Former US amb to Azerbaijan “Sending gas to Europe doesn’t make commercial sense for Iran”

After Iran 'used' the EU: “Sending gas to Europe doesn’t make commercial sense for Iran” (Taz).

Sending gas to Europe doesn’t make commercial sense for Iran, says Matthew Bryza, former US assistant secretary for South Caucasus and former US ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Speaking to Trend Oct. 19, Bryza, who is also the director of the Tallinn-based International Centre for Defense Studies, said there are countries all around Iran, such as UEA, Oman, and Kuwait, which need gas.

“There are other countries that would like to buy Iranian gas, and it is a lot cheaper, a lot easier, and you don’t need to build that infrastructure, you just send it to your neighbors,” he said.
Bryza says it is unlikely that Iran’s gas will go to Europe because economically it doesn’t make much sense.

”There is not enough infrastructure now to get it [gas] to Turkey, and down to Europe, so there has to be a lot of investment in that infrastructure,” he said.

Bryza also noted that if the demand in Europe goes up, if Iran produces gas beyond the volume consumed in its neighborhood, and if sanctions on the Islamic Republic are lifted, it is possible that Iran’s gas will go to Europe.

Speaking further about the prospects for implementation of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, he said the project is now more promising than it has ever been.

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is projected to deliver Turkmenistan’s energy resources to European market.

The gas pipeline is intended to run through the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan. From there on, Turkmenistan’s hydrocarbons can reach Turkey, which shares a border with Europe.

Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline can be realized as part of a major project for the Southern Gas Corridor, which is meant to deliver the Caspian gas, in particular Azerbaijan’s gas, to Europe. Read the full story here.

Russian - Turkish Stream to be considered by European Commission

Russian - Turkish Stream to be considered by European Commission. (Taz).

The Turkish Stream project will be considered by the European Commission, the Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic, who is in charge of Energy Union, told reporters Feb.12, commenting on the possibilities of the project.

“The Turkish Stream has been announced recently, and we will consider how much gas they want to transport to Europe,” he said. “Southern Gas Corridor is already much more developed and is the main source of diversification of gas supplies to Europe.”

He said that the EU should examine all long-term contracts with Gazprom and other companies, which may change, so all the details should be discussed.

Russia announced the closure of the South Stream gas pipeline project in early December 2014. This pipeline was to run through the Black Sea and deliver fuel to Balkan states, as well as Hungary, Austria and Italy through Bulgaria.

The Russian side said it abandoned the project due to the non-constructive position of the European Union as well. Instead of the South Stream, it was decided to construct a pipe to Turkey and create a gas hub on its border with Greece for the consumers in Southern Europe.

Russian Gazprom and Turkish Botas companies have already defined the route of the new gas pipeline. The gas pipeline will pass 660 kilometers in the old corridor of South Stream and 250 kilometers in the new corridor in the direction of the European part of Turkey.

Plans are to sign an intergovernmental agreement on the gas pipeline in Q2 of 2015 and to supply the first gas in December 2016.

The Southern Gas Corridor will allow Europe to diversify its hydrocarbon supply sources and strengthen energy security and also will allow Azerbaijan to obtain a new market in Europe. Hmmm.....Who in his right mind would trust two dictators like Putin and Erdogan to provide your Natural gas?

Related: Southern Gas Corridor to help Europe achieve its strategic objective

Baku denies Reports Israel at the gates of Iran.

Baku denies Reports Israel at the gates of Iran.(RT).Baku has denied reports that an agreement has been reached between Azerbaijan and Israel, granting the latter air base access for potential strikes on Iran. A spokesman from the Azeri defense ministry said the claims are “absurd and groundless”. ­Senior official in Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration Ali Gasanov called the reports a provocation. He told journalists that “certain international organizations and media structures under their control are intentionally increasing tensions around Iran” in order to worsen relations between his country and Iran. Gasanov also reiterated “that there will be no actions against Iran… from the territory of Azerbaijan" – and that they won’t allow such speculation to damage ties between Baku and Tehran. These statements come on the back of a Foreign Policy report that claimed cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel was "heightening the risks of an Israeli strike on Iran".
Blogger Carl in Jerusalem was the first to doubt this developping story, as he wrote:Is this plausible? Sure it is. I've run similar stories involving speculation about Azerbaijan and other countries (Georgia, India and Cyprus) being involved in an Israeli attack on Iran. And I've even reported that Israel stores planes in Azerbaijan (which doesn't quite fit with this story, but is close).

But I'm skeptical. It's probably a fantasy. You see, the author is Mark Perry . Mark Perry is a former aide to Yasser Arafat.This guy has AGENDA written all over him. Anything written by him about Israel is suspect. Anything.Read the full story here.

'Baku grants Israel use of its air bases', Obama Admin:"we're not happy about it,".

'Baku grants Israel use of its air bases', Obama Admin:"we're not happy about it,".(JPost).
Azerbaijan has granted Israel access to airbases in its territory along Iran's northern border for potential use in a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, a report published Wednesday in Foreign Policy magazine quoted senior US officials as saying. "The Israelis have bought an airfield," an official said, "and the airfield is called Azerbaijan."Even if Israel doesn't use the fields for a direct air strike on Iran, Azerbaijan could still prove useful for Jerusalem's interests in the region. The bases could be used as a jumping point for IDF search-and-rescue units, the report quoted a US intelligence official as saying. According to the Foreign Policy report by journalist Mark Perry, the Obama administration believes the Jerusalem-Baku relationship is raising the risk of an Israeli strike on Iran. Senior US officials have said that Israel's military expansion into Azerbaijan is complicating US efforts to defuse Israeli-Iranian tensions. "We're watching what Israel is doing in Azerbaijan. And we're not happy about it," one official said. The relationship between Israel and the predominantly Muslim country on Iran's northern border is believed to be robust. The Foreign Policy report quoted a 1995 article in The Jerusalem Post as saying bilateral relations started in 1994 and have blossomed ever since. "Strauss ice cream, cell phones produced by Motorola's Israeli division, Maccabi beer, and other Israeli imports are ubiquitous [in Azerbaijan]," the Jerusalem Post article stated. The unlikely bilateral relationship has taken center stage in the media this year. In January, Azeri authorities implicated an Iranian citizen in a plot to kill Jewish teachers at a Jewish school in Baku. A report published last month in The Times of London said that Azerbaijan is teeming with Mossad agents working to collect intelligence on the Islamic Republic of Iran, quoting an unnamed agent as saying that Baku was "ground zero for intelligence work." Later in the month, Israeli officials confirmed a $1.6 billion defense deal with Baku that will see Jerusalem supplying the former Soviet state with unmanned aerial vehicles and missile defense systems.
SIPRI reports that the $1.6-billion arms deal, signed between Azerbaijan and Israel in 2011, envisages the purchase by Baku of the Barak-8 missile system, 75 Barak-8 missiles, the EL/M-2080 Green Pine radar, Gabriel-5 anti-ship missile, five Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and five Searcher UAVs.How accurate is this information? Almost all the information we have regarding Israeli arms sales to Azerbaijan is uncertain. It has been widely reported that the Israeli company IAI signed a deal worth USD1.6 billion with Azerbaijan in late 2011/early 2012, but the exact content of the deal is still not known. Reports generally agree that at least one Green Pine radar is included. However, whereas it has been widely reported that the deal includes SAM systems, anti-ship missiles and UAVs we still lack sufficient independent reports to confirm which exact types are involved and how many. Therefore the information about the Barak-8, the Gabriel-5, the Herons and the Searchers are all estimates, both regarding type and numbers involved. It is entirely possible that the deal includes other weapons too. It's important to point out that Azerbaijan has acquired a whole range of other weapons from several suppliers, not just the recent deal with Israel. I attach a register of major arms procured by Azerbaijan in the period 2007-2011. The register only shows transfers of major arms as defined by SIPRI. There are other significant projects ongoing, e.g. the modernization of T-72 tanks by Israeli companies. Also all indications are that Azerbaijan plans substantial further arms procurement in the coming years. Earlier this month, Azerbaijani police arrested 22 people, including one Iranian citizen, suspected of plotting attacks against US and Israeli targets across the country. Baku tied the plot to Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

   Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Russia 5.5 ; Vanuatu 5.3 and New Zealand 5.1 ! More info here.

