MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:AlwaysOnWatch.Nightmare On Halloween!

• How many more bombs out there: Device found in Dubai had been on two PASSENGER flights, airline reveals.British and American intelligence services were desperately hunting more Al Qaeda ink bombs last night amid fears of a wave of plane attacks.One of the U.S.’s most senior counter-terrorism officials said every package sent from Yemen was being treated as a potential danger – and Britain banned all cargo movements to and from the Gulf country.Authorities in Yemen said they had seized 26 suspect packages, indicating that the scale of the plot could be far larger than the two devices already found – both of which were powerful enough to down a plane and devastate a city.Qatar Airways said the device hidden in a printer cartridge had flown on a scheduled Airbus 320 flight to Doha before being transferred on to a second passenger plane for the flight to Dubai. Up to 15 per cent of air cargo is flown in the hold of passenger flights.Yemeni authorities arrested then freed a 22-year-old female student, Hanan al-Samawi, who posted the two packages in Sanaa to synagogues in Chicago, leaving her telephone number and a copy of her identity card which were used to trace her.But lawyers said she was an innocent dupe whose identity appeared to have been stolen.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkish premier condemns bomb attack in İstanbul.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "22 people including 10 police officers and 12 passersby were injured when a terrorist detonated the bomb wrapped around his body in Taksim Square earlier today." Read full story here.and update here.Click here for comments.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.Hot Post: DC Comics Throws Wonder Woman to the Islamic Wolves.Super-powered Muslims wouldn’t stone Wonder Woman.They’d boulder her.This is the second of my three-part cartoon response to DC Comics allowing Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman to be used by a Muslim comic book publisher in order to sell Islam as something it’s not. Check out my first one featuring Superman.Until The 99 are unleashed against jihad, there’s no reason to believe that this comic is anything other than Islamic propaganda, and DC Comics is in on it.How's this for a "Halloween" story?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Yemen arrests medical student over cargo jet bomb plot.Security forces in Yemen have arrested a female medical student suspected of posting bombs found on two cargo jets in Dubai and the UK.She was held at a house in the capital, Sanaa, after being traced through a phone number left with a cargo company. Her mother was also detained.Meanwhile, a rabbi at a Chicago synagogue linked to another that is thought to have been a target of the packages told the Wall St Journal the website of his congregation had been visited 83 times in one day recently by someone in Egypt.Rabbi Michael Zedek is part of the Emanuel Congregation. Its sister synagogue, Congregation Or Chadash, a gay and lesbian synagogue, was thought to have been a target.Rabbi Zedek said he had been told by sources that four bombs had targeted Chicago synagogues, not two.The New York Times quoted US officials as saying the sophistication of the devices pointed to al-Qaeda involvement.It quoted one official as saying: "The wiring of the device indicates that this was done by professionals. It was set up so that if you scan it, all the printer components would look right."Read the full story here.More here.Click here for comments.

• Saudi women making bold business moves. Banned from driving and denied the right to travel without permission, Saudi women are taking bold steps in business and trying to do away with the male guardian system that hobbles them."What we need today is the right to take decisions by ourselves without having to get the consent of the male guardian," said Rania al-Sulaimani, 33, who owns a beauty centre in the Red Sea city of Jeddah."We do not want a man interfering in our project," she told AFP.King Abdullah is thought to favour reducing the severe restrictions on women, which are supported by the country's conservative traditions together with its strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.Hmmm......but what if King Abdullah is deposed by Radical Islamists?Read the full story here.Click here for Comments.

