MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.4 ; New Zealand 5.0 !More info here.

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

• Newt Taunts Obama: It Has To Be a Fair Debate, You Can Use A Teleprompter.(RCP).“I already said that if he wants to use a teleprompter, then it would be fine with me. It has to be fair. If you [were] to defend ObamaCare, wouldn’t you want a teleprompter?” Gingrich asked.“Now, in just for a second I’m going to go in the detour and I’ll try to explain why I’ve been and he’ll say yes. There are two reasons. The first, is either. Can you imagine him looking in the mirror? Graduate from Columbia, Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review journal. [Against] the greatest articulator in a Democratic book?”"How is he going to say that he's afraid to be on the same podium as a West Georgia College student?" Read the full story here.

• Video - ABC's Tapper To Carney: Looks Like Obama "Is Campaigning On Taxpayer Dime"(RCP).ABC News' Jake Tapper confronts White House press secretary Jay Carney over President Obama's schedule which has included a lot of traveling. Citing a Wall Street Journal article about the number of times President Obama has traveled to swing-states, Tapper bluntly asks Carney if Obama is "campaigning on taxpayer dime.""President Obama seems to travel to battleground states more so than any other president before him. Am I'm wondering if you could respond to this. It looks like the president is campaigning on the taxpayer dime more than any other president has done," Tapper said at today's White House briefing."I reject the premise of that," Carney responded. Carney said since Obama "expanded the political map" by winning some red states, so many more states are considered "purple" or swing-states now. Carney also said that there is "logistical" decision making when the White House plans to travel. Carney is then asked by CBS News' Mark Knoller if politics isn't the motive then what is, causing the press secretary to give a bumbling answer.Hmmm....The Grinch that took away America's taxpayer money?Read the full story here.

• Report: Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility.(Haaretz).Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004.An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city. According to reports, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion. Speaking with Fars news agency, Isfahan’s deputy mayor confirmed the reports and said the authorities are investigating the matter. However, after the incident was reported in Israel, the report was taken off the Fars website. It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events. One example is a statement given by the same deputy mayor to the Mehr news agency, saying he had no reports of an explosion.Another confirmation came from the head of the city's judiciary, who said an explosion-like sound was heard. Meanwhile, the Mehr news agency reported there has been a blast at a petrol station near the city. Another report pointed to a training accident. The reported incident occurred about two weeks after Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam was killed together with 20 other Guard members Nov. 12 at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 40 kilometers southwest of Tehran. The Revolutionary Guard said the accidental explosion occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions. It should be noted that Iran operates a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, one with an important function in the chain of Iran's nuclear program. It first went into operation in 2004, taking uranium from mines and producing uranium fluoride gas, which then feeds the centrifuges that enrich the uranium. Since 2004, thousands of kilograms of uranium flouride gas were stockpiled at Isfahan and subsequently sent to the enrichment plant in Natanz.Earlier Monday, a top Israeli security official said that the recent explosion that rocked an Iranian missile base near Tehran could delay or stop further Iranian surface-to-surface missile development. The official added, however that the Iranian nuclear program was continuing to gain ground, despite considerable international pressure and attempts to destabilize the Iranian regime.Read the full story here.          

• The last Jews of Baghdad: Just SEVEN remain (and they fear for their lives after being named by WikiLeaks).(DailyMail).The seven remaining Jews in Baghdad have been named by WikiLeaks, leaving them in danger of persecution, according to the city's Anglican vicar.Their lives are now in immediate danger, according to Canon Andrew White, and they’ve been advised to hide their religion.Canon White said Baghdad’s Anglican Church is trying to protect them, as they fear extremists might try to kill them if they’re identified.WikiLeaks published diplomatic cables from Baghdad which named the individuals of the small Jewish community.And now the American Embassy is trying to locate any Jewish diplomats who could help the exposed individuals take part in religious ceremonies safely, to make up the number they’re required to take part in under Jewish Law.A documentary on the dangers they face and the exodus of Jews from Iraq is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow.The programme, by the BBC’s creative director Alan Yentob, said that for 2,600 years, a thriving Jewish community lived in Mesopotamia.A third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish by the end of the First World War but they were forced to flee during the Second World War, which saw 180 killed in one day.Jews living in Iraq were then branded Zionists and traitors after the creation of Israel in 1948 and when Iraq sent an army to fight in Palestine, Yentob says in the programme.Only 6,000 Jews were living in Iraq by the 1960s and today only seven remain in the capital.The Anglican church in Baghdad is also trying to keep safe abandoned Jewish shrines in Iraq.Read the full story here.

