Hamas Wins Significant Victory At West Bank 'Islamist' University.

Hamas Wins Significant Victory At West Bank 'Islamist' University. (GMBR).

Israeli media is reporting that Hamas has won a significant victory in student council elections at Birzeit University, a non-governmental public university located in Birzeit, Palestine near the West Bank city of Ramallah. According to the Haaretz report, the election results reflect the mood on the “Palestinian street”:

April 26, 2015 Hamas has scored a convincing victory in the elections for the student council of Birzeit University, which is considered the most liberal of all West Bank Palestinian universities and a reliable indicator of the mood on the Palestinian street. 

The April 22 elections were a focus of interest over the weekend in the Palestinian political arena, with some observers terming Hamas’ triumph as a political earthquake and a sea change in the mood in the West Bank, while others saw it as a localized failure that harked back to the trend that characterized the campus for many years, particularly in the years immediately following the 1993 Oslo Accords. 

The Hamas-affiliated Islamic Wafaa’ Bloc won 26 out of the council’s 51 seats, compared to 19 seats for Fatah’s student party, five for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and one seat for a coalition of other parties. Hamas won most of the student council elections between 2003 and 2007, when Fatah took the lead. Hamas did not contest the elections in 2009 and 2010, when it accused the Palestinian Authority of persecuting it. In 2012 the results were a mirror image of this year, with 26 council seats for Fatah and 19 for Hamas. In 2013 and 2014 Fatah’s lead over Hamas narrowed, to 23 versus 20. 

Hamas and its supporters consider the student faction’s seven-seat lead over Fatah in this year’s election an overwhelming victory, so much so that in his congratulatory message to the students, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal heralded it as ‘the first step in the national Palestinian process of completing the establishment of the Palestinian institutions in the Palestinian Authority and in the PLO and in acting to end the occupation.’

Read the rest here.

The Hamas charter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine.”

Nobel Peace prize winner Obama has approved more arms sales than any U.S. admin since World War II.

Nobel Peace prize winner Obama has approved more arms sales than any U.S. admin since World War II. (DN).

I'm joined now by Bill Hartung, Director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. His latest book is, "Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex."

He recently wrote an article headlined, "The Obama Arms Bazaar: Record Sales, Troubling Results." Welcome back to Democracy Now! , Bill. Talk about the numbers. Talk about the weapons. Where are they going?

WILLIAM HARTUNG:

Well, I was astonished in researching the article that Obama had sold this much. I mean, I knew there were record deals with the Saudis, but to outsell the eight years of Bush, to sell more than any president since World War II, was surprising even to me who follow these things quite closely. 

The majority, 60 percent, have gone to the Persian Gulf and Middle East and within that, the Saudis have been the largest recipient of things like U.S. fighter planes, Apache attack helicopters, bombs, guns, almost an entire arsenal they’ve purchased in just the last few years.

AMY GOODMAN: As we see the Obama administration’s dramatic acceleration of U.S. weapons sales abroad, can you talk about the U.S. requirements on the licensing of weapons and weapons-related exports?

WILLIAM HARTUNG:

Well, the industry has wanted relaxation for years. The Obama administration finally delivered that.

They took things from the State Department, which does a somewhat better job of vetting human rights and so forth, and took thousands of items and put them in the Commerce Department which historically has been involved in promoting arms sales, not vetting them. 

So it’s going to be easier for some countries to get arms without a license and those countries will become hubs of smuggling, no doubt. So it’s going to be counter to even the narrowest security interests of the United States, but it’s something industry has wanted for quite a while. Hmmmm........"CHANGE". Read the full story here.

Krauthammer knew already in 2009:

Video - John Bolton: "It's a policy of appeasement that Pres. Obama follows, it's an absolute disaster."

Video - John Bolton: "It's a policy of appeasement that Pres. Obama follows, it's an absolute disaster." (NCRI).

The former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, in an interview on Fox News Channel, said that the violence affecting Yemen and the death of Saudi King Abdullah is causing a “descent into chaos”.

He goes on to explain that the fact that the US is walking away from the Middle East it is just another step towards chaos.

The situation in Iran is of particular concern to Bolton. In his interview with Greta Van Susteren, he explains that the news of Iran building a missile that will reach further than Europe is further aggravating the existing problems.

He expresses his unease about the appeasement policy President Obama has been pursuing towards Iran.

This is an absolute disaster. It's a policy of appeasement that president Obama has pursued vis-a-vis the Iranians and the nuclear weapons program," he said. "And you will see the fruit of appeasement in short order if we sign this deal."

Reports that Iran has built a missile that can reach "beyond Europe" adds to the concerns, Bolton said. Hmmmm.....The whole presidency is one 'Obamination'

Sec State Kerry says Islamic faith utterly rejects violent extremism.

Sec State Kerry says Islamic faith utterly rejects violent extremism.(Taz).

Violent extremists who are killing children and others in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and other parts of the world may cite Islam as a justification, but the West should be careful about calling them Islamic radicals, Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience of opinion leaders Friday at the World Economic Forum.

"We have to keep our heads," Kerry said. "The biggest error we could make would be to blame Muslims for crimes...that their faith utterly rejects," he added.

"We will certainly not defeat our foes by vilifying potential partners," the top US diplomat said. "We may very well fuel the very fires that we want to put out." Read the full 'fairy tale' here.

Muslim Brotherhood 'Den' Qatar embraces admitted al Qaeda operative.

