An-Najah poll of Palestinians: Fatah significantly more popular in Gaza than West Bank, Palestinians do not expect Fatah-Hamas conciliation agreement to succeed

An-Najah poll of Palestinians: Fatah significantly more popular in Gaza than West Bank, Palestinians do not expect Fatah-Hamas conciliation agreement to succeed.(IMRA).HT: AlexanderMunch.

Read the full result of the poll here.

Thank you Barack 'Hussein' Obama - Iran claims to have domestically produced drone.

Thank you Barack 'Hussein' Obama - Iran claims to have domestically produced drone.(JPost).Less than four months after confiscating a US drone that went down in its territory, Iran has domestically produced a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Shaparak (Butterfly), semi-official Iranian news agency Press TV reported on Saturday.
The drone has an operational radius of 50 kilometers and a flight ceiling of 4,572 meters, Press TV quoted Reza Danandeh Hakamabad, the aeronautics engineer in charge of the project, as saying on Friday.He added that the aircraft has the capability to fly non-stop for three-and-half hours and can carry an 8 kilogram payload.
Powered by a two-cylinder engine, the Iranian drone is equipped with cameras which can submit surveillance images to the base on the ground, according to the report.
Iran claimed to have shot down a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone that was flying over its airspace in December, later saying that they had actually commandeered the UAV's navigation system, making it land in Iranian territory.
US military officials said that the drone went down due to technical difficulties while on a surveillance mission, denying that Iran had actively brought the craft down.Iran displayed the US drone on television, vowing to "reverse-engineer" the UAV to build its own drone.Hmmmm.....Why would you destroy a drone if you can donate it intact to Iran?Read the full story here.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.(BM).LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a “war” on Christians in the next few weeks.
According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”
Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.
But the spokesman said the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come.”He said, without giving specific details, “we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”
On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.“This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate,” said the spokesman.
The explosion in the Kaleri suburb of the northern city on Friday destroyed a house and dismembered the three Islamist sect members, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed of the special military unit in Maiduguri said.Other items recovered at the scene included remote control devices, wrist watch timers, metallic drums and copies of the Qur’an, he said.The sect converts homes into bomb-making factories for attacks, the spokesman said.
As well as in Maiduguri, there have been accidental and fatal explosions in suspected Boko Haram bomb-making factories in the northern cities of Damaturu and Kaduna in recent months.
Violence blamed on the militant group, whose goals remain largely unclear, but has called for an Islamic state in Nigeria, has since mid-2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to rights groups.Hmmmm........In its early years, the group was popularly known as the "Nigerian Taliban" due to its shared anti-Western ideology and its willingness to use violence in an effort to impose a strict form of Shariah law.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Chile 5.3 ! More info here.

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

• Israel evacuates embassy in Jordan ahead of protests.(JPost).Israel evacuated its embassy in Jordan Wednesday evening, hours before a Facebook organized march under the banner (in Arabic) of "No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory."Unlike in Egypt, where diplomats lived with their families, in Amman the Israeli delegation serves without their families, and comes home for weekends. The decision came just days after the 13-hour rampage at the Israeli embassy in Cairo, during which six security guards locked themselves behind a steel door while mobs ransacked the embassy.Egyptian commandos rescued those six security guards from the Cairo embassy, as protesters broke into archives and threw documents from the building's windows into the street below where demonstrators were celebrating.The government has said that Israel would respect the peace treaty with Egypt, and was determined to return its envoy as soon as possible.Read the full story here.

• Erdogan's beloved IHH Delivers Aid to Somali Terrorist Group.(IP).Two Turkish aid workers were arrested Monday near the Somalia capital of Mogadishu after meeting with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization during a humanitarian aid mission to the region."The Turkish aid workers were arrested because they did not coordinate with our national security. They met with al Shabaab without clearance or approval from government security," a government humanitarian coordinator told Reuters.The pair was released following talks between Turkey's ambassador to Somalia, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and the Horn of Africa country's chief of intelligence. One of the workers is an emergency aid official working with the Hamas-tied Turkish charity IHH.An IHH official who declined to be named dismissed the incident as "normal, because of the security situation there."The Turks were arrested after delivering food and supplies to an area outside Mogadishu known as KM 50, where thousands of Somalis are living in refugee camps. KM 50 is controlled by al-Shabaab, the Somali militant group tied to al-Qaida and fighting to overthrow the Somali government.This was the first aid group to visit the region controlled by al-Shabaab, which has banned aid agencies from operating in areas they control. The group arrived at the refugee camp on Monday, and a Turkish delegate said they were warmly welcomed by al-Shabaab officials in the region. The official added that the group will deliver aid to other regions controlled by the terrorist group.Sheikh Hassan Abu Ayman, a member of al-Shabaab's committee for drought, said the Turkish men reached them to deliver humanitarian aid and food to the famine-hit Somalis.An IHH-sponsored humanitarian aid ship named "Gazze" arrived in Mogadishu on Monday, and was welcomed by the IHH aid teams in the region. IHH also intends to dispatch the Mavi Marmara ship, the site of the controversial May 2010 Gaza flotilla clash, on a humanitarian mission to Somalia.Hmmmmm......."By their fruits you will know them"?Read the full story here.

• Palestinians back off UN Security Council statehood bid.(Debka).The tempest which Israel had tensely anticipated for September in the wake of a Palestinian bid for unilateral UN recognition of their state looks like fizzling out before it begins as a result of a massive US campaign to avert it, backed by Saudi Arabia, Europe and Egypt.Early Wednesday, Sept. 14, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided crucially not to submit his application to the UN Security Council. He also notified Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and European Union foreign executive Catherine Ashton in Cairo that he was considering watering down his application to the UN General Assembly – possibly by dropping the "state within 1967 borders" provision from the text.Abbas said he would make his final decision known in a public address from Ramallah Friday, Sept 16 before flying to New York to join world leaders at the UN General Assembly's 66th session which began Tuesday.But first, he meets Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Amman for a conversation which debkafile's exclusive sources term critical, because Blair will hand him a document termed by senior Washington sources "an outline" of a new format designed to oil Palestinian wheels into unlocking the long-stalled Palestinian dialogue with Israel.This outline has been endorsed by Washington, the EU and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. It is now subject to acceptance by Israel and the Palestinians. Moscow has not yet indicated whether it approves the document or wants changes.By Wednesday morning, the Israeli government had not yet received a copy. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no doubt that he will be called upon for concessions extreme enough to lure the Palestinian leader back to the table. Blair is expected to deliver the document to Netanyahu some time Thursday after Abbas has seen it. To tie up the ends, senior White House envoys, Dennis Ross and David Hale, are due back in Jerusalem and Ramallah Wednesday.During his visit to Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas was sternly warned by Saud al Faisal, Ashton and Egyptian leaders of the grave consequences awaiting the Palestinians if he forced the UN to exercise its veto against their statehood at the UN Security Council. US President Barack Obama Tuesday made it crystal clear that he "objects very strongly" to the Palestinian statehood motion as "counterproductive" and "a distraction from solving problems that can only be addressed through negotiations."US sources report that the US President has refused to talk to Abbas for the past eight months owing to his refusal to join Israel for direct peace talks. He was advised by the Europeans, the Saudis and Egyptians this week that the US presidential boycott would almost certainly extend to fellow Palestinian leaders and US financial aid. The Palestinian Authority would thus be placed under American sanctions. However, if he withdrew his statehood bid from the Security Council and accepted the new position paper, Obama would consider restoring communications.Tuesday, Sept. 13, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "The path to creating an independent Palestinian state lies through direct talks between Ramallah and Jerusalem – not New York," she said. Early Wednesday, the General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar reported that the Palestinians had not yet submitted their request to the General Assembly. It would therefore not come up for debate before October.debkafile's sources report that while Mahmoud Abbas appears to have been hassled into a partial climb-down from his original plan to bypass talks with Israel by gaining UN approval of Palestinian statehood, he may not have caved in completely. Neither is it clear whether Netanyahu will swallow the new blueprint Tony Blair is about to dish up.Hmmmm.....Considering the source is Debka there's a possibility that the 'news' is not completely trustworthy, still i posted it seeing that the independent posted it also.Read the full story here.

• Erdogan's 'Dangerous Macho Posturing'.EU Politicians Slam Turkey's Anti-Israel Course.(Spiegel).Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not only using his tour of several Arab states for self-promotion, but for verbal attacks against Israel as well. "No one can play with Turkey or Turkish honor," Erdogan said in Cairo on Tuesday. Israel lost Turkey as a strategic partner after the Israeli military attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May 2010.During the Arab Spring, Erdogan has presented himself as a new power, a model leader and a "rising star" with "near pop-star status" in the region, as the New York Times has described the Turkish leader. His multi-day trip to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya is meant to strengthen his role in the region.However, Erdogan has also linked his solidarity with the Arab world to a strident anti-Israel foreign policy. Indeed, the political battle lines between Turkey and Israel have been intensifying in recent weeks:

■Erdogan expelled senior Israeli diplomats in early September. If the tension between the two countries wasn't thick enough already, this step only served to escalate the dispute between them.

■Ankara halted its military cooperation with Israel and announced an increased Turkish military presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. All trade ties with Israel are currently frozen and Erdogan is threatening "further sanctions."

■At the same time, Erdogan is presenting himself more and more as an advocate for the Palestinians. More than once, he has vociferously considered visiting the Gaza Strip, a move Israel would regard as an affront.

■Erdogan doesn't shy away from verbal attacks, either. On Monday, he said Israel had behaved like a "spoiled child" and accused Israel of supporting "state terror." He described Israel's military action against last year's flotilla to Gaza as a "cause for war."

The conflict could also put Ankara's relationship with the European Union to the test. The dispute over the deadly military raid on the Gaza flotilla, which left nine Turkish activists dead, could grow into a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the EU. Indeed, among high-profile politicians in the European Parliament, criticism of Erdogan is growing.Elmar Brok, the foreign policy spokesman for the parliamentary group of the conservative Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, said he is skeptical of Turkey's efforts to establish itself as a regional power within the Arab world. He said Erdogan is seeking to transform it into a regional power similar to the status it held "earlier with the Ottoman Empire." He said Ankara isn't pursuing the goal of EU membership and that "it is using the conflict with Israel in order to gain credibility in the region," Brok told SPIEGEL ONLINE.Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of the European Parliament with the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) said he also viewed the shift in foreign policy course by the Turkish government as a sign that Ankara's EU ambitions are waning. Turkey, as a secular democracy, may be a role model for the countries currently undergoing a phase of transformation, the FDP party group leader in Brussels told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "but Ankara can in no way be allowed to link the reorientation of its foreign policy with anti-Western sentiment." Lamsbdorff has accused the Erdogan government of using "gunboat rhetoric" in its statements about Israel. The Turkish government's aggressive policy course against Israel, he said, shows that the country currently has "no interest" in pushing forward EU accession talks. "With a strident anti-Israel course, it isn't making any friends in Europe" right now, Lambsdorff said. Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European union and get them out of NATO.Read the full story here.

