MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 5.8 and 5.1 ! More info here.

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

• Will Erdogan declare war on Cyprus and the European Union?Turkey is ready to send an exploration rig, accompanied by a warship, to claim its rights off Cyprus.(HurriyetDaily).Tension between Turkey and Greek Cyprus is moving toward crisis in the eastern Mediterranean Sea with Ankara’s announcement of plans to send an oil and gas exploration rig to the already unstable area, accompanied by a warship. “We have accomplished all preparatory work. We are ready to finalize the agreement [with Turkish Cyprus] to begin the process and send our platform off the Cyprus coast,” a Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sunday.The statement followed news that Texas-based Noble Energy, operating under license from the Greek Cypriot government, had moved its drilling rig into position over the weekend. It is expected to start work soon on a block southeast of the island.The Greek Cypriot initiative pushed Turkey and Turkish Cyprus to announce their own action plan in retaliation. Under the plan, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, or TPAO, will be licensed by Turkish Cyprus to launch exploration and drilling activities in the disputed area. A senior Energy Ministry official was in Nicosia on Sunday to review the current state of agreement, which will likely be signed within days if the Greek Cypriot administration does not retreat from its position.“We will be very cautious in this process; all our steps will be taken as retaliation and [in response] to Greek Cypriot moves,” the Foreign Ministry official said. Noting that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York this week, the diplomat said Turkey will try all diplomatic channels to avert this crisis. “If we cannot succeed, there will be no room left for us other than to retaliate,” the official said. The Greek Cypriot drilling plan will also kill off the U.N.’s plan to reunify the divided island, Davutoğlu said Sunday. “The Greek Cypriots are intending to sabotage the talks, to change the nature of existing ties by the way of provocation,” he said, warning that such unilateral actions would doom the island to permanent division. “If they claim they have their own area where they can do whatever they want, then, by implication, they accept that the [Northern Cyprus] has its own area as well. This is a shift to a two-state mentality.”If the Greek Cypriots begin drilling, Davutoğlu added, Turkey and northern Cyprus will respond by signing a continental shelf delimitation accord to pave the way for their own exploration and “the two-state prospect will further deepen.”Davutoğlu said he discussed the latest tensions with the U.N. envoy in Cyprus, Alexander Downer, and was planning to hold further talks with Ban in New York this week. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay meanwhile said late Saturday that Turkey will freeze its relations with the European Union if Cyprus takes over the union’s rotating presidency next year before a solution is reached on the divided island. “If the negotiations [on Cyprus] do not end positively and the EU hands over the presidency to southern Cyprus, the main crisis will be between the EU and Turkey. Because then we will freeze our relations with the EU,” the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.Hmmmm....NATO must remove Turkey from their Group,clearly these actions are against the NATO Charter.Place the rocket shield in Bulgaria or even better in Israel!Read the full story here.

• Related - Turkey blocks Israeli bid for opening NATO office.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey has blocked an Israeli move to open a representation office at NATO headquarters, its foreign minister said Sunday, adding that data collected by a radar system in eastern Turkey would not be shared with Israel.“Israel recently made an attempt to open an office at NATO [headquarters] in Brussels. We said we would veto this attempt and the issue was not even put on the agenda,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in an interview with the CNNTürk news channel.A Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News that Israel made the request under NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue program, launched in 1994 with seven Mediterranean countries.Israel attempted to have its request approved earlier this month after Ankara downgraded ties with Tel Aviv over its failure to apologize for a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, the official said, adding that the issue could not even make its way onto NATO’s agenda after Turkey threatened to use its veto.Davutoğlu insisted that information gathered by a U.S.-led radar system, to be stationed in Turkey’s Malatya province as part of a NATO missile-shield project, would be available for use only by alliance members, denying suggestions that intelligence would be shared with Israel.“We will provide support only for systems that belong to NATO and are used solely by members of NATO,” he said.The minister dismissed as “manipulation” a newspaper report that quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying that data collected by the radar would be used to help defend Israel, stressing that Washington had assured Ankara that no such official existed.According to a Wall Street Journal report Friday, U.S. officials said they planned to fuse data from radars in Turkey, Israel and other sites to create a comprehensive picture of the missile threat to the region. Turkey, for its part, could also benefit from real-time data from radar the United States already operates in Israel, the report said.Hmmmm.....It is high time for NATO and The US to act against this rising Ahmadinejad style Islamic retoric.Read the full story here.

• The Solyndra Fraud - Fraud against the United States is one of the most serious felony offenses in the federal penal law.(NationalReview).The solar-energy company was a con game.The Solyndra debacle is not just Obama-style crony socialism as usual. It is a criminal fraud. That is the theory that would be guiding any competent prosecutor’s office in the investigation of a scheme that cost victims — in this case, American taxpayers — a fortune.Fraud against the United States is one of the most serious felony offenses in the federal penal law. It is even more serious than another apparent Solyndra violation that has captured congressional attention: the Obama administration’s flouting of a statute designed to protect taxpayers.Homing in on one of the several shocking aspects of the Solyndra scandal, lawmakers noted that, a few months before the “clean energy” enterprise went belly-up last week, the Obama Energy Department signed off on a sweetheart deal. In the event of bankruptcy — the destination to which it was screamingly obvious Solyndra was headed despite the president’s injection of $535 million in federal loans — the cozily connected private investors would be given priority over American taxpayers. In other words, when the busted company’s assets were sold off, Obama pals would recoup some of their losses, while you would be left holding the half-billion-dollar bag.The criminal law, by contrast, is not content to assume the good faith of government officials. It targets anyone — from low-level swindlers to top elective officeholders — who attempts to influence the issuance of government loans by making false statements; who engages in schemes to defraud the United States; or who conspires “to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof, in any manner or for any purpose.” The penalties are steep: Fraud in connection with government loans, for example, can be punished by up to 30 years in the slammer.Although Solyndra was a private company, moreover, it was using its government loans as a springboard to go public. When the sale of securities is involved, federal law criminalizes fraudulent schemes, false statements of material fact, and statements that omit any “material fact necessary in order to make the statements made . . . not misleading.” And we’re not just talking about statements made in required SEC filings. Any statement made to deceive the market can be actionable. In 2003, for example, the Justice Department famously charged Martha Stewart with securities fraud. Among other allegations, prosecutors cited public statements she had made in press releases and at a conference for securities analysts — statements in which she withheld damaging information in an effort to inflate the value of her corporation and its stock.That’s exactly what President Obama did on May 26, 2010, with his Solyndra friends about to launch their initial public offering of stock. The solar-panel company’s California factory was selected as the fitting site for a presidential speech on the virtues of confiscating taxpayer billions to prop up pie-in-the-sky clean-energy businesses.By then, the con game was already well under way. Solyndra had first tried to get Energy Act funding during the Bush administration, but had been rebuffed shortly before President Bush left office. Small wonder: Solyndra, as former hedge-fund manager Bruce Krasting concluded, was “an absolute complete disaster.” Its operating expenses, including supply costs, nearly doubled its revenue in 2009 — and that’s without factoring in capital expenditures and other costs in what, Krasting observes, is a “low margin” industry. The chance that Solyndra would ever become profitable was essentially nonexistent, particularly given that solar-panel competitors backed by China produce energy at drastically lower prices.Yet, as Stiles reports, within six days of Obama’s taking office, an Energy Department official acknowledged that the Solyndra “approval process” was suddenly being considered anew. Hmmmm....Can we start up the Impeachment procedure now?Read the full story here.

