Ex-Gitmo detainee Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar arrested in France - allegedly part of "recruiting network linked to" ISIS.

Ex-Gitmo detainee Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar arrested in France - allegedly part of "recruiting network linked to" ISIS. (nydailynews).

Detainee Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar has demonstrated a commitment to jihad, and would likely engage in anti-US activities if released. 

A former Guantanamo Bay inmate released by the Obama 'admin' is among six people from an alleged jihadi recruiting network linked to the Islamic State group who were detained on Tuesday, a French judicial source said.

Among the suspects arrested was Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, who was freed from the U.S. detention center in Cuba in 2009 after France agreed to accept him, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case.

Lahmar was one of six Algerians detained in Bosnia in 2001 on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. The Justice Department later backed off the allegations, but held the men at Guantanamo for years. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to take him in April 2009, and Lahmar moved to Bordeaux later that year.

The French official said Lamar, at 48, is the oldest of the four men and two women who were arrested and said that there were no indications the group was plotting an attack.

Five of the suspects were detained in Bordeaux, one in Paris.

Video - 'Pres Obama has forsaken the african american community'

"Obama will go down as the Worst President Ever"
Is he well informed or a typical racist? pic.twitter.com/LcjetRhbU4

— Manny Montenegrino (@manny_ottawa) August 21, 2016

Republican presidential front-runner Trump pledges to move US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Republican presidential front-runner Trump pledges to move US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Jpost).

Republican presidential front-runner seems to make about-face from prior remarks on committing to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.

“They want it in Jerusalem,” the front-runner among Republican presidential candidates said in an interview posted Tuesday by The Brody File, a Christian Broadcasting Network show. “Well I am for that 100 percent. We are for that 100 percent.”

David Brody, the CBN journalist, had asked Trump whether he agreed with GOP rivals, including Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who have pledged to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem once elected.

Trump’s agreement seemed to be an about-face from remarks in December at the Republican Jewish Coalition, when the real estate magnate refused to commit to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.

Calling US President Barack Obama “the worst thing that has ever happened to Israel” for negotiating the recent Iran-nuclear deal, Trump pledged loyalty to Israel. Read the full story here.             

Former secr of the Nobel Peace Prize committee: "Giving Pres. Obama the esteemed award, didn’t have desired effect'

Former secr of the Nobel Peace Prize committee: " giving the president the esteemed award, didn’t have desired effect" (TOI).

In a break with Nobel tradition, the former secretary of the Nobel Peace Prize committee says the 2009 award to President Barack Obama failed to live up to the panel’s expectations.

Geir Lundestad writes in a book to be released on Thursday that the committee had expected the prize to deliver a boost to Obama. Instead the award was met with fierce criticism in the US, where many argued Obama had not been president long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.

“Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake,” Lundestad wrote in excerpts of the book read by The Associated Press. “In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for.”

Lundestad, who stepped down last year after 25 years as the non-voting secretary of the secretive committee, noted that Obama was startled by the award and that his staff even investigated whether other winners had skipped the prize ceremony in Oslo.

That has happened only on rare occasions, such as when dissidents were held back by their governments.

“In the White House they quickly realized that they needed to travel to Oslo,” Lundestad wrote.

Speaking to AP on Wednesday, Lundestad said he didn’t disagree with the decision to award the president but the committee “thought it would strengthen Obama and it didn’t have this effect.”

Pictured: Pres Obama's unannounced visit to the Bob Marley Museum.

Pictured: Pres Obama's unannounced visit to the Bob Marley Museum.(Jamaica Observer).

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Shortly after landing in Jamaica for the first time, President of the United States Barack Obama deviated from his official itinerary by paying an unannounced visit to the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road in St Andrew. Hmmmm..........'No woman No Cry'. I wonder do they still give you a joint when you visit the museum?  More pictures can be seen here. More news on the 'visit' here.

Video - Latma's song for Yom Haatzmaut - Please give me back my country!

