MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 5.5 ! More info here.

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

• Officials Will Brief Public on Which Bills Will Be Paid, Which Not, After Markets Close Friday.(ABCNews).By Jake Tapper.If there is no clear path out of this morass by tomorrow, sources say that administration officials will likely brief the public on how the Treasury Department will try to handle the bills Congress mandates that the government pay given a situation where Congress has not given them a way to do so.Look for that briefing to come no earlier than Friday after the markets close at 4 p.m. ET, sources say.Officials are most concerned about paying the interest on the existing debt, since failure to do so would result in default and almost certain immediate market panic, as well as questions about how Treasury would be able to roll over a pre-existing $87 billion in debt that comes due next week.After that -- a list of priorities, not all of which that can be met. Social Security checks? Medicare? Government workers? Pentagon contractors? Troops' salaries? The FBI?Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been talking privately about a possible way forward should Boehner's bill fail in the Senate, which seems likely, according to sources familiar with the talks.But there is also planning underway in case no bill can pass through Capitol Hill.A spokesman for McConnell insisted that the GOP Senate Leader is not talking about any plan other than passing the Boehner bill.Read the full story here.

• AWOL Soldier Arrested Over Concerns of Second Alleged Plot to Attack Fort Hood.(Fox).At least one U.S. military serviceman has been arrested after raising concerns over another alleged plot to attack Fort Hood, Fox News has learned exclusively.Pvt. Nasser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested by the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood and remains in custody there. Authorities, however, will not say if Abdo is the one who raised security concerns.Abdo was allegedly found with weapons and explosives at the time of his arrest, a senior Army source confirms to Fox News. He was arrested at around 2 p.m. Wednesday after someone called authorities to report a suspicious individual. Bob Jenkins, a Fort Campbell spokesman, told Fox News that Abdo was also being investigated for child pornography found on his government computer.Abdo went AWOL on July 4. On the eve of his first deployment to Afghanistan -- after only one year in the Army -- Abdo applied for conscientious objector status. It was denied by his superiors at Ft. Campbell but later overturned by the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Army review board.Another source told Fox News that two other U.S. soldiers also raised possible concerns. It remains unclear if any possible plot to attack Ft. Hood was merely aspirational in nature.Read the full story here.

• Dalia Mogahed Obama’s faith adviser helped craft ‘perfect Islamic state,’ project sought to ‘implement’ Muslim caliphate.(KleinOnline).By Aaron Klein. JERUSALEM – Dalia Mogahed, appointed to President Obama’s faith advisory council, was a partner in an Islamic project whose stated goal was to “define, interpret and implement the concept of the Islamic State in modern times.” The project was founded and directed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the controversial Muslim cleric behind the proposed 13-story, $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City.Besides her role on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Mogahed is also on the advisory council of the Department of Homeland Security. She testified before the Senate on engagement with the Muslim community.Together with Rauf, Mogahed was a leading voice in the Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement, which issued a 153-page recommendation paper, obtained and reviewed by KleinOnline, that calls for dialogue with Hamas.The paper specifically called on the U.S. to engage opposition parties in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood. It set the boundaries for dialogue with Hamas if the Islamist terror group renounced violence. Also, the paper called on the U.S. to immediately engage Hamas using intermediaries in hopes of moderating the group.KleinOnline has learned that Mogahed and the Gallup survey provided key data for Rauf’s “Shariah Index Project ,” which sought, according to its own mission, to “define, interpret and implement the concept of the Islamic State in modern times.”The project at one time was featured on the website of Rauf’s Cordoba Initiative, which is the group behind the so-called Ground Zero mosque. However, after the mosque issue was highlighted in the news media, the Shariah Index Project, a sister project of Cordoba, was scrubbed from Rauf’s website.The website BigPeace.com previously uncovered the scrubbed section of the Cordoba website that detailed the Shari’ah Index Project.“Imagine: a Perfectly Islamic State,” said the deleted section of Cordoba’s website.The website described how Mogahed’s Gallup division helped to refine the principals of the Shariah Index, which was to serve as the basis for the “perfect Islamic state.” The website stated representatives from Gallup also joined in a phone conversation to help craft the principles.Further, Jasser Auda, a Qatari professor who is one of the personalities behind the Shariah Index Project with Rauf, described Mogahed’s involvement in providing key data that helped formulate the Shariah Index plan to map out an Islamic state, even referring to Obama’s faith adviser as “sister Mogahed.”In an interview about the Shariah Index Project with OnIslam.com, an Islamic news portal associated with Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, Auda stated, “Our sister Dalia Mugahed – at that time she was the head of the Muslim societies branch, now she is in Abu Dhabi leading the same project on Muslim societies in a different project.”Continued Auda, “At that time in Washington she was leading the Muslim societies index, and she gave us according to an agreement between Gallup, Cordoba and the Prime Minister of Malaysia office, gave us (Shariah Index Project) the data for three years, through which we came up with some conclusions based on asking people.”In her role on Obama’s faith council, Mogahed reportedly offers recommendations to the U.S. president on how faith-based organizations can best work with government to solve society’s toughest challenges.Hmmmm......What part didden't come true ....yet?"Brother Hussein?Read the full story here.

