MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Chile 5.5 !More info here.

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

• Canary Islands - El Hierro earthquake and volcano eruption – Update 21.  here , Live webcams here and here.

• Video - Egypt: Tantawi vows to transfer power.(Ynet).Damage control? Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), addressed the Egyptian nation on Tuesday, amid growing civil unrest. The address was preceded by persistent rumors that the Military Council was planning to relinquish its powers to Cairo's Supreme Court. Tantawi's address, which was prerecorded and broadcast to hundreds of thousands of protesters who gathered in Tahrir Square, put an end to the rumors.The SCAF, Tantawi said, accepts the Egyptian government's resignation. He pledged to "continue placing the interests of the Egyptian people first," adding that the military would willingly transfer power to a civilian government by July 1, 2012. Throughout the speech, the masses in Tahrir Square called for Tantawi to step down immediately. Earlier, the Military Council announced that Egypt will hold its parliamentary elections on November 28 as scheduled, and set the next presidential elections for June. No exact date was set, but according to Cairo's media, SCAF seeks to have the new president sworn in by July of next year.Egypt's military ruler also floated the idea of a referendum on an immediate power transfer: "The Military Council does not seek to rule. We are more than willing to transfer power if a people's referendum demands it," he said. Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been the country's de facto ruler since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign in February. "The Armed Forces will not take the place of the people's government," Tantawi vowed. "We do not intend to cling to power. Our goal has always been to reinstate security to Egypt. "Running the country in this unusual time has not been easy. Talk is easy – but the reality on the ground is different… We have tried to manage things wisely," he said. Striving to maintain political stability amid growing civil unrest, Egypt's SCAF is reportedly considering naming former International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei as Cairo's new prime minister.ElBaradei has reportedly demanded extensive authorities, as well as a SCAF pledge that it will not interfere in government matters. Meanwhile, the White House on Tuesday called for an end to the "deplorable" violence in Egypt and said elections there must go forward. "We are deeply concerned about the violence. The violence is deplorable. We call on all sides to exercise restraint," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.Read and see the full story here. 

• Breaking: Egypt - 71 dead in Cairo alone, medical sources.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: A medical source in the Zeinhom morgue near Cairo’s Tahrir Square has told Bikyamasr.com that 71 Egyptians have been killed since clashes erupted Saturday. Some 14 were killed today alone, as fierce fighting between protesters calling for an end to military rule and the police and the army continues in the vicinity of the Interior Ministry.Some 24 people were killed Monday, while 33 were killed in clashes on Saturday and Sunday. Across the three days of violence some 2000+ have been injured, many collapsing under the use of CR gas by the police.At time of writing, hundreds of thousands are streaming into Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the popular revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak at the beginning of the year. On current estimates, numbers may soon reach one million or more.Read the full story here.

• Related- Protesters reject military offer to cede power by July 2012.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Representatives from various political groups in Cairo met with General Sami Anan, the Army Chief of Staff in a five-hour crisis meeting on Tuesday evening, where the SCAF pledged to transfer power to a civilian government.Egypt’s interim ruling military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has allegedly agreed to cede to several protester demands, and have accepted the collective resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and the Cabinet of Ministers.According to a statement from Abu el-Ela Mady, Chairman of the al-Wasat Party, the SCAF has agreed to form a new national salvation unity government “within days,” set to replace the cabinet.Tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir roared upon hearing the news.“We will not leave until he leaves,” they said, referring to the head of Egypt’s ruling military council, Field Marshall Hussein Tantwai.Eyewitnesses tell Bikyamasr.com that violence in the square has raged on despite the announcement, as state security continues to wage its offensive on protesters in the square.“We will not leave until the situation is peaceful and we have a civilian led government,” one protester told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday evening.The SCAF has also agreed to hold presidential elections before the end of June 2012, and still plans to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled.Previously, the SCAF said that they did not intend on holding presidential elections until 2013.The SCAF has promised to allow protesters to collectively demonstrate, and have vowed to immediately release all those detained or arrested since Saturday.Anti-military demonstrations across Egypt turned violent after military and police personnel waged a brutal offensive on peaceful protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the early hours of Saturday morning.33 have been reported dead in the clashes, according to official statistics from the Egyptian Ministry of Health. However, activists and eyewitnesses suspect that the number is much higher.Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council, is expected to speak with protesters in Tahrir Square tonight.Read the full story here.

• Presence of Malice: Against the Conservative Portrait of the President.(AmericanDigest).We can survive many traits in presidents, but malice is not among them. In the unfolding saga of the Libyan adventure I note that, even though it is early innings, a popular strain of conservative criticism centers around the always popular idea of 'stupidity in government;' with a variant on the subset of ‘the president is not as smart as he thinks.’ The popular variant this time is: 'deep down, Obama is shallow.' This notion includes various complimentary subsets such as 'he is lazy,' 'he is incompetent,' 'he's hooked on the perks and doesn't care for the work.' All comfortable notions that imply that the critic is, conversely, smarter, more diligent, and more fit to make governmental decisions than the president. The problem here is that the critic is not the president and hence has no power to do anything remotely presidential.I'm no friend of conspiracy theories. The truthers who imagine that hundreds of people have all kept the federal government's dark roll in 911 hold no attraction to me. Too complex and with a membership that is too substantial to keep such secrets. The birthers who look to finally exposing the odd origins of the president who seems to have sprung from the brow of Zeus? Too irrelevant if true, since it will not alter the election, and, if false, pure fritterware. At the same time, I acknowledge that there are conspiracies in the world. By extension, the most successful conspiracies would involve a very few people with a lot of access to money and power. Taking one more step, one would have to posit that the perfect conspiracy would not involve even a few people, but only one person with access to money and power. That person would be a sociopath but if he was the right sociopath in the right place at the right time his native intelligence, high or low, stupid or smart, wouldn't really matter. What would matter would be the level of his maliciousness. It would not matter what his real IQ was but rather his level of cleverness and his innate shrewdness. Indeed, to the clever and shrewd person a critical conversation involving whether he was being "stupid" or "lazy" only works to his advantage since is draws attention away from malice and gives him more time and space to pursue his goals. As Machiavelli knew, and Stalin proved, when the ends secure pure power, the means are irrelevant and history rewritable.A man with a much more reactionary bent to his thinking, such as myself, would note that 21 months is an extremely long time to have a rogue ego and malicious mind actively guiding and making the day-to-day, life and death, decisions of the nation. Twenty-one months of appointments, foreign policy, executive orders, and the odd military adventure here or there, can add up to a lot of problems unless your goal is the weakening of the United States. In that case, it might just be enough time after all.Even Obama's most rabid supporters outside of his army of apparatchiks must surely sense that there is something “off” in the psychic structure of the current president. Most attribute it to his “yearning” to make the country ‘worthy’ of it’s place at the head of the nations. I suggest that it is something alarmingly dark and destructive. I suggest it comes from a psyche that, for many, many reasons stretching back to infancy, is so structured that it loathes the country down to its marrow, much as the psyche must loathe itself, and that is working, daily, on dismantling the nation with nothing except pure malicious intent. Why? Because it can.Do I know this for a certainty? I cannot say, but “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design.”Read the full story here.

• An Historic Failure of Presidential Leadership.(WhitehouseDossier).By KeithKoffler.I can hardly find the words to describe what happened at the White House today. But there are always words, and so I must find them.In an immense and nearly unparalleled – there’s always James Buchanan – abnegation of presidential responsibility, the White House today blithely acknowledged that President Obama did nothing to broker a deal in Congress to reduce the deficit and save the American economy, and it suggested it wasn’t Obama’s responsibility to do so in the future.The deficit reduction committee represented the best chance to achieve a deficit deal, because the next opportunity will not come before February or so, when we’re in full election mode, and because any agreement reached by the panel would have had special rules attached that would have eased its passage in Congress.But Obama, it must be clear as the Caribbean to all, is now solely interested in gaining a cudgel with which to whack Republicans next year instead of saving the union. He would rather the panel fail so that he can blame Republicans for something about the dismal economy over which he unhappily presides.Asked today what Obama had done to spur the committee on, White House press Secretary Jay Carney said he had done a lot. LAST SUMMER.Carney continued:This committee was established by an act of Congress. It was comprised of members of Congress. Instead of pointing fingers and playing the blame game, Congress should act, fulfill its responsibility.The nation’s future is solely Congress’s responsibility? The president’s responsibility is . . . golf and campaigning? Carney:  Now, let me just say that Congress still has it within its capacity to be responsible and act. As you noted, the sequester doesn’t take effect for a year. Congress could still act and has plenty of time to act. And we call on Congress to fulfill its responsibility.We call on Congress to fulfill its responsibility? Like a mother saying, “I call on my baby to learn to walk.”Congress will not act, because it will be 2012, and it knows full well the president isn’t serious.In his remarks this evening, Obama said tepidly that he would be “ready and willing to work with anybody that’s ready to engage in that effort to create a balanced plan for deficit reduction.”What he’s saying, really, is that Republicans must first cave, and then he’ll work with them. Because otherwise, he would have done so already.Which means the fragile economy will have to wait a year for Washington to work out an agreement on the deficit, during which time an economic collapse could come at any time.The president of the United States has decided not fulfill his oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the nation.Well, he promised change.Hmmmm......I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

• Obama Vows To Veto Any GOP Attempt At Sparing Pentagon Deeper Spending Cuts After Supercommittee Failure.((National Journal) — President Obama Monday evening blamed Republicans for the failure of the super committee to meet its deadline for a debt plan and warned that he will veto any attempt to eliminate the automatic spending cuts that go into effect with that failure.In an appearance in the White House briefing room a little more than an hour after the committee officially conceded failure, the president said his answer to those who want to eliminate those cuts “is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one.”He added, “We need to keep the pressure up to compromise, not the turn off the pressure.”Hmmmm.....If he really wanted to destroy America as a Superpower.....would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Obama signs New Law Cuts Ties Between FBI and Terror-Tied Groups.(PJM).When Barack Obama signed the continuing resolution this past weekend averting another potential government shutdown, it’s doubtful that he was aware that tucked into the bill, which funds several federal agencies through the fiscal year and extends the continuing resolution for the rest of the government until December 16, is a provision that may dramatically impact what Islamic groups and leaders the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can continue to work with.Under Division B, Title II of the bill, under the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Salaries and Expenses section, is the following provision:

Liaison partnerships- The conferees support the FBI’s policy prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by FBI field offices and to report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy.

