http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=62485
Parents warned of 'hate speech' during 'gay' promo
Principal says support for homosexuality approved, but 'condemnation' banned
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 25, 2008
12:10 am Eastern
Mass Resistance says hundreds of these pro-"gay" shirts have been distributed free to students in Massachusetts schools on the "Day of Silence"
A principal in a Massachusetts school district with a well-established reputation of promoting homosexuality to students has written to parents to tell them distributing "religious materials" during the school's annual observance of the pro-homosexual "Day of Silence" is not appropriate.
The letter from Michael Jones of Lexington, Mass., High School also confirms "hate speech" is "subject to legal constraints" and messages communicated through slogan T-shirts, buttons or stickers that express "condemnation" are "discouraged." Students with such a message will be counseled by school officials to meet the guidelines of the school handbook, he wrote.
However, groups that have been given his approval are allowed to hand out promotional materials to others and positive messages about the "Day of Silence" such as "Vocal Supporter" and "Silent Supporter" fall under free speech guidelines, Jones said.
The "Day of Silence" is a promotion intended, ostensibly, to make students "aware" of the "discrimination" suffered by homosexuals in society, by having students and teachers remain silent for the day. Such events typically are organized by a school's "Gay-Straight Alliance" group, but the event has been promoted throughout its existence by the special interest group, the massively funded Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
The event is being recognized tomorrow in many school districts around the nation, although in Massachusetts schools are scheduling the promotion on April 30 because of other school calendar issues.
WND previously reported on a concerted effort by dozens of organizations to alert parents to the indoctrination effects of school observances of such a day, with parents being urged to keep their children home from schools whenever the event is held.
"It's outrageous that our neighborhood schools would allow homosexual activism to intrude into the classroom," said Buddy Smith of the American Family Association, one group on that long list of organizations working to provide information to parents.
"'Day of Silence' is about coercing students to repudiate traditional morality. It's time for Christian parents to draw the line – if your children will be exposed to this DOS propaganda in their school, then keep them home for the day," he said.
The letter from the Lexington principal was being highlighted by officials with Mass Resistance, a pro-family group that is battling a long list of anti-Christian influences in Massachusetts schools.
"He describes the Day of Silence in positive, affirming terms – just the opposite of what parents feel. He then portrays it as a calm, free-speech event that is not disruptive to the education process, violates no one's rights, and which does not constitute the school taking a political position on the issue. That's simply not true," the organization said in a website commentary.
"The act of students (and even staff) being silent all day is a clear disruption of the education process," the group said.
Mass Resistance is one of the main groups that has been monitoring the Lexington district ever since officials there signed a complaint that ended up with a father, David Parker, jailed after he objected to the district teaching his young son homosexual behavior.
His case is being prepared for submission to the U.S. Supreme Court now, but in the latest conflict created by the school's homosexual advocacy, WND reported when the district told another worried father the school district could and would teach students about homosexuality when it chose and without letting parents know or giving them an opportunity to withdraw their children from such instruction.
In the current letter to parents, the principal begins talking about graffiti including a "homophobic" remark that he has reported to police.
"I have asked anyone who has information about this incident to talk to one of the deans or other staff members in the school," he advises. "I assure you that the proper steps are being taken to investigate this matter…"
He then goes on to announce to parents the "annual observance of the Day of Silence" will be April 30th.
"He first discusses some unrelated vandalism, then segues into the Day of Silence and its critics. The subtle hint is that there could be some connection," Mass Resistance said.
Mass Resistance also noted the implication that negative responses to the homosexual promotion could be linked to "hate speech."
"He states that 'hate speech' – i.e., criticism of the Day of Silence or homosexuality – is 'subject to legal constraints.' But hate speech is not defined beyond a vague phrase about 'tasteless communication,' 'threats,' or singling out individuals 'for ridicule or condemnation.' Thus, they define what 'hate speech' is," the commentary said.
The principal's comment that the promotion "is not a school-sponsored event," is "profoundly misleading if not outright false," the group said. "It is school-sanctioned. And it is unquestionably organized by some school staff, as anyone who has observed it in the past could see."
"The homosexual club will be distributing pamphlets, stickers, and other materials. Can other groups do so? No. Only groups that are 'properly registered with the administration' and which have 'approval of the administration' can distribute literature," Mass Resistance said.
The group noted last year a student's father was escorted off campus by police for bringing anti-Day of Silence pamphlets into the school for kids to pass out.
"He says that people may wear buttons or stickers expressing their personal views. A few years ago at Lexington High a girl with a one-man-one-woman marriage sticker was assaulted by pro-gay students on the Day of Silence. And others were severely harassed and intimidated. The school did nothing," Mass Resistance said.
And as for the ban on "religious materials," the group said, "We've seen a lot of blatantly anti-religious material distributed by the homosexual groups. The event itself is essentially anti-religious in the eyes of many parents."
"Our message to parents: Continue to fight back!" the group said.
The campaign in which Mass Resistance is participating that calls for parents to keep their children home of the "Day of Silence" for 2008 has collected the support of a long list of prominent organizations.
Matt Barber, a spokesman for Concerned Women for America, said the day "amounts to educational malpractice."
"Our schools are supposed to be places of learning, not places of political indoctrination. It is the height of impropriety and cynicism for 'gay' activists and school officials to use children as pawns in their attempt to further a highly controversial and polarizing political agenda," he said.
Parents, the coalition says, should find out the date a local district is allowing the promotion, then they should "inform the school of your intention to keep your children home on that date and explain why."
Among the groups already promoting the protest are:
Abiding Truth Ministries
American Family Association
AFA of MI
AFA of PA
Americans for Truth
Christian Information Service
Christian Civic League of Maine
Concerned Women for America
Culture Campaign
Defend the Family International
Exodus Mandate
Illinois Family Institute
Traditional Values Coalition
Indiana Voice for the Family
Informing Christians
Liberty Counsel
MassResistance
Mission America
New Generation Christian Center
Parents' Rights' Coalition
Right March
Stephen Bennett Ministries
Values USA
and Watchmen on the Walls
WND also has reported on other fallout from the "Day of Silence."
A case is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California that challenges a school district's policy there that allows such slogans as "Stop the Hate," "fags," "queers," "that's so gay" and even "I Kiss Boys," but bans "Romans 1:27."
The case stems from punishment handed down by the Poway Unified School District for student Chase Harper, who was a sophomore in 2004 when the school recognized the "Day of Silence."
But when Harper wore a T-shirt with two slogans: "Be ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has condemned" and "Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27," he was ordered either to take the shirt off or spend the day in the school office, where he was photographed, questioned and challenged by a police officer.
A filing submitted on the student's behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund and Advocates for Faith and Freedom, said school districts are not allowed the privilege of such censorship.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Vento to candidates: No Geno’s? No guts
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080425_Vento_to_candidates__No_Genos__No_guts.html
Vento to candidates: No Geno’s? No guts
By Peter Mucha
On Tuesday, Primary Day, Barack Obama went across the street to Pat's for a cheesesteak.
Same day, Hillary Clinton had a chicken cheesesteak with Italian greens in the Philadelphia suburbs.
To Geno's owner Joey Vento, such decisions showed such a lack of courage that neither Democrat deserves to be president.
"If they don't have the guts to come here and talk about the immigration problem ... they're not capable of running our country," he said.
Tomorrow afternoon, Vento will take on Geraldo Rivera in a soldout debate on immigration at the Inquirer and Daily News Building at Broad and Callowhill Streets. The discussion will be carried live during Dom Giordano's 1-to-4 p.m. show on WPHT (1210 AM, "The Big Talker").
Vento has been something of a national figure since a sign in his restaurant's window started making headlines two years ago.
Still there, it reads:
"This is America. When ordering please speak English."
Last month, the city's Commission on Human Relations ruled in a split decision that the sign did not constitute discrimination.
Geno's doesn't refuse service to Spanish-speaking customers, Vento has said.
The last candidate to stop by Ninth and East Passyunk for a photo op was Republican Rudy Giuliani in October.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to Pat's King of Steaks, Ninth and Wharton, where they ordered theirs "Whiz with" - avoiding John Kerry's famed faux pas there four years ago of ordering a cheesesteak hoagie with Swiss.
Hillary Clinton avoided both landmarks, grabbing her chicken steak at Boccella's restaurant while in Conshohocken.
"They're both dummies, as far as I'm concerned," said Vento.
If Obama had stopped at Geno's and just politely listened to Vento's views about illegal immigration, the senator's poll numbers might have shot up 8 points, Vento said.
Obama needn't agree. He could just say, " 'I think I'll take this under advisement,' " Vento said.
"I'm for everything that he's against," Vento said.
Obama's reluctant to wear flag pins, Geno's is full of flags. They differ on abortion. Obama wants to bring the troops home, Vento wants them to finish the mission.
Clinton's gastronomic choice also raised his hackles. "There's no such thing as chicken steak," he said. "... I refuse to sell it. This is beef country. Beef is the backbone of the United States. ... The cattle drives! Rawhide! Clint Eastwood driving the cattle."
"I'm the spokesman for the United States of America," Vento said.
"I'm disappointed in McCain, too, you know," he said of John McCain, the likely Republican nominee.
"What I like about him is he's probably got about 40 percent of conservative left in him," Vento said.
If the Arizona senator stops in, maybe he'd learn a thing or two from Vento and get straightened out, the South Philly politicial whiz said.
"I have no problem with legal immigration," he added. "... You shouldn't be rewarded for not obeying the law."
Vento to candidates: No Geno’s? No guts
By Peter Mucha
On Tuesday, Primary Day, Barack Obama went across the street to Pat's for a cheesesteak.
Same day, Hillary Clinton had a chicken cheesesteak with Italian greens in the Philadelphia suburbs.
To Geno's owner Joey Vento, such decisions showed such a lack of courage that neither Democrat deserves to be president.
"If they don't have the guts to come here and talk about the immigration problem ... they're not capable of running our country," he said.
