Video - Ezra Levant and Charles Krauthammer: "Censorship and Islam."

Ezra Levant is joined by Charles Krauthammer to discuss Islam and censorship.

Western Courts Bend to Islamic Practices.(Islamist-watch)

Western Courts Bend to Islamic Practices.(Islamist-watch).By David J. Rusin.
 PJ Media.


Judges' consideration of Shari'a when deciding cases may be the most alarming avenue by which Islam influences Western legal systems, but it is not the only one. With increasing regularity, Islamic practices sway the administration of courtrooms, affecting when sessions are held, who must rise, and what attire is permissible. This trend should not be overlooked. Courts that yield to Islamic norms, even in mundane matters, encourage Islamists and cast doubt on the future of equal rights and responsibilities under the law.
Ramadan. The Islamic month of fasting can require significant shuffling of schedules by devout Muslims, but are secular courts obligated to alter theirs? Some answer in the affirmative.
Muslim convert Mark Edward Wetsch is one recent beneficiary. Charged with robbing 13 Minnesota banks, he objected to a hearing set for July 20, 2012, the first day of Ramadan, and asked that it be pushed back for a month. Though Judge Jeanne Graham initially declined the request, he persisted. Ramadan means "not engaging in conflict and argument," but rather taking part in "work to reconcile differences and seek peace," according to a motion filed on his behalf. "Clearly, a contested hearing in which the government is making allegations against Mr. Wetsch and he is fighting against [them] causes him to engage in conflict and argument." Graham relented and issued the desired continuance.
The U.S. military court that will try five al-Qaeda terrorists accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks bent to similar sensitivities this year. After turning their May 5 arraignment into a circus, the jihadists sought to postpone a hearing scheduled for the week of August 8, near the end of Ramadan. James Connell III, a government-compensated defense attorney, stressed in a filing that "the last 10 days of Ramadan commemorate the night God — Allah — revealed the Holy Quran to the Prophet Mohammed." Hence, "these 10 days are the most holy period of the Muslim calendar and are typically observed by fasting, prayer, and seclusion." Despite having previously ruled out Ramadan-related extensions, the judge, Colonel James Pohl, agreed to a delay. Connell was relieved: "It's very difficult to pay attention to sometimes intricate legal proceedings when you haven't had any sleep and you haven't had any food." (In one bright spot, Pohl rebuffed a petition not to hold hearings on Fridays, the day of communal Islamic prayers.)
Such Ramadan accommodations are not new. Four years ago, a French judge postponed a trial after a lawyer complained that "his client, a Muslim, would have been fasting for two weeks and thus, he said, be in no position to defend himself properly," in the words of the BBC. "He would be physically weakened and too tired to follow the arguments as he should." (Note that Muslims have played professional football during Ramadan fasts, so it is not obvious that ordinary Muslims are incapable of sitting in a courtroom.) A prosecutor denied that Ramadan had anything to do with the change, but others believed it to be the sole viable explanation. Fadela Amara, a Muslim then serving as urban affairs minister, decried the "knife wound" to France's separation of religion and state.
Of course, scheduling controversies are not exclusive to Islam. In 2011, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court had "abused its discretion" by rejecting an Orthodox Jewish plaintiff's motion to suspend a malpractice trial for two days due to Shavuot, during which his faith would preclude him from working or having work done for him. However, the decision stands out because many other U.S. federal and state courts have found no abuse of discretion by judges who did not grant similar Jewish holiday requests. If a continuance of one or two days is not automatic, then certainly the bar should be that much higher for a month-long Ramadan break — especially when its religious necessity is far less concrete than the work proscriptions characterizing strictly observed Jewish holidays.
Rising for judges. Standing when a judge enters and leaves the courtroom is a centuries-old tradition conveying respect for authority and maintaining order. Those who fail to rise may be cited for contempt, but some Muslims are challenging this point of protocol.
The most important U.S. case has centered on Amina Farah Ali, a citizen and Minnesota resident who, along with a second woman, faced federal charges of funding a Somali terrorist organization; both were convicted last autumn. After Ali did not stand at a pretrial hearing, Judge Michael Davis warned that all must do so. Unlike other Muslims present, she refused again and again for the first two days of the trial, prompting Davis to issue 20 contempt citations carrying jail time. The defendant said that because Islam's prophet had told his followers that they did not need to honor him in that way, it would be wrong of her to stand for anyone but Allah. An appeals court threw out 19 of the citations in June, determining that an ultimatum to rise "substantially burdens the free exercise of religion" for her. It instructed Davis to consider her rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which declares that religious exercise can be curbed only if the government has a compelling reason. On September 18, Davis reinstated contempt charges but then quickly "purged" them, dropping the penalties. While there are precedents for religious exemptions from the standing requirement, involving Quakers in particular, Ali's case opens the door for a very different group: American Islamists eager to thumb their noses at the secular legal system. Expect more such incidents in the U.S.
Comparable conflicts have erupted elsewhere. Several radicals later found guilty of shouting hatred at British troops during a 2009 homecoming parade would not rise at their trial, because "in Muslim countries it is a grave and cardinal sin to show respect in this way to anyone other than God himself." Although the UK is not a Muslim country — at least not yet — the judge caved, acceding to a compromise whereby they could enter the courtroom after she did. Accused terrorists are not big fans of the standing requirement either, as seen in 2007 at the outset of proceedings against nine men from Sydney, Australia, charged with plotting attacks. According to one account, the judge "was not concerned by the refusal but suggested it might not be a wise course of action when the trial started," for jurors could take a harsher view. The jihadists got their comeuppance regardless: all eventually pleaded guilty or were convicted.
The issue has extended to lawyers as well. Mohammed Enait, a fundamentalist attorney in the Netherlands, initiated a long dispute over his resolve to stay seated on the grounds that all are equal before Allah. Mixed messages ensued. A court in 2008 approved an exception for Enait, but it was reversed. Meanwhile, the bar association reprimanded him, but an appeals tribunal voided it, referencing his "sincere and authentic religious convictions."
Clothing. Common sense dictates that face veils (niqabs) should not be welcome in a court of law, where security is critical, participants must be identified, and some judges and lawyers use facial expressions to analyze the veracity of statements. Yet none of this has slowed the push for concessions.
