'Doctors without Morals' - What happened to the British medics who went to join terrorist group Isis?

What happened to the British medics who went to join terrorist group Isis are there more willing to join? (Guardian).

The Observer revealed in March that nine British medical students had crossed the Turkish border into Islamic State territory. As their families despair of seeing them again, what happened next?

It is almost four months since this newspaper revealed that he and eight other British-Sudanese doctors had crossed the Syrian border at Tel Abyad to join Islamic State and answer its call for doctors.

Since the Britons disappeared into Isis’s self-proclaimed caliphate, the Observer has collated testimony from family members, friends and former classmates – speaking for the first time, on condition of anonymity – in an attempt to reconstruct what happened to the five women and four men. Were they safe? Did they want to come home?

Their accounts reveal high-level talks took place to rescue the nine, that they remain in contact with their parents, and that more young British medics than previously thought may have travelled from the Sudanese capital to join Isis.

They also indicate that all were indoctrinated during their studies at Khartoum’s private University of Medical Sciences and Technology by a seemingly benign Islamic organisation that friends claim was a well-oiled “base operation” for Isis to recruit young medics.

More young doctors, they say, have been brainwashed by Isis and remain in Khartoum. Two weeks ago a second group of 12 medical students from the university, including seven Britons, arrived in Turkey in an attempt to cross into Syria.

So far, two brothers from Leicester have been intercepted on their way to the Syrian border and last week were returned to Khartoum. On Saturday night The Foreign Office confirmed it was working with Turkish police to try to prevent the remaining five Britons reaching Isis. At least 17 young British doctors are known to have attempted the journey from Khartoum to Syria. How many more are ready to follow?

“What is concerning is that the students who have gone are not the only ones recruited; there are reports of more students currently studying there who have been indoctrinated but have not been told to go,” said a sibling of one of the nine medics inside Syria.

It remains unclear if the British female doctors such as Lena have been married. Although many female foreign arrivals quickly become “jihadi brides,” activists in Raqqa say that Isis’s foreign doctors are viewed differently, allowing them to work unmarried. The caliphate’s strict segregation rules – female medics can operate only on women – and a shortage of female doctors have amplified their worth. Hmmm......Close down that Jihadi breeding nest.Read the full story here.

Sudan Frees Christian Mother Sentenced to Death.

Sudan Frees Christian Mother Sentenced to Death. (Heritage).

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, the 27-year-old mother of two condemned to death for her Christian faith, has been freed after a court in Sudan ordered her release today.

According to SUNA, Sudan’s official news agency, the Khartoum Court of Appeals canceled Ishag’s sentence and ordered all charges dropped.

Ishag’s lawyer, Mohaned Mostafa, told Reuters she was freed this afternoon and went to a safe house.
“Her family had been threatened before and we are worried that someone might try to harm her,” Mostafa said.

In May, a Sudanese court sentenced Ishag to 100 lashes for adultery for marrying a Christian man and to death by hanging for apostasy for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. She was given two years to live after giving birth to her daughter, Maya, while in shackles. Ishag’s 22-month-old son, Martin, and newborn daughter also were imprisoned.

Ishag’s husband, Daniel Wani, was born in Sudan but became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005. He resides in New Hampshire while his wife, a physician, awaits a visa to emigrate to the United States.

As the story of Ishag’s imprisonment spread, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry faced mounting pressure from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to condemn the Sudanese government. More than two dozen lawmakers sent Kerry a letter in May calling on  him to confront the Sudanese government.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced resolutions to bring international attention to Ishag’s case. Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., sponsored legislation to grant the woman and her children permanent residency in the United States.

Just one day after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Franks joined Christian groups for a rally outside the White House in support of Ishag, Kerry issued a statement appealing to the Sudanese government.
“I urge the Sudanese judiciary and government to respect Ms. Ishag’s fundamental right to freedom of religion,” he said.

President Obama has not commented on the case.

Following Ishag’s release, lawmakers and organizations calling for her release issued statements in celebration. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who wrote several letters to Kerry and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, said:

I am very pleased that the Sudanese court has reportedly cancelled Meriam Ibrahim’s death sentence and ordered her release. I continue to urge U.S. officials to work quickly and use all resources available to immediately provide Meriam and her family with safe haven in the United States.

Faith J.H. McDonnale, director of religious liberty at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which rallied in front of the White House, said:

In the plight of Meriam, the effects of Shari’a were personalized in the form of a courageous young wife and mother. The world reacted with outrage to just one example of the egregious human rights violations of the Shari’a state. It is time to connect the dots to the human rights violated by Shari’a all over the world.More here.

The post Sudan Frees Christian Mother Sentenced to Death appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Islamist Sudan To execute by hanging Eight months Pregnant Woman convicted of apostasy.

Islamist Sudan To execute by hanging Eight months Pregnant Woman convicted of apostasy.(webpronews).

A woman in Sudan married a Christian man. She is now 8 months pregnant with their child. A court in Sudan has now convicted her of apostasy and says they will hang her after she has given birth.

“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag. “I sentence you to be hanged to death.”

The woman was also convicted of adultery, for which she will receive 100 lashes. The adultery charge came, even though she is married, because her marriage to a Christian man is not valid under Islamic law.

Earlier in the proceedings, the judge had spoken with the Ms. Ishag for 30 minutes, trying to convince her to recant her faith and “convert back” to Islam.

“I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy,” she told him. Ms. Ishag was not raised a Muslim. Her father was a Muslim, but he was not around when she was raised. Her mother is an Orthodox Christian. Under Sharia law, since her father was a Muslim, she is considered a Muslim and has no choice. Therefore, by claiming to be a Christian, she is considered to have recanted her Islamic faith.

It was a family member who turned Ms. Ishag in to authorities, claiming she was an apostate for marrying a Christian man.

Groups supporting both sides of the issue protested outside the court. Those supporting the decision say that Sharia law must be upheld.

“This is a decision of the law,” one supporter of the verdict said.

Egyptian 'Christian' mummy has tattoo representing the symbol of the Archangel Michael

Egyptian 'Christian' mummy has tattoo representing the symbol of the Archangel Michael. HT: Telegraph.

New research is revealing the secrets of ancient mummies of the British Museum. Using CAT scanners and infra-red reflectography, new details about the mummies' lives have been uncovered, such as the angelic tattoo found on the inner thigh of a 1300-year-old Sudanese woman:

One of the mummies, whose remains were found just seven years ago, was so well preserved that archaeologists could almost make out the tattoo on her skin on the inner thigh of her right leg with the naked eye. Infra-red technology helped define it more clearly.

The woman, aged between 20 and 35, had been buried wrapped in a linen and woollen cloth and her remains had mummified in the dry heat. The tattoo has been deciphered by curators and spells out in ancient Greek – M-I-X-A-H-A, or Michael.

The owner of the tattoo was a woman who died in about AD 700 and lived in a Christian community on the banks of the Nile.

The tattoo represents the symbol of the Archangel Michael, who features in both the Old and New Testaments. The symbol has previously been found in ancient churches and on stone tablets, but never before in the form of a tattoo.

“You can see her tattoo really clearly using infra red reflectography,” said Dr Antoine, “The tattoo on her right inner thigh represents a monogram that spells Michael in ancient Greek.

“She is the first evidence of a tattoo from this period. This is a very rare find.” Read the full story here.

Video - Sudanese Woman Flogged Under Islamic Law for Riding in Car.

Video - Sudanese Woman Flogged Under Islamic Law for Riding in Car.HT: Aina.

A video has surfaced online showing Sudanese police repeatedly hitting a woman with a whip. For years, local women's rights groups have called for the repeal of a law that allows police to publicly whip women they say are breaking public decency laws.

The video was posted on September 15 by a Sudanese opposition media organisation. The journalist who uploaded the video says someone sent the video to him via email, but does not know who the email address belongs to nor when the incident took place. Judging by the accent of those speaking in the video, it was shot in the region of the capital Khartoum.

The incident takes place in a courtyard -- possibly at a courthouse -- with a crowd of bystanders watching on. A police officer whips a woman seated cross-legged and facing a wall, all while the person filming and another person next to them giggle. At 39 seconds, an officer tells the woman, called Halima: "This is so you don't get into cars anymore". An Observer in Sudan who has watched the video says it is not unusual for a woman to be punished with lashes if she is found in a car with a man who isn't from her immediate family (such as a husband, a father, or a brother).

Punishing women with lashes was written into law following the 1989 coup d'état and the arrival of Omar al-Bashir to power. However, this common practice only started attracting the international media's attention in 2009, when journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein was sentenced to flogging for wearing trousers. Since then, women's rights groups have campaigned for the abolition of article 152 of Sudan's law of 1991, commonly known as the law on public order, which allows for this type of punishment.
Nahid Jabr Allah is an activist for the Organisation for the Defence of Women's and Children's Rights in Sudan. She is taking part in a campaign calling for the law on public order to be repealed. She says:

It is unacceptable to subject a woman or a man to corporal punishment, regardless of the crime the person may have committed. It's a flagrant attack on human rights. In this video, the tormentors wanted to humiliate this woman, because in addition to being whipped, she is exposed to curious onlookers. The treatment is really degrading.
Authorities have set up a special police force, called the public order police, and special courts to deal with these sorts of offences. The legal process is unfair and rushed because in most cases, the accused is judged and sentenced on the spot without the presence of a lawyer, nor any sort of legal assistance.
This is why we have been working for months on repealing this law, which is outdated and insulting to the Sudanese people. Currently, we are working on a campaign supporting a journalist, Amira Osmane, who was arrested for refusing to wear a headscarf. We will fight until these charges are dropped.

