TSA - Security is what we do best? Airport employees allowed to work without TSA background checks.

TSA - Security is what we do best? Airport employees allowed to work without TSA background checks.(AP).By Madison Ruppert.If the continued Transportation Security Administration (TSA) abuses, which just seem to get worse as time goes by; the ludicrously costly, potentially dangerous and ineffective “naked body scanners;” and the completely bloated Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were not enough reason to be infuriated by the ever-expanding agency which looks ever more like Hitler’s SA, here is yet another one to add to that list.Recently the TSA confirmed that they have been allowing new employees to be hired without completed background checks.
It is unclear if this includes TSA agents themselves or just airport employees, as the statements from TSA officials and the relevant documents are far from clear on the matter.
These background checks have been piling up and now there is a backlog so massive that they have simply decided to continue hiring people without even finding out if they have a criminal history.
Once again I want to highlight the fact that it is not clear if they are hiring agents without background checks or if this only affects other employers of airport personnel, despite somewhat misleading articles which make it seem as though they are definitely hiring agents without security clearances.
The TSA claims that they are processing the background checks as quickly as possible and that they will complete the checks on applicants who are already accepted at a later date, which essentially defeats the entire purpose of the checks.Even if they are not hiring agents without conducting the proper security checks, they are still allowing questionable individuals into a supposedly “secure” environment, thus making the entire TSA theater utterly pointless.

WBSTV of Atlanta, Georgia obtained an internal security memo from Hartsfield-Jackson International airport which details the new TSA policy, although this is a nationwide shift not restricted to just Hartsfield-Jackson.
Before the policy was changed, individuals had to undergo a criminal background check conducted by the TSA as well as a security threat analysis, but now new hires are allowed access to highly sensitive areas without any check whatsoever.While I have make the point time and time again that terrorism is not actually the megalithic threat the government makes it out to be, if the TSA actually is there to keep us safe, why would they allow such a clearly flawed and dangerous policy to be in place?

“The TSA was recently made aware that a newly implemented change to the system used to process airline and airport employee background checks resulted in a delay for requests submitted through the American Association of Airport Executives,” said TSA spokesman Jon Allen. “The cause of the issue was quickly identified, and TSA and AAAE have worked together to implement a solution.”
Allen said that the TSA has given airport employers what he called “interim regulatory relief,” which is a nice way of saying that they are allowing them to hire people without the background checks.This is what makes me believe that this might actually not extend to agents, but just to airport employers like food vendors, retailers, airline employees, etc.
That being said, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the TSA indeed hired people without conducting a background check.
Allen claims that this never actually presented a risk to security, although that makes little to no sense whatsoever and it is quite obvious why someone in Allen’s position would attempt to cover for the agency’s actions. After all, that is precisely what his job is all about.
“At no time was security at risk, and all new employees will still undergo identity verification and be subject to watchlist matching,” Allen claimed.Of course that has absolutely nothing to do with criminal background checks in the slightest as watchlists and identity verification are entirely different matters.
Representative Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, was shown the TSA memo and he did not seem pleased at all with what he saw.“This is a joke,” said Broun. “This letter shows the incompetence of TSA. It shows that they cannot and are not doing their job they were instructed to do through the law.”Brent Brown, a security expert with Chesley-Brown Security seems to feel somewhat similar and he believes that this policy change could actually pose a threat to the security of airports.
“You can’t put unsecured people or people that you haven’t checked in a secured environment,” Brown pointed out.“By that very definition, you’ve breached security,” he added.
“TSA has worked closely with the AAAE and the Atlanta Airport to address the delays in processing airport and airline employee background checks. Currently, all requests have been processed and no backlog remains,” a TSA official claimed, referring to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.However, the absurdity of this policy is still quite blatant and clearing the backlog does nothing to change the fact that they clearly have no interest in security.This just goes to show that as individuals like myself in the alternative media have repeatedly been pointing out for quite some time now, terrorism is nowhere near the threat the government and agencies like the TSA make it out to be.
In reality, “homeland security” is not about thwarting terrorism but instead whittling away our most essential liberties, acclimating the American people to a police state atmosphere, all while providing job security and massive profits for the insiders at the expense of the taxpayer.Hmmmm.........Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones".....I wonder if Israeli airport security would want to follow their 'example'?Read the full story here.

Minsk explosion Metro

Other witness videos here.And here.

• HT:RT.Experts split over reasons behind Minsk blast.

Following Monday’s tragedy in Minsk metro, RT spoke to several political experts, and all of them were uncertain about the exact reasons behind the terrorist attack. Minsk’s domestic and foreign policy is not likely to have inspired an external terrorist attack, says political analyst Irina Kobrinskaya, who talked live to RT minutes after a deadly blast occurred in the Minsk metro.

“This is unusual for Belarus,” Kobrinskaya stated. “It could’ve been just an accident, or it could have been a different reason, but terrorism is not typical for Belarus, that is clear.”

­Fred Weir from the Christian Science Monitor suspects political tensions inside Belarus may have led those behind the metro explosion to turn to terrorism.

“There’s been constant talk of President Lukashenko having rigged the December presidential election,” Weir said. “He put down demonstrations and protests rather brutally, arresting over 600 people. So if this is the internal opposition to Lukashenko turning to these kind of tactics, it would represent a radical departure from the peaceful means of protest that they had used in the past. That may suggest internal political dissenters going over to terrorist tactics.”

I have a feeling that this public discontent, which has been brewing in Belarusian society since the controversial December election, will find various ways of manifesting itself,” said political analyst Sergey Strokan. “We can’t rule out that there may be an unknown and obscure group of radicals [behind the attack]. It takes just three to five people and a basic knowledge of chemistry and engineering.”“In my view, behind the attack is a radical extremist group that is thinking of imposing a new regime on Belarus and ousting Mr. Lukashenko,” suggested the deputy editor of the Russian newspaper Zavtra, Aleksandr Nagorny. “I consider it as part of a general destabilization that we actually see throughout the world.”Hmmm.....It seems i'm not the only one thinking in this direction."Just Like the Arabs the Belarussian people want CHANGE? Read the full story here.

Maj. Avichay Adraee Addresses Escalation in the South and Hamas Terror Tactics

MFS - The Other News

An aerial view shows tsunami damage and flooding in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture on March 12. (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images) Full photoreport here by 'The Big Picture'.


                          Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.
• Updated !Aftershocks between 5,1 and 6 epicenters of four of them near nuclear plants more info here.

• Breaking ! Live broadcast japan : Fuel rods at No. 2 reactor of #Fukushima No. 1 nuke plant fully exposed.‏Here.

• LIVE press briefing Broadcast now ! here .

• Updated : The wind direction will change land inwards on Tuesday this might blow radiactive contamination towards the evacuated people. Here.

• Latest Update.Meltdown threat rises at Japanese nuclear plant.SOMA, Japan – Water levels dropped precipitously Monday inside a stricken Japanese nuclear reactor, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.Water levels were restored after the first decrease but the rods remained exposed late Monday night after the second episode, increasing the risk of the spread of radiation and the potential for an eventual meltdown.The cascading troubles in the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government, already struggling to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country's quake- and tsunami-ravaged coast where at least 10,000 people are believed to have died.Later, a top Japanese official said the fuel rods in all three of the most troubled nuclear reactors appeared to be melting.Of all these troubles, the drop in water levels at Unit 2 had officials the most worried."Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilized for the time being," said Nuclear and Industrial Agency official Ryohei Shiomi "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention."Late Monday, the chief government spokesman said there were signs that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors, all of which had lost their cooling systems in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami"Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.Some experts would consider that a partial meltdown. Others, though, reserve that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.Officials held out the possibility that, too, may be happening."It's impossible to say whether there has or has not been damage" to the vessels, nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai said.If a complete reactor meltdown — where the uranium core melts through the outer containment shell — were to occur, a wave of radiation would be released, resulting in major, widespread health problems.Hmmm....And tomorrow the wind turns landinwards over Japan, pray that God have mercy on them.Read the full story here.

• Update.Water level near empty at Japan nuclear reactor.Water levels inside a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear reactor were almost empty on Monday night, said the power plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. The Yomiuri newspaper was reporting that the cooling system at the reactor has stopped, and additional reports said fuel rods were exposed. News agency Jiji said a meltdown of fuel rods inside the Fukushima Daiichi complex's No.2 reactor could not be ruled out.A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak, experts say.Earlier, a hydrogen blast at Japan's earthquake-stricken nuclear plant did not damage its primary containment vessel, the UN nuclear agency said.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was told by Japanese nuclear authorities the control room of the unit No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant remained operational, following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami."The reactor building exploded but the primary containment vessel was not damaged. The control room of unit 3 remains operational," the IAEA said in a statement.A Japanese official said before the blast 22 people had been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used hand-held scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centers.US warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The US Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary.Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble. It was the biggest to have hit the quake-prone country since it started keeping records 140 years ago."I would like to believe that there still are survivors," said Masaru Kudo, a soldier dispatched to Rikuzentakata, a nearly flattened town of 24,500 people in far-northern Iwate prefecture.Kyodo said 80,000 people had been evacuated from a 20-km (12-mile) radius around the stricken nuclear plant, joining more than 450,000 other evacuees from quake and tsunami-hit areas in the northeast of the main island Honshu.Read and see the full story here.

