Korans meant to be 'Burned' but, Put in Garbage by Saudi Embassy in Morocco Cause Fury.

Korans meant to be 'Burned' but, Put in Garbage by Saudi Embassy in Morocco Cause Fury. (IFPnews).

Some rather strange photos were circulated on Moroccan social media this week. Piles of books, carefully bound in a range of rich colours, lying sadly in the middle of a wasteland, Al Bawaba reported, as covered by Press TV.

Damningly they were copies of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. They were snapped next to a garbage dump causing outrage across Morocco, according to a report by HuffPost Arabi.

According to Islamic hadiths (sayings from the prophet of Islam, Muhammad), the Quran should be treated with the utmost respect when being stored or handled. Aside from being treated with such care, it should not be made dirty.


The source of the abandoned holy texts, it has appeared, is even more shocking. The Qurans came from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Rabat, says HuffPost Arabi.

The story was reported in various other Arabic-language news sites as well.

In light of the outcry, however, the Kingdom’s representative has issued an explanation for its mistreatment of religious books.

According to the Saudi website Ajel, the books were being kept in the basement of the embassy where they were exposed to rain.

Officials said they instructed workers to carry the books to outside to burn them in a safe place, but their requests were ignored by employees who allegedly dumped the books on the floor.  Hmmm.....just imagine if a Non Muslim did something of the kind.

Morocco - Important Islamic state cell dismantled, 52 terrorists were arrested.

Morocco - Important Islamic state cell dismantled, 52 terrorists were arrested. (Aawsat).

Morocco said on Wednesday that it had arrested 52 suspected militants inspired by ISIS and that it had foiled several attacks in the North African country by seizing arms and bomb-making materials.

It is the largest group arrested in years and the latest of a series of cells that the authorities say they have found plotting attacks inside and outside Morocco.

The North African kingdom, an ally of the West against militancy, has been on high alert since 2014, when ISIS took control of large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria.

The 52 arrested were among 143 people investigated in many Moroccan cities and towns, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Many members of the group were planning to create an ISIS province (Wilayat) in Morocco, the statement said.

They intended to assassinate Moroccan security and military officers and tourists, as well as targeting prisons and festivals and other institutions in the country.

Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation, the judicial part of the Moroccan domestic intelligence service, has tracked suspected militants since ISIS established itself as a global threat.

Morocco has dismantled 38 suspected militant cells with ISIS ties since 2013, the statement said, adding 159 cells had been found since 2002.

Hundreds of militants from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria have joined jihadists in Syria. Some are threatening to return and create new militant wings in their home countries, security experts have said.

Nearby Libya has become a major draw for jihadists from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. ISIS has taken advantage of the security chaos there to build a base, operate training camps and take over the city of Sirte.

There are between 2,000 and 5,000 ISIS fighters from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Mali,Morocco and Mauritania deployed in Sirte, Tripoli and Derna, according to a report drafted by U.N. chief Bank Ki-moon.

Jean-Paul Laborde, U.N. assistant secretary general and head of its Counter-Terrorism Committee, has also said that nearly 30,000 “foreign terrorist fighters” are currently in Syria and Iraq.

“There are nearly 30,000, and now that the territory held by ISIS is shrinking in Iraq, we are seeing them return, not only to Europe but to all of their countries of origin, like Tunisia, Morocco,” Laborde said recently.

Also Wednesday, Italian police said they have arrested two Moroccan residents on suspicion of distributing pro-ISIS propaganda.Police said the two men living in the Liguria region bordering France have previous arrests for dealing drugs and other offenses. A third Moroccan is under investigation.

The investigation was launched when a young woman reported receiving a photo on WhatsApp showing a woman posing with a machine gun in position to fire. The photo originated from a number in Morocco that was not in the phone’s address book.

The woman told police she had lent the phone to a Moroccan resident of a refugee home several months earlier. From there, investigators traced a network of “possible activism of the three suspects involving proselytizing for the self-proclaimed Islamic State.” More here.

Arrested jihadists in Morocco planned 'biological' attacks.

Arrested jihadists in Morocco planned 'biological' attacks. (Yahoo).

Morocco said Thursday that the alleged members of a jihadist cell it arrested in mid-February, including a French national, were plotting to carry out "biological" attacks in the kingdom.

"Some of the seized substances (from the suspects) are classified by international organisations which specialize in health issues as falling within the category of biological weapons dangerous for their capacity to paralyze and destroy the nervous system and cause death," the interior ministry said.

"Members of the terrorist cell had prepared these deadly substances with a view to using them in their terrorist projects inside the kingdom," it said in a statement.

The suspects, including a Frenchman, were arrested in several towns, it said, without giving further details on their identities.Read the full story here.

Morocco - Spain: Police searching for Terrorists dress like women in Niqab and use fake passports.

Source.

Morocco - Spain: Police searching for Terrorists dress like women in Niqab and use fake passports. (LeMag). [GoogleTranslated].

Madrid: Spanish police services would be on the track of a Moroccan-Spanish terrorist cell, a special kind of 'Transvestites'.

Indeed, terrorists, moving between northern Morocco and Spain, have invented a new method to escape police vigilance in Morocco and Spain. According to the Spanish news site El Confidencial Digital, citing sources at within the Spanish intelligence services, terrorists disguised as women, dressing in Niqab or Burka, would be closely sought in Spain and that this kind of new terrorists who dress up as women to escape police vigilance, have created big concerns in Madrid.

El Confidencial Digital said, according to his sources, that this method of dressing up as a woman to escape the police, was invented in northern Morocco, by terrorists who move between the two countries.

