Video - The 'Just Us' Dep Eric Holder Shoots Down Rep. Gohmert's Contempt Threat: 'You Don't Want to Go There!'

DOJ Seeks to Stall Judicial Watch Lawsuit Seeking Access to Fast and Furious Records.

DOJ Seeks to Stall Judicial Watch Lawsuit Seeking Access to Fast and Furious Records.(JW).

Judicial Watch Files Brief Opposing Government Stonewalling: Justice Department “has disparaged the public’s right to request records of its government”

(Washington, DC) –Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a brief on January 15, 2013, in response to an Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) motion to indefinitely delay consideration of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking access to Operation Fast and Furious records withheld from Congress by President Obama under executive privilege on June 20, 2012 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)).
Rather than respond substantively to Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit, the DOJ argued in court that the lawsuit should be subject to a stay of proceedings because it is “ancillary” to a separate lawsuit filed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee against the DOJ. The Court “should let the process of negotiation and accommodation [between the House Committee and the DOJ] run its course, and then decide with the input of the parties whether and how this action may appropriately proceed at that time,” the DOJ argued, effectively abrogating the FOIA. The Obama DOJ even suggested that the Judicial Watch litigation might encourage the Congress to fight harder to get the same documents in separate litigation.

Fast and Furious was a DOJ/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun-running” operation in which the Obama administration reportedly sold guns to Mexican drug cartels in hopes that they would end up at crime scenes. Fast and Furious weapons have been implicated in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless others in Mexico.
Congressional investigators, led by Rep, Darryl Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have fought to secure records related to the Fast and Furious program, but the DOJ continues to withhold responsive records from disclosure. On June 20, 2012, President Obama made a highly controversial decision to assert Executive Privilege to shield the DOJ’s Fast and Furious records from disclosure. Executive privilege is reserved to “protect” White House records, not the records of federal agencies, which must be made available, subject to specific exceptions, under the FOIA.
The president’s assertion of executive privilege came just hours before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to congressional subpoenas for Fast and Furious records. On June 28, 2012, Congress voted 255-67 to hold Holder in contempt. (A number of Democrats joined the vote, while other Democrats, endorsing lawlessness, walked out in protest.) A second vote, 258-95, authorized the pursuit of records through civil litigation in the courts. Moreover, documents uncovered by CBS News seem to indicate that Holder may have perjured himself during congressional testimony, detailing what he knew about Fast and Furious and when.


“It is beyond ironic that the Obama administration has initiated an anti-gun violence push as it seeking to keep secret key documents about its very own Fast and Furious gun walking scandal. Getting beyond the Obama administration’s smokescreen, this lawsuit is about a very simple principle: the public’s right to know the full truth about an egregious political scandal that led to the death of at least one American and countless others in Mexico,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people are sick and tired of the Obama administration trying to rewrite FOIA law to protect this president and his appointees. Americans want answers about Fast and Furious killings and lies.”
Judicial Watch separately filed a FOIA lawsuit against the ATF seeking access to records detailing communications between ATF officials and a White House official regarding Fast and Furious.Read the full story here.

High Ranking Cartel Member Says Operation Fast And Furious Was Meant To Supply Guns To The Sinaloa Cartel.

High Ranking Cartel Member Says Operation Fast And Furious Was Meant To Supply Guns To The Sinaloa Cartel.(BI).A high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody alleges that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for informationused to take down rival cartels, according to court documents.
The statement was made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the Sinaloa cartel’s “logistics coordinator” in charge of arranging massive drug shipments from Latin America to the United States as well as the son of cartel leader Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia and a close associate to kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Zambada-Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in March 2009 and extradited to Chicago to face drug trafficking charges.
From the court document:

[T]he United States government at its highest levels entered into agreements with cartel leaders to act as informants against rival cartels and received benefits in return, including, but not limited to, access to thousands of weapons which helped them continue their business of smuggling drugs into Chicago and throughout the United States, and to continue wreaking havoc on the citizens and law enforcement in Mexico.

Zambada-Niebla believes that he, like the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel, was "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he also actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.Hmmm........Read the full story here.

OUTRAGE: Eric Holder disarmed Brian Terry while arming his killers.

OUTRAGE: Eric Holder disarmed Brian Terry while arming his killers.(DougRoss).Just when you thought Operation Fast and Furious -- and its cover-up -- couldn't get any worse, another layer of the onion gets unpeeled.

US Border Agent Brian Terry was shooting beanbags at cartel members before they shot him dead with assault rifles. (Truth about Guns).

For the first time the Obama Administration today admitted that Brian Terry and fellow border agents were firing beanbags and not bullets during their shootout with armed cartel members... FOX News reported, via Free Republic:

For the first time, federal officials revealed Monday that murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and an elite squad of federal agents first fired bean bags — not bullets — at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2011.

The announcement came as the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging five individuals allegedly involved in Terry’s death. A sixth suspect has also been charged in a related incident.

The U.S. is also offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of four outstanding suspects believed to hiding out in Mexico. The names of the four suspects were revealed, and their pictures released, to the public. Police in the US and in Mexico are cooperating and under intense pressure to find them.

[Commenter] Roark added: "Disarmed by the very bureaucrats that armed their killers."

This is the biggest political scandal in the last century. And vintage media, for the most part, refuses to report on it.

The mass murders facilitated by Eric Holder -- and the subsequent cover-up by the Obama administration and Holder -- make Watergate look like a parking violation.

Every Republican in Congress needs to demand Eric Holder's immediate resignation. Contact your Representative now and ask them whether they have done so. If not, why the hell not?Read the full story here.

Video - Katie Pavlich: "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal."

Here’s Katie Pavlich – author of “Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal” – interviewed on today’s Dennis Miller show.

Republicans seek to hold attorney general in contempt over Fast and Furious.

