The Propagandist magazine's Allies have broken on through to the other side thanks to some timely heavy-weapons support by the Doors.

Here are some of the latest dispatches from the front:

• Iran More than Doubles 2012 Defense Budget. But don't worry about a big regional war. It's mostly for shooting at their own people.
• China: Zhu Yufu's Sham "Incitement" Trial; No Verdict. He is being tried for "inciting subversion of state power."
• Today I stand in solidarity with Gaza. Thwack!
• New York Times Backs Islamist Movement Without Even Looking at It. So what else is new?
• Disgusting BBC piece sympathizing with a child-killer terrorist. It's actually worse than it sounds.
• Can an Indian cartoonist be barred from mocking the state? Yes, as long as good people let the thugs do what thugs do.
• Syrians are Taking Note. But after Assad is overthrown, will Syrians really turn their back on Russia and Hezbollah? The opposition far more routinely and incoherently blame America and Israel for (gag!) backing Assad.
• A Welcome Addition to The Conversation About China. Very much so. Thanks, Terry.

Confusion to our enemies!

The infamous case of the Shafia honour killings has made international headlines thanks to the horrific details of the mass-murder itself and the outrageous conduct of the defendants during the trial. A father, mother and son murdered the family's three daughters and the polygamous husband's first wife. It is certain to become a textbook example of honour killings, carried out according to the tribal traditions of numerous Islamic states; an abominable cultural import into the Western world.

The evidence seemed so overwhelming in this case (notwithstanding the almost-immediate launch of an appeal) that few objective observers could have been surprised by the harsh sentences of life in prison; 25 years without parole, according to Canadian law.

Indeed, one surprising commentator often (and weirdly) used as an alleged voice of Canada's Muslim community by the mainstream media appears to have felt compelled to make a statement that at once condemns the guilty. He does so while also seeming to partly blame the government that accepted this immigrant family in the first place. 

Pay close attention to the words of Calgary-based Imam Syed Soharwardy:

‘I talked about domestic violence and honour killing. That this is absolutely horrible crimes that in Muslim may come and see this as there is room in our religion. There is no room for this kind of crime in religion," said Soharwardy.

The imam says the case has shed light on the tensions and challenges young Afghan women face and he says government has to do more to educate those women and their families when they arrive here.

"Not only just have a test, you know, about Canada but before anybody comes here I think the government has a responsibility to clearly say what kind of society this Canada is," said Soharwardy.

That's very, very odd. Not that Soharwardy is wrong when he says that these were absolutely horrible crimes. Nor that the government has a duty to outline to immigrants clearly what kind of society this is -- though one would think that immigrants would make the common-sense preparations such as checking into these sorts of things before they move. Read more

The Propagandist's Allies are on the warpath. Better get out of their way, bubba.

• Jailed Cuba dissident dies in hunger strike. "Villar launched his hunger strike shortly after he was arrested in November, put on trial and sentenced to four years in prison for crimes including disobedience, resistance and crimes against the state."
• Defend Freedom of Expression on 11 Feb. Gladly.
• Malawian women protest over 'trouser attacks'. Just try to imagine some retail vendor beating you up and stripping you down in the middle of the street because he doesn't like how you dress. Yes, this really happened.
• France gets a clue, suspends all operations with Afghan army after Afghan soldier murders four French troops. It happened again. "Scores of Nato troops have been shot dead in recent years by their Afghan partners raising fears of widespread Taliban infiltration and underlining the tense relations on the ground between the allies."
• Hamas says it will investigate attack on human rights activist. Sure. Foxes guarding the henhouse.
• The Arab spring through women's eyes. Not looking good.
• Are you now or have you ever been an Islamophobe. Nope.

Confusion to our enemies!

I assume he did. After all, when a religion is based on the conduct of a pedophilic genocidal mass-murderer who cursed all who chose to walk a different path, it's not surprising that his most vocal followers turn out to be violent dweebs. So much for freedom of speech in the UK:

Just before I was due to start, a young man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front of the room with a camera and proceeded to film everyone in the audience. That done, he informed us that he knew who we were, where we lived and if he heard a single negative word about the Prophet, he would track us down. (I am told he made further threats as he left the building).
The organisers of the event, the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies called the police and the event was unfortunately cancelled.

