MFS - The Other News

                   Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 07. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 6.0 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 76.

Breaking New Eartquakes in Japan !Tsunami alert issued! Source.

07.04.2011 16:57:42       7.4 Asia Japan Honshu Ishinomaki EMSC

07.04.2011 17:00:14       7.4 Asia Japan Miyagi-ken Niiyamahama USGS-RSOE  Source.

• Breaking News :HT:IsraelMatzav.Two wounded in anti-tank missile attack on school bus ,one critical!They won't say whether the injured are children, but there are two people wounded - one seriously and one moderately - as a result of an anti-tank missile hitting a school bus in the Gaza envelope (I'm typing this as I listen - it happened at 3:17 pm Israel time).

The bus was traveling from Kibbutz Saad to Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza envelope area. Israel Radio is now confirming that the seriously wounded person is a child and is being taken by helicopter to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.Israel Radio said it might have been a mortar and not an anti-tank missile. This may be the statistical anomaly that the terrorists scored a direct hit.There was also a kindergarten hit.Police now saying that bus was hit by shrapnel from an 82mm mortar.Local residents now told to take shelter.Read the full live updated story here.

Related : Teen critically injured in attack on Negev bus.Initial report suggests mortar bomb or anti-tank missile fired from Gaza Strip hit bus driving near Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. A 16-year-old boy was critically injured. A 16-year boy was critically injured after a bus driving near the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council was hit by either a mortar bomb or an anti-tank missile rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The bus was hit in its rear side causing its windows to shatter. Security forces are evacuating the victims.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.General Dubik: Boots on the Ground in Libya Soon.“The way the United States and its allies have intervened in Libya has placed them on a dangerously slippery slope. Air power alone has not protected Libyan civilians, the declared objective in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorized the military intervention. Nor have the rebels proved capable of making significant advances against Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces. To effectively enforce the Security Council resolution, the coalition would need to put combat air controllers, advisors, and trainers on the ground — steps it appears unwilling to take. Where does that leave the coalition when it comes to developing a coherent war strategy? Mostly empty-handed.”Hmmm....."No American troops on the ground"Watch my hands sign the documents?Read the full story here.

• Um, Where’s My Crowd Screener?President Obama got some tough questions today at THE LAST UNSCREENED TOWN HALL HE WILL EVER BE DOING. Well, who knows, but you sure ain’t gonna see many events like this once the campaign heats up.He got probing and detailed queries during an event at an technology company outside of Philadelphia. These people, unlike the generalists in the White House press corps, knew exactly what they were talking about and weren’t holding back.Obama tried to kind of chuckle his way through it but wasn’t quite clever enough in his responses to pull it off, so he just seemed kind of oafish. I think I caught him gazing around for his teleprompter where perhaps Austan Goolsbee would be feeding him the answers..If Bush pulled this, the media would have already turned it into a failed IQ test.POLITICO has done a good job of splicing Obama’s uncomfortable moments together. Take a look.Read and see the full debacle here.

• Federal workers’ union preps government shutdown lawsuit.The largest union representing federal government workers may sue the Obama administration if there’s a government shutdown at the end of this week.With a shutdown looking increasingly likely by the hour as congressional Republicans and the White House stay stuck at an impasse, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees says the union will file suit against the federal government if it’s not clear that essential employees will be guaranteed pay for their work during the shutdown.“We’ve asked the Obama administration how they would guarantee employees’ pay, what the conditions are for essential employees to be paid,” John Gage, president of the 265,000-member union, told POLITICO on Wednesday. “Should essential employees be required to work without a guarantee of pay, we will file a lawsuit.”The shutdown battle is “more political theater than anything else,” Gage said, and it’s “deeply disturbing when people don’t know whether they’re going to be able to make a mortgage or pay their bills.” Government workers, he said, need more clarity about whether they’ll be required to work and whether they’ll be paid for that work.His request for more information has gone to Attorney General Eric Holder and to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry. Late Tuesday night, OPM published a brief overview of how a shutdown would work. Federal agencies do not have the authority to pay employees during a shutdown. Workers “excepted” during the shutdown would be paid for their work once the president signs a new appropriations bill or a continuing resolution, OPM said, but it’s up to agencies to determine who is excepted and who isn’t. Workers who are “non-excepted,” or furloughed, “are not permitted to work as unpaid volunteers for the government.”AFGE has already filed one lawsuit against the federal government over a possible shutdown. Last week, after not hearing back on Freedom of Information Act requests made to the White House Office of Management and Budget for details of how government agencies will handle the shutdown, the union sued OMB Director Jack Lew. “It’s inside baseball with the Obama administration about the lack of information coming from the agencies,” Gage said.In a statement, OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said it has taken “unprecedented steps to improve government transparency” as it plans for a government shutdown.“Plans for shutdown operations, which are governed by the law, remain in development and are pre-decisional at this time,” she said. “When plans are finalized and reviewed for sensitive information, we will work with agencies to provide to the public.”Read the full story here.

