MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Russia 5.0 !More info here.

• Video - Why We Hate The Jews - Can it be any Clearer?(Memri).Quote"OUR HATRED OF THE JEWS IS BASED UPON OUR FAITH!The Koran tells us to hate them not to love them!They are ennemies not because they occupied palestine,They would have been ennemies even if they did not occupy a thing.See the full story here.

• Canada - Should veils be banned during oaths of citizenship?(YV).Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has announced a ban on face coverings, such as niqabs, for people swearing their oath of citizenship.The ban, announced Monday, is effective immediately. As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians.Kenney said he's had complaints from MPs and citizenship court judges that it's hard to tell whether people with their faces covered are actually reciting the oath of citizenship, which he says is a requirement to become Canadian."We cannot have two classes of citizenship ceremonies. Canadian citizenship is not just about the right to carry a passport and to vote," Kenney said.Do you agree with the ban on veils for citizenship oaths? Let us know in the comments.Read the full story and Vote here .

• Iran to practice Strait of Hormuz closure while unlocking US drone secrets.(Debka).Bigheaded from capturing the US stealth RQ-170 Sentinel drone, Tehran Monday, Dec. 12 announced plans to conduct a navy drill soon for practicing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world for 40 percent of its fuel. Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, member of the Majlis national security committee, who announced the drill said, "Iran will make the world unsafe if the world attacks Iran."On Dec. 12, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Iran "a very grave threat to all of us" and warned that any Iranian disruption of the free flow of commerce through the Persian Gulf "is a red line" for the United Sates.Tehran's announcement of a navy drill in Hormuz augments the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad's mantra since his people rose up against him nine months ago, that an attack on his regime would start a regional blaze.The Iranian lawmaker spoke at length about how his government planned to use the military and intelligence software mined from the top-secret US UAV on Dec. 4.He said Iranian engineers and technicians were "in the final stages of "cracking" the drone's secret technology, although he did not say when this research would be complete. "Our next action will be to reverse-engineer the aircraft," he said and boasted: "In the near future will be able to mass produce it. Iranian engineers will soon build an aircraft superior to the American one."This data would also be used, the Iranian lawmaker said, in a lawsuit against the United State for the "invasion" by the unmanned aircraft. Sorouri did not say where the lawsuit would be filed but Tehran is thought to be preparing an complaint to the international war crimes court at the Hague.debkafile's Iranian and military sources note that the linkage Sorouri made between the capture of the RQ-170 and the naval drill in the Strait of Hormuz was intended to inform Washington that Tehran in possession of the drone no longer fears the ability of the naval air carriers the US has deployed in the Persian Gulf to prevent its closure of the strategic waterway.In the last six months, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari has emphasized more than once that the Iranian Navy which he commands is master of the Persian Gulf and dominates the Strait of Hormuz.Mere verbal protest will not serve. It will just leave Tehran crowing over its possession of the US drone as the key to the military and intelligence mastery of the Persian Gulf waters and the ability to make US back down. However a real threat by the US and Gulf oil powers to stop the drill by force will send regional tensions shooting up.In the meantime, Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's National Security Council has arrived in Moscow to clinch a deal for the transfer of drone secrets to Russia in return for nuclear technology and sophisticated military hardware.Hmmm......"May you live in interesting times"?Read the full story here.

• Iran must chose between a bomb or survival: Israel.(DailyStar).JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli cabinet minister on Monday said Iran must be forced to face an existential question over its nuclear drive: choose between getting an atomic bomb, or survival."We believe that in order to stop the Iranian military nuclear project, the regime in Tehran should face a dilemma -- whether to have a bomb or to survive," Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters in Jerusalem.Yaalon said however it was for the international community, rather than Israel, to apply what he called an "achievable" policy."We prefer that the international community led by the United States will bring about this dilemma in order to convince the regime to give up its military nuclear programme," he said, stressing the need for political isolation and economic sanctions aimed at the banking and oil sectors.Israel and much of the international community fear that Iran's nuclear programme masks a drive for a weapons capability.Tehran denies any such ambition and says the programme is for peaceful civilian energy and medical purposes only."Our policy is very clear -- by one way or another, the military nuclear project in Iran should be stopped," Yaalon said, indicating it "might be 12 months, might be 24 months" until Iran was able to reach a military nuclear capability.Israel has pushed Washington and the European Union for tough sanctions against Tehran, but has repeatedly warned it would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.Yaalon, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner circle of eight ministers, also reiterated the line that while a military option was still on the table, as "the last resort."He declined to comment on what was behind a deadly explosion at a Iranian military base near Tehran last month, which a top Israeli intelligence official reportedly said was a site where ground-to-ground missiles were being developed."They had some blow to the missiles project in the last incident in which a missile site absorbed a significant blow -- especially regarding long-range missiles," Yaalon said.Media reports have suggested the blast was part of a covert effort by the United States, Israel and other states to disable Iran's nuclear and missile programmes.Last month, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said it had "credible" information Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."Read the full story here.