• Hamas rejects U.N. bid as it compromises ‘historical Palestine’.(AlArabiya).Hamas on Sunday said it would not back a U.N. membership bid, and warned that no Palestinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Palestinian rights.Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, speaking in Gaza, said the group also continued to support the establishment of a Palestinian state on any part of “historical Palestine” but would not seek to disrupt the U.N. bid.His comments came as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas heads to New York to submit a formal bid for U.N. membership for a Palestinian state on the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.Speaking to a meeting of the Palestinian legislative council, Haniya warned that Palestinian rights must be protected.“There is no mandate for any Palestinian leadership to infringe on Palestinian national rights, nor is there a mandate for any Palestinian actor to make historic concessions on Palestinian land or the right of the Palestinians, foremost among them the right of return,” he warned.“Given this position, we reiterate our rejection of this bid,” he added.But the leader of the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip stressed that Hamas would “not place obstacles in the way of the establishment of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty.”“We repeat today that we are with the establishment of a Palestinian state on any liberated part of Palestinian land that is agreed upon by the Palestinian people, without recognizing Israel or conceding any inch of historical Palestine.”Hamas has made clear it will not throw its support behind Abbas’s move, but has toed a cautious line, choosing not to condemn the plan directly.Speaking during the meeting, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the legislative council should approach the U.N. for recognition of a Palestinian state on all of “historical Palestine,” including areas now in Israel.He called on the council to “apply for recognition of a Palestinian state on all the Palestinian territory and confirmation of the right of Palestinians to live within the borders of this state.”“We appeal to the U.N. to invalidate the entity that took the decision to establish itself on the land of another,” Hayya said, in reference to Israel.Hayya called on the international community to “apply pressure to ensure the implementation of international resolutions, particularly those that uphold the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”Abbas is expected to present later this week a formal request for U.N. membership of a Palestinian state on the pre-Six Day War lines, encompassing both Gaza and the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.The bid is fiercely opposed by Israel and the United States and has divided much of the international community, with Europe and Washington organizing last-minute diplomacy in an attempt to head off a Security Council vote on the measure.Read the full story here.

• Obama to Propose ‘Buffett Tax’ on Millionaires.(Reuters).President Barack Obama, in a populist step designed to appeal to voters, will propose a “Buffett Tax” on people making more than $1 million a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress on Monday.Such a proposal, among suggestions to a congressional supercommittee expected to seek up to $3 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years, would appeal to his Democratic base ahead of the 2012 election but may not raise much in revenues.White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a tweet on Saturday the tax would act as “a kind of AMT” (Alternative Minimum Tax) aimed at ensuring millionaires pay a minimum rate of tax that at least matches that of middle-class families.The “Buffett Tax” refers to billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett, who wrote earlier this year that rich people like him often pay less in tax than those who work for them due to loopholes in the tax code, and can afford to pay more.Obama will lay out his recommendations in White House Rose Garden remarks at 10.30 a.m. EDT on Monday and is expected to urge steps to raise tax revenue as well as cuts in government spending.Read the full story here.

• Obama’s Risky Iraq Drawdown Plans Prompt Open Letter from Foreign Policy Experts.(TheHeritage).A flurry of newspaper articles reporting that the Obama Administration may decide to disregard the advice of its military commanders and reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq to less than 4,000 troops by the end of the year prompted 42 distinguished American foreign policy experts to write an open letter to President Obama on September 15, urging him to reconsider.The letter, published on the website of the Foreign Policy Initiative, stated that the signers were “gravely concerned” about the risks entailed in retaining such a small force:

Failure to leave a significant U.S. military presence in Iraq will leave the country more vulnerable to internal and external threats, thus imperiling the hard-fought gains in security and governance made in recent years at significant cost to the United States. A successful, democratic Iraq will remain a model for other emerging Arab democracies and one day, its neighbor, Iran. However, a failing state in the heart of the Middle East would destabilize the region, empower Iran, and make vain more than eight years of efforts by the United States in Iraq.Although violence in Iraq is much diminished from its peak in 2004–2007, Iraq’s fragile coalition government needs continued U.S. military assistance to ward off the threats posed by pro-Iranian militias, al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists, and simmering tensions over territorial disputes in northern Iraq between Iraq’s Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Christian groups.It has long been clear that the United States needs to remain engaged beyond 2011 in stabilizing one of the Middle East’s most pivotal states. Iraqi and American official are quietly negotiating behind the scenes to extend the presence of U.S. troops past the December 31 deadline set by the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement.The Obama Administration should now make every effort to avoid squandering the hard-won security gains in Iraq by withdrawing too many troops too fast. Iraq still needs substantial U.S. military, diplomatic, and political support to defeat various insurgent groups, stave off a possible return to civil war, and contain Iran’s expanding influence.Hmmm.....History has given us A Corporal who commanded Generals, now we have a Community Organizer commanding Generals.Read the full story here.