The good news is that most witnesses wanting to wear niqabs are turned down, as demonstrated by examples from Australia, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, the temporarily uncovered women often are allowed to testify with backs to the audience or from behind screens — an accommodation in and of itself. Also of relevance, judges have been known to expel women in niqabs from public seating areas, with recent ejections in France, where face-concealing attire is now broadly restricted, and Sweden, where safety concerns were voiced at a hearing related to a plot to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks.
The bad news is that there have been leaks in the dam, with the potential for more. Three years ago, a woman became the first in Denmark to give evidence from underneath a niqab, after briefly revealing her face to a female judge for identification purposes. A 2012 decision by Italy's Higher Judicial Council clears the way for veils to be worn as long as they "constitute a legitimate exercise of the right to profess one's own religion" and meet the subjective criterion of not "causing disturbance to the regular and correct court proceedings." Indeed, judges in most jurisdictions are not bound by rigid guidelines. For instance, following Judge Paul Paruk's dismissal of a plaintiff's case in 2006 because she would not testify with her face showing, the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed only that lower courts are to "exercise reasonable control over the appearance of parties and witnesses." A judge more in thrall to multiculturalism could have acquiesced to the niqab — just like the Danish one did.
A Canadian case that began in 2007 is among the most pivotal. At its center is a sexual assault complainant, N.S., who wished to testify against two male relatives at a preliminary inquiry while wearing her niqab. The accused men objected, insisting that they would need to see her face to evaluate her claims, and Judge Norris Weisman noted that N.S. was not veiled in her driver's license photo. Weisman determined that she must remove the niqab, but this order was quashed by the Ontario Superior Court and the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The latter extensively acknowledged the religious rights of niqab wearers in the courtroom, though it did admit that in some circumstances a defendant's right to a fair trial could require a witness to bare her face. It sent the issue back for reconsideration and urged "constructive compromises," including such possible arrangements as a female judge and an all-female courtroom staff. The Supreme Court of Canada heard testimony last December, as N.S. was still seeking an order entitling her to take the stand covered. Its eventual ruling may shake up the niqab debate in that country and beyond.
Even the jury box can be a place of controversy. In March, a UK judge took the "extraordinary" step of prohibiting a niqab-clad woman from serving. Muslim leaders condemned it as bias, but one could argue that she actually benefited from a new shade of courtroom accommodation that rescued her from the unpleasantness of jury duty: forget about dropping the veil and just go home. Will more Muslims be inspired to arrive in niqabs, hoping to escape their own obligations?
Although most wrangling has focused on face veils, mainstream Islamic attire occasionally stirs the pot. Allowing judges to wear headscarves (hijabs), which could preempt the desired image of religious neutrality on the bench, is an issue in Europe. A state-appointed body recently recommended that Norwegian judges be permitted to don them, while the topic formerly roiled the Danish government. Lawyers also have been involved in such disputes. In 2009, an appeals panel of the Dutch bar association ruled that the same Mohammed Enait introduced above could wear a "Muslim hat." As for others with business at the courthouse, the U.S. state of Georgia has led the way in officially relaxing restrictions on headgear to accept apparel worn for religious reasons, following the 2008 arrest of a woman who refused to remove her hijab at a security checkpoint; the shift has aided Muslim men as well. Finally, no discussion would be complete without mentioning Cheryl Bormann, a Pentagon-paid civilian attorney who has covered her hair when representing one of the accused 9/11 planners. She requested that the court order modest dress for all women participating in the Gitmo legal process — "out of respect" — so pious terrorists are not compelled to look away "for fear of committing a sin under their faith."
Additional concerns. Prayer-related concessions are a source of growing discomfort. A court building in Düsseldorf, Germany, ditched crosses but installed footbaths for ritual washing; the need is said to have arisen because Muslims were cleansing their feet in toilets. The anti-military protesters who managed to remain seated at their UK trial "were given an extra 20 minutes on top of their lunch break to go to pray at a mosque," according to a Daily Mail article, and "a separate 'quiet' room [was] set aside for their regular prayer intervals." Early this year, the Associated Press noted in passing that a federal judge presiding over a sex trafficking case in Tennessee was "allowing the defendants to take scheduled Muslim prayer breaks during the proceedings." Deferential inaction also assisted the alleged 9/11 conspirators in using prayers to disrupt their arraignment.
Another jihadist testing the limits of accommodation is Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist facing a court-martial for murdering 13 people at Fort Hood. Contrary to Army regulations, Hasan began sporting a beard at pretrial hearings in June, sparking a protracted legal battle. "In the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim," Hasan explained to the judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, on August 30. "I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard." However, prosecutors suspect that he simply intends to make it harder for witnesses to identify him. Gross ruled on September 6 that Hasan will be forcibly shaved if he does not shave himself — a decision that has been appealed, thus further delaying his trial and, with it, justice for his victims.
Last but not least, recall the infamous, decade-old British case in which a judge banned Jews and Hindus, as well as anyone married to them, from sitting on the jury that ultimately convicted Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal for promoting the murder of those religions' followers. Though the bizarre move was more of an insult to Jews and Hindus, portraying them as completely emotional beings, than a sop to Islam, nobody should assume it to be the only time that a court will employ creative means to segregate Islamists from the groups they despise.
Demands for courtroom accommodations of all types show no signs of diminishing. Given their success in advancing the Islamist cause, why would they?
Unlike believers of various faiths who aspire to fulfill purely personal religious needs, Islamists view concessions as stepping stones to supremacy. Practitioners of cultural jihad understand how obtaining special privileges that appear minor on an individual basis can yield fundamental transformations in the aggregate, eating away at the bedrock principle of equality under the law and establishing that adherents of Islam are more equal than others. This phenomenon is particularly damaging when it takes place inside the courtroom, the venue in which that law is administered most visibly.
Judges must be mindful of this Islamist campaign of inches. Deference to Islam in any aspect of the legal system calls into question its impartiality as a whole, thereby sapping public confidence in the institution and making it an even more attractive target. Excessive accommodations also communicate a troubling message beyond run-of-the-mill weakness. Professor Barry Rubin's remarks on the Amina Farah Ali case put it best: "If Muslims are told that the state accepts the argument that Islamic law is recognized as superior to state law … they are being taught to be political Islamists."
Surely we have enough political Islamists dreaming of our defeat and dhimmitude as it is.

