Syrian Army Discovers Turkish Terrorists Manual, Instructing how to Use Nukes.

Syrian Army Discovers Turkish Terrorists Manual, Instructing how to Use Nukes. (Sputnik).

In the course of a recent operation to liberate a terrorist-held enclave in northern Latakia, Syrian Army troops discovered a 'manual for terrorists'. Printed in Turkey, the book teaches jihadis "the proper conduct of war on foreign soil," up to and including the use of nuclear weapons.

The manual, printed in Arabic and called 'Zad al-Mujahed' (roughly, 'Fruits for the work of God's Warriors') was published in Istanbul, with its publishers making no attempt to even try to hide the book's origins. It features the logo of the Istanbul-based Guraba publishing company, contact information, and even an ISBN, inside its front cover.

Speaking to Sputnik Arabic, the Syrian Army soldier who discovered the book said that it was filled with hatred and calls to war against people who don't share jihadists' faith, as well as instructions on what must be done with "enemies and their property."

"The book describes how to properly burn cities captured by jihadi fighters, how to cut down all the trees, destroy all life, how to execute prisoners in the correct manner," the soldier explained.

"The book says that jihadis have a right to marry their captives; the book even mentions the aspect of the possible use of nuclear weapons," he added.

The book is banned in Syria for its radical content, and repeated calls to violence and terror. For this reason, Sputnik Arabic decided not to quote it directly. Still, it published photos, republished here, showing the cover and details on the book's publisher. It remains unclear how many copies of this book were found.

Syrian authorities are extremely sensitive about published materials which could be seen to inspire sectarian conflict.

Russian 'NUCLEAR WEAPONS' will not be stationed permanently at Khmeimim airbase in Syria.

Russian 'NUCLEAR WEAPONS' will not be stationed at Khmeimim airbase in Syria on a permanent basis. (RT).

Russia’s military base in Khmeimim, Syria, will be converted to make it a permanent site, a Russian senator has said. After various questions are agreed with the Syrian authorities, the base will have extended operational capabilities.

Moscow is committed to project its military power into Syria and transform the Khmeimim airfield into a full-fledged military base with a permanently deployed task force, Deputy Head of the Upper House Committee for Defense and Security Frants Klintsevich told Izvestia daily.

The task force currently deployed at Khmeimim “is sufficient, yet it could be expanded in accordance with bilateral agreements” with Syria, the senator noted.

The Khmeimim base requires renovation of its infrastructure, the installation of new stationary air traffic control systems and modernization of the airfield to enable it to accommodate all types of military aircraft, including strategic aviation.

“Nuclear weapons and heavy [strategic] bombers will not be deployed there on a permanent basis, because it would contradict international agreements and raise repudiatory ire,” Klintsevich said.

“When making a deal to stand together with the West failed, we [decided to] cement relations with regional players: Syria, Iran and Iraq,” Klintsevich said, stressing that Khmeimim air base will maintain the security of both Russia and its allies.

The Persian Gulf monarchies will most likely be displeased with President Vladimir Putin's decision to keep a task force in Syria permanently, torpedoing as it does their plans for the future of Syria and its president, Bashar Assad. Hmmmm......Nukes in Syria.....What could go wrong. Read the full story here.

S. Korea, US launch military drills, North promptly threatens nuclear strikes.

S. Korea, US launch military drills, North promptly threatens nuclear strikes. (AlAhram).

South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest-ever joint military drills on Monday, prompting fresh warnings from North Korea of "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes against Seoul and the US mainland.


The annual exercises always raise tensions on the divided Korean peninsula and the situation is particularly volatile this year, given the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch and its fury over tough UN sanctions imposed in response.

Participation in the joint drills -- known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- has been bumped up this year to involve 300,000 South Korean and 15,000 US troops, as well as strategic US naval vessels and air force assets.

In a statement issued hours before the exercises began, North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission said it was prepared for an "all-out" military counter-offensive.

"As the joint military exercises to be staged by the enemies are regarded as the most undisguised nuclear war drills aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of (North Korea), its military counteraction will be more pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike to cope with them," it said.


The threat came just days after leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the country's nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby, in response to the sanctions resolution adopted last week by the UN Security Council.

The National Defence Commission said plans for what it called a "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" had been drawn up by the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army and ratified by Kim Jong-Un.

The plans would come into operation in the event of "even the slightest military action" by the North's enemies, it said.

"The indiscriminate nuclear strike... will clearly show those keen on aggression and war, the military mettle of (North Korea)," said the statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

Targets would include operational theatres on the Korean peninsula, but also bases on the US mainland and in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the statement added.

Despite a pair of successful long-range rocket launches, most experts believe North Korea is years away from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US mainland.

In Seoul, the defence ministry cautioned the North against acting out its bellicose rhetoric.
"If North Korea launches a provocation, our military will respond sternly and mercilessly," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.


Pyongyang has long condemned the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises, which stretch over nearly two months, as provocative rehearsals for invasion, while Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature. Read the full story here.

Russia Has Right to Place Nuclear Weapons in Crimea.

Russia Has Right to Place Nuclear Weapons in Crimea.(SP).

Moscow has the right to place nuclear weapons in Crimea, but is not currently planning to do so, the head of the Department for Nonproliferation and Control of Arms of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Ulyanov said Wednesday.

"Obviously, Russia has the right to place nuclear arms on its territory, if it considers it necessary, in any region. I am not aware of any presence of nuclear weapons in Crimea, I do not know anything about plans of placing them there, but in principle we presume that we have this right, obviously, but Kiev, of course, believes differently," Ulyanov said at a press conference in Moscow.

Last December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia reserves the right to place nuclear weapons on any part of its territory, including in Crimea. Later the same month, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland vowed that Washington and its allies would respond to possible stationing of nuclear weapons in the peninsula. Read the full story here.

Pakistan declares holiday for prophet in response to film.

