MFS - The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.8 - 5.6 ; New zealand 5.2 !More info here.

• 'We're throwing Israel under the bus'; Santorum blasts Obama's Iran policy, "Obama Wants Iran to Have a Nuke".(WJD).In what may be the harshest attack yet leveled against President Barack Obama's Iran policy, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum all but accused Obama of deliberately selling out Israel and the United States.Speaking on Thursday after a string of surprising primary victories over front runner Mitt Romney, Santorum - who may now be laying the groundwork for a general election run - opened up on the Obama administration in no uncertain terms.We're throwing Israel under the bus because we know we're going to be dependent upon OPEC. We're going to say, "Oh, Iran, we don't want you to get a nuclear weapon — wink, wink, nod, nod — go ahead, just give us your oil." Folks, the president of the United States is selling the economic security of the United States down the river right now.His attack is particularly interesting in that it appropriates one of the far-left's main talking points, that U.S. foreign policy is controlled by oil interests, and flips it on its head into a rightwing attack on dovish attitudes toward Iran.Read the full story here.

• Archbishop Dolan Betrayed by Obama.(NR).Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, head of the Archdiocese of New York, has now publicly criticized the Obama administration’s new HHS mandate. Specifically, he has stated that the President Obama betrayed a commitment made to him weeks ago in a personal meeting. CBS reports: Dolan said he met with the president weeks ago in the Oval Office to talk about the law. Dolan said the president gave his promise the provision would go away, but it hasn’t. “It seems to be at odds with very sincere assurances that he gave me, that he wanted to continue to work with the church in these endeavors and views and projects he shared a passionate interest in, so I can’t figure it out,” Dolan said.“When I left the Oval Office, where I was very grateful for his invitation to be there, I left with high hopes. That nothing his administration would do would impede the good work that he admitted and acknowledged in the church,” Dolan said. “And I’m afraid I don’t have those sentiments of hope now.”Hmmmm........Perhaps the scriptures have the answer?"O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." ~ Matthew 12:34.Read the full story here.

• Obama to Announce Compromise (With Himself) Over Contraceptive Rule at Religious Institutions.(BigGovernment).The Washington Post, citing anonymous White House Sources, reports that President Barack Obama will announce a “compromise” today on the contraceptive rule for religious institutions that has outraged Americans across the political spectrum as a violation of religious freedom: President Barack Obama will announce a plan to accommodate religious employers outraged by a rule that would require them to cover birth control for women free of charge, according to a person familiar with the decision.Obama was expected to make the announcement at the White House Friday.The shift is aimed at containing the political firestorm that erupted after Obama announced in January that religious-affiliated employers had to cover birth control as preventative care for women. Churches and houses of worship were exempt, but all other affiliated organizations were ordered to comply by Aug. 2013.It is not clear with whom Obama has negotiated a “compromise”; it would appear he has simply compromised with himself, modifying his rule in a way he believes he can sell politically.The outrage is as much about the fact that the Obama administration tried to define what is, and is not, a religious institution as it is about the fact that it tried to impose its own dogmatic beliefs–in population control, among other things–on Catholics and other religious groups.Earlier this week, administration officials had signaled that the president might “compromise,” a prospect that was greeted with skepticism by religious leaders, who struggled to imagine a halfway point between religious freedom and state dictates on religious faith.The last, best word belongs to Charles Krauthammer, who writes today: To flatter his faith-breakfast guests and justify his tax policies, Obama declares good works to be the essence of religiosity. Yet he turns around and, through Sebelius, tells the faithful who engage in good works that what they’re doing is not religion at all. You want to do religion? Get thee to a nunnery. You want shelter from the power of the state? Get out of your soup kitchen and back to your pews. Outside, Leviathan rules.Hmmm......When Pres Obama says, "Everyone plays by the same set of rules," it means they conform to his rules. Read the full story here.
• Update: President Obama will speak today at 12:15 pm ET at the White House, likely to announce changes to his policy requiring Catholic institutions to provide free birth control to employees. I will try to live stream it for you.Update: sorry, I’m not able to live steam this event. No Carney briefing today.Source White house dossier.

