End of Issue #22 |

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Editorial and Rants
We must remember to be tolerant of other people's cultures.
Pakistani Killed Daughters to Save 'Honor'
December 28, 2005 - From: news.yahoo.com
By Khalid Tanveer, Associated Press Writer
MULTAN, Pakistan - Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family's "honor" -- a crime that shocked Pakistan.
The 40-year old laborer, speaking to The Associated Press in police detention as he was being shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret -- that he didn't murder the stepsister's alleged lover too.
Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups said Wednesday such "honor killings" will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators.
The Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most end with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims' families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.
Ahmed's killing spree -- witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son -- happened Friday night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjabprovince.
It is the latest of more than 260 such honor killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.
Bibi recounted how she was woken by a shriek as Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi looked helplessly on from the corner of the room as he then killed the three girls -- Bano, 8, Sumaira, 7, and Humaira, 4 -- pausing between the slayings to brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning her not to intervene or raise alarm.
"I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters," Bibi, sobbing, told AP by phone from the village. "I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, 'If you make a noise, I will kill you.'"
"The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me," she said.
The next morning, Ahmed was arrested.
Speaking to AP in the back of police pickup truck late Tuesday as he was shifted to a prison in the city of Multan, Ahmed showed no contrition. Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn't want them to do the same when they grew up.
He said he bought a butcher's knife and a machete after midday prayers on Friday and hid them in the house where he carried out the killings.
"I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated," he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. "We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor."
Despite Ahmed's contention that Muqadas had committed adultery -- a claim made by her husband -- the rights commission reported that according to local people, Muqadas had fled her husband because he had abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.
Police have said they do not know the identity or whereabouts of Muqadas' alleged lover.
Muqadas was Bibi's daughter by her first marriage to Ahmed's brother, who died 14 years ago. Ahmed married his brother's widow, as is customary under Islamic tradition.
"Women are treated as property and those committing crimes against them do not get punished," said the rights commission's director, Kamla Hyat. "The steps taken by our government have made no real difference."
Activists accuse President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a self-styled moderate Muslim, of reluctance to reform outdated Islamized laws that make it difficult to secure convictions in rape, acid attacks and other cases of violence against women. They say police are often reluctant to prosecute, regarding such crimes as family disputes.
Statistics on honor killings are confused and imprecise, but figures from the rights commission's Web site and its officials show a marked reduction in cases this year: 267 in the first 11 months of 2005, compared with 579 during all of 2004. The Ministry of Women's Development said it had no reliable figures.
Ijaz Elahi, the ministry's joint secretary, said the violence was decreasing and that increasing numbers of victims were reporting incidents to police or the media. Laws, including one passed last year to beef up penalties for honor killings, had been toughened, she said.
Police in Multan said they would complete their investigation into Ahmed's case in the next two weeks and that he faces the death sentence if he is convicted for the killings and terrorizing his neighborhood.
Ahmed, who did not resist arrest, was unrepentant.
"I told the police that I am an honorable father and I slaughtered my dishonored daughter and the three other girls," he said. "I wish that I get a chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and set his home on fire."
Do as I say, not as I do.
Mexico Admits Poor Treatment of Migrants
December 21, 2005 - From: abcnews.go.com
By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY Dec 21, 2005 -- Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that the country uses some of the same methods in dealing with illegal migrants that it has criticized the United States for employing.
The admission comes as Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Latin American countries to unite against a U.S. House of Representatives bill to toughen border enforcement.
The bill, which passed on Friday with a 239-182 vote, would make illegal entry a felony, and enlist military and local police to help stop illegal entrants.
But officials of Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged that Mexico already employs both tactics in its own territory.
"As a matter of fact, (Mexico's) population law does include prison terms for illegally entering the country ... and this is something that has been the subject of constant complaints," said Mauricio Farah, a national inspector for the rights commission.
Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the rights commission, said that Mexico also uses many government agencies, such as the police and the military, to detain undocumented migrants, even though Mexican law technically doesn't allow that.
