MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Tonga 5.2 !More info here.

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

• Canary Islands - El Hierro earthquake and volcano eruption – Update 21.  here , Live webcams here and here.

• Egypt Updated : Ten dead as military continues attack on protesters in Cairo.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: The army and police have waged a coordinated offensive on protesters in Tahrir Square, attempting to forcibly remove demonstrators who have occupied square in the largest anti-government protest witnessed in Egypt since the January 25 uprisings that toppled the government of former president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.Five have been reported dead so far by the Egyptian Ministry of Health, and over a thousand have sustained injuries as the police and military fire tear gas canisters and use live ammunition.The army has entered the square in armed personnel carriers (APCs) from the nearby Qasr al-Ainey Street. Police and military set fire to protester tents in the middle of square, as well as an abandoned motorcycle.“Injuries have just continued to flood in. Its hard to count how many we have here,” a worker at a field hospital told Bikyamasr.com.Cairo: Egypt’s Minister of Culture Emad Abu Ghazi has filed for resignation in protest of the military and police offensive waged on protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.The Egyptian Ministry of Health has reported that five are dead, and over a thousand have sustained injuries in the violence.Cabinet Ministers are currently holding an emergency meeting at the Military Council headquarters, set to discuss the situation.They published a statement saying that they are still committed to holding elections as scheduled.Protests have spread throughout cities in the rest of the nation, as demonstrations in Cairo intensify.Read the full story here.

• Violence continues in Syria as Condoleezza Rice promotes unilateral U.S. action.(BlacklistedNews).By Madison Ruppert.As clashes continue in Homs with opposition forces and pro-Assad forces engaging in what the New York Times calls, “A harrowing sectarian war,” Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advocates unilateral U.S. action on CNN’s “State of the Union.”Rice says that Bashar al-Assad is bringing his country to the brink of a civil war, although it is arguable that civil war is already exactly what is going on with heavily armed opposition clashing with government forces and attacks on government compounds and vehicles.She also said that ousting Assad would be a “great thing” for the people of Syria, along with U.S. interests and according to the Associated Press, “anyone seeking a more peaceful Middle East.”Her statements are far from groundbreaking except in that she called for the “toughest” possible penalties against the Syrian government while saying that if Russia and China block sanctions in the United Nations, the United States should either apply pressure with allies or act unilaterally.She also promoted more assistance to the Syrian opposition, which has already become a bloody insurgent force that has attacked government compounds and vehicles along with a rocket attack on the Baath Party’s headquarters in the Syrian capital of Damascus.Eyewitnesses reported that the headquarters appeared intact and no large security force deployment was reported after activists said the building was hit with several rocket-propelled grenades.This comes as the Assad government rejected the Arab League’s planned mission to send so-called “monitoring” forces, which would likely do a lot more than just monitoring like Qatar did in Libya.The Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said today that the proposed Arab League mission has “pervasive jurisidcation that reaches the level of violating Syrian sovereignty” and added that the Arab League would receive a letter from him questioning their role.Previously the Arab League declared that Assad’s forces must withdraw from cities in which clashes are occurring by November 19^th, along with starting dialogue with the opposition.However, the opposition flatly rejected the notion of talking with Assad, just like the al Qaeda-affiliated and Western-backed rebels did in Libya.The League outright rejected the Syrian request to modify the proposal which would send more than 500 monitors into the country, which Syria had tentatively agreed to on Friday.Read the full story here.

• Arab League rejects proposed Syrian amendments to peace plan.(AlArabiya).The Arab League on Sunday rejected amendments proposed by Damascus to its proposal to send a 500-strong delegation to monitor the violence in Syria, saying they would radically alter the mission. “It was agreed that the amendments and appendices proposed by the Syrian side affect the core of the document and would radically change the nature of the mission which is to oversee the implementation of the Arab plan to end the crisis in Syria and protect Syrian civilians,” the Arab League said in a statement.The League on Nov. 16 had given Damascus three days to abide by a plan aimed at ending the violence and starting talks between the government and opposition. The plan included sending a monitoring team to Syria.In related news, the opposition Syrian National Council announced Sunday a political program aimed at bringing down President Bashar al-Assad followed by a parliamentary election after a year’s transition.In a statement received by AFP, the SNC said its goal was to “build a democratic, pluralistic, and civil state by ... breaking down the existing regime, including all of its operatives and symbols.”The SNC, the country’s largest and most representative opposition group, said another objective was “preserving, protecting, and enhancing the peaceful nature of the popular revolution.”The SNC said that after the fall of the Assad regime, it would “take responsibility, with the military apparatus, to manage the transitional period and guarantee the security and unity of the country” during the transition. It would try to forge a “pluralistic ... parliamentary republic ... based on the principles of equal citizenship with separation of powers ... the rule of law, and the protection and guarantee of the rights of minorities. “Within one year at most, the interim government will organise free elections with Arab and international observers to elect a Constitutional Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for the country that is then voted on by the people in a referendum,” said the statement.“Free parliamentary elections shall be held within six months, in accordance with the new constitution.”The SNC, which was formally founded in Istanbul on October 2, is made up of Assad’s opponents, including the committees organizing protests on the ground, the Muslim Brotherhood as well as various Kurdish and Assyrian parties.So far it has only been recognized by Libya, where the National Transitional Council is now in power following a revolt that ousted dictator Muammar Qaddafi.France said Thursday that the Syrian opposition’s umbrella group needs to be better organized before it can win its recognition.“We have contacts with them, I saw Burhan Ghaliun in Paris, who’s the president. We help them, we have contact and we encourage them to get organized,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said, referring to the head of the SNC.The Assad regime is under mounting international pressure to halt its eight-month crackdown on pro-reform turned anti-regime protests, which the United Nations says has killed more than 3,500 people.In comments published Sunday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said there was “no place for authoritarian regimes” in the Mediterranean region“I strongly believe that there is no place any more for authoritarian regimes – single party systems that do not have accountability or transparency – on the shores of the Mediterranean,” he told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.“As someone who has studied in the United Kingdom, lived in the United Kingdom, has this world view, President Assad should be able to understand this.”His comments, made before the expiry of the Arab League deadline at midnight Saturday (2200 GMT), was the latest criticism of Assad’s regime by Turkey.Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has already announced a halt to joint oil exploration with Syria and has threatened to cut electricity exports to its neighbor.But despite Ankara’s protests and the Arab League ultimatum, violence in Syria has shown no sign of abating and Assad has defiantly vowed to fight and die for his country if faced with foreign intervention.In Sunday’s interview, Gul said he had been encouraging his Syrian counterpart to embark on democratic reforms before the uprising.“We strongly advised him to hurry up and accelerate the pace of reforms,” he said.“Otherwise, if he was not the leader of the change himself, then things would turn out to be too bad, we said to him.”Read the full story here.

