MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:.Jidaily.The Gaza Flotilla: Facts and Official Reactions.

1. The Gaza flotilla was a well-thought-out provocation against Israel. The flotilla was falsely presented as an enterprise of humanitarian aid to a needy population. If that were indeed the case the organizers would have accepted Israel's offer to dock the flotilla at the port of Ashdod. The main ship, the Turkish Mavi Marmara and two others, transported people only and no aid. Part of the aid, such as camouflage netting, was clearly meant for Hamas's military purposes. Some samples of the aid, such as medicines, were past their sell-by date. One of the undeclared aims of the main organizers was to support the Hamas regime that rules Gaza. In its charter Hamas promotes genocide of Jews.
2. The main organizers of the Gaza flotilla were the Turkish IHH, a body for which there are strong indications of having terrorist links. There were also others on board with terrorist links. Several of the participants on the Mavi Marmara were prepared for violence with weapons and attacked the Israeli soldiers. The weapons found were far from normal for a ship purporting to be bringing humanitarian aid. Seven of the nine dead had expressed their wish to die as martyrs before they departed on the journey. Negative opinions about Israel were hastily expressed by senior officials of various countries and international bodies. They did not care to wait until a reasonable amount of facts were known. Today if one analyzes their statements one finds many fallacies in them. In view of many other far more violent actions by some Western countries on various occasions, the claims about disproportionality of the Israeli interception of the flotilla convey double standards.
3. The German response to the flotilla affair merits special investigation. On 2 July the German parliament issued a unanimous resolution with an anti-Israeli bias. Never in its history has the Bundestag issued a resolution against any rogue state. The Jewish Central Council in Germany adopted a statement saying that the Parliament's resolution was based on incomplete information and a mixture of half-truths and prejudices.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Islamic fundamentalism rising in Egypt, government suspends 12 TV channels.The decision is taken because channels were broadcasting shows that incited religious hatred, including murder. Pro-Coptic associations complain about an atmosphere of growing intolerance.In another recent incident, an Islamic book publisher printed a "forged Bible" that the Coptic Church said amounted to blasphemy and religious intolerance.The owner of the Islamic Enlightenment Publishing House, Abuislam Abdullah, wrote in the introduction of the publication that the goal of printing the text was to “prove” there are multiple versions of the Bible and that Christians had “forged theirs.”Hmmm...just try to imagine the reaction if Christians would forge a Koran?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Outrage after video shows Indonesia 'torture'. Security forces allegedly shown burning genitals of Papuan activist later found dead.JAKARTA, Indonesia — A grisly video purporting to show Indonesian security forces torturing suspected separatists in Papua province — burning the genitals of one and running a knife across the neck of another — sparked public outcry Tuesday after being circulated on the Internet.For many in the young democracy, the images were a reminder of the dark days of former dictator Suharto, who often used the military and police to stifle dissent, especially in far-flung regions with aspirations of independence.Stories about the video made headlines in local newspapers Tuesday and expressions of anger filled commentary pages."It was shocking, every scene was barbaric," said Haris Azhar of the human rights group, Kontras, "The government has to find out who is behind such violence in Papua and bring them to court.""It probably happened in a different era and someone leaked it to make us look bad," said Lt. Col. Susilo, a provincial military spokesman, adding that an investigation will determine if the men, who were dressed in plain clothes, were soldiers or police."I promise you, if it does turn out these abuses were carried out recently, we'll find out who was responsible and we'll come down hard."Hmm...on the person who leaked the vid?Anyway great country to spend your youth?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Saudi prince grandson of Saudi Arabia's king Abdullah jailed for life for murder of servant.A Saudi prince has been jailed for life for murdering his servant at a hotel in central London.The Old Bailey was told the assault by Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud had a "sexual element" and he had attacked Mr Abdulaziz many times before.Al Saud, 34, who had admitted manslaughter but denied murder, was given a minimum jail term of 20 years.The prince initially wrongly believed he had diplomatic immunity and his royal status would save him.But he stood with his arms folded and showed no emotion as the judge told him he must serve 19 years, having already spent one on remand.Mr Justice Bean added: "No-one in this country is above the law."If the prince ever returns to Saudi Arabia he faces the possibility of execution, because being gay is a capital offence in that country.He could seek asylum in Britain after his eventual release.Hmmmm....another potential Bin Laden is just born?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Iranian Protestant pastor, held in prison for months, risks death penalty for apostasy.The pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was charged with "apostasy" last month from the 11th Chamber of the Assizes Court of the province of Gilan, northern Iran. His lawyer is going to appeal after finding "serious procedural errors." Nadarkhani was arrested for having questioned Islamic education in schools. "We are a Christian family – he is reported to have said - I want my children to receive a Christian religious education, not Islamic. ""Elam Ministries" a Protestant group specializing in mission to Muslims says it is aware of the case of a young Iranian convert killed a few weeks ago by a relative because of his conversion, leaving a wife and two children.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.OMG! Israel and the 'Palestinians' have reached an agreement!Israel and the 'Palestinians' have finally reached an agreement. The agreement was reached through American intervention. What's it about? Borders? No. 'Refugees'? No. Jerusalem? No. Security? No.Are you ready for this? Israel and the 'Palestinians' have reached an agreement not to embarrass President Obama between now and the midterm elections.Read the full scandal story here.Click here for comments.

