MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - May 27 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 120.Source : Here .

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

• Dictatorship at the end of the tunnel and closing in fast!Ron Paul: “It Appears That the Fate of the American Republic is Now Sealed”.(SHTF).Congressman Paul sees what the end result will be. The political and businesses leaders of our country are, whether by design or ignorance, leading us down a path reminiscent of the former Soviet Union and one Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin:

The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes. The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions. The rule of law is constantly rejected and authoritarian answers are offered as panaceas for all our problems. Runaway welfarism is used to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class. Who would have ever thought that the current generation and Congress would stand idly by and watch such a rapid disintegration of the American Republic? Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President.........In my view, it appears that the fate of the American Republic is now sealed—unless these recent trends are quickly reversed.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that all these horrible changes are being done in the name of patriotism and protecting freedom. They are justified by good intentions while believing the sacrifice of liberty is required for our safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Listening to Ron Paul’s speech from the House floor should scare every American and Congressional representative. Unfortunately, most will never hear his words, and many of those who do will dismiss them as ramblings of a right-wing extremist. The majority of Congressional leaders, for their part, were probably out to lunch and those who were in the chamber were likely sleeping or texting on their blackberries.As Dr. Paul points out, the President of the United States now has the power to do anything he so desires without consequence. Decentralizing power out of the hands of a single individual or close-knit aristocracy was the very reason our Founders chartered the United States as a Republic.

Rule of law stemming from the protection of property rights is the most critical element of a free nation. With respect to “property,” we refer not just to the land you own, but your person – your body. When the President of the United States and others like Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst of Texas can justify the usurpation of our 4th amendment with no recourse, the imminent decline of our Union becomes frighteningly clear.Take a look at the Amendments to the US Constitution and the Constitution itself and you’ll no doubt realize that the entire document is designed to protect the individual and his or her person. The Federal government (and most State government) believes, and Federal and State courts have upheld, that safety, security and privacy of an individual in their home or person is no longer important. They can enter your home without a warrant, grope you like an animal, torture if you are deemed to have important information and imprison you without trial or evidence. Allowing the government to act in this manner, without regard to the fourth amendment, then means that all other Constitutional protections collapse like a house of cards.Government activities being engaged in under the Patriot Act and Interstate commerce, among others, while seemingly innocent to most Americans today, are rapidly and irreversibly leading These United States of America into tyranny. Most Americans assume that since this is law, it must be the right way to go about things.Recall that Mr. Stalin also passed laws as leader of one of the most violent and brutal regimes in the history of the world. The end result was a nation that was impoverished for decades (even today, 60 years later) and one where an individual and their family could have their land seized by the state and be sentenced to life in prison, torture or death without an open trial and without ever seeing the evidence against him.Hmmmm.....Do you really think he will abandon power?Remember that they called the tea party the 'ennemy'?Read the full story here.

• TSA now the "Official US Groper in chief"?(Current)Saturday night, a certified TSA official will be at the Santa Fe High School prom to oversee student searches.This all comes after two Capital High School students, sisters, filed a lawsuit saying they were groped by a security agent at Capital High School's prom last month. On Friday, the court ordered Santa Fe Public Schools and the security company ASI to provide at least one TSA certified person at the Santa Fe High School prom and the Capital High School graduation.The restraining order also spells out the specific ways security can perform searches. It says a pat-down is only to be used if there are reasonable grounds and that pat-downs should not be used as a first approach for every student.KOB Eyewitness News 4 talked to one of the sisters suing the district earlier this week. Candice Herrera said, "She grabbed my breast and shook the inner part of my bra and shook it and then picked up the front of my dress to mid thigh and she was patting down my bare legs."Capital's Principal told us she was standing right there when students were searched and doesn't remember any students complaining about the pat downs.Meanwhile, Santa Fe Public Schools says it's happy to comply with the Federal Court's decision, saying, student safety is a priority.Hmmmm....When will they start at the 'kindergarten'?Read the full story here.