• Perry To Hold Press Conference This Week With Israeli MK Danny Danon Ahead Of UN Statehood Vote, May Endorse His Plan To Annex Judea and Samaria.(JPost).Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry will hold a press conference with American and Israeli-Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday in which he is expected to address the upcoming deliberations at the United Nations, MK Danny Danon (Likud), said on Saturday night.Danon, who will participate at the press conference, said he would ask Perry ahead of the conference to adopt the initiative the MK is advancing to annex Judea and Samaria in response to the unilateral Palestinian moves at the UN.On Friday, Perry accused US President Barack Obama of distancing himself from Israel and blamed US foreign policy “errors” for the Palestinian push for statehood at the United Nations.Seeking to capitalize on this week’s Republican election victory in a heavily Jewish New York congressional district, Perry said Palestinian leaders believe US-Israeli relations have weakened and said “the ultimate Palestinian solution” remains the destruction of the Jewish state.“Errors by the Obama administration have encouraged the Palestinians,” the Texas governor wrote in a Wall Street Journal column.“It was a mistake to agree to the Palestinians’ demand for indirect negotiations conducted through the US, and it was an even greater mistake for President Obama to distance himself from Israel and seek engagement with the hostile regimes in Syria and Iran,” he wrote.Washington has vowed to veto the Palestinian UN bid for statehood and is threatening to cut the roughly $500 million in annual US aid to the Palestinians.Perry endorsed the veto plan but called on the administration to make US aid to the Palestinians conditional on their willingness to negotiate with Israel.Jewish concerns about Obama’s policies toward Israel helped Republicans win a Democratic congressional district in New York this week for the first time in more than 80 years.In a potential harbinger of the national Jewish vote in 2012, analysts said many voters in the district believe Obama has failed to support Israel and object to his call for Israeli- Palestinian negotiations to use the Jewish state’s pre-1967 borders as a starting point.Read the full story here.

• Bully showing his real face -Turkey to freeze EU ties if Cyprus gets EU presidency.(YNet).EU-candidate Turkey will freeze relations with the European Union if Cyprus is given the EU presidency in 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Anatolian late on Saturday.The comments were the strongest yet by Ankara over its opposition to the Cyprus presidency and could mark the start of a new low point in ties between the European Union and Turkey which began accession talks to the bloc in 2005.The comments also come at a time of heightened tension in the eastern Mediterranean where Turkey is locked in a row with Cyprus over potential offshore gas deposits. Turkey's relations with one-time ally Israel are also at a low."If the peace negotiations there (Cyprus) are not conclusive, and the EU gives its rotating presidency to southern Cyprus, the real crisis will be between Turkey and the EU," Anatolian quoted Atalay as telling Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio and TV at the end of a trip to northern Cyprus."Because we will then freeze our relations with the EU. We have made this announcement, as a government we have made this decision. Our relations with the EU will come to a sudden halt."The internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government is due to take on the six-month rotating EU presidency in July 2012.Cyprus has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. UN-sponsored peace talks between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots have stumbled since they were relaunched in 2008.In July, Turkey's European Union minister said freezing ties with the Greek Cypriot EU presidency was "an option" but Atalay's comments were the first time Ankara has said it would definitely halt relations.Greek Cypriots represent the island internationally and in the European Union, while Turkey is the only country to recognise the Turkish Cypriot state. Greek Cypriots say Turkey cannot join the bloc until the Cyprus conflict is resolved.The rotating presidency has lost some importance since the EU's Lisbon treaty, which established a permanent head of the European Council that groups national governments, and a new foreign and security policy chief. But a determined country can still shape the agenda.Of the 35 "chapters" -- policy areas of EU law -- Turkey has completed one, and 18 have been frozen because of opposition by EU member states including Cyprus and France.Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European Union and get them out of NATO...NOW!Read the full story here.

• Video - Pro-Muslims party enters German elections.(PressTV).It´s election time in Berlin, with the usual electoral faces on posters side by side, but there´s a new party: the big party, for diversity and multiculturalism but also for ethics and a return to values.Thilo Sarrazin recently published a book where he openly discriminated against Muslims, a book which sold a million copies discussing a topic that right-wing parties are now leaping onto in their electoral campaign: if you agree with Sarrazin´s view, then vote for us.There are more than 250 000 immigrants from Turkey in Berlin, most of them Muslims. They are being reproached with not integrating, a constant debate - but they are not represented in politics, proportionally only 0.3% of representatives have a Turkish background.The Big party wants things to change. Their demand an interest free economic system, more support for working mothers, a full-time education accessible to all and more fairness and equality.In a city as diverse as Berlin, citizen´s origins do matter when it comes to democratic representation. The new Muslim-friendly party BIG hopes to entice more immigrants to the ballot boxes and to represent them with values that they share. They also see the need to redress prejudice and racism which in these days is increasing.Hmmmm.......Read and see the full story here.