Republicans seek to hold attorney general in contempt over Fast and Furious.(LATimes).By Richard A. Serrano.WASHINGTON — Republican House leaders have drafted a proposed contempt of Congress citation against Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in which they charge that he and his Justice Department have repeatedly "obstructed and slowed" the Capitol Hill investigation into the ATF's flawed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation. The 48-page draft citation is being drawn up by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Top committee officials recently met for most of a day in the House speaker's office and were given the green light to proceed toward a contempt citation, according to sources who declined to be identified. If adopted by the GOP-led House, the contempt resolution would be sent to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington or perhaps an independent counsel in an attempt to force the Justice Department to provide tens of thousands of internal documents to the committee. A contempt resolution would also escalate a political feud between Issa and the Obama administration. Earlier this week Issa called the Obama White House "the most corrupt in government history." 
At a hearing in December, he compared Holder to disgraced Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from the President Nixon era, a comment that prompted Holder to fire back in language reminiscent of the bitter Senate hearings led by former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.): "Have you no shame?" Holder and other Justice Department officials insist they are cooperating with congressional investigators. Holder said the department had responded to more than three dozen letters from members of Congress and facilitated numerous witness interviews. The department has submitted or made available more than 6,400 pages of documents, he said. Issa and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, contend that they have received far more documents from ATF whistle-blowers than have been turned over by the Justice Department.
"The department's refusal to work with Congress to ensure that such a mistake [as Fast and Furious] is never repeated is inexcusable and cannot stand," said a copy of the draft report obtained by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau. "Those responsible for allowing Fast and Furious to proceed and those who are preventing the truth about the operation from coming out must be held accountable for their actions."
Holder has sharply denied that he or other Justice Department officials were aware that the ATF purposely allowed illegal weapons to circulate on the border. As soon as he learned of the "gun-walking tactics" used in Fast and Furious, he said, he called for a Justice Department inspector general investigation.Issa's draft report outlines evidence collected by the committee that contends some top Justice Department officials knew the ATF had allowed about 2,500 guns to be illegally purchased in Arizona — guns that were later "walked" to Mexican drug cartels. The draft describes a 2010 meeting in the office of then-acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Gary G. Grindler in which charts were presented showing 31 people had illegally paid cash for 1,026 weapons. Also shown were the locations of "stash houses" before the weapons were moved to Mexico. "Despite receiving all this information ... Grindler did not order Fast and Furious to be shut down, nor did he follow up with ATF or his staff about the investigation," the draft says. Grindler, however, has told congressional investigators that he was not advised at the meeting about the unusual tactics used by ATF agents in allowing the guns to be illegally sold under Fast and Furious.Hmmmmm......These boots will keep on 'walking'...one day they'll walk all over you?"Read the full story here.

Gun rights advocate and former Obama colleague: President used to treat him as ‘evil’, "he would turn his back on me and walk away.”

Gun rights advocate and former Obama colleague: President used to treat him as ‘evil’, "he would turn his back on me and walk away.”(DC).Economist John Lott, noted for his academic advocacy of gun rights, says that when Barack Obama was his colleague at the University of Chicago, the future president treated him as if he were “evil.”
Lott relates his interactions with Obama in his new book, co-authored with Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist, “Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We can Do Now to Regain Our Future.”
“The book relates a couple out of the dozen-and-a-half conversations that I had with him,” Lott told The Daily Caller. ”But they were all very short, cut off by Obama turning his back on me and walking away.”
“He wouldn’t shake hands. It was very clear that Obama disagreed on the gun issue and acted as if he believed that people who he disagreed with were not just wrong, but evil. Unlike other liberal academics who usually enjoyed discussing opposing ideas, Obama simply showed disdain.”
Lott and Obama were colleagues at the University of Chicago Law School in the 1990s.Hmmm......Does this show a man capable as setting up something like "Fast and Furious"?Read the full story here.

Obama's White House tells Darrell Issa to take a hike - will not let Kevin O'Reilly appear before Congress

Obama's White House tells Darrell Issa to take a hike - will not let Kevin O'Reilly appear before Congress.(BN).The White House's fails to meet the deadline for a request from Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley to speak with former White House employee, Kevin O'Reilly. The Oversight Committee wants to talk with O'Reilly - who is currently working in Iraq - about his conversations with former ATF SAC William Newell when he was a member of the National Security Staff (NSS) The April 4th deadline came and went but the White House actually did respond on April 5th and invoked Executive Privilege.
Here is the relevant excerpt from the letter sent to Issa and Grassley on behalf of the White House:
" In light of the important Executive Branch confidentiality interests and institutional prerogatives implicated by your request, including those of NSS, and in the absence of any evidence that suggests that Mr. O'Reilly had any involvement in "Operation Fast and Furious" or was aware of the existence of any inappropriate investigative tactics, there is an insufficient basis to support the request to interview Mr. O'Reilly."
Really? Before agreeing or disagreeing, check out this exchange between Oversight Committee member, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Newell from July 26, 2011 and then re-read that excerpt from the White House letter again.

 

For more on the White House's refusal to allow the Oversight Committee to interview O'Reilly, committee member Jason Chaffetz interviewed with Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly. The long and short of this is the White House really has no right to invoke this privilege. There is no legal basis for it, which implicates the administration in the cover-up.Here is a copy of the letter from White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler to Issa and Grassley: Apr-05-2012 WH Counsel reply on O'Reilly Interview.Read and see the full story here.

Number of Congressmen calling on Holder to Resign or requesting "No Confidence" vote grows to 120.

Number of Congressmen calling on Holder to Resign or requesting "No Confidence" vote grows to 120.(DC).Republican Reps. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia have signed on to a House resolution of “no confidence” in Attorney General Eric Holder over his role in Operation Fast and Furious.
With their signatures, a total of 120 U.S. House members have now either publicly demanded Holder’s resignation, expressed no confidence in his job performance via a formal House resolution, or both.
That amounts to more than a quarter of the U.S. House of Representatives and nearly half of the Republican caucus. Three U.S. senators — Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and James Inhofe of Oklahoma — have also called for Holder to resign. So have two sitting governors, Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and all major Republican presidential candidates.
Why is this all so relevant today? In part, because the bigger it gets, the more it will force House Speaker John Boehner to act. Amidst rumors that Boehner has asked Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa to back off, coupled with the Speaker's obvious attempts to avoid commenting much on the investigation, House Republicans are slowing moving toward getting 218 votes.
If that 218 number were to be reached, Boehner would actually be bucking not just a majority of Republicans but a majority of the House itself if he didn't either hold a vote on the "no confidence" resolution or draft articles of impeachment. With 120 already on record, only 98 more are needed to reach that 218 number.
Has your congressman called for Holder's resignation? If not, contact him/her and demand it.
Once 218 votes are reached, Boehner will almost be forced to act, whether he wants to or not.Read the full story here.

Move aside "Fast and Furious' for The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Obama

Move aside "Fast and Furious' for The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Obama.(ZH).American firearm sales and concealed handgun permit applications are at all-time highs since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. President Obama's perceived hostility towards gun owners has been one of the key factors behind the multi-year financial boom the firearms industry continues to enjoy.
In fact, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is actively preparing to work to defeat President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, according to Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, who recently said the following at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.:
"Lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term. We see the president's strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms' freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution...When the sun goes down on election day Barack Obama will have America’s gun owners to thank for his defeat.” ~ Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA, February 10th, 2012.
Ironically, the perceived hostility towards gun owners by President Obama has actually helped the firearms industry tremendously. Since the 2008 election, more Americans than ever before are purchasing firearms and ammunition. This has meant massive increases in sales by firearm and ammunition makers, billions more in federal and state tax collections related to guns and ammo, increased membership in the NRA, and hundreds of thousands of new Americans carrying concealed handguns. Therefore, should the firearms industry support President Obama for a second term or not?Read and SEE the full story here.

Audio: John Bolton talks about Fast and Furious

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Philipines 6.0 - 5.5 ; Tonga 5.8 - 5.5 ; Mongolia 5.5 - 5.4!More info here.

