Mubarak to be released but will remain under travel ban: Judicial source.

Mubarak to be released but will remain under travel ban: Judicial source.(AlAhram).

Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak will remain on a travel ban list even if the prosecution does not appeal Wednesday's court order for his release, a judicial source from the general prosecution said.

A Cairo court accepted on Wednesday an appeal by Mubarak against a recent detention order he received pending investigations into charges he illegally received millions of Egyptian pounds worth of gifts from state-run publisher Al-Ahram.
Mubarak's funds will remain frozen as he is still under investigation in several corruption cases.
However, the ousted president, who has been on trial since August 2011, is now free to leave jail as he has received release orders pending further investigations in all of the four trials he is undergoing.
The ex-president, who was ousted by a popular uprising in January 2011, is being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of over 800 protesters in the uprising, after his appeal on a life sentence was accepted. He is due to appear in court on 25 August in this case.Hmmm.....A 'visit' to the Saudi Embassy wouldn't hurt.Read the full story here.

Brotherhood and Salafists: finally one Islamic movement?

Brotherhood and Salafists: finally one Islamic movement?(AA).By Jamal Khashoggi.

I will not resist my desire to write -I have said this before- while watching the dramatic transformations taking place within the Salafist movement in Egypt. Indeed, I have already said this in an article that was published here several months ago. Back then, I predicted that the Salafists would split into three groups, after practicing democracy and vice versa. A group of them will join the Muslim Brotherhood, which has become now the ruling party (some Salafists are vulnerable to the obedience temptation of the governor). A second group will be tired of politics and will go back to prayers and mosques. A third group, which is the smallest, will remain against the Brotherhood, insisting that it still has a political role.

Few members of the first group will fuse in the body of the Brotherhood as active members; they will have the Muslim Brotherhood’s benefits and duties. Most probably, they will not be numerous since the “Brotherhood” does not like enlisting elderly members in their group, even if they seemed to be willing to share the governance. It has happened in the past and it could happen again.

Most of those who moved to the Brotherhood will be supporters, but the Muslim Brotherhood movement will not mind putting these new members in charge of some leadership responsibilities in the Freedom and Justice party or some authority positions. They will be able to keep their own Salafist intellectual opinions since there are many Salafist activists inside the Brotherhood, but they are controlled with the Brotherhood organizationally, because the latter does not have any jurisprudential or ideological preference. 

Even more, when the founder of the movement, Hassan al-Banna asked the group’s scholar at that time, Sheikh Sayed Sabek to classify and simplify a jurisprudence book, he insisted that the book should be about the four schools and rely on the strongest evidences, and this represents a Salafist approach. He wrote the most famous and widespread jurisprudence book, the “Sunni Jurisprudence” book.

The second group will be tired of politics and its members will return to their natural environment where they succeeded, namely, prayers and mosques. Some of them will consider politics as a disgrace that scratches the Muslim’s devoutness and forces him to lie and to be vicious. Some others will return to the former Salafist approach, and will support the new leader. If they were able to contain Mubarak, they will surely be able to support their “brother” president Mohamed Mursi. All of them approve that it is important to return to prayers, refute the fads and spread the true faith, especially after demising the restrictions that were imposed on them. Moreover the new government is ready to grant them some advantages, positions and financial resources. It will also maintain their mosques, and will even take into account their advocates in al-Azhar missions to Muslim countries. All this will happen as long as they are cooperating with the new “tutor,” and as long as they do not contradict or raise problems against the Copts and the Americans for example.

The last group is the quarreling one. It believes that it should be playing a political role, therefore some of its members will participate in the elections and compete with the Brotherhood in their constituencies, and then argue and oppose their politics, and I believe that these members can be handled by the brotherhood. As for the rest whose existence is no longer justified for the Brotherhood, such as the Jihadist Salafism members, the government –the Brotherhood – will deal with them by the law and perhaps even by force. They are the result of a former period when the state was illegitimate, so they allowed themselves to violate it, while Jihad was the legitimate privilege for the ruler alone, and it was included in their worst ruling where they did not recognize the legitimacy of the state and they were ready for jihad, or - at least - burning down embassies and clashing with the police, as did the jihadist Salafist group in Sinai, or those who attacked the U.S. Embassy amid the anti-Islam film.Read the full story here.

Egypt’s Mubarak in critical condition, ‘slipping in, out of consciousness’.

Egypt’s Mubarak in critical condition, ‘slipping in, out of consciousness’.(AA).Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s health is in critical condition, with reports that he is slipping in and out of consciousness, a security official said on Sunday. Mubarak was sent to prison on June 2 to begin serving a life sentence after being found guilty of failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him in 2011. Since then, his health has been rapidly deteriorating, according to Egyptian media reports, with rumors of his death spreading rapidly. “The former president’s health is in decline, but now it’s stable in its deteriorated state,” an Egyptian official told The Associated Press news agency. Authorities have granted his wife, former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and the couple’s two daughters-in-law special permission to visit him in Cairo’s Torah prison early on Sunday. Since his wife’s visit, Mubarak has suffered from an irregular heartbeat and required assistance in breathing, AP reported. The official told AP that the former president now lives only on liquids and yogurt. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. On Wednesday, prison sources told Al Arabiya that Mubarak’s health is “severely deteriorating.” Sources inside Cairo’s Tora said that Mubarak collapsed following visits on Monday by his wife Suzanne, and his sons Alaa and Gamal. His wife reportedly sobbed after she saw him in a prison suit. Alaa was reportedly moved to a cell near his father, whose personal doctors were not allowed to oversee his health condition. Egypt’s state news agency said “the severe deterioration in the former president’s condition” prompted prison staff to bring in a medical team from the interior ministry. He was given sedatives and placed under observation, it added. It said the family visit, the first since his sentencing, caused him to suffer from depression, prompting him to stop eating. Mubarak’s health is reported to have collapsed since his June 2 conviction. His life sentence saw him transferred immediately to a prison hospital, instead of the military hospital and other facilities where he had been held since his April 2011 arrest. Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal, who are still in detention, were acquitted on June 2 of corruption charges, but still face separate charges of insider trading. Authorities have turned down several requests by Mubarak’s family to transfer the ousted president back to a military facility, the official said. On Saturday Mubarak’s wife was denied access to the Intensive Care Unit where he was placed, as authorities limit family visitations to one a month. According to security officials quoted by al-Masry al-Youm daily, Mrs. Mubarak lashed out at wardens for not giving her husband permission to seek treatment outside the prison. “You will be responsible for his death,” she allegedly said.Read the full story here.

Mubarak’s health ‘severely deteriorating:’ prison sources

Mubarak’s health ‘severely deteriorating:’ prison sources.(AA).The health condition of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is ‘severely deteriorating,’ prison sources told Al Arabiya, three days after he was sentenced to life for complicity in the murder of hundreds of protesters last year. Sources inside Cairo’s Tora prison told Al Arabiya that Mubarak collapsed following visits on Monday by his wife Suzanne, and his sons Alaa and Gamal. His wife reportedly sobbed after she saw him in a prison suit. The sons are detained pending trial in a case involving alleged share-price manipulation. Alaa was reportedly moved to a cell near his father, whose personal doctors were not allowed to oversee his health condition. Egypt’s state news agency said “the severe deterioration in the former president’s condition” prompted prison staff to bring in an Interior Ministry medical team. He was given sedatives and placed under observation, it added. It said the family visit, the first since his sentencing, caused him to suffer from depression, prompting him to stop eating. It was not possible to independently check the report. Mubarak’s health has been the subject of widespread speculation for years. During his trial, he was wheeled into court on a hospital stretcher for each hearing, though his ailment was undefined.Read the full story here.

Mubarak suffers heart attack moments after being told he will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Mubarak suffers heart attack moments after being told he will spend the rest of his life in jail.(DM).Former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak suffered a heart attack today just moments after being told he would spend the rest of his life in jail. Following a lengthy trial, the man who ruled over the country for 30 years was sentenced after being found guilty of being complicit in the killings of protesters during the country's uprising. The ruling came at a politically fraught time for Egypt, two weeks before a run-off in its first free presidential election that will pit the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak, against the deposed autocrat's last prime minister. Mubarak, propped up on a hospital stretcher and wearing dark sunglasses, heard the verdict with a stony expression. He had been wheeled into the cage used in Egyptian courtrooms, while the other defendants stood. Over the past months, Mubarak has been held in a presidential suite in a hospital on the outskirts of Cairo. Doctors treating him have said he is weak and has lost weight from refusing to eat. They have also said he suffers from severe depression. The Times newspaper today reported that Mubarak has even asked his doctors for prescription drugs so he can take an overdose. The trial found Mubarak's two sons Alaa and Gamal not guilty of corruptions charges, but they both still face a separate trial on charges of insider trading. Former interior minister habib El-Adly was sentenced to life in prison for complicity in murder and attempted murder of protesters. He was convicted and sentenced in two other corruption cases. Hussein Salem, an ex-army and intelligence officer closely linked to Mubarak was acquitted in absentia of corruption charges. Demonstrators outside the court, many of whom had been demanding the death penalty for Mubarak, greeted the verdict with fireworks and cries of 'Allahu akbar' meaning God is great. Soha Saeed, the wife of one of about 850 people killed in the street revolt that toppled Mubarak on February 11, 2011, shouted: 'I'm so happy. I'm so happy.'Read the full story here.

Mubarak, ex-interior minister sentenced to life for protester deaths in Egypt.

