Thousands of Sudanese, many carrying knives and sticks, protest in Khartoum, Sudan, after prayers Friday Nov.30, 2007, calling for the execution of a British teacher Gillian Gibbons convicted of insulting Islam for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad. Arabic slogan read as " revenge revenge" (AP Photos/Abd Raouf)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of a British teacher Friday and demanded her execution for insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Sudan’s Islamic government, which has long whipped up anti-Western, Muslim hard-line sentiment at home, was balancing between fueling outrage over the case of Gillian Gibbons and containing it.

The government does not want to seriously damage ties with Britain, but the show of anger underlines its stance that Sudanese oppose Western interference, lawyers and political foes said. The uproar comes as the U.N. is accusing Sudan of dragging its feet on the deployment of peacekeepers in the war-torn Darfur region.

Many in the protesting crowd shouted "Kill her! Kill her by firing squad!"

(AP) Angry Sudanese protesters burn a newspaper carrying a photo of British teacher Gillian Gibbons

In response to the rally in central Khartoum, Gibbons was moved from the women’s prison across the Nile in Oumdurman to a secret location, her chief lawyer Kamal al-Gizouli told the Associated Press. He said he visited her there to discuss her conviction Thursday on charges of insulting Islam.

The 54-year-old Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail, spoke Friday with her son John and daughter Jessica in Britain by telephone.

"One of the things my mum said today was that I don’t want any resentment towards Muslims," the son told AP. "She’s holding up quite well."

Despite the fervor of the protest, the rest of Khartoum was quiet. The rally was far smaller than February 2006 protests held with government backing after European newspapers ran caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, suggesting popular anger over Gibbons did not run as deep.

In their mosque sermons Friday, several Muslim clerics harshly denounced Gibbons, saying she had intentionally insulted the prophet, but they not call for protests and said the punishment ordered by the court was sufficient.

Still, after prayers, several thousand people converged on Khartoum’s Martyrs Square, near the presidential palace, and began calling for Gibbons’ execution. Many seemed to be from Sufi groups, religious sects that emphasize reverence for the prophet.

Some angrily denounced the teacher, but others smiled as they beat drums and burned newspapers with Gibbons’ picture, waving swords and clubs and green banners, the color of Islam.

Chants of "Kill her!" and "No tolerance: Execution!" rang out as hundreds of police in riot gear stood by, keeping the crowd contained but not moving against the rally.

Protesters dismissed Gibbons’ claims that she didn’t mean to insult the prophet.

"It is a premeditated action, and this unbeliever thinks that she can fool us?" said Yassin Mubarak, a young dreadlocked man swathed in green and carrying a sword. "What she did requires her life to be taken."

Several hundred protesters marched to Unity High School, where Gibbons worked, and chanted outside briefly before heading toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks from the embassy. The protest dispersed after an hour.

"I would like to tell the whole world that what happened here from this English teacher is not acceptable to us," said a protester, Sheikh Nasser Abu Shamah.

There was no overt sign that the government organized the protest, but such a public rally could not have taken place without at least official assent.

Gibbons was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail and deportation for insulting Islam with the naming of the teddy bear, which was part of a class project for her 7-year-old students at the private school.

She escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine. Her time in jail since her arrest Sunday counts toward the sentence.

The conviction shocked Britons, and the British government said it was working with Sudan’s regime to win her release. Muslim groups in Britain and the United States denounced the ruling, saying Gibbons should not have been tried.

Many in the West were mystified by the anger over a teddy bear.

During her trial, a weeping Gibbons said she had intended no harm. Her students, overwhelmingly Muslim, chose the name for the bear, and Muhammad is one of the most common names for men in the Arab world. Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.

But the case was caught up in the ideology that President Omar al-Bashir’s Islamic regime has long instilled in Sudan, a mix of anti-colonialism, religious fundamentalism and a sense that the West is besieging Islam.

"The escalation is deliberate," said Mariam al-Mahdi, a leader of the main opposition Umma party. "There has been a strong official mobilization in the media and mosques against the so-called imperialists and the crusaders."

She pointed to nationalistic songs often played on state media, including one that proclaims, "For you America, we were trained and for you prophet, we were armed."

Gibbons’ defense lawyer, al-Gizouli, said that given the strong religious feeling in Sudan, "if you tell the people that someone has done such and such, they get angry … without (finding out) what exactly happened, the facts, the reality."

By prosecuting Gibbons, the government may have wanted to raise public anger to bolster its resistance to including Western peacekeepers in the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force that is supposed to deploy in Darfur, al-Gizouli said.

"You take an event like this teacher incident, enlarge it and make a bomb out of it," he told AP. The aim is to show "Muslims in Sudan don’t want these people (Westerners) to interfere, we want African troops."

Al-Bashir said in early November that he would not allow Scandinavian countries to join the peacekeeping force because newspapers there published the cartoons that insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

But he long resisted any U.N. peacekeepers, denouncing them as colonialists and vowing to lead a holy war against them, until he consented under growing international pressure to allow the joint force earlier this year.

On Tuesday, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said the Khartoum regime was still throwing up obstacles to the deployment of the 26,000-strong force.

Al-Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup, supported by fundamentalists rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood. His ruling party, dominated by Islamic hard-liners, controls the levers of power in the north, where Islamic Sharia law is in place.

(AP) Thousands of Sudanese, many carrying knives and sticks, protest in Khartoum, Sudan, after prayers (AP) Sudanese student Yassin Mohamed Al Mubark a suffi student from Fitaihab, near Khartoum, brandishes his sword during the protest in Khartoum, Sudan, after Friday prayers Nov.30, 2007, calling for the execution of Gillian Gibbons

Source

Evel Knievel

Source

Christopher Mata is pictured with with his aunt Yvette Morales in this family photo

A 19-year-old and a 16-year-old have been arrested and charged with aggravated assault in the beating of a Del Valle High School sophomore.

Police believe the assault was gang-related, and the preliminary investigation indicates that the victim, Christopher Mata, willingly participated in the attack. Police said they believe he was being "jumped out" of one gang so that he could join another.

Police said Mata agreed to meet 19-year-old Jorge Flores and a 16-year-old male gang member at the school to be "jumped out," which is similar to the process of "jumping in" to become a gang member when one is assaulted by other gang members.

"The investigators received information Flores and the 16-year old juvenile viciously assaulted the victim and left him bloodied and laying on the floor," police spokesman Officer Chris Mears said. "Although it appears the victim willingly participated in the event, it is still illegal to assault someone and both subjects have been charged with aggravated assault."

Flores was jailed on a $25,000 bond. The juvenile was referred to the Juvenile Probation Department.

Mata remains hospitalized at Thomason Hospital in serious condition. His mother has said that he is not involved with gangs.

