MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Iraqi kills daughter recruited as Al-Qaida bomber.Baghdad: An Iraqi man killed his 19-year-old daughter after he discovered Al-Qaida had recruited her as a suicide bomber in an area north of Baghdad, a police spokesman said on Friday.Al-Qaida has been recruiting women for suicide attacks because they can pass police checkpoints easier than men by concealing explosives under an abaya, a loose, black cloak that conservative Muslim women wear. Suicide bombers have been al-Qaida's most lethal weapon in Iraq, killing hundreds of civilians and members of Iraq's security forces.The killing of the young woman was discovered when security forces, searching for her on suspicion she had ties to Al-Qaida, raided her father's home Thursday outside the former Sunni-insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, said Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala province.The father, Najim al-Anbaky, was detained in the raid. During questioning he told police he had killed his daughter, Shahlaa, a month earlier because he found out she intended to blow herself up in a suicide attack for Al-Qaida, al-Karkhi told The Associated Press.Hmmmm.....A man of honor.Read the full story here.

• Europe’s Bad Weather Adds to Heathrow’s Woes.LONDON — Huddled together Thursday morning with hundreds of displaced passengers in a large semiheated tent outside Terminal 1 at Heathrow Airport, Dennis and Bonnie Barlow of Virginia were reviewing the high points of their vacation so far.First, they cruised the Mediterranean on the Brilliance of the Seas, the ship, now notorious, whose battle with hurricane-force winds and gargantuan waves became worldwide news. Then they decided to spend a relaxing day in London before returning home. That was Saturday. “I’m not trying to be negative, but they herded us in here and we have not been able to talk to anyone,” Mr. Barlow said of the tent, the latest step in a surreal odyssey in which the couple has tried mightily to find a flight to Washington, despite there being no flights and no information after a snowstorm five days ago. (At this point, there is no longer any snow, either.) The couple’s latest potential flight — to Frankfurt, from where they hoped to continue on to Washington — was scheduled to depart in a little over an hour, but passengers had been barred from entering the terminal unless their flights had been confirmed. The Barlows’ flight had not been confirmed.Mr. Mills, who was not traveling to Munich, said that the problems at Heathrow were indicative of a general lack of competence in Britain during the latest cold snap. “We’ve lasted two world wars, and we can’t even deal with some snow,” he said sadly, describing how the local government arrived to pour sand and salt on the icy roads near his house just as the ice was beginning to melt.As for Mr. Barlow, he said his experience at Heathrow had been far worse than his experience on the Brilliance of the Seas, which at one point listed at an 11-degree angle, shattering china and glass throughout the ship and slamming him, his wife, their possessions and a heavy table in a heap against their cabin door. “At least that was quick,” he said.Hmmm...."Happy Holidays"?Read the full story here.

• UN to hold summit in September to commemorate contentious 2001 racism conference.The U.N. General Assembly voted early Friday to hold a summit commemorating the 10th anniversary of the contentious U.N. conference on racism that was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery.The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in the South African city of Durban over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism to racism.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States voted against Friday's resolution for a commemoration of the 2001 conference "because the Durban declaration process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we do not want to see that commemorated."David Harris, executive director of AJC, the American Jewish Committee, expressed "profound regret" that there will be a Durban commemoration."The global campaign against racism has been hijacked by countries that have little regard for human rights and whose primary goal is to advance highly political agendas," he said in a statement.Hmmmm.....It has come to the point that  ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism are commemorated !Merry Christmas?Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:NortheastIntelligence.More evidence emerging that that Constitution supporters are considered threats.23 December 2010: A report published today by Kurt Nimmo states that a Department of Homeland Security fusion center in Florida conducted surveillance on Ron Paul supporters and other political groups. A law enforcement sensitive bulletin dated 4 June 2010, issued by the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, identified one event hosted by Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty that was subjected to official intelligence monitoring by that arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Nimmo notes that the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange was established with the assistance of an $850,000 Department of Homeland Security grant, which is your tax dollars at work. The center is specifically tasked with looking for terrorist leads.As we detailed in our report dated 19 April 2009, over a year before the Ron Paul event and today’s article, we informed readers of the existence of a FBI directive issued in March, 2009 that tasked FBI field offices to collect specific times, dates and locations of TEA party and other similar patriotic events. A second directive was issued the following month directing domestic intelligence agencies to perform covert video surveillance and data collection of the participants of the TEA parties. The directive instructed that surveillance was to be performed from “discreet fixed or mobile positions” and was to be performed “independently and outside of the purview of local law enforcement.”We wrote at that time that we fully expected the government’s denial of the surveillance of the TEA Parties to “go viral” as soon as this story is posted. We were not disappointed, as U.S. government officials denied or declined to comment about any such surveillance conducted at the patriotic events as well as the directives behind the orders. Subsequent to the publication of our 2009 report, we have developed both direct and anecdotal evidence that traced the directives from the local FBI field offices to the DHS fusion centers, to the Holder Justice Department and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Ultimately, the orders to allocate important counterterrorism and intelligence assets away from the more logical threats of foreign nationals and Islamic terrorists has the imprimatur of the Obama administration and his cadre of national security advisors.As we wrote in 2009, “the implications to the citizens of the U.S. are ominous. It seems that there is a hostile political agenda coming from Washington that characterizes the supporters of our constitutional freedoms as threats to our domestic security, which is totally absurd. The redirection, the refocusing of domestic threats from al Qaeda cells to ‘flag waving right-wingers’ is something that has gone from a murmur a few years ago to a roar today.”Hmmmm......The enemies Obama talked about?Read the full story here.