• Update On 14.03.2011 at 04:25 GMT+2  - from :Emergency and Disaster Information Service.

A hydrogen explosion occurred Monday morning at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s troubled No. 3 reactor, the government’s nuclear safety agency said. The 11:01 a.m. incident came after a hydrogen explosion hit the No. 1 reactor at the same plant Saturday, and prompted the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to urge residents within a 20-kilometer radius to take shelter inside buildings. It also followed a report by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator, to the government earlier in the day that the radiation level at the plant had again exceeded the legal limit and pressure in the container of the No. 3 reactor had increased. The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been shut down since a magnitude 9.0 quake struck northeastern and eastern Japan on Friday, but some of its reactors have lost their cooling functions, leading to brief rises in the radiation level over the weekend. On Monday, radiation at the plant’s premises rose over the benchmark limit of 500 micro sievert per hour at two locations, measuring 751 micro sievert at the first location at 2:20 a.m. and 650 at the second at 2:40 a.m., according to the report. The hourly amounts are more than half the 1,000 micro sievert to which people are usually exposed in one year.

The maximum level detected so far around the plant is 1,557.5 micro sievert logged Sunday. The utility had been pouring seawater into the plant’s No. 1 and No. 3 reactors to help cool their cores, which are believed to have partially melted after part of the fuel rods were no longer covered by coolant water when levels fell following the quake. The seawater injection stopped around 1 a.m. due to the shortage of water left in tanks, but resumed for No. 3 reactor at 3:20 a.m., according to the nuclear safety agency. The halt of coolant water injection apparently caused rising pressure in the reactor container and an increase in the radiation level at the plant, the agency said. TEPCO at one point planned to release radioactive steam from the No. 3 reactor container to depressurize it and ordered workers to vacate the site. But as the pressure later lowered, workers resumed operations at the site, according to the agency. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said pressure in the No. 1 reactor container has been stable and seawater injection for the reactor will resume later.Hmmmm.....How about reactor number 2?Full update history here.

• UPDATE:Japan earthquake: Meltdown alert at Fukushima reactor.Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant, after the latest explosion to rock the facility.Fukushima Daiichi plant's operators said they could not rule out a fuel rod meltdown, after a cooling system broke.They are frantically injecting more water into reactor 2 after its fuel rods became almost fully exposed.A cooling system breakdown preceded explosions at the plant's reactor 3 on Monday and reactor 1 on Saturday.The latest explosion, said to have been caused by a hydrogen build-up, injured 11 people, one of them seriously, and sent a huge column of smoke billowing into the air.The fuel rod exposure at Fukushima Daiichi number 2 reactor is potentially the most serious event so far at the plant.A local government official confirmed the fuel rods were at one point largely, if not totally exposed; but we do not know for how long.Without coolant around the rods, temperatures can rise to hundreds of degrees Celsius, almost certainly resulting in some melting.This opens the possibility of a serious meltdown - where molten, highly radioactive reactor core falls through the floor of the containment vessel and into the ground underneath.However, engineers appear to have restored some water flow into the reactor vessel and if they are successful, temperatures will begin to fall again rapidly. Read the full story here.

• Military Crew Said to Be Exposed to Radiation, but Officials Call Risk in U.S. Slight.The Pentagon was expected to announce that the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which is sailing in the Pacific, passed through a radioactive cloud from stricken nuclear reactors in Japan, causing crew members on deck to receive a month’s worth of radiation in about an hour, government officials said Sunday.The officials added that American helicopters flying missions about 60 miles north of the damaged reactors became coated with particulate radiation that had to be washed off. There was no indication that any of the military personnel had experienced ill effects from the exposure. (Everyone is exposed to a small amount of natural background radiation.) But the episodes showed that the prevailing winds were picking up radioactive material from crippled reactors in northeastern Japan. Ever since an earthquake struck Japan on Friday, the authorities worldwide have been laying plans to map where radioactive plumes might blow and determine what, if any, danger they could pose to people. Blogs were churning with alarm. But officials insisted that unless the quake-damaged nuclear plants deteriorated into full meltdown, any radiation that reached the United States would be too weak to do any harm.Washington had “hypothetical plots” for worst-case plume dispersal within hours of the start of the crisis, a senior official said Sunday. The aim, the official added, was “more to help Japan” than the United States, since few experts foresaw high levels of radiation reaching the West Coast. For now, the prevailing winds over Japan were blowing eastward across the Pacific. If they continue to do so, international stations for radioactive tracking at Wake or Midway Islands might detect radiation later this week, said Annika Thunborg, a spokeswoman for an arm of the United Nations in Vienna that monitors the planet for spikes in radioactivity. “At this point, we have not picked up anything” in detectors midway between Japan and Hawaii, Ms. Thunborg said in an interview on Sunday. “We’re talking a couple of days — nothing before Tuesday — in terms of picking something up.”On Sunday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it expected no “harmful levels of radioactivity” to move on the winds to Hawaii, Alaska or the West Coast from the reactors in Japan, “given the thousands of miles between the two countries.” In interviews, some private nuclear experts called a windborne threat unlikely. Others urged caution. “We’re all worrying about it,” said Robert Alvarez, a nuclear expert who, from 1993 to 1999, was a policy adviser to the secretary of energy, who runs the nation’s nuclear complex. “It’s going to be very important,” he added, “for the Japanese and U.S. authorities to inform the public about the nature of the plumes and any need for precautionary measures.” While federal officials expected little danger in the United States from Japanese plumes, they were taking no chances. On Sunday, Energy Department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the agency was working on three fronts. One main player is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Officials said they had activated its National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center, which draws on meteorologists, nuclear scientists and computer scientists to forecast plume dispersal.“We’re on top of this,” a department official said.Hmmm......"Prepare for the worst,pray for the best"?Read the full story here.

• Navy Says 17 Americans Were Treated for Contamination.WASHINGTON — American Navy officials in Japan said early Monday that 17 military personnel who had been aboard three helicopters assisting in the earthquake relief effort had been exposed to low levels of contamination.Cmdr. Jeff A. Davis, a spokesman for the American Seventh Fleet in Japan, said the Navy personnel — who apparently had flown through a radioactive plume from a damaged nuclear power plant — had been ordered to dispose of their uniforms and to undergo a decontamination scrub that had successfully removed radioactive particles. “They received very, very low levels of contamination,” Commander Davis said in a telephone interview from Japan early Monday. “It certainly is not cause for alarm,” he said. “It is something we have to watch very carefully and make sure we are able to monitor, and to mitigate against this environmental hazard.” The Navy personnel aboard the three helicopters had received the equivalent of one month’s natural background radiation from the sun, rocks or soil, he said.Hmmmm......Helicopter...it's not harmfull...but we moved the aircraft carrier who's so much further?Read the full story here.

• Japan - Monster aftershock could strike within days.NORTH-EASTERN Japan can expect another monster earthquake large enough to trigger a tsunami within days, the head of the Australian Seismological Centre says.The director, Kevin McCue, said there had been more than 100 smaller quakes since Friday, but a larger aftershock was likely.''Normally they happen within days,'' he said. ''The rule of thumb is that you would expect the main aftershock to be one magnitude smaller than the main shock, so you would be expecting a 7.9. ''That's a monster again in its own right that is capable of producing a tsunami and more damage.''The US Geological Survey estimated the quake moved the Japanese coast about 2.4 metres.''It basically pushed the sea floor up and down on opposite sides of the fault by 10 metres, causing the tsunami,'' Dr McCue said. ''It is a sudden rupture that has occurred, but it has occurred because the two plates are converging at about eight centimetres a year and have been for about 100 years. That eight metres is released suddenly when the plate snaps and breaks and produces the earthquake.''A seismology research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Gary Gibson, said the world averages one magnitude 8 quake a year, but the rate was inconsistent. The 1980s and 1990s had far fewer large quakes than average, for example.''There is more variation than you would expect from a random occurrence of earthquakes, and we really don't have a mechanism to describe why that is the case,'' Dr Gibson said. ''But there is no question that the last two years have been very active and well above average.''Hmmmm......Any links to the coming" Supermoon" are not proven .....yet!Read the full story here.

• Japan : 2nd explosion at stricken Japan nuclear plant.SOMA, Japan – The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding 11 workers. Hours later, the U.S. said it had shifted its offshore forces away from the plant after detecting low-level radioactive contamination.The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) offshore when it detected the radiation, which U.S. officials said was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation.It was not clear if the radiation had leaked during the Monday explosion.Yeah! That blast was felt 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, but the plant's operator said radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits.Operators knew an explosion was a possibility as they struggled to reduce pressure inside the reactor containment vessel, but apparently felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid a complete meltdown. In the end, the hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the blast.Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said radiation levels at Unit 3 were well under the levels where a nuclear operator must file a report to the government.On Saturday, a similar explosion took place at the plant's Unit 1, injuring four workers and causing mass evacuations.Shortly after the Monday explosion, Tokyo Electric warned it had lost the ability to cool Unit 2. Takako Kitajima, a company official, said plant workers were preparing to inject seawater into the unit to cool the reactor, a move that could lead to an explosion there as well.Hmmmm....Sounds more and more like a Chernobyl II ,what will happen if the second unit also explodes and all this is followed by a 7.9 earthquake?Read the full story here.