Source The Mexican Times

When first reported:

Del Valle High School sophomore Christopher Mata was sitting in Spanish class Wednesday, his last class of the day, when he asked his teacher for a hall pass.

His request was granted, so he left the class. He never returned.

Before that class ended, a janitor had found Mata unconscious in a stairwell of the Lower Valley campus at 950 Bordeaux.

El Paso police say Mata was assaulted at the school. He was found bleeding and with head injuries.

Mata was rushed by ambulance to Thomason Hospital, where he remained in the

intensive-care unit Thursday.

His mother, Monica Aguirre, said doctors have told her Mata suffered a serious blow to his head, which fractured his skull and caused internal bleeding. Upon arriving at the hospital he was placed on a ventilator in a drug-induced coma.

Aguirre said doctors told her that they didn’t think he’s suffered any brain damage, but that only time and more tests will show for sure. Meanwhile, all she can do is wait and see how his body responds to medical treatment.

Aguirre can’t believe her son is in ICU, she said. Even more disturbing is that he was assaulted and seriously injured while classes were in session at Del Valle, a place that is supposed to be a haven.

"He was unconscious on the stairwell for about an hour before a janitor found him," Aguirre said.

Thursday night, family members said they were told by El Paso police detectives that two "teens from school" had been arrested in connection with the case.

"The detective told us that the sister of the main suspect had confirmed to police that he had come home with a bloody shirt," said Mata’s aunt, Yvette Morales.

Morales also said they believed four people, possibly more and and possibly a girl, were involved in the assault.

"There’s a lot of information going around that we’re hearing from students coming to visit my nephew," Morales said.

El Paso police said an investigation continued.

"As far as we know, the last time he (Mata) was seen safe and secure was about 3:10 p.m," said Darrel Petry, police spokesman.

Petry said an El Paso police officer assigned to Del Valle as a school resource officer was informed during school hours that an injured student was in a stairwell. The officer reported that a 16-year-old boy was bleeding and had head injuries "he suffered during an altercation," Petry said.

Berenice Zubia, Ysleta Independent School District spokeswoman, said school officials think Mata was assaulted during the last period of the school day, which runs from 2:25 to 3:55 p.m.

While the police report on the assault says that Mata got his hall pass around 3:10 p.m., school officials say the student received the pass around 3:20 p.m. He was found unconscious by a custodian around 3:40 p.m, Zubia said.

"This is a very unfortunate situation," Zubia said, "and we are working very closely with the authorities to find out what happened."

As a result of the assault, security has been increased at the campus.

The school regularly has a school resource officer - a police officer assigned to the campus - and three security guards. Officials said more security guards were sent to the campus Thursday, but they would not disclose how many more guards were added because of security concerns. More counselors were also added to help students who may be having trouble coping with the situation.

Zubia said investigators were at the campus Thursday talking to people who know Mata and to try to find anyone who may have information about the assault.

School district officials said between August and September, six assaults were reported at Del Valle. Statistics for October and November were not available.

Zubia said it’s not uncommon for high schools to report assaults because students get into fistfights from time to time. When fights occur, they tend to be broken up quickly.

She also said that not all assaults involve fistfights. Allegations of students pushing each other can also be classified as assaults, she said.

"But this is not common. It was an extremely violent situation," Zubia said about the assault that took place Wednesday at Del Valle.

Mata is the eldest of Aguirre’s four children. He is in his third year of high school but is listed as a sophomore at Del Valle.

Aguirre said she couldn’t believe it when school officials called her Wednesday to tell her that her son was going to be rushed to a hospital.

"They said, ‘Ms. Aguirre we have a child here found in a stairwell. He was unconscious. We believe it’s Christopher Mata. We don’t know how long he’d been there. The ambulance is coming here and taking him to the hospital. He’s in bad condition. He’s really bad,’ " Aguirre recalled.

Aguirre said that during the telephone call, she felt many emotions. She was concerned for her son’s well-being, scared, confused and angry. The anger, she said, was over school officials’ failure to keep her son safe while he was in their care.

By the time she arrived at Thomason, she said, she was desperate for answers.

"I was really mad because my son is in ICU and I wanted to know who hit him, who did this to him, and nobody knew anything," Aguirre said. "It happened at the school which has many security guards. Where were they when this happened to my son? Aren’t they doing routine checks?"

Aguirre said she was told her son was assaulted while a taking a break from a class.

"He had a hall pass to get out of class. I believe he was going to the restroom, and while he was out at that moment is when he was attacked and left in a stairwell. We still don’t know who attacked him," she said.

Aguirre said Del Valle administrators told her they suspect the attack was gang-related.

"They accused my son of being a gang member," she said, "while we are arguing to them that he is not a gang member."

Aguirre said school officials then told her that regardless of whether he was affiliated with a gang, they would help her.

She said school officials probably believed the attack was gang-related because last year her son would talk to students who were linked to gangs. She said he no longer associated with those people.

Aguirre said her three other children, who range in age from 9 to 12, were now scared to go to school, so she would keep them home from school today.

"Schools are supposed to be safe and fun and provide a good learning experience and that is not happening," Aguirre said. "As parents we are responsible for our children’s safety when they are with us.

"When our children are at school, the school is responsible for their safety," she said. "They are supposed to protect them."

Monica Aguirre and her son Christopher Mata in the intensive-care unit at Thomason Hospital

Source The Mexican Times

We bet our paychecks that the Mexicans involved including Mata and his family are illegally in the US and… 

 We guarantee you Mata’s mother can’t/won’t pay the Mexican gang banger’s hospital bill. Why should she when she knows she doesn’t have to and that US tax payers will end up paying for her POS son. 

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ― A new policy to ensure consistent communication between San Francisco police officers and those who speak little English has been approved by the San Francisco Police Commission.

According to the "Language Access Services for Limited English Proficient Persons" policy, San Francisco Police Department members will have access to a language card to let the public identify which language they speak.

The new policy also provides free language assistance to the public, officials said.

Police officers are prohibited from using family members, neighbors, friends, volunteers, bystanders or children for translation, except in dire circumstances, according to the policy.

Qualified bilingual Police Department members, civilian interpreters and telephone interpreters through the Department of Emergency Management may be used by officers, according to the policy.

Source

A woman is escorted away from the Clinton office after being released.

Click Here For Updates

ROCHESTER, N.H. —  A man claiming to have an explosive device strapped to his body released the two hostages he was holding Friday afternoon at the Rochester, N.H., campaign headquarters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, law enforcement officials told FOX News.

The hostages — believed to be staffers — included a woman with a child.

ABC News reported that police believe the man is a local resident with a history of mental illness, and that he told his son to "watch the news today."

The drama began to unfold just after 1 p.m. Friday when local news reported a man walked into the campaign office saying he wanted to speak with Clinton, a federal source told FOX News.