Two Sudan Coptic priests arrested after 'baptism'.

Two Sudan Coptic priests arrested after 'baptism'.(AA).Two priests from the Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan have been arrested after the religious conversion of a Muslim in the Islamist-run state, church sources said.
“I understand there was someone from the Arab origin that accepted Christ and was baptized by them,” leading to their arrest within the past few days, one religious leader told AFP.
Other religious sources confirmed the incident but Khartoum’s Coptic Bishop Elia was not immediately able to comment.
Under the 23-year Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s minority Copts have not experienced the violence suffered by their brethren in Egypt, where sectarian attacks surged after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and saw Islamists rise to power.
But a little-known group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Nilien States sent a statement to Sudanese journalists on Tuesday threatening violence against Copts unless the woman who converted and was “kidnapped” by the Christians is returned.Read the full story here.

'Khartoum allowing Iran to establish Red Sea base'.

'Khartoum allowing Iran to establish Red Sea base'.HT:IsraelMatzav.(JPost).Sudanese opposition groups accused Khartoum this week of reaching a secret agreement with Tehran to establish an Iranian military base on the Red Sea. Anti-government newspaper Hurriyat Sudan cited an unnamed opposition source on Monday as saying that the Sudanese government had struck a deal with Iran for building a base on the Sudanese coast.
Meanwhile, Sudanese rebel group The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Sunday that Sudan’s President Omar Bashir has reached a “very advanced” arrangement with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to establish a naval base either in Port Sudan or elsewhere on the Red Sea, according to the Sudanese anti-government news outlet Al Rakoba.
The accusations came after two Iranian naval vessels, the 1,400-ton frigate Jamaran and the 4,700-ton support ship Bushehr, docked in Port Sudan on Saturday morning.
Mahjoub Hussein, a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement, said that the visit of the Iranian warships, the second in recent months, was not intended as a message to Israel but rather to test regional opinion regarding the establishment of an Iranian military base.
According to reports in the Sudanese press, Sudan’s army spokesperson Colonel Al- Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad said on Friday that the visit by the Iranian military vessels is part of a “military exchange” with Iran. The ships are scheduled to stay for three days, during which they will be open for view by the public.
The Iranian Navy has also extended its reach throughout the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca.
By extending its naval presence as far as Sudan and the Red Sea, Iran would gain several advantages, including in regards to combating Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden but also in gaining control over the Red Sea shipping route, part of the channel through which Iran ships arms to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. An Iranian naval presence in Port Sudan would also upset Iran’s Sunni rival Saudi Arabia, located just across the Red Sea.
Iran previously dispatched warships to Port Sudan at the end of October, days after Khartoum accused Israel of carrying out an air strike against a munitions factory in the Sudanese capital. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied striking the Yarmouk complex but officials have repeated accusations that Sudan and Iran are coordinating to smuggle arms to the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
In response to the air strike, Bashir threatened to work toward acquiring “advanced weaponry” to counter “repeated Israeli attacks.”
Echoing Tehran’s terminology and rhetoric, the Sudanese leader said that Israel was “the Zionist enemy and Israel will remain the enemy,” Sudanese news sources reported.Hmmmm......Israel might soon bomb something else than an 'munitions factory'.Read the full story here.

Paging Dr. Dolittle - Sudan claims to have captured Israeli spy bird.

Paging Dr. Dolittle - Sudan claims to have captured Israeli spy bird.(Ynet).Three Days of the Condor, Sudan style: Sudanese media was a buzz Thursday, with news saying that Darfur authorities had captured a vulture carrying Israeli spy gear.
The suspect bird was found to be tagged with an Israeli GPS chip and a leg band labeled "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem." Khartoum's media claimed that the device was capable of taking photos and sending them back to Israel; but Israel's National Parks Service dismissed the allegation, saying that both the band and the GPS chip were nothing more than standard migration trackers.
Tensions between Israel and Sudan have been high since a mysterious airstrike leveled a major weapons manufacturing compound in Khartoum in October. Sudan blamed Israel for the raid. Jerusalem has remained mum on the subject.
The Opposition in Sudan was quick to mock the "spy bird" find: The country's Justice and Equality Movement featured the news on its website, asking: "How is it possible that the regime was able to detect one vulture, but was unable to detect the jets that bombed the arms facility?"
The website further ridiculed the authorities' report of the case, which lauded it as an "unprecedented achievement," saying that all state reports about the bird's seizure failed to mention whether the vulture was captured because the military's radar picked up on its GPS signal, or whether the bird just happened to be flying by.
Ohad Hazofe, an ecologist with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, confirmed that the bird was carrying Israeli tags, but said the vulture came to Israel from the Balkans, from which it migrates every year.
Wild birds that visit Israel as part of their migration paths are often tagged with various bands and sometimes GPS chips, to assist ornithologists in their studies.
The bird in question can fly a distance of 600km a day, Hazofe explained. "This is a young vulture that was tagged, along with 100 others, in October. He has two wing bands and a German-made GPS chip."
The device, he stressed, has no photography capabilities. "This equipment that can give out distance and altitude readings only. That's the only way we knew something had happened to the bird – all of a sudden it stopped flying and started traveling on the ground."Hmmm.....Another 'specimen' of the Mossad zoo. squirrels, sharks , vultures, beeeaters.....Etc.Read the full story here.

United Nations - Genocidal Sudan elected to UN's Sudan to human rights panel.

United Nations - Genocidal Sudan elected to UN's Sudan to human rights panel.HT: IsraelMatzav - SunNews. The United Nations has placed Sudan on its panel that oversees human rights and the plight of women.

"Electing genocidal Sudan to a global human rights body is like choosing Jack the Ripper to guard a women's shelter." ~ Hillel Neuer.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected new member countries to its group this week, and Sudan won a spot on Africa's branch.
"Benin, Mauritius, Tunisia, South Africa and Sudan get elected in the UNECOSOC from the African States Group, congratulations to the new members of the UNECOSOC!" wrote Vuk Jeremic, the president of the 67th session of the United Nations general assembly in a tweet this week.
Africa has five seats on the 47 member council that includes Canada and other western countries.
The election to the post happened even though the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an international arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity and genocide, targeting blacks in the Darfur region.
The UN says more than 300,000 people have died during the armed conflicts in that region, most from disease.
Canada expressed disgust at the news.
"It is truly unfortunate the United Nations has chosen one of the world's worst offenders of human rights assume a post on ECOSOC," said Rick Roth, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, in an e-mail to QMI.
The United States doesn't seem to be overly concerned.
Although the U.S. took important action in September to pressure Sudan into withdrawing from this Monday's elections to the 47-nation Human Rights Council -- boosted by a massive campaign led my film star Mia Farrow and UN Watch -- the Obama Administration has been surprsingly silent on today's vote.
By contrast, in 2004, the U.S. ambassador famously walked out of ECOSOC after Sudan was elected.
According to insiders, Washington's silence on Sudan may stem from fear of upsetting African and Arab states in advance of America's own fragile bid for a UNHRC seat in the Nov. 12 vote.

Priorities man, priorities. But wouldn't it be great if Obama loses that 'human rights council' seat?
Al Bashir's regime will now help select the members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive board of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.
Under the U.N. Charter, ECOSOC is the principal organ legislating on matters related to “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
Importantly, ECOSOC is also the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the U.N., deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.
The dominant influence of tyrannies in ECOSOC's notorious 19-member "Committee on NGOs" has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive U.N. member states, or which speak for minority ethnic groups or for gay rights.
A watchdog group that monitors the UN was the first to highlight the election.
"It's an outrage," Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch said in a statement. "Electing genocidal Sudan to a global human rights body is like choosing Jack the Ripper to guard a women's shelter. This diminishes the credibility of the United Nations human rights system and casts a shadow upon the reputation of the organization as a whole."Hmmmm........But don't you just feel what a great effect Obama has had on the UN? 'CHANGE'?Read the full story here.

Sudan - Israeli planes bombed weapons factory near Khartoum.

Sudan - Israeli planes bombed weapons factory near Khartoum.(AA).Sudan said on Wednesday that four planes had bombed a weapons factory in Khartoum the previous night, blaming Israeli for the surprise raids. “We think Israel did the bombing,” Sudan’s Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman Sudan said on Wednesday that four planes had bombed a weapons factory in Khartoum the previous night, blaming Israeli for the surprise raids. “We think Israel did the bombing,” Sudan’s Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman  told a news conference. “We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose.” The foreign ministry of Israel, which has long accused Khartoum of serving as a base for militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, refused to comment. Osman said four aircraft were involved in the attack, which occurred at about midnight (21:00 GMT) at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in the south of the Sudanese capital. Evidence pointing to Israel was found among remnants of the explosives, he said. Residents of the area earlier told AFP an aircraft or missile flew over the facility shortly before it exploded and burst into flames. An AFP reporter several kilometers (miles) away saw two or three fires flaring across a wide area, with heavy smoke and intermittent flashes of white light bursting above the state-owned Yarmouk factory. “I heard a sound like a plane in the sky, but I didn't see any light from a plane. Then I heard two explosions, and fire erupted in the compound,” said a resident who asked to be identified only as Faize. A woman living south of the compound also reported two initial blasts. “I saw a plane coming from east to west and I heard explosions and there was a short length of time between the first one and the second one,” she said, asking not to be named. “Then I saw fire and our neighbour's house was hit by shrapnel, causing minor damage. The windows of my own house rattled after the second explosion.” Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein and senior officials visited the site of the explosion and held an emergency meeting with top army generals while security forces sealed off the area surrounding the complex and halted traffic. In 1998, the United States cruise missiles bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory suspected of links to al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the terror group's bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Sudan has been a major hub for al-Qaeda militants and a transit for weapon smugglers and African migrant traffickers.Read the full story here.