It is in Nador says the Spanish media that the Moroccan police had discovered in the location of a dismantled terrorist cell , women's clothes and manuscripts containing recommendations to terrorists, to dress up as women, wearing Burka and Niqab, to escape the vigilance of the security services.

The Spanish newspaper said that through this method, the Moroccan-Spanish terrorists with false documentation of women, could, hiding under their Niqabs,  not being worried, going back and forth between Morocco and Spain.

El Confidencial Digital concluded at the end that dressing up as a woman is the new way for recruiters to daech, Spain and Morocco, to bring out their radicalized recruits and send in Libya, Syria and in Iraq.

HT And Source.

#Spain concerned: new trend where suspect terrorists dress like women and use fake passportshttps://t.co/XIVvafQ5ZS pic.twitter.com/F1vqlF6vHK

— TRACterrorism.org (@TRACterrorism) February 12, 2016

Turkey arrests Eight alleged members of ISIS en route to Germany pretending to be refugees.

Turkey arrests Eight alleged members of ISIS en route to Germany pretending to be refugees. (LeParisien)[GoogleTranslated].

They had planned to pretend to be refugees. Turkish police on Tuesday arrested at the airport in Istanbul eight Moroccans presented as militant Islamic State Group (EI), which, according to the authorities wanted to go illegally in Germany, reported the pro-government news agency Anatolia.

Sources close to the security services say, the eight suspects arrived on a flight from Casablanca (Morocco), and told police to be tourists, asssuring they had booked rooms in a hotel. After  Verifications were made, the police found that this was not the case. They took the eight suspects to a special anti-terrorist unit who discovered on one of them a handwritten document detailing a route before driving by train, bus or train to Germany via Greece, Serbia and Hungary . The eight suspects were to go to Germany illegally posing Syrian refugees.Hmmmm......How many have already slipped through the net? Read the full story here. More on this story here.

BREAKING:Turkish security forces detain 8 suspected #ISIS members going to Europe as refugees - @News_Executive pic.twitter.com/EP6opq1igo

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) November 18, 2015

. @Conflicts its easy to understand also.'primary school' style map has written in 3 languages. pic.twitter.com/OgJksjT7CP

— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) November 18, 2015

Video - Moroccan Amazigh Activist Defends Zionism, Explains Her Offer of Sex Services to Kurds Fighting ISIS

Current president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge pushing for Moroccan Muslima to take his place.

Current president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge pushing for Moroccan Muslima to take his place.(MO).Moroccan Nawal Al-Moutawakel already has the distinctions of being the first Muslim to win an Olympic gold medal, as well as the first Moroccan, Arab, African, and Muslim woman to do the same. She achieved this by winning the 400 meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad. Post-athletics, she has since ascended to the position of vice-president of the International Olympic Committee. The current president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, has announced his plans to step down later this year.
The 50-year-old mother of two would be the first woman to run the IOC, and only the second non-European to do the job, following Avery Brundage of the United States. Rogge himself is promoting her as his successor. Al-Matouwakel currently heads the coordinating committee for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games. The IOC presidential election is to be held at the 125th IOC session in Buenos Aires in September. “Sport has given me so much that whatever I give back it will never be enough,” said Al-Moutawakel. “I am certainly considering standing for the IOC presidency. Maybe it is time for a woman. But there is a long list of possible contenders.”
Al Moutawakel was a student at Iowa State University when she won her gold medal. King Hassan II of Morocco even phoned her to offer congratulations and declared that all girls born on the day of her victory were to be named in her honor. She went on to organize the first Moroccan women’s 10km race in Casablanca, an event that now attracts more than 30,000 participants annually.
She soon became a successful businesswoman. She then followed that up by becoming Morocco’s minister of sport. She ultimately became an IOC executive board member and led the IOC Evaluation Commission for the London 2012 Games. She speaks fondly of the London experience: “London was a historic milestone for women. Women competed in every discipline and for every nation, even Saudi Arabia. Notably, the first female boxing competition was a great success. Also for the first time, 35 out of the 204 national Olympic committees had more women than men in their delegations, including Germany and the United States.”
“She is an iconic role model for women’s sport, for which she has consistently broadened the parameters,” says England’s Lord Coe, with whom she sits on the boards of both the International Association of Athletics Federation and the Laureus International Awards panel. “I am a great admirer. She would make a terrific IOC president.”
Fourteen years ago El Moutawakel said: “Someone once said the future of sport is feminine, and I believe that. You cannot move forward without both legs, men and women. Complete integration is important, but increased female presence at major sports events is not enough. We want full inclusion in administration. Women are present in all activities, so why can’t they be leaders in sport?Hmmmm.....For sure a minute silence for the Murdered Jewish Olympic athletes may be forgotten.Read the full story here.

Photo shoot of Miss Belgium beauties at Morocco’s largest mosque stirs uproar.

Photo shoot of Miss Belgium beauties at Morocco’s largest mosque stirs uproar.(AA).Pictures of candidates for Belgium Beauty Queen 2013 taken at Morocco’s largest mosque have stirred controversy in the North African kingdom, whose government is led by an Islamist party that won an election last year. The pictures, being circulated online, raised questions about the responsible government agencies that granted the license for the photo shoot of the belles of Belgium in their tank tops and short shorts in the square of Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque.