• Syria accuses U.S. and Turkey of inciting civil war.(AlArabiya).Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Sunday accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Dawood Oglu of pushing Syrians into a civil war.“I say this with all due honesty, whoever reads with details the announcements by all of Hillary Clinton, Ahmed Oglu and others, will feel that they are trying to push for a civil war, and this is what I call a wishful thinking," Moualem told reporters in Damascus.On Saturday, Clinton told the NBC network, “I think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition that is, if not directed by, certainly influenced by defectors from the army.” “We’re already seeing that, something that we hate to see because we are in favor of a peaceful protest and non-violent opposition,” she said, blaming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for provoking the opposition into “taking up arms.”Former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had also accused Syrian President Assad of taking his country to the brink of civil war.Rice told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Assad’s crackdown on peaceful protesters is creating a very dangerous situation. She said Assad “is no friend of the United States” and that his overthrow would be a “great thing” for the Syrian people, U.S. interests and anyone seeking a more peaceful Middle East.Moualem also described an Arab League plan to send a monitoring mission to Syria as compromising the country’s sovereignty despite Damascus not rejecting the mission.He said that the proposed mission has “pervasive jurisdiction that reaches the level of violating Syrian sovereignty” and said he would send the Arab League a letter with questions about its role.“We will reply to the Arab League secretary general by responsibly presenting a number of queries,” he added. “The protocol is three pages that completely ignores the role of the Syrian state. On one hand the Syrian state is responsible for the security of this mission and on the other hand they ignore even coordinating with it.”The Arab League had previously given Syria three days from Nov. 16 to abide by a deal to withdraw its forces from restive cities, start talks with the opposition and pave the way for a League observer team. But Syria was not responsive to the Arab League’s three-day ultimatum and continued with its crackdown. The foreign minister also accused some Arab countries of complicity with the U.S. in pressuring Syria, but added: “This cheek is used to this slapping.”In addition to that, he also denied reports that the Damascus headquarters of the ruling Baath Party was hit by rocket-propelled grenades Sunday, calling them “absolutely false.”But he later thanked a Syrian journalist for clarifying that the explosions heard in the area were the result of a sound bomb, indirectly acknowledging that some kind of attack had taken place.Read the full story here.

• Newly Released Emails Prove Elena Kagan Was Not Walled Off From Obamacare's Legal Strategy and Must Recuse Herself.(DougRoss).During her confirmation hearings, Elena Kagan -- then solicitor-general for the United States -- stated that she had virtually no role in crafting the PPACA (Obamacare) Act nor in advising the Democrat Party on a legal strategy for it.

COBURN: Thank you. And my — I have two final questions. One, was there at any time — and I’m not asking what you expressed or anything else — was there at any time you were asked in your present position to express an opinion on the merits of the health care bill?

KAGAN: There was not.

 Newly released emails prove that this was untrue. From cheerleading the passage of the bill, to helping to coordinate the response, to shushing those who had begun to leave a paper trail of her involvement, Kagan was intimately involved in every aspect of the legal strategy.

Thanks to Judicial Watch, we now have more evidence that Kagan fibbed during her sworn testimony.

1. An October 13, 2009, exchange between Kagan and former Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal. Katyal informs Kagan, “We just got Snowe on health care,” referring to Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). (The bulk of the email exchange reflects a discussion about Kagan, and also provides instructions regarding a hiring decision within the agency, although the nature of the position is unclear. When Katyal asks if Kagan wants to handle the hire via email or in person meeting, Kagan responds, “In person. I’ll call a meeting when I return.”)
2. A March 21, 2010, email from Kagan to then-Senior Counselor for Access to Justice Laurence Tribe: “I hear they have the votes Larry!! Simply amazing...” Tribe responds, “So healthcare is basically done! Remarkable.”
3. A March 16, 2010, email from Kagan to David Barron, then-acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, asked if he had seen an article by Michael McConnell published in the Wall Street Journal that discussed a strategy by Democrats to “‘deem’ ObamaCare into Law without voting.” “Did you seee [sic] Michael McConnell’s piece in the wsj?” Kagan writes in an email with the subject line “Health care q.” “YES, HE IS GETTING THIS GOING,” replied Barron.

Furthermore, these recently released documents had been stonewalled by the Holder Justice Department prior to the Kagan confirmation hearings. Upon receiving the documents, just days after the Obamacare case was accepted for review by the Supreme Court, Sen. Jeff Sessions -- who was the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Kagan confirmation -- said the following: I am deeply disturbed by these developments and believe that the Justice Department should have provided these documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee during Justice Kagan's confirmation hearing. The Department’s failure to provide this information to Congress and to comply with FOIA requests, as well as your apparent inattention to these matters, is unacceptable.” There is only one reason that Justice withheld the Kagan documents. What's been revealed thus far is proof positive that Kagan was not walled off from the legal strategy behind Obamacare and was therefore not truthful during her sworn testimony in front of Congress.Justice Kagan must recuse herself from the Obamacare case immediately -- or she should be impeached.Read the full story here.

