MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Iran bans production of Valentine's Day gifts.'Honoring foreign celebrations is the spread of Western culture,' says head of printing works owners' union. Ban covers cards, boxes with symbols of hearts, red roses.Iran has banned the production of Valentine's Day gifts and any promotion of the day celebrating romantic love to combat what it sees as a spread of Western culture, Iranian media reported. The Feb. 14 celebration named after a Christian saint is not officially banned but hardliners have repeatedly warned about the corruptive spread of Western values. Under Iran's Islamic law, unmarried couples are not allowed to mingle. The printing works owners' union issued an instruction on the ban, imposed by Iranian authorities, covering gifts such as cards, boxes with the symbols of hearts and red roses. "Honoring foreign celebrations is the spread of Western culture," said the union's head, Ali Nikou Sokhan, ILNA news agency reported. "Our country has an ancient civilization and various days to honor kindness, love and affection."Some nationalists have suggested replacing Valentine's Day with "Mehregan", an Iranian festival celebrated since the pre-Islamic era. Mehr means friendship, affection or love.Hmmm....Actually Mithra is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) of covenant and oath.In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth, and the guardian of cattle, the harvest and of The Waters. Sorry No "Friendship,affection or love" just business?We had this story earlier here at MFS - Jan 03 2011.Read the full story here.

• BREAKING NEWS: Two students injured after shootings at L.A. high school.A teenage student was arrested today after two classmates were injured in a bizarre gun accident at a California school.The 18-year-old student brought a gun in a backpack to Gardena High School, a suburb of Los Angeles, and it reportedly went off by mistake when he dropped the bag on a desk.One 15-year-old female classmate was hit in the head and was undergoing emergency surgery. Her condition was described as critical.The shooting was reported at 10.30am local time. Gardena police and Los Angeles Unified School District police officers are on the scene.A second student, a 15-year-old male, was also hit in the neck by the bullet and was said to be stable in hospital.It is understood that both injuries came from a single bullet. The would be gunman fled to a nearby classroom.TV news pictures showed police subduing the teen, dressed all in black, outside a classroom door.The student who brought the gun to school said he was sorry after the gun discharged according to Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon. A teacher in the classroom said it appeared to be an accident.He emerged after several apparent hostages left the room.A teacher is being credited with talking to the student inside a classroom and persuading him to cooperate with police.Read the full story here.

• Russian President in First-Ever Visit to PA.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reassured Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday that his country recognizes the PA as a state. He is on his first-ever visit to the PA, but an Israeli Foreign Ministry strike prevented the preparations for his planned trip to Israel and has barred him from meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.Media touted Medvedev’s recognition, but it was déjà vu. "Russia stated its position on this issue in the 1980s, in the last century, and we fully support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to the establishment of an independent, united and viable state with east Jerusalem as its capital," the Russian leader said in Jericho, where he dedicated a Russian-funded museum.Medvedev is scheduled to meet with Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday. The PA is counting on Russia to join several Latin American countries who have announced their recognition of the PA based on its demands for sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria that were restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Only Chile did not mention borders in its recognition announcement.Following Abbas' failure to force Israel's acceptance of all his preconditions and demands before negotiations begin, he is turning to the United Nations.The PA’s first step in its new strategy is to ask the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution declaring that all Jewish communities in areas claimed by the Palestinian Authority are illegal settlements, although this is not so according to international law. The Council may discuss the resolution this week.PA leaders rejected U.S. President Barack Obama’s opposition to the unilateral move, which in effect is an official rejection of the “peace process” and leaves all the conflicts unsolved. However, the United States has not announced whether or not it will veto the resolution.Hmmmmm....Any bets?"They don't trust me because of my middle name".Read the full story here.

