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.

• MFS :In Iran we saw women participating in riots i wonder why not in Egypt?It's about Islam not about democracy!What Do the Egyptian Crowds Want? Caliphate Dreams and Strict Sharia.This is the kind of democracy Egypt wants?Women having no rights or freedom?Good luck with your future Mullahs!Soon the hangover will come and you'll realise things are a lot worse then before!"Change you can see"?ElBaradei :"The Muslim Brotherhood is a Conservative party"El Baradei on CNN now "The Muslim Brotherhood has nothing to do with the Iranian model. They have a lot of credibility in Egypt".Yup and crows wear stiletto shoes?

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Video: John Bolton on Egypt.I have two videos featuring former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton discussing events in Egypt. The first is from Fox News' regular Friday newscast.The second video is from Greta van Sustern's Friday night show On the Record.Read and see the full story here.

• ElBaradei:I am looking forward to making contacts with the army.ElBaradei says Mubarak must leave office "today".Egypt Judges and Azhar scholars join mass protests.ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came back to Egypt on Thursday night, just in time for the "Day of Anger" protests which have left President Hosni Mubarak clinging to power with the army in the streets.Thirty-four Muslim Brothers, including leaders of the banned Islamist group, left a prison near Cairo unhindered Sunday after guards abandoned their posts amid anti-regime protests, one of their lawyers told AFP.The Islamists who escaped from Wadi Natrun prison north of Cairo had been arrested on Thursday either at their homes or during protests against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak that have been raging for five days, leaving over 100 dead.A security source told AFP that several thousand inmates had during the night overwhelmed guards at Wadi Natrun prison -- which holds many Islamist political prisoners -- and spilled out into nearby towns and villages."Their lives would have been in danger if they'd stayed," lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud told AFP.Hmmmm.....El Baradei the spokesperson of The Muslim Brotherhood,prepare for all out war in the Middle East witin two months.Read the full story here.

• HT:STRATFOR.Red Alert: Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.The following is a report from a STRATFOR source in Hamas. Hamas, which formed in Gaza as an outgrowth of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), has an interest in exaggerating its role and coordination with the MB in this crisis. The following information has not been confirmed. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of concern building in Israel and the United States in particular over the role of the MB in the demonstrations and whether a political opening will be made for the Islamist organization in Egypt.The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt and are closely collaborating with the MB. The MB has fully engaged itself in the demonstrations, and they are unsatisfied with the dismissal of the Cabinet. They are insisting on a new Cabinet that does not include members of the ruling National Democratic Party.Security forces in plainclothes are engaged in destroying public property in order to give the impression that many protesters represent a public menace. The MB is meanwhile forming people’s committees to protect public property and also to coordinate demonstrators’ activities, including supplying them with food, beverages and first aid.Read the full report here.

• 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.

• Jordan's opposition: Arabs will topple tyrants.AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood warned Saturday that unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.Hammam Saeed's comments were made at a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman, inspired by massive rallies in neighboring Egypt demanding the downfall of the country's longtime president, Hosni Mubarak.About 100 members of the fundamentalist group and activists from other leftist organizations and trade unions chanted "Mubarak, step down" and "the decision is made, the people's revolt will remain."Elsewhere, a separate group of 300 protesters gathered in front of the office of Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai, demanding his ouster. "Rifai, it's time for you to go," chanted the group.Jordan's protests have been relatively small in size, but they underline a rising tension with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally who has been making promises of reform in recent days in an apparent attempt to quell domestic discontent over economic degradation and lack of political freedoms.But as a monarch with deep support from the Bedouin-dominated military, Jordan's ruler is not seen as vulnerable as Mubarak or Tunisia's deposed leader. Even the Brotherhood - a fiery critic of Jordan's moderate government - has remained largely loyal to the king, who claims ancestry to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.Many believe it's unlikely King Abdullah will bow to demands for popular election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.Saeed said Arabs have grown disgruntled with U.S. domination of their oil wealth, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for "totalitarian" leaders in the region.Saeed did not specifically name King Abdullah. But he said Jordan's prime minister "must draw lessons from Tunisia and Egypt and must swiftly implement political reforms.""We tell the Americans 'enough is enough'," he said.Hmmmm.....The Muslim world has much improved since Obama's "Outreach" policy.Read the full story here.

