Video - Islamists Implement Lashing Punishment in Libyan Towns.

Islamists Implement Lashing Punishment in Libyan Towns.

Following are excerpts from a report on Islamists implementing the punishment of lashing in Libya, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on March 15, 2013:

Reporter: The crime of this Libya citizen living in Sirte is unknown. These images show dozens of men receiving lashings one after the other, at the hand of bearded men, some in military uniform. The footage has caused a commotion and a shock in Libya.

The lashing punishment has not been seriously implemented for decades, even though the law provides for it, especially in crimes of fornication. It has been revived, however, after the fall of Al-Qadhafi, and has become widespread, especially in Sirte and Darna.

The locals say that the men who carry out these extrajudicial punishments belong to Ansar Al-Shar’ia, which thrives in Sirte, where Al-Qadhafi was born. They exploit the security void and the absence of the authorities to implement the rulings of the shari’a, without bothering to resort to the courts. Source: Memri.

HRW: "Qaddafi's last moments 'stabbed with a bayonet in his buttocks'; also Evidence of mass murder after Qaddafi’s death."

HRW: "Qaddafi's last moments 'stabbed with a bayonet in his buttocks'; also Evidence of mass murder after Qaddafi’s death."(AA).New evidence implicating militias in executions after ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi was captured and killed in Sirte last October 20 raises fresh questions over his death, a watchdog said on Wednesday.“The evidence suggests that opposition militias summarily executed at least 66 captured members of Qaddafi’s convoy in Sirte,” his home town, said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“It also looks as if they took Mutassim Qaddafi, who had been wounded, to (the port city of) Misrata and killed him there,” he said of Qaddafi’s son.“Our findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Muammar Qaddafi was killed in crossfire, and not after his capture,” Bouckaert said of a Human Rights Watch report documenting the executions.
The 50-page report, “Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte,” also details the final hours of Qaddafi’s life and the circumstances under which he was killed on the basis of witness testimony and mobile phone footage.
HRW said its evidence suggests that Misrata-based militias captured and disarmed members of Qaddafi's convoy and, after bringing them under control, subjected them to brutal beatings.“They then executed at least 66 captured members of the convoy at the nearby Mahari Hotel,” said the report, adding that some still had their hands bound behind their backs.That finding matches reports by an AFP correspondent who visited Sirte last October and documented the discovery of between 65 and 70 rotting bodies on the lawn of al-Mahari Hotel, many with a bullet in the head.
HRW said it collected mobile phone video clips taken by anti-Qaddafi fighters that show a large group of captured convoy members being cursed and abused.The watchdog added that it used hospital morgue photos “to establish that at least 17 of the detainees visible in the phone video were later executed at the Mahari Hotel.”To document what happened on October 20, 2011, HRW said it had interviewed officers in opposition militias who were at the scene and surviving members of the Qaddafi convoy in hospital, in custody or at home.“These killings constitute the largest documented execution of detainees by anti-Qaddafi forces during the eight-month conflict in Libya,” the report said.The watchdog stressed that evidence regarding the deaths of Muammar and Mutassim Qaddafi also calls into question the official account given by the Libyan authorities, which said the two “died during fierce crossfire.”
Video footage shows that the dictator was captured alive but bleeding heavily from a head wound. In the footage, he is severely beaten by rebels and appears to be stabbed with a bayonet in his buttocks.“He appears lifeless” by the time he is filmed being loaded into an ambulance half-naked, the organization said.
On the basis of separate footage, the watchdog said Mutassim was caught alive and taken to Misrata where he is seen smoking and having a “hostile conversation” with his captors.
“By the evening, his dead body, with a new wound on his throat that was not visible in the prior video footage, was being publicly displayed in Misrata,” which had suffered a brutal siege by Qaddafi’s forces, the organization said.
HRW said it presented its findings to transitional officials immediately after the killings and has repeatedly urged the new authorities to carry out a full investigation into these killings which amount to a war crime.It added that it had not seen “any evidence” of any inquiry under way.“In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them, and then found dead hours later,” Bouckaert said.“One of Libya’s greatest challenges is to bring its well-armed militias under control and end their abuses.“A good first step would be to investigate the mass executions of October 20, 2011, the most serious abuse by opposition forces documented so far,” Bouckaert said.Read the full story here.

Footage of Stockpiles of WMDs Uncovered in Libya

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation updated: Indonesia 5.4 and 5.2   !More info here.

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

• Breaking News - Two boats with 'people' from 5 countries (Including U.S.)have set sail to Gaza.The Canadian ship Tahrir and the Irish ship Saoirse have successfully reached international waters, initiating the “Freedom Wave to Gaza.” The boats have embarked from Turkey and are on the Mediterranean Sea. In all, the 2 boats carry 27 passengers from Canada, Ireland, U.S., Palestine, and Australia.Kit Kittredge on board the Tahrir was previously a passenger on the American ship, The Audacity of Hope, which attempted passage to Gaza last July. Kittredge says, “ The only obstacles in our way are Israel’s military and the complicity of the Obama administration but in our sails is the wind of worldwide public opinion which has turned against the illegal blockade.”Ann Wright retired US army Colonel and former US Diplomat says, “We carry inspiration from the Arab Spring and the worldwide “Occupy” movements that are demanding freedom and justice. Where governments fail, civil society must act. As Americans we are fed up with our government’s unquestioning support of Israel no matter how violent, illegal and oppressive its actions. We will not stand by and watch $30 billion of our tax money committed to buying Israel weaponry used to carry out this illegal occupation of Palestine including the blockade of Gaza.”Jane Hirschmann added, “Our sailing coincides with UN agency UNESCO’s recognition of Palestine as a member state, defying US threats to cut off $80 million of US funding in retaliation. This shows the growing strength of opposition by the international community to U.S. and Israeli policies in Palestine. We call on the international community to go further and take effective action to lift the siege of Gaza. Hirschmann was one of the organizers this past summer of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope which is still captive in Greece.Hmmm.....Lets hope the autorities in Greece or Cyprus give them a prolonged stay.Read the full story here.More here.HT: IsraelMatzav.

• Rep. Schweikert to Obama: Stop buying your own books with taxpayer money, please.(HotAir).According to various reports last week, the State Department spent $70,000 on copies of Barack Obama’s three lauded literary masterpieces (Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope and Of Thee I Sing) to stock library shelves or to pass out as Christmas presents from U.S. embassies. The administration claims the book distribution helps to “broker talks on important foreign policy matters.” That especially makes sense as a defense of Of Thee I Sing, which just happens to be a children’s book (although, to be fair, royalties on that book go to charity).Supposedly, the White House had no knowledge of the State Department decision to spend taxpayer dollars on purchases that personally benefit Obama. (As one writer put it, “You pay … Obama reaps the royalties.“) Sheesh, not a lot of communication goes on in the Obama administration, does it?But Obama can’t claim to be ignorant now — unless he, like his AG Eric Holder, doesn’t read his own correspondence. Republican Rep. Dave Schweikert of Arizona yesterday sent a letter to the president to tell him to knock it off. Wrote Schweikert: At a time of record deficits and a heightened need to cut government spending, it is clear that spending taxpayer money in this manner is inappropriate.Furthermore, as with any book deal, there is no doubt some level of royalties paid to you for each copy purchased by the government. Receiving royalties from government purchases of your book is exactly the type of out-of-touch Washington behavior that the American people are weary of and will no longer tolerate.We request that you instruct all agencies to no longer purchase copies of your books and remit a payment to the Treasury Department for any royalties received as a result of these sales.Here are a few reasons not to be too worked up about this story: (1) $70,000 is chump change in the federal budget, (2) At best, Obama probably received something like $6,000 in royalties from taxpayer-funded purchases and (3) The more people read Dreams from my Father, the more they’re exposed to the roots of Obama’s rage.Still, the reason to be worked up trumps them: As American Values president Gary Bauer put it, it’s a prime example of ethics blindness. In other words, it’s the principle of the matter. The administration has violated it — and Schweikert seeks to uphold it. Thank you, Rep. Schweikert.Read the full story here.

• Straight from the 'Emperors voice'.(Politico).Here’s what you need to know from Tuesday’s White House briefing with press secretary Jay Carney:

•Carney deflected a question on whether the White House is angry over the bonuses given to top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “The White House does not have a role for assigning pay in this independent agency,” he said.

•Carney had no “specific agenda” to detail when asked about President Obama’s meeting today with House Democratic leaders. He mentioned jobs and ways in which the “House can be compelled” to take action.

•On executive orders and jobs, Carney said of Obama’s strategy, “I can assure you he would like nothing more than to be deprived of the opportunity to run against a do-nothing Congress.”Read the full story here.

• Fresh Record High for U.S. Food-Stamp Use; 45.8 Million.(Bloomberg).The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached a record 45.8 million in August, the government said.The figure was 1.1 percent higher than the previous month and 8.1 percent more than a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report on its website. Assistance rolls are increasing as joblessness remains at 9.1 percent of the workforce.Texas had the most food-stamp recipients in August, at 4.12 million, followed by California with 3.82 million, according to the USDA. Spending was a record $6.13 billion.The number of Americans receiving food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has set records every month but one since December 2008.Read the full story here.

• Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Show Me The Original; Not The 3 Different Versions The White House Released.(BR).Sheriff Joe Arpaio came up with the idea to demand the original microfilm of Obama's birth certificate after he saw evidence from his Cold Case Posse in Maricopa County, Ariz., that the White House apparently released to the public three different versions of the long-form birth certificate."Show me the microfilm, not the copies the White House released," Arpaio has insisted.What the White House released on April 27 were not original documents but purportedly scans of original birth documents that remain in the Hawaii Department of Health vault.WND reported yesterday that in 1966, the Hawaii Depatment of Health provided microfilm copies to Mrs. Eleanor Nordyke of the birth certificates for her twins, born the day after Obama in the same hospital."Obama's birth certificate is either on that microfilm roll along with the Nordyke twins' birth certificate, or it's not," Arpaio said.Sources close to the sheriff's law enforcement investigation explained to WND that Arpaio had come up with a solution to end almost immediately a controversy over the Obama birth certificate that has continued since 2008."If the microfilm exists, show us the reel. That's the best evidence the document existed in 1961, not the three different versions the White House released on April 27."The White House released three versions of Obama's long-form birth certificate, each one of which appears fundamentally different from the other two.If the long-form birth certificate the White House released was merely a scan of an original document held in the Hawaii Department of Health, critics ask, then why are the three different in appearance?On the morning of April 27, the White House posted on its website a document purporting to be a scan of the original 1961 Obama birth certificate obtained from the vault records of the Hawaii Department of Health.On the morning of April 27, the White House posted on its website a document purporting to be a scan of the original 1961 Obama birth certificate obtained from the vault records of the Hawaii Department of Health.As seen in Exhibit 1, the version of the birth certificate first displayed by the White House to the American public was an electronic PDF computer file that contained a green background clearly showing the green hash-marks of Hawaii Department of Health security paper.Read the full story here.

• Tunisians poke fun at Obama in assault on his Facebook page.(AlArabiya).Tunisians launched an all-out assault on Barack Obama’s Facebook page this week, posting thousands of comments making fun of the U.S. president and supporting the “occupy” protests across America.Among the comments, Tunisian Facebook users circulated “Arab Spring” jokes, such as: “Tunisia is the first country to recognize the American Transitional National Council,” referring the revolutionary upheaval in Libya and the global recognition of the Libyan transitional council.The Facebook users described it as a “virtual surprise attack” on Obama. Many of the recent entries on his 2012 presidential campaign page were bombarded with as many as 20,000 comments each. “Tunisian people are calling the U.S. authorities to respect freedom of expression and not to resort repression and assault on the rights of American citizens,” read one comment, which was reposted by several users.Another comment read: “Tunisian people denounce violations against the American people by the security forces, which affect the freedom of expression.”The Facebook assault was in part organized through Twitter, with the hashtag #TrollingObama helping spread the world, reported social network-inspired news site Storyful.com. The horde of comments, which came after photos of police brutality against “Occupy Wall Street” protesters were released on social media sites.“To overthrow any corrupt system in the world, please contact the Tunisian people,” one comment read.Another comment mimicked Obama’s previous statements about the embattled Arab leaders: “Fouad Mbaza (the current Tunisian president) says that Obama should start the change immediately, or leave power.” Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, who are continuing to protest against social and economic inequality and corporate greed in the U.S., have even been offered advice from Arab Spring. “All protesters take the same risks, from Tunisia to Egypt,” Ramy Raouf, communication officer at Front to Defend Egypt Protesters, told GlobalPost. “When police react with violence, the protesters also need to understand the official laws of the region to understand what they can and cannot do. If they ever get arrested, they should always have a lawyer ready,” he advised.“Protesters should always go to the streets carrying a bag. In that bag, they should carry a can of Pepsi, a bottle of water, and a bottle of vinegar. They should also carry plastic bags and extra clothes. If the police shoot tear gas during a protest and it gets in their eyes, they can immediately smell the vinegar. Then splash the water on their face. After that, add pepsi to wash out the eyes. It will reduce the effects of the gas,” Raouf added.Read the full story here.

