A Canadian "peace group" acting on behalf of the Iranian and Syrian dictatorships

An oddball Hamilton, Ontario activist named Ken Stone is part of the so-called Canadian Peace Alliance, being the spokesman for its Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War branch. He has been the guest of the Iranian dictatorship and upon his return to Canada, complained bitterly about being asked questions by CSIS about his all-expenses paid visit to the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism.

Given that the Canadian Peace Alliance acts like a front group for Iranian interests in Canada, it should surprise no one that they are supporters of the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. In an interview on the fanatical neo-Marxist website rabble.ca, Stone expresses his pleasure that Assad's forces seem to be gaining the upper hand against rebels trying to bring down the dictatorial regime.

Ken Stone at
a Khomeinist al Quds Day
protest in Toronto

Syria is one of Iran's few close allies in the middle east. The downfall of their ally Assad's regime would further isolate Iran's dictatorship, which is currently feeling pain from international sanctions. Syria has been a conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, its proxy terror group in Lebanon. With Assad gone, Iran's influence in Lebanon would take a major hit, which is why Iran's proxies are desperate to try to prevent western countries from giving further support to the Syrian rebels.

However, if they want to be convincing, Iran really does need to come up with a better class of shill than people like Ken Stone. In his interview he actually tries to portray Assad's Syria, which is known for torturing and killing political dissidents, as a middle eastern paradise that is even more democratic than Canada.

Evidently believing the sort of person attracted to so-called peace groups like his to be gullible imbeciles, Stone describes Syria as "a very multicultural country like Canada" with "a government that guarantees the rights of all the minorities in the country."

Clearly trying to build sympathy for a brutal, murderous dictator,  Stone hammers away at the theme that Assad's Syria is like liberal, democratic Canada.  Repeating his analogy, he says of Syrians that "they live in a multicultural society; sounds like Canada" Then, describing accounts from western media and governments, he protests that "they will tell you that the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad is a dictator, but actually he's been elected with a lot higher majority than either Prime Minister Harper or Obama has received."

Stone leaves out that Assad's electoral victories bear a striking resemblance to those won by his fellow Ba'athist Saddam Hussein in Iraq, who routinely claimed 99.9% of the vote in his favor.

Pushing the lie that the Syrian rebels are all foreign mercenaries paid for by the US, Stone seems to have borrowed talking points from his associate, the racist Khomeinist, Zafar Bangash.

There is absolutely nothing honest or useful to be learned about Syria from Ken Stone and his comrades at the Canadian Peace Alliance. But their desperation is informative about other matters, such as the extent to which Iran is worried about Assad's demise and the ways that the Iranian dictatorship utilizes Canadian groups for its own aims.

Shades of Luka Magnotta! - Cannibalism in China

Forgotten amid western fears of domination by the juggernaut of the Chinese economy is that modernity has not yet reached most of the one billion plus people in the People's Republic.

Other than business news and the occasional human rights story, there is little occidentals hear about internal Chinese goings on. But the proprietor of a local restaurant who keeps up with news from home told me about this story that a Korean news service broke about the Chines government warning people off capsules that supposedly have invigorating powers and are made from human flesh.

Keep in mind that tigers and white rhinoceroses have been hunted to near extinction because of eastern belief that their body parts were essential for traditional remedies and aphrodisiacs.

Apparently, human flesh is believed by some in China to have similar properties.

The story reports that there are "deadly super bacteria" in the human flesh capsules being sold there.

If true, this sort of thing could explain why such devastating viruses have originated in that part of the world.

The link to the Korean News Service item is here (use google translate, which unfortunately is poor for that item, but you'll get the gist of it).

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In other horrifying news from abroad, four students at the Nigerian University of Port Harcourt were tortured and burnt alive after being accused of stealing laptops and cell phones. The video can be viewed here, but be warned,  it is extremely graphic and disturbing.

