Massive Canada Arctic ice shelf breaks away

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, the latest sign of accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on Tuesday.

They said the Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by 60 percent.

"The changes ... were massive and disturbing," said Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.

"These substantial calving events underscore the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario.

"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present," he said in an e-mailed statement from the research team sent late on Tuesday.

Mueller said the total amount of ice lost from the shelves along Ellesmere Island this summer totaled 83 square miles -- more than three times the area of Manhattan island.

The figure is more than 10 times the amount of ice shelf cover that scientists estimated on July 30 would vanish from around the island this summer.

"Reduced sea ice conditions and unusually high air temperatures have facilitated the ice shelf losses," said Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa.

BLEAK FUTURE

"Extensive new cracks across remaining parts of the largest remaining ice shelf, the Ward Hunt, mean that it will continue to disintegrate in the coming years," he said.

The first sign of serious recent erosion in the five shelves came in late July, when sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles broke off the Ward Hunt shelf. Since then that shelf has lost another 8.5 square miles

.

Ellesmere Island was once home to a single enormous ice shelf totaling around 3,500 square miles. All that is left of that shelf today are the four much smaller shelves that together cover little more than 300 square miles

.

Scientists say the ice shelves, which contain unique ecosystems that had yet to be studied, will not be replaced because they took so long to form.

The rapid melting of ice in the Canadian Arctic archipelago worries Ottawa, which fears foreign ships might try to sail through the waters without seeking permission first.

Last week Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada would toughen reporting requirements for ships entering its waters in the Far North, where some of those territorial claims are disputed by the United States and other countries.

From The Telegraph and Argus. Ramadan Day 3
Police patrols have taken to the streets of Bradford to curb youth crime during Ramadan.
Mosques and police officers have linked up to stop young people from causing disturbances while their elders attend mosques during the holy month.
Community leaders are hoping for a repeat of last year’s successful Operation Wilt which saw anti-social behaviour drop by 37 per cent and criminal damage by 30 per cent in the Girlington, Heaton and Manningham areas of the city.
Inspector Kash Singh, (a good man by all accounts - he organised the St George's Day parade which the council then cancelled) who is leading the operation, said: “In 2006 we identified that during Ramadan there was a significant increase of damage offences and anti-social behaviour such as young people stampeding on cars and throwing bricks – it was a problem so we spoke to key individuals.
“We found that these problems were being caused by youngsters who sneaked out of mosques or just didn’t go when their elders were praying.”
Patrolling police are intervening where they spot nuisance behaviour.
Particular attention is being given to the hundreds of cars parked outside mosques, and homes left empty, during prayer times.

Australians are united in their support for the troops who detained members of the Taliban overnight in an enclosure usually used as a dog pen. From The Australian.
THE Government and Opposition yesterday combined to defend the actions of special forces soldiers in Afghanistan after embarrassing admissions by the army that dog pens were used to hold Taliban detainees.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said yesterday the Diggers were not to blame for the situation that has infuriated Australian Muslim groups, who regard it as an insult to their religion, which classifies dogs as dirty animals.
Speaking on ABC radio, Mr Fitzgibbon said the troops had no option but to use the dog pens before relocating their prisoners to the main base at Tarin Kowt.
He accepted that cultural sensitivities had been offended but there would be no apology. (My bold - Ew)
"We are at war in Afghanistan with people who will employ any tactic, including the use of children as shields and as a means of propaganda, and it is a tough battle," he said. "But we always endeavour to comply on all occasions with international law and I am confident that our people have done so."
Mr Fitzgibbon was supported by Opposition defence spokesman Nick Minchin. "It's pretty outrageous for any Australian to complain about the behaviour of Australian troops in relation to these Taliban extremists who not only treat other troops but their own people with such degradation, cruelty and appalling procedures," Senator Minchin said.
Four suspected Taliban were detained and brought to an unnamed Australian-built forward operating base where they were housed in individual pens formerly occupied by bomb squad dogs.
The Australian understands that the pens were open air and petitioned by wire and hessian cloth.
A 70-year-old detainee was later released but the others were brought to the main Dutch detention facility at the Tarin Kowt base.
Meanwhile the US General Petraeus thinks so highly of Australian troops he wants more.
Talking to The Australian from his map-lined office in Baghdad, the four-star general said he wanted to thank Australian troops for their contribution to Iraq.
"We are privileged to have them with us," he said. "They have initiative. They have a great work ethic and they have a wonderful sense of humour. They don't hesitate to offer a view, even when not solicited. That's how I like to operate and like to see others operate. I want people to speak up. We want individuals to have unvarnished opinions and I think Aussies are very good at that."  

