The next Ayaan Hirsi Ali

is in India and her name is Taslima Nasrin

For more than a decade, the writer Taslima Nasrin has been fighting; fighting against the courts, fighting to be heard and fighting for her life. Last night, the Bangladeshi-born author was struggling again as violent protests in one city – and the purported threat of further violent protests in another – saw her shuttling across India to avoid angry Muslims who have accused her of insulting Islam.

"I have no place to go. India is my home and I would like to keep living in this country until I die," the Sakharov Prize winner told The Hindu newspaper. "Here in this country, I have got the love and sympathy of the people for which I am grateful."

On Thursday, Nasrin was forced to flee from the city of Kolkata where she has been living for the past two years, a day after Muslim activists led protests against her which resulted 50 people being injured and the imposition of a curfew. The All India Minorities Forum, a Muslim group, has demanded she be deported not just from Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, but from India.

But after one night in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the authorities there decided that Nasrin should also leave to avoid the risk of a repetition of violence. "She didn't inform the government of Rajasthan before coming here and as she requires high security we asked her to leave," the Home Minister, Gulab Chand Kataria, told reporters. As a result Nasrin was last night headed to Delhi, and presumably further controversy.

Controversy is nothing new for the writer. Having fled from Bangladesh in 1994, Nasrin has long been confronted by people who do not like what she has to say. After slipping out of Bangladesh where she was charged with blasphemy, the feminist writer spent many years in Sweden, before moving to Kolkata, a city with a long literary tradition. While her books have been translated into more than 20 languages, her first four autobiographical volumes remain banned in Bangladesh.

Read it all here before reading how dear Taslima caved...

Taslima deletes three pages - Jamiat says she may now return

Sad, but true. I still salute her and her efforts. Please pass the word about her plight.

Dhimmi Dhisgrace

From our good friends over at EYE ON THE WORLD:

eBay removes Mohammed Bear Auction

It was supposed to end on December 6 but was abruptly canceled today because someone must've complained.It now displays the message "This listing (270192422059) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number."Mohammed The Bear (2007 - 2007).

Looks like I won't be shopping at eBay anymore. And I am a WORLD CLASS SHOPPER and a CAPITALIST OF THE FIRST ORDER. See Hard To Swallow's primo tanka for details.

Dhimmi Air

Gillian in happier days.

This is the UK's response?

Muslim peer flies to Sudan in hope of freeing jailed teacher.

Lord Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer, is due to meet President el-Bashir of Sudan today in an effort to secure the release of a primary school teacher jailed for blasphemy.

A source close to the Sudanese Government said that it would consider offering Gillian Gibbons a pardon so she could fly home within days.

Ms Gibbons was being held at a secret location last night after hundreds of protesters, some of them wielding knives and ceremonial swords, called for her execution.

From her cell, the 54-year-old teacher from Liverpool said that she was devastated by the offence she had caused. “I would never insult anybody intentionally. People who know me know it’s not in my nature,” she told Kamal Djizoulli, her lawyer.

Prostrate yourself, dhimmi.

Dhimmi Shelter

This is why I love HOT AIR and hate The View.

This is a prime example of feminist self-loathing and American self-hating on display. And they don't even have their facts right! Sheesh.

(Okay, maybe I've been in the liquor cabinet tonight - you would be too if you liveFReeped the Hillary Hostage situation all afternoon, but this is the reason I hope these biyatches are the first to feel the lash when the Muslims come calling. I'll be standing by with my pink shotgun from Gander Mountain. Grrr.)

No milk for oil...

The Miami Herald calls it a Venezuelan paradox: much oil, no milk. I call it what happens when a megalomaniacal dictator practices his own zany brand of socialism...much to the detriment of the people.

(Paging Sean Penn. Paging Danny Glover. Paging Naomi Campbell. You can bet they had leche for their coffee when they visited. Funny how you're not hearing much from them on this.)

The lines formed at dawn and remained long throughout the day -- hundreds upon hundreds of Venezuelans queuing up to buy scarce milk, chicken and sugar at state-run outdoor markets staffed by soldiers in fatigues.

President Hugo Chávez's government is trying to cope with scattered shortages of some foods, and long lines at state-run megamercal street markets over the weekend show many Venezuelans are willing to wait for hours to snap up a handful of products they seldom find in supermarkets.

