April 24, 2008

Web Reconnaissance for 04/24/2008

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Bailout of the Year - Guess who's asking Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a bailout now? Hint: They are members of an exclusive club who bet wrong on the credit markets last fall. No, it's not a cabal of Wall Streeters, but Democrats in Congress. (READ MORE)

Plutonium on the Euphrates - What really happened in the Syrian desert near the Euphrates River on the night of September 6, 2007? The Bush Administration is finally due to answer that question today when it briefs Members of Congress. (READ MORE)

Battlefield Promotions - President Bush took far too long to find his best war-fighting generals in Iraq, but now that he has them we're glad to see he is giving them battlefield promotions. That's the meaning of yesterday's Pentagon announcement that General David Petraeus and Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno will receive new commands later this year. (READ MORE)

Syria's nuke facility was nearly completed when Israel bombed it - The Bush administration is set to tell Congress today that a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in September, but that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said. (READ MORE)

Clinton grabs $3.5 million after victory - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton parlayed her Pennsylvania primary victory into a prodigious $3.5 million overnight fundraising haul, and yesterday urged superdelegates to heed her self-defined lead in the popular vote when selecting the Democratic presidential nominee. (READ MORE)

Torture victims seen in Zimbabwe - Doctors at a secret medical center set up in Harare say they have been inundated with patients suffering burns, beatings and wounds received during torture sessions by youth militia and aging veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe. (READ MORE)

McCain retools his image on domestic issues - With a broadside last week against "greedy" corporate CEOs and his current campaign tour of places Republican candidates usually miss, Sen. John McCain is in the middle of a political rebranding effort to show the war hero can also master poverty and economic pain. (READ MORE)

Petraeus tapped for Central Command - Gen. David H. Petraeus, credited for a counterinsurgency plan that turned the tide in Iraq, now will be in charge of two wars, and top Pentagon officials hope that his leadership will have the same success in Afghanistan. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Hugh Hewitt: Some of My Best Friends Are Liberals. None of Them Are Terrorists - When George Stephanopoulos asked Barack Obama about the presidential candidate’s friendship with William Ayers, the Clinton staffer-turned-ABC-talking-head touched off a storm of protest on the left. While no one could deny that Ayers and his wife had been part of the terrorist group The Weathermen, many rushed forward to assert that both were now well-respected members of the Chicago mainstream. The controversy looked likely to die out at least within the MSM after a few days of focus because of the general theory that even hard core and violent revolutionaries like Ayers and Dohrn can atone and make amends, and that their friends of today ought not to be tarred with their sins of 30 years ago. This was Obama’s defense –“when I was 8 years old!—and it was working. (READ MORE)

Ann Coulter: You Don't Need To Be A Weatherman To Know Which Candidate Blows - The key problem for Hillary's campaign is that normal people reel back in horror at her association with the Clinton administration. (Which is why, as her supporter, I refer to her as simply "Hillary.") If Hillary could run exclusively on her record since becoming a senator from New York, she'd be a relatively moderate Democrat who hates the loony left -- as we found out this week when a tape of Hillary denouncing Moveon.org surfaced. Think Joe Biden in a pantsuit. But because of her unfortunate marriage, Hillary comes with a cast of undesirables like James Carville, Paul Begala, Terry McAuliffe, Joe Conason -- and of course Bill Clinton... (READ MORE)

Larry Elder: How Dare They Ask Dems Tough Questions! - "Sen. Obama, you also oppose Bush tax cuts, and claim that they take money away from the Treasury. But President Kennedy signed across-the-board tax cuts in the 1960s and said, 'It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low -- and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.' Was he wrong?" I wrote that a few weeks before the Pennsylvania debate between Sens. Clinton and Obama. And ABC's Charlie Gibson, much to my surprise, asked Sen. Obama a similar question: "You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, 'I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was 28 percent.' It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling if you went to 28 percent..." (READ MORE)