Clinton was not in New Hampshire at the time.

Police and SWAT teams were using loudspeakers to communicate with the man, and there are reports that police have tried to arrange for a cell phone to be given to him.

"There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, N.H., office. We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate," a campaign release issued about 2:45 p.m. ET.

Clinton canceled her speech that was scheduled for Friday afternoon at the Democratic National Committee fall meeting in Northern Virginia, party chair Howard Dean announced.

Clinton was said to be monitoring the situation from her Washington, D.C., home. Husband Bill Clinton has a scheduled event in Newton, Iowa, acting as a surrogate for his wife.

Sharpshooters have been positioned near the building, and at least one bomb squad unit also is on the scene.

Other nearby presidential campaign offices including those for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John Edwards, have been evacuated, as well as other nearby businesses, according to news reports.

WMUR reported that witness Lettie Tzizik said she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the suspect. The woman was carrying an infant, and crying.

"She said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape," Tzizik said.

The assailant is being described as in his 40s with salt-and-pepper hair.

Source

Via Bullwinkle:

Harare: Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare on Friday to lead a "million-man march" in support of President Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his rule.

The 83-year-old Mugabe is seeking re-election in presidential and parliamentary elections set for March 2008.

Thousands of supporters converged at various points in the city on Friday, singing revolutionary songs and pledging support for Harare.

Opponents allege that Mugabe has seen off challenges through tough policing, vote-rigging and patronage to reward supporters. He denies the accusations.

War veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda told state media that the "one million men and women march" was meant to demonstrate that Mugabe enjoyed solid support despite Western powers’ opposition to his rule.

Source

New Delhi: A 200-year-old cannon wheeled out by Indian villagers to greet a visiting minister exploded after being overstuffed with gunpowder, killing two men, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Residents of Badoli village in the country’s western Rajasthan state had planned the gun salute on Tuesday evening to welcome Kirodi Lal Meena, a state minister, the Times of India reported on Thursday.

The minister left immediately after the accident, which also injured six other people.

Source

Colombo, Nov 30 (Xinhua) The Sri Lankan military said Friday that more than 4,000 deserters have rejoined the Army during a two-week amnesty period.

Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told reporters 4,394 deserters rejoined the Army between Nov 12 and Nov 24.

He said this accounts for about half of the 10,000 soldiers who have deserted the Army due to various reasons.

‘After a short period of retraining they will be posted in the ranks they held when they deserted,’ he said.

The spokesman also said soldiers who have completed their 12-year service are encouraged to rejoin the Army.

Analysts say these moves will give a boost to the Sri Lankan Army in their struggle against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Source

By Brian Tracey

Look into any child’s toy box and you’ll usually find at least one stuffed animal that has seen better days — a teddy bear with an eye missing or an arm nearly torn off. Now a British company wants to give you that look right out of the box with its line of  "roadkill" plush toys.

The first to be launched is Twitch the Raccoon which comes with its own body bag, reports U.K newspaper Metro.

Twitch also has an identity tag revealing it was "run over over by a milk [delivery truck] last Thursday."

A zipper on each side of the toy allows the owner to remove Twitch’s internal organs and stuff them back in again. A truck-tire print runs across its back.

The product’s creators, Compost Communications, call themselves "toy terrorists." 

"We squash and burn and bludgeon and maim," the company was quoted as saying on its Web site. "But we’re also toy fanatics like you. We love toys."

Toy creator Adam Arber, 33, said: "I got the idea from looking at my mother-in-law’s dog which is quite ugly and I thought it would make a great toy. A friend of mine had taken some pictures of road kill and the two things gelled into one idea."

He said he thought the toys, which cost $50, would appeal to people with a sense of humor and "probably not anyone easily upset".

Twitch is set to go on sale starting in December at London’s Play Lounge toy store and online at roadkilltoys.com. Coming soon are other characters including Grind the rabbit, Splodge the hedgehog and Pop the weasel.

What, no baby deer called Slambi?

Source

By Scott Ott for ScrappleFace

As a Sudanese court handed down a 15-day jail sentence for a British women convicted of allowing school children to name a teddy bear after The Prophet of Islam, Mattel Toys announced today it would delay the launch of its much-anticipated ‘Tickle Me Muhammad’ toy line.

The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, 54, narrowly escaped 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine, thanks to the mercy of the Islamic court which instead commended her to the care of the Sudanese penal system where she’ll be one of 1,200 women and children incarcerated in a mosquito-infested prison built to hold about 200.

A Mattel spokesman said the Sudan teddy bear case has caused the company to “rethink the propriety of the planned pre-Christmas release of Tickle Me Muhammad,” which it described as “a cuddly adorable friend, with a long plush beard and a puffy turban, who laughs uncontrollably when you touch him almost anywhere.”

“We really thought it would help soften the image of Muslims,” said the unnamed Mattel source, “and help to bring about the peaceful world order which they have been fighting for almost non-stop over the past 1,400 years.”

By Les Neuhaus, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, November 30, 2007 

Les Neuhaus / S&S
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Laskowski, an explosives disposal team leader, prepares to move a deadly homemade bomb consisting of two Chinese-made 82 mm mortars, a recoilless rifle round two feet in length and a pound of explosives material in a bag. The 31-year-old Anchorage native rushed to the Poorak Girls School after Afghan police found two bombs rigged to explode on and around the school’s property. 

POORAK, Afghanistan — Going to school can be deadly if you are a girl in Afghanistan. The Taliban believe that women should not have the opportunity of an education.

The roughly 400 girls enrolled at the Poorak Girls School in eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province were reminded of that on Thursday when two bombs were found by Afghan and U.S. forces. One, a hand grenade rigged to explode, was planted underneath the guard building at the school’s entrance.

“The Taliban do not want girls to go to school, to be educated or to grow up to be leaders,” said Col. Abdul Majeed Latifi, the deputy chief of police in Logar. “I am 100 percent sure this was the work of the Taliban.”

A U.S. Air Force explosives disposal team rushed in driving snow to the village upon getting the call from Latifi’s men early in the morning.

Upon arrival, Tech. Sgt. Michael Laskowski, 31, initially found a bomb placed underneath a footbridge in front of the school.

Its was made up of two Chinese-made 82 mm mortars, a two-foot-long recoilless rifle round and a pound of explosives material placed in a bag — all of it wired up to batteries.

The footbridge where the bomb was planted lay just 15 feet from an Afghan family’s front door.

The mother of the household opened her door only inches to speak with troops, saying, “We always have problems with Taliban here. We feel scared because the bomb was so close to our house. We don’t want our children to get hurt.” She said one of her daughters was enrolled in the school.

Her youngest son peeked through the crack of the door as Laskowski, an Anchorage, Alaska, native, had his two teammates gather the materials.