• ‘Jew Or Not Jew’ I-Phone App Provokes Outrage In France.(BigPeace).The app available in France is called “Juif ou pas Juif” (Jew or not Jew) and promises to reveal who is Jewish. ”All the information is already available online,” says creator Johann Levy, who lives in Marseille and is himself, Jewish. ”I’m just compiling it all.” The app costs 79 euro cents and has provoked outrage.“I don’t know if its irresponsible, but it’s incredibly dangerous,” said Alain Jakubowicz, president of Licra, a French anti-semitism group.Hmmmm......what's next?Tattooed numbers?Read the full story here.

• Beijing as the Euro's Savior -Europe and China Bound by Mutual Fears.(Spiegel).By Stefan Schultz. A few years ago, critics from the United States and Europe gave their trading partner China a less-than-favorable name: In an insulting bit of latent racism, they dubbed the emerging superpower a "yellow peril." They warned of an army of Chinese minimum wage laborers, who would destroy entire industries in the West -- and with them millions of jobs. They also warned of growing political influence from the East, which could ultimately even lead to an erosion of human rights.In recent months, the critics have gone quiet -- because they have far more important problems to worry about. Problems with many zeros on the end. At around $15.2 trillion (€11.1 trillion), the US government's debt at the end of 2012 could be as high as the amount of money the country generates in a year.In Europe, the debt prognosis is hardly any better. Italy: €1.9 trillion (approximately 120 percent of annual economic output); Greece: €472 billion (150 percent). The debt clocks of America and the euro countries are ticking relentlessly, and the slogan "Money rules the world" is being given a new meaning. In record time, it seems the current global balance of power is shifting -- in favor of China.On Monday, the US government fired an urgent warning towards Europe. The euro crisis threatens global growth, President Barack Obama said. "As long as this crisis is not solved, we will continue to see weaknesses in the global economy." But America itself is alarmingly high in debt; Obama's exhortation seems like cheap campaign rhetoric, a maneuver to divert attention away from his own serious problems.China currently appears in quite a different light: The country has foreign exchange reserves of $3.2 trillion. The government is holding around a quarter of that in euro securities, mostly government bonds, said Daniel Gros of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. According to the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, China has more than tripled its financial commitment in Europe since 2007, and this trend is growing. His country was ready to "extend a helping hand" and to invest more in European countries and the US, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday. China has already bought Greek and Portuguese government bonds, and, according to a report by London's Financial Times this week, debt-ridden Italy has recently wooed Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC for money. America can only warn, while China promises salvation: This is the new creed of the global debt crisis. The supposed "yellow peril" has positioned itself as a "white knight" which promises not to leave its trading partners in Europe and America in the lurch.In return, however, Beijing is demanding a high price -- the Chinese government wants more political prestige and more political power:

■Prime Minister Wen has called for more access to American markets, saying the US should be more open for Chinese investors. If China invests more in US companies, new jobs would also be created, he argues. As conciliatory as that sounds, however, the words are poison for President Obama given that high unemployement in the US could ultimately scupper his chances for re-election.

■Wen is also demanding that the US lift restrictions on the export of high technology products to China. This would allow America to increase exports and improve its trade deficit. So far, US companies have held back from such a policy for fear their technology would be copied by potential Chinese competiters.

■Far-reaching demands have also been made of Europe by Wen: European Union countries, he argues, should at last recognize the world's second largest economy as a market economy. He is hoping for a "breakthrough" to happen as soon as the next EU-China Summit on Oct. 25 in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

The demands are not all new -- but China is pushing them with increasing intensity. This is especially shown by the discussion about the recognition of China as a market economy. This would happen automatically in 2016, but for China that is not fast enough, as such a recognition would at a stroke reduce many barriers to trade. In particular, direct investment in Europe would become much easier.Until now, the debate has been going in just one direction: To recognize China as a market economy sooner, Europe has demanded major concessions on human rights and the protection of intellectual property. China is now turning the tables: Much-needed support during the euro crisis will be available, it says -- if Europeans recognize China as having a market economy.Europe must not be intimidated, however, because it is China's most important trading partner after the US. "The crisis in the euro zone is also hurting China," said Eberhard Sandschneider of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). "Not only because Beijing is holding a large amount of European debt securities, but also because the country wants to expand into Europe." In addition, Beijing has consistently stressed that the US dollar should be replaced as the key currency by a triumvirate of dollar, euro and Chinese yuan -- and therefore China wants to support Europe.Thus, Europe's negotiating position is not all that terrible; it has more political leverage than it would appear at first. Not the least of which is the fact that the continent's ominous weaknesses act as a means of putting pressure on China; it might not be an over-exaggeration to say there is a certain balance of horror. If one fails, both fail. Nevertheless, Europe will have to get used to the fact that China will be increasingly negotiating using the methods of the industrialized Western nations; that is to say, it will use its growing economic clout more and more as a political weapon."The behavior of the Chinese government in the euro crisis has become a whole lot more confident," said Sandschneider. "This is the new reality with which Europe and America must deal with constructively."Read the full story here.

• Congressional Investigator: More Solar Bankruptcies to Come.(Heritage).A top congressional investigator said on Tuesday that he believes more companies that benefitted from the stimulus bill’s renewable energy loan guarantee program will go bankrupt before all allotted funds are spent.The program, which guaranteed a $535 million loan to Solyndra before the company declared bankruptcy last week, still has $8-10 billion in authorized funding that has yet to be spent. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said he had called on the administration to hold off on awarding more loan guarantees from the program.“The question is: how many Solyndras are out there?” Stearns said. “I’m convinced based upon what I’ve seen on this kind of industry and solar panel, that there’s more that are going to go bankrupt, and I think the president’s unwise to continue this idea of funding through taxpayer money industries that are not viable.”Stearns would not reveal which companies he thought are at risk, saying he would save that information for his panel’s Wednesday hearing on the Solyndra bankruptcy. “I’ve called upon the president not to award any more money for this kind of venture, and to return the money to the Treasury rather than put it out the door,” he added.Stearns’s hearing will examine two aspects of alleged corruption in Solyndra’s loan guarantee award, he said. The panel will examine both the possibility that political factors played a p[art in the award – a major investor in the company is also a large Obama donor – and the apparent lack of oversight by the White House Office of Management and Budget and other federal officials.OMB’s director will testify at the hearing Wednesday, as will the Energy Department official who supervised the loan program. Stearns said the committee had agreed to postpone the testimony of Solyndra’s CEO and CFO in exchange for agreements that they would not “plead the fifth” and refuse to answer questions when they eventually do appear before the committee.Hmmmm.....Can we start impeachment procedures now?Read the full story here.

• Because Solyndra Was Such a Smashing Success, Obama Hands Out a $1.2 Billion Taxpayer Loan To Another Solar Company.(LA Times) — The U.S. Energy Department hopes that a new solar energy project will result in about 900 construction and permanent operations jobs.Energy Secretary Steven Chu said today that his department had finalized a $1.2-billion loan guarantee to Mojave Solar for the development of the Mojave Solar Project. When complete, the 250-megawatt solar generation project in San Bernardino County will increase the nation’s currently installed concentrating solar power capacity by approximately 50%.Abengoa Solar Inc., the project sponsor, is the source of the estimate on construction and permanent operations jobs.“Investments in solar generation facilities like the Mojave Solar Project are critical to our effort to create good, clean energy jobs in America and compete with countries like China in the global clean energy race,” Chu said. “This project will supply local utilities with energy, help drive down the cost of solar power and fund more than 900 American jobs, all at minimal risk to the taxpayer.”. . . Federal agents recently executed a search warrant at the Northern California headquarters of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week despite receiving $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees.Hmmmm.........Congressional Investigator: "I’ve called upon the president not to award any more money for this kind of venture, and to return the money to the Treasury rather than put it out the door."Read the full story here.

• Gore-Backed “Green” Car Company Gets $529 Million Taxpayer Loan From Obama Administration.(WSJ).Washington — A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000. The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla is a California startup focusing on all-electric vehicles, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.”DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.Matt Rogers, who oversees the department’s loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a “detailed technical review” that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.Hmmm.....Thugocracy in it's natural habitat?Read the full story here.

• Obama's Israel policy seen as factor that cost him House seat.(YNet).Did President Obama's positions on Israel cost him a seat in the House? The Republicans have scored an upset victory in a House race that started as a contest to replace New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was forced to step down following a sex-texting scandal, but became a referendum on US President Barack Obama's policies.Retired media executive and political novice Bob Turner defeated Democratic state Assemblyman David Weprin on Tuesday in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Weiner, a seven-term Democrat who resigned in June. With more than 80% of precincts reporting, Turner had 54% of the vote to Weprin's 46% in unofficial results.According to the New York Times, Turner took advantage of the discontent among the Jewish community with Obama’s policy toward Israel and his handling of the Middle East peace process. Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, endorsed Turner in July as a way to "send a message" to Obama on his policies toward Israel. And Weprin was challenged on his support of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site, in lower Manhattan.The heavily Democratic district, which spans parts of Queens and Brooklyn and is 40% Jewish, had never sent a Republican to the House. The race was supposed to be an easy win for Democrats, who have a 3-1 ratio registration advantage in the district.Several voters who spoke to the New York Times said that the Israel issue was a major factor in their decision to support Turner, who repeatedly criticized Obama on Israel. Turner, a 70-year-old Catholic, vowed to push back on Obama's policies if elected. He received help from prominent Republicans including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose much-praised stewardship of the city after the September 11 terror attacks was recalled during their 10th anniversary, last weekend.The emergence of Israel as an issue was a surprise, the Times reported, because Weprin is an observant Jew and strong supporter of Israel.Orthodox Jews, who tend to be conservative on social issues, expressed anger over Weprin's vote in the state Assembly to legalize gay marriage. In July, New York became one of six states to recognize same-sex nuptials.Read the full story here.

• Ignorance Or Malice? Why Are Obama and Union Bosses Working to Destroy Companies and Jobs?(BigGovernment).The question needs to be asked: Is it ignorance or malice? There was a time after the subprime mortgage meltdown when, if sound decisions on policy and financial initiatives had occurred, the American economy may not have been hobbled as badly, its credit rating might not have been downgraded, the recession might have been curtailed and so many Americans might not have been so negatively affected. However, rather than helping a recovery by letting the quasi-free market adjust, contract and expand again, at almost every turn, Barack Obama and the union appointees and crony capitalists within his administration are, whether out of malice or ignorance, seemingly doing everything they can to destroy an already fragile economy. It’s really no longer a question of ”if,” but “why.”

In 2008, Barack Obama was caught on camera explaining his redistributionist desire to spread the wealth around. At the time, in classic Saul Alinsky fashion, Obama’s union pushers tried deflecting the issue by the stomping on the reputation of ‘Joe the Plumber,’ the man who asked Obama an innocent question.

Now, 18 months after his first stimulus failed, Barack Obama has cynically proposed spending another one-half a trillion dollars (paid for by redistributing the wealth of the not-so -wealthy. Even pundits realize it is a “nakedly political” plan to paint his political opponents as ‘radical.’ However, even with the politicization apparent, policies of Obama and his union cronies go beyond the typical ‘tax and spend’ stereotype afforded to Keynesian liberals.

