Ugandan Police: Source for Newsnight Child Sacrifice Story told “Pack of Lies”

Ugandan Police investigating Newsnight journalist’s “professional record”

From the Uganda New Vision:

THE Police have dismissed claims by Angello Pollino, a Catholic Evangelist in northern Uganda, that he sacrificed over 70 people.

Pollino 60, a resident of Adoki-Imeldi village in Apac district, who claimed that he sacrificed people, including his own son, was broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) last month.

“The information Pollino gave to BBC about his involvement in child sacrifice was ‘a pack of lies’ which has tarnished the image of the country,” Moses Binoga, the head of the anti-human sacrifice and trafficking task force, said yesterday.

I blogged on the January Newsnight report – and raised some concerns about it – here. A sceptical piece also appeared in the London Review of Books blog, by anthropologist Adam Kuper, and the BBC responded to criticisms in the comments section.

The Newsnight piece was an exposé of a supposed upsurge of killings by witchdoctors in Uganda to acquire human body-parts; Pollino (in other reports named as “Polino Angela”) was featured as ex witch-doctor who had converted to Christianity. Why had he not been arrested before now? Uganda’s Minister for Ethics,  James Nsaba Buturo, told the BBC it was because

To punish retrospectively would cause a problem… if we can persuade Ugandans to change, that is much better than going back into the past.

The programme also featured journalist Tim Whewall visiting a shrine and being shown a liver which he told us may or may not have been human; but we’ll never know for sure because Pollino persuaded the witch-doctor there to change his ways and to burn everything. This seemed to me rather alarming as the shrine ought to have been regarded as a potential crime scene – unless the whole thing was overhyped nonsense.

According to the New Vision, Pollino remains in custody while “further investigations” take place, and the police are “investigating Whewel’s professional record and the purpose of his visit to Uganda.”

WorldNetDaily Sees Muslim Conspiracy against Churches

WorldNetDaily gathers together some disparate bits and pieces to present its fearful readers with evidence that

Christian churches fed ‘Islam lite’: Experts say Muslim Brotherhood carrying out domination strategy in U.S.

The “experts” are a certain Dorothy Cutter and Steve Emerson, and some unnamed sources. We learn of a church “where an Islamic speaker was a guest”, and that “Hartford Seminary’s website displays photos of smiling, hijab-wearing young women standing arm-in-arm with clergy women in clerical collars”. Among other bits and pieces, we read that

Even high-profile leaders such as megachurch pastor Rick Warren of Saddelback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., have spoken to organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America, a Muslim Brotherhood group.

WND editor Joseph Farah hates his fellow-Christian Rick Warren, so it’s easy to see why that’s there.

But these are the silliest bits:

The effort to co-opt Christian churches includes an attempt to water down Christian theology.

Islamization Watch published a photo on its website of a British Muslim banner on a railing in the Wood Green section of London. The banner, which read “Jesus was a Muslim,” stalled traffic and created near-riot conditions so that police had to be called.

P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry write in their WND book, “Muslim Mafia” that Muslims want to Islamize Jesus.

The banner was in fact part of an “roadshow” under the control of the British Islamist Anjem Choudary. Choudary is deservedly one of the most unpopular persons in the UK, and he regularly performs publicity stunts calculated to cause outrage. But a banner reading “Jesus was a Muslim” is hardly in itself going to “stall traffic” and create “near-riot conditions” in a largely secularised country like the UK - the public disturbance in Wood Green that his antics provoked had other causes. And the idea that this was an attempt to “co-opt Christian churches” is just laughable.

As for “Muslims want to Islamize Jesus”, that’s not news: Muslims have always regarded Jesus as a prophet, and rejected the Christian idea of the incarnation as a blunder. Given all the characters from the Hebrew Bible who have been “Christianized”  – indeed, the text itself has been appropriated by Christians as the “Old Testament” – this is hardly an isolated phenomenon.

Finally:

One Islamic expert who formerly worked with the U.S. government on terror said Muslims even use the writings of disaffected Christian.

“Muslims are making use of Bart Ehrman’s commentaries on the New Testament, books that now deny the authority of the New Testament and portray Jesus as simply a man,” he said. “You will never hear a Muslim say that Jesus is the Son of God.”