• If Your Government Check Stops Due to the Debt Limit: Blame Obama.(BigGovernment). was shocked (er, sort of) to learn that each month the Treasury Department sends out 80 million checks to various recipients. That’s a little over 25% of the population. I guess it’s no surprise, however, when you consider only half the households in our country pay any income taxes.Lately, President Obama has been beating the scare drum, suggesting those most vulnerable will not receive their monthly checks unless we increase the debt ceiling. But there’s a dirty little secret that no one in the mainstream media is willing to tell you: the Government, through Barack Obama, decides who gets paid and who doesn’t. And if you don’t get your check, then it means he decided you were not important. Blame him.It’s all about priorities, and as the chief executive, Barack Obama takes the pot of money the Congress confiscates for him via taxes and divvies it up. He decides which of the 80 million checks get paid based upon the revenue he has at his disposal. There is money coming into the treasury all the time, and there will be money to pay some (but not necessary all) checks if/when we reach the debt ceiling.Obama decides who does not get paid, and he decides who does get paid. When he threatens not to pay the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and even the military, he is saying that he has higher priorities than them. These may be things like Planned Parenthood, foreign aid to countries that may not even be friendly toward Barackistan, Michelle Obama’s personal staff of 40, State-run media (like NPR), and so on.To not pay seniors their Social Security benefits, as Obama has suggested many times, takes a proactive effort to circumvent processes designed precisely to ensure seniors do get paid despite any potential default. Professor Michael McConnell of Stanford University explains the process: The Social Security trust fund holds about $2.4 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, which its trustees are legally entitled to redeem whenever Social Security is running a current account deficit. Thus, if we reach the debt ceiling this is what will happen. The Social Security trust fund will go to Treasury and cash in some of its securities, using the proceeds to send checks to recipients.So you can see, in order to not pay seniors, the President must suspend this process and deny payments intentionally, even though he would have the money to pay them. That’s how dictators work, after all.We’ve seen Obama on television many times lately. Try as he may to blame in advance the Republican Party for any stopped checks, it will be his decision that prevents these payments from going out. If you don’t receive your check following our maxing out the federal credit card: blame Barack Obama.Hmmmmm........Thugocracy in it's natural habitat?Read the full story here.

• Degree Verify Certificate: Where was Obama in all of 1981? He wasn't at Columbia like he said he was. Attendance dates 1982 - 1983.(BirtherReport).

Factcheck.org: Barack Obama was a transfer student from California’s Occidental College when he came to Columbia University in 1981 as a 20-year-old junior. LINK

Snopes.com: If he wasn't attending Columbia from 1981-83, he would have had to complete two full years' worth of coursework at (and graduate from) some other accredited college — yet his time between the end of his Columbia days in 1983 and his entering Harvard Law in 1988 is accounted for (working at the Business International Corporation and the New York Public Interest Research Group, then serving as director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago), and no other school claims him as an alumnus, nor does anyone purport to have encountered him as a classmate or student at any other college or university during that period. LINK

ABC News: According to the Obama campaign, In 1981 -- the year Obama transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University -- Obama visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia. After that visit, Obama traveled to Pakistan with a friend from college whose family was from there. The Obama campaign says Obama was in Pakistan for about three weeks, staying with his friend's family in Karachi and also visiting Hyderabad in Southern India. LINK

Cpt. Pamela Barnett: Obama said that he visited Pakistan in 1981 in trying to boast his "international" experience. However, according to school records Obama was not attending Columbia University as he has said.SO WHERE WAS OBAMA IN 1981????Obama was most likely on an Indonesian passport when he visited Pakistan as the DHS and DOJ redact all records that point to him being adopted by Lo Lo Soetoro. Obama was in Pakistan when a murderous muslim ruler was in control of Pakistan and warring with the Soviet communists.There is nothing that proves obama was in the U.S. in 1981 so was he supporting muslim or communist factions in Pakistan in all of 1981????Did Saudi nationals also buy obama's Columbia degree so that he could get into Harvard. Percy Sutton, Malcolm X's attorney said Saudi nationals paid for his Harvard degree. Did they also buy him his Columbia degree without him finishing his required courses?4 year degree in 3 years at a prestigious school like Columbia after a transfer? highly unlikely. did a Saudi Prince make a huge donation to pay for their operative obama to get his degree?Liberals.. when are you going to start to get worried about this man Obama aka Soebarkah aka Barry Soetoro? LINK. Read the full story here.

• Free pot offered to those who register to vote at Lansing, Mich., clinic.(AmericanIndependent).A Lansing medical marijuana dispensary is offering medical marijuana patients a choice of a half a gram of medical pot or a marijuana-laced baked good called a “medible” in exchange for registering to vote.On the dispensary’s website, owner Skekina Pena writes: Protect Your Access! Vote 2011:

All dispensaries are doing a voter registration drive. If you sign up at Your Healthy Choice, we will assist you in filling out the registration form and will mail it out for you. We believe in power in numbers and everyone taking a stand. So in appreciation, we will reward legal patients with a .5 gram free or a free medible! I’m planning an event for the preliminary voting that will have shuttles to the polls! We have to amend our Lansing ordinance! May God bless our efforts!

The webpage then encourages readers to support Lansing City Council candidates Derrick Quinney, A’Lynne Robinson and Harold Leeman. It also encourages readers to vote against City Council candidates Carol Wood and Jody Washington.But in an interview with Pena Wednesday, she denied she was offering free pot or medibles in exchange for registering to vote. “If they fill [the voter registration form] out, we are offering a compensation of a discount on their purchases that day,” Pena told Michigan Messenger. “That’s it. To help out those who wasted their gas to come in here.”The dispensary is located on Michigan Avenue, six blocks from the state Capitol.A spokesman for the Secretary of State says that while ultimately the decision about whether or a not crime has been committed is up to a local prosecutor, Michigan law does address situations similar to this.Hmmmmm.......Anything for a vote?Read the full story here.