Mubarak, ex-interior minister sentenced to life for protester deaths in Egypt.(AA).An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison on Saturday after convicting him of involvement in the murder of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year. Mubarak’s former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, was also sentenced for life in prison for the protesters’ killing in January. Meanwhile, corruption charges against Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were dropped. Scuffles broke out soon after the verdicts were delivered, and chants of “Void, void” and “The people want the judiciary purged” could be heard. Lawyers inside the courtroom were furious over the acquittals, and told AFP they feared that Mubarak and Adly would be found innocent on appeal.
The former strongman, wearing dark classes and a beige tracksuit, showed no emotion as Judge Ahmed Refaat read out the sentence. His two sons, both looking tired with dark circles under their eyes, appeared close to tears on hearing the verdict. Clashes erupted out outside the court following the sentencing, as police used stun grenades to control the crowds. The deposed president was wheeled into court on Saturday to hear the verdict in the case against him on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters last year. Mubarak has become the only autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring to be put in the dock. At the start of the trial’s session, Chief Judge Ahmed Rifaat criticized Mubarak’s three-decade rule and hailed the revolution that toppled him. Rifaat also ordered families of those killed in the revolution to leave the courtroom, Al Arabiya's correspondent reported. The verdict was broadcasted live on Egyptian state television and other channels that agreed to buy its coverage. The first several hearings the trial, which started in August, were broadcast live, but Judge Rifaat then ordered cameras out before witnesses began to take the stand.And the former president was also accused of selling natural gas to Israel at lower than market prices. A security official said 5,000 policemen and 2,000 soldiers secured the area, to which Mubarak was be helicoptered in from a military hospital. During the trial, Mubarak was wheeled into the lecture hall that serves as a courtroom on a stretcher. He reportedly suffers from a heart condition, but the health ministry has denied his lawyer’s claim that he has cancer. Along with Adly, Mubarak’s co-defendants include six former police commanders.Hmmm.........Meanwhile 'the piper' plays on.Read the full story here.

Three scenarios lie ahead for Hosni Mubarak on judgment day tomorrow.

                          Don't worry as i told you before 'I've got your back'.




Three scenarios lie ahead for Hosni Mubarak on judgment day tomorrow.(AA).Egyptians are impatiently waiting for the verdict in what has come to be referred to as “the trial of the century” in which former president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and several of his top aides and officials face charges.
Despite the fact Mubarak is not the only defendant, Egyptian public opinion is focusing on the former president’s destiny more than the others and the media has been preoccupied with the trial’s possible outcomes.
Egyptian state television will broadcast live the verdict and sentencing on Saturday, official media reported.
The first several hearings the trial, which started in August, were broadcast live, but chief judge then ordered cameras out before witnesses began to take the stand.

According to the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabea, Mubarak is facing three scenarios: acquittal, jail or capital punishment.

In the first scenario, Mubarak will be found not guilty of the killing of unarmed protestors during the days of the revolution and will consequently be set free. This would absolve security forces charged with firing live ammunition at the protestors in the first place and that they only used tear gas and water cannons.
This scenario is expected to infuriate Egyptians who will most likely take to the streets to protest what they would see as a betrayal to the revolution.
The second scenario is the prosecution will have proved that security forces did fire at protestors. In this case, Mubarak would be found guilty of inciting murder even if he did not directly give the police orders to fire and was not even aware they did so.
This scenario could lead to a10-year prison sentence. If the prosecution proves that he knew about the firing at protestors but did not order it, he might receive 25 years in jail.
The third scenario is that the prosecution will be able to prove that Mubarak gave orders to security to use violence in dispersing protests and to fire at protestors. In this case, Mubarak will be found guilty of premeditated murder and could therefore be sentenced to death. This is considered the most unlikely scenario.
In case of the second scenario, seen as the most likely, the main issue would be the place of detention and how suitable it can be in relation to Mubarak’s health. It remains to be seen whether he will be detained at a special place other than the regular facilities in accordance with the medical reports presented to the prosecutor general.
In addition to the possible verdicts, speculations are rife about how Egypt’s next president would react should Mubarak be put in jail.
Observers are specifically wondering what Mubarak’s former minister and last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, known also to be one of his closest aides, will do if he wins the elections and whether he will grant Mubarak a presidential pardon.
Mubarak’s critics, including members of parliament, have demanded that he be moved to Torah prison just like his two sons Gamal and Alaa, who are also on trial. But Interior Ministry officials have said the prison was not equipped for Mubarak's health needs.
“He will not be imprisoned. He will live out his sentence here,” a source at the hospital said. “There are no arrangements to move him out of here."Since he was flown to Cairo from the seaside resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in August 2011 at the start of the trial, Mubarak has resided in the International Medical Center (IMC), a large medical compound located on the outskirts of Cairo.

Head of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, Abdul Ghaffar Shukr says if Mubarak is acquitted, the Egyptian people’s reaction is bound to be very forceful.
“Public opinion in Egypt will be rattled by such a verdict and the country will go through a long phase of upheaval and we don’t know what the consequences could be,” he told Al Arabiya.
Shukr said the likelihood of Mubarak receiving amnesty is impossible even if Shafiq is the next president.
“The next president, whoever he is, will not be able to take the Egyptian people to the past.”Hmmmm......The Muslim Brotherhood thanks you 'Hussein'.Read the full story here.

Egyptian People's Assembly (Muslim Brotherhood) creating law to prosecute Mubarak for Treason.

Egyptian People's Assembly (Muslim Brotherhood) creating law to prosecute Mubarak for Treason.(IW).Muslim Brotherhood Lawyers: More Charges To be leveled Against Mubarak, in Addition to Murdering Demonstrators.Ali Kamal, a civil rights plaintiff in the case murdered demonstrators and a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) lawyer, asserted that there is no legal provision that prevents the prosecution of the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and seeking the death penalty, contrary to rumors that this is not possible because Mubarak has exceeded the age of 83.
 In a statement to Ikhwanweb, Kamal explained that, in principle, Mubarak will not escape the killings of demonstrators, pointing out that Mubarak in his former capacity as president of Egypt and the President of the Supreme Council of every institution in Egypt, is responsible for the health damage suffered by innocent Egyptians, as well as economic damage suffered by the whole country. Kamal confirmed the possibility of prosecuting Mubarak for this damage suffered by the Egyptian people.

 Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud, one of the civil-right plaintiffs in the killing-of-demonstrators case and the Brotherhood's lawyer, said that the Egyptian People's Assembly is currently discussing a law on the crime of treason, pointing out that they are waiting until this law is passed, so as to charge and prosecute Mubarak with high treason.Abdel-Maksoud said that the law will define and detail the crime of treason and set clear standards and mechanisms which should help bring charges against Mubarak, pointing that the charge of treason in Mubarak’s case will be based on his relations with Israel and the United States and his involvement in the corruption of political life in Egypt during his reign.Hmmm.....Thanks to Pres Obama this has become possible.Israel is warned what can happen to Obama's allies.Read the full story here.

 

 

 

Suzanne Mubarak to Obama: Prevent the transfer of my husband to a prison hospital or I'll disclose the identities of U.S. agents.

Suzanne Mubarak to Obama: Prevent the transfer of my husband to a prison hospital or I'll disclose the identities of U.S. agents.(INN).Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne Mubarak, has sent U.S. President Barack Obama a threat that if he does not prevent the transfer of her husband to a prison hospital, she will disclose the identities of U.S. agents operating in Egypt.
The report on Suzanne Mubarak’s threat was posted on Monday to the website of the independent Israeli newspaper Megaphone. It quoted a report in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mukhtasar.
According to the report, Suzanne Mubarak made it clear that she is very familiar with the identities and roles of American agents who operate in Egypt, due to her closeness to the Egyptian security elite. She reportedly threatened Obama that if he does not work against the current regime’s intention to transfer her husband she will reveal the information she knows.
Two weeks ago, Egyptian officials said that Mubarak will shortly be moved to the Tora prison in Cairo as soon as the facility is upgraded to house him.
According to Egyptian media reports, Suzanne Mubarak fears that her husband's physical condition will deteriorate in the new prison, which may be the reason for her threats. Other reports said that Mubarak himself has hinted that if he is jailed in Tora, he will commit suicide.
Meanwhile on Monday, Egypt's General Prosecutor said that he had been unable to prove that any foreign power or organization had been involved in the violence against Egyptians during the uprising against Mubarak last year.
The prosecutor, Mustafa Suleiman, made the statement during closing arguments in the trial of Mubarak Monday.Hmmmm.......And we know Obama is a 'lady's' man:"I basically let Michelle have 90 percent of what she wants. But, at a certain point, I have to draw the line and say, 'Give me my little 10 percent.' "Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 4.8 , Indonesia 5.2! More info here.

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

• UNION MEMBERS OUTRAGED After White House Hires Non-Union Crew For Obama’s Birthday Bash.(GatewayPundit).Somebody’s Having a Birthday Party and You’re Not Invited......That is, if you belong to a union.In case you live under a rock and haven’t heard, Barack Obama turns 50 today. And, the place to be tonight is the Aragon. The party starts at 7:00. But don’t bother to show up if you’re a union member. The White House hired a non-union crew for the event tonight. A confidential and trusted union source contacted me today to report that the crews called in to work Obama’s birthday bash are non-union. Union members are OUTRAGED that Obama would turn his back on them. Curiously, my source added that the day rate is actually higher for the non-union members to do the work. It’s not a money issue. What gives?UPDATE: Here is my source’s response to why they would go non-union for the bash:“I honestly don’t think they thought about it. It may just be the hassle of the unions no meal penalties… Or maybe not factoring in health care and 401k plans.”If POTUS is late, and party goes late, they would face MASSIVE overtime if they do not feed the crew enough meals on time.Read the full story and updates here.