David J. Rusin is a research fellow at Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.

September 30, 2012, Update: Middle East Forum president Daniel Pipes points out another interesting example of accommodation not included above. In 2004, a federal judge in New York allowed a Muslim, Rafil Dhafir, to avoid a strip search before entering the court for his trial. Dhafir had argued, in the words of the Syracuse Post-Standard, that "Muslims must never appear naked in front of anyone except their spouses." Read about the details here at the update for October 19, 2004.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free islamist watch mailing listThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

American Islamist Groups Shape Arab Revolutions

American Islamist Groups Shape Arab Revolutions.By David J. Rusin.
FrontPage Magazine. July 31, 2012.


Illustrating that the jihadist enterprise transcends all borders, American Islamist groups typically preoccupied with remaking the U.S. have been leaving their fingerprints on the campaign to exchange secular authoritarianism for religious authoritarianism in the Middle East. As these organizations labor stateside to nudge the governing class to embrace Arab Islamists at the expense of liberals — prompting Egyptian intellectual Essam Abdallah to lament that "the most dramatic oppression of the region's civil societies and the Arab Spring … is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington" — several of the groups' past and current officials have emerged as key players in the Middle East's new political landscape. The connections underscore that Islamists everywhere are united by a single goal: the imposition of Shari'a.
One of the prominent figures to embody these ties is Bassem Khafagi, who in March announced his intention to run for president of Egypt on behalf of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to resurrect the caliphate and achieve "mastership of the world." He failed to get the nod, but his back story is intriguing nonetheless. Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer has pointed out that Khafagi once worked for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and is among its most notorious alumni. While serving as CAIR's community affairs director, Khafagi was arrested in 2003 as part of a terrorism support and recruitment probe targeting the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), of which he was a founder. The government deported Khafagi after he pleaded guilty to bank and visa fraud.
Khafagi's election platform was the essence of Islamism: "complete the implementation of Islamic law in Egypt." He also remarked that he "never loved" America, an "infidel country" that "constitutes a criminal element in this world." Moreover, Khafagi boasted about being "the first to expose the notion of 'moderate Islam,' which is used as a means to canonize a 'non-Islamic Islam.' … This 'moderation' means violation [of the laws] of Islam." Khafagi's views help explain his attraction to CAIR, with its Muslim Brotherhood origins, promotion of Islamic rule, criticism of America, and links to terrorism, especially through its status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful trial of the Hamas-funding Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Indeed, his words would be an embarrassment for CAIR if the mainstream media deigned to notice. Though Khafagi has faded from the spotlight for now, there is no telling what impact he could have on Egypt's undoubtedly turbulent future.
Tentacles from American Islamist organizations also reach into the Syrian National Council (SNC), the U.S.-favored civilian umbrella group opposing dictator Bashar al-Assad. The SNC is widely understood to be stacked with Islamists, so these radicals fit right in.
Heading the roster is Louay Safi, a central figure in the SNC and increasingly its public face. Safi may be most familiar, however, as a longtime official with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), serving as executive director of the ISNA Leadership Development Center from 2004 to 2008 and becoming ISNA's director of communications and leadership development in 2009. A document composed by the Brotherhood lists ISNA as one of "our organizations and the organizations of our friends" that can advance the "grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within." Like CAIR, it was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case. Safi's résumé also includes past senior positions with the Virginia-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which has been the focus of investigations into terror funding, and the D.C.-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), which reformist Muslims have dubbed "a front for some of the most obnoxious members of the 'Wahhabi lobby' in America."
An excellent Dallas Morning News piece, published amid the controversy over Safi's training of U.S. military personnel at Fort Hood, compiles further evidence of his radicalism. For example, Safi was an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of Sami al-Arian, the professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiring to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Al-Arian's think tank reportedly received considerable funding from IIIT, where Safi was executive director and later research director. The FBI intercepted a 1995 conversation between Safi and al-Arian in which they discussed whether an executive order banning financial transactions with terrorists would inhibit al-Arian's work with PIJ. In the course of the call, Safi agreed with al-Arian that "Zionists" were controlling Washington.
Equally troubling are Safi's musings on the Shari'a-mandated execution of those who leave Islam. On the one hand, during the international uproar over charges levied against Afghan convert Abdul Rahman in 2006, Safi wrote an article voicing platitudes about individual religious liberty under Islam while laughably blaming Western imperialism for the barbaric apostasy laws in various Muslim countries, where converts can face penalties that include death. Middle East Forum president Daniel Pipes described himself as "surprised, even wondrous, at the lack of shame." On the other hand, a monograph published by Safi a few years earlier, when there was much less media scrutiny of the subject, takes a harder line, concluding that although "a quiet desertion of personal Islamic duties is not a sufficient reason for inflicting death on a person," execution is "just punishment" if "the individual's desertion of Islam is used as a political tool for instigating a state of disorder, or revolting against the law of Islam." Along with the rest of his radical history, these contradictory pronouncements — standard fare whenever Islamists address the public on uncomfortable matters — should cast doubt on any claims made by Safi, particularly his soothing assurances that Syria's future will be characterized by "equal rights and freedoms of all people."
CAIR has its own man in the SNC: Yaser Tabbara, a founding member of the Syrian resistance group. After helping launch CAIR's Chicago office, Tabbara served as its executive director until 2006; he currently sits on its board. Tabbara's time at the helm of CAIR-Chicago was marked by multiple controversies. He played a major role in the successful drive to get Thomas Klocek dismissed from his post as an adjunct professor at DePaul University, following an out-of-classroom argument in which Klocek defended Israel against the smears of pro-Palestinian students. Tabbara also led CAIR-Chicago's efforts to circle the Islamist wagons when the family of an American teenager murdered by Hamas sued U.S. charities believed to fund such terrorists. He called the trial a "lynching and a mockery of justice," but a jury awarded the plaintiffs $156 million. Around the same period, the FBI accused CAIR-Chicago of having "compromised or impeded" an investigation into an alleged hate crime by ignoring the bureau's request not to issue a premature press release about it.
Yet another important SNC member is Najib Ghadbian, a University of Arkansas professor who recently sat on the CSID board. Ghadbian's 1997 book classifies Muslim Brotherhood theorists, including Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, as "moderate" Islamists who favor democracy, inspiring Daniel Pipes to observe that "there are no 'moderate' Islamists, only deluded analysts who try to convince of their existence." As the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report notes, Ghadbian has long advocated that the U.S. government reach out to Syria's Brotherhood, desiring it to have a place at the post-Assad table. Wielding significant influence these days as part of the SNC's inner circle, Ghadbian was among its representatives at a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva last December. Three months prior, he spoke at an Anaheim town hall beside a State Department official; the event was endorsed by CAIR and hosted by the Syrian American Council (SAC), in which both Safi and Tabbara have held leadership positions.
As the above individuals — and probably others affiliated with American Islamist groups — toil on the front lines of Middle Eastern conflicts, the organizations themselves are working domestically to legitimize and bolster the ascendant radicals of the Arab world. From one revolution to the next, they have demanded and cheered the overthrow of secular autocrats, cried out for Islamists to be included in the subsequent political processes, and celebrated when those Islamists have attained some degree of power.
Take Egypt. While CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab was in Tahrir Square last year protesting for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, CAIR executive director Nihad Awad was on Iranian-controlled television calling for the same. Once Mubarak fell, American Islamist groups hailed his departure with talk of liberty. Yet as a statement from another Islamist organization, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), made clear, "freedom" apparently would require the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood — whose dream of ruling by Shari'a is the antithesis of freedom. "We urge President Obama and his administration to facilitate and support a representative government with full representation of key opposition groups," ICNA declared. "As Mohamed ElBaradei notes, this representation must extend to the Muslim Brotherhood." When Islamist Mohamed Morsi was named the winner of Egypt's recent presidential election, CAIR could hardly contain its glee. "We congratulate the Egyptian people and their new president on this great achievement in Egypt's struggle for freedom," Awad said, while CAIR-New York board member Lamis Deek lauded what she sees as the country's liberation from America's "proxy-imperialist (colonialist) wrath."
Islamist groups also have rolled out the red carpet for Arab radicals during their frequent propaganda trips to the U.S. Rachid Ghannouchi, the ideological brain of the Ennahda Party that was victorious in Tunisia's post-revolutionary October election, has been especially well feted. The Islamists of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) hosted a dinner for Ghannouchi in Washington last November, advertising him as "one of the most important figures in modern Islamic political thought and theory." According to an MPAC account, he "discussed the beauty of democratic principles being able to uplift and promote religious freedom and practice for all." Of course, there was no mention of his previous comments blessing the mothers of suicide bombers, predicting Israel's demise, and referring to Hamas-led Gaza as "the model of freedom today." Next up for Ghannouchi: speaking at ISNA's convention this summer.
Other Islamists have enjoyed comparable treatment. CSID held a debate involving Hamadi Jebali, Ennahda's secretary general and now Tunisia's prime minister, in May 2011. Following the election, Jebali proclaimed, "We are in the sixth caliphate, God willing," and promised the conquest of Jerusalem. Undeterred, IIIT and CSID collaborated on a panel discussion with Tunisian Islamist leaders in May 2012. MPAC had planned a similar dialogue with an FJP delegation this past April, but it was canceled.
By championing Arab Islamists as legitimate voices and partners, these supposedly "moderate" Muslim organizations strive to make them palatable to Washington and the public at large. Simultaneously, in the words of Essam Abdallah, they are "waging … political and media wars on the liberal Arabs and Middle Eastern figures and groups in America," so as to marginalize competing viewpoints. Given the Obama administration's increasingly enthusiastic engagement with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and the recent report that an Egyptian parliamentarian visited the White House despite his membership in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a terrorist entity, Islamists must be glowing with satisfaction. Policies match their objectives to such a degree that five congressmen have asked for investigations into the influence of suspected Brotherhood sympathizers inside the federal government — a perfectly reasonable request, considering the stakes.
The Muslim Brotherhood directly or indirectly gave life to many of the Islamist groups spearheading the "grand jihad" to reshape America. Thus, it is natural to see those organizations aiding the Brotherhood and its ideological allies in the effort to build a new Middle East — based not on freedom, but on the tyranny of radical Islam. Nor should their officials' emergence as leaders in Arab revolutionary movements be surprising. Just as violent Islamists flock to the sites of military jihad worldwide, nonviolent Islamists gravitate to political crisis zones where more subtle skills can contribute to the victory of Shari'a.
Unfortunately, the rise of Middle Eastern Islamists will only embolden their brethren in the U.S., particularly if CAIR, ISNA, and others play a role in Arab developments. There is, however, a potential silver lining. Past experience demonstrates that when Islamists take the reins of a nation, it inevitably succumbs to political, economic, and social decay that is impossible to conceal. If America's Islamists wish to stamp their names on these approaching Arab calamities, so be it. The disasters will open more eyes to the ultimate trajectory of their plans for the United States, thus improving our chances of defeating them.

David J. Rusin is a research fellow at Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free islamist watch mailing listThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Japan 6.0 - 5.7 - 5.2 ; Tonga 5.2 !More info here.

• Obama Plans to Create Internet ID for All Americans.(Fox).President Obama is putting plans in motion to give the Commerce Department authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans, a White House official told CNET.com.White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt told the website it is "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet.The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is currently being drafted by the Obama administration and will be released by the president in a few months."We are not talking about a national ID card. We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy, and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said at an event Friday at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, according to CNET.com.Hmmmm......This is the kind of totalitarian, policestate Stalin loved.Who's going to be Beria?Read the full story here.