Unfortunately, from coast to coast, the Obama Misery Index (OMI) is leaving almost no sector untouched. From the seemingly politically-motivated raid in Nashville on legendary (and non-union) guitar-maker Gibson to the EPA killing 500 jobs in Texas, the attacks on America’s job creators are not only disturbing, they are alarming. Is it ignorance or malice?

In addition to the union appointees at Obama’s National Labor Relations Board attacking Boeing (and the potential long-term spillover effects across the economy), as well as its assault on Right-to-Work States, the NLRB’s new mandate to require all private-sector employers with two or more workers to post union notices, coupled with its proposal for ambush elections and the recent micro-union ruling, is causing more and more businesses to spend resources in preparing to be attacked by unions than creating jobs. Is it ignorance or malice?
In another example, in June, the Department of Labor issued a stunning ruling that a private construction project must pay “prevailing wages” (i.e., union wages) on a $700 million project under the Davis Bacon Act because it is on land leased by the federal government.According to the Washington Post, this could raise the project by $20 million or more.Whatever the law’s merits, it has been pretty well settled that Davis-Bacon applies only to structures funded, owned or occupied by the U.S. or District governments, as its plain language suggests.Now, with the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen, that understanding has been upset. A Labor Department regulator has ruled that Davis-Bacon covers the CityCenter DC project, a $700 million private-sector complex under construction downtown at the site of the former convention center. The decision is astonishing, both because it is such a stretch legally and because of its implications — which range from a financial hit for the District to higher costs for development across the country.While the bureacrat at the Department of Labor expects the District of Columbia to pick up the tab for the increased costs, that may not be of any comfort since, ultimately, it is the taxpayers who will pay the price.Never mind that the District’s actual control over construction amounts to little more than the usual regulatory oversight, or that long-term leasing of municipal land is a common economic development tool not previously thought to convert office-retail complexes into public works. Never mind that Ms. Leppink’s expansive reasoning could apply to all future commercial redevelopment of land belonging to the District or to the federal government anywhere.From the the beginning, Barack Obama had claimed he wanted to transform America. His primary pushers—union bosses—have long wanted to change the America’s economy to more of a statist nation. Unfortunately, while many voters hoped Mr. Obama’s election would change things for the better, it is quite clear that the opposite has occurred. As a result, America will be poorer for generations as a result while union cronies control large portions of the federal government.While it is true Mr. Obama inherited a mess, he and his administration are making it exponentially worse.The question is: Is it ignorance or malice?Hmmmm....“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

• Record Number Americans, Or 46.3 Million, Lived In Poverty Last Year; 49.9 Million Without Health Insurance.(BlacklistedNews).Source: Zero Hedge. The US Census Bureau has released its annual Income (not so much), Poverty (much) and Health Insurance Coverage report for 2010. The full thing is below but the highlights are as follows: i) Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median. ii) The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ? the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published; and iii) The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, while the percentage without coverage ?16.3 percent - was not statistically different from the rate in 2009. Breaking it down by ethnicity, living in poverty were 27.4% of all blacks, and 26.6% of all Hispanics. White, non Hispanics and Asians were doing better at 9.9% and 12.1% respectively.Read the full story here.

• John Esposito’s Deceptions on ‘Islamophobia’.(FrontPageMag).By Hasan Mahmud.In most cases, a patient won’t even realize, let alone resist, when a doctor betrays him.I am a Muslim. I believe that accepting our (Muslims’) share in creating “Islamophobia” in the West will help eliminate it. Dr. John Esposito’s recent article in the Huffington Post, “Islamophobia: A threat to American Values?” puts the entire blame on Western “media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and politicians.” He even neglects to mention the huge contribution Muslim societies have had on the issue. Esposito ignores that in our global village the West is regularly flooded by violence coming from Muslim societies; violence which is perpetrated in the name of Islam while citing Quranic verses and the Prophet’s examples. The list is long. Here are some examples:

1. A Sharia court stoned to death a gang-raped girl, who was a minor at the time.
2. A Sharia court flogged another girl to death for having an affair.
3. Punishing raped girls/women by Sharia courts is continuing.
4. Wife-beating is openly preached.
5. Child-marriage is openly preached.
6. “No rape in marriage” is openly preached.
7. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is supported by many clergics including some of Al Azhar University.
8. Women are instantly divorced – there is no maintenance in such cases.
9. A woman appealed to a Sharia court to order her husband to beat her not every day but once a week.
10. Sharia-police (Hisba) are invading people’s lives.
11. The persecution of Muslims with different ideas is reaching a frightening level.
12. Non-Muslims are arrested for carrying their holy books.
13. The persecution of non-Muslims is continuous and reaching a disturbing level.
14. Hate preaching against non-Muslims in media is common.
15. Indoctrination of children with such hate is open and alarming.
16. School syllabi are full of hatred directed at “The Other.”
17. Non-Muslim places of worship are destroyed regularly.
18. Lying and deceiving are supported.
19. Civil rights are violently suppressed by “Islamic” governments — often by hanging.

With such phenomena and experience, what else does Dr. Esposito expect from the West except “Islamophobia”? He also blames the West for resisting the Ground Zero Mosque. I wish he knew how many Muslims around the world are opposed to the proposed Islamic center, not because we don’t want mosques, but because before its construction, the notion of the center created “fitna” (division) and violently divided the whole nation.Esposito is also utterly wrong to state: “Today, opposition to mosque construction with claims that all mosques are ‘monuments to terrorism’ and ‘house embedded cells’ in locations from NYC and Staten Island, to Tennessee and California, has become not just a local but a national political issue.” I wish he knew that only last month a new mosque, Baitul Gaffar, was constructed in New York without a shadow of resistance, or how many euros European governments are pouring into the construct of new mosques. By the way, women were barred from attending the opening ceremony of Baitul Gaffar (House of Creator) in New York.Throughout his article, Esposito, a respected scholar, uses mini-exceptions as general examples. Despite overwhelming support for Muslims among politicians, he cites a few bad apples. For instance, Esposito says, “Politicians use fear of Islam as a political football.” He also states that “Justice Kagan is being accused of being ‘Justice Sharia.’” Accused? Knowing about widespread violence sanctioned by Sharia law, as the dean of Harvard Law School, Justice Kagan tried “to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic law” with the blessing of Saudi money. If such a person is not “Justice Sharia,” who is? Aren’t there Islamists trying to establish Sharia courts in the USA? Yes, the blueprint of American Sharia courts was created as early as 1993 by TAM, The American Muslims. Plus, who is breeding the home grown terrorists? Are they Western media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and politicians?I wish Esposito mentioned the hate-tsunami against Jews and the West that roars in the media and throughout the pulpits of the Muslim world, constantly in Himalayan magnitude. One cartoon against our Prophet (SA) caused chaos to break loose, but during my long years in the Middle East, I saw many dozens of worse cartoons in the media about Jews and their holy book. No government contained that, nor was there a sane Muslim voice against these cartoons.Esposito also states that “all Muslims have been reduced to stereotypes of Islam against the West, Islam’s war with modernity, and Muslim rage, extremism, fanaticism, and terrorism” and “all leaders of that [American] society look at all Muslims with suspicion and prejudice.” These are hyperbolic overstatements. I am a Muslim; I live in Canada and often travel to the US – there is a general sense of concern, but in general, Muslims are doing well, living well and are treated well. The overwhelming support and protection of Muslims by common North Americans and churches after 9/11 is on record, but is sadly overlooked.Yes, “We all [governments, policymakers, the media, educational institutions, religious and corporate leaders] have a critical role to play in countering the voices of hate, the exclusionary theologies and ideologies.” Esposito should give the same advice to the leaders of Muslims world.Once again, in our global village, the West is continuously bombarded by the news of serious violence from the Muslim world against women, non-Muslims and Muslims of different Islamic ideas, in the name of Islam.This is the main reason for “Islamophobia” — and a logical one.About Hasan Mahmud :Hasan Mahmud is a member of the advisory board of the World Muslims Congress.Read the full story here.

