A TANGLED WEB

CORPSES FOR JIHAD...?

I know some other contributors have mentioned this so let me LINK IT. It relates to the shocking images of dead children in Qana that have been flashed around the world's media today.

Those who are pro-Jihadist may think they can count on the MSM, thank goodness we have new media to challenge what they say.

****Please be warned that the link does contain terrible images, but it also raises some terrible possibilities****

In essence, it raises the profoundly disturbing possibility that they have been staged for effect, exploiting the victims in an unwholesome manner. In so doing, they are no longer news photographs - they are propaganda. And, whoever said the camera cannot lie forgot that photographers can and do. Those lies have spread throughout the world by now and will be in this morning's newspapers, accepted as real by the millions who view them.

The profession of photo-journalism thereby is sadly diminished by them, and the trust in those who took them and in those who carried them is misplaced. Truly, we are dealing with loathesome creatures.

And just so my detractors are crystal clear on this matter. The death of ANY child is a terrible thing. However using that death to propagate a political view by staging a photo call of the corpse is profoundly cynical and revolting.

AN ECHO FROM THE PAST...

Disturbing to read that vandals scratched a swastika into one of the slabs of Berlin's Holocaust memorial. Security officers found the swastika Saturday morning, police said. The damage was swiftly repaired.

The memorial _ a vast field of more than 2,700 gray slabs situated close to the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin _ opened to the public in May 2005. Open around the clock, it drew some 3.5 million visitors in its first year, authorities said. In a separate incident, a 42-year-old man was detained after he was seen painting a swastika on the facade of the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, police said.

I believe that the dark shadow of anti-Semitism is once again casting itself across the European continent. I am sure that every effort will be made to present this as a "one-off" story, as so many others have been. But there is an undelying malaise here - and it's all part of the emerging Eurabia.

GRASPING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY...

David Horowitz reflects many of my own deep concerns in this excellent article written over on Frontpage...

First, he spells out what is going to happen in Lebanon in the weeks ahead...

The appeasers of Islamofascism, who have been calling for a ceasefire and bewailing “civilian casualties” in Lebanon and Gaza, will succeed. Hezbollah will agree to turn over its arms to the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese army. The pro-Hezbollah UN will establish a security zone on Lebanon’s southern border to keep the area clear of non-government militias, of which the Hezbollah “militia” is the only one. The credulous in the Western camp will greet this as a victory for the peacemakers. But exactly the opposite will be the case.

According to a recent poll in Lebanon eighty percent of the Lebanese Arabs support Hezbollah. In other words, just as Hamas, which was created by the same Muslim Brotherhood that spawned al-Qaeda, is now the Palestinian government, so Hezbollah will emerge as the government of Lebanon. The Lebanese army will become the new Hezbollah “militia.” Only it won’t be a militia. It will be the terrorist army of a sovereign power, with the right to openly negotiate its arms deals with Syria and Iran.

But that's just one part of it. It gets worse...

Those who in the midst of these wars clamor for ceasefires with an implacable foe, those who call for withdrawals that would leave sovereign states in the hands of the terrorist forces, those who decry civilian casualties caused by the only forces in this war who do not target civilians, those Blame-America-Firsters who exploit the Abu Ghraibs on our side and not their atrocities, those whose hysterical fear of the conflict we face takes the form of pathological denial and projects the rabid hatred of the enemy for us onto our own commander in the war, are destined to have a lot to answer for before this conflict is over.

Espeically if we lose, and the ceasefire now being negotiated is the next step down the road to our defeat by the Jihadists - even whilst we have the capability of beating them. We're going to seize defeat from the jaw of victory - and it will be done under the flag of the UN and in the name of peace. Thus the road to hell is paved with UN resolutions and good intentions.

FISKING HAIN'S LETTER....

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain must be desperate. How else to explain "HIS" PATHETIC letter in this morning's Newsletter?

It's a great laugh...try this out for size...

"Unionism has every right to be confident: confident in its place in the United Kingdom with the principle of consent secured by the Agreement, confident in its culture and confident in its politics and its politicians."