• Obama Wants to Ban Guns in U.S. to Reduce Crime…in Mexico.(TGWP).By Andrea Ryan.In his latest Fast and Furious stonewalling before Congress, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder revealed Obama’s desire to sacrifice our Second Amendment rights…”to improve our relationship with Mexico and reduce their crime situation”.According to The Daily Caller, Last Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about his role in the deadly “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal. However, instead of answers, Congress got more defiance, more arrogance, and more wasted time with an attorney general who clearly feels no sense of obligation to the American people or our rule of law. …In a rash attempt to deflect attention away from himself and his own irresponsibility, Holder let Congress know that the Obama administration is still working toward the day when it can reinstate former President Bill Clinton’s so-called “assault weapons” ban. According to Holder:“This administration has consistently favored the reinstitution of the assault weapons ban. It is something that we think was useful in the past with regard to the reduction that we’ve seen in crime, and certainly would have a positive impact on our relationship and the crime situation in Mexico.”It’s difficult to follow Holder’s logic here, but it goes something like this …The Obama administration — particularly Eric Holder’s Justice Department — oversaw an epic scandal whereby our own federal government illegally funneled thousands of firearms into the hands of Mexican drug lords. This contributed to the death of one U.S. Border Patrol agent and hundreds of Mexicans.Despite being head of the Justice Department and our nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Eric Holder claims he doesn’t know how or why this scandal occurred, or even who under his charge may have authorized it. He also refuses to turn over critical documents to congressional investigators that could help prevent something this tragic and corrupt from ever happening again.Therefore, Obama and Holder are confident that if they can ban a large number of the legal firearms that law-abiding Americans use every day for self-defense, hunting, and recreational and competitive target shooting, it will help solve Mexico’s crime problem.With Obama’s history of contempt for gun ownership why would this be a surprise? America’s 1st Freedom lists a few examples.Hmmm......Obama Blames “Founding Fathers” For Making It Difficult For Him To “Bring Change”But..."I will keep plotting"Read the full story here.

• ‘A Devil’s Triangle’ Author: Obama Contradicted on Iran by His Intelligence Directors.(BigPeace).Is the president trying to ignore global events in order to mask the fact he does not want America to be involved, therefore taking away Americans’ chance to be informed and cultivate their own opinion as to whether or not America needs to be involved in global events? The United States has global responsibilities and must keep an eye on the entire world; therefore, when the administration says America will pivot towards Asia, what are we pivoting away from? Author of “A Devil’s Triangle,” Peter Brooks, highlights the fact that the president claims Iran does not have the capability to attack the US yet his intelligence directors claim Iran is looking to and can attack homeland America. Is he misleading Americans or just clueless?You can hear Peter’s interview and today’s entire show at Secure Freedom Radio here.

• Book: Obama Tells Radical Community Organizer (and Former Boss) ‘I’m Still Organizing’.(BigGovernment).New York Times columnist Jodi Kantor’s book, The Obamas, tries very, very hard to paint a sympathetic picture of her eponymous subject matter–she gets her digs in against the supposedly racist tea party everywhere she can–but every once and a while the truth cracks through. Take this interview at the Texas Book Festival for example: The Obamas often don’t mingle freely – they often just stand behind the rope and reach out to shake hands but he sees Jerry Kellman, his old community organizing boss, and he’s so happy to see him he reaches across and pulls him in. And Obama says, “I’m still organizing.” It was a stunning moment and when [Kellman] told me the story, it had echoes of what Valerie Jarrett had told me once – “The senator still thinks of himself as a community organizer.” How fully has this guy resolved himself to what he’s really doing? On the one hand, he’s passing these backroom deals to pass health care reform, but on the other he’s telling his old boss he’s still a community organizer. I think that plays into what will happen in the 2012 race.Jerry Kellman was Barack Obama’s former boss, a student of Saul Alinsky’s in the 1970s, and a permanent fixture of the progressive left in Chicago.While some have downplayed Obama’s connections to Saul Alinsky, Kellman’s link is pretty easy to discern.Here he is talking about his relationship with left-wing activism, Alinksy and Obama in Illinois Issues, a student magazine, for example.Kellman drew a lot from Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, including methods to analyze how power is obtained, and used this knowledge while taking on the mortgage banking industry on Chicago’s west side, in addition to other endeavors.Not surprisingly, Kellman has a signed copy of Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father on his desk, with the message, “To Jerry, a friend and a mentor.”Some of us wish Obama had different friends and mentors.Hmmm...HAD or HAS?Read the full story here.

