Israel seized an Iranian ship carrying advanced weapons destined for Gaza on Tuesday night and towed it to the Eilat port, the IDF said Wednesday. Elite troops from the Israel Navy's Shayetet 13 unit boarded the ship in open waters on the maritime border of Sudan and Eritrea, some 1,500 km south of Israel.

The Klos C Iranian vessel was sailing under a Panamanian flag, making its way to Sudan from Iran carrying a cargo of advanced rockets capable of reaching distances of up to 200 km.

The Iranian cargo ship carrying arms for Gaza left port ten days ago and was on track to dock in Sudan on Thursday. The 17 crew members on board – representing a variety of nationalities – are being investigated for their involvement in the attempted smuggling operation. Their questioning is expected to continue in Israel.

The ship was supposed to reach port in Sudan on Thursday, some 10 days after it left Iran. An initial inventory by Israel revealed a large supply of rockets, including the Iranian-made 302m, which hit Haifa during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Israel has long claimed that Iran is transferring arms to terror groups around the world, namely Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, through Sudan and Yemen.

Last April, the Egyptian navy seized a vessel carrying a large arms shipment near the Sinai Peninsula's southern coast. The Anatolia Turkish News Agency reported the ship is an Iranian fishing vessel named "Sawit 1," and reported that 62,283 firearms were found in its cargo, including sniper-rifles, AK-47s, RPGs and large quantities of ammunition. read the rest...

Permanent Link posted by J @ 4:29 pm 1 comments

The Sunday Times revealed last week that Park View Academy in Birmingham is being investigated by the Department for Education for allegedly sidelining non-Muslim staff and trying to teach Islamic studies, despite not being a faith-based state school.

The documents suggest that the strategy, called Operation Trojan Horse, should be used in Bradford and Manchester as well as Birmingham. “We have an obligation to our children to fulfil our roles and ensure these schools are run on Islamic principles,” they argue.

The papers say the first step is to identify poor-performing state schools in Muslim areas; then Salafist parents in each school are encouraged to complain that teachers are “corrupting children with sex education, teaching about homosexuals, making their children say Christian prayers and mixed swimming and sports”.

The next steps are to “parachute in” Muslim governors “to drip-feed our ideal for a Muslim school” and stir up staff to urge the council to investigate. The strategy stresses the importance of having an “English face among the staff group to make it more believable”.

Finally, anonymous letters are to be circulated to MPs, press and ministers. “All these things will work towards wearing the head down, removing their resolve and weakening their mindset so they eventually give up.”

Birmingham schools named as targets in the document include Regents Park, where the head teacher, Tina Ireland, was given an “outstanding” Ofsted report but resigned last year amid questions over the school’s exam results. Others are Adderley Primary School and Saltley School, a specialist science college where the head, Balwant Bains, resigned last year. Bains quit after an Ofsted report concluded that he had a “dysfunctional” relationship with the governors.

Ahson Mohammed, the interim head teacher at Saltley, was appointed in November after Bains’s resignation. Read the rest...

Permanent Link posted by J @ 5:56 pm 1 comments

Just four hours earlier, a gang of youths hurled a brick at a Tesco delivery van half-a-mile away, then attacked the driver as he drove through Canon Street Road. The 45-year-old driver was later treated for a head injury and needed seven stitches.

Cops said the youths were Asian, who were wearing dark tops and may have been seen outside a fast food restaurant earlier.

The new Tesco Metro supermarket in Stepney’s Commercial Road was targeted at the weekend when several windows were smashed and the words ‘kill Jews’ was daubed in paint.

The same slogan was daubed on the wall of a children’s playground on Whitechapel’s Chicksand housing estate last week.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 7:42 pm 8 comments

See below for the usual BBC / Channel 4 / Sky News guidelines for Israel....

