MFS - The Other News

 

                       Morning Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 29 Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 29 Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 29 Here. (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 134.Source : Here .

                                                                      

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

• "Emperor" Obama Films Campaign Ad in White House, Violating FEC Laws.(Politicons).BUSTED. Rear Clear Politics reports that Barack Obama is violating Federal Election laws that state he cannot film campaign ads in the White House.

RCP reported: Obama 2012 campaign: President Obama himself makes an unexpected announcement about the upcoming “Dinner with Barack” contest.To participate in the contest you need to donate at least $5 to the campaign and your name will be raffled off to enjoy a dinner with the President, airfare and accommodations included. In a new web video, Obama announced Vice President Joe Biden will also be attending the dinner.

There is one problem, however. This campaign ad was most likely recorded in the White House, which may have violated FEC campaign finance laws.Consider this: Take a look at this weekly address delivered by Obama in February. Below is a screenshot taken from the weekly address followed by an image taken from the campaign.Both videos have the exact same lamp in them meaning both videos were recorded at the same location. President Obama normally records his weekly address at the White House unless he is on the road like last week when he was in Pittsburgh.Hmmmm......My name is Barack Obama "I am the Law"?Read the full story here.

• WHO is the Christine Lagarde chosen to lead IMF?(WashingtonPost).Lagarde worked as an intern at the United States Capitol, as William Cohen's congressional assistant.William Cohen American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense (1997–2001) under Democratic President Bill Clinton.Dear Christine was backed by the Obama administration their 'silence'.She is a vegetarian and never drinks alcohol.President of the executive (1999-2004) and later at the head of the strategic world comity since 2004 of the Baker and McKenzie cabinet in Chicago USA.Hmmmm..........Anymore questions? I wonder how well she knows the Obama entourage perhaps Valerie Jarred?She was invited to the Women in the World Summit, along with Madeleine Albright, Christiane Amanpour and Valerie Jarrett.Read the full story here.

• TSA Administrator John S. Pistole, Testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.(TSA.Gov).Recognizing that the risk from terrorism and other hazards to surface transportation demands a coordinated approach involving all sector partners and stakeholders, the federal government initiated a comprehensive review of U.S. surface transportation security efforts across all modes of surface transportation in 2009. The resulting Surface Transportation Security Priority Assessment (STSPA), released in April 2010, identified interagency priorities for the following four years and provided concrete recommendations on how to enhance security efforts and maximize the use of partnerships to optimize public safety, facilitate commerce, and strengthen the resiliency of the country’s surface transportation system.DHS has completed risk-based implementation plans for each of the 20 consensus recommendations of the STSPA, further addressing the potential risks to the surface transportation system and its four subsectors (mass transit and passenger rail, highways and motor carriers, freight rail, and pipelines).

In 2010, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice and Amtrak, TSA announced a significant step toward enhancing the security of the nation transportation infrastructure with the implementation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI) capability throughout the entire Amtrak rail system. The NSI is a partnership among federal, state, and local law enforcement to establish a standard process for law enforcement to identify and report suspicious incidents or activity and share that information nationally so it can be analyzed to identify broader trends. Under this collaborative program, Amtrak officers are also utilizing an upgraded reporting system—made available by TSA —to refer suspicious activity reports to DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for analysis and follow-up.The NSI is currently active in 15 states (California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee,Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin) and 15 major cities (Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, District of Columbia, Houston, Kansas City, MO, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle).Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) multi-modal teams are currently being operated by TSA while the FY 2012 budget request includes funding for 12 additional VIPR teams. These teams consist of personnel with expertise in inspection, behavior detection, security screening, and law enforcement for random, unpredictable deployments throughout the transportation sector to deter potential terrorist acts. Working alongside local law enforcement agencies throughout the transportation domain, TSA’s VIPR teams enhance the agency’s ability to leverage a variety of resources quickly in order to increase security in any mode of transportation anywhere in the country. TSA conducted more than 8,000 VIPR operations in the past 12 months, including more than 3,700 operations in mass transit and passenger railroad venues.Our goal at all times is to maximize transportation security to stay ahead of the evolving terrorist threat while protecting passengers’ privacy and facilitating the flow of legitimate commerce.Hmmmm.......It seems there's no threat to the Obama base Chicago?Read the full story here.