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

• Obamacare Has No CLASS: Administration Admits Entitlement Program Unsustainable.(BigGovernment).The Obama administration has admitted that it cannot move forward with a major feature of Obamacare, its long-term care insurance program, due to the fact that it contains a critical design flaw.The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, known as CLASS, a pet program of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D- Massachusetts), was to have been sponsored by the federal government but maintained as a voluntary plan to which healthy, younger, working Americans would contribute in the event they became disabled later on in life. Participants would have paid a monthly premium that ranged widely between $235-$3000, depending on income, during their employment years, and then collected a daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled.The tragic flaw in the plan is that unless large numbers of healthy people are willing to sign up for the program during their working years, the cost of the program would become prohibitive due to the needs of the disabled who would benefit from the plan. Unlike the purchase of long term care insurance in the private sector, CLASS did not offer lower premiums to healthier participants. Thus, the program attracted those who were already disabled in some way, yet able to work to some extent, and who anticipated the need for long term care in the future. Without healthy subscribers paying into the system, these individuals would not likely be able to afford the steep premiums.Not surprisingly, if the program had survived, it would have ultimately been “too big to fail” and required a tax bailout. Congressional Republicans intend to repeal CLASS, which, according to the Heritage Foundation was “poorly designed, and actuaries criticized it as being unsustainable well before the passage of Obamacare.”Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, who had argued for some time that the flaw in the program could be fixed, announced on Friday that the plan could not, in fact, be saved–a situation that was met by significant protest on the part of liberal seniors’ lobby, AARP, and union leaders. Supporters of CLASS wrote a letter to President Obama, urging him to use his “authority,” provided to him under his signature legislation, to “make necessary changes to the design of CLASS to make it work. We fully expect the administration to go forward and use that authority in implementing the law.”It is almost incredible that the Obama administration entertained the notion that CLASS would actually work. In fact, it is questionable whether the White House ever expected it to survive or if it just threw the program into Obamacare as a bone to its base, never intending to make it viable. In essence, CLASS was really an entitlement within an entitlement, another entire Social Security program built into a government health insurance plan.Of course, when AARP and the unions wrote the president, asking him to use his “authority” to make CLASS work, we can be assured that what they were urging is for the program to become mandatory rather than voluntary.All of Obamacare must be repealed, but the fact that its authors now admit CLASS is unsustainable is a major victory for taxpayers and freedom lovers alike.Read the full story here.

• Most transparant Administration Evah!Obama administration appeals ruling on White House visitor logs.(Politico).The Obama administration is appealing a judge's ruling that Secret Service records of visitors to the White House complex are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.The Justice Department filed a formal notice of appeal Friday afternoon regarding U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell's August ruling rejecting arguments that the so-called WAVES records belong to the White House even though they are maintained and used by the Secret Service.The decision to appeal the ruling to the D.C. Circuit would appear to be in tension with Obama's repeated pledges to operate the most transparent administration in history. The White House announced in Sept. 2009 that it was voluntarily releasing the names of most White House visitors from Sept. 15 forward. However, the conservative group Judicial Watch sought information on visits before that date.The position taken by the Obama Justice Department, namely that White House visitor records are presidential records and not agency records, is essentially the same one that the department took under President George W. Bush.Howell did not rule that every White House visit had to be disclosed. However, she concluded that all the data had to be made public unless the government asserted a specific exemption from FOIA, such as provisions protecting national security and privacy.There was no immediate comment on the appeal from the White House or the Justice Department.Read the full story here.

• Holder Knew About Fast and Furious, Before He Didn’t Know About It.(BigGovernment).On March 24, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden made the following announcement: “The President has directed us to take action to fight [Mexican] cartels…and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan.”Note: From the moment this announcement begins, “the President” and “Attorney General Holder” are both involved in some capacity.The announcement continued by saying the DEA was going to increase its presence in Mexico and on the border, and that the ATF was using $10 million from the stimulus funds to add “37 new employees and 3 new offices” and “redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days, to fortify its project gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico.”Of course, this dovetails perfectly with Holder’s speech in Mexico on April 2, 2009, where he literally referred back to Ogden’s announcement in describing the focus on the southern border and project gunrunner:

Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail. (emphasis mine)To date, Holder & Co. have dodged questions on these speeches and announcements by saying Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious were two different things. Thus, his knowledge of one doesn’t necessitate knowledge of the other. Of course this isn’t plausible, because Gunrunner and Fast & Furious were both parts of the same overarching “comprehensive plan.” They were two sides of the same coin.(In fact, to say you knew about one without knowing about the other would be like a football coach saying, “I have knowledge of the plays we run on first and ten, but not on third and long.” Such an excuse won’t work because first down plays and third down plays are part of an overarching game plan that the coaches win or lose by together.The attempt to split the two up, and thereby construct some some wall of ignorance that protects Holder from knowing about Fast and Furious, is exactly what’s making it so hard for the AG and Obama to keep their stories straight.Thus, while Holder claims he only learned of Fast and Furious in the “few weeks” prior to May 3^rd, in March 2011 Obama made a statement which at least alluded to a conversation about Fast and Furious and gun walking he’d had with Holder, whom Obama said “has been very clear that he knew nothing about this.”Folks, there are serious problems here.

Number one, Holder had to know about Fast and Furious – he had to at least have been told about it – in order to deny involvement in it before Obama made his statement in March 2011.

Problem number two, Holder’s reason for distancing himself from Fast and Furious was the gun walking aspect of it. But we’ve all read Ogden’s announcement and Holders’ speech, where both men mention Gunrunner as part of the overarching comprehensive plan.

The bottom line: Holder knew about Fast and Furious before he didn’t know about it. And he bragged about the gun walking plan on April 2, 2009.The lies surrounding this operation are so blatant, so bald, that even writing on the story can be infuriating.Hmmmm........The proverbial writing is not on the wall..... it's a gunrack attached to the wall.Read the full story here.

• Why Is The FBI Recording Talk Radio?(PrisonPlanet).The Department of Homeland Security has specifically listed “rightwing extremist activity” as a potential threat that needs to be monitored.

