Jeb Bush: NSA Needs Broader Powers To Combat ‘Evildoers’

Jeb Bush: NSA Needs Broader Powers To Combat ‘Evildoers’. (Matzav).

Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the government should have broad surveillance powers of Americans and private technology firms should cooperate better with intelligence agencies to help combat “evildoers,” the AP reports.

At a national security forum in the early voting state of South Carolina, Bush put himself at odds with Republican congressional leaders who earlier this year voted to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records.

The former Florida governor said Congress should revisit its changes to the Patriot Act, and he dismissed concerns from civil libertarians who say the program violated citizens’ constitutionally protected privacy rights.


“There’s a place to find common ground between personal civil liberties and NSA doing its job,” Bush said. “I think the balance has actually gone the wrong way.” Hmmm........The moment i saw the pic above i understood. 

Video - First lady Michelle Shuts Down the Press...America, 'Land of the free.....

Video - First lady Michelle Shuts Down the Press...America, 'Land of the free...... HT: Whitehouse dossier.

From the account by Vocativ:

Vocativ was on Martha’s Vineyard over the weekend to film a piece about the African-American community on the island. While we were shooting on Beach Road, one of the busiest thoroughfares on the Vineyard, the Secret Service approached and asked us to switch off our camera for 15 minutes.

A moment later, first lady Michelle Obama power walked by our crew. She was out for some exercise with a small group—and a serious security detail. It was 9:30 in the morning.

Our producer and cameraman were surrounded by Secret Service agents andvery strongly advised to stop filming. At one point, Mrs. Obama looked in their direction and said, “Don’t do that.” It’s unclear if she was telling the agents to leave us alone, or scolding us for filming on public property.Read the full story here.

Video - Valerie Jarrett Condemns Israeli Gaza Operation as 'innocent Child killing'.

Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s closest adviser, charged that Israel is slaughtering children and that the Gaza operation must halt.

“You . . . can’t condone the killing of all of these innocent children,” Jarrett said on Face the Nation. “This is why the cease-fire is so important. It’s a devastating situation.”

Geneva talks a facade - US-Iran worked secretly on deal for past year, talks led by Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Geneva talks a facade - US-Iran worked secretly on deal for past year, talks led by Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.(TOI).

The Geneva negotiations between the so-called P5+1 powers and Iran are a mere “facade,” because the terms of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program have been negotiated in talks between a top adviser to President Barack Obama and a leading Iranian nuclear official that have continued in secret for more than a year, Israeli television reported Sunday. 

Despite ostensible full coordination between the US and Israel over strategies for thwarting Iran’s nuclear weapons drive, the administration did not keep Israel fully informed on those talks, Channel 10 news reported, but Jerusalem nonetheless has a pretty clear picture of what has been going on in the secret channel. White House spokesman Bernadette Meehan was quoted by Haaretz as saying that the report was “absolutely, 100 percent false.”

Feltman sure looks 'uncomfortable'

The report, which relied on unnamed senior Israeli officials, said the US team to the secret talks was led by Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Her primary interlocutor, the report said, was the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi. The talks have been taking place in various Gulf states.

In the course of the talks, the report said, the Americans offered the Iranians a series of “confidence-building measures,” which underlined American readiness to conclude a deal and undercut sanctions pressure.

It was the deal discussed in these secret talks, the report said, that the Americans then brought to Geneva earlier this month, where it was largely adopted by the P5+1 nations — the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, plus Germany.

France has indicated that it raised objections to the proposed terms, while US Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal was so “tough” that the Iranians had to return to Tehran to take a decision on whether to sign it. The Geneva talks are set to resume on Wednesday.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly fumed at the terms that were offered to Iran at Geneva, including an easing of non-core sanctions under an arrangements whereby Iran would still be permitted to enrich uranium to 3.5%. Netanyahu wants all sanctions retained, and all enrichment to be frozen, as a first step toward the dismantling of Iran’s entire “military nuclear” program.

According to Channel 10, the secret channel marginalized Kerry, and was overseen by the president. 

The idea had been for Kerry merely to fly to Geneva, as he did last Friday, to sign a deal in which he had been a bit player. In the event, factors such as the French stance, and Israel’s very public objections, derailed this plan, and the talks broke up last Saturday without an agreement.

Nevertheless, the expectation in Jerusalem is that a deal is on the way in the near future. Kerry, with whom Netanyahu has been engaged in a public sniping match in recent days, is due back in Israel at the end of this week, after the Geneva talks resume.

Sunday’s Channel 10 report was not the first to assert a secret US-Iran channel involving Obama aide Jarrett. 

In November of 2012, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Jarrett — a Chicago lawyer born in Shiraz, Iran, to American parents, and good friend of Obama’s — was “a key figure in secret contacts the White House is conducting with the Iranian regime.”

That report said “Jarrett served as the personal and direct emissary of the president to secret meetings with the Iranians, which are understood to have taken place in one of the Gulf principalities.”Hmmm.......Let me guess.....'Qatar" the Muslim Brotherhood den?More here at Breitbart.

"Dead in the water" : Obama’s military, no chance of a strike against Iran.

"Dead in the water" : Obama’s military, no chance of a strike against Iran.(LibertyUnyielding).Great piece By J.E. Dyer.
Two to three years ago, the United States Department of Defense had enough military forces on station in, or readily deployable to, the Persian Gulf region (the “CENTCOM AOR” – area of responsibility – or Southwest Asia, as it is called in the military) to execute a limited strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities without asking Congress for special funding. The military could have performed such an operation “out of hide,” as quickly and seamlessly as the president wanted it to.

Four to five years ago, moreover, the U.S. had the regional political capital to use our bases in the local nations (e.g., Qatar and Bahrain) to launch and direct such a strike campaign.

Both of these conditions have now changed.

But as of 2013, with the funding issues inherent in the long-term budget stand-off, that option can no longer be performed out of hide. The Navy has already had to cancel a carrier strike group deployment that it couldn’t project being able to pay for, and we can no longer assume that the Air Force will have the ready aircraft and aircrew – not to mention the fuel – to perform a bomber campaign against Iran.

These are the questions raised by a Times of Israel report from today (which, of course, may or may not be valid). Quoting a TV segment from Monday, it says that the Obama administration will tell Israel next month that it is gearing up for a “window of opportunity” to strike Iran in June.

Gearing up with what? The carrier that isn’t deployed? The Air Force aircraft that will run out of flying hours in May?

We don’t have the forces deployed to conduct this strike campaign, nor can they be deployed – assuming the sequester kicks in, and/or that there is no comprehensive continuing resolution agreed to in the next couple of months – without Obama making a big political noise, by running the whole plan through Congress and asking specifically for money to fund it. What are the chances Obama is going to do that?

I’m betting Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t think he will. If the quoted claim really did come from the Obama administration, it is an egregious instance of promising to do something we obviously are making no preparations to do. (I am reminded – painfully – of a press interview Obama did almost exactly a year ago, when he said, on the topic of the Iran nuclear threat: “As president of the United States, I don’t bluff.”)

Even if the claim about the U.S. administration’s intentions in Israel is invalid, the TOI report is as good a pretext as any for making it clear to the American people that our defense situation has already changed. We cannot do today what we could have done three years ago. As long as Obama makes no provision for conducting a crippling strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the threat of doing so carries no weight. That is today’s reality – and it is Obama’s legacy.

But it is unconscionable of Obama to handle the sequestration threat the way he has. The sequester was, we should remember, Obama’s idea. Republicans have offered him flexibility in tailoring the cuts to minimize the worst impacts on defense, and Obama has rejected the proposal. The president also declined in September 2012 to meet the sequestration plan’s deadline for reporting out on how the cuts would be taken in the federal departments. According to official testimony in July 2012, DOD had been given no directive to plan for the cuts imposed by the sequester. This was months after Leon Panetta described the sequestration cuts, in November 2011, as “devastating” to the military – suggesting a minimal competence question, at the very least, regarding the Obama administration.