"One of the saddest national failings on immigration issues," Soberanes told a news conference, "is the contradiction in demanding that the North (the United States) respect migrants' rights, which we are not capable of guaranteeing in the South," along Mexico's border with Guatemala.
But Soberanes slammed another provision of the U.S. immigration bill that would build 700 miles of additional fences or walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it "absurd."
The commission also acknowledged that Mexico mistreats many migrants mostly Central Americans who cross Mexico in a bid to reach the United States and called for improvement on that front.
The human rights commission also presented a report on Wednesday that found overcrowding and bad conditions at about three-quarters of Mexico's 51 immigration detention centers and 68 other holding facilities.
The biggest problem with Socialists is that the only thing they care about, is money. France and Germany also pulled in the most profit from selling just about anything to Saddam Hussein. Hmmm.... I'm sure Manny Golddigger will mention this at HOPE 2006!
EU Arms Flow to China Despite Ban
December 13, 2005 - From: upi.com
By Gareth Harding, UPI Chief European Correspondent
BRUSSELS, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Despite the European Union's arms embargo against China, EU weapons manufacturers bagged $405 million worth of licenses to sell military goods to the communist state and exported a further $86 million of hardware in 2004, official figures obtained by United Press International show.
The EU banned arms sales to China in 1990 in response to the Tiananmen Square massacre a year earlier. But this did not stop arms manufacturers from eight of the bloc's 25 members exporting military equipment to the world's most populous country last year.
"The figures seem to make a bit of a mockery of the European Union's claim that the arms embargo is still in place," said Roy Isbister of the London-based advocacy group Saferworld.
"The spirit of the 1990 statement is that military goods should not be exported to China, but member states are interpreting this in very different ways."
France, which has lobbied aggressively for the arms embargo to be lifted, would be by far the biggest beneficiary of such a move.
According to Council of Ministers figures, $81 million of the $86 million worth of military goods exported from the European Union were sold by French companies. It also ranks first in terms of the value of export licenses issued by governments, with orders totaling $202 million given the green light last year.
Britain, which is lukewarm about lifting the embargo, came in at second place, with over $175 million of licenses granted to its companies.
Governments have been able to bypass the embargo because the 1990 ruling is non-binding and only applies to weapons systems, not components or so-called "dual use goods" that have both military and civilian uses.
"The European Union does not have an arms embargo to speak of at this moment," says Tomas Valasek, Director of the Brussels office of the World Security Institute think-tank. "Each EU member state is left to its own devices about how to interpret the embargo -- which can lead to some strange situations. Some of the biggest proponents of lifting the ban, for example Germany, sell nothing to China; whereas some of the biggest opponents -- the British, for example -- sell more than anyone except the French."
France and Germany last year pushed for the arms embargo against Beijing to be lifted, stating that China had moved on from Tiananmen Square days. Most European states appeared to back the move, but after fierce resistance from the United States, the issue was quietly shelved.
"It is quite clear that the main reason the embargo is still in place is because of the United States," says Isbister.
The annual report from the Council of Ministers, which represents EU governments in Brussels, also reveals that European arms makers were granted licenses to sell $4.3 million of military goods to Uzbekistan in 2004.
Last month the Union placed an arms embargo on the Central Asian republic in protest of the massacre of demonstrators in Andijan.
EU governments also granted arms manufacturers licenses to sell almost $143 million worth of military goods to Venezuela and $48 million to Iran -- two countries Washington is less than keen to see armed to the teeth with the latest military hardware.
Eurosavages need to shut the fuck up and fix their own problems. I wonder how much carbon dioxide Auschwitz or burning cars put out?
EU States That Berated Bush on Kyoto Fail to Hit Emissions Targets
December 27, 2005 - From: news.scotsman.com
By Alison Hardie, Senior News Writer
MANY of the European nations responsible for coercing the United States to remain committed to combating climate change are named and shamed today as major polluters of the environment.
A remarkable report has discovered Britain stands almost alone among 15 EU nations in making strides towards honouring Kyoto commitments to cut greenhouse gases.
The London-based think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), has found that ten of the 15 European Union signatories to the Kyoto Protocol will miss their targets by 2010 without urgent action.
