MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• US vetoes UN vote on settlements.Washington blocks resolution condemning Israeli buildings on Palestinian land as illegal and calling for quick halt. The United States vetoed a UN resolution Friday that would have condemned Israeli settlements as "illegal" and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building.All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution.British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, speaking on behalf of his country, France and Germany, condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "They are illegal under international law," he said.He added that the European Union's three biggest nations hope that an independent state of Palestine will join the United Nations as a new member state by September 2011.The Obama administration's veto is certain to anger Arab countries and Palestinian supporters around the world. An abstention would have angered the Israelis, the closest US ally in the region, as well as Democratic and Republican supporters of Israel in the American Congress.Washington says it opposes settlements in principal, but claims that the UN Security Council is not the appropriate venue for resolving the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told council members that the veto "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity."While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said.Obama, who had said Israeli settlements in territories it captured in a 1967 war are illegal and unhelpful to the peace process, says the resolution could shatter hopes of reviving the stalled talks.In a 50-minute phone call on Thursday, he asked Abbas to drop the resolution and settle for a non-binding statement condemning settlement expansion, Palestinian officials said.Obama initially pressured Israel to maintain the moratorium only to relent in the run-up to the 2010 US mid-term elections to avoid, some analysts said, alienating key voters.Instead of the resolution, Obama told Abbas he would back a fact-finding visit by a delegation of the Security Council to the occupied territories."Obama is facing intense domestic pressure not to support the vote. The US is in a tough position, they know that a veto is going to make them look very bad in the Arab world ... and also the rest of the world is really in support of this resolution.Hmmmm....To put it bluntly it's only a matter of time before he stabs Israel in the back ! Read the full story here.

• Google Protest Hero Barred From Stage by Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood)at Victory Rally.Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, b ut men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.Qaradawi gave a Friday sermon in the square, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered a week after Mubarak's fall, in which he called for Arab leaders to listen to their people.Ghonim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, administered a Facebook page that helped spark the uprising that toppled Mubarak's regime.The 30-year-old also appeared in an emotional television interview shortly after he was released from police custody after 12 days in custody which is credited with re-energising the movement just as it seemed to be losing steam.In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired on Sunday, Ghonim said the protests which led to Mubarak's ouster would not have happened without online social networks."If there was no social networks it would have never been sparked," he said."Because the whole thing before the revolution was the most critical thing. Without Facebook, without Twitter, without Google, without YouTube, this would have never happened."Hmmmm......"Thursday evening President Barack Obama sat down for dinner with corporate chieftains from Twitter , Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc."I wonder why?Read the full story here.

• Turkish PM calls US envoy a 'rookie' ambassador.New U.S. envoy to Ankara Francis J. Ricciardone is a “rookie” ambassador, the Turkish prime minister said Friday, following the diplomat’s remarks on press freedom in Turkey, which were much criticized by government officials.“He does not know Turkey, he does not have any idea what laws there are, and then he walks into a trap and makes a statement. First wait, research, ask what it is, and learn what the judiciary will do on this, what will be the outcome. [Not doing] this is called a ‘rookie’ ambassador, this is inexperience,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his party members Friday.“Is there any article in the Constitution bringing immunity to members of the press, of which we are not aware?” Erdoğan asked. “Are media organizations exempt from everything, exempt from tax, exempt from all sorts of crime? Can they not be interrogated, tried?”Addressing Ricciardone, the prime minister said some outsiders believed these things and talked about them, “even if it was not their duty.”Ricciardone has meanwhile not yet received a response to his request for an appointment to meet Prime Minister Erdoğan. “Every ambassador asks for appointments with many officials to introduce himself. However there is no scheduled meeting with Erdoğan yet,” an official from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.Hmmmm.....Probably way too busy with Iranian and Syrian talks.Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Turkish Delegation of Mavi Marmara/Flotilla Also in Iran. Ahmadinejad: “Mavi Marmara Opened New Era in the World".Radical Islamist Turkish internet portal Velfecr reported that Iranian President Ahmadinejad hosted today Turkey’s Mavi Marmara delegation, visiting in Iran to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The introductions were made by the militant Islamist activist Nureddin Sirin and the IHH official Selaheddin Ozer who lead the delegation. Echoeing Ahmadinajad’s earlier words during the celebration ceremonies, Sirin said in the meeting, “We are here today with the longing and the determination to build a Middle East without Israel and America, and to refresh our pledge to continue on the path of the Mavi Marmara shahids. This meeting is a symbol of the unity of the umma, and the brotherhood between Muslims of Iran and Turkey. As the members of the Islamic umma, and as Muslims of Iran and Turkey we will be hand in hand, and all together we will have our Friday prayer in a free al-Quds (Jerusalem)”. Ahmadinejad said, “The blood of these shahids will not be in vain and with their blood we will reach Jerusalem”. The Flotilla delegation of the “Mavi Marmara mujahedeen, ghazis and families of the shahids” were invited to Tehran by the International Islamic Radio-Television Union. They participated in the February 11 ceremonies and marched chanting anti-Israel, anti-American, pro-Hamas, Hizbullah and Egypt slogans and carried the photos of the nine activists who died aboard Mavi Marmara last May, during the violent clash with Israeli soldiers.The Flotilla delegation was later hosted by a representative of Khamaney who thanked Turkey’s Muslims for their fight for Islam and for the defense of Palestine and Gaza and said, “Mavi Marmara became a source of pride for all Muslims. The shahids and ghazis are the honor of the umma of Islam. Through resistance and martyrdom they exacted a great blow to the Zionist regime. In the Holy Koran Allah says, ‘Among all peoples, the Jews are the most evil enemy of the (Muslim) believers’. This verse also means that those Muslims who become shahids or get wounded while fighting the Jews are considered better-than-the-best of all mujahedeen and shahids. Therefore I salute the Mavi Marmara shahids, for being higher than our own shahids.”Hmmmm......Get Turkey out of NATO before they Nuke us with our own weapons!Erdogan Obama's friend......Israel wake up !Read the full story here.

