Video - Live feed of NYC solidarity protests

.@LelandVittert says police source told him #Baltimore mayor said, “Let them loot, it’s only property.” #KellyFile

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 30, 2015

Who do u believe @BaltimoreMayor or the video http://t.co/TYiWSkDfqt #BaltimoreRiots #Baltimore

— Leland Vittert (@LelandVittert) April 29, 2015

'Orchestrated Racial Pogroms?' - Officers Saying Baltimore Mayor Told Police To Stand Down - Report.

.@LelandVittert says police source told him #Baltimore mayor said, “Let them loot, it’s only property.” #KellyFile

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 30, 2015

'Orchestrated Racial Pogroms?' - Officers Saying Baltimore Mayor Told Police To Stand Down - Report.(conservative-headlines).


Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake (born March 17, 1970) is an American politician and the 49th and current mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. She is the second woman to hold the office. A member of the Democratic Party, she currently serves as secretary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Fox just reported that reporters said when they asked police why they were not responding to stop the rioters, they were told by the officers, “Talk to the mayor”, clearly implying they had been told not to move by the Mayor.

On Saturday, we reported the now-infamous statement from the Mayor about giving the protester/rioters ‘space’ to destroy.

When Republican Governor Hogan declared a State of Emergency last night, he also made comment about how he was glad that the Mayor “finally” called him. The National Guard is only arriving this morning. Hogan said that Obama had asked that they exercise “due restraint”.

Video above: Fast Forward to minute mark 7:30

“I worked with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters we able to exercise their right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy, space to to do that as well.” – Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake...... More on Mayor Blake here.

Source. 

Baltimore Mayor Spoke With Obama in Afternoon – Then Waited 5 Hours to Call in the National Guard Read more.

The Governor of Maryland waited all afternoon for a call from Mayor Rawlings Blake to call in the guard.
ABC7 reported:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was asked why she waited hours to ask the governor to declare a state of emergency, while the governor himself hinted she should have come to him earlier.

“We were all in the command center in the second floor of the State House in constant communication, and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time,” Gov. Larry Hogan told a Monday evening news conference. “She finally made that call, and we immediately took action.”

The National Guard was called in after 15 businesses were torched, dozens of arrests and over 15 police officers injured.

Read more: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/04/baltimore-mayor-spoke-with-obama-in-afternoon-then-waited-hours-to-call-in-the-national-guard/#ixzz3Ycful1cu

Hmmmm.....Someone seems to be heading towards a new 'October revolution' time for America to wake up......Sometimes i wonder where all this Obama campaigning will lead to?

Newt Gingrich “President Obama is legitimately and authentically a Saul Alinsky radical.”

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation update: Fiji 5.4  !More info here.

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

• RED ALERT: Just in time for 2012 election, FCC preparing to launch stealth 'Fairness Doctrine'.(DougRoss).Yesterday, our broadcast industry tipster alerted us to a bizarre, FCC-directed national broadcast test (see "Exactly one year before the 2012 election, Obama FCC schedules first-ever nationwide test of emergency broadcast system").Today, Ten Mile Island gives us more ominous information:The FCC is expected to issue a proposal tomorrow (today) which will, if adopted, require broadcasters to provide much more detailed information and reports on the programming they air.Instead of quarterly 'Issues/Program Lists' (which already viewed as an unduly burdensome requirement and seldom if ever used by the public) the FCC is looking to have stations fill out a new and more complicated form which would be posted on the stations’ websites.The program reporting requirement would require a station to glean programming information based on two composite weeks per quarter (presumably selected by the FCC) and insert the results of their analysis into a form which would then be posted on the station website. In addition to the new programming information, all of the required data maintained in the station’s political file would also have to be posted on the website.Not only will the web site posting requirement be labor intensive (particularly for small market stations) but they will reveal any required programming postings and other filings which fail to meet the various filing deadlines for required information. The newly proposed rules would also provide easy access to opponents and protest groups to gather information for petitions to deny and complaints to challenge license renewals and any other applications filed by the stations.Our government masters will require us to be suitably engaged in social justice.In other words, just in time for the 2012 elections, the FCC will help accelerate license challenges against "uncooperative" radio stations: namely, those stations that feature conservative talk radio.Just before Barack Obama took his oath of office, Jim Boulet Jr. warned us that efforts like these are designed to supplant the Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine". It's not that progressives gave up trying to censor free speech when they dropped their push for "Fairness", it's that they're using more underhanded tactics to do so. Tactics like "localism": Remember that an FCC license is required for any radio or television station to legally operate in the United States. A single complaint from anyone can significantly hinder a station's license renewal process or even cost the station its FCC license entirely...
  These random efforts could be far more effective at silencing conservatives if they could only be systematized and institutionalized. That is exactly what the FCC proposed on January 24th. Every radio and television station would be required to create:
  
  [P]ermanent advisory boards comprised of local officials and other community leaders, to periodically advise them of local needs and issues, and seek comment on the matter. ...
  
