Calls for Boycott of Turkish Film That blatantly Denies Assyrian, Greek, Armenian Genocide.

Calls for Boycott of Turkish Film That blatantly Denies Assyrian, Greek, Armenian Genocide. (AINA).

The American Hellenic Council (AHC) recently released a statement, urging the Greek American community and all descendants of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide, to boycott the new Turkish-produced film The Ottoman Lieutenant. "The film is a blatant attempt to repudiate the upcoming movie, The Promise, and mislead impressionable youth into believing the Genocide was a 'two-sided' event," reads a part of the statement.

Related: Assyrian Genocide

Signed by AHC Executive Director Ioannis Fidanakis, the statement also calls for the public to join an AYF-initiated letter writing campaign to local theaters to educate them about the purpose of this film.
Following is the statement:

We, the American Hellenic Council (AHC), in solidarity with the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Western United States, urge the Greek-American community, as well all descendants of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide, to jointly boycott the recently released film, The Ottoman Lieutenant. 

The movie, which was produced by a Turkish production company, was released on March 10 and stars Michiel Huisman, Hera Hilmar, Josh Hartnett, and Ben Kingsley, is set in Ittihadist Turkey at the time of the Genocide. The film is a blatant attempt to repudiate the upcoming movie, The Promise, and mislead impressionable youth into believing the Genocide was a "two-sided" event. 

Although we at the AHC, acknowledge that Ottoman Turks were affected by the state of war throughout the Empire, like all Ottoman citizens, their suffering cannot be equated with a systematic campaign of extermination, which befell the native Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian peoples of Eastern Thrace and Anatolia. 

Therefore, we ask the Greek-American community to refrain from paying to watch this film in theaters or supporting it in any way. Those interested in joining an AYF-initiated letter writing campaign to local theaters to educate them about the purpose of this film should contact us at ioannis@americanhellenic.org. 

Sincerely,
Ioannis Fidanakis
Executive Director
American Hellenic Council

Video - Lebanese TV Host Rima Karaki Cuts Short London-Based Islamist's Interview following Insolent Remarks

An Al-Jadeed TV interview rapidly deteriorated when London-based Islamist Hani Al-Seba'i, who went off on a historical tangent, refused to heed TV host Rima Karaki's request to stick to the topic of discussion. When Al-Siba'i told Karaki to "shut up," she told him that the interview was over. Hmmm.....As usual when it comes to Islamists it takes a Woman to do a man's job. #Respect. Read the full story here.

Vid - The 'Politically incorrect' days of Christmas' "Saying Merry Christmas is worst then fornication or killing someone" Islamic scholar

And now a more 'recent' form from your Neighborhood ISIS groupie'



Hmmm.....And a Very Merry Christmas to All !

EU uses taxpayers money to support groups that want to stifle Press freedom.

EU uses taxpayers money to support groups that want to stifle Press freedom.(DM).By Daniel Martin.

Brussels is pumping millions of pounds of public money into groups dedicated to stifling a free Press, it emerged yesterday. The European Commission is helping to fund groups seeking state-backed regulation of newspapers, including key allies of Hugh Grant’s Hacked Off campaign.

One – called Mediadem – has a mission statement to ‘reclaim a free and independent media’ and is demanding tougher sanctions than ‘an apology or correction’.

The EU has spent £2.3million on the previously unpublicised project.

The commission says it wants to be a ‘moral compass’ against press misconduct and is seeking new national and Europe-wide regulatory powers against newspapers.

But critics say it is only taking such a stance because of the unfavourable coverage that European institutions get in the Press.

Philip Davies, a Tory member of the Culture Select Committee, said: ‘Given the scandals in the EU and revelations of its misappropriation of funding, it is no surprise that Europe wants to restrict the free press which can uncover its corruption.

‘And it shows up exactly the sort of body that Hacked Off is if it wants to ally itself with these sorts of people.’

A policy brief for Mediadem, co-authored by its lead British researcher, Rachael Craufurd Smith, says it is ‘simplistic’ to see state influence over the Press as ‘inherently stifling’.

Dr Craufurd Smith, from Edinburgh University, also called for further chilling action against the Press to ensure ‘that neither the media, nor those individuals who own or work for the media, enjoy an absolute right to freedom of expression’. Hmmmmm.......“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” Read the full story here.

Canada - Video - Vandals, protesters mar solemn Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Canada - Video - Vandals, protesters mar solemn Remembrance Day ceremonies.(Yahoo).Police are investigating the defacing of the Victory Peace Memorial, where someone wrote "Canada will burn praise Allah" as a hate crime, the National Post reported.
So far there are no suspects and the vandalism has been condemned by a leading Muslim organization.
"We call on witnesses to step forward to assist police in finding the perpetrators of this sacrilege," Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement reported in the Post.
"An act against a Canadian memorial site is an act against our shared history and an act against a sacred space."
This goof is likely more nihilist than Islamist, someone who sees no meaning or value in anything. He's quite happy to feed the chaos with a petty act of vandalism.
The protesters who chanted slogans during the two minutes of silence at the Remembrance Day ceremony at Toronto's Old City Hall are a different story.
According NewsTalk1010, the group opposed to Canada's mission in Afghanistan was joined by others, including remnants of the Occupy movement and people demanding better treatment for First Nations people.
Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington was furious about this act of disrespect during a solemn commemoration, saying the protesters were "spitting in the faces of Canada's 158 Afghanistan war dead and the thousands who fell in wars before them."
But unlike the Coronation Park vandal, at least this group had the guts to make their protest in public.
"I cannot, and will not, be silent in a ceremony used to glorify Canada's mission in Afghanistan, where many of my fellow Afghans were detained, tortured and killed because of the Canadian military," Surala Sahar, one of the demonstrators, said in an email to NewsTalk1010, according to Warmington.
She said she and her friend Lalia were protesting because "there is no honour" in Remembrance Day.
Warmington drew the obvious comparison that the two Afghan-Canadians likely would not have been able to mount such a protest in a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
"But freedom of speech allows Suraia and Laila the freedom to be at this ceremony and entitles them to say whatever they want — with or without class, respect, accuracy or manners," he wrote.
The Coronation Park monument was quickly cleaned but the vandalism upset the son of a Second World War veteran.

"I think it's terrible to see them destroy what these veterans have done for us," George Murphy, whose father fought in Italy and France told the Toronto Sun. "It's like stepping on them. These people wanted to protect our lives. My father would be very upset over this."

Tarek Fatah writes in the Toronto Sun: "Like most Muslim Canadians, I cringed at the implications of this act. How much more will the ordinary Canuck take before, as the Quebecois put it, they reach “le point de bascule.”
The reaction so far has been a numbed silence. The usual suspects screaming “Islamophobia” at any slight to Islam, were silent. No protest, not even a whimper. It was left to the lonely liberal voice of the Muslim Canadian Congress to denounce the act.
So addicted are Muslims to conspiracy theories that within an hour of the reported desecration, Suraia Sahar insinuated on Twitter the defacing was a “false flag” operation — meaning non-Muslims had defaced the memorial and made it appear to be the work of Muslims.
The far-fetched conspiracy theory could not be dismissed outright, except that the same Suraia Sahara had just a few hours earlier, disrupted the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at Old City Hall, chanting slogans against the Canadian Forces.

Not only did the hijab-clad Sahar shout slogans in the midst of the two-minute silence being observed for the war dead, she and another Muslim student from York, Laila Rashidie opened up a banner condemning Canadian troops for killing Taliban terrorists in the 2006 Operation Medusa.
Twelve Canadian soldiers died in that battle. However, for these two young women who were either born in Canada or came here as children from Afghanistan, in the battle of Panjwaii some 30 kilometres west of Kandahar city, the enemy was not the Taliban — it was Canada.
The two may not have committed treason in the eyes of the law, but to the men and women of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group and the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment who fought valiantly in Operation Medusa, both Laila Rashidie and Suraia Sahar are fifth columnists.Read the full story here.

