Archive for July, 2009

A woman on a business trip returns to her hotel room for a shower and some relaxation. While in the shower, nude – not many shower dressed – she is secretly videotaped. A pervert had installed a camera to catch her every move.
When it is discovered she is horrified at the violation of her person and her privacy. The police take a report and that’s it for them. But it is not the end the Erin Andrews victimization.
Because she is young and attractive there are those, including women, who state she “brought it on herself.”
Really ?
Really.
It is another way of saying “she was asking for it.” A common comment about rape victims not wearing burkas and even some who are.
When are we as a culture, a country and as women going to demand that this stop ?
Voltaire said, “Men can have freedom as soon as they will to.”
Women can have respect as soon as we demand it. We must demand it for every woman whether we like them or not and whether we agree with them or not on all issues. If women are disrespected or attacked qua women each of of must speak up and make it known that that is not cool and will not be tolerated in our presence.
Until we do that as individuals nothing will change in the aggregate. And the Erin Andrews will continue to multiply.

Authorities said Thursday that four boys ages 9 to 14 took turns raping an 8-year-old girl behind a shed for more than 10 minutes in what Phoenix police are calling one of the most horrific cases they’ve ever seen.

The outrage over the allegations intensified after police said the girl’s parents criticized her after the attack and blamed her for bringing shame on the family.

“The father told the caseworker and an officer in her presence that he didn’t want her back. He said, ‘Take her, I don’t want her,’ ” police Sgt. Andy Hill said. <

The 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said. He appeared in court Thursday and is being held without bond.

The other boys – ages 9, 10, and 13 – were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping, the office said Thursday.

Phoenix investigators said the boys lured the girl to an empty shed July 16 under the pretense of offering her gum. The boys held the girl down while they took turns assaulting her, police said.

“She was brutally sexually assaulted for a period of about 10 to 15 minutes,” Hill said.

Officers responding to an emergency call reporting hysterical screams found the girl partially clothed and the boys running from the scene.

“This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community,” Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Thursday. “Our office will seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation.”

Hill cited the family’s background as the reason the family shunned the girl. All five children are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.

In some parts of Africa, women often are blamed for being raped for enticing men or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Girls who are raped are often shunned by their families.

“It’s a shame-based culture, so the crime is not as important as protecting the family name and the name of the community,” said Tony Weedor, a Liberian refugee in Littleton, Colo., and co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which helps Liberians resettle in the U.S. “I just feel so sorry for this little girl. Some of these people will not care about the trauma she’s going through – they’re more concerned about the shame she brought on the family.”

Ali Keita, a Liberian refugee and president of the Arizona Mandingo Association, works with refugees to ease their integration into U.S. society. Keita said that Liberian families may question why sexual-assault victims were in a situation that left them open for attack but that the initial response likely stems from disappointment and frustration with the family’s circumstances.

“(As a parent), you feel like you’ve failed . . . to protect them,” Keita said.

In recent years, Liberia has made efforts to combat rape under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has sought to dispel the stigma associated with sexual assault by publicly acknowledging that she was herself the victim of attempted rape during the country’s civil war.

The girl’s healing process will be particularly difficult, said Paul Penzone of Childhelp, which aids young victims of crime. Authorities said the victim was in the care of Child Protective Services.

“These four boys used what was a ploy to entice her to a place where they could take advantage of her almost like a pack of wolves,” he said.

“And what’s so disturbing beyond the initial crime is the fact that a child needs to have somewhere to feel safe, and you would think that would be in a home with her own family,” not in state custody, Penzone said.

Original Article CLICK HERE

A Duluth woman who was threatening suicide and her elderly mother were shot and killed Tuesday night by Gwinnett County police, authorities said.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a Gwinnett County police officer responded to call about a suicide attempt in the 3000 block of Tracey Drive, police said.

“A mother called about her daughter,” police spokeswoman Cpl. Illana Spellman said. “The daughter made threats that she wanted police to kill her.”

While the officer and mother were talking, the daughter came downstairs holding a gun that she pointed at the officer, Spellman said.

Feeling threatened, the officer fired, Spellman said.

Both women were hit, police said.

The mother, identified Wednesday as 74-year-old Barbara Baker, died at the scene.

Baker’s 51-year-old daughter, Penny Schwartz, was taken to a nearby hospital, where she later died, according to police.

“We don’t know if the mother stepped into the officer’s line of fire,” Spellman said.

Crime scene and shoot team investigators were working to determine what happened, she said.

The name of the officer, a 10-year veteran of the police department, has not been released. The officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Spellman said.

Original Article CLICK HERE

SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer Scott Sonner, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 21, 7:01 pm ET

By Jonathan Petre and Richard Creasy
Last updated at 2:49 AM on 19th July 2009

First World War veteran Henry Allingham, who became the world’s oldest man last month, has died at the age of 113.

As tributes poured in, Lord’s cricket ground fell silent at the start of play in the Ashes match between England and Australia as a mark of respect for Mr Allingham, who died in his sleep early yesterday morning.

He was one of the last three surviving British veterans of the First World War, the last surviving founder member of the RAF, the last man to have witnessed the Battle of Jutland and the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service.

Legacy: Henry Allingham with his great-granddaughter Ami Gray and her daughter, two-year-old Lauren, in 2006

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: ‘He was a tremendous character, one of the last representatives of a generation of tremendous characters.’

The Queen said he was ‘one of the generation who sacrificed so much for us all’.

A Clarence House spokesman said: ‘The Prince of Wales was sad to hear of the death of Henry Allingham. Henry belonged to that incredible generation who did so much for their country and we owe him a huge debt.’

Changing times: Henry Allingham as a baby in 1896

In the foreword to Mr Allingham’s autobiography, Kitchener’s Last Volunteer, Prince Charles wrote in 2008: ‘He has witnessed so much of our history – including the sinking of the Titanic, the Great War, the Depression, the Second World War and the building of the Welfare State – taking in six of my forebears, as well as 21 Prime Ministers.

