Ahmed Haroun Sudan’s Southern Kordofan governor:" Don’t bring them back alive. We have no space for them."

Ahmed Haroun Sudan’s Southern Kordofan governor:" Don’t bring them back alive. We have no space for them.".(AlYazeera).The governor of Sudan’s Southern Kordofan has been filmed addressing troops before a battle with rebel fighters urging them to "take no prisoners". In footage obtained by Al Jazeera, Ahmed Harun, the state governor who has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in Darfur, is captured on camera telling his soldiers to take strong action against anyone who comes in their way. Southern Kordofan holds most of Sudan's remaining known oil reserves, after South Sudan seceded in July 2011, taking its oilfields with it. Southern Kordofan has become a strategic asset for Khartoum, but rebels there want to follow Juba and be granted independence from Khartoum.
The footage shows Sudanese troops stationed in a captured base involved in a gun battle with rebel forces. Harun is addressing his soldiers before they enter rebel territory by saying: "You must hand over the place clean. Swept, rubbed, crushed. Don’t bring them back alive. We have no space for them." An army commander standing near Harun then says: "Don’t bring them back, eat them raw." General Jogot Mekwar, who is from the Southern Kordofan rebel forces after watching the video told Al Jazeera: "What Ahmed Haroun says is inhumane. He wants to enslave people, and he has a hatred against humanity." "From our perspective, the things he says are the reason the court has issued an arrest warrant." According to the UN, tens of thousands have fled the violence, since July 2011. The UN has called for an investigation into reports of human rights abuses in the territory. Sudan's government has dismissed those accusations, and in turn has accused rebel groups, many of whom fought alongside South Sudan during decades of civil war with the Khartoum government, of launching a rebellion to try and control the territory.In 2007 the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Harun for his alleged role targeting rebel groups in Darfur by funding and arming the Janjaweed armed group to incite attacks against civilian forces.Read and see (Video) the full story here.

South Sudan said the Islamic North Sudan air force had bombed the main oil fields.

South Sudan said the Islamic North Sudan air force had bombed the main oil fields.(AlArabiya).South Sudan said the Sudanese air force had bombed the main oil fields in Unity state near the border with Sudan on Tuesday, as violence between the two escalated.
“This morning as you called I heard the Antonov hovering over Bentiu town because it has just dropped some bombs in the main Unity oil fields,” Unity state information minister Gideon Gatpan told Reuters.“It has now gone back, possibly for refueling, and may come back,” he said by phone.
Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad could not be reached on his mobile phone but Asian oil group GNPOC -- the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium led by China’s CNPC -- operating in Unity state confirmed the bombing.
“The war planes are hovering everywhere ... One bomb actually just missed Unity base camp but anywhere else so far there is no information,” said Vice President Chom Juaj.“They bombed the oil field but so far we are still waiting for the report from the field telling us if they are damaged or not,” he said.
The attack comes a day after a rare direct military confrontation in the poorly marked border region, prompting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to suspend a visit next week to South Sudan, according to Sudanese state media.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sudan accused South Sudan of hatred and deceit as U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon appealed for calm.
Comments by the South’s leader, Salva Kiir, that his military forces had taken the northern oil center of Heglig “reflected extreme hatred to Sudan and its people and the armed forces,” the official SUNA news agency said, citing Information Minister Abdullah Ali Massar.
The South had engaged in “deceptive and misleading acts” when it signed accords with Khartoum at African Union-led talks in Ethiopia, and when it sent a delegation to Khartoum last week to invite Bashir to the summit, said Massar, according to AFP.Ban called on the two countries to end the clashes and respect the agreements on border security they had already reached, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said. Kiir warned of the threat of war after what he said had been Sudanese ground and air attacks on multiple positions in South Sudan’s oil-rich border regions. “This morning the (Sudanese) air force came and bombed... areas in Unity state.”Their troops had fought back and taken Heglig, he added.“After this intensive bombardment our forces.... were attacked by SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) and militia,” he added, speaking at the opening of a ruling party meeting in the southern capital Juba.
“It is a war that has been imposed on us again, but it is they (Khartoum) who are looking for it,” said Kiir, adding that he did not want the conflict to resume.
Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad initially said “limited clashes” had occurred between his forces and those of South Sudan along the border.Hmmmm..........As i predicted that did not take long.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 23. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 5.8  ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 117..Source : Here .

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

• There's a new "Player" in the Air,meet the Grimsvotn Volcano.By John Seach.(VolcanoLive)

64.42 N, 17.33 W - summit elevation 1725 m  - caldera

Read the full story here.Live webcam here and here.Google map location here.More info here.

• RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Grimsvotn Volcano Info Situation Update No. 6  -Source :Here .

• Joe Biden Does Not Applaud After Netanyahu Says Jerusalem Will Not Be Divided.Hmmm......Must obey Obama?Or doesn't approve and recognise autority of US Congress?Read and see the full story here.

• Transcript of Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to U.S. Congress. Here.

• Rumsfeld’s “Parade of Horribles” Released.(FedRaw)Read the "Horrible Naked truth" Here.

• Nato operations in Libya: "Kinetic" US Operations Still the largest chunk. (Guardian).Data journalism breaks down which country does what.Here's the most comprehensive analysis yet of who is doing what.What we got back provides a unique insight into the division of labour in an operation costing millions of dollars and tying up thousands of personnel - nearly 13,000 across 18 countries.What it shows is that, besides the US - which dominates operations with over 8,000 personnel in the area in several ships and aircraft at the peak of the first weeks of the war - the weight of the conflict has fallen on the British, Italians, French and Canadians. The British have flown around 1,300 sorties, some 25% of the total, followed by the French with 1,200 and the Italians with 600. The Canadians, who have the HMCS Charllottetown in the region, have taken part in over 350 sorties up to the 5 May this year.Simultaneously, the US, UK, Canada are heavily involved in combat operations in Afghanistan.Hmmmm.......Obama regime still doesn't need Congress.Read and see the full story here.

• The 'Ghosts' made me do it works as defence in 'Dishonor ' stabbing at the UK?(DailyMail). 'Possessed' teenager who stabbed her own mother five times is allowed to walk free after judge accepts she 'has strong spiritual beliefs'.A student who stabbed her mother five times said she was 'possessed' by her grandmother has been allowed by a judge to walk free from court.Teenager Lorraine Mbulawa was convicted of unlawful wounding after stabbing her mother as she slept in her bed in Braunstone Firth, Leicester.The 19-year-old was released when Mr Justice Keith accepted her arguments that her beliefs in witchcraft and evil led her to carry out the act.Despite being stabbed five times, Mbulawa's mother, Sisbsisiwe, did not blame her for what she did because they both believe in the occult.In delivering his sentence at Leeds Crown Court, the judge said: 'She believed spirits can enter the body and make you do things that otherwise you would not have done.'Her beliefs could have made her think she was possessed by evil spirits at the time.'The jury cleared the A-level student of attempted murder during a trial at Leicester Crown Court earlier this year but she was convicted of the lesser charge of unlawful wounding.Justice Keith added: 'In convicting Lorraine of unlawful wounding the jury must be treated as having rejected her claim of being in a dissociative state.When she took to the stand to talk about the events of May 13, 2009, Mbulawa said: 'I had a dream that seemed a bit real. It was my grandma and dad's youngest sister, Charlotte. Like they were right at the foot of my bed.'My grandmother said my mother was responsible for the death of my father Prosecutor James House said: 'Her mother has expressed a belief in the power of spirits common in the culture of Zimbabwe.'Had it happened there, her daughter would have been treated by a medicine man and would have been exorcised.'Psychiatrists said that Mbulawa was of sound mind and she was handed a 12 month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months along with 120 hours community service.Justice Keith added: I believe she's a young woman with much going for her. She struck me as being unusually confident and assured, also not unintelligent with a degree of charm and poise.'She is someone who is capable of possibly paving a good life for themselves.'Lorraine believes she was doing what the spirits told her to do which reduced her culpability significantly.'and I had to do the honourable thing to my father by killing my mother.'Hmmmm....So 'Dishonor' stabbings are allowed in the UK?Read the full story here.