• The Pakistan Situation is far more Dire than the U.S. Media is Reporting.(Shenandoah)ByJohn Galt.The editorial cartoon in this morning’s edition of Pakistan Today tells the tale of woe the U.S. mainstream media will attempt to hide from the masses to prevent any political backlash. The outrage in Pakistan is impossible to miss and it is doubtful that a simple increase in financial aid will pacify the people or government of Pakistan at this time.After years of errors like the attack over the holiday, if it was an error at all, the psychology and relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan has changed dramatically yet most casual observers would never notice this shift. The Chinese have been exploiting State Department incompetence and exploiting the schism by offering less intrusive aid packages to Pakistan along with many other Central Asian governments along with military aid. The mistrust of the U.S. is at an all time high in Islamic Republics from Turkey to Turkmenistan yet the mentality of this administration is that the policies used during the post Cold War period that the U.S. is needed as a buffer to Russia. The Chinese have been playing the old board game of Risk while the U.S. continues to play tic-tac-toe.Add in this revelation from the Pakistani military, if true, via Pakistan Today: Pakistan denies NATO was under fire before attack.ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday denied reports that its troops opened fire first, therefore triggering lethal NATO cross-border air strikes that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead.“This is not true. They are making up excuses. And by the way, what are their losses, casualties?” Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s chief military spokesman, wrote to AFP in a text message.The Wall Street Journal, citing three unnamed Afghan officials and one Western official, said Saturday’s attack, which has prompted fury in Islamabad, was called in to shield NATO and Afghan forces targeting Taliban fighters.The fire came from remote outposts in the Mohmand region in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, branded an Al-Qaeda hub by Washington.An Afghan official said that the government in Kabul believes the fire came from a Pakistani military base — and not from insurgents in the area.That version was corroborated by two Afghan officials working in the border zone. One border police official said Pakistani officials were informed of the NATO operation ahead of time, the Wall Street Journal said.Unfortunately for the U.S., the people of Pakistan and in other Islamic nations in the region are going to believe the Pakistani version over any statements by the American government or media. This wedge that has developed between the Islamic world, especially the Islamists who are now mixing the idea of unification for a grand Caliphate openly within their campaigns, is deepest inside of Pakistan and now opens the floodgates to the idea that the U.S. needs to be ejected from the region completely. If the supply lines remain closed for more than a week, the Islamist factions within the Pakistani government and military have won the day and the U.S. faces the prospect of having tens of thousands of troops inside Afghanistan isolated with limited supplies during the winter season.If anyone thinks the Taliban and their allies in the Pakistani military is not keenly aware of this fact, they are living in a world of delusion. This could be the end game to force the U.S. out of the region on a time table we did not desire and open up the Eastern front for the greater Caliphate movement.Hmmmm.....How many $Billions did the Obama admin give exactly to Pakistan.....?Between 2002-2010, Pakistan received approximately 18 billion in military and economic aid from the United States. In February 2010, the Obama administration requested an additional 3 billion in aid, for a total of 20.7 billion.Read the full story here.

• Canada - Could someone have saved the Shafia girls?(Yahoo).By Michael Friscolanti - Macleans.Before their alleged “honour killing,” victims repeatedly complained to police, teachers and social workers.The “system” did not kill the Shafia sisters. If prosecutors are correct, and their midnight drowning was in fact a mass execution, the girls perished because their parents and their brother are “honourable” people. They are dead because they were beautiful and bold and very much Canadian, a combination that so disgraced the good Muslim family that nothing short of their corpses could reverse the shame. The “system” did not dump them in the Rideau Canal.But it didn’t exactly run to save them, either.As a jury in Kingston, Ont., is now hearing, detectives, teachers and child welfare authorities knew full well that the Shafia home was a toxic pit of abuse, fear and borderline enslavement. One of the doomed sisters fled to a women’s shelter. Another told a police officer, point blank, that her dad threatened to kill them. Yet another tried to do it herself, popping a pile of pills in a failed suicide attempt. “I want to die,” Sahar Shafia, then 16, told her vice-principal. “I’ve had enough and I want to die.”At last count, five different members of the “system” have provided evidence of what they saw in the weeks and months before the girls died—and what they did (or didn’t do) in response. Although some of those witnesses fought back tears during their testimony, not a single one expressed regret or remorse. None of them said that if they had a wish, it would be to go back in time and do something more.They phoned the house. They convened meetings. They issued warnings. Twice, Quebec’s youth protection apparatus launched an official investigation. And both times, the case was closed. Should more have been done? Was someone negligent? Lazy? Were they crippled by cultural correctness? The answer, sadly, has become very clear during the course of this sensational trial: sometimes the “system” is simply no match for certain motivated individuals, especially someone who honestly believes that life behind bars is better than watching his teenage daughter hold a boy’s hand.The jury has already been told, over and over, that Zainab was the initial focus of her Afghan father’s wrath. The eldest of the seven Shafia children, she immigrated to Canada with the rest of the family in the summer of 2007—and immediately began bending the house rules. But in March 2008, after Hamed discovered her boyfriend hiding in their Montreal garage, Zainab was yanked out of school and banished to her bedroom. For nearly a year, she rarely left home.On Wednesday, the jury learned that Zainab was not the only female Shafia desperate for an escape. In May 2008, while her older sister was essentially a prisoner, Sahar told a teacher about the hell that was her home life. She said she was forced to wear a hijab, the Muslim head covering, and that her older brother was abusive and controlling, once wheeling a pair of scissors at her arm. She also said her parents barely spoke to her, threatened to pull her out of school, and didn’t care at all that she tried to kill herself just ten days earlier. (Rona, the wife who died with the girls, confirmed the latter in her diary, recalling Tooba’s response to her daughter’s suicide attempt: “She can go to hell. Let her kill herself.”)Concerned, Sahar’s teacher approached the school vice-principal, who in turn contacted Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, the province’s Anglophone child protection agency. “Sahar was in my office, as well as the teacher, when I made the call,” said the V.P., Josée Fortin. When she recalled for the jury how she handed the telephone to Sahar, Fortin had to stop and compose herself, taking a long drink of water.Batshaw classified the complaint as a “Code 1,” dispatching a social worker the very same day. But when that worker arrived, Sahar immediately backtracked. “This change of attitude surprised me,” Fortin testified. “I wondered to myself: ‘Do I have before me a child who is afraid?’”Jeanne Rowe, the Batshaw worker who met Sahar, said the young teen “cried profusely” during the entire half-hour meeting. “She didn’t want to give me any information,” Rowe said. “She just denied everything. She said: ‘It’s not true, it’s not true.’ She was very, very scared of her parents knowing about the report. She didn’t explain why, she just said she wanted to go home and be with her family.”Read the full story here.