• Men dakka dukka.“Who hits a door, his door will be hit.” Every nation has a saying to express the shared conviction that no person can escape the consequences of his/her wrongs. In Turkish we say “Eden, bulur,” meaning if someone does something bad and even for some time that person might believe he can get away with it, eventually s/he pays for the wrong committed. This is of course part of a religious understanding as well that if someone does something bad and escapes unpunished for that crime in this life, he cannot escape forever and eventually even perhaps in the eternal life s/he will be asked to give an account of the wrong done or sin committed.In Arabic they say “men dakka dukka.” A direct translation would perhaps be “Who hits a door, his door will be hit.” The meaning is obvious; if you do not want to see someone at your door with some bad intentions, you should avoid having similar designs for others.The English say, “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.”The Americans say, “If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.”Absolute ruler of Turkey, the benevolent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not using the Turkish, English or the American saying. He has been frequently using the Arabic “Men dakka dukka” catchphrase. Why? Perhaps to demonstrate his strong admiration for Arabic culture. Or, perhaps he wants to further consolidate his Islamist image in Turkey and abroad by using expressions in Arabic, the language of the holy Quran. Or simply, that’s the expression he for some personal reasons preferred to use whenever he wanted to remind people about the “eye for an eye” philosophy, the backbone of the vengeful and revengeful understanding of justice of the ancient Middle East that strongly influenced the shaping of the culture of religion.As if a huge portion of Turks are able to understand what indeed is happening in this country, “We are foreigners, we can’t understand what’s happening here,” the new U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone shyly said after the prime minister of this advanced democracy expressed strong distaste with his earlier remarks, asking about the golden formula with which Turkey has achieved the success of suppressing the media through all intimidation tactics including banishing newspeople behind bars and boasting at the same time that the fundamental pillar of advanced democracy is freedom of the press. The envoy might have taken the statement of the interior minister that press freedom in Turkey is far ahead of that in the United States, but he was not, for sure, as new on the job as the premier might have believed to insist on publicly confronting the leader of the host country.After all, the Americans must know well who is the absolute ruler of Turkey since they have helped a lot to his transformation into what he is today from a negligible radical Islamist local politician.Hmmmm......He who sows radical Islamism,will reap........?Read the full story here.