Popular Moroccan news website Hespress quoted a source from the ministry of Islamic affairs denying any role for the ministry in the incident and pointing fingers at the mosque’s administration, which is in charge of the overall management of one of the world's largest Islamic landmarks. Casablanca’s city council has also distanced itself from the incident. One of its members said the council did not authorize the photo shoot at the mosque.
A newspaper close to the opposition Socialist Union Party quoted a source at the mosque’s administration as saying that a company behind the photo shoot was granted the permission by the Moroccan Cinema Center (MCC). The Ittihad (union) newspaper reported that the center gave the license to the Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), the public broadcasting body of the French Community of Belgium.
Hespress quoted prominent religious preacher Sheikh Abdul-Bari Zamzami as holding the interior ministry responsible for the incident. Some people saw the incident as an acceptable and called for the responsible parties to be hold accountable. Others expressed disinterest stressing the mosque lacks serious religious significance because it was built as “tourist destination not as a house of worship.” “I have never prayed in this Mosque and I do not qualify it as a real Mosque. We all know that this mosque has been forcefully built by robbing and stealing the pockets of million Moroccans under various authority threats,” one person commented on Hespress. “Also, I see that this “Mosque” is a sheer touristic building made for display and international propaganda. So no doubt that these beautiful European chicks were allowed to take pictures near this purely touristic Moroccan building.”Hmmmm.......'BBUT' ...Beauty Be Upon Them?Read the full story here.

‘Sex debate’ heats up in Morocco, "personal freedoms cannot violate national values and the Islamic identity of Morocco."

‘Sex debate’ heats up in Morocco, "personal freedoms cannot violate national values and the Islamic identity of Morocco."(AA).Moroccan Justice Minister Mustafa al-Ramid lashed out at a request submitted by a group of activists asking for the legalizing of sexual relations outside marriage and called the initiative a promotion of debauchery. “Revoking the law that criminalizes sex outside marriage is a propagation of corruption that will deal a fatal blow to Moroccan values,” Ramid said Monday in parliament, answering a question about his response to the sexual freedom initiative. A group of Moroccan activists called a few days ago for crossing out Article 490 of the Penal Code which punishes every man and woman caught having sex outside marriage even if the couple is consenting adults. According to those activists, adults should have the freedom to engage in sexual relations as long as there is mutual consent.
The harsh criticism directed at this demand was not confined to the parliament, but extended to clerics who saw the call for sexual freedom as a grave threat to the moral and spiritual wellbeing of Moroccans. The Union for Quranic Houses, affiliated to the Salafi school of thought, issued a statement slamming the sexual freedom initiative which, it said, “came at a time when reformers and wise men are trying to rebuild the country and fight corruption.”
Al Arabiya obtained a statement by Moroccan Salafi Front in which it accused the activists behind the initiative of violating an indisputable law in the Quran. “They are saying that by prohibiting fornication, the Holy Quran has caused people to suffer from sexual frustration.” The initiative, the statement added, also flagrantly contradicts the Moroccan constitution. “According to the constitution, personal freedoms cannot violate national values and the Islamic identity of Morocco.” The reactions of Islamists, in turn, infuriated liberals. Secular activist Abdul Hamid Amin accused Islamists of ultra-conservatism and narrow-mindedness. “They just attack anyone who has a different opinion; they want to impose their inflexible ideologies on society,” he said. Amin refuted allegations that activists calling for the legalization of sexual freedom aim at Westernizing society. “On the contrary, Islamists are the ones who have always been allied with the West.” He also disagreed with Islamists’ argument that sexual freedom is bound to increase sexually-transmitted diseases. “This is a lie that only reveals how hypocritical society is.”Hmmmm......Ayatollah Khomeini is reported to have said: “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious. .Read the full story here

Obama Admin planning to sell 200 Abrams M1A1 SA to Islamist Justice And Development Party Led Moroccan Government.

Obama Admin planning to sell 200 Abrams M1A1 SA to Islamist Justice And Development Party Led Moroccan Government.(DSCA).WASHINGTON, June 18, 2012 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco for enhancement and refurbishment of 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks and associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training for an estimated cost of $1.015 billion. The Government of the Kingdom of Morocco has requested a possible enhancement and refurbishment of 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks, provided as part of a grant Excess Defense Article (EDA) transfer notified to Congress on 27 April 2011, to the M1A1 Special Armor (SA) configuration.
The possible sale will also provide 150 AN/VRC-87E and 50 AN/VRC-89E Exportable Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS), 200 M2 Chrysler Mount Machine Guns, and 400 7.62MM M240 Machine Guns. The possible sale also includes 12,049,842 Ammunition Rounds (including 1400 C785 SABOT, 1800 CA31 HEAT, and 5400 AA38 SLAP-T), 200 M250 Smoke Grenade Launchers, support equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, communication support, U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance, and other related logistics support. The estimated cost is $1.015 billion. This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major Non-NATO ally that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Africa.Hmmmm......Egypt Muslim brotherhood 125 M1-Abrams now Morocan Muslim Brotherhood 200 M1........ "So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel" Obama.Read the full story here.

Women’s rights threatened in Morocco as Salafists assault, strip woman for wearing skirt that was too short.