• The Peronist in the White House.Controlling the economy, appeasing the masses.(PajamasMedia).“Obama is a Marxist,” Mark Levin, my favorite talk-show host, proclaims. Levin is probably the smartest guy on radio. But when it comes to Obama, even this smart guy doesn’t quite get it.Obama is not a Marxist. He is a fascist of the left, a Peronist. And that is not an academic hair split. To understand this distinction is to understand what Obama is and why he is so dangerous.Since the seating of the Estates General on the eve of the French Revolution, the terms right and left have been synonymous with the social basis of politics, the idea that generally there is a relationship between one’s place in the class system and one’s allegiance to a political party.But what if the extremes of politics could be further partitioned according to their social base? The distinguished political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset took fascism and divided into right, left, and center, depending on from which social elements a fascist party drew its support.The Peronists became the fascists of the left, and the Nazis became the fascists of the middle class.Lipset’s insight was marred in one regard. He ignored the role of the political periphery, the non-participants, in Hitler’s surge to power. Hitler’s fascism was more of the left than the center, more of the dispossessed than of those who belonged. Hitler organized “masses not classes,” in the sense that the masses occupied Germany’s social periphery.As Obama learned, when the “masses” enter the political system, they want to hear a different, more radical, message. Obama’s base is not only the far left; it is also those on the margins of the economy.Nationalized health care is a program designed to improve the lot of the fifteen percent of the population without health care at the expense of the eighty five percent that are satisfied with it. But those fifteen percent are Obama’s base — just as are the forty-seven percent who don’t pay federal income tax.Obama is not going to nationalize the means of production. Marxists do that. Peronists build relationships with workers, unions, and the people who will riot in the streets. Peronists use those mechanisms to force compliance from those who oppose them.Similarly, in Obama’s world, where there is opposition to the policies of labor, the SEIU (Sevice Employees International Union) will be out in force. The administration and a compliant media will be attempting to provide these bullies with both legitimacy and symbolic affirmation. This is what Peron did for the bullies of the CGT.Marxism is about ownership. Peronism is about control, sometimes through ownership but more often through pressure. If you want to understand pressure, talk to bankers who didn’t want to make marginal loans under the Community Reinvestment Act or those who had almost no subprime mortgages and refused to accept TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) money. In both cases, the FDIC exerted enormous pressure to force compliance to decisions banks saw as inimical to their interests.Obama the Peronist is more insidious, more difficult to fight, because he is not a Marxist. A grab for ownership stares you in the face. It is as blunt as it is obvious. But control is incremental and surreptitious.Every day we awake to more and more government control, not by ownership, but by unaccountable czars, ukases, and bureaucratic organizations dictating how we conduct our lives.Hmmmm......It's more than high time America wakes up,before that knock on the door in the middle of the night comes.Read the full story here.

• Obama's lunch stop includes 'mountains' of greasy food.(TheHill).Obama might not want to tell First lady Michelle Obama, who runs an anti-obesity campaign, that he ate at a place best known for serving mountains of greasy food.Ross' restaurant is known for dishes called "Mountains"; their signature dish is the Magic Mountain: Texas grilled toast, hamburger meat, French fries or hash browns and cheese sauce.Freidhof, who didn't realize the president would be visiting until she watched his motorcade turn off the highway, renamed the signature dish 'Presidential Magic Mountain' in his honor for the day."Anybody who wants one, I will buy it for you," Obama said, according to the report.The president bought Magic Mountains for three customers in the restaurant, and brought four Magic Mountains and two Volcanos (the Magic Mountain with the addition of chili) back to traveling companions.White House Press Secretary Jay Carney ordered a Volcano but told reporters he could not finish it. Obama also challenged the accompanying members of the press to eat "the whole thing." He called them "chickens" for not taking them up on the challenge.Hmmmm.......Not good for you, but OK for me,thugocracy in it's natural habitat.Read the full story here.

