Alleged Ex-criminal Thaci Inaugurated as New President of Kosovo.

Alleged Ex-criminal Thaci Inaugurated as New President of Kosovo. (SP).

Former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militant Hashim Thaci was treated to a lavish inauguration ceremony on Friday, the ceremony attended by over a thousand guests from 50 countries, including diplomats from states which recognize Kosovo, which broke off from Serbia in 2008. Sputnik offers a brief analysis of the alleged ex-bandit turned president.

Thaci, who has a long record of service in Kosovar politics, previously served as the head of the breakaway republic's foreign ministry, as deputy prime minister and, between 2008 and 2014, as premier. He began his political rise in the early 1990s when, carrying the moniker 'The Snake', he became a member of the KLA leadership's inner circle, responsible for securing funds and arms, and for training militants in neighboring Albania to be sent to Kosovo.

In her 2008 book entitled The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) prosecutor Carla Del Ponte alleged that Thaci was directly involved in the KLA's illegal organ trade; the KLA was accused of harvesting the organs of mostly Serbian prisoners of war at secret detention centers in Albania.

In 1999, the prosecutor wrote, about 300 Serbs and other non-Albanians were kidnapped and taken to northern Albania, where their organs were removed, and sent, for profit, to hospitals across Europe.

In late 2010, Swiss politician Dick Marty presented an expansive report on the issue to the Council of Europe, saying there were "credible, convergent indications" indicating that the illegal organ harvesting was indeed taking place, and that Thaci was the head of the "mafia-like" group responsible for the organ harvesting, as well as drug and weapons smuggling to countries across Europe.

Thaci denied the allegations and said that he would file a lawsuit against Marty, but never did.

With The Hague vowing to establish a special court to try war crimes committed during the war in Kosovo, it remains unclear whether Thaci, one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has itself been accused of war crimes, will appear before the court.

Sputnik Serbian spoke to Zivojin Rakocevic, a political analyst and writer from Kosovo's Serbian enclave of Gracanica, to get a sense of the real implications of his confirmation as president.

Unfortunately, Rakocevic noted, Thaci's main 'accomplishment' during his years in Kosovar politics has been to expel the Serbs from cities across the region, including the capital of Pristina, where only a few dozen mostly elderly Serbs from the estimated 40,000 who once lived there now remain.

"At the same time, he managed to destroy Kosovar Albanians' future. Today, 80% of them want to leave Kosovo, which NATO bombed with shells containing depleted uranium, and Thaci finished off with his criminal structures," Rakocevic said.

"He has destroyed any possibility for Serbs to return to this region, and dealt a blow to the Serbian Orthodox Church. He has control over the Islamic radicals, and can use them at any time."

"But his greatest achievement," Rakocevic scornfully recalled, was that after all his crimes, many of them documented by Western political, legal and intelligence officials, "Thaci remains a legitimate, important 'friend of the international community' and of Western powers." Hmmm......And close buddy of Erdogan.  Read the full story here.

Related: Turkey’s Islamist Agenda in Kosovo

Iraqi FM says could use military option against 'Neo Ottoman Conqueror' Turkey if forced.

Iraqi FM says could use military option against 'Neo Ottoman Conqueror' Turkey if forced. (ET).

Iraq’s foreign minister said on Wednesday it could resort to military means if forced to defend itself from what it says is an intrusion of Turkish forces into part of its north.

Turkey said it had deployed a force protection unit earlier this month to the area due to heightened security risks near a camp where its troops were training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State insurgents. Ankara acknowledged that there had been a “miscommunication” with Baghdad over the deployment.

Iraqi security forces have had only a limited presence in Nineveh province where the camp is located since collapsing in June 2014 in the face of a lightning advance by Islamic State.

Foreign Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari said Iraq was committed to exhausting peaceful diplomatic avenues to avoid a crisis with its northern neighbour Turkey, but insisted that all options remained open.

“If there is no other solution but this (military), then we will adopt this solution. If we are forced to fight and defend our sovereignty and riches, we will be forced to fight,” he told reporters in Baghdad. Read the full story here.

'Islamist' Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda.

'Islamist' Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda. (Huffington).By David L. Phillips.

Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda, aimed at expanding its influence in former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey exports Islamism under the guise of cultural cooperation. It also seeks economic advantage, using business as leverage to consolidate its national interests.

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is a vehicle through which Turkey advances its ideological agenda. TIKA is the vanguard of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which supports Muslim Brotherhood chapters around the world. TIKA runs a parallel and complementary foreign policy to official state institutions, coordinating with Turkey's Ministry of Culture and the Presidency of Religious Affairs to promote the AKP's Islamist agenda.

In addition, TIKA supports regional Islamic unions and institutions. It subsidizes community based social mobilization projects, which promote Islam. TIKA's network of Muslim community leaders and imams, which includes imams from Turkey, actively promotes Islam. Its benevolence includes food for the Iftar meal during Ramadan, delivered to impressionable Kosovars in poor rural areas.

Erdogan asked the Government of Kosovo to close schools established by Fetullah Gulen, with whom he had a falling out. Kosovo officials acquiesced, though Gulen schools offered quality education to Kosovars.

Turkish businessmen also benefit from Turkey's aggressive religious and cultural promotion. A well-respected Turkish scholar asks of the AKP, "Are they Islamists or just thieves with a religious rhetoric?"

Since become Speaker of Kosovo's Parliament, however, Vaseli has not said a word about Turkey's economic dominance. He and other prominent Kosovo politicians, including Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, have close ties to Erdogan, as well as Turkish business and political leaders.

Turkey has cemented its influence through security cooperation. Around 2,000 Turkish soldiers were deployed as part of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in 1999. There are still 350 Turkish soldiers in Pristina and Prizren. Turkey has indicated its willingness to assume control of Bondsteel, the US base in Kosovo, as US forces withdraw.

Davutoğlu explicitly linked Turkey's foreign policy to its Ottoman legacy during a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2009. "The Ottoman centuries of the Balkans were a success story. Now we have to reinvent this." He announced, "Turkey is back."

Faster integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is the best antidote to Turkey's influence in Kosovo and the Western Balkans. US interests would also be served through intensified engagement in the region.

Closer cooperation between the US and Kosovo would be a bulwark against Turkey's export of Islamism. It would also prevent the further radicalization of Kosovo society, staunching the flow of Kosovars to join ISIS. Hmmmm........Sadly with Obama being the BFF Of Erdogan this Islamist advance won't be stopped, hopefully the next POTUS Will recognize the danger. Read the full story here.

ISIS infiltrates into Europe, sets up secret base in the Balkans.

Source 'Moldavia transit country for ISIS'

ISIS infiltrates into Europe, sets up secret base in the Balkans. (AN).

Since the emergence of the extremist Islamic State group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, thousands of westerners have joined its ranks. The Western governments expressed fear of the returnee jihadists, who could carry out attacks against European and American interests in their countries.

Dozens of ISIS jihadists have infiltrated into European countries and have recently installed a “secret base” in the Balkans, a Croatian official has said.

The terror group has been able to organize dozens of militants in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

According to Croatian intelligence, a group of ISIS foreign militants, who are originally from the Balkans, have returned back to their native countries.

“We have identified an ISIS senior member who most probably organize dozens of Balkan jihadists,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The source said that the ongoing refugee crisis may have facilitated the influx of ISIS sleeper cells into the heart of Europe.

“Many of them may have sought asylum as Syrians,” he added

In June, ISIS circulated a footage on the social media, showing a group of Balkan fighters in Syria, vowing their own government and the American interests with suicide attacks. The former Soviet countries are deemed to be vulnerable to radicalism. Read the full story here.

Archbishop of Mosul Dire warning to Europe: "Our suffering is a foretaste of what you will endure"

Flashback: Archbishop of Mosul Dire warning to Europe: "Our suffering is a foretaste of what you will endure". (UnserTirol).[GoogleTranslated].

The archbishop of Mosul (Iraq), Amel Shimon Nona, turns with exhortation to Europeans and Christians. He warns of too liberal values ​​and policies. This was in the Middle East "worth nothing".

"Our present sufferings is a foretaste of what you will suffer in the near future you Europeans and Christians. I've lost my diocese. The premises of my apostolate were occupied by Islamist radicals who want to see us either converted or dead. But my church is still alive.

Please try to understand us. Your liberal democratic principles are worth nothing here. You have the reality in the Middle East in mind, for you is an ever-growing number of Muslims in your country welcome. But you are in danger. You must firm and courageous decisions, even at the cost to contradict your principles.

You believe that all men are equal, but that's not true: Islam does not say that all people are equal. Your values ​​are not his. If you do not understand the fast enough, you'll prey to the enemy, whom you welcomed with you at home. "

On the question of whether Islam per se is already a danger responds Amel Nona:

"No of course not. The vast majority of Muslims want nothing more than you and I. Live peacefully with each other. So they live. Without a doubt. But in the West, the threat posed by IS, by Salafists, jihadists, still ignored criminally. You are too naive in the West. Islam, the Sharia, as propagated completely different values ​​in part. Which are not always compatible with the values ​​of the West.

