MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 02. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 02. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 02 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 5.1  ! Lots of activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 127.Source : Here .

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

• The 'Messiah'doesn't walk on water : 'we’re on the verge of a great, great depression'.(DougRoss).Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC."What we’ve got right now is almost near panic going on with money managers and people who are responsible for money," he said. "They can not find a yield and you just don’t want to be putting your money into commodities or things that are punts that might work out or they might not depending on what happens with the economy... Stocks extended losses after the manufacturing fell below expectations in May and the private sector added only 38,000 jobs during the month."Interest rates are amazingly low and that, thanks to Ben Bernanke, is driving everything," Yastrow said. "We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it."We have many, many homeowners that are totally underwater here and cannot get out from under. The technology frontier is limited right now. We definitely have an innovation slowdown and the economy’s gonna suffer."If this Republic is to survive, we need to elect a president in 2012 who will operate using a playbook unknown to the Left: The Constitution.The document upon which politicians swear to the Creator to protect and uphold. And then, in the case of Barack Obama, promptly ignores.The Constitution. Faith, family, individual liberty, private property rights.Not big government, unchecked entitlements, mandated light bulbs and shower heads, not Europe-lite.The Constitution. Thousands of years of human experience codified into a single document that created the greatest system of government ever seen on the face of the Earth. Not perfect, because no system is perfect, but the most perfect ever created.We need to elect a president in 2012 that will protect all Americans, not the racial separatist groups, not the race-baiters, not the imploding welfare state addicts, not the politicians addicted to unlimited power. A president who will protect all Americans and, by logical extension, the American system of government itself.It's 2012 or never.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime Backs Away From stop drilling Wilderness Plan.(Fox).The Obama administration is dropping a controversial plan to restore eligibility for federal wilderness protection to millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West after the GOP-led House put up a strong fight.Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a memo Wednesday that his agency will not designate any of those public lands as "wild lands." Instead Salazar said officials will work with members of Congress to develop recommendations for managing millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West. A copy of the memo was obtained by The Associated Press.Salazar's decision reverses an order issued in December to reverse a Bush-era policy that opened some Western lands to commercial development.A budget deal approved by Congress prevented the Interior Department from spending money to implement the wilderness policy. GOP lawmakers complained that the plan would circumvent Congress' authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling.Republican governors in Utah, Alaska and Wyoming, filed suit to block the plan, saying it would hurt their state's economies by taking federal lands off the table for mineral production and other uses.Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, hailed Salazar's reversal of what he called a "misguided" policy that would have harmed Utah's economy."Since the majority of land in Utah is owned by the federal government, it is critically important to strike a balance between the needs of our local communities and the protection of public lands that truly do have wilderness characteristics rather than pandering to environmental extremists," Hatch said. "Today's announcement is a positive step toward restoring that balance."Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, also cheered the announcement, calling it a "positive.""I'm glad to see the administration move in the right direction on this," he said. "We all share the common bond of loving our public lands, and ensuring access to them is important. We will continue to be vigilant and make sure that future designations of public lands are made by consensus, not by executive fiat."William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society, said he was deeply disappointed at the decision, which he said ignores the Bureau of Land Management's obligation to protect wilderness values."Without strong and decisive action from the Department of Interior, wilderness will not be given the protection it is due, putting millions of acres of public lands at risk," Meadows said.Bob Abbey, director of the land management bureau, said the December directive would not have required protection for any particular areas. Designation as wild land could only be made after public comments and review and would not necessarily prohibit motor vehicle use or the staking of new mining claims, Abbey said.Read the full story here.

• Rep. Dan Landry (R-LA) rips invitation to Obama White House into tiny pieces, lights the pieces on fire, then urinates all over them.(DougRoss).Well, metaphorically speaking, that is.A freshman GOP lawmaker rejected an invitation to the White House on Wednesday, saying he didn't want to be “lectured” by President Obama... Rep. Jeff Landry (La.) said ... “I don’t intend to spend my morning being lectured to by a president whose failed policies have put our children and grandchildren in a huge burden of debt.”Landry said he would not sit down with Obama to negotiate on a deficit reduction compromise until Obama produces his own budget plan... “Until the president produces a responsible deficit reduction plan, I’m not going to the White House to negotiate with myself. Our conference has put out for months where we would start the process..."...Landry also criticized Obama for neglecting to meet with the Louisiana delegation about a drilling moratorium off the Gulf of Mexico... “The President has done nothing, just like he has for the people of the Gulf Coast... For months, the Louisiana delegation has sent the president numerous requests to meet with him or his chief of staff concerning the de facto moratorium issued in the Gulf of Mexico, a de facto moratorium that has driven gas prices up and now threatens to derail economic recovery; the president hasn’t even had the courtesy to write us a note back... [this meeting is just] political grandstanding” on Obama’s part.“I refuse to partake in his political grandstanding that will ultimately do nothing for debt reduction and job creation,” Landry said.As Darren 'Wall Street' Bettencourt said of 'The Transporter', "Hmmm, I like him."This is one GOP freshman with stones and, for that, we salute you, Congressman. That is what you call speaking truth to power.Read the full story here.

