ANTI-SEMITISM UKRAINE NOW!

Torah scrolls confiscated
from Ukrainian community
By Vladimir Matveyev
KIEV (JTA) — As their Torah scrolls were packed into black plastic garbage bags and carried out of the Jewish school, the students and adults continued to pray, many with tears in their eyes.

The scrolls originally belonged to the Jewish community of Zhitomir in central Ukraine, but were acquired by the local state archives through communist and Nazi looting. Since then, in the absence of a restitution law, the archives had lent the scrolls to the community — but on shaky terms.

On Feb. 14, the community was forced to return 10 scrolls it had received more than two years ago. Representatives of the archives carried them out of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, leaving the community without any scrolls.

“This was like the medieval times, this was like a nightmare,” said Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the country’s leading Jewish umbrella group.

The seizure was the result of a controversy that was triggered a few months ago when the officials at the Zhitomir Regional State Archives demanded the return of the scrolls, citing concern over their safety.

In 2004, the archives handed over 17 out of 290 Torah scrolls in its possession to be used by the local Jewish community run by Chabad.

The scrolls had been the property of the many synagogues and private Jewish households in Zhitomir, and were confiscated by communist authorities during anti-religious campaigns or seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine in World War II.

For two-and-a-half years, the scrolls were kept in a specially designated room at the Ohr Avner school.

Without a restitution law, many Jewish communities in the post-Soviet Ukraine were allowed to temporarily use Torah scrolls confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while most of the scrolls remain the property of state-run museums and archives.

Such loans do not always satisfy the Jewish community.

The Zhitomir community had previously expressed its concern that in the absence of a proper restitution act, they could not repair the borrowed scrolls in accordance with Jewish law.

In addition, representatives of the community had to submit a petition every three months that would allow them to keep the scrolls.

In October, representatives of the archives checked the scrolls kept in the Zhitomir school and demanded their return, claiming that at least seven of the scrolls may have been damaged while in the community’s possession.

Archive Deputy Director Natalia Shimchenko told JTA that the archive’s curators had established that the “number of units” registered with the archives “did not correspond with those in the community safe.”

Local Jewish leaders deny the accusations of improper care or alterations and said the scrolls — some of them fragmented — were improperly catalogued in the archives.

But the community chose not to argue, and last month returned the seven scrolls in question to the archives.

The archives then refused to prolong the loan agreement on the remaining 10 scrolls and confiscated them Wednesday despite protests from the Jewish community and the local governor.

“We are law-abiding citizens of Ukraine and we have not violated any laws,” community leader Vladimir Rozengurten said, adding that allegations of improper care and damage were “slander.”

“The statements that we have damaged the scrolls are outrageous,” Zhitomir Chief Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm said. “This is a groundless accusation, and we still have no results of the examination” of the scrolls.

But community leaders said they had to back off, apprehensive of possible use of force by representatives of the archives.

“I’m sure we are not saying goodbye for a long time to the Torah scrolls,” Rozengurten said.

He and other community leaders are hoping that legislation will be adopted in Ukraine dictating the return of the scrolls that were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.

UFO EASTERN EUROPE**2007**

Strange Lights, Reports are coming from Eastern Europe, such as this one, posted today. We will continue to document these reports. Henry_Allen


Hole in the ice fuels speculation about UFOs

Riga - A hole in a frozen pond in northern Latvia achieved unexpected notoriety on Wednesday as rumours began circulating that it was created by an object falling from outer space.

"We've been collecting information on the story all day, and we'll definitely report it in the morning," Inguna Plume, editor of local newspaper Ziemellatvija, told reporters.

The "unusually large hole" appeared in the ice of a frozen pond near the northern Latvian village of Karki in early February, the Leta news agency wrote. Despite sub-zero temperatures, the hole
reportedly did not freeze over for two days.

Locals initially reported seeing "strange things" in the area.

One girl said that she had seen "a small bright object with a silver ring around it", while other witnesses reported seeing up to six symmetrical beams of light emerging from the pond.

When the existence of the mysterious hole became known, the theory that it could have been created by an object falling from outer space began to gain credence, Karki spokesperson Sandra Pilskalne told Leta.

Scientific experts admit that the hole could have been created by a falling piece of interstellar debris, the news wire added.

The mysterious hole has now frozen over, but water samples have been taken for testing, Pilskalne said. Representatives of Karki council were not available for comment when approached by reporters. - Sapa-dpa

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-02-14 23:14:25
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Sangre Eterna

Teen bloodsucking orgy!

>> Chilean director Jorge Olguin brings his unique vampire feature Sangre Eterna to Fantasia



by MATTHEW HAYS

Just when you thought that vampire fixation of yours had been sucked dry, a cool Chilean director has arrived to paint the cinema red all over again. And the blood has never tasted better - or looked better, for that matter.

