Morning Posting.
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Greece 5.3 - 5.2 ; Indonesia 5.2 !More info here.
- Iranian Parliament Finalizes Draft Bill on Cutting Oil Supplies to Europe.(Fars).TEHRAN (FNA)- Members of the Iranian parliament finalized a draft bill on cutting the country's oil exports to the European states in retaliation for the EU's oil ban against Tehran, a senior legislator said on Saturday. "The bill has 4 articles, including one which states that the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission Nasser Soudani told FNA. Elaborating on the other parts of the draft bill, he said another article requires the government to stop imports of goods from those countries which are a party to these sanctions against Iran.The statement continued that since just 18 percent of oil produced by Iran is exported to European countries, Islamic Republic can easily replace new markets with the European market. Read the full story here.
- Washington Should Reject ‘No Missiles, No Meeting’ Russian Blackmail.(Heritage).By Ariel Cohen.Recently, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that there may be no summit between NATO and the Russian Federation if no agreement on missile defense is reached.This is understandable: Moscow has so far refused all Western entreaties to sign a workable missile defense arrangement and threatened that the NATO–Russia summit may be cancelled. If so, the loss will be all the Kremlin’s.NATO should not feel under any pressure to finalize a missile defense agreement, as Moscow is only trying to constrain the development of the U.S. missile defense system that could be used for the protection of Europe against Iran or another rogue power.Russia’s efforts to squeeze unreasonable concessions, such as sharing U.S. missile defense technology for free, are a poke in the eye of President Obama’s “reset” policy. So far, the policy has required large payoffs for small results. Highly significantly, President Obama decided not to talk about the reset policy’s achievements in his State of the Union speech—because there is little to be proud of.In December, Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “giving the signal” for mass protests in Moscow—after the ruling United Russia party brazenly stole parliamentary elections.The putative missile defense agreement presupposes that the foxes will guard the henhouse: Putin recently promoted the loudmouth nationalist Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s former envoy to NATO, to head Russia’s hugely corrupt defense industry as a Vice Premier. This is a big step for Rogozin, which may signal bigger and better things in the future, like a coveted Defense Minister’s job.Rogozin has been leading the anti-American and anti-missile-defense campaigns in Russia and internationally. Recently, he attemptedto link Russia’s opposition to the NATO missile defense in Europe to the future of the NATO supply line to Afghanistan. This complex logistics operation, known as the Northern Distribution Network, is responsible for 60 percent of NATO supplies to Afghanistan; the other 40 percent goes through Pakistan.Congress and the Administration should not tolerate Russian mischief, such as on missile defense. The U.S. should not shy away from protecting its vital security interests, including keeping vital military technology close to its chest. Washington should articulate its priorities and values to its Russian partners—and play hardball when necessary.It is clearly time to reset the “reset.”Hmmmm.......Closing the NATO supply line to Afghanistan, would mean US soldiers caught in a trap with not enough Food, Petrol and Ammo.......Obama's 'Stalingrad'.Read the full story here.
- Is President Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents?(ID).By John Merline.If the Republican primaries are any indication, one big debate in the upcoming election will be whether President Obama is pushing the country toward a European-style welfare culture.Mitt Romney, for example, argues that "over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an entitlement society."Newt Gingrich has taken to calling Obama "the best food-stamp president in American history."Obama, in contrast, says the government must play an increasing role — what he likes to call "shared responsibility" — to ensure a society that is fairer.So is Obama turning the country into a welfare society and away from one focused on opportunity?While it's true that the country has been headed in this direction for many years — with the explosion in entitlements since the 1960s and the aging of the population — Obama has, in fact, greatly accelerated the trend.Read the full story here.
- Obama vows to remember Holocaust, fight anti-Semitism.(JPost).US President Barak Obama pledged to remember the Holocaust and to fight anti-Semitism, in a statement released on International Holocaust Remembrance day. "Michelle and I join people in the United States, in Israel, and across the globe as we remember the six million Jews and millions of others who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House Friday."Together with the State of Israel, and all our friends around the world, we dedicate ourselves to giving meaning to those powerful words: 'Never Forget. Never Again,'" he said.Obama pledged to keep the memories of the Holocaust alive, "not only in our thoughts, but through our actions."The US president also vowed to fight Holocaust deniers. "We pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms," he said.Hmmmm.....While 'embracing' the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that calls for the extermination of the Jews?Read the full story here.
