Free Republic

The United Kingdom’s fourth largest party suspended a candidate for mayor of London who was filmed in 1997 telling voters not to support a Jew. The Liberal Democrats suspended Geeta Sidhu-Robb, who was vying to become their candidate in London’s 2021 mayoral elections, the Jewish News of London reported. Over the weekend, a video emerged on Twitter showing her during her 1997 general election campaign for the constituency of Blackburn in northern England. In that campaign, Sidhu-Robb was running as a member of the Conservative Party against Jack Straw, a former Labour lawmaker. “Don’t vote for a Jew. Jack Straw...

A British aid worker was killed Friday in a U.N. compound in the West Bank during a gunbattle between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen — the first senior U.N. official to die in over two years of fighting. The United Nations accused Israeli soldiers of preventing an ambulance from immediately reaching Iain Hook, a senior manager for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees. The Israeli army said he was evacuated from the U.N. compound in the Jenin refugee camp as soon as possible. The death occurred hours after Israel reoccupied the West Bank town of Bethlehem for the...

Israeli agency told to find incriminating material on Obama diplomats who negotiated deal with Tehran Donald Trump promised the Israeli leader that Iran would never have nuclear weapons. Donald Trump promised the Israeli leader that Iran would never have nuclear weapons. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes,...

Many people around the world, not just the relatives of the victims of the 270 people killed when Abdel Baset al-Megrahi blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over a Scottish town, are still furious about his release from a Scottish prison and the warm greetings extended to him when he arrived in Libya. The TV cameras showed the gala reception, Qaddafi hugging Megrahi, and Megrahi kissing the Libyan despot. Libya's leader then praised his "friend" British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the British government on Thursday for what he called their "courage" in allowing Megrahi's release. "To my friends in...

Jack Straw has reignited the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber by admitting for the first time that trade and oil were an essential part of the Government’s decision to include him in a prisoner transfer deal with Libya. The Justice Secretary said he was unapologetic about including Abdelbaset al Megrahi in the agreement, citing a multi-million-pound oil deal signed by BP and Libya six weeks later. The admission directly contradicts Gordon Brown's insistence only days ago that oil deals were not a factor in the prisoner's release. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Straw also...

Gordon Brown was dragged into the centre of the row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber last night after it emerged that a key decision that could have paved the way for the terrorist to serve his sentence in Libya was approved by Downing Street. A source close to Jack Straw told The Times that the move to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007 was a government decision and was not made at the sole discretion of the Justice Secretary. “It wasn’t just Jack who decided this. It was a Government decision....

  Jack Straw ... law will back heroes            New law to back 'have-a-go-heroes'     By CLODAGH HARTLEY Home Affairs Correspondent Published: 12 Jul 2008     NEW legislation will protect “have-a-go heroes” who intervene in crimes or use force to defend themselves, Justice Secretary Jack Straw vowed last night. From Monday a person’s actions will be judged on the situation “as they saw it at the time” — even if in hindsight the force could be classed as unreasonable, according to insiders. Mr Straw told The Sun: “We’re not going to have a...

Jack Straw yesterday closed a loophole in prison release rules that saw two terrorists freed early to ease overcrowding. Yassin Nassari, who was caught with plans for a military rocket, was last month given his liberty 17 days early, officials admitted. Another terrorist, who is understood to be teenager Abdul Patel, benefited from the early release scheme in January. Within hours of the two cases coming to light yesterday, Mr Straw issued a hurried announcement saying terrorists would no longer be freed early. The Justice Secretary's critics said the U-turn was a sign of disarray in Whitehall. They demanded to...

Straw ... proposals    It will be OK to bash a burglar     By GRAEME WILSON Published: Today     HAVE-a-go heroes who defend themselves against thugs and burglars are to be protected, Justice Secretary Jack Straw pledged yesterday. People who use reasonable force should not fear prosecution, he said. He is proposing reforms he says would protect people who ACTED “instinctively”, FEARED for their safety or the safety of others and used FORCE that was not “excessive or disproportionate”. Mr Straw – who has helped catch muggers or burglars four times himself – said: “Law-abiding citizens should...

Not long ago in the hospital in which I once worked, a young male nurse was asked by the administration to remove the ironmongery with which he had recently adorned his face and ears. He was outraged by this assault on his inalienable right to mutilate himself in any way that he chose, which he believed to be narrow-minded. He was, after all, the owner of his face and ears in fee simple; they were his to dispose of as he saw fit. As it happens, he was a decent and dedicated young man, albeit one with the bad taste...