1. always accept the Palestinian version without question

2. interview at least 8 Palestinian supporters to every Israeli supporter

3. assume the UN is impartial, and a shining beacon of justice in a dark world

4. assume any video / photos provided by Palestinians are always reliable - never question their veracity. It’s probably not worth bothering viewers with the fact that much of the media is doctored or staged – this will only confuse them

5. gloss over the last 60 years of history (never mention how 6 Arab armies tried to destroy Israel in '48, '67, and '73)

6. don't report how Hamas (etc) bully, torture and murder their own people, or misappropriate aid/finance (or if you do, play it down)

7. NEVER mention that Iran / Hamas / Fatah have vowed to destroy Israel and kill every Jew in the world (if you do mention it, assume they don't really mean it)

8. Report only the words that Fatah say in English, never what they say in Arabic

9. if you interview an Israeli (or misguided supporter such as Colonel Kemp, Mark Regev), make sure you interrupt them frequently. If you're coming off second best, tell them you're running out of time

10. if interviewing a Palestinian (or Annie Lennox, Alexei Sayle), make sure you ask them lots of really open questions, allowing lots of time to air their views without interruption - nod frequently to show your support. Don’t interrupt them, as this is disrespectful

11. above all, the tone of your voice should exhibit disapproval towards Israel, and sympathy towards Palestinians

12. ensure you use the word "occupation" as much as you can (don't get involved in meaningless discussions concerning how Israel either paid huge sums for swamps / wilderness in '48, or won it when arabs declared war on them)

13. never report anti-semitic attacks/incidents from the UK or elsewhere (we are unsure as to why these are increasing, but certain it has nothing to do with how we are portraying the situation)

14. don't report Pro-Israel activity such as marches – nobody cares, and these people are misguided anyway. If the politicians from all parties turn a blind eye, why shouldn’t we ?

15. if you get the facts wrong (Israel murders 1000’s in Bethlehem), never issue an apology or retraction

16. It is probably more news-worthy if you paint Israel as the aggressor – so don’t mention that Hamas launched over 6,000 rockets into Israel after Israel had vacated the Gaza strip

17. On proportionality, probably not worth mentioning comparisons with civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, or WW2 Germany (this will only confuse people). The fact that Hamas deliberately booby-trapped civilian homes and made people go into them, we are sure, has nothing to do with civilian casualties....

18. probably not worth mentioning the Bible – Jesus, a Jew, born in Bethlehem, visiting the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (this is only 2000 years of history anyway....)


Note to Producers – make sure that when interviews are taking place that you loop some video showing ultra-left wing Norwegian doctors running after ambulances performing chest compression on live patients, and female Hamas supporters screaming uncontrollably about how their terrorist husbands were mercilessly martyred by the IDF. Remember, it really doesn’t matter what the interview says because people will remember the images

Permanent Link posted by J @ 2:16 pm 4 comments

A TOP private school is at the centre of a race row between its Jewish and Muslim pupils.

In the wake of fighting in Gaza which has left nearly 1000 Palestinians dead, Muslim children at Glasgow's Hutchesons' Grammar School were asked if they hated Jews.

The school admitted many put up their hands - only to be told they should hate the Israeli army instead.

Muslim and Jewish pupils attend separate morning assemblies at the school, where fees are around £9000 a year.

News of last Thursday's controversial meeting was released by two Jewish pupils who went along by mistake.

The assembly was led by Asgher Mohammed, a parent who is believed to be a chemist.

News of the hate vote spread quickly through the 368-year-old school.

The parents of one of the Jewish children involved wrote to school rector Dr Kenneth Greig.

Dr Greig had letters sent out to other parents to explain the circumstances.

A school spokesman said yesterday: "The person in question has a long-standing history of taking the morning assembly.

"This is the first time anything like this has happened.

Perhaps it was not advisable to ask the question that he did.

"However, no one believes anything was intended to cause offence.

"His lesson was to preach religious tolerance and to show, despite what is going on in the Middle East, that Muslims and Jews in the UK can live in peace."

Claire Singerman, who co-ordinates Jewish assemblies at the school, stressed the "excellent" relationship between pupils of different faiths.

Chemist Asgher Mohammed said last night: "I have seen the statement from the school and amvery happy with that. I am not going to say anything else."

Muslim pupils make up around seven per cent of the school roll. Around six per cent are Jewish.

The school's famous ex-pupils include former lord chancellor Derry Irvine and John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Three months ago, it was ordered to improve access for poorer students or risk losing its status as a charity.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 6:34 pm 6 comments

Perverted,

I am muslim, really we do not offend other religions even those unbelievers, but i warn you and tell you frankly, we'ere back, just you destiny. you will know who is the perverted one homosexual.
the war is coming , just wait ,and you will see that under calm water there is sharcks.