• You will OBEY and follow the 'leader'.(HotAir).The New York Times’ natural gas fiasco,talk about 'Hot air'.The Gray Lady blew a spectacular bit of smoke with a recent article that suggested shale natural gas production is a shaky investment at best and, at worst, a Ponzi scheme of sorts, destined to devastate those who buy the “lie” that shale plays will not only produce high profits for companies, but will also provide affordable energy for the country.Two quotes from the EID compilation stand out, in particular. The Energy Information Administration had this to say:

EIA was contacted by a Times reporter in advance of the story, and provided a response that described the agency’s approach to developing its shale gas projections. Those interested in EIA’s views on shale gas, which differ in significant respects from those outlined in the June 27 article, may want to review the EIA response to the inquiry from the Times, the Issues in Focus discussion of shale gas included in the Annual Energy Outlook 2011, and a recent presentation on domestic and international shale gas.

The seeming anti-natural gas agenda this reveals perplexes me, until I consider what Ed wrote just this morning in his defense of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used in the natural gas drilling process.

The problem with fracking isn’t that it’s particularly new or dangerous. The methodology has been in use for decades, and it is as safe as other drilling processes. The real problem is that it could produce relatively cheap hydrocarbon energy for a very long time, and that’s what has environmentalists worried.

So it is: Natural gas just might be the energy solution environmentalists say they want, but actually can’t stand because nothing would put them out of business faster. Forbes blogger Chris Helman words it perfectly:

We would have thought that the Times would be in favor of plentiful, low-cost natural gas. It burns a lot cleaner than coal, and with nuclear off the table for now, gas is poised to fuel U.S. economic growth for more than a generation to come. I can only guess that the problem, as the Times sees it, is that as long as we have all that cheap gas, there’s precious little need for solar panels, windmills and other cornerstones of their much-heralded but slow evolving green jobs revolution.

Forbes, on the other hand, thinks it’s pretty awesome that thanks to drilling ingenuity the U.S. has proven to have one of the world’s biggest and cheapest hoards of clean-burning gas. Now that’s a story.Hmmm..........Follow the leader, over the top of the cliff.Read the full story here.

• Judicial Watch Sues Department of Justice for Documents Detailing Decision Not to Prosecute Islamic Extremist Omar Ahmad and CAIR.(JudicialWatch).Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to respond to its request for public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 11-01121)). The documents relate to a decision by the DOJ not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its cofounder Omar Ahmad, who has been linked by federal investigators to the terrorist group Hamas. The decision not to prosecute reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, Texas.On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) seeking access to the following:

The March 31, 2010 memorandum entitled “Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad from Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.

“Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the Attorney General (AG), the Office of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Office of the Associate Attorney General (Assoc. AG) and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any CAIR groups concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”

“Any all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the AG, the Office of the DAG, or the Office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Congress concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad”

“Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the office of the AG, the office of the DAG, or the office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch also filed a similar request with the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute. The time frame for these requests is January 20, 2009, to May 1, 2011.Both DOJ divisions have acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s request, and were required to respond by June 14 and June 13, 2011, respectively. However, to date, both have failed to produce responsive documents or indicate when a response is forthcoming.Omar Ahmad served as senior executive on the Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization of U.S.-based Hamas support groups. Moreover, according to sworn testimony by an FBI agent during the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was convicted in 2008 of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, Ahmad moderated a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 1993, during which participants discussed ways to support Hamas.

A ruling by U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis in the Holy Land Foundation lawsuit referenced the specific purpose of the Philadelphia meeting:

The Philadelphia conference essentially laid out the path that the Palestine Committee would take to accomplish its goal of supporting Hamas in the future. Wiretaps from the Philadelphia conference reflect that Ahmad participated…in a number of meetings related to the goals, strategies, and American perception of the Muslim Brotherhood. Topics discussed included redefining the perception of the suborganizations due to their work for the Palestinian cause, and the legal hurdles…faced when raising funds for Hamas and other Palestinian causes or when taking orders from overseas leaders.”

Judge Solis also declined an attempt by CAIR to remove the organization’s designation as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation lawsuit, ruling that the government “has produced ample evidence to establish the associations” of CAIR with Hamas.