• Innocent casualties of Egypt's riots: Harrowing images of the horses starving to death as tourists stay away.(DailyMail).These harrowing pictures show the sad plight of dozens of Egyptian horses that have starved to death.The animals rely on food from tourists to survive but visitors to Egypt have dwindled since protests started 15 days ago .Skeletal corpses are now scattered around dusty land in Nazlet Al-Saman, about 25 kilometres from Cairo where protests continued today.Flies and other scavengers feast on the dead horses that have perished since ant-government demonstrations started in Tahrir Square.One horse collapsed on the floor with a rope that tethered it to a nearby tree still tied around its neck.Other beasts that have survived the food shortage stand weakly in the heat as their bones poke through their coats.But without scraps of food from sightseers or the money that their owners need to buy food they too are likely to suffer agonising deaths.The horses are used to take tourists on sight-seeing trips around the region.But many of the holidaymakers were evacuated shortly after violence started in the region. The industry has still not recovered while touristsstay away from the area.It is estimated that the protests have cost the Egyptian economy some $310million a day or $3billion so far. Experts said that the Egyptian stock exchange is also likely to remain closed until Sunday and the Egyptian pound hit a six-year low.The pictures emerged as demonstrators called for more people to take to the streets for a mass rally against the president.It is feared that the demonstrations could become more violent after footage emerged on YouTube showing brutal fights between protesters and Mubarak officials.Despite the clashes some normality has returned to Cairo, with lengthy queues forming at banks with severely restricted opening hours, mainly younger protesters have called for a push to remove Mubarak as the authorities tried to squeeze them out of central Cairo.But the protesters camped out in tents on Tahrir Square have vowed to stay until Mubarak quits, and plan more mass demonstrations on Tuesday and Friday.The Muslim Brotherhood also said on Monday that it could quit the talks process with the government if protesters' demands were not met, including the immediate exit of Mubarak.Hmmm......It seems like the 'Islamic winter' has started already.Read the full story here.

• 'Obama's Bunker'being built in White House?(YNet).Suspicious construction work carried out outside the White House's oval office for the past few months has prompted speculation a new bunker is being built in President Obama's official residence, the Washington Post reported Monday. The report noted that a gaping hole ripping into the White House lawn was "so big it could easily fit the entire Cabinet — and maybe some members of Congress, too." Washington officials claim that “upgrades and replacement of utility infrastructure” are being performed.According to information by General Services Administration (GSA), the White House's utility upgrade project began in May 2009. A GSA spokesman said that construction crews are replacing aging electrical, cooling, heating and fire alarm equipment. "Those who work in the White House aren’t buying it," the report noted. "One told the New York Times that the work is 'security-related' and would ultimately create an expanded underground emergency operations center." According to the GSA, the construction crews will eventually shift over to the north lawn by the East Wing and start digging there as well and the grounds will be restored to their original state. The White House already sports an underground Situation Room, which was renovated and expanded to 5,000 square feet in 2007, and the nuclear bomb shelter below the East Wing, where Vice President Richard B. Cheney was taken on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.Hmmmm.......Where have we seen something similar before?Read the full story here.