Sudanese Preacher Sheik Muhammad Al-Amin Ismail Accuses Shiites of Distributing Anti-Sunni Toy Guns

Sheik Muhammad Al-Amin Ismail: I've brought you an example [of toys manufactured by Shiites]. We all hope that the brothers who supervise these products, and their import and export, will ban products such as these.  Holds up a toy pistol The sound might not be so clear through the microphone. Why do they do this? Shoots the pistol, which emits shooting sounds and a metallic voice:  "Go, go, go. Pull over. Save the hostages."

Sheik Muhammad Al-Amin Ismail: It says: "Shoot 'Aisha" [the Prophet Muhammad's wife]. This is for children. "Shoot 'Aisha."

Pistols. This one costs five Sudanese liras, this one costs seven liras, and there is a large one that costs 20 liras. Again, the sound goes: "Shoot 'Aisha."

Toy pistol sound: "Go, go, go. Pull over. Save the hostages."

Sheik Muhammad Al-Amin Ismail: "Shoot 'Aisha." Until when? Source .

Leaked report hints at Sudan war crimes.

Satellite images appear to show mass graves, body bags and Sudanese forces in South Kordofan region. A leaked UN report says war crimes may have been committed in the Sudanese region of South Kordofan.The report accuses both sides of targeting civilians but it states that the government in Khartoum has been "egregious".The oil-producing region borders the newly created nation of South Sudan.It has seen intense fighting in recent months between the Sudanese army and local rebels.The conflict has displaced some 70,000 people.(Al-Yazeera).

MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 04. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

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

• Yemen Live Blog - June 04 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.8  ! activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 128.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic. Situation Update No. 33
  On 04.06.2011 at 04:10 GMT+2. So far, 18 people have died from the strain, which is the deadliest outbreak of E. coli in modern history. Source.

• US: Peace summit instead of flotilla.(Ynet).Turkish newspapers say Washington considering asking Ankara to host Israeli-Palestinian conference in exchange for stopping Gaza-bound sail, ending diplomatic crisis with Jerusalem.The American administration is considering offering the Turkish government a deal, which would see Ankara hosting a peace conference attended by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in exchange for restoring its relations with Jerusalem and stopping the Gaza-bound flotilla planned for late June, Turkish newspaper Zaman reported Friday. According to the flotilla organizers, vessels from several European countries will leave Turkey towards the end of June.Turkish daily Hurriyet quoted sources as saying that the United States would officially ask Turkey to host an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in exchange for stopping the flotilla and ending the diplomatic crisis with Israel. According to the offer, the summit will continue previous gathering held in the past, including the 1991 Madrid Conference and the secret Oslo negotiations in 1993. A US State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that his country had raised its concerns with the Turkish government regarding any flotilla sailing towards the Gaza Strip. According to the US, any flotilla would be considered an act of provocation since there is already an effective protocol to transfer humanitarian aid into Gaza.State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner raised the issue during a daily press briefing in Washington, saying that in recent conversations with the Turkish government the US warned against organizations planning to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza. "We’ve raised our concerns with the Turkish Government as well, and we’ve also met and said publicly as well as privately, meeting with some of these NGOs, about the risk for attempting to break this blockade," said Toner. "We have made clear through the past year that groups and individuals who seek to break Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that entail a risk to their safety. I think I’ve talked about this specifically."Toner reiterated that "there are established and efficient mechanisms for getting humanitarian assistance through to Gaza, and that’s been our message consistently".Hmmmm.....IF this is true, then why allow the US ship "Audacity of Hope " to leave for Gaza?Nice try Hussein!Read the full story here.

• Was the Faith of Jerusalem discussed in Rome, between the Pope , Biden and Abbas?Was Vice -President Biden in Rome meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also?(CNSnews).U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, a pro-abortion rights Roman Catholic, met with Pope Benedict XVI in an unannounced visit at the Vatican on Friday.Vatican officials said the meeting was strictly private and U.S. officials declined to give details.Biden, who was in Rome to mark Italy's 150th anniversary as a unified nation, is an observant Catholic who nevertheless supports abortion rights. Benedict has long insisted that Catholic politicians follow church teaching on such "nonnegotiable" issues as abortion, which the Vatican strongly opposes.The Vatican did not release a photo of Biden and the pope. The media only learned of the meeting when journalists at the Vatican to cover Benedict's meeting with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas spotted Biden's car in the Vatican courtyard.Hmmmmm........Someone hiding big secrets?Read the full story here.

• Woman handing out the Koran and talking religion outside Outside Bloomington Library Stabs two people.(CBS).Two people were stabbed in a seemingly random attack at a Twin Cities library.After the incident Wednesday night at the Oxboro Library in Bloomington, 35-year-old Samira Abdalla Salim was arrested.Salim was no stranger to the Oxboro Library. She had a reputation for handing out the Koran and talking religion outside the building.“They had some issues with her harassing other patrons,” said Bloomington Police Commander Mark Stehlik.But it’s what investigators say she did on Wednesday night that surprised everyone. “I never thought she would do that. She was very nice,” said Anisa Ahmed, Salim’s neighbor. Salim is accused of stabbing two people. The first victim was a woman who was walking into the library.“The next thing she knew, she felt a sharp pain in the middle of her back and realized she had been stabbed,” said Stehlik.The second was a security guard who heard the victim’s cry for help. He went to talk to Salim in the parking lot.“Spoke to her briefly and then she actually stabbed him as well. Stabbed him in the abdomen,” said StehlikBecause Salim lived next door to the library, witnesses identified her right away and she was arrested in minutes.“Nobody was worried about her committing a violent act,” said Stehlik.Fourteen-year-old Ahmed lives next door to Salim and only knows a friendly lady whose kids were friends with her sisters.“She’d greet us every morning … and she’d get to know us,” said Ahmed.Now the question everyone wants answered is why a woman who was not seen as a threat suddenly became violent.“It’s unusual. Somebody minding their own business, walking into library, it doesn’t happen too often where they become victim of assault like this,” said Stehlik.The victims had minor injuries. Police say they weren’t stabbed with a knife but a sharp, pointy object.Hmmmm....."The Djinnis made me do it"?Read the full story here.

• Proof that S.F.’s circumcision ban Is anti-Semitic.(InfidelBloggers).As you may have heard by now, San Francisco will be voting this November on whether or not to ban circumcision in the city.Defenders of the measure say it’s all about “human rights” and “protecting babies” from unnecessary procedures.But critics suspected there was something vaguely anti-Semitic about the whole proposal, since among Jews (and Muslims, as well) circumcising male babies is a religious duty, not just a mistaken medical procedure.Ban proponents insisted their proposal had nothing to do with Jews — really, it’s all about the rights of children.Well, any doubt that they were lying have now been dispelled, with the publication of new campaign literature for the upcoming circumcision ban. The campaign comic book, called “Foreskin Man,” after its baby-saving superhero, features a litany of evil Jews doing battle with blond Nordic saviors.Anyway here's the team of the 'cartoon':

Written and Edited by Matthew Hess

 Pencilled and Inked by Gledson Barreto

Colored and Lettered by Ian Sokoliwski

Gledson Barreto is a28 years old, I am natural of the city of Jaguaribe-Ce. It concludes the university in History in the year of 2006, for University of Philosophy Dom Aureliano Matos. Now I am municipal public employee, more specifically of the City councils of Lemon tree of the North, city where I live. In the spare times I work as designer, being that one of my passions. I adore to draw!!! In that area, now drawing for Ed Benes Studio.Ed Benes of DC Comics, the US publishing giant, will publish the first of six special crossover issues in which The 99 will be fighting crime alongside the Justice League of America, the fictional superhero team that includes Superman and Batman.Gledson is also A get watchers member.

The Acceptance criteria and submission rules:

NO pornographic content

NO extreme violence and/or gore/horror

NO racism.Hmmmm......I don't know if the comic will stay below  the 'racism' threshold?Just strange not to use an American artist ,but an Brazilian .......unless DC comics proposed to use him.Read the full story here .