• IDF to protect equipment, arms in mountain bunkers. Army studies methods of using topography to safeguard critical supplies against incoming missiles.In an effort to protect sensitive equipment and advanced munitions, the IDF has drawn up intricate plans to dig massive bunkers inside mountains throughout the country to thwart enemy missile fire, The Jerusalem Post has learned.The multi-million-dollar plan was created by the IDF’s Logistics and Technology Directorate, and is set to receive a dedicated budget from the General Staff in the military’s next multi-year plan – expected to go into effect in 2012.Under the plan, next year the IDF will begin building a relatively small bunker of several thousand square meters inside a mountain whose location is classified. If the project is successful, it will enter the next phase, which includes building several more bunkers over the next few years.Following the Second Lebanon War against Hizbullah in 2006 – and amid predictions that IDF bases will be targeted in a future conflict – the Logistics and Technology Directorate formulated the plan, dubbed “Operational Continuity.” Its primary objective is to disperse important equipment into mountain bunkers across the country.“We work under the assumption that in the next war, IDF bases will be targeted,” a senior officer said on Monday.“At the same time, we need to be able to continue to supply troops who will be operating behind enemy lines, and have a limited amount of supplies with them.”The army will also bolster protection of sensitive locations – such as warehouses where advanced weapons are stored. Bunkers inside mountains could serve as an alternative to open bases, the officer said.An IDF delegation recently visited a number of countries that uses similar bunker systems, including South Korea.Hmmmmm.....Something tells me this is a case of too little and way too late.Read the full story here.

• HT:AuburnJournal.The T-Hawk drone Coming to a City Near You?A post not about left/right but about freedom and privacy. Municipal law enforcement have a great new expensive toy. Predator Drones once used for combat operations in war torn areas of the world are now scaled for retail consumption and being deployed in US cities to spy on its own citizens. Welcome to 1984. These are not the big super expensive drones used in Afghanistan and they dont carry weapons, but they are quite the spy in the sky tool. [..]The Miami-Dade Police Department could soon become the first police department in the country to employ unmanned drones, a technology that until now has been used for official purposes only in war zones and along the country's border. The department acquired two T-Hawk Micro Air Vehicles, manufactured by Honeywell, in August 2009, and has been testing and training with them since. It is now in the third phase of a three-phase testing program, and plans to apply soon to the FAA for final approval to use the drones in operations. Unlike the famous Predator-B drones, which have been used to kill militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, T-Hawks are much smaller, carry no weapons and are intended for short, targeted tasks. Cohen said each T-Hawk is approximately the size of a "small office garbage can." On its website, Honeywell boasts that the T-Hawk is "a combat-proven unmanned micro air vehicle that can be quickly deployed. T-Hawk is easy to assemble and can be airborne within 10 minutes. It is simple to fly with minimal training. With unique hover and stare capability, T-Hawk supports advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) with real time video documentation." According to the company, T-Hawks can fly as high as 10,000 feet, at speeds up up to 50 miles per hour, with 46 minutes of endurance.There comes a point when spying on your own citizens becomes overtly invasive. Have you flown lately? Get your "freedom grope" by TSA? This is no longer about fighting terrorism this is about taking away basic civil rights even in the privacy of your own home. [..]Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home. Mark Summerton and Kevin Judge, from Sefton Council, Merseyside, trained a street camera into the woman's flat [..]The images from the camera, including the woman without her clothes on, were shown on a large plasma screen in the council's CCTV control room in November 2004, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Over several hours, she was filmed cuddling her boyfriend before undressing, using the toilet, having a bath and watching television dressed only in a towel. The arguments that have been going on the last several days about Loughner being a lefty or a righty is simply reprehensible. What does it matter? The only thing that matters is the reaction politicians will have to take away more of your freedoms. In the wake of 9/11 such benign excuses were also used during the passage of draconian bills such as FISA and the Patriot Act before it was revealed the much more insidious and rampant applications of those tools. Spying on its own citizens is the new game in town. What is the latest program from DHS? "If you see something, Say something"It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also 'perch and stare' from a solid platform, allowing the operator to capture hours of footage from a hidden vantage point. Are we any safer? Or is it that really the end purpose? Hmmmm......"Together we thrive" while spying on the citizens? Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.US: Rev. Terry Jones to hold 'Judge the Quran Day'.The Rev. Terry Jones, who made an international name for himself last year when he announced he was going to burn the Quran at his Gainesville church, now is staging an "International Judge the Quran Day.""Yes, we're going to do it," Jones said on a YouTube address announcing the event. "We have decided to do it on March 20 starting at 6 p.m. It's your opportunity, all you so-called peaceful Muslims. On that day the Quran will be put on trial."We are accusing the Quran of murder, rape, deception," he said, "and being responsible for terrorist activities all over the world."Basically, it's a trial, he told a Tampa Bay audience on WFLA-AM 970 this morning. Judgment day will take place on the grounds of his church, the Dove World Outreach Center."We are challenging the Muslim world to defend the Quran, he said on the radio show."They say the Quran is a book of peace and a religion of peace," he said. "We are asking them to present to us a defense person who will try to defend the Quran."He called the book "evil."He said a jury of about 30 people, made up of Christians and Muslims, will decide."If found guilty," he said, "there are four forms of punishment: burning, drowning, shredding or firing squad."Jones' website, Stand Up America, contains a survey on which visitors can pick a punishment.Hmmmmm......What?......C'Mon....No stoning?Read the full story here.

• Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’.A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.The scientists built a model that showed a storm could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state. The storm would be goaded on by an "atmospheric river" that would move water "at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the Gulf of Mexico," according to the AP. Winds could reach 125 miles per hour, and landslides could compound the damage, the report notes.Such a superstorm is hypothetical but not improbable, climate researchers warn. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes," Geological Survey scientist Lucy Jones said in a press release.Hmmmm.....Lets name it "Obama II"?Read the full story here.

• Turkish President to visit Iran.Turkish President Abdullah Gul is scheduled to pay a visit to Iran, in line with the two neighbors' determination to promote bilateral ties, Iran's caretaker foreign minister says.“Iran and Turkey have close relations and as such there's a need for frequent consultations at different levels,” IRNA quoted Ali Akbar Salehi as saying in Ankara on Monday.The Iranian official further said that President Gul's upcoming visit to Tehran underlines the large extent of cooperation between the two countries.Salehi, who is on a one-day visit to Ankara also pointed out that Iran and Turkey are progressing toward peace, stability and security and seek similar objectives in the region.He made a reference to the trade volume between Iran and its northwestern neighbor and said efforts are underway to boost the trade level from last year's $10 billion to $30 billion in near future.(Sanctions that bite)Iran says the political situation in Lebanon should be dealt with regionally, urging extra-regional countries to refrain from interfering in matters pertaining to the Middle East.“This is a regional issue that has to be dealt with regionally. We don't see any benefit that outside players can win as they do not expect that we have … some say in their developments so it's very natural that we also expect that they stay aside,” Salehi said at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara, Turkey.The Iranian official expressed regret that the Saudi-Syria initiative aimed at easing political tensions in Lebanon failed due to what he described as foreign interference and voiced his optimism for reconsideration of the plan.Hmmmm.....We can't expect pres Obama to say anything about Turkey's "conduct" he's busy "Thriving". But at least NATO should speak up and get Turkey out of their ranks!Read the full story here.

