MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Egypt volatile situation : President Mobarak appoints vice President Omar suleiman  - Al Jazeera English - Live Streams From Egypt ! Here .
• Egypt protests on Twitter!  here.
• Liveblog - Egypt's protests erupt. here.

• Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising!The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years.The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police. Mr Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority in his 31 years in power, ordered the army on to the streets of Cairo yesterday as rioting erupted across Egypt. Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in open defiance of a curfew. An explosion rocked the centre of Cairo as thousands defied orders to return to their homes. As the violence escalated, flames could be seen near the headquarters of the governing National Democratic Party.Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowds. At least five people were killed in Cairo alone yesterday and 870 injured, several with bullet wounds.Hmmmm.....Outreach to Islamic extremisme? Read the full story here.

• Egypt protests: secret US document discloses support for protesters.Here is the secret document sent from the US Embassy in Cairo to Washington disclosing the extent of American support for the protesters behind the Egypt uprising.Hmmmm.....The Obama Administration helping to throw over Mubarak's regime?To help the Muslim Brotherhood??Read the full story here.HT: BareNakedIslam.

• Egyptian mummies destroyed, say officials!Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt's top archaeologist told state television.The museum in central Cairo, which has the world's biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early Saturday."I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Saturday."Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some (looters) managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies," he said.Hmmmm......Remember the Bamiyan's Buddhas?"Islam the Religion of Peace"? Read the full story here.

• Cairo: Israeli embassy may close.Though Foreign Ministry has no plan to evacuate tourists, El Al tries to arrange special flight.The Foreign Ministry says it is following closely the events in Egypt, where anti-government protests have been said to have left 74 people dead and around 2,000 wounded.On Saturday morning the Israeli embassy in Cairo was left empty as workers do not generally arrive on the weekend, but authorities were debating whether to return to business as usual on Sunday.On Saturday morning riots reached the streets surrounding the embassy. Egyptian security forces are guarding the US and British embassies for fear that incidents such as those which occurred in Iran in 1979 would recur in Cairo.Between 1,500 and 2,000 travelers were at the two main departure terminals at the airport, most without reservations, trying to find flights out of the country. Tourist sites were closed, with forces blocking the main roads leading to the pyramids, al-Arabiya network reported.The Foreign Ministry says it has no plans to evacuate Israeli tourists, but that it would reconsider if necessary. The ministry also issued a travel warning against Egypt and Sinai.In the Sinai peninsula, clashes between Bedouins and security forces killed 12-16 people, according to Palestinian sources. The reports say members of both sides were killed.Read the full story here.

• HT:RubinReport.Today in the New York Times: A New Low and A New Role Model.Here's one day of the New York Times on the Middle East. Be sure to read the surprise ending!

1. Al-Jazira is great! (Wow, just as it runs the Palestine Papers to transform totally our view of the region. Might this be a coincidence?)The New York Times has run a largely adulatory article about al-Jazira without mentioning its Islamist politics (some accuse it of... is how they put it). On reading this article, I get the impression that the writer has never actually watched the station. For example, its debate shows regularly feature a moderate and a radical. The host attacks the moderate and supports the radical and literally every caller taken on the air is hardline. One friend of mine who was on one of them said that he expected it to be 99 percent hostile but it was 100 percent hostile. Nor do we hear about the great scoops of al-Jazira, like claiming the US had used a neutron bomb in Iraq.So here is a story about a radical force in the region presenting it as a force for democracy.Hmmmm.......The voice of his masters?Read the full story here.