• Following in Clinton’s footsteps, Obama to leave town after election.President Obama is giving Republicans a 10-day window to set the agenda for a lame-duck session and the new legislative year by leaving the country right after the midterm elections.The timing of the president’s trip to Asia is worrying some Democrats, who believe it could cede further momentum to a resurgent Republican Party that might win a House majority on Nov. 2. Myers said that while the Washington echo chamber is filled with media and pundit speculation about the meaning of the election results, Obama will at least have the comfort of distance as he waits for the dust to settle. “It's not a very productive time to be in Washington,” Myers said. “There's not much you can do.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Canada denies arrest of Mabhouh hit suspect.Senior official in Ottawa calls Dubai police chief's claim that one of top Hamas operative's assassins was detained 'baseless'.Two senior sources at the Canadian Embassy in the UAE told The Globe they did not inform the Dubai police chief about any arrest. “We are trying to verify this information with our colleagues in Ottawa,” one of them told the newspaper. “Tamim said we gave this info to the Dubai police, and we didn’t.”Hmmmm.....perhaps it was a Djinnn and he flew away?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• German Prosecutors File Terrorism Charges Against 8 For Allegedly Spreading Propaganda.BERLIN (AP) - German federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged eight people with supporting al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations by allegedly spreading propaganda on the Internet.The suspects, aged between 17 and 30, were members of the German section of the Global Islamic Media Front, the federal prosecutors said. The charges were filed in a Munich court on Sept. 22. There was no immediate word on when a trial might open.Authorities say the group used blogs and Internet forums to spread propaganda, some of which was aimed at securing new members or supporters for al-Qaida. The alleged offenses were committed between August 2006 and March 2008.Hmmm....perhaps it will "Inspire" their American counterparts to act?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:DanielGreenfield..The Obama Administration's Palestinian Civil War .There is no debate within the Obama Administration on whether to support Israel or not, mainly because there is no one within there who supports Israel. The only debate is which Anti-Israel terrorist group to support, Fatah or Hamas. That is because the civil war between Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, Fatah and Hamas, isn't just taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, but also within the foreign policy establishment. Unlike the actual civil war, no one is being thrown off buildings or shot in the head, rather there are position papers and fierce behind the scenes debates.The split falls roughly between along ideological lines between the Clinton Administration veterans and some of Obama's new radicals. Between liberals and the hard left.Unlike his two predecessors, Barack Hussein Obama does not merely sympathize with Palestinian Muslim terrorists for political reasons, or seek to empower them for geopolitical ones. Instead he positively despises Israel, as another Western colonialist entity run by white men which needs to be destroyed for the greater glory of the Third World. He is not alone in this view, yet his administration's foreign policy has fallen into the hands of more moderate voices, some like Hillary Clinton, may hate Israel nearly as much, but are more pragmatic in regard to policy matters. Which is why the more pragmatic Fayyadists won out over the radical Hudnaists.For the Hudnaists, the only mandate is to empower terrorists. Israel's interests don't enter into the picture. The Hudnaists will mumble something about temporary truces leading to long term solutions, but it's nonsense and they know it. Hamas will never agree to accept Israel. The attempt to find "moderate" Hamas leaders was a farce. All the Hudnaists can really do is talk up Hamas' honesty, reliability and popularity. But their crush on Islamist terror aside, they have nothing to offer but a straight line to destruction of Israel, and its neighbors, and their transformation into a Sunni Iran. Which is apropos enough, as their mentors oversaw the transformation of Persia into the Islamic Republic of Iran.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TheBlaze.Obama Continues to Omit ‘Creator’ From Declaration of Independence.During a speech Monday, President Barack Obama once again omitted the Declaration of Independence‘s mention of man’s “Creator” as the source of his “unalienable rights.” While delivering remarks at a dinner fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in Rockville, Md., President Obama spoke about what he called the “essence” of the upcoming midterm election.This isn’t the first time the president has selectively edited the Declaration in not acknowledging the role of God in bestowing these rights upon man.Hmmm....any psychiatrists willing to give his medical opinion?