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 Japan 5.2 ; China 5.1  !More info here.

• US Air Force chief says Iran attack plan in place.(JPost).Plans to attack Iran’s nuclear sites are in place, the US Air Force chief said on Wednesday night, in one of the clearest warnings yet issued to Tehran from Washington.“What we can do, you wouldn’t want to be in the area,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters, according to Bloomberg.The report cited anonymous Pentagon officials as saying that the plans include the possibility of a joint US-Israeli effort, which could take the form of American aerial refueling assistance to Israeli fighter planes sent to strike targets in Iran.America’s bombing targets would go beyond nuclear sites, and include “the pillars of the clerical regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Quds Force, regular Iranian military bases and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security,” Bloomberg reported.Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who recently warned Israel against a strike on Iran at this time, said on Wednesday that “there’s no group in America more determined to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon than the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the report added.Dempsey denied advising Israel to hold off on an attack during comments he made this week. The denial came a week after he described an Israeli strike on Iran at this time as an “imprudent” and destabilizing move.Read the full story here.

• OBAMA'S CZARS With PICTURES and goals.(C4F).Do you wonder why the US is in the shape it is...???There are very few of us who know just what all of Obama's Czars do, as they quietly go about their "work" in the nation's capital. This listing of their names and job descriptions should be educational to all Americans, no matter what your political leaning. See who they are and realize what they want to do.Hmmmm......If he really wanted to destroy America as a superpower would he do anything different?Read and SEE the full story here.

• Good Grief… Now Team Obama Wants to Blow Up 3 Dams In the Name of Junk Science.(GP).Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder…The Obama Administration now wants to demolish three dams in northern California to supposedly save the salmon… But the whole reason to support the move was based on shoddy and inconclusive scientific data.Greenheads say the dams threaten salmon. They want the dams gone and Obama agrees.Now a scientist is challenging the junk science behind the decision.
  The City Square reported:

Against intense local opposition, the Obama administration wants to demolish three dams on the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, California. Low-cost clean hydroelectricity as well as water for irrigation would be lost if the dams were removed. Removal of the dams would also cause chaos for ranchers, homeowners, and small business who live and work in the downstream of the dams. Despite this, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been trying to force dam removal for the supposed benefit of some salmon and steelhead spawning habitat.
Now, Prof. Paul R. Houser of George Mason University alleges that the administration’s plan is all based on junk science. In his role as science advisor to the Bureau of Reclamation, he was closely involved in the project. He has filed a formal complaint (PDF) alleging “intentional falsification” and “intentional . . . compromise of scientific and scholarly integrity.”Hmmm........What's next? Save the Unicorns?Read the full story here.

• U.S. activists, NGO workers leave Egypt, ending deepest row between Washington, Cairo.(AA).A plane carrying American pro-democracy campaigners and other activists left Egypt on Thursday after a travel ban was lifted, an airport official said, a move that is likely to defuse the deepest row between Washington and Cairo in decades.“They have left,” the airport official told Reuters, without giving further details. A U.S. military plane had been sent to Egypt to take them, airport officials had said earlier.Seventeen foreign democracy activists including nine Americans on trial in Egypt flew out of Cairo airport on Thursday, AFP reported citing airport sources, who added that they took off on board a private aircraft.U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington was pleased the U.S. staffers had been permitted to depart, but underscored that it remained concerned about Egypt’s investigation into civil society groups.“We will continue to try to work through these issues with the Egyptian government,” Nuland told a news briefing.Along with the Americans, the foreign defendants on trial on charges of receiving illicit foreign funds are Norwegian, Serbian, German, Palestinian and Jordanian.The other foreign groups involved in the trial are the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, the International Centre for Journalists -- all American -- and the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation.Egyptian court officials earlier said the U.S. paid bail for the Americans charged in the case of fomenting unrest in the country, according to The Associated Press. A convoy of white vans carrying the sign of U.S. Embassy arrived at Cairo airport earlier Thursday carrying the seven Americans, who include the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. They had sought refuge at the U.S. embassy, fearing arrest.Fayza Abul Naga, the international cooperation minister believed to have sparked the probe into the groups, told investigating judges that the NGOs were part of an American conspiracy to spread chaos in Egypt.On Thursday, she insisted that the trial would go on once a new judicial panel has been appointed.Read the full story here.

• Assad forces in control of Baba Amro; Arab League says fuelling violence will not help.(AA).Arab League chief Nabil al-Araby said on Thursday he was opposed to violence as a way to end the Syrian crisis after Gulf states called for arming the rebels seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, as government forces seized full control of the Baba Amro district in Homs after rebels pulled out “tactically.” As many as 42 people have been killed on Thursday by the fire of Syrian security forces, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the Syrian Local Coordination Committees.Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led the Arab charge to isolate Syria, although other leading Arab states outside the Gulf such as Egypt, Algeria and Iraq have taken a more cautious approach.Kuwait’s parliament on Thursday joined calls for arms to be sent to Syrian rebels.“I am against using violence and the Arab League has no link to arming,” Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby told a news conference at the League headquarters in Cairo, according to Reuters.The League passed a resolution in February calling for Arabs to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition, a statement that Arab diplomats confirmed at the time could be interpreted as permitting arms shipments. However, they said some Arab states who backed the resolution opposed the idea of sending weapons, a move they saw as pushing Syria closer to civil war.Araby said he hoped for a ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid to enter Syria, where protests flared up almost a year ago and were confronted by troops and heavy weaponry.“What is happening in Syria, the abuses, killings and sometimes starvation, is a very bad situation,” he said. “We hope that this stops so that it doesn't turn into a civil war.”The Syrian foreign ministry said it was willing to discuss a date for a visit by U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, after her announcement on Wednesday that she had been turned away prompted an outcry.Amos had “requested to come to Syria at a time that was not suitable for us. We are willing to continue discussions with her about a time suitable for both sides,” a ministry statement said.Russia on Thursday strongly urged Damascus to allow Amos into the country to assess the situation in Homs.U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, had said it was “shameful that Assad has denied access” to the U.N. humanitarian chief at a time when his troops were intensifying their attacks on protest cities such as Homs.Hmmmm.......Assad Hillary's "Reformer".Read the full story here.

• Blanket of snow covers Jerusalem.(YNet).After two years of disappointment, snow has finally hit Jerusalem on Friday, as residents woke up to a white city. The snow is expected to continue falling throughout the morning, after four centimeters (1.575 inches) of snowfall have already piled up in the streets of Israel's capital. Schools and public transportation across the city have been shut down, including intercity bus routes to Jerusalem. Police officials have instructed to halt any public buses making their way from Tel Aviv to the capital, except for buses coming in from northern Israel.Around 4 am Friday morning snow began to fall in the French Hill, Gilo and the Western Wall, as it spread across the city. Some 50 snowplows, sodium chloride (rock salt) and other deicing equipment were on standby, prepared by the Jerusalem municipality. Heavy snow also fell in Gush Etzion, as the local council announced schools will be shutdown due to the harsh weather conditions. Police closed off all the roads in the area. Read the full story here.