MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation China 5.3 - 5.1 ; Russia 5.1  !More info here.

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

• Compare-and-contrast the Obama agenda with Karl Marx's 10-point program of Communism.(DougRoss).According to Karl Marx, the following ten elements were requisite conditions for "a transition from capitalism to communism."No federal government has damaged the American free market more than this one. No federal government has stolen more employment, more freedom, more private property -- from this and future generations -- than this one. No government has created more regulations, more unconstitutional dictates, more -- dare I say it -- indentured servitude than this one.Now, given all of these facts: can there be any doubt what Barack Obama meant when he twice proposed, "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as our military?The Obama-Democrat Left has mounted the first successful counter-revolution -- against the American Revolution -- in our history. Using an incessant series of attacks by a fifth column, the intent of the counter-revolution is to eradicate the effects of the American Revolution. The most magnificent society ever created hangs in the balance.Next November represents our last chance to salvage the American experiment.Marshal your parents, your children, your siblings, your neighbors, your coworkers -- marshal everyone you know, because the stakes could not be higher.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.

• 'Iran planning attacks on US forces in Germany'.(JPost).'Bild' reports German authorities investigating man suspected of spying for Iranians with intent to sabotage US targets.Iran is planning to attack US armed forces stationed in Germany in the event of a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities, German daily Bild reported on Thursday.According to the report, German authorities are investigating a German businessman suspected of espionage with intent to sabotage who they believe is in contact with the Iranian Embassy in Berlin.Bild quoted German Attorney General Harald Range as saying "We have launched an investigation and taken operational measures."The report came amid diplomatic tensions between Germany and Iran in the aftermath of the storming of the British Embassy compound in Tehran earlier this week.Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s Ambassador Ali Reza Seikh Attar for a warning because of the violation of diplomatic protocol and international law. According to a statement on the website of the German Foreign Ministry: “Guido Westerwelle condemned sharply the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran on November 29.“Germany stands on the side of Great Britain and is not prepared to accept these types of attacks. Iran has the obligation to protect international institutions. The Iranian Ambassador in Berlin was summoned because of the attack to the Foreign Ministry.”Germany has also reduced its diplomatic staff in Tehran after the assault on the embassy.Read the full story here.
• Updated - German Officials Back Away from Plot Allegations,'No Indication' of Any Iranian Action Against US Installations.(Spiegel).Following a report earlier in the day that Iran may have been planning attacks on key American military installations in Germany if the United States were to strike Tehran in response to its nuclear program, German prosecutors said later in the day there was no information suggesting any such attacks had been prepared."There is absolutely no indication that any such actions against US facilities have been prepared," a spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor's Office told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Their lack of suspicion is further evidenced by the fact that no warrant was issued for the arrest of the German involved, although the man's home was searched.Earlier, German authorities confirmed they were investigating possible plans by Iran to attack United States military forces based within Germany, the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced on Thursday in Karlsruhe. Officials initially suspected that, in the event of a US military action in Iran, Tehran might have plans to retaliate at the key American logistical facilities."We have begun an investigation and are conducting operative measures," Prosecutor General Harald Range said on Thursday morning, declining to provide further details. But Jörg Ziercke, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), stressed that the situation presented no immediate danger. The law officials' comments came after the mass-circulation daily Bild reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime may be planning to strike US military air bases in Germany to destroy military supplies and disrupt logistics in the event the Americans attack Iran. According to the paper, the Federal Prosecutor's Office is investigating a German businessman on "suspicion of foreign agent activity for the purposes of sabotage." The man allegedly conducted "conspirational contact" with the Iranian Embassy in Berlin. His home was searched by authorities on Nov. 2, the paper added.Prosecutors are still investigating the man on the belief he may be operating as an agent.Read the full story here.

• BREAKING NEWS on Fast and Furious: Obama Knew in May 2010?(BigGovernment).To date Barack Obama, the dispenser of hope and change and the presiding officer over the least transparent presidency in history, has claimed he only learned about Fast and Furious earlier this year. However, with each new document dump Obama’s timeframe seems to be as inaccurate (or as purposely misleading) as Attorney General Eric Holder’s.For example, just months after he took office it was evident he was focused on a Fast and Furious-like operation, ostensibly aimed at cutting down on gun trafficking on the southern border. Thus, on March 24, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden made the following announcement: The President has directed us to take action to fight [Mexican] cartels…and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan.And the following month, April 2009, he stood beside Mexican President Felipe Calderón and uttered words we now recognize as hypocritical and duplicitous at best: I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution — the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners that want to keep their families safe — to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know here in Mexico, are used to fuel violence. Fast forward one year, and White House logs show that then-Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler met personally with Obama four times between May 7 and May 19, 2010.Just in case Grindler’s name doesn’t set off sirens in your mind, he had received an in depth briefing on Fast and Furious on March 12, 2010. (This briefing came via an ATF slideshow which I covered in a post for Big Government earlier this year.) During this same briefing, Grindler was provided with details concerning the number of times that a straw purchaser named Uriel Patino had purchased guns during Fast and Furious. (Patino’s total weapon acquisition numbered approx. 720 guns.)By the way, Grindler is no longer a Deputy Attorney General. Rather, he is Holder’s Chief of Staff.So what do you figure he and Obama talked about when they met four times in May 2010?Perhaps a better question is—do you think there’s any way they didn’t talk about Fast and Furious?Even the LA Times admits Fast and Furious was at its height then, so I really don’t think Obama and Grindler used their meetings to plan Obama’s next vacation. Rather, I think Obama may have known about Fast and Furious nearly a year before he admits.Looks like it’s time for Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to broaden his inquiry into this mess.Read the full story here.

• ACLU Says It’s Behind Campaign To Have Obama Scrub References To Radical Islam From Terror Training Manuals.(ACLU).The Obama administration is trying to clean up its act on counterterrorism training materials, which have been found to contain outrageous claims associating Islam with violence. The FBI has promised a “comprehensive review of all training and reference materials.” Now Wired reports that last month, the White House ordered a government-wide review, including the military.Spencer Ackerman writes, “The ongoing review will examine whether counterterrorism training material throughout the government is accurate and relevant, and will make sure the briefings given to federal field offices and local cops meets the same standards as FBI headquarters or the Pentagon.”The ACLU, through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, has uncovered numerous FBI counterterrorism training materials that falsely portray American Muslim and Arab communities as monolithic, violent and supporters of terrorism. A prime example is a 2008 counterterrorism textbook called Terrorism & Political Islam: Origins, Ideologies, and Methods, which was produced by the FBI and the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. It contains essays with conclusions like “the Jihadis are a product of and inspired by the current of traditional Islam.”Biased materials like these mislead law enforcement officers with flawed facts and analysis, and unfairly cast suspicion on innocent Americans, leading to civil rights violations and misdirected investigations.The newly ordered review is certainly a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done. The ACLU has called on the FBI to immediately remove all biased training materials and intelligence products, and to establish effective standards and procedures both to vet trainers and analysts and to ensure that training is aimed at actual threats, not prejudice.Read the full 5th column story here.