Pakistan declares holiday for prophet in response to film.(AA).The Pakistan government has declared Friday a national holiday in honor of the Muslim prophet Mohammed and called for peaceful protests against a U.S.-made film deemed insulting to Islam. The cabinet decided to make Friday an official “day of expression of love for the prophet” in response to the “Innocence of Muslims” movie, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said. The film, believed to be made by extremist Christians in the United States, has triggered more than a week of furious protests and attacks across the Muslim world, which have killed least 30 people. The sudden announcement of the holiday came after religious parties called for a day of protest on Friday to denounce the film and lawyers demonstrating in Islamabad denounced the government’s “criminal silence” on the issue.

“We will send a message to the world that Muslims of Pakistan are protesting about this, and we won’t tolerate even a single sentence against the dignity of the holy prophet,” Kaira told a news conference. “We should make peaceful protest and pray to god to remove the weaknesses of the Muslim people, because of which we are facing this situation.” 

The head of a leading Sunni party, the Sunni Tehreek, on Monday urged people across the country to close their businesses and hold rallies against the film. Sources said traders and transporters associations in the largest city and commercial hub Karachi had backed the call. Around 500 protesting lawyers broke through a gate to Islamabad’s heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave on Wednesday, chanting anti-U.S. slogans and castigating the Pakistan government for failing to take strong action against the film. A U.S. flag was laid on the ground and the protesting lawyers walked over it one by one. Later they burnt the flag before the rally ended peacefully. Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Bangladesh, blocked video-sharing website YouTube this week after it failed to remove the offensive film. Wednesday also saw the publication by a French magazine of a series of provocative cartoons showing a nude Prophet Mohammed which are likely to further inflame Muslim anger. Embassies, consulates, cultural centers and international French schools in around 20 countries will be closed on Friday for fear of being targeted in demonstrations following weekly prayers.Hmmmm......The country with the most blasphemy cases against Christians will give the 'example'?Read the full story here.

US Weapons-Grade Uranium Diverted to Israel: Secret NUMEC Investigation Files Now Online

US Weapons-Grade Uranium Diverted to Israel: Secret NUMEC Investigation Files Now Online.(PR).Declassified files from long-running investigations of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation over alleged illegal diversions of US government-owned weapons-grade uranium to Israel are now available online at
http://www.IRmep.org/ila/numec
The 733 pages of information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act for the new book Divert! NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of US weapons-grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons program include:
A 1980 FBI interview of an eyewitness (PDF) of NUMEC executives stuffing U-235 canisters into sealed equipment shipped to Israel.
CIA Director of Operations Carl Duckett’s 1978 testimony about NUMEC (PDF) before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Atomic Energy Commissioner Glenn T. Seaborg’s reaction (PDF) to news that traces of Portsmouth U-235 of the type supplied to NUMEC had been picked up in Israel.
NUMEC corporate correspondence (PDF) with the AEC claiming that undercover Israeli intelligence agents Rafael Eitan and Ephraim Beigun visiting NUMEC in 1968 were merely energy scientists.
National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bresinski’s 1979 order (PDF) that Senator John Glenn not be given direct access to a top secret memorandum about “missing material from the NUMEC plant in Apollo, PA.”
Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti’s confidential letter (PDF) to President Jimmy Carter to “establish a plan for coordinated interagency action to detect and investigate the theft or diversion of nuclear material in the future.”
A 1978 congressional interview transcript (PDF) with NUMEC President Dr. Zalman Shapiro.
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s 1969 strategy document (PDF) about how the US should respond to Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons program. “There is circumstantial evidence that some fissionable material available for Israel’s weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States by about 1965.”
FBI wiretap (PDF) of a 1969 toxic spill at NUMEC caused by improper storage.
According to a 2001 Department of Energy report, NUMEC lost 269 kilograms of highly enriched uranium between 1957 and 1968–the highest in the US and enough for dozens of atomic weapons. The newly published book Divert! (available in paperback and Kindle) presents additional evidence that NUMEC–unable to complete US government contracts or protect workers and the environment–was originally established as a nuclear smuggling front.Read the full story here.

Barak reveals Israel's 'red line' conditions for Iran-West talks.

Barak reveals Israel's 'red line' conditions for Iran-West talks.(JPost).Israel is demanding that its allies set Iran's complete surrender of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent as one of the goals for the nuclear talks set to begin with the Islamic Republic in mid April. Citing 2012 as the “year to stop Iran,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that he has held discussions with American and European officials in recent weeks with the goal of convincing them to set clear goals for the scheduled talks with Iran.The talks are scheduled to begin on April 13 between Iran and representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. Disagreements still exist regarding the venue although Istanbul currently appears to be acceptable to all sides.
Barak revealed what Israel's conditions are for the talks:
1) transfer of all uranium enriched to 20 percent - approximately 120 kilograms – out of Iran to a third party country;
2) the transfer of the majority of the 5 tons of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent out of Iran, leaving just enough needed for energy purposes;
3) the closure of the Fordow enrichment facility, buried under a mountain near the city of Qom;
4) the transfer of fuel rods from a third party country to Iran for the purpose of activating the Tehran Research Reactor.
As reported Wednesday in The Jerusalem Post, assessments in the defense establishment are that a confrontation with Iran may be postponed until sometime in 2013. This is the result of the sanctions which have been imposed on Iran and are believed to be effective. Barak said Wednesday that there was still time before a strike would be required. “It is not needed within weeks but it is also not something that can wait a number of years,” he said in rare comments to military reporters. "The Iranians are fortifying their facilities and moving deeper underground with every month that passes," he added. As a result, Barak said, it was unlikely that Iran would agree to suspend all of its enrichment activities and forfeit its uranium due to the current sanctions, no matter how effective they are. "I do however look forward to being surprised if the talks with Iran succeed," he said. In general, Israel and the US share almost all of their intelligence assessments regarding Iran and for example share the opinion that Iran has yet to make the decision to begin enriching uranium to higher military-grade levels and begin building a bomb. Barak admitted however that there were differences between Israel and the US over his claim that Iran was moving into an “immunity zone” and that if Israel waits too long its military option might not be viable passed the end of the year. “This is part of the difference between us and the Americans,” the defense minister said.Hmmmmm..............Netanyahu says that Iran sanctions are not working: "The sanctions are painful, hard… but will this bring about a halt or a retreat in the Iranian nuclear program? Until now, it has not happened...The regime strengthened its grip in the recent elections, despite the sanctions... "It has strengthened its political grip, it is struggling financially and it still hasn't turned back by even one millimeter from its nuclear program. "...We are leading an unprecedented international campaign against Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. I do not know of an easy way to solve the Iranian problem. "We will attack those who threaten to attack us.".Read the full story here.