- Court Awards Attorneys’ Fees Against the City of Dearborn, Michigan for Violating a Christian Pastor’s Right to Freedom of Speech.(AM).AFLC--Today, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Detroit, Michigan recommended that Robert J. Muise, the attorney for Christian Pastor George Saieg, be awarded $103,401.96 in fees and costs for successfully challenging the City of Dearborn’s restriction on the Christian’s right to freedom of speech at the 2009 Arab Festival held in the City. The City, not wanting to offend its large Muslim population, would not allow the Christian to hand out religious literature at the Festival.In the order, the federal judge stated, “In this case, the Plaintiff received the full relief he sought — an invalidation of the leafleting restriction and a permanent injunction barring its enforcement. . . . Because this result ‘cannot fairly be labeled as anything short of excellent, [Plaintiff] is entitled to a fully compensatory fee.’” AFLC Senior Counsel Robert J. Muise represented Pastor Saieg in this successful free speech case. At the time, Muise was Senior Trial Counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. The City has 14 days to appeal. [Read order here]“The award of attorney fees in this case,” noted Muise, “is critical in the lawfare against Civilization Jihad and dhimmitization, or subjugation, of an entire municipality in Michigan. Dearborn has a long record of this kind of illegal, heavy-handed treatment of Christians as an attempt to placate Dearborn’s sharia-faithful. The court’s ruling today demonstrates that this kind of behavior will come at great cost.”Muise recently won acquittals for charges of “disturbing the peace” brought by the Dearborn prosecutor against a group of Christians following their arrests by Dearborn police in 2010 for the same kind of peaceful free speech activities. Muise and David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center, along with attorneys from the Thomas More Law Center, currently represent these Christians in a civil action arising from these arrests.
The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.Read the full story here. - UN wants end to West Bank demolitions.(YNET).The United Nations on Friday called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank after reporting a dramatic rise in demolitions in the past year.Israeli forces destroyed 622 Palestinian homes in the West Bank in 2011, "forcibly displacing" almost 1,100 people, over half of them children, according to a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report."The current policy and practice of demolitions cause extensive human suffering and should end," said UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard. Gaylard said the demolition figures represent a "dramatic" increase on previous years and that tens of thousands of people remain under threat of dispossession, demolition and displacement. Israel says it only demolishes structures that have been built without required permission. Palestinians say they are rarely granted permits.Gaylard said he went on Thursday to the village of Anata near Jerusalem where seven Palestinian homes were demolished this week. "He was informed that bulldozers and troops had arrived in the middle of the night of 23 January and that 52 people, including 29 children, had been forced from their homes, which were then completely destroyed," said a UN statement. The operation was carried out Monday night. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said Israeli forces demolished Beit Arabiya, a family home and "peace centre" at Anata, that has now been destroyed five times since 1994. Israel's administration for the West Bank said the homes had no permit.Read the full story here.
- The Risk of Islamist Coups.(HurriyetDaily).By Gwynne Dyer.The eastern half of what used to be Pakistan narrowly escaped a military coup last month. Brigadier Masud Razzak, the spokesman of the Bangladeshi army, announced on Thursday (19 January) that “A band of fanatic officers has been trying to oust the politically established government. Their attempt has been foiled.”They had “extreme religious views,” he said, and revealed that some of the sixteen conspirators, all of them current or former military officers, will soon appear before a military court. For a country with a dismalry with a dismal history of military coups, some of them very violent, it was a heartening outcome. But it was also a reminder of where the real danger lies in the subcontinent.A coup by Islamist officers in Bangladesh would be seen by most foreigners as deeply regrettable but mostly of only local interest. A coup by Islamist officers in Pakistan would unleash the Mother of All Panics.An Indian strategist once told me, off the record, what he thought would happen about six hours after news of an Islamist coup in Pakistan reached the rest of the world. There would be a huge “traffic jam” over Kahuta and other major Pakistani nuclear weapons facilities as the Indian, Iranian, American and Israeli air forces all tried to keep the nuclear weapons out of the hands of the fanatics by destroying them.So how likely is an Islamist military coup in Pakistan? About as likely as it is in Bangladesh, which is to say unlikely, but not unimaginable. In this one thing, the two armies are alike – and quite different from those of most other Muslim countries.In almost all other Muslim countries, the armies take great care to ensure that Islamist officers do not rise very high in rank: they may make captain, but they won’t make colonel. This is because the generals know that they can’t be trusted. The generals themselves are mostly faithful Muslims, but they must protect the integrity of the military institution they serve, and that means no Islamists in positions of real power.All previous military interventions in politics in Pakistan have been done by the army as an institution, acting in obedience to its lawful commanders. That kind of thing would not radically change Pakistan’s policies towards the rest of the world. But if middle-ranking Islamist officers were to break the chain of command and seize power, like their comrades in Bangladesh intended to do, then all bets would be off. Read the full story here.
