MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Egypt volatile situation : Mubarak 'steps down as NDP head'  - Al Jazeera English - Live Streams From Egypt ! Here .
• Egypt protests on Twitter!  here.
  
• Video - Mubarak 'steps down as NDP head'.Protesters in Tahrir Square demand Hosni Mubarak resign as president as he gives up leadership of ruling party.Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has stepped down as chairman of the country's ruling party, as tens of thousands of protesters are standing their ground in Cairo a day after hundreds of thousands of people gathered calling for him to quit.State television reported that Mubarak stepped down, along with the rest of the National Democratic Party's (NDP) top leadership, on Saturday.Hossam Badrawi has been appointed the new secretary-general of the party, according to state television. He replaces Safwat El-Sherif, a Mubarak loyalist, in that post.Badrawi will also replace Gamal Mubarak, Mubarak's son, as head of the party's political bureau."It is quite significant, it means the pressures on the regime are gaining some response ... but not enough," Omar Ashour, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.However, Ashour said that the move is unlikely to satisfy protesters, who have demanded that Mubarak leave office as president.He said the resignations are a "cosmetic" move, and that they were "like trying to treat a cancer with a pair of aspirin".Read and see the full story here.

• HT:TheExaminer.J.Simpson.We are witnessing the collapse of the Middle East.If Egypt should fall, it will mark the beginning of the end for what little remaining stability there is in the Middle East. Jordan is facing similar unrest, as is Algeria and Yemen. Lebanon and Tunisia fell in January. It is highly unlikely that these events are unrelated. A combination of leftist and Islamist forces provoked the protests, and we are likely looking at a ring of radical Islamic states rising up to surround Israel.Once their power is solidified, they will combine forces to attack Israel. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood has already said that Egypt should prepare for war with Israel. If Israel falls, the United States will stand alone in a sea of virulent enemies and impotent allies.So who does Obama support, Mubarak or his enemies?Obama wasted no time in telling us. He supports Mubarak’s opponents, and probably has been all along. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that the Obama administration favors a role for the Muslim Brotherhood in a new Egyptian government.The Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest extremist Muslim organization, is behind practically every Muslim terrorist organization ever formed. And while they may have publicly renounced violence as the LA Times article claims, internal documents tell a completely different picture.And if that weren’t bad enough, Obama’s latest comment to Egypt’s leader is that “…an orderly transition …must begin now.”Must begin. Now.Simply stunning.Juxtapose Obama’s statements toward our allies with his reaction to the genuine uprising that occurred last year in Iran. Tunisia: “Reform or be overthrown.” Egypt: “…an orderly transition …must begin now.” Iran: “It is not productive… to be seen as meddling." Meanwhile, candidate Obama claimed the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah have “legitimate claims,” and we all remember his mindless Counterterrorism Czar, John Brennan, reaching out to “moderate” Hezbollah members last spring. Hezbollah moderates.The seeming inconsistency is astonishing. Unfortunately, there is a consistency. Obama uniformly sides with our enemies, but rarely, if ever our friends and allies. His administration is packed with far left radicals and vicious anti-Semites. And therein lies the rub, because what we are witnessing in reality is this President’s un-American, anti-American, treasonous ideology in full play.If their street revolutions are successful, these Middle Eastern countries will rapidly degenerate into radical Muslim thugocracies, allied with our communist enemies. Israel will be the first target and with Obama’s radically anti-Israel orientation, they will stand alone. We will be next. One is left to wonder if Obama will then stand to defend the country he swore to, or if he will be out in the streets with his fellow radical leftists burning American flags.My bet is he will be in the street.Hmmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name"and a million other things!Read the full story here.

