Iran: "Canada has the largest record of human rights violations."

Iran: "Canada has the largest record of human rights violations." (Fars).

The University Students Center of Iran's Human Rights Center condemned the recent approval of a UN human rights resolution against Iran, and called on the UN chief to increase his knowledge of the human rights situation in Iran.

The center wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after the UN General Assembly approved a resolution criticizing the human rights situation in Iran.

"We ask for your further attention and study about the human rights regulations in Iran and also Iran's cultural and social conditions in a bid to avoid the approval of such oppressive and inexpert resolutions in the future," the Iranian university students center said in the letter to the UN secretary general.

What is ridiculous about the UN resolution is that Ottawa that has sponsored the resolution has the largest record of human rights violations, the letter said, added, "Canada has always been the main supporter of the Zionist regime and it has conducted widespread and brutal crimes against the defenseless and oppressed Palestinian nation."

"There is no need to remind you (UN chief) that when the fully-armed Zionist regime was killing thousands of Palestinian women and children in the Gaza Strip and their human rights were being trampled upon in the most tragic and most systematic manner, the Canadian government was imprudently supporting the Zionist regime," it continued.

The letter noted that Canada is regarded as one of the most important violators of human rights both for the positions it has taken and for its actions, and reminded, "You surely remember the violation of the (human) rights of the native Indians in Canada…"

Canada has had a very bad track record of human rights and when it comes to the treatment of natives, most of the native Canadians suffer poor educational, economic and social conditions, and are among the poorest members of the Canadian society.

On December 21, 2012, the natives started demonstrations in Ottawa and several other cities to call for the protection of their rights. First Nations leaders denounced the policies of the Canadian government vis-à-vis the natives as oppressive.

Reports from Canada said that the natives underlined their intention to continue protests until the full restoration of their rights. Hmmmm......Canada wiped out the Dinosaurs as well....call PETA.

Canada - 'Idle No More' founders distance themselves from Native chiefs.

Canada - 'Idle No More' founders distance themselves from Native chiefs.(CC).

"Of course there are chiefs and people who show up at an event, get their picture taken and then they go back behind a desk,"

In a matter of weeks, a series of teach-ins on a small Saskatchewan reserve took on a life of their own - becoming a nationwide aboriginal protest movement.
But now it appears the rapidly growing Idle No More movement is experiencing its first real growing pains. On Monday, the founders of Idle No More issued a statement distancing themselves from Native chiefs who claim to be acting on behalf of the campaign.

"The Chiefs have called for action and anyone who chooses can join with them, however this is not part of the Idle No More movement as the vision of this grassroots movement does not coincide with the visions of the Leadership," said the statement, released on Idle No More's official website.

"While we appreciate the individual support we have received from chiefs and councilors, we have been given a clear mandate. to work outside of the systems of government and that is what we will continue to do."
The statement also says the Idle No More founders received word that aboriginal "leadership" had been "calling for action" in the name of the campaign, and that they claimed to have met with the representatives of the group who support this call. "We would like to state that this is FALSE," the statement reads.
Idle No More has been inextricably linked to a hunger strike led by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence. The northern Ontario chief hasn't eaten in three weeks and says she'll starve herself to death if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't agree to negotiate better living conditions for the nation's aboriginal people. The fast has garnered support among all of Canada's opposition parties. It has inspired blockades on highways throughout the country and ongoing disruptions to railroads in southern Ontario-including delays to over 2,000 passengers bound for Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa Sunday.
But the founders of Idle No More made it clear that while they recognize Spence's support and sacrifice, the movement is about all of Canada's aboriginal people not just its chiefs. Spence's hunger strike began after rallies, teach-ins and a national day of action organized on Dec. 10.
"Chief Spence decided she would fast on that day as part of her action to support the Idle No More movement. It is very important this history is known," the statement said. "We are very greatful for Theresa Spence's honourable and courageous support, we also need to remember the face of Idle No More is also the grassroots people."
Melissa Mollen Dupuis, who co-founded Idle No More's Quebec branch, said she's seen aboriginal leaders try to co-opt the movement because of its growing popularity within First Nations communities.
"Of course there are chiefs and people who show up at an event, get their picture taken and then they go back behind a desk," said Mollen Dupuis, a 34-year-old Innu artist. "But we know this is about all of us and not about them..Also it's worth noting that plenty of chiefs travel from far and wide just to give us support. We have our own internal governing problems on reserves but this is larger than any of that."
"(Idle no More) seems to be a rejection of aboriginal leadership, a rejection of local chiefs and chiefs on the national stage," said Daniel Salée, a professor at Concordia Univsersity's School of Community and Public Affairs. "People seem to feel as though their leaders aren't working in their best interest or that they simply aren't getting the job done.
"In some cases, communities have been negotiating land claims with the government for decades without any progress. People are fed up with the conventional way of doing things." Hmmmm......"Speaks with Forked tongue?"Read the full story here.

Cherokees travel to Mass for 'Pow Wow', but Elizabeth Warren refuses to meet them

Cherokees travel to Mass for 'Pow Wow', but Elizabeth Warren refuses to meet them.(BH).HT: LegalInsurrection.Four outraged Cherokee activists who say Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has ignored their emails and phone calls will trek to Boston this week in hopes they can force a meeting with the Democratic Senate candidate over her “offensive” Native American heritage claims.
“It’s almost becoming extremely offensive to us,” said Twila Barnes, a Cherokee genealogist who has researched Warren’s family tree. “We’re trying to get in contact and explain why her behavior hurts us and is offensive, and she totally ignores that. Like we don’t exist.”
Late last night, a Warren campaign official told the Herald that staffers will “connect” and “offer to have staff meet with them.” The four women, who Barnes said are all registered Cherokee tribal members — from Missouri, Oregon, Oklahoma and one within the Bay State — are due to arrive in Boston late today for four days. But they are closely guarding their itinerary, and Barnes would not say exactly what they have in mind. “We’re going to be visible. We have some things planned,” said Barnes, hinting: “It’s (Warren’s) birthday this week.” Politics isn’t a motivator, Barnes insisted. One of the women is a registered Democrat, and the other three are left-leaning independents, said Barnes, who said she voted for President Obama in 2008. “Everyone has put their political issues aside, because we feel we’re not going to sacrifice our integrity for a seat in Congress,” Barnes said. “She’s appropriating some history that we feel doesn’t belong to her,” Barnes said. “Minorities have experienced racism and when there’s interracial marriages, people do experience that sometimes. But people who are 1/16th of a minority probably don’t experience that and because she has no Indian ancestry ... but said her parents had to elope, that’s offensive.”Read the full story here.

Obama 'buddies' the UN to investigate plight of US Native Americans for first time.

Obama 'buddies' the UN to investigate plight of US Native Americans for first time.(Guardian).The UN is to conduct an investigation into the plight of US Native Americans, the first such mission in its history.
The human rights inquiry led by James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, is scheduled to begin on Monday.
Many of the country's estimated 2.7 million Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas which are plagued with unemployment, alcoholism, high suicide rates, incest and other social problems.
The UN mission is potentially contentious, with some US conservatives likely to object to international interference in domestic matters. Since being appointed as rapporteur in 2008, Anaya has focused on natives of Central and South America.
A UN statement said: "This will be the first mission to the US by an independent expert designated by the UN human rights council to report on the rights of the indigenous peoples."
Anaya, a University of Arizona professor of human rights, said: "I will examine the situation of the American Indian/Native American, Alaska Native and Hawaiian peoples against the background of the United States' endorsement of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples."
The US signed up in 2010 to the declaration, which establishes minimum basic rights for indigenous people globally.
Anaya said: "My visit aims at assessing how the standards of the declaration are reflected in US law and policy, and identifying needed reforms and good practices."Anaya's past record shows a deep sympathy with Native Americans' plight. In one development dispute, he told the council that the desecration of sacred sites was an urgent human rights issue.
The Tucson Sentinel reported in 2011 that he had testified to Congress on the need for the US to pass legislation that abides by the declaration.Hmmmm.......President Obama Acknowledges Need for Native American Apology. “These cases serve as a reminder of the importance of not glossing over the past or ignoring the past, even as we work together to forge a brighter future. That’s why, last year, I signed a resolution, passed by both parties in Congress, finally recognizing the sad and painful chapters in our shared history—a history too often marred by broken promises and grave injustices against the First Americans.“ The President continued, “It’s a resolution I fully supported—recognizing that no statement can undo the damage that was done; what it can do is help reaffirm the principles that should guide our future. It’s only by heeding the lessons of our history that we can move forward.”
The Apology to Native Peoples of the United States (Public Law 111-118, Section 8113) states that “the United States, acting through Congress: 
• Recognizes that there have been years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes;
• Apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by the citizens of the United States; and
• Urges the President to acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes in the history of the United States in order to bring healing to this land….”Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Philipines 5.9 - 6.0 ; Tonga 5.2 ; Turkey 5.0 ; Peru 5.0 !More info here.

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

• Britain Orders Immediate Closure of Iranian Embassy in London.(Fox).LONDON – Britain's foreign secretary William Hague said Wednesday that the UK was ordering the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and that Britain was closing down its embassy in Tehran."We require the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and for staff to leave the country," Hague told British lawmakers in a statement to parliament.Hague added that Iranian diplomats "must leave the United Kingdom within the next 48 hours."The closure follows the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday by hardline student protesters. All UK staff have now left Iranian soil, Hague confirmed.Hague said Britain's move to close the Iranian embassy did not amount to the complete severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries.He said despite Tuesday's attack, continued diplomatic communications between UK and Iran remained "desirable," but warned that the attack on Britain's embassy would not be tolerated."Such a flagrant breach of international responsibilities will not be tolerated," he said.Hmmm.....l'histoire se répète.Read the full story here.
• Update:Fars has pointed to Tehran's response, "The Foreign Ministry will declare soon that all UK diplomats will be expelled from Iran within hours."here.