Victor Davis Hanson: A New Environmentalism - Tuesday was Earth Day, and it reminded us how environmentalism has helped to preserve the natural habitat of the United States -- reducing the manmade pollution of our soils, air and water that is a byproduct of comfortable modern industrial life. But now we are in a new phase of global environmental challenges, as billions of people across an interconnected and resource-scarce world seek an affluent lifestyle once confined to Europe and the U.S. No longer are the old environmental questions of pollution versus conservation so simply framed. Instead, the choices facing us, at least for the next few decades, are not between bad and good, but between bad and far worse -- and involve wider questions of global security, fairness and growing scarcity. (READ MORE)

George Will: A Nation Held Back By (Lack of) Education - If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. -- "A Nation At Risk" (1983) WASHINGTON -- Let us limp down memory lane to mark this week's melancholy 25th anniversary of a national commission's report that galvanized Americans to vow to do better. Today the nation still ignores what had been learned years before 1983. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once puckishly said that data indicated that the leading determinant of the quality of public schools, measured by standardized tests, was the schools' proximity to Canada. (READ MORE)

Matt Towery: Pitifully Biased Media Stung Again By Clinton Win in Pennsylvania - As our InsiderAdvantage polling showed over the past week, there was never any doubt that Hillary Clinton would win the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary by a margin of between 7 and 10 points. That, my friends, is a big win. But to hear the pundits on most of the news networks in their coverage early Tuesday night -- excepting at least FoxNews and MSNBC -- Hillary Clinton was a dead duck. Of course, some of their comments were based on these absolutely absurd exit polls. As I have said many times, exit polls are garbage. Why the networks waste their sponsors' money on this rubbish is beyond me. (READ MORE)

Steve Chapman: Chicago's Misfire on Gun Violence - When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before. But those options don't appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes is a crackdown on assault weapons. I'm tempted to say this is the moral equivalent of a placebo -- a sugar pill that is irrelevant to the malady at hand. But that would be unfair. Placebos, after all, sometimes have a positive effect. Assault weapons bans, not so much. If there are too many guns in Chicago, it's not because of any statutory oversight. The city has long outlawed the sale and possession of handguns. It also forbids assault weapons. If prohibition were the answer, no one would be asking the question. (READ MORE)

John McCaslin: Stop At the Deli - Diplomats from terrorist-supporting nations would not be able to venture more than one-half mile beyond the United Nations complex in New York City under a bill to be introduced by a U.S. congressman. "One-half mile is more than enough space for lodging, food and other necessities, but it will be easier and more cost-effective for the intelligence community to monitor suspected individuals when necessary," explains Rep. Paul Broun, Georgia Republican. The congressman says the United States is required under the 1947 United Nations Headquarters Act to allow diplomats into the country for official business, including foreigners who would otherwise be ineligible for U.S. visas. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: Jimmy Carter Doesn't Get It - Just what about total annihilation of the Jews by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people does Jimmy Carter not understand? Carter's latest leap into the foreign policy breach resulted in his declaration that the terrorist organization Hamas had accepted Israel's "right to exist," if Israel occupied a Palestinian state on Palestinian territories and retreated to pre-1967 Arab-Israeli war borders, borders changed after Israel was attacked by some of the very people who still want the nation's elimination. The working strategy of Israel's enemies is: if at first you don't succeed in killing enough Jews, then try, try again. Hamas immediately denied Carter's claim it is willing to recognize Israel and introduced the usual caveats about Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, "right of return" for "Palestinian refugees" and so forth. (READ MORE)

