MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 18. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 18. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7 activity. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 112. Source : Here .

• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• “Something really wrong is going on here”.(NorthEastIntelligence).By Douglas J. Hagmann.In the U.S., under the Obama-Holder “Justice” Department, which can be considered a policy extension and acceleration of the former administration and Department of Justice policies in many ways, it is certain that “something really wrong is going on here.”Many might recall the scene in the 1979 hit movie And Justice For All when star Al Pacino, cast as lawyer Arthur Kirkland, delivered his opening statement to the jury in the packed courtroom of Judge Francis Rayford, played by actor Jack Warden. Sick of the injustice system that would allow a guilty man to go free and innocent men jailed, Pacino stated about his own client, “That man is guilty! That man, there, that man is a slime! he is a slime! If he’s allowed to go free, then something really wrong is going on here!”At that point, Judge Rayford angrily slammed his gavel and retorted “Mr. Kirkland you are out of order!” Attorney Kirkland then responded with a full throttle meltdown, shouting ”You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They’re out of order! [...] It’s just a show! It’s a show!” As he was being dragged from the courtroom by bailiffs, Kirkland (Pacino) added ” Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!”The opening statement of this article bears repeating. “Something really wrong is going on here.”Consider the following two unrelated cases, one involving a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq and was shot dead in his Tucson, Arizona home by a Pima County SWAT team, and the other involving the raid on a Florida mosque where three Muslims were arrested on suspicion of providing aid to the Taliban. I don’t believe there can be two more different approaches than represented by these two cases. One case involves a U.S. Marine veteran, the other a mosque whose leaders are under indictment for providing aid to the Taliban.In the case of at Jose Guerena, the Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, a Pima County, Arizona SWAT team were serving a narcotics conspiracy warrant at his home earlier this month. Guerena, who had been sleeping just two hours after working his shift at a local mine, was awakened y screams from his wife when she observed an unidentified man with a gun outside of their home. She grabbed her baby and hid in a closet as Guerena grabbed a rifle and proceeded to investigate. He was shot dead inside the sanctity of his own home, in the U.S. and not by some sniper in Iraq. In total, seventy-one rounds were fired at Guerena.To make matters worse – much worse, medical treatment was withheld by the SWAT team, according to his widow and verified by police and medical logs. At this point, it would appear that Guerena was startled awake and thinking he was protecting his family from a possible home invasion, stumbled onto a police raid. He never had a chance.As a result of the lax border security at the hands of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, there has been a sharp rise in home invasions in Tucson over the last few years. Of course, one would not know that by the “cocky football spiking” Obama from his recent speech in El Paso, where he mocked and ridiculed anyone who dared to question the state of U.S.-Mexico border insecurity.Now, consider the raid on a south Florida Mosque at about 6:00 a.m. Saturday by dozens of heavily armed federal agents. They pounded on the door of the Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque in Miami-Dade county, armed with warrants for Muslims who are suspected of a long-running conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas in support of the Taliban. As morning prayers were in progress inside the mosque, the armed agents respectfully waited until the prayers ended, and then entered the mosque only after removing their footwear.The raid at the mosque resulted in three arrests: Imam Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan and his two sons, Izhar Khan and Irfan Khan. Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles.Additionally, three others named in the indictment are currently at large in Pakistan. They are identified as Ali Rehman (a/k/a Faisal Ali Rehman), Amina Khan (a/k/a Amina Bibi), the daughter of Hafiz Khan, and her son, Alam Zeb, who is also Khan’s grandson.Yes, “something really wrong is going on here.”Hmmmm......"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".Read the full story here.

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu under pressure by Obama to expel 130,000 Jews from their homes?(IsraelMatzav).National Union party leader Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz has accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of preparing the expulsion of 130,000 Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s seeming agreement to surrender Jewish communities outside of “settlement blocs” sets the stage for the largest expulsion of Jews since the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, National Union chairman and Knesset Member Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz charged Tuesday.The Prime Minister did not spell out which “settlement blocs” he meant during his Herzl Day speech in the Knesset Monday night.“Now the truth has become clear,” said MK Katz. “This is the first time that the Prime Minister has stood up and declared, contrary to the platform of his Likud party, that he is prepared to expel 130,000 Jews, residents of the hills of Judea and Samaria, in effect advancing Kadima party policies."“There has been no such wholesale expulsion since the Spanish Inquisition by the worst Jew-haters of Europe." He urged MKs and ministers of the Likud to join the National Union “to be true to the platform on which they were elected.”Prime Minister Netanyahu may not have spelled out which Jews he intends to expel from their homes in Judea and Samaria, but Ketzaleh has. If you go to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site, there's a list of communities Netanyahu intends to keep and a list of those he intends to give up with their populations.In a speech on Monday to the Israeli Parliament, Mr. Netanyahu ruled out any dealings with Hamas but suggested that Israel would be open to surrendering most of the West Bank in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Hmmmm......Israel Brace yourself for tomorrow and obama speech?Read the full story here.More here.

