Where is the outcry?

In the meantime, the death toll has risen to 25. Where is the outcry? The UN resolution? Where are the leaders in the ever-empathising media? The Beeb? Al Guardian? Die Süddeutsche Zeitung? All hacks waiting for their New Year's piss-up? Where are the professional do-gooders everywhere and specifically here in Germany, denouncing the perpetrators' "Nazi" methods and writhing in embarrassment because of their, the do-gooders', legendary "special responsibility" for the perpetrators' deeds?

At Least 23 Unarmed Palestinian Migrants Killed By Israeli Police
Posted on Friday, December 30 2005 16:35:10 PST

Israeli riot police rushed into a crowd of unarmed Palestinian migrants early this morning, killing at least 23 people, including small children, after the group refused to leave a public park it had occupied for three months hoping to pressure United Nations officials to relocate them.

The police tried for hours to persuade thousands of men, women and children to leave the small square, hosing them with water canon, surrounding them with cordons of riot police, imploring the women and children to board buses, and repeatedly warning that they would be removed forcefully.

But the crowd was desperate, having moved with all their possessions, suitcases loaded with clothing and family photographs, jewelry and kitchen wares, into what amounted to a traffic island in a middle class neighborhood. They hoped the authorities would declare them refugees and send them abroad. They had fled war-torn Palestine, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Tel Aviv - across from where they camped out - told them that they were not eligible for refugee status or for relocation because it was safe for them to return home.

When the police charged, women and children tried to huddle together, and to hide under blankets as some men grabbed for anything - tree limbs, metal bars - struggling to fight back, witnesses said. The police hesitated, then rushed in with full force, trampling over people and dragging the Palestinians off to waiting buses, the witnesses said. Some people were trampled.

"They started hitting our heads with the sticks and dragging us," said Adel Abu Islam, a leader of the group, speaking on a cell phone from a police camp where he and others had been taken. "They dragged me when I was trying to help a woman who fainted to stand up. They dragged me and I was stepping over the old people and women and children. I was screaming and trying to step away, but could not."

By nightfall, Jossi Katzenstein, head of the area's emergency department, said there were 23 dead, 7 of them children, 8 elderly, and 7 more women. Human rights organizations said that others died after being taken to police camps and being denied immediate access to health care.

Click HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE and you'll know why.

Got you fooled? Neener neener... you are STUPID dear reader! You ought to have known in the first place that the UN is a far cry from EVER doing that to "Palestinians". Remember? Under UNRWA's operational definition, Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of Palestine refugees has in the meantime grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than four million in 2002 and is, due to biological reasons, still rising. Never mind that considering descendants of refugees to be refugees themselves is nowhere else practised, not even in the case of the more than 500,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries who came to Israel after 1948 and their descendants. Never mind, too, that the UN definition contradicts international law, under which descendants of refugees are NOT considered refugees.

Obviously, there are refugees and ...refugees.

Why is that?

And what will the statistics say now?

Suicide bomber kills 3 in West Bank

TULKARM, West Bank, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier at a West Bank checkpoint, the Israeli army says.

The BBC said the bomber was traveling in a minibus taxi and set off his device when he was ordered out at a temporary checkpoint near the northern town of Tulkarm.

Israel said it had set up the roadblock after intelligence suggested a suicide bombing was being planned. An Islamic Jihad militant was blamed for the explosion.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said the temporary checkpoint "prevented a heavier catastrophe."

Tulkarm is a stronghold of Islamic Jihad, which has never agreed to an informal truce with Israel observed by the main Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Two more Palestinians killed, which means per definitionen killed by Israel, like incompetent bomb tinkerers or those killed by their own kind for whatever reason. There are lies, damn lies and Palestinian statistics and the media gladly lap it up.

More more information see the ICT website.

New identification dummy for German housewives of both sexes

Germany in December: Candlelight vigils for a cartoon character crone

Summary of the Osthoff case: Hezbollah member Mohammed Ali Hamadi has returned to Lebanon after being secretly released in Germany, where he was serving a life sentence.

Hamadi was sentenced in 1989 for possession of explosives, hijacking a U.S. commercial passenger airliner in Athens to Beirut - TWA flight 847 - on 14 June 1985, beating and holding passengers aboard that flight, and torturing and finally murdering Robert Dean Stethem, a US Navy diver, execution-style.

A German hostage in Iraq, 43-year old archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, was freed only days later. German authorities had already tried to use Hamadi as a bargaining chip in the late 1980s to secure the release of German hostages in Lebanon.