• Protestors warn of anarchy if blasphemy law changed.Thousands of people rallied in major Pakistani cities on Friday threatening further protests and anarchy if the government moves to amend a controversial blasphemy law.A ruling Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker sparked outcry last month by seeking to end the death penalty for blasphemy, after a Christian mother of five was sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Mohammed.Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore, the port city of Karachi and the central city of Multan, after influential religious parties called for protests to defend the law.A crowd of nearly 1,500 people gathered in Lahore, calling for “Jihad” and pledging to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of Prophet Mohammad. They also warned that attempts to soften the law would trigger nationwide protests.“Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and we will not tolerate any attempt to amend the law,” a leader of the pro-Taliban Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Maulana Ahmad Khan told the participants.Leaders of JUI and radical Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party warned that the government would “face a strong reaction if Bibi was pardoned.””The government should forget about amending the blasphemy law as any attempt in this regard will prove fatal,” a local religious leader Yahya Ludhianvi said.Read the full story here.

• Muslim radicals colonising the country, Indonesian bishops say.Mgr Mathinus D Situmorang, president of the Indonesian Bishops of Conference’s (KWI), warned Indonesian political elites on a potentially serious threat to the national interest. The prelate, who is the bishop of Padang (Western Sumatra), delivered his word of caution during the admission ceremony for new members of the Indonesian Catholic University Student Association (PMKRI). In his address, he criticised the state for its powerlessness in the face of dozens of attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalist groups against churches and Christians.Hmmm....Obama :"Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• Meet the newest Jihad Jane?Indiana Grandma Under Investigation for Possible Terror Ties.A 46-year-old, blue-eyed grandmother and U.S. citizen from Indiana is under investigation for her possible ties to suspected and convicted international terrorists, FoxNews.com has learned.Muslim-convert, Kathie Smith, 46, of Indianapolis, married a suspected German jihadist tied to the Islamic Jihad Union last year and has been flying back and forth between the U.S. and Germany as recently as two weeks ago.A pro-jihadist video featuring Smith and her husband is being investigated by the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, a threat and counterterror intelligence analysis clearinghouse staffed by law enforcement officials from local and federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security."Certainly, it's being looked at evaluated by Indiana State Police, which runs Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, " Indiana Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Emily Norcross told FoxNews.com, adding that the video would be passed along to appropriate law enforcement for further investigation. "As a human being with a conscious, I can not idly stand by and watch "innocent" people being tortured and genocide which is what is happening to the Islamic world. This includes Palistine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indoneasia, Somaila to name a few."In the nearly six-minute video, under investigation, the Indiana grandmother and her husband, known online as Salahudin Ibn Ja'far, 28, appear posing and hugging and holding weapons interspersed with photos of known and suspected terrorists and assorted jihadist propaganda, like an Awlaki sermon album cover. There are photos of German Taliban Mujahideen and Daniel Martin Schneider, Eric Breininger and Houssain Al-Malla, members of the Saarland cell of Islamic Jihad Union charged with plotting failed terror attacks against U.S. targets in Germany, including Ramstein Air Force Base.In an email to FoxNews.com, Smith said of the Ramstein plotters featured in her video:"The so-called "jihadists" you have mentioned are actually personal friends of my husband from childhood. In the video he was expressing his love and gratitude to his friends, who have died fighting for freedom. Just like any other American or European citizen who displays pictures of soldiers who have died on their videos. There is no difference in gratitude and love. It is just that your government has deemed these noble men as "terrorists" because they are not on the same side. Least us not forget the Mujahideen who fought the Russians for the US. They were deemed "heroes" and lead by Osama Bin Laden at that time, and now because the government says so..they are "terrorists.""But in email messages, Smith told FoxNews.com she was just speaking her mind, writing:"I am exercising my right, as an American citizen to freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bare arms. I have the right in America to say what ever I want. That is what makes America so great, right?"But a paid government consultant aware of Smith's movements tells FoxNews.com there's concern that Smith will follow the path of Colleen LaRose, a suburban Philadelphian dubbed "Jihad Jane," who pleaded not guilty in March to conspiracy charges involving a plot to kill a Swedish artist and providing material support to terrorists."As we saw in the case earlier this year with the arrests of "Jihad Janes" Colleen LaRose and [co-conspirator] Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, Kathie Smith has been exhibiting classic signs of extremism possibly transitioning into violence. Her online postings on Facebook have been increasingly promoted acts of terrorism and statements by terrorist leaders, such as Anwar Al-Aulaqi," the contractor said."When her husband released the video earlier this month of the two of them holding weapons and included standard jihad imagery, such as pictures of German jihadists that have left to join terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan or have been arrested for plotting terror attacks, we were concerned that they might be escalating to an attack themselves."Hmmmm....Sounds serious enough to me to investigate.Read the full story here.

