Hundreds of Copies of Anne Frank’s Diary torn up in libraries across Japan.

Hundreds of Copies of Anne Frank’s Diary torn up in libraries across Japan.HT: PJTatler.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said they fear an organized anti-Semetic effort is behind the shocking tearing-up of copies of The Diary of Anne Frank in libraries across Japan.

Hundreds of copies of the famous book have been vandalized at about two dozen libraries in metropolitan Tokyo.

According to an official of the Japan Library Association today, pages have been torn out of over 200 copies of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl in multiple libraries across Tokyo, including those in Nakano, Nerima, and Suginami.

In addition, Japanese media are reporting that other Holocaust-related literature was also found to have been vandalized.

The incident has drawn sharp condemnation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “The geographic scope of these incidents strongly suggest an organized effort to denigrate the memory of the most famous of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the World War II Holocaust,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center’s associate dean. “I know from my many visits to Japan, how much Anne Frank is studied and revered by millions of Japanese.

Only people imbued with bigotry and hatred would seek to destroy Anne’s historic words of courage, hope, and love in the face of impending doom. We are calling on Japanese authorities to step up efforts to identify and deal with the perpetrators of this hate campaign.”Read the full story here.

Anne Frank's Tree will continue to inspire for hope in Israel.

              Caption reads: "From this window Anne Frank was watching the Chestnut tree.

Anne Frank's Tree will continue to inspire for hope in Israel.HT: Giyus. This is a sad story about a girl in hiding and the tree she could see from her window which gave her hope.
Three times in Anne Frank's widely read diary, the young Holocaust victim wrote about a tree. She could see it from the attic window of the secret annex where her family hid for two years, before being betrayed.
The tree that inspired Anne Frank stood at the same place until a storm toppled it in August 2010.
In her diary Anne wrote on February 23, 1944 - "From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be."
The tree has actually been sick for the last 10 years.As a battle raged between city officials that wanted to cut it down and activists that insisted it stay, the Anne Frank museum began to collect chestnuts from the tree to grow seedlings, so that pieces of the original tree could take root and flourish elsewhere.
One of those saplings will now be planted at Yad Vashem, near the Children’s Memorial and International School for Holocaust Studies.
In her last note about the tree Anne Frank wrote - "Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It’s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.” Sadly she didn't survive the holocaust to enjoy more springs. But her memory lives on through her diary and now her tree will live longer as well.
Click here to leave your leaf in Anne's tree - a leaf of goodness and hope against hate and evil.Hmmm.........“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”   
 ~      Anne Frank, Read the full story here.

Image of a Young Girl: Madame Tussauds Unveils Anne Frank Wax Figure

Image of a Young Girl: Madame Tussauds Unveils Anne Frank Wax Figure.(Spiegel).Madame Tussauds in Berlin has opened a new exhibit featuring a wax figure of Anne Frank, based on the last photographs taken of the famous diarist before she went into hiding in Amsterdam. The young girl, who is depicted surrounded by her favorite things, should be a figure of hope, not despair, says the museum.Since it opened in 2008, the Berlin branch of the Madame Tussauds wax museum, located on the city's famous Unter den Linden boulevard, has been home to an eclectic collection of past and present celebrities, from US President Barack Obama to German supermodel Heidi Klum. But its latest addition, the figure of a young girl looking up expectantly from her desk, is something unique.
The girl is surrounded by some of her favorite things: magazines about the latest trends in cinema and theater and a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a book she loves. A hand-sewn dress, one of the two she owns, is hanging beside her. On her wooden writing desk is a modest casket containing her most precious possession of all: the key to her diary. The lights in her room are flickering, and voices and laughter can be heard from outside.
The girl depicted is none other than an 13-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary describing her Jewish family's experiences hiding from Nazi persecution in Amsterdam has become one of the most widely read books in the world.
Thomas Heppener, director of the Anne Frank Center in Berlin, which aims to promote the memory of Anne Frank and which collaborated on the project, officially opened the exhibit on Friday. Also in attendance was the sixth grade class of the Anne Frank Primary School in Berlin.
The new Anne Frank figure is next to that of Sophie Scholl, an activist executed by the Nazi regime for her involvement in the White Rose, a non-violent German resistance group.
But Zerbe made clear that the juxtaposition was just a coincidence, and that the museum was not trying to create a historical display. "We want our visitors, and children in particular, to feel an emotional connection with the figure, rather than to feel that they're in a history class," she said.
In a chilling irony, the wax figure of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, which the museum controversially re-introduced after it was beheaded by a visitor shortly after the Berlin Madame Tussauds opened in 2008, is in the next room.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

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

• "Dreams of my father"?Revealed: Barack Obama's 'playboy' father planned to have future president ADOPTED.(DailyMail).President Barack Obama's father made plans to have the future president adopted, astonishing new documents have revealed.When his 18-year-old wife, Ann Dunham, was five months pregnant, the elder Mr Obama told immigration officials they planned to give the baby away to the Salvation Army.Then a student at the University of Hawaii, immigration officials were investigating him because they believed he had more than one wife - and had already been warned about his 'playboy ways'.The revelation comes just months after the president finally put to rest claims he was not a U.S. citizen by releasing his full birth certificate.In an interview to renew his visa in 1961, Mr Obama's father, then 24, insisted he had divorced his wife at home in Kenya before marrying Miss Dunham, who was pregnant with his child.It reads: 'Subject got his USC [U.S. citizen] wife ‘Hapai’ [Hawaiian for pregnant] and although they were married they do not live together and Miss Dunham is making arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away.'As history attests, the couple kept the baby, but the revelation gives a fascinating glimpse into Mr Obama's relationship with his father, who he barely saw when he was growing up.As an 18-year-old student married to a black man in 1960s America, Miss Dunham may have come under pressure to give her child away.Although mixed-race marriage was legal in Hawaii, it was banned in 22 states, and in many of those it was a felony.In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, the president himself wrote that his mother might have thought about putting him up for adoption.Even in big cities, he said, 'the hostile stares, the whispers, might have driven a woman in my mother’s predicament into a back-alley abortion - or at the very least to a distant convent that could arrange for adoption.'It could have been an attractive option for his father. Despite claiming he was divorced, he was still married to his first wife - with whom he had two children - and he was struggling financially to support them.The memo was written in April 1961 by Lyle H. Dahling, an administrator in the Honolulu office of the then-U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service, his father.It has only now been released after a Freedom of Information request from a biographer writing about Mr Obama's father.It is not clear whether the young couple made definite plans to put a young Barack up for adoption, or whether his father made the story up to placate immigration officials and help him secure a visa.When students applied to extend their stay in the U.S., officials would take into account their academic and behavioural record.Being a bigamist with a young baby would hardly impress the authorities - although he claimed to have divorced his first wife, in fact they were still married, and he was supporting two children at home in Kenya.The documents revealed immigration officials even considered charging with bigamy so they could deport him.In the end, Mr Dahling settled on monitoring his behaviour rather than bringing charges.The memo reads: 'Mrs McCabe [the university's foreign student adviser] further states that [Obama] has been running around with several girls since he first arrived here and last summer she cautioned him about his playboy ways. '[Obama] replied that he would "try" to stay away from the girls.'Family members on both sides have said had never heard any discussion of adoption.According to former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, the president had never been told his mother had thought about giving him away.He added that the White House had not tried to discover whether Miss Dunham had ever made arrangements with the Salvation Army, because Mr Obama 'is absolutely convinced that she did not'.Of Mr Obama's claim to immigration, he told the Boston Globe: 'He was trying to convince immigration to let him stay. 'So, part of his effort was to convince immigration that some of the responsibilities that he had he would not continue to have.’But while Mr Obama's father seems to have considered adoption, relatives of his mother say they never heard her speak about it.Charles Payne, Miss Dunham's maternal uncle, said: 'I never heard any talk of adoption whatsoever. 'Ann decided she had done this and this was her child and she was going to take care of him.'From day one, as far as I could tell, she and Madelyn [Dunham] and Stanley [Dunham] were all completely committed to Barack.'Just two years after his son was born, Mr Obama left his family in Hawaii and moved to Harvard, where he married for a third time.Hmmmm..........Read the full 'story' here.

• Top local democrat Milton Ohlsen III was indicted today for planting a bomb in a parking garage that injured a local attorney.(BigGovernment).A former Democratic political operative has been indicted by federal authorities for allegedly planting a bomb in a Clayton parking garage in 2008. The bomb went off, seriously injuring a Clayton attorney. Police believe he was not the bomber’s intended target.Milton Ohlsen iii nicknamed “Skip” is well known to law enforcement. He’s also well known in Democratic political circles. The feds now say he’s the one who planted a bomb in a garage at 190 Carondolet plaza in Clayton on October 15, 2008.Federal prosecutors say ohlsen made the bomb and put it in the parking garage where it went off and injured clayton attorney John Gillis.Federal agents say Gillis was the wrong target. They say Ohlsen was actually trying to kill attorney Richard Eisen who drove a similar car. Eisen represented Ohlsen’s wife in a messy divorce case.Starting in 2004 Ohlsen was used as a consultant by the Missouri Democratic party. He even had lunch at the governor’s mansion with then-governor Bob Holden.The bombing victim John L. Gillis said he was doing “reasonably well” after receiving a series of skin grafts to treat burns caused by the bombing.Hmmmm......."Domestic terrorisme"?Read the full story here.

