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.

• What Happens When Iran Kills American Soldiers?(EliotAbrams).There must be very few times in American history when a foreign government is accused of killing American troops, and absolutely nothing is done about it.Every school kid used to learn lines like “Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead,” or “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.” The War of 1812 was fought in large part due to the “impressment” of American sailors by the British, a similar example of denial of freedom that fell far short of actually killing American sailors.So what are we to make of the following statements by America’s senior military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen? Reuters reports that at a luncheon with journalists, Mullen said this:

“Iran is very directly supporting extremist Shia groups which are killing our troops. And there’s no reason … for me to believe that they’re going to stop that as our numbers come down….There’s no question they want to influence, and particularly in the south,” Mullen said. “They are shipping high-tech weapons in there … which are killing our people and … the forensics prove that.”

Mullen made these comments in the context of discussing the American troop presence in Iraq, and went on to say that any agreement to keep U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the end of the year “has to be done in conjunction with control of Iran in that regard.” So Iran’s killing of American troops is a problem because it complicates leaving some forces in Iraq?What is one to make of it when our senior commander does not seem outraged by this Iranian conduct and does not demand that we put a stop to it? Our forces are not killing Iranians, but Iran has been killing Americans–in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also through involvement in terrorist attacks such as the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996–for decades, and it has paid no price. This is the probable explanation why continuing American promises, or threats if you like, that “it is unacceptable for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons” don’t appear to rattle Tehran. What credibility can we possibly have when they know we know that Iran has been killing American soldiers year after year without any significant American response.It isn’t just Iran, either: the Assad regime in Syria became the transit point for every jihadi wanting to travel to Iraq to kill Americans (and large numbers of Iraqis). From all around the globe they came–Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, you name it–to Damascus International Airport, thence to be shepherded into Iraq with the full cooperation and coordination of the Government of Syria. The American military response: none. This was especially galling, for whatever dangers may have existed in threatening Iran and then having to carry through on those threats if Iran did not cease acting to kill American soldiers, they were absent in the case of a weak country like Syria. A few object lessons would have persuaded the Assad regime to desist from its actions.Soon we will have a new Secretary of Defense and a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and one can only hope that we will also have a new policy: that neither Iran nor any other government can kill Americans with impunity. The least we owe servicemen and women who risk their lives for our country is the certainty that when we know a foreign government is trying to kill them, we will act to stop it. If we adopted such a policy, we would never again have to hear a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs reveal such a set of facts and suggest as an American response……well, nothing.Read the full story here.

• An Open Letter to @SpeakerBoehner and Sen. McConnell: You Blow This and You Are Political Toast.(DougRoss).You cave on the debt ceiling without meaningful spending cuts -- not Social Security, not Medicare, not some far-off, mystical trillion dollars a decade in the future -- but cuts now in the massive discretionary spending programs that exploded under the 111th Congress, well, then you are both political toast.President Obama has publicly vilified you, has equated you with terrorists ("holding a gun to the American people's head") and has now gone 800 days without a budget. He spent this money. He knew it would blow past the debt ceiling. This is his fault And now he demands something "balanced"?This is the real deal, since you or your staffers haven't figured it out yet: Obama is prepared to slash Social Security, Medicare, Defense--in fact, anything except the bloated public sector unions.As always with Obama, it's about the unions. There can be no negotiation with the ideologues who have blown trillions in borrowed money to no avail.The bloated government bureaucracies are the Democrat Party and vice versa. One can't exist without the other. If you -- Senator McConnell -- and you -- Speaker Boehner -- blow your advantage, you can stick the old political forks in you. You're done.Your starting position -- non-negotiable -- should be the Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge.Period.No secret, back-room deals. No bullcrap "trillion-dollar spending deals for 2020 with non-tax revenue increases".This is Obama and the 111th Congress' fault. They didn't pass a budget. They spent like drunken liberals. And, as we speak, they are destroying the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury.If you are too wedded to your status on the Beltway cocktail and press circuit -- rather than as representatives of a pissed-off electorate -- there will be hell to pay.P.S., How's "Speaker West" sound to you?Read the full story here.

