MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

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

• The Obama Doctrine can be summarized in nine damning words: Embolden our enemies. Undermine our friends. Diminish our country.(WashingtonTimes).The outlines of an Obama Doctrine have been apparent for some time. It can be summarized in nine damning words: Embolden our enemies. Undermine our friends. Diminish our country. These days, it is hard to avoid proof that these outcomes are not inadvertent or attributable to sheer and sustained incompetence. Rather, they are a product of deliberate decisions approved, we must assume, by the president himself.Consider last week’s announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States was going to “engage” the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. In one fell swoop, Team Obama hit its doctrinal trifecta: America arguably has no more mortal enemy than the Muslim Brotherhood (MB, or Ikhwan in Arabic). The MB’s own documents - including a number of those introduced into evidence by the Justice Department in the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history, the Holy Land Foundation prosecution - make clear that this international Islamist organization seeks to impose its politico-military-legal doctrine of Shariah on our country.One such document describes a “phased plan” that calls for the Ikhwan assiduously and stealthily to pursue precisely this objective. Ultimately, the plan calls for the use of violence to take over our government, clearing the way for the triumph of Islam worldwide and the re-establishment of a global ruler, the caliph, who will govern in accordance with Shariah.Sounds crazy, right? Or at least unachievable? It does, at least until you realize that the message being sent by the Obama administration is that despite such ambitions, we are prepared to legitimate and deal with the Muslim Brothers who are animated by them.Well, perhaps you say that just because we are recognizing that the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to be a big player (read, the winner) in the elections scheduled for later this year in Egypt does not mean we are going to facilitate its aspirations in this country. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it means.By engaging the Ikhwan in its native land, the Obama administration is effectively eliminating any lingering impediment to the operations of its myriad front groups in this country. Even before Mrs. Clinton’s announcement, many of them already had been accorded unprecedented access to and influence in the U.S. government. In fact, it stands to reason that one of the factors prompting Team Obama to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood is the success of such influence operations within the United States.In addition to emboldening our enemies by reinforcing their conviction that we are in decline, the Obama administration’s MB initiative undermines our friends. That is most obviously the case with respect to Israel, a nation already reeling from the president’s serial, gratuitous acts of enmity toward the Jewish state. His embrace of the Ikhwan can only exacerbate the worsening strategic environment the Israelis have faced in the months since the United States pulled the plug on former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.Lest we forget, this momentous dismantling of America’s place as the world’s pre-eminent space power fits the Obama Doctrine in one other way: It was just a year ago that the then-newly appointed NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recounted how Mr. Obama had apprized him of his priority mission: “Perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering.”Kind of hard to miss the pattern here.Hmmmm......"I Will stand with my Muslim brothers", when was the last time he went to church again?Read the full story here.

• GunWalker - These boots are made for walking: ATF Director Secretly Testifies That DOJ Lied to Congress and Obstructed Its Investigation.(DougRoss).ATF Director Ken Melson secretly testified Monday before the House Oversight Committee concerning Project Gunwalker -- without the knowledge of either the Justice Department or the ATF. Most importantly, he directly refuted the official "party line" coming from Washington regarding "Operation Fast and Furious":

• Contrary to denials by the DOJ, Melson said agents had witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns further

• The team executing Operation Fast and Furious had been placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office

• The DOJ is reported to have intentionally withheld documents from Congress that Melson has now provided to the Committee

As a result of that meeting, the Committee issued a scathing open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder accusing him of stonewalling the investigation into "Operation Gunrunner", the disastrous effort to smuggle weapons to Mexican drug cartels for reasons not yet fully understood.

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson participated in a transcribed interview regarding Operation Fast and Furious and related matters with both Republican and Democratic staff. He appeared with his personal counsel, Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods LLP. His interview had originally been scheduled through the Justice Department to occur on July 13 in the presence of DOJ and ATF counsel. As you know, however, under our agreement Department witnesses who choose to attend a voluntary interview with their own lawyer are free to exercise that right rather than participate with counsel representing the Department's interests.