Meryl Yourish: The UN: Good news/bad news - The good news: Members of the Security Council walked out on Libya when the Libyan ambassador compared Gaza to a concentration camp, and accused the Israelis of genocide. The bad news: Well, Libya’s still on the UNSC. It’s a most peculiar form of genocide that Israel is accused of. The Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza keeps increasing. I guess it must be some special form of Muslim genocide, where the word means “increasing the population” not “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”. Although that is exactly what the Muslim world has done to its Jewish population, and could frankly also be applied to what the Palestinians are doing to their Christians, but Christians are a religious group, not a cultural group, so I guess it can’t apply. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: They Like Me, They Really Like Me! - Hey, just weeks after receiving my first threat, I've been singled out by Media Matters for extra special attention! The subject is AP photographer Bilal Hussein, and his recent release from being held by Iraqi authorities. Media Matters is typically sneering as they discuss how he was freed, and how us "warbloggers" were so utterly and completely wrong in all our discussion of him. What their slamming is short on is facts. But that's OK. Facts aren't their main focus, it's discrediting "conservative" voices. Facts would often get in the way. (READ MORE)

Cassy Fiano: Why Jim DeMint should be McCain's running mate - There's been a lot of chatter about who John McCain will choose to be his running mate. Most worrying is the speculation about Joe Lieberman taking the veep spot. That would be a bad, bad idea. Already conservatives are angry with John McCain. And while McCain is showing that he can win crossover Democrats, he hasn't shown that he can reach out to conservatives. When he does try to, it comes across as fake, forced. For McCain to win, he needs to be genuine. He isn't a conservative, and he shouldn't try to pretend that he is. He should just be himself, be honest and up front about where he stands, and find another way to reach out to conservatives without coming across as condescending. And the best way to do that is to choose a conservative running mate. (READ MORE)

Ron Winter: Chickens Roosting on a Double-Digit Smackdown; Obama's Indiana Speech Scores an Easy 'A' - It looks like the chickens came home to roost in the national Democratic Party. Right on top of Barack Obama's head. Hillary Clinton, who was all but counted out of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination a month ago out-polled the self-anointed nominee by 10 percent in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary Tuesday and suddenly the tables have again turned. Obama didn't wait around for the bad news. He flew off to Indiana where he gave a speech that I would have scored an easy 'A' if he had given it in one of my college classes. It was full of hope and fire, and never-give-up determination, delivered with an intensity that had the crowd all but forgetting what was going on slightly to the east. (READ MORE)

Steve Schippert: General Petraeus To CENTCOM - General David Petraeus, who commanded the 2007-2008 turnaround in Iraq and oversaw the and directed the thus far successful offensive(s) against al-Qaeda there, has been named the next Commanding General at CENTCOM, announced by Secretary of Defense Gates today. (Note: Technically, it is a recommendation still requiring Congressional confirmation, but successful blocking opposition amounting to much more than additional anti-war political grandstanding is incredibly difficult to envision.) “Gates said he expected Petraeus to make the shift in late summer or early fall. The Pentagon chief also announced that Bush will nominate Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno to replace Petraeus in Baghdad. “ (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: The Arab Mind: Part XI - [All posts in this series can be found at The Arab Mind archive.] Male Sexual Anxiety and the Danger of Female Sexuality Male sexual anxiety is a universal part of male psychosexual development. In the modern Western world, attempts to minimize the anxiety are often expressed through crude "locker room" humor, pornography, and other manner of objectifying women. A women who is primarily an object for sexual gratification is much less threatening to an insecure man than a fully three dimensional woman who has her own desires and independent mind. The idea that such a woman could find the man lacking in his sexual prowess and endowment is a great source of anxiety for many men who have difficulty negotiating the developmental milestones along the way toward adult relatedness. (READ MORE)

The Shield of Achilles: St. George's Day parade cancelled due to fear of Muslim reaction - The next time someone accuses guys like me of being alarmists for using terms like "Eurabia", or for warning others about the dangers of too much too soon Muslim immigration in Europe, I'll just refer them to this item in the Daily Mail. As you read this, keep in mind that St. George is England's patron saint, and the cross on England's flag is the cross of St. George: “A St George's Day parade through an inner-city area hit by race riots has been cancelled following police advice. Community groups had planned to stage the multi-cultural event in Bradford and 1,500 schoolchildren were due to take part.” (READ MORE)