• Iran blocks IAEA inspectors at Parchin military site.(JPost).By REUTERS.VIENNA - Iran's apparent reluctance to let UN inspectors visit a military site near Tehran underlines the uphill task they face in getting the Islamic state to address suspicions it may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, Western diplomats say. They say the UN nuclear watchdog sought access to the Parchin complex during three days of talks in the Iranian capital, so far without any sign that Iran would agree to it.More meetings are scheduled for later this month - rare direct dialogue in the long-running international dispute, which has deepened as the West pursues punitive embargos on Iranian oil and Tehran threatens retaliation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) named Parchin in a detailed report in November that lent independent weight to Western fears that Iran is working to develop an atomic bomb, an allegation Iranian officials reject. The UN agency has not said whether the issue was among those it raised in the January 29-31 discussions in Tehran aimed at shedding light on possible nuclear-linked weapons development work, but diplomats accredited to the IAEA said it was. The senior IAEA team requested "access to Parchin, which Iran did not provide", one Western diplomat said.The senior IAEA team requested "access to Parchin, which Iran did not provide", one Western diplomat said. He and others suggested that Iran had sidestepped the question rather than rejected it outright during the meetings with the IAEA delegation headed by the agency's global inspections chief, Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts. "They asked to see a particular site and they never got an answer," another envoy said. "The bottom line is: Iran did not engage the agency on the issues the agency wanted to discuss.""There was nothing achieved on this visit," the Western envoy said. "I was never optimistic. This just reinforces my pessimism." In a new sign of Iran's refusal to back down, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would retaliate over Western-backed oil sanctions and any threat of attack, insisting outside pressure would not halt its nuclear work.Suspicions about activities at the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran date back at least to 2004 when a prominent nuclear expert said satellite images showed it may be a site for research and testing relevant for nuclear weapons. In 2005, UN inspectors visited the large site, but not the place where the IAEA now believes the explosives chamber was built.Hmmmm.....That's almost eight years of refusal.Read the full story here.

• Is Iran about to test a Nuclear weapon?(AstuteBloggers).By ReliaPundit. Khamenei then claimed the current century as the century of Islam and promised that human history is on the verge of a great event and that soon the world will realize the power of Allah.IMHO: THE ONLY THING THAT THIS COULD BE IS EITHER A TEST OF A NUKE OR THE USE OF A NUKE.Hmmm.....Last year the Former mossad chief warned of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon in 2012.And The maximum of 3,000 centrifuges that Fodow can contain will never produce enough to supply the fuel needed for a nuclear reactor.However, their performance is perfect for making nuclear bombs.So i wouldn't be surprised.Read the full story here.

• Perfect: Obama pulls combat pay for U.S. troops.(DougRoss).But he obviously holds the U.S. military in very high esteem.President Obama’s latest policy outrage makes no attempt to hide his contempt for our military, as he is ordering that our troops serving overseas in war zones overseas are not to receive combat pay unless they are being shot at.In other words, the president continues to siphon off more and more money from our defense infrastructure -- hitting our warriors first, last and hardest in the process -- to fund his green energy scams and public sector union cronies (which, coincidentally, also contribute heavily to his campaign).Read the full story here.

• Iran Starts Mass-Production of Naval Cruise Missile.(Fars).Iran on Saturday inaugurated the production line of a newly unveiled naval cruise missile, called Zafar (Triumph). The production line was inaugurated by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi in a ceremony at the Defense Ministry' Aerospace Industries Organization on the occasion of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies, celebrating the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution back in 1979. The ceremony was also attended by Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Naval Force Brigadier General Ali Fadavi. During the ceremony, the first cargo of Zafar missiles was delivered to the IRGC. Speaking to reporters, Vahid said that "Zafar is a short-range, anti-ship, radar guided missile capable of hitting and destroying small and medium-sized targets with high precision". He added that the missile can be mounted onto light and speed boats, enjoys a high capability in anti-electronic warfare and is highly destructive. Read the full story here.

• Iranian Navy Ships Arrive in Saudi Port.(Fars).The 18th flotilla of warships dispatched by Iran to the Gulf of Aden on an anti-piracy mission docked at the Saudi port city of Jeddah today, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Saturday.The Iranian Navy dispatched its 18th flotilla of warships to the Gulf of Aden on January 21 to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against Somali pirates. Addressing a ceremony here in Tehran today, Sayyari said the Iranian Navy's fleet of warships, comprised of Khark warship and Shahid Naqdi destroyer, docked at Jeddah this morning, and added that the mission is part of the Navy's moves in line with the orders of the Supreme Leader for having a stronger presence in the high seas. The commander said that the navy ships' 70-80-day mission is aimed at demonstrating Iran's power in the high seas. While enemies try to portray Iran's growing power as a threat to the regional states, the Admiral indicated that such missions prove that Iran's military power is used to defend the region and can, thus, defuse the plot hatched by the enemies to spread Iranophobia.Hmmmm......Placing the pawns on the chess game board.Read the full story here.

• Iran's SNSC, Three Branches of Power Studying Cut of Oil Supplies to EU.(Fars).Iranian parliamentary sources revealed on Saturday that the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and three branches of power (the Parliament, the Government and the Judiciary) are studying a double-urgency bill of the parliament on cutting crude exports to the European countries. "Apart from the SNSC, the issue is important for the parliament, government and the country's macro-scale decision-making levels," member of the parliament's Presiding Board Omidvar Rezayee told FNA, referring to the finalization of the parliament's last week bill on cutting oil exports to the EU members. He said the issue is presently under study at the SNSC and economic departments of the three branches of power, and added, "They will take the final decision in this regard."After the EU oil ban against Iran, 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 move. "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 last Saturday.In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi also underlined Tehran's determination to retaliate against the western states' oil ban against the country, and said Iran will certainly cut its oil exports to certain European countries. "Export of oil to certain European countries will certainly be cut," Qassemi said in a press conference on Saturday. "We will decide on stopping oil exports to other European countries later," he added.Read the full story here.