• Egypt Protests Continue as Military Stands By.CAIRO — Egypt was engulfed in a fifth day of protests on Saturday but an attempt by President Hosni Mubarak to salvage his 30-year rule by firing his cabinet and calling out the army appeared to backfire as troops and demonstrators fraternized and called for the president himself to resign.While some protesters clashed with police, army tanks expected to disperse the crowds in central Cairo and in the northern city of Alexandria instead became rest points and even, on occasion, part of the protests as anti-Mubarak graffiti were scrawled on them without interference from soldiers. “Leave Hosni, you, your son and your corrupted party!” declared the graffiti on one tank as soldiers invited demonstrators to climb aboard and have their photographs taken with them. “This is the revolution of all the people,” declared the side of a second tank in downtown Cairo. Egyptian men all serve in the army, giving it a very different relationship to the people from that of the police.The feared security police had largely withdrawn from central Cairo to take up positions around the presidential palace, with their places taken up by the army.Hmmmm.....I can't wait to see their morning after hangover ,when they see the economy is even worse off!Read the full story here.

• Iranian leaders hope for Islamic republic in Egypt.Clerics say protests against Mubarak government were inspired by 1979 revolution in Iran.Iranian leaders expressed satisfaction with the anti-government protests in Egypt, with one leader saying he believes the protesters were inspired by the revolution in his country in 1979.“Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic peoples such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments,” the New York Times quoted Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi as saying.He congratulated the Egyptian people, saying their actions were "based on the principles" of the Islamic revolution.Western officials fear Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be replaced by a hardline cleric similar to the ayatollahs in Iran, like the Muslim Brotherhood opposition party, which also gave rise to Hamas.Hmmmm.....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Israel Fears Regime Change in Egypt.Concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood.Israel is watching developments in Egypt with concern. The government is standing by autocratic Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, out of fear that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood could take power and start supplying arms to Hamas.Israel is usually a country where politicians have an opinion on any topic, and vociferously so. But in recent days, Israel's leadership has been unusually silent on a certain question. No one, it seems, is willing to make an official comment on the ongoing unrest in Egypt, where protesters have been holding anti-government rallies. It's not because Israel does not care about the riots ravaging its southern neighbor -- on the contrary, Israeli news channels, normally prone to parochialism, have been closely following recent events in the Arab world, from Tunisia to Lebanon.Radio, television and newspapers constantly report the courage of the demonstrators in the streets of Cairo, not only relishing the historic spectacle, but openly expressing sympathy with Egypt's struggle for democracy.But the Israeli government is keeping quiet. "We are closely monitoring the events, but we do not interfere in the internal affairs of a neighboring state," was the curt answer from the Israeli Foreign Ministry to requests for comments.So for journalists looking for quotes, it is a happy coincidence that Israel's former Industry and Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer resigned from the Israeli cabinet last week and can now freely express his opinions as a member of the opposition Labor Party. "I don't think it is possible (for there to be a revolution in Egypt)," Ben-Eliezer told Israeli Army Radio. "I see things calming down soon." The Iraqi-born former minister is a renowned expert on Israeli-Arab relations and is a friend of the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.Ultimately the choice is between a pro- or an anti-Western dictatorship, says Shaked. "It is in our interest that someone from Mubarak's inner circle takes over his legacy, at any cost." In the process, it is not possible to rule out massive bloodshed in the short term, he says. "It would not be the first time that riots in Egypt were brutally crushed."Hmmmm.....His"Outreach to Muslims" has done tremendous damage to Israel.Read the full story here.

• Egyptian Museum partly damaged, threatened by fire.Boy pharaoh's gold death mask not damaged.Some ancient artifacts at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum were partly damaged but could be torched by the potential collapse of a neighboring building gutted by fire, the head of the country's antiquities chief said Saturday.The ruling party headquarters building next door to the museum was still in flames and billowing black smoke into the sky on Saturday, a day after protesters torched it during mass anti-government demonstrations."What scares me is that if this building is destroyed, it will fall over the museum," antiquities boss Zahi Hawass said as he watched fire trucks try to extinguish the blaze in the NDP headquarters.An Associated Press Television News crew that was allowed into the museum saw two vandalized mummies and at least 10 small artifacts that had been taken out of their glass cases and damaged.Fears of looters have prompted authorities elsewhere to take precautions to secure antiquities at other sites.Archaeologist Kent Weeks, who is in the southern temple town of Luxor, said that rumors that attacks were planned against monuments prompted authorities to erect barriers and guard Karnak Temple while tanks were positioned around Luxor's museum.Hmmmmm......Now who would damage other religions their relics?Read the full story here.