• Syrian Anti-Assad Sheik: “Tear Christians Into Pieces And Feed Them To The Dogs.(AnsaMed).Rome - A Syrian sheikh who has been exiled to Saudi Arabia and has become one of the voices of the uprising against Assad, urges his followers, in television sermons that have been broadcast in Syria as well, to ''tear apart, chop up and feed'' the meat of all supporters of the current regime ''to the dogs,'' including all Christians. The fundamentalist turn part of the Syrian opposition is taking is denounced on the website Terrasanta.net, of the Franciscan Custody.Many Syrian Christians, the website reads, are terrorised; in some cities, like Homs, they are even afraid to leave their houses. Some churches have already been burned down. These appeals to hate were made in this context by sheikh Adnan al Aroor, who is described in a profile of television network Al Arabia as a 'moderate Sunni', a 'symbolic figure' for the anti-Assad activists, a man who invites people to 'peaceful and non-violent' rebellion. The sheikh broadcasts on the Islamic satellite channel al Safa, which has its headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The channel is very popular in Syria. In one of the sheik's sermons that have been examined by the editorial staff of 'Terrasanta', al Aroor explains that Syrians can be divided into three groups: ''the first includes people who are for the revolution and against Assad. When the President falls, the winners will look with favour on this group. The second group consists of people who are not for nor against the revolution. They can expect no privileges from the new regime. The third group opposes the revolution and backs Assad. The meat of these people - in the words of Al Aroor - will be ''torn apart, chopped up and fed to the dogs.'' This is an explicit threat to Christians, who have always been considered to be protected by the current regime. ''Each Friday'', Terrasanta.net writes, ''crowds called by the peaceful call of the social networks fill the squares. But there are also those, and that is a cause for concern, who come after being urged by unscrupulous preachers. They all come to challenge a government that is unable to show evidence of real reforms. Whoever wins, the future of Syria remains unclear."Hmmm......."Arab Spring anyone?"Read the full story here.

• The Turkey-Iran Pact.(Aina).A hot war has been raging in northern Iraq since mid-July, and despite the casualties and the drama, it has gone virtually unreported by the international media.The war was launched on July 16 by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) troops in an effort to crush Iranian rebel Kurds who have sought refuge in the 12,000 foot high Qandil mountains that form the border between Iran and Iraq.It began with cross-border shelling by Iranian artillery, air strikes, and several attempted ground incursions into Iraq by Iranian forces. But within ten days, NATO-ally Turkey openly joined the fray.On whose side did Turkey fight? On behalf of the secular, pro-Western Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), whose bases in northern Iraq were under assault from the Islamist regime in Tehran? Think again.The Turkish military sent 20 tanks into Iran at the invitation of the Iranian regime to support the flailing Iranian attack against the rebel Kurds. They also dispatched 300 Turkish Special Forces troops to Iran to conduct intelligence missions into the Qandil mountains using Heron surveillance drones purchased from Israel.PJAK leader Rahman Haj Ahmadi told me that the Turkish drones were the most effective weapon the Iranian military used against them. "This limited our ability to move, but it didn't matter much since most of our positions were underground," he said.The Turkish incursion marked just the latest instance of Turkey's ongoing military and strategic alliance with Iran, an alliance that ought to give NATO allies pause, starting with the United States.I first learned of the Turkey-Iran military alliance while on a reporting trip to PJAK bases in the wild mountains of northern Iraq four years ago. As we gazed up at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base set atop the 12,000 foot peaks of the Qandil mountains, a PJAK guerilla told me that Iran and Turkey had established a joint military headquarters in Urmiyeh, Iran, to coordinate their military strikes against the Kurds."The goal of the Iranians is to drive us from the border area," rebel leader Biryar Gabar told me. "They want to turn this area into a no-man's land, so they can use it to smuggle weapons and Islamist guerillas into Iraq to fight the Americans."Despite all the help from Turkey, the IRGC has suffered a dramatic rout at the hands of the PJAK fighters, who repeatedly attacked IRGC bases inside Iranian Kurdistan in response to the Iranian attacks on their bases inside Iraq. Except for the initial onslaught, in which eight IRGC were killed, the IRGC troops were badly mauled.According to accounts in the local media, PJAK fighters killed more than three hundred IRGC troops during the clashes. They even managed to kill the commanding general of IRGC troops in the region. We know this because he was given a public burial in Qom along with several other officers. The Iranian state-run media acknowledged they had been killed in the fighting.After two weeks of running battles, PJAK was claiming victory. "Now everyone can see how powerful PJAK has become," Ahmadi told me. "For Kurds, Qandil has become like Mecca, a sacred place. This is where we have shown our strength."Earlier this month, PJAK announced a unilateral ceasefire and called on the Iranian regime to negotiate their demands for Kurdish rights. PJAK is seeking to establish a democratic federation in Iran, not a separate state or separate province for the Kurds, as PJAK secretary general Rahman Haj Ahmadi told me when we met in Stockholm this summer.The response from the IRGC was almost immediate. Instead of a ceasefire, they launched repeated shelling of PJAK bases and villages inside Iraq, killing three fighters, including the deputy commander of all PJAK forces. PJAK claimed its forces killed 107 IRGC fighters and destroyed two tanks, 5 vehicles and 1 bulldozer in counter-strikes against IRGC bases inside Iran. The shelling continues even as I write these words.During the latest round of fighting, PJAK showed off NATO-issue weapons they claimed they had taken from dead Iranian troops, including Western-made night vision goggles, GPS systems, anti-tank missiles, and BKC guns. PJAK has claimed for some time that Iran's ally Turkey has provided NATO weaponry to Iran that has been turned against the Kurds, in direct violation of the North Atlantic Treaty.This story is important to Americans for several reasons.First, PJAK is a secular, pro-Western Iranian opposition group that ought to be a natural ally of the United States in any effort to put pressure on the Iranian regime. Their fighters are well- organized and highly-disciplined, and despite Iranian regime efforts to paint them as terrorists, they have never attacked civilians. In fact, PJAK sees itself primarily as a political group, not a military organization.Second, PJAK has been effectively defending Iraq's challenging northeastern border with Iran from IRGC and al Qaeda infiltration since the U.S.-led coalition ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003. U.S. military officers I have interviewed in Iraq acknowledged to me the importance of PJAK's presence in guarding the border.Third, the virtual silence from Baghdad even as Iraqi territory was being attacked and Iraqi citizens were being killed, shows just how successful the Iranians have been at intimidating the government of prime minister Nouri al-Malaki.But most important is that it reveals Turkey's strategic and military alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran. At the joint headquarters they have established in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmiyeh, Turkish generals offer strategic advise to their Iranian counterparts and Turkish counter-insurgency specialists train IRGC troops -- actions that ought to an outrage to the entire NATO alliance.Under the direction of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP, Turkey has increasingly dropped all pretence of remaining a friend and ally of the West. Instead, Erdogan seems intent on throwing in his lot with the Islamists in a bid to restore the Muslim caliphate Ataturk abolished in 1924.In his latest attempt to claim leadership of the Muslim world, Erdogan thumped his chest in front of Arab leaders in Cairo on Tuesday, demanding that Israel "must pay the price for the crimes it committed." He was referring to the response of Israeli commandos, armed with paint ball guns, who intercepted the MV Mavi Marmara off the coast of Gaza last year.After an Israeli commander was eviscerated by the "civilians" on board the "humanitarian" ship, Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing nine activists on board. What Erdogan and most of the media won't tell you, is that the entire "peace flotilla" operation was orchestrated by Turkey's MIT intelligence agency on Erdogan's personal orders, sources familiar with the Israeli investigation have told me.Turkish intelligence officers trained the people on board the Mavi Marmara in close combat techniques, and helped them to gather knives, steel bars and other weapons to inflict the great damage on the Israeli commandos. The viciousness of their attacks was documented in video footage seized by the IDF after they took control of the ship.Erdogan is now saying he will dispatch the Turkish navy to escort future flotillas to Gaza. (Iran promised to do the same last year but backed down after Israel made clear that it would intercept blockade-runners no matter who escorted them).Will NATO members wake up to the "new" Turkey in their midst, intent on advancing the Islamist cause, even to extent of providing military support to the Iranian regime?Hmmmm......After these breaches of the NATO charter they must Get Turkey out of NATO.Read the full story here.