Right Wing Nut House: Is Obama in Trouble? - Conventional wisdom says Obama is not in any danger of losing the nomination as long as he remains ahead in the pledged delegate count. I would say that this is true at this point despite his blow out loss yesterday to Clinton in Pennsylvania. And yes friends, it was a blow out. When you lose 62% of the white vote, that’s a blowout. When you lose 70% of the Catholic vote, that is a blowout. When you lose 57% of the Jewish vote, that’s a blowout. When you lose 58% of churchgoers, that is a blowout. When you lose 54% of workers making less than $50,000 a year (and win only those making less than $15,000 and more than $150,000), that’s a blowout. When you lose 63% of seniors, that’s a blowout. When you outspend your opponent by 3-1 and still lose by 10 points, that’s a blowout. (READ MORE)

Right Truth: Moqtada out? Replaced by ??? - The only thing keeping Moqtada al Sadr from becoming a political leader and a religious leader, even an ayatollah, was that he lacked the seminary training and polish of a top cleric. This past year Sadr tried to remedy that problem by attending clerical school in Iran. Sadr had high hopes. Unfortunately Sadr's recent actions have brought the wrath of his family down upon him. Now I hear on Fox News that Sadr's brother is being groomed to take Sadr's place. (I don't find anything in the news about this, perhaps I'm hallucinating, so don't quote me.) I think Sadr's family would have a very difficult time putting him and his followers on the sidelines, but stranger things have happened. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: How Can Even Liberals Buy This Sort Of Nonsense About Iraq? - Paul Craig Roberts, whose main claim to fame is being an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, who later became ultra liberal and ultra insane, has written a completely crackers column about Iraq for Counterpunch. Just read these excerpts: “...(T)he American sheeple have accepted a succession of transparent lies: weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda connections and complicity in the 9/11 attack, overthrowing a dictator and “bringing democracy” to Iraqis. ...The fact is that Bush invaded Iraq with the intent of turning Iraq into an American colony. The so-called government of al-Maliki is not a government. Maliki is the well paid front man for US colonial rule. Maliki’s government does not exist outside the protected Green Zone, the headquarters of the American occupation.” (READ MORE)

Dan Riehl: So, Obama's A Putz - Perhaps you remember when Maureen Dowd made a crack about the size of Barack Obama's ears. He confronted her not long after and said he was sensitive about his ears. One has to wonder if prima-bama isn't just a bit too sensitive about everything. He doesn't tale criticism well, at all. And then there's his wife. As I recall, she once made an offhand comment basically making him look like an ass. I think she called him a "typical male," meant in a purely derogatory fashion. Obama really is starting to look like a spoiled child - smart, good-looking, with the gift of gab; but something, somewhere down inside of him tells him he just doesn't measure up. I'd wager his wife dominates him in termsof their relationship. (READ MORE)

McQ: Al Qaeda faces a backlash - Al Qaeda is facing growing criticism for its tactics and its goals from those who have, until now, supported them: “Al Qaeda increasingly faces sharp criticism from once-loyal sympathizers who openly question its ideology and tactics, including attacks that kill innocent Muslims, according to U.S. intelligence officials, counter-terrorism experts and the group’s own communications. A litany of complaints target Osama bin Laden’s network and its affiliates for their actions in Iraq and North Africa, emphasis on suicide bombings instead of political action and tepid support for, or outright antagonism toward, militant groups pressing the Palestinian cause.” (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: The nuances of Bill Ayers - Sol Stern has been on the case of Bill Ayers for the past few years, not for his work as a terrorist in the Weather Underground but for his work as an educator at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In 2006, Stern devoted a long City Journal essay to Ayers in "The Ed Schools' Latest -- and Worst -- Humbug." Now Stern returns with an online column on "Obama's real Bill Ayers problem." Stern holds the work performed by Ayers in his day job against him: “Ayers's politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. He still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism. This time, however, he does it from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America's future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students.” (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Beat him and they will come - Hillary Clinton got more than just a reason to continue her campaign from her 10-point drubbing of Barack Obama Tuesday in Pennsylvania — she got ten million reasons. In the 24 hours after the primary victory, Hillary collected a record $10 million from on-line donors, giving her renewed credibility — and putting her campaign back in the black: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign says it raised $10 million in Internet donations after her Pennsylvania primary victory on Tuesday night. If so, that’s a record haul and one desperately needed by Clinton, who is essentially broke after Democratic rival Barack Obama forced her to spend all her resources to capture the must-win state.” (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Count them - Upon further review, Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton’s victory in Michigan should count. After Pennsylvania, Clinton has a lead in the popular vote over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama if you count Florida and Michigan, which the Democratic Party disenfranchised. Most commentators are now willing to give her Florida because neither campaigned there and both were on the ballot. But she was on the Michigan ballot, not he. So Obama’s people argue Michigan should not count. Even Karl Rove falls for this argument. Clinton won the state 55% to 40% for uncommitted. In other words, Michiganders (as opposed to the Michigoose) had a choice. 55% chose her. (READ MORE)