• HT:IBloga- Epaminondas.Us Intelligence Failures Continue to be MANIFEST, STRATEGICALLY.China stealth fighter test highlights latest in string of U.S. intel failures.East-Asia-Intel.com, January 12, 2011The head of the Office of Naval Intelligence disclosed last week yet another in a long line of intelligence failures on China’s military, this time revealing Beijing’s faster-than anticipated development of a stealth fighter.The failure follows the U.S. intelligence community’s underestimation of more than a dozen Chinese military capabilities, ranging from new and quieter submarines to long-range cruise missiles and other asymmetric warfare capabilities.Vice Adm. David Dorsett, director of Naval Intelligence, told a group of defense reporters last week that Internet photos and video showing a runway test of a new Chinese stealth fighter, dubbed the J-20, was not a surprise, but “the speed at which they are making progress, we underestimated.”“Across a broad array of weapons systems, they are making progress,” the three-star admiral said.“They’ve entered operational capability quicker than we frequently project,” Dorsett said. “We’ve been on the mark on an awful lot of our assessments, but there have been a handful of things we’ve underestimated.”Pentagon spokesman Marine Col. Dave Lapan said recent photos of a new Chinese jet show “taxiing tests” on a prototype aircraft apparently photographed by people who saw it pass by.“This is evidence that a fifth-generation fighter program is proceeding,” Lapan said. “However, progress appears to be uneven: Open-source reports show that China has been seeking jet engines for its fourth-generation fighter from Russia, indicating that they are still encountering some difficulties in working toward fifth-generation capabilities,” he said.The jet is expected to rival the U.S. F-22 superfighter whose production was frozen by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates after 187 jets were built. In scrapping the F-22, Gates stated publicly that one reason for his decision was that the Chinese would not deploy a comparable jet until 2020, thus more F-35 jets would be built instead of the F-22.Richard Fisher, a military analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center who was among the first to spot the J-20 photos months ago, said the aircraft is manufactured by the Chengdu Aircraft Co.“Chengdu’s goal is to beat the F-22 and then build their own F-35 when the 18-ton thrust engine is ready. It is a full challenge to the U.S. strategy for air power,” Fisher said.Hmmmm....."The Obama Story" how America was lost?Read the full story here.

• Missiles off target in major Taiwan drill.Taiwan held a major missile drill Tuesday just days after rival China unveiled an aircraft that uses stealth technology, but several misses spoiled the exercise.Before an audience that included President Ma Ying-jeou, five out of 19 missiles failed to hit their targets at the Chiupeng military base in the island's south. A sixth failed to explode after hitting its target."It's within our predictions, but of course there's room for improvement," said air force Lieutenant General Pan Kung-hsiao, when asked to comment about the missiles that went astray.Ma, however, was less forgiving, telling journalists that the military should get to the bottom of the failures."I'm not very satisfied," Ma said. "Some missiles missed the targets, and we need to review whether these errors were mechanical or human. We also need to hold more drills to boost military capabilities.""All the weapons tested today were defensive in nature," Ma said. "We don't seek wars, rather we want to prevent them from happening."Among the weapon systems tested Tuesday were Taiwan's Tien Kung, or "Sky Bow" surface-to-air missiles, French-made Mica and Magic air-to-air missiles and US-made Hawk surface-to-air missiles.Military authorities said the drill was launched only after they were certain that no Chinese spy ships were near the coastal missile base.Hmmmmm......Don't you feel much safer after reading this?Read the full story here.

• HT:PiBillWarner.Inspire’s American Editor Samir Khan Gives Blueprint for Destroying Buildings Using Gas Lines And Info On The AK-47 In 4th Edition ,See Photos, Samir Khan Needs To Be Terminated.NEW YORK — The latest edition of al Qaeda’s English-language web magazine offers readers a new fatwa from American-born jihadi leader Anwar al-Awlaki, instructions on how to destroy buildings using gas lines, and a primer on the AK-47 rifle, in what is Inspire’s slickest production to date.In this edition, Yemeni-American radical cleric Awlaki issues a religious justification for taking money and property from Americans and citizens of other Western nations. Awlaki is at the top of the U.S. government’s “kill list” because of his operational involvement in AQAP.Read and see the full story here.Read it all Pdf :Inspire.