• A word of caution about Obama's 'turnaround'.(IsraelMatzav).I have a sense of deja vu regarding President Obama's seeming turnaround. In the last couple of months, he has seemingly let up on pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu and has lowered both the tone and the priority of the 'peace process.' Now, word is coming out of Washington claiming that Obama's speech on Thursday night will be conciliatory to Israel, and well it might be if he doesn't want to be booed out of the room when he speaks to the AIPAC convention on Sunday.
  
  I feel like we're back in 2008. We're being told to ignore the fact that Obama sat in Reverend Wright's anti-Semitic church listening to his sermons for 20 years and listen only to what he is saying now. We're being told to ignore the fact that one of Obama's closest advisers called for sending US troops to Israel to enforce a 'Palestinian state' because he fired her anyway and she won't be part of his administration. We're being told that the 'new Obama' understands that Prime Minister Netanyahu has done all he can to bring about peace and that he realizes that we cannot even negotiate with an entity that includes an unrepentant Hamas. We're being told all these warm and fuzzy things. And they are all a lie.When we look at Arab leaders, we are constantly warned - and rightfully so - to look at what they are saying in Arabic before accepting what they say in English at face value. In fact, an entire cottage industry (principally MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch) has sprung up to translate the words of the Arab media into English. Similarly, we cannot just accept what Obama says to Israel supporters and ignore what he says to our opponents.If Obama wins in 2012, all is not well. Every action Obama takes for the next 18 months has one goal and one goal only: To get himself re-elected. Once that happens (God forbid), the Obama who visited MJ Rosenberg, the Obama who sat in Reverend Wright's church, the Obama who was close friends with Rashid Khalidi and Ali Abunimah, is likely to come out of the closet.Hmmmm......I think his speech on Thursday will include nothing good for Israel.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime sends Herald scribe to Coventry.(BostonHerald).The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.”“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit.“My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting US President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits,” Lehrich wrote.Obama is in town today to raise money for his 2012 re-election campaign. His afternoon speech in the South End’s Cyclorama is open to all media, but only a selected pool can attend other aspects of his fund-raiser. Pool reporters must share all their material with other press. The Herald has been bypassed for pool duty during Obama’s last two visits despite asking the White House to be the local pool reporter.“Newspapers don’t have to be unbiased to get access. You can’t just let only the newspapers you want in,” said Boston University journalism professor Fred Bayles.Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom defended Romney’s March 8 opinion piece:“That op-ed was about jobs, which apparently is a sensitive subject for the thin-skinned people around the president. The White House may be able to manipulate pool coverage, but they can’t manipulate the fact that millions of Americans are out of work because of President Obama’s failure to create jobs and get our economy moving,” Fehrnstrom said in a statement yesterday.The administration has a history of controversial clashes with the press.In April 2010, Bloomberg’s Ed Chen, president of the White House Correspondent’s Association, met with then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to hash out complaints about limitations on the press, saying, “In my 10-plus years at the White House, rarely have I sensed such a level of anger ... over White House practices and attitudes toward the press.”Last month, a San Francisco Chronicle editor reported the White House threatened to bar Hearst reporters from pool duty after a Chronicle reporter shot video of protestors mocking Obama at a fund-raiser.Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who has followed White House-press relations at right-leaning Instapundit.com, said a pattern appears to be developing.“It’s all about control,” Reynolds said. “At some point this will blow back on them. Most presidents behave in a more refined fashion. Experience has shown that acting presidential is good politics and to their advantage.”Hmmmm....Observe Dictatorship in it's natural habitat?Read the full story here.

• 10 Indications The United States Is A Dictatorship.(BeforeitisNews).The good news is that freedom is won and lost in the hearts and minds of men. It is for this reason that we must state the obvious: we have clearly passed through the first "atmospheric" stage of approaching dictatorship, and have now entered the second -- the open behavior of a dictatorship in the United States.It will never be announced on the evening news, and it is not likely to continue under an authoritarian leader in the mold of a Stalin, Hitler, or Mao. Likewise, it is not to say that Barack Obama is the first dictator of The United States, but rather is part of a continued expansion of executive power that is now so great that by all measures America can no longer be called a Land of the Free ruled by We the People. We stand no chance of reversing this forced march by false democracy until we understand where we are headed, who is leading us there, and for what purpose.