With his latest feature, Sangre Eterna, Jorge Olguin has taken the well-trodden turf of teens bitten by the vampire bug and given it a new, funny and alternately seriously disturbing twist. Fantasia freaks will recall that Olguin's feature debut, Angel Negro, screened at the festival's 2001 edition. His wacky universe is wound up again on the big screen, and here, he's managed to give the vampire genre a good, sharp bite in the neck.

Sangre Eterna opens with apparently sweet, innocent Carmilla showing off her new goth look to her high school buddies. Carmilla finds herself straying from her usual group of straight friends and falling in with the goth crowd, finding herself sexually drawn to the leader of the goth pack, M. She's soon drawn into their vampire role-playing game, in which four sexy teens dredge up various fantasies about battling vampire hunters. It all seems so real, the fights in which bullets slice into our dear vampire friends like so much gunfire in an over-the-top Peckinpah Western. And the vampire hunters are closing in! Who will get out and survive and who will be hunted down for the cruel bloodsuckers they really are? It sure helps that the vampire goths, male and female, are sexy and alluring (funny how that works).

Olguin manages some truly dark comic touches up until this point, but then the movie takes one of those beautiful about-faces, morphing into something quite different. Taking its cues from George A. Romero's occasionally-overlooked Martin, Sangre Eterna has characters utterly lost in the battle of perception between fantasy and reality, make-believe and truth, madness and sanity, dreams and eyes-wide-open consciousness. In doing so, Olguin drags his audience, kicking and screaming, into the same netherworld, effectively undermining our expectations and pulling that old reality rug out from under our feet. He's an exciting director, and this is the kind of film that will undoubtedly be shown in decades to come at retrospectives of his work. A fabulously fun and kinky little follow-up to his debut, Sangre Eterna made a Chilean vampire convert outta me. Olguin talked with the Mirror about his inspirations and the charm of vampires from his Chilean office.

Mirror: What drew you to vampires?

Jorge Olguin: A lot of things, but no doubt a big part of it is that vampires have such a charm to them, because they have such massive power over others, and that a vampire can take away someone else's essence, their vitality. And vampires can hide away in the shadows, without anyone noticing them. A vampire works well metaphorically: they can be someone who has an influence on other's politics or economics. That vampire can then be exposed for their situation or their political reality. There are a lot of vampires in South America.

Moved by Martin

M: Your movie has been compared to a number of very different things, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Peckinpah Westerns to the work of George A. Romero. What were some of your main inspirations while making the film?

JO: I see a lot of films, and ultimately they become part of my environment and my reality, because ultimately I use them for inspiration to make my own films. Sangre Eterna was influenced by Martin by George A. Romero. I was taken with its ambiguity; the vampirism is the fantasy of the main character, but his story says that he is a vampire. This is a film that distresses you with its bloody hero. Certainly, that's part of what inspired me to make my character a charming anti-hero as well.

M: I had never heard of a Chilean vampire movie before. Does the country have a tradition of them?

JO: It's rare!!! Not many, in Chile there aren't many movies with vampires, but we have a rather brief movie industry history. Fantastic films didn't exist. My two films are two of a kind in Chile, I like to think that they've opened the way for things like this in Chile.

M: I guess Pinochet is a bit of a vampire himself.

JO: Certainly, he created problems and real horror stories long before me.

M: The vampires in your movie are outsiders. I felt like you treated them very sympathetically, even when they're chomping on people.

JO: The reason is for many factors, especially the budget. You must remember that my movie was filmed with only $160,000 (U.S.), this is the reason that my action sequence were limited. But I intended to do and create unreal beings, with surreal movements (like a zombie, a vampire is dead but alive). Vampires are entertaining precisely because they are forces of the supernatural; this is the reason their movements must remain unnatural. I filmed the vampires upside down and at full speed, then if you project it in a normal speed in 24fps in a scene, you then feel an unreal emotion.

Paranoid about pandemics

M: I felt the disease metaphor pretty strongly while watching Sangre Eterna. Obviously, it's been on our minds a lot lately, what with SARS, especially here in Canada. How consciously were you trying to evoke contagion anxiety?

JO: I think your comment is interesting, here in Chile none of the journalists asked me that, and the truth is yes. My movie is a story about paranoia, paranoia is infected with evil and our antihero tries to save his friends from it all. That is to say, in the same case when cancer needs treatment, sometimes the treatment to solve the disease is more brutal and mortal than the disease. The Savior of my movie is a danger cleaner, someone who destroys his friends because he thinks that's the best way to actually save his friends. This is a hard metaphor about our human species to swallow, but some violent events in our history back up the idea. Remember that some leaders in our history, when they wanted to exterminate what they thought of as the evil, they caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of innocents.