Article On Iran's Press TV: Dieudonné's 'Quenelle' Is Like 'Someone Brushing Lint Off Their Sleeve'

Article On Iran's Press TV: Dieudonné's 'Quenelle' Is Like 'Someone Brushing Lint Off Their Sleeve'.HT: Memri.

In a January 2, 2014 article titled "Quenelle: Courage Or Reverse Nazi Salute?" on the gesture invented and promoted by the French antisemitic comedian Dieudonné Mbala Mbala,[1] – a combination of the French bras d'honneur "up yours" gesture and an inverted Nazi salute – the Iranian regime Press TV outlet wrote that the gesture actually looks like "someone brushing lint off their sleeve." This comparison hints at the "brush your shoulder" gesture in American rapper Jay-Z's 2003 song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." [2]

Jay-Z "brushing his shoulder off"

The quenelle was first reported seen in a non-antisemitic show by Dieudonné titled "1905," emulating the move of a dolphin fin.[3] In 2009, Dieudonné linked the gesture to "anti-Zionism" when he headed the list of the French "Anti-Zionist" party in elections for the European Parliament, and, at a press conference, declared that "​​dragging a little quenelle to the bottom of the ass of Zionism" was a project dear to his heart.[4] His campaign poster shows him making the gesture:

For a Europe free of censorship, sectarianism, speculators and NATO – The Anti-Zionist List"

The Press TV article calls the quenelle a "badge of honor" and states that it is "international, inclusive, non-sectarian, steeped in not just humor but a dedication to social justice that turns away from violence."

It adds, "The Zionist war against 'the Quenelle' is a war against tolerance, not against hate. Zionism is the definition of hate."

The article asks whether Zionists should "be considered 'lint' to be brushed away." 

It adds that without Zionism, "there would be no Syrian war... no 'war on terror,' no Suez crisis, no Chechnian bombings in Russia. 

We can go further; there would be no Tea Party of warmongers and extremists in the US without the Zionist money behind them, no flood of narcotics into the world’s schools and kindergartens and, most of all, no world economic and monetary crises."

Also comparing Dieudonné's quenelle and Jay-Z's shoulder brush was French soccer star Nicolas Anelka, following his quenelle after scoring in a December 28, 2013 match.[5] Anelka, who plays for the U.K. team West Brom, defended his use of the gesture via his Twitter account (@anelkaofficiel). He said that he had done it "as a special dedication" to his "comedian friend Dieudonné" and not out of antisemitism. 

To prove his point, he tweeted a September 2012 photo of President Obama brushing his shoulder along with Jay-Z and Beyoncé (Obama also used the gesture during his 2008 election campaign). [6 (On April 17, 2008, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama referenced the song in gesture, in response to sharp attacks from his rival Hillary Clinton and a debate which was widely criticized for focusing on campaign gaffes rather than on candidates' policy positions. Referencing his opponents' "textbook Washington" tactics, focusing on personal attacks and trivial issues, Obama used Jay-Z's hand signal to "brush the dirt" off his shoulders.)

The following are excerpts from the Press TV article:

Should "The Zionists Of Europe... Be Considered 'Lint' To Be Brushed Away?"

"There is a strange gesture sweeping Europe called the 'Quenelle.' Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, the vastly popular French comedian and activist for social justice, is credited with created it. What is it?

"Haaretz calls it a 'reverse Nazi salute.' When I see it, it is someone brushing lint off their sleeve.

"Are the Zionists of Europe, the extremist political group that masses are rising against to be considered 'lint' to be brushed away? 

Perhaps that is the message that the decades of hatred spewed at Germans, the robotic indoctrination of Europeans in questionable history, self-hatred and slavish obedience to a “bankster” elite is the real heart of Zionism.

"This is the real message of the Quenelle, a stand against apartheid in an Israel that legally was never intended to be a Jewish state but rather a 'homeland' for Jews persecuted during the war.

"Never mistake one for the other."Read the full story here.

Hmmm....The only Quenelles i know and love are these: 

Quenelle de Brochet Sauce Nantua 

Obama says he quit cigarettes for fear of wife, hasn't had a sigaret in SIX Years.