• Damascus denies responsibility for deaths of more than 400 civilians ahead of U.N. vote.(AlArabiya).Damascus on Saturday said gunmen were responsible for the killing of more than 400 civilians across Syria, the state media reported. At least 416 civilians were killed by the Syrian forces across the country while the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) vowed to fight back with intense operations against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.Early Saturday, the anti-Assad regime army intensified its campaign against the government’s forces as it destroyed an air intelligence building in Homs, the Syrian Media Center reported. Hours later, the media center said that a huge explosion took place in Hama close to the border entrance of Halab. And in the rebel-held al-Zabadani, the opposition fighters went on to surround a government security building, the media center said. Ammar al-Wawi, an FSA official, told Al Arabiya that the free army vows more operations against Assad’s forces to include targets such as military and police headquarters.Initially, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 138 of the fatalities were caused by mortar fire in the Al-Khalidiya district of Homs, which has become a flashpoint of the 10-month revolt against the regime of Assad. Civilians, including women and children were killed, a rights group said on Saturday. But Al Arabiya correspondent said that the death toll in Homs alone included 337 people killed and 1,300 others injured. The correspondent also reported that the Khalidiya hospital in Homs was destroyed.Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighborhood at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt the bombardment was falling on our heads,” said Waleed a resident of Khalidiya.As Syrians rushed to aid victims and carried on with funerals in Homs, Assad forces continued with attacks, Al Arabiya correspondent said, adding that nail bombs were used during the shelling campaign against the city.It was not immediately clear what had prompted Syrian forces to launch such an intense bombardment at a time when diplomats at the U.N. Security Council are discussing a draft resolution on an Arab League plan calling for Assad to give up power.Another 79 people were killed in other parts of town. The grim tolls, if confirmed, would mark the bloodiest day of the almost 11-month uprising against Assad’s regime.“It’s a real massacre,” the observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, calling for the “immediate intervention” of the Arab League to end the killing.Al Arabiya showed images of dozens of bodies on the ground and scenes of chaos in the city, with several buildings destroyed.Residents claiming to be from Homs took to Twitter to send out updates. One spoke of a city that “is bleeding” and under heavy bombardment and another counted “366 explosions tonight so far.”Amid growing concern that Syria is sliding into all-out civil war, an officer with the FSA claimed the regular army “is in a pitiful state and getting close to collapsing.”Read the full story here.

• Report: Fast and Furious "Fix is in" and Boehner is behind it.(BN).As I readied myself for what promised to be a bombshell of a hearing on February 2nd, I thought Attorney General Eric Holder would have his toughest test yet. He would now be in front of the committee that Darrell Issa chairs - the House Oversight Committee. In every Fast and Furious hearing Issa had been involved in, he stood out as the top bulldog, the fieriest and most knowledgable about the case. On February 2nd, he had the gavel and much more evidence with which to go directly at Holder.As I watched the hearing, I was struck by how tame Issa was compared to previous hearings. There were congressmen on the committee who went at Holder hard - Gowdy, Meehan, Buerkle, and Labrador to name a few - but Issa was conspicuously soft. I thought, "Why?" This was the guy who had all of the goods, collectively. He could have personally delivered a mortal blow to Holder's tenure; he might have even exposed a White House connection. Instead, he seemed to put his gloves down.Mike Vanderboegh, the guy who broke the Fast and Furious story originally before CBS' Sharyl Attkisson picked it up and gave it a much wider audience, seems to be pretty convinced that the fix is in and that House Speaker John Boehner is behind it.The Obama administration is, by far, the most corrupt in the history of the United States. It has put the Republic in serious danger. If there was a White House connection to Fast and Furious, Boehner COULD have gone down in history as the man willing to do the right thing by leading the effort to expose it, by truly unleashing Issa and standing with him.Instead, if these reports are true, he has decided to allow the dismantling of America continue.Read the full story here.

• Russian officials plan to meet Assad as U.N. clash over Syria continues.(AlArabiya).Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit to Syria on Tuesday to meet President Bashar al-Assad, Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying in Munich on Saturday, as Russia and Western states clash over a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria.“On the order of the Russian president, myself and Mikhail Fradkov will visit Damascus on February 7 for a meeting with Bashar al-Assad,” Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference Saturday.Lavrov, who said President Dmitry Medvedev had instructed him and Fradkov to make the trip, gave no details about its specific purpose, the reports said. The statement came as Russia and Western states clash over a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would support an Arab League plan calling for Assad to cede power.Arab and Western countries have rejected a new draft amended by Russia. The draft dropped callas to condemn “arbitrary executions, killing and persecution of protestors and members of the media, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, interference with access to medical treatment, torture, sexual violence, and ill-treatment, including against children.”It also conditioned the pull out of all Syrian military and armed forces from cities and towns with “the end of attacks by armed groups against state institutions and cities and towns.”A major Russian amendment urged U.N. member states to use their influence to prevent continued violence by armed groups. Al Arabiya correspondent from the United Nations reported that Arab and Western states rejected the Russian amendments.“They [Russians] attempted all through the draft to equate between the victim and the aggressor, which is unacceptable to the Arabs and the Europeans alike,” Talal Alhaj said.“My sources are assuring me that these amendments have been refused by the Europeans and Arabs alike. This refusal will of course and most likely lead to a Russian veto, double veto with China.”Read the full story here.

• GOP lawmaker walked out on Obama's speech at National Prayer Breakfast.(TheHill).By Jonathan Easley.Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) walked out of President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his spokeswoman confirmed to The Hill.Jen Talaber said the five-term lawmaker "left quietly" in the middle of the president's remarks.“He was disturbed and offended by the president’s use of prayer and reflection time for partisan politics and class warfare,” Talaber said. “Rep. Gingrey enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker and found the breakfast to be inspiring until President Obama began politicking.”At the breakfast, Obama tried to tie some of the proposals from his State of the Union address, such as everyone paying their fair share in taxes, to Biblical teachings.Talaber said Gingrey listened to several minutes of the speech before he “slipped out” because he found the perceived politicking “inappropriate.”“There are 364 other days a year in which to do that,” she said. “While he commends the president for his attendance, Rep. Gingrey wanted to hear what was in his heart and not campaign rhetoric. He was disappointed that the president seemed to be unaware of the reason so many gathered there today.”Read the full story here.

• GOP's Hatch: Someone should remind Obama he's not Jesus Christ.(TheHill).By Josiah Ryan.Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Thursday evening said President Obama needs a reminder that he is not Jesus Christ."In 2008, the president declared that his nomination was the world historical moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," Hatch said in a speech from the Senate floor. "Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water and he did not occupy the Oval Office."Hatch skewered the president for a remark he made at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, during which he suggested Jesus might support his plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.“For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that 'for unto to whom much is given, much shall be required,'" Obama said at the breakfast. Hatch, who is a devout Mormon, suggested Obama was trying to "assume the role of theologian in chief" and said he ought to stick to public policy."[Obama] suggested to the attendees that Jesus would have supported his latest tax-the-rich schemes," Hatch said. "With due respect to the president, he ought to stick to public policy. I think most Americans would agree that the gospels are concerned with weightier matters than effective tax rates.”Hatch said Obama does not even live up to the example set by two former presidents he claims to admire, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln."At some moments in our nation's history, at moments of crises, leaders have emerged, put partisanship aside and worked to solve our greatest challenges, though our current president, who's compared himself to both Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, his leadership is falling well short of their examples," Hatch said.Read the full story here.