• King Abdullah supports Mubarak: SPA.Saudi King Abdullah has expressed his support for embattled President Hosni Mubarak and slammed those "tampering" with Egypt's security and stability, state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.The Saudi ruler, in Morocco recovering from back surgery performed in the United States, telephoned Mubarak early Saturday, the report said.During the conversation, Abdullah condemned "intruders" he said were "tampering with Egypt's security and stability ... in the name of freedom of expression."Saudi Arabia, he added, "stands with all its means with the government and people of Egypt."SPA said Mubarak had responded by assuring King Abdullah that "the situation is stable (in Egypt) ... and what the world has seen is nothing more than an attempt by some ... suspicious groups which do not want stability and security for Egyptians."Mubarak, known for his close ties with the Saudi king, had added, "Egypt and its people are determined to stop those trying to use the freedom given (to Egyptians) to achieve suspicious agendas," SPA said.Read the full story here.

• Saudi shares tumble on Egypt protests. Saudi Arabia's stock exchange retreated the most since May, as concerns about violent protests in Egypt continued to present the most serious challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.The Saudi Tadawul All Share Index was down 4.1pc to 6,419.89 by Saudi lunchtime. The market in Saudi Arabia, where the start of the work week is Saturday, was the first to react to the violence in Egypt and the drop in the TASI offered a window into the potential battering that could emerge when other regional markets reopen on Sunday. "The fall is due to sentiment about what's happening in Egypt, and also in the US because the Dow went down" on Friday, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group. "You have some collateral damage which is related to investors ....who have exposure in Egypt, and are trying to hedge that exposure by selling down their positions in Saudi Arabia," he said. Tens of thousands of protesters clashed with riot police on Friday, the fourth day of violent demonstrations in Egypt. The protesters have demanded Mubarak's ouster and measures to deal with the crippling poverty in the country, rampant corruption and the growing disparity in income distribution.The violence sent Egypt's benchmark index tumbling almost 17 percent over two days, and analysts expect that the violence on Friday will fuel another plunge on the Egyptian Exchange and ripple across other regional markets. "The momentum is there," said Sfakianakis, predicting that regional markets drop."There's no reason to expect the Saudi market to go up because the general sentiment is sell-off and wait- and-see rather than sell-off and immediate buying," he said.Hmmmmm......Read the full story here. More here.

• HT:BigPeace.What is the Muslim Brotherhood?The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928. Its express purpose was two-fold: (1) to implement shariah worldwide, and (2) to re-establish the global Islamic State, known as the caliphate. Therefore, al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood have the same objectives. They differ only in the timing and tactics involved in realizing them.Shariah stresses its adherents’ exercise of information dominance. Accordingly, its campaign of civilization jihad against the United States prominently features political and psychological warfare, influence operations and other techniques for neutralizing and, ultimately subverting the nation’s foundational institutions.Targets include the political system, the military, law enforcement, public and private education from preschool through graduate school, religious institutions of all major faiths, the financial system and the media.The shariah information war in the West and the civilization jihad of which it is a central element is driven by an organization called the International Muslim Brotherhood (MB), also known by its Arabic title “Ikhwan.”The Muslim Brotherhood is the Communist Party-like “vanguard” or tip-of-the-spear of the current Islamic movement in the world. While there are other transnational organizations that share the MB’s goals, if not its tactics – including al Qaeda, which was born out of the Brotherhood – the Ikhwan is by far the strongest and most organized.Read the full story here.