• Cuba to drill six oil wells off Florida coast.(DocsTalk).By Mark Tapscott.President Obama and his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have all but shut down the U.S. oil and natural gas industry drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but foreign powers like China, Cuba and Venezuela aren't hesitating to move in to take advantage of America's bureaucratic paralysis.Global Post reports preparations are moving forward for six wells in an area off the Florida coast in which U.S. experts have estimated could contain five billion barrels of oil. The Cubans are moving to tap into this potential energy bonanza with extensive aid from China, which built the massive drilling rig, and Hugo Chavez' Venezuela, which is providing drilling and production expertise.A Spanish firm, Repsol, with partners in Norway's Statoil and Italy's Saipem, will oversee the operation. Not by coincidence, the latest data on U.S. drilling activity shows a continuing decline in the number of rigs in operation. The Washington Post reports this morning that another 10 units stopped operating, leaving a total of 1,958. Most of the newly idled rigs are in Texas.HAVANA, Cuba — Somewhere between here and China, a hulking, hungry oil rig dubbed “Scarabeo 9” is making its way across the oceans, preparing to put a very controversial hole deep in the Gulf of Mexico.To nervous Floridians, even its name suggests “scare,” or “scar.” It will puncture the sea floor in Cuban-controlled waters just 60 miles off the Florida Keys, not far from a protected coastline where offshore drilling is banned under U.S. law.Having conducted test wells in the area before, Spanish energy company Repsol and its partners are now bringing the Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 to a site off Cuba’s northwest coast, where it aims to drill as soon as November at a depth of more than 5,500 feet, deeper than the blown-out well that spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf last summer.That disaster has added to anxiety about Cuba’s exploration efforts, but it has also intensified calls for U.S. officials to engage the Castro government on spill prevention and contingency plans.A high-level delegation of U.S. oil-spill experts traveled to Havana this week to meet with Cuban officials. It has urged the Obama administration to cooperate with the Castro government on a joint-response plan that could avert environmental catastrophe for both countries.The delegation included William Reilly, co-chair of the presidential commission that investigated last year’s spill at the Deepwater Horizon rig, at the well known as Macondo.“The fact that Cuba is about to drill six wells in the next two years, some of them very deep, deeper than Macondo, in places we wouldn’t allow it if it were in our waters … you better believe that the United States has an important interest in that,” Reilly said.“The Cubans have never regulated this industry, they don’t have familiarity with it, but they are doing things to get ready for it,” he added. “We want to make sure the Cubans have got the lessons we learned, and get a sense of what they do need — that the U.S., in its own interest — would help them get.”Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a long-time Castro foe, criticized the delegation’s visit, saying it gave “credibility” to Cuba’s attempt to become “the oil tycoons of the Caribbean.” Other lawmakers have also urged retaliatory measures against Repsol.But experts say with Cuba moving forward, the U.S. should help them do so as safely as possible. Some of the industry’s leading safety-equipment providers and cleanup contractors are nearby along the Gulf Coast, but the U.S. trade embargo bars them from doing business with the island.In recent months, Cuban authorities have given minimal information about their drilling plans, but the U.S. delegation gave new details into the project.The fact that the drilling rig was built in China should not raise concerns, said delegation member Lee Hunt, president of the Houston-based International Association of Drilling Contractors, a trade group. As many six other rigs already working safely in the Gulf of Mexico were built in the same Chinese shipyard, Hunt said.“It has the latest generation of equipment,” said Hunt.American trade sanctions against Cuba prohibited the use of more than 10 percent U.S. technology in the rig’s construction, but Hunt said the Norwegian-designed platform will have an American-made blowout-prevention system that is more advanced than the one which failed on the Deepwater Horizon.While Cuban oil officials will manage and regulate the operations, the engineers and crews doing the actually drilling will be composed of experienced international oil workers, said Hunt. An Italian firm, Saipem, will be operating the rig, and Repsol’s partners include Statoil, a Norwegian company that he and others praise as a world leader in safe deepwater drilling.When asked how closely U.S. oil companies were following Cuba’s drilling plans — and if they might be angling behind the scenes for access to its waters — members of the delegation said it would depend on the size of the find.If the deposits hold close to 20 billion barrels, as Cuban geologists claim, that would probably attract some interest, said delegation member Richard Sears, a former vice president and deepwater drilling specialist at Royal Dutch Shell.For now, though, Sears said, U.S. firms will likely prefer to work in parts of the world with proven hydrocarbon reserves and fewer political hurdles than Cuba. “The challenge for any company is how you allocate resources,” he said.“Do I want to fight political and public-relations battles?” said Sears. “Or do I put my resources into other parts of the Gulf of Mexico where I have well-established leases?”Hmmmm.....If he really wanted to destroy America's economy would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Obama’s New Anti-Terrorist Group: Islamist and Pro-Terrorist Turkish Regime Annointed as Co-Leader; Israel, Left Out.(BarryRubin).Every time I strongly criticize the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, there are those who think calling this president’s policy incredibly disastrous is an exaggeration. Within a few hours, however, this government proves my criticism to be accurate by still another astonishingly damaging, wrong-headed action . Here is the latest example.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced the establishment of a new Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). According to the statement, this initiative is the main activity in the administration’s effort to organize a framework for the international counterterrorism effort. In other words, it is very important.But when I read the announcement, I can’t help but think: there goes another several hundred million dollars. Is this group actually going to do something that cannot be done by existing organizations? Is the best way to fight terrorism to create new bureaucracies with office space, high-paid staff, international travel, more useless documents, and expensive conferences?The statement explains the purpose of this new organization:“To address the evolving terrorist threat…by helping frontline countries and affected regions acquire the means to deal with threats they face. It is based on a recognition that the U.S. alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization. Rather, the international community must come together to assist countries as they work to confront the terrorist threat.”The language is, of course, that of Obama Administration multilateralism. Yet what is the motive of a country to help eliminate terrorists? Self-interest because those countries or their interests are being attacked by those groups. And when do they not do so? When they support the terrorists’ aims. Thus, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan are not going to be allies in the battle against Hamas, Hizballah, and radical Islamist groups generally. Will more American-sponsored training increase Pakistan’s effectiveness when corruption and political policy makes its military protect, even help, al-Qaida?In as much as the plan for the group expresses any real-world purpose, it is to help the countries most targeted by terrorism. There are 30 founding members. Most of them—I’d say two-thirds—face no serious terrorist threat today. The Middle East members include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.Switzerland is a member; Pakistan and India, despite the former’s sponsoring terrorism against the latter, are members; Israel is not. Remember that not only is the country in the world most threatened by terrorism but also the one with the most experience and greatest expertise in fighting terrorism. Of course, the eight Arab states—along with founders Indonesia and Pakistan—would not participate in programs alongside Israel. But this problem could easily have been managed in a number of ways, as it has been done before in many such groups, for example by creating regional sub-sections. Finally, among the new organization’s plans is the “first-ever multilateral training and research center focused on countering violent extremism, which would be based in the Gulf region.” Note that by siting it in the Gulf region, as opposed to all of the other places it could have been done, ensures that no Israeli will ever be an instructor or a student there. The center easily could have been put in the territory of more than twenty other non-Arab members. But there’s more. The United States is not leading this new organization alone. It has a co-director. That co-director is Turkey.Certainly, Turkey has faced terrorism in the past. While one has great sympathy for it in that battle, the Turkish government has also used methods involving death squads and human rights’ violations far worse than those methods condemned loudly by the United States when done by other countries.Unfortunately, too, the Turkish regime is now is a major supporter of such terrorist groups as Hamas and Hizballah. In addition, the Turkish government is closely aligned with the IHH, an Islamist terrorist group which the Turkish government backed in the Gaza Flotilla in order to create an international crisis.At the very moment when the U.S. government is making the Turkish government its partner in fighting terrorism, that same government is turning Turkey into a dictatorship. Every day, military officers are being arrested on ridiculous charges. Freedom is steadily contracting.On the international level, the Obama Administration is rewarding a government that opposed U.S.-backed sanctions on Iran and stabbed the U.S. government in the back by trying to push a separate deal with Iran to subvert the sanctions effort. And it is also rewarding the Ankara government by making it the U.S.-appointed mediator over the future of Syria, despite the fact that the Turkish regime is favoring a future Islamist government in Damascus, as Syrian oppositionists complain bitterly.The “Turkish model,” which the U.S. government often champions for the Arabic-speaking world, means in reality the creation of Islamist, anti-Western, regimes that at home seek to transform their societies at home into Islamist dictatorships and their foreign policies into supporting terrorist groups, fighting Israel, and undermining other U.S. allies. This is not, to say the least, a brilliant idea.But what transforms this from the absurd and bizarre to the truly dangerous is the fact that the U.S. government is once again raising the status of Turkey at a time when its prime minister is openly talking of war with Israel and acting in a more reckless, shortsighted manner than any Turkish government has since 1914.As a matter of history, that government mistakenly entered World War One on the German side. Within four years the result was the Armenian massacres, total defeat, the loss of the country’s empire, horrendous disease and death that wiped out twenty percent of Anatolia’s population, and the occupation by foreign armies of large parts of Turkey.Reacting to this experience, Kemal Ataturk, who founded the republic, wisely expounded the dictum that directed Turkey’s foreign policy for eight decades: peace at home; peace abroad. That is no longer the guiding concept of the Islamist regime’s foreign policy.Hmmmm......"By their fruits you will know them".Read the full story here.

• Iranian judiciary denies decision taken on freeing U.S. hikers.(AlArabiya).Iran’s judiciary said on Wednesday that no decision has been taken on releasing two US hikers convicted of spying, a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the duo would be released soon.“While denying ... release of two Americans accused of espionage, the public relations of the judiciary announces that the request of the lawyer to post bail and free them is being studied by the case’s judge,” a statement posted on the judiciary website said. “Any information in this regard will be issued by the judiciary and any release of information from other sources is not valid,” it added.Ahmadinejad told The Washington Post on Tuesday that Tehran would soon release Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, convicted of spying but who claimed to have accidentally strayed into the country, “in a couple of days so they will be able to return home.”“The two Americans are going to stay in prison for a bit longer. Reports of their imminent release are wrong, “Iran’s English-language Press TV quoted a judiciary official as saying.In a separate interview with U.S. network NBC News, Ahmadinejad said the duo -- whose jailing has further strained already difficult relations between Washington and Tehran -- would be released “in two days.”However, their lawyer Masoud Shafii told AFP on Wednesday that he was waiting for a judge authorizing the posting of bail for the two hikers.“Nothing has changed since I was informed by the court (on Tuesday) of their decision to change the detention to posting bail of the 5$00,000,” Shafii said.“There are two judges who have to sign the decision for me to start the process of actually posting bail. I am waiting for one the judges who has still not signed ... if he does not sign the decision by the end the working day, 3:00 pm (1130 GMT) it will postponed to Saturday,” the lawyer said.“I have already informed the families and the Swiss embassy,” he added. The Swiss embassy deals with U.S.-related affairs as Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since the aftermath of the Islamic revolution of 1979.Ahmadinejad’s comments drew an optimistic response from the families of the hikers, who were each sentenced to eight years in jail last month on charges of espionage and illegal entry.“While we do not have further details at this time, we are overjoyed by the positive news reports from Iran,” said a statement issued by the families.“Shane and Josh’s freedom means more to us than anything and it’s a huge relief to read that they are going to be released,” the statement said.“We’re grateful to everyone who has supported us and looking forward to our reunion with Shane and Josh. We hope to say more when they are finally back in our arms.”A guarded U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “We have followed this very closely and we are encouraged by what the Iranian government has said today.” She added: “We obviously hope that we will see a positive outcome from what appears to be a decision by the government.”The pair were arrested in July 2009 near Iran’s border with Iraq, where they say they were hiking in the mountains as tourists, along with a third American, Sarah Shourd.Bauer and Fattal were convicted last month and share a cell in Tehran’s Evin prison. Shourd was allowed to go home after being freed on $500,000 bail in September 2010, paid through Oman, a U.S. Gulf ally that maintains relations with Iran.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood criticizes Erdogan’s call for a secular state.(AlArabiya).Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call on Egyptians to adopt a secular constitution has created a kind of controversy, just hours before his scheduled meeting with the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest political group, on Wednesday. Erdogan noted that secularism does not mean renouncing religion. “A secular state respects all religions,” Erdogan said in an interview with an Egyptian private satellite TV channel prior to his visit to Egypt.“Do not be wary of secularism. I hope there will be a secular state in Egypt,” Erdogan said. He stressed that people have the right to choose whether or not to be religious, adding that he is a Muslim prime minister for a secular state.Dr Mahmoud Ghuzlan, the spokesman of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, considered Erdogan’s comments as interference in Egypt’s local affairs. Ghuzlan was quoted by an Egyptian newspaper as saying that the experiments of other countries should not be cloned. “Turkey’s conditions imposed on it to deal with the secular concept,” he said.Erdogan said Egypt needs to meet some requirements for establishing a modern state, including better management of human resources, more attention to education, improved management of financial resources and eliminating corruption.The idea of adopting a secular system for Egypt has fueled controversy between the country’s liberal and Islamist powers since the Jan. 25 revolution.Liberal and secular groups fear an Islamist takeover of the parliament through the upcoming elections scheduled for November. They fear such a takeover would give Islamists control over the drafting of the constitution.Read the full story here.