• Federal Court Forces EPA to Enforce Rules Agency Believes Are Faulty.(BigGovernment).President Obama’s EPA usually has a bad habit of kicking American industry when it’s down by dumping on them with unnecessary regulations, regardless of what business leaders say the effects will be.Usually. Which is why the latest fiasco over the Agency’s proposed Boiler MACT rule is so noteworthy.After writing new rules in mid-2011 that would require electricity-generating boilers to meet a shockingly high emissions standard – at a capital cost of $9.5 billion – a wide swath of industries, most notably the paper and wood business, pushed back. EPA was set to impose the rules anyway, risking hundreds of thousands of jobs, sky-high costs, and electrical production capacity.Yet shockingly, EPA suddenly changed its mind in December, apparently having listened to the industries’ criticisms and deciding to stay any formal enactment of the proposed rules. EPA wanted more time to study the potential effects and revise the regulations.But of course, the environmentalist left wouldn’t have that. From the PJ Tatler:In December 2011, though, the EPA changed course and decided to delay implementing the rule. It actually appeared to be taking industry concerns into account, for once. The Sierra Club and others had filed suit to force the EPA to stick to its original timeline. The federal court in Washington, DC heard the case and sided with the Sierra Club in January. So now, the EPA is being forced by a judge to implement a rule that the EPA itself has acknowledged is problematic and requires more study.The minute the EPA actually listens to industries’ concerns and decides it wants a more balanced approach, they get stuck with a federal court ruling requiring them to enforce the original rules they have already acknowledged are faulty.Luckily, in order for sanity to prevail, Republicans are pushing legislation that will shield the EPA from the court’s ruling and give it the time it needs to draft new rules that lessen the burden on industry. The legislation, titled the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, has been bouncing around Congress. The House has already passed the bill as part of the payroll tax cut package passed in December. It’s the Senate’s turn now.Even the EPA itself admits that too much is at stake.Read the full story here.

• US anxiety grows over possible Israeli plans on Iran, Israeli strike would have implications for US election.(Jpost).The Obama administration is increasingly anxious about Israeli leaders' provocative public comments on Iran's nuclear program but does not have hard proof that Jerusalem will strike Iran in the next few months, US and European officials said.The US uncertainty and lack of information about Israel's plans on Iran were behind an alarming assessment of the situation reportedly voiced by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the officials said.David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist who specializes in intelligence matters, reported that Panetta believed there was a "strong likelihood" that Israel would attack Iran's nuclear program within the next six months -- as early as April, Ignatius wrote.Three US officials who follow the issue said their understanding was that the United States did not have concrete intelligence suggesting an attack by Israel on Iran in that time frame was likely or actively being prepared.The current US assessment is that for months Jerusalem had been making contingency plans and tentative preparations both for such an operation and for possible Iranian retaliation, two of the officials said."If Israel has a good military option, they just take it, they don't talk about it, they don't give warnings," said Pollack, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. "So the fact that they are talking about it, to me, is one tip-off that they don't have a good military option".Many, if not most, Western experts believe it would take Iran at least a year to build a weapon once leaders decided to go ahead. But some Israel leaders and experts believe that an attack would have to be launched earlier if Iran's nuclear effort is to be set back seriously. Barak has warned that Iran's nuclear research could soon pass into what he called a "zone of immunity," protected from outside disruption.Barak was recently quoted telling the Herzliya Conference, "Later is too late," one of the US officials noted. The official said that US policymakers had to be concerned about the possibility of an early Israeli attack "given that Barak and Netanyahu seem so determined to do it."But Panetta's alleged remarks and other Obama administration's statements indicate the White House is focused on dissuading Israel from taking action - and distancing itself from an Israel strike if persuasion fails.A strike on Iran and Iran's response, including attempts to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital for oil shipments, could seriously harm the US economy, jeopardizing US President Barack Obama's chances for re-election. Obama also would likely come under intense domestic pressure to back Israel's actions."The US is not too excited about engaging with Israel or being part of anything at this point," one official said."Israel is, practically speaking, the wild card in the pack," the analyst said. "We have no specific information on when or if they will attack but based on their past history and current stance, it is something we do expect at some point."Hmmmm......Is it right to jeopardise the lives of 7.6 million Israelis for reelection reasons?Read the full story here.

• Iran begins month long naval exercises near Gulf strait.(AlArabiya).Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard began naval maneuvers Saturday in the latest show of force near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the critical Gulf oil tanker route that Tehran has threatened to close in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions.Plans for new Iranian war games in the Gulf have been in the works for weeks. But they got under way following stern warnings by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about any possible U.S. or Israeli attacks against Tehran's nuclear facilities.The month-long maneuvers also come after Western forces boosted their naval presence in the Gulf led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.Iran has so far made no attempts to disrupt shipping through the strait, the route for one-fifth the world's crude oil. The U.S. and allies have said they would respond swiftly to any attempts at a blockade.Last month, Iran’s navy wrapped up 10 days of exercises in the Gulf, but the Revolutionary Guard - which is directly under control of the supreme leader - represents a significantly stronger military force and controls key programs such as missile development. Iranian state media announced the new maneuvers, but gave no further details.Khamenei, in a speech nationally broadcast on Friday, staked out a hard line after suggestions by Israel that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.He pledged to aid any nation or group that challenges Israel and said any military strikes would damage U.S. interests in the Middle East “10 times” more than they would hurt Iran. The comments also may signal that Tehran’s proxy forces - led by Lebanon’s Islamic militant group Hezbollah - could be given the green light to revive attacks on Israel as the showdown between the archfoes intensifies.Read the full story here.

• Video - Syrians storm their embassies in Egypt, Kuwait and rally in UK, U.S and Germany.(AlArabiya).A crowd of Syrians stormed the Syrian embassy in Cairo smashing furniture and equipment and setting fire to parts of the building in protest over the latest bloodshed in the country, an embassy official and a witness said on Saturday.Rallies also broke out outside Syrian embassies in Britain, Germany and the United States after human rights activists reported more than 300 people were killed in shelling by government forces in the city of Homs.In Cairo, embassy official Ammar Mohamed said he had been told by security officials about the overnight attack and arrived at the site to assess the damage. The scene was calm by early morning and Egyptian police were guarding the embassy.It was the second such attack on the mission. The embassy was broken into last week in another demonstration against President Bashar al-Assad who has turned his army against demonstrators seeking an end to his rule.Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered at a police station a few streets from the Cairo embassy to demand the release of as many as 11 Syrians and an Egyptian who they said were detained during the protest at the mission.“God you are so strong, help us secure victory over Bashar,” chanted protesters outside the Cairo police station where they said the detainees from the demonstration were taken.The gate of the embassy in central Cairo was broken and furniture and computers were smashed on the second floor of the building, a Reuters witness said, viewing the site after the attack. Parts of the first floor were burned, he said.In Kuwait, witnesses say demonstrators have stormed into the Syrian Embassy compound in the Gulf state, breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.Meanwhile, five men were arrested Saturday after gaining entry to the Syrian embassy in London, police said, as protesters demonstrated outside the building.Around 150 protesters gathered outside the plush property in Belgrave Square, one of central London's finest squares, which houses a string of embassies.A Scotland Yard spokesman said the arrests were for public order offences after the demonstration broke out at around 2:00am (0200 GMT).The spokesman said “appropriate policing” was now in place.Read the full story here.