• HT:RubinReport.Hizballah Names Lebanese PM?: NY Times Has Hope.By Barry Rubin.The New York Times has an editorial that says this:"Lebanon's next prime minister, Najib Mikati, owes his job to Hezbollah. That is regrettable and dangerous. It will heighten Lebanon's divisions, antagonize Western donors (including the United States) and complicate the work of the international tribunal set up to try the killers of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister. ...We hope he can still find ways to put Lebanon's interests first and dare Hezbollah to challenge him."Where has the Times been for the last three years as this crisis has been building? Why did its correspondent say a few days earlier that this wasn't going to happen?As for the newspaper's hope that a prime minister handpicked by Hizballah, in power at their pleasure, facing the country's strongest militia, and knowing that this group kills people who "dare" it "to challenge him," this is the very definition of wishful thinking.At least the Times calls Hizballah an Iranian-backed terrorist group, or rather it began that way, leaving the door open that it might have changed. It also says that if the new government doesn't pursue the investigation of assassinations in Lebanon the United States should cut off military aid.When it comes to pressuring Israel, the Times wants the U.S. government to act decisively. When it comes to revolutionary Islamist terrorists who are clients of Iran and Syria it just mainly hopes things will turn out ok.After all, the issue is not just the investigation, but the fact that a long-time U.S. ally is now ruled by revolutionary Islamist terrorists in the Iran-Syria orbit.Could there be some admission that five years after the United States and UN promised Israel to keep Hizballah out of southern Lebanon, block arms smuggling to it from Syria, and even help disarm it that all of these promises to Israel have been broken?Might the Times call for a new U.S. strategy to block the spread of Islamist revolution?No answer; no serious consideration is given.Is this what the once-superpower United States is reduced to being? Waiting until everything is lost and then hoping that its enemies will act directly contrary to their own interests and views?Hmmmm......Or is this exactly what the current administration wants?"They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• ‘We’re living on a volcano,’ experts warn! As with Iran in ’79, Islamists could hijack pro-democracy movements; ex-IDF research chief: “We're on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."Israeli security experts are casting an uneasy eye at the civil unrest spreading through the region.On Thursday, Yemen joined the list of Arab states experiencing unprecedented demonstrations calling for authoritarian leaders to step down, and Egypt braced for more civil unrest.While no analysts here predict any immediate ramifications for Israel’s national security, some said mass protest movements that begin as pro-democracy uprisings could easily be hijacked by Islamists.“We need to understand that we are living on a volcano,” said Maj.- Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, former head of the IDF’s Research and Assessment Directorate.“Conditions can change from today until tomorrow. We must ask ourselves, what is the worst case scenario,” he said. “We are on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."“Advice we have heard from certain countries in Western Europe [suggesting that the uprisings could lead to a wave of democratic revolutions] should not be followed,” he said. “There’s no immediate fear of any security escalation. The main question is: In the long term, will we be ready for all scenarios?” Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser, and a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said, “There’s a reasonable chance that if a revolution takes place in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would rise to power. That would be bad not just for Israel but for all democracies.”The true struggle in Egypt was not between “Mubarak and pro-democracy elements, but between Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Eiland said.He believes that Israel is better off with a Lebanon formally controlled by Hizbullah, “because as soon as fire is opened at Israel, it’s not Hizbullah but the whole of the state of Lebanon that is responsible. That is a real deterrent, and it has plenty of advantages.“The same is true of Hamas rule in Gaza,” Eiland said.Shlomo Brom, director of the program on Israel-Palestinian relations at the INSS, said it was impossible to know what would happen next.“It’s true that pro-democracy voices are being expressed – and that is positive – but we don’t know how it will end,” Brom said. Even in Tunisia, where the Islamists are weak, we don’t know how it will end. We can’t forget that in Iran, at the end of the 1970s, the uprising against the shah was led by [pro-democracy] youths who took the streets – but this was taken over by Islamists in the end.”Hmmm.......The Islamists and the world?Read the full story here.