• Russia 'delivers Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria'.(YNet).Russia has delivered supersonic cruise missiles to Syria despite the violence shaking the Arab country and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal, a news report said on Thursday."The Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles have been delivered to Syria," a military source told the Interfax news agency without disclosing when the shipment was made. Russia signed a contract reportedly worth at least $300 million (222 million euros) in 2007 to supply its traditional Arab world ally with a large shipment of the cruise missiles.Reports said Russia intended to deliver 72 of the missiles to Syria in all. The deal immediately angered Israel, which fears the weapons may fall into the hands of Hezbollah terrorists in neighboring Lebanon. Russia has since also come under growing pressure from Washington, which wants all military sales to President Bashar al-Assad's regime halted because of his deadly crackdown on Syrian street protests. But Moscow has defended Assad against global pressure and this week argued that its arms sales were permitted under international law and would continue.Another Russian official told Interfax that the missiles, which operate as part of the Bastion mobile coastal defense system, "will be able to protect Syria's entire coast against a possible attack from the sea." Each Bastion system is equipped with 36 cruise missiles as well as truck-mounted radar and other equipment. It was not immediately clear how many of the missiles Russia has delivered to Syria so far. Hmmm.....Hello? November 22 th MFS The other News:"Soviet Era SSN-26 Yakhont anti-ship missiles Slipped Into Syria" remember where you saw it a week earlier!Read the full story here.

• Google rips Senate's online piracy bill: 'This is what is wrong with Washington'.(TheHill).By Gautham Nagesh. Google is exhorting senators to oppose an online piracy bill, arguing it would threaten national security, shackle the Internet with regulations and imperil free speech, according to a document obtained by The Hill.The memo that is being circulated on Capitol Hill lists five reasons not to co-sponsor the legislation. It argues the bill puts at risk “the ability for free speech and the ability of political parties to spread their message” while creating a “thicket of new Internet regulations similar to the administration’s net-neutrality rules.”It also calls the legislation “a trial lawyer’s dream” and claims it seeks to “regulate the Internet.” Google also argues in the document that the measure would damage the nation’s cybersecurity.“This is what is wrong with Washington,” the memo says. “Legislation just to regulate and not allowing the private sector to solve the problem."The search giant has been among the most aggressive opponents of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) Protect IP Act, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year. The bill would require search sites, online ad networks and other third parties to cut ties with websites deemed “rogue” or dedicated to copyright infringement. Google confirmed the authenticity of the document and said it "expresses valid concerns we have with the bill" that have also been voiced by third-party groups. Sources said it was written by Lee Carosi Dunn, a former top telecom aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who joined Google earlier this year.Protect IP and its House counterpart, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), are strongly supported by the entertainment industry, organized labor and business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.The House bill has prompted a backlash from Web firms concerned its language is overly broad and could ensnare legitimate businesses. A Senate aide said Web companies are more opposed to the House version because the Senate is further along in the legislative process and has already responded to concerns raised after the bill’s introduction last September. The Senate bill includes a more stringent definition of rogue websites, while the House bill’s language is broader and could apply to more sites. The aide said the Senate bill wouldn’t apply to social networks like Facebook and Tumblr, which have opposed SOPA.

“There is no First Amendment right to steal. The Protect IP Act will go a long way to preventing theft online. This will protect Americans’ intellectual property rights, which in turn boosts our economy and promotes American jobs,” Leahy said in a statement.Google is not alone in opposing Protect IP, but the search giant has become a target for lawmakers thanks to its ubiquitous search service.House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Ohio) accused his colleagues of using the firm as a “piñata” during a hearing on the House bill in front of the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.Scott Harbinson of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees slammed tech companies for saying piracy legislation would cost the country jobs. He said copyright theft has already had an impact on the employment of his 115,000 union members. 

“When Google and other piracy apologists start talking about free speech, it’s completely disingenuous,” Harbinson said. “These guys don’t give a crap about free speech.”Read the full story here.

• What Have The Central Banks Of The World Done Now?(BLN).By Michael Snyder.The central banks of the world are acting as if it is 2008 all over again. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now the central bankers are pulling out all the stops. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank have announced a coordinated plan to provide liquidity support to the global financial system. According to the plan, the Federal Reserve is going to substantially reduce the interest rate that it charges the European Central Bank to borrow dollars. In turn, that will enable the ECB to lend dollars to European banks at a much cheaper rate. The hope is that this will alleviate the credit crunch which has gripped the European financial system by the throat. So where is the Federal Reserve going to get all of these dollars that it will be loaning out at very low interest rates? You guessed it – the Fed is just going to create them out of thin air. Our currency is being debased so that Europe can be helped out. Unfortunately, the impact of this move will be mostly “psychological” because it really does nothing to address the fundamental problems that Europe is facing. It is up to Europe to solve those problems, and so far Europe has shown no signs of being able to do that.The major central banks of the world say that they want to “enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system.” But essentially what is happening is that the Federal Reserve is going to be zapping large amounts of dollars into existence and loaning them out to the ECB very, very cheaply. Think of it as a type of “quantitative easing” on a global scale.The decision to do this was reportedly made by the Federal Reserve on Monday morning. For the moment, this move seems to have stabilized the European financial system. It is quite unlikely that any major European banks will fail this weekend now.But as mentioned above, this move does nothing to solve the very serious financial problems that Europe is facing. This intervention by the central banks is merely just a speed bump on the road to financial oblivion.Most Americans are not going to understand what the central banks of the world just did, but it really is not that complicated.The following is how CNN chief business correspondent Ali Velshi broke down what the central banks have done….

  In an attempt to stave off the consequences of a global credit freeze, the Federal Reserve, in coordination with major central banks, has created a credit line available to those central banks, whereby they can borrow dollars at reduced interest rates for periods of three months. The central banks, in turn, can lend to commercial banks in their respective countries. This is meant to reduce the cost of short-term borrowing for troubled European banks and to give them immediate access to dollars.
  This was done immediately after the collapse of Lehman Brothers as well, to alleviate the consequences of banks being largely unwilling to lend to other banks, even for short periods, for fear that the borrowing banks could fail.

  Okay – so the Federal Reserve is loaning giant piles of cheap money to the European Central Bank.So where in the world does all of that money come from?
  As a CNBC article recently explained, all of this money is created right out of thin air by the Federal Reserve….
  

  Neither the dollars nor the Euros come from anywhere. They aren’t moved or debited from anywhere. They are invented right on the spot with a few taps on the key pad. And that’s all. There’s no printing press fired up to make new dollars or euros.This is sometimes called “fiat money.” But that makes it sound as if some command from a sovereign created the money. It’s really closer to “keyboard money,” since it is created by data entry in a computer.Does that sound bizarre to you?It should.But that is how the global financial system really works.We live in a crazy world.Read the full story here.