• Turkish PM sets out on mission to become leader of Arab world.(Independent).The Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, arrived in Egypt yesterday at the start of a three-nation tour as Turkey toughens its stance towards Israel and seeks to become the predominant power among Muslim states in the Middle East and North Africa.After Egypt, Mr Erdogan will visit Tunisia and Libya to show Turkey's support for both countries after the overthrow of long-standing police states in the Arab Spring. Turkey's strong, democratic and mildly Islamic regime makes it a model for new governments in all three countries.Mr Erdogan's assertive and critical attitude towards Israel, until recently a close ally of Turkey, makes him attractive to the Arab world. In Cairo, the burning down of the Israeli embassy last weekend was the latest incident marking the hostility at street level between post-Mubarak Egyptians and Israel.At the same time, the perception among Arab states that President Barack Obama has failed to help the Palestinians, while lending Israel his total support, has diminished US popularity and influence in the region. Mr Erdogan said in an interview before leaving for Cairo that he had seen "grounds for war" against Israel last year after nine Turks had been killed by Israeli commandos on the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara bound for Gaza, but had "decided to act with patience". He hinted that in future the Turkish navy would protect any Turkish aid flotilla going to Gaza."Turkey will get most of what it wants if it does not overplay its hand," said one commentator. Turkey has already imposed sanctions on Israel in retaliation for the aid-boat raid, but according to his aides Mr Erdogan appears to have abandoned, for the moment, his declared long-term intention to visit Gaza.Turkey has benefited from the Arab Spring because it is likely to be in tune with new democratic governments, even when it had good relations with their predecessors. The country can also move to fill a vacuum since most of the more powerful Arab states, such as Egypt and Syria, are weaker than they were before their governments were overthrown. Iraq has never recovered from the rule of Saddam Hussein and the violence that followed. In sharp contrast to Iran, Turkey has few serious enemies. It has sought to mediate over Iran's nuclear programme between the Iranian government, which it regards with suspicion, and the US and Europeans. The two countries also have a common foe in the shape of festering Kurdish insurgencies which engage in persistent guerrilla attacks. An attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in Hakkani Province in eastern Turkey overnight killed five people, including two security men.The PKK has killed about 50 Turkish security personnel in recent weeks since it ended its ceasefire earlier in the year. Although Mr Erdogan has brought the Turkish army under Islamic civilian control, his government does not want to look weak in any confrontation with the PKK. It is putting pressure on the Iraqi Kurdish President, Massoud Barzani, to isolate the PKK from its mountain strongholds inside Iraq. Mr Barzani, who would like Turkey as a counter-balance to Baghdad, has demanded in recent days that the PKK and the Kurdish guerrilla movement in Iran give up armed resistance. Turkey has been playing an increasingly influential role in Iraqi politics because it is able to mediate between different parties, sects and ethnic groups. It also plays a growing commercial role: Turkish companies have even won contracts to collect the rubbish in Baghdad and Basra. In Syria, Mr Erdogan has criticised President Bashar al-Assad's repression of protests, probably calculating that his regime is not going to survive, at least in its present form. Similarly in Libya, Turkey was at first slow to break with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, but when it did so, it advanced $300m to the rebels at a time when they were short of money. Turkey was heavily involved in construction in Libya.Overall, the isolation of Israel, the democratic uprisings in the Arab world, the weakness of the Arab states, and the diminished strength of the US in the region have all worked to Turkey's advantage. Its influence is growing throughout the region but it is a long way from being in control of events.Hmmmm......Caliph Erdogan versus Caliph Ahmadinejad?Can't decide which is worse.Read the full story here.

• No US drones for Turkey until armed threat on Israel lifted.(Debka).The Obama administration has turned down a Turkish request for drones or for the deployment of US Predators at Turkish bases until Ankara stops threatening Israel with armed attack, debkafile's military and Washington sources report. Turkey has no functioning unmanned aerial vehicles at present. The "technical problems" grounding the Herons Israel sold Ankara have crippled the Turkish army's campaign against the Kurdish PKK rebels – both in northern Iraq and in southeast Turkey.In recent days, therefore, the rebels have stepped up their raids on Turkish territory, killing nine people including army and police personnel.Israeli officialdom and military chiefs are doing their utmost to keep the lid on the spiraling Turkish-Israel confrontation, claiming that a military clash is not imminent because the US, NATO and Europe won't let it happen. Turkey is after all a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, debkafile's military sources report, the confrontation has already broken surface. Despite Western efforts to contain the rising tension, the armed conflict has quietly begun.Our sources confirm that the Ankara press report of three Turkish frigates bound for the eastern Mediteranean to challenge and disarm Israel warships outside its 12-mile territorial waters was deliberately leaked by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office to coincide with his trip to Cairo.Israeli officials are making every effort to conceal the arrival of the frigates opposite Israeli waters, while Washington, the NATO command in Brussels try to dissuade Turkey from carrying out its threat to disable the weapons of Israel naval vessels.They fear that a firefight would drive the Israel-Turkish crisis into uncharted waters.Since Saturday, Sept. 10, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been in direct touch with Erdogan and warned him that a military clash by a NATO member with the Israeli Navy would have grave consequences for Turkey's future military ties with the US and the alliance. Our sources explain that the denial of advanced US intelligence technology on the heels of its cutoff from Israel would present the Turkish army with serious operational, intelligence and high-tech difficulties.These difficulties are already hobbling Ankara's counterinsurgency campaign against the PKK at a critical juncture.Read the full story here.

• Palestinian Ambassador To U.S. Reiterates Call For a Jew-Free Palestinian State.(TheDC) — During a breakfast briefing hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday, Palestinian Ambassador to the United States Maen Rashid Areikat reiterated his call to create a Jew-free Palestinian state.“Well, I personally still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated, and we can contemplate these issues in the future,” he said when asked by The Daily Caller if he could imagine a Jew being elected mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in a future independent Palestinian state. “But after the experience of 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it will be in the best interests of the two peoples to be separated first.”Last year, Areikat made a similar statement during an interview with Tablet magazine. Asked whether it would be neccessary to transfer and remove “every Jew” from a future Palestinian state, Areikat responded “absolutely.”“I’m not saying to transfer every Jew, I’m saying transfer Jews who, after an agreement with Israel, fall under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state,” he said then. “I think this is a very necessary step, before we can allow the two states to somehow develop their separate national identities, and then maybe open up the doors for all kinds of cultural, social, political, economic exchanges, that freedom of movement of both citizens of Israelis and Palestinians from one area to another. You know you have to think of the day after.”Hmmmm....."JudenFrei" yup sound like good old Nazi Germany.Read the full story here.

• Greek Cyprus vows to block Turkey-EU energy talks in gas row.(TodaysZaman).EU member Greek Cyprus vowed on Wednesday to keep Turkey's entry talks on hold as long as Ankara challenges the island's rights to launch offshore gas drilling, in an escalating row among east Mediterranean neighbours over hydrocarbon reserves. Rhetoric over ownership of speculated oil and gas deposits has sharpened after a deterioration of relations between Turkey and Israel, the discovery of massive gas fields by Israel and plans by Greek Cyprus to drill as early as next month.Greek Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, has blocked the opening of several negotiating chapters in Turkey-EU entry talks. One of those is energy."The position of Cyprus has not changed. Turkey must make a formal commitment to the EU that it will end its provocations towards the Republic of Cyprus and stop obstructing Cypriot efforts in the field of energy," said Stefanos Stefanou, the Greek Cypriot government spokesman.Stefanou’s remarks came the EU Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, has urged the member states for progress in accession talks with Turkey on energy chapter. In a document outlining the EU’s energy policy, the Commission said progress in this area will help advance Turkish-EU cooperation and create a solid legal framework for the transfer of natural gas from eastern suppliers to European markets, Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.Timing of the drilling itself, however, is unrelated to the Cyprus talks and stipulated in contractual obligations between Greek Cyprus and Noble, the US company poised to launch an exploratory drill in one offshore sector southeast of Cyprus around the beginning of October.Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias on Tuesday denounced what he said were Turkish threats and said the island would press ahead with drilling as its sovereign right.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Russia says terrorism will rise if Syrian president falls; E.U. asks Assad to step down.(AlArabiya).Russia warned on Wednesday that “terrorist organizations” may arise in Syria should President Bashar al-Assad’s regime fall under pressure from ongoing protests.“If the Syrian government is unable to hold on to power, there is a high probability that radicals and representatives of terrorist organizations will become entrenched,” AFP reported Interfax quoting a top foreign ministry official as saying.Contrary to the Russian reaction, the European Union on Wednesday asked Assad to resign, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported.Russia has been attracting increasing international anger over its continued support for Syria despite a government crackdown on protests that the United Nations estimates have killed around 2,600 people.Moscow has refused to support Western sanctions against its Soviet-era ally and argues that equal pressure should also be placed on protesters who refuse to engage Assad in direct talks.President Dmitry Medvedev last week also said that some of those taking part in the Syrian demonstration had links to “terrorists.”The foreign ministry’s new challenges and threats department chief Ilya Rogachyov said that Libya could become another safe haven for extremist groups following the fall of Moamer Kadhafi.“Strange things are happening in Libya,” Interfax quoted Rogachyov as saying during a lecture in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg.“Weapons storages have been burgled and no one knows what happened,” he said. “We can say with a high degree of probability that the weapons fell into the hands of the regional department of Al-Qaeda.”Russia heavily criticized the NATO-led campaign against Qaddafi’s forces after abstaining on a UN vote that authorized the action.Arab League states on Tuesday called for “immediate change” in Syria and an end to the violence after months of a government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters opposed to Assad’s rule. Meanwhile, Syria rejected the league’s statement and described it as "hostile." Read the full story here.

• Maccabi Tel Aviv playing in Turkey.(IsraelMatzav).A lot of people are worried - really worried - about Maccabi Tel Aviv's soccer match (they insist on calling it 'football') in the Istanbul suburb of Besiktas on Thursday evening. The players were met at the airport by 2,500 policemen, the team has hired an additional security company and has asked UEFA - the European Football Federation - to send a representative, and Israeli fans who insisted violating the National Security Council directive by going to the game have been told not to wear the Maccabi yellow and blue to the stadium. Hmmmmm......I think it's a really bad idea to have such a soccer match in Turkey,it might turn out worse than the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 4.9 and 4.9 in Guam ! More info here.

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

• Hurricane Katia : Latest Updates here.

• From the MEMRI 9/11 Documentation Archives: MEMRI Films Presents 'The Arab and Iranian Reaction to 9/11: Five Years Later' – Narrated by Acclaimed Actor Ron Silver.(Memri).Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has been monitoring, translating, and recording statements from the Arab and Iranian media about what took place on that day. Among these statements are conspiracy theories, by prominent journalists, members of academia, leading religious figures, and even Arab government officials, about what "really" happened.To mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks, MEMRI produced a film and a book exposing conspiracy phenomena surrounding these events in the Arab and Iranian media. The MEMRI Films documentary, focusing on the Arab and Iranian reaction to 9/11, includes footage from various television and satellite television channels in the Middle East, was narrated by the late acclaimed actor Ron Silver.

To view the film on the MEMRI website, visit www.memrifilms.org.

To view the entire film, visit http://www.memrifilms.org/9-11-five-years-later.php

Part I, visit http://www.memrifilms.org/videos/9-11-part-1.mpg

Part II, visit http://www.memrifilms.org/videos/9-11-part-2.mpg.

Part III, visit http://www.memrifilms.org/videos/9-11-part-3.mpg.

Read and see the full story here.