• Report: US backed Egypt uprising planners!While Telegraph reports that US has secretly supported figures that planned regime change, Obama administration gives Egyptian President Mubarak cold shoulder.According to the report, the US-backed figures have been planning a regime change for the past three years. Moreover, the American embassy in Cairo has helped a dissident travel to New York to attend a conference on the matter, while keeping his identity secret from Egyptian authorities.The Daily Telegraph chose not to disclose the name of the young protestor, but noted that he was arrested by Egyptian security forces for allegedly taking part in planning the uprising that aims to replace the current government with a democratic one. Whether the British newspaper's report is true or not, the situation in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez has played a part in convincing the US government to distance itself from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and side with the Egyptian protestors who demand change.The tone from Washington has made a 180-degree turn in recent days, going from a balanced approach on Friday morning to stern criticism of Mubarak on Saturday.Hmmmmm......They don't trust me because of my middle name"?With such "Friends" who needs ennemies?Read the full story here.

• HT:AtlasShrugs.Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas Closely Collaborating in Egypt, CAIR and CODE PINK Also in Egypt.The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt and are closely collaborating with the MB. The MB has fully engaged itself in the demonstrations, and they are unsatisfied with the dismissal of the Cabinet. They are insisting on a new Cabinet that does not include members of the ruling National Democratic Party.Security forces in plainclothes are engaged in destroying public property in order to give the impression that many protesters represent a public menace. The MB is meanwhile forming people’s committees to protect public property and also to coordinate demonstrators’ activities, including supplying them with food, beverages and first aid.As the media goes about its business of dhimmi dog, the whitewashing of the Muslim Brotherhood which I predicted here: whitewashing the Brotherhood.Check out Reuters. The Muslim supremacists know the left will do anything and align with anyone against America. Here is a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, on Saturday. "Islamic rule in Egypt would pose no threat to the West because it would be more democratic and broad-based than President Hosni Mubarak's 'dictatorship.'" The taqiya is spinning faster than Iraq's infected centrifuges:"That's more important than declaring that a 'new Islamist era is dawning', because I know Islamists would not be able to rule Egypt alone. We should and would cooperate -- Muslims, leftists, communists, socialists, secularists."Further, expect the America-hating, Israel-hating left to take to the streets in the USA, demanding the US assist the Brotherhood in ousting Mubarak. Check this out from the warlike "anti-war" groups here. And the subversive anti-American Jew haters at Code Pink in Egypt right now? There are no coincidences, folks.I just phoned Tighe Barry, a great US activist with Code Pink, who has been in Cairo, Egypt, all week.With the release of the Wiki docments that showed the Obama adminstration secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change."CODE PINK has been a frequent White House visitor.Hmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?"Peacemaker"Matthew 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."Read and see the full story here.

• Egypt riots: MKs fear more infiltrators. As uprising reaches Sinai near Gaza Strip, Knesset House Committee chairman fearful of flow of infiltrators from fenceless border.Is the spreading anarchy in Egypt going to cause a heavy price to Israeli demographic? Knesset House Committee Chairman David Azoulay (Shas) expressed his concerns on Sunday that the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would lead to a massive flow of infiltrates into Israel.During a committee visit to Eilat, Azoulay demanded that the government instruct the IDF to survey the entire Egyptian border. As part of a discussion on the worrying increase in infiltrators entering Israel illegally, the meeting's participants raised the need to establish a Border Guard unit to handle the fenceless border situation.Read the full story here.

• HT:ChallahHuAkhbar.@Joel Rosenberg.Is the Next Revolution in Jordan?Is Egypt about to erupt in a full-blown revolution that could lead to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime? Might Jordan’s government be next?One thing’s for certain: No one predicted the demonstrations in Egypt would grow so big so fast.Momentum for the protests is growing. A Facebook page promoting the democracy protests grew from 20,000 members on Wednesday to 80,000 on Thursday. The government then reportedly shut down Facebook, and disrupted Internet service in parts of the country. Twitter has been blocked. Police are beating protesters. As of Friday, more than 1,000 Egyptians have been arrested for demonstrating. Now an overnight curfew has been imposed and the Egyptian army has been deployed to urban centers.One key factor fueling events: economics. Egyptians have been suffering double-digit inflation — averaging between 10 percent and 14 percent — and soaring food prices in recent years. Reports Reuters: “The Food and Agriculture Organization, a body of the United Nations, said on January 5 that food prices hit a ‘record high’ in December 2010, topping 2008 levels when riots shook Egypt as well as other countries.”....In Jordan, there is a very high risk that Islamic radicals would take over the regime. As I write inInside The Revolution, “It is precisely because the Jordanians have made such progress [with positive political and economic reforms in the past two decades] that I am worried by the Radicals’ determination to launch a jihad there, seize the capital, and create a new anti-Israel, anti-Western base for Iran and al Qaeda. Therefore, I often pray for Jordan’s peace, prosperity and continued progress. I pray for King Abdullah’s health and safety, and I pray that the Lord would grant him the wisdom to know how best to move forward in such challenging times.”Hmmmmm....."May you live in interesting times"?Read the full story here.

