MFS - The Other News

                      Afternoon Posting.

• Maronite Patriarchate warns of “tension rising” to the point of conflict in Lebanon.There is a growing conflict between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah because the UN tribunal allegations that - they say - condemn Hezbollah for having contributed to the assassination of Rafik Hariri. The bishops are preparing to go to Rome for the Synod of the Middle East, but a war between Sunnis and Shiites is feared.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• White House: Obama did not send letter to Netanyahu.A researcher with ties to Dennis Ross published an article on Wednesday saying that Obama sent a letter to Netanyahu offering U.S. guarantees in exchange for a two month settlement freeze extension.It is not clear, however, whether Obama could have made the offer via means other than a letter.Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said that U.S.special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell denied that Obama made such an offer to Netanyahu.An article published on Wednesday on the website for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky, a researcher with ties to Dennis Ross, Barack Obama's chief advisor on the Middle East, reported that Obama had written a letter Netanyahu in which Obama offered to support the presence of Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the Jordan Valley even after the establishment of a Palestinian state, if Israel would agree to a two month settlement building freeze.Netanyahu was reportedly inclined to reject the offer.Obama's letter was said to include a long list of American favors in exchange for an extension of the settlement building freeze, which ended this week. Most of these favors are critical to Israel's strategic security needs that Netanyahu has been demanding for years.Brodenstein adds that Mr. Obama also threatens that if his offer is not accepted that the U.S. will make what he terms a major gesture to the Palestinians damaging Israel: formally taking the stand that the final borders should be based on the '67 lines with adjustments.Hmmmm.....the road to Hell is paved with empty promises.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Bluecollar.Interesting: 9/11 Hard Hat Pledge Founder Calls on NYC to Investigate Missing GZM Construction Permits.Andy Sullivan, founder of the 9/11 Hard Hat Pledge was an eyewitness to the World Trade Center attacks. After seeing the first plane hit he successfully evacuated all of his construction crew. His one regret from that day is “not knowing that the first girl I ever loved was working at Cantor Fitzgerald. I could have saved her.”Andy has been researching the building permits for the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. According to Mr. Sullivan’s research, “that building is being illegally occupied. You cannot issue any type of Certificate of Occupancy either permanent or temporary without an inspection of the premises.” During the 9/11 terrorist attacks the building was damaged when the landing gear from one of planes landed on it causing damage. “Work has been done on that site since 9/11, yet there is no record of inspection since this work was completed, ” says Sullivan. Without the necessary permits and inspections Mr. Sullivan states that “No one can be sure that this building that is illegally being used to hold services is safe. There are real concerns for the safety of those occupying this building illegally.”According to Sullivan, in order for this site to meet Department of Building requirements, “all work done without permits has to be taken down and removed. They need to start over from scratch under the strict supervision of the DOB.” Sullivan wonders why the DOB is ignoring the lack of proper permits.“This site would be shut down if it was any other entity in the this city. Tremendous fines would be levied against any other project. I believe that Mayor Bloomberg is in cahoots with the DOB and figures no one with construction expertise has scrutinized the work permits, ” states hard hat Andy Sullivan.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Palestinian mental patients get hysterectomies.Muslim law permits parents to remove uteruses of mentally ill girls to protect family from shame.A debate held by a Palestinian radio station has revisited the issue of female mutilation, with interviewed parents saying they prefer to perform hysterectomies on mentally ill girls in order to prevent them from becoming impregnated.But the procedure is known to be performed in order to allay fears of embarrassment by a similarly ill offspring, and has been sanctioned to this end by both Sharia and the Palestinian Authority."We can't follow the girls around 24 hours a day, and we worry that they will be sexually assaulted, so we prefer to cut out their wombs," one parent told a radio station belonging to the Ma'an news agency.Female Palestinian MP Dr. Sahar Al Qawasmi agreed that there is a legal problem, and said a hysterectomy does nothing to defend the girl but rather serves only to protect her family from the shame and embarrassment incurred in Muslim society by a mentally ill family member."If our will is to protect the disabled or mentally ill, we must worsen the punishment against those who would attack her," Dr. Qawasmi said."If we must cut out the girl's womb, why do we not chop off body parts from disabled boys? The hysterectomy makes her the victim of a rape as well as of punishment, and the lack of punishment for her assailant."