After an ordeal that included being publicly smeared as a prostitute and mentally ill, Iman Benghazi is recovering somewhere in the United States, thanks to a human rights group. Since she made her accusation, human rights groups say hundreds of women were also raped by Libyan troop s: The Libyan woman who caused international controversy when she claimed she was raped by Kadafi troops has left Libya for the United States, her sister told the Associated Press on Sunday. Marwa Obeidi said her sister Iman left Benghazi early Sunday morning, but it was not immediately clear where in the U.S. she was flying. In March, Obeidi burst into Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel, where foreign correspondents had been forced to stay while covering Kadafi’s regime. She claimed she had been stopped at a checkpoint, kidnapped and gang-raped by Kadafi’s soldiers. As reporters watched, the Libyan government officials responsible for escorting them approached and dragged Obeidi away. She disappeared for days afterward, surfacing in Tunisia and later Qatar, where she was suddenly expelled Thursday and sent to Benghazi. Marwa Obeidi told the Associated Press that a human rights group aided by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arranged for Iman and their father to travel in a private plane to Washington by way of Malta and Austria.
Continue reading …NEW YORK — The signature under the typewritten words on yellowing sheets of nearly century-old paper is unmistakable: Adolf Hitler, with the last few scribbled letters drooping downward. The date is 1919 and, decades before the Holocaust, the 30-year-old German soldier – born in Austria – penned what are believed to be Hitler’s first written comments calling for the annihilation of Jews. Written on a German army typewriter, Hitler’s letter has long been known to scholars. It is considered significant because it demonstrates how early he was forming his anti-Semitic views. The document was displayed Tuesday by the founder of a Jewish human rights organization that purchased what he says is the original letter last month. Hitler “set the gold standard about man’s inhumanity to man,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, named after the late Nazi hunter. Three weeks ago, the Los Angeles-based organization purchased the original for $150,000 from Profiles in History, a dealer in Calabasas Hills, Calif., which acquired the document from a dealer in Kansas, who in turn purchased it from a U.S. Army soldier named William F. Ziegler, according to the rabbi. Ziegler is said to have found the four typed pages in a Nazi archive near Nuremberg, Germany, in the final months of World War II. “The danger posed by Jewry for our people today finds expression in the undeniable aversion of wide sections of our people,” Hitler wrote in German. “The cause of this aversion … arises mostly from personal contact and from the personal impression that the individual Jew leaves – almost always an unfavorable one.” In one section, Hitler said that a powerful government could curtail the so-called “Jewish threat” by denying their rights. But “its final aim, however, must be the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether.” At the time, Hitler was serving in the German army, and had taken to riling up the troops with his anti-Semitic rants. A superior officer urged Hitler to put his ideas on paper. Known as the Gemlich letter, the document was certified as authentic in 1988 by handwriting expert Charles Hamilton, who had revealed the infamous “Hitler Diaries” to be forgeries. Adolf Gemlich created propaganda for the German army. Hitler wrote the letter to him at the suggestion of Captain Ulrich Mayr, to help popularize the notion that someone was responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I. Hitler signed his letter, “Mit vorzueglicher Hochachtung,” meaning with deepest esteem. The center plans to put Hitler’s letter on view at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles sometime in July. “This is a seminal document that belongs to future generations,” said the rabbi. Though it is insured for an undisclosed amount, “it’s priceless,” he added.
Continue reading …Last July, ABC and NBC highlighted a temper tantrum from Rep. Anthony Weiner, alleging on the House floor that the Republicans were denying health care to the heroes of 9/11. To Diane Sawyer, Weiner spoke for all of America: “Every now and then, someone seems to express the nation's frustration with the endless wrangling and delay in Congress.” Remember Weiner when liberal journalists roll their eyes at the stupidity of conservatives. Weiner’s social-media sex scandal was underplayed by the national media precisely because they thought their ultraliberal star was far too smart to commit these stupid sex pranks with women he barely knew on the Internet. The Old Media were clearly slow to jump on this story, even when Weiner all but admitted his guilt when he refused to deny he’d taken a picture of his own crotch and then couldn’t deny “with certitude” that this was his body. They knew what these answers meant, and yet they still waited for some other media – the New Media – to get to the bottom of it. Andrew Breitbart and his blog Big Government began this story, and they finished it, at least in terms of forcing Weiner to confess he lied to everyone – spouse, staff, media, and public. Breitbart was right in explaining why: There’s an obvious double standard when the liberal media cover political scandal. They’re a pack of hungry lions to devour Republicans; they are mellow leaf-eaters when Democrats cross an ethical line. Let’s recall the quick and dirty end of Republican Mark Foley’s career in 2006. When the story came out that Foley had sent lewd Internet messages to male congressional pages, the networks filed an amazing 152 stories over the