Islam is in deep crisis. For centuries already. He has without a doubt a tremendously spiritual, theological, humanistic potential. Only: This is not used. It lies fallow. Many Muslims were therefore prone to ideologues and demagogues who interpret the fundamentals of religion of Islam in its own way.

The consequences are shown here. These episodes will also be felt in the West sometime. 

In Europe there is today a constantly growing jihadist potential that hates the West. The West has no answer to this threat and to this day comes from the Islam out no response to this threat. What has developed here, will spread further, will not stop at your borders. It has long made it with you and overgrown with you further. "

(From "ISIS global jihad" by Bruno Schirra). The statements of the archbishop date back to 2014. So even before the terrorist attacks of Paris and Copenhagen.

80 % of refugees are NOT from Syria: EU numbers expose the 'lie' that the majority of refugees are fleeing war theater.

Source Eurostat.

80 % of refugees are NOT from Syria: EU numbers expose the 'lie' that the majority of refugees are fleeing war theater. (DM).

Only one in every five migrants claiming asylum in Europe is from Syria.

The EU logged 213,000 arrivals in April, May and June but only 44,000 of them were fleeing the Syrian civil war. Campaigners and left-wing MPs have suggested the vast majority of migrants are from the war-torn state, accusing the Government of doing too little to help them.

'This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria,' said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. 'Most people who are escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan.

'Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.'

Sir Bill Cash, a fellow Tory, said: 'These figures make extremely disturbing reading. The whole argument has been made that this influx is all real refugees from Syria whereas this adds to the substantial evidence that there are a large number of economic migrants who are aiming for a better life.'

The figures from Eurostat, the EU's official statistical agency, show that migration from April to June was running at double the level of the same period in 2014.

The number of Afghans lodging asylum claims is up four-fold, from 6,300 to 27,000. Another 17,700 claims were made by Albanians, whose country is at peace.

A further 13,900 applicants came from Iraq which, like Syria, is being torn apart by the Islamic State terror group. This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria. David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth

Half a million migrants have arrived in Europe so far this year, with 156,000 coming in August alone. Rather than claiming asylum in the first safe EU country they reach, most head on toward wealthy northern states.

The EU requires that each asylum claim be processed in the first EU country reached by the asylum seeker, under the so-called Dublin system.

The human cost of the crisis has been paid by the estimated 3,000 migrants who have drowned after putting their lives in the hands of people smugglers for the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean. Hmmmm........According to the chart above most came from Iraq, number two.........KOSOVO.. Read the full story here.

Dutch Hunt for Alleged Kosovo Organ Trafficking Turkish Doctor.

Dutch Hunt for Alleged Kosovo Organ Trafficking Turkish Doctor.(BalkanInsight).

Dutch officers are attempting to detain Sonmez, a Turkish doctor accused of being a key figure involved in trafficking in human organs at the Medicus clinic in Pristina, after Kosovo informed them about his whereabouts, a source close to the investigation told BIRN on Thursday.

“We are waiting for the results of the search by our Dutch colleagues,” the source said.

Sonmez and an Israeli national, Moshe Harel, are accused of people trafficking and organised crime by the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, and are listed as fugitives wanted by Interpol.

They have been on the run since the indictment against them was issued in June 2011.

Serbia’s office for war crimes prosecution said on Tuesday that organ trafficking suspect Sonmez, originally from Turkey, had been located in Amsterdam last week and that the information had been passed to the EU chief prosecutor in Kosovo.

EULEX’s chief spokesperson Miguel Carvalho de Faria confirmed to BIRN that the Serbian war crimes prosecutor had been in touch with Kosovo’s Special Prosecution Office, which was now “making the necessary inquiries with relevant authorities to ascertain the veracity of this information”.Read the full story here.

Russia Warns Kosovo Against Training Syrian Fighters.

Russia Warns Kosovo Against Training Syrian Fighters.(AW).Kosovo FM: We're Committed to Rebels.Being a Western-backed insurgency engaged in a bloody war of regime change isn’t as easy as it sounds, and hoping to get some pointers on the techniques involved. Top Syrian rebel leaders have been in Kosovo since last month, picking the brains of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) forces.
That’s not sitting well at all with Russia though, with Ambassador Vitaly Churkin warning of “disturbing information” that Kosovo has been establishing growing ties with the fighters, and cautioning that it could make Kosovo a “destabilizing factor” across the region.
Kosovo, however, seems determined to be that guy, with Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj insisting that his country is committed to the rebels in Syria, just as they were committed to the rebels in Libya.” He denied any plans to establish full-scale training centers for rebels in Kosovo, however.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.9 - 5.5 ; Reunion 5.6 ; Taiwan 5.1 !More info here.

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

• Flash - THE WHITE HOUSE TRAVEL OFFICE: Trip of the President to Honolulu, Hawaii.(DrudgeReport).December 17th, 2011 to January 2nd, 2012. Trip Overview: On Saturday, December 17th, 2011, the President will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii. He will return to Washington, DC on Monday, January 2nd, 2012. ......no public events are scheduled during the trip.Hmmm....Merry Christmas......'We feel your pain'.Read the full story here.

• Obama Tells Supporters He Needs Another Term So He Can Finish Implementing Obamacare.(CNSNews) — Speaking at a campaign fundraising event at the Gotham Bar and Grille in New York City on Wednesday, President Barack Obama told a group of supporters he needed to win reelection next year to make sure the health-care law he signed in 2010 will actually be fully implemented in 2014 as planned.“We still have a health care system that has to get more efficient and that has to improve its quality,” Obama said, according to a White House transcript. “And so we’re going to have to implement the Affordable Care Act in 2014, and that means I’ve got to win in 2012.”The law Obama signed mandates that by 2104 all must purchase a health-care plan that meets government requirements. The constitutionality of this mandate has been challenged in federal court and the Supreme Court has said it will hear the case in this session.Hmmm....."Corruptisima re publica plurimae leges" In the most corrupt state are the most laws.Read the full story here.

• John Boehner on Obama's claim to be pro-Israel.(IsraelMatzav).Here's US House Speaker John Boehner's (R-In) comment on President Obama's claim to be the most pro-Israel President evah. This is priceless.Read and see the full story here.

• Republicans Will Introduce Bill To Prevent IMF Bailout of Crumbling Eurozone.(TheHill).Conservatives say they will try to block the International Monetary Fund from bailing out Italy and Spain, which they say could leave U.S. taxpayers with a huge bill. Republicans on both sides of the Capitol complain that the Obama administration has refused to share details of what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is discussing with European leaders amid reports the IMF could intervene. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says he is planning legislation directing the U.S. government to veto an expanded role for the fund.Senate Republican Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), a member of the House Republican leadership, also have legislation to curb the proposed intervention.“I’m adamantly against the IMF being involved in this,” Coburn said.“We’re throwing good money after bad down a hole that I think is not a solvable problem,” he said.“Europe is going to default eventually, so why would you socialize their profligate spending,” he added.Coburn estimates the U.S. could be liable for as much as $176 billion if the IMF shores up Italy and Spain and the European Union collapses.President Obama this week said the U.S. “stands ready to do our part” to help resolve the crisis, and Geithner in October said using U.S. tax dollars through the IMF to shore up Europe’s efforts was appropriate.DeMint offered an amendment to the defense authorization bill instructing the U.S. executive director of the IMF to use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose funding of the European Financial Stability Facility, the bailout fund that would be used to stabilize countries at risk of default.But Coburn and other Republicans are skeptical their effort will be successful. They expect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to prevent the Senate from voting on legislation to block U.S. funds from being used in an IMF bailout.Even if it passes Congress, Coburn says President Obama would likely veto the legislation.IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced Thursday that Group of 20 nations are prepared to fund a massive IMF intervention. “If circumstances require, the G-20 will commit the resources that are necessary for the IMF to play its systemic role,” she said, according to Bloomberg. “That gives you a range that is almost without a cap, without a limitation.” An IMF spokesman said Wednesday the fund is not in discussions with Italy about a bailout.Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former board member of the IMF, said the advantage of bailing out Italy or Spain through the IMF instead of the European Central Bank is that doing so would allow European leaders to condition aid on the implementation of fiscal reforms.Lombardi said the IMF has the authority to attach strings to a possible bailout and monitor the actions of the recipient countries, which the central bank does not.“The EU system does not have ability to impose conditionality, but the IMF does,” he said.Lombardi said the Republican criticism has some validity because if the IMF loaned massive amounts to Italy and Spain and failed to prevent a default, the IMF, not the European Central Bank, would be liable. The U.S. is the biggest contributor to the IMF, kicking in about 17 percent of its budget. A European default could put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for 17 percent of the IMF’s liabilities.European leaders set a $1.3 trillion goal for an expanded bailout fund. If it failed to recoup its loans, U.S. taxpayers would face a liability of more than $200 billion.Read the full story here.

