Iran want's to to sell in future it's oil, are the 'First nations' their 'useful tools'?

Iran want's to sell in future it's oil in North America, are the 'First nations' their 'useful Ftools'?

N.B. clash, UN investigator’s visit highlight Canada’s chronic inability to solve aboriginal problems.(Source).

It hasn't been a good week for Canada and its aboriginal peoples.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people wrapped up a nine-day visit at the behest of aboriginal peoples and came to the inevitable conclusion that the country is failing First Nations.

"Canada consistently ranks among the top of countries in respect to human development standards, and yet amidst this wealth and prosperity, aboriginal people live in conditions akin to those in countries that rank much lower and in which poverty abounds," Joseph Anaya said Tuesday, according to CTV News.

The week ended explosively in a clash between aboriginal protesters in New Brunswick clashing with RCMP officers and torching police cars as the Mounties tried to break up a blockade aimed at stopping testing for natural gas-fracking exploration, which they see as an environmental threat.

Dozens were arrested for violating the court injunction against the blockade, as well as firearms charges, making threats and intimidation.

“I knew it was going to come to this because the government doesn’t want to listen to the people,” Elsipogtog First Nation member Donald Sanipass told The Canadian Press. “They didn’t handle this right at all.”

Toronto Star national affairs columnist Thomas Walkom echoed the observation that Ottawa only caters to First Nations when its own interests are at stake.

"Specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs First Nations on side if his government is to push through its ambitious resource development plans and reap the requisite political awards," he wrote this week.

"British Columbia’s native communities have the capacity to tie up — perhaps indefinitely — Harper’s proposed oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast. They have promised to do just that."

Mining development in northern Ontario's so-called ring of fire can only happen if First Nations agree, he added, which means Ottawa must pay attention to their concerns.

"Whether Harper fully understands all of this is unclear. He’s reputed to be a master tactician," said Walkom. "But with a few exceptions, the prime minister has been remarkably tone deaf about Indian, Métis and Inuit issues."

Modern First Nations now seem to recognize implicitly now that after two centuries of selling their birthrights cheaply or allowing them to be eroded, they must use what clout they have carve out a place in Canada.Read the full story here.


Related: Concern that First Nations will be ‘used as pawns’ as former chief to meet Iranian leaders

Iran using First Nations leaders as “pawns” in “sad game,” says Foreign Affairs

Canadian First Nations leaders meet with Iranian regime.

Manitoba chiefs cozying up to Iran

"Environment Canuck" - David Suzuki tells Americans that the Harper government can’t be trusted.

"Environment Canuck" - David Suzuki tells Americans that the Harper government can’t be trusted.(Yahoo).

Is it just me, or is there something a little irreverent about one of our own (i.e.: a Canadian) going to another country to slam our government?

On Friday, a group of Canadian environmental activists — led by none other than Dr. David Suzuki — were in Washington, D.C., to lobby against approval of the controversial Keystone Pipeline.

Suzuki, author and activist Tzeporah Berman and artist Frankie James took part in a panel discussion at the National Press Club. Here is an overview of their message as described by the Globe and Mail's Paul Koring.

"Their message wasn’t just that President Barack Obama should reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Rather, the primary thrust was that the Harper government could not be trusted and was ruthless in its efforts to silence and thwart domestic opposition to oil sands development. To listen to the panel, America’s northern neighbour has become a repressive regime where free speech is silenced and the government has aligned itself with the interests of a single industry – oil.

David Suzuki, the internationally renowned Canadian scientist and recipient of several UN awards, said Mr. Harper’s effort to suppress information had been “learned well from the Bush-Cheney administration.”

Mr. Suzuki, a companion of the Order of Canada, compared Mr. Harper’s suppression of scientific information to the rounding up of Japanese Canadians (including his family) during the Second World War and the imposition of the War Measures Act in 1970 when separatist terrorists kidnapped prominent in Quebec."

While Suzuki was busy slamming Stephen Harper, the right-leaning Sun News Network has been taking some shots at Suzuki and what they call his "hypocritical lifestyle."

According to Sun News, Suzuki owns four homes in British Columbia.

"His primary abode is a sprawling mansion in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, worth approximately $8.2 million. At Occupy Vancouver, Suzuki extolled the virtues of his anti-corporate agenda and condemned excess," the report notes.

"Perhaps most interesting is a property on Nelson Island of which Suzuki is one of several co-owners listed on a B.C. land title registry, another of which includes Kootenay Oil Distributors." I guess it's true what they say: all is fair in love, war and politics.

Video - David Suzuki likes to preach frugality, but how does he actually live? Ezra Levant exposes the true nature of things.HT: SunNewsNetwork.Straight Talk.

Oil above $101 on Egypt unrest, U.S. stockpiles fall because of a temporary pipeline shutdown from Canada.

Oil above $101 on Egypt unrest, U.S. stockpiles fall because of a temporary pipeline shutdown from Canada.(HD).

The price of oil stayed above $101 a barrel Thursday after being jerked higher by unrest in Egypt and a fall in U.S. energy stockpiles that suggests a recovery in demand.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was up 16 cents to $101.40 at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1.64 to $101.24, its highest close since May 3, 2012, on Wednesday. Nymex floor trading is closed Thursday for the Independence Day holiday.

Two events propelled the price of oil higher in the past day: unrest in Egypt and a big drop in U.S. oil supplies.

Traders were worried that political upheaval in Egypt could slow the flow of oil from the Middle East to world markets. Embattled Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi vowed not to give in to protesters' demands for his resignation. But the head of Egypt's military announced late Wednesday night local time that Morsi will be replaced and new elections will be held.

Egypt is not an oil producer but its control of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes gives it a crucial role in maintaining global energy supplies. The Middle East accounts for about a quarter of the world's crude oil output, or 23 million barrels per day. About 2 million barrels of that, or 2.2 percent of world demand, are transported daily through the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.

Much of that oil is headed to Europe, but a supply drop anywhere in the world leads to higher prices everywhere.

In the U.S., the Energy Department reported Wednesday that crude supplies fell by 10.3 million barrels from the previous week, more than three times the drop that analysts had expected.

The drop was likely the result of reduced supplies from Canada because of a temporary pipeline shutdown, as well as increased demand from a BP refinery that restarted in Indiana.

Gasoline supplies fell as well, while analysts expected an increase. The drop in oil and gas supplies could be an indication that U.S. demand is rising.

Brent crude, which is used to set prices for oils used by many U.S. refineries, was down 26 cents to $105.50 on the ICE exchange in London.Hmmm.....Who needs Canadian oil, Shut those pipelines.Read the full story here.

Related: Market Buzz: Oil advances on Egypt unrest

Video - Obama donors compare vetoing Keystone XL to Lincoln freeing the slaves.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to 
test a man's character, give him power."
Abraham Lincoln.

Video - Obama donors compare vetoing Keystone XL to Lincoln freeing the slaves.HT: SunNewsNetwork.President Obama’s top campaign donors are urging him to reject the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to help move the U.S. away from fossil fuels and toward more green energy, and his supporters compared vetoing the pipeline to President Abraham Lincoln ending slavery.

“The Keystone decision affords you a rare opportunity to pivot away from fossil fuels and towards a clean energy future in a way that signals the necessary sea change,” reads a letter from 150 top Obama donors.

“We have read of your admiration for President Lincoln, surely the most beloved of all presidents. He made one of the most important decisions of his presidency and for our nation when he decided that he would fight for the 13th Amendment to end slavery even if it took every ounce of his political capital,” the letter continues. “Your decision on Keystone may not be so weighty, but we believe it holds a comparable urgency and importance, not strictly as a pipeline decision but as a presidential choice that will signal a fundamentally new direction for our nation.”

The Guardian reports that the letter was endorsed by major Obama donors: “Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems; Rob McKay, the heir to the Taco Bell fortune and chairman of the Democracy Alliance; Blythe Danner, the actor and mother of Gwyneth Paltrow and Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of the Esprit clothing line.”

Buell alone donated $300,000 to Democratic causes during the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Environmental groups have been increasingly putting pressure on the president to reject the Keystone pipeline, and even the Sierra Club broke its 120-year policy against civil disobedience when its president and other top members were arrested outside the White House protesting the pipeline.