• Flash: What, Me Pessimistic? Egyptian Election Outcome is Worse Than I Expected.(PJM).By Barry Rubin.By Barry Rubin.Since last February I have predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood would win elections in Egypt. People have thought me very pessimistic. Now the votes are starting to come in and…it’s much worse than I thought. But my prediction that the Brotherhood and the other Islamists would gain a slight majority seems to have been fulfilled and then some. According to most reports the Brotherhood is scoring at just below 40 percent all by itself.Why worse? For two reasons: First, the votes we now have come from the most urban areas of the country. If there are Facebook sophisticates they’re going to be in Cairo and Alexandria. If the moderates do that bad in the big cities, what’s going to happen in the villages up the Nile? If the fascist party came in first in some European countries Social Democratic districts you know you are in trouble.The Brotherhood came in first in Cairo and Alexandria. Think about that. Of course there are millions of migrants from rural areas in those places but that’s also where the middle class, such as it is, lives.Second, the moderate parties didn’t even come in second they came in third or close to it. The Salafists—that is people who are even more radical than the Muslim Brotherhood—came in second. That they did that well is a surprise. That they did that well without bumping the Brotherhood down a notch is really shocking.Estimates for the Justice Party, the Facebook kids of January are getting 5 to 10 percent. Even together with the other two main moderate parties that means the liberals won’t be able to block anything. Already the Brotherhood is tasting blood and talking about pressing the army junta to accelerate the turnover of power.It’s hard to see, though that there can be any such transfer of power. The voting is far from finished and will be going on for about three months more, followed by a presidential election. Oh, yes, the results so far suggest that the Islamists will also win the presidency.That’s when the fun really starts. President Barack Obama is going to face a challenge he is incapable of meeting since he doesn’t even understand what’s going on. He’s like a man who has been told that a ferocious lion is really a playful kitten and then tries to feed it by hand.Or, to switch metaphors in the middle of the stream of thought, perhaps Dr. Frankenstein is a more apt image:“`When younger,’” said he, `I believed myself destined for some great enterprise….I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust. All my speculations and hopes are as nothing; and, like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.’” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. For the purposes of this election, Egypt has been divided into three sections and each section will have a second round. I predict the moderates will fail to work together and that the Islamists will thus end up doing even better than it seems now.The Wall Street Journal correspondent is saying that the Salafists will push the Brotherhood further to the “right” and that’s a very sensible point. Why should the Brotherhood even pretend to be moderate when the people have spoken and they want Sharia with cherries on top.So the Islamists won and the election was fair. Should we feel good that democracy has functioned and that the people are getting what they want?Or should we feel bad that the people want a repressive dictatorship, the repression of women, the suppression of Christians, conflict with Israel, hatred of the West, and the freezing of Egyptian society into a straitjacket that can only lead to continue poverty and increasing suffering?As the vote count becomes clearer, I’ll be refining my analysis but now we know: This is what [Egyptian] democracy looks like.Hmmm....Thank you Barack HUSSEIN Obama, World peace just took a huge step backwards.Read the full story here.

• Hardline Islamists surprise package in Egypt polls.(AlArabiya).The expected victory of several hardline Islamist candidates in the opening phase of Egypt’s first post-revolution election is a surprise and has raised fears among secularists, local media said Thursday.“Al-Nur, the surprise of the moment,” headlined the independent Al-Shorouq daily, referring to the main party of the Salafist movement which follows the strict form of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.According to forecasts in the Egyptian media, the party could win up to 20 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections held on Monday and Tuesday in the capital Cairo, port city Alexandria and other areas.At a fifth of the vote, the Salafists would be at about the same level forecast for the liberals who played a key role in toppling the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak in February.The dominant force is expected to be the Freedom and Justice Party founded by the moderate Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has said it has won at least 40 percent, according to preliminary counting.“The Salafists are the surprise force by beating the Muslim Brotherhood in several districts,” said the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, pointing to contests in the conservative bastion of Alexandria.Al-Nur was part of the Democratic Alliance coalition led by the Muslim Brotherhood but they left to form their own Islamic Alliance, which calls for a strict interpretation of Islamic law in economic and social life.“The fear is that if the Islamist forces dominate the new parliament, that could lead to an undemocratic system, and one that is authoritarian in the name of religion,” said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at the University of Cairo, quoted by Al-Shorouq.“We don’t want to replace Mubarak with a theocratic and authoritarian regime,” he added.On Monday and Tuesday, millions of Egyptians embraced their new democratic freedoms in the first phase of multi-stage parliamentary elections.Publication of the results for the areas that voted − only.Hmmm.....The expected victory of several hardline Islamist candidates is a surprise....Hahahahaha.......C'mon.Read the full story here.

• Hizbut Tahrir Joins Anti-U.S. Protests in Pakistan, Issues Letter Calling for Rebellion by Pakistani Soldiers Against Pro-U.S. Policies, Cites Prophet Muhammad's Saying that Islamic Forces 'Will Conquer India'.(Memri).On November 27, 2011, Hizbut Tahrir, a global Islamist organization campaigning for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, joined anti-U.S. protests in Pakistan over the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO strike. Hizbut Tahrir has been outlawed in Pakistan for its role in recruiting Pakistani soldiers for a possible coup, but its members stage public events in various Pakistani towns.Read the full story here.

• Attack by a Libyan gunman at Istanbul’s top tourist spot is a 'message'.(AlArabiya).Turkish papers Thursday argued that an attack by a Libyan gunman at Istanbul’s top tourist spot was a warning to Ankara over its support to Syrian dissidents.The gunman had arrived at the Topkapi Palace on the banks of the Bosphorus Strait in a car registered in neighboring Syria.Two people were wounded and the gunman was shot dead by police.The Turkish authorities refused to speculate on the attack’s motive but the press saw it as a consequence of Ankara’s open support for the Syrian groups challenging President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.“Raid on Ottomans, message to Ankara,” was the Taraf daily’s headline.“There is a letter from Bashar al-Assad,” wrote the mass circulation Milliyet’s columnist Asli Aydintasbas, adding that the attack was “clear” message from Damascus.She stressed that Assad had recently given an interview in which he accused some leaders in Turkey of seeking to rebuild Ottoman empire, in a swipe at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The columnist said the choice of the target in Wednesday’s attack was further evidence of Syrian involvement as Topkapi palace was the “heart of the Ottoman Empire.”Ahmet Altan, editor-in-chief of daily Taraf, said: “The Syrian registered car... is a clear sign for linking the attack with Syria.”Other newspapers were more cautious, stressing that the gunman appeared to be mentally ill and warning against hasty conclusions.“The overall picture (of the attack) does not allow us to directly establish a Syria connection but it creates legitimate doubts,” wrote veteran journalist Murat Yetkin in the daily Radikal. Read the full story here.