Muslim Brotherhood 'Den' Qatar embraces admitted al Qaeda operative. HT: LongWarJournal

Members of Qatar's al Murra tribe are throwing a party, and the people of Qatar are cordially invited. 

The "public invitation" for the party, which will be held down the street from a stadium for the 2022 World Cup, celebrates the return home of Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, an admitted al Qaeda sleeper agent released early from federal prison last week. [See LWJ report, Analysis: Former al Qaeda operative freed, sent home to Qatar.]

The prime minister of Qatar has even reportedly spoken to al Marri on the phone, congratulating al Marri on his release. Several alleged photos of the conversation have been posted on social media sites. One of the photos can be seen above.

Al Marri pled guilty in 2009 to obeying instructions from the mastermind of 9/11 to "enter the United States no later than September 10, 2001" and await further directions. According to President George W. Bush, al Marri pledged his loyalty in person to Osama bin Laden and cased such US targets as "water reservoirs, the New York Stock Exchange, and United States military academies."

However, shortly after his release from a US prison, several prominent Qatari personalities welcomed al Marri home with open arms. In the days that followed, others have continued to heap praise on al Marri, with a longtime board member of Al Jazeera declaring on her personal Twitter page that "we congratulate the family of Ali bin Kahlah al-Marri on his return."

Members of Ali al Marri's immediate family evidently revealed they were "delighted" when Qatar's prime minister phoned the former al Qaeda sleeper agent to ask how he was doing. This was after al Marri's nephew revealed his uncle was "greeted by representatives from the Qatari interior and foreign ministries." The adulation has left al Marri in "high spirits," his nephew said.

The nature of al Marri's release raises serious questions about whether or not he should have been repatriated to Qatar, a country notorious for turning a blind eye to terrorists and terror financiers in its midst. Hmmmm.....Guess where Yusuf Qaradawi lives?  Yup Qatar. Read the full story here. 

Related:

• Jan 11 -2012: Report: U.S. to Release Three Taliban Leaders from Guantanamo Bay, as in Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi plan. http://www.mfs-theothernews.com/2012/01/report-us-to-release-three-taliban.html

• March 11 -2012: "Commander in chief' Obama agrees to transfer the Taliban Guantanamo detainees to Qatar. http://www.mfs-theothernews.com/2012/03/commander-in-chief-obama-agrees-to.html

• June 30 - 2012: Obama administration still considering turning Taliban detainees over to Afghanistan and Qatar http://www.mfs-theothernews.com/2012/06/obama-administration-still-considering.html

• Report: Radical Sheikh a Key Mediator in U.S.-Taliban Talks http://www.investigativeproject.org/3359/report-radical-sheikh-a-key-mediator-in-us

• U.S. Set to Release Key Taliban Figure in 9/11 Attacks  http://counterjihadreport.com/2012/01/15/u-s-set-to-release-key-taliban-figure-in-911-attacks/

Kerry still pushes story Israel doesn't want new Sanctions on Iran.

Kerry still pushes story Israel doesn't want new Sanctions on Iran.

With respect to the prime minister and his visit here, look, we welcome the prime minister of Israel to come and speak in America anytime. And obviously, it’s a little unusual to learn of an invitation from the speaker’s office. That said, everybody knows that the subject of Iran is much on people’s minds. We have no difference in our goal with respect to our position. We may have – we do have some difference in tactics of how you achieve that goal. But we are determined that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon, and the key to our negotiations is to make certain that whatever is agreed upon will show people with clarity that that is, in fact, the case that the path to a nuclear weapon is not achievable and/or has been given up or both together, and that it can be verified. And that is obviously critical.

So I’m not going to say more about the negotiations at this time. With respect to more sanctions, our friends in Europe have made it very clear. Look, we have partners in this. We’re trying to convince our fellow – my former colleagues in Congress that the United States acting unilaterally is not always the best step to take. And in this case, we have a number of other serious partners – China, Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain – and we are all at this table negotiating together in an effort facilitated by the EU in an effort to be able to come to some agreement.

Now, the sanctions don’t exist simply because of the United States. And if all of our partners were to say, “Well, we don’t think you’re going the right way, we’re going to go do our own thing,” this can all fall apart, including the sanctions regime. You could lose the sanctions altogether. So deciding to act unilaterally is not exactly a strategy for success. We’ve been successful because we’ve kept everybody together, and everybody together has helped enforce these sanctions over a long period of time. And it’s very important to allow the Executive Branch of government, which in our Constitution has the right to be able to do this negotiation, to do it, and then there’s plenty of time for people to make judgments about how they feel about it.

So I think in Israel, one of the top intelligence – one of the top intelligence personnel within the Israeli intelligence field – I won’t name names, but this person was asked directly by a congressional delegation that visited there over the weekend what the effect of sanctions would be. And this person answered that it would be like throwing a grenade into the process. So we’re asking people to be responsible here, and then let’s have a good, responsible debate about what the best way to proceed is. Source.

Senate Bill Seeks To Force U.S. Embassy Move To Jerusalem.

Senate Bill Seeks To Force U.S. Embassy Move To Jerusalem.(TOI).

Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) ushered in the new Congressional session by proposing legislation Tuesday to force the Obama administration to change longstanding US policy and move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim.

The bill, which stands little chance of surviving both Congress and the presidential veto pen, nonetheless represents the opening shots from a newly Republican Congress that has vowed to challenge presidential authority on key foreign policy questions.