• Palestinian Islamic Jihad Leader Hails Iranian Students for Raiding British Embassy.(FNA). TEHRAN - A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement praised the Iranian university students for their courageous occupation of the British embassy in Tehran, saying that it is natural for any given country to expel its enemies."It is natural for the Iranian nation, with the students at the top of them, to rise to clean this arrogant dirt from their country's soil," Ahmad al-Modallel told FNA on Wednesday. His remarks alluded to the thousands of angry university students who raided and occupied the British embassy in Tehran Tuesday night in protest at London's hostile policies against Iran. Modallel also blamed the British government for the homelessness and miseries of the Palestinian nation, and reiterated that given the arrogant and criminal actions taken by London, occupation of the British embassy by the Iranian people, as a freedom-seeking nation, and their demand for the expulsion of British diplomats from their country are not at all surprising. The Iranian students move came after the Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament on Sunday approved the bill of a law on downgrading relations with Britain with 179 yes votes, 4 oppositions and 11 abstentions. The 4 oppositions demanded a full cut of ties with London.The Iranian students complained that lowering ties with Britain is not enough and Tehran's relations with "the old cunning fox" should be cut totally. Hmmm....Don't you love those 'Palestinian peace partners'?Read the full story here.

• UK expels Iranian ambassador and France has now announced the withdrawal of its ambassador from Tehran.(Ynet).Britain will expel all Iranian diplomats stationed in London following the storming of its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced Wednesday. Iranian diplomats of all levels were give 48 hours to leave Britain.Hague told the British Parliament that Iranian ambassadors across Europe have been summoned to receive strong protests over the raid."They cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here," he said, adding that despite the move, the UK was still "not severing ties with Iran entirely." Still, relations between London and Tehran have now been downgraded to the lowest level. Iran foreign ministry slammed the decision as "hasty," adding that Tehran "holds Britain responsible for security of its diplomatic properties in the UK… Iran will take further appropriate action against Britain," the Iranian state TV said.Earlier Wednesday, London announced it was closing down its embassy in Iran and withdrawing all British diplomats stationed in the Islamic Republic. Shortly after, Hague ordered the immediate closure of the Iranian Embassy in London, effectively expelling all diplomatic staff. Iran's parliament had previously voted to reduce diplomatic ties with the UK. Tuesday's attack, which saw hundreds of protesters storm the British embassy followed Britain's decision to impose further sanctions on Iran over its adamant refusal to suspend its nuclear program. Paris strongly condemned the raid and has summoned Iran's current senior envoy to the French capital over the incident. French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero indicated that the Iranian Charge d'Affaires Amir Miri has been called in to the Ministry and was told that France "very firmly condemns the attack and unacceptable pillage" at the British mission. France said on Wednesday it was recalling its ambassador from Iran for consultations.Germany also summoned the Iranian ambassador to Berlin over the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying Iran was bound under international law to protect foreign missions. "I gave the order today for the Iranian ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Ministry," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters after talks with his Greek counterpart Stavros Dimas.Germany has also recalled its ambassador from Iran for consultations, as have Italy and The Netherlands. Following recent events, britain may support an embargo on Iranian oil imports following, a diplomatic source said. "Now that the UK has downgraded diplomatic relations with Iran, it will support increased sanctions...and would likely go ahead with those sanctions unilaterally or with France and Germany," he said. Former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband urges condemnations of Iran not to lead to a "drumbeat of war". William Hague says the UK is not advocating military action in Iran.Hmmmm..........."CHANGE"?Read the full story here.

• Iranian Navy Equips Naval Vessels with Anti-Ship Cruise Missile.(Fars).Speaking to FNA, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari stated that Qader missile with a range of 200km is "one of the strongest and most precise naval missiles" of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The commander added that a large number of such missiles have already been delivered to the Iranian naval combat units. Sayyari stated that the Iranian Navy is now using Qader as a coast-to-sea and surface-to-surface missile, and noted that the cruise missile can be mounted onto different types of choppers as well. Late in September, the Iranian Defense Ministry supplied large numbers of Qader missiles to the naval forces of the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) to boost Iran's naval power. The Iranian defense minister said at the time that Qader is an anti-ship cruise missile with a range of 200km and enjoys a short launch time and is able to hit all naval vessels, including frigates and warships, as well as onshore enemy targets. Also on November 21, the Iranian Defense Ministry supplied a large number of highly advanced coast-to-sea cruise missiles to the Army's naval forces. The move came on the verge of the National Navy Day on November 28.Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces. According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.Hmmmm.....Oil $300/Barrel?Read the full story here.

• Welcome to the post-racial presidency: Obama 2012 campaign will 'abandon the white working class'.(DougRoss).The New York Times offers the highlights of the newly revised presidential reelection strategy:...preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class......All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up [of a] substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic......A top priority of the less affluent wing of today’s left alliance is the strengthening of the safety net, including health care, food stamps, infant nutrition and unemployment compensation. These voters generally take the brunt of recessions and are most in need of government assistance to survive...How very far he has fallen since his keynote address at the 2004 Democrat National Convention....even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us — the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of “anything goes.” Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.In other words, someone is preparing to divide us -- a spin master, a negative ad peddler who embraces the politics of "anything goes" -- and is willing to do anything to retain power.Read the full story here.

• Sheriff Joe: If I Prove Obama was Born in Kenya, What Will be Done About It?(Floydreports).By Susanne Eovaldi.“I want to see the microfiche,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio told a packed East Orlando Tea Party audience last week. In explaining his Birther Posse activities, he said his group of 60 retired cops and attorneys should have a report for him as early as January or February, because they are searching around the clock to discover where the president was really born.Delivering a keynote speech to his rapt listeners, Arpaio said the 1961 microfiche holds the key to determining if Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii or Kenya. “Twins were born before Barack Obama, and now we have to see if he was born the next day.” But Sheriff Joe said he won’t be taking any bets on his posse getting the microfilm. He expressed consternation that the regular media are just not talking about the Obama birth issue, although it is on people’s minds all across the country.Arpaio, who has 50 years of law enforcement experience, said proudly, “I serve the public; the public is my boss.” When a group of Arizona Tea Party members came to him to do something about the Birther issue, he agreed to look into the situation. But in a more veiled question, Arpaio asked if he and his cold case posse can prove Obama was not born in Hawaii the day after the Nordyke twins, “What will be done about it?”Clearly, the problem of Barack Obama’s birth authentication was primary in the minds of Sheriff Joe’s audience, but the next big topic they wanted him to talk about was illegal immigration. He called the electric fence that covers some parts of the southern border a joke easily breached by Mexican drug dealers. “They’re not cartels; they’re really international drug traffickers.” the Arizona lawman said. He explained the long term damage being done to the United States from failure to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration.Our economy, our law enforcement, our diplomatic relations, our political process, and the American basic sense of fairness are all being damaged by allowing illegals to take jobs of U.S.citizens.“This false identification is a very serious crime,” he said. Some reports are putting the illegal immigration figures as being the highest ever in our country’s history.When compared to the 50-plus million American babies aborted since Roe v. Wade was signed into law, we have to weep from what progressive Democrat governance has done to our proud nation. Why are so many liberal agencies investigating Sheriff Joe, but at the same time not investigating obvious Constitutional infractions? He said it well when he said, “Let’s work together and get back operational control of our country, and help clean up this mess.”Read the full story here.

• Audio: Eric Holder Loses his Cool over Fast and Furious.(BN).After leaving the stage at the White House, Attorney General Eric Holder was approached by Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro about the rising number of congressmen who are calling for Holder's resignation over Operation Fast and Furious. Holder angrily shot back that the Caller is responsible and that the resignation calls are 'not organic.It may be safe to say that Holder is getting a bit testy about his upcoming appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee on December 8th. That hearing will be a must-watch as Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa is on that committee, along with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), who have both been bulldogs on this scandal.Read and hear the full story here.

• "They eat horses don't they?"Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter.(IOC).On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, Barack Obama broke a campaign pledge and signed a bill legalizing the slaughter of American horses for human consumption.Congress banned the slaughter of horses in 2006 by withholding funding for inspectors. A handful of Congressmen removed the amendment from a mandatory spending bill that arrived on the president’s desk just before Thanksgiving.Obama quietly signed the bill on November 18, despite having promised to maintain the ban at all costs during the 2008 campaign. Asked in a questionnaire, “Will you support legislation…to institute a permanent ban on horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption,” Obama simply responded, “Yes.”Horse slaughter plants are now planned in at least eight states, including Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Georgia.Already more than 100,000 American horses are slaughtered each year,
  including 10,000 Thoroughbreds.Horses are regularly administered drugs that are unsafe for human consumption. For example, equine pain is often treated with Phenylbutazone (or “bute”), a carcinogen the FDA banned for human use after observing regular “toxic reactions,” such as “blood dyscrasias, including aplastic anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, and deaths.”Nonetheless, horse meat is considered a delicacy in France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Belgium.Read the full story here.

