Sued: Obama Treasury Dept. regarding possible drilling rights collusion for Can - Chinese firm.

Sued: Obama Treasury Dept. regarding possible drilling rights collusion for Can - Chinese firm.(JW).

Treasury Decision Gives Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation Drilling Rights in Strategic Gulf of Mexico Waters, Provides Apparent Windfall of Financial Returns to Major Obama Contributors

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on February, 14, 2013, against the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Judicial Watch v. United States Department of the Treasury (No. 1-13-cv-00199)) to obtain records relating to the Obama administration’s approval of the acquisition of the Canadian energy company Nexen Inc., by the Chinese government-owned Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The $15.1 billion acquisition will allow CNOOC access to drilling in northern Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, while apparently providing a windfall of financial returns to major Obama campaign contributors.

On November 13, 2012, Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to Treasury seeking the following information: “Any and all Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) records regarding, concerning, or related to the proposed takeover of Nexen, Inc. by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).”

By a letter dated November 16, 2012, Treasury acknowledged receipt of the Judicial Watch FOIA request. Though required by law to respond within 20 days, to date, Treasury has not done so.

CNOOC’s July 2012 acquisition of Nexen drilling interests in northern Canada (which includes 1.6 billion barrels in Keystone XL oil reserves) and in the Gulf of Mexico (which includes 100 exploration projects and access to 116 million barrels in reserves) allowed the Chinese government a partial takeover of a vital strategic asset: accessible crude oil in the Western Hemisphere.

The acquisition is the largest Chinese takeover of a foreign company in history.

Because of Nexen’s holdings in the Gulf of Mexico, the CNOOC takeover required the approval of the CFIUS, which is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury and includes the Attorney General, the U.S. Trade Representative, and the secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, State, and Energy. On February 12, 2013, the CFIUS announced its approval of CNOOC’s takeover of Nexen. As a state enterprise, CNOOC is owned by the Chinese government and is managed by Communist Party officials. CNOOC offered Nexen a 60% premium over the stock’s trading value at the time of the takeover, prompting analysts to describe the terms as “a fantastic deal for Nexen.” It also raised questions as to whether the Chinese government’s interests were more strategic than economic.

The acquisition will reportedly provide a windfall return to Obama-connected investors, who profited heavily from Treasury’s approval of the takeover and Chinese expansion into the hemisphere.

“With one ill-chosen action, the Obama administration has managed to undermine our strategic interests and reward its corporate cronies,” said Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch. “It’s little wonder that the Treasury Department is defying the open records law to stonewall accountability. And Americans may want to compare and contrast the quick approval of this Chinese strategic initiative with the Obama administration’s scandalous delay of the related Keystone XL oil pipeline project.”Hmmmm......For sale 'drilling permits' please apply 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC?Read the full story here.

Uncontrolled gas flowing from shallow water well in Gulf of Mexico — WSJ: Experts trying to stop flow below seafloor.

Uncontrolled gas flowing from shallow water well in Gulf of Mexico — WSJ: Experts trying to stop flow below seafloor.(Enenews).

WWNO New Orleans at 4:27p ET: Gulf of Mexico Well Evacuated Due to Uncontrolled Gas Flow [...] A natural gas well located approximately 50 miles east of Venice in the Gulf of Mexico is releasing gas uncontrolled and has been evacuated, according to a report today in Fuel Fix, an energy news website operated in part by the Houston Chronicle. The site reports 15 workers were evacuated from the Ensco 87 rig, which sits in 218 feet of water, after tests found natural gas had migrated from the 8300-foot well to a sand formation approximately 1100 feet below the seabed. This uncontrolled flow happened after a blowout preventer had been activated.

Wall St. Journal at 4:45p ET: Apache Corp. has detected an underground flow of natural gas at the site of a shallow-water exploratory well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the company and U.S. regulators said. [...] Apache said it is now working with well-control experts to stop the flow of natural gas below the seafloor. At the BSEE’s direction, Apache is readying another rig to bring to the site in case a relief well needs to be drilled.

Offshore Magazine at 4:34p ET: Offshore oil and gas regulators in the US are responding to a report of an underground gas flow at an Apache Corp.-operated exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico. [...] The company has brought in well control experts from Boots and Coots to kill the well and is mobilizing the Rowan Cecil Provine rig to the site in case a relief well needs to be drilled.

Update: Divers look for "breach on the sea floor" near troubled well in Gulf of Mexico.

Hmmmmm......Next stop all drilling from shallow water riggs?Read the full story here.

BP Suspended From Contracts With U.S. Government After Spill.

BP Suspended From Contracts With U.S. Government After Spill.(BloomBerg).

BP Plc (BP/), which agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, will be suspended from winning new contracts from the federal government, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today.

The Interior Department also said it won’t award BP any leases in a Gulf auction today because the company has been barred from winning federal contracts. BP would be eligible for the leases when the government ends the contract suspension, the agency said.
The EPA said the ban was imposed because the company’s conduct during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster showed a lack of business integrity. The action, which doesn’t affect existing contracts, will stand until BP can demonstrate it meets business standards set by the government, the EPA said. The incident killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, it said.
“The suspension of BP is surprising and a win for holding all companies, big or small, accountable to the federal government and taxpayers,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight.
‘Timeout’
Amey questioned whether the government could put BP “in timeout” because it is a top federal contractor supplying petroleum products to the Pentagon.Hmmmmm........."Payback"?Read the full story here.

Video - Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists.

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists.(AlJazeera). New Orleans, LA - "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either." Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010. Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants. Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster. Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause. Eyeless shrimp Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp. "At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these," Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp. According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.""Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes … they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."Read and see the full story here.

Obama Administration Signs Accord in Mexico for Oil Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico With State-Owned Pemex

Obama Administration Signs Accord in Mexico for Oil Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico With State-Owned Pemex.(BB).
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa signed an agreement today for development of oil and gas reservoirs that straddle the two nations’ boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The agreement is the first of its kind signed by the U.S., establishing a legal framework and creating incentives for U.S. energy companies to develop oil and gas resources jointly with Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state oil company known as Pemex. When it comes into force, the agreement will end the current moratorium on oil exploration and production in the Western Gap portion of the Gulf of Mexico.
“With this, we are setting aside the old fear that honestly exists among many Mexicans that Mexico’s oil could be extracted from the other side,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderon. “Any joint reservoir will be jointly exploited,” and we will all gain the benefits.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar called the agreement an historic step that “opens to door to previously off-limits areas in the Gulf of Mexico,” an area larger than the state of Delaware.Hmmmm.......I wonder if Mexico will follow Brazil's example and sell also the oil to China?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 09. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Middle East Live Blog April 09 here .(Al-Jazeera)

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 6.0 today. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 80.
• Japan - Onagawa plant in Miyagi prefecture. Situation Update No. 1

• HT: nuclearhistory.Fallout Map – Deposition from the Fukushima Event. At Last. Here .