• Veena Malik : I didn’t pose naked for FHM, says Pakistani actress in hot water over nude photoshoot.(DailyMail).A controversial Pakistani actress has been forced to deny posing naked for the India edition of FHM sporting a tattoo of the initials 'ISI' her arm.Veena Malik appears topless on the front of the December issue of FHM India, sparking outrage among conservatives in Pakistan - both for her nudity and the reference to Pakistan's intelligence agency.But Miss Malik has strongly denied posing for the lads' mag, with the 33-year-old star insisting the picture had been 'morphed'.'I have never posed nude. I have never done anything like that ever. My manager and legal team is looking into the matter. We will take legal action against them,' Miss Malik told PTI, the Indian press agency.FHM India's editor, Kabeer Sharma, insisted however that nothing had been doctored, and claimed that the magazine could prove the photo's authenticity.Mr Sharma told the BBC: 'We have video footage of the shoot as well as emails from Veena about how she's looking forward to the cover.'The image was revealed on FHM India's website, Facebook page and Twitter account simultaneously today.The revealing picture shows shows Miss Malik nude, with her arms and one leg positioned to conceal her breasts and pubic area. On her arm are emblazoned the initials 'ISI' - the acronym for Pakistan's feared Inter-Services Intelligence agency - with the tag line, 'hand in the end of the world too?'Mr Sharma said the reference to Pakistani intelligence was meant to be light-hearted, saying: 'In India we joke about this... if anything goes wrong... we say the ISI must be behind this.'Miss Malik is no stranger to controversy. In January she attacked attacked hardline clerics in Pakistan who demand modest Muslims should be suitably covered at all times.'If a woman is cool with wearing a burqa, she should wear a burqa. If a woman, being a Muslim, wants to wear jeans, then she should wear jeans,' she said in an interview with The Australian newspaper.She also launched a stringent attack on honour killings, highlighting that women were always the target and not men.'Have you ever heard that they've thrown acid in a guy's face in Pakistan?,' she asked.After making her name has a star in 'Lollywood' movies - the term used to describe films made in Lahore - she found greater fame when she took part in Big Boss 4, the Indian version of Big Brother, last year.Dressed in shorts and seen hugging actor Ashmit Patel as well as swimming with Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, she was accused of behaving improperly by some Muslim clerics.Miss Malik has also been accused of being a porn star. However, her refreshingly outspoken views have won her many fans from Pakistan's younger and more liberal circles. Confronted about her 'immoral' behaviour by cleric Mufti Abdul Qawi on a TV talk show, she snapped back that the country had far more important things to consider - including the rape of children in mosques.'I’m a Muslim woman, and I know my limits,' she shouted back. The mufti appeared to be too astounded to respond.Hmmm......The 'djinis' did it?Read the full story here.

• Senate Republicans to Force Approval of Keystone Pipeline.(BigGovernment).Republicans in the Senate, led by Sen. Dick Lugar, have introduced a bill that would force President Obama to act on initiating construction of the-1,700 mile Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Canada. The project is expected to create approximately 20,000 jobs and increase energy security for the United States.Although President Obama has been openly mocking and denouncing Congress for failing to pass his jobs bill, his decision, through the State Department, to delay the Keystone XL project until after the November 2012 elections has led to criticism that the president is putting politics ahead of the best interests of the country. 37 Republican senators signed onto the bill that would require the administration to approve the pipeline project within 60 days, unless Mr. Obama declares the project is not in the national interest. The Keystone project has been interesting in that it has marked a division between two groups that have been very supportive of the president: environmentalists and Big Labor. Environmental groups, fearing oil spills and other ecological disasters, as well as celebrity “green” fans, have opposed the pipeline plan, while labor groups have supported it in the hopes of obtaining high-paying union jobs. In addition, none of the states involved in the pipeline’s path- Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas- supported Mr. Obama in the presidential election of 2008.While the Keystone project had already been found to be environmentally sound prior to the president’s delay of the pipeline’s construction, some rerouting of the pipeline was done in Nebraska, for example, and approved by that state’s legislature quickly so as not to prevent the project from moving forward. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Nebraska) is supporting the bill to force implementation of the pipeline. “This bill respects the Nebraska process to protect the Sand Hills while providing a commonsense approach to bring friendly oil and jobs to the U.S. without unnecessary delay,” he said.
  If the pipeline project is not implemented, Canada has said that it will sell its oil to China.
  If Mr. Obama’s motivation is political, the environmentalists appear to have his attention. However, the president is likely not only deferring to warnings about the immediate environment of the pipeline, but also the larger “green” issue that allowing the project to move forward would further cement the United State’s commitment to fossil fuels, an image that this liberal president would likely find distasteful.Let’s hope Sen. Lugar and his colleagues prevail on this issue.Read the full story here.

• New Gun Company Advertisement Compares Obama to Hitler, Stalin.(CBS).WASHINGTON, D.C. — A gun company advertisement that warns of impending gun control compares President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.The USAAmmo ad shows side-by-side pictures of Obama with Hitler, Stalin and other dictators who committed atrocities across the world. The ad, which is also accompanied by a video, warns that gun control is imminent and foreshadows that the U.S. could face millions in casualties if they are not allowed to defend themselves.USAAmmo states that “tyranny is knocking down the doors of American cities daily” and that Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and other gun control advocates “are secretly conspiring American Citizens of the right to bear arms.”Trace Williams, director of operations for USAAmmo, defended the ad that was emailed Monday. He told CBS Washington that “Obama and his various czars are infringing on the rights of Americans to own guns.”“He’s anti-gun and he’s obviously a socialist cramming health care down American’s throats,” Williams said. “That is exactly how those people in that ad rose to power.”Williams told CBS Washington that he doesn’t regret comparing Obama to those dictators and that his company has received “unbelievable support” since the ad was put out.“Just look at history. Obama’s socialist agenda is geared toward depriving American citizens of their God-given rights.” He also added that sales have gone “through the roof.”Hmmm......."Clinging to their Ammo?"Read the full story here.

• Boehner calls on Obama to help Congress alter automatic cuts.(TheHill).House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday called on President Obama to intercede in the growing push to change the automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs triggered by the congressional supercommittee’s failure to strike a deficit-reduction deal.The $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts will take effect in 2013, and Republican leaders, along with some Democrats, have said they want to change them to protect the military. Obama has threatened to veto any effort to undo the trigger, known as sequestration, although the White House is still pushing for a broad deficit pact. “I really believe that the president of the United States has a responsibility here as well,” Boehner told reporters. “He’s the commander in chief, he knows what those cuts will mean to the military and so I frankly believe the Congress still must work with the president to find a solution to our long-term debt.” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has sounded repeated warnings about the negative impact the Pentagon cuts would have on the military.The Speaker is in a difficult position when it comes to the automatic cuts. He negotiated the August agreement that put them in place, and he said last month that he felt “morally bound” to stick to the trigger, which was created as an incentive for the supercommittee to come to a deal. But with concerns mounting within his own party, he has opened the door to changing the cuts so long as the minimum of $1.2 trillion in budget savings is maintained. “No one really wants to go there,” Boehner said, referring to sequestration. He also signaled Thursday that he had not given up on a grand bargain to reduce the long-term debt. “There are a lot of members who are concerned about the defense cuts, but understand there are a lot of other cuts that would be involved in the sequester,” Boehner said when asked about Cantor’s bid. “So I understand the concern, but the president is the commander in chief. The president, I think, understands pretty clearly that these cuts do serious harm to our ability to defend our country and our allies about the world. So I believe there’s a role that he has to play in this process as well.”Republicans previously have criticized the president for a lack of involvement in the supercommittee process. Hmmm....Not going to happen he wants the US to loose it's superpower status.Read the full story here.

• The upmarket Manhattan block that grinds to a halt at prayer time... as Muslim taxi drivers illegally park outside Islamic center.(DailyMail).With a sea of yellow stretching into the distance, it looks like the taxi queue at a busy airport.But this picture was actually taken outside a Mosque during a prayer service - with 200 Muslim cabbies illegally parked.Residents of the wealthy Upper West Side of Manhattan are outraged that their streets are being taken over multiple times each day for the 45-minute service.The taxi drivers are double and triple parking in a huge line that forces traffic into the oncoming lane.The situation has flared up and on one occasion a cop telling a taxi driver to move on was swarmed by other hacks - and had to call for reinforcements.When several other police cars arrived the taxi driver was handcuffed and led away.Muslims have been parking illegally at the Islamic Cultural Centre for four years but the row has blown up because a road that connects to it that has been closed for the whole time has now reopened.Prayers take place five times a day but the busiest is on Fridays at lunchtime when up to 300 worshippers - and 200 taxi drivers - are in attendance.Most of the taxi drivers appear unrepentant with one claiming: 'I have to pray. I have no choice but to break the rules.'Cabbie Abdoulaye Diallo, a 30-year-old immigrant from Guinea, told DNA info that he had got several $75 fines for parking illegally outside the mosque but he did not care.He said: 'For me, my prayer is more important, because that's what I'm going to take with me the day I die'.Residents however are increasingly anxious that they cannot cross the road safely.'It's an accident waiting to happen, said James Beale, the resident manager at a Trump tower block that is next to the mosque.'It's a very dangerous situation. It's like all the rules of the road are thrown aside,' he told DNA info.Abdur Rahman, an assistant imam at the mosque, said it had told worshippers to respect the parking rules but they had failed to do so.But he also claimed that the parking rules should be more flexible to accommodate worshippers' needs.Hmmm....What if an emergency vehicle needs to get there?Blocking emergency crews is an criminal offence.Sec. 42.02. RIOT. (a) For the purpose of this section, "riot" means the assemblage of seven or more persons resulting in conduct which:(2) substantially obstructs law enforcement or other governmental functions or services; Read and see the full story here.