Three brave women speak out against Islamicism and the hypocrisy of leftist western feminists

An organization called Advocates for Civil Liberties conducted a panel Monday night in Toronto's tony Yorkvile neighborhood dealing with the suppression of women's rights under Islamic rule. Raheel Raza and Nsatasha Fatah are both Canadian Muslims of Pakistani origin who have seen the way threat Islamism has creeped into Muslim cultures in the last three decades. They attribute the phenomenon to the aggressive agenda of Wahhabi Islam that originates in Saudi Arabia and whose spread has been funded by that country's oil wealth which has skyrocketed since the 1970's.

Fatah, a writer who is the daughter of renowned author and human rights activist Tarek Fatah and Raza, who is a former head of the Muslim Canadian Congress, both noted that in their native Pakistan, only a couple of decades ago, it was extremely rare to see women dressed in the body casing of the burkah or niqab, whereas now it is commonplace there. The practice has no basis in religion, but is an Arab tradition that Saudi influence has spread to Muslim countries outside the middle east and even to pockets of Muslim communities in western countries like Canada.

The most harrowing accounts came not from a Muslim woman but a Catholic who lived under Islamist rule in Iran. Marina Nemat grew up in Iran under the Shah, where despite repressive activities directed at political dissenters by his secret police, the Savak, the average citizen enjoyed the same rights and individual liberties as citizens of western countries. With the exception of Turkey, women's rights in pre-Revolutionary Iran were unrivaled in the Islamic Middle East. Nemat spoke of a childhood with dancing to Bee Gees music, mini-skirts, swimming at the cottage in her bikini, dating and a life that would be indistinguishable from that of a girl in places like France or Austria. The changes that the Khomeini regime brought about seemed gradual, but were horrific in the end result. First, behaviour like singing and dancing were banned, then women were prohibited from wearing bright colors and short skirts. Then they were forced to cover themselves and not allowed to show their hair in public.

Political repression magnified, and as a teenager, Nemat was arrested for participating in an anti-government demonstration and what happened after that was horrifying and irreversible. She, along with hundreds of others, were jailed in in Iran's Evin prison, the most disreputable torture centre in the world whose abuses exceed that of the USSR's Lubyanka. Canadians may recognize that name as the place where Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered after being raped and tortured by her jailers. That fate befell many of Nemat's friends. The Iranians believed that a virgin was guaranteed a place in heaven and not wanting an enemy of the Islamic Republic to receive that privilege in the afterlife, they raped young girls and teenagers like Nemat was at the time. She was also subjected to brutal torture like having the soles of her feet lashed repeatedly by guards who would shout "Allahu Akbar!" with each vicious stroke.

Eventually, Nemat was able to escape Iran to warn of the breed of Islamicism that Iran wants to spread throughout the middle east, but tragically it is often falling on deaf ears. Shockingly, much of that deafness comes from western so-called "feminists" who have provided ideological support for some of the most brutally misogynistic regimes in the world.

The trio of Raza, Fatah and Nemat al decried the hypocrisy among many in the west as a tacit form of racism that accepts Islamist mistreatment of women as being to to an inate inferiority, whereas they would never accept such behaviour from white Christians. The phenomenon of making Muslim women, or Muslim Divas such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji who speak out against Islamism into heroes was counterproductive as far as they were concerned. Such discourse needs to be part of the general conversation and it speaks poorly of Muslim society that there are so few.  All three called upon people of every religious, national and cultural background to speak out against the abuses occurring in the name of Islamist radicalism. They said that Muslim women cannot do it on their own and every free citizen should take whatever action they could, including making elected representatives aware of concerns about the erosion of women’s human rights wherever Sharia Law is imposed or people propose its implementation.

Libya's version of The Story of O

A Libyan TV host recounts her torture by Gaddafi's security agents and praises them and "The Leader"

Gaddafi really screwed with the heads of Libyans during his 42 years of brutal, absolute rule.