• Video - China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War – Major General Zhang Zhaozhong.(TTBTS).On November 21st, America, UK and Canada announced more sanctions against Iran. France also proposed to adopt new sanctions to force Tehran to stop it’s nuclear project.On Nov 23rd, the spokesman of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Foreign Ministry said in a regular press conference held in Beijing that China is opposed to unilateral sanctions against Iran.Scholars believe that, being isolated, China and Iran need mutual support. Meanwhile, the CCP government, with internal and external difficulties, may express an even tougher diplomatic “voice”.“Reuters” reported on Nov 23rd: “The United States, UK and Canada have announced new sanctions against Iran in the areas of energy and finance. France proposed ‘unprecedented’ new sanctions, including freezing the assets of the Central Bank of Iran and suspending the purchase of Iran’s oil.Earlier, the “International Atomic Energy Agency” (IAEA) had issued a report that Iran may be secretly developing nuclear weapons.On Nov 23rd, the CCP’s Foreign Ministry expressed opposition to the imposition of unilateral sanctions against Iran.In this regard, Xia Ming, a political professor from “City University of New York” in America, believes that since the Cold War, the United States and Western society’s biggest challenges have been seen as being from China and Iran. They are both isolated by the United States and the West. Therefore, China’s policy is foreseeable.Xia Ming says: “China and Iran are facing strong Western challenges within politics, economy and culture.So these two countries basically have a kind of coordination on the international stage, to support each other. So we can see that China and Iran coordinate a lot, with a lot of cooperation in matters of energy, arms and so on.”“Associated Press” also reported on Nov 23rd: “Since 2006, the United Nations have carried out 4 rounds of sanctions against Iran. But with export of energy, Iran has not been severely affected by the sanctions.”“AFP” said: “China supports Iran and purchases large quantities of oil from Iran. Meanwhile, China is Iran’s biggest trading partner. Their bilateral trade totals up to $ 30 billion.“Voice of America” reported, according to Chinese customs’ data, this year (2011) Iran could become China’s second largest crude oil supplier.However, Iran disdains the new round of sanctions. Israel and Washington said in the event that other efforts were not effective, the possibility of military action would not be ruled out.It’s puzzling to some that Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War.Professor Xia Ming: “Zhang Zhaozhong said that not hesitating to fight a third world war would be entirely for domestic political needs. To some extent though, this would be completely ridiculous to encourage”Professor Xia Ming pointed out that the United States and Western societies may deal with Iran by a method of “Jasmine Revolution”, similar to what happened in Libya. From the perspective of the Libya model, NATO could not possibly involve itself in large-scale military action, and it would be impossible to start a new war.In fact, a senior European diplomat with anonymity in Tehran said that the Iranian government was actually very worried about a military strike. Analysts also say that ordinary people don’t worship their leaders so much anymore.But Professor Xia Ming said that the CCP regime itself is facing a much bigger crisis than Iran. The CCP regime not only faces challenges from Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, South Asia countries and so on, but also faces the pressure from America for the RMB exchange rate, export, and human rights issues, as well as the pressure of domestic issues meanwhile.Professor Xia Ming says : “China is facing pressure from America. Meanwhile, current domestic pressure is also very considerable. In particular, we can see in civil society, the challenge to the Chinese government and resistance forces are growing. Therefore, the Chinese government is indeed facing the arrival of a big power shift in the 18th session. So, China may express a tougher diplomatic voice.On the one hand, it is a reaction to pressure from America. On the other hand, it needs to meet the demand of domestic nationalist groups.Russia is another ally of Iran, with similar policy to that of China. Toward Iran.Read and see the full story here.

• Obama's Leftist Conundrum.By Daniel Pipes.Barack Obama suffeers from an inherent policy contradiction, especially in foreign affairs.On the one hand, as a Leftist he despises the United States and sees it as a force for ill in the world. On the other, as president, is judged by how well the country fares during his tenure.Logically, he cannot reconcile the contradiction of these two imperatives: If he wants to be reelected and celebrated as a great leader, he has to forward American interests; but if he wants to implement his preferred policies, he subverts the country and fouls his nest.Ideology vs. interests; this Leftist conundrum goes far to explain why Obama's Leftist comrades despise his time in office, for he has on occasion ditched his worldview to try to make things work (the base at Guantánamo) or he adopted a muddled middle ground that pleases neither side (the war in Iraq, Arab-Israeli diplomacy).The same consideration applies to domestic policy as well (higher taxes or lower employment?) but not so starkly as in foreign policy. Read the full story here.

• Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State.(Washingtonsblog). If You Thought Police Brutality Was Bad … Wait Until You See What Congress Wants to Do Next WeekThe police brutality against peaceful protesters in Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and elsewhere is bad enough.But next week, Congress will vote on explicitly creating a police state.

The ACLU’s Washington legislative office explains:

The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
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The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
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The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself. The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
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I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
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In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”
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The senators pushing the indefinite detention proposal have made their goals very clear that they want an okay for a worldwide military battlefield, that even extends to your hometown.Part of an Ongoing Trend: While this is shocking, it is not occurring in a vacuum. Indeed, it is part of a 30 year-long process of militarization inside our borders and a destruction of the American concepts of limited government and separation of powers.As I pointed out in May:The ACLU noted yesterday [that] Congress is proposing handing permanent, world-wide war-making powers to the president – including the ability to make war within the United States. As I noted in 2008: An article in the Army Times reveals that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be redeployed from Iraq to domestic operations within the United States.The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with “civil unrest” and “crowd control”.The soldiers are learning to use so-called “nonlethal weapons” designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.This violates posse comitatus and the Constitution. But, hey, we’re in a “national emergency”, so who cares, right?(We’re still in a declared state of national emergency). I noted a couple of months later: Everyone knows that deploying 20,000 troops on U.S. soil violates Posse Comitatus and the Constitution.And everyone understands that staging troops within the U.S. to “help out with civil unrest and crowd control” increases the danger of overt martial law.But no one is asking an obvious question: Does the government’s own excuse for deploying the troops make any sense?Other Encroachments On Civil Rights Under Obama. As bad as Bush was, the truth is that, in many ways, freedom and constitutional rights are under attack even more than during the Bush years.Hmmm.....I wonder what will be Obama's "Reichstag fire" ?Read the full story here.