Video - Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "This Wave of Holy Rage Must Turn into a Hurricane or a Tsunami against the US"

Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "This Wave of Holy Rage Must Turn into a Hurricane or a Tsunami against the US"


Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, which aired on Al-Alam TV on September 16, 2012.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: This wave of holy rage must turn into a hurricane or a tsunami against the US so that they will refrain from toying with what is holy to the Muslims. They should learn that toying with Islam and with its most honorable prophet is tantamount to playing with a lion's tail. They will pay a steep price for this. They have already paid for this, and they will pay more.Source: Memri.

Jakarta – Islamists Attacking US Embassy, Molotov Cocktails, Tear-Gas.

Jakarta – Islamists Attacking US Embassy, Molotov Cocktails, Tear-Gas.(RR).Just turned on Metro TV News at 3pm here in Jakarta, and there are violent scenes outside the American Embassy. Hundreds of white-shirt hoodlums from the Islamists FPI – ‘Defenders of Islam,’ – are running riot, tear-gas in use by the police who are present in large numbers too. The reporter says there have been rocks and molotov cocktails thrown and more and more Islamists are pouring into the street outside the embassy.
A rally protesting the movie, Innocence of Muslims, turned chaotic as members of the Islamic Society Forum (FUI) clashed with police in front of the US Embassy in Jakarta on Monday.Four members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) were arrested by Jakarta police over the violent protest in front of the United States embassy on Monday. “It is true that four people have been detained,” Jakarta Police Deputy Chief Brig. Gen. Suhardi Alius said on Monday. “They were caught with slingshots, marbles as the projectiles as well as Molotov cocktails — this violates the law. If [they] do it again, we’ll arrest them again.”
Hundreds of people from several organizations joined the demonstration at the US embassy in protest of an anti-Islam film. After protestors became violent, police sprayed tear gas and used water canons. Suhardi said that several policemen sustained minor injuries. “We have seven members injured, so we’ll stay alert,” he said. “If they’re behaving badly, we’ll take action to maintain security.” 
Police put up impromptu barricades with an anti-riot shield to one side of the protesters, preventing them from going to Gambir national Monument and Jalan Medan merdeka Selatan. Mobile phone signals were also jammed to prevent further attack, police said. The clash was sparked after the Central Jakarta Police officers blasted tear gas at hundreds of FUI members. Protesters retaliated by throwing rocks at police officers. The group demanded that the US government punish the film director for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. “According to Islamic law, [the director] must face the death penalty,” said the rally coordinator Bernad Abdul Jabbar to The Jakarta Post earlier on Monday. \

FPI Jakarta Chapter Head Salim Alathas called for the harshest treatment for the maker of the film, “Innocence of Muslims” for causing harm to Muslims worldwide. “We from the FPI and other Islamic organizations demand the filmmaker to be sentenced to death for defaming The Prophet Muhammad,” Salim said on Monday. 

The FUI began the protest at 1 p.m. by marching from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the embassy. “It is supposed to be a peaceful rally. However, several members brought eggs with the intention of throwing them. The bottom line is we don’t want the protest to be chaotic,” he added. Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol previously said that they had deployed 2,000 personnel to guard the rally. About 1,000 protestors hurled stones and Molotov cocktails in a clash with police outside the US Embassy in Central Jakarta Monday afternoon during a protest against an anti-Islam film. Protesters also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy and Molotov cocktails exploded against a fence surrounding the embassy. The demonstration started off peacefully as the group of several hundred protesters, many dressed in white, marched toward the mission on Jalan Medan Merdeka Selatan. But the protest turned violent outside the embassy as members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and Islamic Peoples Forum (FUI) flooded the scene, throwing rocks at the embassy and police.Live footage aired on Metro TV showed protestors dressed in white hurling stones at Jakarta Police officers. The demonstrations were the latest protests in Jakarta against “The Innocence of Muslim,” a film that insulted the Prophet Muhammad and set off a series of violent protests across the globe. Demonstrations were also held Monday in the cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald’s restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores. The US Embassy posted a warning on its website telling American citizens to exercise caution in Jakarta and Medan and avoid large groups.Hmmmm.....Obama: "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance."Read the full story here.

As Muslims rage, Pakistan 'Blasphemy record' scrutinized by churches.

As Muslims rage, Pakistan 'Blasphemy record' scrutinized by churches.(FP).With Muslim leaders in many countries calling for a global law barring what they call insults to Islam,

the main non-Catholic world Christian grouping on Monday said just such a law in Pakistan is used to persecute other religions. 

Pakistan’s “Blasphemy Law” has driven the country’s religious minorities – Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis, a dissenting Islamic group – into “a state of fear and terror”, said the World Council of Churches (WCC), organisers of a 3-day conference on the law. “The Blasphemy Law, while purporting to protect Islam and religious sensitivities of the Muslim majority, is vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and judiciary in a way which amounts to harassment and persecution,” the WCC said in a position paper.
Pakistani religious figures from those minorities told the conference in Geneva that the law had led to false imprisonment, mob killings and compulsory conversion to Islam. A Christian girl believed to be no older than 14, Rimsha Masih, was granted bail in Pakistan earlier this month and her lawyers are applying to have charges that she burned pages from the Koran dismissed after a local cleric was detained on suspicion of planting false evidence to stir resentment against Christians. Masih’s case has provoked international concern as she could face execution under the blasphemy law despite her young age and reported mental problems. The Geneva conference, set up several weeks ago, comes amid protests by Muslims across the globe over a film posted on the Internet some two months ago which imams have told their followers insults both the Prophet Mohammad and Islam. Amid the violence, Muslim religious leaders, and one prime minister, have called for an international legal agreement to criminalise any insult to Islam and other religions, their holy books and their prophets.
A global law along these lines with the imprimatur of the United Nations was sought for many years by the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the U.N. Human Rights Council, now meeting in Geneva. Every year for more than a decade until 2010 the council, where Pakistan is OIC spokesman, or its predecessor committee, as well as the U.N. General Assembly, passed majority resolutions on resolutions proposed by the Islamic grouping. But these were not converted into international agreement because of fierce opposition from the United States, European and some Latin American countries, who argued it would violate free speech and the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Following diplomatic negotiations spearheaded by the United States when the administration of President Barack Obama brought it into the council and support for the project waned, the OIC dropped its campaign two years ago. “It certainly looks as though they (the OIC) might aim to use this furore over a video everyone recognises is stupid and pathetic to try to relaunch the ‘defamation’ campaign,” said one Western diplomat who asked not to be named.
Opponents of any such law say that even without it, Muslim communities in many non-Islamic countries manage to convince authorities to bend to their demands for banning or shelving literary or other works dealing with Islam. Last week it was reported in Britain that a television programme by British prize-winning historian Tom Holland based on his recent book on the early centuries of Islam had been withdrawn following threats and protests by Muslims.
In a related development, another book was published in Britain on Monday by author Salman Rushdie on his experiences after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 put a price on his head over “blasphemy” against Islam in a novel. At the weekend, an Iranian religious foundation announced it was increasing the reward for killing the Indian-born Rushdie to $3.3 million, the Iranian Students News Agency ISNA said.Hmmmm........"The Law Of Silence....or i condemn you"?Read the full story here.

Palestinians suffer fuel crisis in Gaza; unity deal at heart of Egypt-Hamas dispute.