Russia sparks confusion over Iran nuclear talks.

Russia sparks confusion over Iran nuclear talks.(HD).Russia said April 2 that the date and place for talks with Iran on its controversial nuclear program had still not been set, despite a recent U.S. announcement on the first such meeting in more than a year. “The date and the place of the meeting have not been definitively set. The meeting could take place on April 13 or 14 or in the following days,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency, adding that the talks should take place as soon as possible. “The situation is very complicated and could get worse. We can’t wait any more. These negotiations are extremely important.” Ryabkov was reacting to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on March 31 that talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group (U.N. Security Council members plus Germany) would take place on April 13 and 14 in Istanbul. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, asked whether Clinton had made the announcement prematurely, said that the P5+1 group had agreed on the time and place and that the onus was on Iran to accept the plan. “It’s been interesting to us that we are getting different signals out of Iran as to whether all of this is locked down,” Nuland told reporters in Washington. “But we are ready if they are ready at that date and venue.” EU officials in Brussels said that, despite Clinton’s statement, Istanbul had not yet been fully confirmed as the venue. A senior Iranian political figure has also spoken out against Turkey hosting Iran’s next talks with world powers. Hmmm........Just playing for time, perhaps you'll get your answer when North Korea launches?Read the full story here.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weapons of mass destruction violate Islamic law, did anyone inform Pakistan?

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weapons of mass destruction violate Islamic law, did anyone inform Pakistan?(SS).Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with Turkey's prime minister about his nuclear discussions with Iran as the United States began intensively preparing for a round of negotiations between Tehran and world powers to take place within two weeks. The meeting came a day after Clinton announced that Istanbul would host the Apr. 13 talks on Iran's uranium enrichment program, which have taken on added urgency amid speculation that Israel or the U.S. could take military action later this year. Clinton made clear Saturday that time is running out for diplomacy. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently went to Iran on a two-day state visit and held a series of discussions with leaders of the Islamic republic on its disputed nuclear program. Washington and its allies see Iran trying to develop an atomic bomb. Tehran says its program is for peaceful energy and research purposes.Erdogan will give Clinton his take on where Iran stands, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity ahead of the meeting. But Washington and its NATO ally haven't seen eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat. Erdogan has built close economic ties with Iran and has tried to act as a go-between on the disputed nuclear program, breaking ranks with world powers in 2010 by attempting to find a separate settlement with Tehran. And Erdogan's comments upon returning from Tehran suggested further distancing from U.S. and European positions, repeating the verdict of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that weapons of mass destruction violate Islamic law. "After such a statement from such a person, I cannot claim that Iran is building a nuclear weapon," the Turkish leader said. "Does it not have the right to implement a nuclear program for peaceful means?"Hmmmm......Why don't they stop the charade?How many nuclear weapons has 'Islamic' Pakistan?Read the full story here.

Video - Iran : " The bomb and the trigger? "

Video - NY Granny Peace Brigade Celebrates Iranian New Year in Times Square, Calling to Stop Sanctions against Iran

Obama's 'buddy' Erdogan: No need for strike on civilian nuke program.

Obama's 'buddy' Erdogan: No need for strike on civilian nuke program.(JPost).Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Iran's leaders in Tehran on Wednesday, speaking out against any attack on a country "pursuing a peaceful nuclear program," Iranian state news agency, IRNA reported.
IRNA quoted Erdogan as saying any wise man is against the use of nuclear technology as arms and there should be no opposition to peaceful nuclear activities.
Erdogan held talks about Iran with US President Barack Obama on Sunday in South Korea, raising speculation Turkey was taking a message from Washington to Tehran - although a Turkish official dismissed that. Obama said in Seoul there was time to resolve the dispute through diplomacy but the window was closing. Iran says it has the right to develop a peaceful nuclear program but the US and its allies suspect it is trying to develop atomic weapons. "There is no new message on the nuclear issue," the Turkish official said. "Turkey is not the messenger. That is just speculation. Our message is what we have said many times before."
Wednesday's talks also concern economic cooperation. Trade between the two states has rocketed to $16 billion dollars over the last ten years. Iran is keen to build trade relations to minimize tough new sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union against its financial and energy sectors. In a joint news conference with Iranian vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Erdogan said the trade goal was $35 billion dollars by 2015, the Iranian state news agency reported.Hmmmmm............Did Obama give Erdogan an Oil Waiver, why the secrecy on this topic?Read the full story here.

Turks favor having their own nukes if Iran have them too, reveals poll

Turks favor having their own nukes if Iran have them too, reveals poll.(AlArabiya).More than half of all Turks believe the country should have nuclear weapons if Iran develops its own nuclear arsenal, according to an opinion poll released Wednesday.
A total of 53.9 percent of respondents said Turkey should have its own nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear threat from Iran, rather than rely on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for protection, the survey conducted by Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies said.
Nearly 35 percent of those surveyed said Turkey should not developed nuclear weapons under any conditions, while eight percent said NATO's security umbrella was sufficient to ward off a threat. Turkey, a northwestern neighbour to Iran, has the second largest army in NATO and has recently set up an early-warning radar shield to protect NATO allies from nuclear attacks, particularly from Iran. Although Turkish officials frequently claim that the radar does not target any country but is a measure of defence, the newly implemented security system chilled ties between Ankara and Tehran. The survey was conducted nationwide among 1,500 participants, aged over 18.Hmmmm......Erdogan:" "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..."Read the full story here.

Israelis prefer preemptive strike to nuclear Iran: poll.