• Obama’s terrorist ‘catch and release’ policy.(WashingtonPost).By Marc A. Thiessen.This morning The Post reports that a Somali terrorist named Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was held and interrogated on a Navy ship for more than two months before being flown to New York to stand trial. The Post reports this morning that he “is the first foreign terrorism suspect captured by the administration outside the United States and moved to this country for trial.” This news comes a week after Vice Adm. William McRaven told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Obama administration has no clear plan for handling captured terrorist leaders if they are caught alive outside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. McRaven testified that that “in many cases” suspects captured in secret are taken to a U.S. Navy ship until they can be tried in a U.S. court or transferred to the custody of an allied country, but if neither option is feasible, he said, the terrorist is let go. “If we can’t do either one of those, then we will release that individual,” McRaven told the committee.Which leaves the obvious question: If Warsame is the first suspect to be transferred to the United States for trial, what happened to the others?The United States’ top special operations commander told Congress that because the United States has no place to hold captured terrorists we have simply been letting them go. In his testimony, Adm. McRaven used the phrase “in many cases,” which seems to indicate that not only has this happened, but it has happened in numerous instances. Well, exactly how many al-Qaeda terrorists have been taken into U.S. custody on Navy ships and released by the Obama administration? Who are these terrorists? Where were they captured? Who decided to release them? Where were they released? And what has become of them since?Until now, it was believed that the administration was not capturing senior terrorists alive outside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, but simply killing them. Last year, The Post reported that there had been no known high-value detentions by the United States since Obama took office. Now, it appears, we have indeed been capturing such terrorists — and setting them free. If so, this is an outrage. With Adm. McRaven’s testimony, and today’s news, the administration owes the American people — and the United States Congress — some answers, and fast.Hmmmmm........"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• TSA....Airport agent 'took passenger's iPad and stuffed it down his trousers'... and stole $50,000 worth of devices from luggage.(DailyMail).The list of consumer complaints against the TSA over recent months may soon have to include theft, in addition to groping and racial profiling.That's because a Transportation Security Administration worker has been charged with two counts of grand theft for allegedly stealing electronics out of passengers' luggage, authorities in Florida said Thursday. According to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, Nelson Santiago-Serrano, 30, was caught by a Continental Airlines employee stealing an iPad from a suitcase in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport's Terminal 1 on Monday.Mr Santiago-Serrano was allegedly seen trying to stuff the device into his pants, reports the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.Police say that after they arrested him on Monday, he admitted to stealing computers, GPS devices, video cameras, and other electronics from bags he was supposed to be screening. Cops say Mr Santiago-Serrano would then take pictures of the items, then list them for sale online. They say many of the items would be sold before he even finished his shift at the airport. Detectives claim he stole an estimated $50,000 from fliers over the past six months.Police are asking people to come forward if they think they had something stolen, but they say chances of actually recovering the goods are not good.Mr Santiago-Serrano was released on a $4,000 bond Tuesday, though police say they may file additional charges against him soon.According to the Broward County clerk of courts, he does not have a lawyer or any scheduled court dates.He reportedly no longer works for the TSA, though he had started with the agency in January 2009. Recently, allegations had surfaced that TSA agents in Newark airport had engaged in racial profiling of passengers, by singling out Hispanic men for additional screening.One agent was disciplined and others received training after colleagues accused them of acting as 'Mexican hunters'.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Center for Security Policy Urges Rejection of Proposed $700 Billion in Defense Cuts.(TrevorLoudon).Washington, DC; July 7, 2011: Media reports today indicate that national security spending could be cut by as much as $700 billion as part of a deal on the debt limit – almost twice the amount originally proposed by President Obama.The Center for Security Policy believes such cuts are antithetical to the time-tested practice President Reagan called “Peace through Strength.” It is the height of irresponsibility to commit to reductions of that magnitude without a proper analysis of how they would be apportioned and to what effect. That would be true in a world less perilous than today’s; it will be even more true if, as has been the case in the past, massive Pentagon defunding of this kind invites aggression by the myriad dangerous foes whose emergence will make tomorrow’s even more perilous.In response to the proposed $700 billion in cuts, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy remarked:

President Obama’s own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, warned that $400 billion slashed from Pentagon funding over the next 12 years could result in ‘in a hollowing out of the force from a lack of proper training, maintenance and equipment and manpower.’ That being the case, it is safe to say that $700 billion in cuts over the same time period would be simply disastrous — significantly diminishing America’s ability to defend itself, while emboldening its enemies.Treating investments in national defense as indistinguishable from lower priority types of government spending invites otherwise avoidable wars – whose costs in national treasure and, more importantly, in lives needlessly lost would make the problem of today’s national debt pale by comparison. America’s deficit is surely a cause for concern. But it cannot be safely alleviated by actions that have the effect of undercutting the national security and jeopardizing the safety of the American people.Hundreds of useless, even counterproductive US Government agencies will take few, if any cuts.But the one Department that keeps Americans safe from their enemies, will likely be gutted under leftist Defense Secretary Leon Panetta – former friend of life long communist Hugh DeLacy.Why do you think that might be?Hmmmm......If he wanted to destroy america would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Obama administration appeasing Turkey and Russia, giving the keys for US defence to Turkey..(WashingtonTimes).The Obama administration is about to make another concession to Russia on missile defense by concluding an agreement with Turkey to base a radar there that would monitor Iranian missile launches.The deal is raising questions about whether the administration gave in to a Turkish demand that no missile-tracking data from the radar be shared with Israel or other non-NATO members. The demand was based on the Turkish government’s increasing Islamist and pro-Iranian policies.The TPY-2 radar deal has been under discussion for the past year and goes against a plan by the George W. Bush administration to place a radar in one of two former Soviet republics, Georgia or Azerbaijan.Moscow opposed putting the radar in those states, claiming it would threaten Russia’s nuclear missile forces.Earlier concessions by the Obama administration included canceling plans to deploy 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland in favor of its less-capable “phased adaptive approach” that relies on untested missile defense systems, specifically a future long-range version of the Navy’s SM-3 interceptor.A senior U.S. national security official said the Turkish agreement for the radar is expected to be completed in the next week.“It’s yet another concession to the Russians,” the official said. A second official said conclusion of deal was imminent.Also, placing the radar in Turkey will provide less capability against a future Iranian long-range missile targeted against the United States, the first official said.State Department spokesman Mark Toner said discussions on a forward-based radar have been under way for sometime.Mr. Toner said the phased adaptive approach missile defense is “not about Russia.”The misslie defense progam “is a better system that will provide fuller protection to our NATO allies and the United States and it will do sooner than the previous system.”William Burns, nominee to be deputy secretary of state, was asked last week if he thought Israel should be blocked from using the TPY-2 radar data, as Turkey suggested in conditioning its role in NATO missile defenses.Mr. Burns did not answer directly. He replied that the phased adaptive approach and NATO missile defenses “are for the defense of NATO and Europe.” He said the Pentagon has “separate and robust missile defense cooperative efforts with Israel.”“The United States has stated consistently that it reserves the right to use information from U.S. sensors in whatever ways it deems necessary,” Mr. Burns said in response to written questions posed by Sen. Mark Kirk, Illinois Republican, as part of the nomination process.A Turkish Embassy spokeswoman had no immediate comment.A classified Jan. 26, 2010, State Department cable said the Turkish government was still debating how to respond to U.S. requests to put the radar and possibly other missile defenses in Turkey.The cable, made public by the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had told President Obama that “such a system must be implemented in a NATO context to diminish the political cost that his government will likely bear, both in terms of domestic politics and in Turkey’s relations with Iran.”“Erdogan is concerned that Turkey’s participation might later give Israel protection from an Iranian counterstrike,” said the cable, labeled “secret.”The Czech Republic recently pulled out of plans to host a missile early-warning radar as part of the administration’s program. Prague officials claimed their participation was rejected because the system would have provided data on missile attacks but was not connected to interceptors that could shoot them down.In February, four Republican senators wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urging him to put the radar in Georgia instead of Turkey.“We believe the U.S. should deploy the most effective missile defenses possible — in partnership with our allies — that provide for protection for the U.S. homeland, our deployed forces and our allies,” said the letter by Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, James E. Risch of Idaho, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma and Mr. Kirk.Hmmmmm..........."I will stand with my Muslim Brothers "?No wonder Obama has weekly phonecalls with Erdogan?Read the full story here.

• President Obama faith adviser, Eboo Patel Speaks Alongside Defender of WTC Bombers.(Vinienco).President Obama’s faith adviser, Eboo Patel, spoke this past weekend at the main event of a three-day convention held by the Muslim Students Association, or MSA, a controversial group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood. Patel appeared on a panel alongside Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the notorious founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj has also defended the convicted WTC bomb plotters and has urged the Islamic takeover of America.The MSA event was part of a larger weekend convention in which several U.S. Islamic groups held a series of speaking engagements. The convention was arranged by the Islamic Society of North America, itself an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas. Patel was featured on a panel at what was billed as the “main session” of both the MSA and ISNA conventions. The session was titled “I took the Road Less Traveled by, and that has made all the Difference.”A description of the panel on the ISNA website states, “We live in a society in which immersion is encouraged and in which we are often confronted with evil. Muslims have always been challenged, but Islam is a guiding star that can help us overcome these challenges as we strive to remain faithful. We must remain confident and unified as we make our short journey through this life. And sometimes, we must be ‘strangers.’”Panel participants with Patel were Ramadan, Wahhaj and Islamic author Yasir Qadhi. Ramadan’s maternal grandfather was Hasan al-Banna, who in 1928 founded the Muslim Brotherhood. Osama bin Laden routinely referred to al-Banna in al-Qaida doctrine. Ramadan’s father, Said Ramadan, led the Brotherhood throughout the 1950s and then was exiled from Egypt to Switzerland.Wahhaj is an African American convert to Islam via the Nation of Islam.He repeatedly has urged the U.S. to accept Islamic law. Discover the Networks notes Wahhaj in 1991 predicted America will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.”The next year, he stated, “Hear what I’m telling you well. The Americans are not your friends … The Canadians are not your friends. … The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe.”Also, in a 1992 address to an audience of Muslims in New Jersey, Wahhaj expressed his desire to replace the U.S. government with an Islamic caliphat“If we were united and strong,” Wahhaj said, “we’d elect our own emir (leader) and give allegiance to him. … [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”In 1995, Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as a possible co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He objected to that designation, noting in his defense that he had eaten “dinner with Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright – after the list” of co-conspirators had been released.Discover the Networks notes in the summer of 1999, Wahhaj testified as a character witness for convicted terror mastermind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj stated, on the record, that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Abdel-Rahman at his mosque, describing the latter as a “respected scholar … bold … [and] a strong preacher of Islam.”