• An Anti-Israel President .The president's peace proposal is a formula for war.(WSJ).Say what you will about President Obama's approach to Israel—or of his relationship with American Jews—he sure has mastered the concept of chutzpah. On Thursday at the State Department, the president gave his big speech on the Middle East, in which he invoked the claims of friendship to tell Israelis "the truth," which to his mind was that "the status quo is unsustainable, and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace." On Friday in the Oval Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his version of the truth, which was that the 1967 border proposed by Mr. Obama as a basis for negotiating the outlines of a Palestinian state was a nonstarter. Administration reaction to this reciprocal act of friendly truth-telling? "That was Bibi over the top," the New York Times quoted one senior U.S. official, using the prime minister's nickname. "That's not how you address the president of the United States."Maybe so. Then again, it isn't often that this or any other U.S. president welcomes a foreign leader by sandbagging him with an adversarial policy speech a day before the visit. Remember when the Dalai Lama visited Mr. Obama last year? As a courtesy to Beijing, the president made sure to have the Tibetan spiritual leader exit by the door where the White House trash was piled up. And that was 11 months before Hu Jintao's state visit to the U.S.When this president wants to make a show of his exquisite diplomatic sensitivity—burgers with Medvedev, bows to Abdullah, New Year's greetings to the mullahs—he knows how. And when he wants to show his contempt, he knows how, too.The contempt was again on display Sunday, when Mr. Obama spoke to the Aipac policy conference in Washington. The speech was stocked with the perennial bromides about U.S.-Israeli friendship, which brought an anxious crowd to its feet a few times. As for the rest, it was a thin tissue of falsehoods, rhetorical legerdemain, telling omissions and self-contradictions. Let's count the ways.For starters, it would be nice if the president could come clean about whether his line about the 1967 line—"mutually agreed swaps" and all—was pathbreaking and controversial, or no big deal. On Sunday, Mr. Obama congratulated himself for choosing the hard road to Mideast peace as he prepares for re-election, only to offer a few minutes later that "there was nothing particularly original in my proposal."Yet assuming Mr. Obama knows what he's talking about, he knows that's untrue: No U.S. president has explicitly endorsed the '67 lines as the basis for negotiating a final border, which is why the University of Michigan's Juan Cole, not exactly a shill for the Israel lobby, called it "a major turning point."And then there was that line that "we will hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions and their rhetoric." Applause! But can Mr. Obama offer a single example of having done that as president, except perhaps at the level of a State Department press release?What, then, would a pro-Israel president do? He would tell Palestinians that there is no right of return. He would make the reform of the Arab mindset toward Israel the centerpiece of his peace efforts. He would outline hard and specific consequences should Hamas join the government. Such a vision could lay the groundwork for peace. What Mr. Obama offered is a formula for war, one that he will pursue in a second term. Assuming, of course, that he gets one. Hmmmm......The Most Anti - Jewish President Evah!Read the full story here.

• Is this why Obama fled to Europe?EU Backs Obama's Mideast Offensive.(Spiegel).The European Union is backing US President Obama's call for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn says in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He also argues that, if the Israelis remain stubborn, the EU must consider taking political action.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Netanyahu has said that Abbas must choose between a peace with Hamas and a peace with Israel.

Asselborn: This is not about an either-or choice. The plan is that the transitional government should sit down with the Israelis as soon as possible to negotiate a two-state solution. In this way, Fayyad wants to prevent a vote at the United Nations General Assembly in September on the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. If Abbas negotiates with Israel and Hamas is part of this transitional government, then Israel will implicitly recognize it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Should the European Union hold talks with Hamas?

Asselborn: Four years ago, when the first attempts at reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas took place, I harbored reservations myself. Today, I ask myself if it was a mistake not to have provided stronger support for reconciliation at the time. I can understand that it requires a lot of strength to sit down at the table with people who only promote violence. But time hasn't stood still. We need to make an attempt to draw Hamas into a democratic process and bring it on to the path of freedom -- just as we succeeded in doing with Fatah during the 1990s. That would also include informal talks with Hamas.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Israel is not alone in demanding that Hamas forswear the use of violence. The Middle East Quartet, of which the EU is a member, is also calling for that.

Asselborn: And that's a position we Europeans are going to maintain. Still, you can't just put conditions on the Palestinian side, as they're not the only source of the violence. Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison. There, 1.7 million people live in an area one-seventh the size of Luxembourg. To shut its borders and to only allow certain goods into the country and hardly any out -- this is also a form of violence. In the West Bank, Israelis continue to build settlements on expropriated land. It is a constant provocation.

 SPIEGEL ONLINE: Can the Europeans really exercise any pressure anyway? It seems like Israel can only really be influenced by its most important ally, the United States.

Asselborn: Obama is saying and doing the right thing. But there will be elections next year in the United States, and experience tells us that, in such situations, American presidential candidates grow less bold about taking a stance against the Israeli government. The pro-Israel lobby in the United States is very strong. We Europeans aren't exposed to the same amount of pressure. Hmmmm......So Europe would negociate with Hamas,does the Obama regime think the same way?Read the full story here.

• You got to be kidding!Iranian Lawmaker: Iran Will Create Data Bank Of Western Human Rights Violations.(Memri).Iranian Majlis Human Rights Committee chair Zohreh Elahian says that Iran is planning to create a data bank for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help them investigate rights violations in the West. Ms. Elahian said yesterday that human rights violations in the U.S. and some European countries, such as Britain, are grave and cannot go unnoticed. She also called on Iranian NGOs to bring human rights abuse in the West into sharp focus. On May 16, member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Karim Abedi said that Iran plans to launch an English-language news agency to assert human rights in the West. Hmmmm....Perhaps they should rehearse by taking down the names of all people in prison and hanged in Iran?Read the full story here.

• Saudi Macho-Male Facebook Effort To Deter Women From Driving As Women Wage Another Campaign To Get Behind The Wheel.(Memri).Some 4,861 participants on the social network site Facebook vowed to physically beat men and women who support Saudi women driving their own four wheels. The anonymous founder of the Facebook page urged his male counterparts to use "all they can to stop women from driving," including the "Igal." "Igal" is the thick black-circled wiring that holds the usually white-red checkered scarf "Ghutra" which mainly Gulf Arabs don.The macho Facebook "Igal" campaign was formed to denounce a women-led Facebook campaign entitled "I will drive my car," which attracted 11,500 participants. Manal al-Sherif re-ignited the women rights to drive again, when she posted last week on YouTube a video of herself behind the wheel in the eastern city of Khobar. Saudi authorities have re-arrested her for defying the ban on female drivers in the conservative kingdom. Her YouTube video received 500,000 viewers as of yesterday.She was accused of "violating public order," and ordered held for five days while the case is investigated, an official said. In the macho campaign’s Facebook page, its founder used a picture of a man beating a fully covered woman with the "Igal." Presumably, that photograph was staged.Hmmmm......Welcome to A.D 620 revisited?Read the full story here.

• Related - Prominent Saudi Sheikh: Saudi Women Who Want To Drive Deserve Death.(Memri).Prominent Saudi Sheikh Dr. Abd Al-Rahman Al-Barak has called on women who plan to drive their cars on June 17 to change their minds and to stop the "I'll Drive My Car Myself" campaign on Facebook. He said that the Saudi women demanding to drive deserve death.Read the full story here.

• Soon Polygamy allowed in future hardline Islamic Iran Turkey? (HurriyetDaily).A family consultant and life coach who conducts seminars on inter-family communication for Istanbul municipalities has suggested legalizing polygamy, citing both secular and religious arguments in support of her position.  “A man looks for friendship, sexuality, motherhood and good housekeeping qualities in a woman. Unless you possess these attributes, you ought to be ready for being cheated upon. This is a righteous search for a man,” said 35-year-old Sibel Üresin, who has worked for the largely conservative municipalities of Fatih, Ümraniye, Bahçelievler and Eyüp, among others. “A healthy woman who analyzes what she will have to go through in the case of a divorce should, in my opinion, consider polygamy as a form of salvation.”Polygamy is already a fact of life because 85 percent of men already cheat anyway, according to Üresin. In conservative sections of Turkish society, this is referred to as an “imam-wed wife” and is called a mistress by other parts of society, Üresin said.“Rich men with solid careers and lots of sexual power can sometimes choose polygamy. No woman would ever become the second wife of a poor man. Men go after women who are more flirtatious, laugh more and who can satisfy them sexually. If I were a man, I would have been polygamous,” said Üresin, arguing that legalizing polygamy would empower women who are already engaged in polygamous marriages.Men can have up to four wives according to many interpretations of Islam, yet these wives have no legal rights in Turkey, according to Üresin, who added that legalizing polygamy would entitle such wives to their husband’s property.“Polygamy exists in our religion. Not everyone can do it, but you cannot ask someone why they did it; that amounts to polytheism. It is written in the Quran,” Üresin said.Hmmmm.......Keep Turkey out of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• Turkish Islamic hardliners preparing to crack down on the Internet. (HurriyetDaily).Turkish gov't to sit down with NGOs over Internet filtering.Representatives of nongovernmental organizations and government agencies will meet Wednesday to discuss a controversial plan to institute mandatory Internet filtering throughout Turkey following large civil-society protests against the proposal.“There will be broad participation at the meeting. We will talk about the future of the ‘Safe Internet’ application that will kick off in August based on a decision made by the BTK [Information Communication Technologies Authority] on Feb. 22,” said Serhat Özeren, the president of the Transportation Ministry’s Internet Council.“We invited civil-society organizations and particularly academics who expressed unfavorable views in the press concerning this application,” Özeren said, adding that representatives from all walks of life were invited to the conference to help generate a common public opinion on the issue.The meeting, which will bring around 60 people together at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, was organized based on a suggestion by former Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım.A lawyer for a popular website said he did not have big expectations for the meeting, noting that the BTK had never asked for public opinion before making the filtering decision.“The Internet board did not even gather before such an important decision was made,” Başak Purut, a lawyer for Ekşisözlük.com, told the Hürriyet Daily News. He added that the meeting Wednesday would not have been called had thousands not gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square to protest the filtering announcement.“In my opinion, the only reason to organize such a meeting is to create a perception that the officials want to listen to NGOs,” Purut said.The European Commission has warned Turkey that it is keeping an eye on the filtering plans, something Purut said is very important, noting that Europe is taking the issue seriously. He claimed that the Turkish government will likely make small changes just for show without canceling the filtering system itself, just as it lifted a ban on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.com ahead of the release of an EU progress report.Filtering has already begun at Internet cafes with no notice, Purut claimed. “More than 1.2 million websites could not be visited, although the sites did not include undesirable content,” he added.Lawyers representing Facebook, Google and eksisozluk.com will take part in the conference, as will technology editors from newspapers and representatives from Internet media.Hmmmmm.....Welcome to Turkey ....Iranian A.D. 620 version.Read the full story here.