Tomorrow afternoon, Vento will take on Geraldo Rivera in a soldout debate on immigration at the Inquirer and Daily News Building at Broad and Callowhill Streets. The discussion will be carried live during Dom Giordano's 1-to-4 p.m. show on WPHT (1210 AM, "The Big Talker").
Vento has been something of a national figure since a sign in his restaurant's window started making headlines two years ago.
Still there, it reads:
"This is America. When ordering please speak English."
Last month, the city's Commission on Human Relations ruled in a split decision that the sign did not constitute discrimination.
Geno's doesn't refuse service to Spanish-speaking customers, Vento has said.
The last candidate to stop by Ninth and East Passyunk for a photo op was Republican Rudy Giuliani in October.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to Pat's King of Steaks, Ninth and Wharton, where they ordered theirs "Whiz with" - avoiding John Kerry's famed faux pas there four years ago of ordering a cheesesteak hoagie with Swiss.
Hillary Clinton avoided both landmarks, grabbing her chicken steak at Boccella's restaurant while in Conshohocken.
"They're both dummies, as far as I'm concerned," said Vento.
If Obama had stopped at Geno's and just politely listened to Vento's views about illegal immigration, the senator's poll numbers might have shot up 8 points, Vento said.
Obama needn't agree. He could just say, " 'I think I'll take this under advisement,' " Vento said.
"I'm for everything that he's against," Vento said.
Obama's reluctant to wear flag pins, Geno's is full of flags. They differ on abortion. Obama wants to bring the troops home, Vento wants them to finish the mission.
Clinton's gastronomic choice also raised his hackles. "There's no such thing as chicken steak," he said. "... I refuse to sell it. This is beef country. Beef is the backbone of the United States. ... The cattle drives! Rawhide! Clint Eastwood driving the cattle."
"I'm the spokesman for the United States of America," Vento said.
"I'm disappointed in McCain, too, you know," he said of John McCain, the likely Republican nominee.
"What I like about him is he's probably got about 40 percent of conservative left in him," Vento said.
If the Arizona senator stops in, maybe he'd learn a thing or two from Vento and get straightened out, the South Philly politicial whiz said.
"I have no problem with legal immigration," he added. "... You shouldn't be rewarded for not obeying the law."
Trident shadowing boat-load of bombs
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=62477
Trident shadowing boat-load of bombs
Chinese arms dispatched to Mugabe rejected by ports – so far
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 27, 2008
11:44 pm Eastern
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
Robert Mugabe
LONDON – A floating arsenal of weapons and bombs dispatched by China in a rust-stained tramp freighter to the pariah state of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe now is being shadowed by Britain's most powerful submarine, a nuclear Trident, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Freighter officers are desperate to be allowed to unload their cargo of 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, 2,500 mortar rounds and three million rounds of ammunition for Mugabe's army, intended to be used to further cow the country's starving population.
But it has been turned away by dockers in the South African port who branded it "a ship of shame," as well as ports in Angola and Mozambique.
Now as it wanders around the South Atlantic, the An Yue Jiang, which began its voyage five weeks ago from the Chinese port of Ningbo southwards into the Pacific and across the Indian Ocean, the Beijing Ministry of Defense has been trying to find an African country which would allow it to unload the lethal cargo.
Intelligence sources in London have confirmed that secret approaches have been made to Equatorial Guinea, Benin and the Ivory Coast. But so far none has allowed the ship to dock and offload its weapons.
Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman in Washington, said: "We think that under the present circumstances and the current political crisis in Zimbabwe, now is not the time for anyone to be increasing the number of weapons and armaments available to that country. We will press African nations to refuse the Yue Jiang docking rights or to face worsened relations with the United State."
Naval intelligence sources in London have said the possibility "cannot be ruled out" that the ship could make the journey to Venezuela, whose maverick leader, President Hugo Chavez, has a good relationship with China and is an opponent of the United States.
Trident shadowing boat-load of bombs
Chinese arms dispatched to Mugabe rejected by ports – so far
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 27, 2008
11:44 pm Eastern
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
Robert Mugabe
LONDON – A floating arsenal of weapons and bombs dispatched by China in a rust-stained tramp freighter to the pariah state of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe now is being shadowed by Britain's most powerful submarine, a nuclear Trident, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Freighter officers are desperate to be allowed to unload their cargo of 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, 2,500 mortar rounds and three million rounds of ammunition for Mugabe's army, intended to be used to further cow the country's starving population.
But it has been turned away by dockers in the South African port who branded it "a ship of shame," as well as ports in Angola and Mozambique.
Now as it wanders around the South Atlantic, the An Yue Jiang, which began its voyage five weeks ago from the Chinese port of Ningbo southwards into the Pacific and across the Indian Ocean, the Beijing Ministry of Defense has been trying to find an African country which would allow it to unload the lethal cargo.
Intelligence sources in London have confirmed that secret approaches have been made to Equatorial Guinea, Benin and the Ivory Coast. But so far none has allowed the ship to dock and offload its weapons.
Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman in Washington, said: "We think that under the present circumstances and the current political crisis in Zimbabwe, now is not the time for anyone to be increasing the number of weapons and armaments available to that country. We will press African nations to refuse the Yue Jiang docking rights or to face worsened relations with the United State."
Naval intelligence sources in London have said the possibility "cannot be ruled out" that the ship could make the journey to Venezuela, whose maverick leader, President Hugo Chavez, has a good relationship with China and is an opponent of the United States.
Friday, April 18, 2008
** New Orleans gears up for North American summit **
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5712435.html
New Orleans gears up for North American summit
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Police expect protests but few problems when the two-day North American Leaders Summit gets under way Monday in New Orleans.
It's VIP duty as President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get together to talk trade. But for the New Orleans Police Department, it's more of the same in a a string of high-profile, crowd-generating events early in 2008.
The North American summit in Quebec last August drew several hundred protesters vocal on the war in Iraq and what they claimed was a gradual merging of the three countries. There also were marches in New Orleans in 2003, when the city hosted negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Police Superintendent Warren Riley said he expects "some protesters, but not a mass."
"We handle these situations better than anyone in the country," Riley said.
New Orleans police are among the world's most skilled at crowd control. Their methods in handling the up to 1 million people who turn out each year at Mardi Gras have been studied by law enforcement agencies around the world.
Still, there are local tensions that officers will be on watch for _ among them simmering unhappiness about the City Council's decision last December to approve demolition of many large public housing complexes. A small group of protesters clashed with police as the council was debating on the issue. Police deployed chemical spray and Tasers and some arrests were made.
For the summit, they'll get help from state police, National Guard and the Coast Guard, though Riley wouldn't say how many additional security forces will be deployed.
The summit's scheduled events take place in the Central Business District, not far from the French Quarter but distant from neighborhoods hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It was unclear Friday whether the visiting leaders would meet with hurricane victims still rebuilding their homes and lives.
For Calderon, a visit to recovering neighborhoods would present an opportunity to meet some of New Orleans' newcomers _ Hispanic craftsmen attracted to the region by the promise of jobs in the massive effort to rebuild homes and businesses.
After a string of events in early 2007 _ the BCS championship and Sugar Bowl college football games, Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game among them _ the summit will turn the international spotlight on the city.
City leaders and tourism interests want to continue sending a message that New Orleans is open for business, said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Bush announced the summit would be held in New Orleans during his State of the Union speech in January. The president was criticized in 2007 for not including the city, or its struggles, in the speech. Despite billions of dollars of federal investment in rebuilding levees, homes and public infrastructure, the initial response to the flooding that swamped the city left a bad taste for many residents. They think the federal government has failed to do enough to bring the city back.
Mayor Ray Nagin, in January said he will meet with the president during the summit.
Not everyone believes New Orleans is the proper venue for the summit.
One target of protesters is expected to be the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. They say the pact, which aims to share information between the three governments and smooth out regulatory differences, is a threat to national sovereignty and an attempt to create a military partnership to enforce the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Jessica Walker Beaumont, an organizer of a People's Summit on North American issues, also wants to focus on concerns such as increased privatization of hospitals and schools _ "a lot of what NAFTA is about," she said.
Class distinctions, too, will be in the spotlight.
By coming to impoverished New Orleans, Bush is "having the arrogance to say, This is what prosperity looks like," said Kathleen Chandler, of Buffalo, N.Y., an organizer for the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization. The group plans a demonstration Sunday.
New Orleans gears up for North American summit
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Police expect protests but few problems when the two-day North American Leaders Summit gets under way Monday in New Orleans.
It's VIP duty as President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get together to talk trade. But for the New Orleans Police Department, it's more of the same in a a string of high-profile, crowd-generating events early in 2008.
The North American summit in Quebec last August drew several hundred protesters vocal on the war in Iraq and what they claimed was a gradual merging of the three countries. There also were marches in New Orleans in 2003, when the city hosted negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Police Superintendent Warren Riley said he expects "some protesters, but not a mass."
"We handle these situations better than anyone in the country," Riley said.
New Orleans police are among the world's most skilled at crowd control. Their methods in handling the up to 1 million people who turn out each year at Mardi Gras have been studied by law enforcement agencies around the world.
Still, there are local tensions that officers will be on watch for _ among them simmering unhappiness about the City Council's decision last December to approve demolition of many large public housing complexes. A small group of protesters clashed with police as the council was debating on the issue. Police deployed chemical spray and Tasers and some arrests were made.
For the summit, they'll get help from state police, National Guard and the Coast Guard, though Riley wouldn't say how many additional security forces will be deployed.
The summit's scheduled events take place in the Central Business District, not far from the French Quarter but distant from neighborhoods hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It was unclear Friday whether the visiting leaders would meet with hurricane victims still rebuilding their homes and lives.
For Calderon, a visit to recovering neighborhoods would present an opportunity to meet some of New Orleans' newcomers _ Hispanic craftsmen attracted to the region by the promise of jobs in the massive effort to rebuild homes and businesses.