• Britain's "Islamic Emirates Project" Blooming in Summer.(Pundicity).A Muslim group in the United Kingdom has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls "Londonistan" – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.The Islamic Emirates Project, launched by the Muslims Against the Crusades group, names the British cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London as territories to be targeted for blanket Sharia rule.The project, which uses the motto "The end of man-made law, and the start of Sharia law," was launched exactly six years after Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured 800 others in London. A July 7, 2011 announcement posted on the Muslims Against the Crusades website, states: "In the last 50 years, the United Kingdom has transformed beyond recognition. What was once a predominantly Christian country has now been overwhelmed by a rising Muslim population, which seeks to preserve its Islamic identity, and protect itself from the satanic values of the tyrannical British government."There are now over 2.8 million Muslims living in the United Kingdom – which is a staggering 5% of the population – but in truth, it is more than just numbers, indeed the entire infrastructure of Britain is changing; Mosques, Islamic Schools, Shari'ah Courts and Muslim owned businesses, have now become an integral part of the British landscape."In light of this glaring fact, Muslims Against Crusades have decided to launch "The Islamic Emirates Project," that will see high profile campaigns launch in Muslim enclaves all over Britain, with the objective to gradually transform Muslim communities into Islamic Emirates operating under Shari'ah law. One of the group's strategy documents, "Islamic Prevent 2011: Preventing Secular Fundamentalism and the Occupation of Muslim Land," provides insights into the religious and/or philosophical mindset behind the Islamic Emirates Project. For example, Chapter 1 states: "The Only Identity for Muslims is Islam … In no shape or form can a Muslim support any form of nationalism such as promoting Britishness."Chapter 4 states: "A Muslim can only abide by Sharia and is not allowed to obey any man-made law." Chapter 5 states: "Muslims must reject secularism and democracy," terms which are "completely alien to Islam and against the basic tenets of Islam." Chapter 10 states: "Every Muslim must call for Sharia to be implemented wherever they are." Chapter 12 states: "It is not allowed for Muslims to integrate with a non-Islamic society." Chapter 13 states: "Muslims should set up Islamic Emirates in the United Kingdom." Chapter 14 states: "Any Muslim who opposed the policies in this pamphlet should be confronted." Chapter 16 states: "Any Muslim who has been affected by the Western way of life need to be rehabilitated."The Muslims Against the Crusades group is the new identity of Islam4UK, an Islamist group that was proscribed by the British government in January 2010. In an effort to circumvent the government ban, Islam4UK is pursuing a strategy of creating new identities for itself, adopting new names and platforms when others have been compromised.A leading figure behind Muslims Against the Crusades is Anjem Choudary, a notorious Sharia court judge based in London who believes in the primacy of Islam over all other faiths, and who has long campaigned for Islamic law to be implemented in all of Britain.Choudary is a former spokesman for Islam4UK, which was "established by sincere Muslims as a platform to propagate the supreme Islamic ideology within the United Kingdom as a divine alternative to man-made law," and to "convince the British public about the superiority of Islam [...] thereby changing public opinion in favour of Islam in order to transfer the authority and power [...] to the Muslims in order to implement the Sharia in Britain."The guardians of British multiculturalism say Choudary is harmless and, in any event, does not represent the majority of British Muslims. But he has a considerable following and his views on the role of Sharia in Britain are far more popular than many will admit.For instance, at least 85 Islamic Sharia courts are now operating in Britain, almost 20 times as many as previously believed, according to a study by Civitas, a London-based think tank. The report shows that scores of unofficial tribunals and councils regularly apply Islamic law to resolve domestic, marital and business disputes, and that many are operating in mosques. It warns of a "creeping" acceptance of Sharia principles in British law.Britain is also creating a parallel Islamic financial system to fill the growing demand for Sharia-compliant banking products in the wake of Muslim mass immigration to the country. According to the "Global Islamic Finance Report 2011," Britain has emerged as "ground zero" for Islamic banking in Europe; and London is now the main center for Islamic finance outside the Muslim world.Sharia law is transforming daily life in Britain in other ways, as well. In the Tower Hamlets area of East London (also known as the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets),for example, extremist Muslim preachers, called the Tower Hamlets' Taliban, regularly issue death threats to women who refuse to wear Islamic veils. Neighborhood streets have been plastered with posters declaring "You are entering a Sharia controlled zone: Islamic rules enforced." And street advertizing deemed offensive to Muslims is regularly vandalized or blacked out with spray paint.The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the Bangladeshi-born Lutfur Rahman, an ally of Choudary. Rahman is linked to the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), an Islamist group dedicated to changing the "very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed ... from ignorance to Islam." Not surprisingly, the public libraries in Tower Hamlets have been stocked with books and DVDs containing the extremist rantings of banned Islamist preachers.Meanwhile, Britain is struggling to combat a cycle of Islamic honor-related kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and murder that is spiralling out of control. According to the London-based Association of Chief Police Officers, up to 17,000 women in Britain are victims of honor-based violence – forced marriages, honor killings, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings, female genital mutilation and other forms of abuse – every year. This figure is 35 times higher than official figures suggest, and British detectives say it is "merely the tip of the iceberg" of this phenomenon.The Islamic Emirates of Britain Project would seem to be well underway.Hmmmm.......Who will save the Queen now?Read the full story here.