“This call for climate action is important enough that, for the first time in our 120-year history, we have suspended the Sierra Club’s long-standing policy that prohibits civil disobedience,” Sierra Club president Allison Chin wrote. “Today is a one-time event to face arrest in order to elevate discussion about a critical issue.”

Republicans have been pressing the president to pass the Keystone pipeline, calling it a “no-brainer.”

“Keystone is primed to give our economy a shot in the arm and make energy more affordable, and it won’t cost the taxpayers a dime,” said Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska. “The Keystone XL pipeline is a no-brainer.”

Video - The Oil Question: Canada Needs To Trade With China.

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 4.9 !More info here.

• Assad may start regional war if UN tells him to step down – Gulf sources.(Debka).In confidential conversations with his advisers, Syrian President Bashar Assad is reported by Persian Gulf sources Tuesday, Jan. 31 to have threatened to start up armed hostilities in the region if the UN Security Council Tuesday night endorses the Arab League proposal for him to step down and hand power to his deputy.Those sources told debkafile that the heads of the Syrian armed forces and intelligence have been given their orders and some units are on the ready. Other Middle East sources reported that the Lebanese Hizballah has also shown signs of military preparations in the last few hours. And the Russian flotilla berthed at the Syrian port of Tartus, led by the Admiral Kutznetsov aircraft carrier, also appears to be on the alert for ructions in the wake of the Security Council Syria session.During the day, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov warned that pushing the Arab League's UN resolution was "the path to civil war." debkafile reports that the military flurry in advance of the critical Security Council session included US naval movements. Sunday, Jan. 29, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis, escorted by the guided missile destroyer USS Momsen sailed through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea. This looked like a Washington warning for Tehran to keep its military fingers out of Syria if the confrontation there escalates.It was not the first time Assad has threatened Syria's neighbors. On Aug. 9, 2011, four months into his savage crackdown against protesters, he warned Turkey that, six hours after the first shot was fired against Syria, he would "destroy Tel Aviv and set the entire Middle East on fire."Earlier still on May 10, one of Assad's close kinsmen, the international tycoon Rami Makhlouf, warned: "If there is no stability in Syria, there will be none in Israel. No one can be sure what will happens after that. God help us if anything befalls this regime."Read the full story here.

• No More Leading from Behind for America.(RCW).By Rick Santorum.Much like Ronald Reagan called out for freedom in the symbolic heart of communism, I will call upon the Muslim world to tear down the walls of oppression that oppose freedom of conscience and religion, equality of women, the security of Israel and support violence and Jihadism, which inverts the concept of martyrdom from one who dies for his or her faith to one who kills for his or her faith. I will not coddle those who want to kill and destroy. I will seek peace with those who treasure freedom for all.Christianity struggled with these issues of freedom of conscience and violence largely hundreds of years ago; Islam is struggling with them now. We will stand with the true advocates of freedom who define freedom not just by a ballot box, but also by meaningful protections for minorities. This is the message of freedom that should be proclaimed and practiced from Cairo to Tehran. This is consistent with universal human dignity, our values and our national security interests.Informed Americans are opposed to those who want to kill and destroy, not to those who want to make peace and treasure freedom for all. I supported America's security and freeing Muslims and others from oppression in Iraq and Afghanistan. I stood for the Green Movement in Iran when President Obama sat down. I support freedom of religion - for Muslims and other religious minorities - but believe they should provide the same.Read the full story here.

• Martin Luther King’s Family Halts Occupy Event at Atlanta Memorial Center.(BigGovernment).Martin Luther King’s family asked US Park Police to eject a group of 32 Occupy Wall Street protestors from an Atlanta based memorial center that was named after the civil rights leader on Sunday.The OWS protestors, who left New York City November 9 to march roughly 880 miles to Atlanta through Washington, and through the south, planned on holding a press conference at the Atlanta based Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change “to honor Dr. King.” The press conference was scheduled for 2 p.m., but within minutes, private security for the center asked the demonstrators to leave the outside area that was part of the MLK center.According to the center’s online page, it was established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, and is the “official, living memorial dedicated to advancing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our programs and partnerships educate the world about his life and his philosophy of nonviolence, inspiring new generations to further his work.”Hmmmm....They showed more 'Character' then the White House occupants.Read the full story here.

• Obama-Funded “Green” Energy Company Amonix Lays Off Two-Thirds Of Its Workforce.(Las Vegas Sun) — Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce. Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.Amonix’s director of manufacturing operations, Eric Culberson, said the layoffs are part of “retooling” the factory as the company prepares to roll out its next-generation product.“The new 8700 utility-scale CPV solar power system is a higher efficiency and lower cost,” Culberson said. “Once it is ready, we will ramp back up to meet the demands of the industry.”Culberson said the job cuts are temporary and expects to begin hiring more people in the second half of the year to meet demand.The company scaled down at all levels of employment at the plant — which was hiring as recently as three months ago — from entry level assemblers, process engineers, production supervisors and quality-control techs, according to one employee who was laid off.Culberson said layoffs were made across the board.Amonix received a $5.9 million investment tax credit through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in 2010, and another $12 million in private capital helped finance the plant.Hmmmmm.....Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones".Read the full story here.

• GOP wants Sen. Baucus to go rogue on Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.(TheHill).Republicans are pressing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to buck his leadership and use his authority in the payroll tax conference to green-light the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.Baucus has told business leaders in Montana that winning authorization for the transnational pipeline is one of his highest priorities for 2012.Republicans say Baucus, as co-chairman of the payroll tax conference, has the power to include Keystone language in must-pass legislation and will pressure him to act.“The quickest and surest way to get the pipeline going is for the Democratic chairman of the conference committee to put it into a must-do piece of legislation, the payroll tax package,” said a senior Senate Republican aide.Senate Democrats think Baucus will stick with the caucus and oppose the inclusion of language to force President Obama’s hand on Keystone but they acknowledge the senior Montana lawmaker could go rogue, as he has in the past. A Baucus aide said the lawmaker would try to get the Keystone project started using whatever tools or legislative vehicles are at his disposal, including the payroll tax bill, available.“Senator Baucus will be looking for every opportunity to get Keystone done, whether now or through any other appropriate vehicle,” said the aide.Some Democrats say that Keystone is not as potent a political issue as Republicans claim and voice confidence Baucus will not defy Obama and the Democratic leadership by attaching Keystone language to the payroll tax deal.“The king president is pretty definitive on this,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), one of the conferees in the payroll tax negotiations with the House.Read the full story here.

• The Obama administration Is Giving Out Free Cell Phones And Free Cell Phone Minutes To Welfare Recipients.(TEC).Did you know that the federal government is giving out free cell phones and free cell phone minutes to welfare recipients? It may be hard to believe, but it is true. Right now, there are companies that are running advertisements specifically targeted at low income Americans informing them of the fact that all they have to do is sign up and they can get a free cell phone and hundreds of free cell phone minutes every single month and it will all be paid for by the federal government. Some have referred to this as "The Obama Phone", but that is not exactly accurate. The outrageous federal programs that are paying for this were initiated before Barack Obama entered the White House. But the fact that welfare recipients have been receiving free cell phones and free cell phone minutes under both the Bush and Obama administrations has been confirmed as being true by Snopes. All of this is paid for by "the federal Universal Service Fund". That is one of those annoying little taxes that you may have noticed on your phone bill. So what is essentially happening is the federal government is taking money from all of us so that they can provide free cell phone service for welfare recipients every single month. When some of my readers informed me of this free cell phone scheme, I decided that I better go to the source. So I went over to the FCC website, and it turns out that there are two federal programs involved. "Link Up" provides a one-time connection discount on phone service, and it can be applied to the cost of a cell phone. So this is where the free cell phone comes from. "Lifeline" provides a monthly discount on telephone service. So this is where the free cell phone minutes each month come from. The following is a description of these programs from the FCC website....Read the full story here.