• Germany never applied multicultural policies, says Kenan Kolat.“Germany never applied multicultural policies, so to claim that the multicultural approach has failed is total nonsense,” Kenan Kolat, the chairman of the Turkish Society in Germany.Yup that's why Erdogan tellsTurks in Germany "It is important to learn German"?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The Danger of Airport Pat-Downs.This week, the TSA announced airline passengers can be subjected to invasive body searches. Former cop Bill Richardson on how the pat-downs could help terrorists walk onto planes.As of Friday, TSA agents are using what they call a "pat-down" procedure that allows airport security officials to use the front of their hands to search passengers' entire bodies. That's not a "pat-down." It's a full search of a person's body. In police work, that's called a custody search that includes everything short of a cavity search. The TSA needs to be honest about what they're doing. It's not nice to lie to the American people.There are many reasons this so-called pat-down search will be ineffective as a security measure. For one, I seriously doubt law-abiding passengers will stand by quietly as the TSA gropes and paws its way across their bodies. These aren't suspected criminals, they're people whose only offense is that they were in the wrong place in line and who were purportedly randomly selected for a full-body search that, according to TSA guidelines, includes the touching of their "breasts and genitals."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Mediaite.Bill Maher Afraid Mohammeds, Islam Taking Over Western World.Those who accuse the once libertarian Bill Maher of becoming too much of a liberal apologist might want to clean their ears. Maher made a Juan Williams-esque confession on his program when he apprehensively noted that Mohammed has just become the most popular baby name in Britain. “Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that?” Maher asked his panel. “Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”His normally boisterous crowd fell silent as the panel responded to Maher’s admission.Of course, it’s not the name that Maher fears, but the religion. (Any of them, in fact — Maher’s qualms with religion of any sort, Islam or not, are long-standing and well-documented.) Hoover further stoked Maher by claiming that the U.K is saddled with a “far bigger problem” than baby names: Sharia law, which she said is creeping into England.“Then I’m right,” Maher said, taking her for her word. “I should be alarmed. And I don’t apologize for it.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Patterico's Pontifications.WTF?! Islamofascist at the Rally to Restore Sanity?!Update: A trip Down Memory Lane with Stewart and South Park; Salman Rushdie on Yusuf Islam. I am not the first to notice and TPM is apparently the first to dismiss these concerns as “Right Wing.” I didn’t realize that freedom of speech was a “right wing” value. I thought it was a baseline that people on the left and right agreed on.I have been watching the Jon Stewart rally and my Tivo’s running a bit behind because I have been pausing to deal with life, but my jaw dropped wide open when Stewart introduced a man named “Yusuf.” That would be Yusuf Islam, the man formerly known as Cat Stevens, who then played a rendition of his song “Peace Train.”That would be the same Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens who endorsed the Fatwah against Salman Rushdie. For instance, the New York Times reported (registration required) as follows in 1989:The musician known as Cat Stevens said in a British television program to be broadcast next week that rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie, ”I would have hoped that it’d be the real thing.”Read the full scandal here.Click here for comments.

• “Rally to Restore Sanity” pledges to “strictly prohibit filming” at National Mall.Irony reaches new heights as Comedy Central is going to “strictly prohibit filming” of the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive. PJTV’s Washington Bureau chief Richard Pollock inquired with the Comedy Central’s senior vice president of corporate communications Steve Albani about receiving credentials. Albani claimed that Pollock would not be given credentials because of limited supply, and as such there would be no room on the “press riser” for PJTV’s camera and crew. When Pollock said that he’d be fine with filming not on the press riser, Albani said that filming would be “strictly prohibited” between 3rd and 7th streets on the National Mall (ground zero for the event). The email exchange is further down.Hmmmm.....from "Commedy Central to "Conceal central"?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Obama to Focus on Economic Ties on India Trip.President Barack Obama's visit to India is expected to focus on economic relations between the countries, highlighting big commercial deals for U.S. companies and promoting areas in which India could offer greater access to American companies and, in turn, boost U.S. employment.This approach could have political advantages for Mr. Obama, given that his trip will come shortly after midterm U.S. congressional elections—and the country's high jobless rate is one reason Democrats are expected to lose seats. But any efforts by Mr. Obama to steer clear of thorny geopolitical topics—such as India's concerns about Afghanistan and its disputes with neighboring Pakistan—could prove difficult, and these issues could easily overshadow the economic message in the end.To put it bluntly : Pakistan is good enough to "Work with",while India is good enough to "Work for us" it seems.