Morning Posting.
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation updated: Taiwan 5.4 ; Papua New guinea 5.3 ; Japan 5.2 and Turkey 4.9 !More info here.
- Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.
- Canada reconsidering role in UNESCO following PA admittance.(JPost).Canada will reconsider its role in UNESCO following the organization's acceptance of Palestine as a member state, AFP quoted Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird as telling reporters on Monday."We are in the process of evaluating our future participation" in UNESCO, Baird told reporters, adding that "We are not happy with UNESCO's decision. We are working to determine what our response will be."Canada contributes $10 million a year to UNESCO.The United States on Monday froze funding to a United Nations educational body, after it became the first UN organization to recognize Palestine as an independent state.In a dramatic move that inched the Palestinian Authority closer to its bid for unilateral statehood, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) accepted Palestine as the 195th member of its organization.A huge cheer erupted in UNESCO’s General Assembly in Paris as it gave the Palestinians a symbolic victory in their unilateral statehood battle after 107 nations voted in favor, 14 against, and 52 abstained. The US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Israel voted against Palestinian membership. Countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa, Austria and France voted in favor. Britain and Italy abstained.PA President Mahmoud Abbas thanked all the countries that supported its UNESCO membership bid.“This vote is a vote for peace,” Abbas was quoted by the PA’s news agency, Wafa, as saying.“The vote constitutes an international consensus to support the legitimate national rights of our people – first and foremost the right to establish an independent state.”The vote is a “victory for Palestinian independence,” Abbas said. The entire world, he added, stood with the Palestinians today.Israel, however, warned that the UNESCO vote harmed ongoing Quartet efforts to jump-start the peace talks, which have been stalled since October 2010.“The Palestinian move at UNESCO, as with similar such steps with other UN bodies, is tantamount to a rejection of the international community’s efforts to advance the peace process,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement it issued to the press.It threatened to cut its ties with UNESCO.“The State of Israel will consider its further steps and ongoing cooperation with the organization,” the Ministry said.At the Knesset, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sternly said Israel should consider cutting all ties to the PA.“My recommendations will be very clear,” the foreign minister explained at an Israel Beiteinu faction meeting. “We need to weigh cutting all ties with the Palestinian Authority.We cannot continue to accept unilateral measures time after time.”The Palestinian application for UNESCO is part of its overall strategy to unilaterally obtain statehood by seeking UN membership both by appealing to the Security Council, which approves all such bids, and by separately asking to join UN bodies such as UNESCO and other international organizations.The Security Council is expected to vote on the issue of Palestinian UN membership later this month.In a statement issued in Ramallah, the PLO Executive Committee said it hoped the vote would pave the way for the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state “on all the territories that were occupied in 1967.”The US and Israel have opposed all such unilateral bids and have argued that statehood should be achieved through a negotiated peace deal with Israel. Israel has argued that Palestinians are seeking unilateral statehood as a way to avoid a negotiated peace.The US has promised to veto the Palestinians membership bid at the UN Security Council.On Monday after the UNESCO vote, White House spokesman Jay Carney complained that the move “distracts us from our shared goal of direct negotiations that result in a secure Israel and an independent Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the UNESCO vote was “regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”“The United States remains steadfast in its support for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, but such a state can only be realized through direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” continued Nuland.She condemned the vote as “creating tensions when all of us should be concerting our efforts to get the parties back to the table.”Nuland said that as a result of the vote, the US would not make a $60 million payment to UNESCO scheduled for later in the month.There is a congressional resolution that forbids the US from financing UN-related organizations that recognize any unilaterally- declared Palestinian state without a peace deal.Washington will not, however, stop its participation in UNESCO, a membership that had already been suspended once by former US president Ronald Reagan.The PA called on Arab countries to compensate UNESCO for the loss of American financial aid in the wake of the vote.Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, also expressed hope that the Arab countries that supported the Palestinian move at UNESCO would step in to help the international agency financially.The PLO Executive Committee hailed the UNESCO vote, dubbing it an “historic event.”PA negotiator Nabil Sha’ath called the vote a “victory for Palestinian rights and proof of the international community’s recognition of our people’s right to an independent state.”Sha’ath said the vote would be added to a series of “political victories achieved by the Palestinian leadership.” He said the vote highlighted the size of the crisis facing the Israeli government.Hamas also welcomed Monday’s vote, saying it was an “important step toward serving the Palestinian cause and preserving Palestinian heritage and holy sites in the face of Israeli violations.”Hamas said the vote also “exposed the brutality of the occupation and the bias of the US administration in favor of the occupation and its racist policies.”Hmmmmm........How much will the 'Motherland' of Secretary General of the oic E. Ihsanoglu contribute to compensate for the financial losses of Unesco? Read the full story here.
- Breaking Story - AP reports on another 'suspicious [nuclear] site' in Syria.(DocsTalk).AP is reporting that the IAEA has discovered a 'suspicious' site in northwestern Syria. Pakistan is also involved.U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could make nuclear arms.The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan's guidance, officials told The Associated Press. The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan's laboratories following Pakistan's successful nuclear test in 1998.The complex, in the city of Al-Hasakah, now appears to be a cotton-spinning plant, and investigators have found no sign that it was ever used for nuclear production. But given that Israeli warplanes destroyed a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests Syria may have been pursuing two routes to an atomic bomb: uranium as well as plutonium.Details of the Syria-Khan connection were provided to the AP by a senior diplomat with knowledge of IAEA investigations and a former U.N. investigator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment.IAEA investigators homed in on the Al-Hasakah facility after an intensive analysis of satellite imagery in the Middle East, sparked by a belief that Khan had an additional government customer, which had not yet come to light. They identified the site, the largest industrial complex in Al-Hasakah, after a 2006 report in a Kuwaiti newspaper claimed Syria had a secret nuclear program in the city.Satellite imagery of the Al-Hasakah complex revealed striking similarities to plans for a uranium enrichment facility that were seized during a Swiss investigation related to Khan. The Swiss were looking into the Tinner family — Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father, Friedrich — who are suspected of playing a crucial role in Khan's smuggling network.Another set of the same plans was turned over to the IAEA after Libya abandoned its nuclear program. Libya told the IAEA it had ordered 10,000 gas centrifuges from Khan, most of which it intended for a facility that was to be built according to the plans. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium in the weapons-making process.The investigator said the layout of the Al-Hasakah facility matches the plans used in Libya almost exactly, with a large building surrounded by three smaller workshops in the same configurations. Investigators were struck that even the parking lots had similarities, with a covered area to shield cars from the sun.But the investigator said he had seen no evidence that centrifuges were ever installed there. The Hasakah Spinning Co. has a website that shows photos of manufacturing equipment inside the facility and brags about its prices.The IAEA asked to visit the site more than two years ago. But it has not pressed the issue, focusing its efforts on the bombed site.By the way, this is not one of the three sites to which the IAEA was denied access by the Syrians in 2008.Hmmmm......Amazing I wonder how many more nuclear facilities there are in this region, perhaps we need to ask Google Earth?Read the full story here.
