MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.Kobe Bryant's deal with Turkish Airlines has angered many Armenian Americans.Kobe Bryant's newest endorsement agreement has sparked protests and incited boycotts among Armenian Americans in Los Angeles.He made a two-year deal with Turkish Airlines, which is trying to promote the start of nonstop flights in March from Istanbul to Los Angeles.Some Armenian Americans have taken that as a slight, considering that, for years, Armenian Americans have pushed the U.S. to recognize the early 20th century killings of some 1.5 million Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire as genocide, a term the Turkish government has strenuously rejected.California has 600,000 to 700,000 people of Armenian descent, according to Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America."Many of them are fans of the Lakers and fans of Kobe, at least until now," he said.Bryant is to be the poster boy of the campaign, his face plastered on billboards, and print, television and online ads early as next year.Some Armenians are calling for Bryant to use his fame to push U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to schedule a vote on House Resolution 252, which would recognize the Armenian deaths as genocide."Kobe is a champion of national basketball and should be a champion of human rights," said Casper Jivalagian, executive member of the Armenian Youth Federation's Western region. "We want to give him the benefit of the doubt and give him a chance to right this wrong."Kobe might want to ask Lamar Odom's wife, Kourtney, and sister-in-law, Kim Kardashian, about the Armenian Genocide.Hmmmm....You know that "Armenian Genocide" that Erdogan claims never excisted.Read the full story here.

• Iran holding secret talks with Turkey, others, says report.Iran has begun secret negotiations with Turkey and three others to surrender significant amounts of its uranium stockpile and cease enrichment in exchange for an end to international sanctions, the Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.According to the British daily’s report, the Turkish-led deal calls on Iran to ship roughly 1,000 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium, as well as its entire 30 kilogram stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium, to a safe location. In return, France and Russia will supply ready-made fuel rods for the medical isotope reactor for which Iran says it has been enriching uranium to 20 percent – a level which halves the time needed to manufacture weapons-grade material.In exchange, the international community would agree to end sanctions that have crippled the country's economy, the daily said.France, Russia and the United States have also been involved in the negotiations, which began after a meeting between Ahmed Davutoğlu, Turkey's foreign minister, and Iranian officials in Bahrain earlier this month, the daily reported, citing anonymous diplomatic sources.
  Hmmm.....Nothing about the uranium being mined in Venezuela for Iran?Or that's not included in the Turkish deal probably will pass trough Turkish harbors?Read the full story here and here.

• Muslims unveil Times Square ad.A group called Muslims for Peace, which supports moving the mosque near Ground Zero, will unveil a billboard in Times Square today that promotes a message of tolerance in Islam.The video ad, on a 520-square-foot CBS billboard at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, reads “Muslims for love, loyalty and peace and features images of a heart, an American flag and a dove. The video will run every hour on the hour daily through Jan. 17.“The message of Islam is being hijacked by extremists,” said Waseem Sayed, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, a self-described “moderate” branch of Islam. “People who commit violence get all the publicity in the world; it’s a much harder task for those of us who believe that Islam’s message is a peaceful one."Sayed said his group supports moving the highly controversial mosque and Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero".Hmmmm....I wonder how Iman Rauf feels about this?Care to comment Iman Rauf? Read the full story here.

• Gaping Holes in Airline Security: Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA Screeners.Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight. He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston. "It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif told ABC News. "How can you miss it? You cannot miss it." But the TSA did miss it, and despite what most people believe about the painstaking effort to screen airline passengers and their luggage before they enter the terminal, it was not that unusual.Experts tell ABC News that every year since the September 11 terror attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert "red team tests," where undercover agents try to see just how much they can get past security checks at major U.S. airports. And while the Department of Homeland Security closely guards the results as classified, those that have leaked in media reports have been shocking.According to one report, undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times. A 2007 government audit leaked to USA Today revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts, and at Chicago's O'Hare airport agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.Ervin said a combination of factors is likely to blame for the persistent failures on the part of screeners. Low pay, poor training, and the monotony involved in watching bags pass through x-ray machines are a recipe for trouble, Ervin said. "To be fair to screeners, it's very difficult work," he said. "After so many hours of seeing things that are innocuous, there's really a limit for the human brain to process something anomalous." Hmmm...Now that's supposed to make you feel safer,i presume they didn't miss a single double cup seize passenger?Read the full scandal story here.