Who said we weren't confident Peter - we just don't trust Sinn Fein apologists like yourself.

"It also needs to be smart. In politics, as elsewhere, timing is all. November is the time for unionism to seize the initiative and it will get so much more by engaging and mainstreaming all parties in accountable, democratic politics in the Assembly and the Executive than it will by staying on the sidelines denying itself its rightful role in the Government of Northern Ireland.

Putting terrorists into Government is a price we will not pay Peter. Got it?

"I accept that in the past we were over-optimistic about the pace of transition within the republican movement and that led to understandable suspicion on the part of unionists.That is why we set up the Independent Monitoring Commission."

But at the time, those Unionists who exposed the duplicity of Republicans' were cold-shouldered by Government. It's only now that the Unionist electorate have moved away from the Vichy UUP that you are forced to write this pointless apologia. 

It is the IMC that tells us that the IRA is living up to its commitments: just read the last Report with an open mind.

Nope Peter- we can all see and read what the IRA is up to. The IMC is your creature, we never voted for it.

Unionism wants to see more movement.

Yes, we'd like to see Government stop pandering to terrorists of all hues.

But the real danger for unionism is if what was seen in the past to be justifiable concern and suspicion becomes a paralysing refusal to accept that their opponents are capable of change and are part of the body politic. There will be a real problem for unionism if the IMC reports in October that the IRA has done what it said it would,  following on from the quietest parades season since the 1960s and where Sinn Fein is seen to be co-operating more with the police at street level and still there is no political settlement.And the consequences of failure by 24 November will be serious.

The real danger for Unionism is believing a word you say.  And not so subtle threats won't work.

I am often told that unionism does not respond to threats. Quite right.
Neither do I. But unionism should recognise political reality.

Oh but your lousy Government does respond to threats. Republicans figured that one a loooong time ago,

But unionism should recognise political reality.
As the Prime Minster said in Armagh in April, having worked with the Irish government and with the parties for nearly 10 years on this, there will be nothing more that the governments can do. And the political focus in the Republic will switch elsewhere at the turn of the year.
Devolution will go into deep freeze and, frankly, I cannot see the circumstances in which it will be revived in the foreseeable future.
There will be no joint authority with the Irish government but north/south and east/west co-operation will deepen. Direct Rule will continue.
MLAs will lose their place as representatives of the people and while Ministers will, of course, continue to deal with MPs on constituency matters, the democratic deficit will be massive.
The real loss will not be the salaries and allowances.
It will be the loss of a generation of
local politicians who will be seen by the public to have failed.

Good. They will not have failed if they stand firm against your plan to bully them into selling out democracy

The next few months will involve difficult decisions for unionism.
It will mean engaging with people with whom most unionists would rather not.

Talk to terrorists is what you mean, so why not say it?

The prize is that local politicians will be able to decide local matters whether it is on education or rural planning or industrial de-rating or a host of other issues I currently have to deal with.
The future of Northern Ireland will be in local hands and that is as it should be.
Establishing locally accountable, democratic structures of government is not about what I want, or Tony Blair wants or Bertie Ahern wants.
It is about giving the people of Northern Ireland what they want and what they deserve.
And if this opportunity is taken, unionism's confidence in its politicians will be well rewarded.

Get the cheque-book out, eh Peter? But obvious there, your script-writers could have done better.

We will look back on Peter Hain as an excrementally poor Secretary of State, in thrall to the Republican agenda, and who tried and failed to browbeat Unionism into corrupting itself.

Two words Peter. No Surrender.

LESBIAN "MARRIAGE" FOILED!

I was rather pleased to see that the attempts by a pair of roving Lesbians, who married legally in liberal Canada have failed in their High Court bid to have their union given full legal status in the UK.

Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, of North Yorkshire, were married in Vancouver in 2003. The pair said the UK's failure to recognise the legality of their vows was a breach of their human rights. I bet they did.

This "Human Rights" mantra is the extreme left's excuse to justify their every mental aberration. Look, I have nothing against these ladies but --- marriage is the union between One man and One woman. Militant homosexuals clearly seek to use "Human Rights" legislation to bull-doze this age old institution and hence advance their own selfish and perverse agenda. And so long as there are on-the-make "Human Rights" parasite lawyers wanting to make big bucks from helping them the threat to the family remains. 

