MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Which Malik Shabazz Visited White House in July 2009, Mr. President?In May 2009, the Obama/Holder Justice Department dropped charges in a voter intimidation case against Malik Shabazz, a leader of the New Black Panther Party, despite having already won a summary judgment against him, and his New Black Panther Party colleagues King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson who were video-taped outside polling place in Philadelphia intimidating voters as they arrived on election day, 2008. In July 2009, when Congress began looking into the matter, someone named Malik Shabazz visited the private residence at the White House.When news of the visit was released under the auspices of transparency, the White House denied that the Malik Shabazz on the visitor’s log was the same Malik Shabazz involved in the New Black Panther voter intimidation case. According to Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, the records contained “a few “false positives” – names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else.” He specifically cited Malik Shabazz as an example of one of these “false positives”.At the time, the media did not challenge the White House on the veracity of this claim. The White House’s position was, basically: “We’re being transparent, here are all the visitor logs, and this guy is not the guy you think he is, TRUST US.”The great thing about transparency – when there is actual transparency – is that it renders trust unnecessary. We ask that the White House identify which Malik Shabazz visited the White House residence on July 25, 2009.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Middle East peace talks under threat as trouble flares ahead of lifting of building ban in Israel's West Bank.Israeli settlers have hauled bulldozers, cement mixers and other construction equipment into a Jewish settlement deep inside the West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian officials said today, a day before the end of a government-mandated halt to settlement building.The lifting of the construction restrictions late tomorrow presents the first major crisis in the new round of Middle East peace talks, launched earlier this month at the White House by US President Barack Obama.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who imposed the slowdown 10 months ago as a peace gesture, said he will not extend the restrictions. But the Palestinians, who oppose all Israeli construction on territories they claim for a future state, said they will not continue negotiations if building resumes.Danny Danon, a pro-settler politician in Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party, said today that settlers have already moved equipment into the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank.He said activists would lay the cornerstone for a new neighbourhood tomorrow, the last day of the slowdown, and planned additional construction on Monday after the restrictions formally end.'Building will begin there tomorrow afternoon and continue there on Monday,' Mr Danon said.Read the full story here.More on this story here.Click here for comments.

• Hair we are: Michelle Obama meets the bouffanted First Lady of Cameroon, Chantal Biya.U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama did well to keep a straight face as she embraced the lion-maned wife of the Cameroon president. Chantal Biya was sporting the gigantic orange hairdo on a tour hosted by Mrs Obama for the spouses of heads of government attending the United Nations General Assembly.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Coates Testimony: Dismissal of New Black Panther Case a “Travesty of Justice”.Christopher Coates, former voting chief for the department’s Civil Rights Division, spoke under oath Friday morning before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in a long-awaited appearance that had been stonewalled by the Justice Department for nearly a year.Coates discussed in depth the DOJ’s decision to dismiss intimidation charges against New Black Panther members who were videotaped outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008 dressed in military-style uniforms — one was brandishing a nightstick — and allegedly hurling racial slurs. The case has drifted in and out of the limelight over the past year as the commission has struggled to investigate it. Former Justice official J. Christian Adams fueled the controversy when he testified in July and accused his former employer of showing “hostility” toward cases that involved white victims and black defendants.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Updated : Canadian Foreign Affairs monitors situation. Pakistani jetliner flying from Toronto to Karachi was diverted to the Swedish capital early today due to a bomb threat.Swedish police said the tip was called in by a woman in Canada.No explosives were found on the man, who is being questioned by investigators.PIA said there were 255 passengers and 18 crew members on the plane.Of the passengers, 102 were Canadian nationals, 139 Pakistanis, eight U.S. citizens, three Indians and one each from Japan, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.PIA is considering flying the passengers to Manchester, England, from where they would continue their journey to Karachi.