• Government shutdown will delay millions of tax refunds as economy goes into meltdown.Millions of tax refunds could be delayed if eleventh hour crisis talks over the budget deadlock fail to prevent a shutdown of government services on Friday.The Obama administration warned about the dire financial repercussions today with time running out to broker an agreement.Small business loans and government-guaranteed mortgages could also grind to a halt, sabotaging the U.S. economy’s faltering recovery.As many as 800,000 government workers are likely to be temporarily laid off and left in limbo waiting for federal funding to resume.The nation’s parks will be closed and Washington’s traditional springtime Cherry Blossom parade, one of the capital’s largest public events of the year that draws 100,000 visitors from around the world, would also be wiped out.Tempers are flaring today on both sides of the aisle with demands from Republicans and Democrats that leaders must find a compromise deal to break the budget impasse by midnight on Friday.If the shutdown goes ahead, the Inland Revenue Service will suspend processing tax refunds for people who file paper returns - about 30 per cent - according to government officials.President Obama said on Tuesday that he would have congressional negotiators back to the White House if they didn’t make any progress.But after a terse three-minute phone conversation this morning with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Mr Obama flew off for a series of scheduled appearances in Philadelphia and New York.He offered no comment on the crisis, just a friendly wave to supporters.Hmmm....So long suckers?Read the full story here.

• President Obama's New Anti-American Secretary of State. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she will not serve another term under President Obama. Who can blame her? She has become the face of a fecklessly reckless administration, a pathetic press relations lackey for the worst foreign affairs president in the history of the country.To replace her, Obama is reportedly looking to tap another prominent female diplomat. Her name is Samantha Power, and she bills herself as a human rights activist. A Yale University graduate, Power became a leftist foreign policy journalist for various major news organizations. She then came back to the United States, where she attended Harvard Law School.Her book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," implicated the United States in virtually every major genocide of the last century. As a fellow radical Harvard Law School grad, she quickly penetrated Barack Obama's inner circle and became his senior foreign policy adviser during the 2008 campaign.Now she is a member of the National Security Council, and according to media reports, successor to Hillary's throne. There's only one problem: Power is an anti-Israel fanatic and a myopic internationalist who couldn't care less about doing what is right for America.Not only does this ignore the fact that the human rights abuses in the Israel-Palestinian conflict have been almost universally attributable to the Palestinian Arabs, it throws our liberal democratic ally under the bus. But then again, Power is used to throwing allies under the bus. She, along with her NSC colleague Ben Rhodes, reportedly told President Obama to undercut Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in order to please the Arab street.Pleasing the Arab street seems to be first priority for Power. It was Power, along with Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who pushed President Obama to go to non-war in Libya. Her fingerprints cover this abortive military operation. The problem in Libya isn't that we have no exit strategy -- it's that we had no entrance strategy, no definable goals or reasons for being there.That is, no reason except for prevention of "genocide" as broadly defined by Power. Each time Obama cites the prevention of genocide as a rationale for intervention -- even as Muslims slaughter Christians wholesale in Darfur, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and kill non-radicals in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Samantha Power's ventriloquism shines through.Power is yet another theory-first, know-nothing liberal who places her vaguely cotton candy ideals above realistic appraisal of American interests. Unfortunately, her asinine ideas have disastrous real-world consequences. Consequences about which President Obama does not care, apparently. When it comes to the White House, idiocy loves company.Hmmmm......May God protect Israel and those who side with her.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Obama’s Islamic Envoy Getting a Pass… Again.As the American media debates whether a small Florida pastor’s actions have enflamed the Muslim world, a member of the Obama administration may have done far more damage when he spoke in Kabul, Afghanistan recently. Yet, Obama’s envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Confernce (OIC), a devout Muslim who has memorized the Qur’an, Rashad Hussain continues to fly under the proverbial radar. Why?General David Petraeus has condemned the actions of pastor Terry Jones but has said nothing of Hussain’s speech, which only served to encourage Islamic fundamentalists who endorse the murdering of innocents in Afghanistan recently in response to the Qur’an burning. In his February speech, Hussain said:

“I am of the opinion that one of the strongest tools that you can use to counter radicalization and violent extremism is Islam itself, because Islam rejects violent extremism.”