After a string of events in early 2007 _ the BCS championship and Sugar Bowl college football games, Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game among them _ the summit will turn the international spotlight on the city.
City leaders and tourism interests want to continue sending a message that New Orleans is open for business, said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Bush announced the summit would be held in New Orleans during his State of the Union speech in January. The president was criticized in 2007 for not including the city, or its struggles, in the speech. Despite billions of dollars of federal investment in rebuilding levees, homes and public infrastructure, the initial response to the flooding that swamped the city left a bad taste for many residents. They think the federal government has failed to do enough to bring the city back.
Mayor Ray Nagin, in January said he will meet with the president during the summit.
Not everyone believes New Orleans is the proper venue for the summit.
One target of protesters is expected to be the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. They say the pact, which aims to share information between the three governments and smooth out regulatory differences, is a threat to national sovereignty and an attempt to create a military partnership to enforce the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Jessica Walker Beaumont, an organizer of a People's Summit on North American issues, also wants to focus on concerns such as increased privatization of hospitals and schools _ "a lot of what NAFTA is about," she said.
Class distinctions, too, will be in the spotlight.
By coming to impoverished New Orleans, Bush is "having the arrogance to say, This is what prosperity looks like," said Kathleen Chandler, of Buffalo, N.Y., an organizer for the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization. The group plans a demonstration Sunday.
Immigration breaks backs of taxpaying U.S. citizens
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61861
Immigration breaks backs of taxpaying U.S. citizens
Posted: April 18, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
Are you having a hard time paying your bills, making your mortgage payments or putting your kids through college? You need to know how much of your hard-earned income the government is skimming off and diverting into handouts to immigrants and illegal immigrants.
You can read the depressing details in the new 70-page document called "The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration" by Edwin S. Rubenstein. A Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow with a mile-long scholarly resume, he has been doing financial analysis ever since he directed the studies of government waste for the Grace Commission of 1984.
The bottom line, which you need to know for your own bottom line, is that U.S. taxpayers are giving more than $9,000 a year in cash or benefits to each immigrant, a third of whom are in the country illegally. That's $36,000 for each immigrant household of four.
Because the U.S. has 37 million immigrants, legal and illegal, the national cost was more than $346 billion last year, which was twice our fiscal deficit. The cost of immigrants is so high because, as Rubenstein writes, "Immigrants are poorer, pay less tax and are more likely to receive public benefits than natives."
Big Brother hasn't told you this bad news, perhaps because the government doesn't want you to know why your paychecks are shortchanged. Even the huge amnesty bill that was defeated last year didn't contain one word about its budgetary consequences.
The financial burden immigrants impose on education starts with the 3.8 million K-12 students enrolled in more expensive classes for the non-English speaking. When we add up the costs of hiring specialized teachers, training regular teachers, student identification and assessment, and administration costs, the total amounts to an estimated $1,030 per pupil, or $3.9 billion.
Of the 48.4 million public-school children, pre-K through 12th grade, 9.2 million or 19 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. In the next few years, immigration will account for virtually all the increase in public-school spending.
Look at the $1.5 billion cost of incarcerating 267,000 criminal aliens in federal prisons. That's not the worst of it; prison capacity is limited, so 80,000 to 100,000 other criminal aliens have been prematurely released to prowl our streets.
Criminals also impose heavy private costs on their victims. Rubenstein estimates the losses of income and property, hospital bills and emotional suffering at $1.6 million per assault or property-crime offender.
Rubenstein's report includes all sorts of costs that other observers conveniently ignore, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. EITC gives an average cash payment of $1,700 per year to 25 percent of immigrant households.
The emergency medical treatment given free to illegal immigrants is another enormous cost, causing some hospitals and emergency rooms to close. Emergency means any complaint from hangovers to hangnails, gunshot wounds to AIDS.
Even after some restrictions were imposed in 1996, 24.2 percent of immigrant households receive Medicaid, whereas the figure for native-born Americans is 14.8 percent. Rubenstein calculates that Hispanics account for 19.2 percent of Medicaid enrollment, while they are 13.7 percent of the U.S. population.
The FHA has had a policy of increasing home ownership among low-income immigrants and, therefore, approved FHA mortgages on homes with a down payment of only $200 to $300 and marginal income. Because buyers have so little invested in the house, they can walk away from it when they can't meet the payments, and this has resulted in neighborhoods of abandoned, boarded-up housing.
Refugees are a large and growing fiscal burden because they become immediately eligible for generous taxpayer-paid benefits. Evidence shows they stay dependent on these programs and start chain migrating relatives under the "family reunification" law.
The Interior Department spends millions of dollars to clean up the mountains of trash discarded by illegal immigrants crossing into California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Some immigration advocates peddle the notion that immigration will solve the future financial burdens of Social Security. Rubenstein shows how foolish is this prediction because today's low-wage workers will surely become tomorrow's expensive retirees.
Another cost that few talk about is that immigrant workers depress the wages received by native-born Americans, and that causes a $100 billion shortfall in federal tax revenue. Harvard University Professor George Borjas found that each 10 percent increase in the U.S. labor force from immigration reduces wages of native-born Americans by 5.25 percent.
Some liberals are trying to tell us to fight a recession by bringing in more immigrants, but that would only raid the pockets of U.S. taxpayers to support more millions of non-taxpayers. It's hard to say which is more outrageous: The diversion of Americans' personal income into cash handouts to foreigners, or the federal government's policy of concealing the fiscal impact of immigration.
Immigration breaks backs of taxpaying U.S. citizens
Posted: April 18, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
Are you having a hard time paying your bills, making your mortgage payments or putting your kids through college? You need to know how much of your hard-earned income the government is skimming off and diverting into handouts to immigrants and illegal immigrants.
You can read the depressing details in the new 70-page document called "The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration" by Edwin S. Rubenstein. A Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow with a mile-long scholarly resume, he has been doing financial analysis ever since he directed the studies of government waste for the Grace Commission of 1984.
The bottom line, which you need to know for your own bottom line, is that U.S. taxpayers are giving more than $9,000 a year in cash or benefits to each immigrant, a third of whom are in the country illegally. That's $36,000 for each immigrant household of four.
Because the U.S. has 37 million immigrants, legal and illegal, the national cost was more than $346 billion last year, which was twice our fiscal deficit. The cost of immigrants is so high because, as Rubenstein writes, "Immigrants are poorer, pay less tax and are more likely to receive public benefits than natives."
Big Brother hasn't told you this bad news, perhaps because the government doesn't want you to know why your paychecks are shortchanged. Even the huge amnesty bill that was defeated last year didn't contain one word about its budgetary consequences.
The financial burden immigrants impose on education starts with the 3.8 million K-12 students enrolled in more expensive classes for the non-English speaking. When we add up the costs of hiring specialized teachers, training regular teachers, student identification and assessment, and administration costs, the total amounts to an estimated $1,030 per pupil, or $3.9 billion.
Of the 48.4 million public-school children, pre-K through 12th grade, 9.2 million or 19 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. In the next few years, immigration will account for virtually all the increase in public-school spending.
Look at the $1.5 billion cost of incarcerating 267,000 criminal aliens in federal prisons. That's not the worst of it; prison capacity is limited, so 80,000 to 100,000 other criminal aliens have been prematurely released to prowl our streets.
Criminals also impose heavy private costs on their victims. Rubenstein estimates the losses of income and property, hospital bills and emotional suffering at $1.6 million per assault or property-crime offender.
Rubenstein's report includes all sorts of costs that other observers conveniently ignore, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. EITC gives an average cash payment of $1,700 per year to 25 percent of immigrant households.
The emergency medical treatment given free to illegal immigrants is another enormous cost, causing some hospitals and emergency rooms to close. Emergency means any complaint from hangovers to hangnails, gunshot wounds to AIDS.
Even after some restrictions were imposed in 1996, 24.2 percent of immigrant households receive Medicaid, whereas the figure for native-born Americans is 14.8 percent. Rubenstein calculates that Hispanics account for 19.2 percent of Medicaid enrollment, while they are 13.7 percent of the U.S. population.
The FHA has had a policy of increasing home ownership among low-income immigrants and, therefore, approved FHA mortgages on homes with a down payment of only $200 to $300 and marginal income. Because buyers have so little invested in the house, they can walk away from it when they can't meet the payments, and this has resulted in neighborhoods of abandoned, boarded-up housing.
Refugees are a large and growing fiscal burden because they become immediately eligible for generous taxpayer-paid benefits. Evidence shows they stay dependent on these programs and start chain migrating relatives under the "family reunification" law.
The Interior Department spends millions of dollars to clean up the mountains of trash discarded by illegal immigrants crossing into California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Some immigration advocates peddle the notion that immigration will solve the future financial burdens of Social Security. Rubenstein shows how foolish is this prediction because today's low-wage workers will surely become tomorrow's expensive retirees.
Another cost that few talk about is that immigrant workers depress the wages received by native-born Americans, and that causes a $100 billion shortfall in federal tax revenue. Harvard University Professor George Borjas found that each 10 percent increase in the U.S. labor force from immigration reduces wages of native-born Americans by 5.25 percent.
Some liberals are trying to tell us to fight a recession by bringing in more immigrants, but that would only raid the pockets of U.S. taxpayers to support more millions of non-taxpayers. It's hard to say which is more outrageous: The diversion of Americans' personal income into cash handouts to foreigners, or the federal government's policy of concealing the fiscal impact of immigration.
Illegal Immigrant Charged In Rape Of Girl, 15
http://www.kpho.com/news/15915499/detail.html?rss=pho&psp=news
Illegal Immigrant Charged In Rape Of Girl, 15
POSTED: 3:47 pm MST April 17, 2008
UPDATED: 4:06 pm MST April 17, 2008
GUADALUPE, Ariz. -- An illegal immigrant has been arrested on suspicion of raping and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl at her Guadalupe home, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies said.