Honi soit qui mal y pense?

Debkafile, who are usually well informed, report that Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkel’s new head of the BND, Germany’s equivalent of the CIA, is revealed as the man behind Berlin’s secret decision to trade Osthoff for Hamadi. A US extradition warrant was on file in Berlin, which was supposed to take effect if the Hammadi were ever released. Hamadi was flown to Beirut, Osthoff was released by her Iraqi kidnappers.

Then it turned out that her chauffeur, who was allegedly "captured" with her, has been part of the deal.

Who would have thought so.

Osthoff, who has a 12-year-old daughter who lives in a German boarding school from the (failed) marriage with a Muslim (some sources say Jordanian, some Iraqi) has still not returned to Germany and announced that she will go back to Iraq, not quite surprisingly to the chagrin of the German authorities who have announced that they will stop funding her projects in Iraq. Her first, and so far only, interview she gave the Arab Nazi TV station Al Jazeera, covered with a headscarf when the female interviewer was uncovered. It is notable, that her allegedly fluent Arab failed her and she had to perform the rest of the interview in English. At this point, let me remind you of Osthoff's earlier brazen self-assessment, gladly lapped up my the German media (Märkische Allgemeine newspaper, translation by me):

"I am on first name terms with the insurgents [sic!]" she told those sceptics who warned her to travel to a region haunted by terror and military operations.

And what if might falls in the hands of the dreaded terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarkawi, who was said to stay in the Ninive province, to which Mossul belongs? "I'll talk myself out of it", she laughed self-confidently, alluding to her perfect command of Arabic and power of conviction. She seemed to be obsessed with the idea of contributing to the conservation of the “stunning cultural heritage of Iraq”.

Osthoff has split our nation in two.

The majority, so it seems, is plainly miffed because of a grotesque waste of tax money, which shows a remarkable degree of common sense, something Germans can usually not boast all that much.

The rest is a deplorable, gross display of self-hate and lack of discernment. Get kicked in the groin and love it if it's only by somebody who hates you enough.

Some think she is the best since Lawrence of Arabia, which would speak for itself, even if it weren't for the entire, ridiculously fawning article (in the leftwing Tagesspiegel): "Who is considered a hero or a heroine here? Only if the person matches the lifestyle of the majority and adhers to the traditions of the Christian Occident?" Well, yes, I'd say that would be a pretty good start for the definition of a hero/heroine in my book. I can't muster up much admiration for a convert to a death cult hell-bent on destroying MY Christian, Occidental values. But that is only me, of course.

Others relate to her on a crone-to-crone basis, like Claudia Roth in the commerce daily Handlesblatt, *chairperson* of the Greens, the crone to end all crones, somebody who would have been laughed out of any serious political environment in any country that has not yet become the sad travesty of a democracy and Queen of Corny-isms: "In our democracy it is considered good and right that free and independent decisions exist." And to hell with the consequences, right?

The blog of the oh-so-liberal (in the European, not in the American meaning of the word) ZEIT suggests, I am afraid seriously, that we go on supporting her with our tax-Euros: "If the Federal Government now wants to keep Frau Osthoff from going on, this will imply definitely fear of terrorists. If Berlin really intends to indicate determination [not to give in to terrorism] they ought to support Osthoff's project even more financially now, even better, increase it. And yes, negotiate again should the lady [sic!], because of her willingness to take risks, be kidnapped again."

Sure we need some more excuses to release more murderous terrorist scum?

A rare voice of reason and valuable information comes from the conservative FAZ and reminds us, that Osthoff had ties to the Saddam regime and that she hadn't performed anything notable since 2003 and that her projects before that have been insignificant at best, shady at worst. Her ties to several Arab tribes are revealed as well. Who, asks the FAZ, pays for her daughter's boarding school. Surely not Osthoff herself, who is notoriously strapped for cash.

Only in Germany an irresponsible mother, a person who supported a criminal regime, somebody who values a fascist death cult over her own culture, would find not just sympathy and understanding, but gain cult status. Princess "Di" is dead. German housewives of both sexes need a new identification dummy to lead their lifes by proxy.

And only in Germany a murderer of, among others, an innocent American will be released and an alleged friend and ally snubbed to do what? To free a cartoon character crone who was in all probability never even captured.

Clay Feet and Much Overrated Legs

Today, 104 years ago, Marlene Dietrich was born.