• Canada to pull out of Kyoto Protocol next month.(CTV).Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned. The Harper government has tentatively planned an announcement for a few days before Christmas, CTV's Roger Smith reported Sunday evening. The developments come as Environment Minister Peter Kent prepares for a climate conference in Durban, South Africa that opens on Monday, with delegates from 190 countries seeking a new international agreement for cutting emissions. Issues on the agenda include extending the Kyoto emission targets, a move being championed by Christiana Figueres, head of the UN climate secretariat. Kent said in the House of Commons on Nov. 22 he won't sign a document at the Durban conference that extends the Kyoto targets. "Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us," Kent said. NDP environment critic Megan Leslie called the government's decision to pull out of the Kyoto accord "disappointing." "It's a really cynical and it's a really cowardly move," Leslie told CTV News. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May called the move "a very damaging act of sabotage." "It will reverberate around the world," May told CTV. "Canada will be a pariah globally if it goes through with this." The accord is set to expire next year. Kent told The Canadian Press that the Kyoto Protocol is out of date because it excludes major emitters among developing nations, including China, India and Brazil. He also said that previous governments had failed to devise a strategy to hit the accord's targets. Those targets are now out of reach, and the Conservative government has set other, more modest targets while vowing to press the big polluters among developing nations to sign a deal with their own emissions-reduction targets. Kent told CP in an interview ahead of the Durban conference that Canada will play hardball with developing countries to get an agreement during the climate talks. Kent said developing countries should not be allowed to use the emissions records of wealthy nations as an excuse not to agree to lofty emissions-reduction targets. He also said that all nations must be prepared to demonstrate their progress on whatever emissions targets are contained in any new deal. Delegates at the conference will also be hammering out the details of a plan to administer the Green Climate Fund, money that is to help poor countries deal with climate change. The fund is expected to grow over the next eight years to eventually distribute about $100 billion a year. However, it is still unclear where all of that money will come from and how it will be distributed. In addition to the usual international development funds from the West, proposals include a carbon surcharge on international shipping and on air tickets, as well as a levy on international financial transactions. Read the full story here.

• Egypt - Azhar Shiekh Tayeb: Voting is “testimony in front of God and history”.(Bikyamasr).CAIRO: Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb said Monday that casting ones vote is a sacred thing and a “testimony in front of God and history” and called it a “national and religious duty.” Al-Tayeb voted Monday morning at the Masr al-Gadida junior high school in Cairo, accompanied by other clerics from al-Azhar. He added that not voting, for any reason, is “inexcusable.” The sheikh said he was happy to be voting in this “historic election,” advising people to only vote for honest candidates and to stay away from those who pay money or give empty promises. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Religious Endowments advising committee said that buying votes is “haram,” or forbidden, under Islamic law, considering the act a bribery, which is banned in Islam. Answering a question on the legitamcy of buying votes, a common practice in previous parlementry elections in the country, the committee added that it is a must that candidates “don’t use their money in influencing the electoral process.” Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III will also be casting his vote on Monday, yet through a middle-man. The Pope, who is currently receiving treatment in Cleveland in the United States, will be voting using a power of attorney, according to lawyer Naguib Gobreal. The Pope arrived in the US on November 16 for medical tests. The Coptic church in Cairo denied in a statement supporting one coalition over the others and advising its followers to vote for it, in contrary to what some were saying the past week. The church said that its role is to “educate” its people on the importance of voting and did not adopt a certain candidate or coalition for its followers to vote for.Read the full story here.

• From Tehran Times: Iran to hold war game in int'l waters: navy commander.(Xinhuanet).Iran's navy commander said that Iran plans to hold a major naval war game in the international waters, the local daily Tehran Times reported Sunday.Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told a press conference on Saturday that the war game, to be held in the Sea of Oman and the north of the Indian Ocean in the near future, differs from previous ones in terms of the vastness of the area of action and military equipment and tactics that would be employed in the maneuver.The war game, code-named Velayat 90, will display Iran's defensive and deterrent naval power, Sayyari was quoted as saying.Iran has already held a number of war games in the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz in the face of threats from western counties and their regional allies.In recent years, the Iranian navy has dispatched a number of warships to international waters and has invited regional states to hold joint war games in the regional waters.In February, two Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which raised concerns from the United States and Israel. Read the full story here.

• 9th attack on Egypt gas export route to Israel.(BikyaMasr).CARIO: Unknown saboteurs blew up a pipeline that delivers gas to Israel and Jordan on Monday, just hours before the first round of parliament elections opened up in Egypt. It is the latest of a series of attacks on the export route; already the 9th this year and the 8th since former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported two detonations, some 30km west of El-Arish, a town in the northern Sinai, close to the Israeli border. The explosions were started from distance, as witnesses said they saw masked men driving away from the area just minutes before the blasts. Flames skyrocketed and could be seen from miles away. No casualties were reported.The pipelines carry cheap gas to Israel and Jordan. The 20-year gas deal struck with Israel in 2005 under Mubarak’s reign entails very favorable conditions for Israel. It is highly contested among Egyptians who see the deal as a selling-off of its natural resources, besides the objection of exporting to Israel as a matter of principle.On the other hand, Israel is highly dependent on the gas imports from Egypt, which accounts for 43 percent of its gas supplies.Under popular pressure to toughen its stance towards Israel, the interim government has sought to renegotiate the terms of the gas deal with Israel, but so far with no success. However, they were able to double the price of gas exported to Jordan last month.The Sinai has suffered time and again from a fragile security situation, which was aggravated after the police thinned out in the wake of the February revolution. The Sinai is claimed by Israel to serve as a rear base for militant attacks against its territory. It is also reported to be an important smuggling route to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. The geostrategic importance of the area adds to sensitive issue of marginality of the Beduin community. It complains that the authorities have neglected the Sinai for decades.Egyptian authorities have taken steps to improve the security situation, carrying out security sweeps against Islamist groups they claim to be responsible for recent attacks on pipelines.Egyptian armed forces reportedly captured a four Islamist militants involved in the preparation of a pipeline attack.On 21 November, two police officers were shot in el-Arish while attempting to capture the leader of an al-Qaida inspired militant group.As for the latest attacks on the gas pipeline, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.Read the full story here.