After being made aware of that provision of our agreement, Acting Director Melson chose to exercise that right and appeared with his own lawyer. We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement. Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. This is yet another example of why direct communications with Congress are so important and are protected by law.

Acting Director Melson's cooperation was extremely helpful to our investigation. He was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made and described various ways he says that he tried to remedy the problems. According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story. Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process.

However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department's inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.This story keeps expanding -- it is far, far worse than Iran-Contra ever was. And even legacy media -- ABC, Bloomberg, NPR, Reuters, US News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, etc. -- are now reporting on the story.Of course, if you read The New York Times, you'd have no idea any of this had occurred.Obstructing a Congressional investigation is a crime. It's clear that Gunrunner goes to the very top of the DOJ and, perhaps, even beyond it.Hmmmm.....GunWalker:"These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do.One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.You keep lying, when you oughta be truthin'.Read the full story here.

• TSA warns airlines of 'human bombs'.(Politico).Transportation security officials are warning airlines on Wednesday that “human bomb” terrorists may try to use surgically implanted explosives to blow up planes.Though there is no intelligence about a specific plot, the Transportation Security Administration is nonetheless urging domestic and international carriers to be aware of the potential threat.The warnings are part of an effort “to provide greater insights into recent intelligence indicating the continued interest of terrorists to target aviation,” TSA press secretary Nick Kimball said in a statement.“Due to the significant advances in global aviation security in recent years, terrorist groups have repeatedly and publicly indicated interest in pursuing ways to further conceal explosives,” he added.A U.S. security official told POLITICO that the threat is seen as more “likely to come from overseas rather than domestically but we are taking precautionary steps both internationally and here in the U.S.”As security measures become more sophisticated, terrorists have sought out new ways to conceal explosives, and surgically implanted bombs are one of the latest tactics that terrorists are believed to be trying to use.In a memo sent to Britain’s transportation department, the TSA said the U.S. government “has information indicating doctors have offered to help extremists surgically implant explosive devices in humans and animals for terrorist attacks,” the Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. The memo notes that airports don’t have one surefire way to screen for the bombs.Passengers flying into the United States from abroad “may notice additional security measures in place,” Kimball said. The measures “designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport,” but may include pat-downs and the use of other screening methods.Hmmmmmmm.........What exactly means "Other screening methods"?Read the full story here.

• Our Politicians Are Selling Off Pieces Of America To Foreign Investors – And Goldman Sachs Is Helping Them Do It.(AmericanDream).All over the United States, politicians are selling off key pieces of infrastructure to foreign investors and big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs are helping them do it. State and local governments across the country that are drowning in debt and that are desperate for cash are increasingly turning to the "privatization" of public assets as the solution to their problems. Pieces of infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for such as highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the time what happens is that the state or local government receives a huge lump sum of cash up front for a long-term lease (usually 75 years or longer) and the foreign investors come in and soak as much revenue out of the piece of infrastructure that they possibly can. The losers in these deals are almost always the taxpayers. Pieces of America are literally being auctioned off just to help state and local governments minimize their debt problems for a year or two, but the consequences of these deals will be felt for decades.Sadly, this trend continues to accelerate. Just this week, a bill that will allow the state government of Ohio to proceed with plans to lease the Ohio Turnpike to investors was approved. The state government of Ohio will soon receive a one-time injection of cash and everyone in the area that uses the Ohio Turnpike will end up paying much higher tolls for decades to come.Highways have also been auctioned off (most of the time to foreign investors) in Indiana, the city of Chicago, Florida, Virginia and Texas.Amazingly, many politicians continue to insist that selling off pieces of infrastructure that have already been fully paid for by taxpayers is a wonderful thing. In fact, there are actually some politicians that have the gall to call it a "conservative" thing to do.For example, Rick Perry has been at the forefront of the effort to "privatize" the highways of Texas.You would think that the people of Texas would have gotten rid of him by now, but considering the fact that he may be running for the Republican nomination in 2012, he just might be our next president.What makes the selling off of our infrastructure even worse is that big Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs are helping our corrupt politicians do it.Hmmmmm........"Change".Read the full story here.