RADIO JIHAD CALLING....

My car was being serviced this morning so I was listening to Radio Five live on the way to the garage  - to the Victoria Derbyshire phone in. The topic was the current situation in Lebanon.

I was stunned by the fact that caller after call was; a/Muslim and b/ Dripping in anti-Israeli propaganda, full of blood libels.

Israel was accused of every conceivable crime and not a bad word was spoken against Hezbollah. I heard ONE voice - an Englishman called John - who spoke solid sense but he was the only person who defended Israel during the 45 minutes I listened to this programme.

John alluded to the remarkably large number of pro-Jihad Muslims on the programme and accused the BBC of bias. Victoria answered by claiming that her programme reflected who was phoning in. The rest of those allowed on air were pro-Jihad and anti- Semites to the core. Radio 5 live is well know for it's liberal bias but listening to this programme was like listening to Radio Jihad. Worst of all, the British taxpayer is funding it.

Contraditions in Terms

Honesty on one side; the British and Oirish governments on the other.  Mutually exclusive concepts - well at least insofar as the handling of the Ulster appeasement process is concerned.  For at the same time as Perma-tan and McDowell sit in their plush offices, pontificating about the puritanical morals of the IRA, the Gardai and the PSNI are continuing their long-running investigations into the darker side of the Provos' criminal empire.

Identified by the IMC earlier this year as a 'strategic asset' (it will be interesting to note whether government pressure forces the IMC to drop its renewal of that term in their October submission) to boost Sinn Fein's electoral prospects in the Republic, both police forces are continuing to probe money laundering, fuel and cigarette smuggling, crime and extortion.  Furthermore, probes into property investment in areas as far away as the Black Sea coast are under the spotlight.  And, as Eilis O'Hanlon says in the same paper, what incentive is there for the Provos to give up crime, given that the whole approach to their terrorist apparatus has been one of softly, softly down the years?

A few days ago, the PSNI raided another illegal fuel depot in Cullyhanna, South Armagh.  When I wrote about this, Chris Gaskin typed a response saying he knew the person concerned and that he wasn't a republican.  Mmmm, very believable.  In my opinion he either didn't know him well enough to notice strange goings-on at the aforesaid dwelling, in which case he is no position to say whether he is definitively a republican or not; or else knew the person well enough to have at least an inkling of his background hobbies but chose to keep them quiet from the PSNI (a line of non-cooperation very much in tandem with his 'party').  As I said, this in only an opinion.  I'll be gracious enough to let Mr Gaskin answer for himself, if and when he chooses to do so.  Perhaps he should have written 'know of' instead of 'know'.  Tsk, tsk!

Anyway, back to more important matters.  The truth remains that the Provisional IRA is up to its proverbial neck in a welter of illegal activity.  Simply suspending those activities would not relinquish them from the stigma of criminality.  Only the complete surrender of everything ever accrued by the proceeds of crime would do that.  My friends, such an undertaking is not possible by November 24th.

Bye, bye Stormont.

CEASEFIRE NOW?

As I predicted yesterday, the MSM has SEIZED upon the Qana incident to damn Israel from every possible angle. Israel, being a humane democracy, has apologised for the deaths of any innocents killed in the attack on Hezbollah Jihadists, but of course that is NOT good enough.

Only a "lasting ceasefire" right NOW will do. And alas it looks like Israel is being bullied into giving the Dhimmis want they want. And what the Dhimmi media and politicians want is TIME.

Time for Hezbollah to regroup and rearm.

Time for Syria and Iran to supply bigger and better rockets to their proxies in Lebanon.

Time for the Jihadists to use this announcement of an Israeli defeat, which is exactly how it will be reported in the Arab street, to recruit some more killers.

Time for the flame of democracy in the Middle East to dim a little more.

And as for "poor innocent Lebanon" - I quote their Prime Minister Siniora speaking of the Hezbollah killers that terrorise Israel and who are pledged to wipe it off the map...