• Hell on Earth: I've seen 20 wars. But nothing prepared me for this... nothing prepared me for the sight of a town reduced to a morass of splintered wood, jagged concrete and twisted metal where 10,000 have died.The first thing you notice is the silence which seems to hang over the place. There is no sound as we approach this once-thriving coastal town. Driving round the final bend in the mountain road before making the descent into Minami Sanriku, nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of such destruction. In my 30 years as a war correspondent I have covered more than 20 conflicts and several major earthquakes, but I have never seen anything on this scale.One minute you are passing through towns and villages completely untouched by natural disaster – not even a pane missing from the windows – and then as you turn the corner it hits you.The most astonishing view stretches out below towards the sea for at least four miles. An entire town of around 17,000 people has simply ceased to exist here.At least 95 per cent of the buildings are not merely ruined; they have been reduced to a morass of splintered wood, jagged concrete and twisted metal. All of this is hideously decorated with the details of destroyed family lives: a woman smiles up from her wedding photographs, a smashed guitar lies in the debris. I see a broken doll, and pages from a child’s school exercise book.Hmmm.......No words can express the 'damage' seen in these pictures.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.What To Do To Prevent Radiation Sickness If Radiation Is Coming Your Way.Frequently Asked Questions on Potassium Iodide (KI).From the Food and DrugsAdministration.In December 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final Guidance on Potassium Iodide as a Thyroid Blocking Agent in Radiation Emergencies1. The objective of the document is to provide guidance to other Federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and to state and local governments regarding the safe and effective use of potassium iodide (KI) as an adjunct to other public health protective measures in the event that radioactive iodine is released into the environment. The adoption and implementation of the recommendations are at the discretion of the state and local governments responsible for developing regional emergency-response plans related to radiation emergencies. The recommendations in the guidance address KI dosage and the projected radiation exposure at which the drug should be used. This guidance updates FDA’s 1982 recommendations.MFS : If you're a gardener and there's radioactive contamination DESTROY all your vegetable plants in your garden!Do not burn them!Don't use milk from the farm as long as the radiation persists in these region where the cows graze!Any animal grazing can be contaminated ,don't eat mushrooms growing in the wild!Read the full story here.

• Obama 'regime'criticizes Israeli settlement construction plan.JERUSALEM (AP) -- The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was "deeply concerned" by Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements, calling the Israeli enclaves "illegitimate" and an obstacle to resuming direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.In a defiant response to a deadly attack on a settler family over the weekend, Israel swiftly approved the construction of between 300 and 500 new homes in major West Bank settlement blocks. Jewish settlement construction is at the crux of the current impasse in peace efforts."They murder, we build," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a condolence call to the grieving family. Palestinian militants are presumed to have carried out the assault.A senior Israeli official responded to the U.S. criticism by reasserting Israel's expectation that the major settlement blocs, where most of the 300,000 West Bank settlers live, will remain in Israeli hands under any final peace accord."There is no contradiction in building inside existing blocs and the desire to move ahead in peace and for a solution of two states for two peoples," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the U.S. response on the record.An additional 200,000 settlers live in east Jerusalem, captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want both territories, along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for their future state.Hmmmm......Off course that "They don't trust me because of my middle name"will stand with his 'Muslim brothers'.Come to think of it when was the last time he went to church,not counting Golf?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Video :By 2021, we could have a 'restored caliphate'?Remember Niall Ferguson, who burst onto the scene with a surprising Newsweek column ripping Barack Obama?

Here he is again talking to London's Daily Telegraph. He makes six key points in this interview:

* China will be the largest economy in the world by 2021

* No guarantees the euro will still exist

* The U.S. could europeanize itself, or it could revitalize itself

* Tiny possibility we get western-style democracies in the Middle East

* More alarming to think about a "restored caliphate"

* Germany's love of European integration under threat. Hmmm......Nothing but 'nightmare'news.Read and see the full story here

• HT:CreepingSharia.Muslim Brotherhood to launch satellite TV channel in April.The Muslim Brotherhood intends to launch a satellite television channel on NileSat, said Abdel Rahman el-Barr, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau and the group’s Mufti. It will be the group's first legitimate TV channel.The channel will be tested in April and officially launched on 1 May. It will broadcast political, social and religious programs as well as talk shows. The channel will benefit from the expertise of Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel and use some of the staff of ikhwanonline.com, the Brotherhood’s official website. The Guidance Bureau has contacted the group’s administrative offices around Egypt to ask them to recommend reporters.Applicants will be trained before sitting for a screen test. The door will be open for media professionals from across the spectrum to join the channel's crew, so that a variety of ideas can be presented, El-Barr added.The name of the new channel remains contentious. Some members want to name it Tahrir to honor the revolution, and others say it should carry the name of the group, sources said.Hmmm.....Another Channel that Obama can advise to the Cable compagnies?Read the full story here.

• Finally, British workers come first: Jobs for migrants slashed by half in visa clampdown.Finally, British workers come first: Jobs for migrants slashed by half in visa clampdown.The number of jobs open to migrants from outside the European Union is to be halved, ministers will announce today. Foreigners are currently able to obtain work permits for around 500,000 posts that bosses say cannot be filled by British or EU workers. But from April that will fall to 230,000 when non-graduate jobs are taken off the Home Office ‘shortage occupation list’.Non-EU beauty salon managers, estate agents, florists, pipe fitters, steel erectors and welders will be among those barred.The Home Office has commissioned an expert review of all the remaining categories on the list. If the Migration Advisory Committee finds there are enough unemployed British workers with the required skills, tens of thousands more posts could be closed.Ministers want to ensure that priority access to Britain’s labour market is granted only where there are real skills shortages.Immigration minister Damian Green said the Government was determined to cut dole queues and make sure migrants were not the ‘first resort’ for firms with vacancies. Firms looking to fill jobs which appear on the shortage list do not have to advertise to British workers first, and applicants do not have to meet an earnings test.Last week, Mr Green attacked Labour for failing to impose controls on Eastern European workers when the EU expanded in 2004. He said the ‘mistake’ would never be repeated and much tougher restrictions would apply in future.More than 1.15million Eastern European workers have signed up to the Home Office’s worker registration scheme. Mr Green said the job categories listed as skilled under Tier 2 will be cut from 192 to 121. Midwives, chartered surveyors and management accountants stay on the approved list.Officials estimate around 65 per cent of the 8,400 work permits issued last year to workers on the shortage list would not have qualified under the new rules.Hmmmmm........"Change" and it's not the Obama kind of change.Read the full story here.