But Ehrman is hardly writing for Muslims, however they may be using his writings for their own purposes; the Christian website Answering Islam acknowledges that, and suggests Ehrman can be used to counter Muslim beliefs about Jesus. However, WND hates real Biblical scholarship as much as it detests scientists – and just as it likes to promote the idea that “Darwinists” are Nazis and Communists, it’s useful to create an impression that Bible scholars are somehow in league with Muslims.

Of course New Testament scholars are primarily concerned with the historical human Jesus. Some of these scholars are Christians who also have theological views about Jesus as God, others are secular, some – like Geza Vermes – practice Judaism, and doubtless others follow other religions. All of them, though, apply a scholarly method which requires assessing the New Testament as a historical text like any other. “Authority” as a theological concept is neither here nor there – although Biblical fundamentalism inspires numerous cranks who are regularly showcased by WND. To include Ehrman in an article about the “Muslim Brotherhood’s domination strategy” is simply bad faith.

There have been cases where Muslims have downplayed extreme views and connections for PR reasons, and have as a result enjoyed access to institutions and individuals who should have shown more discernment. I blogged on one such example just yesterday. But WND’s foolish and dishonest posturing is of no help in identifying situations where this occured.

Amnesty International Worker Suspended after Publicly Criticising Links to Islamist Group

As is being widely reported, Gita Sahgal, the head of the Gender Unit at Amnesty International UK, has been suspended from work after an article was published in today’s Sunday Times describing her warnings of possible damage to Amnesty’s reputation due to links with a former Guantanamo inmate named Moazzam Begg and his Cageprisoners organisation:

Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity’s Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights,” Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation’s leaders on January 30. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”

 …”As a former Guantanamo detainee it was legitimate to hear his experiences, but as a supporter of the Taliban it was absolutely wrong to legitimise him as a partner,” Sahgal told The Sunday Times.

The article includes a lame response from Amnesty:

Asked if she thought Begg was a human rights advocate, [Anne] Fitzgerald [policy director of Amnesty’s international secretariat] said: “It’s something you’d have to speak to him about. I don’t have the information to answer that.”

This seems negligent to me: surely Amnesty should have looked into Begg’s views and the nature of his activist activities before deciding how much involvement to have with him? Fitzgerald is not being asked how Begg regards himself – she’s being asked how Amnesty regards him. A statement on the Amnesty website is similarly evasive:

…Today, Amnesty International is being criticised for speaking alongside [Begg] and for being “soft” on the Taleban, when our record is one of unreserved opposition to their abuses over the years. 

Interestingly, the US and other governments that have violated human rights standards in the name of countering terrorism justify those violations by saying that our security can only be protected by violating the rights of others.  Mr Begg is one of the people that the US government defined as “other.”

But there is no place for the “other” in human rights because to argue that some people are more ‘deserving’ than others of having their rights protected is to argue that some beings are less than human.

To make the obvious point: just because Begg had his rights violated by the USA, it does not therefore follow it is a good idea to work with him. The wretched David Irving had his rights violated in Austria, but I can’t imagine him going on tour as part of an Amnesty freedom of speech campaign.

Cageprisoners has been under critical scrutiny for a while; Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens has written several pieces for Standpoint on the subject, noting, for example, Begg’s unconvincing efforts to play down his links to Anwar al-Awlaki, and the site’s reproduction of a letter from Abdul Muhid, who was jailed in the UK for incitement following protests over the Danish Muhammad cartoons. In his letter, Muhid thanks Cageprisoners for arranging for Muslims to write to him, including children. From looking around the Cageprisoners website, it seems to me that it goes beyond calling for due process and humane conditions for prisoners, to misrepresenting some dangerous characters as prisoners of conscience.

Sahgal’s suspension does not bode well – and disciplining an employee as a response to what might regarded as “whistle-blowing” is a likely to bring not just bad publicity, but also a costly employment tribunal.

Alan Lake vs Charles Darwin

While researching another subject I had reason to cast an eye over Alan Lake’s “4 Freedoms Worldwide” website. Lake, as has been widely reported, is a businessman who has supported the English Defence League in various ways, and his “4 Freedoms” website is a discussion forum for criticising Islam in the name of defending Western civilisation.

Here’a a diagram he posted on the subject of “Left Wing vs Right Wing”. Oh dear:

The spelling shows that this has come from an American source; the reference to “Liberal Democrats”  – placed close to “Totalitarianism”  – clearly refers to the liberal end of the US Democratic Party than to the centre-left UK party of that name. The fun stuff is the descriptions of the three dictators, with Stalin, Mao and Hitler all described as “Socialist Darwinist Communist killers”. At the base we read:

All of these Dictators believed in a so called “Master Race” which stems from Darwin’s so-called higher level of Evolution.