• Assault on the Truth, Part 1: A PC Military vs. an Absolutist Enemy.(BigPeace).By John Guandolo.How the U.S. National Security Apparatus is Imposing the Islamic Law of Slander on American Citizens and Aiding and Abetting the Enemy. U.S. War fighting doctrine requires we analyze an enemy beginning with (1) who the enemy says he is, and (2) why he states he is fighting us. From there, the enemy’s threat doctrine is identified, studied and taught to those who have national security and war fighting responsibilities so the enemy can be defeated.The United States has been engaged in a war since 9/11/2001 in which 100% of the enemy states they are “Muslims fighting Jihad in the Cause of Allah in order to impose Shariah (Islamic Law) on the entire world.” Violent Jihadi organizations such as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and others make clear their strategic objective is to re-establish the Global Islamic State (Caliphate) under which Shariah (Islamic Law) is the law of the land. All Islamic nations (Head of State level), via the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s (OIC’s) Cairo Declaration define human rights as the imposition of Shariah. The Cairo Declaration was served as an official document to the United Nations in 1993.Hence, when OIC nations say they seek to spread human rights throughout the world, they are stating their objective is a world governed by Shariah. It is a matter of fact the most prominent Islamic organizations in North America are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) whose stated goals (in their By-Law, Strategic documents, etc) are (1) the re-establishment of the Caliphate (by force when needed); (2) under which Shariah is the law of the land. Therefore, our enemy is fighting a Total War in which Shariah (Islamic Law) serves as the basis of their stated threat doctrine, which they seek to impose on the entire world.Even if Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the leaders of Islamic nations are wrong about the requirements of Islamic Law, they continue to use it to wage war against us and, therefore, by our own war fighting doctrine, it constitutes a key element of the enemy threat doctrine.100% of all published Islamic Law – and yes, it is published and authoritative – makes Jihad a permanent obligation on all Muslims until the entire world is subordinated to Islamic Law. All published Islamic Law only defines Jihad as warfare against non-Muslim. No bona fide published Islamic Law differs from this. Our enemy knows this to be true.

Those are the facts.

Had the professional standard inside the U.S. National Security apparatus been maintained regarding the identification of the threat from the Islamic Movement after 9/11, it would be standard protocol inside the bureaucracy of the U.S. government to teach the basics of Islamic Law, as it relates to terrorism, to all new military officers, federal agencies, U.S. Attorneys Offices, and the like. However, that, sadly, is not the case.In fact, those who teach these facts are being systematically purged from the government sector by the very agencies whose reason for existence is to pursue facts to find the truth in order to enforce the Constitutional laws of these United States. The Muslim Brotherhood calls this “Civilization Jihad” by our hands – getting our leadership to do the Muslim Brotherhood’s bidding for them – in this case, silencing those presenting facts about the enemy threat doctrine.

The Islamic Law of Slander

In 14th century Islamic Sacred Law (Shariah) – Umdat al Salik – published today in English in Beltsville, Maryland (“Reliance of the Traveller”), “Slander” is defined as follows: “Slander means to mention anything concerning a person (Muslim) that he would dislike.” A truthful statement about Shariah which a Muslim does not want you to know or teach others is considered “Slander” in Islamic Law, and can be punishable by death. The international campaign launched by the OIC to have “Islamophobia” criminalized through official international channels, including the United Nations, is having a direct impact on local, state and federal law enforcement in the United States as the truthful, yet “offensive” information about Shariah is being kept from many of them – not by the Muslim Brotherhood, but by U.S. government officials acting on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Should We Understand Shariah? Is it a Threat?

Is Shariah (Islamic Law) really an imminent threat here in America? We know it is the very reason the enemy acts, and it is what the enemy uses to drive what he does. So let’s look at some evidence (read: “Facts”).In June 2009, Carlos Bledsoe, who previously converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, drove to the Army Recruiting Center in Little Rock, Arkansas and shot and killed Private William A. (“Andy”) Long, and wounded Private Quinton Ezeagwula. The U.S. government did not pursue this as a “Terrorism” matter, but let the local police and prosecutors handle it as a drive-by shooting. Abdulhakim Muhammad was “radicalized” at the Islamic Center of Nashville, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, and trained for jihad in Yemen. The FBI was aware of his arrest in Yemen, and sent an agent from the Nashville Field Office to interview him.The police report from the shooting revealed Muhammad “stated that he was a practicing Muslim … that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past.” Muhammad called the circuit court judge a “tyrant” and said he had no jurisdiction over him – which is true under Islamic Law. In a letter to the judge he said, “This was a Jihadi attack on infidel forces.” It doesn’t get clearer than that. Asked why this case was being prosecuted in the Pulaski County Circuit Court, a Justice Department spokesman stated: “Given that the capital murder case against Carlos Bledsoe, aka Abdulhakim Muhammad, is a matter of pending litigation in Arkansas, we refer you to the prosecutors handing the case in Arkansas for any comments on this matter.” Private Andy Long was killed by a Jihadi on the streets of America by the same enemy we are fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere. He is deserving of a Purple Heart and should be remembered as a warrior.

Facts in Evidence

The largest terrorism finance and Hamas trial successfully prosecuted in U.S. history was United States v Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (hereafter “HLF”). The case was adjudicated in the Northern District of Texas (Dallas) in 2008, and HLF and its leadership were convicted of sending over 12 million dollars to Hamas overseas. HLF was created by the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. to be one of three front organizations for Hamas. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, and is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. government. At the time it was indicted, HLF was the largest Islamic charity in the United States.The massive evidence in this trial reveals nearly all major Islamic organizations in the United States are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. These include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and many others. In fact, the Federal Judge overseeing this trial stated the “Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association of Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.” Evidence in this trial reveals ISNA was created to be the ‘nucleus’ for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Movement in North America.Evidence also reveals CAIR was established in 1994 by the Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. Palestine Committee (Hamas) as the fourth front organization for Hamas in the United States. The leaders of CAIR, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, led the IAP (Hamas), were surveilled by the FBI at a 1993 meeting of Hamas leaders in Philadelphia, and their names were on a list of Palestine Section (Hamas) members in the United States. CAIR is Hamas. CAIR’s headquarters office is two blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building.Additionally, the leadership of the Muslim American Society (MAS), another leading Islamic organization in the U.S., has openly stated they were founded by and are a Muslim Brotherhood entity.If these facts hold true, and they do, it begs the following questions: Why is the White House, the State Department, and the National Security Council relying on the leadership of ISNA for counsel and input with regards to the American Muslim community? Why is the DHS Secretary working closely with MAS? Why is TSA allowing its security officers to be trained by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), originally formed out of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Center of Southern California? Why is Nihad Awad continually allowed on Capitol Hill? Why is the government working with the enemy instead of prosecuting them?Hmmm.....I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

• President Barack Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record: A Pro-Life Compilation.by Steven Ertelt.Hmmm.....perhaps time to contact the Guiness record book?Read and see the full 'record' here.