• "The Super Congress strikes back".Can Our Gun Rights Survive Boehner and Reid’s New ‘Super Congress’?(BigGovernment).It appears the Boehner/Reid debt fix, which was really no fix at all, did what most legislation does nowadays: it extended the power of the government while doing very little to solve the problems for which it was designed. Thus, while Obama was doing “victory laps” around the White House following the bill’s passage in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of his comrades were trying to figure out how to load the new “Super Congress” in their favor.What is the “Super Congress” you ask? It’s a creation of the Boehner/Reid plan: a Congress-within-a-Congress which the Senate cannot filibuster nor the Speaker of the House control.In other words, by design it is superior to either legislative body set forth in the Constitution (which means it is but one loony Democrat away from being a rogue congress, bent on usurping every right Americans have enjoyed since our Founding).If you think I’m engaging in hyperbole here, consider this – once the debt bill had passed and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was trying to calm conservative nerves about the limited scope of the newly created congress, Reid was standing at a microphone saying: “[On the ‘Super Congress’] there are no constraints….They can look at any program we have in government, any program. … It has the ability to look at everything.”Did you catch that folks? The “Super Congress” can look at any program and “at everything.”(Unless you’ve been living under a rock, your gut reaction to the news that the “Super Congress” can look “at everything” should make you want to stockpile guns and ammo, so you have plenty to hide when they come looking for both.)No wonder Gun Owners of America (GOA) was sounding an alarm as the debt bill moved toward a final vote on Tuesday. They warned us that the “Super Congress” could pass gun control where there is neither filibuster nor Speaker of the House to intervene, and then “22 liberal Republicans can join the Congressional Democrats and the President in closing the gun show ‘loophole,’ banning semi-automatic weapons, creating a national handgun registration, or ordering state gun laws moot.” (Keep in mind there are plenty of John McCain’s out there in the Republican Party who’d cross the aisle in a heartbeat to shut down gun shows.)The “Super Congress” will be comprised of six Democrats and six Republicans. And according to Reid, it’s important that these twelve come “with minds willing to consider every option” (which is political-speak for “Republicans need to shut up and get with the Democrat program”).Added Reid: “Cooperation is the only way forward. Compromise is the only way forward.”I couldn’t disagree more. Compromise is what got us in this mess in the first place. I’d rather see the House, led by the Tea Party, stand up and say “this far and no further.”As for the rest of us, if the “Super Congress” does indeed turn their attention toward our guns, I believe the late Charlton Heston put it best when he held up his rifle over his head and uttered the words, “from my cold dead hands.”Hmmmm......First there were Tsars ,then came the Super Sovjet ....Finally the Gulags were filled?The day America turned in to a communist dictatorship .Read the full story here.

• China: Obama Has Failed To Defuse ‘Debt Bomb’,Chinese Govt downgrades the United States’ credit rating from A+ to A, with a negative outlook.(BigPeace).BEIJING: China warned Wednesday that tortured efforts to raise the US debt ceiling had failed to defuse Washington’s “debt bomb”, and that it would further diversify its currency holdings away from the dollar.US President Barack Obama finally signed an emergency austerity bill on Tuesday that averted what would have been a catastrophic debt default for the world’s biggest economy.But a failure to rein in US borrowing could “jeopardise the well-being of hundreds of millions of families within and beyond the US borders”, the official Xinhua news agency said in a blistering commentary on the deal.“The months-long tug of war between Democrats and Republicans…failed to defuse Washington’s debt bomb for good, only delaying an immediate detonation by making the fuse an inch longer,” the commentary said.“Meanwhile, the madcap farce of brinkmanship has disclosed yet another ticking bomb in the heartland of the sole superpower in the world — the crippling tendency to politicise the economics while trivialising the politics.”China, sitting on the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserves of around $3.20 trillion as of the end of June, is the largest holder of US Treasuries.Xinhua’s comments came as China’s central bank said it would continue to diversify its foreign currency investments, signalling growing concerns in Beijing over the US debt crisis and economic downturn.“China’s foreign exchange reserves will continue following the principle of diversified investment, enhancing risk management,” People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in a statement.“Large fluctuations and uncertainty in the US treasury bond market will affect the stability of international monetary and financial systems, which will hurt global economic recovery.”The statement, in which he also welcomed the plan, was the first official response to the deal to raise to the limit on US borrowing and enact at least $2.1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.“We will further study and pay close attention to the details of the plan in hopes the US government and Congress adopts responsible policy measures to properly deal with the debt problem,” he added.Also Wednesday, Xinhua said Chinese rating agency Dagong, which has links to the government through its chairman, had downgraded the United States’ credit rating from A+ to A, with a negative outlook.Dagong has made a name for itself by hitting out at its three Western rivals — Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor’s — saying they caused the financial crisis by failing to properly disclose risk.Hmmmm........Confucius say: Man with head up ass, can't see for shit. Read the full story here.

• Ten Questions Ambassador Ford Should Have Been Asked.(WeeklyStandard).By Elliot Abrams).The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s confirmation hearing of Robert S. Ford, a first rate foreign service officer now serving as ambassador to Syria under a recess appointment, was held Tuesday, August 2nd. If the United States is to have an ambassador in Damascus, Ford is an excellent man for that post. But the senators should use the confirmation process to extract a far better understanding of U.S. policy toward Syria. Because most of the Senate left town immediately after the debt limit vote, only one actually attended the Ford hearing—meaning that it was not a serious examination of American policy toward Syria and Ford's role in it. Here are a few questions worth posing, in writing, before the committee votes on Ford's nomination.

1) Why does the United States not call for Assad’s departure, given that we did call for that of our long-time ally Hosni Mubarak? Doesn’t the refusal to call for an end to the Assad mafia’s rule in Syria convey the wrong message to Syrians—a message of uncertainty, wavering, and indecision? Is it not clear to you that the Assad family must have zero role in Syria’s future if the country is ever to emerge from the current nightmare? If that is clear, why not say it?

2) Doesn’t it seem that the longer the violence goes on the greater the chance of sectarian conflict? If that is so, isn’t the obvious conclusion that Assad must go sooner rather than later? Again, then why not say so?

3) What is the United States doing at the United Nations, with Turkey, and with Arab countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Iraq to support a regime change in Damascus now?

 4) As your movements in Syria are restricted, should the United States not immediately impose equal limits on the movements of the Assad ambassador here, Imad Mustapha? What ability do you now have to get out of Damascus?

5) Can you think of a symbolic action the United States might realistically take that would more clearly demonstrate our break with Assad and his clan, and would more clearly show that we want him out, than recalling our ambassador?

6) Your visit to Hama was the most effective action you’ve taken in the few months you have been at post. If the Assad government is now going to prevent you from repeating that visit, why should you stay in Syria?

7) As we assume your every movement is covered by the Syrian secret police and every visitor to the embassy is noted by them, can you actually engage with the opposition to the Assads? Has it become too dangerous for them to meet with you? If that is so, why should you stay in Syria?

8) Whether you are confirmed or not, you are now stationed in Damascus and don’t believe you should be recalled. Tell us when an ambassador should be recalled. Your movements are limited and your embassy has been attacked. Isn’t that enough? If they attack the embassy again, would that do it?

9) According to news reports in late April, an American diplomat was detained, hooded, and “roughed up” despite his diplomatic immunity. How did the United States respond to this? Another demarche? Again, given that the embassy has been attacked and a member of its staff has been illegally detained and assaulted, when do we rightly say, “enough is enough,” and pull the ambassador? If we do not, isn’t the lesson that such conduct may be conducted with impunity?

10) The president justified the NATO military effort in Libya by saying, “we saw the prospect of imminent massacre . . . Had we not acted along with our NATO allies and regional coalition partners, thousands would have been killed.” But in Syria we are seeing such massacres, now at about 2,000 people and climbing very fast. What can the United States do to prevent Assad from provoking sectarian violence? What can we do to reassure Christians, Druze, Kurds, and Alawites that they will not be targeted if a Sunni-led government wins power, or persuade Sunni groups to offer many more and more persuasive reassurances?Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.Read the full story here.

• Police are trying to defuse a 'Collar bomb' that has been strapped to a teenage girl in Sydney's exclusive Mosman.(DailyTelegraph).THE investigation into a Mosman bomb incident is now being headed by the robbery and serious crimes squad, which also deals with extortion attempts. Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch did not confirm whether the 18-year-old girl was a victim of an extortion attempt - instead he said police were still unsure what they were dealing with."We don't know what we are dealing with...we are working very hard to find out exactly what it is, and equally important, what it isn't," Mr Murdoch said.He said the girl was extremely calm despite the ordeal, with specialist officers with her.Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch described the situation as a "very serious and sensitive matter"."We are still treating the suspicious package as live," he said."I can't confirm whether it is strapped to the woman involved but she is still in the vicinity of the device."When asked whether the girl could move away from the bomb, Mr Murdoch said: "No, she can't get away from it."Mr Murdoch said police had to "hasten slowly" in a situation as delicate as this.The drama unfolded at 2.40pm Wednesday afternoon when an 18-year-old girl called police to the mansion in Burrawong Avenue, Mosman 'following discovery of a suspicious device'.It was not clear how the device came to be strapped to the girl but it is understood she did not place it there herself.A senior police police officer described the device as an unusual 'collar bomb' which has never been seen before in Australia.He said they believed it was an extortion attempt and that the initial details of the situation were being conveyed to police via the girl's father.The girl, who is part of one of Sydney's wealthiest families is understood to be 'absolutely petrified'.Police believe the ransom note is attached to her neck but bomb experts have been unable at this point to read its contents.Police cordoned off the house and a command post has been set-up on the corner of Burrawong Ave and David Street.Police Bomb Squad officers are currently examining the device, while other emergency services are in support at the scene with the teen's parents.A third police rescue vehicle has entered the crime scene, as well as a number of detectives.The girl is only in Year 12 and is believed to be studying her HSC this year. She celebrated her 18th birthday three weeks ago.Her parents are outside the home comforting each other. Police said they could not elaborate except to say a 'delicate operation' was in progress. Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch described the operation as a "very painstaking" one."The device we are examining is proving a tough nut to crack and we are trying to determine what it is and what it isn't," he said.Four police officers, including specialist negotiators, were with the girl all afternoon.Not even the panic-stricken parents have been able to talk to their daughter."The officers with her are doing their utmost to keep her calm," Mr Murdoch said."It is extremely tough for her but she's holding up very well."The parents are doing it even tougher than she is...they are certainly parents who care a great deal about their daughter."Read and see (Video).the full story here.