Defusing the bombs at the school was not as tricky as some of the team’s previous encounters, as Afghan policemen had taken the detonators out of the set-ups by hand. They wore no protection.

“They do everything physically because they don’t have the means or the equipment to deal with it properly,” Laskowski said.

Inside the school, the male headmaster was thankful that security forces had found the bombs, but he was visibly nervous. Behind the classroom doors, some 100 girls sat chatting with each other.

Military policemen from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade found an out-of-place wire leading over the rear wall of the school. A nearby door led troops to a short but steep hill where a creek ran, an indication of a possible “fatal funnel,” according to 1st Lt. Timothy Brooks.

“This could have been the point at which they would have attacked us as we gathered together in our search of the property — the wire was probably a distraction, or a tool to get us to this point,” Brooks said. “Then they would’ve been able to pick us off as we stood here trying to figure out the situation.”

The explosives, along with a collection of other munitions recovered from previous cache discoveries, were detonated at a site about 15 miles away from Poorak.

“We are glad they found the bombs because only Allah knows what would have happened,” said the worried mother whose house rested next to the largest bomb set up. “They found this one, but what will happen next?”

Les Neuhaus / S&S
Explosives planted under a foot bridge in front of a school in Poorak, Afghanistan, were later detonated at a nearby location.

Les Neuhaus / S&S
A stack of of munitions recovered from previous raids and an attempt to bomb a girls school in Afghanistan’s Logar Province are laced with fresh strips of C-4 explosives placed by a U.S. Air Force explosives disposal team.

By Robert Spencer

Ed Husain is the author of The Islamist, a book about how he entered and then left the jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. He recently debated Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and has now written a piece in The Guardian, "Stop supporting Bin Laden," about how Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq and I are — unwittingly, of course — playing into the hands of Osama bin Laden himself.

This is, of course, a familiar canard, and one that I have dealt with before, when Dinesh D’Souza made the same charge. The contention is that because I — and Hirsi Ali, and Ibn Warraq, and others — point out that there is a broad and deeply rooted tradition of violence and supremacism within Islam, therefore we are marginalizing other Islamic traditions and legitimizing bin Laden. In saying this, Husain (and D’Souza) implies that jihadism is a clear Islamic heresy, and that there is a broad tradition within Islam that rejects violence against non-Muslims and Islamic supremacism — and that Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq and I are ignoring or downplaying it out of some base motives. Bin Laden or someone like him invented jihadism and grafted it onto a religion that has otherwise peaceful teachings.

In reality, however, while there are a few courageous reformers out there, all — not just one, or a few, but all — the orthodox sects and schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach that it is part of the responsibility of the Islamic community to wage war against unbelievers and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law (references can be found here). There is no sect or school recognized as orthodox that rejects this. It is not playing into bin Laden’s hands to point it out; in fact, it is playing into bin Laden’s hands to deny it and denigrate those who point out that it is so, for there can be no reform of what one will not admit needs reforming.

There are some disagreements between modern jihadism and traditional jihad theology: modern jihad is all defensive, as there is no caliph authorized to call offensive jihad, and some assert that only the state authority can call jihad in any case. But these disagreements do not touch on the central point: that it is legitimate to wage religious war. If Ed Husain wishes to pretend to the world that the situation of Islamic theology and jurisprudence is other than what it is, how sincere a reformer can he be? Wouldn’t a genuine reformer acknowledge the existence of problematic passages and doctrines and formulate new ways to understand them, rather than pretending that they don’t exist at all — except in the minds of violent fanatics and those he would have you believe are merely hatemongers?

Husain’s account of the debate is revealing:

…Organised by the thinktank the Centre for Social Cohesion, and masterfully chaired by Douglas Murray, a capacity crowd of politicians, journalists, Muslims, civil servants, authors, thinktankers, publishers, police bosses, Islamists, and feminists questioned Hirsi Ali and me on issues not ordinarily raised in public. Was the Prophet Mohammad responsible for the murders committed by some of his companions? Was the prophet a military leader? Is political sovereignty for God, or humans?

Good questions. Can we get answers from this reasonable reformist? Alas, no, for the questions themselves are ignorant and hostile:

These, and other, questions stem from a deep ignorance of, and hostility towards, a complex, millennium-old Islamic tradition.

Maybe they do. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be answered. Maybe he answered them in the debate, but he certainly doesn’t do so here. And since there are Muslims who say Muhammad ordered his companions to kill prisoners and to murder his opponents, and that he was a military leader, and that political sovereignty belongs to Allah, not to humans, why are non-Muslims ignorant and hostile when they ask these questions?

Just as Wahhabites and Islamists bypass scholarship, context, and history in the name of "returning to the book", Hirsi Ali and others such as Robert Spencer and Ibn Warraq commit exactly the same error. What do I mean? Let’s take the question of apostasy. At an Evening Standard debate the other night, Rod Liddle had no qualms in declaring Islam, with a barrage of other baseless abuse, "a fascistic ideology". Why? Because the Qur’an commands the killing of those who abandon it. Really?

Actually, no, but read on:

Well, here are a few facts that might help the new coterie of Islam-bashers retract ill-informed statements: a) there is no verse in the Qur’an that calls for the killing of apostates;

Actually, there is no verse in the Qur’an that calls clearly and unequivocally for the killing of apostates. But Al-Shafi’i, the jurist who founded the school of Sunni jurisprudence that bears his name, held that Qur’an 2:217 called for the killing of the apostate: "And they will not cease from fighting against you till they have made you renegades from your religion, if they can. And whoso becometh a renegade and dieth in his disbelief: such are they whose works have fallen both in the world and the Hereafter." Others point to Qur’an 4:89 — "But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them" — as calling for the execution of apostates. The Qur’an interpreter Baydawi explained this verse this way: "Whosoever turns back from his belief (irtada), openly or secretly, take him and kill him wheresoever ye find him, like any other infidel."

Is it ill-informed Islam-bashing for me to quote Baydawi and al-Shafi’i in their interpretations of these Qur’an verses? I don’t see why. Is it not rather disingenuous of Ed Husain to assert flatly that no verse in the Qur’an calls for the killing of apostates, without bothering to inform us that leading Islamic thinkers have said otherwise? I am all for reform and the rejection of the idea that apostates should be killed, but I seriously doubt it can be affected by denial that a problem exists rather than by confrontation of the problem.

b) the Prophet Mohammed did not kill several people who freely left Islam;

Here again, Husain doesn’t mention the reason why that fact would be notable: because Muhammad himself directed that apostates be killed:

"If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him." (Bukhari 4.52.60)

"Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him." (Bukhari 9.84.57)

So did he not kill apostates on some occasions? Great. But unfortunately, he didn’t direct his followers not to kill apostates. In fact, he did just the opposite. When Muhammad conquered Mecca, according to his ninth-century biographer Ibn Sa‘d, he ordered the Muslims to fight only those individuals or groups who resisted their advance into the city — except for a list of people who were to be killed, even if they had sought sanctuary in the Ka’bah itself. One of those was Abdullah bin Sa’d, a former Muslim who at one time had been employed by Muhammad to write down the Qur’anic revelations; but he had subsequently apostatized and returned to the Quraysh. He was found and brought to Muhammad along with his brother, and pleaded with the Prophet of Islam for clemency: “Accept the allegiance of Abdullah, Apostle of Allah!” Abdullah repeated this twice, but Muhammad remained impassive. After Abdullah repeated it a third time, Muhammad accepted.