• Czech President Vaclav Klaus:"Green agenda has parallels with excesses of communism".(HeraldSun).In a Sydney hotel on Monday night, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an economist who fought against communism, was warning of the new threats to our freedom he recognises in the doctrine of global warming.Almost simultaneously, in a Hobart casino, Greens senator Christine Milne was unilaterally announcing, on ABC-TV's QandA show, that the Government would be conducting an inquiry into the section of the Australian media that she finds "extreme(ly) bias(ed) against action on climate change".Milne's every illiberal pronouncement was greeted with applause by an audience that seemed full of tree huggers, bearded public servants and other recipients of government largesse, about the only growth industry left in Tasmania.Klaus, on the other hand, was speaking to an audience of economic liberals and climate change realists invited by the Institute of Public Affairs, the Melbourne-based free-market think tank."Twenty years ago we still felt threatened by the remnants of communism. This is really over," Klaus said."I feel threatened now, not by global warming -- I don't see any -- (but) by the global warming doctrine, which I consider a new dangerous attempt to control and mastermind my life and our lives, in the name of controlling the climate or temperature."Klaus, 70, who has twice been elected as Czech President and is its former prime minister, is one of the most important figures in post-communist Europe. His experiences under totalitarian rule have made him exquisitely alert to the erosion of democratic freedoms.He said environmentalists had been arguing for decades that we should reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, using various farcical ploys from the exhaustion of natural resources to the threat of "imminent mass poverty and starvation for billions".Those same environmentalists shamelessly talk now about dangerous global warming."They don't care about resources or poverty or pollution."They hate us, the humans. They consider us dangerous and sinful creatures who must be controlled by them."I used to live in a similar world called communism. And I know it led to the worst environmental damage the world has ever experienced."Global warming alarmists "want to change us, they want to change our behaviour, our way of life, our values and preferences. They want to restrict our freedom because they themselves believe they know what is good for us. They are not interested in climate. They misuse the climate in their goal to restrict our freedom. Therefore ...what is in danger is freedom, not the climate".He described the parallels he sees between the loss of freedom under communism and the new global warming doctrine.Under communism, "politics dictated the economics and dictated life. Our main ambition during the dark communist days was to change that and create an autonomous society and autonomous economic system with only a marginal role played by politics ... I am sorry to discover now politics dictates the economics again. And the global warming debate is the same story (in which) politicians dictate the issue".He said because of his experience of communism, "maybe I am over-sensitive. I am afraid that some of the people who spend their lives in a free society don't appreciate sufficiently all the issues connected with freedom."So my over-sensitivity is like an alarm clock warning about the potential development, which I am really afraid of."It prompted the feeling that, if the Government can suddenly and arbitrarily stop a legitimate thriving industry in its tracks, based on a one-sided television show, with no right of reply, then what can it do to me? That is a very sobering thought.It is what stops people shopping, and it is what makes the debate bitter.The more the Government turns a deaf ear to the people, the louder the people shout. And then, what is the reaction of an undemocratic Government but to find ways to muzzle dissent?Read the full story here.

• Somali-Canadian women recruited by terror group, U.S. politicians told.(OttowaCitizen).OTTAWA — Terrorist recruiters are targeting young Canadian Somali women to take up arms, the head of the Canadian Somali Congress told U.S. politicians Wednesday.In testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Ahmed Hussen suggested the reason might be increased police and security service attention over the recruitment of “dozens” of young Canadian Somali men from Ottawa and Toronto in recent years.“Lately, the recruiters have turned their attention to the facilitation of young Canadian Somali women into joining al-Shabab,” the radical Somali youth militia now fully integrated with al-Qaeda, Hussen said in a prepared statement.Much of the youth recruiting is believed to be through the Internet and an online mix of religious tracts, rap music, videos and recruiting pitches delivered in English. Visiting extremist clerics are another propaganda source.The fear, said Hussen, is al-Shabab will employ Canadians and other westerners to extend its reach outside the war and famine ravaged East African nation, where it is battling a weak Western-backed government to turn the country into an Islamic state.“There is no shortage of foot soldiers and young men that al-Shabab can recruit in Somalia, so why would they spend all this money, effort and at great risk to recruit westerners, people who hold Canadian, U.S. and British passports?,” he said during questioning by committee members.“It’s because we think they have aspirations beyond East Africa. They’ve proven that by attacking Uganda,” last July with two suicide bombers, killing 79 people gathered to watch the FIFA World Cup Final on television.New York Republican Rep. Peter T. King, presiding Wednesday over the third in a series of controversial congressional hearings examining the radicalization of Muslim-Americans, said committee staff investigators have determined that 40 Americans and 20 Canadians have joined the group in Somalia.Critics charge that King’s focus on Muslim Americans plays into the hands of extremists who say Washington is wrongly targeting Islam for the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes.King revealed that three Canadians, whom he did not identify, and at least 15 Americans have been killed in fighting. Previously, only one Canadian death was suspected, that of Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, a University of Toronto student whom al-Shabab said was killed “in battle” last year. He was the first of six Somali-Canadian men who reportedly disappeared from the Toronto area in 2009.Canada’s first arrest related to al-Shabab was in March, when police detained Mohamed Hersi, 25, as the Canadian was waiting to board a flight from Toronto to Cairo. Police alleged his ultimate destination was Somalia and al-Shabab. He is free on bail awaiting trial on two terrorism-related offences, including counselling a person to take part in terrorist activity.Hussen could not be reached for comment after delivering his testimony. He has said previously that in addition to the “Somali Six” from the Toronto area, he has been told two young Ottawa men, as well as two young women, also left for the Horn of Africa nation.His prepared text Wednesday, citing unnamed Canadian national security officials, referred to, “the disappearances of dozens of young Canadian Somali males who had travelled to Somalia to fight for the al-Shabab.”In his testimony, Hussen portrayed Canada’s estimated 200,000 Somalis as struggling to fit into mainstream Canadian society since fleeing civil war in the late 1990s.Almost 85 per cent of Canadian Somalis are under 30, with unemployment in Ottawa and Toronto hovering around 40 cent in this group. Many young men have dropped out of school. Those who do persevere often can’t find jobs in their professions, he said.Although he spent many years in Toronto, Hussen was living in Ottawa when he founded the Canadian Somali Congress, one of the only national associations claiming to represent Somali-Canadians.The organization does advocacy work and partners with other agencies, including Jewish Family Services of Ottawa, to organize professional internships for young Somali-Canadians.Hussen often appears in the media, whether to talk about the Somali pirate issue, violence claiming the lives of Somali youth living in Alberta, or more recently, pressing the Canadian government to increase its immigration quota from Somalia in light of the worsening famine there.Read the full story here.

• YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING?Iran revolutionary guards' commander set to become president of Opec.(Guardian).Rostam Ghasemi, who is blacklisted by western powers, could have major role in determining global oil price.A senior commander of Iran's revolutionary guards, who is subject to comprehensive international sanctions, has been nominated as the country's oil minister, a position that currently includes the presidency of Opec.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, sent a list of four ministers, including Rostam Ghasemi, commander of the revolutionary guards' Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base, to the parliament for approval, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.Should the parliament confirm Ghasemi's nomination next week, the commander, who is targeted by US, EU and Australian sanctions, will be automatically appointed as head of Opec, giving the revolutionary guards access to an influential international platform.Under Iran's constitution the president is in charge of appointing cabinet ministers, who take office after the approval of parliament.Iran took the Opec presidency in October last year, its first time at the head of the oil exporters' cartel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Unrest in the Middle East, especially the ongoing war in Libya, has given Opec a crucial role in determining the current oil price. Iran is the second-largest crude oil exporter in Opec.The nomination follows an extraordinary power struggle between Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad attempted to take over the oil ministry as its temporary head in May but his move was blocked by parliament. He then appointed Mohammad Aliabadi, a close ally, as a caretaker.By involving the revolutionary guards – who are under the control of Khamenei – in his cabinet, Ahmadinejad might be trying to alleviate the tensions with those of Khamenei's supporters who have been threatening the president with impeachment.The revolutionary guards have won significant economic power since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. The organisation has signed contracts with the government in fields such as oil, gas and telecommunications. Khatam al-Anbia's involvement in the country's gas field developments exceeds $7bn (£4.3bn), according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.In an interview with Fars on Wednesday, Ghasemi said the revolutionary guards would also work as a contractor with the oil ministry if his nomination were approved by parliament. "We have strong and skilful people working for Khatam al-Anbia who are capable of taking up oil-related projects and I don't have any concerns over the activities of the base," he was quoted by Fars as saying after the news of his nomination broke out.Khatam al-Anbia, the construction arm of the revolutionary guards which is already in control of some of the country's most important recent oil and gas contracts, was mentioned in a list of Iranian institutions targeted by UN sanctions.Revolutionary guards' assets, including those personally owned by Ghasemi and dozens of his colleagues, have been blacklisted by the US Treasury and western powers.Hmmmm......Al we need now is Iran blocking the Persian Gulf?Read the full story here.

• Egypt Hosts Hizbullah-Muslim Brotherhood Terror Axis Meeting.(ArutzSheva).Egypt this week hosted a “resistance” conference attended by the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah and Palestinian Authority terrorist groups. They discussed linking the Arab Spring uprisings with demands of the Palestinian Authority.The two-day convention at the Egyptian Press Syndicate was held under the lofty name of the "Founding Conference of the Arab-Islamic Gathering to Support the Option of Resistance," according to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.Delegates from 14 countries joined the meeting, including those from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Sudan and Jordan. The terrorist groups from the Palestinian Authority were not named but probably include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the military arm of the Fatah movement headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.Representatives also came from the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned the Hamas terrorist organization and which has gained significant influence in Egypt since the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.A delegate from Hizbullah spoke in the name of its supreme leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Arab news agencies reported.The conference attempted to establish a link between the so-called "resistance," the Arab code word for terrorism, and the Arab Spring uprisings.Osama Hamdan, responsible for Hamas' international relations, said that "the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict will never end unless Israel ceases to exist.”Hmmmmm............Heh.... Islamophobia?Read the full story here.