Palestinians suffer fuel crisis in Gaza; unity deal at heart of Egypt-Hamas dispute.(AlArabiya).Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering a crisis of dry petrol pumps and frequent blackouts triggered by a fuel supply dispute between Egypt and the enclave's Hamas Islamist rulers.
Taxis are scarce, with would-be passengers fighting for rides, and the government has ordered civil servants with vehicles to pick up hitchhikers.
Gaza’s emergency medical service has halved the number of ambulances it puts on the streets. At least one hospital has cancelled non-essential operations to conserve power for its generator.
“Our leaders are playing while we are being grilled on the fire of poverty and division. We have been sent back to the dark ages,” said Abud Mohammed, a 21-year-old university student.
Last month, Egypt began restricting the flow of fuel to Gaza through the network of smuggling tunnels running under their border. Gaza’s lone power plant ran out of fuel for its generators, causing outages affecting nearly two-thirds of the area's population of 1.7 million.
Egypt prefers to send fuel through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, citing old international understandings which limited the use of Egypt’s Rafah terminal with Gaza to the movement of passengers.
Hamas objects. It is opposed to giving its foe, Israel, the opportunity to block supplies in times of tension and wants direct trade with Egypt, a move that could strengthen Gaza's economy and Hamas's popularity.
But a rocky relationship between Egypt and the Islamists who wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement in 2007 has bolstered the crisis.
Some Hamas sources accused Egypt of creating fuel shortages to pressure the movement to implement a unity deal with Western-backed Abbas. Mohammed Awad, the deputy prime minister in the Gaza Strip, said the crisis was politically motivated and Hamas “will overcome it.”
Hamas’ Gaza-based leadership has balked at the accord signed by Khaled Meshaal, a leader of the group who lives in exile, because it fears the reconciliation agreement could weaken its control of the enclave.“If Hamas calls itself a government they should find solutions. If there was unity, many of these problems would cease to exist,” said Saed Salem, a 41-year-old civil servant.“There is no fuel to generate electricity and no cooking gas to make food and no cars to go to work in or visit family and friends.”
Urging “concerned parties” to resolve the supply problems as soon as possible, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said hospitals and ambulance services were finding it increasingly difficult to function and already fragile water and sanitation systems were failing.
“These chronic shortages are reaching beyond the rationing of electricity and water for households which has been a feature over the past several years, to a situation where day-to-day life for Gazans is ever more difficult,” Gaylard said in a statement on Thursday.
The shortages have spawned a black market, with the price of a liter of diesel approaching seven Israeli shekels ($1.87) compared with 2.50 shekels ($0.67) before the crisis.
Mohammed Khail, who owns a motorized rickshaw, said he has not worked for four days since his tiny vehicle ran out of fuel. “I blame the whole world for the problem,” he said.Hmmmmm.......The more U.S. aid they receive the lower their GDP.......go figure.Read the full story here.

Muslim Brotherhood Raps Obama for Insulting Egyptian Nation by Praising Netanyahu.

   President Obama once said that the Muslim call to prayer is the “sweetest sound he knows”.Happiness you know it when you see it?

Muslim Brotherhood Raps Obama for Insulting Egyptian Nation by Praising Netanyahu.(Fars). A senior member of the Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) party lambasted US President Barack Obama for praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cooperation in the freedom of the US suspects who were accused of financial corruption in Egypt, and called Obama's words an insult to the Egyptian nation. "Obama's appreciation for Netanyahu is somehow a conspiracy and provocation by the US," Yasri Ta'lib told FNA on Wednesday.
"The US administration's appreciation for the Zionist regime is meantime an insult to the Egyptian nation and Egypt's national sovereignty," he added.
"Of course, the US administration had insulted the Egyptian nation one more time already, and that was when it thanked Ikhwan al-Muslimun for the release of the US suspects", which was aimed at creating a rift between the Egyptian people and Ikhwan al-Muslimun, he added.
Many Egyptian politicians and officials have blasted those behind the freedom of the US suspects. The US detainees were accused of providing financial backup for specific entities in Egypt in a bid to hijack the Egyptian people's revolution or, at least, bring a pro-US candidate to power in the upcoming presidential election in the Arab African nation.
Also last week, Basineh Kamel, a senior politician and a likely candidate in the coming presidential election in Egypt, said that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has released the US suspects who were accused of financial support for the Arab country's civil entities to prove its royalty to Washington. Speaking to FNA, Kamel said SCAF plans to reinvigorate its presence on Egypt's political and decision-making scenes and it, thus, needs to fortify its position. To the same end, SCAF is seeking to consolidate its ties with the White House to have the US company. "SCAF sought to prove its loyalty to the Americans, and thus it freed all the American detainees in violation of all rules." She described foreign organizations' financial backup for national entities in Egypt as the most bothering insult to the Egyptian Judiciary system, and said the SCAF has sold the entire nation by embarking on such a move.
Many Egyptian revolutionary figures have lashed out at the SCAF for its weak performance in governing the country, and underlined the necessity for the transfer of power to a civil government. Read the full story here.

Ethiopians to protest at Saudi Embassy in US over Christian arrests.

Ethiopians to protest at Saudi Embassy in US over Christian arrests.(BM).Cairo: Ethiopians living in the United States announced they will protest the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Washington DC this coming week over the jailing of Ethiopian Christians in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.
“We urge all those concerned in the Washington, D.C. area to participate in this protest. Saudi Arabian officials have refused to release the Christians despite quiet diplomatic pressure,” Jonathan Racho, Regional Manager for Africa at International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group and one of the protest’s organizers, said in a statement.
“We must raise our voices and demand the Saudis release the prisoners who were imprisoned simply for praying together.”35 Ethiopian Christians were arrested while conducting a prayer meeting late last year in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.They have been detained an held for more than two months.Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that 29 of those arrested are women and were subjected to “arbitrary body cavity searches” while in custody.The Christians had gathered together to pray on December 15 at a private home of one of the Ethiopians, but police responded by raiding the house and arresting the group of Ethiopians, three of those jailed told HRW.“While King Abdullah sets up an international interfaith dialogue center, his police are trampling on the rights of believers of others faiths,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government needs to change its own intolerant ways before it can promote religious dialogue abroad.”In October, Saudi Arabia, together with Austria and Spain, founded the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, located in Vienna, and funded by Saudi Arabia.According to the ICC, which said it has spoken directly with the prisoners, the Christian men and women corroborate the claims that they were violently arrested and currently experience attempts at conversion to Islam while in prison.
The prisoners recently reported that a Muslim preacher was sent by officials to speak to them about converting to Islam, the ICC said, but this could not be independently verified by Bikyamasr.com sources.The preacher reportedly also “vilified Christianity and denigrated the Bible,” the ICC reported.“These are law-abiding Ethiopian citizens. They were simply arrested for practicing their faith at a private home,” Kebadu Belachew, an Ethiopian-American human rights activist and one of the organizers of the rally, told ICC.“The Saudi government should set them free. We are organizing this protest as part of the effort to set them free.”Hmmmm......."Islamophobia?"Read the full story here.

OIC to Hold Anti-Islamophobia Workshop in Brussels

OIC to Hold Anti-Islamophobia Workshop in Brussels.(Abna).The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is to hold a media workshop in Brussels on Feb 15 to 16 pertaining to the ant-Islamic campaigns against Islam featured in some newspapers and media institutions, primarily in the West.The objective of this first-of-its-kind workshop is to develop media-related mechanisms to address these smear campaigns, the OIC said in a statement.
The two-day workshop will take the form of a series of brainstorming sessions to develop mechanisms for cooperation with external partners and to develop an action plan to address the phenomenon of ant-Islam media campaigns."The workshop will represent a quantum leap in media action, as it discusses, beyond rhetoric, the practical steps to address the phenomenon of Islamophobia," the OIC said.Muslim as well as non-Muslim leading civil society organisations, journalists, intellectuals and academicians are among the participants of the workshop.The idea to organize a media workshop was first noted at the Mecca OIC Extraordinary Summit of 2005 and was shaped by the OIC Ten Year Programme of Action and the Islamic Conferences of Information Ministers (ICIM) in the years that followed.
The OIC said the recommendations of the workshop will be presented for endorsement and implementation to the 9th session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) which will be held in Libreville, Gabon (west central Africa), in April 2012.
The organisation noted that the workshop is of particular importance as it will be held only weeks before the convening of the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva in March, at which Resolution 16/18 will come to a vote for the second time after its unanimous endorsement in the previous session.Resolution 16/18 aims to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatisation of discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.
The resolution was an outcome of bilateral talks between the OIC and a number of Western countries, including the U.S. Two meetings were held in Istanbul and Washington, respectively, to develop operational mechanisms to implement the resolution at the level of the United Nations.
Reports say Resolution 16/18, which was adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2011, was backed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the most recent Istanbul Process Conference in Washington in December.This is widely viewed as a significant step forward in OIC efforts to advance the international legal concept of defaming Islam.Hmmm.....How about other religions do they have rights also?Read the full story here.