• Turkey now on collision course with Greece, Cyprus and Israel.(AP).Ankara  — Greece has protested a decision by Turkey to send a vessel to search for oil and gas close to Greece's easternmost island.The escalation of tensions in the eastern Mediterranean comes at a times when Turkey told Cyprus not to go ahead with its plan for offshore oil and gas drilling activities. Cyprus has vowed to "exercise its sovereign rights."Cyprus was split into a Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded the island. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, but only the south enjoys the membership's benefits.Greece late Thursday protested Turkey's decision to hire a Norwegian research vessel M/V Bergen Surveyor to survey the south of the island of Kastelorizo — an area outside Greek territorial waters, but where Athens has claimed the rights to potential undersea mineral and fossil fuel deposits.Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras called on Turkey to avoid "any research activity that affects Greek sovereign rights in the region," saying the area is within Greece's continental shelf.He said Greece was also contacting the shipping company of the Norwegian research vessel, and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to make the Greek positions known. Kastelorizo is part of an isolated group of small islands east of Rhodes, just two miles (three kilometers) off Turkey's southern coastal town of Kas.Greece and Turkey have had disputes for 37 years over delineating the areas for exploration for oil and gas. Turkey does not accept that the islands have their own continental shelf, which Greece claims is supported by international law.The two countries came close to war in March 1987 when a Turkish research ship entered the Aegean Sea.Hmmmm.....NATO must eject Turkey out of NATO, they are using their 'RocketShield' location as an excuse to bully the whole Midditerrenean Against the rules of the NATO Charter.Locate the shield in Bulgaria and remove the potential dictator from NATO.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan Islamists Using Flood Aid to Win Converts to Islam in Hindu-dominated areas.(IslamVersusEurope).Islamist organisations are exploiting the devastating floods to hit Pakistan using relief efforts to build support and win converts in Hindu-dominated areas.Western aid groups say the floods, which have so far killed 230 people and destroyed or damaged 1.2 million houses, are at least as intense as those that caused a major humanitarian crisis last year although not as widespread.Record rainfall in Sindh has overwhelmed defences, flooding almost 5 million acres, most of it for the second year running. But although the crisis has been growing for the last month Pakistan’s Government only allowed foreign aid workers to start operations this week. Until now, the only help available to many victims was supplied by Islamic charities, some with links to extremist jihadist groups.“We were the first to come here to help people on August 15, 2011 after the heavy rains hit the area” Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which is affiliated to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) a terrorist outfit, told The Times.He said the organisation had been operating a relief motorboat service which had rescued more than 12,000 people and their cattle as well as feeding and providing medical services to thousands more.More than 80 per cent of total Hindu population in Pakistan lives in five districts of lower Sindh, all of which were badly hit by the floods. Islamist organisations deny reports of forced conversions.Aijazullah Khan, of Al Khidmat Foundation Pakistan, the humanitarian wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, said his organisation, which has no links to violent jihadis, was concentrating on helping the victims. “There are certain cities in lower Sindh where one will hardly find a Muslim. We need to spread the message of our religion there but at present we are focusing only on relief work,” he said.Others insist that the groups are exploiting the victims’ desperation, however. “Extremist organisations were already forcefully converting Hindus in these areas. Natural calamities always provide them a window of opportunity to expand their influence and accelerate their mission,” said Zulfiqar Halepoto, who works with a Sindh-based think-tank.“If they are so concerned about humanity, they should help people through government. On the one hand they are trying to show their human face while on the other they are building their influence in Hindu majority areas” said Dr Govind Ram, General Secretary of the Pakistan Hindu Foundation.Traditional Sindhi culture is more religiously tolerant than other parts of Pakistan. “Perhaps this culture will be destroyed as more and more religious fanatic organisations are busy in building their influence in these areas in the guise of relief operations” said Ali Akbar Rahimoon, an activist based at flood-hit Badin district in Sindh.He said that the Hindu minority could not refuse to accept the relief items from fanatic religious organisations as the Government has nothing. “When their children are dying, how can we refuse relief goods on the basis of who is giving them?” said Mr Rahimoon.Hufeez Tunio, a journalist in the flood-hit areas, said he had seen more activists of Islamic relief organsiations than other NGOs and even government officials. “Some of them have been focusing more on Hindu-majority areas,” he said.Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, cancelled a visit to New York and will tour the affected area in the province of Sindh tomorrow. But his visit coincides with that of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of JuD.Hmmmm....."An Army Marches on it's Stomach."Napoleon Bonaparte.Read the full story here.