- If you call in to the Alex Jones Show or hundreds of other talk radio stations around the country that maintain a web presence, there is a good chance the FBI will recorded you.Mark Weaver, writing for WMAL talk radio in Washington, D.C., reports that the FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record all the internet broadcast talk radio it can find.“This doesn’t give us any enhanced capability, prying into or any ‘big brother’ concerns because this is information that’s being put out on the airwaves,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told WMAL.com. “Its very important to our investigators to know what’s being reported.”In order to make his point, Bresson cited the Times Square non-bomber. “It’s ideal for cases like that because we can extract information that’s already been reported and help our investigators make better decisions."If you believe this explanation, I have a bridge to sell you.The FBI has functioned since its inception as a national political police force used by the establishment to monitor and if need be “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” (according to the late J. Edgar Hoover) political organizations and individuals deemed a threat to the establishment.Talk radio – especially “right-wing” talk radio – poses just such a threat.The Department of Homeland Security has specifically listed “rightwing extremist activity” as a potential threat that needs to be monitored.In 2009, the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) released an internal report listing then presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and advised police to be on the lookout for their supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.Recording talk radio has nothing to do with news reports about the supposed Times Square bomber – who was, after all, under surveillance by the FBI at the time he supposedly drove a car filled with fireworks and barbeque grill gas canisters into Times Square – but instead it is designed as yet another effort to monitor the political opposition and (by telling the media about it) as a way to intimidate and make you paranoid when you call into talk radio shows.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Obama has placed more calls to Erdoğan than to any other world leader this year.(TodaysZaman).International relations experts agree the United States and Turkey’s well-established alliance and Turkey’s ascent in the international arena explain why President Barack Obama has chatted with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan more than almost any other world leader despite fissures in a number of policy areas and differences between the two leaders’ governing styles.The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Obama has placed more calls to Erdoğan than to any other world leader this year next to British Prime Minister David Cameron.“It is remarkable to hear how often they speak,” former New York Times bureau chief in İstanbul Stephen Kinzer told Sunday’s Zaman in an exclusive interview. “I think that it’s due above all not to a personal relationship between the two but to Obama’s realization of the role that Turkey has come to play in the region and in the wider world. He understands what Turkey has become, and I think he understands Turkey’s potential to project into other Muslim countries ideals the West would like to see projected but cannot do itself,” Kinzer explained.David L. Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, called Erdoğan and Obama’s governing styles “diametrically opposite.”“Obama is a consensus-builder, while Erdoğan is emotional and able to act singularly based on conditions,” Phillips, who is also a fellow at Harvard University’s Project on the Future of Diplomacy, said in remarks to Sunday’s Zaman.Kinzer agreed, arguing that the two leaders often get themselves in a bind because of their temperaments: “Erdoğan is decisive to the point of arrogance, while Obama is weak to the point of appeasement and eternal compromise.” While Obama is understated to the point that it outrages many of his supporters, Erdoğan’s prickly sense of honor and feisty temper have presented problems both at home and in international affairs, Kinzer argued.But Sunday’s Zaman Washington correspondent Ali H. Aslan and former adviser to the prime minister İbrahim Kalın argued that Erdoğan and Obama are more similar than some may think.Dr. Joshua Walker, assistant professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond and currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University, described the two leaders’ steady alliance. “Obama and Erdoğan are very different leaders with differing approaches and styles, yet they have been able to develop a crucial relationship built on pragmatism and trust.”One such road bump in the two countries’ relations has been the row between Israel and Turkey that began last year when Israel attacked a Turkish ship that was part of an international humanitarian aid flotilla. During Erdoğan’s Arab Spring tour, he blasted Israel and called for Palestine’s full membership as a UN member.Phillips argues that the conflict between its two allies has been particularly trying the US government’s patience. “There is nothing wrong with Erdoğan’s championing the Palestinian cause, but it is not necessary to go out of his way when he wants to pick a fight with Israel. This confrontational approach puts the US in an awkward position with two important allies and runs the risk of an incident that could spiral out of control.”But according to Aslan, Obama is not exactly happy with Israel, either. “They [the Obama administration] have continuously encouraged Israel to fulfill Turkey’s conditions, but they have not been able to convince the [Israeli] administration. Obama has had a hard time working with the current Israeli leadership,” he said.Obama’s frequently logged calls to Erdoğan, whom Kinzer jokingly referred to as “Obama’s second best friend,” have not gone unnoticed by the US leader’s opposition, Kinzer remarked. Plus, while foreign policy does not tend to play a major role in US elections, the former NYT İstanbul bureau chief said Israel is one issue that always seems to pop up. “I suspect that among all of the accusations Obama’s opposition will throw at him will be the accusation that he is friendly with a country and a leader who is not a cheerleader for Israel,” Kinzer speculated.But Aslan disagreed, arguing that Turkey is not usually a major issue in elections. “We just had the Republican debate, and there was not much reference to Turkey. Some may criticize Obama in the coming months for his relationship with Turkey while it is fighting with Israel, but everything depends on future developments,” he said.While Dr. Walker, who is also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, called the US-Turkish relationship far more complicated than just between two leaders, he added that Erdoğan and Obama have brought the two countries as close as they can. “They have a similar understanding of the world and a flexible pragmatism that guides their policies and relationships.Hmmmm....."The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers".Both share the same love for Israel.Read the full story here.

• Turkey won't recognize Greek Cyprus as EU presidency.(TodaysZaman).Turkey's prime minister says his country will not sit at the table with Greek Cyprus if it assumes the European Union's presidency before a deal reunifying the ethnically split island is reached.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has already warned that Turkey will freeze its relations with the 27-nation bloc if Greek Cyprus takes over its rotating presidency in July 2012. He said that Turkey will not deal with a "so-called country." Turkey does not recognize the divided island nation as a sovereign nation. Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek-speaking south and Turkish-speaking north in 1974 when Turkey intervened after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only the Greek section is part of the EU. Erdoğan spoke Saturday during a televised address to members of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the town of Kızılcahamam, near the Turkish capital of Ankara. He reiterated Turkey's wish that a unified Greek Cyprus takes over the EU presidency.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.
  
• Obama admin wants to see Turkey as member of EU.(NewsAZ).A Spokesperson for the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, said on Friday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu discussed Iran during phone conversation.Nuland told a daily press briefing that Clinton informed Davutoglu on an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir during the conversation.Replying to a question on the European Commission's progress report on Turkey, Nuland said that the United States has been supporting Turkey's eagerness to join the EU. The United States wanted to see Turkey as a member of the EU, Nuland said.Clinton also said that she would attend a meeting of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations in Washington at end of this month, but Davutoglu told her that he could not attend this meeting due to his schedule and a conference on Afghanistan that would take place in Istanbul at the beginning of November.Davutoglu told Clinton that he hoped to meet with her during the conference in Istanbul.Meanwhile, Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj also called Davutoglu on the phone and the two ministers discussed the latest developments in Balkans.Hmmmmm.........Read the full story here.

• Germany prevents Turkey to sell T-155 artillery system to Azerbaijan.(NewsAZ).Despite the obstacles created by some European companies, Turkey insists on selling T-155 Fırtına self-propelled howitzer to Azerbaijan.The statement came from Turkey’s Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar said.Though Azerbaijan and Turkey reached an agreement on purchase and sale of Firtina self-propelled howitzer, according to the reports there are some technical problems in the project. Germany’s MTU company, which is providing Firtina with engine, refused to provide with engine the self-propelled howitzer that will be sold to Azerbaijan. Yonca-Onuk company, which is going to sell boats to Azerbaijan, has faced similar problem.“As a brotherly country we have assumed the solution of this problem,” Bayar said.According to Murad Bayar, Turkey is considering two new variants on export of weapons to Azerbaijan. One of them is the purchase of engine from another country.“Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation is considering alternative variants. The second variant is the production of engine in Turkey. We have started work for the production of engines in Turkey. It will take approximately four or five years. There will be no problems after that,” he said.Bayar also added that T-155 “Firtina” system was a very strong weapon. Azerbaijan will gain the additional power by including it to the weapon inventory. The Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation’s (MKEK) CEO Unal Onsipahioglu said that the problem was on the eve of its settlement: “The engine and transmission problems of the artillery system have been solved and the alternative company was found”.Germany’s MTU Company which provided “Firtina” with engine, refused to give an engine to Azerbaijan because of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.Hmmmm.....All Turkish moves with Obama approval?Read the full story here.

• Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap deal may be delayed.(RaiNovosti).Israel and Palestine have failed so far to agree on the date of swapping Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, told the Voice of Palestine on Sunday.Hamas leaders announced on Friday that a deal between Israel and Hamas on the exchange of over 1,000 jailed Palestinians for Israeli soldier Shalit would begin on Tuesday.Hamad, who is a deputy foreign minister in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas and who played a key role in reaching the prisoner swap deal, said no agreement had been reached so far on the number of Palestinian women to be released from Israeli prisons and the number of Palestinian prisoners to be deported.According to the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners’ Affairs, there are 37 Palestinian women kept in Israeli prisoners and Palestinians are demanding that all of them be released while Israel is ready to free only 27 of them.Hamad said that indirect talks sponsored by Egypt would be held in Cairo on Sunday to try to resolve disagreements.Shalit, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was captured in June 2006, aged 19, by Palestinian militants in a raid near the Gaza Strip.Read the full story here.