‘We should all be humbled by this quiet, genial man and his desire to extol peace and friendship to the world, despite all the horrors he witnessed at such a young and impressionable age.’

So long ago: Henry Allingham wearing a sailor suit as a boy

Born in East London in 1896, Mr Allingham was married to his late wife Dorothy for more than 50 years.

They had five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandchild.

The veteran, who was being cared for at St Dunstan’s care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton, celebrated his 113th birthday on June 6 with his family on board London’s  HMS President.

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Young love: Mr Allingham pictured with fiancee Dorothy May in 1916. The couple were married for more than 50 years

Two weeks later, Guinness World Records confirmed that he had become the world’s oldest man after the previous record holder, Tomoji Tanabe, died in Japan aged 113.

Mr Allingham once jokingly attributed his longevity to ‘cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women’.

But he later admitted that he had taken care of himself, adding: ‘The trick is to look after yourself and always know your limitations.’

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Mr Allingham lays a wreath at the Air Services Memorial, in St.Omer, France, during an Armistice Day Service in 2005

Mr Allingham’s death means that Harry Patch, 111, the last survivor of the First World War trenches, is now Britain’s oldest man.

Nicknamed ‘the last Tommy’, Mr Patch is a veteran of the 1917 battle of Passchendaele in which more than 70,000 British troops were killed.

He now lives at a residential home in Somerset. The other remaining First World War survivor, Worcestershire-born 108-year-old Claude Choules, who served with the Royal Navy, now lives in Australia.

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Queen Elizabeth meets Mr Allingham at the Buckingham Palace Garden Party in 2007

Mr Allingham tried to join the Army in 1914 but his mother, who was ill, persuaded him to stay at home and nurse her. She died a year later and he then joined the Royal Naval Air Service. In May 1916, he survived the battle of Jutland which claimed 6,000 lives.

In 1917, he was posted to the Western Front and found himself in the trenches at Ypres, where his job was neutralising bombs left behind by the Germans. He later said he could never forget the smell of mud and rotting flesh.

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Emotional moment: A tear is wiped away from Mr Allingham’s eye at a service to mark the 90th anniversary of the Great War Armistice

He once told the BBC: ‘War’s stupid. Nobody wins. You might as well talk first. You have to talk last, anyway.’

In 1918 he transferred to the newly formed Royal Air Force and after the war he worked for the Ford Motor Company until his retirement.

He buried his war memories for decades – refusing even to discuss them with his family – and he would not go to reunions organised by his former comrades.

Inspiration: RAF air cadets chat to Mr Allingham (with grandson David Gray and his wife Charlotte Gray)

But in 2005, he was asked to unveil an RAF memorial in France and he decided that it would be disrespectful to refuse.

He then became a tireless campaigner, attending commemorative events including the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

Even after he moved to St Dunstan’s care home when he was 108, because his sight and hearing were failing, Mr Allingham insisted on visiting schools to tell youngsters about his wartime experiences.

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World war heroes: Allingham (right) and 106 year old William Stone (second left) meet senior members of the defence staff at the Ministry of Defence in 2007

Robert Leader of the St Dunstan’s charity, which supports visually impaired ex-Servicemen and women, said: ‘He was very active right up to his final days.

‘As well as possessing a great spirit of fun, he represented the last of a generation who gave a very great deal for us.’

Dennis Goodwin, from the First World War Veterans’ Association, who regularly visited Mr Allingham at St Dunstan’s, said he had lost ‘an exceptionally good friend’.

He added: ‘He has left quite a legacy to the nation of memories of what it was like to have been in the First World War.’

The funeral will take place later this month as St Nicholas’s Church in Brighton.

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Three British veterans of World War II: Harry Patch, of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (left), William Stine (centre) of the Royal Navy and Mr Allingham (right), at a reception for British military veterans in 2006

Original Article CLICK HERE

by The Associated Press

Friday July 17, 2009, 6:55 PM

CAMDEN — Nearly two dozen people in southern New Jersey have been charged with downloading and sharing child pornography.

Numerous search warrants were executed this week as part of “Operation Sentinel,” a yearlong initiative by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. It was designed to track and prosecute people hosting child porn on their computers.

County, federal, state and local authorities executed warrants at homes in 14 of the county’s 37 municipalities in raids that concluded today.

The 21 people charged range in age from teenagers to the elderly and include a soldier, a police dispatcher, a truck driver and a retired executive.

Eighteen people were arrested and released on bail this week. Investigators were searching for three others.

Original Article CLICK HERE

By Hilary White

BRUSSELS, July 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Swedish liberal party MP and feminist activist has launched a campaign that, if successful, could see abortion enshrined as a “human right” across the EU – potentially forcing Ireland, as well as Malta and Poland, to abolish their protections for the unborn.

Birgitta Ohlsson, an extreme left member of Sweden’s Liberal People’s Party, has founded the group “Make Noise for Free Choice” that hopes to obtain the one million petition signatures necessary for a “citizens’ initiative” to force acceptance of abortion as a “human right” under the new Lisbon Treaty. According to the Treaty, a proposal which gains one million signatures from a sufficient number of countries must be considered by the European commission. According to the Times Online the number of countries necessary has yet to be determined.

The website for the initiative specifically targets Ireland, Malta and Poland, saying: “All around the world, women are denied their right to free, legal and safe abortions. … It is the everyday reality facing women in Ireland, Poland and Malta.”

Patricia Casey, a professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, reacted strongly to the effort, telling the Times Online, “It’s ironic for a country like Sweden, with such a track record of protecting human rights, that campaigners from there are campaigning for the killing of unborn children. There is certainly a contradiction.”

Pat Buckley, the representative at Brussels of Britain’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the chance of success for the initiative depends upon how much support the group has in the European Parliament. He was not optimistic that the initiative would certainly fail, however, since he pointed out that MEPs have already voted several times for “reproductive rights and choice” in recent years. “There is a very strong support in the Parliament for the concept of abortion as a human right,” he added.

The group, he said, assume they have the right to dictate to a sovereign nation. “Their attitude is that they’re the experts on human rights, and abortion is a human right, therefore Ireland must change its laws.”