• Turkey - Women murders saw sharp increase.(Firat).The number of women murders in Turkey increased by factor 14 within a period of seven years. While 66 women were murdered in 2002, this figure rocketed to 953 women murders in 2009. Bianet wrote an interesting article about the shocking figures, underlining that this development made the headlines in the Turkish Press on Thursday (15 September). The figures are based on data issued by lawyer Aydeniz Alisbah Tuskan, Co-ordinator of the Istanbul Bar Association Centre for Women's Rights. The data revealed an additional startling dimension of the problem: 85 percent of about 2000 annually registered divorce applications in Istanbul are based on violence.About 300 women applied to the Istanbul Bar Association for protection during the past year. Other applications were concerned with alimony, child custody or family residence for example.According to lawyer Tuskan, the reason for this explosion in the number of applications based on violence is the fact that women do not endure violence as they used to do in the past. Bianet also wrote that Tuskan called for an immediate response to women who seek protection. She demanded to accommodate women who applied for protection in women shelters without separating them from their children. She also stated that the financial situation of the women had to be sorted out.The lawyer indicated that women became aware of these topics. Lawyers are being assigned to women who apply for protection to the Istanbul Bar Association, Tuskan explained.The lawyer conceded though that protection does not fully solve the problem of violence. The person who experienced violence should furthermore be medically treated and supervised psychologically, Tuskan claimed.According to the data of the Ministry of Justice, the number of women murders increased by factor 14 between 2002 and 2009. While 66 women were killed in 2002, this figure raised to 953 women murders in 2009. The development of the increase was documented as follows: 83 women murders in 2003; 128 in 2004; this figure more than doubled in 2005 with 317 women killings; again a sharp increase with 663 in 2006; a peak of 1011 women murders in 2007 and a small decrease in numbers in 2008 with 806 women murders.Hmmm.....Keep Turkey nout of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• Assessing Erdoğan and the AKP.(DanielPipes).By Daniel Pipes.I took part today in a symposium published by FrontPageMagazine.com in which Jamie Glazov asks four of us - Soner Cagaptay, Hans-Peter Raddatz, Michael Rubin and myself – a series of questions about the Republic of Turkey. The full transcript is available at "Symposium: Turkey: The Road to Sharia?" I thought it useful to exerpt my comments because they bring together my views on developments in Turkey that I have otherwise not had a chance to write down. They follow:

[Replying to Michael Rubin's blanket statement that "Turkey is a friend."]

Turkey has been a friend; but I have grave doubts about its future status. Let me explain.

I see Turkey as a uniquely pliable country. What Atatürk accomplished, changing so much of the country in fifteen brief years, 1923-38, is a unique development (with the partial exception of the Meiji restoration leaders a half-century earlier). He wrenched the country from one way of life and pushed it toward another, with considerable effect.I see Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the anti-Atatürk. He is young enough, clever enough, and popular enough to stay in power as long or longer than Atatürk and step-by-step, almost imperceptively, to undo the entire Atatürk revolution. We have already seen the fruits of this in his two and a half-years in power: the refusal to help the American-led coalition eliminate the noxious Saddam Hussein regime, Mein Kampf becoming a bestseller, and the Turkish public having among the most anti-Bush attitudes of any population in the world.I do not know where this transformation will end, but if things go as they have the past few years, I expect Turkey before long to be more in the "foe" category, along with Saudi Arabia, than the "friend" one.

[Replying to disagreement with the above by Soner Cagaptay.]

I am pleased to learn that so astute an observer of Turkey as Soner Cagaptay believes "secularism is strong enough in Turkey that it cannot be undone." I see secularism, however, as a work in progress, the cherished ideal of a rather small elite, and as Turkey becomes more democratic and less guided by that elite, an ideal that lies in distinct peril.The current burst of antagonism to the United States is of less concern to me, as that could well be transient, the symptom of momentary factors. But I no longer have the sense I first had in 1973, when I lived in Istanbul, that Turkey is a country apart from the rest of the Middle East and Muslim world. It appears to be rapidly turning in that direction, becoming increasingly like its neighbors to the east.As for democracy, I expect the Islamists who run the AKP will ride the democratic process until the day arrives that they no longer find it serves their purpose, at which point they will circumscribe political participation or even terminate it. The people running Turkey today are not true democrats, who accept the vox populi, but soft totalitarians who learned their lesson from the failed Erbakan prime ministry of 1996-97 and intend not to repeat it. I have full confidence that they will not.

[Replying to Michael Rubin's statement that "The special relationship with Turkey is over. … It is a shame that the Turkish-American relationship has fallen so far. I fear we are past the point of recovery.]

I second Michael Rubin's conclusions and add two observations.

First, while radical Islam in many ways parallels fascism and communism (the brutal drive to power, the totalitarian goals, the intent to defeat the West), it differs in one key way – radical Islam rides a wave of international popular support the other movements never had. This creates a dilemma for the Bush administration, whose urgent push for democracy turns out to enable Islamists to reach power. Worse yet, Washington is beginning to whitewash the Islamists, and even the terrorist organizations among them. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presents the most advanced and difficult form of this dilemma, however. Though many wish to avert their eyes from his Islamist background, foreground, and future, that ideology defines his prime ministry. Is the U.S. government going to sit by, applauding, as he creates the Islamic Republic of Turkey?

Second, there was a time several centuries ago when the Ottoman padishah, living in Istanbul, wrote Persian poetry; and the Safavid shah of Iran, living in Isfahan, wrote Turkish poetry. I am reminded of that juxtaposition now, when the population of Atatürk's secular Turkey is ever-more seduced by the sirens of radical Islam such as rules in Iran; while the Iranian population of Khomeini's Islamic republic ardently wants to shed its Islamist regime and live more secular lives such as is possible in Turkey. The race is on. Unfortunately, Islamists at the moment rule both in Turkey and Iran. The U.S. role should be to change that dynamic, asking how to wean the Turks of their Islamist proclivities without going through the full Islamist experience.Hmmmm......Only one problem the US has a President who is pro Islamist Turkey .Read the full story here.

