Nigel Farage:"Greece is being driven into the ground, and I think, frankly, when it comes to chaos, you ain't seen nothing yet!"

Transcript:

"Well Commissioner, you picked the right man. Puppet Papademos is in place and as Athens caught fire on Sunday night he rather took my breath away. He said, 'Violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country.'What democratic country? He's not even a democratically elected prime minister. He's been appointed by you guys. Greece is not run through democracy now, it is run through a Troika. Three foreign officials that fly into Athens airport and tell the Greeks what they can and cannot do.The violence and destruction that you saw on Sunday is being caused directly because people are having their democratic rights taken from them - What else can they do? And I must say, if I was a Greek citizen I would've been out there, joining those protests on Sunday. I'd be out there trying to bring down this monstrosity that has been put upon those people.And in his efforts, in the Puppet's efforts to get the MPs to vote for the bailout package, he warned them, that if they didn't do so there would be a dramatic decline in living standards. Well, has he looked out the front door?Has he seen the fact that 50 per cent of the young people are unemployed already. Has he seen the fact, that the economy, far from stalling has contracted for five years in a row, and is now accelerating on a downward death spiral - a contraction of 7 per cent per annum. Greece is being driven into the ground, and I think, frankly, when it comes to chaos, you ain't seen nothing yet!
These policies are driving Greece towards a revolution. They need to be set free. If they don't get the Drachma back you will be responsible for something truly, truly horrible."

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity New Zealand 5.7 ! More info here.

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

• BREAKING NEWS: Sarah Palin has just announced that she is NOT running for President.(MarkLevin).The former Alaska Governor and VP candidate sent the following letter to her supporters on Wednesday:

October 5, 2011

Wasilla, Alaska

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country! God bless America. – Sarah Palin.Source.

• Reid Uses Procedural Maneuver to Block Vote on Obama’s Jobs Bill, then accuse Republicans of “obstruction” and engaging in a “political stunt.”(Heritage).Senate Republicans sought to answer President Obama’s demands for a vote on his jobs plan this afternoon, but were thwarted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who used a parliamentary maneuver meant to block amendments on the Senate floor. Reid then proceeded to accuse Republicans of “obstruction” and engaging in a “political stunt.”. Reid used a procedural move known as “filling the tree” – a tactic Reid has perfected during his tenure in the Senate leadership. Filling the tree involves loading legislation with amendments until the limit is reached. Since the majority leader enjoys the right of first recognition – which means he can offer amendments before anyone else – Reid managed to fill the tree before Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could offer the president’s jobs plan as an amendment to a bill cracking down on Chinese currency manipulation.McConnell said he would vote against the measure, but that the president is “entitled to a vote on his jobs bill.” With the president suggesting that Republicans were preventing consideration of the legislation, McConnell said, “I wanted to disabuse him of the notion that somehow we’re unwilling to vote on his proposal.”Reid also confirmed during his floor debate with McConnell that Democrats would not present a unified front on the legislation – let alone capture the seven Republican votes needed for a filibuster-proof supermajority. “A majority of Democrats will support the president’s jobs bill,” Reid said, tacitly acknowledging that at least some would not.Far from having notable support among the president’s party, Obama’s jobs bill has garnered no cosponsors in either the House or the Senate. Nonetheless, the president has on at least 12 occasions called on Congress to immediately pass the legislation – though Reid insisted that “’right away’ is a relative term” – and in some cases said that Republicans were blocking its consideration.Obama’s 2012 campaign manager sent an email around the time Reid blocked consideration of the president’s plan. It had the subject line, “They won’t even vote on it.” That email mentioned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, but not Reid.The bill’s inability to gain traction even among members of the president’s own party stems from the unpopular nature of many of its proposals – and its accompanying offsets. ”In the Administration’s poorly crafted and contradictory jobs package, the American people get permanent tax hikes that would enlarge the federal government to offset the cost of temporary jobs policies that would not create any jobs,” Heritage’s Curtis Dubay explained. “In the long run, the tax hikes in this plan are more likely to destroy more jobs than the jobs policies create.”Hmmmm.....It's not about the bill, they don't care about the jobs their goal is to make people revolt against Congress and grab power.Read the full story here.

• Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from National Labor Relations Board Concerning Boeing Lawsuit.“These documents confirm that the Obama NLRB is abusing its power on behalf of a powerful union to attack a major U.S. corporation". (JW).Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has received documents from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the NLRB’s decision to file a lawsuit against Seattle-based Boeing for opening a $750 million non-union assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, to manufacture its Dreamliner plane (Judicial Watch v. National Labor Relations Board (No. 11-1470)).The documents, obtained pursuant to Judicial Watch’s original July 14, 2011, Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent lawsuit include internal correspondence amongst NLRB attorneys discussing the Boeing lawsuit. Among the highlights:

A May 5, 2011, email from Barry Kearney, Associate General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, to colleagues at NLRB concerning a press release issued by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) attacking Boeing: “Hooray for the red, white and blue.” NLRB attorney Miriam Szapiro responded shortly thereafter, “Good. I like this part [at last they can put it to some good use]: “the NLRB's long-term professional Regional Staff, National Office of Advice and General Counsel reviewed this case for a year.…” [emphasis in original]

• A July 12, 2011, email from NLRB Regional Director Richard Ahearn to NLRB hearing officer Peter Finch, responding to an article in The Hill newspaper about a request from Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seeking documents related to the NLRB Boeing lawsuit: “We will politely decline.” (Mr. Ahearn signed the NRLB complaint against Boeing.)
• A May 5, 2011, email from NLRB attorney Miriam Szapiro warning an unknown recipient (name blacked out) about reading a Wall Street Journal article supporting Boeing and criticizing compulsory unionism: “don’t look at yesterday’s WSJ; you’ll puke.”
• In response to an April 29, 2011, Wall Street Journal article, calling on President Obama to explain the NLRB lawsuit against Boeing, NLRB attorney Jayme Sophir issues a one word email response on May 2, 2011, to NLRB attorney Debra Willen, Division of Advice: “Ugh.”

The NLRB filed a lawsuit in April 2011, against Boeing, claiming that the company’s decision to open a Dreamliner production line in South Carolina was in retaliation against The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for a series of union strikes that reportedly slowed production of the plane in 2008 in Washington State. According to Boeing, the NLRB’s “claim is legally frivolous and represents a radical departure from both NLRB and Supreme Court precedent. Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional U.S. production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region.”Last year, President Obama bypassed the U.S. Senate and recess-appointed Craig Becker to head the NLRB’s five-member board. The Becker appointment was made after the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate refused to move forward on his confirmation. An ally of ACORN, Becker had previously worked for the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, major financial backers of Obama and the Democratic Party. Controversially, Becker has refused to recuse himself from certain NLRB decisions affecting his former union clients.“The NLRB is supposed to be a neutral arbiter of labor disputes, not a cheerleader for unions,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents confirm that the Obama NLRB is abusing its power on behalf of a powerful union to attack a major U.S. corporation. No wonder Judicial Watch had to sue the Obama administration to obtain these records.”Judicial Watch expects additional documents will be released to it by the NRLB.Read the full story here.

• Senate Democrats rewrite Obama's jobs bill.(AP).By EricaWerner.WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are scrambling to rewrite portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill, even as Obama tries to blame Republicans for Congress' failure to act.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell moved to call the president's bluff Tuesday by pushing for a quick Senate vote on the bill, but Democratic leader Harry Reid derailed the effort as all sides maneuvered for position in a potentially defining battle in the 2012 presidential campaign.In the Senate, Democrats made plans to jettison provisions that Obama recommended to pay for the $447 billion jobs bill, substituting them with a tax increase on millionaires, officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door developments.Reid, D-Nev., outlined plans for a 5 percent surcharge in a meeting with the rank and file Tuesday, according to participants in the session, as Obama traveled to Texas to deliver his most caustic challenge yet to House Republicans who have not allowed a vote on the legislation unveiled nearly a month ago."What's the problem? Do they not have the time? They just had a week off. Is it inconvenient?" he said in Mesquite, Texas, singling out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for special criticism.Cantor has said the White House's "all or nothing approach is unreasonable."But after three weeks of presidential demands for Congress to pass his jobs bill without delay, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Obama was open to Reid's changes."We offered a balanced way to pay for the American Jobs Act, but if Congress has a better idea that ensures that everyone pays their fair share, we're open to it," Pfeiffer said.McConnell said he was ready for an immediate vote on the bill, even though he opposes it. Reading aloud on the Senate floor from a copy of Obama's speech, he said, "I do think the president makes an important point that he is entitled to a vote."The request was blocked by Reid, who called it a "political stunt" and said he would make sure the bill comes to the floor this month. Aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Jay Carney accused Republicans of gamesmanship.The parliamentary dance aside, the day's events underscored that, as submitted by the White House, Obama's bill would not only fail in the Republican-controlled House, but faced enough opposition from Democrats to endanger its prospects in the Senate, as well."There's the good, the bad and the ugly. The ugly was $447 billion," Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said of the bill's price tag.Democrats said Reid's proposed millionaires' surtax was designed to quell much if not all of the opposition from his own rank and file.To pay for his package of tax breaks, unemployment benefits and new spending on public works projects, Obama has proposed higher taxes on family incomes over $250,000 and on the oil and gas industry.The first request troubles Democratic senators from states like New York, New Jersey and California, where large numbers of families could be hit by the increase. The second has drawn opposition most prominently from Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose state is home to numerous oil and gas operations.The president also proposed higher taxes on hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, but those increases, too, would disappear under the changes Reid is expected to unveil as early as Wednesday.In political terms, Democrats appear to be hoping that Republicans will oppose both the higher taxes on million-dollar earners and the president's call for new spending aimed at reducing joblessness, thus leaving themselves open to a charge of protecting the wealthy at the expense of the unemployed.Reid's office declined to comment on the emerging plan for a higher tax on millionaires, but several Democrats said it was being drafted to cover the entire $447 billion cost of the legislation.Reid predicted that by the time the jobs bill comes to the Senate floor, almost all Democrats would be behind it.While Republican lawmakers appear receptive to tax cuts the president has called for, they have expressed strong opposition to his proposed new spending.Read the full story here.

