June 2007 - Page 2 of 5 - Stephen Taylor

ABC News: Suicide bombers being sent to Canada

ABC News is reporting that a “graduation ceremony” for suicide bombers was held along the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan on June 9th. Some of the bombers are intended for striking within Canada.

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9.

A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions.

ABCNews.com photo caption: “These recruits stand ready to target Canada.”

Of course, this may simply be a propaganda campaign by al Queda and the Taliban. It is not certain if the Taliban has the means to strike within Canada and individual suicide bombing has not been common in North America (I cannot think of one incident). Further, a suicide bomb strike within Canada would only strengthen the relatively shaky resolve that Canadians have in the Kandahar mission, an outcome that wouldn’t seem to be consistent with Taliban objectives. Of course, this quote from a Taliban commander indicates that their objective may simply be revenge:

“These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places,” Dadullah says on the tape. “Why shouldn’t we go after them?”

U.N. says “flick off” for Darfur

Climate change is responsible for the genocide in Darfur, we’ve recently learned. According to the Secretary General of the U.N., Ban Ki-moon, the Darfur genocide is due in part to anthropogenic global warming:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the slaughter in Darfur was triggered by global climate change and that more such conflicts may be on the horizon, in an article published Saturday.

“The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change,” Ban said in a Washington Post opinion column.

UN statistics showed that rainfall declined some 40 percent over the past two decades, he said, as a rise in Indian Ocean temperatures disrupted monsoons.

“This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming,” the South Korean diplomat wrote.

Those poor Darfurians, the U.N. has brought the genocide into the realm of climate science. When global governments reverse the trend of planet-wide climate change with their bureaucratic wisdom and wide-spread policy changes, can Darfurians really rest assured that the killing will stop? Of course, most of us would prefer that the international community take more immediate action on factors that are more directly linked to the conflict.

Unfortunately the world has not taken any real action to stop the Darfurian genocide. Is the U.N. really appealing the popularity of climate change and Darfur as issues in order to guilt us to turn off those extra light bulbs? Since the time-frame for starting to reverse global warming is 2025-2050, is this about stopping the genocide or this about using the genocide as a poster campaign to affect global attitudes surrounding climate change?

The secretary general of the U.N. claims that anthropogenic climate change is responsible for Darfur. The U.N. should stop thinking up twisted graduate thesis topics and take immediate steps in encouraging and enabling the international community in ending the genocide.

The industrial revolution has been responsible for generating the tools of wealth creation, has been responsible for removing barriers for the movement of labour and capital and has created the conditions for globalized and freer trade among nations. In fact, industrialization has done much to spread philosophy and enlightened ideas around the world. Arguably, the world is richer because of our emission of greenhouse gases and if Darfur is suffering, it is not because we drive SUVs, it is because of ethnic hatred that has existed long before the Watt steam engine or the mechanized loom.

Bush coming to Canada

Dust off those bongos, young progressive agent of change! In a news release from the Prime Minister’s Office today it was announced that US President George W Bush is coming to Canada on August 20th/21st for a North American leaders summit.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Canada will host the North American Leaders� Summit on August 20 and 21, 2007 in Montebello, Quebec.

“We share a continent with the United States and Mexico, and our people, our economies and our security are closely interconnected,” said the Prime Minister. “This summit provides an opportunity to discuss issues of shared concern with my Mexican and United States counterparts and to promote cooperation on measures that are central to the quality of life of Canadians and all peoples in North America.”

U.S. President George Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will join the Prime Minister in Montebello, Quebec. The last meeting of the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico took place in Cancun, Mexico on March 31, 2006.

Within the context of the summit, the leaders will review progress in their ongoing cooperation under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which was established to foster collaboration for a more secure and more economically dynamic North America. In Cancun, the leaders identified five priority areas for special attention in the coming year: strengthening competitiveness in North America; North American Emergency Management; Avian and Pandemic Influenza; North American Energy Security; and North American Smart Secure Borders.

In other news, Canadian patchouli oil futures experienced heavy trading today.