• HT:intellicept3.Victim List of Rising Food Prices.Economic experts in Davos has been sounding the alarm on rising food prices around the world. But how much of an impact is it really doing right now? Sometimes it would be appropriate to take this warning piece by piece and see what food prices are now doing to different countries which are being largely affected. The following news stories shows how serious food inflation can be and most of them are just beginning to feel the pinch of this problem.Hmmmm........Food Shortages coming to a neighbourhood near you?Read the full story here.

• Cry Baby Turkey playing the Islamophobia card! EU becoming 'Christian club,' Turkish minister says at Davos forum.Turkey's deputy prime minister complained Saturday that the European Union was becoming an inward-looking "Christian club," slamming a lack of progress in his country's bid to join.Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos that included EU President Herman Van Rompuy, Ali Babacan said: "We always thought the EU is a big peace project ... but then the enlargement process literally stalled."And one of the big themes about why Turkey cannot become a member of the European Union is because it is a Christian club. This is in our view very, very dangerous," he said.Ankara began accession negotiations with the EU in 2005, but the process has stalled amid opposition from some member states, lack of reform in Turkey and a trade row over the divided island of Cyprus.Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt denied Europe is a "Christian club," saying: "In Sweden a couple of decades ago we abolished the idea of a state church. We are not in the conception that we are all of one religion."We have 400,000 Muslims in Sweden. For me it's not a religious cooperation the European Union; it's a set of values that is open for all world religions. We are very much in favor of a reformed Turkey's entry into the EU," he said.Hmmmm.....Perhaps Turkey should do something about respecting Human Rights ,so it wont be recognised as the worst human rights violator!Read the full "story" here.

• HT:ANSAmed.Turkey Has No Plans To Adopt Measures To Protect Christian Minorities. Turkey wants to accede to the European Union, although it has turned down special measures to protect Christians. Ankara has agreed to the notion of an agreement over the return of illegal migrants who make it into Greece across its borders, tempted by the prospect of a future accession to the visa-free Schengen area. Nonetheless, a vote in the Council of Europe on a resolution condemning violence against Christians has met with a thumbs down from Turkish MEPs.Today has been a difficult day for relations between Turkey and Europe. It all began with the announcement in Brussels of a deal between the European Commission and the Turkish government over the 're-admission' of migrants. Ankara accepted that it would take back those who had been expelled, irrespective of their nationality. According to Greek estimates 80% of illegal entries into the European Union pass through Turkey. Greece wants to erect a 12.5 km wall along the River Evros on its border.In exchange the Turkish government is pushing for visa liberalisation. But while it is true that is a strategic partner for Europe's leaders when it comes to energy policy - taking as it does the gas pipelines of South Stream, it is also the case that Europe's governments are thinking in party political terms on the question of Turkey's application to join the European club, which has been stranded for five years. Starting with the government under Sarkozy, who received a message from President Gul via an interview in the Figaro today to the effect that for him ''the world does not stop at the European Union''.Meanwhile, a straight 'No' arrived in the parliament of the Council of Europe in Strasburg on a report prepared by Italy's Luca Volonte' (UDC), calling for a condemnation of the violence suffered by Christians in the Middle East, which also observed how ''the disappearance of the Christian communities in the Near and Middle East would be catastrophic for Islam, as it would mark the triumph of fundamentalism''.The eleven Turkish parliamentarians present had no hesitation in voting against the motion. Aslan Cabeci, a figure in the party of Premier Erdogan, justified their choice stating that the 'No' came in reference to interruptions to Christmas masses in two villages in northern Cyprus occupied by the Turks. ''You have put the massacres in Alexandria and in Baghdad on the same level'' Cabeci said, adding that he would vote for greater respect for the minorities in Turkey ''once France stops supporting despots in North Africa and when Italy stops cashing in on Libya''. Hmmmm......"Muslims don't commit genocide"Erdogan.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheWorstPoliticalBlog.12 Reasons Obama Could Lose in 2012!Supporters are as exhausted as Velma Hart, the Tea Party has momentum, and Republicans are now more trusted. Mark McKinnon on why those issues, plus nine others, spell doom for the president’s reelection hopes.President Obama’s State of the Union was strongly bipartisan and made smart moves to the center, although it missed a chance to really tackle tough fiscal issues like meaningful entitlement reforms. His Arizona speechwas terrific, his favorable ratings are climbing over 50, the economy is showing steady signs of improvement, and the stock market is up. So, how could he possibly lose his reelection bid? Just ask George H.W. Bush, who had an approval rating of nearly 90 percent two years out from his reelection! happens when you are at the helm of the free world. What could happen? Let us count the ways...Hmmmmm......Number 13. "They don't trust me because of my middle name".Read the full story here.