• US mulls new financial sanctions against Iran.(YNet).Washington is planning to impose fresh sanctions against Iran's petrochemical industry, in wake of the recent IAEA report on Tehran's atom endeavors and its adamant refusal to suspend its nuclear efforts, CNN reported Saturday.Current US sanctions prohibit American companies from doing business with Iran and according to the news network's sources, the new measures aim to bar foreign companies from doing business with the Islamic Republic's petrochemical industry "by threatening them with being banned from US markets."European nations are expected to announce similar measures next week, but not all of the euro-zone members are in agreement: While Switzerland and France, for example, support tightening the financial vise on Iran, Russia is adamantly against it, and has warned further sanctions would be "a serious mistake."US President Barack Obama defended his efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions recently, saying the economic sanctions proposed against Tehran have an "enormous bite." The latest round of proposed measures will build on existing sanctions on Iran's oil and gas industry.The US' plans for additional sanctions come on the heels of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which suggested that Iran was making serious progress towards developing and constructing a nuclear weapon.Hmmmm....More sanctions that 'bite' ask Turkey how that 'biting' works out for them, the bilateral trade volume between Iran and Turkey has grown remarkably over the last decade. It has boomed from about $1 billion in 2000 up to $10.7 billion in 2010. Beyond that, earlier this year the Iranians and Turks signed a joint economic commission accord and declared that they aim to increase their bilateral trade volume to $30 billion in the future.Read the full story here.

• Europe’s new fascists are closet liberals.(DocsTalk).By Timothy Stanley.The spectre of neo-fascism is haunting Europe. But is it fascism or is it something else?The Economist, which prefers to call it “populism”, writes: “Anti-Muslim, anti-elite, anti-globalisation and increasingly anti-Brussels, populists now count for something in the Nordic countries, among the Dutch and Flemish, in France, Italy and Austria, and in parts of eastern Europe. They come in many varieties, but all claim to represent... the ripped-off, lied-to little people”. Harvard professor Dani Rodrik (who is happy to call them “fascists”) explains in National Magazine how these parties gained popularity: “Mounting concerns about the erosion of economic security, social stability and cultural identity could not be handled through mainstream political channels. National political structures became too constrained to offer effective remedies, while European institutions still remain too weak to command allegiance.” The result was an explosion of populist Far Right movements that have played “kingmaker” in Holland and Finland, while the Italian “post-fascist” Gianfranco Fini is now President of his country’s Chamber of Deputies. Outside the Eurozone, even the Neo-Nazi Sweden Democrats won 6 percent of the vote in last year’s parliamentary elections. Frightening stuff. But the temptation to lump all these movements together under the banner of “revived fascism” should be resisted. Although all these groups are anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim, they do have profound differences.Those with a long history (the French National Front) tend to have genetic links with 1930s fascism. But figures who have come to prominence in the last decade, such as Holland’s Geert Wilders, do not (Wilders has Indonesian blood and his father fled the Nazis).Some parties have fluctuating electoral success that suggests they are purely a protest vote (Britain’s BNP), while others have long-term regional or demographic support (Italy’s Lega Nord).Certainly, there is no single fascist movement in Europe, rather a patchwork of different nationalist reactions to domestic problems.If you extract the outright crazy (the BNP) from the serious attempt at mainstream politicking (Finnland’s True Finns), you’ll actually find a set of parties that don’t easily fit the fascist label.The fascism of the 1930s was illiberal, anti-free speech, anti-feminist and homophobic. In contrast, contemporary nationalists wear their cultural liberalism as a badge of political legitimacy. Holland’s Wilders, for example, attacks Islam as an agent of intolerance, highlighting what he perceives as the Koran’s prejudices against women and gays.Even the ruffians of the English Defence League have a Facebook page devoted to its “Gay Division”.Perhaps this is part of a strategy to dress up racial bigotry as social liberalism. But the new movements are consistently secular in their rhetoric: rarely do they invoke Christianity as the bedrock of Europe, preferring instead to quote the Enlightenment as its genesis.Nor do they express that most constant theme of traditionalist Christianity: anti-Semitism. On the contrary, the True Finns are big fans of Israel and have received favourable write ups in the Jeruslam Post (although the Hungarian Jobbik movement is truly, awfully anti-Semitic).Most importantly, none of these groups present a threat to established democratic institutions. The fascists of the 1930s saw democracy as a Trojan horse for communism, legitimising popular socialism. They campaigned openly for a one party state and won power in countries where democracy had only been practised for one generation.In contrast, no nationalist party in Europe is promising a dictatorship. On the contrary, most see themselves as a bulwark against a perceived Islamic conspiracy to pervert democracy.Many wish to extend democratic participation either by reintegrating the working-class into politics, leaving the EU or (as in the case of the separatist Vlaams Belang of Belgium) replacing the bureaucratic nation state with ethnic self-determination.Mussolini, Hitler or Franco would have recognised little of themselves in the modern Far Right. That’s not to suggest that it is a benign phenomenon, but it’s important that critics understand what they’re writing about when critiquing it.And the Left must not be allowed to use it as a bogeyman to scare the Right out of talking about immigration or the future of the EU. Indeed, in its secularism and embrace of postmodern cultural values, the new nationalism actually has little in common with traditionalist conservatism.Its mix of social liberalism and economic populism makes it more empathetic to the demands of the old fashioned Left. It is infused with the values of the 1960s and regards itself as the protector of the contemporary European social contract against the more religiously conservative threat of Islam.Europe’s fascists aren’t fascists at all: they’re liberals on steroids.Read the full story here.