The president has had the authority all along to guard the defense capabilities he considers most important, and Congress has offered to bolster – even expand – that authority. If the ability to credibly threaten Iran is not one of those priorities, I don’t know what is. No one wants to attack Iran, but a key component of the strategy to avoid doing it is to ensure that the threat is credible. Today, it’s not. Obama is playing too many games of “chicken” – and he hasn’t been guarding defense capabilities. What that means is that at the moment, vis-à-vis Iran, he’s not carrying a big stick.Hmmm.......If he really wanted to destroy America as a 'superpower' would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

Video - White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett Admits: No Talks with GOP This Year on Sequester

Video - White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett Admits: No Talks with GOP This Year on Sequester.HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By Keith Koffler.White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett admitted to NBC Today’s Savannah Guthrie that despite his avowed determination to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff, President Obama hasn’t had a single discussion about it this year with Republicans. Notice how Jarrett initially tried to dodge the question but Guthrie, in an unusual move for a reporter these days, makes sure to nail her down.

'Obama planning talks with Iran, excluding Israel'.

'Obama planning talks with Iran, excluding Israel'.(JPost).US President Barack Obama plans to propose to Iran that they conduct direct negotiations over the Islamic Republic nuclear program, Channel 10 reported Tuesday night citing a senior US official. According to the official, the decision did not involve any coordination or consultation with Israel. 
According to the report, the US is likely to give negotiations a time-frame of four to five months. If they do not succeed, the US may resort to the military option.
The report came a day after The Guardian reported that Western diplomats believe Israel has been leaking sensitive information about Iran's nuclear program in a bid to rally the international community to action. Meanwhile Israel renewed calls against the Iranian program, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday the problem would have to be confronted in 2013. According to the Guardian report, Western diplomats suspect the Israeli moves have backfired, and have instead jeopardized the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation into the Iranian nuclear program.
Diplomats said Israel was leaking the information because of an "impatience" over international delays to confront Iran. Speaking to foreign journalists on Monday, Netanyahu said Israel was sticking to the red line he laid down in September, when he told the United Nations Iran should not have enough enriched uranium to make even a single warhead. "I made clear that once Iran crosses that enrichment threshold, the chances of us effectively stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program would be reduced dramatically," he said. "Iran is two and a half months closer to crossing this line and there is no doubt that this will be a major challenge that will have to be addressed next year."Hmmmm......Obama or is it 'Valerie Jarrett?Read the full story here.

UN: Iran not cooperating on nuclear weapons probe.

UN: Iran not cooperating on nuclear weapons probe.(TI).The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is not cooperating with an investigation into suspected secret work on nuclear weapons, AP reported. Yukio Amano told the U.N. General Assembly that talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have intensified this year after an IAEA report in November 2011 said it had "credible information that Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," he said. "However, no concrete results have been achieved so far," Amano said.
While the IAEA continues to verify that Iran's declared nuclear material is not being diverted from peaceful purposes, "Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities," Amano said. "Therefore, we cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," he said. Iran has repeatedly denied any interest in possessing nuclear arms, but the international community fears that Tehran may turn its peaceful uranium enrichment program toward weapons making a concern that is growing as the government expands the number of machines it uses to enrich its stockpile of enriched uranium. As those fears grow, so does concern that Israel could carry out its threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before that nation reaches the bomb-making threshold. In his annual report to the world body, Amano said he also remains "seriously concerned" about North Korea's nuclear program, calling its statements about uranium enrichment activities and the construction of a light water reactor "deeply troubling."
In late 2010, Pyongyang unveiled a uranium enrichment facility that could give North Korea a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons in addition to its plutonium-based program. Earlier this year, satellite images showed that North Korea has made progress in building a light-water reactor to expand its nuclear program. North Korea is under tough U.N. sanctions, and Amano called on Pyongyang to comply with its obligations under Security Council resolutions and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and "to cooperate promptly and fully" with the IAEA. IAEA inspectors were most recently expelled three years ago after the North quit talks with five key nations, including the United States, on halting its nuclear weapons program. North Korea restarted its nuclear facilities and less than a month later. In May 2009, it conducted its second nuclear weapons test. Amano also urged the Syrian government to respond to questions about a building destroyed by Israeli warplanes at the Dair Alzour site in the Syrian desert in 2007. The IAEA has said the building was "very likely" the covert site of a nuclear reactor. The United States asserted more than four years ago that the bombed target was a nuclear reactor, but Syria has repeatedly denied allegations of any covert nuclear activity or interest in developing nuclear arms, saying the building was a non nuclear military site. Hmmmm........Meanwhile: The country is in the very best of hands: Obama's woman in Tehran.Read the full story here.

Obama's woman in Tehran, secretly making efforts to establish line of communication with Iran.

Obama's woman in Tehran, secretly making efforts to establish line of communication with Iran.HT: IsraelMatzav. Yes, it's true. The United States is negotiating with Tehran. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's Iranian-born domestic adviser, who has zero foreign policy experience, has initiated and is leading negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons capability. A Chicago lawyer is the key player behind the secret talks between the US and Iran. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. A close friend of Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett is assisting the US government communicate behind the scenes with the representatives of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Jarret, who was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz, is a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama. Last month, The New York Times reported that the US government is engaged in secret talks with Iran aimed at establishing a direct line of communication once the US presidential elections are over. The National Security Council's spokesperson denied there is any agreement between the US and Iran regarding direct talks, but the following day senior government officials confirmed that talks took place though no future meeting was scheduled. The US has tried to keep the secret contacts under wraps since some of the countries involved in the public negotiations, such as Russia, were excluded from them. Israel was originally surprised to learn of the talks, but state officials now reveal that they were going on for several months. The talks, they claim, were initiated and led by Jarret, and took place in Bahrain. The US State Department estimated the economic pressure on Iran will peek in February or March, immidiately after the president-elect takes office, rendering the talks over Iran's nuclear program – in case they materialize – with potentially positive results. Oh, and by the way, in case your have forgotten, the reason Jarrett was born in Tehran is that her parents were missionaries there, so you can bet she's a hell of a lot more sympathetic to Iranians than to Israelis.Hmmmm......Obama: "But I’m also mindful of the proverb, “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words.” So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel."Read the full story here.

Going Back in the 'Political Roots' - Obama, Jarrett, and Axelrod, All Connected to Communist Frank Marshall Davis.

Going Back in the 'Political Roots' - Obama, Jarrett, and Axelrod, All Connected to Communist Frank Marshall Davis.(TrevorLoudon).Paul Kengor PhD, author of The Communist, a biography of Barack Obama‘s boyhood mentor and ardent communist, Frank Marshall Davis, has penned an important article for The American Spectator.

It seems that not only Obama was connected to Frank Marshall Davis, but the president’s two most trusted friends and advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, can also trace their political heritage back to Davis and the Chicago Communist Party USA of the 1940s.
From The American Spectator:

As readers of this site are aware, I’ve just published a book on Barack Obama’s mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. No president in the long history of this republic has had a mentor like Obama’s. Frank Marshall Davis was a literal — and I mean literal — card-carrying member of Communist Party USA. I publish Davis’s Communist Party number (47544) on the cover of the book, and fill an appendix with declassified FBI documents and Soviet archival material. Those documents reveal a Davis so suspicious that he was placed on the federal government’s Security Index, which meant he could be immediately arrested if war broke out between the United States and USSR. With that sort of pro-Soviet influence throughout his adolescence (1970-79), Barack Obama would have trouble getting a security clearance for an entry-level government job, let alone sit in the Oval Office.
Nonetheless, Obama sits in that Oval Office today thanks to four factors: the American voter, a scandalously biased media, a skillful election strategy charted by David Axelrod, and the careful nurturing of Valerie Jarrett.
And most remarkable, Axelrod’s and Jarrett’s backgrounds and mentors connect to Obama’s background and mentor in a most intriguing way. It’s a stunning story, hard to believe. Follow closely:
Frank Marshall Davis, like Obama, found himself, his career, and his political calling in Chicago. It was there in the 1940s that he first began working for communist front-groups, joined the Communist Party, and wrote for and became the founding editor-in-chief of the Chicago Star, the city’s Communist Party newspaper — where Davis kicked off the newspaper with a column (July 6, 1946) pledging to advance “fundamental change.” In these capacities, Davis, Obama’s mentor, would work with the political ancestors of David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett.
I lay that out at length in the book, with all the documentation. Here, I will try to be brief and to the point.
In 1940, Frank Marshall Davis got involved in one of the worst communist fronts: the American Peace Mobilization. Congress called the group “one of the most notorious and blatantly communist fronts ever organized in this country” and “one of the most seditious organizations which ever operated in the United States.” 