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Irony Alert in Seattle: Hijab and Burqa Clad Women Protest Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speech on Islam’s Oppression of Women.It was the type of scene you don’t see everyday in Seattle: Some three dozen Islamic women in cloaks and veils descended on Town Hall last night to wave pickets and pass out fliers. They were there to protest the appearance of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the controversial Somali émigré who’s been speaking out against Islamic fundamentalism and oppression of women.“We don’t want hate speech here,” said Entisar Ibrahim, one of the protesters, her black hijab revealing only her eyes. But when asked exactly how Hirsi Ali was a “virulently Islamaphobic bigot,” as the fliers labeled the visiting author, Ibrahim couldn’t say.At least one woman coming into Town Hall for the talk seemed confused by the branding of Hirsi Ali. “I thought she was a Muslim woman,” the audience member said.Not exactly. Answering questions from the audience and World Affairs Council CEO Ian Moncaster, a very Western-looking Hirsi Ali, in leather boots and a cowl-neck sweater, described herself as a “dissident of Islam.” She certainly didn’t promote violence against Muslims. But she did put forward the deeply contentious idea that Islam was simply incompatible with modernity and feminism. Moderates who yearned for spirituality were better off converting to Christianity. (Judaism could work too, she said, but the Jews stubbornly refuse to proselytize.)As for the protesters outside, she said, "I welcome them in the room." She said she'd like to directly ask them about a passage in Islamic doctrine that counsels husbands to beat their wives.I for one salute her courage!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Ottawa against Tehran over 19-year sentence imposed in Iranian blogging pioneer.Hossein Derakhshan, 35, who has a Canadian and an Iranian passport, is sentenced to a tough prison sentence. Iran’s theocratic regime accuses him of “co-operation with hostile states” and “propagating against the regime”. US President Barack Obama orders sanctions against eight top Iranian officials for "sustained and severe violations of human rights”.In a statement, the White House said, “The United States will always stand with those in Iran who aspire to have their voices heard. We will be a voice for those aspirations that are universal, and we continue to call upon the Iranian government to respect the rights of its people."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Video Hints at Executions by Pakistanis.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An Internet video showing men in Pakistani military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes has heightened concerns about unlawful killings by Pakistani soldiers supported by the United States, American officials said.The authenticity of the five-and-a-half-minute video, which shows the killing of the six men — some of whom appear to be teenagers, blindfolded, with their hands bound behind their backs — has not been formally verified by the American government. The Pakistani military said it was faked by militants.But American officials, who did not want to be identified because of the explosive nature of the video, said it appeared to be credible, as did retired American military officers and intelligence analysts who have viewed it.After viewing the graphic video on Wednesday, an administration official said: “There are things you can fake, and things you can’t fake. You can’t fake this.” Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• US 'open internet' bill shot down.Partisan politics is being blamed for killing off US legislation to protect the "net neutrality" that sees all web traffic treated equally.Democrat Henry Waxman said he failed to garner the necessary Republican support for his net neutrality bill.The bill aimed to stop ISPs from acting as online gatekeepers controlling the content flowing through their pipes."This development is a loss for consumers and a gain only for the extremes," said Mr Waxman."The bottom line is we must protect the open internet. If Congress can't act, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) must.""If the majority wants to work on a solution to continue a free and open internet, let's consider the issue deliberately, rather than punting with a halfway measure two days before the end of Congress. "Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BigPeace.FALLOUT: ‘Plugs had to be pulled on our system’ to clear Hamas operative to tour Top-Secret NCTC, ‘The NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have’.The fallout continues in response to my Big Peace article filed on Monday concerning a known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism finance trial in U.S. history who was given a VIP tour of the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the FBI training center at Quantico as part of a six-week FBI Citizen Academy arranged by the FBI Chicago Field Office.Now a Homeland Security official (requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation by superiors) has contacted Big Peace saying that “the plugs had to be pulled on our system” in order to allow Kifah Mustapha to enter the NCTC and that “the NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have. There’s no way from a systems point-of-view that this could be an accidental oversight, unless they didn’t bother checking at all as they are required to do.”The DHS official added, “It’s as if we haven’t learned anything from twenty years of reaching out to the wrong people in the Muslim community.