Issa: Executive Privilege Reserved For Presidential Decision-Making.

Issa: Executive Privilege Reserved For Presidential Decision-Making.(BLN).By Susanne Posel.Darrell Issa, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama wherein he directly challenged Obama’s use of executive privilege, essentially hiding certain documents concerning the Fast and Furious operation.
There was a formal request that Obama provide “legal justification for the privilege claim and a list of specific documents covered by it.”

Issa explained that according to case law, “executive privilege is reserved for direct presidential decision-making.” 

By intimation, Obama is admitting to have overseen the operation by his use of executive privilege.

While Obama has asserted in public forum that he and Holder were not involved in F&F, he is essentially lying by omission.
Issa reminds Obama that either his “most senior advisers were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious … and the fallout” or he is hiding behind “a presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation.”
Holder, trying to bargain with the House Oversight Committee, offered documents in exchange for the contempt charge dropped. Holder spoke to Obama in private, wherein he told Obama to use executive privilege because the documents requested by the HOC would have “significant damaging consequences”.
Last week, Holder advised Obama to use his executive privilege card concerning the internal documents of the F&F.
Issa mentioned Board Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death and pointed out that the gun that killed Terry had been shipped into Mexico for the drug cartels by US agents.
The Terry family has been requesting for over a year and a half for the US government to hold those responsible within the government to “justice and accountability”. They recognize that it is very “disappointing that [the Terry family] are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious.”
Holder had admitted this fact in a letter written in February of 2011. Seeing Holder retracted that statement several months later, Issa cites that “lying to Congress is a crime”. All documents pertaining to that denial will be subpoenaed by the HOC; specifically correspondence between Obama’s administration and Holder between June of 2012, until the claim of executive privilege.Hmmmm.......GunWalker."These boots keep on walking, one of these days they'll walk all over you".Read the full story here.

The U.N. Speaks: The Arms Trade Treaty Will Affect “Legally Owned Weapons”

The U.N. Speaks: The Arms Trade Treaty Will Affect “Legally Owned Weapons”.(Heritage).Yesterday, the U.N. released its press kit for the July conference that will finalize the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The most interesting item in the kit is a lengthy paper by the U.N.’s Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) program titled “The Impact of Poorly Regulated Arms Transfers on the Work of the UN.” This paper perpetuates the belief, on which much of the ATT is based, that the big problem the world faces is a lack of agreed standards on arms transfers. That’s wrong: The big problem the world faces in this regard is that many U.N. member states are dictatorships, supporters of terrorists, or simply incapable of controlling their own borders.
But the paper makes it clear that the job of the U.N.—as the U.N. itself sees it—is to make the case for a very broad treaty. As CASA puts it, “Advocacy efforts should be developed…through relevant reports and op-eds, messages, and statements at relevant meetings and to the press.” So watch out for U.S. taxpayer-funded funded U.N. propaganda in a newspaper near you. But in spite of its desperate efforts to rebut Second Amendment concerns, the U.N. can’t stop stepping on its own shoelaces. After proclaiming that the ATT “does not aim to impede or interfere with the lawful ownership and use of weapons,” the CASA paper goes on to say that “United Nations agencies have come across many situations in which various types of conventional weapons have been…misused by lawful owners” and that the “arms trade must therefore be regulated in ways that would…minimize the risk of misuse of legally owned weapons.” How, exactly, would the ATT do that if it doesn’t “impede” or “interfere” with lawful ownership? The U.N. would have a lot more credibility on the ATT if it didn’t imply so regularly that the problem is as much lawful ownership as it is the international arms trade.Read the full story here.

Video - No deal: After meeting, Issa says contempt vote on Holder is still on.

No deal: After meeting, Issa says contempt vote on Holder is still on.(HA).Issa wants extensive documents, Holder’s offering a few documents plus, er, a briefing. If he doesn’t change his tune by 10 a.m. tomorrow, the contempt vote is happening. This is some game of chicken they’re playing here.

The announcement Tuesday night by committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., followed a closed-door meeting at the Capitol between Issa and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers with Holder at the U.S. Capitol. Issa described himself as disappointed and still hoping for a breakthrough… Holder, speaking in the Capitol Rotunda to reporters, said he had come “in good faith” and that he had made a number of documents, specifically those from February to December of 2011, available. Asked if he thought he and his department could avoid the contempt vote, Holder said, “The ball’s in their court.” But Issa said, “Today, the Attorney General informed us that the Department would not be producing those documents. The only offer they made involved us ending our investigation.”

Remember, Boehner’s reportedly not thrilled with the idea of F and F hearings sucking up lots of political oxygen during the campaign. That’s what Holder’s counting on, I assume — that Issa will either find some excuse at the last minute to avert the contempt vote at the committee level or that, if the committee does vote, Boehner will somehow bury the contempt recommendation before it comes before the full House for a vote. (Follow the last link and you’ll see that even if the House votes to hold Holder in contempt, there’s always a chance that they’ll reach a deal on the documents with the DOJ before the inevitable court battle occurs.)Read the full story here.

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

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

 

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

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

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation North America: Oregon 6.0 - 5.9 ; Brazil 5.4 ; Fiji 5.3 - 5.1!More info here.

• Fifty Members of Congress Hold Press Event on Obama Mandate.(LN).The new mandate pro-abortion President Barack Obama put in place forcing religious employers to pay for insurance coverage including birth control and abortion-inducing drugs is so offensive more than 50 members of Congress will speak out against it today.Congressman Jeff Fortenberry will hold a press conference today with supporters of the bipartisan, bicameral Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. His legislation would protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of every American who objects to being forced by the strong-arm of government to pay for drugs and procedures recently mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).The Fortenberry bill currently has the support of approximately 220 Members of Congress and Senators, the most strongly-supported legislative remedy to the controversial HHS mandate. This measure would repeal the controversial mandate, amending the 2010 health care law to preserve conscience rights for religious institutions, health care providers, and small businesses who pay for health care coverage.“The President still doesn’t understand that religious institutions will still be unacceptably entangled–financially and provisionally– with drugs, procedures, and services to which they may have religious and moral objections, in violation of their long-held rights of conscience,” he told LifeNews in a statement. “Moreover, this announcement still does not get to the very core of American distress: religious freedom and conscience rights are natural rights as enshrined in the Constitution. The government does not confer them and must not force persons to violate them by paying for things to which they have reasoned religious or moral objections.”“Congress should protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of every American who objects to being forced by the strongarm of government to pay for services to which she or he has deeply-held objections. We must do so for the benefit of the millions of Americans who are calling for swift bipartisan action,” he added.“This is a genuine assault on First Amendment freedoms,” Blunt said in an exclusive interview with Heritage following a speech there Monday. Blunt dismissed Obama’s “accommodation” announcement last week as an “accounting gimmick.” He said it’s not an issue of money as Obama portrayed it Friday.“This is not about cost. It’s about the Constitution,” Blunt told Heritage. “And if you can decide this no longer offends me because I don’t have to pay for it, I guess you’re concern is financial all the time and not faith-based.”Read the full story here.

