Credentials on neutrality: Your mileage may vary with jihadist organizations.
Of course, there are many other reasons besides the flag with a big cross on it that Al-Qaeda would not appreciate Switzerland's traditional status in the West as a neutral party. An infidel state is an infidel state, and the foreign minister should be aware that a willingness to talk would not protect the Swiss either from violent attacks or the creeping subversion of their laws and civil liberties. "Swiss foreign minister would 'talk to bin Laden'," from Agence France-Presse, August 25:
GENEVA - Switzerland's foreign minister told top diplomats on Monday she favours direct talks with Osama bin Laden to tackle the threat of terrorism.
Micheline Calmy-Rey, who has raised both eyebrows and hackles with her controversial style, told Swiss ambassadors gathered in the capital Bern that they needed to talk to "heavyweight political figures" on the world stage even if they are considered persona non grata by other powers.
"This even goes as far as sitting down at the same table as Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden," she said.
Switzerland does not have any list of banned organisations to which it will not talk, unlike other countries.
Calmy-Rey said that groups as diverse as Hezbollah, the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda are all "essential in the search for a resolution" of different conflicts worldwide.
She stressed however that any dialogue did not mean "accepting the unacceptable," and conceded that it could sometimes lead to tensions and "complex political blockages"....
Yes, Europe once had one of those. Around about 1938...
"Micheline Calmy-Rey..."
It's the old La-bêtise-s'est-mise-à-penser problem. Nothing to be done about it, but to make sure that such people are kept down. It's usually too late when they become foreign ministers, or Presidents, or Secretarys-General of the U.N. or heads of NGOS. But you must keep trying.
All together now, repeat after me:
Hudna hudna hudna. Taqiyya taqiyya taqiyya. Kitman kitman kitman.
Treaty of Hudaybiyya, Treaty of Hudaybiyya.
Quran 3: 28 - classically interpreted to mean that although Muslims are forbidden to make permanent and genuine friendships and alliances with non-Muslims, they may do so feigningly and temporarily, for Muslim advantage. "Let believers not make friends with Infidels...except in self-defence".
If there is anyone here from Switzerland, do please translate into French, and into German, and into Romansch, and send to Calmy-Rey on a postcard, the following lapidary mini-essay from Our Hugh, concerning the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, which exposes exactly why any and all 'negotiations' or 'agreements' entered into by Non-Muslims, with Muslim persons, groups, or polities are a total waste of time.
"Neither Israel nor any other non-Muslim polity seems willing to comprehend that there is no solution...to the Jihad.
"There is only the matter of remaining overwhelmingly -- and perceivably -- more powerful, capable of wreaking great damage on those who would attack.
"No treaty with Infidel states...can conceivably be permanently honored by a Muslim signatory. Pacta sunt servanda is a Western idea. In the Muslim world, treaties – if made with Infidels - are not to be obeyed, but to be violated, as soon as the Muslim side feels itself strong enough to press its advantage.
'The model for all time -- see Majid Khadduri, 'War and Peace in the Law of Islam' -- is Muhammad's Treaty with the Meccans in 628 A.D, the Treaty of Hudaybiyya."
– Hugh Fitzgerald, writing on jihadwatch website, 15.8.2006
The Swiss Watch. That's all they do, as in World War 2.
Of course she would.
History -- assuming free people get to write some of it -- won't be kind. Making Neville Chamberlain look like General Patton. At least Chamberlain got a piece of paper to wave around. She's just another dhimmi tool of the global jihad.
Speaking of the Swiss, did anyone see the NYT article which blew the lid off the Swiss family which allegedly sent defective nuclear parts to various hostile regimes?
Ambassador Alexi deSadesky (Dr. Strangelove) prescient again.
"We read it in the New York Times."
Either the NYT has a death wish for NYC, the CIA actually leaked it, or someone has large holdings in lead and iodine they're trying to protect. It sounds like the best ten million the CIA ever spent, without knowing the actual facts.
When NYC melts to glass, sue Pinch.
It's also fascinating to think about what sort of stupidity/corruption went into the Swiss suddenly letting morality get in the way of business. How it got so far as charges and blowing the lid off the operations? A story which only raises more questions IMO. Someone like Micheline Calmy-Rey is exactly the sort of amoral and highly-placed pawn you'd need for something like that.
