Faustam fortuna adiuvat
The official blog of Fausta's Blog Talk Radio show.
Brave little Nojoud Muhammed Nasser talked to CNN about her divorce.And the husband was not prosecuted for this? Under Islamic Sharia law she had to pay him $200 to compensate him for the loss of his bride.You can watch the interview here.
posted by Fausta @ 6:51 PM
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The Anchoress has an excellent post, WaPo: Bush "substantiated by intelligence", where she quotes from this article, 'Bush Lied'? If Only It Were That Simple
On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates."The bottom line:
On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president's statements "were substantiated by intelligence information."
On chemical weapons, then? "Substantiated by intelligence information."
On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information." Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? "Generally substantiated by available intelligence." Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."
As you read through the report, you begin to think maybe you've mistakenly picked up the minority dissent. But, no, this is the Rockefeller indictment. So, you think, the smoking gun must appear in the section on Bush's claims about Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to terrorism.
But statements regarding Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda "were substantiated by the intelligence assessments," and statements regarding Iraq's contacts with al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." The report is left to complain about "implications" and statements that "left the impression" that those contacts led to substantive Iraqi cooperation.
But the phony "Bush lied" story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.THAT is the real issue.
After law school, Obama went to work for the firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland. During Rezko's stint in ghetto rehab, Davis Miner represented three community groups in partnership with Rezmar. Through them, the law firm helped Rezko obtain $43 million in government funds.Richard points out that
At last week's debate in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton stung Obama for "representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum-landlord business in inner-city Chicago."
If Clinton was trying to stick Rezko on Obama, that was the wrong line of attack. At Davis Miner, Obama did a total of five hours of legal work for Rezko, under the supervision of more-experienced attorneys. Obama didn't really become tight with Rezko until he ran for the state Senate, in 1995. Rezko, who can spot a comer, was first in line with a check. The day the campaign started, Obama received $2,000 from two of Rezko's fast-food businesses. Eight years later, when Obama was campaigning for the U.S. Senate, Rezko hosted a fundraiser at his suburban mansion.
Apart from being a slum landlord, Rezko has also been accused of trying to take control of a $40B Illinois teacher's pension fund so that he could loot it.Don't tell me: they weren't that way when Obama first met them...
The world of Chicago politics and international intrigue seems to loop around. Not only was Tony Rezko tight with former Saddam moneyman Nahdmi Auchi, guess who put up bail money for the pizza magnate? Aiham Alsammarae.
The Chicago Sun Times reports:
A former Iraqi official and ex-international fugitive helped spring Tony Rezko from jail earlier this month, putting up homes that comprise nearly one-third of the $8.5 million in property and cash securing Rezko's bail, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae — a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 — are part of a long list made public in Rezko's case Friday following a Sun-Times request.
Labels: Barack Obama, Democrats, George W. Bush, Iraq, politics, UK, WMDs, Yemen
posted by Fausta @ 1:03 PM
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Congratulations to Jane Novak on her apperance this morning on Fox and Friends!Labels: Yemen
posted by Fausta @ 7:59 AM
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Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation and Gary Swenchonis of Terrorism: Politicians and Victims join us to talk about Yemen.
Labels: Blog Talk Radio, podcasts, Yemen
posted by Fausta @ 9:22 AM
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In today's NYT, A Living-Room Crusade via Blogging And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph - blond and smiling - is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government's allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a member of Al Qaeda, or "the Zionist Novak."I have the honor of having met Jane and regard her as a friend.
The worst of her many offenses is her dogged campaign on behalf of a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who incurred his government's wrath by writing about a bloody rebellion in the far north of the country. He is on trial on sedition charges that could bring the death penalty, with a verdict expected Wednesday.
Welcome New York Times readers! If you want to help entrench civil rights in the Middle East, please sign this petition, click here. It's a letter campaign to the Yemeni government, US and EU for the Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani who may be sentenced to death in tomorrow for insulting his president in an article. We can't have that. No, no, no. So please click here. It will help, really!Read the rest. Sign the petition. Save a life.
Besides the near genocidal war in the north of Yemen that displaced 100,000 civilians, there's broad and growing civil unrest in the south regions, the 10 million Yemeni children are the third hungriest child population on earth, and the city of Taiz only gets public water every 40 days. It's terrible. Yemen released all the terrorists who were convicted in the USS Cole attack that killed 17 US sailors in the port of Aden in 2000. There's an agreement between the Yemeni government and al-Qaeda, and the Yemeni government publicly defends it. The Yemeni military and security services are all in hands of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's direct relatives, and so is all the money from the oil revenue and donor aid. Corruption and nepotism is rampant, so about half the people live on under $2/day. There's almost no heath care, educational facilities, electricity or security in the rural areas where 70% of the people live. However, there is a strong democracy and reform movement that routinely gets crushed by the government, as is happening in the case of al-Khaiwani. For more on Yemen, click the Janes Articles link above. Details and supporting links on al-Khaiwani:
While the USS Cole bombers are all free in Yemen, my friend the Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani will be sentenced May 21 in a bogus trial and likely will get the death penalty or a long prison term. He is charged with insulting the president and demoralizing the military with an article about the Sa'ada war. He is an internationally renowned journalist and one of Yemen's most prominent and outspoken democracy advocates.