• A Warning Sign For The World.(BLN).Any financial system that is based on debt is doomed to fail. Today, we are living in the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen, and if all of a sudden people could not use credit to buy things our economy would immediately ground to a halt. Unfortunately, no debt bubble can last forever. When this current debt bubble finally bursts, faith in the financial system is going to disappear, credit is going to freeze up and there is going to be a massive wave of bank failures. Right now, Greece is a warning sign for the world. Nobody wants to lend money to Greece, the Greek banking system is dying, one out of every four businesses has already shut down, unemployment is soaring and the Greek economy has now been in recession for five years in a row. Sadly, the economic implosion in Greece is rapidly accelerating. The Greek economy shrunk at a 7 percent annual rate during the 4th quarter of 2011. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Things were supposed to be getting better in Greece by now. But instead the Greek depression is getting even worse, and very soon the rest of the world is going to be going through what Greece is currently experiencing.Unfortunately, most in the mainstream media are treating what is happening in Greece as an “isolated incident” rather than as a very serious warning sign for the world.Thankfully, there are at least a few reporters out there that are realizing the gravity of the situation. The following is how one reporter from the New York Times recently described what life is like in Greece now….Greece is most definitely a warning sign for the world. If you keep recklessly piling up debt, eventually a day of reckoning comes. It is inevitable.But Barack Obama does not seem to understand this. He continues to pile another 150 million dollars on to our national debt every single hour. He knows that cutting spending significantly right now would hurt the economy and that would significantly hurt his chances for another term.Needless to say, Barack Obama is not likely to do anything that is going to significantly hurt his chances for another four years in the White House.So we continue to roll on toward disaster.The U.S. financial system is like a car with no brakes that is heading straight toward a 5,000 foot drop at 100 miles an hour.It is all going to seem like fun and games to some people until we hit the canyon floor.Once that happens, nobody will be laughing.Hmmmm....In one year time the fed reserve has increased its holdings from zero to 1,5 trillion dollar, what are they preparing for?Read the full story here.

• Fast and Furious: Rep. Issa to Holder, We Want Documents Now, Contempt Charges Still On The Table.(BG).On February 14th I received an email from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) office, containing a copy of a letter the Congressman just sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. In it, Issa points out Holder’s “lack of good faith,” in not complying with document requests heretofore, and to the fact that the DOJ as a whole appears “more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”Wrote Issa:  The Justice Department’s request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling. The [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee] is determined to know what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and how the Justice Department responded when it was publicly confronted with evidence of reckless conduct after Agent Terry’s death. If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder.In addition, the letter sets forth central questions that have to be answers, among which are:

1. Exactly how and when did senior Department officials learn the truth of what happened?
2. Did Department officials retaliate against whistleblowers?
3. Why did Department officials decide to move forward with prosecuting old cases involving highly objectionable tactics when line prosecutors had refused to do so?
4. Why did senior Department officials fail to see the clear connection between Fast and Furious and prior flawed operations they have admitted they knew about?
5. When did the Department first learn about Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s February 2011 suggestion of gunwalking, and why did the Department wait so long before telling Congress about it?
6. A year later, will the responsible senior Department officials be held accountable?The letter also contains a specific line of questions about Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, who pled the 5th when subpoenaed by Issa. Apparently, Cunningham did his own “comprehensive review” of Fast and Furious in April 2011, and Issa wants to know what he found out.Wrote Issa: “What information did Cunningham uncover To whom did he report this information? What was done with this information?”Issa ended his letter thus: [And] this is not an “election year political ‘gotcha’ game,” but rather a bipartisan sentiment. As Ranking Member [Elijah] Cummings (D-MD) promised the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, “we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice.” I applaud his revolve, and I want to make it clear that Congress will not give up until this accountability has been achieved.Hmmmm.....'Gunwalker' These boots will keep on walking, one of these days these boots.........Read the full story here.

• Obama tells China's vice president he welcomes China's rise.(SD).US President Barack Obama said yesterday that the United States welcomes China's rise, saying that strong cooperation between the two powers is good for the rest of the world.Obama offered a warm welcome to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House."We welcome China's peaceful rise," Obama said as the two men sat in the Oval Office. "We believe a strong and prosperous China is one that can help to bring stability and prosperity to the region and to the world."Obama said he was looking forward to future cooperation.A smiling Xi told Obama he wants to build on the relationship between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. He wants to engage the American people to strengthen cooperation and "deepen the friendship" between the people of the two countries.Obama sought to balance his desire to make a good start with Xi with the political need to look firm with Beijing in an election year."We have tried to emphasize that because of China's ... extraordinary development over the last two decades, that with expanding power and prosperity also comes increased responsibilities," Obama said."We want to work with China to make sure that everybody is working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world economic system, and that includes ensuring that there is a balanced trade flow between not only the United States and China, but around the world," he said.Xi said he looked forward to building a "cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interests." He added: "I hope to engage with a broad cross-section of American society during my current visit."The two leaders smiled and nodded as the other spoke and shook hands during an appearance in front of reporters.Read the full story here.

