SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A state lawmaker wants the American flag and a copy of the Declaration of Independence in every public school classroom.

The bill would not require the Constitution in classrooms, but Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, said he might add that provision.

"There’s not a lot of patriotism going around out there," he said, contrasting controversy over the Iraq war to favorable public opinion about America’s role in World War II.

Utah law requires students in elementary schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, although parents can excuse their children.

"You can’t make kids more patriotic," said Crestview Elementary School principal Verneita Hunt, whose students have sent valentines to soldiers in Iraq.

"You can show them, teach them, help them understand our country, and then because of the love of their country … they will become more patriotic because they choose to be," she said.

Mike Leavitt, a history teacher at Riverton High School, said he’s never been in a classroom without an American flag.

He said students learn more when they can relate the Constitution to their lives.

Riverton High students, for example, lobbied the Jordan Board of Education to close schools on Veterans Day. They said they wanted to honor members of the military.

"When kids see civics in action, that’s the best way to learn," Leavitt said.

Source

More at the Desert Morning News

This law will never pass because the Mexican reconquistas will label the law racist, sue, wherein we will dutifully bend over (like we always do) and take it in the ass.

The beautiful rare Tatiana shot to death merely for killing the very common "Hispanic" male.

The San Francisco medical examiner identified the person who was fatally mauled as 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., of San Jose. The cause of death was pending.

The two injured men, ages 19 and 23, were upgraded to stable condition Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital after undergoing surgery to have their wounds cleaned and closed, said surgeon Rochelle Dicker. They suffered deep bites and claw cuts on their heads, necks, arms and hands.

Dicker said they were shaken up emotionally and would remain hospitalized for the day, but that because of their youth they would make a full recovery.

Source

Why did we mention the dead teen was “Hispanic”? Because “Hispanics” make a great point of being labeled as Hispanic first and foremost and T2M really gives a shit about possibly being labeled racist by the “Hispanic” people. Therefore, we’re more than happy to accommodate the “Hispanic” people and make mention that the teen was indeed a “Hispanic” and most likely had disciplinary problems in the past.

 Look for a lawsuit against the zoo from the teen’s "Hispanic" parents.

Dec. 25: In this video image from KGO television, paramedics arrive at San Francisco General Hospital with one of the victims of a tiger attack.

Police: San Francisco Tiger Attack May Have Been Provoked

SAN FRANCISCO —  The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors Wednesday as police investigated a tiger attack they say may have been provoked by visitors’ taunting the animal, leaving one man dead and two brothers injured. [more]

Belgrade: The Serb parliament was expected to adopt a resolution later yesterday implicitly rejecting membership of the European Union and Nato if the West recognises the independence of Kosovo.

It has the backing of President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who lead the two main parties in Serbia’s governing coalition, and is likely to win support from hardline nationalists of the opposition Radical Party as well.

It states that "all international accords that Serbia will sign, including the SAA, must be in keeping with the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country".

The SAA is the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first treaty the EU signs with would-be members. The EU is offering Serbia a fast track to membership once Kosovo is resolved, but this resolution would bar its acceptance if the breakaway province secedes with Western backing.

Serbia is offering Kosovo’s 90 per cent Albanian majority broad autonomy, a separate life short of full self-determination for its two million people and with no role in Serbia. The Albanians plan to declare independence in the first months of 2008, and have broad Western support.

Ruthless

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 after 11 weeks of bombing by Nato forced it to withdraw its troops, ending a ruthless counter-insurgency campaign in which 10,000 civilians were killed and 800,000 driven out of the country.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by a major Nato-led peacekeeping force ever since. The EU is now preparing to take over the UN supervisory role, with a police and judicial mission, and Nato is staying on. "Because of the overall role of Nato … parliament decides that Serbia will declare military neutrality when it comes to existing military alliances, until a possible referendum when the final decision would be made," the resolution states.

"Parliament determines that forming an EU mission in Kosovo … would endanger the sovereignty, territorial integrity and constitutional order of Serbia," it says. Any such mission must have UN Security Council approval, which is currently unattainable. Serbia’s main ally, Russia, is threatening to veto any resolution Serbia does not accept, and in nearly two years of talks Serbia has not accepted any form of independence for Kosovo.

With Moscow’s help, Serbia has thus frustrated what the West considers the only solution that can bring peace and stability to the Balkans. The parliamentary resolution is a declaration of united defiance as Serbia approaches a presidential election.

Source

N’djamena, Chad: A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers on Wednesday of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labour.

The sentence was imposed on the fourth day of the trial of the Zoe’s Ark workers, who were charged with fraud and kidnapping in October after authorities stopped a convoy with the children, whom the charity was planning to fly to France. The defendants maintain they were driven by compassion to help orphans in violence-torn Darfur, which borders Chad.

But subsequent investigations revealed most of the 103 children that Zoe’s Ark was planning to fly out were Chadians who had at least one parent or close adult relative with whom they lived.

The wife of Zoe’s Ark logistics chief Alain Peligat expressed a "feeling of injustice, of course, because this case involves doctors, rescue workers, professors — not mercenaries — and they were simply going to save lives. … The rumours were that it was going to be 10 years." The French Foreign Ministry in Paris declined to comment on a judicial verdict by another nation, but said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France.

Prosecutor Beassoum Ben Ngassoro had requested the aid workers receive seven to 11 years of forced labour.

Source

The driver of a tractor-trailer rig who caused a fatal accident in Chaparral Monday night remained on the loose Tuesday, New Mexico State Police said.

The accident occurred about 6:10 p.m. on State Road 404 at mile post 6. State police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Tingwall said the rig, which was not pulling a load, and another car were traveling east and attempted to pass an eastbound car on the two-lane road. When the rig attempted to pass, it collided with a westbound Ford Ranger pickup.