• HT:StopStoningNow.The Islamic Regime of Iran is to execute two young men for homosexuality by stoning.According to the news we have received Ayub and Mosleh, 20 and 21 years old, are in danger of execution by stoning in the city of Piranshahr in the province of Kurdistan. The two young men are currently imprisoned in the city of Orumieh. They have been accused of having and filming homosexual relations. Pictures of President Ahmadinejad were incorporated into the film and loaded onto their mobile telephones. In additions, headshots of Khamenei pasted over a donkey were also found on the mobiles.This film fell into the hands of the regime’s agents in Piranshahr who immediately ordered the young men’s execution by stoning to instill fear in the people of Iran. The news indicates that they will be stoned this Friday, Jan 21st 2011.The International Committee Against Stoning calls for immediate action to protest the Islamic Regime’s medieval and brutal sentence against these two young men.Read the full story here.

• Video Shows Women Climbing U.S.-Mexico Border Fence in Less Than 18 Seconds.Less than 18 seconds. That's how long it took two young women to climb a U.S.-Mexico border fence that costs millions of dollars in taxpayer money.In a video shot by filmmaker Roy Germano, two women show how easy it is to reach the top by climbing the fence's concrete-filled steel pipes in less than 18 seconds, MyFoxHouston.com reports.The video -- which asks the question "Is it worth the expense?" -- was shown to an immigrant advocate who acknowledged that the portion of fence in question is poorly designed. The barrier costs taxpayers on average about $4 million per mile of border fence, according to the station."Huge amounts of money being poured into this, and we haven't really seen progress," Houston immigrant advocate Cesar Espinosa told the station."We need to have a combination of high technology predator drones. We need additional manpower along the border, and then where appropriate we need to build these double-layered secure fences to actually secure the border," Espinosa said.Hmmmm....The US Border,So hard to cross, that any fit girl can cross it?Read and see the full story here.

• Turkey's deputy PM refutes genocide allegations.Turkey's deputy prime minister said on Sunday that Turkey did not comment genocide against Armenians.He was speaking at a meeting of the Justice & Development (AK) Party in Dortyol, a town in the southern province of Hatay.Commenting on Armenian allegations on the incidents of 1915, Deputy PM and State Minister Bulent Arinc said, "We have never been the children of a nation that made massacre or genocide, there is no such murder in our history."“We did not perpetrate genocide like other countries. It would be better for those speaking of genocide to cite an example of Bosnia,” he continued.Arinc said that Armenians had been full-fledged members of Turkish society and took seats in the parliament of Ottoman Turkey. “However, during World War I, Armenians took arms and we were forced to deport them. For 90 years we have been accused of killing two million Armenians because of these events,” Turkish daily Zaman reported the deputy PM as saying.Armenia's accusation that Turkey committed genocide against its Armenian population in 1915 is a major subject of disagreement between the two countries.Hmmmmm.....Erdogan"Muslims don't commit Genocide".Read the full story here.

• Turkey's intervention 'may cause new Caucasus war'.News.Az interviews Prof. Alla Yazkova, head of the Centre for Black Sea–Mediterranean Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe.Most experts agree that 2010 was a year of missed opportunities for a Karabakh settlement. Do you share this opinion?The results of the official visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Baku were more definite in terms of Azerbaijan’s interests, since the parties signed a treaty on strategic partnership and mutual assistance on 16 August 2010 during the visit. All the same, the Turkish president hinted at a possible forced solution to the protracted conflict.The risk of Turkey’s interference with a regional re-division of the Caucasus in the absence of real guarantees of stability from the US side may cause a new Caucasus war, which would pose Moscow some scarcely manageable challenges. Russia’s strategic ally, Armenia, was also caught at the junction of external threats, since an open anti-Russian campaign started there at the information level in August. It could easily have got out of control in early September, when incidents on the contact line became almost daily, so it was important build a system of checks and balances in order to prevent the uncontrolled expansion of the conflict.Hmmmm.....Turkey and Iran the new two "Bullies"or "Buddies" of the Middle East?Read the full story here.