''You have to get in line and you have to be lucky,'' said Maria Fernandez, a 64-year-old housewife who was buying milk and chicken. She said trying to find milk is a constant frustration. She had almost managed to get powdered milk at a private supermarket -- only to watch someone else walk away with the last can.

Read it all.

Well, what do you know?

Crackdown on Iraq Sunni leader after bombs found.

Iraqi security forces arrested dozens of people, including the son of a leading Sunni Arab politician, in a pre-dawn raid on Friday after a car rigged with explosives was found near the lawmaker's office.

al-Reuters goes on to offers up their patented "incident threatens to increase political tensions, sectarian divide, blah-blah-blah before getting to the point.

The incident threatened to increase political tension across Iraq's sectarian divide at a time when violence has been falling dramatically.

The Shi'ite-led government said Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, could be stripped of the immunity from prosecution he holds as a member of parliament if he was found to have links to car bombs.

Seven people were arrested on Thursday at Dulaimi's office and 29, including Dulaimi's son Mekki, were seized in a raid early on Friday at Dulaimi's house, said Brigadier General Qassim Moussawi, security spokesman for Baghdad.

"We have also found quantities of weapons and uniforms of the army and police at the home of Dr. al-Dulaimi," he told Reuters. "Dulaimi's bodyguards are suspected of having links to car bombs and killings. There are confessions against them."

Nice. The guy runs a charity which doubles as a car bomb factory. There's some zakat for you!

The wreckage of a four-wheel drive vehicle could be seen on the road outside a charity run by Dulaimi next door to his main offices in Baghdad, where security forces detonated the car after discovering it was rigged with explosives on Thursday.

Moussawi said the car bomb was found when security forces chased a suspected fugitive involved in a shooting into Dulaimi's compound.

The U.S. military said one of Dulaimi's guards had a key to the car that was rigged as a bomb. Two bystanders were hurt when one of the guards escaped, and five American soldiers and one bystander were hurt in the controlled blast when the car was destroyed, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Sounds like the guy is not only a rotten bastard he's a sore loser as well:

Dulaimi's bloc quit Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government in August and has so far rejected efforts to lure it back. It says it wants a greater say in security policy.

One "MO" thing about that Teddy Bear...

It wasn't a parent that complained about Mohammed the bear.

It wasn't an Imam that complained about Mohammed the bear.

It was a MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL'S STAFF that complained...

...Staff from Gibbons' school, including Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School, were present.

Boulos said he was "horrified" when he found out it was a member of his own staff who complained, not a parent as originally thought.

Defense counsel later confirmed that the complaint came from Sarah Khawad, a secretary at the school.

Gibbons has been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, Boulos said.

He said Gibbons asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats.

Go to the school's website here.

It says there are no teacher vacancies - gee, I can think of one.

AAARH! When will the dhimmitude end...

No resentment, please.

Crowds demand Teddy Bear teacher be shot...

but don't turn against the Muslims, folks!

Oh no, we wouldn't want to do that now, would we?

Her son, John, from Liverpool, has not yet been allowed to telephone her but was hoping to fly out to Sudan to visit her as soon as a visa could be arranged.

He stress that British people angered by his mother's jail sentence should not turn against Muslims.

"I don't not want this to lead to any anti-Muslims feeling in this country.

"Everyone has been very nice, we have had a lot of support from Muslims in Britain, in Sudan and across the world.

"My fear, and one of my mother's fears, is that this will result in resentment towards Muslim people. "That is something I really hope does not happen and I am sure my mum feels the same way."

Yeah, maybe. If she gets out of there alive.

Monkey Tennis Center offers sage commentary and has a round up of comments about the situation that will make your hair stand on end.

Other than among Islamic hardliners, you would think that the plight of British teacher Gillian Gibbons, who faces jail and 40 lashes in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed, would elicit near-universal sympathy.Not so, judging by the comments of a sizable minority of commenters on the BBC's website, who appear to think that Mrs Gibbons deserves everything she gets. This is just a selection of their views (brackets are mine):

Follow the link.

Iran: Blogging about dogs can get you arrested

Okay, he was writing about Ahmadinejad's dogs...but still!