The most obvious group that this will impact is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was named unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case — the largest terrorism-finance trial in American history. During the trial, FBI Dallas Agent Lara Burns testified that CAIR was a front for the terrorist group Hamas.Following the trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison terms for all five Holy Land executives, the FBI was forced to cut ties with CAIR – a decision that CAIR claimed would hurt local communities and that prompted other Muslim groups, like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), to threaten to stop cooperation with the FBI unless CAIR was reinstated. In a February 2010 letter to members of Congress, Assistant Attorney General Robert Weich forwarded evidence submitted by federal prosecutors in the trial and court testimony concerning CAIR’s ties to the Hamas-controlled Palestine Committee and that committee’s role in supporting Hamas.What impact this new legislation will have remains to be seen, but it is clearly intended to roll back the Obama administration’s penchant for relying on groups identified by government prosecutors as fronts for designated terrorist organizations as partners for “outreach.”As I reported here exclusively at PJ Media last April, the Department of Justice intervened and scuttled the planned prosecution of CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad as a follow-up to the Holy Land trial, which prompted several congressional inquiries. And as a follow-up to that article, I reported an interview with a high-ranking DOJ official who told me that FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni continued to meet with CAIR officials despite the FBI’s official ban on contacts with the Hamas front.This new law will also curtail relations with the administration’s favorite “outreach” partner, ISNA, which, despite being named unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial, was last month included in a top-level meeting with the Department of Justice where Muslim groups demanded a formal declaration by the DOJ that any criticism of Islam constituted religious and racial discrimination. ISNA’s president, Mohamed Magid, is also a regular at White House functions and has been appointed to several government positions, including advising the Department of Homeland Security.Congressional sources I spoke with on Monday said that this common-sense legislation was necessitated by the continued practice — in open defiance of the stated FBI policy — of dealing with and legitimizing individuals and groups that federal prosecutors had gone into federal court and identified as assisting terrorist groups.Perhaps the most notorious case was an instance I reported on last year: Kifah Mustapha, who was personally named in the Holy Land case and who prosecutors had on court evidence videotape singing “I am a member of Hamas,” was included last year in the FBI-Chicago Field Office’s six-week Citizens’ Academy training program and given an escorted tour through the FBI Academy at Quantico and the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center. When I contacted the FBI-Chicago Field Office about the discrepancy, they defended Mustapha’s inclusion in the program despite their warnings to other agencies about the terror cleric’s longtime support for Hamas.Congressional officials expressed skepticism that the new legislation would permanently stop the schizophrenic government policy of engaging groups and individuals that the government itself has said are tied to terrorist groups, but it puts the Obama administration on notice that the days of the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” outreach policies are drawing to a close.Read the full story here.

• Commander Charles Kerchner(Ret) to NH House Majority Leader Bettencourt: Your Loyalty Must Be to the Constitution.(BirtherReport).Dear NH Rep. Bettencourt: Please stand with the U.S. Constitution and your oath to support and defend it. Your loyalty must be to the Constitution and the Citizens of NH and not to the establishment Republican Party bosses in DC who wish to use the Constitution when it suits them and ignore it when it suits them. The Constitution is the fundamental law of our land. It needs to be enforced and protected equally for everyone. Does your bottom line loyalty to the party trump your loyalty to the Constitution? Search your conscience after reading the rest of my email and the attachments. Never before in the history of our country have the major political parties allowed a person whose father was a foreign national and not a Citizen of the United States into the office of the Presidency and to gain command of our military.Obama's father was a foreign national and never was a U.S. Citizen or even wanted to be one. In fact Obama's father was not even an immigrant to the this country nor was he even a permanent resident. Obama is not a "natural born Citizen of the United States" to constitutional standards. He is NOT constitutionally eligible to be President of the United States per Article II Section 1. He should not be allowed on the ballot in NH since your election law since 2010 requires the candidate to be a "natural born Citizen". That was added to your laws since the 2008 election due to the Obama fiasco in the 2008 election. Obama is not a natural born Citizen of the United States. He may be native-born, but he is not a natural born Citizen to Article II constitutional standards. Enforce your new 2010 NH election law change.To be a natural born Citizen of the United States the person must be born in the USA to two (2) U.S. Citizen parents. That is the law of nature and said laws were referred to in our founding documents. That definition comes from natural law, the legal treatise the Law of Nations or Principles of Natural Law Vol.1 Chapter 19 Section 212, U.S. law via the Supreme Court decision of Minor v Happersett (1875) which was never over turned and other SCOTUS decisions as recent as 1939, and international law. Wong Kim Ark (1898) only decided who is a born "Citizen of the U.S." under the 14th Amendment, not who is a "natural born Citizen of the U.S." under Article II. The words natural born do not appear in the 14th Amendment and only appear in the Constitution in Article II as to who can be the President, and then later per the last sentence of the 12th amendment who can be the VP. Obama's father was a foreign national and never a U.S. Citizen so Obama is born with dual Citizenship and dual allegiances and is NOT a natural born Citizen of the USA. Why both major political parties allowed this to happen in 2008 is beyond comprehension. But for the Republican Party to allow it to happen again in 2012 is completely unfathomable given how much more we have learned about the lack of a true legal identity for Barack Obama given that it has been revealed he is using a forged digitally created birth certificate and a Connecticut SSN not legally issued to him.Images on the internet are proof of nothing, especially when digital image and typography experts say the images are forgeries and digitally created images and not scans of real paper documents. Read the attached essays and reports for more information on this subject. It is time for you to stand up for your sworn solemn oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is time for you to stand up for your duty to protect the Citizens of New Hampshire from a person, Barack Obama, who is committing election fraud and identity fraud in your state. His signing the application to be put on the ballot in your state has created a legal NEXUS between him and the Citizens of your state and your state now has jurisdiction to investigate his election fraud and identity theft and fraud. He is perpetrating a false identity and documents on the Citizens of NH. Your state now has jurisdiction to investigate this man ... Barack Hussein Obama II, or whoever he really is and whatever is real legal name is.Please do the right thing by your oath and lead the effort in your state to call for a full and thorough investigation of Obama's true legal identity, to conclusively determine it, under oath with sworn testimony, subpoenaed witness testimony including if necessary Obama himself, and certified true and correct paper documents with raised seals DIRECTLY from the original issuing authority (not Obama's campaign or team) and subjected to forensic analysis by document experts. The Obama fraud and charade and deception of the electorate must be stopped. The ongoing constitutional crisis created by Obama must be ended. Please stand for the U.S. Constitution the New Hampshire Citizens who are looked to vet candidates for President as an early primary state and demand an investigation immediately into the charges of election fraud and identity fraud perpetrated by Obama on the Citizens of New Hampshire. Do NOT allow the election fraud of 2008 to be repeated in 2012.CDR Charles Kerchner (Ret).Lehigh Valley PA USA.Read the full story here.

• Expired due date canisters of Tear gas used in Egypt banned, causes liver, heart damage, miscarriages.(BikyaMasr).Cairo: The tear gas being employed by the Egyptian military and police in the past 48 hours, beyond being expired for at least five years, according to canisters obtained by Bikyamasr.com, cause severe pulmonary damage, as well as causing damage to the heart and liver. It is also reported to increase the risk of miscarriages, according to international studies of the substance, known as CR gas.A lethal does can be inhaled within minutes if in a poorly ventilated area.According to the United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, CR emits “very toxic fumes” when heated to decomposition, and at specified concentrations CR gas is an immediate danger to life and health. The report also stated that those exposed to CR gas should “seek medical attention immediately.”In large doses, human tissues have also revealed that cyanide levels in the body are discovered. It can also “melt” one’s skin if sweat on the body comes into contact with the substance.Egyptian demonstrators have been exposed at high levels over the past two days, with many calling the use of the gas a “crime against humanity” as it has resulted in severe injuries due to its indiscriminate usage by both police and military forces.Under the Paris Convention on Chemical Warfare of 1993, CR Gas was officially listed as a restricted substance and eventually was banned, but it has not stopped governments across the world from deploying the gas on civilians. The United States, Sri Lanka, Israel and others including Egypt, have continued to use the gas on its people.At a field hospital along Mohamed Mahmoud street on Sunday evening, the military slammed the area with the substance, causing scores of Egyptians to run in panic as clouds of tear gas billowed forth. A few individuals succumbed to the extraordinary amount of gas, coughing and vomiting.“I can’t believe this is happening,” said one doctor to Bikyamasr.com. “This is causing people to pass out, vomit and cough blood. It isn’t safe.”The company producing the gas being used in Egypt, Combined Tactical Systems of Jamestown, Pennsylvania in the United States, refused to respond to Bikyamasr.com requests for information pertaining to expired canisters and its effects on people.But on the ground in Tahrir and the surrounding streets, it is clear that the tear gas is having massive effects on demonstrators.“It is wrong, horrific and scary to think the military has purchased so many they just shoot them like they have an endless supply from the US,” said one demonstrator, using a tissue to wipe his blood-shot eyes.Read the full story here.

