Afghanistan Taliban to be “bought off” with $500 million

Media reports on the efforts to counter ideas with money, rather than challenge extremist beliefs with our shared universal human rights:

Afghanistan: Taliban fighters to be ‘bought off’ with $500 million
Afghanistan: Millions of dollars offered to wean away Taliban militants
Trust fund for Taliban to quit fight
Paying off the Taliban – Incentive or Bribe?
Graphic showing billions of dollars of aid pledged
CNN: “Your view: Negotiating with the Taliban”

Taliban reject peace talks
In Advance of January 28 London Conference on Afghanistan, Senior Taliban Affairs Expert Rahimullah Yusufzai Says: ‘It Would Be Naïve to Assume That the Taliban Would Cut a Deal with the U.S…. On Terms More Favorable to Islamabad than to Their Leader Mullah Omar’
Taliban issues statement on London conference

Meantime, while one part of the government seeks to give money to Taliban extremists another part seeks to stop their “financing”:

Afghanistan: US Tsy Cohen: Working To Cripple Taliban Financing
— WSJ:
“Treasury is leading an inter-agency effort to develop new initiatives to disrupt financing for extremist groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said”
— U.S. Treasury targets Taliban cash funding

Afghanistan: Supporters of the Extremist Taliban
Afghanistan: Supporters of the Extremist Taliban

See also:

November 24, 2009 – Afghanistan: U.S. Special Envoy Holbrooke on Extremist Taliban: U.S. Does Not Seek “A Perfect Democracy” – Room for Taliban to Rejoin “Political Fabric”

October 8, 2009: Afghanistan: Media Reports US Willing To Accept Taliban, As General Calls for 40,000 Additional Troops

September 24, 2009: Afghan women hiding for their lives

August 31, 2009: Afghanistan: Taliban disfigure Muslims who dare to vote

Afghan women victims of ‘widespread’ rape: UN

New ‘poisoning’ hits 98 Afghan schoolgirls

Afghanistan: Women Flee as Taliban Laws Return

Afghanistan: extremist  law “legalizing rape”

Accountability and Defying Extremism

October 17, 2008 – Violent Extemism and the “Reconciliation” with Extremism

Buffalo, New York: “Police probe cross found on front lawn” — “KKK” Etched in Wood

— Buffalo News reports: “Police probe cross found on front lawn”
— “South District police Monday were investigating possible racially motivated harassment on Edgewood Avenue where a resident found a wooden cross with the initials ‘KKK’ etched at its center on his front lawn.”
— “The cross was found on top of yard debris near the curb in front of his home, according to police reports. The resident reported the incident to police late Monday morning.”
— “Edgewood is located between Mc- Kinley Parkway and Abbott Road, about two blocks from Mercy Hospital.”
— “‘No one knows where it came from,’ said Michael J. DeGeorge, Buffalo police spokesman. ‘It does not appear the individual was threatened.’ ”
— “DeGeorge asked anyone with information to contact police on the confidential tipcall line at 847-2255”

WIVB reports:
— “It was certainly a shock to see a cross in his front yard. The man, whose identity we are concealing, said he didn’t actually realize what it was at first. The man, from south Buffalo, tells News 4 he saw it laying in his yard a few days ago, but thought it was just scraps of wood. It wasn’t until this morning that he saw what it really was.”
— “‘I noticed that it was in the shape of a cross. So I picked it up and didn’t really realize what was written on the other side, but when I flipped it over I noticed it was a KKK symbol,’ said the victim”

Buffalo, NY - image of "KKK" cross in man's yard (Photo: WIVB Channel 4)
Buffalo, NY - image of "KKK" cross in man's yard (Photo: WIVB Channel 4)

Video

Colorado: Nazi Group Reassigned New Area in “Adopt-A-Highway” Contract

Colorado: Nazi Group Reassigned New Area in “Adopt-A-Highway” Contract
— KUSA-TV reports:
“Nazi group bumped from adopted highway by Baptists”
— “The Colorado Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday that due to an error in processing an Adopt-A-Highway contract, a Nazi group will not get to adopt the stretch of highway it initially wanted.”
— “CDOT took the full blame for a contractual processing error and apologized for the confusion, saying the Elmwood Baptist Church had already adopted the stretch of highway on US 85 from 144th Avenue to Bridge Street in Brighton.”
— “A spokesman for CDOT says transportation officials contacted both groups and were able to reach an ‘amicable resolution.’ ”
— “The National Socialist Movement group is now adopting a stretch of US 85 from Bridge Street to just south of 168th Avenue, according to CDOT.”