Women’s rights threatened in Morocco as Salafists assault, strip woman for wearing skirt that was too short.(BM).Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called “Salafists,” or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing. Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was “too revealing.” 
Human rights and women’s organizations issued statements denouncing the assault on the Moroccan girl, during which she was stripped of her clothes entirely, reports indicated. Young Moroccan men and women turned to Facebook and online groups to call for protection of individual freedoms in Morocco, including the group “Débardeur and I am fine.” “Though this incident appeared in the media and gained wider attention, that does not mean it is not repeated on an almost regular or semi-daily basis in all the alleys and streets of our cities. It may not end in stripping the girl of her clothing, but the verbal and physical harassment that women may experience is sometimes more heinous and horrible,” said Nora Al-Fuari, an activist journalist at the Al-Sabah daily and a member of the Facebook group. “From here came the idea of creating this page on Facebook, which we made open to everyone, including those in hijab or niqab, or the ‘coarse’ males who share the same vision with us. The selection of Débardeur is just a symbol, in reference to freedom—the freedom of women to wear what they want. Débardeur was mother of the ‘short skirt’,” she added. “In the end, the body is her body and no one has the right to confiscate it.” Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane responded to the controversy by speaking out in defense of personal liberties. “I believe in freedom, God created us free,” the prime minister said. “Who is Benkirane to tell Moroccans to shave your beards or to impose the hijab? Individual liberties are sacred and are not to be touched,” he added. It has highlighted once again the growing conservative nature across the Middle East, which has women’s groups and women worried that they are being pushed aside and attacked due to their gender. Rights group Beit Al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) added its voice to the chorus of protest over the assault. The association said the attack on the young woman took place “under a government headed by an Islamic party, and this would block the move towards democracy, freedoms and the rule of law”. The group added that it was not just about the assault on the young woman, warning also of the consequences of remaining silent about what is happening in several cities under the cover of the “Popular Committees”, which acted to expel women they considered prostitutes, such as Al-Hajeb in the Ifrane region, and to demand closure of bars, as in Kenitra. The incident came immediately after a call by Abu Zeid, a Qur’an reciter and leading member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, for a day dedicated to “chastity and modesty”. He was joined by Salafist jihadist Sheikh Mohamed Fizazi.Read the full story here.

Chastity Day initiative stirs controversy in Morocco.

Chastity Day initiative stirs controversy in Morocco.(AA).By Hassan al-Ashraf.The call by a prominent Moroccan preacher to mark a national Chastity Day stirred controversy in the kingdom with some advocating the propagation of chastity and others regarding the initiative as an insult to Moroccans.
Sheikh al-Idrisi Abu Zeid, Quran reciter and leading member of the Islamist-oriented Justice and Development and the Islamic organization al-Tawhid wa al-Islah (Monotheism and Reformation), called for dedicating a day to the annual promotion of chastity and suggested calling it National Chastity Day. This day, he said, will aim at fighting all “unchaste” phenomena that have lately invaded the conservative Moroccan society.
For sociology researcher Mohamed Boulouse, promoting chastity is a must, but one day a year will not be enough.“We need campaigns that would last for weeks and months in order for chastity to become part of our society again and to counter all phenomena that are stranger to all society,” he told Al Arabiya.Boulouse cited the example of “indecent” films, TV serials, festivals, and different artistic expressions that aim at “sexual arousal.”
Such campaigns, Boulouse added, should also include food, clothes, actions, and words that should all be in line with Islamic principles.“There should be a focus on curbing sexual desire and abstaining from all lustful actions.”“There are several democratic powers that have fought for long to create a multicultural Morocco that accepts all intellectual, artistic, cultural, and ethnic differences and those who launch such initiatives are trying to see how they would respond.”
Lakhal argued that the Chastity Day initiative is an insult to Moroccans since it assumes they are not chaste in the first place.“The initiative means that Moroccans have lost chastity and need to restore it. As far as I know, national days are dedicated to urgent issues concerning specific sectors or echelons of society that are facing problems that need to be addressed."Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Papua New Guinea 5.2 - 5.1!More info here.

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

• Soviet scientists helped Iran build nuke;’ Ahmadinejad denies nuclear bomb.(AlArabiya).Iran received assistance from foreign scientists in order to develop the capability for building a nuclear weapon, the Washington Post reported late Sunday.Citing anonymous Western diplomats and nuclear experts familiar with new intelligence to be released to the United Nations, the newspaper said a former Soviet weapons scientist had allegedly tutored Iranians on building “high-precision detonators” that can be used to “trigger a nuclear chain reaction.”The comments come days before a crucial report is expected to be published by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which is expected to release findings on the Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, heightening international suspicions of the Iranian relationship with the West and fuelling Middle East tension.In response to the upcoming report, Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday not to become “an instrument without will in the hands of the United States” against Iran.The hardline cleric hit out at IAEA director general Yukiya Amano in an address during communal prayers in Tehran marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast.“If Mr Amano acts like an instrument without will in the hands of the United States and publishes lies by presenting them as documents, the IAEA will lose the little credibility it has left,” said Khatami, an influential cleric who often leads Friday prayers in Tehran.The newspaper noted that a key breakthrough that had not been publicly described was Iran’s success in obtaining design information for a device known as a R265 generator. The device is a hemispherical aluminum shell that is lined with pellets of high explosives and electrically wired so the detonations occur in split-second precision, the report said. The explosions compress a small sphere of enriched uranium or plutonium to trigger a nuclear chain reaction.Creating such a device is a formidable technical challenge, and Iran needed outside assistance in designing the generator and testing its performance, the paper said.According to the intelligence provided to the IAEA, key assistance in both areas was provided by Vyacheslav Danilenko, a former Soviet nuclear scientist who was contracted in the mid-1990s by Iran’s Physics Research Center, the paper said. Danilenko offered assistance to the Iranians over at least five years, giving lectures and sharing research papers on developing and testing an explosives package that the Iranians apparently incorporated into their warhead design, said The Post, citing two officials with access to the IAEA’s confidential files.Early on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated that Iran does not own a nuclear bomb, but said Israel’s end was inevitable, in comments carried by an Egyptian newspaper.“It is Israel that has about 300 nuclear warheads. Iran is only keen to have nuclear capability for peaceful means,” he said, accusing Washington of lumping Iran with Syria, the Islamist Hamas movement that rules Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.The U.S. portrays those four as “the Axis of Evil to save the Zionist entity. But the Zionists are bound to go out of existence,” he said.Ahmadinejad also talked of Iran’s growing military power, which has fueled fear from the United States that Iran is now able to compete with Israel and the West, he said. “Yes, we have military capabilities that are different from any other country in the region,” Egyptian daily al-Akhbar cited Ahmadinejad as saying. “Iran is increasing in capability and advancement and therefore we are able to compete with Israel and the West and especially the United States.”“The U.S. fears Iran’s capability,” he told the paper. “Iran will not permit anyone making a move against it.”He accused Washington of inventing conspiracies to discredit Iran and sowing discord with its near neighbor Saudi Arabia, referring to the alleged assassination plot of the Saudi ambassador to Washington.“Iran is farthest from thinking of carrying out such crimes, but the U.S. is always inventing conspiracies against Iran,” Ahmadinejad said.“The U.S. fears any friendship between us and Saudi Arabia and therefore incites disagreements,” he said. “To stop the U.S. in its tracks we must deepen the elements of friendship ... We are ready for this and the relation between Saudi and Iran already exists and has not been cut off.”Russia warned on Monday that a possible military strike against Iran would be a “very serious mistake” that leads to further conflict and civilian casualties.“It would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a warning by Israeli President Shimon Peres that an attack was increasingly likely.“Military intervention only leads to a multiple rise in casualties and human suffering,” said Lavrov.“There can be no military solution to the Iranian nuclear problem, just like there can be none for any other problem in the modern world.”Russia’s warning came ahead of this week’s expected presentation on a new report from the UN nuclear watchdog on Iran’s nuclear drive.Russia has urged Iran to improve its nuclear program transparency while trying to shield its Soviet-era ally from the most damaging sanctions and possible threat of war.Lavrov said current military campaigns such as the one being waged by NATO in Afghanistan proved the dangers of foreign involvement.“The use of force is only possible under two circumstances envisioned by the U.N. Charter,” said Lavrov.“Either through self defense, when you come under armed attack, or through a decision by the U.N. Security Council.”Read the full story here.

