MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation New Zealand 6.1 - 5.8 - 5.5 - 5.2 ; Solomon Islands 5.6 !More info here.

• Boehner: Obama approved Solyndra, but not Keystone.(BC).By Joel Gehrke.House Speaker John Boehner said that President Obama has put politics ahead of job creation, and faulted the president for approving the high-risk Solyndra loan guarantee, but then denying a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to be built."President Obama expedited approval of the Solyndra loan project, but won't approve a project that's been under review for over three years," House Speaker John Boehner said in a press conference today on Obama's decision not to grant a permit for the Keystone pipeline. He declared that "President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese." He argued that "the President is selling out American jobs for politics," and declared that Obama's promise to work to create jobs "was broken" today.President Obama said he was "disappointed" in the Republicans for forcing a Keystone decision ahead of the environmental studies timetable. "The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," Obama said in his statement on the Keystone rejection. "I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil." Hmmmm.......Yup that's why Under Obama, Oil and Gas Production on Federal Lands Is Down 40% !Read the full story here.

• "Job-Killers, 2; American Workers, 0".(PNW).LIUNA – the Laborers' International Union of North America – called the reported decision by the Obama Administration today to block permitting for Keystone XL pipeline "politics at its worst."Last fall the Administration delayed consideration of a permit for the pipeline until after the 2012 elections. Today, in response to Congressional legislation requiring a 60-day decision, the Administration reportedly denied a permit."The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero. We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst," LIUNA General President Terry O'Sullivan said. "Once again the President has sided with environmentalists instead of blue collar construction workers – even though environmental concerns were more than adequately addressed. Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this."The project would create thousands of good jobs at a time when unemployment in the construction industry is 16 percent with 1.3 million men and women jobless.Environmental groups have used the Keystone XL as a disingenuous proxy for arguments about global warming. The pipeline would carry up to 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada's Tar Sands to the U.S., reducing reliance on oil from hostile nations. While environmental groups decry Tar Sands development, the Canadian government and Trans-Canada, the company developing the Tar Sands, have made clear the oil will be developed – and possibly sold to China – regardless of whether Keystone XL is built.In addition, experts believe the project would be the safest ever constructed. Design included 21,000 sensors, monitored by satellites to immediately detect leaks and automatically stop the flow of oil. In addition, a revised route alleviated concerns in Nebraska over the project crossing water resources. Overall, the pipeline has undergone more than 1,100 days of governmental review. "The Administration and environmentalists have blown the whistle on workers trying to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads," said O'Sullivan. "Instead of celebrating their victory by hugging a tree they should hug a jobless construction worker because they're the ones who are going to need it."Read the full story here.

• Obama’s “Forced” Keystone Decision Rejects Jobs, Energy, and Logic.(Heritage).By Nicolas Loris.President Obama’s politically intoned decision to reject TransCanada’s permit application to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries sent a clear message that special interest demands are of more importance than more energy and much-needed job creation.Building the pipeline would bring over 700,000 barrels of oil per day and directly create 20,000 truly shovel-ready jobs. The Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that current pipeline operations and the addition of the Keystone XL pipeline would create 179,000 American jobs by 2035.Since TransCanada and Nebraska politicians have agreed to reroute the pipeline, the focus should now be on completing the reroute design and beginning construction. Congress should recognize the findings in the State Department’s “Final Environmental Impact Statement” and authorize the application submitted by TransCanada in September 2008.Given the need for jobs and more oil on the global market to offset high prices, the permit application had been moving along positively with bipartisan support without much attention until environmental activists made blocking the Keystone XL pipeline their issue to rally around for 2011. Although President Obama and the Department of State (DOS) said they’d make a decision at the end of 2011, they ultimately catered to a narrow set of special interests, punting the decision until after the 2012 elections.The payroll tax holiday legislation signed at the end of 2011 moved that decision date up to February 21. Today, however, the President rejected the permit, claiming, “This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.” President Obama initially delayed the decision because he claimed that additional environmental review from the DOS was necessary.This is a stunning (though not unexpected) decision. At a time when unemployment remains unacceptably high, Iran is threatening the Strait of Hormuz, and Canada is looking to take this oil elsewhere, it is difficult to understand how the President could say no to thousands of jobs and an increase in energy supply from our ally.Hmmmm....Perhaps he wants the U.S. depending on Arab oil?Or in Fantasy Obamaland every one drives electric cars?Read the full story here.