• Liberal Legal Expert: Kagan must recuse herself or "the integrity of the Supreme Court as at stake".(DougRoss).By Eric Segall.Professor Eric Segal is a widely published constitutional attorney who is a self-professed liberal. Therefore, when the subject of Elena Kagan's recusal is seen by most Democrats as a partisan issue -- rather than simply an issue of obvious, judicial integrity -- his Slate opinion piece ("A Liberal’s Lament on Kagan and Health Care") represents a breath of fresh air....Elena Kagan is a loyal Democrat who owes her Supreme Court appointment to President Obama. She is poised to review the constitutionality of Obama’s health care statute, which, if invalidated, might do serious damage to his re-election campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Even though it would be a hard decision to make, Elena Kagan should recuse herself from hearing challenges to the act.So far it appears that only Republicans and conservatives want Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, while liberals and Democrats take the opposing view. I have been a liberal constitutional law professor for more than 20 years, and a loyal Democrat. I believe the Affordable Care Act is constitutional... That said, I believe that as a matter of both principle and law, Kagan should not hear the case....As many have pointed out, there are legitimate arguments that these rules point to recusal. Was Kagan a “counsel” or “adviser” on this issue? We know that she was on an e-mail exchange between her top deputy, Neal Katyal, and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, about a meeting to discuss the litigation strategy for the ACA litigation, and lawyers in her office would be present. We also know she attended at least one meeting where the litigation was discussed... We don’t know how fully Kagan was involved because the White House (perhaps for legitimate reasons unrelated to this controversy) has not released all of the relevant emails about the matter...We also know that Kagan wrote an e-mail to Laurence Tribe, a famous Harvard constitutional law professor who was also working for the administration at the time the law passed, in which she said, “I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing.” The email's subject line was "fingers and toes crossed today!"...She served as the solicitor general of the United States during the time that the ACA was furiously debated in Congress, discussed in town halls across the country, and enacted... [and] We know she celebrated the passage of the law....The Supreme Court is increasingly seen as a partisan political institution making political decisions instead of a true court deciding cases under the law. Justice Kagan has a golden moment to display that at least one Supreme Court justice has integrity and character that exceed her party loyalty and political past. If she sees herself as a political official who, because of the office she occupies, gets to cast an important vote on an issue that may decide an election, she should stay on the case. But, if she views herself as a judge of law who is obligated to approach legal issues objectively and open-mindedly without regard to partisan political outcomes, she ought to step aside. Nothing less than the integrity of the Supreme Court is at stake.Thank you, professor, for demonstrating that at least one Democrat is capable of publicly advocating an ethical and intellectually honest course of action for Justice Kagan.Hmmmm......The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. ~Thomas Babington Macaulay.My guess the same go's for women.Read the full story here.

• Joe Biden Drafted the Core of the Patriot Act in 1995 … Before the Oklahoma City Bombing.(WashingtonsBlog).Everyone knows that the Patriot Act was drafted before 9/11.But few know that it was Joe Biden who drafted the core provisions which were included in that bill … in1995. CNET reported in 2008:

Months before the Oklahoma City bombing took place, Biden introduced another bill called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. It previewed the 2001 Patriot Act by allowing secret evidence to be used in prosecutions, expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and wiretap laws, creating a new federal crime of “terrorism” that could be invoked based on political beliefs, permitting the U.S. military to be used in civilian law enforcement, and allowing permanent detention of non-U.S. citizens without judicial review.* The Center for National Security Studies said the bill would erode“constitutional and statutory due process protections” and would “authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations.”
Biden himself draws parallels between his 1995 bill and its 2001 cousin. “I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing. And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill,” he said when the Patriot Act was being debated, according to the New Republic, which described him as “the Democratic Party’s de facto spokesman on the war against terrorism.”
***
Biden’s proposal probably helped to lay the groundwork for the Bush administration’s Patriot Act.