• Foreign bloggers vow to report other angles.Among the unfamiliar faces that arrived at the West Bank settlement of Itamar following the massacre of the Fogel family were members of a group of American and Canadian bloggers who arrive in the Holy Land upon an invitation from the Foreign Ministry, and sought to cover the Israel beat from an angle that is different from that of the foreign media.On Sunday night, Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli Edelstein released the graphic photographs of the bodies of the three Fogel children, who were murdered Saturday. Former Minister Isaac Herzog disagreed with Edelstein's decision, saying it "weakens" Israel. "The decision to publish the photos broadcasts panic and leads to disrespect for the grief," he said. The fact that the photos are being published right after Israel announced the approval of more construction in the West Bank "creates confusion", he added.Chuck DeVore of California noted that the international media prioritized coverage of the Tsunami in Japan and the unrest in Libya over the terrorist attack on Itamar. DeVore explained that Israel is depicted around the world as Goliath, while the Palestinians are presented as the underdog. He cited a Los Angeles Times article, which reported that the attack on the Fogel family came as revenge for the uprooting of olive trees and the burning of Palestinian cars by settlers. "The LA Times implied in their article that the Jews instigated their own killing," Devore later wrote in a Twitter message. He said that while the world does take notice of what goes on in Israel, he came to the country in order to report on the situation in a way that is different from that of the Western media. Claire Berlinski, an American Jew who lives in Istanbul, Turkey called on the Israeli government to take a more aggressive approach towards the publicizing the attack. She said that releasing powerful material, such as the photographs of the attack victims' bodies, to the international media will help change the attitude that prevails in the international community towards Jews.The bloggers' host in Judea and Samaria, David Ha'ivry, stated that he would have preferred to receive the group during "normal days," in order to show them Samaria's thriving development, education and agriculture fields. "It's good that they saw that the settlers are not Satan, as the foreign media presents them, and sometimes as the Israeli media presents them, as well," he added. Ha'ivry, who directs the Samaria Liaison Office, said he contemplated releasing the pictures of the slain children, and finally decided to do so after the pictures were approved for publication. "If the heads of the state acted responsibly, we would not have needed such abject means of justifying ourselves to the world."Hmmmm.....Anyone with no prejudice in his heart doesn't need a visit to know the truth!Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Hamas Praises Savage Attack on Jewish Settlers in Arabic, Denies Responsibility in English.The barbaric attack by a Palestinian Muslim on a Jewish family living in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on Saturday has been widely reported. Five innocent people--two parents and three of their children--were savagely stabbed to death in their sleep. On the English section of the website of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, there was only the following short statement, denying any responsibility on the part of Hamas for the attack : Palestinian National Movement Hamas official Ezzat Al-Rashak said that the movement is not responsible for the murder of the five family members from the Itamar settlement. Al-Rashak confirmed that harming children is not part of Hamas' policy, nor is it the policy of the resistance factions. He also confirmed that the possibility that the incident was carried out by settlers for criminal motives should not be ruled out. [emphasis added].But on the Arabic section of the website, an article was published praising the attacker as a 'mujahid' and deriding the slain Jews as "Zionist usurpers." What's worse, at the time I checked there were 34 comments on the article posted by readers, all praising the attack and the attacker (I translated the first 17 or so). Curiously, while the Hamas statement in the English article raised the possibility of the act being carried out by settlers, in the Arabic article there's no doubt that the attacker was a Palestinian 'mujahid'.Keep in mind that this is the same Hamas that CAIR refuses to condemn : Five Zionists Killed in Stabbing in the Usurper (Settlement) of Itamar .al-Qassam, 12 March 2011 .Five Zionist usurpers were killed the morning of Saturday, 12 March 2011, in a knife-stabbing carried out by a Palestinian in the usurper (settlement) of Itamar east of the city of Nablus. Our correspondent in Nablus reported that a Palestinian mujahid was able to break into the usurper (settlement) of "Itamar" south of Nablus in the occupied (West) Bank, and stabbed five Zionist usurpers. Zionist media sources said that "A Palestinian broke into the usurper (settlement) between the hours of 9:30 - 11:00 PM, and killed five usurpers from one family while they were sleeping." They confirmed that the perpetrator of the act was able to escape. Powerful forces from the Zionist military and police arrived at the location, including the chief of staff of the Army, Benny Gantz, and the head of (Israeli) Central Command, Avi Mizrahi.

Comments :

Abu-Mus'ab -- Gaza :Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, who healed our hearts by this blessed operation. May Allah guide the strikes of our brothers the mujahideen in Gaza and the (West) Bank.

Abu-Bakr Nablus -- Nablus of the al-Qassam (Brigades) Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. The mujahideen have triumphed and humiliated the Jewish authorities. Allah is great, Allah is great. This is the promise of victory, as Nablus has been restored as the capitol of the resistance, the city of the martyrs, and the fortress of the al-Qassam (Brigades). The promise of victory is here, and a challenge to whoever conspires against the resistance and the resistors. More is soon to follow, Allah-willing. Allah is great, to Allah be the praise.

Al-Saqr al-Jarih [The wounded falcon] -- Gaza. The Most High said: "Put a barrier between their hands and behind them, and place a covering on them that they may not see." It was the will of Allah that those mujahideen were able to break through those defenses, come into their home, and slaughter them like lambs, then return safely and victoriously to their people, in the care of the Merciful, who does not sleep. Allah is great. The victory is for Islam and its people. Allah is great, to Allah be the praise. And many more.Hmmmm.....Pres Obama's "outreach to Muslims really works it seems?"I wonder why he thinks "They don't trust me because of my middle name"?.Read the full 'story' here.

• Turkey second largest US private arms buyer in Mideast in 2009.Turkey was the second largest US private arms buyer in the Middle East and North Africa in 2009, State Department figures, reported on Saturday, have revealed. The US government approved $40 billion in worldwide private arms sales in 2009, including more than $7 billion to Mideast and North African nations that are struggling with political upheaval, the State Department reported. Iraq, where US forces are still withdrawing from and the fledgling government is struggling against militants, was the biggest buyer ($1.51 billion), closely followed by Turkey ($1.50 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($1.09 billion).Most of the biggest recipients of licensed arms deals in 2009 were US neighbors and allies, among them Japan ($4.5 billion), Britain ($3.4 billion) and South Korea ($1.9 billion). The leader in 2009 was Singapore, with $5.5 billion in approved defense buys -- largely because of a proposed $3.7 billion sale of American aircraft, supplies and logistics support. The State Department figures do not describe details of the sale, but Singapore has made repeated buys of US F-15 fighter jets in recent years, totaling 24 jets.The $7.3 billion in US-approved defense sales to Mideast and North African countries in 2009 totaled up to nearly a fifth of the entire $40 billion in licensed sales -- indications of both the region’s strategic importance and their governments’ willingness to pay top dollar for American defense equipment.Turkey also remains one of the largest clients of the US government in terms of arms sales. In September in 2009, the Obama administration notified Congress of a possible $7.8 billion sale of Patriot PAC-3 antimissile batteries and related gear to Turkey, a transaction that would be one of the biggest US government-to-government arms sales in years. Turkey has also sought six Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and two armed versions of the Predator UAVs, also known as Reapers, last year from the US.Hmmmm.....Where's Israel in all this or is he really that obvious in his hatred towards Israel?Turkey the biggest violator of human rights gets the most weapons from Obama?That might be worth another Nobel peace price?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.USA: Congressmen Franks and Shuler introduce religious freedom resolution condemning Pakistan assassinations.Following the brutal murder of Pakistan Minister of Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti (42) on March 2, 2011, Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC), co-chairs of the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus, have introduced a resolution calling for the U.S. to take a definitive stance in protecting religious freedom and condemning the intolerance that sanctioned these murders in Pakistan, which continues to threaten freedom everywhere.In a press statement just released by the co-chairs, Congressman Franks stated, “It has been said that no one is truly free when there remain others who are being oppressed.” In Pakistan today, those who want freedom have been silenced. Franks implored the Obama Administration to take an “offensive approach” against religious intolerance and “draw a line in the sand to distinguish who is for and who is against religious freedom.”For years Ahmadiyas, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims have been denied justice under the controversial blasphemy laws which both Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti worked to amend, and both were killed.Tina Ramirez, Director of Government Relations at the Becket Fund, who collaborated with Congressman Franks’ office on House Resolution 141 said, “Congress is finally recognizing the dangerous nexus between Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and international advocacy for ‘defamation’ resolutions that defend the harmful effects of those laws on innocent lives. It is inexcusable that the international community has allowed these deaths to occur instead of standing behind the men who were willing to die for the freedom their country and the UN system was intended to protect.”House Resolution 141 calls for a UN Human Rights Council resolution in honor of Taseer and Bhatti’s “courage in defense of core principles of Pakistan’s democracy, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”Based in Washington, D.C., The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions all over the world. The Becket Fund has a 15-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its clients have included Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and others. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of international law.For more information or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys please contact Montserrat Alvarado at malvarado@becketfund.org or call 786.246.5385.The Becket Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm defending the freedom of religion of people of all faiths. Our clients have included Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians. www.becketfund.org.Hmmmm......Laws are not worth the paper they're written on if not inforced.Read the full story here.

• Pilots lock down cockpit over tefillin.An Orthodox Jewish prayer observance by three passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday alarmed flight attendants unfamiliar with the ritual, prompting them to lock down the cockpit and issue a security alert, officials said. Alaska Flight 241 from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport landed safety at LAX and was met by fire crews, foam trucks, FBI agents, Transportation Security Administration personnel and police dispatched as a precaution. The three passengers had startled members of the cabin crew with what what was interpreted as suspicious behavior shortly after takeoff, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said. "The three passengers were praying aloud in Hebrew and were wearing what appeared to be leather straps on their foreheads and arms," she said. "This appeared to be a security threat, and the pilots locked down the flight deck and followed standard security procedures."It turned out the passengers were engaged in the wearing of tefillin - small, black prayer boxes containing scripture that devout Jews bind to their foreheads and arms with black leather straps in a daily ritual accompanied by special prayers. Asked about the authorities' reaction to the alert, Eimiller said: "We're obligated, of course, to respond when the flight calls us to clear up concerns." Hmmmm......Some basic 'education' of aircraft staff is highly needed.Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.UN General Assembly to screen anti-Israel film.The United Nations General Assembly will be screening a virulently anti-Israel film called Miral on Monday. Sources said that invitations were sent out on Thursday afternoon for the Monday night screening. Members of the Israeli delegation to the UN said the decision to screen a feature film in the General Assembly hall – especially such a dramatically pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli film – was a “horrible” one. The decision seems to have been made unilaterally by Switzerland’s Joseph Deiss, the General Assembly’s president. Messages to his spokesperson left by the Post Sunday were not returned.Here is the plot from Wikipedia (it's actually based on a true story, which has been propagandized). A chronicle of Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) comes across 55 orphaned children in the street. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 had grown to almost 2,000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute was born.So what's wrong with a highly visible film that's likely to get a lot of attention (even though it may be out of the running for an Oscar) and that shows the 'Palestinians' in a favorable light? Well, let's start with Hind Husseini. Does the name sound familiar? I thought it might. She was the sister of Haj al-Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and a collaborator with Hitler. And she never apologized for that. And no, the movie isn't going to highlight it either.Do you all have a sense of where this is heading? This entire movie is one massive slander against Israel....Hmmmmm......History repeats itself it's 1939 all over again.Read the full story here.