‘Burn down master’s house’

 Both the ISNA and the MSA, meanwhile, have sordid histories of their own.The MSA was established mainly by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1963. In January, Amir Abdel Malik-Ali, keynote speaker at the MSA’s West Regional Conference, recited the MSA “pledge of allegiance,” which is a direct adoption of the Muslim Brotherhood’s own credo.The MSA pledge states: “Allah is my lord. Islam is my life. The Koran is my guide. The Sunna is my practice. Jihad is my spirit. Righteousness is my character. Paradise is my goal. I enjoin what is right. I forbid what is wrong. I will fight against oppression. And I will die to establish Islam.”WND previously attended an MSA event at which violence against the U.S. was urged by speakers.“We are not Americans,” shouted one speaker, Muhammad Faheed, at QueensboroughCommunity College in 2003. “We are Muslims. [The U.S.] is going to deport and attack us! It is us versus them! Truth against falsehood! The colonizers and masters against the oppressed, and we will burn down the master’s house!”The MSA in 1981 founded the Islamic Society of North America.ISNA was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document – “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” – as one of the Brotherhood’s likeminded “organizations of our friends” who shared the common goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation, according to Discover the Networks.In December 2003, U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the Senate Committee on Finance listed ISNA as one of 25 American Muslim organizations that “finance terrorism and perpetuate violence.”The U.S. government released a list of approximately 300 unindicted co-conspirators” and “joint venturers” in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development trial, the largest terrorist financing scheme in American history, in which the groups were accused of raising money for Hamas.Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz describes ISNA as “one of the chief conduits through which the radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the United States.”According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, ISNA “is a radical group hiding under a false veneer of moderation” that publishes a bimonthly magazine, Islamic Horizons, that “often champions militant Islamist doctrine.” The group also “convenes annual conferences where Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and promote hatred,” states Emerson. Emerson cites an ISNA conference in which Muslim Brotherhood official Yusuf Al Qaradhawi was invited to speak.In February, Obama named Patel, a Chicago Muslim, to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

U.S. ‘ideal place for renewal of Islam’

Patel is the founder and executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, which says it promotes pluralism by teaming people of different faiths on service projects.Patel is himself tied to ISNA, having spoken and several ISNA events, including the convention this past weekend.Patel is listed on ISNA’s official speakers bureau.Based on his own comments, Patel apparently is a member of ISNA. Upon the August 2007 election of the group’s president, Ingrid Mattson, Patel told USA Today, “I’m proud to have her elected as my president.”Another ISNA speaker is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the controversial Muslim leader behind the plan to build the Islamic center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero.WND reported, Patel has close ties to Rauf. The two have been documented together discussing America as “the ideal place for a renewal of Islam.”Rauf wrote a book in 2004 that had two different titles, one in English and the second in Arabic. In the U.S., his book was called “What’s right with America is what’s right with Islam.”The same book, published in Arabic, bore the name “The Call From the WTC Rubble: Islamic Da’wah From the Heart of America Post-Sept. 11.”It has emerged that the Arabic edition of Rauf’s book was produced, with Feisal’s cooperation, by ISNA.Rauf, meanwhile, wrote the afterword to Patel’s 2006 book “Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action.”Patel is listed as one of 15 “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow” on the website of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is led by Rauf.Patel, meanwhile, has been caught in a series of controversial remarks about the U.S.WND reported Patel declared that everything he was taught about Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and American “fairness” and “equality” was wrong.WND also reported Patel blasted what he called the “myths” of America – describing them as beliefs that the country is “a land of freedom and equality and justice.”Patel has talked about “rage” he felt against the U.S. after claiming to experience prejudice in the country.Patel stated the faith movement gave him a “way to have a radical view of the world – radical equality, radical peace, radical possibility – that is love-based, not anger-based.”He wrote that had he been around in the 1960s, he may have joined William Ayers’ anti-American Weather Underground terrorist group.Hmmmm.......Some "Faith adviser"!Don't worry once the elections come closer Obama will go back to church.Read the full story here.

• We can have a Ground Zero Mosque, but not a memorial that actually memorializes 9/11.(WashingtonTimes).This Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks upon America, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will dedicate the massive, $600 million National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. What Americans have not been told is that this “memorial” will remake Ground Zero so that it does not acknowledge 9/11.Instead of acting as a constant reminder of the attacks, a symbol for us and future generations of the evil that struck, the death and destruction it caused and the heroism and sacrifice in response, the memorial will wipe out all evidence and memory of the attacks.Replacing all reminders of the attacks will be two immense “voids” with gigantic subterranean waterfalls designed to express exclusively, as per architect Michael Arad, the continuing “absence in our lives caused by these deaths.”About 500 trees will be planted upon the site. They are, we are told by memorial officials, “traditional symbols of the rejuvenation of life.” They also will eradicate all trace and memory of what stood there for 30 years and its destruction on Sept. 11.The cause of “these deaths,” how these people came to be absent - that is, 9/11 - has been deemed irrelevant and even contrary to your memorial “experience.”The memorial is not about that; it’s about you.Cities and towns across America have humbly requested a segment of the twisted steel of the WTC to feature in their own modest Sept. 11 memorials. The only memorial where one is not welcome is the “national” memorial at Ground Zero. Those iconic remnants, exactly because they are iconic, are considered far too gauche for the jury of intellectuals and artists who chose the design.The National September 11 Memorial at the WTC will not include the iconic WTC “Sphere” - again, exactly because it is iconic. “The Sphere” stood in the center of the WTC plaza for 30 years as a symbol of world peace. On 9/11, though badly damaged (a piece of one of the planes tore through it) it survived the attacks in place and was embraced by many Americans as a symbol of the nation’s strength and resiliency.That is why it cannot be returned.It sits at Battery Park, about a half-mile from Ground Zero, where it was installed March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary of the attacks, as a “temporary” memorial. Battery Park is undergoing its own renovations, and “The Sphere” will have to moved.One 9/11 anniversary at Ground Zero, Mr. Arad told me that returning “The Sphere” would be “didactic.” That is, it would tell us what to think.Somehow disposing of it is not telling us what to think.This is like banishing the USS Arizona from the USS Arizona Memorial.Read the full story here.

• US Congress votes in favor of PA aid suspension.(Ynet).US House of Representatives backs proposal that will see aid to PA suspended should it pursue unilateral statehood bid in UN. A week after the Senate approved a similar proposal; the US House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly backed the idea of suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to refuse a negotiated settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They also rejected Palestinian pursuit of statehood through the United Nations.The vote was 407-6 for the nonbinding resolution that also called on the Obama administration to consider suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority in light of the deal between the government and Hamas - considered a terrorist group by Israel and the US.The resolution said the goal was two states "a democratic, Jewish state of Israel and a viable, democratic Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition."The House had debated the measure on Wednesday but postponed the vote to ensure lawmakers had a chance to vote. Republicans and Democrats signaled their strong support for Israel and a resumption of direct negotiations that collapsed last fall."We stand by Israel as our most valued ally. It is time for the Palestinian Authority to accept a peaceful solution to this conflict," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said he strongly believed that to ensure "the long-term viability of the Jewish democratic state, peace must be negotiated. It cannot and will not be imposed from outside."The administration has said the Palestinian push for a UN vote on its statehood this fall has not helped the peace process, a point echoed by lawmakers."What, exactly, would UN General Assembly recognition of a Palestinian state do for the Palestinians? Absolutely nothing," said Rep. Howard Berman of California, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. "It would be seen by Israel and many others as an act of bad faith, creating yet another obstacle to successful talks."Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the chairwoman of the committee, raised the prospect of cutting off aid."Continuing to provide assistance to the Palestinians - assistance amounting to $2.5 billion in the last 5 years alone - is certainly not the answer," she said.Hmmmmm..........A pitty they did not realise this ten years ago.Read the full story here.

• Russia calls on UN to redraw map of the Arctic to grab lion's share of untapped 90 BILLION barrels of oil.(DailyMail).The mineral-rich Arctic is at the centre of a new land grab by nations desperate to get their hands on its icy energy treasures - including 90 billion barrels of oil. Russia, Norway, the United States, Canada and Denmark all want a share of the seabed beneath the Arctic territory which is believed to also hold 30 per cent of the world's untapped gas resources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Now Russia has announced that it is to formally submit an application to the United Nations next year in the hope of redrawing the map of the Arctic, giving itself a bigger share of the resource-rich area.The plan follows a pledge last week to send troops and weapons to its icy north to guarantee and secure its Arctic interests.The formal application to the United Nations would change the region's borders and allow exploitation of the energy-rich Arctic territory.'I hope that next year we will present a formal, scientifically grounded application to the commission of the U.N.,' state-run RIA news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as telling a government maritime board.Russia has said it will spend millions of dollars on studies to prove that an underwater mountain range rich in oil, natural gas and mineral deposits is part of its own Eurasian landmass. Canada and Denmark reject the claim, saying the geographical formation, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, which stretches across the Arctic Sea, is a geographical extension of their own land.Global warming has boosted expectations that the Arctic may provide new mining, fishing and shipping prospects as the ice cap melts.Russia submitted an application to the U.N. to claim the Lomonosov Ridge in 2001, but the document was returned and Moscow was asked to provide more proof for its claim.Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said late last month that Russia would finish its mapping of its Arctic shelf by 2013 and submit its application to the U.N. on its claim to the Lomonosov Ridge by 2014.Canada has said it will submit its application on the territory in 2013.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea says that any coastal state can claim undersea territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.Hmmmm......No word from Anti Oil exploration Comrade Obama.Read the full story here.

• Iran Publishes List of 26 U.S. Officials To Be Tried in Absentia.(Memri).Iran has published a list of 26 U.S. officials whom it intends to try in absentia for what it calls their crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, the Majlis has announced that Iran means to revoke all agreements and contracts with countries or private companies that have any economic ties with these 26 individuals. Following is the list, in the original English as published by the Iranian news agency Fars.