• 16 Reasons To Feel Really Depressed About The Direction That The Economy Is Headed.(AmericanDream).If you do not want to feel really depressed, you might not want to read this article. The U.S. economy is coming apart at the seams, and there are a whole lot of indications that things are about to get even worse. After a time of relative stability, the pace of job cuts is starting to pick up again, inflation is rising but paychecks are not, the U.S. housing crisis shows no signs of ending, millions of American families are drowning in debt and all of the recent polls show that the faith of the American people in our economy is eroding. As you read the statistics in this article, try to keep in mind that there are scores of families from coast to coast that are barely surviving from month to month. It can be a soul-crushing experience to work as hard as you can and yet just barely be able to pay the mortgage and put food into the mouths of your kids. The reason why so many Americans believe that we are in a "recession" or a "depression" is because that is what they feel like they are living through every single day.The number of Americans that are really depressed about the direction of the economy continues to grow. At first most Americans had expected the U.S. economy to bounce back after the recession "like it always does", but now hope is turning into desperation as people start realizing that this time things are different.Most Americans are very eager for things to go back to normal. Unfortunately, things look like they are about to get even worse.The following are 16 reasons to feel really depressed about the direction of the economy....Read the full story here.

• OIC changes name and emblem, it now shows an Islamic crescent surrounding the globe.(CrossroadsArabia).The Organization of the Islamic Conference is no more. Welcome, instead, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Saudi Gazette carries this story about the change of name and symbol resulting from decisions by the OIC’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Kazakhstan.The new logo, as seen in the photo accompanying the article, will not warm the hearts of Islamophobes, however. It shows an Islamic crescent surrounding the globe, exactly what they fear. The logo is in keeping, however, with the idea that the new organization seeks global reach.I’m not sure that re-branding is going to be of much use, though. So far in its 40+ year history, the group seems to have focused mainly on complaining about the plight of Muslims without actually doing anything useful. In other words, it’s been just another talk shop that provides places for governments to send people away for a while, at decent salaries, while causing no harm.Hmmmm.......Global Caliphat illustrated?Read the full story here.