English Defence League Faction Meets with Charlie Flowers and “Cheerleader” Friends

A few days ago a post on Talk Islam suggested a link between Charlie Flowers, the “Cheerleader” gang of cyber-bullies and the English Defence League. I was sceptical of the evidence provided, but for reasons of his own Flowers has now decided to resolve the issue:

  

That’s Flowers in the middle, with the EDL’s Joel Titus behind him. To his left are Darren Marsh of the English Democratic Party, along with one of Flowers’ “Cheerleader” associates and a woman whose identity is unknown to me.  I had thought the man on the right was Matthew Kaplan, but I’ve since been informed that it’s not (this entry has been re-edited as a result) - instead, it’s someone else in the EDL. It’s not much of a scoop on my part; Flowers knows that I keep an eye on the “Cheerleadered” Facebook page, where this picture appeared, and that publicity from me would be inevitable. A few days ago I was sent an email from an anonymous source claiming that “the Cheerleaders are now organising regular meets in town between journalists, EDL, and the Muslim Debate Initiative”.

Titus was featured in a recent article about the EDL that appeared in Searchlight, posted here:

Joel Titus, the violent teenage leader of the EDL’s youth wing, has voiced loud concern, along with several other members of “the inner circle”, over the glib acceptance of known nazis… Following a recent demonstration in London, EDL supporters led by Titus clashed with Nazi-saluting Chelsea hooligans, leaving one of the Chelsea fans hospitalised. It is reported that Titus now wears a stab vest in fear of reprisals following threats made on the Stormfront nazi web forum…

Titus was cautioned by the police last month after hitting a photographer; he was also featured in a recent Daily Mail article:

He sticks to the ‘peaceful movement’ mantra but a text I later receive from him ahead of an EDL demo in London reveals his involvement with the hooligans. It reads: ‘Right lads, the “unofficial” meet for the 31st (London) is going to be 12 o’clock at The Hole In The Wall pub just outside Waterloo Station. I will be there just before that. Remember lads were (sic) going as Casuals Utd and if you could obtain a poppy to wear it would make us look good even if we are kicking off. lol. Cheers lads. Joel “Arsenal” Titus.’

Flowers and his friends, meanwhile, claim to be pro-Muslim but anti-Islamic extremist; this is at odds with much of the rhetoric of the EDL, which has played lip service to the same distinction between ordinary Muslims and extremists but which in practice has  been simply anti-Muslim, with banners such as “No More Mosques“, caps bearing the word “Infidel”, and the use of Crusader imagery (1). Perhaps Titus sees a link with Flowers and the “Cheerleaders” as a way to move forward his vision of a more moderate EDL; Flowers runs a music band called the Fighting Cocks, which purports to oppose Islamic extremism. The band’s website contains the following statement:

The West’s cultural weapons of mass destruction – rock music, videos, blue jeans, iPods, internet including pornography, etc.- are quite enough to bring down military jihad Islam over time. So is the picture of Western decadent luxury. Contain them so they cannot expand; defend the borders; and allow the market place to work on the rest. If they choose to keep out Western influences they will end up like Burma and North Korea; if they don’t, the Cultural Weapons of Mass Destruction and the promise of earthly delights will have their way on their youth… Radical Islam and the culture death shouldn’t be more attractive to young people than what we can offer.

Above this statement is a link to the Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare in the USA and to the login page of a secure US governmental site; the other side of Flowers and his friends is that they like to play pranks on Islamic extremists, and they have contructed an elaborate network of references to intelligence terms and agencies in other to create the impression of being “cyber-warriors” of some sort. On Facebook, they have created a number of pseudonymous identities, which form the basis for groups such as ”the Cheerleaders” and the “Hur al-Ayn”.