• Israel fears radical takeover in Egypt.Extremist takeover in Egypt would put Israel in ‘wholly different position,’ security official warns.A fundamental change of government in Egypt may lead to a “revolution in Israel’s security doctrine,” a defense official told Ynet Friday night, as protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s rule continued to intensify.The security official made it clear that Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt constitutes an important strategic asset, “which enables the IDF to focus on other theaters.” The defense source said that the IDF would have to dedicate major resources in order to devote any attention to the Egyptian front as well.Should a revolution indeed take place in Egypt, the rules of play will not necessarily change at once, the source added. “It won’t mean, heaven forbid, that Egypt would immediately turn into an enemy country, yet our attention would most certainly have to shift.” “This is a Western army in every way and it enjoys US aid,” one security official said. “There is no doubt that should we see an extremist regime over there controlling such army, this will place Israel in a wholly different position.” “There is no doubt that in the coming days, many eyes have to be monitoring Egypt. Later we’ll make all the calculations as to the implications,” the official said.Hmmmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name'his "Outreach to Muslims" and his Cairo speech did a lot of damage to Israel.Read the full story here.

• HT:RFERL.How Are The Protests In Egypt, Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution Being Viewed In Iran?"The Islamic world is ripe with major new developments and Khomeini's Islam is the engine of these events," Iran's hard-line daily "Kayhan" wrote in a January 27 commentary devoted to the recent wave of protests in the Arab world.The daily, which often reflects the views of the Iranian establishment -- or more specifically, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- added that the third millennium is witnessing "the powerful [presence] of Islam under Iran's leadership."Iranian state media has been portraying the recent upheaval in Arab countries as a struggle against Western puppets in the region, while claiming that citizens who have taken to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere are taking inspiration from Iran's Islamic Revolution.Iran's state broadcasts have followed the same line as that seen in the print media, according to journalist Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, who monitors Iranian state television."After Tunisian President [Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali] fled the country, they started reporting that the protests were taking place in the name of Islam and that they were targeting the anti-Islamic government of Tunisia," Mirebrahimi says. "The same applies now to protests [elsewhere], including in Egypt." In the immediate aftermath of Tunisia's uprising, Iranian state media kept silent about the protests that led to the collapse of Ben Ali's 23-year rule."State television has no coverage of the unrest in Tunisia," said one man in Tehran, who spoke on condition of anonymity in the days leading up to Ben Ali's fall. "If Tunisians had protested against the U.S., it would have become a top story," he added.He said he relied on Persian-language media based outside of Iran, including RFE/RL's Radio Farda, to follow the developments in Tunisia and other Islamic countries.In a January 19 speech, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad warned against "Western meddling" in Tunisia and said Tunisian politicians should respect the needs and choices of the people. Ahmadinejad added that Tunisians want an Islamic government.The demonstrations have also prompted debate and discussion among Iranians over why the country's Green Movement failed to bring change, and how it has been silenced since 2009.Prominent women's rights activist Parvin Ardalan said in a January 26 interview with the "Irish Times" that Tunisia's revolution has brought a sense of hope that is very important for Iranian activists, who have come under state pressure since the disputed presidential vote in June 2009."Some are looking to Tunisia and saying to themselves, 'We could do this in Iran, but why have we not achieved that yet?'" Ardalan was quoted as saying."Ben Ali is gone. When will Seyed Ali?" wrote one blogger in an apparent reference to Khamenei. Others, similarly playing with words, said: "Tunis tunest, Iran Na-tunest" ("Tunisia did it, Iran couldn't do it.")One Green Movement supporter updated his Facebook status on January 27 with a message of support for Egyptians who were planning to join demonstrations on January 28."Let's pray for the Egyptians who will take to the streets in a few hours, that they remain safe from beatings, arrests, and death. Let's hope Hosni Mubarak ends like Ben Ali and that the turn of other dictators in the region, including in our country, Iran, comes too. Long live freedom."Another activist shared on Facebook a picture of Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Khamenei that said: "Dictators must go." Hmmmmm......Another wrote Ahmadinejad you're next!Read the full story here.