• Chaos at European airports as Charles de Gaulle roof at risk of collapse from heavy snow and mass cancellations continue.Charles de Gaulle airport was in chaos Friday as more flights were cancelled and heavy snow threatened to collapse the terminal roof.Passengers at the airport were asked to leave a section of a major terminal for security reasons because of large amounts of snow on the roof, Bernard Cathelain, deputy director of the Paris airport authority ADP, said.He denied French media reports that the terminal, 2E, was evacuated, and said the terminal was still operating.'We've asked passengers to move' to another part of the terminal, he said.Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.15 Bizarre Photos of the SoCal Mud Invasion--The Aftermath of "a Year's Worth of Rain in Just One Week".Read and see the whole "thing" here.

• Main Turkish opposition implores Obama to stop 'genocide' bill.The leader of Turkey’s main opposition has requested that U.S. President Barack Obama take all necessary steps to prevent a vote on an Armenian “genocide” resolution in the U.S. Congress.“Mr. President, I would like to devote my first letter to you to Turkish-American relations and international developments. However, as the vote about Armenian claims at the U.S. House of Representatives is on the immediate agenda, that obliges me to focus solely on this issue this time,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, said in his letter sent to Washington on Thursday. The letter’s Turkish version was posted on the party’s official website.Calling on Obama to prevent the vote with immediate action, Kılıçdaroğlu said: “If you want the continuation of the goodwill of the Turkish people, than Mr. President, it is time to act. There are so many things Turkey and the United States will do together for the peace, stability, security and the prosperity of the world.”Hmmmm....“If you want the continuation of the goodwill of the Turkish people, than Mr. President, it is time to act"Sounds like a threat to me,we all know how Reagan or Bush would have acted against a threat ,but this "President" will say nothing and obey his Turkish allies.Read the full story here.

• HT:GlobalEconomicAnalysis.WSJ Reports New Jersey Pension Deficit at $54 Billion; Actual Deficit $174 Billion; Illinois, California, New Jersey Among Worst States.New Jersey’s pension gap grew to $53.9 billion in the last fiscal year, up from $45.8 billion, thanks to market losses and a lack of state funding, according to figures released Thursday.Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said the gap, which reflected the state’s investment positions as of June 30, highlighted the need for proposed cuts to current public workers’ pensions. The $53.9 billion figure reflects the difference between the retirement benefits the state has promised to roughly 780,000 state and local workers over the next few decades and the amount on hand to pay those benefits.In addition, an accounting practice called “smoothing” allows the state to factor market gains and losses over several years — meaning pension funds, on paper, are still feeling the effect of the 2008 market crash.Christie, a Republican, wants to reverse a 9% pension bump workers received in 2001 under a Republican administration. Unions argue their members have an irrevocable right to benefits they have earned. The governor has challenged the unions to meet him in court.Hmmm....Merry Christmas.Read the full story here.

• HT:parkwayreststop.Michelle Obama’s Christmas List.PRS Operatives have managed (Don’t ask) to get a copy of Mrs. Obama’s letter to Santa. Enjoy.Source.

• Police search Mumbai for 4 in alleged terror plot.Police searched India's financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said.Read the full story here.