• Dems Want Law To Keep Obama Records Secret.(JW).In an obvious effort to protect President Barack Obama, a group of congressional Democrats has introduced legislation to create an official process that will allow the commander-in-chief to keep presidential records secret after he leaves office.Ironically, Obama revoked a similar George W. Bush order in one of his first official acts as president. In 2001 Bush penned an executive order severely limiting public access to his presidential records. Shortly after swearing in, Obama killed it as part of his much-ballyhooed commitment to government transparency. At the time, the new president claimed that he was giving the American people greater access to “historic documents.”It was the right move. The Bush Administration did indeed demonstrate a disappointing penchant for secrecy and Judicial Watch was a frontrunner in the effort to make records public. Examples include: The Dick Cheney Energy Task Force records that JW pursued before the United States Supreme Court; Attorney General John Ashcroft’s order advising government agencies to withhold all discretionary disclosures; invoking executive privilege to block the House Government Reform Committee’s probe of the Campaign Financing Task Force.  If the Democrats’ proposed measure (Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011) becomes law, former presidents will be allowed to assert a new “constitutionally based privilege” against disclosing records of their liking. Here is how it would work; the Archivist of the United States would be required to notify the former president, as well as the incumbent, of intentions to make records public. Anything that either the former or current president claims should be kept private won’t be released.The veteran Brooklyn congressman (Edolphus Towns) who recently introduced the law in the U.S. House has yet to explain why it’s necessary. What’s certain is that Obama has failed miserably to keep his promise of running the most transparent administration in history. For examples read highlights from Judicial Watch’s testimony before Congress earlier this year. JW was invited to testify in separate House and Senate hearings during “Sunshine Week,” a national initiative by the news media, nonprofits and other organizations to promote government transparency and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).Hmmmmm.........Hypocrisy Reigns Supreme"Transparency for you , but not for me".Read the full story here.

• 'The man enrolled her in school as her father and went home every night and raped her': Harrowing tales of sex slaves in NYC.(DailyMail).A shocking nationwide survey stated that 3,000 young girls have been forced into marriage, including over 300 from New York.The new data dispels the myth that forced marriage is a foreign issue and it discovered that there were instances in 47 of the country's 50 states within the last two years. In one of the most disturbing cases, a 13 year old girl arrived in the U.S. only to be forced into a marriage where her new husband enrolled her in a school in the Washington D.C. area by saying he was her father, only to rape her every night when she came home.Compiled by the non-profit Tahirih Justice Center, the report examined cases of forced or suspected forced marriages where families often made their young daughters marry older men in order to benefit financially from the coupling or avoid 'losing face' for the family name. 'We’ve already learned enough in the survey to tell us we’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg,' said Layli Miller-Muro, executive director of the Tahirih Center. The practice differs from arranged marriages, which are common practice in some cultures, because forced marriages happen without consent from the bride, and often involve under age girls. 'I think the problem that you encounter sometimes is that people view it as cultural- so they don't really want to help,' said Yasmeen Hamza, a representative from the Arab-American Family Support Center in Brooklyn. The practice is most common among South Asian families, the Tahirih report states, but they did find examples from families of 56 different countries. (There are 50+Islamic majority states).In addition to cultural misunderstanding, the lack of legal cover does not help advocates who are trying to get the girls out of the custody of their parents before the marriages are finalized. Ms Hamza's group has had some success working with the Administration of children's Services to take custody of the girls, but there are still many cases that are left untouched.In one such case, a 14 year old girl from the Bronx escaped to the Sauti Yetu Center for African women for help because her parents were forcing her to marry a West African man. The Centre appealed to ACS to take custody of the girl, but because there were no clear signs of abuse or imminent danger, they were unable to take custody. After returning the girl to her parents, Centre representatives never heard from her again.ACS spokesman Michael Fagan said that forced marriage cases come up 'infrequently,' but they do fall under the administration's jurisdiction because they cover all incidents that 'places a child under 18 at risk for abuse, injury, or harm'.'There is legislation that exclusively addresses this issue in developing countries, but there's an absence of similar legislation addressing this issue domestically,' said Julia Alanen, founder of the D.C.-based Global Justice Initiative.The United Nations declares forced marriage a violation of human rights and child abuse if involving girls under the age of 18. The UK is looked to as a model to follow because there is formal legal recognition of the problem.In 2007, the Forced Marriage Act was created in the UK which includes preventative legal measures, such as an order that allows anyone that suspects that a girl is in danger of being forcibly married to call in to police and have an injunction placed against the girl's family. Since the order's implementation, more than 300 cases have been reported to authorities. Hmmmm.....A case of 'too little, too late?Read the full story here.

• A Day That Will Never Be Forgotten: Anonymous Hackers Declare War; Threaten to “Erase” the NYSE On October 10th.(SHTF).The hacker group known as ‘Anonymous’ has posted a video claiming that they will attack the NYSE on October 10, 2011 in a declaration of war against the stock exchange:

Greetings, Institutions of the Media.
We are Anonymous.
The events transpiring within Wall Street have caught our eye.
It seems that the government and Federal agencies enjoy enforcing the law a little bit too much. They instate unjust laws as mindless automatons, blindly following orders with soulless precision.
We witness the Government enforcing the laws that punish the 99% while allowing the 1% to escape justice, unharmed, for their crimes against the people.
We have observed this same Government failing to enforce even the minimal legal restraints of Wall Street’s abuses. This Government who has willingly ignored the greed at Wall Street has even bailed out the perpetrators that have caused our crisis.
We will not stand by and watch the system take over our way of life.
We the people shall stand against the government’s inaction.
We the people will not be witnesses to your corruption and ill gotten profits.
We will not labor for your leisure.
We will not assist you in any way.
This is why we choose to declare our war against the New York Stock Exchange. We can no longer stay silent as the population is being exploited and forced to make sacrifices in the name of profit.
We will show the world that we are true to our word. On October 10th, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On October 10th, expect a day that will never, ever, be forgotten.
Vox Populi, Vox Anon.
The Voice of The People is The Voice of Anonymous.
We are Legion. We are the 99%.
We do not forgive. We do not forget.
Wall Street: Expect us.

Considering Anonymous claims October 10th, 2011 will be a day that will never be forgotten, we can only surmise that they will be attacking the stock exchange of the NYSE itself, rather than the web site of the NYSE, though no additional information about this has been provided.If it is the NYSE exchange, then we can consider this the first cyber attack of its kind (unless the day of the “fat finger” was a cyber op also), and it will be very serious in nature, the consequences of which are hard to predict at this time. A government response on the order of the internet kill switch comes to mind – though, admittedly, that may be blowing things out of proportion.Anonymous has thus far attacked the web sites of various financial institutions around the world, as well as organizations they believe to be operating against the interests of the general public, but they have yet to do any significant damage (that we know of) on the level of what may occur if they were to directly take aim at financial markets.Of note is that October 10, 2011 is Columbus Day, however, stock markets will reportedly be open for normal trading (unless of course Anonymous stays true to their word).Read the full story here.

• Only 2% Of Food Imported Into The US Inspected.(Blacklistednews).Critics, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office, say the FDA is simply not up to the task of ensuring the safety of food imports, which are entering this country in ever-growing numbers. The FDA expects 24 million shipments of FDA-regulated goods to pass through the nation’s ports of entry this year, up from 6 million a decade ago. Studies show that glass-half-empty types don't live as long as those who look on the bright side. But if you're not the happy type, what can you do? Cancer kiss-off: Getting dumped after diagnosis As farmers markets thrive, so do concerns Cancer spike in men tied to HPV from oral sex More parents think it's safer to delay vaccines About this projectThis three-part food safety series is the result of a partnership between msnbc.com and the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. The project, "How Safe is your Food?" was reported by 27 journalism students from Arizona State University, Harvard University, University of Maryland, University of Missouri and the University Nebraska.During that time, the number of FDA investigators stayed constant at about 1,350. The agency began adding investigators in 2009 and now has about 1,800 — still far short of the number required to keep up with the pace of imports.In 2010, FDA inspectors physically examined 2.06 percent of all food-related imports. The FDA expects only 1.59 percent of all food imports to be examined this year and even less — only 1.47 percent — next year, according to its Office of Regulatory Affairs.Which shipments get inspected is increasingly determined by a new computer system called PREDICT, or Predictive Risk-based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting, that is now used at 70 percent of U.S. import operations at land, sea and air ports. It analyzes information such as a manufacturer’s history with the agency, lab test results and even current weather patterns, assigning a risk-based score to each shipment to direct investigators toward the riskiest ones.After a shipment is flagged, it's up to a person to investigate further. Investigators give top priority to the items with the highest scores and work their way down — at least, to the point they can with limited staff.This summer, the FDA gave News21 unusual behind-the-scenes access at its largest operating district to show the ways in which front-line operations attempt to keep unsafe food from reaching American supermarket shelves and dinner tables.Hmmmm.....Now we have warned every potential food terrorist about the poor inspections.Read the full story here.

• Report: Assad threatens to attack Tel Aviv in case of NATO strike.(YNet).Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday threatened to set fire to the Middle East, and especially Israel, if NATO attacks Syria, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.In a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad said: "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv." Davutoglu reportedly conveyed a message of warning from the US to Assad. The Iranian report has not been verified by other sources. According to the Fars news agency, the Syrian president stressed that Damascus will also call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch a fierce rocket and missile attack on Israel, such that Israeli intelligence could never imagine."All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf and the US and European interests will be targeted.Hmmmm.....Erdogan's reaction?Read the full story here.

• Erdogan says Israel’ s nuclear arsenal makes it a regional threat.(AlArabiya).Israel is a “threat” to its region because it owns nuclear weapons, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. “I right now see Israel as a threat for its region, because it has the atomic bomb,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency, during an official visit to South Africa.He also accused Israel of committing “state terrorism.”Erdogan in the past has accused the West of “double standards” in the way that it has tried to ban Iran from building nuclear weapons without taking similar measures against Israel.Israel has never officially admitting to possessing nuclear weapons.Turkey downgraded relations with one time ally Israel after the latter refused to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid flotilla, in which its nine Turkish activists died on May 31, 2010.Last month, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and froze military ties and defense trade deals. Ankara has also threatened to send warships to escort any Turkish vessels trying to reach Hamas-ruled Gaza.Hmmmm.....Why am i not surprised?Read the full story here.