• Why Hasn't KSM Been Tried Yet? (Hint: Obama).The Washington Times has a story today about the slow progress in the effort to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a military court. It seems that delays may continue for months or even years.The cause of the latest delays? President Obama.Buried DEEP within the story lies the truth about Obama's meddling:
  
  Retired Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, a former top legal adviser to the commission convening authority, said that while Mr. Holder was mulling the KSM case, President Obama changed the Manual for Military Commissions by executive order in 2010. The change requires that defendants facing capital charges in military tribunals have access to a “learned counsel” — a lawyer experienced in death penalty cases.
  
  “Much of the time since April has been consumed by finding ‘learned counsel’ and going through the process to secure such counsel the requisite security clearance,” Gen. Hemingway said.Source: Washington Times
  He can't hide behind Holder on this one because of the executive order. Hope! Change! Read the full story here.

• MUST READ:: FBI Releases Image of Man Wanted For 911 Threats (SHARE WIDELY).(Vinienco).This is believed to be one of the men counter terrorism chiefs say are plotting a terrorist attack in America on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11. An image of American-born 22-year-old Jude Kenan Mohammad has been posted on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. He has been linked to what officials have called a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaeda threat to set off a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington. Mohammad is among three al-Qaeda leaders that investigators believe pose a particular threat because they have lived in the U.S. Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can. Mohammad, who was born in Florida, dropped out of North Carolina’s Fuquay-Varina High School in 2006 and left the U.S. two years later to visit Pakistan, his father’s homeland. A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted him and seven other men in 2009 on charges that they conspired to carry out terrorist activities around the world. Two of the men have pleaded guilty, and the trial of four others is set for September 19 in New Bern. Federal authorities have never arrested Mohammad in the case, saying that they believe he has been in Pakistan since the indictment was issued.Hmmmm.....He doesn't look like the guys in the DHS videos(White,middleaged)?Read and see the full story here.

• Obama Using “Jobs” Plan to Pay for Campaigning.By Keith Koffler.This is really so annoying. Obama is campaigning on your dime again.Ostensibly, he’s headed out into the hinterland to “discuss the bipartisan proposals to grow the economy and create jobs as part of the American Jobs Act he unveiled in an address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday,” as the White House puts it.But really he’s using this new “jobs” bill as an excuse to campaign in key swing states. Since the travel is billed as “official business,” taxpayers pick up the tab. So all expenses get added to the national debt.The SOJA – or the Save Obama’s Job Act, aka The American Jobs Act – now serves two main purposes: to put Republicans on the spot to support the bill or risk being stigmatized by Obama as job killers; and to help the president reach voters. It’s effect on the economy will be marginal at best.Today, Obama appeared in Virginia, flying to Richmond, the “Dixie” part of the state where he needs votes to add to the majorities he’ll likely get in Northern Virginia, which is demographically part of the Northeast.On Tuesday he’s off to Columbus, Ohio, supposedly again to urge congressional action on his proposals.And, the White House just announced, he’ll be in the Raleigh-Durham area Wednesday,Virginia + Ohio + North Carolina = 46 electoral votes Obama desperately needs in states where the presidential hand to hand combat will be brutal.Hmmmm...."I Feel your pain"Thanks for paying my bills,Save Obama’s Job .Read the full story here.

• "Indoctrination 101" : Pictures of a 3rd-Grader's Social Studies Text Book.(DougRoss).Wondering whether elementary school students are truly indoctrinated in the left wing agenda? Well, wonder no more. They are; and it's worse -- far worse -- than you can possibly imagine.Consider, if you will, McGraw-Hill's Our Democratic Heritage, a textbook designed for third-graders and published in 2010. If you'd assume that it was intended to teach kids about America's founding and its institutions of government, you'd assume wrong.The book is a veritable cornucopia of left wing spin.

There is but one sentence devoted to the Bill of Rights. It reads, "These rights [of citizens] are listed in the part of the U.S. Constitution called the Bill of Rights".

• Two pages cover the Declaration of Independence

• Two pages describe the Constitution, all of which are devoted to the three branches of government and separation of powers

• No pages are devoted to James Madison and the authors of the Constitution; there is no mention of federalism

• Six pages are spent describing the background of Paul Revere

• Ten pages are devoted to the history of democracy in ancient Greece.

• George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are mentioned only in passing, almost as if they are immaterial scenery on the road to diversity and social Utopia.

In the section entitled "America's Freedom Fighters":

• Eight pages are spent covering the life of Frederick Douglass

• Five pages on Susan B. Anthony

• Six pages on Mary McLeod Bethune,

• Zero pages are devoted to the life of Abraham Lincoln

In fact, the entire Civil War is described only as a backdrop to the lives of Frederick Douglas and Mary McLeod Bethune.

In the section entitled "The Fight for Freedom Continues":

• Seven pages are spent on praise for FDR (including 2 pages on Pearl Harbor)

• Six pages on Eleanor Roosevelt

• Six pages are devoted to Thurgood Marshall

• Six pages are spent on LBJ's life and the wondrous effects of "Great Society"

• Six pages are spent on Cesar Chavez and the lionization of the labor movement

There is no list of American Presidents.There is no mention of the two-party system, nor the fact that there exists a group called "The Republican Party".And there is no mention of a Republican President other than Abraham Lincoln, who merits but a picture and a single sentence. In fact, you would not know from reading this book that there ever was a Republican President.A total of four paragraphs are spent describing World War II. There is no mention of President Harry S. Truman or of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan to mercifully end World War II.There is, of course, no mention of Ronald Reagan.One of the goals we Constitutional conservatives must have is to regain control of our public school systems, which appear to be -- if this book is any indication -- completely out of control.Hmmmm......Indoctrination 101.Read and see the full story here.

• Congress expands Fast and Furious probe to White House.(LATimes).Congressional investigators reviewing the failed gun-tracking program Operation Fast and Furious have formally asked the Obama administration to turn over copies of "all records" involving three key White House national security officials and the program, other ATF gun cases in Phoenix, and all communications between the White House and the ATF field office in Arizona. The letter signed Friday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was sent to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon, a top aide to President Obama. It marks a significant step in the committee's investigation into the failed gun-tracking operation, as the committee begins to broaden its investigation from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and targets White House and Department of Justice officials. This material, Issa and Grassley said, "will enable us to determine the extent of the involvement of White House staff in Operation Fast and Furious." White House officials, along with those at the Justice Department, said they have been cooperating in the widening probe, begun earlier this year when several ATF whistleblowers alerted Congress that Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene of the slaying of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. A White House official said that "no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk." The official, who asked not to be identified Friday because the case is continuing, also said White House staffers and some members of Congress, including Issa, were given Fast and Furious briefings as early as April of 2010, but not about the investigative tactics of the operation. "These e-mail exchanges show nothing more than an effort to give local color to a policy initiative that was designed to give more resources to help with the border problem," the official added. Under the program, ATF agents allowed illegal gun purchases and hoped to track the weapons to Mexican cartel leaders. But most of the more than 2,000 firearms were lost. Hundreds have reportedly turned up in Mexican crime scenes, two at the shooting where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed, and a semi-automatic was used in an altercation and assault with police in Maricopa, Ariz. The congressional letter comes after a series of emails surfaced last week showing that William D. Newell, the ATF field supervisor in Phoenix during Fast and Furious, was in routine contact with Kevin O'Reilly, then the White House director of North American Affairs for the National Security Council. The emails discussed a broad range of gun-trafficking investigations on the Southwest Border, and White House officials have since acknowledged that the cases were part of Fast and Furious. The White House has said that O'Reilly forwarded the emails to two other White House officials – Dan Restrepo, special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the NSC, and Greg Gatjanis, director for Terrorist Finance and Counternarcotics, Counterterrorism Policy, also on the NSC. In their letter, Issa and Grassley discussed a new email in which Newell told O'Reilly about a specific case that ATF agents had been aware of for three months involving a 22-year-old illegal gun purchaser whom the ATF allowed to buy nearly 700 firearms. The purchaser was on food stamps and, Newell said in a follow-up email to O'Reilly, "when a 22-year-old kid on State financial assistance walks into a gun store and plops down $12,000 in cash to buy a tripod mounted .50 caliber rifle that's a clue (even for us) that he's involved in trafficking firearms for a Mexican DTO [cartel].' According to Issa and Grassley, that exchange of information makes it "clear that the case Mr. Newell and Mr. O'Reilly were communicating about was Fast and Furious."The letter requests all emails, documents, briefing papers and handwritten notes involving O'Reilly, Restrepo and Gatjanis during the Fast and Furious period, which ran for 15 months between fall 2009 and January 2011. The committee also wants to personally interview O'Reilly by the end of this month.Hmmmmm.......Gunwalker 'These boots are made for walking,one of these days these biooots will walk all over you'.Read the full story here.

• Officials investigate missing ammo at Fort Bragg.(Fox).FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Officials at Fort Bragg say an investigation is under way into the disappearance of nearly 14,000 rounds of ammunition at the Army base. Staff Sgt. Joshua Ford, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, says the ammunition went missing from the 1st Brigade Combat Team at Fort Bragg. The Fayetteville Observer reports that Ford believed the ammunition was taken overnight on Tuesday. The 1st Brigade team was placed on lockdown for a few hours Wednesday night while officials conducted a search. The missing ammunition can be used in an M-4 or M-16 assault rifle. Ford says the 82nd Airborne Division and military police are taking the matter seriously and that "any amount of ammunition that goes missing" has "got to be accounted for."Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Report: Islamists Drive 75 Percent of Plots Against U.S.(IPT).Three-quarters of post 9/11 plots targeting the United States at home and abroad are associated with radical Islamists, a new study finds.The study, which analyzes 176 failed terrorist plots against U.S. targets, was conducted by Erik J. Dahl, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Cal., in conjunction with the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) program at the University of Maryland.The remaining 25 percent, according to the paper, are plots by right wing, anti-government groups.The study concludes that many plots have been successfully prevented because of basic law enforcement efforts and increased intelligence collection. It finds that 45 jihadist plots against U.S. soil since 9/11 were foiled by the work of law enforcement authorities."When it comes to domestic attacks and securing the homeland," Dahl told Daily Beast contributor John Avlon, "what works is really good, old-fashioned policing-law enforcement, tips from the public, police informants – and not so much spies overseas or satellites run by three-letter government agencies."But Dahl said that the government's success in foiling terrorist plots doesn't mean the United States can rest easy. "Everyone in American national security is amazed that we haven't had another 9/11 within America since 9/11," he said. "That's the good news.""But the bad news," he told Avlon, "is that we do see this continuing, steady drumbeat of smaller-scale plots and attempted terrorist attacks. So the threat is definitely not gone."In the days leading up to the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, U.S. officials have said they are particularly worried about smaller-scale, lone wolf attacks."We are concerned about the lone actors that are out there, we are concerned that al Qaeda or others may try to take advantage of the 9/11 anniversary events," White House terrorism advisor John Brennan said Wednesday.President Obama agreed. "The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres…" the President said in an interview with CNN.Reports surfaced Thursday that authorities had been alerted to a "credible" but unconfirmed three-person 9/11 anniversary plot targeting Washington, D.C. and N.Y. The plot appears to break the lone wolf trend. U.S. officials are now saying that al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri initiated the plot.Read the full story here.