• Al Jazeera Releases Egypt Coverage Under Creative Commons.Qatar-based news service Al Jazeera has a long relationship with Creative Commons licensing. Now, for its coverage of the Egyptian uprising, it has released photographs via Flickr and video on a CC license. Available photographs and video are available for free use so long as the user gives attribution and does not alter the products. For the record, all the photographs and video in this post are from Al Jazeera.Source.

• Number of U.S. Muslims will more than double to 6.2m in 20 years.The Muslim population in the U.S. will more than double to 6.2million in the next 20 years, it has been claimed.Immigration and high birth rates could see the number of Muslims rise to 1.7 per cent of the total population by 2030 - roughly the same number of Jewish people in the U.S.And the forecasts will mean the U.S. will have more Muslims than Kuwait.From 1990 to 2010 the number of followers of the Islamic faith around the world increased at an average rate of 2.2 per cent annually. Last year there were 1.57billion around the world. The U.S. increase from the current 2.6million will be mainly driven by immigration, according to figures prepared by a Washington think tank.Although several European countries will have substantially higher percentages of Muslims, the U.S. is projected to have a larger number by 2030 than any European country other than Russia and France.Read and see the full story here.

• US wants immediate release of diplomat in Pakistan.The United States on Saturday called for the immediate release of a US diplomat it said was unlawfully detained by Pakistani authorities in Lahore, its embassy in Islamabad said.The man, previously described just as a consulate employee, is being held in police custody over the shooting deaths Thursday of two men he said he killed in self-defence."When detained, the US diplomat identified himself to police as a diplomat and repeatedly requested immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," the embassy said in a statement.It added, "Local police and senior authorities failed to observe their legal obligation to verify his status with either the US consulate general in Lahore or the US embassy in Islamabad"."Furthermore, the diplomat was formally arrested and remanded into custody, which is a violation of international norms and the Vienna Convention, to which Pakistan is a signatory."The man, named as Raymond Davis and described by the US State Department as an American civilian working for the US consulate in Lahore, was held at a police station on double murder charges over the deaths of two motorcyclists.A third Pakistani was crushed to death by a consulate car that went to help Davis following the shooting in a busy street in the eastern city on Thursday."The diplomat, assigned to the US embassy in Islamabad, has a US diplomatic passport and Pakistani visa valid until June 2012," the statement said.Recalling the events that led to Davis's arrest, it said the diplomat acted in self-defense when confronted by two armed men on motorcycles."The diplomat had every reason to believe that the armed men meant him bodily harm. Minutes earlier, the two men, who had criminal backgrounds, had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area."The embassy expressed regret that "this incident resulted in loss of life" and said it was "committed to working closely with the Pakistani government to secure the immediate release of the diplomat, as required under Pakistani and international law".Read the full story here.