I heartily despise the Americans' "Leelee Mar-lay-nee" (who stole that song from Lale Andersen anyway), that effing dyke! Was there really any NEED baring her legs to American GIs while her brothers (metaphorically speaking) were dying in Russia?

Superfluous to say supporting the American war effort was the right and honourable thing to do, but it wouldn't have been exactly... detrimental to it had she not made an indecent show of herself and saved the poor, sex-starved guys an itchy time? (But hey, what prickteaser could resist SUCH an opportunity...) Then again, she was such a pathetically bad singer that she somehow HAD to do it, I guess, to distract from her poor performance.

She was incredibly overrated as an artist and a beauty, a war profiteer, an opportunist, an exhibitionist and she would have jumped on any bandwagon furthering her career. So many Jews who, different from her, HAD suffered came back to Germany after the war. What did her pompous "...never on German soil again!" do for her but letting her lap up some brownie points from Americans and politically correct Germans? Germany had become a seventh-rate-entity when it came to arts and entertainment anyway after the war (and deservedly so)... Gosh, her antigermanism was such a cheap shot.


"Marlene showing her loyalty to the 3rd Division". I've never seen a more absurd euphemism. Loyalty my behind! When I walk the dogs in bad weather I put my loyalties in green gumboots.

However, happy birthday, Marlene, wherever you are. I hope for you it's in a place of eternal wrinklefreeness!

Merry Christmas

Morgan Weistling "Kissing the Face of God"

Shady by any other name

Today's commentary in the Communist Junge Welt is, well, interesting. Note that "Zwielicht", i.e. "twilight" may possess a decidedly derogatory meaning in German akin to "shady", "dodgy" or "unsavoury".

Im Zwielicht
Susanne Osthoff und der BND

Ganz so die Unschuld vom Bayernlande dürfte die am Sonntag nach dreiwöchiger Geiselhaft freigekommene deutsche Archäologin Susanne Osthoff nicht gewesen sein, als sie ihren Entführern in die Hände fiel. Und auch die Bundesrepublik ist wohl wesentlich stärker in die Ereignisse im Irak involviert, als sie sich den Anschein gibt. Das geht zumindest aus einem Artikel in der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung hervor, in dem über Kontakte Osthoffs zum deutschen Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) berichtet wird.

...

Das rückt die Legende von der uneigennützigen Helferin, enthusiastischen Wissenschaftlerin und Freundin des irakischen Volkes nun doch in ein anderes Licht – ins Zwielicht geheimdienstlicher Aktivitäten...

Die Deutschen sind im Irak jedenfalls wesentlich stärker präsent, als es ihre Nichtbeteiligung am Besatzungsregime vermuten ließe. In Gestalt von Geschäftsleuten, Entwicklungshelfern, NGOs und den Koordinatoren aus dem Schattenreich. Beim Aufbau einer »irakischen Zivilgesellschaft« scheut das deutsche Kontingent keine Mühe. Damit hat sich Berlin längst die Ziele der amerikanischen Besatzungspolitik, die Schaffung politischer Voraussetzungen für die ökonomische Durchdringung des Zweistromlandes, zu eigen gemacht. Welche Rolle die deutsche Archäologin wirklich gespielt hat, läßt sich nur vermuten. Jedenfalls verblüffte ihre Hyperaktivität und ihr demonstratives »Weder Tod noch Teufel fürchtend«. Daß sie im Irak geblieben war, obwohl sie die deutsche Botschaft schon längst außer Landes hatte bringen wollen, läßt auf die Einflußnahme von Kräften höheren, oder besser: geheimen Ortes schließen. Es mag schon sein, daß Frau Osthoff von den edelsten Absichten bewegt wird. Doch diese lassen sich nur gegen die Besatzung durchsetzen. Oder sie verkehren sich in ihr Gegenteil.

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In the Twilight Zone
Susanne Osthoff and the BND [German Foreign Secret Service]

Susanne Osthoff, the German archaeologist who was released on Sunday after three weeks as a hostage wasn't quite the innocent Bavarian country bumpkin when she fell prey to her captors. And the federal Republic, too, seems to me much more involved in what is happening in Iraq as it tries to appear. At least, this can be read in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung that reports Osthoff’s contacts with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

…

This places the legend of the altruistic helper, enthusiastic scientist and friend of the Iraqi people in a decisively different light – into the twilight of secret service activities…

However, German presence in Iraq is much stronger than their non-participation in the occupation regime would suggest. There are business people, development workers, NGOs and those coordinators from the twilight zone. When it comes to the organisation of an Iraqi “civil society” the German contingent spares no efforts… What has been the real part the archaeologist played is pure guesswork, but, by all means, her hyperactivity and her overenthusiastic “daredevil” attitude were startling. That she stayed in the country in spite of the German embassy, who long wanted to evacuate her, suggests the influence of powers from high, or rather secret, places. Maybe Frau Osthoff was driven by the noblest of intentions, but those can only be accomplished against the occupation. Or they are turned into the opposite.