- Black Farmers’ Advocacy Group to Appeal ‘Pigford II’ Ruling.(BigGovernment).WASHINGTON — A federal judge has agreed to a settlement involving a class of at least 40,000 black farmers who claim they were discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and who missed the deadline for an earlier settlement.U.S. Dist. Judge Paul L. Friedman certified a class of plaintiffs aggregated in 23 separate complaints, including one made by the Memphis-based Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Inc., and its president, Thomas Burrell.Burrell testified against the proposed settlement in a “fairness” hearing on Sept. 1, arguing that potential claimants should be able to access the much more liberal benefits of the earlier, 1999 settlement known as Pigford I. More than $1 billion has been paid out to more than 22,000 claimants in the first settlement.Burrell said this morning that he plans to appeal Friedman’s ruling on due process and equal protection grounds. He maintains that a 1998 law signed by President Bill Clinton holds open the door to claims the previous settlement labeled too late and that prospective claimants aren’t limited to the cause of action Congress created for late filers in 2008 or to the $1.15 billion Congress appropriated in 2010, which he said is inadequate.Congress re-opened the courts for claims of racial discrimination when it became clear that many black farmers had missed the earlier deadline. The USDA agreed to settle the second round of claims with an apparatus similar to the 1999 settlement in which two “tracks” are available to farmers.One track would permit farmers to establish discrimination before a neutral third party and be eligible for $50,000 and debt and tax relief. The other track requires proof of discrimination and permits an accounting of actual damages, which could result in judgments higher than $50,000.Burrell objects that the settlement doesn’t permit claimants to appeal an adverse decision by the neutral fact-finders or allow claimants to confront and cross-examine witnesses, such as USDA personnel denying discrimination claims.Hmmmm.......Something smells real bad and it ain't the manure.Read the full story here.
- Birthers - Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Posse Wants Entire Microfilm Roll Containing Obama's Birth Certificate.(ORYR).Arizona's maverick Sheriff Joe Arpaio promised surprises in his jurisdiction's investigation of Barack Obama's eligibility for the presidential ballot and his Cold Case Posse is delivering – raising questions that touch on the authenticity of the long-form birth certificate issued last April and the possibility Obama is using a fraudulent Social Security Number.Sources close to the investigation say the posse has decided it needs to see original birth records before it can conclude whether Obama should be eligible for the presidential ballot in 2012, not an electronic file or scanned copies.The sources say the panel needs to examine the microfilm documenting Obama's birth, as well as the ink-and-paper original 1961 birth records the Hawaii Department of Health is holding in its vault.The PDF file and various scanned copies of the birth certificate that the White House released April 27 are simply not good enough, the posse has determined. Earlier this month, WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi spent 18 hours over a two-day period in Arizona briefing the Cold Case Posse on a wide range of evidence regarding Obama's eligibility."The posse wants to see the entire microfilm roll containing Obama's birth certificate, not just a microfilm copy of Obama's long-form birth certificate in isolation," Corsi explained. "An individual microfilm copy could be forged, but forging the entire microfilm reel on which Obama's birth certificate is in sequence would be almost impossible."Also, Corsi said, the posse wants the ink-and-paper original 1961 Obama birth records still held in vault by the Hawaii Department of Health to be released publicly and subjected to independent court-authorized forensic examination.
Corsi affirmed that the posse's conclusion it needs to see the Obama birth certificate microfilm is part of the "shock" that Arpaio warned would be forthcoming, when he spoke last week to the Surprise Tea Party group meeting in Surprise, Ariz.The focus on the microfilm records of Obama's birth arose after Arpaio's investigators realized the birth certificates of twins born the day after Obama, the Nordykes, had been released as white-on-black copies of microfilm to the family by the Hawaii Department of Health in 1966.Hmmm......There's nothing as revolting as 'the Naked truth'.Read the full story here.
- The Enemy is Inside the Wire.(TownHall).By FrankGaffney.What would have happened if, during the Cold War, Soviet intelligence had been responsible for training Americans charged with countering communist aggression? Surely, we would not have defeated the USSR. Perhaps, instead, Kruschev's boast that his nation would dance on our graves would have been realized.It should, therefore, be profoundly alarming that, today, the Obama administration is entrusting to agents of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic) the responsibility for approving who and what is used in "countering violent extremism" training for our military, law enforcement, intelligence personnel. The use of the term "countering violent extremism" (or CVE) is, of course, the first clue that the enemy is inside the wire. That euphemism is the term Team Obama allows to be employed in lieu of phrases that actually describe the nature of the principal enemy we face at the moment: Muslims who engage in holy war-- jihad-- to compel the rest of us to submit to the totalitarian, supremacist political-military-legal doctrine they call shariah."Countering violent extremism" is problematic for reasons beyond its lack of clarity about the threat. It also explicitly excludes a facet of the menace posed by shariah that is at least as dangerous to an open, tolerant liberal democracy as the violent sort of jihad: the stealthy insinuation of this doctrine in ways that are non-violent or, more accurately, pre-violent.The Muslim Brotherhood specializes in this sort of covert warfare, which it has dubbed "civilization jihad." Its skills were honed during decades of operations under a succession of hostile Egyptian governments. Now that the Brothers have achieved-- with no little help from President Obama-- the overthrow of the last of these under Hosni Mubarak, their true colors are becoming evident. Ask the Coptic Christians who are now being massacred by the putatively "non-violent" Ikhwan.Make no mistake: Stealthy civilization jihad is every bit as toxic and has precisely the same goals as the sort of holy war we have come to associate with murderous hijackers and suicide bombers of MB spin-offs like al Qaeda.We know, for example, from evidence introduced uncontested by federal prosecutors in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-funding trial that the Brotherhood's mission here is "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying... Western civilization from within... by their hands [read, ours] and the hands of the believers so that God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." We also are on notice that the MB has a five-phased plan for achieving this mission in the United States; the first four phases are stealthy and pre-violent.Which brings us to the alarming guidelines recently promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security for countering violent extremism training. Under the heading "Trainers should be expert and well-regarded," the DHS directs that a "prospective trainer's resume be "check[ed] with knowledgeable community leaders." Unfortunately, it appears that, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, such "leaders" are exclusively those associated with organizations that the federal government and the Muslim Brotherhood itself have identified as Ikhwan fronts.The DHS guidelines also direct that "training should be sensitive to constitutional values." To that end, it requires that "federal, state and local government and law enforcement officials organizing CVE training...review the training program to ensure that:
- "It uses examples to demonstrate that terrorists and violent extremists vary in ethnicity, race, gender, and religion.
- "Training should focus on behavior, not appearance or membership in particular ethnic or religious communities.
- "Training should support the protection of civil rights and civil liberties as part of national security. Don't use training that equates religious expression, protests, or other constitutionally protected activity with criminal activity."
In other words, Muslim Brotherhood-associated individuals are being afforded the opportunity to veto the use of trainers who might actually understand the nature of the danger its operatives and organizations pose to our country. And those who are allowed to train are not permitted to focus their students on the actual threat emanating from a subset of the Muslim community. Rather, they must promote the notion that there are really no indicators in belief or nationality that can help the authorities apply limited security resources in a sensibly prioritized manner.Some try to excuse this behavior as nothing more than being "sensitive," "tolerant" or "politically correct." The danger is that shariah-adherent Muslims regard such conduct as submissive-- and, according to their doctrine, they are obliged to redouble their efforts to, as the Koran puts it, make us "feel subdued." That means more violence, not less.That prospect becomes all the greater when one adds into the mix the presence of government officials who are themselves tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and/or its shariah doctrine - including in senior positions in the White House, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Such individuals are products of and greatly facilitate the Brothers' influence operations and contribute greatly to our failure to date to recognize, let alone counteract, them.If we would not have won the Cold War had the KGB been able to call the shots here, we surely will not prevail if we allow the Muslim Brotherhood to do the same in the struggle against today's totalitarian ideology, shariah-- a doctrine some have dubbed "communism with a god." Congressional oversight is urgently needed to prevent that from happening.Read the full story here.