• UK - Police arrest 20 protesters 'from banned group Muslims Against Crusades' outside U.S. embassy in London.(DailyMail).More than 20 protesters were arrested outside the U.S. embassy in London today on suspicion of representing the recently-banned extremist group Muslims Against Crusades.Activists said demonstrations over the use of American drones in Pakistan had been organised by a group calling itself United Ummah.But Scotland Yard intervened this afternoon after members were linked to the banned group involved in the burning of poppies on Armistice Day last year.Muslims Against Crusades (Mac) joined the likes of Al Qaeda on a list of terrorist organisations banned in the UK after an announcement by Home Secretary Theresa May last month.The move to proscribe the group led to it cancelling its 'Hell for Heroes' demonstration against Remembrance commemorations, which was due to take place outside the Royal Albert Hall, where poppies were burned last year.A handful of protesters remain at the scene in central London this afternoon.A Scotland Yard spokesman said that in addition to the arrests surrounding the banned group, two others had been made for obstruction and violent disorder.'They are all in custody at central London police stations,' a spokesman said. 'A small number of people remain at the demonstration.'The demonstration began at noon outside the embassy which has seen a string of clashes between protesters in recent years.Read and see the full story here.

• General Motors Bailing Out Volt Owners?Did they buy back the 116 Volts from the government fleet?(Heritage).It’s been a mixed day in the world of the American auto industry. While Ford Motor posted huge sales for November — propelled by a strong demand for SUVs — General Motors has been forced to make the unusual offer of buying back cars from consumers.Tom Krisher at the Associated Press reports that GM is taking action in response to news that its highly touted electric Chevy Volts have been found to catch fire:In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government.Akerson said that if necessary, GM will recall the more than 6,000 Volts now on the road in the U.S. and repair them once the company and federal safety regulators figure out what caused the fires.“If we find that is the solution, we will retrofit every one of them,” Akerson said. “We’ll make it right.”The big problems with the Volt could spell trouble for electric cars as a whole. Jordan Weissmann at The Atlantic explains:It’s an unpleasant story for GM. But it’s also bad news for the rest of the electric car movement. The Volt is no ordinary sedan. It’s a standard bearer. When GM was seeking a bailout from Congress, it trotted out the plug-in hybrid electric Volt as proof that the company was changing its truck-obsessed ways. Since then, executives have taken to calling it GM’s “moonshot.” Fewer than 6,000 have been sold. But the company already has plans to use the Volt’s engineering on other models, such as a new Cadillac.The Volt has been something of a linchpin in the Obama Administration’s “alternative energy” drive. In the President’s stimulus bill, a hefty $7,500 tax subsidy was offered to Volt buyers, bringing down the cost of the $41,000 vehicle, all at taxpayers’ expense. And the same federal government that bailed out GM and became a part owner also became a customer, buying 116 Volts for its government fleet. The President’s Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, spelled out the vehicle’s importance to the Administration’s agenda:Diversifying our transportation fleet with hybrids, electric vehicles and other alternative-fuel vehicles is a critical element in President Obama’s long-term plan to break our dependence on foreign oil and invest in America’s growing clean energy economy.The trouble is, American consumers don’t seem to be turned on by the notion of hybrid and electric vehicles. Ford’s strong vehicle sales in November were propelled by a 43.1 percent increase in sales of Ford-brand SUVs, as well as increased sales of midsize and fullsize cars. Among the weakest performers were the fuel efficient compact Focus and subcompact Fiesta. Chrysler, too, saw an incredibly strong month of sales–its numbers were driven in large part by Jeep SUVs and the Dodge Durango SUV. And those purchases of less fuel efficient vehicles come as gas prices are still well above $3 per gallon.But for the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, the reality of consumer demand doesn’t matter. Under a new rule, automakers would be required to double current fleet-wide fuel economy by 2025. That would require a crackdown on the internal combustion engine, increased production of electric, fuel-cell, and hybrid models, dangerously lighter vehicles, and nearly $3,000 in added costs per vehicle. In other words, the EPA wants to force the auto industry to make Americans spend more money to buy vehicles that today they’re choosing not to buy.Read the full story here.

• Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri Announces That Al-Qaeda Kidnapped U.S. Citizen Warren Weinstein, Sets Demands For His Release.(CNN).Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has claimed responsibility for the capture in August of a 70-year-old U.S. citizen in Pakistan, according to a number of radical websites known for carrying militants' messages.In the eighth episode of a series called "A Message of hope and glad tidings to our people in Egypt," the speaker sent a "message of support and encouragement" to members of al Qaeda and the Taliban as well as to "our female oppressed prisoners.""We did not forget you and we will not forget you, God willing, and therefore in order to release you, we have been successful, thanks to God almighty, to capture an American Jew called Warren Weinstein," he said.He described the captive as "a former employee and a current contractor working with the U.S. government in its aid program to Pakistan, which aims to fight the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and just like the Americans arrest any suspect linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, even if they were far related."The speaker then listed eight demands that he said, if met, would result in Weinstein's release. They included the lifting of the blockade on movement of people and trade between Egypt and Gaza; an end to bombing by the United States and its allies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza; the release of anyone arrested on charges of belonging to al Qaeda and the Taliban; the release of all prisoners in Guantanamo and American secret prisons and the closure of Guantanamo and the other prisons; the release of terrorists convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; and the release of relatives of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda who was killed in May in Pakistan."Your government is torturing our prisoners, and we have never tortured your prisoner," he added. "Your government signed the Geneva Conventions, and then threw it in the rubbish bin, and even though we did not sign the Geneva Conventions, we are honoring your prisoner."The speaker said Weinstein's fate lies with U.S. President Barack Obama. "I warn you of Obama's lies and deceit because he hopes that this man gets killed so he doesn't have to worry about his problem. Obama is a liar. He lies, lies and will lie. He may say to you, 'I sought the release of your relative but al Qaeda got stubborn,' so do not believe him. And he may say to you, 'I tried to contact them, but they did not answer,' so do not believe him. He may tell you, 'I do everything in my power to release your relative,' but again do not believe him."He urged Weinstein's relatives to pressure Obama to accede to his demands "if you want to bring back your relative."A U.S. official said the circumstances surrounding Weinstein's disappearance have been murky, but added, "It's entirely possible that al Qaeda or one of its militant allies may be holding Mr. Weinstein and the statement by Zawahiri supports this conclusion."Weinstein was abducted from his home in Lahore on August 13. As his three security guards prepared for the meal before the Ramadan fast, three men knocked at the front gate and offered food for the meal -- a traditional practice among Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, Lahore police said.Read the full story here.More here.

• 'Here lies a man who wanted to destroy Israel'.(IsraelMatzav).I assume that most of you are at least somewhat familiar with the Purim story in which the villain, Haman, suffered his downfall very suddenly but with God's hand clearly behind it. Haman was a conceited individual who felt that no one could touch him - in fact, he tried to set himself up as a God. We have an early Purim story tonight.Nearly three weeks ago, Hassan Moghadam, the architect of Iran's program to shoot nuclear-armed missiles at Israel, was killed in an explosion outside Tehran. The picture at left is from his funeral (yes, that's Ayatollah Ali Khameni in front) and that's only because I could not find a picture of his tombstone, which reads as follows: “Here lies the man who wanted to destroy Israel” – Major General Hassan Moqaddam, head of the IRGC’s Self-Sufficiency and Industrial Research Center, who was killed in the explosion at an IRGC missile base made a request in his will that his headstone be inscribed as follows: Here lies the man who wanted to destroy Israel.Hmmm.....Perhaps a new trend in Iran?Read the full story here.

• Head of Syria’s main opposition says group plans to cut ties with Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah.(AlArabiya).A Syria run by the country’s main opposition group would cut ties to Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, the group’s leader told the Wall Street Journal in an article published Friday.This would remove a crucial Iranian military ally believed to play a key role in supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas, potentially leading to a dramatic reordering of regional power.The interview with Burhan Ghalioun, president of the Syrian National Council, came eight months into an increasingly violent uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with rebels seeking international support.“There will be no special relationship with Iran,” Ghalioun, a 66-year-old university professor, told the Journal in an interview at his home in Paris.“Breaking the exceptional relationship means breaking the strategic, military alliance,” he said, adding that “after the fall of the Syrian regime, (Hezbollah) won’t be the same.”He also called for more robust international support for the rebels, including the possible establishment of a no-fly zone. “Our main objective is finding mechanisms to protect civilians and stop the killing machine,” Ghalioun said.“We say it is imperative to use forceful measures to force the regime to respect human rights.”The rebels may well fail to topple the 40-year-old Assad regime established by Bashar’s father Hafez, but a reorientation of Syria away from Iran and towards the West would have major implications across the region.Ghalioun said an opposition-run Syria would be committed to recovering the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 war, but would pursue its return through negotiations rather than armed conflict.He also said it would work to normalize relations with neighboring Lebanon after decades of tense relations.Hmmmm.....Oooooh look a herd of Unicorns.Read the full story here.