Did he thus reject the killing of apostates? Not quite. As soon as Abdullah had left, Muhammad turned to the Muslims who were in the room and asked: “Was not there a wise man among you who would stand up to him when he saw that I had withheld my hand from accepting his allegiance, and kill him?”

The companions, aghast, responded: “We did not know what you had in your heart, Apostle of Allah! Why did you not give us a signal with your eye?”

“It is not advisable,” said the Prophet of Islam, “for a Prophet to play deceptive tricks with the eyes.”

Apostasy from Islam had always been for Muhammad a supreme evil. When he was master of Medina, some livestock herders came to the city and accepted Islam. But they disliked Medina’s climate, so Muhammad gave them some camels and a shepherd; once away from Medina, the herders killed the shepherd, released the camels and renounced Islam. Muhammad had them pursued. When they were caught, he ordered that their hands and feet be amputated (in accord with Qur’an 5:33, which directs that those who cause “corruption in the land” be punished by the amputation of their hands and feet on opposite sides) and their eyes put out with heated iron bars, and that they be left in the desert to die. Their pleas for water, he ordered, must be refused. That’s also in Bukhari, the Hadith collection that Muslims consider most reliable.

It stains credulity, in light of all this, for Ed Husain to give the impression that Muhammad disapproved of the murder of apostates. This kind of assertion may be comforting to non-Muslims who would prefer to believe that the notorious capital charges levied in early 2006 against the Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity, Abdul Rahman, were some sort of anomaly. Unfortunately, this claim simply does not accord with the facts of Muhammad’s life. And here again, if Ed Husain really wishes to work for reform within Islam, he can’t stand before his fellow Muslims and pretend that those stories about Muhammad don’t exist. They know they exist. He has to deal with them for what they are.

c) Sufyan al-Thawri, a second-generation Muslim, clearly stated that ex-Muslims should be free to exercise their will;

Great. And who is Sufyan al-Thawri? He was a renowned ascetic, but why do all the schools of Sunni jurisprudence — Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali — as well as the Shi’ites teach that the apostasy of a male adult merits death, if Sufyan al-Thawri’s word is so authoritative? How can Muslims be persuaded to follow Sufyan al-Thawri rather than virtually all the mainstream Islamic jurists? It is easy to impress non-Muslims with a statement like this, when they don’t know Sufyan al-Thawri from a hole in the ground, but unfortunately it is Muslims who today must be convinced that Islam doesn’t mandate death for apostasy, and invoking Sufyan al-Thawri isn’t going to accomplish that.

d) the four schools of Muslim jurisprudential thought that endorsed the killing of apostates did so on grounds of treason and sedition, not theology;

Yet another misleading point. It is true that the four schools of Sunni jurisprudence endorsed the killing of apostates because the apostate was seen as a threat to the stability of the Islamic state. But in that same Islamic jurisprudence, there is no separation between matters of state and theology, between the sacred and the secular. That is a Western, Judeo-Christian distinction. Islam has been since Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina a political and social system as well as an individual religious faith. To say that something is political rather than theological is essentially meaningless in terms of traditional Islam.

And in any case, the death penalty for apostates is based on the statements of Muhammad quoted above, and so have his prophetic seal. To say they’re not theological is simply false.

e) the 1843-44 Ottoman reforms enshrined the right of Muslims to accept other religions without state punishment.

Indeed, but under heavy Western pressure, and with resistance from the Islamic clerocracy. These reforms, in other words, were not affected by Islam or from within Islam, but in spite of Islam. Here again, this is not to say that a form of Islam could develop that teaches that the apostate should not be harmed, but the Ottoman reforms did not come about because such a form of Islam had actually developed. It had not.

I could go on.

Oh, please do. And I hope it will be in a debate with me.

Hirsi Ali vociferously objects to the Prophet Mohammed being a moral guide. For me, it is his guidance, compassion, humanity, warmth, love, kindness that rescued me, and others, from Islamist extremism. He warned against religious extremism. His was a smiling face. His tomb in Medina today radiates the peace and serenity to which he was called.

These are lovely greeting-card sentiments, but they do not mitigate the force of Muhammad’s statements above, or of his call to his followers to offer non-Muslims conversion, subjugation, or war. I’m glad that Ed Husain has apparently rejected such calls. How can he persuade more of his fellow Muslims to do so?

I concede that there is a problem with extremism among sections of the Muslim population - a context-vacuous literalism continues to threaten the very spirit of Islam.

"A context-vacuous literalism"? So it would appear that Ed Husain is now granting that the Qur’an and Sunnah, taken literally, mandate warfare against unbelievers. It is only by a rejection of that literalism that their force for incitement can be mitigated. If that is what he means, I am with him. But I find this rather odd after he strongly implied above that the Qur’an and Muhammad, taken literally, do not command death for apostates.

That same extremism has unleashed what is called "al-Qaida": an operation that adopts Islamism as its political ideology and Wahhabism as its theology. Mainstream Muslims have common cause with the west in defeating this hybrid beast. Just as Christian fundamentalists threaten the fibre of the Christian spirit (see Chris Hedges’ recent book)

Yes, do, and see also my book responding to his hysteria about "Christian theocrats."

…Muslim extremists with petrodollars seek to impose a new, bastardised, soulless, rigid religiosity on the world’s Muslims.

As with the issue of apostasy, there is, and has always been, much disagreement and debate within Islam on this and other contentious topics. It is by rediscovering the Muslim pluralist past that we will defeat literalism-based claims of exclusivity in our midst. There is no stronger argument against religious fanatics than to illustrate the scriptural weaknesses of their case.

Here again, Husain seems uncertain as to whether Islamic scripture bears out the jihadist case — albeit in a literalistic, context-free way — or not. If their case has scriptural weaknesses, it is odd that no school of Islamic jurisprudence has noticed them and modified its teaching on warfare against unbelievers and apostasy.