- Arab League suspends observer mission in Syria as killing spikes.(Alarabiya).The Arab League on Thursday suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of the upsurge of violence a day after the monitors’ chief said killing had spiked this week, with the death toll approaching 200.“Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League’s mission to Syria pending prevention of the issue to the league’s council,” the league’s secretary-general said in a statement.“The secretary-general has also asked the head of the mission to take all the necessary procedures to ensure the safety and well-being of the mission’s members.”The mission would remain in Syria, a source at the league had earlier told Reuters, but would temporarily halt its work.The announcement came as the opposition Syrian National Council said its leader would travel to New York to appeal to the U.N. Security Council for protection from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.According to a tally by AFP taken from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and official Syrian media, 193 people have been killed since Tuesday.That compares with the figure of more than 5,400 given by the United Nations last month since anti-regime protests erupted in March.On Thursday, the bodies of 17 men arrested by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces during an armored assault this week on the city of Hama were found dumped in the streets after being shot in the head, activists said on Saturday. “They were killed execution style, mostly with one bullet to the head. Iron chains that had tied them were left on their legs as a message to the people to stop resisting,” Abu al-Walid, an activist in the city, told Reuters by telephone.Another activist said the bodies, their hands tied by plastic wire and some with their legs chained, were dumped in the streets of five Hama neighborhoods on Thursday evening. “They are of mixed ages. One was in his 60s, another in his 40s and several were in their 20s,” he said, adding that only three had been identified, one of whom was a police deserter.Asked whether the bodies could be those of Assad loyalists killed by rebels, the activist said this was not possible.“Hama is a military zone full of armored vehicles and troops,” he said. “Roadblocks and tanks have isolated districts from each other. The streets are empty and no one dares to drive a car unless he wants to be shot, let alone to move between different neighborhoods and dump bodies.”A YouTube video, which could not be independently verified, showed six bodies of mostly young men in a street described as being in the Bab Qabli district of Hama. Their hands were tied and their legs were chained. They appeared to have died from gunshot wounds to the head or neck. Other bodies were found in the Basateen, Hamidiya, Arbaeen and Masbah neighborhoods, activists said.Read the full story here.
- Largest conventional U.S. bomb not powerful against Iran: report.(AlArabiya).The U.S. military has concluded that its largest conventional bomb is not capable of destroying Iran’s most heavily fortified underground facilities suspected to be used for building nuclear weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. But citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the military was stepping up efforts to make it more powerful.The 13.6-ton “bunker-buster” bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea, the report said.But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, would not be capable of destroying some of Iran’s facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them, the paper noted. In a report issued in November, the International Atomic Energy Agency said intelligence from more than 10 countries and its own sources “indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device.”It detailed 12 suspicious areas such as testing explosives in a steel container at a military base and studies on Shahab-3 ballistic missile warheads that the IAEA said were “highly relevant to a nuclear weapon program.”Meanwhile, doubts about its bomb’s effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb’s ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, The Journal noted. The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co., the report pointed out. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, The Journal said. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Journal Thursday, acknowledged the bomb’s shortcomings against some of Iran’s deepest bunkers. He said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon.“We’re still trying to develop them,” Panetta said.Meanwhile the Washington Post reported Saturday that the U.S. military plans to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran and intensifying fighting in Yemen, Citing unspecified procurement documents, the newspaper said the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos in response to requests from the U.S. Central Command. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, the report said.Hmmmm.........The bomb will be 'ready' just before the elections?Read the full story here.