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Karzai Protests U.S.-Russian Raid on Drug Labs .A U.S. attempt to improve relations with Russia by cooperating against Afghanistan's narcotics trade has ended up causing a surprise diplomatic confrontation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.On Friday, the Russian government hailed a joint U.S.-Russian raid on drug labs in eastern Afghanistan. This appeared to be the first time that Russian security personnel carried out a mission on Afghan soil in two decades.On Saturday, Mr. Karzai issued a harshly worded protest to Russia and to the U.S.-led headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan. "The Afghan government condemns this action of NATO and declares that such arbitrary action is a blatant violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty and of international laws, and any repetition of such acts will prompt necessary reaction by our country," a statement from the presidential palace said.While saying Kabul desires cooperation with Russia, the statement added: "No organization or institution shall have the right to carry out such a military operation without prior authorization and consent of the government of Afghanistan."Some Afghan and U.S. officials were surprised by Mr. Karzai's reaction. They said that the Afghan interior ministry was involved in the raid, which seized 932 kilograms of heroin from four labs in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan on Thursday night.Hmmm......With such friends who needs ennemies?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey’s imports from Iran increased.Turkey's exports to Iran were also up by 39.5 percent.Turkey’s imports from Iran increased by 130.7 percent to reach $5.3 billion in the January-September period of this year according to foreign trade figures announced on by the Turkish Statistics Institute.The increase in imports from Iran year-on-year in September was only 145 percent, totaling $769 million. The country's exports to Iran were also up by 39.5 percent in the first nine months of 2010 and they totalled 1,978 million USD while year-on-year figure in September rose 56 percent to reach 228.6 million USD.The trade deficit between Turkey and Iran was approximately $3.4 billion in the January-September period of this year.Turkey's exports to China increased 54.5 percent to 1,639 million USD as imports totalled 12.28 billion USD with a 38.2 percent increase.Turkey's trade deficit against Iran was 10.6 billion USD in the first nine months of 2010.Sanctions that "bite" the dust?Source .Click here for comments.

• HT:American Thinke.President Obama and the Radical Socialist Agenda.Stanley Kurtz's new book, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, is a detailed look into the forces that shaped Barack Obama. Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has written a highly detailed and definitive account of the president's conversion as a radical activist; he provides minute and abundant evidence confirming the long-disputed label of "socialist" that has dogged the president since his undergraduate days. Kurtz describes Obama's ideology as "stealth socialism" and called his views "Barack Obama's secret." In the preface of the book, Kurtz writes, "The president has systematically disguised the truth about his socialist convictions, sometimes by directly misrepresenting his past and sometimes by omitting or parceling out damaging information to disguise its real importance."What is equally certain from the evidence Kurtz presents is that the prospect for the nation's future depends upon the results of the 2010 and 2012 elections. We cannot, however, wait until 2012 to place checks and balances on the radical policies and purposes of this most ideologically driven of presidents. As Norman Thomas said, "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Paul Weston delivers speech at the demonstration for Geert Wilders in Amsterdam onbehalf of IFPS.Paul was present today to deliver a speech he crafted to highlight the reasons all were gathered in Amsterdam in support of the Dutch politician, Geert Wilders. Please take the time to read this magnificent speech.You have made us revolutionaries. And whilst your behaviour suggests you fear Islam more than you fear us, let me tell you something, you lying, betraying, treacherous, socialist careerists:We might not hold power today, but given another decade, we will, and then we will hold you to account. You will appear before a Nuremberg-style court, and you will be tried for treason, and you will be tried for crimes against humanity, and for the first time in a very long time you will be answerable to us!Read the full speech here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.Obama on Terror Threat: If We Help Yemen Create Jobs We Will Stop the Islamic Terrorists.Barack Obama spoke out on the terror threat today after several suspicious packages sent from Yemen to the United States. Barack Obama believes we just need to help the Yemeni government put these Islamic terrorists to work. “Going forward we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Yemeni government to disrupt plotting by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to destroy this Al-Qaeda affiliate. We’ll also continue our efforts to strengthen a more stable, secure and prosperous Yemen so that Islamic terrorists groups do not have the time and space they need to plan attacks from within its borders.”Obama also forgot to mention that the packages were planted by suspected “Muslim” extremists.He didn’t want to offend anyone.