The Center for National Securities reported in 1995:

On February 10, 1995, a counterterrorism bill drafted by the Clinton
Administration was introduced in the Senate as S. 390 and in the House of
Representatives as H.R. 896.
The Clinton bill is a mixture of: provisions eroding constitutional and
statutory due process protections, selective federalization — on political
grounds — of state crimes (minus state due process rules), discredited
ideas from the Reagan and Bush Administrations, and the extension of some of
the worst elements of crime bills of the recent past.
The legislation would:
1. authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to
investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations;
2. repeal the ancient provision barring the U.S. military from civilian
law enforcement;
3. expand a pre-trial detention scheme that puts the burden of proof on
the accused;
4. loosen the carefully-crafted rules governing federal wiretaps, in
violation of the Fourth Amendment;
5. establish special courts that would use secret evidence to order the
deportation of persons convicted of no crimes, in violation of basic
principles of due process;
6. permit permanent detention by the Attorney General of aliens convicted
of no crimes, with no judicial review;
7. give the President unreviewable power to criminalize fund-raising for
lawful activities associated with unpopular causes;
8. renege on the Administration’s approval in the last Congress of a
provision to insure that the FBI would not investigate based on First
Amendment activities; and
9. resurrect the discredited ideological visa denial provisions of the
McCarran Walter Act to bar foreign speakers.

* Note: The CNET article contains a typographical error, using the word “detection” instead of “detention” in the sentence: “allowing permanent detection of non-U.S. citizens without judicial review”. Not only does this make no sense, but a review of the bill confirms that it provided for permanent detention.Read the full story here.

• McConnell: Keystone is ‘shovel ready,’ pushes for linking payroll tax, pipeline.(TheHill).Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continued Sunday to press for legislation that links extending a payroll tax break with the Keystone Pipeline project.

McConnell predicted Congress will pass legislation this month that extends the payroll tax holiday and extends jobless benefits — but he offered few clues about the path to gaining consensus on a final package.

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” McConnell made clear he wants that package linked to a measure that would force the administration to fast-track a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline project.

“We’d … like to create some jobs” via the project, which needs the president’s approval, McConnell said, contending it would create “20,000 jobs.”

“It’s shovel ready” and would not cost the government “one penny,” he added.

The minority leader predicted a payroll tax cut-Keystone package would win the support of many Senate Democrats and big labor. President Obama has said he would “reject” any payroll tax cut extension measure that is linked to the pipeline project. 

“I’m on the same side as Jimmy Hoffa,” McConnell said, referring to the president of the powerful Teamsters Union. “The Teamsters want this.”Hmmm.....'Reelection or giving Americans jobs'?Read the full story here.

• Is Obama Enlisting Jesus in his Campaign?(WHD).By KeithKoffler.President Obama has been invoking Jesus Christ a lot lately, and it’s hard to see another reason for this new behavior other than it appeals to a certain large group of voters who tend to be believers.In his Christmas-related remarks this year, Obama has been much more personal about his own belief and for the first time invoked the name of Jesus Christ, departing from the more secular, universal messages of previous years.In the 2010 Midterm elections, white middle class voters abandoned the Democrats en masse. In order to achieve reelection, Obama will need to keep as many as possible of these often church-going voters from straying to the Republicans. His ability to hold white middle class voters will determine whether or not he wins in key states like Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Florida and elsewhere.In recent weeks, we’ve found Michelle Obama awkwardly in attendance at that other white middle class church – a NASCAR track, where she was booed – as well as shopping at Target and, along with her husband, hosting country music night at the White House. Meanwhile, he’s been taking campaign-style bus trips through the Midwest and North Carolina and Virginia, everywhere rolling through must win states filled with the demographic.Obama’s increasingly overt religious message seems consistent with this.Sunday, after attending church, Obama made his annual appearance on the “Christmas in Washington” special, taped for broadcast December 16.So it seems The One has signed up The Messiah. I can only hope for Jesus’s sake that He is not on the email list too.But don’t fret, Republicans. Moses may still be available.Hmmmm.....I saw the number of undecided Christian voters?Read the full story here.