The MCSO Special Victims Unit arrested Jose Dolores Montoya Sanchez, 24.
Sanchez was booked into the Maricopa County jail late Wednesday on one count of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and two counts sexual abuse.
Sheriff's deputies said they began investigating the case when the victim disclosed that Sanchez sexually assaulted her at a Guadalupe home.
The 15-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, MCSO said. A forensic evaluation confirmed an assault, according to sheriff's investigators.
Sheriff's deputies said Sanchez has been in the country illegally for the past 10 years.
"This suspect sexually assaulted a young innocent girl and this is yet another example of a violent crime committed by an illegal alien in Maricopa County," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. "The deputies working in Guadalupe did a professional and thorough investigation."
----------------------
MY COMMENT:
Ya, and the Pope, Hillary and Obama (maybe McCain) I don't have much hope.... They would all say they are all hard workers who just come here to work and provide a beter life for their families. What a bunch of SH*T! Creeps like this should be castrated and thrown in with the murderers. Prison is no place for a child molestor.
Illegal Immigrant Charged In Rape Of Girl, 15
POSTED: 3:47 pm MST April 17, 2008
UPDATED: 4:06 pm MST April 17, 2008
GUADALUPE, Ariz. -- An illegal immigrant has been arrested on suspicion of raping and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl at her Guadalupe home, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies said.
The MCSO Special Victims Unit arrested Jose Dolores Montoya Sanchez, 24.
Sanchez was booked into the Maricopa County jail late Wednesday on one count of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and two counts sexual abuse.
Sheriff's deputies said they began investigating the case when the victim disclosed that Sanchez sexually assaulted her at a Guadalupe home.
The 15-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, MCSO said. A forensic evaluation confirmed an assault, according to sheriff's investigators.
Sheriff's deputies said Sanchez has been in the country illegally for the past 10 years.
"This suspect sexually assaulted a young innocent girl and this is yet another example of a violent crime committed by an illegal alien in Maricopa County," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. "The deputies working in Guadalupe did a professional and thorough investigation."
----------------------
MY COMMENT:
Ya, and the Pope, Hillary and Obama (maybe McCain) I don't have much hope.... They would all say they are all hard workers who just come here to work and provide a beter life for their families. What a bunch of SH*T! Creeps like this should be castrated and thrown in with the murderers. Prison is no place for a child molestor.
Friday, April 4, 2008
'Terror plot' to blow up transatlantic flights out of London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3672067.ece
'Terror plot' to blow up transatlantic flights out of London
Sean O'Neill, Crime and Security Editor
A British terrorist cell planned to detonate suicide bombs on seven transatlantic flights over North America, causing catastrophic loss of life, a court was told yesterday.
The flights chosen by the alleged terrorists – based in Walthamstow, East London – were scheduled to leave Heathrow Terminal 3 one afternoon carrying almost 2,000 passengers and crew.
Peter Wright, QC, opening the prosecution case against eight men accused of the plot, said that the attacks would have had “a truly global impact”.
The seven aircraft were destined for six American and Canadian cities: New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal.
Related Links
'Men with cold-eyed certainty of fanatics'
Recipe for terror: batteries, camera, drink
DPP: longer terror detention 'not needed'
Mr Wright said that the eight defendants shared a common interest in “inflicting heavy casualties upon an innocent civilian population, all in the name of Islam”.
He told Woolwich Crown Court that the key component of the bombs was a liquid hydrogen peroxide explosive carried in 500ml bottles of soft drinks.
The devices would have been carried in hand luggage, along with detonators made from batteries and disposable cameras.
No date had been finalised for the series of attacks but the alleged conspirators had conducted detailed research on flights leaving London between August and October 2006. The date range included the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The jury was told that the alleged plot was thwarted when police made a series of arrests on August 9, 2006. That operation prompted a massive security alert at airports worldwide. Passengers were banned from carrying hand luggage and many flights were cancelled. Chaos ensued at airports around the world and international travel ground to a halt. The continuing restrictions on carrying liquids on aircraft are a direct result of security measures imposed after the alleged plot.
Mr Wright named the key plotters as Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 27, and Mohammed Gulzar, 26. He said that Mr Ali and the five other defendants – Waheed Zaman, 23, Tanvir Hussain, 26, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, and Umar Islam (aka Brian Young), 29 – were prepared to be suicide bombers along with as many as 12 other plotters.
“They are men with the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic, prepared to board an aircraft with the necessary ingredients and equipment to construct and detonate a device that would bring about not only loss of their own lives but also of all those who happened to be taking that journey,” he said.
The defendants all deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion on an aircraft. The trial continues.
'Terror plot' to blow up transatlantic flights out of London
Sean O'Neill, Crime and Security Editor
A British terrorist cell planned to detonate suicide bombs on seven transatlantic flights over North America, causing catastrophic loss of life, a court was told yesterday.
The flights chosen by the alleged terrorists – based in Walthamstow, East London – were scheduled to leave Heathrow Terminal 3 one afternoon carrying almost 2,000 passengers and crew.
Peter Wright, QC, opening the prosecution case against eight men accused of the plot, said that the attacks would have had “a truly global impact”.
The seven aircraft were destined for six American and Canadian cities: New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal.
Related Links
'Men with cold-eyed certainty of fanatics'
Recipe for terror: batteries, camera, drink
DPP: longer terror detention 'not needed'
Mr Wright said that the eight defendants shared a common interest in “inflicting heavy casualties upon an innocent civilian population, all in the name of Islam”.
He told Woolwich Crown Court that the key component of the bombs was a liquid hydrogen peroxide explosive carried in 500ml bottles of soft drinks.
The devices would have been carried in hand luggage, along with detonators made from batteries and disposable cameras.
No date had been finalised for the series of attacks but the alleged conspirators had conducted detailed research on flights leaving London between August and October 2006. The date range included the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The jury was told that the alleged plot was thwarted when police made a series of arrests on August 9, 2006. That operation prompted a massive security alert at airports worldwide. Passengers were banned from carrying hand luggage and many flights were cancelled. Chaos ensued at airports around the world and international travel ground to a halt. The continuing restrictions on carrying liquids on aircraft are a direct result of security measures imposed after the alleged plot.
Mr Wright named the key plotters as Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 27, and Mohammed Gulzar, 26. He said that Mr Ali and the five other defendants – Waheed Zaman, 23, Tanvir Hussain, 26, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, and Umar Islam (aka Brian Young), 29 – were prepared to be suicide bombers along with as many as 12 other plotters.
“They are men with the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic, prepared to board an aircraft with the necessary ingredients and equipment to construct and detonate a device that would bring about not only loss of their own lives but also of all those who happened to be taking that journey,” he said.
The defendants all deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion on an aircraft. The trial continues.
British Muslims 'planned to kill thousands by bombing SEVEN transatlantic airliners in one go'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=555465&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
British Muslims 'planned to kill thousands by bombing SEVEN transatlantic airliners in one go'
By CHARLOTTE GILL and SAM GREENHILL - More by this author »
A gang of British Muslims planned to blow up seven planes within hours in the biggest terrorist atrocity since 9/11, a court heard yesterday.
Two thousand passengers would have died in the plot by eight fanatics working "in the name of Islam", the jury was told.
It could have involved up to 18 suicide bombers. And they were almost ready to strike.
The jets they targeted would all have been bound from Heathrow to cities in the U.S. and Canada, it was claimed.
Once the first had exploded the authorities would have had to watch, powerless, as the six others were downed.
Plastic soft-drink bottles were to be the murder weapon - filled with explosive and connected to a detonator.
The alleged plot led to a ban on liquid containers bigger than 100ml which is still in force at UK airports.
Had it been successful, the death toll would have far eclipsed the 52 killed on July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers detonated their rucksacks on the London transport system.
And if the conspirators chose to blow themselves up over land, the number of casualties in the air and on the ground could have exceeded the Twin Towers attacks in which nearly 3,000 died.
Yesterday eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in South-East London accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said: "What these men intended was a violent and deadly statement of intent which would have a truly global impact.
"These men were actively engaged in a deadly plan designed to bring about what would have been, had they been successful, a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.
"If each of these aircraft was successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was indeed considerable.
"And there would be little if any chance of saving any of them from their impending disaster.
"For when the mid-flight explosions began the authorities would be unable to prevent the other flights from meeting a similar fate as they would already be in mid air and carrying their deadly cargo."
He described the defendants as having the "cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic".
The alleged plot was foiled on August 9, 2006 when two of the key gang members - Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar - were arrested by police in a town hall car park in Walthamstow, East London following several months of surveillance.
A series of arrests followed including that of Mohammed Gulzar, 26, the alleged third key member of the plot, and led to chaos, cancellation and delays at airports across the UK as a huge security crackdown swung into operation.
The court heard that at the time of the arrests, the bombers were "almost ready to put their plot into practice".
Police found a USB computer memory stick in Ali's pocket which held information on flight timetables and security advice on restricted items for hand luggage and other information about Heathrow Airport.
All the flight details saved on the stick were for outbound flights only and not return trips.
It listed United Airlines, Air Canada and American Airlines flights to Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Washington and New York, all leaving from Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
The planes targeted were 777, 767 and 763 jets which could carry between 241 and 285 passengers. All the scheduled flights left Heathrow within little more than two and a half hours of each other between 2.15pm and 4.50pm.
Terror: Prosecutors said the alleged plot would have targeted seven flights operated American Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada
The plotters' main interest was with flights leaving between August and October 2006.
Ali, 27, married with a young son, also had a pocket notebook in which a "blueprint" for making the bombs and carrying out the plot was written.
Plastic Oasis and Lucozade bottles were to be used by the plotters to make their liquid bombs.
A hypodermic syringe would be inserted into the base to draw out the drink and the bomb mixture would be injected in its place.
A homemade detonator called hexamethylene triperoxide and also known as HMTD would be made from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients and disguised in AA batteries.