It also comes as the Supreme Court readies to rule on a high profile case which could determine Congress’s ability to shape foreign policy and force the State Department to change course and recognize Jerusalem’s status on passports of Americans born in the city.

The Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2015 seeks to force the executive branch to uphold the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which calls for the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital, but has been pushed off by pro forma presidential measures since.

“Almost fifteen years ago Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate,” Cruz, the bill’s cosponsor, wrote in a statement Tuesday. “It is my hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle support this important bill. It is long past due for our government to finally and unequivocally recognize Israel’s historical capital both in word and deed.”

Introduced late last week, the bill is headed for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, although there is no date scheduled for work to begin on advancing the legislation.

The bill’s stated purpose is “to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, to relocate to Jerusalem the United States Embassy in Israel, and for other purposes,” and in addition to removing the ability of the president to delay moving the embassy, it includes a statement of policy that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel, both de jure and de facto.”

In practice, the bill strikes the language in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that gave the president waiver authority to delay the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the grounds that it would harm national security interests.

Every president since Bill Clinton has signed a presidential waiver every six months in order to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv, citing concerns that a move to Jerusalem would upset the prospects for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The bill would also require any official government document which lists countries and their capital cities to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and proposes a partial freeze of State Department building funds until an embassy is constructed in Jerusalem.

The US has been reluctant to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, and the CIA factbook notes that “Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but the US, like all other countries, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.”

Heller’s legislation is similar to a 2011 attempt in the House to pass the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2011. That bill, which was cosponsored by 14 members of Congress, also sought to discontinue the Presidential waiver authority and thus effectively force the embassy’s move. That bill, however, did not make it out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In the new political environment in Washington, the embassy bill has a chance of passing both houses of Congress, where Republican lawmakers are jostling to challenge aspects of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. It will almost certainly, however, be felled by a presidential veto.
Read more: The Times of Israel 

Doomsday clock now set at three minutes to midnight

Doomsday clock now set at three minutes to midnight.HT: Crof.

Via The Independent: We are closer to doom than any time since the Cold War, say scientists.

The end of the world has come a lot closer in the past three years, with every single person now in danger as climate change and nuclear weapons pose an escalating threat – according to the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic measure which counts down to armageddon. 

They moved the minute-hand of their 68-year old concept clock forward by two minutes today, showing a time of three minutes to twelve, to reflect the fact that the “probability of global catastrophe is very high”. 

The time change symbolised their damning assessment of world leaders and the outlook for their citizens. 

“Today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race resulting from modernisation of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in Chicago, the group of scientists which set the clock. 

“And world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures potentially endanger every person on Earth,” she added. 

Although the clock is essentially a barometer, it is set by a team that includes 17 Nobel Prize winners and is taken extremely seriously. 

The committee pointed out that greenhouse gas emissions have soared by 50 per cent since 1990, while more than £660bn of investment floods into fossil fuel infrastructure every year. 

“The resulting climate change will harm millions of people and will threaten many key ecological systems on which civilisation relies. This threat looms over all of humanity,” said committee member Richard Somerville. 

The report also raised considerable concerns about nuclear weapons. 

“Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a cautious optimism about the ability of nuclear weapon states to keep the nuclear arms race in check and to walk back slowly from the precipice of nuclear destruction,” said Sharon Squassoni, a member of the clock committee. 

“That optimism has essentially evaporated in the face of two trends: sweeping nuclear weapon modernisation programmes and a disarmament machinery that has ground to a halt,” she added. 

The clock was established in 1947, with a debut time of 7 minutes to 12, after the atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The latest change is the 19th time the minute hand has been moved – sometimes forward and sometimes backwards – most recently in 2012 when it was pushed forward by a minute, again on concerns about climate change and nuclear weapons. 

The last time the clock read three minutes to midnight was in 1983 when “US-Soviet relations were at their iciest” according to the bulletin. The lowest ever reading was of 11.58 in 1953 when the US decided to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any nuclear bomb. 

The highest reading was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, when the Cold War officially ended and the US and Russia began cutting their nuclear arsenals.

Washington Post gives Three Pinocchios for Obama's claim about Iran and nukes

Washington Post gives Three Pinocchios for Obama's claim about Iran and nukes. (IMRA).

Fact Checker Obama’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program has been ‘halted’ and its nuclear stockpile ‘reduced’ By Glenn Kessler January 22 at 3:00 AM ?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/22/obamas-claim-that-irans-nuclear-program-has-been-halted-and-its-nuclear-stock-pile-reduced/

“Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material.” –President Obama, State of the Union address, Jan. 20, 2015

This was a bold statement by the president regarding the interim “Joint Plan of Action” governing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. In defending the talks against efforts in Congress to pass a sanctions package if the talks fail, the president made two key points: one, progress on Iran’s nuclear program has been “halted” and two, Iran’s stockpile of nuclear material has been “reduced.”

We realize that White House speechwriters probably don’t want to be bothered with technical issues in such a high-profile speech but here’s a case where some further wordsmithing was needed. This isn’t the first time. A year ago, in the 2014 State of the Union, The Fact Checker handed out Pinocchios when the president claimed that the inspections allowed under the agreement were “unprecedented.” That’s way too sweeping a statement.

So has progress been halted and the amount of nuclear material reduced?

The Facts

The Iran portfolio is highly contentious and progress in the talks — which have been repeatedly extended — is certainly open to interpretation. We should also note that Iran has steadfastly denied it has nuclear-weapons ambitions.