1. Former FBI Chief Director Thomas J. Pickard, for human rights violations, including his involvement in the 1993 siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the death of over 80 of the cult's followers. He is also wanted for human rights violations during his tenure as the CIA station chief in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003.
2. Former commander of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Geoffrey D. Miller, who was the commander [of this prison] between 2002 and 2007, and has been charged with the torture of inmates.
3. Current Guantanamo commander Rear Admiral Jeffery [sic] Harbeson, for human rights violations at the detention center since 2010.
4. USS Vincennes Captain Will Rogers III, for the killing of 290 Iranian civilians onboard Iran Air Flight 655, which was shot down by the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988.
5. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who served in this post from 1975 to 1977 and from 2001 to 2006, for the killing of thousands of civilians in the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is also charged with [involvement in] human rights violations and torture at two notorious prisons, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan.
6. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004.
7. General Tommy Franks, who led the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
8. Commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq Raymond Odierno, for his major role in the massive violation of human rights in Iraq.
9. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. troops in charge of torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, for human rights violations and for his role in U.S. state-sponsored terrorism.
10. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for his role in the crimes committed against the Afghan and Iraqi people.
11. Gen. John McKean, former U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff, for his role in massacring civilians, torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and violating human rights in Afghanistan and Iraq.
12. The United States' first administrator in Iraq in 2003, charged with human rights violations and the massacre of civilians in Iraq.
13. U.S. Defense Department official Richard Pearl [sic], for his role in planning the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the crimes committed by the U.S. troops in these two war-torn states.
14. Richard A. Cody, Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army in 2003, for complicity in the massacre of civilians, torture of prisoners in Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo, and violation of human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan.
15. Gen. James Mathews [sic], commander of the U.S. operations in Iraq, for his role in the 2003 massacre of civilians in Fallujah, Iraq, and his involvement in crimes against humanity.
16. Gen. George Casey, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 2003 to 2007, for his complicity in the massacre of the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, the raiding and occupation of the Iranian consulate in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, and the illegal arrest, abduction and torturing of five Iranian diplomats for over 2.5 years.
17. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the U.S. troops in Iraq and commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, for massive violation of human rights, massacre of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as complicity in drug-trafficking.
18. Gen. Janis Karbinsky [sic], former commander of Abu-Ghraib prison and former officer responsible for U.S. prisons in Iraq, for torturing prisoners and massive violation of human rights in Iraq.
19. Gen. Steve Casbon [sic], Abu-Ghraib Prison official, for torturing prisoners and massive violation of human rights in Iraq.
20. Gen. Stanley McCrystal [sic], commander of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, for massacre of civilians, torture of prisoners in Bagram, violation of human rights and complicity in drug-trafficking.
21. Gen. Jack Bridgez [sic], Commander of the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, for his role in providing logistic backup and training for the anti-Iranian terrorist group Jundollah, and for supporting terrorism, massacring civilians, and [committing] massive human rights violations in Afghanistan.
22. Luis [sic] Freeh, former CIA Chief, for human rights violations, and complicity in the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.
23. Robert Muller [sic], former CIA Chief, for human rights violations, and complicity in the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.
24. Gen. James Jones, former national security advisor to the U.S. president, for his support of terrorism, especially the anti-Iranian terrorist organization Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO), and for aiding terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq.
25. Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, former chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 2007, for his role in the massacre of civilians, torture of prisoners in Guantanamo and Bagram, and human rights violations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
26. Stuart A. Levey, the incumbent and first Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the United States Treasury Department, for his role in the violating human rights by imposing illegal sanctions on the Iranian people."Hmmmm......." Iran means to revoke all agreements and contracts with countries or private companies that have any economic ties with these 26 individuals. Does this mean Turkey also?Source .

• Canada Faces Islamist Menace – A Young Muslim’s Admirable Warning.(Ross'sRightAngle).Natasha Fatah, a young Muslim lady in Canada, had an excellent article in Wednesday’s Globe and Mail, warning us of the menace to Canada presented by Islamists.She begins by telling of her own parents.

My parents left behind Pakistan and chose Canada for the same reasons many other Muslim immigrants came here 20, 30 or 40 years ago: for democracy, freedom, stability and modernity. And herein lies a common misconception amongst “mainstream” Canadians: They’re convinced that, in the average Muslim household, it’s the parent who represents conservatism and tradition, and the Canadian-born children who are modern and fighting against this oppression. This is a falsehood. Many of our parents, who immigrated here from Muslim countries in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, did so specifically out of their respect for Western values. Elder Muslims may be modest and socially conservative in their personal lives. But, by and large, the parents in Muslim-Canadian households believe in the core values of this society.Well, I have always hoped this was the case. It seems a brainless thing to do, emigrating from a backward sharia sty to a civilised country, if you actually want to live in a backward sharia sty.Mind you, I’m not sure many older immigrants of any creed realise that Canada has been going downhill in terms of civilised values, for years, ever since Turdeau.Gay marriage, suppression of free speech, soft-on-crime policies, and the other depraved trappings of a PC society, are unattractive to mature people, although immature persons, of any age, find the PC morass appealing. Lots of good immigrants, and having canvassed during elections here and there, I know this to be true, have no time for the revolting ‘progressive’ agenda – they’re good citizens. Brown, black, yellow or white, we could do with more of them. Taking a few of Indonesia’s persecuted Ahmadis would be no bad idea.However, Ms. Fatah quickly moves to the nub of the problem, the way too many young aliens – and I use the term not in relationship to citizen status but to the fact that the individulas we are about to discuss are not Canadian in any real sense, any more than that nasty little terrorist, Omar Khadr was it, imported from Gitmo, and most of his kin, are Canadian. They’re not. They are enemies of the West. And as Ms. Fatah explains, they are not alone.It’s their children – in desperate need for identity – who have turned to conservative, hard-line and politicized Islam for the answers. This trend to embrace a politicized Islam has led to bloodshed in many parts of the world and is growing rapidly – and going unchecked – in Canada.But, as most young hijabis will defiantly tell you, “it’s my choice to cover my hair.” If they’re making that choice for themselves, then it’s a choice their mothers from India, Turkey and Uganda rejected.Fatah tells us that she has ‘spoken to many parents in the Pakistani and Somali communities who’ve “lost” their children to the jihad….She hits the nail on the head when she says clearly that there’s a difference between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion, a faith, as beautiful and as flawed as any other, which can be practised as liberally or as conservatively as we choose. Islamism, however, is a doctrine that uses Islam as political ideology, mandating sharia law, armed jihad against all non-Muslims and, ultimately, a domination of Islamism over the West. It’s this Islamism that’s seizing young Muslims.And it’s that Islamism which should see them deported as fast as possible. I doubt she would agree with me, but that’s the most effective antidote to the poison afflicting sharia-freaks. They have grown up in Canada, forcefully reject Western values, and should therefore be sent packing, to give them a chance to live amongs savages.What else would we do with people like those she describes in her account of her experience in a university’s (two universities’) ’Muslim students associations. I was told to sit behind the men, not next to them. That it would be better if I covered my hair. That sharia is the optimal way to resolve personal, legal and political issues. I was even told that, when filling out a form, the ink from my pen should not touch the ink of a “brother’s” pen. ‘Obviously these sharia-freaks are border-line psychos, and if we don’t expel them, then a spell of in-patient treatment at a mental hospital needs thinking about. But that costs a lot of tax-payers’ money, of which the nauseating fanatics have had plenty already, school and college wasted on such barbaric young slugs.Why can’t they be just a little bit grateful for what Canada has given them, or at least intelligent enough to recignise, as Faatah does, that there was no golden age of Islam (that) they’d like to bring back to Canada, a golden age that could bring us all into the Dark Ages….If only more immigrants and their off-spring shared her view that ‘Islam is the religion I practise and the reason I wanted to join the Muslim students association. Islamism is the ideology spreading throughout our campuses, and the reason I left the group.’And I’d also have to write about many more subjects. I’d be quite happy to do so, but for the foreseeable future, until Western Governments are forced to awaken to the need for strong steps, I’d best be getting on with it.Regardless of what other Canadians think of them, it’s getting harder to ignore Islam, and young Muslims, in Canada. Islam is Canada’s fastest-growing major religion. According to a Statistics Canada estimate, the Muslim population will soar to 2.9 million by 2031 from its 2006 base of 884,000 adherents. Hmmmm.......Islamism....A minority bullying the majority?Read the full story here.

• Stop in the name of Love?Turkish Cypriot imam under investigation after spraypainting own mosque.(HurriyetDaily).An imam in Turkish Cyprus is under investigation for allegedly spraying his own mosque with graffiti after falling in love with a Russian woman who did not return his feelings, daily Hürriyet reported on its website Thursday.Veli Özsorun, an imam at Güzelyurt district's Aydınköy village in Turkish Cyprus, reportedly met a Russian woman known as Snejana three years ago and fell in love with her. His love, however, was unrequited.Reportedly seeking to proclaim his love for all to see, Özsorun sprayed graffiti all over the mosque that said he wanted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the island's renowned Naqshbandi sheikh, Nazım Kıbrısi, to be witnesses at his wedding.The Directorate of Religious Affairs has begun an investigation into the matter.Village residents said Özsorun had been an imam at the village for seven years but started acting strangely after meeting the Russian woman.Hmmmm....."The lord works in mysterious ways"?Read the full story here.