  To ensure that these discussions include representatives of all community elements, these boards would be made up of leaders of various segments of the community, including underserved groups.
  
  The "community advisory board as permanent complaint department" model may well be based upon the 1995 revisions of the Community Reinvestment Act [that helped touch off the mortgage meltdown].
  If you think this administration is simply going to let conservative pundits like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh exercise their First Amendment rights without an ACORN-style fight, well, I've got a nice condo in Vegas I'd like to sell you.Hmmm.......Herr Doctor Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the Obama regime.Read the full story here.
  

• Alinsky to Obama to Occupiers.(AmSpectator).A president in his element.Civil unrest is President Barack Obama's crutch, his comfort zone, and his trump card. That's why he has encouraged the "Occupy Wall Street" protest and its progeny across the country, despite significant political dangers to him for doing so. Closer looks at Obama's career roots and at the protesters' behaviors help explain both why the protests are worrisome developments and why the president actually likes them.First, it helps to understand just how radical most of these protesters are -- and just how obscene. Clearly, they are mostly socialist or communist in orientation. And reports are rampant about the lewdness, vileness, and illegality that has marked the Wall Street "occupation" zone, including plenteous drugs, public nudity and sex, and defecation on police cars. A lot of this isn't free speech; it's open law-breaking.So why does Obama applaud it, when he repeatedly castigated Tea Party demonstrators who lawfully secured permits, usually behaved with remarkable decorum, and cleaned up after themselves?The answer is easy: This is Obama's milieu. This is how he was trained. As Ryan Lizza explained in a definitive piece in the New Republic -- a liberal magazine, not a right-wing/anti-Obama hit factory -- Obama's intellectual roots and career choices made him a student of, and later actually an instructor in, the particular mass-movement methods taught by the late, radical, Saul Alinsky. The sort of unrest seen in the anti-Wall Street movement comes directly out of Alinsky's secular bible called Rules for Radicals."The first step in community organization is community disorganization," wrote Alinsky. "The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization…. The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community…. When those prominent in the status quo turn and label you an 'agitator' they are completely correct, for that is, on one word, your function -- to agitate to the point of conflict."Alinsky hardly was squeamish about using filth to get his way. "If your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place." Later, he gave a fictitious but oh-so-literal example of one way to do it: He suggested that protesters gorge on beans before occupying a public building so that their -- uh, their natural emissions -- would literally create a stench. "In a fight almost anything goes," he wrote. "It almost reaches the point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt." Alinsky openly and exuberantly belittled the notion of ethics. All that mattered, he said, was whether your side is losing or winning. Only afterwards do you try to find an excuse for your illicit behavior: "The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and [then] clothe it with moral garments."To be clear, nobody suggests Obama is personally orchestrating the various "Occupy" demonstrations. Then again, he doesn't need to. The Occupiers are receiving financial help or organizational muscle from many of his associates or major supporters, including several union bosses of the sort who just weeks ago pledged to "take these [SOBs] out" of commission. Despite Obama's eloquent words earlier this year demanding milder rhetoric and more carefully calibrated political actions, he has not uttered a peep in admonishment of the increasingly virulent language, not to mention lawless actions such as attempting to physically "take over" public buildings.Critics have noted that the protesters often can't even define what they are protesting, or that their "issues" are such a diverse hodgepodge as to be unintelligible. Again, this is straight from Alinsky's playbook. The organizer, he wrote, "should search for and use the wrong reasons to achieve the right goals. He should be able, with skill and calculation, to use irrationality in his attempts to progress to a rational world. For a variety of reasons the organizer must develop multiple issues…. Multiple issues mean constant action and life."What Obama particularly likes about this disruptive movement is that its only universally acknowledged target is the one he himself provided: Wall Street. He's the one who repeatedly gave the marching order against corporate bogeymen. As Alinsky wrote in his most famous rule of all: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." This is exactly what Obama himself tried to do as a community organizer in Chicago. It is what he has done every step of the way as campaigner and as president, always finding someone to blame or be against: George W. Bush, greedy corporations, millionaires, Republican congressmen, or people who "cling to guns or religion."The problem with Saul Alinsky -- and for the protesters who still, knowingly or unknowingly, do his work -- was that nothing was sacred. Rules for Radicals is, in Alinsky's own words, officially dedicated to "the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer."Alinsky seemed to mean the dedication to be funny. But it's no laughing matter, and neither are protests that violate common decency.Read the full story here.