1. Rule by force, not by law: This is where it all begins; when the legal framework that serves to define a country and its behavior is dismantled and intimidation tactics take over. In the most extreme case, drone bombings and assassinations have begun of non-citizens, as well as U.S. citizens, leading only to a debate over whether U.S. citizens should be stripped of citizenship before assassination. Governmental assassinations are in complete opposition to the laws of America and all international laws and agreements. In the last week we have also seen the official elimination of the 4th Amendment in Indiana, which is a clear precedent-setting ruling to say that the State now believes that it owns the property and person of its citizens. As a result, the militarized police have been granted unlimited access, which will only cause an escalation in cases of police brutality and misconduct.
2. Crushing peaceful protest: Despite the current mission to defend protesters living in dictatorships overseas, when George Bush brought "free speech zones" to America it effectively spelled the end of peaceful, lawful street protest. Now the full force of brutality and surveillance has been unleashed upon the very people intent in stopping it through peaceful means. It is as sure a sign as any about totalitarian intentions, when anti-war activists have become one of the targets. The activist is beginning to equal terrorist in the all-seeing eye of the State, and any street gathering is a sure sign to let loose all of the riot weapons that were formerly used against insurgents on foreign battlefields.
3. Checkpoints: The slow acclimation of the populace to military-style checkpoints began first as border control operations up to 100 miles inland in what the ACLU calls the Constitution Free Zone. However, this has rather quickly morphed into local traffic stops across the country for "unsavory" characters such as those targeted by the Amber Alert system and DUI checkpoints. Though apparently well meaning, we are now far beyond even loosely suspected criminal activity, as VIPR teams have been introduced to take over public transportation and events. The TSA tyranny has hit the streets of America, now forming a de facto internal passport system straight out of the totalitarian playbook.
4. Citizen spy network: Dictatorships know how difficult it is to rule over large populations with only the relatively small numbers of military and police. Despite the lessons of terror created by citizen surveillance that the East German Stasi files left us to examine, just such a network has been openly introduced to present-day America -- and now it's even more high-tech and populated. Secret black budget projects organized through the NSA like Perfect Citizen is just one among many. Our head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano -- in partnership with retailer Wal-Mart -- kicked off the See Something, Say Something program, which goes beyond the already high-tech surveillance apparatus of the NSA and turns each of us into an unpaid employee of the police state.
5. Executive Orders: This is means by which a dictator can come to power in the United States, despite a framework of checks and balances. Any time a country has centralized its power to the executive branch by erasing the checks and balances of separate legislative and judicial bodies, the result has been dictatorship. And this normally happens when national security is “threatened.” The Constitution is clear, however: only the legislature (Congress) can make laws.Executive Orders also form the basis for control over regulatory agencies, which then impose the directives. While it seems multi-layered with potential checks and balances, all directives can now be issued top-down in dictatorial fashion.
6. Control of regulatory agencies: This is the more insidious and, ultimately, dangerous tactic used by dictatorships. Dictatorship through regulation invades every facet of society without relying only upon overt violence. As mentioned above, only the legislature can make laws. However, the legislature has created “regulatory bodies” which make de facto laws through “violations” that rob us of freedom. There is no clearer example at the moment than the FDA, which has brought in near-total food control.
7. President declares war unilaterally: Despite the parade of lies that led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it pales in comparison with the new war in Libya and other interventions and sanctions throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Through Executive Orders, outlined above, the President can declare war so long as there is a resolution passed by Congress. This has been dispensed with through Obama's illegal wars, and it appears that Congress could go even further by ceding its power completely to the president. The disregard for Congressional approval is already dictatorial, but if this last step is taken we will effectively be living in a permanent state of war tantamount to WWIII that will be controlled at the sole discretion of the current and future presidents. This unilateral power to drag nations into war without checks and balances is a hallmark of dictatorships where entire countries are swept along purely by the ideology of their leader.As Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell have stated, "We have a dictatorship when it comes to foreign policy."
8. Torture: Torture has long been a tactic used by America. In fact it runs the leading school on its methods. The School of the Americas has been responsible for training Latin American dictators and their thugs on how to intimidate the local population and rule with an iron fist. However, the torture debate has hit mainstream media in a serious discussion about its effectiveness, especially following the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Aside from the despicable morals involved, torture doesn't work for intelligence gathering, according to experts. Furthermore, the legalization of torture was what really brought the dreaded Russian secret police out into the open.
9. Forced labor camps (gulags): This is when we know that a totalitarian society has arrived in full and our society is run completely by coercion. As Naomi Wolf has illustrated, "With its jails in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, of course, Guantánamo in Cuba, where detainees are abused, and kept indefinitely without trial and without access to the due process of the law, America certainly has its gulag now." Additionally, a silent gulag has already been created inside America, starting with the nation's prisoners who are increasingly locked up within a for-profit prison-industrial system that makes money both on the construction of prisons as well as the cheap labor force. The Defense Department itself pays prisoners 23 cents per hour to build its weapons systems, which is clearly a type of slave labor.Through Continuity of Government, national emergency directives would openly suspend the Constitution and could possibly lead once again to internment camps in America.
10. Control over all communications (propaganda): Once the physical framework of dictatorial control has been set up, then the justification for its continued presence can commence. The type of high-tech control grid now put into place in The United States to this point has only been explored in works of fiction such as 1984, which has led Paul Craig Roberts to draw a correct parallel. A public emergency announcement system has in fact been in place since the '50s, whereby the president can interrupt television and radio to deliver critical messages. However, this has been recently expanded even beyond the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as the FCC voted to mandate (PDF) "the first-ever Presidential alert to be aired across the United States on the Nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS).” Now, with the arrival of the trackable smartphone that can be hijacked to bring government messages (emergency or not) we find ourselves "willing" participants in a scenario reaching far beyond 1984. Using the bin Laden assassination and the threat of guaranteed reprisal, the government has announced that the president will break into these private networks to carry PLAN government messages and warnings; and there is no opt-out.  It would appear that the United States should be a called a dictatorship based on the above criteria. Once the atmosphere is established, average participants need not be part of a conspiracy, as they tend to unquestioningly go with the flow. However, we must acknowledge that the U.S. is in a vastly different position than totalitarian regimes of the past, as well as her contemporaries. America has a history that is built upon the foundation of resistance to dictators.Hmmmmm...."Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" -- Lord Acton.Read the full story here.