Bulbs and wires would connect the bomb mixture with disposable cameras to trigger a charge to set it off.
Of Ali and Sarwar, Mr Wright said: "They shared a common interest.
"It was an interest in which they were actively engaged at the time of their arrest, an interest that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population, all in the name of Islam.
"The means by which they intended to inflict heavy casualties upon ordinary civilians was by the carrying out of a series of coordinated and deadly explosions.
"These men were, we say, indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue if their plans were successful.
"To them, the identities of their victims was a complete irrelevance. It is the prosecution case that they intended to cause a series of explosions on board a selected number of transatlantic passenger aircraft.
"The devices were to be smuggled on to the aircraft and detonated in flight by a suicide bomber, a bomber prepared to lose his or her life in this way.
"Inevitably, such an event would also have fatal consequences for the various passengers and crew who happened, quite by chance, to be flying to North America on the day selected by them to commit this atrocity."
Mr Wright said the conspirators plotted to detonate seven bombs on planes leaving from Terminal 3 at Heathrow but that the "extent of their ambitions" went wider.
"A coordinated strike upon the aircraft engaged in these seven flights by the onboard detonation of improvised explosive devices was capable, we say, of producing quite catastrophic consequences for passengers, crew and, indeed, anyone who happened to be in the path of a stricken or disintegrating aircraft, if it plummeted to earth over a populated part of northern Europe or North America.
"Terrifying, we say, though this concept alone may be it is the prosecution case that the conspirators did not confine themselves and did not confine their ambitions merely to the coordinated destruction in mid-flight of these seven aircraft.
"In conversation between two of the main participants, reference was made to 'different terminals', and as many as 18 suicide bombers being involved."
The accused are Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Waheed Zaman, 23, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, all from Walthamstow, East London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, from Stoke Newington, North London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, from Barking, East London, Assad Sarwar, 27, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Tanvir Hussain, 27, from Leyton, East London and Umar Islam, 29, from Plaistow, East London.
All deny the charges. The case continues.
'Condoms and porn' in luggage
A bomb plot "blueprint" scrawled in a diary was seized by police from one of the alleged masterminds, the jury heard.
It set out in chilling detail how mid-air carnage was to be achieved using everyday objects.
And it revealed that the fanatics hoped to hoodwink airport security officers by putting pornographic magazines and condoms in their hand luggage to indicate that they could not be Muslim zealots, the court was told.
Anti-terror police were said to have found the recipe for mass murder in an address book diary belonging to Abdulla Ahmed Ali, one of the alleged ringleaders of the plot.
It revealed plans for the gang to hold a summit five days before their deadly mission, the court heard.
Scribbles seemed to suggest that the gang would each take two bottles of their liquid bombs through security in case one was taken off them.
Ali wrote: "One drink use, other keep in pocket, maybe will not get through."
There were also rambling references to bomb ingredients and how to mix them.
Jury members were shown pages from the diary in which Ali apparently wrote about disguising hydrogen peroxide ('HP') with food dye to make it look like Lucozade.
He wrote: "Lucozade red 1.5 drops", and "Check time taken to dilute in HP".
In an apparent reference to a detonator, Ali allegedly wrote in his diary: "Decide on which battery to use for D, small is best", and "Keys and chewing gum on the D in the electronic device."
Elsewhere, seemingly planning a final meeting with his co-conspirators, he wrote: "Select date, five days B4. All link up."
The diary apparently tells how security staff would be fooled by "dirty mags" and condoms in the gang's hand luggage, the court heard.
A scrawl in Ali's diary said simply: "Prepare dirty mag to distract, condom."
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said Ali "chose to lie" and said he could not remember when police asked him about the significance of these diary entries.
The prosecutor dubbed the entries a "blueprint" of clear significance to the plot and contained details of how it was to be carried out.
They included lists of various items which could be carried on aircraft without arousing too much attention.
From soft drinks to deadly explosives
Bombs would have been made from everyday items like soft drink bottles and batteries
The bottles and disposable camera batteries, the jury heard.
Liquid explosives disguised with food colouring and mouthwash would be smuggled past security and on to the flights.
There they would be hooked up to homemade detonators powered by tiny camera batteries and set off to cause mid-air carnage, the court heard.
After the alleged plot was uncovered, in August 2006, the authorities banned passengers from carrying most liquids on board aircraft.
The main ingredient of the homemade bombs was said to be hydrogen peroxide, commonly used as hair bleach and easily available on the high street, mixed with other chemicals which the Daily Mail is not naming.
The plan was to drill small holes in the bottom of 500ml plastic bottles of Oasis and Lucozade and pour away the drinks, the jury heard.
Then the conspirators would use a syringe to inject the ready-mixed explosive liquid into the bottles. Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said the hole would be closed with glue to give the appearance of a "factory sealed" bottle.
Once on board the aircraft, the improvised bombs would be hooked up to a detonator disguised as a standard AA 1.5-volt battery, containing a substance known as HMTD - produced from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients which are freely available.
The detonator would be ignited using metal wire, a small bulb or the flash from a disposal camera, said Mr Wright.
He said improvised bombs using similar ingredients had been used in other terrorist attacks.
British Muslims 'planned to kill thousands by bombing SEVEN transatlantic airliners in one go'
By CHARLOTTE GILL and SAM GREENHILL - More by this author »
A gang of British Muslims planned to blow up seven planes within hours in the biggest terrorist atrocity since 9/11, a court heard yesterday.
Two thousand passengers would have died in the plot by eight fanatics working "in the name of Islam", the jury was told.
It could have involved up to 18 suicide bombers. And they were almost ready to strike.
The jets they targeted would all have been bound from Heathrow to cities in the U.S. and Canada, it was claimed.
Once the first had exploded the authorities would have had to watch, powerless, as the six others were downed.
Plastic soft-drink bottles were to be the murder weapon - filled with explosive and connected to a detonator.
The alleged plot led to a ban on liquid containers bigger than 100ml which is still in force at UK airports.
Had it been successful, the death toll would have far eclipsed the 52 killed on July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers detonated their rucksacks on the London transport system.
And if the conspirators chose to blow themselves up over land, the number of casualties in the air and on the ground could have exceeded the Twin Towers attacks in which nearly 3,000 died.
Yesterday eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in South-East London accused of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said: "What these men intended was a violent and deadly statement of intent which would have a truly global impact.
"These men were actively engaged in a deadly plan designed to bring about what would have been, had they been successful, a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.
"If each of these aircraft was successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was indeed considerable.
"And there would be little if any chance of saving any of them from their impending disaster.
"For when the mid-flight explosions began the authorities would be unable to prevent the other flights from meeting a similar fate as they would already be in mid air and carrying their deadly cargo."
He described the defendants as having the "cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic".
The alleged plot was foiled on August 9, 2006 when two of the key gang members - Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar - were arrested by police in a town hall car park in Walthamstow, East London following several months of surveillance.
A series of arrests followed including that of Mohammed Gulzar, 26, the alleged third key member of the plot, and led to chaos, cancellation and delays at airports across the UK as a huge security crackdown swung into operation.
The court heard that at the time of the arrests, the bombers were "almost ready to put their plot into practice".
Police found a USB computer memory stick in Ali's pocket which held information on flight timetables and security advice on restricted items for hand luggage and other information about Heathrow Airport.
All the flight details saved on the stick were for outbound flights only and not return trips.
It listed United Airlines, Air Canada and American Airlines flights to Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Washington and New York, all leaving from Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
The planes targeted were 777, 767 and 763 jets which could carry between 241 and 285 passengers. All the scheduled flights left Heathrow within little more than two and a half hours of each other between 2.15pm and 4.50pm.
Terror: Prosecutors said the alleged plot would have targeted seven flights operated American Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada
The plotters' main interest was with flights leaving between August and October 2006.
Ali, 27, married with a young son, also had a pocket notebook in which a "blueprint" for making the bombs and carrying out the plot was written.
Plastic Oasis and Lucozade bottles were to be used by the plotters to make their liquid bombs.
A hypodermic syringe would be inserted into the base to draw out the drink and the bomb mixture would be injected in its place.
A homemade detonator called hexamethylene triperoxide and also known as HMTD would be made from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients and disguised in AA batteries.
Bulbs and wires would connect the bomb mixture with disposable cameras to trigger a charge to set it off.
Of Ali and Sarwar, Mr Wright said: "They shared a common interest.
"It was an interest in which they were actively engaged at the time of their arrest, an interest that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population, all in the name of Islam.
"The means by which they intended to inflict heavy casualties upon ordinary civilians was by the carrying out of a series of coordinated and deadly explosions.
"These men were, we say, indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue if their plans were successful.
"To them, the identities of their victims was a complete irrelevance. It is the prosecution case that they intended to cause a series of explosions on board a selected number of transatlantic passenger aircraft.
"The devices were to be smuggled on to the aircraft and detonated in flight by a suicide bomber, a bomber prepared to lose his or her life in this way.
"Inevitably, such an event would also have fatal consequences for the various passengers and crew who happened, quite by chance, to be flying to North America on the day selected by them to commit this atrocity."
Mr Wright said the conspirators plotted to detonate seven bombs on planes leaving from Terminal 3 at Heathrow but that the "extent of their ambitions" went wider.
"A coordinated strike upon the aircraft engaged in these seven flights by the onboard detonation of improvised explosive devices was capable, we say, of producing quite catastrophic consequences for passengers, crew and, indeed, anyone who happened to be in the path of a stricken or disintegrating aircraft, if it plummeted to earth over a populated part of northern Europe or North America.
"Terrifying, we say, though this concept alone may be it is the prosecution case that the conspirators did not confine themselves and did not confine their ambitions merely to the coordinated destruction in mid-flight of these seven aircraft.
"In conversation between two of the main participants, reference was made to 'different terminals', and as many as 18 suicide bombers being involved."