• Taqiyya vs. Our President.(FM).Posted by David Meir-Levi.In a previous essay, the present writer exposed the concept of “taqiyya” as a traditional Muslim form of deceit employed by Yasir Arafat​, Mahmoud Abbas​, and other leaders of the Arab terror war against Israel. El-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood​ also are using taqiyya against the USA and other western countries, and with frightening success.While the Qur’an encourages honesty between believers (Sura 40:28), deception directed at non-Muslims, generally known in Arabic as taqiyya, has full Qur’anic support. Is Obama unaware of the intentions of the Brotherhood? Even if he had no Arabists on his staff, no one to translate the works of Sayd Qtub or Mustafa Mashhur or Yusuf el-Qaradhawi, much has been written about them in English. Have his advisors never read Front Page Magazine?Obama cannot not know that his backing of the Muslim Brotherhood is nothing less than support for the regimes that seek our demise. So one must ask the uncomfortable question: “whose side is he on?”Read the full story here.

• U.S. May Release Senior Taliban Terrorists.(IPT).The Obama administration is considering releasing five top Taliban jihadists from custody at Guantanamo Bay in hopes of negotiating a peace agreement with the Afghan terrorist movement. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week that administration is in "the preliminary stages" of testing whether talks with the Taliban can succeed.President Obama plans to withdraw virtually all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2014. Last month, Vice President Joe Biden told an interviewer that "the Taliban per se is not our enemy."Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney blasted Obama's approach to the Taliban, declaring that "The right course for America is not to negotiate with the Taliban while the Taliban are killing our soldiers." Yet one of Romney's top foreign policy aides has reportedly advocated a negotiating approach that is similar to Obama's.According to a recent report in The Hindu, radical Islamist cleric and Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi has served as a "key mediator" in U.S.-Taliban negotiations.The Taliban's recent announcement that it plans to open a political office in Qatar meets a longstanding U.S./NATO condition for discussing Afghanistan's future with the terror group. Earlier this month, reports indicated that Washington had agreed to transfer the five Taliban leaders from U.S. custody to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.At some point, they could be set free.Another report indicated the jihadists would be transferred to Qatar, a nation with a poor record on combating terrorism and a suspected link to the 9/11 attacks.The strategy is fraught with peril as previous experience has shown. Still, the State Department has made finding a negotiating address for the Taliban a top priority.Read the full story here.

• Muslim Brotherhood to US Ambassador in Egypt: Sharia Law ensures personal freedoms.(BM).CAIRO: A statement issued by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said that US Ambassador to Cairo Anne Patterson met with the group’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie on Wednesday, and reportedly told her that Sharia law, or Islamic law, “ensures personal freedoms for all.”The MB’s statement explained that Patterson expressed her gratitude for the meeting and congratulated the group for their political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), victory in the recent parliamentary elections, and stressed that the United States is looking forward to cooperate with “whoever is chosen by the Egyptian people and a democratic government.”The statement pointed out that Badie also thanked the ambassador for her congratulations, and said the elections “made Egyptians proud,” adding that the results of elections are a “victory” for the democratic alliance led by FJP, which includes a number of other parties.The Supreme Guide criticized the successive US administrations and accused them of “controlling people through their support to the dictators,” which made the popularity of the United States decline across the region.“The current era is the era of the people and we want to see deeds not words by the United States to recover its credibility among Arabs and Muslims, and in particular with regard to the Palestinian issue, which is the most important cause for Arabs and Muslims.”Badie explained that the principles of Islamic Sharia law is the m”ain source of legislation and the biggest guarantee of public and private freedoms, as it ensures the freedom of belief, religion and personal rights to all citizens equally.”For her part, Ambassador Patterson admitted that US administrations have committed some mistakes, but called for overcoming them and to “learn from them to avoid their recurrence in the future.”She pointed out that democracy always brings stable partners.Read the full story here.