• Thousands flee North Sudan's Muslim violence in South Sudan’s Abyei region,Meanwhile Turkey opens a hospital and medical center in North Sudan.(Todayszaman). More than 15,000 people have fled Sudan’s Abyei region to Agok in the south after the northern army seized the disputed area, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.North Sudan’s army moved tanks into the main town of the oil-producing border region after weeks of tensions, leading to looting and burning by armed groups that forced residents to flee, UN officials said. South Sudan said the seizure of Abyei was a ploy by Khartoum to provoke war and derail secession by the oil-rich south, due in July. Southerners voted to split from the north in a January referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal. North Sudan says it sent in troops to clear out southern soldiers who it said had broken agreements by entering the area.UN spokeswoman Hua Jiang in Sudan’s southern city of Juba said around 20,000 people had arrived in or around Agok, a town just across the border. Other UN officials put the number of refugees at more than 15,000. “We cannot give exact figures,” said Jiang, adding that a UN team was still trying to assess the situation.The UN said a team of its experts and aid groups visited Agok on Monday to assess the situation and estimate the number of refugees there, but gunfire erupted in the town while they were meeting local officials and the mission was cut short. Khartoum has defied calls by the UN Security Council and world powers to withdraw its forces from Abyei, which also has fertile grazing land.Hmmmm.....It's nice to see that so called NATO ally Turkey supports Muslims committing violence on Christians.Read the full story here

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

Hmmm....by the way it seems Al Yazeera is now available on cable in Canada?"If you live in Canada, contact the following cable and satellite providers to subscribe to Al Jazeera English" Bell TV: 516 - Cogeco: 182 - Rogers: 176 - Shaw: 513 - Videotron: 173

• Tunesia - We don't care about revolution - we just want to go to Europe.Chaos, militant Islam and thousands fleeing Tunisia in the aftermath of uprising.On a rocky outcrop a few miles up the coast from the Tunisian port of Bizert, an abandoned concrete ruin overlooks the Mediterranean, whose waves pound the desolate beach below. Across the water lies Sicily, a gateway to Europe. The single-storey building is one of numerous hideouts for Tunisians who pay agents to smuggle them into Italy. Since Tunisians ousted dictator President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14 after 23 years in power, the once-omnipotent police force has lost its grip on the throat of the people. As uncertainty reigns, the coastline has become porous. In recent weeks, 6,000 Tunisians have paid human traffickers smuggle them into Italy.My guide says this building has been used recently. It’s a departure point for illegal migrants who pay an agent up to £1,500 for a place on a boat that will take them to Europe. Days before leaving, they arrive at safe houses such as this one and survive without water or sanitary facilities. Once the coast is clear, a fishing boat docks, loads its human cargo and sets off, under cover of darkness. Now, after massive pressure from the European Union, the Tunisian government is cracking down on the people-smuggling trade.Illegal migration is a part of the complex picture that is unfolding here. The media caravan has moved on to new flashpoints in other parts of the region as the most momentous political change since the 1989 collapse of the European communist bloc unfolds. But what happens after the revolution is won? The answer lies in Tunisia, which was the first North African nation to overthrow its reviled leader. What has followed is uncertainty and a political vacuum as the country struggles to build a democratic framework. Protests grip the capital Tunis, strikes cripple the country, the old power is dead and new forces are rising – including the Islamists. But while many Tunisians celebrate the downfall of Ben Ali, others are seeking to escape to the prosperity of Europe, raising the spectre of a migratory flood.European countries close to North Africa are alarmed that, as chaos spreads across the region, there will be more people like Muhammed coming to their borders. EU officials have been meeting the transitional government to form a strategy to prevent the thousands of Tunisian migrants becoming tens of thousands. The Italian government says 300,000 may try to reach Europe.The day before I arrived in Tunis a mass protest took place against a brothel that has been in existence for decades. More than 1,000 Muslims gathered as a result of a Facebook notice and rallied outside the brothel, demanding its closure.I met one protester the next day. Abou Rabab, a shopkeeper, whose business is near the brothel, told me: ‘We are a Muslim country and we do not accept this shame in our midst.’He said Islam was a peaceful religion, but he warned that the Islamist campaign to clean up Tunisia would continue. ‘This time the whores had a verbal warning. Then it will be a written warning. Third time it will be the other thing.’Islamist protests have already led to the closure of several brothels across the country.Hmmmmm.......Perhaps time to step in the Burka businesss?Read the full story here.

• Related : 100,000 have fled Libya, UN refugee agency says.Nearly 100,000 people have fled violence in Libya in the past week, streaming into Tunisia and Egypt in a growing humanitarian crisis, the UN refugee agency said on Sunday.They include Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and third country nationals including Chinese and other Asians, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement. About half of the 100,000 have gone to Tunisia and half to Egypt."We call upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to enable these governments to cope with this humanitarian emergency," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.The Geneva-based UNHCR began an airlift of shelter and other relief supplies on Saturday night to Djerba, Tunisia, and the aid will be brought to the Libyan border, it said.Hmmmm........Time for the Muslim world to show their Charity to fellow Muslims?Read the full story here.

• HT:BNI.Is Barack HUSSEIN Obama planning to bring 50 – 100 million MUSLIM refugees into America?According to Arabic language broadcasts, “The Muslim world is saying that President Obama wants amnesty for the current Hispanic 12 million illegal immigrants in the US in order to pave the way for the next wave of tens of millions of illegals from the Middle East to the United States, leading to 50 to 100 million Muslims living in the US. before the end of Obama’s second term.“Is Barack Obama Really A Saudi/Muslim ‘Plant’ in the White House?” The answer is obvious. The video claims that “for years before” the 2008 election, Lipkin’s wife, who worked for the Israeli government monitoring Arabic radio broadcasts, picked up broadcasts of Saudis saying, “We will have a a Muslim in the White House in 2008.”Avi Lipkin has a source with a senior United Nations official that the U.S. will be a Muslim country by the end of Obama’s second term. It is now easy to see who that can happen, and quickly, since the economies of Egypt and other Mid East nations will likely fall apart under impending rigid Islamic rule with the new regimes. Lipkin outlines Obama’s three prong plan in the Middle East.Hmmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• We have to find common ground: Obama's plea as threat of government shutdown looms in Congress budget war.They've got a week. The threat of the first government shutdown in 15 years is looming closer - and President Barack Obama is urging Congress to work harder as the clock runs down. Mr Obama warned that failure to find common ground on how deeply to slash spending will cause gridlock and stall the economic recovery.The current budget expires next Friday. That means lawmakers must adopt a new spending plan before the March 4 deadline to keep much of the government from running out of money and closing. But the Republican House and Democratic Senate disagree over how much to cut spending - and neither is willing to give way. 'For the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail,' Mr Obama said today in his weekly radio and Internet address.Hmmmm.....Lets see if the Gov shuts down who will order to stop paying benefits to the unemployed & sick and pensioners?"For the benefit of the people"? Read the full story here.

• Historian Bernard Lewis "A mass expression of outrage against injustice".Historian Bernard Lewis diagnoses the fundamental cause of the region-wide explosion of protest, and dismisses Western notions of a quick fix.Bernard Lewis, the renowned Islamic scholar, believes that at the root of the protests sweeping across our region is the Arab peoples’ widespread sense of injustice. “The sort of authoritarian, even dictatorial regimes, that rule most of the countries in the modern Islamic Middle East, are a modern creation,” he notes. “The pre-modern regimes were much more open, much more tolerant.” But Lewis regards a dash toward Western-style elections, far from representing a solution to the region’s difficulties, as constituting “a dangerous aggravation” of the problem, and fears that radical Islamic movements would be best placed to exploit so misguided a move. A much better course, he says, would be to encourage the gradual development of local, self-governing institutions, in accordance with the Islamic tradition of “consultation.”Lewis also believes that it was no coincidence that the current unrest erupted first in Tunisia, the one Arab country, he notes, where women play a significant part in public life. The role of women in determining the future of the Arab world, he says, will be crucial.Once described as the most influential post-war historian of Islam and the Middle East, Lewis, 94, set out his thinking on the current Middle East ferment in a conversation with me before an invited audience at the home of the US Ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham, a few days ago.