"Saying Merry Christmas is worst then fornication or killing someone" Islamic scholar

Hmmm.....And a Very Merry Christmas to All !

Video: Obama - The Anti-Israel President

Here's an important video from the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
HT:IsraelMatzav.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Fiji 5.0 ; Peru 5.0 !More info here.

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

• Canary Islands - El Hierro earthquake and volcano eruption – Update 21.  here , Live webcams here and here.

• Egypt LiveBlog: Déjà Vu All Over Again . Here.

• Full Transcript: Neurosurgeon Briefed by HHS Reveals Obamacare's Death Panels (Hint: Patients Are Called 'Units').(DougRoss).A caller -- "Jeff" from Chicago, Illinois -- spoke with Mark Levin on November 22nd regarding advanced neurological care under the auspices of the new health care law.Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle transcribed the entire conversation (only excerpts had been published before).Every American concerned with health care needs to read this conversation.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan Tells U.S. to 'Vacate' Air Base as Border Strike Inflames Tensions.(Fox).Pakistan's government has ordered the U.S. to "vacate" an air base used for suspected drone attacks, in retaliation for a NATO strike that allegedly killed two-dozen Pakistani soldiers, Fox News has confirmed. The demand marked the latest reprisal out of Pakistan, as the U.S. and NATO allies scramble to investigate the incident. Islamabad had already ordered the country's border crossings into Afghanistan closed, blocking off NATO supply lines, after the strike. The government issued the air base demand, and pledged a "complete review" of its relationship with the U.S. and NATO, following an emergency military meeting chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.Pakistan's Defense Committee condemned the attack in a written statement, saying the strike was "violative of international law and had gravely dented the fundamental basis of Pakistan's cooperation" with NATO against terrorists. "The attack on Pakistan Army border posts is totally unacceptable and warrants an effective national response," the statement said. The government urged the U.S. to leave the Shamsi Air Base within 15 days. The U.S. is suspected of using the facility in the past to launch armed drones and observation aircraft. Pakistan made a similar demand over the summer, though officials reportedly claimed the CIA had already suspended its use of the base as a staging ground for armed drones months earlier. Still, the tone of the Pakistani government's statement Saturday underscored the depth of the potential fallout after Pakistan accused NATO aircraft of firing on two army checkpoints and killing 24 soldiers. The incident early Saturday quickly exacerbated tensions between the two countries and threatened to escalate into a standoff more severe than one last year after a similar but less deadly strike. Last year, Pakistan closed the Torkham border crossing to NATO supplies for 10 days after U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistanis. On Saturday, Pakistan went further, closing both of the country's border crossings into landlocked Afghanistan. A short stoppage may have little effect on the war effort, but could have deadly consequences. During last year's dispute, militants took advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks carrying NATO supplies. With 24 dead in the pre-dawn incident Saturday, U.S. officials expressed regret and vowed to launch an investigation. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest friendly fire incident by NATO against Pakistani troops since the Afghan war began a decade ago."This incident has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts," said Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. "My most sincere and personal heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of any members of Pakistan Security Forces who may have been killed or injured." A statement said NATO leadership remains "committed" to improving security ties with Pakistan.A Pakistani customs official told The Associated Press that he received verbal orders Saturday to stop all NATO supplies from crossing the border through Torkham in either direction. The operator of a terminal at the border where NATO trucks park before they cross confirmed the closure.Saeed Ahmad, a spokesman for security forces at the other crossing in Chaman in southwest Pakistan, said that his crossing was also blocked following orders "from higher-ups." Read the full story here.

• Iran threatens to hit Turkey if US, Israel attack.(HurriyetDaily).Iran will target NATO's missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday.Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel.Tensions have been rising between Iran and the West since the release of a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said for the first time that Tehran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms.The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of trying to produce atomic weapons, and Israel, which views Tehran as an existential threat, has warned of a possible strike on Iran's nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes."Should we be threatened, we will target NATO's missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit the next targets," the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying.Tehran says NATO's early warning radar station in Turkey is meant to protect Israel against Iranian missile attacks if a war breaks out with the Jewish state. Ankara agreed to host the radar in September as part of NATO's missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran.A military installation in the Turkish town of Kurecik, some 435 miles (700 kilometers) west of the Iranian border, has been designated as the radar site, according to Turkish government officials.Hajizadeh said the United States also plans to install similar stations in Arab states south of Iran. He said increasing threats has made Iran alter it military defense strategy."Based on orders from the exalted commander in chief, we will respond to threats with threats," he was quoted as saying.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, is also commander in chief of Iran's armed forces.Also Saturday, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force said he doesn't fear assassination and is ready for "martyrdom." He warned Washington of serious consequences if it does not stop threatening the Islamic Republic.The comments by Quds Force commander Brig. Gen. Ghassem Soleimani were published in several Iranian newspapers. The Quds Force is the special foreign operations unit of the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, and Soleimani is a key figure in Iran's military establishment but rarely speaks in public."Oh, God, bestow upon me martyrdom in Your path by the hands of enemies ... The U.S. must know that when a glass is broken, it becomes sharper," he told a gathering of militiamen in the southeastern Iranian town of Kerman.Hmmm.....Who's has been releasing the most 'wind' lately Turkey or Iran?Read the full story here.

• Republicans see opportunity to beat Obama with Pentagon cuts.(TheHill).The potential for $1 trillion in cuts to the defense budget is thrusting the issue of national security back into the spotlight of the 2012 presidential race.The cuts, set for January 2013, could also turn a strength into a vulnerability for President Obama, who has more to brag about when it comes to security and foreign affairs than the economy.Obama’s supporters argue that the president is way ahead of his GOP rivals when it comes to national security, an issue that’s typically perceived as a Republican strength.Obama already has given campaign stump speeches touting his national security accomplishments, which include the killing of terrorists Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, and the eventual ouster of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.Yet Republicans see an opening with the $500 billion in automatic cuts that would hit the defense budget beginning in January 2013, and several candidates seized on the issue in the last GOP debate. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) went as far as to suggest Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — who has warned the cuts would harm national security — should resign in protest. Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) tied the cuts to health-care reform, pointing out the defense cuts equaled the cost of “Obamacare.”“We need to protect America and protect our troops and our military and stop the idea of ‘Obamacare,’” Romney said. “They’re cutting programs, cutting the capacity of America to defend itself.”Since the cuts don't take effect until January 2013, Congress will have plenty of time to change them, and the GOP will have plenty of opportunities to beat up Obama over the issue. Nearly all of the Republican presidential candidates have argued that the military needs to grow to protect U.S. national security. Romney called for an increase in naval shipbuilding and the use of Naval aircraft carriers as a deterrent to Iran, for instance, in a foreign policy speech last month.Defense hawks in Congress have vowed to reverse the cuts to defense, but they were met with a firm veto threat from Obama on Monday after the supercommittee officially closed shop. Obama said “there will be no easy off-ramps on this one. We need to keep the pressure up on a compromise.”While Obama attempted to stay out of the supercommittee fray, Republicans are blaming him for its failure, a theme that will likely continue into 2012.If the sequestration cuts are not altered, the Pentagon’s budget would be reduced to about 2007 levels, according to budget analysts.Though Panetta continued to ratchet up his rhetoric about the dangers of the automatic cuts in the final weeks of the supercommittee, he stood by the president’s veto threat after the deficit-reduction panel failed Monday.“Congress cannot simply turn off the sequester mechanism,” he said in a statement, “but instead must pass deficit reduction at least equal to the $1.2 trillion it was charged to pass under the Budget Control Act.”Read the full story here.