• Former Mossad Head Yatom: Israel Can’t Afford Not to Strike Iran.(INN).BESA think tank experts: “Who says protests against dictatorship must lead to democracy?”, “US has no strategy”, “No time left on Iran”.The Begin Sadat Center, a respected think tank based at Bar Ilan University, held a conference on November 23, 2011 on the subject of ”Israeli Security in a New Regional Envornment”, which focused on the so-called “Arab Spring” and its implicatons. Its experts concluded that the Arab Spring is not going to result in democracy, despite original hopes in the West, and may make things even worse for Israel.“As steep as the price for hitting Iran may be, a military strike on Iran will be less painful than the cost of living with an Iranian nuclear weapons threat,” argues former Mossad head Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom. “The backlash from a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites will not be as bad for Israel as will an Iran armed with nuclear weapons,” he says. “I don’t think that those predicting apocalyptic repercussions of a strike on Tehran are correct, and even if they are, Israel can’t afford to wonder if Tehran will go crazy and bomb us.”Yatom’s position is diametrically opposed to that of former Mossad head Meir Dagan, who sparked significant controversy earlier this year by stating that an attack on Iran would be a foolish move that would lead to a war with an unknown outcome.It is impossible to stake the nation’s security on predictions by those who claim a nuclear Iran can be deterred and that the Iranian regime would not launch a nuclear attack, Yatom added. He acknowledged that rocket attacks would likely ensue from Lebanon and Gaza following a Western or Israeli strike against Iran, but added that Israel’s response would be “so painful and crushing that rockets will come to an end. Civilian facilities and infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza will have to be hit. Innocent civilians could be hurt. But we will have to deliver a crushing blow so that the barrage of rockets against us will not continue.”The world does not have much time left to act on Iran, the former Mossad head warned, adding that “there is an evaluation that they have crossed the red line. They have the knowledge to make the bomb. All that is needed now is the decision to do it…. The world has a year in which to halt the Iranian nuclear weapons program, probably less.”Yatom also doubted that sanctions or covert operations could stop the Iranians. “We have only two options: to let Iran get the bomb, or to use military force against their military nuclear program. I think that force will have to be used. But I don’t think Israel should lead. This is, after all, a global problem…. Nevertheless, should the world stand on the sidelines, Israel will be fully entitled to use its natural right to self-defense. To us, the Iranian nuclear weapons program is an existential threat.”Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan, former head of IDF military intelligence and national security advisor to past Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, agreed with Yatom that Iran’s nuclear weapons program must be halted, but felt that sanctions which embargoed Iranian oil and gas and which outlawed transactions with the Iranian National Bank could dissuade the Iranians from proceeding. “While not an existential threat, Tehran’s nuclear program is an unacceptable threat,” he said.Relating to the turmoil in the Arab world, Dayan said that the upheavals in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and elsewhere “prove once again that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not the central problem in this region.“The implications for Israel of this unrest are manifold,” he said. “At a time of such uncertainty, Israel must preserve and secure its strategic assets. This is not the time for Israel to be taking territorial or other risks, since we don’t know what is ahead. Israel must maintain defensible borders, with strategic depth, the ability to defend ourselves against attack, and in the Palestinian context – full demilitarization of areas under their control. Israel must guard against the possible emergence of three hostile Palestinian states – in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.Dayan also called upon Israel to take the diplomatic initiative and advocate for Kurdish independence. “There are some 30 million Kurds in a clearly-defined region spread across four countries. They deserve statehood no less than the Palestinians,” he declared.Prof. Gabi Ben-Dor of Haifa University, who spoke at the conference about Arab societies, dismissed the notion that a surge of enthusiasm for Western-style democracy lay behind the recent turmoil. “Who says that protests against dictatorship necessarily lead to democracy?” he asked. “Democracy is not what emerged from the revolution against the Tsars of Russia 100 years ago, nor has democracy emerged in many CIS states that threw off the Communist yoke. Thus there is no rational, logical or historical basis for assuming that democracy will result from the revolutions underway today in the Arab world.”Egypt has a decent chance at a long-term march towards democracy, Ben-Dor said, but only if the military maintains a degree of moderating control over the country and prevents the Islamists from exploiting the situation in order to wrest complete power.Prof. Efraim Karsh of the Middle East Forum and King’s College London was more pessimistic. “Islam remains the strongest identity framework in Egyptian society in particular, and in Arab society generally,” he said. “The Arab national dictatorships that were layered over this basic Islamic identity for the past 80 years were but a thin veneer of repression. With the fall of these dictatorships, what remains is the core Islamic underpinnings of society, and these will now come to the fore. Consequently, no democratic structures, processes or values are likely to emerge in the Arab world for many generations.”Panelists at the conference disagreed about Western reactions to the Arab upheavals. Prof. Hillel Frisch of the BESA Center argued that one could discern the emergence of a clear American approach to the changes in the region – a policy construct that emphasizes the promotion of democracy while underscoring the containment of the influence of Iran, Russia and China.Prof. Karsh and Prof. Eytan Gilboa disagreed. “America is fumbling for responses, reacting differently in each case, without any obvious grand strategy,” Karsh asserted. “Though American responses to each Middle Eastern state can individually make sense, overall strategy seems to be lacking, creating an image of a confused and untrustworthy America,” said Gilboa.BESA’s Dr. Jonathan Rynhold argued that at present there are no chances of successfully completing a peace process with the Palestinians. A conflict management strategy or an attempt to reach a partial agreement are the only realistic policy choices in hand, he said.BESA Center director Prof. Efraim Inbar warned of a deteriorating security situation for Israel. “States like Egypt are already losing control of their own territory, and Israel can expect increased cross-border attacks and terrorism. The Turks may ignite a confrontation over energy in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel should not be cutting its defense budget now. On the contrary, Israel should be investing more in the military and in the defense industries – so that we’ll be ready for challenges five years or more down the road.”Hmmmm..... "Pour les vaincre, messieurs, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace et la Patrie sera sauvée!" ~ Danton. Read the full story here.