Israelis prefer preemptive strike to nuclear Iran: poll.(AlArabiya).Nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews believe that the consequences for the Jewish state of a nuclear-armed Iran would be worse than those of an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic, a poll showed.
The poll, published in Haaretz newspaper on Monday, found that 65 percent of Jewish Israelis agreed with the statement that “the price Israel would have to pay for living with the threat of an Iranian bomb would be greater than the price it would pay for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Commissioned by the right-leaning Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the survey found 26 percent disagreed with the statement, while nine percent said they were unsure.
It also found that six out of 10 respondents -- 60 percent -- agreed that only military action could halt Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran claims is for peaceful civilian purposes but Israel and much of the international community believes masks a weapons drive.
But another 37 percent disagreed with the claim that only military action could halt Iran's nuclear program, which has prompted the international community to impose tough sanctions on Tehran’s exports and financial sector.
A majority of respondents, 64 percent, said they were confident that Israel’s military forces could “significantly” damage Iran’s nuclear program, compared to 29 percent who disagreed.
And 63 percent said they believed Israel would suffer the same consequences whether an attack against Iran was carried out by the Jewish state or the United States.The poll surveyed 505 Jewish Israelis, religious and secular, Haaretz said, without specifying a margin of error.
Israel has said frequently it is keeping all options open for responding to Iran’s nuclear program, which it says poses an existential threat to the Jewish state.But the United States and other countries have called for time to allow biting sanctions to take effect.Earlier this month, a poll published by Haaretz showed that 58 percent of Israelis opposed a strike on Iran without U.S. backing.
The same poll, conducted by among 497 Israelis, also found that over half of the respondents trusted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to deal with the Iran issue.Hmmmm......"Pour les vaincre, messieurs, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace et la Patrie sera sauvée!" ~ Danton.Read the full story here.

North Korean satellite launch a cover for Iranian long-range missile test.

North Korean satellite launch a cover for Iranian long-range missile test.(IsraelMatzav).Israel HaYom is reporting that a scheduled satellite launch by North Korea next month is actually a front for an Iranian long-range missile test.
North Korea has moved a long-range rocket to a launching site, apparently determined to press ahead with its plan to launch a satellite in defiance of international condemnation, the South Korean military said Sunday, The New York Times reported. The Times article said that the North Koreans moved the main body of the Unha-3 rocket to the newly built launching station in Dongchang-ri, a village in northwest North Korea.
The satellite launch is expected to take place between April 12 and 16. North Korea has claimed that the launch is for “peaceful purposes only,” and to celebrate the April 15 centenary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung. Kim’s grandson, Kim Jong Un, has led the nation of 24 million since his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December. North Korea has also claimed that the launch will not affect its neighbors and that it wasn’t violating an agreement with the West under which North Korea has agreed to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for food shipments. Within the agreement, North Korea has agreed to halt the testing of ballistic missiles and to stop enriching uranium at its nuclear facility in Yongbyon.
Pyongyan's neighbor and nemesis, Seoul, warned Monday that it might shoot down parts of the North Korean rocket if they violate South Korean territory, as worries about what Washington calls a long-range missile test overshadowed an international nuclear security summit, AP reported on Monday.Western security officials now believe that sending the satellite into space is only a pretext for the primary goal of the launch, and that the actual purpose is to test a long-range ballistic missile belonging to another country. Suspicions, as stated, have fallen on Iran.
Western defense officials believe that the upcoming launch is a continuation of Iran and North Korea’s cooperation. According to this assessment, North Korea’s new president, Kim Jong Un, is seeking to demonstrate to his people that he is no less hawkish or determined than his father, but wouldn’t risk suspending the nuclear-freeze-for-food agreement with the West unless a significant economic interest convinced him otherwise.
According to the assessment, the launch is part of an existing comprehensive agreement that North Korea has obligated itself to, and that its concern about losing income from the deal with Iran has forced it to announce the satellite launch, despite unease over open confrontation with the West.
As Blogger Carl in Jerusalem points out:"I guess those sanctions must be having a really serious impact on Iran's ability to buy the things it wants...."Ge go's on saying:"As you might recall, I reported earlier this month that North Korea carried out a nuclear test for Iran in 2010. They don't seem to fear President Obama's finger shaking at them very much, do they? And an Iranian ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile - that's what 'long-range' means) is something that ought to concern the United States very much.Read the full story here.

US warning over North Korea new 'modified' rocket flight path.

US warning over North Korea new 'modified' rocket flight path.(PAP).A US official says a North Korean rocket due to be launched next month may affect an area between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is reported to have asked the three countries to condemn the launch.North Korea says the rocket will take a new southern trajectory instead of a previous route east over Japan.Japan is readying anti-missile defences around the southern islands of Okinawa, which could be under the flight path.
North Korea says the rocket is intended to put a satellite in space, but the US and others say the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test – a potential delivery system for nuclear weapons.
The launch is expected to dominate a security summit on Monday in the South Korean capital Seoul, which will be attended by US President Barack Obama.
Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald said Mr Campbell had briefed Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Friday on the rocket’s southward trajectory.
“If the missile test proceeds as North Korea has indicated, our judgment is that it will impact in an area roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines,” the paper quoted Mr Campbell as saying.“We have never seen this trajectory before. We have weighed into each of these countries and asked them to make clear that such a test is provocative and this plan should be discontinued.”North Korea’s last rocket launch in 2009 triggered UN sanctions
BBC Asia analyst Charles Scanlon says Pyongyang appears to be trying to soften the political impact of its planned rocket launch.It has chosen a new southerly route mainly over open sea, avoiding what is regarded as a more provocative easterly trajectory over the main Japanese island.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said: “A safe flight orbit has been chosen so that carrier rocket debris to be generated during the flight would not have any impact on neighbouring countries.”North Korea has shown a growing mastery of ballistic technology during its three previous long range tests.However, experts say that none has succeeded in reaching orbit, and debris has fallen to earth at various stages during the launches.Pyongyang said last week that the launch – between 12 and 16 April – would mark the 100th birthday of its late Great Leader Kim Il-sung.Read the full story here.

First it's they're not building a nuke, now it's we can't stop them from building one.