• Disfigured Saleh appears defiant but keeps dialogue door open.(Al-Arabia). By James M. Dorsey.Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared emaciated and scarred, but in his first public sighting since the June bombing of his presidential compound in Sana’a that forced him to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, clearly had not lost any of his feistiness or defiance. Speaking in a pre-recorded, seven-minute television address, Mr. Saleh accused his opponents of having an “incorrect understanding of democracy,” but insisted that he wished to share power and engage in dialogue with protesters who have been demanding his immediate departure after 33 years in office.For those protesting on the streets of Yemeni cities for the past four months, Mr. Saleh had nothing new to offer.Protesters and tribesmen, who fought pitched battles with Saleh loyalists in the streets of Sana’a will put little faith in the words of a man who several times agreed to a deal negotiated by the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that would have eased him out of office but then refused to sign it at the last minute.Mr. Saleh will also have failed to curry favor with his opponents by not giving any indication on whether he intended to return to Yemen once he had recovered from severe burn wounds as a result of the attack on his compound. However, Mr. Saleh’s appearance, sitting rigidly and hardly recognizable in a chair, his hair covered with a Saudi-style red and white checkered hair dress, his face scarred and his hands bandaged coupled with his disclosure that he had undergone eight operations since his departure for Saudi Arabia on June 5, suggested that his possible return would not be imminent.For Yemenis waiting to see Mr. Saleh for the first time since the attack, this could prove to be a reason to engage in a dialogue that could bring Yemen back from the brink.In the only opening in his brief remarks, Mr. Saleh endorsed Vice President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi to engage in dialogue with his opponents. That may not seem like much of a concession, but Mr. Hadi enjoys a degree of credibility that Mr. Saleh no longer can command. Mr. Hadi has emerged as an acceptable interlocutor for Mr. Saleh’s opponents who see him as more conciliatory. Most, if not all, past meetings between opposition forces and the Saleh government have been held in his office. Mr. Hadi has also come under increasing domestic and international pressure since Mr. Saleh’s departure to Saudi Arabia to fully assume the powers of the presidency.Mr. Saleh stopped short of granting Mr.Hadi that power but seemed to want to lend greater credibility to his call for dialogue. His endorsement of Mr. Hadi allows the vice president to back off his refusal so far to act without Mr. Saleh, who constitutionally remains Yemen’s leader.All in all, Mr. Saleh’s address is certain to be viewed by his opponents as more of what they see as his duplicitous rhetoric. Nonetheless, the visual impact of the severity of his injuries coupled with his endorsement of a dialogue offers an albeit slim chance of breaking the deadlock.To end the crisis however, Saudi Arabia and the United States will have to increase pressure on Mr. Saleh to agree to step down and accept that only a popularly elected leader rather than a figure identified with the existing power structure will be able to introduce the political and economic reforms that will satisfy the protesters and put Yemen on the road to recovery.Read and see the full story here.

• Top Egyptian politician Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, Wafd Party leader calls Holocaust, 9/11 fabrications, adding Anne Frank's memoirs 'fake.'(Imra). The vice chairman of Egypt’s top secular party told the Washington Times in an interview last week that the September 11 terror attacks, the Holocaust and Anne Frank’s diary are all historical fabrications.“The Holocaust is a lie,” Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, Wafd Party leader told the Washington Times in Budapest where he was attending the Conference on Democracy and Human Rights.He went on to explain that it was factually impossible to claim that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews, saying “the Jews under German occupation were 2.4 million. So if they were all exterminated, where does the remaining 3.6 million come from?”The Egyptian politician acknowledged that the Nazis may have killed “hundreds of thousands” of Jews, but discounted the plausibility of gas chambers and skinning Jews alive, calling them “fanciful stories”.El-Arab’s Holocaust denial did not stop there, and the Egyptian politician went on to attack the authenticity of Anne Frank’s diary, the memoirs of a teenage girl who hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam, only to be discovered and die in a concentration camp.The Wafd leader recalled studying the novel that is one of the most widely distributed publications to date as a doctoral student in Stockholm. “I could swear to God it’s a fake,” he said. “The girl was there, but the memoirs are a fake.”El-Arab concurred with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust – but discredited his motives.“He’s a hateful character, so whatever he says can be criticized,” he told the Washington Times, adding “what he says about the Holocaust is true, but he doesn’t say it because it’s true. He says it out of hatred to the Israeli state.”When asked about future peace with Israel, El-Arab attempted to assuage fears that a new Egyptian government would cancel the 1979 treaty.The Egyptian politician told the Washington Times that there is “no chance at all” that would happen,” adding “Egypt will not go to war unless it’s attacked,” he said.El-Arab’s historical revision was not reserved for the Holocaust alone, and he also shared his theories on the September 11 attacks and their perpetrators with the Washington Times.The Wafd leader denied that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who was recently killed in an American raid on his compound in Pakistan, was behind the attacks.“He could not have the know-how or the ability to do it,” El-Arab said, calling the dead al-Qaida leader “an American agent.”The Egyptian politician added “if he had the ability, one plane only landing on the Knesset would give more effect.”El-Arab blamed the CIA, Israel’s Mossad and the “military-industrial complex”.Despite his Holocaust-denying views, it seems as though El-Arab’s overall opinion on the Jewish people is favorable, telling the Washington Time that he believes that there was once a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, entitling the Jews to a historical claim on Israel’s capital.“The Jews are there,” he said. “Good or bad, they are there.” However, he made sure to follow up with the clarification: “You cannot as a human being think of exterminating 6 million or 5 million or whatever. That’s crazy.”Hmmmmm.......Obama's ...'Speaking Partners'.Read the full story here.

• Shame on Cuba: Blind Eye to Human Trafficking.(Heritage).“If the girls give me trouble I hurt them.” These are the words of human trafficker Aktham Zuhair Salem Madanat. Known for trafficking girls from Cuba to the United Kingom, Madanat had no qualms about openly discussing how he lured 10- and 11-year-old girls into the sex trade. In fact, Madanat is one of many involved in the lucrative human trafficking market throughout Cuba and beyond.In order to fight human trafficking, the State Department annually presents its Global Trafficking in Persons Report, a survey of 184 countries that measures compliance with human trafficking regulations specified in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).The 2011 Report places Cuba and Venezuela on the Tier 3 list.The Tier 3 designation is reserved for countries that do not comply with the minimum requirements in TVPA. Noncompliant countries receiving U.S. assistance can be sanctioned.Cuba’s placement on Tier 3 is both warranted and necessary. Because prostitution is not criminalized for anyone over the age of 16, it is difficult to track child prostitution in Cuba. Economic malfeasance in Cuba has forced many young women into the sex-for-sale industry. Cuba’s tourism industry generated around $2 billion just in the past year, and illicit sex is a burgeoning part of the tourism industry profile. In fact, it has been suggested that the Cuban government even encourages sex tourism as a source for foreign cash that keeps the communist regime afloat.Fidel and Raul Castro have turned a blind eye to sex tourism and human trafficking. One of Fidel Castro’s flippant brush-offs included the following: There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist…Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy…Hmmmmm........"The best of the best"?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                   Morning  Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 28. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Sirya live blog - March 28  here.(Al -Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 4.6 and 5.4 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 63.On 27.03.2011 at 08:29 GMT+2.Source.

• Anne Frank museum moving in next door to mosque at Ground Zero.A museum dedicated to Holocaust victim Anne Frank is expected to move almost next door to the proposed controversial mosque at Ground Zero, it was revealed today.The Anne Frank Center is reported to be about to sign a lease in the 20-floor glass and steel tower at 100 Church St.The building's windows overlook Park 51, the planned 16-storey Muslim community centre and mosque at 45 park Place, just two blocks from Ground Zero.The non-profit making Anne Frank Center, which is partnered with the museum in Amsterdam, is currently housed in a loft in SoHo's Crosby Street.But the museum needs more room and last year advertised for larger premises so it could recreate the secret room where the Jewish teen wrote her famous diary.She remained hidden from the Nazis with her family in Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944 until her capture. She died in a concentration camp in 1945.Her museum commemorates her and highlights historical detail about the Holocaust and World War Two.The center is negotiating with SL Green Realty Corp to lease 2,500 square feet of ground-floor space with a rent as much as $50 a square foot.Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, told the New York Post:: 'It's appropriate to have a mix of diverse organizations as a part of the lower Manhattan community. We want it to reflect the melting pot that is America.'There are already more than 20 houses of worship below Canal Street and 13 museums south of Chambers Street, according to the Downtown Alliance.Board members at the Anne Frank Center said they had no problem about a mosque so close to their proposed museum.The Post quoted Board member Hyman Enzer: ' We've been working very hard to find a new location that will be more accessible to our exhibits. I like the idea of the new location.'Two months ago, the new imam of Park 51, Abdallah Adhami, was fired after it was discovered that he preached that homosexuals were abused as children and that people who leave Islam should be jailed.Hmmmm.......The Lord works in mysterious ways. Read the full story here.

• Japan nuclear: Workers evacuated as radiation soars.Radioactivity in water at reactor 2 at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has reached 10 million times the usual level, company officials say.Workers trying to cool the reactor core to avoid a meltdown have been evacuated.Earlier, Japan's nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.The UN's nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.It is believed the radiation at Fukushima is coming from one of the reactors, but a specific leak has not been identified.Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally."We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation," said a spokesman for the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco)."High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water. There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged," the spokesman added.Tepco has been criticised for a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly.The nation's nuclear agency said the operator of the Fukushima plant had made a number of mistakes, including worker clothing.Meanwhile, the Japanese government said that airbone radiation around the plant was decreasing.The plant was damaged in the deadly 11 March earthquake and tsunami.The death toll has now passed 10,000, and more than 17,440 people are missing. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has now sent extra teams to the Japanese nuclear plant.The radiation found in the sea will no longer be a risk after eight days because of iodine's half-life, officials say.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Radioactive Cesium With A Half-Life Of Approximately 30 Years Is Being Released At About 60 Percent Of Chernobyl Levels.Why does it seem as though the nuclear crisis in Japan just keeps getting worse with each passing day? TEPCO has announced that extremely radioactive water is now leaking from reactors 1, 2, and 3 at their damaged nuclear complex. On Thursday, three workers stepped into water in reactor 3 that contained 10,000 times the normal amount of radiation. Two of the workers experienced significant radiation burns and all three were sent to the hospital. Authorities have also announced that it is very likely that the containment vessel in reactor 3 has been breached. That is extremely alarming because reactor 3 is the one that uses plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel ("MOX fuel"). So is plutonium being released into the surrounding environment? That would be absolutely catastrophic. But what we know is happening already is quite catastrophic. According to a recent NewScientist article, radioactive iodine-131 is being released at 73% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster. But iodine-131 only has a half-life of about 8 days. According to that same article, radioactive cesium-137 is being released at 60% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster. Cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years. That means that all of this cesium is going to be with us for a very, very long time.Also, it is important to keep in mind that the Chernobyl disaster only burned for 10 days.The damaged reactors at Fukushima are still emitting radioactive material and will probably be for quite a while.In addition, the Fukushima complex contains a whopping 1760 tons of nuclear material.Chernobyl only contained 180 tons.So all those that are claiming that the Fukushima disaster could not possibly eclipse the Chernobyl disaster are completely delusional.Most of the media coverage about the radiation coming from Fukushima in recent days has focused on radioactive iodine, but the truth is that cesium may be the greater threat over the long-term.The recent article in NewScientist mentioned above described what happens when cesium and iodine enters the human body....Hmmmm....."Chernobyl revisited"?Read the full story here.