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora thanked Hizbollah on Sunday for its “sacrifices” in its war against Israel. “We are in a strong position and I thank the Sayyed for his efforts,” Siniora said when asked about a Saturday statement by Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah calling on the government to take advantage of Hizbollah’s steadfastness against Israeli military might.

It's obvious that we are dealing with a Lebanese Government that is working in league with Hezbollah. And yet, a ceasefire is required and we will be told to trust the Lebanese Government that hero worships Hezbollah? Sorry - this is plain wrong. A ceasefire is the last thing we need. The vultures are gathering over Israel - and they know that the best chance for Jihadists is for Israel to retreat from the Lebanon. I hope they don't get their way, because the Jihadists will come back, stronger and more confident. secure in the knowledge they have the dhimmified "International community" backing them up.

Gordon De Brown's Waiting, Talking Italian

We're becoming more like Italy (I wish!!).  It doesn't mean that our young people have abandoned the notion of getting 'rat-arsed' on a Friday night, preferring instead to hold hands with their partners in the moonlight.  It doesn't mean that the stodgy, fat-laden mess which passes for British cuisine has been forsaken for the staple delights of pasta or linguine.  It doesn't even mean that our capital city has reduced its travelling prices to equate those of Rome (where an all-day pass allowing unlimited travel on buses, trains and the subway within the city and its suburbs costs just €4).  What I mean is that this country is becoming more Italian economically.  Let me explain.

Most of you will know I have spent many periods of my adult life travelling in Italy.  Sardinia and Molisse are the only two regions I have never set foot in.  One of the things you notice when you go to Italy is the massive economic chasm between north and south.  Lombardy, the region whose capital is fashion-conscious Milan, is as prosperous as any region of this country.  Travel 500 miles south to Calabria (the 'toe' of Italy), which is the country's poorest region, and many of the towns have an average income little above what would be found across the Mediterranean in Tunisia.  It is only government funding which keeps any semblance of stability in the region as it is necessary to prevent complete collapse (the Mafia has its own definition of the local economy.  One which does not involve paying much to the State).  With the exception of a reunited Germany, Italy is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most economically divided country in the European Union.

Level accusations of inequality at the Italian government and they will entirely agree with you.  Government policy there since the war has been to deliberately impoverish the south (or Mezzogiorno) so that a plentiful supply of internal migrant labour is available to feed the industrial hot-houses of Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria.  By contrast, level accusations of a 'north-south' divide at Tony Blair, and he will say it's all baloney.  'Differences within regions are much greater than differences between them.'

A free market in a country is only truly free if it's money-making capacity is left unfettered by the government.  However, a government's task is to orchestrate policies in different regions according to how they have been shaped by the vicissitudes of economic history, in order to provide the necessary incentives for free market strategies to take root there (calls for a 12.5% corporation tax in Northern Ireland is a good example).  Unfortunately, very few governments since the war have been prepared to address the north-south divide in Britain, with the result that the gap gets ever wider.

Consider this report.  A Labour government, which historically has drawn much of its support from areas outside London and the South East, has now so mismanaged the economy with its bloated public sector and benefit dependency culture, the consequences can be seen in the rest of the country becoming London-dependent for survival.  Nick Bosanquet of Imperial College London says 'the north' (in essence every region of the UK northwest of the Severn-Wash line) faces an outward migration of young people, reliant on income transfers generated by the prosperity of London and its hinterland.  This is exactly what has happened in Italy over the last forty years.  The difference between a conversation with Tommaso Padoa Schioppa and Gordon Brown is that the former would be leagues ahead in the economic honesty stakes.

On This Day....

1910 - Dr Crippen is arrested aboard the SS Montrose as it docks in Quebec on a voyage from the UK.

1917 - Start of the Battle of Passchendale.

1920 - Formation of the British Communist Party.

1950 - Opening of Britain's first self-service supermarket - Sainsbury's in Croydon, south London.

1964 - American singer, Jim Reeves, dies in an airplane crash.

1965 - Cigarette adverts are banned on British television.