• Updated - Heiress, 18, safe after ten-hour battle to remove collar bomb 'balaclava-clad intruder locked around her neck'.(DailyMail).An Australian schoolgirl who spent more than 10 hours with a bomb strapped to her by a hooded intruder who broke into her house was reunited with her parents tonight after a dramatic rescue.Police bomb disposal experts, who had sought advice from British military authorities as they delicately worked to free Madeleine Pulver from the explosive package that had been attached to her, finally freed her from her terrifying ordeal - into the arms of her relieved mother and father. The 18-year-old girl had been startled by the balaclava-clad intruder who left the device attached to her - as well as leaving, it is believed, a ransom note for her wealthy parents. Her father, William, is the CEO of an internet share dealing company, called Nielsen Net Ratings and is said to be one of the richest men in Australia.Her mother, Belinda, 51, has a top-notch landscaping company. The family has recently moved back from New York.Today's drama was played out in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Mosman - home of multi-millionaires, sports figures, stockbrokers and bankers.Police assistant commissioner Mark Murdoch admitted last night in the minutes after the girl was released from the device that bomb squad officers still did not know how dangerous it was.But he indicated that it was not a fake device. 'It was examined right away for explosives and the delicate action we have taken in regard to it shows how serious the situation was,' he said.Mr Murdoch said neither he nor the trained bomb squad officers had seen a device like it before.'It is a very elaborate device and remains so. Our bomb technicians are one of the best in the world and it has taken them more than 10 hours to remove it.'The tension that had been on Mr Murdoch's face throughout the afternoon and evening in Australia fell away last night when he announced at midnight that 'minutes ago we have secured the release of the young lady and she is safe and sound. She has been reunited with her parents.'The privately-schooled girl, who had just returned home from a family trip to New York, was due to be examined by doctors overnight.'She's in good hands, with mum and dad,' Mr Murdoch told a press conference today.'They're the most important people for her to be with right now.'The family has endured something no one needs to endure and, as a parent, something I could never contemplate.'There was speculation that the intruder entered the house, attached the explosives to the girl and left a ransom note, but there was no official confirmation of this as the operation to establish just how dangerous the device was continued into the evening in Australia.Burrawong Avenue, Mosman, where the drama is being played out, is home to Australian racing identity Gai Waterhouse and ex-Wallaby rugby players Phil Kearns and John Eales.The young woman's parents were outside the house comforting one another.Police were scouring other 'items' inside the house while they moved Miss Pulver to the front part of the building.There were some suggestions that the drama mirrored a scene from the horror movie Saw and an episode of the CSI crime show.Read the full story here.

• Obama Regime Wants Changes to Arms Export Licensing Process… To Export More Arms.(BlacklistedNews).The Obama administration is proposing to shift tanks, trucks and other military vehicles currently controlled on the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the less-restrictive U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) by year’s end as part of a broader effort to reform the U.S. arms export licensing process.The licensing process governs foreign sales of sensitive U.S. technologies to other countries, including commercial communications satellites. Under a proposed federal rule issued July 15, the Commerce Department would implement a new regulatory framework for the transfer of defense articles that the president determines no longer warrant control under the Arms Export Control Act, which governs the State Department-administered USML.As a first step, a rewrite of an initial tranche of items — U.S. tanks, trucks and other military vehicles contained within Category VII of the USML — is to be complete by year’s end, according to a senior administration official.Hmmmm.......Muslim Brotherhood and Al-qaida orderbook adapted to the new rules?Read the full story here.

• "Blasphemy"?U.S. Move to Create Envoy for Religious Freedom Seen as Meddling by Islamists.(CNSNews).A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to establish a special envoy to promote religious freedom in parts of the Middle East and South Asia is causing ripples in Egypt, where a Muslim Brotherhood leader says the decision amounts to more U.S. “interference” in Egypt’s affairs.Concerns about the plight of Egypt’s Christian minority – along with those in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular – featured prominently in hearings leading up to the passage of the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act on Friday.The Senate has yet to vote on a related measure, but passage is considered likely. The Senate bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) and co-sponsored by a Republican and two Democrats.The legislation calls for the president to appoint an envoy, serving within the State Department at the ambassadorial level, to promote religious freedom for minorities in specified countries in the Middle East and South and Central Asia, recommending appropriate responses to violations.The envoy will also be expected to support minority communities, to work with governments abroad to address discriminatory laws, and to represent the U.S. government in contacts with foreign governments and organizations including the United Nations.Since the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak, Coptic Christians and churches have come under attack and faced harassment and threats, prompting fears for the future as elections draw nearer.On Tuesday, the vice president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and Justice Party,” Rafiq Habib, criticized the plan to appoint an envoy.The Muslim Brotherhood Web site cited him as saying that U.S. lawmakers’ concerns for the safety of Copts and other minorities in Egypt were uncalled for and that Egyptians were “capable of handling their affairs without external interference.”Habib was quoted further as saying that “the people will no longer accept meddling in their affairs and will not accept other entities to dictate for them how to decide for their future.”Passage of the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act followed hearings of the congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in January and March focusing on persecution of Christians in Egypt and Iraq as well as other religious minorities including Baha’is and Ahmadis in Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere.The legislation names 31 mostly Muslim-majority countries – 18 in the Near East and 13 in South and Central Asia – where the envoy should focus his or her attention, but calls for priority to be given to four countries – Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.The text also refers briefly to anti-Semitism, citing “Holocaust glorification” in Middle East media.Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who authored the bill, said persecution of Christians was rampant in Afghanistan and Pakistan – “countries where the United States has invested its treasure and the lives of countless brave American soldiers.”Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) called the fate of Egypt’s Christian minority “the bellwether of the rights for religious minorities in the Middle East.”Lead Democratic sponsor Rep. Anna Eshoo (Calif.), a Chaldean Catholic, said that “as the daughter of Assyrian and Armenian immigrants who fled the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East, it’s terrifying to see history repeating itself in today’s Iraq. I'm hopeful that the special envoy created by this legislation will elevate the crisis of the Middle East’s religious minorities, giving them the diplomatic attention they so badly need and deserve.”The 31 countries identified in the religious freedom legislation are:In the Middle East – Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, as well as the West Bank and Gaza; and in South and Central Asia – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.Many of those countries are considered by religious freedom advocates to be among the most dangerous places to be a Christian or other religious minority.On the 2011 Open Doors USA’s World Watch list, 12 of the top 20 countries named are among those cited in the legislation. They are – in descending order of the assessed level of persecution – Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Turkmenistan, Qatar and Egypt.Of Christian Freedom International’s list of the top 10 countries where persecution takes place, seven are named in the measure – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.Hmmmm.......Good luck with that, let us know how 'interfaith dialog' works out..Read the full story here.

• AG Holder wants to keep secrets in FBI lawsuit.(Forbes).LOS ANGELES -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has invoked state secrets rules to prevent information from being released in a lawsuit filed by Southern California Muslims who claim the FBI monitored their activities solely because of their religion.In a legal declaration filed late Monday, Holder makes a rare assertion of the state secrets privilege, arguing that it could cause significant harm to national security if the government is forced to reveal the subjects of a mosque-surveillance operation in 2006 and describe how the monitoring was carried out.The key informant in the case, Craig Monteilh, turned against the FBI and described how his agency handlers taught him to ingratiate himself into the Orange County Muslim community then secretly gather cell phone numbers, email addresses and record conversations.Monteilh claims the FBI even told him to talk openly about jihad in an attempt to solicit terrorist sentiments from community members. But instead of responding to his violent rhetoric, mosque-goers called the FBI to say they were worried about his statements.Holder's declaration came in a motion to dismiss the bulk of a lawsuit filed against the FBI in February by the ACLU of Southern California and the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Many of the allegations were based on Monteilh's claims.The FBI has said it does not initiate counterterrorism operations based solely on a group's religion.In its filing, the agency said a range of details Monteilh provided for Operation Flex remain properly protected counterterrorism investigative information."This includes ... precisely what that investigation entailed and why it was undertaken, the identity of particular subjects, and the reasons they were investigated," the document states.Holder goes on to argue that if individuals knew they were under surveillance, they could "anticipate the actions of law enforcement and intelligence officers, possibly leading to counter-surveillance that could place federal agents at higher risk."The Department of Justice said in a statement Tuesday it conducted a thorough review "to provide greater accountability for the use of privilege" by invoking it only in seeking dismissal of Monteilh's claims of illegal electronic surveillance."Officials specifically looked for a way to allow this case to proceed while carving out national security information, and concluded that some information about the allegations could be made available without compromising sensitive national security information," the statement said.ACLU attorney Peter Bibring said it was extremely unusual for the government to invoke the state secrets privilege, especially in a domestic case being investigated by a domestic law enforcement agency. The secrecy rules are usually only requested in extraordinary matters overseas, such as the targeted killing by drones or extraordinary rendition."The government's position here is the FBI's conduct should be beyond the review of the courts, which would render the protections of the constitution meaningless," Bibring said. "Following the government's argument, any domestic law enforcement operation deemed to effect national security would be beyond review."Bibring said the ACLU would oppose the government's motion.Read the full story here.