For the purposes of this fact check, we will rely on the definition of “nuclear material” by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which includes low enriched uranium (less than 20 percent, generally 3.5 percent enriched), highly enriched uranium and so forth. (This graphic helps explain why 20-percent enriched is so much closer to nuclear-weapons material than 3.5 percent.)

The administration, in its official statements, portrays the agreement as a success. Here’s how Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the progress in a Senate hearing on Jan. 21:

Before the JPOA, Iran had about 200 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium in a form that could be quickly converted into weapons grade material. …Today, Iran has no 20 percent enriched uranium. Zero, none. It has diluted or converted every ounce, suspended all uranium enrichment above 5 percent, removed the connections at Fordow [nuclear fuel plant] that allowed [Iran] to produce the 20 percent in the first place.

Before the JPOA, Iran was making real progress, as you know, on the Arak reactor, which, had it become operational, and together with the reprocessing facility, would have provided Iran with a plutonium path to the bomb.

Once fueled, the Arak facility would have been very challenging to deal with militarily. Today, Arak is frozen in place — no new components, no testing, no fuel. Before the JPOA, Iran had installed roughly 19,000 centrifuges…Today, 9,000 of those centrifuges are not operational.

That certainly sounds like a good news story. But nuclear experts we consulted said that the president simplified it too much in his State of the Union address by saying the nuclear program has been “halted” and the stockpile of nuclear materials has been “reduced.”

Olli Heinonen, who headed the IAEA’s safeguards section during the 2003-2005 talks between Iran and three European powers (United Kingdom, France and Germany), said “it is true that 20-percent enriched uranium stocks have decreased, but Iran is still producing uranium enriched up to 5-percent uranium. The latter stocks have actually increased when you talk about stocks of UF6 [uranium hexafluoride] and other chemical compounds.”

Moreover, while there has been no installation of new centrifuges, “it appears that the production of centrifuge components continues. Same with the Arak reactor. No new nuclear components have been installed, but it does not mean that the production of those came to halt.”

As Heinonen put it, “the JPOA is just a step to create negotiation space; nothing more. It is not a viable longer term situation. The nuclear caravan of Iran continues and sets a step after a step another fait accompli.”

David Albright, who heads Institute for Science and International Security, said the president’s language was “a little bit odd.” He said that the halt in Iran’s program from 2003 to 2005 was a more substantial suspension of enrichment activities. (At the Senate hearing, Blinken acknowledged the United States and its negotiating partners had abandoned United Nations Security Council demands that Iran halt enrichment as it was clear “Iran was not going to give up as a practical matter some very limited forms of enrichment in the event of an agreement.”)

Moreover, Albright said it was not correct that the 3.5-percent enriched stock had been reduced; instead it has been converted from one form (“hexafluoride”) to another (“oxide”), a step that he said was taken largely for cosmetic (political) purposes.

A significant portion of 20-percent enriched material has also been retained as scrap, rather than converted into fuel for a research reactor. A key aspect of the talks is to extend the “break out” period under which Iran could manufacture a nuclear weapon, but he said as a practical matter the conversion of 3.5 percent to oxide form would only add about two weeks to the break-out period, since Iran could reconvert it back into hexafluoride. (Here’s his report on this issue; this paragraph was updated for clarity.)

In effect, the amount of nuclear material available to Iran has gone up “about a bomb’s worth during the JPOA,” Albright said.

This is where Obama’s speechwriters went awry. Iran’s stock of low enriched uranium — a “nuclear material” by the IAEA’s definition — has gone up during the negotiations, largely as a consequence of the dilution of the near 20-percent material.

“The ‘most dangerous’ would be a better turn of phrase,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. “I think the speechwriters are trying to explain something complicated in ordinary language — and maybe not quite sticking the landing.” He noted that “dilution, as the term implies, results in a net increase in material although it eliminates what you would call ‘the most dangerous’ material.” Thus, in his view, it would be misleading to suggest the threat has gone up in this period because the amount of material has gone up. But he agreed the amount of nuclear material has increased.

Below is a chart, prepared by opponents of an agreement using Albright’s and Heinonen’s research, that illustrates Iran’s build-up of nuclear material since 2009. Advocates of an agreement might argue the trend from 2009 to 2013 highlighted the need for negotiations, and both Albright and Heinonen say there are slight technical issues with it. (“This graph should say that material available (red) is UF6 [hexafluoride], which can be used as such for further enrichment, Heinonen said. “The rest (blue minus red), about 4 tons uranium in various chemical forms, can be reconverted to UF6. Iran has stated that it is not constructing such a facility. If converted, the number of “bombs” would be higher”)

For the purposes of this fact check, the key period is between 2013 and 2014, when Obama claims the stockpile of nuclear of material has been reduced— and Iran’s program halted. But note that the amount of nuclear material that eventually could be converted to a bomb during a “break out” period has continued to increase.

The Pinocchio Test

Words have consequences, especially in a State of the Union address. The president could have claimed that “we’ve slowed the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of the most dangerous nuclear material.” But instead he choose to make sweeping claims for which there is little basis. Thus he earns Three Pinocchios.

"Israel's Staunchest Ally" - Obama 'Admin' Our Goal is Not to Eliminate Iran’s Nuke Program.

"Israel's Staunchest Ally" - Obama 'Admin' Our Goal is Not to Eliminate Iran’s Nuke Program. (FreeBeacon).

