Friday, June 26, 2009
On Violence and Clerical Fascism
Violence is common to fascism and clerical fascism and includes severe punishment meted out to all enemies of the regime. Allah may be merciful, but his fundamentalist representatives on earth are not.
-Walter Laqueur, Fascism: Past, Present, FutureThursday, June 25, 2009
White House Spokesman Describes Slaughter of Innocent Iranian Democracy-Seekers as 'Debate'
Words matter....
Obamaspeak is Orwellian--and stupid. But an adoring mainstream media is too dense or biased to question the nuanced nonsense. On the contrary; reporters, pundits, and anchors are crediting--or blaming--the Appeaser-in-Chief and his mouthpiece for seemingly toughening their Iran-related rhetoric.
AFP reports:The White House Thursday accused President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad of seeking to cast the United States as the villain in Iran's post-election political turmoil, escalating a war of words with Tehran.
The latest sharp US comments directed towards the Iranian government came after Ahmadinejad accused Washington and the West of interfering in Iran and fomenting unrest.
"There are people in Iran who want to make this not about a debate among Iranians in Iran, but about the West and the United States," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"I would add President Ahmadinejad to that list of people trying to make this about the United States."Russia Again Defends Islamist Iran
Click here. This is a disturbing development. Post-Communist Russia is actually trying to counter American attempts to align with Islamist Iran, according to China Confidential analysts, in a modern-day replay of the Great Game--the imperial rivalry between Britain and Czarist Russia for control of Central Asia.
Instead of pursuing a Grand Bargain with Islamist Iran--and Islamism in general--the Obama administration should seek to strike Grand Bargains with China and Russia to end the North Korean and Iranian regimes, respectively, for once and all.
Diplomacy's highest purpose is to prevent war. Appeasement/engagement of Islamist Iran will make war inevitable--on Tehran's terms.Iran Protesters Changing Strategy to Avoid Death
The Washington Times reports:Iran's pro-democracy movement is changing strategy and will use smaller and more dispersed demonstrations to try to protect protesters from security forces, who dissidents now say have killed nearly 250 people in the past 10 days.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a prominent Iranian filmmaker who is serving as a spokesman in the West for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, told The Washington Times that the opposition movement is also asking Iranians all over the world to light candles in silent protest Friday to commemorate Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman killed by security forces Saturday.
Continue here.
The BBC interviewed a physician who says he tried to save Neda. Click here for the text-and-video report.
Neda's family has reportedly been forced from their home and banned from publicly mourning their daughter's death.
As of this writing, the so-called international community, including the United States, which is supposed to lead the world's democracies, has yet to organize and unite against the clerical fascist regime. In fact, the Obama administration is still formally committed to a policy of engaging (code for appeasing and seeking to align with) Islamist Iran.Ahmadinejad Mocks, Lectures Obama
Warns Him Not to Behave Like Bush
Appeasement is clearly backfiring.
The nuclear-arming, mass murdering mullahocracy is intolerant of any criticism. Its idea of dialogue is to demand and admonish, to bully and lecture.
Click here for the CNN story, and here for a particularly vile piece of pro-appeasement, Islamist-leaning propaganda that argues for a total hands-off policy toward Tehran's turbaned tyranny.US Calls on China to Release Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo is a dissident writer and intellectual based in Beijing. He was arrested in December on suspicion of subversion.
The U.S. call for his release comes amid mounting tensions with China's nuclear-armed client state, North Korea.
AFP reports:The United States on Thursday joined calls for the release of prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, but China warned against any foreign interference in the case.
State media reported Wednesday that police had formally arrested Liu, a dissident writer who was a leading force behind a petition calling for democratic reforms.
"The US government is deeply disturbed by reports that Liu Xiaobo has been formally arrested and charged with serious crimes," Richard Buangan, a spokesman for the US embassy in Beijing, told AFP.
"We call on the government of China to release Mr. Liu and respect the rights of all Chinese citizens who peacefully express their desire for internationally recognised freedoms."
Continue here.China Punishes Google
China said Thursday that it has taken unspecified punitive actions against the Google search engine, which it accuses of violating Chinese law by spreading pornography. The official comments come as computer users in China experience intermittent difficulty accessing Google.
China recently stepped up its criticism of the world's biggest search engine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was asked Thursday about recent difficulties computer users in China have had accessing Google and its related sites.
He said the Chinese government is carrying out its duty to protect young people from online pornography.
Qin said Chinese authorities have found that Google is spreading "pornographic, lewd and vulgar content," in violation of China's laws and regulations.
He said Chinese authorities have summoned the company's representatives and urged them to immediately remove the objectionable content.
Qin urged Google to abide by Chinese laws and regulations and said Chinese authorities have taken "punitive measures," although he gave no details. He also gave no specific examples of Google's alleged lewd content.
Temporary Interruption
Access to Google in Beijing was temporarily interrupted Wednesday. As of Thursday afternoon, Google access for computer users at some of Beijing's universities was still blocked.
Google recently issued a statement saying it would step up efforts to stop pornography from reaching users in China. A Google spokeswoman was quoted by media Thursday as saying the California-based company was looking into reports that users in China cannot access Google.
Beijing's latest comments come days before a Chinese-government set deadline for all computers sold in China to come packaged with Internet filtering software, known as "Green Dam."
Wednesday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk wrote a letter to Chinese officials, raising concerns that Beijing's order may violate free-trade commitments.
When asked about the latest American concerns that Green Dam could become a trade issue, the Chinese spokesman said he had nothing to add to earlier comments that the software is necessary to stop online pornography.North Korea Again Threatens Nuclear Attack on US
Click here for the story. North Korea is threatening to retaliate with nuclear arms in response to an attack, sanctions, or "provocations" by the United States. The rhetoric is unprecedented and should be taken extremely seriously. More here.Mousavi Slams Supreme Leader
The Los Angeles Times is reporting:Iran's leading opposition figurehead, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, launched a lengthy broadside against the Iranian leadership and state-owned media in comments published today on his website as authorities arrested 70 university professors who had met with him.
The former prime minister, in comments apparently delivered Wednesday to the arrested social scientists and posted on one of his websites today, accused Iran's supreme leader of not acting in the interests of the country and said a dramatic change for the worse had taken place in the country.
Continue here.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Accuses Company of Promoting Pornography
70 PROFESSORS ARRESTED
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