• Freezing Europe hit by Russian gas shortage,Russia admits brief cut of gas supplies to Europe.(BBC).Freezing weather sweeping across Europe has led to a shortage of vital Russian gas supplies to several countries, officials say.An EU energy spokeswoman said eight countries had seen a reduction in gas due to increased demand in Russia. She said the situation was not an emergency but was being monitored.The cold snap is being blamed for scores of deaths in eastern Europe where temperatures have plunged to below -35C.Freezing temperatures have spread to Italy and France, and the UK is also on alert for snowfall over the weekend."I can confirm that there has been a decrease in gas deliveries in various member states - Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Italy," EU spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said."It's not a situation of emergency yet," she added.Correspondents say the sudden drop in Russian gas supplies - which pass through Ukraine - is raising fears of a repeat of a crisis in 2009 when tension between Moscow and Kiev cut supplies to parts of Europe for about two weeks.Russia's state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant acknowledged for the first time Saturday that it had briefly reduced gas supplies to Europe amid a spell of extreme cold. Gazprom deputy chief Andrey Kruglov reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the cuts lasted for several days and reached up to 10 percent, but supplies are currently back to normal. Officials in Austria and France, however, have reported cuts of as much as 30 percent, and Italy said supplies were down by 24 percent Thursday. Russia previously had blamed Ukraine for the shortages, saying Kiev is siphoning off more than its share. Authorities in Ukraine have denied the accusations.Putin ordered Gazprom to try to meet an increased demand for the Russian gas in Europe, but added that the company's priority should be to satisfy the local demand.Read the full story here and here.

• Congress Calls for Accelerated Use of Drones in U.S.(BLN).Source: Secrecy News. A House-Senate conference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or “drones,” in U.S. airspace.The pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary of Transporation to develop within nine months “a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.”“The plan… shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”The conference bill, which still awaits final passage, also calls for establishment of UAS test ranges in cooperation with NASA and the Department of Defense, expanded use of UAS in the Arctic region, development of guidance for the operation of public unmanned aircraft systems, and new safety research to assess the risk of “catastrophic failure of the unmanned aircraft that would endanger other aircraft in the national airspace system.”The Department of Defense is pursuing its own domestic UAS activities for training purposes and “domestic operations,” according to a 2007 DoD-FAA memorandum of agreement. (“Army Foresees Expanded Use of Drones in U.S. Airspace,” Secrecy News, January 19, 2012.)Read the full story here.

• Al Arabiya documentary sheds light on Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination.(AlArabiya).On Feb. 14, 2005, more than one ton of explosives claimed the lives of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 22 of his companions and innocent passers-by. From that point onwards, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has been conducting a series of investigations to determine the identity of the assassins. This was accompanied by a strong upheaval in Lebanon as well as in the entire region. Lebanon suffered a sharp division between the March 14 bloc, headed by The Future Movement under the leadership of Hariri’s son Saad al-Hariri and his allies, on one hand and the March 8 bloc headed by Hassan Nasrallah and his allies on the other. This division reached its peak when the balance of power tipped in favor of Hezbollah and its allies Iran and Syria. But the investigations continued until Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare accused four Hezbollah senior officials of taking part in the assassination.“In Search for Hariri’s Murderers” is a three-part documentary screened on Al Arabiya on Friday. The second and third parts will be shown on Thursday Feb. 9 and Friday Feb.10, respectively.The film recounts the details of the investigation from 2005 till the present against the backdrop of the complicated political and regional circumstances in which they have been taking place.Former deputy representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Lebanon the late Kamal Medhat gave a special interview to the film about his experience with the Nahr al-Bared battle before he himself was killed during the events.Read and see the full story here.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Turkey 4.9 !More info here.

• Fast and Furious Bombshell: Holder Toast; Damning E-mails released.(BN).Looks like there has been another Friday night document dump from the White House on Fast and Furious and the e-mails included in that dump show that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about Brian Terry's death within 24 hours AND that Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene.
  The most damaging email exchange for Holder appears to be one between then Arizona US Attorney, Dennis Burke and Holder Deputy Chief of Staff, Monty Wilkinson.NPR has the emails. I've posted screen shots of the two exchanges that point to Holder committing perjury when he said on May 3rd that he'd first learned about Fast and Furious a "few weeks" earlier. He later had to concede that he knew about the operation approximately two months earlier and tried to argue that eight weeks could still be classified as "a few."First, the email in which Burke notified Wilkinson that Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry had died after being shot near the Mexican border. Note Wilkinson's response. He says that he has alerted the Attorney General. This shows that Holder was informed of Terry's death within hours.Holder is in deep, deep trouble here. This all comes out just days before Holder is set to appear in front of the committee that Rep. Darrell Issa chairs. On February 2nd, Holder will be in front of the Oversight Committee.As Sipsey Street points out, these emails are the ones that the White House voluntarily released, which indicates they may be willing to throw Holder under the bus now. That leads to another very interesting question.What is the level of White House involvement?Hmmmm........A "black sheep, a black sheep for my presidency"?Read the full story here.
  

• Catholic Church: tell Sebelius you will not obey.(NWV).By: Devvy.The Department of Health and Human Services is unconstitutional. It's nothing more than a trillion dollar a year rape of the American people's labor to fund more welfare and programs that financially support sin and the death culture.Last week, under the administration of the impostor president squatting in the White House, a new regulation was announced which would "require virtually all employers to offer insurance coverage of sterilization, abortifacients and contraceptives without deductibles or co-pays in their employee plans by Aug. 1. Churches are exempt, but not religiously inspired hospitals, schools and other charities that hire outside their faith tradition."Exempt: houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Where this unconstitutional "order" will hit hard are religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies. DHS is headed up by yet another female who oozes evil: Kathleen Sebelius. She joins the ranks of Hillary Clinton, Condelezza Rice, Janet Butch Reno and Jan 'the man' Napolitano. Sebelius never misses an opportunity to advocate and fund the killing of unborn babies, which is why Obama/Soetoro selected her for that position. Of course, the U.S. Senate confirmed her appointment including phony conservatives like former Sen. Sam Brownback. What a hypocrite. Here is the roll call vote back in 2009. Sebelius claims to be Catholic. She is not. She should be denied entrance to any Catholic church because you cannot support killing unborn babies and claim to be Catholic.But then again, 54% of Catholics allegedly voted for the other champion of killing babies: Obama/Soetoro in 2008. They slapped God right in the face for false promises of "hope and change".Read the full story here.

• The Silent Anschluss: Germany Formally Requests That Greece Hand Over Its Fiscal Independence.(ZeroHedge).It was tried previously (several times) under "slightly different" circumstances, and failed. Yet when it comes to taking over a country without spilling even one drop of blood, and converting its citizens into debt slaves, Germany's Merkel may have just succeeded where so many of her predecessors failed. According to a Reuters exclusive, "Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday." Reuters add: "There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough," the source said.' So while the great distraction that is the Charles Dallara "negotiation" with Hedge Funds continues (as its outcome is irrelevant: a Greece default is assured at this point), the real development once again was behind the scenes where Germany was cleanly and clinically taking over Greece. Because while today it is the fiscal apparatus, tomorrow it is the legislative. As for the executive: who cares. At that point Goldman will merely appoint one of its retired partners as Greek president and Greece will become the first 21st century German, pardon, European colony. But at least it will have its precious euro.Hmmmm.......Der Euro muss Lebensraum haben?Read the full story here.