• Israel demands CNN apology over attack coverage. American network reporters present tendentious coverage of Saturday's gruesome murder in Itamar, question fact it was a terrorist attack. Israel's Government Press Office 'dumbfounded, astonished'.Israel is demanding an apology from CNN over its coverage of Saturday's terrorist attack in Itamar claiming it was "tendentious and deceptive." Government Press Office director Oren Helman sent a letter to CNN's Bureau Chief Kevin Flower saying he was astonished at the network's coverage of the ruthless attack. A CNN website report avoided describing the event as a terror attack, noting that the Israel Defense Forces consider it an act of terrorism. "Only you decided to use the term terrorist attack in quotation marks, as if this were not necessarily the case," Helman wrote. "There is a limit to the extent of objectivity regarding such a horrific deed. The CNN report stated: "Five members of an Israeli family were killed in the West Bank early Saturday morning in what the Israeli military is calling a 'terror attack.'" The report went on to say: "According to a military spokeswoman, an intruder entered the Israeli settlement of Itamar near the northern West Bank city of Nablus around 1 am, made his way into a family home and killed two parents and their three children." The IDF's official statement noted that forces were searching for a "terrorist" and not an "intruder" as the CNN report noted. The terrorist was also referred to as an "assailant" later in the report. There was no mention of the possibility this was the act of a Palestinian terrorist. Hmmmm......These 'News'broadcasters only follow the policy of the Obama administration bash Israel ,protect Palestinians.Anyone willing to take a bet he will vote for the Palestian state in September at the UN?Read the full story here.

• Have you been through a TSA body scanner recently?The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.The agency posted reports Friday from 127 X-ray-emitting devices on its website and said it would continue to release results from maintenance tests for the approximately 4,500 X-ray devices at airports nationwide. Those devices include machines that examine checked luggage. Of the reports posted, about a third showed some sort of error, Kimball said.The TSA announced steps to require its maintenance contractors to "retrain personnel involved in conducting and overseeing the radiation survey process."Some lawmakers remain concerned, however. The TSA "has repeatedly assured me that the machines that emit radiation do not pose a health risk," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a written statement Friday. "Nonetheless, if TSA contractors reporting on the radiation levels have done such a poor job, how can airline passengers and crew have confidence in the data used by the TSA to reassure the public?""It is totally unacceptable to be bumbling such critical tasks," Chaffetz said. "These people are supposed to be protecting us against terrorists."In the past, the TSA has failed to properly monitor and ensure the safety of X-ray devices used on luggage. A 2008 report by the worker safety arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the TSA and its maintenance contractors had failed to detect when baggage X-ray machines emitted radiation beyond what regulations allowed. They also failed to take action when some machines had missing or disabled safety features, the report shows.Chaffetz said the TSA's characterization of the maintenance mistakes "sounds like an excuse rather than the real facts.""I'm tired of excuses," Chaffetz said. "The public has a right and deserves to know. It begs the question, 'What are they still not sharing with us?' These are things you cannot make mistakes with." Chaffetz said he expects to address some of his concerns during a hearing Wednesday.Peter Rez, a physics professor at Arizona State University, said Friday he wanted to scrutinize the 2,000 pages of reports the TSA posted. He has expressed concerns about the potential for the scanners to break and the importance of proper maintenance and monitoring. "Mechanical things break down," Rez told USA TODAY in December. Rez also has voiced fears about the potential for a passenger to get an excessive dose of radiation or even a radiation burn if the X-ray scanning beam were to malfunction and stop on one part of a person's body for an extended period of time.He said Friday that the contractor mistakes TSA identified only heighten his concerns.Hmmmm......Do you want any Potassium Iodine against radiation sickness with that scan?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Has the real lost city of Atlantis finally been found... buried under mud flats in Spain?It has remained a tantalising mystery for thousands of years, but now a U.S. led research team believes it has found the legendary lost city of Atlantis.They claim to have pinpointed the exact location of the metropolis under mud flats in southern Spain.The team of archaeologists and geologists are convinced that Atlantis -swamped by a tsunami - is submerged just north of Cadiz.Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford, Connecticut, who lead the international team, said: 'This is the power of tsunamis.'It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about.'The team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site then surveyed it with a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology.Buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park they found a strange series of 'memorial cities,' built in Atlantis' image by the refugees who fled the destructive tsunami.Atlantis residents who did not die built new cities inland, claimed Freund.The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in 'Finding Atlantis,' a new National Geographic Channel special.Freund said the 'twist' of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats.He said: 'We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archaeology, that makes a lot more sense.'Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as 'an island situated in front of the straits called the Pillars of Hercules.'These pillars were known as the Straits of Gibraltar in bygone times.Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.Freund says tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries with one of the largest reported in November 1755 hitting Lisbon with a 10-story tidal wave.Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's 'dialogues' from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis 'in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea.'Experts plan further excavations at the site where they believe Atlantis is and at the mysterious 'cities' in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artefacts.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

• PA seeking to remove Hamas from US, EU terror lists.The Palestinian Authority is working toward removing Hamas from the US and EU list of terror organizations so as to pave the way for the Islamist movement to join a Palestinian unity government, PA negotiator Nabil Sha’ath revealed on Monday.Sha’ath, who was speaking to reporters after meeting in Cairo with Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa, said he raised the issue with a number of governments during a recent tour of EU capitals.“This is a question that every Palestinian and Arab should be asking,” he stressed. “My fear is that Hamas’s calculations about the Arab revolts are different than ours. We see that these revolutions’ main demand is unity and support for Palestinian rights.”Sha’ath, a former PA foreign minister, said that a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation would embolden Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.The Quartet, Palmor said, clearly laid down the three conditions Hamas needed to abide by in order to gain recognition: recognizing Israel, forswearing terrorism and accepting previous agreements.“Hamas has consistently rejected this platform to join the political process,” Palmor said. “A solution has been on the table for years, but Hamas still prefers to be the problem.”Hmmmm......Why do i suddenly think that 'the peacemaker in chief' will go for it ?Read the full story here.

• Car bomb rocks east Pakistan city.At least 20 people killed after car bomb explodes at gas station in Faisalabad, a key textile hub in Punjab province.At least 20 people have been killed in a car bomb explosion outside a gas station in the eastern Pakistani city of Faisalabad.The bomb went off on Tuesday in a neighbourhood full of government buildings including police offices, and it severely damaged an office of Pakistan's state-run airline as well as a local gas station.More than 100 people were wounded in the explosion, and many remain trapped under the rubble, authorities said."It was a car bomb blast. The explosive was planted in a car. We are investigating whether a suicide bomber was involved or not," police chief Aftab Cheema told the AFP news agency.Pakistani television stations showed piles of bricks and chunks of twisted metal from cars, strewn across the wrecked gas station.Our correspondent said security forces are searching for clues behind the blast and have cordoned off the gas station area."The police are saying that this was indeed a bomb. They have no evidence that this was a suicide attack. But they say the device appears to have been planted in a vehicle close to that compressed natural gas station and therefore the explosion wreaked havoc, because the pump itself blew up," he said."There was quite a bit of opposition to the fact that this station should not have been there in the first place, but the station was allowed to function in a highly sensitive area."And there was of course apprehension that in case of an accident, it would pose a threat, so the target [was] obviously very carefully chosen."Hmmmm......Now who would do this?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Libyan rep is UN expert on mercenaries.Remember Muammar Gadhafi's representative to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council,' Najjat al-Hajjaji, who got a little surprise from UN Watch in the videos here? Well, now we have a story about Hajjaji herself: It seems that she's the UN expert on the use of mercenaries. This is from a press release I received via email from UN Watch. With the Libyan regime deploying hired guns to massacre its own people, the UN Human Rights Council was urged today to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time mouthpiece of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, from her post as a council investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries.“Every day she stays with the UN Human Rights Council is an insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group that initiated the successful campaign to suspend Libya as a member of the 47-nation council.Hmmmm.......The 'wolf' guarding the sheep?Read the full story here.