• Debka: Leon Panetta Brokered Shalit Deal.(Matzav).Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reported to the hastily convened full government session Monday night, Oct. 11 that the deal with Hamas for bringing Gilad Shalit home within days was initialed Thursday and signed Monday, Oct. 11. It was the best possible, he said although the agreed price for the swap is heavy: one thousand jailed Palestinian terrorists, including 60 convicted on multiple murders, who will be exiled to the Gaza Strip and Arab countries.DEBKAfile discloses that secret clauses of the transaction for recovering the Israel soldier, whom Hamas kept hidden for five years, were finalized between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Hamas during US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visits to Israel and Egypt on Sept. 3-4. Those clauses, negotiated directly between Panetta and Hamas’ political chief Khaled Meshaal, entailed the shutting down of Hamas headquarters in Damascus in order to undercut Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran and Hizballah and loosen their hold on the Palestinians. Meshaal who visited Tehran a week ago agreed to gradually downgrade his ties with Iran in return for American patronage of Hamas.Netanyahu told the Israeli ministers that he had faced a tough dilemma between rescuing the Israeli soldier and national security and a balance was hard to strike. But his commitment to saving Gilad Shalit was absolute. The “window of opportunity” presented now may never recur, he warned, given the turbulence besetting the Middle East. He therefore asked the ministers for their unanimous endorsement of the swap.During the cabinet meeting, three ministers, Silvan Shalom, Moshe Yaalon and Avigdor Lieberman, voiced reservations in view of the high risk of setting so many terrorists loose.That window, DEBKAfile reports, was the deal the Obama administration had reached with Hamas leaders and their parent, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s rift with Tehran.The Prime Minister thanked the Egyptian government and intelligence agencies for their great contribution toward brokering the deal. He also voiced appreciation for the efforts of the German mediator and Chancellor Angela Merkel who gave the process her wholehearted support.Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in a cross-border raid from Gaza five years ago, and held without any visitors including the Red Cross every since, will first be transferred from Gaza to Cairo to await Israel’s release of the first batch of 450 Palestinian prisoners.The remaining 550 prisoners will be freed after the soldier arrives home. This is the heaviest price Israel has ever paid for any soldiers in Arab captivity.As to the backdoor diplomacy leading to Gilad Shalit’s release, DEBKAfile further discloses that recognizing the rising electoral strength of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Salafi allies in Egypt’s forthcoming parliamentary elections next month, the Obama administration entered into active dialogue with its leaders to draw them away from Tehran and bring them close to the ruling military junta and Washington.Shortly before Panetta arrived in the Middle East, a US diplomat revealed that US officials had arrived in Cairo on Oct. 2 for talks with Brotherhood representatives. The American side was headed by Prem. G. Kumar, the National Security Council Director for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs at the White House.This was the first clue that the White House was after a deal not only with the Brotherhood but also its Palestinian offshoot Hamas, part of which was to be the release of the Israeli soldier. Two days later, on Oct. 4, the US Defense Secretary arrived to seal the accord while in another part of Cairo, the Israeli prime minister’s personal representative David Meidan and the commander of Hamas’ military wing, Ezz a-din al Qassam, Mohammed Jabry, hammered out the minutiae of the prisoner exchange for Shalit’s release.Netanyahu referred to the heavy price Israel was paying in terms of security by letting a thousand terrorists walk free - scores much Israeli blood on their hands. But he also paid a heavy political price: Israel’s acceptance of the United States’ rapprochement with the Egyptian Muslim brothers - henceforth dubbed in Obama administration parlance a “moderate Muslim force.”.  Israel can only hope that this gamble pays off. By procuring the release of 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails, Hamas has outperformed is rival, the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as the lead champion of the Palestinian cause. After defying the Obama administration by applying for UN recognition for Palestinian statehood, Abbas is now getting his punishment.Read the full story here.

• U.S. considers sanctions on Iran's central bank.(LATimes).The Obama administration said it was "actively" considering sanctioning Iran's central bank in retaliation for an alleged Iranian assassination plot, a move that could severely damage Iran's economy and potentially provoke a strong response from Tehran.David Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the Senate Banking Committee that officials were "looking very actively" at such a step and might carry it out if other nations could be persuaded to follow suit.The blacklisting is the first specific step the administration has identified as a possible response to the alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's envoy to the United States and to attack embassies in the U.S. and Argentina.Such sanctions would aim to isolate the Bank Markazi, or central bank, from the world economic system by barring any firm that deals with it from doing business with U.S. financial institutions. That would make it far more difficult for Iran to sell crude oil, which funds much of the government's activities.Some Iranian officials have warned that they would look on such a move as an act of war.The sanctions would probably be effective, however, only if other world powers joined in. And the administration would have to overcome arguments that the action would harm ordinary Iranians and damage the oil markets.Cohen, who is in charge of U.S. sanctions on Iran, told the committee that if other countries joined in the blacklisting, it "could further isolate the central bank of Iran, with a potentially powerful impact on Iran."Mark Dubowitz, a specialist on sanctions at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said a so-called designation of the bank would not halt all of Iran's crude oil sales, but it would sharply raise the cost of such transactions and thus "drain the Iranian treasury." He said Iran, the third-largest OPEC oil exporter, is a "one-crop country" that derives 50% to 75% of its government revenue from crude oil. Congress last year slapped sanctions on Iranian banks involved in the energy sector to bar them from contact with the U.S. financial system. But U.S. officials say these banks have continued to conduct oil business because the central bank has secretly carried out the transactions on their behalf.In his testimony, Cohen said U.S. officials were also considering another proposal many lawmakers favor: halting all sales of oil products made from Iranian crude to the U.S. market. Americans use gasoline that is refined from Iranian crude by international oil companies, which then distribute it in the United States. Cohen said Treasury economists were studying that proposal to evaluate its effect on oil markets.Hmmmmm......It's 'effect'?Iran is chairman for  OPEC...what effect do you geniuses think it will have?Lower the price a barrel of crude?Sigh.......coming from the same 'geniuses' who predicted last year $80/Barrel oil for 2011.Read the full story here.

• Coptic Church Construction And Egyptian Muslim ‘Emasculation’.(BigPeace).Because it was excerpted in Bat Ye’or’s pioneering The Dhimmi, I obtained Moshe Perlmann’s (1975) complete translation of a 1739 essay on the Churches of Cairo. Written by Sheikh Damanhuri (1689-1764), a highly esteemed leader of Al Azhar University, the pinnacle of learning in Sunni Islamdom, since 973 A.D., the learned jurist’s tract was a reply to a query in that year when, “…the dhimmis began the construction of a church in Cairo…causing great agitation among Muslims.” The good sheikh notes,

When I learned of the rise of this deplorable affair, and that in this community no longer is the prophetic injunction heeded to deter the infidels, the enemies of the faith, from their goal, I began to write the answer…by explaining the right path

Sheikh Damanhuri entitled his reply—in accord with the conclusion of his learned, Islamically-correct argument, “The presentation of the clear proof for the obligatory destruction of the churches of Old and New Cairo.”

Damanhuri states explicity (on p. 20) that areas “demarcated and settled by Muslims,” including Cairo, Kufa, Basra, Baghdad, Wasit, as well as “any village that was taken by force,” and not returned by a Muslim Caliph to those vanquished and dispossessed,

These are Muslim cities in which the protected people may not display any of their religious symbols, for example, erect churches, bring out wine or pork, or sound the clapper (calling to the church, a counterpart of bells). No new synagogue, church, monk’s cell, prayer assembly of theirs is allowed in these cities, by the consensus of the doctors [of Islamic law]. It has been mentioned above that our city, Cairo, is an Islamic town, started after the conquest of Egypt, under the reign of the Fatimids. Therefore, no church, synagogue, and the rest, may be erected in it.