• IAF to Host Greek, Italian airforce for Joint Exercises.(INN).The Israeli Air Force will host Greece’s Air Force for joint exercises in two weeks’ time.Last year, the IAF was in Greece for joint exercises, and a security official said on Thursday that the reciprocal visit from Greece is very significant.In addition the IAF will host the Italian Air Force next month for a training session at the Uvda Airport in the Negev. This will be the second time that the Italian air force will train in Israel.“The Israeli Air Force sees the Italian and Greek air forces’ visits as a step up in strategic cooperation,” a security source said on Thursday.The announcement on the joint exercises with Italy and Greece came one day after an IAF delegation returned from Sardinia following a week-long joint training exercise with the Italian Air Force.The delegation included pilots from the “Knights of the North” and “First Jet” squadrons operating the F-16C air superiority fighter, along with pilots from the "Valley" squadron, who operate the F-16D.The fighter pilots were accompanied by a crew from the “Dakota” control squadron, flying a Gulfstream 5 G-550 radar plane.The Italian Air Force used its advanced “Eurofighter Typhoon” fighters during the exercise, in which two Israeli pilots were granted exclusive backseat rides.The exercises, planned months ago, concluded amid a storm of speculation from Israel’s media that leaders in Jerusalem are planning a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.The stated goals of the joint exercises were to strengthen ties with the Italian Air Force, learn from NATO's combat doctrine, and practice combat abilities in unknown, vast lands and to leave a positive impression for both sides. A similar exercise took place last year.Israel has conducted numerous joint air force exercises with NATO members. Israel, while not a NATO member itself, is expected to open a liaison office with the alliance in the near future.Hmmmm........."I'll Stand By You"?Read the full story here.

• Israeli army, intelligence websites down after hacker threat?(AlArabiya).The websites of Israel’s military and its intelligence services were down Sunday, two days after a hacker group appeared to threaten the Jewish state over its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.The websites of the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and the Mossad foreign intelligence service were all unavailable through the day and into the evening.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, whose website was functioning, said that the outage was caused by a technical glitch rather than by hackers.“Israeli government websites crashed today because of a server malfunction, not as a result of a cyber attack,” Ofir Gendelman, a Netanyahu spokesman, wrote in a posting on Twitter.The website problems came two days after a video apparently from “hacktivist” group Anonymous was posted on YouTube, threatening the Israeli government with retaliation over its interception of two Gaza-bound ships.The boats carrying 27 activists, crew and journalists were intercepted in international waters before they could breach Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian territory.It was the second time activists had tried to run the blockade since May 2010, when Israeli commandos raided a Turkish-led group of ships, killing nine Turkish activists and sparking a diplomatic crisis with Ankara.The video, entitled “An open letter from Anonymous to the Government of Israel,” accuses the Jewish state of “piracy on the high seas.”“If you continue blocking humanitarian vessels to Gaza or repeat the dreadful actions of May 31st, 2010 against any Gaza Freedom Flotillas then you will leave us no choice but to strike back,” the video warns.It was not immediately possible to confirm whether the video was posted by the hacker group, which has claimed involvement in various hacker activity, including most recently exposing details of individuals who visited child porn sites.Anonymous has been involved in scores of hacking exploits including the defacing of a website of Syria’s defense ministry to protest a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters.Last year, the shadowy group launched retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.On Tuesday, a day after the Palestinians won full membership of UNESCO, over U.S. and Israeli objections, hackers from around the world attacked Palestinian servers, cutting Internet service across the West Bank and Gaza.Hmmm.....Tit for Tat?Read the full story here.