Hirsi Ali and others also frequently cite Muslim scripture to support their claims of a mythical "monolithic Islam". In my debate with Hirsi Ali, I was struck by the simple anecdotes she forwarded to illustrate her case. In Hirsi Ali, I see the same selective use of scripture as those that she opposes. Her objections to the Qur’an should also lead her to object to the Bible - after all, Leveticus has more references to stoning and burning sinners than ever found in the Qur’an. That’s not to say it makes it right: it’s about fairness in criticism….

Fairness in criticism? Physician, heal thyself! Leviticus may indeed talk more about stoning than the Qur’an, but in reality neither Jews nor Christians stone adulterers today, and both have evolved interpretative traditions that reject the literal application of such commands. Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia and Iran, where Islamic law is still in force, stonings are still practiced. Eight women are awaiting death by stoning in Iran today, and Iranian authorities justify this by quoting Islamic law, not the statements of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. If she is employing a "selective use of scripture," so are they, and yet Husain’s ire is directed at her, not at them. In my own books I’ve explained at length how Islamic authorities interpret Islamic texts to justify warfare against unbelievers and other atrocities: it is not my interpretation, or Ayaan’s, but theirs.

Will Ed Husain confront it as such and work in good faith for Islamic reform, or will he continue to attack those who, if he really rejects jihad and Islamic supremacism, should be his allies?

When ex-Muslims such as Hirsi Ali ignore the nuances, complexities, and plurality inherent within Islam and allow the actions of a minority of Wahhabite-Islamists to speak for a billion Muslims, then she plays into the hands of extremists and allows their discourse to dominate one of the great faiths of our world. Worse, it creates a public space in which attacking all Muslims and Islam becomes acceptable, even fashionable. Demonising Europe’s second largest minority helps nobody. No good can come of ratcheting up the prejudice against them. Yes, identify and combat extremists and in that fight you will find orthodox Muslims as partners. But continue to attack with ignorance, spite and hatred our history, our prophet, our scriptures, our scholars: then you confirm the al-Qaida narrative of a war against Islam. No, there is no moral equivalence between Bin Laden’s murderous worldview and his critics. But a damage is being done that may take generations to repair.

When Muslims such as Ed Husain ignore the deep scriptural, theological and legal foundations of Islamic violence and supremacism, rather than acknowledging those foundations and calling for reform and reinterpretation of those aspects of Islam, then he plays into the hands of extremists and allows their discourse to dominate one of the great faiths of our world. For it will continue to dominate as long as it goes unchallenged, and Ed Husain and others like him hinder genuine reform by attacking those who are trying to call attention to these aspects.

Then he plays the basest "Islamophobia" card, suggesting that Ayaan is creating an environment in which "attacking all Muslims and Islam becomes acceptable, even fashionable." No. If anyone is doing that, it is Ed Husain: if he really wants to end "ignorance, spite and hatred" directed at Muslims, he could start by ending his sly disingenousness, his evasions, his half-truths and finger-pointing in the face of the biggest crisis of our time.

N’djamena: Chadian anti-government rebels on Friday declared a "state of war" against French military forces in Chad and against any other foreign soldiers.

The rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development said it would take on troops that would interfere in the country.

The rebel group’s statement came as a largely French European Union peacekeeping force was preparing to deploy in eastern Chad to protect refugees and aid workers.

Source

 By Judi McLeod 

Where are you Rush?

Where are you Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity?

And what about you, Matt Drudge and Joseph Farah?

The cunning Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Internet writer Selwyn Duke calls “a group that could be the legal arm of al-Qaeda” is out to take down radio talk show host Michael Savage.

Correction: CAIR is out to take down Americans and to stifle freedom of speech—Savage is just the chosen icon.

CAIR activities usually get a free ride from the mainstream media.  Even cash rich television networks don’t want the inconvenience of litigation, which is CAIR’s best longsuit.

Look at the path of destruction as CAIR carries out its campaigns safe from the media spotlight.  They went after National Review Magazine, the mild and silken-voiced radio personality Paul Harvey who wouldn’t hurt the proverbial fly, the producers of the television program 24, who aren’t even in the news business and anyone else they decide is worthy of their vengeance.

In Canada, it was top-drawer journalist David Frum and author Michael Harris–both of whom stood their ground against them and eventually won.

Even as this is being written CAIR has bestselling author and Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer in its ferocious pitbull jaws.

In a politically correct world where western leaders are terrified to mention the name of the Christian God (Britain’s Tony Blair)—at least while still in office, and where saying “Boo” can find you ostracized, CAIR uses our hard-fought freedoms against us.  Free people everywhere must remember that the Freedom of the Common Man’s day in court was never instituted by CAIR.

We cannot stop the ideals that CAIR, in effect, protects such as beheading enemies on public television; the incredibly cruel lashing of rape victims, the IEDs that cut down courageous young troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The enemy is radical Islam not moderate Muslims.  And we can’t stop the enemy from using Anglo-Saxon names from getting jobs at airlines such as Andrew’s Air Force Base where Airforce 1 takes off and lands.  We can’t keep the enemy from flooding over American and Canadian porous borders to become the Enemy Within.

But even when CAIR spreads its roots into other innocent-sounding organizations, such as the newly-formed, Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition (HHA) that seems able to frighten advertisers into instant capitulation, we can fight them collectively both in court and with our buying power.

A HHA statement released this week said in part: “We have a duty to make sure every person in America is treated with respect and human dignity.

Diversity is what makes this nation so special.  The many companies that do not want to be affiliated with Michael Savage’s bigotry and have stopped advertising or refuse to advertise on his show include AutoZone, Citrix, TrustedID, JD Penney, and OfficeMax.  Today we are pleased to announce that Wal-Mart and AT&T have joined the growing list of companies that refuse to sponsor Savage’s hate speech.”

The name of the HHA coordinator boasting about advertisers frightened off the Michael Savage show?  Sabiha Khan.

Surely it is not HHA’s or CAIR’s “duty”, but ours to ensure that every person in America is treated with respect and human dignity.

“These people know how to use freedom to destroy freedom,” Savage said on his radio show last night.  “Let’s pray to God that we’re not destined to relive the Second World War and that we can nip this in the bud.”

We can take courage in this battle that organizations like CAIR and HHA are overlooking one vital detail.

Moderate Muslims everywhere stand against them.  Many moderate Muslims now living in the freedom of the United States and in other countries lost family members to radical Islam—and will never, ever forget. 

Meanwhile, where are you Rush, Bill, Sean, Matt and Joseph?

If CAIR takes down Michael Savage, they come next for you. 

Three days before he was killed in Iraq, 2nd Lt. Peter Burks sent home a wish list for his fellow soldiers. VIDEO

The newly promoted leader of the 17-member Thunder Platoon surveyed his troops and tallied about 20 desired items, from cookies to playing cards.

"I’m doing my best to be a good leader here, and that includes taking care of the guys," he wrote in an e-mail to his fiancée, Melissa Haddad of McKinney.