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Tyrants Like Ahmadinejad Need to Be Challenged.Yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loudly slammed shut the door that President Obama insists is still wide open.In a rant at the United Nations, Amadinejad sounded just like newly convicted Pakistani-American Al-Qaeda terrorist, Aafiya Siddiqui, who was just sentenced to 86 years. Both the President and the Lady scientist-turned-terrorist believe that America and Israeli Zionists plotted 9/11 and that both capitalism and Jews must die.Siddiqui’s lawyer claims that her client is “mentally ill”; she may be right. Perhaps Amadinejad is also “mentally ill”—were Hitler or Stalin really in good mental health?—but it doesn’t matter since Amadinejad’s finger is on the nuclear trigger and his money is on Hezbollah, his own private global, terrorist army in Lebanon, Iraq, Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere.Here’s what worries me. Obama’s silence equals American complicity. “Not in my name, Mr. President.”Iranian dissidents, like Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents everywhere, deserve American support. Obama’s approach of “engaging” with or appeasing Islamist tyrants is not enough, nor is his choosing Islamists as his consultants for the FBI, CIA, and Armed Forces.Choose Iranian dissidents instead. They will not tell him what he wants to hear. Imperial Presidents need that kind of advice.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Undhimmi.The BBC Has Spent Over £1/4 Million Keeping Israel Bias Report Secret.This from our friends over at the excellent Biased BBC (via the Telegraph, dead tree version only, apparently):The BBC spent more than £270,000 on legal fees to keep a report on its coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict out of the public eye, it disclosed yesterday. The sum was among nearly £400,000 of spending on outside advice about FOI requests.When will the BBC be forced own up to its grossly unfair bias towards the ‘Palestinians’ and admit its institutionalised hatred of Israel?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Plane from Canada to Pakistan grounded in Sweden after bomb threat on board. A plane carrying 273 people bound from Canada for Pakistan was landed at Stockholm's Arlanda airport today because of a bomb threat on board.The Pakistan International Airlines plane was on its way from Toronto to Karachi, Pakistan, when the pilot requested permission to land in Stockholm this morning.Arlanda airport spokesman Anders Bredfall said he said the plane landed safely at Arlanda. It was kept on the landing strip while police rushed the scene.A man, described as a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, was detained as the Boeing 777 jet was evacuated.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Muslim terrorists want to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state.Recent attacks against the police seek to delegitimize authorities to create chaos and guerrilla warfare in cities. Confirmed the armed forces in internal security operations for the first time since the fall of the Suharto military regime.The creation of an Islamic state in Indonesia (Negara Islam Indonesia - NII), the myth of radical Muslim groups since 1959, is once again the prime objective of Islamic terrorists, it has been asserted by Gen. Bamabang Hendarso Danuri, head of the Indonesian police force.Police believe the groups active in the area have close links with al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid (Jat), a radical group legally recognized, but which has always denied any connection with Islamic terrorism.Since 2000, terror groups have claimed more than 298 lives and wounded 838. 19 police officers were also among those killed.No wonder Obama wants to go and visit.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey pledges support to Israeli Arabs' cause.Annual Islamic Movement rally features special message by Turkish President Abdullah Gul who promised to support effort to protect al-Aqsa Mosque, all other holy sites in Jerusalem.Thousands of people attended the Islamic Movement's annual rally in Umm al-Fahm Friday and were privy to a special message from Turkish President Abdullah Gul, pledging his country's support to the Arab-Israeli cause.In his message, read over the phone by the Turkish advisor for Mideast affairs, Gul assured participants that "Your brothers in Turkey will always lend their support to the protection of the al-Aqsa Mosque and all other holy sites in Jerusalem." "This is the most perilous year for al-Aqsa. The dangers know no end. I believe that something will be done to al-Aqsa this year. The Jews are planning to build the Temple there, so we must be there all the time. We must also be in Jerusalem and support the families there, both financially and mentally.""Al-Aqsa will be redeemed by blood and fire," his statement ended.For a second i thought i heard Ahmadenejad talking but it's his mediary. It seems pretty obvious by now that Turkey is heading quickly to an all Islamic Iranian style republic,so get Turkey out of NATO Now!And keep them out of European Union!Read the full story here.click here for comments.