• FBI Official: Illinois Imam Wouldn't Pass Background Check,but was allowed to tour the National Counterterrorism Center and FBI headquarters in September 2010.(TheInvestigativeproject).The FBI's top agent in Chicago told Illinois State Police (ISP) officials that an imam under consideration to be the agency's first Muslim chaplain wouldn't pass a background test if it were up to his agency.That comment came before the State Police initially approved Imam Kifah Mustapha's appointment in 2009, a move they later rescinded after the Investigative Project on Terrorism published an article documenting Mustapha's connections to a Hamas-support network.Mustapha is suing the ISP claiming it violated his 1st and 4th Amendment rights in withdrawing its offer for the chaplain's position. The suit claims the IPT report was flawed and the state had no legitimate grounds to reject him. As part of the lawsuit, Mustapha wants to see ISP and FBI records related to its background check of him.The U.S. Attorney's Office argued those records are protected from disclosure, in a motion filed Wednesday. In it, the government said FBI Chicago Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC) Rob Grant had "several" conversations with ISP officials before Mustapha's appointment in which he advised the ISP of Mustapha's worrisome background."In each conversation, SAC Grant stated that Mustapha would not pass an FBI background check if he applied for an FBI chaplain position and then proceeded to explain the bases for his opinion," the motion said.Mustapha's supporters say the ISP's decision was "based on suspicion and paranoia," which they blame on the IPT report. The story cited internal documents from the support network, called the Palestine Committee, which became public during a 2008 prosecution, and other court records.He was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five former officials. In 2008, a Dallas jury convicted the defendants on more than 100 counts tied to illegally funneling money to Hamas. Mustapha served as a paid Holy Land Foundation employee from 1996 until the group's assets were frozen by the federal government in 2001.Mustapha also served as a member of a volunteer committee for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). In testimony given in another case, Mustapha recalled donating money to HLF and "maybe" IAP. Like the Holy Land Foundation, the IAP was an arm of the Palestine Committee, which was created to promote the Hamas agenda financially and politically in the United States.Additionally, Mustapha sang in a band that performed at HLF fundraisers. In one video, submitted as evidence in the HLF trial, Mustapha sings, "O mother, Hamas for Jihad. Over mosques' loudspeakers, with freedom. Every day it resists with stones and the dagger. Tomorrow, with God's help, it will be with a machine gun and a rifle."The FBI's Grant, meanwhile, is known for his outreach in the Chicago Muslim community. In 2009, he attended a meeting of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) to assure members that the FBI doesn't targets mosques for investigations."The FBI unequivocally does not plant informants in mosques or any other houses of worship," Grant said. He urged attendees to report any FBI agents acting in an inappropriate manner.Though Grant predicted Mustapha could not pass an FBI background check, Mustapha was allowed to tour the National Counterterrorism Center and FBI headquarters in September 2010."If we thought he was a security risk, we wouldn't have included him," on the tour, which is part of the FBI's Citizens' Academy, said Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice.According to the FBI Citizens' Academy website, "Because of the classified investigative techniques discussed, nominees must also undergo a background check and get an interim security clearance."For a detailed profile of Mustapha's ties to Hamas-linked groups, click here.Hmmmm......Who allowed him on the tour?Read the full story here.