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• ‘South Park’ draws ire by putting Turkish flag on al-Qaeda planes.A recent episode of famous American animated TV show “South Park” featured an image of terrorist attacks being carried out by al-Qaeda aircraft bearing Turkish flags, drawing complaints from Turks for an apparent attempt to link the terrorist group and Turkey.After receiving many complaints about the image, the organization recently announced that they “did not mean to single out Turkey and therefore, the cover will be altered to include the flags of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and Syria.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Cincinnati High School Takes Students During School Hours to Vote For Dem Candidates Only, Then Rewards Them With Ice Cream.Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken last week – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream, a Monday lawsuit alleges.The complaint was made by Thomas Brinkman Jr., a Republican candidate for Hamilton County auditor, and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes against Cincinnati Public Schools.“They plan to bring four more high schools (to vote) this week,” Christopher Finney, COAST attorney, said Monday after filing the suit.Read the full scam story here.Click here for comments.

• Abuse Of Temporary Marriages Flourishes In Iraq.The practice of temporary marriage has long been common in Shiite Muslim communities, especially in Iran. The idea is that rather than having an affair, a man who wants to be sexually involved with a woman should marry her — for a few months, or even, hours — so the relationship will be legitimate.In Iraq, the practice was banned under Saddam Hussein but then flourished after the American invasion. Now, though, some men are using the system to take advantage of poor women, and many of Iraq's Shiites say the very religious institutions that sanction such marriages are to blame.One mother of three, who is so ashamed about what happened to her she doesn't want to give her name, says her husband abandoned her when she found out he preferred men. She had no way to support the family.A religious figure in her neighborhood promised to help. He brought her to his home, locked the door and had sex with her. He offered her $15.For the man at least, it was a brief moment of muta'a, the Arabic word for pleasure — and the Arabic word for temporary marriage.The woman says the man who had sex with her worked with leading Shiite religious clerics in the Iraqi city of Najaf. It's one of the most revered places in Shiite Islam.Shammari says he has temporarily married at least five women, while traveling. Each time, he says, he paid them. He made sure they used birth control. He kept his agreement to be married for only a month. And he didn't do anything to sully their reputations afterward.This, he says, is the right way to do muta'a marriage.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Awda: Turkey’s foreign policy worries Mideast regimes.Jihad Awda, professor of political science at Helwan University and a leading politician in Egypt’s National Democratic Party, has said the “confusing” strategies pursued by Turkey in foreign policy have caused concern in the Middle East.“The foreign minister of Turkey delivers nice messages when speaking. He is a very smart man. But this is not what we [in the Middle East] want. It does not solve problems. The matter is not the foreign policy followed by Turkey. The matter is the confusion over what Turkey wants to do strategically,” the professor stated.According to Awda, Turkey has not effectively communicated with other countries in the region about its “initiatives.” Turkey has announced a number of initiatives recently that are intended to settle years-long problems and improve relations with neighboring countries. “Countries in the region are not disturbed by Turkey’s initiatives. The problems stem from Turkey. Turkey cannot explain its intentions well. What is Turkey’s real agenda?It has a foreign policy that is full of contradictions.Turkey pursues different policies that truly contradict one another. For example, while trying to become an economically strong power, Turkey maintains its military strength. Nationalism and Islam are also on the rise,” he noted.There is no cooperation between Turkey and secular Egyptian organizations. Turkey only works with Muslims in Egypt,” he stated.