Regardless of one’s interpretation of Islam, fundamentalists in Afghanistan interpret such words coming from an envoy representing the White House as justification for outrage in response to Jones’s actions, especially when Islamic law calls for such violence when the Qur’an is defiled. Wasn’t our mission in Afghanistan supposed to be about freedom?The actions of an obscure pastor from a Florida church with a flock numbering in the double digits were met with scorn from our Commander in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a man with curious ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, who fed far more fuel to Islamic fundamentalists with words he spoke – in Afghanistan – on behalf of the President of the United States, got a pass.Last year, news broke that Rashad Hussain gave a speech at a Muslim Students Association (MSA) event in 2004, during which he expressed support for convicted Islamic terrorist fundraiser Sami al-Arian. Hussain blamed the publication and denied saying the words attributed to him. Then, POLITICO obtained a recording of the event and reported it.Hussain was caught in a lie and had to backtrack; he was not fired. One year later, he was in the Capital of Afghanistan preaching that his brand of Islam – which includes sympathy for a convicted terrorist – should be promoted in that country.The MSA is a group that resides under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella. In light of the pass Hussain received last year, the pass he’s receiving this year, and the disturbing world view the Obama administration official holds, isn’t the derision being directed at Terry Jones’s actions by our commander in Afghanistan grossly disproportionate in light of what’s known about Hussain? A General in the United States Army is choosing to attack a small Florida pastor while having no words for someone with far more power doing far more damage on the ground in Afghanistan.Indeed, isn’t it interesting that in virtually every Islamic uprising that’s been taking place lately, the actions of this administration with respect to the likes of Egypt and Libya coupled with its inaction in places like Iran, United States policies have consistently come down on the side of the Muslim Brotherhood? Perhaps that also explains the words of condemnation Petraeus has for Jones’s actions and the lack of words he has for Hussain’s.Hmmmm....."To protect the constitution"?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Confirmed: Israel behind Sudan airstrike; Saudis involved?Time Magazine Jerusalem bureau chief Karl Vick claims to have confirmed that the IDF was behind the air strike on Wednesday at Port Sudan in which Hamas' chief arms procurement agent was allegedly killed."This is absolutely an Israeli attack," Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters. He found in the air strike evidence of a plot to keep Sudan on the State Department's list of countries that support terror.Now wouldn't that be something if Israel had gotten permission to overfly Saudi Arabia on the way to the Sudan?On Thursday, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported that jailed Gazan engineer Dirar Abu Sisi gave Israeli intelligence 'valuable information' that led to the attack on the arms smugglers. According to the source, Abu Sisi passed along the sensitive information to Israel during his remand since he was abducted by a train in Ukraine last month.The source also told Al Jarida that Israel received valuable information on smuggling routes and cells operating from Sudan, through Egypt, and to Gaza, from a 'network' of southern Sudanese refugees who have migrated to Israel. Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• IDF arrests at least 100 women in West Bank village. News sources quote council head as saying soldiers entered Awarta after midnight, imposed curfew, rounded up dozens of women from homes. The IDF arrested more than 100 women from the Awarta village in the West Bank in connection to the ongoing investigation into the deaths if a couple and three of their children, including one baby, in the Itamar settlement last month, AFP reported Thursday. Awarta lies close to the Itamar settlement and Nablus. The local council head told AFP that the IDF had stormed Awarta shortly after midnight, imposing a curfew and beginning to round up women. Though the IDF has been conducting consistent raids in the last four weeks since the Itamar murders, this is the first time the IDF has arrested women, the local council head added.The IDF was yet to comment on the operation.Hmmmm....sounds like someone is doing a serious DNA investigation.Read the full story here.