• Sobibor museum shuts on fund shortage.(Ynet). Lack of funds forces exhibition hall at former Nazi death camp in Poland to close, drawing protests from Jewish groups.A lack of funds has forced a museum housing the former Nazi death camp of Sobibor to close, drawing protests from Jewish groups over the fate of a site where up to 350,000 Jews perished. Poland's culture ministry said on Friday it would take charge of the museum, located in the southeast of the country, from next year, but it was not clear who would care for the 25-acre site in the interim period.The closure comes less than a month after a German court convicted former Nazi prison guard John Demjanjuk for his role in the killing of 28,000 Jews at Sobibor during World War II. Demjanjuk, 91, is appealing against the court verdict. "We have ceased all activity at the site. We cannot afford to keep the place orderly and tidy, it's been completely abandoned. It's hard to accept this," said Marek Bem, spokesman for the museum he co-founded in 1994. Until now, funds from the local municipality and private donors have financed the museum. "It is immoral in a way that the site is largely supported by a very dynamic group of victims' families, while the heirs of the perpetrators are nowhere to be seen," said Bem. The museum needs up to 3 million zlotys ($1.10 million) annually to function and to conduct research, he added.The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants issued a statement deploring the closure."The demands of history and our obligation to the education of future generations must be respected so that this solemn place remain open. Whatever the price of memory, the cost of forgetfulness is so much greater," it said, noting the timing of the move shortly after Demjanjuk's conviction. The group later issued a separate statement welcoming the Polish culture ministry's intervention Poland was home to the largest Jewish population in Europe and the second largest in the world before the Nazi German invasion of 1939. Most of its Jews perished in the Nazi camps including Sobibor and nearby Belzec, Treblinka and Majdanek. Set in a swampy forest, Sobibor became the final destination for many Jews not only from Poland but from a number of other European countries. Bem said 13 survivors of the Sobibor camp were still alive.Two years ago, Poland appealed for international financial help to maintain the Auschwitz site. Germany and Britain are among countries that have made donations.Read the full story here.

• Kate and Wills enjoy a day at the races... and the Queen keeps smiling even though her horse finished third at the Derby.(DailyMail).Newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were all smiles today as they enjoyed a day at the races, accompanied by royal jester Prince Harry. The trio were clearly enjoying a chuckle as they made their way into the royal enclosure at today's Investec Derby at Epsom.Even the Queen managed to keep a smile on her face, in spite of the fact her horse lost its race.Despite being a favourite to win the Derby in today's race tournament, colt Carlton House - the 5-2 favourite - finished third of the 13 runners.Hmmmm.....Is it me or has Prince William forgotten to slip on his wedding ring?Read the full story here.

• 'No calm in Mideast as long as Israel exists'.(Ynet).Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterates call against Jewish State, says 'as long as Zionist regime exists, if only on a small piece of land in Palestine, the region will not see tranquility'.Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday repeated his assertion that there will be no tranquility in the Middle East as long as Tehran's archenemy, Israel, continues to exist."As long as the Zionist regime exists, if only on a small piece of land in Palestine, the region will not see tranquility" he said to a crowd gathered at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of the revolutionary leader's death."So all the people of the region shall move towards the disappearance of American domination in the region and the disappearance of the Zionist regime," Ahmadinejad said in the speech, which was broadcast live on state radio.Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also made comments, saying that Iran backs "the undivided country of Palestine which belongs to the Palestinians.""Palestine will return to the arms of Islam, without any doubt," he added. Iran has not recognized Israel since the 1979 Islamic revolution and backs Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups fighting against it.in late May reacted to President Barack Obama's landmark speech on the Middle East, dubbing the idea of the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as a "satanic plan" doomed to "fail."Obama said in the speech in mid-May that the borders of Israel and Palestine "should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states."Hmmmm.....Honestly Mahmoud you're become a bit of a bore ,always the same tune.Read the full story here.

• Saudi Teen wife killed by 62-year-old husband’s gun.(Emirates247).An 18-year-old Saudi woman died after she was shot by a gun owned by her 62-year-old husband and police are investigating whether it was suicide, a newspaper reported on Saturday.Police rushed the unnamed women to hospital but she died on arrival, Almadina said in a report from the southern province of Jazan.“Police found that the gun belongs to the victim’s husband…they are investigating whether it was suicide or she was shot by some one else.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Egypt reopens Rafah crossing after Palestinian breach.(JPost).Video -After bus loads of passengers left waiting at the shut Rafah border, angry Palestinians force gate open; tensions grow between Hamas and Egypt.Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza Saturday afternoon, after dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza stormed the crossing's iron gate. According to Israel Radio, Egypt had delayed the border's opening Saturday morning by nearly three hours. Palestinian border officials said three buses filled with 180 passengers had waited several hours to cross the border at Rafah, the Hamas-ruled gateway to Egypt, and some of those waiting responded by forcing the gate open."We have not been notified of any reason for the closure, passengers are angry," one of the officials told Reuters.Palestinian news channel Ma'an reported that Egyptian authorities said the border was closed due to "works" in progress. The unexpected closure came only days after Egypt announced that the number of travelers allowed to cross into Rafah would be limited to between 350 and 400 people a day.The new restrictions strained relations between Hamas and Egypt less than a week after the border crossing was reopened.Salameh Baraka, director of Hamas’s border crossing police in the Gaza Strip, denounced the restrictions as unreasonable, said they were a setback and called on Cairo to reconsider its move.He added that the Egyptians justified the restrictions by arguing that they were unable to accommodate more than 400 people per day.The Egyptian envoy to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Othman, denied that the restrictions were the result of external pressure on the Egyptian authorities. He said there was no change in Egypt’s decision to reopen the border crossing and blamed technicalities and logistics for the delays and limits.Read the full story here.

• Sudanese Christian Woman Arrested for Evangelizing; Another is Attacked.(OpendoorUSA).In Darfur Region in northwestern Sudan, Hawa Abdalla Muhammad Saleh was arrested on May 9 in the Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, sources told Compass News. Abdalla has yet to be officially charged, but authorities have accused her of possessing and distributing Bibles to others in the camp, including children. Sources said she could also be tried for apostasy, which carries the death sentence in Sudan. Abdalla has been transferred to an unknown location in Khartoum, sources said, adding that they fear she could be tortured, as she was previously detained and tortured for six days in 2009. The arrest comes as northern Christians become more vulnerable to official and societal pressure with South Sudan set to split from the predominantly Muslim north on July 9.At the same time, in Khartoum, a Christian mother of a 2-month-old baby was wounded because she and her husband left Islam for Christianity. On May 4, knife-wielding, masked assailants attacked Omar Hassan and Amouna Ahamdi, both 27. Hassan told Compass News that his wife was injured while trying to protect him.This recent attack was not the first for Ahamdi. Earlier, before she met and married Hassan, her brother had stabbed her three times in the stomach, seriously injuring her spleen after she told him she had become a Christian. In the violent outburst, her brother also broke her left leg. She was rushed to a local hospital where she met Hassan, also a convert who had also suffered for his faith. Hassan had heard about her suffering and had gone to visit her while she healed from the injuries. After a partial recovery, Ahamdi was discharged back to the hostile home where she had been attacked. “You don’t deserve to be a member of my family,” her angry father shouted at her, she said. Her family locked her in a room, shackled to a wooden chair, and severely beat her for a month. “They shaved all my hair and my father whipped my head,” Ahamdi said. “But neighbors used to sneak in secretly, and provided me food and water.”“I found a chance to escape to the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS), where I got married to Hassan,” she said. Her health however continued to deteriorate, and the doctors recommended she be transferred to Khartoum for specialized treatment. “With a small amount of money, we managed to reach Khartoum by train, where my uncle hosted us, not knowing that we were Christians,” she said. Hassan had also suffered greatly for his faith. Born the son of an imam belonging to the Ansar Al-Sunna, a sect of Sunni Muslims, he started questioning the Quran while accompanying his father on a preaching mission. A high-profile Muslim from Europe happened to be in the area, and young Hassan asked him questions about Muhammad and Jesus. He found no immediate answers and decided to be without faith. His father became so angry that he denied Hassan all basic needs. Hassan began comparing Christianity and Islam with a workmate. His friend invited him to visit a church, and Hassan also began attending a Bible study. Hassan said he began having dreams and visions and heard a voice saying, “This is the way.” He told this to a church pastor, who said that it referred to Jesus saying it of Himself in John 14:6. “A desire for attending church grew in me, and thereafter I got baptized,” Hassan said. “One morning, when I was on my knees praying, my father entered into the room and found me. He closed the door and invited seven relatives plus my elder brother, who started beating me with sticks and broke my shoulder. I almost lost my sight. My elder brother helped me escape to the pastor’s house.” When his father realized that he remained a Christian, he ordered him to leave and never return. This was in 2007. Over the next several years Hassan moved several times. The ESC congregation sent him to Shokaya Bible Institute for six months where upon completion he returned where he met and married Ahamdi in June 2010. Now living in Khartom, Hassan and Ahamdi depend on friends to provide them occasional food. They sometimes go without eating for days. In addition, they have been given notice to vacate Ahamdi’s uncle house after he discovered that they had converted. “Life is becoming unbearable for us here in Khartoum,” said Hassan. “We cannot deny Christ – this is a big challenge to us, because we do not have a place to go,” said Ahamdi, through tears. “We have no food, and we are jobless. I am still in pain, besides having a 2-month-old baby boy to care for.” Sudan (North) is number 35 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 countries of the world where persecution of Christians is most severe. The U.S. Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report 2010 notes that while Sudan’s Interim National Constitution provides for freedom of religion throughout the country, it establishes sharia (Islamic law) as a source of legislation in the north. Concern is growing as the July 9 date approaches when the referendum will be complete dividing the North and South into two separate states. Hmmmm........Where's the so called Christian President defender of the oppressed?Ah gone golfing ......again. His 13th outing this year and the 71st of his presidency.Read the full story here.