• Iraq the "Lost war" !Dozens of Iraqis Pardoned At Sadr Movement's Behest.(Aina).Baghdad -- In an illustration of its growing muscle in Iraq as U.S. influence wanes, anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr's movement has won pardons for at least 50 prisoners jailed for crimes including murder, kidnapping and attacks on U.S. troops.The amnesties come at a time when U.S. forces remaining in Iraq have faced an increased number of attacks, many by Shiite Muslim militias associated with the Sadr movement. And they have angered some senior Iraqi officials, who charge that the law is being applied selectively and bent to fit a hidden political agenda.Only a few Iraqi officials are aware of the pardons, granted by President Jalal Talabani at the request of the Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who needs the backing of Sadr's movement to stay in power.Among those freed are prisoners who were convicted under anti-terrorism laws, crimes for which the Iraqi Constitution specifically forbids granting a pardon. At least three prisoners were serving life sentences; some were arrested during U.S. military operations.Sources who reviewed government records said that at least 50 people were freed this spring. Parliament Speaker Usama Nujaifi, a rival of Maliki, said his office received copies of an estimated 65 pardon decrees, all of them for prisoners charged with illegal weapons possession, kidnappings, killings or crimes with intent to kill."The credibility of the judiciary will be gone, especially when it comes to terrorist cases," Nujaifi said.A source close to the president's office acknowledged that some of the convictions came under terrorism laws but described the original cases as politically motivated. The prisoners were cleared by a follow-up investigation ordered by Maliki and conducted by the judiciary, the source said. "It proved they were not implicated in terrorism or any crime," the source said.A senior lawmaker alligned with the Sadr movement said it had demanded the release of 3,000 prisoners, including some accused of killings and illegal weapons possession, but only a small number were freed after investigation."This was very limited compared to the numbers of Sadrists who are detained, and most of them with no evidence," said the lawmaker, Amir Kinani.Kinani also defended the "legitimacy of the work" of Sadr followers who were jailed "for hitting [foreign] forces."The releases show how political power has flowed to the Sadr movement, which emerged as a strong anti-American voice after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.It presented itself as the voice of Iraq's Shiite underclass, offering social services to the poor and promoting a fundamentalist view of Islam.Its Mahdi Army militia protected Shiite communities from attack but also fought U.S. troops. Militia members also were implicated in killings, extortion and kidnappings that were carried out as part of Iraq's sectarian war, and battled other armed Shiite groups and political parties for turf in southern Iraq.Although the prime minister and Sadr supporters are all part of Iraq's new Shiite elite, neither side trusts the other. Maliki cracked down in 2008, casting himself as a defender of the Iraqi state and winning a large public following as a result.Three years later, the situation has largely reversed itself. The Sadr movement still maintains an armed wing that attacks U.S. troops, but Maliki now depends on the group to keep his government in power. Under pressure from their backers in Iran, Sadr supporters threw their support behind Maliki after inconclusive elections last year and helped him secure a second term.Maliki knows they could withdraw it at any time.For its part, the Sadr movement is aware that Maliki could turn on the group again. It is intent on wringing concessions from him and shedding its image as a troublemaker. The group has announced a new campaign against members who commit crimes against Iraqis.Before the pardons, the Sadr movement had already capitalized on its political position. Last summer, it won the release of hundreds of detainees handed over by the Americans before their cases reached Iraqi courts. It gained important positions in the Interior Ministry and a governorship that had been held by Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party.Until May, the Taji detention center north of Baghdad was in effect run by detainees belonging to the Mahdi Army, according to Iraqi officials and U.S. military officers, with prisoners coming and going freely.The Sadr movement started pushing for the amnesty in November, the same month Maliki secured his second term in office.Critics say the pardons set a dangerous precedent by sacrificing the rights of victims and subjecting the judicial process to political negotiations."We might see even more of these political agreements in the near future. These things aren't new," said lawmaker Safiya Suhail, who previously belonged to Maliki's movement and is now an independent. "It's a part of the whole package of having Maliki as the prime minister."One of those who received a pardon at Maliki's request was Saddam Amer Abed Hameed, who was convicted in Iraq's central criminal court of attacking Americans and sentenced to 15 years in prison in August 2009, according to Iraq's Judiciary Council and a letter from Talabani that was shown to the Los Angeles Times.The U.S. has offered to keep as many as 10,000 troops in the country past a deadline to withdraw by the end of the year. But if Maliki wants to keep some U.S. troops in Iraq, he must seek the approval of parliament. It is unclear whether legislators will approve: The Sadr movement is staunchly opposed. And it is unclear what the prime minister can do to stop attacks launched by armed Shiite groups with direct ties to the government.June was the deadliest month for Americans in Iraq in two years, with 14 troops killed in attacks. The Sadr movement's Promised Day Brigade claimed responsibility for 53 attacks against Americans last month, according to the U.S. military.In the south, local governments in Basra, Maysan and Nasiriya have passed decrees banning U.S. military personnel from entering cities.Some of Maliki's allies are troubled by the chilling effect of having the Sadr movement in the government."A general in the army knows a Sadrist in the government or in the parliament has the power to remove him or accuse him of anything, [so] he tries not to make a problem with them and that leads people to no longer trusting the army," said a member of Maliki's State of Law coalition, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the topic. "So this is dragging the country back to 2005 and 2006. This is the major problem and challenge we face."Hmmmm.......The war won by Bush , was lost by Obama it seems.Read the full story here.

• Obama's Iraq Abdication.(Aina).Upon taking office in 2009, President Obama inherited a winning hand in Iraq--and yet his administration has played it like a losing one. I recently returned from three weeks in that country, where I had dozens of meetings with Iraqi officials from across the political spectrum. They agreed on very little, except that the Obama administration is dangerously disengaged from the situation in their country."U.S. influence is waning," one senior official told me glumly. "Iran and Turkey now have more influence and they are taking advantage of what the U.S. has sacrificed for in Iraq." Another prominent leader joked that Iraq must have disappeared from every White House map.Although the president and others have made general statements about long-term plans to continue providing Iraq with nonmilitary assistance, the administration has done little to implement the 2008 U.S.-Iraqi Strategic Framework Agreement, which calls for close partnership in diplomacy, economics, education, culture and security. Asked about the agreement, members of Iraq's two main rival parties--the generally Sunni-backed Iraqiyah List and the Shiite-backed State of Law Coalition--agreed that nothing much is happening.From my discussions with Iraqis, it is clear that the U.S. still has unused leverage in their country. The Iraqi military, improved though it is, still depends heavily on the U.S. for logistics, training, intelligence and other critical external-defense capabilities. The U.S. can also help Iraq improve relations with its neighbors and emerge from U.N. sanctions left over from the Saddam Hussein era.More simply, Iraqis recognize that the U.S. is the world's most powerful country and one whose fate is tied to their own. Why, Iraqi leaders asked me, would the U.S. not seek to exercise the leverage it still has? Why would it write off the substantial investment it has made in the country?Such questions are particularly pressing since U.S. disengagement means ceding ground to Iraq's interventionist neighbors, many of whom don't share the U.S. desire for a strong, stable and democratic Iraq. The most threatening of these neighbors is Iran.Vice President Joseph Biden and other U.S. officials have argued that Iran didn't play a large role in the formation of Iraq's government last year, but I heard the opposite from Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish politicians. They all described Iran as having played a central role in pressuring Shiite groups to fall in line behind Prime Minister Maliki. "This government was formed in Iran," said one senior Iraqi official whose view was shared by many others.Iran's hand is perhaps most visible in the work of its armed Iraqi proxies. These groups--Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and the Promised Day Brigade--are directly supported by the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. They continue to support terrorist and paramilitary groups throughout Iraq that target both Americans and Iraqis.These groups have stepped up their attacks in recent months. Fourteen U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in June, the highest monthly total of combat-related deaths since June 2008, when there were nearly three times as many U.S. troops in Iraq. More than half of these deaths were caused by improvised rocket-assisted mortars that contain improvised explosive devices in their warheads. Such mortars first surfaced in 2007 and 2008, but they were used infrequently and were not constructed or employed well. This has since changed. "They're getting more sophisticated, more lethal, more precise in targeting," a U.S. military official told me.Iran has also increased the flow of weapons to Iraqi militants, with the Qods Force even crossing into Iraq to re-arm its surrogates. U.S. and Iraqi troops have discovered hundreds of weapons caches in the last six months. They have contained weapons of substantial size, range and lethality--and which could be traced directly back to Iran. Some of these arms were made as recently as 2010.It is in U.S. interests to keep a meaningful troop presence in Iraq to continue the training and professionalization of Iraqi forces, to conduct counterterrorism missions alongside Iraqis, to counter malign Iranian influence, to contain ethnic strife in the disputed areas of northern Iraq, and to bolster Iraq's nascent democracy.Time is running out, as the current deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is Dec. 31. For months, U.S. officials refused to begin negotiations until the Iraqis "asked" for a revised agreement. American policy makers thus ignored the lessons learned in negotiating the previous security agreement and in forming the current government, during which extensive behind-the-scenes talks preceded any formal requests or decisions. Only this summer, after it became clear that no Iraqi request was forthcoming, did U.S. diplomats initiate private discussions with Baghdad, the results of which are far from clear.Failing to sign a new U.S.-Iraqi security agreement would redound to Iran's great benefit. The Obama administration has a fleeting opportunity that it cannot afford to squander.Hmmmm.......Unless you favor Iran?Read the full story here.