The worst offenders are Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy, each up to 20 per cent off target. Only Britain, Sweden and France are remotely on target.
The poorly performing nations are among the many who have criticised the US and President George Bush - who early in his presidency declared Kyoto "dead" - for refusing to sign up to the agreement because of fears it would limit economic growth.
However, earlier this month - after fierce negotiations at a United Nations conference in Montreal, Canada - the US did agree to a "non-binding dialogue to respond to climate change", aimed at setting new mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the existing pact known as the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The research carried out by the IPPR, the Left-leaning think-tank, finds that Britain has the best record on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It projects that by 2010, with green policies still to be introduced, the UK will have reduced emissions by 20 per cent of the level recorded in 1990. Sweden will be just 1 per cent away from achieving its target of an increase on 1990 levels of just 4 per cent.
However, Spain will miss - by 13 per cent - its target of limiting emission levels to 15 per cent more than were recorded in 1990. Ireland will fail to hit its target of emission levels running at a rate of 13 per cent higher than the 1990 level by 20.4 per cent.
Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said last night he was surprised the IPPR had found the UK's projected performance would be so good, and he questioned its methodology.
However, he added: "We are not surprised to see the EU falling behind its Kyoto targets, and this is because nations are increasing the pursuit of economic growth rather than sustainable development."
Mr McLaren said the report did illustrate how quickly environmental policies could impact in a positive way.
The IPPR report said that although Austria on current performance was 21 per cent off its target, by 2010 after additional green policies had been adopted, it would miss its target by just under 4 per cent.
Austria's target is for emissions by 2010 to be 13 per cent less than was recorded in 1990.
Tony Grayling, IPPR's associate director, said: "We have very little time left to start reducing global greenhouse gas emissions before irreparable damage is done. It is vital that EU countries keep their promises to cut pollution."
At Kyoto in 1997, industrialised nations agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent relative to the 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. The targets varied: a 20 per cent cut was pledged by Germany; 12.5 per cent by the UK; 7 per cent by the US; while some countries, such as Australia, negotiated large increases.
Wait... About 30 seconds ago, didn't we read about Eurosavages illegally arming a Communist dictatorship? LOL! Remember, Adolf Hitler would revoke your citizenship if you didn't agree with him.
Europeans Outraged at Schwarzenegger
December 13, 2005 - From: www.breitbart.com
By Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria - The execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams sparked outrage Tuesday throughout Europe, which has a deep aversion to capital punishment sustained by the painful memory of state-organized murder during the Nazi era. The disappointment was particularly strong in Austria, native country of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, where many had hoped the former bodybuilder and filmstar would spare the 51-year-old Williams.
Leaders of Austria's opposition Green Party even called for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship - a demand rejected by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel as "absurd" despite his government's opposition to the death penalty.
Capital punishment is illegal throughout the European Union, and the issue was amplified in Williams' case due to the remorse supporters believe the Crips gang co-founder showed by writing children's books about the dangers of gangs and violence.
Schwarzenegger rejected that argument and allowed the execution to go ahead Tuesday, saying "without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."
Williams was convicted in connection with four killings during a pair of armed robberies in 1979. But he never wavered from his claim of innocence and refused to confess to crimes he did not commit, even if doing so would save his life.
Six decades after World War II, opposition to the death penalty remains deeply entrenched in Germany and Austria, a stance resulting from remorse for the evils committed by these countries under Adolf Hitler and an attempt to prevent future state-sponsored killing.
Volker Beck, a leading member of the opposition Greens party in Germany, expressed disappointment at the execution. "Schwarzenegger's decision is a cowardly decision," he told the Netzeitung online newspaper.
In Graz, Schwarzenegger's hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the California governor's name from the city's Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group suggested it be renamed for Williams.
"Mr. Williams had converted and, unlike Mr. Schwarzenegger, opposed every form of violence," said Richard Schadauer, chairman of the Association of Christianity and Social Democracy.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI's top official for justice matters denounced the execution.