• Turkish mission in Libya, NATO's missile defense program 'inter-linked'.While a European Union diplomat has linked Turkey’s involvement in Libya operation and the proposed missile defense shield for NATO, Turkish diplomats deny such a link, saying they are ‘two different concepts'.NATO’s deliberations over the Libya mission and Turkey’s involvement witnessed tough bargaining over recent weeks as a Western diplomatic source said the Turkish role and its contributions were loosely linked to the proposed missile defense system being debated by the trans-Atlantic alliance.“I think they are two inter-connected issues,” a European Union ambassador told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, requesting anonymity.He said Turkey was pressing hard for NATO, not the United States, to take command of the missile defense system set out in the alliance’s strategic concept adopted at last year’s Lisbon summit.About the Libya operation, Ankara, which was initially reluctant for NATO to be involved, changed its approach and provided one of the two NATO headquarters for monitoring the no-fly zone in the crisis-hit North African country. The Turkish base in İzmir was one of the two headquarters that NATO was planning to shut down last year.A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry diplomat, however, denied such a link, saying that they were “two different concepts.”Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, was the subject of discussions over a potential NATO missile defense system originally proposed by the United States during the Bush administration. It is unclear whether Turkey will actively participate in the proposed system directed against Iran, which much of the international community considers a threat due to its controversial nuclear program.In previous statements, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had laid down Turkish principles saying that Turkey was at the center of NATO; NATO should take into account “indivisible security,” meaning that the alliance should preserve each and every member state’s security; and Turkey does not perceive any threat in its neighborhood and does not plan to be a frontier country as it was during the Cold War era.The United States has often portrayed the missile defense system as a safeguard against a possible ballistic strike from Iran. At the time of the discussions about the strategic concept, Ankara was concerned that such a perception could damage its growing relationship with its neighbor. To Turkey's favor, NATO’s new strategic concept eventually avoided identifying any specific neighboring country, whether it be Iran or Syria. But it is still unclear if Turkey will allow the deployment of such a system in its soil and who will be in the command of this system.Hmmmm....It's becoming very obvious that Turkey will never act against Iran or perhaps will act with Iran against the West and America!Perhaps weakening NATO as we speak!Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• Turkey - Absolute’s democracy.There is a demand from the people of this land who are aware what democracy is for Turkey moving on to an “absolute democracy” while the bitter reality biting souls clearly underline the existence of an “Absolute’s democracy” or some sort of a “democratic governance” which is shaped at the discretion of the sole executive, decision-maker, legislator and indeed family planner.The army of opponents of the secular democratic Turkish republic’s founding principles or the Kemalist ideology often claim that Turkey moved on to democratic governance with the 1950 elections and the period in between the creation of the republic in 1923 and Turkey moving on to pluralist parliamentary democracy in 1950 was an era of dictatorship.As regards hegemony of political party leaders on the choice of the electorate, however, definitely, Turkey has a serious problem. On June 12 millions of Turks will go to the booths to elect their representatives. But, will they be voting for the candidates of their choice or the candidates already chosen by the party leaders?“I will make use of the friends I will leave outside of [candidate] lists at duties at the party headquarters,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told parliamentary deputies of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, this week. That short sentence is indeed the summary of the “fiasco democracy” that this country has. The ruling party claimed to have established its candidates through works of first six commissions. But, the prime minister says “he will make use” of those current deputies “he will” leave outside candidate lists. What he said was indeed a reaffirmation of the existence of a crooked democracy of absolute leaders – whatever it might be – in this country.Right, Erdoğan has publicly reaffirmed that he is the sole executive, decision-maker, legislator in short everything in the AKP. Are other party leaders, including the social democratic Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. much different than Erdoğan in view of their current performances? Yes, in less than a quarter of Turkish provinces Kılıçdaroğlu “allowed” his Republican People’s Party, or CHP to determine candidates through by-elections, but the CHP as well mostly prepared its candidate lists at the party headquarters. Not only there is a prime minister who believes he has absolute power but we have party chiefs who consider themselves “absolute leader.”The 10 percent threshold bans minority views from Parliament, leaders decide who should be the deputies to represent the nation, a court bans an unpublished book, over 60 journalists are behind bars (some allegedly of trying to stage a coup with their pens or typewriters). And, we still call this country a democracy? What an absolutes’ democracy!Hmmmm....Welcome to Turkey....Iranian style!Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Obama’s New Energy Policy: A Lesson in Stealth Socialism.His speech and policies utilize the bait-and-switch.President Barack Obama, facing political heat and plummeting poll numbers inevitably generated by rapidly rising gasoline and energy prices, is calling for a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade. How will this potentially laudable — but likely farcical — goal be accomplished?By boosting domestic energy production, offering incentives to increase the use of biofuels and natural gas, and making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient.

According to the AP and Fox:

Obama long has said the U.S. needs to reduce its dependency on oil — particularly from overseas sources — for financial, security and environmental reasons. In his State of the Union address in January, he set a goal of having 80 percent of U.S. energy come from clean sources like wind, solar and nuclear by 2035.