Obama says he quit cigarettes for fear of wife, hasn't had a sigaret in SIX Years.(HD).

February 8, 2011: 

"Yes, he has," First Lady Michelle Obama proudly declared Tuesday when asked by reporters if it was true he quit smoking. "It's been almost a year."

Obama: "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years.

2008: Reminding Obama that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, “Have you stopped smoking?”

“I have,” Obama replied, flashing his signature 1,000-watt smile. “What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon.”

US President Barack Obama said Monday that he stopped smoking out of fear of his wife, in an unwitting admission captured by a loose microphone.

The US leader, taking part in an event on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly on the importance of civil society, was exchanging small talk at the end of his remarks.

In a recording taped by CNN, Obama is standing up after the event and asking the man next to him if he had given up smoking.

When the question is returned to him, Obama, in a light-hearted tone with a smile on his lips, said: "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years. That's because I'm scared of my wife." Usually known for his fit figure and healthy lifestyle, Obama has long had a weakness for cigarettes and depicted himself as a smoker in his memoir of his youth, "Dreams From My Father." Obama's smoking habit and his efforts to quit became favorite topics in the US media from the time he started his campaign for the White House in the 2008 election. In his first year in office, Obama described himself as "95 percent cured" from smoking but admitted he has occasionally "fallen off the wagon" in his efforts.

In December 2010, then White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama had not smoked for nine months and had been "stubborn" in trying to quit, despite the stress of the job.

First lady Michelle Obama, a campaigner for public health, has been open about her distaste for her husband's smoking but said that he never lit up in front of their two daughters.

In February 2011, she said that the president had not smoked for a year and that she was not giving him a hard time about the issue.Hmmmm......Putin divorced his wife.

Obama Denies Federal Assistance For Yarnell Hill Fire, After Blaze Killed 19 Firefighters.

“I don’t want to believe that . . . but you know, it’s very odd, very strange that it took them this long first of all,” Brewer told local Arizona radio host Mike Broomhead



Obama Denies Federal Assistance For Yarnell Hill Fire, After Blaze Killed 19 Firefighters.
HT: kfyi.

Statement from Governor Jan Brewer

Obama Administration Denies Federal Assistance for Yarnell Hill Fire

       
            PHOENIX – Governor Jan Brewer late today received word from the Obama Administration that it had denied the state’s request for a federal Major Disaster Declaration in response to the Yarnell Hill Fire.

Statement from Governor Brewer

            “I am deeply troubled by the Obama Administration’s decision to deny much-needed recovery assistance in the wake of Arizona’s deadliest wildfire. This designation would have provided critical aid to citizens most impacted by the fire.

            “The State of Arizona continues to mourn this tragedy, which took the lives of nineteen of our bravest first responders. While no amount of federal assistance could ever ease the pain of such an extraordinary loss, it would have provided significant financial relief to Yarnell and Peeples Valley. Local residents are under enough emotional stress as they work to pick up the pieces and put their communities back together. Wondering how or if they will recover their losses should be the last of their worries.

            “In the days after the fire, I appreciated the call I received from President Obama, during which he pledged to support our state during its time of great need. I was even more encouraged when Vice President Biden reiterated that commitment at the memorial service for the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots. With today’s denial of the state’s request, Arizonans are left questioning what help they were willing to give.

            “I was hopeful the federal government would recognize the exceptionally devastating circumstances surrounding this tragedy, and support Arizona’s request.

            “The State will review its options regarding an appeal of this misguided decision. We will continue to do everything in our power to assist in that effort. Rest assured, that is a pledge that will not be broken.”

Barack Obama S Africa visit to honour Nelson Mandela.

Barack Obama S Africa visit to honour Nelson Mandela.(BBC).US President Barack Obama is set to meet South African President Jacob Zuma, as the country continues to hold prayers and vigils for ailing former leader Nelson Mandela.

Mr Obama's Air Force One landed in Pretoria on Friday evening, as part of his three-country tour of Africa.