• UN camp in Gaza vandalized.(Ynet).Vandals torch stage, UN flag at summer camp set to host kite-flying contest, says spokesman.The United Nations says a UN-sponsored summer camp that will be the site of a kite-flying contest in northwest Gaza has been vandalized.Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN agency that runs the camp, says the vandals torched a stage, burned a UN flag and damaged a billboard. But he says nobody was hurt. He had no information on who vandalized the facility early Thursday. Similar attacks have taken place in the past at UN summer camps in Gaza, where boys and girls mix. Suspicion has fallen on Islamic hard-liners who oppose mixing of the genders. Gunness says the damage will be repaired in time for Gaza children to try to set a world record at the facility for the largest number of children flying kites later Thursday.Read the full story here.

• Assad the 'Reformer',Report: 3,000 people missing in Syrian uprising.(Ynet).A survey by the online activist group Avaaz.org estimates that one person is disappearing in Syria every hour. The group released the survey results in a statement on Thursday.It says it has identified 2,918 Syrians arrested by security forces whose whereabouts are now unknown.Activists say more than 1,600 people have been killed, most of them unarmed protesters.Although the uprising began in mid-March with calls for reform, the steadily climbing death toll and slow pace of reform has enraged the protest movement now calling for Assad's ouster.Read the full story here.

• Meet your New Young Turk.....at your own peril?82 percent have a negative opinion of Christians while only 4 percent have a favorable opinion of Jews.(HurriyetDaily).Anyone who is curious about the emerging, 21st century Young Turk, the Muslim democrat with whom some non-Muslims think they can promote interfaith dialogue, should carefully read the findings of the most recent World Values Survey, carried out by a team of academics from Bahçesehir University (a survey of randomly selected sample of 1,605 Turks in 54 cities).The survey proudly presents your new Young Turk: According to the survey, 81 percent of Turks consider themselves as religious, and that’s surely fine. All the same, 61 percent think if women wore bathing suits this would amount to sinning; 44 percent think restaurants should be closed during the fasting month of Ramadan (39 percent in 2007); and 84 percent don’t want gay neighbors.In the year 2011, 23 percent of Turks think men should be able to marry up to four wives, but not the opposite – against 10 percent in 1996. Interestingly, 60 percent, both male and female, think women should obey men, while 33 percent think women deserve to be beaten by their husbands if they do not obey – compared to 19 percent in 1996. And, naturally, 70 percent think children may be damaged if mothers work. The political findings of the survey are no less interesting. Seventy-five percent of Turks think the West is at fault for poor relations with Muslim nations. And 53 percent blame the U.S. and West for poverty in Muslim countries. Unsurprisingly, 82 percent have a negative opinion of Christians while only 4 percent have a favorable opinion of Jews. Forty-five percent and 41 percent think that the most violent religions are Christianity and Judaism, respectively. And only 9 percent of Turks believe Arab groups carried out the attacks on 9/11.The Europeans should decide on the wisdom of allying with a country where 82 percent of the population has a negative opinion of Christians, or on how sensible it is to play-act the interfaith dialogue theater that does not even convince secondary-school children.All the same, linearly projecting the pace of Turkish conservatism into the next couple of decades, the Europeans may not be lucky enough to avoid the “vicinity cost” of 100 million or so of post-modern Young Turkey, where 90 plus percent of the population favors a strictly dogmatic interpretation of basic Islamic teachings and feel religiously and ethnically hostile to their non-Muslims neighbors to their west.Hmmmm.......Obama's 'example' Turkey.Read the full story here.