• Leftists Sink to Nazi Propaganda in 'Bibi Uber Alles' Video Clip.(INN).Israelis of all political stripes are aghast over a Youtube video showing Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels endorsing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The video, titled “Bibi Uber Alles,” clearly violates pending and existing laws against using Nazi imagery and inciting hatred, wrote commenters on the video site's page, and called for police prosecution of the individual who posted the video.In the video, called “one of the worst examples of leftist hate ever on the internet” by one commenter on the video's YouTube page, Goebbels is seen speaking to a mass audience of Germans in archival footage from a Nazi rally in the 1930s. However, interspersed in the video (obviously edited in) are shots of “settler” types, including what appears to be a woman wearing a head scarf – and oddly, one who bears a striking resemblance to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – along with the archival footage of Nazi-supporting masses.The video's author is listed as “Christian101,” and on Wednesday night it appeared on the Facebook page of an individual who calls himself Meir Mendelson, who wrote in a comment that “the cult of personality encouraged by Bibi the megalomaniac will lead to a catastrophe.”Commenters who identified themselves as both leftists and rightists condemned the video on its home page, with rightwing activists saying that the video shows not just the left's frustrated hatred of the right – but also its hypocrisy; weeks after the hareidi-religious use of Nazi imagery to protest arrests in Mea Shearim and Beit Shemesh was roundly condemned by everyone, not one public voice from leftists who “fear for Israeli democracy” has been raised in the several weeks since the video has been posted. Dozens of Israelis posting to the page called for viewers to demand that YouTube remove the video, and that police investigate and seek out the person behind the video and arrest him.Read the full story here.

• Islam's OIC: The World's Thought Police.(StonegateI).By Mudar Zahran.On December 19, 2011, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the negative stereotyping and stigmatization of people based on their religion, and urged member states to take effective measures towards addressing and combating "such incidents." This resolution, based on an initiative from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), was supported by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted a closed-door three-day meeting – apparently one of many in a series called the "Istanbul Process"-- in Washington D.C. with OIC representatives to discuss ways to implement the resolution.What might sound like a step toward "tolerance," however, is in reality an assault on freedom of speech: a UN-endorsed violation of human rights, co-sponsored by the US, and prompted by the OIC, an organization of 57 Muslim nations, most of which hold the world's worst records on freedom of speech.The OIC initiative for a UN resolution against "defamation of religion" is not new; the OIC has been promoting it for the last 13 years despite earlier opposition from Western countries. What changed recently was dropping the word "defamation of religion" and stressing "freedom of speech"-- something about which Secretary of State Clinton seems to be enthusiastic.What resulted, however, from this new "Resolution 16/18," as it is called, is a US-endorsed UN proposal that urges the restriction of freedom of speech by using a vague terms, such as combating "religious profiling" – a term that can be interpreted by anyone any way he likes.Placing such language into an international legal context forces people to have to think twice before practicing their constitutionally-secured right of free speech – in the US, at least -- when it comes to discussing religion.What is also alarming, even to me as a practicing Muslim, is the fact that the resolution seems to revolve around just one religion: Islam. But will the OIC countries implement any resolution for themselves, taking measures against their government-sponsored demonization of the Jewish faith and the systematic proliferation of anti-Semitism?Does Resolution 16/18 mean that Muslims will still be free in their textbooks to call Jews the sons of swine and monkeys -- perhaps on some trumped-up excuse that that a such a remark is not religious but "only" racial?Will the Palestinians' highest religious authority, the Mufti, Muhammad Hussein, still be able to say, as he did in early January at a Fatah (not Hamas) event to celebrate the 47th anniversary of its founding, that the destiny of Muslims is to kill Jews [sic], and, quoting a Hadith [a saying attributed to the prophet Mohammad] that "The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews… come and kill [them]" – and then have Palestinian TV repeat it?The values of Islam, for example, encourage the military conquest of non-Muslim nations. Although this value is within my religion, as a Muslim, I would like to see it being dropped—Now, is that a defamation of my own religion?Is Obama's, Clinton's and the US's current message that some religions are "more sacred" than others?Unfortunately without ever investigating the United Nations, perhaps the biggest international human rights violator of all, Human Rights Watch, in one of its reports, says that the OIC, at least, has been relentless protecting states that violate human rights from criticism.Human Rights Watch also states it has concerns over the OIC's definition of terrorism, which includes "imperilling people's honour;" "threatening political unity," which sounds like an enshrinement of "one man, one vote, one time;" and "threatening territorial integrity." Would the OIC label the people of Quebec who want separation from Canada terrorists for threatening Canada's "territorial integrity"? Would the OIC recognize the Tea Party as a terrorist organization for "threatening political unity" in the US?Funny? Not really. The OIC could easily try to market those definitions of "terrorism" that Human Rights Watch describes as "vague," and label genuinely "peaceful acts of expression" as terrorism.Revealingly, the OIC excludes all real acts of terrorism – carried out by terrorist organizations, such as Hamas – calling them "legitimate struggle".Read the full story here.