• How US Muslims feel about America.(Politico).The overwhelming majority of American Muslims say they are not sympathetic with terror groups like al Qaeda, but they identify less strongly with the United States than other religious groups in the country, according to a new poll on Tuesday.While 69 percent of American Muslims identify either very strongly or extremely strongly with the U.S., that compares with about 90 percent of Christians and Jews in the U.S. who hold those views, the Gallup survey found.A full 91 percent of Protestants, 89 percent of Catholics, 86 percent of Jews and 92 percent of Mormons say that they identify either very strongly or extremely strongly with the U.S.American Muslims and Mormons tend to identify with their faith and the U.S. equally, but Catholics, Protestants and Jews all said that they identified more with their country than with their religion, Gallup said.Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, American Muslims have been in the spotlight for a variety of reasons, many of them associated with prejudice toward Muslims as supporters of terrorism.An overwhelming number – 92 percent – of American Muslims said that Muslims in this country are not sympathetic toward al Qaeda, but that number was significantly lower among other religious groups with 56 percent of Protestants, 63 percent of Catholics and 70 percent of Jews saying that American Muslims do sympathize with the organization.And Tuesday’s poll echoed that experience, with nearly half of American Muslims saying they had experienced religious or racial discrimination within the past year. About one-third of Mormons said that they had faced discrimination, compared to only one-fifth of Jews, Catholics and Protestants.American Muslims also overwhelmingly said that they opposed military attacks on civilians, with 78 percent saying that such attacks are never justified and 21 percent saying they are sometimes justified. In other religious groups – except Mormons – the proportion saying such attacks are sometimes justified is twice that.The poll found that Muslim in the U.S. were broadly critical of American foreign policy, with 83 percent of American Muslims saying the war in Iraq was a mistake, which, except for Jews and atheists, was about twice as high a number than other religious groups.Unlike other religious groups in the U.S., Muslims said that widely unfavorable views of the U.S. in predominantly Islamic countries was caused by U.S. actions and not misinformation spread by those countries’ governments. Two-thirds of Muslim Americans said they believed that U.S. actions had tarnished its reputations, while about 70 percent of Protestants, Catholics and Mormons blamed the unfavorable views on misinformation.Hmmmm.......So much for 'outreach to Muslims'.Read the full story here.

• Punishing Success.Why Obama’s economy won’t improve.(NatReview).By Mona Charen.It’s not that the president wants to hurt the country, it’s that he believes the government accomplished the best things this country has ever done. “We do big things,” he said in his State of the Union address in January. But when enumerating those things, he focused on the things government has done — building the interstate highway system, setting up the Internet, funding education (oh, do we ever fund education!). And that’s what he wants more of.The president is dazzled by the vision of those shiny high-speed trains — and by solar panels, electric cars, and other pet projects that have caught his imagination. What he has been unwilling to do is permit the vast private sector to make its own decisions — to follow its own ideas. Instead, the administration has been saddling the private sector with a stifling load of regulations. The burden of Obamacare, most of which does not take effect until 2014, is mostly in the realm of fear and uncertainty. Employers do not know how much each new hire will cost under the new health-care regime. Nor can they estimate how the 129 new boards, commissions, and agencies will affect the business world. Meanwhile, the EPA is regulating carbon dioxide as an air pollutant. The National Labor Relations Board is attempting to prevent the Boeing Corporation from opening a new plant in South Carolina. The FCC is seeking to exert control over Internet commerce through the deceptively named “net neutrality” policy. The Department of Labor is strictly enforcing racial and gender quotas. And the Federal Reserve, along with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (created by the Dodd-Frank law) is practically freezing small-business lending. This president has spun fantasies about the industries of tomorrow, while punishing the industries of today. His fulminations against “millionaires and billionaires” and his wrath about “corporate jets” betray a fundamentally childish urge to punish success. Under his economic stewardship, there is less and less of that around.Hmmmmm.........Oh look a unicorn!Read the full story here.

• Fogel family murderer convicted.(Ynet).Hakim Awad confesses in court to murder of five members of Fogel family, says threatened to commit another murder to get family members to help conceal weapons, clothes.The Samaria District Military Court on Tuesday convicted Hakim Awad, 18, in the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar five months ago.Awad was also convicted in a series weapons-related and security offences. The trial of second defendant Amjad Awad is still ongoing separately as the two are testifying against each other.Awad corrected the presiding judge several times as he read out the details of the indictment to which he confessed. The defendant noted that the Fogel children looked at him and Amjad through the house blinds, and not the other way around.Awad also said that his relatives were initially outraged to learn of the murders, and even beat him and Amjad before they helped them conceal the weapons. He noted that when their uncle refused to help the two, he threatened to go back to Itamar to commit another murder.Only then did the uncle agree to help conceal their weapons and blood-soaked clothes, Awad said. He did not show any emotion during the arraignment and confession. Despite the confession, the judges decided to examine some of the prosecution's evidence, primarily forensic evidence such as as finger prints and DNA, before announcing the conviction, in order to verify that the confession matches the findings.Presiding Judge Menachem Lieberman explained: "The reason behind the decision is that the event in question caused shock both in Israel and abroad and there is an element of suspicion – however ludicrous this may sound – that a person will claim responsibility for an act he did not commit for the sake of 'glory'."The judges eventually convicted Awad in five cases of murder after examining the evidence. The defendant's attorney Raed Erda said that after receiving the evidence and in light of his client's confession he had no choice but to plea a confession in court.The court will discuss sentencing arguments in September and will hear testimonies from the Fogel family. The prosecution has mentioned in the past that it will not seek the death penalty.Hmmmmm........May God have mercy on his victims and a swift justice for their killer.Read the full story here.

• "Does seize matter?"Kingdom Tower to pip reigning champ Burj Khalifa by 173m.(Emirates24/7).The US-headquartered architectural practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has revealed the design for the Kingdom Tower, which is to be the world’s tallest building at 1 kilometre height.Construction of the 1km-high building in Jeddah to start soon.It will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). At over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah.The developer, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process, which included SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster+Partners. Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently, said a statement from AS+GG. Foundation drawings are complete while the piling is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion. AS+GG’s design is both highly technological and distinctly organic, said the practice.“With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it,” said Smith in a statement. The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth. “The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology," added Gordon Gill.In addition, each of the tower's three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea. The complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall and other amenities. Kingdom Holding Company is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.Read the full story here.

• Egypt's Hosni Mubarak appears in court.(Al-Jazeera). (Video).Former president and sons plead not guilty to charges including corruption and murder.Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, has appeared in court to face charges of corruption and the unlawful killing of protesters during the revolution that forced him from power."I categorically deny all the charges," Mubarak said at the trial, held in the capital Cairo, on Wednesday. The ousted president spoke from a hospital stretcher where he lay inside a cage for defendants in the court.His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are also on trial for corruption, denied the charges against them as well. They accompanied their father in the defendants' cage during the trial.Mubarak was flown to Cairo for the trial from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where he has lived since his removal from power.Wednesday marks his first public appearance since he was toppled in the popular uprising on February 11. The former president's trial, in a temporary court at the police academy in Cairo, is being screened live on Egyptian state television."This is the first time that an Arab leader ousted by his own people is being put on trial by his own people," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported from outside the court in the capital."Mubarak is looking very alert," Tadros said."He has dyed his hair black as we normally see him. He is in a bed of course, but I think it will come as somewhat of a surprise to everyone - especially given the reports of his deteriorating and ailing health - that he does look so well and alert at this trial."With the case still in its procedural stages, "the senior judge Ahmed Refaat is trying to keep everyone calm and trying to maintain a semblance of authority," Tadros said."He is known as a very authoritative senior figure in the judicial system, he is known also for being very fair and not tied to the old regime."Read and see the full story here.

• UK - Muslim Boys gang are 'planning massive attack' at Belmarsh prison in revenge for Osama bin Laden killing.(Mirror).Governors at Britain’s top terror jail believe al-Qaeda extremists are planning a major attack as payback for Osama bin Laden’s death.Security has been stepped up to “unprecedented” levels at Belmarsh prison after warnings that the Muslim Boys gang is plotting a revenge mission. A 15-strong riot squad in stab-proof vests has hidden around the jail’s chapel during Muslim prayers on Fridays in case of an attack.Another team of officers has been on standby ready to assist.Prisoners on House Block One, which includes 39 terror suspects, added to the tension by staging a mass show of defiance on Friday.Inmates refused to return to their cells and a source says “staff very nearly lost control of the jail”.The standoff was only ended when officers brandished batons and demanded a retreat as they marched towards the prisoners.The source said: “It’s a powder keg waiting to go off.“There are concerns it will take an officer’s death before the Muslim Boys are tackled seriously.“The levels of security being employed are unprecedented.Management are worried the Muslim Boys are planning an incident in Bin Laden’s honour on a scale never seen before.“Security around the past three Friday prayers has been massive.”The prayers at the Category A prison in South-East London are attended by high profile terror figures including hook-handed preacher of hate Abu Hamza.The Muslim Boys, a splinter group of al-Qaeda, are thought to have been plotting since Bin Laden was killed by US troops in May.Read the full story here.

