AFP = Arab-French Propaganda

Continuing to pose as a legitimate, objective news agency, AFP excretes an especially nauseating pile of steaming agitprop today -- not so much the substance, which I hope is true, but the sneering, suspicious tone:

The US military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers in an effort to polish the image of the American mission in Iraq, a US newspaper reported.

US military "information operations" troops have written the articles, which are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based defense contractor, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Many articles are presented to Iraqi newspapers as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists, the daily said, citing documents it obtained and unnamed US military officials.

The stories denounce insurgents and tout the work of US and Iraqi troops and the US-led effort to rebuild Iraq.

Much of the effort was being directed by the "Information Operations Task Force" in Baghdad, part of the multinational corps headquarters commanded by Army Lieutenant General John Vines, the newspaper said.

Love the scare quotes -- and the absence of a byline. Every army in the history of the planet has worked to promote its cause with the public. Seems AFP is upset that someone is interrupting their cheers for the other side.

UPDATE: Oops, my mistake. AFP is filled with Zionists and imperialist Anglo dogs, so the gap will be filled by CFII, the new French CNN. Half-owned by the state, of course.

President Jacques Chirac, addressing his cabinet, said that France "must be at the forefront of the global battle of images, that's why I am resolved that our country should have an international news channel," according to government spokesman Jean-François Copé.

Chirac stated that "the goal is to show everywhere in the world the values of France and its vision of the world," according to Copé, and promised that it would have the public financing "commensurate with its ambition."

The French president has pushed for the network for nearly four years, since February 2002, when he called for a "big international news channel in French able to rival the BBC and CNN."

Right, because they're such zealous advocates of the Anglo Axis.

Impetus for the idea picked up in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when French officials were dismayed at the way non-US and -British positions were being reported in international media.

In which the French were condemned as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." Oh, wait, that was The Simpsons.

Some reports in US media stating that "Paris is burning" during the recent three weeks of rioting around the capital and elsewhere in France also nettled the government.

Reports suggest that CFII will be staffed by former Pravda officials, and each cubicle will be fitted with a memory hole.

Terrorism is Bad, Mkay?

Yawn. Euros, Muslims can't agree on a definition of terrorism.

European countries and their Muslim neighbours vowed to unite in the fight against terrorism yesterday, but only after papering over a deep disagreement about who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.

The leaders of the European Union and Mediterranean countries agreed that "terrorism can never be justified", promised to "condemn terrorism in all its manifestations without qualification" and said they would refuse to give a safe haven to terrorism.

But the impact of their agreement was irreparably weakened by the absence or boycott of seven of the eight Arab leaders who had been invited. Moreover, key proposals had to be watered down to maintain the show of unity on terrorism and the future of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The biggest stumbling block was the problem of how to define terrorism.

The Syrian foreign minister, Farouq al-Sharaa, was among those demanding that the fight against terrorism had to protect "the right of peoples under foreign occupation to resistance" - a reference to insurgencies by Palestinians and Iraqis.

In the end the definition of terrorism was left undecided, with merely a commitment to negotiate an acceptable one at the United Nations by next year.

Yeah, they've been working on that since the 1970s. Wake me when the freedom fighters nuke Tel Aviv.

The Lights Are Going Out In Europe

A chilling glimpse of what's to come, from Fjordman.

A new report from the EU's racism watchdog says Europe must do more to combat racism [not terrorism]. The problem is, "Islamophobia" has been included as a form of racism in the EU. New anti-discrimination laws to combat Islamophobia [not terrorism] are to be enacted, and already have been in Norway, where Norwegians need to mount proof of their own innocence if Muslim immigrants accuse them of discrimination in any form, including discriminatory speech.

EU must do more to combat racism: report

Europe must do more to combat racism and xenophobia [not terrorism] and work to end discrimination in employment, housing and education, the EU's racism watchdog said on Wednesday. In a report presented to the European Parliament in Brussels, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) said that Roma gypsies and Muslims were especially targeted. "Muslim groups face particularly challenging conditions in many member states," said the report, which assessed developments in 2004 across the 25 EU member states. The authors recommend the full implementation of EU anti-discrimination laws, national employment strategies to target minorities, more equitable access to education and housing and a crackdown on racist incidents [not terrorism].