• The 10 families who are costing us an astonishing £1m a year between them just in housing benefits.Ten families in England are sharing an astonishing £1million a year in housing benefits, it emerged last night.The huge sums being lavished on the families by the taxpayer are allowing them to live in streets normally reserved for millionaires.Five of the families are receiving the maximum payment of £2,000 per week.It is the first proof that George Osborne was correct when he claimed some households were receiving sums in excess of £100,000 a year.Last night, the Chancellor told the Daily Mail: ‘It is precisely this kind of shocking waste of public money under the previous Labour government that led to Britain’s debt problems. ‘We are bringing an end to this by putting a cap on the total amount of benefit that a family can receive so the days of £100,000 housing benefit claims are gone.’All are being housed in Westminster, Kensington or Chelsea – the wealthiest parts of the country.Five families are receiving the maximum of £2,000 a week, the equivalent to a working family’s mortgage on a £1.5million house. It will re-ignite the row over the housing benefit bill, which has spiralled from £14billion ten years ago to £21billion. It is more than the country spends on policing and universities combined.The identity of the ten families is being kept secret because of privacy rules.Some previous cases, when the claimaints have been identified, involved even larger sums.Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Before the Silence: the Turkish Genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians.Ms. Sofia Kontogeorge Kostos, first of all congratulations on publishing your new book Before the Silence. We, at the Seyfo Center are very pleased and delighted about the publication of your new book. There are many books that have been published about the Genocide that was perpetrated against the Armenians, Assyrians and the Greeks by the Ottoman Empire commencing in 1914, but rarely the Assyrians and the Greeks are mentioned in these books. There was no discrimination when the Armenians, Assyrians and the Greeks were being slaughtered, so it is important to include all the 3 nations when we talk about the Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. We are very pleased to see that your book mentions all of the 3 nations that were persecuted and slaughtered in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and of the Young Turks Regime.Before the Silence is not a new title. It was the title of one of your poems from the "Forgotten Genocides of the 20th Century" published in 2005. Why did you choose the same name for your book? Was the poem the motivation for writing the book?Can an unknown tragedy be forgotten?Lost in a maze of unknowing; Mistaken in the realm of forgot and forgotten ;I hungered for answers ; From books but they were stolen ;I summoned Cleo, the muse of history ;She fed me rare books and vintage news; Revealing truths impossible to forget. What is the message you are trying to convey to your readers in your book?My book should cut through Turkey's lies and deceptions. The very nature of the so-called "deportations" in reality were "death marches." Death marches were part of the hidden agenda to exterminate all of the Christians and to make "Turkey for the Turks Only." Turkey now boasts that they are 99% Moslem ---- one need ask how did that happen?Hmmmmmm......Erdogan"Muslims don't commit genocide".Read the full story here.

• HT:Persian2English.Dutch Government Froze Contacts with Iran after Death of Zahra Bahrami.The Dutch government froze official contacts with Iran on Saturday to protest the hanging of a Dutch-Iranian woman, the Foreign Ministry said.Iranian Ambassador Gharib Abadi was informed of the sanctions after he confirmed reports that Zahra Bahrami, 45, was executed in Tehran Saturday.His embassy later said the hanging was “an internal issue” that should have no impact on diplomatic relations.Iranian state television reported Bahrami was hanged for possessing and selling drugs. The report said that initially Bahrami was arrested for committing “security crimes,” but it did not say what became of that case.Bahrami had been jailed in Iran since December 2009 after protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election. Protesters took to the streets, saying the vote was marred by fraud and that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner.The Iranian Embassy in a statement late Saturday described Bahrami as a member of an international drug trafficking ring, who traveled on Dutch, Iranian and Spanish passports with different personal information.It said Bahrami — who was born in Iran, but gained Dutch citizenship after moving to the Netherlands — was accorded the legal rights of an Iranian citizen, but that Tehran does not recognize dual nationality.Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bengt van Loosdrecht said Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal was “shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime.”He added the hanging was especially shocking as Abadi had assured the Dutch minister on Friday that Bahrami’s legal avenues had not yet been exhausted.Dutch diplomats had been denied access to Bahrami while she was in prison because Iran refused to recognize her Dutch nationality. The Dutch government reportedly hired lawyers to defend her.The diplomatic freeze means Iranian embassy staff are forbidden from meeting or having contact with Dutch officials without prior written approval, Van Loosdrecht said.The Foreign Ministry also advised other dual citizens against traveling to Iran, as Dutch consular officials would now have no access to them if they are arrested.Van Loosdrecht said Rosenthal would raise the issue next week when European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels. The Netherlands will seek unspecified “collective measures” against Iran, Van Loosdrecht said.Hmmmmm......Hoooray for Geert Wilders!Read the full story here.