• US Senate OK's sanctions on Iran central bank.(YNet).WASHINGTON – The US Senate unanimously approved tougher sanctions against Iran on Thursday, voting to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, the main conduit for its oil revenues. The Senate acted despite warnings from Obama administration officials who said threatening US allies might not be the best way to get their cooperation in action against Iran.Administration officials said they were indeed looking to sanction Iran's central bank, but in a calibrated manner, to avoid roiling oil markets or antagonizing allies. The United States already bars its own banks from dealing with the Iranian central bank, so US sanctions would operate by dissuading other foreign banks from doing so by threatening to cut them off from the US financial system.The Senate voted 100-0 for an amendment sponsored by Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, and Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican, that would allow the US president to sanction foreign banks found to have carried out a "significant financial transaction with the Central Bank of Iran." "We seek to break the stable financial intermediary in between Iranian oil contracts and the outside world, so that it will just be easier to buy oil from elsewhere," Kirk said in debate this week.On Nov. 21, the United States, Britain and Canada announced new sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors, but the Obama administration stopped short of targeting Iran's central bank, a step that US officials said could send oil prices skyrocketing and jeopardized global economic recovery."The Obama administration strongly supports increasing the pressure on Iran, and that includes properly designed and targeted sanctions against the central bank of Iran, appropriately timed as part of a carefully phased and sustainable policy toward bringing about Iranian compliance with its obligations," US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier on Thursday, several hours before the Senate vote. While the Obama administration steps carefully, some countries in Europe are seeking to push forward a Europe-wide boycott of Iranian crude imports. EU foreign ministers in Brussels failed on Thursday to move forward with a plan backed by France and Britain to ban shipments, but agreed to examine expanding sanctions.In a statement following the meeting, US Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns noted: "Iran’s continued noncompliance with its international obligations related to its nuclear program, as well as its continued support for terrorist organizations, are of grave concern to our two countries and the entire international community."Continued efforts by the international community are critical to bringing about change in Iranian behavior and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability," the statement read.Read the full story here.

• Jewish cemetery in Kosovo capital desecrated.(YNet).Police in Kosovo are investigating who sprayed swastikas on dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery recently restored by American and Kosovan students, a spokesman said Thursday.Brahim Sadrija said police had sealed off the cemetery in the capital, Kosovo, and are looking for clues. The vandalism is believed to have happened Tuesday.Sadrija said he could not disclose more details pending the ongoing investigation.In June, a group of students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and their peers from the American University in Kosovo restored the neglected cemetery by clearing debris from around the graves and cutting overgrown grass.Rabbi Edward S. Boraz of the college's Roth Center for Jewish Life held a dedication ceremony at the memorial site, with students taking turns to read out the names of Jewish families from the region who perished during World War II. On Thursday the hate graffiti "Jud Raus" - a misspelling of the German "Juden Raus," which means "Jews out" - could still be seen at the foot of a memorial.President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci condemned the act."The damaging of cemeteries presents an act in complete contradiction with the traditions and values of the people of Kosovo, based on tolerance and full respect for all the dead and all the monuments," Jahjaga said in a statement.Thaci described the desecration as "a cowardly act."The condemnations follow that of US Ambassador to Kosovo, Christopher Dell, who urged authorities to find out who committed the vandalism."The hateful act was an offense not only against the families of persons buried there and of the Jewish community in Kosovo and beyond, but also an offense against Kosovo's multiethnic state and society," Dell said in a statement."The act is one of contempt for the most basic norms of tolerance, coexistence, and respect, and cannot be tolerated."Some 300 Kosovo Jews died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany during World War II. After the war, Kosovo's small Jewish community dwindled. The few that remained left for Israel and Serbia during and after the 1998-99 Kosovo war.In a statement sent to The Associated Press an American Jewish group branded the desecration of the cemetery as "a heinous act.""Holocaust survivors are shocked to learn that a sacred resting place of our martyrs has been profaned by vandals using graphic symbols of Nazi hate," Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants said.Kosovo, a former Serbian province, seceded from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade has vowed never to accept the independence of the majority ethnic Albanian territory.Kosovo is overwhelmingly Muslim, but has a Roman Catholic minority.Read the full story here.

• Afghan gunmen poured acid on faces of three sisters and their parents... because eldest 'didn't want to marry ageing warlord'.(DailyMail).Afghan gunmen burst into a family home - where they poured acid over the father, his wife and their three daughters - because they stopped their eldest from marrying an ageing warlord.They carried out the brutal midnight attack on Tuesday to scar the girls, in the belief that no-one will now want to marry them.Officials said the oldest daughter Mumtaz, 18, had been pursued by a local gunman who the family considered a 'troublemaker' and a 'bully'.With her parents support, she turned him down and instead got engaged to a relative.But, a few weeks later, six or seven armed men burst into their home in the Bulk Awal area of the northern Kunduz city - the largest in the region - in the middle of the night.One man beat up the girl's parents with a club. Mumtaz and her two sisters, aged 14 and 13, were guarded by two other men and told not to make a sound while their parents were beaten. It is unclear whether they were sexually abused. The men then poured acid on the mother's hands, before spraying all three girls liberally with the corrosive chemical. 'First they beat her father and then they attacked with acid,' said Mumtaz's mother, who asked not to be identified. All five are now receiving medical treatment, said Abdul Shokor Rahimi, head of the Kunduz regional hospital.Rahimi said: 'The father and oldest daughter are in critical condition as they have been attacked all over the body. Their mother and two daughters who are 14 and 13 have some wounds only in hands and faces.Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, the senior police detective for Kunduz, promised to track down the attackers, who he called immoral and irresponsible. He said: 'We have started an investigation and those who have attacked them will be prosecuted.Nadira Geya, the provincial head of women's affairs, added: 'They wanted to prevent the wedding. They threw acid into the girl's face so that no one else would marry her. The 18-year-old was badly hurt. They threw acid on her face, on her hands, her body and her feet. 'Her body is 40 per cent burns. She is in a bad condition in hospital.' She added that the 14-year-old's face is completely burnt and the youngest child's face is half-burnt. The family also has a son, but he was not at the house during the attack and is unharmed.The Afghan Ministry of Interior said it was treating the attack with 'utmost seriousness' and had already arrested one suspect.A spokesman said: 'We have arrested one person so far and we have identified two other suspects. If convicted, they will face the highest possible sentence.'Acid is used intermittently as a weapon in Afghanistan, but not always against women. In the conservative, and Taliban influenced south and east, it has been thrown at girls attending schools.With foreign combat troops set to return home by the end of 2014, some activists inside and outside Afghanistan fear that women's rights may be sacrificed in the scramble to ensure the West leaves behind a relatively stable state.Hmmm.....Instead of speaking up against this cruelty just Keep singing with Kermit.Read the full story here.