• Egypt protests: Vice president Omar Suleiman survives 'assassination attempt'.Egypt is on the verge of descending into chaos as newly appointed vice president Omar Suleiman reportedly survived an assassination attempt and saboteurs allegedly attacked an oil pipeline. The balance of power hangs precariously as demonstrations against president Hosni Mubarak enter their 12th day - and the army is beginning to reassert control on the streets. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to confirm the alarming reports of an 'organised attack' on Omar Suleiman. Two of his bodyguards were said to have been killed in the incident several days ago.The pipeline attack has been linked to Islamist militants and, along with the apparent assassination attempt, represents a frightening new element in the popular uprising that has seen one of the U.S.'s greatest Middle Eastern allies descend into chaos.The head of Egypt's natural gas company, Magdy Toufik, said today that the explosion and fire at a gas terminal in the northern Sinai Peninsula was caused by a gas leak. There were no reported casualties from the fire, but officials had to shut off the flow of gas to neighbouring Jordan and Israel to contain the blaze. Earlier, a regional governor in the Sinai, Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, told Egyptian media he suspected sabotage, but did not explain further.Al-Qaeda linked groups have reportedly been urging Islamic militants to take advantage of the situation in Egypt to launch attacks.Of the pipeline incident, state TV quoted an official as saying that the 'situation is very dangerous and explosions were continuing from one spot to another' along the pipeline. 'It is a big terrorist operation.'Hmmmm......And so it has begun!Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:IsraelSeen.Muslim Brotherhood Statements Foster Confusion.This analysis by IPT and Barry Rubin Reports on the Syrian and Egyptian situation It’s no wonder world leaders don’t know what to make of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group’s leaders can’t even reach consensus amongst themselves.Amidst the chaos of what is being dubbed the Papyrus Revolution, the leaders of Egypt’s primary opposition party are taking to the airwaves worldwide in droves. From the United States to the United Kingdom, and Russia to Japan, senior Brotherhood members are being questioned about how they would manage the Egyptian state should they accede to power in the aftermath of President Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party. Of primary concern to many is the Brotherhood’s stance on women’s rights, the implementation of Islamic law, policies toward Egypt’s sizeable Coptic Christian minority, and its projected plan for relations (or a lack thereof) with its neighbor, Israel.On that last issue, the Brothers just can’t seem to project a unified message.A Must Read !Read the full story here.

• Report: Blast in Egypt church near Gaza border.Eye witnesses say they saw smoke, several armed men around empty church in Rafah. No injuries reported. An explosion hit a church in Rafah, near the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, but the source and the scale of the blast were not immediately clear, witnesses said on Saturday.Witnesses said they saw several armed men around the church but it was not clear whether they were involved. Smoke rose from the Mari Gerges church, which was empty of people, they added.Egyptian officials had earlier blamed the Gaza-based Army of Islam for a New Year's Day church bombing in Alexandria that killed 23 people. The group denied the charge.Read the full story here.

• Turkey, US share 'identical views' on Egypt, says Turkish FM.Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Saturday that Turkey and the United States share "100 percent identical views" about Egypt.However, Turkey believes that it is not the time to discuss pushing forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Davutoğlu told reporters ahead of his talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.However, Davutoğlu appeared to diverge with Washington when he said "it's better not to talk about Israel-Palestine now. They are separate issues."Clinton was due to join EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss efforts to revive the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.The four represent the international Quartet on the Middle East.Hmmmm.....Erdogan and Obama working together, Israel better prepare to be stabbed in the back big time!Great Turkey the worst human rights violator and Obama think alike?Read the full story here.