• Texas couple face jail for using charity to funnel millions to Iran.A Texas couple face jail after it was claimed they used a charity to secretly funnel millions of dollars to Iran, flouting a US embargo on the Middle Eastern country.Married Hossein Lahiji, 47 of McAllen, Texas and Najmeh Vahid, 35 of San Antonio, Texas, are accused of tax exemptions for their donations to the Portland-based Child Foundation charity, which has alleged links to terrorist group Hezbollah.The head of the charity, Mehrdad Yasrebi, allegedly funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin Ahmad Iranshahi, 53, and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government.The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering could carry a 20-year prison term and a $500,000 fine. The charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. could bring five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.The indictment alleges that the defendants transferred $1.8 million in supposed donations to a Portland charity called The Child Foundation from 1995 to at least 2008. The funds were then invested in Iran.The two 'retained interest and control in Iran over a significant part of the transferred funds,' the statement says. But, they claimed them as charitable deductions on their U.S. tax returns.The Child Foundation, listed as a co-conspirator, allegedly worked with the Iranian government.Founders of The Child Foundation 'consulted with and sought approval, support and monetary assistance' from 'the Hezballah brothers, Iranian diplomats, Iranian ayatollahs and other Iranian governmental representatives,' the indictment alleges.The indictment also charges that Iranshahi and the Child Foundation 'would split the proceeds of certain donations with Iran's Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi'.Hmmm....Merry Christmas care to make a donation to the US goverment?Read the full story here.

• EU Report Warns Against Losing Ground With U.S.European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called on European leaders to develop a coherent, common foreign policy in order to prevent the United States from turning away from Europe.Ashton's call was contained in a five-page report on EU-U.S. relations presented at an EU summit meeting in Brussels on December 17, along with assessments of the bloc’s relationships with China and Russia.Ashton was appointed in November 2009 to lead efforts to coordinate the union’s foreign affairs but has faced criticism from European governments for her performance to date.The paper on EU-U.S. ties is an indication that Ashton considers regaining influence in Washington a priority. The document, obtained by "The Guardian" and the "International Herald Tribune," warns: "Conversely, if we overpromise and underdeliver, if we prioritize process over substance or if we don't know what we want, the U.S. will turn its attention elsewhere."Ashton says Europe is “no longer the main strategic preoccupation” of U.S. foreign policy and that Washington is “increasingly looking to new partners to address old and new problems.”Hmmm....For anyone who doesn't understand it, Obama's "outreach to Muslims" is the end of the cooperation with Europe.The result will be that Europe turns to Russia.Read the full story here.

• Mother's exasperated rant at passport agency call centre worker earns her a visit from the Secret Service.A mother was interrogated by the Secret Service after making an offhand remark about 'killing the President' whilst on a phone call to a civil servant.Sue Velezquez made the mock threat after being driven to her wits end by a jobsworth worker at the U.S. passport agency.'It's not like I'm gonna kill the f****** president,' said the 52-year-old in exasperation as she asked for her daughter's documents to be returned in time for the girl's wedding.Ms Velezquez, a mother of three, thought no more about it until she was phoned by a man identifying himself as a Secret Service agent who said he was outside her home.When she explained it was the wrong address, the agents tracked down her new house and sent three police cars to escort her to the station where they interrogated her.Threatening to kill, harm or kidnap the president is a federal crime but it is unlikely Ms Velezquez will face punishment, given that her threat was not serious.Her troubles began when she rang the U.S. Passport Agency to ask they return her daughter's certificate of citizenship, which she had sent off to them to renew her passport.Although her children are Americans, the daughter in question was born in Mexico so needs the certificate to get married.Ms Velezquez rang her local state department support office in Naperville, Illinois and became gradually enraged by the red tape and waffle the civil servant was giving her.'I said to him, I said, "Sir, I can't even get an appointment to get my paperwork back".'And then I said, 'It's not like I'm gonna kill the f****** president.'Soon after a three car police escort arrived at her real home and took her down the station for questioning.'When the agents asked for my driver's license, my hands were literally shaking,' said Ms Velezquez.'And then they wanted me to sign a medical release, and I said, 'You can kiss my a**'.Ms Velezquez's feistiness did not end there.'The Secret Service acted like I wanted to kill Obama.'I told them: 'You're wasting your time and our taxpayer money in this economic time on this BS?''And I really wish I could get some help from somebody with the passports and certificate of citizenship.'I've sent repeated letters to the passport office starting in August of this year, asking them to please relinquish those papers. Right now, I can't even get my daughter into a driving school, much less obtain a marriage license.'She added: 'I am a straight-up person and I talk straight from the hip. And you can't take that away from me because I live in America.'Hmmm...Sounds like "lively" lady (smiles).Read the full story here.