• The Russian bear is hungry and migrating, Russia to claim Arctic border expansion.(HurriyetDaily).Russia will submit a claim to the United Nations to expand its Arctic borders, a top official said Wednesday, as scientists embarked on a new expedition to prove its ownership of energy-rich territory."I expect that next year we will present a well-based scientific claim about expanding the borders of our Arctic shelf," Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in the Far Northern town of Naryan-Mar in the Arctic Circle.Ivanov was speaking as Russian scientists embarked on a new expedition aimed at proving its claims to territory on the Arctic shelf, in the latest exploration venture that risks sparking tensions with neighbors like Canada."The expedition is equipped with modern equipment and everything necessary for a proper and scientific claim," he said, quoted by the RIA-Novosti and ITAR-TASS news agencies.Russia had alarmed its Arctic neighbors including Canada and Norway when it planted a flag on the ocean floor under the North Pole in 2007 in a symbolic staking of its claim over the region.The latest expedition is aimed at proving that the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev ridges in the Arctic constitute a geological continuation of the Russian Arctic shelf.Both ridges are named after great Russian scientists but so far the U.N. Commission has neither accepted nor rejected Russia's claim to the area.But Russia is hoping its claim will win it an additional million square kilometers of territory and the rights to explore for more gas reserves in the energy-rich Arctic.Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had said last month that Russia would "strongly and consistently" defend its interests in the Arctic although it remained in constant contact with its regional partners over the issue.He warned that Russia intended to "expand its presence" in the Arctic and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that the armed forces intended to create two Arctic brigades for the defense of its interests.At the meeting in Naryan-Mar, the head of the Russian navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky warned that the Arctic was seeing a build-up of "challenges and threats that could have a negative effect on Russia's economic interests."He said that NATO had in particular defined the Arctic as part of its zone of interest while there had also been a surge in interest on the part of Asian countries.These included China, Japan and Korea as well as Malaysia and Thailand, Vysotsky added, sarcastically describing the latter two southeast Asian states as "well known Arctic nations".The five Arctic nations – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States – are locked in a tight race to gather evidence to support their claims amid reports that global warming could leave the region ice-free by 2030. Russia signed a 'treaty'(After holding military maneuvers near Norway's territorial waters) with Norway last September to end a 40-year dispute over a 176,000-square-kilometre maritime area straddling the two countries' economic zones in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.The deal regulates energy resources in the region, requiring the two countries to jointly develop oil and gas deposits that cross over the borderline.The Arctic seabed is believed to hold 90 billion barrels, or 13 percent of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves and 30 percent of the gas resources yet to be found, according to the US Geological Survey.The giant Russian tanker Baltica – escorted by the world's two most powerful nuclear ice breakers – last year made a historic voyage across the famed Northeast passage carrying gas condensate to China.Ivanov said he expected the Northern sea route along Russia's Arctic coast to see the transit of five million tones of goods in 2012, a dramatic rise from this year's estimated figure of three million tones.Hmmmm.....Meanwhile Canada is preparing it's own Arctic force.Read the full story here.

• Israel unlikely to condemn Turkey over Palmer report.(Ynet).Coming UN report on first Gaza flotilla contains harsh criticism against Ankara, but Jerusalem may choose not to capitalize on it.The coming Palmer report, investigating the tragic events of the 2010 Gaza flotilla, is expected to harshly criticize Turkey's handling of the sail and its ties to the IHH, but according to Ynet's source, Jerusalem does not intend to propel the report's conclusions into an international media campaign that would "vindicate" Israel. The report stands to include indirect criticism against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government's involvement in the sail, but it is believed Israel will hold back so as not to impede the efforts to stabilize relations with Turkey.Jerusalem and Ankara are still struggling with finalizing the report, but since Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Minister for Home Front Defense Matan Vilnai are pushing to normalize relations with Turkey, Israel will be in no hurry to capitalize on the report.Turkey's objections to the second flotilla is also one of the reasons Israel prefers not to launch and international media campaign against Ankara. While the Palmer report contains harsh criticism against both states, it insists Israel's maritime blockade on Gaza is legal.Hmmmmm.......Not using it against Turkey is a mistake, do they really believe Erdogan would spare them if it were the other way around?Read the full story here.

• Mahmoud the "ladies man", Ahmadinejad opposes sex segregation at universities.(Ynet). Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ordered the immediate cancellation of plans to segregate sexes at some universities, blasting the move as "shallow and unwise," his website reported."In some universities, single-gender courses and classes are implemented without considering their consequences," the president said in a letter to the ministers of higher education and health published by his website. "It is necessary that these shallow and unwise actions are prevented immediately," Ahmadinejad said against the backdrop of a lively debate in media and among officials over reports of plans to divide female and male students. The order comes amid a campaign by the ultra-conservative and religious camps dominating the Iranian regime for the abolition of co-education in universities for the new academic year. On Tuesday, higher education minister Kamran Daneshjoo denied having any plans for gender segregation at universities. "Men and women must sit in separate rows in university," he said, while insisting his ministry was pressing ahead with plans for the "Islamisation" of the education system. "We do not want to create a wall (but) we are against the mingling of men and women based on Western styles," Daneshjoo said, adding students would not be prevented from "cooperation when it comes to acquisition of science." Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi also rejected gender segregation plans, saying it was unrealistic to separate male and female medical students who would have to face patients of both sexes as future doctors. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the number of university students has swelled about 20 times to nearly 3.5 million, according to Iranian media. Over the past decade, the number of female students in higher education has been higher than their male classmates. Girls are expected to represent nearly 60% of freshmen in the 2011 academic year.Hmmmm........Read the full story here.