• Israel Worries About Gas Pipeline.TEL AVIV—Turmoil in Egypt is fanning concern in Israel that a new government in Cairo might shut down the natural-gas pipeline that fuels as much as one-fourth of Israel's electricity network.At stake is a major economic link between the Middle Eastern allies, a 20-year supply agreement that yielded about $300 million for Egypt last year and reduces Israel's energy costs.Political risks are front and center for the first time since the gas deal was signed by the two governments in 2005 as an annex to their 1979 peace agreement. Israel's national infrastructure minister in recent days highlighted the urgency of speeding development of recently discovered Israeli offshore gas reserves. So far, gas supply to Israel has been unaffected by the upheaval. Many observers believe that economic interests will trump politics and that any future Egyptian regime will be reluctant to abandon the 2005 export agreement that is expected to triple in value in the next five years.But with uncertainty at a peak, Israelis are mulling a worst-case scenario in which a new Egyptian leadership influenced by radical Islamist parties calls into question the supply deal and the peace agreement."I think that for the time being it's business as usual, but there are big concerns about what the outcome of all these riots will be," said Guil Bashan, an equity analyst at Israel Brokerage & Investments Ltd., who follows the energy sector. "If it is a government that it not pro-Western, the peace process as a whole is in jeopardy and, as a consequence, the gas purchase agreement as well."Israel is shifting its electricity generation plants from coal to natural gas, which is cheaper and cleaner. Israel is expected to get 6 billion cubic meters, or half of its natural gas supplies, from Egypt this year.The other half comes from an Israel's Yam Thetis offshore field. The field is expected to run dry by 2014, and that would leave Israel totally dependent on Egypt for gas unless infrastructure is prepared to tap another Israeli offshore field, Tamar, that was discovered in 2009.Tamar is a venture that includes Israeli mogul Yitzhak Tshuva and Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. The partners announced in December discovery of gas at another field, Leviathan, the largest gas find in the last decade.Earlier this week, Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau huddled with energy industry executives to encourage them to speed delivery of gas from the offshore fields.Competition from Egyptian and Israeli suppliers keeps fuel costs down. Speculation about a gas cutoff that would enable Israeli companies to charge more for their gas has boosted those companies' share values. Shares in one of the companies, Avner Oil Exploration LP, rose 4% this week.Hmmmm........." Apart ca tout va bien"?Read the full story here.

• Related - Egyptian official says blast caused by gas leak.(Video) Israel Radio says Egypt-Israel pipeline not damaged, but gas supply stopped as precaution. PMO: We're prepared for such situations. The head of Egypt's natural gas company said a fire at a gas terminal in the northern Sinai Peninsula was caused by a gas leak.Saturday's fire, preceded by an explosion, did not cause casualties. However, officials had to shut off the flow of gas to neighboring Jordan and Israel to contain the blaze.The head of the Egyptian company for natural gas, Magdy Toufik, said in a statement that the fire broke out "as a result of a small amount of gas leaking."Earlier state television said saboteurs blew up the gas pipeline in north Sinai in what its reporter referred to as a "big terrorist operation."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "is prepared for situations in which the supply of gas from Egypt is stopped, and we have the option of immediately switching to alternative energy sources."Netanyahu met with Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau and security establishment officials to discuss the attack in Egypt. The Infrastructure Ministry said its does not expect any disruptions in the supply of electricity.Hmmmmm........"to discuss the attack in Egypt"?Read the full story here.More here.

• EGYPT: Pentagon moving warships, preparing for possible evacuations.The Pentagon is moving U.S. warships and other military assets to make sure it is prepared in case evacuation of U.S. citizens from Egypt becomes necessary, officials said Friday.The Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship carrying 700 to 800 troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and the Ponce have arrived in the Red Sea, putting them off Egypt’s shores in case the situation worsens.Pentagon officials emphasized that military intervention in Egypt was not being contemplated and that the warships were being moved only for contingency purposes in case evacuations became necessary.In addition, the aircraft carrier Enterprise is in the eastern Mediterranean. The Pentagon originally announced that the carrier was heading through the Suez Canal for the Arabian Gulf, but the crisis in Egypt appears to have prompted a decision to keep it in the Mediterranean at least temporarily.Read the full story here.

• White House: No offshore drilling permits without more details.The Obama administration’s top offshore drilling enforcer Friday asked major oil producers operating in the Gulf of Mexico to provide more details on plans to contain oil spills and runaway wells before the federal government will issue new permits to drill there.The letters from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich come amid criticism from energy producers and their congressional allies that the administration is slow-walking new offshore drilling permits in the wake of last year’s historic BP Gulf of Mexico spill.Hmmmmm.....What we have here is a Dictator forcing his way on the people.Obama has even indicated he wants higher gas prices in order to force Americans to turn to his green energy agenda.Democracy or Dictatorship?Perhaps it's time for the people to start demonstrating in the streets just like in Egypt?Read the full story here.