• U.S. Health officials on alert for outbreak of new swine flu strain.(DailyMail).U.S. health officials are on the alert for more cases of a new swine flu strain that was found in three children in Iowa this month. Ten people in the U.S. have been infected since July by S-OtrH3N2 viruses that picked up a gene from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.The new flu strain combines a rare influenza virus (H3N2) circulating in North American pigs and the H1N1 virus from the 2009 outbreak.New flu strains begin when flu viruses combine in new ways. They can pose considerable health risks because people have not yet developed immunity to them, ABC News reports.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the new cases in Wednesday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It also reported that of the other seven cases of the new swine flu, three were in Pennsylvania, two were in Maine and two in Indiana.In the seven cases all the patients or close contacts had been recently been with pigs.CDC experts believe the fact that the three new cases did not go near pigs shows that there may be limited person-to-person contact with the new virus.The CDC said it has developed a 'candidate vaccine virus' that could be used to make a human vaccine against S-OtrH3N2 viruses .It has already sent it off to vaccine manufacturers.One of the three Iowa children, a healthy girl referred to as Patient A, became sick during the second week of November. Her doctor tested her and sent a respiratory sample to the Iowa state laboratory for further analysis.Patient B, a boy, developed a flu-like illness two days after Patient A became ill. One day after Patient B became sick, his brother, Patient C, also became ill.All three children had been at the same gathering on the first day Patient A became sick.Iowa epidemiologists launched an investigation and decided that the gathering was the only common link among the three children’s illnesses. None of their families had travelled recently or attended community events.Eight days after Patient A became ill, Iowa state laboratory testing said that the three might have S-OtrH3N2 influenza. The CDC went on to confirmed it was that strain, which included the matrix (M) gene from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.The new flu strain is resistant to rimantidine and amantadine, both commonly used antiviral drugs.Health experts said it would most likely respond to osteltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).CDC scientists said they believe this year’s seasonal flu vaccine to provide adults with limited protection from the new flu virus, but that it wouldn’t protect children. Doctors who suspect swine flu infections in their patients should treat them with Tamiflu where appropriate, CDC recommentds.Doctors should get nose and throat specimens and send them to state public health labs, which should report them to CDC. CDC also encourages anyone who has contact with pigs and develops a flu-like illness to be tested.Read the full story here.

• Hmmm....Bird Flu Research Rattles Bioterrorism Field.(NPR).If the virus evolves to spread as easily between people as seasonal flu, however, it could cause a devastating global pandemic. So in an attempt to stay ahead of H5N1, scientists have been tweaking its genes in the lab to learn more about how this virus works, and what it is capable of.In September, one scientist made a stunning announcement. At a flu conference held in Malta, he said he’d done a lab experiment that resulted in bird flu virus becoming highly contagious between ferrets — the animal model used to study human flu infection. It seemed that just five mutations did the trick.News of the results raised red flags for Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,” says Inglesby.No science journal has published the information yet. And Inglesby hopes none of them do.Biology research usually has a culture of openness. Scientists report their methods and results so others can repeat their work and learn from it.
  Inglesby agrees that’s the way to go the vast majority of the time. But not this time. “There are some cases that I think are worth an exception to that otherwise very important scientific principle,” he says. “I can only imagine that the process of deliberating about the publication of these findings is quite serious.”The researcher who presented these findings at the science meeting is virologist Ron Fouchier, of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. NPR has learned that his work is now under scrutiny by a committee called the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.Read the full story here.

• Senator Joe Lieberman Asks Google for a Terrorist Flagging Button on Blogger.(TPM).When he wasn’t smoking pot with the New York Police Department’s confidential informant or trying to manually cut off the tip of his penis, “lone wolf” terror suspect Jose Pimentel was running a jihadist website on Google’s Blogger platform.Now Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) wants Google to implement a policy explicitly banning terrorist material on their Blogger servers and set up a YouTube-style “flag” system to bring such material to Google’s attention.TPM obtained a letter sent by Lieberman, chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, to Google CEO Larry Page on Tuesday calling for him to make some changes to their policy.“Pimentel’s Internet activity — both his spreading of bomb-making instructions links and his hate-filled writings — were hosted by Google,” Lieberman wrote.“On his site www.trueislam1.com, Pimentel stated, “People have to understand that America and its allies are legitimate targets in warfare. This includes facilities such as army bases, police stations, political facilities, embassies, CIA and FBI buildings, private and public airports, and all kinds of buildings where money is being made to help fund the war.’ As demonstrated by this recent case, Google’s webhosting site, Blogger is being used by violent Islamist extremists to broadcast terrorist content,” Lieberman continued.Unlike YouTube’s Community Standards, Lieberman writes, “Blogger’s Content Policy does not expressly ban terrorist content nor does it provide a ‘flag’ feature for such content.”Read the full story here.

• Is Syria Planning to Attack Jordan?(DocsTalk).By Khaled Abu Toameh.Millions of Palestinians living in Jordan are, for now, sitting on the fence. But when and if they break their silence and join the enemies of King Abdullah II, it would be hard to see how the monarchy would be able to survive. That is unless the US and other Western powers decided to intervene to prevent the establishment of an Iranian and Syrian backed dictatorship in Jordan.Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has every reason to be furious with Jordan. Since the beginning of the revolt against Assad earlier this year, the Jordanians have come out in public in support of the anti-regime protesters in Syria.The Jordanian authorities have permitted anti-Assad demonstrators to stage demonstrations outside the Syrian embassy in Amman. Moreover, the Jordanians have opened their borders to facilitate the escape of thousands of Syrian civilians from the massacres carried out by Assad's army.The Jordanians are now in the process of setting up refugee camps along their border with Syria to absorb Syrians fleeing from Assad's murderous war machine. Signs of a looming crisis between Amman and Damascus first surfaced a few months ago when the Syrians claimed that weapons were being smuggled from Jordan to help Assad's political foes. Since then the Syrian authorities have beefed up security measures along the border with Jordan, carrying out thorough searches of passengers wishing to enter Syria.The Syrian authorities say they have also discovered that anti-Assad demonstrators have been using Jordanian SIM cards on their mobile phones to avoid by detected by the Syrian security forces.More recently, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem accused Jordan of harboring Syrian army defectors in the kingdom. The Jordanian government has dismissed the allegation as "baseless and inaccurate.A Jordanian government official, however, pointed out that some Syrian army soldiers and officers may have fled to Jordan as civilians.In another sign of mounting tensions between the two Arab countries, a Jordanian newspaper reported last week that the Syrian army has planted land mines along the border with Jordan to stop refugees from entering the kingdom.According to media reports in Jordan, at least 5,000 Syrians have fled to the kingdom since the beginning of the violence in Syria. The reports revealed that prominent Syrian human rights activist Suhair Atassi managed last week to cross the border into Jordan.Earlier this year, Atassi was arrested by Assad's security forces and accused of "sowing division" among the Syrian people. "I was dragged for what felt like the length of two streets," she later said in an interview with Reuters. "The apparatchiks looked at me as if I was not their compatriot. They kept shouting at me that I was an Israeli spy."The crisis between Jordan and Syria reached its peak last week when, in an unprecedented step, King Abdullah II called on the Syrian tyrant to step down."If Bashar (Assad) has the interest of his country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life," the Jordanian monarch told the BBC in an interview. "If I were in his position, I would, step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we're seeing."Not surprisingly, the king's comments triggered a wave of anti-Jordan protests by Assad loyalists, who attacked the Jordanian embassy in Damascus, chanting slogans accusing the Jordanians of being "traitors" and "Israeli spies."Eyewitnesses reported that the thugs who attacked the embassy removed the Jordanian flag and replaced it with the flag of the terrorist Hizbollah organization. This has raised speculation in Syria that the assailants were in fact Hizbollah militiamen who have been sent to Syria to help Assad crush the anti-regime demonstrations.Since King Abdullah II called on Assad to step down, he has become the subject of daily attacks by the Hizbollah, Syria and Iran media.Some Jordanians are now expressing fear that Assad may be planning to use Hizbollah and some armed Palestinian groups that are based in Damascus to undermine stability in the kingdom.Saleh Kallab, a renowned Jordanian columnist, said that while he didn't foresee an all-out military confrontation between Jordan and Syria, he did not rule out the possibility that Assad would instruct Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists to launch attacks inside the kingdom to create panic and confusion. He noted, however, that some "hot-headed" officials in Assad's entourage would still like to see Syria go to war against Jordan.Kallab disclosed that the Jordanian authorities had received information about attempts by Palestinians and Hizbollah to smuggle weapons into Jordan to carry out terror attacks against the monarchy and government institutions.Obviously, Jordan would not be able to deal with the new threats alone. The king is already facing huge problems at home from the Islamists and other groups that are demanding reforms and democracy.Read the full story here.

