Abused Muslim child-brides continue to burn themselves to death to escape Islamic-sanctioned, domestic oppression in Afghanistan. NBC News' Brian Williams in Kabul introduces Adrian Mung's report from the Burn Unit of Herat Hospital.
"They think self-immolation will solve the problem."
It’s a "solution" that appears to be a major problem in Afghanistan, particularly among young women between the ages 13 and 25.
In the first seven months of this year, medical staff at the Herat’s burns unit – the only one of its kind in the entire country – said they have seen 51 cases of female self-immolation. Only 13 have survived.
The practice comes from Iran, where many Afghan refugees had fled to during the decade-long war with the Soviet Union (1979-1989) and the era of mujahedeen fighting that followed in the 1990s, said Jalali. But its popularity has spread among Afghan women, often from poor, uneducated backgrounds, where the tradition of child or forced marriages runs strong.
"The forced marriage is thebest reason and the important reason, and it starts from the economic problem," said Jalali. Often in arranged marriages, women are viewed in very stark terms.
"She is here only to wash, to clean, to give baby … and nothing more," said Marie-Jose Brunel, a French volunteer nurse at the burns unit who was full of Gallic warmth and purposeful seriousness. "If they have no freedom, no possibility to study, to be considered like nothing, it’s very, very difficult."MSNBC
Syrian-American psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan, author of "A God Who Hates," elucidates the Islamic rationale for bigotry against women and other minorities - and implores the modern world to demand reform and repect for minorities rights from Muslim culture. Dr. Sultan presented this video discourse at the Horowitz Freedom Center's Wednesday Breakfast Club in Los Angeles on October 29, 2009.
Washington - A new Jewish lobby that claims to be supportive ofIsrael has been linked to Qatar.
A former Israeli diplomat has asserted that J Street has been connected toQatar through the U.S. public relations firm of Fenton Communications.
Lenny Ben-David, a former diplomat and now consultant, said J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, a senior vice president at Fenton until the lobby's establishment in 2008, could have been involved in a March 2009 project by Qatar to undermine support for Israel in theUnitedStates.
Ben-David said J Street's 160-member advisory board included those listed as foreign agents for Egypt andSaudiArabia. His letter also cited J Street's ties with U.S. billionaire George Soros, said to have long sought to undermine the traditional pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
From Ben-David's open letter to Ben-Ami: "So, it appears that Soros has created an organization that competes with AIPAC, calls for inclusion of Hamas, and opposes sanctions againstIran," Ben-David said. "His people sit on J Street's board, and his other offspring from the New America Foundation and the National Iranian American Council, work in lockstep."Read full article at the World Tribune
NASA scientist Stewart Nozette was set-up in a sting by the U.S..Dept of Justice to sell secrets to Israel without Israel's knowledge. Did this reveal spying by America's ally, Israel?
Or are Christians in federal agencies taking it upon themselves to discredit Jews' (and U.S. ally Israel's) loyalty?
Stewart Nozette, NASA scientist
A former US official has said that both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are extremely paranoid about the Israeli secret service Mossad and Jews, and adds that the charges of espionage against US Defense Department scientist Stewart Nozette reflect this fear and "extreme view".
(Pictured: Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman - acquitted of Justice Department charges)
"One of the things that our case revealed is the very extreme views that are held by some in counter-intelligence agencies of the CIA and FBI about Israel," Rosen said.
"They believe that the Mossad spied on the US on a huge scale and they believe that the Pollard case was the tip of some sort of iceberg," he added.
"When you keep repeating that the Mossad is spying on America, Israel is harming the United States, of course it harms the alliance between Israel and the US," he continued.
"The current case is even more peculiar because the government of Israel did nothing. It's revealing that they used Israel for the sting. They could have used China, or others. But they chose Israel," he says.
Describing an "obsession" with Israel within certain parts of the CIA and FBI, Rosen said if his own case had gone to trial, details reflecting the extreme views of his investigators would have come out.
"There was no wrongdoing," he said, reflecting on the case against him and Weissman.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Nozette case is part of a "troubling" pattern of targeting Israel and Jews as potential spies against the United States.
The US Defense Department has repeatedly singled out Jewish employees for possible disloyalty, Foxman said.
The situation has escalated, with increasing cases of Jews having difficulty obtaining security clearance. If you have relatives in Israel, speak Hebrew, or practice Orthodox Judaism, he said, "changes are, you won't get clearance. That's the mindset out there." (ANI)
Larry Franklin, the Pentagon analyst on Iran (a Roman Catholic) - who plea-bargained to FBI charges of inappropriate disclosure to AIPAC, revealed in an interview with the Washington Post's Bill Gertz: "But that [anti-Semitism] dimension was part of this investigation (of Jews within the government) and may have been an initial incitement of this investigation."
A former U.S. counterintelligence official familiar with the AIPAC case said the case was handled "extremely carefully" from the beginning.
"The case was handled by numerous agents and supervisors over a period of time, so the allegations of anti-Semitism are either wildly out of line, or a large portion of the bureau is anti-Semitic, which would come as a great surprise to a very large number of Jewish agents and analysts," said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case."
Morris Amitay told the JPost's Hilary Leila Krieger that the interest of law enforcement officials in Israeli ties stems largely from the case of Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy analyst who is serving a life sentence for passing secrets to Israel. Some officials have maintained that Pollard worked in collaboration with another, never-found, spy.
Steven Rosen said the Jewish community needs to do more to counter the attitude toward Jews and Israel found in US counter-intelligence agencies.
"There needs to be a systemic campaign" against these attitudes, he declared. "The organized community as a whole has left this job undone and it's time to do the job."
Using ancient Greece and military history as commentary, Professor Victor Davis Hanson analyzes the legal dilemmas faced by democracies when defending themselves against terrorist entities. From a speech presented to the California Association of Scholars at U.C.L.A. on 12 October 2009.
Victor Davis Hanson is a Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the California State University at Fresno, noted historian of ancient Greece and preeminent military historian. He is author of more than 170 articles, 16 books, and recipient of many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. Visit Calif Assoc of Scholars website.
Reformed-liberal, branded "neo-Conservative" political advisor, Norman Podhoretz, debunks notions of an organized Jewish conspiracy having influenced U.S. foreign policy towards Israel's, but not America's, primary interests.
Learning from France's Dreyfus Affaire of the late 19th-century, allegations of Jewish dual-loyalism were revealed to be a scapegoating distraction from the acutal perfidy of others' treasonous activities within the government.
"The Third Jihad" will telecast on Sunday, October 18th at 7 PM ET/4 PM PDT, while "Obsession" will telecast on Sunday, December 6th at 7 PM ET/4 PM PST.
View the 30-minute trailer for "The Third Jihad," the story of Islamism's quest to infiltrate America - revealed by Islamic reformist physician, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser.
"We are pleased to bring the U.S. premiere of 'The Third Jihad' to ALN," said Chris Wyatt, CEO of ALN. "This is the first time that 'Obsession' will be broadcast in its entirety in the U.S. We firmly believe every American family should be educated on this subject - which has become a matter of national security."