• Russia’s new radar station ready to monitor missiles from Europe: commander.(Stratrisks).A new radar station in Russia’s Kaliningrad was ready to monitor missile launches from the entire European continent, a senior commander said Friday.Commander of the Russian Air and Space Defense Troops Lieut. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said the Kaliningrad radar station would significantly enhance Russia’s early warning system on missile attacks.“It will allow us to efficiently monitor missile launches over the entire European continent, as well as from the North Atlantic area, including the functioning and systems of the European missile defense shield,” Ostapenko said.“Now we are ready on the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to put this radar station in service of the missile attack warning system,” he said.The commander also said the armed forces were only awaiting Russian leaders to give the order to deploy Iskander missile complexes in Kaliningrad.“The Iskander missile system is a new-generation, smart and mobile system, which is capable of countering not only the European missile shield, but also offensive weapon systems,” Ostapenko said.He also mentioned the formation of the Air and Space Defense Troops, saying the forces would be on combat duty from Dec. 1.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday Russia could station contemporary missile systems, including the Iskander missile complexes, in western and southern sections of the country if there were any additional U.S. missile deployments in Europe.Moscow has long opposed the deployment of the U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities near its borders. It wants legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that the missile defense shield is not targeting Russia.Read the full story here.

• European high court rejects Internet traffic filtering as violation of fundamental rights.(ArsTechnica).While Thanksgiving is an American holiday, internet service providers and users in Europe had reason to give thanks yesterday. The highest court in the European Union overturned a ruling that would have forced a Belgian ISP to preemptively filter Internet traffic to prevent the unauthorized sharing of music files. The European Court of Justice overturned a ruling by a Belgian court in a suit brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM). SABAM filed it against Scarlet Extended over alleged illegal peer-to-peer filesharing by Scarlet's customers. That 2007 ruling required Scarlet to filter traffic on its network, so that it could identify and block illegal peer to peer filesharing traffic. It was based on an interpretation of Belgian copyright laws that put the burden of enforcement on ISPs. Scarlet had appealed, focusing on European data privacy laws, saying that the ruling would in effect force the company to monitor all Internet traffic passing through its network—which would, aside from being technically unfeasible, violate the privacy of its customers. The case has been closely watched by Internet companies in Europe, which were concerned that they could be faced with similar requirements.In its ruling, The Court of Justice upheld the right of copyright holders to file injunctions against intermediaries over illegal file sharing. But it struck down the provisions of the Belgian court ruling that required filtering, finding that the filtering provisions violated European Union e-commerce laws, and infringed on the rights of Scarlet and its customers. The broad monitoring required to filter file-sharing would "infringe the fundamental rights of [Scarlet's] customers, namely their right to protection of their personal data and their right to receive or impart information, which are rights safeguarded by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU," the court panel wrote. Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity or the Grinch effect?" Charles Dickens country Not getting into the festive spirit: Councils slash spending on Christmas lights and street decorations.(Dailymail).Hard-up councils across England are being forced to pull the plug on decorative Christmas street lights in a bid to save cash over the festive season.And some towns will be completely in the dark over Christmas because local retailers have been unable to stump up enough cash to help pay for the annual attraction.A survey has revealed that 38 per cent of villages in England are going without community Christmas decorations this year because of a lack of local authority funds.And even towns and cities that are going ahead with a display are cutting back on their 'switch-on' events, drafting in local dignitaries rather than celebrities to turn the lights on.According to the Observer newspaper, Chichester in West Sussex will be without any Christmas lights after local businesses failed to match the £15,000 set aside by the council to fund the decorations.And authorities in Cheltenham have also cut the service this year in a bid to save money. Last year the council spent £33,000 decorating the town in the run-up to Christmas.The cuts have been supported by watchdog Taxpayers' Alliance, which suggested that decorations should not be a priority for councils struggling to pay for essential services.Campaign manager Robert Oxley said: 'It's not about being Scrooge, but being sensible with your budgets.'You get some local authorities spending tens or even a hundred thousand pounds of taxpayers' cash on a huge switch on when they are cutting back on essential services.'In times when savings have to be found, it would seem sensible not to spend a fortune on fairy lights.'Everyone wants to enjoy Christmas and lights in town centres are often part of the festivities, but that doesn't mean taxpayers should be left footing million pound bills just for decorations.'But some retailers have condemned the move, arguing that Christmas lights attract thousands of shoppers who may go elsewhere to see an extravagant display switched on by a major star.Birmingham City Council - which drew in thousands of shoppers when it hired pop band JLS to switch on its Christmas lights in 2009 - received a raft of complaints from local businesses this year after it slashed its budget for the event - and had its lights switched on by a group of tap-dancing turkeys and Darth Vader. The National Association Of Local Councils said that authorities were working hard to provide festive street spectacles, despite budgetary constraints.'We know that many local councils are looking to continue Christmas lighting for their community as it brings social and economic benefots for the area,' a spokesman said.Hmmm....Will Christmas still be celebrated in Twinty years time?Read the full story here.