• Israeli officials: Obama too soft on Iran.(Ynet).Senior Israeli officials expressed their disappointment with US President Barack Obama's policy on Iran. "The administration is still not acting in full force to impose significant sanctions against Tehran," one of the officials told Ynet Sunday night.On the other hand, officials in Jerusalem lauded French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron. "France and the UK have begun to act determinedly, while Obama's administration has yet to formulate a policy that is sufficiently severe," another official said."While the House of Representatives and the Senate are promoting (anti-Iran) legislation, the White House is operating according to an ideology which could be defined as 'hesitant.' The Iranian issue calls for a clear stance, but the administration has yet to take the necessary measures to significantly hurt the ayatollahs' regime." US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told reporters Thursday Israel and the US enjoy close bilateral cooperation on the threat of a nuclear Iran."There is no issue that we coordinate more closely on than Iran," Shapiro told reporters in Tel Aviv."A nuclear Iran, he added, is "a real threat to Israeli security, ours and our allies', and that is why we are determined to prevent this from happening."But officials in Jerusalem are not satisfied with Obama's policy on Iran. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a recent interview that the international community must impose harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic in order to incapacitate the Iranian regime and force it to suspend its nuclear program.Hmmmm......Moi...soft?....No...but....I need the Muslim votes for my second term so i can bash Israel.Read the full story here.

• Anti-missile system  - Clinton “It’s not directed at Russia, it’s not about Russia, it’s frankly about Iran,”.(OUTITW).As if US-Russian relations were not strained enough over NATO’s incipient anti-missile system in Europe, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks concerning Russia’s “flawed” parliamentary election this past Sunday have only added fuel to the fire.Today, following talks in Brussels between NATO foreign ministers and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, the alliance’s secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, reported “no progress” toward a deal on the rancorous issue. “We listen, and we have listened today,” Fogh Rasmussen told journalists after meeting Lavrov at NATO headquarters. Lavrov, who speaks perfect English, resorted to clipped Russian immediately after Rasmussen’s comments. “Unfortunately our partners are not yet ready for cooperation on missile defense,” Lavrov huffed, but he left the door open for more talks, “provided that legitimate concerns of all parties are taken into consideration.”“No ally within NATO is going to give any other country outside the alliance a veto over whether NATO protects itself by building a missile defense system against threats we perceive are the most salient,” Clinton said tersely at the time. “It’s not directed at Russia, it’s not about Russia, it’s frankly about Iran,” she said, adding it was “certainly not a cause for military countermeasures” by Russia.The talks in Brussels came as Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Clinton on Thursday of encouraging and supporting the election protesters and warned of a wider Russian crackdown on unrest. By describing Russia’s parliamentary election as rigged in favour of Putin’s potemkin party, United Russia, the KGB-communist dictator alleged Clinton “gave a signal” to his opponents. “They heard this signal and with the support of the U.S. State Department began their active work,” Putin said in televised remarks.“I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. colleagues,” Putin said during a meeting with representatives of his All-Russia People’s Front movement in Moscow. “The [U.S.] secretary of state was quick to evaluate the elections, saying that they are unfair and unjust, even before she received materials from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) observers.”As if US-Russian relations were not strained enough over NATO’s incipient anti-missile system in Europe, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks concerning Russia’s “flawed” parliamentary election this past Sunday have only added fuel to the fire.“What is there to say? We are a big nuclear power and remain so,” Putin growled. “This raises certain concerns with our partners. They try to shake us up so that we don’t forget who is boss on our planet [meaning the USA].”When asked about Putin’s comments, Clinton said Washington valued amicable relations with Moscow, which currently facilitates NATO’s military supply route across Russia to Afghanistan. “At same time the U.S. and many others around the world have strong commitments to democracy and human rights,” she said. “We expressed concerns we thought were well founded about the conduct of the elections.”Russian officials have said Medvedev also wants to discuss NATO’s missile defense plan, which under the George W. Bush administration entailed the placement of anti-missile batteries and a radar installation in the Czech Republic. Modified by President Barack Hussein Obama, the missile defense system now includes batteries in Poland and Romania.Hmmm......Clinton “It’s not directed at Russia, it’s not about Russia, it’s frankly about Iran,”.Did you hear PM Erdogan?Read the full story here.