• HT:PatDollard.George Soros’s Media Matters Announces All-Out Campaign Of “Guerrilla Warfare And Sabotage” To Shut Down Dissent Against Obama And Left.The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.The group, launched as a more traditional media critic, has all but abandoned its monitoring of newspapers and other television networks and is narrowing its focus to Fox and a handful of conservative websites, which its leaders view as political organizations and the “nerve center” of the conservative movement. The shift reflects the centrality of the cable channel to the contemporary conservative movement, as well as the loathing it inspires among liberals — not least among the donors who fund Media Matters’ staff of about 90, who are arrayed in neat ro in a giant war room above Massachusetts Avenue.“The strategy that we had had toward Fox was basically a strategy of containment,” said Brock, Media Matters’ chairman and founder and a former conservative journalist, adding that the group’s main aim had been to challenge the factual claims of the channel and to attempt to prevent them from reaching the mainstream media.The new strategy, he said, is a “war on Fox.”In an interview and a 2010 planning memo shared with POLITICO, Brock listed the fronts on which Media Matters — which he said is operating on a $10 million-plus annual budget — is working to chip away at Fox and its parent company, News Corp. They include its bread-and-butter distribution of embarrassing clips and attempts to rebut Fox points, as well as a series of under-the-radar tactics.Media Matters, Brock said, is assembling opposition research files not only on Fox’s top executives but on a series of midlevel officials. It has hired an activist who has led a successful campaign to press advertisers to avoid Glenn Beck’s show. The group is assembling a legal team to help people who have clashed with Fox to file lawsuits for defamation, invasion of privacy or other causes. And it has hired two experienced reporters, Joe Strupp and Alexander Zaitchik, to dig into Fox’s operation to help assemble a book on the network, due out in 2012 from Vintage/Anchor. (In the interest of full disclosure, Media Matters last month also issued a report criticizing “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy’s criticism of this reporter’s blog.)Brock said Media Matters also plans to run a broad campaign against Fox’s parent company, News Corp., an effort which most likely will involve opening a United Kingdom arm in London to attack the company’s interests there. The group hired an executive from MoveOn.org to work on developing campaigns among News Corp. shareholders and also is looking for ways to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere against the network.Read the full story here.

• OIC commends resolution on religious discrimination.JEDDAH: The UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a new resolution on the elimination of forms of discrimination and violence based on religious beliefs.The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents the Islamic group at the council participated in the March 24 discussion. The United States and the European Union too were represented.Informed sources in the OIC General Secretariat here said that the new resolution related to combating religious intolerance and negative stereotypes, stigmatization, discrimination, and incitement to violence, and violence against individuals based on religion and belief is not a substitute for an earlier resolution adopted by the UN on combating defamation of religions, which the Human Rights Council had adopted many times in the past several years.The sources stated that the new resolution is a qualitative breakthrough because it was adopted unanimously, adding, it gives the widest margin of freedom of expression, with the rejection of discrimination and incitement and stereotypes used by the other or against the symbols of the followers of religions.The sources emphasized that the OIC approved the new resolution from a position of strength, particularly after the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution on defamation of religions over the past four years with a clear majority.However, the sources stressed that the issue of acceptance of the new resolution comes as a goodwill gesture by the organization in order to reach the necessary consensus, bridge the gap, and partner with the West in addressing the anti-Islam sentiments that prevailed in some Western communities toward Muslims.The new resolution came after the OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu proposed last year, a number of proposals on the possibility of reaching a common ground toward a solid platform for its adoption.According to informed sources, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had invited the OIC to lead, along with both Washington and the European Union, the efforts to draft a new resolution to ensure the foundations adopted by the previous resolution, giving a wider margin of freedom of expression.The sources confirmed at the same time that the decision regarding defamation of religions has not been abandoned.This is the most contentious of the resolutions, because in countries with strong protections on speech and other forms of expression, the idea that a religion can have the same defamation protections as living individuals is considered an affront to individual rights.Hmmmmm.......Seems i was right when saying"Why do i get a bad feeling" when hearing earlier this week that they abandoned their efforts on defamation of religions.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheRubinReport.Why Moderate Arabs Are Horrified at Obama Administration Policy.By Barry RubinI've seen a lot in media expressing the views of the Gulf Arab states and officials' statements--not all of them public, and not to mention similar expressions from Turkish and Iranian oppositionists--expressing horror and shock at Obama Administration Middle East policy. Remember, al-Jazira is NOT typical, as it is run by Islamists and follows the pro-Iran line of its owner, the Qatari government.In this article in al-Sharq al-Awsat (translated by MEMRI), a Saudi-controlled but also relatively liberal newspaper, Tariq al-Homayed, the chief editor, expresses the combination of shock and horror at the Obama Administration. The conflict was hot over Egypt and even hotter over Bahrain, where the Saudis want the current regime to survive and U.S. officials have criticized Saudi intervention.Indeed, he complains, the statements coming from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sound "more like what we'd expect to hear from the Iranian foreign minister." The "contradictory statements coming out of Washington have become more than merely perplexing; they are also suspicious."Why suspicious? Because it isn't clear whether the U.S. government is more concerned about stopping revolutionary Islamism or undermining those who oppose it, more interested in containing Iran or letting Tehran's influence spread, supporting moderate Arab countries or overthrowing their regimes.The editor accuses U.S. policy of ignoring Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen and Iranian statements claiming Bahrain. (Reminds me of how Iraq used to claim Kuwait and that was ignored until 1990, when Iraq invaded and annexed that country.)How, he asks, can U.S. policymakers complain when the Gulf Cooperation Council states intervene in Bahrain--according to previous agreements--and then demanding that these countries support intervention in Libya?The fears of relatively moderate Arabs (and Turks and Iranians) that they are getting thrown under bus are not merely imaginery at all. For example, the New York Times had an article March 17 with the following headline: "Interests of Saudi Arabia and Iran Collide, With the U.S. in the Middle."Now, of course, one understands what this means in linguistic terms. Yet the headline is amazingly revealing. Yes, the Saudis, not the United States, are now carrying on the main battle against the spread of Iranian influence and revolutionary Islamism. Of course, they cannot sustain this burden long without U.S. support.Which raises the question: What's the United States doing in the "middle" between Iran and Saudi Arabia! It should be backing the Saudis against Iran. Indeed, it should be leading the anti-Islamist coalition!To be fair, the Obama Administration is putting early-warning stations into Saudi Arabia for the day when Iran has nuclear-tipped missiles. The Reagan Doctrine (is that still in force?) commits the United States to protect Saudi Arabia from an overt Iranian military attack.Yet the headline is true. The current U.S. government is essentially neutral between the two sides. Sort of like a headline from 1941 reading, "Interests of Nazi Germany and Britain Collide, With the U.S. in the Middle."Saudi Arabia isn't exactly like Britain under Winston Churchill but it is now on the front-line against the greatest threat of our time. U.S. policy already mishandled Iran in the 1970s and, more recently, the Obama Administration has watched Lebanon fall, Turkey's government change sides, and Egypt jump ship.Yes, with this administration being in the "middle" is the best-case analysis. At worst, it's on the wrong side altogether.Hmmmm...."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?What's the deal between Obama - Erdogan and Ahmadinejad?Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.Ayers affirms he wrote Dreams from my Father.Last Thursday evening at Montclair State University, with a video camera rolling, Bill Ayers volunteered that yes indeed he had written the acclaimed Barack Obama memoir, Dreams from My Father.Unprompted, Ayers also noted that while Dreams deserves its praise, Obama's second opus, Audacity of Hope, is "more of a political hack book."Not surprisingly, Ayers retreated into irony as he ended the session. "Yeah, yeah," he said after confirming again that he wrote Dreams, "And if you help me prove it, I'll split the royalties with you. Thank you very much."With his final comment, the Ayers-friendly audience laughed in relief. The media will laugh nervously upon seeing the video as well. The White House will not.Barack Obama knows what I know and what the people who have read my book, "Deconstructing Obama," know: Bill Ayers is the principal craftsman behind Dreams. The evidence is overwhelming.Ayers also established, as I have contended from the beginning, that he is not the author of Audacity of Hope. Although Obama claims unique authorship of this book too, it was, as Ayers suggests, a disingenuous feint to the center written by committee.Worse for Obama still, Ayers knows that the story he and Obama contrived in Dreams is false in many key details. The fact that Donald Trump has proved willing to challenge that story has got to make the White House even more apprehensive.As was obvious in his speech at Montclair, Ayers does not like the application of force in Libya, and this may have been his own way of retaliating. Consider it a shot across Obama's bow. The White House will.Hmmmm........Is there anything real about this 'president'?Read the full story here.