• Obama to Pledge New Mideast Aid ,especially for the Muslim Brotherhood.(WSJ).Washington —President Barack Obama will announce this week a new aid plan for the Middle East and North Africa that U.S. officials say will be far bolder than previous American economic assistance to the region.Mr. Obama will outline the plan, which could include debt cancellation and a reprogramming of financial aid the U.S. already provides to countries like Egypt, in a speech he is scheduled to deliver Thursday at the State Department.Whatever aid he announces, though, is unlikely to assuage Arab governments, which had been hoping the White House would push forcibly for a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The president's aides say his speech will focus only briefly on the issue."At the end of the day, the Palestinian cause remains a dominant issue," said a senior Arab official. "A speech by the president without addressing the conflict is unlikely to generate much enthusiasm."Mr. Obama met Tuesday with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has been pressing U.S. officials to take a more aggressive role in the peace process, according to Arab diplomats.After the meeting, Mr. Obama said the U.S. will provide Jordan with hundreds of millions of dollars through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the government institution that finances and insures private business to promote economic growth. The result, according to the U.S., will be roughly $1 billion for economic activity in Jordan. The president also pledged 50,000 metric tons of wheat."All of this will help to stabilize the cost of living and day-to-day situation of Jordanians and will provide a foundation so that these economic reforms can move forward and long-term development can take place," Mr. Obama said.The president's goal, officials said, is to give a financial boost to the political change sweeping the Mideast and North Africa, where dashed economic aspirations have fed unrest. Senior U.S. officials are particularly alarmed by the deterioration in Cairo's finances since the street revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February. The Egyptian government has been forced to spend between $3 billion and $3.5 billion of its foreign-exchange reserves a month to pay for food and other commodities as tourism has plunged and overseas remittances have dried up.Egypt's government has been seeking relief on around $1 billion in debts tied to wheat purchases in the 1970s, according to officials involved in the talks. Cairo has paid off the principal on these loans, but continues to service interest payments. The administration is looking at a mixture of direct aid, debt relief, and export credits to help stabilize Egypt's finances. "There are a whole range of tools we could use," said a U.S. official. "We've been looking for the right mix."Hmmmm.....More foodstamps in America more wealth in the middle East,"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers".Read the full story here.