So far, however, the petition has only been signed by 3489 people, although organizers intend to continue the campaign until October of 2010.

The Ohlsson initiative highlights the concerns of Irish pro-life campaigners who have long warned that the attempt to force Ireland to accept the Lisbon Treaty is a direct threat to the country’s pro-life laws and to its sovereignty. Life and family issues were found to be prominent among the Irish voters’ reasons for rejecting the Treaty in a referendum a year ago.

Since the failure of the 2008 referendum, Irish politicians have obtained what they claim are “cast-iron guarantees” from the EU on key areas of discontent including abortion law, taxation and neutrality. These, they said, would provide an opt-out for Ireland, to be voted on by all member states, at the time of the next accession treaty to bring in new member states to the EU.

But Buckley said that promises obtained by the government mean little because it is the European Court of Justice who interprets the Lisbon Treaty. The danger of these “guarantees,” he said, is that “heads of government are not in any position to make a commitment on behalf of the EU Court of Justice.”

The guarantees, he said, do not change the Lisbon Treaty itself “one iota.” “It will be precisely the same treaty that we voted down last year.”

“When the Court of Justice is called upon to interpret the Treaty with regard to abortion, they could interpret it to mean that there is a right to abortion. Ireland will then be bound to that because they would already have voted to ratify Lisbon.”

Abortion activists have long known the clout of the European courts to force a change in law. Three women are currently taking the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights to attempt to overthrow the Irish law.

Buckley said that the only “clear way” to deal with the threat “would be a protocol, attached to the Lisbon Treaty itself, to give Ireland a direct opt out. This would be a message to the Court of Justice who would then be obliged to interpret the Treaty according to that protocol.”

Another factor in the possible success of the Ohlsson initiative is what Buckley calls “competence creep” in EU institutions. He explained that ostensibly there are certain issues over which the EU has no competence, including social areas like family and abortion. But slowly over the years, “competence creep” has eroded that principle under different ideological agendas such as that of so-called “equality rights.”

These activists, he said, introduce legislation related to “equality” which include issues like abortion and marriage in the sections on definitions. “In theory they’re not supposed to have any competence whatsoever in these areas, but in practice, because of competence creep, they continually expand their remit to include areas which should not be part of their brief.”

“I’d like to think that [the Ohlsson initiative] hadn’t a hope, but knowing how the system works in Brussels, it is likely they will have the support they need. It would be difficult for them acting alone to do it – it depends upon what sort of assistance they get – there’s certainly a possibility this could happen.”

Supporting the initiative are MEPs and community leaders from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands, including Baroness Sarah Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP who sits on Euro-Parliament’s committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and Vice-Chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee. Also listed as supporting are Sophie in ‘t Veld, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the social liberal party Democrats 66, and Lone Dybkjµr, a member of the Danish Parliament for the Radikale Venstre party.

Original Article CLICK HERE

Posted: July 16, 2009
8:41 pm Eastern

© 2009 

After half a century of fighting encroachments upon freedom in America, journalist Garet Garrett published “The People’s Pottage.” A year later, in 1954, he died. “The People’s Pottage” opens thus:

“There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom.”

Garrett wrote of a revolution within the form. While outwardly America appeared the same, a revolution within had taken place that was now irreversible. One need only glance at where we were before the New Deal, where we are and where we are headed to see how far we are off the course the Founding Fathers set for our republic.

Taxes drove the American Revolution, for we were a taxaphobic, liberty-loving people. That government is best that governs least is an Americanism. When “Silent Cal” Coolidge went home in 1929, the U.S. government was spending 3 percent of gross domestic product.

And today? Obama’s first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.

Tell Congress to stop spending America into the ground! Sign the WND petition demanding lawmakers stop the bailouts, stimulus bills and march toward socialism and national destruction.

The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.

Obama plans to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take the income tax rate to near 40 percent. Combined state and local income tax rates can run to 10 percent. For the self-employed, payroll taxes add up to 15.2 percent on the first $106,800 for all wages of all workers. Medicare takes 2.9 percent of all wages above that. Then there are the state sales taxes that can run to 8 percent, property taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and “sin taxes” on booze, cigarettes and, soon, hot dogs and soft drinks.

Comes now national health insurance from Nancy Pelosi’s House. A surtax that runs to 5.4 percent of all earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, who already pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, has been sent to the Senate. Included also is an 8 percent tax on the entire payroll of small businesses that fail to provide health insurance for employees.

Other ideas on the table include taxing the health benefits that businesses provide their employees.

The D.C.-based Tax Foundation says New Yorkers could face a combined income tax rate of near 60 percent.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a tyrant for having “erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

What did George III do with his Stamp Act, Townshend Acts or tea tax to compare with what is being done to this generation of Americans by their own government?

While the hardest-working and most productive are bled, a third of all wage-earners pay no U.S. income tax, and Obama plans to free almost half of all wage-earners of all income taxes. Yet, tens of millions get Medicaid, rent supplements, free education, food stamps, welfare and an annual check from Uncle Sam called an Earned Income Tax Credit, though they never paid a nickel in income taxes.

Oh, yes. Obama also promises everybody a college education.

Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than Americans, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.

Wise Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as American women.

As almost all immigrants are now Third World people of color, they qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions to college over the children of Americans.

All of this would have astounded and appalled the Founding Fathers, who after all, created America – as they declared loud and clear in the Constitution – “for ourselves and our posterity.”

China saves, invests and grows at 8 percent. America, awash in debt, has a shrinking economy, a huge trade deficit, a gutted industrial base, an unemployment rate surging toward 10 percent and a money supply that’s swollen to double its size in a year. The 20th century may have been the American Century. The 21st shows another pattern.

“The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event,” writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR’s Foreign Affairs magazine. “Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious.”

Even the establishment is starting to get the message.

Original Article CLICK HERE

Jul 17 11:08 AM US/Eastern
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran’s main Islamic prayer sermon Friday, chanting “freedom, freedom” and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country’s leadership over the crackdown on election protests.

Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charges thousands of protesters who chanted “death to the dictator” and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested, piled in trucks and taken away, witnesses said.

Plainclothes Basijis stood in front of a line of riot police and pumped canisters of tear gas, which young protesters with green bandanas over their faces kicked away across the pavement, away from the crowds. Some set a bonfire in the street and waved their hands in the air in victory signs.

The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers at Tehran University into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat in the front row of worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs.

In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to people’s complaints over the election, which was declared a victory for Ahmadinejad despite opposition claims of fraud.

“Doubt has been created (about the election results),” Rafsanjani said. “There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt.”

Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared Ahmadinejad’s victory valid and ordered an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the dispute has split clerics and warned of “crisis.”

Worshippers interrupted Rafsanjani with chants of “azadi, azadi”—Persian for “freedom”—and the cleric got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam’s Prophet Muhammad “respected the rights” of his people. Rafsanjani said the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, “knew that people’s vote was the most important thing in our country” and insisted it be enshrined in the founding of the Islamic Republic.

“Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic,” Rafsanjani said.

He criticized the postelection wave of arrests, saying the leadership should show sympathy for protesters and release those detained. “Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events… and reconcile them with the ruling system,” he said. “We need to placate them.”

Rafsanjani, a former president, regularly gives the Friday sermon but had not appeared since the election turmoil began. He is bitter rival of Ahmadinejad and is considered Mousavi’s top supporter within Iran’s clerical leadership, heading two of the three main clerical bodies that oversee the government. His daughter and four other relatives who openly backed Mousavi were briefly detained during protests last month.

In the days after the June election, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets in support of Mousavi. But after Khamenei validated the results, police, elite Republican Guards and Basiji militiamen launched a fierce crackdown on protesters in which hundreds were arrested and at least 20 killed—though human rights groups say the figure could be several times that official toll.

The scene outside the university on Friday was tumultuous. Before the sermon, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Mousavi backers trying to enter. When Mahdi Karroubi, another pro-reform candidate in the June election, headed for the prayers, plainclothes Basijis attacked him, shoving him and knocking his turban to the ground, witnesses said. “Death to the opponent of Velayat-e-Faqih,” they chanted as they attacked him, referring to the supreme leader, the witnesses said.

Also arrested was a prominent women’s rights activist, Shadi Sadr, who was beaten by militiamen, pushed into a car and driven away to an unknown location, Mousavi’s Web site http://www.mowjcamp.com and a women’s rights site http://www.meydaan.com said.

Inside the prayers—held on a former soccer field covered with a roof—some worshippers rubbed their eyes as tear gas from outside drifted in. They traded competing chants with some hard-liners in the congregation. When the hard-liners chanted “death to America,” Mousavi supporters countered with “death to Russia” and “death to China.“

It was a reference to Ahmadinejad’s alliance with both countries. Ahmadinejad has come under criticism in Iran for not criticizing Beijing over Muslim deaths in China’s western Xinjiang province.

After the prayers, some worshippers joined the protests outside, swelling their numbers to thousands, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of government retaliation.

In his sermon, Rafsanjani—known as a mercurial and savvy political insider—was careful not to mention Khamenei. But he sharply criticized the Guardians Council, a powerful clerical body that has become Khamenei and Ahmadinejad’s strongest backers. The Guardians Council oversaw the election, then conducted a partial recount that validated Ahmadinejad’s victory. Opponents dismiss the recount.

Rafsanjani said the Guardians Council had had an “opportunity to unite the people and regain their trust,” but the chance was “not used properly.”

Rafsanjani heads two other top clerical bodies, the Experts Council and the Expediency Council. In the past week, a behind-the-scenes power struggle between Rafsanjani and the Guardians Council has become public, fueling heavy hard-liner criticism of Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani also openly spoke of the split among clerics over the election. Many other prominent clerics have been sharply critical of the government or have failed to announce their backing for Ahmadinejad, including most of the country’s “maraje’-e-taghlid,” or “sources of emulation,” Shiite clerics of the highest rank whose religious rulings are closely obeyed by their many followers.

“The maraje’-e-taghlid have always supported and served (the people). Why some of them are offended?” Rafsanjani said. “We need to keep them beside us. We need to support them and rely on them.”

Original Article CLICK HERE

By Aydar Buribayev and Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A prominent human rights activist was found dead after being kidnapped in Russia’s troubled republic of Chechnya Wednesday, provoking outrage from President Dmitry Medvedev and the international community.

Natalia Estemirova, a close friend of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, worked for the human rights organization Memorial in the Chechen capital Grozny and documented abuses by law enforcement agencies, colleagues said.

Her body was found in neighboring Ingushetia.

“The news was reported to the president, he was outraged and gave all appropriate orders to the head of the investigations commission (Alexander) Bastrykin,” Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.

The murder is the latest in a series of killings of journalists and human rights defenders in Russia which has drawn international condemnation and led to questions about Medvedev’s pledges to uphold the rule of law and build a freer society.

“The body had two wounds to the head, it was clear she had been murdered in the morning,” Madina Khadziyeva, a spokeswoman at the Ingush Interior Ministry, told Reuters. She did not specify the nature of the injuries.

“It is evident that this deliberate murder could be related to Natalia Estemirova’s human rights activities,” said Medvedev’s spokeswoman.

Estemirova’s body was found in woodland near the Ingush city of Nazran, the Ingush interior ministry spokeswoman added.

She was snatched as she left her house Wednesday morning, pushed into a white vehicle and driven away, colleagues at Memorial and Tanya Lokshina, Russia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Reuters.

Estemirova was a single mother aged about 50, friends said, and leaves a teenage daughter.

“BRUTAL ACT”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told a news conference in Strasbourg, France: “We of course condemn that brutal act and call for the authorities to try to establish who is responsible.”

Well known to diplomats and human rights activists in Russia, Estemirova was the inaugural recipient in 2007 of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, given by the charity Reach All Women in War (RAWinWAR).