• Badly-Needed Alaskan Oil Is Kept From Market By Obama Decision.(Investors).Energy Policy: The same administration that says we can and should get oil from the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is blocking a bridge needed to get it to market on environmental grounds.In his May 14 weekly radio address, President Obama called for annual lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), not necessarily out of any conviction that increased domestic energy supply is good for prices and national security, but basically to perpetuate the myth that the oil companies refuse to drill in leased or leasable areas.While he restricts oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off the north coast of Alaska, and imposes outright moratoriums on federal lands and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Obama wants the appearance, if not the reality, of supporting domestic energy production from fossil fuels.The NPRA, 23 million acres of North Slope wilderness, was established in 1923 by President Harding to ensure a reserve of oil for the U.S. Navy.Obama has cited it as an example of areas where the oil companies could drill but are reluctant to, knowing full well his administration has walled off preferred areas offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.The problem is that at least one oil company, Conoco Phillips, has said it will go after the oil and gas in the NPRA, estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to hold 2.7 billion barrels of oil and 114.36 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.To get it out, Conoco Phillips wants to build a road bridge and pipeline over the Colville River on the edge of the NPRA to get drilling supplies in and the oil and gas out.The Army Corps of Engineers, backed by the usual environmental suspects, says a pipeline under the river, which is frozen half the year, is preferred even though the oil company has said it would be less safe.The oil firm argues that since the pipeline will carry a mix of oil, gas and water, it would be at greater risk of corrosion and leaks under the water. An above-ground pipeline would be easier to monitor and maintain.But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has impeded domestic energy production anywhere he can on environmental grounds, supports the Corps' decision.The Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Colville River as an aquatic resource of national importance. The Army Corps of Engineers used that as an excuse when deciding on the bridge proposal. "We should minimize the harm to the environment," says Col. Reinhard Koenig.Environmentalist Eric Myers of the Alaska Audubon Society has never been to Nuiqsut, the town near the proposed bridge into the NPRA, but he says the Colville Delta is vital. "It's a very important area for shorebirds. It has a large variety of habitat for fish species," he said.The town's mayor takes a slightly different view. "The community would become a hub for the oil industry," says Thomas Napageak. "I believe that could create a lot of jobs."Like the rest of us during this failed recovery, he is waiting and asking: Where are the jobs? Well, some are waiting in restricted offshore areas, some are waiting in ANWR and some are waiting for a pipeline to be built bringing Canadian tar sands oil to American refineries.The Keystone XL pipeline is being delayed until after the 2012 election because of concerns that aquifers will be contaminated, the same excuse given for restricting oil and gas extraction from the nation's rich shale deposits.Energy production used to be a NIMBY (not in my back yard) problem. Now we have gone BANANAs — build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.Obama says he's not stopping the oil companies from getting new supplies. But when he doesn't allow oil to be taken out of something called the National Petroleum Reserve, you know he's lying.Hmmm....If he really wanted to destroy America as a superpower would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Issa investigating WH role in secret mpg meetings.(WE).By Joel Gehrke.House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has requested documents and information from 15 automaker companies regarding the role of the White House and entities within the executive branch in formulating new fuel economy standards during meetings in which participants were reportedly held to a "vow of silence" regarding their conversations.Citing a 2009 New York Times report that participants tried to "put nothing in writing, ever," Issa asked auto executives, in a November 28 letter obtained by The Washington Examiner, if "anyone in your company [was] every instructed to avoid written correspondence or note-taking? If so, by whom?" He also asked for details on any use of code words during the fuel standards in the meeting, or plans to use oral rather than written communications.Issa's request indicates a particular interest of the executive branch activities, and of interaction between the White House and special interest groups such as unions and environmental activists:Be sure to describe in detail the roles of officials from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry ("Auto Industry Task Force"), including Ron Bloom, the White House, CEQ [Council on Environmental Quality], CARB [California Air Resources Board], the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizaions (AFL-CIO), the National Resrouces Defense Council, and the Sierra Club, and describe how their participation influence the scope, shape, or direction of the negotiations.The California Air Resources Board also receives significant attention, as Issa asked if California is "currently engaged in the regulation of fuel economy or something 'related to' fuel economy," which would violate a federal statute. He also asked if CARB had "a vote in the discussions" about new fuel standards, and if "CARB ever threaten[ed] to 'walk away' from the negotiations?"Issa seems to have reason to believe that CARB did exert such influence in the negotiations, as he followed up by requesting that car company representatives explain, "how did [the Environmental Protection Agency], [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], or the White House respond to CARB's threat to walk away from negotiations?"Read the full story here.

• Why Is Obama’s “Body-Man” Reggie Love Leaving?(Fellowshipofthemind).On Nov. 10, 2011, the New York Times (NYT) reports that Reggie Love, Obama’s 30-year-old “personal aide, shadow, caretaker, basketball buddy and roving diplomat” and all-around “body man” made “what friends and colleagues called a painful decision to leave the president’s side” at the end of this year.NYT says Reggie says the reason why he’s leaving his 6-figures-salary job is his “packed” schedule. According to Wikipedia, the reason is to complete his Master of Business Administration degree at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. But in his exclusive-to-subscribers report of November 14, 2011, investigate reporter Wayne Madsen wrote:“The fallout from Penn State has universities and colleges across the nation checking their records for indications of child abuse and other sex scandals. The Citadel is now embroiled in a scandal involving child sexual abuse by a summer camp counselor. Past gay-oriented sex parties at Duke and the University of North Carolina involving then Duke basketball and football player Reggie Love reportedly cost him his job as President Obama’s ‘body man.’ De facto White House chief of staff Pete Rouse, upon hearing of potential problems regarding Love at Duke and UNC and on the heels of the scandal at Penn State, forced Love to leave the White House staff immediately, even over the objections of Obama.”Yesterday evening when I began a draft of this post, I had seen on Wikipedia’s entry on Reggie Love a reference to him “overcoming” an un-named “scandal” when he was at Duke University to secure a job in Obama’s Senate office. This morning, however, that reference has disappeared from Wikipedia.Booker Rising, a website that describes itself as a “news site for black moderates and black conservatives,” has the dirt on Reggie Love.The website says that Love “passed out drunk at a University of North Carolina frat party” and was “teabagged” (a gay sexual practice wherein one man dips his testicles into the mouth of another) by “white frat boys.” Love also was kicked off the Duke basketball team because he had a “drunk-driving charge,” although he “didn’t get a sentence as his blood alcohol level was slightly below the limit.” He was reinstated back onto the basketball team a year later.By all accounts Barry and Reggie have a close relationship. The NYT calls Love “an exception to the rule for a private, solitary president who allows few people to grow close to him…and growing so familiar that Mr. Obama would floss his teeth in front of him.” Barry even refers to Reggie as his personal “iReggie”, a play on Apple’s iPad.In a July 2009 issue, the tabloid Globe claims that “President Barack Obama is embroiled in yet another gay sex scandal – this time accusers are making incredible charges involving his hunky personal aide Reggie Love! GLOBE uncovers the outrageous claims about the 28-year-old who is the Commander-in-Chief’s “body man” – and the First Lady’s fury.”A year later, on May 24, 2010, Wayne Madsen had a blockbuster report for subscribers only, which claims that Obama is a long-time member of a gay man’s club in Chicago, of which his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is also a member. In it, Madsen writes that Reggie Love “is also reportedly one of Obama’s regular gay sex partners.” Madsen also discloses that Love received a salary of $109,000 a year as Obama’s “body man.”It turns out Reggie is not the original, but the second, “Obama body man.” Reggie had a predecessor, Nick Colvin, who was sent packing when reports came out that he was involved in sexual relations with then Senator and presidential candidate Obama.Hmmm.....Author of “Barack Obama and Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies and Murder”, Lawrence W. Sinclair has died tonight  near his home in a purported car accident. It was apparently a hit and run.Read the full story here.

• Senate OKs Gov't to Keep US Citizens in Military Custody, Indefinitely and Without Trial.(BLN).Source: NY Times. WASHINGTON — Defying the Obama administration’s threat of a veto, the Senate on Tuesday voted to increase the role of the military in imprisoning suspected members of Al Qaeda and its allies — including people arrested inside the United States.By a vote of 61 to 37, the Senate turned back an effort to strip a major military bill of a set of disputed provisions affecting the handling of terrorism cases. While the legislation still has several steps to go, the vote makes it likely that Congress will eventually send to President Obama’s desk a bill that contains detainee-related provisions his national-security team has said are unacceptable.The most disputed provision would require the government to place into military custody any suspected member of Al Qaeda or one of its allies connected to a plot against the United States or its allies. The provision would exempt American citizens, but would otherwise extend to arrests on United States soil. The executive branch could issue a waiver and keep such a prisoner in the civilian system.A related provision would create a federal statute saying the government has the legal authority to keep people suspected of terrorism in military custody, indefinitely and without trial. It contains no exception for American citizens. It is intended to bolster the authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which lawmakers enacted a decade ago.The administration has strongly opposed the mandatory military custody provision, saying it “would raise serious and unsettled legal questions and would be inconsistent with the fundamental American principle that our military does not patrol our streets.” Read the full story here.