• Hallelujah!Netanyahu and Abbas Agree On One Thing Only: They Don’t Like Barack Obama.(Telegraph) — The peace process is dead again, but don’t let anyone tell you there’s no common ground between the Israelis and Palestinians.Just listen to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in January 2010, addressing the subject of stalled negotiations – stalled because a then newish US president had made them contingent upon a total “freeze” on Jewish settlement construction in both east Jerusalem and the West Bank: The Palestinians have climbed up a tree. And they like it up there. People bring ladders to them. We bring ladders to them. The higher the ladder, the higher they climb.Now listen to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, sounding off to Newsweek two months ago about the collapse of peace negotiations once a partial construction freeze, and those negotiations, had inevitably come and gone: It was Obama who suggested a full settlement freeze. I said okay, I accept. We both went up the tree. After that, he came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me, jump. Three times he did it.So both Bibi and Abbas have cast the president of the United States under the deepest suspicion and given up on the arboreal metaphors for appeasement. Both are now hardening their lines, with newly galvanised political bases to support them, two years after another failed round of Washington diplomacy. Even the boundlessly optimistic George Mitchell has quit in frustration.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Enough is enough : 150 Economists Back US Republicans in Debt Fight.(CNBC).More than 150 economists back U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's call to match any increase in the debt limit with spending cuts of equal size, according to a letter released by the Republican leader's office Wednesday.The letter will give Boehner an important talking point as he and his fellow House Republicans meet with President Barack Obama at 10 a.m. to discuss the debt limit and other fiscal issues."An increase in the national debt limit that is not accompanied by significant spending cuts and budget reforms to address our government's spending addiction will harm private-sector job creation in America," the letter said.Signatories include Nobel laureate Robert Mundell of Columbia University and economists from schools like New York University and Georgetown University, as well as conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute.The Treasury Department has warned that the country could face a default that could push it back into recession and roil markets across the globe if it does not raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit by Aug 2.Treasury has been tapping federal employee pensions and other funds to pay the nation's bills since it reached the current debt limit on May 16.Republicans say they will not back any increase that does not include steep spending cuts and other limits to ensure that debt stays at a manageable level.The Republican-controlled HouseTuesday defeated a bill that called for a debt-limit increase without conditions.Read the full story here.

• Palestinians will seek an emergency session of the General Assembly known as "Uniting for Peace" to override any veto.(Al-Jazeera).With Mideast peace talks at an impasse, Palestinians have been looking for another route to statehood: the United Nations.“We are taking our destiny in our hands,” the Palestinian’s top UN diplomat told a small group of reporters in New York on Tuesday.Ambassador Riyad Mansour predicted millions of Palestinians would take to the streets come September, when the UN General Assembly meets, to support the cause. He drew parallels to the peaceful Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.“The battle for our independence is not only the battle of the Palestinian leadership. This is the battle of millions of Palestinians,” Mansour said.“I believe the Palestinian people are capable and I believe also that they want to engage in this last chapter of the struggle of ending occupation.”He said work is already underway behind the scenes at the United Nations, as he lobbies countries to recognize a Palestinian state.Palestine is already recognized by 112 countries. But 130 would give them a 2/3 majority in the UN’s General Assembly - the number necessary to become an official member.There’s just one problem; according to the UN Charter, a country cannot become a member state without first getting the support of nine members of the Security Council. The United States has indicated it will veto a statehood request, saying the only way is through direct negotiations with Israel.Mansour said the Palestinians have “other options” but refused to elaborate.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki has said that the Palestinians will seek an emergency session of the General Assembly known as "Uniting for Peace" to override any veto.For now, the Palestinians’ emphasis is on building international support for their statehood - and by extension putting pressure on the United States.“What would be the argument of President Barack Obama in trying really to disregard this wish,” Mansour said, pointing to the President's stated admiration for democratic movements in Tunisia and Egypt. “Not only of the Palestinian leadership but the entire Palestinian population?”Read the full story here.