- What’s Clogging up U.S. Troops? Feds Have No Idea.(Wired).In a 2010 study of 80 soldiers who struggled to run two miles, half of them were huffing and puffing because of undiagnosed bronchiolitis.And the feds have no idea why.The military’s widespread use of open-air burn pits — massive heaps of Styrofoam, human waste and plastic water bottles, in flames around the clock — seemed to be the most obvious answer.But results of a study published today by the Institute of Medicine, and commissioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, are frustratingly inconclusive — largely because the military didn’t collect adequate data for researchers to do their jobs.The team set out to determine whether the burn pits used to incinerate waste at military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan were culpable for the increased prevalence of respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological ailments afflicting recent veterans. But what they know after all that research is essentially what they knew at the study’s outset. First, that more and more troops are complaining of chronic health problems. And second, that the air quality in both combat zones was pretty awful to begin with.Since 2001, cardiovascular problems among military personnel have soared from 65,520 to 91,013 in 2010. Neurological conditions have more than tripled, going from 9,688 to 32,667.Some troops are so sure that burn pits caused their illnesses, they’ve already sued the contractors responsible for them: Close to 1,000 are currently in litigation against megaliths KBR and Halliburton, which were charged with overseeing some pits.But burn pits aren’t the only suspect: With dust storms a common occurrence, soldiers spent plenty of time choking on cloudy air in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the report notes might be enough to cause “long-term health effects.” Not to mention that much of the dust was laden with neurotoxic elements, including chromium and iron.Researchers studied air samples collected by military officials at Joint Base Balad between 2007 and 2009. They detected 51 chemicals and a plethora of particulate matter (caused by, for example, dust and exhaust fumes). The toxins and particulates found in the samples have been linked to, among others, the following health problems: Cardiovascular disease, asthma, adrenal, liver and kidney failure, birth defects, cancer, anemia and decreased function of the central nervous system.“The air in the areas tested contained more pollutants — sometimes much more — than U.S. air standards,” Dr. David Tollerud, lead researcher on the study, told reporters. “What they inhaled was comparable to that of very polluted urban environments around the world.”In other words, troops were living in an environment akin to the heart of Mexico City — if Mexico City was also burning heaps of synthetic goods and human waste adjacent to residential areas and workplaces. So troops should worry about illness. But is the risk reserved for those who worked close to a burn pit? That question’s a little tougher to answer.“We can’t dismiss the potential of the burn pits themselves as being the cause of health effects,” Dr. Tollerud, who was also a key researcher in establishing Agent Orange’s health threats, said. “But exhaust from automobiles, jet emissions, and other pollution, not to mention dust storms, could also be involved.”That said, the air samples did contain dioxins, the same chemicals found in Agent Orange, the herbicide now blamed for widespread illness among Vietnam veterans.And much like Agent Orange — which the VA only this past year acknowledged as the culprit for veteran’s health problems — it seems the confusion surrounding this generation’s long-term health conditions will take decades to resolve — if it ever is.The report notes that researchers were hampered by “a lack of data” collected by the Department of Defense. Nobody kept track of what was burned, when, how much, or in what proximity to soldiers. And now that the military has shut down all of the open-air pits in Iraq, getting relevant air samples is impossible.Despite this dearth of data, the military somehow managed to release two of their own reports on air quality earlier in the decade, and both concluded that any health risks from burn pits fell within an “acceptable” range.The IOM committee isn’t so sure: They’ve suggested another, long-term study that follows troops — especially those who’d been deployed at Balad — and tracks incidence of respiratory problems, neurological impairment and cancer, which often develops later in life. In other words, soldiers will just have to wait until they get sick to help scientists figure out why.Read the full story here.
- Video: Headless
Horseman, Humanoid Robot Preps for Army Duty.(Wired).Sauntering toward you like a mechanized zombie is the Army’s newest recruit: a robot with a blinking red light where its head should be.That’s the PETMAN, the latest creation of Boston Dynamics, the robotics shop best known for its eerily lifelike BigDog, a quadrupedal robot that wants to carry troops’ gear. The PETMAN, in development for years, is built like a human being, walks autonomously on two legs while pumping its arms like a person, and resists efforts by Boston Dynamics engineers to push it over.As recently as 2009, the PETMAN — or Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin — was little more than a circuit board connected to hydraulics that terminated in mannequin feet. Now it weighs 180 pounds, looks like the Terminator with the skin burned off, walks much faster than any non-28 Days Later zombie and can do a push-up. In the new video, it also kind of looks like it can perform the Super Bowl Shuffle.Of course, the PETMAN could use a prosthesis of its own, since it still doesn’t have a head. Even the Octavia robot developed for the Navy has a cherubic face built out of white plastic. The PETMAN’s remorseless flashing red light atop its shoulders is anything but soothing. Which points to another potential use for the robot: scaring the hell out of an enemy.Read and see the full story here.
- Greek PM Calls Referendum Over “Haircut”-Agreement.(KeepTalkingGreece).Greek prime minister George Papandreou announced referendum over the October 26th, 2011 Loan-Agreement (“Haircut”-Agreement) stunning the public. It was the PM’s answer to all criticism by the opposition, the society and even some of his own deputies, the request for early elections and/or government of national unity. Speaking to parliamentary group of PASOK Papandreou also announced that he will ask vote of confidence in the parliament.“The citizens will express themselves democratically about the new loan-agreement and their mandate will be bounding for all of us” said Papandreou. “The citizen will decided if he wants that we adopt the new laon agreement or we reject it. If the Greek nation does not want it, it won’t materialize.”. Papandreou did not reveal exactly what would be the question of the referendum that will most likely be held in January 2012.Alternate Foreign Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou explained during a talk show in ALTER TV om Monday evneing that the question would be “Do you want the new loan agreement ?-yes or no”. At the same talk show Justice Minister Xaris Katsanidis said that the question would be more or less “Do you accept the new loan agreement in its full length” and will refer to Greece’s commitments to the agreement. The announcement triggered negative reactions by the opposition parties, with three of them (left-wing, far-right, centre) rejecting it right away. SYRIZA, LAOS, Nea Dimokratia and Democratic Coalition claimed that the referendum would lead the country into ‘dangerous paths’, a view shared by many journalists. The referendum-bombshell raised many questions with the main of them being : What would NO mean in the referendum? An exit from the eurozone and bankruptcy? And what will be the political consequences should the majority votes NO. Most likely early elections… Another question is how the perspective of the referendum will influence tha banks-EU talks on the haircut. And how the markets will react, as they do not behave in “PASOK time”.The referendum will be held a ‘crucial national issue’. That means it will be held before the loan -agreement wouldbe voted in the parlieamnet and become a law so that the government would bypass Constitutional provisions that forbid a referendum on ‘fiscal issues’. Further the referendum will be possible after the detail agreement between EU and Greece. The vote of confidence will be held on Friday, November 4th, 2011 at midnight. Ruling party PASOK with 153 seats (out of 300) does have the majority to pass the vote of confidence – however Papandreou challenges some of his own deputies who criticize him and some of them demanding early elections, some others ‘government of national unity’.Hmmmm........Talk about a "Greek TRAGEDY" Or is it A G20 TRAGEDY on the 05Th of Novenber?Read the full story here.