— see also: “Colorado: ‘Neo-Nazis taking act on the road'”

Gaza: Human Rights Watch rejects Hamas’ claims on rockets

Gaza:  Human Rights Watch rejects Hamas’ claims on rockets
— BBC News:
“Human Rights Watch has rejected claims by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that it did not target civilians during the war in Gaza a year ago.”

Hamas launched hundreds of rockets against Israeli towns (Photo: AP)
Hamas launched hundreds of rockets against Israeli towns (Photo: AP)

— “‘Hamas’ claim that rockets were intended to hit Israeli military targets and only accidentally harmed civilians is belied by the facts,’ the New York based group said.”
— ” ‘Civilians were the target, deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime.’ ”

— “A UN-backed report accused both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes.”
— “A former international war crimes prosecutor, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, investigated the offensive and said crimes had been committed on both sides.”
— “The UN General Assembly demanded that both sides launch independent investigations into their behaviour during the offensive, called Operation Cast Lead by the Israeli Defence Force.”

Egypt: US aid diverted towards ‘minority rights’

Egypt: US aid diverted towards ‘minority rights’
— Al masry al youm.com
: “The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has decided to redirect funds earmarked for Egyptian NGOs… to financing ‘awareness programs’ highlighting minorities’ rights.
— “Agency officials did not state overtly that the ‘minorities’ in question referred to Egypt’s Coptic Christian community.”

Egypt rights groups call on government to address sectarianism, workers rights

Egypt: Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’ – Copts Dina and Maher El-Gohary

Egypt: Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’
— FOX News reports
: “Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment.  They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country.”

Dina and Maher El-Gohary, Persecuted Coptic Christians Ask Obama for Help

Peter Athanasius and 15 year old Daughter Dina
Peter Athanasius and 15 year old Daughter Dina

See also November 2009 report:

Egypt: 15 Year Old Egyptian Convert to Christianity Sends Plea to Obama — Dina el-Gowhary

Indonesia: Hundreds dressed down by sharia officers during raid on clothing

Indonesia: Hundreds dressed down by sharia officers during raid on clothing
— 100 women detained for wearing pants in Indonesia’s Aceh by “Sharia officers”
Jakarta Post: “The women targeted by the officers were allegedly wearing un-Islamic clothing and several of them did not wear headscarves, now compulsory in Aceh.”

A woman walks past by a sign advising people to wear Muslim attire at Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh. A local lawmaker says a controverisial bill allowing Shariah-style stoning and caning has gone into effect in the province. (Photo: Heri Juanda, AP)
A woman walks past by a sign advising people to wear Muslim attire at Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh. A local lawmaker says a controverisial bill allowing Shariah-style stoning and caning has gone into effect in the province. (Photo: Heri Juanda, AP)

See also:

Indonesia: Women Banned from Wearing Jeans and Pants – Sharia Police Plan Raids and Patrols

Indonesia: Women Urgently Finding New Clothes to Meet Sharia Standards to Avoid Arrest

Indonesia: 1500 Sharia Police Harrass Men, Women in Aceh

Indonesia: Tsunami ‘punishment’ for breaking Islamic law

Indonesia: Aceh’s Shariah Police ‘Stained Forever’ by Gang Rape

Indonesia: Massive Mob in Indonesia Protests Christmas Eve Service

Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir Promotion at Indonesian-Govt Sponsored Event

Indonesia Church Attacked, Burned – in Java – by Mob of 1,000

World AIDS Day: Hizb ut-Tahrir Calls for Stonings, Whippings, Islamic Caliphate

Indonesian Islamists Bully Villagers into Revoking Church Permit

Indonesia: Sharia Bill Calling for Stoning, Now Officially Law in Aceh

Asia: Shariah Asia Spread Appeases Islamists, Risks Rights