Politkovskaya was gunned down by a lone assailant in her Moscow apartment building in 2006 as she returned home from a shopping trip. Nobody has yet been convicted of her murder.

A fluent Chechen speaker, Estemirova acted as Politkovskaya’s interpreter during her reporting trips to Chechnya, RAWinWAR said on its website. She also reported on the situation freelance for local media.

Alexander Cherkasov, who works at Memorial’s Moscow head office, said her investigations into a recent public execution held in Chechnya attracted unwanted attention from authorities.

“It is known that this provoked — to put it gently — a nervous reaction from the Chechen authorities,” he said.

Estemirova focused on house burnings by security forces in mainly Muslim Chechnya, as well as abductions and unlawful killings, Memorial and HRW said.

A spokesman for Chechnya’s leader, ex-rebel turned Kremlin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov, declined comment on her death.

Chechnya and the nearby Muslim republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan are home to a simmering low-level Islamist insurgency.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused the authorities of serious abuses during their war on the insurgents, including extra-judicial killings, torture and illegal punishment.

“During the first war in Chechnya, Natasha (Estemirova) collected numerous testimonies from civilians who were tortured by the Russian forces in unofficial detention facilities,” RAWinWar said on its site.

HRW’s Lokshina said she was killed for her work: “She was documenting some blatant human rights abuses… There is absolutely no doubt that is linked to her work, she was killed simply because of doing her job as a human rights worker.”

Original Article CLICK HERE

By Andy Dolan
Last updated at 8:11 AM on 16th July 2009

A prison officer claims she was hounded out of her job by repeated criticism for being ‘too sexy’ and ‘glammed up’.

Amitjo Kajla, 22, is demanding compensation from Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

The 5ft officer told an employment tribunal how colleagues complained that she wore too much make-up and that her clothing was more revealing than the standard-issue uniform, which had to be adapted to her tiny size-four frame.

One young inmate told her: ‘Miss, you look sexy’, prompting colleagues to warn the officer that her glamorous appearance left her at risk of being dragged into a cell.

Another inmate was overheard telling Miss Kajla: ‘I wouldn’t mind taking you back to a cell’, the tribunal heard.

Miss Kajla claimed she was called a ‘stupid little girl’ by a senior colleague for putting her security at risk by sitting with prisoners during their ‘free association’ period.

She added that she was mocked by staff at Brinsford Young Offenders’ Institution, in Featherstone, Staffordshire, for carrying a handbag and reprimanded for waving and saying ‘hello’ to inmates.

The remarks, often made in front of inmates and other staff, made her feel harassed and humiliated, she told the tribunal. ‘I couldn’t sleep at night because of the bullying and harassment. I lost weight and decided I couldn’t take it any longer and resigned.’

Miss Kajla, from Wolverhampton, is claiming compensation for constructive unfair dismissal.

The respondents are listed as the ‘Secretary of State for Justice and others’, understood to include prison officer Lee Hastings.

She claims she was effectively sacked by the prison service in April last year, ten months after moving to Brinsford after a trouble-free spell at Shrewsbury Prison.

The Birmingham tribunal has already heard that shortly after she started at Brinsford, one of the governors reprimanded her for wearing heavy make-up, bangles and a nose stud.

Despite writing in her diary: ‘Make-up is me, I don’t want to change me’, she bought lighter shades of lipstick and other make-up to comply with the rules.

Adam Farrer, for the prison service, suggested that going to work ‘glammed up’ was not appropriate and that she was seen by inmates as a ‘soft touch’.

But Miss Kajla replied that she had been taught to take pride in her appearance.

Brinsford Young Offenders Institution where Amitjo Kajla claims she was effectively sacked for being too sexy

Responding to criticism of her informality with inmates, she said: ‘I was always friendly but never a friend.’

The tribunal heard how Miss Kajla would often sit with groups of prisoners on her own.

Giving evidence, Mr Hastings told the tribunal panel this showed a ‘lack of personal safety’.

He denied a claim by Stephen Roberts, representing Miss Kajla, that he had ‘bullied and intimidated’ Miss Kajla because she was ‘pretty and small’.

The prison officer said he had simply been concerned that ‘repeated actions were breaching security issues within the prison service’.

He added: ‘The young offenders are without doubt the most spontaneous, volatile and violent ones.’

Mr Straw is not expected to be called to give evidence at the tribunal, which continues.

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My column in Human Events this morning discusses the deteriorating situation for the remaining Christians in Iraq:

On Sunday, July 12, Aziz Rozko Hanna, an Iraqi Christian who was serving as director of the Department of Financial Control of the city of Kirkuk, was driving with his daughter in Dumiz, a Christian neighborhood in Kirkuk, when he was stopped, pulled from his car, and shot dead in front of his daughter.

On the same day, five churches in Baghdad were bombed, wounding eight civilians. And all this has come after persecution and harassment that has led over half of the Christians in Iraq to leave the country in the last few years. The situation has gotten so bad that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Benjamin Sleiman, said in May: “I fear the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and the Middle East.”

Sleiman has good reason to fear. In 1909, the Middle East was 20 percent Christian; one hundred years later, that percentage has fallen to five percent. This decline is directly related to the resurgence of the Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism around the world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As Muslimsreassert traditional Islamic legal stipulations mandating and institutionalizing discrimination against and harassment of Christians, Christians all over the Islamic world are feeling the heat.

Quasi-secular despots such as Saddam Hussein were not interested in enforcing the provisions of Islamic law mandating second-class status for non-Muslims. (Saddam chose his murder victims on other bases.) Christians enjoyed relatively equal rights under his regime, but after he was toppled, things began to change radically. Groups dedicated to the imposition of Islamic law over the country began to victimize Christians on a large scale. In March 2007, Islamic gangs knocked on doors in Christian neighborhoods in Baghdad, demanding payment of the jizya — the special tax the Koran mandates for non-Muslims who submit to Islamic rule.

