Multiculturalism at its multicultiest! And think of all the great restaurants these guys must own!

Daily Record:

Jan 27 2012 Exclusive by Annie Brown

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VICTIMS of human sex trafficking have told how they were enslaved by witchcraft, torture and death threats in modern-day Scotland.

The harrowing stories of ten women were compiled by campaigners investigating the world’s fastest growing organised crime. Nine came from Africa, one from South America.

In one of the testimonies to a Glasgow charity, a 21-year-old told how she was branded and forced to take a “witchcraft oath” to prevent her escaping.

She said: “I had to take the oath. I was given this mark on my hand. I was told that this mark, if you tell anyone what has transpired, you are going to die.

“They gave me a razor blade to eat, they took my armpit hair, they removed my nails from my toes and my fingers.

“They removed the hair on my body, they tied it up and put it in this shrine, then they tear my body and told me that if I tell anyone, ‘you will just die’. When I saw the shrine, it was so big, I was so scared.”

The women tell their stories in research commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The main centres for sex trafficking are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Paisley, Stirling and Falkirk but it also touches small towns and villages.

So far Scotland has had just one successful prosecution – while there have been 150 in England and Wales.

Human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, who headed the investigation, said: “As a criminal lawyer I have heard and read many stories of women being beaten, abused and suffering psychological torment, so there is not much that shocks me.

“However, the evidence that we took from women not only shocked me, as it would any woman, but resolved me to ensure their voices, their experiences, their insights, were heard.

“These are stories of ordinary women – mothers, daughters and sisters – vulnerable due to poverty and discrimination, being deceived into Scotland and subjected to horrifying sexual violation.

“These violations occur across Scotland, and not only in our cities; the women and girls are exploited indoors, in private “sex” flats, not in shadowy back streets. They may seem fine and in control when in fact they are mentally shackled and controlled by traffickers.

“It is now up to us all to work together – across our families and communities, our villages, towns and cities, and in our politics – to identify and, together, rid Scotland of the modern slavery in our midst.”

Kennedy published a report on Scotland’s failure to tackle trafficking last November – but this is the first time the voices of victims have been heard.

The research found women are trafficked from across the globe to Scotland but mainly from Nigeria, China and Brazil and many come via England.

But there is evidence that an increasing number are taken straight to Scotland.

All of the victims had been vulnerable in their home countries.

Many had lost family, were fleeing poverty, abuse or tribal violence and had turned to trusted community “aunties and uncles”.

The women were mainly locked in flats and rooms, forced to have sex with up to 15 men a day, beaten and not allowed to use contraception.

Their passports were taken and they were told their families would be killed if they tried to leave. Even when the women became pregnant they still had to have sex with punters.

Women who were considered “new” were particularly popular in brothels.

Some even talk of their children being held with them. One woman was locked in a room with her daughter who had to listen to her mother being raped.

She said: “There was a room attached to my bedroom with a toilet and a shower. The trafficker said that I should look smart as it is money I have to make.

“When men came, the trafficker would unlock the door and take my daughter away.

“While I was with these men I could hear my daughter crying in the other room. It was terrible. When the men were finished they would use the bathroom and then leave.”

Women from Africa described their traffickers as powerful people within tribal communities who had connections with corrupt officials.

The EHRC report said: “These women report being controlled using oaths or juju magic.”

A 21-year-old described how she was forced to take alcohol and drugs so that she would be compliant.

Money was paid to a madam who forced her to work seven days a week and beat her if she failed to keep customers happy.

She said: “It was so painful, they were so rough, they didn’t care, they just wanted satisfaction.

“I saw more than 10 men a day and because I was new, everyone wanted to have me. People waited for me.

“When I finished with one they say go and have this liquid, wash up. My body was so painful.”

The ten women who gave their testimonies had all come through the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA), a Scotland-wide support service based in Glasgow.

The interviewees were aged 21 to 33, nine of them from Africa, including Somalia, Nigeria, Gambia, Uganda and Kenya, and one from South America. The women had all fled their traffickers.

A couple were helped to escape by regular customers but the men who intervened were the exception.

When one woman told a customer she had been trafficked he became more brutal, while another punter only helped a woman to escape so that he could use her for himself. He abandoned her when she fell pregnant.