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• In Pakistan, Uncertainty Grows Over North Waziristan Operation.Early this week, it seemed Washington's desire for a Pakistani ground operation in North Waziristan was about to be realized.Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on his return to Islamabad from the United States that 35,000 Pakistani troops stand ready at any time to launch the offensive.That was just days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced alongside Qureshi in Washington a new $2 billion assistance commitment to Pakistan on October 22. She noted that it would "complement the $7.5 billion in civilian projects that has already been approved in the Kerry-Lugar-Berman legislation."The United States has wanted a ground operation because North Waziristan is the base of the notorious Haqqani network -- which Washington considers the primary Taliban faction orchestrating terror attacks in Afghanistan today.But if the signals from Washington and Islamabad seemed to suggest that operation might now be imminent, the signals from the conflict area itself were quite different.Now, with winter approaching, the window for any extensive operation in the mountainous tribal areas is closing rapidly. Snow begins falling in the mountains in mid-October and makes travel difficult until April. If there is to be any operation in North Waziristan this year, it will have to begin and end within the next few weeks.Hmmmm......perhaps in Spring with the coming of the Easter Bunny and another 10 Billion Dollar?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Andrew’s friend the Abu Dhabi prince - and the £3billion windfarm off Britain that could earn the Queen millions.An Arab royal who frequently entertains Prince Andrew has secured a multi million-pound stake in the world’s biggest windfarm in a deal that could earn a fortune for the Queen. Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi – has been friends with Andrew since their days at Gordonstoun School in Scotland. His energy company, Masdar, owns 20 per cent of the planned £3 billion London Array windfarm in the Thames Estuary. And last night questions were raised about the Duke of York’s possible role in facilitating the deal.A Buckingham Palace spokesman said yesterday: ‘The Duke played no role – formal or informal – in Masdar’s involvement in the London Array deal. He was invited, as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, to the celebratory meal held by Masdar on winning the contract.Hmmmm.....do the rich and the powefull have the right to decide the eventual faith of the people?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Turkey - Commanders, Kılıçdaroğlu hold own celebrations on Republic Day.Senior military commanders and the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were absent from a Republic Day reception hosted by President Abdullah Gül together with his wife, Hayrünnisa, whose headscarf irritated Turkey’s secularist establishment even before Gül’s election to his post in 2007, holding alternative fetes of their own instead.His decision to hold one reception this year sparked curiosity about how the military and the CHP, which both see the presence of a headscarved first lady in the presidential palace as a symbolic blow to Turkey’s secularism, would deal with this.Mrs. Gül herself was once denied enrollment at Ankara University because she wore a headscarf and took her case to the European Court of Human Rights, though she dropped it when her husband became foreign minister.Hmmm....what would Attaturk have done in such a case?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:AmericanThinker.The Odyssey of Islamism in America.Islamism is a mutation of Islam and is rapidly advancing on two fronts. In every Islamic country, it is cowing the non-radicals while recruiting more and more radicals into its ranks. In non-Muslim lands, flush with petrodollars, Islamism is establishing itself as a formidable force by enlisting the disaffected and attracting the delusional liberals with its promises. For the faithful, there is the added incentive of Allah's heaven and its irresistible attractions.Wherever Islam goes, so goes its ethos. Throwing acid in the face of women who fail to don the hijab (or who just go to school), flogging people for sporting non-Islamic haircuts, and stoning to death violators of sexual norms are only a few examples of a raft of daily barbaric acts of Islamists in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Other forms of Islamic brutalities such as honor killing have already found their way to America, Germany, and other European countries with ever-burgeoning Muslim populations.Escalations of demands, intolerance of differences, and contempt for non-Muslims are hallmarks of Islam. The deluded liberals as well as the publishers among the leftists are destined to be among the very first victims of mild Islamism as it gathers power.Well, mild Islamism is not all that obtrusive, since it is similar to the early stages of cancer. Yet cancer it is. And before long, the full-blown cancer will develop. If we do not want to deal with that beast, we need to take drastic measures to eradicate the disease, no matter how unpleasant and unpopular they may be.