• New Strain of Swine Flu (H3N2v) Detected in U.S. with Potential for H2H Transmission.(Shenandoah).By John Galt.Why is this story so disturbing? Because of the timing, an election year with radical Islamist terrorism on the rise, and the worldwide economy facing collapse on any unanticipated event. These two sentences from the story are alarming to anyone who remembers the Avian Flu and prior Swine Flu scares: The 12 people with the new swine flu strain live in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Officials for the Centers for Disease Control say the sample size of H3N2 infections is too small to know whether it will pose a threat to the population at large.“It’s a very small sample and it’s geographically spread, which makes it more difficult to get a handle on it,” says Jeffrey Dimond, a CDC spokesman. “Most of the cases have come through direct contact with the animals, through the 4H Club and that sort of thing.”Let’s hope that the unusually warm winter does not provide the fertile ground necessary for this virus to become virulent and expand rapidly with H2H (Human to Human) characteristics.Hmmm......Five different States?Read the full story here.

• Former US President Jimmy Carter "pleased" with Egypt polls.(YME).Former US president Jimmy Carter gave the thumbs up on Tuesday to Egypt's parliamentary elections, saying the people's will was "expressed accurately.""We have been very pleased," Carter told reporters during a tour of a polling station at the Rod al-Farag girls' secondary school in a working class district of the Egyptian capitalHe said the election -- a three-staged process launched in November to choose the first parliament since mass protests forced former president Hosni Mubarak to quit -- had been peaceful despite "some problems.""But in general the will of the people has been expressed accurately," he said on the eve of the end of the polls.The Carter Center is one of the few monitoring group to have had a licence to witness the election, and the former US president will hold a news conference on Friday.Carter arrived in Egypt on Monday to join a Carter Center delegation of 40 witnesses representing 21 countries deployed in Egypt since mid-November, the statement added.Egypt's two main Islamist parties have scored a crushing victory in the seats declared so far, reflecting a regional trend since Arab Spring uprisings overthrew authoritarian secular regimes.Asked about Islamists coming to power, Carter said: "I have no problem with that. The US government has no problem with that either."The powerful Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best organised political movement, has claimed the lead through its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).#FJP Chairman received former US president Jimmy Carter, discussed elections, and Palestinian issue.Hmmmmm.....Obama's 'GoBetween'?Read the full story here.

• Huge Error Rate In Same Day Election Registrations Found.(BigGovernment).This report by a Wisconsin Tea Party group is absolutely shocking.MacIver News Service | January 11, 2012 | [Milwaukee, Wisc] A shocking new report by a Wisconsin Tea Party group raises serious questions about the diligence of poll workers in Milwaukee County.The group, Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty, found errors on more than one third of all Election Day Registration forms completed for the April 5, 2011 election in Milwaukee County.“We discovered 3,739 forms with errors,” said Larry Gamble, the groups’ spokesperson. “That 33.7% error rate is high enough to question the entire election process and raises doubts about having the accuracy and accountability required to properly manage elections.”The study was performed by members of the self-described pro-Constitution group between May and December, 2011.The group did not examine existing registrations, early absentee and in-person, early absentee voting documents.The report was released more than nine months after the election due to the volume of forms and the cost associated with properly redacting identifiable personal information.The report indicates that f the 11,107 forms examined, 3,739 or 33.7% contained errors of some type. In 1,425 cases the election Registrar failed to annotate Proof of Residency of the voter.Only 1 voter completing an Election Day Registration was required to cast a provisional ballot, the report notes.“We were told this is the first time anyone has done this kind of post-election analysis in the County,” Gamble told MacIver News Service. “it just floored me to discover they don’t conduct routine quality control checks like this after the election.”Some of the examples highlighted in the report include:

•In the City of Milwaukee, Dist 1, a voter used only a magazine subscription invoice as proof of residence, then vouched for someone else’s residency.

•1,021 Election Day Registration forms in City of Milwaukee had the proof of residency left blank.

•In Greenfield, a voter used their Ohio driver’s license and a passport as proof that they lived in Wisconsin. That same person then corroborated for someone else with the same last name and at the same address, who also only a had passport.

•A voter used a Traffic Citation from the State of Illinois to prove Wisconsin Residency.Read the full story here.

• Unconstitutional Recess Appointments Haven’t Helped Obama in the Polls.(Cato).By Mark A. Calabria. It has just been over a week since President Obama made his “recess” appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board. I suggested last week that this might turn out to be Obama’s “Court-Packing” moment, where he begins to discover that (some) Americans actually do care about the Constitution. While its clearly too early to say anything with certainty, it appears I may have been correct.On January 3th, the day before the appointments, Obama’s job approval ratings, according to RealClearPolitics, averaged 47.2 approval and 47.8 disapproval. Basically a tie.Today, his job approval is at 44.5 and disapproval is 50.3. Moving over the course of a week from a tie to a spread of almost 6 percentage points. Usually we have not seen such large changes over the course of a week. Now obviously one cannot contribute all this decline to the recess appointments, but there were no other big Presidential announcements or even big economic news over the last week that could account for such a slide in support. So while this doesn’t prove anything, it does suggest these appointments, even if they are making his base happy, are coming at the expense of the support of independents.Read the full story here.

• Member of Kuwaiti royal family embraces Christ!(MohabatNews).This Kuwaiti prince announced, "First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I'll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity."Iranian Christian News Agency Mohabat News – Al-haqiqa, a Christian Arabic satellite T.V., which broadcasts Christian programs, played an audio file which it attributed to a Kuwaiti prince called "Abdollah Al-sabah".The T.V. channel claimed that Prince Abdollah Al-sabah comes from a Kuwaiti royal family which currently governs the country. The channel also said that the prince recently denounced his Islamic faith and became a Christian.The voice in the audio file introduced himself as Abdollah Al-sabah and stated, "First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I'll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity.""I'm satisfied with whatever they do to me, because the truth in the Bible has guided me to the right way".Regarding the Islamic groups who have recently gained power in Egypt, this Kuwaiti prince also stated, "Islamic communities have always wanted to attack in different parts of the world but God has preserved the world and still protects it. This is why we have recently seen disagreements appearing among Islamic groups who are now fighting with each other. They are about to divide further into different groups.This piece of news made headlines briefly on Arabic News wires and also in the Iranian government run news agency. Some independent Shiite websites contradicted this report and quoted another Kuwaiti prince, Azbi Al-sabah as saying, "there is no one in the Kuwaiti royal family by that name."Kuwait is a Middle Eastern country, neighboring Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran across the Persian Gulf. Its capital city is also called Kuwait.Islam is the official and dominant religion in Kuwait and almost the entire population is Muslim. Only 4% of the population is Christian and there is a tiny group of other religions. Article 2 of the Kuwaiti constitution reads, "Islam is the official religion in the country and Sharia is a main source for legislation."Hmmmm..........Jesus said "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ~ John 8:32.Read the full story here.

• Turkey, US planning Syria no-fly zone: Russian secretary.(HurriyetDaily).NATO and Gulf countries are trying to go from indirect meddling in Syria's internal affairs to a direct military intervention, Russia’s National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said today. Patrushev assessed the situation in the Middle East in an interview with Interfax agency, the website of the Voice of Russia reported. Patrushev said Turkey and the United States were planning to create a no-fly zone in Syria to secure a base for the country’s opposition. According to Patrushev, Turkey, which had "excellent" relations with Syria until recently, is vying for influence in the Middle East with Iran. The reason for a military intervention in Syria would be Damascus’ close ties with Tehran, Patrushev said, and not the crackdown on the opposition by the Bashar al-Assad regime. "The West fears that weapons and ammunition go through Syria to Iran, Lebanon and the Hezbollah," Patrushev said. Another reason for a military operation into Syria would be to punish the Syrian state for being the only country that supports Iran in the region. "It was the only country that gave a hand to Iran during the war with Iraq," says Patrushev.Read the full story here.