• Sharm el-Sheikh - French tourist killed, German injured in Egypt resort town.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: A French tourist was shot dead in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, Egyptian officials said. A German tourist was also injured in the shooting.The German man is receiving medical care at the Southern Sinai hospital and his condition is stable, said Khaled Fouda, governor of South Sinai.Fouda said that two out of the three attackers were killed in an exchange of fire with the police already present at a local market. The third man was arrested.Officials in the coastal tourist destination confirmed to Bikyamasr.com an Associated Press report saying that the 42-year-old man was shot in the stomach and thigh, although AP reported numerous differing accounts of the incident.The official, and a police officer speaking to AP, both said that the shooting occurred in the Old Souk in the town as a revenge shooting of a tribesman who had been shot dead by police earlier in the day.The men were caught in the crossfire.However, military officials reported to AP that the man was caught in the crossfire of a bank robbery in the town.Residents of the city say this is the second attempt to raid the same currency exchange.Read the full story here.

• 1000s Islamists hold anti-US demo in Karachi.(PT).Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's Jamiat Ulema-e Islam party have gathered in Karachi to condemn US assassination drone attacks in the northwestern border regions.About 100,000 JUI supporters held a demonstration organized by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam in front of the mausoleum of the founding father of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, on Friday.JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the United States will face an “imminent defeat” in Afghanistan.Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been hit by several airstrikes carried out by US assassination drones since the beginning of 2012. On Monday, Pakistani officials said at least five people were killed in a US drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal area, close to the Afghan border.The demonstrators in Karachi also demanded that the Pakistani government continue the blockade on the NATO supply route to Afghanistan.Read the full story here.

• Egypt gets dumped by its Washington lobbyists.(FP).By Josh Rogin.All three of the lobbying firms representing the Egyptian government in Washington, D.C., dropped Egypt as a client late Friday amid widespread criticism of the ruling military council's raid of U.S. NGOs in Cairo and its refusal to let American NGO workers leave the country.The Livingston Group, run by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), the Moffett Group, run by former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-CT), and the Podesta Group, run by Tony Podesta, unanimously severed their combined $90,000 per month contract with the Egyptian government, Politico reported late Friday, quoting Livingston directly. The three firms had formed what is known as the PLM Group, a lobbying entity created to advocate on behalf of the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in February 2011 after 18 days of massive street protests. According to the disclosure filings, Egypt has paid PLM more than $4 million since 2007.The trio came under fire last week for circulating talking points defending Egypt's Dec. 29 raid of several NGOs working to train political parties in Egypt, including three organizations partially funded by the U.S. government. The groups had been working in Egypt for years without being technically registered with the government, but now stand accused of fomenting unrest against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has been ruling the country since Mubarak's ouster."It is bad enough when the actions of American lobbyists conflict with U.S. national interests. It is far worse when their influence-peddling undermines American values, as the Egyptian government's lobbyists in Washington are doing in this instance," said Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) in a Jan. 24 statement. McCain is the chairman of the board of the International Republican Institute (IRI), one of the groups that had their Cairo offices raided. The other two groups were the National Democratic Institute, whose board is chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Freedom House.Read the full story here.

• Egypt says it ended US lobbyists' contract.(DS).CAIRO: Egypt's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that it has ended a contract with three Washington lobbying firms to cut expenses, denying reports that the firms were the ones to have terminated the contract.The rupture occurred as Cairo comes under criticism in Washington for banning at least 10 Americans and Europeans from leaving the country as part of an investigation into foreign-funded civil society organizations.Among those barred was Sam LaHood of the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, who is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.The Egyptian Foreign Ministry's statement was issued two days after Politico reported that former Republican Rep. Bob Livingston, former Democratic Rep. Toby Moffett and longtime lobbyist Tony Podesta ended their contract with the Egyptian government.The lobbying firms could not be reached immediately for comment.Meanwhile, a delegation from Egypt's Defense Ministry has arrived in New York, Cairo's state news agency reported.Read the full story here.

• U.N. resolution on Syria to be redrafted as Ban Ki-moon calls for end to bloodshed.(AlArabiya).U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime had absolute control over Syria until a sustained and increasingly violent challenge to its rule, must end the killings in his country.“First and foremost, he must stop immediately the bloodshed,” Ban told reporters. “The Syrian leadership should take a decisive action at this time to stop this violence. All the violence must stop.”Assad’s opponents have sought to ramp up pressure on the international community for UN action after the Arab League withdrew its observers amid mounting violence.Ban called directly on Assad, saying that as leader he had an “important responsibility (to) resolve this situation (and) engage in political dialogue.”According to an AFP tally taken from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state media, at least 232 people − among them 147 civilians − have been killed since last Tuesday.European and Arab U.N. members early Sunday started rewriting a proposed Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s deadly crackdown on dissent after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria.The Arab League took the decision on Saturday days after calling on Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity. It will take an Arab peace plan to the U.N. Security Council next week.Read the full story here.

• Islamic Scholars speak out in favor of “electronic Jihad” against the enemy.(AlArabiya).In light of the increasing support of “the electronic Jihad” and the divergence of views regarding this subject, Islamic scholars have underlined their support for this new phenomenon, arguing that “any attempt to spite the enemy and endorse religion is legitimate”. They consider that Muslim youth involved in this phenomenon are in fact leading a jihad”. But what do those who refuse to support this phenomenon have to say? They believe that “bringing down the enemy’s electronic devices could help in realizing certain objectives in some instances, but it can also be harmful if done at the wrong time.”They noted that there is “a large number of people in the world who sympathize with Israel and might get involved in this battle, which would widen the circle of damage.”On the other hand, Sheikh Fahd Bin Saad Al Jahni, a professor of sharia graduate studies, says that “in Islam, the Jihad is a broad concept that could be defined according to the interpretation of the and texts that cite the jihad. There are many types of jihad: the personal jihad, the jihad by money, and verbal Jihad. The last type includes the intellectual jihad, jihad by composition and by the call to God”.Al Jahni added that “any attempt to spite the enemy and empower the religion must be conducted by legitimate means and according to Muslim rules. Therefore, religion could be widely empowered through electronic websites. This is what some people call “the electronic Jihad”. Thus, the terminology is correct, but it is the definition that matters as well as the extent to which the concept respects the legitimate procedure.” “Therefore, I believe that the young Muslims who are striving to take advantage of this wide electronic window and fight the perverted ideology or shut down obscene websites and the websites of those who offended and dishonored the people of Islam and put hand on their holy sites like the Zionist aggressors, are using all legitimate means and are indeed leading a jihad provided they don’t exceed the limit of God in their rivalry,” Al Jahni said. Moreover, Abdullah Al Aalwit, a Muslim law researcher, pointed to the fact that electronic jihad means “destroying the enemy’s electronic devices or surreptitiously taking valuable information from these devices.” He confirmed that “the electronic jihad, like any other type of ihad, is legitimate in determined instances and might be harmful if used at the wrong time and in the wrong circumstances.” “However, it is clear that the nation’s condition does not allow any type of Jihad against any of its enemies because our enemies are way more advanced than we are in all kinds of fields. If an electronic war shall erupt, it is expected to have serious repercussions due to the big number of those who sympathize with Israel in the world and who might enter this battle, which would widen the circle of damage,” he added.Dr. Mustafa Mourad, professor at Al Azhar University, said that “the electronic jihad is a type of jihad because jihad is not limited to military weapons or any other type of painful means. Under jihad, it is possible to use any tool that might fulfill the goal behind the attack against the enemies of God in response to their attempts to violate our rights and seize our holy sites.”Hmmmmm........US reaction lets crack down on copyright infraction.Read the full story here.