A passenger in the pickup was thrown onto the roadway and was run over by the rig and dragged along the road. The rig eventually came to rest on the eastbound shoulder. The victim was then run over a by another vehicle traveling east. The body was dragged a second time for about 100 feet, Tingwall said.

Both the second vehicle and the rig’s driver left the scene. Ting wall said the U.S. Border Patrol and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department were called to help look for the rig’s driver.

Officials have yet to obtain a description of the second vehicle that hit the man.

Tingwall said the driver of the pickup was airlifted to Thomason Hospital, where his condition was unknown Tuesday. The identities of those involved in Monday’s accident were not available.

Anyone with information on Monday’s accident is asked to call New Mexico State Police at 505-524-6111.

Source

Washington, DC (AHN) - A new employment verification form, the I-9, must be filled out by every employer in the U.S. as part of the country’s battle against immigration document fraud. Its implementation starts Wednesday, although the law creating the form was crafted in 1996.

[Employers haven’t bothered to obey the law so far, and our complacent pro- criminal illegal alien invader government hasn’t bothered to make employers obey the law, so, makes anyone believe they will start now?]

According to immigration experts, the mandatory use of form I-9 is just the first step in a series of federal initiatives to cut down the number of documents used to verify employment.

[That’s right, our government and corporations want to make it easier for criminal illegal alien invaders to continue their crimes spree against law abiding legitimate US citizens]

Chris Bentley, spokesman of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said, "We’re anticipating a smooth transition from the old form to the new one." He added, "It’s the one we’ve publicized to the employer community, one they know is coming, and it’s as simple as downloading the new form and using that as of the 26th."

The implementation of the new form has been delayed by 10 years due to the transition of the government agency overseeing immigration from the old Immigration and Naturalization Service to the USCIS.

[Tens years to transition? More like until the simmering anger by law abiding legitimate US citizens boiling to the surface over the cheap criminal illegal alien labor stealing jobs and driving down wages, we never bothered to transition at all]

Form I-9 has been out and effective November 7, but it became mandatory December 26. Wal-Mart, the U.S.’ largest employer with 1.3 million workers, said it already began using the new form, according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber.

[Sure they are…and I’m Boudiccia, Queen of the Iceni]

The new form dropped as a requirement certificates of U.S. citizenship and naturalization, which are easily faked. It retains 5 documents to establish employee identity and employment eligibility, including the U.S. passport and permanent resident card.

[Not that companies even bother to verify an immigrant’s work documentation; Our government dropped two forms of I.D. because they can be easily faked. Yet, our government in its pro-criminal illegal alien complaceny wants us to believe that US passports and permanent residence cards cannot be faked or perhaps are harder to fake and that certainly warrants dropping them]

All new employees hired after November 7, 2007 must fill up the new form. Existing employees whose old I-9 files are still intact do not need to fill up the new form. The implementation of the I-9 form did not affect the amount of penalty imposed on U.S. employers who are caught hiring illegal immigrants. The fine is from $250 to $2,000 for that offense, while paperwork errors will be meted a fine of $100 to $1,000.

[So, for the current criminal illegal alien invaders committing further crimes by using bogus documentation to work, no problemo. And for the criminal illegal alien invaders newly hired, the fine for employer "paper work errors" (translated: caught knowingly using criminal illegal alien bogus documentation) the un-implemented fines remain the same. The bottom line with the revised I-9 is that not a damn thing has changed]

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, spokesman for Multinational Force-Iraq speaks to reporters, with a picture of Mohammed Sulaiman on the screen at right, in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007. The military announced that Mohammed Sulaiman, killed last month in a military operation, was just identified as a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and a former associate of its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

BAGHDAD, Iraq—The U.S. military announced Wednesday that a terrorist killed last month had been identified as a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai, was killed north of Baghdad on Nov. 8, the military said, calling him "an experienced bomb maker and attack planner who coordinated numerous attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces over the past three years, using a variety of improvised explosive devices combined with small-arms fire."

He was also described as a former associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—who was killed by U.S. forces last year.

Violence in Iraq has dropped by 60 percent since June, the U.S. military has said.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday that that the creation of groups known as Awakening Councils—which the U.S. military has dubbed Concerned Local Citizens—was a key factor in the reduction of violence.

"This is perhaps one of the most important developments in 2007," Bergner said. "This was a decision by Iraqi citizens to confront al-Qaida and kick them out of their neighborhoods."

The big challenge for 2008, Bergner added, was how to integrate them into Iraqi society.

"The government of Iraq has recently taken the decision to assume responsibility for those citizens, to give them financial compensation and accept qualified individuals in the ranks of the security forces," Bergner said.

In some areas, there are "mixed Sunni and Shiite citizens groups. It is not just Sunnis now, although it is largely Sunni," Bergner said.

But the Shiite-dominated government is concerned about the Sunni tribal groups, made up of men who in the past also fought against government forces.

"As with any transition there is a need to build confidence between individuals who at one time had been fighting the government and coalition forces," Bergner said.

A top U.S. commander, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, warned on Tuesday that the groups must be rewarded and recognized as legitimate members of Iraqi society—or else the hard-fought security gains of the past six months could be lost.

Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”  The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1.  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY):  In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records.  Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals.  Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again).  And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007.  Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

2.  Rep. John Conyers (D-MI):  Conyers reportedly repeatedly violated the law and House ethics rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets and campaign workers while on the government payroll.  While the House Ethics Committee investigated these allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number of the accusations against Conyers, the committee blamed the staff and required additional administrative record-keeping and employee training.  Judicial Watch obtained documentation in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds new light on the activities and conduct on the part of the Michigan congressman, which appear to be at a minimum inappropriate and likely unlawful.  Judicial Watch called on the Attorney General in 2007 to investigate the matter.