But what Bat Ye’or excerpted in The Dhimmi that is truly fascinating—pathognomonic as we say in medicine—is how this learned Muslim jurist, in conformity with the prevailing orthodoxy, viewed Church construction by Christians as a form of Muslim emasculation! From (p. 21) of Perlmann’s 1975 translation of Damanhuri’s tract:

The Prophet, peace and blessing upon him, said: “No emasculation [khisa] and no church in Islam.” The word “emasculation,” khisa follows the fial, as the verbal noun of khsy, “to emasculate.” The relation between “emasculation” and “church” is that the erection of a church in Muslim territory denotes the elimination of manliness in the people of the territory, just as emasculation, in reality, is the elimination of virility in an animal. Though the sense of the word in our context is withdrawal from women by attachment to churches. The connection is evident. By “no church” the Prophet meant no construction thereof, a prohibition, that is, that no church in Islamic territory signifies the elimination of virility in the people of that territory, which is not permissible, even as the elimination of man’s virility by castration is not.

I would maintain this perverse, ugly sentiment of perceived “emasculation” remains amongst Egyptian Muslims and accounts for their lethal mass violence directed at The Copts for simply, and peaceably, exercising what modern human beings regard as a basic freedom—freedom of worship.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• UN to help Lebanon with sea borders for gas finds.United Nations official says organization will help Lebanon demarcate maritime border with Israel in order to ensure its gas reserves remain protected.A United Nations official says the international body is willing to assist Lebanon demarcate its naval border with Israel to protect the country's gas reserves.Michael Williams says Lebanon has every right to benefit from its potential off shore oil and gas resources.His comments in Beirut Monday followed a request by Lebanon for the UN to protect the country's gas reserves along the maritime border with Israel, after a huge gas field was discovered off the coast.The appeal was part of a growing dispute between the two warring countries over natural resources beneath the eastern Mediterranean. Lebanon has accused Israel of drilling in fields that extend into its waters, an allegation Israel denies. There is no official naval border separating the two countries.Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Curious: Rep. Giffords' Official YouTube Channel Subscribes to Only Two People: Rep. Ike Skelton and... Jared Lee Loughner.Perhaps Sheriff Dupnik could take a few moments away from his busy television schedule to investigate the following odd connection between the Giffords campaign and her accused shooter?An anonymous tipster writes:Don't know if you saw this or not.Her [Giffords'] Youtube page has only two subscriptions, one links to the shooter's page (lower left corner, name classit10)Now, her own political page links back to this youtube site, so it must be hers.I don't know if someone has hacked this page or what. Strange to say the least.Indeed. But I'm sure Sheriff Dupnik is well ahead of us and is actively attempting to figure out the tie.Hmmmm....I'm still saying he shot her for being Jewish.Since when was he subsribed to her you tube channel?Read and see the full story here.

• HT:Matzav.Clinton Dismisses Outgoing Mossad Chief’s Assessment About Iran Nuclear Program.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed on Sunday Israeli assessments of delays in the Iranian nuclear program and called for more work on sanctions to bring Tehran to heel.Clinton, on a tour of Gulf Arab countries to shore up support for pressure on Iran, arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. She will also visit Dubai, Oman and Qatar on the five-day trip.Global powers are preparing for another round of talks with Iran this month over its nuclear program.Clinton said a recent assessment by the retiring chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service that Iran would not be able to build an atomic bomb until at least 2015 should not undercut international determination to keep the pressure on Iran through sanctions and other means to come clean about its atomic work.“The timeline is not so important as the international effort to try to ensure that whatever the timeline, Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons,” Clinton told reporters on her plane as it arrived in Abu Dhabi.“I don’t know that it gives much comfort to somebody who is in the Gulf, or who is in a country that Iran has vowed to destroy, that it’s a one-year or a three-year timeframe.”Hmmmm.....Sanctions?What sanctions?You have a so called "Ally" Turkey working closely together with all the ennemies of both the US and Israel.That three year timeline is only correct if sanctions work,as it is now it's a joke.Read the full story here.

• HT:BarracudaBrigade." Unabomber/Oklahoma City Bomber's Lawyer, requested by AZ. authorities; for Gabby's attacker--wtf !!!This morning I don't have the magic pill, I don't have the Scripture... I can't wrap my head around this," said the church's Rev. Mike Nowak, his strong preacher's voice wavering. Authorities weren't saying late Sunday where Loughner was being held, and officials were working to appoint an attorney for him. Heather Williams, the first assistant federal public defender in Arizona, said they're asking that San Diego attorney Judy Clarke be appointed. Clarke, a former federal public defender in San Diego and Spokane, Wash., served on teams that defended McVeigh, Kaczynski and Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who drowned her two sons in 1994. Loughner is charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. More charges are expected.Hmmmmm......Why do i still have that bad gut feeling?Read the full story here.

• Flashback !Nov 05 2010:Mark Penn Says Obama Needs ‘Similar Event’ to Oklahoma City to Reconnect with Voters.Mark Penn, Democratic strategist and former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, let out the kind of doozy, on last night’s Hardball, that must be seen to be believed. Comparing Obama’s current situation to the aftermath of the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” Penn noted that it took the Oklahoma City tragedy in order for President Clinton to “reconnect” with the American people.He then stepped off the cliff by saying that President Obama needed a “similar event” to achieve that reconnection following his party’s midterm losses.Hmmmm............"SAME LAWYER"both cases.Read the full story here.

• HT:RefugeeResettlementWatch.Is there a conspiracy by NGO’s to bring asylum seekers to US borders?Last March (March 16th to be precise) I attended the 30th Anniversary “celebration” of the passage of the Kennedy/Biden Refugee Resettlement Act (signed by Jimmy Carter) at Georgetown University with Human Rights First! in Washington, DC. This is just one post I wrote at the time.Note there are a few lines in that post that have been rattling around in my mind on and off ever since.Expressing gratitude for being granted asylum in the US an African young man from Sierra Leone described how he somehow (mysteriously) got a plane ticket to the US and ended up in NYC. He was placed in detention for 4 months, but also mysteriously was visited by a lawyer from Human Rights First who helped him through the asylum process.I was also struck at the conference by how much emphasis the pro-refugee, pro-open borders activists and speakers were placing on our asylum program. They wanted to educate more asylum lawyers and hire more asylum judges (apparently the refugee program itself wasn’t bringing immigrants in fast enough!). One speaker even said that the original idea behind the program was to rescue the odd ballet dancer seeking asylum from some repressive regime, but had now expanded to thousands every year.Last night as I began reading all of my backed-up articles on refugees, two jumped out at me, both are about Somalis arriving at our borders and being granted asylum. Both stories involve young Somalis, supposedly running from Al-shabaab and who mysteriously had the resources to trek across the world and just happened to end up on our borders where they then knew enough to immediately ask for asylum. Come on folks, we all know that some poor third worlder who knows only an obscure African language could not manage such a thing without enormous amounts of help.Where are they getting their help? I don’t know but maybe that’s where Mr. Foster, the RICO lawyer could help.Below are the stories I came across that set off my warning bells. Both, of course, are meant to be feel-good stories. The first article is from the Las Cruces Sun News and it highlights a Somali woman recently granted asylum:Asha Omar, a native of Somalia, spent almost a year looking for safety, away from the Islamic militants who murdered most of her family.Late last year, she found it in El Paso.In November, a federal immigration judge granted Omar’s application for asylum based on her fear of being persecuted in her home country.At least two other Somalis are in El Paso seeking asylum, said Louie Gilot, executive director of Las Americas.Nationwide, more than 300 Somalis requested asylum in 2009. Almost 200 were granted their requests.Now this is the sentence that jumped off the page:She managed to make her way to Cuba and then flew to Mexico. At the San Ysidro port of entry in California, she requested asylum, and she was taken to the El Paso Immigration Detention Center while her application was processed.She MANAGED! She MANAGED to make her way to Cuba and then flew to Mexico! Some 19-year-old shy third worlder MANAGED to get to Cuba! How many of you adults reading this could manage to get yourself to Cuba!But there's more !Now go and read the full story here.