• Turkey arrests 3 opposition journalists.Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish authorities on Friday announced the formal arrest of three journalists from a dissident website that is harshly critical of the Turkish government -- following several days of detention and interrogation. The reporters from the online news website Oda TV have been linked to Ergenekon, an alleged plot to overthrow the government that has been under investigation since 2007. The police raid on the homes and offices of Oda TV employees this month triggered a spat between the Turkish government and the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Ankara.On Tuesday, Ambassador Francis Ricciardone questioned Turkey's approach to the media, telling journalists, "On the one hand there exists a stated policy of support for a free press. On the other hand, journalists are put under detention. We are trying to make sense of this."Senior Turkish government officials fired back, accusing the American diplomat of meddling in Turkish domestic affairs.But the government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) has come under mounting criticism from Turkish and international press freedoms associations concerned about increasing intimidation of journalists."There are over 50 journalists in prison currently, another 100 are facing the same threat and there are about 2,000 cases involving journalists and media organizations," said Dogan Tilic, a spokesman for Turkey's Freedom to Journalists Platform. "The more the AKP consolidates its power, the more intolerant it becomes. I see a direct link between the AKP's consolidation of its power and press freedom." In a 2010 report, the European Commission accused Turkey of "not sufficiently guarantee(ing) freedom of expression."In an interview with CNN, a lawyer for Soner Yalcin, one of the arrested Oda TV journalists, said the police interrogation was not focused on alleged links to the Ergenekon coup plot."Mostly, he (Soner Yalcin) was asked about his relations to the CHP (the opposition Republican People's Party) and about the TV station he was going to launch," said defense attorney Feza Yalcin. "He was asked about his calls to other journalists regarding the TV station. He was questioned about the stories he did, why he did them.""We have concerns that during this endless investigation there are attempts to eliminate all opposition, everyone who thinks differently," said Tilic, of the Freedom to Journalists Platform. "Journalists in Turkey are worried in general that their phones are tapped, that they are being watched and that something can happen to them anytime."Turkey's interior minister stepped out on Thursday in defense of his government's record. "With regard to press freedom, it's much better in Turkey than in the United States," said Besir Atalay, in a statement to reporters that was widely quoted in Turkish newspapers.Hmmmm.........Ahmadinnejad the second anyone?Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full story here.

• Obama joins Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill.MADISON, WIS. - President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits and planning similar protests in other state capitals.Obama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would change future collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers. The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to get thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals. Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights. By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were organizing additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Hmmmm.....Don't touch my Socialist troops ,what's the deal between Trumka and Obama?This reminds me of 1934 Germany.Flashback - Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich,refers to Germany from 1933 to 1945 when it was governed by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party .Read the full story here.

• Report: Polish priest butchered in Tunisia. TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- Tunisia's official TAP news agency says a Catholic priest from Poland has been killed and his body had multiple stab wounds and his throat was slit.The report cites the Tunis archbishopric as saying 34-year-old Marek Marius Rybinski worked at a religious school in the Tunis suburb of Manouba. His body was found Friday in the school parking lot.In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the killing appeared to be the work of a "group of extremist terrorist fascists," judging by the way it was carried out.The statement denounced extremists' "exploitation ... of the current exceptional circumstances to make trouble."A mass uprising toppled Tunisia's autocratic leader a month ago, and the transitional government has struggled to re-establish order.Hmmm.......Welcome to the new Tunesia?Read the full story here.

• Tennessee, the next Wisconsin?While uncivil Democratic teachers whooped and hollered in Wisconsin’s state capitol on Thursday over the bid to stop “collective bargaining” — a mechanism for Democratic politicians to pay back their union supporters without a legislative vote — the Tennessee legislature advanced a bill that would end “collective bargaining” in Tennessee.NASHVILLE — The Senate Education Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to abolish collective bargaining between teachers unions and school boards across the state.The vote was 6-3, with all Republicans on the panel voting for the bill and all Democrats against.Sponsor Sen. Jack Johnson said passage of the bill — SB113 — will remove ‘an albatross from around the neck of our school boards across the state’ and remove a roadblock to education reform.So Republicans are seeking to end this him-and-me-decided-you-should-give-him-a-raise approach to public employee unions.Interesting.So what is the counter argument to have legislators not arbiters set teh budget?When in doubt, play the race card.We don’t have collective bargaining in West Virginia. We also do not discriminate against black teachers.And Tennessee will not go back to the old days if it ends collective bargaining.Al Mance should be ashamed.The taxpayers are tapped out. Teacher unions either adapt or die.Read the full story here.

• HT:AnnCoulter.Democrats : Emboldening America's enemies and terrifying her allies since 1976.Read the full story here.