Nor was that the beginning of the terrorizing of Iraq’s Christians. In October 2006, a Syrian Orthodox priest, Fr. Boulos Iskander, was kidnapped in the Iraqi city of Mosul. He was never seen alive again. A Muslim group demanded $350,000 in ransom; they eventually lowered this to $40,000, but added a new demand: Fr. Boulos’ parish had to denounce the remarks made the previous month by Pope Benedict XVI in an address in Regensburg, Germany, that caused rioting all over the Islamic world. The ransom was paid, and the church dutifully posted 30 large signs all over Mosul, but to no avail: Fr. Boulos was murdered and dismembered, not necessarily in that order.

Five hundred Christians attended the funeral of Fr. Boulos Iskander. Another priest commented: “Many more wanted to come to the funeral, but they were afraid. We are in very bad circumstances now.”

This murder took place against a backdrop of increasing persecution of Christians in Iraq. Women were threatened with kidnapping or death if they did not wear a headscarf; in accord with traditional Islamic legal restrictions on Christians “openly displaying wine or pork” (in the words of a legal manual endorsed by Cairo’s venerable Al-Azhar University), liquor store owners in Iraq were threatened and some were murdered. Many of their businesses were destroyed, and the owners fled. A onetime Iraqi liquor store owner now living in Syria lamented that “now at least 75 percent of my Christian friends have fled. There is no future for us in Iraq.”

Now that Barack Obama is removing U.S. troops from Iraq, this resurgent Islamic supremacism will only gain momentum. Though he could have helped protect Iraq’s Christians, Obama has shown no interest in using his bully pulpit to alleviate their plight. Instead, Obama has manifested a disquieting eagerness to cozy up to Sharia regimes – notably the one in next-door Iran, which is working still to create a Shi’ite client state in Iraq. Christians, as well as other non-Muslims, will suffer increasingly, in direct proportion to Iran’s success in Iraq. Muslim persecution of Christians — built as it is into the foundations of Islamic theology and law — is only going to increase as the Islamic reawakening continues in the Muslim world. Obama should — if he had the guts and the vision that so many loudly proclaimed that he had — stand up and say, “No more.” But he won’t.

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The Nation — On Monday, the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington assembled an all-star panel of analysts for perspective on the role of women in the recent Iran election and post-election upheaval.

Among the participants: Pari Esfandiari of IranDokht.com, a web site that describes itself as “an online media platform that connects the global community to Iranian women“; Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of Iran‘s parliament (2000-2004); Nayereh Tohidi, a Cal State professor; Norma Moruzzi, a professor from the University of Illinois, Chicago; and Jaleh Lackner-Gohari, from Vienna, a physician, activist, and vice president of innerChange Associates.

The moderator was Haleh Esfandiari of the Wilson Center, whose 2007 arrest in Iran made headlines around the world. So strong is the women’s movement that a web site linked to Iran’s intelligence ministry has begun referring to “woman commandos” in describing post-election protests, according to Haleh Esfandiari, who added that there are reports that Zahra Rahnavard, Mir Hossein Mousavi‘s well-known activist wife, is the leading voice behind the scenes urging Mousavi not to accede to pressure to halt his campaign against the election results. (So well known is Zahra Rahnavard that, when Mousavi became prime minister in the 1980s it was said in Iran that “Rahnavard’s husband was named prime minister.”)

The panel answered a lot of questions about the role of women in Iran today — and left some questions hanging.

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, who quit her term in parliament in 2004 to protest against the Guardian Council‘s peremptory banning of hundreds of political candidates — including not less than 80 members of parliament! — in that year’s election, described women in Iran as being on the “front lines” of the Green Movement and the election battles. Often, she said, they protected men from being beaten in the streets, and they formed ad hoc groups such as Mothers in Mourning or Peace Mothers to demonstrate at places like Evin Prison, where many protestors are being held.

Most interesting was the panel’s emphasis on the fact that the women’s movement in Iran didn’t arise out of nowhere to prominence in the Green Movement but was, in fact, a long time in the works. Tohidi said women in Iran had been engaged in many years of quiet educational and organizational work, especially over the past fifteen years, and today the women’s movement in Iran is the “strongest in the Middle East.” Some of them, she said, were Islamists who have been formulating a more progressive and liberal version of “Islamic feminism” while others are secular women who’ve moved far beyond Iran’s culture of revolutionary Islam. The two currents came together in 1997 in the massive vote that elected President Khatami, and since then they’ve brought strong pressure to bear on subsequent candidates. Jaleh Lackner-Gohari added that during the 1980s and 1990s, many women went into higher education and the professions precsiely because they were barred from politics and, she joked, “had nothing better to do.” Quietly, they built networks, professional organizations, and channels for communications — including, lately, blogs.

Norma Moruzzi, who’s made numerous visits to Iran since 1997, stressed that women have jsut about reached parity with men, when measured in terms of metrics such as literacy. In 1980, she said, about half of Iranians could read and write, but the total favored men by 60 percent to 38 percent; by 2000, 92 percent of women were literate, compared to 96 percent for men. (In universities, neaerly two-thirds of students are women.) One paradox cited by Moruzzi: despite the regime’s patriarchal laws that limit women’s privileges and rights in areas such as dress, inheritance laws, and so on, since 1979 Iran has invested in education, health care, and family planning, in a way that has allowed women to flourish.

Pari Esfandiari — no relation to Haleh Esfandiari — noted the image of women in Iran is now vastly different worldwide. She drew a contrast between the movie, “The Stoning of Soraya M,” a viscerally brutal film about the stoning to death of a woman in Iran, and the fact that in the post-election confrontations with the security forces in Iran many women were filmed throwing stones at members of the Revolutionary Guard, i.e., they aren’t victims. Like other speakers, Esfandiari noted that women in professional organizations were a crucial part of the pro-Reformist coalition that supported Mousavi and cleric Mehdi Karroubi, the other reformist candidate, in 2009. Moruzzi noted that Iranian women formed behind-the-scenes pressure groups to meet with and grill candidates’ aides, getting them to answer questions and fill out questionnaires about their attitudes towards women’s issues.