 The group’s objective (in 1940) was to stop the United States from entering the war against Hitler. Why? Because Hitler had signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin, and American communists, being loyal Soviet patriots who literally swore allegiance to the USSR, saluted Stalin.

One of the first examples I found of Frank Marshall Davis getting noticed by Congress was a 1944 Congressional report listing his involvement in the American Peace Mobilization. That same report also cited the involvement of a fellow Chicagoan named Robert Taylor. Taylor was the grandfather of Valerie Jarrett.
Taylor also served with Davis on another communist front, the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee, whose members masqueraded as civil-rights crusading “progressives.” The two served on the board together.
Both Taylor and Davis would have frequently encountered another politically active Chicagoan, Vernon Jarrett. Vernon Jarrett and Frank Marshall Davis worked together on the small publicity team of the communist-controlled Packinghouse Workers Union, which Frank Marshall Davis publicly called for nationalizing. Vernon Jarrett would one day become Valerie Jarrett’s father-in-law.
So, here we have Obama’s mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, working with the literal relatives of Valerie Jarrett — all serving together in Chicago’s Communist Party circles in the 1940s.
And what about David Axelrod?
Axelrod is a native New Yorker who, in the 1970s, found himself and his political calling in Chicago, where he went to college and worked for newspapers as a political journalist. (See my March 2012 Spectator profile of David Axelrod.) There, Axelrod was mentored by the Canter family, namely David Canter. The Canter family’s Soviet/communist roots were deep. David and his family had lived in Moscow just before Chicago. His father, Harry Canter, worked there as an official translator of Lenin’s writings. Harry, who had been secretary of the Boston Communist Party and ran for governor of Massachusetts on the Communist Party ticket, did this as a literal employee of Stalin’s government.
After that service to the Soviets, the Canter crew headed to Chicago, a hot-bed for American communists. They worked with Frank Marshall Davis in writing communist propaganda for the Packinghouse Workers Union, in teaching at the communist Abraham Lincoln School, in marching in Chicago’s May Day parades, and in the pages of the Chicago Star. In fact, when Davis and his comrades sold the Chicago Star to something called the Progressive Publishing Company in September 1948, Harry Canter was one of the small group of board members doing the purchase.
There are several key names here. Let me sum up:
Frank Marshall Davis mentored Barack Obama. The Canter family mentored David Axelrod, who got Obama elected president. Vernon Jarrett’s daughter-in-law is Valerie Jarrett, and Robert Taylor was Valerie Jarrett’s grandfather. Jarrett is Obama’s top presidential adviser. In other words, Obama’s political ancestor worked with the political ancestors of Axelrod and Jarrett.
Oh, and they all called themselves progressives.
Amazing, but true. You can’t make this up. The ghosts of Chicago’s political past are alive and well in Washington today. Today’s political family at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can be traced back to the political family of Chicago in the 1940s. It’s all in the (political) Roots.

There is no doubt that Barack Obama was marked out for high office at an early age.
It is also undeniable that pro-Soviet communists worked to enable Obama at almost every step of his career.
Manchurian Candidate, anyone?Read the full story here.

'Gutsiest call ever' was postponed three times at the urging of..... Valerie Jarrett

'Gutsiest call ever' was postponed three times at the urging of..... Valerie Jarrett. (DougRoss).At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears.In ”Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,“ Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. 
Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time... Miniter, a two-time New York Times best-selling author, cites an unnamed source with Joint Special Operations Command who had direct knowledge of the operation and its planning. Obama administration officials also said after the raid that the president had delayed giving the order to kill the arch-terrorist the day before the operation was carried out, in what turned out to be his fourth moment of indecision. At the time, the White House blamed the delay on unfavorable weather conditions near bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But when Miniter obtained that day’s weather reports from the U.S. Air Force Combat Meteorological Center, he said, they showed ideal conditions for the SEALs to carry out their orders. “President Obama’s greatest success was actually his greatest failure,” Miniter told The Daily Caller Friday. ”Leading From Behind,“ he said, traces the arc of six key Obama administration decisions, and shows how the president made them — and, often, failed to make them. Great to know that Valerie Jarrett -- the military genius -- is now responsible for national security. Nice Deb reminds us that the so-called "White House Insider" accurately described this scenario at the time of the raid .Read the full story here.

Video - The newly found 'Bowing Culture' by some U.S. Politicians - Newt Gingrich Bowing to the Leader of an Iranian Terrorist Group.

When Newt Gingrich arrived in Paris last week to speak to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exile umbrella group that's been based there since shortly after the 1979 revolution, he seemed to know exactly who Maryam Rajavi is. He praised Rajavi and her work several times in his speech, which he delivered as the prominent exile stood at his side. Before the speech, as he neared the end of a long line of attendees who stood in the rain to shake his hand, he turned to face Rajavi, smiled, and at approximately 1:02 minutes into the above video, folded at the waist and bowed solemnly. Rajavi, clothed head-to-toe in green, handed him a bouquet of flowers as the crowd cheered.Read the full story here.


Who, what and where on MEK :

Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK (a.k.a. Iranian Mujahedin Khalq, or IMK, and Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization, or MKO) is an Islamic-Marxist sect that has been trying to topple Iran's governing regime since 1981. (It is most commonly known by the acronym MEK.) MEK was classified as a terrorist organization by President Bill Clinton in 1997, and five years later the European Union followed suit.

MEK is led by the husband-and-wife team of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi. Massoud Rajavi heads the organization's military forces. Experts say that MEK has increasingly come to resemble a personality cult that is devoted to Mr. Rajavi's secular interpretation of the Koran and is prone to sudden, dramatic ideological shifts. Mr. Rajavi was last known to be living in Iraq, but his current whereabouts are unknown. His wife Maryam, who hopes to become President of Iran someday, is MEK's principal leader. Born in 1953 to an upper-middle-class Iranian family, she joined MEK as a student in Tehran in the early 1970s. After relocating with the group to Paris in 1981, she was elected its joint leader and later became deputy commander-in-chief of its armed wing.

MEK has a network of sympathizers in Europe, the United States, and Canada. The group's political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, maintains offices in several capitals, including Washington, DC. MEK's membership has dwindled since about 2001, and the organization is currently believed to have some 10,000 members in its ranks; one-third to one-half of these are fighters.

MEK, whose name means "People's Combatants," was established in 1965 after a split in a Marxist-Leninist movement that had waged a guerrilla action in northern Iran. Its founders were college-educated Iranian leftists opposed to the country's pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Its ideology emerged as a mix of Islam and Marxism, with influence as well from the Iranian religious sociologist Ali Shariati, who advocated an "Islam without a clergy." With KGB help, MEK engaged in a campaign against the Shah and sent cadres to Cuba, East Germany, South Yemen, and Palestinian camps in Lebanon to train as guerrillas.

Vladimir Kuzishkin, a former KGB head in Tehran, reveals in his memoirs that MEK became a major source of information on Iran for Moscow. It also helped Moscow in its efforts to thwart U.S. influence in Iran. In 1970 and 1971, MEK murdered five American military technicians working with the Iranian army. An MEK team tried to kidnap U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur III in Tehran. The attempt failed and the MEK leader, Massoud Rajavi, was given a death sentence, later commuted thanks to a plea to the Shah from Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny.