The accused are Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Waheed Zaman, 23, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, all from Walthamstow, East London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, from Stoke Newington, North London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, from Barking, East London, Assad Sarwar, 27, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Tanvir Hussain, 27, from Leyton, East London and Umar Islam, 29, from Plaistow, East London.
All deny the charges. The case continues.
'Condoms and porn' in luggage
A bomb plot "blueprint" scrawled in a diary was seized by police from one of the alleged masterminds, the jury heard.
It set out in chilling detail how mid-air carnage was to be achieved using everyday objects.
And it revealed that the fanatics hoped to hoodwink airport security officers by putting pornographic magazines and condoms in their hand luggage to indicate that they could not be Muslim zealots, the court was told.
Anti-terror police were said to have found the recipe for mass murder in an address book diary belonging to Abdulla Ahmed Ali, one of the alleged ringleaders of the plot.
It revealed plans for the gang to hold a summit five days before their deadly mission, the court heard.
Scribbles seemed to suggest that the gang would each take two bottles of their liquid bombs through security in case one was taken off them.
Ali wrote: "One drink use, other keep in pocket, maybe will not get through."
There were also rambling references to bomb ingredients and how to mix them.
Jury members were shown pages from the diary in which Ali apparently wrote about disguising hydrogen peroxide ('HP') with food dye to make it look like Lucozade.
He wrote: "Lucozade red 1.5 drops", and "Check time taken to dilute in HP".
In an apparent reference to a detonator, Ali allegedly wrote in his diary: "Decide on which battery to use for D, small is best", and "Keys and chewing gum on the D in the electronic device."
Elsewhere, seemingly planning a final meeting with his co-conspirators, he wrote: "Select date, five days B4. All link up."
The diary apparently tells how security staff would be fooled by "dirty mags" and condoms in the gang's hand luggage, the court heard.
A scrawl in Ali's diary said simply: "Prepare dirty mag to distract, condom."
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said Ali "chose to lie" and said he could not remember when police asked him about the significance of these diary entries.
The prosecutor dubbed the entries a "blueprint" of clear significance to the plot and contained details of how it was to be carried out.
They included lists of various items which could be carried on aircraft without arousing too much attention.
From soft drinks to deadly explosives
Bombs would have been made from everyday items like soft drink bottles and batteries
The bottles and disposable camera batteries, the jury heard.
Liquid explosives disguised with food colouring and mouthwash would be smuggled past security and on to the flights.
There they would be hooked up to homemade detonators powered by tiny camera batteries and set off to cause mid-air carnage, the court heard.
After the alleged plot was uncovered, in August 2006, the authorities banned passengers from carrying most liquids on board aircraft.
The main ingredient of the homemade bombs was said to be hydrogen peroxide, commonly used as hair bleach and easily available on the high street, mixed with other chemicals which the Daily Mail is not naming.
The plan was to drill small holes in the bottom of 500ml plastic bottles of Oasis and Lucozade and pour away the drinks, the jury heard.
Then the conspirators would use a syringe to inject the ready-mixed explosive liquid into the bottles. Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said the hole would be closed with glue to give the appearance of a "factory sealed" bottle.
Once on board the aircraft, the improvised bombs would be hooked up to a detonator disguised as a standard AA 1.5-volt battery, containing a substance known as HMTD - produced from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients which are freely available.
The detonator would be ignited using metal wire, a small bulb or the flash from a disposal camera, said Mr Wright.
He said improvised bombs using similar ingredients had been used in other terrorist attacks.
Website targets racist Hispanics
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50001
Website targets racist Hispanics
Aims to 'counter the false information
dished out by Mexican hate groups'
Posted: May 01, 2006
4:40 pm Eastern
By Ron Strom
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
Mexica Movement activists protest in L.A.
A website run by opponents of illegal immigration highlights the tactics of Hispanic activists who defend unlawful aliens, including the use of hate speech, profanity and calls for whites to be deported.
WeHateGringos.com begins with a warning that the site "contain graphic examples of hate and racism that has and is occurring in large cities and small towns across America."
States the site: "The website WeHateGringos.com is dedicated to exposing the other side of illegal immigration ... the side our president, many in Congress, the media and especially the racist hate groups do not want us to see."
WeHateGringos.com is meant as a response to the League of United Latin America Citizens, or LULAC, which reportedly created a website called WeAreRacists.com.
"It had photos of our friends, portrayed as racists. We were infuriated and decided to build a website," the newer site states.
While WeAreRacists.com is currently not an active website, records indicate it is licensed to LULAC.
"WeHateGringos.com is online to counter the false information dished out by Mexican hate groups and spoon-fed to Americans by the mainstream media," states the site.
An introductory Flash video includes audiotape of speakers at rallies denouncing whites and proclaiming that Latinos will take power in the United Sates.
States one pro-illegals speaker on the video: "We're here to show White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority; we claim this land as ours. … If anyone is going to be deported, it's going to be you!"
Another protester shouts: "Go back to Europe where you came from; go back to England!"
Many photos of signs used in pro-illegals rallies are included in the presentation, including "Minutemen, you've taken on a fight larger than you can imagine," and "We are standing in Mexico here!" – presumably at a rally in California.
Besides vulgar chants that cannot be reprinted, one crowd shouts in rhythm: "Our land, our continent, we're taking it back!"
Explains the FAQ page on the site:
"The photos and soundtrack (that make up the intro video) are from real events that happened in California and Virginia. It was never shown on the news, talked about on radio, or written in the newspaper. We knew it was about time to let all Americans know what we know. Illegal aliens are not all 'good people looking for a job.' Federally funded racist Hispanic organizations are not simply 'educating' their people, they are inciting illegal aliens to riot and to demand 'rights' that they do not deserve."
The site is run by married couple Nathan and Linda Muller. Linda has worked for the campaigns of Patrick Buchanan and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the leading opponent of illegal immigration in Congress.
Included on the site is a message board, with one thread discussing today's rallies in favor of amnesty for illegals across the nation.
Posted Linda Muller: "I put off all my shopping for groceries, gas and other needs until today. I want American business to know we do not need illegal aliens. I almost wish I needed to go to the motor vehicle department, the bank, or even the hospital. What a pleasure it would be not to have to compete with illegal aliens for services.
"The roads will be safer and less congested, too. Maybe other Americans will notice that our country is better off without illegals and decide deportation is not a bad idea after all.
"It's a great day in the USA!"
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Mexica Movement helped organize a large Los Angeles pro-illegals rally in March. The organization believes it is the "non-indigenous," white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call "our continent," not illegal aliens.
Website targets racist Hispanics
Aims to 'counter the false information
dished out by Mexican hate groups'
Posted: May 01, 2006
4:40 pm Eastern
By Ron Strom
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
Mexica Movement activists protest in L.A.
A website run by opponents of illegal immigration highlights the tactics of Hispanic activists who defend unlawful aliens, including the use of hate speech, profanity and calls for whites to be deported.
WeHateGringos.com begins with a warning that the site "contain graphic examples of hate and racism that has and is occurring in large cities and small towns across America."
States the site: "The website WeHateGringos.com is dedicated to exposing the other side of illegal immigration ... the side our president, many in Congress, the media and especially the racist hate groups do not want us to see."
WeHateGringos.com is meant as a response to the League of United Latin America Citizens, or LULAC, which reportedly created a website called WeAreRacists.com.
"It had photos of our friends, portrayed as racists. We were infuriated and decided to build a website," the newer site states.
While WeAreRacists.com is currently not an active website, records indicate it is licensed to LULAC.
"WeHateGringos.com is online to counter the false information dished out by Mexican hate groups and spoon-fed to Americans by the mainstream media," states the site.
An introductory Flash video includes audiotape of speakers at rallies denouncing whites and proclaiming that Latinos will take power in the United Sates.
States one pro-illegals speaker on the video: "We're here to show White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority; we claim this land as ours. … If anyone is going to be deported, it's going to be you!"
Another protester shouts: "Go back to Europe where you came from; go back to England!"
Many photos of signs used in pro-illegals rallies are included in the presentation, including "Minutemen, you've taken on a fight larger than you can imagine," and "We are standing in Mexico here!" – presumably at a rally in California.
Besides vulgar chants that cannot be reprinted, one crowd shouts in rhythm: "Our land, our continent, we're taking it back!"
Explains the FAQ page on the site:
"The photos and soundtrack (that make up the intro video) are from real events that happened in California and Virginia. It was never shown on the news, talked about on radio, or written in the newspaper. We knew it was about time to let all Americans know what we know. Illegal aliens are not all 'good people looking for a job.' Federally funded racist Hispanic organizations are not simply 'educating' their people, they are inciting illegal aliens to riot and to demand 'rights' that they do not deserve."
The site is run by married couple Nathan and Linda Muller. Linda has worked for the campaigns of Patrick Buchanan and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the leading opponent of illegal immigration in Congress.
Included on the site is a message board, with one thread discussing today's rallies in favor of amnesty for illegals across the nation.
Posted Linda Muller: "I put off all my shopping for groceries, gas and other needs until today. I want American business to know we do not need illegal aliens. I almost wish I needed to go to the motor vehicle department, the bank, or even the hospital. What a pleasure it would be not to have to compete with illegal aliens for services.
"The roads will be safer and less congested, too. Maybe other Americans will notice that our country is better off without illegals and decide deportation is not a bad idea after all.
"It's a great day in the USA!"
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Mexica Movement helped organize a large Los Angeles pro-illegals rally in March. The organization believes it is the "non-indigenous," white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call "our continent," not illegal aliens.
China reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/02/wiran102.xml
China reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:51am BST 04/04/2008
China has betrayed one its closest allies by providing the United Nations with intelligence on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear technology, diplomats have revealed.
Concern over Tehran's secretive research programme has increased in recent weeks after officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, discovered that Iran had obtained information on how to manufacture nuclear-armed weapons.