• Avigdor Lieberman won’t apologize to Turkey.(Ynet).Avigdor Lieberman says extending official apology to Ankara over tragic events of first Gaza flotilla humiliating to Jerusalem. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday he does not believe Israel should offer Turkey an official apology for the tragic outcome of the raid on the first Gaza flotilla. Lieberman, whose position is contrary to that of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that "There are some things I'm willing to discuss and some things I'm not willing to discuss. I will not have an apology harm Israel's national dignity and I will not see IDF soldiers humiliated." Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon is currently on an official visit to the United States, where he is meeting with delegates from Ankara.The results of a UN-named commission of inquiry into the events of the first flotilla are scheduled to be released this week. Israel and Turkey are struggling to phrase the report, as Ankara insists that Jerusalem offer an official apology. "We are all for ending the friction with Turkey… We have no territorial dispute with Turkey and we are willing to reach a compromise on the matter today, but an apology is not a compromise," the foreign minister said. "It's humiliating and it will abandon IDF soldiers." Speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Lieberman stressed that Israel "regrets the death of activists from any country or organization. We know how far we are willing to go and we expect to see some willingness and flexibility on this compromise," he said. Turning his attention to the recent debacle pertaining to the transfer of terrorists' remains to the Palestinian Authority, which was cancelled, Lieberman said that in his opinion, the matter should never have become part of the public discourse. "This is not something that should be discussed by the public… I don't think Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) deserves any gestures by Israel." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, he added, has "personally led some of the most offensive and despicable moves against the State of Israel, like trying to have IDF officers tried by the ICC. "The same goes for his unilateral bid in the Security Council, which he is personally pushing for. He does not deserve any gesture. On the contrary. But that too will be decided on by the proper forums." Elaborating on the Palestinian bid for statehood, the foreign minister said that Israel "is currently busy mapping out the nations that could help up achieve the 'moral majority' bloc. The Muslim nations bloc and the undecided nations make up about 130 nations and we don’t want to have any illusions. "The North America nations and the European Union are important to us. It's important to us to convey the message that a unilateral step can only harm the peace process and any chance of reaching an acceptable agreement in the Middle East."We're trying to convince them… and we have successes too, like with the flotilla and the fly-in." A unilateral Palestinian declaration will spell a unilateral response by Israel, he warned. "I wouldn’t want to find myself there. There are several unilateral responses Israel has prepared," he said.Read the full story here.

• Hamas arrests man for styling women's hair.(Ynet).The Hamas government in Gaza has arrested a man for violating a recent legislation that prohibits men from styling women's hair, the BBC reported Wednesday. The report said that following the arrest, many male hairstylists could be found loitering at the entrance to their salons, terrified of being detained as well.Last year Hamas officially announced a new law prohibiting men from styling women's hair, as it negates Sharia. Five hairstylists were arrested in February and forced to sign an affidavit renouncing the practice. The current arrest is the first known implementation of the law since then. Adnan Barakat, who has been a hairstylist for the past 27 years, was flabbergasted. "Without work I'm like a dead man. The salon can't function without me. I don't have any other work. What can I do?" he asked. Other stylists also complained about the law, as well as the secret police watching them to make sure they were not in violation.Hamas has previously attempted to pass the law but withdrew following complaints by human rights groups. The ban joins similarly befuddling laws such as the one prohibiting women from smoking hookah pipes and riding on motorbikes driven by men. Hmmmmm......Next play on the flotilla : "The Barber of Gaza".Read the full story here.