- Related - Europe, IIF “freeze” over Greek Referendum.(KTG).I guess the IMF is speechless too. So far there has been not official statement to the decision of Greek prime minister George Papandreou to put the new loan agreement in a referendum.Formally, the response of the representative of the European Union Carolina Kotova was “no comment” and “We are in contact and await formal notification from the Greek authorities.”Charles Dallara, the chief of world banks IIF was asking what would be the question of the referendum.And the IMF is trying to recover from its surprise.Deutsche Welle reported citing sources from the German government that they were “startled”.The EURO plunged -5% and the Wall Street didn’t feel any better.German media reported that George Papandreou overturns the decisions of the Oct 26th EU-Summit. Weekly DIE ZEIT wrote : Greece’s bankruptcy nears.British media report that a fresh crisis in on the way.Associated Press spoke of “gambling”.Hope Greece’s lenders will recover soon form the surprise and will make some statement tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next month.Hmmm.....The resque of Greece is starting to look more and more like "Odysseus voyage".Read the full story here.
- Revolutionary Guards’ New Slogan: Take Jerusalem Through Iraq.(DocsTalk).By Ryan Mauro. I was reading Robert Maginnis’ column about Iranian domination of Iraq after U.S. forces leave and this paragraph caught my attention: It is noteworthy the Quds recently adopted a new slogan, “On our way to Jerusalem, via Baghdad,” according to Taheri. That means it has a vision to begin using Iraq as it already uses Syria. Specifically, it will use Iraq as a new base to train fighters, and to forward money and arms to proxy groups across the Arab world. The goal is to take Jerusalem—that is, destroying Israel—and for that matter the entire region.In my article on the same subject, I made the point that the Iranian regime views Iraq as the bridge to destroying Israel in fulfillment of End Times prophecy: Iraq plays a central role in Shiite Islamic prophecy. A senior Hezbollah official in Lebanon was not coy about what will follow a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. A “Shiite crescent” will form, bringing together 100 million people against Israel. Hundreds of thousands of “martyrs” will die and Israel will use nuclear weapons, but the Jewish state will be destroyed. There were two things stopping this, he said: The U.S. presence in Iraq and the potential overthrow of Bashar Assad in Syria. The U.S. withdrawal removes these two barriers.The new Quds Force slogan verifies my analysis. Iran isn’t only cheering about the U.S. withdrawal because it dominates Iraq. It views the departure as paving the way for its fulfillment of destiny in destroying Israel.
Part Two By Robert Maginnis. President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to remove our forces from Iraq prior to year-end hands a major victory to Iran. Expect Tehran to take advantage of that victory to extend its influence across the Middle East.Last Friday, President Obama declared in celebratory remarks, “The tide of war is receding,” the Iraq war is ended. But he failed to tell the American people that after tremendous cost in blood—4,485 killed, 33,169 wounded—and treasure—$800+ billion spent—he gave Iraq to Iran because he lacked political will and diplomatic skills.Unfortunately Iraq is not ready to be weaned or to deal with hegemonic Iran. It has made great progress with its security forces, but it lacks vital military assets in intelligence, logistics and naval and air power. Even the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Lloyd Austin, requested that 15,000 to 18,000 troops stay past year-end, especially trainers. Gen. Babakir Zebari, Iraq’s army chief of staff, agreed his country still needs American military trainers.Besides training, American forces are needed in Iraq to provide stability against sectarian strife and a wobbly political transition, and to act as a trip-wire against outside forces such as Iran and even ally Turkey, which currently has troops in northern Iraq pursuing terrorists.Last week, Obama promised to discuss “how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces,” but there is no substitute for a long-term presence like what America has had in South Korea since the end of the Korean War. Our long-term security presence is especially important in the Middle East, a region known for its volatility, lack of democracy, and strategic importance to the world’s economy because of oil. But Iraq’s future will be different than ally South Korea's, and to our collective detriment.That is because Obama lacked the political will and apparently the diplomatic skills to persuade the skeptical Iraqis to extend our stay. Of course, the President blames our pending exit on the Iraqis, who refused to grant U.S. troops immunity from prosecution beyond Dec. 31, a Pentagon requirement if troops remained.But much of the blame is due to Obama’s waiting until the last minute to try and salvage a deteriorating situation. He knew the risks associated with leaving Iraq years ago, but he delayed starting the tough diplomatic process until this year. And it is hard to fathom, even given Obama’s last-minute efforts, that some diplomatic compromise couldn’t be worked given Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s and other leading Iraqi politicians’ support to keep some American troops.Unfortunately it appears a common joke about the U.S. war in Iraq is coming true on Obama’s watch. The U.S. spent great treasure and blood to defeat Iraq only to hand it over to the Iranians on a golden platter. “That’s how it will be read in the region,” a senior Arab official told the Wall Street Journal. Worse, the official said, it will be seen as “a sign that the U.S. is less committed to the region.”Now Iran is poised to take advantage of its new leverage in Iraq to better create a Shia crescent across the Middle East. Parenthetically, Obama’s fumbling aside, Tehran already enjoys an influential relationship with Baghdad leaders such as Prime Minister al-Maliki, who once lived in Iran and now cooperates with the Persians on most regional issues.Using Iraq to expand regional influence begins with Iran building militias on the Hezbollah model to make Iraq a Shiite vassal state, much like Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini formed Hezbollah (Party of Allah) in 1982. The horsepower for such a transformation is already inside Iraq in the form of Iran’s Quds Force.The Quds Force or Corps (translated, The Jerusalem Army) is an autonomous part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). It answers directly to Iran’s grand ayatollah and is the cleric’s primary mechanism for spreading the Islamic revolution.The Quds in Iraq is led by Gen. Hussein Mussavi, who is directly responsible for both policy and operations, according to Amir Taheri writing for the New York Post. Mussavi controls Iraqi armed groups, including the Mahdi Army, the Ramadan Corps and the Brigades of the Right, with the aim to drive the Americans out of Iraq.It is noteworthy the Quds recently adopted a new slogan, “On our way to Jerusalem, via Baghdad,” according to Taheri. That means it has a vision to begin using Iraq as it already uses Syria. Specifically, it will use Iraq as a new base to train fighters, and to forward money and arms to proxy groups across the Arab world. The goal is to take Jerusalem—that is, destroying Israel—and for that matter the entire region.U.S. officials indicate the Quds has already increased arms shipments to Iraqi Shiite militias in anticipation of America’s withdrawal, according to the Wall Street Journal. And using its new base in Iraq, the Qods will be in the catbird seat to further feed unrest across the Middle East to Tehran’s advantage.The loss of Iraq to Iran’s sphere of influence also drains America’s credibility in the region. Allies such as Saudi Arabia will now distance themselves from the U.S. and either seek accommodation with the hegemonic Iran or use Iraq as a proxy battleground to contest Iran’s new influence. Other regional partners will follow Riyadh’s lead out of fear of Iran, and as a result, America will find its influence drained.America’s lost credibility and Iran’s new foothold in Iraq will embolden Tehran to make our efforts in Afghanistan more difficult by assisting our enemy the Taliban. It will also accelerate Tehran’s march to nuclear weapons status, which might compel Israel to take unilateral action against the threatening atomic-missile seeking regime.What should the U.S. do at this point?There is always the possibility the Iraqis will change their mind to allow U.S. troops to remain past year-end. But if not, then future talks should lead to an ongoing military relationship that serves our mutual interests. We also need to quickly reassure our regional allies by cooperating closely with them to blunt Tehran’s expansion, which will not be easy or cheap.President Obama’s lack of political will and poor diplomatic skills robbed the Middle East of a democratic victory and drained our credibility. Now Tehran will fill the vacuum we left in Iraq to solidify its power and use that country as a platform to grow the Shia crescent. The result will be a more unstable and highly volatile region that will jeopardize our ally Israel and make a major Middle East war far more likely.Hmmm.....But perhaps this was Obama's twisted plan all along 'to bring new life in the U.S. Economy'?Read the full story here.