• “America Will Be Dismembered By Its Creditors”.(SHTF).Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse, says that the U.S. will be unrecognizable in ten years. In his most recent interview with WMNF Tampa he outlines the five stages of collapse:Listen to Dmitry Orlov:
  Click here to listen to the interview
  First you have financial collapse, which is basically the volume of debt that has to be taken on in order for the economy to continue functioning, cannot continue. We’re seeing that right now in Greece, we’re probably going to see that in Japan, we’re definitely at a point now in the United States where even if you raised the income tax to 100 percent, there’s absolutely no way of covering the liabilities of the U.S. federal government. So, we’re at that point now but the workout of the financial collapse is not all quite there. We don’t quite have a worthless currency but that’s in the works.That, of course, is followed by commercial collapse especially in a country like the United States that imports two thirds of its oil. A lot of that is on credit and if a little bit of that oil goes missing then the economy starts to fall apart because nothing moves unless you burn oil in the United States and, of course, a lot of goods that are sold everywhere are imported again, on credit.And then commercial collapse is generally followed by political collapse because the Congress no longer has the ability to spend money in the fashion to which they have become accustomed. Governments at every level start failing. We’re seeing the beginnings of that where fire and police departments around the country are being cut. Right now there’s a big fight over the retirement of retired municipal workers. Retirements are, basically, being looted in order to paper over these giant gaping holes in the finance scheme.Then the last two stages are I think generally avoidable in most places which is social and cultural collapse.I think the country will be unrecognizable in 10 years, I don’t know about 5, but I don’t think it will look like a country in 10 years. I think it will be largely dismembered by it’s creditors.I think certain stages like the onset of fuel, transportation, fuel shortages will be very sudden. American society tends to be very fragile…I expect certain parts of the country to go through this cataclysm where suddenly everything that they depend on, which is basically their car, no longer works and everybody’s stranded and very angry. It would be a lot of mayhem. We’ve already seen that, for instance, during Hurricane Katrina and afterward because of all the refinery problems the ‘..’ pipeline that goes up from the Gulf, I think it ends up in New Jersey somewhere, it couldn’t be filled so gas stations in places like North Carolina ran dry and I’ve heard from people in that area that basically civilization ceased to exist. And then, when gasoline supplies were restored civilizaton sort of came back. That should be the pattern in a lot of places in this country.Unfortunately a lot of people simply cannot be reached because they refuse to hear what we have to say. It’s not that they can’t understand it, it’s that they refuse to listen. The media, in general, in the United States makes it very easy because there is this fictional reality that they perpetuate and foist on people that contradicts what we’re saying. We’re saying that ‘this will not continue for very much longer, people’. And then the media says that ‘everything is fine, everything is normal’…Our entire way of life – everything that we have come to know from the Baby Boomers to Generation Z – is being systematically disassembled – our financial, economic, political and social systems. Slowly, day-by-day, one policy shift at a time, the world as we know it is changing.We’re faced with mountains of debt, a dead or dying production capacity, a depreciating currency, rising unemployment, and more Americans than ever before having to rely on government assistance just to feed themselves and their families.Whether we slowly devolve into a near third world nation over the course of the next decade, or experience a violent and rapid economic collapse fueled by rising commodity prices and shortages, remains to be seen.Either way, we share Mr. Orlov’s views that the system has crossed the Rubicon and has been irreversibly damaged. The coming decade is going to be long and arduous – unlike anything Americans have ever experienced before or ever expected to happen.Hmmmm.......Thank you Hussein mission accomplished.Read the full story here.