The US president has described Mr Mandela as a "hero for the world".

But prior to his arrival he said he did not expect to see the former leader, who is critically ill in hospital.

The 94-year-old was admitted on 8 June with a recurring lung infection.

His ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, said on Friday she felt it would not be right for President Obama to visit him while he was in a critical condition.

"I'm not a doctor but I can say that from what he was a few days ago there is great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell," she said.

On Friday, Mr Obama said it was unlikely he would see Mr Mandela. "I don't need a photo op," he said aboard Air Force One after leaving Senegal. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned with Nelson Mandela's condition." Hmmmm.......I was wondering at what time he would 'resurrect' Mandela, now i can sleep much better.Read the full story here.

Obama Quietly Raises 'Carbon Price' as Costs to Climate Increase

Obama Quietly Raises 'Carbon Price' as Costs to Climate Increase. (Bloomberg).

Buried in a little-noticed rule on microwave ovens is a change in the U.S. government’s accounting for carbon emissions that could have wide-ranging implications for everything from power plants to the Keystone XL pipeline.

The increase of the so-called social cost of carbon, to $38 a metric ton in 2015 from $23.80, adjusts the calculation the government uses to weigh costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The figure is meant to approximate losses from global warming such as flood damage and diminished crops. 

With the change, government actions that lead to cuts in emissions -- anything from new mileage standards to clean-energy loans -- will appear more valuable in its cost-benefit analyses. On the flip side, environmentalists urge that it be used to judge projects that could lead to more carbon pollution, such as TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone pipeline or coal-mining by companies such as Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) on public lands, which would be viewed as more costly.

“As we learn that climate damage is worse and worse, there is no direction they could go but up,” Laurie Johnson, chief economist for climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview. Johnson says the administration should go further; she estimates the carbon cost could be as much as $266 a ton.

Even supporters questioned the way the administration slipped the policy out without first opening it for public comment. The change was buried in an afternoon announcement on May 31 about efficiency standards for microwave ovens, a rule not seen as groundbreaking.

“This is a very strange way to make policy about something this important,” Frank Ackerman, an economist at Tufts University who published a book about the economics of global warming, said in an interview. The Obama administration “hasn’t always leveled with us about what is happening behind closed doors.”

Industry representatives are equally puzzled.

“It’s a pretty important move. To do this without any outside participation is bizarre,” said Jeff Holmstead, a lawyer at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (1222L) representing coal-dependent power producers and other industry groups. A legal challenge to the determination would be difficult, but could be tried by itself or in a challenge to a specific rulemaking that uses the cost, he said.Read the full story here.

Meanwhile :

 Hmmmm.......No significant warming for 17 years 4 months.

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley.

As Anthony and others have pointed out, even the New York Times has at last been constrained to admit what Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC was constrained to admit some months ago. There has been no global warming statistically distinguishable from zero for getting on for two decades.

Edward Snowden: "The US Government Has Been Hacking China For Years", Meet TAO.

Edward Snowden: "The US Government Has Been Hacking China For Years", Meet TAO.HT: ZeroHedge.

It's a good thing Obama and Xi met last week, because following the latest revelations by Edward Snowden, just released as part of an ongoing series of interviews posted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, there may have been some very awkward silence between the leaders of the world's superpowers. Especially since what he revealed once again exposes the US as nothing but a schoolyard hypocrite bully, which has been spinning a PR campaign "exposing" Chinese hackers as the biggest threat to internet security and privacy, when in reality it was the US that has done the bulk of snooping on Chinese soil.

From SCMP:

Snowden said that according to unverified documents seen by the Post, the NSA had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009. None of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems, he said.
One of the targets in the SAR, according to Snowden, was Chinese University and public officials, businesses and students in the city. The documents also point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets.
Snowden believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
“We hack network backbones – like huge internet routers, basically – that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,” he said.
“Last week the American government happily operated in the shadows with no respect for the consent of the governed, but no longer. Every level of society is demanding accountability and oversight.”
Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate “the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries”.
“Not only does it do so, but it is so afraid of this being known that it is willing to use any means, such as diplomatic intimidation, to prevent this information from becoming public.”
If true, Snowden's allegations lend credence to China's longstanding position that it is as much a victim of hacking as a perpetrator, after Obama pressed Xi to rein in cyber-espionage by the Chinese military.