• IDF ponders how to handle mass burial scenario.(YNet).Home Front Command and IDF Rabbinate officials have asked Israel's Chief Rabbinate for instruction on how to act in the extreme scenario that hundreds or even thousands of soldiers and citizens should be killed all at once. Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar were approached with this predicament after the IDF evaluated possible outcomes of a rocket attack on Israel causing a mass causality event.Now the Chief Rabbinate must reexamine this sensitive issue and decide whether to recommend transient burial or the transfer of the bodies to cooling facilities until the final burial in civilian cemeteries. According to the halacha, taking the dead out of their graves is considered "desecration of the dead," however transferring the bodies to cooling facilities might be considered delaying the burial." Therefore this controversial issue has been brought forth before the chief rabbis, for their consideration. Today any mass casualty event falls under the responsibility of the Interior Ministry. However if, for instance, Israel is attacked by rockets, killing hundreds or even thousands of civilians and soldiers – the IDF will also assist in evacuating and handling the bodies. Israel National Planning and Construction Council approved a plan for temporary burial over six months ago, in the event that thousands might be killed. This plan was part of the State's preparations for a possible earthquake in Israel. The planning committee assigned eight designated zones from which to collect the bodies, where at least 3,000 people might be buried in. An IDF spokesman explained that the issue of burying civilians is not within the army's jurisdiction. "This issue is being discussed as part of a broader approach taken by the IDF when it comes to preparing the civilian front for emergencies." The Chief Rabbinate has confirmed they received the Home Front Command's appeal on the matter. "These are sensitive issues which should not be discussed in the media. The rabbis are dealing with these issues seriously and with the proper caution," a Chief Rabbinate official stated.Hmmm.....Someone preparing for the fallout from attacking Iran?Read the full story here.

• Rise of Islamic Jihad in Gaza now funded by Iran challenges Hamas rule.(JPost).Analysis: With Hamas out of its orbit, Iran has upped its support of Islamic Jihad.Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, killing and expelling Fatah militiamen, it never faced a real challenge to its rule.Until now.In recent months though, Islamic Jihad has made an impressive leap in its capabilities and military infrastructure.This is a direct result of Iran’s decision to divert funds traditionally allocated to Hamas to Islamic Jihad instead.The main cause for the Iran-Hamas rift was the Palestinian terrorist group’s decision to abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad and begin the process of moving its political-military bureau out of Damascus, 13 years after moving there from Jordan. According to recent reports, most of the senior Hamas command has already left Syria and a headquarters that once numbered hundreds of operatives now has just a few dozen left.Western intelligence agencies are tracking where the Hamas men are traveling to and where the new headquarters will be established. Leading candidates appear to be Egypt, Sudan and Jordan. Qatar is also a possibility but Khaled Mashaal, head of the bureau, appears to want to be close to the Gaza Strip, the organization’s main base of operations.The departure from Damascus might have a positive outcome for Israel in the short term. Without a clear base and a patron like Assad, Mashaal and the overseas branch of Hamas will be slightly weakened and might have difficulty continuing the logistical support they had been providing for the group’s Gaza-based activities.Iran’s decision to slash its funding of Hamas is also affecting the group and Hamas is looking for new sources of income, such as its decision last month to fine the Bank of Palestine $150 million on bogus charges.As a result, Hamas is not interested – at the moment – in a major confrontation with the IDF, since attacking Israel would make its fund-raising efforts in Europe and throughout the Middle East more difficult.This is believed to be one of the reasons why Hamas preferred to not get involved in the attacks against Israel over the weekend – even though it publicly condemned Israel for the targeted killing of a senior Aksa Martyrs Brigades operative on Thursday who was believed to be plotting an attack against Israel from the Sinai Peninsula.With Hamas out of its orbit, Iran has upped its support of Islamic Jihad, which, according to some estimates, has a rocket arsenal that competes in its quantity and quality with that in Hamas’s warehouses. Islamic Jihad’s rise to power has created a new intelligence challenge for Israel, which now needs to track with almost equal emphasis both organizations and their capabilities inside Gaza.Islamic Jihad’s reasons for not participating in the recent rocket attacks against Israel are similar. It is at the stage of building up its capabilities. It did not want to risk all it has created for a conflict that was destined to only last a few days and preferred to retain its capabilities for the larger and longer round that is looming on the horizon.Iran might also be telling Islamic Jihad to wait.The Iranian objective is to establish a force on Israel’s southern border that will have capabilities and quantities like those of Hezbollah in Lebanon and that together both fronts will deter the Israeli government from launching unilateral military action against its nuclear facilities.Read the full story here.