From Kamangir.

Persian blogger Reza Valizadeh (رضا ولی زاده) was arrested for his report about expensive German dogs being used in Ahmadinejad’s guard team.

On November 16th he wrote about the four dogs which are recently added to Ahmadinejad’s security team, after they were purchased form Germany for $150,000 each [Persian].

Read the complete translation of his post at Expensive German Dogs for Ahmadinejad.

Also read an independent report in Guardian, probably based on Reza’s post.

His post was an indicator that Ahmadinejad’s repeated claims of “living a simple life” are more of a propaganda issue than anything else. Reza’s post irritated the state to the extent that the state-run news agency Fars News talked to “a person in the security teams” who “emphasized that Dogs are used all over the world for security purposes” [Persian]. While dismissing Reza’s report about the price paid for the dogs, the official admitted that Dogs are of indeed of a German breed, but that “they are trained by Iranians”. The official then went on by saying, “The recent propaganda about the dogs is a psycho-war, geared towards weakening the security teams”. Answering to Reza’s question about the consideration of dogs as filthy animals in Islam, the official stated, “There are fatwas that using trained Dogs for security purposes is not against the Sharia”.

Dubai: Going to the Dogs

Not only are certain dogs banned, limits are placed on how many dogs you can have.

Villa owners can have one dog. Live in an apartment - no pooch for you!

The Dubai Municipality’s decision to round up certain select breeds of dogs under local order No.11, which comes into effect on January 1, has caused much consternation among some dog lovers.

The notice, which appeared in the newspapers on Wednesday, says Dubai Municipality will impound 16 particular breeds of dogs, including the American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Husky and Shar-Pei, and “will deal with them as per municipality rules and regulations.”

K9 Friends Chairperson Jackie Ratcliffe said the notice remains unclear and has caused panic among dog owners, with many continuing to call up the organisation yesterday for additional information and clarifications.

However, Ratcliffe said she could only refer enquiries to the Dubai Municipality.
The Dubai Municipality, meanwhile, maintained that people who live in villas could keep just one dog.

Hisham Fahmi, head of the Veterinary Section in Dubai Municipality, earlier told Khaleej Times that people who live in apartments were not allowed to keep dogs.

“People are allowed to keep just one dog if they are staying in a villa. Those staying in apartments are not allowed to keep dogs,” he said.

A woman lawyer, who owns dogs and has rescued three dogs from K9 Friends, including an American Staffordshire Terrier, a Pit Bull and another breed of fighting dog, said she was shocked when she saw the notice this week.“Our dogs are not just pets, they’re part of our family,” she added, echoing the sentiments and anxiety of many passionate dog lovers like her.

This little piggy went to Madrassa...

From Fortress Australia Outpost.

Pigs' heads dumped at site of proposed Islamic school

TWO pigs' heads have been dumped at the controversial site of a proposed Islamic school in Sydney's southwest.

The pigs' heads, planted on wooden stakes on the Camden site, with the Australian flag draped between them, are believed to be in protest of the Muslim school proposal.

The proposed school, for up to Muslim 1200 students on 15ha and wedged between market gardens and pastures, has been highly controversial.

A public meeting held in Camden earlier this month attracted more than 2000 people opposed to the development.

The local council also received several thousand written objections during the planning approval process.

More here.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, how does your garden grow?

Update 2: Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse at the CNN You Tuber (tuber - potato plant - get it?) Debate. Not only is there another plant, this one is courtesy of CAIR! (h/t Michelle Malkin)

9. Concerned about the Iraq-Afghanistan conflict and the damage it has done to the image of America, Undecided, Hijab wearer Yasmin = Former CAIR Intern Yasmin.


Update: Looks like the plant count is rising - here's two more courtesy of Powerline:

7. Concerned about Social Security, Undecided Adam Florzak = Quit his job to work on Social Security reform with pal Dick Durbin, Adam Florzak.

8. Concerned, Undecided Voter asking Ron Paul to run as an independent, Mark Strauss = Bill Richardson supporter and participant in CNN's DEMOCRATIC YouTube Debate, Mark Strauss.