Excerpts: Broadly speaking, the notion of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is much disputed – from being perceived as essentially benign, unthreatening, even secular, according to one remark (later corrected, by US National Intelligence Director James Clapper), to being perceived as a radical and terrible threat. How would you judge it?

To say that they’re secular would show an astonishing ignorance of the English lexicon. I don’t think [the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt] is in any sense benign. I think it is a very dangerous, radical Islamic movement. If they obtain power, the consequences would be disastrous for Egypt.I’m an historian. My business is the past, not the future. But I can imagine a situation in which the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations of the same kind obtain control of much of the Arab world. It’s not impossible. I wouldn’t say it’s likely, but it’s not unlikely.And if that happens, they would gradually sink back into medieval squalor.Remember that according to their own statistics, the total exports of the entire Arab world other than fossil fuels amount to less than those of Finland, one small European country. Sooner or later the oil age will come to an end. Oil will be either exhausted or superseded as a source of energy and then they have virtually nothing. In that case it’s easy to imagine a situation in which Africa north of the Sahara becomes not unlike Africa south of the Sahara.

As we look at this region in ferment, how would you characterize what is unfolding now? Can we generalize about the uprisings that are erupting in the various countries? Is there a common theme?

There’s a common theme of anger and resentment. And the anger and resentment are universal and well-grounded. They come from a number of things. First of all, there’s the obvious one – the greater awareness that they have, thanks to modern media and modern communications, of the difference between their situation and the situation in other parts of the world. I mean, being abjectly poor is bad enough. But when everybody else around you is pretty far from abjectly poor, then it becomes pretty intolerable.Another thing is the sexual aspect of it. One has to remember that in the Muslim world, casual sex, Western-style, doesn’t exist. If a young man wants sex, there are only two possibilities – marriage and the brothel. You have these vast numbers of young men growing up without the money, either for the brothel or the brideprice, with raging sexual desire. On the one hand, it can lead to the suicide bomber, who is attracted by the virgins of paradise – the only ones available to him. On the other hand, sheer frustration.If we have different potential Islamic paths that these peoples could now go down, how strong is a more moderate Muslim tradition? How likely is it that that would prevail? I ask you that because of your bleak characterization of the Muslim Brotherhood which, again, some experts claim is relatively benign.I don’t know how one could get the impression that the Muslim Brotherhood is relatively benign unless you mean relatively as compared with the Nazi party.There are other trends within the Islamic world which look back to their own glorious paths and think in other terms. There is a great deal of talk nowadays about consultation. That is very much part of the tradition.The sort of authoritarian, even dictatorial regimes, that rule most of the countries in the modern Islamic Middle East, are a modern creation. They are a result of modernization. The pre-modern regimes were much more open, much more tolerant. You can see this from a number of contemporary descriptions. And the memory of that is still living.It was a British naval officer called Slade who put it very well. He was comparing the old order with the new order, created by modernization. He said that “in the old order, the nobility lived on their estates. In the new order, the state is the estate of the new nobility.” I think that puts it admirably.

When you look around the region, which are the potential enemies which may be regarded as the greater threat?

At the moment, principally the Iranian revolution. On the one hand they’re afraid of what you might call Iranian imperialism, and on the other hand of the Iranian Shi’ite revolution.The Sunni-Shi’ite question is obviously different according to which country you’re in. In a country like Iraq or Syria, where you have both Sunnis and Shia, the distinction between Sunni and Shia, the clashes between them, are very important. In a country like Egypt where there are no Shia, which is 100% Sunni, it’s not an important issue. They don’t see the Shia threat as an issue.There’s one other group of people that I think one should bear in mind when considering the future of the Middle East, and that is women. The case has been made, and I think there is some force in it, that the main reason for the relative backwardness of the Islamic world compared to the West is the treatment of women. As far as I know, it was first made by a Turkish writer called Namik Kemal in about 1880. At that time an agonizing debate had been going on for more than a century: What went wrong? Why did we fall behind the West?He said, “The answer is very clear. We fell behind the West because of the way we treat our women. By the way we treat our women we deprive ourselves of the talents and services of half the population. And we submit the early education of the other half to ignorant and downtrodden mothers.”It goes further than that. A child who grows up in a traditional Muslim household is accustomed to authoritarian, autocratic rule from the start. I think the position of women is of crucial importance.That is why I am looking with great interest at Tunisia. Tunisia is the one Arab country that has really done something about women. In Tunisia there is compulsory education for girls, from primary school, right through. In Tunisia, women are to be found in the professions. There are doctors, lawyers, journalists, politicians and so on. Women play a significant part in public life in Tunisia. I think that is going to have an enormous impact. It’s already having this in Tunisia and you can see that in various ways. But this will certainly spread to other parts of the world.Elsewhere, the question of women and the role of the women is of crucial importance for the future of the Muslim world in general.And so to the Israel question. Israel, like everybody else, was taken completely by surprise.

How should Israel be responding to these protests?

Watch carefully, keep silent, make the necessary preparations.And reach out. Reach out. This is a real possibility nowadays. There are increasing numbers of people in the Arab world who look with, I would even say, with wonderment at what they see in Israel, at the functioning of a free and open society. I read an article quite recently by a Palestinian Arab whom I will not endanger by naming, in which he said that “as things stand in the world at the present time, the best hope that an Arab has for his future is as a second class citizen of a Jewish state.” A rather extraordinary statement coming from an Arab spokesman. But if you think about it, he’s not far wrong. The alternative, being in an Arab state, is very much worse. They certainly do better as second class citizens of the Jewish state. There’s a growing realization of that. People would speak much more openly about that if it were safe to do so, which it obviously isn’t.There are two things which I think are helpful towards a better understanding between the Arabs and Israel. One of them is the well-known one, of the perception of a greater danger, which I mentioned before. Sadat turned to Israel because he saw that Egypt was becoming a Russian colony. The same thing has happened again on a number of occasions. Now they see Israel as a barrier against the Iranian threat.The other one, which is less easy to define but in the long run is probably more important, is [regarding Israel] as a model of democratic government. A model of a free and open society with rights for women – an increasingly important point, especially in the perception of women.In both of these respects I think that there are some hopeful signs for the future.Hmmmmmm........The main question is do we have enough peacetime left?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan clamps down on U.S. contractors after construction worker held over visa violations.An American detained for visa violations in northwest Pakistan has been revealed to be a contractor working on a U.S.-funded construction project, a security official confirmed.Pakistan's intelligence agency said it is scrutinising the details of all Americans in the country after the arrest last month of a CIA employee for shooting dead two men in Lahore.It was unclear if the arrest of Aaron Mark DeHaven in Peshawar on Friday was directly related.The killings in Lahore have sharply raised tensions between Pakistan's spy agency and the CIA, which cooperate behind the scenes in the fight against Islamist militant groups inside the country.A wave of anti-American protests have erupted in the wake of the shootings.Yesterday, more than 300 Islamists from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which has militant links, staged a demonstration in Lahore urging the government to hang the CIA contractor Raymond Allen Davis.Amir Hamza, a leader of the charity, said: 'Expel all the CIA agents.'The rally came hours after DeHaven appeared in court in Peshawar and a judge ordered he remain in custody for 14 more days pending a police investigation.A security official said DeHaven was a contractor who had worked on a least one construction project for the U.S. government in the region, but gave no other details.He said the 34-year-old, from Virginia, is married to a Pakistani woman. DeHaven's work visa application listed him working for Catalyst Services.The company's website said it performs logistics, 'life support' and construction services around the world and that its management teams have U.S. Army and Defense Department backgrounds.Hmmm.....Perhaps Senator Kerry couldn't walk on water eighter?Read the full story here.

• North Korea threatens to attack South Korea, US.North Korea threatened Sunday to attack South Korea and the United States, as the allies prepared to start annual joint military drills — maneuvers Pyongyang says are a rehearsal for an invasion.The North has routinely issued such war rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S. The latest warning, however, came nearly three weeks after the rival Koreas failed to reach a breakthrough in their first dialogue in months.Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply last year over two deadly attacks — the sinking of a South Korean naval ship blamed on the North and a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four people on a front-line South Korean island. North Korea denies it was involved in the ship sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.On Sunday, the North used harsh rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S., calling their joint drills a "dangerous military scheme.""Our military and people will take stern military countermeasures against the American imperialists and the (South Korean) traitors' group, because they are challenging us with aggressive military action," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.Hmmmm........Perhaps the President can ask Gladys Knight for advice tonight?Read the full story here.