• "Lord have mercy" - Saudis fear there will be ‘no more virgins’ and people will turn gay if female drive ban is lifted.(DailyMail).Repealing a ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia would result in ‘no more virgins’, the country’s religious council has warned.A ‘scientific’ report claims relaxing the ban would also see more Saudis - both men and women - turn to homosexuality and pornography.The startling conclusions were drawn by Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University.Their report assessed the possible impact of repealing the ban in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed behind the wheel.It was delivered to all 150 members of the Shura Council, the country’s legislative body.The report warns that allowing women to drive would ‘provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce’.Within ten years of the ban being lifted, the report’s authors claim, there would be ‘no more virgins’ in the Islamic kingdom.And it pointed out ‘moral decline’ could already be seen in other Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive.In the report Professor Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state. ‘All the women were looking at me,’ he wrote. ‘One made a gesture that made it clear she was available... this is what happens when women are allowed to drive.’The astonishing report comes after Shaima Jastaniya, a 34-year-old Saudi woman, was sentenced to 10 lashes with a whip after being caught driving in Jeddah.There has been strong protest in the country about the sentence - and about the law generally. But resistance to reform and change remains strong among conservative royals and clerics.Hmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Thousands of Muslims Attack Christians in Egypt, 2 Killed, Homes and Stores Torched.(Aina).By Mary Abdelmassih.Thousands of Muslims attacked and besieged Copts in elGhorayzat village, population 80,000, killing two Copts and severely wounding others, as well as looting and torching homes and businesses. A quarrel between a Copt, John Hosni, and Mahmoud Abdel-Nazeer, who later died in hospital, turned into collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village of elGhorayzat, in the Maragha district of Sohag province. Muslims vowed not to bury Abdel-Nazeer until John Hosni is punished. Mr. Hosni fled from the village with his family, "fearing a wholesale massacre of Copts," reported activist Mariam Ragy.The events started on Monday, November 28, when John Hosni, a building supplier, had a quarrel with his neighbor, Mahmoud Abdel-Nazeer (48), over some steel rods and cement Mr. Hosni had left in the street to use for erecting a wall around his house. This was perceived by Mr. Abdel-Nazeer as extending the home into the street, which is public property. "Instead of reporting this building transgression to the police or local authorities, Abdel-Nazeer took the matter in his own hands and brought some Salafists and torched the store and the home of the Copt," said an eyewitness.In the altercation between the neighbors, Mr. Hosni hit Abdel-Nazeer in the head with a wooden branch, which lead to his death later in hospital.Angry Muslims murdered two Christian brothers, Kamel Tamer Ibrahim (55) and Kameel Tamer Ibrahim (50), in revenge. The brothers were not a party to the altercation. Kamel Tamer, who was defending his shop from looting, was murdered in front of his wife. His brother was also murdered in front of his wife for defending his home (video of the murdered Copts. WARNING: contains highly graphic content).Three other Christians, Maher Samir Gota, his wife, and his brother Osama Samir Gota, were severely injured and are in intensive care. They were in their homes when their shop was broken into and looted by Muslims. Maher and his wife were stabbed and Osama received a blow on the head. The ambulance could not go to them to transport them to hospital. He was privately transported by his friends. There were reports of Muslims preventing the fire brigades from reaching the burning homes.After killing the Copts, Muslims went on a rampage, looting and burning Christian owned homes and businesses.Despite killing the two Coptic brothers the Muslims insist they have not yet avenged Abdel-Nazeer's death."This is not revenge; this is simply an excuse to kill people because they are Christians, as well as loot their property," said an eyewitness."Security was present in all the streets, and protected the churches, but they did nothing in the face of Muslims killings, looting and torching of Christian property,", said another eyewitness, who managed to get out of the village "by a miracle," as he put it, leaving all his belongings and money behind. "We do not know whether we will be able to go back to the village as the Muslims refuse to bury the dead Muslim before killing all Copts in the village."He added that Muslims are openly walking the streets carrying firearms and clubs while the police standby and do nothing. The number of police is not enough, there are 500 Muslims for every one policeman.Copts have been prevented from fleeing the village by Muslims, who have imposed a blockade. Some were able to flee with the aid of some Muslims, who drove them out in a truck, telling the guards at the exit point these people have nothing to do with the ongoing problem.Christian inhabitants are still afraid to venture into the streets.Father Lucas Aghapios, pastor of St. George's Church in alGhorayzat, described the situation in the village today as "cautioned" peace. He said that although the Muslim attack started at 11 AM, security forces turned up late in the evening, and Muslim transgressions occurred in the presence of the security forces. Father Lucas said that yesterday Muslim attacks resulted in 25 incidents of looting and torching of Christian-owned shops, in addition to 8 homes. He confirmed the eyewitness accounts of the events, but could not confirm that John Hosni had surrendered to the police. "Yesterday John Hosni was in a safe place, but he is not in the village, I do not know his whereabouts." He does not know whether any Muslims were arrested in connection with the slaughtering of the two Coptic brothers.A funeral for Abdel-Nazeer was held on Tuesday.Bishop Bachoum of Sohag said this evening on CTV Coptic Channel that funerals for the two Copts were held in Sohag and they were buried in their village of elGhorayzat, under heavy security. He said that efforts are under way for a "reconciliation" meeting between Muslim and Christians elders.Commenting on the elGhorayzat events, Dr. Fawzi Hermina, a Coptic activist who lives in Sohag, said that Copts are living in a state of Statelessness -- with no state, no security and no law. "Unfortunately the Copts, being the weak party in society, are paying the price.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

   Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Russia 5.5 ; Vanuatu 5.3 and New Zealand 5.1 ! More info here.

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

• Obamacare Has No CLASS: Administration Admits Entitlement Program Unsustainable.(BigGovernment).The Obama administration has admitted that it cannot move forward with a major feature of Obamacare, its long-term care insurance program, due to the fact that it contains a critical design flaw.The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, known as CLASS, a pet program of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D- Massachusetts), was to have been sponsored by the federal government but maintained as a voluntary plan to which healthy, younger, working Americans would contribute in the event they became disabled later on in life. Participants would have paid a monthly premium that ranged widely between $235-$3000, depending on income, during their employment years, and then collected a daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled.The tragic flaw in the plan is that unless large numbers of healthy people are willing to sign up for the program during their working years, the cost of the program would become prohibitive due to the needs of the disabled who would benefit from the plan. Unlike the purchase of long term care insurance in the private sector, CLASS did not offer lower premiums to healthier participants. Thus, the program attracted those who were already disabled in some way, yet able to work to some extent, and who anticipated the need for long term care in the future. Without healthy subscribers paying into the system, these individuals would not likely be able to afford the steep premiums.Not surprisingly, if the program had survived, it would have ultimately been “too big to fail” and required a tax bailout. Congressional Republicans intend to repeal CLASS, which, according to the Heritage Foundation was “poorly designed, and actuaries criticized it as being unsustainable well before the passage of Obamacare.”Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, who had argued for some time that the flaw in the program could be fixed, announced on Friday that the plan could not, in fact, be saved–a situation that was met by significant protest on the part of liberal seniors’ lobby, AARP, and union leaders. Supporters of CLASS wrote a letter to President Obama, urging him to use his “authority,” provided to him under his signature legislation, to “make necessary changes to the design of CLASS to make it work. We fully expect the administration to go forward and use that authority in implementing the law.”It is almost incredible that the Obama administration entertained the notion that CLASS would actually work. In fact, it is questionable whether the White House ever expected it to survive or if it just threw the program into Obamacare as a bone to its base, never intending to make it viable. In essence, CLASS was really an entitlement within an entitlement, another entire Social Security program built into a government health insurance plan.Of course, when AARP and the unions wrote the president, asking him to use his “authority” to make CLASS work, we can be assured that what they were urging is for the program to become mandatory rather than voluntary.All of Obamacare must be repealed, but the fact that its authors now admit CLASS is unsustainable is a major victory for taxpayers and freedom lovers alike.Read the full story here.

• Most transparant Administration Evah!Obama administration appeals ruling on White House visitor logs.(Politico).The Obama administration is appealing a judge's ruling that Secret Service records of visitors to the White House complex are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.The Justice Department filed a formal notice of appeal Friday afternoon regarding U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell's August ruling rejecting arguments that the so-called WAVES records belong to the White House even though they are maintained and used by the Secret Service.The decision to appeal the ruling to the D.C. Circuit would appear to be in tension with Obama's repeated pledges to operate the most transparent administration in history. The White House announced in Sept. 2009 that it was voluntarily releasing the names of most White House visitors from Sept. 15 forward. However, the conservative group Judicial Watch sought information on visits before that date.The position taken by the Obama Justice Department, namely that White House visitor records are presidential records and not agency records, is essentially the same one that the department took under President George W. Bush.Howell did not rule that every White House visit had to be disclosed. However, she concluded that all the data had to be made public unless the government asserted a specific exemption from FOIA, such as provisions protecting national security and privacy.There was no immediate comment on the appeal from the White House or the Justice Department.Read the full story here.

• Holder Knew About Fast and Furious, Before He Didn’t Know About It.(BigGovernment).On March 24, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden made the following announcement: “The President has directed us to take action to fight [Mexican] cartels…and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan.”Note: From the moment this announcement begins, “the President” and “Attorney General Holder” are both involved in some capacity.The announcement continued by saying the DEA was going to increase its presence in Mexico and on the border, and that the ATF was using $10 million from the stimulus funds to add “37 new employees and 3 new offices” and “redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days, to fortify its project gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico.”Of course, this dovetails perfectly with Holder’s speech in Mexico on April 2, 2009, where he literally referred back to Ogden’s announcement in describing the focus on the southern border and project gunrunner:

Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail. (emphasis mine)To date, Holder & Co. have dodged questions on these speeches and announcements by saying Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious were two different things. Thus, his knowledge of one doesn’t necessitate knowledge of the other. Of course this isn’t plausible, because Gunrunner and Fast & Furious were both parts of the same overarching “comprehensive plan.” They were two sides of the same coin.(In fact, to say you knew about one without knowing about the other would be like a football coach saying, “I have knowledge of the plays we run on first and ten, but not on third and long.” Such an excuse won’t work because first down plays and third down plays are part of an overarching game plan that the coaches win or lose by together.The attempt to split the two up, and thereby construct some some wall of ignorance that protects Holder from knowing about Fast and Furious, is exactly what’s making it so hard for the AG and Obama to keep their stories straight.Thus, while Holder claims he only learned of Fast and Furious in the “few weeks” prior to May 3^rd, in March 2011 Obama made a statement which at least alluded to a conversation about Fast and Furious and gun walking he’d had with Holder, whom Obama said “has been very clear that he knew nothing about this.”Folks, there are serious problems here.

Number one, Holder had to know about Fast and Furious – he had to at least have been told about it – in order to deny involvement in it before Obama made his statement in March 2011.

Problem number two, Holder’s reason for distancing himself from Fast and Furious was the gun walking aspect of it. But we’ve all read Ogden’s announcement and Holders’ speech, where both men mention Gunrunner as part of the overarching comprehensive plan.

The bottom line: Holder knew about Fast and Furious before he didn’t know about it. And he bragged about the gun walking plan on April 2, 2009.The lies surrounding this operation are so blatant, so bald, that even writing on the story can be infuriating.Hmmmm........The proverbial writing is not on the wall..... it's a gunrack attached to the wall.Read the full story here.

• Why Is The FBI Recording Talk Radio?(PrisonPlanet).The Department of Homeland Security has specifically listed “rightwing extremist activity” as a potential threat that needs to be monitored.