The irony continues because in world in which China suddenly has the moral superiority to an America, that is more reminiscent to the "Evil Empire" USSR from the 1950s than anything the founders had envisioned, it is Russia that Snowden exposes as the country not afraid to stand up to the world's most arrogant bully:

Asked if he had been offered asylum by the Russian government, he said: “My only comment is that I am glad there are governments that refuse to be intimidated by great power”.

Here SCMP reverts to FP magazine to present the NSA's Tailored Access Operations or TAO:

Published in Foreign Policy magazine and called "Inside the NSA's Ultra Secret Hacking Group", the story by Mathew Aid lifts the lid on the US's covert cyber operations in China. The US continually accuses China of cybercrime. However, senior Beijing officials accuse the US government of hypocrisy and allege Washington is also actively engaged in cyber-espionage.
"The Chinese government's allegations are essentially correct," the article reveals. "According to a number of confidential sources, a highly secretive unit of the National Security Agency (NSA), the US government's huge electronic eavesdropping organisation, called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, has successfully penetrated Chinese computer and telecommunications systems for almost 15 years, generating some of the best and most reliable intelligence information about what is going on inside China."
When the latest allegation of Chinese cyber-espionage was made last month, it alleged hackers employed by the Chinese military had stolen the blueprints of more than three dozen American weapons systems. The Chinese government's top internet official, Huang Chengqing, responded that Beijing possessed "mountains of data" showing the US has engaged in widespread hacking to steal Chinese government secrets.
Revelations about the NSA's Prism operation from former CIA undercover operative Edward Snowden have added fuel to Beijing's stance, and Foreign Policy's exposé confirms China's claims.
"According to former NSA officials … TAO's mission is simple. It collects intelligence information on foreign targets by surreptitiously hacking into their computers and telecommunications systems, and then copying all the messages and data traffic passing within the targeted e-mail and text-messaging systems," the story revealed.
"TAO is also responsible for developing the information that would allow the United States to destroy or damage foreign computer and telecommunications systems with a cyber attack if so directed by the president. TAO, sources say, is now the largest and arguably the most important component of the NSA's huge intelligence gathering network."

Back to Snowden and his conclusion:

“I’m very grateful for the support of the public,” he said. “But I ask that they act in their interest – save their money for letters to the government that breaks the law and claims it noble.
“The reality is that I have acted at great personal risk to help the public of the world, regardless of whether that public is American, European, or Asian.”

We can only hope that the same public will care.Hmmmm......Meet Mr. Yu So Phukt.Read the full story here.

The Muslim Lawyers Association in Johannesburg wants US Pres Obama arrested and tried for war crimes when he arrives in South Africa.

The Muslim Lawyers Association in Johannesburg wants US Pres Obama arrested and tried for war crimes when he arrives in South Africa.(TL).

It submitted a 600-plus page document to the Office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions on Friday asking for an investigation into Obama's involvement in the Middle East.

Group spokesman Yousha Tayob said Obama ordered drone strikes that killed innocent civilians.

In terms of the Rome Statute, South Africa has the right to prosecute a war criminal on its territory, said Tayob.

Researchers from New York University School of Law and Stanford University Law School recently released a report entitled "Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan".

They found that in four years Obama commissioned five times more drone attacks than former president George W Bush did in his two terms in the White House .

The report estimates drones have killed between 474 and 881 civilians, including 176 children.

The US Embassy in South Africa's spokesman Jack Hillmeyer said it had "no comment".

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Bulelwa Makeke said the office had received the docket and was studying it.Hmmmm............Read the full story here.

Is Biden Making False Excuses for Obama?