• Egypt declares state of alert as Israel ambassador leaves Cairo for Tel Aviv.(Alarabiya).Egypt declared a state of alert Saturday after protesters stormed the building housing Israel’s embassy and clashed with police, while Israel said six of its staff were escorted to safety by Egyptian commandos.Israel flew its ambassador home on Saturday after Egyptians stormed its mission in Cairo, plunging Egypt’s ruling army deeper into its toughest diplomatic crisis since taking over from former President Hosni Mubarak.On Saturday, the Jewish state’s radio confirmed that the ambassador and his senior staff were now in Tel Aviv, but one Israeli official said that the consul will remain in Cairo to maintain the evacuated embassy.The diplomat, identified as the consul for state affairs and Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon’s deputy, will remain in Egypt while Israel weighs a response to overnight demonstrations during which the Cairo office tower housing the mission was overrun, the official said.The United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military aid into Egypt since it made peace with Israel in 1979, voiced concern about the violence after protesters hurled embassy documents and the Israeli flag from windows. Police fired shots in the air and teargas to disperse the crowd. Protesters lit tyres in the street and at least two vehicles were set alight near the embassy, located on the upper floors of a residential apartment block overlooking the Nile.Demonstrators had used hammers, large iron bars and police barricades to tear down the wall outside the embassy building, erected this month by Egyptian authorities after protests over the killing of the five Egyptian border guards in Sinai.Egyptian commandos rescued six Israelis to safety from their Cairo embassy as protesters stormed the building and threw diplomatic papers from a balcony, an Israeli official said on Saturday.“Six people were actually trapped in the embassy and there was a real concern for their lives,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “In the end they were successfully rescued by Egyptian commandos.”Israeli public radio said the six rescued men were security officers.The official said that protesters were elsewhere on the embassy premises while the men were holed up.“There was one wall between them,” he said, adding that Levanon, other staff and dependants had left Egypt earlier.“When the violence got out of hand, some 80 (Israelis) were taken out” of Egypt, he said. “All our people are safe and sound.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a brief statement on Saturday morning that the six had also arrived back in Israel and were well.Meanwhile, on Saturday Israel also tightened security around the Egyptian embassy in the Jewish state.Three people were killed in clashes between police and protesters outside the Israeli embassy and a fourth died of a heart attack, Egyptian hospital sources said on Saturday.It is estimated that around 448 people were injured, according to state television; protesters torched police trucks and attacked regional police headquarters.A senior Israeli official said the attack on his country's embassy in Egypt is a “grave violation” of diplomatic norms and a “blow to peaceful relations” between the two countries.One senior Israeli official said the attack on the embassy in Egypt is a 'grave violation' of diplomatic norms. The official said all the embassy staff except the deputy ambassador left Egypt by Saturday morning. Their departure followed a night of violence during which a mob broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo after tearing down a cement barrier around the building.As dawn broke, about 500 demonstrators remained. Some hurled stones at police and army vehicles and personnel.It was the second big eruption of violence at the embassy since five Egyptian border guards were killed last month during an Israeli operation against gunmen. That incident prompted Egypt briefly to threaten to withdraw its envoy.Levanon left Cairo for Tel Aviv with staff and their families in the early hours of Saturday, an airport source said. Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called a cabinet crisis meeting for early on Saturday.Pulling Israeli diplomats even temporarily out of Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, would shake Israel’s confidence. It is already embroiled in a bitter feud with Turkey, formerly the closest of its few Muslim allies, over treatment of Palestinians.“This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers,” Egyptian political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah told Reuters.Some politicians and activists criticized the violence, even if they backed the anti-Israel demonstration.Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy called for the army to take a “serious stance matching the public anger” towards Israel but said violence sullied the image of Egypt’s uprising.Last month, a man climbed up a flagpole on the building, took down Israel’s flag and replaced it with Egypt’s. Regular protests with such violence followed until the latest flare-up.In response to daily protests, the authorities erected a wall around the building which was quickly defaced with anti-Israel slogans and then painted in Egypt's national colors.Hmmmm......First you give them a bridgehead in the Sinai...than they kick you out.Next Erdogan calls in Cairo for war against israel mission accomplished?Read the full story here.

• Embassy riots: Israeli envoy leaves Egypt - Video.(Ynet).Night drama: Friday's violent clashes at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo continued into the night, leading to a particularly dramatic decision. Israel's Ambassador to Egypt Yitzhak Levanon, some 80 diplomats, their family members and other Israeli staying in Cairo were transferred to the Egyptian capital's airport in a secret operation, under tight security. A special Israel Air Force flight returned the Israeli representatives to the Jewish state, where they landed early Saturday. Another plane, carrying six security guards and embassy staff who were stranded in the embassy, landed in Israel several hours later. The evacuation of the six Israelis by an Egyptian commando force took place early Saturday with a live broadcast to the Foreign Ministry's situation room in Jerusalem. The six reportedly maintained their composure throughout the incident. After the evacuation, Egyptian officials drove the six to the Cairo airport, where they boarded an IAF plane to Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the Israelis stranded in the embassy building three times overnight, praised them and promised to do all in his power to have them rescued safely. "The mob attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt is a serious incident, but could have been worse had the rioters managed to get through the last door and hurt our people," Netanyahu said after the rescue."I'm glad we managed to prevent a disaster and would like to thank US President Obama for his help. I would also like to congratulate all the intelligence officials who helped in the rescue for their excellent work. "The fact that the Egyptian authorities acted with determination and rescued our people should be noted and we extend them our thanks," the prime minister added. "However, Egypt must not ignore the severe injury to the fabric of peace with Israel and such a blatant violation of international norms. We will hold consultations later on." Jerusalem sources defined the attack on the embassy as "a serious incident", and the Foreign Ministry launched opened an emergency headquarters, which was visited by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The ministry is said to be in close contact with the Egyptian authorities. The United States was also involved in efforts to calm tensions in Cairo, with President Barack Obama calling on Egypt Friday to protect Israel's embassy from demonstrators in Cairo, as he spoke by telephone to Prime Minister Netanyahu, officials said. Obama expressed "great concern" over the incident and explained steps Washington was taking in response, including a call on Egypt "to honor its international obligations to safeguard the security of the Israeli Embassy.""The president expressed his great concern about the situation at the Embassy, and the security of the Israelis serving there," a White House statement said. "The President and the Prime Minister agreed to stay in close touch until the situation is resolved."US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later called Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr to urge Egypt to meet its Vienna Convention obligations to protect diplomatic property, a senior State Department official said.Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke to US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and with Dennis Ross, President Obama's emissary to the Middle East. Barak, who discussed the situation in Cairo with Netanyahu and heads of the defense establishment, asked the American officials to help defend the Israeli Embassy against the protestors.Egyptian protesters earlier tore down a security wall outside the embassy before one of them scaled the high-rise building and tore down its flag. Earlier, thousands of protesters had massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand reforms and an end to military trials of civilians. After listening to the weekly Muslim prayer at which they were told it is shameful for Egyptians to "forget their revolution," about 1,000 of them broke off and marched to the Israeli embassy.Hmmmm.......Who's organizing all this violence....The Muslim Brotherhood that Obama supports?Read the full story here.

• Report: Israel may offer military aid to PKK to punish Turkey.(TodaysZaman).Israel's hawkish foreign minister is planning a series of measures to retaliate against Turkey in an apology row, including military aid to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a news report said on Friday.Other planned measures are cooperation with the Armenian lobby in the US in its efforts to win recognition for Armenian claims that 1.5 million Armenians were victims of a genocide campaign in the late Ottoman Empire during the First World War years and to issue a travel warning urging all Israeli military veterans to refrain from traveling to Turkey, according to the report in Yedioth Ahranoth. The travel advisory will also urge Israelis to refrain from boarding connections in Turkey, the report said.The planned measures apparently came out of a meeting attended by senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials on Thursday, which the report said was held in preparation for a meeting on Saturday that will be attended by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a harsh critic of efforts to restore relations with Turkey after Ankara announced a set of sanctions against Israel for its refusal to apologize for the killing of eight Turks and one Turkish American on an aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza on May 31, 2010.Accordingly, Lieberman insists that the Israeli efforts should focus on ways to respond to Turkey's sanctions, not formulating an apology for the 2010 incident, because what Turkey is interested is not an apology but exploiting the dispute with Israel so as to boost its regional standing.Saturday's meeting will reportedly focus on those ways to respond to Turkey.The Turkish government announced last Friday that it downgrades diplomatic relations with Israel and suspends military agreements. It also promised to take measures to ensure freedom of navigation in the eastern Mediterranean, where the 2010 incident took place, without elaborating. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared on Thursday that Turkish warships would escort future convoys to the Gaza Strip to prevent a repeat of the deadly Israeli raid last year.Yedioth Ahranoth said Lieberman plans meetings with PKK leaders in Europe in order to find ways to cooperate with them “in every possible area.”In these meetings, the PKK leaders may ask Israel for military aid in the form of training and arms supplies, the report said.Lieberman is also planning active Israeli participation in efforts worldwide to report Turkey's “violations of human rights” in treatment of minorities in Turkey.“We'll exact a price from Erdoğan that will prove to him that messing with Israel doesn't pay off. Turkey better treat us with respect and common decency,” Lieberman was quoted as saying.Read the full story here.

• Egypt to stop issuing tourist visas on arrival.(Emirates24/7).Egypt is to stop issuing visas to tourists on arrival, a government official said on Friday, although allowances will be made for those travelling in groups.The new regulations have not yet come into effect, and the cabinet is still fine-tuning them, spokesman Mahmud Higazi told AFP.Tourists "will have to apply at embassies and consulates for visas," he said.Tourists from many states, especially Western countries whose nationals contribute the bulk of Egypt's vital tourism revenues, are still allowed to obtain visas on arrival until the new regulations are in place."We want to regulate entry," said Higazi, adding that he could not say when the new instructions will be passed on to airport officials."We are asked for visas everywhere and it is our right to ask for visas. No airport in the world would give me a visa on arrival," he said.Higazi said that tourists travelling in groups will be exempt from the new regulations.Tourism to Egypt's beach resorts and ancient sites is a key money earner and source of foreign currency, but it declined after a January and February revolt that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak.Hmmmm.....coverup the Sfinx , no more bikinis allowed....Who needs tourists?Next.....No Jews allowed?Read the full story here.