• Egypt military uses violence with Coptic Christian sit-in.(Bikyamasr).CAIRO: Egypt’s military police have fired in the air in an attempt to disperse a few hundred Coptic Christians who had entered into a sit-in on Tuesday evening after marching through the streets of Cairo demanding their rights be heard. Protesters also told Bikyamasr.com early Wednesday morning that military police and others had on a number of occasions violently attacked the peaceful protesters.According to witnesses and protesters in front of the National Television and Radio building, or Maspero, the military fired “live ammunition” into the air to force the Copts to leave the area.The protest, which began with a few thousands marching from the middle-class area of Shobra through downtown Cairo before reaching the iconic media building, has blocked off the streets leading both ways on the Nile street.“The military fired into the air and one officer threw one of the crosses we carried onto the ground,” said one witness. “We are scared it could become very, very violent.”“My family and I joined the march after the burning of the Aswan church and we will continue on protesting until change is done,” Mona, a house wife in her 50s, told Bikyamasr.com.She added that there is still doubt that “protesting will change much, but it is what we can do now.”“We are sending a message to the SCAF and the prime minister warning them from the Coptic anger,” Mina Sabet, a member of the political committee of the Maspero Youth Union told Bikyamasr.com.“The people who toppled the former regime are capable of throwing out the current one,” he added. “It is a series of attacks and we are not sure who is behind them but they have angered Copts much.”Several men held a cardboard box shaped as a coffin with one side saying it was “Egypt’s funeral.” Another held a sign that said “if a church is burned or tore down, then you are definitely in Egypt.”After arriving at the Court of Cassation in downtown Cairo, the Copts Without Borders organization decided to not continue with the march to Maspero, and said they would not participate in the planned sit in. The march stopped traffic on the streets leading to the Maspero and checkpoints were erected at both ends, similar to those that marked the entrance to Tahrir Square during the liberal activists’ sit-in during July.Several riot police trucks soon followed the protesters, but remained at the edge of the street. Priest Flopire Gamel spoke to the crowd and encouraged them to remain non-violent.“Stay calm and feel safe, it is safe here,” he told the crowd while standing on the back of a pick-up truck. He advised the crowd to not engaged with police or army. “Dont let them drag you into violence,” he said.He also announced that there would be blankets and food soon to be available for those deciding to stay and told the masses that the decision to stay is not the church’s decision but the people’s, and youth in the crowed started chanting “We are staying, we are staying, we will not leave,” in reply. The crowd then began chanting a Christian song.Gamel said the sit-ins are not just in Cairo, but there are “many happening in Sohag, Minya and Alexandria.”The crowd continued their chanting: “prosecution, prosecution”, “We are the free Copts, we don’t fear gun shots” and “why are silent, justice is not realized.”The march was not without altercations, as aggressive passersby became obviously angered at the stopping of traffic and pushed their way through the crowds with their vehicles on a number of occasions.Read the full story here.

• In a letter to Erdogan, Aram I says the Armenian people still waiting for justice.(AsiaNews). Recent steps by Turkish authorities to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936 are “incomplete”, Catholicos Aram I Kechichian said in an open letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.For the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, whose titular see is located in the Turkish province of Cilicia, justice for the Armenian people will come only when Turkey acknowledges the genocide of 1915 and when private and Church assets seized at the time are returned.Here is the text of his letter (translated by AsiaNews):

By way of the press, we have learnt that your government plans to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936. Such a decision undoubtedly stems from recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights as well as inquiries by the US Congress into Turkish pressures on Christian minorities (See Nat de Polis, “Historic decision: Erdogan returns seized property to religious minorities,” in AsiaNews, 29 August 2011).

As spiritual and lawful head of the Holy See of Cilicia (Armenian Orthodox), which was uprooted from its historic see and installed in Lebanon, and as representative of the children of the Armenian Church who were exiled from Turkey and dispersed throughout the world, we consider your decision of 27 August 2011 to be incomplete and unjust.The Holy See of Cilicia remains the lawful owner of numerous buildings, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, cemeteries and other properties that belong to the church, seized by Turkish authorities at the time of the Armenian genocide of 1915.The same is true for the children of the Armenian people, who are the lawful owners of houses, businesses, estates and other assets passed down from their ancestors and lost during the genocide planned and executed by the Ottoman Turkish government.Your government’s decision may meet the requirements of the European Union, but it may never be considered as just or legally relevant.Mr Prime Minister, although taken in the name of justice, your decision is biased and selective and denies history and democratic values and principles.Of course, international institutions like the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament and its parliamentary bodies are tasked with defending democratic principles and values and ensure that they are respected; however, the people is the conscience and memory of such principles and values.As League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Peace Prize winner for 1922 Fridtjof Nansen said in Armenia and the Near East that the Armenian people never lost hope, bravely working and waiting. “They continue to wait,” he wrote.Allow me to add that the Armenian people will never cease to demand justice from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian people will never cease to demand the restoration of their human rights.Mr Prime Minister, your attachment to justice and human rights will gain in credibility only when you recognise the Armenian Genocide.Hmmmm......Amen.Read the full story here.

• Belarus Looks to Iran, Russia for Loans.(WSJ).By William Mauldin.MOSCOW—Belarus said on Monday it is close to securing a $400 million loan from Iran as the authoritarian Eastern European nation scrambles to line up financing from its few allies amid a deepening economic crisis. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund will visit the country starting Tuesday after rebuffing requests for a loan last month, although few observers expect an IMF deal anytime soon. Iran may lend the country $400 million, while Russia's biggest state-controlled bank may lend up $1 billion backed by shares in the Naftan oil refinery, officials from President Alexander Lukashenko's government said on Monday, according to the official state news agency. Since his controversial re-election last year, Mr. Lukashenko has increasingly become isolated from the U.S., which recently toughened sanctions, as well as from Europe and even Russia. The Belarusian ruble has lost three-fifths of its value against the dollar in the past year, and foreign reserves have fallen to a level that puts the economy at risk, according to officials and analysts. The IMF will be looking for progress in reforms that might justify a loan. Belarus is seeking about $7 billion in IMF financing, but analysts have said a smaller sum is more likely, or perhaps no loan at all. Minsk should also roll back wage increases that were part of Lukashenko's re-election campaign, among other structural economic reforms, the fund said. Overall, the IMF visit is "technical," and since political tensions are running so high, there is no talk of a loan agreement any time soon, VTB Capital analyst Petr Grishin said. Meanwhile, the immediate problem of the country's large current-account deficit has been solved by the steep ruble devaluation, he said.Hmmmmm....."Belarus freezes plan to give up uranium stockpile"....now why would Iran lend them the money????Any 'educated' guess?Read the full story here.

• Iran: NATO radar in Turkey serves to protect Israel.(Ynet).Iran criticized Turkey on Tuesday for agreeing to allow NATO to station an early warning radar in the southeast of the country that will serve as part of the alliance's missile defense system. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed the defense system was meant to protect Israel against Iranian missile attacks in the event a war breaks out with the Jewish state. "The missile defense shield is aimed at defending the Zionist regime. They don't want to let our missiles land in the occupied territories (Israel) if one day they take action against us. That's why they put it there," Ahmadinejad said in an address to the nation on state TV late Tuesday. Turkey agreed to host the radar in September as part of NATO's missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran. Ankara claims the shield doesn't target a specific country and had threatened to block the deal if Iran was explicitly named as a threat. A military installation in Kurecik has been designated as the radar site, according to Turkish government officials. Kurecik in Malatya province lies some 700 kilometers (435 miles) west of the Iranian border.In September, Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the United States hopes to have the radar deployed there by the end of the year. Ahmadinejad said his government has conveyed Iran's displeasure to Turkish officials. "We told our Turkish friends that it was not a correct job (decision) they did and that it's to their detriment," he said. "Such shields can't prevent the collapse of the Zionist regime." Turkey has built close economic ties with Iran and has been at odds with the United States on its stance toward Iran's nuclear program, arguing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff instead of sanctions. But the agreement over the radar facility comes at a time when Turkey and Iran appear to be differing on their approach toward Syria, with Turkey becoming increasingly critical of Iranian ally Syria's brutal suppression of anti-regime protests.Hmmmm......Beware of your eggs Farmer when the fox preaches the gospel.Turkey will NEVER protect Israel in case of an Iranian attack.Read the full story here.

• Archaeologist Makes a Case for Discovery of a Judean Town of the Time of King David.(ArcheologyDaily).Archaeologist at the City of David Conference in Jerusalem presents evidence that he suggests supports the identification of an ancient biblical Judean town built by a centralized authority during the time of King David.The traditional view based on the Biblical account is that in the 10th century King David ruled over a United Monarchy consisting of Judea in the south and Israel in the north. By the 9th century it had split into two kingdoms, Israel that continued to exist until the Assyrian conquest in 721BCE and Judea that continued until the Babylonian destruction in 586BCE. In contrast the Minimalist school refuted the idea of a United Monarchy and saw David as a mythical figure. The kingdom of Israel established itself first, in the 9th century (low chronology) and a monarchy developed in Judea only after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel in the late 8th century. With the discovery of the House of David stele at Dan the Minimalists had to grudgingly concede that David could exist but was a minor chieftain who ruled over a limited area, not an extensive kingdom ruled from a centralized location. With the discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a site in the Elah valley Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University is convinced that he has uncovered a Judean town that is dated to the 10th C. To build fortifications like those at Khirbet Qeiyafa, requiring moving 200,000 tons of stone, could not have been a local initiative but would have required a centralized government.

The site is small, 23 dunam enclosed with a casement wall situated on a hill overlooking the Elah valley with human occupation for about 20 years. Garfinkel suggests that the site was destroyed by Phillistine Gath/Tel Safi a larger town only 12 km to the west (Maier who heads the excavations at Safi concurs); the Bible decribes numerous border disputes in the Elah Valley region during the 11th-10th century BCE. There are only 3 buillding strata: 1) the late Roman/Byzantine period, 4th to 6th century when it included a fortress or caravansery at the center of the site, 2) late Persian or early Hellenstic period (ca. 350-270BCE) and 3) the lowest stratum directly on the bedrock dated to Iron Age IIA, existing in the late 11th to early 10th century. The dating is based on pottery and artifacts correlated with the results of radiometric (Carbon 14) dating of 4 burnt olive pits that yield a calibrated date of 1051 to 969BCE with 77.8% probablity which supports the high chronology" of the biblical traditionalists.

Features and artifacts unearthed at the site suggest that it was a Judean settlement.

The structural style of the casemate walls was classically Judean, matching similar construction at the ancient excavated sites of Beersheva, Tell en-Nasbeh, and Tell Beit Mirsim. Thousands of animal bones were found (goats, sheep and cattle) but no pig bones, found commonly at nearby Phillistine sites like Ekron and Gath/Tell Safi. Pottery found is different than that at nearby Gath. Fragments of an almost complete pottery baking tray hinted at a culture that was unlike that of the nearby Phillistine sites. Khirbet Qeiyafa is the only archaeological site discovered in Israel so far that has two gates. Garfinkel says, "Even cities three or four times its size, such as Lachish and Megiddo, have only a single gate." Based on location, dating and the two gates Garfinkel identifies it as Shaarayim (Hebrew for two gates) mentioned 3 times in the Bible.