• Hero Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer Sues Defense Giant After Sniper Scope Fight.(Wired).Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer is perhaps this country’s best-recognized war hero, a man who risked his life over and over again to save his buddies from a Taliban ambush. That’s why he’s the only living Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest award for valor — for his actions in Afghanistan or Iraq. It’s undoubtedly one reason why the defense giant BAE Systems hired Meyer after he left the Corps.Then, BAE considered selling high-tech sniper rifle scopes to the Pakistani military. Meyer objected, given Islamabad’s um, unambiguous relationship with the terrorists and militants based in Pakistan. Then he quit. Suddenly, Meyer’s former bosses at BAE started calling the war hero “mentally unstable” and a drunk.That’s according to a lawsuit Meyer filed against BAE, which alleges that the defense behemoth blocked the retired Marine from getting a job with a competitor by slandering his character.Things started to unravel earlier this year, BAE sought to sell advanced thermal optic scopes to the Pakistanis for their sniper rifles. That’s 100 percent legal, thanks to the U.S. government’s decade-long decision to sell the Pakistanis billions of dollars’ worth of military gear, in the hope of cementing Islamabad’s commitment to fighting terrorism. But BAE employee Meyer questioned whether the sale was responsible.“We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back,” Meyer wrote to his supervisor, according to the Wall Street Journal‘s Julian Barnes, who obtained Meyer’s lawsuit.It might be added that Meyer’s tour near the border with Pakistan might have given him a particular sensitivity to the risks associated with arming the Pakistani military. The U.S. commander in charge of eastern Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, recently told reporters that those alleged U.S. allies help insurgents rocket U.S. troops on the border. It would seem that Meyer hasn’t stopped trying to save U.S. troops in danger.BAE now has a massive P.R. problem on its hands — the latest of many. For years, officials in Britain and in America have investigated the firm on bribery and corruption charges. In 2010, the company agreed to pay a $400 million fine for violating arms control restrictions, and lying to federal officials about the BAE’s actions. That was followed up by an additional $48 million fine in 2011.Spokespeople declined to comment on the lawsuit to the Journal. But the company, which makes everything from anti-ship microwave guns to stealthy killer drones to freaky invisibility cloaks for tanks, risks calling a war hero an exaggerator or a liar in defending itself. Good luck with that oneRead the full story here.

• Preparing for the Worst. The High Price of Abandoning the Euro.In depth analysis.(Spiegel).By David Böcking. There is mounting speculation that the euro zone will break apart, or even that the single currency will be abandoned altogether. It often sounds as if such scenarios wouldn't be so bad for Germany. In fact the consequences would be catastrophic for Europe and for its largest economy. The warning signs are mounting, and fresh news is adding to the gloom every day. Britain's financial watchdog has instructed banks to brace for a possible break-up of the euro zone. British currency trader CLS Bank is reportedly conducting stress tests to prepare for this worst-case scenario. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski made a dramatic appeal to Germany on Monday to prevent a collapse of the currency union, saying: "We are standing on the edge of a precipice."German investors are jettisoning derivatives on a large scale because they have lost confidence in the instruments. For the first time, it appears, people across Europe regard the downfall of the euro as a real possibility. Is it really for the first time, though? In fact, scenarios for the euro's breakup are older than the currency itself. At the end of 1998, Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott published a paper called "When the Euro Falls Apart." He put the chances of the euro failing at around 10 percent. Today, that's a real prospect. According to Mark Cliffe, the chief economist of ING Bank, "even the most ardent euro admirer must concede that the probability of countries leaving or the breakup of the euro zone is no longer zero."The economist Nouriel Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom" because he predicted the 2008 financial crisis, recently put the likelihood of the euro zone collapsing at 45 percent. But such expert forecasts sound abstract to most people. What would be the concrete consequences and costs of a euro apocalypse -- for Europe and for Germany? Here's an assessment.Read the full story here.

• Al-Shabab Bans U.N., Western Aid Organizations Due To Their 'Illicit Activities'.(Memri).On November 30, 2011, the Somali Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen released a statement on the Al-Fida jihadi forum about its decision to ban 16 organizations working in the country, due to alleged "illicit activities."Hmmm.....My guess the Turkish I.H.H. is still welcome?Read the full story here.

• Ground Zero of Canadian tragedy, mouldy mattresses and icy floors in shacks where toddlers live on native reserve.(Yahoo).ATTAWAPISKAT, Ont. - Politicians, journalists, bureaucrats and Red Cross aid workers swooped into this reserve west of James Bay to see what a spiralling aboriginal housing crisis looks like in 2011.The problem is in plain sight everywhere.In a one-room, tented shack where Lisa Kiokee-Linklater is watching television with her two toddlers, two mattresses lie on the floor. Each mattress is a bed for three. Mould is creeping across one mattress even though Kiokee-Linklater just bought it last summer. The mattress cost her $1,000.There is no running water, no bathroom and cold comes through the uninsulated floor. There is little room for her four children to play. The broiling cast-iron wood stove that takes up one corner of the room represents a burn hazard and eliminates the notion of the rambunctious play that is the norm for most young kids.Moving into the tent was Kiokee-Linklater's choice. It seemed a step up from her previous home next door, where she shared a single bathroom with 20 other people until it became too much for her and her growing family."It's kind of better, yeah," she said, keeping a watchful eye on a son as he ate spaghetti with his fingers. "But during the winter, it's hard. I cut back on the baths because it is so cold."Among the outsiders who flew into the Cree community on Tuesday were interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel and Charlie Angus, the local NDP MP."It's really terrible that in Canada we have people in tents and shacks when it's minus 15," Turmel said after touring the town and meeting several families.There is little new in the plight of the people of Attawapiskat. Aboriginal leaders will tell you there are similar crises on reserves in northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan. Until this week, few people paid attention to this community's call for help. But after a campaign by Angus and local officials, including letters, news conferences and a video posted to YouTube, people took notice.The Assembly of First Nations estimates that reserves need about 80,000 new homes across the country. Already about 45 per cent of First Nations housing stock is sub-standard but often people live in condemned houses because they have nowhere else to go.Roseanne Fireman used to live in a condemned Attawapiskat house until she moved out. Her brother and young children still live in the structure, despite a ceiling ruined by an electrical fire. The living room floor is pocked with holes and kitchen floor has turned spongy with moisture.At one point, seven families crammed together in the three-bedroom house.It's a typical pattern. Houses are built, families move in and grow so quickly that soon they are overflowing the home.Spence is constantly seeking new solutions for the homeless."They should have a place where they are comfortable and safe," she said. "They need running water and heat."About 100 people are living in two construction trailers once used as residences for an employee camp at the nearby DeBeers diamond mine.The people of Attawapiskat are angry about living conditions, but don't agree on how they arrived at this point and why federal money has not stretched to cover needs. Some blame Ottawa, some blame the province and some blame their own leaders.Turmel said the response from Harper and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan has been unacceptable because Ottawa points fingers at the band rather than looking at its own practices to ensure adequate funding."What I would like is Mr. Harper and Mr. Duncan to come here and see them," she said. "They might not have the same answer."Hmmm......Why is it so hard all over the world to give 'Native people' theirs?Read the full story here.

• Iran’s Obligations, And Ours.(ElliotAbrams).The decision of the Iranian regime to attack the British Embassy in Tehran is a subject I address here, in The Weekly Standard. Briefly, I argue that the United States should back President Sarkozy’s proposal of last week for sanctions against Iran’s central bank and for a cut-off of Iran’s oil exports.President Obama’s reaction to the looting of the Embassy is pathetically weak. He said today that “for rioters, essentially, to be able to overrun the embassy and set it on fire is an indication that the Iranian government is not taking its international obligations seriously.”Not taking its international obligations seriously? A regime that is the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world? That continues to defy UN Security Council and IAEA resolution after resolution? That supplied IEDs to kill countless Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan?If that is the strongest language he can muster, President Obama is not taking his own obligations seriously. After all, we are but weeks from the Iranian effort to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington—for which the regime paid absolutely no price. His mild response suggests they will likewise pay no price—or at least none involving the United States—for this latest abuse. The ayatollahs must wonder why anyone seriously expects them to abandon their nuclear program when they appear free to kill Americans, undertake terrorist plots in our capital, and now—in a striking reminder of how they entered the scene, with the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran—attack embassies without evoking anything from Washington.The Iranian regime returned those hostages on the day Ronald Reagan took office. There’s a lesson here in Iran reacts to strength, and how it reacts to weakness.Hmmmm......Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. ~ Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) .Read the full story here.

• Retired Russian admiral admits Kremlin’s Mediterranean naval task force no match for US 6th Fleet, but makes veiled reference to nuclear war if Russian warships attacked.(WOTIW).The Admiral Kuznetsov is carrying some of Russia’s most advanced fighter aircraft, including eight Sukhoi Su-33 all-weather fighters, two Kamov Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopters and several factory-new Mig-29K fighters, which are destined for the Indian Air Force but will be “tested” by Russian pilots. Unlike the US Navy’s “floating runways,” Russia’s sole aircraft carrier is also a heavily armed cruiser with 12 long-range anti-ship Granit cruise missiles, a Kinzhal six-gun short-range surface-to-air missile system, eight Kashtan close-in air defense gun-missile systems, and two UDAV-1 anti-submarine systems.In addition to Syria, explained Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, former Chief of the Russian Federation’s Naval Staff, to Izvestia, the aircraft carrier and its escort ships will make ports of call in Italy, Cyprus, and Lebanon. Forty years ago, the Soviet Navy required its own maintenance facility in the region, which prompted negotiations with Syria leading to the establishment of the Tartus base in 1971. At present, some 600 military and civilian personnel in the employ of the Russian Defense Ministry work at Tartus, where they mainly service vessels of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Since the Cold War, the Admiral Kuznetsov has twice visited the Syrian port, once in 1995 and again in 2007.Lamenting Russia’s inability to prevent the deposing of Moscow ally Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi in October, Kravchenko added: “The presence of a military force other than NATO’s is very useful for this region, because it will prevent the outbreak of an armed conflict. The Soviet Union created a special naval squadron to deter Western military forces in the Mediterranean Sea.”In an indirect warning to Washington that appears to have gone unnoticed by the shopping mall regime, Admiral Kravchenko remarked to Izvestia: “Of course, the Russian naval forces in the Mediterranean will be incommensurate with those of the US 6th Fleet, which includes one or two aircraft carriers and several escort ships. But today, no one talks about possible military clashes, since an attack on any Russian ship would be regarded as a declaration of war with all the consequences.” Kravchenko’s last statement is clearly a veiled reference to nuclear war, since Soviet/ Russian military doctrine has for decades held this to be a winnable option in any showdown with America. Moreover, since the USA has had no credible civil defense for nearly 20 years, it is very likely that should NATO forces challenge the Russian naval cordon protecting Syria’s embattled Ba’athist regime, Moscow could very well respond with a strategic missile barrage against North America.No word has been yet published in open sources concerning the Admiral Kuznetsov’s arrival in Syrian territorial waters nor its scheduled work-out with the IDF.Read the full story here.