Left unsaid, however, was the issue of: what now? Where does all this energy go, in a society in which nearly all levers of actual power — in the government, in the (all-male) clergy, among military and Guard commanders, and virtually all of the regime’s constitutional institutions — are dominated by men, and reactionary ones at that?

And, when I asked about President Obama‘s options now, the entire panel came out against US engagement with Iran, for fear that by so doing the United States will “legitimize” the regime. “Now is not the time for Obama to sit down with this government,” said Moruzzi. She suggested that the leader, Ali Khamenei, and President Ahmadinejad see talks with the United States as the “big carrot” that could restore their discredited regime to legitimacy. Others on the panel agreed. “They should not be invited to international meetings,” said Jaleh Lackner-Gohari. “We should not negoitiate with the Ahmadinejad government,” insisted Nayereh Tohidi.

To me, this is utterly wrongheaded, and self-defeating. If Iran wants to talk, President Obama can embrace such talks on a realist, state-to-state basis, without endorsing the regime’s bad behavior. To reject an offer from Iran to talk, now, would fatally undermine Obama’s carefully constructed opening to Tehran, pushing Iran deeper into isolation, strengthening the hand of the radical right, and weakening the very reform movement that human rights groups want to enhance. Indeed, it was Obama’s opening to Iran since January that was partly responsible for the strength and ferocity of the opposition movement in Iran, as countless men and women told me during my two-week trip to Iran in June.

Part of the reason why the panel of women at the Wilson Center oppose US-Iran dialogue now is that many of them expect that the regime might collapse in the near-term. I disagree. Based on what we know now, it’s more than likely that the regime will maintain control for a prolonged period to come, perhaps years. The opposition movement isn’t dead, and it’s not going away. But I’d venture a guess that Ahmadinejad will complete his four-year term. And the world can’t wait for the regime to collapse. We’re going to have to hold our collective noses and do business with these guys.

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Soon Great Britain will be having a general election in which they will elect a new Parliament and Prime Minister.
Most likely Mr. Brown will run on the Labour ticket and Mr. Cameron will be the PM candidate for the Conservatives.
We will be keeping a look out at Women’s Watch,Inc because the Conservatives through their spokesman, Dominic Grieve, has promised to enforce the law protecting the civil rights of women which the Labor party has largely ignored in an attempt to appease the radical Islamists living in England.
These radicals have been forcing women to marry men they did not want to, engaging in genital mutilation of girls as young as 5 or 6 years old, honor killings of women for the slightest “infractions” that “offend” their family’s honor and forced wearing of the hijab (FORCED is the operative word).
Labour has also allowed Muslim schools to teach hatred of the Jews and Israel and deny the Holocaust.
If there is a change in government WW,Inc will be looking to see if a new Conservative government will step up to the plate and make sure that ALL women in Great Britain enjoy the full protection of their civil and human rights.

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By JIM WALSH • Courier-Post Staff • July 13, 2009

A Deptford man, who faces child-porn charges, encouraged boys to share sexually explicit pictures of themselves “with what they thought was the MySpace account of a young female pornography star,” authorities said Friday.

One youngster sent 100 photos of himself to 38-year-old Bryan A. Jacobs, who’s charged with possessing and distributing images of children engaged in sex acts, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.

Jacobs, who also allegedly took video images of children at his job in a local home-improvement store, was one of three area men to face charges Friday related to sexual misconduct involving children.

In a separate case, Joseph M. Graber III, 39, of Medford Lakes was arrested at his home in the 100 block of Blackfoot Trail. Police said they found sexually explicit pictures and videos on Graber’s home computer during a search Friday morning.

He’s also accused of giving an explicit photo to someone he believed was a young girl, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

And a Delanco man, 37-year-old David Cuspilich, is accused of sexually assaulting a juvenile girl over a six-year period, authorities said.

Cuspilich, a mortgage broker from the 500 block of Spruce Street, faces multiple charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of children.

Police allege the victim, whose name was not released, was assaulted between the ages of 9 and 15.

Cuspilich was ordered held Friday on $100,000 bail.

Graber — charged with possessing child porn, promoting obscene material and endangering the welfare of children — was being held on $102,500 bail at Burlington County Jail.

At a court hearing in Woodbury, Jacobs lost a bid Friday to cut his bail from $100,000 cash.

The Deptford man, who lives in the 200 block of Somerset Road, argued in part for a reduction on the grounds that he’s a longtime township resident and has no prior criminal record, according to an account from the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.

But Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Joseph Brook pointed to multiple allegations against Jacobs, including a claim that he bought online images of child sexual abuse from an Indiana supplier.

“For all of these reasons, $100,000 cash seems a little low to me,” Brook told Superior Court Judge Walter Marshall Jr.

Brook also said more charges may be filed against Jacobs, noting the suspect was “creating child pornography.”

The MySpace page maintained by Jacobs purported to be that of an actual porn actress, said Bernie Weisenfeld, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Marshall called the current bail “appropriate” for Jacobs, who’s been held in Gloucester County Jail since his June 25 arrest.

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Everybody knows about Jay Leno’s taste for topical humor. Far fewer are aware that his wife, Mavis, has long been one of Hollywood’s most influential behind-the-scenes activists on behalf of women.

For more than a decade Mavis Leno has made the plight of Afghan women her particular case and this month she and the organization in which she plays a pivotal role — the Feminist Majority Foundation — will hold what amounts to a coming out party for the next round in this cause.

The feminist organization with a hip Beverly Hills-adjacent headquarters — financed with the help of industry activist Peg Yorkin — now has a global reach and the plight of Afghan women is a particular focus. (The group also publishes Ms. Magazine). Shortly after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, Mavis and Jay Leno gave $100,000 to help jump-start the foundations’ global women’s rights program.

Mavis Leno had been involved with the Feminist Majority — founded in 1987 by former National Organization for Women President Eleanor Smeal and Yorkin — for some time and had become concerned about the Taliban’s often brutal discrimination against women. When Mavis Leno tried to interest news correspondents in the problem in the mid- to late 1990s, she hit a brick wall.