 In the city list of the tribe of Judah it appears after Socoh and Azekah (Josh 15:36). Socoh is located 2.5 km to the southeast of Khirbet Qeiyafa and Azekah 2 km to the west.

After David killed Goliath the Philistines escaped through the ""road of Sha''arayim"" (1 Sam 17:52).

In the city list of the tribe of Simeon, Sha''arayim is mentioned as one of the cities ""until the reign of David"" (1 Ch 4:31– 32).

Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 26. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - April 26. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.9 and 5.0! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 99..Source : Here .

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

• Obama not running an re-election campaign, but an Insurgency? The word insurgent is defined as one who revolts against civil authority or an established government, as well as one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one's own political party"The 2008 campaign was the most special thing a lot of us have ever been a part of," Messina said in a Web video. "But if we just run that same campaign, we stand a good chance of losing. We've got to run a new campaign."“We ought not act like an incumbent, we’ve got to act like an insurgent campaign that wakes up every single day, trying to get every single vote we can,”Hmmmm....Chicago politics mixed with Egypt insurgent ingredients ,i'm sure the unions & New Black panthers will be able and willing to truck in the goons for this event .American Patriots : the country is in grave danger!Read and see the full story here.

• Obamination: Easter Prayer Breakfast.By Dajjal.(Bloggerbase) Was it really about resurrection, salvation & prayer, or was it about cronyism, politics and image making?

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. Please, please have a seat.

Well, it is absolutely wonderful to be here with all of you today. I see so many good friends all around the room.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge one particular member of my administration who I’m extraordinarily proud of and does not get much credit, and that is USAID Administrator, Dr. Raj Shah, who is doing great work with faith leaders. (Applause.) Where’s Raj? Where is he? There he is right there. Raj is doing great work with faith leaders on our Feed the Future global hunger program, as well as on a host of other issues. We could not be prouder of the work that he’s doing. I also want to acknowledge Congressman Mike McIntyre and his wife, Dee. (Applause.) Mike -- as some of you know, obviously, North Carolina was ravaged by storms this past weekend, and our thoughts and prayers are with all the families who have been affected down there. I know that Mike will be helping those communities rebuild after the devastation.

To all the faith leaders and the distinguished guests that are here today, welcome to our second annual -- I’m going to make it annual, why not? (Laughter and applause.) Our second Easter Prayer Breakfast. The Easter Egg Roll, that’s well established. (Laughter.) The Prayer Breakfast we started last year, in part because it gave me a good excuse to bring together people who have been such extraordinary influences in my life and such great friends. And it gives me a chance to meet and make some new friends here in the White House.I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason -– because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection -- something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.

We all live in the hustle and bustle of our work. And everybody in this room has weighty responsibilities, from leading churches and denominations, to helping to administer important government programs, to shaping our culture in various ways. And I admit that my plate has been full as well. (Laughter.) The inbox keeps on accumulating. (Laughter.)

But then comes Holy Week. The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross.

And we’re reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world -- past, present and future -- and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection.

In the words of the book Isaiah: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Dr. Raj Shah Why did the President make a big deal of introducing one of his appointees at a prayer breakfast celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Why introduce unrelated issues to a spiritually oriented function? Perhaps it fits into the pattern of the Passover statement, with its polemical concluding paragraph. Could it be that he had a similar screed ready for delivery at the prayer breakfast but omitted it for some reason?

Good excuse     That is the sort of throw away phrase that appears incongruous in a situation of this nature. A celebration of the most profound act of deity is hardly to be considered as an excuse. If he wanted to have a party to reward old friends and make new ones, he could do it privately, without publicity and finance it from his own funds rather than having us pay for it.something about the resurrection When I heard Rush Limbaugh read those words on his radio show, I immediately recalled the title of a certain movie which featured a girl with a sticky substance in her hair, which formned a cowlick. That is hardly the sort of association proper to be made with the event being celebrated.

How, exactly, does the passion, death & resurrection of Jesus Christ put current political affairs in perspective? Perhaps it shows us the truly small and petty nature of the man who used the phrase.puts everything else in perspective Perhaps it puts the Jewish Temple sacrifice rituals into perspective, but it does nothing for temporal issues of rule & ruin imposed by dictators & demagogues.

grace and salvation God manifested himself in human form, to be able to share humanity and communicate directly with mankind on our level. He sacrificed his human life and restore it to himself to demonstrate his power over death.

the gift of our son Our son? In the next phrase, he uses the correct terms. I wonder whether the expression was an error or was intended to send some sort of perverse theological message.

Why is it that there was no proclamation of Good Friday or Easter? Freedomeden has the details of inconsistency,. Thee is another question: of sincerity. Two quotes from one of his biographies raise doubt.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance By Barack Obama - Page 163

I realized then, standing in an empty McDoinald's parking lot in the South Side of Chicago, that I was a heretic. Or worse--for even a heretic must believe in something, if nothing more than the truth of his own doubt. -   Page 286

And I would shrug and play the question off, unable to confess that I could no longer distinguish between faith and mere folly, between faith and simple endurance; that while I believed in the sincerity I heard in their voices, I remained a reluctant skeptic, doubtful of my own motives, wary of expedient conversion, having too many quarrels with God to accept a salvation too easily won.

Was the Easter Prayer breakfast founded in sincerity or was it a political charade? If it was purely spiritual, why was it followed by briefings with administration officials in which policy matters were discussed? Hmmmm......"Foolishness, weakness and shame in human eyes are wisdom, strength and honor in God's eyes "(1 Cor 1:20, 25). A true Christian wouldn't consider Jesus Crucifixion as "Shameful".Read the full story here.

• Imperial White House Admits Working On Executive Order Attacking First Amendment.(YidWithLid).It started with Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of corporations and unions to donate to campaigns, throwing out parts of McCain Feingold campaign finance law. The Court said the law violated the First Amendment to the Constitution. Little Chucky Schumer tried to create legislation to once again put restrictions on campaign (and internet free speech). He called it the "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act" the DISCLOSE act. DISCLOSE "Get it?" asked Schumer when he announced the bill. Oh we got it, this is another progressive attempt at silencing Corporations while allowing labor unions to do just about whatever they want. Schumer's bill couldn't make it through the Congress dominated by his own party, so now the President is preparing an executive order that goes around the legislature and ignores the first amendment. The executive order is called the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of Chucky Schumer's DISCLOSE Act and just like Schumer's law it restricts corporations while giving unions Carte Blanche.McConnell said in a statement last week, after reports of the draft emerged. “So recent press reports about an unprecedented draft Executive Order raise troubling concerns about an effort to silence or intimidate political adversaries’ speech through the government contracting system,” he said. “If true, the proposed effort would represent an outrageous and anti-democratic abuse of executive branch authority. No administration should use the federal contracting system for campaign purposes.” Hans A. von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, was skeptical of Carney’s assertion that the president was merely committed to transparency. “If transparency is the true goal, why isn’t the proposed executive order covering any outside entity that gets federal money? It only applies to government contractors, not grant recipients like Planned Parenthood,” he told CNSNews.com. “Public employee unions are also exempt from this order.” The draft executive order would require government contractors to disclose:

•“All contributions or expenditures to or on behalf of federal candidates, parties or party committees made by the bidding entity, its directors or officers, or any affiliates or subsidiaries within its control.”

•“Any contributions made to third party entities with the intention or reasonable expectation that parties would use those contributions to make independent expenditures or electioneering communications.”

In the end this is just one more attempt by the Obama administration to beat down the constitution and to go around Congress. Just as he did with Obamacare, the Auto Buyout and the Czars this President's arrogance continues to place him at odds with the welfare of the American People.Hmmmm......."Democracy or dictatorship"?Read the full story here.

• EPA again blocks Shell from drilling on leases it bought from the federal government for billions, which should do wonders for gas prices.(DougRoss).For those of you drones out there who still think, naively, that President Obama is trying to help out the little guy, may I present the following chart?This is the average, retail national price of a gallon of gas over the past year.So, Doug, you say -- the price of gas isn't President Obama's fault. It's the speculators. And the oil companies. And Sarah Palin.The Environmental Protection Agency -- also known as the flat-Earth, no growth, taxpayer-funded, eco-Marxists (which is the term they prefer, I hear) -- is intentionally killing off domestic energy production. Presumably this makes good on at least one of President Obama's campaign promises -- in this case, that energy prices "will necessarily skyrocket."We are the only country on the face of the Earth that restricts access to its own vast energy resources.These suicidal policies represent an existential economic and national security threat.And this is an intentional strategy on the part of President Obama.I hate to use the I-word, but I truly feel that these policies -- opposed by the vast majority of Americans and unworthy of a "Commander-in-Chief" -- represent a crime of the highest order.And this setback will cost Shell roughly $4 billion or more, which should do wonders for gas prices. Republicans better stand up to these bullying environmental nuts and de-fund the entire EPA until Obama is out of office.Hmmmm......"My Mission to destroy America from within"?Read the full story here.

• Not a Joke - Petrol station charges €9.99 a litre $40/gallon)for gas.(TundraTabloids)Police were called after a petrol station near Stuttgart began charging €9.99 per litre ($40 per gallon) of super gasoline amid dwindling supplies on Easter Monday.In the town of Filderstadt, south of the Baden-Württemberg capital, the Esso petrol station apparently raised the price to a prohibitive level in a deliberate attempt to dissuade motorists from buying it, police reported. The station was running low on the fuel amid a nationwide shortage.Nevertheless, several customers still used the pump, despite the fact that it actually carried a warning sign against filling up with super. They were then taken by complete surprise when they got to the cash register.Customer Yunus G. told daily Bild he put 21 litres in his BMW and was asked to pay €209.98.“I didn’t pay attention to the price. Who expects something like that? Nearly €10 for one litre? It’s a swindle,” he said.He called the police but was told he needed to pay, otherwise the Esso station would make a complaint.One woman from Filderstadt was asked to pay just under €200 for 20 litres. Another customer filled up with 10 litres. Both also refused to pay and instead called the police.The Esso attendant had done nothing wrong, police said, because he had no say in the fuel price.“The price was determined by the head office,” a police spokesman said.About one in five petrol stations in and around Stuttgart had run dry of super on Monday afternoon. There was a choke on fuel supplies across the country because of the combination of Easter traffic, the holiday ban on fuel tankers, and logistical problems for petrol companies associated with the introduction of the E10 ethanol fuel.But it had not been as bad as expected, according to Shell spokeswoman Cornelia Wolber.“The situation is for nowhere near as bad as feared,” she said.Hmmmm.....A glimps in to America's near future?Read the full story here.