• Radioactive Leak at California Nuclear Plant: Almost Caused a Melt Down.(GR).The San Onofre nuclear power plant leaked radioactive gas last week when steam generating tubes ruptured. Indeed, hundreds of tubes at the San Onofre nuclear plant are experiencing problems. (To add insult to injury, a worker also fell into a nuclear refueling pool at San Onofre. He may have swallowed fuel particles in radioactive water.)James Chambers – a licensed nuclear reactor operator and whistleblower from San Onofre – says that the tube rupture was very significant. Nuclear activist Kevin Kamps says that there were a number of tube ruptures at San Onofre, which could have led to a cascade failure and a meltdown. He also said that the nuclear plants in the U.S. are getting old and breaking down, and that we’re in the “breakdown phase” of nuclear power in this country. But regulators are letting nuclear owners re-start nuclear power plants before really inspecting what went wrong or whether problems have been fixed.Hmmmm......It never 'blows' in California?Read the full story here.

• Obama decries ‘outrageous bloodshed’ in Syria as offensive on Homs kills hundreds.(AlArabiya).U.S. President Barack Obama has decried the “outrageous bloodshed” in Syria as government forces bombarded the city of Homs for the fifth day on Friday and residents expected a major push to subdue the center of revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.Government troops trying to crush opponents of President Assad have killed at least 400 people in a relentless onslaught on Homs, opposition activists say. Rights groups estimate that more than 6,000 people have died in the nationwide crackdown since mid-March.In comments after White House talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, President Obama also reiterated calls for Syrian President Assad to leave power.“We both have a great interest in ending the outrageous bloodshed that we’ve seen and see a transition from the current government that has been assaulting its people,” President Obama said.Assad, bolstered by Russian support, ignored appeals from world leaders to halt the carnage.In Homs, activist Mohammad Hassan said a brief respite in the shelling had allowed him to leave his basement and survey the extent of the damage.“There isn’t one street without two buildings or more that are badly damaged from the shelling,” he said by satellite phone.“We are hearing from ‘al-thouwar’ (revolutionaries) that a big attack could occur as early as Saturday,” he added.He said artillery barrages had been directed at Bab Amro, Inshaat, Khalidya and other districts of the city where rebels have been lying low while mounting hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on the rear of Assad’s troops.“Four tanks or armored vehicles were destroyed today on the edge of Bab Amro and some bread and medical supplies were delivered there for the first time in days by activists who crossed from Brazil Street,” Hassan said.Walid Abdallah, another activist in the city, said Alawite militiamen were playing a crucial support role for the attacking troops.“Districts such as al-Waer on the edge of the city have mostly been spared the shelling but it is now unsafe because the ‘shabbiha’ have begun raiding daily,” he said.“Homs has become the capital of the uprising. I am afraid the regime will continue shelling it to bits and turn it into another Hama,” he said, referring to the many thousands killed in the bombardment and subsequent overrunning of the city of Hama in 1982, under the rule of Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad.“The Free Syrian Army has been preparing for an onslaught with booby traps and what have you,” Abdallah said.“A high level of social solidarity has also spread during the uprising in neighborhoods such as Bab Amro, al-Khalidya and beyond, and people have vowed to resist what they see as a sectarian onslaught.”Read the full story here.

• Report: Saudi Arabia to buy nukes if Iran tests A-bomb.(BLN).Source: MSNBC
  Saudia Arabia would move quickly to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran successfully tests an atomic bomb, according to a report.Citing an unidentified Saudi Arabian source, the Times newspaper in the U.K. (which operates behind a paywall) said that the kingdom would seek to buy ready-made warheads and also begin its own program to enrich weapons-grade uranium.The paper suggested that Pakistan was the country most likely to supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, saying Western officials were convinced there was an understanding between the countries to do so if the security situation in the Persian Gulf gets worse. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have denied such an arrangement exists.Iran, which follows the Shiite branch of Islam, and Sunni Saudi Arabia are major regional rivals.The Times described its source for the story as a “senior Saudi,” but gave no other details.Read the full story here.