• HT:MiddleEastForum.Turkey's Ambassadors vs. 'Sultan' Erdoğan.In June 2010, the deepening rift between Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) unexpectedly came to the public eye when seventy-two retired ambassadors and consul-generals issued a written statement protesting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's lack of respect in dubbing them "mon chers" and criticizing the government's foreign policy. Why did the prime minister publicly snub his diplomats? By way of answering this question, this article reviews the ongoing rift between Erdoğan and his diplomats before carrying an English translation of the ambassadors' statement and interviews with two retired senior diplomats.The tension between the AKP and the retired diplomats is but one aspect of the wider polarization in Turkish state institutions and public opinion at large, reflecting concerns about the AKP's ulterior motives. According to some, AKP initiatives aim at a "civilian dominance" under the disguise of democratization and at transforming Turkey into a state governed in accordance with Islamic values, if not Shari'a law. Yet some liberals regard them as important improvements for Turkish democracy and view objections to them as simple anti-government prejudice.For instance, the government reforms on the organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 2010 include several improvements, such as the creation of new departments, area specialization, and foreign language education. The new law stipulates that the diplomats will represent not only the Turkish Republic and its president but also the government. It also allows appointment of non-ministry individuals as ambassadors and the recruitment of graduates from several fields, including theology.According to a senior diplomat, these modifications will give all bright graduates a chance to enter the ministry and will break the elitist and status-related approach of the old school. However, others maintain that these changes may facilitate the entrance of the AKP's own cadres into the foreign ministry (e.g., through political appointments and the recruitment of theology graduates) and tighten its grip over the foreign policymaking process.Similar reservations and debates revolve around other key state organizations. The AKP has dominated the Turkish parliament with 341 out of 550 seats since the 2007 elections, which enabled the election of a prominent AKP figure, Abdullah Gül, as president. This exacerbated the secularists' fears, who argued that his election endangered one of the fundamental principles of democratic governance, namely the separation of powers, and that the constitutional reforms—approved in a referendum in September 2010—would strengthen the president's authority. In June 2010, several members of this camp applauded the constitutional court's rejection of the AKP's proposed changes in the election of members of the legal system, including the constitutional court itself, the supreme council of judges, and public prosecutors, which they believed would consolidate the executive's control over the judiciary. The new constitutional package also foresees a more transparent and accountable military, which is considered by both the AKP and liberals a sine qua non for democratization. On the other hand, many regard this change as an attempt to weaken the military, the bastion of Kemalist principles and thus impregnable to the Islamists.Turkish diplomats have continued to do their jobs with courage and levelheadedness at the cost of their lives in Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Somalia. It must be noted that courage and dynamism in foreign policy do not mean adventurism. Those who claim to know history well should always remember the misfortunes wrought on our country by such cheap promises as "to perform prayers together in Jerusalem." Making our innocent people pay for the cost of such cheap bravery [i.e., the Gaza flotilla incident which ended with the killing of nine Turks by Israeli soldiers] is an additional reason for sadness. The republic's foreign ministry corps has never acted as the hands, arms, and eyes of other countries or circles. It has been proud of its high self-esteem engendered by the long-standing accumulation of the nation's history and morality and its existence in this land freely for centuries.

MEQ: Would you care to elaborate?

Loğoğlu: Should the current political dynamics and trends persist, Turkey will be a very different country in both domestic and external terms. Seeking partnerships and joining or creating new schemes, Turkey will probably abandon its EU accession drive altogether. It will be a power not just from, but also, of the Middle East region. Its ties with NATO may come under increasing questioning. In short, Turkey's place may no longer be in the Euro-Atlantic community, but elsewhere. (IRAN?).The meaning of such an eventuality may differ in accordance with one's outlook. Yet it is certain that Turkey will no longer be the secular democracy it has been since its foundation, a society with a commitment to progressive civilization.

MEQ: What is your view on drawing parallels between the Ottomans and the AKP, neo-Ottomanism?

Pamir: At times, the AKP's foreign policy is reminiscent of that of the Ottoman Empire. Its foreign policy impulses give the impression that they are predicated on ideology. For instance, the AKP rightfully argued that Hamas was elected through democratic elections and that it should be, therefore, recognized by other states. But if it were to follow this line to its logical conclusion, the AKP should have commented on the rigging of the Iranian elections in June 2009. Similarly, Erdoğan participated in the Srebrenica memorial in July 2010 and rightfully declared that the massacre had become a dark stain on the Balkans, Europe, and the entire world. Yet in November 2009, he invited to Turkey the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of committing genocide. These contradictions inevitably raise questions about the role of religion in Turkish foreign policymaking.Hmmmm....So much for the Obama Administration's view that nothing has changed in Turkey's policies,another Obamination?

The Ambassadors' Statement :Until now we assumed that it was only Armenian terrorism that targets Turkish diplomats. During the past year, we have had difficulties explaining the behavior of our honorable prime minister, who has been verbally attacking his own country's diplomats on every available opportunity. MEQ: Is Turkey in the midst of an orientation shift as some argue?Foreign policy cannot be conducted through the misuse of a few foreign words, scornful statements against diplomats and commoditized initiatives—which are in contradiction with each other—for the sake of short-term expediency. Should [our foreign policy continue to be] conducted in this fashion, there will be a heavy cost. The sad part is that the cost will not only be paid by those who have adopted a thoughtless, shallow approach, but also by our entire nation.

Ambassador : Loğoğlu: There is certainly a paradigm shift in Turkish foreign policy away from its traditional moorings in the Euro-Atlantic community and toward new directions, mostly the Muslim world. This change is a consequence of the fundamental shift of Turkish polity as a whole—away from a secular democracy toward a regime that will continue to resemble democracy in some formal aspects, but one with progressively non-secular underpinnings. The space of Islam and religious precepts, rules, and norms is growing at the expense of other spaces and societal points of reference. There is thus a coherent and consistent mindset and outlook driving Turkish foreign policy today.

We would like to end this statement with a short rhyme inspired by one of our late ambassadors, which demonstrates our sadness: "No fairness is left in human beings/ We were considered martyrs when it suited them/ And mon chers when it didn't/ In this disloyal world."Hmmmm.......Once more i say GET TURKEY OUT OF NATO NOW !A MUST READ !Read the full story here.

• HT:RightTruth.Must See Video.Protetsters deface War Memorial in Wisconsin Capitol.The losers and looters befouling the Wisconsin Capitol have gone and done it now. They decided they would use a War Memorial in the rotunda as a bulleting board for their ignorance. They taped a bunch of their mindless dreck all over it. Ann Althouse is UW Law Prof and a very cool and interesting blogger.She and her husband saw this an he confronted the clowns beautifully.Hmmmm......Anyone calling for a new world 'order'no respect needed?Read the full story here.

• Dark Days for Solar Power......And their defenders?Ever heard of the Solyndra solar-cell plant in Fremont, Calif.? Most people haven’t. That’s a shame, considering how much taxpayer money has been poured into it.Solyndra’s in serious financial trouble. Despite getting a $535 million bailout -- part of the taxpayer-funded “stimulus” -- the company subsequently announced that it would lay off more than 17 percent of its workforce the day. They also had to close one of their manufacturing plants about a year after they got the money. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is launching an investigation.That’s understandable. After all, it wasn’t supposed to turn out this way for Solyndra and other solar-cell producers. President Obama and Sen. Barbara Boxer both campaigned at the plant, touting the “green jobs” that would flow from government investment in companies that produce renewable energy.You can think solar panels are the most wonderful thing in the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should fund them. Consider this November 2010 headline from the San Jose Business Journal: “Solar Panel Glut Projected in 2011.” Supplies of the panels, the article says, will be nearly three times higher than demand this year.Faced with a forecast like that, nobody with any business sense would invest in solar panels. But government would -- with our money.You can call that a lot of things, but “stimulus” isn’t one of them.So what made Solyndra an attractive choice for government largesse? As Heritage Foundation energy expert David Kreutzer points out, it has more to do with political rates of return than economic ones: The company spent $140,000 on lobbyists in the first quarter of 2010.In the end, though, it didn’t help them. Maybe they should have invested that money in a viable source of energy.Hmmmm......Another Obamination.Read the full story here.