3.  Senator Larry Craig (R-ID):  In one of the most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a Minneapolis International Airport men’s bathroom during the summer.  Senator Craig reportedly “sent signals” to a police officer in an adjacent stall that he wanted to engage in sexual activity.  When the police officer showed Craig his police identification under the bathroom stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the senator reportedly exclaimed ‘No!’”  When asked to produce identification, Craig presented police his U.S. Senate business card and said, “What do you think of that?”  The power play didn’t work.  Craig was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea.  Despite enormous pressure from his Republican colleagues to resign from the Senate, Craig refused.

4.  Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA):  As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate’s subcommittee on Military Construction’s approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process.  Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty.  Judicial Watch’s investigation into this matter is ongoing. 

5.  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY):  Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…”  ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense.  All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.

6.  Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR):  Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record.  According to The Associated Press:  “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.”  And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations?  Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

7.  I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby:  Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.  Libby was found guilty of four felonies — two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to the FBI and one count of obstructing justice – all serious crimes.  Unfortunately, Libby was largely let off the hook.  In an appalling lack of judgment, President Bush issued “Executive Clemency” to Libby and commuted the sentence.

8.  Senator Barack Obama (D-IL):  A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007.  In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko.  In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections  It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors.  One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares.  Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

9.  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA):  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress.  The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi’s home base of San Francisco.  Pelosi just happens to own apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, and will almost certainly experience a significant boost in property value as a result of Pelosi’s earmark.  Earlier in the year, Pelosi found herself in hot water for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, in unprecedented request which was wisely rejected by the Pentagon.  And under Pelosi’s leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down – which protects members in both parties from accountability.

10.  Senator Harry Reid (D-NV):  Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different.  According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal.  As the project advanced, the Times reported, “Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore.”  Whittemore also hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials.  Leif Reid even called his father’s office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.

Either global bankers are seducing Islamic dictators, or vice versa. Even if they are seducing each other at the same time, the result will be the same: Islamic/Shari’a banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

With Great Britain now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world, the stampede by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway.

Western banking met Islam many decades ago, but only began to sleep with her a few years ago. Since then, it is has become a wanton and open affair.

The implications for the west, and especially for the United States, are staggering. Because all Islamic banking products must be created and offered according to strict Shari’a law, global banks are doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: give legitimacy to Shari’a and infiltrate it into the fabric of western society.

What is Islamic banking?

Simply put, “Islamic banking and finance” creates, sells and services products that are in strict accordance with Shari’a. In the Islamic culture, it is referred to as “Shari’a finance” and covers the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc.

To insure Shari’a compliance, banks must hire Shari’a scholars to review and approve each product and practice as “halal”, the Muslim equivalent of kosher in Judaism. Because there is a shortage of such scholars, there is competition between banks to find the best expert to sit on their boards of directors. This provides the highest legitimacy to each ruling because it is made at the director rather management level.

It should be noted that most of these scholars are from the school of radical Wahhabi/Salafi Shari’a in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, holding views diametrically opposed to the basic values of Western civilization.

Shari’a finance has many differences from orthodox banking: Notably, it cannot charge interest (usury) and it calls for alms giving (zakat). It also calls for avoidance of excessive risk and may not be associated in any way with gambling, drinking alcohol, eating pork, etc.

Zakat demands a tithe of 2.5 percent of revenue be donated to Islamic charity. If western banks follow this rule, their contributions will be staggering. It is certain that a portion of this money will end up in the hands of radical Muslims who are sworn to destroy the U.S. and replace its government with Shari’a law.

Shari’a finance is a recent phenomenon. There were very few Islamic banks prior to 1980. However, with the Khomeini revolution in Iran in 1979, Shari’a was summarily imposed throughout Iran and Shari’a finance took off.

The dark side of Shari’a

Shari’a is the legal and judicial system of Islam that is brutally imposed on many Islamic countries in the middle east. It is the specific embodiment of the totalitarian ideology practiced by the Taliban, Iranian Mullahs and Saudi Wahhabis.

Shari’a is perpetuated by claiming to have its roots in the Koran, but in fact it is mostly the product of rulings and dictates made by Islamic scholars and caliphs over several centuries.

For non-Muslims, Shari’a is best known for its medieval, harsh brutality. Many rulings handed down by Shari’a courts have shocked the western world, for instance:

The December, 2007 “teddy bear” case in Sudan, where a British teacher was sentenced to 40 lashes and a year in jail for allowing her students to name their teddy bear “Mohammad.” Islamic mobs demonstrated in the streets and called for her execution.
The November, 2007 case where a 19 year old gang-rape victim in Saudi Arabia received a sentence of 200 lashes for riding in the car with her rapists.
In 2006, a 34 year-old mother was forcibly raped and ultimately tried and convicted of adultery, and was ordered to be stoned to death.
Shari’a demands total and unquestioned submission. Its subjects are told that Shari’a is given by Allah and that whatever befalls them (good or bad) is Allah’s will. To question a judgment under Shari’a (right or wrong) is to question Shari’a itself and will only bring harsher punishment. If a person receives harsh punishment for something they didn’t do, the rationale is that Allah could and would have prevented it if that had been his will. This fatalistic and deterministic approach allows Shari’a rulers to get away with virtually any thing that enters their head.

To the average western mind, Shari’a is no more than a medieval, barbaric code that somehow survived to the 21st century. It flies in the face of western law, philosophy, liberty and freedom. Furthermore, it is the vehicle used to call for the complete destruction of the west and in particular the United States of America, which then will be replaced by Shari’a dictatorships.

How the banking rocket took off

At the behest of global trade moguls, numerous Free Trade Zones (FTZ’s) were created throughout the Islamic world that were full of windfall conditions.