• The Nakba: Blood, tears and hypocracy.(HurriyetDaily).Sometimes a little disrespect can be good for humanity, especially if we must choose between respect for hateful ideology and disrespect.“Let me give you a very clear message,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a United States television station recently. “I don’t see Hamas as a terror organization. It is a resistance movement.” This powerful line came only a day after Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar said while his organization would accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, it would never recognize Israel.And according to Mr Erdoğan, “calling them Hamas terrorists would be disrespect to the will of the Palestinian people.”I am not going to list the names of victims of Hamas’ violent campaign, which prompted civilized nations of the world to put the Jihadists to a list of terrorist organizations. I am not going to list Hamas’ attacks against civilian and military targets either as I don’t want to fill up a hundred columns with a boring catalogue of crimes. But let’s see how Hamas defines itself, its members, its mission and better comprehend what the “will of the Palestinian people” is about.The Hamas Covenant, proclaimed in 1988, declares members to be Muslims who “feat God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors.” Very impressive membership criteria. But there is more.The charter calls for the eventual creation of an “Islamic state in Palestine,” in place of Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the “obliteration or dissolution of Israel.”The peace-champion charter defines “our struggle against the Jews,” as very great and very serious: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslims! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him.” That’s a mission almost impossible, especially the part about crying and speaking trees and rocks.And the charter goes on by outlining its peace mission: “The only way to engage in this struggle between the truth and falsehood is through Islam and by means of Jihad until victory or martyrdom.” Here, obviously, “victory” is killing the last Jew tipped off by a rock or a tree; and martyrdom is getting killed by Jews. Finally, there is a nice little piece of fatwa on defining who is Muslim and who is not: “Renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion of Islam.”Erdoğan is free to think that that charter is a declaration of goodwill and amity. He is free to think Hamas is a blessed grouping whose members fear God, raise the banner of Jihad and throw flowers and candies to civilians. And he has every liberty to believe that winning votes and prescribing the deaths of everyone belonging to one faith makes one organization a political party. It’s all fine.But then he will have no liberty to denounce as terrorists legitimate Kurdish politicians who have never touched the cold steel of a Kalashnikov or a rocket launcher. He will have no liberty to claim that the “will of the Kurdish people” amounts to terrorism especially when none of the Kurdish parties have produced a charter calling for the destruction of a nation and a country. And the prime minister should learn not to be disrespectful to the will of the Kurdish people.Hmmmm......Erdogan "Muslims don't commit genocide".Read the full story here.

• Overweight? The doctor will NOT see you now: How ob-gyns in Florida are turning away obese patients.(DailyMail).Countless studies have shown that obesity can be a danger to your health but few foresaw this particular peril.Some ob-gyn doctors in Florida are not refusing to see otherwise healthy women solely because they are overweight, it has emerged.The Sun Sentinel polled 105 obstetrics-gynaecology practices. Fifteen said they now have weight cut-offs for new patients starting at 200lbs or based on measures of obesity. Any woman who is heavier is simply turned down.Several of the doctors claimed they are doing so because their equipment can not handle people over a certain weight. However six confessed that they were simply trying to avoid the complications that come with treating someone whose health is already in danger because of their weight.In a nation with 93million obese people, it is an alarming standard.The policy is not illegal - but critics slammed it as abusing the spirit of the medical profession. 'If I had that policy... I'd lose half my patients,' said Dr Maureen Whelihan in West Palm Beach.'No doctor should be unable to treat patients just because they are heavy,' added Dr Bruce Zafran of Coral Springs. But the doctors who do hold the police were defensive, telling the Sun Sentinel they have to protect themselves.Another practice turns down women weighing more than 250lbs. The office manager told the paper the doctors do not want to have to send their patients to specialists later on if they develop problems. 'They are not experts in obesity,' the manager said. Several doctors said their ultrasound machines can not get good images of obese woman, making it harder to diagnose problems and potentially putting the patient in danger. It is common practice for ob-gyns to decline to see pregnant women who are overweight, sending them to specialists. For them to refuse to see obese women who are not overweight is new.So far the practice seems to have been confined to South Florida, where more than half of ob-gyns go without medical malpractice insurance due to high rates.But Dr Robert Yelverton of the Florida Obstetric and Gynecologic Society said decisions are typically made after assessing an individual patient, not by ruling out an entire group.'Overweight people need doctors,' he said.Hmmmm.......Another "CHANGE" MOVE on nothing to see.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan Taliban warns of retaliation.(Al-Jazeera).Exclusive video that shows the group vowing revenge for bin Laden's death.The Pakistani Taliban have issued their first videotaped message since Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals earlier this month.In the exclusive footage, obtained by Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, the group is shown vowing revenge for the al-Qaeda leader's death.Read and see the full story here.

• Hamas insists: No talks with Israel.(Ynet).Mahmoud al-Zahar negates politburo chief's speech, says there is no change in Hamas stance.Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar insisted his organization would not negotiate with Israel despite a statement to the contrary made by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, the Palestinian paper Al-Quds reported Wednesday.Mashaal's statement "does not represent the movement's official stance, which is based on a plan of resistance and not negotiations", al-Zahar said.He added that Gaza's government had not given Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas permission to negotiate with Israel after a joint Hamas-Fatah government is formed, due to a recent Palestinian reconciliation between the rival factions. "We do not agree to such negotiations and do not encourage them – just the opposite," he said, adding that the speech made by Mashaal on the matter surprised many in the organization. "There has been no change in the movement's position on everything related to the resistance, which is our only option," he said. Al-Zahar also predicted that Hamas would rack up more votes than Fatah in both the West Bank and Gaza in elections once they are held, but a unity government is most likely in any case, according to most predictions. The Hamas spokesman added that there was nothing new in talks for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. He also praised 'Nakba Day' protesters for "creating serious danger for the Zionist entity". Hmmmm.....Obama's 'peacepartners'.Read the full story here.