• The memo that 'proves aliens landed at Roswell'... released online by the FBI.A memo that appears to prove that aliens in flying saucers did land in New Mexico prior to 1950 has been published by the FBI.The bureau has made thousands of files available in a new online resource called The Vault.Among them is a memo to the director from Guy Hottel, the special agent in charge of the Washington field office in 1950.In the memo, whose subject line is 'Flying Saucers', Agent Hottel reveals that an Air Force investigator had stated that 'three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico'.The investigator gave the information to a special agent, he said. The FBI has censored both the agent and the investigator's identity.Agent Hottel went on to write: 'They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter.'Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall,' he stated.The bodies were 'dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.'He said that the informant, whose identity was censored in the memo, claimed the saucers had been found in New Mexico 'due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with teh controlling mechanism of the saucers'.Hmmm.....The truth is out there? Read the full story here.

• HT:TheNoisyRoom.The Descent of Evil Over America.By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton.And thy face is Samantha Power… Should Obama win a second term in 2012, it is strongly rumored that Samantha Power will become our next Secretary of State with Hillary Clinton declining to serve another term. Clinton, a stalwart progressive/Marxist, was bad enough. Power, the wife of America’s Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein, is an unapologetic anti-semite and a monster extreme. Evil has unfurled its vast wings over America and the darkness is threatening a rapid descent. If only the good die young, America’s time may have come if this event comes to fruition. Conservatives must win the election in 2012 if America is to survive as we have always known it.I hate to break it to everyone, but Glenn Beck was right once again. The Responsibility to Protect Doctrine raises it’s malevolent countenance bearing a striking resemblance to Stephen King’s horror laden thriller “It.” A chilling smile of bowel-watering ferocity is bearing down on the State of Israel.It’s like thunder and lightning as the New World Order roars to the forefront and overshadows God’s chosen people. And in a test worthy of David and Goliath, Israel will fight once again for its survival and America finds herself on the wrong side. It would seem our progressive leaders have chosen to side with the darkness rising over the Middle East.Hmmmm......And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it….Zech. 12:3.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.The Kiss-Your-Sister Budget Deal Is Finalized, but Claudia Schiffer Still Ain’t Your Sibling.There were reports about 10 days ago that the crowd in Washington reached a budget deal, for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, with $33 billion of cuts. That number was disappointingly low. I wrote at the time that if this was a kiss-your-sister deal, we didn’t have any siblings that looked like Claudia Schiffer.I knew it was unrealistic to expect the full $61 billion, but I explained that $45 billion was a realistic target.We now have a new agreement, which supposedly is final, and the amount of budget cuts has climbed to $38 billion. So our sister is getting prettier, but she still isn’t close to being a supermodel.Now let’s look at the less desirable parts of the agreement.

o Total spending jumped by almost $2 trillion during the Bush-Obama spending binge, so a $38 billion cut is almost too small to mention.

o Left-wing organizations such as Planned Parenthood will continue to feed at the public trough, something that should be objectionable to everyone, regardless of your views on abortion.

o Obamacare is not repealed (not that I ever thought that was possible) and there is no restriction on the EPA’s unilateral assertion that is has regulatory power to implement radical Kyoto-style global warming policies.

I will have more comments this week about what happens next. Suffice to say that this was just one battle in a long war.The 2012 budget resolution, for instance, will be a key test of fiscal responsibility, but in this case the debate will be about $trillions rather than $billions. The debt limit vote will an opportunity for some much-needed reform of the budget process. And it is quite likely that there will be another potential shutdown fight when it is time to put together appropriations bills for the 2012 fiscal year, which starts October 1.Hmmmm.....It's perfectly clear by now that the only good politician is a tea party member!Read the full story here.

• Muslims offended by Trinny & Susannah.Channel 10 apologizes for ads showing British fashion advisors in immodest clothing against backdrop of al-Aqsa Mosque. Newspaper ads for the "Trinny & Susannah Do Israel" show have sparked a row among Muslims, as they show the two British fashion advisors dressed in immodest clothing against the backdrop of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Western Wall. Channel 10 apologized for the incident on Wednesday evening and promised to change the ads immediately.The Islamic Movement's al-Aqsa institution association slammed Channel 10 for publishing a picture of the two women wearing strapless dresses against the backdrop of the mosque.The association released a statement saying that "the publication of such abomination against the backdrop of an image of the al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to promote a television program on fashion and clothes, is a blatant violation and a desecration of Islam's holy mosque. This is an insult to more than one and a half billion Muslims in the world." The association demanded that Channel 10 remove the ads immediately. "This is not the first time Israelis make use of pictures of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which violate the sanctity of Islam, whether with alcohol bottles or in order to promote tourism to occupied Jerusalem. We call for the immediate removal of the newspaper ads." After apologizing for the ad, Channel 10 decided to change it immediately, using PR photos instead of images of Jerusalem.Channel 10 offered the following response: "The television show has no intention of offending any religion or faith in any way. The publication of the discussed ads will be stopped immediately. "We had no intention and have no intention of hurting the feelings of Jews, Muslims, Christians or any other people. We apologize if these ads have offended any religious sentiments." Hmmmm.....Welcome toA.D. 620?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.Obama Has U.S. Over a Barrel (of oil).The world is in turmoil. In the Middle East there are uprisings, in Japan natural disasters, in Mexico blatant lawlessness, and in Europe the slow but certain death of Western Civilization at the hands of Muslims who have learned to use a combination of fear tactics and appeals to western guilt to their advantage.As a result of these things, there is international uncertainty that has caused commodities like silver, gold, and black gold (crude oil), to skyrocket in value. And although this isn’t a bad thing for investors who began stockpiling gold when it was $200 an ounce and silver when it was $14, this is an absolutely terrible thing for lower and middle class families who have to fill up the SUV with gasoline twice a week in order to get to work, church, school, and the grocers.In other words, while rising gold and silver prices may contribute to the increased wealth of a few, rising crude prices threaten to decimate the savings (and savings plans) of the many. (As I type, crude is approximately $108 a barrel, but predicted by some to go as high as $200-300 a barrel if Middle East unrest continues.)Sadly, in the midst of these rising crude prices, and the resulting higher gas prices Americans have faced at the pump, Obama has stayed the course on green energy alternatives with bans on offshore drilling and a continued refusal to broaden onshore domestic production. Remember, oil formations in North Dakota alone contain enough crude to raise that state to the status of one of “the 13 or 14 largest producing countries [in the world].” And the amount of oil lying in Alaska’s outer continental shelf (OCS) is so great that tapping into it “would make Alaska the eighth largest oil province in the world – ahead of Nigeria, Libya, Russia, and Norway.”I hate to say it folks, but Obama doesn’t want us paying cheaper prices. If he did, we’d not only be drilling in North Dakota and on Alaska’s OCS, but we’d also be constructing pipelines like the Keystone XL, “a…feed [36 inches in diameter] linking Alberta’s oil sands fields to the refineries of Texas’ Gulf Coast.” The Keystone XL would transport more oil into the U.S. each day than we currently import from either Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. (All that needs to happen to get the XL up and running is for the president to issue a directive to the State Department, but don’t hold your breath.)Obama has this nation over a barrel (of oil). The candidate who admitted that his green approach would cause energy prices to skyrocket has become the president who’s proving the veracity of his admission. As a result, we are at the mercy of the tyrants and terrorists who use OPEC to control the flow of oil into the world because our own president is denying us access to abundant resources of oil here at home.By the way, the socialist paradise called Cuba is slated to start drilling in the Gulf of Mexico soon. They anticipate having five deepwater wells in place by 2013. We, on the other hand, are still wondering if Obama is ever going to allow American companies to open new leases in the Gulf again.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Flashback: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term — “I refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay”

WASHINGTON (CNN) February 23, 2009 — President Barack Obama pledged Monday to cut the nation’s $1.3 trillion deficit in half by the end of his first term.He identified exploding health-care costs as the chief culprit behind rising federal deficits during a bipartisan “fiscal responsibility summit” convened to discuss ways to restore fiscal stability without deepening the recession.Meeting with the congressional leadership of both parties, as well as a range of business, academic, financial and labor leaders, Obama warned that the country cannot continue its current rate of deficit spending without facing dire economic consequences.“I refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay,” he said in remarks opening the one-day summit at the White House. “We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end. . . . We cannot simply spend as we please.”The country, Obama argued, is already starting to face the consequences of greater deficit spending, noting that roughly one in 10 taxpayer dollars in 2008 went toward paying $250 billion in interest on the national debt.Hmmm.....What i say and what i do are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT things.Read the full story here.