• Drone Warfare, President Obama and the French Revolution.(BLN).By Sherwood Ross.Forecasting a future of robotic warfare in which perverted science is put at the service of its Empire, the U.S. has built 60 bases around the world for its unmanned, remotely controlled killer drone warplanes. And more bases are under construction.“Run by the military, the Central Intelligence Agency, and their proxies, these bases...are the backbone of a new robotic way of war,” writes Nick Turse, an investigative journalist for AlterNet and TomDispatch.The bases “are also the latest development in a long-evolving saga of American power projection abroad---in this case, remote-controlled strikes anywhere on the planet with a minimal foreign ‘footprint’ and little accountability,” Turse points out.He notes that there may be even more than 60 bases since the Pentagon has dropped a “cloak of secrecy” over its operations. With the recent murder of American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi in Yemen, the drones are now assassinating suspects in no fewer than six countries, Turse says.Meanwhile, the Washington Post also reports the Obama Pentagon is building a constellation of secret drone bases in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen.A number of the drone bases are located in the U.S., centered at Creech Air Force base outside Las Vegas, Nev., where “pilots” seated in front of computer screens can direct the unmanned drones and command them to launch a Hellfire missile on a suspect in Afghanistan, 7,500 miles away.At Ft. Benning, Ga., a new, advanced drone is being tested that the Washington Post reports is the next step toward a future in which drones will “hunt, identify, and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans.”The New Yorker magazine reported in its edition of October 25, 2009, that since taking office up to that time President Obama sanctioned at least 41 CIA drone strikes in Pakistan that killed between 326 and 538 people, many of them, critics say, “innocent bystanders, including children.”In fact, the first two strikes took place on Jan. 23, the President’s third day in office and the second of these hit the wrong house, that of a pro-government tribal leader that killed his entire family, including three children, one just five years of age.The magazine noted that when another suspect was attacked while sunning himself on his roof, the missile also demolished his house wiping out his entire family.The killing of 25 Pakistan soldiers last week by American aircraft only reinforces the belief that U.S. intelligence agencies are not to be trusted in deciding who is the enemy any more than they could provide reliable information on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.The drone planes, particularly those named Predator and Reaper, have become so popular in the Pentagon defense contractors can’t keep up keep up with the demand. In fact, the Pentagon plans to buy 700 new medium and large unmanned aircraft systems over the next decade, reliable sources say. What’s more, the government plans “new generations of tiny ‘nano’ drones, which can fly after their prey like a killer bee through an open window,” The New Yorker says.In short, President Obama’s enemies are being assassinated with absolutely no pretense of a legal proceeding. Webster’s dictionary defines assassination as “to kill suddenly or secretively, especially to murder a politically prominent person” and also “to destroy or harm treacherously and viciously,” which describes the Pentagon-CIA attacks perfectly.At least in the Terror spawned by the French Revolution, the accused came before a sort of mob called the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, which is more that can be said for today's drone strike victims. In Paris, the accused could not hire a defense lawyer or call witnesses and the only sentence that could be passed was death. This same despicable standard is being applied in today’s drone attacks authorized by President Obama, who has turned back the clock of international jurisprudence by 200 years.Why should future historians not refer to him as the American Robespierre?Read the full story here.

• Kucinich: Federal Reserve has captured control of our government.(RS).By Eric W. Dolan.Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called for the U.S. Federal Reserve to be reformed after Bloomberg reported the central bank secretly loaned nearly $8 trillion to financial institutions from 2007 to 2009.Tens of thousands of documents obtained by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act showed that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion in profits thanks to the low-interest loans. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley accounted for $4.8 billion of that total.“Remember the great debate we had here over the 700 billion in TARP funds?” he said on the House floor Tuesday. “There was no debate over the 7.7 trillion the Fed gave the banks.”“Did Congress have a clue?” he continued. “There is another game going on way over our heads, and our constituents are struggling while the banks with the help of the Feds have captured control of our government.”“Now the rating services are threatening us, if we don’t come up with a deal they’ll downgrade U.S. debt. Could the threat to our national sovereignty be any clearer?”Kucinich has proposed legislation, called the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, that would incorporate the Federal Reserve within the United States Treasury and thereby make it accountable to Congress.Read and see the full story here.

• One Executive Order That Could Stop ObamaCare.(Cato).By Michael F. Cannon.A new memo from the Congressional Research Service explains that the next president cannot simply stop ObamaCare (“PPACA”) by executive order:

[A] president would not appear to be able to issue an executive order halting statutorily required programs or mandatory appropriations for a new grant or other program in PPACA, and there are a variety of different types of these programs. Such an executive order would likely conflict with an explicit congressional mandate and be viewed “incompatible with the express…will of Congress”…However, there may be instances where PPACA leaves discretion to the Secretary to take actions to implement a mandatory program, and…an executive order directing the Secretary to take particular actions may be analyzed as within or beyond the President’s powers to provide for the direction of the executive branch.In other words, the worst elements of ObamaCare — the government price controls it imposes on health insurance, the individual mandate, and the new spending on health-insurance entitlements — are “statutorily required programs” that, say, President Romney cannot repeal or even halt by executive order.However, there is one executive order that could effectively block ObamaCare, and that lies well within the president’s powers.The Obama administration has issued a proposed IRS rule that would offer “premium assistance” (a hybrid of tax credits and outlays) in health insurance “exchanges” created by the federal government. The only problem is, ObamaCare only authorizes these tax credits and outlays in “an Exchange established by the State.” The administration did so because without premium assistance, ObamaCare will collapse, at least in states that do not create their own Exchanges. Yet the executive branch does not have the power to create new tax credits and outlays. Only Congress does. So if the final version of this IRS rule offers premium assistance in federal Exchanges, it will clearly exceed the authority that Congress and the Constitution have delegated to the executive branch.In that case, the next president could issue an executive order directing the IRS either not to offer premium assistance in federal Exchanges or to rescind this rule and draft a new one that does not. The U.S. Constitution demands that the president “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Such an executive order therefore lies clearly within the president’s constitutional powers: it would ensure the faithful execution of the laws by preventing the executive from usurping Congress’ legislative powers.While such an executive order would not repeal ObamaCare, as Jonathan Adler and I explain in this Wall Street Journal oped, it would “block much of ObamaCare’s spending and practically force Congress to reopen the law.”Hmmm......"Veni,vidi,vici".Read the full story here.

• Judge refuses to evict Ground Zero mosque developer who fallen $1.7 million in arrears on rent.(Crainsnewyork).A judge blocked Consolidated Edison Inc. from evicting the Park51 Community Center—better known as the Ground Zero mosque—from its current space, which is owned by the utility. The decision gives the center's developer time to pay rent it owes or to challenge Con Ed's complaints within 20 days.The utility raised the rent 5.5% retroactive to 2008, and calculated that Park51 owed $1.7 million in back rent as a result. Having given the developer until Oct. 4 to pay the rent, Con Ed had planned to evict Park51. The tenant, claiming the appraisal was incorrectly calculated, filed for a Yellowstone injunction, which asks the court to temporarily delay the eviction. Judge Richard Braun of New York Supreme Court granted the injunction, but allowed Con Ed to double the monthly rent to just over $25,000 and ordered Park51 to post a bond of $881,519. Con Ed's lawyer, Scott Mollen, argued that the Yellowstone injunction should never have been granted and suggested that the developer, Sharif El-Gamal, would not be able to come up with the money it owes within the time period. The utility also argued that the developer is facing four other lawsuits from companies that include Valley National Bank and Citi Bank. Judge Braun noted that Park51 did not “need to prove its ability to cure in order to obtain a Yellowstone injunction.” Mr. El-Gamal said he could produce the funds by mortgaging another property and is able and ready to cure, though Park51 “does not have the cash on hand necessary to pay the full amount at once,” as stated in Judge Braun's opinion.The opinion further notes that Park 51 speculated that Con Ed may be bowing to “unspecified political pressures” due to the controversy surrounding the mosque's proximity to the World Trade Center site. Con Ed insisted that it has no desire to become involved in any ideological debates, and instead said it was simply fulfilling its duty to its shareholders.Scott E. Mollen of Herrick, Feinstein, who is representing ConEdison, argued during oral arguments before Justice Braun that 51 Park Place and Mr. el-Gamal were financially unable to cure the defects because of their past failure to meet guarantees made to four other creditors and the inability to rectify hundreds of code violations in three other buildings.Read the full story here.