• Israel ambassador says Thai bombs similar to ones from India, Georgia attacks.(Yahoo).BANGKOK - The bombs discovered in a Bangkok house after a series of blasts in the Thai capital were similar to those used in attacks on Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia, the Israeli ambassador said Wednesday.While the targets of the bombs was not clear, "we can assume from the other experiences that we were the target," Ambassador Itzhak Shoham told The Associated Press.

• Israel ambassador says Thai bombs similar to ones from India, Georgia attacks.(Yahoo).Thai police found and defused two magnetic bombs that could be stuck on vehicles after Tuesday' blasts."They are similar to the ones used in Delhi and in Tblisi," Shoham said. "From that we can assume that there is the same network of terror."He said the arrest of two Iranians in the blasts "again leaves not too much room to assume who was behind it."A bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi on Monday injured four people, including a diplomat's wife. A similar bomb found under a car in Georgia on Monday was defused.Four Thai civilians were wounded in Bangkok in a series of blasts that began Tuesday when a cache of explosives ignited at a house, apparently by mistake. One explosion blew off the leg of an Iranian who had fled, carrying what looked like grenades.Read the full story here.

• Thailand plays down terrorist link to Bangkok blasts.(BM).Bangkok (dpa) – Thai officials on Wednesday said it was too early to link three blasts in Bangkok to international terrorist groups.“At the moment, there is no evidence linking this incident to terrorism,” Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said.On Tuesday, an explosion in a rented house in Bangkok prompted the four foreign residents to flee, police said. One man, after failing to hail a cab, threw a grenade at a taxi, injuring the driver and three pedestrians. He later threw another at a police car, but it bounced back and blew up in front of him, severing both legs.The suspect was initially identified as Iranian national Saeib Morabi. Police arrested another Iranian, Mohammad Hazai, 42, at Suvarnabhumi International Airport late Tuesday as he was about to board a plane to Kuala Lumpur.He had been identified by surveillance cameras as one three Iranians staying at the house where the bomb was detonated, police said.The two other suspects, including one woman, were still at large. Police said they found C-4 plastic explosives in the house that they rented in Bangkok.“We are checking with the Iranian embassy whether the two men under custody are Iranians,” Surapong said. “They could be holding fake documents,” he noted. Bangkok is a regional hub for purchasing fake identification documents.Iran on Wednesday denied any involvement and condemned the attacks by accusing Israel.“The Zionist regime is trying to tarnish the historic ties between Iran and Thailand by such acts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told state television network IRIB.The incident prompted 10 embassies to issue travel warnings to their citizens visiting Bangkok.Last month, the US and 10 other embassies issued travel warnings after being informed of planned terrorist attacks on US and Israeli citizens in the Thai capital.On January 16, police found 400 boxes of bomb-making materials in a shophouse believed to be linked to that plot.Police said they were alerted to the cache by Attis Hussein, a Swedish-Lebanese man arrested days after the US embassy travel alert on suspicion of being a member of the Hezbollah militant group.Maintaining security and the country’s appeal as a tourist destination is a key task for authorities in Thailand, which drew 19 million visitors last year.Although Iranians, unlike many Middle Eastern nationals, cannot get a visa on arrival, “there has been a significant increase in Iranian tourists visiting Thailand last year,” said a Thai diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.Hmmmm......Foreign Minister Genius:" At the moment, there is no evidence linking this incident to terrorism".Read the full story here.

• Israel - Rachel’s Tomb, Cave of the Patriarchs cut from national heritage program.(IH).The Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, both holy sites in Judea and Samaria, will be omitted from Israel’s list of national heritage sites, contrary to a promise made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two years ago, Army Radio reported Tuesday. The list of national heritage sites was expected to be approved by the government on Tuesday. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office insist that the two sites were left off the list for purely logistical reasons, but other government officials suggested that the decision was motivated by fear of worldwide condemnation. In 2010, Netanyahu announced a list of sites, including the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, which were slated for rehabilitation and renovation as part of Israel’s National Heritage Program. However, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed concern that inclusion of the two sensitive sites would escalate tensions in the region, and U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry said the sites were “of historical and religious significance not only to Judaism but also to Islam and to Christianity as well.” Now, with the final list submitted to the ministers for approval, it has emerged that the two sites have been omitted by a prioritization committee. Science and Technology Minister Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz (National Religious Party) submitted a letter to Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser, Army Radio reported, demanding to restore Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs to the list. “Omitting Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs is like denying our elementary heritage,” Army Radio quoted him as writing in the letter. “They are the burial place of our three fathers and four mothers. The state of Israel extracts its entire heritage from these sites.” Read the full story here.

• Ask not what Egypt can do for you; ask what Egypt will Blackmail you to do for them!(WShoebat).Seriously, what more evidence does one need? The Obama administration helped to facilitate the fall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. It was all about Democracy! Freedom! If that were true, the Muslim Brotherhood, which filled the vacuum, should be thanking America, asking us how we can be re-paid, right?Uh, not so much.One day after it was learned that the proposed Obama budget included $800 Million in aid to “Arab Spring” countries (Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya), with continued military aid to Egypt, the United States is now being met with threats from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Oh, and the Brotherhood also appears to be holding Americans hostage.Folks, this is nothing new.The Barbary Wars of the early 1800′s, which led to the formation of the US Navy and its Marines did the same types of things from the very same regions of North Africa (from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli). They pirated ships and held Americans hostage for ransom.Why? Terrorizing infidels was how they earned a living.Things didn’t change until Thomas Jefferson’s patience finally ran out.They’re Baaaaaaaccccck.Read the full story here.

• Gaza's power station ceased to operate.(AM).Gaza's power station ceased to operate. Ismail Haniyeh called Egypt to intervene in the energy shortage and show its support for the Palestinians and provide them with everything needed to operate the station - " to prevent a real humanitarian crisis". UN Officer for Humanitarian Affairs says - that the quantity of fuel transferred to Gaza through tunnels in the last two weeks was only half the amount of fuel that came from Egypt in the previous week, probably because of restrictions imposed by Egyptian police on the movement of fuel shipments to Rafah. The power plant provides about a third of the electricity in Gaza, and because of the many disruptions in power supply, the Health Ministry's spokesman in Gaza warned that:- "power cuts endanger the lives of some Hospitalized patients in the hospital." Hallo! El-Qaeda Sinaistan! Blow the Gas pipe line from Egypt to Ashkelon!... And F**k the "other two thirds" as well !...Read the full story here.