• Fast and Furious: NRA calls for Holder’s resignation — and urges you to do the same.(HotAir).Attorney General Eric Holder’s part in the Fast and Furious scandal that intentionally funneled U.S. firearms to Mexican drug cartels has been narrowed down to either (a) a lethally irresponsible knowledge (and presumed authorization) of the program or (b) a lethally irresponsible ignorance of the program. Either way, the president has precious little factual support for his undimmed confidence in his AG — and politicians and outside organizations are calling him on it.The number of congressional representatives to call for Holder’s resignation, for example, has grown to 17. Newly in that group: Reps. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), Allen West (R-Fla.), Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Dennis Ross (R-Fla.).Now, add the National Rifle Association to the list of those clamoring for Holder to exit. The NRA has launched an ad campaign to urge the American people to pick up the phone, call the president and demand that he “hold Holder accountable.” The ad is a concise summation of the scandal that, somehow, has still yet to reach the eyes and ears of many in the lefty media (and, consequently, to reach the minds of those who consume mostly left-leaning media):So far, Holder has hewn to the line that his congressional testimony of May 3 (referenced in the NRA video — and suspiciously confusing) was “truthful and accurate.” But he only spoke up to defend himself on that front because one outspoken congressman, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), said any in the administration who knew of and accepted the program could potentially be an accessory to murder. Otherwise, the DOJ pattern from Holder down has been to stonewall the Congressional investigation of F&F.The AG testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Tuesday, though, so we’ll see if he answers any questions convincingly then. It’s too much to hope he’ll inadvertently assume responsibility for either the program itself or his general incompetence, but no doubt that’ll be what Sen. Chuck Grassley will be gunning for.One last reminder: NRA has a stake in this because the general plan of the program suggests it might have been politically motivated to “prove” that legally purchased weapons yet cross the border and do harm. As always, I hate to believe that, but have to admit it as a plausible possibility.

Update: Another new tidbit of information about Fast and Furious, via CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson. Apparently, Lanny Breuer, head of the criminal division of the DOJ, definitely knew that the ATF had employed the gunwalking strategy during “Operation Wide Receiver,” a program started under the Bush administration. Why does that matter? Atkisson explains: Today, Breuer issued a statement saying he “regrets” that he didn’t alert others in Justice Department leadership, apparently including his boss Attorney General Eric Holder.In a separate ATF case reported by CBS News earlier this year, called “Fast and Furious” and started under the Obama Administration, Breuer says he likewise regrets not alerting leaders about the similarities in the cases. That, said Breuer, was a mistake.Republican Congressional investigators say this new information contradicts the Justice Department’s original letter to them earlier this year insisting that gunwalking allegations were “false.”Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Copyright bill controversy grows as rhetoric sharpens.(CNet).Controversy over a new copyright bill continues to grow in Washington, D.C., with both proponents and detractors signing up new allies and sharpening their rhetoric. Even pop icon Justin Bieber has made an appearance. The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, introduced last week in the House of Representatives to the applause of lobbyists for Hollywood and other large content holders, is designed to make allegedly copyright-infringing Web sites, sometimes called "rogue" Web sites, virtually disappear from the Internet. That goes too far and hinders freedom of speech and innovation, the Consumer Electronics Association, NetCoalition, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association trade groups said in a letter sent today (PDF) to House members. SOPA could "constrain economic growth and threaten a vital sector of the U.S. economy and a major source of global competitiveness," it warned. First up is Demand Progress. Before they even saw the House bill, they started calling it the "New Internet Blacklist Bill." Blacklist? That sounds pretty bad. But before we get carried away, let's take a look at the actual language of the actual legislation. Can YOU find a blacklist? No? Can you find a list of ANY kind? No? Oooh, oooh, wait. There's a study! The bill requires a report to Congress about "notorious foreign infringers!" Wow. So, the only thing Demand Progress can hang its hat on is a study and a report to Congress. The fact is that the ONLY way that the Stop Online Piracy Act requires action against rogue sites is through a federal court process, applying the same rules of notice and procedure as any other case. The same is true for the Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act. The progressive activists at Demand Progress could, reasonably, be viewed as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's natural enemy on most technological topics. Its founder, Aaron Swartz, was arrested in Boston in July on charges of illegally downloading (his backers might call it "liberating") millions of copyrighted documents; by then, the Motion Picture Association of America had already claimed that Demand Progress was allied "with at least one--and who knows how many more--offshore rogue Web sites that promote the theft and illegal marketing of American products like movies, video games and software." David Moon, Demand Progress' program director, told CNET today that the Chamber's attack on his organization is a sign that an online anti-SOPA campaign is working. "The proponents are panicking," Moon said. "I think this is a clear sign that we're giving lawmakers some nervousness and hesitation about putting their names on this bill." He added: "I think a lot of the legislators were under the impression that this was not going to be a controversial bill and that it would slide under the radar...As we built a case, I think they've started to get more nervous about it." Tepp, the chamber lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment from CNET. Neither did the chamber's public relations office. And then, of course, there's Justin Bieber. Bieber was making the rounds of radio shows last week to promote his forthcoming Christmas record, He tweeted that he was up at "5:30 this morning to do radio phoners and now off to do interviews"--when a host on a Washington, D.C.-area radio station asked him about proposed restrictions on streaming unlicensed content. Some of the finer points were lost in the interview, including what bill was being talked about, and what it would actually criminalize. But Bieber did say, referring to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who sponsored the Senate version: "Whomever she is she needs to know that I'm saying she needs to be locked up, put away in cuffs...I just think that's ridiculous." That will surely please the fans who launched the thoughtfully-illustrated FreeBieber.org Web site, which warns that "Justin faces 5 brutal years in prison" thanks to proposed copyright law changes.Read and see the full story here.

• U.S. Army Makes Soldiers “Culturally Literate” About Islam, appears to justify Islamic jihad.(JW).In this new era of political correctness, the U.S. Army has published a special handbook for soldiers that appears to justify Islamic jihad by describing it as the “communal military defense of Islam and Muslims when they are threatened or under attack.”Because radical Muslim groups consider Islam to be perpetually under moral, spiritual, economic, political and military attack by the “secular west” they consider military jihad a “constant necessity” and use it as a “rallying cry to resist and attack all this is un-Islamic,” according to the new Army manual.The handbook was created to help soldiers become “culturally literate” ambassadors with sensitivity and understanding of Islamic civilization. The goal is to help them understand how vital culture is in accomplishing military missions. Military personnel who have a distorted picture of a host culture make enemies for the United States. At least that’s what the publication (“Culture Cards: Afghanistan & Islamic Culture”) says. An organization of scientists dedicated to national and international security issues discovered the new Army tool and published it on its website a few days ago.  The manual has nearly three dozen informative chapters dedicated to subjects such as Muslim taboos, the five pillars if Islam, Jihad, the Quran and Muslim festivals. There are also sections on ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and social norms and mores. The lengthy introduction defines cultural competency—awareness and sensitivity of another group—and social norms and mores in Arab countries.The portion on jihad is especially interesting because it’s described as a wide-ranging term that includes the everyday spiritual and moral struggle to live a life submitted to God, the attempt to spread Islam by education and example, and the communal military defense of Islam and Muslims when they are threatened or under attack. Today radical Muslim groups consider Islam to be perpetually under attack by the "secular West" – morally, spiritually, economically, politically and militarily, the Army handbook says. They thus consider military jihad as a constant necessity, and use jihad as a rallying cry to resist and attack all that is un-Islamic.At the end of each section there is a question that’s supposed to stimulate “critical thinking.” At the end of the jihad section the question is: “How can the concept of jihad add legitimacy to the claims and aims of Al Qaeda and others? It would certainly be interesting to see how most enlisted men and women, or American civilians for that matter, would answer that particular question.The new Army manual concludes by revealing all the things that make soldiers “culturally literate.” Among them are appreciating and accepting diverse beliefs, appearances and lifestyles, understanding the dangers of stereotyping and ethnocentrism and understanding Islamic and jihadist cultures.Hmmmm........Hmmm......“I will stand with the 'Muslim BrotherHood' should the political winds shift in an ugly direction?”Read the full story here.

• Canada follows U.S. cuts funding for UNESCO.(Yahoo).Toronto (AP) — Canada is joining the U.S. in cutting off funding for the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO because it approved a Palestinian bid for full membership.Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Tuesday the decision is not in the best interests of peace in the Middle East, so Canada is freezing all future voluntary contributions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.Canada contributes about $10 million a year to the agency.The United States has also announced it will pull its $60 million in funding from UNESCO, which depends heavily on American funding.The UNESCO vote represented a fallback plan for the Palestinian leadership after its bid for U.N. recognition as a state and full membership in the global body foundered in September.Hmmm.........Canada "YOU ROCK!"Read the full story here.

• Canada - Comment on What Do Muslim Canadians Want? The Clash of Interpretations and Opinion Research.(DanielPipes).By Christian Leuprecht and Conrad Winn - Macdonald-Laurier Institute.In their study for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, "What Do Muslim Canadians Want? The Clash of Interpretations and Opinion Research," Christian Leuprecht and Conrad Winn open with a discussion of ways to understand Muslim attitudes in Canada, then go on to discuss specific data. I shall follow their organization and discuss these two topics separately, followed by a conclusion.Before looking at specific survey results, it bears noting, along with Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, that "Canadian Islam is more moderate, more diverse and more open to debate than American or even British Islam." Why so? Primarily because of the nature of Muslim immigration, which prominently included Qadiri and similar Sufi traditionalists, heterodox Muslims from sub-Saharan Africa, and secularists from Tunisia and Algeria. Schwartz concludes on a positive note that "We should be glad that Canada is different, and offers a place where Muslim sanity is prized, rather than dismissed."Survey results: The survey results confirm this Canadian difference, being more positive in attitude toward the host country than one finds in other Western Muslim populations. Very high approval scores accorded to the Government of Canada, comparable to those of the general population, offers a basis for what follows, as does the fact that Canadian Muslims generally dismiss the notion of Canada as a racist country.Questions about specific likes and dislikes reveal greater appreciation for generalities (democracy and freedom) than for one's own circumstances (finding employment). I found it especially encouraging that Canadian Muslims understand democracy as not just a system for choosing leaders but as a mentality and a way of life permitting an individual the autonomy to think and act in freedom, to develop his own opinions, and to opt out of politics entirely.Finding a job stands out as a key issue in the Macdonald-Laurier Institute survey. To sense the worry, imagine applying for a job with the name Muhammad or Fatima; non-Muslim employers are wary of taking on Muslim staff for reasons ranging from terrorism to demands for special privileges to fears of litigation. In part, non-Muslims need to deal with their own prejudices; but in part, Muslims must acknowledge the problems they have created and address them seriously and constructively.The question about implementation of the Shari'a stands for its important implications. A substantial majority of 62 percent wish the Shari'a to be in some fashion implemented; when one factors out the don't know/refuse category, that number jumps to 75 percent. This points to what may be the most intractable problem about Canadian Muslims: their desire to march to a different drummer. That 15 percent of Muslim wish to "require Muslims to be ruled by Sharia courts" is particularly alarming; it also confirms my estimate that Islamists make up some 10-15 percent of Muslim populations.The 3 percent support of Al-Qaeda points to the hard-core Islamist element in Canada – not very large, but 3 percent of a Muslim population of some 700,000 comes to about 20,000 individuals with very dangerous sympathies and ideas. This information should alarm and rouse the immigration and security services alike.The 13 percent approval of Israel in this study differs from a noteworthy estimate forwarded by Conrad Winn in 2004, when he suggested that a fifth of the Muslim population of Canada thinks "Israel is right on just about everything," but the figures do not differ by much and the new one can be seen as an order-of-magnitude confirmation of the old one. So too, the observation in the present study that "pro-Israel feelings were sometimes voiced as a reaction against anti-Israel vehemence" echoes Winn's observation seven years earlier that "Quite often [a pro-Israel outlook] is a reaction against what they would view as extremist leaders in their own communities or in their country of origin."When it comes to extremist views, Leuprecht and Winn acknowledge their surprise: "we expected religious participants in the focus groups to be more radical in their views. In contradistinction, the most radical political views tended to be expressed by relatively secular people, often equipped with higher education in the social sciences, while devout Muslims were sometimes the most articulate advocates for Canada and democracy." This pattern establishes that Islamic piety is not in itself a problem; and that political outlook is the key to attitudes. Seculars can be extreme and the pious moderate.

Conclusion: Leuprecht and Winn find that while the attitudes they uncovered fit none of the three paradigms perfectly, they conclude that the polling data "suggest that Canadian Muslims fit best the paradigm of a divided community with heterogeneous opinions as expressed by Daniel Pipes."On the one hand, I am gratified by this conclusion. On the other, I wonder how else one might characterize a community made up of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Surely no one expects them to be of one mind, implying that Islam turns believers into automatons who lose their ability to think for themselves but are instead dominated by a leadership that programs them. No human population fits this description.And if this notion of a quiescent people were once convincing, surely the Middle East uproar during 2011 suggests that even peoples who obey for decades retain a fire within them that unpredictably can bring down their rulers. Libyans, whom many assumed accepted the ravings of Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi, turned out, for example, to have been thinking for themselves.The Leuprecht-Winn study reveals a number of problematic attitudes, from desire for Shari'a to support for Al-Qaeda, but it also establishes that Canada has the most moderate, diverse, and open Muslim population in the West. Not only is this an advantage to build on but it suggests a potential role for moderate Canadian Muslims to take their message and perhaps their institutions to other Western countries.Read the full story here.