• Birthright Citizenship - Is Mitt Romney a “natural born citizen”?(TheCaptainsQuarters).It is absolutely clear that Mitt Romney is NOT a Natural Born Citizen unless he can prove that George Romney gained citizenship from naturalization prior to Mitt’s birth in 1947.Having the Status of Birthright Citizenship Is Not Sufficient to Make One an. Article II “Natural Born citizen”.Mitt Romney / Not Eligable to hold the office of {POTUS}.Call upon Mitt Romney now to either post Gaskell Romney’s US naturaliztion documents (or repatriated record) or George Romney‘s US naturaliztion documents that he would have filled out and signed when he was 21 years of age, or withdraw from the presidential race as Constitutionally unqualified to take the oath of office of the presidency of the United States. Was George Romney (father of Mitt Romney) a U.S. citizen?Not according to the historical records.b. Colonia Dublán, Galeana, Chihuahua, México, 8 July 1907, d. Bloomfield Hills, Mich., 26 July 1995 [SSDI 577-10-6742], bur. Fairview Cemetery, Brighton, Mich. m. Salt Lake City, Utah, 2 July 1931.George Romney was born in Mexico to expatriated Mormon parents. George’s father is named Gaskell Romney.If George Romney was not a “U.S. citizen” or became naturalized BEFORE Mitt was born, then neither can Mitt Romeny (his son) be natural born.Read the full story here.

• Catholic Church Rejects Surrender Terms from Obama.(NewZeal).By: Cliff Kincaid.(Accuracy in Media).My Catholic priest, Father Larry Swink, delivered a homily on Sunday that I told him would make headlines. In the toughest sermon I have ever heard from a pulpit, he attacked the Obama Administration as evil, even demonic, and warned of religious persecution ahead. What was also newsworthy about the sermon was that he cited The Washington Post in agreement—not on the subject of the Obama Administration being evil, but on the matter of its abridgment of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.What is happening is extraordinary and unprecedented. The Catholic Church is in open revolt against the Obama Administration, with Fr. Swink noting from the pulpit that priests across the archdiocese were joining the call on Sunday to rally Catholics to resistance against the U.S. Government. He said we are entering a time of religious persecution and that Catholics and others will have to make a final decision about which side they are on.The issue is what the Catholic Bishops have called a “literally unconscionable” edict by the Obama Administration demanding that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans.At a time when the media are full of reports about who is ahead and behind in the polls, and who will win the next Republican presidential primary, this incredible uprising in the Catholic Church is something that could not only overshadow the political campaign season, but also may have a major impact on the ultimate outcome—if Republicans know how to handle it. This matter goes beyond partisan politics to the growing perception of an unconstitutional Obama Administration assault on religious freedom. To hear the Catholic Bishops and Priests describe it, our constitutional republic and our freedoms hang in the balance.The bishops go on, “Now that the Administration has refused to recognize the Constitutional conscience rights of organizations and individuals who oppose the mandate, the bishops are now urging Catholics and others of good will to fight this unprecedented attack on conscience rights and religious liberty.”Interestingly, The Washington Post, as Father Swink indicated, agrees with the bishops. The paper said, “In this circumstance, requiring a religiously affiliated employer to spend its own money in a way that violates its religious principles does not make an adequate accommodation for those deeply held views. Having recognized the principle of a religious exemption, the administration should have expanded it.”So why would the administration pick a major fight with the Catholic Church? There are two main reasons. (1) The administration wants to please its progressive and feminist, secular pro-abortion base. (2) The administration believes Catholics are divided on the issue and will ignore their leaders and follow Obama.Father Larry Swink of Jesus The Divine Word Catholic Church in Huntingtown, Maryland opened his discussion of what he described as the evil nature of the Obama Administration by reading from scripture about Jesus casting out demons. He saw the order on health care coverage as the start of religious persecution. The congregation joined him in calls of “Amen” when he challenged them to stand tall with the church.Hmmmm........Read the full story here.

• GOP Rep. Chris Smith Holds Congressional Hearing On “Explosively” Anti-Semitic, Anti-American Palestinian Textbooks Used In UN-Run Camps.(CNSNews).The textbooks used to educate Palestinian children who live in refugee camps came under fire at a briefing on Wednesday on Capitol Hill where experts said lessons of intolerance and hatred toward Jews and Israel fill the books’ pages.Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Human Rights and co-chairman of the Bi-Partisan Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, told CNSNews.com that U.S. donations to the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) make the federal government accountable for what is in the books.“We are responsible for the content and the content has been, year in and year out, explosively anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Israeli,” Smith said, at the event he hosted with the Center for Near-East Policy Research, which is based in Jerusalem and which has studied the topic extensively.Since the UNRWA began operations in 1950 in the wake of the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, the United States has been the largest contributor to the agency. The UNRWA oversees the health, education, and social services of some 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, including those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.The CRS reports that U.S. contributions to the UNRWA have steadily increased over the past decade, with nearly $228 million given in [fiscal year] 2010.Read the full story here.

• Special Ops ‘Mothership’ Heads to Persian Gulf.(StratRisks).Recent U.S. and European sanctions against Iran have gotten tougher, but that hasn’t stopped the Islamic regime’s quest for nuclear weapons.Now, the United States is ready for a new military show of force. The Pentagon is sending the USS Ponce to the Persian Gulf, where it will become a floating base for U.S. Navy SEALs.The ship was scheduled to be retired weeks ago, but now has a new mission — to search for mines and enemy activity.“What it’s going to be is the mother ship for special operations forces that will allow the U.S. to covertly deploy our special operations warriors to really difficult parts of the world,” explained ABC News consultant and retired Col. Stephen Ganyard.The Ponce will be equipped with cranes to extract mines. Twelve small boats can dock on the ship and there is room for four helicopters, as well as an operations command center.In addition to deploying the Ponce, the Defense Department will ask Congress for more money to retool the military’s bunker busting bombs. Experts are concerned that the 30,000- pound bombs may not have enough explosive power to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.Ganyard says the military moves aren’t just window dressing.“It’s true preparation. The message is also getting through to the Mullahs and to Iran,” he said.Read the full story here.

• Iraqi bill to ban travels to Israel.(YNet).The Iraqi parliament is planning to pass a new bill banning Iraqis from traveling to Israel, Al Jazeera online reported Monday. The bill was proposed following a number of incidents at the Bagdad airport. A local security officer working there said the passport had caught a number of Iraqi officials carrying passports with Israeli entry visas. The officer, speaking on a condition of anonymity, reported that the passports of some nine high-profile Iraqi politicians were clearly marked with Ben-Gurion Airport stamps as well.According to the source, the politicians made their first trips to Israel after the Iraqi elections, held on January 2010, until around October that same year. The officer claimed that during questioning of the Iraqis, it was discovered that they were operating as envoys to Israel on behalf of Iraqi politicians.In response to the report, Iraqi Parliament Member from the National Iraqi Alliance Mohammad Redha al-Khafaji declared that some 50 parliament members have already put their John Hancock to a bill proposing to ban such trips to Israel. Khafaji emphasized that in the past, Iraqi senior officials had visited Israel secretly.Forbidding a citizen from traveling is against the Iraqis' right to freedom, as written in the constitution. However banning travel to Israel has nothing to do with politics, she told Al Jazeera, explaining that Iraq has never had any diplomatic or political relations with Israel, nor has it acknowledged the State of Israel. Israel classifies Iraq, as well as most Arab countries, as an "enemy state." However, over the years senior Israeli officials have hinted on numerous occasions that despite having no official diplomatic relations with such countries, many times there are economical and security ties. Hmmmmm........Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood gear up to challenge the army.(Alarabiya).The Muslim Brotherhood is devising a blueprint for a parliamentary democracy that would overturn Egypt’s tradition of strong heads of state, flexing its muscles after emerging as the country’s dominant political force.The plan has emerged since the Islamist movement took the biggest share of seats in parliament, allowing it to challenge the generals ruling Egypt since the overthrow last February of Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising.For now the Brotherhood has avoided a power struggle with the army, saying that would delay a return to political stability, bolstering the widely held belief that the two have a tacit understanding so their interests do not collide.The Brotherhood has decided not to field a candidate for the presidency but was free to deploy its formidable grassroots campaign machine unhindered in the parliamentary vote and won almost half of the seats on offer in the lower house.It appears, for now, to accept the idea of a strong president who enjoys the army’s backing.But under a plan outlined by senior officials in the movement, the presidency would be downgraded to a largely ceremonial role within four years and parliament would gradually take control of defense and foreign affairs from the military.“We want a system where the prime minister liaises with parliament to pick the cabinet,” said Mohamed Saad al-Katatni, secretary-general of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). The current constitution gives the president powers to pick the cabinet.“The prime minister will have most powers of government, relating to both internal and foreign affairs. The president’s powers would be limited,” he added.“The army will not allow anyone to meddle in its defense affairs,” said an official close to the army establishment.“The president will ensure that the army’s interests and position in the civilian state remain secure. The army in turn will back the president in managing the country’s sovereign affairs.”But retaining a role in national security issues could give the army a broad remit to intervene when it deemed necessary.Until a new president arrives, the Brotherhood wants to use its parliamentary presence to pressure the army-backed interim cabinet led by Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri to govern in the country’s long-term interests.“Ganzouri is driving the economy into the ground,” said Beltagy. “We do not understand how he could allocate 200 million Egyptian pounds to passing out free school meals when the country is facing a balance of payment crisis and turning to the IMF for help.Read the full story here.