Is Biden Making False Excuses for Obama?HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

Vice President Biden, who is in Rome to attend the installation mass of Pope Francis I, today told Italian President Giorgio Napolitano that President Obama is skipping the event because of his trip to Israel.

“The President sends his regards and the only reason he’s not here is he’s going to Israel,” Biden said.
Except, during the mass Tuesday morning, Obama will be in . . . Washington. He doesn’t depart for Israel until Tuesday evening U.S. time, which is well into Wednesday at the Vatican. What’s more, Rome is on the way to Israel for Obama. 

Obama has nothing going on Monday that couldn’t be rescheduled. He does meet with the Irish prime minister Tuesday, who is in the United States for the annual St. Patrick’s Day promotion of his island. And he’ll have a substantive chat with the leaders of Northern Ireland. But even Biden doesn’t cite this as a reason to ditch the Pope. It seems perhaps the real reason is that Biden, who is Catholic, has far more interest witnessing the installation of a new Pope that President Obama, who is not.Read the full story here.

Update:  Just one of the things -- with the election of the new Pope and the President’s trip, it seems that we’re going to have both the President and the Vice President abroad next week. You’ll have to excuse me for not having the kind of institutional knowledge that Mark Knoller does, but is there a precedence for this? Were there arrangements that had to be made in order to accommodate the fact that both of them will be moving abroad? And do we have adequate safeguards in place that, God forbid, something would happen that we don't have another Al Haig moment?

MR. RHODES: You know, it’s an interesting question. I actually don't know for certain if they’ll be abroad at the same time. I believe that the Pope’s first event is Tuesday that the Vice President is attending, and the President will be leaving late Tuesday night. So it is an interesting question you ask. I’m actually just not sure whether it will be the case that the Vice President is still overseas in Italy at the same time that President Obama will be leaving U.S. airspace for the region.

So we can look into that. We do take those considerations into account and do prudent planning to ensure that we’re prepared for any contingency, and we often seek to coordinate their travel for that purpose.

None of Obama's Israeli Columbia '83 classmates recall the young president.

None of Obama's Israeli Columbia '83 classmates recall the young president.HT: IsraelMatzav.I graduated from Bir Zeit on the Hudson a little too early to remember Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama. But isn't it more than a little curious that not a single one of the 25 members of the Columbia College Class of 1983 - allegedly Obama's class - who lives in Israel remembers him?

What are Obama's classmates in Israel up to? Quite a few, like him, went straight to law school after finishing their undergraduate degrees. One is a doctor, several are engineers, and a few hold top jobs in finance. There's an architect in the group, a tour guide, a librarian, a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist and a journalist. Most are married with children (about three on average ), a few are already grandparents, while others, who came to parenting relatively late in life, are still chasing around toddlers. Among the group are also two married couples who began dating while in college.

They're scattered around the country, but Beit Shemesh and Ra'anana seem to be their preferred locales. Four live in Jerusalem and its outskirts, three in Tel Aviv, two are up north in Kfar Vradim, and two live over the Green Line in the settlement of Ginot Shomron.

But here's the thing: Not one of us remembers Barack Obama - who transferred to Columbia after his sophomore year at Occidental College in California - from our undergrad years, nor do we know anyone else who does.

"If he wasn't on my radar, he wasn't on anyone's radar," asserts Jamie Miller, a mother of five, who lives in Beit Shemesh and remains active in the alumni association, traveling back to New York every five years to attend reunions.

"I was a cheerleader, so I knew all the jocks," says Miller, who went to law school after college and today works as a librarian and English teacher. "I was in the marching band, I worked on the yearbook, and I was involved in student government, so I knew everyone. But I never saw him around."

Sarah Graber Nehrer, a speech pathologist who moved with her family from the United States to Rehovot last summer, says she became curious about Obama even before his first presidential run. "When he first came on the political scene, back when he was running for the Senate, I was living in Illinois, and I was like, 'Wait, this guy went to school with me,'" she explains. "But I had no recollection of him whatsoever, and neither did anyone else I know, which I found very strange."