• NO you don't !Pakistan bars bin Laden family from leaving without their consent.(HurriyetDaily).A Pakistani commission investigating how Osama bin Laden lived undetected for years in the country has ordered the government not to repatriate his surviving family without its consent.Pakistan took custody of the Al-Qaeda leader's two Saudi and one Yemeni widows and around 10 of their children, after US Navy SEALs killed him and flew off with his body from the army town of Abbottabad on May 2.Pakistan has given CIA agents access to the wives but the commission's move is likely to delay their departure, after an official recently confirmed to AFP that the youngest widow, Amal Abdulfattah, could return to Yemen within days."The ministry of interior and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) have been directed to ensure that the family of Osama Bin Laden is not repatriated from Pakistan without the consent of the commission," the commission said.The four-member panel, chaired by a supreme court judge, has the authority to summon anyone and a security official told AFP that bin Laden's family would be no exception. There is no timeline for it to complete its investigation."They will go back eventually but perhaps until such time that investigations are complete, they would want to talk to them as well," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity."They can make demand and they will be given access," the official added.The move is likely to disappoint Abdulfattah's family, who told AFP last month in Yemen that they expected her and her children home shortly.The revelation that the world's most-wanted man lived in a garrison city just a stone's throw from a top military academy raised questions about complicity or incompetence within Pakistan's security services.The discovery that bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, seemingly for five years, and the unilateral American raid have been described by critics in Pakistan as the military's worst disaster since Bangladesh separated from Pakistan in 1971.The independent commission, which the government set up under pressure from a political opposition critical that an internal military inquiry would not be objective, has the power to summon military and civilian leaders.It also called on volunteers to submit evidence."Their identity will be kept confidential and they will also be legally protected," it said in a statement.Headed by judge Javed Iqbal, the other members of the commission are Abbas Khan, a former police commander, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, a former UN diplomat and retired general Nadeem Ahmed, who used to head the national disaster authority.Hmmmmm.......'Disaster' indeed.Read the full story here.

• Palestinian 'Financial crisis doesn't mean we’re not ready for state'.(JPost).Fayyad says only $331m. of $970m. promised to gov't was received; Abed Rabbo accuses Arab countries of not meeting their pledges.Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday that the severe financial crisis his government is facing does not mean the Palestinians are ill-prepared for statehood.His announcement came as the PA civil servants received only half of their salaries due to the financial crisis.Fayyad said he would continue his efforts to solve the crisis.“This decision was taken because of the growing financial crisis in the PA over the past year,” Fayyad said. He attributed the crisis to the failure of donor countries to meet their financial commitments to the PA.Fayyad said the PA had received only $331 million of the $970m. promised by donors, including some Arab countries.He said it was ironic that the current crisis had come at a time when the PA government had succeeded in reducing its reliance on foreign aid by almost half – from $1.8 billion in 2008 to $970m. this year.“The crisis does not undermine or cast doubt on our preparedness for the establishment of the state,” Fayyad stressed.“There are many countries that face difficulties and deficits that oblige them to take measures to overcome their financial crises. Palestine is not an exception. On the contrary, we are a people living under occupation and suffering from division and its repercussions.”Fayyad voiced hope that the Arab countries would help the Palestinians overcome the crisis.PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said the financial crisis in the PA was “unprecedented” and accused the Arab countries of failing to meet their pledges to help the Palestinians.Abed Rabbo told the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio station that the Palestinians were surprised by the Arab countries’ failure to assist them.“The situation has become very complicated for the Palestinian Authority because of the failure of the Arab countries to fulfill their financial promises,” he said. “This is regretful.”Abed Rabbo said the crisis would not prevent the PA from proceeding with its plan to ask the United Nations in September to recognize a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines.He said the PA was convinced it couldn’t rely on negotiations “to end the occupation because Israel does not want negotiations.”From 2 days ago on MFS: "Donors had pledged $971 million to the Palestinian Authority this year, but the year is half over and only $330 million has been delivered. It turns out that only the UAE, Algeria, and Oman have met the pledges they made years ago via the Arab League. The rest, including the vastly wealthy Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, are delinquent"Note in this overview of donated US Aid to Palestine that the more money they recieve the lower their GDP becomes!Now guess according to the numbers when Obama became president.Read the full story here.