• Egypt Military General: “There is an invisible hand in the square”.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: A member of Egypt’s interim ruling Military Council visited Tahrir Square Monday afternoon for a brief media interview, claiming that those in the square are “thugs,” not peaceful demonstrators.“There is an invisible hand in the square causing a rift between the army and the people,” the general claimed, calling upon to crowd to return to their homes and consider the economic impact their demonstration will have on the country.He claimed that the council supports demonstrators’ prerogative to peacefully demonstrate, insisting that security forces had not initiated the violence that has wrought the capital city since early Saturday morning.The general’s ascertains come despite innumerable eyewitness accounts, videos and pictures of both Egyptian police and soldiers in full uniform waging a brutal offensive on protesters, attacking hoards of people indiscriminately with live ammunition, tear gas, rubber bullets and clubs.Egyptian state security continues its violent offensive on anti-government demonstrators in the city’s iconic Tahrir Square, which has already left at least 20 confirmed dead, and 1,500 injured since Saturday, according to statistics from the Egyptian Ministry of Health.Hmmm....Are 'fresh'protesters being bused in?Read the full story here.

• Cynthia Farahat: End US Military Aid to Egypt.(BigPeace).Egyptian Coptic writer and activist, Cynthia Farahat, recently escaped violent religious persecution of the Egyptian domestic security forces. Today she joined Fred Grandy in the Secure Freedom Radio studio and is reporting in English on that persecution, the nature of the forces taking power, and up to the day events on the ground. The U.S. government policy makers and media are not getting the whole story and are especially missing the most important intelligence requirements of the political and human rights state of play. The U.S. government is, in fact, currently arming and funding the violent persecution of religious minorities in Egypt, including Sufi Muslims.Listen to the whole story here.

• UAE to bypass Hormuz with new pipeline project.(HurriyetDaily).The United Arab Emirates (UAE) could soon start pumping oil via a key pipeline that will allow it to bypass the Straits of Hormuz and protect exports if Western powers resort to military action in a row over Iran’s nuclear program.The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) project, a 480-km pipeline with a capacity of up to 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) will allow the UAE to boost exports from its Fujairah terminal outside the Straits and on the Gulf of Oman, four industry sources told Reuters.“There’s a hurry to get this operational as the noises about an attack on Iran gets louder,” an industry source said. “Oil could flow through the pipeline from end-December initially at 1 million bpd and gradually increase to 2 million bpd.”Tension over Iran’s nuclear program has increased since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Nov. 8 that Tehran appears to have worked on designing a nuclear bomb.The Strait of Hormuz is the most important oil transit channel in the world, with some 15.5 million barrels or about a third of all sea-borne oil passing through in 2009.Even though some analysts believe an imminent military action against Iran rather unlikely, they think the pipeline is crucial for the sustainability of oil exports with political tensions in the region on the rise.“It is opening up an export channel that is invulnerable to any disruption in Hormuz,” oil and gas analyst Saket Vemprala at Business Monitor International said.“I don’t think the military action scenario is likely anytime soon but such routes are useful for the Gulf states. If you remember, the Iraqi crude pipeline through Saudi Arabia was very important during the Iran-Iraq war.”Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s military rulers eye ElBaradei for a national salvation government: report.(AlArabiya).Egypt’s military rulers consider assigning presidential hopeful Dr Mohammed ElBaradei to form a national salvation government following the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Dr Essam Sharaf, an Egyptian daily reported on Tuesday citing political sources.The sources told Egypt’s al-Youm al-Sabe daily that the members of the new proposed government have not been decided yet.ElBaradei, the former chief of the U.N. atomic watchdog, on Monday denounced violence against protesters and called for a national salvation government. He called on the SCAF to meet the demands of protesters that include the cancelling of military trials of civilians.Egypt’s cabinet said on Monday it had resigned, as clashes raged for a third day in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. “The government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has handed its resignation to the (ruling) Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,” cabinet spokesman Mohammed Hegazy said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.State television quoted a military source as saying the ruling military council had rejected the resignation, but Information Minister Osama Heikal told MENA the matter had not yet been decided.Sharaf's resignation, if accepted, threatens to derail parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 28 -- the first polls since Mubarak was toppled in February.But the military council is seeking agreement on a new prime minister before it accepts Sharaf’s resignation, a military source told Reuters.The source said no formal announcement would be made until the ruling military council had agreed on the candidate. He did not provide further details.Meanwhile, presidential hopeful Amr Moussa warned that those who call for the toppling of the military council aim mainly at spreading more chaos and unrest in Egypt.Moussa said that what is currently happening in Egypt is definitely not a new revolution, adding there is a kind of misunderstanding due to weakness of the government and the slowness in implementing its decisions. Moussa called on the military council to specify a timeline for handing over the powers to a civilian authority.Read the full story here.

• U.N. passes resolution condemning Iran human rights abuses with record amount of votes.(AlArabiya).The U.N. General Assembly on Monday passed an annual resolution condemning human rights abuses in Iran with a record number of votes in support.The assembly also passed resolutions condemning human rights in North Korea and Myanmar. All received record high backing.The resolution, which was introduced by Canada, “expresses deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”The Iran vote came only three days after the General Assembly condemned an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington – a plot which the United States accuses Iran of masterminding.The 193-member assembly passed the resolution condemning “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” by Iranian authorities with 86 votes in favor, six more than last year, 32 against, down eight from 2010, and 59 abstentions.The resolution condemned “flogging and amputations” carried out in Iran and deplored a “dramatic increase” in the use of the death penalty, particularly against minors. Many human rights groups say events have deteriorated in Iran over the past year.Iranian government representative, Mohammad Javad Larijani, an advisor to the country’s supreme leader, called the resolution “substantially unfounded and intentionally malicious” in a speech to the General Assembly’s human rights committee.“The document is an onslaught on the good conscience of the international community and an unforgivable insult to the whole institution of the U.N.,” Larijani said.Among the abuses listed in the resolution were torture, excessive use of the death penalty, discrimination against women, persecution of journalists and religious minorities, including members of the Baha’i faith, as well as the detention of key opposition leaders from the 2009 presidential election.Larijani also attacked Canada, Europe and the United States for what he said were their “serious human rights violations.”Among the examples he gave was “increasing discrimination against immigrants, Muslims and other people of foreign origin in Europe, United States and Canada.”British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the committee’s adoption of the nonbinding resolution on Iran, which will be confirmed with a second vote in a General Assembly plenary session next month.“Iran has shown scant evidence of cooperation with the U.N. to improve its human rights record,” Hague said in a statement. “The fact that this resolution passed by a record majority shows the international community is strongly united in its condemnation of human rights abuses in Iran.”Russia and China, which have vetoes in the U.N. Security Council, were among those that voted against the resolution, highlighting the divide between Moscow and Beijing, which have close commercial ties to Iran, and the West, which would like Tehran to face new U.N. sanctions over its atomic program.Diplomats from several nonaligned developing countries criticized the annual ritual of adopting resolutions condemning a handful of individual countries.Syria, which faces a special human rights vote on Tuesday over its deadly crackdown on opposition protests, spoke out strongly for its Iranian ally.The North Korea vote was passed with 112 votes in favor, 16 against and 55 abstentions. On Myanmar the vote was 98 in favor, 25 against with 63 abstentions.The assembly raised “very serious concern” over the “torture” and “inhuman conditions of detention, public executions, extra judicial and arbitrary detention” in North Korea.It also condemned the “existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labor.”The Myanmar resolution welcomed recent talks between democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military-dominated government, the release of some political prisoners and other changes over the past year.But the General Assembly said there were still “systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”It highlighted “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” It also raised concerns about the treatment of ethnic minorities such as the Karen people.Western nations, which have sanctions against Myanmar, have sought to encourage the tentative reforms started by the government. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to hold talks in Myanmar next month.Hmmm......'Record Majority'...86 votes in favor ...even not HALF?Don't let me laugh!Read the full story here.