• HT:GatesofVienna.This Prosecution Does Not Befit a Civilized Country.A summary of a discussion among four Dutch legal scholars about the need to acquit Geert Wilders of the hate speech charges against him. Wilders case: “There must be a response to Wilders. Just not with criminal law.”by Kustaw Bessems.What Geert Wilders evokes may be rancid, ugly, ridiculous, offensive or immoral. Yet he must be acquitted, as four lawyers emphatically argue.“I am here because I think it is disastrous that this prosecution is taking place,” Theo de Roos says, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the University of Tilburg.“The main thing is,” Zwart brings in, “that you have to apply your national laws within the limits of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to freedom of expression.”Read the full debate story here.Click here for comments.

• Iran accuses U.S. of hypocrisy in woman's execution.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of hypocrisy on Friday for criticizing the death sentence of an Iranian woman, while a woman was executed in the United States this week.Ahmadinejad told a news conference in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, that the Iranian woman was accused of being an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that the case was still before the courts."My God, the noise that went around the same media who follow the (U.S.) State Department policy direction as though the only problem on this planet earth is this one alone. No other problems in the world for them to cover," he said."But last night a woman was actually executed in the United States with a similar sentence. Now if a woman in the United States is executed is it OK?" he said.Earlier this week, former U.S. President Bill Clinton told his annual philanthropic summit in New York that he was appalled at the treatment of women in some countries."It makes me sick to pick up the paper and think about this young woman being stoned to death because somebody has made up some story about her life and saying it's just our law," Clinton said without naming any countries.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 'Hail Cyrus!'An extravagant cry echoes with irony.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to New York this week to give yet another speech to the United Nations General Assembly and more interviews. For all his seeming confidence, however, he is evidently concerned by his shrinking popularity on the Iranian Main Street and the growing animosity of his former conservative allies. He misses no opportunity to expand his base of support and to gather some political muscle. The question is if his actions will backfire. When he praised a pre-Islamic king of ancient Persia, a conservative member of the Majles (parliament) was quick to point out: "Islam comes first." Mr. Ahmadinejad's tactics might cost him conservatives' support and his standing with the military.For all his shrewdness, the same can be said about Ahmadinejad. To make the cry "Hail Cyrus!" may temporarily sate a burning hunger for the grandiose, but it is an ill-starred omen.Read the full story here.Click here for comments. 

• Hot shots! U.S. Navy pilots grounded after YouTube video shows them dunking $33m helicopters in Lake Tahoe.The U.S. Navy has launched an investigation after video showing two pilots dunking a pair of $33million MH-60 Romeo helicopters into a lake was posted on YouTube.The video - taken by a stunned tourist at Lake Tahoe- shows the two helicopters skimming the surface of the water.One appears to lose control, spinning and crashing into the water in a near-disaster. But the pilot quickly regains control, pulling the aircraft from the water back into the air.They were forced to land at a nearby airport to be repaired. The damage to the state-of-the-art machines - the Navy's newest helicopter - is estimated at between $50,000 and $500,000, according to local reports.The Navy has confirmed that the footage is genuine. The helicopters were from North Island's Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron.Retired general: 'You'd have to be a moron to do that... We don't really have morons flying naval aircraft'.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:PajamasMedia.How Racist Is the Department of Justice (and the Democratic Party)?Take a look at this testimony from former Department of Justice Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates and find out.Read the full story (Transcript) here.Click here for comments.