- Where are the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration Taking America?(DocsTalk).Dr. Essam Abdallah.- In this article, published in the leading liberal pan Arab "Elaph”, Egyptian liberal writer Dr. Essam Abdallah exposes the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood within the Obama Administration and the campaign led by CAIR and its allies against Middle East Christians, US experts and American Muslim reformers. Abdallah's article is powerful evidence to a reckless policy of backing Islamists, perpetrated by the Obama Administration and its advisors on Islamic affairs. The Editors. Disturbing reports are coming out of Washington, D.C. These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan. This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government. All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies. It looks like the near future will uncover many surprises after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, as we realize more and more that the popular revolts in the Arab world - and the Obama Administration’s position towards them - were determined by political battles between various pressure groups in Washington. Moreover, pressures by these lobbying groups have left an impact on the region's events, the last of which was the canceling of the visit of Maronite Patriarch Rahi to Washington. A number of Arab and Western news agencies have leaked that one of “those who sought to cancel this visit was Dalia Mujahid, a top advisor on Islamic and Arab affairs at the State Department, who is of Egyptian origin. And that”, said the reports, “came at the request of the high command of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who wish to see the US Administration support the Islamist Sunni current.” Also very noticeable at this point is the growing domination of Islamist forces around the Mediterranean: the victory of the Nahda Islamist Party in Tunisia, the declaration by (TNC Chairman) Mustafa Abdeljalil that Libya is an Islamist state and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. These developments wouldn't have happened without the approval of the United States. A document published in Washington indicated that Egypt will face more violence and tensions while moving to the Pakistani, rather than the Turkish, model. Egypt will be ruled by an opportunistic bourgeoisie and a regime declaring itself Islamist, and it will be backed by a military institution. The military will be used by the Islamists to maintain power but the armed forces, the parliament, the regime and the constitution will all become Islamist.In return, the Maronite Patriarch is denied a visit to Washington, Coptic Christian churches are destroyed in Egypt, and Coptic demonstrators are massacred at Maspero in Cairo by the Egyptian military, demonstrating that the goal is to suppress Christians in the Middle East, who are - as Patriarch Rahi said - paying a high price for the revolts of the Arab Spring. Rahi expressed his concerns about the fate of Syrian and Lebanese Christians and sees, as does the world, the flight of millions of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians from their homelands as a result of events in Iraq, and the methodic persecution against the Copts. The Christians of Egypt aren't only facing suppression and ethnic cleansing but a form of genocide. The real question now is: who is allowing the Muslim Brotherhood lobby to damage the relationship between the US Administration and millions of Middle East Christians? This lobby was able to delay meetings between leaders from Coptic Solidarity International, including Magdi Khalil and Adel Guindy, with the US Government. Similar obstructions have been happening with Chaldean and Assyrian delegations over the past few years. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood has waged a hysterical campaign against prominent experts in counterterrorism such as Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, John Guandolo and Robert Spencer. One particularly rough campaign was waged by CAIR against Professor Walid Phares, one of the most important, and even prescient, experts in counterterrorism and Jihadist movements in the US. In his book, “The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East”, Dr. Phares predicted its evolution and the shape of coming Islamist regimes in the region. But the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign is not limited to liberal Arabs, Christians, Jews and Atheists. It has also targeted Muslims who oppose the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) lobby such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD); Sherkoh Abbas, from the Syrian Kurdish Council; Farid Ghadri; the Somali-American author Ayan Hirsi Ali; Ali al Yammi; Tarek Fatah and many more. Attacking Muslim liberals in the West helps the Muslim Brotherhood's project in the radical Islamization of the Middle East, but it does not at all help US interests. Oppressing opposition, diversity, pluralism, and shedding human rights and freedoms are in direct contradiction to the values defended, and sacrificed for, by America's founding fathers as well as by all those who fought wars for America throughout her history.These intimidation and suppression campaigns directed against Arab and Middle East Christians – and against intellectuals and researchers opposing the Muslim Brotherhood and its sinister ties to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran - in fact are aimed at America’s ability to become aware of the threat all of them pose to American freedoms. For American strength isn't only in its navies and military power, but in its Constitution and the laws which provide the moral force for all other distinctly American liberties.Note that the US Constitution did not include any suppressive articles (regarding freedom of religion or freedom of speech), the lack of which is the case in many Middle Eastern countries. Rather, it was written in the spirit of a Jeffersonian federal democracy based on individual freedoms.So, all things considered both here and in the Middle East, where exactly are the Obama Administration and the Muslim Brotherhood lobby, together, taking America? And why?Hmmm......“I will stand with the 'Muslim BrotherHood' should the political winds shift in an ugly direction?”Read the full story here.
- U.S. and Iran discuss Syrian crisis in back channel diplomacy: report.(AlArabiya).Iranian and U.S. government representatives have discussed ways to prevent Syria descending into bloody chaos should the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad collapse, French daily newspaper Le Figaro reported Sunday quoting a Syrian opposition figure in exile.The paper said the back channel diplomacy between American and Iranian diplomats occurred at two meetings, one at the end of August and one at the beginning of September, but it did not indicate where.“They spoke about putting in place a high military council on the Egyptian model, with generals running the country and responsible for making senior strategic option,” the paper quoted the Syrian opposition figure as saying.According to a French diplomat in charge of the Syrian crisis quoted in the report, Iranian officials have adapted to the idea of a new government in Damascus and “even to a change at the top of the regime.”The diplomat said that Iran was keen to avoid a civil war in Syria as it could spill over across its border. The paper said the relationship between Tehran and Damascus was not balanced and Iran weighs heavier, which explains the influence Iran has on the regime in Damascus.American diplomats urged Iranians not to disrupt stability in Iraq before the complete pullout of U.S. troops by the end of 2011 and to stop supporting “terror” groups in the region, namely Hamas and Hezbollah. From their side, Iranians asked the United States not to support a post-Assad regime that is hostile to Iran. Both parties agreed that any future regime in Syrian should have a “regional” scope and enjoy friendly ties with different powers in the Middle East, the paper reported.Quoting French ambassador to Damascus Eric Chevallier speaking before the foreign affairs committee at the French National Assembly, the paper said Iranians recently advised the Syrians to stop firing in the streets, urging them instead to identify the leaders of the uprising and arrest them at night.This, the report says, indicates the Iranian ambiguity over Syria. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi recently denounced the use of excessive force against civilians in Syria but Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continue to deploy special forces in Syria to help quell the uprising there. The Islamic Republic even deployed special military units to fight along former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya, and the goal was to prolong the war so that international public attention was deflected from Syria, according to the report. Anticipating Qaddafi’s fall, Iran ordered its special forces out of Libya to join Sudan and Syria.Read the full story here.
- Top Muslim Declares All Christians 'Infidels', Awaiting moderate Muslims to condemn this report...well?(PajamasMedia)By Raymond Ibrahim.To what extent was Egypt's Maspero massacre, wherein the military literally mowed down Christian Copts protesting the ongoing destruction of their churches, a product of anti-Christian sentiment?A video of Egypt's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa (or Gom'a), which began circulating weeks before the massacre, helps elucidate. While holding that Muslims may coexist with Christians (who, as dhimmis, have rights), Gomaa categorized Christians as kuffar — "infidels" — a word that connotes "enemies," "evil-doers," and every bad thing to Muslim ears.After quoting Quran 5:17, "Infidels are those who declare God is the Christ, [Jesus] son of Mary," he expounded by saying any association between a human and God (in Arabic, shirk) is the greatest sin: "Whoever thinks the Christ is God, or the Son of God, not symbolically — for we are all sons of God — but attributively, has rejected the faith which God requires for salvation," thereby becoming an infidel. Gomaa then offered a hypothetical dialogue between Christians and Muslims to illustrate Islam's proper position:
Christians: You have the wrong idea about us; we don't worship the Christ.