• Related:Laskhar terrorists in Mumbai most likely not Indians.Four alleged members of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), who sneaked into the city to carry out "violent" attacks, could be "foreigners" and are believed to have infiltrated into the country from the Bangladeshi border, police said."The nationality of the four terrorists could not be ascertained yet, but they do not appear to be Indians. They could be from other country or countries," Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal told PTI.The city police yesterday said that four suspected LeT operatives have sneaked into Mumbai recently to carry out "violent" attacks with the aim of causing "destruction" ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations."The four jihadis were identified as Abdul Kareem Moosa, Noor Abu Ilahi, Walid Jinnah and Mahfooz Alam. The four recently sneaked into the city to carry out extremely dangerous activities," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy had told reporters last night.A Crime Branch source said that Kalimuddin was a Pakistani and Sarif was from Bangladesh and both were suspected to be members of terror outfit HuJI.Read the full story here.More here.

• US issues terror alert for thermos on planes.The US Homeland Security has issued a terror alert on use of thermos on planes, saying terrorists might conceal explosives inside insulated beverage containers."The possible tactics terrorists might use include the concealment of explosives inside insulated beverage containers, so in the coming days, passengers flying within and to the US may notice additional security measures related to insulated beverage containers," said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in a statement issued yesterday.TSA is responsible for maintenance of security at all US airports. US Homeland Security regularly alerts law enforcement about evolving terror tactics as counter terror officials learn about them through intelligence exchanges.While such items are not being banned from travel, TSA officers have been trained to detect a variety of threats including the concealment of explosives in common items, the statement said which has been issued in the midst of a heavy travel season.Clarifying that there is no ban on insulated beverages, TSA said at this time, insulated beverage containers are permitted in carry-on and checked baggage.TSA liquid policy still applies at the checkpoint, it added. Passengers traveling with insulated beverage containers can expect to see additional screening of these items using procedures currently in place, including X-ray screening, physical inspection and the use of explosives trace detection technology.As is currently the case, any item that alarms while undergoing X-ray screening will receive additional screening, to include the use of explosives trace detection technology.If TSA officers are unable to resolve the alarm, the item will not be permitted on board the plane, it said. Hmmm....Wouldn't profiling make things a lot easyer?Read the full story here.

• HT:HIDF.Falsely accused of killing spouse, doc jailed in Saudi.NEW DELHI: It was an ordeal that will haunt Dr Shalini Chawla for the rest of her life. Her husband died in his sleep of a heart attack in Saudi Arabia, where the couple worked. But she was told that he had converted to Islam and accused, without a shred of evidence, of poisoning him. That was bad enough. But Shalini was then put behind bars with an infant in a foreign land and later kept confined to a home for months with hostile people around her and the fear of death hanging over her every living moment. It was an ordeal that could have broken the strongest of people. But on Thursday, a day after she landed in the capital with her husband’s body, she was a picture of fortitude. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stood with folded hands at the Uthala ceremony. Dr Ashish Chawla’s body had finally been cremated at Nigambodh Ghat on Wednesday, bringing an end to a sordid tale of how human rights of Indians working abroad are violated.Speaking to TOI on Thursday, Shalini said, ”They put me in jail with my newborn child for a crime I never committed.” Ashish had never mentioned any intention of converting to Islam but the entire incident had assumed a communal colour and she was at her wits end. ”I lived with the two-year-old girl in the hospital complex when Shalini was sent to prison. Later, when she was released, we were so frightened. We could not go out fearing a backlash from the locals. We would go out only once a week,” recalled Uma Nagpal, Shalini’s mother. Barred from communicating with anybody, Shalini suffered severe mental trauma and agony. The case was now referred to the headquarters of the bureau of investigation and prosecution in Riyadh, which ordered a third autopsy by an independent panel of doctors. It was once again confirmed that Ashish had died of a heart attack. Finally, the file was closed, and on December 3, she was given permission to leave the country. Hmmm....Islam the religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• Muslims ‘comfortable’ in Britain, but still cautious.The latest sign of Islamophobia in Europe was the International Conference against Islamization, organized in Paris over the weekend. Participants -- from ultra-secularists to Marxists, from feminists to far-right activists -- discussed a number of issues such as blocking the construction of mosques in Europe, closing down supermarkets selling halal food and the rights of women and homosexuals.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who engaged in a contest of Islamophobia with Marine Le Pen, the deputy leader of the National Front Party, ahead of the regional elections in early 2010, is expected to call Muslims’ praying in the streets “unacceptable” in his Christmas speech.In Britain police, intelligence units, the Foreign Office and NGOs have joined efforts to “prevent” Muslims from joining radical and violent movements. Following the July 2005 attacks, a “counter-radicalization” strategy known as “Preventing Violent Extremism” was introduced. The strategy is dubbed “Prevent” for short.Turks in Britain are believed to be connected with “underground” groups rather than with radical organizations. There are around 250,000 Turks in Britain. Police in the country are engaged in a tough fight against Turkish gangs that are involved in drug smuggling.During a visit of a group of journalists to the building of the British Foreign Office, I came across a weird photo. Just across a room of Turkish officials in the ministry was a photo of the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building in Mecca, which is the most sacred site in Islam, side by side with many photographs about bullets, missiles, land mines, nuclear weapons and terrorist attacks.The Kaaba photo was taken during a pilgrimage. Below the photo was another that displayed the scene and victims of a terror attack. I called our tour director and asked why the photo of Kaaba was being displayed along with photos of terror attacks. He said he did not have any idea and recommended that I direct my question to officials in the ministry. I directed the same question to officials at the Prevent program. They admitted that it is a mistake to display the photo of Kaaba along with photos of terror attacks. The unexplainable and mysterious Kaaba photo spurred Turkish journalists to wonder whether Islamophobia began at the Foreign Office.Hmmmm....Islamphobia...unfounded Fear,Islamosophia rational fear of the ideology of Islam.Read the full story here.