• Former Navy SEAL Commander Reveals Details of How Bin Laden Raid Went Down.(Telegraph) — US NAVY Seals have revealed for the first time that they killed Osama Bin Laden within 90 seconds of entering his fortress-like home in Pakistan.The men who killed the al-Qaeda chief have decided to speak out because they are tired of their “shabby treatment” by politicians who claim they were on a “kill mission”.They insisted there was no lengthy gun-fight in the compound and claimed they would have captured Bin Laden if he had surrendered, The Sunday Times in the UK reports (behind a paywall).They were not on a “kill mission”, they said, and fired only 12 bullets in the entire operation.The details of the mission, which was codenamed Operation Neptune’s Spear, are revealed in a book by the Seals’ former commander, Chuck Pfarrer.“I’ve been a Seal for 30 years and I never heard the words ‘kill mission’. It’s a fantasy word. If it was a kill mission you don’t need Seal Team 6; you need a box of hand grenades.”He said the men were angry with President Barack Obama for announcing Bin Laden’s death on TV just hours after they completed the mission on May 1.“There isn’t a politician in the world who could resist trying to take credit for getting Bin Laden but it devalued the ‘intel’ and gave time for every other Al-Qaeda leader to scurry to another bolthole,” he said.“The men who did this and their valorous act deserve better. It’s a pretty shabby way to treat these guys.”Pfarrer’s books also reveals that the Seals’ nickname for Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were Bert and Ernie, after the two Muppets in Sesame Street.When they were first told they were going to Pakistan to pick up a high-value person who was holed up in high-walled compound, they asked: “So is this Bert or Ernie?”Pfarrer said the squad’s nickname was Jedi.His account of the mission makes for terrifying reading. Here is an extract from The Sunday Times report, detailing the death of Bin Laden:Bin Laden’s bedroom was along a short hall. The door opened; he popped out and then slammed the door shut. “Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo,” radioed one Seal, meaning “eyes on target”.Two Seals kicked in Bin Laden’s door. The room, they later recalled, “smelt like old clothing, like a guest bedroom in a grandmother’s house”. Inside was the al-Qaeda leader and his youngest wife, Amal, who was screaming as he pushed her in front of him.“No, no, don’t do this!” she shouted as her husband reached across the king-size bed for his AK-47 assault rifle. The Seals reacted instantly, firing in the same second. One round thudded into the mattress. The other, aimed at Bin Laden’s head, grazed Amal in the calf. As his hand reached for the gun, they each fired again: one shot hit his breastbone, the other his skull, killing him instantly and blowing out the back of his head.Read the full story here.

• Bosnian Islamic leader slams radicals as ‘renegades’.(AlArabiya).Bosnia’s top Muslim cleric on Sunday condemned a recent gun attack on the US embassy in Sarajevo, calling radical Muslims who resort to violence “renegades.”“Those who secede from the (Islamic) community are led by Satan,” Mustafa Ceric was quoted as saying by the FENA news agency during Eid al-Adha prayers held at Sarajevo’s main mosque.Mevlid Jasarevic, who was shot by Bosnian police as he fired on the embassy late last month, is believed to have joined Bosnia’s Wahhabi movement, a strict and ultra-conservative branch of Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia.Citing the gun attack, Ceric said Jasarevic was “one of the renegades of the Islamic community” and warned that followers of the Wahhabi school were “breaking apart Muslim unity.”Bosnia’s Muslims, who make up around 40 percent of the country’s population of some 3.8 million, are mainly followers of a moderate form of Islam.But the Balkan country is also home to a small minority of Wahhabi followers and local authorities have been cracking down on the movement’s members.Read the full story here.

• Million Man Worldwide 'Caravan' Set to 'Liberate Jerusalem'.(DocsTalk).By David Lev.Israeli security officials are keeping a wary eye out on several groups that are planning mass marches on Jerusalem. One march is scheduled for November 25, and is being organized by the group that tried to conduct a mass march to Jerusalem last September. This time, however, organizers – and Israeli security officials – believe that the group may attract larger numbers. The group is set out from three locations – Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon – on November 25, with the objective of reaching Jerusalem on November 29, the anniversary of the adoption of the UN partition plan for Mandatory Palestine. Officials said that the group was encouraged by the recent attempt – and temporary success – of Syrian Druze who “invaded” the Golan Heights for several hours, tearing down a border fence to enter the country. Several sources claimed that some of the Syrian Druze were able to enter the interior of Israel, with several claiming to have reached Tel Aviv.But even more worrisome is another march is scheduled for March 2012, Israeli officials said. That march is being organized by Indian activist Feroze Mithiborwala, who said in a recent press conference in Pakistan that the march will unite people from all over the world, and of all faiths - including Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Jews - "to participate in the march towards the Jerusalem and liberate it from the Zionists.” The march would be in the form of a “caravan” which would start from three directions – Asia, Europe, and Africa, originating in India, Turkey and Morocco respectively. The caravans would stop in all the countries on the way and pick up more participants. The objective is to gather hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people at the borders of Israel who would simply push their way through, reaching Jerusalem and “liberating” it.A group helping to organize the March event, the International Committee of the Global March towards Al-Quds, said in a statement this week that “since the Zionist occupation of 78% of Palestine in 1948, and the subsequent occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine in 1967, we have witnessed growing efforts to Judaize Jerusalem and colonize Palestine. These crimes against humanity are done under the political protection and full support of successive American administrations and enforced by its veto at the United Nations.“Jerusalem and all of Palestine need to be liberated, redeemed and restored as a land of freedom and coexistence by people of the world from all religious and cultural backgrounds. As part of this movement and at the invitation of Palestinians, we decided to organize a Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ) aimed at raising awareness of the mortal threat to Jerusalem and all of Palestine by the hands of Zionists and helping us move closer to the day of freedom.”Mithiborwala is the head of Indian radical political group Awami Bharat, which bills itself as conducting “an international struggle against imperialism, Zionism, and Brahmanism.”Hmmmm.......Who's going to do the catering for those 'million'?Read the full story here.