• Lenient Courts?German Justice Slammed in Honor Killing Study.(Spiegel).What drives families to commit 'honor killings?' Who are the killers and where do they come from? A new study commissioned by the German police has found that the killers are almost always first-generation immigrants from poor backgrounds, that cases aren't increasing and that courts are making mistakes in their handling of them.In March 2009, 20-year-old Gülsüm S. was killed by her father and her brother. The men hit her in the face with branches and pieces of wood in an assault so brutal that it was difficult to identify her body. The Kurdish woman had to die because she was no longer a virgin. Because she had had an abortion. Because the family felt dishonored by her actions.In 2005, Hatan Sürücu was killed with several shots to the head -- fired by her brother.Who are the killers? Why do they kill? How does the German justice system punish them?

A study by the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, which has been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE ahead of its release, provides the most comprehensive overview yet of so-called "honor killings" in Germany. The researchers investigated 78 cases with 109 victims and 122 perpetrators.Commissioned by the German Criminal Police Office (BKA), criminologists Dietrich Oberwittler and Julia Kassel spent three years researching "honor-related homicides in families and partnerships between 1996 and 2005."The 250-page document outlines crimes of staggering brutality, such as the 22-year-old Turkish man who killed his younger sister by stabbing her 46 times because she had separated from her husband. Or the Jordanian whose underage daughter had to die because she rejected her boyfriend.The researchers pored over court documents and BKA files, and combed through newspaper archives. "There has never been such an empirical overview of honor-related killings in Germany," said Oberwittler, the head of the research team.

The study refutes a widely-held view that the number of honor killings in Germany is increasing. While the numbers vary from year to year -- there were two in 1998 and 12 in 2004 -- the average has remained at between seven and 10 cases per year. The huge spike in media coverage of such cases has created the false impression that they are on the rise, the researchers say.Virtually all such homicides are linked to the "lack of female submission to the control of a patriarchal family will," the study says. The woman's choice of partner is supposed to be a matter for the family. If she resists, she is seen as besmirching the "honor" of her parental home.

 The researchers distinguish between four types of cases:

■The victim's failure to stay in a "legitimate" partnership by being unfaithful, planning to separate or actually separating. In 43 of the cases examined, this was the motive for the killing.

■An "illegitimate" partnership by the victim such as a premarital sexual affair or pregnancy. Or a partnership with the "wrong" person. This was the motive in 25 of the 78 killings investigated.

■A victim's desire for independence. An excessively "western lifestyle," or a refusal to adhere to family traditions regarding family and marriage. This was the motive cited behind 20 killings.

■Other reasons that don't fit in the above three categories, such as the rape of a woman which is seen as having brought shame on the family. The researchers looked into eight such cases.

In many cases several people, mostly family members, committed the killings together. At first sight, the large number of male victims is surprising. A total of 43.1 percent of honor killing victims were men. However these were in most cases "additional" victims that were killed alongside the "actual," female victims. That means that the killers were targeting a woman and killed her friend/partner/lover at the same time.Most of the victims were young. More than half were aged betweem 18 and 29. Seven percent of victims were underage, the remainder were 30 and over.The killers tend to be older, with 32 percent aged 40 and over. Most of them -- 76 of 122 -- were of Turkish descent. People from Arab states and from the former Yugoslavia come a distant second and third.Fewer than 10 percent of the killers were born in Germany and only 7.6 percent had German citizenship. Honor killings are hardly ever committed by second or third-generation immigrants. This, says Oberwittler, is a sign "that integration is working in Germany. The problem of honor killings is serious, but limited."More than a third of the killers were unemployed. Most of the remainder were poorly educated and in manual jobs.The study says German courts are in many cases failing to adhere to the ruling by the Federal Court of Justice that honor killings be treated as having "base motives," which tends to lead to more severe sentences. But in fact, base motives were only determined for 28 out of the 87 people convicted. In around 40 percent of cases, the honor killing aspect wasn't even addressed. In 15 cases, the judge even deemed the "honor" motive as a cause for leniency. "Those are mostly cases in which the family environment exerted a lot of pressure on individuals. Younger perpetrators have been influenced in that way. They are often people who haven't been in Germany long," said Oberwittler. The research team based its study on strictly empirical research. But Oberwrittler is aware that the results could fan prejudice against immigrants in Germany. That is why he stresses: "Such crimes are almost exclusively committed by a small, poorly integrated underclass. The 'honor killing' is in no way typical behavior for the Turkish community in Germany."Hmmmmm........Then why are there so many DIShonor killings in Turkey?Read the full story here.

• Turn It Down! Ex VP Jusuf Kalla Urges Volume Control for Noisy Indonesian Mosques.(theJakartaGlobe).A relatively quieter Ramadan may be in store this year after former Vice President Jusuf Kalla called on the Indonesian Council of Ulema to help control the volume of mosques’ call to prayer.“There is no other country in the world except Indonesia where the call to prayer is deafening,” he said in a speech on Saturday addressed to the council, also known as the MUI, that was broadcast by local television stations.“If [mosques] want to compete, they should do so based on the quality of the call to prayer, not the volume of their speakers.”Umar Shihab, one of the chairmen of the MUI, told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday that the council responded positively to Kalla’s advice.“We have to admit that there are many complaints about the loud calls to prayer during Ramadan, as if there is a competition,” Umar said.“Apart from that, some of them start calling for prayers an hour or two hour before the schedule, when it it’s better to be done just 30 minutes before,” he said.Umar said the MUI would ask mosques to heed the call and be more orderly.“It should not be about which one is the first or the loudest to call for prayer,” he said. “It should be about the quality of the prayer, because Islam is an orderly and beautiful religion.”Last December, the Praya District Court in West Nusa Tenggara sentenced an American man to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque’s loudspeaker during a prayer reading during Ramadan last year.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon: We Are Willing to Assist in Oil Drilling.(Memri).The Lebanese daily Al-Jumhuriya has reported that in a meeting with the Lebanese energy and water minister, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon said that Iran is willing to assist Lebanon in oil drilling.It should be mentioned that on July 17, Lebanon approved a memorandum of understanding between the energy ministries of both countries, which enables Iran to assist Lebanon in oil and natural gas drilling.Hmmmm......"It's a zionist plot"?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 16. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 16. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7 activity. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 112. Source : Here .

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

• Washington D.C. Friday prayers imam Muhammad Al-'Asi Takes part in IRAN on the International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace: Israel Is the Root Of Global Terrorism!  The International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace (http://www.peacetribune.com/), hosted by Tehran May 14-15, 2011, was attended by 100 foreigners and 300 local figures.  Among the conferees were  Washington D.C. Friday prayers imam Muhammad Al-'Asi ;senior Muslim cleric in Russia Umar Khazrat Idrisov; British-Islamic Relations Institute director Kamal Al-Halbawi, and Malaysian human rights activist Chandra Mozaffar. The Iranian officials included Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Tashkhiri, head of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, and Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Ahl-al-Bayt and deputy of international affairs in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.In his May 15 speech at the conference, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel the root cause and main pillar of global terrorism, and said that Tehran constantly stresses the need to overthrow it because the fight against terrorism requires attacks against the bases and symbols of global repression. Ahmadinejad warned at the conference that if Israel continued to exist, the region would be subject to many more decades of threats, occupation, and insecurity. Another cause of global terrorism, he said, was the coming to power of "unjust individuals" in the U.S. and in several European countries. At the same time, Ahmadinejad said that the regimes of the U.S. and its allies would collapse after Israel did, because they were the foundation of the Western world order – which he said would end in light of the awakening and steadfastness of the nations. The West, he maintained, is perpetrating economic terrorism as it loots the resources of Africa and Central America.It was reported that among the issues discussed at the conference were: theoretical principles of terrorism, the typology of terrorism, coordination of efforts in fighting terror, policies adopted by different governments to combat terrorism, real objectives of combating terrorism, terrorist groups, cultural terrorism, cyber-terrorism, media terrorism, and the role of media in fighting terror.Hmmmm......Whas he there with the approval of the Obama regime??Read the full story here.

• Transparent: Obama Official Refuses to Disclose Information About Executive Order on Transparency.(BigGovernment)How genuine can the President’s claims of transparency be when they won’t even discuss the most basic aspects of the people and process involved with the drafting of their Executive Order on transparency?Hmmmm....when will they realise they are dealing with a dictatorship?Read and see the full story here.