• Arab League and Turkey to meet Sunday to harmonize measures against Syria.(AlArabiya).Foreign ministers from the Arab League and Turkey will meet in Cairo Sunday to discuss how to react to Syria’s failure to respond to an ultimatum for an observer mission, Turkey said Friday. Anatolia news agency Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu quoted him as saying at Ankara airport that he would be attending, adding that Turkey already had some measures in hand against Damascus.“We are going to harmonize them with those prepared by the Arab League,” he added.A deadline set by the Arab League for Syria to sign a deal allowing monitors into the country expired on Friday without any Syrian response but Arab governments will give Damascus until the end of the day to answer, an Arab source earlier said.Arab foreign ministers had said in Cairo on Thursday that unless Syria agreed to let the monitors in to assess progress of an Arab League plan to end eight months of internal bloodshed, officials would consider imposing sanctions on Saturday. “The deadline has already ended, but the Arab League leaves the door open for Syria to reply by the end of the day and if a positive Syrian response comes on Friday, then the Arab League has no objection to agreeing to it,“ the source said, according to AFP.Turkish foreign minister earlier said the deadline was a last chance the Syrian regime had to solve the crisis. “It is a last chance, a new chance for Syria,” Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul in the final hours before the midday (1100 GMT) deadline.A U.N. spokesman said on Friday the United Nations was ready to support a proposed Arab League peace monitoring mission to Syria.The pan-Arab body said in a statement on Thursday it was urging the United Nations to take “necessary measures according to the U.N. charter to support the Arab League's effort to settle the complicated situation in Syria. ”U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed what he called the league’s “proposal to send an observer mission to protect civilians in Syria" and strongly urged Damascus to give its "consent and full cooperation. ”“As invited by the Arab League ... the secretary-general is ready to provide the support needed, ” Nesirky told reporters.Russia, a traditional ally to Syria, had said on Friday that it opposed pressure and sanctions and wanted to see a renewal of political dialogue.“At this stage, what we need is not resolutions, sanctions or pressure, but inter-Syrian dialogue,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a televised press briefing.Lukashevich also spoke cautiously about the French proposal for “humanitarian corridors” to alleviate suffering. “I think we will return to this question when more clarity emerges about what specifically is being discussed,” he said.France became the first major power to seek international intervention when it called this week for “humanitarian corridors” to alleviate civilian suffering.Read the full story here.

• Assad: Turkey seeking to recapture imperial days.(YNet).Syrian President Bashar Assad lashed out at his Turkish critics on Saturday, remarking that "some in Turkey are still clinging to the dream of reinstating the Ottoman Empire." The Turkish leaders, he added, "Know that this dream is impossible, so they are trying to exploit parties with a religious agenda to expand their influence on the Arab world."Speaking to the Arabic-language website Arab Press, Assad called on his supporters not to vandalize any Turkish symbols: "I ask you – don't burn Turkish flags. The Turkish people are a proud nation."Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the diplomatic crisis between Damascus and Ankara was of Assad's own making. Turkey, he said, is "considering its options" vis-à-vis Syria, including imposing a no-fly zone and border buffer-zones. Assad further lashed out at other Arab nations: "Those among our brothers who are showing us animosity will seek our forgiveness when the crisis is over," he said, referring to the Arab League's decision to suspend Syria following its failure to implement the League's plan to end the unrest sweeping through the county."Syria will not abide conspiracies," Assad hinted. "Once we emerge victorious from the current campaign, do not expect us to just sit idle by." Assad has ignored an Arab League deadline to accept international observers to oversee an initiative. The pan-Arab organization's foreign ministers are set to meet later on Saturday to discuss imposing additional sanctions on the rogue leader's regime.Hmmmm.....'Empty barrels make the most noise'?Read the full story here.

• Iraq leader worried about ‘radical’ threat in Syria.(AlArabiya).Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Friday he worries that “radicals” might take power in neighboring Syria and opposes any Western or Turkish military intervention.Talabani also said Iraqi military commanders favored a continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq due to weaknesses in air and naval defenses. In an interview with Iraqiya state television, Talabani said he supported peaceful political action and the democratic reforms Syrians are seeking.“Frankly speaking, we are worried that radicals may replace the old (current) regime. We are afraid that radicals will reach power and antagonize democracy in Iraq,” Talabani said. “This would be contrary to the main goal of the Arabic Spring.”“But we are against Western or Turkish military interference,” he added. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last month urged Syria to open up its political system to end one-party Baath rule as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faces increasing international condemnation over a crackdown on protests.The United Nations says more than 3,500 people have been killed since March.Iraq's Shiite leaders are concerned that turmoil in Syria could bring a hardline Sunni leader to power should Assad fall.On the issue of U.S troops in Iraq, Talabani said numerous reports from Iraq's military leaders detailed serious deficiencies in the air force, navy and infantry.“All these reports show that Iraq needs a U.S presence after 2011, at least as trainers, because they will be able to protect our air space and shores, and help Iraqis on how to use the new weapons that we got from the Americans,” he said.Talabani said Maliki would try to make a deal for trainers from private companies rather than the U.S. military when he visits Washington in December.He said another possibility was to arrange for European trainers to train Iraqis on U.S. weapons systems.The remaining American troops, about 18,000, are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of next month, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.Read the full story here.

• Warning graphic content - Nanny horrifically scalded by Gaddafi's family fights back to health as she start new life in Malta.(Dailymail).Shweyga Mullah became an iconic image of the brutality of Moammar Gadaffi's Libyan regime when she was deliberately scalded by a member of his family.Now the nanny has emerged from intensive treatment in a hospital in Malta, to begin a new life.Four months ago CNN correspondent Dan Rivers found Shweyga abandoned in a Gaddafi compound in western Tripoli with major burns.Hannibal Gadaffi's wife Aline threw boiling water over her when she refused to discipline a child.Today after operations on her body and scalp, the brave 30-year-old Ethiopian is living with friends near the Mater Dei Hospital in the town of Msida where she is being treated as an outpatient.Nurses have to trim follicles on her head almost daily to stop infection while she is facing months of dressing changes, physio and psychological counselling.Her plight touched the world with offers of money and medical treatment flooding in after the CNN broadcast.In a new CNN interview, she says a 'profound thank-you to the world' for the support as she recovers from her ordeal.She is staying with other Ethiopians who have been amazed by her courage as she copes with her injuries. But Shweyga is not yet ready to return to Libya and tell friends what happened to her allegedly at the hands of model Aline Gadaffi when she worked for the couple's young daughter and son a year ago.She explained how Aline lost her temper when her daughter wouldn't stop crying and Shweyga refused to beat the child.Recalling the incident she said: 'She took me to a bathroom. She tied my hands behind my back, and tied my feet. She taped my mouth, and she started pouring the boiling water on my head.'There were maggots coming out of my head, because she had hidden me, and no one had seen me.'Rivers said that when he walked in the room, he thought she was wearing a hat because her injuries were so bad.'Then the awful realisation dawned that her entire scalp and face were covered in red wounds and scabs, a mosaic of injuries that rendered her face into a grotesque patchwork.'Her chest, torso and legs are all mottled with scars -- some old, some still red, raw and weeping. As she spoke, clear liquid oozed from one nasty open wound on her head'.A guard eventually took her to a hospital, where she received some treatment but when Aline found out, he was threatened with imprisonment if he dared to help her again.'When she did all this to me, for three days, she wouldn't let me sleep,' said Shweyga.'I stood outside in the cold, with no food. She would say to staff, 'If anyone gives her food, I'll do the same to you.' I had no water - nothing.'She said she was forced to watch as the dogs ate and she was left to go hungry, he said.The nanny was burned twice, the latest incident three months ago.A colleague, who did not want to give his name, also said he had been regularly beaten and slashed with knives. He verified the horrific story on the nanny. who received no payment for the year she spent working for the Gadaffis.Meanwhile in Libya, 200 men rallied in Tripoli's main square last night to demand justice for about 15 soldiers killed two days earlier in an ambush by Gadaffi loyalists.Some rallying in Martyrs' Square held up photos of those killed and one banner said 'Where is the army?'Read the full story here.