M: Your film shifts gears very effectively indeed, going from comic overtones to a seriously dark atmosphere in the latter half of the film. What brought you to this genre fusion?

JO: The film is an exercise about the same genre. If you pay attention, the violence is enjoyable in the shot of fantastic zone and in the other cases there is also humour. The characters of this movie sometimes escape and amuse themselves. On the other hand, when my central character doesn't feel well, the movie shifts, and he becomes increasingly terrified, his paranoia increasing. The story becomes incredibly distressing and there is an atmosphere with dark horror and you feel claustrophobia. At this point there really isn't much entertainment going on. When you reach the climax you understand enough. I like to experiment, although my movie is relatively low budget. I think that the audience needs to explore this kind of unique cinema. I know that the vampires in South America are unusual and freakish. I like to think that people will take risks when they go and see movies.

MORE STRANGE LIGHTS

Our friend of many years "Mr. UFO" Tim Beckley called this one two our attention. Henry_Allen

Odd lights, low sounds cause stir

By Maggie Gill-Austern , Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

FARMINGTON - Strange lights with no obvious cause were spotted all over northern Franklin County Tuesday night, Sheriff's Department dispatchers said.

"The phone was ringing off the hook," dispatcher Bill Hoyt said.

Multiple callers from multiple towns - New Vineyard, Wilton, Phillips, Industry, and around Mt. Abram - called to report bizarre, low-to-the-ground lights, he said.

"They were seeing, basically, a string of seven or eight lights low in the sky, that were fixed," he said. "There (were) also reports of jet engine noise low to the ground." One person who called worked with jet airplanes, Hoyt said. "They were not like any lights he had ever seen." Some people said they looked like stars.

Hoyt called a Federal Aviation Administration office in Boston, which monitors air traffic in this part of New England, wondering if what people saw and heard could be related to military exercises.

"They said the only air traffic was a couple of routine air flights at 40,000 feet," he said.

Hoyt doubts it was aliens.

"I think, personally, most of the time there's an explanation for everything," he said. "But you know, I don't deny the fact that people see things they can't explain."

"It was kind of odd," he said. "All these reports were from different locations at the same time. Maybe it was a meteorite."

The jet-engine sounds and the fixed-ness of the light pattern make him question that theory, though, he said.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

COMMANDER IN GRIEF

Bush Boosts Troops In Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2007(CBS/AP) President Bush will extend the stay of 3,200

U.S. troops in Afghanistan by four months and will deploy a replacement force to

sustain that increase for the foreseeable future. The additional troops are

slated to help NATO troops confront a resurgent Taliban.

Describing a country on the brink, President Bush used his speech to exhort NATO

nations to send additional troops to Afghanistan and allow their soldiers

already there to fight in the violent south and under other dangerous

circumstances.

It is believed that Taliban and al Qaeda forces are planning a spring offensive

against the U.S.-backed government of president Hamid Karzai, CBS News White

House correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House tells Knoller

there are 27,407 U.S. troops in Afghanistan — that includes the extension of

3,200 that Mr. Bush spoke of today. Roughly 15,000 serve as part of the NATO-led

force and another 12,000 serve as special operations forces and trainers.

The president is asking Congress to provide $11.8 billion over the next two

years for operations, military and otherwise, in Afghanistan. And he is urging

other nations to follow the lead.

The imbalance in Afghanistan has become a sore point among allies.

"When our commanders on the ground say to our respective countries `We need

additional help,' our NATO countries must provide it," Mr. Bush said in a speech

at the American Enterprise Institute. "As well, allies must lift restrictions on

the forces they do provide so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to

defeat the enemy wherever the enemy may make its stand."

The president said that listening to his request is not only an obligation

nations make as part of NATO, but is also crucial to their own security.

"The alliance was founded on this principle: an attack on one is an attack on

all. That principle holds true whether the attack is on the home soil of a NATO

nation or on allied forces deployed on a NATO mission abroad," he said. "By

standing together in Afghanistan, NATO forces protect their own people."

Mr. Bush said the importance of fighting in Afghanistan hinges on that the U.S.

needs to fight terror overseas so terrorists don't bring vengeance to U.S. soil

again, CBS News' Aleen Sirgany reports.

Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have been

doing most of the fighting and leaders of those countries have been lobbying the

other 22 allied countries to do more. Countries such as Germany, for instance,

don't allow their forces to deploy to the heart of the Taliban insurgency in the

south and east.