• "Life or death in Iran's Prisons".Mrs Zahra Bahrami Iranian-Dutch citizen Executed, Another Victim of Iranian Regime’s Political Game.Zahra Bahrami, the 45 year old Iranian-Dutch citizen and mother of two who was arrested during the 2009 Ashura protests (December 27, 2009), was hanged today.Zahra Bahrami was executed even though her second case file with political charges was still opened and unresolved.On August 16, 2010, branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court charged her with Moharebeh (enmity against God). She was detained since December 27, 2009 and spent a long duration of time in solitary confinement. Her other charges included “Acting against national security”, “Propaganda against the regime”, and “Membership in a royalist group”.Fars News Agency, the media outlet affiliated with Iran’s Security Military force, announced her charges as “Membership in an international drug smuggling gang/group” and “Working with a Dutch ally.”Last year she travelled to Iran to visit one of her children. Upon her arrest during post-election protests, Zahra Bahrami was held for months in the IRGC ward in Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison and ward 209 of Evin prison for interrogations.Zahra Bahrami’s death sentence was issued to her lawyer Jenus Sharif-Razi on January 2, 2011 by Judge Salavati, the head of branch 15. But, the final verdict on the death sentence was not announced to Zahra Bahrami’s family or lawyer.In an interview with Rooz, Sharif-Razi said that all case files related to drug offences do not get sent to the Appeals Court. Instead, the cases are sent to Iran’s General Prosecutor and only he may make a decision on the verdict. Sharif-Razi explained that she was unable to appeal the sentence and the only chance of launching an investigation into the case was by receiving amnesty from the Clemency and Pardons commission.Banafsheh Nayebpour, Zahra Bahrami’s daughter has stated in past interviews that the charges against her mother related to drug smuggling are completely baseless and all the confessions were extracted under torture. According to Banafesheh Nayebpour, her mother was guaranteed release if she made the false confessions. She also explained that the charges against her mother are politically motivated.In the past year, the Islamic Republic of Iran has forced political prisoners to falsely confess by use of torture and empty promises. The executions that are carried out affect the overall political environment in Iran.Hmmmm........"Islam the religion of Peace".Read the full story here.Updated:Geert Wilders is calling for the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador from The Netherlands as reaction to the execution of the Dutch -Iranian woman!Twitter Here

• HT:Memri.Spokesman For Islamic Movement In Tunisia: Movement Leader Al-Ghannouchi Is Returning.Hussein Jaziri, spokesman for the Islamic movement in Tunisia, said in Paris to the Iranian Al-'Aalam network that the leader of Tunisia's Islamic movement, Rachid Al-Ghannouchi, is returning to Tunisia on January 30.Source.

• EDITORIAL: Witching hour for Black Panthers.Justice continues to block disclosure into department activities.The Black Panther voter-intimidation scandal is approaching the boiling point on four different burners. Evidence grows that the Justice Department is using illegitimate means to keep a lid on legitimate investigations. Because his department can’t be trusted to police itself, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. needs to appoint a special counsel.On Wednesday, Judicial Watch - a private watchdog - filed a brief in its case seeking release of official memoranda, arguing that government stonewalling, “is about political interference in [Justice’s] decision-making process and [the department‘s] efforts to avoid public scrutiny of that interference.” Most abused is the “deliberative process” privilege, which is intended for discussions made before and during litigation but is being claimed for documents created after the Black Panther case was concluded.On Thursday night, Todd Gaziano of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights protested, “The department doggedly continues to obstruct this investigation … Even the privileges that are recognized law (as opposed to being newly invented) are not valid against the [Civil Rights] Commission.” His most significant revelation is that, “The department‘s own Office of Legal Counsel has issued at least two opinions, which are binding on the department unless overruled, that came to the same conclusion.”same conclusion.”Mr. Holder has been hiding behind questionable self-investigations made by his own department. On Wednesday, former Justice attorney Hans von Spakovsky, now at the Heritage Foundation, challenged the bona fides of Robin Ashton, the new head of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility. OPR, which investigates ethics charges against department lawyers, has delayed for 17 months its inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by officials who dismissed complaints against the Black Panthers. Mr. von Spakovsky warns Ms. Ashton is “completely untrustworthy,” especially regarding allegations of improperly “rifling through confidential files and documents,” and charges Mr. Holder and other bureaucrats with directly compromising the overall OPR investigation.Hmmmmmm.....What else is the Obamination administration hiding?Read the full story here.

• 'Brace for more snow': Groundhog Day Storm to affect 100 million people next week.Weather experts predicts a massive winter storm to hit on February 2.The severe conditions will affect the South, Midwest and Northeast. Big Apple deluged by snowiest January in history.A massive winter storm forecast for February 2 is set to adversely affect more than 100 million people weather exports reported today.The Groundhog Day snowstorm is expected to hit the South, Midwest and Northeast of the country, building from early next week.The storm is likely to severely impact ground travel, cancellation of flights and school closures according to AccuWeather.Hmmmm......GlobalWarming anyone?Read and see the full story here.