First it's they're not building a nuke, now it's we can't stop them from building one.(JPost).
WASHINGTON – Neither the US nor Israel has the ability to keep Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, a retired top US general said Thursday.“If they have the intent, all the weapons in the world are not going to change that, because the knowledge is there and they’d just build it back,” said retired Gen. James Cartwright, who served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until last year, about what would happen should the US use force to take out the Iranian program.Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Cartwright also said that, should Israel attack, the country “can delay it, some people estimate two to five years. But that does not take away the intellectual capital. That does not take away the ability of the Iranians to then proliferate the sites.”
Cartwright said he didn’t “see a lot of value in going in,” particularly since an attack was likely merely to galvanize Iran to redouble its efforts, and suggested that his feeling was widespread throughout the US military.Retired Adm. William Fallon, who appeared with Cartwright at CSIS, said the idea of either country attacking Iran was “certainly not a preferred option” among US military brass, and said any effective operation would require boots on the ground in Iran.
Fallon, who resigned from his post as the commander of US Central Command during the George W. Bush administration after making outspoken comments on Iran, added that the US was unlikely to undertake such a mission.
Cartwright acknowledged that it was possible that speaking openly about opposition to a military attack could erode the credible threat of force underpinning diplomacy with Iran, but said such a scenario was improbable because of the ambiguity Iran would perceive in US thinking.
He also said that it wasn’t clear how the US would respond should Israel decide to launch an attack on its own, but that it would be extremely unlikely to try to stop the IAF if its planes were in the air.Hmmmm......."it would be extremely unlikely to try to stop the IAF if its planes were in the air."...like shooting them down with patriot batteries placed in Jordan?Read the full story here.

"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!" wait till they have nuclear weapons.

Warning ! Video contains extreme and Graphic violence 18 +

Multiculturalism = the belief that cultures that stone women to death, promote suicide bombing, encourage hatred of other religions including Muslim ones, and foster ignorance and superstition are equal to Euro-American ones that promote scientific inquiry and individual freedom.HT: IsraPundit.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.7 - 5.5 ; Solomon Islands 5.2 !More info here.

• Andrew Breitbart At CPAC, “I Have Videos” of Obama From His College Day.(TT).Andrew Breitbart took the podium at CPAC Friday afternoon, introduced to the stage with Rage Against The Machine’s Guerilla Radio, and revealed to the audience he had “videos” of Barack Obama from his college days. “I have videos, this election we’re going to vet him,” Breitbart disclosed to raucous applause. “We are going to vet him from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008.”Read the full story here.

• Voices of Opposition Speak Out Against Obama’s Contraception Mandate ‘Accommodation’.(Heritage).That’s the near-unanimous response to President Obama’s supposed “accommodation” offered to those who objected to Obamacare’s mandate that religious institutions pay for contraceptive products and services—including abortion-inducing drugs.That mandate — which tramples heavily on religious liberties — drew tremendous fire across the board, from Christians and Jews alike, drowning the President in a political maelstrom of his own design. And though today the President sought to calm that storm with a “compromise,” the voices of opposition are as strong as ever because, quite simply, it doesn’t remedy the moral and religious liberty objections to this mandate, and as a practical matter, it simply doesn’t work.Here’s a roundup of the reactions:Former Vatican Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Princeton Prof. Robert George, Notre Dame Law Prof. Carter Snead, Catholic University of America President John Garvey, and EPPC Fellow Yuval Levin wrote: This so-called “accommodation” changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It is certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services…It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform the employee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying “five day after pill” pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains the terms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers.The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty noted: It’s not like President Obama has seen the light and is now committed to protecting conscience; he’s trying to, as the New York Times puts it, “shore up support among wavering Democrats, who have also expressed doubt about the rule, along with more liberal religious organizations and charities, who oppose the rule but not as vehemently as the Catholic leadership.”Pro-Life Caucus Chairman Chris Smith weighed in:The so-called new policy is the discredited old policy, dressed up to look like something else. It remains a serious violation of religious freedom. Only the most naïve or gullible would accept this as a change in policy.The newest iteration of Obama’s coercion rule utterly fails because it still forces religious employers and employees who have moral objections to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception to pay for these things, because it is still the employers who buy the coverage for their employees.Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said: This ObamaCare rule still tramples on Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion. It’s a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs.This is not just a problem for church-affiliated hospitals and charities. Under these rules, a small business owner with religious objections to abortion-inducing drugs and contraception must either violate his religious beliefs or violate the law.”And the Alliance Defense Fund wrote:The Obama administration’s rule change doesn’t change anything. Employees will still pay for this coverage. Through this sleight of hand, the administration is forcing indirectly what it can’t do directly. It is still forcing people of faith to subsidize practices and treatments that violate their values, their morals, and their religious beliefs. What’s next? Will the administration force Jewish schools to serve pork because it’s ‘good’ for Jewish students? When you take religious liberty from a few, you take religious liberty from all.The responses go on and on, but perhaps words laid down before the President even made his announcement sum it up best. Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Chuck Colson, and Meir Soloveichik joined forces in the Wall Street Journal this morning to warn of the common peril posed by Obamacare’s mandate for their faith communities: Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line. We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty.…[U]nder no circumstances should people of faith violate their consciences and discard their most cherished religious beliefs in order to comply with a gravely unjust law.”.Hmmmm......An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the full story here.

• Egypt bans British woman from leaving country over NGO row.(BM).CAIRO: Egyptian authorities barred a British woman from leaving Egypt on Friday, saying her name was on a list of foreigners working for NGOs in Egypt currently under investigation over receiving foreign funds and “interference in internal political affairs.”The British trainer at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was stopped from the London-bound plane, however, she was not arrested, bit notified she is barred from traveling pending investigations.The Egyptian authorities barred another 6 Americans from traveling over the past two weeks for the same reason.Tensions have risen between the US, Europe and Egypt after an Egyptian investigation referred 43 NGO workers including 19 Americans and 27 others (European and Egyptian) to trial on charges of “illegally receiving foreign funds for political motives.”The 48-year-old woman is currently under investigation for the same case, and her travel ban was ordered by the Attorney General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud.On Saturday, the state-owned MENA news agency reported that the British Foreign Secretary announced that it is providing assistance to the British woman, which was charged of using illegal funds to stir unrest in Egypt.Read the full story here.