Lt. Burks, 26, died Nov. 14 when a roadside bomb struck his unit’s vehicle outside Baghdad’s Green Zone. He was laid to rest Saturday at a cemetery in Melissa.

Now, family and friends are working to complete Lt. Burks’ wish list in a rapidly growing effort that includes businesses, churches and schools from North Texas and around the country.

"We feel like our charge now, in Pete’s stead, is to continue to take care of his guys," said his father, Alan Burks. "We’re going to start with that list and keep it going."

Relatives started circulating the wish list while Lt. Burks was still alive. But interest in the list has grown since his death, as donors seek to honor the fallen soldier’s wish to supply his comrades with comforts from home.

Some well-wishers have sent care packages to the homes of Lt. Burks’ father and stepmother in Celina and his mother in McKinney. Others have dropped off items at Bling, a clothing store in downtown McKinney.

Maylee Thomas, the store’s co-owner, said people have stopped by to donate everything from Pop Tarts to Hot Fries to after-shave cream. Employees shipped 24 boxes to Iraq this week.

"We’ve had young children come in; we’ve had a couple of veterans who know what it’s like to be over there," Ms. Thomas said. "What we really want this to do is show these guys they’re not forgotten. This was a kid that was so wise beyond his years and had a love for his fellow soldiers."

Julie Geldert of Plano dropped off supplies, including microwave popcorn, Tootsie Pops and Oreos, last week at the Burkses’ Celina home. Each item comes with an encouraging note – "We believe in you guys!" and "Come home soon" – from her daughter Natalie, 13, and son Nicholas, 11.

"That family is just one of many that is giving it all to support our country," Ms. Geldert said. "They’ve given the ultimate. I want my kids to see what others are having to sacrifice, to understand the reality of it all."

Nobody knows exactly how many supplies have been donated, because some people are sending items directly to Iraq that won’t reach the troops for several weeks.

Lt. Burks grew up in Dallas and graduated from Trinity Christian Academy and then Texas A&M University. But care packages are flowing in from far beyond Texas.

Schools and veterans groups are sending supplies from the Boston area, where Ms. Haddad’s family lives. Family friends and former colleagues from California to Georgia to New York also have pitched in.

"It’s been amazing to see how this thing virally has gone out, the circle of people that have been touched and have reached back out to us," Mr. Burks said.

He said, "Regardless of people’s political views or what have you, it’s been encouraging and positive for people to realize there’s something that they can do tangibly and make a soldier feel better, feel appreciated."

A PLATOON’S WISH LIST

2nd Lt. Peter Burks, who was killed in Iraq earlier this month, left behind this wish list for his fellow soldiers:

•Double Stuf Oreo cookies

•Chocolate-chip cookies

•Snack packs

•Blue Gatorade powder

•Microwave popcorn

•Pretzels

•Beef jerky

•Lollipops

•Pop Tarts with frosting

•Honey buns

•Hot Cheetos

•Hot Fries

•Fudge cookies

•Xbox 360 controllers

•Shaving cream and after-shave cream

•Toothbrushes

•Pens

•Baby wipes

•Playing cards/Uno cards

•Magazines (Sports Illustrated, ESPN, National Geographic)

•Cotton swabs

•Deodorant

Shipping items

Items can be sent directly to this address (a customs form, available at any post office, is required):

CH (CPT) Bryan Smith

4/2 SCR Camp Prosperity

APO – AE 09348

Dropping off items

Items can be dropped off during business hours at Bling, a clothing store at 110 E. Louisiana St. in downtown McKinney; at Haggar Clothing Co.’s corporate offices at 11511 Luna Road in Dallas; or at Haggar retail stores in Dallas and Allen.

Cash donations

Peter Burks Unsung Hero Fund

Texas Star Bank

P.O. Box 1600

Celina, Texas 75009

Source

Not only did CNN include a question from Clinton supporter retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr in its debate, but the network also brought him to the forum for a follow-up.

CNN intended for political sparks to fly during Wednesday"s Republican presidential debate, but outrage and accusations of partisanship were directed at the network instead.

The backlash started after it turned out that a homosexual retired soldier asking about "don"t ask, don"t tell" has an affiliation with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton"s campaign. The network was forced to apologize and scrubbed the exchange from its repeat of the two-hour debate, even though the Clinton campaign says retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr was not acting on behalf of the Democratic presidential front-runner.

But things spiraled downward for CNN yesterday as bloggers — a more natural audience for a debate co-hosted by YouTube — held each questioner under a magnifying glass and found anti-Republican links ranging from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to a pro-Democratic labor union. The network defended its choice of questioners and noted that it drew 5 million viewers — the most-watched primary debate ever.

Reports flew on the Internet that at least nine of the 34 questions posed via YouTube videos — on topics ranging from corn subsidies to Social Security reform — came from voters who have ties to Democrats or a vested interest in asking the Republicans to go on record.

"Would it have killed CNN to Google some of these people?" conservative blogger Jason Coleman asked.

On the personal Web page of David McMillan of Los Angeles, who asked the candidates why many black voters choose Democrats over Republicans, are many political videos, including one with a Politico.com video blogger asking which presidential candidate was most "gangsta." In the video, he called Sen. John McCain of Arizona "Insane McCain." There are also photos of him attending a fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and laudatory videos of former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, both Democrats.

Adam Florzak, who asked about Social Security, has an entire Web site devoted to the subject (www.pactamerica.com) and a 2005 article describes him as "hell-bent on reforming Social Security and the pension system" and working with someone from Democratic Whip Sen. Richard J. Durbin’s staff.

At his site, Mr. Florzak describes his efforts to get a personal meeting to put his Social Security plan into the hands of Mr. Obama and has posted a video of himself asking the Illinois Democrat about the issue during a town-hall meeting.

David Cercone asked why "Log Cabin Republicans [should] support" the candidates, leaving the impression that he is a member of the group. But bloggers uncovered an online profile in which he endorses Mr. Obama and praises him as "a leader who inspires me with his sincerity."

The woman in Islamic dress identified as Yasmin from Huntsville, Ala., who asked a question about the U.S. image among Muslims, is a former intern at CAIR, the Muslim lobby group said yesterday evening on its Web site (www.cair.com).

Ted Faturos of Manhattan Beach, Calif., asked the candidates about their support for farm subsidies, taking a bite from an ear of corn to punctuate his point. Bloggers pretty quickly determined he once worked for Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat. Her office said he was a "high school intern" in a district office in 2004 and has had no contact with the office since.

After the debate, CNN apologized once it confirmed that Gen. Kerr is on the steering committee for LGBT Americans for Hillary. The Clinton campaign insists that Gen. Kerr was acting on his own behalf, which he also asserted yesterday morning in a CNN interview, saying that "I have not done any work" for Mrs. Clinton and that the question was not posed to him by any campaign or group.