• Egypt Coptic Christian priests charged with incitement in Maspero violence.(BM).CAIRO: Egyptian prosecutors announced they are investigating Coptic Priest Flopetair Gameel, Priest Metias Nasr and activist Ramy Kamel on Thursday for their alleged involvement in the violence outside the State TV building last October 9 that killed 27 people and left hundreds injured.The three accused arrived early Thursday morning for a full day of investigation and interrogation that ended around 7 PM local time.The three arrived with a defense team to face the charges that included “inciting violence against the armed forces, inciting violence and death against solders in the armed forces, participating with others in stealing armored military vehicles, promoting and inciting chaos, carrying weapons, inciting breaking into a governmental building (Maspero) and destabilizing public order.”The defendants denied all charges, pleading innocent. They are not being held during the investigation process.The case was initially going to be tried by a military court, but responding to appeals it was transferred to a civil court.The defendants called for the surveillance tapes from the state TV building to be included in the investigation as it shows they are innocent of any wrongdoing, they argued.The defendants also called for the summoning of army general Hamdy Bedeen and accused him of having a hand in the events.The defendants also called for lifting their names off of the no travel list as they are cooperating in the investigations.On October 9 in the early evening a march of mostly Coptic Christians calling for rights arrived at the state TV building and soon after police and military forces guarding the building used violence against the protesters thinking they planned to break into the building, which looks like a fortress with meters of barb wire, cameras and guards.The armed forces opened fire and ran over protesters with armored vehicles in the bloody violence.The Copts were protesting the burning of Church a week earlier in Aswan and demanded the removal of the governor.The Maspero events left a scare in the national psyche as tens of residents responded to the military after it claimed it was under attack and created street clashes that left more dead and injured.Hmmmm.....Anyone really thought they would NOT charge a Christian?Read the full story here.

• US calls on Saudi to release Ethiopian Christians.(BM).CAIRO: A United States congressional watchdog for global religious freedom has urged Saudi Arabia to release 35 Ethiopian Christians who were arrested while conducting a prayer meeting late last year in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.They have been detained an held for more than two months.The bipartisan American Commission on International Religious Freedom demanded the Ethiopians be released.“Unless and until the Saudi government demonstrates some valid legal basis for imprisoning these individuals, they should immediately be set free and Saudi authorities should investigate allegations of physical abuse and degrading treatment by prison officials,” USCIRF Chairman Leonard Leo said in a written statement.Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that 29 of those arrested are women and were subjected to “arbitrary body cavity searches” while in custody.The Christians had gathered together to pray on December 15 at a private home of one of the Ethiopians, but police responded by raiding the house and arresting the group of Ethiopians, three of those jailed told HRW.“While King Abdullah sets up an international interfaith dialogue center, his police are trampling on the rights of believers of others faiths,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government needs to change its own intolerant ways before it can promote religious dialogue abroad.”In October, Saudi Arabia, together with Austria and Spain, founded the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, located in Vienna, and funded by Saudi Arabia.The Ethiopian men spent two days at al-Nuzha police station in Jeddah, after which the police transferred them to Buraiman prison. The women had already been transferred to Buraiman prison. Two of the women said that officials there forced the women to strip, and then an officer inserted her finger into each of the women’s genitals, under the pretext of searching for illegal substances hidden inside their bodies. She wore a plastic glove that she did not change, the women told the New York-based human rights organization.Officers also kicked and beat the men in Buraiman prison, and insulted them as “unbelievers,” the jailed Ethiopian man said.Both men and women complained of inadequate medical care and unsanitary conditions at Buraiman prison. There were too few toilets, they said. In the men’s wing, 6 of 12 toilets were reserved for Saudi inmates, while hundreds of foreign inmates were forced to share the remaining 6 toilets. One female detainee said she suffers from diabetes and was given an injection in the prison clinic that caused swelling, and has received no further medical attention.The Ethiopians, speaking via telephone from prison, said that about 10 days after being arrested, some in the group were taken to court, where they were forced to affix their fingerprints to a document without being allowed to read it. Officials told the group that they were being charged with “illicit mingling” of unmarried persons of the opposite sex.Some of the Ethiopians have been living in the kingdom for 16 years, while others are newer arrivals. Some of the women and men did not have valid residency papers, but all faced deportation, including those with valid papers, the jailed Ethiopian man said.In July 2006, the Saudi government promised that it would stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims. In a “Confirmation of Policies,” a written document the Saudi government sent to the US government, Saudi Arabia said it would “guarantee and protect the right to private worship for all, including non-Muslims who gather in homes for religious practice,” and “ensure that members of the [religious police] do not detain or conduct investigations of suspects, implement punishment, [or] violate the sanctity of private homes.”In this document, the government also said it would investigate any infringements of these policies. Public worship of any religion other than Islam remains prohibited in the kingdom.“Saudi authorities have broken their promises to respect other faiths,” Wilcke said. “Men and women of other faiths have nowhere to worship in Saudi Arabia if even their private homes are no longer safe.”The Arab Charter of Human Rights, to which Saudi Arabia is a state party, guarantees “[t]he freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs or to perform religious observances, either alone or in community with others,” and prohibits “arbitrary arrest.”Saudi Arabia has no codified criminal law or other law that defines “illicit mingling.” In 2006, Shaikh Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, told Human Rights Watch in an interview in Riyadh, “Mingling of the sexes is prohibited in public, and permitted in private unless it is for the purpose of corruption.”Human Rights Watch called on the Saudi authorities to release the 35 Ethiopian men and women immediately if there is no evidence to charge them with offenses that are recognizably criminal under international norms. Saudi authorities should also investigate their allegations of physical and sexual abuse and, if warranted, compensate them for arbitrary arrest and any mistreatment they endured, and to hold accountable any officials found to be responsible for these acts.Hmmmm........"Islamophobia".....Anyone?Read the full story here.