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

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.6 - 5.4 ; Philippines 5.2 !More info here.

• Fast and Furious News: With Zero Hour Approaching, It’s Revealed the DOJ Suggested Gun Running.(Biggovernment).February 2nd is fast approaching for Attorney General Eric Holder, who is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee for questioning on Fast and Furious. This will put him in the hot seat in front of Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other congressional members like Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who have been steady on Holder’s trail since details of Fast and Furious became public.Holder’s last appearance before a congressional committee was on December 8, when Issa made it clear how irritated he was over the changing timeline, Holder’s perceived arrogance, and the ongoing refusal to turn over subpoenaed DOJ documents. In one of the best exchanges on Dec 8, Issa looked at Holder and asked, “Have you no shame?” That was also the hearing in which Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), expressed his outrage over the fact that Holder’s DOJ had submitted inaccurate testimony then withdrawn it in an attempt to avoid being charged with providing false testimony.But a lot has changed since that early December hearing. Most recently, the last minute release of subpoenaed documents which show that Holder learned about Border Agent Brian Terry’s death on the day it happened: a point Holder has heretofore denied. (Emails between Dennis Burke, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, and Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff prove this.) Additionally, other emails in the recently released DOJ documents show that the head of DOJ’s “criminal division, Lanny Breuer, suggested letting some illicit ‘straw’ weapons buyers in the U.S. [to] transport their guns across the border into Mexico where they could be arrested.”In light of the emails, Holder needs to give a clear and binding answer regarding when he found out about Terry’s death. He needs to explain how the DOJ can claim ignorance regarding “gun running” while their own man, Lanny Breuer, was pushing it as a means making arrests. He needs to explain what, if any, interaction he or other DOJ officials/affiliates had with Patrick J. Cunningham between the time Cunningham was subpoenaed and the time his attorney announced he would plead the fifth. And he needs to describe what, if any, interaction he or other DOJ officials/affiliates have had with Michael Morrissey at this time regarding the testimony Morrissey is expected to give when he speaks with investigators.Read the full story here.

• 'Iran will be able to make nuclear bomb within a year'.(JPost).By Yaakov Katz."Iran is a global problem, a regional problem, and a problem for Israel," there is no doubt that Iran is working on developing a nuclear weapon, IDF Chief of Staff Gantz says at Herzliya Conference.The world needs to develop a credible military option to stop Iran’s nuclear program, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Wednesday, warning that if Iran wants to it has the ability to develop a nuclear weapon within 12 months.“Iran is a global problem, a regional problem and a problem for Israel. Iran wants to solidify its regime by creating a nuclear deterrent,” Gantz said in a speech at the Herziliya Conference. “Israel is the only country which someone calls for its destruction and is building the tools to do so.”Read the full story here.

• Clueless TSA agents found two possible pipe bombs at LaGuardia,kept them in a public area for six hours without notifying cops.(NYPost).Clueless TSA agents found two possible pipe bombs in a passenger’s luggage yesterday at La Guardia Airport — and kept them in a public area for six hours without notifying cops, The Post has learned.The Transportation Security Administration bozos at one point left the pipes — which eventually turned out to be harmless — resting on a radiator as hundreds of fliers passed through security nearby, sources said.“Six hours to report a potential bomb? It’s outrageous,” one Port Authority police official fumed.The stunning security screw-up, a violation of TSA policy of alerting police to all suspicious activity, began at about 11:30 a.m. at the central terminal when the male flier’s bags passed through an X-ray machine, the sources said.“When I saw the image, I took a step backward and said, ‘What’s that?!’ ” one startled TSA employee said, according to police sources.Another screener saw the objects, one gold, the other silver, and both 6-inches long with “springs” inside, and thought they could be bombs, the sources said. The screeners promptly called their supervisor. He questioned the passenger, who claimed the pipes were for homeopathic medicine.The supervisor bought the story and let the man board his flight without taking down any information, the sources said.The flier left the pipes behind and it wasn’t until 3 p.m., with the devices still lying around the screening area, when the supervisor finally realized he should notify someone.He called a TSA bomb specialist — who took another two hours to arrive.Hmmm...........Read the full story here.

• Darrell Issa threatens Eric Holder with contempt.(Politico).BY TimMak.House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee’s subpoena.In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that “this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress” if Holder and the DOJ didn’t produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.Holder has until Thursday, Feb. 9. to comply, according to Issa.Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to “obstruct our investigation and deceive the public” by withholding documents.“Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up,” he said in a four-page letter.The California Republican pointed to a document that the DOJ released last Friday, which indicated that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer had promoted gun-walking to Mexico on the same day that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Congress denying that the DOJ had allowed guns to walk.“It is inconceivable that the Department just became aware of this highly damaging document,” writes Issa, pointing out that the Oversight Committee had originally issued a subpoena on Oct. 12, 2011.Read the full story here.

• Grassley says Obama is behaving dictatorially, ‘usurping legislative powers’.(DC).Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley accused President Obama of dictatorial behavior in a floor statement Thursday, saying that his recess appointments were not the first acts he has taken to circumvent the constitutional system of checks and balances.“President Obama’s decision to bypass the constitutional advice and consent of the Senate is not an isolated incident,” Grassley said, according to prepared remarks. “It is merely the latest escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people and the constitutional separation of powers.”Grassley accused the president of “usurping legislative powers” by overriding and working around Congress when possible. This, Grassley argues, is in violation of the Constitution.“Having had their rights violated by a king, our Founding Fathers intentionally put the power to make laws in the branch of government that is most directly accountable to the citizens,” the Iowa senator said.Congress, Grassley said, needed to stop the president’s usurpation before it was too late.With this latest escalation, the time has come for Congress, on a bipartisan basis, to say ‘Enough is enough.’”“I would ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to think hard about the precedent being set for the next Republican president,” Grassley warned. “Once the genie is out of the bottle, you are not likely to be able to get it back in.”.read the full story here.