• HT:Investigativeproject.Islamist Win in Egypt Would Jeopardize U.S. Military, Intelligence Assets.The United States would lose vital military assets if Egypt fell to radical Islamists, experts on military and intelligence issues say."Let me count the ways," retired U.S. Army Col. Ken Allard told The Washington Times when asked about the potential damage. "They are our biggest strategic partner in the Middle East. At that point, you've lost your biggest Arab partner. Geostrategically, the mind boggles."With a hostile regime in Egypt, the United States would likely lose access to the Suez Canal, which sharply reduces the amount of time it takes for U.S. warships to reach the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Egypt receives upwards of $1 billion annually in U.S. military aid. Other U.S. allies in the region send their own personnel to Egypt to participate in an exercise called Bright Star to practice ground operations, urban warfare and air assaults."The biggest threat is that rather than having an ally in Mubarak, who has helped keep a lid on radical jihadists in Egypt at this pivotal crossroads, you may have a government that facilitates radical jihadists throughout the region and as a potential export location to other parts of the world, primarily into Europe," said former Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.Allard expressed concern that a growing number of Egyptian military officers are sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.Hmmmm.......Great job Mr President,if he really wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• London embassy protesters demand sharia law amid continuing chaos in Egypt.Protesters waving placards calling for Islamic law to be imposed in Egypt have demonstrated outside the country's embassy in London.For several days, a peaceful protest has seen hundreds of ex-patriots and supporters of regime change mass outside the embassy in the centre of the capital.Today, brandishing signs such as 'democracy will bring oppression' and 'Islam is the solution for Egypt', women in burkas were joined by men in traditional dress for a rally calling for sharia law to be imposed.Behind barricades, holding flags aloft, they faced a line of uniformed police in the quiet streets of central London, far from the chaos of Tahrir - Liberation - Square in Cairo.A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'There are approximately 300 people there, all cooperative and good-natured.Hmmm......How Britain regrets the days of Churchill.Read the full story here.

• Muslims must embrace our British values, David Cameron says.British Muslims must subscribe to mainstream values of freedom and equality, David Cameron declared that the doctrine of multiculturalism has “failed” and will be abandoned.Entering the debate on national identity and religious tolerance, the Prime Minister declared an end to “passive tolerance” of divided communities, and say that members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values. To be British is to believe in freedom of speech and religion, democracy and equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality, he will say. Proclaiming a doctrine of “muscular liberalism”, he said that everyone, from ministers to ordinary voters, should actively confront those who hold extremist views. He warned that groups that fail to promote British values will no longer receive public money or be able to engage with the state. His speech, to an international security conference in Munich, comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed the extent to which the British intelligence community fears the “unique threat” of terrorist attacks by radicalised British Muslims. Mr Cameron promised a new willingness to argue against and “defeat” extremist ideologies that lead some to engage in terrorism.That means abandoning the notion that different communities should be able to live according to their own values and traditions as long as they stay within the law. “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream,” Mr Cameron said. “We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.” All Britons should believe in basic values of freedom and equality, and actively promote them, he said. That means ensuring that immigrants learn to speak English and that all schools teach “elements of a common culture and curriculum”. The Prime Minister accepted that multiculturalism has left some members of the white community feeling unfairly treated. Racism and intolerance are “rightly” condemned, he said. “But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious, frankly too fearful, to stand up to them.”Mr Cameron will drew a clear distinction between “Islamist extremism” as a political ideology, and the Islamic faith itself. “We need to be clear: Islamic extremism and Islam are not the same thing,” he said.Hmmm.....Finally it seems the EDL their message is being heard?Read the full story here.More here.