However, while much of this is trivial, they engage in other, less savoury activities. In September I received an email from one “Cheerleader” containing a direct death threat against a named Muslim extremist, and, as I have outlined in a number of posts, they have conducted a campaign of harassment against the blogger Tim Ireland. This is a long story, but it begins at the end of 2008 when Flowers contacted me (using an alias) to say that he used to work with the now-defunct  Vigil Network – this was a supposed “terror-tracker” intelligence group run by Dominic Wightman (see here for background). The Vigil Network had also used Glen Jenvey, whom Tim exposed a year ago as the author of bogus postings to Muslim websites that he then used to create tabloid scare stories. After Tim publicised this and I wrote some follow-up posts, the “Cheerleaders” left annoying goading comments on our sites, and engaged in various forms of creepy behaviour (contacting my Facebook friends, hand-delivering a letter for me at a former workplace – Flowers seems to get enjoyment from the sense of power this kind of thing gives him). Wightman also contacted us, and provided us with an audio interview with Jenvey which Flowers had made in the guise of a journalist. However, Wightman also lied to us in an attempt to get us to write about someone against whom he had a grudge, and when the truth was discovered things turned nasty. The “Cheerleaders” published Tim’s home address on-line widely, in the stated hope that he would be forced to leave the country, and there were threats such as “machete to your throat”. There were also attempts to sow confusion; a blog was created in Wightman’s name and made to look as though the “Cheerleaders” had hacked it, thus creating an impression of distance from Wightman (and Wightman insists he has no link to the “Cheerleaders”). Flowers also threatened to come to Tim’s house for a fight, and more recently he distastefully made a “gypsy curse” threat against Tim’s family.

It seems likely that the “Cheerleaders” have been involved with all kinds of pranks with fake IDs on Muslim websites for some time, as this early comment to Tim’s site suggests:

As for commenting on bait being used as a catch, you mean what Glen did? Yep he let his OPSEC drills get slack and forgot, in his haste to set up a story that would sell, to mask his IP. Glen is a clever and able guy but it seems in this case he’s let greed and ego get in the way, maybe. Also he probably didn’t have to write the leading questions that he did, with people like Saladin1970 around they could have bitten anyway. So, yes Glen got sloppy. BTW he’s not a former colleague and we don’t bait people on the same side. He used to do a good job until this goatfuck.

I was also sent a private message some time ago:

When stressed [Jenvey] doesn’t take time to vary his “chop” (our term for writing style).

Perhaps if the Glen Jenvey arrest leads to a trial we may find out some more.

UPDATE: Johnpi adds more at Talk Islam:

Flowers and his Internet vigilante friends the ‘Cheerleaders’ claim to be opposed to Islamic extremism, but they are actually against Islam and target Muslims indiscriminately, just as their fellow travelers in the EDL do, and there is no better evidence of that than the intimidation tactics they engaged in here at Talk Islam, publishing several front page contributors’ home addresses and sending mail to one blogger’s home. They have also repeatedly threatened me.

None of those targeted – Hussein Rashid, Aziz Poonawalla or myself – could be described as anything other than moderate or progressive Muslims who have wrtten against extremism and religious violence.

(1) One prominent EDL logo carries the slogan “In Hoc Signo Vinces”, which was used by the Knights Templar and refers to a vision given to the Roman Emperor Constantine that he would conquer through the sign of the Cross; and that’s the main EDL, not Paul Ray’s weird spin-off.

Background of Mining Company in Bizarre “Third Temple” Claim

A couple of days ago WorldNetDaily carried a typical sensationalised headline:

Will Rockefeller build 3rd Temple?

The answer is “no”, and for once we actually find WND debunking a story (a rare but not unprecdented occurrence). Aaron Klein explains:

The story spread virally through the evangelical Christian blogosphere.

But it was all part of an elaborate hoax.

The release, filed with MarketWire and republished at CNNMoney.com, claims “Supriem David Rockefeller” is director of a company, Kinti Holdings group, which is working with a Jewish Temple organization to rebuild the Third Temple.

States the release: “Kinti Holdings will be raising funds to go towards building the Third Temple in Jerusalem in strict coordinance with The Temple Institute, Rabbi Hiam Richman and The Palestinian National Interest Committee (PNIC) and supporting Husam Bajis for President of Palestine.

Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, a Jewish Temple activist group, told WND the release is a “scam.”

…Yesterday, hours after a WND request for comment on the Third Temple announcement was sent to the sole e-mail address listed for Kinti, the company posted a statement claiming, “Kinti is now conducting Due Diligence of a Major National Brand Name Chain concerning debt for equity and will enter into a mandatory quiet period.”

The “management” section of Kinti’s website states, “All of the previous Officers, Directors and Board of Directors have resigned. Richard Byrd has been appointed the new CEO and the only member of the Board of Directors.”