• Despite openness pledge, President Obama pursues leakers.The Obama administration, which famously pledged to be the most transparent in American history, is pursuing an unexpectedly aggressive legal offensive against federal workers who leak secret information to expose wrongdoing, highlight national security threats or pursue a personal agenda. In just over two years since President Barack Obama took office, prosecutors have filed criminal charges in five separate cases involving unauthorized distribution of classified national security information to the media. And the government is now mulling what would be the most high-profile case of them all - prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. That’s a sharp break from recent history, when the U.S. government brought such cases on three occasions in roughly 40 years. The government insists it’s only pursuing individuals who act with reckless disregard for national security, and that it has an obligation to protect the nation’s most sensitive secrets from being revealed. Anyone seeking to expose malfeasance has ample opportunity to do so through proper channels, government lawyers say. But legal experts and good-government advocates say the hard-line approach to leaks has a chilling effect on whistleblowers, who fear harsh legal reprisals if they dare to speak up. Not only that, these advocates say, it runs counter to Obama’s pledges of openness by making it a crime to shine a light on the inner workings of government – especially when there are measures that could protect the nation’s interests without hauling journalists into court and government officials off to jail.Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney now with the Government Accountability Project, said it’s “very destructive and damaging to be going after people for leaks that embarrass the government.” The policy, she said, is “a disturbing one particularly from a president who got elected pledging openness and transparency — and someone who also got elected thanks to a lot of [Bush-era] scandals that were revealed by whistleblowers.”Still, leak prosecutions brought under Obama amount to “almost twice as many as all previous presidents put together,” noted Daniel Ellsberg, who changed history and helped set a legal precedent when he handed the Pentagon’s top-secret assessment of the Vietnam War to New York Times reporters four decades ago. “The campaign here against whistleblowers is actually unprecedented in legal terms.”Hmmmm......What i say and what i do are two different things altogether.Wherever freedom of speech disappears,shortly after freedom itself disappears,welcome to dictatorship.Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Christian Copts in Egypt Protest Muslim Attacks.Thousands of Christians, joined by many Muslims, have been staging sit-in since March 5 in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting the attack on the church in the village of Soul and the inaction of the Egyptian armed forces in preventing the Muslims from torching and demolishing the church and terrorizing the Christian Copts and forcing them to evacuate the village.The church, which has been completely demolished, has been used by Muslims to pray there to humiliate the Copts said the protesters.The protesters were joined by 15 priests, including priests from the demolished St. Mina and St. George's church in Soul, Atfif in Hewan, 30 kilometers from Cairo, blocked the path to the main October and May 15 bridges. Some of the Coptic youth lay in the middle of the roads to prevent cars from passing, which brought traffic in this busy area of Cairo to a stand still for hours.The demonstrators accused government officials of complicity and silence to the exposure of Copts to violence and looting and demanded the recovery of their church, which was razed and taken over Muslims while under the sight of the Egyptian army. They held banners and chanted "We want our rights" and "Demolish our churches or our homes, the Coptic voice will not abate."Father Filopareer Gamil of Giza Coptic Dioceses read the Coptic demands on behalf of protesters. "Since yesterday (March 5) we have been crying out in vain to the armed forces to issue a statement to protect our rights and our homes." Coptic Demands are mainly for the church to be rebuilt on the same location and same dimensions (now an empty plot of land,) as well as the torched affiliated community services building; Christians to be allowed from immediate effect to pray again there even in a tent until the new church has been built; to secure the return of more than 7000 Copts who were terrorized and forcibly displaced from the village; compensation for all Copts affected by the incident; prosecution of the perpetrators and inciters of the church attack.To pacify the Copts, Field Marshall Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, issued a statement that the torched church would be rebuilt by Easter, at the expense of the army.Father Yosha, the priest who was inside the Church, escaped the fire which destroyed the church, along with three deacons who were with him, through the roof of the burning church, leaping to the roof of the neighboring house, owned by Muslims, who helped and protected him from being assaulted by the mob as he left.The village residents, priests and the Bishop appealed in vain to the armed forces, stationed only 7 km away from Soul in the village of Borombol to intervene. In an interview with Freecopts, Bishop Theodosius, Bishop of Giza, said "We called the commanders of the army in charge of the region of Helwan and Borombol, and the leaders of the national security. They subsequently sent the army. When the army arrived at the village of Soul, it fired in the air and the Muslim mob dispersed. However, about half-an-hour later, the mob reassembled and began to burn the church in presence of the army. The army sent a fire truck that extinguished the fire, but thereafter the army began to protect the Muslims who were destroying the church. Meanwhile, the army prevented the Christians from reaching the church, when they attempted to extinguish the fire and end the destruction of their church. Thus, the Muslims were allowed to destroy the church under the protection of the Egyptian army."A delegation of priests met on Sunday midnight with Prime Minister Dr. Essam Sharaf in his home, who promised to contact Field Marshall Tantawi on Monday morning to make sure that his promises regarding the torched church will be kept.Hmmmmm........Off course no word from the defender of the oppressed,the selfconfessed 'Christian'.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Photographic Proof that the President's National Security Advisor is Right: 'Many Different Faiths' Really Do Turn to Terrorism.At first blush, the statement by President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, seems like just another bizarre bit of propaganda.Denis McDonough, Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, who said that members of many different religions "succumb to terrorist ideologies." McDonough said this in an address given on March 6 at the Islamic ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia.With his remarks at the headquarters of this Muslim organization, McDonough proved that he simply refuses to recognize reality concerning radical Islam and is even willing to minimize that threat by pretending that all religions contain "terrorists.""For example," McDonough said, "we know there are many different reasons why individuals -- from many different faiths -- succumb to terrorist ideologies."Obviously this is an idiotic contention. No Christians are perpetrating acts of terror throughout the world. No Hindus are blowing up trains in Spain. No Jews are fostering suicide bombings in England or the United States. No Buddhists have flown jetliners into high-rise buildings. Islam is responsible for the bulk of the world's acts of terror. To use such rhetorical conventions is dangerous because it disarms us from the real threat.McDonough and Obama both show that they are dangerously uneducated in the dangers of radical Islam. This speech certainly proves that Obama and his minions simply don't get it. They don't get it at all.Hmmmm....."The Twin Towers were not brought down on 9/11 by Jews screaming 'Mazle Tov'!Neighter were it Amish in their horse drawn buggies who attacked the USS Cole.Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:Memri.Video :Pakistani Actress Veena Malik Defies Mullah Accusing Her of Immoral Behavior on an Indian Reality TV Show, and States: Mullahs Are Raping Children in Mosques.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:Memri.'Abbas: It Is Time for the Palestinian State to Become a UN Member.PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas called to grant Palestine the status of a permanent UN member this September, as an independent state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He added that, by that date, he also hoped to see the completion of the infrastructure for the Palestinian state.Hmmmmm......"When crows wear Stiletto pumps"Read the full story here.

• Something rotten about the state of press freedom in Turkey.Apropos of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we don’t know if something is still rotten in the state of Denmark, but it certainly is in Turkey as far as press freedom is concerned. The latest spate of arrests of well-known, respected journalists, for ostensibly being “members of the Ergenekon terrorist group,” has even the president of the Republic, Abdullah Gül, “concerned.”And so he should be because - as he told daily Milliyet’s Fikret Bila over the weekend - the present state of affairs relating to the media and journalists in this country is not just bothering the public conscience, but also “harming Turkey’s image, which everyone has come to appreciate.”Gül was naturally referring to the fact that many reforms have been made in Turkey in the name of democracy, a fact that is also the reason behind why Turkey is being pointed to as a “model” for countries such as Egypt as they try to democratize. All of this had, as Gül suggests, increased the country’s international profile in a positive manner.But that situation now faces the risk of changing rapidly since Turkey is once again under international scrutiny for trying to prevent journalists from doing their job, and for incarcerating those who report about things unfavorable to the government or the authorities.The prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the “Ergenekon terrorist group,” which is supposed to have conspired to overthrow the government by illegal means, argued in a written statement on Sunday that the journalists arrested last week - who by the way include Nedim Şener, an internationally renowned and awarded investigative reporter from Milliyet - were taken in not for what they wrote, but for their illegal activities.He refused, however, to say what these illegal activities were, indicating instead that this was classified information. Those in the government-friendly media, who have clearly sold their sense of solidarity with their colleagues, as well as their professional commitment to the freedom of the press, down the river in an effort to propagandize for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are trying now to stand behind the prosecutor and the government.But genuine journalists, who are more interested in carrying on with their jobs rather than being a spokesperson for this or that political or ideological group, are extremely doubtful about this claim of the prosecutor’s, given that even the president of the Republic is “concerned” about the latest developments. It appears from their strong reactions that international press organizations are also doubtful about the claims against the arrested journalists.If, however, the government wanted it could introduce bills that prevent the incarceration of journalists for what they write or for the information they gather in pursuing their jobs. Instead it prefers to watch the arrest of journalists it does not like, even if it says it is not directly behind these arrests.Neither does the AKP administration appear to be too concerned about the illegality of some of the methods of the prosecutor in going after journalists. It transpires now, for example, that Nedim Şener’s phone was tapped for nearly two years, and that his private conversations listened to. But this kind of phone tapping is illegal under Turkey’s current laws. Neither the prosecutor’s office, nor the minister for justice, nor for that matter Prime Minister Erdoğan himself appear too bothered about this fact.There is indeed something rotten in the state of Turkey and one just has to look at how press freedoms are being treated now to understand this. At this rate, let alone Turkey being a model for Egypt, or any other country for that matter, it is could very well be that Egypt will become a model for Turkey in terms of freedom of the press.Hmmmmm.......Or Turkey who takes Iran as a 'role model'?Read the full story here.