• Greek military leadership changes spark opposition outcry.(TheTelegraph).As Greek poltics grew ever more chaotic strong political protests erupted as the government moved to replace military chiefs with officers seen as more supportive of George Papandreou, the prime minister.In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers.Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.“Under no circumstances will these changes be accepted, at a time when the government is collapsing and has not even secured a vote of confidence,” said an official announcement by the opposition conservative New Democracy party.“It has no moral or real authority any more, and such surprise moves can only worsen the crisis currently sweeping the country”.The party said it will not accept the new nominations and will take its own decisions on armed forces changes if it comes to power at the general elections that are expected to take place in Greece if the government loses the vote of confidence on Friday night.The left wing SYRIZA party said that the government’s decision “gives the impression that it wants to create a highly politicized armed forces that it can control at a time of political crisis”. It called on the President of the Republic not to proceed with the formal ratification of the defence minister’s decree and to wait until new general elections take place.Similar statements were made by all smaller political parties from the extreme right to the hard-line communists.The development gave the impression that a Turkish-style military conspiracy was suspected by the government, but no such rumours or allegations had circulated in the country. Greece has been free of political interventions by the military since the overthrow of the military junta that ruled the country in the 1967-74 period.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.More here (Greek source).

• U.S. Professor Who Shouted “Death To Israel” Quotes The Koran As Justification.(INN).— An American professor who shouted “death to Israel” during an Israeli Bedouin speaker’s lecture, defended his statement by saying it was for Allah.Associate history professor Julio Pino of Kent University in Ohio made the remark after asking a question of Ishmael Khaldi, who was speaking of his experiences working on behalf of Israel as told in his book “A Shepherd’s Journey”. Khaldi, former deputy consul general at the Israeli consulate in San Francisco and now a deputy minister, describes the book as “one man’s story of Israel’s culture, society and politics from the perspective of a Bedouin minority in a Jewish state.”Pino stalked out of the lecture hall after he shouted at the guest speaker.He wrote in a-mail to HigherEd.com, “What I spoke was for the sake of the children of Palestine, and no other reason. The only politics I have are ‘There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Messenger.’ ”He rounded out his logic by quoting the Koran, “They try to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will allow nothing but the perfection of that light, though the disbelievers dislike it.”University president Lester Lefton denounced the “death to Israel’ statement, but no disciplinary action has been announced against Pino, who has a long history of anti-Israel rants.Read the full story here.

• UN Report Offers Smoking Gun Proof of NATO and US Lies about Libya.(NSNBC).By Dennis South. Here is a type of “smoking gun” proof that NATO and the U.S. has been operating through a smokescreen of lies, as well as intimidation. Please read the following January 4, 2011 report of the 16th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review: Report of the Working Group on the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya [Document A/HRC/WG.6/9/L.13] . Before NATO and the U.S. started bombing Libya, the United Nations was preparing to bestow an award on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and the Libyan Jamahiriya, for its achievements in the area of human rights. That’s right–the same man, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that NATO and the United States have been telling us for months is a “brutal dictator,” was set to be given an award for his human rights record in Libya. How strange it is that the United Nations was set to bestow a human rights award on a “brutal dictator,” at the end of March.So, I ask a question. Who is this “brutal dictator” that the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council was preparing to bestow an award to, for human rights, sometime at the end of March? So, they would have us believe that they knew that he was a “brutal dictator,” yet decided to give him an award for human rights?! Astounding! Astounding the lies that we’re being told by the media, NATO and the U.S. government. Absolutely astounding! Not surprising, but astounding! But more astounding still, is the fact that, time after time after time, much of the American public–without questioning–believes every single word that comes from the “news” media.It is noteworthy to read the following couple of sentences from the General Assembly’s report:

“Several delegations also noted with appreciation the country’s commitment to upholding human rights on the ground. Additional statements, which could not be delivered during the interactive dialogue, owing to time constraints, will be posted on the extranet of the universal periodic review when available.”
In a footnote of that report, there is a list of countries that praised Colonel Gaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya (state of the masses), in support of the General Assembly Human Rights Council’s decision to bestow this award upon Colonel Gaddafi.I simply present the list. The reader can look at the list and make his or her own judgement regarding the credibility level, or perceived credibility level, of any of the particular countries listed:
Denmark, China, Italy, The Netherlands, Mauritania, Slovenia, Nicaragua, The Russian Federation, Spain, Indonesia, Sweden, Norway, Ecuador, Hungary, South Africa, The Phillippines, Maldives, Chile, Singapore, Germany, Australia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Angola, Nigeria, Congo, Burundi, Zambia, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Zimbabwe.If you have been paying any attention to the news, you will note that a few of the above-listed countries suddenly made an about-face, and decided to start supporting NATO and the U.S. in their war of aggression. Why? Why else!? Money. That’s always the bottom line, and there’s no doubt that it will all be exposed, at some time in the future, just as was exposed the lies that the U.S. government told its citizens, and the world, about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. And those same countries were just about to bestow an award on Colonel Gaddafi, for human rights, after having carefully studied Libyan society. So, what’s this about the “brutal dictator?” It’s what my big brother would call it: CHEWED UP GRASS [Bullshit!! For the delicate amongst you, pardon my colorful language].Read the full story here.

• Al-Qaeda flag flies high on top of Benghazi courthouse - Video.(YNet).The black flag of al-Qaeda has been put on top of a courthouse in the Libyan city of Benghazi, further raising concerns that the country could turn into a Muslim extremist entity. "There is no God but Allah" was written in Arabic on the flag raised above the streets of Benghazi, considered the heart of the Libyan revolutionaries who toppled Muammar Gaddafi's regime.According to the Daily Telegraph, citing the news site Vice.com, the flag was flying alongside the Libyan national flag but the National Transitional Council denied it was involved.If that were not enough, Vice.com reported that Islamists were seen driving the streets of Benghazi while waving al-Qaeda flags and shouting, "Islamiya, Islamiya! No East, nor West".Despite the voices of radical Islam coming out of Libya, the appointment late Monday of a US-educated engineering professor with little political experience as Libya's new prime minister suggests that the country's interim rulers may be trying to find a government leader palatable both to the West and to Libyans who distrust anyone connected to the former regime.Abdurrahim el-Keib was chosen late Monday by Libya's National Transitional Council, with 26 of 51 votes. He is to appoint within two weeks a new interim government that will pave the way for the drafting of a constitution, as well as general elections.He replaces outgoing interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, who had pledged to step down after victory over Gaddafi's regime.Hmmmm.......Al-Qaida thanks  Barack 'Hussein' Obama for his cooperation?Read the full story here.

• Unknown hackers access Paltel Palestinian internet provider, disable services.(YNet).Hackers disrupted Palestinian Internet services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the Palestinian telecoms minister said, alleging that a foreign government was behind the interference."All Palestinian IP addresses have been exposed to a focused, organized attack from abroad," Mashour Abu Daqqa told Reuters. "I think this is organized by a state. This is my prediction," he said.Abu Daqqa said technicians from telecoms firm Paltel, an Internet services provider, were working to resolve the problem which also prevented users from viewing foreign websites. They had identified fake servers behind the disruption, he added. "It's between slow and stopped altogether," said Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for the Palestinian Administration in Ramallah. In separate remarks to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abu Daqqa said the attack was linked to the Palestinians' admission to the United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO on Monday - a diplomatic success for the Palestinians and a move opposed by Israel.Hmmmm......"Such is the art of warfare".Read the full story here.

• Is a strike on Iran imminent? (IsraelMatzav).Recently, there have been statements here in Israel that give the impression that a strike against Iran may be imminent.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared to have made a veiled reference to the issue again on Tuesday, when he told the Knesset that Israel may have to protect its vital interests alone, while other reports focused on comments by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who stated this week that difficult decisions were “keeping him up at nights,” without elaborating further.Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about Iran in his address to the opening session of the Knesset on Monday, the first time in quite a while that Iran has been given such prominence. Herb Keinon reports that Israel has the capabilities to carry out a strike. Israel is believed to have a fully prepared plan to launch such a strike, which would likely involve at least several hundred aircraft.Multiple aerial routes are theoretically available for Israeli aircraft to reach targets in Iran. In all those paths though, the jets would likely have to either neutralize or evade radar systems of other countries along the route, as well as face the potential fallout that could follow an intrusion of foreign airspace.Israel also possesses the advanced midair refueling capabilities required for carrying out sorties over multiple Iranian targets situated between 1,500 and 2,000 km. away from home. Possible targets could include uranium- enrichment sites at Natanz and Qom, the uranium- conversion plant at Isfahan, and a heavy water reactor in Arak suspected of being used to pursue a plutonium-based nuclear arms program, as well as additional facilities.But that's only part of the story...............Read the full story here.

• Netanyahu trying to persuade cabinet to support attack on Iran.(Haaretz).Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a "small advantage" in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack. Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move. Senior ministers and diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency's report, due to be released on November 8, will have a decisive effect on the decisions Israel makes.The commotion regarding Iran was sparked by journalist Nahum Barnea's column in Yedioth Ahronoth last Friday. Barnea's concerned tone and his editors' decision to run the column under the main headline ("Atomic Pressure" ) repositioned the debate on Iran from closed rooms to the media's front pages.Reporters could suddenly ask the prime minister and defense minister whether they intend to attack Iran in the near future and the political scene went haywire.Western intelligence officials agree that Iran is forging ahead with its nuclear program. Intelligence services now say it will take Iran two or three years to get the bomb once it decides to (it hasn't made the decision yet ).According to Western experts' analyses, an attack on Iran in winter is almost impossible, because the thick clouds would obstruct the Israel Air Force's performance.Read the full story here.

• Related - Minister Begin: Public debate on strike in Iran 'madness'.(YNet).Minister Benny Begin (Likud) said Wednesday that the public debate on a possible Israeli strike on Iran was "madness."Begin, who is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's special eight-minister security forum said that the debate was "utterly irresponsible" and that it "severely impeded the government's ability to make decisions" on the matter."I fear this kind of irresponsibility, which could lead to similar (behavior) regarding any other government debate. I fear this orchestrated journey by civil servants and the media," he told Army Radio.Begin hinted to former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan's comments on a possible strike in Iran, saying that they constituted "a dangerous breach of trust, verging on megalomania. It's just despicable."Civil servants, he added, "Are obligated to protect state secret they were privy to regardless of time. These kind of acts are very severe."Read the full story here.

• IDF successfully tests ballistic missile.(YNet). The IDF successfully test fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday. The Defense Ministry confirmed that "a prescheduled test of a rocket propulsion system was conducted out of the Palmachim Airbase." The statement offered no further details.Previous similar missile tests included Hetz ("Arrow") missile tests. The Hetz aims to intercept mid-to-long range missiles, like the kind used by Hezbollah. The Defense Ministry did not confirm whether Wednesday's test fire involved a Hetz system.Foreign media reports suggested that Israel might have tested its surface-to-surface Jericho missiles. The report was neither confirmed nor denied by the Defense Ministry. The white tail of smoke left across the sky by the rocket was seen across large parts of central Israel, sparking mass public interest.Concerned citizens who contacted Ynet ventured that the missile might have been evidence of the Iron Dome system scrambling to intercept a Gaza-fired rocket, and some even speculated that it had something to do with the recent reports suggesting the government was mulling a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.Meanwhile, Iran's Chief of Staff Major-General Hassan Fairouz Abadi commented Wednesday on reported Israeli threats to strike against Iran and warned that Tehran would "punish Israel surprisingly" for any kind of "mistake." According to the Abadi, "Even though the likelihood for such an attack is low, we see the threat as a serious threat and are on full alert."He added that "America knows that a Zionist military strike in Iran would cause it major damages in addition to the damages caused to this regime."Hmmmm......"May you live in interesting times.Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history." ~ John F. Kennedy.Read the full story here.

