Disgrace, shame, infamy

[Skybird]

Now this pisses me off like nothing else in the last couple of months.

Political correctness does not even stop short of assisting murder anymore. But a budget is a budget, right? Main importance is that the issue is politically correctly handled. And in the end, it is her own fault - why hasn't she just shut up.

Europe, I spit on you for not shrinking back from even this.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...509302,00.html

'We Are Making Fools of Ourselves in the Eyes of the World'

By Leon de Winter

Fear of fanatical Islamists prompted Ayaan Hirsi Ali to leave the Netherlands, her adopted home, and now she has been forced to return. Paying for her bodyguards in the United States is too expensive for the Dutch government -- what a disgrace.

Amsterdam - There are exactly five people that the Dutch government has to protect against death threats from radical Islamists.

This sort of protection is expensive. Society bears the costs because freedom of opinion, a cornerstone of our culture, is on the line. The extremists, for their part, are prepared to risk their own lives to kill those under government protection.

The costs of protection are completely disproportionate to the outcome: the continued existence of our values and norms.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the sixth person granted protection by the Dutch government. She began receiving threats when, as a Dutch citizen and member of the parliament, she spoke out critically against political Islam. After the so-called "passport scandal," when the Dutch minister of immigration and integration threatened to confiscate her passport after Ayaan had been accused of lying about her name and birth date when she first arrived in the Netherlands, she moved to the United States, which precipitated a sharp upswing in her career within only a few months. She wrote a bestseller and landed a job at the American Enterprise Institute. But as a Dutch citizen, Ayaan does not qualify for protection in the United States under US laws and regulations.

Contrary to what many in the Netherlands believe about the success of her autobiography, she is not wealthy. She could not pay for the kind of protection she needs out of her own pocket -- no matter how much she would like to do so. Besides, the Dutch government apparently failed to find the right US officials with whom they could have reached an agreement. Under a decision by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Balin, the protection paid for by the Dutch government expired on Oct. 1. Ayaan returned to the Netherlands, because without protection she doesn't have a day left to live.

How much is her life worth, according to Minister Balin's budget?

When someone in the Justice Ministry leaked classified documents on Ayaan's protection to the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, it set off a media circus. Neither Ayaan nor anyone directly associated with her was behind all the attention she is currently attracting. She would have preferred to go on living quietly in the Netherlands, and she would have liked to quietly work out a solution with Hirsch Balin.

How much is her life worth, according to Minister Balin's budget? How does he calculate this? These are politically sensitive questions, questions that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher never asked when it came to the life of Salman Rushdie, wherever he happened to be.

Dutch society has no choice in this case. Canceling Ayaan's protection would be the equivalent of a death sentence. She can lead a relatively quiet life in the United States, but not in the Netherlands. And because she is so well known in the Netherlands and practically lives the life of a prisoner, not even able to go out on the street, the most humane solution is to continue to provide her with protection in America.
When commenting about the fact that the Netherlands paid for Ayaan's protection in the United States, parliamentarian Sybrand van Haersma Buma of the Christian Democrats can't help but admit that "it was a transitional solution, one that cannot last indefinitely."

How many days will he give Ayaan? Another week to live? A month? And then it would be time for the butchers of fundamentalist Islam to move in?

Whether we think she is nice, kind or opportunist, we cannot afford anything happening to her. The Dutch government is making a problem out of something that shouldn't be one, something that only causes chaos and sorrow.

Both Hirsi Ali and Hirsch Balin can only lose. The winners are the extremists who laugh about our inability to offer this courageous woman quiet and safety. You see, it's too expensive. In fact, though, it makes you want to weep.

Translated from the Dutch by Verena Bardtholdt

Lets start bets on how long she survives. The funds raised that way could be transferred to the responsible Dutch authorities, to bolster their holiday-budgets.

[bradclark1]

But can a goverment pay for bodyguards for everyone who gets a death threat? Or do they just cover Islamic death threats?
Put some plastic on her face, give her a new ID and switch countries (again).

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

But can a goverment pay for bodyguards for everyone who gets a death threat? Or do they just cover Islamic death threats?
Put some plastic on her face, give her a new ID and switch countries (again).

that works if you or me need to hide. She is too known, and her face was too often in the newspapers and on TV. Her life has been at very high risk since years. Also, Muslims are not really rare in the Netherlands. It is only a question of time until she gets recognized, no matter if by a muslim or an infidel. Add the unscrupellous medias to it, who will make a story of revealing her location, and will make a story of her death as well (if you have doubts, just remember the chase for Lady Di that ended in that tunnel ihn Paris). Hirsi is a red rag for Islam, and too competent on it's true nature when revealing Islam, as if Islam could afford to let her live so easily. Withdraw her bodyguards, and she is as good as dead. Guaranteed.

You asked about the payment for protection. But the article gives you the answer. Ayan Hirsi without doubt falls under the category of victims faced with the highest threats to their lives. The Netherlands currently pay for the protection of just five such persons, the article says. If you use your imagination you will easily find many possibilities how the Dutch governemnt, like all governments, headlessly wastes sums of money on unneeded issues that are a thousand times as expensive than paying a 24/7 crew of bodyguards. We talk about "peanuts" here. Even more so when considering the intellectual and symbolic value she has - or at least should have for Europe. She does not speak against europe, she speaks for the sake of europe, in the face of clear and present danger. And we answer her with this. Kill Kassandra, and doom will go away - let's party!