“The American people have a right to know why the Obama Justice Department decided against prosecuting a terrorist-connected Muslim extremist over the objections of federal investigators,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The case against Ahmad and CAIR is substantial. And given the politicization of the Justice Department under Eric Holder, it certainly appears that Justice officials dropped this case in order to appease radical Islamic groups. The pattern of this Justice Department is to stonewall even the most basic requests for information under the law. The cover-up and secrecy is, frankly, like nothing we’ve ever seen.”Hmmmmmm......."I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• Female editor from the Onion has her leg broken, others hurt in Spring Garden mob attack.(Philly).A WOMAN'S leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night when a large group of teens accosted pedestrians in Spring Garden, police and witnesses said.Philadelphia police responded to two reports of pedestrians being assaulted by a large group of young people along Broad Street about 9:30 p.m.One of those reports came from Emily Guendelsberger, 27, city editor for local arts and entertainment content for the Onion, the satirical newspaper and website. She was walking with seven friends on Green Street near Broad when they were accosted, she said. Guendelsberger, who remained hospitalized with a broken leg yesterday, declined to comment further.A friend who was with her at the time, Daily News staff writer Molly Eichel, said that they were walking down Green Street when a group of teens was walking down Broad. "We heard kids yell, 'Run, run,' " Eichel said. "Some kid just came out of nowhere and punched my friend Charlie in the face."Eichel said that when her group tried to run, about 20 teens chased them down the street. "They were kicking kids down and punching them when they were down," she said.Two other friends sought treatment at area hospitals for facial injuries, Eichel said.The only redeeming factor about the experience was that a few people realized the extent of Guendelsberger's injuries and tried to protect her, Eichel said.From the hospital yesterday, Guendelsberger gave her protectors shout-outs on Twitter. "On the positive, a bunch of girls from the mob protected me from the boys trying to hit me and take my purse while I was on the ground," she wrote. "Also a car of women from out of town saw it going down, pulled over, and (I gather) circled around to protect me; wish I had gotten names."According to the police report of the incident, Guendelsberger was "jumped" by 30 to 40 men who punched and kicked her numerous times. Police said they checked the area for surveillance but had no luck.Shortly before Guendelsberger's assault, police said, they responded to another assault, about five blocks away at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue, of a 20-year-old man who said that he was attacked by a large group of men and women.Police said that he was treated for a bruise and abrasion under his right eye.Hmmmmm.....First destabilise order,next declare martial law,postone elections .....grab power?Read the full story here.

• U.S.'Blackwater' Contractor Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Death of Afghan National in Kabul, Afghanistan.(justice.Gov).WASHINGTON – Justin Cannon, 29, of Corpus Christi, Texas, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in shooting and killing an Afghan national while on an unauthorized convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 5, 2009, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar also ordered Cannon to serve two years of supervised release following his prison term.On March 11, 2011, Cannon and Christopher Drotleff, 31, of Virginia Beach, Va., were convicted of involuntary manslaughter while working as contractors for the U.S. Department of Defense in Afghanistan. Cannon and Drotleff were acquitted of other charges, including second-degree murder, assault resulting in serious bodily injury and firearms offenses. On June 14, 2011, Drotleff was sentenced to 37 months in prison.“Justin Cannon was hired to support the Defense Department mission in Afghanistan,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Instead, he recklessly fired on a civilian car, killing an Afghan national. He dishonored the American military, the Afghan people, and the many men and women in uniform who serve this country honorably. Today’s sentence brings some measure of justice to an otherwise tragic situation.”Cannon and Drotleff were charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) in a superseding indictment filed on Aug. 5, 2010. Cannon and Drotleff were Department of Defense contractors employed by a subsidiary of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide).According to court records, as contractors, Cannon and Drotleff provided training to the Afghan National Army for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the use and maintenance of weapons and weapons systems.Hmmmm.......How much Bloodmoney will it cost?Or they don't pay out for 'civilians'?Read the full story here.