For instance, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), is a 110 acre free trade zone that was founded in 2004 in Dubai, UAE. According to the DIFC website, participants will enjoy “zero tax rate on income and profits, 100 per cent foreign ownership, no restrictions on foreign exchange or capital/profit repatriation, operational support and business continuity facilities.”

Not surprisingly, Morgan Stanley’s application was one of the first approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority to operate within the DIFC.

The director-general of the DIFC Authority, Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, welcomed Morgan Stanley by stating,

“This is a testimony to our status as an international financial centre of repute. Morgan Stanley is a highly reputed organisation and to have them here at the DIFC is a vindication of our strategy to create a world-class financial hub for the region. The opportunity available within the region, along with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and the international regulatory framework of the DIFC, provides the ideal platform for institutions such as Morgan Stanley to grow their business.” [Emphasis added]
DIFC and similar Free Trade Zones are a banker’s nirvana into which global bankers have rushed headlong to establish regional financial centers.

And the payoff? A chance to enter and then dominate the Islamic banking industry. Such banking has over $1.5 trillion on the table today, and is growing at a steady and explosive rate of over 15% per year.

Good old western know-how

Understanding that Islamic banking is a very recent phenomenon is underscored by the fact that its largest and most prestigious international conference, World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) has met for a mere 14 years. The most recent meeting just concluded in Bahrain and attracted over 1,000 banking delegates from 35 countries.

Two years ago, the 12th annual WIBC (2005) conference kicked off with the “Governor’s Table” session titled “Regulation & Business: Creating a Framework for Islamic Banking & Finance to Thrive.” Panel member and speaker number two was Dr. David Mullins, CEO of Vega Asset Management in New York.

Who is Mullins? He is in the white-hot core of international banking. Mullins was Vice Chairman and Governor of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under Greenspan during George H.W. Bush’s presidency. As governor, he represented the Fed at meetings of the G-10 Governors, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Bank for International Settlements. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The next topic at the Governor’s Table was “Industry in Transition: Trends & Innovations for Islamic Financial Institutions in an Increasingly Competitive Global Market,” where several speakers included Dr. Samuel L. Hayes III, Jacob Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Emeritus at Harvard Business School. According to Hayes,

“The growing acceptance among Muslims of Halal savings and investment products over the past decade has been impressive. Consequently, a number of conventional Western financial institutions have eagerly moved into this market as the array of investment vehicles has broadened.”
The closed-door CEO Strategy Session was centered around the McKinsey Competitiveness Report, developed in conjunction with the WIBC by the very elite McKinsey & Company based in New York.

In fact, McKinsey & Company was listed as a “Strategic Partner” of the WIBC, alongside of global accounting firm Ernst & Young and the consummate global investment banker, Goldman Sachs. (Remember that in 2005, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson was CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs.)

Another key speaker was Dr. Robert Kaplan, Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School and acclaimed author of many management books like Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps. In a pre-conference press release, Kaplan stated

“I look forward to presenting to Islamic banking leaders the latest ideas on strategy execution that delivers performance breakthroughs. I will present how successful organizations have built strategy maps around a common value proposition, communicated to and motivated the workforce, and installed a new Office of Strategy Management to sustain strategy execution.”
More recently, on December 6, 2007, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Malcolm Knight, addressed the Islamic Financial Services Board Forum in Frankfurt, Germany:

“Clearly, there is expanding demand for these products, and a closely associated desire on the part of banks, including non-Islamic banks, to provide Islamic financial services… The broadening appeal of Islamic finance is also evident in the move by large international banks and other private sector financial institutions to provide Islamic financial services.”
Mullins, Hayes, Kaplan, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, Bank for International Settlements? Do you see the pattern?

The west is giving away the know-how, with gusto, to enable Shari’a banking and guarantee its success throughout the world. And to what ends?

For one, Britain’s PM Gordon Brown has pointedly stated that he intends to make London the Islamic finance capital of the world. Further, he pledged that in 2008 the British government will issue its own “sukuk”, or Shari’a compliant bonds. Yes, government debt issued as Shari’a compliant.

At the June 13, 2006 Islamic Finance Trade Conference in London, Brown revealed,

“Today British banks are pioneering Islamic banking - London now has more banks supplying services under Islamic principles than any other Western financial centre.”
Brown’s statements can only be taken as a challenge by the New York banking establishment to beat him to the finish line. It doesn’t matter who wins this race because the result will be the same: Shari’a banking is quickly encircling the globe and forcing a de facto acceptance of Shari’a law.

Conclusion

International bankers have long ago proven themselves to be completely amoral when it comes to money. They bankrolled the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918 just as blithely as they bankrolled Hitler in the 1930’s. Fortunately for us, neither succeeded in conquering the world.

With Islam, odds of its succeeding are radically different. To start with, there are already 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and it is the fastest growing religion in history. Secondly, the spread of Islam is richly financed by the oil that is extracted from mid-eastern countries. Thirdly, Islam has already infiltrated most of the west, especially in Europe.

And now, Islam has behind it the combined support and encouragement of the entire global banking community.

The unholy alliance between Islam and global banking may be the final leg on the age-old quest for global domination. Don’t be surprised at the silence of the global elite the next time you hear Islamist mobs chant “Death to America” – their goals are now intertwined.

Source

Iran announced on Wednesday it is to receive S-300 air missile defence systems from Russia, a move that risks angering the United States which has been critical of past arms sales to Tehran.

"The S-300 system will be delivered to Iran within the framework of a contract agreed in the past," Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted as saying by state radio, without giving the date of the contract.

"The timing of the delivery will be announced at a later date," he added.

Najjar dismissed any link between the said contract and the recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies which confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities, adding that the date of S-300 delivery would be revealed to public later in future.