But what about domestic oil production?

The administration says it still sees vast opportunities to expand on domestic oil and gas production. An Interior Department report released ahead of Obama’s speech Wednesday said more than two-thirds of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle, neither producing oil and gas nor being actively explored by the companies who hold the leases. The department said those leases could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

And what about nuclear energy?

Officials said Obama also would reaffirm his support for nuclear power, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely damaged a nuclear power plant there.One might initially be tempted to see this as an admission of past failings and the adoption of new, rational policies to lower energy prices for Americans, but it is no such thing. In Clintonian fashion, it depends on what the meaning of “boost” is, but this is primarily one of the oldest cons in the book: bait-and-switch.Mr. Obama, as I’ve previously argued in these pages, is provably a socialist, but a particularly American kind: a stealth socialist. Stealth socialism is a matter of tactics. Stealth socialists, recognizing that an open Marxist agenda will never fly with the American people, adopt a patient, long-term strategy whereby they attain the same goals but through misrepresentation, misdirection, lies, and bait-and-switch. These are, coincidentally, the tactics of the con man. Having been a community organizer, Mr. Obama is particularly adept at these tactics and with the use of the primary vehicle for their implementation: rhetoric.

In Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, Stanley Kurtz carefully and convincingly documents stealth socialism and Mr. Obama’s full immersion in it. Stealth socialists are careful never to allow themselves to be known as socialists, which is certainly Mr. Obama’s practice. Mr. Kurtz does what the media would not do in 2008, and still scrupulously avoids: he investigates and reports on Mr. Obama’s associations, motivations, and the truth of his policies.Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.OBAMA: Get Used To High Gas Prices. “Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”High gas prices aren’t a bug, they’re a feature.

UPDATE: Rapid Reaction: I got an email from Haley Barbour’s office with this reaction: “Instead of changing his policies, President Obama is trying to blame the American people for skyrocketing gas prices by saying they should trade-in their cars.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Broderick writes:

“Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”I was confused when I clicked the link on your page and couldn’t find this quote. So I googled the quote. It shows up in all the google hits but when I click on those articles, it’s nowhere to be found. Looks like AP scrubbed it from all copies of the article! Nothing like a compliant media, eh? Hope you got a screenshot.

In fact, I did. And a good thing, because the story’s been almost completely rewritten. But the “memory hole” doesn’t work very well any more. Here, for the sake of history, is the story as it used to be. And if anyone from the Associated Press would like to email me to explain this change, I’m all ears.Hmmm....Don't drill......higher oil prices ...sell electric car?Read the full story here.

• Obama's friend Robert 'Bobby' Titcomb arrested in Hawaii prostitution sting.One of President Obama's close friends has been arrested in an prostitution sting operation.Robert 'Bobby' Titcomb, 49 - a long time friend of the President - was arrested after he allegedly approached an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute in the downtown area of Honolulu.Titcomb was one of four arrested during the sting, according to the Honolulu police department.The news could not have come at a worse time for Mr Obama, who has just launched his 'billion dollar' 2012 re-election campaign.Police have been conducting undercover operations in the downtown Honolulu area after reports from general public that the area was a hotbed for prostitution.Titcomb, 49, of Waialua, was arrested on suspicion of solicitation Monday night. He allegedly offered money for sex near the intersection of South Street and Pohukaina Street at about 9:40 pm.According to Hawaii News Now, Mr Obama and Titcomb have been close friends since high school and the pair often get together to golf and dine when the President visits the state.Titcomb has spoken to the press about the President on several occasions.Titcomb's father was a well known judge on the island for over 30 years, before he died in 2000 of a heart attack.Hmmm....A man is known by the company he keeps?Read the full story here.