• 'Love seats' removed by Istanbul "Virtue" police in morality push, cafe owners claim.(HurriyetDaily).Municipal officials in Istanbul’s central Beyoğlu district have dismissed claims by cafe owners that police have been removing two-person seats located outside their establishments to prevent couples from sitting next to each other.The Beyoğlu Municipality said in a statement that cafe, bar and restaurant owners are required to replace old and worn-out tables and chairs located outside their establishments, which some owners had failed to do.Cafe owners near certain parts of bustling İstiklal Avenue saw the situation differently.“When we came to open up our cafe one morning a week ago, we realized some seats were missing. The municipal police had removed 12 of our two-person seats and taken them to a storage depot in Kasımpaşa without notifying us,” said Murat Kahraman, one of the owners of Bodega Kafe.“When we went to the depot, we saw the seats were broken. We paid 70 Turkish Liras for transportation and repaired them. When I asked why only our venue had been targeted, they said they were going to do it to everyone,” Kahraman said, adding that municipal police had previously asked them to remove the seats without explaining why.The two-person seats have been in place for eight years and the cafe pays 60 liras per table for taking space outside, Kahraman said.Two employees from nearby Cafe Nero also claimed the municipal police had been visiting their workplace for a month and saying the two-person seats should be removed. When they asked whether the seats had to be removed to prevent couples from sitting next to each other, the police replied that this was “a good insight,” according to employees Muhammed Şimşek and Derya Göksu. The workers said they had no intention of removing the seats and would continue to fight the directive.Negative reactions to advertisements by international fashion retailer H&M, which featured swimsuit- and bikini-clad models and appeared on some of Istanbul’s billboards and bus stops, have caused the company to pull the ads. Some of the advertisements, prepared by Wall City Design and Commerce, had been vandalized with spray paint.“The reactions in Turkey were vexing when we received such positive feedback on this campaign in other countries, but we believe there are fashion lovers who appreciate this campaign in our country as well,” said Pelin Atay Kuran, H&M’s director of communications in Turkey. She said the company’s summer ad campaign had been put on display with the knowledge of all related authorities.No criticism or threats were made directly toward the company, but because of the vandalism and the criticism aimed at the advertising firm, H&M decided to remove the ads so as not to upset the authorities and the public, Kuran said, according to daily Hürriyet.Hmmmm....Erdogan's Turkey the next hardline Islamic Iran?Read the full story here.

• Saudi student charged with hate crime after 'spitting on WalMart customers - because Americans are pushing us around'.(DailyMail).A Saudi Arabian student is facing hate crime charges after she allegedly spat on several 'white people' in her local Walmart because a 'higher authority' made her do it.Nuha Mohammed Al-Doaifi, 21, an engineering student at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, was arrested on a charge of misdemeanour battery at the Palm Bay WalMart.But the hate-crime determination could mean that the charge may be elevated to third-degree felony.Authorities say that Al-Doaifi spat in the face of a WalMart customer who was trying to help her after the student was butting her trolley into the exit door of the supermarket.She also allegedly spat at another customer who 'got too close to her', but the spittle managed to miss him.When she was arrested, she told officers that she was spitting on 'white people' because a 'higher authority' made her do it and that 'Americans are pushing us around.'Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Palm Bay Police Department, said: 'Her actions were directed at random people based on their ethnicity, and that's according to her own statement.' The incident happened about 1pm on Sunday as Al-Doaifi hit a door with her cart as she was going into the store at 1040 Malabar Road, a report states. She was with her 15-month-old son, who was sitting in a shopping cart. An item on the cart had saliva on it, an officer wrote. Terry Rakowski, a 39-year-old resident of Palm Bay, says the incident occurred after she tried to help the woman, who was wearing a religious head covering and pink burka, enter the local WalMart.She told Florida Today: 'She just spit all over me. All I was trying to do was tell her she was coming in through the out door. She was just ramming it into the door.'She then looked at me and said, "Yes I did," then walked off. This really bothered me last night. You just don't know what she might be capable of.'The state Department of Children and Families turned the boy over to his father when his mother was taken to the Brevard County Jail.The father told officers that Al-Doaifi spat at an FIT professor two or three weeks ago, they said. The school's dean notified the Saudi Arabian Embassy, which counselled her, Martinez said.Police have initiated procedures to send her back to Saudi Arabia.Hmmmmm....Apparantly "The Djini made me do it' defence doesn't work in the US..........well not yet.Read the full story here.