From last night's CNN REPUBLICAN Debate... (courtesy of Michelle Malkin)

1.Concerned, Undecided Gay Military Retiree Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr = Hillary/Kerry supporter and anti-”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” activist Keith H. Kerr

2.Concerned, Undecided Mom LeeAnn Anderson = Activist for the John Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers union LeeAnn Anderson

3.Concerned, Undecided Log Cabin Republican supporter David Cercone = Obama supporter David Cercone

4.Concerned. Young, Undecided Person “Journey” Murry = John Edwards supporter and gay activist girl “Journey” Murry

5. Concerned Corn Eater and subsidy basher = Ted Faturos former intern for Democratic congresswoman, Jane Harmon (good find Jason Coleman)

6. Concerned Why won't Blacks vote for Republicans? Black Guy = John Edwards supporter and BDS sufferer, David McMillan (good find Jason Coleman)

Iran: Obscene Rap Music targeted

My favorite gangsta, Tupac Shakur. RIP

Insane clown posse

The Iranian government has announced a campaign against rap music which it considers obscene.

The Ministry for Culture and Islamic Guidance said illegal studios would be closed and rap singers "confronted".

An official condemned rappers for using very vulgar words, but it was not clear if the whole genre was being banned.

Rap music in Farsi is increasingly popular among young men in Tehran, with lyrics covering political, social and sexual themes.

Iranians wanting to record an album or stage a concert need to get official permission.

Some songs are approved by the ministry, but most are circulated through a growing underground market for rap.

The culture ministry official, Mohammad Dashtgoli, was quoted by the official Irna news agency as saying he wanted to "find a solution" to internet distribution of the music.

Iranian rappers are inspired by the Iranian exile community in Los Angeles - one of the main centres of American rap.

Young Iranian singers are trying to replicate the accents and subject material used by many US artists.

Pakistan: No more female mannequins in the Islamabad shops

Shopkeepers warned of dire consequences.


Garment shop owners in northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar are removing mannequins from their displays or covering them up with clothes following threats from militants.

A meeting of the shopkeepers' association of Karimpura in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), on wednesday discussed the threatening letters from militants. The association decided to either remove the mannequins from shops or cover them up fully with clothes.

The meeting was informed that 10 militants visited Shaheen Bazaar, a market for women, and asked shopkeepers to remove mannequins. The militants claimed the mannequins promoted obscenity, 'Dawn' newspaper reported today.

The letter sent by the militants warned the shop owners of dire consequences if they did not remove the mannequins.

Iran: No more mentioning "women" on Iranian TV

Banned on state TV.

The word 'women' must now be replaced on Iranian state television by 'family', reformist Norouz news agency reports. In programmes broadcast throughout the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women last Sunday, Iranian state TV used the world family instead.

In recent weeks, Iran's Centre for the Participation of Women changed its name to the Centre for Family Matters.

Unh-huh.

Meanwhile back in Pakistan...

Musharraf assumes presidency as a civilian, opponent Nawaz Sharif calls him illegitimate and urges purge of Supreme Court. Which is funny because when Sharif was in power his supporters stormed the Supreme Court to force the Chief Justice from office. Ah, politics! Oh, and about Sharif?
Sharif's appeal is largely to conservative, religious sections of the electorate. While he is regarded as a moderate he is also seen as a politician more likely to appease radical Islamists than either Bhutto or Musharraf.

One more thing about Sharif. He's not out of the soup yet.
A National Accountability Court (NAB) will take up corruption cases against brothers Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif in Rawalpindi on December 5, a senior NAB official confirmed here.

Deputy prosecutor general Zulfiqar Bhutta said the cases against the Sharifs were activated in August this year before Nawaz Sharif had made his failed attempt to return from exile in September. Interestingly, the warrants of arrest issued against Nawaz before his September 10 landing in Islamabad were still valid and Sharif could be arrested if the NAB so wanted.

“I have no idea whether NAB chairman has withdrawn the arrest warrants or not,” the deputy prosecutor general said.

About Imran Khan? He's not going to participate in the upcoming elections - calling them a fraudulent poll.

While almost all top leaders of the government and opposition parties have filed nomination papers, under protest, Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf, is the only exception.

He insisted elections under Musharraf had already been rigged.