• Yemen situation worsens with fierce fighting and flights canceled.(Al-arabia).Thousands of armed tribesmen were headed toward the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on Thursday backing support of their leader Sheikh Sadiq Al Ahmar, whose fighters are locked in deadly battles with the country’s security forces, tribal leaders said. Flights in and out of Yemen were cancelled as anti-regime fighting worsened, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh determined not to quit his office.Heavy fighting between tribal leader Mr. Al Ahmar's supporters and Yemen’s security forces raged through the night in the Al Hasaba neighborhood in the capital, the sheikh’s stronghold, which killed at least 15 people, Agence-France Presse reported medics as saying. Among the victims was a seven-year-old girl, who died from wounds sustained after being hit by a stray bullet, said a medical official at the Al Gomhuria hospital in Sana’a.The tribesmen also clashed with security forces at a military post 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of Yemen’s capital, the sources said. According to one tribal leader, the armed men “want to enter Sana’a to back their leader” Mr. Al Ahmar, who heads the powerful Hashed tribal federation.Residents described the overnight clashes in Al Hasaba as the “most violent” of the past two days.Running street battles on Wednesday killed 47 people, medics said on Thursday, raising a previous toll of 39.Fighting in the capital broke out on Tuesday after a truce collapsed between security forces and tribesmen who have taken control of public buildings across the capital.The fighting has cause flights to be suspended at Sana’a airport on Thursday, passengers said.The Defense Ministry's 26sep.net news Website said tribesmen had on Wednesday occupied a building near the presidential palace, in the south of Sana’a.It said government forces “regained control of a number of public buildings,” without specifying which ones.The Website had said on Tuesday that Mr. Al Ahmar’s tribesmen had seized both the headquarters of the ruling General People’s Congress and the main offices of the water utility.Protesters, armed for the first time since demonstrations began in January, clashed Thursday with security forces in the flashpoint city of Taez, witnesses told Agence-France Presse.Witnesses said the clashes took place near the presidential palace and near a post held by the Republican Guard, an elite army unit loyal to President Saleh and led by his son Ahmed.No casualties were reported.Security forces also fired warning shots to disperse dozens who have gathered in the city, south of Sana’a, calling for Mr. Saleh’s ouster, according to an AFP photographer there.A crackdown on protesters in Taez since Sunday has left more than 50 people killed, according to the UN human rights office.Read the full story here.More (Video) here.

• Updated !Drug Raid Turns Ugly as SWAT Guns Down Marine Vet with 22 bullet holes.(DangerRoom).The May 5 assault by a Pima County SWAT team on an address on Red Water Street, outside Tucson, was meant to apprehend a suspected member of a “rip crew” — a team of heavily-armed thugs, working for one of the cartels, that steals drugs from rival cartels. The special-weapons team, made up of at least seven men and seen in the leaked helmet-camera footage above, would pull up in a “Bearcat” vehicle — a sort of law-enforcement-optimized Humvee. Then they’d bust into the single-story house, hold the occupants at gunpoint and serve a search warrant, looking for drugs, illegal weapons and other evidence of cartel involvement. Just another day for a team accustomed to risky missions.But something went very wrong. And within seconds of ramming in the door, the SWAT team opened fire, killing Jose Guerena, the owner of the house. Guerena, a 26-year-old Marine veteran, reportedly confronted the police with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, possibly to protect his wife and kids, who were huddled in rooms behind him.

The SWAT team initially said Guerena shot first; later reports claimed Guerena never fired — indeed, he never took his AR-15 off “safe.” The Medical Examiner counted 22 bullet wounds in Guerena’s body after the raid, CNN reported. Other chilling details can be found in SWAT commander Bob Krygier’s post-operation interview with a Pima County detective.After the brief but intense gunfight, the SWAT troopers pulled back, out of the house that had filled with smoke from discharging weapons. They didn’t know if the house’s defender was dead or alive … or alone. After luring Guerena’s family out of the house using a megaphone, Krygier decided to deploy the team’s first robot — a tossable “throw-bot,” equipped with a simple video camera.

Throw-bots have been around for years. But the machines have serious limitations. The Israeli army, one of the biggest throw-bot users, has complained that using a throw-bot early in an assault can sacrifice the element of surprise. What could be more obvious than a several-pound robot crashing through a window to land at your feet? That might explain why Krygier waited until after the first round of fighting to send the team’s throw-bot sailing into the house.With tiny wheels and rudimentary cameras, throw-bots also have mobility and vision problems. Those limitations were very much in evidence that morning on Red Water Street.Krygier huddled over the throw-bot’s control panel with a deputy named Korza, whom the commander Krygier described as the “most knowledgeable on our team with the, um, electronics.” It took some time for Korza, following Krygier’s directions, to maneuver the tiny ‘bot down a hallway into the living room where Guerena had been shot.Even with the throw-bot perched near the Marine’s body, the SWAT troopers couldn’t make out much detail. Krygier couldn’t tell whether Guerena was dead or alive, and whether his weapon was a shotgun or a rifle. “It’s not the greatest video quality,” the SWAT commander said.With the clock ticking, Krygier and Korza grew desperate. “We actually run the robot into him. Um, no, no response.”Hmmmm......What exactly went on that day?Read and see the full story here.