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Obama pressed to weigh Iran strike.Senator Joe Lieberman, Congressman Howard Berman say US must put time limit on sanctions.Both Senator Joe Lieberman and Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have urged the president to consider setting a time limit of just a few months on the effectiveness of the most recent sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic for its nuclear advances.“Our goal here is to convince Iran to stop its nuclear weapons development program by economic and diplomatic means if we can but (to make clear) that we are prepared to use military means if we must,” Lieberman told the Financial Times.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias.Camouflaged and silent, the assault team inched toward a walled stone compound for more than five hours, belly-crawling the last 200 yards. The target was an old state prison in eastern Ohio, and every handpicked member of Red Team 2 knew what was at stake: The year is 2014, and a new breed of neo-Islamic terrorism is rampant in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio ... The current White House Administration is pro-Muslim and has ordered a stand-down against Islamic groups. The mission: Destroy the terrorist command post — or die trying. The fighters must go in "sterile" — without name tags or other identifying insignia — as a deniable covert force. "Anyone who is caught or captured cannot expect extraction," the briefing officer said.A top FBI counterterrorism official says the bureau's "biggest concern" is "the individual who has done the training, has the capability but is disenchanted with the group's action — or in many cases, inaction — and decides he's going to act alone." A high-ranking DHS official added that "it's almost impossible to find that needle in a haystack," even if the FBI has an informant in the group. James Cavanaugh, who recently retired from a senior post at the ATF and took part in some of the bloodiest confrontations with the radical right in the 1990s, says the creation of monsters in their midst is the greatest danger posed by organized groups.The ceaseless talk of federal aggression — and regular training to repel it — "becomes a hysteria where you constantly, constantly practice and nothing happens," he says. "Now most of them wouldn't go out offensively, O.K.? But generally why they're dangerous is that some people can't stand that rhetoric and just wait for it to happen.And they go off the rails, à la McVeigh.Seems like they have dropped Israel and are now focusing the American soil? "Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Candidate for Gov: I’ll Tell Obama to ‘Go to Hell’.Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage told a group of fishermen at a GOP forum that he won't be afraid to tell President Barack Obama to "go to hell."Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey would appoint scientific attaches to countries like US.Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday they wanted to open a new field in diplomacy called "Science Diplomacy".following his meeting with academicians and students at the Harvard University, Davutoglu said that Turkey would appoint scientific attaches to countries like the US.During my talks in Boston, we had a chance to discuss with both Turkish and US academicians ways to realize "Science Diplomacy", Davutoglu also said.Hmmm......Harvard....Obama ....outreach to Muslims?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Pakistan Halts NATO Route to Afghanistan in Response to Attack latest developments.  PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan closed the most important border crossing for trucks supplying NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan on Thursday in apparent retaliation for an attack by coalition helicopters on a Pakistani security post hours earlier.That attack, itself, however, appeared to be an act of self-defense from NATO troops who fired on armed insurgents who were attempting to strike a coalition base, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the International Security Assistance Force. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey permits namaz in destroyed Ani Cathedral.The action of the party may also involve religious people from Azerbaijan.A plan by Turkey’s most prominent nationalist party to hold Friday prayers at the ruins of Ani on the Turkish-Armenian border is a political ploy, according to an important Armenian religious official.Bishop Sebouh Chouldjian, a primate of the Church’s Diocese of Gougark in northern Armenia and a candidate for the next Istanbul patriarch said that he would have respected the plan of Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli if he genuinely wanted to pray.“But this is not the case at all,” he said. “He is just trying to make religion a tool for his politics.”The truth is still brighter then the dark lie?Religious freedom ....Hmmmm?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Ayodhya Judgement: Babri Masjid divided between Muslims and Hindus.The Allahabad High Court today ruled, by majority, that the disputed area of the Babri Masjid Mosque, demolished December 6, 1992 by Hindu extremists, will be divided into three between Muslims and Hindus. The decision appears aimed at mitigating high tension in the country, but risks triggering major conflicts in the future.The Hindus will be able to maintain the prefabricated small temple built on the main body of demolished mosque, where an idol of Ram was found long ago. Another group of Hindus and a Islamic group will manage two other parts of the mosque.The long anticipated ruling was greet amid heightened tensions: over 200 thousand police officers were deployed to monitor possible targets of violence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as well as leaders of all major parties, had invited everyone to maintain calm.