Good news for once. Bin Laden's son cannot live in the UK

No doubt this will be challenged under the HRA. For the record this man has never condemned Jihadi terrorism in spite of the way sensationalist media tabloids fawned over him last year. The Home Office has refused him a visa. nice one! Pity all the others they did let in mind.... From Times online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3842353.ece:

Osama Bin Laden’s son Omar Ossama is banned from Britain
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The son of Osama bin Laden has been banned from entering Britain to live with his new wife because of fears that his presence would cause “considerable public concern”.
Officials have told Omar Ossama bin Laden that there is evidence that he is still loyal to his father, who is held responsible for the deaths of 52 innocent people in the London bombings of July 7, 2005.
Mr bin Laden, 27, is appealing against the refusal to grant him a visa and says that it is wrong to ban him from Britain on the basis of his parentage and inaccurate media reports about his beliefs.
He wants to live in Cheshire with his British wife, Zaina Alsabah bin Laden, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne. The couple were married in Saudi Arabia last year after a holiday romance but have been living in Egypt while waiting for Mr bin Laden’s visa application to be processed.
His application was refused by an entry clearance officer at the British Embassy in Cairo. The embassy said that the decision had been made on the ground that “exclusion from the United Kingdom is conducive to the public good . . . in the light of the character, conduct or association of the person seeking leave to enter it is undesirable to give him leave to enter”.
The officer added: “I note that statements made during recent media interviews indicate evidence of continuing loyalty to your father, and your presence in the UK could, therefore, cause considerable public concern.”
Mr and Mrs bin Laden have lodged an appeal to be heard by an immigration judge, claiming that the decision is “unjust and arbitrary”. They say there is no evidence that his presence in Britain would be a security risk.
Mr bin Laden left Saudi Arabia as a child when his father was expelled for his extremist beliefs and the family lived in exile in Sudan and then Afghanistan. He said that he left his father before the attacks on the US in September 11, 2001, and returned to Saudi Arabia, were he worked as a metals trader. The couple met in Egypt in September 2006. After their marriage Mr bin Laden divorced his first bride; his new wife’s application to live with him in Saudi Arabia is still being processed.
Mrs bin Laden, 52, who has been married six times and has three sons and five grandchildren, said: “In September last year Omar left Saudi Arabia for good because we couldn’t live apart any more – it was breaking our hearts. It could take the Saudi government years to wade through all their applications before they get to ours.
“We have a nice house in Cairo, but we have no real place to call home. I need my family and I need medical attention in the UK. Our only chance to be together was to live in Britain. We have vowed never to be parted. Omar will never take another wife as long as I am alive.”
Her husband applied for a married settlement visa in October last year. He was granted a visa to visit Italy in February and this month was granted a Schengen visa to travel freely within Europe. The couple have recently visited Austria, Belgium and France without any trouble.
Since being thrust into the public spotlight after becoming the first of bin Laden’s children to marry a Westerner, Mr bin Laden has repeatedly condemned the attacks on America and London. He said he could not condemn his father because he had no evidence of his involvement in terrorism.
Mr bin Laden said: “Who can know 100 per cent that my father is behind 9/11 or 7/7? I am not a judge and jury. I do not know if my father is a terrorist or was involved in the attacks.
“I want to come to England with my wife so she can be close to her children and grandchildren and she should also be near her hospital. The English are nice people and I am sure they will welcome me. People will understand I am not my father. I want to stop war, stop bombing and stop the killing.”

MUSU seek to 'ban' military- Updated!