• Meet Obama’s New Energy Plan, Same as The Old Plan.(BigGovernment).There seemed to have been a collective sigh of relief across the country. After over two years of waging war on domestic energy production which helped to boost gas prices over four dollars/gallon ($4.58 in my neighborhood), President Obama announced a new energy plan that would allow an increase and acceleration of domestic energy production.Well…that’s until one examines his words. That’s when you realize that the POTUS left himself enough “outs” to make his plan worthless.I am directing the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic. We plan to lease new areas in the Gulf of Mexico as well, and work to create new incentives for industry to develop their unused leases both on and offshore.Oh great! Finally drilling at ANWR? Not on your life. The National Petroleum Reserve is not ANWR it’s next the desired drilling area. Kind of like telling a new president that instead of the White House he would have to live at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue.The President didn’t mention drilling in ANWR, he said “respecting sensitive areas,” which was a signal to the important environmentalist constituency, that he did not mean ANWR.One of Ken Salazar’s first acts as Secretary of Interior was canceling 77 Utah oil and gas leases that had gone through seven years of studies, negotiations and land-use planning. In an instant, he eliminated hundreds of jobs, terminated access to vital oil and gas deposits, and deprived taxpayers of millions in lease bonus, rent, royalty and tax revenues. In short he was making us more defendant on foreign oil instead of exploiting our reserves which are larger than any other country on this planet.What Obama’s Secretary of Interior did instead was to extend the environmental process. In January 2010, Secretary Salazar announced a new policy expanding environmental reviews before leasing federal lands to the oil and gas industry.There was no mention of changing this delaying policy in his words yesterday. Dooming any potential new oil reserves to years of federal roadblocks.There was also no mention by the President of our vast shale oil reserves.The Green River shale formation in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, has an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, which is three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. In the Bakken oil shale formation in the Dakotas, there are an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil.What seemed as an epiphany by President Obama yesterday was nothing of the kind, it was simply a collection of empty words, as was his earlier promise to lift his oil moratorium in the Gulf, which resulted only in decreased production and many of his other promises, such as his signature health plan not causing people change providers.So at least with his words on Saturday, President Obama’s new energy plan is “same as the old plan.”Hmmmm......Snake oil in different containers is still 'Snakeoil'!Read the full story here.

• FBI, DHS, NYPD pander to Muslims in Brooklyn – program will expand across U.S.(CreepingSharia). via Muslim Youths, Law Enforcement Bridge Gaps In Brooklyn « CBS New York.NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Federal law enforcement officials tried to break down barriers with the Muslim community in Brooklyn on Saturday, with a special program designed to foster a culture of understanding.When 17-year-old Bilal Amjad strapped on a bulletproof vest, he got more than just a feeling of security, reports CBS 2’s Kathryn Brown. He began to feel accepted.“There’s a lot of stuff on the news, that Muslim people are all bad – but we’re not all like that,” Amjad said.Amjad was one of several hundred Muslim youths attending a day-long, hands-on program with law enforcement agencies including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, New York State Police and the NYPD.Each side of the program was looking to break through stereotypes to keep communities together.“A lot of law enforcement probably look at us in a bad way, but we’re not like that,” Amjad said.“What we’re trying to do is to show them that they have opportunities in public service and government, and to show them the importance and respect that their faith has,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Timothy Flannery said.Many at the event said that too many times, the Muslim community and law enforcement officials interact only when reacting to a dangerous situation, and that has helped to foster tense relations.“This is why we’re building these bridges – because we want to close those gaps where they law enforcement feels, ‘oh, these are Muslim kids, and perhaps they might be thinking something.’” Mohammad Razvi, executive director of the Council of Peoples Organization, said.The program, he said, was an opportunity to bridge those gaps.“These are Americans kids – they stand in front of this American flag and say, ‘we are Americans,’” Razvi said.The event in Brooklyn was the first of its kind in the country, but organizers said they’re looking to expand to other areas soon, beginning with Washington, D.C.More than 500 kids, and a dozen mosques and schools, took part in Saturday’s program.Law enforcement hasn’t reached out ot any other demographic in the U.S. with this “first of its kind” program. There are programs for Americans, and then there are programs for Muslims in America. That’s how Islam works.The sponsoring group is new to us but they have co-sponsored events with the most notorious of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood linked groups and individuals in the U.S.Hmmmm....."We don't want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• Virginia inmate wins legal jihad, submits prison to all kinds of sharia.(CreepingSharia).The coup de grace for Virginia’s prison system (and taxpayers), losers of the legal jihad. The government prison system is now forced to provide:

•Muslim reading materials

•Muslim CDs and DVD’s

•$2,000

•$2,500 on Islamic library materials for the Greensville Correctional Center

•hire a Muslim inmate to work in the library

•inmates at Greensville will be allowed to donate religious materials to the library

•Al-Amin was even allowed to submit his own list of Islamic reading materials, movies and CDs

•department also agreed to allow Al-Amin to use his religious name

•allow inmates to assist in the preparation of religious meals

Everything a prison needs to be a jihad teaching factory. Even a sympathetic interviewee saw how bad the settlement was and provided the understatement of the day: “That’s a terrible settlement. It sets a very bad precedent.” Rashid Qawi Al-Amin succeeded where thousands of Virginia prison inmates before him have failed: He prevailed in a lawsuit against the government.Al-Amin won a settlement with the state that forces the prison system to supply him, and the Greensville Correctional Center library, with Muslim reading materials, CDs and DVDs. He’ll also receive $2,000.Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office decided to settle the seven-year legal battle after a series of court rulings in Al-Amin’s favor. The state admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement but did agree to perform eight different acts to satisfy Al-Amin’s claims.While prisons should allow access to any mainstream religion, he said, officials need to be aware of the separation of church and state.“Public funds should not be used to purchase sectarian materials,” he said.Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Department of Corrections, declined to discuss the specifics of the Al-Amin case, but he supplied The Virginian-Pilot with the department’s rules concerning the practice of religion by inmates.The department has a Faith Review Committee to review the validity of various religions that are recommended by the institutions to be recognized, he said.The state Attorney General Office, which defended Greensville and its food service contractor in the case, declined to comment but did provide the newspaper with a copy of the settlement.Hmmmm....Meanwhile in Brittain they realised that Prison is a breading ground for Islamic extremists.Read the full story here.

• Former Pakistani FM: Islamabad-Washington Ties Darkening.(FarsNews)."The relations between Pakistan and the US have reached their lowest levels these days," Qureshi told FNA on Monday, adding that there is a wall of mistrust between the two sides at present. Yet, the former Pakistani top diplomat stated that the current decline in the bilateral relations between the two countries would likely prove beneficial to the Pakistani people. "Nations make hard decisions in hard times," he continued. Qureshi also underscored that "betterment of ties between the two countries should take place on the basis of mutual respect".A senior Pakistani politician announced in April that Islamabad planned to lodge a complaint with the international bodies against the United States' drone attacks on its citizens. "The issue of the US drone attacks will be raised at human rights organizations and other relevant (international) bodies," member of Pakistan's National Assembly Ahsan Iqbal told FNA. "Pakistan will take legal action against the US over the issue," added Iqbal, who also speaks for the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N). The Pakistani lawmaker described the US drone attacks as "violation of Pakistan's sovereignty", and underlined that the entire Pakistani nation is against these attack. Earlier in April, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha urged Washington to stop air raids on Pakistan and end the US espionage operations in the country. The issue was raised by Shuja Pasha in a meeting with Leon Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Political observers had warned that if the US ignores Islamabad's abovementioned demands, the Pakistani Army and the ISI's possible reaction would likely include an end to Islamabad's cooperation with the US. Read the full story here.

• Pakistan increased it's Nuclear stockpile by 100-200%,why Pakistan's Nuclear Surge?(DailyBeast).Photos obtained by Newsweek reveal a more aggressive buildup than previously known. So why does Washington still stay mum? Andrew Bast on the White House’s thorny next steps. Plus, A. Q. Khan, the “father” of the Pakistan bomb, on why his nation deserves to have nuclear weapons.Even in the best of times, Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program warrants alarm. But these are perilous days. At a moment of unprecedented misgiving between Washington and Islamabad, new evidence suggests that Pakistan’s nuclear program is barreling ahead at a furious clip.According to new commercial-satellite imagery obtained exclusively by Newsweek, Pakistan is aggressively accelerating construction at the Khushab nuclear site, about 140 miles south of Islamabad. The images, analysts say, prove Pakistan will soon have a fourth operational reactor, greatly expanding plutonium production for its nuclear-weapons program.“The buildup is remarkable,” says Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security. “And that nobody in the U.S. or in the Pakistani government says anything about this—especially in this day and age—is perplexing.”Unlike Iran, which has yet to produce highly enriched uranium, or North Korea, which has produced plutonium but still lacks any real weapons capability, Pakistan is significantly ramping up its nuclear-weapons program. Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense in the George W. Bush administration, puts it bluntly: “You’re talking about Pakistan even potentially passing France at some point. That’s extraordinary.It’s dangerous because Pakistan is also stockpiling fissile material, or bomb fuel. Since Islamabad can mine uranium on its own territory and has decades of enrichment know-how—beginning with the work of nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan—the potential for production is significant.Although the White House declined to comment, a senior U.S. congressional official who works on nuclear issues told Newsweek that intelligence estimates suggest Pakistan has already developed enough fissile material to produce more than 100 warheads and manufacture between eight and 20 weapons a year. “There’s no question,” the official says, “it’s the fastest-growing program in the world.”For now, the White House appears to have made a tacit tradeoff with Islamabad: for your cooperation in Afghanistan, we’ll leave you to your own nuclear devices. “People bristle at the suggestion, but it follows, doesn’t it?” says Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, formerly the CIA’s chief officer handling terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. “The irony is that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the money we’re giving them to fight terrorism, could inadvertently aggravate the very problem we’re trying to stop. After all, terrorism and nukes is the worst-case scenario.”Hmmmm.....Or Obama and U.S. Foreign policy is the worst-case scenario?Pakistan ...Turkey.....Iran.Read the full story here.