• Bengal hospital horror: Mamata blames the Left for 40,000 infant deaths each year.(NDTV).Malda: In just 48 hours, 15 babies have died in a government hospital in Malda, West Bengal. The government quibbles that it is 11 deaths in two days, not 15, a number no less shocking.Four of the babies died in a span of eight hours last night. Health authorities claim each of these infants were brought to the hospital, the Malda Medical College Hopsital, in very serious condition and insist there has been no negligence. Last November, 26 infants had died at the same hospital over a period of six days; an average 40,000 infants die every year in West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has vowed today to bring that rate down by 25 per cent. But when the health department sent a task force to the Malda hospital recently to investigate infant deaths, members of the team said no senior staff was present to answer queries. They were reportedly informed that the superintendent and vice principal of the college were in Kolkata and the principal was in Hyderabad for some official work. The task force reported that the hospital needs more doctors, nurses and infrastructure. "The hospital needs more doctors, nurses and group D staff. There is a lot of pressure at this hospital. The Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) needs to be expanded. Negligence, if found, will be punished," said Tridib Bhattacharya, a member of the task force.The Malda infant deaths bring into sharp focus the disarray that healthcare is in in West Bengal.Hmmmm......What is obviously missing in this story is the gender of the babies.....what leads one to stray to the thought of "gendercide".Read the full story here.

• 'Radioactive material stolen from Egypt plant'.(JPost).CAIRO - Radioactive material has been stolen from a nuclear power station on Egypt's Mediterranean coast that was the site of violent protests last week, state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Thursday.A safe containing radioactive material at the Dabaa nuclear power plant was seized while another safe containing radioactive material was broken open and part of its contents taken, the newspaper said.The government has alerted security authorities and asked that specialised teams help in the search for the stolen material, Al-Ahram reported.More than a dozen people were wounded last week when military police tried to disperse hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the relocation of the Dabaa plant, which is still under construction.Plant staff have refused to go to the site because of the deterioration in the security situation there, Al-Ahram said.About 500 Egyptians rallied in front of the plant last week to demand that the project be terminated, with some saying they had lost their land on the plant's site.Soldiers and the protesters hurled stones at each other and exchanged gunfire after the protesters demolished a wall surrounding the site, a security source and witnesses said.Hmmmm.....Repeat after me "Dirty bomb".Read the full story here.

• UN: Gaza blockade – collective punishment.(YNet). The United Nations' submitted its annual report on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, painting a grim picture that includes food insecurity, isolation, violence and failing health and education services – all courtesy of the Israeli "occupation."The report, which was presented during a Security Council session upon the Palestinians' request, asserted that the number of civilian casualties rose by more than 30% in Gaza and the West Bank compared to 2010."Serious protection and human rights issues, limited access to essential services and entrenched levels of food insecurity continue to characterize the day-to-day lives of many Palestinians," the report stated. "Israeli authorities continued to impose a blockade on Gaza, amounting to collective punishment of the population and affecting every aspect of life in the Gaza Strip," it adds.The report maintains that the policies that restrict the Gazans' access to areas with viable agriculture and fishing prospects constrain their livelihoods. Moreover, restrictions on the movement of goods and people into Gaza compromise the region's health, education and sanitation services. The UN also addressed the situation in east Jerusalem, arguing that the Palestinian population there is growing isolated from the rest of the West Bank. Furthermore, the residents of Area C – which makes up 60% of the West Bank and is under Israeli control – have been facing escalating rates of home demolitions, settler violence and restricted travel. "The threat to lives and livelihoods became too great for many, coping strategies were overwhelmed and an increasing number of Palestinians were displaced from their homes and their land," the report claims.The global body called on organizations and policy makers to work towards alleviating the suffering and demand respect for the Palestinians' human rights. "Progress in the peace process is desperately needed – the coping strategies of Palestinian communities are being eroded with each year that passes," the report said.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor slammed the Security Council for "wasting time on an issue that does not pose a humanitarian crisis." He noted that while Gaza saw a 28% growth in its Gross Domestic Product, 4 million Somalis are starving and people in Haiti, Sudan and Afghanistan don't have access to water.Prosor later told reporters that a humanitarian crisis can be found in southern Israel, where kids have 15 seconds to take cover when a rocket is about to explode.Read the full story here.