• Video :Rep. Michele Bachmann: House Republicans Should ‘Fully Defund Obamacare’ Under Congress’ ‘Power of the Purse’. Given that House Republican efforts to “completely” repeal the health care law will face hurdles in the Democrat-controlled Senate or a presidential veto, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told CNSNews.com that Republicans should use Congress’ “power of the purse” to “fully defund Obamacare.”CNSNews.com asked Rep. Bachmann whether she agreed with Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) proposal to include specific language in appropriations bills passed by the GOP-led House to prohibit the funding of the health care law.Read and see the full story here.

• Fears of higher petrol prices as major BP pipeline in Alaska is shutdown after leak.Motorists could face even higher prices at the pumps after the shutdown of a major BP pipeline in Alaska that carries around 12 of America's oil output.The Trans-Alaska pipeline system, which transports oil from the Prudhoe Bay field, was closed on Saturday following the discovery of a leak.This morning shares in BP - the largest shareholder in the Alyeska Pipeline Service company which runs the pipeline - fell 2.5 per.Prudhoe Bay is America's largest oil reserve, producing around 630,000 barrels of oil a day – equivalent to around 40 per cent of the UK's daily consumption.The leak occurred at a pumping station at Alaska's North Slope, and forced oil production to be cut by 95 per cent. With the price of a barrel of US crude oil rising by almost one per cent to $89.92 in early trading, motorists could soon pay the price on garage forecourts.A BP spokesman based in America told the Guardian the leak was "a significant event" and it is not clear how long it will take to restart production.The shutdown is the latest setback for the 33-year-old pipeline , which is becoming more expensive to maintain as it ages. It currently handles less than a third of the oil it did at its peak in the 1980s..BP Pipelines owns nearly 47% of Alyeska, with ConocoPhillips Transportation owning 28%, ExxonMobil Pipeline owning 20%, and smaller shareholders controlling the remainder.There have not been any reports of environmental damage because of the leak. Alyeska said yesterday that around 10 barrels of oil had been recovered from the basement of a booster pump room, and that around one barrel of oil remained.Alyeska president Tom Barrett said: "Our goal is to engineer and implement a solution so that we can safely return the pipeline to service as quickly as possible."Hmmmm......Now just try to imagine if America was completely depending on foreign oil,something Barack Hussein Obama might just do one day.Read the full story here.

• Iceland summons US envoy over demand for MP's Twitter details.Reykjavik calls for explanation of Justice Department's move to access account of politician caught up in WikiLeaks inquiry.The American ambassador to Iceland has been summoned to explain why US officials are trying to access the Twitter account of an Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks collaborator.Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, revealed last week that the US justice department had asked Twitter to hand over her information. The US authorities are trying to build a criminal case against the website after its huge leaks of classified US information."[It is] very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official," the interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, told Icelandic broadcaster RUV. "This is even more serious when put [in] perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people's freedom in general," he added.Iceland's foreign ministry has demanded a meeting with Luis Arreaga, the US ambassador to Reykjavík. No one at the US embassy in Reykjavík was available for comment.She said she was talking to lawyers at the Electronic Freedom Foundation and would attempt to stop the justice department's move.Read the full story here.

• Related : US subpoenas Wikileaks tweets, and why this could affect you.Mark Stephens on the BBC News also makes clear that the court order will also cover the “600,000 odd followers that Wikileaks has on Twitter“.The order asks specifically for names of those attached to selected accounts, user and screen names, and any registered mailing or postal addresses. It also asks for email addresses, credit card details where possible, and even content relating to connected mobile phones.The server logs which could identify the computer and geographical location of where even private messages were sent from have also been ordered to be handed over.Twitter is in a difficult position. Considering their stance during the Iranian elections supporting the freedom of speech, it will appear as if the company is backtracking or giving into pressure by handing over details of its users to its government.Jónsdóttir retweeted a message purporting Twitter’s efforts, however, in bringing this subpoena into the public domain.This case should resonate with younger users especially, as prolific social network users, that US law can apply to users of social networking sites to users outside the United States, as seen in this case.Though datacenters are held worldwide in different locations to allow network load balancing, locale reliability and data backups, the organisations which provide these services are based mostly in the US. Both Twitter and Facebook are based in California, as are many startup and social media companies.For example, if one publishes a threatening tweet from the UK to a service based in the US, this can be used in a UK or US court of law if the company is subpoenaed.Hmmmmm....."Policestate or Big Brother in overdrive"?Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderOfZion.Egyptian TV: "Roman Wars against Cleopatra Instigated by the Jews".Following are excerpts from an interview with Wael Ramadhan, creator of an Egyptian-Syrian TV series about Cleopatra, which aired on Egyptian TV on November 18, 2010:Wael Ramadhan: The [Roman] war against Cleopatra was Jewish in essence, and history repeats itself. The Romans had no territorial aspirations in Egypt in those days, and this is ignored by history and by many historians. The Romans were at war with the Parthians and the remnants of the Persian Empire, but they had no intention of waging war against Egypt.But the Jews harbored resentment and pain, because of their expulsion from Egypt – when they were still called "Hebrew" – and they wanted to return to Egypt by force, in order to establish their presence there, but they did not have an opportunity to do so until that moment. So they recruited the help of the Romans.This part of history is not mentioned in any Arab history book, but is the outcome of research I conducted myself, and this is my own perspective, which is unique and true. Interviewer: Especially since it is based on sources that are...Wael Ramadhan: On very important sources. [The Jews] financed the Romans, distracted them from their wars, and diverted them to Egypt. They failed in their attempt to get Julius Caesar to defeat Cleopatra. They failed to get Mark Antony to defeat Cleopatra. They had also financed the Mark Antony campaign. They failed in their efforts to completely control that region.To this moment, they continue to try. History repeats itself. That is what should have been called the history of Cleopatra, and this was my approach when I made the "Cleopatra" series.Hmmmmm....You got to be kidding?Next they're going to say Attila the Hun and the Black Plague was their doing also?Read the full story here.

• South Sudan: 20 Police Die in Attack by Arab Tribe.Arab tribesmen accompanied by a Khartoum-backed militia killed 20 policemen in Sudan's disputed region of Abyei, a southern military spokesman said Monday, raising concerns of violence as the south carries out a weeklong independence referendum.A tribal leader, though, said that police had killed 10 herders in the area. The reported attacks came Sunday, the first day of Southern Sudan's self-determination vote, which is widely predicted to break Africa's largest country in two. The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war.Jubilant voters flooded polling stations for a second day on Monday. The seven days of balloting are likely to produce an overwhelming vote for independence, and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will let the oil-rich south secede peacefully.But Abyei is still a major sticking point, and officials from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Sudan activist and actor George Clooney have warned that Abyei holds the potential to send the north and south back to conflict.Abyei, which straddles the north-south divide and holds oil deposits, had been promised its own self-determination vote, but now its future will be decided by north-south negotiations that have so far made little progress.Col. Philip Aguer, the spokesman for Southern Sudan's army, said that the Misseriya -- an Arab tribe that moves its cattle herds through Abyei -- attacked the village of Maker-Adhar on Sunday with anti-tank weapons and artillery. Aguer said he believes the attack was planned."They were not with cattle, they were coming for (an) attack," Aguer said.Independence won't be finalized until July, and many issues are yet to be worked out. They include north-south oil rights, water rights to the White Nile, border demarcation and the status of the contested region of Abyei, a north-south border region where the biggest threat of a return to conflict exists.Most of Sudan's oil is in the south, while the pipelines to the sea run through the north, tying the two regions together economically.Read the full story here.