• Hate on the streets: Massive police operation as far-right group descends on town in protest against 'extreme Islam'.Thousands of English Defence League (EDL) supporters descended on the town that spawned the far-right movement for an inflammatory protest today.The far-right street protest movement opposes what it sees as the spread of Sharia law and militant Islam in England. The group gathered in Luton, where counter-demonstrations have been organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and sections of the town's Muslim community.A massive police operation has been launched with more than a thousand officers on the streets at a cost of more than £800,000. So far, one arrest has been made.The demonstration was taking place just hours after Prime Minster David Cameron delivered a speech in Munich in which he declared that multiculturalism had failed in the UK and he called for a 'muscular liberalism' that challenges Islamist extremism more forcefully.Senior EDL members claim more than 4,000 supporters from across Britain and overseas will converge on Luton for a march and rally.The event has been billed with the slogan 'Back to Where It All Began' alongside images of EDL members in balaclavas.Founder Stephen Lennon, 28, said yesterday he was warned his life was in danger if he led the protest.The militant anti-Islamist firebrand claimed he has been issued a so-called Osman warning by Bedfordshire Police and is under police protection.Bedfordshire Police, which have been preparing for the demonstration for weeks, declined to comment on Mr Lennon's claim.EDL supporters walked from High Town to St George's Square today.UAF will meet at the same time in Park Square, at the other end of the town's shopping centre.Sales of alcohol from pubs and off-licences will stop from noon and police expect some shops to close voluntarily.Hundreds of police in overalls and carrying riot helmets, supported by mounted officers and dog units, will be on duty.Speaking about the demonstration, Mr Lennon, who uses the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, said members did not want violence.He added: 'We want it to be peaceful. We want to get our point across. We want our local and national issues at the forefront, not anything else.'The movement originated from a group known as the United Peoples of Luton. They were formed in response to a Muslim protest at a parade in Luton, in March 2009, for troops from 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment returning from Iraq.Islamic activists waved banners with slogans including: 'Anglian Soldiers: Butchers of Basra' and 'Anglian Soldiers: cowards, killers, extremists.'Hmmmm......But this latter is not considered "Hate on the streets" Of course?Read the full story here.

• HT:Mediate.Sarah Palin's Full Speech At Event Marking Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday.Tonight, Young America’s Foundation held a banquet honoring the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin delivered the keynote. Palin lovers will love it. Palin haters will hate it. She, of course, delivered glowing praise of Reagan, and compared his fight to preserve the freedom and the ideal of the American dream to today’s battle to do the same. There was talk of the danger in viewing “American exceptionalism” as “exceptionally big government.”Like any well-crafted message, though, it also contained a solution, and that solution is…people, the “pioneering,” hard-working spirit with which she said we must “reconnect” – the spirit, of course, she said Reagan embodied. The speech was a fine showcase for her charisma…and certainly appeared to be the speech of someone with higher political aspirations. Video of the speech, via C-SPAN, in two parts here.