A heavy-water nuclear facility in Arak and a security guard at an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility
Beijing is believed to have decided to assist the inspectors after documents seized from Iranian officials included blueprints for "shaping" uranium metal into warheads, the testing of high explosives used to detonate radioactive material and the procurement of dual-use technology.
Much of the new material was presented to the governors of the Vienna-based IAEA in February. That meeting is said to have triggered China's change of heart.
Ahmadinejad on National Nuclear Day
Diplomats described Beijing's decision to provide material related to Iran to the IAEA as a potentially significant breakthrough.
Chinese designs for centrifuges that refine uranium into a "weaponised" state have been found in Iran but these are thought to have come through a network controlled by the disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.
John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, said suspicions over the leakage of technology from China to Iran had long centred on uranium enrichment technology and their bilateral ballistic missile trade.
A spokesman for the IAEA said it did not comment on intelligence it received from its members.
Beijing has long-established ties with Iran's clerical regime and has emerged as one of the country's biggest customers for oil and gas.
It has allied itself with Tehran's attempts to prevent the IAEA referring Iran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions.
China has not used its veto powers to block US and British sponsored sanctions but it has ensured the measures were watered down.
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The council has levied three rounds of financial sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force the country to declare all its nuclear activities.
IAEA weapons inspectors report that Iran has not provided full co-operation.
An American intelligence assessment judged it likely that Iran stopped efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in 2003 but there are strong fears it has resumed the work under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, said this week that he believed that Iran is still developing a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, Israel has accused Iran of setting up listening stations in Syria to eavesdrop on its military communications network.
China reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:51am BST 04/04/2008
China has betrayed one its closest allies by providing the United Nations with intelligence on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear technology, diplomats have revealed.
Concern over Tehran's secretive research programme has increased in recent weeks after officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, discovered that Iran had obtained information on how to manufacture nuclear-armed weapons.
A heavy-water nuclear facility in Arak and a security guard at an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility
Beijing is believed to have decided to assist the inspectors after documents seized from Iranian officials included blueprints for "shaping" uranium metal into warheads, the testing of high explosives used to detonate radioactive material and the procurement of dual-use technology.
Much of the new material was presented to the governors of the Vienna-based IAEA in February. That meeting is said to have triggered China's change of heart.
Ahmadinejad on National Nuclear Day
Diplomats described Beijing's decision to provide material related to Iran to the IAEA as a potentially significant breakthrough.
Chinese designs for centrifuges that refine uranium into a "weaponised" state have been found in Iran but these are thought to have come through a network controlled by the disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.
John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, said suspicions over the leakage of technology from China to Iran had long centred on uranium enrichment technology and their bilateral ballistic missile trade.
A spokesman for the IAEA said it did not comment on intelligence it received from its members.
Beijing has long-established ties with Iran's clerical regime and has emerged as one of the country's biggest customers for oil and gas.
It has allied itself with Tehran's attempts to prevent the IAEA referring Iran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions.
China has not used its veto powers to block US and British sponsored sanctions but it has ensured the measures were watered down.
advertisement
The council has levied three rounds of financial sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force the country to declare all its nuclear activities.
IAEA weapons inspectors report that Iran has not provided full co-operation.
An American intelligence assessment judged it likely that Iran stopped efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in 2003 but there are strong fears it has resumed the work under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, said this week that he believed that Iran is still developing a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, Israel has accused Iran of setting up listening stations in Syria to eavesdrop on its military communications network.
Main street parade to honor Muhammad
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60653
Main street parade to honor Muhammad
Binghamton, N.Y., grants permit for Milad-un-Nabi event
Posted: April 03, 2008
11:15 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Muslim leaders at an encampment at the Catskill Mountains called "Islamberg" have been granted a permit by the city of Binghamton, N.Y., to hold a parade on Saturday in honor of Muhammad's birthday.
The holiday is called Milad-un-Nabi and is being celebrated by a group of families who live at the nearby property owned by Muslims of the Americas, Inc.
The city has the parade scheduled on its calendar from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the downtown area, including its main street, and a report in the local Press & Sun-Bulletin said the celebration previously held on the group's own property this year is being expanded.
"We're trying to do an interfaith thing, we're reach out to the community to do a program based on unity," Maryam Rahim, a spokeswoman, told the newspaper. "We haven't been very well known …. We want everyone to come out and celebrate, may ask questions."
City spokesman Andrew Block said the group secured the appropriate permits to hold the celebration and the city will close down one lane of the downtown's main street for the parade.
Other events will be held in front of the old Broome County courthouse, officials said.
Rahim told the paper some Muslims claim the celebration is not important, but others classify it alongside Eid-ul-Fitr, the celebration that concludes the month of Ramadan for Muslims.
The newspaper said Muslims of the Americas was formed in the 1980s when several families migrated from New York City to make a new start. There now is a mosque and a private school on the land.
However, there are others who describe the location as a training facility for the Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra.
As WND reported earlier, a covert visit to the encampment found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities. The visit was conducted by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an report.
The neighbors interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said in the report compiled only two years ago they feared retaliation if they were to make a report to law enforcement officials.
"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."
The resident said his household gets "nothing but menacing looks from the people who go in and out of the camp, and sometimes they yell at us to mind our own business when we are just driving by."
"We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," the resident said. "They own this mountain and they know it, and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy property next to that?"
Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or "community of the impoverished," was formed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in New York in 1980. Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," has stated his objective is to "purify" Islam through violence.
Sheik Mubarak Gilan
Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called "Holy Islamville."
"Try to walk down the street where their community (Islamberg) is and you will be greeted by a man armed with a rifle. I have witnessed this on more than one occasion (even prior to 9/11) on Roods Creek Rd. when passing by slowly as I headed out to the Cannonsville reservoir," said a nearby resident who also asked for anonymity.
Fox News earlier reported that the compound has remained shrouded in mystery and fear, partly because it sits near the huge reservoir system that provides New York City with most of its drinking water.
The report said New York State police authorities confirmed they've had the group on file for years.
The compound is on 70 acres of remote land and residents have expressed concern for the gunshots they hear.
"They are training for war, either for war here in this country or against our troops," said one neighbor.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra itself openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in compounds where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority.
An investigation of the group by the Colorado Attorney General's office in the early 1980s found several of the communities operate covert paramilitary training compounds, including one in a mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colo.
Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The organization operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims throughout the U.S. The investigation confirmed members commonly use aliases and intentional spelling variations of their names and routinely deny the existence of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
U.S. authorities have probed the group for charges ranging from links to al-Qaida to laundering and funneling money into Pakistan for terrorist activities. The organization supports various terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, and Gilani himself is linked directly to Hamas and Hezbollah. Throughout the 1980s, JF was responsible for a number of terrorist acts across the United States, including numerous fire-bombings.
Gilani was at one time in Pakistani custody for the abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Intelligence sources have determined Pearl was attempting to meet with Gilani in the days before he disappeared in Karachi. Intelligence sources also suggest a link between Jamaat ul Fuqra and Richard Reid, the infamous "shoe bomber" who attempted to ignite explosives aboard a Paris-to-Miami passenger flight Dec. 22, 2001.
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
The secrecy of hese groups is what leds to fear. Hopefully we have nothing to fear and have to trust that the government knows what is going on and will protect us.
Main street parade to honor Muhammad
Binghamton, N.Y., grants permit for Milad-un-Nabi event
Posted: April 03, 2008
11:15 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Muslim leaders at an encampment at the Catskill Mountains called "Islamberg" have been granted a permit by the city of Binghamton, N.Y., to hold a parade on Saturday in honor of Muhammad's birthday.
The holiday is called Milad-un-Nabi and is being celebrated by a group of families who live at the nearby property owned by Muslims of the Americas, Inc.
The city has the parade scheduled on its calendar from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the downtown area, including its main street, and a report in the local Press & Sun-Bulletin said the celebration previously held on the group's own property this year is being expanded.
"We're trying to do an interfaith thing, we're reach out to the community to do a program based on unity," Maryam Rahim, a spokeswoman, told the newspaper. "We haven't been very well known …. We want everyone to come out and celebrate, may ask questions."
City spokesman Andrew Block said the group secured the appropriate permits to hold the celebration and the city will close down one lane of the downtown's main street for the parade.
Other events will be held in front of the old Broome County courthouse, officials said.
Rahim told the paper some Muslims claim the celebration is not important, but others classify it alongside Eid-ul-Fitr, the celebration that concludes the month of Ramadan for Muslims.
The newspaper said Muslims of the Americas was formed in the 1980s when several families migrated from New York City to make a new start. There now is a mosque and a private school on the land.
However, there are others who describe the location as a training facility for the Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra.
As WND reported earlier, a covert visit to the encampment found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities. The visit was conducted by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an report.
The neighbors interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said in the report compiled only two years ago they feared retaliation if they were to make a report to law enforcement officials.
"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."
The resident said his household gets "nothing but menacing looks from the people who go in and out of the camp, and sometimes they yell at us to mind our own business when we are just driving by."
"We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," the resident said. "They own this mountain and they know it, and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy property next to that?"
Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or "community of the impoverished," was formed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in New York in 1980. Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," has stated his objective is to "purify" Islam through violence.
Sheik Mubarak Gilan
Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called "Holy Islamville."
"Try to walk down the street where their community (Islamberg) is and you will be greeted by a man armed with a rifle. I have witnessed this on more than one occasion (even prior to 9/11) on Roods Creek Rd. when passing by slowly as I headed out to the Cannonsville reservoir," said a nearby resident who also asked for anonymity.
Fox News earlier reported that the compound has remained shrouded in mystery and fear, partly because it sits near the huge reservoir system that provides New York City with most of its drinking water.
The report said New York State police authorities confirmed they've had the group on file for years.
The compound is on 70 acres of remote land and residents have expressed concern for the gunshots they hear.
"They are training for war, either for war here in this country or against our troops," said one neighbor.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra itself openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in compounds where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority.