• ABC's Bianna Golodryga Goes Undercover to 'Expose' Secret Muslim Bias in America, Doesn't Find Much.ABC on Friday did its best to find secret discrimination against Muslims, sending Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga undercover in a hijab (Islamic head covering). Yet, despite the misleading graphic, "Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias," the morning show didn't find much bigotry.Late in the segment, Golodryga admitted, "Overt discrimination is the exception." When an ABC producer tried the experiment in New York, the correspondent acknowledged, "Everywhere, people went out of their way to be friendly."However, as Michael Doyle of the Sacramento Bee reported on August 28, 2010, hate crimes against Muslims are rare and occur less often than violence against Jews and gays:Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. [...]In 2008, 105 hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during the same year, the most recent for which figures are available.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Saudi Woman sues ex-husband for 'Facebook porn'.Man accused of posting indecent honeymoon pictures of wife.A Saudi woman is suing her former husband for defamation after he placed indecent pictures of them during their honey moon on Facebook, the Arabic language online network Sahafaonline reported on Saturday.The woman told court in the eastern town of Dammam that her ex-husband also wrote obscene words about her on Facebook with the aim of defaming her after their divorce because of persistent disputes, the paper said.The paper said the Dammam court would reconvene in the next few days to consider the case, adding that the man could face up to five years in jail and a fine of SRthree million (Dh2.9 million) under a law introduced three years ago against electronic crimes.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Who Is A 'Decent Woman' On Iranian State TV?Blogger "Kindkill3r" writes about how women are portrayed on Iranian state television, which is controlled by the hard-liners.Women's rights activists have long criticized state television for giving an unrealistic and cliched image of Iranian women and promoting a traditional role for women.They say women on Iran's state television programs are often portrayed as mothers or wives, they're often seen at home doing housework, and they're not fighting for their rights.The blogger has provided some examples of "a decent woman," as seen on state television: 1. A woman who chews gum is either a trafficker or a prostitute. Read the rest of the story here.Click here for comments.

• Video Shows Mosque which Hosted Wellesley Public School Students also Sponsored Hate Speakers.Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) today released additional disturbing videos demonstrating the radical nature of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which runs the controversial Saudi-funded Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. The ISBCC is the mosque that hosted the Wellesley Middle School field trip, during which students were taught false information about religious warfare and the treatment of women in Islamic history. During the trip some of the school boys joined in the Muslim prayer ritual.According to APT research, there is reason to be concerned about the radical teachings being presented to Muslim youth at the ISBCC.The Muslim American Society gives classes at the Islamic center through its educational subsidiary – the Islamic American University. The IAU is chaired by the controversial clerics Yusuf Qaradawi and Jamal Badawi, former and current trustees of the Roxbury mosque, respectively.Qaradawi preaches to Muslims that Jews should be exterminated, homosexuals should be executed, and Muslim men may beat their wives.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The October surprise in November 2010? "Fed to print $30 trillion by Thanksgiving 2010, " says Barry Young of KFYI.For the last two years we have been saying that gold was going to $ 1650 by January 2011 and most likely $3,000-$5,000 by June 2011.One of our readers informed us that Barry Young of Arizona's KFYI.com on his morning show between 7:00 AM-10:00 AM informed us that the Federal Reserve is getting ready to print $30 T-R-I-L-L-I-O-N by Thanksgiving 2010. This represents 300% of the GDP.This is the first time we have heard a major news outlet say what we have been saying for the last two years. KFYI.com boasts a million listeners in Arizona.We were wondering what circumstances would be needed to bull gold to those levels. Printing $30 T-R-I-L-L-I-O-N like this will do that.What Obama is doing here is a scorched earth retreat like Saddam Hussein did when he was retreating out of Kuwait. Obama knows that he is beaten. Before he goes he is making sure he destroys all Americans and robs them of whatever wealth and happiness they have left by destroying the currency. Not surprisingly this development will occur right before the elections. This is Obama’s flip of the finger to the new Congress and to the Americans who support it.Karl Marx said that in order to conquer a country you must destroy it’s currency. Obama knows this lesson well.Read the full story here and perhaps related here.Click here for comments.