• HRW report says PA abuses journalists.Harsh report from Human Rights Watch exposes abuse, harassment of journalists at hands of Palestinian Authority, Hamas security forces. The Palestinian Authority is happy to boast that it operates according to the values of democracy but when it comes to freedom of the press they seem to have followed the example of the Arab dictatorships.A harsh report published Wednesday by Human Rights Watch exposes the harassment, abuse and arrests of journalists in the West bank and Gaza Strip by Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces.The report documents the testimonies of journalists who were beaten and arrested for no apparent reason. Some noted that among other things, Palestinian Authority officials confiscated their equipment. The report also expresses harsh criticism towards the Palestinian leadership for not acting to prevent the beatings and harassment, or trying to punish those that carry out the acts. This is why the report determined that the actions taken against the journalists reflect Palestinian government policy. Moreover, the report reveals that reporters in the Palestinian territories have become part of the ongoing struggle between Fatah and Hamas. As attempts of reconciliation between the two factions increased in recent months – so have the number of attacks carried out by security forces against members of the press. In one of the cases described in the report 15 members of plain-clothes Hamas' security forces raided the Reuters news agency offices in the Gaza Strip, smashed computers, beat journalists, aimed a weapon at one journalist and threatened to throw another journalist out the window.Freelance journalists that are suspected of researching articles critical of the Palestinian Authority are arrested and interrogated. For example, the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) detained Muhannad Salahat, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, when he was returning to the West Bank from Jordan without telling him why he was being arrested; he was detained for two weeks without charge in Jericho. According to Human Rights Watch deputy director of Middle East and North Africa division Joe Stork, Palestinian security forces are becoming notorious for intimidating journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. He says both rival Palestinian governments need to end what he calls "blatant attacks on free expression" Hmmmm.....Obama friends 'the Palestinians'and the Turks guess what they both have in common?Read the full story here.

• HT:BNI.IVORY COAST: Barack Hussein Obama demands Christian President step down so Muslim challenger can take over.In the Ivory Coast it was reported that forces loyal to the Muslim led forces of Alassane Ouattara have just massacred between 800 and 1,000 Christians.The United Nations, the U.S., the African Union and the U.K. renewed calls for Gbagbo, 65, to hand power over to Ouattara, 69, whom they recognize as the winner of the nation’s first vote in a decade. Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo is contesting the results of the election.However, in the new democratic world order of President Obama, the European Union and United Nations, this will not infringe on them supporting Alassane Ouattara and the massacre of up to 1,000 Christians will bite the dust before the dust is even settled.In Abidjan the military forces who are loyal to the Christian leader, Laurent Gbagbo, were attacked by a joint operation of United Nation forces and the French army. This will lead to deadly silence in the so-called “Muslim street” because just like Bosnia, Cyprus, and Kosovo; the “Muslim victim card” does not wash and Christians are once more expendable while power games are being played in higher circles.Read the full story here.

• HT:ThePage.Trump’s Hawaii Investigation.Magnate tells “Today” he has people in the Aloha State conducting on-the-ground research into the president’s birthplace.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: So, is the time right now for you?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, the time certainly is right. We’re a laughing stock as a country throughout the world. We’re being taken advantage of by other countries

DONALD TRUMP: I am saying I want to see the birth certificate. It’s very simple. I want to see the birth certificate. How come his own family doesn’t know which hospital he was born in? How come-- forget about birth certificates. Let’s say there’s no birth certificate. How come in the hospital itself, okay? This is one of the…in the hospital itself, there’s no records of his birth. In other words, it doesn’t say how much they paid, where is the doctor, here’s your room bill. You know, all the

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You’ve been privy to all of this to know this?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re talking.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You have people now out there searching-- I mean, in Hawaii?

DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding. And I’m serious--Read the full story here.More here .

• NBC’s Brokaw: Saudis ‘So Unhappy' With Obama They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties.(CNSNews.com) – Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq yesterday, NBC’s Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt” that it has sent senior officials to the Peoples' Republic of China and Russia to seek expanded business opportunities with those countries.After remarking on the difficulty of establishing democracy in the Middle East, Brokaw said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “will face some tough questions in this region about the American intentions going on now with all this new turmoil, especially in an area where the United States has such big stakes politically and economically.”“And a lot of those questions presumably will come from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” reported Brokaw on the Nightly News. “I was told on the way in here that the Saudis are so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt that it sent high level emissaries to China and Russia to tell those two countries that Saudi Arabia now is prepared to do more business with them.”Brokaw continued, “Back here in Iraq, the political and the economic situation remains fragile. So fragile that the U.N. secretary general is worried that this country could now see massive protests in the streets once again.”Earlier in his report, Brokaw noted that while U.S. military forces are supposed to leave Iraq at year’s end, the U.S. Embassy staff was being beefed-up from 8,000 to nearly 20,000 personnel.“So Iraq is a reminder of just how difficult it is to establish a democracy in this part of the world,” said Brokaw. “After all, we've been at war here for eight years now, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, and thousands and thousands of lives have been lost on both sides.”Hmmmm.....Don't you love how the world has become a better place with dear leader on the helm?read the full story here.