Muslims: Okay, fine; we were under the wrong impression — but, by the way: "Infidels are those who declare God is the Christ, son of Mary."
Christians: But these are philosophical matters that we are unable to explain.
Muslims: Okay, fine; God is one—but, by the way: "Infidels are those who declare God is the Christ, son of Mary."
As a graduate of and long-time professor at Al Azhar university and Grand Mufti of Egypt (a position second in authority only to Sheikh Al Azhar), Ali Gomaa represents mainstream Islam's — not "radical Islam's" or "Islamism's" — position concerning the "other," in this case, Christians. Regardless, many in the West hail him as a "moderate" — such as this U.S. News article titled "Finding the Voices of Moderate Islam"; Lawrence Wright describes him as "a highly promoted champion of moderate Islam": He is the kind of cleric the West longs for, because of his assurances that there is no conflict with democratic rule and no need for theocracy. Gomaa has also become an advocate for Muslim women, who he says should have equal standing with men. How does one reconcile such sunny characterizations with reality? The fact is, whenever top Muslim authorities like Gomaa say something that can be made to conform to Western ideals, Westerners jump on it (while of course ignoring their more "extreme" positions). It is the same with Gomaa's alma mater, Al Azhar, the "chief center of Islamic and Arabic learning in the world." MEMRI, for instance, recently published a report titled "The Sheikh of Al Azhar in an Exceptionally Tolerant Article: Christianity, Judaism Share Basic Tenets of Islam." Of course, the day after this report appeared, this same sheikh — Islam's most authoritative figure — insisted that the American ambassador wear a hijab when meeting him: just as Muslim "radicals" compel Christian girls to wear the hijab, "moderate" Al Azhar compels U.S. diplomats.In short, yes, many religions "share basic tenets," but they are secondary to the differences, which are more final and define the relationship. Or, to put it in Ali Gomaa's paradigm: Fine, Christianity and Islam have commonalities — but, by the way: "Infidels are those who declare God is the Christ, son of Mary."The fact is, this Quranic verse is as much a cornerstone of Islam's view of Christianity as the unity of God and Christ is a cornerstone of Christianity, articulated some 1700 years ago in the Nicene Creed. The issue is clear cut for all involved.Accordingly, how can one fault Gomaa? As Grand Mufti, he is simply being true to Islam's teachings. Indeed, his consistency is more commendable than the equivocations of Western ecumencalists who, by falling over themselves to assure Muslims that they all essentially believe in the same things, demonstrate, especially to Muslims, that they believe in nothing.Incidentally, if Gomaa upholds the plain teachings of the Quran concerning who is an infidel, is it not fair to assume he also upholds the Quran's teachings on how to confront them, as commanded in Quran 9: 29: "Fight … the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] until they pay the Jizya [tribute] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." Of course, prudent Muslims, undoubtedly like Gomaa himself, know that now is not the time to talk openly about such things.Either way, here is another reminder of how Quranic verses and terms that Western people brush aside as arcane or irrelevant have a tremendous impact on current events — such as Egypt's Maspero massacre: For the same word Gomaa, the nation's Grand Mufti, used to describe Christians is the same word Muslim soldiers used when they opened fire on and ran over Christian Copts; the same word twenty Muslim soldiers used as they tortured a protesting Christian; and the same word Muslims hurled at Christians during the funeral procession for their loved ones slain at Maspero: Infidel.Hmmmmm........Just Like greasy foods The 'Light' Version gets you also in the long run!Read the full story here.
- Criminal complaint in Germany against Prime Minister Erdoğan.(Firat).Lawyers in Germany have filed a criminal complaint at the responsible Federal Prosecutor's Office (BAW) in Karlsruhe, Germany against Prime Minister Erdoğan (who is today in Berlin for a state visit), and several Chiefs of Staff of the Turkish army because of severe criminal acts during war against the Kurdish population. The complaint is about war crimes and crimes against humanity between 2003 and today which are outlawed by laws of war.The criminal complaint is based on the German International Criminal Code which has been existing since 2002. It enables an international prosecution of outlawed war crimes for which military commanders and political superiors are responsible – even if the “crime scene” is not in Germany. The complaint contains 10 exemplary “cases” from recent years, which have been compiled on the basis of comprehensive own research, the analysis of materials of the Turkish justice system and reports of respected human rights organisations.Among others there are cases of extralegal executions, killing of combatants after taking them prisoner, torture, post-mortal mutilation and even the use of prohibited chemical weapons.Presented are the respective facts and circumstances with names, dates and means of evidence.The complaint is filed in the name of relatives of the victims of the war crimes. The human rights organisation MAF-DAD – Association for Democracy and International Law in Cologne, the writer Doris Gercke (Bella Block), professor for international law Norman Paech, MP Harald Weinberg (DIE LINKE), Dr. med. Gisela Penteker (IPPNW), city council member of Nuremberg Marion Padua and sociologist Martin Dolzer are also among the plaintiffs.The complaint was filed by lawyer Britta Eder and lawyer Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Schneider.On 1 November 2011 in the House of Democracy in Berlin (Greifswalder Straße 4) a press conference will be held with lawyers and plaintiffs.Read the full story here.
- Kurds - Delegation found body's parts scattered around in Kazan Valley.(Firat). A delegation of IHD Hakkari Branch, BDP Provincial Organization members and families of HPG (People's Defence Forces) guerrillas went to Kazan Valley (Geliyê Tiyarê) where Turkish army allegedly used chemical weapons against guerrillas during the clashes on October 22-24 in Çukurca district of Hakkari. While the delegation and families found body parts in the clash area, the villagers in the area told that HPG guerrillas had died in the caves hit by napalm bombs dropped during the clashes. Villagers also remarked that after the clashes the bodies of guerrillas had been taken from the area with diggers and many bodies were torn to pieces. Surveying rocks where 11 bodies had been found, the delegation remarked that the area-next to Cevizli (Gûzereş) Village- had been destroyed to a large extent as a result of the chemical weapons and napalm bombs used during the clashes. While several body's parts like heels, skulls, had been scattered all around the area, the bombs also killed many animals and destroyed trees. Making a statement after the survey, IHD Hakkari Branch Chair İsmail Akbulut said that with the samples they took from the area they would do what it is necessary to establish whether chemical weapons and napalm bombs have been used. Noting that there were only 24 bodies in Malatya's morgue while about 30 guerrillas lost their lives during the clashes on October 23-24, Akbulut stated that six of the guerrillas - parts of their bodies in fact - were still in the clash area. Akbulut continued saying that “We witnessed a terrible situation in which chemical and various weapons were used, according to the eyewitnesses. We took samples of water and grass and gathered the body parts which we will convey to relevant authorities. We will make a statement after researches have been completed.”While the delegation left the region after the survey, some families stayed in Cevizli (Gûzereş) Village to look for the bodies of their children. The report to be prepared by the delegation is expected to be declared to public in the following days.Read the full story here.More here.