• No US military action in Syria for now : Clinton,'Certainly' deplores the violence in Syria, but says no.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said the United States currently has no intention of launching a military intervention in Syria, despite its brutal crackdown that has left dozens of protesters dead.Asked on CBS television's "Face the Nation" program if Washington is planning military action similar to that launched in Libya, Clinton answered that it is not."No, each of these situations is unique," she responded."Certainly we deplore the violence in Syria," she said. "We call as we have on all of these governments during this period of the Arab awakening, as some have called it, to be responding to their people's needs -- not to engage in violence, permit peaceful protests and begin a process of economic and political reform."She said, however, that if an international coalition, with the authority of a UN Security Council resolution, offered "universal" condemnation of Syria, military intervention would be possible."But that is not going to happen because I don't think it is yet clear what will occur, what will unfold," she said, noting differences between Syria's suppression of protests and the crackdown in Egypt."What's been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there's a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities, than police actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see," she said.Her remarks came after more than 30 people were confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protests broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding reform.Hmmmmm......While NATO 'ally' Turkey's Erdogan has a friendly chat with Assad?Read the full story here.

• HT:Debka.To survive, Assad must contain majority Sunni unrest before it infects army.The protest against Bashar Assad’s regime is swelling. From its first epicenter in the southern town of Deraa it spread Friday, March 25, to new cities, Homs, Aleppo, Latakia and parts of Damascus. It has quickly attained the scale unforeseen by the regime of a popular uprising by the majority Sunni population (74 percent) against Allawite-dominated (15 percent) rule.Army troops gunned the protesters down in what witnesses described as a massacre of scores and hundreds injured, raising calls from the opposition for international intervention.The number of dead and injured cannot be reliably determined. debkafile’s intelligence sources report that special Syrian security clean-up units removed the bodies as they fell.The authorities were caught unawares by the upsurge of street rallies that followed preachers’ sermons in hundreds of Sunni mosques calling on their congregations to go out and drive the Assads and the minority Allawite sect from power. The Syrian secret service missed the Muslim Brotherhood’s hand in organizing this mass street eruption. The strongest rallying cry came from the influential radical Egyptian television preacher Yussuf Qaradawi who called on Syria’s Sunni community to stand up for its rights as a majority.Because the army’s 4th Division commanded by Bashar’s brother Maher Assad, the only unit to be manned by Allawites, is tied down in suppressing riots in the southern town of Deraa and most of the troops in all other units are Sunnis, Assad is short of trusted contingents to defend his regime. He figured that fresh outbreaks in Deraa would inflame the rest of the country and therefore kept the 4th Division in place.The tipping point for the 11-year old Assad regime (which followed the one his father established after a military coup) is therefore not far off unless he makes the right decision or receives outside help.He can either opt for the Qaddafi option, for instance, or follow the example of the King of Bahrain.From the outset of the Libya revolt in February, Muammar Qaddafi opted for abandoning the east and focusing his military effort on preserving his centers of power in Tripoli and its outlying towns. After stabilizing his rule, he planned to set out and wrest the rest of the country from the rebels opposing his regime.So far, his gamble has succeeded. The rebels backed by international forces have not unseated him.Will Assad decide after Friday that he has enough loyal military strength to buttress his rule over all of Syria, or choose to pull in his horns and concentrate on saving Damascus?Since much of his army is unreliable, the Syrian ruler may have to opt for the Bahrain remedy - namely, calling for outside help as did King Hamid al Khalifa who asked Riyadh for Saudi forces to prop up his throne against a Shiite-led uprising.The allies who come to mind in the case of Assad are Iran, the Lebanese Hizballah, pro-Iranian Palestinian groups with bases in Damascus - Hamas, Jihad Islami and Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Palestinian Front-General Command.It would take Tehran no more than a few hours to fly Revolutionary Guards units into Damascus. An Iranian command structure is already positioned at Syrian armed forces headquarters in Damascus. Also available to Tehran is an Iraqi Shiite militia, the Mehdi Army of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, a good personal friend both of Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Assad. Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Facebook May Hire Robert Gibbs, Former Obama Aide.Facebook is in talks to hire Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s former White House press secretary, for a senior role in helping to manage the company’s communications, people briefed on the negotiations said.Facebook is seeking out Mr. Gibbs ahead of an initial public offering planned for early 2012, these people said.The talks are still at an early stage and no formal offer has been made, these people said, adding it remained possible that the discussions could collapse.Mr. Gibbs, who left the White House in February after two years on the job, had been planning to help establish President Obama’s re-election campaign before taking a private sector job, these people said.Facebook, however, is pressing Mr. Gibbs to consider the job more quickly, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were supposed to remain confidential.A job for Mr. Gibbs at Facebook could be worth millions of dollars. While details of his potential compensation package have yet to be discussed, people briefed on the talks said that he would receive a cash salary as well as shares ahead of the initial offering. Facebook is being valued by some investors at more than $60 billion and could be the largest offering in history.In recent weeks, Mr. Gibbs has consulted several of his former White House colleagues about whether he should take the job, including David Axelrod, President Obama’s former senior adviser, who is helping to head a re-election team, these people said.Mr. Gibbs and a spokesman for Facebook declined to comment.Facebook has also become a focus of Washington as lawmakers and regulators grapple with online privacy issues and Internet security. Facebook has already stepped up its lobbying efforts in Washington, which have included discussions with the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency.Hmmmm........Lots of potential voters and identities there?Read the full story here.

• OIC to ‘send’ strong condemnation.Desecration of the Holy Quran in Florida.NEW YORK – Reposing complete confidence in Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, the OIC decided that the Ambassador of Pakistan along with Ambassadors of Tajiskistan (OIC chair), Morocco (OIC Coordinator for Human Rights), Iran and Egypt would meet with the UN Secretary General to convey OIC’s strong condemnation and ask him to take the lead towards promoting inter-faith harmony. It was decided in OIC ambassadorial meeting which convened here the other day to discuss the recent desecration of the Holy Quran in Florida last week. The meeting approved the proposals of Ambassador Haroon and his Iranian counterpart that OIC Chair and Observer Mission will draft a strong condemnatory letter on behalf of OIC with the assistance of Pakistan and Morocco to be sent to the UN Secretary General, President UN General Assembly, High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) with the request to circulate it as an official document. The meeting also decided that Ambassador Haroon would be the focal person to brief the media on the subject. Reiterating the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari's clear expression of sentiments of the people and extreme provocation and seriousness of the issue, and his call to the United Nations to take immediate action on the subject, Ambassador Haroon the first Speaker from the member states voiced strong condemnation of this sacrilegious act. He assured that Pakistan would continue playing its active and constructive role in promoting inter-faith harmony and peaceful co-existence. On March 22, Ambassador Haroon had written a letter to the UN Secretary General, where he drawn UN attention towards this despicable act of desecration of the Holy Quran by Wayne Sapp and Terry Jones in Florida. The Ambassador urged the United Nations to play its important role in ensuring peace and harmony among peoples of the world. He said Pakistan has full confidence in the UN's leadership and hoped that it would take all steps to fight such tendencies and promote intercultural and inter-faith harmony that is basic to coexistence of mankind. Recalling Pakistan’s initiative on Interfaith Dialogue and participation in the Alliance of Civilization, Ambassador Haroon stated that Pakistan has always stood for promoting peace and harmony among people and nations of the world.Hmmmmm......I'm sure all the Christians and Ahmadis charged with 'Blasphemy' can vouch for that Mr Ambassador? Read the full story here.

• HT:ChristianPost.Growing Intolerance for Christianity in U.S."In a world of political correctness devoid of the rule of law, tolerance has come to mean total rejection of Christianity and moral standards. Modern tolerance redefines words like 'marriage,' 'discrimination,' 'equality,' 'morality,' and even 'absolutes.' The word 'tolerance' as it is used today never includes opposing arguments or competing worldviews. Tolerance has become Orwellian and decidedly intolerant." – Matthew Staver, Dean and Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law.A few examples of recent intolerance for Christianity:

The Supreme court determining to exclude anyone who prays in Jesus name from a rotation of officials who open city business meetings

The removal of US military Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, over the issue of praying in Jesus Name

UCLA’s prohibiting a graduating student from thanking her “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” in her graduation speech

Colleges making special accommodations for foot baths and Muslim only prayer rooms, while a Muslim group membership may be suspended or revoked for 57 reasons including but not limited to: unbecoming behavior, insubordination, or inactivity; but denying Christian groups campus recognition “because it requires its officers and voting members to agree with its Christian beliefs"

A San Diego elementary school created an extra recess period to allow 100 Muslim students to pray, while a federal judge upheld a Knoxville, Ky., jury’s decision that a public school could prohibit its 5th grade Christian students from studying and discussing their Bibles during recess

 Christians in America have to tolerate the defamation of their holiest images in national museums, including particularly provocative, offensive acts defined as "artwork," some receiving taxpayer-funded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. On the other hand, several college editors who cited freedom of speech when republishing anti-Muslim cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper, were fired or disciplined because they were offensive to Muslim students

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Los Angeles) requested an investigation of the desecration of a Quran, Islam's revealed text, as a hate crime. Conversely, when Palestinians tore up Bibles for toilet paper (May 15, 2002, The Washington Times) there was no outrage, and after a church in the U.S. saved and held fundraisers to afford the cost of buying and shipping requested Bibles in the Pashto and Dari language to an American sergeant in Afghanistan, the Bibles were confiscated, thrown away, and burned. The only official comment about burning the Bibles was this one, by a Defense Department spokesman, “Troops in war zones are required to "burn their trash."These incidents have raised several questions that Brannon Howse, author and founder of Worldview Weekend, agreed to answer:

CP: Would you consider these examples of intolerance shocking or unexpected?

Howse: Not at all. Jesus said all nations will hate you. If you are a Bible-minded believer such persecution should not be uncommon or a surprise,” he stated, quoting 2 Timothy 3:12 “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

CP: Are you saying everyday Christians, students, business people, and homemakers as well as clergy should be expecting bias, intolerance or hostility in all areas of life including civil government, education, economics, public policy, and family?

Howse: Actually, if an individual who claims to be a Christian is not experiencing intolerance or persecution – being called names, belittled, marginalized, or characterized because you stand for sound theology – you should examine yourself to make sure you are a Christian.Hmmmm......"I will stand with my Muslim brothers"?When did he go to Church the last time?Read the full story here.