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkish transgender rights activists face trial.International rights groups on Monday urged Turkey to drop criminal charges against five transgender rights activists and requested that authorities investigate the police’s involvement and actions in the case.Police stopped the five activists in May, accused them of being prostitutes and then proceeded to beat them, according to the Ankara-based transgender rights group, Pembe Hayat, or Pink Life. The five will be put on trial on Oct. 21 on charges of resisting police and face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Five international human rights and gay rights organizations, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a joint letter to Turkey’s Interior and Justice ministers that it is the police officers who should be held accountable. The police have refused to comment on the case.Human rights advocates say gays and lesbians suffer frequent discrimination and abuse despite human rights reforms enacted in line with Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Report: Prime Minster Binyamin agrees to free Barghouti for Schalit.Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar says the organization is "ready to return to talks with Israel on prisoner exchange deal." Saudi newspaper al-Madina on Tuesday reported that Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to release senior Fatah man Marwan Barghouti as part of a deal for the release of captive soldier Gilad Schalit.The report said the German mediator told Hamas that Israel was willing to include Barghouti in the deal, but would not add the remaining names on Hamas' list.Netanyahu on Sunday said that the government is "constantly working in various ways to try and bring Gilad home," going on to say that its primary method was through the "German-mediated negotiations that were renewed a few weeks ago."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Monsters&Critics.UN's Ban Ki Moon warns Europe against "dangerous" anti-Muslim trend.Strasbourg - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon warned on Tuesday against a 'dangerous trend' of intolerance targeting Muslim immigrants in Europe, in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.'A dangerous trend is emerging, a new politics of polarization. Some play on people's fears,' Ban said, adding, 'They accuse immigrants of violating European values.''Yet too often it is the accusers who subvert these values and thus the very idea of what it means to be a citizen of the European Union,' he continued.Is he talking about "Integration"?Ban himself is not a member of any church or religious group and has declined to expound his beliefs: "Now, as Secretary-General, it will not be appropriate at this time to talk about my own belief in any particular religion or God.In his European Parliament address, Ban called upon the EU to 'demonstrate leadership,' not just with regard to immigration but also in tackling extreme poverty, climate change challenges and promoting a world free of nuclear weapons.Hmmm....do i hear a move against Israel's nukes?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TheEndoftheAmericanDream.Mortgage Investors To Bank Of America: We’re Pissed And We Want Our 47 Billion Dollars Back.Everyone knew that the foreclosure fraud crisis was going to spawn a festival of lawsuits, and now it looks like it is already beginning. The New York Federal Reserve Bank is part of a consortium of eight large institutional investment firms that has launched an effort to force Bank of America to repurchase $47 billion worth of mortgages packaged into bonds by its Countrywide Financial unit. It turns out that most mortgage bond contracts explicitly require the repurchase of loans when the quality of the loans falls short of promises made by the sellers. As most of us know by now, many of these mortgages that were packaged together into "AAA rated" securities were actually a bunch of junk. But this is just the beginning. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Canada:Getting ahead of prison radicalization.Putting terrorists and terrorist plotters in jail is a good idea. But you cannot just ignore them once they’re behind bars or they might start recruiting among their fellow prisoners and we’ll end up releasing three violent radicals for every one we imprison.So far, in Canada, it’s just a threat. But European countries have a very real problem, especially with Islamist radicals spreading militant, politically violent interpretations of their religion among the general prison population, and it’s a growing issue in the United States. We cannot afford to be complacent.More Canadians have been imprisoned on terrorism-related crimes in the past 18 months than used to face such charges over decades. Since October, 2008, 14 Canadians have been found guilty of terror-related acts. Some, like Momin Khawaja, Said Namouh, and Zakaria Amara are likely to spend decades behind bars. If, during that time, they convince even one other inmate to adopt their violent ideology, would their original convictions still be touted as a resounding counterterrorism success? To ensure that getting one terrorist off Canada’s streets does not inadvertently breed two others, we need a counterterrorism strategy that includes our prison policy.Ensuring Canadian prisons are institutions of rehabilitation and not radicalization is neither easy nor simple. But it won’t get easier if we ignore the problem until it becomes a serious national security concern.