• Arab Spring will just bring Islamist dictatorships.(Haaretz).By Moshe Arens.The United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report stated that “deeply rooted shortcomings” existed in Arab countries. In other other words, Arab societies were sick. According to the report, this sickness was reflected in the lack of “respect for human rights and freedoms,” the status of Arab women, and the poor state of “knowledge acquisition and its effective utilization.”The follow-up report in 2003 stated: “True democracy is absent and desperately needed. The educational system is severely retarded; schools produce ignorant young men and women. Most of the [Arab] intellectuals] realize, even if they deny it, that most of what was said in the most recent Arab Human Development Report is true.”So if you were thinking that the so-called Arab Spring was going to fix all that, well, you’d better think again. It looks like the Arab Spring will be followed by an Arab Winter. On second thought, this is a development that was entirely predictable: The Islamists are going to inherit the mantle of the dictators.Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gadhafi in Libya were corrupt dictators who outlived their days. They all suppressed the Islamic movements in their respective countries, and were all thus on the side of the seculars in their own perverse way. The same holds true for Syria’s Bashar Assad, whose father, Hafez, killed some 20,000 people in the city of Hama in 1982, quelling a rebellion by the Moslem Brothers. Now, his son, Bashar, no less ruthless, seems to be about to go the way of Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gadhafi.The demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt were initially led by secular groups – educated youngsters adept at using the Internet, Facebook and Twitter. In Egypt, they stood shoulder to shoulder with members of the Coptic Christian community, which constitutes 10% of the Egyptian population. Quite naturally, they called for the downfall of Mubarak to be followed by democratic elections. The motley crew in Libya that overthrew Gadhafi was supported by the democracies that make up NATO, and it is unimaginable that the bloodbath that rid the country of the “mad dog of the Middle East,” as former U.S. President Ronald Reagan called him, would not be followed by democratic elections – even under the chaotic conditions that followed Gadhafi’s downfall.But who is going to win the elections when they take place – in Egypt, in Libya and eventually in Syria?We already have a preview: In Tunisia, the country that had been the most secular and westernized of the Arab states, the election was won by Ennahda, the Islamic party, with the advocates of a secular Tunisia left far behind.The western media, in an attempt to put a good face on what has clearly been a disappointing outcome, insists on calling Ennahda a “mildly Islamic party.” But the facts are there for all to see: Tunisia is coming under Islamic rule. And there is no reason to expect a different outcome in Egypt, Libya or Syria, when elections are held there.A wave of Islamic rule, with all it entails, is sweeping across the Arab world. It will replace secular dictatorships with Islamic ones. We should have expected nothing else.Demography has been hard at work all through the past years. For those who haven’t noticed, during the long years of totalitarian rule in the Arab states, the population that was fervently Muslim increased in numbers much faster than the secular population. Now, the veiled women far outnumber those willing to show their faces in public – to such an extent that there is no need to await the counting of the ballots after election day; the outcome of elections in the Arab countries is certain before the votes have been cast.Observers may fool themselves into believing that the Islamic parties contesting the elections in the Arab countries are “mildly” Islamic, or “moderate” Islamists, but their leaders are neither mild nor moderate.Clearly, expecting the basic faults that characterize Arab societies – as described in the UNDP Arab Human Development reports – to be rectified under the rule of Islamic parties is no more than a vain hope. If anything, the opposite is most likely to be true: Sharia law will prevail, with all it entails.The toppling of the Arab dictators was inevitable; unfortunately, however, just as inevitable is what is going to follow their overthrow. It looks like it is going to be long Arab Winter.Hmmm...."A wave of Islamic rule, with all it entails, is sweeping across the Arab world. It will replace secular dictatorships with Islamic ones."Read the full story here.

• Karzai Gives Taliban Commander Who Carried Out Hundreds of Bombings And Attacks on U.S. And British Troops Government Job Heading “Islamic Affairs”(Telegraph).(Telegraph) — A senior insurgent commander planed attacks on Nato soldiers is among those to have been granted amnesty under a British funded scheme to reintegrate Taliban fighters into Afghan society.Maulawi Noor ul Aziz estimates he ordered or took part in hundreds of attacks on Afghan and Nato forces during his decade as an insurgent commander.As a senior rebel leader in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand during some of that time, many of his targets were likely to have been British troops.Yet the commander has been welcomed and granted amnesty by the Afghan government under a British-funded scheme to undermine the Taliban by coaxing fighters away from the battlefield and reintegrating them into society.Rather than face trial for his role in the insurgency, he has been given a government job as acting head of Kandahar’s department for Hajj and Islamic Affairs. [...]He said his most successful attack came when he and his men had sown a field in Nad-e Ali with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rigged up to a command wire, to target regular foreign patrols which passed through.As they waited, they were surprised to see a Nato Chinook helicopter land in the field instead. He and his band detonated their bombs from 400 yards away as foreign soldiers disembarked from the aircraft.“All the bombs went off. Some of the foreigners were blown to bits and some were wounded. We were very happy with the result. I have done hundreds of these missions,” he said.Read the full story here.