• Now We Will See The Real Obama.(PointsandFigures).By JeffCarter.Bill Daley leaving the Obama administration was big news for ten minutes. But as my friend Streetwise Professor and I discussed on Twitter after the news broke, this really signals a big change in direction on how Obama will campaign.It’s going to get really ugly. How ugly? Think of the election cycle from 1796-1804. It will be that ugly. The culmination of those election cycles was a duel by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, with Hamilton losing his life after the gun battle.Both Hamilton and Jefferson manipulated the press of that time to scandalize the other side. Character assassination is a mild phrase to use when describing the vitriol that went back and forth. Look for more in the coming months.It takes a thick skin to be a politician, but in Chicago, no one ever plays fair. The game is rigged before the ballots are printed. They say backroom politics are dead, but the political bosses in Chicago are alive and well. As Craig correctly points out, what you just saw in the White House was a street fight from Chicago manifesting itself into an internal power struggle in Washington.Even though they are all Democrats, there are still big political divisions within Chicago. Mayor Daley’s special talent was mitigating the special interests of all the factions. Truly, it is a special skill that should be admired and not chided, even though he accomplished it on the back of the tax payer. Daley would be an excellent CEO of a large company. I have a lot of respect for him. He is an extremely bright and energetic person. He isn’t a political hack.  There are different kinds of Democrats in Chicago. You need to know the species before you jump to conclusions. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and nothing happens without a consensus.The last kind of Democrat in Chicago are the true believers. They are idealistic and actually think that systems of organizing people like socialism and communism are the best methods. They idealize China. The fact that huge cities can be built at the twitch of a government finger with no concern for property rights is enticing to them. The true believers don’t believe in a single class system like they say. There is a small cadre of hand picked ruling class people, and then the rest of the poor stiffs. Bill Ayers is one person at the idealogical center of a system like this. Ayers had many predecessors in Chicago and this sort of “true believer” Democrat culture runs very deep. The tentacles of the true believer culture reach all over Chicago. Recall, the Haymarket riots were here. Upton Sinclair did his best work here. Studs Terkel was a true believer. There is a DNA that runs very deep in certain parts of the city which exemplifies this sort of system. Barack Obama is a person that came from this part of city politics. There are many others, but for them a large government apparatus that directs all traffic and makes all decisions is the way to run a society. Many of the true believers ally themselves with the practitioners of racial politics because they see that as a means to an endgame. Then there are the Democrats that are the connectors. David Axelrod is a true believer that is a connector. He is good with the turn of a phrase to mask what they truly want and turn it into something saleable to the American public. The Clinton’s had their own machine which some Chicago folks were a part of. But their idea of political combat was a scorched earth policy. Chicago operators are much more pragmatic than that.  Obama’s mission was to ingrain that sort of crony capitalist machine into the fabric of national politics. One look at all the waivers given to his cronies for Obamacare shows you where he is headed. If Obama and his compatriots get there way, every business, man, woman and child will have to bow their head and kiss a ring to get anything done.  Those true believers are dangerous. People like Ayers want the traditional America destroyed. Sometimes they do make mistakes. They believe so deeply in the idealistic nation state they envision, that they lose sight of what is really happening on the ground. I think Daley leaving the White House is one of those times. Valerie Jarrett and the practitioners of her style of politics are running the show. Let’s work hard to inform Americans so they don’t buy what she is selling. Had Daley held sway, we would have seen a different more palatable direction.  If you don’t play the game, your taxes go up. Inspectors harass you constantly. Your garbage may not be picked up regularly. Your building always seems to have police around it ticketing cars and trucks making deliveries. Operating your business becomes a nightmare and you might sell your business at a loss. Odds are good a connected businessman buys it.That’s the world that Obama wants to bring to Washington DC..Hmmmm...... "I'll make them an offer they can't refuse"?Read the full story here.

• NO Jews Allowed!(AlexanderMunch).
• Washington Post Egypt on Wednesday canceled a Jewish festival held in the Nile Delta each year, citing concerns about the local response to heightened security at a time of uncertainty between Egypt and Israel. Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Roshdi said the decision...Israel National News Known as the Avir Yaakov and Abu Hasira, he passed away in 1880 in Egypt on his way from Morocco to the Land of Israel. In the past Egyptian protesters affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood have attempted to physically block any Jewish worshipers...
• Al Jazeera 31 Egypt political groups has told Israel it would not be "appropriate" for Israeli pilgrims to make an annual visit to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta, officials say. The Egyptian foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had notified Israel...Indian Express Ceremonies at the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hatizra have triggered yearly political sparring in Egypt throughout most of the last decade, with Islamists, nationalists, and others claiming that the government by allowing the pilgrimage is pursuing an...
• The Daily Star Egyptian Islamists and other activists say they have vowed to prevent Israelis from making an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta. Leading parliamentarian from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood Gamal...Read and see the full story here.

• "All-American Muslim" Stars Busted for Marijuana Possession at Canadian Border.(Freep).Two reality TV stars from TLC’s “All-American Muslim” show found some real life drama at the Ambassador Bridge recently: Authorities said they were caught with pot at the border.It happened on New Year’s Day, according to Ron Smith, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Detroit.Smith told the Free Press today that two cast members of the TLC reality show were caught with 9 grams of marijuana in the trunk while trying to cross into the U.S. from Windsor. The cast members – a man and a woman -- were not named by authorities. One of them, Smith said, had a medical marijuana card, although federal law does not recognize the card.TLC declined to comment.According to Smith, the two travelers had to pay a $500 civil fine for failing to declare the bag of weed to border agents.He explained how it all went down: At the first checkpoint after crossing the bridge, an officer decided to pull the two passengers over for inspection after asking them a series of routine questions. The officer, Smith noted, did not recognize the travelers from the TV show.“Some officers will look in a lot of trunks. This officer picked their trunk to look in,” Smith said.But inside the inspection area, Smith said, some officers and bystanders recognized the pair from the show. During the inspection, an officer checked the trunk and found a weed-like substance in a small bag – enough to roll about 10 joints.The travelers were released because, as Smith explained, nine grams of marijuana doesn’t warrant prosecution.“This wasn’t a criminal matter, it was a civil matter,” Smith said, adding. “It’s very hard to get someone to prosecute for something that small.” Read the full story here.

• Obama to ‘take on’ Netanyahu after election?Palestinians say White House asked them to delay demands till 2nd term.(WND).By AaronKlein.JERUSALEM – The Obama administration asked the Palestinian Authority not to make any major demands until after the presidential election in November, a senior PA official told WND.The PA official, speaking on condition his name be withheld, said that Obama promised to renew stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders, meaning an Israeli withdrawal from eastern sections of Jerusalem as well as from Judea and Samaria, also referred to as the West Bank.“We were asked by the (U.S.) administration not to make special demands or scandals during the elections,” said the official.“After elections, the negotiations will be renewed on basis of the Clinton plan and Obama’s speech in Cairo of the 1967 borders,” the official said.The Clinton plan is a reference to the formula used during the Camp David negotiations in the summer of 2000 that saw sections of Jerusalem in which Jews predominantly live go to Israel, while areas inhabited by Arabs would become a Palestinian state. The negotiations also called for a nearly complete Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.WND previously reported that several major purported Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are actually built illegally on Jewish-owned land, resulting in an Arab majority in those sections.This is not the first time the PA claimed the Obama administration asked it to hold off until after this year’s election.Last September, WND quoted a top PA official saying the Obama administration told the Palestinian Authority it cannot significantly help advance a Palestinian state until after the election.The official, however, said the U.S. will press for a Palestinian state quickly if President Obama is reelected.“The main message we received from the U.S. is that nothing will happen in a serious way before the 2012 elections,” said the official.Earlier this month, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said he expected Obama to “take on” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a second presidential term.Appearing as a panel member on the syndicated “Chris Matthews Show,” Ignatius stated: “What I hear from the White House is looking towards a second term on foreign policy, which I cover, as an opportunity to do the broad things that would establish an Obama agenda. He came into office passionate about the Middle East, about the Palestinian issue. I’d see him taking another really strong crack at that.”“Go head to head with Netanyahu again?” Matthews then asked.“Yeah, and I think, this White House thinks … that he’s had success, that that’s an area. Who would have said that an anti-war President, candidate, four years ago, could run on a strong foreign policy record?”Hmmmm......Next time Obama would recognise Palestine.Read the full story here.

• Twitter protests Google’s new social search.(BikyaMasr).San Francisco (dpa) – Microblogging site Twitter on Wednesday criticized Google’s newly announced plans to include Google+ content into search results, saying the decision to omit Twitter feeds would compromise the search experience.“Twitter has emerged as a vital source of … real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic,” the company said in a statement.“We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think it’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations, and Twitter users.”Twitter’s complaint came just days after Google said it would integrate content from its social network Google+ into its search results so that users could see relevant information from their friends and contacts.Google called the new system, Search Plus Your World.However, because Google does not have agreements with Twitter or Facebook, information from those social networks will not be included in the Search Plus Your World results unless they are made available on publicly searchable websites.Google responded to Twitter’s complaints by noting that the microblogging site had declined to renew its agreement, which expired in July 2011, to let Google mine its content.“We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search Plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer, and since then we have observed their … instructions.”Hmmmm........"The War of the [internet]Worlds" is on?Read the full story here.