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• French Protesters Block Airport as Fuel Crisis Continues.PARIS — Faced with widespread protests over his plans to reform the pension system, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that he had ordered the authorities to end blockades of fuel depots that have left a third of the country’s gas stations dry .In a statement, he also insisted that weeks of strikes and demonstrations would not deter him from pursuing “to its term” his contentious plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. Mr. Sarkozy seemed to be hardening the government’s resolve to hold to its program of reforming the indebted pension system despite the continuing job actions by workers at refineries and railways and in other key sectors. A final parliamentary vote on the plan may not come until early next week. On Wednesday, he spoke as protests broke out anew with demonstrators blocking road tunnels in Marseille and airports in Toulouse and Clermont-Ferrand amid continuing efforts by strikers to blockade fuel depots.Earlier, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said that three depots in western France had been forced open overnight “without incident.” At one depot, though, protesters regrouped and closed access roads to it, news reports said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• A Question of Appearances: Obama Will Bypass Sikh Temple on Visit to India.NEW DELHI — The Golden Temple, a sprawling and serene complex of gleaming gold and polished marble that is the spiritual center of the Sikh religion, is one of India’s most popular tourist attractions. Revered by Indians of all faiths, it is a cherished emblem of India’s religious diversity. So it was no surprise when the gold-plated marvel was promoted as the likely third stop on President Obama’s visit to India, scheduled for early November.But the United States has ruled out a Golden Temple visit, according to an American official involved in planning. Temple officials said that American advance teams had gone to Amritsar, the holy city that is the site of the temple, to discuss a possible visit. But the plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple.H. S. Phoolka, a prominent Sikh lawyer in New Delhi, said he was disappointed that Mr. Obama would not visit the temple.“We have worked so hard to establish in America that Sikhs have a very different identity than Muslims,” Mr. Phoolka said. “It is very unfortunate that even the White House is conveying the message that there is no difference between Muslims and Sikhs.”Hmmm....what would be the odds of him visiting a Mosque during such a visit....?Read the full story here.More here.Click here for comments.

• Prof. Chesler: Anti-Semitism Cannot be Equated with Islamophobia.Even as Chancellor Angela Merkel pronounces the failure of “multiculturalism” in Germany, the English-language German newspaper reporter, Marc Young, writing for the English-language German news at The Local, proclaims that “bigotry towards Muslims is the new anti-Semitism.”As the author of a book with the title The New Anti-Semitism (with an edition in German), allow me to remind Mr. Young that one of the things that is “new” about this most ancient of hatreds is that it is pandemic in the Islamic world and in Muslim communities in the West and that the multicultural relativists in the world’s universities, media, and political leadership, are collaborating with it in the name of “political correctness.”Thus, what both Young and those who run the state-subsidized Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at the University of Berlin have learned from the Nazi Holocaust is that Europeans should not discriminate against Muslims as they once did against Jews.German scholar Clemens Heni strongly disagrees:“There is no other prejudice or form of racism which you can compare to this centuries-long hatred (anti-Semitism) which has no real justification. If you look at Islam today, there is a point to Islamophobia because Jihadists say, ‘We want to kill the unbelievers.’ Jews never said that. Because as a German I have a responsibility to deal with my own history, and if I see that other Germans want to downplay anti-Semitism and to minimize the threat of Islamic jihad and other forms of anti-Zionism—I think there is something deeply wrong, they didn’t learn the lesson from the Holocaust, they are even downplaying the Holocaust itself.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Memri.New Trend in Al-Qaeda's Recruitment Efforts: American Muslims Should Carry the Burden of Jihad in U.S.Source.

• HT:Memri.Ali-Akbar Salehi, Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization: In the Past, We Acquired Centrifuges on the Black Market.Read and see the whole story here.Click here for comments.