S-300 is considered as among the most advanced anti-missile systems in the world capable of targeting various types of missiles and warplanes at different altitudes. Despite Tour-M which can identify and trace targets merely at low altitudes, S-300 enjoys the required capabilities to trace and destroy targets at low and high altitudes, granting Iran air superiority over enemy missiles and aircrafts.

Asked to comment on remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin warning Iran about a surprise attack by the US troops following the recent US National Intelligence Estimate, Najjar said, "This is a personal view stated by the Russian president.

"We are at the highest level of preparedness and power on the sea, on land and in the air," he added.

Earlier this year Moscow frustrated Washington by delivering to Tehran 29 TOR-M1 air defence missile systems, in a deal estimated to be worth 700 million dollars.

The United States had urged Russia to cancel that sale, saying it was a mistake when the UN Security Council had imposed sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile industry as part of measures against its nuclear drive.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the new delivery from Russia, but the Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian defence source as saying Iran would receive several dozen of the systems.

"In line with the contract signed several years ago, Russia will deliver to Iran several dozen 3RS S-300PMU1 anti-aircraft systems," the source said. Interfax said the deliveries would begin next year.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council member, has important economic interests in Tehran.

A Russian contractor is also building and supplying fuel for Iran’s first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr, a much delayed project expected to be ready next year.

Moscow approved the two UN Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions against Tehran over the nuclear crisis, but also succeeded in watering down the measures and has been lukewarm on US efforts for a third.

Nevertheless, Russia has strongly urged Iran to obey the main demand of the West in the nuclear standoff — that it suspends sensitive uranium enrichment activities.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was actively working to persuade Iran to suspend enrichment, offering Tehran the prospect of full negotiations with world powers if it did.

"From the economic point of view, Iran has no need to continue its programme of enriching uranium," he told the Vremya Novosti newspaper.

"We are trying to persuade the Iranians that Iran would benefit by suspending its programme, as this would immediately mean negotiations with the six (world powers dealing with the crisis) including the United States."

Iran’s announcement of the delivery of the surface-to-air S-300 defence system comes amid continued international tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The United States has never ruled out military action to end Iran’s defiance, although a US intelligence report published earlier this month appears to have momentarily taken the heat out of the standoff.

The report said Tehran had halted a nuclear weapons programme in 2003, undermining US President George W. Bush’s claims that it had an active atomic bomb drive. Iran denied ever seeking atomic weapons.

Iranian officials have vowed never to initiate any attack but have warned the armed forces will strike back with crushing force if the country’s territory is hit.

Source Al Arab

In 1960, a family farm was confiscated by the Cuban government. More than 40 years later, the same family lost another farm in Venezuela.

C.M. GUERRERO/EL NUEVO HERALD

Bienvenido Jorajuria and his family came to Miami from Venezuela after fleeing death threats by the squatters who took over his ranch in Yaracuy.

When Bienvenido Jorajuría could not get into his family’s La Quinta ranch in the fertile region of Yaracuy, in north central Venezuela, the Cuban-born rancher felt a familiar frustration.

The land was confiscated earlier this year by President Hugo Chávez’s government after armed peasants backed by the national guard invaded it, despite the fact that it was in full production.

For Jorajuría, it was the second time his family’s land had been expropriated. In 1960, his family’s farm in Matanzas, Cuba, was confiscated by Fidel Castro’s government.

The Cuban farm produced sugar cane and raw salt.

‘’My father miraculously escaped from being executed because they accused him of being counterrevolutionary, and he lost the land that he had worked for all his life,'’ Jorajuría, 54, told El Nuevo Herald from his recently rented house in Kendall.

‘’History repeats itself with me,'’ he added.

Jorajuría arrived in Miami with his family about a month ago, fleeing death threats made by the land squatters in Venezuela, who accuse him of terrateniente y terrófago – taking land that belongs to the people.

News of the expropriated land in Venezuela came during a broadcast of Aló, Presidente, when Chávez himself announced that the Jorajuría property would be divided among a group of Bolivarian co-op members.

Most of the squatters were sons and daughters of former workers on the same farm.

THOUSANDS OF CASES

Jorajuría is one of the thousands of Venezuelan and foreign ranchers who have lost productive lands in Venezuela and fled the country because of an agrarian reform carried out by the Chávez administration under advice from the Cuban government.

Dozens of Spanish and Italian ranchers have had their land confiscated as well. Some have received government compensation for their properties, but the amount never matches the appraised value.

Venezuelan ranchers have been under pressure almost since the start of Chávez administration in 1999.

They have faced a growing numbers of squatters, encouraged by Chávez and his government to take ‘’justice'’ against ranchers they consider to be ‘’land stealers'’ and ‘’oligarchs.'’ The ranchers also have had to prove they owned the land they were working.

‘’They forced us to provide documents to prove that the property was private as far back as 1850,'’ said Adivi Ahmad, Bienvenido Jorajuría’s wife, who inherited part of the land in La Quinta, which was purchased by her father in 1947.

‘’Finding these documents was extremely difficult because of Venezuela’s public registry disorder,'’ Ahmad told El Nuevo Herald.

Ahmad said it took six months and about $500 to compile and submit the documents, but later those documents ‘’got lost'’ in the office in charge of collecting them.

The Jorajuría story is similar that of other ranch families of Cuban origin in Venezuela.

When the family was forced to leave Cuba in 1960, their point of arrival in Venezuela was Yaracuy state.

‘’We had relatives and Cuban friends working in the production of sugar cane,'’ said Bienvenido Jorajuría Jr. For a year, the head of the family worked in the sugar factory Matilde in Yaracuy, which was managed by Fermín Rodríguez, a Cuban who had arrived in Chivacoa, a very fertile sugar region of Venezuela.

The family flew from Venezuela to New York and then to Hialeah, where they lived for 17 years.

After Bienvenido married Ahmad, a Venezuelan, the couple left Miami in 1982 to return to ranching in Venezuela.