Ali Sina: The Fall of Europe

Anti-Islamism [not terrorism] has been included in the text as a “dangerous inclination” that has to be fought against upon the insistence of Turkey at the summit that 46 Council members attended. The 3rd Council of Europe summit has for the first time mentioned "Islamophobia" in the 9th paragraph of the Warsaw Declaration that was accepted on Tuesday, May 17. The Council has reached the following decisions regarding the issue: Condemnation of any kind of intolerance and discrimination based on gender, race and religious beliefs in particular, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, the fight against these within the framework of the Council of Europe and the use of effective mechanisms and rules to combat these problems [not terrorism]. Thus, anti-Islamism as well as anti-Semitism will be dealt with within the framework of legal proceedings. The Council reports will include anti-Islamist movements. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) will closely monitor these movements.

Fjordman, Scandinavia's best anti-jihad blogger, responds to a reader's question about whether or not his site will be shut down:

I will close down for private reasons. Maybe I would survive, but I would be walking a legal tightrope with this, and other additional laws, yes. Criticism of Islam and Muslim immigration is increasingly being banned by law in Eurabia.

US Embassy in Cairo Run by Sunnis

This won't come as a surprise if you've read Joel Mowbray's excellent State Department expose, Dangerous Diplomacy. State's corporate culture produces politically correct flunkies whose focus is "customer service," not "national security." Such dereliction by consular officers in Saudi Arabia resulted in at least 15 of the 9/11 terrorists to obtain visas where, by objective legal criteria, they should have been denied. Apparently not much has changed. From Geostrategy:

The State Department has decided that the United States might be a country that welcomes all religions, races and creeds. But in the Middle East, the department sees Islam as the only religion worth mentioning.

As a result, U.S. embassies in the Middle East serve as missionaries for Islam. Embassies focus on the beautiful and peaceful aspects of Sunni Islam and its rapid growth in the United States.

There's only one problem: Sunni Islam is not the only and often not the dominant religion in the Middle East. Many pro-U.S. Christians and Shi'ites in the Middle East who want to visit the United States have been dismayed by what they see as the official promotion of the Sunni religion.

The State Department policy also includes the employment of Muslims in U.S. embassies in the Middle East. That means that non-Muslim applicants have little chance of getting accepted despite their often superior education, greater reliability and resistance to Arab pressure to join the Al Qaida-aligned crusade against the West.

The walls of the consulate are filled with such posters as "Islam Is a Religion of Peace," "Islam Means Peace," and "Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States." The visa section features numerous posters showing mosques in the United States. The message is clear: the United States is turning Muslim.

Not surprisingly, the biggest victim of the State Department policy has been the Christian minority in the Middle East. In Egypt, the U.S. Embassy has been steadily reducing the number of Coptic Christian employees. Some Muslim visa employees harass Coptic applicants, often asking them whether they want to travel to the United States to denounce the Muslim persecution of Christians in Egypt.

In more than a few cases, Muslim visa processors have denied applications of Copts. The issue has already been presented to Congress, which intends to ask the State Department for answers.

More at The Free Copts, and don't miss State's own Arabic info page.

France to Deport Islamists, Cut Off Immigration, Stop Paying Jizya

Just kidding. Actually, instead of reversing their own asinine policies, the French government may enact yet another asinine measure which will invade everyone's privacy equally.

French lawmakers on Thursday backed government plans to allow greatly increased video-surveillance of public places, a key provision of a new anti-terrorism bill drawn up following the London transport bombings.

After a first reading of the bill, the lower house national assembly approved the articles allowing video cameras to be set up in public locations including on the transport network, in places of worship and in shops.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, assuming they specify mosques, not churches and synagogues. The next logical step is not addressed, namely, deporting individuals identified to be in the country illegally and/or preaching jihad.

Companies would also be allowed to film the outskirts of their premises and police would be able to access the footage under the new law, which will be put to a final vote in parliament on Tuesday.

France currently has just 60,000 video cameras in public places compared to four million in Britain. Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who drew up the legislation following the attacks on London's transport network in July, was reportedly inspired by British investigators' use of video footage to identify the perpetrators.

. . . The country is particularly concerned about the threat posed by young French Muslims who go to fight alongside insurgents in Iraq -- of whom intelligence services know of 22 so far -- and return to France with a radicalised agenda.

France has also been singled out as a target by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) [I love that one], an Algerian insurgent group with links to the al-Qaeda Islamist terror network.