- Dutch plan Muslim face veil ban next year.(TS).One million out of 17 million people are Muslim in the Netherlands.AMSTERDAM - The Dutch minority government plans to ban Muslim face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year.The ban would make the Netherlands, where 1 million out of 17 million people are Muslim, the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, and would apply to face-covering veils if they were worn in public."People should be able to look at each other's faces and recognize each other when they meet," the interior affairs ministry said in a statement Friday.The ban will also apply to balaclavas and motorcycle helmets when worn in inappropriate places, such as inside a store, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters, denying that this was a ban on religious clothing.Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV), which helps give the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition a majority in parliament, has set considerable political store on getting the so-called burqa ban passed into law.Few Muslim women in the Netherlands wear the Arabic-style niqabs which leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid. Academics estimate the numbers at between 100 and 400, whereas Muslim headscarves which leave the face exposed are far more common.The face-veil law, which still needs to win approval in both houses of parliament, excludes clothing worn for security reasons such as that worn by firemen and hockey players, as well as party clothing such as Santa Claus or Halloween costumes.The ban does not apply to religious places, such as churches and mosques, nor to passengers on airplanes or en route via a Dutch airport, the interior ministry said.Read the full story here.
- Growing Number of Child Brides Among Muslims ... in London.(Islingtontribune).By PavanAmara.AN alarming number of under-age girls – some as young as nine – are being forced into marriage in Islington, according to a leading campaign group.The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) claim that at least 30 girls in the borough were forced into marriage in 2010.The practice was condemned by the Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who said such marriages were against Islam and “unacceptable”.He pledged to invalidate any marriage which he said were carried out by “back-street Imams”.IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence cases in 2010, has shown the Tribune records which revealed at least three 11-year-old girls and two nine-year-olds had been forced into marriage with older men within Islington. The oldest girls involved were 16.They have warned that hundreds of Islington girls could be suffering sexual, emotional and physical scars as a result of the child marriages every year and are calling for teachers, social workers and police to be better trained to spot and manage the abuse.Information from the Ministry of Justice, following a Freedom of Information request, revealed that 32 Forced Marriage Protection Order applications were made for children under 16 in Britain last year.Six of these were made for under-16s within Islington at the Royal Courts of Justice, although these were not necessarily made for Islington residents.At the Islington court, “five or fewer” orders were made to protect children between the ages of 9-11.The orders are a form of injunction that threaten legal punishment if marriage takes place due to emotional or physical force.In most cases, the children fear they will be killed if they reveal the truth to anybody, while others believe they will be separated from their families and taken into social services’ care.Dianna Nammi, director of IKWRO, explained that the girls are married in a mosque’s sharia court. This means they are not legally married according to British law, rendering the Home Office unable to recognise or prove the abuse.“They are still expected to carry out their wifely duties, though, and that includes sleeping with their husband,” she said.“They have to cook for them, wash their clothes, everything. They are still attending schools in Islington, struggling to do their primary school homework, and at the same time being practically raped by a middle-aged man regularly and being abused by their families. So they are a wife, but in a primary school uniform.“The reason it doesn’t get out is because they are too terrified to speak out, and also the control their families have over them is impossible to imagine if you’re not going through it. The way it is covered up is so precise, almost unspeakable.”Ms Nammi said that one 13-year-old had to sneak out of a maths lesson to contact the group, because she was being monitored so closely by her family.“Her teacher didn’t notice because she said she’d gone to the toilet, but when she got home that day she was beaten,” she said. Imam Saad explained that Sharia law stated an individual can marry when they begin puberty, with the most important stipulation being that they are “rushd”, or mature enough to understand marriage.A spokesman for the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) said he was “unsure” whether the lack of legal status of the marriages affected whether the they could intervene or not, but directed the Tribune to government practice guidelines on dealing with forced marriage.The spokesman added that due to the lack of legal status the marriages may be a “criminal matter that only the police can deal with”, but admitted to it being "”a very grey area”.Read the full story here.
