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11. april 2006
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Some interesting space news today. First, a European space probe successfully went into orbit around Venus.
A European spacecraft moved into orbit around Venus on Tuesday, successfully completing a critical stage of a mission to explore the hostile climate and atmosphere of Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. [...]
Over the next several weeks, scientists will turn on the seven instruments on the probe and run them through tests. By June, they are expected to begin gathering information on how Venus, while similar to Earth in size and geological makeup, wound up with such a hot, dense atmosphere swathed in clouds of sulfuric acid.
They are looking for evidence of pre-historic SUVs on Venus!
The Mars rover Spirit, limping from a broken wheel, is still alive against all odds.
The solar-powered Spirit was rolling toward the north-facing side of McCool Hill last month to recharge on some sunshine during the winter when its right front wheel stopped working. [...]
After they failed three times to get it to climb McCool, engineers steered Spirit to a closer slope known as Low Ridge, where it arrived over the weekend and will spend the winter, said principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
Hibernating. These vehicles are amazing.
10:58:44 PM 
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 Some time ago I wrote that Norway had two foreign policies: Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, from the Socialist Left party, conducted a public campaign for a consumer boycott of Israel, for which she was soundly beaten by her partners in the larger Labour party. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre made clear that this wasn't Norway's official position in any way, but the government and the country did suffer damage.
Now, the situation is much worse. Norway has currently no foreign policy for the Middle East, or at best an extremely unclear one. The EU, USA and Canada have all stated that all aid directed through the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority government will cease until Hamas renounces violence and recognises Israel. Initially, Jonas Gahr Støre stated that this, too, was Norway's official policy.
Labour's left wing and the Socialist Left quickly moved to condemn the statement, and Støre was accused of being pressured by Norway's allies (read: the US). Norway's Development Minister Erik Solheim, from the Socialist Left, has now published an official note on the Foreign Department's web pages, which is not entirely clear, but appears to open the possibility for Norwegian taxpayers' money being paid directly to the Hamas government (my translation).
Norway has not stopped any planned payments to the Palestinian authority government. A decision will be made about concrete payments when this is needed. As the Foreign Minister has underscored, we await the situation to find out which policy the Palestinian authority will conduct.
Solheim further writes that it expects the Hamas government to renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by the Authorites' previous agreements, but emphasises that "we don't expect this to happen in a single jump". Solheim also adds that Israel should cease the occupation, "desist from violence" (notably, making it the only state in the world not permitted to use force in self-defence!) and stop building "the wall which violates international law." With this absurd moral equivalency, Solheim obviously opens for aiding Hamas.
Foreign Minister Støre has posted a new statement, also available in English, arguing there is no difference of opinion within the government. He convinces nobody.
Norway is also planning to welcome Palestinian president Abbas soon.
We will also discuss this question with President Abbas during his visit to Norway at the end of the month.
If an elected head of state for any European, or American, country had written a revisionist book on the Holocaust titled The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement, would he ever be welcomed to Norway? I absolutely don't think so.
The support for the nazi-islamist-terrorist Hamas party from the Norwegian Socialist Left is utterly reprehensible. Solheim and his socialist colleague argue that the election is a de jure whitewash of an extremist organisation which, we have to remember, has an approving reference to the infamous anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, so popular with nazis, in its very charter. An election win gives the Hamas the right to form a quasi-government in the quasi-state of Palestine, and that's it. It gives the extremists no right to be funded by the taxpayers of Norway, and also no right to make us talk to them.
There are similar pro-Hamas sounds from the left in other European countries, notably (not surprisingly), in Sweden.
The double standard of Europe's left is evident in these cowardly moves to recognise and even pay money to Hamas, when we remember how EU countries treated Jörg Haider, who was part of a coalition government in Austria from 2000. Fourteen EU members ceased all cooperation with the Austrian government. Now, surely, Haider is an extremist I am far from defending, but compared to Hamas he is a pussycat. Haider and his party have killed nobody as far as I know, while Hamas has killed thousands, including many Palestinians who are seen as doing un-Islamic acts. Hamas is unashamedly anti-Semitic and is serious about ethnically cleansing the Middle East, and none of Haider's dubious nazi-friendly statements come close to this position. Obviously the votes of Austrians were not enough to make Haider acceptable in Europe, so how come the votes of Palestinians is sufficient to justify the extremist acts and positions of Hamas?
Earlier coverage: Norway to continue contact with Hamas-run PA.
10:33:39 PM
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The depressing situation for women in Syria:
Syria's first comprehensive field study of violence against women has concluded that nearly one married woman in four surveyed had been beaten. The study was released last week as part of a report on Syria by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
The findings have been published in local news media, helping to draw attention to topics, like domestic abuse and honor killings, that have long been considered taboo in this conservative society.
The study was carried out under the supervision of the quasi-governmental General Union of Women, which oversees the welfare of Syria's women. The study included nearly 1,900 families, selected as a random sample, including a broad range of income levels and all regions. The men and women in each family were questioned separately.
Still, I suspect the violence is under-reported in this study.
You have to stretch this story to find any positives, but it is positive that the problem is getting some attention in the Arab world. It is a small first step in beginning to tackle the problem. First, there has to be public condemnation from authority figures, as well as real penalties for men being reported. Then, men has to actually learn and personally feel it is wrong. The worst thing happening is young boys (and girls) witnessing this violence in their own families are learning that this is the way normal families behave. If there is a real "cycle of violence" in the Middle East, this is it.
8:49:45 PM
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Yesterday, Iran's nutcase president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised "very good nuclear news in the coming days." Today, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani may have scooped him on announcing this news, telling the world that Iran has for the first time enriched uranium. You know that "good nuclear news" from Iran is very bad news.
"We operated the first unit which comprises of 164 centrifuges, gas was injected, and we got the industrial output," Mr Rafsanjani said.
It was not immediately clear when the operation, at the Natanz facility, had started or how much enriched uranium was produced.
Mr Rafsanjani added: "There needs to be an expansion of operations if we are to have a complete industrial unit; tens of units are required to set up a uranium enrichment plant."
The 164 centrifuges are needed to provide the cascade that creates enriched uranium.
But the process would only create the low-level enrichment needed for nuclear fuel.
Iran would need thousands of centrifuges to create the highly enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons.
This is a big f you to the rest of the world, and it happens just after Seymour Hersh's story about plans for a nuclear bunker buster attack on Iran's facilities made Europe go very wobbly.
Speaking at a foreign affairs meeting in Brussels on Monday (10 April), EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said "any military action is definitely out of the question for us," but added that Europe should prepare itself for other punitive action against Tehran.
The European sanctions would come in case UN efforts to end the nuclear standoff with Tehran should fail.
"What we are doing today is a reflection on what may happen if at the end of the day what is going (on) now in the Security Council does fail," Mr Solana said according to Reuters.
"We have plenty of time, but we have to be prepared just in case they fail," he said hinting that any sanctions could include a visa ban.
Ah, this means that Ahmadinejad may not be allowed to go to Germany for the soccer World Cup. Now that is going to show them Europe is serious!
The Mullahs are calling the west's bluff. The sanctions - if they are ever called - will have no effect whatsoever, except making Iran pull out of the non-proliferation treaty altogether. This move will allow it to "legally" build nuclear weapons. Legally, that is, if you think that there exists such a thing as international law.
The only decisive threat of force to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons now comes from the United States and Israel. Both options are disastrous at every level, but certainly less so than mullahs with nukes.
6:08:57 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.05.2006; 13:03:41.
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