• Obama Gets Hit with Another Religious Freedom Lawsuit.(Heritage).The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has already filed two lawsuits challenging the Obamacare regulation that requires many religious employers to provide health insurance coverage for sterilization, contraception, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs.Those lawsuits are on behalf of Belmont Abbey College (a Benedictine Catholic college in North Carolina) and Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian university in Colorado).This morning, the Becket Fund sued the Obama Administration again, this time on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network that was started nearly 30 years ago by a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica in her monastery garage.According to its press release, the network objects to paying for—and refuses to pay for—“contraceptive services and for drugs that destroy human life”:“The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of America. “Mother Angelica founded EWTN to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church—not to betray them.”EWTN claims it is “the largest religious media network in the world” and transmits programming “24 hours a day to more than 148 million homes in 144 countries and territories.” If EWTN wasn’t already covering the Obama Administration’s “unprecedented” assault on religious freedom before, it seems likely that viewers will be provided ample coverage in the days to come.The Heritage Foundation has repeatedly criticized the Obamacare contraception mandate as a violation of religious freedom. Heritage has also pointed out that the Obama Administration’s actions, though entirely counter to the freedom of religion, “should not be surprising given the nature of the President’s health care law.” Religious freedom goes hand in hand with limited government and with freedom more generally. With intrusions of freedom as broad as those made by the Obamacare legislation, burdens on freedom of religious and moral conscience are likely to follow. Indeed, they have.Read the full story here.

• Southern Baptist leader: Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate.(BB).(LifeSiteNews.com) — One of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States says Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans.Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com "we will not comply" with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD."We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail," Dr. Land said.Dr. Land wrote an op-ed on Tuesday with Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at ERLC, calling his fellow Southern Baptists and evangelical Christians throughout America to oppose any infringement on the First Amendment. "The Obama administration has declared war on religion and freedom of conscience," they wrote. "We consider this callous requirement by the Obama administration to be a clear violation of our nation's commitment to liberty of conscience and a flagrant violation of our constitutional protection to freedom of religion."Dr. Land told LifeSiteNews he hopes Baptist ministers will "preach from the pulpit just how serious and dangerous this initiative by the Obama administration is," and "encourage their parishioners to contact their congressmen and their senators and the president and let them know how deeply unhappy they are with this decision, and they want…legislation guaranteeing that it won’t happen again.""It is now in the providence of God," Dr. Land said. "Our responsibility is to stand and say, ‘We will not comply with this. We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail.’ We will not comply."Dr. Land, who earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University, has been named by Time magazine as one of .The Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America."President Obama’s recess appointment of Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provided an insight to the president’s views, Dr. Land said. Feldblum has said whenever religious rights come into conflict with sexual rights, that sexual rights must prevail. .That’s exactly what’s happening in the Health and Human Services contraceptive and abortifacient directive,. he said. .They are saying that a woman’s right to have free contraceptive services and free abortifacients trumps the deeply held religious convictions of Catholics and Baptists and others. That’s a war on religion.Read the full story here.

• Obama’s Big Non-Concession on Birth Control.(TWHD).By Keith koffler.As far as I can tell, and I admit it’s an early read, the administration’s “compromise” on its policy of forcing Catholic Institutions to provide free birth control is meaningless. Because while it may disconnect the institution’s money from the requirement, it does not disconnect the institution from it.Here’s what Obama did in his announcement today at the White House.The original Obama administration regulation said that Catholic institutions, like Catholic hospitals and others similar concerns, must provide health insurance for their employees that covers birth control for free. Today, Obama said that the Catholic institutions no longer have to pay the insurance plans that provide this coverage, but that the insurers the instituions are using will be forced to reach out separately to employees and offer it the birth control coverage directly to them.The employees could then effectively contract directly with the insurer to get the contraceptives for free.Here’s the problem. It’s all still part of the package being offered by the institution. Catholic groups are offering a plan that gives employees a chance to get free birth control coverage. They get it as a result of their insurance from their Catholic employer. They don’t get it if they work for an employer who does not provide insurance.Let me put it this way. Say the Obama administration originally mandated that you must invite a drug dealer into your home and required that you must pay him to provide your family with free heroin. But then say he changed the mandate and said, okay, you still have to invite the drug dealer into your home, but instead of you paying him, your individual family members can freely choose to have him give them free heroin.You see? You’re still being forced to have a drug dealer in your home handing out heroin.Obama is not providing a concession. He’s providing a fig leaf. The Catholic Bishops will never take it, nor should they.Hmmm.....When Pres. Obama says, "Everyone plays by the same set of rules," it means they conform to his rules. Read the full story here.

• US Disarmament Expert, 'The Risk that Nuclear Weapons Will Be Used Is Growing'.(Spiegel).Anxieties are mounting as nuclear weapons make their way into unstable regions. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, US disarmament expert Richard Burt discusses the growing risk of their use, why allowing Iran to get the bomb could trigger a Sunni-Shiite arms race and how an attack could make citizens demand a police state.Read the full story here.

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iran to Unveil New Achievements in Nuclear Technology Soon.(FNA).TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Saturday that the country plans to unveil a series of big new achievements in nuclear technology in coming days."The world will witness inauguration of a number of big achievements in the field of nuclear (technology) in coming days," Ahmadinejad said, addressing millions of enthusiastic demonstrators in Tehran who had flocked to the streets to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He also underlined that the country's progress and advancement in the field of nuclear technology was achieved despite the pressures of the world arrogant powers, and added all needs of the Iranian nation to the nuclear technology will be met by Iran's talented scientists in the near future. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's illegitimate calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.A crowd of an estimated 30,000 people in central Tehran cheered Ahmadinejad’s words. Many held aloft placards declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.In pointed messages aimed at those two arch-foes, Iranian officials planted a full-scale model of a captured U.S. spy drone in front of the president’s stage, and hosted on the stage the Hamas prime minister of Gaza.Prominent MP Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghaddam has lashed out at the President's supporters, saying that he believes in a "deviant current" which aspires to win 180 seats, almost two-thirds of the Majlis. He also warned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "I hope the President attend the interrogation session in parliament if not serious actions will be taken."
  Hojatoleslam Sayyed Hamid Rohani, went farther, accusing those around the President of pursuing an "Anjoman Hujjatieh” ideology to increase corruption, accelerating the return of Shi'a's 12th Imam, equated in their eyes to Ahmadinejad: "They want to make a kingdom for themselves and negotiate with enemies behind the scene. They claim they are standing for justice but in reality they have gathered around themselves the thieves of nation money. They are trying to negotiate and a start relationship with the Great Satan through promotion of American Islam in the name of Iranian Islam or Iranian school." Read the full story here.