• Soviet Era SSN-26 Yakhont anti-ship missiles Slipped Into Syria.(StrategyPage).November 22, 2011: Despite the growing civil war in Syria, Russia is honoring an order, earlier this year, for an unspecified number of SSN-26 Yakhont anti-ship missiles. The order was finally confirmed eight months ago, after four years of haggling and efforts by Israel and the United States to block the sale. Apparently the missiles have already been paid for, and Syrian has assured Russia that the missiles can safely be delivered by ship. Russia is happy for any sale, but seems particularly anxious for this missile to get some combat experience.The Yakhont was under development throughout the 1990s, but was delayed by lack of funds. Now it's in production, and the Russians have been energetically seeking export sales. The Yakhont uses a liquid-fuel ramjet and travels 300 kilometers at speeds of over 2,000 kilometers an hour (using a high altitude cruise and a low-altitude approach; if it travels entirely at low altitude the range is cut to 120km). When the missile arrives in the area where the target is supposed to be, it turns on its radar and goes for the kill. Israel is the only one in the region the Yakhonts would be used against. However, because Iran is supplying (unofficially) the cash for the missiles, there is also the risk that some of the Yakhonts would end up in Iran for use against numerous targets in the Persian Gulf.The ground based Yakhont can use truck mounted or fixed launchers, with up to 36 missiles supported by a land based search radar and helicopter mounted radars (to locate targets over the horizon). Once a target has been identified and located, one or two missiles are programmed with that location and launched. The Yakhont is a 8.9 meter (27.6 foot) long, three ton missile with a 300 kg (660 pound) warhead.An improved version of the Yakhont, the PJ-10 BrahMos missile, was developed for India. The 9.4 meter (29 foot) long, 670mm diameter missile is an upgraded version of the Yakhont. Lacking money to finish development and begin production, the Russian manufacturer eventually made a deal with India to finish the job. India put up most of the $240 million needed to finally complete two decades of development, an effort which produced the long delayed Yakhont, and more capable BrahMos. The PJ-10 is being built in Russia and India, with the Russians assisting India in setting up manufacturing facilities for cruise missile components. Efforts are being made to export up to 2,000, but no one has placed an order yet. Russia and India are encouraged enough to invest in BrahMos 2, which will use a scramjet, instead of a ramjet, in the second stage. This would double speed, and make the missile much more difficult to defend against.The 3.2 ton BrahMos has a range of 300 kilometers and a 300 kg warhead. Perhaps the most striking characteristic is its high speed, literally faster (at up to a kilometer per second) than a rifle bullet. The high price of each missile, about $2.3 million, restricts the number of countries that can afford it. The weapon entered service with the Indian navy in 2005. The maximum speed of 3,000 kilometers an hour makes it harder to intercept, and means it takes five minutes or less to reach its target. The air launched version weighs 2.5 tons, the others, three tons or more.Read the full story here.

• Russia says U.S. sanctions on Iran ‘unacceptable’ amid Tehran’s condemnation.(AlArabiya).Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced new U.S. sanctions against Iran on Tuesday as “unacceptable and contradictory to international law,” as Iranian lawmakers were expected to review cooperation with the U.N. atomic energy watchdog following the sanctions. “Russia sees such measures as unacceptable and against international law,” Interfax news agency reported citing a statement by the foreign ministry. “This practice seriously complicates moves for constructive dialogue with Tehran.”“Strengthening sanctions pressure -- which for some of our partners is also almost becoming an end in itself -- will not assist in increasing the readiness of Iran to sit down at the negotiating table,” the foreign ministry said.“We believe that the constant strengthening of sanctions has long ago gone beyond the bounds of decisions on non-proliferation tasks surrounding the Iranian nuclear program."Iran dismissed on Tuesday new sanctions announced by western countries as more a propaganda exercise than something that will hit the economy.“Such measures are condemned by our people and will have no impact and be in vain,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference, according to Reuters.The United States, worried by Tehran’s nuclear program, named Iran late on Monday as an area of “primary money laundering concern” in a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it, according to Reuters.It also blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding its nuclear programs and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries. “As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime,” President Barack Obama said in a written statement, according to AFP.Iran can “fulfill its international obligations... or it can continue to defy its responsibilities and face even more pressure and isolation,” he said.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unveiling what she called a “significant ratcheting up of pressure on Iran,” said the United States was targeting Iran’s energy sector directly for the first time.Detailing sanctions against goods, services and technologies for the petrochemical sector, Clinton said “there have to be consequences of such behavior.”In tandem, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner issued a warning that any firms doing business with Iran’s banking sector could run the risk of funding illicit activities.But, Geithner warned, “financial institutions around the world should think hard about the risks of doing business with Iran.”Hmmmm.....Does this also include Obama's 'buddy' Turkey?Read the full story here.

• German Establishment Forced to Admit Mainstream German Society Hostile to Turks and Muslims.(IVE).Here is a translated extract from an interview Hans-Ulrich Jörges [on the right in the photograph] - one of the editors of the Stern news magazine - gave on the German news channel NTV.

How many murdered fellow citizens does it take, murdered by Neo-Nazis, till the mass of the people go on to the streets?

Jörges: …We note with some shock that there is no sympathy for the victims. At least not in the majority German society. In a minority milieu there is. Now and then we see a small group of people in a place where there were victims, stand in front of the door in the evening and light candles or hold up signs. Those groups are no larger than 100 people. The majority German society, we learn from this, apparently lives in a mixture of indifference, fear and even contempt towards the Turkish immigrant society that lives alongside it. They have very little to do with one another. They do not feel, do not consider them as fellow citizens. And if you look at where that comes from, I believe you need to look back at the last year. Last year Thilo Sarrazin rose up to be a folk hero. This man has transported the language of the NPD [German “far right” party they are now talking about banning in the wake of these murders, even though it had nothing to do with them] into the mainstream of society. He started the debate at the end of 2009 with phrases like “The Turks conquered Germany with their higher birth-rate”, they had “no productive function other than selling fruit and vegetables”, they “unceasingly produced little headscarf girls”. When you look back on it now, those are unbelievable phrases. And I say very deliberately that is the language of the NPD. And that book he wrote with over 1.3 million copies sold is the most successful political book since the war – incredible actually.

And what does that say about the mainstream of the society he was able to transport these theses to?

Jörges: The mainstream of society is receptive to such theses…

Why?

Jörges: Mainstream society rejects Turkish-Muslim culture. It is afraid of it. It doesn’t like it. Also it rejects integration. We’re always looking at the Turkish immigrants and their willingness to integrate. The German majority society also has no willingness to integrate, the majority society. And when we look at the mainstream again, on the internet there’s now a relatively well-known platform for inciting hatred against Turks and Muslims. It’s now had over 50 million visitors and more than 125 million page views. That is not a marginal milieu any more. That is the mainstream of society. So we shouldn’t just be looking at the right, although that’s correct; we need to look at the mainstream society too and see what’s happening out there.The internet hate platform he's referring to is, of course, PI (Politically Incorrect).Read the full story here.

• Brussels: Jewish girl attacked by Moroccan girls, told to 'go home'.(IslaminEurope).This story was originally reported by the Belgian antisemitisme site and translated by the Philosemetism blog. See both for more details.Via La Libre and Le Soir (French):  Océane, a 13-year old Jewish girl, was beat up Friday by five girls of Moroccan origin after a gym class at Neder-Over-Heembeek (Brussels).At the end of a football class at the sports center in Neder-Over-Heembeek, five Moroccan girls from the neighborhood insulted Océane for being Belgian and of a higher social level. Océane asked for a little respect, at which their leader told her to 'shut up'. One of the girls told their leader 'besides, she's just a dirty Jew'. The leader then slapped Océane twice. The young girl tried to escape, with no success. The leader then repeated 'shut you dirty Jew, and go back to your country', and the five girls caught her and started beating her.The incident was reported to the police. Océane did not at first want to go to the hospital, but after suffering from pains all weekend her father took her to the hospital on Monday, where the doctors diagnosed a concussion and inflammation of the cervical vertebrae. Océane fears retaliation and does not want to go back to school, where she's a first year student. The girls are second year students at the same school.Océane's father, Dan, says this is not the first time. "There's latent antisemitism at this school. My daughter was insulted with 'dirty Jew' at least a dozen time last year, and already a few times since the beginning of the year."Brussels MP Viviane Teitelbaum (MR), who has written in the past about antisemitism in local schools, denounced the attack and said she was shocked that this story did not get to the press and news sites. Read the full story here.

• King Abdullah: 'Israel Has an Expiration date'.(DocsTalk).King Abdullah of Jordan claims Israel has an 'expiration date' - unless it pursues a two-state solution. Israel Radio reported Monday morning that King Abdullah of Jordan said "Israel has an expiration date."Abdullah's comments were reportedly made to the BBC last week. During the interview Abdullah said Israel's survival was dependent on a two-state solution. Israel does not realize it needs such a solution, he added Abdullah added his government would increase pressure on Israel to reach a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.He did not, however, provide any concrete facts to buttress his oft repeated assertion of Israel's imminent doom.Israel remains a regional leader in the realms of economics, military, science, and technology. Meanwhile, former defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel cannot afford to cut the defense budget because Israel is likely to find itself in renewed conflict with Egypt in the long-run.Comment: Some would say that Jordan is certainly not our friend and I would concur. However he is signaling to us a particular message regarding the future of talks. Perhaps it would be useful to engage the King in public discourse-he needs us to succeed to save his entire monarchy.Read the full story here.

• Iran Threatens To ‘Bung Israel Into The Trash Bin Of History’ If Attacked.(Matzav).In case of an attack on the Iranian nuclear sites, “Iran would bung Israel into the trash bin of history,” a general of the Iranian revolutionary guards (IRGC) said today.“It is actually one of our biggest wishes that the Zionists regime [Israel] would make such a move,” Amir Ali-Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace department, told Fars news agency.“In that case we would do what we wanted to do for quite a while; bunging the enemy of Islam and Muslims [Israel] into the trash bin of history,” he said.There has been mounting speculation that Israel would strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran continues to defy international demands that it allay western concerns over it nuclear activities.Iranian military officials have several times warned Israel would regret such preemptive strikes and that Iran would in retaliation make use of its Shahab-3 missiles which could strike any part of the country.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a report earlier this month that claimed that there was a high probability that Iran’s nuclear program has military aspects, prompting Israel and the U.S. to urge the international community to toughen economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.Hmmm.......'Bunging"?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:RightSideNews.State Secession or Washington Debt Depression.Everyone with any intelligence in the US and around the world knows that there is no way for Washington to manage the tens of trillions in debt and unfunded liabilities short of ultimate repudiation or hyperinflation. Thanks to Wall Street bankers and the Anglo-American financial elite, our ruinous debt-financing Ponzi scheme has also been exported to most Western nations. These politicians have made a compact with the devil in delivering vote-buying programs and postponing the interest and debt reduction to future generations. Watch the cuts and subsequent riots in Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and you'll see just a little of the future for the United States with its faltering world reserve currency status.The question is, should the citizens and the formerly sovereign states of the United States wait for Washington's foreign creditors to seize the remaining government and private assets left after our politicians have finished with us?Our politicians are in the process of totally bankrupting the country, individual states and municipalities and in less than a decade will have confiscated most private wealth and placed tens of trillions of more debt on future generations. Should we act now before Congress and our politicians loot our personal, retirement and real estate wealth, destroy our Treasury obligations and kill the dollar and democratically take matters into our own hands before the looming dollar and debt crisis?Hmmmm......Passing legislation to use alternative methodes of legal tender is a start.The U.S. Constitution, Art. I Sec. 10 Cl. 1, states, in part:No State shall ... coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; ...Read the full story here.