• Why George Mitchell failed.(Jpost).By TawfikHamid.Special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, the man charged with reconciling the Israelis and Palestinians, resigned this weekend.Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader in the US, failed to achieve peace between the two sides. There’s no disgrace in that – the line of failed envoys is long and well-known. He successfully brokered peace in Northern Ireland, but couldn’t even get things started in the Middle East.The question is, why? Obviously, it’s impossible to solve a problem without addressing and treating its true cause. Approaching the Arab-Israeli conflict from the perspective that it is about land, so that giving more land to the Palestinians will solve the problem, is a failed endeavor.Israel has already given Egypt the whole of the Sinai, and got nothing in return except a cold peace and rising anti-Semitism in the country. Similarly the disengagement from Gaza did not magically lead to a decline in the wave of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.Pro-Palestinian Muslim demonstrators across the world repeatedly use the chant “Khyber Khyber Ya Yahood... Gaish Muhammad Sawfa Yaood,” which reminds the Jews that the army of Muhammad is coming back for a repeat of what was done to the Jewish Khyber tribe.According to authentic Islamic history books, the Islamic army, led by Muhammad, annihilated the Jewish tribe of Khyber, raping its women and killing all its men.Such barbaric statements against the Jews have been used by many in the Muslim world, and even inside the US and Europe. Sadly the chant was also used on Friday by thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.The Hamas charter also calls for the destruction of Israel. This violent principle has its roots in the traditional Islamic teaching, based on Hadith books, that encourages the killing of all Jews before the end of days.Until US envoys to the Middle East realize that the problem in the eyes of the Palestinians and their supporters is not the borders of Israel but the very existence of the country, all future missions will similarly fail. Solving the Arab-Israeli conflict must be done initially at the theological rather than the political level, as the former is impeding the latter.It is unfair to ask Israel to trust those who shamefully advocate the killing of Jews, and claim that Islamic annihilation of the Jews by an Islamic army is a model that must be emulated today.The problem is not only in the existence of violent teachings in historical Islamic texts, but also in the dangerous desire of many Islamists and violent Islamic scholars to revive such violence in modern times. Violent texts exist in other religions as well, but we do not generally see such destructive desire to use the texts to justify killing others, and we rarely hear about modern scholars of other faiths who advocate using such texts literally.The problem is that this disastrous anti-Semitic religious dimension is not limited to verses in books, but is also propagated by a powerful media machine that utilizes vicious, Nazi-style propaganda across the Muslim world. Publishing dehumanizing cartoons in the mainstream media, and blaming Jews for nearly every problem in the world has become much too common in the leading Arab media over the past few decades.It is virtually impossible to promote any form of peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict without reducing such levels of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.Until future envoys to the Middle East understand the religious dimension of the problem, and that the Arab- Israeli conflict is not about borders but about the existence of the state of Israel, all future attempts to make peace in the area will fail.The writer is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and a one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of the terrorist organization JI with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later became the second-in-command of al-Qaida. He is currently a senior fellow and chairman of the study of Islamic radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. www.tawfikhamid.com.Hmmmm.....The Problem is ISLAM Dummy!Read the full story here.

• International justice becoming a tool for settling scores – Russian constitutional judge.(RT).“Hailing US initiatives in the fields of fighting corruption, terrorism and drug trafficking, at the same time we have to admit that some of these initiatives enlarge the jurisdiction of American courts too much, almost to the whole of the world.” World powers more and more often use international justice as a means to settle personal scores, believes chairman of Russia’s Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin.He made the statement in his address at an international conference dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials in St. Petersburg.“Excessive use of the institutions of international justice can lead to a situation when such justice ceases to be an international arbitrator but turns into a mechanism in the hands of one of the superpowers or a group of powerful states,” he said. As a result, he believes justice can soon be substituted with “trivial settlement of scores in the form of court verdicts.”Specifically, Zorkin talked about the United States, which in his opinion attempts to extend its jurisdiction to other countries making them obey American laws.“Hailing US initiatives in the fields of fighting corruption, terrorism and drug trafficking, at the same time we have to admit that some of these initiatives enlarge the jurisdiction of American courts too much, almost to the whole of the world,” Zorkin added. In his opinion, national legislation can be replaced by international jurisdiction only in a case of collapse of national statehood.Returning to the main topic of the conference, he cited the example of Nazi Germany and said that was exactly the case when an international tribunal was needed. Read the full story here.

• Iran executes Jewish - American woman.(Ynet).Human rights agency claims Israel-born Adiva Soleyman Kalimia executed at Iranian prison on alleged counts of adultery last March. An Israel-born Jewish woman of Iranian descent and her Armenian Christian husband were executed in Iran over two months ago, an Iranian human rights group reported last Thursday. The Human Rights Activists News Agency claimed Adiva Mirza Soleyman Kalimia and her husband Varjan Petrosian were hung on March 14 at Evin Prison, known for its political prisoners' wing, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. The human rights group quoted the Iranian court's confirmation of the executions. Two other men and one woman who remained unidentified were also executed along with the couple. Relatives of the woman said they do not know why she was killed. Soleyman Kalimia was born in Jerusalem in 1956 to a Jewish family of Iranian descent. At one point she moved to Miami and eventually received US citizenship. According to her family, she had two passports: American and European. Her son lives in Europe. In the past few years, for reasons unknown to her family, Soleyman Kalimia began to visit Iran. She was able to enter and leave the country three times, before she was eventually arrested and sent to prison. The official cause for her arrest was adultery, from what little information that is known to her family. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Michael Posner, spoke before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last Wednesday, and discussed the human rights' situation in Iran.He mentioned that "a Jewish woman and her Armenian-Christian husband were reportedly executed based on undisclosed charges.Mass executions of mainly ethnic minority prisoners have been carried out without their families’ knowledge; Iran has executed at least 135 people this year."Hmmmm.....Scripture quoting President Obama silent about Iran,the buddy of Erdogan, who in his turn is Obama's buddy.Read the full story here.

• Report: Aspiring Islamic Dictator Turkey threatens to leave UN Gaza flotilla inquiry panel over 'Israel-favored' draft.(Haaretz).Turkey threatened Friday to drop out of a United Nations panel investigating Israel's deadly raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May last year, saying the wording of the draft report was in favor of Israel, Turkish daily Hürriyet reported. The report said that Ankara believed the panel was favoring the Israeli view, as its wording fell short of saying Israel violated international law when its naval commanders boarded the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish-sponsored Gaza-bound aid flotilla.“There is a crack on the panel. The talks are not going well," the Hürriyet Daily News reported a diplomatic source as saying, but added that the rough draft "is being worked on.” Israel and Turkey were both handed a draft of the UN report ahead of its intended public release this month, but Turkey's threat to disassociate itself from the report unless radical changes were made has delayed the announcement of the panel’s findings.UN Secretary-General Ban ki-moon set up the four-member review panel in August 2010. The panel is led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, who is also an expert in international maritime law, and includes one representative each from Israel and Turkey. The Israeli member of the panel is Joseph Ciechanover, former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Turkish member is Ozdem Sanberk, a former diplomat who held senior positions in the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the United Nations. The panel listened to the representatives for the last time late-April and was expected to make its findings public this month.Hmmmm......Is There no longer a rule of law within Turkey,jailing Journalists ,rejecting UN panel rulings?Read the full story here.

• Egyptian doctors fail to complete angioplasty on Mubarak’s wife after suspected heart attack.(Al-Arabia).Doctors failed to complete an angioplasty on the wife of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a state newspaper said on Monday, potentially prolonging a stay in hospital after anti-corruption authorities ordered Suzanne Thabet Mubarak’s detention.Al-Ahram newspaper cited medical officials as saying doctors at a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh had been due to undertake the angioplasty on Sunday evening.The report did not say why the catheter procedure had failed and did not give a date for any new attempt. Typically, an angioplasty procedure fails when arterial blockages are extremely severe.Angioplasty involves inserting a catheter from the groin to the heart in order to drill open arterial blockages. After blockages have been open, a stent is usually put in place in order to prevent restenosis, or regrowth of the plaque.An anti-corruption agency ordered on Friday that the former first lady be detained for 15 days to investigate charges she abused her husband’s influence for unlawful personal gain. The couple denies the charges.She was admitted to the hospital on Friday after suffering symptoms of a heart attack.It was unlikely Mrs. Mubarak would be transferred to a prison facility in the short term.“Preparing the Tora (prison) hospital (in Cairo) to receive critical cases could take months,” said Nazih Gadallah, who heads the prison service and is an aide to Egyptian Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy, in remarks broadcast by Al Arabiya.Read the full story here.

• Kenyan marathon star falls to death,or was it a coverup for murder?(Al-Jazeera).Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru dead after balcony plunge, as police say they are still investigating whether he jumped.Samuel Wanjiru, Kenya's Olympic marathon champion, has died after falling from the balcony of his home in the town of Nyahururu, Kenya, police say.Police said they were attempting to ascertain whether the 24-year-old Kenyan had deliberately killed himself by jumping off the balcony. They said that he had suffered internal injuries after the fall, late on Sunday, and was confirmed dead by doctors at a nearby hospital."I can confirm that Wanjiru is dead. It is not yet clear whether it was a suicide, if he jumped out of rage, or what caused him to fall to the ground," Jaspher Ombati, the regional police chief for the area, told Reuters.Nyahururu is located in the Rift Valley, some 150km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya's capital."He jumped from his first floor balcony to the ground. He was bleeding from the nose and the mouth, and may have suffered internal injuries," the police chief said."Doctors at the district hospital tried to resuscitate him in vain," said Ombati.Police say they are investigating the possibility of a 'love triangle' that could have been behind Wanjiru's death.Ombati said Triza Njeri, Wanjiru's wife, had come home on Sunday to find him in bed with another woman. She then locked the couple in the bedroom and ran outside.The police chief said that Wanjiru then leapt from the balcony. He added that Njeri and Wanjiru's companion are now assisting police in their investigation.Hmmm.....Yeah.....Whatevah!Read the full fairytale story here.