• Karachi, women on streets in support of the blasphemy law. Karachi (AsiaNews) - The women's wing of the Islamic movement Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has demonstrated on the streets of Karachi against possible amendments to the blasphemy law. The protest took place yesterday after Friday prayers: the crowd gathered in Mazar-e-Quaid - the National Mausoleum, better known as the tomb that houses the remains of the founder Ali Jinnah - and marched to the area of Numaish Chowrangi. The young women students - from different schools and institutions of the city - shouted slogans and brandished placards against those who want to change the "black law".Members of the fundamentalist movement also demanded the expulsion of all Vatican officials in Pakistan, for what they call "interference" in internal affairs by Benedict XVI. On 10 January, the Pope, during his meeting with the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, had claimed the right to religious freedom and called for the repeal of the blasphemy law. On January 30, Islamic fundamentalists have launched a national demonstration in support of the "black law" and promised a "long march" to Islamabad if Asia Bibi, the 45 year old Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy and pending appeal, is not executed. Also on January 30, however, the bishop of Islamabad / Rawalpini, Mgr. Anthony Rufin, proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer for Asia and for peace and harmony all over Pakistan.Hmmmmm.......A Real battle of good versus evil,Black law indeed.Read the full story here.

• HT:Stratfor.Video:Agenda: With George Friedman on Egypt.For more than 30 years, the geopolitics of the Middle East has been built on the American-Egyptian-Israeli relationship. STRATFOR founder Dr. George Friedman contemplates current events in Egypt and the prospect of the end of an era.Well, certainly, Mubarak is coming to the end of his days. And it’s not yet clear what, if anything, it is going to do to the Middle East. It really depends on what the successor’s regime is going to look like. He was hoping that his son Gamal was going to replace him; that’s increasingly unlikely. There are demonstrations going on in Egypt. How widespread is hard to tell, and of course the Western media is immediately assuming that these are democratic reformers out there because they talk to the ones who speak English and they tend to be democratic reformers. We don’t know what the Muslim Brotherhood is doing, or capable of doing. So we don’t know if we’re going to get a military coup to replace Mubarak, we don’t know if we’re going to get a Islamic government, or if we’re simply going to have a succession, fairly orderly, when he passes on or even before then. But whatever happens can have enormous significance, depending on which way it goes.Now, is it about to become a jihadist government in Cairo? I don’t think so but that’s really what the question is: what’s going to happen. And the least likely thing to happen is a long-term reformist democratic government.Read the full story here.

• 19 private jets of top businessmen leave Cairo: DPA.Flight disruptions threaten Egypt’s tourism sector.Nineteen private jets have left Cairo international airport carrying top Egyptian and Arab business tycoons and their families toward Germany, German Press Agency DPA reported later on Saturday.The identities of the businessmen and their families were not immediately announced.Hundreds of people crowded the capital's main international airport hoping for a flight out on Saturday but Western carriers were canceling, delaying or suspending service after days of violent unrest.A British airline turned around its Cairo-bound jet in mid-flight.Between 1,500 and 2,000 people flocked to Cairo Intentional Airport, many without reservations. Officials said that about half were tourists and half Egyptians.British Midlands International said its flight from London Heathrow to Cairo turned around because a shift in the start of a nighttime curfew from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. had made it impossible to land in time for passengers to make it out of the airport.The United States, France and Germany issued warnings to their respective citizens, urging them to cancel nonessential travel to Cairo and to remain indoors and away from flashpoint areas if they were already in the country.Israeli carrier El Al was trying to arrange a special flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of the country, a Cairo International Airport official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. Israel's embassy in Egypt declined to comment.Read the full story on air travel out of Egypt here.

• HT:RightTruth.You have options if government shuts down internet.The unrest continues in the Middle East and specifically in Egypt where internet and cell phone communication was cut off by the government. Should something like that happen here, you have options. From Wired.com "Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet". Note: The article is a WIKI article and can be updated by readers.Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.This is what happened in Egypt January 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government has cut off approximately 88 percent of the country's internet access. What do you do without Internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.Hmmmmm.........Start preparing!Read the full story here.