• Report: CIA chief held secret talks on Syria in Turkey.(Ynet).Report: CIA chief held secret talks on Syria in Turkey .Ankara-based newspaper says Leon Panetta spent five days in Turkish capital reviewing recent unrest sweeping through Arab nations, mulling possible regime change in Syria.United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Chief Leon Panetta reportedly held a secret visit to Turkey lately, the Ankara-based Turkish daily Sabah reported.Talks included planning for a possible regime change in Syria and ensuring the safety of the Assad family, the paper said. Panetta reportedly set up a camp in the Turkish capital for five days in order to discuss the uprisings in Arab countries with top Turkish officials. Panetta is rumored to have met with head of the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT), members of the government and officials from the General Staff.MIT chief Hakan Fidan was sent to Syria to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.The talks also touched on the fighting in Libya, Turkish-Israeli relations, intelligence-sharing in Iraq, cooperation in Afghanistan and the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, Sabah said. Sabah's claim that Panneta's talks included planning for possible regime change in Syria and ensuring the safety of the Assad family, were not corroborated by any other source.Hmmm....Weekly phone calls between erdogan and Obama ,CIA head in Turkey ,since when is Turkey running US Foreign policy?What's the next step ....Turkish troops occupying Israel?Read the full story here.

• 35 radicals trained for terrorism at British mosques, Guantanamo files reveal.(DailyMail).Britain's mosques became an international haven for extremists who enjoyed state benefits while being trained for terrorism, leaked documents show.The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that at least 35 Guantanamo terrorists were radicalised in London mosques before being sent to fight against the West. This is believed to be more than any other Western country.Of these, just 17 were British nationals or had been granted asylum, while 18 had travelled from abroad – cementing Britain’s reputation as a global training camp for terrorists.U.S. intelligence officers describe Finsbury Park mosque, in North London, as a ‘haven for Islamic extremists from Morocco and Algeria’ and ‘an attack planning and propaganda production base’.After their UK trip they were then flown to Pakistan and Afghanistan where they were taught to fight and make bombs. The leaked documents also show that an Al Qaeda ‘assassin’ accused of bombing two churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan was at the same time working for MI6. Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili was captured in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo Bay where interrogators were convinced that he was an informer for British intelligence.U.S. intelligence reports describe the 35-year-old Algerian citizen as a ‘facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for Al Qaeda’. CIA interrogators found him ‘to have withheld important information from …British Secret Intelligence Service … and to be a threat to U.S. and allied personnel in Afghanistan and Pakistan’.He has been returned to Algeria but it is not clear whether he will stand trial there.Read the full story here.

• Video shows Turkish police singing Grey Wolf march.(Hurriyetdaily).An elite police unit chanted Grey Wolf slogans during April 10 Police Day ceremonies in Sivas in an incident that could deepen a recent debate between the government and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, about mobilizing supporters’ groups, reports said.The video taken by a cell phone shows members of the Special Operations police unit marching along the Central Anatolian province’s Atatürk Avenue on their way back to the police headquarters from İstasyon Avenue, where the parade was held. Police units marching in the front lines were silent, but the Special Operations unit marched, singing nationalist anthems, such as “This movement shall never die, this cause shall never die,” composed by Ozan Arif, a leading name among the Grey Wolves.The records also show police chiefs walking at the front and chanting “Who are these?” while police units reply back “The Grey Wolves,” as passersby clapped and cheered in support.The videos were reported to be circulating on a number of video sharing websites, according to Doğan news agency, or DHA.The video comes shortly after an election quarrel between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, in which the former claimed that he could rally 10,000 supporters in Taksim Square in Istanbul if he wanted to in response to recent student demonstrations against the university entrance exam scandal. In response, Bahçeli claimed that just 1,000 of his Grey Wolves would be sufficient to rout the prime minister’s 10,000 supporters.The Grey Wolves, also commonly referred to as the Ülkü Ocakları (Idealist Hearths), are a youth organization with close links to the MHP.Hmmmm.....Keep Turkey out of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• Were Conquered Christians Really Liberated Muslims?(Aina).Imagine if a top American historian appeared on the MSM insisting that the only reason Europeans conquered the Americas was to "defend" the Native Americans--who somehow had adopted Christianity centuries before Jesus was born--from being persecuted by heathen tribes.While that would create a maelstrom of outrage and derision in the West, in the Arab world--where some think bewitched animals work as infidel operatives--such absurdities regularly pass for "truth."

Copts: Muslims Before Muhammad

Consider the case of Fadel Soliman, a celebrated Sharia expert and Arab media darling, who regularly appears on al-Jazeera. Director of the Bridges Foundation--which teaches Muslims "how to present Islam" to non-Muslims--Soliman also lectures at Western universities, churches, and governmental agencies, including the U.S. Dept. of Defense.His new Arabic book, Copts: Muslims Before Muhammad, asserts that, at the time of the Muslim conquest of Egypt (c. 640), the vast majority of Egyptians were not, as history has long taught, Christians, but rather prototypical Muslims, or muwahidin, who were actually being oppressed by Christians: hence, the Muslim conquest of Egypt was really about "liberating" fellow Muslims. Soliman's evidence is that the Arian sect, which rejected the claim that Jesus was coequal with God, was present in 4th century Egypt. Therefore, according to Soliman, the indigenous Egyptians were practicing Islam hundreds of years before it was founded in the 7th century.As with much of modern academia's approach to Islam, this thesis is based on pure fiction. While the Arians were pronounced heretics at the Council of Nicea (325) for their interpretation of the Trinity, they nonetheless accepted all of Christianity's core tenets--including original sin, crucifixion, resurrection, and salvation--all of which directly contradict Islam's teachings. What an imaginative stretch, then, for Soliman to portray the Arians as prototypical Muslims, simply because they did not believe Jesus was coequal with God (a standard that would make many people today "Muslims").Needless to say, no historian has ever suggested that Muslims invaded Egypt to liberate "proto-Muslims." Rather, the Muslim historians who wrote our primary sources on Islam, candidly and refreshingly present the conquests as they were--conquests, for the glory and empowerment of Islam and its followers at the expense of unbelieving infidels.Of course, with the weakening of Islam in the modern era, embarrassed Muslims began to euphemize their imperialistic history, portraying jihad as "defensive," "spiritual," etc.--culminating with Soliman's fairy tale. Even the unapologetic Sayyid Qutb, the sheikh of "radical Islam," interpreted jihad and the conquests as "altruistic" endeavors to "liberate" mankind.Considering Islam's lax views on deception, this comes as no surprise. After all, whether Muslims consciously deceive infidels or unconsciously deceive themselves, the goal has long been one: empowering Islam and its adherents--reality be damned.Hmmmm......Ergo "Truth becomes hatespeech"?Read the full story here.

• Iranian Judiciary Spokesman: Americans' Trial to Continue May 11.(Memri).The spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohsen-Ejei, announced that charges have been brought against Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Hashemi Rafsanjani, who said in an online interview that the hands of the Iranian regime were the hands of brutal thugs. Ejei said further that the trial of the three Americans (Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, who were captured near the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and accused of spying) would recommence March 11. Sarah Shourd was released on bail of $500,000 last September and returned to the US. Source.

• Iranian women's carelessness in following the Islamic dress code had assumed the proportions of a "cultural disaster".(Memri).Iranian Cleric: Ahmadinejad Lax in Enforcing Islamic Dress CodeCleric Ahmad Khatami, a senior figure in the Iranian regime, said that Ahmadinejad's government was being lax in enforcing the Islamic dress code among women, and this in order to appease those Iranians who did not vote for Ahmadinejad in the previous elections. He added that the women's carelessness in following the Islamic dress code had assumed the proportions of a "cultural disaster."Hmmmm.....Expect soon major earthquakes in the region.Read the full story here.

• Demolition begins on Monument to Humanity in eastern Turkey.(Hurriyetdaily).The municipality is not destroying the “Monument to Humanity,” but “humanity” itself, said Naif Alibeyoğlu, the former Republican People’s Party, or CHP, mayor who originally approved the construction of the peace monument in 2004.A cable used in the demolition process snapped four times before the contractors, who shouted “Allahuekber” (God is Great) before beginning the work, were able to remove the head via crane. The firm decided to place the first head in a cargo truck after a smaller truck was unable to transport the massive head, Doğan News Agency, or DHA, reported.The head will be delivered to a storage site belonging to the municipality in the eastern province.Sculptor Mehmet Aksoy said in January 2010 that Alibeyoğlu had wanted a monument of peace as opposed to other monuments with messages of war and hatred. “War is a crime against humanity and people cannot progress forward with wars.”Aksoy has also warned that a demolition of the monument would resemble the Taliban’s destruction of ancient Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in 2001 and be an embarrassment for EU-candidate Turkey.“These two figures in the sculpture are actually a single human torn in half. They are in a position of confrontation against each other, made into enemies. The two figures become a single person again with the outreached hand.”Meanwhile, a group of people from the Republic Coalition Platform protested the demolition in front of the Culture Ministry building in Ankara, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.A press statement released by the group said it was remaining true to the principles of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in trying to promote art.Recalling that long-time Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek one said in reference to a sculpture that “I spit at this kind of art,” the group said such behavior was being displayed again with the description of the Monument to Humanity as “freakish.”Hmmmmm........"Islam the religion of peace'.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

• Report: Union heads make six figures.As the standoff between unions and Wisconsin Republicans wages on, an analysis of the nation’s 10 largest labor unions shows some top leaders – the people being derided as “union bosses” – make six-figure salaries funded by members’ dues.Leaders earned between $173,000 and $618,000 at major unions, the Center for Public Integrity found in examining 2009 tax records, with some groups paying dozens of employees in the six figures. At the three major unions , which together represent more than 5.6 million public workers, presidents’ salaries ranged between $400,000 and $500,000 in 2009.Republicans have worked to separate union members from the leaders of their organizations, arguing that the “union bosses” who represent public workers aren’t looking after the best interests of their members. Salaries that are far larger for union leaders than for their members don’t convey the image that their leaders are on the side of workers, GOP lawmakers say.“When they say it’s about worker rights, it’s really about big union bosses running their own political dynasties,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said last week. Union political action committees and employees spent $400 million in support of President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008 and another $280 million supporting Democratic candidates in 2010.Last month, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that while his state’s unions “think I’m attacking them,” he’s not. “I’m attacking the leadership of the unions because they’re greedy, they’re selfish.”Hmmmm....Now who would have thought this?Read the full story here.