• Iranian man arrested after attack on crew in Turkish plane.(HurriyetDaily).Turkish police arrested an Iranian passenger on a domestic flight after he attacked cabin crew because he was angered by a six-hour delay, the Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.The passenger, identified only as S.R.I., was scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Antalya in southern Turkey on Monday evening on an Onur Air plane, but heavy snowfall in Istanbul caused long delays.Turkish authorities cancelled almost 200 flights Monday in Istanbul.Angered by a three-hour delay before boarding and another three-hour wait inside the plane, the Iranian passenger broke one of the plane's window protectors and attacked cabin crew, Anatolia reported.He also stole food being served and attempted to force his way into the cockpit, leading the pilot to call police and an ambulance. Police arrested the passenger and the flight was cancelled.Read the full story here.

• Audit: U.S. Defense Department can't account for billions for Iraq.(CNN).By Josh Levs.The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits.The reports come from the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.The Iraqi government in 2004 gave the Department of Defense access to about $3 billion to pay bills for certain contracts, and the department can only show what happened to about a third of that, the inspector general says in an audit published Friday.Although the Department of Defense (DoD) had "internal processes and controls" to track payments, the "bulk of the records are missing," the report says, adding that the department is searching for them.Other documents are missing as well, including monthly reports documenting expenses, the audit says."From July 2004 through December 2007, DoD should have provided 42 monthly reports. However, it can locate only the first four reports."Read the full story here.

• Third Aircraft Carrier Group Coming To Iran.(Zerohedge).For months now we have been following US naval developments and deployments in the Arabian Sea, which serve one purpose and one purpose only - to demonstrate US military strength in the Straits of Hormuz region and to keep Iranian 'offensive passions' subdued. Yet never has the US had a total of three aircraft carrier groups in the vicinity, always topping out at 2 in the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, most recently these being the CVN-70 Vinson and CVN 72 Lincoln, with a third boat present merely until a rotation in or out of the theater of operations was complete. That is about to change, and with it the prevailing price of Brent, which we are confident is about to take a new step wise price higher as the US makes it all too clear what the endgame is, because as Naval Today reports, the "US navy to deploy third carrier group to Persian Gulf", probably the CVN-77 George H.W. Bush which departed Norfolk two weeks ago according to the most recent naval update, or any other Norfolk-stationed aircraft carrier: there is a wide selection to chose from.Read the full story here.

• Massive US Military Buildup on Two Strategic Islands: Socotra and Masirah, Up to 100,000 Troops Ready By March.(Debka).While quietly casting lines to draw Tehran into talks on their nuclear dispute, President Barack Obama is reported exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and Washington sources to have secretly ordered US air, naval and marine forces to build up heavy concentrations on two strategic islands – Socotra, which is part of a Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and the Omani island of Masirah at the southern exit of the Strait of Hormuz.Socotra is situated 80 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometers southeast of the Yemeni coastline. It lies athwart the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A military base there is in a position to oversee the shipping moving in and out of those strategic naval waterways.Lushly verdant, Socotra is approximately 120 kilometers long by 40 kilometers wide. Its population of 55,000 has its own distinct language and culture. Since 2010, the US has been quietly building giant air force and naval bases on Socotra with facilities for submarines, intelligence command centers and take-off pads for flying stealth drones, as part of a linked chain of strategic US military facilities in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.The Socotra facilities are so secret that they are never mentioned in any catalogue listing US military facilities in this part of the world, which include Jebel Ali and Al Dahfra in the United Arab Emirates; Arifjan in Kuwait; and Al Udeid in Qatar – all within short flying distances from Iran.Additional US forces are also being poured into Camp Justice on the barren, 70-kilometer long Omani island of Masirah, just south of the Hormuz entry point to the Gulf of Oman from the Arabian Sea.Our military sources have also picked up reports of British and French air, naval and special forces landings this month in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.All these military concentrations and Obama's latest word on the Iranian nuclear issue tend to confirm that nothing has changed since DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources in Washington first reported in November 2011 on the US president's resolve to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in the course of 2012.Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told Al-Arabiya television last week that the Saudi government takes Iran's threats seriously. He pointed in particular to the words of Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who warned that Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi's promise to boost oil production by 2.7 million barrels a day (bpd) to make up for any shortfall caused by sanctions on Iran, would "create all possible problems later."Prince Turki said he personally did not believe the oil kingdom would engage in military action but added:"It's a direct threat to our national interests and a direct threat to our industrial installations on the coast."Other Saudi officials in Riyadh were less diplomatic: "Iran's threats could be interpreted by Saudi Arabia as an act of war," said a senior Saudi defense official bluntly.This week Saudi Arabia began deploying its military in the kingdom's oil regions in the east opposite the Persian Gulf.Patriot PAC-2 and PAC-3 intercept missile batteries were installed around the oil fields and oil terminals; Saudi special forces stationed around the kingdom's main export terminal at Ras Tanura; and special marine and naval forces trained to defend the installations began conducting sea patrols off shore.Saudi armored forces were furthermore stationed at the main junctions of the pipelines and pumping stations and its air force and navy put on a state of alert.While the whole world talked about Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to an embargo on its oil exports, the Saudis were far more concerned with the reality of the second half of that threat: They are certain that the menace of an Iranian strike at Saudi oil targets will loom ever larger as US-European sanctions bite deeper into Iran's oil sales and Riyadh steps up its oil production to make up for the Iranian shortfall.The Saudis envision a panoply of aggressive Iranian operations: Missiles striking their oil fields and export terminals - aimed from speedboats zooming up close to target and launched from small unpopulated Persian Gulf islands occupied for the purpose by especially trained Iranian units.Iranian frogmen may come ashore to sabotage oil installations and pipelines; kamikaze pilots crash their planes into the oil tankers; and booby-trapped speedboats piloted by suicide attackers try to ram oil installations or tankers.Read the full story here.

• Cricketer-turned-politician Khan vows to sweep Pakistan polls.(GN).Dubai: Pakistan is heading towards a bigger revolution than the Arab Spring because the "silent revolution" has brought people together under his leadership to usher in change in the country, said Imran Khan, cricketer-turned-politician.Khan, who led Pakistan's cricket team to win the 1992 World Cup, said that he is all set to "captain the nation"."My tsunami is much bigger than the leaderless Arab Spring, which was triggered by social media, but in Pakistan the media is free and I am leading the ‘revolution' from the front," the chief of Tehreek-e-Insaf (Justice Movement) told Gulf News on Sunday at a reception in Dubai. Khan, who has always opposed the military operation against militant groups in the US war on terror, said that he would immediately put an end to the war as soon as he comes to power."We will immediately announce a ceasefire and will not use our military against our own people because I have always said that it is not our war and we should not fight it. The US should also exit from Afghanistan to ensure peace in the region," he said. Khan is also in talks with militant groups as well and said he would use his influence in the tribal areas to reconcile with them."I have always told Americans as well that there is no military solution to this problem, but rather they have to solve it politically through talks and they have also started talking to the Taliban," he added.Read the full story here.