• Why 308,127,404 Americans are going to get hosed.(SovereignMan).By SimonBlack.Last week, the US government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Treasury Department, published its 2011 annual report. There are a few numbers that are pretty startling.We’ve discussed before that FinCEN is the executive agency tasked with ensuring that every US banker is an unpaid government spy through Suspicious Activity Reports.A Suspicious Activity Report, or SAR, includes details of any transaction that may be deemed ‘suspicious’. Naturally, there’s no clear guidance on what is/is not considered suspicious. Banks, brokerages, money service businesses, precious metals dealers… even casinos are required by law to fill them out.If you withdraw an unusual amount of cash from your bank account, that could be deemed suspicious. If you set up a new payee in your billpay service, that could be deemed suspicious. Anything and everything is fair game.Banks and other businesses who do not fill out SARs face hefty penalties, including imprisonment. If they disclose to a customer that s/he is the subject of a SAR, they have hefty penalties, including imprisonment.When push comes to shove and they have to choose between a nasty penalty, or submitting a SAR about your unusual cash withdrawal, which option do you think they’ll pick?Unsurprisingly, nearly 1.5 million ‘suspicious activity reports’ were filed across the US banking system in 2011, well over twice the number reported in 2004. On top of this, there were an additional -14.8 million- ‘currency transaction reports’ filed in 2011, a 6% jump over last year.It’s an unfortunate trend which highlights not only the end of financial privacy, but also the massive amount of data being collected by the government to keep tabs on its citizens.According to this year’s report, a full 36 distinct federal law enforcement agencies requested information from FinCEN (and even more who haven’t). Three dozen. And that doesn’t include state or local law enforcement.That there are this many federal law enforcement agencies to begin with is mind-boggling… let alone the thought that some knucklehead at the Fish and Wildlife Service has access to bank records.This is one reason why international diversification is so important– the likelihood of such collection and monitoring is greatly reduced when you bank overseas. Moreover, should one of these dozens of agencies or courts decide that your ‘suspicious activity’ warrants locking you out of your accounts, they have zero jurisdiction overseas.This is a common tactic in the US; financial activity is one of the many, many areas with a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ burden of proof. You don’t even need to be doing anything wrong (which is the case most of the time this happens) for one of these agencies to freeze your account ‘pending investigation’ with a simple phone call. Good luck getting it unfrozen.Read the full story here.

• US military moves carriers, denies Iran link.(JPost).WASHINGTON - The US military said on Wednesday that a new aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in the Arabian Sea and that another was on its way to the region, but denied any link to recent tensions with Iran and portrayed the movements as routine.The shift in the powerful US naval assets comes at a moment of heightened tensions with Iran, which has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - the world's most important oil shipping lane - if US and EU sanctions over its nuclear program cut off its oil exports.The US military has said it will halt any blockade of the strategic strait and the top US naval officer acknowledged on Tuesday that preparing for a potential conflict there was something that "keeps me awake at night."Still, the Pentagon denied any direct link between recent tensions and the movement of aircraft carriers.Read the full story here.

• Top US official in talks with Muslim Brothers.(JPost).The chief assistant to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met on Wednesday with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, Washington’s highest-level talks yet with the Islamist group that has dominated Egypt’s parliamentary elections.State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Burns had met with the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), along with several other party representatives, at its new headquarters in Cairo.“From our perspective, it was an opportunity to hear from them and to reinforce our expectation that all the major parties will support human rights, tolerance, rights of women and will also uphold Egypt’s existing international obligations,” she said.Burns arrived in the Egyptian capital the day before and reportedly met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.Last summer, Washington modified a long-standing ban on formal contacts with the Brotherhood. The administration has said it would pursue “limited contacts” and “re-engagement” with the Brotherhood after the party took about 40 percent of votes in parliamentary elections that followed the February overthrow of longtime president Hosni Mubarak.Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, has already met with the FJP’s deputy leader.Burns did not meet on Wednesday with the hard-line Salafist Islamist party that came in second in parliamentary voting.“He was not able to meet with all of the parties, so this was a selective group of some of them,” Nuland said, adding that the Salafists had not been invited.“This was a chance to get to know some of the people that he wanted to get to know.”Egypt’s staggered three-stage parliamentary election began on November 28 and drew an unprecedented turnout. The lower house will hold its first session on January 23.Nuland said that Burns also met senior Egyptian officials to discuss recent government raids on US-backed non-governmental organizations that Washington has called “unacceptable.”“He reaffirmed our strong support [for the groups],” Nuland said.Hmmmm........"Burns did not meet on Wednesday with the hard-line Salafist Islamist party that came in second in parliamentary voting"probably did not see any Unicorns on the road eighter?Read the full story here.

• Recall notice for the Turkish model.(AsiaTimes).By Spengler.Among all the dumb things said about the so-called Arab Spring last year, perhaps the dumbest was the idea that the new democracies of the Arab world might follow the Turkish model. In fact, if you had invested in the Turkish model (that is, in the Turkish stock market) at the outbreak of the Arab revolts, you would have lost about half your money. If you leave your money in Turkey, you probably will lose the rest of it. Turkey is not a model. It is a bubble, and it is bursting, starting with the stock market and national currency. Turkey isn't democratic, as its volatile Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reminded the world last week by arresting yet more journalists on trumped-up charges of coup plotting. According to Turkey's Journalists' Union, Turkey has jailed 97 writers, more than China, which no-one confuses with a model democracy. Nonetheless, Erdogan won Time Magazine's People's Choice poll to be its 2011 "Person of the Year". Being designated "Person of the Year" is not necessarily an endorsement. In 1938, Time's Man of the Year was Adolf Hitler. In 1939, it was Joseph Stalin. Like Stalin and Hitler, Erdogan's reputation has been more resilient than the country's stock market. The West still believes in its own ability to fix all the problems of the world, and cannot abide the thought that success is to be found nowhere in the Muslim world (not counting Malaysia and Indonesia). Now that Libya and Yemen are immersed in tribal warfare, Egypt is dissolving into chaos, Syria has dug in for a long sectarian bloodbath, and Iraq prepares for an ethno-confessional civil war, Turkey seems a pillar of stability by comparison. Not for long, if my calculations are correct. A disaster is in the making. Leave aside the economic ills of the southern Mediterranean generally, which will impinge Turkey's exports (about half of which go to the European community): Turkey's financial system is reaching the end of the rope. A sudden adjustment in the current account accompanied by large-scale bankruptcies among Turkish businesses and widespread unemployment will make 2012 an ugly year for the Turkish economy, and an even uglier year for Turkish politics. Read and see the full story here.

• 'Iran, Hezbollah providing weaponry to Assad'.(JPost).Iran and Hezbollah are actively assisting Syrian President Bashar Assad and providing him with weaponry as part of an effort to ensure that he survives in face of growing resistance and protests, head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said on Wednesday.Kochavi spoke at the graduation ceremony for IDF intelligence officers.“The radical axis is trying to retain its power and as time passes, Iran and Hezbollah increase their efforts to help the Assad regime survive by providing intelligence, weaponry, and other capabilities- to the point where they are actively involved,” Kochavi said.The IDF intelligence chief said it was possible that in the long term the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East would have a positive outcome but in the immediate term “the dangers are increasing.”Kochavi's comments came a day after Turkish customs officials intercepted four trucks suspected of carrying military equipment from Iran to Syria.The governor of Kilis province said the trucks were confiscated at the Oncupinar border crossing into Syria after police received information about their cargo, according to Dogan news agency.Read the full story here.