• I do not think there is a Palestinian nation. I think it’s a colonialist invention - Palestinian nation. When were there any Palestinians?(JPost).

“Of all the Palestinian lies there is no lie greater or more crushing than that which calls for the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank... Not since the time of Dr. Goebbels has there been a case in which continual repetition of a lie has borne such great fruits...”– From “Palestinian Lies” in Haaretz, July 1976.

Nothing could better underscore just how emaciated Israeli foreign policy has become than the penetrating observation by former Meretz minister of education Prof. Amnon Rubinstein articulated above.Nothing could better underscore just how detached from the reality the discourse on “Palestine” has become than the avowal of the timeless and unconditional rejection of Israel, articulated in ensuing excerpt.The partition of Palestine, in 1947, and the establishment of Israel are illegal and null and void, regardless of the passage of time... The claims of historic and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history or with true conception of what constitutes statehood.

– Articles 17 and 18 of the original Palestinian National Covenant (1964). (The same clauses appear almost verbatim as Clauses 19 and 20 in the current version. Both are posted at the website of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine at the UN.) This declaration, made long before any “occupation” or “settlements,” highlights that Arab enmity towards Israel is fueled by its being – not by its borders. It proves irrefutably that the establishment of a Palestinian state and the eradication of Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria will do nothing to attenuate the refusal to acknowledge the right of the Jews to a nation-state, whatever its frontiers – if any further proof was necessary after the 2005 Gaza debacle.

All of this should be borne in mind as September 23 approaches. For what we are about to witness at the UN is nothing less an endeavor at political alchemy – the conjuring up of a substantive political construct out of mere political myth; an attempt to produce a nation where the elements of nationhood do not exist; an effort to construct a state when the components of statehood are absent.

(Please note that in the ensuing essay, I will not refer to any Israeli sources. Those employed are exclusively Palestinian or Arab. Consequently the analysis – and the consequent conclusions – are exclusively derivative of these Palestinians/Arab sources.) While no real consensus exists among political scientists as to the exact definition of “nation” and “nationalism,” there is broad agreement as to what constitutes its sine qua non. Whatever other details one scholar or another might wish to add to his/her preferred definition, there would be almost no disagreement that: a “nation” is an identifiably differentiated segment of humanity that desires to exercise political sovereignty in a defined territory; and that “nationalism” is the pursuit, by identifiably differentiated segments of humanity, of the exercise of political sovereignty in a defined territory.The most cursory analysis of historical events in this region will quickly reveal that in the case of the Palestinians, neither of these two elements exists: neither an identifiably differentiated people desiring exercise of political sovereignty, nor a defined territory in which that sovereignty is to be exercised.One need only examine the declarations/documents of Palestinians themselves to verify this – and to discover that they do not conceive of themselves as a discernibly discrete people with a defined homeland.

Accordingly, little effort is required to demonstrate that the Palestinian “narrative” – the notional fuel driving the demands for statehood – is a motley mixture of myths, which although they overlap and interlock, are nevertheless easily identifiable and readily refutable.The inescapable conclusion is that the entire edifice of Palestinian national aspirations is a political hoax, a massive sleight of political hand designed to serve a far more sinister – and thinly disguised – motive. So what are these myths; and why are they so easily identifiable?

The myth of Palestinian peoplehood

Senior Palestinian leaders have admitted – openly, consistently and continually – that Palestinians are not a discrete people identifiably different from others in the Arab world.For example, on March 14, 1977, Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO Political Department, told Newsweek: “Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people.”This statement parallels almost exactly the position expressed two weeks later by the former head of the PLO’s Military Department and Executive Council member Zuheir Muhsin, who declared: “There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation.”It was Jordan’s King Hussein who underscored that the emergence of collective Palestinian identity was merely a ploy to counter Jewish claims to territory considered Arab.At the Arab League meeting in Amman in November 1987, he said: “The appearance of the Palestinian national personality comes as an answer to Israel’s claim that Palestine is Jewish.”This of course necessarily implies that the “Palestinian personality” is devoid of an independent existence, and is a fictional derivative, fabricated only to counteract Jewish territorial claims. Indeed, without Jewish claims there would be no Palestinian personality.

 The myth of Palestinian nationhood

Not only do the Palestinians admit that they are not a discrete sociological entity, i.e., a people.They also concede that as a political unit, i.e., a nation, their demands and aspirations as are neither genuine nor permanent.Thus Muhsin candidly confessed: “It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity, because it is in the interest of the Arabs to encourage a separate Palestinian identity. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel [sic].”Doesn’t get much more explicit than that! Indeed the Palestinians not only affirm that their national demands are bogus, but that they are only a temporary instrumental ruse.In the current National Covenant they declare: “The Palestinian people are a part of the Arab Nation... [and] believe in Arab unity... however, they must, at the present stage of their struggle, safeguard their Palestinian identity and develop their consciousness of that identity.”So how are we to avoid concluding that at a later stage there will be no need to preserve their identity or develop consciousness thereof? How are we to avoid concluding that Palestinian identity is merely a short-term ruse to achieve a political goal of annulling the “illegal 1947 partition of Palestine,” (i.e. Israel).As King Hussein said: “The appearance of the Palestinian national personality comes as an answer to Israel’s claim that Palestine is Jewish.”

The myth of a Palestinian homeland

Article 16 of the original version of the Palestinian National sets out the desire of the people of Palestine, “who look forward to... restoring the legitimate situation to Palestine, establishing peace and security in its territory, and enabling its people to exercise national sovereignty...”However, since the Covenant was adopted in 1964, well before Israel “occupied” a square inch of the “West Bank” or Gaza, the question is precisely what is meant by “its territory” in which the Palestinians were “looking forward...to exercise national sovereignty.” Indeed in Article 24, they state specifically what this territory did not include, and where they were not seeking to exercise “national sovereignty.”In it they explicitly proclaim that they do not desire to “exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] on the Gaza Strip.”From this we learn two stunning facts. Not only did the Palestinians not claim the “West Bank” and Gaza as part of their homeland, but they specifically excluded them from it. Moreover, they explicitly acknowledged – and accepted –that the “West Bank” belonged to another sovereign entity, the Hashemite Kingdom.There is thus not the slightest resemblance – indeed not even one square inch of overlap – between the territory claimed by the Palestinians as their “homeland” when they first formulated their national aspirations and the “homeland” allegedly envisaged/claimed today.Indeed, the two visions of “homeland” territories are mutually exclusive.Accordingly, it would seem that Jewish rule is far more central in defining the location of the Palestinian “homeland” than any “collective historical memory.”For the Palestinians only incorporated the “West Bank” (and Gaza) in their territorial claims when they came under Israeli control – clearly vindicating the view that the concept of “Palestinian-ness” is a fabricated construct, conjured up to further the Arab quest to repudiate “Jewishness.”