• This Is Europe's Scariest Chart.(ZeroHedge).Surging Greek and Portuguese bond yields? Plunging Italian bank stocks? The projected GDP of the Eurozone? In the grand scheme of things, while certainly disturbing, none of these data points actually tell us much about the secular shift within European society, and certainly are nothing that couldn't be fixed if the ECB were to gamble with hyperinflation and print an inordinate amount of fiat units diluting the capital base even further. No: the one chart that truly captures the latent fear behind the scenes in Europe is that showing youth unemployment in the continent's troubled countries (and frankly everywhere else). Because the last thing Europe needs is a discontented, disenfranchised, and devoid of hope youth roving the streets with nothing to do, easily susceptible to extremist and xenophobic tendencies: after all, it must be "someone's" fault that there are no job opportunities for anyone. Below we present the youth (16-24) unemployment in three select European countries (and the general Eurozone as a reference point). Some may be surprised to learn that while Portugal, and Greece, are quite bad, at 30.7% and 46.6% respectively, it is Spain where the youth unemployment pain is most acute: at 51.4%, more than half of the youth eligible for work does not have a job! Because the real question is if there is no hope for tomorrow, what is the opportunity cost of doing something stupid and quite irrational today?Hmmmm......Thank corporate greed for using 'cheap labor countries'.Read the full story here.

• Sex consensual as rape victim didn’t scream, Turkish court rules.(HurriyetDaily). A court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır has ruled that a rape victim had consensual sex with her assailant because she "did not scream” during the intercourse. E.B., a 40-year-old woman with mental disabilities, lost her husband in 2007 and had been living with her three mentally disabled children in a single-room shanty home in Diyarbakır's Ergani district when the district's deputy governor found out about her condition and placed her in care in 2009. E.B. was taken to a hospital for health examinations where it was discovered that she was eight months pregnant.  E.B. and her 14-year-old son said she had been repeatedly raped by their 24-year-old neighbor, İbrahim T., for the past two years.A court arrested İbrahim T. after DNA samples that were taken from the baby girl E.B. gave birth to proved that he was the father. Prosecutors charged him with "coercion" and "numerous sexual assaults" and asked for a 17-year prison term.The court asked the forensics department to conduct a report on E.B. The report said she was 36 percent mentally disabled and that she could have fought to resist the rape but did not, meaning that the intercourse was consensual. Forensic officials based their report on the fact that E.B. did not scream while being sexually assaulted. The court convened on a day when its only female judge, Hatice Polat, was on leave and decided to release İbrahim T. after two years of arrest.Hmmmm......Human rights....what, who , when , where?Read the full story here.

• UAE men handed one-month jail for beating pregnant Canadian woman.(BikyaMasr).DUBAI: Three Emirati men were handed one-month in jail for beating a pregnant woman at n Ikea cafeteria three years ago. They were also handed a DH12,000 fine for the incident involving a Canadian couple.According to The National, Emirati businessman A A, 52, and his brothers M A, 33, and E A, 43, on June 13, 2009, beat the woman and her husband after they sat at a table allegedly reserved for the men and their families.“A A approached us and told us that the table was booked as his three children were sitting on the other end,” the husband told the court.When the wife, who was pregnant, said she didn’t want to move, the husband attempted to move her away and sit elsewhere, but the men attacked the couple.“I was punched in the back of the head and lost consciousness and woke to find three men kicking me and punching me on the floor and saw my wife bleeding from her legs profusely,” he told prosecutors.The National reported that a Syrian man had witnessed the incident and confirmed that he saw one of the men hitting the woman while the other two attacked the husband.Security guards called the Dubai Police in order to end the attack after they had failed.The couple were taken to Rashid Hospital, where the wife was also given treatment to prevent a miscarriage.The sentence has left many in the UAE angry over the extremely lenient terms, with many citizens pointing out that drug charges carry longer terms in jail that the assault of a pregnant woman.“I find it appalling to call myself an Emirati,” said Abdullah. “These people should be in jail for a long time, not just one month, but because they are Emiratis they are getting off without anything but a slap on the wrist. It is wrong.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Document appears incourt, titled "The Islamic Rule on Hijacking Airplanes".(Memri).Hizbut Tahrir's Document on Hijacking Now Before A British Court: 'If The Plane Belongs To A Country At War With The Muslims, Like Israel, It Is Allowed To Hijack It, For There Is No Sanctity Neither For Israel Nor For The Jews Inside It'. A document, titled "The Islamic Rule on Hijacking Airplanes" and produced by Hizbut Tahrir, is the subject of court proceedings in the United Kingdom where a Muslim pilot was sacked over fears that he could carry out a 9/11-like terror attack.Read the full story here.

• 'Israel sees narrowing window for Iran strike'.(YNet).Israeli officials are quietly conceding that new international sanctions targeting Iran's suspect nuclear program, while welcome, are further constraining Israel's ability to take military action – just as a window of opportunity is closing because Tehran is moving more of its installations underground.The officials said that Israel must act by the summer if it wants to effectively attack Iran's program.A key question in the debate is how much damage Israel, or anyone else, can inflict, and whether it would be worth the risk of a possible counterstrike. Israel has been a leading voice in the international calls to curb Iran's nuclear program. Like the West, it believes the Iranians are moving toward nuclear weapons capability – a charge Tehran denies.Israel contends a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its survival. It also fears an Iranian bomb would touch off a nuclear arms race in a region still largely hostile to Israel. Israeli leaders say they prefer a diplomatic solution. But – skeptical of international resolve – Israel refuses to rule out the use of force, saying frequently that "all options are on the table."After calling for tougher sanctions against Iran at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday: "We must not waste time on this matter; the Iranians continue to advance (toward nuclear weapons), identifying every crack and squeezing through. Time is urgently running out."Key Israeli defense officials believe that the time to strike, if such a decision is made, would have to be by the middle of this year. Complicating the task is the assessment that Iran is stepping up efforts to move its work on enriching uranium deep underground.An Israeli strike would risk shattering the US-led diplomatic front that has imposed four additional rounds of sanctions on Iran and jolt the shaky world economy by causing oil prices to spike. Still, the officials said that if Israel feels no alternative but to take military action, it will do so. The US has sold Israel dozens of 100 GBU-28 laser-guided "bunker-buster" bombs. The 2.5-ton bombs are capable of penetrating more than 20 feet of solid concrete. It's not clear how much damage the bunker-busters could actually do. Iran's main enrichment site at Natanz is believed to be about 25 feet (6 meters) underground and protected by two concrete walls.Many believe that in the event of a strike, Iran would likely unleash its large arsenal of missiles capable of striking Israel.Iran's local proxies, Hezbollah to Israel's north and Hamas to the south, possess tens of thousands of short-range rockets and missiles. American soldiers in the Persian Gulf might come under fire. Islamist backers of Iran could target civilians all over the world. A one-time surgical strike, the most likely attack by Israel, "can't do more than politically declare that we aren't willing to tolerate" a nuclear Iran, Shapir said. Hmmmm......Unless small tactical Nuclear weapons are used? Read the full story here.

• Hizbullah Al-Manar TV Exclusive on U.S. Drone Captured by Iraqi Insurgents.(Memri).Reporter: "This American reconnaissance plane is in the hands of the Iraqi resistance. This is an achievement that the resistance has pulled out of its hat – one of dozens of qualitative achievements that the U.S. occupation army has not dared to acknowledge throughout its time in Iraq. This state-of-the-art Predator plane fell into the hands of the resistance in Basra, following surveillance activity that led to this achievement."Read and see the full story here.

• Man raped in UAE by 13 relatives of woman he had relationship with.(BM).DUBAI: Thirteen men were imprisoned for between one and two years this week for kidnapping and raping an Asian man who allegedly had a relationship with one of their female relatives, The National newspaper reported on Tuesday.According to the report, the men kidnapped, sexually assaulted the man and filmed the entire attack on their mobile phone.Police said they rescued the man from the house, but did not say how long the man had been there or how long the ordeal had taken.The sentence, however, has rights groups angered over the apparent lack of longer jail time, saying that kidnapping and rape should carry harsher sentences.Read the full story here.