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• India deploys 200,000 police as it braces for Hindu-Muslim race riots over 16th-century mosque ownership.Police have arrested more than 10,000 people to prevent them from inciting violence, while another 100,000 had to sign affidavits saying they would not cause trouble after the verdict, a top official said.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the verdict one of the country's biggest security challenges, and it comes at an already tense time when India worries about its international image days before the Games begin.'There should be no attempt whatsoever made by any section of the people to provoke any other section or to indulge in any expression of emotion that would hurt the feelings of other people,' warned Mr Singh.About 80 per cent of India's 1.1 billion population are Hindus while Muslims represent 13 per cent - some 140 million people - putting it behind Indonesia and Pakistan in the ranks of Muslim populations.Wary of these two sides being provoked into fighting, the government has banned bulk mobile text messaging nationally to prevent the spread of rumours and religious extremism.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Boehner backs Issa on subpoena promises.House Minority Leader John Boehner threw his full support behind Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) plan to bombard the Obama administration with subpoenas if Republicans take back the House in November.“I think Congress has an appropriate role under the Constitution to provide oversight of the executive branch. And I would pledge that it’s going to happen,” he told reporters Wednesday.Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Committee, has said he’ll double the size of his staff if he becomes chairman of the committee next year. He called for an investigation of the Obama administration earlier this year for offering Rep. Joe Sestak an unpaid job if he would drop out of the Democratic primary, and he has promised to investigate the White House in search of similar controversies. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TheDailyBeast.Stop Trashing Teachers!Obama’s misguided policies and the overhyped doc Waiting For Superman have turned America against its teachers. Education expert Diane Ravitch on why the vitriol is so dangerous.For the past week, the national media has launched an attack on American public education that is unprecedented in our history. NBC devoted countless hours to panels stacked with "experts" who believe that public education is horrible because it has so many "bad" teachers and "bad" principals. The same "experts" appeared again and again to call for privatization, breaking teachers' unions, and mass firings of "bad" educators. Oprah devoted two shows to the same voices. The movie Waiting for Superman, possibly the most ballyhooed documentary of all time, explains patiently that poor test scores are caused by bad teachers, that bad teachers are protected for life by their unions, and that the answer to our terrible test scores is privatization. If only we fire enough teachers every year, goes the oft-repeated claim, our national test scores will soar to meet those of Finland, the highest scoring nation.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.What Was FBI-Raided Radical Abudayyeh Doing at Obama White House & Why Was He Awarded $457,000 in Taxpayer Money?Last Friday FBI agents raided the homes of far left activists in Chicago and Minneapolis who are linked to the Marxist FARC terrorists and Islamic radicals as part of a terrorism investigation.The home of radical Hatem Abudayyeh in Chicago was raided in the terror sweep.And would someone in the Obama Administration explain what Abudayyeh was doing in the White House this year?This deserves an explanation.Hmmm...."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full treason story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.FBI Terror Targets Tied To Obama’s Socialist New Party.Bloggers New Zeal and The Big Feed discovered this photo of Barack Obama and other New Party socialists including Danny K Davis (center), from the front page of New Party News, Spring 1996:Winners! NP-endorsed candidates Patricia Martin (far left), Danny Davis (center), and Barack Obama (far right), celebrate with Chicago New Party members Ted Thomas and Ruth Schools after their victories in the Democratic Primary last month.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:NewZeal.Terror Suspects were Active in Obama's Socialist "New Party".What was the New Party, and what was Obama's involvement?The New Party folded in 1998 after its voting tactics were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The FBI is now undertaking what has become a high-profile investigation of former members of the organization. Was Barack Obama a member? Undoubtedly. Will the FBI investigate him? What do you think?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Tension in White House - Bob Woodward.Veteran US investigative journalist Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's Wars, depicts a US administration divided over strategy in Afghanistan.In an exclusive UK interview, he tells Gavin Esler there is a "lot of tension" between the US military and the White House.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.