• VERNUCCIO: Obama Regime administration covers up union welfare program.The Obama administration is more than a year late in releasing an important report on federal government union costs. Clauses within collective bargaining agreements require that the government pay some federal workers for union activities - using tax dollars. This practice, known as “official time,” is documented annually in the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM)Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Report. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has not released any official time statistics since taking office; 2008 is the latest information available.

According to OPM, “Official time, broadly defined, is paid time off from assigned Government duties to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees.” In other words, government agencies allow some federal employees to do union work while still being paid. This is a boon for government employee unions because they do not need to pay these workers to represent their members and can still collect dues.In 2008, federal employees logged 2,893,922 hours for union work while still receiving a paycheck from Uncle Sam. This cost taxpayers nearly $121 million for work only benefiting government unions.The 2010 report would have covered the 2009 fiscal year, the period from October 2008 through September 2009. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has repeatedly requested the report since December 2010 - nine months after OPM customarily released it and 14 months after the close of the fiscal year.OPM either did not respond to requests or gave ever-changing deadlines. Each month, OPM assured CEI that the report would be finished the next month. When the deadlines passed, OPM then said the report would be finished another month in the future. At no time did the agency say it was not working on the report, but did maintain the report was not completed and therefore not subject to a Freedom of Information Act request. The fact that the report is now more than a year late shows either willful nonperformance on the part of OPM or simple incompetence.OPM is not just ducking public inquiries, it is also not responding to request from Congress. Mr. Gingery’s office could not even obtain an updated report. Mr. Gingrey said of OPM’s noncompliance, “by continuously delaying the publication of information regarding union activity on official time, OPM is exhibiting a lack of transparency that will only fuel the uncertainty and distrust of Americans who demand to know where their tax dollars are being spent.”This lack of transparency highlights a larger issue affecting the Obama administration. President Obama pledged to make his administration the most open and transparent in history.” However, as the Associated Press (AP) recently reported, the president is falling far short on this promise. AP notes that Freedom of Information Act requests increased by 41,000 in 2010 to 544,360. Despite the increase, the administration responded to 12,400 fewer requests than 2009.This is a disturbing pattern, especially with respect to labor issues. Last month, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on “The Future of Union Transparency and Accountability.” Rep. Phil Roe, Tennessee Republican, stated that transparency “is now under assault by a culture of union favoritism that dominates the workforce policies of the current administration.”Indeed, union favoritism has characterized the Obama administration since Day One - from Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’s blatantly pro-union public statements to the recess appointment of former union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Now add official time to that list.Hmmmm......Anyone organising Shutzstaffels?Democracy or dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• HT:Persian2English.Amnesty International Calls for Investigation into Camp Ashraf Attack.Amnesty International, April 8, 2011 – The Iraqi authorities must immediately launch an independent investigation into reports that Iraqi troops killed and injured residents of a camp for Iranian exiles north of Baghdad in an unprovoked attack, Amnesty International said today.“Iraqi troops moved into the camp this morning and used excessive force against residents who tried to resist them, according to the information we have received,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.“This is the latest of a series of violent actions that the Iraqi government has taken against the Camp Ashraf residents, whose continuing presence in Iraq they oppose.”Clashes broke out this morning after Iraqi security forces took up positions in the camp using armoured personnel carriers and, apparently, live fire against residents who tried to resist them, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. As yet, the number of casualties cannot be independently verified.The camp in Diyala province around 60 km north of Baghdad is home to some 3,400 Iranian exiles and refugees, including members and supporters of the banned Iranian opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).PMOI officials told Amnesty International that due to restrictions imposed by the Iraqi government, Camp Ashraf’s medical facility does not have adequate medicines or equipment with which to deal with those reported by the PMOI to have been injured in today’s clashes.“If true, this is very worrying,” said Malcolm Smart. “Whether they like it or not, the Iraqi authorities are responsible for the security and well-being of Camp Ashraf’s residents and this includes providing access to adequate and immediate medical treatment when needed.”Video clips of the clashes that the PMOI has uploaded to YouTube appear to show Iraqi soldiers firing indiscriminately into the crowds and using vehicles to try and run others down.An Iraqi government spokesman said Camp Ashraf residents threw rocks at security forces in what he termed a “riot.” Troops did not open fire, he said, but force was used to push residents back inside the camp.Since the US ceded control of Camp Ashraf to Iraqi security forces in mid-2009, the PMOI has told Amnesty International that the constant military presence has made it difficult to access medical treatment inside and outside the camp.Hmmmm......Follow the dots....Iran ....Turkey....Iraq ....Obama.Read the full story here.

• CreepingSharia.Terror-linked CAIR speaks at NY hearing on national security, asks for taxpayer money.Who let the Islamist fox is in the infidel hen house? The senate site says “invitation only” so it was either NY state Democrats who colluded with CAIR to lambast these hearings and finagle the Hamas-linked group on to the agenda or clueless Republicans ignoring the fact that CAIR is banned by the FBI and an unindicted co-conspirator to the largest terror financing conviction in U.S. history. via the CAIRorist Facebook page:

A representative of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today testified at a New York State Senate hearing on homeland security.CAIR-NY Civil Rights Manager Cyrus McGoldrick testified at a day-long hearing by the senate’s Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs, titled “Reviewing Our Preparedness: An Examination of New York’s Public Protection Ten Years After September 11.”(McGoldrick appeared on a panel with Linda Sarsour, advocacy and civic engagement coordinator for the National Network for Arab American Communities. SEE: http://www.nnaac.org/)Mastering the Islamic doctrine of taqqiya, the opportunistic sharia-pushers made two final recommendations:

1.Limit freedom of speech by silencing discussion on Islam, jihad, sharia, and groups like CAIR.

2.Waste more taxpayer money on Muslim groups who pretend to prevent Muslim youth from waging jihad.

Hmmm......."We do not want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• Maher: “Muslims Say, ‘Look, We’re a Religion Of Peace And If You Disagree We’ll Fucking Cut Your Head Off’”.(RCP) — “All this talk of people who burn the Koran and nothing about the people who reacted in such a stupid way. We are always blaming the victim and not holding them — most Muslims, but at least a large part of Muslim culture that doesn’t condemn their people,” Bill Maher said on his show “Real Time” Friday night.“There is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them and they say ‘look, we are a religion of peace and if you disagree we’ll fucking cut your head off,’” Maher said. “And nobody calls them on it — there are very few people that will call them on it.”“It’s like if Dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids, you don’t blame the kid because he set Dad off. You blame Dad because he’s a violent drunk,” Maher concluded.Maher also give his reaction to Sen. Lindsey Graham saying “free speech is great, but we’re at war comment. Maher said that comment made him “nervous.”Hmmmm.....No really?Read the full story here.