One victim said she repeatedly told punters she was trafficked and needed help, yet only one assisted her.

The man, a regular trusted by the trafficker, took the girl to his house, gave her a little money and dropped her at the Scottish Refugee Council.

Another girl was freed when the police raided a brothel and one who had been captive for ten years was found unconscious by police and taken to hospital.

Many victims were told they were under constant surveillance but one Nigerian girl took a chance when her female trafficker went to London.

The victim said: “She said that I could not leave the house. She said that she had people watching me. All she would do was to call the house, if nobody answered then she would know.

“All of this time I was looking out the window. I was thinking to myself who could be watching me? Who would be watching if I just took a step outside? If I left the house? I was so scared. I cannot even remember leaving.”

The victim had been trafficked as a child to north-east England and was then moved to be sexually exploited in Glasgow.

In one account, a victim took a chance when, on her way to the toilet, she noticed the flat door was open.

“I was terrified the men had set a trap for me so I just went to the toilet.

“When I came out I saw the door was still open. I was very scared but I took a chance and ran out.

“I came to the landing and saw three doors. The first two I tried were shut fast. I thought about returning to the flat but the third door opened. I went through this door and there were stairs. I ran down many flights of stairs. I ran out of the flats.”

The victim had been trafficked from Africa and was only prostituted in Scotland. She was trafficked by a trusted community member she turned to after witnessing the murder of her parents and grandparents by the police.

When she ran out of the flat she stopped a couple of female passers-by – the first refused to help but the second took her by bus to the Scottish Refugee Council.

(stonegateinstitute.org)Irish actor Liam Neeson says he is thinking about becoming a Muslim after undergoing a spiritual awakening in Turkey.

Neeson, who was born into a Roman Catholic family in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, told the London-based newspaper The Sun that he was impressed by the religious atmosphere in Istanbul while filming a movie in the city.

He said: “The [Islamic] call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing. There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”

(MORE)

(miamiherald.com)Neeson’s wife, actress Natasha Richardson, suffered a fatal head injury in a skiing accident in 2009.

A man who converts to a religion that says to kill Jews after having the honor of becoming famous because a mediocre Holocaust movie

I don’t remember whether I have ever said this on the blog, and given that it’s Friday afternoon, I’m not going to look. But trust me on this – deep down, I don’t believe that Iran will retaliate in any meaningful way if we take out their nukes. They might have Hamas and Hezbullah shoot off some rockets (and take the retaliatory hits), but I don’t believe Iran is going to go to war with us over their nukes, just like Syria and Iraq didn’t. At least not if we do it before they have a nuclear weapons capability.

The New York Times reports that the working assumption of the Netanyahu government is that Iran will not retaliate. Or at least not very much.

But conversations with eight current and recent top Israeli security officials suggested several things: since Israel has been demanding the new sanctions, including an oil embargo and seizure of Iran’s Central Bank assets, it will give the sanctions some months to work; the sanctions are viewed here as probably insufficient; a military attack remains a very real option; and postattack situations are considered less perilous than one in which Iran has nuclear weapons.

“Take every scenario of confrontation and attack by Iran and its proxies and then ask yourself, ‘How would it look if they had a nuclear weapon?’ ” a senior official said. “In nearly every scenario, the situation looks worse.”

The core analysis is based on an examination of Iran’s interests and abilities, along with recent threats and conflicts. Before the United States-led war against Iraq in 1991, Saddam Hussein vowed that if attacked he would “burn half of Israel.” He fired about 40 Scud missiles at Israel, which did limited damage. Similar fears of retaliation were voiced before the Iraq war in 2003 and in 2006, during Israel’s war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In the latter, about 4,000 rockets were fired at Israel by Hezbollah, most of them causing limited harm.

“If you put all those retaliations together and add in the terrorism of recent years, we are probably facing some multiple of that,” a retired official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, citing an internal study. “I’m not saying Iran will not react. But it will be nothing like London during World War II.”

A paper soon to be published by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, written by Amos Yadlin, former chief of military intelligence, and Yoel Guzansky, who headed the Iran desk at Israel’s National Security Council until 2009, argues that the Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz is largely a bluff.

The paper contends that, despite the risks of Iranian provocation, Iran would not be able to close the waterway for any length of time and that it would not be in Iran’s own interest to do so.