Compared with other American universities, Columbia, a member of the prestigious Ivy League, is small. Its graduating class in 1983 - including Columbia College for men, Barnard College for women and the College of Engineering - had fewer than 2,000 students. And since the campus itself, located in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, is also quite small, the opportunities to bump into your classmates and get to know faces over a period of four years were abundant.
...
Yet another classmate, Michael Teplow, notes that someone with presidential aspirations "wouldn't be shy, but in fact, quite gregarious," which is why he, too, was surprised to discover "when I first started flipping through my yearbook looking for his picture that he wasn't there, and I didn't remember him at all." Like Obama, Teplow went onto law school after he graduated Columbia. Today he lives in the settlement of Ginot Shomron, from which he travels each weekday to his law firm in Tel Aviv. Most of his practice is in corporate law, but Teplow has also built up a pro-bono side practice over the years representing Palestinians who have served as informers for Israel's security forces.

Another Tel Aviv corporate lawyer in the group is Norman Menachem Feder, a senior partner in Caspi & Co., who once clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Menachem Elon. "I spent most of my time at Columbia either in the library or in the gym practicing for fencing, so if Obama wasn't hanging out in those places, I wouldn't have seen him," he notes.

Teddy Weinberger moved to Israel 15 years ago with his wife and former classmate Sarah Jane Ross, who works in institutional sales at Excellence Nessuah investment house. From their home in Givat Ze'ev, in the West Bank just north of Jerusalem, where the couple live with their five children, Weinberger continues to maintain close ties with many of his old college buddies, and says he understands why Obama may not have been on any of their radar. "He was a transfer student living off campus and that made it possible for him to keep such a low profile."

What might be a fair comparison is to ask how many of them knew another famous Columbian from that era - George Stephanopoulos - who was a class ahead of them.
You don't think Barry lied about going to Columbia, do you?Read the full story here.

Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw Miss Israel to dine with Obama, but he may not like she's telling him.

Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw Miss Israel to dine with Obama, but he may not like she's telling him.HT: IsraelMatzav.At the insistence of a White House advance team, 22-year old Yityish Aynaw, the first Ethiopian-born Miss Israel, has been invited to a state dinner with President Obama while he is in Israel next week. But the President may not like everything he hears from her. This is from the first link.

The mass circulation Yedioth Ahronot newspaper reported that Ms Aynaw – who emigrated to Israel from Ethiopia with her Jewish grandparents after the death of her mother when she was 12 – would have the chance to exchange pleasantries with the president. She told the newspaper that Mr Obama's status as America's first black president had inspired her to make him the subject of her high school graduation essay.
"For me, he is a role model who broke down barriers, a source of inspiration that proves that every person really can reach any height, regardless of their religion, race or gender," she said.

The event will have symbolic resonance for Israel's 120,000-plus Jews of Ethiopian origin, who have protested that they are subject to frequent racial discrimination from their co-religionists.
Last month, the Israeli health ministry announced an investigation into allegations – first made in a television documentary – that Ethiopian women immigrants were forcibly given contraceptive injections to reduce birth rates within the community.

The majority of Israel's Ethiopian-origin community emigrated to the country, encouraged by the Israeli government, in two successive waves, in 1984 and 1991.
Mr Obama's desire to meet Ms Awnay is in stark contrast to a snub delivered to Israel's only settlement university, Ariel, in the West Bank.

Student representatives from the university have been pointedly excluded from the president's keynote speech at Jerusalem's International Convention Centre, drawing angry criticism from the pro-settler Jewish Home party, led by Naftali Bennett. Student representatives from all other universities in Israel have been invited.

But Miss Israel may say some things that President Obama doesn't want to hear.

Miss Israel’s YouTube video, which is a clip of an interview aired on Israeli Ch 2 news on Wednesday, March 13, reveals something quite interesting, but utterly non-salacious.

The interviewer asks Aynaw, “What will you tell Obama when you meet him?”

She answers, “That he is a role model for me, and second, that he should free Pollard.”