New MEK recruits, many of whom are relatives of people once executed by the Khomeini regime, traditionally have been indoctrinated and prevented from developing normal relationships outside the organization. Their children are not permitted to attend school, but must be educated at home.

During the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. forces cracked down on MEK's bases in Iraq, and in June of that year French authorities raided an MEK compound outside Paris and arrested 160 people, including Maryam Rajavi. These authorities accused MEK of conspiring to finance and carry out acts of terrorism from the organization's French base. All the suspects, including Rajavi, were subsequently released.

Acts of violence linked to MEK over the years include:

• The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran's chief of staff.
  
  
• The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammad Khatami's palace in Tehran
  
  
• The February 2000 "Operation Great Bahman," during which MEK launched 12 attacks against Iran
  
  
• The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran's armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi
  
  
• The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran's prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi
  
  
• The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in 13 countries
  
  
• Assistance to Saddam Hussein's suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings
  
  
• The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar
  
  
• Support for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries
  
  
• The 1970s killings of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran.Source.

Top Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett Blasts Republicans From The Pulpit At MLK’s Church

Via Weekly Standard:

On the Sunday before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett visited Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to give a political speech, in support of her boss (Barack Obama) and congressional Democrats:“Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress–well let me be specific–because the Republicans in Congress,” Jarrett told the crowd. According to the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, at this point, “Before she could finish her sentence, people in the congregation were laughing, and applauding.”Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 07. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 07. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 07 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 129.On 07.06.2011 at 02:50 GMT+2
  
  Japan's nuclear safety agency has more than doubled its estimate of the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says it believes the earthquake-stricken Fukushima plant emitted nearly 800,000 terabecquerels of radioactive material into the air in the days after it was hit by a massive tsunami. That is more than double the original estimate and is based on new information suggesting the No.1 and No.2 reactors suffered meltdowns much earlier than thought. The revision reveals the failure to contain the disaster resulted in much more radioactive contamination of the soil, sea and air than the plant's operators had acknowledged. The disaster is rated a maximum seven on the international nuclear accident scale, the same level as the Chernobyl meltdown 25 years ago. Late last month, it was feared two workers at the crippled nuclear plant were exposed to radiation above the level allowed in emergencies. Japanese media reported the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) workers were exposed to at least 250 millisieverts of radiation. The maximum dose used to be 100 millisieverts, but it was raised to 250 after the nuclear crisis began. It is believed the men were exposed while working in the plant's central control room and outside the reactor buildings. Internal exposure occurs when people take radioactive substances into their bodies through tainted air or food and drink. Media reports say the workers were found with levels of radioactive iodine in their thyroid glands 10 times higher than that of their fellow workers. TEPCO says it has been measuring the internal exposure to radiation of all employees involved in emergency work at the Fukushima Daiichi plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic 41-
  On 06.06.2011 at 19:28 GMT+2
  
  German scientists have found no traces of Ecoli bacteria at an organic vegetable farm believed to be the source of an outbreak that has killed 22 people, but said, this did not mean their suspicions were wrong. Even though first lab tests on bean sprouts from the farm were negative, officials said they were not surprised because any contaminated produce could have been long since distributed. In Bienenbuettel, the manager of the farm said he could not understand how his small organic food operation could be the source of an infection that is usually transmitted through faeces, or food or water contaminated with faecal bacteria. The rare Shiga toxin-producing Ecoli strain found in this outbreak is known to be able to lurk in cows' intestines. Scientists believed investigators were now on the right trail. A number of the victims were linked to restaurants that had been supplied by the organic farm in Bienenbuettel. The relief in Germany that investigators had finally found a possible source of the bacteria was tempered by the cautious tone of official statements, and by mounting losses for farmers and retailers across Europe caused by three weeks of panic. Scientists say the contamination may have been on or in the bean seeds themselves, or in the water used to grow them, or have come from a worker handling them.
  In Brussels, the European Commission has said it would hold a special meeting of EU farm ministers in Luxembourg tomorrow. One EU source has said that the ministers would discuss financial aid to fruit and vegetable producers hit by the E coli crisis. German officials are under intense pressure to identify the source of the outbreak, have been warning consumers to avoid tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, and at one stage said Spanish cucumbers might be the source. The rare and highly toxic strain of Ecoli has killed 21 Germans and one Swede. In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was awaiting more information from the Robert Koch Institute, the German institute for disease control. The health emergency has strained ties between EU members Spain and Germany and led Russia to ban imports of EU fruit and vegetables. Spanish farmers say lost sales have been costing them 200 million euros a week, and officials said they might claim compensation. The crisis could put 70,000 people out of work in Spain, which already has the highest unemployment in the EU. Professor of public health at the University of East Anglia Paul Hunter has said that bean sprouts are very frequently the cause of outbreaks on both sides of the Atlantic Professor Hunter said that 'they're very difficult to grow hygienically and you have to be so careful not to contaminate them.'Source.

• Superbug timebomb: Scientists fear the over-use of antibiotics in medicine and farming may have led to the deadly E.coli outbreak.(DailyMail).So far, more than 20 people are dead and hundreds are seriously ill with a nasty kidney disease.From the probable source of the outbreak, in northern Germany, the virulent E. coli O104:H4 strain has spread to more than a dozen countries. Now the public and doctors alike are wondering how such a common — and normally manageable — bacterium could have mutated into this deadly strain: a drug-resistant superbug.Escherichia coli is by no means a rare or new species of bacterium. Found in the gut of warm-blooded animals, from chickens to pigs, cattle and people, E. coli and humans have coexisted for millennia.Indeed, you probably have about ten billion E. coli microbes in your gut, a seething mass of a dozen strains. And mostly all are harmless; part of the body’s natural ecosystem.E. coli is generally a problem only if it gets to where it shouldn’t be — say, into the urinary tract — or, as in this case, when a new strain emerges that is highly infectious and virulent.The bacterium has, of course, caused problems before, notably in 1996 when an outbreak of E. coli O157 killed seven and hospitalised several hundred people in Scotland.What is causing most concern among scientists this time is a third factor present in E. coli O104:H4 — antibiotic resistance.Scientists believe that over-prescription of antibiotics for humans and the massive and unregulated overuse of these drugs on livestock by farmers in many countries is creating a microbiological timebomb that is primed to overwhelm our defences.This particular outbreak appears to have been caused by an unholy combination of microbes — two older strains of E. coli, which have hybridised and mutated, plus an unrelated virus that has infected the bacteria, giving them the genes to produce the Shiga toxin. This causes a complication called haemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which damages the kidneys and blood vessels, and can kill.Ironically, the fact that E. coli O104:H4 is resistant to almost all commonly prescribed antibiotics is, in clinical terms, not important. Even if antibiotics worked perfectly against this germ, doctors would never prescribe them because, in destroying the microbes, the drug would hasten the release of the Shiga toxin as the bacterial cells burst.‘We are all very worried,’ says leading microbiological expert Professor Chris Thomas. ‘The level of resistance is increasing all the time. E. coli is one of the bacteria we are worried about in hospitals as we are seeing strains resistant to all antibiotics.’Genes that make the bacteria resistant to penicillin-type drugs have been emerging with alarming rapidity. Recently, a gene called NDMI emerged in an E. coli strain that found its way into the public water supply in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.The gene conferred almost total antibiotic resistance to the bacterium, turning it into a superbug. The NDMI gene has also cropped up in other bacteria that cause pneumonia.Two things seem to be happening here. First, all over the world doctors are massively overprescribing antibiotics (and in many countries you do not need a prescription), often for diseases caused by viruses, such as the common cold and flu, against which antibiotics do not work. This has the effect of killing off huge numbers of weaker bacteria in our bodies, allowing the strongest microbes — those with some natural resistance to antibiotics — to flourish, divide and conquer the microbiological ecosystem. Undigested antibiotics can be excreted in urine, enter the water table and spread the problem.Second, it may be farming that has the greatest potential to create a new generation of superbugs. In the U.S., billions of doses of powerful antibiotics are administered to farm animals every year. These drugs are not given to cure disease; it would appear that large doses of antibiotics can modify the gut of perfectly healthy animals, making them put on weight more quickly — so increasing profits for the farmer. This practice is banned in the EU, but even here farmers are allowed to administer huge quantities of antibiotics to pigs, cows and chickens to cure and prevent disease. Intensive, industrial farming seems to be a dangerously efficient way of generating antibiotic-resistance among common gut bacteria. These hardy germs then enter the food chain by being eaten directly (though they will be killed by cooking) or via farmyard slurry finding its way into rivers and streams. Infected shellfish are a common source of outbreaks — you should never eat mussels gathered after heavy rain because this is when emergency storm-water drains will release untreated sewage into rivers.Solid waste from sewage plants may pollute rivers and estuaries and even be used as a fertiliser, while contaminated water may be used to irrigate fields — and it is suspected this is what may have sparked the current outbreak.In the war against the bacteria, we have a range of powerful weapons at our command. Basic hygiene, refrigeration, cooking and, in particular, antibiotics have given us the upper hand for the best part of a century.But the microbes have an equally powerful weapon, too — their ability to evolve rapidly and in novel directions, swapping genes with each other and incorporating snippets of DNA from viruses as well.Though we have developed drugs capable of killing up to 99.999 per cent of our microbial foes, for an organism that divides rapidly enough to go from one individual to a billion in a few days, it is those few hardy survivors, the true superbugs, which are giving the microbiologists nightmares.Hmmmm......The apprentice 'sorcerers' have encountered their 'creation'?Read the full story here.More on this subject here and here .