- "Freedom of Expression is not Always a Good Thing"(IVE).TheLawyer - The UK takes over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe on 7 November and has made as one of its priorities the promotion of “an open internet, not only in terms of access and content but also [in terms of] freedom of expression.”...But as MP John Mann (Bassetlaw), Chair of the Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-Semitism, pointed out in remarks he made on 27 October on the floor of the House of Commons with respect to the Government’s Open Internet priority for the Council of Europe, “Freedom of expression is not always a good thing.” Mr. Mann observed: “The internet is now the place where anti-Semitic filth is spread, be it the old hatreds, the blood libels, the resurrecting of the protocols of the Elders of Zion, or the new hatreds caused by a failure to differentiate between legitimate criticism of the state of Israel and attacks on Jewish people....Indeed, just moments before John Mann delivered his remarks in the House of Commons, upstairs in a Parliament meeting room, the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combatting Anti-Semitism (ICCA) Task Force on Internet Hate (of which Mr. Mann is a member) was concluding its first hearing on the nature and extent of Internet hate, and its effects. Joining Mr. Mann on the Task Force (which is still in formation) are parliamentarians from Spain, Estonia, Lithuania and Israel (home of the other Task Force co-chair, Minister Yuli Edelstein); representatives of NGOs such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Center for Democracy and Technology; internationally-recognized Internet experts and scholars; and representatives of Facebook (Lord Richard Allan) and Google. The Task Force has been formed by the ICCA to expand the coalition’s general mission of fighting anti-Semitism to combating all forms of online hate including areas such as racism, Islamophobia, homophobia and misogyny.The Task Force received a voluminous written record (compiled by volunteer lawyers in the US and UK at Hogan Lovells) on the scope of Internet hate. And it heard how prior to the Internet, haters were relegated to using the mail to communicate their hatred and rage with like-minded haters. The only place for them to have their benighted views applauded was in sporadic clandestine meetings.The Internet changed all that. Extremists have found the Internet a boon to their warped causes. They set up web sites, post videos, manage online stores selling recordings and clothing with hate slogans, and more, to bolster their fellow haters, and to recruit and indoctrinate new generations of haters. And average people, using the mask of anonymity, find they can vent rage by attacking minorities, even in the comment section to routine news stories (as Mr. Mann pointed out in his floor remarks). The work of the ICCA Task Force will continue, and the group will help to fashion recommended responses to Internet hate, such as education, counter-speech and an increased role for Internet intermediaries to exercise their right to maintain a civil Internet. Likewise, it is hope that the UK government will keep in mind that with an open internet comes a duty to fight online hate.Read the full story here.
- Message to True Christian Friends of Jews.(DocsTalk)By StevenShamrak.There are many different Christian churches, groups and movements. Some call themselves Zionists or good and true Christians. Many of them are deeply antagonistic toward mainstream Catholics and Anglicans. And they disassociate themselves from the actions of their church in the past.Just recently, the Pope, leader of 1.1 billion Catholics, deliberately omitted Israel from the list of countries suffering from Islamic terror in his speech. Following his example, an Anglican archbishop did not mention two Jews as victims of London bombings. Some Church leaders are still advocating divestment from Israel, but not from Muslim countries linked to Islamic terrorism! We have not been hearing condemnations made by "true Christians" of the anti-Semitic behaviour and Israel-bashing by their Christian brothers in the past and the present. Most of them are silent about Arab terrorism in Israel, anti-Semitic acts in their own countries and anti-Israel discriminatory behaviour of the UN, EU, Red Cross and USA as well. True friendship can be measured only by actions!The inaction of church leaders and the Christian leadership of the US and European governments against the spreading of Islamic terror is appalling and borders on criminal negligence. For many years they have been ignoring the warnings about Islamic expansionistic ambitions. They ignore the fact, that true Islamists hate Christians even more than Jews. Now they are experiencing the result of their duplicity. Europe is under the flame of Islamic fire but the hypocrites still are not able to face the reality and are playing the dangerous game of political correctness, ignorance and providing false justifications to basic Islamic hate toward anything that is not Muslim!From the Jewish point of view it is difficult to distinguish the true friends among the Christian groups. Most of them claim friendship but actually have sinister motives. The Messianic Christians, for example, consider themselves as 'good Christians'. This is in spite of the fact that the main objective of the Messianic church is to prove the validity of Christian teachings by converting lost Jewish souls to Christianity. They believe, as many before them, that the increase in the number of Jewish Christians is an indication that the Church is G-d's true religion. In the past the forceful conversion of Jews was a preferred method, but proved ineffective.Unfortunately, many Christian groups and organisations still believe and practice the old traditional theology of hate or misguided envy toward Jews. They ignore the fact that conversion of Jews to Christianity is actually against the will of the G-d and undermines the most important Christian doctrine of the Second coming. It diminishes the chance of all Jews to come to Israel, as He commanded for the arrival of the Jewish Messiah. Effectively, due to deeply imbedded anti-Semitism or pathological jealousy, many branches of the Church have been sabotaging the Second coming of their Messiah by evangelising Jews.I respect any belief system as long as they do not discriminate against others. At the same time, I demand the same respect toward my people, our traditions and our rights from others. True friendship is a two way street. Jews welcome moral and political support for Israel from the non-Jewish friends. But it must be given without any ulterior motives. The good Christian friends must not be frustrated when Jews criticize the anti-Semitic behaviour of the Church. Most often, the Church practice and religion have very little in common! If you follow the Bible's message of love, you are on the right side and have nothing to be concerned about. The bottom line is - your teacher was a Jew and it is difficult to distort his message of love!Hmmm......"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.~ (Luke 23:34).Read the full story here.
- US Cuts Off UNESCO Funding After Palestinian Vote.(VOA).The United States said on Monday it had stopped funding UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, following its vote to grant the Palestinians full membership.U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters the United States had no choice, Washington will not make a $60-million November payment to UNESCO because of a longstanding U.S. law that prohibits American support for any U.N.-affiliated body that accepts Palestinian membership.Washington currently is UNESCO's biggest funding source, supplying 22 percent of the agency's budget.Earlier Monday, the Paris-based UNESCO voted to approve the Palestinian membership bid by a vote of 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions. France voted for the motion, along with almost all Arab, African, Latin American and Asian nations, including China and India. Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany voted against it. Japan and Britain abstained. A two-thirds vote was required by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's 193 members.The White House called UNESCO's decision “premature,” saying it undermines the international community's goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan. Spokesman Jay Carney said the move is a distraction from the task of restarting direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, called the vote “deeply damaging to UNESCO.”Israel's Foreign Ministry described the move as a “unilateral Palestinian maneuver” that would further harm efforts to secure a peace agreement. The ministry thanked countries that opposed the measure and said it was “disappointing” that the European Union could not reach a unified position to prevent the decision.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki hailed the admission as a “historic moment,” saying it is “not an alternative, not a substitute for something else.”UNESCO is the first U.N. agency the Palestinians have sought to join since President Mahmoud Abbas applied in September for full recognition of Palestinian statehood by the U.N. General Assembly. Palestinian officials say they will call on UNESCO to recognize key monuments in the occupied Palestinian territories as world heritage sites. These include the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the place where many Christians say Jesus is believed to have been born. Also Monday, Bosnian officials said the country's tripartite presidency could not agree on whether to support the Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership, forcing its likely abstention from a key Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood. Palestinian officials have said they already have eight of the required nine votes for a majority on the council and were counting heavily on Bosnia-Herzegovina to give them the ninth.Hmmmm.......Palestine Art "Here we have 'Gone by the wind' a composition of sentex with modernistic TNT?Read the full story here.