• Obama’s background of mirrors.(NorthEastIntelligence).Looking into the background of Barack Hussein Obama can be compared to looking into a kaleidoscope. The difference is that instead of seeing pleasingly colorful and symmetrical designs created by light and mirrors, one sees both the mirrors and mechanisms that create the illusion and the asymmetry of the resultant image caused by a deliberate miscalibration of the mirrors. Turning the tube, or attempting to discern the image, only causes more unpleasant distortion.Conducting legitimate background investigations should never be like looking into a kaleidoscope. It is a rather straightforward process. I should know, as I’ve done background checks as an investigator in the private sector for the last 26 years, mostly for Fortune 500 companies, screening potential executives selected to sit on boards of mega-corporations. Questions are asked and answered, and all documentation requested of the selectees is willingly provided for the vetting process.As one would expect, the requisite documentation includes but is not limited to actual hard copies of certified long form birth certificates, social security cards and passport records. No scanned images, no internet downloads, and most of all, no legal resistance to the process. The reasons for the former are obvious: digital documents are not suitable for authentication. With reference to the latter, legal resistance is a red flag of deception, either by commission or omission, and quickly warrants the selectee to a position of immediate suspicion.In my years of conducting such background investigations, I’ve experienced such scenarios on less than a handful of occasions. Following through on each instance, I’ve uncovered evidence that the person under consideration was either lying about their credentials or was unqualified for the position due to fraudulent college and post-graduate credentials. In one particularly memorable case, I found that the selectee was actually a “plant” from a rival corporation, using an entirely fraudulent identity. In all such cases in which I’ve been involved, they’ve been dismissed or worse, subjected to criminal charges.Despite what “team Obama,” the complicit corporate media, and many ill-informed conservative pundits proclaim, the case of the deliberately opaque background of Barack Hussein Obama is far from closed. In fact, as Obama and the Obama White House has given his imprimatur of the recently released document, he has legally painted himself and others into a potential criminal corner.Beyond the digital release of the Certificate of Live Birth, however, lies yet another aspect of his background that suggests the duplicitous use of his social security number. Lest anyone is about to accuse me or my network of being late to the party, we have been investigating this aspect of the background of the man seated in the Oval Office for some time. Much like Ohio private investigator Susan Daniels, investigator Neil Sankey and others have found, irregularities exist with the issuance of Barack Hussein Obama’s social security number. We have collected original proprietary database reports and other documents that indicate that Obama obtained, under possible fraudulent circumstances, an invalid social security number. While much discussion involves the state of issuance of that number, our investigation focuses on the circumstances surrounding that issuance.Our soon-to-be released findings will likely surprise you. It will also give you a glimpse of the internal mechanisms of the broken kaleidoscope. And be advised, we’ve found virtual “fingerprints” on the deliberately miscalibrated mirrors.Read the full story here.

• Obama administration announces US will stay away from Durban III.(IsraelMatzav).Remember the Durban III conference scheduled for New York City right after the 10th anniversary of 9/11? Well, you can tell that we are getting into an election season. The United States has announced - three months in advance no less - that it will stay away from the Durban III conference. UN Watch obtained a copy of the following letter sent today by the US State Department to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who in December led a coalition of 18 senators calling on the Obama Administration to follow Canada's lead and pull out.Enjoy it while you can folks. November 2012 will be over soon enough. Read the full story here.