• Holland takes tough stance against Iran.(JPost).‘The Iranian threat to annihilate 6 million Jews is an Auschwitz in the making,’ Party of Freedom official says.BERLIN – A parliamentary resolution last week against Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons contributed to the Dutch Foreign Ministry embracing what appears to be the strongest European position toward ratcheting up the pressure on Tehran’s leaders.Wim Kortenoeven, a deputy from the Party for Freedom, told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview from The Hague on Friday that his party had worked to pass a potent measure.“Now for the practical execution of our resolution, which was unanimously supported in parliament. The foreign minister should be in the forefront of demanding the most forceful sanctions. And he is doing that. There is still a window of opportunity. There seems to be a willingness in Europe to go far in the sanctions and even to follow the initiatives of the US Congress.But at the same time there seems to be a reluctance on the part of the US government where it concerns targeting the Iranian Central Bank. And boycotting that entity is probably the key for our success,” Kortenoeven said. Kortenoeven, 56, one of Europe’s most prominent advocates for Israel’s security, spearheaded the passage of the parliamentary resolution.According to the text, “the Islamic Republic of Iran violates the NPT and the IAEA suspects Iran of illegally developing nuclear weapons and illegal ballistic delivery systems.”The resolution urges that “fast-working and effective sanctions must be imposed in order to force Iran to abandon the illegal nuclear program and open up completely to the IAEA,” and, “ultimate means should be used, if necessary, so as to prevent the need for military intervention.”The resolution states that “measures should hurt the Iranian regime in its heart in order to compel them to compliance,” and, “calls on the [Dutch] government to take the lead with European and American allies in order to impose swift and effective sanctions.”The Dutch resolution appears to be the only European legislative motion to slam Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency report confirmed that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons designs.The Party for Freedom plays the role of kingmaker in the Dutch coalition government, with the governing parties needing its support.Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), issued the strongest statement at EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.When asked about military intervention, Rosenthal said, “I don’t exclude anything.Now is not the moment to say anything else.”The Dutch resolution, a product of political compromise in the parliament, did not meet all of Kortenoeven’s goals.“Our proposal to cut the diplomatic ties with Tehran, however, was rejected by all other parties. We reasoned that the regime in Tehran is for all practical purposes a terrorist organization and that their threat to annihilate the Jewish state is in fact an ultimate terrorist act.And since we do not have contact with Hamas and with Hezbollah, them being terrorist organizations, we should also cut ties with the ayatollahs,” he said.Kortenoeven is a leading expert on the Middle East and has garnered an international reputation for his analysis on the region.His party’s leader, Geert Wilders, advocates a tough approach to radical Islam in the Netherlands, including restrictions on immigration.The Party for Freedom has prioritized Israel’s security interests and sees combating extremist Islam as integral to defending Israel and Western liberal values.Kortenoeven told the Post, “My party, the Party for Freedom, will never let Israel down. We will never let down the Jewish State of Israel. We will also support Israel when they exercise their legitimate right to self-defense.In the debate I repeated it three times: My party will never abandon Israel. We support it unconditionally and with whatever it takes. The Iranian threat to annihilate six million Jews is a moral call to us. It is an Auschwitz in the making. We take this threat seriously. History forces us to do that. It happened before and the West did nothing to stop it.”He continued, “In the debate, I referred to the ships that were crossing oceans and seas, filled with Jews trying to escape the Nazis, but ending up in Hamburg or being torpedoed in the Black See. The St. Louis and the Struma. Perhaps I also should have referred to the Evian Conference of 1938.There the free West effectively turned its back on the Jews, making nice statements but offering nothing substantial to save them, and bluntly refusing to go to the hilt in stopping the Nazi menace.The similarity is very disturbing and very real.”According to Kortenoeven, “Supporting Israel now is a moral obligation. But it is also in our own best interest, as the Iranian threat is also extending to the rest of the free and liberal West.“These terrible things may start with the Jews, but they never end with the Jews. The Jewish people and the State of Israel are the canary in the coal mine. That is also a lesson of history.”Kortenoeven twice worked in a kibbutz: in 1976 in Nahshon and in 1981 in Matzuva.In an e-mail to the Post on Friday, Yochanan Visser, an expert on Dutch-Israeli relations – who made aliya from the Netherlands in 2000 – wrote, “Now, it is good that Dutch FM Rosenthal said that the military option is still on the table, during the EU meeting last Monday.”Visser, the head of the Missing Peace NGO, said “the Dutch government should take the lead in the EU. That can be done by pushing for a military buildup in the Persian Gulf by EU NATO countries and by giving the example in the sanctions regime by cutting all ties with Iran.”Read the full story here.

• Why Do Western Elites Minimize Radical Threats in the Middle East?(DocsTalk).By Barry Rubin.A leading journalist heard my analysis on the rise of the radical Islamists in the Middle East, how U.S. policy is helping them, and why this is a disaster. His response? How could I say that Hamas was radical and wanted to wipe out Israel since it had not continually attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip?Although this remark was about a very specific issue, I understood the general concept underlying it. To be a radical or extremist, many Westerners seem to believe, means you are a drooling loony, a caricature of a bomb-throwing revolutionary, like a rabid dog unable to stop himself from biting anyone within reach. If you wear a tie and jacket, or just a jacket, or speak patiently and protest your moderation, or have patience you cannot be a radical. Oh, yes, you are also not a radical if you claim not to be one, even if that’s only done in English while you are calling for Islamist revolution, Sharia law, genocide against the Jews, and anti-Western hate in Arabic. Yet radicals have used strategy for many decades. Lenin wrote a short book, Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Malady, to ridicule the mindless extremists in his movement. The Muslim Brotherhood took a similar view of al-Qaida as being a one-note terrorist group. The whole Turkish model of revolutionary Islamism is based on a patient strategy of hiding their true objectives and maneuvering into total control.Why cannot Western elites see this kind of lightly camoflauged extremism, used by thoroughly by the Communists and also, though this has been largely forgotten, by Nazi and fascist movements. Here are two examples among hundreds. First, an official Palestinian Authority (PA)—the moderates, remember—cleric gives a Friday sermon broadcast on PA television, November 11, 2011 (thanks to MEMRI):. “This racist entity [Israel] will also come to an end, because it too contradicts the natural disposition of the prophets, the righteous, the martyrs, and humanity as a whole….Oh Allah, destroy our enemies. They are no match for you. Oh Allah, count them one by one, and disperse them all. Don’t leave a single one. Oh Allah, drive them out of Palestine in humiliation and disgrace. Oh Allah, drive them out of Jerusalem and its environs, just as you drove them out of Mecca and Medina. Oh Allah, drive them out of the Levant, just as you drove them out of the Arabian Peninsula.”Remember that the Jewish tribes were not exactly driven out of the Arabian Peninsula. The men were murdered; the women and children enslaved. For some reason I don’t quite understand, the Western media does not report on literally hundreds of this type of sermon, broadcast, or article. Somehow they are considered not important even though they drive people into a killing frenzy and make a compromise peace impossible.I do recall, however, a spate of articles a few months ago giving credit for the PA for getting rid of radical preachers. Not at all. It merely eliminated Hamas supporters. Can we ever hope for honest coverage that would thus show people that the PA is not moderate, keeps its people hysterical with hatred, incites them to kill, glorifies terrorists, and thus makes peace impossible?Then there are the moderate Islamists. There is a large collection of statements by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders, Libyan warlords, and Tunisian Islamist politicians that show they are definitely not moderate. Here’s one.Tunisia’s prime minister-designate Hamadi Jebeli speaking at a rally:“My brothers, you are at a historic moment in a new cycle of civilization, God willing. We are in [the] sixth caliphate, God willing.” So durable is the mandatory myth of moderation that the article in the Daily Telegraph (a conservative newspaper) reporting this tells us that Jebeli is a moderate. However, it points out that a leftist party, Ettakatol, was so upset at this statement that it suspended coalition talks with Jebeli’s party. The two liberal parties have already denounced those who are called moderate Islamists in Washington as being radical Islamists.“We thought we were going to build a second republic with our partner–not a sixth caliphate,” Khemais Ksila, a senior member of the leftist party, said.The article explains that the caliphate idea is controversial because of its association with al-Qaida. Well, actually there are a few other problems. When people like Jebeli speak of a caliph they are talking about a divinely-guided individual who must be obeyed, will unite all Muslims into a single state, will certainly impose Sharia law on all Muslim-majority countries, and can legally declare Jihad.There isn’t going to be a caliphate for a very long time if ever because Muslims will never agree on who should be caliph, where his capital city should be, whether he should be a Sunni or Shia, and lots of other stuff. Thus, Jebeli’s statement isn’t important because he talks about a caliphate as such but because it tells us his true politics and goals.So this is just a small sample: the “moderate” Palestinians preaching genocide; the “moderate” Islamists preaching a universal Islamic dictatorship. Why oh why cannot Western leaders speak about such things, Western “experts” talk of them, and Western media publish or broadcast this very real news? There is no “racial” stereotyping or Islamophobia or any such things here. The guilty are those who hold these political and theological stances, not those who reject them. The heroes are Muslims and other Middle Easterners who fight against genocidal extremism and radical Islamism. Most of the victims of these movements are also Arabs, Muslims, or both.Even in their own ideology there is no excuse for these Western officials, politicians, journalists, and academics to conceal the nature of the threat. It is almost the end of 2012, years too late to please ignorance.Reflecting on this point, a Turkish friend in the anti-Islamist regime opposition said to me: “We can no longer regard these people as fools. We can only consider them to be enemies.”Read the full story here.