• Taliban starting Automn fashion line: Bombs Beneath the Burqa.(FrontpageMagazine).There they all stand, guilty as sin, Afghan Taliban terrorists disguised in women’s burqas—but exposed when they were captured by the Afghan Border Police. Their photo (or rather photos) were taken by an Afghan photographer somewhere near Jalalabad and have just been seen worldwide.One of these charmers was wearing an explosive vest; six had AK-47s. Clearly they were up to no good. One wonders how long they will remain in jail and what they will do when they emerge.These photographs conclusively validate the concern that Dr. Daniel Pipes has had about the security risk that burqas represent. For the last six years, Dr. Pipes has been detailing the number of common criminals and Islamist terrorists who have robbed jewelry stories and peeped into women’s bathrooms while wearing burqas, or who have blown themselves and others up from under the protective cover of a mere woman’s shroud.Read the full story here.

• The good old Sharia way 63,000 Saudis may face prison in two years for failing to pay their debts.(CrossroadsArabia).JEDDAH: Abdullah Bin Mahfoudh, Chairman of the Prisoner Care Committee in the Jeddah Region, has said that some 63,000 Saudis could face prison over the next two years for failing to pay back debts.Bin Mahfoudh told Al-Hayat Arabic daily that Saudi individuals have racked up some SR3 billion in owed monies.“None of them are able to pay the debts back, according to information from SIMAH,” he said, in reference to the Saudi Credit Bureau, a body providing consumer and commercial credit information services in the Kingdom and operating under the supervision of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA).Bin Mahfoudh said that his committee has asked the Shoura Council to study the issue “in view of the threat it poses”.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• ‘Blasphemy, Blasphemy Mucho’*—Islamintern Denounces Islamo-realistic Free Speech in Holland.(BigPeace).Bat Ye’or has appositely characterized Geert Wilder’s recent acquittal as a “Copernican revolution,” achieved by a solitary “unarmed man, constantly threatened by death and whose only defense was his courageous and unbending commitment to say the truth.”It is a bitter irony that on the same day Bat Ye’or’s essay was published a pathognomonic communiqué was released by foreign ministers of the Islamintern—the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)—whose member states were meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The communiqué claimed “a number of Dutch politicians” had insulted Islam and its prophet Muhammad, accusing them of the invented “crime” of “Islamophobia.”

Turkish OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu issued a separate statement condemning—and threatening Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders:

Wilders has taken a dangerous path, endangering the peace and harmony of civilizations by spreading hate against Islam and Muslims in his own country as well as in other European countries. Insult to Islam and to the honored Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), has reached a stage that can no longer be tolerated under any pretext, including freedom of speech.

Demonstrating once again that Wilders is a politician of rare courage, he has now challenged his own Dutch Prime Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to respond appropriately to the statements of the OIC, and Ihsanoglu:

1. Have you seen the intimidating statement of the OIC Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, about me and the OIC report “Fourth OIC observatory report on islamophobia” about statements made by various Dutch politicians?
2. Do you agree that the OIC has vastly overstepped the boundaries with these intimidating statements and do you agree with me that a Dutch politician should have the right to criticise Islam and multiculturalism in a public debate, as was confirmed during my political trial by the court decision of June 23rd?
3. Are you prepared to explain to the OIC member countries that criticism of Islam and freedom of speech are essential in a democratic society under the rule of law? If not, why not?
4. Do you share the opinion that criticism, such as that of an organization like the OIC, is hypocrite and despicable given that the OIC in article 24 of its own Cairo Declaration on Human Rights explicitly states that all rights and freedoms are subject to Islamic Shari’ah law? If not, why not?
5. Are you prepared in the short term to distance yourself publicly in strong wordings of this report and of the intimidating statement of the OIC secretary general? If not, why not?
6. Will you make it clear once and for all to the OIC that the Netherlands will not accept to be lectured by an institution such as the OIC which makes human rights subject to the barbaric Shari’ah, and that we will not allow our fundamental freedoms and our freedom of speech to be restricted? If not, why not?
7. Are you prepared to answer these questions this week