• Turkey - A strange photograph.There was a photograph splashed on the front pages of many newspapers Thursday. It was not something as odd as the awestruck Recep Tayyip Erdoğan listening in full surrender to an Afghani Islamist radical sheikh, but equally shocking.The photograph was issued by Hezbollah in Beirut in announcing a secret meeting at a secret location between Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani and wise country Turkey’s foreign minister, Wiseman Ahmet Davutoğlu. Hossain Halil, the chief political advisor of Nasrallah, was sitting on the right-hand side of the Hezbollah leader, who was sitting on a comfortable armchair placed in front of the Lebanese flag and the Hezbollah pennant. Next to Nasrallah was sitting the Lebanese prime minister and on the far left side of the photograph there was Davutoğlu, sitting comfortably on a sofa, listening to Nasrallah with full ear.In its bid to make Turkey a “world power” or a “wise country” that plays an important role not only in its region but also in global politics, the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government has been undertaking proactive initiatives while for pure domestic political reasons resorting to sheer nationalist rhetoric and Israel-bashing tactics at home that it hopes to cash in on in upcoming June polls. Such tactical moves, naturally, besides the probable contribution to domestic political standing of the ruling AKP, can win the prime minister and his party fame and prestige in the Arab neighborhood, while also drawing the ire of some long-time allies, prompting “Where is Turkey going?” “Is Turkey drifting East?” or other such nasty questions.Is a Turkey frequently coming together in photographs with leaders of organizations, be it Hezbollah or Hamas, that refuse to condemn terrorism, maintain heinous tactics of terrorism including suicide bombers and which still believe that through terrorist violence they could achieve their political aims, the Turkey that we want?Now, what was Davutoğlu doing in that nasty photograph? Or what has Davutoğlu been trying to achieve for the past few days of shuttle diplomacy in the region? What is he trying to salvage? Is he promoting Turkey’s interests or trying to help Tehran and Damascus convince Saad al-Hariri to agree to let the murderers of his father get away with what they did – and continue in the same fashion – and save his coalition with Hezbollah. Why is Turkey trying to achieve that “noble” goal? Because it wants the maintenance of “peace and stability” in Lebanon.Funny, is it not? Peace and stability will be achieved by surrendering to injustice, by letting criminals not be held responsible for their crime.Turkey could indeed be a global power or a role model for a vast region from the Ural mountains to the Middle East and down to Africa when and if it becomes a “true democracy” and decides to export its soft power rather than standing with the dictators in the Middle East and elsewhere for the sake of “stability.” But, of course, before it can start to export democracy Turkey must itself manage to become a land of democracy with individual freedoms and respect for the supremacy of law.Turkey deserves to be represented in different photographs, but unfortunately for now it is in the league of Hezbollah!Hmmm..........Iran's valet?Read the full story here.

• 9/11 mastermind DID behead Daniel Pearl: FBI matches veins in terror chief's arms to those of killer seen on video. The September 11 mastermind who claimed to have beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has been proven to be right, according to a new federal investigation.Khalid Sheik Mohammed, at one time the No.3 in Al Qaeda, had confessed to the 2002 murder of the journalist after his arrest in Pakistan a year later.But because of the admission by the U.S. government that he had been 'waterboarded' while in CIA custody, his confession was not deemed to be reliable. He is currently being held at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.Now federal agents have compared the veins in his arms to those of the killer seen on video beheading Pearl and concluded it was the same man. Instead, four men including a British national were imprisoned for the killing although they were not present during the murder.They were convicted of the killing because Pakistani authorities knowingly relied on perjured testimony and ignored other leads, the report concluded.Hmmm....He confessed,you got proof so what's the hold up to execute him?Read the full story here.

• Michelle Obama blamed for rise in pedestrian deaths in the U.S.Michelle Obama has had the finger of blame pointed at her for the increase in number of pedestrian deaths in the U.S..The First Lady initiated a campaign called 'Let's Move!' designed to encourage more youngsters to walk to school, in a bid to help tackle the country's obesity problem.But critics have said the scheme has back-fired after the figures for road deaths in the first six months of 2010 were revealed.In the period between January and June last year there were 1,891 road related deaths, which - while being only seven more than during the same period the previous year - bucked a trend that had been going down for four years.It was a 0.4 per cent increase and in 18 states there was an increase in the numbers, according to a study on Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by state.This caused a stir and Governors Highway Safety Association Director Barbara Harsha blamed Mrs Obama and was quoted as saying in the Washington Examiner: 'There's an emphasis these days to getting fit, and I think people doing that are more exposed to risk [of getting hit by a vehicle].'And GHSA spokesman Jonathan Adkins told 630 WMAL that Michelle Obama is 'trying to get us to walk to work and exercise a little bit more. While that's good, it also increases our exposure to risk.'Hmmmm....."Let's Move".Read the full story here.

• So who wrote O, the anonymous depiction of a tired and tetchy president who swears and hates the press?It's the guessing game that is dominating dinner parties the length and breadth of Washington.Who wrote O?The fictional account of a president's bid to win election in 2012 is published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday next week, and all they will own up to is that the author is 'someone who has been in the room with Obama and knows this world intimately'Swearing in public is about as bad as the president gets in O, although that famous scene when cameras capture him 'leering' at the rear end of a woman in a crowd lands him in deep trouble with the First Lady - unnamed but quite obviously Michelle. Her silent disinterest in him at bedtime is the punishment reserved for those of his offences that embarrassed her as well as him.O comes across as tired and tetchy, and fed up with being unfairly treated by the press. But for the most part he is portrayed with affection. The same cannot be said for the media figures who surround him, especially those in new media, perhaps suggesting the author may be from an old media background.Naturally, the finger is being pointed at any number of people, among them Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emmanuel, David Plouffe, Obama's new senior adviser, and, more surprisingly, TV comedian Stephen Colbert. But leading the pack of front-runners has to be Joe Klein, who in 1996 had to come clean about being the author of Primary Colors.Hmmm.....Then there's off course O himself?Read the full story here.

• Dubai sex case Briton 'was sacked for flirting'.A British woman locked up in Dubai after being caught in bed with a banker had been let go from a former job amid concerns about her flirtatiousness, her ex-boss claimed yesterday.Danielle Spencer, 31, has been in ­custody since falling foul of the Gulf state’s strict morality laws when she unwittingly found herself at the centre of a sordid love triangle.The £100,000-a-year property analyst had spent the night with New Zealander Toby Carroll, only for his Brazilian former girlfriend to burst in and find them in bed together, according to police in Dubai.He had apparently broken up with the woman – named only as Priscilla – the day before, and she flew into a rage, allegedly slashing at furnishings with a knife while a terrified Miss Spencer hid in the bathroom.They were all arrested and have remained in custody since December 12 – with the two women having to share a ­single large police cell along with up to 90 other female suspects.Both Miss Spencer and Mr Carroll – a property analyst for HSBC bank – may be charged with having sex outside marriage, a criminal offence in the strict Muslim emirate for which a British pilot’s wife and her lover were jailed for a month in 2009.Yesterday her ex-boss at an estate agency described her as ‘a Walter Mitty character’ who had been asked to leave after barely a month for fear that her behaviour would cause a scandal by Dubai’s standards.‘She could be extremely flirtatious, both with colleagues and clients,’ said the ­British businessman. ‘Danielle sent me photographs of herself in modelling poses.‘Needless to say she quickly became rather popular, but she was becoming an embarrassment for the firm. Extramarital sex is illegal here, and while the authorities will turn a blind eye if you’re discreet, I thought she was being pretty flagrant.’’Last night her mother Angela Genter, who has remarried, wept as she told how she was desperate to visit her but couldn’t afford to fly to Dubai.‘My stomach is in a knot and I honestly don’t know what I can do to help her,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. I am at the end of my tether.‘She knows the laws out there and we have to respect their system. But as a mother I just want her out of prison so she can get her life back to normal.’Mrs Genter has been told her daughter will be bailed if a surety is put up, but she can’t afford a lawyer to represent her.The British Embassy said it was offering consular assistance.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.IHH Head: Noah's Ark, Titanic, Mavi Marmara – Three Ships That Will Never Be Forgotten.At a ceremony in Beirut honoring the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, with the participation of Lebanese politicians, representatives from the Iranian, Turkish, and Palestinian Authority Embassies in Lebanon, representatives of the Palestinian factions, and former British MP George Galloway, Bulent Yildirim, the head of the Turkish IHH organization that led the flotilla, said that there were three historic ships that would never be forgotten – Noah's Ark, the Titanic, and the Mavi Marmara. He said that the Turks had sacrificed nine martyrs whose blood had mingled with the blood of the Arabs and with the global conscience. Relatives of those killed on the Mavi Marmara expressed pride in their loved ones' martyrdom for the sake of Palestine and Jerusalem.Hmmmm.....Anyone still doubting where Turkey stands?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Coalition for Peace-USA. Fifth column column developping in America?Training Summit for Muslim Peace Activists despite the climate of fear and hatred against Muslims.January 8, 2011 could very well turn out to be a milestone in the history of Muslim civil rights activism and inter-faith bridge building. On that cold blustery morning, Muslim Peace Coalition organized an initiative to educate the Muslim community and other members of the public on the methods needed to peacefully combat the growing Islamophobia. In spite of the inclement weather and the climate of fear and hatred against Muslims more than 150 community and youth leaders attended the day long peace leaders training retreat. During the training retreat the news of the Arizona massacre broke, underlining the spread of hatred that is threatening the unity of this nation and the urgent need to mobilize against it. The program was specifically designed to train the public on the proper techniques needed to successfully organize and mobilize for the April 9th mass anti war and anti-islamophobia rally. The event took place in the Islamic Center of Long Island and ran from 9 am till 6 PM. Representatives from various Muslim and non Muslim organizations were in attendance.The day commenced with a recitation from the Quran which called for the standing up for justice even if it means speaking out against yourself or your own kin. This was followed by the welcome address by Dr. Shaik Ubaid, the New York chapter co-chair of MPC who spoke about the reasons for the launch of the peace coalition and the goals of the training retreat . This was followed by a moving and informative talk regarding the history of peace movements in the United States given by Kathy Kelly. Kathy Kelly, who many consider to be the conscience of America had just returned from Afghanistan. Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid spoke about how wars are damaging America’s economy and international standing. He talked about the need to organize against war and terrorism. His comprehensive power point presentation also showed how involving the youth in peaceful methods to fight islamophobia will prevent their radicalization.The final session was a solidarity session where leaders of more than 25 inter-faith alliances, peace groups, churches and synagogues spoke against Islamophobia. They expressed solidarity with the Muslim community in the backdrop of Congressman King’s announced hearings. The national and local leaders of the peace and inter-faith groups urged a large turnout for the April 9th rally against war and Islamophobia. Hmmmm.......On what FBI figures is he basing on?The only rise in racial hatred is the increase of anti Jewish attacks!Who's Abdul Malik Mujahid ?"Mujahid", BTW, is Arabic for "one who makes jihad" or "one who fights in a war for Islam." And we have seen protests against the war in Vietnam,those were not Vietnamese protesting in the US Streets.Muslims protesting in the US streets against the war on the enemies of America won't be accepted like the Vietnam protests!Read the full  story here.