• Islamists claim lead in Egypt’s vote count; 80 people injured in Cairo violence (Video).(AlArabiya).Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday claimed the lead in the first stage of the country’s first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's fall.The movement’s Freedom and Justice Party said initial results showed its coalition ahead, followed by parties belonging to the hardline Islamist Salafi movements, then a coalition of secular movements in third.The Muslim Brotherhood said the parliament that emerges from Egypt’s landmark elections should form a government, setting the stage for possible confrontation between Islamists and the ruling generals who have only just named a new prime minister as the Tahrir sit-in protest against the military council entered its 12th day on Wednesday. The results of the first phase of the three-stage poll which could bring the Muslim Brotherhood closer to power were due to start coming out on Wednesday, but the military council which took over from ousted President Hosni Mubarak has yet to step aside.Millions of voters went to the polls in a mostly peaceful two-day vote, though the calm was shattered on Tuesday night when nearly 80 people were wounded in violence focused around a Cairo sit-in protest by activists demanding an end to army rule, according to Reuters.According to the independent daily al-Shorouk, in Cairo “the first signs show the Freedom and Justice Party with 47 percent of the votes, and 22 percent for the Egyptian bloc,” a coalition of secular parties.The election for Egypt’s lower house is due to conclude in early January but early results were expected to trickle out on Wednesday after a high turnout and only minor infringements were reported.The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing established earlier this year, said Egypt’s new parliament should form the government.“A government that is not based on a parliamentary majority cannot conduct its work in practice,” FJP head Mohammed Mursi told reporters during a tour of polling stations in the working-class district of Shubra in Cairo.“Therefore we see that it is natural that the parliamentary majority in the coming parliament will be the one that forms the government,” said Mursi, adding:“We see that it is better for it to be a coalition government built on a majority coalition in the parliament.”In one of the military’s first reactions to the election’s first phase, General Ismail Atman, a ruling army council member, was quoted by al-Shorouk newspaper as saying the poll showed the irrelevance of the Tahrir Square protest.Tantawi “expressed his happiness at the way the process was carried out and the high turnout, especially among women and the young,” said Itman.Read the full story here.

• Report - In Wake of Arab Spring, Deadlock in Peace Process, Jordan Thaws Relations with Hamas.(Memri).By L. Barkan.From the report: "Contacts between Jordan and Hamas in the recent months are expected to lead to a renewal of the official relations between them, which were severed 12 years ago. In 1999, less than one year after the death of King Hussein and the crowning of his son Abdallah II, the Jordanian regime decided to end some eight years of Hamas activity in Jordan and expelled the Hamas officials, headed by Khaled Mash'al, from the country. The officials first moved to Qatar and later settled in Damascus, from which they direct the movement's political activity today."The Hamas-Jordan rapprochement is the result of the upheavals in the Middle East: Hamas is seeking an alternative to Syria, where its political bureau is currently located, due to the unrest in that country; in addition, it hopes that relations with Jordan will strengthen it in the regional and inter-Palestinian arenas. Jordan, for its part, hopes to quell the wave of protests that is threatening its stability by appeasing the Islamic opposition in the country and by cooperating with the Islamic movement that is gaining strength throughout the region. At the same time, it too is seeking to improve its regional standing, through involvement in the Palestinian issue."The thaw between Jordan and Hamas is expected to have far-reaching ramifications for the Palestinian, Jordanian and regional arenas. In the Palestinian arena, it could strengthen the Islamic movement, including among Israeli Arabs, at the expense of the secular forces; so too in Jordan. In the regional arena, this development could create a strategic territorial continuum of regimes sympathetic to the Islamic movement in general and to the Muslim Brotherhood in particular: from Turkey though Syria (where the regime is gradually buckling), to Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and also Israel, and finally to Egypt. "This report will review the background of the Hamas-Jordan contacts and their development, the forces mediating between the sides, and Jordan's and Hamas' respective expectations from the thaw in relations."Read the full story here.

• Ex-intel chief: Iran has enough material for 4-5 nukes.(YNet).Iran currently possesses enough materials to produce four to five nuclear bombs, former IDF Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin warned Tuesday.Yadlin, who retired from the army about a year ago, said that in case of an Israeli-Iranian flare-up, "there will be international elements that restrain it."Upon assuming the post of head of the Institute for National Security Studies, the former IDF general said that "should Iran declare that it possesses nukes, Israel will have more options at its disposal and won't be alone. We should maintain open channels with those possessing military capabilities that are better than Israel's."Turning his attention to the so-called secret war against Israel, Yadlin said "things are happening in Iran that are being blamed on the United States and Israel. These things apparently aim to cause delays in the Iranian program.""A nuclear Iran is an existential threat, but I’m not saying that once they have nukes they will attack Israel," he said.As to possible Iranian retaliation for an Israeli strike, Yadlin dismissed Iran's threat to fire 150,000 missiles at Israel."There are no 150,000 missiles, and there is a difference between short-range rockets and long-range ones," he said. "Most of them are inaccurate and their chances of hitting the targets they were aimed at aren't high." Read the full story here.

• Hamas is No Peace Partner for Israel.(DocsTalk).By Neil Snyder.In an article for Hudson New York titled "Hamas and Fatah: The Unity Government That Isn't - and Won't Be," Khaled Abu Toameh explained that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are in the enviable position of living in the West Bank out of harm's way as it were from Gaza where Hamas is in control. Under Hamas' despotic rule, Gaza has become a powder keg that is waiting to explode. Hamas' government is corrupt; the people of Gaza suffer daily under Hamas' brutal tactics that are reminiscent of the Dark Ages; and Hamas continues to lob missiles into Israel while its leaders try to regain complete control of the Palestinian government in the West Bank and Gaza.As recent talks leading up to the hoped for unity government between Hamas and Fatah collapsed, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal told AFT that "Hamas is looking to focus its energies on popular resistance without giving up its right to wage armed struggle against Israel." That says it all. Hamas was, is, and hopes to remain Israel's avowed enemy. Hamas and its sponsors in the Muslim Brotherhood are totally committed to Israel's annihilation. That should surprise no one since the Hamas Charter calls for armed struggle against Israel and for Israel's elimination.While the Hamas-Fatah unity government talks evaporate into thin air, Egypt is in the throes of a so called "democratic election" that the Muslim Brothers are expected to win handily. Ordinary Gazans anxiously await Egypt's election results fearing that under even stricter Islamist rule living conditions in Gaza will become unbearable as Hamas and its Egyptian Muslim Brothers join hands in their quest to rid the Middle East of all vestiges of Israel's presence. They believe that they will end up being the big losers and that the winners will be the corrupt warlords in Hamas who dominate their lives.Since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, weapons of all sorts have been pouring into Gaza through tunnels under the border crossing with Egypt. Following the collapse of Muammar Kaddafi's regime in Libya, high-tech weapons including "advanced Russian surface-to-air missiles plundered from Libyan arsenals" have made their way into Hamas' hands thus forcing Israel to speed up implementation of an airliner anti-missile defense system that's designed to protect planes flying into an out of nearby Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. When Egypt's Muslim Brothers and Hamas unite, the world will finally realize what the Arab Spring has become. It may have started out as a popular uprising in Tunisia, but radical Islamists understood the movement correctly and quickly seized control of it in every Arab Muslim country where brutalized citizens dared to raise their heads.Ironically, as Khaled Abu Toameh points out in his article, the West Bank is the safest place for Palestinians to be as Islamists take control of countries bordering Israel. They are safe there because the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) patrols the region, and they "know that the day Israel withdraws from the West Bank, Hamas will become so strong that it will seize control of the area in a matter of days or weeks." That's the story that the mainstream media refuses to tell, and it's the story that useful idiots around the world refuse to recognize as they pour resources into Gaza -- resources that are used primarily to acquire weapons and line the pockets of Hamas strongmen.Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily. His latest book is titled If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.Read the full story here.

• China's nuclear arsenal could be up to FORTY times bigger than previously thought.(DailyMail).A group of students have discovered China's nuclear arsenal may be many times larger than estimates suggest after three years of painstaking researching through restricted documents.Led by a former top Pentagon official, the students at Georgetown University, in Washington DC, have scrutinised satellite imagery, translated Chinese military documents and filtered through thousands of online files.The focus of their extensive research has been the thousands of miles of underground tunnels dug by the Second Artillery Corps to hide China's missile arsenal.In those tunnels, the students have managed to draw up a picture of the sheer scale of China's nuclear capabilities - thought to be far greater than the 80 to 400 warheads the country was widely assumed to have.The 363-page study has already sparked a congressional hearing and has been viewed by top Pentagon officials.One Defense Department strategist told the Washington Post: 'It's not quite a bombshell, but those thoughts and estimates are being checked against what people think they know based on classified information.'Critics have questioned the study's use of internet research, including a fictional TV show about Chinese artillery soldiers, and fuelled concerns it could encourage nations to maintain nuclear arsenals as a deterrent.The students' professor, Phillip A. Karber, was a former Cold War strategist who reported directly to the secretary of defense.Three years ago, he was working on a committee for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency aimed at countering weapons of mass destruction.After the massive earthquake which struck the Sichuan province in 2008, news reports showed that thousands of radiation technicians were rushing to the region and images of collapsed hills led to speculation of the existence of an extensive tunnel network.It was then that Mr Karber enlisted the first students from his class at Georgetown to start looking into China's nuclear weapons - using military journals, news reports, photos and forums.Students spent hours scanning pages which could then be converted into Chinese characters and eventually translated.After three years of graft, they had created a searchable database of more than 1.4million words on the secretive tunnel system.Among their findings, they were able to establish a rough guide of the location of the tunnels and the types of missiles inside them.They were also able to work out how the missiles were transported, including the possible existence of a 'missile train' and modified railway carriages used to carry the weapons.Mr Karber told the newspaper: 'I don't have the slightest idea how many nuclear weapons China really has, but neither does anyone else in the arms-control community.'That's the problem with China - no one really knows except them.'In 2009, the Chinese military admitted the existence of the network of tunnels - 3,000 miles of them - including underground bunkers capable of withstanding nuclear attacks.For years, the Chinese government has insisted it maintains a small stockpile of warheads for 'minimum deterrence'.But the group of students say that number could in fact be as many as 3,000.Gregory Kulacki, a China nuclear analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Washington Post: 'The fact that they're building tunnels could actually reinforce the exact opposite.'With more tunnels and a better chance of survivability, they may think they don't need as many warheads to strike back.Read the full story here.