Writing in the early 1990s, the esteemed Pakistani scholar Muhammad Asrar, whose opinion was accepted by Pakistan’s Shari’a Court, defined “blasphemy,” focusing on the Muslim prophet, as:

Reviling or insulting the Prophet (pbuh) in writing or speech; speaking profanely or contemptuously about him or his family; attacking the Prophet’s dignity and honor in an abusive manner; vilifying him or making an ugly face when his named is mentioned; showing enmity or hatred towards him, his family, his companions, and the Muslims; accusing, or slandering the Prophet and his family, including spreading evil reports about him or his family; defaming the Prophet; refusing the Prophet’s jurisdiction or judgment in any manner; rejecting the Sunnah; showing disrespect, contempt for or rejection of the rights of Allah and His Prophet or rebelling against Allah and His Prophet.And in accord with classical Islamic jurisprudence, for example, The Risala of al-Qayrawani (d. 996)—a jurist in mythically “tolerant” Muslim Spain—Madani argues that anyone who defames Muhammad—Muslim or non-Muslim—must be put to death. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo has documented how this orthodox Islamic doctrine –incorporated into the Pakistani legal code (Section 295-C, “defiling the name of Muhammad”)—has wreaked havoc, particularly among Pakistan’s small Christian minority community: …the blasphemy law is felt to be a sword of Damocles and has developed a huge symbolic significance which contributes substantially to the atmosphere of intimidation of Christians. The detrimental effect of the law…is most dramatically illustrated by the incident at Shanti Nagar in February 1997 in which tens of thousands of rioting Muslims destroyed hundreds of Christian homes, and other Christian property, following an accusation of blasphemy. Furthermore the blasphemy has engendered a wave of private violence. Equating blasphemy with apostasy and influenced by the tradition of direct violent action and self-help which goes back to the earliest times of Islam, some Muslims feel they are entitled to enforce the death penalty themselves.Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and his OIC foreign ministry colleagues—spearheaded by OIC stalwart, Pakistan—want to impose this same Sharia-based system, antithetical to the US Bill of Rights, on all of humanity, including the 4/5 of world’s population that is non-Muslim. This irredentist OIC mindset remains unchanged from what Beaumarchais described in the Marriage of Figaro freedom of speech monologue in Act V, Scene 3, at the close of the 18th century, more than two centuries ago:

I cobble together a verse comedy about the customs of the harem, assuming that, as a Spanish writer, I can say what I like about Mohammed without drawing hostile fire. Next thing, some envoy from God knows where turns up and complains that in my play I have offended the Ottoman empire, Persia, a large slice of the Indian peninsula, the whole of Egypt, and the kingdoms of Barca [Ethiopia], Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. And so my play sinks without trace, all to placate a bunch of Muslim princes, not one of whom, as far as I know, can read but who beat the living daylights out of us and say we are “Christian dogs.” Since they can’t stop a man thinking, they take it out on his hide instead. Wilders’ Islamo-realistic free speech has provided a healthy dose of long overdue criticism of the direct nexus between Muhammad’s actions, and jihadism, which may prove therapeutic for the cowering West. Hope springs eternal.Read the full story here.

• Related - Dutch government dissociates itself from OIC demands to silence a politician.From ANP (Dutch press agency): The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uri Rosenthal, dissociates himself from a call by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the Dutch government to stop the “campaign of hatred” of PVV leader Geert Wilders.“The Dutch government dissociates itself fully from the request to silence a politician. The Netherlands have a very high regard for freedom of speech,” Rosenthal said on Wednesday.Read the full story here.