"We know the death penalty doesn't resolve anything," said Cardinal Renato Martino. "Even a criminal is worthy of respect because he is a human being. The death penalty is a negation of human dignity."
Most of the outcry in Europe came from opposition political parties, city leaders, human rights groups and churches, with national leaders remaining silent.
"Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much heart," French Socialist Party spokesman Julien Dray told RTL radio.
In Italy, Franco Danieli, vice president of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized executions as an act of "dehumanization."
"The execution of Tookie Williams is even more intolerable exactly because he had managed to transform the negative into the positive, violence into nonviolence," Danieli said.
Amnesty International also condemned the execution.
"Tookie Williams' violent past was well known, but he had become a textbook version of rehabilitation and his execution was a travesty of justice," said Kate Allen, the group's director in Britain.
Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment.
"I hope there will be such an occasion soon," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said. "When it happens, we will do it with a special thought for Tookie."
Want to make a trillion dollars? Challenge any Eurosavge to name Stanley "Tookie" William's victims, and if they can't, they need to repay all that Marshall Plan money back, with interest.
Albert Owens
Tsai-Shai Yang
Ye-Chen Lin
Why are you so intolerant of other people's cultures?
Gang Rapist Blames Culture
December 9, 2005 - From: www.heraldsun.news.com.au
By Kim Arlington
A CONVICTED gang rapist has told a Sydney court he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl because he thought she was promiscuous and "had no right to say no." The 27-year-old, identified only as MSK, said voices had commanded him to rape the girl, but also blamed cultural differences for the attack.
MSK, convicted of raping two girls aged 13 and 14, faced sentencing submissions today before NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Hidden.
He is already serving a 22-year jail term for leading his three younger brothers in the gang rape of two more girls, aged 16 and 17.
All four attacks took place at the brothers' Ashfield home, in Sydney's inner-west, in June and July 2002.
The court was told the first rape, that of a 14-year-old girl known as T, took place four days after MSK arrived from Pakistan.
MSK took an oath on the Koran before telling the court his cultural background was partly to blame for his crimes.
T, who had visited his house with two female friends, was not wearing traditional Muslim dress, he said.
"She was not covering her face or wearing any headscarf," MSK said.
"Then she started drinking with us ... at one point she started touching my leg."
MSK agreed T had not consented to sex but said: "I go ahead with it because ... I believe that she was promiscuous."
"I believed at the time I committed this offence that she had no right to say no," he said.
"I believed I'm not doing anything wrong."
T had told the trial that before she was raped by MSK and his younger brother MAK, who also was convicted, she was a virgin and had never kissed a boy.
MSK said he believed that his 13-year-old victim, known as C, also was promiscuous.
Now 18, T shook her head as she listened from the public gallery, supported by C's mother.
MSK had visited Australia nine times, including a 10-month stint when he worked as a security guard, before his arrest.
He told the court he now had a "better idea and understanding of Australian culture" after being exposed to the country's media.
"I understand now that what I did at the time was wrong and (that) what I believed was wrong," he said.
MSK also said he was drunk at the time of the offences, and was not taking the anti-psychotic medication prescribed for him by his father, a doctor.
"I was not taking my medication so I was under the influence of voices," he said.
"I was commanded by voices to go ahead."
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay told Justice Hidden that MSK's explanation for the offences kept changing.
"One minute it's the voices, the next minute it's a cultural issue," he said.
Mr McKay said the question of mental illness was raised only this year when MSK's applications to adjourn his trial were refused, but a jury found him fit to be tried.
MSK apologised to his victims for the first time today, but interrupted his apology to tell T: "Don't shake your head - I'm telling you something."
Outside court, T rejected his apology.
"It wasn't a sincere apology. I don't accept it at all," she said.
MSK will be sentenced next year.
Now, lets see what the Chinese are using those illegal Eurosavage weapons for...






Response from Eurosavages : Silence
Response from Amnesty International : Silence
Response from Digg Posters : Silence
Response from Slashdot Posters : Silence
Response from any Hippies : Silence
Response from Cuba : Silence
Response from Today's "Hackers" : It's all Bill Gates' fault!
Response from Canada :