• Bahrain troops open fire on demonstrators.At least 50 people are wounded in Bahrain's capital, Manama, when troops attack marchers with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas.Reporting from Manama, Bahrain — Bahraini army troops on Friday opened fire on demonstrators marching toward a central square that has become a symbol of resistance to the government, attacking the crowd with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas, witnesses reported.At least 50 people were wounded, according to two doctors at Salmaniya Medical Center in Manama.Wounded survivors of the clash said they had been participating in a peaceful march from a village in mourning for the victim of a fatal shooting on Monday. They marched from the village of Daih into Manama and planned to cross the side of Pearl Square, where protesters were swept out in a brutal attack early Thursday.Gunfire erupted when the protesters reached the square; it was sporadic at first, then more sustained. Security forces fired into the surrounding streets leading into the traffic roundabout.Ambulances raced to the scene but had difficulty reaching those who had fallen in the barrage of bullets and tear gas, said marchers who made their way to the hospital with injured comrades."Everybody was on the ground. They were shooting at the heads and chest," said a shaken Mohamed Nabi, 27, sitting with two friends in the besieged emergency room while awaiting care for one man's wounded leg. "We were chanting, 'peaceful, peaceful,' but the government was willing to have a massacre. We weren't afraid. We were willing to die in this way."Ali Hasan Arafat lay bare-chested on a stretcher, breathing heavily from the effects of tear gas. The gas was so caustic, he said, that he was blinded and ran into a signpost, injuring his head.Beyond the hospital grounds, heavily armed police trying to secure this tiny kingdom against the contagion of unrest spreading across the Middle East manned checkpoints and grimly gripped their weapons. Within, perplexed and angry protesters insisted that they wouldn't be cowed.The night before, a bloody assault against sleeping demonstrators killed at least four people.Dr. Sediq Ekri, who had been treating patients in the square the night before, was a patient himself Thursday. From his hospital bed, in periodic gasps through his oxygen mask, he recalled how he was cuffed and kicked repeatedly by police. Pulled onto a bus, he was kicked and beaten once more, he said."They told me that 'if you fill the bus with your blood, we'll hit you again,' " he recalled.The Obama administration urged restraint in the Persian Gulf nation of 800,000, which is home to the Navy's 5th Fleet. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the foreign minister to express "deep concern about recent events," a State Department official said.The protesters in Bahrain have largely appeared leaderless. They have included bloggers and longtime critics of the ruling family. Much of the unrest is based on long-held feelings by impoverished Shiites that the royal family discriminates against them and abuses its power.The protesters, who include a small number of Sunnis, insist that their demands transcend sectarian concerns. Still, demonstrators said they didn't expect the ferocity of the overnight assault on the square. After two protesters were killed early in the demonstrations, the king apologized.Read the full story here.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Austria: Illegal to say Muhammad was a pedophile.Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was put on trial for saying that "Islam is in a perpetual state of war with us", "Islam is vicious" and "Muslims hate us."But apparently that's OK. What really bothered the judge, and what she fined Sabaditsch-Wolff for, was calling Muhammad a pedophile.The Save Free Speech site summarized what the judge said:The integration of muslims is surely a question of particular public interest – you are allowed to be critical – but not incitement of hatred (- judge states the allowed utterances)The language used in the seminars were not inciting hatred, but the utterances regarding muhammad and paedophilia were punishable.“Paedophilia” is factually incorrect, since paedophilia is a sexual preference which solely or mainly is directed towards children. Nevertheless, it does not apply to mohammad. He was still married to Aisha when she was 18. It is a “denigration of religious teachings” and are found guilty and sentenced to 120 days, which approaches the minimum of € 480.Hmmmm.......The verdict will be appealed.Read the full story here.

• Albania - Tens of thousands hold new protest in Albania seeking government's resignation.TIRANA, Albania — Tens of thousands of Albanian opposition supporters marched through the capital Friday to demand that the government resigns over corruption allegations, almost a month after four people died when a similar demonstration turned violent.Hundreds of police were guarding the main government building in Tirana, where dozens of protesters and police were injured in the Jan 21 riot.The opposition Socialists are demanding that conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha hold early elections over allegations of corruption and vote rigging in the 2009 general election.Shouting "Sali go," and "Prime Minister you are a murderer," as loudspeakers played sombre music, protesters filled Tirana's main boulevard. Opposition officials claimed some 200,000 people took part in the demonstration. Police did not provide an estimate."We shall be on the boulevard together with anyone wishing to demonstrate peacefully but in a determined way for (Berisha's) ouster and for fresh, free and fair elections," Socialist leader Edi Rama said Thursday.Berisha has refused to resign, accusing the opposition of trying to stage a coup.This week, the parliament voted to lift the immunity of former deputy premier Ilir Meta, who resigned last month over allegations he tried to influence a state tender for a hydropower station. Meta denied any wrongdoing.Next week, lawmakers are expected to do the same with former economy minister Dritan Prifti, who made the allegations concerning Meta.Albania, one of Europe's poorest countries and now a NATO member, is seeking to join the European Union, but the 27-nation bloc has said the Balkan country of 3.2 million people has not yet done enough to root out corruption.European and U.S. officials have repeatedly called for restraint from both the Socialists and Berisha's governing Democrats.The U.S. embassy has advised its citizens to avoid any areas where demonstrations are occurring and to limit all unnecessary travel during protests.Hmmmm......It seems the Chinese curse"May you live in interesting times" became reality.Read the full story here.