• Egypt's Islamic Camp, Once Suppressed by Regime, Now Taking Part in Shaping New Egypt – Part III: Charter to Regulate Activity of Islamic Organizations, Movements in Egypt.(Memri).Following an increase in the involvement of Islamic and Salafi figures and organizations in the political and media arenas in Egypt since the January revolution, 36 prominent clerics from various Islamic streams have recently drafted a "Charter of Honor for Da'wa and National Activity." The charter sets out guidelines for the cautious and limited participation of Islamic organizations in Egyptian politics and public discourse in post-Mubarak Egypt, with the aim of maximizing Islamic achievements in the upcoming parliamentary elections. It aims to identify common ground among all the Sunni Islamists, so as to enable them to conduct a joint elections campaign or at least to avoid sabotaging each other's chances; promoting the cause of establishing an Islamic shari'a state, while acknowledging that this aim can be achieved only gradually; and making whatever Islamic achievements are currently possible and laying the groundwork for further achievements in the future, while avoiding disagreements.The charter contains contradictions that are characteristic of Islamic discourse seeking to reconcile shari'a law with the rules of play of modern democratic politics. It reflects the dilemmas that the Islamists have been facing since the revolution gave them access to the political arena as legitimate players. For example, the charter advocates the existence of multiple Islamic organizations, but only if they are all Sunni and if they agree on core issues. It advocates pluralism of opinion, but at the same time calls to provide "guidance" to advocates of opinions that "deviate from the truth." It calls for tolerance towards non-Muslims, but only within the boundaries set out by the shari'a, which treats the Christians and Jews as dhimmi. It calls on Islamic streams to reassess their perception of jihad and set out guidelines for waging jihad in the modern world. The charter's signatories include: Former minister of religious endowments Dr. Muhammad Al-Ahmadi Abu Al-Nour; Al-Azhar dean of Islamic da'wa Dr. Tal'at 'Afifi; the former vice-president of the American Open University and current secretary-general of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America, Salafi sheikh Dr. Salah Al-Sawy; the spokesman of the Salafi Da'wa group in Alexandria Sheikh 'Abd Al-Mun'im Al-Shahat; one of the most prominent Salafi sheikhs in Alexandria, Dr. Sa'id 'Abd Al-'Azim; Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya spokesman Sheikh Osama Hafez; Gamal Sultan, one of the most prominent writers for the Egyptian daily Al-Misriyyoun; and others.

Implementing Shari'a Law:

"This charter is an attempt to organize the house of da'wa from within and to set out a series of agreed-upon principles and guidelines, in order to prevent conflict [between Islamic groups]..., eliminate disputes among the groups active in the Islamic [arena], and prepare the ground for a deeper discussion aimed at establishing a [broader] public consensus, Allah willing. Da'wa has entered a completely new phase compared to previous years, when it was subject to coercion and tyranny... The Wasatiyya Research Association, along with a large group of the finest clerics, preachers, and experts, debated the contents of this charter, and determined that it would deal specifically with Egyptian society, with an understanding that many of its clauses can be implemented in other societies as well..."We must revive the concept of voluntary appeal to shari'a courts by individuals, bodies, and institutions, in accordance with shari'a. At the same time, an effort must be made to officially implement shari'a law at the state level. Judgment by shari'a is not the obligation of the political leadership alone, but of the entire nation. The da'wa leaders must prepare the mechanisms that will assist in realizing this...""We must raise the bar of aspiration, and expect to implement the religion as Allah sent it down and to amend all actions that counter the dictates of religion and morality. This does not contradict [the principle of] accepting the possible and [focusing on] what can be achieved in [each] stage, in accordance with the situation..., and preparing the ground for what can be achieved in the future – out of [awareness] that insistence on [goals] that cannot be achieved in the present circumstances will lead to the loss of what can be [achieved] in [both] the present and the future... In implementing the instructions of shari'a, we must accept gradual [progress] in proper stages, when this is required..." The charter also calls to strive for the broadest common denominator among Sunnis at this stage: "It is a duty to preserve [the unity] of the group and the coalition and to avoid schism and disagreement. Any Sunni that can be incorporated [into the Islamic camp], and who shares our general [principles] of integrity and piety, must not be opposed... We must avoid entering into artificial conflicts on questions of religious rulings and problems of secondary [importance], which drain the strength of the clerics, cause the masses to stray from the straight path turn their back on da'wa and the preachers..."In addition, the charter says: "We must avoid airing the jurisprudential disagreements among preachers in the public arena... and resolve them internally, using Islamic mechanisms and means. We must restrain the da'wa discourse; avoid various forms of suppressing freedom of opinion; revive the religious law [that permits] pluralism of opinion; spread a culture of tolerance towards those with different opinions or ideas, accepting their opinions that correlate with the truth, and guiding them on those that contradict the truth; inculcate a spirit of moderacy and kind words in da'wa for the sake of Allah; alternate methods of intimidation with methods of seduction, with a stronger emphasis on seduction; promote activities whose goals are shared by the variety of [forces] active in the Islamic arena, under a broad Sunni umbrella... "We must cooperate with the official religious establishment, showing it respect and treat it as [required by] its status. We must exchange opinions with it, consult with it, and advise it, if needed, so that the official and popular activities complement each other in reviving the religion and benefiting the Muslim community... "The charter also forbids preachers from accusing people of heresy, and upholds a Muslim's right to freedom of expression, so long as it doesn't contradict the shari'a commandments whose validity is absolute: "If someone recognizes the oneness [of Allah] and the mission [of Muhammad], and later becomes infected... with heresy as a result of ignorance or misinterpretation, this does not negate his recognition [of God and the Prophet]... He shall be judged only by a shari'a court. Preachers should steer clear of these narrow corners, so as to avoid disputes and fitna. The freedom to think and express one's opinion in speech, writing, etc. are legitimate rights, as long as they do not harm the shari'a texts that are absolute, and do not [contravene] the fundamental principles on which there is a consensus. No one in the field of da'wa must ever deny this [right] to anyone..."The charter permits establishing and joining various Islamic organizations, as long as they agree on the basics: "Modern Muslim organizations are the building blocks of the Muslim community, and constitute tangible milestones on the road to reviving it in its comprehensive form, so long as they follow the straight Sunni path, and are free of partisan or sectarian extremism. There is nothing wrong with a multitude of such organizations, each one specializing [in its field, as long as] they are at harmony [with each other], agree on the fundamentals of the faith, consult with one another on religious questions that require ijtihad [i.e., independent reasoning], and adopt a unified stance on important issues and questions."Thus, this proliferation [will create] a range of organizations, each specializing in its own field, as opposed to a multitude of competing organizations at odds with each other. Establishing organizations and professional unions and joining them is a legitimate right; it is forbidden only if involves violating unequivocal shari'a [laws], deviating from principles over which there is a consensus, or bringing misfortune and corruption upon Islam and Muslims – as in the case of clandestine or armed activities..."The charter also permits establishing and joining Islamic political parties, with several restrictions: "Promoting religion by means of political activity, through political parties and parliamentary seats, is a modern means of influencing reality in order to partially or completely improve it. This activity lies in the balance between usefulness and corruption. Fatwas on this matter change with the time, the place, and the circumstances. As in the case of other activities, there is no escaping legitimizing [political] activity, while committing to follow [certain] rules and avoiding damage, so that this activity adheres to the straight path."[The political activity of clerics] is permitted so long as it does not exhaust [the cleric's] energy, does not cause him to abuse others, and does not replace [his] da'wa, teaching, and educational activities. In multicultural societies, [any] public political move by clerics must be an Islamic move, not a partisan one. It is unbefitting of clerics to engage [in such a move] when they are divided and scattered... If a joint move is not possible, then their public move should, at the very least, be based on agreement and consultation between all [the forces] through dialogue and coordination..."On the status of religious minorities, the charter says: "Purity of heart and justice are at the base of relations with non-Muslims who seek peace with Muslims on the local and global levels. Differences of religion are not a reason to oppress or abuse anyone... since acknowledging the existence of [other] religions does not mean acknowledging their validity..."Citizenship is a bond of common life and coexistence between sons of a single homeland, no matter how different they are in terms of religious [school] and faith. They have mutual rights and obligations, and are forbidden from [harming] each other's lives, money, and honor, except in accordance with Islamic shari'a and final legal rulings..."The document concludes with the clarification that "inter-religious rapprochement" means "an attempt to establish a secure coexistence between members of different faiths... and find a formula to realize the vital common interests of all people...", but does not mean "merging religions, mixing groups, or striving to find a common theological framework that would distort the unique characteristics of the tenets of each faith or group..."Hmmmm............Sharia Above All and Everything.Read the full story here.

• Up to 5,000 Bosnian Muslims involved with Islamic terror, expert.(Serbianna).Of 100,000 devout Bosnian Muslims, 3,000 to 5,000 are implicated in terrorism, says Dzevad Galijasevic, member of the Expert Team against terrorism and organized crime for the Southeastern Europe.Referred by Galijasevic as “Wahabbi” sects, these terror cells, for those interested in geography, are located in villages Osvam and Bocinja near Maglaj, then in Zeljezno Polje, Serici, Babina Reka, Tetovo near Zenica, Lepenica, Miljanovci near Tesanj, Mehurici by Travnik, Rujnica near Zavidovici, Blagaja near Mostar, Buzima, Sanski Most, Sarajevo, Jablanica and Konjic.Bosnian anti-terror SIPA units have entered one of these extremist villages yesterday. SIPA has raided Ovse and are questioning local Bosnian Muslim leader Izet Hadzic.Galijasevic expressed concern that Western media wants to portray these Islamic terror cells as “foreigners” either as Middle Easterner or as in the case of the recent attacker on the US Embassy as “Serbian citizen”.“That is minimization and undermining of this terror act,” Galijasevic said about this latest incident.Prime Minister of the Serb Republic Milorad Dodik also noted Western efforts to use the media in order to portray the Muslim attacker on the US Embassy as a Serb.“The attacker is portrayed as a Serb, and not a Muslim, or Bosniak or a Wahabbi. Most world media have shown it like this because to most they like the idea that ‘Serbs are the bad guys’,” said Dodik.Dodik also said that Bosnia’s chief Imam, Mustafa Ceric is very much respected by these extremists and that Imam Ceric has direct contacts with them. Dodik says that Imam Ceric along with the son of the former Bosnian Muslim leader Izetbegovic, have direct contacts with the Iranian intelligence service which has its cells in Bosnia.“With that, he [Izetbegovic] creates an atmosphere in which radical Islamist circles can develop in Bosnia. His positions and the ideology of political Islam, but also the positions of the Imam Ceric warm up the entire situation in which Bosnia is the center of Wahhabism that is responsible for the attack on the Embassy in Sarajevo,” says Dodik.Galijasevic is already on the record saying that Imam Ceric is the responsible party for the development of the radical Islam in Bosnia.Galijasevic says that the most important center of extremism in Bosnia is King Fahd mosque in Sarajevo, built by the Saudis, and ran by Imam Ceric’s ally, extremist Nezim Halilovic Muderis.Another significant extremist center is in Travnik madrassa which is led by an ethnic Albanian Imam Safet Durguti.Several years ago, Durguti was on tour through the US visiting Balkan expatriates and offering his inspirational lectures to the believers.Zenica is another center of extremism, says Galijasevic noting that an organization EnSharia is lead by a Middle Eastern extremist Ayman Awad.Inside the Serb Republic, village of Kamenica is an extremist center and one of the Bosnian Muslim terrorists from that village, Rasim Chamo, lives in the United States, and may have links with the Congress of North American Bosniaks that have recently sent a protest letter to the Colombia University over Dodik’s lecture there.Congress of North American Bosniaks is led by Emir Ramic, a Bosnian Muslim with close ties to Ljevakovic family of Bosnian Muslims whose 5 brothers have ties with the Third World Relief Agency deemed a terror funding organization as well as Iranian intelligence (more on this topic here).Read the full story here.

• France - New Prophet cartoons by French magazine set to anger Muslim world.(BikyaMasr).French weekly Satirical magazine ”Charlie Hebdo” is set to stir conterversy and rage from Muslims after it announced that its Wednesday issue will be edited by the Prophet of Islam. A picture of Prophet Mohamed will also appear on the back cover of the magazine with a red nose above the caption “Yes, Islam is compatible with humor.”The magazine said the issue is “honoring” the Arab spring and the celebrating the Islamic victory in the Tunsiain elections recently. The issue will also be full of satiric articles mocking Arab revolutionists. The main slogan of the issue is “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”“In order, fittingly to celebrate the Islamist Ennahda’s win in Tunisia and the NTC [National Transitional Council] president’s promise that Sharia would be the main source of law in Libya, Charlie Hebdo asked Mohamed to be guest editor,” said a statement from the magazine.The magazine, which changed its title for the issue to “Sharia Hebdo,” will feature an editorial “by the Prophet” about Halal drinks and a section for women called “Sharia madame.”The same publication was taken to a Paris court in 2007 by Islamic organizations, who charged it with insulting Islam and publishing offensive pictures of the Prophet.The Paris court threw out a lawsuit brought by two Muslim organizations against Charlie Hebdo for reprinting cartoons of Prophet Mohamed that had appeared in a Danish newspaper, sparking angry protests by Muslims worldwide.Read and see the full story here.

• UPDATED - French magazine firebombed after publishing anti-Islam Prophet Mohamed issue.(BikyaMasr).French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was firebombed early Wednesday morning after it it published its weekly issue that portrayed the Prophet Mohamed as a “guest editor” and also had a cartoon inflammatory to Islam on the back cover.According to the magazine’s publisher Charb, police reported a fire around 5 AM after a Molotov cocktail was thrown threw one of the windows of the office.The magazine’s special edition was on its way to the newsstands when the attack occurred.“We can’t put out the magazine under these conditions,” he said. “The stocks are burned, smoke is everywhere, the paste-up board is unusable, everything is melted, there’s no more electricity.”The magazine’s Web site was hacked earlier, but appeared to have been restored by early Wednesday.The magazine said the issue is “honoring” the Arab spring and the celebrating the Islamic victory in the Tunsiain elections recently. The issue will also be full of satiric articles mocking Arab revolutionists. The main slogan of the issue is “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”“In order, fittingly to celebrate the Islamist Ennahda’s win in Tunisia and the NTC [National Transitional Council] president’s promise that Sharia would be the main source of law in Libya, Charlie Hebdo asked Mohamed to be guest editor,” said a statement from the magazine.The magazine, which changed its title for the issue to “Sharia Hebdo,” will feature an editorial “by the Prophet” about Halal drinks and a section for women called “Sharia madame.”The same publication was taken to a Paris court in 2007 by Islamic organizations, who charged it with insulting Islam and publishing offensive pictures of the Prophet.The Paris court threw out a lawsuit brought by two Muslim organizations against Charlie Hebdo for reprinting cartoons of Prophet Mohamed that had appeared in a Danish newspaper, sparking angry protests by Muslims worldwide.Read the full story here.More here.