• Islamic North Sudan continues Etnic cleaning, South Sudan says 80,000 flee after north takes oil-rich Abyei.(Al-Arabia).Alel Bol fled with four of her six children when armed northerners on motorbikes roared into her home in Sudan’s contested Abyei border region and, she said, bombs started falling from the sky.On Friday, she was still waiting for news of the other two children as she and tens of thousands of her compatriots took refuge in villages inside south Sudan, many sleeping on the bare earth under trees, plastic sheets and torn tent fabric.About 80,000 people have fled since the north Sudanese armed forces seized oil-producing Abyei almost a week ago, a southern official said, doubling previous estimates of the displaced, according to Reuters.“I saw the attackers ... I saw their guns. They were even bombing from the sky,” Ms. Bol said beneath the baking sun in Turalei, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away from Abyei town. “I made it here with four of my children, but two are missing.”Both Sudan’s mostly Muslim north, and the south, where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs, claim Abyei—a battleground in a north-south civil war that ended in 2005.The north’s move last week sparked an international outcry and raised fears a land-grab could return Sudan to full-blown conflict, which could have a devastating impact on the region by sending refugees back across borders and creating a failed state in the south.The attack came at a highly sensitive time for Sudan, just seven weeks before south Sudan is due to secede as an independent country, taking its oil reserves with it.Southerners voted for independence in a January referendum agreed under the 2005 peace deal that ended the last civil war.Thousands of men, women and children, many of them without possessions, crowded into Turalei in the south’s Twic county.Entire villages have been emptied after widespread looting and shooting broke out following the advance of northern armed forces into Abyei, international organizations say.The United Nations, meanwhile, said Friday that it will send a representative to Sudan to assess the country’s human rights situation, including the consequences of recent clashes in Abyei. Mohammed Chande Othman, the UN’s independent human rights expert, said in a statement that he “will focus in particular on the arrests and detentions in the north (and) the armed confrontations that have taken place between the (southern army) and armed militia groups.” He added, according to Agence-France Presse that during his May 31 to June 8 visit he will assess “the ongoing conflict in Darfur and the deteriorating situation in Abyei.”Hmmmmm....."Mohammed Othman" for sure he'll protect christians with such a name?The UN is a mockery of Justice and human rights!! Read the full story here.

• 32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid.(AmericanDream).Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic "big brother" control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled? Well, that is exactly where things are headed. We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible. Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens. Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted. Global politicians will give speeches about liberty and freedom even as they undermine them at every turn. There are very, very few nations on the planet where liberty and freedom are increasing. Instead, almost everywhere you turn the "control grid" is getting tighter. Governments don't want us gathering together and interacting with one another. Instead, they want us to work our tails off to support the system, they want us enslaved financially and constantly drowning in debt, and they want us addicted to television and other forms of entertainment. They want us as numb and docile as possible. Meanwhile, all over the globe they continue to construct a futuristic "big brother" control grid that will ensure that they will always be able to control us.Sadly, this is not the plot to some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie.This is really happening.When you read the list below, each of the 32 signs may not seem to be all that significant individually. However, when they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture....Hmmmm......Dictatorship or democracy?Read the full story here.

• No Recess Appointment for Elizabeth Warren.(WhitehouseDossier).President Obama won’t be making any recess appointments of Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when Congress is out of town next week, because Congress has arranged for itself to technically remain in session.It’s no secret that Obama wants the consumer advocate Warren to head the agency when it official stands up in July, but Republicans think she is too radical in her approach to regulating lenders and won’t confirm her. Obama decided to make her de facto director until he must appoint a congressionally confirmed director in July by sticking her in the Treasury Department and making her the White House Consumer Czar. Republicans charge she is already staffing up the place with lefties sure to give lenders a harder time than they deserve.The White House has let leak that it’s talking to other candidates, but that they can’t get top prospects to take the job because they think Warren deserves it. This is all crocodile tears, of course, since they could bring Warren into the interview to say, “go ahead, take the job, no prob.” It’s clear they are looking for a way to stick Warren in, even if they have to wait until the month-long August recess to do it.This is the basis for the contemptuous performance we see below. I’ve witnessed administration officials depart hearings because they had previously scheduled appointments, but I’ve never seen one refuse a request to stay a few extra minutes. Given the sensitivity of Warren’s position and her need to explain herself to Congress, this is all the more remarkable.Look, some members of Congress are clowns, others are fools, and some are geniuses. But they are the people’s representatives in Washington. For a federal official to defy them in such a way is disgraceful and can only result from her not needing Congress’ money.And it shows that the agency will be giving Congress the finger every day of the week unless reforms proposed by Republicans to make the place more accountable are enacted.Hmmmm....I have 'other things to do than to answer'Congress or we the people?Thugocracy in motion?Read and see the full story here.