• Poll: 81.1% Greeks “Yes” to EURO, 41.7% “Early Elections”(KeepTalkingGreece).“Return to Drahma” is no option for the vast majority of Greeks. They prefer the Euro… In a public survey concluded by the MARC company for news paper ETHNOS, 81.1% of the Greeks favor the Euro, while only 12.9% would like a return to “Drachma”. The poll was conducted among 1,004 households between November 2-3 2011, the days when the referendum issue was up. Inthe same poll, 45% of the asked favor a broader ‘national salvation government (no coalition government hehe!) and 41.7% favor Early Elections.The vast majority of the asked does not the current government (PASOK/Socialists)to concluded its time in power. Only 10.3% want.In case of elections: only 14.8% favor a one-part government; 44% favor a coalition of PASOK and Nea Dimokratia. 54.8% do not believe the new government would have any option to do a different policy than the current one. 37.7% believe, the new government would perform a different policy.In the preference of the asked, the political parties get:

1. Nea Dimokratia (conservative/Samaras) 22.2%.
2. PASOK 15.1%.
3. KKE (Communists) 8.2%.
4. LAOS (far-right) 5.8%.
5. Kouvelis (left-wing) 5.5%.
6. SYRIZA (left-wing) 5.2%.
7. Don’t Know: 26.6%

According to these results: PASOK-ND get together 37.3%; Communists and Left parties get together 18.9%.Read the full story here.

• In Act of Desperation, G20 Asks Germany to Pledge its Gold for EFSF Rescue Fund, Surprise!.... Bundesbank Refuses.(GEA).By Mike "Mish" Shedlock.The gall and arrogance of the G20 and Euro-nanny finance minister clowns is staggering.German newspapers report that the G20 discussed asking Germany to pledge its gold to bail out Greece and the Piigs, and to fund the EFSF.The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank said "We know this plan and we reject it."One might think that would be enough to stop such idiotic talk, but one would be wrong. In spite of Bundesbank opposition, euro zone finance ministers will discuss the idea next week.Please consider Bundesbank: central bank reserves will not help fund EFSFThe Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) reported that Bundesbank reserves -- including foreign currency and gold -- would be used to increase Germany's contribution to the crisis fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) by more than 15 billion euros ($20 billion).The European Central Bank (ECB) would own the reserves, according to the paper, citing sources at the G20 meeting held in Cannes this week.The Welt am Sonntag newspaper, citing similar plans, said 15 billion euros would come from special drawing rights (SDR) that the Bundesbank holds.G20 leaders in Cannes discussed the idea that the European System of Central Banks could pawn their total foreign exchange reserves of 50-60 billion euros to a trust of the European crisis fund in the form of special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the newspapers said."We know this plan and we reject it," a Bundesbank spokesman said.The newspapers had said the issue was taken off the agenda at the G20 following Bundesbank opposition but that it would be debated on Monday at a Eurogroup meeting of euro zone finance ministers.In spite of the stupidity of discussing something that is not going to happen, here are three reasons to be grateful they did.

1. The proposal highlights the desperation, blatant arrogance, and sheer pig-headedness of the G20 and Eurozone finance ministers.
2. The proposal shows that gold is money.
3. Sooner or later, one of these asinine proposals will will cause Germany to realize the EMU is a lost cause. The sooner Germany realizes that, the better off everyone will be.

ZeroHedge addresses the question "why will this be debated?"Why will it be debated? Because when at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Germany may be crossed off the list, but here is who is next in order of appearance. Sooner or later, Europe will stumble on that one "leader" whose gold is less valuable than their political stability.If France and Italy want to expand the EFSF, why don't they pledge their own gold rather than asking Germany to pledge its gold?One possible answer is that any country dumb enough to pledge its gold will very quickly lose its AAA rating. However, the Euro-nanny finance minister clowns are probably not bright enough to figure that out. Read and see the full story here.

• Filipino Jihadi: "There Is No Way to Restore the Islamic Caliphate... and Liberate Our Lands from the Infidel Scum other than the Way of Jihad and of Swords Drawn for the Sake of Allah"(Memri).On November 7, 2011, the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam published a three-minute video clip originally posted on Youtube under the title "A Message from the Brother Abu Jihad the Filipino." The clip shows a masked man, apparently a Filipino, who calls himself Abu Jihad Al-Luzuni. Reading in Arabic from a page in his hand, he calls on all Muslims to join jihad against the enemies of Islam in order to liberate the Muslims from the state of humiliation they are in today, and in order to reinstate the Islamic caliphate.Read the full story here.