I'm not sure what the Friends of the Damned of the Earth are hinting, save that American imperialism is, again, behind it all, and we know that anyway, don't we. But seriously, what I can hardly imagine is Germany playing the American game now after their good and long-standing business relationships in the arms trade with Iraq, where Germany enjoys a reputation for high-quality and sophisticated products and on-the-spot delivery, including, but not limited to, the time during the U.N. imposed embargo on Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait 1990. What role that obnoxious Osthoff woman was really playing, over-zealous BND agent turned hostage or accomplice of her own kidnappers (and co-religionists) will very likely remain in the realms of speculation.

Never miss an opportunity to piss off the US of A...

I found this in a backnumber of the Märkische Allgemeine newspaper:

Die im Irak entführte Susanne Osthoff wähnte sich sicher und reiste trotz Warnungen in den gefährlichen Norden des Landes, ihren Häschern entgegen

"Ich bin mit den Aufständischen [sic!] auf Du und Du", sagte sie Zweiflern, die vor Reisen in die von Terror und Militäroperationen heimgesuchte Region warnten.

Und wenn sie doch in die Fänge des Abu Mussab al-Zarkawi, des gefürchteten Terroristen, geriete, von dem gesagt wird, dass er sich in der Provinz Ninive aufhalte, in der auch Mossul liegt? "Dann rede ich mich heraus", lachte sie selbstbewusst, auf ihre perfekten Arabischkenntnisse und ihre Überzeugungskraft anspielend. Sie wirkte besessen von der Idee, einen Beitrag zum Erhalt der "überwältigenden Kulturgüter Iraks" zu leisten.

-------------------------------------

Susanne Osthoff, who was kidnapped in Iraq, thought she was safe and travelled, in spite of warnings, to the dangerous North, towards her captors

"I am on first name terms with the insurgents [sic!]" she told those sceptics who warned her to travel to a region haunted by terror and military operations.

And what if might falls in the hands of the dreaded terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarkawi, who was said to stay in the Ninive province, to which Mossul belongs? "I'll talk myself out of it", she laughed self-confidently, alluding to her perfect command of Arabic and power of conviction. She seemed to be obsessed with the idea of contributing to the conservation of the “stunning cultural heritage of Iraq”.

What do we have here? A naïve idolizer of a foreign culture with a vastly over-inflated ego and the typical self-hate that goes with it at best, a cunning schemer who was part of the deal right from the start at worst. A Muslim convert (never forget the amount of self-hate and -denigration a Western woman must experience to do such a step) who found it, no doubt, more sexy to poke around ancient sites in the Middle East as the one and only woman among all those not-so-noble savages than around Roman or Teutonic fortresses in Germany as one of those only-too-many crones who are into ancient history.

(Besides, something like that would have kept her near her oh-so-cherished “young daughter”, wouldn’t it? But of course, that doesn’t count and most children like that are just nothing but cute little additions to “academics’” curriculum vitaes anyway because Mummy is SO much happier romping around among even-more-oh-so-cherished debris in some remote desert spot …)

Hey, what about her chauffeur who is suspected to have played a part in the kidnappers scenario, or so they said yesterday night on the wireless? If he, why not she as well?

Debkafile, who are usually well informed, report that Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkel’s new head of the BND, Germany’s equivalent of the CIA, is revealed as the man behind Berlin’s secret decision to trade Osthoff for the imprisoned Hizbollah terrorist Mohammad Ali Hammadi. A US extradition warrant was on file in Berlin, which was supposed to take effect if the Hammadi were ever released. Hammadi was flown to Beirut, Osthoff was released by her Iraqi kidnappers.

Honi soit qui mal y pense?

Summary? The German taxpayer is paying for the irresponsible romps of a megalomaniac woman at best, for a scheme to fill the coffers of the Iraqi terrorists … ooops… INSURGENTS… at worst, whilst taking the opportunity to tell the United States once more to eff off.

And I bet we will never find out what really happened, because the truth would make German officials and media the laughing stock of the world.

Pity, really...