• Armed U.S. Police Officers Will Be Allowed to Operate in Canada.(Thestar).OTTAWA—Armed U.S. police officers will for the first time be allowed to operate in Canada along with the RCMP as part of far-reaching changes in Canadian-American border operations to be unveiled next week by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama.The joint action plan to be announced at the White House will also break new ground by introducing exit-entry records that will track the movements of everyone who leaves the United States or Canada, with the information available to authorities in both countries.In the months and years ahead, the deal between Ottawa and Washington will reshape security, travel and commercial arrangements at the border in a variety of profound ways — some of which have already raised alarms among Canadians.The agreement, which has been the subject of confidential negotiations since last winter, is intended to reverse the economically damaging border tie-ups that have been growing since Sept. 11, 2001, while upgrading anti-crime and anti-terrorist security for both countries.In contrast to the silence from Canadian negotiators, some U.S. officials have been open about what the new reality at the border will look like in the years ahead.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder revealed last fall that the deal will authorize Canada and the U.S. to designate officers who can take part in police investigations on both sides of the border. The pilot project, Holder said, will improve the two countries’ ability to deal with the “unprecedented” threats along the border from terrorists, human smugglers, illegal firearms traffickers and drug dealers.The model for the joint policing program is the Shiprider project, a three-year-old plan under which the RCMP and U.S. Coast Guard join forces and ride in each others’ vessels when patrolling boundary waters.As part of the measures to improve security and streamline border practices, the Beyond the Border blueprint is also expected to include greatly increased information-sharing between Canada and the U.S., including the exit-entry plan.This secretly devised shake-up of border operations has sparked widespread concerns.“It’s contemptuous of Canadian citizenry to unveil a program in which we’ve had essentially no input,” said Micheal Vonn, policy director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.“This process has really been conducted behind closed doors. We’ve had no white papers, no reports — nothing that we could point to to say, ‘Here are the pros and cons, here are the drawbacks, here are the things we are considering,’ ” she said. Read the full story here.

• Pakistan Shuts Down Resupply Routes to Afghanistan Permanently.(IBA).By Epaminondas.A must read….. Guns make headlines…logistics makes history. Is there ANYONE who did not know that this was a real possibility from 2001 on, given the proclivites of Pakistan’s leadership since Zia ul Haq?For a while under Bush we had supplies coming in from the north of Afghanistan....Now?We have an answer to the north detailed below, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?Pakistan is NOT AN ALLY.Given that roughly 100 fuel tanker trucks along with 200 other trucks loaded with NATO supplies cross into Afghanistan each day from Pakistan, Pakistan’s closure of the border has ominous long-term consequences for the logistical resupply of ISAF forces, even as Pentagon officials downplay the issue and scramble for alternative resupply routes.Pakistan, long angry about ISAF/NATO cross border raids, has apparently reached the end of its tether. Following the 26 November NATO aerial assault on two border posts in Mohmand Agency in Pakistan’s turbulent NorthWest Frontier Province, Islamabad promptly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies after the allied strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.The U.S. military insists a joint patrol with Afghan forces was fired upon first and only responded with return fire and calling in airstrikes on the posts, which a commander mistakenly identified as Taliban training camps, after reportedly checking that there were no Pakistani military forces nearby. Pakistan Major General Ishfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, rebutted Washington’s assertions one by one, commenting, “The positions of the posts were already conveyed to the ISAF through map references and it was impossible that they did not know these to be our posts.”I think the answer is OBVIOUS and no one wants to say it….US forces were fired on by either Taliban forces, sympathetic Pak forces OR BOTH from the Pakistani bases while they felt secure from this position.So, what does this mean for logistical support of ISAF forces? According to Nesar Ahmad Nasery, the deputy head of Torkham Customs, around 1,000 trucks cross into Afghanistan on a daily basis, nearly 300 of which are NATO contractors carrying NATO supplies in sealed containers. Khyber Transport Association chief Shakir Afridi said that each oil tanker has a capacity of 13,000-15,000 gallons. In October 2010 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said that fossil fuels are the number one import to Afghanistan.The major issue at stake here for ISAF and U.S. forces is fuel, all of which must be brought in from abroad at high cost. In October 2009 Pentagon officials testified before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that the “Fully Burdened Cost of Fuel” (FBCF) translates to about $400 per gallon by the time it arrives at a remote Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan.Last year, the FBCF reached $800 in some FOBs following supply route bombings in Pakistan, while others have claimed the FBCF may be as high as $1,000 per gallon in some remote locations. For many remote locations, fuel supplies can only be provided by air - one of the most expensive ways being in helicopter fuel bladders.Sorry, but in an amoral way I am compelled to ask if making an uninhabitable wasteland of these areas would not be cheaperand faster, and less dear in American lives? Where are you Harry Truman, FDR?The majority of U.S. tonnage transported into Afghanistan is fuel - 70 percent, according to Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Alan Haggerty. The Marines’ calculate that 39 percent of their tonnage is fuel, and 90 percent is either fuel or water.According to ISAF spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks, there are currently nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan, ranging from the massive Bagram airbase outside Kabul down to camps, forward operating bases and combat outposts.In WW2 WE BUILT THE PERMANENT ROADS FROM BURMA THRU THE HIMALAYAS.So, given Pakistan’s shutdown, can the NDN absorb the increased railway traffic?Probably, but it won’t be cheap, and will take some time to implement.NATO’s investigation of the Mohmand attack, led by a one-star general, will release its findings on 23 December. What does Pakistan want to resolve the issue? A formal apology and resolute action taken against those responsible for the deadly cross border air strike.The U.S. military’s Transportation Command deputy commander Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek said of resupplying Afghanistan, “This is the logistics challenge of our generation.”If the Pentagon does not issue an apology, then the U.S. military had better expect “the logistics challenge of our generation” to continue.Or get out and push and push the HUMVEES and helicopters.Read the full story here.

• Stop comparing Hamas to al-Qaida.(DocsTalk).By David Keyes.In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not negotiate with Hamas because it is the “Palestinian version of al-Qaida.” This incendiary rhetoric is not only untrue, it polarizes the parties and distances the possibility of peace.British newspaper The Guardian, unlike Netanyahu, knows that “Hamas is not al-Qaida” and that the two groups are “radically different.” One Harvard scholar rightly noted that “assertions about a Hamas-al Qaida alliance are incorrect.” The Christian Science Monitor echoed that “Hamas is a far, far cry from the utopian global fighters of al-Qaida.” Unfortunately, some persist in spreading the myth that Hamas is the “Palestinian version of al-Qaida.” To dispel this untruth once and for all, below is a compilation of just a few of Hamas and al-Qaida’s radically different views. On territorial compromise:

1. Hamas: “We do not recognize the state of Israel or its right to hold onto one inch of Palestine.” –Mahmoud al-Zahar, foreign minister.
2. Al-Qaida: “We will not recognize a state for the Jews, not even one inch of the land of Palestine …” –Osama bin Laden

On death:

1. Hamas: [D]eath for the sake of Allah is [our] most coveted desire.” –Hamas charter.
2. Al-Qaida: “[T]he most honorable death is to be killed in the way of Allah.” –Osama bin Laden

On co-existence:

1. Hamas: "By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine.” –Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, co-founder.
2. Al-Qaida: "Just as the law of extermination was applied to the infidel forces among the nations in previous days and no one could escape it, so it will be applied to the infidel forces in our day and no one will escape it ... the American state, the Jewish state, and all other infidel countries will certainly be destroyed." –Saif al Din al Ansari, senior leader.