• Egypt former Muslim brotherhood candidate Abu Ismail: No gambling, no bikinis, no alcohol, Islamic dress.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Potential presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail said he would not allow drinking alcohol in public places for tourists and would only permit booze in private residences if he is elected as Egypt’s next president, he said in television interview with the “90 minutes” program.He also called for an end to the peace treaty with Israel, saying that restarting relations with Iran is a better solution than maintaining ties with the Jewish state.He confirmed that relations with the US would remain strong as long as “it is bulit on mutual gains and interests.”When asked if he would force women to cover their hair, making the hijab mandatory, he said that this is an issue “of the nation and not the president,” but if elected he would embark on an conservative dress campaign and that one of his first duties would be to push the idea through the appropriate channels to force the Islamic dress on all women.Around 12 percent of Egypt’s population are Coptic Christian and do not veil.The Islamist nominee also vowed to close down gambling casinos, which are only accessible to foreign visitors and not Egyptians currently, and said he would forbid two-piece bathing suits and if a tourist is walking around wearing one, she would be arrested.The Monday night statements were downplayed by secular activists, who still believe that the polls will lean towards a more moderate candidate.Abu Ismail, who started his public life as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, split from the group in order to run in the presidential election, vaguely set for by the ruling military council for some time in 2013.Ismail is one of the stronger and popular potential candidates, although he will be running against a former MB member, Abdel Moneim Aboul Foutoh, who also had to quit the group to be able to run.Read the full story here.

• Egypt man decapitates pregnant fiance over “bad behavior”.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: A 30-year-old man was arrested and charged for murdering and decapitating his fiancee after he had suspected that she was pregnant with a child that was not his own, a source inside Tanta investigative unit reported.Police found the decapitated body of the young female, and the head of the woman in a potato sack, with her clothes not far by.Police said the man, identified as Taner Mohsen Fahim, was behind the murder and the victim was his finacee. The woman was found five months pregnant.He confessed that he did not believe the baby was his, so he killed her. He stabbed her to death and then seperated her head from her body and threw both at sewerage water tunnel, near the village of Shuber, in the Delta region. He filled the sack where he put the body in with heavy rocks, so she wouldn’t reappear on the surface of the water.Honor murders are more common in conservative rural areas of Egypt, and are always performed by a family member or partner.No clear figures are given about how many women lose their lives each year in Egypt due to honor crimes, as many families do not file police reports in these circumstances.The Egyptian legal system is notoriously lenient about honor murders, and generally give weak sentences for the crime.Read the full story here.

Footage of Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi's Son Mutassim Before He Was Killed

Source : Memri.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation update: Turkey 7.3 - 5.9  !More info here.

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

• Video -Powerful earthquake hits Turkey.(YNet).A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit near Van in southeastern Turkey on Sunday near the border with Iran, Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Research Institute said, and media reported some buildings had collapsed. The institute said the earthquake struck at 10:41 am GMT and was 5 kilometers (three miles) deep. The US Geological Survey earlier reported that the magnitude was 7.6.State-run news agency Anatolian said some buildings had collapsed. After shocks continued after the initial quake, Anatolian said. "Two buildings collapsed in Van, but the telephone system is jammed due to panic and we can't assess the entire damage immediately," Bekir Kaya, the mayor of Van, told NTV television. The state-run Anatolia news agency said rescue workers were trying to reach people believed to be trapped under the wreckage of a seven-story building in Van, close to the Iranian border.A Reuters reporter in Hakkari, a town around 100 km (60 miles) south of the city of Van in southeastern Turkey, said he could feel the building sway for around 10 seconds. There was no immediate sign of any casualties or damage in Hakkari, around two and half hours drive through the mountains from Van, around 20 km (12 miles) from the epicenter.IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz has instructed the army to get ready to aid Turkey in coping with the powerful quake. Gantz said that an IDF delegation will head to Turkey once it receives approval from the government. Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the head of the Political-Military Affairs section at the ministry, Amos Gilad to offer Turkey "all the help in needs". Major geological fault lines cross Turkey and small earthquakes are a near daily occurrence. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.Read and see the full story here.

• Forensics complete autopsy on Muammar Qaddafi’s body but disclose no information.(AlArabiya).Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the “way his death happened poses an entire number of questions,” and called for a probe.Libyan forensic doctors carried out an autopsy overnight on the body of Muammar Qaddafi, the former Libyan leader killed last week, one of the people involved in the autopsy told Reuters on Sunday.“We worked all through the night. We just got done,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He did not reveal any of the autopsy’s findings.The autopsy was carried out at a morgue in the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli. Local officials said Qaddafi’s body would now be brought back to the cold store at an old market in Misrata where it has been on public display.Military commanders in Misrata said on Saturday that no autopsy would be carried out on the body despite concerns over how he died. As the rigid, bloodied, yellow corpses of Qaddafi and his son Mutassim lay on dirty mattresses on the metal floor of the glacial makeshift mortuary, hundreds of Libyans were allowed inside to view them.A man identifying himself as Sadiq said he was only 18 when the former dictator took power in 1969.“All my adult life I lived with this low life, this...” said the 60-year-old, who declined to give his last name, spattering curses against Qaddafi.“But he is dead and I am happy,” he said, laughing.U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay also called for an investigation, as did Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International, who said that if Kadhafi "was killed after his capture, it would constitute a war crime and those responsible should be brought to justice."NTC leaders are adamant he was shot in the head when he was caught “in crossfire” between his supporters and new regime fighters soon after his capture.Interim prime minister Mahmud Jibril told the BBC’s Hardtalk program that he would rather Qaddafi had survived.“To be honest with you at the personal level I wish he was alive. I want to know why he did this to the Libyan people,” he said. “I wish I were his prosecutor in his trial.”Jibril added that it would be “absolutely OK” to carry out a full investigation under international supervision into the killing, as long as Islamic burial rules were respected.Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an investigation was being conducted into the circumstances of Qaddafi’s killing after several foreign governments and human rights watchdogs posed questions. Abdel Jibril said that they are dealing with the subject with transparency. Read the full story here.

• BP wins approval to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico.(BBC).BP has won approval to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, 18 months after a well blowout killed 11 workers and caused an environmental disaster.Regulators approved plans for drilling to depths of up to 6,000ft about 200 miles off the coast of New Orleans.US officials said in a statement: "Our review of BP's plan included verification of BP's compliance with the heightened standards."The Gulf's Kaskida oilfield could contain up to 3bn barrels of crude.The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said BP's exploration plan meets the stringent standards issued by the government after last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, as well as the additional self-imposed standards that BP has taken.In the months following the Deepwater affair, many analysts questioned whether BP had a future in the US.Last week, there were reports in the US that BP would not be barred from participating in an upcoming offshore oil and gas lease sale.Read the full story here.

• "CHANGE" - Monster Prediction From BofA: Another US Debt Downgrade Is Coming In Just A Few Weeks.(BussinessInsider).In an analyst note, Bofa/ML Ethan S. Harris drops a bit of a bombshell prediction:  We expect a moderate slowdown in the beginning of next year, as two small policy shocks—another debt downgrade and fiscal tightening—hit the economy. The “not-so-super” Deficit Commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. Since the fall-back plan is sharp cuts in discretionary spending, the whole point of the Committee is to put taxes and entitlements on the table. However, all the Republican members have signed the Norquist “no taxes” pledge and with taxes off the table it is hard to imagine the liberal Democrats on the Committee agreeing to significant entitlement cuts. The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super Committee crashes.This is quite a stunning prediction, mainly because nobody is talking about this. And though the experts were 100% wrong in thinking that a downgrade would increase borrowing costs, it did cause a major market jolt when it happened, leading to a major blow to confidence in August and September.Another round of that would certainly not be helpful.Hense Harris' note is titled "Enjoy It While It Lasts." We have a nice little upswing in economic data, but next year could be rough again, when these confidence shocks hit.Hmmmm......."We made all the right decisions"?Read the full story here.

• Warning! Progressives’ NPV Plan for White House Control, 2012 and Permanently.(NewZeal).Gulag Bound.By Jacquerie.While the lamestream media holds public attention on GOP candidate rivalries, a “progressive” strategy is underway to eliminate the role of the states in electing a U.S. President. By transferring electoral votes to a “national popular vote” this “Compact” would usurp the role of the states as safeguarded by our Constitution. In doing so, it could also neutralize Obama’s critics — totally.This may be the most vital – and time sensitive - expose WAM has ever uncovered and shared! And it’s happening now, under the radar, with the general public in the dark. This “ultimate vote fraud” is intentionally complicated to keep it obscure until it’s too late to stop it. This complete expose on the “National Popular Vote Compact” won’t be found elsewhere. Because of the complexity and urgency of this issue. read it through completely. See who is behind this scheme and what its intended consequences are.Then spread the word in your blogs, forums and forward to all your contacts now. There is still time to block the NPVC sufficient states passage – only if we act now!All of US urgently need to contact our State Assemblymen, State Senators and Governors to vehemently oppose this covert measure! See below the real facts of this manipulation of the Constitution and American electorate. See Your State Status and action needed in last column.Called the “National Popular Vote Compact” this movement has been in the works nationwide – without public attention – on a state-by-state level since at least 2008.Like other surreptitious actions against the U.S. Constitution, the NPVC “movement” has several promotional websites claiming to represent “true democracy.”The NPVC is a bill now moving state-by-state to make the popular vote winner President by bypassing normal requirements to amend the Constitution. Tts outcome would ensure the Presidency would be declared by giving all the required 270 Electoral Votes needed for a “winner” to the candidate who wins the largest number of popular votes nationally – no matter how small the win margin and no difference how many states voted to oppose him. Here’s how it works: Once enough states have passed the NPVC bill into law to reach the requisite 270 Electoral Votes (by totaling the EV’s of those states which pass this bill) the NPVC goes into immediate effect in the next – and all subsequent – Presidential elections. It doesn’t matter how strongly other states oppose this. We’d all have to go along, if even a minority of states pass it! • Currently, this bill has passed enough state houses to reach more than 160 EV’s – so they are well over half way to their goal right now.According to most up-to-date information this National Popular Vote Pact has already passed 1 of the 2 required chambers in more than 30 other states- without public attention.If their magic number of 270 EV totaling states is reached, it won’t matter how the rest of the states vote on this; nor whether other states never take up the bill; not even if other states vehemently object and oppose this action. It would be the Law of the Land!This sneaky scheme to upend Constitutional rights and protections of all states and their residents in selecting the nation’s leader is underway as an explicit attempt to defeat the careful Constitutional amendment process with no public knowledge, no voter input, no public referendums and no input from states which object to this measure. All NPVC takes is a portion of current state houses to make it law for all of us – always!
Who is behind the National Popular Vote Compact?George Soros – and that’s not all. If you have any doubt left about the purpose of this Constitutional reversal in favor of a Presidency by national popular vote, consider these facts and check out these references:

Summary: George Soros favorite game is taking over the politics (and governments) of countries. If you’re not familiar with his bio, you should be. See here his role in the bogus movement toward a popular vote. Soros son, Jonathan, propaganized ”It’s’ time to junk the electoral college” all the way back in 2008. We know by know how their ilk uses long-term, heavily financed astro-turf “reform” movements – under cover of nice-sounding names, multiple websites and distorted messages to increase their public appeal. Here’s what the National Popular Vote movement wants you to believe. Their operatives began moving this Plan through state assemblies even before 2008 election. See an actual chart of the scope of Soros spiderweb of behind-the-scenes influence here.

What’s their game: Take the 2012 election – and those that follow – by the cheapest, most expedient means. Save time and money by focusing “electioneering efforts” (including illegitimate ones) in major population areas to make those vote totals overwhelm the votes of the rest of US. This makes it easy for Obama to continue ignoring increased public resistance – if half the states and nearly half the voters just won’t count anymore anyway. Most of US are by now familiar with the bombardment of attempts to subvert our government under cover of populist propaganda to appear “more truly democratic.” See below those behind this clever manipulation of the law – to pass a “newer and better” way to choose a President without the proper Constitutional amendment.(And somebody tell them our founding fathers formed a Republic, not a democracy!)