• Hundreds injured in clashes after Egypt’s protesters smash wall protecting Israel embassy.(AlArabia).More than 180 people were injured in clashes between protesters and security forces near the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday, Egypt's state TV reported citing the Health Ministry. The clashes came shortly after demonstrators partly destroyed a wall recently built outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protect the building, an AFP correspondent witnessed.Some protesters attempted to sneak into the Israeli embassy through the balcony, while others managed to seize documents from a store affiliated to the embassy, Al Arbiya correspondent said. Around 1,000 people had gathered outside the building housing the mission and attacked the wall with hammers and a large metal bar, as military police nearby did nothing to stop them.They chanted: “Lift your head, you are Egyptian,” according to AFP.One protester took down the Israeli flag from the embassy in a Cairo high-rise, the second such incident in a month, Al Arabiya correspondent said.He threw the flag down to the street some 20 storeys below as thousands of protesters cheered him on.The wall, about two meters (6.5 feet) high, consists of prefabricated cement slabs that were recently installed around the building that houses the embassy overlooking a bridge in Cairo.The Egyptian army hindered an attempt by protesters to break into the Israeli embassy in Cairo, according to Al Arabiya correspondent.Last month, outraged Egyptians staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over the border deaths of Egyptian policemen killed as Israel hunted militants. Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths of the five policemen.During one of the anti-Israeli protests, an Egyptian man scaled the building housing the mission, removed the Jewish state’s Star of David flag and replaced it with Egypt’s colors, as the crowds cheered him on.Egyptian officials said the wall was intended to protect residents of the high-rise embassy building, not the Israeli mission, according to Reuters.The move against the embassy wall came as thousands of Egyptian activists demonstrated in central Cairo demanding faster reforms, ending military trials for civilians.Egyptian police stood aside as activists tore down the concrete wall to the cheers of hundreds of demonstrators.“It is great that Egyptians say they will do something and actually do it,” Egyptian film director and activist Khaled Youssef said, standing among the protesters outside the embassy.“They said they will demolish the wall and they did ... the military council has to abide by the demands of the Egyptian people,” he said, according to Reuters.Israel Radio cut into its Sabbath programming with bulletins about the Cairo demonstrations. Citing Foreign Ministry sources, it said the ambassador was safely at his official residence and that Israel was in contact with Egypt, the United States and European powers about the incident.“Police will not do anything to the protesters and they will be left unharmed to continue demolishing the wall,” one security source said.Hmmm.....Europe and America should cut all financial aid to Egypt.Read the full story here.

• Related - Egyptians storm Israeli Embassy building, remove flag.(YNet).Hundreds of Egyptian activists on Friday demolished parts of the wall erected around a building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protect it against demonstrators.Some of the protesters then stormed the embassy premises and tore down the flag from the building for the second time in less than a month. Eyewitnesses reported that the protesters threw the flag on the street, prompting loud cheers from the mass crowds gathered outside the embassy. Israeli officials stated that the Egyptian protesters broke into the building and managed to reach the floor on which the embassy is located. However, they have not managed to break in through the fortified doors. Sources in Jerusalem called the incident a "grave event," and noted that it is still unclear whether the Egyptian security officers who guard the building fled the scene. The Foreign Ministry opened an emergency command post and is constantly being updated by Egyptian and Israeli authorities in Cairo. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrived at the command post and is being briefed on the latest developments.Israeli officials also reported that no embassy personnel have been injured. Al- Arabiya network reported that at least 180 Egyptians were injured during the clashes outside the embassy building. Al-Jazeera network reported that the Egyptian army is using tear gas canisters in order to disperse the crowds. According to eyewitnesses, crowds climbed the embassy security wall, pummeled it with hammers and tore away large sections of the barrier, which Egyptian authorities erected after daily protests last month sparked by tensions over the death of five Egyptian security personnel in Sinai which Cairo blamed on.The attempt to demolish the wall came after an Egyptian Facebook group called activists to gather outside the Israeli delegation in Cairo and "urinate on the wall." Egyptian groups also called activists to spray graffiti slogans against Israel on the wall and erect a memorial for the soldiers killed during the attack in south Israel.Eyewitnesses said policemen and soldiers stood by as the activists hammered away at the roughly 2.5 metres (8-foot) high wall. Egyptian officials said the wall was intended to protect residents of the high-rise embassy building, not the Israeli mission.The move against the embassy wall came as around 4,000 Egyptian activists demonstrated in central Cairo demanding faster reforms, ending military trials for civilians. Since Mubarak's fall, calls have grown in Egypt for ending the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel, a pact that has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians.Hmmmm....Again Facebook plays an ugly role in riots, a compagny close to the Obama administration.Perhaps it's time for new rules on the use of Facebook?Read the full story here.

• Hamas considering relocating HQ to Cairo.(Ynet).Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar announced Friday that the movement is consierjung relocating its headquarters from Damascus to Cairo. It is the first time a senior Hamas official openly admitted such a plan. "All the Palestinians in Syria are in distress, not just Hamas. There are many options in terms of the organization's headquarters and Egypt is one of them," he said. Al-Zahar also addressed the possibility that other senior Hamas officials will return to Gaza and noted this depended on each of them personally. "Gaza is open to all," he stressed. "There are leaders who may return to Gaza and some may not. " He chose not to respond to recent reports in the London-based al-Hayat newspaper suggesting that progress has been made in the Shalit deal negotiations. Hamas' political wing has been operating out of Damascus for more than a decade after being forced to leave Jordan in 1999. Damascus is also home to Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Shallah, head of the PFLP – General Command Ahmed Jibril and representatives of other Palestinian terror groups.The issue of the group's activities in Damascus has created major difficulties in negotiations between Israel and Syria over the years. Jerusalem has often demanded they be banished from Syria, but was met with refusal. Last April, al-Hayat reported that Hamas' political leadership was planning to relocate to Qatar, which reportedly agreed to host politburo chief Khaled Mashaal but not the group's military echelon. Hmmmm....."Come to Papa?"Only normal considering Hamas came out of the Muslim Brotherhood.Only question where does Obama's support for the Muslim Brotherhood fit in all this?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Persecution of Christians: August, 2011.(Aina).
  Attacks on Christian Symbols: Churches and Bibles
  Indonesia: Two churches were set aflame; officials downplayed these atrocities by arguing that the buildings were "only made of board" and not real churches. A mayor also proclaimed that churches cannot be built on streets with Muslim names, even as Muslim majority regions reject the building of any churches.
  Iran: Officials launched a Bible burning campaign, confiscating and destroying some 7,000 Bibles, many publicly burned. Likening their tiny Christian minority to the "Taliban and parasites," the regime also "cracked down" on Christians (who make up less than 1% of the entire population), arresting many, the whereabouts of which remain unknown.
  Iraq: Two churches were bombed: the first damaged the church and wounded 23; the second damaged the church (a third church was targeted but the bomb was defused before going off).
  Nigeria: Two churches were bombed, including a Baptist church no longer in use due to previous Muslim attacks; when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a third Catholic church was torched.
  
  Apostasy and Forced Conversions
  
  Eritrea: It was revealed that at least eight Christians have died in prisons, most under severe conditions and torture, simply for refusing to recant Christianity.
  
  India: A female who was formerly stripped and beaten by a Muslim mob for converting to Christianity, continues to receive severe threats to return to Islam or die; likewise, Muslims held three Christian women "threatening to beat and burn them alive if they continued worshipping Christ."
  
  Iran: A Christian pastor in Iran remains behind bars, where he is being tortured and awaits execution for refusing to recant Christianity.
  
  Malaysia: Religious police raided a church when they "found evidence of proselytisation towards Muslims" and "receiving information that there were Muslims who attended a breaking-of-fast event at the church"; a Facebook campaign created to support the raid and to "prevent apostasy" has already drawn support from 23,000 people.
  
  Norway: A Muslim convert to Christianity was tortured with boiling water and told by fellow Muslim inmates "If you do not return to Islam, we will kill you"; if deported, he risks death by stoning for leaving Islam.
  
  Pakistan: Muslims openly abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl at gunpoint saying she had to convert to Islam; another Christian woman who was abducted, drugged, and tortured for two years--all while being informed she had converted to Islam--happily made her escape. In both cases, the police, as usual, are siding with the Muslim abductors. Most recently, two Christians returning from church were attacked by Muslims and beaten with iron rods for refusing to convert to Islam or pay "protection" (jizya) money.
  
  Sudan: A 16 year old Christian girl finally escaped from her Muslim kidnappers, who "beat, raped and tried to force her to convert from Christianity to Islam"; whenever she tried to pray, she was beaten again and called an "infidel"; when her mother went to the police, they told her to convert to Islam before they returned her child.
  Uganda: In accordance to Islam's Hanafi School of law, a Muslim father locked his 14-year-old daughter in a room for several months without food or water, simply because she embraced Christianity; when rescued, she weighed 44 pounds.
  
  
  General Oppression, Violence, and Murder of Christians
  
  Bangladesh: Church leaders, including an elderly pastor, were severely beaten in a police station for protesting that Muslims had illegally seized and occupied a Christian home. A previously tortured Christian activist is in hiding in Honk Kong, even as his wife and children face death threats from surrounding Muslims.
  
  Egypt: Soon after breaking their Ramadan fast, thousands of Muslims rampaged a predominantly Christian village, firing automatic weapons, looting and throwing Molotov Cocktails at several homes; they beat a priest, plundering and torching his home; another Copt was murdered in his home, which was also ransacked. Separately, a Copt was savagely attacked by seven Muslims in front of a police station; he lost one eye and required 20 stitches in his head. And girls leaving church were sexually harassed by Muslim who hurled stones at the church shattering five windows.
  
  Nigeria: In what is being called a "silent killing," ten Christians were slain by Muslims seeking to expunge Christianity from northern Nigeria; eyewitnesses insist that the army is assisting and enabling the slayings.
  
  Pakistan: A Christian family consisting of 26 people, including women and children, lived in slavery for over 30 years, forced to labor on a farm belonging to a wealthy Muslim landowner; they only recently managed to regain their freedom, through the aid of the Catholic Church. Separately, a Muslim mob attacked a group of Christians watching a Jesus movie, destroying the projector. A Christian man was beaten unconscious for celebrating Independence Day, told by Muslims "How can you celebrate when you are Christian? Convert to Islam if you want to join the celebration."
  
  Somalia: Al-Shabab ("the youthintentionally preventing food aid from reaching the nation's miniscule Christian minority: "Any Somali that the Islamists suspect to be a Christian, or even a friend of Christians, does not receive any food aid."
  
  Sudan: A "humanitarian crisis is unfolding" in Sudan's border region where Christians and their churches are being targeted in a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by North Sudan's Islamist regime.
  
  United Kingdom: A Muslim family was terrorized and threatened with death because their daughter married a Christian, a crime according to Sharia.
  
  Uzbekistan: Authorities continue to pressure churches and Christians, fabricating evidence to punish or limit Christians' ability to practice their faith, and subjecting them to excessive fines, false accusations, and confiscating their Christian literature.
  
  These were just some of the stories of Christian suffering under Islam that made it to a few non mainstream media last month.
  
  Then there are the countless atrocities that never make it to any media--the stories of persistent, quiet misery that only the victims know--such as the recent revelation that a 2-year-old girl was savagely raped in Pakistan because her Christian father refused to convert to Islam: it took five years for this story to surface. How many are the tales of woe that never surface?Read the full story here.