Click here for an excellent profile of GSPC, and see Thugburg for a list of known GSPC jihadiots. Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) has not -- yet -- attained the status of a terrorist group, but they may have been involved in the French riots. HT's official website is here, and Strategypage's profile is here.

Mmmm . . . Sovereignty

The ECJ's convenient grants of power to the EU Commission (like Allah's to Muhammad?) continue the inevitable march to tyranny: Brussels publishes list of first seven pan-European crimes; "incitement to racial hatred" may be next.

Brussels unveiled detailed proposals yesterday that would for the first time create a body of pan-European criminal law and force member states to punish citizens who transgress it.

The European Commission listed seven offences that it insisted should become European crimes immediately, including computer hacking, corporate fraud, people-trafficking and marine pollution.

The ruling means that for the first time in legal history, a British government and Parliament will no longer have the sovereign right to decide what constitutes a crime and what the punishment should be.

The highly controversial announcement, made possible by a European Court of Justice ruling in September, would represent a huge transfer of power from national capitals to the EU.

The case before the court in September applied only to environmental law, but the Commission says it means that it can create criminal penalties to enforce the entire body of EU law.

The possible future EU crimes are intellectual property theft; racial discrimination and incitement to racial hatred; trafficking in human organs and tissue; and corruption in awarding public contracts.

A member state that opposed the crime will still have to introduce it if a sufficient number of other EU states voted for it. If a government were to refuse to implement the EU legislation, it could be hauled before the European Court of Justice, which can compel it to do so.

Of course, "racial discrimination and incitement to racial hatred" in Europe does not mean redlining or cross-burning as it might in the US. It means offending Muslims, by such things as criticizing Muhammad, pig statues in the town square, or Pooh and Piglet on your desk at work. Fun fact: in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, the penalty for criticizing Muhammad is death.

From Charles Martel to Inspector Clousseau

A sobering analysis from Geostrategy (by subscription only).

French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy has been trying to contain an Arab uprising whose fighters have been trained in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq and possess everything from light weapons to anti-aircraft missiles.

In a classified report, the French military has concluded that a network of 25,000 Muslim fighters are participating in the worst violence in France in more than 40 years. The report said the so-called mujahadeen, or holy warriors, have been trained in guerrilla warfare, light weapons and intelligence. Many of them are loyal to Al Qaida chief in Iraq, Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi and make a living from drugs, prostitution and loan-sharking.

Sarkozy acknowledged that prior to the outbreak of violence late last month, some Muslim neighborhoods in Paris were ablaze nearly every night. Sarkozy said rioters were torching up to 40 cars a night in Muslim neighborhoods in the French capital. In the space of a few months, the interior minister said, 9,000 police cars had been stoned in these neighborhoods.

The battle-hardened Muslim fighters dismiss French riot police, who have not been trained to combat Arab guerrilla warriors. The police are not equipped to deal with legions of Arab fighters who rush toward them with firebombs and light weapons.

At this point, French officials are close to throwing in the towel. Their main concern now is to stop Muslims from capturing the heart of Paris.

I have only one point to make here: whether they call themselves Al Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas, Jaish-e-Muhammad, or whatever -- and regardless of their nationality -- Muslim terrorists are united by a shared ideology rooted in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This is what motivated Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's what motivates the war against Israel and the West now. The profusion of groups named this or that should not distract us from their common goal: the utter submission of conquered peoples under the banner of Islam.

ISM Moonbats Achieve Arab-Israeli Cooperation

Of course, Arabs and Israelis living in harmony is not what the ISM is after; their goal is identical to that of Hamas and Hizb'allah (i.e., the extermination of Israel). But by golly, Jews and Muslims have found something they can agree on: throwing their punk asses out.

Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life.

The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement [see, e.g., Rachel Corrie], flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.

The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in a provocative and offensive manner in Hevron’s public areas. The Arabs say the activists disrespect the moral norms and standards of the local population.

"These anarchists come here and undermine the education we give our children. At first we took them in with hospitality - after all, they claimed they wanted to help us, so why kick them out? But very quickly they infuriated me with their lewd behavior."

In a bid to rid the region of the anarchists, local Arab leaders approached representatives of the Jewish community in Hevron – a rare, but not unheard of occurrence – in order to find a solution. The two sides agreed to have Arabic-speaking Jewish observers along Hevron’s main thoroughfares to replace the anarchists in ensuring calm between the city’s Jewish and Arab populations. The left-wing activists would then be informed by the local Arab population that they appreciate their offer to help, but that they are no longer needed.