Turns out this rather petulant piece of showmanship was decisively defeated at election well done Manchester Students! Read it here

This is a follow on in many ways from the silly behaviour of the NUT that I reported on. It seems that Manchester Student Union (or representatives thereof) are seeking to ban the military from Campus. This is due to the involvement of the UK's military in 'unpopular wars'. I do not for one second believe that all or even a majority of Manchester Students support such a move. Rather what we are seeing is an attention seeking cheap stunt by petulant under grads. This is quite literally biting the hand that protects you. Ok so Andy Cunningham of the Student's Union regards the wars as 'unpopular' he is entitled to that opinion. What this nob jockey fails to mention is who ultimately protects his right to say so? Furthermore I was wondering that if in the event God forbid of some kind of terrorist attack(Manchester has known these)occurring near the University, would Cunningham then seek to disallow the Army's bomb disposal team from accessing campus? The big problem with the attitude of cheap plonkers like this man is they do not actually attack those that form policy i.e the government. Rather their immature protest only levels fire at the soldiers themselves. That I strongly disagree with. Anyway from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7368932.stm

Student military recruitment row

A motion banning military recruitment at the university is to be voted on
Recruitment staff for the Armed Forces could be banned from enroling university students in Manchester.
A motion is to be voted on next week banning the Army, Navy and RAF from setting up stalls at the University of Manchester's student union building.
If passed, they would not be allowed to set up stalls for three years.
Supporters say it is "unacceptable" for the military to recruit young people to fight in "massively unpopular" wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Undergraduates at University College London have also adopted a similar ban.
'Utter disgrace"
The Ministry of Defence said it was "disappointed" by the plans in Manchester, while Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas Winterton, who completed National Service, labelled them "an utter disgrace".
He added: "I am appalled. Historically it is because of our armed forces that these students have the opportunity to go to university."
Martin Watkins, chairman of the Royal British Legion's Manchester branch, added: "The average age of people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan while fighting for the freedoms they take for granted is 22."
The proposal has been put forward by Andy Cunningham, of the students' union.
Outrage sparked
He said: "There is a large officer training corps on campus. If this is successful we want the university to sever their links as well."
The vote has sparked outrage among members of the Manchester and Salford Universities' Officer Training Corps - a branch of the Territorial Army aimed at higher education students. They want members to vote against the proposal.
Ministry of Defence spokesman Greg Stringer said: "However people view military operations, everyone should be able to respect the brave job our armed forces perform."

Teacher sacked for exposing 'racist' texts compensated

This is from Times online, read it here.

Basically those nice people the Saudis have a school set up in London. It was here that they were using texts that described non -Muslims as apes and pigs. A teacher who exposed this was sacked and has been awarded compensation. However the article is wrong for one notable reason. It is not racist to say unpleasant things about a religion, those that accuse anyone who exposes Islamic bigotry as being 'Islamaphobic' could do with bearing that in mind. It is bigotry in this case of course and the school should be brought to account. One further question arises and this issue the Times like much of the western media ducks altogether. If text books in an Islamic school call Jews and Christians pigs, where do they get that idea from? I mean we are always told that Islam is a religion of peace and that these are examples of extremism? The truth is that it is direct from Islam’s holiest book the Qur'an.

For example: "Say: "O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?" Say: "Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil; these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!" (5:59-60)"

Tragic but read any translation of the Qur'an and its there. Why does this matter? The problem is that hate filled garbage like this is taught in Saudi funded Mosques and schools globally not just in the UK. It leads to Jihadi violence. We also buy oil from and sell weapons to these people.

Here is the article from the Times for those who can't be bothered to follow a link:

Teacher accuses Islamic school of racism Alexandra Frean, Education Editor A former teacher at an Islamic school, who alleged that it taught an offensive and racist view of non-Muslims, has been awarded £70,000 by an employment tribunal after winning his case for unfair dismissal. Colin Cook told the tribunal in Watford that pupils were taught from Arabic books that likened Jews and Christians to “monkeys” and “pigs” at The King Fahad Academy, which is funded and run by the Saudi Arabian Government. The tribunal ruled that Mr Cook, a British Muslim, was unfairly dismissed from his £36,000-a-year post at the school in Acton, West London, in December 2006 after blowing the whistle on systematic cheating at a GCSE exam. The panel found that the school created a “smokescreen” to try to justify his dismissal after 18 years’ unblemished service. It awarded Mr Cook £58,800 in compensation for loss of earnings and £10,500 for injury to feelings. But it rejected his claim that the school discriminated against him on racial grounds. Mr Cook told the hearing that after leaving the school another member of staff gave him extracts from an Arabic textbook, which encouraged students to believe that all religions other than Islam were worthless. The books referred to “the repugnant characteristics of the Jews”. Another passage said: “Those whom God has cursed and with whom he is angry, he has turned into monkeys and pigs. They worship Satan.” Mr Cook alleged that the books were spreading race hatred. “They should not be brought into this country and they should not be used in this country,” he said. The school denied ever teaching any form of racial hatred and insisted that the offending passages in the books were “misinterpreted” and were never used in class. But it later got rid of the books. The school was established in 1985, with the aim of providing a high-quality education acceptable to the Saudi and British authorities for the children of Saudi diplomats and other Muslim families in London. Some of the children of the jailed extremist clerics Abu Hamza al-Masri and Abu Qatada are pupils at the school, which charges fees of up to £1,500 per year for day students. Mr Cook alleged that in June 2006 staff wrongly allowed pupils to refer to heavily annotated course books during an English language GCSE exam. The tribunal was told that when he suggested that the school might be trying to cover up his allegations, a senior colleague told him: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Mr Cook then took his complaints direct to the Edexcel exam board. Mr Cook of Feltham, West London, taught English as a second language at the school. Giving evidence to the tribunal, he said that some pupils “talked as if they did not live in London at all”. When he queried how Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada could be paying school fees when they were said to be on benefits, he was told to mind his own business. He also claimed the school was seen as an extension of the Saudi Embassy rather than part of Britain, with Saudi teachers even enjoying diplomatic immunity. Mr Cook’s solicitor, Lawrence Davies, said: “Safeguards under English law were thrown out of the window when Mr Cook was sacked. “This school must learn that it is not the Saudi way or the highway. The tribunal has upheld justice and protected the whistle-blower.” The tribunal panel was not required to rule on Mr Cook’s allegations about the school’s curriculum. But in its judgment, it said it had considered Mr Cook to be a “truthful witness”. As he was a respected teacher, with an 18-year unblemished record, it ruled that the impact of his dismissal had been “nothing short of life-changing” for Mr Cook. He had received a “harsh punishment for doing what he thought was the right thing to do”, it concluded. Mr Cook said last night: “I have been accused by people at the school and outside the school of lies and distortion. The school inferred that I had endangered pupils with my allegations. “The evidence speaks otherwise. I told the truth all along. Islam teaches peace and honesty. Hopefully, my accusers will now realise that I acted justly and for the good of the school.” No one at the school was available to comment. The brave man who exposed this as you see was himself a Muslim. His Saudi detractors in this case need only point to Islam’s scriptures to make their argument.

Teacher awarded damages from 'racist' Islamic School

This is from Times online, read it here.

Basically those nice people the Saudis have a school set up in London. It was here that they were using texts that described non -Muslims as apes and pigs. A teacher who exposed this was sacked and has been awarded compensation. However the article is wrong for one notable reason. It is not racist to say unpleasant things about a religion, those that accuse anyone who exposes Islamic bigotry as being 'Islamaphobic' could do with bearing that in mind. It is bigotry in this case of course and the school should be brought to account. One further question arises and this issue the Times like much of the western media ducks altogether. If text books in an Islamic school call Jews and Christians pigs, where do they get that idea from? I mean we are always told that Islam is a religion of peace and that these are examples of extremism? The truth is that it is direct from Islam’s holiest book the Qur'an. For example:

"Say: "O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?" Say: "Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil; these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!" (5:59-60)"

Tragic but read any translation of the Qur'an and its there. Why does this matter? The problem is that hate filled garbage like this is taught in Saudi funded Mosques and schools globally not just in the UK. It leads to Jihadi violence. We also buy oil from and sell weapons to these people. Here is the article from the Times for those who can't be bothered to follow a link:

Teacher accuses Islamic school of racism Alexandra Frean, Education Editor A former teacher at an Islamic school, who alleged that it taught an offensive and racist view of non-Muslims, has been awarded £70,000 by an employment tribunal after winning his case for unfair dismissal. Colin Cook told the tribunal in Watford that pupils were taught from Arabic books that likened Jews and Christians to “monkeys” and “pigs” at The King Fahad Academy, which is funded and run by the Saudi Arabian Government. The tribunal ruled that Mr Cook, a British Muslim, was unfairly dismissed from his £36,000-a-year post at the school in Acton, West London, in December 2006 after blowing the whistle on systematic cheating at a GCSE exam. The panel found that the school created a “smokescreen” to try to justify his dismissal after 18 years’ unblemished service. It awarded Mr Cook £58,800 in compensation for loss of earnings and £10,500 for injury to feelings. But it rejected his claim that the school discriminated against him on racial grounds. Mr Cook told the hearing that after leaving the school another member of staff gave him extracts from an Arabic textbook, which encouraged students to believe that all religions other than Islam were worthless. The books referred to “the repugnant characteristics of the Jews”. Another passage said: “Those whom God has cursed and with whom he is angry, he has turned into monkeys and pigs. They worship Satan.” Mr Cook alleged that the books were spreading race hatred. “They should not be brought into this country and they should not be used in this country,” he said. The school denied ever teaching any form of racial hatred and insisted that the offending passages in the books were “misinterpreted” and were never used in class. But it later got rid of the books. The school was established in 1985, with the aim of providing a high-quality education acceptable to the Saudi and British authorities for the children of Saudi diplomats and other Muslim families in London. Some of the children of the jailed extremist clerics Abu Hamza al-Masri and Abu Qatada are pupils at the school, which charges fees of up to £1,500 per year for day students. Mr Cook alleged that in June 2006 staff wrongly allowed pupils to refer to heavily annotated course books during an English language GCSE exam. The tribunal was told that when he suggested that the school might be trying to cover up his allegations, a senior colleague told him: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Mr Cook then took his complaints direct to the Edexcel exam board. Mr Cook of Feltham, West London, taught English as a second language at the school. Giving evidence to the tribunal, he said that some pupils “talked as if they did not live in London at all”. When he queried how Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada could be paying school fees when they were said to be on benefits, he was told to mind his own business. He also claimed the school was seen as an extension of the Saudi Embassy rather than part of Britain, with Saudi teachers even enjoying diplomatic immunity. Mr Cook’s solicitor, Lawrence Davies, said: “Safeguards under English law were thrown out of the window when Mr Cook was sacked. “This school must learn that it is not the Saudi way or the highway. The tribunal has upheld justice and protected the whistle-blower.” The tribunal panel was not required to rule on Mr Cook’s allegations about the school’s curriculum. But in its judgment, it said it had considered Mr Cook to be a “truthful witness”. As he was a respected teacher, with an 18-year unblemished record, it ruled that the impact of his dismissal had been “nothing short of life-changing” for Mr Cook. He had received a “harsh punishment for doing what he thought was the right thing to do”, it concluded. Mr Cook said last night: “I have been accused by people at the school and outside the school of lies and distortion. The school inferred that I had endangered pupils with my allegations. “The evidence speaks otherwise. I told the truth all along. Islam teaches peace and honesty. Hopefully, my accusers will now realise that I acted justly and for the good of the school.” No one at the school was available to comment. The brave man who exposed this as you see was himself a Muslim. His Saudi detractors in this case need only point to Islam’s scriptures to make their argument.