• The obsession with the ‘plot to take down the AKP and Gülen’.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey is a very interesting country. Thanks to the massive erosion of all values, norms and indeed the concept of patriotism and nationalism, this country has become a place where for some the military of the country has become the enemy. Was not this country proud of its military until yesterday?Is there any other country on this world where there is a “legal” political party, which constantly condemns the security forces of that country, praises a separatist terrorist group and indeed declares a three-day mourning for a group of terrorists killed by the security forces while attempting to sneak into Turkey from the northern Iraqi “free-terrorism zone?”Is there any country where the government of that country is against the media reporting of the funerals of soldiers fallen in operations against the separatist and terrorist elements?Is there any country where after security forces stage an operation and kill 12 separatist terrorists trying to infiltrate the country from a neighboring “friendly country” where terrorists have been roaming around as free as birds as executives of a political party and a large group of supporters of that legal party defy all the laws, border security, enter illegally the neighboring country and collect the bodies of the terrorists killed by the security forces?Are there journalists and political commentators in any country who can complain that it was “strange if not awkward all together” if in an operation in the mountainous border region with an unstable neighboring country security forces kill one dozen members of the separatist terrorist gang who were trying to sneak into Turkish territory, but not one single Turkish soldier was killed or wounded in that operation?Were those journalists, writers or political commentators pleased if there were casualties among the security forces as well? What kind of a mentality is that?Hmmmm......Government orchestrated terrorism?Read the full story here.

• British tourist faces year in Dubai jail after calling prophet Muhammad a 'terrorist' during heated row.(DailyMail).A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday.Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam.The holidaymaker was wandering through the Mall of the Emirates when he got into an argument with Hassan Habeeb, a 21-year-old salesman from Pakistan.During the row, Graham allegedly said that ‘Muslims in Pakistan are not normal because they kill each other and kill people outside Pakistan’.Mr Habeeb tried to tell the Briton that Muslims are ‘peaceful people and are all brothers who help each other’.In a written statement produced before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, the Pakistani salesman said: ‘He laughed and said that I’m crazy and that prophet Muhammad was not a peaceful man but he is a terrorist.’Mr Habeeb then became angry and tried to punch Graham, only for a customer to intervene, it was said.The tourist was then taken to a police station and charged with swearing in public and insulting Islam.Yesterday Graham appeared in court wearing shorts and was ordered to change into trousers by the judge on the grounds of decency.Once in the appropriate attire, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.The court heard how the argument began after Graham had walked into E-Max electronic shop and struck up conversation with Mr Habeeb about the Taliban on March 3.The salesman claims the conversation became aggressive after Graham discovered he was from Pakistan.‘I wanted to end the discussion and asked him if he need anything in the shop but he added that Pakistan would soon come to bad end,’ Mr Habeeb said.An Egyptian customer who calmed down the salesman and a Sri Lankan colleague also gave statements supporting the claims.In a police statement Graham said: ‘I spoke with him about the problems between the Pakistani government and Taliban and I understood that the Pakistani is a supporter of the Taliban.‘I told him he was crazy because they were terrorists and they kill people and bomb each other. I didn’t say anything bad about Muslims and the prophet.’ The judge released Graham on bail and will deliver his verdict on June 9.The case once again highlights the difficulties faced by some of the one million Britons who visit Dubai each year.Unlike some Arab states, Dubai tends to be a little more lenient towards westerners.However, officials in the Gulf state have prosecuted several British tourists for indecent behaviour and for swearing in public over the past three years.Read the full story here.