• Driver kills 3 Egyptian soldiers at checkpoint in the northern Sinai.(Emirates247).Egyptian security officials say a truck driver drove through a checkpoint in this northern Sinai city, killing three soldiers and badly injuring a fourth as they slept in their tent.The officials said Saturday that the man drove through a checkpoint while exiting the city of el-Arish, chasing away the soldiers manning it.The truck then swerved toward a roadside tent, killing three sleeping soldiers and badly injuring a fourth.The officials said the driver is in custody. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.They said it was not clear why the driver stormed the checkpoint.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely Different.Armchair astronaut discovers Mars 'space station' using Google earth.We have all heard of little green men from Mars.But now an American 'armchair astronaut' claims to have discovered a mysterious structure on the surface of the red planet - by looking on Google earth.David Martines, whose YouTube video of the 'station' has racked up over 200,000 hits so far, claims to have randomly uncovered the picture while scanning the surface of the planet one day.Describing the 'structure' as a living quarters with red and blue stripes on it, to the untrained eye it looks nothing more than a white splodge on an otherwise unblemished red landscape.He even lists the co-ordinates 49'19.73"N 29 33'06.53"W so others can go see the anomaly for themselves.In a pre recorded 'fly by' video of the object, Mr Martines describes what he thinks the station might be.He said: 'This is a video of something I discovered on Google Mars quite by accident. 'I call it Bio-station Alpha, because I'm just assuming that something lives in it or has lived in it.'It's very unusual in that it's quite large, it's over 700 feet long and 150 feet wide, it looks like it's a cylinder or made up of cylinders.'It could be a power station or it could be a biological containment or it could be a glorified garage - hope it's not a weapon. 'Whoever put it up there had a purpose I'm sure. I couldn't imagine what the purpose was. I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to live on Mars. 'It could be a way station for weary space travellers. It could also belong to NASA, I don't know that they would admit that. 'I don't know if they could pull off such a project without all the people seeing all the material going up there. I sort of doubt NASA has anything to do with this. 'I don't know if NASA even knows about this.'The 'discovery' is similar to that of the infamous 'face on Mars'Uncovered by the Viking 1 probe in 1976, a quirk of geography threw shadows over a small hill on the Cydonia region of Mars, making the inanimate rock look like a carved face.The picture was heralded as proof of an alien civilisation by some but was dismissed as a mere trick of the light by scientists at NASA.MailOnline has tried to contact both NASA and Goggle for a response to the image, but neither has replied.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                   Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 07. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 6.0 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 76.

Breaking New Eartquakes in Japan !Tsunami alert issued! Source.

07.04.2011 16:57:42       7.4 Asia Japan Honshu Ishinomaki EMSC

07.04.2011 17:00:14       7.4 Asia Japan Miyagi-ken Niiyamahama USGS-RSOE  Source.

• Breaking News :HT:IsraelMatzav.Two wounded in anti-tank missile attack on school bus ,one critical!They won't say whether the injured are children, but there are two people wounded - one seriously and one moderately - as a result of an anti-tank missile hitting a school bus in the Gaza envelope (I'm typing this as I listen - it happened at 3:17 pm Israel time).

The bus was traveling from Kibbutz Saad to Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza envelope area. Israel Radio is now confirming that the seriously wounded person is a child and is being taken by helicopter to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.Israel Radio said it might have been a mortar and not an anti-tank missile. This may be the statistical anomaly that the terrorists scored a direct hit.There was also a kindergarten hit.Police now saying that bus was hit by shrapnel from an 82mm mortar.Local residents now told to take shelter.Read the full live updated story here.

Related : Teen critically injured in attack on Negev bus.Initial report suggests mortar bomb or anti-tank missile fired from Gaza Strip hit bus driving near Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. A 16-year-old boy was critically injured. A 16-year boy was critically injured after a bus driving near the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council was hit by either a mortar bomb or an anti-tank missile rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The bus was hit in its rear side causing its windows to shatter. Security forces are evacuating the victims.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.General Dubik: Boots on the Ground in Libya Soon.“The way the United States and its allies have intervened in Libya has placed them on a dangerously slippery slope. Air power alone has not protected Libyan civilians, the declared objective in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorized the military intervention. Nor have the rebels proved capable of making significant advances against Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces. To effectively enforce the Security Council resolution, the coalition would need to put combat air controllers, advisors, and trainers on the ground — steps it appears unwilling to take. Where does that leave the coalition when it comes to developing a coherent war strategy? Mostly empty-handed.”Hmmm....."No American troops on the ground"Watch my hands sign the documents?Read the full story here.

• Um, Where’s My Crowd Screener?President Obama got some tough questions today at THE LAST UNSCREENED TOWN HALL HE WILL EVER BE DOING. Well, who knows, but you sure ain’t gonna see many events like this once the campaign heats up.He got probing and detailed queries during an event at an technology company outside of Philadelphia. These people, unlike the generalists in the White House press corps, knew exactly what they were talking about and weren’t holding back.Obama tried to kind of chuckle his way through it but wasn’t quite clever enough in his responses to pull it off, so he just seemed kind of oafish. I think I caught him gazing around for his teleprompter where perhaps Austan Goolsbee would be feeding him the answers..If Bush pulled this, the media would have already turned it into a failed IQ test.POLITICO has done a good job of splicing Obama’s uncomfortable moments together. Take a look.Read and see the full debacle here.

• Federal workers’ union preps government shutdown lawsuit.The largest union representing federal government workers may sue the Obama administration if there’s a government shutdown at the end of this week.With a shutdown looking increasingly likely by the hour as congressional Republicans and the White House stay stuck at an impasse, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees says the union will file suit against the federal government if it’s not clear that essential employees will be guaranteed pay for their work during the shutdown.“We’ve asked the Obama administration how they would guarantee employees’ pay, what the conditions are for essential employees to be paid,” John Gage, president of the 265,000-member union, told POLITICO on Wednesday. “Should essential employees be required to work without a guarantee of pay, we will file a lawsuit.”The shutdown battle is “more political theater than anything else,” Gage said, and it’s “deeply disturbing when people don’t know whether they’re going to be able to make a mortgage or pay their bills.” Government workers, he said, need more clarity about whether they’ll be required to work and whether they’ll be paid for that work.His request for more information has gone to Attorney General Eric Holder and to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry. Late Tuesday night, OPM published a brief overview of how a shutdown would work. Federal agencies do not have the authority to pay employees during a shutdown. Workers “excepted” during the shutdown would be paid for their work once the president signs a new appropriations bill or a continuing resolution, OPM said, but it’s up to agencies to determine who is excepted and who isn’t. Workers who are “non-excepted,” or furloughed, “are not permitted to work as unpaid volunteers for the government.”AFGE has already filed one lawsuit against the federal government over a possible shutdown. Last week, after not hearing back on Freedom of Information Act requests made to the White House Office of Management and Budget for details of how government agencies will handle the shutdown, the union sued OMB Director Jack Lew. “It’s inside baseball with the Obama administration about the lack of information coming from the agencies,” Gage said.In a statement, OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said it has taken “unprecedented steps to improve government transparency” as it plans for a government shutdown.“Plans for shutdown operations, which are governed by the law, remain in development and are pre-decisional at this time,” she said. “When plans are finalized and reviewed for sensitive information, we will work with agencies to provide to the public.”Read the full story here.

• Government shutdown will delay millions of tax refunds as economy goes into meltdown.Millions of tax refunds could be delayed if eleventh hour crisis talks over the budget deadlock fail to prevent a shutdown of government services on Friday.The Obama administration warned about the dire financial repercussions today with time running out to broker an agreement.Small business loans and government-guaranteed mortgages could also grind to a halt, sabotaging the U.S. economy’s faltering recovery.As many as 800,000 government workers are likely to be temporarily laid off and left in limbo waiting for federal funding to resume.The nation’s parks will be closed and Washington’s traditional springtime Cherry Blossom parade, one of the capital’s largest public events of the year that draws 100,000 visitors from around the world, would also be wiped out.Tempers are flaring today on both sides of the aisle with demands from Republicans and Democrats that leaders must find a compromise deal to break the budget impasse by midnight on Friday.If the shutdown goes ahead, the Inland Revenue Service will suspend processing tax refunds for people who file paper returns - about 30 per cent - according to government officials.President Obama said on Tuesday that he would have congressional negotiators back to the White House if they didn’t make any progress.But after a terse three-minute phone conversation this morning with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Mr Obama flew off for a series of scheduled appearances in Philadelphia and New York.He offered no comment on the crisis, just a friendly wave to supporters.Hmmm....So long suckers?Read the full story here.