• My name is Meagan Broussard. I am 26 years old. (BigGovernment).I served in the U.S. Army, and I am a full-time college student and a single mom.I admired Rep. Anthony Weiner because I had seen a video of him standing up for the 9/11 responders. It was a rant, but he came across as someone very passionate, someone who cares about what he believes in. I didn’t know much more about him.On April 20, I clicked on his Facebook page that I “liked” a video of Rep. Weiner addressing a gathering of construction workers in Washington, DC. I commented that it was “hot.” That’s the only way I came into contact with him at first.From there, he introduced himself to me over Facebook Chat. Within an hour, we were sending messages back and forth. It became an everyday correspondence.We chatted often, but I wasn’t always available. It was “Hello, how are you doing, where are you going,” that kind of thing. Sometimes, it was more personal. I don’t want to get deeply into all of that.I don’t want to portray him as a horrible person because I just don’t know him.I was contacted and asked to tell my story. I finally came forward last week because I saw on television that Rep. Weiner had hired an investigating firm to go through all of his files. I worried that there would be people looking at my pictures and messages. I was nervous, but decided that since my messages with Rep. Weiner were going to come out anyway, I wanted to tell my own story rather than have other people talking about me when they didn’t know anything.I’m not on a crusade to “take him down.” I just acted to protect myself and my family.All of this still makes me really nervous. I live in a small town. I don’t want this and all the anxiety that comes with it. I was worried that all of my personal messages and photos were going to come out, and so I came forward. I just hope to be left in peace.Read the full story here.

• We women have to stick together, Pelosi Calls For House Ethics Investigation Of Weiner.(Wapo).But after his news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that she was calling for a House ethics committee probe into whether government resources had been mishandled.“I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred,” Pelosi said.Pelosi added that she was “deeply disappointed and saddened” for Weiner’s wife and constituents.Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) agreed that an ethics panel must review the situation in order to “remove all remaining doubt about this situation.” “Ultimately, Anthony and his constituents will make a judgment about his future,” Israel said in a statement.Hmmmm......Welcome to Dante's inferno?Read the full story here.

• Valerie Jarrett’s Father-in-Law Was a Communist – Worked With Obama Mentor Frank Marshall Davis.(NoisyRoom).Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett’s late father-in-law and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Vernon Jarrett, was a key member of the South Chicago communist left of the late 1940s.After graduating from Knoxville College in Tennessee, Jarrett moved to Chicago in 1946 to work as a journalist. On his first day on the job at the radical Chicago Defender, he was sent to cover a race riot.The Defender was heavily influenced by the Communist Party USA and included on its roster well known Chicago Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.Jarrett and Davis worked on the Defender around the same time. They certainly knew each other through the Communist Party and its fronts.In June 1946, Vernon Jarrett was elected to the Illinois Council of the Communist Party’s youth wing, then known as American Youth for Democracy. This is according to Testimony of Walter S. Steele regarding Communist activities in the United States. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session, on H. R. 1884 and H. R. 2122, pages 75,76. It is the first hard evidence tying Vernon Jarrett directly to the Communist Party. Frank Marshall Davis, incidentally was an official sponsor of American Youth for Democracy, along with confirmed communists Howard Fast, Langston Hughes, John Howard Lawson and Dirk Struik.In April 1948, Frank Marshall Davis and Vernon Jarrett were working together as members of the publicity committee of the communist controlled Citizens’ Committee to Aid Packing-House Workers.Besides Davis and Jarrett, communist officials of the strike committee included Oscar Brown (Treasurer), Louise Patterson (Assistant Treasurer) and Ishmael Flory (food & groceries committee).Later that year, Frank Marshall Davis left Chicago for Hawaii to work on the Honolulu Record, then edited and run by Communist Party member Koji Ariyoshi.A member of the “Dixie Mission” to Yenan, the HQ of the Chinese communist forces in the 1940s, Ariyoshi spent nearly two years in China as an officer of an all-Nisei psychological warfare unit. The unit’s job was to direct propaganda against the Japanese civilians and troops in China at the time.Immediately after the war, Ariyoshi worked New York City with accused “Amerasia” spy John S. Service and Ed Rohrbough – who would become business manager of the Honolulu Record, in an effort to steer U.S. policy towards the Chinese Communists and against the Nationalists. Ariyoshi also worked the Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, whose board included two people later arrested during the famous “Amerasia” spy case, “Amerasia editors Philip J. Jaffe and Kate L. Mitchell.Frank Marshall Davis was an active member of the Communist Party in Hawaii even after it went formally underground in 1950, when he assumed chairmanship of a tiny cell known as Group #10. Later Davis joined in the infiltration of the Hawaii Democratic Party, serving in 1950 as Assistant Secretary and Delegate to the Territorial Democratic Convention in his Precinct Club – Third Precinct of the Fifth District.Communist Frank Marshall Davis worked closely with comrade Vernon Jarrett in 1940′s Chicago. Davis moved to Hawaii where he eventually met and mentored a young Barack Obama. Meanwhile Vernon Jarrett helped elect communist/socialist backed Harold Washington to the Chicago mayoralty. Washington’s victory inspired Barack Obama to move to Chicago, where his career was promoted by both Vernon Jarrett and the Communist Party.Vernon Jarrett’s daughter-in-law Valerie Jarrett, worked for Harold Washington. Later she employed Barack Obama’s fiancee, Michelle Robinson, befriended the family and became one of President Obama’s most trusted advisers.In Chicago and nationally, the Communist Party threw its entire weight behind Obama’s Senate and Presidential campaigns.Is this is all mere coincidence?More importantly, given the connections of Frank Marshall Davis and the Communist Party USA to Soviet networks of the time, are there serious security implications here?Hmmmmm........If he really wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer.Hmmmm......Take your time to read it here.

• Federal Reserve Admits: We Have No Gold.(SHTF).The following exchange between Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) and the Fed’s attorney Scott Alvarez proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that The Federal Reserve has no gold backing the US dollar.Most in the alternative news sphere suspected it – now it’s fact.The Federal Reserve does not own any gold at all. We have not owned gold since 1934, so we have not engaged in any gold swap.What appears on our balance sheet is gold certificates…Before 1934 the Federal Reserve did, we did own gold. We turned that over by law to the Treasury and received in return for that gold certificates.The exact relationship between the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury and these non-tradeable gold certificates is not exactly clear, but an attempt to explain what’s actually going on has been put forth by goldnews.com.