• Does Michelle Obama Hate Poland or just the Polish President?(Gawker).While the president continues his European tour with a stop in Poland, Michelle Obama is heading home. But is she going home to be with her daughters? Or is it because she hates Poland, and more specifically, its president?Politico's Ben Smith picks up on an item in the right-wing Polish newspaper Nasz Dziennik claiming that the first lady does not like Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski — apparently because of a poorly-formed joke he made last time he was in the U.S. We'll let Nasz Dziennik and Google Translate explain:

But the real reason for absenteeism Michelle Obama is different and has to be a diplomatic response to the blunders and nietakty errors committed by the president to Bronislaw Komorowski, during his visit to the USA. And especially for being one of the statements undermined the marital fidelity of his wife of U.S. president. Komorowski wanted a joke, but instead provoked international outrage. It is no wonder, then, now that Mrs. Obama does not want to meet with the Polish president.

One thing you should know about the president is that you never, ever be one of the statements undermine the marital fidelity of his wife. He hates that! And now, thanks to the blundering President Komorowski, Michelle Obama hates Poland.Or maybe not. A commenter on Smith's blog writes:

It seems that it wasn't really a joke, but a badly translated Polish saying. Komorowski wanted to say sth like this: You see, Mr President, USA and Poland joke is like a marriage. You should trust your wife, but you should also check whether she is faithful." Apparently, there was a moment of misunderstanding whether Komorowski referred specifically to Obama's wife or to a wife in some marriage (he meant the latter).Hmmmm.....For whom the shoe fits.......?Read the full story here.

• The Montreal-based "Alternatives" received Millions From Canadian Government now used for "Freedom Flotilla II".(Toronto Sun).The Montreal-based Alternatives, which has received $5 million from the federal government over the last few years, is not what most people think of when they think of an aid group. They don’t feed the hungry or clothe the naked. They are political organizers.According to their website, they “help the networking, building, and promoting of innovative initiatives in popular and social movements that are fighting for economic, social, political, cultural and environmental rights.Now they are organizing radicals in this country to join radicals from around the world in taking on the only democracy in the Middle East. The only country in the region that gives rights to minorities, that respects the rule of law.They are partnering with radical Islam to attack an ally.With your tax dollars.The Congressional Research Service in Washington has linked IHH, the Turkish charity behind the international flotilla effort, to Hamas and other terrorist groups.This is the group our own “peace activists” are partnering with to take a run at the Gaza blockade.The Montreal-based group Alternatives has received $5 million from the government in recent years. It is also listed as one of the "Canadian Endorsers" on the Canada Boat to Gaza website.The Canada Boat to Gaza (CBG) will carry a delegation to Gaza in the end of June on a boat named Tahrir, meaning "liberation" in Arabic, along with at least 12 other ships from around the world.I wish Alternatives were an isolated group, but they are not. Our foreign aid system has bought into the idea of capacity building to such a degree that we spend millions paying left-wing radicals from this country to train and organize left-wing radicals in other countries.It’s time to clean up this mess and it’s up to the Harper government to do it.Hmmmm.....PM Harper the ball is in your camp,kick it real hard as an example to the world!Read the full story here.