(Imran, if anyone's fraudulent around here, it's you- you cast your infidel wife Jemima Khan aside to satisfy the radical Islamists you were courting for political support. Yet she still stood up for you when you went to prison and went on that fraudulent hunger strike - end of rant.)


Good news: It is expected that Musharraf will lift emergency rule today.

Even better news, unfortunately it's not the best news: Troops seize Fazlullah's base. Fazlullah on the run. Looks like the villagers got in on the act, too - destroying the militants fortified bunkers after the militants headed for the hills.
Troops on Wednesday seized Maulana Fazlullah’s base in Swat, where nearly two weeks of clashes have killed around 250 militants, officials said. “Security forces entered the town of Imam Dheri, the main base of Maulana Fazlullah,” provincial government spokesman Amjad Iqbal told AFP. The whereabouts of Fazlullah, however, remain unknown.

“He has gone underground,” the official said. Security sources in the area said the cleric’s close aides have also fled, including his spokesman, Maulana Sirajuddin. They quoted residents as saying they [Fazlullah’s men] were seen heading for the mountains. Iqbal said security forces were in “complete control” of a large stretch of Kabal district after shelling suspected insurgent locations with artillery and mortar fire.

Some more good news - it looks like progress is being made by the Pakistani army in Swat, and in other regions. In fact, it is being reported that most of Swat is now under military control. But those Taliban militants are still kicking it in those semi-autonomous tribal regions...Taliban issue moral codes in Bajaur.

Pro-Taliban militants have warned residents here not to put musical ring tones or pictures in their mobile phones, witnesses said on Wednesday. A pamphlet distributed in Khar, the main town of Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan, also told people not to shave their beards, listen to music or smoke cigarettes and hashish. The pamphlet, handwritten in Pashto language, also forbade tribesmen from leaving their homes without caps or to carry weapons without permission from the militants.

Here in the US a Pakistani image repair team is swooping down on Capitol Hill to explain why Pervez did what he did. Huh, maybe they can give San Fran Nan and Dingy Harry some image repair tips while they are there - talking about needing your image repaired...(and head examined.)

And despite progress on the ground in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan (to say nothing of their woeful plea for financial support via the Interweb)the UN believes that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are getting stronger...honestly.

And last but not least, here's a good read about Pakistan and their nukes in the the WSJ. It's definitely worth a look-see: Inside Pakistan's Drive to guard it's A-bombs.

About that uranium? It could be used in a dirty bomb.

From Bloomberg.

Nuclear material seized yesterday by police in Slovakia included enriched uranium capable of being used in a ``dirty'' bomb Slovak Deputy Police President Michal Kopcik said.

Police arrested three people, two in Slovakia and one in Hungary, for trying to sell less than half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of the substance. The material's origin is not certain, although police believe it may have come from the former Soviet Union, Kopcik said, speaking at a press conference alongside Hungarian police officials.

The seized substance was uranium 238 and 235 in powder form, Kopcik said. The material was supposed to be transferred from Hungary, he said. The suspects were arrested on both sides of the Hungarian-Slovak border in a joint operation between the two European Union countries.

``The material was even more dangerous because of its powder form,'' Kopcik said today in Bratislava, Slovakia. ``It could be used for production of a dirty bomb.''

$1 million worth of radioactive material seized

From 3 yahoos trying to sell 2 lbs of the stuff...or some kind of stuff - the material is still being examined. More to follow.

The Slovakian police today arrested three people for trying to sell more than 2 pounds of radioactive material, a police spokesman told ABC News.

The radioactive material was seized near the border of Ukraine, between Slovakia and Hungary, Slovakian police spokesman Martin Korch said. He did not know the type of radioactive material seized, and the police did not reveal any information about the alleged intended buyer.
Related Stories

Two of the suspects were arrested in eastern Slovakia, the other in Hungary, in a coordinated Slovak-Hungarian police operation, Korch told ABC News. He said the suspects, whose nationalities he did not identify, had been under surveillance for several months by both Slovak and Hungarian authorities.

Specialists were examining the radioactive material, which the three were trying to sell for $1 million, said Korch.

But one expert says that dollar figure may be misleading.

"The $1 million figure might be suggestive that it was serious material," nuclear security expert Matthew Bunn of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University told ABCNews.com, "but it is also often the case that these smugglers have greatly exaggerated notions of the value of what they have."