• HT:Aina.Are U.S Servicewomen Trading the Safety of the Helmet for the Hijab?Recent pictures in Stars and Stripes feature female U.S. service members wearing the Islamic headscarf, also known as a hijab. These women are part of a new initiative, Female Engagement Teams, being deployed in Afghanistan.Aside from questions about whether the safety of these women deployed into harm's way is jeopardized by trading the helmet for the hijab, the photos invoke memories of a policy fight in Congress less than a decade ago. In 2002, the Senate overturned a DoD mandate requiring female American service members stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the Saudi version of the burqa, known as an abaya. Similarly, in the House of Representatives, an amendment was enacted to end the "abaya" mandate. Women in Saudi Arabia (or in Afghanistan under the brutal reign of the primitive Taliban) are subject to beatings by religious police (in Saudi Arabia known as muttawa), if they expose, even inadvertently, a wrist or ankle.The DoD "abaya" policy was defended under the guise of "cultural sensitivities," but it morphed into being justified as necessary for "force protection," since "cultural sensitivities" smacked of political correctness. Could anyone imagine U.S. soldiers dispatched to South Africa under Apartheid segregating black and white soldiers to comply with "cultural sensitivities"? Yet in Saudi Arabia, American servicewomen, prior to congressional intervention, were subjected to similar humiliation and coerced into conformance with an alien religious faith.In Barack Obama's Cairo speech in June 2009, he stated, "I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal." Obama implied, mistakenly, that wearing of the hijab is by choice. Surely Obama, with part of his youth spent in Muslim-dominant Indonesia, knows that in strict Islamic societies, the veil or headscarf is not optional. Even in the U.S. and Canada, young Muslim women have been killed by their fathers for refusing to submit to Islamic practices, including covering their hair -- their "crime" being their desire to fit in and to look like other American girls.Progressive Muslims, like Egypt's culture minister, Farouk Hosni, parted ways with government backing of the veil, denouncing the hijab as "a step backward for Egyptian women." Is the DoD embracing a posture less progressive than that of Egypt's culture minister or the French government? Isn't the DoD, by encouraging servicewomen to wear headscarves, siding with primitive militants -- like the Taliban -- over reformists and more enlightened Muslims?With Obama's background, he is well-positioned to advance the understanding that successful Muslim societies have been the ones that unleashed the suppressed potential of fifty percent of their human capital. Obama unfortunately squandered the opportunity to make this point in Egypt, but it is even more disturbing that signs of submission to Islam are creeping back into the U.S. Armed Forces.Most important, a headscarf is no protection against a sniper or IED. A helmet is standard protective gear for the most important part of the human body: the brain. A female soldier in a headscarf limits her peripheral vision, a problem when operating in a hostile or potentially hostile environment. With the bizarre hybrid of a camouflage uniform topped by a headscarf, a female service member is identifying herself as an American soldier but simultaneously making a concession to Islam (in uniform, as a representative of the American government) -- hardly an image to inspire confidence, and one that will provoke derision from a religiously motivated enemy that views such acts as weakness.Congress needs to ensure that the spirit of the legislation repealing the "abaya" mandate is extended to protect female service members who may be pressured by superiors to forego the safety of the helmet for the hijab and compelled to disrespect their First Amendment-protected religious beliefs.Hmmmmm....."If you wanted your soldiers to be in harms way ,would you do anything different?"Read the full story here.

• HT:TheInvestigativeProject.Canada - A Call for Tougher Canadian Immigration Scrutiny.Canada's skyrocketing immigration is creating new security challenges that should prompt the nation to consider more direct steps to try to weed out those who may bring radical Islamist ideology with them, an intelligence expert testified Thursday.David B. Harris, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service chief of strategic planning, told a Senate committee in Ottawa that the rate of immigration – 250,000 people per year – is creating more enclaves in the country, diluting the normal pattern in which "a newcomer's radical tendencies might more readily have been overwhelmed by Canada's ambient liberal-pluralist atmosphere."Canada's population grew from 29 million people to 34 million people in just over a decade. Many of them come from Muslim majority countries that have extremist movements. In many cases, those immigrants may have been escaping from that radical ideology. But others might be importing it."Does extremism travel well?" asked Harris, who now directs the International and Terrorist Intelligence Program for INSIGNIS Strategic Research. "A 2007 Environics poll says 12 percent of Canadian Muslims could justify a Toronto-18 type plot calling for mass-casualty attacks in Canada, including invading Parliament and beheading the prime minister. That means that between 49,000 and 119,000 Canadians could justify making war on fellow Canadians."Hmmmm........Canada wake up,you're nurturing a snake to your bosom?Read the full story here.