• WTF?Death to the Zionist Saudis?Iranian Students Protest at Massacre of People by US-Backed Allies. TEHRAN (FNA)- Large numbers of Iranian students staged a rally in front of the UN office in Tehran to protest at the massacre of peaceful protestors in Bahrain and other Islamic countries in the region.Protestors voiced their support for Muslims in Bahrain and other Islamic countries and underlined that they will continue their support for the oppressed people in those states. The students chanted various slogans such as 'Allaho Akbar', 'Down with the USA', 'Down with the Zionist regime', 'Down with Zionist Saudis', 'Down with American-style Islam' and 'Saudi commits crimes and the UN backs it' to voice their support for people in Bahrain and other Islamic countries. The students urged the Iranian government to dispatch voluntary forces to Bahrain and in other Islamic states. They also called for formation of a fact-finding committee to pursue recent events in those countries.Hmmmm....."Lord forgive them ,for they do not know...?Read the full story here.

• 'We think the Craiglist Ripper may be a cop': Investigators' chilling new theory on 'smart' Long Island serial killer.The serial killer dubbed the Craigslist Ripper has a sophisticated understanding of police investigation techniques and 'may be a cop', it was claimed today. The startling new theory emerged as it was revealed the last man to see suspected victim Shannan Gilbert believes the prostitute is still alive.Officers in Long Island where four bodies of of vice girls have been dug up, are convinced the killer could be in law enforcement because.Some investigators now believe the killer's behaviour points to a man who has a deep knowledge of how police investigate serious crimes.One told the New York Times: 'He is a guy aware of how we utilise technology. Frankly, people are thinking maybe he could be a cop - either one still in law enforcement or one who has moved on.'Without question this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope. it's a guy who thinks about things.'Ms Barthelemy's body was found in deep undergrowth along Ocean parkway near Gligo Beach last December along with three others. All were covered in burlap. She had been missing for nearly two years.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.What Do Jihadists Dream About When Asleep? Canadian Intelligence Service Finds Out.No, apparently its not those 72 virgins they are promised.According to a secret report just released under Canada’s equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act titled “The Role of Dreams In the Justification of Jihad,” the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) found a strong connect between what jihadists dreamed about and what they eventually did. ”Dreams provide inspirational component of the world of the jihadist,” reads the report. ”Jihadists receive divine guidance of future events and see the legitimacy of their actions in their dreams.” Infamous terrorists like Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui both reportedly dreamt about the jihad acts they were about to carry out.“Dream interpretation is closely tied to religious belief in Islam,” says the report. ”Islamist extremists often report having dreams about the Prophet Muhammad or fellow mujahedin. Dreams about religious figures can inspire extremists to act.”Hmmm........Read the full story here.

• Medieval justice... in the 21st Century: Woman caned in front of a baying mob for having an affair.A woman flinches as she is about to be repeatedly caned for having an extramarital affair.Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband.The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.The jeering crowd recorded the brutal beating on their mobile phones and camcorders and shouted for more beatings in the strict Muslim city.Mukhtar had been sentenced to the punishment the previous day by a Sharia court where prosecutors said that she was guilty of being in 'close proximity' to another man.Under Sharia law the offence carries a maximum beating of nine strokes with a cane or a minimum of three.Neighbours had seen Mukhtar with the man and had barged in on her while the couple were in her bedroom, although it is unclear what they were actually doing.The mob then dragged them to the local police station to be charged.It is believed Sharia Police are also investigating a claim that Mukhtar was molested by the crowd before they took her to be charged.Shortly after the caning on Friday Mukhtar passed out and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.She was one of four people, including the man she was caught with, to be caned for extramarital affairs.Hmmmm.....Welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Video : Muslim Father Slits Daughters Throat 28 Times To ‘Uphold Family Honor’. Buries Her In Backyard.He says that he didn’t want his daughter living a “western life.” Then why on earth was his family living in Italy?Read and see the full 'story' here.

MFS - The Other News

                      Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 23. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And here (BBC). Latest here.

HT: The Big Picture - Libya: UN air strikes aid rebels - 33 pictures here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world lots of seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 5.6 today. More info here.

• Updated : The wind directions over Japan. Here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 56.On 23.03.2011 at 04:25 GMT+2

Workers at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant temporarily halted work on Wednesday at the complex's reactor No.2 because of high radiation levels, the nation's nuclear safety watchdog said. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the workers had withdrawn after radiation monitoring showed levels of 500 millisieverts per hour, which is into the danger zone. There are hundreds of workers at the plant trying to avert nuclear disaster and, at times, they have had to withdraw from parts of the complex as radiation levels spike.

Situation Update No. 55.On 23.03.2011 at 04:13 GMT+2.

The temperature within part of Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear reactor has risen above design limits, but there is no immediate danger, the nation's nuclear safety watchdog said on Wednesday. The agency said the temperature had climbed to near 400 degrees Celsius within a pressure container at reactor No.1 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, compared with a design limit of 302 degrees.

Situation Update No. 54.On 23.03.2011 at 04:08 GMT+2.

Two workers at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant were injured on Wednesday while working to restore power to its No. 1 reactor, Kyodo news agency said. It gave no further details. Hundreds of Tokyo Electric Power Co workers are trying to restore power to the utility's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but have been hindered by debris, water damage and spiking levels of radiation.

Situation Update No. 53.On 22.03.2011 at 19:35 GMT+2.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed concern Tuesday that it had been unable to find out if the shield of reactor 1 at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is damaged, given continuing high radiation levels outside the site. Senior IAEA official James Lyons said there has been no indication of a leak since the Vienna-based agency last received Japanese information on this issue some seven days ago, but added: 'It's not always that no news is good news.' 'We see continued radiation coming from the site. And the question is, where exactly is that coming from?' he said. The nuclear agency would like to find out if the radiation might come from damaged shields around reactor cores, or from the overheated spent fuel pools, he said. Previously, the IAEA said it suspected slight damage to the vessel shielding the core of reactor 2, and had no information about the shielding of reactor 3. IAEA officials stressed that the Japanese authorities themselves probably did not have information about reactor unit 1. 'There continue to be improvements at Fukushima Daiichi (number 1) power plant, but the overall situation remains very serious,' senior IAEA technical advisor Graham Andrew said. Besides reactor 1, he cited the status of the spent fuel ponds as a matter of 'highest concern.' On the positive side, he noted that workers had managed to set up lights within reactor buildings 3 and 4, and that pressure within reactors 5 and 6 had been decreasing. A second IAEA team was on its way to Japan on Tuesday to measure radiation levels in Tokyo, which picked up slightly on Monday but did not reach health-threatening levels. Source.