• Belgium design duo alters Holocaust-themed fence.(JPost).A Belgiun design duo altered their design for a fence evoking the Buchenwald concentration camp following uproar by various groups in Europe, design website fastcodedesign.com reported Tuesday.Job Smeets and Nynke Tyangel, from Antwerp, designed a fence that consists of "two chimneys joined by an arch of smoke with a bell hanging from the middle."To cap it off, the design pair, called Studio Job, inscribed the bell with the words "To Each His Own," which translated to German are the words that adorned the Buchenwald entrance itself. According to the report, the project sparked public outrage across Europe. French European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor slammed the work, saying it trivialized the Holocaust.As a result of the outspoken criticism, the artists announced that they would alter the "original plans for the gate" inspired by the largest concentration camp on German soil. "We thoroughly regret it if this has caused upset and grief with parties affected by this, that has in no way been our intention," Studio Job wrote to fastcodedesign.com.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood wants military immunity for generals, activists cry foul.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: In a move that has left many of the country’s activists angered, Egypt’s top political force the Muslim Brotherhood has said it was looking into a deal that would grant the ruling military junta immunity for alleged crimes committed against protesters since they took charge of the country in February last year.The move would ensure the military relinquish power and enable the transition to a newly elected legislative body, but activists who have faced the end of the military’s guns, are not convinced and have called it a means for the Brotherhood to assert more power.“What about the dozens of people who have been murdered by the military and the police under the military’s orders?” asked activist and protester Mahmoud Gama’a, who told Bikyamasr.com that the Brotherhood will face a backlash from protesters if they attempt to go forward with the idea.“We will not stand by and not have justice for what the military has done to Egyptian people. It is unacceptable that any political force thinks they can let the blood of martyrs not get justice,” he added.The goal of the Brotherhood is to create compromise within the country as their political arm, The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leads all voting with nearly 40 percent, ahead of a final vote count for the third and final round of parliamentary elections, which ended on Wednesday.Despite the idea being floated this week by top Brotherhood officials, activists say it will not stop their campaign to have the top generals tried for what they have regularly dubbed “crimes against humanity.”The military has been directly responsible for the killing of scores of citizens, attacking a peaceful Coptic Christian march on October 9, which killed at least 27 people.Then, in November, the military police attacked another peaceful sit-in in Tahrir Square, which led to 6 days of street battles in central Cairo, leaving at least 70 people dead, medical sources told Bikyamasr.com.And more recently, in mid-December, military police again attacked a peaceful sit-in at the country’s Cabinet building, reportedly torturing and beating a protester and then burning the makeshift tents that had been erected. For three days, the military used live ammunition and rocks against protesters, leaving at least 17 people dead.“This is not justice if they get immunity. It is a ploy by the Brotherhood to force people to forget what the military has done to us,” said female activist Mona Radwan, who told Bikyamasr.com that she would not rest until the military pays for their actions.“Women were forced into virginity tests, were stripped in public and beaten and killed, so why is this happening. I feel we have returned to pre-Mubarak times,” she said.But the Brotherhood said it would only move forward on the proposed deal if the families of those killed since February agreed, at least giving those who paid the ultimate sacrifice some semblance of an option.Read the full story here.

• Turkey halts Iranian arms corridor to Syria, balks at nuclear Iran.(Debka).When IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi accused Iran and Hizballah Wednesday, Jan. 11of directly helping Bashar Assad repress the uprising against him with arms, Turkey had just taken a stand against the Iranian corridor running weapons to Syria via its territory, debkafile's military sources report.Earlier this week, Ankara reported halting five Iranian trucks loaded with weapons for Syria at the Killis Turkish-Syrian border crossing and impounding its freight. According to our intelligence sources, the Iranian convoy was not really stopped at Killis but at the eastern Turkish Dobubayazit border crossing with Iran, near Mount Ararat. This supply route for Syria had been going strong for months. Ankara's decision to suspend it has reduced its volume by 60 percent.The Turks kept very quiet about the Dogubayazit route because disclosure would have exposed them as working two sides of the Syrian conflict – letting Tehran set up a clandestine arms route for helping the Assad regime crack down on protest, while publicly posing as the leading champions of the Syrian protest movement – even to providing the Free Syria Army with bases and training facilities.The influx of Iranian arms supplies via Turkey gave the Syrian army a major boost in quelling the uprising especially in the restive towns of Hama, Homs and Idlib, where demonstrations have dwindled. Now Ankara is worried about the consequences. Thursday, President Abdullah Gul raised fears of the Syrian uprising mutating into civil war. Our sources report that Ankara is concerned that sectarian conflict in Syria could spill over into Turkey.In fact, as debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report exclusively, Ankara changed course against Iran after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Tehran on Jan. 5. His mission was to warn Iranian leaders including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom he met that Turkey will not stand for Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb and would act to disrupt its program.Although his visit was officially presented as an effort to broker the resumption of long-stalled nuclear talks between Tehran and the five world powers plus Germany (P5+1), Davutoglu in fact informed Ahmadinejad in no-nonsense terms, “Turkey can't live between two nuclear powers, one to the north (Russia) and one to the east (Iran)." The minister warned that if Tehran goes into production of a nuclear weapon, Ankara's first step would be to open the door for NATO forces to deploy along its border with Iran.Read the full story here.

• Clinton says no deal yet for Taliban office in Qatar.(Alarabiya).U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Afghan and Taliban statements show there is support for a Taliban political office in Qatar, but said nothing has been concluded yet.“Positive statements” from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban demonstrate “there is support for such discussions, for the (Taliban) political office to open in Qatar,” Clinton said.“Nothing has been concluded. We are still in the preliminary stages of testing whether this can be successful,” Clinton said in a press conference with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.The Taliban announced last week that it planned to set up a political office in Qatar, a move seen as a precursor to peace talks with Washington.At the same time, the hardline Islamists demanded the release of prisoners from the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.Clinton said: “We have not made any decisions about releasing any Taliban from Guantanamo.”Clinton said Washington backs Afghan-led reconciliation talks.She added that reconciliation can only occur if the Taliban renounces violence, breaks with Al-Qaeda and support the Afghan constitution, which protects the rights of women and minorities. “I have made it clear to President Karzai that we will work with him, under his leadership,” she said. She said she has dispatched U.S. special regional envoy Marc Grossman to travel to Afghanistan next week to continue U.S. consultations with the Afghans and also to visit Qatar to continue “consultations” there.Hmmmm.......Oh look a herd of unicorns leaving Guantanamo.Read the full story here.

• Turkey: Not bound by US sanctions against Iran.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey, which imports oil and gas from Iran, says it is only bound by U.N. sanctions against its eastern neighbor, despite the U.S. campaign to sanction Iran further over its nuclear program.Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said Turkey would evaluate the content of the U.S. sanctions but it "does not feel it is bound by any other sanctions." Unal spoke during a weekly news conference, which followed a meeting between Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani.On Thursday, Japan pledged to buy less Iranian oil, boosting the U.S. campaign a day after China reacted coolly to the idea. Japan imports about 10 percent of its oil from Iran while Turkey imports about 30 percent from Iran.The sanctions aim to halt what Western governments say is Iran's effort to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, however, insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.The sanctions, targeting the oil industry, would bar financial institutions from the U.S. market if they do business with Iran's central bank.Iran has threatened to respond to sanctions by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, a transit route for a fifth of the world's oil.Hmmmm.....I presume they got the 'blessing' from Their 'buddy'?It's an election Year can't give the 'waiver' but just go ahead it's 'cool'?Read the full story here.

• Report: Iran warns of 'cross-border' assassination response.(JPost).Iran's response to the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Iran Wednesday will reach beyond borders and the region, a website aligned with the regime in Tehran quoted a senior security source as saying Thursday.Those who gave the order for the assassination, the source was quoted as saying, "will never feel safe," adding that Iran's will have a cross-border, cross-regional strategy to strike back.He said that Tehran has entered "a new era of intelligence operations against its enemies."A university professor and department head of a uranium enrichment facility was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, in an incident that looked similar to attacks on nuclear scientists in the city more than one year ago.Read the full story here.