• Operation Fast and Furious: We The People Are Furious So Let’s Get Eric Holder Out Of Office Fast.(BigPeace).Political stooge Eric Holder’s latest poke in our collective eyes comes from his role in Operation Fast and Furious.Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley have accused Holder of blocking their investigation of the scandalous operation that resulted in the deaths of two US agents and many Mexican civilians.Please see Michael Walsh’s piece.Fast and Furious was designed as an ATF sting and involved the “transfer” of thousands of weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels in an effort to track those guns back across the border. Predictably those weapons were used by the Mexican drug lords in scores of killings.As Walsh points out, many lawful gun owners believe this ill conceived plan was hatched and implemented by Holder’s ATF to “prove” the Obama Administration’s contention that 90% of the guns Mexican Cartels use originate in the United States. This “proof” would provide the administration with the political cover it would need to further control guns by executive order.If this scenario involving Holder providing political cover sounds familiar, it should. Once again Holder is a willing stooge to his political masters.Holder provided Bill Clinton with the political cover he needed to offer clemency in 1999 to 16 unrepentant FALN and Macheteros terrorists. When Pardon Attorney, Roger Adams refused to reverse his predecessor Margaret Love’s recommendation against the clemency offers in 1998, Holder concocted an “options report” for Adams to deliver to Holder in which Adams would not be required to provide any recommendation for or against clemency.The existence of that new report allowed Clinton the wiggle room to justify his clemency to terrorists who had not even requested clemency, who did not show remorse but whose supporters met with Holder and his team at least 9 times. Holder and his team ignored the families of those killed while pandering to the terrorists and their supporters.Like he did in 1999 by pushing the release of those terrorists, Holder is once again playing Russian roulette with the American People; this time by furnishing guns to gangsters in a reckless attempt to provide political cover to his superior(s).Like he did in 1999, Holder now refuses to answer questions regarding his or his boss’s involvement in the scandal and is even holding up a congressional investigation.Aside from Fast and Furious, since becoming AG, Holder’s other recent travesties of justice are well documented and include his:

1. failure to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation

2. desire to prosecute members of the intelligence community over terror interrogations

3. goals of closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center and trying foreign terrorists in civilian courts

Holder’s previous misdeeds are so numerous and insidious that they are difficult to identify and summarize. Investigative Reporter Ron Kolb, for the America’s Survival conference last week, provided the best brief I have ever seen on Mr. Holder. Look, Holder must go. I don’t know how much more evidence we need; how many more misdeeds Holder has to perpetrate, how many more Americans have to be put at risk, how many more Fast and Furious scandals we have to endure.The American people are Furious so Holder has to go Fast.Read the full story here.

• Obama, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood Vs. America, Israel, and Freedom .(Marezilla).Obama has publicly stated that Americans "do not consider ourselves a Christian nation" and that the United States is "one of the largest muslim countries in the world". Of course he is wrong, the US is not a muslim country, but do these statements reflect wishful thinking on his part, or do they reveal his intentions to islamicize America as described in THIS article by Victor Mordechai in Israel Today? Is Obama's deliberate undermining of American and Israeli interests his "Final Solution", as described in THIS article by James Lewis?Read the full story here.

