Pakistan blamed for train terror

 

The puppet dictator terrorist of the United States shakes hands with his Pakistani terrorist puppet dictator buddy at the White House on 22 September 2006, a week ahead of a Washington meeting between the leaders of the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.(AFP/File/Tim Sloan)

RELATIONS between India and Pakistan were plunged into a new crisis at the weekend after Indian police blamed July’s devastating train bombings in Mumbai on Pakistan’s intelligence agency and the outlawed pro-Pakistan militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.

In a detailed statement that left little room for equivocation, Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy described the Inter-Services Intelligence as the “mastermind” behind the July 11 attack in which 186 people were killed and more than 800 injured.

“We have solved the 7/11 bomb blast case,” he said on Saturday.

“This whole business was planned by the ISI in Pakistan and the LeT, and local operatives (in Mumbai) helped them,” he said. “It was a professional, precise and well-planned operation.”

Yesterday, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said his Government would hand over its evidence to Pakistan about the involvement of ISI.

theaustralian.news.com.au

German Company Fined for Selling Anti-Nazi Symbols

 

Jürgen Kamm was fined 3,600 euros for his gear

Officials fear that neo-Nazis could skirt the ban

A Stuttgart court fined a German company that specializes in anti-fascist paraphernalia adorned with swastikas for using the constitutionally banned symbol.

How far can individuals go in using a symbol banned by the German constitution?

It was just this question that the Stuttgart district attorney’s office wanted clarified when it brought a case against Nix Gut, a mail-order company that offers left-wing garb adorned with modified swastikas.

The swastika is banned as a symbol of an unconstitutional organization, but German law allows its use if it is clearly in a form indicating opposition to National Socialism.

A crossed-out swastika reminiscent of a no-parking sign or a stick person throwing a swastika into a garbage can are images often used by the left-wing movement in Germany.

But a judge ruled on Friday that the use of the Nazi symbol by the company violated the law and fined the owner, Jürgen Kamm, 3,600 euros ($4,500).

It isn’t the first time that left-wing supporters have been criminalized for their actions aimed at protesting against neo-Nazis.

Last year, a student in Tübingen was fined for wearing an anti-Nazi button on his backpack. The local court had argued that a Japanese tourist would only see the swastika and wouldn’t recognize the crossed-out symbol as an anti-fascist pictogram. The student subsequently won his appeal before a regional court, which ruled that he was clearly expressing his anti-fascist attitude by wearing the button.

In another case, Nigerian soccer player Adebowale Ogungbure, who plays for Sachsen Leipzig made a mock Hitler salute to fans in Halle after being subjected to racist taunts. The player was charged for the action, but prosecutors eventually dropped the charges, because he had been provoked and hadn’t understood the gesture was illegal.
dw-world.de

War in Afghanistan: Britain’s Vietnam

 

A quad bike bounces across battle-ravaged desert, the remains of three dead British soldiers lashed to its back, while a Chinook buzzes overhead.

“It is a lot worse than people know back home. Politics f****** politics. It is a massive cover-up really, to not get the real truth.”

 

Squaddies are tormented by sand flies and scorpions and are driven mad by stress. They are attacked by Taliban militiamen on motorbikes who open fire while clutching children in front of themselves.

Battles take place against a backdrop of burning villages reduced to rubble by aerial bombardment. On occasion, panic-stricken combatants have used satellite phones to call England with the harrowing message that they are about to die.

The evidence has been delivered to The Mail on Sunday by soldiers who say that their enemy is more numerous, more determined and better equipped than politicians have acknowledged. This, they say, is no peacekeeping mission. This is a new Vietnam.

A soldier who agreed to an interview via e-mail said: “It is a lot worse than people know back home. Politics f****** politics. It is a massive cover-up really, to not get the real truth.”

There is also, allegedly, considerable pressure on the Paratroops not to talk about Afghanistan when they return to Britain this month.

“They are using scare tactics,’ said the soldier. “It is not fair. The Commanding Officer said that he would mallet anyone he found out was speaking out about this.”

Yesterday, however, the Ministry of Defence officially welcomed the soldiers’ testimony – raising suspicions that the cloak of secrecy that has hitherto surrounded operations has been ordered by politicians rather than the military.

thisislondon.co.uk

Pope ‘led cover-up of child abuse by priests’

Top: Tom Doyle and, bottom, Pope Benedict
 
This Is London | Sep 30, 2006

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.

Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the ‘enforcer’ of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.

Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis – Latin for The Crime of Solicitation – which laid down the Vatican’s strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.

Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.

Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: “I found out I wasn’t working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself.”

And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church’s handling of child abuse claims, says: “What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.