• Radiation in Tokyo tap water raises concerns.Radiation levels in Tokyo tap water more than twice what is considered safe for infants added to food safety woes Wednesday as rising smoke prompted a new evacuation of workers trying to stabilize Japan's radiation-leaking nuclear plant.Radiation has seeped into vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and even seawater in areas surrounding the plant since a magnitude-9 quake and killer tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant nearly two weeks ago. Broccoli was added to a list of tainted vegetables Wednesday, and U.S. officials announced a block on Japanese dairy and other produce from the region.Tap water in downtown Tokyo measured 210 becquerels per liter of iodine-131 — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per liter for infants, officials from the Tokyo Water Bureau said.Infants are extremely vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer, experts say. However, officials urged calm, saying drinking small amounts of tap water was fine for babies, and that the current level did not pose an immediate health risk to children or adults."We advise against using the tap water for drinking and for making infant formula for babies under 1 year old," said Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo's governor.Read the full story here.

• Breaking ! At least 25 injured in central J'lem bus bomb.Police say that a bomb exploded next to Egged bus 74 outside Binyanei Ha'uma in central Jerusalem; reports say over 30 injured.Police say that a bomb exploded next to bus outside Binyanei Ha'uma in central J'lem.Sources here and here.

• Israel to open field clinic in Japan.Two planes carrying 50 doctors, tons of equipment leave Saturday. Israeli doc: Japanese are grateful.Israeli mission to aid Japan crisis on its way: A medical delegation, including 50 doctors, is expected to fly from Ben-Gurion Airport on Saturday and head to Japan. Israel will send two planes, one holding nearly 20 tons worth of humanitarian aid and the other full of 50 tons worth of medical equipment intended for an Israeli field clinic which will be established in the town of Minamisanriku."The view here is extremely harsh. Everything is destroyed. Nothing is left of this town," IDF Home Front Medical Corps Commander, Colonel Dr. Ariel Bar, told Yediot Ahronot about the sights he had seen in the town. "In this area alone there are about 10,000 homeless people. People sleep on the floor and seem unresponsive. They definitely need help and fast." The Israeli clinic will provide the Japanese with pediatrics, internal and orthopedic medicine. A field X-ray lab and a blood test lab will also be built on location."The Japanese think very highly of Israeli knowledge and especially our ability to act independently in the field," said Bar. "When it comes to Japanese culture it's not an easy thing to ask for help or admit their inability to do something. But this crisis is hard enough so that they do. They are grateful.""Not one building is left standing. Everything is in ruins," said Bar. "Those who are still alive suffer from different diseases. That's why we're going to establish a field clinic and provide various medical services."Hmmmm.....We don't hear Erdogan or Obama now. Read the full story here.

• Video: Obama Handing Over 'No Fly Zone' to 'Political Steering Committee'.Ajdabiya, Libya — France has proposed that a new political steering committe outside NATO be responsible for overseeing military operations over Libya.French Foreign Minister Alain Jupe says the new body will bring together foreign ministers of participating states — such as Britain, France and the United States — as well as the Arab League. It is expected to meet in the coming days, either in Brussels, London or Paris.Jupe says not all members of the military coalition are members of NATO and “this is therefore not a NATO operation.” But he says the coalition would use the NATO's “planning and intervention capabilities.”Not all NATO members are in favour of the no-fly zone and airstrikes against Libya".Hmmmmm.....What did Obama agree with Erdogan during their phonecalls?Read and see the full story here.More here .

• Nato to take control in Libya after US, UK and France reach agreement. Nato to assume day-to-day military command in Libya.Britain, France and the US have agreed that Nato will take over the military command of the no-fly zone over Libya in a move that represents a setback for Nicolas Sarkozy, who had hoped to diminish the role of the alliance.Barack Obama agreed in separate phone calls with Sarkozy and David Cameron that political oversight would be handed to a separate body made up of members of the coalition, including Arab countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which are outside Nato.The agreement, which will have to be put be to all 28 members of Nato, indicates the alliance is on course to resolve one of its most serious disagreements. The alliance had been starting to splinter as it tried to comply with Obama's demand that Washington be quickly relieved of command of the air campaign.The Libyan leader Muammar GaddafiSarkozy moved to portray the agreement as a Franco-American success. In a statement, the Élysée Palace said: "The two presidents have come to an agreement on the way to use the command structures of Nato to support the coalition." But the agreement represents a blow for Sarkozy, who had tried to persuade Britain to set up an Anglo-French command for all military operations in Libya. That idea was strongly resisted by Britain which said Nato was best placed to run the military operations.Obama, who spoke to Cameron and Sarkozy in separate phone calls during his tour of Latin America, agreed that:

• Nato will assume the day-to-day military command of the no-fly zone, using the alliance's military structures. The operation could be run by Admiral James Stavridis, the US supreme allied commander in Europe, who works from the Nato's military headquarters in Mons, Belgium.

• Political oversight will be provided by members of the coalition and not by Nato. Sarkozy will say this shows Nato is not in complete command, as it was in the bombing campaign against Serbian targets during the 1999 Kosovo campaign. In a traditional Nato-led operation, political control would be provided by the North Atlantic Council, the main political decision-making body of the alliance.A phone call between Obama and the Turkish prime minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan led to what was described as a more pragmatic approach. "Turkey has become more flexible in the last day or so," one diplomat said. Turkey, the third largest member of Nato, and which has a predominantly Muslim population, had highlighted tensions within the alliance when it launched a strong attack on France. Sarkozy had tried to reach out to the Muslim world by playing down Nato's role in Libya.Hmmmm......What role does Erdogan play in Obama's US politics?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.CAIR Officials Sought Gaddafi Money.Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked Muammar Gaddafi to underwrite CAIR’s efforts in the United States during a September 2009 audience with the Libyan dictator.According to an account of the meeting in a Libyan news website, Awad was joined by two other leading CAIR officials in praising Gaddafi’s leadership and asking him to help underwrite a program to distribute 1 million copies of the Quran to government officials and the general public in America and to help start up a new foundation Awad was trying to launch.The account was published in Arabic by Libyalive.net, and was translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Libyalive.net describes itself as “an independent Libyan electronic newspaper,” but the story about Gaddafi’s visit is attributed to the Jamahiriya News Agency, Libya’s official state news service.Awad’s pleas to Gaddafi’s generosity came after the Libyan leader left United Nations observers slack jawed at his rambling, 100-minute speech to the General Assembly.Now, after Gaddafi started killing his own people as he tries to fend off a popular uprising, Awad and CAIR have denounced him as a madman. They have organized rallies and news conferences demanding that violence against Libyan civilians by Gaddafi’s forces stop.“Join us to support the people of Libya against a dictatorship,” a February 24 release from CAIR’s Chicago chapter said.Concerns over the Libyan government were overlooked in September 2009, when Gaddafi traveled to New York to speak to the U.N. There, Gaddafi ignored the 15-minute limit on speeches, going on a tirade about everything from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy to his belief that the U.N. Security Council was similar to al-Qaida, calling it the “terror council.”At a later reception with Gaddafi, Awad, national spokesman Ibrahim Hooper and Chairman Larry Shaw made a direct appeal to the Libyan leader to donate to CAIR programs.“Your speech has had an impact in the hearts of many people in the world,” Awad said. He hailed Gaddafi as “the world Islamic popular leader,” saying “[w]e appreciate your efforts over the years, and wish also to extend your interest will extend to Muslims in America, God willing.”But the solicitation to Gaddafi was not CAIR’s only attempt at significant foreign funding from Muslim autocrats. Though its website continues to say that allegations that “CAIR receives foreign money” is “Internet Disinformation,” the organization sent delegations to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2006 seeking millions of dollars in donations from wealthy Gulf donors.State Department records show Awad, Hooper and Shaw were part of those delegations. One cable, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, said the group admitted it was in Saudi Arabia “to solicit $50 million in governmental and non-governmental contributions.”Read the full story here.