• HT:AlArabya.Over 1,000 people await Ghannouchi at Tunis airport.Leading Tunisian Islamists returns rom exile.Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahda, returned home aftre living in exile in London for 22 years.Following the ousting of authoritarian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Ghannouchi is returning to Tunis intent on fielding candidates from his movement if free and fair elections are held.He checked in at London Gatwick Airport accompanied by a 30-strong group of supporters and journalists.Wearing an open-necked shirt and overcoat, a smiling Ghannouchi posed with the Tunisian flag and embraced relatives at Gatwick airport before boarding the plane."I feel very happy today," the 69-year-old said."When I return home today I am returning to the Arab world as a whole."I am still the leader of my party. I want to organize a conference."If there are free and fair elections Ennahda will take part -- in the legislative elections, not the presidential elections."Ghannouchi's return comes as the new government installed after Ben Ali's downfall unveiled unprecedented democratic freedoms including lifting media controls, releasing political prisoners and registering banned parties."It's not clear who it is accountable to because the current parliament is still the one-party parliament. It's not clear how long it will be there for."We do not believe that one party can rule on their own. A national unity government is what is appropriate at the moment.He said all Tunisia's opposition parties "were severely repressed; all of them need time to reconstruct."Asked whether he supported Sharia law, Ghannouchi told reporters: "All of these have no place in Tunisia."For many years we have agreed alongside the opposition parties common ground, including approving freedom of conscience, political pluralism... and we have agreed on a paper on gender equality."Supporters of his Ennahda movement, which had been banned for two decades, crowded into the arrivals area of the airport and held up banners reading: "No to extremism, yes to moderate Islam!" and "No fear of Islam!"A group of about a dozen secularists were holding up banners reading: "No Islamism, no theocracy, no Sharia and no stupidity!"Ghannouchi founded Ennahda in 1981 inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood but says it is now more like Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)."My books were translated into Turkish and had a great impact on the Turkish Islamist movement," Ghannouchi said. at day before leaving London."Our movement is a national independence movement. It believes in democracy: that Tunisia must be governed by real, complete democracy, with no exceptions, no oppression, no restrictions on freedom of expression and real judicial independence."Hmmmm.....Lets see how long they remain"Moderate"?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Faith and practice: Silence from Muslim- Americans.Amid the uproar earlier this month over the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the secularist governor of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Muslim-American organizations have been largely silent. At a time when mainstream Muslim leaders have been trying to demonstrate their embrace of religious tolerance and pluralism to their fellow Americans, few have had a word to say about this People’s Party leader whose denunciation of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy law led to his death at the hands of a Muslim zealot — a zealot who has since been celebrated by fundamentalists around the globe.The most notable silence is on the part of the Islamic Circle of North America. Operating in this country for about 40 years, this organization has ideological ties to the Jamaat-e-Islami, one of Pakistan’s main Islamist political parties. The Jamaat explained away the assassination of Taseer on the grounds that it could have been avoided if the government had simply removed him from office. Though the Islamic Circle of North America does not necessarily take orders from its Pakistani parent, it appears unwilling to challenge the views of its overwhelmingly immigrant membership from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh — many of whom seem to have little sympathy for the slain politician’s secularist views.Nor is this the first instance of such silence. Last May, when the Pakistani Taliban slaughtered 93 members of a persecuted Muslim sect, the Ahmadiyya, the Islamic Circle of North America held its annual convention in Hartford. Speakers continually reminded the several thousand attendees that “Islam is a religion of peace,’’ yet one of us in attendance heard not a word about the killings all weekend. Other Muslim-American organizations, none of which has such direct and exclusive ties to Pakistan and the region, had even less excuse for their silence.In the name of Muslim unity, many Muslim-American leaders and organizations have been less than coherent when it comes to violent extremism. As a result, they have confused their members as to what true religious toleration and pluralism require, and consequently feed the very suspicions of those inclined to doubt the possibility of Muslims fully assimilating to the American way of life. This is a profound disservice to the many Muslim-Americans who are doing just that.Hmmmm......"The Religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• HT:CreepingSharia.CAIR’s Ahmed Rehab goes to Egypt to participate in protests.Is CAIR’s Rehab in Egypt merely to join the Muslim Brotherhood fomented protests or on a recruiting mission? His first visit was to a mosque known for its “activists” according to his own report. Connecting the dots – CAIR is directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood’s military wing Hamas.Ahmed Rehab called Wolrdview from Cairo. He’s the executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He flew to Cairo to participate in the protests. He’s representing himself, not CAIR Chicago. Ahmed’s also been blogging about his experiences on the Huffington Post and his own blog, Mindful of Dreams.Hmmmm......Don't talk to the FBI ,talk to the Muslim BrotherHood?Read and see the full story here.