• Pro-Palestinian-in-Chief.Obama’s hard-Left tilt is real.(NationalReview).It’s time to revisit the issue of President Obama’s Palestinian ties. During his time in the Illinois state senate, Obama forged close alliances with the most prominent Palestinian political leaders in America. Substantial evidence also indicates that during his pre-Washington years, Obama was both supportive of the Palestinian cause and critical of America’s stance toward Israel. Although Obama began to voice undifferentiated support for Israel around 2004 (as he ran for U.S. Senate and his national visibility rose), critics and even some backers have long suspected that his pro-Palestinian inclinations survive.The continuing influence of Obama’s pro-Palestinian sentiments is the best way to make sense of the president’s recent tilt away from Israel. This is why supporters of Israel should fear Obama’s reelection. In 2013, with his political vulnerability a thing of the past, Obama’s pro-Palestinian sympathies would be released from hibernation, leaving Israel without support from its indispensable American defender.To see this, we need to reconstruct Obama’s pro-Palestinian past and assess its influence on the present. Taken in context, and followed through the years, the evidence strongly suggests that Obama’s long-held pro-Palestinian sentiments were sincere, while his post-2004 pro-Israel stance has been dictated by political necessity.Let’s begin at the beginning — with the controversial question of whether Obama’s cultural heritage through his nominally Muslim Kenyan father and his Muslim Indonesian stepfather, along with his having been raised for a time in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, might have had some effect on the president’s mature foreign-policy views. Obama supporters often mock this idea, but we have it on high authority that Obama’s unusual heritage and upbringing have had an effect on his adult views.

Top presidential aide and longtime Obama family friend Valerie Jarrett was born and raised in Iran for the first five years of her life. In explaining how she first grew close to Obama, Jarrett says they traded stories of their youthful travels. As Jarrett told Obama biographer David Remnick: “He and I shared a view of where the United States fit in the world, which is often different from the view people have who have not traveled outside the United States as young children.” Remnick continues: “Through her travels, Jarrett felt that she had come to see the United States with a greater objectivity as one country among many, rather than as the center of all wisdom and experience.” Speaking with the authority of a close personal friend and top political adviser, then, Jarrett affirms that she and Obama reject traditional American exceptionalism. One hallmark of America’s exceptionalist perspective, of course, is our unique alliance with a democratic Israel, even in the face of intense criticism of that alliance from much of the rest of the world.

Obama’s close friend and longtime ally, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said’s successor as the most prominent American advocate for the Palestinians, goes further. Khalidi told the Los Angeles Times that as president, Obama, “because of his unusual background, with family ties in Kenya and Indonesia, would be more understanding of the Palestinian experience than typical American politicians.” Khalidi’s testimony is important, since he speaks on the basis of years of friendship with Obama.What Obama doesn’t tell us, but what I reveal in Radical-in-Chief, my political biography of the president, is that he was a convinced Marxist during his college years. More important, once Obama graduated and entered the world of community organizing, he absorbed the sophisticated and intentionally stealthy socialism of his mentors. Obama’s socialist mentors strongly supported what they saw as the “liberation struggles” carried on by rebels against American “oppression” throughout the world. So Obama’s continuous radical political history strongly suggests that his early support for Palestine’s “liberation struggle” grew out of authentic political conviction, not pandering.The record is clear. Obama’s heritage, his largely hidden history of leftist radicalism, and his close friendship with Rashid Khalidi, all bespeak sincerity, as Obama’s other Palestinian associates agree. This is not to mention Reverend Wright — whose rabidly anti-Israel sentiments, I show in Radical-in-Chief, Obama had to know about — or Obama’s longtime foreign-policy adviser Samantha Power, who once apparently recommended imposing a two-state solution on Israel through American military action. Decades of intimate alliances in a hard-Left world are a great deal harder to fake than a few years of speeches at AIPAC conferences.The real Obama is the first Obama, and depending on how the next presidential election turns out, we’re going to meet him again in 2013.Hmmmm.....Any Jew voting for him needs to get a mental evaluation.Read the full story here.