Perhaps commie radicals do possess the secret to world peace: they've shown ancient, bitter enemies that dealing with each other is preferable to having your streets swamped with smelly, delusional hippies. Of course, if you've ever lived in Boulder, Berkeley, Ithaca, or Ann Arbor, you already knew that.

The Dutch Jihad

One year after Theo Van Gogh was gunned down and half-decapitated in broad daylight, The Netherlands is a changed nation.

Now, many politicians, writers and artists are considered to be in such danger that they have permanent armed guards and are driven around in bomb-proof armoured cars. The Interior Ministry has set up a special unit assessing death threats from Islamic extremists and providing protection squads.

"In a democracy, strong opinion-leaders must be able to say what they want to say. Therefore, the Government will take the responsibility to protect them," a spokesman from the ministry said, refusing to divulge the number of people receiving protection.

In the parliament in The Hague, inside the airport-style security, two besuited bodyguards stand erect outside the office of Geert Wilders, Ali's political rival, checking closely anyone who has permission to enter. "I have been deluged with death threats," said the maverick right-wing MP, who has called for the deportation of Islamic extremists.

. . .

"In The Netherlands, terrorists want to threaten not only the public ... they also want to kill public figures, such as artists, academics and politicians," he said. "It is not special in terms of Islam -- in Iran, it is normal to kill people who criticise Islam, as in Egypt and Iraq. It is legitimised by Islamic political theology, which says it is all right to kill someone if they are an enemy of Allah. But this is happening in Europe."

Academics and authorities in The Netherlands are trying to understand why, in their country, Islamic extremism has gone down the path of assassination, while in Britain and Spain it has produced bombings [and riots in France].

Aw, isn't that cute, "academics are trying to understand." And they will continue to struggle, so long as they insist on inventing theories consistent with their Marxist training, all the while giving Islam a pass. There is a reason Muslim countries are lawless third-world backwaters; and as the EU imports millions of Muslim immigrants, it's showing symptoms of becoming one itself. It's not because they're poor or brown; it's because of what too many of them believe, and how they act on those beliefs. This ain't rocket science, people. But it does require making value judgments, a task apparently more difficult than designing rockets these days.

Bush Wanted to Bomb Al Jizz?

The Daily Mirror reports the existence of a document allegedly revealing that President Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera HQ in Qatar.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.

Um, and it would have deprived the enemy of a huge propaganda advantage.

A source said last night: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush."

Sure, if you're a pampered multiculti wanker. On the contrary, it's hugely reassuring to those of us who still think fighting to win is perfectly okay.

A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious."

Just joshin', huh. Well, it would also be reassuring to know that Bush's sense of humor reflects that of Ronald Reagan.

Out To Lunch, Back In 4 days

Taking a hiatus from the jihad, I'll be leaving today for a short trip to the Alps. By this time tomorrow, I hope to be contemplating the Zugspitze from a hot tub.

It's not all fun and games, though. Last time I was down that way, we visited Dachau. Comparing yesterday's genocidal maniacs with today's, what struck me most was how much was invested in making the killing apparatus orderly. In a way, the consciously, carefully planned infrastructure takes it to a level of evil that the typical ululating jihadiot suicide-bomber almost can't match.

Almost.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir Behind French Intifiada

Verrrry interesting. From the South Asia Analysis Group:

All indicators point to the involvement of some Pakistani, Algerian and Moroccan members of the London-based Hizbut Tehrir (HT) in the violence by sections of angry Muslim youth, which has rocked the suburbs of Paris and some other towns of France since October 27, 2005.

The outbreak initially was spontaneous following the electrocution of two Muslim youth as they were fleeing away from a random identity papers check by the Police. The violence continued to be spontaneous, with no external instigation, for three days. In the meanwhile, it is reported by reliable sources, the headquarters of the HT in London saw the agitprop potential of the developments in Paris and sent some of their experts, who had participated in instigating the violence earlier this year in Afghanistan over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and in Uzbekistan over the allegedly autocratic ways of the local Government, to Paris to stoke the anger of the youth and exploit it for their purpose.