I found this article over at the Daily Tribune, a high circulation and reasonably independent newspaper in the Philippines.

Listen to Amos Moses.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

MAWASSI, Gaza - Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, and in that time the economy of this coastal territory of 1.4 million people has gone from bad to worse.

Gas and food shortages are now being compounded by cash shortages as tens of thousands of people were unable to withdraw money from banks on Monday.

Still, despite their economic hardships, most Gazans insist that they prefer life here without the Israelis.

But in Mawassi – a mixed ethnic Palestinian and Bedouin town that was completely isolated from the rest of Gaza inside a Jewish settlement enclave – it's a different story.

"I want [the Israelis] to come back," says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight who worked in the area's Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years. "All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren."

Located in the middle of Gush Katif, the former block of Jewish settlements here, Mawassi fell within the security cordon the Israeli army threw around its citizens from 2002 to 2005, when attacks from the neighboring Palestinian town of Khan Yunis came almost daily.

During those years, the people of Mawassi continued to work in Gush Katif, mainly as farmhands in hundreds of greenhouses the Jewish settlers operated.

Mr. Laham and many others in Mawassi say they preferred the relative economic security of those days to the current destitution, even if they are now free from Israeli occupation.

"Freedom to go where?" Laham asks. "I have no fuel now for my car. Where can I go? Freedom is a slogan. Even for a donkey you need money – which I don't have."

Three years ago, before Israel withdrew, Mawassi was a town of fertile corn crops and greenhouses, which – like the ones in the Jewish settlements – grew cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and strawberries.

Now, in the ethnic Palestinian section of town, nearly half the land lies barren.

Only shells remain of many of the greenhouses that were stripped of valuable materials.

A city that fed itself with its produce and the money its men made from working with the settlers, Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the United Nations...

Hugh Fitzgerald has written about Robert D. Crane here. Today, the GMBDR carries the following quotes:

(...) Further evidence in support of both the existence of a global Muslim Brotherhood and its relationship to CAIR has come to light in a 2004 presentation to the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) an organization itself part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. In a paper titled submitted to the AMSS 33rd Annual Conference in late September 2004, Robert Dickson Crane, a U.S. Islamic convert, made the following statement:

Clearly there is a “culture war” developing within the Muslim communities around the world in response to the extremists who once were tolerated but after the 9/11 experiences of America and Russia can be tolerated no more. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is the leading Muslim civil liberties group in the United States and an influential part of the global Muslim Brotherhood, is collecting signatures on a petition entitled “Not in the Name of Islam.”

Dr. Crane converted to Islam in Bahrain in 1981 and has served as a leader in many U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations including the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), the American Muslim Council (AMC), and the United Association for Studies and Research.

In August 2007, Dr. Crane wrote of his desire to see the collapse of the “American Empire” to be replaced by a religiously-based civilization with the “help of Muslims.”:

The American Empire must eventually collapse, as John Whitehead predicts, and as all empires have. The challenge is to transform America so that it is no longer an empire and therefore can serve the intent of its founders to be a moral model for the world based on the universal wisdom of all the world religions. This transformation can come only with the help of Muslims who are pursuing the mission of educating their fellow Muslims for the good of America.

Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies writes in the WaPo (h/t: Refugee Resettlement Watch):

When the Census Bureau released its new population projections last month, most of the media focused on the country's changing racial composition. But this was almost certainly not the most important finding. The projections show that the U.S. population will grow by 135 million in just 42 years -- a 44 percent increase. Such growth would have profound implications for our environment and quality of life. Most of the increase would be a direct result of one federal policy -- immigration. If we reduced the level of immigration, the projections would be much lower. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Do we want to be a much more densely settled country?

If you can't get an Eiffel, get an earful. Click for some Cole:

Mary waves to her public from the third carriage to the right as she heads towards her destination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtSOx8FQuIw

Last week, Richard Fernandez at Pajamas media questioned whether a Townhall blog post by Amanda Carpenter which identified a man said by Percy Sutton to have helped Obama both pay for and get into Harvard as a ranting anti-semite shown on videos she linked. The man is Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour, earlier known as Don Warden. Fernandez couldn't believe the raving looney in the videos could be a financial advisor to Saudi billionaires.