• UK: Sikhs, Hindus say girls are targeted by Muslims for sex,conversion.UK: Sikhs, Hindus say girls are targeted by Muslims for sex, conversion.Unlike previous discussions on this topic, they blame Islam.A day after UKs' former home secretary Jack Straw blamed some Pakistani Muslim men for targeting "vulnerable" White girls sexually, UK's Hindu and Sikh organizations also publicly accused Muslim groups of the same offence.Feeling emboldened by Straw's statement, UK's Hindu and Sikh organizations have also come in open and accused some Pakistani men of specifically targeting Hindu and Sikh girls. "This has been a serious concern for the last decade," said Hardeep Singh of Network of Sikh Organizations (NSO) while talking to TOI on Monday.Sikhs and Hindus are annoyed that Straw had shown concern for White girls and not the Hindu and the Sikh teenage girls who have been coaxed by some Pakistani men for sex and religious conversion."Straw does other communities a disservice by suggesting that only white girls were targets of this predatory behaviour. We raised the issue of our girls with the previous government and the police on several occasions over the last decade. This phenomenon has been there because a minority of Islamic extremists view all 'non believers' as legitimate targets," said director NSO Inderjit Singh.Targeted sexual offences and forced conversions of Hindu and Sikh girls was not a new phenomenon in the UK, said Ashish Joshio from Media Monitoring group."This has been going on for decades in the UK . Young Muslim men have been boasting about seducing the Kaffir (unbeliever) women. The Hindu and the Sikh communities must be commended for showing both restraint and maturity under such provocation," he added.Read the full story here.

• Azerbaijan - Higher fines for people who meet to pray or read religious texts.Azerbaijan has increased fines for religious believers who meet to pray without authorisation. Six Jehovah’s Witnesses are sentenced to prison for practicing their faith.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev on 29 December signed into law a bill adopted by parliament on 8 December without public debate. The new legislation increases fines for offences related to the right to exercise religious freedom as described in Articles 299 and 300 of the country’s Administrative Code. Under the new rules, anyone involved unauthorised religious activity is punished. This includes leading unregistered religious groups, meeting for prayers, and importing and distributing religious texts or documents not approved by the country’s rigid censorship board. Foreigners who visit the country to speak about their faith are also severely punished. Proselytising and teaching children catechism also require an authorisation.Although prison is excluded as a form of punishment, fines are increased between 16 and 20 times. This means that offenders could lose their property or be thrown into poverty.Eldar Zeynalov, head of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, told Forum 18 that if a peasant family of five is found in possession of “illegal” religious literature, each member could be fined 2,000 manat, 10,000 for the whole family (US$ 12,500), representing “the entire value of the family's assets, including their home”.“These Articles punish what can be considered as normal religious activity," Zeynalov explained. “Any religious activity, however small-scale, such as meeting for worship in a private flat, talking about one's faith on the street, or handing out a book or even a leaflet, is subject to prosecution.”At the same time, the new rules are very vague about what constitutes illegal religious activity, which gives police and the authorities a great deal of discretionary power. Although the government appears be motivated by a fear of Islamic radicalism, the new rules apply to every religion. In fact, on 18 December, police burst into a private home in Gyanja and took into custody about 50 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were brought to a local police station.Hmmmmm.....Art 18 of the Charter of Human Rights "Freedom of religion" an empty statement.Bashing Israel is off course much more popular at the Islamic United Nations. Read the full story here.

• South Sudan: Emancipated Nation.Most people can think of a day that changed their lives. I can think of two. The first happened twenty four years ago, when at the age of seven I became a slave; the other is coming up in less than a month. It is a day when my people will be free.On May 15 of 1986, when I was seven years old, my mother sent me to a marketplace in the town of Nyamlell, South Sudan to sell peanuts and eggs. The market was filled with people, sounds, and smells, with half naked children running, smiling, pushing each other. I was happy; I wanted to make my mother proud by selling as many eggs as possible. Suddenly, something happened. We looked up to see cloud of smoke rising from the direction of Gourion, my village. I heard gun shots and stomping of horses’ feet coming fast from the distance. Everybody around me began running in all directions. A wall of dust preceding their arrival, an Arab militia stormed the market.What followed was a scene of panic, terror and confusion. The Arabs, some on horses, some on feet, were mercilessly killing all the men, shooting some and decapitating others with a single swipe of their swords. Children around me were screaming and crying in horror; the market place was filling with the bodies of the dead. I tried to run but one of the Arabs grabbed me and loaded me into a basket on his donkey. I was soon joined by other kids. A little girl, who looked no older than twelve, was executed by a point blank shot to her head in front of my eyes. Her crime? She could not stop crying. After the loading was over we began riding into darkness.That was the beginning of my journey into slavery where for the next ten years I was forced to serve a family of a wealthy Arab Muslim living in North Sudan. Giemma Abdullah, his wife and his children made my life hell during these ten years. They not only made me perform hard labor and sleep with animals, but they also tried to destroy my identity as a Dinka, my tribe. I was given an Arab name and under the threat of death was forbidden to speak the Dinka language. I was forced to perform Islamic prayers and was constantly taunted as “abeed,” Arabic for “black slave.” After two unsuccessful attempts, I managed to escape and made my way to America. A year later, I joined the modern-day abolitionist movement.On the day I escaped I did not become a free man. Images of other children still serving masters chained me to my captive nation.Read the full story here.

• The case for Israel.Op-ed: Our roots here traced back to 13th Century BC, 3,350 years before PLO’s creation.Since Oslo, 1993, the case of the Jewish State has highlighted Israel's pursuit of peace and security, while downplaying the right/deed of the Jewish People to its historical homeland. A resounding rebuke of David Ben Gurion, the Laborite Founding Father of the Jewish State and its first prime minister, who stated: "He who abandons his past forfeits his future.” The claim of national sovereignty and the level of steadfastness in face of adversity are derivatives of the attachment to the territorial cradle of history and national security requirements.Nations which highlight their non-conditional attachment to their territorial cradle of history (irrespective of diplomatic, security and economic considerations) enhance steadfastness and gain strategic respect. On the other hand, nations which consider their cradle of history a negotiable-real-estate may gain short-lived popularity, but undermine their attachment to the land, lose long-term strategic respect and erode their own posture of deterrence.A nation which negotiates away its cradle of history is giving away its future.Prof. (emeritus) Menasheh Har-El, a leading expert on the history and geography of the Land of Israel, a recipient of the Israel Prize and author of 13 books, documents national Jewish roots in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as early as the 13th century BC: 2,000 years before the appearance of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, 3,200 years before Arabs from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon migrated to the Land of Israel and 3,350 years before the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization. According to Professor Har-El's 55 years of research, the Jews were the first to coalesce the various regions of Canaan into a unified country. They settled in the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria rather than along the coastal plain, introducing agricultural innovations into barren, rugged mountains, developing irrigation systems, establishing stone and metal shops, ushering advanced architecture and construction, building roads from the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, which became the crown jewel of the Jewish people.Read the full story here.

• 'Attack a Teacher Day': Six schoolgirls aged 12 and 13 arrested for encouraging friends to sign up to group on Facebook.Six schoolgirls have been arrested after students were invited to sign up on Facebook for ‘Attack a Teacher Day’.The twelve and thirteen-year-old girls all attended two middle schools in Carson City, Nevada.One was accused of sending out messages asking 100 classmates on the social networking site to target teachers.Police questioned the other five girls over specific online threats they made against particular teachers.The girls – all A-grade students – claimed it was all a joke, but they were arrested before the event that was planned for last Friday.‘School shootings really happen. That's why we took it seriously,’ said Dan Sadler, principal of Carson Middle School attended by five of the girls.‘It's not OK, and it's not funny in this day and age if you're going to make a threat against a teacher.’He pointed out that last Wednesday – on the day of the arrests – a suspended 17-year-old pupil in Omaha, Nebraska, shot dead an assistant principal and wounded his principal.Eighteen students accepted the invitation to participate in the attacks at the two schools, which had been set to take place from 7am to 9am last Friday.A parent brought the posting to the attention of authorities, Sadler said.Classes took place Friday without incident at both schools after students were earlier notified of the arrests and parents of the students who were arrested or accepted the invitations were contacted by authorities.
  Hmmmm.....Where will this mad world stop?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video : Jamal Al-Din Ibrahim, Self-Proclaimed California University Toxicologist: Multiple Sex Partners Make a Woman's Immune System Crash; Eating Pork Weakens One's Ability to Think.Hmmmm....Is there any insanity in your family?Read and see the full story here.