• Obama's Plan to Islamicize America.(IsraelToday).At a meeting of the David Allen Lewis “Eschatology Club” a year ago in Springfield, Missouri, where I was the featured speaker, I was told by the organizers that in the previous monthly meeting, Pastor Don Jones made a disturbing statement about President Barack Obama’s plan to Islamicize America.Jones went to one of his orphanages in Haiti after the massive earthquake there and met with a senior UN official, who said Obama had told him that the US would be a Muslim country by 2016, or by the end of his second term in office.While that may seem far-fetched, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. First, Obama’s biological father was a Muslim— which makes the President a Muslim. His stepfather was an Indonesian Muslim who raised Obama as a Muslim in a mosque and madrassa (Islamic religious school) in Indonesia until age 11. His halfbrothers in Kenya are Muslims.My wife Rachel, who is a radio and TV monitor in the Arabic language for Israel Radio in Jerusalem, has picked up many broadcasts indicating that the Arabs see Obama as a Muslim. In one broadcast prior to the 2008 elections, the Saudis claimed that “we will have a Muslim in the White House.” Another Saudi broadcast said: “Obama’s job is to terminate the Shiite threat [Iran] and the Jewish threat [Israel]. And if he cannot do this, he should pack his bags and go home.”America has always been a Judeo- Christian nation, but demographically at least, this is no longer true. While there are more than 250 million Christians in the US, the 6 million Jews are now outnumbered by Muslims who total about 20 million (9 million Iranians who fled after the fall of the Shah, 7 million Arabs and at least 3 million black Muslims, with the remainder being from Somalia and the former Yugoslavia).Numerically, the Jews are now no. 3 or 4 along with the Hindus in the US, whose population is about the same as the Jews. According to Obama’s Inauguration Day speech, America is a “Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu” country. Numerically, he is right. So much for Judeo-Christian America.In the June edition of Israel Today, I wrote about the worsening conditions of the Christians in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. International investment in Egypt has all but dried up since the Revolution. What international (Christian) corporation will invest in a country which is killing and ethnically cleansing its Christians? So the Egyptian economy appears doomed to collapse, which would create fertile ground for a takeover by the radical Muslim Brotherhood.This would leave 70 million Muslims in Egypt in dire poverty.The same applies to other countries in the Middle East that could be taken over by Islamic militants. In the case of Syria, the ruling Muslim Alawite sect will probably share the same fate as the Christians. This could lead to a flood of Arab Muslims to greener pastures in the West.The Bible says Egypt will be a desolation and Egyptians will flee to other countries because the nation will be uninhabitable for 40 years (Ezekiel 29). If the official Syrian newspaper Tishrin is correct in saying that 600,000 Palestinian refugees and Syrians will march on the Golan Heights to reclaim their land, then a war with Syria is inevitable, which means that Syria will be a desolation as well (Isaiah 17).The result could be tens of millions of Muslims fleeing to the US and Europe. President Obama would welcome these “brethren” on humanitarian grounds, and in effect, America would become a Muslim country.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Cleveland airport suddenly very,very popular.Unruly passenger caused a flight from Chicago to Germany to be diverted to Cleveland.(JawaReport).CLEVELAND - An unruly passenger caused a flight from Chicago to Germany to be diverted to Cleveland, an airport spokesperson said.The United Airlines 777 jet landed at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at about 5:30 p.m. Friday.Jackie Mayo, spokesperson for the airport, said a passenger on Flight 944 headed to Frankfurt was acting “suspicious and unruly,” and would not comply with the flight crew's request to settle down. As a result, the flight was diverted to Cleveland to have the passenger removed.When the plane landed, Mayo said K9 dogs searched the plane as a safety measure.Next thing you know this happens: Several Flights Diverted to Cleveland Hopkins with Emergency on board.Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) It has suddenly gotten busier with diversions. Joining our earlier noted 767-300 is another United 767-300 from London Heathrow and a 777-200 headed to Frankfurt just landed. The 767-300s in United (new blue, pre CO) are now parked at the FIS at the end on Concourse A and the 777-200 is on pad 1 (in new United/Continental livery). CLE had another unexpected visitor this afternoon. United flight 965, a Boeing 767-300 flying from Moscow to Washington Dulles landed with a medical emergency onboard. CLE medical staff are attending to the passenger. The aircraft is expected to be refueled and dispatched to IAD.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Calling Dr. Jihad.Last call before departure for Dr. Jihad.(Aina).Splendid news: Our homeland-security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that "human bombs" may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives. The ticking terrorists are reportedly getting help from murder-minded Arab Muslim physicians trained in the West. Infidels beware: Dr. Jihad's version of the health-care oath omits the "no" in "Do no harm."The death docs may be using their expertise to play "Hide the IED" in body cavities that bomb-detection equipment cannot penetrate. At least one Saudi operative has been nabbed with explosives in his bum, and British intel picked up on Arab-website chatter last year about possible breast-bomb inserts. Officials are now said to be on the lookout for physicians' notes requesting that passengers be allowed to carry syringes -- which could carry detonation chemicals.Lest you shrug off reports of these literal booby-traps as empty fear-mongering, listen up:"It's more than aspirational," one U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal. "They're trying to make this happen."There should be no shock at the role of purported healers in these and other hellish plots to destroy masses of innocent lives in the name of Allah. Anyone who still clings to the bleeding-heart belief that poverty breeds terrorism -- including, alas, our commander-in-chief -- is willfully blind to history and present reality.Medical charities have long served as front groups for jihad. Palestinian jihadists used ambulances owned and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) -- subsidized with billions in American tax dollars -- to ferry explosives and gunmen from attacks. Hezbollah terrorists used ambulances as props in Lebanon to stage anti-Israel propaganda and elicit sympathy from Western media.And radical Islam's bloody perversion of the medical profession traces back to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the global terror operation that wooed wealthy young docs and other intellectual elites with cushy union benefits.

● Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon from a family of doctors, was raised in the Muslim Brotherhood, was helmed the murderous Islamic Jihad, and masterminded myriad al-Qaeda plots before succeeding Osama bin Laden this summer.

● Former Hamas leader Abdel Rantissi, bent on wiping out the children of Israel, was a pediatrician.

● Convicted al-Qaeda scientist Aafia Siddiqui studied microbiology at MIT and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis.

● Rafiq Abdus Sabir was a Columbia University grad who served as an emergency-room physician in Boca Raton, Fla., before his terrorism conviction in 2007 for agreeing to provide medical aid and treatment to wounded al-Qaeda fighters so they could return to Iraq to kill American soldiers.

● Rafil Dhafir, an Iraqi-born oncologist, practiced in New York before being convicted in 2004 on 59 criminal counts related to violating Iraqi sanctions and committing large-scale medical-charity fraud.

● A den of well-heeled jihadi doctors from around the world was implicated in the 2007 London/Glasgow bombings. At least one of the convicted terror MDs worked for Britain's National Health Service.

● Mahmoud al-Zahar, another bloodthirsty Hamas biggie and medical doctor, described his specialty to a New York Times reporter in 2006 this way: "'Thyroids: I'm very good at cutting throats,' Dr. Zahar said, drawing his forefinger across his neck as a rare smile spread across his face."

Evil zealots who'll use children as human shields won't hesitate to employ revered caregivers as human explosive-enablers. They've warned us for years. Days after the 2007 terror-doc conspiracy unraveled in London, a Church of England clergyman, Andrew White, recounted to National Public Radio a warning he received from a Sunni fanatic in Amman, Jordan: "I listened to him for 40 minutes, and he went on about how they were going to destroy Britons and Americans and how they were going to be doing more in the U.K. and U.S., and he finished by saying 'those who cure you will kill you.'"How many more Dr. Jihads are operating in the open, exploiting our borders and tolerance, wielding medical licenses to kill?Hmmmm........"Don't worry it won't hurt, you'll feel nothing"?Read the full story here.

• Three Ways to Tell If a Muslim Charity Supports Jihad.(Aina).The Chicago-based Zakat Foundation of America, a 501©3 non-profit, was founded in 2001, and presents itself in a benevolent light: Zakat Foundation of America (ZF) is an international charity organization that helps generous and caring people reach out to those in need. Our goal is to address immediate needs and ensure the self-reliance of the poorest people around the world with Zakat and Sadaqa [acts of worship] dollars of privileged Muslims and the support of other generous donors.Does the Zakat Foundation of America merely help, in an innocent charitable way, "the poorest people" or is it a front for jihad? Part of the answer comes in the identity of the Muslim thinkers the foundation promotes. Chief among them is Yusuf al-Qardawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who in 2009 declared his hope that before his death, even if he was wheelchair-bound, he would be able to "shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom."Another answer comes in the organizations with which the charity is associated. A number of organizations in the United States have already been identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups by the FBI. The Zakat Foundation of America works with at least two of the 29 groups the bureau has specified as falling into this category--the Islamic Center of North America (ISNA) endorsed the Zakat Foundation as an organization with "a strong history of immediate and effective responses to national and international disasters" and featured in several of the Zakat Foundation promotional videos. The other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group the Zakat Foundation collaborates with is the Muslim Students Association (MSA), having designed printed material guiding MSA activists on "How to start a successful halaqa group in your Masjid," "How to Help Neighbors in Need," and "Starting a Food Pantry."Finally, there is the question of how the Zakat Foundation distributes its funds. The Caipirinha Foundation, the charitable organization created by anti-Israel documentarian Iara Lee and her billionaire husband George Gund III, utilized Zakat as a fiscal sponsor for a grant to the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). The IHH is part of the "Union of Good," an umbrella coalition of Hamas-affiliated organizations led by Qaradawi. The Foundation supports the IHH's efforts to disrupt Israel's self-defense, describing last year's controversial flotilla as a "heroic effort."Given these intimate connections to radical figures and Muslim Brotherhood fronts, it's safe to characterize the Zakat Foundation of America as another component in the jihad.Hmmmmm.......Obama: “I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat”. Read the full story here.