• Migrants tortured in Sinai camps, held for ransom.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: On Wednesday November 30, a report by several human right organizations emerged, revealing that hundreds of refugees are tortured by smugglers in the Sinai on their way to Israel.The smugglers are cooperating with Israeli partners, and demand enormous amounts of ransom payments.Some who managed to reach Israel report that they have been the targets of extreme violence.Israel’s Physicians for Human Rights and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, in cooperation with Swedish, US and Italian human rights organizations published a report, calling on the Egyptian and Israeli governments to act against the “torture camps” in the Sinai desert.According to the report, the “refugees are supposed to experience physical abuse, torture, systematic rape and even death, all with the objective to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in ransom money in exchange for their release.”The report called on Egypt, Israel and the international community “to act quickly in order to free the hostages [...] prosecute the smugglers and those that assist them (and) to bring an immediate end to the torture camps and networks of human smuggling.”This is not the first time migrants are citing mistreatment in the Sinai desert. Earlier this year also Hotline for Migrant Workers reported on the subject quoting 60 migrants who suffered torture at the hands of smugglers in the Sinai.“According to some of the testimonies, several victims were either murdered by the traffickers or were starved to death. Some 18 separate testimonies report that during the summer of 2010, 18 men were forced into slave labor, the majority of them building a three-story house for two of the traffickers.The victims report not just physical abuse, but also psychological torture and humiliation. Seven of the victims reported that the traffickers threatened to sell their organs for transplant,” Hotline for Migrant Workers stated.Some have accused Israel of not doing enough to fight against cooperation with human traffickers in Sinai.Last Friday, Eritrean refugees demonstrated in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv in order to attract attention for the Eritrean asylum seekers who were tortured and raped by Israeli smugglers who took them to the Israeli border.While trying to reach Israel through the Sinai, they were being held captive by smugglers at torture camps in the El-Arish area.According to a report by Physicians for Human Rights- Israel “the smugglers were demanding ransoms of thousands of dollars for the release of each captive.Methods used to apply pressure on the captives’ relatives to pay up include systematic violence and torture of the hostages.”Read the full story here.

• German court to decide if Muslim pupil can pray at school.(HurriyetDaily).A German federal court was to rule Wednesday whether a Muslim pupil has the right to pray according to Islamic rites in school, capping a more than two-year legal battle.The 18-year-old pupil, identified only as Yunus M., insisted on his basic right to religious freedom but school authorities argued the practice endangered the smooth running of the state high school.With about four million Muslims living in Germany, the case has sparked interest after two earlier regional court rulings first found in favour of the boy, only then to be overturned.It began when the pupil, aged 16 at the time and the son of a German Muslim convert, and several other pupils laid down their jackets in the school corridor to pray during a break from class.The principal informed the boy and his parents that praying was not permitted in the grounds of the Berlin high school which has students of about 30 different nationalities and nearly all major religions.She feared for the peaceful running of the school, she said.Yunus M. has argued that because prayer times depend on the rising and setting of the sun, he has no other choice during the winter but to pray around midday while at school.German news weekly Der Spiegel said that the consequences of Wednesday's ruling by the Leipzig-based federal administrative court would be closely watched nationwide."Since Yunus M. kicked off a process which could write legal history," it said in its online edition.Tilman Nagel, an expert in Islam who appeared as a witness at an earlier court hearing, said that postponing midday prayers was considered normal if there was a good reason.He also argued that the Islamic ritual of praying undertaken with other people was very different to the Christian private act of praying, and was thus disruptive in a public space.Germany has grappled with the thorny issue of the integration of its Muslim population since it signed a "guest worker" pact with Turkey 50 years ago.This has sometimes fuelled tensions, with a former central banker publishing a runaway bestseller last year saying Germany was being made "more stupid" by four million purportedly undereducated and unproductive Muslim migrants.Hmmm........"Religion the opium of the people" of course you had the 'opiumwars'.Read the full story here.

• At Least 45 Christians Killed by Muslims in Plateau State, Nigeria.(Compassdirect).Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders. Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”Almost all churches in the town cancelled or held reduced worship services on the first Sunday (Nov. 27) after the crisis was contained, as nearly all area Christians have fled to Jos or have left Plateau state, long hit by ethnic property conflicts fueled by anti-Christian sentiment. In March 2010 ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, suffered attacks from Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land, resulting in hundreds of deaths in three villages near Jos. In the attack on Thursday (Nov. 24), the Fulani Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” said farmer Choji Pamjamo, 51.“On Thursday at about 9 a.m., the Muslims’ call to prayer was made at the Izala [Islamic sect] mosque,” Pamjamo said. “And shortly after that, we saw hundreds of armed Muslims invading the town from all directions, attacking and killing Christians. They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ as they were burning properties belonging to Christians.”Pamjamo confirmed Christian leaders’ account of an attack on a Church of Christ of Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the Sabon Layi (Rantya) area of Barkin Ladi the previous night (Nov. 23), saying that among the four Christians killed was Bible teacher Yakubu Pam.David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning. David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning. “Some of the Christian victims in this attack that I know include a Christian police officer, one Mr. Bulus, who is the station officer of the Barkin Ladi police station,” Gyang said. “He was inside his house on that day, and these Muslims broke the walls of his room and went inside to kill him and his son. A second Christian victim is Solomon Pam. He was attacked and had his hand broken.”Gyang lamented that Muslim soldiers brought to town to restore order joined their fellow Muslims in killing and maiming Christians. “Muslims soldiers took sides with their fellow Muslims and were shooting and killing Christians,” he said. “They also had soldiers guarding mosques in the town, but none was sent to watch over our churches, and that is the reason Muslims were able to burn the Baptist church in the town.”Sources told Compass that along with the 26 Christians killed in Kwok village, nine others were killed in the attack on Barkin Ladi on Thursday (Nov. 24). Compass found that the area attacks on Christians began Nov. 20, the day of the alleged cattle theft, with the killing of three Christians outside Barkin Ladi, and then two Christians in the town were killed on Nov. 21. The next day, a Christian was beheaded behind a popular hotel in Barkin Ladi known as the White House, sources said. The attack on the COCIN church ensued the following evening. Hmmm....."Interfaith dialog in it's natural habitat?"Read the full story here.

• Tunisian secular, Islamist students clash on campus.(AlArabiya).Hundreds of demonstrators calling for women to be allowed to wear the Muslim veil in class clashed with students at a university outside Tunis on Tuesday for the second day running.Protesters wearing the veil and bearded men wearing the Muslim tunic shouted “God Is Great”, facing other students responding “Islamists, Go Home.”The demonstration at the University of Manouba, west of Tunis, came a day after a group of Salafists disrupted classes there, demanding a stop to mixed-sex classes and for female students to wear full-face veils.“A group of Salafists, dressed like Afghans, have been camped in front of my office since early afternoon,” Habib Kazdaghli, the dean of faculty at the University of Manuba, told AFP on Monday.Tutors and union representatives voted at a general assembly on Tuesday to go on strike Thursday in protest at the incidents.Several students and teaching staff said demonstrators were not enrolled at the university, and many were allegedly “agitators” from working-class neighbourhoods near the Manouba campus.“This is not what the revolution was about,” one student said.Two officials of the Islamist Ennahda party which swept to power in October 23 elections were involved in attempts to resolve the crisis.Pro-headscarf demonstrators denied they were Salafists, a fundamentalist branch of Islam, and said they had not asked for mixed-sex classes to be stopped.“We want two things: a prayer room inside the faculty and the right for girls wearing the headscarf to sit exams and attend classes,” said Anis Rezgui, a first-year student. The higher education ministry late Monday condemned the protest.Questioned by AFP, the ministry said that under current provisions students must be identified before they enter the campus for security reasons, which ruled out wearing the headscarf.As post-revolution Tunisia lacks any legislation allowing or banning the headscarf, faculty deans implement a 2005 decision that staff must be able to identify students.“We would like to have politicians’ point of view on what’s going on,” fumed an indignant student.And English teacher Abdennebi Benbeya said the whole protest was “ridiculous.“No one knows these demonstrators, they take advantage of the political void in Tunisia” after the demise of the old regime in January.Tunisia’s Salafists have become more assertive in recent months, following the revolution that ousted a staunchly secular regime along with president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali following mass protests.Visible again on the streets of Tunis and other major cities, their new assertiveness has led to a number of more or less violent clashes.In the eastern city of Sousse earlier this month, some 200 Islamists stormed the university campus after a female student wearing a full face veil was not allowed to enroll.On October 9 in Tunis, a mob of Salafists tried to attack the offices of private Nessma TV station that aired “Persepolis”, a French-Iranian animated film in which God is represented as an old bearded man.“What’s happening is that many good and bad things that had been repressed resurface since the revolution,” said Tahar Chikraoui, history professor and film critic.“We have extremists, manipulators, people who are learning what democracy means. ... And then there is a power vacuum. All this is not really surprising.”Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                      Afternoon Posting.

• Libya Live Blog - May 04. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today  4.7 and 5.4! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 102.
  On 04.05.2011 at 03:31 GMT+2
  
  The Japanese government has confirmed that traces of radioactive material have been found in the seabed near the stricken facility. Operator of the plant, TEPCO. says it has detected up to 1-hundred-90 becquerels of radioactive Iodine and 1,300 becquerels of Cesium. These levels are 1-hundred to 1-thousand times normal levels. The samples were taken from the seabed last Friday.Source : Here .