. . . The HT has the same objective as Al Qaeda, namely, the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, but denies any link with Al Qaeda and claims that it intends achieving its objective through overt political agitation and not through resort to terrorism or other forms of political violence. While there is no evidence of its involvement so far in any act of jihadi terrorism anywhere in the world, it has been involved in many instances of political agitation in the streets in some countries and in attempts at subverting the armed forces and the intelligence agencies in Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

Mayhem Returning to "Normal" Levels

More cars incinerated in Belgium, and now a few in The Netherlands and Switzerland as well. A total of 15,000 to 20,000 cars have been destroyed in France over the last 18 days, as well as several schools. But here's the kicker:

If the downward trend continues, "things could return to normal very quickly," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, noting that French youths burn about 100 cars on an average Saturday night.

French youths, eh. Once again, the wordsmiths at AP manage to cover the story of France's transformation into Pakistan without ever using the "M" or "I" words.

Interview with A Mohammedan

This sounds like something from The Onion, but I'm pretty sure it's for real. WND has posted an amazing transcript of radio host Rusty Humphries' interview with some Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades thugs. Taking into account that their responses came through a translator, I still couldn't help but hear them in Carlos Mencia's hilarious "Islamic Fanatic" voice.

Humphries: Do you not believe it would help matters by not using suicide bombs? I think that's one thing that is very frightening to the world and, by stopping, could that bring more peace to the world?

Aziz: We wanted to stop our suicide attacks. Actually we declared a cease-fire but the Israelis don't help us maintain our cease-fire. They are daily killing Palestinians and daily coming into our cities and villages. The last time was a few hours ago when they came into our camp and we went against them, four hours of clashes and blood. They came to our camps. We did not go to their camps.

Humphries: Why did they come here?

Aziz: They came because they still want to persecute the wanted members of the organizations.

Humphries: What would you expect them to do, just leave you alone and move on?

Aziz: As a part of the cease-fire we are supposed to be free to move freely in our cities and villages. This was the condition of the cease-fire, but unfortunately the Israelis are still persecuting us and are still coming to our houses and villages. Let me ask you a question, if I came to you with my gun towards you making danger how would you react?

(Aziz points his gun toward Humphries and Klein)

Humphries: I would try to defend myself.

Aziz: That is what we are doing. We are trying to defend ourselves.

. . .

Humphries: I have heard this rumor: Jews sent Monica Lewinsky to Bill Clinton so they could run the country? True or false?

Sanakreh: Of course.

Humphries: That is true?

Sanakreh: Yes. OK.

. . .

Humphries: Yasser Arafat died because of poisoning or natural causes?

Sanakreh: The president died of poison.

Humphries: Now I have heard that it is possible, it's one of those things that people said, that he died of homosexuality and AIDS.

Sanakreh: This is not true! If someone says this we will cut his head!

Humphries: I am not saying, I am just asking.

I wonder, was Humphries inching toward the door, or was he struggling to contain his laughter?

Unnamed Terrorist #1: Do you believe in the next world?

Humphries: Yes, I am a Christian.

Unnamed Terrorist #1: Everything we do is because we know one day we will be in front of God and he will be asking us the same as your boss will be asking you – "How is your job, how is he doing?" God will ask us what we did on earth. Did we make a good thing, a bad thing. If we do a good thing he will give us what we deserve, if we do the bad things he will punish us. We make what God asks.

After traveling in Egypt and Turkey, Mark Twain wrote, "the Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral." I'm not a religious person, but I always thought that the God who rewards wanton murder is called Satan.

Home Sweet Home!

After three months of living out of a suitcase, I'm finally ensconced in my new home. Most importantly, I have decent, secure internet access again. GWOYKW is now reporting live from Eurabia -- apparently not a moment too soon.

While church bells ring reassuringly all across town this bright Sunday morning, not too far west of here, Muslim invaders are making more progress than since the early 8th century. The French riots have spread to Brussels, Berlin and Cologne; and as columnist Jack Kelly recently put it, the French government's primary dilemma is to whom to surrender. After 16 days of nationwide violence, it appears that someone has made a token attempt to fight back -- which will clearly be crushed:

Two Molotov cocktails were tossed at a mosque Friday evening in the southern town of Carpentras, but it was not immediately clear whether the attack was linked to the unrest that has wracked the poor suburbs and small towns of France since Oct. 27. President Jacques Chirac demanded that investigators quickly find out who was behind the attack.

The ability of the French military to take on a dude with a few gas-soaked rags remains in question.