"Calmy-Rey said that groups as diverse as Hezbollah, the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda are all "essential in the search for a resolution" of different conflicts worldwide."
I bet there's one group she would NEVER want to "sit down at the same table" and talk with: the Jihad Watch group.
Calmy-Rey is dubbed Calamity-Rey over here in Switzerland. She is, as Mr Jean Ziegler, one of the self-righteous Saviours Of The World from Geneva where this kind of person seems to blossom.
She probably is doing Swiss reputation more harm than any other politician in Swiss history - The irony being that she was given the foreign office so she would do less harm inside Switzerland.
She is known to have new ideas every monday, often reversing past monday's edition. If she has no argument to push something through, she is known to say "Because I want it" (Parce que je le veux).
However, we have a rather active press. She will retract by Friday, I guess (Thursday being the day of publication of the Weltwoche, a right-wing and outspoken weekl)
Micheline Calmy-Rey can certainly negotiate with Bin Laden. All she need do is don a burka and recite the shahadah.
That and renounce Christ, abolish their democratic government and declare Switzerlanistan an Islamic state ruled under Shariah law.
But it is defintelty do-able.
Calmy-Rey would negotiate with the devil himself. She isn't just clueless. She's morally degenerate.
The Swiss can deal with anyone. Just ask the European Jews where their money and gold teeth went to from 1936-1945.
Not long ago I wrote to Calmy-Rey when she was the Home Secretary, protesting a number of points: the overly generous and misguided financial aid given every year by Switzerland to the Arabs occupying Gaza, Judea and Samaria ,her laying of a wreath on the mass murdering Arafat's tomb and her inviting Haniyeh,the Hamas leader to visit Switzerland.I also asked her if she had read the Hamas Charter and if she was aware of the genocidal intentions of the various jihadic groups lined up against Israel and the Jews. She replied denying that she had invited Haniyeh...and the rest of her response was nothing but obfuscation and gobbledygook reassuring me that any funds were responsibly channeled by various NGO's, completely ignoring the fact that the personnel of said organisations are either Muslim or anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian dhimmis. She did not answer my question regarding her knowledge and understanding of Islamic jihad.
I agree with FreeSpeech that she is damaging Switzerland's reputation but on the other hand she is consistent in her Swissness,ie pragmatic, serving her country's interests above all and doing business as usual.
What an idiot-Bin Loser never shows any interest in sitting down for a chat. Why would he want to now when he's in a position of weakness?
"This even goes as far as sitting down at the same table as Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden," she said.
No, she did not. Please do better research.
Kevin
Do better research, too.
And please google
1938 evian conference
johndoe
I don't think she serves our country at all, and many other don't either. She simply is a self-righteous person. And left-wing, i.e. deaf on your questions.
Unfortunately, our election system willmake sure we have her for a while.
FreeSpeech.
That's it. That is all you have to say? No shit the US screwed up in regards to the Jewish refugees. However, the US didn't profit from their murder. Something the Swiss can't claim. Take your own advice.
The lion and the lamb can lie down together. However, odds are that the lion will be the only one getting back up.
- Robert Heinlein
Of course this horrible woman would meet with Bin Laden. Micheline Calmy-Rey gained notoriety as the first foreign government minister to traverse the North Korean border by foot when she stepped across the heavily fortified border at the village of Panmunjom in 2003.
Under Micheline Calmy Rey's complicit watch, the two Swiss Tinner brothers and their father have been happily circulating AQ Khan's nuclear plans to rogue regimes for years.
The two Swiss engineers, Urs and Marco Tinner, are suspected of involvement in an international nuclear smuggling network.
The pair has argued their alleged involvement could no longer be proven after the government ordered the destruction of documents on the case.
The brothers along with their father, Friedrich Tinner, are suspected of helping to supply parts for North Korea and Libya's nuclear weapons programme through a trafficking ring run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear programme.
It is believed the three worked as undercover agents for the United States intelligence service amid speculation that the Swiss government was asked by Washington to destroy any evidence suggesting cooperation with the CIA.