• Obama Officials Misled Congress Regarding Scope of Illegal Immigration Deportation Dismissals According to Documents.(JudicialWatch).Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Obama Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showing that DHS officials misled Congress and the public about the scope of an immigration enforcement policy change that gave wide latitude to local immigration officials to dismiss illegal alien deportation cases. According to the documents, obtained pursuant to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, immigration officials sought the dismissal of charges against a wide range of illegal alien criminals, including those convicted of violent crimes, despite claims by the Obama administration to the contrary.The documents concern the response by Houston immigration officials to a June 30, 2010, memo from John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to all ICE employees instructing local immigration officials to use their discretion in “prioritizing” illegal immigration deportation cases. This new policy resulted in the dismissal of hundreds of immigration cases and an overall 40% increase in deportation dismissals with the City of Houston taking a particularly aggressive approach to the policy’s implementation.In response to calls by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for more information regarding this new deportation policy, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said, “The idea that DHS is engaged in ‘selective enforcement’ couldn’t be further from the truth.” However, the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch show that Houston immigration officials moved quickly to implement a broad interpretation of Morton’s memo, earning praise from ICE agency headquarters.Moreover, despite the claims of immigration officials, ICE attorneys sought to block deportation proceeding for illegal aliens with violent crime offenses. A spreadsheet obtained by Judicial Watch lists the specific violent crimes that immigration officials were prepared to overlook. They include: sexual assault, solicitation of murder, aggravated assault, assaulting a police officer, and kidnapping, as well as numerous drug charges.On June 17, 2011, John Morton sent another memo to all field officers, special agents and to the chief counsel further defining the term “prosecutorial discretion.” “In basic terms, prosecutorial discretion is the authority of an agency charged with enforcing a law to decide to what degree to enforce the law against a particular individual,” Morton writes. Critics point out that this is precisely the type of “selective enforcement” the DHS has denied fostering with its new deportation policy.“These documents show that the Obama administration is implementing ‘stealth amnesty,’ which is an end-run around the rule of law and Congress.” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama administration doesn’t seem to care about its constitutional responsibility to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ by pushing the selective enforcement of immigration laws. And they are thumbing their noses at Congress and the American people by stonewalling information requests and lying to cover up their stealth amnesty scheme. Congress should initiate a full investigation to get to the truth of the matter. The lawlessness must stop.”Hmmmm.......Thugocracy in motion?Read the full story here.

• Obama Stiffs the Dalai Lama Again.(CommentaryMagazine).Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi greeted the Dalai Lama on Capitol Hill. The reception was entirely appropriate. The Dalai Lama is an important symbol not only of the struggle for political freedom against tyranny but also of the value of non-violent protest. But the Dalai Lama won’t be making a stop at the White House during his current 10-day stay in Washington. President Obama is apparently determined to do nothing to anger China and is refusing to give the Dalai Lama another meeting.It is true Obama has already met with the Tibetan leader in exile once. But unlike the reception the Dalai Lama got during the presidency of George W. Bush, the visit with Obama was low-key, and only one photo of the two men together was permitted. From its earlier days in office, this administration has demonstrated little interest in human rights issues. But its penchant for “realist” policies have done nothing to advance American interests.As Elliot Abrams wrote earlier this week on his blog for the Council on Foreign Relations, Obama is making a big mistake. The Chinese only respect strength and the administration’s determination to appease Beijing will pay no dividends for U.S. policy. The Chinese haven’t helped much on Iran or any other outstanding issue but that hasn’t stopped Obama from behaving in a cowardly manner when it comes to any issue that might discomfit the Communist leadership of the world’s largest tyranny. By taking a pass on another meeting with a truly inspirational world figure, all the president has done is to show once again how small a man he really is.Read the full story here.