• 'This is my favourite killer outfit': Face of Kosovan Muslim alleged to have shot dead two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt airport.This is the face of the man suspected of killing two U.S. soldiers in Germany in an Islamist rage.The photo is from Arid Uka's Facebook page - once listed under his real name but changed recently to that of Abu Reyann, his chosen 'warrior' name.The site is littered with references to Holy War, hatred of 'non believers' and has his favourite saying - 'may the eyes of the cowards never sleep' - by Khalid Bin Walid, an ancient Islamic fighter who united Arabia for the first time.'This is my favourite killer outfit when rolling the dice on black ops,ha ha,' he boasts to his friends on the social networking site - probably more a reference to the computer game of the same name that he played avidly than any attack like that he carried out in Frankfurt which left two Americans dead and two severely wounded.'Way to go, you old killer!' posts friend Kastrijot Ferizi on the photo that was added to his page in December last year. Another writes that Abu Reyyan was his nickname that he knew him by.There are hate-filled rants against Jews and a cry to Jihad which said: 'If someone would call you to Holy War... yeah, and?'That is part of this beautiful religion. One is allowed to fight the unbelievers when attacked.'In August last year the 21-year-old answered an online question about what his favourite weapon was - it turns out to be a Barrett M82 sniper rifle.'The miserable non-believer' is an anti-western song on the website that he also makes reference to.'Germans are afraid of Islam and its spread and would rather we believe in Santa Claus,' he rambles.He calls Chancellor Angela Merkel an 'unbeliever' too, claiming she has sided with Israel which he described as 'a declaration of war'.German federal prosecutors said the attack appears to have been motivated by Islamic extremism.Prosecutors said in a statement today that 'because of the circumstances there is a suspicion that it was an Islamist motivated act'.Hmmmm.....Notice how Obama suddenly fell silent once the religious conviction of the shooter was Established ?Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Thousands of Ethiopian Muslims Burn Down Five Churches, More Attacks Feared.Washington -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that in the past two days, thousands of Muslims have razed five churches and the homes of two evangelists in Asendabo, Ethiopia. Christian leaders are asking for protection after the Muslim attackers continued burning churches even after the federal police were sent to the town.The Muslims started the attacks yesterday after falsely accusing the Christians of desecrating the Qur'an. More than ten thousand Muslims shouted "Allah Akbar" (Allah is great) as they burned down five evangelical churches. The government sent the federal police force to protect the Christians after the Muslims burned down the first three churches. The Muslims overwhelmed the police force and burned down two more churches today.Speaking with ICC, Christian leaders expressed their fear that Muslims will start killing the Christians unless the government sends more security forces to contain the Muslim attackers.At the time of the writing of this report, none of the Muslim attackers have been arrested. The government officials detained some Christians and took them to the nearby Jimma town stating that they need to do that for their own security.Ethiopia is a Christian majority country and was one of the first nations to accept Christianity. However, in the areas of the country where Muslims are the majority, Christians face attacks."We urge Ethiopian government forces to send reinforcement to protect the Christians in the city of Asendabo from the Muslim attacks. We ask Christians around the world to prevent any further attacks by calling the Ethiopian officials in their countries and asking them to protect the Christians and their property," said ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho.Hmmmm.....No word from the selfconfessed 'Christian' champion of the oppressed?Read the full story here.

• Islamist Rally at White House ‘Postponed’. Radical Accuses West of Interfering With Mideast Embrace of Shari’a.An Islamic radical called off a pro-shari’a (Islamic law) demonstration at the White House on Thursday, saying he did not want it to divert attention from the “urgent” situation in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East.Talking to CNSNews.com, the activist, Anjem Choudary, charged that Western powers were planning military intervention to ensure that popular uprisings do not give rise to shari’a-ruled states.“Their worst nightmare is for Muslims to rise up in the Middle East” and set up shari’a-ruled societies in countries stretching from North Africa to the Gulf, said Choudary.If that happened, it would be “the beginning of the end of capitalism” and lead inevitably to a huge, “boundary-less” Islamic region in which “the State of Israel will disappear” and the U.S. will be unable to maintain interests.Choudary said this warning about “a new form of colonialism” in the Middle East was the gist of a fatwa, or religious ruling, soon to be announced by Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical Syrian-born cleric and longtime Choudary associate.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico.ATF agent says "Fast and Furious" program let guns "walk" into hands of Mexican drug cartels with aim of tracking and breaking a big case.WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen. Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States. "I'm boots on the ground in Phoenix, telling you we've been doing it every day since I've been here," he said. "Here I am. Tell me I didn't do the things that I did. Tell me you didn't order me to do the things I did. Tell me it didn't happen. Now you have a name on it. You have a face to put with it. Here I am. Someone now, tell me it didn't happen."Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico. ATF named the case "Fast and Furious." Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded in were AK-47-type assault rifles. So it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.Hmmmm.....No wonder they don't want re-inforcements for border protection?Next time call the operation " U - Haul"?Read the full story here.

• Wisconsin Governor Says He Will Begin Issuing Layoff Warnings to Unions.CHICAGO — Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, said Thursday that he would begin issuing layoff warnings to unions representing 1,500 state employees on Friday if his bill to sharply reduce collective bargaining rights and benefits for public sector employees remained at an impasse in the Legislature. Republican leaders in the Senate, where the bill has been stalled since Senate Democrats left the capital two weeks ago to block a vote, passed a provision that they said allowed law enforcement officers to detain the missing Democratic senators if they were seen anywhere in Wisconsin and take them to Madison. In Indiana, where Republican leaders find themselves in a similar standoff over legislation, they approved on Thursday a still higher fine, $250-a-day, against Democrats, also missing to block votes from occurring. All along, Governor Walker has said that the cuts to the bargaining rights and benefits of public workers are desperately needed to close the state’s budget gaps. Without the savings he had assumed would be made immediately with the bill’s passage through increases in pension and health care costs for workers, Mr. Walker said Thursday that he had no choice but to begin issuing layoff warnings to unions, to be followed in 15 days by layoff notices to the 1,500 state workers. Officials from Mr. Walker’s administration have said limits were needed for safety and security after protesters began filling the building, and chanting, drumming and staying over. On Thursday, local police and government officials reported that live ammunition — so far unexplained — had been found outside on the grounds of the Capitol and inside a nearby city and county government building. Officials said damage inside the Capitol, in part from hundreds of anti-Walker signs now taped all over the marble, was expected to be in the millions of dollars. But others have vehemently objected to the limits. As cameras rolled, several Assembly Democrats moved their desks to the Capitol lawn for “office hours.”Hmmmmm.......Obama's "Kristal Nacht" Lite?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Congressman King: Subpoena the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA).Despite opposition from the usual alphabet soup of Muslim Brotherhood offshoot “advocacy” groups in the US, Congressman Peter King is forging ahead with planned mid-March hearings on what he terms domestic “Muslim radicalization.” In a December 19, 2010 Newsday opinion editorial Congressman King cited these eminently reasonable concerns as justification for the hearings : "As I became more immersed in attempting to unravel the radical Islamic threat to our nation and our civilization, it became more and more obvious to me that the moral myopia of Long Island’s Muslim leaders and their apologists in the media was the rule – and that there were few exceptions. Federal and local law enforcement officials throughout the country told me they received little or – in most cases – no cooperation from Muslim leaders and imams…I also know of imams instructing members of their mosques not to cooperate with law enforcement officials investigating the recruiting of young men in their mosques as suicide bombers. We need to find the reasons for this alienation."We believe direct cross-examination of clerics from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), including a frank discussion of their public “fatwas” (Islamic religious rulings), is essential to the Congressman’s critically important goal of understanding Muslim radicalization in America.Hmmmm.....Lets hope congressman King has what it takes to go to the bottom of this.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.A National ID Card For American Citizens? Get Ready – The Real ID Act Goes Into Effect On May 11.For a moment, imagine a future where you are not able to drive a car, get on a plane, get on a train, vote, enter a federal building, open a bank account or get a job without a national ID card. You don't think that could ever happen in America? Well, you might want to brush up on the Real ID Act because it is going to go into effect on May 11, 2011 unless something is done to stop it. When I first learned this, I was absolutely stunned. After all, wasn't the Real ID Act supposed to be "dead"? A few years ago state legislatures across the nation were in an uproar over this law. The Department of Homeland Security was forced to delay implementation of it several times. But now it is back. You see, this is what the federal government often does. They will try to push something very unpopular through, and if they meet resistance they will "play dead" until the uproar has died down and then they will come right back and implement it anyway. This is what is happening with the Real ID Act.Back in 2008, former U.S. Representative Bob Barr wrote the following about how not having one of these new national ID cards will automatically strip us of some of our most fundamental rights...."A person not possessing a Real ID Act-compliant identification card could not enter any federal building, or an office of his or her congressman or senator or the U.S. Capitol. This effectively denies that person their fundamental rights to assembly and to petition the government as guaranteed in the First Amendment."Of course the Department of Homeland Security insists that the Real ID Act is just here to "help" us and to make life "better" and "more secure". According to their website, some of the goals of the Real ID Act are "to help prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents."But is this really what we want America to become?If we put up with a national ID card, then the Obama administration will be emboldened to try to implement the "universal Internet ID" that they have been talking about.The sad truth is that America is no longer "the land of the free". The government has decided that in order to keep us "safe", everything that we do must be watched, tracked, traced, recorded and controlled.Hmmmm.....Welcome to the 'police state'.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan court orders US shooter trial to go ahead.A Pakistani court on Thursday said that the murder trial of a CIA contractor would go ahead, despite the insistence of the US government that he has diplomatic immunity.The hearing in the murder case against Raymond Davis took place amid high security in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore where he is being held, and was adjourned until March 8.Davis has claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot dead two men in a busy Lahore street in January.The issue of his claim to diplomatic immunity is pending before the Pakistani High Court which is due to rule on March 14."The court passed an order today saying that he (Davis) had failed to produce any legitimate document proving his diplomatic immunity," the lawyer representing the families of the two men shot by him, Asad Manzoor Butt, told AFP after a closed-door hearing."The judge rejected his (Davis's) immunity claim after a lot of debate," Butt said.His lawyer pleaded that he could not be prosecuted by this court because of the diplomatic immunity issue was pending in Lahore High Court, Butt said."The judge replied that the Lahore High Court had not barred him to proceed on the murder trial," Butt said.Zahid Bokhari, Davis's lawyer, told AFP the judge had ordered the trial to continue because for the past one-and-a-half months no document had been produced in the court related to Davis's immunity."We will see the detailed written order by the judge and then will be able to tell whether he had rejected the claim of diplomatic immunity or not," Bokhari said.Hmmmm....A good thing Senator Kerry intervened it might have been worse?Read the full story here.