The next year, the family land was producing sugar cane, corn and tomatoes and raising cattle for milk and meat.

During the next 24 years, Jorajuría developed a network of investors and clients. The ranch was profitable, although ‘’we were always under threat of invaders, especially during elections,'’ Bienvenido said. “But there was a system of law and order in place.'’

When Chavistas arrived, everything changed radically, he said.

‘’Chavistas had a lot of power and wanted to take over land that belonged to others in order to destroy private property,'’ complained Ahmad.

OFFICIAL SUPPORT

Under a presidential decree, peasants groups have been allowed to create cooperatives to gain access to huge amounts of land, with financial and technical support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land.

But the policy has produced a side effect, opponents say: It has reduced the production of sugar cane, corn, cereal and milk, contributing to food shortages that have hit Venezuelan consumers.

‘’Chávez’s land reform has diminished sugar production,'’ said Pedro Pablo Alcántara, director of the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo and a former representative of the National Assembly that presided over the parliamentary commission on agriculture and land.

According to Alcántara, some 6,400 acres of sugar cane have been lost to invasions in the country so far.

About 160 of these acres belonged to Vladimir Rodríguez, the grandson of Fermín Rodríguez. His ranch was located in Veroes, a municipality in Yaracuy.

‘’When Chávez arrived in 1999, we produced 35,000 tons a year of sugar cane,'’ said Rodríguez, who arrived in Miami in June with his family. He said squatters used death threats to ‘’expel'’ him from his own land.

In 2007, after a series of systematic invasions, Vladimir Rodríguez said he couldn’t harvest anything.

‘’And the ranch was totally lost, unproductive,'’ said Rodríguez, who is still awaiting a response from the Venezuelan government on the value of his confiscated property. He also is using his Cuban heritage to apply for permanent residency in Miami under the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act.

Currently, the ranch doesn’t produce anything and the government hasn’t compensated the land owners for the cost of machinery and the use of facilities.

According to the Federation of Agricultural Producers, 800,000 acres have been confiscated and only 13,200 acres continue to produce.

‘’Of the 14 million cattle, we have lowered it to 10 million, because of the security issue and lack of motivation,'’ said Rafael Marcial Garmendia, former president of Fedecámaras and a cattle rancher, whose 2,000-acre ranch in Lara state has been partially confiscated.

Garmendia said that currently “there isn’t a single ranch in the country that has been taken over that is producing as much as before.'’

Source

Blankets purchased by U.S. residents are providing comfort to Iraqis who lack basic necessities and are also helping U.S. military efforts to win "hearts and minds."

A Fort Bliss combat medic hatched the idea during his 14-month tour in Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, which has just returned.

"Myself and a small group of committee members started a project over there that was based on getting blankets," said Sgt. Steve Stephens, with the 27th Brigade Support Battalion. "We wanted to connect people back home to the soldiers and then onward to the people of Iraq."

The blankets are used as part of a humanitarian effort that also helps soldiers make inroads into communities that have good reason to be cynical about people claiming to be their friends.

"It may be a creature comfort here (in the United States), but to those in Iraq, it’s very different," Stephens said. "It gets to be 130 degrees in the summer and a blanket can provide a little shade. It’s a very durable blanket, and it has (many) purposes."

The group of about five soldiers sent a CD with a slide show that solicited large churches in all 50 states, said Spc. Amanda Thorstenson, with the 27th BSB. Through friends contacting friends, they developed a Web site — www.blankets.com/iraq-soldiers-donations.html — where people can buy a blanket for $6.75, postage to Iraq included.

"I took care of the numbers," Thorstenson said. "The numbers en route, the numbers ordered. Where they went once they got there."

Spc. Amy McCafferty, a New Caney, Texas, native also in the 27th BSB, handled contacts, both by phone and e-mail, typed letters and did other necessary work.

So far, people in 40 states have donated about 3,700 blankets, Stephens said.

"Originally, his goal was 2,000 blankets, so to have 3,700 was icing on the cake," McCafferty said. "He had a really good idea, and everybody wanted to be a part of something that was beyond themselves."

The blankets have provided comfort for men, women and children displaced by violence or pushed into poverty.

"The first 1,000 went out to people whose village was destroyed," Stephens said. "We handed them out door-to-door."

That village in the western part of Iraq’s Nineveh Province was attacked in August with car bombs that killed more than 200 members of a minority Kurdish religious group.

"We’re back, but it’s taking on a new life now," Stephens said. "I wanted to make a difference over there. I wanted to do something where I wasn’t just a soldier doing my job."

Stephens said the project has been adopted by his former commander, Maj. Alexander Stephen son, in charge of a military transition team operating in northern Iraq. The blankets meet a basic need of the people there and help put a friendly face on the military presence, which helps develop trust among the local population.

It even gives the Iraqi security forces an example to follow, Stephens said.

But, he added, "without the help of the people back home, all of this wouldn’t be possible."

Source

Please help our soldiers out. Purchase a blanket for a mere $6.75

Thirty months after ordering a custom-built Mustang from Unique Performance in Farmers Branch, Glenn Maselli no longer wonders when his $150,000 dream car will arrive.

Probably never, Mr. Maselli now says.

"At this point, I feel like I’ve taken a complete loss," said Mr. Maselli, 53, who is retired and living off disability in Merced, Calif.

Like dozens of people throughout the United States – including celebrities, professional athletes and wealthy businessmen – Mr. Maselli gave Unique Performance a $50,000 deposit to order one of the company’s hand-built Mustangs.

In less than five years, Unique Performance had acquired a high profile in the U.S. auto world with its 1967 GT 500 "Eleanor" Mustangs and 1966 GT 350SR Mustangs – cars it created from scratch using the bodies and basic platforms from old ‘66 and ‘67 Mustang "donor" cars.