• "Birth of a Nation"!Behold the Republic of South Sudan.(GlobeAndMail).Church bells rang at midnight to mark the birth of the world’s newest nation – the Republic of South Sudan. Despite the excitement of the independence celebrations and a mood of joyful expectation in its new capital – the Nile River city of Juba – the emerging country faces grim realities: It is one of the most underdeveloped countries on the planet and has only a 15-per-cent literacy rate. Most citizens live on $1 a day. Education and health facilities are sorely underdeveloped, and fears of renewed conflict abound.Despite independence day festivities, there are fears the conflict could be reignited because troops from the north and south are facing off in the contested oil-rich border region of Abyei. South Sudan produces about 375,000 barrels of oil each day, and although negotiators are still working on the specific formula of how the two Sudans will share the oil, the south stands to make billions from its reserves. In the contested region of Abyei, South Sudan’s oil, for now, still has to flow through the north’s pipelines. One observer noted that the problems South Sudan faces are “bigger and harder than what any other country in Africa faced” when most nations on the continent gained independence from the colonial powers in the 1960s.

Flag

It’s the former emblem of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – black, red and green horizontal stripes, with a gold star in a blue triangle.

President

Salva Kiir Mayardit, 60, a former army officer, who often wears cowboy hats. He is the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the political wing of the rebel army that fought with the north before a peace accord was signed in 2005.

Religion

Mostly Christian (Anglican, Catholic), but many practise traditional African beliefs.

Population

An estimated 8.5 million citizens. At least 80 per cent are illiterate – rising to 92 per cent for women – the majority of civil servants did not finish secondary school and there are estimated to be fewer than 500 trained doctors. More than three million people, nearly 40 per cent of the population, need food aid to survive.

Geography

A landlocked 580,000 square kilometres, roughly equal to France or Texas. Formed from the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is a land of expansive grassland, swamps and tropical rain forest straddling both banks of the White Nile. In contrast, Sudan in the north is mostly desert. Infrastructure is still lacking – with only about 50 kilometres of paved roads. Water remains a luxury in most communities.

Borders

Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan.

Exports

Oil. However, South Sudan has the potential to be among the largest food producers in Africa. The country also has hardwood timber, gold, chromium, iron ore and a host of other minerals.

Currency

Not yet decided. Currently the Sudanese pound.Hmmmm.....Time before the next conflict with the Islamic North......Countdown running.Read the full story here.