• Iran bans "tight jeans", tattoos at some universities.TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has enforced a stricter Islamic dress code at a number of universities including a ban on female students wearing long nails, bright clothes and tattoos, a local news agency reported on Monday.The semi-official Fars news agency published a list of universities around Iran that were given a note outlining the code but did not say on what basis they were selected.The new rules ban women from "wearing caps or hats without scarves, tight and short jeans, and body piercing", except earrings, Fars said.It said tattoos, long nails, tooth gems, tight overcoats, and bright clothes were also banned.Iran has been waging a country-wide campaign against Western cultural influences. Under Islamic law imposed after the 1979 revolution, women have to cover their hair in public and wear long, loose-fitting clothes.The new code also bans male students from dying their hair, plucking eyebrows, wearing tight clothes, shirts with "very short sleeves" and jewellery, Fars said.The authorities usually intensify efforts ahead of hot summer months when women tend to wear lighter clothes and brightly coloured scarves, often pushed back to expose hair.The authorities usually intensify efforts ahead of hot summer months when women tend to wear lighter clothes and brightly coloured scarves, often pushed back to expose hair.In recent years crackdowns have extended into winter fashion as well including a push against women's trousers seen as too tight, as well as men with spiky "Western-style" hairstyles.Hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on "immoral behaviour" since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 promising a return to the values of the revolution.Young women, particularly in wealthier urban areas, often challenge limitations by wearing tight clothes and colourful headscarves that barely cover their hair. The rules remain less challenged in poor suburbs and rural regions.Hmmmm........."Temporary Marriages "Yes -  fashion No?Read the full story here.

• 'Band of Brothers'Dick Winters dies. WWII hero commanded 'Band of Brothers'.Dick Winters, a decorated Army officer whose World War II service was recounted in the best-selling book and HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers," died Jan. 2. News reports listed his age at 92.Based on the 1992 book by historian Stephen E. Ambrose, the HBO mini-series came out in 2001 and was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.The story follows the tragedies and triumphs of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Company.To Mr. Winters, these citizen-soldiers came to be known as the men of Easy Company -- paratroopers who jumped into combat on June 6, 1944 above Normandy, France.According to Ambrose's account, Easy Company suffered 150 percent casualties throughout the war.One of the soldiers who served in Easy Company, David Webster, once wrote that among his colleagues the Purple Heart "was not a decoration but a badge of office."Mr. Winters, who separated from the Army at the rank of major, and his men fought together through D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and later occupied Adolf Hitler's mountainside retreat, the Eagle's Nest, near Berchtesgaden.A charismatic officer who led by example, Mr. Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross, the country's second highest decoration for valor, while conducting combat operations on D-Day.A true American patriot and here passed away.Read and see the full story here.More here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Netherlands: Situation of Turkish youth is alarming.The position of Dutch-Turkish youth in society is particularly worrying, according to a letter published in Dutch newspaper Volkskrant by ten Dutch-Turkish professionals, researchers, teachers and policy advisers. The sharp social climate and the lack of leadership in the Turkish community, lead the youth to apathy and to feel less connected to Dutch society. They are therefore more susceptible to crime and Muslim radicalization."All in all, there's starting to be a growing group of youth who are feeling out of place," according to the writers of the manifest. "they don't feel welcome in Dutch society. Some withdraw into their own (religious) community, others isolate themselves and are at threat of becoming lonely, developing seriously psychological problems or becoming susceptible to the seduction of radicalism or crime."The ten professionals call the government, industry, educational and Turkish organization to give higher priority to the youth problems. "they should get the feeling that their future is in the Netherlands," they say.The Alliance of Turkish immigrants in Holland (Inspraakorgaan Turken in Nederland) says it generally agrees with the manifest. "What they say is mainly right," says policy adviser Harm van Zuthem. "The analysis that many youth will turn their backs on society and will thereby lack opportunities, is right."According to the recently published annual report on integration by Statistics Netherlands, Turkish-Dutch youth are behind in many fields. In the 2009-2010 school-year, 80% of the Turkish youth in their 3rd year of secondary education were in the vocational track. 20% were in the academic track.In 2009, 18% of Turkish-Dutch aged 15-25 were unemployed. 40% of the Turkish youth aged 12 in 1999 were suspected of a crime between 1999 and 2007.Turks are the largest immigrant group in the Netherlands. In 2010 there were 384,000, 49% of which were 2nd generation.Hmmmm....." The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers".The schools are our downfall?Read the full story here.

• Asylum seeker who claimed to have been gang-raped and witnessed family's murder in Somalia exposed as £250k benefit fraudster.An asylum seeker who claimed she had been gang-raped in Somalia was jailed today for swindling more than £250,000 in a 'professionally planned' benefit scam.Amina Muse, 38, also conned Swedish authorities out of £50,000, spending the money on luxury living and holidays in Africa.While she claimed asylum in the UK based on 'appalling atrocities' committed against her in Somalia, investigators found she was living in Sweden at the time.Handing her a four-and-a-half-year prison term at Harrow Crown Court, in north London, Judge Stephen Holt told her: 'One of the most serious aspects of this case is your cynical, dishonest manipulation of the whole system of asylum.'Muse, a mother of six, who also went by the name of Ayan Abdulle, sought refuge in Britain after moving to Sweden in 1995 where she was granted citizenship and enjoyed a 'comfortable' life.On her UK asylum application, disclosed today, she claimed militiamen stormed and looted her family home in war-torn Somalia on December 1, 1998, because she was a member of a minority group.'They opened fire at us and then broke into our house by force,' she said. 'They shot dead my brothers Asad and Burhan. They died instantly in our presence.'But investigators, who suspect the Muse to be of Kenyan descent, found this to be the date on which she gave birth to a child in Sweden.Between June 2004 and May 2010, Muse, from Neasden, north-west London, claimed a total of £261,358.14 in income support, disability living allowance for one of her children and carer's allowance for herself. This included child benefit, child tax credits and housing benefit from various local authorities.She received a total of £112,985.51 from the borough of Camden where she lived in a four-bedroom property.Condemning her deceit, Judge Holt said: 'In my view it was fraud from the outset. It was professionally planned.'Read the full story here.

• Eight arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the smuggling of young Chinese man disguised as an old white man. Hong Kong authorities have arrested eight people suspected of helping to smuggle a young Chinese passenger onto a flight to Canada wearing a Hollywood-style disguise of an elderly white man.The man, believed to be in his 20s, sought asylum after arriving in Vancouver on October 29.He is suspected of traveling to Hong Kong with genuine Chinese travel documents, then swapping them for fake papers and donning the remarkably detailed silicone mask to change his appearance before boarding the Air Canada flight.Canadian authorities said the man removed the mask in a washroom mid-flight.Hong Kong officials arrested five men and three women in connection with the case, Elly Au Yeung, an information officer for the Hong Kong Immigration Department, told The Associated Press on Monday.She said a member of the Hong Kong International Airport ground staff and two former employees were among the arrested suspects.The eight are suspected smugglers who supplied the passenger with his new travel papers at the Hong Kong airport, Au Yeung said.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Indian bride discovers husband is a woman.Indian bride lived with her husband for a year before discovering the painful truth.Her beloved he was really a she.Minati Khatua, aged 26 old, of Orissa, India, and her family were completely fooled by the groom, Sitakant Routray, who received a substantial dowry as is traditional in India composed of an Indica car, gold ornaments and more than £350 (about US $575) in cash.“He had impressed everyone in my family and they willingly agreed to our marriage,” said Khatua.No matter how much she wanted to believe her new husband, she grew more and more suspicious after the wedding when he constantly avoided any physical contact with her using the pretext of a religious vow.“I would try hard to find out and confirm his gender but failed repeatedly… One day I managed to force open the bathroom door when he was having a bath and my worst fears became true. He was a woman,” she told the press.Local police are investigating the most bizarre case.The bogus groom is nowhere to be found at the present time, having absconded with a car and a jeep, which were bought with loans acquired from an account in Ms Khatua’s name.Hmmm....So they were sleeping separately for a year?Read the full story here.