• Fresh humiliation for eurozone as China says it will bail out debt-ridden nations.China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7trillion overseas investment fund.In a fresh humiliation for Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said it was one of the most important areas for China's foreign exchange investments.The country has already approached struggling European countries with financial aid, including offering to buy Greece's debt in October and promising to buy $4billion of Portuguese government debt.'To have any discernible effect China will have to buy a lot more than 5billion euros if they expect to have any impact on the negative sentiment surrounding Europe,' said Michael Hewson, currency analyst at CMC Markets.China's astonishing economic growth has put it on track to overtake America as the world's economic powerhouse within two years, a recent report claimed.But experts believed still be some years before America's leadership role is really challenged - largely because Beijing has given no indication it is ready to take on the responsibility of shepherding the world' economy.Read the full story here.

• Treasury defends 10,000 exceptions to Iran, other sanctions.The Treasury Department is defending its nearly 10,000 exceptions granted to companies to skirt around sanctions on Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism.The New York Times reported Thursday that the waivers were granted for companies ranging from Kraft to Pepsi, mostly under a law exempting agricultural and medical humanitarian aid from sanctions. But the billions in American business allowed through has included cigarettes, chewing gum and hot sauce.Other applications were approved on the basis that they served American foreign policy goals. In one instance, a company was allowed to help on a natural-gas pipeline job that enabled Iranian sales to Europe.A Treasury official speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters defended the decade worth of exemptions."These are not discretionary exceptions to U.S. sanctions made by Treasury," the official said. "Because the U.S. has the toughest and most comprehensive sanctions against Iran, allowing for the exportation of food, medicine and medical devices is consistent with our objective of not hurting the Iranian people."Hmmmm....Sanctions that "Byte" maybe?Read the full story here.

• NHS at the limit: Intensive care units almost full as swine flu takes its toll.Intensive care units across Britain are almost full as the NHS faces one of the worst flu outbreaks in a decade.Some hospitals have only one or two life-support machines left and critically ill patients are being transferred by ambulance to other trusts.Managers are drawing up emergency plans to transform operating theatres into makeshift intensive care departments to cope with the soaring demand.Senior doctors report that they are seeing the highest number of flu cases in more than 20 years and expect the situation to worsen over the coming weeks.Children’s intensive care units are under particular pressure and some of the largest departments in the country are full.Hospitals including Great Ormond Street in London, Manchester Children’s, Bristol Children’s and Alder Hey in Liverpool have reached full capacity or have just one or two beds left.The latest figures show that 302 people – adults and children – are in intensive care because of flu, taking up one in ten of all available beds.Father-of-four is latest victim of swine flu as health chiefs confirm virus has caused 24 deaths.In addition, 16 of the most seriously ill victims have been placed on heart-lung machines known as ECMOs which take blood out of their body and pump it with oxygen.Hmmmm....Vaccinations do save lives,have you had yours?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Meet some of the world's largest Santas.Bangkok: Meet the elephant Santas of Thailand. They hand out presents, dance to music, and even perform with balloons regaling kids with their antics. The schoolchildren of the Thai town, Ayuttaya, near Bangkok cheered loudly on seeing the six elephant Santas. They jostled and tussled to snatch toys from the trunks of the elephants."I enjoyed it so much and I got a gift to bring back home," said a cheerful student."We bring elephants to get people to have more joy and happiness. For children, every time they see elephants, they feel happy and want to have activities with elephants," said Reangthongbaht, owner of the camp where elephants are kept. The elephants also munched hungrily on the bananas fed lovingly to them by the children.The kids went back home thrilled with their encounter with the giant Santas.Read and see the full story here.