An investigation of the group by the Colorado Attorney General's office in the early 1980s found several of the communities operate covert paramilitary training compounds, including one in a mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colo.
Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The organization operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims throughout the U.S. The investigation confirmed members commonly use aliases and intentional spelling variations of their names and routinely deny the existence of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
U.S. authorities have probed the group for charges ranging from links to al-Qaida to laundering and funneling money into Pakistan for terrorist activities. The organization supports various terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, and Gilani himself is linked directly to Hamas and Hezbollah. Throughout the 1980s, JF was responsible for a number of terrorist acts across the United States, including numerous fire-bombings.
Gilani was at one time in Pakistani custody for the abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Intelligence sources have determined Pearl was attempting to meet with Gilani in the days before he disappeared in Karachi. Intelligence sources also suggest a link between Jamaat ul Fuqra and Richard Reid, the infamous "shoe bomber" who attempted to ignite explosives aboard a Paris-to-Miami passenger flight Dec. 22, 2001.
----------------
MY COMMENTS:
The secrecy of hese groups is what leds to fear. Hopefully we have nothing to fear and have to trust that the government knows what is going on and will protect us.
Obama was 'quite religious in Islam'
Obama was 'quite religious in Islam'
Contemporaries, records dispute campaign
claim that he was never 'practicing Muslim'
Posted: April 03, 2008
12:40 am Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – Was Sen. Barack Obama a Muslim? Did he ever practice Islam?
The presidential candidate officially rejects the claims, but the issue of Obama's personal faith has re-emerged amid conflicting accounts of his enrollment as a Muslim during elementary school in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Widely distributed reports have noted in January 1968, Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as "L Soetoro Ma," worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army.
Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students, but exempt them from studying religion. Obama's school documents, though, wrongly list him as being Indonesian.
After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled – also as a Muslim, according to documents – in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta.
The Loatze blog run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted, "All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school and a young 'Barry Soetoro' being a Muslim would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam."
Indeed, the Israel Insider online magazine points out in Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," he acknowledges studying the Quran and describes the public school as "a Muslim school."
"In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies," wrote Obama.
The Indonesian media have been flooded with accounts of Obama's childhood Islamic studies, some describing him as a religious Muslim .
Speaking to the country's Kaltim Post, Tine Hahiyary, who was principal of Obama's school while he was enrolled there, said she recalls he studied the Quran in Arabic.
"At that time, I was not Barry's teacher but he is still in my memory" claimed Tine, who is 80 years old. The Kaltim Post says Obama's teacher, named Hendri, died.
"I remember that he studied 'mengaji (recitation of the Quran)," Tine said, according to an English translation by Loatze.
Mengaji, or the act of reading the Quran with its correct Arabic punctuation, is usually taught to more religious pupils and is not known as a secular study.
Also, Loatze documented the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post caught up with Rony Amir, an Obama classmate and Muslim, who describe Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."
"We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house. If he was wearing a sarong (waist fabric worn for religious or casual occasions) he looked funny," Amir said.
The Los Angeles Times, which sent a reporter to Jakarta, quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did.
"We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," said Adi.
Obama's official campaign site has a page titled "Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." The page states, "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ."
But the campaign changed its tune when it issued a slightly different statement to the Times stating Obama "has never been a practicing Muslim."
An article last month by the Chicago Tribune seems to dispute Adi's statements to the L.A. Times. The Tribune catches up with Obama's declared childhood friend, who now describes himself as only knowing Obama for a few months in 1970 when his family moved to the neighborhood. Adi said he was unsure about his recollections of Obama
But the Tribune found Obama did attend mosque.
"Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia," states the Tribune article.
It quotes the presidential candidate's former neighbors and 3rd grade teacher recalling Obama "occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers."
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, notes the Tribune article – cited by liberal blogs as refuting claims Obama is Muslim – actually implies Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim and twice confirms Obama attended mosque services.
In a free-ranging interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, "with a first-class [Arabic] accent," the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.
Israel Insider's Reuven Koret notes the first few lines state:
"Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet... "
Some attention also has been paid to Obama's paternal side of the family. His father, described in some reports as an atheist, polygamist and alcoholic, was buried in Kenya as a Muslim. Obama Sr., also named Barack Obama, had three sons with another woman who reportedly all are Muslim.
Obama's brother Roy is described as a practicing Muslim.
Writing in a chapter of his book describing his 1992 wedding, the presidential candidate stated: "The person who made me proudest of all was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol."
Still, Obama says he was raised by his Christian mother and repeatedly has labeled as "smears" several reports attempting to paint him as a Muslim.
"Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding," he told the UK's Times Online earlier this year.
-------------------
MY COMMENTS:
I think everyone knows he's a Muslim. Devote I don't know, but Muslim.. yes.
Contemporaries, records dispute campaign
claim that he was never 'practicing Muslim'
Posted: April 03, 2008
12:40 am Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – Was Sen. Barack Obama a Muslim? Did he ever practice Islam?
The presidential candidate officially rejects the claims, but the issue of Obama's personal faith has re-emerged amid conflicting accounts of his enrollment as a Muslim during elementary school in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Widely distributed reports have noted in January 1968, Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as "L Soetoro Ma," worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army.
Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students, but exempt them from studying religion. Obama's school documents, though, wrongly list him as being Indonesian.
After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled – also as a Muslim, according to documents – in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta.
The Loatze blog run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted, "All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school and a young 'Barry Soetoro' being a Muslim would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam."
Indeed, the Israel Insider online magazine points out in Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," he acknowledges studying the Quran and describes the public school as "a Muslim school."
"In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies," wrote Obama.
The Indonesian media have been flooded with accounts of Obama's childhood Islamic studies, some describing him as a religious Muslim .
Speaking to the country's Kaltim Post, Tine Hahiyary, who was principal of Obama's school while he was enrolled there, said she recalls he studied the Quran in Arabic.
"At that time, I was not Barry's teacher but he is still in my memory" claimed Tine, who is 80 years old. The Kaltim Post says Obama's teacher, named Hendri, died.
"I remember that he studied 'mengaji (recitation of the Quran)," Tine said, according to an English translation by Loatze.
Mengaji, or the act of reading the Quran with its correct Arabic punctuation, is usually taught to more religious pupils and is not known as a secular study.
Also, Loatze documented the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post caught up with Rony Amir, an Obama classmate and Muslim, who describe Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."
"We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house. If he was wearing a sarong (waist fabric worn for religious or casual occasions) he looked funny," Amir said.
The Los Angeles Times, which sent a reporter to Jakarta, quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did.
"We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," said Adi.
Obama's official campaign site has a page titled "Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." The page states, "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ."
But the campaign changed its tune when it issued a slightly different statement to the Times stating Obama "has never been a practicing Muslim."
An article last month by the Chicago Tribune seems to dispute Adi's statements to the L.A. Times. The Tribune catches up with Obama's declared childhood friend, who now describes himself as only knowing Obama for a few months in 1970 when his family moved to the neighborhood. Adi said he was unsure about his recollections of Obama
But the Tribune found Obama did attend mosque.
"Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia," states the Tribune article.
It quotes the presidential candidate's former neighbors and 3rd grade teacher recalling Obama "occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers."
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, notes the Tribune article – cited by liberal blogs as refuting claims Obama is Muslim – actually implies Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim and twice confirms Obama attended mosque services.
In a free-ranging interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, "with a first-class [Arabic] accent," the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.
Israel Insider's Reuven Koret notes the first few lines state:
"Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet... "
Some attention also has been paid to Obama's paternal side of the family. His father, described in some reports as an atheist, polygamist and alcoholic, was buried in Kenya as a Muslim. Obama Sr., also named Barack Obama, had three sons with another woman who reportedly all are Muslim.
Obama's brother Roy is described as a practicing Muslim.
Writing in a chapter of his book describing his 1992 wedding, the presidential candidate stated: "The person who made me proudest of all was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol."
Still, Obama says he was raised by his Christian mother and repeatedly has labeled as "smears" several reports attempting to paint him as a Muslim.
"Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding," he told the UK's Times Online earlier this year.
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MY COMMENTS:
I think everyone knows he's a Muslim. Devote I don't know, but Muslim.. yes.
TIME TO PROTEST ABSOLUT VODKA!
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60642
Company 'gives away' U.S. Southwest to Mexico
Vodka ad shows 'Absolut world' in which California, Arizona, others secede
Posted: April 03, 2008
5:16 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A new ad for Absolut vodka reconfigures North America according to the aspirations of many Mexicans, who believe the U.S. Southwest was stolen and should be returned.
Over a redrawn map of the U.S., the ad by the Absolut Spirits Co. declares, "In an Absolut World," noted columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin.
Major Hispanic civil rights groups in the U.S., such as the National Council of La Raza, are tied to movements advocating a "reconquista," or reconquest, of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War.
As WND reported in 2006, Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees "The Race" as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.
In 2002, a prominent Chicano activist and University of California at Riverside professor, Armando Navarro, told WND he believed secession is inevitable if demographic and social trends continue.
"If in 50 years most of our people are subordinated, powerless, exploited and impoverished, then I will say to you that there are all kinds of possibilities for movements to develop like the ones that we've witnessed in the last few years all over the world, from Yugoslavia to Chechnya," Navarro said.
"A secessionist movement is not something that you can put away and say it is never going to happen in the United States," he contended. "Time and history change."
Navarro said one could argue "that while Mexico lost the war in 1848, it will probably win it in the 21st century, in terms of the numbers," "But that is not a reality based on what Mexico does, it's based on what this country does," he insisted.
In a 1995 speech to Chicano activists, Navarro said demographic trends are leading to "a transfer of power" to the ethnic Mexican community in the Southwest. He notes that most studies show that within the next 20 to 30 years Latinos will comprise more than 50 percent of the population of California. This fact, and other cultural and social developments, are opening the door for "self-determination" and even "the idea of an Aztlan," he said in his speech.
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SOCIALIST HILLARY STRIKES AGAIN!