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Istiqlal Mosque Visit on Barack Obama’s Itinerary During Indonesia Trip.Barack Obama will make a symbolic visit to Istiqlal Mosque when he comes to Indonesia next month, but it will take more than words and gestures to engage Muslim communities around the world, local scholars and Islamic leaders said on Friday as the US president’s preliminary itinerary was released.While here, Obama will give a speech that will focus on “outreach to Muslim communities around the world, while also speaking of Indonesia’s pluralism and tolerance,” Rhodes said.The next day, Obama will pay a visit to the largest mosque in the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population. Afterward, he will deliver a speech “to the Indonesian people” at an undisclosed location, the White House said.“The Islamic world’s perception toward the United States has not changed yet,” said Bantarto Bandoro, an international affairs expert from the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That is why he is using the visit to Indonesia to once again send a message to the Islamic world,” he said. “He wants to correct the view that the United States is waging war against Islam.”Masdar Masudi, deputy chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, also applauded Obama’s commitment to reach out to the Islamic community and said no Muslim should protest the fact that Obama, a non-Muslim, would be stepping into the country’s largest mosque.Hmmmm.....if it looks like a duck,sounds like a duck..then chances are it's a duck!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Is NASA Covering Up the 100-Year Starship?A NASA official may have made a 35-million-mile slip of the tongue.The director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California casually let slip mention of the 100-Year Starship recently, a new program funded by the super-secret government agency, DARPA. In a talk at San Francisco's Long Conversation conference, Simon “Pete” Worden said DARPA has $1M to spend, plus another $100,000 from NASA itself, for the program, which will initially develop a new kind of propulsion engine that will take us to Mars or beyond.There's only one problem: The astronauts won't come back. The 100-year ship would leave Earth with the intention of colonizing a planet, but it would likely be a one-way trip because of the time it takes to travel 35 million miles. That’s a daunting prospect, partly because of the ethical dilemma, and partly because it may be the only recourse.Worden may have slipped by revealing the program, but -- as evidenced by NASA’s lack of cooperation -- it may be too early for any new revelations.Even with these explanations, there is still wild speculation about the program. Worden mentioned the idea of working with third-parties to help fund future missions. He said Larry Page, the Google founder, asked how much it would cost to fund the mission (the answer: about $10 billion). This begs the question: is NASA ready to leverage its work by enlisting private enterprises?Hmmmm.......who would have a few billion to spare?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• U.S. wants own aircraft carrier in the Thames Estuary during Olympics.The White House has offered to send a U.S. aircraft carrier to be stationed off the British coast and boost security during the London Olympics, Ministry of Defence sources claimed last night.The suggestion is said to have been rejected by No10 because it would make the UK look ‘weak’. And last night Downing Street was silent on the claim.But a well-placed source, with knowledge of international discussions about security for the 2012 Games, said the MoD had been offered a U.S. carrier, based in the Thames Estuary, to help defend the skies over London and eavesdrop on any terrorist ‘chatter’.It is believed the Americans offered a 40,000-ton Wasp class amphibious assault ship, which carries up to 40 Sea Knight helicopters for the ship-to-shore ferrying of marines and equipment, as well as up to 20 Harrier II attack aircraft. It boasts a formidable battery of missiles capable of shooting down airliners in the event of an attempt to copy the 9/11 atrocities.A Pentagon source said last night that it was ‘very possible that there will be a U.S. naval presence’ at the London Games, although he claimed it would merely ‘fly the flag’.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Nine Saudi men arrested for gang-rape of maid.Saudi police have arrested nine men who raped an Indonesian housemaid and left her in a deserted place in a serious condition, a local daily said Sunday.One Saudi met the maid in Makkah and lured her to his house, where he raped her. He later forced her to come with him to the nearby central town of Taif, where he let his eight friends rape her at a shut rest house.Police later found the unidentified maid in a serious condition in a deserted area near the town and took her to hospital, where she told them about the incident.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.