• Mexican Swine Flu Outbreak Kills 29, Infects Nearly 1,500.(Fox).Bringing back memories from three years ago, when the swine flu closed Mexico City and caused an international scare, the media is now warning of an alarming increase in cases of the flu virus, while the government insists there is no cause for alarm. Federal and state health officials agree there is an increase, but they say the number of cases is within the range of a normal flu season.The Mexican health ministry, however, has listed confusing numbers on its website and it hasn't specified the rise in cases despite repeated requests from The Associated Press.Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that while Mexico is seeing more cases of the H1N1 virus, the U.S. is seeing more cases of a different strain, H3N2. Antibodies for both are part of this year's flu vaccine. H1N1 is now considered a seasonal flu.
  The health ministry on Sunday reported 637 cases of confirmed flu cases so far in 2012 along with 10 deaths — nine of them associated with 573 cases of H1N1.On Jan. 15, it reported far lower numbers: 181 confirmed cases for all strains of flu and five deaths for 2012, meaning cases would have increased 250 percent in just one week.Read the full story here.
  
   

• Iranian Religious Leader: We're Already Nuclear.(INN).Senior Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said on Friday that Iran is already a nuclear state and that Americans have not realized that.“The United States says it will not allow Iran to be nuclear, but it is so blind that it hasn’t noticed that Iran has already become a nuclear state,” Khatami was quoted by Channel 10 News as having said. He added that the U.S. has become isolated in the region, after its four “slaves” were removed from power. He was referring to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, former Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi, former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.Khatami also addressed the EU’s embargo on Iranian oil imports, which was announced this week, and said that the Europeans decided to wait with the implementation of the sanctions until July because their economic situation is no better than Iran’s.“Why did the Europeans decide to wait half a year before implementing the sanctions? The answer is simple - the Europeans have their own serious trouble - they were hit by the financial crisis,” he said.Khatami added the embargo will hurt Europe more than it will hurt Iran, because Saudi Arabia will not be able to provide the required amount of oil to Europe, while the sanctions will only hurt 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports. Read the full story here.

• Norway: Two Iranian converts attacked bymasked men, called 'kuffar'.(IIE).Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked me in Haugesund last week. The attacker shouted 'Kuffar' (Arabic for non-believer) during the attack.The attack happened Tuesday evening, when both Christian Iranians were out walking in Haugesund. They were suddenly attacked by three masked men armed with knives, who shouted 'kuffar' while they stabbed the two.A nurse passing by gave first aid and then an ambulance brought them to hospital, reports Haugesunds Avis.According to the police, one of the victims was stabbed twice in the back and the other was stabbed in his side. No perpetrators have been caught.The two victims want to remain anonymous and have not spoken of the assault. They've lived in Norway for many years. One of them converted in Norway, the other did so in Iran and managed to flee to Norway after he was abused and imprisoned for his faith.They're both active in a local evangelical church.Read the full story here.

• Saudi grand mufti: Twitter is full of lies.(JPost).The Saudi grand mufti on Friday called social-networking website Twitter full of lies, a day after the site announced that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries.The news from the social media platform is renewing questions over how it will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base.Until now, Twitter had to remove a tweet from its global network if it received a takedown request from a government.But the company said in a blog post published on Thursday that it now has the ability to selectively block a Tweet from appearing to users in one country.“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with, such as pro-Nazi content in France and Germany, where it is banned. It said that even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to operate with some countries.“Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” it said.“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression.”Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in his Friday sermon in Riyadh that Muslims should avoid being a “source or feeding” Twitter, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported.Twitter was a place “in which people are invited to throw charges between them, and to lie in a manner that brings fame to some,” he said.The 71-year-old cleric called on those present to warn people about such sites, adding that positive sites do exist on the Internet concerning science, business and God.Despite the grand mufti’s caution over the website, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company announced in December that it would invest $300 million in the social-media site.“Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact,” Alwaleed said, according to BBC.Hmmmm.....Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment has nothing to do with the new ristrictions of free speech.Ooooooh look a Unicorn.Read the full story here.

• Oldest case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt uncovered.(BM).CAIRO: An international research team in Lisbon has diagnosed the oldest case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt and the second oldest case in the world.Using high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) scanners, the researchers identified the cancer in a mummy subject known as M1.“Cancer is such a hot topic these days; experts are constantly trying to probe in hopes of answering the one question- when and how did the ailment really evolve?” said Salima Ikram; member of the research team and professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo (AUC).“Findings such as these bring us one step closer to finding the cause of cancer, and, ultimately, the cure to a disease that has besieged mankind for so long.”The study, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology used CT scans with pixel resolution of 0.33 millimeters on three Egyptian mummies from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Lisbon.The images revealed several small, round, dense bone lesions located mainly in M1’s pelvis, spine and proximal limbs, indicative of metastatic prostate cancer.Until recently, researchers have believed the widespread occurrence of carcinogens in food and in the environment were the main causes of cancer in the modern industrial age.However, according to Ikram, “We’re starting to see that the causes of cancer seem to be less environmental, more genetic. Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors.”Read the full story here.

• Video: Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea.(Yahoo).A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden.“This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we have a UFO here on the bottom,” said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the treasure hunters.Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it’s not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have “drag marks” behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet.But Lindberg says the ship theory doesn't really hold up because of the unusually large size of the objects. "Of course it would be something from another ship but it's quite big," he told CNN. Lindberg notes that some observers have speculated that the objects may be Russian warships built around the end of the 1800's. However, Lindberg points out that not only were those ships much smaller, they were not patrolling the Baltic during that era.The Ocean Explorer team first made their find back in August and had no plans to return to the scene. For now, Lindberg is waiting for calmer waters in the Baltic, possibly in May, before taking his salvage team to the bottom for a closer look at the mysterious objects. They originally had no plans to return to the spot, but the spike in interest from the public has led them to begin planning a return trip.Read and see the full story here.