Iran sentences innocent Canadian computer geek to death

The Mullah-controlled Iranian dictatorship seems to have it in for Iranians who have taken up Canadian residency.

They tortured and murdered Zahra Kazemi. Iranian prosectors requested a death sentence and got 19½ year prison confinement for Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, and now they have imposed a death sentence on Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour.

Here is the story of Malekpour and what has happened to him:

Saeed graduated from Sharif University of Technology with a Bachelors degree in Material Engineering. He worked as a technical expert at Iran Khodro (the country’s biggest car manufacturer), as a technical inspector in a private corporation, and later as a material research associate for a metallurgical research center, RMRC in Tehran.  

In 2004, Saeed and his wife moved to Canada, where he became a permanent resident. He began work as a freelance website developer & programmer responsible for developing only parts of websites or portions involving, for example, IT system management and system security.  

While working as developer in Canada, Saeed designed a program that would allow his clients to upload pictures, and as is a common courtesy in programming, included his name and info in the file.  

This program, Saeed’s wife – Dr. Fatimeh Eftekhari – explains, was used in an adult content website WITHOUT Saeed’s knowledge or approval. “The only recognizable name in the program was Saeed’s,” she continued, “which led to his arrest” and to the accusations claiming that Saeed was responsible for the development and administration of the website.

According to news reports, Malekpour was charged with "taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites," "agitation against the regime" and "insulting the sanctity of Islam."

A letter from Malekpour describes his treatment and how his "conviction" was secured:

Most of the time, the tortures were performed by a group. While I remained blindfolded and handcuffed, several individuals armed with cables, batons, and their fists struck and punched me. At times, they would flog my head and neck. Such mistreatment was aimed at forcing me to write what the interrogators were dictating, and to compel me to play a role in front of the camera based on their scenarios. Sometimes, they used extremely painful electrical shock that would paralyze me temporarily. Once in October 2008, the interrogators stripped me while I was blindfolded and threatened to rape me with a bottle of water. 

One of those very days, as a result of being kicked, punched, and lashed with cables on my head and face, my face became very swollen. I lost consciousness several times, but each time they would wake me up by splashing water on my face [and continued with the torture]. That night, they returned me to my cell. At the end of the night, I realized my ear was bleeding. I banged on the door of my cell, but nobody came. The next day, while half of my body was paralyzed, and I was unable to move, they took me to Evin prison’s clinic. The doctor, after seeing my condition, emphasized that I should be transferred to a hospital. However, I was returned to my cell instead, and I was left to my own devices until 9:00pm. Three guards eventually transferred me to Baghiatollah hospital. On our way to the hospital, the guards told me I was not allowed to give my real name, and ordered me to use the alias Mohammad Saeedi. They threatened me with severe torture if I did not follow their orders.

Before I was able to be examined by the doctor, one of the guards met with the doctor on duty in the emergency room, and then I entered a few minutes later. The doctor – without performing any examinations, radiography, or tests – simply stated that my problem was stress-related. He wrote his diagnosis on the medical report and prescribed a few pills. When I asked him to at least wash my ear the doctor said it was not necessary. I was returned to the detention center with the clotted blood remaining in my ear. For 20 days, the left side of my body was numb, and I had little control over my left arm and leg muscles. I also had difficulty walking. 

On January 24, 2009, after being subject to severe beatings, one of the interrogators threatened to pull out my tooth with a pair of tongs. One of my teeth broke and my jaw was displaced after I was kicked in the face by him. However, the physical tortures were nothing compared to the psychological torments. I endured long solitary confinement time (totaling to more than one year) without phone calls or the possibility of visiting my loved ones, constant threats to arrest and torture my wife and family if I did not cooperate, threats to kill me. They also provided me with false news of arresting my wife.

You can read all of Malekpour's letter here.

There is a facebook page you can join to get more information.  You'll find links to petitions that will be presented to the House of Commons requesting that the Canadian government do all it can to intervene on his behalf.