A senior official in the State Department admitted on Wednesday that the Obama administration’s goal during negotiations with Iran is delaying the regime’s development of nuclear weapons rather than shutting down the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear program.

Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken acknowledged during a tense exchange with senators on Capitol Hill a deal being sought by the Obama administration that would constrain its nuclear breakout capability without eliminating its nuclear program.

Blinken also floated the possibility of extending nuclear talks past the June deadline should additional time be needed to finalize details of a possible deal with Iran.

Leading senators on both sides of the aisle grilled Blinken and other officials in the administration over Iran’s nuclear program, which has continued despite restrictions imposed under an interim nuclear agreement made in November 2013.

Many believe that the interim deal has done little to halt the program and allows the regime to continue some of its most controversial nuclear operations, including the construction of new reactors and work on ballistic missiles.

“Let me ask you this, isn’t it true that even the deal that you are striving towards is not to eliminate any Iranian [nuclear] breakout capability, but to constrain the time in which you’ll get the notice of such breakout capability?” Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), a vocal critic of the White House’s dealings with Iran, asked Blinken during Wednesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “Is that a fair statement, yes or no?”

“Yes, it is,” Blinken responded.

This admission appeared to frustrate and anger Menendez, who accused the administration of issuing “talking points that come straight out of Tehran.” Hmmm.........We all suspected this much.....now it's 'official'. Read the full story here.

Video - Jordanian Preacher Yassin Al-'Ajlouni Proposes Place of Worship for Jews on the Temple Mount

In a statement posted on the Internet on December 18, 2014, Jordanian preacher Sheik Yassin Al-'Ajlouni said that the Jews should be given a place of worship on the Temple Mount. "There should be a special place of worship for the Jews among the Israelites, under Hashemite and Palestinian sovereignty," he said.

Video - Former Top Fatah Official Ghazi Al-Husseini: The Palestinian Authority Has Committed High Treason

Video - Young Boy Recites Song on 'Not a terror group' Hamas TV: The Jews Are Barbaric Apes, the Most Evil of Creatures.

In a recent Hamas TV children's show, a young boy recites a song titled "I Do Not Fear the Gun," in which he says: "Oh sons of Zion, oh the most evil of creatures, oh barbaric apes, Jerusalem rejects you and vomits your filth." The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 5, 2014.

Egypt Is Pursuing criminal charges Against Hillary Clinton and Pres Obama.

Egypt Is Pursuing criminal charges Against Hillary Clinton and Pres Obama. (Conservativetribune).

President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took great care of the Muslim Brotherhood while the terrorist group was briefly in charge of Egypt following the Arab Spring.

Though the group is no longer in power, as they were ousted by the Egyptian military, Egypt hasn’t forgotten the aid and comfort Obama provided the terrorist group during their short reign.

Egyption lawmakers charged Obama and Clinton in two separate complaints with the conspiracy charge.

For the first complaint, Obama was officially named as “an accessory to crimes committed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.” The charge is serious, with specific details about his accessory role, that said he, “cooperated, incited, and assisted the armed elements of the Muslim Brotherhood in the commission of crimes.”

The other charge, against Clinton, accuses her of working with Naglaa Mahmood, the wife of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi, in an attempt to overthrow General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, the current leader of Egypt (H/T Western Journalism).

Mahmood has since admitted that she’s worked closely with the Clintons, dating back to the 1980s — including numerous phone calls between the two since then, hundreds of which she has recorded.

Perhaps the most serious charge against the two involves their attempted bribe to the tune of $8 billion which was an attempt to sway the Brotherhood to open up part of the Sinai Peninsula to Hamas groups to make it easier to attack Israel.

That’s also not a stretch — as Obama isn’t exactly known to be a supporter of Israel.

While there are numerous reasons to impeach Obama at this point, news like this serves to further strengthen the case to do so. He continuously takes sides with terrorist groups and has managed to destroy America’s reputation with his ridiculously idiotic foreign policy decisions.

In fact, many would say his actions are grounds for him to be charged with treason.

Hamas’s International Triangle of terrorism: Gaza, Turkey and Qatar.

Hamas’s International Triangle of terrorism: Gaza, Turkey and Qatar. (CJR). Special to IPT News
December 18, 2014.

In recent years, the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has developed into a truly international entity. Today, it enjoys three territorial bases of operation: Gaza, the seat of the Hamas regime, Turkey, and Qatar.

According to Israeli intelligence estimates, each base serves a different purpose. The three branches have worked, alternatively, in harmony and in discord, together and independently, in line with the various terrorist activities they pursue.

“These are not the same leaderships,” one security source said, speaking of the Hamas command structure in each base.

“Qatar is home to Hamas’s political branch, headed by Khaled Meshaal. In Turkey [in the city of Istanbul], Hamas maintains a military branch headquarters, which sets up terrorist infrastructure.

This headquarters is comprised partly of former Hamas prisoners who were ejected from Israel during the [2011] Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. In Gaza, there are both military and political operatives.”

Each branch plays a unique role, and relations between them fluctuate.

Hamas’s headquarters in Istanbul is headed by Salah Al-Arouri, a senior figure in the military wing who is focused on rejuvenating Hamas terrorism cells in the West Bank, and using it as a springboard for orchestrating deadly attacks against Israel.

Gaza is home to the main military wing, the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, whose operatives focus on building up their offensive rocket capabilities, tunnel networks, and, like Arouri, they also seek to also set up West Bank terrorism cells.