• "Life or death in Iran's Prisons".International Campaign: Iran Uses Media Stunts in Lieu of Fair Trials.Iranian officials should base convictions on reliable evidence and due process instead of televised confessions and dramatic re-enactments, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.The Campaign added that coerced confessions are being used to convict criminal and political defendants alike, while state media is used to sell dubious death sentences and verdicts to the Iranian and international public.The Campaign also expressed its grave concern about the execution sentence of Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-Canadian dual national and web developer, accused of establishing “pornographic websites.” He has been reportedly tortured to confess to these charges.On 1 February 2011, state television’s Channel One evening news, known as “20:30,” broadcast a “confession” by Zahra Bahrami, a Dutch-Iranian woman, one day after her execution on drug charges. In the video Bahrami “admits” to drug trafficking and re-enacts some scenes in her home showing how she hid cocaine and heroin. The program commented extensively on how international and Dutch outcries over the execution were misled, in an apparent attempt to justify Bahrami’s execution after the fact.“The issue is not whether crimes occur in Iran, but whether death sentences are based on real trials, with real evidence, and real cases presented by lawyers,” said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign. “Staged-for-TV confessions that reek of coercion are no substitute for due process,” he added.In the last few weeks, Iran has been on an execution binge, putting to death 83 people in January 2011 alone. This is to be compared with a total of 86 executions during all of 2005, before Ahmadinejad assumed the presidency.The Campaign is also receiving reports of mass secret executions in Birjand Prison that are not being reported by state media. However, the country’s Prosecutor General, Mohseni Ejei, on 31 January 2011, admitted to such executions during a press conference saying, “this morning a number of drug traffickers were executed in Birjand Prison.”The Campaign believes that the total number of executions in January 2011 could be higher than the officially announced 83 cases, given that such secret executions are taking place.Iran has increasingly resorted to televised confessions in cases where the credibility of the government’s evidence and the fairness of the trial incur public scrutiny. The State-controlled broadcast media has become an accessory to grave human rights violations and its officials must be held accountable as human rights violators.Iran executed at least 350 persons in 2008; at least 388 in 2009; and over 442 in 2010, including 242 officially announced, and over 200 secret executions reported to the Campaign at Vakilabad Prison. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people than any other country.Hmmmm.......No word from the defender of freedom Obama on this exemplary democracy,since he's battling the evil dictator of Egypt.Read the full story here.

• Iran plans dress code for women reporters.Iran's conservative-dominated parliament plans to implement a new dress code for woman journalists who cover its proceedings, the Ilna news agency reported Saturday."Some woman reporters do not dress appropriately for the atmosphere of the parliament," conservative MP Fatemeh Rahbar told Ilna."It has been provisioned to prepare clothes with regard to the reporters' taste and by observing Islamic codes," she added, without elaborating.Islamic dress has been mandatory for women in Iran since the 1979 revolution, with every adult female -- regardless of religion and nationality -- required to cover her hair and bodily contours in public.Iran's female MPs, all staunch conservatives, wear the traditional black enveloping head-to-toe chador, but many government employees just opt for a headscarf and long coat.Urban women often push the boundaries with figure-hugging short coats and loose headscarves that generously display locks of hair.Read the full story here.

