Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Sweden Rocked by Radical Muslims
2. Despite Obama’s Claim, Caterpillar Cuts More Jobs
3. Congressman: ‘ Israel Lobby’ Not Behind Charles
Freeman’s Withdrawal
4. More Scientists Rip Global Warming Hysteria
5. Rupert Murdoch: Struggle Against Hamas Is ‘Our Fight’
6. We Heard: Richard Dreyfus, Don Hewitt, Special Election
1. Sweden Rocked by Radical Muslims
A few years ago, the left-wing London Guardian newspaper called Sweden the most successful society the world has ever known. But Sweden today is being rocked by a large influx of Muslim immigrants and the growth of radical Islam.
Malmo is Sweden 's 3rd largest city and a major epicenter of the Islamization of Europe. Wide-open immigration policies have changed Sweden and have made Malmo, which is now one-quarter Muslim, one of the most racially divided cities in Europe.
Most Muslim immigrants are concentrated in one district, where the male unemployment rate is 82 percent. Crime affects one of three families in the city and rape has tripled in 20 years, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network.
In one housing project in the district, fire and emergency workers will no longer enter without police protection.
Malmo has been so accommodating toward immigrant Muslims that a local Muslim politician and imam has even declared, "The best Islamic state is Sweden !"
But Malmo's Jews won’t give the city the same glowing assessment. Jews who dare to walk the streets wearing yarmulkes on their heads risk being beaten up.
When Israel recently played Sweden in a Davis Cup tennis match in Malmo, protesters demonstrated against the Israeli presence in the city, and hundreds attacked police.
Journalist Lars Hedegaard, who is based across a bridge-tunnel from Malmo in Copenhagen, Denmark , told CBN News that pro-Israeli demonstrators in Malmo were met with rocks, bottles and pipe bombs from Palestinians and other Arabs.
Right-wing Swedish Democrats, who support limits on immigration, have been stigmatized by the left-wing Swedish media as fascist and bigoted.
But there is a growing acceptance that "the Swedish model" - generous welfare benefits combined with liberal immigration policies — is now unsustainable, according to CBN News.
Hedegaard said: “I think the best prediction is that Sweden will have a Muslim majority by 2049, so we know where that country’s going.”
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2. Despite Obama’s Claim, Caterpillar Cuts More Jobs
The mainstream press provided wide coverage when President Barack Obama said equipment maker Caterpillar would rehire laid-off workers if Congress passed his stimulus package.
But the media were relatively quiet about that claim when Caterpillar recently announced that not only would it not rehire workers, but was cutting additional jobs.
Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, announced 22,000 job cuts in January, and later offered early retirement to another 2,000 employees.
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, The Associated Press reported in a widely disseminated story that Obama said “Caterpillar has informed him it will rehire some of the thousands of workers it has laid off in recent weeks if Congress passes an economic stimulus bill . . .
“The president’s travel to pitch the urgency of the stimulus plan was his third day in a row to leave Washington. On Thursday, he goes to Peoria, Ill., to visit a Caterpillar manufacturing plant.”
But on March 17, The Associated Press reported that Caterpillar announced plans to lay off more than 2,400 additional workers.
“In the latest cuts,” AP stated, Caterpillar “said 2,365 support and management workers had been notified of layoffs expected to last at least six months . . . and 89 workers will be let go permanently.
Among the affected workers are 911 employees at the Caterpillar plant in East Peoria.
Caterpillar “also said more layoffs may be needed as the year continues,” according to the AP — which made no mention of Obama’s earlier statement about the company and the stimulus bill.
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3. Congressman: ‘ Israel Lobby’ Not Behind Charles Freeman’s Withdrawal
Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf has refuted Charles Freeman’s claim that the “ Israel lobby” was behind the pressure that forced him to withdraw from consideration as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
Freeman’s appointment was highly controversial. As the Insider Report disclosed two weeks ago, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia who has staunchly supported anti-Israel views.
After he withdrew from the intelligence post — which would have made him responsible for overseeing the production of the National Intelligence Estimates and other intelligence data — Freeman wrote a letter published on March 10 on Foreign Policy magazine’s Web site, which read in part:
“The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.
“The aim of this lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views.”
But Rep. Wolf, a Republican who is Virginia’s senior congressman, countered with an opinion piece in the March 14 Washington Post, in which he acknowledged that he was one of the congressmen who challenged Freeman’s selection.
“Freeman’s charges of an elaborate conspiracy to derail his nomination are disingenuous,” he wrote.
“The ‘ Israel lobby’ never contacted me. For me, the warning flags about Charles Freeman went up when I learned of his questionable associations and inflammatory statements about China and Tibet .”
Wolf noted that Freeman served on the advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corp., owned largely by the Chinese government, and said the company’s “investment in Sudan’s oil sector is part of the lifeline that has sustained the regime of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court this month on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Rep. Wolf pointed out that Freeman gave a speech last year in which he described recent uprisings in Tibet as “race riots.” Nearly a year after those demonstrations, Wolf said, 1,200 Tibetan protesters remain missing.
Wolf also cited Freeman’s association with the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), which has received funding from Saudi Arabia — “whose regime is responsible for funding madrassas around the globe that have given rise to Islamic fundamentalists.”
As the Insider Report disclosed, the MEPC published what it called an “unabridged” version of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” a controversial 2006 essay by two professors asserting that American Jews have a “stranglehold” on the U.S. Congress, which they exploit to tilt America toward Israel at the expense of broader national interests.
Freeman maintained business ties to the bin Laden family and their Saudi Binladen Group construction conglomerate even after the 9/11 attacks.