• GZM Imam's Malaysia Connections.Ground Zero Mosque leader Feisal Abdul Rauf has maintained a long relationship with former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, including taking Mohamad's advice on getting Malaysia more involved in the Middle East peace process, long after Mohamad's anti-Semitic and anti-American statements were widely known.That includes a three-year association with Mohamad's Perdana Global Peace Organization, which kicked off a December 2005 conference with Mohamad saying the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 because it "it was about getting at the wealth of a country rich in oil" and implying a U.S. role in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.While Rauf now says he only attended Perdana's December 2005 conference, the organizations' web site listed him just below Mohamad from 2005 to 2008. During that time, Perdana's website shows Mohamad met with activists who believed the 9/11 attacks were set up by the U.S. government and conducted more conferences in which he "congratulated" Iraqi insurgents for killing U.S. soldiers.Mohamad, one of Rauf's advisers on world peace, implied the United States played a role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri after the U.S. government passed a law in 2003 calling for sanctions against Syria. "Fortuitously, Rafik Hariri of Lebanon was assassinated and Syria is implicated," Mohamad said. "Whether the findings are factual or not is irrelevant. I am not being cynical but remembering the lies about Iraq. I cannot help but wonder."Rauf, the leader of the Ground Zero Mosque effort, has worked for years with Mohamad, records show. Those ties came long after Mohamad earned a reputation for making anti-Semitic comments.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Texas ed board adopts resolution calling for textbook publishers to limit references to Islam.The Texas State Board of Education adopted a resolution Friday that seeks to curtail references to Islam in Texas textbooks, as social conservative board members warned of what they describe as a creeping Middle Eastern influence in the nation's publishing industry.The board approved the one-page nonbinding resolution, which urges textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books, by a 7-5 vote.The resolution also claims "more such discriminatory treatment of religion may occur as Middle Easterners buy into the U.S. public school textbook oligopoly, as they are doing now."The resolution concludes by warning publishers the "State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Row over 'untouchable' Indian dog.Police in India are investigating claims that a Dalit woman has been ordered to pay compensation to the high-caste owners of a dog she fed.The woman says the village council wants her to pay a fine of 15,000 rupees ($330) for feeding the dog, which the owners have now kicked out.They are reported to have said the dog is "untouchable", but deny being motivated by caste considerations.Although widespread, discrimination against Dalits is an offence in India.Dalits, who make up nearly 20% of the Indian population, say little has changed despite the government enacting various laws banning caste-based discrimination.Dalits - formerly untouchables - are considered at the bottom of the Hindu caste system.Any discrimination against them is an offence and punishable by law.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• How 70% of New Zealand lamb imports to Britain are halal... but this is NOT put on the label.More than 70 per cent of the New Zealand lamb sold in Britain comes from halal slaughterhouses without the fact being declared on the label.All the slaughtermen in these establishments must be Muslim and say a prayer when making the cut across the animal’s throat which kills it.The New Zealand meat industry has taken the step to ensure its lamb can be sold in Muslim markets round the world.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• American Rancher X, Part 2.“I don’t need you here, stirring up trouble, especially by shooting. The cartels shot at two people on my land last year. A surveyor and another guy. Right over that hill.” He was referring to the one we had just doubled-back over.“A surveyor? Like a government surveyor?”“Yeah.”“Damn. What the fuck was he doing that they shot at him? He’s just a fucking surveyor.”“Well, he was surveying. Doing his job.”I responded with the “You’ve got to be kidding me.” look you’d expect.“This is their corridor, where they move everything. Drugs, money, wetbacks. They’ll shoot at anybody. Like I said, if you look like you’re hunting around, looking to interfere with their business, steal their stuff, nab wetbacks, whatever, they’ll shoot you.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The curious case of the emerald that weighs as much as a horse: Judge to decide who owns boulder-sized gem.The curious case of an enormous emerald weighing as much as a horse was being considered in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday as a judge tries to determine who owns it.Dug up in Brazil in 2001 and tipping the scales at 840lb, the boulder-sized Bahia Emerald - a black boulder with green, arm-sized crystals sticking out - is one of the largest gems ever discovered.But now it is caught in the centre of a massive tug-of-war after several different people laid claim to it.Read and see the whole story here.Click here for comments.

• Scientists still concerned about dying honey bees.For the better part of a decade, honey bees have been disappearing in many areas of the world and scientists are still trying to discover why.In the face of global warming, economic recovery, unemployment, and the instability of our current political system, people may ask: What’s the big deal about a few missing bees?It is a very big deal.In a related situation, bats have been disappearing, with a similar mysterious type of colony collapse. Bats eat tons of insects that can cause extensive damage to agricultural crops.According to a 2010 study by the British Beekeepers Association, 80% of the bee population in their region made it through the severe winter, which offers some good news, but many experts agree that if the bees and bats were to disappear--the impact on the human race would be catastrophic.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Video : River Disappears Overnight.The Iska River in Slovenia vanished overnight after residents reported hearing loud crashing sounds.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.