In any case, we can analyze the implications of the basic facts and come to a couple of conclusions:

1. The widespread notion that the Fed owns gold is false. The corollary to this is the mistaken belief that the Fed understates its gold holdings on its balance sheet by only reporting certificates based on the $42.22 statutory gold value. The Fed does not in fact own the US gold stock multiplied by the market price of gold, unless the Treasury defaults and even then its not clear. The Fed does, however, own a claim to currency totaling $11.1 billion and this value has a remote chance of going up significantly if the Treasury revalues its gold and maintains the practice initiated in the Par Value Modification Act.
2. The fact that the Fed owns no gold, nor claims to any gold, means the fundamental value of the dollar lacks any backing besides dollars themselves, not including Fed building and equipment. Dollars are in essence worth a lot less than many people thought, and the Fed is much more impotent in using the prowess of their assets, and conducting monetary policy in general, than many believed. In all, Alvarez’s clarification strengthens the case for gold’s high dollar value immensely.

An interesting perspective, and one, if true, suggests that the value of your dollar in terms of gold is actually much less than believed – like close to zero. Our currency is not only not backed by gold, but in the event of a dollar meltdown the only assets backing the world’s reserve currency are worthless toxic mortgages purchased by The Fed in recent years from insolvent banking institutions.The only thing holding this thing together at this point is market confidence. When that goes, everything else goes with it.Hmmmm......How about this Grand canyon bungy jump without a rope?Read the full story here.

• Obama Names John Bryson Commerce Secretary from Mars.(WhitehouseDossier).President Obama has named John Bryson to be the Commerce Secretary from Mars, a new position that will promote Martian business interests.The real Commerce Secretary will be chosen within a few days.Obama is calling Bryson his “Commerce Secretary” pick so as not to raise a fuss. But there is clear evidence that this is IN FACT the Commerce Secretary from Mars, and that he will not helping human business owners.Bryson is a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group which, through its advocacy of the environment, is devoted to making the cost of doing business more expensive. So he couldn’t possibly be the new Commerce Secretary.It’s just that there is a natural tension between environmentalists and business, because business tends to make a mess, and environmentalists want business to clean up as much of it as possible. A leading environmentalist is not going to be devoted day and night, as well as night and day, to doing whatever he can to promote U.S. business. It’s not in his DNA.Environmentalists, to put it bluntly, are on the opposite side of business. It’s just one of those natural tensions that exist in society: Unions are opposed to management; doctors are opposed to health insurers; oil companies are opposed to ethanol; cowboys are opposed to indians, lobsters are opposed to boiling water, and so forth.And that’s why it’s impossible that Obama is choosing someone who FOUNDED the NRDC to be the nation’s chief advocate for business. So he must be working for Martians.His environmentalist enthusiasms have propelled Bryson to sit on the board of directors of Coda Automotive, a California-based electric vehicle manufacturer that for the time being at least will be making both its cars and batteries in China.Ironically enough, Obama is putting forth as Commerce Secretary a man who serves with a company that is tapping cheap Chinese auto labor at the same time Obama is aggressively touting the bailouts of Chrysler and GM that saved expensive American unions jobs at huge taxpayer expense.Coda will presumably be sharing sophisticated technology with the Chinese. The Chinese government is reportedly putting up hundreds of millions to support the enterprise.Are we going to have a Commerce Secretary who is afraid to piss off the Chinese??Putting someone who is working with the Chinese government in charge of boosting U.S. companies does not seem realistic, which is another reason why Obama instead made Bryson Commerce Secretary from Mars.Hmmmm.......You will obey and drive in my little electric cars..........Do you understand?Read the full story here.

• Special Report: Inside Germany's E.coli hunt.(Yahoo)The deadliest outbreak of its type on record has so far killed 23 people -- 22 in Germany and one in Sweden. Striking suddenly in the middle of a hot and sunny May, the crisis has doctors struggling to explain the outbreak and public health authorities in one of Europe's most famously organised countries stumped as to how to manage it and how to stop it happening again. As the outbreak enters its second month, plenty of questions remain, not least of which is this: If the Germans can't manage an outbreak, who can?"They can't rule out HUS yet," Erika says, drawing deeply on yet another cigarette. "It makes you think."BLAME THE SPROUTS.The first case in Germany's E.coli outbreak was reported on May 1. Soon an average of nine cases a day were being reported, rising to 122 cases on May 23 alone.At first, German officials blamed cucumbers -- specifically, Spanish cucumbers. Within days, though, investigators had ruled out the vegetable and started looking closer to home for the cause. Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to explain Germany's actions to an irate Spanish prime minister and Spanish farmers later said they might sue for damages.Germany's main center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), deployed 10 teams to outbreak hotspots such as restaurants and canteens and to ask patients exactly what they ate for each course. To double check the data, customers of these establishments who did not fall ill have been interviewed too. Officials have also sifted through the contents of rubbish bins and fridges and sent some of their contents for analysis.Specialists working around the clock at RKI headquarters in Berlin cross-check the data looking for what the institute's president, Reinhard Burger, called a "common denominator". So far that's pointed the finger of blame at raw vegetables.After a few days the search took scientists to the Kartoffelkeller (Potato Cellar) restaurant in Luebeck, north east of Hamburg. The former medieval hospital offers traditional fare based on meat and potatoes. On May 13 it had served dinner to a large group of female tax officials. Then 17 people who had eaten there had fallen sick -- and one of the tax officers had died.Owner Joachim Berger said health inspectors turned the place upside down without finding anything and when Reuters visited at lunchtime on June 4, the Kartoffelkeller was open for business and full. None of his staff had become ill, Berger said. "Everything has been re-disinfected and inspected, but it's clear nobody here is sick, and we all eat the food ourselves."But public health officials believed they were on the right track. On June 5, Lower Saxony state agriculture minister Gert Lindemann said a "really hot lead" pointed to sprout varieties (alfalfa, mung bean, radish and arugula) from a supplier that sold the Kartoffelkeller its vegetables. Johanna Tramma at the Fruchthof, a family firm in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said her sprouts had come from a farm in Lower Saxony which also supplied Hamburg's wholesale market.Perhaps the E.coli detectives should have focused in on sprouts more quickly. An outbreak in Japan in 1996, which killed 11 people, was traced back to a similar source, and a U.S. outbreak in 1997 came from alfalfa sprouts.Officials rushed to the Gaertnerhof farm in the town of Bienenbuettel in Lower Saxony, but the order to shut it down came almost too late. It was sealed off at 5:10 p.m. on Sunday -- 20 minutes after a truckload of sprouts left for Hamburg for sale. It was recalled and returned to the farm while health officials told people to avoid bean sprouts as well as the other raw salad vegetables already on the danger list.The farm's owner Klaus Verbeck told a local paper -- before retreating behind a fence patrolled by security guards -- that the Gaertnerhof had been growing organic sprouts for 25 years and was given a clean bill of health for E.coli as recently as the second half of May. Neighbor Sibylle Lange, 45, described the owners as "very serious, hardworking people who were very early producers of organic products".In many ways the bean sprout theory sounds reassuringly likely. Scientists say the steamy temperatures at which sprouts are cultivated are an ideal incubation ground for any microbe.But even the sprouts may not be the culprits. Evidence so far is circumstantial and the first tests on suspect sprouts from Lower Saxony have been inconclusive, said the regional agriculture ministry.The exact source may never be pinned down."We can't rule out that the source of the outbreak cannot be retraced anymore. That's not unusual in these circumstances," said Burger at the RKI, adding that the original source of the infection may no longer exist.The German E.coli strain was first sequenced by a laboratory at the Beijing Genomics Institute, the world's largest DNA sequencing center. On June 3 it identified the E.coli as a new and "highly infectious and toxic" strain.There is no a clear indication yet if the rate of infection has peaked. "We hope that it fades and in the past few days, when we look at the numbers, we see it's getting better," Joerg Debatin, the medical director and CEO at Hamburg-Eppendorf, told Reuters. "But we honestly said the same thing a week ago."E.coli turns into HUS when bacterial or "Shiga" toxins enter the bloodstream, according to kidney specialist Professor Rolf Stahl, head of nephrology at the Hamburg university clinic. That can lead to potential kidney and neurological damage and even trigger epilepsy.Like other E.coli patients, Erika was given medicine to repair her intestinal flora and told to disinfect her household and drink plenty of liquids. But she was not given antibiotics as doctors say this strain of the bug can be resistant and there is growing concern among scientists about the spread of resistance to antibiotics among many common bacteria.Even when it is contained, the outbreak will have done lasting damage to at least some conceptions about 'healthy' organic food in a part of the world where enthusiasm for natural produce is high."Genfood? Nein, Danke!" reads a bumper sticker with a smiley tomato logo on a truck at the Gaertnerhof farm in Bienenbuettel. Adapting the smiley sun-logo of the German anti-nuclear lobby to oppose genetically modified food -- "Genfood" -- proponents of natural foods have seen the organic market in Germany grow to 5.8 billion euros by 2009 (the latest figures available from the national organic trade body). Just under a fifth of that comes from German farms.Yet some studies suggest organic food is risky, especially when eaten raw, because farmers shun chemicals and rely on fertilizers such as manure or slurry. The Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli behind this outbreak are known to lurk in cattle guts.Hmmmm.....Cattle that is being treated with high doses of anti biotics.Read the full story here.