• 'It's all i, i, i nowadays': Chief Rabbi blasts late Apple boss Steve Jobs for helping to create a selfish consumer society.(DailyMail).The Chief Rabbi today launched an eyebrow-raising attack on late Apple founder Steve Jobs - who he says helped create a selfish consumer culture that has only brought unhappiness. Lord Sacks, who represents Britain's 300,000 Jews, singled out Jobs for blame likening his iPad tablets to the tablets of stone bearing the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses.He said advertising only made shoppers aware of what they did not have - rather than feeling grateful for what they did - and warned a culture where people only worried about themselves could not last long.Faith and spending time with family, he said, were the only way to true happiness.Religious leaders have condemned banks and politicians in recent years to criticise the growing gap between the rich and poor. But this is one of the first times a private individual has been blamed.Speaking at an interfaith reception attended by the Queen this week, he said: 'People are looking for values other than the values of a consumer society. The values of a consumer society really aren’t ones you can live by for terribly long.'The consumer society was laid down by the late Steve Jobs coming down the mountain with two tablets, iPad one and iPad two, and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i, i, i. 'When you're an individualist, egocentric culture and you only care about 'i’, you don’t do terribly well.'Jobs died aged 56 in October, prompting an outpouring of grief from across the world.Sacks added: 'What does a consumer ethic do? It makes you aware all the time of the things you don't have instead of thanking God for all the things you do have.The Chief Rabbi, who is due to step down from his post in 2013, added: 'Therefore the answer to the consumer society is the world of faith, which the Jews call the world of Shabbat, where you can't shop and you can't spend and you spend your time with things that matter, with family.'Unless we get back to these values we will succeed in making our children and grandchildren ever unhappier,' the Telegraph reported him as saying. Hmmm......"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness". ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.Read the full story here.

• Video - Syria’s Assad will not ‘bow down’ to foreign pressure, vows to continue crackdown.(AlArabiya).President Bashar al-Assad said Syria would not bow down in the face of mounting international pressure over his lethal crackdown on dissent, in an interview with The Sunday Times.Assad told the British weekly newspaper he was “definitely” prepared to fight and die for Syria if faced with foreign intervention.“This goes without saying and is an absolute,” he said.The president said he felt sorrow for each drop of Syrian blood spilt but insisted Damascus must go after armed rebel gangs and enforce law and order.“The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue,” he said. “I assure you that Syria will not bow down.”In video footage on the newspaper’s website, Assad said there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution and that would include provision for a presidential ballot.“That constitution will set the basis of how to elect a president, if they need a president or don’t need him,” he said. “They have the elections, they can participate in it. The ballot boxes will decide who should be president.”Assad accused the Arab League, whose deadline for Syria to stop its clampdown has expired, of creating a pretext for Western military intervention, which would trigger an “earthquake” across the Middle East.“If they are logical, rational and realistic, they shouldn’t do it because the repercussions are very dire. Military intervention will destabilize the region as a whole, and all countries will be affected,” he said.In an interview at the Tishreen Palace in Damascus, the 46-year-old said the solution to the violence was not to pull back his troops.“Like any other Syrian, when I see my country’s sons bleeding, of course I feel pain and sorrow,” he said. “Each spilt drop of blood concerns me personally.“But my role as president is in deeds, not words and sorrow. My role is to think about the steps I should take to prevent more bloodshed.”The Arab League’s deadline expired at 2200 GMT Saturday, but Assad dismissed their move.“It’s been done to show that there’s a problem between the Arabs, thus providing Western countries with a pretext to conduct a military intervention against Syria,” he said.Activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 civilians were killed in raids by government forces on Saturday while two army defectors died when they clashed with the army in Homs, which has become a centre of armed revolt against more than 40 years of Assad family rule.Asked if his forces had been too aggressive, Assad told the newspaper mistakes had been made but these were the fault of individuals, not the state.“We, as a state, do not have a policy to be cruel with citizens,” he said.The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed during the crackdown on the protests which began in March, but Assad disputed this and put the number killed at 619. He told the paper that 800 government forces had been killed.Syria has come under growing international pressure to stop the crackdown. Britain, a strong critic of Damascus, said on Friday senior figures including Foreign Secretary William Hague would meet Syrian opposition representatives in London next week.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed fear that Syria could be slipping into civil war but said the international community was reluctant to intervene as it had in Libya.Assad also vowed to prevent further attacks by the Free Syrian Army, which opposition sources said had killed or wounded at least 20 security police in an assault on an Air Force Intelligence Complex near Damascus two days ago.“The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighboring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order,” he told the paper.However early Sunday morning at least two rocket-propelled grenades hit a main ruling Baath Party building in Damascus, residents said, in the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital since uprising began against Assad.Read and see the full story here.