• Did Iran blast target steel needed for nuke program?(YNet).Does the mysterious blast in Iran's steel factory have any connection to attempts to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program? Foreign reports suggesting Iran received North Korean steel used for uranium enrichment and the production of exhaust systems of missile engines may indicate that there is such a connection. Initially, the Iranians claimed that the cause for Sunday's blast was the penetration of water into the steel's melting pot but later said that ammunition brought to the factory had exploded.Less than a month ago, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported that North Korea had provided Iran and Syria with special maraging steel which serves for the production of facilities required to withstand high speed and heavy heat. The paper claimed that both the Iranians and the Syrians are in need of such steel for the production of new centrifuges for uranium enrichment and the manufacturing of exhaust systems for missile engines. Iran and Syria have thus far not succeeded in manufacturing maraging steel on their own and have therefore purchased it from North Korea in order to accommodate their nuclear and missile programs, Die Welt claims. The report is based on western intelligence sources.It is very likely that this report may be linked to Sunday's blast at the steel factory in the city of Yazd. Though privately owned, the factory is considered a modern facility. The local governor noted that the blast occurred after 7 pm and that a number of foreign nationals had died in the explosion. These may be North Koreans training Iranians on maraging steel. According to foreign reports, the Iranians intend to install the new high-speed centrifuges from the IR2 and IR3 models at the new Fordu uranium enrichment site buried deep in the mountainside near the city of Qom but in order to manufacture the modern centrifuges, the Iranians need large quantities of maraging steel.Moreover, the Iranians need maraging steel to manufacture the ballistic missile engines they are constructing. It is possible that they acquired the knowledge needed to create the steel from North Korea as well as assistance in the first manufacturing stages because of their need of massive quantities of the steel. Therefore, it is extremely plausible that there is a connection between the blast that occurred at the steel plant in Yazd, at an hour not usually considered a work hour. It is also possible that this is the reason that there were "foreign civilians" among the casualties. The possibility that an accident caused the blast should still be taken into consideration yet the coincidence in which facilities connected to the Iranian missile and nuclear programs makes it hard to reject the possibility that this was intentional sabotage or as the media likes to call it – "a mysterious blast." The blasts in Isfahan and Yazd may seem like accidents but the frequency with which the "accidents" have been occurring recently points to a new method of sabotage in the Iranian nuclear program. It is being carried out by "western factors", Iranians operated by those factors, or maybe through "tools" that cause blasts though the tools themselves and their armament aren't visible on the scene of the blast. Recently, experts raised some assumptions in the global media claiming the US was using its elusive UAVs to follow and maybe even sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. Read the full story here.

• Barak: What did We Get for Disengagement? 10,000 Missile Strikes.(INN).Defense Minister Ehud Barak alluded to the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza Sunday as he warned that Israel would strike back at terrorists there."Since Friday, about 36 missiles have been fired from Gaza at Israeli communities," he said in a speech at the World Policy Conference in Vienna. "Israel will know how to defend itself and will not let this situation continue. [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon evacuated the Gaza Strip and took out every last soldier and civilian, gave instructions to tear down all buildings, even synagogues, so as not to supply any excuse to the Palestinians. And what happened? Hamas fired over 10,000 rockets at Israel."Regarding the peace treaty with Egypt, Barak said: "The geopolitical tumult throughout the Arab world is dramatic and its end is difficult to forecast. We hope that despite the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in the first round [of the elections in Egypt], reason will triumph along with the economic needs and peace between the two countries will be preserved."Regarding Iran, Barak called for worldwide "devastating sanctions" to stop the Islamic republic's nuclear weapons program.Read the full story here.