• Islam's Scourge Returns, his name is: Zakaria Botros.(Aina).Father Zakaria Botros, also known as Islam’s “Public Enemy #1,” is back.Scourge of Islam; lover of Muslims. From around 2005-2010, this 76 year-old Coptic priest was Islam’s bane. Appearing weekly on Arabic satellite, where he was viewed by an estimated 60 million people worldwide, mostly Muslims, he meticulously exposed any number of theological problems with Islam--all from Islam’s own books--while simultaneously evangelizing from his own book, the Bible.His mission “is to attack Islam, not to attack Muslims but to save them because they are deceived. As I love Muslims, I hate Islam.”And he has been effective: Mass conversions to Christianity, open and clandestine, have resulted. Indeed, years back al-Jazeera aired a segment complaining about Fr. Zakaria’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world; similarly, one Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatani lamented that as many as six million Muslims annually “apostatize” to Christianity. Unsurprisingly, Fr. Zakaria’s exploits caused al-Qaeda to proclaim him “one of the most wanted infidels in the world,” putting a $60 million bounty on his head; undeterred, the priest kept going, his viewers and converts multiplying by the week. Then, in May 2010, after a particularly graphic episode on Muhammad, his shows inexplicably stopped airing. His enemies exulted. Muslim leaders, preachers, and sheikhs appeared on TV, gleefully announcing that Allah had silenced the great enemy of Islam.Yet, over a year after his many foes--external and internal, Muslim and non-Muslim--have managed to stifle him, Fr. Zakaria is back on satellite, now with his own station Fady TV (Redeemer TV), “a channel for those searching for the truth.” Though other Islam-critics and evangelists have appeared on Arabic satellite since, many with a good following, it is clear that people have not forgotten the priest, the original trailblazer of open and honest talk on Islam--the original scourge of Islam.Watching the first episode of his new show, “Knowledge of the Truth,” was like witnessing a reunion between a lost flock and its spiritual shepherd. Viewer after viewer--Christians and Muslims, much more of the latter--called in to express how much they had sorely missed the evangelist, and how happy they were to see him again, some in tears, others in joyous laughter.And while their words were full of sincere and enthusiastic praise--many insisted that he is a living saint, others a modern day St. Paul--it was only when an elderly-sounding woman asserted that everyone must support Fr. Zakaria, not for his sake, but for the sake of his work liberating Muslims from bondage, that the normally stoic Zakaria broke down in tears.Why is Fr. Zakaria so loved--and hated? For starters, as a native Arabic-speaker, he takes his message straight to the heart of the Islamic world; as a man of God, he takes his message straight to the heart of Muslims--something the Western approach cannot achieve.You see, while Western critics are limited to making secular arguments against specific aspects of Islam--for instance, that it is illiberal, intolerant, sexist--he makes spiritual arguments against the very foundations of the religion.This is not to say that Western polemics are not beneficial; they are, in that they awaken Western peoples to the nature of Islam. However, arguing or even proving that Islam falls short of Western/secular standards has little impact on Muslims--except perhaps to make them more tenacious of their faith (the inevitable result of comparing apples and oranges).But an attack on the veracity of the religion itself--an attack articulated through a spiritual as opposed to a secular paradigm--must be confronted by Muslims.In short, Fr. Zakaria’s success rests in the fact that he fights fire with fire; that he speaks the same language Muslims do--not just literally, Arabic, but more importantly, figuratively, the language of religion and faith, the language of God. He cannot simply be ignored.For example, during this, his first episode, he discussed Sheikh Huwaini‘s recent assertions that Islam advocates plundering, enslaving, buying, and selling infidels. Many have written about this anecdote either to show that Islam is intrinsically violent, or that “radical Islamism” is spreading, or that Islamic teachings are incompatible with the West.But Fr. Zakaria takes it a step further--takes it right to the heart of the matter. After asserting that “God created mankind in his image,” he sincerely addressed his Muslim viewers: “Would God truly want you to kill your neighbor, to enslave him? Would the Almighty truly want believers to buy and sell other human beings like animals? Think people! Use your minds, listen to your hearts--for your souls are at stake!”The same reason the secular mindset may find this approach too simplistic or “unsophisticated” is the same reason it is far from comprehending Islam.Still in its early stages of development and financially challenged, Fady TV has yet to reach the Middle East, where the real battle for souls is waged, though the priest is hopeful. The station is set to air entire programs dedicated to examining various topics in depth, including the Koran, the Hadith, Muhammad, and Allah.As I previously did, I plan on following and summarizing Fr. Zakaria’s programs. For more information on this singular priest, read his exclusive 2009 FPM interview, wherein he discussed his life story, including the torments he experienced for preaching to Muslims in Egypt. Also, to get a feel for his very “non-dhimmi” approach, watch his famous “Ten Demands of Islam.”Read the full story here.

• Erdogan 'Israel must apologize and pay 'Diya' a.k.a. blood money to normalize ties'.(Ynet).No apology, no normalization – After delaying the publication of a UN report that probed the events of the Gaza flotilla last May, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan said on Friday it was "unthinkable" to normalize ties with Israel unless the Jewish state apologized for the killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists aboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship.Erdogan also said in the text of a speech to parliament seen by Reuters that lifting an Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza and paying compensation to the victims of the raid were also conditions for the normalization of relations.The Palmer committee was appointed by UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon to investigate the events that led to the death of nine activists onboard the Mavi Marmara.Last week, it was reported that Israel's representative to the UN inquiry committee Yosef Ciechanover, his Turkish counterpart and other officials were shuttling between Jerusalem and Ankara in an attempt to soften the report's conclusions and improve relations between the countries.Hmmmm.....Why in Gods name would Israel even try to soften the Palmer report?Read the full story here.