• That's how to deal with pirates: South Korean commandos storm hijacked tanker and rescue all crew alive.South Korean navy commandos stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean last night and rescued all the crew.Eight pirates were killed in the raid on the chemical freighter, which was seized along with 21 crew on January 15 in the Arabian Sea while en route to Sri Lanka.The captain of the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry was shot in the stomach during the attack, and three commandos also suffered wounds.Colonel Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: 'Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages.'During the operation, our forces killed some Somali pirates and all of the hostages were confirmed alive.'Eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 from Myanmar were on board the vessel when it was attacked after setting out from the UAE.Seoul ordered a destroyer on patrol in the Gulf of Aden to give chase and President Lee Myung-Bak ordered 'all possible measures' to save the crew.Hmmm.....You don't mess with South Korea?Read the full story here.

• HT:WND.Ground Zero imam: 'We have more of a right to Moses'.Urges Muslims 'wherever they are' to 'compete' with other religions.Muslims have "more of a right" than Jews to the biblical prophet Moses, declared the imam who has become the new face of the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City. Imam Abdallah Adhami also urged Muslims to "compete" with other religions. "We must be doing it first, we must compete with you to be doing more of that. We want to fast Ashura too, because that's the day God saved Moses; that is certainly a day to be celebrated. We have more right to Moses," stated Adhami in a 2008 lecture obtained and reviewed by WND. Ashura is an Islamic fast day that commemorates Muslim events, including the Islamic claim that Moses fasted on that day to express gratitude to God for liberating the Israelites from Egypt."We must be doing it first, we must compete with you to be doing more of that. We want to fast Ashura too, because that's the day God saved Moses. That is certainly a day to be celebrated. We have more right to Moses. This possessiveness of goodness." Adhami then urged his followers to compete with other religions "Wherever you are, compete, race with each other in goodness. This is the ethos, this is the driving force that compels the Muslim to say I want to be at the front of that discourse, even though it might be unpopular right now." Adhami stated he recognized his views were "politically incorrect." Still, he repeated his assertion Muslims must compete with others. "Are we going to deny reality people, or are we going to move into a different dimension and start doing something to address this?" he asked.Hmmmm....Reality tells us it high time Congressman Peter King starts investigating the Islamic extremists in America.Read the full story here.

• HT:JihadWatch.Obama adviser Mogahed says West must show respect for Islam to ease Muslim anger toward U.S.Thus in Mogahed's world, if you see the cause of the tensions between the West and the Islamic world as religious, then you will more likely see that conflict as inevitable, but that will work to "the advantage of engagement." So apparently she thinks it is a good thing for people to see the conflict as caused by religion, although she actually thinks it is caused by politics.And in the background of this gobbledegook is the fact that in the Islamic world, the distinction between politics and religion is purely artificial. She based her statement on findings and recommendations of a research conducted by ADGC. The focus of her lecture was on attitudes by Muslims and Westerners toward interactions between their societies, highlighting new dimensions of the Muslim-West relationship.As a key finding, Dalia said the most meaningful action to display respect for Islam revolves around religious symbols, as 72 per cent of Muslims say abstaining from desecrating Islam's holy book and religious symbols would be very meaningful to them....In other words, curtail the freedom of speech and adopt Sharia restrictions regarding speech about Islam, and we'll be making progress.Hmmmm.....Anybody still believing the "We don't want to take over your country" Al-taqiyya story?Read the full story here.

• Canada - Muslim charity squandered money for poor.Devout Muslims donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of Canada’s largest Islamic organizations on the promise that the cash would be used to help the poor.But only one in four dollars donated to a special pool of money at the Islamic Society of North America Canada (ISNA Canada) actually reached the needy.Mismanagement of more than $600,000 is among the findings in a scathing audit obtained by the Star.A “very small portion . . . is distributed to the poor and needy and the major portion is spent on the administration of the centre,” concluded the 2010 audit of the previous four years. ISNA Canada is embroiled in controversy, with the audit revealing the practice of giving free perks to family members of a top official; the improper issuing of charitable tax receipts; and the diversion of charity money to private businesses. At the centre of it all is long-time secretary general Mohammad Ashraf, who has recently announced he is stepping down.Ashraf would not answer a series of questions from the Star.“Don’t ask me anything,” Ashraf told a reporter who visited the organization’s Mississauga headquarters, marked by a graceful minaret overlooking the Queen Elizabeth Way. The 73-year-old microbiologist said he is “being transitioned into retirement” and that he is “restricted” from commenting on the audit.For more than 30 years, Ashraf has been the leader of ISNA, a national organization that is also the hub for Mississauga’s Muslim community. It houses the city’s most visible mosque and provides a variety of services, including a Muslim high school and a halal meat certification agency.ISNA Canada draws in close to $1 million in charity donations a year. The audit looked closely at one portion of those donations, an obligatory alms giving called Zakat and Fitrah meant to aid the needy. The audit found that of about $810,777 collected over four years, only $196,460 went to aid the poor.After prayer, Zakat is considered by some Muslims to be the most important pillar of the Islamic faith. It requires Muslims to give a minimum of 2.5 per cent of their wealth each year to the poor.To mark the beginning of Ramadan, Ashraf sent out a letter in August 2010 urging all of ISNA Canada’s members to donate money for “helping needy Muslims not only in Canada, but all over the World.”The auditor, brought in by the ISNA Canada board, took issue with how charity cash was used to cover everything from beefing up security — including $60,000 for installing cameras and frequently changing locks — to health benefits for Ashraf’s daughters, even though they don't work for ISNA Canada.The organization has been spending more than $6,500 each year on the health plans for Ashraf’s daughters, Saadia and Uzma. Saadia’s premium has since been returned, the audit said.“Spending for personal expenses out of the charity’s funds is unethical,” the auditor wrote, saying it is “tantamount to misappropriation of funds.”The audit shows tens of thousands of charity dollars were shuffled from ISNA Canada to its affiliated services and businesses, several of which have secretary-general Ashraf as a director. Federal rules forbid charities from spending donations on business activities that do not aid the charity.The auditor also uncovered multiple cases where Ashraf or the organization inappropriately gave and received charity tax receipts, repeatedly violating federal charity rules.In a review of the financial statements for the halal meat certification agency, a business branch of the Society that certifies meat as permissable to eat under Islamic rules, the auditor discovered Ashraf had received a $15,000 tax receipt after moving money from the agency’s business account over to ISNA Canada and claiming it was a “personal donation.”Former board members told the Star Ashraf diverted profits from the certification agency to a secret account from which he paid himself and at least two family members. They say the board had no knowledge of this.The business’ revenue from the halal certification business is “supposed to come to the parent organization” as the donations do, said Syed Imtiaz Ahmad, former president of ISNA Canada.“(Ashraf) was directing it to an account he had opened and not telling us,” he said.Ashraf’s reign at ISNA Canada will come to an end March 31.Audit report of ISNA Canada (pdf).Hmmmm......."Halal"........I sincerely hope that Canadian Revenue Agency keeps digging in this case.Read the full story here.