• Video - Pakistani girl, 13, praised for blog under Taliban.(BBC).When the Taliban became the de-facto rulers of Pakistan's Swat region between 2003 and 2009, they ordered schools to close as part of an edict banning girls' education.At the time, Malala Yousafzai was just 11, but she spoke out through an anonymous diary on BBC Urdu's website, and later featured in two New York Times documentaries.In recognition of her courage, she was recently short-listed for the International Children Peace Prize, awarded by the Dutch organisation KidsRights.Now aged 13, she spoke to the BBC about her activism.Read and see the full story here.

• Pakistan and China hold joint military exercises.(NDTV).Islamabad: Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said on Thursday that Pakistan has done its utmost to eliminate the threat to China posed by militants operating in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan."Those elements of ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) who are operating in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, even there we had a very close cooperation, and we do exchange intelligence and we have done our utmost to eliminate this threat of ETIM and other extremists for China," said General Kayani in Jhelum, Punjab province, where the Pakistan and Chinese armies have been taking part in joint military exercises.In the past, China has blamed unrest in the west of the country on militants groups such as the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM)."To hold the joint training or exercises on the subject of counter-terrorism between China's and Pakistan's armed forces will help us to fight against the regional terrorist forces and deepen the cooperation between us and promote peace and security in the region," said General Hou Shusen, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese Army.The two-week war games started on November 14 amid speculation over whether China will step in to fill the economic, military and diplomatic void if Pakistan's relationship with the US further deteriorated."I think Pakistan realised that it was getting isolated as a result of this so it was better to get somewhat more close to China to offset that disadvantage," said defence analyst, Talat Masood, a retired general."But this does not mean that China is by any means a total substitute to its relationship with the US or the Western world, or even it means that it can do without its having a normalised relationship with India, so I think it's not a zero-sum game," he added.Read the full story here.

• Netanyahu is not all bluff.(SMH).By David Landau. But Obama and Sarkozy, and indeed the entire international community, would be profoundly wrong if they applied the same dismissive scepticism to Netanyahu's repeated, consistent and recently ratcheted-up admonitions that, in the last resort, he would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent that nation getting the bomb. He means what he says.He does not want to go down in Jewish history as the leader on whose watch a fanatical enemy achieved the means to cow, terrorise and threaten to destroy the Jewish state while the rest of the world stood by and Israel itself did nothing.Many Israelis, by no means all of them groupies of Netanyahu, know exactly where he's coming from in this fraught and frightening saga. And they feel the same way he does: they still hope that the world collectively will act to neutralise this threat; but they believe that if it doesn't, Israel must use its own considerable military power to try to do so.A recent poll, asking an obviously still-hypothetical question, showed the nation split down the middle over whether Israel should act against Iran unilaterally.It did not show the even wider angst, never far below the surface, that keeps ordinary Israelis awake at night as they churn over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chilling threats and the ominous significance of the International Atomic Energy Agency's reports on Iran's nuclear program. The Iranian President, spewing forth Holocaust denial while threatening another Holocaust, has pressed all the wrong buttons on Israel's sensitive national psyche.The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem is not just the place that visiting statesmen are required to visit and make appropriately sad and contrite comments. It is still, nearly 70 years on, the raw nerve of the nation, the unhealed scar.Israel was created out of the ashes of Auschwitz. Its primary mission is ''Never Again''. That, at any rate, is how millions of Israelis see themselves and their country. A mass subjective perspective can become objective political reality. The international community needs to recognise that Netanyahu authentically articulates that perspective and that reality.Granted, there are many opponents to Netanyahu's perspective, particularly within the Israeli defence establishment. Top generals and intelligence officials stress the inevitable limits of any Israeli air strike or series of strikes on Iran. The nuclear facilities are spread around the country. Some are buried deep underground. The most that Israel could achieve might be to damage Tehran's nuclear program and delay it for some years. But the cost could well be heavy and sustained missile attacks on Israel, not only from Iran itself but from its much more proximate clients: Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Lebanon, and Hamas, the radical Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip. Syria, too, long Iran's ally, might seek respite from its domestic strife by joining the fray against Israel.Iran, moreover, would doubtless lash out at American forces stationed in the Gulf region and at shipping through the Gulf, which would immediately precipitate an oil crisis. Israel would be blamed, especially if the Iranian nuclear threat were merely deferred and not permanently allayed.Against all that is the calculation (carefully unspoken but present nevertheless) that a unilateral Israeli strike would trigger massive US intervention against Iran's nuclear program. This could come either in response to Iranian retaliation against US targets, or because Washington would have an overwhelming interest in ''finishing the job'' that Israel began. In the post-Libya climate, moreover, France and Britain might well be moved to come in alongside the US against a defiant Tehran.Against the naysayers, too, is the calculation that goes beyond strategy and firepower; the calculation that says to an Israeli prime minister, with 3000 years of Jewish history on his shoulders, that inaction is not an option. Netanyahu has at his side, as Defence Minister, his one-time army commander in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Ehud Barak.Barak's military prowess and authority can counter the naysayers if the fateful decision on Iran needs to be made.Of course, Netanyahu's drum-beating is intended to help ensure that that moment never comes. The fear of Israel ''going it alone'' is intended to instil anxiety and urgency into international sanctions against Tehran. Sanctions, rigorously applied, can still work. Washington is urging its allies, Australia among them, to join in a new round of tougher and more targeted sanctions against Iran's banking and petrochemical industries, as well as against its nuclear ambitions. The ayatollah regime in Tehran is deeply unpopular.Netanyahu's drum-beating is tactically impeccable. But it's not just tactics. The bluffer isn't bluffing. Let's hope Obama, Sarkozy and the rest are hearing him loud and clear.David Landau, a former editor-in-chief of Haaretz.Hmmm......"Pour les vaincre, messieurs, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." ~ Danton.Read the full story here.

• Christians in imminent danger across the world are refused refugee status while Muslim refugee immigration goes unimpeded.(Jihadwatch).Over at Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller provides inside information on an all-too predictable and patently unjust Obama Administration practice: US policy regarding the refugee resettlement program would shock most Americans if they only knew. The UN picks who becomes US refugees. Christians are being refused refugee status and face persecution and many times certain death for their religious beliefs under the sharia, while whole Muslim communities are entering the US by the tens of thousands per month despite the fact that they face no religious persecution. It is horrifying that Afghan Christians are being refused refugee status by the UN and many Western nations, including Britain. The UN claims that Afghan Christians do not meet the criteria for refugees under Statute 6B of the UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR), which requires refugees to have "a well founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion."Since 1976, millions of new citizens have entered America as legal humanitarian refugees, according to reports of the US State Department. The Somalis are certified as "humanitarian refugees" under our State Department rules. Whole Muslim communities are imported into the United States, and they are supported by social services provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The cities who receive these huge numbers are determined by Refugee Councils. And yet back in October 2008, Muslim UN employees were "discouraging" applications for resettlement from the desperate Christian Iraqis. The Christian Iraqi population has since been decimated. By buying into the argument that Islam is a religion of peace and ignoring the penalties for apostasy, we are sentencing thousands of Christians to martyrdom and forcing others to live in the shadows in dire poverty. We need to demand that our government provide protection and asylum for Christian apostates.Read the full story here.

