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Friday March 16, 2007

Shorts: U.S.

Rep. urges probe of Gaza university

A U.S. congressman has demanded the probe of a Gaza Strip university following a revelation that USAID helped fund it.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee, made his request in an open letter to the U.S. Inspector General’s office last week, shortly after State Department officials insisted that the institutions that received some $140,000 from USAID “are independent universities and it would be incorrect to characterize them as Hamas-controlled.”

Kirk, a Republican, said this was a mischaracterization “in light of the facts surrounding Islamic University in Gaza.” He cited the lectureship of the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi and his widow, Jamila Shanti, herself a high-ranking Hamas official. He quoted Jameela El Shanty, professor and Hamas lawmaker, as telling the Baltimore Sun in 2006, “Hamas built this institution. The university presents the philosophy of Hamas.” — jta

U.S. opts not to join human rights body

For the second time the Bush administration has opted not to run for a place on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The council replaced the U.N. Human Rights Commission last year, principally because the commission had demonstrated a pronounced anti-Israel bias and had included human rights violators on its board. The new council has continued the practices.

Jewish groups have argued in favor of U.S. participation, saying structural changes make it easier for member nations to block such biases. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) blasted the administration for opting out.

“During the past several months we have seen the sad and tragic results of the U.S. retreat from the new Human Rights Council,” said Lantos, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. “Despite the fact that the council’s membership represents a slight improvement over the dysfunctional Human Rights Commission it replaced, it has been even more thoroughly captured by rogues like Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Pakistan, as they have aggressively seized the ground that the United States has ceded.” — jta

State Dept. lists Borat as victim

The U.S. State Department listed Borat as the victim of human rights abuses in Kazakhstan.

The State Department released its annual report on human rights abuses last week and included the fictional Kazakh journalist created by Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat was featured in Cohen’s recent satirical film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

Kazakhstan, which originally cited concerns regarding the anti-Semitic, misogynistic character, deemed Cohen’s Kazakh Web site offensive and closed it down in 2005, the U.S. report said. Cohen moved the site to a domain not controlled by the Kazakh government, www.borat.tv. The State Department added that Kazakhstan generally limits free speech and has no independent judicial system, and cited the murder last year of opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, his bodyguard and driver as “unlawful deprivation of life.”

The Kazakh government threatened to sue Cohen just before closing down his site. Cohen responded in character as Borat: “I ... fully support my government’s position to sue this Jew.” — jta

Suspect held in scam on JDate

A Georgia man was arrested in a scam conducted partly over JDate in which a total of some $1 million was taken from at least 10 women.

Hillard Jay Quint, also known as Matthew Goldstein, was arrested last month and his bail was set last week at $175,000.

Quint, 42, a disbarred lawyer, allegedly met women over Internet dating sites such as JDate and Match.com, courted them assiduously and lied about his assets. Victims said his boasts included owning a Hummer, being a millionaire and buying a jet.

Quint, who was raised in a Conservative household and observes the High Holidays, according to the Baltimore Sun, then allegedly duped the women into giving him money. One Baltimore woman gave him $150,000 from the sale of her home on the assumption that it was being put toward a horse farm they were buying together on the West Coast.. — jta

Lantos, Ackerman oppose cut to India

Two top Jewish congressmen led an initiative chiding the Bush administration for slashing aid to India.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Middle East and South Asia subcommittee, joined Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who chairs the congressional caucus on India, in complaining last week to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about President Bush’s proposal to slash assistance to India from $131 million to $81 million. The cut “disregards the critical priorities of our Indian partners,” the letter said. Among other elements of India’s close ties to the United States are its friendly relations with Israel. — jta

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