Bunn pointed out that until further examination of the material occurs, it is impossible to know whether or not the seized material is dangerous or dubious.

"It could be low-enriched uranium (of which 1 kilogram is basically valueless and not important), could be some kind of radioactive source (in which case the 1 kilogram figure likely refers to the source plus its container), could be highly enriched uranium (in which case 1 kilogram would be the biggest incident in years), could be plutonium (in which case 1 kilogram would be the biggest case ever), could be various forms of unimportant radioactive trash," said Bunn.

Tomorrow a news conference is scheduled with the head of Slovakia's police, Gen. Jan Packa.

Uh-oh. Muslim fit about to hit the shan in Holland

Dutch lawmaker planning Anti-Koran film.

A Dutch conservative lawmaker said Wednesday he is making a film to highlight what he describes as "fascist" passages in the Quran, his latest high profile criticism of Islam.
The interior and justice ministers said they were concerned, but believed they had no authority to prevent the lawmaker, Geert Wilders, from screening his film.

Wilders plans to depict parts of the Quran he says are used as inspiration "by bad people to do bad things."

Less than 10 minutes long, the film is expected to air in late January. It will show "the intolerant and fascist character of the Quran," said Wilders, whose anti-Islam campaign helped his Freedom Party win nine seats in parliament in last year's election.

In the past, Wilders has said that half the Quran should be torn up and compared it with Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf." He has claimed the Netherlands is being swamped by a "tsunami" of Islamic immigrants.

Immigrants from Muslim countries number about 1 million of the country's 16 million people.

Wilders' planned broadcast is reminiscent of the film "Submission" — a fictional study of abused Muslim women with scenes of near-naked women with Quranic texts engraved on their flesh.
"Submission" director Theo van Gogh was shot and had his throat slit by a Muslim extremist on an Amsterdam street in 2004.

Prominent Muslim critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the screenplay, was threatened in a note left on Van Gogh's body. She now lives under round-the-clock protection in the United States.

Miss Esther over at Islam in Europe provides some insight into the Muslim response - threats of violence ala the punk jihad riots in Paris - oh, and the massive boycotting of Dutch products. (like that worked out so well in Denmark.)

Abdelmajid Khairoun of the Dutch Muslim Council deplores the plans of Geert Wilders to make a film about the Koran. According to Khairoun, Wilders' film plans are not really news. The head of the PVV continues to provoke.

"We fear the worst if this becomes reality. Then on any given moment the last word will be up to the youth on the streets. And we can then not hold them back. Just look at France."

Khairoun also expects many negative reactions from abroad, compared with the affair of the satiric cartoons about the prophet Muhammad in Denmark, two years ago. "Other countries will not understand it. I'm afraid that many Dutch products will be boycotted."

Meanwhile, the Dhimmi Dutch cabinet is "warning" Wilders about the risks of making the film.

The justice, foreign and home affairs ministers, who are worried about a backlash from Islamic countries, have warned Wilders about the risks of screening such a film.

Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin stressed that while Wilders is free to express his views about the Koran, he also has a responsibility towards society in general. ‘Think about the what the repercussions could be,’ he said.

If the film is hard-hitting, it could evoke hard-hitting reactions against himself and others,’ says the minister. Those who want a free debate must show respect for all religions and for things that are sacrosanct for others, he said.

And in other nuclear-materials-gone-missing news...

From Canada: Record nuclear thefts raise fears about security failures.

A record number of low-level radioactive materials, the kind terrorists could fashion into dirty bombs, have gone missing in Canada this year, raising concerns about the effectiveness of federal controls over nuclear materials.

News of the jump in thefts and lost material coincides with an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Europe at which nuclear counter-terrorism specialists were told this week of an almost four-fold increase in nuclear smuggling since 2006, a further indication that al-Qaeda-inspired radicals may be trying to obtain radioactive material for a bomb.

...As of Wednesday, 26 radioactive sources have been reported lost and stolen so far this year in Canada, compared to 15 last year and a dozen in 2005, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), the federal nuclear regulator.
Fourteen devices this year remain missing, twice as many as last year when six were not recovered and almost three times the five still missing from 2005.