• President Obama's New Anti-American Secretary of State. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she will not serve another term under President Obama. Who can blame her? She has become the face of a fecklessly reckless administration, a pathetic press relations lackey for the worst foreign affairs president in the history of the country.To replace her, Obama is reportedly looking to tap another prominent female diplomat. Her name is Samantha Power, and she bills herself as a human rights activist. A Yale University graduate, Power became a leftist foreign policy journalist for various major news organizations. She then came back to the United States, where she attended Harvard Law School.Her book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," implicated the United States in virtually every major genocide of the last century. As a fellow radical Harvard Law School grad, she quickly penetrated Barack Obama's inner circle and became his senior foreign policy adviser during the 2008 campaign.Now she is a member of the National Security Council, and according to media reports, successor to Hillary's throne. There's only one problem: Power is an anti-Israel fanatic and a myopic internationalist who couldn't care less about doing what is right for America.Not only does this ignore the fact that the human rights abuses in the Israel-Palestinian conflict have been almost universally attributable to the Palestinian Arabs, it throws our liberal democratic ally under the bus. But then again, Power is used to throwing allies under the bus. She, along with her NSC colleague Ben Rhodes, reportedly told President Obama to undercut Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in order to please the Arab street.Pleasing the Arab street seems to be first priority for Power. It was Power, along with Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who pushed President Obama to go to non-war in Libya. Her fingerprints cover this abortive military operation. The problem in Libya isn't that we have no exit strategy -- it's that we had no entrance strategy, no definable goals or reasons for being there.That is, no reason except for prevention of "genocide" as broadly defined by Power. Each time Obama cites the prevention of genocide as a rationale for intervention -- even as Muslims slaughter Christians wholesale in Darfur, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and kill non-radicals in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Samantha Power's ventriloquism shines through.Power is yet another theory-first, know-nothing liberal who places her vaguely cotton candy ideals above realistic appraisal of American interests. Unfortunately, her asinine ideas have disastrous real-world consequences. Consequences about which President Obama does not care, apparently. When it comes to the White House, idiocy loves company.Hmmmm......May God protect Israel and those who side with her.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Obama’s Islamic Envoy Getting a Pass… Again.As the American media debates whether a small Florida pastor’s actions have enflamed the Muslim world, a member of the Obama administration may have done far more damage when he spoke in Kabul, Afghanistan recently. Yet, Obama’s envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Confernce (OIC), a devout Muslim who has memorized the Qur’an, Rashad Hussain continues to fly under the proverbial radar. Why?General David Petraeus has condemned the actions of pastor Terry Jones but has said nothing of Hussain’s speech, which only served to encourage Islamic fundamentalists who endorse the murdering of innocents in Afghanistan recently in response to the Qur’an burning. In his February speech, Hussain said:

“I am of the opinion that one of the strongest tools that you can use to counter radicalization and violent extremism is Islam itself, because Islam rejects violent extremism.”

Regardless of one’s interpretation of Islam, fundamentalists in Afghanistan interpret such words coming from an envoy representing the White House as justification for outrage in response to Jones’s actions, especially when Islamic law calls for such violence when the Qur’an is defiled. Wasn’t our mission in Afghanistan supposed to be about freedom?The actions of an obscure pastor from a Florida church with a flock numbering in the double digits were met with scorn from our Commander in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a man with curious ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, who fed far more fuel to Islamic fundamentalists with words he spoke – in Afghanistan – on behalf of the President of the United States, got a pass.Last year, news broke that Rashad Hussain gave a speech at a Muslim Students Association (MSA) event in 2004, during which he expressed support for convicted Islamic terrorist fundraiser Sami al-Arian. Hussain blamed the publication and denied saying the words attributed to him. Then, POLITICO obtained a recording of the event and reported it.Hussain was caught in a lie and had to backtrack; he was not fired. One year later, he was in the Capital of Afghanistan preaching that his brand of Islam – which includes sympathy for a convicted terrorist – should be promoted in that country.The MSA is a group that resides under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella. In light of the pass Hussain received last year, the pass he’s receiving this year, and the disturbing world view the Obama administration official holds, isn’t the derision being directed at Terry Jones’s actions by our commander in Afghanistan grossly disproportionate in light of what’s known about Hussain? A General in the United States Army is choosing to attack a small Florida pastor while having no words for someone with far more power doing far more damage on the ground in Afghanistan.Indeed, isn’t it interesting that in virtually every Islamic uprising that’s been taking place lately, the actions of this administration with respect to the likes of Egypt and Libya coupled with its inaction in places like Iran, United States policies have consistently come down on the side of the Muslim Brotherhood? Perhaps that also explains the words of condemnation Petraeus has for Jones’s actions and the lack of words he has for Hussain’s.Hmmmm....."To protect the constitution"?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Confirmed: Israel behind Sudan airstrike; Saudis involved?Time Magazine Jerusalem bureau chief Karl Vick claims to have confirmed that the IDF was behind the air strike on Wednesday at Port Sudan in which Hamas' chief arms procurement agent was allegedly killed."This is absolutely an Israeli attack," Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters. He found in the air strike evidence of a plot to keep Sudan on the State Department's list of countries that support terror.Now wouldn't that be something if Israel had gotten permission to overfly Saudi Arabia on the way to the Sudan?On Thursday, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported that jailed Gazan engineer Dirar Abu Sisi gave Israeli intelligence 'valuable information' that led to the attack on the arms smugglers. According to the source, Abu Sisi passed along the sensitive information to Israel during his remand since he was abducted by a train in Ukraine last month.The source also told Al Jarida that Israel received valuable information on smuggling routes and cells operating from Sudan, through Egypt, and to Gaza, from a 'network' of southern Sudanese refugees who have migrated to Israel. Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• IDF arrests at least 100 women in West Bank village. News sources quote council head as saying soldiers entered Awarta after midnight, imposed curfew, rounded up dozens of women from homes. The IDF arrested more than 100 women from the Awarta village in the West Bank in connection to the ongoing investigation into the deaths if a couple and three of their children, including one baby, in the Itamar settlement last month, AFP reported Thursday. Awarta lies close to the Itamar settlement and Nablus. The local council head told AFP that the IDF had stormed Awarta shortly after midnight, imposing a curfew and beginning to round up women. Though the IDF has been conducting consistent raids in the last four weeks since the Itamar murders, this is the first time the IDF has arrested women, the local council head added.The IDF was yet to comment on the operation.Hmmmm....sounds like someone is doing a serious DNA investigation.Read the full story here.

• Turkish mission in Libya, NATO's missile defense program 'inter-linked'.While a European Union diplomat has linked Turkey’s involvement in Libya operation and the proposed missile defense shield for NATO, Turkish diplomats deny such a link, saying they are ‘two different concepts'.NATO’s deliberations over the Libya mission and Turkey’s involvement witnessed tough bargaining over recent weeks as a Western diplomatic source said the Turkish role and its contributions were loosely linked to the proposed missile defense system being debated by the trans-Atlantic alliance.“I think they are two inter-connected issues,” a European Union ambassador told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, requesting anonymity.He said Turkey was pressing hard for NATO, not the United States, to take command of the missile defense system set out in the alliance’s strategic concept adopted at last year’s Lisbon summit.About the Libya operation, Ankara, which was initially reluctant for NATO to be involved, changed its approach and provided one of the two NATO headquarters for monitoring the no-fly zone in the crisis-hit North African country. The Turkish base in İzmir was one of the two headquarters that NATO was planning to shut down last year.A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry diplomat, however, denied such a link, saying that they were “two different concepts.”Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, was the subject of discussions over a potential NATO missile defense system originally proposed by the United States during the Bush administration. It is unclear whether Turkey will actively participate in the proposed system directed against Iran, which much of the international community considers a threat due to its controversial nuclear program.In previous statements, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had laid down Turkish principles saying that Turkey was at the center of NATO; NATO should take into account “indivisible security,” meaning that the alliance should preserve each and every member state’s security; and Turkey does not perceive any threat in its neighborhood and does not plan to be a frontier country as it was during the Cold War era.The United States has often portrayed the missile defense system as a safeguard against a possible ballistic strike from Iran. At the time of the discussions about the strategic concept, Ankara was concerned that such a perception could damage its growing relationship with its neighbor. To Turkey's favor, NATO’s new strategic concept eventually avoided identifying any specific neighboring country, whether it be Iran or Syria. But it is still unclear if Turkey will allow the deployment of such a system in its soil and who will be in the command of this system.Hmmmm....It's becoming very obvious that Turkey will never act against Iran or perhaps will act with Iran against the West and America!Perhaps weakening NATO as we speak!Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• Turkey - Absolute’s democracy.There is a demand from the people of this land who are aware what democracy is for Turkey moving on to an “absolute democracy” while the bitter reality biting souls clearly underline the existence of an “Absolute’s democracy” or some sort of a “democratic governance” which is shaped at the discretion of the sole executive, decision-maker, legislator and indeed family planner.The army of opponents of the secular democratic Turkish republic’s founding principles or the Kemalist ideology often claim that Turkey moved on to democratic governance with the 1950 elections and the period in between the creation of the republic in 1923 and Turkey moving on to pluralist parliamentary democracy in 1950 was an era of dictatorship.As regards hegemony of political party leaders on the choice of the electorate, however, definitely, Turkey has a serious problem. On June 12 millions of Turks will go to the booths to elect their representatives. But, will they be voting for the candidates of their choice or the candidates already chosen by the party leaders?“I will make use of the friends I will leave outside of [candidate] lists at duties at the party headquarters,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told parliamentary deputies of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, this week. That short sentence is indeed the summary of the “fiasco democracy” that this country has. The ruling party claimed to have established its candidates through works of first six commissions. But, the prime minister says “he will make use” of those current deputies “he will” leave outside candidate lists. What he said was indeed a reaffirmation of the existence of a crooked democracy of absolute leaders – whatever it might be – in this country.Right, Erdoğan has publicly reaffirmed that he is the sole executive, decision-maker, legislator in short everything in the AKP. Are other party leaders, including the social democratic Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. much different than Erdoğan in view of their current performances? Yes, in less than a quarter of Turkish provinces Kılıçdaroğlu “allowed” his Republican People’s Party, or CHP to determine candidates through by-elections, but the CHP as well mostly prepared its candidate lists at the party headquarters. Not only there is a prime minister who believes he has absolute power but we have party chiefs who consider themselves “absolute leader.”The 10 percent threshold bans minority views from Parliament, leaders decide who should be the deputies to represent the nation, a court bans an unpublished book, over 60 journalists are behind bars (some allegedly of trying to stage a coup with their pens or typewriters). And, we still call this country a democracy? What an absolutes’ democracy!Hmmmm....Welcome to Turkey....Iranian style!Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Obama’s New Energy Policy: A Lesson in Stealth Socialism.His speech and policies utilize the bait-and-switch.President Barack Obama, facing political heat and plummeting poll numbers inevitably generated by rapidly rising gasoline and energy prices, is calling for a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade. How will this potentially laudable — but likely farcical — goal be accomplished?By boosting domestic energy production, offering incentives to increase the use of biofuels and natural gas, and making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient.