• West Vancouver Muslim woman charged with human trafficking.(VancouverSun).A West Vancouver woman has been charged with human trafficking in connection with a case in which a young woman was allegedly brought over from Africa and forced to work in demeaning and slave-like conditions in a lavish West Vancouver home.Mumtaz Ladha, 55, is wanted on a warrant for hiring the 21-year-old African woman, police said Monday afternoon. Police said Ladha allegedly promised the victim a work visa and a job at a Vancouver-area hair salon, but instead forced her to work 18 hours a day, seven days a week, in her home.“This was work well beyond what you would expect reasonable working conditions to be in Canada,” said Const. Michael McLaughlin, a federal spokesman for the RCMP’s E Division. “Things like hand-washing underwear of all the people in the house, hand-washing cars, hand-washing the cars of guests who came over.“She wasn’t given enough food. In some cases, she was forced to eat whatever was left over from a meal — table scraps, in other words. She had no money, her identity documents weren’t with her, and it’s our information that she was often only allowed to sleep when the other people in the home were all sleeping.”The young woman was brought over during the summer of 2008 and lived in a “state of fear” for about one year at Ladha’s home, McLaughlin said.In June 2009, she learned the conditions she was living under were not acceptable and sought help at a women’s shelter.“I can’t talk about the exact circumstances, but ultimately, she finally understood through having a conversation with somebody that the conditions she was living under were not acceptable,” McLaughlin said.“She had so little idea, you would be shocked. She was very depressed, she was very upset, she thought she was stuck, she thought there would be no way out of this situation.”The victim is now at a safe place in B.C., but police are keeping her identity private to protect her. Police would not disclose where in B.C. she is, or where in Africa she came from.Police have not yet been able to make contact with Ladha. They believe she is not at home, and possibly not in the country.As well, no one answered the door at the family’s upscale home in the British Properties, a three-storey, tan-colour building with large windows and a view of downtown Vancouver.The home has an outdoor basketball court, an indoor pool and is surrounded by chain-link fences. A Mercedes 560 SEL and an Infinity QX4 were parked on the driveway, neither with licence plates attached.The total value of the home was valued at $3,145,000 in 2011, according to a BC Assessment report.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Iranian becomes first woman convicted under Bahrain ‘state of national safety’.(Al-Arabia).An Iranian national, Fadhila Mubarak Ahmed, became the first woman to be convicted by the Bahraini authorities for imperiling national safety in the unrest-hit country, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Ms. Ahmed received a four-year sentence on charges of assault on a public officer, incitement for hatred of the regime, participation in a rally with the intent to commit crimes and undermining public order, the UAE-based Gulf News reported.The National Safety Court of First Instance, described the defendant on March 27 as speeding as she approached a security checkpoint with her car’s audio system blaring anti-regime statements.During her arrest by the public security, Ms. Ahmed reportedly grabbed the shirt of one of security personnel before pushing him.Investigations by the court also revealed that she took part in a rally at the Pearl Roundabout, the epicenter of Shiite-led protests in February 2011 and March, during which demonstrators demanded a constitutional monarchy to give more representation to the Bahraini Shiite majority. A minority Sunni royal family has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years.The court, in another first, sentenced an Iranian national, Mohammad Qassim Ghuloom Hussain, to two years in prison followed by deportation for taking part in two rallies near the Safriya Palace and Pearl Roundabout.The court also sentenced six defendants to terms between one and four years for their alleged roles in the unrest.Three defendants were acquitted.But verdicts by the lower court, adjudicating the state of national safety, are not final and can be appealed within two weeks.It is not the first time that Bahrain acted against foreigners in the name of national security amid the unrest unleashed in the country. For example, more than 15 Lebanese living in Bahrain have been expelled by the security forces, following a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in which he expressed support for the demands of the Bahraini opposition.Joining opposition rallies has also backfired against several Bahraini athletes who were expelled from their respective teams for doing so. The Bahraini unrest has created a fault line in the region. Shiites in all of Iraq, Lebanon and Iran have mostly showed solidarity with Bahraini Shiites. Iran has been actively encouraging protestors.Hmmmm....To be continued.Read the full story here.

• "Life and death in Iran's prisons".The Fathi Brothers Executed in Isfahan Prison Today.The International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran – Moments ago, Bijan Fathi told the International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran that his two sons Abdollah and Mohammad Fathi were executed after meeting for the last time with their mother. The efforts of, the victims’ family members, the activists, and the human rights organizations to halt or postpone the execution continued until the last moment, but were unsuccessful. The two brothers were hanged early morning on may 17th in Isfahan prison.Mohammad Fathi, 27, and Abdollah Fathi, 29, were arrested on March 2010 and transferred to Isfahan prison. According to the family they endured severe physical and psychological torture to accept the false charges against them. The charges include, “Involvement with anti-revolutionary groups”, “Taking action for arms struggle”, “Enmity against God”, and “Armed robbery”. They were sentenced to death by Judge Moghiseh from branch 24 of the Revolutionary Court on the charge of Moharebeh (enmity against God).Bijan Fathi, the father of the two political prisoners awaiting execution told the International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran that “the sentence was confirmed a month ago in the Supreme Court, and today, the officials told their mother that the executions will be carried out [on May 17th].”Bijan Fatthi added, “The confessions that the sentences were based on were obtained under severe torture. Throughout the entire judicial process, my sons were deprived of all of their basic lawful rights, like the right to have an attorney and the right to defend themselves.”Hmmmm.....Still silence from the defender of the opressed?Probably to busy setting up Israel this week?Read the full story here.