• Sen. Lee to Testify at Hearing on Illegal Non-Recess Appointments.(Heritage).A handful of constitutional law experts are slated to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tomorrow about President Obama’s four unconstitutional non-recess appointments. The witnesses include Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), one of Congress’ chief critics of Obama’s unprecedented decision. Lee will offer his expertise as a former clerk for a Supreme Court justice and attorney specializing in Supreme Court litigation. His testimony will come on the heels of a testy exchange with the president that began with the former’s announcement that he may block all of Obama’s nominations until the four illegally appointed officials make their way through the Senate confirmation process.“I find myself duty-bound to resist the consideration and approval of additional nominations until the president takes steps to remedy the situation,” Lee said at a House Judiciary Committee business meeting. “The president certainly will not continue to enjoy my nearly complete cooperation, unless and until he rescinds his unconstitutional recess appointments.”Obama fired back at Lee specifically, claiming, “One senator gumming up the works for the whole country is certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned.”That prompted a response from Lee, who rejected Obama’s accusations of political gamesmanship. “The Constitution is not partisan,” Lee wrote at the conservative blog RedState. “I will oppose any president, regardless of party, who attempts to ignore constitutional limits on executive power.”Lee’s objections will likely be fleshed out further at Wednesday’s hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, titled “Uncharted Territory: What are the Consequences of President Obama’s Unprecedented ‘Recess’ Appointments?” Other witnesses include legal experts C. Boyden Gray, Andrew J. Pincus, Michael J. Gerhardt, David B. Rivkin and Mark A. Carter. The hearing will be streamed live on the committee’s website.While Lee has been the most outspoken opponent of the president’s power-grab among U.S. senators, others have hinted at similar tactics in response to the move. Speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), while declining to endorse Lee’s tactics specifically, noted that “there are a number of people thinking, like Senator Lee, [that] we can no longer continue to work with this president and the other side in any form.”Read the full story here.

• Pro-Obama Think Tank: Only 35% of Deficit Is Bush’s Fault, 65% Obama.(Washington Examiner) — Most of the soaring $1 trillion federal deficit is the blame of President Obama’s spending and political deals according to a pro-Obama think tank that pegged former President George W. Bush’s responsibility at just 35 percent.While opening its analysis by blaming Bush and showing pictures of Senate GOP leaders, the Center for American Progress said that the other 65 percent of the deficit surge came on Obama’s watch, a combination of high spending, extension of the Bush tax cuts and additional defense spending.“The analysis reveals that events that occurred before January 2009, including the onset of the Great Recession and increased spending—especially on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—attributed to 35 percent of the swing from surplus to deficit,” said the center founded by long-time Obama advisor John Podesta.“The remainder of the deterioration did happen after 2009, but mostly because of lower-than-expected revenues. While some of the decline in revenue resulted from the continued economic weakness, the majority of it, about $335 billion, is the direct result of the tax deal signed into law in December 2010, which extended all of the Bush tax cuts,” said the group.Read the full story here.

• Obama green jobs program faces further investigation.(USAToday).By Gregory Korte.WASHINGTON – House Republicans are expanding their probe into the Obama administration's energy programs, investigating $500 million in green job training grants that reached just 10% of its job-placement goal, according to a government report.The program's goal was to train 124,893 people and put 79,854 in jobs. But 17 months later, 52,762 were trained and 8,035, or roughly 1 in 10, had jobs. Those numbers come from an audit by the Department of Labor's inspector general, which recommended that the administration end the program and return unspent money.President Obama has made green jobs a cornerstone of his economic agenda. In his first 2012 campaign ad this month, he said clean energy industries created 2.7 million jobs and were "expanding rapidly." But Republicans have pounced on failures, such as the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel maker backed with a Department of Energy loan guarantee.Citing what he calls "abysmal results" in the job training program, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is demanding answers about how the Department of Labor awarded the grants, which were funded out of the 2009 stimulus bill.But Assistant Secretary of Labor Jane Oates defends the initiative, saying the inspector general's audit used old numbers and that it was never designed to provide immediate results.Read the full story here.

• GOP weighs contempt charges against White House on Solyndra.(TheHill).Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who is heading the GOP probe of the failed solar company Solyndra, said Republicans are meeting this week to discuss contempt charges against the White House over its response to last year’s subpoena for documents.“We are meeting this week to look at a very serious charge, which would be contempt of Congress, because they are slow walking,” Stearns said on the Fox Business Network Monday, according to a transcript. Stearns leads the investigations panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.Republicans allege the White House has not provided enough internal documents to satisfy the GOP probe of Solyndra, the California solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009 and went bankrupt last year.White House officials say they have been responsive to the subpoena that Energy Committee Republicans issued in November, as well as earlier document requests. More on that here.Stearns, in the Fox segment, also took aim at David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior campaign strategist. Read the full story here.