• Obama cabinet secretary Lisa Jackson heading EPA Gives Millions In Foreign Handouts.(Judicialwatch).The Obama cabinet secretary who launched a costly program to make America’s minority communities green has sent millions of taxpayer dollars to environmental causes overseas, including China, Russia and India. Ranking members of a congressional energy committee call it “foreign handouts” amid record deficits, soaring unemployment and a looming debt ceiling in the U.S. The money—$27 million since 2009—has been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is headed by Lisa Jackson. The cash was issued via 65 foreign grants that don’t even include Canada and Mexico, according to a report issued this week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Among the enraging foreign handouts are $1.2 million for the United Nations to promote clean fuels, $718,000 to help China comply with two initiatives and $700,000 for Thailand to recover methane gas at pig farms.An additional $150,000 went to help the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) combat fraud in carbon trading and $15,000 to Indonesia’s “Breathe Easy, Jakarta” publicity campaign. This sort of federal spending does not reflect the priorities of the American people, according to a letter that several lawmakers sent Jackson in the report’s aftermath. Since being appointed EPA Administrator, Jackson has gone on a manic spending spree to bring “environmental justice” to low-income and minority communities. Under the program, dozens of leftwing groups have received millions of taxpayer dollars to help poor and indigenous people increase recycling, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization,” participate in “green jobs” training and avoid heat stroke. The EPA's budget has also surged 34% since Jackson took over to a whopping $10.3 billion. The figure includes $43 million for efforts to reduce greenhouse gases that the agency claims “endanger” public health. Nearly half of the EPA’s budget goes to grants that fund state environmental programs, nonprofits and educational institutions that help promote the agency’s agenda.Hmmmm.....Dec 2010 Eric Holder :"Environmental justice efforts are a top priority."Read the full story here.

• Gaza flotilla boats 'sabotaged,' organizers claim.(HurriyetDaily).Two ships have set sail as part of a new aid mission to Gaza, yet it is unclear when other vessels expected as part of an international flotilla will join them due to what organizers are calling “sabotage.”The French ship Dignity and the Irish ship Freedom have already departed toward the flotilla’s scheduled meeting place in international waters, yet others remain stranded due to a number of problems. According to a report from Israeli daily Haaretz, the propeller of the Greek-Swedish ship Juliano was found broken on Monday. Gaza flotilla organizers said they believed that damage was caused by intentional Israeli sabotage, adding that it was unclear how long it would take to rectify the problem.The International Naval Surveys Bureau at the Greek port of Piraeus conducted an additional search of the Canadian vessel Tahrir after which the ship was cleared to sail.The following day, however, a private citizen complained to the local port authority, saying the Tahrir was “not seaworthy.” A similar complaint was filed against the American ship last week.According to Greek mariners and lawmakers, it is extremely rare for private citizens to file complaints against private ships.David Heap, a member of the Gaza flotilla steering committee, said what the flotilla was experiencing was a clear example of a bureaucratic delay driven by political motives.Asked by Haaretz why the flotilla organizers did not respond to Israeli claims that the activists on board the ships were “planning to kill Israeli soldiers,” Heap said the organizers were busy preparing for a departure that was more important than answering a country "known to be spreading lies about us."He added, however, that every flotilla participant had signed a document committing them to non-violent behavior.Hmmmmm......Every known participant.Read the full story here.

• The Netherlands: Parliament bans halal and kosher ritual slaughter.(IrishTimes).THE DUTCH parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ban the ritual slaughter of livestock. This could halt production of kosher and halal meat in the Netherlands – and lead to similar campaigns in other European countries.However, Jewish and Islamic groups which can prove animals do not suffer more during ritual killing than in an ordinary slaughterhouse will be able to apply for permits.In a move aimed at further defusing the controversy over the proposed ban, deputy prime minister Maxime Verhagen gave an undertaking no new legislation would be signed into law until approved by the senate. Dutch law requires animals to be stunned before slaughter, but has long allowed an exemption for Muslims and orthodox Jews, who can legally butcher animals according to their centuries-old dietary rules.However, a Bill tabled by the Animal Rights Party (PvdD), which holds only two seats in the 150-seat parliament, aims to remove that exemption on the grounds that unstunned slaughter is unnecessarily cruel.“Animals suffer more and are more distressed if they are not stunned,” said Animal Rights Party MP Esther Ouwehand, welcoming last night’s decision which backed the ban by 116 votes to 30. “In Norway and Sweden, these measures have already been taken – and we now hope to inspire other countries.”As expected, the Bill was backed by the Liberals (VVD), by the Labour Party (Pvd), and by Geert Wilders’s extreme-right Freedom Party (PVV). It was opposed only by the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the tiny Calvinist Reformed Political Party (SGP).Sir Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s chief rabbi, joined the campaign to retain the exemption last week. “If pre-stunning were made compulsory under Dutch law, Jews would be unable to practise a central element of Jewish life,” he said.Hmmmmm.....Another step closer to Turkey's dominance of the Halal food market.Read the full story here.