“If others are closing the taps on you, why close your own?” Mr. Guzansky said. Sealing the strait could also lead to all-out confrontation with the United States, something the authors say they believe Iran wants to avoid.

A separate paper just published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies says that the fear of missile warfare against Israel is exaggerated since the missiles would be able to inflict only limited physical damage.

Most Israeli analysts, like most officials and analysts abroad, reject these arguments. They say that Iran has been preparing for an attack for some years and will react robustly, as will its allies, Hezbollah and Hamas. Moreover, they say, an attack will at best delay the Iranian program by a couple of years and lead Tehran to redouble its efforts to build such a weapon.

But Mr. Barak and Mr. Netanyahu believe that those concerns will pale if Iran does get a nuclear weapon. This was a point made in a public forum in Jerusalem this week by Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, chief of the army’s planning division. Speaking of the former leaders of Libya and Iraq, he said, “Who would have dared deal with Qaddafi or Saddam Hussein if they had a nuclear capability? No way.”

I agree with the assessments that Iranian retaliation will not be much so long as they don’t have a nuclear weapon. The Arabs are like a child throwing a tantrum – the screaming and crying is a lot worse than the actual physical consequences. The problem is that if God forbid they get a nuclear weapon, then it just becomes a question of pushing one button, and that’s a whole different ballgame. That’s why it’s so important to stop Iran before they get a nuclear weapon.

JPost reports that US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, who visited Israel last week, believes that a strike against Iran is premature.

“I do think the path we’re on – the economic sanctions and the diplomatic pressure – does seem to me to be having an effect,” Dempsey said. “I just think that it’s premature to be deciding that the economic and diplomatic approach is inadequate.”

…

Dempsey admitted differences in opinion between the US and Israel’s leadership on the Iranian threat and how soon to act against it.

“We have to acknowledge that they … see that threat differently than we do. Its existential to them,” he said. “My intervention with them was not to try to persuade them to my thinking or allow them to persuade me to theirs, but rather to acknowledge the complexity and commit to seeking creative solutions, not simple solutions,” he said.

But saying that there are differences in opinion because to us the threat is existential is only half the story. This is from the Times again.

The official said that the defense establishment was not enthusiastic about an attack. It hoped that sanctions and diplomacy would work and that if military action were needed it would come from the United States.

But this approach poses a difficulty. America’s weapons and equipment are far more powerful than Israel’s. So as Iran enriches uranium underground, Washington can wait longer to decide to attack and still be effective. Israel worries that in the coming year Iran will enter what officials call a zone of immunity, meaning its facilities will move beyond reach.

And at this point, we have no commitment from the Obama administration to take military action to stop Iran – just vague speeches that Iran will be stopped – and I doubt most Israelis would accept a promise from Obama anyway. So Israel has to accept the reality that it may be up to us to stop Iran.

If we get past the US election and there is a new Republican administration that can be trusted (i.e. not Ron Paul), it may be possible to make an agreement that Israel will stand down for some period of time and let Washington deal with Iran.

mouths are moving… no action. does anyone really care what the NYTimes writes at this juncture. If they had their way there wouldn’t be an Israel. So why are we even reading them. I suppose then I wouldn’t have anything to blog about. Perhaps ignoring the NYTimes is the best idea. No one takes it seriously anymore anyway… it’s untouchable and partisan.

#Israel— Challah Hu Akbar (@ChallahHuAkbar) January 26, 2012

A group of Israeli hackers that calls itself “IDF Team” claims that it has brought down the websites belonging to the Iranian Health Ministry and an English-language Iranian television channel, Press TV. According to the group, the cyber attack came in response to Arab hackers’ attacks on Israeli sites. (Dudi Cohen and Aviel Magnezi)

Israeli Hackers: We brought down official Iranian websites – bit.ly/A9Cld3 #Iran #Israel

— Challah Hu Akbar (@ChallahHuAkbar) January 26, 2012

Arutz Sheva/Matzav.com Newscenter}Shapiro, who met Wednesday with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Jerusalem, was asked by the MK about the possibility that President Barack Obama might commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.

But the U.S. ambassador told the Israeli lawmakers that he “can’t speculate” on Pollard, and frankly does not know what will become of him.

