Netherlands to abolish blasphemy law
AFP Photo / Stan Honda
Russia Today
November 30, 2012
Dutch parliament approves a motion to scrap law that made insulting God a crime. The move is welcomed by freedom of speech supporters and confirms anti-Islamists’ right to criticize religion.
The blasphemy law is no longer relevant in the 21st century, a majority of Dutch parties stated. This law has not been in use for more than half a century, Dutch MPs added.
Liberal parties’ predominance in the current Dutch parliament has made the repeal of the 1930s law possible, with the same motion blocked by Christian political party’s allies back in 2008.
The issue was brought to the attention of the parliament following the 2011 Geert Wilders case.
Wilders, a far-right anti-Islam MP, was acquitted after facing trial on charges of inciting hatred and discriminations against Muslims. The judge ruled Wilders’ comparisons of Islam to fascism “acceptable,” allowing further criticism despite it insulting Muslims.
The blasphemy law abolition was welcomed by freedom rights activists across the globe as a victory.However the decision was dubbed as a “painful loss of a moral anchor and a symptom of a spiritual crisis” by Dutch Christian SGP party, media reported.
It is still illegal to insult police officers or the country’s monarch under the Dutch law.
Many European countries still have blasphemy laws restricting freedom of expression, rights activists say. Others have replaced such laws with more general legislation criminalizing religious hatred.
The UK has annulled its blasphemy law, replacing it with the Racial and Religious Hatred Act in 2007. The new law implies a prison term of up to seven years and an unlimited fine for the intention of stirring up religious hatred.
Ireland stood out by introducing a new blasphemy law in 2010, instead of abolishing it. The recent Irish Defamation Act makes “publication or utterance of blasphemous matter” punishable by a fine of up to €25,000.
Although such laws have not been invoked for decades in most of Europe, there remain some countries where charges on grounds of religious hatred have often been exercised.
In Poland causing offense to religious feelings is considered a crime, even though there is no separate blasphemy law as such. Several cases of people charged with violating the Polish criminal code for religious offence have attracted media attention over the last decade.
In 2008 a Finnish court sentenced the far right activist Seppo Lehto, to two years and fourth months in jail for defamation, inciting ethnic hatred and religious blasphemy against Islam.
US Considers Directly Arming Syrian Rebels
by Jason Ditz
Global Research
November 29, 2012
Antiwar.com 28 November 2012
In July, Syrian rebel lobbyists reported that the Obama Administration had told them they would not be able to intervene in a serious way until after the November election. The vote’s over and now the meddling can begin in earnest.
That’s the message from US officials tonight, who say the president is now considering several options for deeper intervention into the ever worsening civil war, including the possibility of directly arming certain rebel factions.
Up until now the US has just been playing the role of facilitator, with the CIA smuggling other nations’ arms into Syria for them throughvarious intermediaries. Officials say no decision has been made yet on whether or not to move directly into arms supplying.
If the decision is made, it will make the question of which factions to arm all the more difficult, as the US at present maintains at least a level of deniability in its current smuggling. With various groups vying to be the Western-friendly “umbrella,” and myriad secular and Islamist factions on the ground, it will be an uphill battle for the US to convince the world it isn’t arming terrorists.
Related content:
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NY Times Scrubs Mention Of CIA Arming Syrian Rebels
In an article about France urging Syrian rebels to form a provisional government, the New York Times scrubbed a passage which revealed that the CIA was helping funnel arms to rebel groups that have aligned themselves with Al-Qaeda terrorists.
Version three of the story, posted at 19:45:05 UTC yesterday and entitled France Says It Would Recognize Provisional Syrian Government, included the line, ” American intelligence agents have helped funnel arms to rebel groups.”
However, fifteen minutes later the revelation that the CIA was arming the rebels was removed and replaced with the words, “American intelligence agents have helped to identify the rebel groups that receive arms.”
Copies of the two different versions of the article can be viewed here.… -
Sudan: Israel arming Darfur rebels
Israel has supplied a rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict in Sudan with a considerable amount of weaponry, a new report says.
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has received considerably heavy military logistical support from Israel, Sudan’s state media reported on Sunday.… -
CIA Arming Syrian Insurgents
On June 21, The New York Times headlined “CIA Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition,” saying:
Operating covertly from southern Turkey, CIA operatives are “decid(ing) which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers.”
Weapons supplied include “automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, (and) antitank weapons….”
They’re smuggled across Turkey’s border through “a shadowy network of intermediaries….”
They’re also entering through Lebanon.…
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France arming Libyan rebels in violation of UN resolution
France has become the first country openly to admit it has supplied the Libyan rebels with weapons – a measure banned by the UN Security Council. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has labeled the move as a major violation of the UN resolution.…
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British Special Forces Training Syrian Rebels
Several articles in the British media confirm that British Special Forces are training Syrian rebels.
The underlying pattern is similar to that of Libya where British SAS were on the ground prior to the launching of NATO’s military intervention.
These reports confirm unequivocally foreign interference in the affairs of a sovereign state.…
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Do vaccines cause autism? Rep. Carolyn Maloney grills CDC in Congressional inquiry [video]
YouTube — TheHealthRanger
November 2, 2012
Do vaccines cause autism? Rep. Carolyn Maloney grills the CDC over the practice of injecting babies and infants with multiple vaccines all at once.