• Saudis to Increase Diplomatic Security.(SaudiGazette).After the plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador to the US Nail Adel Jubeir, and attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Damascus, the Saudi government is going to establish its own bureau of Diplomatic Security, Saudi Gazette reports. The move seems to be setting up an office somewhat similar in its mission to that of the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) in that it will protect missions and diplomats abroad as well as foreign missions within the Kingdom. This latter job is currently being done by both police and the Saudi Arabian National Guard.JEDDAH — The government is setting up a special security unit to protect Saudi ambassadors and diplomatic missions abroad. The unit will also be responsible for providing protection to foreign diplomatic missions in the Kingdom.Teams of commandos, officers and non-commissionedspecial security unit to protect Saudi ambassadors and diplomatic missions abroad. The unit will also be responsible for providing protection to foreign diplomatic missions in the Kingdom.Teams of commandos, officers and non-commissioned officers will be trained specifically for the unit known as the “Special Forces for Diplomatic Security”.
  It will fall under the Ministry of Interior, said Al-Hayat Arabic daily, quoting informed sources.
  It is believed that the authorities were working on the idea long before the revelation of the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Ambassador in Washington.
  Members of the unit will be armed with the latest sophisticated weapons.
  They will be trained to protect diplomatic facilities and residences, and escort ambassadors on official business. They will also have special training in anti-terrorism methods and air-borne exercises and drive special armored vehicles used to guard diplomats and missions.Read the full story here.

• Dozens of Israeli women strip in support of Egypt blogger.(YNet).Dozens of Israeli women stripped off their clothes Saturday in a show of solidarity with the 20-year-old Egyptian blogger who caused a stir in the Arab world last week when she posted a naked photo of herself in protest against the limits on free expression in her country. Touched by the spirited protest measure, some 40 Israelis posed for a nude group shot in support of the Egyptian activist, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, who received threats and harsh criticism for her actions. Unlike Elmahdy, however, the Israeli women did not fully display their intimate parts for the camera.The brains behind the operation is Or Tepler, 28, who opened a Facebook event inviting women "to show support in a non-violent and legitimate way for a woman who is just like us – young, ambitious, full of dreams and evidently has a developed sense of humor.""Girls, let's give the world a good reason to see the unique beauty of Israeli women," Tepler wrote. "Regardless of whether they are Jewish, Arab, straight or Lesbian – because here, as of now, it doesn't matter. (…) Let us show the doubters that our international discourse doesn't depend on governments."  More than 100 women said they would attend. The participants were photographed holding a sign saying "Love without Limits," and "Homage to Aliaa Elmahdi. Sisters in Israel." "I got the idea the day that the blogger's photo was posted," Tepler told Ynet. "I didn't expect that she would get the response that she got. It got on my nerves that she received a quarter of a million abusive comments and death threats. (…) I felt that when a liberal, enlightened woman in Cairo cannot express herself and gets threats from her state, I should show solidarity. "Of course there's the nationalistic aspect, and I won't deny being a leftist and a seeker of peace," she added. "I feel like the governments don't represent the enlightened, simple people who want peace."  Tepler, who was active in the social protest movement over the summer, made efforts to get in touch with Elmahdy, but was unsuccessful. "She's as popular as Daphni Leef on the 14th of July," she explained. "I sent her an e-mail, but I saw that her Twitter and Facebook account have been closed. People really want to take her down, while we want to show her that there are many groups that support her."Read the full story here.

• Somalia’s Shabaab vow to defeat Ethiopian forces.(AlArabiya).Somalia’s Islamist Shabaab rebels warned Ethiopia on Sunday they would “break the necks” of their troops inside Somalia, a day after several hundred soldiers crossed into the war-torn country.“Soldiers of our enemy, the black colonialists of Ethiopia, made some movements into our region on Saturday, but they do not scare us,” said Sheikh Yusuf Ali Ugas, the insurgent group’s commander for the Hiran region.“We will break the necks of the invaders. ... Our troops are ready for anything, if the Ethiopian enemy try to attack us,” Ugas added, speaking on the group’s radio Al Andalus.Ethiopian troops in lorries and armored vehicles entered southern and central Somali regions, local elders said on Saturday, although Addis Ababa has denied all reports. No fighting has so far been reported, and the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militia said their positions were secure.“We shall defeat them and fight them any way we can,” Ugas said. “The Ethiopian attack is a plan to oppose the implementation of Sharia law in Somalia by the enemies of our Muslim nation. Small numbers of Ethiopian forces have been reported operating in Somali border regions in the recent past, but witnesses said the scale of troop movements was far larger this time.The numbers of troops reported suggest that Addis Ababa could be making its first large-scale incursion since it invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing.It pulled out three years later after a sparking bloody uprising against its forces and failing to restore order in its lawless neighbor, which has lacked a functioning government for two decades.Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti on Saturday dismissed the reports outright, saying there were “absolutely no troops in Somalia.”Hardline Shabaab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, but are battling both the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and Kenyan troops in the far south, who crossed the border last month to attack rebel strongholds.Hmmm.....Why is the guy in the picture showing off a crucifix, got it of a 'slayed' Christian?Read the full story here.

• From Greece : Greece-EU 2011: Parents Give Up Their Children Because They Can’t Feed Them.(KTG).The newspaper reports of a case of a 30-year-old woman from a suburb of western Athens. She asked the prosecutor to ‘keep her baby so that it won’t die of cold’. The woman had no money to pay for the rent, while the electricity was cut off. The prosecutors’ office staff made a fundraising, gave her money to pay the rent so she won’t be separated form her child. They also informed the municipality to support the woman as much as possible.Read the full story here.
• Related:School Closes Due to Lack of Heating Oil.(KTG).The Association of Parents at the 2. Elementary School on the island of Skiathos, Sporades, decided to close the school due to lack of heating oil. The parents decided to do so because the municipality delayed the creation of the school committee with the effect that no heating oil can be supplied.There is a total of 143 pupils attending the school.Read the full story here.