- If you call in to the Alex Jones Show or hundreds of other talk radio stations around the country that maintain a web presence, there is a good chance the FBI will recorded you.Mark Weaver, writing for WMAL talk radio in Washington, D.C., reports that the FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record all the internet broadcast talk radio it can find.“This doesn’t give us any enhanced capability, prying into or any ‘big brother’ concerns because this is information that’s being put out on the airwaves,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told WMAL.com. “Its very important to our investigators to know what’s being reported.”In order to make his point, Bresson cited the Times Square non-bomber. “It’s ideal for cases like that because we can extract information that’s already been reported and help our investigators make better decisions."If you believe this explanation, I have a bridge to sell you.The FBI has functioned since its inception as a national political police force used by the establishment to monitor and if need be “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” (according to the late J. Edgar Hoover) political organizations and individuals deemed a threat to the establishment.Talk radio – especially “right-wing” talk radio – poses just such a threat.The Department of Homeland Security has specifically listed “rightwing extremist activity” as a potential threat that needs to be monitored.In 2009, the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) released an internal report listing then presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and advised police to be on the lookout for their supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.Recording talk radio has nothing to do with news reports about the supposed Times Square bomber – who was, after all, under surveillance by the FBI at the time he supposedly drove a car filled with fireworks and barbeque grill gas canisters into Times Square – but instead it is designed as yet another effort to monitor the political opposition and (by telling the media about it) as a way to intimidate and make you paranoid when you call into talk radio shows.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Obama has placed more calls to Erdoğan than to any other world leader this year.(TodaysZaman).International relations experts agree the United States and Turkey’s well-established alliance and Turkey’s ascent in the international arena explain why President Barack Obama has chatted with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan more than almost any other world leader despite fissures in a number of policy areas and differences between the two leaders’ governing styles.The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Obama has placed more calls to Erdoğan than to any other world leader this year next to British Prime Minister David Cameron.“It is remarkable to hear how often they speak,” former New York Times bureau chief in İstanbul Stephen Kinzer told Sunday’s Zaman in an exclusive interview. “I think that it’s due above all not to a personal relationship between the two but to Obama’s realization of the role that Turkey has come to play in the region and in the wider world. He understands what Turkey has become, and I think he understands Turkey’s potential to project into other Muslim countries ideals the West would like to see projected but cannot do itself,” Kinzer explained.David L. Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, called Erdoğan and Obama’s governing styles “diametrically opposite.”“Obama is a consensus-builder, while Erdoğan is emotional and able to act singularly based on conditions,” Phillips, who is also a fellow at Harvard University’s Project on the Future of Diplomacy, said in remarks to Sunday’s Zaman.Kinzer agreed, arguing that the two leaders often get themselves in a bind because of their temperaments: “Erdoğan is decisive to the point of arrogance, while Obama is weak to the point of appeasement and eternal compromise.” While Obama is understated to the point that it outrages many of his supporters, Erdoğan’s prickly sense of honor and feisty temper have presented problems both at home and in international affairs, Kinzer argued.But Sunday’s Zaman Washington correspondent Ali H. Aslan and former adviser to the prime minister İbrahim Kalın argued that Erdoğan and Obama are more similar than some may think.Dr. Joshua Walker, assistant professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond and currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University, described the two leaders’ steady alliance. “Obama and Erdoğan are very different leaders with differing approaches and styles, yet they have been able to develop a crucial relationship built on pragmatism and trust.”One such road bump in the two countries’ relations has been the row between Israel and Turkey that began last year when Israel attacked a Turkish ship that was part of an international humanitarian aid flotilla. During Erdoğan’s Arab Spring tour, he blasted Israel and called for Palestine’s full membership as a UN member.Phillips argues that the conflict between its two allies has been particularly trying the US government’s patience. “There is nothing wrong with Erdoğan’s championing the Palestinian cause, but it is not necessary to go out of his way when he wants to pick a fight with Israel. This confrontational approach puts the US in an awkward position with two important allies and runs the risk of an incident that could spiral out of control.”But according to Aslan, Obama is not exactly happy with Israel, either. “They [the Obama administration] have continuously encouraged Israel to fulfill Turkey’s conditions, but they have not been able to convince the [Israeli] administration. Obama has had a hard time working with the current Israeli leadership,” he said.Obama’s frequently logged calls to Erdoğan, whom Kinzer jokingly referred to as “Obama’s second best friend,” have not gone unnoticed by the US leader’s opposition, Kinzer remarked. Plus, while foreign policy does not tend to play a major role in US elections, the former NYT İstanbul bureau chief said Israel is one issue that always seems to pop up. “I suspect that among all of the accusations Obama’s opposition will throw at him will be the accusation that he is friendly with a country and a leader who is not a cheerleader for Israel,” Kinzer speculated.But Aslan disagreed, arguing that Turkey is not usually a major issue in elections. “We just had the Republican debate, and there was not much reference to Turkey. Some may criticize Obama in the coming months for his relationship with Turkey while it is fighting with Israel, but everything depends on future developments,” he said.While Dr. Walker, who is also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, called the US-Turkish relationship far more complicated than just between two leaders, he added that Erdoğan and Obama have brought the two countries as close as they can. “They have a similar understanding of the world and a flexible pragmatism that guides their policies and relationships.Hmmmm....."The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers".Both share the same love for Israel.Read the full story here.

• Turkey won't recognize Greek Cyprus as EU presidency.(TodaysZaman).Turkey's prime minister says his country will not sit at the table with Greek Cyprus if it assumes the European Union's presidency before a deal reunifying the ethnically split island is reached.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has already warned that Turkey will freeze its relations with the 27-nation bloc if Greek Cyprus takes over its rotating presidency in July 2012. He said that Turkey will not deal with a "so-called country." Turkey does not recognize the divided island nation as a sovereign nation. Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek-speaking south and Turkish-speaking north in 1974 when Turkey intervened after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only the Greek section is part of the EU. Erdoğan spoke Saturday during a televised address to members of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the town of Kızılcahamam, near the Turkish capital of Ankara. He reiterated Turkey's wish that a unified Greek Cyprus takes over the EU presidency.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.
  
• Obama admin wants to see Turkey as member of EU.(NewsAZ).A Spokesperson for the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, said on Friday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu discussed Iran during phone conversation.Nuland told a daily press briefing that Clinton informed Davutoglu on an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir during the conversation.Replying to a question on the European Commission's progress report on Turkey, Nuland said that the United States has been supporting Turkey's eagerness to join the EU. The United States wanted to see Turkey as a member of the EU, Nuland said.Clinton also said that she would attend a meeting of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations in Washington at end of this month, but Davutoglu told her that he could not attend this meeting due to his schedule and a conference on Afghanistan that would take place in Istanbul at the beginning of November.Davutoglu told Clinton that he hoped to meet with her during the conference in Istanbul.Meanwhile, Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj also called Davutoglu on the phone and the two ministers discussed the latest developments in Balkans.Hmmmmm.........Read the full story here.

• Germany prevents Turkey to sell T-155 artillery system to Azerbaijan.(NewsAZ).Despite the obstacles created by some European companies, Turkey insists on selling T-155 Fırtına self-propelled howitzer to Azerbaijan.The statement came from Turkey’s Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar said.Though Azerbaijan and Turkey reached an agreement on purchase and sale of Firtina self-propelled howitzer, according to the reports there are some technical problems in the project. Germany’s MTU company, which is providing Firtina with engine, refused to provide with engine the self-propelled howitzer that will be sold to Azerbaijan. Yonca-Onuk company, which is going to sell boats to Azerbaijan, has faced similar problem.“As a brotherly country we have assumed the solution of this problem,” Bayar said.According to Murad Bayar, Turkey is considering two new variants on export of weapons to Azerbaijan. One of them is the purchase of engine from another country.“Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation is considering alternative variants. The second variant is the production of engine in Turkey. We have started work for the production of engines in Turkey. It will take approximately four or five years. There will be no problems after that,” he said.Bayar also added that T-155 “Firtina” system was a very strong weapon. Azerbaijan will gain the additional power by including it to the weapon inventory. The Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation’s (MKEK) CEO Unal Onsipahioglu said that the problem was on the eve of its settlement: “The engine and transmission problems of the artillery system have been solved and the alternative company was found”.Germany’s MTU Company which provided “Firtina” with engine, refused to give an engine to Azerbaijan because of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.Hmmmm.....All Turkish moves with Obama approval?Read the full story here.

• Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap deal may be delayed.(RaiNovosti).Israel and Palestine have failed so far to agree on the date of swapping Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, told the Voice of Palestine on Sunday.Hamas leaders announced on Friday that a deal between Israel and Hamas on the exchange of over 1,000 jailed Palestinians for Israeli soldier Shalit would begin on Tuesday.Hamad, who is a deputy foreign minister in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas and who played a key role in reaching the prisoner swap deal, said no agreement had been reached so far on the number of Palestinian women to be released from Israeli prisons and the number of Palestinian prisoners to be deported.According to the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners’ Affairs, there are 37 Palestinian women kept in Israeli prisoners and Palestinians are demanding that all of them be released while Israel is ready to free only 27 of them.Hamad said that indirect talks sponsored by Egypt would be held in Cairo on Sunday to try to resolve disagreements.Shalit, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was captured in June 2006, aged 19, by Palestinian militants in a raid near the Gaza Strip.Read the full story here.