“Supriem David Rockefeller” is some kind of mythical bogeyman who is discussed on “New World Order” conspiracy-theory websites, although Klein notes there is also someone in Tennessee who has taken the name for himself. There is of course no connection to the Rockefeller dynasty.

One previous release from “Kinti Holdings” has the following:

(Marketwire – Dec. 28, 2009) – Kinti Mining Ltd. (KMLD) (OTCBB:KMLD) receives Khangolov Resources’ Equity Position in Palisades Petroleum (PINKSHEETS:PAPT).

Richard Byrd, the CEO of Kinti Mining Ltd., Is extremely pleased to announce that Khangolov Resources has agreed to assign their large equity position in Palisades Petroleum to Kinti Mining Ltd. This will make Kinti Mining Ltd. the largest shareholder in Palisades.

Frank Love, the CEO of Khangolov Resources, states, “I have assigned Khangolov’s equity position to Kinti Mining Ltd. so as to consolidate my mining assets. In addition, I wanted to confirm to the Kinti shareholders that I will make Kinti Mining into a conglomerate housing many different successful projects under one umbrella.”

Richard Byrd further states that he will finalize the record date for the 2 for 1 forward split previously announced within the next few weeks.

The management team also wishes to welcome Mr. Supriem David Rockefeller to the company.

A press release regarding Khangolov Resources appeared early in 2008:

James Monroe Capital Corporation (Pinksheets: JMCP) has signed a  definitive agreement with Khangolov Resources regarding its oil and gas  contracts, and other related mining assets, in exchange for a large portion of ownership in their mining group.

The company has completely divested itself of its oil and gas  contracts, and other related assets which are now in a separate  company, Khangolov Resources, run by Frank Love, which now has nothing to do with James Monroe Capital, other than the fact that James Monroe  Capital is now a non-managerial shareholder in that company.

…The following report was  given to James Monroe Capital by Khangolov:

“Frank Love, President of Khangolov Resources Inc., is pleased to announce the acquisition of an alluvial mine located in Guyana, South  America. The mine has been sought after for some time by different parties including publicly-traded mining companies as well as established mining companies located in neighboring Brazil and Venezuela. The property is located along the Mazaruni River which has history of housing both diamonds and gold. Frank Love comments on the property and its location, I like Guyana since it is the only English-speaking country in South America. I was attracted to this property not only because it borders on the Mazaruni River but, more importantly, geological maps indicate that the Mazaruni actually ran through it many years ago. Diamonds should, therefore, be plentiful.’

A Google map image showing the whereabouts of the Guyana mine appears on the Kinti Holdings website, along with a mining permit for a tract in the “Mazaruni Mining District No. 3″.

JMCP in turn has a very basic website here, hosted by Google. It lists Frank Love as CEO and Chairman of the Board, and Richard Byrd as President. It carries a photograph from a business meeting in Russia (Stavropol), and explains that:

We are a privately held Oil & Gas Corporation located in Palm Bay, Florida.  Our current assets include Wales Holding Corp.  a $5,000,000 mining corp. and a Joint Venture with Strat Petroleum Corp. which has Oil & Gas ventures located in Russia.  JMCP Acquistions Corp. has a wholly owned subsidiary, Silver Bar Oil & Gas also located in Palm Bay, Florida.

In 2007, a press release announced that

James Monroe Capital Corp. (JMCP) President, Frank Love is very excited to recap recent developments. Frank Love states, “In recent press releases, I discussed $270 million worth of oil sludge in Bashkorstan, Russia; an oil field with 48 million barrels of oil reserves (with today’s price range of $50-$60 a barrel) in the Samara region of the Russian Federation; hundreds of thousands of Stripper Wells available in North America; the acquisition of Wales Holding Corp. (Wales Gold Mining), the Ghanaian-based Gold Company with properties in the Ashanti belt region; the formation of the James Monroe Capital Royalty Trust and finally, the joint venture with Strat Petroleum.”

Meanwhile, Palisades Petroleum announced the Kinti deal in September:

Richard Byrd, CEO of Palisades Petroleum, is pleased to announce that a Joint-Venture has been entered into with Kinti Mining Limited on an adjacent gold property in Guyana.

Palisades Petroleum’s property in Guyana borders Kinti Mining’s property. The Agreement provides for Palisades to mine the property in exchange for half of the net production of gold and diamonds. In addition, Kinti will become a minority shareholder in Palisades.