Meet the Men behind this “Compact”: Vikram Amar & Akhil Reed Amar. The National Public Vote Compact bill, promoted nationwide, came from this source in 2001. Since then, the same bill based on their strategy has been filed in states nationwide!Digging into the background of the National Public Vote Compact – as a means to radically and permanently shift the basis of the Presidency, here’s what we found: highly credentialed attorneys (and brothers) who devised this “state bill” compact, as a strategy to get around the normal requirements for constitutional amendment – and, instead, undermine the Electoral College by bypassing both Congress and the voters! V. Amar is the author of hundreds of legal articles and several books. Although his age is included in a wiki-bio, Vikram’s country of origin is not mentioned. His articles cover topics like this:”Should Christian groups on state campuses by allowed to restrict their membership to Christians.” Many articles are aimed at using the legal system against the Constitution. Here’s two books he’s written: “Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking” and The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. Akhil Amar has also “recently proposed that every American should be required to undergo a DNA test so that a national DNA database can be created.” Together this pair has made many other monstrous “legalese” proposals including how an “Instant Run Off System” could “remedy the flaws” in America’s voting system; term-limiting Supreme Court Justices and improving the Presidential line of succession in the event of “election terrorism.” By no strange coincidence, the brainstormer of this end-run to trick the public and the Constitution by a minority of favorable state lawmakers, Vikram, also keeps busy writing frequent legal articles in defense of the constitutionality of ObamaCare! Need we wonder who is financing this scribe?

Conclusion: WAM has done the math and citizen action is urgent to stop this Compact! States where it has already passed add up to 171 Electoral Votes of the 270 required. 81 more Electoral Votes are at stake in states where NPV has passed 1 of the 2 needed chambers. Additionally, States where NPV is listed as currently active legislation hold more than 100 EV. There are under 100 total (electoral vote bearing states) more for this to be our law nationally – and there are way more than enough states with this in process to meet that end goal before 2012 Election!!! Shockingly, numerous Republican state officials have fallen for the popular vote strategy. Enough GOP have supported it, for NPV.com to brag this is a “bi-partisan” measure (along with bogus polls claiming how We the People want this!) Banners of progressive newspaper editorial endorsements are topped (of course) by the New York Times. Some GOP have co-sponsored this in their state. More have even voted for its passage! Whether these are ill-informed, popularity-seeking, bribed or just too dumb to do the math we can’t say. What we know is this probably means no more Republican presidents ever – and Obama back in 2012, if only by the tiniest of margins!Evidently, it’s going to take all of US to contact our own state assemblyman, state senator and governor to inform them of how destructive (and “progressive”) this national vote compact really is.Hmmmm..........“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read and see the full story here.

• Rebels: Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam captured alive.(MSN).Slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi's influential son and heir-apparent, Saif al-Islam, has been captured alive and uninjured, rebel sources told NBC News on Saturday. Saif al-Islam and Moussa Ibrahim, the former spokesman for the Gadhafi's regime, were both captured in the Libyan city of Nessma, near Bani Walid, and were currently being transported to Misrata, rebel forces told NBC News.The collaring of Gadhafi's fugitive son and spokesman could not be immediately verified. Rebel forces have been incorrect in the past with their reporting of the conditions and whereabouts of Gadhafi's loyalists.Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, whose name means "Sword of Islam," was the most elusive of the late Libyan leader's eight offspring. He was wanted on war crimes charges but evaded a manhunt for months to remain the only leading family member still at large.Rebels credited the Osoud el Wadi brigade, which translates as "Lions of the Valley," with the latest roundup of Gadhafi arrests.Meantime, Gadhafi's body remained in Misrata, bearing wounds assumed to have been inflicted by fighters from the city who hauled him from a drain in his hometown Sirte.Gadhafi's family and international human rights groups have urged an inquiry into how Gadhafi, 69, was killed, since gory cellphone video footage showed him alive but being beaten and taunted by his captors. Controversy has surrounded the fate of Saif al-Islam, the most enigmatic of Gadhafi's children. He apparently turned within weeks from philanthropist and liberal reformer into a fighter ready to die on his home soil rather than surrender.A senior official of the National Transitional Council said on Friday that it was suspected that Saif al-Islam had fled south from the last Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte towards Libya's border with Niger, where another son has already taken refuge. Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya. But when a rebellion broke out in February against his father's 42-year rule, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships in the West. "We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya," he told Reuters TV in an interview early in the rebellion. Three of Gadhafi's sons have died on their home soil during the civil war. Gadhafi's four other children — three sons and a daughter — are scattered in exile in neighboring Algeria and Niger.Read the full story here.Related - How much damage could Saif still do to Britain: Why New Labour may not relish Gaddafi's son telling all in a war trial.Read the full story here.
  

• The Iraq War Ain’t Over, No Matter What Obama Says.(Wired).President Obama announced on Friday that all 41,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq will return home by December 31. “That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end,” he said. Don’t believe him. Now: it’s a big deal that all U.S. troops are coming home. For much of the year, the military, fearful of Iranian influence, has sought a residual presence in Iraq of several thousand troops. But arduous negotiations with the Iraqi government about keeping a residual force stalled over the Iraqis’ reluctance to provide them with legal immunity.But the fact is America’s military efforts in Iraq aren’t coming to an end. They are instead entering a new phase. On January 1, 2012, the State Department will command a hired army of about 5,500 security contractors, all to protect the largest U.S. diplomatic presence anywhere overseas.The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security does not have a promising record when it comes to managing its mercenaries. The 2007 Nisour Square shootings by State’s security contractors, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed, marked one of the low points of the war. Now, State will be commanding a much larger security presence, the equivalent of a heavy combat brigade. In July, Danger Room exclusively reported that the Department blocked the Congressionally-appointed watchdog for Iraq from acquiring basic information about contractor security operations, such as the contractors’ rules of engagement.That means no one outside the State Department knows how its contractors will behave as they ferry over 10,000 U.S. State Department employees throughout Iraq — which, in case anyone has forgotten, is still a war zone. Since Iraq wouldn’t grant legal immunity to U.S. troops, it is unlikely to grant it to U.S. contractors, particularly in the heat and anger of an accident resulting in the loss of Iraqi life.It’s a situation with the potential for diplomatic disaster. And it’s being managed by an organization with no experience running the tight command structure that makes armies cohesive and effective.You can also expect that there will be a shadow presence by the CIA, and possibly the Joint Special Operations Command, to hunt persons affiliated with al-Qaida. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has conspicuously stated that al-Qaida still has 1,000 Iraqi adherents, which would make it the largest al-Qaida affiliate in the world.So far, there are three big security firms with lucrative contracts to protect U.S. diplomats. Triple Canopy, a longtime State guard company, has a contract worth up to $1.53 billion to keep diplos safe as they travel throughout Iraq. Global Strategies Group will guard the consulate at Basra for up to $401 million. SOC Incorporated will protect the mega-embassy in Baghdad for up to $974 million. State has yet to award contracts to guard consulates in multiethnic flashpoint cities Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as the outpost in placid Irbil.“We can have the kind of protection our diplomats need,” Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough told reporters after Obama’s announcement. Whether the Iraqi people will have protection from the contractors that the State Department commands is a different question. And whatever you call their operations, the Obama administration hopes that you won’t be so rude as to call it “war.”Read the full story here.

• Afghanistan to back Pakistan if wars with U.S.: Karzai.(Reuters).Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday.The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbors over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20."God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan," he said in the interview to Geo television."If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you."Such a situation is extremely unlikely, however. Despite months of tension and tough talk between Washington and Islamabad, the two allies appear to be working to ease tension. In a two-day visit to Islamabad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued stern warnings and asked for more cooperation in winding down the war in Afghanistan, but ruled out "boots on the ground" in North Waziristan, where Washington has been pushing Pakistan to tackle the Haqqani network.The Haqqani are a group of militants Washington has blamed for a series of attacks in Afghanistan, using sanctuaries in the Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border.Pakistan is seen as a critical to the U.S. drive to end the conflict in Afghanistan.Pressure on Islamabad has been mounting since U.S. special forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in May in a Pakistani garrison town, where he apparently had been living for years.The secret bin Laden raid was the biggest blow to U.S.-Pakistan relations since Islamabad joined the U.S. "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.Karzai said tensions between the United States and Pakistan did not have any impact in his country's attitude toward Pakistan.The TV channel, Geo, did not say when the interview was conducted.Afghans have long been suspicious of Pakistan's intentions in their country and question its promise to help bring peace. Karzai repeated that concern in his remarks."Please brother, stop using all methods that hurt us and that are now hurting you."Let's engage from a different platform, a platform in which the two brothers only progress toward a better future in peace and harmony," he said.Following the death of Rabbani, Karzai said he would cease attempting to reach out to the Afghan Taliban and instead negotiate directly with Pakistan, saying its military and intelligence services could influence the militants to make peace.Hmmm......Don't you love our 'allies'?Read the full story here.

• Islam and Islamists.(DocsTalk).The term "Islamist" is in common use to refer to Muslim individuals and organizations that adhere to Islamic law's political aspects (most notably its denial of any legitimacy of a separation between religion and the state) and consequently most fiercely oppose America, Israel and the West in general. The implication is that Islam itself, in its authentic form, has no requisite political aspect, and no incompatibility with Western values or democratic government.The problem with this is that it is a Western, artificial distinction, imposed by non-Muslims upon the Islamic world and lacking any real substance with reference to Islamic law as it has always been formulated by the Sunni and Shi'ite madhahib (schools of jurisprudence). Islam has always been political, and the union of religion and the state has always been essential to its political program; the idea that all this can and should be separated from Islam proper is the wishful thinking of Western analysts who do not wish to face the implications of the fact that these ideas represent mainstream Islamic thinking.In line with this, I recently received this email from a Jihad Watch reader in Canada:

A conversation with several friends on Facebook erupted into something quite extraordinary. An 18 year old Muslim student, from Western University and born in Mississauga had this to say about the distinction between Islam and Islamism:"case and point on why you dont understand Islam. No one makes this distinction [between Islam and Islamism] other then the Western world, for the sake of having a tidy little system to classify everything. Our religion and political ideology are one. Furthermore, I really wouldnt use the term islamist or Islamism. Many muslims, including myself, find the term deeply offensive."In other words, IN CANADA, there is an entire generation of Muslims who openly subscribe to 'Islamism' as indistinguishable from Islam.Hmmm....Seems like there is no 'light' version of Islam.Read the full story here.

• Canada - Police uniforms include the hijab.(TorontoSun).Whether it’s worn by a police officer, hockey player, usher, or soldier, surely the ostensible reason for donning a uniform is to have, well, uniformity.But things are changing in regard to uniforms at that ever-sensitive “service” formerly known as the Toronto police force.Indeed, the police have announced they’re going to accommodate Muslim policewomen who want to wear the hijab on duty.Some might hail such a move as another shining example of “reasonable accommodation”; others — count me among them — look upon this directive as another assault against Canadian traditions.Yet again, a public institution appears to be bowing to the tyranny of political correctness — bending over backwards to accommodate certain individuals, some of whom are quite unaccommodating of western values.The question arises: What’s driving this directive? Why is it important for the police to have hijab-wearing policewomen in the first place?Contrary to widespread popular belief, the Qur’an doesn’t mandate Muslim women to wear the hijab.In this regard, the apparel accommodation isn’t the same as allowing a Sikh to wear a turban.(I’d also argue there’s an historical reason for permitting Sikhs to wear turbans, given that Sikh military brigades have long been an integral part of the British Empire.) If anything, the hijab is a political statement and a symbol of fundamentalism.In some cases, a woman wearing such a headscarf is being pressured by her family to do so (case in point, the dearly departed Aqsa Parvez.) Either way, seeing such a garment as part of a police uniform is odd. Imagine if a citizen was to call the cops regarding a suspected honour killing in the neighbourhood and the policewoman who responds is decked out in a hijab? Would this not be unsettling?Also, the police have surely put themselves in a sticky situation regarding haberdashery accommodation.For example, if a female police officer demands that she be allowed to wear a niqab or a burqa, how could such a request possibly be denied, given the precedent that’s been set with the hijab?Indeed, just how far do we take reasonable accommodation in the police department?Do Muslim police officers reserve the right not to work with the Canine Unit, given that many Muslims consider dogs “unclean”?Will ham sandwiches be banned from police stations due to dietary restrictions?As well, is there not a profound double-standard at play here?Read the full story here.