On America:

1. Hamas: “America declared war against God ... God declared war against America..." –Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, co-founder.
2. Al-Qaida: “Every American man is an enemy to us." –Osama bin Laden.

On targeting civilians:

1. Hamas: “Whoever comes from abroad and lives on the land of Palestine is considered an occupier, even if they are women or old people. They are all occupiers. Besides, don't forget that they all serve in the army. They are all considered soldiers ... There is no difference [between civilians and soldiers].” –Umm Nidal, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
2. Al-Qaida: “[T]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.” –Osama bin Laden.

On genocide:

1. Hamas: “Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies ... annihilate them completely and do not leave anyone of them." –Yussuf al-Sharafi, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
2. Al-Qaida: “We [are] promised by the Prophet: Judgment day shall not come until the Muslim fights the Jew, where the Jew will hide behind trees and stones, and the tree and the stone will speak and say, ‘Muslim, behind me is a Jew. Come and kill him.’” –Osama bin Laden.

On incitement:

1. Hamas: “The Jews are the most despicable and contemptible nation to crawl upon the face of the Earth ... Allah will kill the Jews in the hell of the world to come, just like they killed the believers in the hell of this world.” - Atallah Abu Al-Subh, former culture minister.
2. Al-Qaida: “Every Muslim, from the moment they realize the distinction in their hearts, hates Americans, hates Jews and hates Christians.” - Osama bin Laden.

On democracy:

1. Hamas: “[T]he Koran [is our] constitution.” –Hamas charter.
2. Al-Qaida: “We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it ... [Democracy is] the essence of infidelity and deviation from the true path.” –Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, deceased senior leader.

On global domination:

1. Hamas: “[T]he march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe."–Mousa Abu Marzouk, senior leader.
2. Al-Qaida: “I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.” –Osama bin Laden.

On Bin Laden’s death:

1. Hamas: [W]e most certainly condemn the murder of this Arab and Muslim Holy Warrior, may Allah have mercy upon him and may [he] take his rightful place together with the Martyrs and the Righteous.” –Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister.
2. Al-Qaida: [B]in Laden, may God have mercy on him, was killed in a place where truth shines and where sincerity for good deeds and the call for truthfulness exist ... Congratulations to the Islamic Nation on the martyrdom of their devoted son Osama.” –Al-Qaida statement.

Besides both being racist, genocide-preaching, death-glorifying, Holocaust-denying, civilian-shield-using, theocratic, tyrannical, terrorist organizations that wage suicide bombing campaigns to eradicate Israel, dominate the world and humiliate the U.S., Hamas and al-Qaida have almost nothing in common.Read the full story here.

• Germany: Muslim pupils allowed to pray, except when it sparks conflict.(IIE).A German federal court on Wednesday backed banning a Muslim pupil from praying according to Islamic rites at a Berlin public school, ruling it could jeopardise its smooth operation.However, the Leipzig-based federal administrative court found that the right to pray even at school was guaranteed by religious freedom under the constitution.In the case of the 18-year-old pupil, who took his school to court, it justified the ban at his Berlin high school because the issue of praying had already sparked conflict among Muslim pupils.The court said the school, in Berlin's ethnically diverse Wedding district, was right in stopping him from praying as "sometimes very severe conflicts" had broken out among Muslim pupils over the interpretation of the Koran.Hmmm....Islam and 'conflict'?Read the full story here.

• US uncertain Israel would advise before Iran strike.(JPost).The top US military officer told Reuters on Wednesday he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran.General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also acknowledged differences in perspective between the United States and Israel over the best way to handle Iran and its nuclear program.He said the United States was convinced that sanctions and diplomatic pressure was the right path to take on Iran, along with "the stated intent not to take any options off the table" - language that leaves open the possibility of future military action."I'm not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that. And because they don't and because to them this is an existential threat, I think probably that it's fair to say that our expectations are different right now," Dempsey said in an interview as he flew to Washington from London.Asked whether he was talking about the differences between Israeli and US expectations over sanctions, or differences in perspective about the future course of events, Dempsey said: "All of the above." He did not elaborate.He also did not disclose whether he believed Israel was prepared to strike Iran.Iran is facing new sanctions after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported earlier in November that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a bomb and may still be conducting secret research to that end.Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.Asked directly whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it chose to go forward with military action, Dempsey replied flatly: "I don't know."Last week, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta raised American concerns about the unintended consequences of any military action against Iran during talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, at a security forum in Canada.Those included US fears about fallout on the world economy and that a strike would only delay - not derail - Iran's nuclear program.Hmmm......"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.

• Explosion outside Tehran two weeks ago an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khameni? (IsraelMatzav).In an attempt to sort out Monday's explosion near an Iranian uranium facility in Isfahan, Missing Peace points out something that may be much bigger: The explosion two weeks ago at a missile base outside Tehran may have been an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khameni. So what really happened in Isfahan?Dr. Ali Reza Nourisadeh, an expert on Iran who writes for Al Sharq al-Awsat, told us on the phone from London that the explosion took place on air force base 8 near Isfahan. He said that 400 converted Chinese missiles were destroyed by the blast, as well as a rocket fuel depot.He also reported that the explosion in Bidganeh two weeks ago, destroyed 180 long range missiles as well as warheads.Daniel Ashrafi, an Iranian expat now living in Canada, told us that Ayatolla Khamenei was supposed to be on the air force base in Bidganeh, when the first explosion took place. His arrival was delayed, however.Ashrafi also said that after the humiliating events in Isfahan and Bidganeh, the regime deliberately created the crisis at the British embassy in Tehran in order to divert the attention to an external enemy.Read the full story here.

• 'Iran is developing low-flying cruise missiles'that could potentially carry a non-conventional warhead.(JPost).Iran is developing an advanced low-flying cruise missile that could potentially carry a non-conventional warhead, Arieh Herzog, director of the Defense Ministry's Homa Missile Defense Agency, said on Wednesday.Herzog, who will step down from his post in the beginning of the year, spoke at the annual International Aerospace Conference in Jerusalem.Earlier this month, close to 20 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officers, including the architect of Iran's long-range ballistic missile program, were killed in a mysterious explosion at a missile base near the city of Bid Kaneh. The officers were reportedly working on the development of a new missile when the explosion took place."The Iranians are developing a capability that within several years, they will have cruise missiles that can fly at low altitudes and carry non-conventional warheads," Herzog said.Herzog said that Israel's missile defense capabilities were drawn from the Iranian's development of missiles.Israel currently has three Iron Dome counter rocket defense batteries deployed throughout the country in additional to two Arrow batteries to defend against long-range ballistic missiles. In 2012, the Air Force plans to begin deploying the David's Sling to protect against medium-range missiles. The David's Sling is being developed to also intercept cruise missiles. Herzog also referred to the development of the Arrow-3 missile defense system which will serve as the upper tier of Israel's multi-layered missile defense program. The system is expected to become operational by 2015."The system is in an advanced development stage and due to its capabilities we will have a number of interception possibilities out of the atmosphere," Herzog said.Read the full story here.

• From the MEMRI TV Archives: Yemenite Sheik Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani Talks about His "Cure" for AIDS and Says He Demands Money, Not Removal from U.S. Terror List, in Return for the Cure.(Memri).Read and see the full story here.More on the Middle East Media on the AIDS conspiracy, click here.