On Thursday, Hamas held what is described as its largest military exercise since the summer war against Israel.

Gaza is also home to Hamas’s political wing, headed by Ismail Haniyeh.

“They all have their own interests. Those in Gaza have one point of view, those abroad have another. There have, in the past, been disagreements,” the source said.

One example of such internal conflict was the dispute between Khaled Meshaal and Hamas in Gaza over when to end the summer war with Israel. Meshaal pushed Hamas to continue the fighting, despite growing calls by Hamas in Gaza to agree to a ceasefire.

The conflicting positions were partly the result of geography: Hamas in Gaza had a better real time understanding of the heavy costs Israel was inflicting on it during the fighting than the overseas Meshaal, who, from his luxurious Qatari surroundings, could afford the privilege of calling for more fighting.

Nevertheless, a basic level of cooperation and consent exists among all three branches. Saleh Al-Arouri in Turkey would not have embarked on a major mission to set up a large-scale Hamas terrorist network in the West Bank, plan atrocities against Israel, and aim to topple the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, without approval from Khaled Meshaal and Hamas in Gaza.
Cooperation may not always be close, but it exists.

“There are connections,” the security source said. “Hamas in Gaza is connected to those trying to orchestrate terrorism in Judea and Samaria. There is a circle of cooperation.”

Arouri could seek and receive assistance from Gaza, as he has done, but he can also try to work independently. “There are no laws,” the source stressed.

In recent months, the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] uncovered two intricate Hamas terror plots to inflict mass-casualty attacks on Israelis, and to weaken Fatah in the West Bank. Both were tied to Arouri.

This discovery has led Israeli defense chiefs to become more vocal about the Hamas base in Turkey.
“Hamas’s terrorism headquarters are in Gaza and in Istanbul. It is unbelievable that a NATO member is hosting the headquarters of a terrorist organization in its territory,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told his Spanish counterpart earlier this month.

“We have stopped a coup planned by Hamas, which was organized in, among other places, its Turkish headquarters, against [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen in Judea and Samaria. We saved him from this revolution. Hence, there is much significance and importance in our having freedom to operate security-wise in Judea and Samaria,” Ya’alon stated.

Likewise, at the end of November, the Shin Bet and IDF announced that they had broken up a large-scale international Hamas terrorist infrastructure that was in the planning stages of multiple mass-casualty attacks, including an intended bombing of a soccer stadium in Jerusalem.

The plot included car bombings, bombing Jerusalem’s light rail system, and targeting Israelis overseas.

This case illustrates the growing centrality of Istanbul to Hamas terror activities in the West Bank. Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey has become a key command and planning center.

Earlier this year, the Shin Bet announced the thwarting of another large Hamas network in the West Bank, set up by Saleh Al-Arouri in Istanbul, and headed locally by a Hamas member in Ramallah.
Hamas funneled more than a million shekels [more than $250,000] to terror operatives to prepare a series of attacks, which were designed to allow it to shift attention away from Gaza, and ultimately lead to the fall of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli investigation. This would be achieved by provoking Israel into harsh responses in the West Bank, destabilizing the area and leading to the toppling of the PA.

Hamas has come a long way since the days when its founders, Muslim Brotherhood operatives in the Palestinian territories, set up indoctrination and social support centers.
Today, it is an international terrorist organization, which continues to plot new ways to murder and maim Israelis from its various bases, while it dreams of setting up a second Islamist-jihadist regime in the West Bank, as it did in Gaza.

Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post’s military and national security affairs correspondent, and author of The Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.

Obama 'admin' will not support Palestinian draft UN resolution.

Obama 'admin' will not support Palestinian draft UN resolution. (Taz).

The United States will not support a draft resolution submitted to the UN that demands Israel’s withdrawal from Palestinian lands, according to a US official Anadolu agency reported

"We have seen the draft of the resolution in the UN Security Council and it is not something that we would support," said Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman.

The draft submitted Wednesday night by Jordan to the Security Council, sets a deadline of 2017 for the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from land it seized in 1967.

Palestinian-American diplomat Riyad H. Mansour, the Permanent Observer for Palestine to the UN, said despite the position of the US, the effort will continue in order to get the Security Council to adopt language to move forward.

“We will continue negotiating with all of them and with the Americans if they are ready and willing so that we perhaps can succeed in having something adopted by the Security Council to open a serious door to peace,” he said.

The draft resolution further seeks "a just, lasting, comprehensive and peaceful solution [to the conflict] that brings an end to the Israeli occupation."

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the draft an “act of aggression."

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous "Balfour Declaration," called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinians want a state of their own in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem, currently occupied by Israel, as its capital. Hmmm...........yeah sure.......till the draft changes.

'Kumbaya' - Hamas and Iran have reconciled: Senior Hamas official

'Kumbaya' - Hamas and Iran have reconciled: Senior Hamas official. (I24).

Canada, UK urge EU to keep Hamas listed as a banned terrorist group after court ordered its removal

Hamas and Iran have repaired a close political and military relationship, deeply shaken by Tehran's support of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, group's deputy leader toldReuters on Wednesday.

Moussa Abu Marzouk said: "I believe that bilateral relations between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran are back on track."

He also told Reuters that Hamas, the ruling armed movement in the Gaza Strip, was not seeking a new war with Israel and wanted to see the enclave rebuilt after a 50-day conflict in July and August.

The news came as the European Union's second highest court annulled on Wednesday the bloc's decision to keep Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations.