• Canada: Controversial Muslim Conference to go Ahead in Mississauga.(Vinienco).The conference Calling the World Back to Allah, which has raised so much dust throughout the GTA over the last few weeks after being linked to allegations of anti-Semitic and anti-gay remarks, will indeed go ahead over the weekend.The event will now be held at ISNA Canada (Islamic Society of North America, Canada), at its Mississauga headquarters.ISNA staff confirmed that the conference is now scheduled to take place on its premises this Sunday, Oct 23.But at the same time, they also sought to distance themselves from the event. “ISNA is not organizing the conference, all we’re doing is providing a venue for the event,” was the response to a Focus query.The full-day conference is part of the Canada Launch Tour of the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), a British organization seeking to establish a presence in Toronto and Montreal.The conference in Toronto was earlier scheduled to be held at the Sheraton Centre, but appeared to have been effectively nixed after allegations emerged that speakers at the conference had made disparaging remarks about gays and Jews.Another conference had been scheduled for Montreal late this week, at Concordia University, but appeared to have been cancelled, as at the time of filing this report.In a sidelight to unfolding events, various faith groups representing different denominations plan to demonstrate outside ISNA headquarters in Mississauga against the holding of the conference.“The Canadian Hindu Advocacy, along with a multifaith coalition, will be joining the Jewish Defence League of Canada on Sunday 3-5pm to protest outside Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga,” Ron Banerjee of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy said in a statement.An official release listed the names of several faith groups — including Pakistani Christians, Egyptian Copts, other Hindu organizations as well as Sikhs — as forming part of the demonstrators.While the conference has raised such deep passions within various communities — as well as South Asians — due to its speakers having allegedly expressed both anti-gay and anti-Semitic sentiments, Banerjee sought to make a distinction on Hindus’ stance regarding gays.“I’m not a priest, but I’d say the difference really is between expressing disapproval of gays versus inciting actual violence against them,” he said.Banerjee added the Hindu religion itself has historically been slightly more tolerant of gays.Meanwhile, media reports also say the advocacy Banerjee heads often opposes Islam and Sikhism. During a speech at a 2010 rally for right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Banerjee reportedly said Islam is less a religion than an ideology.Banerjee also has his detractors within Hinduism, the faith he purports to represent.For instance the Hindu Federation, headed by Roopnauth Sharma, recently said that “self-proclaimed representatives” of the community do not speak for more than 80 per cent of the Hindus in Ontario.The federation is a coalition of at least 14 GTA area temples.Read the full story here.

• Turkey’s hidden love affair for Sharia.(WashingtonTimes). SuzanneFields.Erdogan pivots from secular West to Islamist East.A young American man with black hair and dark brown eyes checked into a small hotel in Capadaccio, where visitors to Turkey flock to see the famous lava formations carved into the landscape.“Are you Muslim?” the clerk asked, acknowledging his Semitic features.“No, I’m Jewish,” the young man replied, smiling and assuming the question was asked in good faith and good humor.“Oh, the clerk replied, disappointment in his voice. “This is not a good time for Jews in Turkey.”A general observation rather than a personal one, but it was true enough. This is not a good time for Jews in Turkey. The bond between Israel and Turkey, once strong, is now frayed and weak. The closeness of the two modern countries was forged in their dedication to democratic secularism, with strong trade, military ties and unifying attitudes toward economic growth binding them together. Turkey was the first country with a Muslim majority to recognize the state of Israel.Western dress is associated with Western ideas, and the ideas - but not the dress - seem to be disappearing. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has turned away sharply from the West.Israel is the canary in the coal mine, the first to breathe the toxic fumes of political change as the Turks seek to win Islamist friends. The government expelled the Israeli ambassador and cut military ties with Israel after the Israelis refused to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish “activists” on a ship in a Turkish-based flotilla attempting to break the Israeli embargo to Gaza. Israel has expressed “regret for the loss of life,” and a United Nations investigation concluded that the Israeli blockade was legal and the Israeli commandos acted only in the face of “organized and violent resistance.”The Turkish reaction sounds like a ploy to signal Islamists that Turkey is on their side. “While diplomats and generals too often ascribe tensions between Turkey and the West to a reaction to the Iraq War,” says Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, “or disappointment with the slow pace of the European Union-accession process, or anger at the death of nine Turks killed in a clash with Israeli forces aboard the blockade-challenging Mavi Marmara, in reality Turkey’s break from the West was the result of a deliberate and steady strategy initiated by Mr. Erdogan upon assuming the reins of government.” Mr. Erdogan emphasized his secularism initially and Western officials, eager to believe him, ignored his record and his party’s ties to Islamist ideology.“Thank God Almighty,” said Mr. Erdogan in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.” His favorite newspaper, an anti-Western daily, espouses “neo-Ottomism,” celebrating Turkey’s imperial past in contrast to Attaturk’s modernism. Many in the West hailed his reduction of the army, but he destroyed the check-and-balance role of the military without putting a civilian alternative in its place. The prime minister has locked up without charges secular officers, journalists and opposition leaders.Western governments presumed that Turkey allowed NATO to build a radar station on its soil to monitor a nuclear threat from Iran, but on a recent trip to Africa, Mr. Erdogan made a point of saying that the real nuclear threat is from Israel. He dallied on imposing sanctions against Syrian repression and now says the United Nations should sanction Israel.When a young populist politician in 1999, Mr. Erdogan ran afoul of Turkey’s constitutionally mandated secularism and was imprisoned for reciting a poem expressing militant Islam: “Minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks, and the believers our army.” Many Turks, who have learned that keeping a low profile is the better part of survival, fear Mr. Erdogan was not merely reciting poesy, but speaking his mind and biding his time.Hmmm......What's the 'hidden' link between Erdogan and Obama you may ask?Read the full story here.

• How much has Israel's safety deteriorated under Obama's presidency?(PajamasMedia).By BarryRubin.Remember a peculiar fact: even though Gaddafi was generally a horribly repressive anti-American dictator, in his final years he tried making a deal with the Americans. Gaddafi was frightened by the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003 and didn’t want to be next on the list. So he cooperated, gave up his nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs, and reduced his foreign subversive efforts.That did not save him from being overthrown by the United States, just as it did not save a genuine American ally, President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. On this point, I’m not advocating anything about what the United States should have done in Libya but just observing how it will be received in the region.Bashing the West in the current era brings little cost. Here’s a partial list:

Egypt: Obama courts Muslim Brotherhood and is indifferent to anti-Americanism of the newly empowered political forces

Gaza Strip: Terrorist Hamas gets Western support to stay in power, including bashing of Israel’s military operation and pressure on Israel to minimize sanctions.

Lebanon: No opposition to Syria-Iran sponsored forces and Hizballah; readiness to deal with the government they now control; no enforcement of 2006 UN resolution to stop arms smuggling and Hizballah’s return to the south. Incidentally, on the same day Gaddafi dies the first Hizballah delegation is officially received in Moscow.

Palestinian Authority: Refuses negotiations with Israel; refuses compromise; ignores U.S. requests but gets rewarded by the whole world while its enemy Israel is reviled.

Syria: Courted by the Obama administration; protected at the UN by a Russia-China veto, facing only very limited pressure despite massive repression.

Turkey: No punishment for regime’s sabotage of 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, sabotage of sanctions on Iran, alliance with radical Islamist forces. In fact, Obama administration rewards.

In contrast, allies — Bahrain, Mubarak’s Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the moderate oppositions in Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey — are not helped or are even punished by the West and especially the U.S. government.

Thus, the region will note that when Gaddafi was a leading sponsor of terrorism, subversion, and anti-Americanism, he got away with it. When he was on “good terms” with the United States, he lost power. That might not be fair, but it seems to make sense in terms of Middle Eastern political philosophy.Hmmm.......Indeed...."I will stand with my Muslim Brothers".Read the full story here.

• Turkish Piri Reis exploring for oil and gas in Cypriot waters.(CM). Navies from at least three countries are converging on the eastern Mediterranean in the vicinity of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to reports yesterday, as Turkey continued talking tough and asserting its geo-strategic interests in the region.The Jerusalem Post said Turkey has deployed gunboats and helicopters to escort its research vessel, the Piri Reis, as it explores for gas and oil. According to the paper, the United States has discreetly dispatched an aircraft, and Russian naval vessels have been seen patrolling.The same report said US reconnaissance planes have circled the Piri Reis on at least two occasions, and on another occasion low-flying Israeli fighter jets and choppers “harassed” a Turkish ship.Local media meanwhile said a French corvette was expected to arrive in waters southwest of Cyprus’ Block 12 gas prospect and would be patrolling the area for a month. Other reports insisted a Russian submarine is already patrolling the same waters, while a Russian “armada,” or an aircraft carrier, is set to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.The Piri Reis was said to be operating within Block 12 in relative proximity to the Homer Ferrington rig, located some 160 km off the coast. Vessel-tracking website marinetraffic.com likewise placed the Turkish ship there.Turkey’s Institute of Marine Science and Technology, which owns and operates the vessel, said the Piri Reis would remain in the area for a week more.Turkey disputes Cypriot and Israeli offshore territorial claims and says Cyprus should not exploit resources until it resolves a standoff with its breakaway Turkish-speaking north.Energy reserves in the Mediterranean have further raised the stakes in existing political disputes in the region.Dependence on imported energy has helped push Turkey’s current account deficit to about 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year.The US Geological survey estimates that the Levant Basin, a triangular slice of the Mediterranean lying between Cyprus and Israel, may hold 122 trillion cubic feet of gas. That's more than the 86.2 trillion cubic feet held by all EU countries combined, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.Speaking on Turkish television channel Kanal 7, Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis called Greek Cypriots the “Trojan Horse of Israel”.Bagis reiterated that Cypriot drilling was a “provocation” to Ankara, adding: “They are drilling holes in the Mediterranean … as if the natural resources around the island are a fizzy drink. It’s not as if the gas is going anywhere.”And Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu again stressed the Turkish side would press ahead with explorations as long as Greek Cypriots continued doing so.“As you know, we have rights in these territories, we also have rights in the undersea resources,” Eroglu told reporters.Responding to Bagis’ comments, Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said gung-ho statements like these show that Turkey not adhere to international rules. “It is the EU candidate who must adapt to the bloc, and not vice versa,” said Marcoullis. “It seems they have not understood this basic fact which governs the relations of all candidate countries.”She confirmed that the government has made representations to the United Nations Security Council over the Piri Reis’ forays into Cypriot waters.Hmmm.....I'm Obama's best buddy i can bully the whole world....It's mine....All mine?Read the full story here.

• Vice Premier Ya'alon: 'Additional construction freeze would be ethnic cleansing'.(JPost).By Gil Hoffman.Vice Premier Ya'alon responds to reports that Netanyahu willing to partially freeze settlement construction if Abbas resumes direct talks: "Islamic fundamentalism, not settlements, cause of ME instability."Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon came out fiercely against a reported proposal for an Israeli construction moratorium in Judea and Samaria Saturday night, calling the prohibition of Jewish building “ethnic cleansing.”Speaking to a packed audience at Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, Ya’alon referred indirectly to a Haaretz report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is willing to freeze all construction on government land in West Bank settlements if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas resumes direct diplomatic negotiations. The demand for territory without Jews anywhere else would be called ethnic cleansing,” Ya’alon said. “We cannot accept a demand for ethnic cleansing in the land of Israel.”Ya’alon said that Israel was under pressure from people who incorrectly believe the cause of the Middle East conflict is the building of homes in Judea and Samaria. He denounced that theory as “a corrupt way of thinking” and explained why the true cause of Middle East instability was the Islamic fundamentalism emanating from Iran.The vice premier expressed confidence that an International Atomic Energy Association report set to be released on November 7 would expose to any remaining skeptics in the international community the military intentions of Iran’s nuclear program. He said he hoped sanctions on Iran could then be tightened.Ya’alon called the Arab Spring “a regional earthquake” that exposed young Muslims to Western ideals such as human rights, women’s rights, freedom of speech, and “the sanctity of life as opposed to the sanctity of death.”But he said he was not encouraged by radical elements apparently gaining the upper hand in Egypt and Tunisia, al-Qaida infiltrating Libya and Iran attempting to export its Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Arab world.He made a point of not explaining his vote against the Gilad Schalit deal beyond what he had said before about his heart saying yes and his head saying no.“We should be happy about the reunification of Schalit’s family but prepared to deal with the consequences for the future as a government and a society,” he said.Read the full story here.

• Stabbing attack in Jerusalem;17.year old youth severely wouned.(YNet).Police and army forces continued to search for a suspect who stabbed a Jewish youth at the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on Saturday. The police believe that the attack, which left the victim, 17-year-old Yehuda Ne'emad, with serious injures, was nationalistically motivated.IDF troops were stationed at the entrance to Kfar Iksa, a nearby Palestinian village, and a police helicopter hovered above the region for hours in an attempt to locate the attacker. Large police forces from the Jerusalem District scoured the area as well in coordination with the IDF.The forces arrived at Kfar Iksa, which is located west of Jerusalem, and searched the homes in the village, where the suspect is believed to be hiding. A joint army and police operations center was set up on the outskirts of the village to coordinate the manhunt.Defense establishment officials estimate that the terrorist exploited the fact that the separation fence, which divides Israeli and Palestinian territories, does not extend to Kfar Iksa, which is located less than half a kilometer from Ramot. The attacker could have slipped in and out of the neighborhood unimpeded.Earlier, forensic experts scoured the crime scene for evidence. Dozens of curious onlookers gathered at the site.  "We are currently conducting an investigation and checking all possible leads," Police Commander Haim Blumenfeld said. "We have evidence from the scene, and at the moment the primary lead focuses on a nationalistic motive."Magen David Adom emergency services said that the teen was stabbed twice, in the abdomen and in the back. He was rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem in serious condition. The patient underwent a surgery and hospital officials said later that his condition had improved. His state was defined as moderate, and he appears to be out of immediate danger. Waiting outside the operating room, the Ne'emad's father told Ynet that he was informed of the attack by his younger son. "It is a great scare, and we are trying to deal with it," he said. "We are mostly busy with praying for him right now.""We won't stop living here, it could have happened anywhere and no one is immune," the victim's mother said. "I never thought that it's dangerous to let my kid go out on the street."According to an initial inquiry, the police and MDA received a call about a stabbing victim around 4 pm. Eyewitnesses told Ynet that the attacker came up to Ne'emad, who was walking down a street with his friend, and stabbed him without any provocation. A local doctor who rushed to aid the victim said that "the attacker began to chase a 12-year-old girl, but fortunately he failed to catch her." When onlookers began to gather on the scene, the perpetrator escaped.The second teen's mother said that Ne'emad attempted to fight the attacker after being stabbed for the first time. The attacker tried to chase her son as well, but the latter managed to evade him. The attacker then returned and tried to stab Ne'emad again.Security forces and medical teams were dispatched to the scene immediately, where they discovered the youth, bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Eliezer Asulin, the first MDA paramedic on the scene, told Ynet: "We arrived at the site and found a young man lying on the floor and suffering from stab wounds in his abdomen and back. "He lost a considerable amount of blood and his condition began deteriorating as we were treating him. We evacuated him as soon as possible."A local resident said that many Palestinians from Beit Iksa frequent the Ramot neighborhood. He added that while the area hasn't seen hostile incidents lately, the Palestinians "often taunt us and the young women who pass by."Read the full story here.Related - 'I thought I was going to die'.Read the full story here.