- Report: Israel improving nuclear abilities.(YNet).Israel is extending its Jericho III missile's range, developing intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capabilities and expanding its nuclear-tipped cruise missile enabled submarine fleet, The Guardian, quoting an independent committee report, said Monday. According to the British newspaper, the report was prepared for the Trident Commission, an independent cross-party initiative set up by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC)."In the case of Israel, the size of its nuclear-tipped cruise missile enabled submarine fleet is being increased and the country seems to be on course, on the back of its satellite launch rocket program, for future development of an inter-continental ballistic missile," the report said.Israel currently has three submarines and two more being manufactured in Germany. Earlier this year, the Der Spiegel reported that Germany had granted Israel's request to provide it with a six Dolphin submarines said to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Dolphin submarines are manufactured in the city of Kiel in Germany. Experts estimate they are have the longest cruising range of all submarines. Some reports claim they are also able to carry and launch nuclear weapons. Berlin had granted the request after several years during which Israel has been pushing for the deal. Meanwhile, the world's nuclear powers are planning on spending hundreds of billions of dollars modernizing and upgrading their nuclear warheads, The Guardian said. Despite budgetary issues and international rhetoric calling for nuclear weapons disarmament, the report points to "era of nuclear weapons." According to the report, the United States will spend some $700 billion on its nuclear weapons industry in the upcoming decade, while Russia is expected to spend 70 billion on cruise missile systems alone. Other countries, including Israel, India, China and Pakistan, are also expected to spend significant amounts of money on their strategic weaponry systems.The Basic report claimed that for countries such as Israel, Russia, Pakistan and France, having nuclear weapons is not just about deterrence. For Russia and Pakistan nuclear weapons are also designated for attacks, claimed the report.Read the full story here.
- Egypt: Salafi Fatwa Forbids Muslims From Voting For Christian Candidates.(AlArabiya).A prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar spoke out against a fatwa issued by a Salafist cleric that bans voting for non-Islamists in the upcoming parliamentary elections.A former deputy of al-Azhar, the world’s leading institution of Sunni Islam and member of the Islamic Research Center, Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour lashed out at Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, a Salafist cleric and head of the Giza Governorate branch of al-Sunna al-Mohamadeya for issuing a fatwa that renders voting for certain Egyptian groups against Islam.Amer had said that Muslims were prohibited from voting for Copts, secularists, and liberals as well as Muslim candidates who do not pray and who do not call for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) in their programs.He also included members of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on the black list, yet excluded what he called the “honorable” among them.“Anyone who votes for one of those will be committing a grave sin,” the Egyptian daily independent al-Masry al-Youm quoted Amer as saying.“Muslims should vote for Islamists or other candidates known for frequenting mosques in order to prepare for establishing an Islamic parliament.”Amer added that even if some secularist candidates are not against applying the sharia, it is still prohibited to vote for them.“Secularism is prohibited in Islam.”As for Copts and liberals, he added, they can only be voted for if they are part of a list of Islamists and if they have declared their support for applying the sharia. “In this case the voter is absolved of any sin.” Shaikh Ashour described Amer’s statement as a joke rather than a fatwa.“What he said has nothing to do with religion or science or humanity and is against everything Muslims believe in,” he told Al Arabiya Saturday. Ashour explained that Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) himself made an agreement with the Jews in Medina and called for protecting the rights of Christians in any Muslim society. Ashour added that several clerics issue fatwas without being qualified to do so.“People should not listen to them since their fatwas have no scientific basis.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.
- On Eid al-Adha, Sacrificial Animals in Pakistan Named after CIA Agent Raymond Davis, Mike Mullen and Bollywood Icons.(Memri).Across the Islamic word, Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice) will be marked this year for three days starting November 5 or 6, depending on the visibility of the moon, which marks the beginning of an Islamic month. Eid al-Adha is celebrated to commemorate the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. In the run-up to the annual event, goats, cows, sheep and oxen are being sold at a market in Karachi, as is the practice across the Islamic world.However, in the Pakistani market this year, these sacrificial animals have been named after Indian movies such as Bodyguard and Gajini, Bollywood suggestive dance scenes such as Sheela ki Jawani (the youth of the girl called Sheela) or Munni Badnam Hui (how the girl called Munni became infamous) as well as after U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen who retired recently and CIA agent Raymond Davis who killed two Pakistani nationals in Lahore. It seems some animals have been imported from the U.S., or it may be that their sellers are claiming so in order to attract good prices.While some Pakistani buyers are willingly purchasing these animals as a mark of status and pompousness, some Islamic circles in Pakistan resent this development in the deeply religious society of Pakistan and blame it on cable television that beams hundreds of Indian movies and songs into Pakistani homes every day. According to a report in the Urdu-language Pakistani daily Roznama Ummat, some Islamic clerics and religious-minded Pakistanis are worried over such a development in Pakistan's Islamic society and resent the sacrificial animals being named after Hindu actors and actresses. "In order to boost the price of their animals [meant for sacrifice on Eid Al-Adha], the brokers of the Sohrab Goth Cattle Mandi [market of Karachi] have named their animals after film heroes, Indian films and American spy Raymond Davis. And, rich people are showing interest in buying such animals which look beautiful and strong. "After attaching the names of actors and films to the animals for sacrifice, a new trend is also being witnessed: People are showing interest in buying the animal with the name of their favorite heroes and heroines. For example, if a rich person is a fan of [Indian actress] Katrina Kaif, he takes interest in buying the cow named after her. Islamic clerics say that linking the pious act of sacrifice with films and actors is an act of grave sin because the act of sacrifice is purely done in the name of Allah."The Beautiful and Strong Animals Reared By the Big Cattle Farmers and Generally Priced High are... Placed in VIP Blocks [of the Market]" "The important thing that was noticed regarding these animals was that these cows and oxen, which were brought for the important act of performing the obligation of the Sunnah of Abraham, were named after Indian films, Indian personalities and American spies. There were a pair of important oxen imported from the U.S. at a tent, which were named after American spy Raymond Davis and General Mike Mullen; and they were priced at 15 to 18 lakhs Rupees [approximately $2,070 maximum].The people who visited the tent were being told that five oxen of Red Ringers and Black Ringers races were imported from … [the U.S.]. "For the first time, oxen have been imported from the U.S. At another tent, there were cows named after [suggestive Bollywood dance scenes and] Indian actresses like Dimple, Sheela, Munni, Chunnu, Ladli, Mini, Kumkum, Maharani, Khushboo, Gulabo; and people were being briefed about the weight and price of those cows. "At a few tents, there were oxen named after Indian films [and Bollywood characters] like Gajini, Bodyguard, Shahenshah, Chulbul Pandey, Dabang and Chandra Mukhi while others had names like Gilly, Homi, Jasmine and Gangoes."In this regard Ummat contacted [prominent Islamic cleric] Mufti Naeem, who said that it is illegal to sacrifice animals named after Indian films and Hindu actors that are being sold in the Mandi as per Islamic Sharia, for these animals would be sacrificed in their names only and sacrifices done in the name other than Allah is unlawful. He also said that the trend of buying costly animals in the city is also wrong, as Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) had said that sacrifice is based on one's intention. "Ummat contacted [Islamic scholar] Allama Mirza Yusuf Hussain who said that animals are being sold for the important obligation of the Sunnah of Abraham in the Mandi but by naming them Hindu names in general and the names of Hindu actors and Indian films in particular, the sellers are showing their love for the Hindu religion. He said that the sacrificial animal should not be ridiculed."Hmmmm......What no Obama donkey?Read the full story here.