• Obama: Remember What I Said Yesterday About Gaddafi Having To Go? Well I Changed My Mind, He Can Stay.President Obama indicated on Tuesday that Muammar Qadhafi may still have an opportunity to “change his approach” and put in place “significant reforms” in the Libyan government.Asked by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie what the U.S. commitment is in Libya if Qadhafi remains in power but continues to pose a threat to his people, Obama appeared to leave the door open for political reforms.His quick shift back to what he had earlier stated—that Qadhafi must step down—is more in line with the conclusion that he and his administration officials had come to weeks ago. But a return to the call for “political reforms” is reminiscent of the White House position on Egypt during its upheaval.Hmmmm.....Is he for real?Read the full story here.

• 13 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in California Wearing U.S. Marine Uniforms.Border Patrol agents recently arrested 13 illegal immigrants disguised as U.S. Marines and riding in a fake military van, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday.The illegal immigrants were clad in Marine uniforms when they were apprehended at the Campo Border Patrol Westbound I-8 checkpoint at 11 p.m. on March 14 near Pine Valley, Calif., border officials said. Two U.S. citizens in the van also were arrested.After the suspicious white van was subjected to secondary inspection, it was determined that the driver of the vehicle and its front seat passenger were U.S. citizens who were attempting to smuggle 13 illegal immigrants into the United States. All of the vehicle's occupants wore U.S. Marine uniforms, reportedly emblazoned with the name "Perez.""This effort is an example of the lengths smugglers will go to avoid detection, and the skilled and effective police work and vigilance displayed everyday by Customs and Border Protection personnel," the agency said in a written statement.The van used in the smuggling attempt, according to California's El Centro Border Intelligence Center, was a privately owned vehicle registered out of Yucca Valley, Calif., and was bearing stolen government plates that had been defaced. The center digit -- 0 -- was altered to read as an 8. Further research through multiple government agencies determined that the plate belonged to a one-ton cargo van registered to the U.S. Marine Corps.Hmmmm......Terrorist attack squad anyone?Of course not a word about their nationality or religion?Read the full story here.

• Turkey group plans new Gaza flotilla with at least 15 ships.IHH, left-wing European groups plan to send flotilla this May, one year after another IHH flotilla resulted in bloodshed that prompted widespread international condemnation of Israel.Israel will launch a public campaign on Tuesday against a plan by the Turkish organization IHH and several left-wing European groups to send a flotilla to the Gaza Strip this May, a year after another IHH flotilla resulted in bloodshed that prompted widespread international condemnation of Israel. IHH activists aboard that flotilla attacked Israeli soldiers who tried to intercept it with axes, knives and iron bars. Nine Turks were killed.Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will summon foreign ambassadors to the ministry today to seek their help in stopping this year's flotilla, which is slated to contain at least 15 ships. The sailing date has not yet been finalized, but the ministry expects it to be sometime between May 15, when the Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba" ("catastrophe" ) of Israel's establishment, and May 31, the anniversary of last year's deadly interception. Thirty organizers from 15 countries met in Madrid about six weeks ago to discuss their plans, which have so far been kept under wraps for "security reasons." They also asked the governments of some of the countries whose nationals plan to be aboard the flotilla to guarantee their safety should Israel try to stop the ships. Over the last two months, the Foreign Ministry has asked several governments, including those of Spain, Britain, Ireland and Sweden, to publish travel advisories warning their citizens against sailing to Gaza. Britain and Ireland have in fact done so.When the president of Cyprus, Demetris Christofias, visited Israel about 10 days ago, the flotilla was a key topic of discussion. Christofias stressed that the order he issued a year ago banning ships from sailing to Gaza from Cypriot ports remains in force. The ministry is far from sure the flotilla can be stopped by diplomatic means, but is determined to try. Hmmmm.....It seems Turkey is determined to start war between them and Israel.I wonder if Obama and Erdogan already discussed this possibility also on their 'phonecalls'?Read the full story here.

• Drilling Ken Salazar.By Michelle Malkin.After two years of practicing unrepentant contempt for science, jobs, law and truth, why should Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's words mean anything anymore? While President Obama promotes offshore drilling overseas thousands of miles away in Brazil, Salazar now promises to revitalize America's oil and gas industry. It's like Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian promoting himself as a lifesaving CPR specialist.This week, Salazar announced that the administration has just approved the first deepwater oil and gas exploration plan since last spring's BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mind you: This is not a granting of permits, but a green light for Shell Offshore to seek drilling permits for three new exploratory wells off the Louisiana coast. Shell first submitted and received approval for its original exploration plan in 1985 -- 26 red tape-wrapped years ago.Salazar's make-believe resurrection of American offshore and onshore drilling began a few weeks ago, when the Interior Department Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement issued a deepwater drilling permit to Noble Energy for a well at the Santiago project about 70 miles off the Louisiana coast. But as Louisiana political analyst and blogger Scott McKay pointed out, "This isn't a permit for a new project. The permit issued to Noble was for a bypass of an obstruction in a well they'd already drilled before the Deepwater Horizon accident. It took 314 days to get that well back online with this administration."Nevertheless, Obama oil czar Michael Bromwich claimed credit for the decision and insisted the project be treated as a new well. So this is how Democrats win the future: crushing industries with one hand while patting themselves on the back for saving them.The Obama administration's response? Last week, just under the wire on the judicial time limit, the White House won a stay from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Delay, baby, delay.Unsurprisingly, the man who misled the public about scientists' support for his overreaching moratorium now faces more charges of data doctoring. Louisiana GOP Sen. David Vitter called out Salazar and Bromwich for publicly low-balling drilling application figures. While the pair informed Congress that the administration has received fewer than 50 shallow water permits and that only six to seven deepwater permits are pending, the Obama Justice Department asserted in legal filings that "there are 270 shallow water permit applications pending, and 52 deepwater permit applications pending." Which is it?OMSA reports that there are more than 100 deepwater development plans that have yet to be cleared to even become eligible for a permit. Salazar is "treating Gulf workers like peasants, tossing us work crumb by crumb and expecting us to be grateful," Adams said. "We're tired of fighting for scraps. We want to get back to work -- all of us, not just a handful of crews."At least 13,000 jobs have been lost, according to Louisiana State University professor Joseph Mason's latest estimates. Isn't it high past time to send Salazar and his misery-inducing eco-radicals packing? How about exporting them to Brazil?Hmmmmm.....And what's the story about these "Czars",i thought congress put them on the unemployed list?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.The White House Guess List: How Obama Pulled a Fast One on the American People – in the Name of ‘Transparency’.President Barack Obama has won praise from the media — and from himself — for putting the White House visitor logs online. Yet the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal.The White House is still holding back “tens of thousands” of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that “the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration.”We also know that some of the most important presidential visitors don’t even walk into the White House. The administration meets K Street lobbyists at Caribou Coffee, and holds secret meetings in Jackson Place townhouses where there are no visitor logs.The visitor logs that have been released are problematic, because they are simply lists of names, with no way to verify whether a specific name belongs to a particular person.When the first names were released on Oct. 30, 2009, late on a Friday afternoon, then-White House “ethics czar” Norm Eisen noted the lists included “false positives” — “names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else.” According to Eisen, these included ordinary visitors named “Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly (“R. Kelly”), and Malik Shabazz.”A number of conservative bloggers noticed the names, but not Eisen’s blog post. With speed and precision suggesting direct coordination from the top, ThinkProgress, the core of the heavily funded John Podesta/George Soros “progressive” world, gleefully attacked its ideological foes for reporting “false positives.” The next release included “Louis Farrakhan” and “James Taylor,” but this time conservatives were more careful.Yet there is no way to prove that the “false positives” really are false, because the White House refuses to reveal identifying information about visitors. In December 2009, citing visitor logs, Big Government reported that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis had likely visited the White House on a special “staff tour” on September 5. The timing of Lewis’s visit — as the far-left regrouped in the aftermath of the health care town halls — seemed suspicious.Ben Smith of Politico then reported that an anonymous White House source said we had the wrong Bertha Lewis. I asked Smith why, if that were the case, the White House would use an anonymous flack to put down our report, rather than busting us cleanly. Smith agreed it was weird. The next day, the official emerged, but the newly revealed Jen Psaki refused to say who the real Bertha Lewis was, citing “privacy concerns.”With no way to verify, there is no real transparency. Of course, with Andrew Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who visited the White House over twenty times through October 2009, there is little doubt that he is the Andy Stern. That information helped establish the credibility of the visitor logs. Yet there are three “Andrew Sterns” who visited with group tours–are they just “false positives”?What is the point of listing hundreds of thousands of tourists, if not to help create “false positives”? Eisen and the White House have created a haystack that can hide a needle. Considering that Eisen, a major Obama bundler in 2008, was responsible for smearing former Inspector General Gerald Walpin, and was elevated to an ambassadorship through a shady recess appointment, that hardly seems impossible.Evidence has emerged to suggest the White House tried to manipulate media coverage of the visitor logs to create an impression of transparency. Indeed, Fitton reported to Congress that in the fall of 2009, Eisen “encouraged [Judicial Watch] to publicly praise the Obama administration’s commitment to transparency, saying it would be good for them and good for us.” Yet the White House still refused to provide all of the visitor logs.Hmmmm........."The most transparant administration evah!"Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Muslim Brotherhood’s Weeklong Celebration of the Caliphate at Virginia Military Institute.Amid talk on Capitol Hill about defunding public broadcasting—and just after NPR was exposed as willing to take money from the Muslim Brotherhood—it turns out that a film produced by PBS already has. At 5:30 p.m. on March 23, a PBS-produced movie, Cities of Light—funded by Arcapita, a shariah compliant bank supervised by a leading international supporter of jihad, Taqi Usmani—will be shown to America’s next generation of ROTC students and military leadership.