• 'Pro-Israeli campaign aims to weaken Turkey'.(Ynet).Turkish leaders including PM Erdogan outraged over Economist editorial urging voters to back opposition in imminent elections.Turkish leaders have lined up to condemn the Economist magazine for an editorial that urged voters to back the opposition in Sunday's election, calling it part of an anti-democratic, pro-Israeli campaign to weaken Turkey.Opinion polls indicate Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party will comfortably secure a third term.Erdogan himself said the article showed Israeli influence."The international media, because they are backed by Israel, wouldn't be happy with the continuation of the AK Party government," Erdogan said, according to comments reported by the state-run Anatolian agency at the weekend.In an editorial entitled "One for the opposition," the avowedly pro-free-market, pro-democracy Economist, which regularly expresses a party preference in advance of elections, wrote: "The best way for Turks to promote democracy would be to vote against the ruling party."A leading member of Erdogan's AK Party, which currently has a large majority in parliament, saw the article as reflecting a desire in Europe to weaken Turkey."A growing Turkey does not suit the British or the Germans or the French. They want Turkey to be condemned to coalition governments again. That is the scenario," Anatolian reported senior AK Party official Suat Kilic as saying.The Economist said it was not surprising voters were set to return the AK Party to power as the economy had done very well under its rule, while reforms had secured the start of EU talks and sent the politically intrusive army back to its barracks.But it said Erdogan's victories in struggles with the army and judiciary had eliminated many checks and balances, freeing him to "indulge his natural intolerance of criticism" and feeding his "autocratic instincts."It a vote for the opposition CHP "would both reduce the risks of unilateral changes that would make the constitution worse and give the opposition a fair chance of winning a future election.""That would be by far the best guarantee of Turkey's democracy," it said.Hmmmm.....Very truthfull article.Read the full story here.

• Iranian navy sends submarines to Red Sea.(HurriyetDaily).Iran has sent submarines to the Red Sea in the first such deployment by the country's navy in distant waters, a semi-official news agency reported on Tuesday.The deployment reflects Iran's efforts to show off its naval power. Iran has long sought to upgrade its air defense systems and navy to portray itself as a regional military superpower, as well as prepare for any possible future attacks against the country, saying they would most likely be air and sea-based.The Fars news agency, which is close to Iranian military officials, said the submarines would collect data in international waters and identify warships of other countries.The report quoted an unnamed government official as saying the submarines accompanied Iranian warships on an anti-piracy route in the Gulf of Aden before they moved into the Red Sea earlier this month. Fars gave no details on the number or capabilities of the submarines.Iran has long had three Russian-made submarines and last year, four new small Iranian-built submarines were delivered to its navy.The four were said to be Ghadir class submarines, which can fire missiles and torpedoes and at the same time are capable of cruising in shallow waters, such as those of the Persian Gulf off the Iranian coast.Israel, the United States and others want to stop Iran from what they fear is a push by Tehran to develop nuclear weapons. So far the pressure on Iran has been mostly through international sanctions but both Israel and the U.S. have not ruled out a military strike if sanctions fail. Iran says its nuclear program aims only to produce electricity.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Lawsuit Seeks to Block Canadian Flotilla Group.(Investigativeproject).A lawsuit filed in Toronto against the Canadian Boat to Gaza and Alternatives International claims the groups are providing material support to Hamas.The Canadian Boat to Gaza is a member of Freedom Flotilla II, a coalition of groups planning to sail to Gaza at the end of this month to break the Israeli naval embargo on the region. It is committed to "supporting the Hamas rulers of Gaza by importing and exporting goods from the terrorist-ruled territory," the complaint says.Alternatives International, which reportedly received millions of dollars from the Canadian government, is "the self-professed fundraiser and trustee for the Canadian Boat," the lawsuit says. Backers say it is the first litigation aimed at stopping flotilla participants from continuing to raise money for the effort. It also seeks $1 million in damages.Cherna Rosenberg, a citizen of both Canada and Israel, filed the case in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Thursday. Rosenberg, who moved to Sderot, Israel in 2007, has been victimized by constant Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza carried out by Hamas. Sderot and surroundiung areas have been the target of rocket attacks from Hamas since 2001. The attacks have killed Israeli civilians, and have caused trauma and property damage in Sderot and the surrounding area.Rosenberg moved from Sderot to Haifa in 2008 to escape the constant fear and anxiety that permeated her life in the region. She frequently visits her daughter and grandchildren who still live in Sderot, which is regularly accompanied by rockets falling, increasing her trauma, the lawsuit says."The trauma of living under Hamas rockets, whose existence is supported and facilitated by the acts of the Defendants, has made the Plaintiff's life in Israel and in Ontario a continuous trauma from which she suffers substantial personal loss," the complaint says.Canada listed Hamas as a terrorist group in 2002. Directly providing Hamas authorities in Gaza with supplies violates the Canadian Criminal Code. The flotilla supporters "are a step in the chain of conduct that ultimately leads to the rocket attacks that have traumatized the Plaintiff and caused her much suffering and loss," the complaint says.Hmmmmm.....Well done.Read the full story here.

• Trump force one: Inside Donald Trump's $100 million 'presidential' 757 jet.(DailyMail).He has already declared himself out of the 2012 presidential race.But new photos show Donald Trump's latest $100 million acquisition is essentially a presidential suite flying the skies - complete with suede ceilings and gold-leaf seatbelts.Trump's Boeing 757 - decked out in his trademark black and gold livery - took off for from New York to Washington, D.C. on Friday.Before taking the jet on its maiden voyage, Trump offered a tour of his new toy to the New York Post.Photos show a plush private bedroom dressed in cream with gold accents, and flat-screen television, wooden desk and electric shades to control the light for a peaceful slumber.The jet, a favourite of presidential candidates according to aviation experts, is double the size of the property tycoon's previous Boeing 727.Its bathroom features a circular shower and gold detailing, while the main cabin shows rows of wide, cushioned seats and cream couches that swivel to face boardroom tables or flat-screen televisions.Gold-leaf detailing on the seatbelts strap in those flying Trump, surrounded by wood paneling accents and large oval windows.The jet was bought for $100 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in February and has spent the last few months being fitted out in Mr Trump's ostentatious style. The new Trump 757 has room for up to 230 passengers, 80 more than its ageing 727predecessor.According to Matt Molnar of nycaviation.com, the 757 is a 'standard issue' campaign jet for those on the road to the White House.Hmmm....."The mighty duck"?Read the full story here.