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

• Live Blog on Qsama Bin Laden  Here (Al -Jazeera).

• How they got Osama bin Laden !(Al-Arabia).In an exclusive story for The National Journal, Marc Ambinder shares details from the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday. The MH-60 helicopters are said to have taken off from an air base in Pakistan and went on to Abbottabad, the destination of bin Laden’s complex, 30 miles from the capital, Islamabad.Aboard the helicopters were Navy SEALs, flown in from Afghanistan, along with “tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyper spectral imagers,” writes Mr. Ambinder.After a 40-minute operation, 22 people are said to have been captured or killed, one of whom was bin Laden, shot in the head as reported in the media. His body was taken in the helicopter on the journey back. (Another helicopter experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by US forces.) It has been confirmed by US officials that this operation was conducted with the aim of killing bin Laden.The team that carried out this mission is known as SEAL Team Six, “officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru,” writes Mr. Ambinder.

This highly specialized team conducted several practice raids in Begram in early April to ensure that the real raid went off just right. They are said to have replicated the Abbottabad compound for the trial runs. DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which the writer describes as “an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives.”The military preciously guards their activities and their missions are never leaked—unless something goes wrong.Several JSOC operatives are said to have died in missions in Pakistan over the last few years, but Mr. Ambinder says that, “their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story—generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That’s the code.”The operation on bin Laden left analysts wondering how the helicopters evaded being detected by Pakistan’s air network. Mr. Ambinder too, asks if it is possible the helicopters spoofed transponder codes or “were they painted and tricked out with Pakistan Air Force equipment?” However they managed to evade being detected comes down to the work of “the silent squirrels,” the Technical Application Programs Office and the Aviation Technology Evaluation Group.

Since 9/11, the JSOC units and their task forces have become the US’ most effective weapon against terrorists, “drawing plenty of unwanted, and occasionally unflattering, attention to themselves in the process,” writes Mr. Ambinder. However, JSOC command operates with little scrutiny and has drawn much criticism within the country for this reason. Its tactics of questioning, for example, and use of torture as a method to extract information, has caused embarrassment to authorities. It is also an organization that has tripled in size since 9/11 and has 4,000 employees, both soldiers and civilians. It has its own intelligence unit, and can quickly acquire and test new technologies. It is said to be involved in 50 operations around the world.But perceptions toward it and its techniques may change, in the United States at least, as news of the death of the man largely seen as responsible for the horrific attack on 9/11 will vindicate agencies’ modus operandi. In the end, they got the guy.And they got the guy because CIA was able to get the information that led them to bin Laden. CIA director Leon Panetta’s memo from Sunday sheds light on how that information led them to bin Laden. In it he thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for their help.Mr. Ambinder writes that NSA determined that bin Laden’s compound had no telephone or Internet access. The NGIA “makes the military’s maps but also develops their pattern recognition software—no doubt used to help establish, by February 2011, that the CIA could say with ‘high probability’ that bin Laden and his family were living there,” he writes.Hmmmm......Why comes the name 'Raymond Davis' to mind?Read the full story here.

• Ex-Justice Department Official: Obama Could Be Forced to Release the Osama Death Photos.(gawker).Barack Obama has finally decided against releasing a photo of Osama bin Laden's corpse as proof of his death. But the former chief freedom of information expert for the U.S. government tells Gawker that he may not have that choice.But all the agonizing may have been for naught. According to Daniel Metcalfe, the former chief of the Department of Justice's Office of Information and Privacy—a post that effectively made him the government's top expert in the Freedom of Information Act—the odds are better than even that a FOIA lawsuit seeking the photo's release would succeed."If someone brought a FOIA complaint seeking the photo, and the government had improperly classified it, I think the government would lose," Metcalfe, who supervised the defense of more than 500 FOIA and Privacy Act lawsuits for the U.S., told Gawker. He is now the executive director of the Collaboration on Government Secrecy at American University's Washington College of Law.Under the FOIA, government agencies—but not the White House itself—can be compelled to turn over any document, photo, video, or other record as long as there's no statutory reason for withholding it. If Obama decides against releasing a bin Laden photo, he faces two obstacles to keeping it secret: 1) Since it was (presumably) taken by a Navy SEAL working on a joint mission of the CIA and Department of Defense's Joint Special Operations Command, it was originated by a federal agency subject to the FOIA and 2) There doesn't appear to be a good reason under the FOIA to keep it secret."As far as photos of the corpse go," said Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, a law firm specializing in litigating secrecy issues, "there's nothing I can reasonably think of that would exempt that, unless someone classified them." The government could conceivably try to deny a FOIA request for the photos based on the statute's privacy exemptions, but that would put it in the awkward position of going to court to protect Osama bin Laden's surviving family members' privacy.So classification is the best bet. Trouble is, you can't simply classify things because you don't want them released. There has to be a reason. And according to Metcalfe, it's hard to imagine a good reason to classify a simple photograph of bin Laden's corpse.The FOIA only allows properly classified records to be withheld. "If it is classified, and it was classified improperly, then it is highly challengeable in court," Metcalfe says.The last time Obama faced a decision about whether to release potentially explosive images, it was the FOIA that forced his hand. In 2009, the Defense Department was trying to keep dozens of photographs and four videos showing detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib from being released to the ACLU under a FOIA complaint. The government argued that the photos could be withheld under an exemption for law enforcement records that could cause harm to a person if released—the harm in this case being potential riots in the middle east or anticipated retaliation against U.S. soldiers. But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument and ordered the Defense Department to hand them over. Before the Supreme Court could address the issue, Congress passed a special law barring their disclosure. But that law was tailored specifically to the Abu Ghraib photos, and so wouldn't cover Osama. And since there was no law enforcement element to the raid, the government's failed argument in that case couldn't be raised here to see if the Supreme Court will accept it.Read the full story here.

• Caliph President Obama: I won't release bin Laden death photos.Our UnAmerican President Just Compared American War Dead To Osama Bin Laden!Posted by DrewM. at Ace of Spades.Update: Chuck Todd who reported above corrects — It was GOP Rep. Mike Rogers who made the odious comparison "Imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaida killed one of our troops...and put photos of the body on the internet" Put aside the fact they do this whenver they can, how the fuck can any American, let alone the Commander in Chief compare bin Laden to American servicemen and women?I'm not saying impeach the bastard....wait, yes I am. Don't you just love the doublethink at work here?We're not at war with Islam, yet we're worried that Muslims will seethe and riot if we release photos of OBL's dead body -- when OBL, per Obama, wasn't even a real Muslim, whatever the fuck that is..Additionally, Obama says we're not at war with Muslims, but we deemed Osama bin Laden to be such an important member of the Muslim world that we gave him an Islamic bathing and a 40 minute Islamic service.You want to tell me we do that for all Muslims who die by our hand in this war?Bullshit.We did it because we know that this Muslim was a beloved Muslim.Hmmmm....White House insider :  I am certain Osama Bin Laden would still be alive today, conclusion"Caliph Pres Obama did not want him killed"?I think Obama only worries about how HE himself will look in the history books! Read the full sickening story here.

• WHO is holding back the Osama Bin Laden Pictures release?Second question: why?CIA: Bin Laden photo to be released.(Ynet).Some critics say publication of 'gruesome' photo of terrorist shot in head could offend Muslims.The Obama administration wrestled on Tuesday with releasing what it called a gruesome image of Osama bin Laden's corpse, even as militants started questioning whether US forces really killed him.Different parts of the Obama administration offered differing views, with CIA Director Leon Panetta saying there was never any doubt that ultimately a photograph of the al-Qaeda leader would be released to the public. But, signaling an intense internal debate was under way, the White House insisted no decision had yet been taken and noted the graphic nature of the imagery."It's fair to say that it's a gruesome photograph," said White House spokesman Jay Carney, appearing to refer to an image of bin Laden taken shortly after a US strike team killed him at his Pakistani compound. "I'll be candid. There are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of Osama bin Laden'.The disclosure of images could provide further closure to Americans nearly a decade after the September 11, 2001, attacks that he masterminded. It could also disprove naysayers doubting the death of bin Laden, who was shot in the head and chest at a fortified compound outside of Islamabad. But critics say such photos are distasteful and if the Obama administration releases them, they could offend Muslims and be exploited by extremists. "What we don't want to do is to release anything that might be either misunderstood or that would cause other problems," said President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, speaking on National Public Radio. US officials have said facial recognition software and DNA testing prove the body is bin Laden's. So far the White House has released only photos of Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials as they received live updates on the raid on bin Laden. Panetta, nominated by Obama to take over as defense secretary, acknowledged concerns and questions "that had to be debated" about the potential impact of releasing the photos. "But the bottom line is that, you know, we got bin Laden and I think we have to reveal to the rest of the world the fact that we were able to get him and kill him," he told NBC in an interview recorded before Carney made remarks to reporters. Releasing photos of the burial at sea could be less controversial than images of bin Laden's corpse just after his death. Hmmmm.....Obama : "Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims." "Last week, I determined we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorised an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice."?So what's up with the whole Muslim sensitivity story?Read the full story here.

• Geronimo's tribe seeks apology.(AP).The leader of Apache warrior Geronimo's tribe is asking President Barack Obama for a formal apology for the government's use of the revered figure's moniker as a code name for Osama bin Laden.Fort Sill Apache Tribal Chairman Jeff Houser sent a letter to the president Tuesday, saying equating the legendary Apache warrior to a "mass murderer and cowardly terrorist" was painful and offensive to all Native Americans.The letter was posted Wednesday morning on the Oklahoma tribe's website."Right now Native American children all over this country are facing the reality of having one of their most revered figures being connected to a terrorist and murderer of thousands of innocent Americans," Houser wrote. "Think about how they feel at this point."Houser noted Obama was elected on a message of compassion and change. Forever linking the memory of Geronimo to "one of the most despicable enemies this country has ever had" shows neither compassion to Native Americans nor change in perception of Indians or their struggle, he said.Hmmmm....Dear leader to appease Islam and the Native Americans at the same time?Read the full story here.