• NY museum launches Shoah education site. Museum of Jewish Heritage presents new multi-media website to introduce middle, high school-aged students, educators to stories of young people who survived Holocaust.The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York announced recently the launch of "Coming of Age Now, Coming of Age in the Holocaust", a new multi-media website designed by C&G Partners to introduce middle and high school-aged students and educators to the stories of young people who survived the Holocaust. This free website will help students of all backgrounds around the globe create a personal connection to history and discover the relevance to our world today. Ivy Barsky, Deputy Director of the Museum said, “As Holocaust survivors age and leave us, we created this meaningful curriculum to keep their voices alive and to retain the power of their stories for young people coming of age today.” The "Coming of Age" curriculum includes 13 unique stories to help students learn about the Holocaust through personal narratives. Students will hear directly from survivors through video testimony and will read about their lives before, during, and after the Holocaust.One teacher who used an early version praised the site saying, “It personalizes the Holocaust. It is about six million individuals.”Hmmmmmm........How many more Jews have been killed in the course of history for being Jewish?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.10 Shocking Videos Of The Protests In Egypt That Are Almost Too Graphic To Watch.Over the past week, the mainstream media has not really done a good job of communicating how intense the violence and bloodshed in Egypt has become. Trucks and cars have been plowing into groups of protesters at high speed, dozens of protesters have been shot and killed, and the violence only seems to get more crazy with each passing day. Seriously, if you cannot handle scenes of graphic violence and people dying, then you probably should not watch the videos posted below. These are 10 of the most shocking videos of the protests in Egypt, and they are incredibly graphic. This is a real revolution that is happening in Egypt and it is very bloody.What you are about to see is what happens when society collapses. When violence and bloodshed erupt, suddenly life starts becoming very cheap. In a couple of the videos posted below, vehicles just plow right over protesters at full speed and the drivers just keep on going. It is absolutely unbelievable.But are we any better in the United States? As I have written about previously, incredibly violent brawls have been erupting in restaurants all across the nation and we aren't even in the midst of a revolution. So what is going to happen when American society eventually breaks down?That is something to think about.For now, there are some very important lessons about humanity that we can learn from what has been happening in Egypt. The videos posted below are so shocking and so graphic that many of you may find them very difficult to watch....Read the full story here.

• WikiLeaks reveals Obama sold out Great Britain by giving Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets.WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain's nuclear secrets.The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week. Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal. The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website. Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that: America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US. Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain. Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.” Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.Hmmmm.......Who else did the "Commander in chief" sell out ?Benedict Arnold is nodding in approval?And then he's suprised he's not welcome at the Royal wedding?Read the full story here.

• Canada - Arctic fishing grossly underreported: report.Nearly a million tonnes of fish were caught in the Arctic over the past half-century, despite the fact that less than 13,000 tonnes were reported to the United Nations, B.C. researchers report."Ineffective reporting, due to governance issues and a lack of credible data on small-scale fisheries, has given us a false sense of comfort that the Arctic is still a pristine frontier when it comes to fisheries," said Dirk Zeller, the lead author of the report on the research findings, in a statement."We now offer a more accurate baseline against which we can monitor changes in fish catches and to inform policy and conservation efforts."The study, published this week in the journal Polar Biology, estimated that fisheries catches in Russian, Canadian and U.S. Arctic waters totalled 950,000 tonnes from 1950 to 2006 — nearly 75 times more than 12,700 tonnes reported to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.Pauly described the situation as a puzzle in which "you have the pieces all over the place in a bag, but it's never been put together."For example, statistics from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game showed that over the study period, the Arctic fish catch in Alaska alone was 89,000 tonnes, even though the U.S. reported no catches at all to the UN.The UN numbers were based only on Russian reports, but the UBC study suggests even those numbers were a gross underestimate. It pegged Russia's actual catch at 770,000 tonnes.Canada's catch during the study period was estimated at 95,000 tonnes.Hmmmm.........Of course it's a lot easyer to go after that poor sports fisherman?Read the full extermination story here.

• And now for something completely different! "Got Condom?" 700,000 ultrathin condoms lost in transit.More than 700,000 condoms have been stolen in transit between Malaysia and Japan, a major Japanese rubber manufacturer said Thursday.About 726,000 polyurethane condoms were loaded into a container at a factory in Malaysia, said Sagami Rubber Industries, founded in 1934 as the first condom maker in Japan.But the shipment was empty when it arrived at the company's main plant in suburban Tokyo last week, company spokesman Norinari Wakui said, adding that the lock on the container had been replaced before it left port in Malaysia.The items, which are 14 percent thinner than conventional products at 0.02 millimetres, are worth 120 million yen (1.5 million dollars) at Japanese retail prices, he said."This has never happened to us before and we are very perplexed," Wakui told AFP. "We are not certain if it was of a premeditated nature."Hmmmm.....A case of premature unloading?Read the full "Story" here.