• "Child Brides" - Married at 13, abandoned at 30, woman now lives on streets of Saudi Arabia.When she was 13-years old, Salma (full name withheld) from Saudi Arabia was forced to marry a man aged over 60.The man paid her father a dowry of SR250,000 ($68,000), but Salma says it was like she was actually sold.Salma, now in her 30s, has no home and is deprived of seeing her six children following her divorce. When she tried to take them, she was thrown in prison for six months.As if all this was not enough. After she was divorced and her children taken away, her father tried to sell her again - this would-be husband refused to offer more than SR100,000.But it was her not her father who turned down that offer. Feeling that she had enough, she packed and fled her home.“I was only 13 when this rich old man came and paid my father SR250,000. I was forced to marry a man who is as old as my grandfather… I was snatched off my fifth class at that age,” said Salma, from the central town of Makkah.“He took me to his home in Madina and there I found that he already has three wives… I then started to spend my time playing with his children as I was a child and had no idea about marriage life.”Salma, now in her 30s, said her marriage lasted around 17 years, during which she gave birth to four daughters and two sons.“During my marriage to this man, I suffered from torture and very bad treatment… I then fled to my family’s house and stayed there with my children for nearly three years, after which I was divorced.”“I refused to be 'sold' again and fled home… I have been staying at mosques and parks all this time. My ex-husband still refuses to let me see my children. Sometimes I go to take a glance at them while going or leaving school and I could see clear marks of violence on their bodies. I think they are being tortured at home.”The paper did not say where it met Salma or whether she has a home now. But it quoted a Saudi human rights activist as urging the woman to come along and present her case.“If she comes and proves that her children are subject to torture by their father, then will we will talk to the police. We will also ensure protection for her and her children,” said Mohammed Kalantin, member of the Saudi Human Rights Commission in Makka.Hmmmm.......Obama"Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Controversial F-35  fighter plane hits milestone, takes to the skies. OTTAWA -- The fighter plane at the centre of one of Ottawa's hottest political debates has taken its first test flight over the skies of Texas.The first production F-35 made its inaugural flight on Friday marking another milestone for the F-35 program.The hour long flight at Lockheed Martin's Forth Worth facilities included basic flight maneuvering and engine tests. Pilot for the afternoon sortie, company test pilot Bill Gigliotti, was pleased with the jet's performance."The aircraft was rock-solid from takeoff to landing, and successfully completed all the tests we put it through during the flight," said Gigliotti. "The Air Force is getting a great jet that represents a huge leap in capability, and we’re looking forward to getting it into the hands of the service pilots in just a few more weeks."AF-6, as the jet is called, is the first of two F-35A air force jets from the LRIP 1 production lot funded in 2007. Earlier jets delivered by the program have been development aircraft. Previously AF-6 was to be delivered to the 58th FS at Eglin AFB last fall. Instead it will transfer to Edwards AFB in a month's time to support development testing. Last year's restructuring of the F-35 program diverted three production jets destined for operational testing in an effort to speed up the development phase. The three jets will effectively be on loan to the development test program. Consequently delivery of AF-6, which has received the serial number #07-0744, was delayed as the jet was refitted with instrumentation equipment in order to conduct flight testing.2011 will also see the first production deliveries of the U.S. Marine Corps variant F-35B STOVL. The U.S. Navy will have to wait until 2012 for their first production F-35C carrier jet.In all seventeen F-35s have been delivered since December 2006. More than 650 flights have been completed in addition to extensive ground testing.Read the full story here.HT: f-16.net.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Start now to plan your participation at the One Million Muslim March, July 4th, 2011 Washington DC, Anacostia Park!Independence Day? Will they have fireworks and stuff? Most of the success of the ill conceived scheme to demonize Islam resulted from the rush to judgment that took place following 9/11, and the failed 9/11 investigation which wrongly concluded that Muslims had carried out criminal terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.Hmmm.....I just hope there's burger and bacon stand there,don't forget to bring your fourlegged friends also,people love dogs!Read the full story here.

• HT:UnDhimmi.‘Convert to Islam and You Can Have Your Daughter Back’.… and this was Police advice from Muslim North Sudan, illustrating precisely why the largely Christian and traditionalist South voted by an amazingly slim margin of 99.57% to separate from it:A Christian widow in north Sudan is agonizing over the kidnapping of her daughter eight months ago by suspected Islamic extremists in Khartoum.“Since my daughter was kidnapped, I have been living in a state of fear and terror,” said Ikhlas Anglo, 35, a mother of two daughters.She said her 15-year-old daughter, Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, went missing while returning from the Ministry of Education in Khartoum on June 27, 2010. Hiba, a member of Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Khartoum, had gone to the education ministry office to obtain her transcripts for entry to secondary school.Two days later, the family received threatening telephone calls and SMS messages from the kidnappers telling them to pay 1,500 Sudanese pounds (US$560) in order to secure her return.“Don’t you want to have this slave back?” one of the kidnappers told Anglo from an unknown location by cell phone, she said.Anglo and others said they believe the kidnappers are Muslim extremists who have targeted them because they are Christians, and that police are aiding the criminals. She said that when she went to a police station to open a case, police bluntly told her she must first leave Christianity for Islam.“You must convert to Islam if you want your daughter back,” officer Fakhr El-Dean Mustafa of the Family and Child Protection Unit told Anglo, she said. Recently transferred to another station, Mustafa was not immediately available for comment.In a pattern seen across the Muslim world, Christians are subjected to the most appalling and degrading treatment in Islamic countries; and – again a common trait – the police are usually at least unsympathetic, if not in actually collusion with (as was intimated in this case) the abusers.Forced conversions and kidnappings of teenage Christian girls are a common occurrence.This is only going to get worse. The country’s president, Omar al-Bashir, a genocidal maniac wanted by International prosecutors for crimes against humanity for the Darfur atrocities, stated prior to the secession referendum that he would assert Islamic supremacy even more aggressively than he already does, should there be a vote for a split.His record strongly suggests that this will happen.We think that It’s time for any remaining non-Muslims that are able to leave North Sudan by whatever means are at hand and move South.Hmmmm.....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Iran's two opposition leaders, their wives are placed in safe house.(CNN) -- Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi and their wives were placed in a safe house for their own welfare, but they have not been arrested, Iranian government sources told CNN Saturday."The opposition movement is very much looking for martyrs so if this is true it's for their own safety," one source told CNN.The pro-reform opposition movement "is always looking for an excuse to create something, so this may be done to keep someone from doing something to them," the source added.But the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed concern for the safety of the leaders and their wives."Moussavi and Karrubi and their wives have been disappeared; they are being held incommunicado in an unknown location, a severe breach of Iranian and international law," Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the campaign, said in a statement."Given the lynch mob-like calls for their execution by numerous Iranian politicians and clerics, there is reason to be deeply concerned for their safety and well-being," Rhodes said.State-run Press TV aired video of Iranian lawmakers earlier this month chanting, "Moussavi, Karrubi ... execute them."The human rights organization also pointed out that "a 'safe house' is considered a place for the secret detention of high security-value detainees, which is not under the control of the judiciary or any other monitoring mechanisms. The Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence agencies are well-known for using safe houses for all methods and techniques to get confessions from detainees without scrutiny or pressure from other legal bodies.""Given the use of so-called safe houses to mistreat opponents of the government in the past, the campaign finds it deeply disturbing that Moussavi and Karrubi have reportedly been removed to such a facility," the statement said.Iranian authorities began rounding up many government opponents this month amid calls for protests like those that have swept across North Africa and the Middle East.International journalists have been limited in their ability to gather news in Iran, where the government has cracked down on the media and maintains tight control of state-run news organizations. During the protests earlier this month, foreign journalists were denied visas, accredited journalists living in the country were restricted from covering the demonstrations, and internet speed slowed to a crawl in an apparent attempt to restrict information from being transmitted out of the country.Hmmmm........Off course no word from Pres Obama.....Sorry....ah yes to busy organising parties.Can't even attend church anymore.Read the full story here.

• Muslim Shelf Stockers Can Refuse to Handle Alcohol.A Muslim supermarket employee in Germany was sacked when he refused on religious grounds to stock shelves with bottles of alcohol. Now the country's highest labor court has ruled that the man's objection was justified.It's not the first time a Muslim worker in Germany has gone to court over the right to practice his or her religion in the workplace. A number of high-profile cases in recent years have involved Muslim women who wanted the right to wear a headscarf while doing their jobs. But the particulars of this case are unusual -- and controversial: Germany's highest labor court has ruled that a Muslim supermarket employee can refuse to handle alcohol on religious grounds.The case in question involved a Muslim man who was employed in a supermarket in the northern German city of Kiel. He refused to stock shelves with alcoholic drinks, saying that his religion forbade him from any contact with alcohol, and was dismissed as a result in March 2008.In a ruling Thursday, Germany's Federal Labor Court confirmed that employees may refuse to perform a specific task on religious grounds. If there is an alternative task they can do which is acceptable to their religion and practical for the company, then the employer is obliged to let them do it. The firm can only dismiss the worker if there is no realistic alternative.The case has already raised eyebrows in Germany. Media commentators have pointed out that the Koran only forbids drinking alcohol, not touching bottles. A front-page editorial in the Friday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's leading conservative newspaper, criticized the fact that the man had apparently only discovered his religious leanings in 2008; he had previously worked in the supermarket's alcoholic drinks section without complaint.Hmmmm.....Never knew that the Germans used leaking bottles.BUT ! Somehow the same religious law doesn't stop them from cultivating opium poppies!Read the full story here.HT:Planck'sConstant.