It got orders for at least 225 over a five-year period, at prices ranging from $100,000 to more than $200,000 each, but only about 119 got built, company officials say. Then, last month, Farmers Branch police officers and detectives swept into Unique Performance’s shop west of Interstate 35, seizing 61 cars and alleging title irregularities.

Some of the vehicles were little more than battered Mustang hulks; others were in various stages of completion.

A few were customers’ cars that had been returned for repairs.

Farmers Branch police allege that some cars’ permanent vehicle identification numbers – called VINs – had been altered, and most of the cars are still impounded. No one at Unique Performance has been charged with any criminal offense.

"There’s so much evidence," said Cpl. Chad Taylor, a spokesman for the Farmers Branch Police Department. "We want to be able to go through it and present a whole case at one time."

In a general response to the police accusations, Unique Performance says that it holds titles or bills of sale for every car seized in the raid, and that it had procedures for notifying authorities when the company replaced a body panel on a car that contained a vehicle identification number. And while Unique Performance acknowledges that financial problems slowed the delivery of some customers’ cars, the company purchased "donor" cars so it could build every Mustang for which it had a deposit.

The complicated case got even more confused in news accounts of the bust.

Unique Performance bought 1960s-era Mustangs to create its cars. It never bought or sold vintage Shelby Mustangs, as some reports said.

Doug Hasty, a founder of Unique Performance and its former chief executive, declined to discuss the police case in detail, saying his attorneys had advised him not to talk about it. But he did explain Unique’s general process for building one of its Mustangs.

The VIN number is stamped on sheet metal in two areas in the engine compartment.

If those panels are replaced because of an accident or rust, the VIN is often missing on one side of the car or both. Many of the 40-year-old donor cars had rust or had been repaired over the years.

When Unique replaced a panel, it was supposed to advise the state what it had done, and the state had a process for establishing the VIN.

Former employees who asked not to be identified said that Unique initially followed the procedure. But as orders began to mount, they said, some paperwork didn’t get done.

"If we had to replace those aprons [where the VINs were stamped] – and we’re talking about 40-year-old cars – we had instructions to notify the state and Farmers Branch and told our employees to do so," Mr. Hasty said. "We assume they did. But I can tell you I have a bill of sale or a title for every car" that was seized by the police.

Many of the 106 customers awaiting cars have an entirely different complaint: They contend that Unique Performance took their deposits and never delivered their cars – paying rent, overhead and the wages of about 100 employees rather than finishing the cars.

Unique had taken in an estimated $10 million to $15 million in deposits.

One customer in Dubai put up $487,000 toward four cars he has not received, according to a group of customers suing Unique.

Mr. Hasty denies the customers’ allegations. But he acknowledges that financial problems at Unique slowed the progress on some customers’ cars.

"I have a vehicle for every single deposit a customer has given us," he said.

Many of his customers – some of whom, like Mr. Maselli, have been waiting for more than two years for their cars – doubt Mr. Hasty’s assertions. At least a quarter of those have filed civil lawsuits against Unique Performance or are considering it, said customers involved in the cases.

Unique "just grew too fast," said James R. Bartee, 50, a retired Secret Service agent in Clemson, S.C., who paid more than $100,000 toward his car’s $150,000 price. "Doug just went too fast from a working-class guy to someone with money."

Some Unique Performance customers are also suing Texas automotive legend Carroll Shelby, whose company granted a license to Unique in September 2002 to call its new/old cars "Shelbys." Both of Unique’s cars resemble specialty Mustangs that Mr. Shelby built in the 1960s.

To complicate the situation, Unique filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in November, about a week after the police raid.

Mr. Hasty blamed financial setbacks for his company’s failure to deliver cars on time.

"We have nothing to hide," said Mr. Hasty, who was running a workers’ compensation insurance business in Irving five years ago when he decided to begin building the Eleanor Mustangs.

He got the idea for the car from the 2000 movie Gone in 60 Seconds . The star car in the movie, nicknamed "Eleanor," was a silver ‘67 Mustang GT 500 that had been festooned with aftermarket parts.

Unique stripped the donor Mustangs down to bodies and basic frames. It replaced the front and rear suspensions with modern aftermarket components. New V-8 engines, ranging in size from 302-cubic-inch cruisers to thundering all-aluminum 427 V-8s from Shelby Automobiles Inc., were bolted in. The interiors were replaced, and the cars got new tires and wheels, high-performance disc brakes, modern steering units, custom body pieces and slick paint jobs.

As the company grew, it got national attention for the Eleanor, later adding the ‘66 GT 350 to its lineup and taking on 100 employees to handle sales and production.

For a while, everything seemed fine. Then, about two years ago, Mr. Hasty said, he received 22 engines from Shelby that wouldn’t run. Another 73 cars that had been sent to a Shelby facility in Las Vegas – where prisoners performed some of the sheet metal and body work as part of a job-training program – "were built improperly," he said.

Unique Performance was also trying to develop a Shelby F-150 Ford pickup and was grappling with a lawsuit over using the Eleanor name from the movie.

"All of the revenue we received went into an operating fund," Mr. Hasty said. "And when you’re involved with the engine situation, fixing the cars that went to Shelby, developing the F-150 and the lawsuits, you’re looking at $1.8 million that we had to spend real fast. That put us behind."

Shelby Automobiles has denied Mr. Hasty’s assertions, contending that Mr. Hasty never raised the engines or bodywork as issues until recently. And Unique Performance ultimately hired the Shelby official responsible for the engine and bodywork programs, Shelby officials say.

Two months ago, Shelby Automobiles sent Mr. Hasty and Unique Performance a notice terminating their licensing agreement. Shelby Automobiles met with Unique Performance officials in June after learning that several customers were suing the company because they had not received their cars.