• The World is sinking: Dubai islands 'falling into the sea'. The islands were intended as the ultimate luxury possession, even for Dubai.But the World, the ambitiously-constructed archipelago of islands shaped like the countries of the globe, is sinking back into the sea, according to evidence cited before a property tribunal. The islands were intended to be developed with tailor-made hotel complexes and luxury villas, and sold to millionaires. They are off the coast of Dubai and accessible by yacht or motor boat. Now their sands are eroding and the navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against the state-run developer, Nakheel, has told judges. "The islands are gradually falling back into the sea," Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine, said. The evidence showed "erosion and deterioration of The World islands", he added. With all but one of the islands still uninhabited – Greenland – and that one a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis.According to the company, 70 per cent of the World's 300 islands have been sold. Nakheel is also behind Dubai's famous Palm-shaped offshore developments. Villas in the only one near completion, Palm Jumeirah, were given to or bought by footballers including David Beckham and Michael Owen. Though few celebrity buyers were found for The World, it was rumoured – or joked – that Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie had considered Ethiopia. Many investors who did buy the islands proved unwilling or unable to finance further work when Dubai's property prices halved in the space of a year.A spokesman for Nakheel insisted the islands were not sinking. "Our periodical monitoring survey over the past three years didn't observe any substantial erosion that requires sand nourishment," a statement said.Hmmmm......Chuckle.Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.World Will Be Forced to Depend on OPEC Oil, Believes BP.This is the frank admission of BP in a detailed new analysis acknowledging that the role of international energy majors is changing.According to the BP Energy Outlook, OPEC, the 12-member cartel of oil-producing countries, is about to enter a new age of dominance over the market.BP's forecast shows that over the next 20 years OPEC will become as powerful as it was in 1970s -- the decade when the cartel presided over a series of oil shocks and shortages. The OPEC nations' share of global production is likely to rise from 40pc to 46pc over the period covered.In fact, 75pc of all growth in oil reserves over the next two decades is expected to come from OPEC nations, which include Kuwait, Iran, Angola, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria..The Energy Outlook showed that the world will need to explore in remote regions like the Arctic and deeper water than ever before if it is to keep pace with a 1.7pc annual rise in consumption -- a 39pc increase over 20 years.It predicts that demand will rise to about 102m barrels of oil per day by 2030, an increase of 16.5m barrels from today's level.Saudi Arabia should be able to add another 3m barrels, but the biggest growth is forecast to come from Iraq increasing its output from 2.5m to 5.5m barrels per day.An additional 2m barrels of production should come from Canada's controversial oil sands, while biofuels made from corn or sugar are predicted to provide a huge 5m barrel uplift.The growth of gas as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal means that BP expects the three major fossil fuels to eventually have an equal share of the market at about 27pc of consumption. Nuclear, renewable energy and hydropower are expected to serve around 7pc of the market each.To the concern of environmentalists, BP's chief economist Christof Ruehl predicted "to the best of our knowledge" carbon dioxide emissions would rise by 27pc over the next two decades.If his prediction comes true, it would mean the world missing its targets on keeping down carbon emissions by a mile. World leaders are trying to limit the extra emissions to 24bn tonnes by 2030 through international agreements on climate change.Hmmmm......Stop drilling Mr President?If you wanted to destroy America would you do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens.Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign. But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid. Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy lawyers who have been consulted by Congressional aides.Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout. Along with retirees, however, investors in a state’s bonds could suffer, possibly ending up at the back of the line as unsecured creditors.For now, the fear of destabilizing the municipal bond market with the words “state bankruptcy” has proponents in Congress going about their work on tiptoe. No draft bill is in circulation yet, and no member of Congress has come forward as a sponsor, although Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, asked the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, about the possiblity in a hearing this month. House Republicans, and Senators from both parties, have taken an interest in the issue, with nudging from bankruptcy lawyers and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, who could be a Republican presidential candidate. It would be difficult to get a bill through Congress, not only because of the constitutional questions and the complexities of bankruptcy law, but also because of fears that even talk of such a law could make the states’ problems worse.“They are readying a massive assault on us,” said Charles M. Loveless, legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We’re taking this very seriously.”Discussion of a new bankruptcy option for the states appears to have taken off in November, after Mr. Gingrich gave a speech about the country’s big challenges, including government debt and an uncompetitive labor market.Hmmmm......Helloooo....It's already being prepared,time to read this guys?Read the full story here.

• HT:Imra.Rising food prices spell trouble for Arabs.CAIRO, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Rising food prices, which triggered the downfall of the Tunisian regime and rioting in Algeria, threaten further trouble across the Middle East and North Africa, a region heavily dependent on food imports.The food crisis along with mushrooming populations, expanding desertification, dwindling water resources and growing unemployment create an explosive mix across the volatile region at a time when many fear new wars may soon erupt.The surprise downfall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali Jan. 14 amid violent street protests over food prices, poverty, unemployment and decades of repression has galvanized people across the region that stretches from the Atlantic in the west to the shores of the Indian Ocean in the east.Algeria also saw street protests sparked by increased process for basic food items, including milk, sugar and oil, in which as many as 20 people were killed, mainly by security forces. Rampant unemployment was also a factor.Similar, though less intense, protests were reported in Jordan and Libya.The Middle East, with an agricultural sector severely limited because of water scarcity, is particularly vulnerable to food price shocks.Climate change is accelerating the decline in food production through water shortages, reduced rainfall, desertification and coastal flooding.In the last two decades, the region has been jolted by three waves of food riots, most recently in 2008 when prices spiked higher before global recession reduced demand.Now prices are climbing again. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reported Jan. 5 that its worldwide food price index hit a record high in December, exceeding the 2008 peak.The FAO's index, which covers the average prices of such staples as meat, dairy products, cereals and cooking oil, was up 25 percent from the same period in 2009.The World Bank observed in a recent report on food security in the Arab world that "Arab countries are very vulnerable to fluctuations in international commodity markets because they are heavily dependent on imported food."Arab countries are the largest importers of cereal in the world" -- more than 58 million metric tons in 2007 -- "and most import at least 50 percent of the food calories they consume."It added that "of greater concern for Arab countries is that structural and cyclical forces are creating a system that is very sensitive to supply shortfalls and ever-increasing demand, making future price shocks very probable."Arab states' population growth rates are among the highest in the world. The population of the Arab world was 73 million in 1950. Now it's more than 333 million, four times higher.The World Bank expects that to double again by 2050, to around 600 million.Rich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have bought huge tracts of land from Brazil to Indonesia in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and ensure long-term food security.Lennart Bage, president of the U.N. International Fund for Agriculture Development in Rome, says that land was long considered less important than oil or mineral resources. But now "fertile land with access to water has become a strategic asset."As populations expand while the amount of farmland and water supply shrinks, resource wars are expected to erupt across the Middle East and Africa in the years ahead.Hmmmm......War for food?Read the full story here.

• The 2011 World Watch List.An In-depth Look at the Top 50 Christian Persecuting Countries.What is the World Watch List?Each year Open Doors releases the World Watch List, a detailed analysis of Christian persecution worldwide. In this free resource, countries are evaluated and ranked according to the severity of persecution that occurred in the past year.We offer the World Watch List free as part of our mission at Open Doors to inform and inspire others with the message of the persecuted.Top 10 Countries.   1.North Korea  -  2.Iran  -  3.Afghanistan   -  4.Saudi Arabia  -5.Somalia  -  6.Maldives  - 7.Yemen  -  8.Iraq -  9.Uzbekistan  -  10.Laos. Hmmm....How many are Islamic? Read and see the full story here.

• HT:Michelle Malkin.The Philadelphia Horror: How mass murder gets a pass.The mainstream news reports about Philadelphia’s serial baby-killer Kermit Gosnell and his abortion clinic death squad only scratch the surface of his barbaric enterprise. You must, must, must read the entire, graphic, 281-page grand jury report (embedded after my column below) to fully fathom the systematic execution of hundreds of (not just seven) healthy, living, breathing, squirming, viable babies — along with an untold number of mothers who may have lost their lives in his sick, grimy chamber of horrors as well. It is explicit. It is enraging. It will haunt you.Hmmmm.....The Philadelphia "Dr Mengele"? Read the full story here.

• HT:AmnonAndJonathan."Open war".Israeli Olympic chiefs ready to help Palestinians, says committee.Representatives of Israel's Olympic committee are ready to help Palestinian athletes train for the London 2012 Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday.The offer came during a "constructive and cooperative" first meeting of Israeli and Palestinian Olympic officials in the Swiss city of Lausanne hosted by IOC President Jacques Rogge, the Olympic body said in a statement.The meeting at IOC headquarters was a first attempt to broker an agreement over obstacles Palestinian athletes and players say they face, hampering training and travel to compete in sports events."In the short run, priority will be given to assisting Palestinian athletes to move towards their dream of taking part in the Olympic Games in London next year," it added.A second meeting will be held in two months time.The Olympic chief's visit came two months after the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) vowed "open war" against Israel, as the dispute escalated when Palestinian footballers were blocked at the Jordanian border.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.The Battle Next Time: a Brief History of the Alinsky-inspired Tactics of Media Matters, John Podesta and Legacy Media.The specious claim that Sarah Palin and the Tea Party were somehow linked to the Tucson massacre was a professional, coordinated hit job -- that 'just happened' to get picked up and marketed by the mainstream media.As I have documented, that false connection started with bloggers at DailyKos and Think Progress using Twitter to push the issue into the mainstream media within hours of the shooting with the help of their followers. The ruthless efficiency with which the left-wing blogosphere tied Palin to the shooting, and the success of their efforts in equating Palin with mass murder, is a lesson we should not forget.It wasn't the first time this has happened; and it certainly won't be the last.The Left Fears Sarah Palin Like No Other GOP Candidate.Hmmmm......Riehl described a set of too-good-to-be-true coincidences that tied Obama adviser David Axelrod to the anti-Palin smears. Read the full story here.