• And now for something completely different.Russians choose 3 mascots for 2014 Winter Olympics.Leopard, polar bear and hare were chosen mascots of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics following in a nationwide SMS-vote which finished on Saturday.Russians submitted sketches of about 24,000 candidates to the official website of the 2014 Olympic Games mascot. Only 13 characters, including dolphin, polar and brown bears, matryoshka dolls, snowflake and bullfinch, have made it into the final."I think choosing three mascots was a right decision," said Oleg Serdechny, a resident of the 2014 Olympic host city, who designed the polar bear character. "As a team, we have more chances to successfully perform at the Olympics."Hmmmm.....Can't seem to make up my mind which one i like best.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Clinton seeks stronger ties with Arab allies.US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's trip to the Persian Gulf is intended to strengthen ties with Arab allies, rally support for penalties against Iran and promote democracy and security across the Middle East.Clinton departed Washington late Saturday for the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, where leaders are concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions and growing influence in the region.America's chief diplomat also will seek greater cooperation in enforcing international sanctions on Iran that are designed to make Iran prove that it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.In her meetings with leaders in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat and Doha, US officials say Clinton will look for more Arab backing for the new government in Iraq and more financial support for the Palestinian Authority.Some Arab states have yet to fulfill pledges to fully normalize relations with Iraq and open embassies in Baghdad, gestures of support that Washington wants to see as it winds down its military presence there.As the Obama administration struggles to get the Mideast peace process back on track, Clinton will push wealthy Arab powers to broaden their contributions to the Palestinians. The US is keen to keep the development of Palestinian governmental institutions moving ahead.Official hope such progress may help forestall Palestinian moves to declare statehood or seek UN action against Israel.Hmmmm.....Barack Hussein Obama wants better relations between the Arab states and an Iraq who will be controled by Iran?Read the full story here.

• Flashback !Nov 05 2010:Mark Penn Says Obama Needs ‘Similar Event’ to Oklahoma City to Reconnect with Voters.Mark Penn, Democratic strategist and former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, let out the kind of doozy, on last night’s Hardball, that must be seen to be believed. Comparing Obama’s current situation to the aftermath of the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” Penn noted that it took the Oklahoma City tragedy in order for President Clinton to “reconnect” with the American people.He then stepped off the cliff by saying that President Obama needed a “similar event” to achieve that reconnection following his party’s midterm losses.Hmmmm............Read and see the full story here.

• The WhiteHouse or Jarret's house?FIVE HOURS LATER: President Obama and his wife left Valerie Jarrett's house at 11:11 p.m., after spending five hours at his senior adviser's residence, the pool reports.The Obamas left the White House for Jarrett's shortly after the president spoke about the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.The pool adds: "The two stayed for nearly five hours tonight, coincidentally leaving minutes after the conclusion of two incredibly close NFL playoff games. The Seattle Seahawks upset the New Orleans Saints 41-36, and the New York Jets just eliminated the Indianapolis Colts 17-16 with a late field goal. No news on what POTUS was actually doing.".Hmmmm....Did he go and watch the games?Who's running the White House?Transparancy?Yeah whatevah !Read the full story here.

• Pakistani extremists set a new "Target".Pakistan ex-minister Sherry Rehman fit to be killed, says cleric.Islamabad: Several clerics have issued fatwas against former Pakistani minister Sherry Rehman and declared her an infidel for calling for changes in the blasphemy law, prompting civil society activists to register a complaint with police in the port city of Karachi today.Media reports said the imam of Sultan Masjid, one of Karachi's biggest mosques, declared Rehman a 'kaafir' (infidel) and 'wajib-ul-qatl' (fit to be killed) while delivering a sermon after the Friday prayers.The mosque has close ties to the Saudi Arabian government.Islamic hardliners who organised a massive rally in Karachi today also issued a pamphlet that named Rehman as a person who "has invoked the religious honour of Pakistan's Muslims" for calling for changes in the blasphemy law.Civil society activists today filed a complaint against the imam of Sultan Masjid at the Darakhsan police station in Karachi.The complaint was registered on behalf of Rehman, a senior leader of the Pakistan People's Party, Salmaan Taseer's son Shaan Taseer and journalist Ali Chishti.In the complaint, the civil society activists alleged that the imam of Sultan Masjid had also lauded Mumtaz Qadri, the policeman who assassinated Salmaan Taseer.Chishti told the media that civil society groups feared for Rehman's life following the murder of the Punjab Governor.The civil society activists said they were proud to be Muslims but rejected murdering people in the name of Islam.Security has been enhanced at Rehman's residence in Karachi and she has told the media she will not leave Pakistan.Hmmmm......Islam the religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• A country is about to be born?Southern Sudan set to become world's newest country as George Clooney flies in to encourage population to vote in referendum.Citizens of Southern Sudan voted in their thousands today at the start of a week-long, landmark referendum on its independence that is highly likely to result in the north-eastern African region becoming the world's youngest country.Voters turned out unprecedented numbers and there was a carnival atmosphere, fuelled by the prospect of a new state being formed.For the vote to be valid, 60 per cent of the electorate must vote and celebrities, including film star George Clooney, and politicians, such as former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, ex-US president Jimmy Carter and Senator John Kerry, flew over to offer their support for the voting, which got off to a largely peaceful start.'Nobody ever bothered to ask the people of Southern Sudan as to what their destiny should be.'There is singing, there is dancing, this is a day like no other in the history of the people of Southern Sudan.'The referendum is expected to pass overwhelmingly, but some of the thousands of voters waiting in line at polling stations faced the prospect of having to take advantage of the seven-day period when polls are open.'I would like to call on all south Sudanese people to be patient in case anyone does not have time to cast his or her vote today,' southern Sudan president Salva Kiir said after casting his ballot in the morning.Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had campaigned for unity, faced with the prospect of losing a quarter of the nation's territory and a majority of its oil reserves. But he has since changed his position, saying this month that he would join in independence celebrations if the referendum passed.Earlier, General Acuil Tito Madut, the inspector-general of the South's police, said rebel groups were trying to depress voter turnout following violent clashes with the region's military.The general added: 'Once these fights break out in these states that will mean some people will not vote, and once people don't vote that means the required percentage is not achieved.'Southern army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer said forces loyal to rebel leader Gatluak Gai attacked SPLA forces overnight in Unity State, an oil-rich area bordering northern Sudan. He said six rebels died in the exchanges.Should the referendum be passed Southern Sudan would be on track to become the world's newest country in July.Outstanding issues like sharing oil wealth, water rights and demarcating the border still have to be agreed to.Aid groups also fear that southerners living in the north and northerners living in the south will face harassment and abuse.The US has made the referendum a foreign policy priority and has offered to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terror if Khartoum does not hinder the vote.
  Hmmmm.....The chances of The Islamic North allowing the Southern part to leave with the oil are as good as non excisting according to me.Once the observers are gone,tension will reach boiling point very soon.Read the full story here.

• Republican Introduce Bill to Eliminate Presidential Czars; How Many Czars are There? Obama on Czars Then vs. Now; Vanity of Barack Obama.President Obama has an army of Czars. Counts vary from 32 to 45 (with 7 more planned). The interesting thing about Czars is Obama's blatant hypocrisy about them. Let's start with a look at Obama and his 32 czars."The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States."- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008To say President Obama failed to follow through on this promise is an understatement. By appointing a virtual army of "czars" - each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House - the president has made an end-run around the legislative branch of historic proportions.The Imperial Court Please consider The Compleat List of Czars.Hmmmmm.....In my eyes they are a Communist version of congress ,planning to be ready to take over power in 2012 no matter what the election results are,or sooner if needed!Nothing more or less than a government within the government,wake up America!Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia gives names of 47 terror suspects to Interpol.Riyadh, Jan 9 (DPA) Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that it has given international policing agency Interpol the names of 47 suspected Saudi terrorists currently living outside the kingdom. Saudi Arabia believes the expatriates are affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to ministry of interior spokesman Mansour al-Turki. He said they 'want to seize the opportunities to carry out, or assist in committing, criminal acts'. The ministry called on the suspects to surrender and, in an attempt to lure them in, promised to take into consideration the possibility of reuniting them with their families. Saudi Arabia announced in November 2010 that it had arrested 149 alleged members of Al Qaeda terrorist rings, thereby preventing a number of planned attacks.Read the full story here.