Ken Timmerman has done some digging and the answer is yes. Ms. Carpenter had the right man.

...Although many Americans have never heard of Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour (his full name), he is well known within the black community as a lawyer, an orthodox Muslim, a black nationalist, an author, an international deal-maker, an educator, and an outspoken enemy of Israel.

A graduate of Howard University with a law degree from the University of California, al-Mansour sits on numerous corporate boards, including the Saudi African Bank and Chicago-based LaGray Chemical Co. LaGray, which was formed to do business in Africa, counts former Nigerian President General Abdusalam Abubakar on its advisory board.

He also sits on the board of the non-profit African Leadership Academy, along with top McCain for President adviser Carly Fiorina, and organized a tribute to the President of Ghana at the Clinton White House in 1995, along with pop star Michael Jackson.

But his writings and books are packed with anti-American rhetoric reminiscent of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s disgraced former pastor.

In a 1995 book, “The Lost Books of Africa Rediscovered,” he alleged that the United States was plotting genocide against black Americans.

The first "genocide against the black man began 300 years ago," he told an audience in Harlem at a book-signing, while a second "genocide" was on the way “to remove 15 million Black people, considered disposable, of no relevance, value or benefit to the American society.”

In the 1960s, when he founded the African American Association in the San Francisco Bay area, he was known as Donald Warden.

According to the Social Activism Project at the University of California at Berkley, Warden, a.k.a. Khalid al-Mansour, was the mentor of Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton and his cohort, Bobby Seale...

On this date, September 3rd, in 1260, the Battle of Ain Jalut took place between the Muslim forces of the Egyptian Mamluks and the Mongols.  The battle took place in the Jezreel Valley in modern Israel.

The invasion of the Mongols was a reaction, as was the Christian Crusades, against Islamic military expansionism in the preceding centuries.  The Muslims of modern Khazakhstan and Iran had been making incursions into modern Greater Mongolia, Manchuria, and China from the very inception of Islam in the late 600's.  The Mongols finally reacted in 1258 when they decimated the Caliphate in Baghdad.

The Christian Crusaders based in Acre unfortunately saw the Mongols as the greater (or equal) threat than the Muslims, and took a position of neutrality.  Eventually, this allowed the Muslims to defeat both the Mongols and the Christians individually.

Hulagu Khan (grandson of Ghengis Khan) led the Mongol army as it fought its way westward, defeating various Islamic kingdoms along the way, including the Hashashin (originators of the term "assassin") in modern Iran.

Hulagu emulated many of the techniques of Islamic warfare.  He sent a veiled warning to the Mamluk leader, Qutuz, in Cairo, just as Mohammad had sent messages to Persian and Byzantine leaders warning them to accept Islam or face invasion.  The Mongols initially treated prisoners and vanquished persons with mercy, but after incidents of Muslim torture and mass-murder, the Mongols began responding in kind, eventually out-doing the Muslims in atrocities in the Battle of Baghdad.

In the Battle of Ain Jalut, the Mamluks copied a technique of the Mongols, and pretended to retreat in order to draw out the Mongol calvary.  The Mongols nearly decimated the Mamluks, but the Mamluks finally lured the Mongols to the point of ambush, where the Mamluks' main force lay in waiting.  The Mamluks also took the honor of being the first troops in history to use cannons in battle, though it mainly had the effect of startling the horses and riders with its noise.

The Mongols were forced to retreat in defeat, and Hulagu returned to his lands.  The victorious Mamluk leader Qutuz was soon assassinated by rival Muslims.  The Muslims would soon begin their offensive against the Christian Crusaders.

After their previous victories against the Muslims, the Mongol Khans began to convert to Islam around this time.  This marked the beginning of the decline of the Mongol Empire.  A rival Khan, Berke Khan, who had previously converted to Islam and who was outraged at Hulagu Khan's attack on the Caliphate in Baghdad, declared war on Hulagu, and civil war tore the Mongol Empire apart.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Sept 2: Richard "Lionheart" vs. Saladin
Sept 1: Beslan Massacre
Aug 29: Jihad on European Synagogues
Aug 28: Poet Laureate Baraka
Aug 27: Bombardment of Algiers