• Developing Story: Hundreds of US-NATO Soldiers Arrive & Begin Operations on the Jordan-Syria Border.(BF).According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border. Read the full story here.

• Website offers rare glimpse of North Korean TV.(France.24).AFP - From his office in Seoul, former North Korean soldier Lim Young-Sun runs a website offering a rare glimpse of state television in the North to show what the country he fled two decades ago is really like.Lim's Unification Broadcasting (SPTV) streams Korean Central Television, a risky business in Seoul where disseminating North Korean propaganda could see him fall foul of South Korea's tough National Security Law.While the site (sptv.co.kr), the only one of its kind in the South, so far has an audience just in the thousands, Lim has a dream of attracting millions of viewers curious about life on the other side of the last Cold War frontier."I started live streaming three years ago mainly to let people here witness what North Korea is really like," Lim, 47, told AFP.North Korean television is relayed by satellite to most of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But its terrestrial signal south of the tense border is jammed by Seoul.While some South Koreans have been arrested for posting North Korean news, SPTV appears to be tolerated, though under close surveillance by the security authorities."It's not like we've been approved by the government, but they simply turn a blind eye to us in order to create a favorable atmosphere for unification," he said.South Korean government officials admit the authorities appear to be tolerating Lim's business."It's matter of judgement by security authorities, but SPTV is alive so far," said a spokesman at the unification ministry which handles cross-border affairs.Lim, a former North Korean army first lieutenant, said he fled to China after being involved in anti-government activities in the North and arrived in South Korea in 1993."When the two Koreas are unified, the South will have to embrace the North and to do that, people here must be familiar with the culture and lifestyle of North Koreans," he said.SPTV streams North Korean television for seven hours a day from 0800 GMT and edited footage is also posted online the next day.The content is largely propaganda eulogising North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il or extolling his leadership and reports of military affairs in the secretive communist state.News and other programmes are heavy with detailed accounts of Kim's field trips to various factories, farms and military units, stinging commentary attacking Seoul and Washington, or praising the virtue of hard work and blind allegiance and patriotism.Though little publicised, daily viewership of SPTV's live streaming service and other content on its website can reach up to 15,000, sometimes jamming its relatively small-capacity server, Lim said.The audience for SPTV seems to be mainly defectors and researchers on North Korean studies, and sometimes South Korean college students."At first, the government was worried that some South Korean supporters of the Kim Jong-Il regime would abuse my service, but ironically, many of them become anti-Kim after watching," Lim said."They said the scenes of North Korean residents so frantically worshipping Kim seemed ridiculous, to the point it became impossible to agree with the ideology."Lim relies on small monthly donations of between 1,000 and 10,000 won (90 cents to $9) from a few hundred supporters to help fund his shoestring operation."Now, I only have individual sponsors, so I fund the service with the money I earn by lecturing and running my clothing firm," Lim said.He said he was busy and tired but vowed to continue his service until the peninsula split at the end of World War II is re-unified."I'll try harder to increase the number of receivers to four million and to provide more interesting and meaningful content."The SPTV website has drawn a mixed response."How can this site relay broadcasting by commies so dauntlessly? I will report to security authorities," one visitor nicknamed "Viewer" said in a comment posted on the website."I don't agree with the philosophy of your company, but I'm visiting here just because I'm interested in North Korea's broadcasts," another visitor going by the name "Clean Dong" wrote.Read the full story here.