A Legend has passed

Sad to hear about the passing of Charlton Heston. A real larger than life character. I also feel he was a slight enigma being associated with both civil rights causes and gun control. Nonetheless as a fellow libertarian I salute him! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2496037.stm

Obituary: Charlton Heston

Heston struggled in his early years as an actor
Whether starring as Judah Ben-Hur, Michelangelo or Moses, Charlton Heston personified the larger-than-life heroes of the Hollywood epic.
Charlton Heston's life story reads like a film script. From the backwoods of Michigan, he became one of the world's most famous faces, a high-profile campaigner for Civil Rights and an unapologetic president of America's National Rifle Association.
He was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois.
By his own admission "shy, skinny, short and pimply", he studied acting before serving for three years in the US Air Force.
Big screen presence
Back in civilian life, Heston and his wife, Lydia, went through hard times, while waiting for his first break as an actor.
Living in a single room in Chicago, at one time they posed for artists, at $1.25 an hour, before Heston finally attracted Hollywood's attention.

Ben Hur won Heston an Oscar and made him a global superstar
In 1952, after working on Broadway, Heston starred as the ringmaster in the movie, The Greatest Show on Earth. Four years later, he appeared as Moses in The Ten Commandments, the role which would define his career.
Physically imposing at six foot four, with granite-hewn features and a deep, sonorous voice, he radiated screen presence.
No role was too big for Heston. In The Greatest Story Ever Told, he was John the Baptist; he played El Cid, along with Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy and General Gordon in Khartoum.
And, in 1959, he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Ben-Hur.
Civil Rights supporter
On stage, he was Sir Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons, Macbeth and Antony in Antony and Cleopatra.
Although later identified with traditionally conservative causes, Charlton Heston was a vocal supporter of Martin Luther King and the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
After King's assassination, and the murder of Robert Kennedy, Heston called for gun controls. He later said that he was "misguided".
The science fiction film, Planet of the Apes, proved a big commercial success in the late 1960s, and Heston almost became a fixture in 1970s disaster movies like Earthquake and Skyjacked.

Heston served as president of the Screen Actors Guild
And his big-screen performance in the environmentally-tinged sci-fi thriller, Soylent Green, brought him cult status among a younger audience.
Traditional heroes
The 1980s saw a rare foray onto television, as Jason Colby in The Colbys.
But, later in his career, Heston turned increasingly back to the stage, and to fighting for his political beliefs.
During his six years as president of the Screen Actors Guild , he decried the trend for undermining traditional American heroes.
And, having grown up in the Michigan woods where poor people sometimes shot their next meal, Heston became embroiled in a passionate national debate over gun laws.

Heston's political activism dominated his later lifeA high-profile president of the National Rifle Association, he once vowed that the only way the government would take away his gun was from his "cold, dead hands".
On 9 August 2002, he issued a statement, announcing that his doctors had diagnosed "a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease".
A self-avowed Anglophile, he was a hugely enthusiastic reader of the Aubrey/Maturin novels of the late Patrick O'Brian and was co-chairman of the American Air Museum in Britain.
Heston once said of himself, "I have played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses in my career. If that doesn't create an ego problem, nothing does."
But, while his screen giants gave him the stature to champion his causes, Charlton Heston, along with many critics, felt his best film performance was as the shy, awkward ranch hand in Will Penny.
And while Charlton Heston will always be identified with heroes who lived before the birth of his country, it was perhaps the American pioneer who was closest to his heart.

The TA is 100 years old!

I hope I don't devote too much of my blog to military matters. I suppose I may be biased given my background . This article from the BBC talks of the TA as well as some of the problems it faces with regards to recruitment and retention. Personally I think along with the regular Army the TA has been exploited by the government with a lot asked of it but not enough put back in. Anyway here is the article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7322805.stm