Commons leader Jack Straw has defended the BBC's decision to broadcast an interview with a Taleban spokesman. The report had been "informative" and "good" and it was "important to see the nature of these people", he told MPs. Tory MP Julian Lewis had demanded a ministerial statement on the broadcast of "unalloyed Taleban propaganda". But Mr Straw said "independence of journalism" was one the BBC's strengths and it must not be directly influenced, "particularly" by ministers or MPs. "The difference is that in Taleban-controlled territory, anybody who steps out of line is killed. "We are a democracy, and we are...

Anyone expecting Jack Straw to be cowed on his first return to Blackburn since the row over veils embroiled him a week earlier would have been disappointed yesterday.He began the day by engaging in the sort of shuttle diplomacy that was his stock in trade until he left the Foreign Office to become Leader of the Commons. Except that for New York, Baghdad and Teheran read the Asian-dominated suburbs of Brookhouse and Little Harwood. Later, in the town hall, he held court, making clear that he took back not a single word of his remarks and going on to develop...

This week's Jihad Watch videoblog at Hotair explores the controversy that Jack Straw, of all people, has kicked up in Britain by suggesting that he'd rather Muslim women didn't wear the niqab when they come see him.

The row over Muslim women's dress codes reignited today after author Salman Rushdie declared that "veils suck". Rushdie, whose book The Satanic Verses triggered death threats from Islamic clerics, gave his full backing to Leader of the Commons Jack Straw for raising the issue. Rushdie was forced into hiding for 10 years after Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeini served a "fatwah" on him over his book's alleged slight on the prophet Mohammed. He had round-the-clock police protection costing nearly £1 million a year, although that has been downgraded in recent years after Iran indicated the death sentence no longer applied. But...

A row over Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw's remarks that it would be better for social integration if Muslim women did not veil their faces refused to die down on Sunday. The comments last week by Straw provoked Muslim ire, political tremors and public commentaries that he had voiced a feeling silently held by many people. The row erupted after Straw, whose northern English constituency has a large Muslim population, revealed that he asked visitors to his office to remove their veils, saying they acted as "a visible statement of separation and difference". But he defended Muslims'...

The most interesting thing about Jack Straw's pronouncement on the Muslim veil is that it was made by Jack Straw. No prominent British politician has been more friendly towards Muslims. With 25,000 of them in his Blackburn constituency, he has a clear reason to avoid giving offence. Whether on big policy issues such as Iran's nuclear bomb, on which he was terribly weak when Foreign Secretary, or on small matters of style, Mr Straw has always stood out for his Islamophilia, and has sometimes been craven towards extremists. When the Danish cartoons of Mohammed were published, he attacked the European...

British newspapers on Saturday backed cabinet minister Jack Straw after the political storm sparked by his remarks that veils worn by Muslim women harmed community relations. Former foreign secretary Straw wrote in his local newspaper that a veil was "a visible statement of separation and difference" and that he was more comfortable dealing with female visitors to his local political office with their faces uncovered. Most UK dailies turned their leading articles to the nationwide debate -- and subsequent protests -- triggered by Straw, now in charge of government business in the House of Commons. Many of them published picture...

A senior British Cabinet minister has sparked fury by saying that Muslim women who wore full veils made community relations more difficult. Jack Straw wrote in a newspaper that a veil was "a visible statement of separation and difference" and that he was more comfortable dealing with female visitors to his local political office with their faces uncovered. But Muslim leaders in Straw's Blackburn constituency in northwest England said many Muslim women would find his comments "offensive and disturbing." Straw, leader of the House of Commons and the former foreign secretary, said he was concerned that "wearing the full veil...

Jack Straw provoked anger yesterday by suggesting that community relations would be helped if Muslim women did not wear full veils.The Leader of the Commons disclosed that for the past year he had been asking women who visited his constituency office to remove their veils so that he could see them face-to-face. He always made sure that he was accompanied by a female member of staff and so far no constituent had refused to lift her veil. Mr Straw said that wearing the full veil was bound to make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult, as it could be...

Sudan warns Britain that intervention could turn into another Iraq By George Jones, Andrew Sparrow and Rachel Sylvester (Filed: 23/07/2004) British troops are welcome to enter the Darfur region, Sudan's foreign minister said yesterday, but they would rapidly find themselves in an Iraq-like situation. Responding to a British newspaper report suggesting that Tony Blair was considering options to send troops to the region, Mustafa Ismail said his government was willing to withdraw from Darfur. Children at Abu Shok refugee camp "We will give him the chance if he can give security to Darfur," Mr Ismail said in Paris. But he...