• £50 insult to Britain's war dead: Veteran's fury as poppy burner enjoying a life on benefits gets paltry fine and mocks soldiers.As a British citizen, Emdadur Choudhury enjoys benefits including a free council flat and almost £800 a month state handouts.Yesterday he laughed at justice as he was handed a paltry £50 fine for setting light to poppies on Remembrance Day and yelling ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.After hearing his penalty, which outraged war veterans, the 26-year-old father of two declared: ‘I don’t have any respect for British soldiers, and if they lose a limb or two in Afghanistan then they deserve it. You expect me to feel sorry for them? Of course I don’t.’ Choudhury, from Bethnal Green, East London, was found guilty of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour by District Judge Howard Riddle, following a one-day trial last month.The maximum fine possible was £1,000, plus legal costs, and Judge Riddle said he had no doubt Choudhury had set out to shock and offend. Yet he fined him only £50, plus a £15 victim surcharge. Although Choudhury sneered that he would have been fined more than £50 for a parking offence, he is refusing to pay. However the bill will be picked up by his ‘good friend’ Anjem Choudary, the notorious firebrand preacher.Asked if he would do it again, he replied laughing: ‘You’ll have to find out next time, won’t you? The only reason I even got a fine is cos it’s politically motivated. I would have got a bigger fine for a parking ticket than this.‘It’s my freedom of speech and I’m exercising that. I’m being persecuted for it. This fine, I will wear it as a badge on my shoulder. I did it for Allah. I did it to raise awareness that these so-called soldiers are the criminals. They are the ones who should be tried for war crimes.’Sinisterly he promised that he had ‘2,000 youths who will follow me and do whatever I tell them – you don’t want another Afghanistan here do you? We want Sharia law in this country, and Inshallah [God willing] we will get it’.Shaun Rusling, of the National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association, said: ‘I think the British people would be disgusted with the sentence handed out. Remembrance Day is very special for those in the Armed Forces, when we remember those who have lost their lives for freedom and fighting for their country.Hmmmm......"Brittain the country where parking offences are punished harsher then insulting their veterans"Defenders of England From Richard Lion heart to Sir Winston Churchull must be turning in their graves.Read the full story here.

• U.S. government unveils staggering $223bn deficit for February - the largest one-month shortfall in history.The federal government has revealed a whopping $223billion deficit for February – the largest monthly budget shortfall in U.S. history.The staggering one-month figure dwarfs even the most sweeping cuts being debated on Capitol Hill.And critics claimed it underlined just how out of control government spending has become in the aftermath of the recession.The monthly deficit tops last February’s record of $220.9billion and marks the 29th consecutive month the government has run in the red.It is also nearly four times as large as the spending cuts Republicans passed in the House of Representatives and more than 30 times the $6billion cuts suggested by Democrats in the Senate.If a budget deal isn’t agreed within the next two weeks, the White House and Congress will have to approve another short term measure or face the prospect of a partial government shutdown.'We are only seven months away from the end of this fiscal year, and we don't have a budget, which is kind of ridiculous,’ said the President’s new chief-of-staff William Daley.But he added: ‘I'm very optimistic that there will not be a shutdown,' insisting the two sides were already about halfway towards a deal.Hmmmm....How about this for a deal : Congress impeaches this walking,talking doomsday machine?Read the full story here.

• 'I thought I was going to die': Muslim documentary film maker 'racially abused and beaten' after wandering into house party.A film-maker shooting a documentary about the treatment of Arabs in the U.S. claims he was attacked and called racial epithets after he wandered uninvited into a house party, and police are treating the case as a hate crime after officers found him with a bloody face.Usama Alshaibi claimed he was repeatedly punched and kicked by four men after he arrived at the party in the early hours of Sunday in Fairfield, an Iowa city of about 9,500 residents where he moved with his wife last year. The 41-year-old, who was born in Baghdad but grew up in Iowa City, said the men called him an epithet used to refer to Arabs as well as 'Osama bin Laden' and assaulted him before he managed to escape.Alshaibi is producing a film called American Arab for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films about discrimination against Arabs in the U.S. and there had been some suspicions that the 'attack' was a publicity stunt.'This isn't how I would promote my film,' Alshaibi said. 'I thought I was going to die.'A Fairfield police report says a video store manager called police to report a man in his parking lot crying and screaming at 12:19am on Sunday. Police found Alshaibi bleeding from his forehead and nose, with some scratches on his hands as if he had fallen to the ground. Alshaibi said he went to the hospital later on Sunday, was treated and released.Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey said yesterday that officers believe Alshaibi's claims are credible because he was clearly assaulted, and they continue to search for the alleged assailants. She said Alshaibi has been unable to pinpoint the home where the assault allegedly occurred because he was intoxicated when he arrived and disoriented when he left.Hmmmm......Chicago......the homebase of Obama,and come to think of it are Muslims not forbidden to drink?Read the full 'story' here.More on Alshaibi here.Of course he also blogs.

• Scores dead in south Sudan clashes.Increasing violence comes as the south prepares to declare independence from the north in July.More than 50 people have been killed in two days of clashes between rebel groups and soldiers in south Sudan's Upper Nile state, an army spokesman said.Philip Aguer, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said on Monday that militia forces loyal.to the rebel leader George Athor clashed with military forces, killing 56 people.Aguer did not specify which side the deaths were on.The fighting comes just four months before the region is due to become independent.The south is expected to secede on July 9 after southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a January referendum – a vote promised in a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of civil war between north and south.But a wave of mass killings in recent weeks has raised fears for the stability of Sudan's oil-producing south and the contested Abyei border region.Aguer repeated accusations that Sudan's northern government was arming rebel groups to try and disrupt the region ahead of its split and keep control of its oil.He said the rebel group was linked to the area's Shilluk tribe based near the village of Owach."They have received new weapons. We suspect they all acted in co-ordination with Khartoum ... I think things are going to continue escalating," he said.However, Sudan's dominant National Congress Party (NCP) in the north denied having any involvement.Rabie Abdelati, an NCP party official, said on Monday: "If we really wanted to go back to war, we would not have signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (the 2005 accord) or accepted the referendum."We are hoping for a strong south after secession. If the south is not stable the north will not be stable."Hmmmm......."Islam the religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• HT:WashingtonMonthly.How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam.There aren’t nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America’s police.So we got these guys instead.On a bright January morning in 2010, at Broward College in Davie, Florida, about sixty police officers and other frontline law enforcement officials gathered in a lecture hall for a course on combating terrorism in the Sunshine State. Some in plain clothes, others in uniform, they drifted in clutching Styrofoam cups of coffee, greeting acquaintances from previous statewide training sessions. The instructor, Sam Kharoba, an olive-skinned man wearing rimless glasses and an ill-fitting white dress shirt, stood apart at the front of the hall reviewing PowerPoint slides on his laptop. As he got under way, Kharoba described how, over the next three days, he would teach his audience the fundamentals of Islam. “We constantly hear statements,” Kharoba began, “that Islam is a religion of peace, and we constantly hear of jihadists who are trying to kill as many non-Muslims as they can.” Kharoba’s course would establish for his students that one of these narratives speaks to a deep truth about Islam, and the other is a calculated lie.Kharoba belongs to a growing profession, one that is ballooning on the spigot of federal and state dollars set aside for counterterrorism efforts since the attacks of September 11, 2001. He is a counterterrorism instructor to America’s beat cops, one of several hundred working the law enforcement training circuit. Some are employed by large security contractors; others, like Kharoba, are independent operators.Kharoba was born in Jordan, and he likes to intimate that members of his family are important tribal leaders. This lends a veneer of insider credibility to classroom remarks that might otherwise seem like off-color jokes. He showed the class some photographs taken in the Gaza Strip. “This is the Arab version of a line,” Kharoba told the students, gesturing to a photo of Palestinians rushing toward a passport agency. Then he showed a YouTube video of two uniformed men beating a nameless prisoner. “This is what Miranda rights are in the Arab world,” he said.“When you have a Muslim that wears a headband, regardless of color or insignia, basically what that is telling you is ‘I am willing to be a martyr.’” There were other signs, too. “From the perspective of operational security, there are two things I am always looking out for: a shaved body and moving lips,” he explained. “Some of the Pakistani hijackers shaved their whole bodies in a ritual of cleanliness. If their lips are moving, these guys are praying. As they are walking through an airport, every second they’re going to be praying.” America today is too politically correct to acknowledge the reality of Islamic fanaticism, Kharoba said. “Would Islam be tolerated if everyone knew its true message?” he asked the class. “From a Muslim perspective, do you want non-Muslims to know the truth about Islam?” “No!” came the audience reply. “So what do Muslims do?” Kharoba demanded. “Lie!” Kharoba strode forward to the front of the room, his voice slower now, more measured. “Islam is a highly violent radical religion that mandates that all of the earth must be Muslim.”Hmmmmm......."There can only be one".Read the full story here.