• Debka: Leon Panetta Brokered Shalit Deal.(Matzav).Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reported to the hastily convened full government session Monday night, Oct. 11 that the deal with Hamas for bringing Gilad Shalit home within days was initialed Thursday and signed Monday, Oct. 11. It was the best possible, he said although the agreed price for the swap is heavy: one thousand jailed Palestinian terrorists, including 60 convicted on multiple murders, who will be exiled to the Gaza Strip and Arab countries.DEBKAfile discloses that secret clauses of the transaction for recovering the Israel soldier, whom Hamas kept hidden for five years, were finalized between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Hamas during US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visits to Israel and Egypt on Sept. 3-4. Those clauses, negotiated directly between Panetta and Hamas’ political chief Khaled Meshaal, entailed the shutting down of Hamas headquarters in Damascus in order to undercut Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran and Hizballah and loosen their hold on the Palestinians. Meshaal who visited Tehran a week ago agreed to gradually downgrade his ties with Iran in return for American patronage of Hamas.Netanyahu told the Israeli ministers that he had faced a tough dilemma between rescuing the Israeli soldier and national security and a balance was hard to strike. But his commitment to saving Gilad Shalit was absolute. The “window of opportunity” presented now may never recur, he warned, given the turbulence besetting the Middle East. He therefore asked the ministers for their unanimous endorsement of the swap.During the cabinet meeting, three ministers, Silvan Shalom, Moshe Yaalon and Avigdor Lieberman, voiced reservations in view of the high risk of setting so many terrorists loose.That window, DEBKAfile reports, was the deal the Obama administration had reached with Hamas leaders and their parent, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s rift with Tehran.The Prime Minister thanked the Egyptian government and intelligence agencies for their great contribution toward brokering the deal. He also voiced appreciation for the efforts of the German mediator and Chancellor Angela Merkel who gave the process her wholehearted support.Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in a cross-border raid from Gaza five years ago, and held without any visitors including the Red Cross every since, will first be transferred from Gaza to Cairo to await Israel’s release of the first batch of 450 Palestinian prisoners.The remaining 550 prisoners will be freed after the soldier arrives home. This is the heaviest price Israel has ever paid for any soldiers in Arab captivity.As to the backdoor diplomacy leading to Gilad Shalit’s release, DEBKAfile further discloses that recognizing the rising electoral strength of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Salafi allies in Egypt’s forthcoming parliamentary elections next month, the Obama administration entered into active dialogue with its leaders to draw them away from Tehran and bring them close to the ruling military junta and Washington.Shortly before Panetta arrived in the Middle East, a US diplomat revealed that US officials had arrived in Cairo on Oct. 2 for talks with Brotherhood representatives. The American side was headed by Prem. G. Kumar, the National Security Council Director for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs at the White House.This was the first clue that the White House was after a deal not only with the Brotherhood but also its Palestinian offshoot Hamas, part of which was to be the release of the Israeli soldier. Two days later, on Oct. 4, the US Defense Secretary arrived to seal the accord while in another part of Cairo, the Israeli prime minister’s personal representative David Meidan and the commander of Hamas’ military wing, Ezz a-din al Qassam, Mohammed Jabry, hammered out the minutiae of the prisoner exchange for Shalit’s release.Netanyahu referred to the heavy price Israel was paying in terms of security by letting a thousand terrorists walk free - scores much Israeli blood on their hands. But he also paid a heavy political price: Israel’s acceptance of the United States’ rapprochement with the Egyptian Muslim brothers - henceforth dubbed in Obama administration parlance a “moderate Muslim force.”.  Israel can only hope that this gamble pays off. By procuring the release of 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails, Hamas has outperformed is rival, the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as the lead champion of the Palestinian cause. After defying the Obama administration by applying for UN recognition for Palestinian statehood, Abbas is now getting his punishment.Read the full story here.

• U.S. considers sanctions on Iran's central bank.(LATimes).The Obama administration said it was "actively" considering sanctioning Iran's central bank in retaliation for an alleged Iranian assassination plot, a move that could severely damage Iran's economy and potentially provoke a strong response from Tehran.David Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the Senate Banking Committee that officials were "looking very actively" at such a step and might carry it out if other nations could be persuaded to follow suit.The blacklisting is the first specific step the administration has identified as a possible response to the alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's envoy to the United States and to attack embassies in the U.S. and Argentina.Such sanctions would aim to isolate the Bank Markazi, or central bank, from the world economic system by barring any firm that deals with it from doing business with U.S. financial institutions. That would make it far more difficult for Iran to sell crude oil, which funds much of the government's activities.Some Iranian officials have warned that they would look on such a move as an act of war.The sanctions would probably be effective, however, only if other world powers joined in. And the administration would have to overcome arguments that the action would harm ordinary Iranians and damage the oil markets.Cohen, who is in charge of U.S. sanctions on Iran, told the committee that if other countries joined in the blacklisting, it "could further isolate the central bank of Iran, with a potentially powerful impact on Iran."Mark Dubowitz, a specialist on sanctions at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said a so-called designation of the bank would not halt all of Iran's crude oil sales, but it would sharply raise the cost of such transactions and thus "drain the Iranian treasury." He said Iran, the third-largest OPEC oil exporter, is a "one-crop country" that derives 50% to 75% of its government revenue from crude oil. Congress last year slapped sanctions on Iranian banks involved in the energy sector to bar them from contact with the U.S. financial system. But U.S. officials say these banks have continued to conduct oil business because the central bank has secretly carried out the transactions on their behalf.In his testimony, Cohen said U.S. officials were also considering another proposal many lawmakers favor: halting all sales of oil products made from Iranian crude to the U.S. market. Americans use gasoline that is refined from Iranian crude by international oil companies, which then distribute it in the United States. Cohen said Treasury economists were studying that proposal to evaluate its effect on oil markets.Hmmmmm......It's 'effect'?Iran is chairman for  OPEC...what effect do you geniuses think it will have?Lower the price a barrel of crude?Sigh.......coming from the same 'geniuses' who predicted last year $80/Barrel oil for 2011.Read the full story here.

• Coptic Church Construction And Egyptian Muslim ‘Emasculation’.(BigPeace).Because it was excerpted in Bat Ye’or’s pioneering The Dhimmi, I obtained Moshe Perlmann’s (1975) complete translation of a 1739 essay on the Churches of Cairo. Written by Sheikh Damanhuri (1689-1764), a highly esteemed leader of Al Azhar University, the pinnacle of learning in Sunni Islamdom, since 973 A.D., the learned jurist’s tract was a reply to a query in that year when, “…the dhimmis began the construction of a church in Cairo…causing great agitation among Muslims.” The good sheikh notes,

When I learned of the rise of this deplorable affair, and that in this community no longer is the prophetic injunction heeded to deter the infidels, the enemies of the faith, from their goal, I began to write the answer…by explaining the right path

Sheikh Damanhuri entitled his reply—in accord with the conclusion of his learned, Islamically-correct argument, “The presentation of the clear proof for the obligatory destruction of the churches of Old and New Cairo.”

Damanhuri states explicity (on p. 20) that areas “demarcated and settled by Muslims,” including Cairo, Kufa, Basra, Baghdad, Wasit, as well as “any village that was taken by force,” and not returned by a Muslim Caliph to those vanquished and dispossessed,

These are Muslim cities in which the protected people may not display any of their religious symbols, for example, erect churches, bring out wine or pork, or sound the clapper (calling to the church, a counterpart of bells). No new synagogue, church, monk’s cell, prayer assembly of theirs is allowed in these cities, by the consensus of the doctors [of Islamic law]. It has been mentioned above that our city, Cairo, is an Islamic town, started after the conquest of Egypt, under the reign of the Fatimids. Therefore, no church, synagogue, and the rest, may be erected in it.

But what Bat Ye’or excerpted in The Dhimmi that is truly fascinating—pathognomonic as we say in medicine—is how this learned Muslim jurist, in conformity with the prevailing orthodoxy, viewed Church construction by Christians as a form of Muslim emasculation! From (p. 21) of Perlmann’s 1975 translation of Damanhuri’s tract:

The Prophet, peace and blessing upon him, said: “No emasculation [khisa] and no church in Islam.” The word “emasculation,” khisa follows the fial, as the verbal noun of khsy, “to emasculate.” The relation between “emasculation” and “church” is that the erection of a church in Muslim territory denotes the elimination of manliness in the people of the territory, just as emasculation, in reality, is the elimination of virility in an animal. Though the sense of the word in our context is withdrawal from women by attachment to churches. The connection is evident. By “no church” the Prophet meant no construction thereof, a prohibition, that is, that no church in Islamic territory signifies the elimination of virility in the people of that territory, which is not permissible, even as the elimination of man’s virility by castration is not.

I would maintain this perverse, ugly sentiment of perceived “emasculation” remains amongst Egyptian Muslims and accounts for their lethal mass violence directed at The Copts for simply, and peaceably, exercising what modern human beings regard as a basic freedom—freedom of worship.Read the full story here.