Report: Obama Set to Reject Keystone Pipeline.Canada already selling out to the Chinese?

Report: Obama Set to Reject Keystone Pipeline.(BI).The Obama administration is expected to reject the controversial Keystone Pipeline this afternoon, according to Fox News.The State Department is expected to vote against the pipeline this afternoon. Transcanada will however be allowed to reapply with an alternate route going through Nebraska.The administration will be unlikely to approve the pipeline under the timeline for the payroll tax cut extension law which requires a decision by February 21.

Hmmmm..........No real surprise there, PM Harper isn't waiting for the OK from the Obama Admin he's already selling parts of the Alberta sands to the Chinese .As he pointed out : "But just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don't think that's part of what our review process is all about".

The $5.5-billion Enbridge pipeline project is all about sending Alberta bitumen in huge oil tankers to China. Beijing’s own state enterprises are among the project’s major backers, and Beijing has been buying up Alberta’s oilpatch at such a dizzying pace lately it’s hard to keep up.

1. In the spring of 2010, China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp. took a $4.65-billion piece of Syncrude.
2. Then the China Investment Corporation, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, took possession of a $1.25-billion share of Penn West Petroleum.
3. Last summer, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation gobbled up Opti Canada for $2.34 billion. And so on.
4. then last month, Sinopec spent $2.2-billion to take over Daylight Energy Ltd.,
5. and last week, Petro-China, with the final push of $1.9 billion, became the owner and manager of the MacKay River oilsands project.
   Apparently PM Harper knows he can't rely on Pres Obama, he knows where the money is and what creates jobs. Read the full story here.More Under Obama, Oil and Gas Production on Federal Lands Is Down 40% here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.2 - 5.3 ; Argentina 5.0  !More info here.

• "There She Blows!" - Lamar Smith Says SOPA Markup To Resume In February.(TD).For all the talk from some that SOPA was "dead," it appears it's alive and well and getting ready for its big re-entrance. Lamar Smith has just sent out a press release saying that he intends to resume the markup in February: Stop Online Piracy Act Markup to Resume in February. Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today said that he expects the Committee to continue its markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act in February.Chairman Smith: "To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America's intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy."Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February."I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property." Read the full story here.

• Related - The Internet Goes to Washington on January 18.(EFF).Security Experts and Tech Investors Scheduled to Testify; Worldwide Internet Protest GatheringThere’s some good news in the efforts to stop the Internet blacklist bills (SOPA/PIPA): Representative Darrell Issa, an outspoken SOPA critic and the author of alternative legislation called the OPEN Act, has announced that the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on January 18 to hear from actual technical experts, technology job creators, Internet investors and legal scholars.EFF’s activists will be providing live coverage of the event through our EFFLive Twitter account. A number of online activists are strategizing plans for a “SOPABlackout” — “censoring” websites and logos to draw attention to the hearing and showcase the widespread opposition to the censorship bills. We’re glad to see lots of sites participating and we’re urging folks to use social networks on January 18 to help spread the word.The Oversight Committee hearing will address the topic of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocks generally, and explore ways for the government to avoid legislation that would hamper economic growth. Of course, as active and controversial legislation, SOPA and its evil twin in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are certain to be discussed at length.Here’s a look at the witnesses scheduled to speak.Read the full story here.

• IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz tells NATO world needs to 'prepare for the worst'.(JPost).The world needs to “prepare for the worst” in wake of the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East due to the proliferation of weaponry throughout the world and into the hands of terrorist organizations, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz warned on Wednesday.Addressing a meeting of NATO military commanders at the western military alliance in Brussels, Gantz said that the world needed to “strengthen moderate elements and weaken the radicals.”“Only through joint work combining tough and soft power can we deter and in the long term overcome these radical elements,” Gantz said. Earlier in the day, Gantz met with the Canadian and Italian chiefs of staff.Gantz said that NATO’s decision to establish a missile defense system throughout Europe was a demonstration of the severity non-conventional weapons pose to the world.“Ballistic missile defense systems need to be the last line of defense and the initiative needs to come earlier by exhausting all of the available means to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Revolutionary Guard/Quds Force could be planning attack in Turkey.(TZ).Intelligence units have warned that the Quds Force, a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, plans to send a group to Turkey to carry out a series of demonstrations that may include a bomb attack on the Embassy or Consulate General of the United States.The Turkish Security General Directorate (EGM) has warned police departments in all 81 Turkish provinces that they must be vigilant and remain alert to the existence of such a threat. The intelligence pertaining to the possibility of such an attack was delivered in a secret letter to the information department at Turkey's General Directorate of Security. The written statement indicates that a team linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard will be sent to Turkey and that it may be planning to bomb the US embassy or consulate general in the country. The Quds Force is infamous for its role in attempting to export Iran's revolution to other countries through the instigation of chaos and by acting as the overseas branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp.A number of Iranian officials pledged revenge on Turkey last year after the country approved the establishment of the NATO defense system on its soil, with prominent military and political figures saying that Turkey would be sorry for siding with the US. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has also frequently expressed his concern over such “provocations” that may try to see the brotherhood of Iran and Turkey, which spans centuries, fall apart.Read the full story here.

• The West is losing its battle with Islam.(VC).By Popov Veniamin.In the late 20th and early 21st century the concept of “the clash of civilizations” advanced in 1993 by Prof. Samuel Huntington, an American scholar, became one of the most broadly and emotionally discussed ideas in political and academic circles in the West and East. Huntington maintained that in the 21st century the main line of conflict will run between the West and Islam, and later between the West and the rest of the world. The Western media launched a large-scale propaganda campaign to support this theory by attempting to prove that all problems in the modern world are rooted primarily in “militant Islam,” because this religion “projects violence and terror” by its very nature and goals.After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States launched wars against two Islamic states, drawing in other Western countries in its wake. This Afghan campaign is a real record-breaker, in terms of its duration (10 years), the number of troops involved (150,000) and their equipment.Officially, it was proclaimed a struggle against terrorism, primarily al-Qaeda, which had been blamed for the attack on the Twin Towers and other places on 9/11. Recently the Al-Ahram weekly called this war an “Afghan tragedy.” What was the result?Even according to the obviously underrated UN data, more than 11,000 civilians have died in the last five years of the war alone. After several years of hunting bin Laden, a powerful task force of U.S. Marines located and killed this feeble 60 year-old who had been dubbed “terrorist number one.” Al-Qaeda is far from being defeated, and it is even strengthening its positions in Yemen and Northern Africa. Meanwhile, the Taliban not only continues to control Afghanistan’s vast provinces, making inroads and staging acts of terror in its central regions and even Kabul - it is even expanding their zone of operation. This movement has been dubbed a “shadow government,” that is waiting for its time to come. Read the full story here.

• SOPA protest nears zero hour.(Politico).Internet companies and activists are hoping to join the Arab Spring and other online democracy movements by taking an estimated 7,000 websites offline Wednesday to send a message to Washington: Don’t pass a pair of anti-piracy bills.The websites that have announced plans to go dark include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and Wordpress, but some of the most visited websites are conspicuous in their absence.Google announced Tuesday that it will stop short of a blackout and instead the company plans to post a link on its iconic homepage explaining its opposition to the two arcane copyright bills that are suddenly fodder for the evening news: the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act."Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. homepage."Read the full story here.

• Recess appointments might not hold.(TheHill).By Alexander Bolton.Some legal experts, including those who have sided with President Obama on other constitutional issues, think there is a good chance the courts could overturn his recent recess appointments.Legal experts said courts could invalidate Obama’s appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) because there is scant precedent on the issue.“It’s untested ground. If I were a judge, I could write out an opinion either way. There’s no clear precedent,” said Charles Fried, a constitutional expert at Harvard Law School who served as solicitor general under former President Reagan.Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said waiting until Cordray or the new NLRB appointees act would make for “a much stronger case than the one they moved last week.”“I don’t think the substitution of new labor board members vitiates the earlier action,” Tobias said. “If there’s fresh regulation adopted by Cordray as director, there’s a plausible argument that he doesn’t have the authority.”A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the House is mulling whether to pursue legal action against Cordray and the other appointees. “We’re examining our options,” said Michael Steel. Boehner said earlier this month that he expects courts to invalidate the president’s move.“This action goes beyond the president’s authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate,” he said in a statement.Read the full story here.

• Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Violates Federalism.(Cato).By Ilya Shapiro.Today Cato filed its second Supreme Court amicus brief in the Obamacare litigation, on the issue of whether the health care law’s Medicaid expansion is a proper exercise of the Constitution’s Spending Clause.That is, states must now accept a comprehensive reorganization of Medicaid or forfeit all federal Medicaid funding—even though the spending power is circumscribed to preserve a distinction between what is local and what is national. If Congress is allowed to attach conditions to spending that the states cannot refuse in order to achieve an objective it could not outright mandate, the local/national distinction that is so central to federalism will be erased.Joining the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, Pacific Legal Foundation, Rep. Denny Rehberg (chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies), and Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeffrey Colyer (also a practicing physician) we argue that, in requiring states to accept onerous conditions on federal funds that it could not impose directly, the government has exceeded its enumerated powers and violated basic principles of federalism.California is at risk of losing $25.6 billion in annual federal funding, for example, and together the states stand to lose more than a quarter trillion dollars annually. On average, states would have to increase their general revenue budgets by almost 40% in order to maintain their current level of Medicaid funding.In short, if Obamacare does not cross the line from valid “inducement” to unconstitutional “coercion,” nothing ever will. Just as the Commerce Clause is not an open-ended grant of power, the Spending Clause too has limits that must be enforced.Read the full story here.

• Solyndra Update: Friday Document Dump Raises More Questions.(Heritage).The White House’s Friday evening Solyndra document dump revealed a pair of interesting facts that should not be lost in the news cycle’s three-day-weekend lull. Neither is a smoking gun, but both will likely fuel the fire of an investigation the administration would rather see die out.According to internal emails released on Friday, the White House was informed that Solyndra planned on announcing layoffs mere days before the 2010 midterm elections. “No es bueno” – not good – exclaimed a White House staffer on October 27, two days after Solyndra informed the Energy Department of the layoff announcement.DOE “push[ed] very hard for us to hold our announcement” on the layoffs until the day after the election, a Solyndra staffer wrote on October 30. That email was released last November. The latest batch does not show that the White House exerted pressure to delay the announcement, but the timing of the emails is likely to raise more questions than it answers.The emails also reveal that the administration was planning the president’s visit to Solyndra’s Fremont, Calif., headquarters even before a pair of DOE panels approved the company’s loan guarantee. Neither the Credit Committee nor the Credit Review Board had met on March 6, 2009, when a DOE memo noted: “Serious consideration being given to having the president announce on March 19th during his California trip that DOE is offering a loan guarantee to Solyndra.”During the latter days of the George W. Bush administration, the Credit Committee voted unanimously “not to engage in further discussions with Solyndra at this time.” Less than three months later, after Bush’s successor took office, the loan guarantee was approved.While the March 2009 DOE memo does not clearly show wrongdoing by the administration, it does suggest that it was forging ahead with the loan guarantee even before properly assessing its merits.Read the full story here.

• PM Harper: Canada not 'giant national park' for U.S.(CBC).Any decision on developments such as the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline should be left to Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says."It's one thing in terms of whether Canadians, you know, want jobs, to what degree Canadians want environmental protection. These are all valid questions," Harper said in an exclusive interview Monday with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge."But just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don't think that's part of what our review process is all about."The $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project is a proposal by Canadian oil and gas company Enbridge to build two pipelines stretching 1,177 kilometres between the Alberta oilsands and the West Coast. The Northern Gateway would have the capacity to transport 525,000 barrels of oil per day."I don’t object to foreigners expressing their opinion," Harper told CBC News. "But I don’t want them to be able to hijack the process so that we don’t make a decision that's timely or in the interests of Canadians.""We're really the only supplier that is secure and is increasing its production. So I think [being market-driven has] served the country well. It's served government revenues well. It's served creation of jobs well. But it is fundamentally a market-based decision. We don't dictate pipelines go here or there."Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Cutting Edge Technology: Showcasing Israeli Unmanned Naval Vessel.(IDFS).The Protector unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is an Israeli-developed unmanned vessel using cutting edge technology. Nine meter long, weighting about 4,000 Kg (8,800 lbs) and reaching a speed of up to 92 Kph (57 mph), the Protector USV is based on former models of unmanned, autonomous, remotely controlled unmanned surface vehicles.Highly maneuverable and stealthy, the Protector can conduct a wide spectrum of critical missions, without exposing personnel and capital assets to unnecessary risk. Though autonomous, the device can easily be controlled from a shore several miles from the Protector.Read and see the full story here.

• Tourists killed in Ethiopia attack.(AlJazeera).German, Belgian, Austrian, Italian, Hungarian nationals among victims of shootings by gunmen, Ethiopia's communication minister says.Four people, including two foreign tourists, have been kidnapped by gunmen who also killed five foreigners in Ethiopia's Afar region, a government spokesman has said."The attack occurred at 5am local time on Tuesday, in which Eritrean-trained groups also kidnapped four. Two of them are foreigners, one is a driver and the other a policeman," Bereket Simon told Reuters news agency.Ethiopia's foreign ministry however, said it didn't have any further details about the attack or the victims' nationalities.Ethiopean state television [ETV], which first reported about the killings, also suggested that the attackers were rebels with ties to Ethiopia's archrival Eritrea, which hosts the exiled Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group listed as a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government.ETV said two tourists were injured severely and were brought to a health clinic by defence forces. They are in critical condition, the television said. Another tourist survived the attack unharmed.Eritrea has rejected the accusation that it trained and armed the gunmen responsible for the attack in remote northeastern Afar region bordering Eritrea.In Berlin, a spokesman at the German foreign ministry, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said it has received "reports of an attack on a tour group with Germans in Ethiopia" and that the ministry is trying to determine what had happened.In Vienna, a spokesman at the Austrian foreign ministry said as many as 22 tourists of several European nationalities may have been attacked, including two Austrians.Read the full story here.

• Did Iran target and assassinate Iranian grad student, activist in Houston?(KSat).HOUSTON - A woman whom Houston police described as an activist on behalf of Iranian women's civil rights was found shot dead at the wheel of her car after it crashed into a townhouse garage.Houston police said the shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. Monday in a posh development near the Galleria.According to investigators, someone walked up to the passenger's side of 30-year-old Gelareh Bagherzadeh's car and shot her in the head.Bagherzadeh's body was found inside her running car, detectives said."When the officer arrived, the car's tires were still spinning," Officer J.C. Padilla said. "He had to reach in and turn off the motor."Bagherzadeh's car was found at the back of the town home complex, and police said she had driven past her parents' home near the front of the complex."We don't know if she was being followed at the time," Sgt. Richard Bolton said.Officers said Bagherzadeh's ex-boyfriend was on the phone with her when he heard what may have been the crash and gunshots."He said she screamed for her life," said Lorena Lopez, one of Bagherzadeh's close friends. "He heard screeching and he assumed it was a car accident."Bagherzadeh was part of Sabaz Houston, a local Iranian organization that supports the green movement against the current Iranian government..Hmmmm..............Read the full story here.

• Report: Turkish intelligence claims Israel aiding the PKK.(JPost).Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles that have been spotted in the Hatay and Adana provinces have gathered intelligence for the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), Turkey's Today's Zaman reported Tuesday according to Turkish intelligence agencies.The report claims that Israeli Heron drones helped the PKK gather information on the Hatay province, bordering Syria, that helped the group determine the locations for establishing training bases. Today's Zaman failed to say whether the Turkish report implicated Israel in aiding the PKK in any specific attack.It did say, however, that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a PKK member that organized an assault on a naval base in 2010, has visited Israel a number of times, lending to suspicions of collusion. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey has engaged in an ongoing conflict with Kurdish separatist groups, and at least 32,000 PKK militants and more than 10,000 Turkish soldiers and police have been killed by Turkey according to official Turkish numbers. Hmmmm.......Now that Obama has partnered with Turkey in the fight against terrorism, and conveniently left Israel out of the group.Has the time arrived to 'accuse' Israel of 'terrorist activities?Read the full story here.

