IAEA Censures Irans Nuclear Program: White House Cheerleads

Twenty-five countries out of 34 on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to censure Iran's secret nuclear program. White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said the vote was "overwhelming." What he did not say is what the heck the censure means. That's because it likely means nothing.

IAEA - Vienna

For the first time Russia and China voted for the censure, along with the U.S., France, Germany and Britain. Three nations voted against the censure: Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba. Six nations abstained and one member was absent. Among the six abstentions were the Muslim nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Egypt, along with South Africa and Brazil. Brazil and Iran are in their own cozy little huddle with "eight cooperation deals" just signed:

The new deals will pave the way for Iran and Brazil to enhance their cooperation in the areas of commerce, energy, and agricultural research and to lift the visa regime between the two countries.

The thirty-five-member IAEA Board of Governors consists of Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, and the USA, Uruguay, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

A First Amendment Hero!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle
 

Professor Indrek Wichman
 

He looks mild-mannered, not a man who would stand up to bullies and force them to back down. But Professor Indrek Wichman of Michagan State University, has become a Hero. Now what would force this Professor of Mechanical Engineering to stand up for the First Amendment? Nothing less than a planned protest by the MSU chapter of the Muslim Students Union (MSU)

Members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Michigan State University (MSU) didn’t know what they were getting into when they tried to suppress the free speech rights of Professor Indrek Wichman. On February 28, 2006 he read in the MSU student newspaper a call to protest the publication of the Muhammad cartoons. The article struck a raw nerve. He responded with the following:

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Amendment--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans. Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Some may say this reaction was a tad over-heated. But in a university environment, the more important question is: Were the statements accurate? It’s tough to argue with the validity of Professor Wichman’s factual assertions. And even tougher to demand that Wichman remain morally neutral regarding the examples of Muslim misconduct he cites.

For over three weeks Professor Wichman heard nothing about his email. But behind the scenes, the MSA had called in CAIR and had three separate meetings with the MSU provost. The MSA and CAIR both demanded that Wichman be censured, disciplined, enrolled in diversity and sensitivity training, and even “re-educated” on Islam. To his credit, the MSU Provost did not cave in to the CAIR/MSA demands.

On March 20, 2006 he wrote Wichman a letter saying that he strongly disagreed with the “intemperate tone” of his email. But he added that Wichman still had rights to free speech. From there, things got worse. The MSU Provost told Wichman that if he continued to “harass” and “intimidate” the MSU MSA - while creating a “hostile intellectual climate” - then formal charges consistent with MSU anti-discrimination policy (ADP) would be filed by MSU against him. (emphasis mine)

On April 24, 2006 Wichman realized that the issue had not quietly gone away. He began receiving telephone calls and emails from local newspapers, AP, Reuters and other national and international outlets.

CAIR and MSA, frustrated by the MSU Provost, had gone over his head and published a response, organized a press conference, and made a national/international press release. CAIR and MSA’s public call upon MSU to take “disciplinary action" against Wichman’s “Islamophobic” email was a classic example of Muslim cowardice.

Michigan’s CAIR Executive Director Mr. Dawud Walid said it was “unconscionable for a professor to use his university e-mail account to foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students.” He added, “The University needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus.”

It should be noted that Mr. Walid has gone to court to argue for applying Sharia law in mid-Michigan. That serves to undercut significantly his stature as an opponent of bigotry towards minorities.

I sat down for a beer - I believe it was a Danish beer – with Indrek Wichman in April. When he said he meant to “protest the protest” of the MSA he really meant it. He helped form a conservative faculty group at MSU. The group serves to protest speech codes, invite conservative speakers to campus, and represent students and faculty whose rights are trampled by the MSU administration. Indrek Wichman is not your typical college professor.

He is a true First Amendment hero. Meanwhile, Dawud Walid is still fighting to repeal the First Amendment and keep Muslims from being offended. He wants to replace it with Sharia law so Muslims can freely beat their wives and publicly execute homosexuals.

How is it that Muslims can say the most hurtful, racially insensitive, anti-Semitic rhetoric on US campuses without the administrations of those schools saying a word no, yet one lone professor on a campus writes an e-mail in protest of the barbaric practices of Islam, he is vilified and crucified?

The behavior of the MSU in regards to Free Speech and other rights is well documented on the net. One just has to read Fousesquawk by blogger Gary Fouse to see what is happening at UC Irvine. And it is happening at every college and university in the US. What the MSU and CAIR are trying to do is first to stiffle free speech, then to impose Shar'ia Law on the US.

Their counterparts have been very successful in doing this in Europe and Great Britain. But unlike those lost lands, the US has the Free exercise of Speech firmly written into the US Constitution. And there are plenty of court cases backing the right of Free Speech. Slowly, on campuses, faculity are speaking out against the MSU. They are challenging their claims, and forcing the 1st Amendment down their throats. I wonder what has taken them so long.

Irans New Nuclear Enrichment Plant: The World Yawns at Irans "Other" Nuke Plant

Presidents Obama and Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown are shocked and outraged by the revelation that Iran has yet another, a "second," a new, uranium enrichment plant.

Iran Nuclear Plants

However...the U.S., France and Britain have known about it for years. We just let it continue...let it move right along, while officials watched it...didn't tell Americans and Israeli's that the country which hates us both to the middle of hell had another nuke plant underway. (I assume the "new" nuclear plant is not shown on the above map).

Iran admitted the existence of the nuclear facility, only after discovering that the CIA and the National Security Agency had their eye on what Iran refers to as their "pilot plant."

President Obama has demanded that Iran let IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors into the "secret site." Letting the IAEA (a U.N. organ) watchdog another Muslim country is equivalent to giving comfort and aid to the enemy. El Baradei just stepped down from the position of Director General after 12 years. He is the "inspector" and "director" who allowed Iran to construct their nuclear facilities, beginning with Iran's first moves to acquire information on how to enrich uranium, right up to the newly revealed plant.

Even so, Mohamed El Baradei and the U.N. received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. As Ed Lasky at American Thinker said back in 2007, Mohamed El Baradei "will be the man who will be credited as the enabler." You may remember the name Chris Charlier, a Belgian member of the the IAEA. He was the "head" Iran inspector. He didn't like what Iran was doing. He actually "inspected" Iranian facilities, then he talked about what he found - which was a quest to enrich uranium for military purposes. Back in 2006, Charlier said "Tehran is obviously making a bomb."

Iran demanded that El Baradei fire Charlier as lead inspector, and that is exactly what El Bardei did. The world yawned. Here's what Obama said yesterday:

Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," Obama said, detailing how the facility at Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Association. "International law is not an empty promise."

Gordon Brown accused Iran of "serial deception," and he is assuring us that the "international community" is shocked and angry.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Iran of "serial deception" that he said "will shock and anger the whole international community, and it will harden our resolve."

President Nicolas Sarkozy said:

"How, before the eyes of the world, could we justify meeting without tackling them?" Sarkozy said. "We live in the real world, not a virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions."

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor is "very worried." The world has yawned again. U.N. sanctions are a joke. These heads of states know we will not force the U.N. to act against Iran. We are well aware that sanctions mean nothing, unless we intend to blockade the country, let nothing into Iran, and let nothing out of Iran. Yukiya Amano, a Japanese diplomat, replaces El Baradei on November 30th. Surely Japan will cast a wary eye to nuclear proliferation.