The Palestinians as a non-nation

One could hardly find more resounding renunciation of Palestinian nationhood than the one provided by former Arab MK Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel to avoid investigation of alleged acts of treason during the 2006 Lebanon War. On a 1994 Channel 2 program, he astounded his Israeli co-participants with the following assertion: “Well, I don’t think there is a Palestinian nation at all. I think there is an Arab nation. I always thought so...I do not think there is a Palestinian nation. I think it’s a colonialist invention – Palestinian nation. When were there any Palestinians? Where did it come from? Indeed when? Indeed where?” Not only do the Palestinian lack the fundamental elements to qualify them as a “nation,” they exhibit qualities that make them the antithesis of a “nation.” Their efforts as a collective are being channeled far less towards achieving national sovereignty for themselves, and far more towards annulling the national sovereignty of others.In this regard the Palestinian can not only be dubbed a non-nation but an anti-nation.

The troubling afterthought

In light of all these readily available facts, the troubling question Israelis must ask themselves and their leaders is, why have they been totally ignored in the formulation of Israel’s foreign policy. Why has Israel been so inarticulate and so impotent in presenting it case and in rebuffing the diplomatic assault against it? This dereliction of duty has put the nation in mortal peril.True, very recently there have been some welcome – but sorely belated – signs of stiffening resolve, but with the crucial session of the UN General Assembly ominously near, one can only hope this is not much too little, much too late.Hmmm.......It has never been about land, it's religion! Source.

• Islamists Behead Apostate, Block Food Aid to Starving Christians in Somalia,Turkish IHH help them.(Vinienco).Hungry minority Christians in Somalia faced another struggle Sunday, September 18, after suspected Islamic militants beheaded a Christian convert and foreign aid workers were banned from reaching a dying population.Somali Christians and human rights activists confirmed that the body of Juma Nuradin Kamil, a kidnapped Christian who converted from Islam, was found decapitated near the southern town of Hudur on September 2.He was apparently killed after three suspected members of the Islamic group al-Shabab pushed him into a car, witnesses said.“Islamic radicals kidnapped a Christian brother and then beheaded him. His decapitated body was discovered” by locals on a street, explained Jonathan Racho, the regional manager for Africa of advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).His body was reportedly buried in secret after it lay two days in the open aid as locals feared Islamic reprisals.There was no immediate claim of responsibility from al-Shabab, but Christians said the beheading bore the hallmarks of the al-Qaida linked group.Al-Shabab seeks to impose a strict version of seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law, and made clear it wants to rid Somalia of “apostates”. “Members of the Islamic radical group al-Shabaab have made their intentions very clear that they want to get rid of Christians in Somalia,” Racho said.Among earlier anti-Christian incidents this year was the reported April 18 murder in Shalambod town of 21-year-old Hassan Adawe Adan, a member of an underground Christian congregation. Two suspected al-Shabab fighters were blamed, Christians said.In Warbhigly village on the outskirts of Mogadishu, a mother of four was killed for her Christian faith by al-Shabab in January, according to locals and investigators. Asha Mberwa, 36, was reportedly murdered when Islamists slit her throat in front of her fellow villagers.More than two dozen Christians are known to have been killed in recent years.In Mogadishu, residents have said they wake up daily with decapitated bodies, ranging from children to the elderly, as al-Shabab has made clear it still wants to show it remains strong after more heavily armed U.N. backed Africa Union forces pushed them back from the capital.Christian analysts have expressed concerns however that even the United Nations-backed transitional government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed supports a version of Islamic law that mandates the death penalty for all those who leave Islam.Christians were also among those believed to face starvation Sunday, September 18, after Somalia’s government banned foreign aid workers and journalists from entering areas controlled by al-Shabab after members of a Turkish charity took food to famine victims in an area under the Islamist group.“We want the starving Somalis in al-Shabab areas to be fed but we do not want the foreign workers to meet al-Shabab,” Mogadishu mayor and governor Mohamud Ahmed Nur was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.A large part of Somalia is experiencing famine, with the United Nations saying 750,000 people are at risk of starvation. Hundreds of Somalis are already dying each day, according to U.N. estimates.Last month Somali church representatives already said they were aware of 18 Somali Christians having died of starvation, which is believed to be a conservative figure.“Any Somali that the Islamists suspect to be a Christian, or even a friend of Christians, does not receive any food aid,” said a leader of a local underground church speaking on condition of anonymity.Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when the former leadership was toppled by clan militias that later turned on each other.It is increasingly difficult for journalists to report on the situation. This week National Union of Somali journalists condemned a reported statement from a prominent cleric linked to the leadership of al-Shabab, Sheikh Abdulqadir Muumin, who called Somali journalists ”unbelievers” who had been “sentenced to death”.Since 2006, Somalia has faced an insurgency led by al-Shabab, described as one of Africa’s most fearsome militant Islamist groups. It now controls much of southern Somalia and has claimed affiliation with terror group al-Qaida since 2007.Over 99 percent of Somalia’s nearly 10 million people are Muslims; The tiny Christian minority of perhaps thousands of people comprises many ethnic Bantus as well as humanitarian workers and expatriates, Christian aid groups say.Hmmmm.....Remember earlier post this week"Turkish IHH delivers aid to Al-Shabab?"Read the full story here.