• Holocaust monument desecrated in Yerevan.The monument to Holocaust victims was desecrated in Yerevan on the night of October 20.“The frontside of the monument was coated with brown paint; on the backside “Death to Jews” was inscribed,” chairperson of the Jewish community of Armenia Rimma Varzhapetyan said.“It was an act of barbarism but we do not rate this as anti-Semitism. It’s a personal matter but not Armenia’s policy,” Mrs. Varzhapetyan said, adding that the monument should never be left unattended.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Memorandum.'Don’t tread on me’: At least one Tea Partier denied the right to vote in Texas.A Texas woman was denied the right to vote on Monday because she was wearing a button bearing a Gadsden flag — the rattlesnake under the words “Don’t Tread on Me” that has become the unofficial image of the Tea Party.Katrina Pierson, who sits on the steering committee of the Dallas Tea Party and is also involved with the Garland Tea Party, told The Daily Caller that “around 11 o’clock yesterday,” a Garland Tea Party member, reported that she was told by an election official that she could not vote unless she removed her button. A second election official, Pierson said, did not recognize the button and did not understand why the other official was not permitting the woman to vote.Pierson said that she had heard of a similar incident in Waco, Texas, where a voter was not permitted to vote while wearing a Waco Tea Party T-shirt.Election officials, apparently, were concerned that sporting such symbols constituted electioneering, which the Texas election code specifically prohibits within “within one hundred feet” of the polls.Hmmm......does this include the First Lady?“They’re Tea Party members, and we stand for constitutional rights, and the first amendment being a very important one. If being an American citizen disqualifies you from voting, then we have a bigger problem than we thought.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• New Survey Indicates Large Oil Field Buried Under Negev Sand.A new preliminary geological survey indicates 26 million barrels of recoverable oil—worth $2 billion—may be sitting underneath the sandy soil in the area of two kibbutzim in the Western Negev, near Gaza.The announcement of the possible new field comes one day after Israel entered a new era with the beginning of drilling of the huge Leviathan natural gas and oil field off the northern Mediterranean Coast.Drilling and exploration over the next five months will cost $150 million, according to Delek Energy, the parent of Delek Drilling and partner Avner Oil. American-based Noble is also part of the consortium. “The drilling is intended to examine the potential of the Levantine basin,” according to Delek chief executive officer Gideon Tadmor, chief executive officer. “If this drilling project turns out to be a success, it will significantly strengthen Israel’s energy independence.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Norway: No Saudi mosques, as long as there's no freedom of religion in Saudi-Arabia!The Saudi Arabian government and wealthy Saudi individuals want to build mosques in Norway for tens of millions. They are legally entitled to do so, according to Norwegian law for financially supporting religious communities, but the large sum means that the government will have to approve the financial support.The foreign office is not only refusing to approve the funding. In a response to the Tawfiiq Islamic Center, the ministry wrote that it would be 'a paradox and unnatural to approve funding from sources in a country which is not open to religious freedom."The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre told VG: "We could have just said no, in principal the ministry doesn't approve such things. But when we were first asked, we used the opportunity to add that an approval would be paradoxical as long as it's a crime to establish a Christian community in Saudi Arabia."State Secretary Espen Barth Eide is visiting Saudi-Arabia today and will take up the issue."I see that many of my European colleagues have the same problem, and Norway will take up the issue in the Council of Europe," says Støre.YES!YES!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Video: New trends in Arab - Muslim anti-Semitism: Abandoning Holocaust denial.The video is part of a longer lecture given by Yigal Carmon, the director of MEMRI, at a session of the UN 'Human Rights Council' at the end of September.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• IDF to block Facebook, Gmail to prevent 'gifts for Hamas'.List of popular websites to be blocked on army bases, offices, to avoid inadvertent leaks of classified information.The Israel Defense Forces plans to block several prominent websites, among them social networks Facebook and Twitter, as well as email sites like Gmail – a military intelligence official told Channel 2 on Tuesday.The head of the intelligence corps information security Gadi Abadi said that the sites would blocked on computers that have internet connections on army bases and offices where classified materials are kept.Hmmm.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Has America Outgrown the Rule of Law?Just what is it about the water in Washington, D.C. that causes American presidents and members of congress to believe that enforcing the law is somehow optional, subject to the whims and idiosyncrasies of the president and or political power in power?Both Democrat and Republican administrations are guilty of this transgression, which renders the claim that America is a nation of laws utterly meaningless.For example, Attorney General Eric Holder recently warned that, should California legalize marijuana by passing Proposition 19, the Obama administration would continue to enforce federal law.For whatever reason, Obama and Holder “strongly oppose” the legalization of weed; thus, the federal law will continue to be enforced regardless of how pot-seeking Californians vote.On the other hand, the Obama administration, as well as both Republican and Democrat administrations preceding it, have refused to enforce the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which granted amnesty to 3-4 million illegal aliens, but which also set forth enforcement requirements and punishments for employers who hire invading criminals.