• Palestinians plan mass fly-in.(Ynet). As Israel's security apparatus mulls options ahead of next Gaza-bound flotilla, pro-Palestinians call on refugees to swarm into Ben-Gurion Airport, say 500 people already booked flights.Amid heightened tensions over the next Gaza-bound flotilla set to depart in June, pro-Palestinian elements are planning to send a large number of activists on commercial flights to the Ben-Gurion airport in the beginning of July, with the aim of showing solidarity with the Palestinians, embarrassing the Israeli government and raising awareness for the Palestinian right of return. A report published by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center claims the organizers of the event believe the "end the siege" convoys are "too limited" and broader actions are needed to "remove the blockade from the entire land of Palestine." According to the organizers' website, the date of arrival to Ben-Gurion airport is set on July 8, because on July 9, 2004 the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an advisory opinion stating that the security fence erected by Israel is illegal. According to the organizers, 500 people already booked their flights to Israel, including families and children hailing from Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. After holding a protest rally at Ben-Gurion Airport, the activists plan to travel to the West Bank for solidarity meetings with local Palestinians. Fifteen organizations, most of which are Palestinian, are behind the fly-in initiative, including the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which "specializes" in disrupting IDF activities in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Hamas sources also called on Palestinian refugees to arrive to Israeli airports on commercial flights as part of the "Naksa Day" events. A message posted on the group's website called Palestinian refugees to fly into Israel's airports on June 4 and 5.Read the full story here.

• Jerusalem 1948 - The Jewish Naqba.(AmnonAndJonathan).Everyone talks about the Nakba, but no one ever stops to think about what the Jews of Jerusalem went through when 5 Arab states and the local Arabs attacked the fledgling Jewish state to destroy it. Jerusalem was divided. Jews were kicked out of their homes with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs.The Jews of Jerusalem became refugees.I received an email today from Hadar-Israel with reprints of old Life Magazine photographs taken by John Phillips in May and June 1948. I share them with you. Read the full story here.

• Gaza Flotilla a.k.a. the floating theatre of the jihad.(Spectator). Two things are due to happen in Gaza in June.The first is that a second shopping mall is due to open. According to Khaled abu Toameh, this will house a huge supermarket, clothes and gift shops, a large restaurant, a modern coffee shop, a cinema and entertainment sites for children. This complements the first mall that opened last year, as well as the gourmet restaurants that are already turning Gaza into a magnet for the discerning Arab foodie.The second thing that is planned to happen is the arrival of another huge flotilla carrying ‘humanitarian supplies’ to relieve the, er, starvation and destitution in Gaza. Last time, the ‘humanitarian’ medical supplies on board the flotilla were revealed to be well past their use-by date. This time round, maybe the organisers want instead to establish a rival shopping experience – bringing in on their boats products under the 'TerrorTrade' designer label, perhaps, or 'Jihadi Chic'? -- to compete with the two mega-malls.Absurd? Of course. But the point of this exercise is not to relieve want. It is merely to stage a propaganda stunt that makes Israel look bad in the eyes of a credulous and malevolent world.Last time, the Turkish terrorist IHH which was in charge of the lead flotilla boat the Mavi Marmara tried to lynch an Israeli boarding party searching it for smuggled weapons and which opened fire in self-defence – promptly causing the post-rational west to blame Israel for ‘aggression’.But that’s not the half of it. Yesterday, Israeli TV ran an item which claimed the IHH was planning demonstrations at both European airports and Israel’s Ben Gurion airport by hundreds of European and American dupes and bigots en route to stage their ‘humanitarian’ mission to end starvation in Gaza (anyone told them yet that Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing point which until now has been closed?)We can all imagine what might happen. Airports are places where security is necessarily tight and procedures accordingly rigid. Flotillistas who appear to be ordinary travellers may suddenly start creating a scene, purely in order to provoke the airport authorities into heavy-handed action which they will then exploit to scream ‘racism’, ‘war crimes’ and so forth. We can expect to see children deployed as human shields on the front-lines of the security scanners, as well as on the flotilla boats themselves. With a bit of luck, they will be hoping, some jittery police officer will shoot one of the flotillistas or better still, their children. By an amazing coincidence, their willing dupes in the western media will happen to be on hand to film it all.  The flotilistas will present themselves as a peaceful, humanitarian mission being thwarted by the fascist Zionists and their lackeys. And their media toadies will duly deliver the script they are being fed. But it will all be a staged, cynical stunt to exploit and manipulate western credulity, ignorance and malice. Not only is it an elaborate plan to play the west for suckers, but it also threatens to put ordinary airline passengers at risk as security is thrown into chaos and airport officials diverted to deal with these disturbances.What are western leaders doing to avert this? Wake up Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland. You are supplying the repertory company for this floating theatre of the jihad. What are the Israelis doing to outsmart this latest example of psychological warfare? Where is their own centralised psy-ops unit to take it on? Wake up, Mr Lieberman. Wake up, Mr Edelstein. Wake up, Mr Netanyahu. This is the war of the mind. Get onto the right battlefield, fast.Hmmmm....Time for Israel to create his own no fly or sail list.Read the full story here.