•  Erdoğan now urges Armenia to apologize for occupation remarks.(TodaysZaman). Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said in Baku that Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan should apologize for calling on school children to occupy eastern Turkey.Speaking at a joint news conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Erdoğan said Sarksyan's remarks did not befit a statesman and called them a “historical mistake” that should be corrected.When asked by a student at a literature contest ceremony if Armenians will be able to get back their “western territories” along with Mt. Ararat, Sarksyan said, "This is the task of your generation.”Armenians attach great historical and cultural importance to Mt. Ararat on the eastern border of modern-day Turkey, around where Armenians are believed to have first adopted Christianity as an official religion in 301 A.D.Sarksyan said his generation had fulfilled its task by “getting back” Karabakh, a part of what he called “our motherland.” Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory which is currently under Armenian occupation.Leaders of both countries have met dozens of times to find a settlement to the decades-long conflict but have failed to secure a peace agreement. Armenia currently occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territories, including seven adjacent provinces populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis.The Turkish Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned on Tuesday Sarksyan's remarks, calling the statement “very irresponsible behavior.”Turkey and Armenia took part in a failed attempt two years ago to bury a century of hostilities by signing twin protocols on normalization of relations and establishing diplomatic ties, which also included opening the Turkish-Armenian border within two months if the protocols were ratified by both countries' parliaments.Erdoğan said Sarksyan's behavior is a provocation and an attempt to fill youth with hatred, which he said will lead Armenia's youth into “darkness.” “There cannot be such diplomacy. Sarksyan has made a very serious mistake … he must apologize,” Erdoğan added.A year ago, the prime minister threatened to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey, thereby reminding everyone around the world that Ankara’s present leaders are not much different from their bloodthirsty forefathers who deported and killed 1.5 million Armenians during the genocide of 1915-23. Hmmmmm.......After 'destroying' the  Kars monument a.k.a. the “Armenia-Turkey friendship” statue not much good could be expected from this PM.Read the full story here.

• Related - Erdogan wants another apology, this time from Armenia.(JPost).Israel can take solace that it is not the only country in the world from which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking an apology: On Wednesday he demanded one from Armenia as well.The Turkish news website Today’s Zaman, reporting on Erdogan’s current trip to Azerbaijan, quoted him as saying that Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan should apologize for calling on Armenian school children to occupy eastern Turkey.Sarksyan, asked by a student if Armenia would get back its “western territories” along with Mount Ararat – an area of great historical significance to Armenians – that’s now in Turkey, replied that “it depends on you and your generation. I believe my generation has fulfilled the task in front of us; when it was necessary in the beginning of the ’90s to defend part of our fatherland – Karabakh – from the enemy, we did it. I am not telling this to embarrass anyone. My point is that each generation has its responsibilities and they have to be carried out with honor.”The statement infuriated Turkey. According to Today’s Zaman, Erdogan said Sarksyan’s behavior was a provocation and an attempt to fill youth with hatred, which he said would lead Armenia’s youth into “darkness.” “There cannot be such diplomacy. Sarksyan has made a very serious mistake.... He must apologize,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.Erdogan’s demand for an Armenian apology comes just a few days after he threatened Israel with a “Plan B” – a further downgrading of ties – if it did not apologize for last year’s Mavi Marmara incident.“What we see here is a pattern developing,” one Israeli diplomatic source said of Erdogan’s most recent demand for an apology. “Who is going to ask Erdogan to apologize for Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus?”Hmmmm.....I wonder if his 'buddy' Obama aproves of all his 'actions'?Read the full story here.

• Border Dispute with Kosovo.Serbian Attackers Shoot at NATO Soldiers.(Spiegel).Violence on the border between Kosovo and Serbia continued to escalate on Wednesday as members of the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo set fire to a border post that has been in dispute since Monday. The attackers also reportedly fired shots at a nearby outpost run by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR). The border station has been contested since the beginning of the week when Kosovo's special police seized two northern border crossings in attempt to enforce an import ban on Serbian goods. On Tuesday there was violence during which a Kosovar police officer was killed, reportedly with a gunshot to the head. KFOR troops subsequently secured the border, while members of the Serbian minority barricaded themselves behind street blockades. But on Wednesday the Jarinje border crossing came under attack again. Eyewitnesses reported seeing dozens of masked men firebomb the station. The attackers were also said to be armed with axes, clubs and pipes. Customs and police officers fled the scene to the nearby KFOR station, and no one was injured in the incident, according to news agency AP. KFOR officials, who said shots had been fired on them during the attack, have since taken control of the border crossing, with reinforcement troops arriving to prevent further violence in the region. "It was confirmed that an act of arson was committed against that position... There have also been confirmed reports of shots fired at KFOR personnel in the vicinity," KFOR said in a statement.NATO has been involved in the unstable region since 1999 when it stepped in to stop ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Serb forces.Read the full story here.

• Jesus’ apostle’s tomb unearthed in Turkey.(HurriyetDaily).An Italian professor has announced the apparent discovery of the tomb of St. Philip, one of Jesus Christ’s apostles, at the ancient city of Hierapolis in the Aegean province of Denizli.The discovery of the grave of the biblical saint, who was killed by the Romans 2,000 years ago, will attract immense attention around the world, said Francesco D’Andria. St. Philip, one of the 12 apostles, came to Hierapolis 2,000 years ago to spread the Christianity before being killed by the Romans, the professor said.D’Andria has been leading archeological excavations at the ancient city for 32 years.“Until recently, we thought the grave of St. Philip was on Martyrs’ Hill, but we discovered no traces of him in the geophysical research conducted in that area. A month ago, we discovered the remnants of an unknown church, 40 meters away from the St. Philip Church on Martyrs’ Hill. And in that church we discovered the grave of St. Philip,” said D’Andria.D’Andria and his team have not opened the grave but are planning to do so soon.“St. Philip is considered a martyr. In fact, the church built in his name on the Martyrs’ Hill is, for this reason, also called Martyrion, despite the fact there were no traces of the grave of St. Philip. As we were cleaning out the new church we discovered a month ago, we finally found the grave. With close examination, we determined that the grave had been moved from its previous location in the St. Philip Church to this new church in the fifth century, during the Byzantine era. We are extremely happy and proud to have discovered the grave of a saint whose name appears in the bible – this surely is an important discovery for religious tourism, archaeology and Christendom,” the professor said.Read the full story here.