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Video: Fort Hood soldier accuses US Army of 'Islamophobia'.If you're an American, this ought to make your blood boil. This is an interview with Zahari Klawonn, a US Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood. Zahari is complaining of 'Islamophobia' because in his training they say that there are Muslim terrorists.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey may remove Iran from list of 'threatening nations'. While Iran may be helping Erdogan's aspirations within his country, it is placing Turkey on a dangerous track toward confrontation with the U.S.Those who seek further proof of the warming of relations between Iran and Turkey can find it in the meeting currently taking place at the National Security Council in Istanbul. According to Turkish reports, for the first time since the Cold War, Turkey is considering removing Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Greece from their list of "threatening countries." This will directly affect Turkey's foreign policy, as laid out by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose goal is to rid Turkey of any problems with its neighbors.The shield should not be presented as a defence against fellow Muslim state Iran.It's pretty obvious where Turkey's allegiance lays so get them out of NATO NOW!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Women go on sale at Tel Aviv shopping center.Window display at Dizengoff Center shows real women with price tags in provocative installation aiming to battle sex trafficking.Shoppers strolling through Dizengoff Center mall in Tel Aviv on Tuesday were confronted with a shocking widow display of women for sale, with price tags attached to them. Upon closer inspection, it became obvious that the display was part of an installation by the Working Group Against the Trafficking of Women, part of a widespread campaign.Seven unkempt young women stood in front of shoppers passing back and forth under a sign that read "Women for sale according to personal taste." Some of the women were made up to appear as if they had been beaten, and all had price tags that listed details such as age, weight, dimensions, and country of birth.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:DougRoss.Well that's one way a Democrat can win an election: have the GOP challenger's name stricken from the ballot.MNehring reports that there may be some significant voting irregularities in Texas' 30th Congressional District involving none other than Eddie Bernice "The Scholarship Czarina" Johnson.ALERT--it has been confirmed that in the Duncanville public library voting location, and maybe also at Cedar Hill locations, ONLY Eddie Bernice Johnson's name appears as a choice on the ballot for the US Rep race for District 30...Hmmmm......transparency?Read the full scam story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BloggerBase.Get Up and Get Out.Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.Avigdor Lieberman has continuously been referenced as a fascist for his support of a Loyalty Oath for Israeli citizens. This loyalty Oath requires that all citizens recognize Israel as Democratic and Jewish. Being the homeland for the Jews, I don't see how this is such a controversial issue. The people that are upset the most by it are the people who wish to undermine it and destroy it. However, I am sure there are some good Israelis that take issue with the oath because of what could possibly happen if taken to the extreme.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Attorney For Mosque Opponents Slams Feds.NewsChannel : " He implies there is a symbolic flag of Islam flying over the White House".Statement Comes Day After Federal Briefing Defends Islam.A day after the U.S. Attorney's office released a briefing that defending Islam as a religion, the attorney for the opponents of the Rutherford County Islamic Center fired back.Attorney Joe Brandon announced Tuesday in front of the county courthouse that he and his three plaintiffs won't accept the federal briefing and standby their position that Islam is not a religion."The real question I think becomes who is the federal government representing in this particular situation? They claim that the United States takes this position. I can assure you that the three plaintiffs in this case, who are U.S. citizens, do not accept the position that the federal government is attempting to shove down their throat," said Brandon.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Revealed: Double life of Queen's pilot who killed two women and broke into girls' bedrooms to steal their underwear.He was a square-jawed Canadian Air Force officer with a brilliant future in store who was entrusted with flying the Queen and prime ministers.But yesterday he was exposed as a serial killer with a shocking fetish for girls' panties that he documented in a trove of twisted photos of himself.At a hearing that reduced victims' relatives to tears, the lurid photos were shown one by one in court as Col. Russell Williams, 47, pleaded guilty to murdering two women, sexually assaulting two others and committing dozens of break-ins in which he stole underwear from the bedrooms of girls as young as 11.Authorities said Williams came to the attention of investigators during a police roadblock a few days after Lloyd was reported missing.Tyre tracks from his vehicle matched the ones they were looking for.A real life Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde .Read the full story here.Click here for comments.