• Turkey calls for powerful UN statement against Israel.The UN Security Council has to make a powerful statement against Israel, which has been imposing its will on the Palestinian people by ignoring international law, Turkey’s top diplomat in New York has stated. Israel’s imposition on the Palestinian people is being carried out by the building of settlements in Palestinian territories, the eviction of Palestinian residents and by tightening its occupation of the Palestinian territories, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, Turkey’s permanent representative to the UN, explained on Wednesday during an open debate of the UN Security Council regarding the situation in the Middle East, the Anatolia news agency reported.The UN Security Council should make a powerful statement on such unilateral actions by Israel and should not avoid this responsibility, Apakan warned.The Turkish diplomat also remarked that Israel still hasn’t presented to the UN its findings following an enquiry into a May 31 raid on an aid flotilla.Also Wednesday, Arab nations submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank. However, a vote is not expected any time soon because of a likely US veto. Turkey has lent support to the resolution.The point of the resolution, diplomats say, is to highlight Washington’s isolated position on the Security Council, show the Palestinian population that the Palestinian Authority is taking action, and pressure Israel and the United States on the settlement issue.Hmmmm.....The seize of the hatred Turkey is displaying towards Israel makes even the Palestinians look good.Read the full story here.

• Chinese Government Threatens to Use Force to Close Catholic Orphanage for Disabled Children. Chinese government officials have told Roman Catholic Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, China, that he must sign an agreement giving the Chinese government control of a church orphanage for disabled children and that if he does not do so the government may use force to seize the facility.In the past, the Chinese government has repeatedly imprisoned Bishop Jia, including as recently as last year, because he will not renounce his allegiance to the Holy See.We beg the world media and leaders to have the moral courage to stand up for the approximately one hundred helpless disabled orphans who live in the orphanage and appeal to the Chinese government not to carry out its threat.Approximately twenty years ago, someone abandoned a handicapped infant on the doorstep of Bishop Jia Zhiguo's residence. The good bishop took the baby into his home, and that child is now about twenty years old.Soon after Bishop Jia rescued this first disabled baby, word spread of what he had done, and more disabled babies were left on his doorstep. Over two decades, hundreds of disabled babies were brought to the bishop--some of them very sick—and this good man took every one of them in and made sure they were cared for.Unfortunately, some of the babies did not survive. But at least they were all baptized before they went home to God's house.To help care for the abandoned children, the Bishop founded a community of thirty Catholic nuns, who devoted themselves to caring of these disabled orphans. The orphanage currently cares for more than one hundred children, who range in age from a few months to 20. The facility is located in WuQui, Jinzhou, Hebei.Bishop Jia has never joined the Catholic Patriotic Association, an official church sponsored by China’s Communist government that does not recognize papal authority over the church. In China today, the Roman Catholic Church is an illegal organization, and Bishop Jia, as a true and faithful Catholic, must serve as an underground bishop.Bishop Jia has spent approximately twenty years in prison, and has been arrested thirteen times just since 2004.In December, 2010, Mr. Yin of the United Front Department of Jinzhou, Mr. Guo of Political Secretary, Mr. An of the Bureau on Religious Affairs of Jinzhou, Communist Party Secretary in the Village Wuqiu, and Director Chen of the Public Security Bureau of Shijiazhuang took Bishop Jia away on three different occasions. They tried to force Bishop Jia to sign an agreement to release all his orphans to the government, and to disperse the thirty Catholic nuns who have been serving the orphanage.The writing is now on the wall. I believe that the authorities will soon carry out their threats by forcibly closing this orphanage.The Cardinal Kung Foundation today asks that those individuals and organizations who have a special focus on children, family and human rights, take up this special call to action. Please urge the Chinese Government to cease the harassment of Bishop Jia Zhiguo and not to dismantle this unique orphanage, which is truly a large family, which serves as a home to so many disadvantaged and handicapped children.Contact the Chinese Embassy in your country and let them know that you, and the world, are keenly interested in this development and these children. Those who live in the United States may write to Ambassador Zhang YeSui, Embassy of The People's Republic of China, 3505 International Place, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20008. Time is of the essence. Please protect these helpless orphans. Make your appeal to the higher authorities of the Chinese government not to disrupt the care and love of these one hundred disabled orphans.--Mr. Kung runs the Cardinal Kung Foundation, an organization based in Stamford, Conn., which is dedicated to informing the public about the persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China. The website of the Cardinal Kung Foundation iswww.cardinalkungfoundation.org.But Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."Matthew 19:14 .Hmmmm.....protect a fellow Christian Mr President?Read the full story here.

• Rise of Freedom: Project Rebirth.Just six months after the terror attacks of 9/11, March 11, 2002, to be specific, a camera was placed in the graveyard of St. Paul’s church. This final resting place sits across the street from what was Ground Zero. Since that day the camera has taken a picture every five minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.Time lapse photography isn’t new, but this is one of the most ambitious efforts ever undertaken with this filmmaking technique."That's the thing that is somewhat unexpected the emotional power of the time lapse,” said Brian Rafferty.Rafferty is the Chairman of Project Rebirth and the emotional power he refers to is something you need to see to believe. “I don't know how to explain it but it's a powerful thing to watch," he said.The film “Rebirth” makes its premiere this Friday, Feb. 20 at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Utah. But you can get a preview of this amazing footage tonight on Fox Report with Shepard Smith, 7 p.m. ET.All told there are 14 cameras circling and chronicling the building of the new World Trade Center, and what they have captured to date is monumental."We have 900 hours of footage thus far," said Rafferty.But this literal rebuilding of office towers is only one part of Project Rebirth’s mission.Hmmmm......Never Forget It were not Mazzle Tov screeming Jews who did this!Read the full story here.

• Breakthrough Laser Could Revolutionize Navy's Weaponry.The Navy has passed a major milestone in its quest to build an incredibly powerful new anti-aircraft gun.Scientists with the Navy's Office of Naval Research have demonstrated a prototype system capable of producing from thin air the electrons needed to generate ultrapowerful, "megawatt-class" laser beams for the agency's next-generation system. "The injector performed as we predicted all along," said Dinh Nguyen, senior project leader for the Free Electron Laser (FEL) program at the Los Alamos National Lab, N.M. "But until now, we didn't have the evidence to support our models. We were so happy to see our design, fabrication and testing efforts finally come to fruition."He said the group is hoping to set a world record with the futuristic new weapon -- which could be the Holy Grail of military lasers. FEL technology generates powerful laser beams by passing a stream of electrons -- those tiny, charged particles of matter -- through magnetic fields. Using electrons means avoiding the hassle of chemical fuels that are required for ordinary gas lasers, and bypassing the heating issue of electronic lasers.FEL lasers can also be calibrated more specifically for anti-aircraft purposes, the Navy said, to adjust for precipitation, cloud cover, or humidity.Quentin Saulter, FEL program manager for the Navy's research arm, said the implications of the FEL's progress are monumental. "This is a major leap forward for the program and for FEL technology throughout the Navy," Saulter said. "The fact that the team is nine months ahead of schedule provides us plenty of time to reach our goals by the end of 2011."The research team hopes to have a full-power prototype by 2018, which would have the ability to instantly blast targets in the sky.Navy ships have become vulnerable in modern times to supersonic missiles because of their slower defense systems, the agency worries. "The FEL is expected to provide future U.S. Naval forces with a near-instantaneous laser ship defense in any maritime environment throughout the world,” Saulter said.Hmmmmm......Hu said we couldn't do it?Read the full story here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Italy: Islamic terrorism comedy breaks box office records.An Italian produced comedy with an Islamic terrorism theme entitled 'Che Bella Giornata' or 'What a Beautiful day' has broken the country's all time box office records for a locally produced film,hauling in a massive 42 million dollars and counting, in just two weeks after its release.The film's plot revolves around a security guard who falls in love with an Arab woman who is planing to bomb the Milan Duomo.The movie's success has also dethroned Roberto Benigni's Holocaust-theme 1997 film and triple Oscar winner 'Life Is Beautiful,' which held the title of highest-earning local film for 13 years running.Produced by Medusa film, for an average Italian budget of around 6.6 million dollars, Medusa CEO Giampaolo Letta said the picture has performed beyond the company's "most optimistic expectations.".Source.

• And now for something completely different!German Big Brother star "Sexy Cora"dies after SIXTH breast enlargement operation.A German porn star has died following complications during her sixth breast enlargement.Cora, real name Carolin Berger, had been in a coma for nine days following the operation when she died yesterday.The 23-year-old had gone under the knife to boost her bust from a 34F to a 34G.The clinic in Germany where she had the enhancement is now being investigated.Her family were called to the hospital where they were told that Cora had been without oxygen during the op for 15 minutes and was in 'serious condition.'The heavily tattooed adult actress had come to the nation's attention as a contestant in the German Big Brother house.She behaved more and more outrageously, finally peeling off and flirting topless with a fellow housemate.Her death was mourned in the German tabloid newspapers today.'Sexy Cora is dead,' read the headline in Bild.'[Her] frail, 48kg [106 lb] body struggled against death for 224 hours. She lost. Cora is dead!'Prosecutors have announced they are investigating the 54-year-old anaesthesiologist and the 49-year-old surgeon who performed the operation at the Alster Clinic, in Hamburg, on suspicion of negligent homicide.Read the full story here.Video report here(German).