• Russia to keep Satan ballistic missiles in service until 2026.Russia will continue to deploy SS-18 Satan heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) as part of the country's nuclear arsenal until at least 2026, the commander of Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said Friday."The extension of the service life of the systems equipped with RS-20V [SS-18 Satan] missiles will allow us to keep these most powerful missiles in the world until 2026," Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said.Introduced almost 33 years ago, the missile is routinely tested and has proved to be a very reliable weapon."At this point, there are no serious technical restrictions to continue extending the missile's service life," the general said.The missile is armed with a warhead containing 10 multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) with a yield of 550 to 750 kilotons each. It has a maximum range of 11,000 km (6,800 miles) with a launch mass of over 210 tons and a payload of 8.8 tons.According to publicly available sources, Russia currently has 88 SS-18 missile silo launchers, most of them deployed at the Dombarovsky missile base in the Orenburg Region.Read the full story here.

• Judge Hints He May Rule Against Health Law.A federal judge asserted on Thursday that it would be “a giant leap” for the Supreme Court to accept the Obama administration’s defense of a central provision of the new health care law, suggesting he may become the second judge to strike it down as unconstitutional.In a three-hour hearing, the judge, Roger Vinson of Federal District Court, said the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance, a provision that takes effect in 2014, would constitute “a giant expansion” of the court’s traditional application of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. “People have always exercised the freedom to choose whether to buy or not buy a commercial product,” the judge said, noting that he had been uninsured and paid out of pocket when his first son was born.If the government is allowed such power, said David B. Rivkin Jr., who represented the state officials, the health law “would leave more constitutional devastation in its wake than any statute in our history.”Blaine H. Winship, special counsel to Florida’s attorney general, Bill McCollum, argued Thursday that the expansion amounted to a coercive “bait and switch.” He said states had joined the Medicaid program, enticed by its limited initial scope and generous federal payments, only to watch helplessly as Washington expanded eligibility and the states’ obligations.Hmmm...Like a Hydra they should shop of the heads of this monstrocity of a bill.Read the full story here.