• Murder of Ukrainian beauty pageant contestant not connected to Islam.(TodaysZaman).The murder of Ukrainian teenager Katya Koren (19) was not connected to Shariah law, as had earlier been reported in the media, with reports stating that she had been stoned to death for participating in beauty pageants.The British Daily Mail newspaper reported that Koren was Muslim and that she was killed by three Muslim youths who claimed her death was justified under Islam. According to the daily, one of the three said Koren violated Shariah law and that he did not have any regrets regarding the murder.The media was put to the test on Islamophobia worldwide as numerous websites covered the story without checking the facts, including in Turkey. Ukrainian authorities told the Cihan news agency that the report was made up and that the murdered teenager was Christian with Russian roots.In a news conference in Simferopol, Crimean police officer Sergey Reznikov said they did not see any religious motives behind the killing and that the possibility of a sexual motive seems highly possible. "A student did it, killing his classmate. There is no other underlying reason, neither religious nor linked with inter-ethnic conflicts," said Reznikov.The Ukrainian Interior Ministry also issued a statement and said that those who stoned the 19-year-old to death did not use Shariah law as a justification. Crimean authorities told the Cihan news agency that one of Koren's male classmates was detained as part of an investigation into the girl's death. The boy's statement, made in the presence of his lawyer and a teacher, was recorded. In his initial statement he said he helped the girl find something in forest and killed her there; however, he later denied this. Ukrainian authorities said police teams are continuing to search for the other assailants.Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Chairman Mustafa Abdülcemil Qırımoğlu, commonly known as Mustafa Cemiloğlu in Turkey, said the detained teenager, Bilal Gaziyev, who is of Crimean Tatar descent, was pressured by police into accepting the blame for the murder. “The killing was covered in a distorted way, as if it was a religiously motivated murder, by the media around the world. The girl was not Muslim. All these [reports] are a provocation and fabricated news,” he told Cihan.Hmmmm....."those who stoned the 19-year-old to death" something is being covered up it seems?Read the full story here.

• Radical Pakistani Clerics Call Bible ‘Blasphemous,’ May Seek to Have it Banned.(TheBlaze).Anti-Christian sentiment continues to grow in Pakistan, as a group of radical Islamic clerics is asking the nation’s Supreme Court to declare certain portions and passages of the Bible “blasphemous.” Why, you ask? Because these leaders view some biblical characters as “flawed.” If the court doesn’t comply, the clerics plan to petition to have the Bible formally banned in Pakistan. CNS News has more:Citing Florida pastor Terry Jones’ Qur’an-burning act, the leader of the initiative, Abdul Rauf Farooqi, said the campaigners would like to pay back such “blasphemers” by doing the same to the Bible, but would not follow in their footsteps.Instead, he and the other clerics in the campaign want Pakistan’s top court to rule that certain passages in the Bible are blasphemous, since they undermine prophets’ sanctity by portraying them as flawed or immoral.Farooqi, who is leader of the Islamist organization JUI-S (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Sami-ul-Haq group), said the “insertions” in the Bible were offensive to Muslims, who hold all prophets in high esteem.Among the biblical figures viewed by Muslims as Islamic prophets are some whom the Bible clearly describes as behaving immorally, such as David, who coveted a man’s wife and so sent him to face certain death on the battle frontlines; and Solomon, who later in life sought out pagan women and their gods.If the Supreme Court complies, there may be some major problems in store for the nation’s Christian minority. Even the Bible’s assertion that Jesus Christ is God would potentially be considered blasphemous and, thus, punishable. If an individual violates blasphemy laws in Pakistan, he or she may be put to death or face life behind bars.Yesterday, we reported on allegations that Pakistani police refused to help a Christian woman was violently gang raped. The situation for Pakistan’s religious minority continues to deteriorate.Hmmmm....welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.