• Raw Onions Served As Snack in D.C. Schools.(Cato).Fifty-three elementary schools in the District of Columbia take part in the federal government’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a recently ramped-up federal initiative that dishes out millions to local schools to get them to use raw produce as snacks. According to the Washington Examiner, it was by inadvertence that students at Turner Elementary School were given raw green onions (scallions) as a snack the other day when they were supposed to be given zucchini slices instead. Children were observed making “yuck” faces before throwing the offerings in the trash or, in some cases, resourcefully tucking them into their bags to take home for their parents to cook.Are we sure this is the best way to keep students from sneaking Doritos into the building?On a less tear-inducing note, the school board in the town of Darien, Conn. has unanimously voted to pull out of the federal school lunch program. Finance director Richard Huot cited current and forthcoming federal mandates that, among other things, ban chocolate milk, discourage reliance on refillable sports water bottles, and require schools to push salads in preference to longtime favorites such as fruit. The regulations also drive up labor costs, Huot said, and make the lunch program more complex to run generally. “The children in this town are savvy consumers,” Huot said. “You put a lousy product on the table; they are not going to buy it.”As a famously affluent suburb, Darien can afford to turn down the bribes — sorry, subsidies — that come with doing it Washington’s way. Isn’t it a shame so many other communities feel they have no real financial choice but to go along?Hmmmm.....You will eat ,drive to work and sleep as i say so?Read the full story here.

• As Islamists rise in Turkey so do the Human Rights violations!Big jump in human rights violations in Turkey, activist says.(HurriyetDaily).Human rights violations in Turkey’s east and southeast have risen dramatically, an activist said Friday, comparing the number of incidents in the first four months of this year to the figures from five years ago.Some 11,340 human rights violations allegedly occurred in the region in the first four months of 2011, compared to 4,507 in the same period of 2006, the Diyarbakır branch secretary of the Human Rights Association told a group of journalists at a press conference in Istanbul’s Taksim Hill hotel.“These figures include unsolved murders, torture [incidents], people who lost their lives in prison due to not receiving medical treatment and those who died in conflicts with the police in protests,” Raci Bilici said. He also claimed that about 800 people had been tortured in the region over the past four months.“At least, this is the number of those [tortured] who applied to our association [for help],” he said. According to Bilici, people physically mistreated in the region cannot even receive medical treatment because they would be detained when they reported their condition to a hospital.“Anyone who opposes, including people who struggle for human rights, are detained and arrested,” Bilici said, claiming that about 750 people had been arrested in the last four months. “These people are all human rights defenders, who struggle for freedom and democracy.”Few members of the press attended the meeting, where members of the delegation called on media outlets to be fair and reflect the truth in their reports about events in the region.Hmmmmm.....Islam and Human Rights don't go well together.“What they call human rights is nothing but a collection of corrupt rules worked out by the Zionists to destroy all true religions.” Ayatollah Khomeini.Read the full story here.