Last week, a Hamas delegation visited Iran, a major supplier of military and financial aid to the group. "There are many indications that ... relations have been resumed in the proper way, as in the past," Abu Marzouk said, without elaborating.

Canada on Wednesday urged the European Union to keep Hamas listed as a banned terrorist group, after an EU court ordered group's removal from a blacklist.

"We are deeply concerned by the decision of the EU General Court to annul, on procedural grounds, the measures against Hamas," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement.

"We call on the EU to take the immediate remedial steps necessary to keep Hamas listed as a terrorist entity." Hmmm....How long before Obama embraces them like Cuba? Next Christmas all in Jerusalem?

Video - How to help the Palestinians of Gaza

Incitement against Abbas: Gaza posters depict hanging of PA leader.

Incitement against Abbas: Gaza posters depict hanging of PA leader. (Jpost).

Posters depicting the hanging of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas were discovered on walls in the streets of Gaza early Thursday morning. 

The posters had fierce messages against Abbas describing him as a "dictator" and a "traitor."

According to media reports in Gaza, supporters of former senior Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan are responsible for the posters.

Dahlan is a main Fatah rival of Abbas, who had him ousted from the movement in 2011.

Dahlan, who commanded the security forces of the PLO previous to the Hamas takeover, still has a strong base of support in Gaza, despite the fact that he currently resides in the United Arab Emirates. Hmmm.....Yup surely because Hamas is now a EU recognized 'Humanitarian ORG' Read the full story here.

Barack Obama's 'Kumbaya' Diplomacy Ignores Cuba's Ongoing Connection to Terrorist Organizations

Barack Obama's 'Kumbaya' Diplomacy Ignores Cuba's Ongoing Connection to Terrorist Organizations. HT: Scaramouchee.

Now that Barack Obama has summarily decided to let bygones be bygones with the Castros of Cuba, it's a good time to recall that for decades now, Cuba has given aid and shelter to the worst of the worst. They include such terrorist groups as

BPP - Black Panther Party - Founded in the United States in 1966 by Huey P.
Newton and Bobby Seale. It adopted Marxist-Leninist principles along with
urban guerrilla warfare, and a structure similar to the American Communist
party.

DGI - Directrio General de Inteligencia - The Cuban Department in charge of
collecting intelligence and carrying out covert operations outside Cuba.

DA - America Department - Centralized control over Cuban activities for
supporting national liberation movements, responsible for planning and
coordinating Cuba's secret guerrilla and terrorist camps, and propaganda
apparatus.

DLN - National Liberation Directorate - Organization created in Cuba to
support revolutionary groups throughout the world. Responsible for planning
and coordinating Cuba's terrorist training camps in the island, covert
movement of personnel and military supplies from Cuba, and propaganda
apparatus.

EGP - Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres - A political-military
Marxist-Leninist organization that followed Cuba and Vietnam as
revolutionary models. This Guatemalan insurgent organization was trained in
Cuba and was very active during the 1970s, seeking to depose the political
and military structure of the country.

ELF - Eritrean Liberation Front - The most influential Eritrean organization
fighting for secession from Ethiopia in the 1960s, actively supported by the
Cuban and Syrian regime since 1965. Various internal divisions developed
later on until the late 1970s, when a new front was built based on very
different domestic and external alliances and, eventually led the Eritreans
to victory. Cuba's support to Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1978 meant
the cessation of previous Cuban backing to the Eritrean cause.

ELN - National Liberation Army - Organized by the Castro regime, this
Colombian Marxist insurgent group was founded in 1965. Its main terrorist
activities includes kidnapings and extortion targeting foreign employees of
large corporations.

ETA - Basque Separatist Movement - This organization was founded by
militants and leftist students from the University of Madrid in 1962. They
formed guerilla units that commit violent terrorist acts claiming that they
are fighting for freedom of the Basque Region, in Spain. This group has
close relations with the IRA. The two groups have offices in Havana and
their members have found safe haven in Cuba.

FALN - Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional  - A Venezuelan guerrilla
organization trained by Cuba in violence and terrorism.

FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Established in 1964, the
FARC is the oldest and best-equipped Marxist insurgency in Colombia. It is a
well-organized terrorist group that controls several rural and urban areas.
It has received financial and military aid from Cuba and many of its members
were trained in Havana.

FATAH - Palestine National Liberation Movement - Founded in 1959 by younger
generations of Palestinians that had experienced the defeats of 1948 and
1956. The FATAH are strongly committed to a radical nationalist platform to
fight for Palestine and against Arab intervention and manipulations of the
Palestinian problem. Mostly an underground organization until the June War
in 1967 when it transformed itself into the most powerful and influential
party inside Palestinian and Arab politics.

FLN - Front de Liberation National - The political and military organization
that led the war of national liberation against French colonial rule between
1954 and 1962. Ruling political party until the 1980s in Algeria.

FMLN - Farabundo Mart  National Front - Formed in 1970, the FMLN is a
terrorist Marxist-Leninist organization intent on establishing a communist
revolutionary regime in El Salvador. The FMLN was extremely active in its
terrorist campaign, receiving assistance from Nicaragua and Cuba.

FSLN - Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional - This organization was
founded in Havana in 1961 when Carlos Fonseca-Amador's Nicaraguan Patriotic
Youth organization merged with Tomas Borge's Cuban-supported insurgent
group. The group adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology and gained support from
the Castro government, employing low-level guerrilla warfare and urban
terrorism tactics to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship.