• Black Widow attempted New Year Moscow attack but blew herself up by mistake.(CA).A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources. The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her but nobody else.She was at her Moscow safe house at the time getting ready with two accomplices, both of whom survived and were seen fleeing the scene.Hmmmm........"From Russia with Spam"?Read the full story here.

• Former Saudi intelligence chief says all options open against Iranian ‘threats’.(AlArabiya).Saudi Arabia will use “all available options” to defend itself against Iranian “threats” that might trigger “unwanted military confrontation,” its former intelligence chief told a Gulf security conference.Prince Turki al-Faisal’s comments to the conference in Bahrain late on Tuesday came after Tehran demanded Riyadh rethink its offer to make up for any oil lost to world markets as a result of threatened curbs on Iranian exports.“Any threat to our interests or security will force us to use all available options to defend our interests, and national and regional security,” Faisal said in remarks carried by Al Arabiya news channel.“The mounting escalation and persistent tensions might end up in an adventure with unpredictable consequences or in an unwanted military confrontation.”Iran has warned Western governments that it will close the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, a strategic choke point for much of the Middle East’s oil, if they press ahead with sanctions against its key crude exports.“Iran must not fuel this conflict and must not threaten us when we commit to international decisions,” Faisal said.“It must neutralise the security of the Strait of Hormuz and that of the world energy supply,” said Faisal, who is also a former Saudi ambassador in both London and Washington.Read the full story here.

• Iran - Death sentence for Canadian netizen confirmed, new arrests.(Trust).Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that the supreme court has confirmed website designer Saeed Malekpour's death sentence. His family said the court took the decision under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards. A Canadian resident who was arrested on 4 October 2008 while visiting his family, Malekpour, 35, was sentenced to death in January 2011 on chargesof anti-government agitation and insulting Islam.Arrests of netizens are meanwhile continuing. Simien Nematollahi, a contributer to the pro-Sufi website Majzooban (www.majzooban.org), was arrested at her Tehran home by intelligence ministry officials on 11 January on a charge of anti-government propaganda. Several members of the website's staff were arrested on 7 and 8 September and were freed on bail on 4 October pending trial.Mohammad Solimaninya, the head of u24, a social networking website for Iranian professionals, was arrested on 20 January after being summoned before a revolutionary tribunal in Karaj, a town 20 km north of Tehran, on 10 January. Plainclothes intelligence ministry officials searched his home the same day, confiscating his computer, hard disks and CDs.His family still does not know why he was arrested or where he is being held. As well as running u24, Solimaninya has created and hosts the websites of many civil society organizations, NGOs and Iranian intellectuals.Reporters Without Borders is also concerned about Mohammad Reza Pourshajari, a blogger who has been held since 12 September 2010. He was tried by a revolutionary court in Karaj on 21 December 2011 on a charge of insulting the Prophet in articles posted on his blog and in letters sent to government officials while he was in prison.His daughter said the trial lasted a quarter of an hour and took place without his lawyer being present. The charge of insulting the Prophet is very vaguely defined but it carries a possible death sentence and is often used by the authorities to silence critics who try to defy the government.Read the full story here.

• Some 11 metric tons of lethal mustard gas Remain Undestroyed in Libya.(RN).Some 11 metric tons of lethal mustard gas, also known as sulfur mustard or yperite, remain in existence in Libya, Belgian media reported on Wednesday citing Defense Minister Pieter de Crem.Under ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2004. The country declared it had 1.4 metric tons of raw materials to produce chemical weapons and 25 metric tons of mustard gas.As of March 2011, Libya had destroyed 55 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile.However, the country still had to eliminate 11.25 tons of mustard gas, which can form large blisters or chemical burns on exposed skin and eyes and cause bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system.The disposal process was disrupted when an uprising to oust Gaddafi evolved into an armed conflict and resulted in the death of Libya’s longtime ruler, with the help of NATO and other international forces.According to earlier media reports, mustard gas was produced at a chemical plant in Rabta about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tripoli and stockpiles were located in Rabta and Al-Jufra, south of Sirte.Read the full story here.

• Muslim Party Seeks Power In Dutch Parliament.(Forbes).By Abigail R. Esman.The Dutch Muslim Party has announced plans to seek seats in the Dutch Parliament. The party already has a hold in regional governments in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other Dutch cities.The Partij Voor Moslim Nederland (Party for Muslim Netherlands), as it calls itself when it is not referring to itself as The Dutch Muslim Party (note the strong differences in meaning), campaigns on an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and anti-discrimination platform. It hopes to take part in Parliamentary elections in 2015. Among its principles:

1. Criminalization of blasphemy.
2. Free speech within limitations: speech that can be seen as insulting or offensive on religious grounds will be prosecuted.
3. Damage or destruction of holy texts for any religion to be criminalized by law.
4. Members of the party can also be non-Muslims.
5. Women and men are to be seen as equal under the law.
6. The party is to be based on the Islamic principle of Shura.
7. All troops must be withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan.
8. Turkey must immediately be made a member of the EU.
9. Support to Israel must be stopped.
10. Zero-tolerance for all drugs, including marijuana (currently tolerated under Dutch law).
11. No bans shall be set against the current practice of importing poorly-educated women as brides for Dutch Muslim men.A new pamphlet outlining the party’s vision is to be published by the end of this month.Read the full story here.

• IDF Kills Two Terrorists near Gaza Belt Kibbutz.(INN).Israeli aircraft and tanks struck a terrorist cell attempting to bury bombs at the Gaza security fence near a kibbutz Wednesday morning, killing at least two terrorists.Hamas confiremd the kill. Aircraft fired four missiles on the cell, while tanks fired artillery shells. One of the cell's bombs exploded, and no Israeli soldiers were injured. Hamas claimed that other terroists at the scene are engaged in a gunfight with IDF soldiers, but there has been no confirmation from the army, and Hamas information often is propaganda without substantiation.Terrorists in Hamas-ruled Gaza have been staging almost daily attempts to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians, but their failure has kept the incidents out of mainstream media headlines.Read the full story here.

• Holocaust scholars to Obama: Condemn Libya for Bashir visit.(Jpost).Eighty Holocaust and genocide scholars signed a petition calling on US President Barack Obama to condemn Libya's new government for hosting a visit by Sudanese President Omar Bashir.Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his role in the Darfur genocide."Especially in view of the role the United States played in bringing about the overthrow of the Gadhafi regime," the petition says, "the US has a right, and a moral obligation, to demand that the new Libya join us in treating perpetrators of genocide as pariahs."The petition urges Obama to "speak out publicly against Libya's embrace of Bashir and to make it clear to the international community that the US regards the hosting of visits by Bashir as unacceptable." Its signatories -- from the United States, Europe and Israel -- call for "a firmer policy by the US toward perpetrators of genocide and those who coddle them."Read the full story here.

• India says continuing to buy oil from Iran.(HD).Energy-hungry India said Tuesday it was continuing to buy oil from Iran, despite an intensifying US campaign to smother Tehran's vital oil exports until it abandons its nuclear programme."We have accepted sanctions which were made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries," Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told a news conference. "We continue to buy oil from Iran." Iran is India's second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, providing around 12 percent of the fast-growing country's needs at an annual cost of around $12 billion.The law provides waivers to firms in countries that significantly reduce crude supplies from Iran. Under Washington's measures, foreign firms must choose between doing business with the Islamic republic or the United States.Mathai said India would not seek a waiver from the United States.Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters on Monday the delegation would "work out what (could be done) in terms of the new sanctions under section 1245 of the US Act".The governments of the two countries would work on financial mechanisms for India to continue to import Iranian crude as well as to promote Indian exports, he added.New Delhi at present pays Iran $1 billion every month through Turkey.Hmmmm.....And Obama wouldn't want to upset buddy Erdogan...would he?Read the full story here.