• What secrets will he reveal? Gaddafi's playboy son Saif cowers after capture by rebels and will be quizzed about Blair, Mandelson and Prince Andrew friendships.(Dailymail).Looking haggard and fearful, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi cowers in terror after his capture by Libyan fighters yesterday.His old swagger gone, the British-educated son of Colonel Gaddafi was clearly terrified that he might encounter the same fate as his father, who was killed a month ago.Saif could yet face the death penalty for his crimes, but Libyan officials promised he would, at least, receive a fair trial. That trial could prove highly embarrassing for influential British figures – including Prince Andrew and Tony Blair – if Saif reveals details of the close links he enjoyed with them.The 39-year-old former playboy and womaniser was captured trying to flee across the border into Niger. A mob of angry protesters tried to storm the plane but were beaten back by soldiers under orders to keep their prisoner alive so he could face justice.Only three weeks ago Saif had vowed to avenge his father’s death, declaring defiantly: ‘I am alive and free and willing to fight to the end.’But last night he was facing the likelihood of trial in his own country – or extradition to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity. Thousands of Libyans celebrated in the streets after hearing that the fugitive, who remained loyal to his father’s murderous regime to the end, had been captured without a struggle.The dictator’s heir was intercepted near the oil town of Obari as he tried to reach the frontier in a 4x4 vehicle, accompanied by three bodyguards. Desert fighters acting on a tip-off fired into the air and ground to bring the car to a halt.As they checked the identity of those inside, Saif told them his name was Abdelsalam – which means ‘servant of peace’ – but he was immediately recognised and taken away by the fighters.One of those involved in the capture, Ahmed Ammar, said: ‘At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him.’ Saif’s captors said they found only a few thousand dollars and a cache of rifles in the seized vehicles.Saif is thought to have been hiding in the southern desert since fleeing the tribal bastion of Bani Walid, near the capital, Tripoli, last month.After his capture, he was photographed lying on a bed in a prison cell, his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a blanket. Officials said the injury had been sustained in a Nato air raid a month ago.There was jubilation across the country as car horns and flag-waving marked the seizure of Saif, who had close connections with some of the most powerful figures in Britain, including Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson. The London School of Economics graduate, who threw wild parties in the South of France and owned a £10 million mansion in Hampstead, will now face the judgment of his own people and of the international community.If he decides to reveal all he knows about the UK’s relations with Libya during his father’s rule, his evidence could prove highly embarrassing.Saif was indicted by the International Criminal Court during the brutal fighting that preceded the tyrant’s overthrow. Last night prosecutors said they would travel to Libya for talks.Under international laws, Libya has the right to put Saif on trial. The ICC will only act if a country is unable or unwilling to prosecute. Many Libyans want him tried in his own country because they believe he knows the location of billions of dollars of public money amassed by the Gaddafi family.‘The good news is that Saif Al Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice,’ said ICC lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo.Speaking on the plane which took him to an army base, Saif denied reports that he had been in contact with the ICC while on the run, insisting: ‘It’s all lies. I’ve never been in touch with them.’Libya’s justice minister said Saif would now be put on trial in his homeland for crimes that carry the death penalty, including instigating others to kill and misusing public funds.Mohammed Al Alagy said: ‘We are ready to prosecute him. We have adopted enough legal and judicial procedures to ensure a fair trial for him.’Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib celebrated Saif’s capture as the ‘crowning’ of the rebel uprising and said: ‘Saif Al Islam will receive a fair trial under fair legal processes which our own people have been deprived of for the last 40 years.’ David Cameron said the arrest was ‘a great achievement for the Libyan people and must now become a victory for international justice too’. Once seen as a reformer who could end Libya’s isolation, Saif had cultivated relationships with those at the heart of the British Establishment.Prince Andrew was a regular visitor to Tripoli as a trade ambassador and is reported to have played host to Saif at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. Lord Powell, the former adviser to Margaret Thatcher and John Major, chaired a company that agreed construction deals in Libya.Another person linked to Saif is Nat Rothschild, of the banking dynasty, who has business interests in Libya. In 2008 Saif was a guest at a party thrown by Mr Rothschild at his New York home. He was later a guest at a shooting party at Mr Rothschild’s British country home and also stayed at the family’s villa in Corfu.Lord Mandelson, then Labour’s Business Secretary, was also a guest at the villa and has admitted discussing with Saif the fate of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, who was later released from prison in Scotland because of failing health.But the main effort to forge closer links with Gaddafi’s Libya was led by Mr Blair. In August 2003, Tripoli agreed to compensate the Lockerbie victims and accepted responsibility for its involvement in the atrocity. Five days later, Mr Blair introduced a UN resolution to lift sanctions against the pariah state. The following year, he embraced Colonel Gaddafi when they met in the Colonel’s tent near Tripoli to discuss bilateral relations.Saif knows Britain well since studying for a PhD at the London School of Economics. Britain’s former Ambassador to America, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, has been forced to deny claims he helped him with his thesis.But Sir Howard Davies resigned as LSE director after it emerged that Saif’s charitable foundation had given the college a grant of £1.5 million.Last year, Saif was invited to give a speech at the university, at which Professor David Held described him as ‘someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration’.While Saif al-Islam looked for now to have avoided the brutal fate of his father - killed shortly after his capture - it is far from clear what will happen next. Western states in particular are keen that he be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which indicted him earlier this year for crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protesters.'This is an acid test of the NTC's authority,' said Henry Smith, Libya analyst for London-based consultancy Control Risks. 'The capture presents a challenge... if they want to try Saif then what can they do to make Zintan hand him over.  'They do not have the capacity to use coercive means so do they offer the town the coveted security portfolios in the forthcoming cabinet? If so, then to which of the Zintan militias? They may leave his fate to the Zintanis, but then where does that leave Libya's embryonic justice system?' Western human rights groups were critical of the mob justice handed out to Gaddafi senior and to at least one of his sons, and, along with many foreign governments, are demanding Saif al-Islam be better treated. 'The authorities will send an important message that there's a new era in Libya, marked by the rule of law, by treating Saif al-Islam humanely and surrendering him to the ICC,' said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.    'His fair prosecution at the ICC will afford Libyans a chance to see justice served in a trial that the international community stands behind.'Human Rights Watch said there was far too much evidence of extrajudicial killings of former Gaddafi loyalists by opposition fighters as well as mistreatment in custody. Rights group Amnesty International said an immediate transfer to the ICC was the best option for Saif al-Islam.'He must be handed over to the ICC, and his safety and rights must be guaranteed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. Read the full story here.