• WOLF: Loudest Obamacare cheerleader wants out.New York’s Rep. Anthony Weiner wants a ‘get out of jail free’ card.Becoming the most hypocritical politician in America is not an easy goal to achieve, but New York’s Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, is up to the task.Earlier this year, the Obama administration began rewarding its union friends and others with an escape from the clutches of Obamacare. Now one of the most outspoken Obamacare supporters - the man who actually said, “I wrote the bill … the bill and I are one” wants his own “get out of jail free” card from this abominable law.Moments of unmistakable clarity may not always find their way to the president’s teleprompter, but occasionally, the curtains are pulled back on “the most open and transparent [administration] in history” to reveal what its footsoldiers think of their own law. This conflict between politicians’ words and deeds is nothing new, of course, nor is the selective enforcement of bad laws.Fast-forward four years, and the community organizer in the White House evidently has had his own moment of clarity about the unholy health care law that bears his name. Obamacare is already leaving a trail of destruction. Despite promises to the contrary, Mr. Obama’s own Medicare chief actuary estimates that up to 20 million Americans may lose their current health insurance. Despite promises to the contrary, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates Obamacare will destroy 800,000 jobs. Despite promises to the contrary, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently admitted cooking the books by double-counting $500 billion toward both Medicare savings and Obamacare implementation funds and admitted that a major program within Obamacare, the CLASS Act, is - in her words - “totally unsustainable.” As a direct result of this government takeover, many insurance companies already have been forced to raise their premiums or drop out of the Medicare Advantage program, while others no longer offer policies for children, and still others have simply closed their doors.So how does the White House respond to this unraveling? With more waivers. HHS acknowledges issuing 1,040 “get out of jail free” cards to unions and other friends. Five states have been graced with their very own Obamacare waivers, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and, newest pampered friend, Maine. Why Maine? According to the administration, Obamacare “has a reasonable likelihood of destabilizing the Maine individual health insurance market.”If you happen to live in one of the other 45 states, don’t worry. The same administration that predicted its $787 billion so-called “stimulus” spending spree would keep unemployment below 8 percent predicts that you’ll be just fine.Hmmmm.......Lets just call it 'waiver care' a.k.a. "MOB care"?Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Who Is The Real 'Reich Wing'?A favorite pejorative used by the progressive left is 'Reich Wing', designed to tar conservatives as Nazi-like extremists. Notwithstanding its nature as a premature violation of Godwin's Law, the term implies a certain set of characteristics presumably endemic to conservatives.But let's examine those attributes to see if they have merit.On the Constitution.While conservatives advocate for fidelity and loyalty to the United States Constitution, the progressive left purposefully evades it. The term that is used is "living and breathing", which simply means that the left can morph the nation's highest law into whatever it wishes.Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan outlined the progressive's perspective in a 1993 tribute to Justice Thurgood Marshall. She quoted from a 1987 speech Marshall in which he said the Constitution as originally conceived and drafted was "defective" and that the mission of the Supreme Courtwas to “show a special solicitude for the despised and the disadvantaged.”In other words, the Constitution could be "adjusted" to benefit certain parties at the expense of others -- certainly a far cry from the image of justice as a blindfolded seer weighing the merits of two arguments.In 1933 Adolf Hitler subverted Germany's Weimar Constitution using subterfuge and pretext to eradicate civil rights.Less than a month after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, suspending several constitutional protections on civil rights. The articles affected were 114 (habeas corpus), 115 (inviolability of residence), 117 (correspondence privacy), 118 (freedom of expression /censorship), 123 (assembly), 124 (associations), and 153 (expropriation).Who abuses the Constitution for crass partisan purposes? Who despises free speech and attempts to censor legitimate public opinion? Who rallies around a figure portrayed as some sort of messianic savior? Who uses uniformed thugs to intimidate lawmakers and taxpayers?We all know who the "Reich Wing" is: it is today's far left Democrats that are now so radicalized even Communists are surprised.Hmmmmm......Seems i'm not the only one comparing this regime to Hitlers Nazi Germany?Read the full story here.

• Argentinean FM's Israel visit may be cancelled.Argentinean FM's Israel visit may be cancelled .Foreign Ministry considers cancelling Hector Timerman's visit to Israel next week following report suggesting Argentina offered Iran to suspend its probe into 1990s terror attacks.Israel is considering cancelling the visit of Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman in Israel following a report suggesting Argentina told Iran it would suspend it investigation of the 1990's terror attacks on Jewish community centers to boost trade ties. Iran is suspected of being behind the attacks. Timerman's visit is scheduled to take place next week. The Foreign Ministry, however is considering cancelling it if the Argentine weekly Perfil's report turns out to be true. It was reported Saturday that the Argentina hopes to increase the trade volume with Islamic Republic, which is currently estimated at $1.2 billion a year.The Foreign Ministry has been checking the veracity of the report with Argentinean elements and Israeli envoys in South America. It has yet to be corroborated."We are waiting for a statement from the Argentinean Foreign Ministry," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Talmor told Ynet. "If this turns out to be true, we will consider it desecration of the memory of the dead, but we await an official response before we made a stand." Minister Timerman has Jewish connection. His father, a Jewish journalist and left-wing activist, was jailed by the military junta in Argentina and was released after Israeli diplomatic efforts. He made aliya in the early 1980s but returned to Argentina after the government change. He was known as a fierce critic of Israeli policies.Hmmmmm.......sounds like a Obama fan to me.Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Syrian Protesters Claim to Have Captured Five Iranian Revolutionary Guards.Syrian Protesters Capture Five from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.Syrian sources announced that residents of the city of Dara'a were able to capture five elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who participated in suppressing the peaceful demonstrations protesting the regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria, alongside with elements form Hezbollah and Syrian security forces, according to what was reported by the website "Beirut Observer." The sources stated: "Residents of Dara'a are holding the five elements in a secret location, and contacted one of the satellite television stations, believe to be al-Jazeera, in order to communicate with them to show the video tape of the prisoners. However, they were surprised half an hour later by Syrian security forces, who demolished the house of one of those who was contacting the satellite station." The sources pointed out that, "The Iranian prisoners confessed that each element receives the sum of one million Syrian lira monthly from the Syrian authorities in exchange for participating in suppressing the protesters." The sources also stated: "The Syrian security forces are sweeping the city of Dara'a to find those elements before the residents are able to show the video tape and expose the Syrian regime." Previous news reports spoke of Mahir al-Asad, the brother of Bashar al-Asad, entering the Syrian city of Dara'a accompanied by 5,000 elements from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, supported by the Fourth Division of the Syrian Army, which was stationed outside the city.Read the full story here.

• HT:AsiaNews.Two Christians killed, churches burned: extremists respond to Florida Koran burning.Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Two believers killed, churches attacked, copies of the Bible burned: the Christian community in Pakistan is once again the victim of violence by Islamic fundamentalists, who have targeted places of worship in the country. The extremist violence was triggered by the insane act - repeatedly condemned by Christians in Pakistan and India – of the pastor Wayne Sapp, who last March 20, in Florida burned a Koran under the supervision of the evangelical preacher Terry Jones. The escalating violence has raised alarm over the fate of Asia Bibi, a symbol of the abuses committed in the name of the blasphemy law. The bishop of Islamabad / Rawalpindi defines the US pastor a "fanatic" who encourages followers to a "violent ideology", the consequences of which have an impact "on innocent Christians" across the world.On March 25, a mob of Islamic extremists attacked a Pentecostal church in Hyderabad, killing two Christians and burning some copies of the Bible. Eyewitnesses said that the fundamentalists stormed the place of worship looking to set it on fire, but a group of believers defended the church. Security forces have fled the scene, leaving those present at the mercy of the crowd. The attackers hurled anti-Christian slogans and a feeling of anger toward the religious minority has spread. in the city The pastor of the church reports that "despite the condemnation of the burning of the Koran" the community "has come under attack because they think that we are linked to the Americans." He emphasizes that "we are Pakistanis, who were born in this land and we do not have any kind of relationship with the United States." "What fault did those two innocent people have – he ends - who were not Americans, but only Pakistani Christians?".In a second incident, the Full Gospel Assembly Church, in the Badami Bagh area of Lahore, was attacked. Again fundamentalists burned the church, threw copies of the Bible into the street and accused the Christians of blasphemy, claiming they found pieces of the Koran, not far from the church. During the attack some security guards were injured.Meanwhile, the weekend demonstrations were repeated against the burning of the Koran wanted by Pastor Terry Jones in different cities of Pakistan - among other Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad. The demonstrators, who burned his picture and chanted slogans and chants against the United States, called for the death of U.S. preacher. Extremists also threatened reprisals and other targeted attacks against Christians, if the U.S. government fails to take action against Pastor Jones.Read the full story here.

• Islamic Jihad: Israel renewing aggression.Terrorist group's spokesman accuses Israel of renewing strikes on Gaza in order to undermine agreements between Palestinian factions. Meanwhile, Knesset Defense Committee members meet with council heads, who complain about Iron Dome's deployment in Beersheba alone. Israel is renewing its aggression towards the Gaza Strip in order to undermine agreements struck between the Palestinian factions, the Islamic Jihad claimed Sunday. The group said two of its members were killed in an IDF strike earlier on Sunday.Meanwhile, members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee met southern council heads in Beersheba, who complained their residents were not being provided with the same protection as in Beersheba, where the Iron Dome system was deployed Sunday. Sderot Mayor David Buskila complained the government was prioritizing Beersheba over Sderot which has been dealing with the rocket threat for many years. "The army didn't launch Operation Cast Lead over us, but over Beersheba and Ashdod." Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin welcomed the deployment of the Iron Dome and expressed hope the system will also be deployed outside Beersheba. He warned that should the rocket fire continue beyond Sunday, missiles will reach Rishon Lezion, Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Ra'anana. Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich said that continued rocket fire targeting the city was unacceptable. "When there's war, there's war, but one cannot continue daily life when a missile lands. No country in the world would accept this, and Israel cannot either. "We cannot live with uncertainty and gamble our residents' lives away. We all understand the cost of another operation, but if there's no choice – then there's no choice." Hmmmm......"The best defence is the attack".Read the full story here.