• Why Muslim Demands for Headscarves Are Exaggerated.(Aina).Islamic attire for women--the burqa and hijab--are back in the news, though with a twist, as they cause problems and lawsuits in America, where they are legal. In France, however, they have been banned, and Muslim women are happily complying.There is an instructive reason for this.In France, where Islamic dress is altogether banned, a new report suggests that Muslim women are happily complying--indeed, more Muslim women are traveling to France than before the ban:

Wealthy Gulf tourists are expected to continue to flock to France this summer in spite of a law that prohibits Muslim women from wearing the burqa, travel agencies said. Travel industry experts had initially feared a decline in Arab tourists after the April ban on full veils but now report no decline in peak-season bookings to France. Hotels.com, the parent company of the online travel website expedia.com, has seen a 219 percent increase in the number of searches for France from its Arabic Middle East site from April 1 to date. Searches for Belgium, which in 2010 passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer, have increased 300 percent the website said.Lest you think these Gulf women are any less pious than their American counterparts, there is a simple reason for why they are complying:

Islam’s doctrine of taysir allows for hiyla, or the relaxation of Islamic law whenever Muslims find it inconvenient to uphold aspects of Sharia law, like when they are under infidel/Western authority. In fact, some of Islam’s top leaders, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for example, are great advocates of taysir, “especially for those Muslim minorities living in Europe and America.”Taysir is like a broader concept of taqiyya, which permits Muslims to lie when circumstances call for it, while taysir only permits Muslims to drop aspects of Sharia law when circumstances call for it.But there is another distinction. The Gulf women traveling to France are tourists who are not nearly as acquainted with the West as their American counterparts. They naturally assume the West is like the Islamic world--actually tenacious about its customs and laws, hardly to be pushed around by minority groups. (This is precisely why Muslims in the West shamelessly push for the Ground Zero mosque — Muslims in the Middle East can’t believe it and think it’s a Zionist conspiracy.)Muslims living in the West, on the other hand, know how easily the West can be pushed into submission, so why settle for the Muslim option of taysir when they can score a victory for Islam--and make some money while at it?Read the full story here.

• Iran's killing spree stifles Arab spring.(Ynet).As the Arab spring flourishes throughout the Middle East, Iran, one of the region's most prominent targets on Amnesty International's watch list seems to be an "island of calm". The reason, according to Iranian human rights groups, international watchdogs and country experts is that Tehran is pursuing a campaign of public intimidation and covert killing to subdue political opposition and quell turbulence caused by the region's revolts while claiming that it is cracking down on drug trafficking and other criminal activity. According to Amnesty International, Iran has admitted executing 190 people between January and the end of June this year; an additional 130 reported executions have gone unacknowledged. These figures put Iran on course for a record year for capital punishment. In 2010, 252 people were executed, according to official figures, with 300 more also believed to have been killed.In a report on Iran's "judicial killing spree" Britain's Guardian newspaper presents testimonies from various human rights organizations that claim to have a truer picture of the human rights situation in Iran. Iran Human Rights, an independent monitoring organization alleged that 25 people were hanged in one day, July 3, in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, west of Tehran. The hangings, supposedly all drug-related, were not reported by official media. The same report said another seven people were hanged the same day in Evin prison in Tehran. It alluded to further uncorroborated mass executions in prisons in Khorasan province in 2010.The number of public hangings is also on the increase. Since the start of 2011, up to 13 men have been executed in public, eight of them since 16 April, an Amnesty report this year stated.Iran meanwhile reportedly defied international law to become one of the only countries to execute two juvenile offenders on 20 April. Overall, Iran's execution "average" is running at almost two people per day in 2011, making the regime the world's number two executioner after China.Decrying Iran's execution "binge", Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador and president of the United Against Nuclear Iran action group, said Tehran must be forced to stop. In an article for the Los Angeles Times he said "the international community needs to call for an end to this kind of barbarism and highlight more broadly the deteriorating human rights situation"."It is no coincidence that Iran's increased staging of public executions came at the same time protest movements were gaining steam through the Middle East. What better way to keep Iranians from having 'dangerous ideas' like those of their neighbors? "And it should come as little surprise that Iran is now aiding other governments in the region, notably Syria, in their efforts to suppress domestic uprisings." This latter claim was recently corroborated by the US treasury department.Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel peace prizewinner, joined human rights organizations in February this year in appealing to Iran to impose a moratorium on executions – but after a brief pause following a spate of adverse international publicity; the pace of judicial killings has accelerated again. "The Iranian authorities have shown that they are no longer content to repress those contesting the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by arresting and convicting them – they have shown they will now resort to execution. Hmmmmm.......Obama doesn't want to be seen meddling in iran's politics.Read the full story here.