This stinks. I even take into account the possibility that some spineless looser decided to offer more appeasement to islam by arranging it that Hirsi is being exposed to the reach of islamic executors. Stupidity is without limits in Europe these days, and honour is running thin. That way, her annoying constant critizising of the foolish EU self-deceptions would be taken care of, too. These days, you can rule out nothing anymore when it comes to politicians and their agendas and motivations. I like the remark in the article that such behavior would have been unthinkable and undiscussable for Thatcher. She waged war over a handful of worthless rocks against Argentine for priniciple reasons, and never asked about the costs for protecting Rushdie. Im not a fan of her, but i prefer her to any of today's wine-gum-soft spineless salesman in office who do not hesitate to sell europe, it's future, it's culture and identity and values and it's people, to our worst enemy - just to maintain their meaningless, unworthy careeres for some years longer. They are Europe's scum. When I say I think the EU comission as well as the national governments should be courtmartialed right in place for high treason and get executed, I do not mean it as a joke or an exaggeration, but I am bitterly serious. These people are like poisened daggers in European people's back. We need to get rid of them, and make sure they do not get replaced with equally minded crooks. They have helped as best as they could, in their own power interests, to slowly kill our democarcies. What greater crime against the satte, against our culture and self-undersatnding, can there be? The RAF or the Red Brigades were more honest than these type of guys, at least they did not hide their inentions, and said clearly that they try to overthrow the state. Strong gates and high walls to protect us against Islam do not mean anything as long as these obedient and submissive EU vasalls of Islamic demands are in possession of the keys. They are shameless enough not even to wait for the night anymore before letting the enemy in - and even invite and beg him to do so. What a pest they are.

But they are politically correct, that is at least something, isn't it. But evil, stupidity and injustice, when being formally turned into a law, does not become them less evil, less stupid and less unjust. It only means you get an evil, stupid and unjust law. thatÄs why you need to replace the lawmaker.

[Huskalar]

Last Tuesday, Hirsi Ali said that she always assumed that when she moved to the US, that she had to pay for her own protection some day. She (or actually her lawyer) also said that she has no problems with that and that she's going raise funds for it on her own. The problem with this was that she had to wait for her greencard in US before she could start with it. But she only got this greencard some 2 weeks ago and the Dutch government wanted to stop their financial support a only week later. This short period of time just has not been enough for Hirsi Ali raise enough money.

Now if she going to pay for her protection herselve, I don't see any problems if the Dutch government is going to stop paying for it. This, of course, still leaves the debate if a government should limit the financial support for someone's protection and what these possible limits should be.

[Jimbuna]

The Dutch Government should show a little more humanity and compassion here. They should agree a clearly definable timescale/changeover period with the lady

[CB..]

i think the problem with going back to Thatcher looking for a positive time (i know your not doing that exactly) is that
she laid the ground work for most of what we have today..good and bad...and there is still some debate over wether the Falklands was in part a battle to maintain the territorial rights to antartica..with a eye to future oil/gas exploitation..Britain needed a realsiticly argueable territorial claim to the area..dunno tho ..

it's the unions...

history tells us that it was the unions that put the back bone into real socail justice and reform...and Thatcher killed the unions...stone dead...

the unions tho were losing the plot it seemed at the time and who would want to return to the industrial unrest of the period..i dunno again...but it was allways the unions that kept governments "honest" and accountable...without that restriction they were able to some how sell the idea of "lifestyle" wholesale...and made the idea of LIFE a laughing stock..a mildy amusing naive mistake..and with a "lifestyle" everything is optional...morality truth everything...throw in the spin doctors to utterly confuse the issues and one may as well try to write poetry on parchment under water with an old fashioned feather quill and a pot of ink....and everybody is far too "clever" these days to attempt that..or gawd help you if you do try

makes you want to weep some days..

still the economy is doing well....(here in the uk) ...so they must be right?
i guess it all boils down to what the word RIGHT means...and the spin doctors are very good at their jobs so that's well and truly taken care of...resistance is futile...you will be assimilated..arghh...it's a nightmare...

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Huskalar

Last Tuesday, Hirsi Ali said that she always assumed that when she moved to the US, that she had to pay for her own protection some day. She (or actually her lawyer) also said that she has no problems with that and that she's going raise funds for it on her own.

Well, two different pieces of information then:

Contrary to what many in the Netherlands believe about the success of her autobiography, she is not wealthy. She could not pay for the kind of protection she needs out of her own pocket -- no matter how much she would like to do so.

[SUBMAN1]

Pull her bodygaurds - so she dies a martyr against the Islamic faith. That will harm them way more than it will harm us.

-S

[Sixpack]

Originally Posted by Skybird

(...)and make sure they do not get replaced with equally minded crooks. (...)

Nothin' new. Still only one solution. Skybird for office

[TteFAboB]

What are the Maltese Knights doing these days?