• Obama Exploits Navy Seals.(DocsTalk).By Ed Lasky.For a basketball player, Barack Obama sure can stoop low.Leif Babin, a much-decorated Navy Seal, takes President Obama to task for exploiting Navy Seal operations to gain votes. This is not harmless credit-hogging by Barack Obama for the heroism and tough decision-making by our military. Babin -- joining a range of others -- writes in today's Wall Street Journal that Barack Obama is endangering the lives of Navy Seals for cheap political points: America's premier Special Operations force is once again in the headlines after a team of Navy SEALs rescued two hostages from captivity in Somalia last week. Elite U.S. forces have carried out such operations periodically over the past decade, always with skill and bravery. The difference in recent months is that the details of their work haven't remained secret. On the contrary, government officials have revealed them for political gain -- endangering our forces in the process.The floodgates opened after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May, and the Obama administration's lack of discretion was on display again at last week's State of the Union address. As President Obama entered the House chamber, in full view of the cameras, he pointed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and exclaimed: "Good job tonight, good job tonight." Clearly something had happened that he wanted the world to know about.After delivering his speech, which included multiple references to the bin Laden raid, the president again thanked Mr. Panetta. "That was a good thing tonight," he said as if to ensure that the viewing public, if they missed it initially, would get it a second time around.Sure enough, shortly thereafter, the White House announced the successful rescue of the hostages in Somalia by U.S. Special Operations forces. Vice President Biden appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to highlight the success the next morning, and Mr. Panetta also publicly praised it. Then came the "anonymous U.S. officials" to provide extensive details of who conducted the raid and how. As with the bin Laden operation, the top-secret unit that carried it out was again front-page news, as were its methods and tactics.Babin noted that the work of special ops teams are highly classified for good reasons that make it illegal for military personnel to divulge details to anyone. However, President Obama and his team have opened the floodgates -- virtually every detail of the bin Laden raid was widely publicized and is now available to anyone with the click of a mouse. The Defense Secretary added to the problems when he disclosed the name of a Pakistani doctor who was key to discovering the whereabouts of bin Laden. That doctor is now is a Pakistani prison and Panetta's disclosure will undoubtedly make his life worse.These disclosures endanger lives and will make future operations that much riskier. Babin, who has put his life at stake numerous times in battle, knows the game being played with him and his fellow soldiers serving the roles of pawns in a political farce: It is infuriating to see political gain put above the safety and security of our brave warriors and our long-term strategic goals. Loose lips sink ships.Babin, as noted above, is not the only observer to question Obama's priorities.J.D. Gordon, a retired navy commander, writes in the Washington Times about Obama's deadly new PR firm:The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nine months ago. However, all the White House-driven publicity for both events has helped turn the once-secret SEAL Team 6 into a household term, with likely negative consequences...The military still avoids discussion of the unit and its highly classified missions...The one and only reason why there has been so much recent publicity on SEAL Team 6 rests with the commander in chief.Casting aside decades of careful leadership to keep these stealth warriors out of the public eye, away from would-be revenge-seekers and assorted far-left protesters, Mr. Obama has discussed their exploits to such an extent that their mystique is largely diminished - and their identities closer to being disclosed.Gordon sharpened his focus and characterizes Obama's unwanted publicizing of Navy Seals missions for what it is: a political ploy:The first problem with Mr. Obama singling out our elite units is that they all live and train somewhere. High-profile discussions draw more attention to them personally, their families, their bases and their local communities. That presents force-protection concerns in our open society, where the Sept. 11 hijackers lived freely and the "Occupy" protesters have run amok.But, of course, the exploitation get worse. Obama is allowing his Hollywood donors to coin a profit from the heroic bin Laden mission the Seals undertook. Obama supporters in Hollywood are rushing to make a film about the raid originally scheduled to be released one month before the election. Apparently, the administration is greasing the way for the people behind the film/campaign spot to have high-level access to speed along the production.Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Security Committee, has called for an investigation, as Caroline May of the Daily Caller has noted:The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has called for an investigation into reports that the Obama administration is granting Sony Pictures and director Kathryn Bigelow "high-level access" for a film about the Navy SEAL operation which killed Osama Bin Laden. The movie is scheduled for release one month before the 2012 presidential election. By the time it hits the screen, will Obama be portrayed as a heroic commander-in-chief in the way that John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower were? Hollywood is one creative town.New York Republican Rep. Peter King sent a letter Tuesday to Defense Department Inspector General Gordon Heddell and CIA Inspector General David Buckley, expressing his concern about declassifying sensitive information for pure entertainment.Obama is masking with photo-ops the fact that he is eviscerating our military to fund programs that reward his base. Obama has previously defined politics as all about rewarding friends and punishing enemies. He has been sending hundreds of billions of dollars to his base (government workers, crony capitalists, environmentalists -- the list goes on and on) while slashing funds for our military. He rewards his friends in Hollywood by using the powers of his office to aid them in producing a film that will undoubtedly reflect well on him. Cleverly, the Hollywood cast of characters behind this film do not even have to declare the millions spent on this film as a campaign contribution. Barack Obama is cynically using our soldiers as political props for his campaign.When the Commander-in-Chief exploits the heroic work of our military he not only degrades the office but endangers the lives of our soldiers.This is a dereliction of duty on his part-and he should suffer the political equivalent of a court martial come November.Read the full story here.

• Canada Expels Two More Russians in Spy Scandal.(RN).Two more Russian diplomats have quit Canada following the arrest of a Canadian sailor charged in January with handing over secrets to a foreign power, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.Dmitry Gerasimov, a consular officer with the Russian government’s office in Toronto, left in a routine posting change, the Russian embassy in Toronto said on Monday. The Russia’s defense attache in Ottawa, Colonel Sergey Zhukov, moved back to Moscow in a “normal rotation,” a Russian embassy official said.But the Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Canada had removed Gerasimov and Zhukov from the list of envoys recognized by the government.Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle was charged with giving classified information to a “foreign entity” between July 2007 and January this year. Local media reported that the entity was Russia.Delisle may face life in prison if convicted.Four other Russian embassy staff have left Canada in recent months but Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied their departures were linked with the spy controversy.Read the full story here.

• IAEA inspectors to return to Iran after 'good' trip.(JPost).VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday it had held "good" talks in Iran about suspicions Tehran was seeking atomic weapons but more discussions were needed.The senior United Nations nuclear inspectors went to Tehran on Saturday for talks with Iranian officials on the Islamic state's suspected atomic weapons program, and to try to advance efforts to resolve the nuclear row. Tehran say its nuclear activities are for peaceful electricity generation."We are committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and the Iranians certainly are committed too. But of course there is still a lot of work to be done and so we have planned another trip in the very near future," Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters after returning from Tehran.Asked if he was satisfied with the talks, Nackaerts, who headed the six-member IAEA mission, said "Yeah, we had a good trip."He described the three days of talks as "intensive discussions" but declined to comment on whether his Iranian counterparts had engaged in substantial dialogue or to give any more details, saying he first needed to brief his superiors.Iran earlier described the talks as "constructive" and said further meetings were planned.Read the full story here.