Vice President Joe Biden eventually met with American Jewish leaders over the issue last year, after he was pressured by a group during the annual Jewish holiday gathering held in Washington D.C. who made it clear that a consensus exists on this issue across the spectrum in the U.S. Jewish community .

Pollard, a Jewish American, was sentenced to life in prison 27 years ago on a single charge of passing classified information to an ally – Israel.

MK Meir Sheetrit also asked the ambassador why MK Michael Ben Ari was unable to obtain a visa to enter the U.S., while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejaad and Hamas terrorists have been able to do so.

Shapiro replied that he is not responsible for these matters.
(Read more: Arutz Sheva/matzav.com)

All this is very clear with Newt. It obviously is unclear with Obama. It also is unclear with Romney and any other candidate. This is one of the primary reasons I trust Newt because of his courage to take a stand on this issue.

Zachary S. Welch/AP – Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

Although negotiations are in the early stages, officials from both governments said they are favorably inclined toward a deal. They are scheduled to intensify their discussions Thursday and Friday in Washington prior to higher-level meetings in March. If an arrangement is reached, it would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and station Navy warships in Singapore.

At the NYTimes, you can see an op-doc by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, writer and director of “The Law in These Parts,” which is screening at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He lives in Jerusalem and teaches film at the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and read this introduction:

Israel’s Supreme Court is the body that provides checks and balances to the country’s executive and legislative powers, upholding constitutional standards…

¶ In the four decades since the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the court has become a stage for an escalating conflict between two very different world views.

¶ Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decades. It is also unusual for a nation to allow residents of territories under a military occupation to petition its Supreme Court and request intervention in acts of state.

¶ Since the early years of the occupation…[rather] than functioning as the bastion of human rights that it was established to be, it has instead become the entity responsible for balancing the needs of a state engaged in a prolonged occupation with basic principles of democracy.

¶ This Op-Doc expands on one of the themes explored in my new feature documentary, “The Law in These Parts,” and asks about the role of the Supreme Court in the legal underpinnings of the longest military occupation in modern times.

I left this comment there:

RA is being petulantly picayune writing: “Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decade”. Really?

Consider:

Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara has “only” lasted three plus decades. Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus – a mere 37 years. But Russia’s occupation of the Kuril Islands began in August 1945…

And Tibet has been occupied by China since 1949.

And many consider Northern Ireland occupied, even after the 1998 arrangements of an Executive.

But I suggest the term is “belligerent occupation”, resulting from an Arab war of aggression in 1967 and by acting in defense, not only does Israel have the right to retain all or most of the territories it now administers, but as Schweible, Rostow and other international law experts claim, Israel has a better right than anyone to remain there in Judea and Samaria based on, at the least, discussions, declarations and decisions of Balfour 1917, the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, the San Remo Conference of 1920 and the League of Nations 1922.

And isn’t it amazing that none of this legalese was ever voiced when those territories were invaded by, illegally occupied by and illegally annexed to Jordan all through 1948-1967?

I left out Kashmir.

^

comment: Kashmir was what first came to mind when I was reading the top and the idea that Israel was the only Occupier immediately rang false with me as well.

Mike Groll/Associated PressThe mayor on Tuesday.

ALBANY – Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Tuesday that whoever decided to show a film depicting American Muslims as extremists to nearly 1,500 city police officers “exercised some terrible judgment.”

Mr. Bloomberg said that neither he nor the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, had known at the time that the film, “The Third Jihad,” was being shown to officers. Speaking to reporters after testifying here at a state budget hearing, Mr. Bloomberg said that the film had not been shown at the Police Academy.

“It was done someplace else and as soon as they found out about it they stopped it and took it down,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Somebody exercised some terrible judgment. I don’t know who. We’ll find out.”

When the screening of the film for some officers was first revealed last year by Tom Robbins of The Village Voice, the Police Department’s main spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said it had been screened “a couple of times.”

But an article in The New York Times Tuesday, based on documents received by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School through a Freedom of Information request, showed that it had been shown repeatedly for at least three months.

The film says that few Muslim leaders can be trusted. It also includes an interview with Mr. Kelly, which, Mr. Browne said, had been lifted from old footage.

The trailer for “The Third Jihad”

They say it like it is a bad thing