“When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there’s total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world.”

The investigation could not come at a worse time for Pope Benedict, who is desperately trying to mend the Church’s relations with the Muslim world after a speech in which he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam was spread by holy war and had brought only evil to the world.

The Panorama programme is presented by Colm O’Gorman, who was raped by a priest when he was 14. He said: “What gets me is that it’s the same story every time and every place. Bishops appoint priests who they know have abused children in the past to new parishes and new communities and more abuse happens.”

Last night Eileen Shearer, director of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults said: “The Catholic Church in England and Wales (has) established a single set of national policies and procedures for child protection work. We are making excellent progress in protecting children and preventing abuse.”

Diana crash witness: I saw a dozen ‘shady figures’ in tunnel

 

Jacques Morel claims he saw ‘shady figures’ before Princess Diana’s fatal car crash

A key eyewitness to the car crash that killed Princess Diana has broken his silence to tell how he saw a dozen people at the scene moments before her death.

Record producer Jacques Morel, 59, is convinced they expected to see her Mercedes brought to a halt by another car.

Detectives working on the inquiry into Diana’s death, headed by former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens, considered his account so important that he was flown to London and interviewed for three days.

Mr Morel, who was driving home with his wife Moufida in Paris on the night of August 31, 1997, said: “As we entered the Alma tunnel I looked to my left and saw about a dozen shady figures on a tiny pavement by the side of the opposite carriageway.

“They were all standing in a long line. The sight was unforgettable.

“The pavement is less than 30cm (12in) wide and next to fast traffic. They would have been breathing in petrol fumes and it was very dirty down there. It was certainly not a sensible place to stand around.”

thisislondon.co.uk

Railways to get hundreds of facial recognition spy cameras

Behind schedule, but rapidly catching up and surpassing everything Orwell conceived in his worst nightmares.

HUNDREDS of cameras with facial recognition capabilities will be installed at Sydney train stations as part of a $1.1 million counter-terrorism plan.

Live feeds of station activity will also be screened to the public on plasma screens as part of the plan to deter terrorist and criminal activity.

Costing around $4000 each, the high-resolution cameras are similar to those in place in the UK which helped police compile a list of suspects for last July’s bombings after studying images of people entering the Tube.

Unlike the existing CCTV footage, the cameras are capable of taking images which can be matched with facial recognition software to identify suspects.

Under the State Government plan, more than 275 high-resolution cameras will be installed at strategically located entry points such as access gates at Sydney’s busiest stations.

news.com.au

World War II Euthanasia Victims Found in German Mass Grave

 

The Nazi Totenkopf “Death’s Head” (Skull and Bones) insignia worn by officers of the SS 

The skeletons of 20 children and five adults believed to be victims of the Nazi euthanasia program have been found in a mass grave in western Germany, officials said Thursday. The bones of 20 children were discovered this week during excavation work at a cemetery in the German town of Menden, close to where a World War II hospital run by Hitler’s personal physician Karl Brandt was located. The children, aged from one to seven years, were found alongside the bodies of five adults, Hans-Bernd Besa-von Werden, a spokesman for the district administration said. Investigations of two of the children’s skulls indicated the victims might have been handicapped.

The prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Dortmund said there were indications the deaths might be related to euthanasia, which was secretly practiced by the Nazis from 1939 to 1941.

Some 70,000 people with physical or intellectual disabilities perished in the euthanasia program, which the Nazis believed was necessary to cleanse the German people of racially unsound elements.

Those who were deemed “unworthy to live” by showing symptoms of mental retardation or physical handicap were sent to the so-called killing facilities, where they were murdered by lethal injections or exposure to carbon monoxide gas.

dw-world.de

NATO leads largest deployment of U.S. troops under foreign command since World War II

 

NATO agreed on Sept. 28 to take command of peacekeeping across all of insurgency-hit Afghanistan next month after the United States pledged to transfer an extra 12,000 troops to its force.

Pentagon officials said the transfer of troops currently in Afghanistan’s eastern region would entail the biggest deployment of U.S. troops under foreign command since World War II.
Afghanistan is experiencing the most serious violence since hardline Taliban Islamists were ousted in 2001.

defensenews.com

NATO To Take Control Of U.S. Troops In Afghanistan

 

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer speaks at the news conference at the end of the Informal Meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Portoroz September 29, 2006. REUTERS/Tina Kosec

A spokesman for NATO says the alliance will take command of up to 12,000 U.S. troops and the territory they control in eastern Afghanistan in a “few days.”
The planned expansion will complete the transfer of most military responsibilities in Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition to NATO under the command of British Lieutenant General David Richards.

rferl.org