• ‘They Stole Our Land’ vs. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.(FrontpageMagazine).The cornerstone argument in the Arab narrative against Israel is that the Zionists in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries came to the Land of Israel and stole Arab land. This is a very simple assertion, easy to visualize, seemingly logical and amenable to a brief presentation: after all, Zionists did come from Europe to what was then Palestine, and the Arabs were already living there. So obviously when the Jews came they took Arab land.Although there exists voluminous evidence to the contrary in Arab and Turkish and British sources indicating the exact opposite, it is difficult to present this contrary evidence and explain its importance in as brief and simple a manner as is done with the Arab assertion. There are too many variables: Arab demographics, Jewish demographics, Zionist agrarian reclamation technology, land purchases, crown land vs. privately owned land, absentee landlords, etc. This imbalance puts the advocate on behalf of Zionism and Israel at a disadvantage, even though the evidence supporting the Israeli narrative and contradicting the Arab narrative is vast and thoroughly vetted. For an excellent compilation and analysis of this evidence, see Kenneth Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (University of North Carolina Press, 1984, reviewed here and here).However, there is one testimony from an unimpeachable source stating that the Jews stole no land, but rather bought land in vast quantities from willing sellers who were the legal owners of the land that was sold. This unimpeachable source is so unarguably innocent of any pro-Israel or pro-Jewish or pro-Zionist sentiment that there can be no rational question regarding the veracity of his testimony. That source is the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Hajj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (1895 to 1974).El-Husseini was a key figure in the creation of the concept of Palestinian nationalism and the most high-profile leader of violent and incendiary opposition to Zionism from the 1920’s onward, until the creation of the State of Israel rendered his leadership irrelevant. He used his powerful political and religious position as the Grand Mufti (supreme religious leader) of Jerusalem to promote Arab nationalism, incite violence against the British, and preach Jew-hatred and the annihilation of the Jews of British Mandatory Palestine. He was an ally of Hitler before and during World War II​, recruited Muslim legions in Bosnia to serve on the eastern front in Hitler’s Weirmacht, and developed full-blown plans for concentration camps in Palestine in imitation of the German “final solution.” During the 1948 Israel-Arab war, he represented the Arab Higher Committee and rejected the UN partition plan of November 29, 1947 (for a brief biography of el-Husseini and a list of book-length biographies see here).As the highest official representative of the Arabs of British Mandatory Palestine, el-Husseini was interviewed by the Palestine Royal Commission led by Earl William Robert Wellesley Peel, hence known as the Peel Commission.The Peel Commission was a Royal Commission of inquiry sent to British Mandatory Palestine in November of 1936 for the purpose of examining and reporting on the causes of the Arab-Jewish violence in Palestine and suggesting possible resolutions. After months of research and interviews of major Zionist and Arab leaders, the Commission published its report in July of 1937. The report recommended a partition plan for separate Arab and Jewish states; but this plan was never implemented, although the Zionists accepted it, due to vociferous Arab opposition.The Peel Commission report had some very salutary things to say about the Zionists and their impact on the land and on Arab society and economy. One of the most important for debunking Arab anti-Israel accusations is:

“The Arab population shows a remarkable increase since 1920, and it has had some share in the increased prosperity of Palestine. Many Arab landowners have benefited from the sale of land and the profitable investment of the purchase money. The fellaheen (Arab peasants) are better off on the whole than they were in 1920. This Arab progress has been partly due to the import of Jewish capital into Palestine and other factors associated with the growth of the (Jewish) National Home. In particular, the Arabs have benefited from social services which could not have been provided on the existing scale without the revenue obtained from the Jews…Much of the land (being farmed by the Jews) now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamp and uncultivated when it was purchased…There was at the time of the earlier sales little evidence that the owners possessed either the resources or training needed to develop the land.” The land shortage decried by the Arabs “…was due less to the amount of land acquired by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population.” (Chapter V in the report).El-Husseini’s interview on January 12, 1937 was preserved in the Commission’s notes and referenced, although not published, in the full report. It has been summarized by a number of scholars, including Kenneth Stein, The Land Question in Palestine 1917-1939 (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2009) and Howard M. Sachar, A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to our Time (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976); and a detailed analysis with quotations from the interview can be found in Aaron Kleiman’s The Palestine Royal Commission, 1937 (Garland Publications, 1987, pp. 298ff.).The selections from the interview presented below can be found on line here and here. Sir Laurie Hammond, a member of the Peel Commission, interviewed the Mufti about his insistence to the Commission that Zionists were stealing Arab land and driving peasants into homelessness. He spoke through an interpreter.Read the full story here.

• Update on 'Pakistani woman kills husband then starts to cook him'.Wife 'killed, cut up and cooked her husband into a korma to stop him from abusing his stepdaughter'.(DailyMail).Police have arrested a woman in Pakistan on suspicion of murdering her husband, chopping his body to pieces and boiling it in a bid to get rid of the evidence. Zainab Bibi, 42, allegedly told authorities she killed her husband Ahmad Abbas because he tried to sexually assault her 17-year-old daughter from another marriage. She told police she sedated her husband by mixing sleeping pills in his tea and strangled him with rope before dismembering him.  Police say they discovered her plot after neighbours complained about a bad smell coming from her home.Bibi's 22-year-old nephew, Zaheer Ahmed, has also been arrested in connection with dismembering Abbas's body.Pakistan's ARY News spoke to Bibi from her cell at the Shah Faisal police station, where she said: 'I killed my husband before he dared to touch my daughter.'The alarm was raised by Bibi's landlord, Behzad, who lives on the ground floor of the two-storey Green Town house.He was so upset by the bad cooking smells coming from upstairs that he went up to complain.Police claim that he found Bibi at the stove, cooking a korma with flesh from her husband’s arm and leg - because she believed it was the only way to practically dispose of his body.Pakistani paper The Express Tribune said Bibi had been living at the house with her 17-year-old daughter Sonia and Mr Abbas, who she married five years ago and who used to be Sonia's teacher when she was at school.Bibi was quoted in the paper as saying: 'When he finally died, I felt shudders of fear for the first time. 'I didn’t have the courage to approach his body for the next half an hour.“It occurred to me that if I cooked the body in parts with spices and aromatic ingredients that would curb the stench.'But she insisted she had no plans to eat the resulting dish, or to feed it to others, adding: 'I had a plan to do away with the cooked stuff by throwing it in a gutter. I would say to people that it had spoiled.'Bibi claims she had stopped Mr Abbas from molesting her daughter on several occasions, admitting that he had never actually laid a hand on her but had said suggestive things about her when he was drunk.The rest of Mr Abbas's body was found in an aluminium trunk on the premise.Read the full story here.

• A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice as been sentenced to 158 lashes and 50 days in jail for harassing a Saudi woman.(SaudiGazette).MADINA – A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) has been sentenced to 158 lashes and 50 days in jail for harassing a Saudi woman.The Madina court issued the verdict after hearing that the man subjected the woman to an intense harassment campaign over the phone. A Hai’a official said: “The Saudi woman lodged a complaint against the Hai’a member. The Hai’a will take the necessary measures according to the regulations and uphold what is right even if it is against one of its employees.”Hmmmm....."What go's around...come's around?"Read the full story here.