This is the guy I made the online petition for in March 2005 and the bloggers all helped and he got amnesty. Since then he and I have become good friends. He loves democracy as much as I do. And he's paid the price for it. Since he was released in 2005, Al-Khaiwani has been beaten, kidnapped, censored and imprisoned. His paper was cloned, his website blocked and his children threatened.
posted by Fausta @ 9:14 AM
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Via Instapundit and Althouse, little Nojoud Muhammed Nasser got her divorce.Men like Cavett like to pretend doing ones' duty is optional. Who knows? Perhaps in their world, it is? Their somewhat bizarre world view allows them to mock what they will never comprehend. But the complex reality they refuse to acknowledge or respect is that, if everyone thought as they do, America would be defenseless against fanatacists who have sworn never to stop until we are wiped off the face of the earth. Men like Cavett can contend until the end of time that extremists are not a threat. The truth of the matter is, the only thing standing between him and violent extremists are the kind of men he likes to belittle. If he doesn't show up for work, a column doesn't get written. If they don't show up for work, someone may die. Thousands may die. Nations, sometimes.Mamacita can't wait to get to San Francisco. Neither can I.
Labels: China, journalism, Pakistan, Taleban, Yemen
posted by Fausta @ 12:57 PM
1 comments
From Armies of Liberation and Jawa, Eight Year Old Seeks Divorce in Yemen
Yemen is ranked number one in the world in gender inequality. One study found that rural women work 17 hours a day on average. Domestic abuse is not considered a crime nor is it socially unacceptable. Women are required by law to submit to their husband's sexual demands-ie, there is no such thing as marital rape in Yemen. Rape is a largely under-reported crime because social mores blame the victim.Bear this in mind when you read about this courageous little girl:
Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.Related:
According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.
...
Nasser's uncle, who does not want to reveal his name, is following the case now as her guardian. According to her uncle, after Muhammed Nasser, the girl's father, lost his job as a garbage truck driver in Hajjah, he became a beggar, and soon after suffered from mental problems.
Thamer is in jail now. "Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said. "But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it, it's ok."
So far, no accusations have been made against her father, who was later released due to health problems, or Nasser's husband, who will remain in jail for further investigation.
"So far there is no case and no charges, as Nojoud arrived by herself to court asking just for a divorce," said Shatha Ali Nasser, a lawyer in the Supreme Court who is following Nojoud Nasser’s story.
...
Nasser confirmed that Nojoud Nasser's case is not the first of its kind in Yemen, but it is the first time that a girl went to court by herself to ask for a divorce.
posted by Fausta @ 10:24 AM
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As I posted Tuesday on So much for the "unsophisticated terrorist" meme, Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word "Muslim" in connection with the terrorism crisis and the phrase "war on terror" is to be dropped, too. AP thinks of terrorists as a diverse group.
On BBC Radio Four’s Today programme this morning (0755 approx), the reformed Islamist extremist Hassan Butt patiently spelled out to presenter Jim Naughtie that Islamist terrorists carry out their acts of mass murder as an expression of religious faith and fervour. They do it, he said, ‘for the pleasure of God’. Far from being acts of despair, these terrible atrocities are acts of religious exultation.And now go read waht Laura Mansfield translated from a video by a pediatrician in hiding - Jay has a round-up on that.
If we don't understand, even now, that what we are facing is a religious war, a jihad against the unbeliever and backsliding Muslims across the world we cannot possibly hope to defend ourselves against it. Yet while former Islamist extremists such as Hassan Butt and Ed Husain are urgently telling us the truth, Gordon Brown’s new administration is shutting its ears and embarking on a suicidally stupid and cowardly strategy. Astoundingly, it has decided to deny the religious element of this jihad altogether, to redefine Islamic terrorism as mere criminality and to ban all terms that call this horror by its proper name.
...
For 'consensual', read bowdlerised, censored and dissimulatory; and for 'united', read defeated. This is a disastrous beginning to Brown's premiership. The terrorism we face is a jihad carried out in the name of Islam, mandated by the principal religious authorities in the world of Islam and drawing on theological concepts in Islam. That doesn’t mean all Muslims go along with it; many do not, and many are indeed its victims. But to deny that it is a war which draws its authority from Islamic precepts is to deny the truth. That is why it is not enough for British Muslims to condemn these acts of terror. They have to acknowledge that what drives these acts is a part of the faith to which they subscribe — a part which they must renounce.
In the light of that, the Commons statement yesterday by the new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith — whose performance had our terminally frivolous and ignorant media drooling in pleasure this morning — was an absolute disgrace. Clearly following instructions to avoid telling the truth in this new strategy of 'consensual' dissimulation, she conspicuously avoided talking about Muslims or Islam. Instead, she spoke — absurdly — about 'communities' and insisted that these terrorist outrages were merely 'criminal' acts.
Labels: Al Gore, al-Qaeda, GordonBrown, Islam, terrorism, UK, Yemen
posted by Fausta @ 7:11 AM
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New Jersey Voices
Fausta was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico and is a long-term resident of Princeton, New Jersey. She discusses New Jersey, taxation, current events, and how news are reported in the French and Spanish-language media at Fausta's Blog.