• Obama’s state of Islamic denial.Note to Barack HUSSEIN Obama : ‘Allahu akbar’ is a Muslim war cry.U.S. troops are gunned down by a shooter who screams “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire. Official statements are rushed out: The perpetrator was a lone wolf; his motive was unclear; there are no links to terrorism. Sound familiar? It should, because when Islam is the cause of American tragedy, President Obama hides his head in the sand. On Wednesday, a young Kosovar named Arif Uka opened fire on a bus load of U.S. Air Force personnel in Frankfurt, Germany, killing two and wounding two more. Witnesses say he repeatedly shouted the jihadist battle cry, “Allahu akbar” as he emptied his weapon and screamed “Jihad! Jihad!” when tackled by German police. Uka’s victims had been heading to the fight in Afghanistan but because the jihadists have a global battlespace, the war came to them instead. The Obama administration’s knee-jerk instinct to deny reality in hopes it will go away is clearly not working. How many Americans have to die before Mr. Obama at long last admits the nature of the Islamist threat that killed them?Hmmmm....."I will stand with my Muslim brethren?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheTrumpet.An Islamic uprising in Pakistan would create a nightmare scenario for the Western world.If you think the violence and political chaos in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya is ugly, consider what’s brewing in nuclear-armed Pakistan.Yesterday, Islamic terrorists gunned down Pakistan’s sole Christian (Catholic) politician in broad daylight outside his mother’s home in Islamabad. Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistan’s federal minister for minority affairs, a genuine moderate, pro-Western politician, and a leading voice in the now-shrinking movement to reform Pakistan’s government. Mr. Bhatti was murdered because of his brave and outspoken criticism of Pakistan’s hardcore anti-blasphemy laws, which are routinely used to persecute Pakistan’s non-Islamic minority communities.Lest there be any confusion about their motives, Bhatti’s assailants left pamphlets with the following message beside the dead body (emphasis mine throughout): "This is a warning from the warriors of Islam to all the world’s infidels, crusaders, Jews … and especially the head of Pakistan’s infidel system, [President Asif Ali] Zardari, his ministers, and all the institutions of this evil system. In your fight against Allah, you have become so bold that you act in favor of and support those who insult the prophet. And you put a cursed Christian infidel Shahbaz Bhatti in charge of [the blasphemy laws review] committee. This is the fate of that cursed man. And now, with the grace of Allah, the warriors of Islam will pick you out one by one and send you to hell, God willing." It was a public warning from radical Islam: Oppose us and you will die.The Islamists’ ferocious, take-no-prisoners tactics appear to be working. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made it clear in a speech in Pakistan’s National Assembly that his government had no intention of amending Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws. Throughout Pakistan, lamented Syed Shamsuddin, coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, “[a]ll those working for a tolerant society are in retreat because there’s no support from the government.”The extent of the government of Pakistan’s capitulation to radical Islam is also evident in the increasingly heated dispute between America and Pakistan over Raymond Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces officer and current U.S. government contractor. Davis was arrested, charged and imprisoned by Pakistani authorities in January for allegedly shooting two young Pakistani men—both armed and trailing him—at a busy intersection in the city of Lahore.Despite Davis having diplomatic immunity—and in spite of multiple calls from U.S. officials, including President Barack Obama and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who traveled with a delegation to Pakistan to secure Davis’s release—Pakistani authorities continue to refuse to let him go.This is not because Pakistan’s moderate leaders are morally opposed to releasing Davis. It’s because these men value their own lives. As Joel Brinkley wrote earlier this month, no one inside Pakistan “wants to face the possible fate of Salman Taseer, the Punjab prosecutor, assassinated by his own bodyguard last month for standing up against Islamic militancy.”In reality, more is at stake than the lives of a few politicians.If Davis is released, Pakistan could become the next Egypt or Libya overnight. Liaquat Baluch, the deputy chief of the Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami, has promised “forceful protests” throughout Pakistan if Davis is released with a court order. On February 13, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (ttp), a branch of the Taliban, issued a statement demanding that Davis be executed or turned over to the ttp for punishment. The entire country, and especially Pakistan’s Islamic populace, is gripped by the Raymond Davis case. As Stratfor’s Scott Stewart recently wrote, this “complicates the position of the Pakistani government [and] raises the distinct possibility that there will be civil unrest if Davis is released” (February 16).Radical Islam has Mr. Gilani’s government over a barrel. If Davis is set free, Pakistan could erupt!In many ways, Pakistan is more vulnerable to radical Islam than Tunisia, Egypt or Libya!Prime Minister Gilani and the moderates in Pakistan are walking a tightrope. Radical Islamists have infiltrated nearly all the departments within the nation’s government. If Gilani continues to acquiesce to their demands, the Islamists will likely remain content for the time being—essentially creating a situation in which radical Islam is calling the shots, or at least all the important ones.Unlike the other countries, Pakistan has a significant cache of nuclear weapons!And its stockpile is growing. U.S. intelligence agencies recently reported that Pakistan has somewhere between 95 and 110 deployed nuclear weapons, and enough fuel to build a further 40 to 100. Two years ago Islamabad had roughly 75 nukes. In the past 24 months, Pakistan has managed to add another 20 to 30 nuclear weapons to its already significant stash. Meanwhile, radical Islam has tightened its grip on the country.This is what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his band of radical Islamic terrorists dream about at night: acquiring a pile of nuclear weapons and setting off a nuclear Armageddon!It’s a terrifying but entirely plausible scenario: Iran and radical Islam could soon dominate Pakistan—and exercise dominion over a stash of nuclear weapons! Hmmmm.....And tens of Billions of Dollars support from the Obama administration.Read the full story here.

• "Life or Death in Iran's prisons.59 political prisoners launch indefinite hunger strike in protest to repressive policies.The Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners – 59 political prisoners in Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison released a statement announcing that they have launched an indefinite hunger strike since Tuesday morning. The hunger strike is in protest to the suppression of the Iranian people’s righteous resistance and against the limitations imposed inside the prison.According to The Student Committee in Defense of Political Prisoners (SCDPP), the message of the political prisoners was delivered to the organization with great difficulty. In the message, the prisoners cited the following reasons for launching the indefinite hunger strike: the widespread crackdowns on political prisoners; the great limitations inside the prison; the severance of all contacts between prisoners and their families; the mistreatment, insults and disrespectful behaviour toward the prisoners; the brutal repression of the Iranian people’s resistance; and the arrest of the [opposition] political leaders.Based on the received information, the political prisoners in ward 4, the newly established special security hall of Rajai Shahr prison, are under strict control of the security organizations. All contacts between prisoners are severely repressed.The deputy security head of the prison Nabiollah Faraji is a former interrogator and torturer at Evin prison. He is supported by Ali Haj-Kazem, the director of Rajai Shahr prison, as well as judicial and security authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is assigned the responsibility of putting pressure on political prisoners held in the special security section. Additionally, he has several unresolved case files in connection to the torture of prisoners.Hmmmm.....No word from the defender of the oppressed?Read the full story here.

• Belgium - Enhanced pat downs cancelled at Airport!'Intimate' checks Zaventem suspended ,After the Brussels airport last week started testing a stricter way of searches,it started raining complaints to the staff of Brussels Airport. "This was way tooo far," said a security guard. The measure has been temporarily suspended.The stricter controls last week were tested a few days upon request of security firm Group 4. But after a storm of criticism was the measure temporarily suspended. It really rained complaints.Not so much from passengers, but from the airport staff who several times a day pass beyond the control and may be searched four to five times . "We have been asked to verify briefly the genitals," said several staff members who prefer to remain anonymous. "Our hand we had to raise as high as possible between the legs and secure with your other hand the venus mound while going over it.(...). We even had with the full hand search the breasts, including the nipples (...). As if we were forced to perform sexual acts. "Moreover, the international association of security firms at European airports unequivocal: "Between the legs searches like these who occured, do not pass," said spokeswoman Hilde De Clerck.Hmmm....At least we save our 'Dignity'.Read the full story here.(Google translate attempt).

• Why is Amnesty going soft and easy on Iran?Amnesty International, an organization lauded for promoting human rights worldwide, has a strong and consistent track record of calling for UN arms embargoes on governments that violate human rights abuse. As protector of human rights, Amnesty understand the merits of arms embargoes, a type of smart sanctions that avoid causing humanitarian harm often associated with comprehensive actions.But for some reason, for years Amnesty International has been singling Iran out and avoided calling for arms embargo as a response to Iran's extensive human rights violations. Why is Amensty going soft on Iran, one of the worst human rights violators today?The Iranian regime, whose hands are drenched in blood, is characterized by some of the most egregious human rights violations. Iran is one of the states with the “highest rates of executions” and is recognized as a certified serial breaker of not one but six principle human rights treaties, at least three U.N. Arms Embargo’s (Security Council Resolutions 1737, 1747, and 1803) and the U.N. Charter, Article 2.4 prohibiting threats of war. The U.S. declared Iran as being one of the world’s most active state sponsors of terrorism, an “identified part of an axis of evil” and added the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.No one should be above the law and the government of Iran needs to be held accountable for its human rights crimes on every aspect. By refraining from speaking out against every violation Iran commits; Amnesty International’s silence is enabling Iran to make a mockery of the organization, what it stands for and for the fight for freedom of human rights worldwide.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iranian Journalist: According To IAEA Report – Iran Studying Nuclear Warheads.The editor of the Iranian magazine Hamshahri Diplomatic, Rahman Qahremanpour, said that the February 2011 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency notes explicitly, for the first time, that Iran conducted eight studies on attaching nuclear warheads to ballistic missiles.Read the full story here.