first 12 days, almost all of them after Foley abruptly resigned. Foley’s scandal was a sex talk scandal. Investigators never found a physical relationship, but the media chewed that story clean to the bones. The timing – just weeks before midterm elections – surely was delicious. The media not only demanded that Foley go, but so did House Speaker Dennis Hastert, since he didn’t stop this apparent predation of teenage Hill volunteers. “But this is more than just one man's downfall,” insisted Matt Lauer on NBC. “It could be a major blow to the Republican Party, desperately trying to hold on to control of Congress in the coming midterm elections.” NBC’s story then carried angry soundbites from outraged Democrats. This is where the double standard’s transparently obvious. The media have worked overtime to limit the story. It’s about Weiner – and only Weiner. The new DNC chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, robotically insisted this was a “private matter” to CBS and CNN, and both networks let her get away with it. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Bob Schieffer couldn’t even ask a single question about it. As for comment from Republicans: Who cared what they thought? Unlike Lauer five years ago, NBC’s Meredith Vieira insisted on June 2 that Weiner remained a “rising star” of the Democrats. “This guy is a rising star in this state, certainly in the city of New York, considered a front-runner for the next mayoral campaign. He talks about the personal toll this is taking on his marriage. What about the political toll?” Chuck Todd said Weiner’s evasions were “odd” and “un-Weiner-like,” then he added something odd. He said “we all know he's probably answering tougher questions at home than he is in the dozen interviews he did yesterday.” They even admit they’re coddling him. The media’s lack of outrage was made more obvious the next morning, when Vieira asked “Meet the Press” David Gregory if other Democrats could have problems “if this story continues to have legs,” Gregory didn’t really see any legs. “There are still some outstanding questions about who sent the picture, was it him? I think if obviously something else comes to light, it's going to keep that story in the headlines. If not, I think he'll successfully be able to move past it.” Notice how supposedly hardened journalists at NBC blatantly tells us on TV they aren’t actively seeking out “something else” and are willing to usher Weiner right past his scandal? All the networks were trying to let this story die. None of them discussed it on the Sunday shows. The only obstacle was Team Breitbart. The liberal media claim to oppose the ascension of stupid politicians. But as Weinergate proves, they actually enable stupid politicians when the stupid ones are liberals. They are not the enforcers of political ethics and personal character. They’re just a reflexive partisan mob.
Continue reading …Cue the conspiracy theories in the land down under: Australian officials say they’ve been unable to locate decades’ worth of UFO records. After Great Britain released thousands of its own ‘X-files’ last year , the Sydney Morning Herald filed a Freedom of Information request for Australia’s version of the records, reports…
Continue reading …Outspoken Syrian-American blogger Amina Araf was grabbed on the street yesterday, someone claiming to be her cousin wrote on her blog. Araf wrote a blog entitled A Gay Girl in Damascus , which had spoken out in favor of the protest movement, according to MSNBC . A post yesterday from a woman…
Continue reading …These dogs aren’t afraid of the ruff waters. (Sorry, we had to.) This past weekend in Imperial Beach, Calif., more than 60 canines hit the waves to compete in the sixth annual Lowes Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competition. (PHOTOS: Surf Dogs Ride the Wave) The pups were escorted by their owners past the breakers
Continue reading …Scientific American posing a jarring question as headline today: “Will the Internet Stop on June 8?” And the answer is: Er, no. But the Internet will start to grow up a little. Tomorrow is World IPv6 Day, when Google, Facebook, YouTube, and other giants will conduct a 24-hour test of…
Continue reading …You don’t nab the exclusive rights to create Xbox 360 branded headphones and not put some theoretical hutzpah into it: at E3 this week, Mad Catz is showing off a trio of co-branded Tritton / Xbox 360 cans , or at least a trio of fragile plastic facsimiles. These three mock-ups the Catz crew showed us represent the physical design of the Warhead, Devastator, and Detonator models of the co-branded line of headsets — sporting wireless Dobly 7.1 surround sound, wireless analog, and USB connectivity, respectively. While all three models promise a slew of special sound features, the two wireless models have an exclusive shine: Xbox 360 microphone support without tethering themselves to the console’s controller. Not that we got to hear for ourselves; the mock-ups were non-functional, and fragile enough that show staff wasn’t feeling our enthusiasm for an ears-on demo. Still, we could dig ditching headset-to-controller leashes. Check out the gallery below to see all the bells, whistles, and switches, or hit the break for some meaty PR. Gallery: Mad Catz’ co-branded Xbox 360 / Tritton headsets: eyes-on Continue reading Mad Catz co-branded Xbox 360 / Tritton headsets: eyes-on, ears-off Mad Catz co-branded Xbox 360 / Tritton headsets: eyes-on, ears-off originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Maybe something’s just lost in translation: A poll of 30,000 people in 15 countries found Germany to be the world’s most unfunny country. But we’re not so amusing either: Russia and Turkey came in as the second and third least-funny, while Britain and the US rounded out the top…
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