• Iran: Dutch-Iranian women sentenced to death.Dutch-Iranian woman Zahra Bahrami has been found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to death by a court in Tehran.Ms Bahrami was born in Iran but moved to the Netherlands, becoming a Dutch citizen, Zahra Bahrami is 45 and has 2 children. She returned to Iran in December 2009 to visit relatives. She is reported to have been arrested after taking part in anti-government demonstrations.In court, Ms Bahrami maintained her innocence, recanting a nationally televised confession. She says the confession was made under coercion. According to Iranian law, the possession of 30 grams or more of cocaine is a crime punishable by death, with no possibility for appeal. Iranian authorities claim Ms Bahrami had 450 grams of cocaine in her possession at the time of her arrest, in addition to 400 grams of opium.The drugs charges against Ms Bahrami came on top of charges of membership in an armed opposition group, for which she could also face the death penalty. That portion of her trial must still take place.As for the death penalty for possession of drugs, Ms Bahrami does have one more chance to get her punishment commuted in the Iranian legal system, through the co-called Committee of Forgiveness. If she is willing to admit to her crime, she can appeal to the committee for forgiveness. It is rare, if not unprecedented, for the committee to grant forgiveness in cases involving drugs.The Dutch government says it has attempted to provide Ms Bahrami assistance, in the interest of trying to make sure she gets a fair trial, but has been prevented by the Iranian authorities, who do not recognize her Dutch citizenship.Ms Bahrami feels she has not received a fair trial. Her daughter, Banafshef Najebpour, told Radio Netherlands how much her mother had counted on the Netherlands to help assure she got a fair trial. Ms Najebpour broke down as she recounted her disappointment in the Dutch government. She said,The Dutch government says it has attempted to provide Ms Bahrami assistance, in the interest of trying to make sure she gets a fair trial, but has been prevented by the Iranian authorities, who do not recognize her Dutch citizenship."The last time I have seen my mother was Tuesday last week. She was doing quite well, and she was certain that she would receive help from the Dutch government because she knows she hasn’t done anything wrong. But we didn’t get any help."The Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Uri Rosenthal reacted in writing to the news of Ms Bahrami’s sentence. He says Dutch authorities are using every possible opportunity to bring up the subject with Iran.The case of Ms Bahrami is an early test for Mr Rosenthal, who has been foreign minister for just a few months. He has already come under criticism for not prioritizing human rights in Dutch foreign policy.Hmmmm....Come and visit Iran,a once in a lifetime experiance?Read the full story here.More here.HT:IslamInEurope.

• HT:BloggerBase.What do the Talmud and...the Chinese Have in Common?Here is a new take on a Yiddishe Kopf: the Chinese are trying to emulate Jewish business intelligence and ingenuity, by (of all things) studying the Talmud!Jewish visitors to China often receive a snap greeting when they reveal their religion: “Very smart, very clever, and very good at business,” the Chinese person says. Last year’s Google Zeitgeist China rankings listed “why are Jews excellent?” in fourth place in the “why” questions category, just behind “why should I enter the party” and above “why should I get married?” (Google didn’t publish a "why" category in Mandarin this year.) And the apparent affection for Jewishness has led to a surprising trend in publishing over the last few years: books purporting to reveal the business secrets of the Talmud that capitalize on the widespread impression among Chinese that attributes of Judaism lead to success in the financial arts.Han Bing, a Chinese author of the book "Crack the Talmud" said after attending a series on the Torah that Jews and the Chinese people have had similar problems, such as immigration and global isolation. I read somewhere--wish I remembered where, so I could link it--that Chinese leaders met with Israeli leaders some time back and were marveling at the economic success of Israel in such a short span of 62 years of statehood. They were under the impression that there were approximately "only" 100 million Jews world-wide. Were they shocked when they were informed that the global Jewish population was only approximately 13.3 million (don't know if this is current).Read the full story here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Netherlands: Life benefits to Bosnian refugees who go home.The Netherlands has offered life benefits to Bosnians who settled in the country in the wake of the 1992-1995 war, if they decide to return home, Bosnian Ministry for Human Rghts and Refugees said on Wednesday.It is estimated that some 30,000 Bosnians settled in the Netherlands after the war and many have failed to integrate into Dutch society.The Dutch government said it was a “quality solution for all foreigners who have failed to integrate into Dutch society”.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheBrusselsJournal.The Lights Are Going Out in Denmark!I am posting (below) a letter from the Danish Free Press Society, the parent organization of the International Free Press Society, of which I am vice president. It is of urgent importance. It tells of the terrible turn of events in Denmark, which for years now has bravely spearheaded the West's fights to save free speech, now and seemingly in perpetuity under assault from both the Marxian Left and the press of sharia (Islamic law) -- and with zero support from diplomatic, governmental, or professional institutions in the United States, home and caretaker of the First Amendment. This appalling lack of support, which translates into a lack of courage and vision, is the main reason the assault of free speech continues to be successful.But et tu, Denmark?Last month, Danish MP Jesper Langballe was convicted of "hate speech" -- "racial discrimination," for having highlighted the pattern of "honor killings" in Muslim families. (Here is his "confession.") Now in the crosshairs is my very dear friend and colleague, Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society and the International Free Press Society.On January 24 he goes on trial. His crime? Discussing the high incidence of family rape within Islamic cultures, which the prosecutor is attempting to outlaw as "racism."In fact, the Danish prosecutor is attempting to enforce Islamic "blasphemy" laws, which outlaw all criticism of Islam.Hmmmm....."The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech." Justice Anthony Kennedy.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.The Top 10 People (or Groups) in America Who Loathe Israel, Our Strongest Ally.Across the wide seas, there is a magical place where people live in a similar setting to that here in the United States. They live with democracy, freedom, individual human rights and prosperity – just like here. Although much of their population embraces one faith, they allow all faiths to flourish – just like here. They welcome (legal) immigrants – just like here.And, in perhaps the most compelling commonality of all, they are targeted for destruction by the forces of Islam – just like here (just like all of Western Civilization, in point of fact).So, naturally, this magical place is absolutely loathed by American Leftists. After all, they hate their own country, so why shouldn’t they hate Israel? These haters walk among us. Let’s spend a few minutes calling them out (and in some cases, laughing at them hysterically)… To start with: the self-proclaimed protectors of human rights.10. The United NationsNo, they’re not American. But they are here in America, are they not? Perhaps it’s (long past) time that we kick their fannies off U.S. soil. The U.N. “Human Rights Council” is obsessed with Israel’s “many human rights abuses” and loses no opportunity to condemn the country, while not managing to muster up any indignation toward Iran, Libya, China, Qatar… oh, wait! Maybe it’s because those nations are all part of the Human Rights Council! Which makes perfect sense, if it was Opposite Day. Unfortunately, every day is Opposite Day at the U.N. – like the day they applauded terrorism toward Israel:At least under George W., the U.S. boycotted this kangaroo human rights court. But Obama has us going back, so that we can receive human rights counseling from North Korea, Nicaragua, Cuba, Egypt, and yes, even Iran! Our president apparently believes we have much to learn from these nations.Hmmmm........"They don't trust me because of my middle name".Read the full story here.

• Europe condemns Sheikh Jarrah construction in East Jerusalem.UK issues statement condemning demolition of Shepherd Hotel favor of Jewish housing units, while European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton says east Jerusalem part of occupied territory.The European Union's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton harshly condemned the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in east Jerusalem for the purpose of building housing units for Jewish residents Sunday. Ashton described the compound as a Palestinian symbol. Britain also condemned the step. "The British Government reaffirms its strong, long-standing opposition to the creation of this new illegal settlement in occupied East Jerusalem and condemns today’s demolition in Sheikh Jerrah," a statement on behalf of the British Foreign Office noted."This latest settlement activity does not help – on the contrary, it raises tensions unnecessarily," Britain's Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said. Ashton said in a statement that she strongly condemns the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel and the future construction of "an illegal settlement." She noted settlements were illegal according to International Law.Ashton said that settlements undermine trust between the parties and pose an obstacle for peace. She noted that east Jerusalem was part of occupied territory adding that the EU does not recognize the annexation.The new Jewish neighborhood will contain 20 housing units.The EU's foreign policy chief also expressed sorrow over the death of four Palestinians over the last few days in the West Bank and urged the parties to cease violent acts.Read the full story here. 

• 50 people survive Iran plane crash: Reports.Tehran: An IranAir passenger plane crashed Sunday night in the country's northwest, and around half of the 95 people on board survived with light injuries, Iranian media reported.The Boeing-727 operated by Iran's national airline crashed shortly before it was to land in the city of Orumiyeh, 460 miles (700 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Tehran, said Abbas Mosayebi, spokesman of the Iranian civil aviation organization, state TV reported.The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted the head of the State Emergency Canter, Gholam Reza Masoumi, as saying 50 people survived with light injuries. There was no information on the fate of the others.Masoumi said heavy snow was complicating rescue efforts. That report also said there was fog in the area.The plane was broken into several pieces, but there was no explosion or fire, said Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of the rescue department of Iran's Red Crescent Society, speaking on state TV.Iran has a history of frequent air accidents blamed on its aging aircraft and poor maintenance.Read the full story here.