• Turkey says flotilla organizers should wait and see new Gaza conditions.(TodaysZaman).Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has advised organizers of a flotilla planning to depart for Gaza later this month to wait and see how Egypt's lifting its embargo of Gaza affects the Hamas-run coastal strip.This is the first time Davutoğlu suggested flotilla organizers to reconsider their plans. He had so far rejected US and Israeli appeals to try to stop the flotilla, saying it is a civilian initiative that the government cannot intervene in and insisting that the international community should pressure Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza instead of trying to prevent the new flotilla. The Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), a Turkish charity that played the lead role in a similar mission to Gaza last year, says a new flotilla will depart for Gaza at the end of June. Last year's mission turned bloody when Israeli commandos stormed a ship owned by İHH, the Mavi Marmara, and killed eight Turks and one Turkish American.In remarks published on Monday, the foreign minister reiterated the government cannot stop the activities of a civilian group, saying it is supported by a number of international organizations and that its work is legal. But he said the flotilla should this time wait to see how conditions in Gaza will change with Egypt lifting its embargo and the anticipated establishment of a Palestinian unity government.“No one should even imagine that the worst-case scenario could happen,” he told the Hürriyet daily in an interview in the central Anatolian province of Konya, where he is on an election campaign visit.To avoid the repetition of last year's tragedy, Israel should also do its share, Davutoğlu said, by lifting the blockade of Gaza. “Israel should wait for the establishment of the new Palestinian government and then lift the blockade of Gaza,” he said.A report published last week said the US was to offer Turkey a proposal under which it would host future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in return for preventing a second flotilla trip to Gaza.Responding to a question about the reported proposal in a televised interview on Friday night, Davutoğlu said there was no request from the US to prevent the flotilla from sailing.Hmmmm......Considering the "Audacity of Hate" laying in an US port the latter will be truth.Don't listen to what i say,look at what i do.Read the full story here.

• Selective religious freedom is not freedom: The Turkish Case.(HurriyetDaily).What some observers see as “Turkey’s bloodless civil war” was perhaps best captured in the words of Bülent Arınç, then parliamentary speaker and today deputy prime minister, in the run-up to the presidential election in 2007, “They [secular Turks] don’t want a Muslim president!” Yet Turkey’s former presidents or potential rivals to Mr. Arınç’s favorite candidate were neither Christians nor Jews, or anything but adherents to Islam. For Mr. Arınç, “Muslim” meant a “Muslim like me.”Turkey’s bloodless civil war is between pious Muslims who want the public space to be dominated by their interpretation of religion and less dogmatic and secular Muslims who believe in strict separation of state and mosque. Mr. Arınç’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has advocated greater religious freedoms since it came to power in 2002, but its favoritism toward a chosen practice of piety has deeply polarized Turkey. Turkey's “war of religion” is not between two religions, nor is it between the faithful and atheists; it is a contest between believers of the same faith with divergent interpretations of its strictures and/or different levels of observance.The AKP’s initial systematic attempt to inject piety into the Turkish society was to appoint and promote observant Muslims to influential positions in the state bureaucracy. In the meantime, strictly observant businessmen began to receive lucrative government contracts, as their piety became a powerful bond with the government-appointed decision-makers, and an unstated advantage in gaining official business.Today, Turkish campuses properly enjoy freedom for the headscarf, but lack any other freedom the ruling party deems inappropriate "to our moral values." Many students who have protested against the policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or his cabinet heavyweights have been subject to brutal police attacks, subsequent detention and prosecution.Greater public space for certain practices of the majority sect of Turkey’s majority religion also mean smaller space for less pious practices. Tighter alcohol restrictions by the government, public disapproval and sometimes physical attacks on drinkers, and a visible intolerance of those who eat pork or do not fast during Ramadan are new facts of life in Turkey. At the heart of the problem is strictly observant Muslims’ self-granted authority to collectively define and combat evil and command good for all Turks, rather than just individually avoid evil and choose good. Recently, the head of the alcohol and tobacco watchdog, another AKP-appointee, complained that he “cannot easily find a fish restaurant, which does not serve alcohol on the Bosporus.” Going to a fully-licensed restaurant and simply not drinking alcohol apparently would not satisfy his reading of Muslim law.With systematic government backing and legislation in favor of broader requirements for piety in public space, strictly observant Muslims increasingly do not accept faith as a private matter, and often do not respect divergent degrees of observance, or no observance at all. The most dogmatic Turkish Muslims often ignore, for instance, that the Quran commands Muslims to avoid alcohol but nowhere commands them to attack those who consume it.Selective advocacy of religious freedoms in Turkey, whose prime minister is the co-chairman of the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, is promoting an increasingly pious populace that is less tolerant of those different from them. A piercing question rises from the Turkish experience: How can those who seek to enforce, rather than only embrace, the strictest interpretation of their own faith ever be at peace with other faiths, or with agnostics or atheists?Hmmmm.....Welcome to Turkey .......Iranian style.Read the full story here.

• Lesbian blogger kidnapped in Syria.(HurriyetDaily).A female blogger has been abducted by armed men in the Syrian capital, Damascus, relatives and activists say.Amina Abdallah Araf was seized on Monday evening, as she was walking in the area of the Abbasid bus station, according to her cousin, Rania O. Ismail."Amina was seized by three men in their early 20's. According to the witness [a friend accompanying Abdallah], the men were armed", Ismail wrote on Abdallah's blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus."One of the men then put his hand over Amina's mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad," she continued, referring to President Bashar al-Assad's brother who died in a car accident in 1994.Abdallah, openly lesbian, holds dual Syrian and American citizenship.According to Al Jazeera, Ismail wrote that her cousin's whereabouts were unknown, and that the family was trying to track her down."We do not know who took her, so we do not know who to ask to get her back. It is possible that they are forcibly deporting her," she wrote."From other family members who have been imprisoned there, we believe that she is likely to be released fairly soon. If they wanted to kill her, they would have done so. That is what we are all praying for."Since mass protests erupted in Syria in March, Abdallah has been increasingly critical of the the government, writing on Sunday: "They must go, they must go soon. That is all there is to say."On April 26, she wrote about how her father faced down two security agents who came to arrest her, threatening to rape her and accusing her of being a involved in a Salafist plot.Mixing regime criticism with humour and poems, Abdallah has been outspoken about the situation for homosexuals and other subjects which are taboo in Arab culture.Several Facebook pages calling for her release were set up on Monday and activists also launched a campaign on Twitter.Syrian authorities had been cracking down on journalists and bloggers even before protests began.A number of bloggers were arrested in February, and 20-year-old Tal al-Mallouhi, a 20-year-old girl, was jailed on charges on spying for a foreign country.Read the full story here.

• Malaysia police slammed for cattle-branding women.(JakartaPost).Malaysian lawyers, politicians and activists lambasted the police Saturday, accusing them of abusing their power in chaining up and marking the bodies of 30 foreign women detained for alleged prostitution.Police raided a high-end nightclub in northern Penang state late Thursday and arrested 29 women from China and one from Vietnam, along with eight Malaysian men. Local media reported police officers went undercover at the club for a week before the raid.It triggered an outcry after local newspapers carried photos of the women bound up with a long chain and marked with either a tick or an X on their chest and forehead."The police branded the detained women as though they are cattle," opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok said in a statement. "It is sickening that the police would employ such dehumanizing tactics as a show of power and moral superiority over their detainees."Women's rights group Tenaganita said the detainees had been victimized and called for an investigation into the police conduct.Another rights group, Lawyers for Liberty, said the police action was "very unusual and inhumane" as the women were merely suspects and not convicted of any crime.Police have defended their action, saying the markings served as a way to identify the women.Penang police chief Ayub Yaakob told the New Straits Times that the situation was chaotic, with the suspects trying to escape. He said police were forced to mark the women after some donned new clothes to try and blend in with other female patrons of the club.He also said the women had wrecked many marriages and that police had received numerous complaints from wives of men who sought their services.Hmmmm.............Read the full story here.