• U.S. Intelligence Agencies Pushing Iran's U.S. Terrorist Attack Plot Propaganda.(WashingtonPost).U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, the U.S. spy chief said Tuesday.Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said in prepared testimony that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington that was uncovered last year reflects an aggressive new willingness within the upper ranks of the Islamist republic to authorize attacks against the United States.Highlights from a series of potentially volatile incidents. That plot “shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,” Clapper said in the testimony, which was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee in advance of a threat assessment hearing Tuesday. “We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas.”The assessment signals a potentially dire new direction in the adversarial relationship between the United States and Iran, at a time when there are indications that a covert campaign is already underway to thwart Iran’s alleged ambition to develop a nuclear weapon.Clapper’s warning about Iran was delivered as part of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual overview of the nation’s most serious national security concerns. As the hearing got underway, Clapper signaled that the United States is seeking to avoid a violent confrontation with Iran, instead pushing for more and more sanctions while also monitoring the possibility of a preemptive strike by Israel.Read the full story here.

• Iranian FM: We Are In “Constant Contact” With Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.(Egypt Independent) — Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood maintain close contact, Iran’s foreign minister has said in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm.“Tehran is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.He said Iran is ready to promote its diplomatic relations with Egypt to the ambassadorial level, paricularly in light of the Muslim Brotherhood’s recent ascendancy to power. The group’s party, the Freedom and Justice Party, controls 43 percent of parliamentary seats.Salehi told the paper that Iran would immediately send an ambassador to Cairo if Egypt agreed.Some countries “are not happy about improving relations between Egypt and Iran,” he said, adding that if Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia cooperated, all would benefit.Hmmmm.......probably trough the same person Obama uses to talk with the Taliban: Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi.Read the full story here.

• US foresees May as tentative date for clash with Iran. Floating SEALs base for Gulf.(Debka).A hurried decision not to de-commission the USS Ponce helicopter marine carrier after duty in Libya - but to refit it for deployment by May in the Persian Gulf as a floating base for commando teams - was confirmed by the US Pentagon and Navy Sunday, Dec. 29. This transportable floating base will expand the commandos' range in coastal areas and support counter-measure against mines which Iran has threatened to plant in the Strait of Hormuz in reprisal for the US-EU oil embargo. The SEALs will also take on Iran's menacing fleet of military speedboats.debkafile reports Tehran operates four different kinds of these craft in the Persian Gulf:

1. Small, fast vessels, each armed with a small missile for striking tankers and coastal oil targets around the Gulf region, such as export terminals. Earlier this month, Tehran claimed to have developed stealth cruise missiles capable of disabling aircraft carriers with a single shot.
2. Small, extra-fast boats armed with torpedoes. Iranian publications claim several such boats are capable of stealing up on US aircraft carriers and large warships from several directions without being detected and cause serious damage.
3. Floating bombs for kamikaze missions. These fast boats cannot be deflected after locking in on target, whether on sea or shore, and explode on contact.Iran used these floating missiles piloted by suicide squads to attack oil tankers in the Gulf in November 1987. Since then, their naval tacticians have upgraded this fleet with the technology gained from the British Bladerunner 51, a model of which Iran purchased some years ago.Since early January, the Pentagon has reported four cases of harassment by Iranian military boats sailing close to American warships in the Persian Gulf.
4. Boats carrying teams of Iranian marine frogmen trained for secret suicide underwater missions: One member of the boat's three-man crew dives close to the targeted ship and attaches a magnetic bomb to its hull.Iran has scattered hundreds of speedboats of different types around uninhabited islands off the Iranian mainland, tucking them out of sight in well-hidden inlets and bays. The US commando teams based on the Ponce platform will have the task of ferreting out and destroying this fleet.The US Defense Department aims to get the Ponce ready for its new mission as a floating commando base with all possible speed. To save time, the US military published one no-bid contract for the engineering work, waiving normal procurement rules on the grounds that any delay presented a "national security risk."The contract carries pointers to the timeline expected in Washington for a military confrontation to erupt between the United States and Iran, as well as the form it may take, say debkafile's military sources.The target date for deploying the commando platform in the Persian Gulf in four or five months indicates Washington is preparing for military clashes to blow up with Iran in the late spring or early summer.Read the full story here.

• US Official: U.S. Maintains Full Control of Turkish-Based Radar – facing wrong direction to help Israel.(DefenceNews).TEL AVIV — Refuting reports from Ankara, a U.S. government official said a U.S. X-band radar deployed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO’S ballistic missile defense shield is operated solely by American personnel, with no restrictions on the use of data generated by the powerful early warning sensor.“That radar is exclusively operated by U.S. personnel, exactly as it is here. We will control the data and fuse it with data from other radars in the region to generate the most comprehensive and effective missile defense picture,” the U.S. official said of the AN/TPY-2 radar recently deployed at Turkey’s Kurecik Air Force base and a twin system operating in Israel’s Negev desert.But the official vigorously denied Turkish reports of preconditions imposed by Ankara restricting the sharing of radar data with non-NATO nations, particularly Israel.“There are some people in Turkey that did not want the radar. They argued that the reason we’re putting the radar in there is to help Israel. Well, that’s not why we’re doing it.”According to the U.S. official, the Turkish-deployed radar is facing the wrong direction to be of much help to Israel.“In fact, the opposite is really true. Our radar here in Israel helps Turkey. ... Bottom line, it’s in all of our interests to have an American radar 400 kilometers from the Iranian border,” he said.Read the full story here.

• Turkey's Erdoğan tells Paul Auster'Who cares?'(HurriyetDaily).Turkey’s prime minister responded today to criticism from American novelist Paul Auster over the number of jailed journalists in the country, saying it made no difference whether he came to Turkey or not, daily Hürriyet reported. "Writer Paul Auster told a newspaper over the weekend that he wouldn't come to countries that lack democratic laws," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. "What difference does it make if you come to Turkey, or if you don't?"Auster had said earlier this week that he refused to visit Turkey because of the number of journalists and writers that had been jailed in the country. Read the full story here.