• Osama Bin Laden "The Never Ending Story"?White House backtracks on how bin Laden died.(Telegraph).The White House admitted last night that its initial account of the way Osama bin Laden died at the hands of US forces had been riddled with lies errors.Claims that the al-Qaeda leader had died while firing an automatic weapon at commandos were withdrawn, with President Barack Obama’s spokesman admitting “he was unarmed”. A dramatic description of bin Laden using his wife as a “human shield” and forcing her to sacrifice her life also proved to be false. The woman was still alive and was taken into custody with several of the terrorist’s children. In an embarrassing climb-down, Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, admitted that the previous version of events — which came mostly from the chief US counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan — had been put out “with great haste”. The about-turn left the US open to accusations of a cover-up and led to calls for video footage of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and images of bin Laden’s body to be released to end conspiracy theories. However, the White House suggested that pictures of bin Laden’s body were too “gruesome” to be made public because they could prove “inflammatory”. Relations between the US and Pakistan, already strained by the fact that Pakistan was not told in advance about the raid, were put under renewed pressure by contradictory statements from Islamabad. On a day of claim and counter-claim, Mr Carney gave a briefing in which he knocked down a series of statements made on Monday by Mr Brennan and other government sources. Asked whether officials had been caught in a “fog of war”, he said: “We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you about the operation. Some of the information is being reviewed and updated.” He then read out a new account of the assault, in which he said bin Laden was found on the top floor of a three-storey building, and as a US Navy Seal team entered: “His wife rushed the US assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.” Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the White House to make public the “precise facts surrounding his killing” to ensure it adhered to international law. The Taliban issued a statement in which it said the US “lacks strong evidence to prove its claim” that bin Laden was dead. Ron Paul, a congressman and Republican presidential candidate, said “confusion” in the White House accounts of events in Abbottabad was fuelling doubts. “The question I have is why does our government invite conspiracy theories all the time? Why don’t they show a picture?” he said. Mr Carney said the White House was still “reviewing” whether it was “appropriate” to release any of the images. He also appeared to cast doubt on suggestions that the US filmed bin Laden’s burial at sea by refusing to confirm that the video existed.Hmmmm.....Where is the Body of Bin Laden's son?Was it also burried according to Islamic rites?Is it in Afghanistan?Read the full story here.

• SEAL team that took out Bin Laden likely will be honored in secret.(Militarytimes).SAN DIEGO — The highly secretive Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden will likely be honored in the only way such a covert group can be: in private with nobody but themselves and their commanders in the know.Quietly recognizing heroic actions for clandestine operations is not new in the military. Some service members wear war decorations but refuse to talk about how they earned them. Others stash away their medals, either because they’ve been ordered to hide them or they have chosen to for their own security.And there are those heroes who have never lived to see a medal, their families sworn to secrecy until they were honored posthumously. For the elite few who dropped from the sky into the walled compound in Pakistan, they must carry on without breathing a word about their participation in Sunday’s spectacular raid that eliminated the world’s most-wanted terrorist.It is a secret that surely must burn in their souls, but military officials say they have no doubt it will be kept. The stakes are too high.The Navy still hasn’t confirmed its SEALs carried out the much-lauded, 40-minute operation. But privately, Rear Adm. Edward Winters, at Naval Special Warfare Command in California, sent an email congratulating his forces and reminding them to keep quiet because “the fight is not over.”Winters is the chief of the elite SEAL unit officially known as Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or “DEVGRU,” which is made up of only a few hundred personnel based in Dam Neck, Va. They call themselves “the quiet professionals.”President Barack Obama’s ratings went up after the announcement of bin Laden’s death, as did donations for the Virginia-based Navy SEAL Foundation, which helps the families of SEALs.Other details of the raid that emerged Tuesday — including that Navy SEALs handcuffed those they encountered in the compound with plastic zip ties and pressed on in pursuit of their target, code-named Geronimo — could boost the public image of a force whose raids have not always gone as planned. In a 2008 raid, the intended targets at a compound in Pakistan fled and instead a number of civilians were killed.Sunday’s raid was nearly textbook perfect, and officials say its participants will likely receive some of the military’s highest medals. As military personnel, they are not eligible for the $25 million reward that was offered for hunting down bin Laden.First, the Navy would have to confirm who did what exactly, and then a letter outlining their achievements would be written. Usually, the immediate commanding officer presents the honor. The entire process could take months, and would be meticulously carried out to ensure the names of those involved are not revealed, officials say.In other cases, the government has chosen not to honor service members of covert operations until the mission has been declassified.Last year, Obama posthumously recognized Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. “Dick” Etchberger for his courage under fire in 1968 during a mission on a remote Laotian mountain that was kept secret for decades because the U.S. wasn’t supposed to have troops in the officially neutral Southeast Asian country. Etchberger was awarded the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, after the government declassified his mission.Craig Sawyer, a former Navy SEAL, speculated the team will likely be invited to the White House to meet the president and attend a private, small ceremony acknowledging their grand achievement.“The operators of their unit and they themselves will know about it, but nobody else will,” he said. “That’s just the nature of the business.”Hmmm.....The official Seals motto is: "Ready to Lead, Ready to Follow, Never Quit""There is no 'I' in TEAM." US Navy SEALs.And most surprising in this case: "Anyone can just go in there and kill someone, but you can't get information from a corpse."- SEAL motto.Read the full story here.

• MFS -"This one nearly passed under my radar"!While you were all staring at Bin Laden, the Obama Big Brother regime moved in!Senate Sneaks RFID Drivers License, Internet ID into Transportation Bill.(1787network).TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday approved an amendment to include “electronic authentication,” as well as “biometrics” to Florida Driver’s licenses. In addition, the amendment to SB 1150, which passed committee on a 12-0 vote, instructs the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to provide a security token that can be electronically authenticated through a personal computer.This new amendment lays the groundwork for radio frequency identification (RFID) chips to be implanted into drivers’ licenses. In much the same way that merchandise in a warehouse includes RFID tags to track items through the distribution process, RFID tags on drivers’ licenses would give authorities an additional tool to track anyone carrying a drivers’ license within the reception range of an RFID reader.The Real ID Act of 2005, implemented in Florida on January 1, 2010, has integrated the more expansive personal data set collected by drivers’ license issuing agencies in the participating states into a national database. In Florida, this database already includes biometrics in the form of computer facial recognition data, collected at the time one’s DHSMV photo is taken. Sheriffs’ departments in at least 22 Florida counties tap into the database as part of their facial recognition system, or FRnet, and feed real-time images from video cameras to instantly identify anyone whose face is in these cameras’ field of view.This FRnet database, which is accessible to federal, state, and even local municipal agencies, also contains highly personal information, including scans of birth certificates, social security cards, marriage licenses, and other documents.Also in the amendment is a provision for the DHSMV to provide a “security token that can be electronically authenticated through a personal computer.” It is unclear from the amendment whether the driver’s license itself would act as the token or a key fob/USB device would be issued.The Obama Administration has recently pushed for the assignment of a single, unique authentication key for Internet users, which many are calling the “Internet driver’s license.” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity czar Howard Schmidt met with computer industry leaders in January seeking input on how this new system would work. Locke confirmed that they in the process of drafting a “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” and said that the Internet ID would likely come in the form of a “smart card.”Schmidt brushed off the obvious government surveillance potential of this new technology by saying, “Let’s be clear: We’re not talking about a national ID card.”But effectively, the Real ID Act has turned the individual states’ drivers’ licenses into a national ID card. Should this amendment to SB 1150 become law and be implemented, it would give federal, state and local government agencies the ability to easily and stealthily track all Floridians without warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.Schmidt also used a similar claim to one used during the national health care debate, which was that participation would be voluntary. In Florida, that may mean that one would have to opt out of getting a driver’s license to avoid the additional governmental tracking systems.The Real ID Act already specifies that beginning in 2013, Americans must have a Real ID compliant driver’s license or identification card in order to access government services or buildings. This includes the ability to pass through a TSA checkpoint at the airport or enter a federal courthouse.Will we soon need a Real ID driver’s license to access the Internet or go to Wal-Mart? Given the White House’s recent plans, and the Florida Legislature’s willing compliance, it seems that it is only a matter of time.Hmmmm.....While you are all distracted ,the Obama Big Brother regime make their moves?Read the full story here.

• Jihadi Forum Administrators Urge Jihadists Not to Believe Arab Media's Reports of Bin Laden's Death.(Memri).Abu Turab Al-Muhajir, an administrator of the Shumoukh Al-Islam jihadi forum, posted a statement attempting to convince online jihad supporters not to believe reports of Osama Bin Laden's death until jihadi media organs published an official reaction. He said that the Arab media, whose reports of Bin Laden's death were quoted by numerous forum members, is known to lie and distort matters concerning the mujahideen and that it should not be trusted this time, either.Hmmm....This was to be expected since the US government shows no proof of what the claim.Read the full story here.

• Al Qaeda’s New Battle Hardened, Difficult Leader.(BigPeace).In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s demise, his likely successor is his longtime deputy and collaborator, Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri. The U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $25 million for Zawahiri, who officials have said was responsible for the planning of 9/11, the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.It remains to be seen whether Zawahiri will be able to recruit and inspire a new generation of jihadists the way bin Laden did. Veteran observers of al-Qaida say bin Laden was a media-savvy, charismatic figure and a good listener. Zawahiri, by contrast, has a record “of alienating his colleagues, fighting over dogma, even within the Islamist movement,” said journalist Steve Coll. “And as a communicator, he is less effective. His books are turgid and dogmatic.” During a recent online chat with fellow jihadists, Zawahiri sounded “defensive and argumentative. He sounded unappealing as a leader.Tawfiq Hamid, who worked with Zawahiri when the two were part of Jamaa Islamiya, an Egyptian jihadist group, warned against underestimating Zawahiri in his new role as bin Laden’s successor. Zawahiri’s superior organizational skills and dedication to violence could make him more dangerous than bin Laden.“He’s much more powerful as a leader – much more organized,” Hamid said. “When you listen to him, you can tell clearly that he has the ambition and is dedicated 100 percent to achieve this mission.”Hmmmm.....And then there's Adnan Gulshair al Shukrijummah a.k.a. Abu Arif.Read the full story here.