• Dit Tehran Acknowledge Responsibility For Plot In Washington?(Vinienco)By Hadi Norouz.Tehran was taken aback to see the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington was foiled, and that all fingers were immediately pointed at the mullahs for being behind the scheme. They certainly hadn’t prepared for the possibility that the United States would lose no time to unravel the plot and Iran’s connection to it.The mullahs did try hard to cover up the matter and their direct involvement in the assassination plot, but they were not successful. Instead, rather embarrassing for Tehran and its lobbies, it was soon found that the very high ranking Iranian authorities had spoken about the plot in the open and admitted planning of the event both before and after it was foiled.Mohammad Karim Ebadi, a member of the Iranian Parliament (also member of the Security and Foreign Affairs committee), spoke about the plot just before it was revealed by the US.Speaking on October 11th, only a few hours before the plot was unraveled by the US government, Ebadi said: “Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has agents inside the Israeli capital, Tel aviv, who are ready to carry out their assigned missions when time comes.”Speaking with the Iranian news agency, Ebadi said the Iranian Information system is very strong and well equipped and stressed: “We have agents infiltrated in Tel aviv as well as in every other part of the occupied Qods. Our agents are from among muslem, christian and jewish communities. They are ready and waiting to carry out their missions when it becomes necessary.”To make the matter even clearer, another Iranian high level authority spoke about Iran’s intentions on October 15th. Mehdi Taeb, Commander of the Ommar Military Base, said:“ Should it be needed, we are strong enough to kill King Abdollah himself. So what is the need to try and kill a low ranking person.”The terrorist threats made by the Tehran authorities are far more numerous if they are looked for. Tavakoli, another member of the Iranian parliament, was quoted on the Iranian website “Alef”, when he threatened the Saudi government: “I hope the day does not come, but should it be necessary to answer all the treasons and treacheries committed by the Saudi family against the Iranian nation, the Iranian armed forces will ensure that the sacred land of Hejaz will get rid of the dirty name of the Saudi family.”The fact is that Tehran’s terrorist activities are constantly spoken about by all levels of the regime’s hierarchy and with all such remarks, the mullahs lobbies in the U.S. and Europe have a difficult task to achieve in their attempt to deny all allegations against the mullahs.To complete the picture of the mullahs in Iran, one might look at how Khomeini stressed in his own will that “he would never forgive the crimes of the Saudis who are worse than the Americans.”Read the full story here.

• Iran’s Ahmadinejad condemns Syria for ‘killings and massacre’.(AlArabiya).President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the “killings and massacre” in Syria in an interview with CNN, in Iran’s strongest criticism yet of its key ally’s deadly seven-month-old crackdown on dissent.“We condemn killings and massacre in Syria, whether it is security forces being killed or people and the opposition,” Ahmadinejad said, according to excerpts of the interview reported in Farsi by the website of Iran’s state broadcaster on Saturday.“We have a clear formula for Syria and that is for all sides to sit together and reach an understanding... therefore these killings cannot solve any problems and in the long term it will lead to a deadlock,” he added.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iran in mid-September “not to spoil” the Syrian leadership.“I cannot say there has been tension with Iran but we warned them (the Iranians) that ‘the Assad administration is getting spoiled with your encouragement,’” Erdogan said.Tehran has made maintaining good relations with Ankara a priority in recent years, and has considered Turkey an ally for its refusal to implement Western sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear program.But in recent months Tehran has criticized Ankara over its agreement to host an early-warning radar as part of NATO’s missile defense system. Tehran says the system is aimed at protecting Iran’s arch-foe Israel.The European Union has accused Iran of assisting Syria in its crackdown on anti-government protests, a charge Tehran has rejected as “baseless.”In late August, the EU named the al-Quds force, the covert operations arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards, on a new list of those under sanctions for their suspected role in quelling the protests.The European Union accused the force of providing “technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements.”Ahmadinejad’s statements are the first to go against the official policy towards the Syrian uprising set by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Khamenei has called the upheaval in Syria a “fake revolution” fabricated by the U.S. and Zionists.Ahmadinejad has in recent months been battling constant criticism from hard-line conservatives accusing him of being in the thrall of “deviant” advisers who want to undermine the role of the Islamic clergy, including the office of supreme leader.His latest comments on Syria can be viewed as the widening of the rift between himself and the supreme leader which has now spilling over onto Iranian foreign policy. Iran on Friday hailed the killing of long-time ally and former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in the capture of his hometown Sirte and said it hoped his death would spell a swift end to NATO's military intervention. Iran once enjoyed strong relations with Qaddafi, who broke rank with Arab states to support the Islamic Republic in its war against Iraq in the 1980s.“The inevitable fate of all dictators and oppressors who do not respect the rights of their people is destruction,” the official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.Hmmmm......Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Jordan’s Islamists snub new government.(AlArabiya).Jordan’s powerful Islamist opposition said on Saturday it would not join the reform-mandated government of prime minister-designate Awn Khasawneh, a decision reflecting its “pessimism.”“The executive offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front (IAF) decided, after a joint meeting, to refuse to participate in the government,” read a statement on the Brotherhood’s website.“Pessimism replaced our original satisfaction because, according to leaks, it seems the new government will resemble its predecessors,” it said.“The delegation appointed to negotiate with Mr Khasawneh will submit to the prime minister-designate a list of the Islamist movement’s demands,” the statement added without elaborating.The state-run Petra news agency later said “the prime minister received on Saturday evening a delegation of the Islamist movement which expressed its refusal to take part in the (next) government.”The king last week dismissed the government of prime minister Maaruf Bakhit and replaced him with Khasawneh, an International Court of Justice judge, instructing him to focus on political reform in Jordan.Khasawneh is expected to announce his government on Monday, according to officials.Since January, Jordan has faced protests demanding political and economic reforms and an end to corruption.Read the full story here.

• 70m Arabs live under poverty line.(Emirates24/7).The Arab world’s population stood at around 351 million at the end of 2010 and nearly 70 million of them live under poverty line in the absence of sufficient growth in the local economy, a Saudi prince has said.As the region lacks what are termed as “banks for the poor”, only around three million of those people benefit from existing financial services in most member states, said Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, chairman of the Riyadh-based Arab Gulf Program For The United Nations Development (AGFUND), “The latest estimates show that the combined population of the 22 Arab countries stood at around 351 million at the end of 2010,” he told Saudi newspapers.“Around 19.7 per cent of them, or nearly 70 million, live under poverty line….about 35 million of those people are qualified for financial services (bank loans and other facilities) but only three million can get them.”Prince Talal, the father of well-known Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed, estimated domestic personal demand for credit in the Arab region at $18-27 billion a year but he said only around $1.5-2 billion is utilized.“What we need now is to introduce small sized loans to support the poor through special banks for the poor…these types of loans are now one of the most effective and successful solutions to tackle poverty,” he said.“The Arab region does not have sufficient number of banks and other financial establishments….more such units are needed to be set up.”According to the Cairo-based Arab League, many regional nations are suffering from poverty because of a rapid population rise and slow economic growth due to poor investment, low exports, flawed economic policies and other factors.In 2009, the poverty rate was above 30 per cent of the total population in such countries as Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, Djibouti, Yemen, Palestine and Comoros. The rate averaged around 19.6 per cent in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria.Besides those factors, many Arab economies have remained dormant because of conflicts and high defence spending, which was at the expense of development expenditure, the League said in a recent report.Its figures showed defence and security allocation in all nations have averaged as high as 28 per cent of the current expenditure over the past eight years while economic affairs allocations have not exceeded eight per cent.“Latest indications point to a decline in poverty rates in some Arab countries but an increase in others…despite the decline in those members, the poverty rates are still considered very high,” the report said.“Poverty in the Arab countries is closely linked to economic growth rates and developments in wealth distribution…economic growth alone is not enough to reduce poverty as wealth re-distribution could not be to the advantage of the poor…Arab states should focus on even and fair distribution of wealth.”Hmmmmm........How much revenue do they have from Oil?Read the full story here.

• History of Saudi-Iranian Frictions.(CrossRoadsArabia).By Adel Al Toraifi.On 5 June, 1984, two Iranian fighter jets violated Saudi airspace. This was not the first time that the Islamic regime in Iran had sought to threaten Saudi Arabia by illegally infiltrating its airspace. Saudi Arabia later sent personal messages to Imam Khomeini and then President Ali Khamenei via Syrian mediators, informing them that Saudi Arabia would not remain silent in the face of these provocations.At that time, the Gulf was witnessing what came to be known as the “Tanker War”, with Iraq and Iran attacking each other’s oil tankers, with Saudi and Kuwaiti oil tankers also being affected by this. As a result, King Fahd – God rest his soul – issued an order to confront Iranian fighter jets [infiltrating Saudi airspace]. Saudi Arabia was able to shoot down one Iranian fighter jet, although another account reports that two planes were actually shot down. Tehran was enraged and dispatched more than a squadron of fighter jets to illegally enter Saudi airspace. Saudi Arabia responded by deploying two aircraft squadrons [to defend Saudi airspace] and thanks to the capabilities of Saudi Arabia’s air force – being equipped with Airborne Early Warning and Control system [AWACS] – Saudi Arabia was able to force Tehran to retreat. Furthermore, for a period of time Iranian aircraft was unable, for some time, to even cross outside of Iranian airspace. former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam reveals the details of two interviews he conducted in this regard; one with then Iranian President Ali Khamenei; and the second with the Saudi side, within the framework of his unsuccessful attempt to mediate between the two countries.Khamenei said: "Saudi Arabia carried out this act, that is to say attacking Iranian aircraft, more than ten times. Only once was it successful and able to shoot down one of our planes. Saudi Arabia is not a superpower, and we are saying that it is not even a power.”Henner Fertig (2002) and others who wrote about this period say that the policy of “mutual deterrence” that Saudi Arabia was pursuing with regards to Iranian harassment had a huge impact on Iran backing down and changing its previous behaviour. Saudi Arabia's decisive reaction to Iran's acts of sabotage during the 1987 hajj pilgrimage represented an effective deterrence to Iran’s transgressions, because the Iranians realized that the strong Saudi reaction would not be a justification in the eyes of Iranian public opinion if Tehran failed to respond, as it would reveal the weakness of the Iranian regime.Some contend that Iran does not believe any foreign power is capable of invading it. Hence, it is reassured that the worst others could do is impose extra sanctions to exhaust the domestic budget rather than try and change the regime. In spite of all this, the anti-regime protests staged in 2009 in the wake of the Iranian Presidential elections revealed the fragility of the Iranian regime from within. Those who are skeptical about the account of the attempted assassination of the Saudi Ambassador must realize that Iran could be – as some writers have indicated – feeling a real threat to its interests, especially if its Syrian ally collapses. Iran’s latest attempt might reflect the fact that it is running out of options and strategic cards, the last of which was its tampering with the issue of Shiite minorities in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iran's threats have reached the extent whereby an Iranian MP, Kareem Abadi, stated that Iran has the power to occupy Saudi Arabia. Yet this is nowhere near the actual military capabilities of Iran. We must recall that the state of confidence which the Iranian regime portrays and wants others to feel is nothing but a smokescreen to hide a disappointing economic and military reality. A Gulf official once said to me: "We have tried engaging in dialogue with the ruling regime in Iran several times and directly conveyed our threats to them. Unfortunately, they only understand the language of force." A former Iranian official told me that Supreme Guide of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had once said in a private meeting with Iranian officials: "The Bedouin Sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf are nothing but "Nomads" – as the Holy Quran says – who understand nothing except the language of force."Indeed, a misunderstanding exists between both sides. But the unalterable truth for any scholar of the revolutionary regime in Iran is that it is a regime concerned with staying in power first and foremost; a regime that steps back whenever it feels seriously threatened. In his article titled "Who Wants to Assassinate Saudi Arabia's Ambassador" Ata'ollah Mohajerani is correct when he says: "If we acknowledge for the sake of argument that a group affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard Corps aims to start a new war in our region, it is them who should be held accountable and pay the price, not the people of the region."Read the full story here.