Richard Byrd states, “Palisades will be able to achieve economies of scale by mining its property in conjunction with Kinti’s. This will lower our unit costs for the production of gold and diamonds. This second acquisition has also made us more attractive to potential institutional investors.”

“Leslie Rutledge wanted to be sure the Company was set up with a good opportunity to proceed forward and flourish before stepping down and resigning. I have an in-depth knowledge of Palisades’ property from my prior extensive due diligence on the adjacent Kinti property,” adds Richard.

We would like to thank Ms. Rutledge for her service with the Company in the recent challenging times and extend our best wishes and good fortune in her future endevours.

Palisades Patroleum is based in Vancouver, and Leslie Rutledge and her husband Don Rutledge have recently been the subject of negative reports in the Vancouver Sun:

By all appearances… it was a lucrative business. Rutledge lived in a $2-million house in West Vancouver, drove expensive cars (including a Porsche), travelled extensively, and consorted with celebrities. As recently as 2008, he and his wife were listed as members of the Hollyburn Country Club.

But it was all a facade. Don Rutledge has been swimming in debt since at least March 2003, when he was petitioned into bankruptcy by Canada Revenue Agency. His declared liabilities totalled $4.4 million, including $2.6 million owed to CRA, against only $1,680 in assets.

The Rutledges have maintained their lifestyle, with the result that Don Rutledge has been an undischarged bankrupt for several years while small investors have lost money. Further,

Leslie Rutledge stepped down as president of Palisades and was replaced by Richard Byrd of Lexington. Miss.

“I am glad to see that the company is progressing rapidly in their endeavours which should bring fortune to us all,” Leslie Rutledge said in a release.

That appears to be wishful thinking. The company’s most recent financial statements show that, as of June 30, it had only $21 in the bank, no revenues, negative equity and negative working capital. The stock is trading at a fraction of a cent on scant volume.

Well, if that’s “wishful thinking”, how does building the Third Temple sound?

Nigerian Federal Judge Tosses Case Brought by Helen Ukpabio after She Fails to Show Up

A press release from Leo Igwe:

PRESS STATEMENT

For immediate release February 4 2010

Helen Ukpbabio: Court Strikes out Case against Child Rights Campaigners

Today the Federal High Court in Calabar struck out the case brought against me and other child rights campaigners including the government of Akwa Ibom state by Helen Ukpabio and other members of the Liberty Gospel Church. In November Helen and some of her church members went to court seeking to enforce their rights to believe in God, Satan and witchcraft. They claimed that the seminars and conferences organised in Nigeria by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and other child rights groups to tackle witchcraft related abuses infringed on their rights to spread the gospel. They asked the court to order us to pay them two hundred billion naira(I.3 billion dollars) as damages for unlawful and unconstitutional infringement of their rights.

For the second, Helen and her lawyers were not in court. So the lawyer leading the defence team, Barrister Madaki asked the court to strike out the case due lack of diligent prosecution. And the court granted his request.

The striking out of this case is a welcome development. It is a victory for justice, human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria. This decision by the court is a vindication of the child rights campaigners and the great work they are doing rescuing and saving the lives of children abused and abandoned in the name of witchcraft in Nigeria. It is a clear evidence that Helen Ukpabio and her church members have no case.

They instituted this court action to stop their arrest and prosecution for the attack of July 29 in Calabar.

Nigerian Humanist Movement and its partner groups will continue to work and campaign to eradicate all forms of human rights abuses in the name of witchcraft.

Leo Igwe, Ibadan, Nigeria

I posted a previous press release on this ridiculous law-suit here, and on some of here other legal antics here; she has also promised to pursue the makers of the Channel 4 documentaries about her work, including the actress who narrated them. Her supporters have also sent me some imaginative  insults.

But Leo has a habit of annoying all the right people, and this is not the only legal battle he’s facing – a few weeks ago I noted that he and his family members are facing a murder charge because he spoke out on behalf of a girl who allegedly had been raped by a powerful man in his home village.

Charlie Flowers and English Nationalism

Following my posts on Charlie Flowers and the campaigns of harassment conducted by him and his gang of “Cheerleaders”, a post on Talk Islam by “johnpi” claims to reveal “Cyber-stalker Charlie Flowers’ English Defence League connection”. The author cites me in his piece, but the article doesn’t quite deliver the goods. We’re shown a picture taken from Facebook showing Flowers posing with members of the English Democratic Party behind a St George’s Flag (there’s also a glimpse of the “Cheerleader” who hides behind the pseudonym ”Shooter Kirpachi”); but to jump from that to the EDL requires an unsustainable imaginative leap:

The flag in the picture is the St. George’s Cross, which EDL supporters fly at their rallies. The EDL is a right-wing political group with nativist/white supremacist leanings that appeared in England last year.