• Holocaust Remembrance Conference in Morocco.(Memri).In late September 2011, Morocco's Al-Akhawayn University (AU), based in Ifrane in the Middle Atlas region, held a three-day conference commemorating the Holocaust. The event, titled "Mohammed V, Righteous among the Nations", was dedicated to learning about the Jewish Holocaust and to honoring Morocco's late King Mohammed V, who refused to hand over Morocco's Jewish population to the French Vichy regime, which occupied Morocco at the time. The conference comprised seminars on the late monarch and on Moroccan Jewry, sessions devoted to testimonies by Holocaust survivors from Europe, and a tour of the Moroccan Jewish Museum in Casablanca given by the museum's Muslim curator Zhor Rhihel. There was also a performance by Moroccan-Jewish music by renowned singer Maxime Kartouchi, and kosher meals were offered.The conference was organized by the university's Mimouna Club, a student organization founded in 2007, dedicated to promoting Moroccan Jewish heritage. The club aims to educate the Moroccan public, and especially the youth, on the diversity of Moroccan culture, with focus on Moroccan Jewry as a model of coexistence between Jews and Muslims in the Arab World. It has already organized several events on Moroccan Jewish heritage, with the participation of Israelis, and also offers Hebrew classes. The founder and president of the Mimouna Club is political science student Elmehdi Boudra (age 24). Himself a Muslim, Boudra is deeply interested in Moroccan-Jewish culture and is a staunch advocate of intercultural dialogue. His interest in Jews and in Muslim-Jewish relations grew out of his family history; his grandmother's experiences growing up in Casablanca's Jewish quarter, and his grandfather's contacts with his Jewish neighbors, instilled in him a curiosity about Judaism. To learn more, he studied with Simon Levy, one of the directors of the Museum of Moroccan Jewry in Casablanca, and read about the Holocaust. Boudra's partner in founding the Mimouna Club was Ghassan Essalehi (age 23), a Muslim from Rabat, who has a BA in international studies & communication, and is now completing his master's degree in diplomacy. The conference participants included Holocaust scholars and survivors (among them Elisabeth Citron, a Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz), leaders of Morocco's Jewish community, as well as Jewish and Muslim students from Morocco and the U.S.A key speaker was André Azoulay, a Moroccan Jewish intellectual and an advisor to the king. He said that when Europe was in the grip of Nazi barbarism, Morocco provided a light of hope, and added: "By standing up against Vichy's racist laws, King Mohammed V provided each of us with the capacity and legitimacy to wield the values of courage, freedom, humaneness and modernity that many of us seek to establish in Moroccan society". He also noted that in the new Moroccan constitution, the present king, Mohammed VI, included a lengthy introduction focusing on the richness and diversity of the spiritual and cultural elements that make up contemporary Moroccan society. Addressing the organizers of the conference, he said: "You Muslim students decided to be identified with our liberation. It's not something usual."Serge Berdugo, ambassador-at-large for the King of Morocco and secretary-general of the Jewish community in the country, said that thanks to the protection of Mohammad V, no Moroccan Jew was arrested or sent to the concentration camps. He mentioned that the king showed his respect for his Jewish subjects by inviting all the Jewish dignitaries to the 1941 Feast of the Throne and seating them beside the French and German officers. Berdugo also related a story that has been told about the king: that when French general Noguès informed him that 200,000 yellow stars had been prepared for Morocco's Jews, the king answered that he would need 50 more – for himself and his family. According to Berdugo, the king said to the press at the time: "I do not approve of these new laws against Jews at all and I refuse to be associated with a measure that I disapprove of. As in the past, Israelites remain under my protection and I refuse to make any distinction among my subjects." The event, which was the first conference commemorating the Holocaust to be held in an Arab country, was positively received by the media in Morocco and abroad. It continues the policy of Morocco's current king, who has spoken out against Holocaust denial. In a 2009 speech, King Mohammed VI said: "Amnesia has no bearing on my understanding of the Holocaust, or that of my people... Together we must endeavor to reassert reason and the values that underpin the legitimacy of a space of coexistence where the words of dignity, justice and freedom will express themselves in the same way and will coexist with the same requirements, regardless of our [citizens'] origins, cultures or spirituality. This is our Moroccan interpretation, of the duty of remembrance dictated by the Shoah.Hmmmm.....And just when you're about to give up hope, you meet a 'Mensch'.Read the full story here.

• Antwerp: Muslims boycott stunning of Eid al-Adha sacrifice.(IIE).Via GvA, De Wereld Morgen (Dutch):The Antwerp Muslim community is boycotting the option of stunning the Eid al-Adha holiday sacrifice before slaughter. The city of Antwerp is offering both slaughter alternatives this year.The Muslim community is dissatisfied with the new measures. Last week representatives of the Union of Mosques and Islamic Associations in Antwerp Province (UMIVPA) returned brochures prepared by the city on the topic back to the municipality house.The union fears the new slaughterhouse will serve as a precedent, and that it could lead to unilateral federal legislation on stunning in ritual slaughter.Spokesperson Ibrahimi Jamel: "Year in and year out we come to Eid al-Adha with a fearful feeling and uncertainly over what awaits us. Instead of a day of festivity and joy Muslims in Antwerp experience this day as a day of unrest." He says this is due to lack of permanent regulations set in law and which are acceptable by the Muslim community.They are also unhappy with the way the city conducted its consultations with the mosques, and say that the city does not take into account the contribution of the Antwerp Muslim community.Posters have been put up in various places calling for a boycott of the alternative slaughterhouse. The posters were prepared by the UMIVPA and are signed by chairperson Abdelouahab Tuani. The union represents 28 mosques, most of whom are Moroccan, 18 of which are in the city Antwerp.Hmmm........As usual the problem is 'cattle mentality' Queen Rania of jordan is a strong defender of stunning animals before slaughter.Education and the political will to make a stand is the only thing that can change 'things' like this.Quote:"After emailing footage of a bull being brutally slaughtered to Queen Rania of Jordan, White was contacted by the King's sister, Princess Alia bint al Hussein. Within 24 hours, she had closed the abattoir; a month later, it was razed. The two became friends, and White now acts as chief adviser to the Princess Alia Foundation, formed to prevent animal cruelty in the Middle East."Read the full story here.

• Another Burning Chevy Volt Destroys NC House.(CBullit).That’s right, this is the second Volt so far to consume itself–that we know of. No one was hurt, and the problem may lie with the Siemens charging station installed in the house–because Scumsucking, Rentseeking SCOAMF-fellating Duke Energy is now warning customers not to install them. This is the same Duke Energy that’s inflating customer bills with power occasionally generated by Batshredders and sunbeams.I wonder how this will affect those EV sales stats Daily Bayonet is keeping. If I were Nissan, I’d use it.Hmmm......Chevy Volt you see sparks flying?Read the full story here.