So she resolved to create a story that would appeal to people in an area she understood: the entertainment media. The entertainment media got it. And hard news reporters followed the stars as they — like the Magi — are prone to do.

In 2001 in an online chat on CNN, Mavis Leno told an interviewer: “With the Taliban takeover, the women were immediately, without any exceptions, told to go to their homes and stay there. They were told they could no longer work in any capacity. Since there are a huge amount of war widows in this country who are the sole support of their families this threw many families into starvation.

“The only answer to this problem offered by the Taliban was allowing women to beg if they had no son older than 6 who could beg for the family instead.”

Since the American invasion of Afghanistan and the installations of the Karzi government, the situation for Afghan women has been extremely fluid, with progress in some places and deepening repression in others, according to Leno. (Girls attending newly reopened schools have had acid thrown in their faces by Taliban loyalists. Some have been kidnapped on their way to school and sold into human trafficking and prostitution.)

“Nothing thrives in chaos like criminal activity,” Mavis Leno said in an interview this week at the Feminist Majority headquarters.

Mavis Leno and her fellow activists have waged an ongoing effort to make sure that the status of Afghan women figures into America’s policy calculations. With President Barack Obama shifting the focus of American military back onto Afghanistan and Pakistan — where the Taliban is aggressively expanding — the local activists have been making a special effort to ensure that the rights of women are considered alongside Washington’s strategic considerations.

Last week, foundation activists went to Washington to meet with members of the Obama administration. Sima Samar, who heads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan, joined up with them. “We warned in 1998, and over and over again ever since, the women and girls in Afghanistan are the canaries in the mine,” Smeal told reporters in Washington. “We cannot forget them if we are ever to gain peace and global stability.”

But it takes cash to keep even the most compelling causes going. And so Mavis and Jay Leno will be hosting a fundraiser on April 29 at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the foundation’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The event will be structured more along the lines of a salon (these are very serious folks) than the normal network- and-sign-a-check industry gala.

Among those being honored for their activism at the event are:

* Journalist Christiane Amanpour, who risked her life reporting on the plight of women in Afghanistan for CNN.

* Leymah Gbowee, who led an unprecedented mobilization of women across Liberia in a series of massive demonstrations to end the bloody 14-year civil war.

* Producer and philanthropist Abigail Disney and director Gini Reticker, who captured Gbowee’s efforts in the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”

* “Law & Order” executive producer Neal Baer and “Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit” actress Mariska Hargitay, who have worked to bring television audiences a better understanding of violence against women, including human trafficking and child soldiers. (Hargitay’s series aired an episode this week on the subject.)

* Los Angeles activist Billie Heller, who has worked for nearly three decades to win U.S. ratification of the International Women’s Rights Treaty.

Jay Leno (described by his wife as a true feminist) will serve as master of ceremonies.

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Saudi Arabian feminist and human right’s activist, WAJIHA al-HUWAIDIL was detained by the religious police and border guards as she tried to leave the Kingdom on a brief vacation to Bahrain.
Her departure was prevented because she was alone i.e. without a MALE relative to give his permission for her to go.
“Treat us (women) like mature human beings or let us go permanently,” al-HUWAIDIL is quoted as saying.
Women in the oil rich Kingdom are among the most oppressed on earth.
President Obama recently visited and received a golden chain from the reigning monarch. Women wear other kinds of chains.

I have never recommended a movie before but now I am compelled to deviate from that. “The Murder of Soraya M” is one of those films that can change lives.
It is based on the book by Iranian born French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam who in the late 1980s returned to his country of origin to do some secret investigation.He found more than he bargained for. He uncovered the collective murder of a 35 year old mother of nine in a village in post Revolutionary Iran.
The woman’s husband, Ghorban-ali, who frequented prostitutes fell in love with a younger woman and had to get rid of his wife in order to marry her. So he conspired with crooked Imam Sheik Hassan. They accused his wife of infidelity and sentenced her to death by stoning.
It is a true story and is repeated over and over again in countries under Sharia law. Last year eight women were stoned to death in Iran alone.
To stop this first we have to know about it. Seeing this movie is a good start.

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to have made a stunning admission in favor of cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them. In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups “that we don’t want to have too many of.”

The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the fact that abortions are not covered by Medicaid, and therefore are less available to poor women. “Reproductive choice has to be straightened out,” said Ginsburg, lamenting the fact that only women “of means” can easily access abortion.

“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of,” Ginsburg told Emily Bazelon of the New York Times.

“So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.  Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.”

Harris v. McRae is a 1980 court decision that upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.

Justice Ginsburg’s remarks appear to align her expectations for abortion with those of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, and other prominent members of the 20th century’s eugenics movement. Sanger and her eugenicist peers advocated the systematic use of contraception, sterilization, and abortion to reduce the numbers of poor, black, immigrant and disabled populations.

Ironically, the New York Times interview began as an exploration of Ginsburg’s thoughts on Supreme Court hopeful Sonia Sotomayor as she prepares for her confirmation hearings this month.  Coverage of Sotomayor frequently emphasizes her success story as an underprivileged minority from the Bronx who rose to prominence at Princeton and Yale Law.

Ginsburg also defended a controversial statement repeated by Sotomayor in several speeches, where she stated she “would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

“I thought it was ridiculous for them to make a big deal out of that,” said Ginsburg.  “Think of how many times you’ve said something that you didn’t get out quite right, and you would edit your statement if you could. I’m sure she meant no more than what I mean when I say: Yes, women bring a different life experience to the table. … That I’m a woman, that’s part of it, that I’m Jewish, that’s part of it, that I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I went to summer camp in the Adirondacks, all these things are part of me.”

The judge also praised the advent of earlier abortions with the wider distribution of the morning-after pill, saying “I think the side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they’re fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change.”

When the Supreme Court upheld the partial-birth abortion ban in 2007, Ginsburg wrote a scathing dissent, saying the court’s reasoning “reflects ancient notions about women’s place in the family and under the Constitution – ideas that have long since been discredited.”

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