Jihad supporter

Permanent Link posted by J @ 4:28 pm 7 comments

Palestinian gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, shoot a man in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin, in this Aug.

Permanent Link posted by J @ 11:14 am 23 comments

YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Suspected separatists shot dead two Buddhist teachers on Friday and burned their bodies in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south, police said, the latest attack in a three-year insurgency that has killed more than 1,800.

The teachers were ambushed in their pickup truck only 300 meters (yards) from the village school where they taught in the southern province of Yala, police said. Security forces are bracing for a new round of attacks on government buildings, officials and civilians to mark the third anniversary of the renewed insurgency on January 4, police said.

"We knew they were going to do it, but we didn't know the target," Police Colonel Pumipetch Pipatpetchpoom said of the attackers. "Our security checkpoints have blocked them from entering the city, so they had to do it in a village," he added.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the violence which has seen almost daily gun and bomb attacks in the three predominantly Muslim southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

Thailand's military-appointed government has embarked on a peace drive in the Malay-speaking region, an independent sultanate until the Buddhist-dominated Bangkok government annexed it a century ago. But the attacks have continued.

The Education Ministry said this week 110 schools had been hit by arson attacks and 71 teachers and school staff killed in attacks since January 2004.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 10:57 am 7 comments

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Tuesday it was halfway to victory against Somali Islamists and could seize their Mogadishu stronghold within days following a week of war in the Horn of Africa.

Islamists countered that they were ready for a long war and any attempt to oust them would prove disastrous for their foes. The Red Cross said hundreds were wounded in the latest fighting.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces supporting Somalia's weak interim government had killed up to 1,000 Islamist fighters. There was no independent verification of that. The Islamists also claim to have killed hundreds.
"We have already completed half our mission, and as soon as we finish the second half, our troops will leave Somalia," Meles told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital.

He said a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 Ethiopians had "broken the back" of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) around the government's south-central outpost Baidoa, and that the Islamists were now in "full retreat".

Ethiopia backs Somalia's secular interim government against the Islamists who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June. Addis Ababa and Washington say the Islamists are backed by al Qaeda and by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea.

Somalia's envoy to Addis Ababa said Ethiopian soldiers had advanced to within 70 km (40 miles) of Mogadishu and could capture it in 24-48 hours.

SICC spokesman Abdi Kafi said any such attempt "will be their destruction and doomsday ... It is a matter of time before we start striking at them from all directions."

The Islamists claim broad popular support and say their aim is to restore order to Somalia under sharia law after years of anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Siad Barre.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting to be briefed on Tuesday by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall of Guinea.

AU BACKING

Meles said his forces' main target now were Eritrean troops and foreign jihadists. He said a handful of Islamist prisoners taken on the battlefield were holding British passports.

At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist fighters on Tuesday shortly after pro-government forces recaptured two towns near Baidoa. It was the third day of Ethiopian air attacks in the escalating conflict.

"Over 800 war wounded have arrived at the various medical structures around Baidoa and Mogadishu is the last few days," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"Thousands of people are fleeing the combat areas. It is too early to tell if this is a temporary displacement," Notari said.

The African Union (AU) backed Ethiopia's right to intervene. Diplomats say that, allied to Washington's tacit support, may embolden Meles to try to seize Mogadishu.

The fighting could now draw in Eritrea on the side of the Islamists, the diplomats said. They added that Kenya, which is taking in a flood of Somali refugees across its north border, was trying to broker cease-fire talks.

The Islamists insisted their retreat was a tactic in what they vowed would be a long war. "We will fight to the last man until we ensure there are no more Ethiopian troops in our country," Kafi said.

Thousands of Islamist fighters crammed into trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and left Mogadishu for the frontlines.

Analysts say Ethiopia's heavy arms and MiG jets had saved the government from being routed.

"This is the first stage of victory ... When this is all over, we will enter Mogadishu peacefully," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said by telephone from Baidoa. He offered amnesty to Islamists who lay down their arms.

Addis Ababa fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep and accuses the SICC of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region.

(Additional reporting by Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Hassan Yare in Baidoa, Ibrahim Mohammed in Jowhar, Sahra Abdi Ahmed in Kismayu, Andrew Cawthorne and Bryson Hull in Nairobi, Jack Kimball in Asmara, Irwin Arieff in New York and Sam Cage in Zurich)
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 4:28 pm 4 comments