• Two Catholic priests kidnapped in Sudan.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Fears in the minority Christian community in Sudan have intensified after the kidnapping of two Catholic priests last Sunday.Father Joseph Makwey and Father Sylvester Mogga were kidnapped on January 15 by a militia who broke into their compound in Rabak, south of Khartoum.The men scoured the compound, kidnapping the men and stealing computers and other valuables.The militia reportedly targeted the church because it was rumored that the priests had granted refuge to a former member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, who fought successfully for the independence of South Sudan.The identity of the armed men is now yet known, however police believe that they are militiamen from South Sudan.Bishop Daniel Adwok of the Khartoum archdiocese said that the government had failed to protect citizens from the violence, and explained that the kidnapping does not come as an isolated incident, but part of a larger problem within the Christian community in Sudan.“I do not believe this was a random crime. This kidnapping seems deliberate. They must have known that the two individuals kidnapped were priests,” said the Bishop.Christians in Sudan have reported an increase in violence and intimidation, as hostilities have heightened since the secession of South Sudan.Read the full story here.

• Tunisian students launch hunger strike to protest ban on veils.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Five Tunisian students went on a hunger strike on Wednesday to protest a ban on the niqab at a University of Manouba, just west of Tunis.The students are reportedly under medical monitoring, and will continue the hunger strike indefinitely.The dispute over the niqab ban began last November, with the university banning the garment due to security concerns.A group of Salafist Muslim students held a series of sit-ins to protest the ban, shutting down the university for a month and a half.The sit-ins will continue as the students launch their hunger strike, however university officials want to disperse the protests before exams start on January 24.“I don’t wear the niqab or the veil, but I believe that any woman should have the right to dress as she believes is appropriate. That is freedom,” university student Hend Mohamed told Bikyamasr.com via email on Thursday.Read the full story here.

• Iran’s nude actress Golshifteh Farahani sparks anger,Iranian government, calling her “anti-Islam” and demanding that she be put to death for “blasphemy.”(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: An Iranian actress who posted nude photos of herself on Facebook has been attacked by the Iranian government, calling her “anti-Islam” and demanding that she be put to death for “blasphemy.”Golshifteh Farahani came to stardom at the age of 14 when she appeared in the film Pearl Tree, but jumped to international fame in 2008 when she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Body of Lies.Her dabbling in women’s issues began when she appeared in France’s Madame Le Figaro and protested against the ultra-conservative nature of her home country, which she said in the interview, was “restricting the ability for Iran’s film industry to push forward.”This month, however, she again sparked controversy by posting her bare chest image on her personal Facebook page.“I think it is disgusting and she should be put to jail or worse for this crazy idea. Women here are treated with utmost respect,” said an Iranian government official in Cairo, the birthplace of the nude photo revolutionary in the region.Back in Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency said “publishing of photographs of the deplorable Golshifteh Farahani on the Internet shows the ugly face of cinemas behind the scenes.”But women in Iran are not as disturbed by the image and told Bikyamasr.com that the idea that a woman can demand her rights through “the shock of nudity” is not new to the world.“We have long had nudity in our history, and this concept and act of protest by Farahani is the next evolution in the battle for women to become equal and have full rights in the country,” said one professor, Nadia, who said speaking on the topic could make her face disciplinary action.“It is really easy to condemn and call her ridiculous, but the reality is men are all logging on to see her naked body, just like they did in Egypt. At least now we can talk about women’s issues in this country and push empowerment forward,” the professor told Bikyamasr.com via telephone.In Egypt, upon hearing of Farahani’s actions, activist Manal said that “if she is going to be banned from Iran, maybe more women should follow her lead and take off their clothes. At least this way we can leave our countries and live in peace.”Read the full story here.

• 'Previously hidden mass graves found at Treblinka'.(DailyMail).A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka - scuppering the claims of Holocaust deniers who say it was merely a transit camp.Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War but a lack of physical evidence in the area has been exploited by Holocaust deniers.Forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has now undertaken the first co-ordinated scientific attempt to locate the graves.As Jewish religious law forbids disturbing burial sites, she and her team from the University of Birmingham have used 'ground-penetrating radar'.Her work at the site, where the Nazis tried to destroy all traces of industrial-scale killing, is being followed in forthcoming Radio 4 documentary The Hidden Graves Of The Holocaust.Sturdy Colls said: 'All the history books state that Treblinka was destroyed by the Nazis but the survey has demonstrated that simply isn’t the case.'I’ve identified a number of buried pits using geophysical techniques. These are considerable in size, and very deep, one in particular is 26 by 17 metres.'The programme’s presenter says that the pits contain the burnt remains of thousands of bodies.Read the full story here.