IRA - Irish Republican Army - The IRA is the most dangerous terrorist
organization of Northern Ireland dating back to the early 1920s. Although,
it wasn't until the 1970's when the IRA began terrorist actions and
resurrected the historical conflicts. The IRA targets political
transformation for United Ireland by eliminating Britain from Northern
Ireland and replacing the government of Northern Ireland with a socialist
government. Its Latin American headquarters are in Havana.

LASO - Latin American Solidarity Organization - A Cuban controlled
organization founded during the 1966 Tri-Continental Conference in Havana to
"coordinate and foment the fight against North American imperialism."

M-19 - Movimiento 19 de Abril - A Castro supported group formed in 1974 to
disrupt Colombia's government through acts of terrorism and violence. The
M-19 was very active throughout the 1980s receiving assistance and training
from the Montoneros and Tupamaros groups and the Cuban government, causing
Colombia to temporarily sever diplomatic relations with Cuba.

M-6-14 - Agrupacion Politica Catorce de Junio - Dominican guerrilla
organization trained in Cuba.

MACHETEROS - This terrorist organization is composed of four Puerto Rican
groups: 1) the Macheteros, 2) the Ejercito Popular Boracua (EPB), 3) the
Movimiento Popular Revolucionario, and 4) the Partido Revolucionario de
Trabajadores Puertorrique±os.  Most of the Macheteros have been trained in
Cuba, were they have established relations with other terrorist groups. They
are responsible for several terrorist acts within the United States and
throughout Puerto Rico.

MIR - Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria - A Chilean insurgent
organization founded in 1965 and supported by Castro. The MIR was very
active in the mid-1970s when they promoted violence and occupied several
rural areas in Chile. The group encountered several set backs during the
1980s that essentially ended their activity.

MONTONEROS - An Argentinean guerilla organization that was formed in 1968 as
a Peronist urban anti-government group. It adopted a Marxist ideology in the
mid-1970s after it united with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Argentina. In 1977, many of its members were exiled and its numbers reduced
to less than 300.

MRTA - Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement - Marxist-Leninist revolutionary
organization formed in 1983 and supported by the Castro regime. The MRTA's
intent was to establish a Marxist regime in Peru through terrorism, although
Peru's counter terrorism program diminished the groups' ability to
effectively carry out terrorist attacks.

NLF - National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen - Created in 1962 in
the course of the revolution in North Yemen against the monarchy and
supported by Nasser, the NLF is another important and successful branch of
the Arab Nationalist Movement. Since 1965 it has had very close relations
with Cuba. In 1966-1967, it broke with Nasser and finally forced the British
to negotiate and evacuate Aden.

OSPAAL [OSPAAAL] - Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and
Latin America - Founded in 1966 in Cuba at the Tri-Continental Conference,
this organization aims to support the struggle of the people of Africa, Asia
and Latin America against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization - This organization was founded in
Cairo in 1964 under the auspices of Egypt (then known as the United Arab
Republic) to serve Nasser's manipulations of the Palestinian cause. The
group was composed mostly of conservative Palestinian intellectuals and
bureaucrats serving Arab governments. The PLO was an instrument of Nasser's
foreign policy until the June War of 1967, when the old PLO leadership
collapsed to be replaced by FATEH's leadership headed by Arafat.

POLISARIO - People's Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara and Rio del
Oro  - The Frente POLISARIO was inspired by the ANM tradition and the
Algerian FLN and was created to fight against the
Spanish-Morrocan-Mauritinian arrangements to split the former colony of
Sagu a el Hamra/Rio del Oro (known as Western Sahara) between the two
African states. This group enjoyed active support from Algeria and Libya and
Cuba.

POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINES - The most important branch
of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), created in the 1950s as radical
followers of Nasser. After the June War of 1967, the group disassociated
itself from Nasser and focused on building a more radical alternative within
the Palestinians under the name of Popular Front. The group has strong
alliances within Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and the Gulf, and was heavily
engaged in terrorist activities during the 1970s.

TRICONTINENTAL - Cuban publication disseminated by the Organization for the
Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) [OSPAAAL] in four
languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian / promoting the Castro line
of armed struggle.

TUPAMAROS or MNL - Movimiento Nacional de Liberacion Tupamaros -  This
Uruguay insurgent group was organized in the early 1960s by law student Raul
Sendic. The Tupamaros were one of the first terrorist groups to use
guerrilla warfare in urban areas and established independent terrorist cells
throughout the country.

WORLD MATHABA - A Libyan project from the late 1970s to promote political,
financial, and military support for revolutionary movements throughout the
world. Ghaddafi called on other "revolutionary governments" to support this
project, which Cuba did.  MATHABA was essentially a tool in the hands of the
Libyans to project their individual goals and agenda. Financial and military
assistance was never a collective decision, but responded for the most part
to bilateral arrangements between Ghaddafi's regime and individual
organizations, some of which resorted, at different stages, to terrorist
methods like the IRA and ETA. Insurgencies in Central America, like the
Sandinistas and others, were privileged beneficiaries along with the African
National Congress, Frente POLISARIO, and others.

So has Cuba suddenly turned over a new leaf? Doubtful. But why would that stop Barack Obama, friend of ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers and someone who's sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, from establishing a relationship with these terrorism-abettors? Hmmm.....No wonder they want to 'Embrace' HAMAS and Iran.