• Operation Grand Slam Nears Completion in Europe: Complete, Total Meltdown of Financial System.(DougRoss).Mike Shedlock -- who has a damn good track record on macroeconomics over the past several years -- uses the following headline, which actually understates the problem.Europe’s $39 Trillion Pension Time Bomb Explodes in 2012...Even before the euro crisis, people were worried about Europe’s pension bomb.State-funded pension obligations in 19 of the European Union nations were about five times higher than their combined gross debt, according to a study commissioned by the European Central Bank. The countries in the report compiled by the Research Center for Generational Contracts at Freiburg University in 2009 had almost 30 trillion euros ($39.3 trillion) of projected obligations to their existing populations....Stable or falling birthrates, plus rising life expectancies, are adding to pressures, with the proportion of economic output devoted to spending on retirement benefits projected to rise by a quarter to 14 percent by 2060, according to the ECB report.Europe has the highest proportion of people aged over 60 of any region in the world, and that is forecast to rise to almost 35 percent by 2050 from 22 percent in 2009, according to a report from the United Nations. That compares with a global estimate of 22 percent by 2050, up from 11 percent in 2009....In so-called developed countries, the average lifespan will reach almost 83 by 2050, up from about 75 in 2009, the UN said....State pension obligations in France and Germany are three times the size of their economies, according to data compiled by Mercer.
  Shedlock concludes: "The punchline to this economic disaster came in the middle of the article: 'Pension managers and governments are relying on economic growth to safeguard the promises they make.'"Suffice it to say that Europe will be lucky to average any growth -- even one percent -- over the next five years given its imminent set of cascading defaults.And, not to belabor the point, but this should serve as yet another alarm klaxon for any American concerned with the future of this Republic. That, of course, leaves out liberals, progressives and the rest of the Democrat Party, which appears bent on national suicide.Read and see the full story here.
  
  

• Turkish academics sign declaration in protest of new filters.(DL).Last week, we reported on the biases present in Turkey's new opt-in filtering system. Now, a group of fifteen Turkish academics have penned a declaration protesting the system, declaring the filter as "arbitrary, state-run, centralized censorship." The statement also alleged that the filter was limiting freedom of expression and is "being imposed across society."Comparing Turkey's system to those administered by China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, the campaigners also note that Turkey is the only OSCE member state applying a centralized filtering system.As we've stated previously, filtering is costly, easy to circumvent, and often overbroad. In light of Turkey's history as a pervasive censor of the Internet, we continue to have grave concerns about the trajectory of this new filtering scheme.Read the full story here.

• Norwegian police investigating Breivik’s self-admitted links to Belarus, possible paramilitary training, mystery girlfriend.(OUTIW).Six months after Norwegian neo-fascist Anders Breivik, by his own admission, killed nearly 80 countrymen, including passersby near the prime minister’s office (pictured above) and teenagers at a ruling party camp, police in that country acknowledge that they are investigating the killer’s links to the “former” Soviet republic of Belarus. In a January 9 interview with the independent BelaPAN, Oslo police spokesman Roar Hansen said: “He admits to have been to Belarus, but he is not clear to the point if he has participated in military training in Belarus.”Bomber-gunman Breivik visited Belarus three times, Mikhail Rashetnikaw, leader of the unregistered Party of Patriots of Belarus, told Russia’s news website gazeta.ru on July 28, 2011, with reference to sources in “national state security and law-enforcement agencies,” meaning the Belarusian KGB. “In the spring of this year, during the active stage of preparations for the double terrorist attack, he visited Minsk and also trained in a closed military field camp,” Rashetnikaw told gazeta.ru. Breivik is rumored to have a girlfriend in Belarus, Rashetnikaw added.In his interview with BelaPAN, Hansen confirmed that Breivik, who is still awaiting trial on April 16, had been in a relationship with a Belarusian woman. “We know who she is,” he said. “We can not say more regarding that question.” Rashetnikaw told BelaPAN that a Norwegian prosecutor phoned him two weeks before and asked him about Breivik’s last trip to Belarus.Days after the July 22 bombing in Oslo and shooting spree on a nearby island, the Belarusian State Border Committee admitted that the Norwegian had stayed in Belarus for a week in March 2005 on a valid tourist visa. He arrived at the Minsk National Airport by a Vienna-Minsk plane on March 4 and left for the Austrian capital on March 11.Norway’s television channel NRK has recently confirmed that Breivik traveled to Belarus in 2005 to visit a woman whom he had met online. In Internet messages that she exchanged with Breivik, the Belarusian woman identified herself as “Natasha” or “Nadzya.”The Belarusian woman apparently visited Breivik in his homeland because a friend said that he had dined with Breivik and his Belarusian “girlfriend” in restaurants in Oslo several times. However, the couple’s relationship did not last long, with Breivik later telling friends that the woman had only wanted his money. According to NRK, the Belarusian now lives in the USA with her European husband.In view of the Soviet KGB’s historic and Russian SVR’s present use of female agents to entrap and manipulate foreigners, it is very possible that Breivik’s Belarusian girlfriend was in the employ of President Alexander Lukashenko’s secret police.Read the full story here.

• Articles from Urdu Magazine of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU): '706 Jews of Banu Quraiza Tribe were Butchered on the Prophet's Order; Therefore, By Killing the Infidels We Must Give Testimony of Our Love to Allah and His Messenger'.(Memri).Recently, a jihadist internet forum released two issues of an Urdu-language magazine published by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a terrorist organization based in the Pakistani tribal region.The magazine is named Ghazwa-e-Hind (the Battle of India), a battle forecast in one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad which is frequently quoted by jihadist organizations in Pakistan.  The two issues released are numbered 5 and 6, respectively for November and December 2011. The following are excerpts from two articles in the magazine's issue Number 5:

"It is the Duty of Muslims to Threaten the Enemies of Islam, and If These Enemies Call Our Mujahideen 'Terrorists' Then It is a Matter of Pride That They are Afraid of Our Lions"

Koran's Chapter Tauba Verse No. 123 Says: "O You Who Believe! Fight Against Those of the Infidels Who are Close to You and Let Them See Harshness in You..."

Prophet Muhammad Said: 'One Who Waged Jihad in the Path of Allah Even for a Period of Milking a Camel, Paradise Becomes Mandatorily Available to Him'

"Plunge into the Field of Jihad and Purchase Your Paradise; Allah Says: 'O Believers! Kill Among the Infidels Those Who are Near You'""Today, all prisons of the world are filled with our Muslim brothers and sisters. Have we done anything for their release? Would there be any answer from us before Allah on the Day of Judgment? Indeed, we have no answer. "Therefore, fear Allah and plunge into the field of jihad and purchase your paradise. Allah says [in the Koran]: 'O believers! Kill among the infidels those who are near you.' The fronts or camps of these defiled [Pakistani] troopers are so near to us [in the Pakistani tribal region] that we can break their heads by just throwing a stone, Allah willing."Apostates are the worst kind of infidels. Therefore, jihad against those apostates is extremely important and necessary. Imam Sarkhusi has written in his book, Mabsoot: 'These apostates are worst kind of infidels because they denied [Islam] after acceptance (Mabsoot Kitabus-Sayar, Majmaul-Anhar Sharha Multaqiul-Abhar, Ahkam-ul-Jihad)."Similarly, it is the fatwa [Islamic decree] by Ibn-e-Taymiyya that fighting against apostates is far better than fighting against the real infidels (Majma-ul-Fatawa)."O the self-respecting Muslims of Waziristan! A great jihad is underway in your area; please value this opportunity; vie with each other in supporting the immigrants [foreign jihadists] and in waging Jihad and in getting martyrdom. Indeed, Allah does not give this opportunity to all. May Allah grant us guidance to practice! Amen." Read the full story here.

• North Korea to punish ‘non-mourners’.(WSN).North Koreans who did not mourn the death of ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il can face at least six months in prison, a South Korean media outlet said Wednesday.And those who took part in the often hysterical display of sorrow but who may not have shed ‘genuine tears’ could be sent to re-education camps, the South Korean Daily NK website reported.The decision follows the completion of ‘criticism sessions’ at people’s courts across North Korea. Kim died in December aged 69, after 17 years as head of the country.North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA, however, accused the Daily NK website of running a smear campaign. The website usually compiles reports from defectors and people living inside North Korea.KCNA also reported that Kim’s death was marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and flocks of magpies.Hmmmm.......Obama admin:"  Kim Jong-il smart and a quick problem-solver. … He is also witty and humorous. Read the full story here.