And in 2007, Freeman stated that “ Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians” and decried “the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by an Israeli occupation.”
Rep. Wolf concluded: “While the reports of Freeman’s public statements first raised my concern about his suitability to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council, his words after his withdrawal crystallized exactly why Freeman was the wrong choice for the job.”
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4. More Scientists Rip Global Warming Hysteria
Amid reports that President Barack Obama's climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion, 59 additional scientists skeptical of the threat of manmade global warming have been added to the U.S. Senate Minority Report on climate change.
They bring the total to more than 700 scientists from around the world who have spoken out against the hysteria created by Al Gore and other global warming alarmists, according to a statement issued by the office of Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The latest Minority Report includes 300 scientists and climate researchers who have been added to the list since the initial report’s release in December 2007.
Many of the 59 additional scientists are affiliated with prestigious institutions including NASA, the U.S. Navy and Air Force, the Defense Department, Energy Department, Princeton University, Tulane University, the U.S. Naval Academy and the EPA.
“Unfortunately, climate science has become political science,” said award-winning Princeton physicist Dr. Robert Austin, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
He told the minority staff on the Committee on March 2: “It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomenon which is statistically questionable at best.”
Dr. Anastasios Tsonis of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said the global temperature “has flattened and is actually going down. We are seeing a new shift toward cooler temperatures that will last for probably about three decades.”
As Newsmax.com reported, Obama's climate plan could cost industry nearly three times the $646 billion over eight years that the White House initially estimated for the so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation.
The plan seeks to reduce pollution by setting a limit on carbon emissions and allowing businesses and groups to buy allowances, although exact details have not been released.
But Dr. Diane Douglas, a climatologist who has worked for the Department of Energy, declared: “The recent ‘panic’ to control GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and billions of dollars being dedicated for the task has me deeply concerned that the U.S. and other countries are spending precious global funds to stop global warming, when it is primarily being driven by natural forcing mechanisms.”
Among other comments from scientists included in the report:
“I am appalled at the state of discord in the field of climate science . . . There is no observational evidence that the addition of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have caused any temperature perturbations in the atmosphere.”
— Award-winning atmospheric scientist Dr. George T. Wolff, a former member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board who served on a committee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“The sky is not burning, and to claim that it is amounts to journalistic malpractice . . . The press only promotes the global warming alarmists and ignores or minimizes those of us who are skeptical.”
— Dr. Mark L. Campbell, a professor of chemistry at the U.S. Naval Academy.
“The cause of these global changes is fundamentally due to the sun and its effect on the Earth as it moves about in its orbit, not from man-made activities.”
— Retired NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. William W. Vaughan, recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.
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5. Rupert Murdoch: Struggle Against Hamas Is ‘Our Fight’
News Corp. chairman executive Rupert Murdoch says the free world is making a “terrible mistake” in thinking the clash between Hamas and Israel is not “our fight.”
In a speech to the American Jewish Committee, Murdoch said: “In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States . Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel .”
Murdoch, who received the organization’s National Human Relations Award, said the assault on the “legitimacy and security” of Israel “comes from people who make it clear they have no intention of ever living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state, no matter how many concessions Israel might make.
“The reason for this is also clear: These are men who cannot abide the idea of freedom, tolerance and democracy. They hate Israel for the same reasons they hate us.”
Murdoch cited the relentless rocket attacks Hamas has launched on Israel from Gaza, and Israel ’s need to respond. But the Jewish state faces two handicaps, he explained.
The first is military. “It’s true that Israel ’s conventional superiority means it could flatten Gaza if it wanted,” he said in his speech, which was adapted for an article in the Jerusalem Post.
“But the Israel Defense Forces — unlike Hamas — are accountable to a democratically chosen government . . . Every Israeli government knows it will be held accountable by its people and by the world for the lives that are lost because of its decisions. That’s true for lives of innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire” and the lives of Israeli soldiers.
The second handicap is the “global media war,” with news outlets continually focusing on images of Palestinian suffering, observed Murdoch, whose media empire includes the Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting Co., and the Wall Street Journal.
“In this, Israel finds itself in much the same position the United States found itself in Iraq before the surge. There, al-Qaida realized that it was in its interests to provoke sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni — no matter what the cost to innocent Iraqis. That is the nature of terror. And what we are seeing in Gaza is just one front in this much larger war.”
He concluded: “I do not pretend to have all the answers to Gaza this evening. But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight.”
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6. We Heard . . .
THAT contributions are pouring in for both candidates in the key March 31 special election for a U.S. House seat in New York State.
State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, a Republican, is squared off against Democratic businessman Scott Murphy in the race to fill the seat vacated when Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat.
As of Thursday, Tedisco had raised about $840,000 in campaign contributions. But Murphy had raised slightly more, $900,000, The Hill newspaper reported.
Both candidates have received donations from numerous members of Congress.
Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund has called the election “the first public referendum on the Obama administration.”
THAT Don Hewitt, mastermind of CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” is battling pancreatic cancer.
Hewitt, 86, created “60 Minutes” in 1968 and served as executive producer until retiring in 2004.
“60 Minutes” spokesman Kevin Tedesco said Hewitt has been diagnosed with a small tumor and doctors will determine a course of treatment.
THAT Richard Dreyfus played Dick Cheney in the recent movie “W,” but he doesn’t miss seeing Cheney in his vice presidential role.
“I miss having him in jail — that’s where he belongs,” the actor told Politico.
Dreyfus also had choice words for “W” director Oliver Stone, calling him a “fascist on the left.”
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