• Who Oversees Foreign Aid to the Palestinians?(HudsonNY).A recent Congressional Research Service study notes that since 2007 the U.S. has contributed $650 million to the Palestinian Authority for "direct budgetary assistance" and almost $400 million for "security forces and criminal justice systems" in the West Bank. Almost another $1 billion was directed through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to be "implemented by nongovernmental organizations in humanitarian assistance, economic development, democratic reform, improving water access and other infrastructure, health care, education, and vocational training." Finally, the U.S. is the largest single contributor to UNRWA and having provided over $230 million in 2010.Much of the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement funding for the Palestinian Authority had been "reprogrammed" by President George W. Bush, using a Presidential Determination under Chapter 8 of Part I (Section 481) of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act which states "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President is authorized to furnish assistance to any country or international organization, on such terms and conditions as he may determine, for the control of narcotic and psychotropic drugs and other controlled substances, or for other anticrime purposes."Other presidential wavers provided additional money from the Economic Support Fund account to the Palestinian Authority. These were done under the authority of the Foreign Assistance Act which states "None of the funds made available by this Act may be obligated under an appropriation account to which they were not appropriated, except for transfers specifically provided for in this Act, unless the President, prior to the exercise of any authority contained in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to transfer funds, consults with and provides a written policy justification to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate."In fact, the legislative system of appropriations and oversight matters very little when it comes to U.S. aid to the Palestinians: the system of foreign aid permits the president to independently "certify" or "waive" requirements introduced by Congress. It demonstrates the extent to which U.S. aid to the Palestinians is an instrument of Executive policy rather than an altruistic enterprise authorized by the Legislative branch. Of course, such methods are not unique to the Palestinian case. Congress permits presidential waivers on everything from Azerbaijan's blockage of Nagorno-Karabagh to the use of child soldiers by Chad, Congo, Sudan and Yemen.But the extent to which foreign aid to the Palestinians is a political tool of the Executive may be in a class by itself: Western and Palestinian supporters of continued aid routinely offer at least two scenarios that would unfold should aid be withdrawn or reduced: "radicalization" and "humanitarian crises." In effect the Executive branch is blackmailed.Aid the Palestinians is a microcosm of the larger question of how U.S. foreign aid works. Now that Hamas will evidently join Fatah in a Palestinian Authority poised to declare statehood and request vast additional support, creating genuine Congressional oversight -- with teeth -- should be addressed once again.Hmmmm......Palestinians seek $5 billion for state? Read the full story here.

• US Ecomy dying?"Change"?You know things are really bad when they can't afford to buy a new TV set!(DailyMail).Number of households with television set drops for first time in 20 years.The fall has been triggered by the recession, with many unable to afford a new set, and a growing number of viewers happy streaming programmes on their laptops.The number of houses in America with a TV had dropped from 98.9 per cent to 96.7 per cent, research from the Nielson Company found.A lot of low income households are likely to have owned a TV but been unable to have it repaired if it has broken, or could not afford a new digital set.According to the New York Times, Nielsen is considering redefining the term 'television household' due to how many people are solely watching TV shows and movies on the internet rather than buying a TV.A spokesman for the firm, Pat McDonough, told the New York Times: 'We’ve been having conversations with clients. That would be a big change for this industry, and we’d be doing it in consultation with clients if we do it.'Nielsen’s household figures suggest that while the TV set is still firmly at the centre of the average American’s media life, a small minority of Americans are finding ways to live without it.In a report released today, Neilson will blame the 'persistently rocky economy' for the downturn as it took on the same trend in 1992 following a prolonged recession.The worry is that the decline will continue and start affecting TV networks, studios and distributors.Nielsen’s estimates incorporate the results of the 2010 census as well as the behaviour of the approximately 50,000 Americans in the national sample that the company relies upon to make ratings projections.Ms McDonough said: 'One thing we are seeing in the Nielsen sample are fewer people owning TVs. It was first evident in the sample in late 2008 during the worst of the financial crisis and the recession.'She said that the TV-less households generally have incomes less than $20,000 (£12,000).'They are at the bottom of the economic spectrum for whom, if the TV breaks or the antenna blows off the roof they have to think long and hard about what to do,' she said.'If you’re an affluent household - or most middle-class households - you’re going to get a satellite dish. If you’re a struggling household, likely you’re not going to be able to afford that option either.Hmmmm....Do you really want another four year of disaster and dictatorship managment?Read the full story here.

• Hastings: Obama’s Stance Hurts American Energy.(Rollcall).With gasoline prices quickly surging to $4 per gallon and beyond, pinching the pockets of families and business across the country, it’s no surprise that gasoline has become a regular talking point in President Barack Obama’s stump speech. Yet instead of offering real solutions, the president is telling the American people that there’s “not much we can do” about high prices. He’s waving the white flag of defeat — essentially telling Americans to get used to paying more than $4 for gasoline. It’s not just about what President Obama can do tomorrow to address higher prices, it’s about what he’s done over the past two years to get us to this point. The president’s attempt to deflect criticism and his ‘don’t blame me’ attitude expose how out-of-touch he is with reality and the everyday needs of American families. President Obama has an energy plan — it’s just not one to increase American energy production. Instead, President Obama’s plan is to block, delay and tax American energy. When President Obama took office, the national average price of gasoline was $1.84 per gallon — and it’s been steadily climbing ever since. That’s because over the past two years the Obama administration has never missed an opportunity to block access to our American energy resources. For example:

When President Obama was elected, nearly all of our offshore areas were open to offshore drilling. Since then, President Obama has systematically locked-up the entire Atlantic Coast, the Pacific Coast and much of Alaska — preventing the creation of over 1.2 million jobs.The Obama administration imposed a real and then de facto moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which according to its own estimates cost 12,000 jobs.The Obama administration has delayed permits for renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar, on public lands.Just weeks after taking office, the Obama administration withdrew 77 areas available for oil and natural gas leasing in Utah — eventually leasing only 17 and cancelling 60. According to a Uintah County commissioner, this prevented the creation of approximately 3,000 jobs.The Obama administration first delayed and then significantly altered the oil shale research, demonstration and development (RD&D) lease program. As a result, sales of these RD&D leases declined by 85 percent and cost high-tech jobs in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.The Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency retroactively withdrew an approved permit for a coal mine in West Virginia. This cost 250 jobs that were ready to get working to create more American energy.The Obama administration is aggressively pursuing sweeping new changes to mining regulations. These regulations, according to calculations in the government’s own study, will cost thousands of American jobs and decrease American energy production in 22 states.The Environmental Protection Agency ordered the cancellation of a permit for a Navajo Nation power plant in New Mexico that was expected to create 400 permanent jobs and generate $50 million per year in revenue.The Obama administration is blocking several energy projects in Alaska. It is slow-walking permits for production in Alaska’s north slope, which is necessary to keep the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) running. The administration is also stopping permits for oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).The Interior Department has announced it is considering proposals to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands — a technique currently regulated by states that is responsible for tremendous growth in natural gas production. This could severely restrict energy production on federal lands.This list goes on and on and on.While the president continues to support this national energy tax, he’s also advocating for increasing taxes on American energy producers. Yet the White House has admitted this will do nothing to lower gasoline prices. In fact, it will have exactly the opposite effect — raising energy prices further when families can least afford it. This week, Republicans in the House of Representatives will begin voting on a series of bills to expand offshore American energy production, create jobs and lower gasoline prices. Unlike President Obama, House Republicans have heard the American people’s demand for increased American energy production and we’re ready to act.If the president wants to seriously address rising gasoline prices, he should abandon his block, delay and tax approach to American energy and work with us to pass this important energy legislation.Hmmm....If he wanted to destroy America the way it was,would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Blind Sheikh: The Americans Are Going to Kill Me.(Memri).On May 4, 2011, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram published excerpts from a document it said was the will of 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh. In it, 'Abd Al-Rahman voices fears that he will be killed while in prison and asks to be buried in Egypt.Read the full story here.

• Five year old Virginia girl found eating herself in cage in mobile home.(NYDnews).A young girl was found caged and attempting to eat herself in a mobile home in Virginia, and cops say her parents are responsible.The malnourished girl, believed to be either 5 or 6, was discovered in a crib that was converted into a makeshift cage after police arrived at the home in Gloucester County to investigate a burglary last week.The girl's parents, Brian and Shannon Gore, were arrested and charged with felony child abuse. The mother was also charged with attempted capital murder.However, the gruesome twosome now faces first-degree murder charges after the remains of what authorities believe to be another child were found buried outside their mobile home."I've done this for 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this in my life," Gloucester Sheriff's Maj. Darrell Warren said.A month-old baby boy was also found in the home, but was in good condition. Both he and the older girl are now in the care of the county Department of Social Services.The horrific find came as police investigated a robbery on April 17.
  A nearby homeowner reported his house was broken into and claimed gold bullion, a vacuum cleaner, a passport, $2,000 in cash and other items had been stolen, according to a police report.Investigators trailed the bullion to an auction house, which claimed to have bought the gold from 25-year-old Shannon Gore.Authorities arrived at her mobile home in Gloucester with a search warrant when they made the shocking discovery.The girl's blond-hair was matted and filled with knots. She wore only a diaper and t-shirt and was eating flakes of dried skin on her body.Brian Gore, 29, reportedly told police the girl had been kept in the cage since the summer."It was horrific. I don't know what else to say," Lt. Scott Little of the Sheriff's Department told Virginia's Daily Press on Friday.Hmmmm....Sometimes the 'Law' it's punishment just doesn't cover enough,this is one case it doesn't.Read the full story here.