• Muslim Student Attacks UN Rights Council for Anti-Israel Bias.Muslim student Amran Hussain, speaking on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students, recently spoke out for Israel a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, where he castigated the Council for anti-Israel bias.“Why is Israel consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation on the grounds of human rights violations, yet the world turns a blind eye to the human rights situations in the Arab countries …or the Far East...or Africa?” he asked.Hussain told the Council he came to the session “to remind you of the moral obligation we all have here today to protect the only country in the world whose very existence is constantly under attack."The world was very quick to condemn Israel for defending itself from unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. I ask you, what about the human rights of Israeli Jews, Israeli Muslims [and] Israeli Christians living constantly in fear of attacks from Hamas."He added, ”There are members of the international community present today who do not even accept the existence of Israel…. Hussain says that he is “an active campaigner for human rights and justice all over the world [but] has always remained disheartened by the disproportionate and unfair focus of the Human Rights Council on Israel, the disregard to human dignity for Israelis and the ignorance shown to some of the worst human rights violators around the world.”Hmmmm.....Brave guy!Read and see the full story here.

• Goldstone to face libel suit.MK Danny Danon enlists help of Jewish-American lawyers to file libel lawsuit against South African judge following his retraction of his Gaza war report. MK Danon: Report is '2010 version of blood libel'.Judge Richard Goldstone is expected to stand trial for libel following his retraction of his Operation Cast Lead report, in which he accused Israel of war crimes.Knesset Member Danny Danon (Likud), currently in the United States, has enlisted the help of a number of Jewish-American attorneys who agreed to file a lawsuit against the South African judge at no charge. A petition will be filed with a New York District Court next week, in which the plaintiffs will demand a formal apology and a symbolic financial compensation for the State of Israel. A second lawsuit may be filed in an Israeli court if Goldstone arrives in Israel.The decision to file the lawsuit is a direct response to the judge's op-ed in the Washington Post in which he claimed his report caused significant damage to the State of Israel in the United Nations and internationally.Despite his retraction, Goldstone announced he does not intend to try and nix the report."The Goldstone Report is the 2010 version of a blood libel. The twisted image Goldstone painted of the State of Israel caused damage, is still causing damage and will continue to damage Israel and its citizens for years to come. A public apology published in every country might lessen the harm already done," Danon explained.Hmmmm....You can not undo the damage done.Read the full story here.

• Turkey Offers to Mediate Between Iran and Arab Gulf States Over Bahrain Crisis. (CNSNews.com) – Turkey’s foreign minister visited Bahrain on Tuesday but did not publicly voice support for the small Gulf nation’s decision last month to invite troops from Saudi Arabia and other neighbors to help restore stability.Instead, it was left to his Bahraini counterpart, Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, to defend the decision and fend off Iranian charges that the arrival of the Saudi forces was akin to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.“I hope they [the Iranians] realize that what is going on in Bahrain is different from what is going on in their minds and stop such statements that do not help in strengthening relations,” Khalifa said at a joint press conference with the Turk, Ahmet Davutoglu.On the eve of his visit, Davutoglu spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart. According to Iranian state media, the two stressed the importance of Bahrain resolving its current crisis – anti-government protests that erupted in mid-February – “without foreign interference.”Shi’ite Iran has accused Sunni Saudi Arabia and other members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of helping Bahrain’s minority Sunni rulers crack down on the island’s restive Shi’ite majority. Iran also accused the U.S. of giving the go-ahead for the Saudi deployment.For their part, GCC members say it is Iran that is stoking the unrest in the strategically-significant Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and just 150 miles from the Iranian coast.Iran has historical links with and territorial claims to Bahrain (an advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2007 described Bahrain as a “province” of Iran and said Bahrainis wanted to be ruled by Tehran).The turmoil has raised some concerns about the prospect of the replacement of the Sunni monarchy that has ruled for more than two centuries with an Iran-friendly Shi’ite government.The role Turkey may play remains unclear.Seeking to exert its leadership in the region, Turkey – like Iran an Islamic but not Arab Middle East country – has established closer ties with Tehran in recent years, to the dismay of its allies in NATO.It has also offered itself on occasion as a mediator – between Israel and Syria, Syria and Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Israel and Hamas, Iran and the West, and, just this week, between the Libyan regime and anti-Gaddafi rebels.Davutoglu said Tuesday the crisis in Bahrain was an internal affair, but added that Turkey would be willing to mediate between Iran and the Arab states of the GCC if asked to do so by both parties.Hmmmm....Turkey the NATO 'ally' that never was an ally,but Iran's shadow?Read the full story here.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.Does Government Own Your Remotely Backed Up Computer Files, Your Emails, or Your Cell Phone GPS Info?By Warner Todd Huston.Did you know that there are no laws to prevent government agencies from raiding your computer’s remotely hosted back up files, your third party emails, your cloud computing files, or your cell phone GPS location records? Well, there aren’t. As the law stands today government can go into your private computer files or trace your cell phone location without a warrant. As a result of this lapse in protection form unlawful search and seizure a new group of concerned parties intends to change the law with the Digital Fourth Amendment campaign.The problem is not necessarily that government is out to steal all our computing information, but that the laws have simply not caught up to today’s technology. The laws that cover how policing agencies and governments can access your emails, computer files, and cell phone GPS records are currently governed by rules that are decades out of date. These rules were written in the 1980s, long before the Internet came along, before cloud computing was invented, before email, and well before cell phones that could track your whereabouts became pervasive.