The obvious problem here is that just because the EDL uses the St George’s Flag, it hardly follows that anyone who makes use of a St George’s Flag must be an EDL sympathizer.

Also in the picture are two other persons, both of whom actively interact with the ”Cheerleadered” site. One of these is Bill Baker, who organised an abortive “anti-Shariah” protest outside a mosque in Harrow in August. The Harrow Times reported:

Bill Baker, the organisor, said: “It’s been cancelled. They’ve made assurances that sharia courts will not be held in the building. If they go back on that then obviously we will be allowed to protest.”

He added: “If it’s only going to be used for the community then good luck to them.”

A protest by the EDL in Birmingham on August 10 resulted in violent clashes between members and anti-fascist campaigners attempting to break up the demonstration.

Mr Baker told the Harrow Times ties with the EDL and Casuals United, which formed in the aftermath, were broken after the skirmishes in Birmingham.

…”We are opposed to extremism on both sides of the political agenda.”

(A protest did in fact go ahead, but this was organised by a different group)

The other person is Darren Marsh, who goes on about he “fucking hates the UAF” but who has no EDL link either.

Certainly, looking over Facebook myself it is somewhat strange that Alan Lake – a businessman who has links with the EDL - should be a fan of Flowers’ music band The Fighting Cocks, but it’s impossible to say what this signifies. It’s also perhaps of interest that a year ago I received a comment from one of the “Cheerleaders” indicating that they had been in contact with Paul Ray but they had disliked his use of the word “Paki”; Ray went on to found of the EDL, although he has since been marginalised. Both Ray and the “Cheerleaders” have also had contacts with Glen Jenvey.

But what about the English Democratic Party? The author at Talk Islam finds a report in which an ex-member accuses it being more extreme than it appears to be, and the EDP’s website currently showcases an interminable modern folk-song which includes lines opining that “long-term immigration” is part of a plot by the “British ruling class” to “crush the English nation”. However, overall I’d judge that it’s more the case that Flowers makes those he associates with look bad, rather than other way round.

A second post on Talk Islam has the detail that

After I published a mocking post about them last year, the Cheerleaders – or the individual who pretends to be the group – threatened several Talk Islam contributors and published their home addresses online. They (or he) also sent mail to at least one TI contributor’s house.

Keeping Abreast of New Terror Threat

From a column in Forbes, by a certain Elan Singer, 5 January:

what is the shrewd terrorist to do if he cannot place a little PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) in his underwear?… While most religious clerics would frown upon breast implants for aesthetic reasons, there are more than a few who would likely put their blessing on a pair for explosive reasons…And there is no shortage of physicians who are terrorist sympathizers or even terrorists themselves. Just look at Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was a prominent gynecologist before dedicating his life to death and destruction. He is more than capable of popping some implants into an eager small-breasted terrorist… As a plastic surgeon who has done hundreds of these procedures, I know that all you really need is a knife, some suture material and maybe a bite stick.

This is speculative, but it’s also plausible. A reader letter to the Ottumwa Courier outlined the same scenario the next day.

Remarkably, just weeks later the Daily Mail warns us that it may all be true:

…an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time.

…It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day.

One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’

A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants

So “an operation by MI5″ actually means… looking at some websites. Judging from experiences such as the “Terror Target Sugar” Glen Jenvey fiasco and the “Madonna Targeted by Muslim Fanatics” non-story, one is strongly advised to consider whether the “chatter” is anything more than some anonymous person linking back to Singer’s article or the Ottumwa Courier letter and saying, “hey, wouldn’t that be great?”

But there’s even more, from WorldNetDaily yesterday:

Agents for Britain’s MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives.

…Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery.

…Hours after he had failed, GCHQ – Britain’s worldwide eavesdropping “spy in the sky” agency – began to pick up “chatter” emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation of the lethal implants.

A hand-picked team was appointed by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, to investigate the threat. He described it as “one that can circumvent our defense.”

Top surgeons who work in the National Health Service confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.

In a report to Evans, one said:

“Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines. You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner.”