• HT:WZ."The War On Christmas"Unreal: Feds Force Small-Town Oklahoma Bank to Take Down Crosses and “Merry Christmas” Buttons so People Wouldn’t Be Offended.PERKINS, Okla. — A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won’t let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us.” were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank’s Internet site also had to be taken down.“I don’t think there should be a problem with them displaying whatever religious symbols they want to display,” said Amy Weierman, a Perkins resident.Specifically, the feds believed, the symbols violated the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause, “…the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication … express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion.”The feds interpret that to mean, for example, a Jew or Muslin or atheist may be offended and believe they may be discriminated against at this bank. It is an appearance of discrimination.But customers Eyewitness News 5 talked to said they aren’t buying it.“This is just ridiculous,” said bank customer Jim Nyles. “This whole thing is just ridiculous. We all have regulatory bodies that govern us. But this is too much.”Hmmm...Haven't people heard what the Pope just said"Christians are the most persecuted".Read the full story here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Sweden: Intelligence report counts 200 violent Islamic extremists, missed bomber.Some 200 possibly violent Islamic extremists live in Sweden, according to an intelligence report released Wednesday after the country's first-ever suicide bombing narrowly missed Christmas shoppers."The group of active members ... consists of just under 200 individuals," the Saepo intelligence agency said in its 126-page report, based on data from 2009 and scheduled to be published before the weekend's attack in central Stockholm.Saturday's bomber, named as Taymour Abdelwahab, a Swedish national who became an outspoken supporter of violent jihad while living in Britain, did not figure among the 200 people on Saepo's radar, and it remained unclear if any possible accomplices were on the list.While the so-called radicalisation process generally happens among men aged 15 to 30, the average age in the group is 36, the report showed.Rembe explained that while members of other violent, radical groups, like rightwing extremists, tended to drop out when they started families, the radical Islamists "don't leave when they get older," making prevention work at an early age vital.The report showed "most of them were born or grew up in Sweden, and it is here that they come into contact with violence-promoting ideologies and groups."Some "80 percent of the 200 can be linked to each other," Rembe told a press conference, adding however that the connection tended to be loose, through friendship and acquaintances, and not as part of one big network.Around 30 out of the 200 have in recent years traveled abroad to take part in violent combat or terrorist training camps, she said.Hmmm...About 15 % went to take part in terrorist training camps,just imagine these percentages aplied to US Muslims?Read the full story here.

• Military Jury: Prison, Dismissal for Army Birther.An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned President Barack Obama's eligibility to be commander in chief was sentenced by a jury Thursday to six months in a military prison and dismissal from the Army.The military jury spent nearly five hours deliberating punishment for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin on Thursday after three days of court martial proceedings at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore.Lakin was convicted of disobeying orders - he had pleaded guilty to that count - and missing a flight that would have gotten him to his eventual deployment. An Army commander, Maj. Gen. Karl Horst, still has to approve the sentence returned by the jury and has the option to reduce it. Lakin could then appeal. He was to begin serving his sentence immediately.But Lakin's defense attorney, Neal Puckett, asked the jury to be lenient, calling Lakin's case unique. He described the 17-year veteran and Greeley, Colo. man as giving, compassionate and patriotic but also naive in trusting the poor advice of a previous civilian lawyer. He called Lakin the "victim of an obsession," referring to questions about Obama's eligibility, and said he made "one bad decision on one day of his career."Officials in Hawaii say they have seen and verified Obama's original 1961 birth certificate, which is on record with that state. But birthers have not been satisfied with that assurance or the "Certification of Live Birth" Obama has released. The certification is a digital document that is a record of a person's birth in the state, but the certificate does not list the name of the hospital where Obama's mother gave birth or the physician who delivered him.Puckett asked the jury to consider Lakin's wife and three children at Christmas and said he should be allowed to stay in the Army because of his value as a doctor.Hmmmm......"The certification is a digital document that is a record of a person's birth in the state".Read the full story here.Related : This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro.Name: Barry Soetoro
  Religion: IslamNationality: Indonesian.The transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia while an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California . The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify for this scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.Source.

• 'Change Has Come to the Senate’ After Collapse of Massive Spending Bill, Republican Declares."We just saw something extraordinary on the floor of the United States Senate," Sen. John McCain said Thursday night after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) – lacking enough votes – gave up on a trillion-dollar, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill that included $8 billion in pork barrel spending.Kirk said the defeat of the trillion-dollar-plus legislation – 12 spending bills rolled into one -- is a significant turning point when it comes to fiscal restraint.“All of the GOP senators just signed a letter to the leadership this morning saying that we should not move forward with this as representatives of the new mandate,” Kirk said. “And it seems change has come to the Senate tonight with the death of this $1.1 trillion plan.”McCain agreed, “I have no doubt.”
  Hmmm....."Change You can see"?Read the full story here.