Tomorrow, the East Meets West conference celebrating the caliphate, and featuring a movie funded by a bank supervised by a leading jihad supporter, will convene at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), known as America’s oldest state military school.

Funded by Shariah Compliant Finance Giant Arcapita & Its Jihadist Advisor

Cities of Light portrays Moorish Spain as an area of tolerance and mutual understanding. In actuality, the Muslim occupiers frequently persecuted people of other religions and made them pay a Jizyah, or tax to be levied on non-Muslims. Its donor, Arcapita – the PBS documentary’s big Shariah Compliant Finance donor – is renowned for having Shariah bigshot Taqi Usmani on their Shariah advisory board. Usmani has explicitly advocated jihad against any non-Muslim state, even ones where Muslims are welcomed as equals and allowed to practice their religion without interference.

Managed by the UAE, And Tied to CAIR

Who is managing the Defense Department grant for this conference – who has advised on the invitees and movies and marketing for this three day Muslim Brotherhood celebration?

These Defense department grants are managed by the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, an arm of the Al-Maktoum family, through their leading role in the Institute of International Education (IIE), as well as numerous other UAE entities in the IIE. A last point of interest is the Institute of International Education (IIE). They are the private entity that operates the newly named (under Obama) Project GO (for Global Officers), what was previously the ROTC foreign language and culture program. That’s right – Obama’s administration has changed the ROTC grants program, so that the ruling dynasty of the United Arab Emirates, through the IIE, is now managing Defense Department grants that define ROTC foreign language and culture education. You’ll remember the UAE Maktoum dynasty from the 2006 Dubai Ports World Corporation incident; that was their attempt to take over port security at 22 seaports across the United States.But wait – there’s more Muslim Brotherhood background, specifically in the connections here between Conference funders and CAIR. In 2002 the Al-Maktoum foundation provided $978,031.34 in the form of a Deed of Trust for CAIR’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. In 2006 UAE Minister of Finance Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum endorsed a proposal to build a property in the United States to serve as an endowment for CAIR. And that PBS film Cities of Light, funded by jihad-supporting Usmani’s Arcapita – Another significant funder of that film was the Sabadia Family Foundation. According to reports, the Sabadia Family Foundation was a major supporter of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Over a 4-year period, the Foundation wrote $755,000 in grants to CAIR.And CAIR, according to the prosecution’s documents in the Holy Land Foundation trial, is associated with Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.Here’s the question: which of the several congressional committees who could claim oversight on these UAE-managed Defense Department ROTC Global Officer grants will investigate taxpayers paying over half a million dollars for tomorrow’s celebration of jihad, the oppression of religious minorities and the Muslim Brotherhood?Hmmmm......"They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• HT:WarIntel.Smoking Gun, Stuxnet architect.If malware can be Art,Stunet be its name.Is the architect of Stuxnet, US Gov. Uber hacker #JohnBumgarner ?Paradigm Intel has suggested that the United States was the author of Stuxnet {malware} that destroyed the gas centrifuges at Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. To date no real evidence has been presented that links the US to Stuxnet. Our BSU's have finally uncovered a link. In public documents,which the News agencys have missed.BSU's discovered an obscure article written by John Bumgarner, Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.It seems that the article was written primarily for an “information operations” audience {interesting}. Within the article he discusses launching a covert cyber strike against a nation that has violated international treaties for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons {Iran?}John’s article was published months before Symantec’s revelation and even months before stuxnet was discovered. Is he the author of Stuxnet, or just have some inside knowledge {US government conspiracy} or was it an educated guess about the target and attack technique? I assume that there were lots of people {intelligence, military} that knew what the target and attack technique would be in an “Iranian cyber attack scenario.” John is the definitive Uber Hacker.Hmmmm.........Read the full story here.