• Iranian Cleric: U.S., Europe Will Become Islamist in Another Few Decades; Most American Women Would Rather Have a Dog and a Toyota than a Husband.(Memri).In recent speeches, Ahmad-Hossein Sharifi, deputy chairman and research director at the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, discussed the dangers presented by the West to Iran's Shi'ite society. He said that the West had decided to undermine this society by disseminating its corrupt, immoral, and anti-Islam culture, and that it was targeting Iran in particular – because Shi'ite Iran, unlike the Sunni Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, was the center of the pure Islam. Yet despite the West's efforts, Sharifi added, Islam was spreading rapidly in the West, and the U.S. and Europe would become Islamic countries within a few decades.The following are the main points of recent statements by Sharifi: 

Sharifi: Americans "Would Rather Marry Animals or Robots than Human Beings"

Sharifi: In Another Few Decades, Europe and the U.S. Will Be Islamic .At an October 17, 2011 science conference in Qom, Sharifi expanded further on the spread of Islam and the Shi'a in the West. The following are the main points of his comments:"Today, everyone acknowledges that the Islamic spirituality, and particularly Shi'ism, is spreading rapidly in the world – to the point where Islam has become an unrivalled religion in the world. If the Islamic trend continues at the present pace, the U.S. is predicted to become an Islamic country by 2070. According to these statistics, it is expected that by 2045 Germany will be completely Islamic; the Netherlands will also be completely Islamic by 2025, and by 2050 more than 70% of the French will be Muslims."Sharifi explained, "The Islamic societies [that will develop in the West] might not be ideal as far as we are concerned, but in general an Islamic spirituality will prevail in them, and they will gradually march towards the ideal spirituality." He added that Western society was very fearful of this Islamic trend, and was therefore fighting "the pure Islam whose center is Iran." He added, "Sowing doubt is one of the important elements that the 'global arrogance' [i.e. the West, led by the U.S.] uses in hope of harming the Shi'ite school of thought. This has expanded greatly in the past 20 years. The main target of the arrogant ones is Iran, and indeed we see that they do not fear the [Sunni Wahhabi] Islam of Saudi Arabia, but even encourage it and propagandize for it." Dismissing the concepts of individualism and sanctity of the individual promoted by the West, which he said came at the expense of the concepts of faith and community, he noted that "infiltration of [drug] rehabilitation centers is another weapon used by the enemies [of Iran]." He said, "The [Western] guidelines state that in order to recover from addiction, there is no hope in [turning] to God or to the imams, but only in trusting the 'ego,' and that there is no hope [in relying on] others, including resorting to the imams. This harms the infrastructure of monotheism and the imamate [i.e. the leading principle in Shi'ism – the belief in the 12 Shi'ite imams]." Sharifi also warned that kindergartens were being infiltrated by non-Islamic beliefs, such as Baha'ism and Buddhism, by means of children's television shows, among other means, which are a tool in the hands of the enemies of Islam: "I have learned that some time ago in two [northern Iran] provinces, Gilan and Mazandaran, 25 kindergartens linked to the Baha'is were identified and shut down." He added that a recently released children's film spreads Buddhism very cleverly, using children's language.Read the full story here.

• Saudi man beheaded by sword after drinking partner killed.(BikyaMasr).The Saudi Arabian government beheaded a man on Tuesday after Sultan al-Asiri was convicted of killing a drinking partner. The interior ministry said that the man was killed by sword in the southwestern city of Abha.According to the charges, Asiri allegedly shot dead Mufreh Asiri “as they met for drinking intoxicants,” said a statement from the ministry published by the official SPA news agency.It is the 72nd execution in the conservative gulf kingdom this year, and has rights groups angry and frustrated over the continuted use of the death penalty.Earlier this year, 7 Bangladeshis were executed, rising worries that executions are being used in the country too regularly.“It is wrong and disgusting to kill anyone in this way,” said one rights activist in the country. He told Bikyamasr.com via telephone after an execution last month, addign that “doing this just gets people thinking we live in the Dark Ages.”International rights groups have condemned the Saudi government its use of the death penalty. Saudi Arabia is in the top of global nations using capital punishment, along with China, Iran and the United States.Activists in the country are demanding an end to what they call “archaic” and “inhumane” means of killing convicted murderers.Hmmm.....A six a month average.Read the full story here.

• Shock video: Footballer brutally beaten at game in Islamic Chechnya.(RT).This took place in Grozny, capital of Checnya. The host team are Terek Grozny. Their chairman is Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the province.Football’s World Players’ Union (FIFPro) are going to show FIFA and UEFA the footage of an attack on FC Krasnodar footballer Spartak Gogniev, which happened during a match in Chechnya. “FIFA and UEFA must deal with this,” Dejan Stefanovic, spokesman of FIFPro’s Task Force Eastern Europe, told the Union’s official website. “We will show FIFA’s and UEFA’s secretary generals and the members of both Executive Committees a video of the incident, because this incident and the way the Russian Federation has handled Gogniev’s case need to be discussed by the Executive Committees of both FIFA and UEFA. These Executive Committees must also force their bodies to come into action.”The incident took place during the match between the reserve squads of Russian Premier League sides Terek Grozny and FC Krasnodar, which took place in the Chechen capital on November 4.After being sent off for a second yellow card, upset FC Krasnodar captain Spartak Gogniev pushed away the referee and started an argument with the opposing team’s players.At the edge of the pitch, he was attacked by a group of people, which included Terek staff, the local fans and the stadium security as well. Gogniev managed to escape into the players’ tunnel, but there he was apprehended by a group of men dressed in police uniforms, who proceeded to beat him with batons. The 30-year-old suffered concussion and his nose and several ribs were broken as a result of the attack.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!Company digging mine in Afghanistan unearths 2,600 year old Buddhist monastery.(AD).A Chinese company digging an unexploited copper mine in Afghanistan has unearthed ancient statues of Buddha in a sprawling 2,600 year old Buddhist monastery.Archaeologists are rushing to salvage what they can from a major 7th century B.C. religious site along the famed Silk Road connecting Asia and the Middle East. The ruins, including the monastery and domed shrines known as 'stupas,' will likely be largely destroyed once work at the mine begins.The ruins were discovered as labourers excavated the site on behalf of the Chinese government-backed China Metallurgical Group Corp, which wants to develop the world's second largest copper mine, lying beneath the ruins. Hanging over the situation is the memory of the Buddhas of Bamiyan - statues towering up to 180 feet high in central Afghanistan that were dynamited to the ground in 2001 by the country's then-rulers, the Taliban, who considered them symbols of paganism.No one wants to be blamed for similarly razing history at Mes Aynak, in the eastern province of Logar. MCC wanted to start building the mine by the end of 2011 but under an informal understanding with the Kabul government, it has given archaeologists three years for a salvage excavation.Archaeologists working on the site since May say that won't be enough time for full preservation.The monastery complex has been dug out, revealing hallways and rooms decorated with frescoes and filled with clay and stone statues of standing and reclining Buddhas, some as high as 10 feet. An area that was once a courtyard is dotted with stupas standing four or 5ft high.More than 150 statues have been found so far, though many remain in place. Large ones are too heavy to be moved, and the team lacks the chemicals needed to keep small ones from disintegrating when extracted.'That site is so massive that it's easily a 10-year campaign of archaeology,' said Laura Tedesco, an archaeologist brought in by the US Embassy to work on sites in Afghanistan. 'Three years may be enough time just to document what's there.'Philippe Marquis, a French archaeologist advising the Afghans, said the salvage effort is piecemeal and 'minimal', held back by lack of funds and personnel.'This is probably one of the most important points along the Silk Road,' said Marquis. 'What we have at this site, already in excavation, should be enough to fill the (Afghan) national museum.'Read and see the full story here.