• HT:ChallahHuAkhbar.Wikileaks: Suspect in Hariri Assasination Arrested in Brazil.Sao Paulo State Civil Police arrested Rana Abdel Rahim Koleilat (PDOB Lebanon 23 JAN 1976) on March 12 based on an Interpol warrant for her involvement in the mid-2003 collapse of the Lebanese-based Al-Madina Bank. She is the main suspect in the USD one billion fraud that allegedly involved money laundering for various Islamic extremist groups. Koleilat was arrested in the Parthenon Accor Hotel in the Santana district of Sao Paulo based on an anonymous tip. She had a British passport (suspected to be fake) with her real name, as well an Egyptian passport with the name Fakhriya Mhanna. Read the full story here.

• Pakistan - Student booked in blasphemy case in Karachi.KARACHI: Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan police station has registered a blasphemy case against a student.The police said Muhammad Samiullah, an intermediate student, was arrested on January 28, 2011 on the complaint of chief controller intermediate board, who alleged him for writing derogatory remarks in his answer sheets against Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).He said that Samiullah, who was the resident of Mujtaba Colony Malir Halt, violated the blasphemy laws of the country as he expressed unacceptable remarks against Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in his three answer sheets (Urdu, Islamiat and Physics).When contacted, Qudrat Sher Lodhi, an investigation officer of this case, said that the accused told that he was brainwashed by his cousins, who came from Norway. He said that Samiullah had no any physical or mental illness. He said that further investigation was underway.Hmmmmm.....Welcome to AD 620.Read the full story here.

• California man jailed in alleged attempt to blow up Dearborn mosque.A California man is in jail on a terrorism charge after he was arrested in Dearborn for allegedly trying to blow up the biggest mosque in metro Detroit, Dearborn officials said today.The suspect was arrested in the parking lot of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn on Monday, while hundreds were inside the mosque that sits along Ford Road, police said. He came to the city because of its large Arab-American and Muslim population, police said.Stockham, in jail on a $500,000 bond, drove from California to Dearborn and was caught with a car packed with high-end fireworks. The FBI has been notified about the incident, Haddad said.Roger Stockham, 63, was arraigned Wednesday on one count on a threat of terrorism or false report and one count of explosive-possession of bombs with unlawful intent for possession of Class C fireworks, Dearborn Police said."He's very dangerous," Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad told the Free Press. "We took his threat to be very serious."Haddad said the man was previously known to law enforcement officials in other parts of the country."He's had a long history of being angry with the United States government," Haddad said.An employee at a local bar called police after overhearing violent threats allegedly made by the man, Islamic Center of America Executive Administrator Kassem Allie said. The employee was afraid that Stockham was going to target Muslims or Arabs in the area, he said.Hmmmm....Possession of illegal fireworks?Class C fireworks : a.k.a. Common fireworks !Fireworks in shows are the Class B fireworks!Making a mountain out of a molehill?Read the full story here

• Rome: Protest against Pakistan's blasphemy law.Italian lawmakers and religious associations protested in Rome Wednesday against Pakistan's blasphemy law, calling for the release of a Christian woman sentenced to death under the legislation.Catholic and Jewish associations joined human rights group Amnesty International and representatives of the Pakistani community in Italy in a 100-strong demonstration in front of the Italian parliament."We want this law to be abolished," Pakistani-born Joseph Philip told AFP, explaining that his uncle, a Catholic Bishop, had been killed for his religious beliefs. He said he had come to the protest along with 15 compatriots.Umberto Bossi, head of Italy's anti-immigrant and populist Northern League Party and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's partner in the centre-right coalition, attended Wednesday's protest here."We want to express our solidarity," he told journalists.A delegation from the protest also met Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.Last Thursday the European parliament urged Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon and release Bibi following calls from several countries, international organisations and an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI.Read the full story here.