"One of the reasons we didn’t give the go-ahead on the F-150 project was we got suspicious that they were taking money from Customer A to pay for building Customer B’s car," said Neil Cummings, a Los Angeles attorney representing Shelby Automobiles. "That’s when we told him [Mr. Hasty] that he could not proceed until he had cleaned up this situation."

Even now, many disgruntled Unique customers just want their cars. And if Unique Performance can’t deliver them, they want Shelby Automobiles to intercede.

"I’m a working stiff," said Mr. Bartee, the retired Secret Service agent. "I sold a couple of cars I had, worked extra jobs to pay for the car I ordered. But I figured this was backed by Shelby. He’s an icon. I wanted to keep the car five or 10 years and send my daughters to college with the proceeds from selling it."

Likewise, Mr. Maselli sold a vintage 1969 Camaro he owned to raise the money for his 427-powered GT 350 Mustang.

"Shelby’s name was 100 percent of the reason I did it," said Mr. Maselli, who was a mechanic at a poultry company in Livingston, Calif., before injuring his back. "I am definitely not a rich man. This is a big hit for me."

Carroll Shelby issued a statement in mid-December about the company.

"Everyone at Carroll Shelby Licensing has been disappointed by the recent events at Unique Motorcars [the holding company for Unique Performance]," Mr. Shelby said. "Doug Hasty continues to blame everyone else for his problems when he should just look in the mirror.

"We sympathize with those who paid Unique Motorcars and never got their car. I want to assure them that not one dime of their deposit made its way to Carroll Shelby Licensing."

After paying $162,000 in deposits on a $204,000 Mustang – and waiting nine months for delivery – Chicago real estate developer Bill Sipowicz flew to Texas in January 2006 to inspect the progress on his car. But when Mr. Sipowicz arrived at Unique’s 28,000-square-foot shop in Farmers Branch, he said he was told that his car had been shipped to the Shelby facility in Las Vegas.

Ten months later, he filed a lawsuit. Mr. Sipowicz, 49, said he had been able to recover about $100,000 of the $162,000 he is owed.

"Every conversation with them was a lie," he said. "I had always had Lamborghinis and Ferraris before this, and I’m going back to them now."

"It sounds like everyone is going to be out their money," added Bill Muckalt, 33, of Ann Arbor, Mich., a retired professional hockey player who played with the Vancouver Canucks and three other NHL teams.

"If Carroll Shelby had not been involved, I would have had my buddies build me one [of the custom Mustangs] for $90,000," said Mr. Muckalt, who paid a $120,000 deposit on a $164,000 Eleanor. "They said it would be a four- to six-month thing. Then it was eight. Then it was 12. Now, who knows?"

While Mr. Shelby is concerned about the situation, he has no obligation to intervene, said Mr. Cummings, his attorney.

"The licensing agreement was not one where we could go in and run someone’s business," Mr. Cummings said. "And if you look at the first four years, Doug Hasty was OK."

Mr. Hasty, meanwhile, says he has little hope of rebuilding his business.

"We’re in a horrible place," he said, adding that he was in the process of lining up $4.5 million from a local investor when Unique Performance collapsed. "It’s a process I’ve got to live through for the next two or three years."Source

Royal Marines won a dawn firefight with Taliban on a Christmas Day sortie yesterday - then marched back to base in Santa hats.

The men of 40 Commando left their Afghan base at 4.30am - midnight in Britain - to probe rebel lines a few hundred yards from their camp.

It was only a matter of time before the insurgents attacked. As shots rang out, one commando joked: "Merry Christmas!"

Party patrol: Marines return to base in Santa hats

The Marines had spent two and a half hours creeping along river beds and clearing homes long abandoned to the fighting.

Then a burst of fire from an AK47 erupted from a tumbledown compound close to another patrol.

Corporal Wilf Rees said: "I put my sights on the compound and then I saw the muzzle flash."

The Taliban gunman was aiming at a group of Marines who had taken up supporting positions on high ground nearby.

Moments later another Kalashnikov burst rang out and Corporal Rees replied with a fierce volley of shots from his rifle.

His target was a football-sized hole in a mud wall some 1,000 yards from his lookout on the roof of an abandoned farmhouse.

"I don’t know for sure if I got him, but he didn’t fire again after that,’ said the father of two.

Christmas was essentially another working day for the men of Charlie Company at their Forward Operating Base in Kajaki, northern Helmand.

But as they neared the final mile of their patrol, almost five hours after setting out, the men swapped their helmets for Santa hats.

Corporal Richard Thomas, 27, from Aberdeen, said: "It’s like groundhog day out here sometimes - you do the same thing every day and you get the same food.

"It’s easy to lose track of time so it’s important to remind yourself it’s Christmas."

Their camp is the most isolated UK outpost in Helmand.

It is too dangerous for convoys to reach by road so all food, fuel, ammunition and post comes in by helicopter.

Post takes priority over fresh food because there just aren’t enough flights to go round.

Chef James Hampson said: "I can’t remember the last time we got fresh food. Christmas dinner is rations.

"No turkey, it’s chicken stew, spaghetti bolognese and noodles."

While cooks at Camp Bastion, the main UK base, served up more than a ton of turkey yesterday, the only culinary nod to Christmas at Kajaki was a precious slice of Christmas cake.

"We were sent about 50 individual-Christmas cakes," said Corporal Hampson, 36, from Warrington.

"There should be a slice for everyone."

The Marines’ galley was decked out with a Christmas tree and bunting made from red and white tape, usually used to cordon off landmines.

In the absence of alcohol, men drank coffee from mugs made from old mortar tubes. Presents from family were opened and there was even time for a quiz.

The men all do their bit to keep morale high because they know, as far as the fighting goes, that tomorrow and the next day will only bring more of the same.

And maybe, if they’re lucky, some fresh food.

Source