A Newt One: Vultural Jihad: American Politics BAU - As we head into the Democrat Brokered Convention in Denver and the vacuous rantings of the Leftinistra Whinosphere, I can't help but see the enemies within on the run. 40+ years of socialist/marxist/stalinist garbage has come to a shrilling head and the members thereof cannot help but eat each other alive. Yes. I said we have them on the run. Just like Al Qaida in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan - two peas in a pod, as it were. The enemy is the enemy is the enemy no matter how you look at it. As the enemy, the Leftinistra - armies of the socialist democrat - spar back and forth about who has more of what following and who is electable or not, the feminists and the racists are tearing at each other's throats and clawing each other's eyes. (READ MORE)

Adventures of a Former Detailed Recruiter: Predictability - 2008 will be my third year of writing on this blog. This is the third time in those three years that I have written an entry about waivers, felons, and the military. It's like those swallows who go to the same monastary during their migration. Earlier this week the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a report on the number of felony waivers granted by the Army Services. The report covered all the services, but I'm only going to write about the Army because, frankly, I'm just not in the mood to research and crunch the numbers for everyone. Needless to say, when a report comes out saying the Army recruited felons, the wire service story is soon to follow. “Data released by a congressional committee shows that the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007.” (READ MORE)

The Anchoress: Is Ethanol crossing an Ethical line? - Just last month I wrote at Pajamas Media: “…proponents of ethanol, despite growing evidence that food energies are causing some unexpected environmental problems of their own, press on with the idea of using fiber and food to create energy, even though the UN reports that world food supplies are quickly dwindling” Our food bill is certainly feeling the effects, too - and now we see food vendors limiting the amount of rice that may be purchased. So…thanks to the noble environmentalists, we’re not allowed to drill for the huge beds of oil we own; because we’re not allowed to drill and refine our own resources, our heating and fuel bills are skyrocketing, our grocery bills are rising and - most troublingly - we may be facing food shortages…and still mucking up Gaia, to boot. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Rage boy - Paul Auster's "Vietnam me act crazy" article in the New York Times is that worst of confessions: that kind that is accidentally funny. Explaining his strange behavior on a certain day in the 1960s, Auster says, “Being crazy struck me as a perfectly sane response to the hand I had been dealt — the hand that all young men had been dealt in 1968. The instant I graduated from college, I would be drafted to fight in a war I despised to the depths of my being, and because I had already made up my mind to refuse to fight in that war, I knew that my future held only two options: prison or exile.” Maddened by these alternatives, Auster went off and raised comparative hell. (READ MORE)

Big Dog: The DNC and the Will of the People - For the past several months we have heard the leadership of the Democratic Party say that the will of the people should not be undone. We have heard that super delegates should vote for the person that the people selected and that those super delegates who are in elected positions should follow the will of their constituents. I believe that the super delegates should select whomever they personally want regardless of the will of the people but only because that is how the rules are written for the super delegates. However, If the Democrats decide that the will of the people must be obeyed then they need to come up with a way of looking at the people as a group of subsets. Just because a state voted for Obama does not mean that every elected super delegate from that state has to go for him as well. (READ MORE)