WND does not cite the Mail article, nor does it give the sources for its more dramatic claims (aside from WND’s own paper newsletter Whistleblower, which doesn’t count). How exactly a conspiracy-mongering conservative internet news-site operating out of the west coast of the USA acquired this extra information – including a direct quote from the head of MI5 that is found nowhere else on-line (1), and material from a report prepared for him - is somewhat mysterious.

Pointlessly, WND also includes a picture of a woman suicide bomber named Iat Alacharas – who actually carried her bomb in a purse.

Meanwhile, the Mail reports that one man is on the case:

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons Counter-Terrorism Sub-Committee, said: ‘Our enemies are constantly evolving their techniques to try to defeat our methods of detection.

‘This is one of the most savage forms that extremists could use, and while we are redeveloping travel security we have got to take this new development into account.’

That would be the same Patrick Mercer who allowed himself to be serially duped by Glen Jenvey.

(1) Yes, I also looked for “defence” as well as “defense”, and I did plurals as well.

How the “Cheerleaders” Recruit New People into their Harassment Campaigns

Numerous times now I have written blog entries on a group of cyber-bullies which calls itself the “Cheerleaders”. Their original targets were Muslim extremists – after all, who cares if they get harassed? – but they also fixate on other people, most notably the blogger Tim Ireland, whom they have subjected to a campaign of abuse and threats in the stated hope that he would be forced to leave the country. As has been documented at length, their campaign has included posting his home address on-line and sending it to hostile parties; this was shortly after Tim had been the subject of a smear campaign accusing him of being a wanted paedophile, and shortly after he had engaged in some anti-BNP activism.

All this time, the “Cheerleaders” have themselves for the most part hidden behind pseudonyms. We know there is an overlap with a music band called “The Fighting Cocks”, with at least three members actively involved. Most obviously, there is the band’s singer, Charlie Flowers, who has threatened to come around to Tim’s house for a fight, and who recently told Tim – distastefully – that he would perform a “Gypsy curse” against Tim’s family. There’s also Dan Wilde, whom Tim approached for an explanation for the harassment and who declined to disassociate himself from the attacks. A while ago I received a message from another associate of the group – someone who calls himself “Matthew Edwards” - mentioning “Anna ‘Big Red’ from the TFC Cheerleaders”, which is a reference to third member of the band.

So we have three named members. However, there are other “Cheerleaders” members, and a Facebook page (entitled “Cheerleadered”) has over 200 “friends” listed. Most of these 200 probably joined up after accepting casual invitations, and do not know about the harassing activities. Among the core group, though, is someone who calls herself “Amarah Hadchiti” or “Shooter Hadchiti”, which was recently amended to “Shooter Kirpachi”. Here she (or he, perhaps?) is boasting on Facebook about driving someone off-line:

I’ve redacted a couple of names from the above screen-shot, as these belonged to actual people who may been expecting a bit of privacy.

The background to this particular exchange is that the “Cheerleaders” had recently made links with the serial fraudster Farah Damji, who enjoys some sort of cult following; Damji is described as an “officer” on the Cheerledered Facebook page. Damji was recently found guily of new offences, and as the day of her sentencing approached someone used Twitter to advertise the fact widely. The “Cheerleaders” in turn made threats against this person, warning her that they would cause trouble for her with her employer. That person’s Twitter feed was also suspended, and the above suggests that it was complaints from the “Cheerleaders” which achieved this result (As an aside, despite a sudden health scare which delayed sentencing for a few days – during which time Damji managed a few messages such as the above from her sick bed – she recovered enough for sentencing finally to take place, and she is now in prison.).

Here’s a second exchange:

This is an obvious reference to Tim Ireland, whom they have accused of stalking because he has sought answers about who has been conducting the campaign against him and why. Last week, Tim wrote about one of Charlie Flowers’ friends, who had been cc-ed into a threatening email which Flowers had sent to Tim and who had declined to distance himself from it. Flowers, as ever, resorted to threats to try to divert Tim from his path, culminating in his “Gypsy curse” on Tim’s family. The timing of the above fits with that.

This is of course more harassment, rationalised with a vicious lie clearly being used to incite - and the new development here is that they are recruiting a person who hasn’t hidden behind a pseudonym into their campaign. This person should know better, of course, but one can see how if they believe “Kirpachi’s” comment they might enter into a particular course of action. They whould then face the legal repercussions, while “Kirpachi” continues to skulk behind a hidden identity. Nasty.