Aynaw explains that she was very active while in high school – she was head of the student council – working on many different activities to help free Pollard. She explained to the interviewer that she knows the story very well, and that if she has the opportunity, “lama lo? (why not?)”

So far there has been no response from the White House.Hmmmm......I wonder how Michelle feels about 'the White house' insisting to dine with Miss Israel?Read the full story here.

But then you can't blame 'the White house' for insisting.....Can you?

Video: Channel 2 TV: Esther Pollards Heartfelt Appeal to President Obama.

Pres Obama will have to stick to strict Jewish Kosher diet on Israel visit.

Pres Obama will have to stick to strict Jewish Kosher diet on Israel visit.(AA).U.S. President Obama will observe a strict Kosher diet on his visit to Jerusalem this March.

The stringent dietary restrictions are due to the timing of his arrival which coincides with preparations for the Jewish Passover festival.The landmark King David Hotel as changed to a full religious menu in preparation for the start of the occasion, reported The Telegraph on Tuesday.

Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Jews mark the occasion by eating unleavened bread, known as ‘matzah,’ while avoiding foods containing barley, wheat, rye, or oats.

Hotel staff say they will not be able to make an exception for the presidential party.

Obama and his aides can expect their dinner table to be laden with vegetables, while pasta dishes will remain very much off the menu, according to The Telegraph.However, the hotel will operate a 24-hour room service operation throughout the president’s stay.

“We’re used to hosting heads of state and also American presidents, but this situation is very special for us because it’s so close to Pesach (Passover). For us it will be double the preparations,” the hotel0s manager, Dror Danino, told Haaretz newspaper. The imposed diet may pose a trial for Obama, who has been known to enjoy rich foods during political meetings.Hmmm.....Somehow i can't imagine him eating Kosher, he might fly in his own personal chef.Read the full story here.

Obama is persona non grata in 'Palestine'

Obama is persona non grata in 'Palestine'.HT: IsraelMatzav.'Palestinian activists' in Judea and Samaria say that they will demonstrate en masse against President Hussein Obama's visit to our region the week after next, calling him persona non grata. A group called "Palestinian For Dignity" called for "huge demonstrations" against Obama and US policies "supportive of the occupation."

The group said that Obama was "persona non grata in Palestine" because of US military, financial and diplomatic aid for Israel. "We call upon our people to demonstrate against receiving he who considers himself Israel's number one ally," the group said in a statement. "We also call for demonstrations against the idea of returning to the negotiations [with Israel."

The group said that Obama's planned visit to Ramallah "comes at a time when our prisoners are on hunger strike and weeks after the death of prisoner Arafat Jaradat in interrogation cells."

The group said that it was naive to think that US policy toward Israel has changed during Obama's term.

The 'Palestinians' also say that they will prevent Obama from visiting the Temple Mount.

I think we should have a contest with them who can make the biggest anti-Obama demonstration. The difference is that ours won't also be anti-American, theirs will be anti-American.Read the full story here.

Video - 'Burning Barack Obama' in North Korean new propaganda 'Nuclear Threat' Video.

Video - 'Burning Barack Obama' in North Korean new propaganda 'Nuclear Threat' Video.(INN).A new propaganda video produced by North Korea shows flames superimposed over US President Barack Obama and American soldiers, followed by a nuclear bomb exploding.

The video was posted Sunday on the YouTube self-broadcasting website. Although the logo in the lower right-hand corner of the image says Telegraph.co.uk, the post itself was filed under an account affiliated with a Korean pro-reunification government agency.

A blazing fire overlays much of the footage, which is accompanied by a threatening martial music bed.

The video ends with a computer-generated image of an underground nuclear device exploding into a billow of flames.

Earlier this month, North Korea posted a video showing an American city under nuclear attack, accompanied throughout by a music bed of a light, pleasant, instrumental rendition of the song, “We are the World.”

It begins and concludes with footage of North Korea's internationally-condemned December 2012 launch of rocket that put a satellite into space.Hmmm.....Obama: "“They don’t pose a serious threat to us in the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us,” Read the full story here.