• Spellbound Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his way out?How the demise of a trusted adviser could bring down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.(Independent).Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's irascible, unpredictable but devout president, may be forced to resign in the coming weeks as a political crisis far greater than the massive street violence which followed his re-election in 2009 threatens to overwhelm him and his court favourites in the government.Iranian politicians are already speculating on who will succeed the president – Ali Akbar Salehi, the foreign minister and for four years the head of Iran's atomic agency, is a favourite – as three of Rahim-Mashaee's close allies have been purged in just three days over the past week, arrested by security agencies while Ahmadinejad has remained uncharacteristically silent. Mohamed Sharif Malekzadeh, who served briefly as Ahmadinejad's foreign minister; Ali Asghar Parhizkar, director of the Arvand free trade zone in the south of Iran; and his opposite number in the Aras trade zone in the north, Ali-Reza Moqimi, have all been charged with corruption, a dangerous accusation in the Islamic Republic where a fine line separates "corruption on earth" from "an enemy of God".The darkness may soon close in over Rahim-Mashaee – the nearest Iran has to a government spin doctor – and thus embrace the man over whom he has allegedly cast a spell, Ahmadinejad himself.The potential fall of Ahmadinejad is a story worthy of any Persian tale, a pageant of court favouritism, abrupt firings of otherwise loyal ministers, apparent challenges to the Islamic heritage of Iran, and an acute case of political hubris by the president himself, all overshadowed by the immense power of Ayatollah Khamenei who holds the near-divine role created by the Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Some compare Ahmadinejad's predicament to that of Ayatollah Sayed Hussein Ali Montazeri, the man Khomeini chose as his successor as Supreme Leader – and then abruptly dismissed when Montazeri's son-in-law was seen to have too much power over him. In Ahmadinejad's case, the danger is Rahim-Mashaee, a civil engineer from the Caspian region of Iran, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son and who packed the president's office with his own supporters from the same region of Iran. At one point Ahmadinejad wanted to make him first vice-president – a post equivalent to any other nation's prime minister – only to be thwarted by his opponents.

According to those who have followed the saga from Ahmadinejad's original election to the presidency in 2005 – he only won in the second round and was never expected to hold office – the conservative clergy and revolutionary founders, the "principalists" as they call themselves, believed that Ahmadinejad never had the stature for the role as Iran's political leader.According to those who have followed the saga from Ahmadinejad's original election to the presidency in 2005 – he only won in the second round and was never expected to hold office – the conservative clergy and revolutionary founders, the "principalists" as they call themselves, believed that Ahmadinejad never had the stature for the role as Iran's political leader.

But the new president maintained his popular support by touring hundreds of villages, small towns and cities, from Isfahan and Mashad to Tabriz, in order to create the profile of a "people's representative" rather than that of a distant father-figure. "It was like a US president heading off to town hall meetings in New Hampshire every week," one of his supporters told me.

When Mir Hossein Moussavi stood against Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election – which the former believed he would have won had the votes been counted fairly – he would appear on the streets of Tehran with educated, T-shirted young men and women with their hair showing beneath their scarves on one pavement, while bearded men and women in chadors would curse him from the other. Another of the president's supporters said: "I voted for Ahmadinejad because he stood up for the underclass – unlike Moussavi's comrade Mohamed Khatemi [who was president for eight years before Ahmadinejad] who always seemed to be drinking English tea with Jack Straw."