• Mubarak receiving treatment at Saudi hospital: report.A state-owned Egyptian newspaper on Wednesday said former president Hosni Mubarak was being treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, the latest media report about the ex-president's health that comes after the army denied earlier speculation.The army could not immediately be reached for comment on the al-Akhbar report. A military source had on Tuesday denied another media report that said Mubarak, 82, and his family tried to flee Egypt and afterwards Mubarak was hospitalized in Cairo.Wednesday's edition of al-Akhbar newspaper quoted "sources informed about the news" and said Mubarak was in Tabuk in Saudi Arabia receiving chemotherapy for one hour every five days for colon and pancreatic cancer. It reported his family was with him in the private wing of the military hospital.Hmmm.....Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.1,400% Increase in 'Honor Killings' in Turkey.If you Google News “sharia” right now you will find a lot of leftist and mainstream media writing about Tennessee being ignorant for considering anti-sharia laws. However, if you change “sharia” to “honor killing” in your search you will quickly realize that as Sharia spreads, so do honor killings. We’ve seen more cases in America lately, and there is a near genocide of women going on in Turkey involving honor killings in pro-sharia communities.As Turkey tries to gain entry into the European Union, new stats reveal a frightening trend in the treatment of women in the Islamic majority nation. From 2002-2009, which is the most recent data available, cases of women being murdered in Turkey has grown 1,400%. There were 66 known cases in 2002 and 953 in 2009. And the vast majority of these cases are related to Muslim men punishing their wives, daughters, or sisters for shaming their religion. Even worse, other research shows up to 40% of Turkish women have been abused physically or sexually.Every day there are more horror stories, Hatice Firat is just one of the latest examples. The 19 year old girl ran away from home with her boyfriend about a month ago. Her family eventually located her and convinced her to come home. Shortly after, Firat’s brother took her for a walk on the beach, and then he plunged a knife into his sister’s chest 40 times. He was following the will of their family and what they believed was the will of Allah.Firat’s family would not bury their daughter or go to the funeral. Around fifty women paid for it and marched chanting for the end of such violence against women : "We are not going to be anyone's honor," "End honor killings," "Hands that hurt women should be broken."Stories like Firat’s are more than daily occurrences in Turkey,Pakistan, and many other parts of the Muslim world. And recent cases in the United States show it is a growing problem here too. But while women’s groups are becoming more outspoken in Turkey, feminist organizations are silent in America. And to make matters worse, our media continues to argue there is nothing to fear with the spread of Sharia.Europe is looking at Turkey and their own problems and our finally starting to see the dangers. When will America do the same? How many women will be abused or killed before we do?Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Turkey's first openly gay referee adamant to continue battle.Turkey’s first openly gay referee says he will not stop his legal battle against the national football’s governing body for blocking him from his profession as a match official.Former football referee Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ first became known to the public in 2008, when it emerged that the Turkish Football Federation, or the TFF, stripped him of his rights to officiate matches.Dinçdağ was then forced to leave his job because he had been excused from his compulsory military service on account of his homosexuality, which was documented in a medical report. According to the sport's regulations, anyone who fails to complete his military service for health reasons is unfit to perform as a referee.The 35-year-old filed a criminal complaint against the Turkish Football Federation and sought compensations up to 110,000 Turkish liras for damages.“First, I was forced to quit refereeing, which I love most. I also had to quit my job as a speaker at a radio station, which I was doing for 16 years. I have been unemployed for a long time and it hurt my soul very much. I even have trouble paying for the expenses of this tribunal.”“I will not back down from this legal battle, which I started to get my rights back,” he said. “I believe I am right and we will see it at the end of this case. But if the decision is made against me, I will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.”“Everybody knows that there are many gay referees in European football. It is sad to see it as a disaster in Turkey while it is normal in the world.”Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Tunisian Islamist leader embraces Turkey, praises Erbakan.Turkish political experience “inspires the Arab world,” the leader of Tunisia’s newly legalized Islamist movement “Ennahda” (Awakening) said Wednesday during a meeting with journalists in Istanbul.Rached Ghannouchi, who was in exile during the era of ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, came to Turkey to attend the funeral Tuesday of the country’s first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan. He told the mostly Turkish and Arab journalists at the meeting that Turkey serves as an example for budding Tunisian democrats.“We are learning from the experience of Turkey, especially the peace that has been reached in the country between Islam and modernity; it is a true example [to the Arab world],” Ghannouchi said.His press conference took place at the Istanbul headquarters of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, a Turkish Islamic charity that led the Gaza-bound aid flotilla raided by Israeli commandos in May, an operation that resulted in the deaths of nine activists.Ghannouchi compared Erbakan to the intellectual forefathers and founders of the Muslim Brotherhood. “In the Arab world in my generation, when [people] talked about the Islamic movement, they talked about Erbakan. When they talked about Erbakan, it is comparable to the way they talked about [Brotherhood founders] Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb,” he said.Asked his thoughts on the two Brotherhood figures, Ghannouchi did not shed light on whether his ideological beliefs were close to theirs. “Hassan al-Banna and Yusuf al-Qaradawi [another theologian] are not the only believers [in Islam] in the world. There are 1.5 billion believers on Earth,” he said.In his remarks, Ghannouchi also touched on the freedom of the press, mentioning at least once that Turkey’s free press is an inspiration to the Arab world. “Freedom of the press is something we should nurture; protection of the news is a sort of liberation,” he said.Hmmmm....We're talking about the same Erbakan who claimed in an interview that Jews believe they "will destroy – Allah forbid – Al-Aqsa mosque and in its place build Solomon's temple,"and said the Muslims, by contrast, "became the masters. We [the Muslims] ruled for 11 centuries. But unfortunately, in the last three centuries the children of Israel have grabbed this material power. Now they control the world that we live in."Read the full story here.

• Turkish police detain 11 more journalists in coup probe.Turkish police detained an award-winning journalist Thursday in a fresh move against the media as part of a controversial coup probe, fuelling accusations of a campaign to bully government opponents.Armed with detention orders, police raided the homes of 11 people, most of them journalists, following a similar operation last month that sparked an outcry over press freedom in EU-aspirant Turkey and drew U.S. criticism, Anatolia news agency reported.The suspects included Nedim Sener, an investigative reporter for the Milliyet daily and author, who last year received the International Press Institute's "World Press Freedom Hero" award for a book that put blame on the security forces in the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.Television footage showed police leading Sener into a car, as neighbors applauded the journalist in a protest at the operation.Following his colleagues' arrest, he wrote: "I am being told it is now my turn... How horrible! Has prison become the place for those who tell the truth and raise their voice?"Washington at the time expressed "broad concern about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey."Three other newsmen, two of them writers of odatv.com, and a popular academic were detained as of Thursday afternoon after police completed a search at their homes in Istanbul and Ankara, Anatolia said."You touch them, you get burnt," journalist Ahmet Sik, who was working on a book critical of the police, shouted as officers led him out of his home, the agency reported.Hmmmm......Ghannouchi Turkey’s free press is an inspiration to the Arab world ,i wonder did he mean Iran by that?Read the full story here.

• France - Revolution coming soon to a neighbourhood near you?Questions are also emerging about whether the spirit of revolt might also take root among Europe-based Arabs, who often accuse their host countries of racism and blame the colonial past for many of their woes."All of these problems that led to revolutions in the Arab world are also daily life in France and are more and more unbearable," Yacine Djaziri, whose Bondy Blog chronicles life in immigrant-heavy Paris suburbs that exploded in riots in 2005, wrote recently."How do we fix it? Do we need to set ourselves on fire? Be resigned? Get angry? Revolt?"Balanced with fears are calls for hope and solidarity: some European officials on Monday proposed a Marshall Plan for the Middle East, drawing an explicit parallel to the continent's U.S.-funded reconstruction after World War II that testifies to the magnitude of the drama unfolding across the Mediterranean.But Europeans ask: who's going to pay when they're engulfed in a debt crisis that threatens to darken the future of an entire generation? "Germany pumps enough money into foreign countries already," said Marcel Mueller, 27, who works in the service industry.Hmmmm.......Not forgetting the 'Outreach to Muslims' in france by the Obama administration.Read the full story here.

• Police quiz Pakistani stepfather of missing California girl, 13, who fled her home in terror 'to avoid arranged marriage.A 13-year-old schoolgirl who was missing for more than a week ran away because she was terrified by her mother and stepfather's alleged plot to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, police claimed today.Jessie Bender's parents are accused of keeping their plan secret from detectives after reporting that she had disappeared from their California home.Their claim that Jessie was abducted by a Facebook predator was proved false after she was discovered hiding with a relative at a hotel about 30 miles from her home in Hesperia, California.Speaking to MailOnline, Hesperia Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Roxanne Walker said Jessie's stepfather, Mohammad Khan - who is from Pakistan - and her American mother, Melissa, were planning an arranged marriage for the teen.'There was something to that effect in the works and the daughter was scared. 'She was found with the uncle who was protecting her from the parents,' said Ms Walker.One line of inquiry is whether there was any intention to involve Jessie in an arranged marriage in Pakistan while she was under age.Police also slammed the Bender family for 'misleading' them over Jessie's disappearance, wasting time and resources.But as they came up with nothing, their suspicions grew that Jessie's disappearance had nothing to do with a Facebook friend. Then a relative, now known to be an uncle, led police to the Apple Valley hotel where Jessie was hiding, and the real reason for her disappearance was revealed. It is not clear what relatives Jessie has in Pakistan although it is believed her stepfather Mr Kahn may have connections there.Jessie and her three siblings have been taken to child protective custody by county social services, and no arrests have been made.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Indian press go crazy on mega-bucks wedding.Groom gets copter as wedding gift, his barber gets $5,500.The groom wore a garland made of bank notes and received a helicopter as a gift, there were 18,000 guests - or perhaps it was 30,000 - and 1,000 workers took 40 days to prepare the venue.The exact details have been fiercely disputed, but Wednesday's newspapers in New Delhi were all in agreement that this had been one very big, very fat Indian wedding.Lalit Tanwar married his bride Yogita Jaunapuria at a family farmhouse near the city in a ceremony celebrated with 100 dishes, 12 giant TV screens to broadcast proceedings, and even a gift of $5,500 for the groom's barber.The Times of India calculated the cost of Tuesday night's extravaganza uniting two influential political families at one billion rupees ($22 million), while the Mail Today went for the less conservative figure of $55 million."I don't understand why there is so much hoopla about this marriage," the groom's father, Kanwar Singh Tanwar, told the Times. "All estimates of this marriage in the media are speculation."In the Indian Express, he was quoted as saying: "True, a Bell 429 helicopter was given but it was a simple wedding."The Hindustan Times reported that at a pre-wedding ceremony last week 2,000 guests were each given a silver biscuit, a safari suit and $500 in cash, while at a different ritual the bride's family welcomed the groom with gifts worth $5 million.The newly-weds, both 26, were heralded on Tuesday night by flowers and lights bedecking three kilometres (two miles) of roads leading to the function, where no meat or alcohol were served in line with Hindu tradition.Hmmmm.......One of the few things money can't buy is the gift of kindness,meet the other side of India!Read the full story here.