- New US military strategy and Turkey.(HD).As the details of the new U.S. defense budget for 2013 become clear, the outline of the new American military strategy becomes clear, too.the WSJ story also said that in some critical parts of the world – critical to the U.S. interests – the Pentagon considers establishing land bases for special units.The Darwin base in Australia was named among the bases to be used in the Pacific area control. The expansion of the Philippines base was another consideration. And the WSJ reported that the Pentagon was looking into ways to establish bases near the Iraqi border area of Jordan and Turkey.It is not clear from the WSJ story whether the U.S. official meant an additional use of the İncirlik Air Force Base of Turkey which is in NATO use, also hosting U.S. troops, or an additional base in the country that is not very likely considering the huge dimension of the İncirlik Base and the already high anti-American social climate in the country.Later on Pentagon officials denied there were plans to escalate presence in Turkey. Yet there are still a number of issues around Turkey, from energy routes to the consequences of the Arab Spring, including Iran-Israel tension, the sectarian civil war risk in Iraq and the Kurdish problem in a lesser scale.The Turkish proverb goes, “There is no smoke without fire,” and Turks are likely to assess the developments through a different lens from now on. Hmmmm......Obama has a 'relation of trust' with Erdogan?Read the full story here.
- Source: Hamas' Meshaal Sets Sights on Brotherhood Post.(IPT).Hamas' out-going politburo chairman is leaving the Palestinian terrorist group to take a "high position in the Muslim Brotherhood movement," a "well-informed source in Hamas" told the Nazareth-based Arabic-language Al-Sinnara last week.The move would see Khaled Meshaal—the longtime Damascus-based leader of Hamas—transition to a new, more international role, as head of the "Supreme Council of the [Brotherhood] movement." The Council is said to be "responsible for political issues," according to the report. It remains to be seen whether the article is referring to the group's Guidance Bureau, which largely deals with the movement's political affairs, or with another body altogether.If true, the news would help explain why Meshaal has been so adamant about not seeking re-election. Earlier reports noted that the group made an official plea for Meshaal "to reconsider" his stance.It has been speculated that if Meshaal exits, the post could go to Hamas' Gaza-based Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, or Hamas' original political bureau chief, Mousa Abu Marzook.Meshaal's purported move appears to have the blessing of higher-ups in the Brotherhood. According to the Al-Sinnara source, longtime Brotherhood spiritual advisor, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is in support of the leadership jump.Read the full story here.
- Viking mass grave linked to elite killers of the medieval world, they faced their own beheading sword blow standing tall.(AD). A mass grave found in Dorset could belong to a crew of Viking mercenaries who terrorised Europe in the 11th century according to a new documentary on National Geographic which pieces together the story behind the burial. Their burial pit, at Ridgeway Hill, Dorset, was found in 2009 while archaeologists were working in the area ahead of the construction of a new road. In it, researchers made the gruesome discovery of the decapitated bodies of 54 young men. All had been dumped in the shallow grave, and their heads had been piled up on the far side.Radiocarbon dating revealed that the remains belonged to men murdered at some point around the year 1000.While historians will probably never agree conclusively about who the men were, Baillie's analysis draws her to the conclusion that they may have been Viking mercenaries who modelled themselves on, or behaved in a similar way to the legendary Jomsvikings a brotherhood of elite killers whose strict military code involved never showing fear, and never fleeing in the face of the enemy unless totally outnumbered. Allegedly founded by Harald Bluetooth, the Jomsvikings are thought to have been based at a stronghold called Jomsborg on the Baltic coast. At a time when Vikings were feared across Europe, they were known as perhaps the fiercest of them all a reputation which even earned them their own saga.Yet the remains in Dorset also suggest that these men were something unique. Researchers have found that one of the men's teeth had incisions. This rare feature could, it is believed, be the result of the victim filing his teeth deliberately to demonstrate his bravery and status.Further analysis then reveals that the St. Brice's day massacre victims in Oxford were killed in a frenzied mob attack. However, the Ridgeway Hill individuals were systematically executed. They were beheaded from the front just like the warriors in the Jomsviking saga. In the saga, one captured Viking says: "I am content to die as are all our comrades. But I will not let myself be slaughtered like a sheep. I would rather face the blow. Strike straight at my face and watch carefully if I pale at all."Read the full story here.