According to Swiss Federal Court documents, the happy family has been cooperating with the CIA since 2000. Earlier in August 2008 the New York Times reported that the Tinner's had received USD 10 million.
The Swiss foreign minister is one of the greatest forces to spread dhimmitude in Switzerland. One would only hope her influence would be stopped by the brave citizens of Switzerland that have applied for a petition to enact legislature that will forbid the construction of minarets.
One country that had sense to show it to Calmy Rey, has been Colombia.
In July 2008 Bogota announced an end to Swiss mediation efforts between the country’s government and the narco-terrorist group Farc, after Bogotá accused one of the mediators of being too friendly with the leftist rebels. The Colombian ambassador to Bern, Claudia Jiménez, made the announcement in the Swiss capital after officially informing Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Colombia said it expects a response from Switzerland into the dealings of a Swiss mediator, Jean-Pierre Gontard, who was involved in negotiations with Farc. Documents suggesting Gontard had a cosy relationship with Farc leaders were discovered on a seized computer belonging to Raul Reyes, a senior member of the group killed in March in a military operation launched by the Colombian government.
The Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA), under the direction of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, took on the role of helpful courier in the cynical game of poker being played by the guerilla and often neglected to take even the slightest distance from the FARC extortionists.
Gontard was offering political advice to the FARC and how to deal with the US captives. According to a report, the professor also offered his services to FARC leader Reyes as strategy advisor in the poker game surrounding the hostages. The three Americans that the FARC have likewise taken captive are, according to Gontard, “definitely members of the CIA, the governments represented by him have no interest in them.” On Reyes’s account, Gontard advises him, nonetheless, not to kill the three Americans and to “preserve them in very good condition, since they could still be very useful sometime in the future.” The Swiss professor reportedly tells Reyes that a FARC demand for one hundred million dollars in exchange for a six month ceasefire is realistic. And verbatim: “He says that Ingrid is a jewel [una joya] in the hands of the FARC, because she is very important for the French government.”
Colombian authorities said Gontard had used offensive words against President Alvaro Uribe in emails to FARC leaders. Gontard was also accused of being a money courier to the FARC. But Calmy Rey urged Colombia to stop criticizing Jean-Pierre Gontard, the Swiss envoy.
When hostage Ingrid Betancourt was freed by troops from her FARC jungle prison in July 2008, Calmy Rey slammed Colombia for an alleged use of the Red Cross emblem. Any misuse of the Red Cross emblem is a breach of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Micheline Calmy-Rey warned in Bogota on a visit in August 2008.
Now why would anyone think FARC guerrillas would honour and respect helicopters ferrying kidnapped hostages from one jungle base to another by an aircraft carrying the Geneva based flag?
Micheline Calmy-Rey,
Thank you for your recent letter expressing your interest in meeting with Osama Bin Laden. Please forward the meeting particulars, with special attention to date, time, travel routes, and precise GPS coordinates to:
Dr. Robert M. Gates
U.S. Department of Defense
Washington, DC
Dr. Gates' office will be handling the reception details for Mr. Bin Laden and his entourage, and offers its strongest suggestion that your delegation arrive at the meeting site no earlier than 10 minutes after the arrival of Mr. Bin Laden.
On behalf of the Offices of the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense we would like to thank you for your interest in this matter.
Indeed the Swiss government officials could sit down and engage in "negotiations" with members of al-Qaeda. And so could I for that matter. And, so could your Aunt Gussie...
One-sided negotiations are always possible to arrange with anyone BY anyone with enough time and money and connections). The trouble with this is that
This does not mean that doing so will produce any results at all (in this case the primary result would be wasting large amounts of taxpayer monies, which the EU officials dearly love to do).
This Swiss prime minister is yet another example of ignorance in the west of the basic Islamic teaching of "taqiyya" by which the Muslim is explicitly prohibited from dealing with the "unbelievers" honestly at any level (which includes dealing with western government officials at 'negotiations'). How many times do citizens of the western democracies need to go through this charade???
What an idiot-Bin Loser never shows any interest in sitting down for a chat. Why would he want to now when he's in a position of weakness?
Posted by: "Islamophobia"=BS
--
And Barak HUSSEIN Obama will just have to get in line.. The dhimmi schlampuh from Geneva has beat him to it!