• Iranian-Dutch woman held after protests hanged for drug smuggling.Netherlands freezes ties with Iran after hanging.The Netherlands has frozen contacts with Iran after Tehran hanged an Iranian-Dutch woman for drug smuggling, having initially arrested her for taking part in anti-government protests."A drug trafficker named Zahra Bahrami, daughter of Ali, was hanged early on Saturday morning after she was convicted of selling and possessing drugs," the Tehran prosecutor's office said.Dutch foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal received official confirmation of the execution on Saturday after summoning the Iranian ambassador at The Hague following news reports, a Dutch foreign affairs ministry spokesman said."The minister was deeply shocked, this was an act committed by a barbaric regime. The fact that Iranian diplomats had told us just on Friday that not all legal avenues had run their course made this even more shocking.""The Netherlands has decided to freeze all contacts with Iran" after obtaining confirmation of Bahrami's execution from Iran's ambassador to the Netherlands Kazem Gharib Abadi, the Dutch spokesman said."This concerns all official contacts between diplomats and civil servants," he added.The Netherlands would raise the issue at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday and would seek measures to be taken against Iran, the spokesman added, without specifying what these measures would be.Read the full story here.

• HT:RefugeeSettlementWatch.So how much does all this cost us?You are probably aware that the last Congress never did pass an Appropriations bill for the fiscal year (FY 2011) that we began on October 1st, 2010 and is about to take up the matter with votes expected in mid February. Although the Constitution says that all money bills must originate in the House of Representatives, at the end of the 111th Congress the US Senate was actually driving the appropriations debate with a draft Appropriations bill.According to the blog McEvHill the following is a summary of the spending that was proposed in the last Congress for Refugee and Asylee programs (McEvHill doesn’t seem to have links for the individual posts which makes finding things very difficult, you need to go here and scroll down to the story on January 5th). The new House of Representatives is proposing an appropriations cut which takes the spending back to 2008 levels.The grand total cost of the Refugee program as proposed by the Senate is just over $2,500,000,000 (that is billions!), while 2008 levels would take it down a half billion to around $2 billion.Granted, some of this funding gets sent abroad—like that ERMA money ($20 million) that Obama sent to the Palestinians in 2009, here, but this means that with about 100,000 combined refugees and asylees we admit each year the cost of this program could be more than $20,000 per refugee ($100,000 for a family of 4?). You know the refugees aren’t getting much so you can see why this is such a cash cow for the immigration industry (including the UN, by the way).And, that number does not include the cost to cities and states for health care, education, public housing, public safety and so on.Who benefits the most? Volags like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (which lobbies for more legal immigration and for amnesty for illegal immigrants) and big companies who need cheap labor like Tyson Foods benefit.What is that expression again? Doing well by doing good?Hmmmmm......."I will not rest before every American is unemployed"?Read the full story here.

• Children’s Theater Adds ‘Decapitating Sarah Palin’ To Kids Play.Ah, there we have it. That little flourish added by this nice, new tone lefty children’s theater director in Missoula was a joke about beheading Sarah Palin. It’s hilarious, no? A scream, no doubt.Of course, what a reference to beheading Sarah Palin is doing in a play written in 1885 featuring a story set in medieval Japan is anybody’s guess. But, hey, we have that wonderful new tone and everything going for us still, right?Hmmmm......."Together We Thrive"?Read the full story here.

• Brooklyn College Revokes Instructor’s Appointment to Teach Mideast Politics.Last fall, it was an assigned book that brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict home to Brooklyn College. A wealthy alumnus said he was cutting the college out of his will because all incoming freshmen had been asked to read “How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America,” by Moustafa Bayoumi, a professor there.This week, it was a course — a graduate seminar on Middle East politics scheduled for the spring semester. The focus of the dispute was the adjunct professor who had been appointed to teach it, a doctoral student whose writings raised hackles even before he set foot in the classroom. On Thursday, the professor, Kristofer Petersen-Overton, said he had learned a day earlier that the college was rescinding his appointment, saying he lacked the academic qualifications to teach such a high-level course. But the timing of that decision has led Mr. Petersen-Overton and others to question whether the decisive factor might have been politics. Earlier in the week, Dov Hikind, a Democratic state assemblyman from Brooklyn, wrote to the college president and to the chancellor of the City University of New York, which includes Brooklyn College, to express alarm about the “slanted nature” of the professor’s works. In an interview, Mr. Hikind, who himself has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in political science from Brooklyn College, said he had spent 20 hours reading Mr. Petersen-Overton’s work and studying his Web site and syllabus. “Everything I read was incredibly one-sided,” Mr. Hikind said. “It was all about Israel being the bad guys in every way. He’s entitled to anything he wants to say, but if he’s going to go into a graduate course in my neighborhood, I just want a guy who’s going to be fair.”Hmmmm......"It was all about Israel being the bad guys in every way".Read the full story here.