According to the AP and Fox:

Obama long has said the U.S. needs to reduce its dependency on oil — particularly from overseas sources — for financial, security and environmental reasons. In his State of the Union address in January, he set a goal of having 80 percent of U.S. energy come from clean sources like wind, solar and nuclear by 2035.

But what about domestic oil production?

The administration says it still sees vast opportunities to expand on domestic oil and gas production. An Interior Department report released ahead of Obama’s speech Wednesday said more than two-thirds of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle, neither producing oil and gas nor being actively explored by the companies who hold the leases. The department said those leases could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

And what about nuclear energy?

Officials said Obama also would reaffirm his support for nuclear power, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely damaged a nuclear power plant there.One might initially be tempted to see this as an admission of past failings and the adoption of new, rational policies to lower energy prices for Americans, but it is no such thing. In Clintonian fashion, it depends on what the meaning of “boost” is, but this is primarily one of the oldest cons in the book: bait-and-switch.Mr. Obama, as I’ve previously argued in these pages, is provably a socialist, but a particularly American kind: a stealth socialist. Stealth socialism is a matter of tactics. Stealth socialists, recognizing that an open Marxist agenda will never fly with the American people, adopt a patient, long-term strategy whereby they attain the same goals but through misrepresentation, misdirection, lies, and bait-and-switch. These are, coincidentally, the tactics of the con man. Having been a community organizer, Mr. Obama is particularly adept at these tactics and with the use of the primary vehicle for their implementation: rhetoric.

In Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, Stanley Kurtz carefully and convincingly documents stealth socialism and Mr. Obama’s full immersion in it. Stealth socialists are careful never to allow themselves to be known as socialists, which is certainly Mr. Obama’s practice. Mr. Kurtz does what the media would not do in 2008, and still scrupulously avoids: he investigates and reports on Mr. Obama’s associations, motivations, and the truth of his policies.Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.OBAMA: Get Used To High Gas Prices. “Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”High gas prices aren’t a bug, they’re a feature.

UPDATE: Rapid Reaction: I got an email from Haley Barbour’s office with this reaction: “Instead of changing his policies, President Obama is trying to blame the American people for skyrocketing gas prices by saying they should trade-in their cars.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Broderick writes:

“Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”I was confused when I clicked the link on your page and couldn’t find this quote. So I googled the quote. It shows up in all the google hits but when I click on those articles, it’s nowhere to be found. Looks like AP scrubbed it from all copies of the article! Nothing like a compliant media, eh? Hope you got a screenshot.

In fact, I did. And a good thing, because the story’s been almost completely rewritten. But the “memory hole” doesn’t work very well any more. Here, for the sake of history, is the story as it used to be. And if anyone from the Associated Press would like to email me to explain this change, I’m all ears.Hmmm....Don't drill......higher oil prices ...sell electric car?Read the full story here.

• Obama's friend Robert 'Bobby' Titcomb arrested in Hawaii prostitution sting.One of President Obama's close friends has been arrested in an prostitution sting operation.Robert 'Bobby' Titcomb, 49 - a long time friend of the President - was arrested after he allegedly approached an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute in the downtown area of Honolulu.Titcomb was one of four arrested during the sting, according to the Honolulu police department.The news could not have come at a worse time for Mr Obama, who has just launched his 'billion dollar' 2012 re-election campaign.Police have been conducting undercover operations in the downtown Honolulu area after reports from general public that the area was a hotbed for prostitution.Titcomb, 49, of Waialua, was arrested on suspicion of solicitation Monday night. He allegedly offered money for sex near the intersection of South Street and Pohukaina Street at about 9:40 pm.According to Hawaii News Now, Mr Obama and Titcomb have been close friends since high school and the pair often get together to golf and dine when the President visits the state.Titcomb has spoken to the press about the President on several occasions.Titcomb's father was a well known judge on the island for over 30 years, before he died in 2000 of a heart attack.Hmmm....A man is known by the company he keeps?Read the full story here.

• HRW report says PA abuses journalists.Harsh report from Human Rights Watch exposes abuse, harassment of journalists at hands of Palestinian Authority, Hamas security forces. The Palestinian Authority is happy to boast that it operates according to the values of democracy but when it comes to freedom of the press they seem to have followed the example of the Arab dictatorships.A harsh report published Wednesday by Human Rights Watch exposes the harassment, abuse and arrests of journalists in the West bank and Gaza Strip by Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces.The report documents the testimonies of journalists who were beaten and arrested for no apparent reason. Some noted that among other things, Palestinian Authority officials confiscated their equipment. The report also expresses harsh criticism towards the Palestinian leadership for not acting to prevent the beatings and harassment, or trying to punish those that carry out the acts. This is why the report determined that the actions taken against the journalists reflect Palestinian government policy. Moreover, the report reveals that reporters in the Palestinian territories have become part of the ongoing struggle between Fatah and Hamas. As attempts of reconciliation between the two factions increased in recent months – so have the number of attacks carried out by security forces against members of the press. In one of the cases described in the report 15 members of plain-clothes Hamas' security forces raided the Reuters news agency offices in the Gaza Strip, smashed computers, beat journalists, aimed a weapon at one journalist and threatened to throw another journalist out the window.Freelance journalists that are suspected of researching articles critical of the Palestinian Authority are arrested and interrogated. For example, the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) detained Muhannad Salahat, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, when he was returning to the West Bank from Jordan without telling him why he was being arrested; he was detained for two weeks without charge in Jericho. According to Human Rights Watch deputy director of Middle East and North Africa division Joe Stork, Palestinian security forces are becoming notorious for intimidating journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. He says both rival Palestinian governments need to end what he calls "blatant attacks on free expression" Hmmmm.....Obama friends 'the Palestinians'and the Turks guess what they both have in common?Read the full story here.

• HT:BNI.IVORY COAST: Barack Hussein Obama demands Christian President step down so Muslim challenger can take over.In the Ivory Coast it was reported that forces loyal to the Muslim led forces of Alassane Ouattara have just massacred between 800 and 1,000 Christians.The United Nations, the U.S., the African Union and the U.K. renewed calls for Gbagbo, 65, to hand power over to Ouattara, 69, whom they recognize as the winner of the nation’s first vote in a decade. Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo is contesting the results of the election.However, in the new democratic world order of President Obama, the European Union and United Nations, this will not infringe on them supporting Alassane Ouattara and the massacre of up to 1,000 Christians will bite the dust before the dust is even settled.In Abidjan the military forces who are loyal to the Christian leader, Laurent Gbagbo, were attacked by a joint operation of United Nation forces and the French army. This will lead to deadly silence in the so-called “Muslim street” because just like Bosnia, Cyprus, and Kosovo; the “Muslim victim card” does not wash and Christians are once more expendable while power games are being played in higher circles.Read the full story here.

• HT:ThePage.Trump’s Hawaii Investigation.Magnate tells “Today” he has people in the Aloha State conducting on-the-ground research into the president’s birthplace.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: So, is the time right now for you?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, the time certainly is right. We’re a laughing stock as a country throughout the world. We’re being taken advantage of by other countries

DONALD TRUMP: I am saying I want to see the birth certificate. It’s very simple. I want to see the birth certificate. How come his own family doesn’t know which hospital he was born in? How come-- forget about birth certificates. Let’s say there’s no birth certificate. How come in the hospital itself, okay? This is one of the…in the hospital itself, there’s no records of his birth. In other words, it doesn’t say how much they paid, where is the doctor, here’s your room bill. You know, all the

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You’ve been privy to all of this to know this?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re talking.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You have people now out there searching-- I mean, in Hawaii?

DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding. And I’m serious--Read the full story here.More here .

• NBC’s Brokaw: Saudis ‘So Unhappy' With Obama They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties.(CNSNews.com) – Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq yesterday, NBC’s Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt” that it has sent senior officials to the Peoples' Republic of China and Russia to seek expanded business opportunities with those countries.After remarking on the difficulty of establishing democracy in the Middle East, Brokaw said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “will face some tough questions in this region about the American intentions going on now with all this new turmoil, especially in an area where the United States has such big stakes politically and economically.”“And a lot of those questions presumably will come from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” reported Brokaw on the Nightly News. “I was told on the way in here that the Saudis are so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt that it sent high level emissaries to China and Russia to tell those two countries that Saudi Arabia now is prepared to do more business with them.”Brokaw continued, “Back here in Iraq, the political and the economic situation remains fragile. So fragile that the U.N. secretary general is worried that this country could now see massive protests in the streets once again.”Earlier in his report, Brokaw noted that while U.S. military forces are supposed to leave Iraq at year’s end, the U.S. Embassy staff was being beefed-up from 8,000 to nearly 20,000 personnel.“So Iraq is a reminder of just how difficult it is to establish a democracy in this part of the world,” said Brokaw. “After all, we've been at war here for eight years now, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, and thousands and thousands of lives have been lost on both sides.”Hmmmm.....Don't you love how the world has become a better place with dear leader on the helm?read the full story here.