If your country has to clarify that your next action "will be of a non-terrorist nature", that isn't exactly reassuring -- and pretty much gives the rest of the world a very blunt reminder about the overall nature of your regime.

The Propagandist's Allies are resurgent, moving forward on all fronts. Here are the latest dispatches:

• What future for Afghan woman jailed for being raped? Afghanistan: where victims are jailed for "adultery by force" -- the force of their attackers, to be precise.
• Let's reframe the Israel debate. "The terms we use undermine Jewish rights to our ancestral homeland. ‘Settlements’ and ‘West Bank’ reinforce a sense that the land has always been Arab, and paint Israelis as colonialist imposters. Yet, until their ethnic cleansing in 1948, Jews had always lived beyond the Green line."
• Zero Tolerance to Prejudice. The rest is commentary. More shenanigans from the London School of Economics.
• Released Burma Dissident: We’re On a Leash. The junta's release of political prisoners should not be seen as a generous concession, but as a long-overdue and very incomplete restoration of some measure of justice.
• Shocker: Pakistan can't come up with a suspect in kidnapping and murder of journalist who criticized Pakistani intel agency. I'm so surprised over this.
• Mercedes-Benz uses mass murderer to sell cars. So what else is new?
• Christian Love. Not what is used to be. Or maybe this is what it has always been.
• Canada sells the oil sands to China. Then complains about ‘foreign interference’ Let's review what's really going on.

Confusion to our enemies!

Now don't start holding your heads up high, junta dudes. Yes, you released 302 political prisoners who shouldn't have been in jail in the first place. There are still hundreds more kept in detention under your barbaric regime. And we haven't even got to the slavery and genocide you've perpetrated against your own people for decades.

So don't start thinking the world owes you favors.

The Independent State of Croatia was a quisling marionette state formed from the territories of present Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1941 to 1945 in support of the Third Reich. Its supporters have been out in force in recent weeks.

Several small far right parties, historically connected with Ustasha regime, get together in the last week of December of 2011 to commemorate the death of Jure Francetic, a Ustasha commander. He responsible for thousands of deaths in concentration camps formed on Croatian territory. Just a days after the pro-Francetic celebration, same political groups with large crowds of supporters gathered at a church in the city of Split, where they celebrated mass for the leader of the NDH (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska/ Independent State of Croatia), Dr. Ante Pavelic. Last but not least, a relatively well-known columnist for the Zagreb Vecernji newspaper, Josip Pavicic, called for the Croatian public and literary community to compare Miroslav Krleza, a poet and author Communist, with Pavelic’s minister responsible for racial laws, Mile Budak (also known as minor writer and author of several books).

What’s striking in first two events is that Church and far right neo-Nazi political groups have succeeded in engaging large crowds of fairly young people, most of whom were born at least forty years after the end of the Second World War. They come out dressed in uniforms with flags and crests of the quisling state which claimed at least half a million lives in less than five years of it’s existence.  Read more

The Arab League is in Syria doing what it does best: looking the other way while a fellow Arab dictator kills at will. The United Nations suggests at least 400 Syrians have died while their observer team has been in the country.

The estimate of 40 deaths a day over the past 10 days was given by UN political chief Lynn Pascoe to the 15-member Security Council in closed-door consultations today.

 

The UN estimates that more than 5,000 people have died since protests against President Bashar al-Assad began 10 months ago.

The Iranian regime has apparently determined the Internet to be un-Islamic. They have built a country-wide Intranet in its place. Users will have to give their name along with their father's name, telephone number, address and national ID in order to log on. Once it is ready, 23 million Iranians will have their Internet access shut down.

For the government, this means no more anonymous blogging about green revolutions and other such halal topics in cyber-cafes (Oh wait. That's already outlawed). Iranians will be unable to read, watch or listen to what is happening outside of their totalitarian state-approved sources.

For this dubious benefit, the government will have essentially set its nation back to the pre-Information Age.

Owing to practical considerations of having to deal with competing neighbors in a tough neighborhood, the Mullahs haven't gone all out for Talbanization of their nation. But it's a slippery slope.