• Video - Ayman al-Zawahiri says Somali militant group al-Shabaab joins al-Qaeda ranks.(AlArabiya).Somalia’s militant group al-Shabaab have joined ranks with al-Qaeda, the terror network’s chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a video message posted on jihadist forums on Thursday.“Today, I have glad tidings for the Muslim ummah (nation) that will please the believers and disturb the disbelievers, which is the joining of the al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia to Qaedat al-Jihad to support the jihadi unity against the Zionist-Crusader campaign and their assistants amongst the treacherous agent rulers,” said a bespectacled Zawahri in the video.“The jihadist movement is with the grace of Allah, growing and spreading within its Muslim nation despite facing the fiercest crusade campaign in history by the West,” said Zawahiri in the video released by al-Qaeda’s media arm As-Sahab.The video also featured al-Shabaab’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair. He addressed Zawahiri, saying: “We will move along with you as faithful soldiers.”“In the name of my mujahedeen brothers, leaders and soldiers... I pledge obedience,” Zubair said.“Lead us on the road of jihad and martyrdom, in the footsteps that our martyr Osama bin Laden had drawn for us,” he added, referring to al-Qaeda’s former leader who was killed last year in a covert U.S. raid on his hide-out in Pakistan.“Our brothers in the al-Shabaab al-Mujahedeen, were the rock... that stood in the face of the joint American-Ethiopian-Kenyan-crusade attack on Islam and Muslims in Somalia,” said Zawahiri.“It stamps Zawahiri’s authority on al-Qaeda and allows him to reinforce al-Qaeda’s preeminence at a time when it has been waning. Al-Shabaab’s acceptance under the al-Qaeda umbrella probably came with permission from Zawahiri for the group to launch external operations against the West,” he added.A new wave of recruitment in the Somali group could also be inspired by al-Shabaab’s new association with al-Qaeda.Zawahiri urged the al-Shabaab to treat Somalis with “leniency” and “humility” and to help them “solve their problems and fulfill their demands, especially those in need such as widows, orphans, the ill, the elderly and the poor” and to “spread justice.”He also appealed to the Islamist group “not to forget their imprisoned brothers and sisters held in the jails of the corrupt and oppressive crusaders and to capture crusaders and Zionists wherever they can to exchange them with Muslim prisoners.”Hmmmm.....the 'people' the Turkish IHH helps.Read the full story here.