• Muslim Student Attacks UN Rights Council for Anti-Israel Bias.Muslim student Amran Hussain, speaking on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students, recently spoke out for Israel a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, where he castigated the Council for anti-Israel bias.“Why is Israel consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation on the grounds of human rights violations, yet the world turns a blind eye to the human rights situations in the Arab countries …or the Far East...or Africa?” he asked.Hussain told the Council he came to the session “to remind you of the moral obligation we all have here today to protect the only country in the world whose very existence is constantly under attack."The world was very quick to condemn Israel for defending itself from unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. I ask you, what about the human rights of Israeli Jews, Israeli Muslims [and] Israeli Christians living constantly in fear of attacks from Hamas."He added, ”There are members of the international community present today who do not even accept the existence of Israel…. Hussain says that he is “an active campaigner for human rights and justice all over the world [but] has always remained disheartened by the disproportionate and unfair focus of the Human Rights Council on Israel, the disregard to human dignity for Israelis and the ignorance shown to some of the worst human rights violators around the world.”Hmmmm.....Brave guy!Read and see the full story here.

• Goldstone to face libel suit.MK Danny Danon enlists help of Jewish-American lawyers to file libel lawsuit against South African judge following his retraction of his Gaza war report. MK Danon: Report is '2010 version of blood libel'.Judge Richard Goldstone is expected to stand trial for libel following his retraction of his Operation Cast Lead report, in which he accused Israel of war crimes.Knesset Member Danny Danon (Likud), currently in the United States, has enlisted the help of a number of Jewish-American attorneys who agreed to file a lawsuit against the South African judge at no charge. A petition will be filed with a New York District Court next week, in which the plaintiffs will demand a formal apology and a symbolic financial compensation for the State of Israel. A second lawsuit may be filed in an Israeli court if Goldstone arrives in Israel.The decision to file the lawsuit is a direct response to the judge's op-ed in the Washington Post in which he claimed his report caused significant damage to the State of Israel in the United Nations and internationally.Despite his retraction, Goldstone announced he does not intend to try and nix the report."The Goldstone Report is the 2010 version of a blood libel. The twisted image Goldstone painted of the State of Israel caused damage, is still causing damage and will continue to damage Israel and its citizens for years to come. A public apology published in every country might lessen the harm already done," Danon explained.Hmmmm....You can not undo the damage done.Read the full story here.

• Turkey Offers to Mediate Between Iran and Arab Gulf States Over Bahrain Crisis. (CNSNews.com) – Turkey’s foreign minister visited Bahrain on Tuesday but did not publicly voice support for the small Gulf nation’s decision last month to invite troops from Saudi Arabia and other neighbors to help restore stability.Instead, it was left to his Bahraini counterpart, Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, to defend the decision and fend off Iranian charges that the arrival of the Saudi forces was akin to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.“I hope they [the Iranians] realize that what is going on in Bahrain is different from what is going on in their minds and stop such statements that do not help in strengthening relations,” Khalifa said at a joint press conference with the Turk, Ahmet Davutoglu.On the eve of his visit, Davutoglu spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart. According to Iranian state media, the two stressed the importance of Bahrain resolving its current crisis – anti-government protests that erupted in mid-February – “without foreign interference.”Shi’ite Iran has accused Sunni Saudi Arabia and other members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of helping Bahrain’s minority Sunni rulers crack down on the island’s restive Shi’ite majority. Iran also accused the U.S. of giving the go-ahead for the Saudi deployment.For their part, GCC members say it is Iran that is stoking the unrest in the strategically-significant Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and just 150 miles from the Iranian coast.Iran has historical links with and territorial claims to Bahrain (an advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2007 described Bahrain as a “province” of Iran and said Bahrainis wanted to be ruled by Tehran).The turmoil has raised some concerns about the prospect of the replacement of the Sunni monarchy that has ruled for more than two centuries with an Iran-friendly Shi’ite government.The role Turkey may play remains unclear.Seeking to exert its leadership in the region, Turkey – like Iran an Islamic but not Arab Middle East country – has established closer ties with Tehran in recent years, to the dismay of its allies in NATO.It has also offered itself on occasion as a mediator – between Israel and Syria, Syria and Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Israel and Hamas, Iran and the West, and, just this week, between the Libyan regime and anti-Gaddafi rebels.Davutoglu said Tuesday the crisis in Bahrain was an internal affair, but added that Turkey would be willing to mediate between Iran and the Arab states of the GCC if asked to do so by both parties.Hmmmm....Turkey the NATO 'ally' that never was an ally,but Iran's shadow?Read the full story here.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.Does Government Own Your Remotely Backed Up Computer Files, Your Emails, or Your Cell Phone GPS Info?By Warner Todd Huston.Did you know that there are no laws to prevent government agencies from raiding your computer’s remotely hosted back up files, your third party emails, your cloud computing files, or your cell phone GPS location records? Well, there aren’t. As the law stands today government can go into your private computer files or trace your cell phone location without a warrant. As a result of this lapse in protection form unlawful search and seizure a new group of concerned parties intends to change the law with the Digital Fourth Amendment campaign.The problem is not necessarily that government is out to steal all our computing information, but that the laws have simply not caught up to today’s technology. The laws that cover how policing agencies and governments can access your emails, computer files, and cell phone GPS records are currently governed by rules that are decades out of date. These rules were written in the 1980s, long before the Internet came along, before cloud computing was invented, before email, and well before cell phones that could track your whereabouts became pervasive.

You see, today all your personal information that is stored in third party storage space is not considered to be the kind of personal property that would require a court-issued warrant for government to access. If you have email stored at Google, if you use a cloud computing service, or if you have a third party data back up service it is all open for government to view without a warrant because it is in the actual possession of a third party. Currently none of these computer records are considered your private records. This also holds true for cell phone GPS location records. As the law stands today government can access your cell phone location records and find out where you’ve been and all without a by your leave from the courts.The Digital Fourth Amendment campaign aims to change that and bring the laws against unlawful search and seizure into the digital world of the 21st century.Hmmmm.....Democracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Tribesmen Should be Permitted to Take Revenge Against the U.S. for Drone Attacks; The Time has Come for Pakistan to Exit the War Against Terror.

On March 17, 2011, a day after CIA contractor Raymond Davis was released by a Pakistani court under a blood-money deal, U.S. drones fired four missiles in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda sanctuary. At least 38 people, including civilians and policemen, were killed in the attacks. Davis's release came as anti-U.S. protests were at their peak in Pakistan, threatening to further seriously damage Pakistan-U.S. relations. The drone attacks further ignited the anti-U.S. sentiments in Pakistan.

Following the drone attacks, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a key commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP or the Movement of Pakistani Taliban), threatened to break a peace accord agreed to with the Pakistani military since 2008. The tribesmen belonging to the affected area held a press conference in Peshawar, allegedly at the behest of Pakistani officials, and vowed to wage jihad against the U.S. if the drone attacks did not stop. In an unprecedented step, Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani also formally criticized the U.S. drone attacks, while in protest Pakistan pulled out of the tripartite talks involving the U.S. and Afghanistan in Kabul.

A few days later, the Urdu-language daily Roznama Ummat interviewed former Pakistani military officer Brigadier (retired) Mahmood Shah, who has served as secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) of Pakistan. He has also served as chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In addition to serving in senior positions in the Pakistani military and government, Brigadier Shah is also a well-known columnist and commentator on political and security issues in Pakistan. In the interview, the former Pakistani officer urged the Pakistani establishment to give a clear message to the tribesmen to that they have a right to avenge the U.S. drone attacks.

''Instead of Making the Tribes Declare Jihad, the Situation would Turn in Favor of Pakistan If the Government Announces that These Tribesmen have Full Rights to Take Revenge''

Question: ''Has the government made the tribesmen declare jihad to stop these attacks?''

Brigadier (retired) Mahmood Shah: ''Instead of making the tribes declare jihad, the situation would turn in favor of Pakistan if the government announces that these tribesmen have full rights to take revenge. Now with the announcement of jihad by these tribesmen, some of the Taliban might join hands with them and the whole issue might go into the hands of these tribes, creating problem for the government. This is a very delicate situation.''The government should use this opportunity in its favor and should consider its options. It should break its tripartite treaty with the U.S. [and Afghanistan] and recall its ambassador from Afghanistan. At present the government has taken a step in this direction by not participating in the tripartite conference in Afghanistan but it should consider more such steps. It is an opportunity to get out of the U.S. net because America has done much oppression. Presently, Pakistan has a golden opportunity to do so.''The situation in the tribal areas could change; the course of movement there could be changed. If Pakistan gets out of this tripartite alliance, there would be peace in the tribal areas. If the U.S. viewpoint is that it can advance up to North Waziristan in its defense, then the [Pakistani] government should announce that these tribesmen have a right to defend themselves and take revenge from the U.S.'' Hmmmmm....Sounds like those tens of Billions of Dollars did not help Mr President.Read the full story here.