FACT: The CDC openly admits that vaccines contain mercury, aluminum, MSG and formaldehyde. All of these are neurotoxic chemicals or metals. Read more at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/037653_vaccine_additives_thimerosal_formaldehyde.html
Baltimore Activist and Blogger Arrested, Streams SWAT Team Standoff Online [audio]
By JG Vibes
theintelhub.com
December 2, 2012
Frank James MacArthur has been a positive voice in the Baltimore community for years and now with the internet he has been able to take his activism to a global level.
His outspokenness has always made him a target for police, a problem common among many activists.
Tonight he has been taken into custody by police after a 5 hour standoff at his home where he broadcasted the kidnapping live to listeners worldwide.
It is said that the average American commits three felonies a day just in their day to day financial transactions. With that being the case, if you ruffle enough feathers and the “powers that shouldn’t be” decide to come after you, they aren’t going to have to look too hard to find something to harass you about, regardless of what you do in your free time.
This is the situation that James MacArthur seems to have found himself in, with a SWAT team being sent to take him away because he failed to appear for a court date, a court date that he says he was never notified of.
I personally have experienced the problems in the Maryland court system with mail not getting to where its supposed to go, so the version of events that he is presenting is highly likely.
According to The Baltimore Sun:
“A Baltimore blogger wanted on a court-issued warrant refused to come out of his home for hours, broadcasting his discussion with a police negotiator live on the Internet before turning himself in peacefully.
Frank James MacArthur, 47, was taken into custody outside his home in the 600 block of McKewin Ave. at about 11 p.m. — timed, he said, for local news stations — after a standoff lasting more than five hours and which involved the department’s SWAT team.”
In all reality MacArthur is guilty of no real crime, but he has apparently disobeyed some of the state’s laws and commands. According to media reports the only reason he is wrapped up in the system is because of trumped up gun charges dating years back.
I say trumped up, because any gun charge where someone has not been shot at, is a trumped up charge. MacArthur’s so called offenses were not violent and he is not a violent person.
It is obvious that he has been targeted because of his activism and his outspoken attitude towards authority. He has been relentless on issues of police brutality and legal oppression, and has probobly been an annoyance to the department for years.
In addition to his local activism MacArthur also runs baltimorespectator.com and a radio network through that website.
At about 11 p.m. MacArthur agreed to exit his house and surrender to police, playing a recording of Rep. Ron Paul’s farewell address to Congress.
“Folks, this is it. This is James MacArthur. I”m going out peacefully. I’m going to put a (music) clip in place and after that it will just be dead air.” MacArthur said before ending his broadcast. “I thank everybody for listening. I ask some of you don’t abandon me after this. I have absolutely been railroaded. I’m going to need some help after this … those with legal expertise. We don’t need this kind of stuff to go on … This is a bunch of nonsense.”
The Intel Hub will be following this story closely and we will be investigating the case further. We will keep everyone updated as more information becomes available about how we can help and how James is doing.
The live broadcast of MacArthur’s standoff with police and discussion with negotiators can be found below:
*****
Read more articles by this author HERE.
J.G. Vibes is the author of an 87 chapter counter culture textbook called Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, a staff writer and reporter for The Intel Hub and host of a show called Voluntary Hippie Radio.
You can keep up with his work, which includes free podcasts, free e-books & free audiobooks at his website www.aotmr.com
“Western Leaders Are Encouraging Terrorist Blood Bath in Syria” says Henningsen [video]
21stCenturyWireTV
December 2, 2012
21st Century Wire’s analyst Patrick Henningsen talks with RT News about the West and their Gulf State proxies’ backing of terrorist groups in Syria in order to accelerate regime change in Syria and to further destabilize the Middle East region. Washington and Britain are actively supporting al Qaeda and other FSA-related foreign fighters in Syria, a policy which is an international war crime and is costing thousands of innocent lives, and billions of dollars to western taxpayers and to the people in Syria.
http://www.21stcenturywire.com
Middle East Update with Nile Bowie [audio/video]
Corbett Report
November 30, 2012
Nile Bowie of NileBowie.blogspot.com joins us tonight to go over some news headlines from across the Middle East, including the UN General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood, western double standards in the “Arab Spring” and the American-ization of Saudi Arabia. We also talk about the recent 9/11 conference in Kuala Lumpur and Nile’s upcoming trip to China and North Korea.
SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=6273
Corbett Report Radio #262
[hat tip: Land Destroyer]
UN Receives Complaint Over Canada’s Failure To Arrest Bush [video]
Conscious Life News
November 18, 2012
(Press TV)
Individuals who have accused the US government of torturing them filed a complaint against the Canadian government at the UN this week.
They say that Canada should have arrested credibly accused war criminal George W. Bush when the former US Commander-in-chief visited Canada last October.
In the year 2000 Canada enshrined the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act which is ostensibly aimed at preventing Canada from becoming a safe haven for war criminals. However the law has never been enforced on credibly accused war criminals such as Benjamin Netanyahu and George W. Bush who are afforded police protection when they visit Canada.
Prior to Bush’s controversial October 2011 speaking engagement Amnesty International issued the following advisory.
Amnesty International today urged Canadian authorities to arrest and either prosecute or extradite former US President George W. Bush for his role in torture. . . Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture.
Critics contend that the Harper government affords impunity to the protagonists of the “war on terror” because Canadian politicians themselves stand accused to complicity in torture and other war crimes. In late 2008 the Harper government amazed many when they shut down Canada’s parliament, analysts believe, to avert discussion of the mounting evidence of Canadian complicity in torture.
Also see: Survivors File U.N. Complaint Against Canada for Failing to Prosecute George W. Bush for Torture
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