• Stop the Presses! Spooks Hacked al-Qaida Online Mag.(DangerRoom).Just because you’re a paranoid terror wannabe doesn’t mean they aren’t watching you — and hacking your jihadi online fanzine. The Washington Post reports that British intelligence vandalized the debut issue of Inspire magazine after the U.S. reportedly turned down a similar plan.Inspire billed itself as “the first magazine issued by al-Qaida in the English language” when it first launched in June of last year. It urged lone wolf terrorists to take up arms with a mixture of new and recycled al-Qaida propaganda. It’s accessibility in English made it a splash in the Western press. With ludicrous articles like “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom,” some thought it was a fake.But among its target audience, it caused a panic. When downloaded from online file hosting services, the pdf’s first few pages looked just fine. The rest of it, however, was filled with a continuing stream of gibberish characters. Online jihadis had a mini-freakout. Al-Qaida fanboys spread rumors that Inspire contained a virus; jihadi forum administrators warned users to steer clear.The Post reports that the Brits were responsible for turning Inspire into a junior jumble all along. They took up the idea of hacking the magazine while American officials debated similar action, according to the Post. Cyber Command chief Lt. General Keith Alexander argued the mag was a danger to troops and in need of a takedown. The CIA prevailed, arguing that an attack would expose their tradecraft and cut off a source of intelligence info.Jihadi forums and media have been the subject of all kinds of cyber trickery over the years. Some of it can be directly attributed to governments. The source of other incidents is less clear. American, Saudi and Dutch authorities have set up honey trap jihadi sites to collect intelligence on potential terrorists. The Taliban’s website has been hacked and defaced with images of the insurgent group’s most brutal crimes. Elite jihadi forums have been attacked. And the password for a video featuring Osama Bin Laden was tampered with, delaying its release.As the wrangling among U.S. officials illustrates, messing with jihad media can be a tricky call. Unless spooks are willing to consistently disrupt the releases, they risk losing an intelligence source in exchange for only a temporary strike. Alternatively, occasional mischief against jihadis online might actually be beneficial. It could be scaring users just enough to stop them from planning operations, but not enough to push them completely into hiding.A corrected first issue of Inspire eventually came out and since then AQAP’s production arm has been able to put out four more issues – in addition to issues of its Arabic language Sada al-Malahim — without similar disruptions. Either the Brits have lost interest in messing around with Inspire or concluded it’s too difficult to do on a regular basis.Hmmmm.....Why did the US refuse to do it?Read the full story here.

• Sign of the times :Greek Drachma re-appears on Reuters currency exchange list.(TundraTabloids).One of the very first signs that the inevitable is soon upon us, the first breakaway from the Euro.Hmmmm......"The End is near?Read and see the full story here.

• Germany deadly E-Coli outbreak has killed already 16 and has infected 1,600!(RSOE).Situation Update No. 26 - On 02.06.2011 at 03:03 GMT+2

An outbreak of a deadly strain of the E. coli virus in Germany and its European neighbors has killed 16 and has infected 1,600 as health officials race to pinpoint the source of the epidemic and minimize its impact. The bug being blamed for the deaths and a swath of hospitalizations-many of which require intensive care and kidney dialysis-is among a group of toxin-producing E.coli called enterohemorrhagic E. coli, which can cause kidney failure and bloody diarrhea. The northern German city of Hamburg has become the epicenter of the outbreak, which German officials initially blamed on shipments of Spanish cucumbers. John Dalli, the European commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, said that European officials were working with Germany to monitor the "rapidly developing situation" and warned against swift accusations against possible contaminants. "The initial suspicion of the German authorities that cucumbers from Spain were the cause has not been confirmed by the test results available up to now," Dalli said in Brussels on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the remarks. "Despite the fact that the sampled cucumbers did test positive to E. coli, they did not confirm the presence of the specific serotype which is responsible for the outbreak affecting humans." The E. coli outbreak has spread to at least 10 other countries, including many a stone's throw from Germany. More than 40 cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), characterized by diarrhea due to renal failure, or other E. coli complications have been reported in Sweden, the most outside Germany, according to the WHO. Other countries that have reported HUS and/or E. coli cases include Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Three cases have also been registered in the United States, Dalli said. The health organization said that almost all E. coli cases in Europe were among people who visited northern Germany or came in contact with someone from the region. The sudden rise over the past week in the number of cases of HUS and E. coli infections has baffled doctors and officials, as the cause of the epidemic is still yet unknown. "Numerous investigations are continuing into the cause of the outbreak, which is still unclear," WHO noted. Dalli, who called the E. coli situation a "serious crisis," called on Europeans to do their part in limiting the chance of contamination when making food. "Fruit and vegetables need to be washed thoroughly. The same applies for hands before preparing food or eating, and after using the bathroom or changing diapers," Dalli said. "Washing thoroughly knives, plates, and other utensils limits the risk of cross-contamination."Read the full story here.