks. They’re still tanks nevertheless, and the Iraqi government certainly cannot complain about the price. Besides, a bad tank is still pretty good against a terrorist packing a rifle.
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French Pol: Nazi Occupation Not Brutal
An anti-Semite politician has France in a stir.
The Nazi occupation of France was not particularly brutal, French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was quoted as saying.
The comments by the National Front leader were published in the small extreme-right newspaper Rivarol.
“In France at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhuman, even if there were a few blunders,” he was quoted as saying. Such things were “inevitable” in a country of 220,000 square miles, he said.
Le Pen’s office confirmed the interview had taken place but said it could not verify the exact comments, as no one had checked them against a recording. The remarks were published in the paper’s Jan. 7 edition but did not come to wider attention until Wednesday.
French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said he was outraged and immediately asked for a preliminary inquiry into Le Pen’s remarks.
“He will have to explain himself before the justice system,” Perben said.
CRIF, an umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, said it was “particularly shocked” by the comments. During the war, some 76,000 Jews, including 12,000 children, were deported from France, many to Auschwitz. Only 2,500 survived.
“These comments taint the memory of all victims of Nazism — deportees and the Resistance, and the entire French population, which was subjected for more than four years to the most atrocious of occupations and humiliations,” CRIF said in a statement.
Le Pen, 76, has a history of making such remarks, and he has been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism at least six times. He once called the Nazi gas chambers “a detail of the history of the Second World War.”
Sickening? Inaccurate? Pathetic? Yes. But should it be criminal? I don’t think so.
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Muslim Link to Anti-Semitism Rise in Europe
In today’s world, the gist of this story should seem all too obvious, but it is good to hear it blatantly stated by a U.S. State Department source.
A rise in the number of Muslims in Western Europe has intensified longstanding anti-Jewish sentiment in the region and acts such as desecrating synagogues are likely to increase, the State Department said.
Since 2000 in Europe, vandalism such as graffiti, fire bombings of Jewish schools and the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues has surged and attacks against Jews “increased markedly,” the department said in a report, which was mandated by Congress.
“This was a one-time report that calls attention to a new phenomenon. While there is not an explosion of anti-Semitism, it’s a concern that there is a rise of acts by Muslim minorities in Europe,” said a State Department official, who asked not to be named.
“Unfortunately, the old-fashioned anti-Semitism of skinheads and the like has not gone away and people are also using Israeli and U.S. policies as an excuse to promote their anti-Semitism,” he added.
Other causes contributing to the rise in anti-Semitism include Israel’s policy toward Palestinians and the invasion of Iraq, led by the Jewish state’s benefactor, the United States.
Coming just after the State Department official’s quote about Israeli and U.S. policies, Reuters demonstrates confusion between the terms causes and excuses.
Most European governments regard anti-Semitism as a serious problem and have taken measures, such as introducing legislation and bolstering law enforcement, to combat the trend, the report said.
But the Bush administration, which has been criticized particularly among Arabs for favoring Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, predicted new, disaffected Muslim immigrants to Europe will direct their anger against Jews.
“In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still account for a significant proportion of the attacks against Jews and Jewish properties (but) disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the other incidents,” the report said.
“The trend appears likely to persist as the number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their level of education and economic prospects remain limited,” it added.
The stories of the problems Europe is facing from its growing Muslim populations are become more and more disturbing. Here and here are looks at difficulties in Sweden.
Sweden is one of the worst hit countries in Europe of Muslim immigration and Political Correctness. Now, the police themselves have publicly admitted that they no longer control one of Sweden’s major cities. I have made some exclusive translations from Swedish media. They show the future of Eurabia unless Europeans wake up.
I’ve seen the future of Eurabia, and it’s called ‘Sweden.’ Malmø is Sweden’s third largest city, after Stockholm and Gothenburg. Once-peaceful Sweden, home of ABBA, IKEA and the Nobel Prize, is increasingly looking like the Middle East on a bad day.
Here is a lengthy look today at several places in Europe, including Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
The Netherlands, like much of Europe, has made the mistake of long ignoring parallel societies growing in the poor, immigrant neighborhoods. “When you’re not integrated, don’t speak the language, don’t have a job, are living in half ruins–we must not overlook that there is a breeding ground for real violence,” says von der Fuhr. It all leaves young Muslims, even those born in Europe, vulnerable to what he calls “garbage can” Islam.
We are certainly in a global war for the future direction of civilization, and Europe is shaping up to be one of the battlefields of the future if decisive steps are not soon initiated.