• HT:RightTruth.Obama’s Solution: Amputation and More Amputation to the Body of IsraelIsrael can no longer be sabotaged by proposals cloaked in the name of peace and continue to survive. Our goal is the uniting of Jews and non-Jews in one purpose of mind, leaving no doubt there is a line which must not be crossed, and which we will defend to protect and secure the sovereign state of Israel.For years, pundits have been analyzing and suggesting solutions to every event that chronicles the obvious injustice Israel faces, but to what avail? It’s now 2011, the free world, and, most especially, Israel, is under attack by Obama’s policies.Obama’s solution to the Israeli-Arab dispute - amputation and more amputation to the Body of Israel - thus bringing upon her ultimate death. Instead of submitting ourselves as a hapless victim to his knife, the Jewish People must take a proactive stance. We need to unite as one and take up the call for an immediate end to negotiations with people who have become nothing more than foot soldiers in Iran’s global terrorist’s enterprise. Whether it is Hamas, or Fatah, whether you label them religious terrorists or secular moderates, the DNA of hate and the destruction of Israel is the glue that binds these political parties to a common objective: Their determination is to create another terrorist Islamic state with "East Jerusalem" as its capital. (There never was a "west bank or east JERUSALEM" until the terms were invented to erase the real names which for thousands of years have been and remain JUDEA, SAMARIA and JERUSALEM).At the end of the day, to be victorious we need a Proclamation whose Declaration unites us in one purpose, one heart, when discussing the business of securing the survival of Israel. It must be one that keeps us on a steady course as we advance towards this objective, not one of half measures that keep us scattered in every direction by the winds of change and uncertainty.Never Again is Now is that proclamation; it is the inspiration for the Jewish People’s Declaration of Independence. Its contents are a suitable vessel with which to directly address the issue of securing the survival of Israel, as it provides a litmus test establishing a line which cannot be crossed – the line which serves as a hedge of protection around the nation of Israel.Please visit http://www.neveragainisnow.com/ and, if you have not signed the Declaration, add your name to the 22,000 signatories, including 800 Holocaust survivors, who support the ideals expressed in the Jewish People’s Declaration of Independence. Then, pass this email on to everyone on your Twitter and Facebook lists. We also request your support by forwarding this email to Glen Beck news@email.glennbeck.com, a great supporter of Israel.Action Alerts will be forthcoming from Never Again is Now on how we can use the Declaration to consolidate our forces to put a stop order on any policy that would lead to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish People.Read the full story here.

• Egypt Air removes Israel from map.Jordan stretches to sea in online map by Egypt's largest airline, though it continues to fly to Israel. Egypt Air, the largest airline in Egypt, has removed Israel from the map – literally. On its website, Ynet has learned, Jordan's land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.The airline's subsidiary, Air Sinai, flies to Israel regularly, but customers seeking flights to Ben Gurion National Airport will have a hard time finding them. On the map are the names of the Mideast capitals – Amman, Beirut, and Damascus – but Israel is nowhere to be found.Egypt Air is the first large airline to have omitted the state from its map of destinations. Other airlines based in Muslim countries, such as Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian, include Israel and Tel Aviv on its maps. The omission is especially odd seeing as the company continues to fly to Israel four times a week. Tel Aviv flights were temporarily halted following the recent uprising that overturned the government, but were then reinstated. There has also been an increase in passengers on Air Sinai's flights. According to the Airports Authority, the airline saw an increase of 27% in 2010 from the year previous.Hmmmm....Obama "Israel may benefit from the changes from Arab uprisings " yeah whatevah genius.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Money Trouble Ahead: 15 Indications That Bad Times Are About To Hit The U.S. Economy.2011 is shaping up to be a really bad year for the U.S. economy. There are all kinds of indications that big trouble is ahead. So far financial markets are weathering all of the chaos around the world fairly well, but just as there were huge flashing warning signs before the 2008 financial crisis there are also huge flashing warning signs now. The price of oil is soaring, the U.S. housing market is experiencing huge problems, the cost of living in America recently hit a new record high and each week the globe seems to become even more unstable. How much pounding can our fragile economic system take before it completely collapses? As the price of oil goes even higher, it is going to cause economic growth to slow down and it is going to cause the prices of the things that we all buy at the stores to go up at the same time. It is very likely that we are entering a period of "stagflation" similar to what we experienced in the 1970s. This is going to cause a huge amount of money trouble for millions of American families. Already there are vast numbers of American families that are barely making it every month. Tens of millions of Americans are already receiving government assistance. So what is going to happen when the next financial crash happens and we experience yet another major economic downturn?The truth is that the financial system was never "fixed" after the crash of 2008. If anything, it is more vulnerable today than it was back then. Even as you read this, major imbalances are building up in the global financial system, and at some point a "tipping point" will be reached.Once that tipping point is reached, it will not be too long before the U.S. economy experiences the next wave of economic problems. Perhaps we will be fortunate and it will not be as bad as the 2008 crash. Perhaps this next wave will be even worse than 2008 was. Only time will tell.But all of the warning signs are there. The following are 15 indications that bad times are about to hit the U.S. economy.Read the full story here.

• Five Syrian protesters 'shot dead' in Daraa.Syrian security forces fired on Wednesday on anti-regime protesters near a mosque, killing five and wounding scores, rights activists said as the government blamed a "gang" for the violence.Hundreds of people had gathered at the Omari mosque, the focus of rallies in the flashpoint southern town of Daraa since Friday, to prevent police from storming it. Security had been beefed up after they set up tents to camp there."Security forces fired live bullets and tear gas on protestors" staging a sit-in near the mosque, a rights activist said, adding "They cut off electricity and the firing started."The official SANA news agency said the attack was carried out by a gang using children as "human shields," and that it left four people dead including a security force member."An armed gang after midnight attacked a medical team in an ambulance at the Omari mosque, killing a doctor, a paramedic and the driver," before police intervened and made some arrests, said the report.SANA said "these gangs... used children they had kidnapped from their families as human shields," adding they also "terrified people by squatting in houses" and firing on passers-by.Syrian state television later showed footage of what it said was a stockpile of weapons inside the mosque including pistols, shotguns, grenades and ammunition.There was no way to immediately verify the reports.Organisations including Human Rights Watch have accused the Syrian authorities of detaining dozens of activists at a rally outside the interior ministry last week.The crackdown on protesters also earned a harsh rebuke on Tuesday from the European Union, which condemned the "violent repression" of the rallies as "unacceptable."Read the full story here.More here .

• Indonesia - Retired generals backing hardliners in plot to topple SBY: Al Jazeera.Al Jazeera has reported that “senior retired generals” have been secretly backing hard-line groups to incite religious violence in a plot to remove President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from power."The generals are using the groups in their efforts to topple President Yudhoyono because they feel he is too weak and too reformist," Al Jazeera correspondent Step Vassen said in the report.Vassen said reports that the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) had powerful backing “can now be confirmed for the first time”.The FPI has been linked to a series of attacks in the country, including violence against Christians and Ahmadis."This revelation shows that behind religious violence a dangerous political power play is happening," she said.Ahmadiyah, possibly the most persecuted group in the country’s history, has about 200,000 followers. The Indonesian Ulema Council released fatwas in the 1980s against the group and in 2005 declared Ahmadiyah deviant for believing that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is the last prophet, not Mohammed as most Muslims believe.One of the deadliest attacks on Ahmadis in Indonesia took place in a small village in Banten in early February, when 1,500 men, some armed with machetes, assaulted 20 Ahmadis. Three Ahmadis were killed in the incident.Vassen quoted Islam Reform Movement leader Chep Hernawan, who said that the Ahmadiyah issue had emerged because of the generals. He said they “are fed up with the President's lies."Now, the generals that want Yudhoyono’s ouster "are using the Ahmadiyah issue and it works," Chep said.Chep said he was approached by a retired three-star general in January."He told me that we should keep fighting a jihad, we should not back down so the liar can be toppled."He said the generals told him that Ahmadiyah had to be disbanded “or we'll have a revolution." Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.Hmmmmm.....Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance"!Read the full story here.More here.