"This was a private initiative on my own," he said.

But the general’s question provoked both praise and angry reaction on his YouTube page, which also links to a film being made about the don’t ask, don’t tell policy. One person applauded the general for his "bravery in bringing up this point." Another called his question "inspired."

But "dantheman8282" complained that "with CNN at the helm," the chances of having an "open and fair debate … are close to nil."

"I have no idea how you, above almost all other YouTubers, should get press time and be given the floor at the CNN debate above all others," dantheman8282 wrote. "The fact that you spoke longer than Duncan Hunter (who incidentally is a presidential candidate) is so bizarre and crazy."

Questioner LeeAnn Anderson asked the candidates about lead paint in toys while holding her children. It was widely noted yesterday that Mrs. Anderson is an assistant to Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America. The union has endorsed former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Another questioner who asked about abortion reacted on her YouTube page while wearing an Edwards T-shirt.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said the YouTube format, puts an additional screening burden on organizers: "I’m always concerned when I don’t know how to judge the person asking the question, and it’s not someone who asks questions for a living."

In a statement, CNN defended its question choices, saying "the whole point" is to open the questions to "a wider range of Americans all around the country. CNN cared about what you asked, not who you were."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee didn’t seem to mind and said he felt CNN chose a "pretty good balance" of questions. He said it was "refreshing … the questions came from people who weren’t being paid to ask them."

But Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, complained to CNN yesterday, saying: "I think that should have been made public … [so candidates could] have a better way of judging the quality of the question."

Source

MANILA, Philippines—Fifty military officers and their supporters—including a former vice president—were under arrest and others were being sought Friday following a failed attempt to trigger a "people power" revolt against the Philippines’ president.

About 3,000 left-wing activists called for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s ouster over alleged corruption and human rights violations during two previously planned protests to honor a prominent Filipino revolutionary hero, police said.

The gatherings were tiny in comparison to the uprisings that ousted presidents in 2001 and 1986, and it appeared that Arroyo had survived yet another crisis.

The latest bid to oust her came Thursday, when 27 soldiers walked out of their trial on earlier insurrection charges and commandeered the five-star Peninsula Hotel. They were joined by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim—suspected of involvement in another failed coup plot last year—along with dozens of sympathizers within the military and leaders of leftist and opposition groups.

Lim issued a statement urging Arroyo to resign and asking the armed forces to withdraw support for her.

The events were remarkably similar to four years ago, when the same officers tried a similar tactic at another upscale hotel a few blocks away.

The result was nearly the same, too, though Arroyo—clearly miffed that she continues to be dogged by attempts to oust her—showed less tolerance this time, dispatching troops and police SWAT teams. They fired tear gas and volleys of gunfire into the lobby of the Peninsula hotel and used an armored personnel carrier to bash in the roped-shut glass entrance doors.

Of the 101 people arrested at the hotel in Makati, Manila’s business district, only 50 remained in custody Friday—including former Vice President Teofisto Guingona—and were to be charged with rebellion, said Department of Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Marius Corpuz.

National police chief Avelino Razon earlier said several documents were found at the hotel that "support the theory that this is a well-planned activity."

"There are other components … and we are pursuing the other groups that might try to continue to implement their plans," Razon said.

The capital and surrounding areas were put under a one-night curfew to allow police to pursue follow-up arrests. Razon said authorities were still looking for some of the rebel soldiers who managed to escape, including one of the leaders, Capt. Nicanor Faeldon.

At least three previous coup plots and three impeachment attempts have plagued Arroyo’s seven tumultuous years in power, but each has subsequently drawn fewer people to the streets.

Arroyo offered reassurances that the government is stable and claimed the military is loyal to her. She planned to go ahead with a previously scheduled trip to Spain and Britain on Saturday, presidential aide Cerge Remonde said.

"Again and again we have shown to the world the stability of the institutions of our democracy and the strength of this government," Arroyo said on national television. "Wrong and misguided deeds of the few do not speak for the people or the army and police."

Source

The Mile High United Way has disassociated itself from Jared Polis’ Thanksgiving trip to Iraq and insists its executive vice president used vacation days for the week he spent in the Middle East with the Democratic congressional candidate.

"It’s inconceivable to me that we would knowingly walk into a situation where we were seen as participating in a candidate’s trip," Paul Franke, chairman of the United Way’s board of trustees, said Thursday. "It was not a United Way-sponsored trip."

A campaign news release sent the day before Polis left for Iraq said he would travel "as a supporter of the United Way’s efforts to assist in the development of Iraqi nonprofit and humanitarian organizations."

Polis campaign manager Wanda James said Thursday that the United Way did not "in any way organize or pay for the trip." Polis, a multimillionaire Internet entrepreneur, went as a "potential donor to see the projects in the region for himself," she said.

The trip sparked a firestorm of criticism from his opponents, who called it a campaign stunt in disguise.

Polis, who is vying against two fellow Democrats to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, paid for the trip for himself and United Way executive vice president Rich Audsley.

The Boulder Democrat has not said how much the trip cost, only that his attorney will sort out what he needs to disclose publicly on his next campaign finance report.

"I regret that this has been politicized," Audsley said. "That wasn’t my intention."

Audsley said he took the trip on his personal time because helping Middle Eastern nonprofits has been a "personal passion" for years. Polis contacted him and set up the trip, he said.

The two spent Thanksgiving week in Amman, Jordan, and Iraq, visiting nonprofit relief organizations and local government leaders.

At a town-hall meeting Wednesday night, Polis said he went to Iraq "with the United Way Denver chapter" to work on "building ties between Iraqis" and relief agencies.

United Way board member Ric Padilla said the board recently received a "clarification document" from Mile High United Way "that the trip was indeed a personal one and not sanctioned" by the organization. Another board member, Xcel Energy executive Roy Palmer, said through a spokesman that Audsley "did this as a private citizen on vacation time."

One of Polis’ opponents, former state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, bashed him for being secretive about the trip’s logistics.

"I think it’s time that he honestly tell the people of the 2nd Congressional District the truth about the trip to Iraq," campaign manager Mary Alice Mandarich said.

The Polis campaign accused Fitz-Gerald of being desperate.

"This is another example of the cynical, aggressive, negative politics that turns so many people off," James said.

A spokesman for the third candidate in the race, Boulder environmentalist Will Shafroth, declined comment.

Source

Notice anything missing in this article about Polis’ visit to Iraq? If you’re a democrat it may take you a lot longer to figure it out.

 Via The Mexican Times:

Changes are needed in U.S. border policies that take more into account border communities like El Paso, said participants in a two-day conference that began today at the Camino Real Hotel in Downtown El Paso.

The Border Policy conference has brought together about 150 people, including elected officials, academics, immigrant rights activists and clergy from