Fighting in Afghanistan the past year was the bloodiest since the U.S.-led war

started in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime. Commanders anticipate a renewed

offensive this spring by Taliban fighters trying to stage a comeback and topple

the elected government in Kabul.

Several countries have offered recently to provide additional support to the

35,500-strong NATO force, but it remains to be seen whether coalition commanders

will get the troops, equipment and rules of engagement they say they need.

Mr. Bush said the need for others nations to step up is great as spring comes,

bringing an expected new offensive by the Taliban.

"The snow is going to melt in the Hindu Kush mountains and when it does we can

expect fierce fighting to continue," the president said. "The Taliban and al

Qaida are preparing to launch new attacks. Our strategy is not to be on the

defense but to go on the offense. This spring there's going to be a new

offensive in Afghanistan and it's going to be a NATO offensive. And that's part

of our strategy — relentless in our pressure. We will not give in."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said on Capitol

Hill that allies in Europe and the Gulf must step up.

"It is simply unacceptable that NATO commanders are left to beg for troops from

countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Spain," he said. "It is an outrage

that only troops from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and

the United Kingdom are deployed to the most hazardous spots. ... No longer

should this administration stand passively by while our so-called allies take

advantage of American generosity and courage."

President Bush expressed concern about an increase in poppy production in

Afghanistan, saying Taliban forces use profits from selling the drug to buy

weapons to fight the government. "This is a direct threat to a free future for

Afghanistan," the president said.

Mr. Bush said he made his concerns clear to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "He's

got to do something about it, with our help." The president also said the United

States would help Karzai fight corruption in Afghanistan's judicial system.

"Afghans too often see their courts run by crooked judges," President Bush said.

Bush said the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan was "wilder than the wild

west" of America's pioneering days, and that the United States would work with

both countries to defeat terrorists.

"A lot of attention here in the United States is on Iraq," Mr. Bush said. "One

reason I've come to address you is I want to make sure people's attention also

is on Afghanistan."


© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Young British Soldier

When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier ~OF~ the Queen!

Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,
An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .

First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts --
Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts --
An' it's bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .

When the cholera comes -- as it will past a doubt --
Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An' it crumples the young British soldier.
Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .

But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:
You ~must~ wear your 'elmet for all that is said:
If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,
An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .

If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it's beer for the young British soldier.
Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .

Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .

If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch 'em -- you'll swing, on my oath! --
Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er: that's Hell for them both,
An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .

When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .

When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are -- you treat her as sich,
An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .

When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!

Rudyard Kipling

AN OLD SONG

Clinton Warns Bush On Attacking Iran
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2007(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton warned President Bush on Wednesday not to take any military action against Iran without getting congressional approval first.

"If the administration believes that any, any use of force against Iran is necessary, the president must come to Congress to seek that authority," Clinton said in a Senate speech.

Clinton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, voted in 2002 to give Mr. Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq — a vote that has prompted some Democrats to demand that she repudiate.

Since then, the New York senator has become an outspoken critic of Mr. Bush's handling of the war. She said the new Democratic Congress must not let him make similar mistakes in the increasingly tense relationship with Iran.

"It would be a mistake of historical proportion if the administration thought that the 2002 resolution authorizing force against Iraq was a blank check for the use of force against Iran without further congressional authorization," Clinton said.

She also insisted the resolution authorizing force against those responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks did not allow for U.S. action now against Iran.

Clinton, who has come under fire from anti-war Democrats, excoriated the previous Republican-controlled Congress for not questioning the administration over the past six years.

"We continue to experience the consequences of unchecked presidential action," she said, later adding: "This president was allowed for too long to commit blunder after blunder under cover of darkness provided by an allied Republican Congress."

Clinton spoke shortly after President Bush said he was certain the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons used by fighters in Iraq against U.S. troops, even if he can't prove that the orders came from top Iranian leaders.

"I'm going to do something about it," Mr. Bush pledged, displaying apparent irritation at being repeatedly asked about mixed administration signals on who was behind the weaponry.

U.S. officials have said that Iran is behind attacks against troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

COFFEE BREAK BLUES W/DALI

Un chien andalou (1929)

In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open--juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye--to grab the audience's attention. The French phrase "ants in the palms," (which means that someone is "itching" to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he's itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes.

Summary written by Ryan T. Casey {RTCasey@mn.uswest.net}

Un Chien Andalou consists of seventeen minutes of bizarre and surreal images that may or may not mean anything. A straight razor seems to be placed by a woman's eye, a small cloud formation obscures the moon, a cow's eye is slit open, a woman pokes at a severed hand in the street with his cane, a man drags two grand pianos containing dead and rotting donkeys and live priests, and a man's hand has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge.

Summary written by Michael Brooke {michael@everyman.demon.co.uk}