• Turks torpedo Israel Navy participation in NATO op.(JPost).Turkey has torpedoed an Israeli plan to contribute an Israel Navy missile ship to a NATO mission in the Mediterranean Sea, in what would have been the first time Israel actively participated in one of the Western military alliance’s operations.Diplomatic and defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Turkey had decided to prevent Israeli participation in the long-term operation – called Active Endeavor – following the Israel Navy raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010 in which nine Turkish nationals were killed.Diplomatic officials said that ever since its success, Turkey had been seeking to scuttle greater Israeli participation in the alliance.NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in the wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of countries to patrol the Mediterranean and share information concerning terrorism and suspicious ships.In 2008, Israel sent a navy officer to sit at the operation’s headquarters in Naples and in late 2009, Defense Minister Ehud Barak submitted an official request to NATO to contribute a missile ship to the mission. In 2010, Israel and NATO signed an agreement that was supposed to pave the way for the ship’s participation.“Israel’s navy anyhow patrols the Mediterranean and since we were interested in upgrading our ties with NATO, it made sense to offer to actively participate in the operation,” a senior government official said. “The Turks, though, torpedoed the move and refused to allow one of our ships to join.”While Israel has participated in numerous NATO activities over the past decade, it has never sent troops or navy ships to play an operational role in the military alliance’s operations.While Turkey succeeded in thwarting the navy’s participation in Active Endeavor, it has, however, failed to prevent Israel from upgrading its ties with NATO. Defense officials said this week that the sides were on the verge of signing a new cooperation agreement that would lead to a significant upgrade in relations.As a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue, which was created in 1994 to foster ties with Middle Eastern countries, Israel is frequently invited to participate in NATO workshops and exercises.The senior government official said, though, that the new agreement would enable Israel to participate in top NATO forums even though it is not a full-fledged member of the alliance.Israel is also considering a request by NATO to open an office at its headquarters in Brussels. Defense officials said that the offer was still open and that it was being “positively considered” by the government.Hmmm....NATO should kick out Turkey and replace them with Israel at least they can count on them, unlike Turkey who lately objects to most actions demanded by NATO or the U.S.They refuse actions against Iran but would drag NATO in a war with Syria.Read the full story here.

• Syrian Armored Forces Move Nearer to Israel.(VOC).According to reports from the Free Syria Army, the Syrian military has moved forces stationed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights closer to Israel.The Syrian military did not come close to the border with Israel. However, armored forces that were stationed along the Syria-Jordan border, which were recently reinforced, were moved and are now closer to Israel, according to the report.The Free Syria Army is the largest opposition group in Syria and is partly made up of defectors from the official Syrian Army.Israel has been concerned that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is on the verge of collapse, may try to defuse the uprising against him by starting a conflict with Israel.A Lebanese newspaper, The People’s Army, claimed Thursday in its news website that the IDF has been making an extra effort in the past few days to place landmines all along its border with Syria.Hundreds of Israeli soldiers are reportedly working at lining the border with mines. Israel had already placed mines along some stretches of the border with Syria after the Nakba Day events last year, in which hundreds of Syrians broke into Israel virtually unimpeded. The action had been orchestrated by the Syrian government, later reports showed.Hmmmm......30 Th of March the day of assault on Israel.Read the full story here.

• Hamas will never acknowledge Israel, says Haniyeh.(BM).Tehran (dpa) – Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran.“They (West) want from us to stop resistance and acknowledge Israel but I herewith announce that this will never happen,” Haniyeh said though an interpreter at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.“Our message and the message of all those who lost their blood in the Palestinian lands is that all occupied lands will eventually be liberated from Israeli occupation,” Haniyeh said.He thanked Iran for its constant support for Palestinian resistance groups and called on maintaining unity in the Islamic world.Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Friday and is to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iran, which does not recognize the state of Israel, is a supporter of Hamas but has constantly denied providing any financial and military aid to the movement.Read the full story here.

• Top Pentagon general meets with Egypt’s army rulers; strike fails to attract protesters.(AlArabiya).Egypt’s state news agency says the Pentagon’s top general is visiting the country for security talks with the country’s military rulers, amid tensions between the two allies over charges filed against 16 American civil society workers accused of fomenting unrest.MENA reported Saturday that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and several members of the country’s ruling military council, including his Egyptian counterpart Lt. Gen. Sami Anan.The report says that they discussed “the depth of the strategic relationship between Washington and Cairo.”A Pentagon official had said prior to Dempsey’s visit to Cairo that the nonprofit dispute would be raised in the meeting and that he would talk with Egypt’s leaders about “choices and consequences.”On Friday, Egypt’s military rulers warned in statement that the country faces conspiracies that seek to topple the state and spread chaos.“Never will we bow to threats, nor succumb to pressures, nor accept ultimatums,” it said.Hmmmm.......As i said yesterday:"Come to think of it....How about the U.S. sale of 125 - M1A1 Abrams tanks to Egypt?".Read the full story here.

• I am not Anonymous!(AM).CIA website hacked by "Anonymous".The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was unresponsive on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline."CIA Tango down," a member of Anonymous said on @YourAnonNews, a Twitter feed used by the group. "Tango down" is an expression used by the US Special Forces when they have eliminated an enemy.Attempts to access the CIA website at cia.gov were unsuccessful.A CIA spokesman had no immediate comment.Anonymous last month briefly knocked the websites of the US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation offline.Those attacks were in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload.There was no immediate explanation from Anonymous for the targeting of the CIA site.Most Anonymous cyberattacks are distributed denial of service attacks in which a large number of computers are commanded to simultaneously visit a website, overwhelming its servers.Read the full story here.