• Russia, China oppose ‘forced regime change’ in Syria; Lavrov warns of ‘bigger drama’.(AlArabiya).China and Russia have reiterated their opposition to the use of force to resolve the crisis in Syria, where escalating violence has killed thousands of civilians who oppose President Bashar al-Assad. As many as 25 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian security forces across the country on Wednesday, Al Arabiya reported, citing Syrian activists. 39 people were reported to have been killed on Tuesday.Russia’s envoy to the European Union said on Wednesday he believes a Western-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution cannot pass without language clearly ruling out potential military intervention, the Interfax news agency reported.Vladimir Chizhov’s remarks were the latest indication that Russia could veto the resolution, which supports an Arab League plan calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to cede power, if it is not changed to take Moscow’s concerns into account.The draft “is missing the most important thing: a clear clause ruling out the possibility that the resolution could be used to justify military intervention in Syrian affairs from outside. For this reason I see no chance this draft could be adopted,” Chizhov said, according to Interfax.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they would not support any action that would be imposed on Syria and would avoid taking sides in an internal conflict, according to Reuters. “The international community unfortunately did take sides in Libya and we would never allow the Security Council to authorize anything similar to what happened in Libya,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.In Washington, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said the fall of the Assad regime was in any case inevitable.“I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria,” Clapper told senators. “I personally believe it's a question of time but that's the issue, it could be a long time.”The opposition Syrian National Council meanwhile deplored the international community’s lack of “swift action” to protect civilians “by all necessary means,” in a statement on Facebook.On Monday alone, almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, were killed during a regime assault on the flashpoint city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The rebel Free Syrian Army said half of the country was now effectively a no-go zone for the security forces.“Fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime,” its Turkey-based commander Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad told AFP.CIA director David Petraeus told senators in Washington that Assad now faced challenges in Damascus and Aleppo, two cities that had been seen as insulated from the unrest.“I think it has shown indeed how substantial the opposition to the regime is and how it is in fact growing and how increasing areas are becoming beyond the reach of the regime security forces,” Petraeus said. Read the full story here.

• Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold?(Forbes).This month, the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department reported that China imported 102,779 kilograms of gold from Hong Kong in November, an increase from October’s 86,299 kilograms. Beijing does not release gold trade figures, so for this and other reasons the Hong Kong numbers are considered the best indication of China’s gold imports.Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month.So who in China is buying all this gold?The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has been hinting that it is purchasing. “No asset is safe now,” said the PBOC’s Zhang Jianhua at the end of last month. “The only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency—gold.” He also said it was smart strategy to buy on market dips. Analysts naturally jumped on his comment as proof that China, the world’s fifth-largest holder of the metal, is in the market for more.There are a few problems with this conclusion. First, the Chinese government rarely benefits others—and hurts itself—by telegraphing its short-term investment strategies.Hmmmm.......Someone trying to replace the Dollar as world currency?Read the full story here

• Turkey - Main opposition leader slams Prime Minister Erdoğan : ‘You are no pious man’.(HurriyetDaily).Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu yesterday leveled harsh accusations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for exploiting people’s religious feelings, as he attacked the government for covering up a high-profile embezzlement probe into an Islamic charity.“You are not a pious man but a religion-monger. Before categorizing people as pious and not pious you should first hold to account those who got away with the money that people donated for the poor,” Kılıçdaroğlu said yesterday at the parliamentary group meeting of his Republican People’s Party (CHP).His outburst came in response to Erdoğan’s accusations that the CHP was annoyed by the existence of the imam-hatip religious schools and suggested the main opposition aspired for “a less-religious generation.” Erdoğan made the remarks after two CHP deputies asked the Council of State to scrap a regulation that put graduates of imam-hatip religious schools on equal par with others at university entrance exams.Slamming Erdoğan’s comments as “divisive,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, “Was the previous generation unreligious? How do you measure people’s religiousness?” He recalled that imam-hatip schools and divinity faculties were inaugurated under CHP rule.He renewed criticism of the indictment of three prosecutors who were removed from the embezzlement probe into the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity last year on charges of forgery in official documents and abuse of office that carry up to 11 years in jail.“They first took the prime minister’s friends from the grip of the prosecutors, but that did not suffice. The prosecutors are after the embezzlers, while the ministers are after the prosecutors. This is an open intimidation of the judicial community,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. Read the full story here.

• Should Turkey embrace Hamas as a ‘civilian’ party?(HurriyetDaily).By Yusuf Kanli.Turkish Foreign Ministry sources have “corrected” charges made by Israeli President Shimon Peres and a leading Israeli newspaper by declaring that the amount of Turkish funding to Hamas would not be anything close to the quoted “$300 million.”This is good news, and of course bad news. On the good side, Turkey was not making such a “huge contribution” to Hamas, while on the bad side the statement revealed that, if not at the level of $300 million, Turkey was still providing some funding to Hamas.Is Hamas not a terrorist organization? Excluding some Arab countries and Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) (but including the Turkish state), the entire international community of nations say it clearly: As long as Hamas does not denounce terrorism, lay down arms and opt to become a “civilian” political party, it will remain a terrorist organization and will be treated as such.The president said allowing Hamas to have a bureau in Turkey was an issue that must be handled later. What does that mean? He did not say “Hamas wanted to have a bureau in Turkey.” He just said it was not the time to make a decision on the issue. That is a between-the-lines confirmation that such things are being considered.Furthermore, the president stressed that Hamas was a “political formation” of Gaza that had entered and won elections. Yet what dimensions Turkey’s relations with Hamas would take would be seen in time.Was Turkey not recognizing the official Palestinian government? Was Turkey not considering the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people? Had Hamas not very recently joined the PLO?Embracing Hamas to the extent of letting it move its HQ to Turkey would mean intentionally placing ourselves in far deeper difficulties than we could ever imagine.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Christians want political party.(BM).CAIRO: A number of Coptic Christian activists said on Tuesday that they agreed on the need for the establishment of an independent political Coptic Council away from the influence of the Coptic Church, pointing to the continued policy of marginalization of the Coptic community in Egypt, especially after the revolution, and described their situation as “no different from the era of Mubarak.”The activists added that their situation is “even worse under the rule of the military junta.”The activist demanded, during a conference on the “situation and state of Copts after the revolution,” freedom from the grip of the Church, which,according to them, fell in the “trap of the military council and continued its wrong path in political life and caused the election to turn into a sectarian issue.”Head of the General Coptic Association, Sherif Doss, stressed that the political situation is the “same as it was before the revolution, as the state did not take any action towards the incidents and violations against the Copts.”Prominent activist Naguib Gobraiel said “Copts must unite in one party, as the military junta did not offer anything for the Copts.”He added that “We [Copts] shall make the Party a political bloc, not religious.”Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.