• Tarek Fatah: Some death threats don’t count.Has radical Islam covered up Canada's lady justice's ears as well?I had just woken from surgery when the first death threat arrived.“This is an open threat to Xaar Boy @Tarek Fatah,” read the first Twitter posting, with its vulgar Somali adjective. “I know where you live & and where your office is.”The sender signed herself as Mariama AnnaLitical and pictured herself wearing a purple hijab in the style of Toronto’s radical young Islamists. Other Twitter followers denounced the threat and urged that AnnaLitical be reported, even arrested. At one point she withdrew the warning, then repeated it later the same morning.“He was also the 1 to propose banning the Niqab in Quebec… (and he) supports homosexuality,” she wrote, reiterating again: “This is an open threat. I know where you live/work @TarekFatah.”Her fellow Islamists joined in, calling me a bad Muslim for opposing the hijab and supporting equality for gays. Other posters said I had brought the threats down onto myself.I contacted Toronto police. Within hours, two uniformed policemen from 51 Division came to interview me in hospital. However, barely one minute later, we were interrupted. Two men entered the room and told everybody else to leave. They did not identify themselves, but five minutes into what amounted to a two-hour interrogation, I realized they were police intelligence officers. One of them, I recognized by reputation – a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat against me in 2008, and another one against a partner in liberal Islam, Tahir Gora.I have since informed Toronto Police Services chair Alok Mukherjee and Police Chief Bill Blair. Mukerjee assured me he will look into the matter. Chief Blair has not replied.The Toronto police, in their wish to promote an image of diversity and outreach, have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting the the radical Islamist elements within our city. Meanwhile, Muslims like myself, who do their best to promote the equality and respect that the police claim to cherish, are left without legal protection when radicals explicitly and publicly threaten us with violence. In Toronto, anybody can issue an “open threat” against a man laying helpless in a hospital bed and be assured they will not face charges, so long as the person making the threat is a black Muslim woman wearing a hijab.I’m hopeful that the police may yet make the right decision, now that I have gone public with this disgrace. If not, I will know the city I love is lost.Hmmm.....I think PM Harper has a lot of work ahead if he wants to preserve Canada the way it was.Read the full story here.

• HT:WestToTheWestWing.Churches into mosques, American style.At least two Protestant churches have recently opened their facilities to Muslim groups whose own buildings are either too small or under construction. From Fox News:Heartsong Church in Cordova, Tenn., let members of the Memphis Islamic Center hold Ramadan prayers there last September. And Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va., allows the Islamic Circle of North America to hold regular Friday prayers in their building while their new mosque is being built.Diane Bechtol of Aldersgate says this is something Christians are called to do: Be neighborly and develop relationships – even [with] those who don’t share your beliefs.“I think it’s a tenet of our Christian faith, and that is that we extend hospitality to the stranger,” said Bechtol.This is so problematic on so many levels, it’s hard to even know where to begin.But leaving that consideration aside, ponder these very practical questions posed on the Epistoli blog:

1. Would Muslims allow Christians to hold services in their mosques? I doubt it. I couldn’t even get into the Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last year, [because] I wasn’t a Muslim.

2. Why are Muslims around the world destroying Christian churches?

3. Would Democrats allow Republicans to use their campaign offices in the off-shifts during an election campaign?

4. Didn’t Jesus throw money-changers out of the temple? And they were only money-changers, not an organization that wants to conquer the world for its own religion and is prepared to destroy those that remain unbelievers.

Then, there’s the problem of who these particular Muslims are affiliated with, and what their agenda is.Mohamed Elsanousi, who, according to the Fox story, advocates Christian churches sharing their worship spaces with Muslims, is the National Community Outreach Director of none other than the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). You may recognize the ISNA as being one of the villains in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas-funding trial. According to the landmark report Shariah: The Threat to America, in the course of that trial,thanks to evidence of financial transactions between ISNA and Hamas that the government introduced, along with scores of MB [Muslim Brotherhood] documents, it became clear that the Islamic Society of North America directly supports Hamas and its operations. [emphasis added]Hmmmm....."I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Do not have any other gods before me."Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.House Oversight Committee likely to investigate White House for treating non-union employees worse than unionized after GM bailout.Republican Reps. Mike Turner of Ohio and Dan Burton of Indiana are asking House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, California Republican, to dig into the Obama administration’s decision to cut more than 20,000 private-sector workers’ pensions and eliminate their health and life insurance plans during the General Motors (GM) bailout in 2009.A spokesman for Issa’s committee told The Daily Caller the committee “remains interested” and is “looking forward” to findings from an ongoing Government Accountability Office investigation, which is expected to come out within the next couple of months. What Turner and Burton are saying happened during the GM bailout is that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner decided to cut pensions for salaried non-union employees at Delphi, a GM spinoff, to expedite GM’s emergence from bankruptcy. The problem with that, according to the congressmen, is that Geithner decided to fully fund the pensions of union workers involved in the process – including workers associated with United Auto Workers, Steelworkers and the IUE-CWA.“This is a terrible injustice. This is a political decision, not a legal or financial decision,” Turner said in a phone interview with TheDC. “There were people who were penalized and people were chosen as winners and losers. The White House, the administration and the Auto Task Force (ATF) decided who were going to receive their pensions and who were not.”Bruce Gump, one of the workers who lost most of his pension and his health and life insurance plans, said what really disappoints him is how Geithner justified his decision. “Mr. Geithner justified that by saying in the press that there was no commercial necessity to do anything for those people,” Gump told TheDC. “So, to him, we were just ‘those people’ and he thought that commercial necessity was a justification to out certain groups.”Turner said he wants to know “what conference room in the administration were people sitting around the table deciding who was going to win and lose,” and expects to get another opportunity to question Geithner in a formal setting on how and why he made those decisions. Turner said he’s asked Geithner about it before in previous hearings, but was never able to get an answer out of him.Hmmmm.....A question of protecting your 'troops'?Read the full story here.

• US Jews oppose circumcision ban. Jewish groups up in arms over an attempt to outlaw male circumcision in San Francisco by putting issue to a popular vote. 'It's a painful and irreversible surgery,' says self-described 'intactivist'.Jewish groups and others are up in arms over an attempt to outlaw male circumcision in San Francisco by putting the issue to a popular vote. Self-described "intactivist" Lloyd Schofield has been collecting signatures for a voter initiative that would criminalize infant circumcision in the Californian city.After two months of collecting names, he claims to be more than half way toward getting the 7,168 signatures he needs by late April to put the matter on the November ballot.Schofield and a growing community of anti-circumcision activists say that infants should not be forced to participate in what is essentially culturally accepted genital mutilation.They claim that the procedure can cause health risks and diminished sexual function and compare it to the clitoridectomies performed on girls in parts of Africa."This is a human rights issue," he said. "What you're doing is you're taking an infant and removing the most sensitive part of their body."Jewish organizations have pledged to fight the measure should it be placed on the ballot. Anti-Defamation League director Daniel Sandman called Schofield's effort discriminatory and misguided."This is hurtful and offensive to people in the community who consider this a coveted ritual," he said.If the ban is approved, those caught cutting the foreskins of infants and other minors would face up to a year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.The ban would certainly face legal challenges, and could be found in violation of the First Amendment right to Freedom of Religion.San Francisco resident Mark Reiss, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, is among a vocal community of circumcised men who say they struggle with the emotional and physical effects of circumcision.He runs a website that lists rabbis nationwide who will preside over a naming ritual similar to the one performed at Jewish circumcisions but with no cutting.Hmmmm......sounds to me that 'Herr' Mark Reiss should study the Torah a bit more or else he has serious memory problems?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Indonesia: Human rights Watch Group to File Report on Ahmadi Killing to UN.HRWG to File Report on Ahmadi Killing to UN -"The meeting is scheduled to take place on 10th of March 2011"VIVAnews - Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) will be filing report on the brutal attacks against Ahmadi members in Cikeusik, Banten, to the UN Human Rights Council in no time."The Cikeusik case is a caution of dire problems which pose threat over freedom of religion and belief," said Executive Deputy Director of HRWG, Choirul Anam, today in Jakarta.HRWG also plans of filling in accounts on any acts of violence committed against Indonesia's Ahmadiyya since 2005. "Ahmadiyya suffer from more systematic acts of violence. If no efforts of prevention are made, we fear that more serious threats will be posed in the days to come," said Choirul Anam.Written reports and oral presentations will be brought before a session with special UN rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. "The meeting is scheduled to take place on 10th of March 2011," he said.Granted that the report is ready, HRWG expects the International community will urge the Indonesian government to assure for protections over Ahmadi members.The Cikeusik attack was ignited on February 6, 2011, by hundreds of angry crowd toward a group of Ahmadis who were at that time gathering in the home of an Ahmadi cleric, Suparman. Three men were slaughtered during the assault and seven others were severely injured.Police have named 16 suspects from the case, one of which is a member of Ahmadi.Hmmmm......There can only be one?Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Exclusive: Transcript of Qaradawi's Speech in Cairo.Here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Fatwa: "It Is Permissible to Have Sexual Intercourse with Prepubescent Girls"Here.