As the Territorial Army turns 100, what is its modern role and who would join now you can expect to be sent to war?
Nearly 15,000 Territorials have served alongside the regular Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. The TA is being relied upon more heavily than at anytime since World War II.
The TA now makes up the entire medical contingent in Afghanistan and provides 10% of British forces in the Middle East. Since 2003, seven TA soldiers have been killed.
Yet despite the need for TA soldiers, recruitment is falling and reserve forces are at their lowest level since the TA was founded 100 years ago.
This also comes at a time when army personnel feel uncomfortable wearing their uniforms in the street and teachers have opposed military recruitment access to schools.
So as the TA turns 100, what does its future hold?
For the last 15 years a series of people have been saying the armed forces are in danger of drifting into cultural isolation
Julian Brazier MP
In pictures: 100 years of the TA
According to Julian Brazier MP, co-chair of the All Party Group for the Reserve Forces, the TA now faces three ways, two of which it was never designed for.
It still serves the function it was set up for - as a means of expanding the ranks of the regular army at a time of national crisis
But 10 years ago it was decided the reserves would not only be called up if the country was under threat, but to regularly support the army in increasingly far-flung conflicts throughout the world.
Professor Richard Holmes, who spent 36 years in the Territorial Army, says over the past decade about 20,000 reserves have been used in operations.
If you join the TA you can expect to go to war.
This increasing frequency of use forms the problematic backdrop to the second new role of the TA - it is now the only major link between the military and the civilian population.
Alienation
"For the last 15 years a series of people have been saying the armed forces are in danger of drifting into cultural isolation," says Mr Brazier, who himself spent more than a decade in the reserves.
"With the death of the national servicemen, you have kids with no adult link to the military."
If the military is going to continue to be deployed, then it is crucial the public understands what it does.
Mr Brazier says the TA, with its ranks of personnel who are woven into civilian communities and training centres in towns up and down the country, is crucial for building that understanding.
Their resources have since been cut and they are now being used even more
Julian Brazier
But the new roles have brought new problems.
For example, how do members of the reserve expect to keep hold of their civilian jobs if they are deployed not just in a national crisis, but two or three times?
And unlike soldiers in the regular army, when they come back from fighting they do not come back with their unit, but are dropped into civilian life to deal with the transition alone.
'Increasingly integral'
"The resourcing they were given was based on the assumption that they wouldn't be used on a regular basis, " says Mr Brazier.
"Their resources have since been cut and they are now being used even more."
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) denies any large-scale problems with pay and says all members of the TA are given mental health pre-and post-deployment briefings, support and - where necessary - treatment.
But the MoD also acknowledges the reserves are an "increasingly integral part of defence capability".
The deeper the well, the more you can put the bucket into it
Professor Holmes
With the falling number of recruits - currently at about 36,000 - the force is simply too small to do the job, Prof Holmes says.
"It stands to reason that the deeper the well, the more you can put the bucket into it," he says.
"It needs more people."
So why would anyone want to join an over-stretched, under-acknowledged force that is likely to send you into a war zone?
Claire Harrison is a 28-year-old secondary school teacher from Manchester who passed out of Sandhurst as a TA second lieutenant on Saturday.
"You'll find a huge number of people who go want to get the experience," she says.
I really relished that sense of being valued and valuable that I found much more in the TA than I did in my day job
Professor Richard Holmes
"The TA has changed so much even in the time I have been in. It used to be a sort of Saturdays and Sundays club, but now, under the one Army concept, you could happily work alongside someone and not know they are TA."
"Joining the TA, or joining the Army, is about a lot more than just going to war," she adds.
"There are a lot of skills that can transfer into civilian life, and whether you are a commissioned or a non-commissioned officer there are all sorts of leadership skills that are highly valued by employers.
"You know, I've been in for five years and there is nothing I have not enjoyed."
'Valued and valuable'
As a freshly-minted TA officer, Ms Harrison's motivations are very similar to those that prompted Prof Holmes to join three-and-a-half decades ago.
"We are a more individualist, less disciplined society and as a liberal academic as my day job, I kind of sympathise with that," says Prof Holmes.
"But why did I spend 36 years in the TA?
"Because I relished the challenge and I met all sorts of guys from all sorts of backgrounds.
"I really relished that sense of being valued and valuable that I found much more in the TA than I did in my day job."