• UK - Muslim fanatics who called for execution of gays and wanted to set up a 'medieval state' under Sharia law in Derby are jailed for up to two years.(DM).Three Muslim extremists who handed out leaflets calling for homosexuals to be hanged, stoned and burned to death have been jailed.The group handed out the material in the street as well as posting it through letterboxes in a hate-filled campaign calling for the execution of gay people who they claimed were at the root of society’s problems.Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed are the first to be prosecuted under new laws against inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. Ali was jailed for two years and Ahmed and Javed for 15 months each.Sentencing the men today, Judge John Burgess, Recorder of Derby, told them: 'You have been convicted of intending to stir up hatred.'It follows that your intention was to do great harm in a peaceful community.'He went on: 'Much has been said during the course of this trial about freedom of expression, and the freedom to preach strongly held beliefs; beliefs, which may have some foundation in scripture.'Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy and a basic ingredient of any free society. Parliament clearly had this very much in mind when this legislation was passed.'Last month the trio were found guilty at Derby Crown Court. Residents had told of how the three fundamentalists wanted to transform their small area of Derby into a 'medieval state' under Sharia law.Anyone who dared to question their extreme agenda was branded an 'M15 agent' or a 'sell-out,' they said.It emerged that:

1. Muslim fanatic and hate preacher Anjem Choudary was secretly invited by the group's ringleader, Ihjaz Ali, for a series of meetings in Derby;
2. The group had links with the extremist organisation Al-Muhajiroun, which is banned under UK anti-terror laws;
3. Moderate Muslim leaders who spoke out against the group's activities were targeted in a hate campaign in which their faces were printed on 'wanted' posters;
4.  Police had to be called during local elections because the group's supporters were standing guard at polling stations, ordering Muslims not to vote.One gay resident summed up the atmosphere in the area.‘It used to be lovely round here,’ he said. ‘Now, because of these people, you don’t feel safe. I don’t have any problems with Muslims. But these lot need to realise we live in England, not some Islamic state.’Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Iran Using Gold and Oil to Surpass U.S. Sanctions.(BigPeace).Since U.S. sanctions have dramatically cut the Islamic Republic’s ability to obtain financing via the dollar and euro, Tehran is aiming to use gold to deal in the world market. The republic is seeking to evade sanctions imposed by the United States, which were implemented earlier this year as a deterrent to continue building its nuclear program.According to a Thursday Reuters report, Iran has also used yen to buy large volumes of wheat and has already purchased a minimum of 200,000 tons of wheat on the soft market, mostly from Australia.According to a Christian Science Monitor Report:  Iran, which is still in the market to buy additional wheat supplies, is also considering barter deals to feed its 74 million people weeks before a presidential election, they said.Grain ships are stuck outside Iranian ports and exports of staples to Iran such as maize, sugar, palm oil and rice are being hindered as collecting payment from buyers gets harder.“Grain deals are being paid for in gold bullion and barter deals involving oil are being offered,” one trader said. “Some of the major trading houses are involved,” he added.Traders said details of how barter deals work were still unclear as the problem had developed so quickly.Iranian buyers have in the past side-stepped sanctions by booking business through third countries, especially Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, traders said. But this option had been suddenly closed as the UAE was not allowing sanction-breaking finance, they said.“As the shipments of grain are so large, barter or gold payments are the quickest option,” another trader said.Friday morning the Associated Press reported that despite US pressure to comply with American sanctions, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was insisting that diplomacy was the best way to deal with Iran.Hmmm.......Notice how not a single paper points out Turkey's role in this.Read the full story here.

• Russians Rally for Kuril Islands.(RN).More than 4,000 people rallied in Russia’s Far East on Saturday in support of the country’s claim to the disputed Kuril islands in the Pacific Ocean, police said.Demonstrators in the port town of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk called for Russia to take a tougher stance in the decades-long dispute with Japan over the four islands, which were occupied by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.  The dispute has stopped the two countries from signing a peace treaty.On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan was determined to “move ahead with negotiations.”He was speaking during a protest rally was held in Tokyo to demand the return of the islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sparked a diplomatic row with Tokyo in November 2010 by making the first ever visit by a Russian leader to the islands.He later said Russia would increase its military presence there. Japan’s then prime minister Naoto Kan called Medvedev’s visit an “inexcusable rudeness.”Read the full story here.

• Iranian Navy Receives 2 Light Submarines.(RN).The Iranian Navy has commissioned two Ghadir class diesel-electric submarines to boost Iran’s naval capability, official IRNA news agency reported.IRNA cited Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying that the submarines were built and equipped by domestic manufacturers.The 120-ton Ghadir class submarines are highly maneuverable and best suited for missions in shallow waters. They are equipped with at least two torpedo tubes and feature elements of "stealth" technology.With the addition of two new subs, the number of Ghadir vessels in the Iranian Navy has reached 16. The first submarine of this class was commissioned in 2007.Ghadir class subs have been reportedly designed by Iran on the basis of North Korean Yono class vessels.In addition to Ghadirs, the Iranian Navy has three Soviet-built Kilo class submarines and a domestically-built Nahang sub.Read the full story here.

UN nuclear watchdog Amano: My duty is to warn of Iran nuclear danger.

UN nuclear watchdog Amano: My duty is to warn of Iran nuclear danger.(Jpost).VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog chief said it was his duty to warn the world about suspected Iranian activities that point to plans to develop atomic bomb, maintaining pressure on Tehran ahead of rare talks between Iran and his agency expected this month.
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made clear in an interview with Financial Times Deutschland that the UN body would press for full cooperation in meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran."What we know suggests the development of nuclear weapons," he was quoted as saying in comments published in German on Thursday, adding Iran had so far failed to clarify allegations of possible military links to its nuclear program."We want to check over everything that could have a military dimension."An IAEA delegation, to be headed by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, is expected to seek explanations for intelligence information that indicates Iran has engaged in research and development relevant for nuclear weapons."I have absolutely no reason to soften my report. It is my responsibility to alarm the world," Amano said. "The overall pattern led me to the decision to alarm the world. The more pieces (of information), the clearer the pattern become."Amano rejected Iranian media suggestions that his agency may have been partly responsible for the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last week.Iran has in the past accused the IAEA of leaking the names of nuclear scientists, making them potential targets for the security services of Iran's foes in the West and Israel."That is wrong. We did not publish his name. I did not know him," Amano said about the Jan 11 killing of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan in a car bomb attack in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel."I don't believe in violence. I believe in dialogue and conversation. I only expect from Iran that it cooperates."Read the full story here.