• Obama 'stimulus' working , now creating new jobs in Turkey!Turkey, US home to new T-Series Ford.(Hurriyetdaily).The Ford Motor Company will inject $1.7 billion into producing the new Ford Transit T-Series light commercial vehicle in Kansas U.S. and Gölcük in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, Turkey. The new Transit model is expected to hit global markets in 2013 and will be sold across all major continents. The current model, manufactured in Gölcük, is based on the one Ford has been producing since 1950. It has already been sold almost everywhere in the world except for the U.S., according to daily Hürriyet. Ford is now getting ready to launch the new T-Series model in the U.S. and is currently test driving the vehicle to prepare it for U.S. consumers and U.S. road conditions. The present U.S. favorite is the Econoline E-Series van. The Transit is expected to be 25 percent more fuel efficient. Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia to spend $100bn on 16 nuclear plants.(ArabNews).JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia will spend more than $100 billion to establish 16 nuclear energy plants in different parts of the country within the next few years, Commerce and Industry Minister Abdullah Zainal Alireza told a Saudi-US business forum in Atlanta.He made this comment while talking about the Kingdom’s efforts to develop solar and other renewable energy technologies to reduce dependence on oil and gas.“We have allocated $3 billion to produce solar energy panels in Jubail and Yanbu,” he added.Alireza said Saudi imports from the US are expected to cross $95 billion or 23 percent of the total US exports to Arab countries by 2012.“This amount is expected to double by 2015,” the minister said while highlighting the significance of Saudi Arabia as a big market in the Middle East".This goes in line with President Barack Obama's initiative for increasing US exports and creating 2 million new jobs for the Americans," he added.Hmmm.....Nuclear plants build with Pakistani aid?Read the full story here.

• Belgium - Brussels: Center for Equal Opportunities Turkish lecturer expressed antisemitic views during lecture on multiculturalism.(IIE).Via Joods Actueel (Dutch):Members of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition of Racism (CGKR) expressed racist views during a 'multicultural communications' course for high-level police officials. The course was given by two female lecturers. David Vroome (43), a police commissioner for the federal police, attended the course with twenty colleagues. He told Jewish news-site Joods Actueel that a Turkish lecturer made several questionable comments about gays, and then came down on the Jewish community.The lecturer spoke of several ethno-cultural communities in Brussels who live in their own neighborhoods, have their own shops and restaurants, but also have their own way of life: such as the Chines, Japanese and Eurocrats. Then she turned to the Jewish community. She said those people allow themselves everything because they have money and financial power, but also because Jews continuously bring up the past - a reference to the Holocaust, which, according to the lecturer, Belgium had nothing to do with.Other agents confirmed the story. One police commissioner who preferred to remain anonymous said that the audience were surprised by the statements. The other lecturer said nothing and continued as usual.Joods Actueel contacted Jozef De Witte, director of CGKR, who is currently in Washington. After some discussion De Witte finally conceded that such statements were antisemitic, but that he would have to check the context to see if it's a legal offense.Vroome intends to lodge a complaint against CGKR for racism, and says that whether those statements were legal or not, the center shouldn't employ such workers.Read the full story here.

• Kalashnikov found on member of Belgian extremist movement 'Sharia4Belgium'.(TWFI).(Googletranslate).The courts and the police want to move now to keep a closer eye, reports the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. Earlier this month upset potential supporters (video) of a motion debate on Islam in De Balie in Amsterdam. In that debate,including Green MP Tofik Dibi present.Weapons for sale on website : The search of Deurne was done after the member Sharia4Belgium the weapon had been offered for sale on a website. The man needed money and would have to sell the gun because he had a lack of funds.Evolution of jihadists group:According to Belgian newspaper the Sharia4Belgium movement turns around AbuImran leader of a group of extremist jihadis to faithful group that actively supports terrorist organizations.Discrimination and hate:Abu Imran must be on January 13 in court to answer for inciting discrimination andhatred.Read the full story here.

• The Netherlands - Secret Service Worried about Radical “Sharia4Holland” Muslim Group.(BNFTN).(Parool).The Dutch Intelligence Service, AIVD is worried about the rapid radicalization of the Muslim group “Sharia4Holland.” The AIVD remarked that the group appears increasingly in public and hands out flyers on the street. This group is held responsible for the disturbance in an Amsterdam meeting where Parliamentarian Tofik Dibi, (Green Left) had eggs thrown at him. Radical slogans were also shouted. Various parliamentarians of the Labor Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals have criticized the group. The Freedom Party wants the group to be prohibited.Read the full story here.