But then Rahim-Mashaee appeared in the president's office as head of Iran's heritage organisation, becoming ever closer to Ahmadinejad. Rahim-Mashaee had been in the Sepah, the Revolutionary Guards, during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and had then become a radio manager for Iran's state broadcasting company; rumour has it that he also worked in the intelligence ministry. "But by the end of Ahmadinejad's first term, Rahim-Mashaee was in the president's office all the time," an Ahmadinejad detractor said.

"He was saying things that the conservatives, the principalists, didn't like – he said that Iran's conflict was with Israel, not with the Israeli people. But the conservatives said that these 'people' were occupying the land of Palestine. When he appeared to be putting Iran's heritage in front of the country's Islamic heritage, he annoyed the clergy in Qom. He made speeches as long as Fidel Castro. I've been to them. He wasn't careful with money on his heritage projects. There were allegations of financial mismanagement; that he didn't keep good records."

When Ahmadinejad "won" the 2009 election, Ayatollah Khamenei said the poll was fair, but then Ahmadinejad said he wanted Rahim-Mashaee to be vice-president – even before he announced his cabinet. He was persuaded to drop the idea.

During his first term, he had appointed Akbar Ajaii as his minister of intelligence; he stayed for almost all of Ahmadinejad's first four-year term but constantly criticised Rahim-Mashaee's influence over the president. Then just two weeks before the 2009 election, Ahmadinejad fired him. This was a deliberate insult: he could have waited another two weeks and then dropped Ajaii.

Another opponent remarked: "People began to ask Ahmadinejad to get rid of Rahim Mashaee; even the 'marja', the highest Shia religious authority, asked him to. We thought Ahmadinejad would give way. But he didn't. Anyone in the cabinet who criticised Rahim-Mashaee got fired. They would criticise him one day – and the next day they didn't have a job. So in Iran today, some people say that Rahim-Mashaee has cast some kind of spell over Ahmadinejad – that he has captured Ahmadinejad's mind. It's unusual for anyone to resist all this pressure."

In Iran, a president is expected to share power – on the principle that your enemies will increase if you do not do so. The latter is exactly what happened to Ahmadinejad. Ayatollah Khamenei went so far as to write a personal letter to the president, saying that the appointment of Rahim Mashaee as first vice-president "will upset many of your supporters", reminding the president that "this is for your own good". He reluctantly accepted that the post of first vice-president was lost – but then made Rahim-Mashaee his personal chief of staff, effectively elevating him to the third most important man in the Islamic Republic after Khamenei and himself.

 Khamenei continued to publically support the president, but was said to be deeply angered by his behaviour. More trouble arose when Ahmadinejad decided to fire his new intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, less than two months ago after he too, criticised Rahim Mashaee. Infuriated, Ayatollah Khamenei wrote another letter, this time directly to Moslehi, saying that he "needs to continue in his post". His dismissal was never officially revealed and Moslehi has been re-instated.

Slighted, Ahmadinejad stalked off home in a sulk, refusing to attend cabinet meetings and boycotting his own duties as president for a week. Then, suddenly he was back, full of praise for the Supreme Leader and the system of "velayat-e faqih" under which Khamenei held his own post, repeating that he "followed the Supreme Leader" in all his decisions. There was no more talk of Rahim-Mashaee, whose own compatriots are now being hastily arrested.

In Iran, they say that Ahmadinejad, who under the Iranian constitution cannot stand for president again in 2013, has at last realised his own desperate situation. In Tehran, Rahim-Mashaee is now daily being denounced as a "deviant" – another dangerous expression in the lexicon of the Islamic Republic – and the president is supposedly prepared at last to sacrifice his chief adviser to save his own skin. The fact that a senior official in the government was prepared this week, privately, to predict to me his possible demise, suggests that it may be too late.Possible Successors

Ali Akbar Salehi

Iran's Foreign Minister and former envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog is believed to be a favourite to succeed President Ahmadinejad.

Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh

Previously viewed as one of Ahmadinejad's closest allies, Iran's former deputy foreign minister was forced to resign after only a few days in the job before being arrested on corruption charges last week.

Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaee

Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff is not only one of the President's closest political advisers, his daughter is also married to the Iranian leader's son. A leaked US cable made public in April added fuel to speculation that Ahmadinejad favours Mashaee as his successor.

Ali Asghar Parhizkar

Head of the Arvand free trade zone in southern Iran, Parhizkar was also arrested on charges of corruption last week.

Ali-Reza Moqimi

The director of the Aras trade zone was also taken into custody on corruption charges last week.Hmmmm.......It seems the Djini is out of the bottle.Read the full story here.

• Iran fires medium-range missile in war game (video).Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards fired 14 missiles in an exercise Tuesday, one of them a medium-range weapon capable of striking Israel or US targets in the Gulf, state media said.The Guards' aerospace commander, Brigadier Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, insisted Iran's missile programme posed no threat to European nations but was merely intended to provide defence against Israel and US forces in the Gulf."Iran's missiles have a maximum range of 2,000 kilometres [1,250 miles] and are designed to reach US targets in the region and the Zionist regime," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying."The Zionist regime is 1,200 kilometres away from Iran and we are able to target this regime with our 2,000 kilometre range missiles from Semnan and Damghan [in central Iran]," he said."We have the technology to build missiles with a longer range but we do not need them and we are not seeking to build such missiles."Iran has said that its latest exercise is not aimed at any country but carries "a message of peace and friendship."Western governments fear Tehran is developing a ballistic capability to enable it to launch atomic warheads which they suspect Iran is seeking to develop under cover of its civil nuclear programme.Tehran denies any such ambition.Hmmmm......."We have the technology to build missiles with a longer range but we do not need them"....yeah whatevah. Read the full story here.

• Saudi women are taking jobs as cleaners in commercial settings.(Crossroadsarabia).This article is about Saudi women who are taking jobs as cleaners in commercial settings. Over the past couple of years, there have been pieces about Saudi women working as domestic employees in homes. The point of these is that Saudi women are willing to do the ‘dirty work’ in maintaining a clean environment, at least in some circumstances. The article notes that these women are rejecting the stigma attached to such work, work which in other cultures might put them into the ‘untouchable’ caste. I’m not sure that breaking down a barrier in perception is going to do a lot for the overall unemployment problem in Saudi Arabia, though. I don’t think women with university degrees are going to be leaping at these jobs, for instance. But these are jobs, society needs for them to be done, and employers are willing to pay some sort of salary to those willing to do them. There are many Saudi families for whom an extra thousand riyals (US $260) per month makes a huge difference, even if it doesn’t lead to lifestyles of the rich and famous.It is important that these psychological and/or social barriers be broken down, even if incompletely. The difficultly is that most people do draw a line about which jobs they simply will not take. Smelly job, sweaty jobs, jobs that put one in contact with disagreeable materials… the world is full of these kinds of jobs. And there is no question that these jobs need doing. Society should reward the plumbers and street cleaners, those who keep restaurants hygienic and hospital corridors disease-free. The detritus of modern life does not remove itself from the environment, alas, so someone must do it.Still, there is a social price to pay in doing these jobs, a price that many choose to avoid. Should there be social opprobrium placed on those willing to do the jobs? No, there should not. But, people being people, there is. People don’t want their children marrying ‘below their station’, as it was once put. On the other hand, there are the facts of real life. A bit of extra income, so long as the source is legal, can make the difference between sending children to school with sufficient books and papers or not. It can mean being able to buy medicines for one’s parents or children.Hmmmm......OMG...What's next?........Women driving?Read the full story here.

• 'From Osama's Soldiers to Obama': Jihadi Song of Praise for Bin Laden Threatens President Obama.(Memri).On June, 11, 2011, the jihadi forum Ansar Al-Mujahideen posted an audio recording of a song of praise for Osama bin Laden, titled "From Osama's Soldiers to Obama." Links to the recording were also posted on the jihadi site Shumoukh Al-Islam, accompanied by a flashing banner bearing bin Laden's picture. The site states that the song is performed by Abu Lubaba Al-Falastini and Abu Malik Al-Maqdisi.Read the full story here.