• Flemish move for Nazi collaboration amnesty widens rift in Belgium.(Guardian).Far-right party's motion erects another obstacle to forming a national government and ending country's political crisis.One more example of the communal divisions in Belgium – and yet another obstacle to negotiations to form a government – has arisen.On 12 May, the 333rd day of Belgium's political crisis, all the mainstream Flemish parties, apart from the Greens, supported a motion by the far-right Vlaams Belang party advocating an amnesty for those who collaborated with the Nazi occupation in 1940-45. The bill suggests effacing all the effects of "sentences and sanctions inflicted on the grounds of alleged breaches of public loyalty". It proposes compensation for "financial prejudice" suffered by "victims of postwar repression or their descendants".Flemish-speaking far-right parties have been battling for almost 20 years for an amnesty. Until now all the proposals by Vlaams Belang, which is largely isolated, have failed. But when the Flemish Social-Democrats (SP.a) decided to endorse the proposal it opened the way for the Flemish majority in the upper house to authorise a debate. Parliament had previously refused to entertain the idea. "In these difficult times it is particularly worrying that this rule should have been broken," said Philippe Mahoux, a Walloon Socialist (PS) party senator. "It is a major obstacle in the path of those who want to establish stable government," said Francis Delpérée, a member of the centrist CDH party.Armed collaboration with Germany involved roughly equal numbers from the Walloon and Flemish communities, but political collaboration was more extensive in Flanders. where the Nazis awarded privileges such as releasing prisoners of war and placing militants of the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond, a nationalist pro-collaboration party, in positions of authority in Flemish localities, according to the writer Charles Bricman. In 1943 about 2,000 collaborators enrolled in the Walloon Legion, almost 3,000 in its Flemish counterpart. Nearly 14,000 Belgians fought in the Wehrmacht under German colours. The move looks like a warning to French-speaking politicians suspected of holding up negotiations to end the political stalemate. It might even herald a repeat of the events of 2007, when in the course of committee proceedings in parliament the Flemish majority unanimously voted to split the bilingual Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde district.Almost four years later the situation has hardly changed. After countless attempts, King Albert II is once more holding talks, after Wouter Beke, the latest in a long line of negotiators, asked on 12 May to be relieved of his duties. After more than two months' discussions the leader of the Flemish Christian Democrat (CD&V) party delivered a thick document to the head of state which, he says, contains the basis for possible agreement.None of the players seems to believe a solution is possible and the Crown obstinately refuses to consider another election. According to the commentators, the most likely outcome is a negotiated partition of the country, which might also take ages.This article originally appeared in Le Monde.Hmmmm.....About 50 percent of the Jews living in Belgium survived the Holocaust(about 65.000 persons).One of the reasons was the resistance against the occupier, resistance that could change from region to region,in 1942 only two towns had a pro Nazi mayor Ghent and Charleroi.In 1942 there was in Belgium a "Defence comity for the Jews' a counter organisation to the Dutch 'Joodse Raad' who aided the occupier in the deportation of the Jews,in numbers: France 25 % of the Jews were deported , in Belgium 47 % of the known Jews were deported and in the Netherlands 74 % of the Jews were deported.Finally Belgium is the only country in which the resistance took action against a deportation train ,thus saving a number of Jewish deportees.In België about 70.000 collaborators were convicted (963 on 100.000 inhabitants), in The Netherlands 110.000 (or 1.250 on 100.000 inhabitants). In any conflict you have turncoats this is not representative of the whole country!Read the full story here.

• The "Gaza Flotilla" And Fascists.(ModernityBlog).We are often told that those on the Flotilla to Gaza were humanitarians and peace activists, and it is conceivable that some of them were, but news is coming out of a slightly less savoury group of passengers on the Mavi Marmara, fascists.Well, more accurately neofascists from the Turkish, Büyük Birlik Partisi (BBP)The BBP is renowned for its connections with the Grey Wolves movement, older readers will remember the activities of those neofascist terrorists in the 1970s and their murderous campaign of bombings and killings.Not the sort of people that you would immediately associate with humanitarian aid? It doesn’t make much sense, until you remember that they are also renowned for their anti-Jewish racism.Jean-Yves Camus in an article on the European Extreme Right and Religious Extremism describes the Turkish Extreme Right:“There are two political parties form the Extreme Right in Turkey: the Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) and its youth wing, Bozkurtlar (Grey Wolves), and the Büyük Birlik Partisi (BBP), led by Muhsin Yazicioglu. The former, which is very active in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and to a lesser extent in France, is secular and mostly concerned about the ethnic essence of the Turkish Nation, although some experts within the German Verfassungschutz believe that there is one “Turkish nationalist” and one “Turkish-Islamist” wing within MHP.[27] The latter split from MHP in 1993 precisely because it felt the party’s Islamist credentials were “weak”. It received 1.02 % in the 2003 general election and did not contest the 2007 election. It operates in Europe under the name of Avrupa Tûrk Birligi, or Verband der Turkischen Kulturvereine E.V. in Europa, and promotes a mix between the Atatürk tradition of nationalism and the Koran. Although BBP seems to have failed politically, while its rival MHP has become Turkey’s third political force with 14.29 % of the vote, the movement is worth monitoring, because of its extreme anti-Kurdish and anti-Armenian propaganda, and also because of its alleged involvement in violent activities.”Not exactly natural bedfellows for humanitarians or peace activists, but violence would be second nature to these neo-fascists and might explain some of the activities on the deck of the Mavi Marmara?From the IHH page, applauding the visit offered the BBP leader, Yalcin Topcu:

“Topcu handed over a letter to Bulent Yildirim, General President of IHH, which he wrote to Palestinian President Ismail Haniye, following his speech. After receiving the letter, Bulent Yildirim has offered his thanks to Yalcin Topcu and accompanying members of BBP who do not hesitate to give their support to the campaign. He also mentioned Muhsin Yazicioglu in his speech, deceased former leader of BBP, put great importance into the Palestinian cause and it would be a great honor to deliver the letter written by Yazicioglu’s followers to Palestine and to Ismail Haniye. “Hmmmm......Real 'peacefull,humanitarian' fellows?Read the full story here.

• Video - Osama Hamdan, Head of the Hamas Foreign Liaisons: Armed Confrontation Will Continue to Be "the Backbone of the Resistance", the Israelis Must Return to Their Countries of Origin.Hmmm....The Obama regime and Europes "Peace Partners".Read and see the full story here.

• Related - 'Part time" NATO ally Turkey Hosted Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation Talks In Ankara Next Round In June In Istanbul.(Memri).Representatives of Fatah and Hamas met in Ankara last Saturday to participate in a meeting ahead of establishing a unity government.“There were 37 representatives from different Palestinian political parties attending the meeting and discussing the recent Palestinian reconciliation agreement. A second meeting will be held in June, possibly in Istanbul,” a diplomat from the Palestinian Embassy to Turkey told Hurriyet Daily News. "Implementing reconciliation mechanisms between Fatah and Hamas were discussed in the meeting", the official said.The representatives of Hamas and Fatah also had another meeting with Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, the diplomat said. The Turkish Foreign Ministry held a reception and gave the opening speech.Turkish officials said that it was the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, a veteran negotiator who has played a leading role in peace deals in several regions of the world, who had asked the Turkish government to host the conference. Following Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s initial call for help in establishing a unity government, Turkey moved to build a dialogue between the two groups in April. Ankara had proposed Abbas to hold a meeting in Istanbul with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to resolve their differences. However, the reconciliation was reached in Egypt. Fatah representatives attending the meeting in Ankara on Saturday were Eshref Cuma, deputy from Palestinian parliament, Usama El Farra, Han Yunus mayor, Macit Abu Semmare, while Hamas representatives were PM Hanniya’s advisor Ahmed Yusuf, deputies Yahya Musa, Ismail El Askar and Huda Naim, the Palestinian Embassy official told Hurriyet Daily News.Hmmmm.....A so called 'Nato ally ' helping Terrorists.GET Turkey out of NATO before they become a second Pakistan or Iran filled with Islamic extremists dreaming of a new Ottoman Empire!Read the full story here.

• Sadrist Militia Marches Unarmed In Baghdad, Challenging Al-Maliki's Government.(Memri).Iranian proxy and Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr inspected an estimated 30,000 members of his militia, Jeish Al-Mahdi, parading in the streets of Baghdad yesterday carrying banners with two Sadrist slogans: "No No to America" and "No No to Israel." The march was a direct challenge to the Iraqi government [of which the Sadrists are members] against any plan to extend the deployment of U.S. military forces in Iraq beyond December 31.Although the marchers carried no weapons, al-Sadr described them as "time bombs."The parade was a clear challenge to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who remains ambiguous about the extension of the U.S. military in Iraq. A spokesman for al-Maliki's al-Da'wa party called the military parade "a challenge and provocation to Iraqi democracy."[It is commonly known that al-Sadr's militia is armed, trained and financed by Iran, and the parade yesterday serves Iran's primary interest of exposing Iraq to Iran's subversion.].Hmmmm.....Obama "If we work hard ,Afghanistan could be a succes like Iraq".How much do you have to be in denial to call Iraq a 'succes'?Read the full story here.