• HT:investigativeproject.Accused Bomb Plotter's Mosque Tied to Radical Group.The mosque attended by accused Baltimore bomb plotter Antonio Martinez is part of a network of mosques run by the radical group Jama'at al-Muslimeen that questions the existence of the Holocaust, supports the release of convicted terrorists and wants the United States to stop "interfering" in Muslim countries, Maryland corporate records show.Martinez, who was arrested Dec. 8 and charged with plotting to blow up an Army recruiting center in Catonsville, Md., attended the Al-Madina mosque in Baltimore, friends and associates told The Baltimore Sun.That mosque, Maryland records show, is owned by the All Farooq Foundation of Catonsville. The foundation's incorporation papers, which were filed with the state of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2009, say that all leaders of the foundation "must have at least one year of active membership in the Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen community."State records show that the Masjid Jama'at al-Muslimeen's address – 4624 York Rd. in Baltimore – is the same as the group Jama'at al-Muslimeen, which is run by Kaukab Siddique, an assistant professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and a longtime opponent of Israel and U.S. policies in Muslim nations.Martinez, the accused bomb plotter also known as Muhammad Hussein, echoed many of these beliefs, court documents show. According to confidential witnesses cited in the federal complaint, Martinez spoke often his desire to commit jihad, not just against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan but in the United States as well."I wanna actually be Shaheed [martyr]) .... Like actually die for the cause of Allah," Martinez told one witness, the criminal complaint shows.Hmmm....I think the new congress has a mountain of work ahead of them.Read the full story here.

• Lukashenko to the opposition: "You will not get the country.".It is clear that the December 19 presidential election will not change anything in Belarus. Although the opposition candidates were given an opportunity to make television addresses to the people, the authorities still have tight control over polling stations, absentee voting and other parts of the election system. Their victory is assured.A voter rally organized by the opposition is planned for the evening of December 19 to contest Lukashenko's essentially inevitable victory. But the powers-that-be will stop at nothing to keep the rally from happening.He said in an address to parliament, "No matter where you meet and what you do, you will not get the country. We will not let you tear it apart, because we have paid a high price for it ... Those who are dreaming of a revolution should calm down: we reached our limit on revolutions last century."Readers who are unfamiliar with politics in Belarus might hear this as intimidation, but this is just Lukashenko's usual style. By referring to the opposition as "you," he creates an image of the opposition as faceless enemies against which any and all means are justified.The older generation will tell you that similar veiled phrases ("their mores," "some circles") were used to refer to foreign opponents during the Soviet era.Hmmmm....Lukashenko the last Eastern European dictator?Read the full story here.

• HT:NorthEastIntelligence.The Arson Intifada of 2010.An article by Gil Ronan in Arutz Sheva verified what we suggested as the cause of the massive fire in Israel: “arson by Arabs.” According to Kalman Libeskind, a reporter for Ma’ariv Hebrew Daily, there were no less than eighteen-(18) separate acts of arson last month that took place in the Forest of Peace, causing massive amounts of destruction and death. Yet, the media was reportedly complicit at the request of Israeli officials in keeping the entire series of incidents quiet to avoid the “copycat phenomenon.”During my career as an investigator, I’ve completed courses in criminal behavioral analysis that directly addressed the copycat syndrome and understand this logic in the criminal mindset. In my professional analysis, however, the environment in which such acts are occurring and the motivation behind the acts must be considered much differently than the conventional models applied to this type of criminal behavior. These specific acts and actors supersede all aspects of criminal behavior and the normal motivation that drives criminals and copycats. The actors see themselves as soldiers and their actions as acts of war.Read the full story here.

• House Republicans Considering Adopting Rule Requiring Lawmakers to Provide Constitutional Authority For Every Bill.(The Hill)- Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), the head of the House Rules Working Group, on Thursday said the GOP transition team will recommend the adoption of a rule requiring lawmakers to provide constitutional authority for every bill.“The Constitution is not that long. The operating manual for a Toyota Camry is more than five times longer, so it should not be that difficult,” Bishop said.GOP leaders intended to send out a memo later Thursday providing guidance to members of the 112th Congress on how to deal with the new requirement, and suggest “resources they can go to to assist,” said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the transition team.“The Constitution will suddenly become en vogue again” in the next House, Bishop said.Hmmmm....Now that's a living constitution.Read the full story here.