You see, today all your personal information that is stored in third party storage space is not considered to be the kind of personal property that would require a court-issued warrant for government to access. If you have email stored at Google, if you use a cloud computing service, or if you have a third party data back up service it is all open for government to view without a warrant because it is in the actual possession of a third party. Currently none of these computer records are considered your private records. This also holds true for cell phone GPS location records. As the law stands today government can access your cell phone location records and find out where you’ve been and all without a by your leave from the courts.The Digital Fourth Amendment campaign aims to change that and bring the laws against unlawful search and seizure into the digital world of the 21st century.Hmmmm.....Democracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Tribesmen Should be Permitted to Take Revenge Against the U.S. for Drone Attacks; The Time has Come for Pakistan to Exit the War Against Terror.

On March 17, 2011, a day after CIA contractor Raymond Davis was released by a Pakistani court under a blood-money deal, U.S. drones fired four missiles in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda sanctuary. At least 38 people, including civilians and policemen, were killed in the attacks. Davis's release came as anti-U.S. protests were at their peak in Pakistan, threatening to further seriously damage Pakistan-U.S. relations. The drone attacks further ignited the anti-U.S. sentiments in Pakistan.

Following the drone attacks, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a key commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP or the Movement of Pakistani Taliban), threatened to break a peace accord agreed to with the Pakistani military since 2008. The tribesmen belonging to the affected area held a press conference in Peshawar, allegedly at the behest of Pakistani officials, and vowed to wage jihad against the U.S. if the drone attacks did not stop. In an unprecedented step, Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani also formally criticized the U.S. drone attacks, while in protest Pakistan pulled out of the tripartite talks involving the U.S. and Afghanistan in Kabul.

A few days later, the Urdu-language daily Roznama Ummat interviewed former Pakistani military officer Brigadier (retired) Mahmood Shah, who has served as secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) of Pakistan. He has also served as chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In addition to serving in senior positions in the Pakistani military and government, Brigadier Shah is also a well-known columnist and commentator on political and security issues in Pakistan. In the interview, the former Pakistani officer urged the Pakistani establishment to give a clear message to the tribesmen to that they have a right to avenge the U.S. drone attacks.

''Instead of Making the Tribes Declare Jihad, the Situation would Turn in Favor of Pakistan If the Government Announces that These Tribesmen have Full Rights to Take Revenge''

Question: ''Has the government made the tribesmen declare jihad to stop these attacks?''

Brigadier (retired) Mahmood Shah: ''Instead of making the tribes declare jihad, the situation would turn in favor of Pakistan if the government announces that these tribesmen have full rights to take revenge. Now with the announcement of jihad by these tribesmen, some of the Taliban might join hands with them and the whole issue might go into the hands of these tribes, creating problem for the government. This is a very delicate situation.''The government should use this opportunity in its favor and should consider its options. It should break its tripartite treaty with the U.S. [and Afghanistan] and recall its ambassador from Afghanistan. At present the government has taken a step in this direction by not participating in the tripartite conference in Afghanistan but it should consider more such steps. It is an opportunity to get out of the U.S. net because America has done much oppression. Presently, Pakistan has a golden opportunity to do so.''The situation in the tribal areas could change; the course of movement there could be changed. If Pakistan gets out of this tripartite alliance, there would be peace in the tribal areas. If the U.S. viewpoint is that it can advance up to North Waziristan in its defense, then the [Pakistani] government should announce that these tribesmen have a right to defend themselves and take revenge from the U.S.'' Hmmmmm....Sounds like those tens of Billions of Dollars did not help Mr President.Read the full story here.