Dave Ross: Once Upon a Radical - Although I am rather appalled to find myself agreeing with Tom Hayden about anything, I was actually able to make it to the end of “Why Hillary Makes My Wife Scream” without gnawing my arm off. I’m attracted to any title that couples Hillary with “scream,” or screech, but to my disappointment, the article was not about “that voice” or the ability of the former first lady to make a fingernail across a chalkboard seem soothing by comparison. If you are familiar with Edvard Munch’s painting “the Scream,” you may have some idea of how I react whenever this woman is on television. Seeing her every night on the news since December has reinforced just what a disaster it would be hearing her every night of the year for an entire “term.” (READ MORE)

BostonMaggie: Protesting, Freedom of Speech and Reason - Lately there are stories of people being uncivilized at Iraq War protests and counter protests. I do not have much experience with these specific events. I have been to a small number of such confrontations in my life. My experiences so far have all conformed with how I think such activities should be carried out. When I went to the Kennedy School to protest Khatami speaking there, everyone stood with their respective groups. There were discussions, but no violence. Some people were angry and veered dangerously close to explosion. However, when that happened, someone allied with their cause would pull them back, figuratively, sometimes literally. For the most part discussions were thoughtful and as respectful as possible. I exercised my right to speak, to peacefully assemble. No one infringed on that. In turn, I infringed on no one else's rights. (READ MORE)

Victor Comras: The Soaring Price of Oil and Terrorism - A few days ago, when oil was just $115.00 per barrel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the price of oil was still “unrealistically low,” and that “Oil … needs to discover its real value." And, within a few days the market seemed to comply driving the price up to $120.00 per barrel! The effects of this spiraling oil price on the US and world economy has been staggering, and the impact will continue to be intensified as the price of oil works its way through the international economic system. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups could never had imagined that events they set off at the turn of the millennium could ever have caused such oil dislocation and demand around the world. Against this background it is with great trepidation that I put my pen to addressing the link between the price of oil and terrorism. (READ MORE)

Dr. Sanity: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL COST OF WAR - There was an interesting "exposé" in the news the other day, which I'm sure will receive a lot of attention by the lefty blogs--intent as they are in always bruiting the evil of the US military. It never occurs to them that they themselves represent at least one of the reasons why military personnel are sometimes unable to come to terms with the actions they are called upon to do in war. Such self-reflection on the part of the plitical left would require insight, honesty, and integrity--none of which are in abundance on that side of the political spectrum these days. Throughout history war has always resulted in a significant psychological cost to the men (and now women) who are members of the military. The Iraq war is no different. (READ MORE)

Freedom Eden: The Democrats, Race, and Electability - All is not well under the Big Tent at the Democrat Party. As the primary season drags on for the Dems, they are beginning to show their true colors. The Dems are obsessed with color, skin color. Although the GOP is so often characterized as the party of rich, white men, and as hostile to diversity, it's the Dems that are struggling with racial issues. From the New York Times: “It is the question that has hung over Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and it loomed large on Tuesday night after his loss to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania: Why has he been unable to win over enough working-class and white voters to wrap up the Democratic nomination?” (READ MORE)

The Monkey Tennis Centre: UK Muslims launch group to counter extremism; extremists counter with said extremism - Unlike the rest of the BBC’s news operation, its Newsnight programme (it's on late in the evening on BBC2) isn’t afraid to tackle stories about Islamic extremism in Britain. Last night it carried a report on the launch of a think-tank set up by British Muslims to counter Islamic extremism. The Quilliam Foundation (named after a 19th century British convert to Islam) aims to set up rehabilitation centres for former and ‘wavering’ radicals, organise training for preachers, and counter attempts to radicalise Muslims in colleges, prisons and mosques. Its website is here, and you can read more about the organisation, and the background of some of its members, here. (READ MORE)

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