• GOP senators urge hearings on Iraq withdrawal.(Politico).Twelve members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — 11 Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut — have asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), to hold hearings on President Barack Obama’s announcement that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of this year.In a letter released Thursday, the senators said the administration has sent conflicting signals on whether any troops would remain in Iraq. While Obama’s announcement “apparently ends negotiations between the United States and the Government of Iraq on a long-term training and stability force of sufficient size to protect both U.S. and Iraqi enduring national security interests,” the letter noted that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has also said the U.S. will continue talks with the Iraqis.“Given the president’s announcement that all U.S. military forces will be withdrawn by the end of the year, our committee should take the lead on establishing the public record on the administration’s plan and ensuring Congress’s rigorous oversight of this consequential decision,” the senators wrote.The only GOP senator on the committee who did not sign the letter was Susan Collins of Maine.Levin’s office declined comment on the request.Obama’s announcement Friday came after efforts to negotiate a new security agreement were bogged down over the question of whether any U.S. troops who remained would have immunity from local prosecution — something Iraqi officials refused to grant and U.S. officials said was a deal-breaker. The discussions centered around whether several thousand U.S. troops would remain as trainers under a new deal to replace a 2008 agreement that expires Dec. 31.Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other GOP senators, along with Lieberman, already were concerned that the number of troops likely to remain under a new deal was too low to defend U.S. interests in Iraq. McCain called the withdrawal “a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.”The White House portrayed the move as the fulfillment of Obama’s campaign promise to end the Iraq War. But it also reflected the realities of Iraqi politics. Key supporters of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government — particularly the Iranian-backed cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — opposed any new deal in which U.S. troops would remain.Hmmmm......After a General called 'the Little Corporal' and a Corporal playing General now a Community Organiser as 'Supreme commander'?Read the full story here.

• Rep. Joe Walsh to Eric Holder: You better resign immediately, buddy.(HotAir).It was faint at first, but it grows ever louder, this cry for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) today became the fourth Congressman to explicitly call for Holder to take responsibility for the lethally reckless Operation Fast and Furious and to voluntarily leave his post because of his presumed authorization of the program. Walsh’s behest follows similar requests from Reps. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).Walsh today sent a harshly-worded letter to Holder, in which he asked Holder to “resign immediately and issue an apology to the American people [he has] failed to serve.” Walsh also took Holder to task for his stonewalling of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Fast and Furious.But the most memorable portion of the letter came, not at the beginning, when Walsh lambasted Holder’s understanding of his job, nor at the end, when he called for Holder’s resignation. It came in the middle, when Walsh delved into the seemingly-obvious-but-not-yet-confirmed motivation for the program:

Your Department has made an enormous error in judgment. It instructed federally-licensed firearms dealers to illegally sell at least 2,000 guns that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intended to be trafficked to drug cartels in Mexico. The results of this error in judgment have implicated the United States in well over one hundred deadly crimes and the deaths of two federal agents.
This not only raises serious questions about your ability to serve as the head of the Justice Department, but also begs the question of why an anti-gun Administration would knowingly force licensed firearms dealers to sell guns to violent criminals. I raise this because Operation Fast and Furious — if the facts of this case had not come to light — would have been used by this Administration as another false argument to attack law-abiding American gun owners.
The American people deserve to know if your Department had any intent to link the legal purchase of firearms here in the U.S. to crimes committed near our southern border. Operation Fast and Furious funneled firearms legally purchased at gun shops in the U.S. to known criminal syndicates to prove these syndicates have access to legal purchased weapons. This is a deliberate attempt to vilify and attack the millions of gun owners in America who value our Second Amendment and have never broken the law.Walsh’s posited explanation appears to be the only plausible one. Why else would the administration authorize the program — then fail to follow up to catch the criminals the program was purportedly designed to catch? Had ATF made any kind of legitimate attempt to track the weapons — had they not allowed the guns to so completely disappear into the hands of violent criminals — it might have been believable that the administration sought to use the program to disrupt the power of Mexican drug cartels.Yet, Walsh’s explanation is not a fun one to believe. It’s sickening to think anyone in the administration would really be so rash and so ideologically driven as to risk the nearly inevitable results of this program — the deaths that did, in fact, result — just to prove the point that legally purchased weapons show up at violent crime scenes, just to suggest the government ought to make it harder to legally purchase guns in the first place. It’s even more terrifying to think someone as high up as Holder would be.Walsh and the rest are brave to call for Holder’s resignation — but they definitely should. Walsh isn’t afraid to take the matter to the president, either.“If [Holder] fails to [resign], I would ask that President Obama dismiss him immediately,” Walsh said today.Then again, Obama has stood by Holder through all kinds of nonsense, so no real reason exists to believe he won’t stand by him now — unless F&F somehow becomes well-known enough to threaten his reelection.Hmmm...........GunWalker:'One of these days these boots will walk all over you'?Read the full story here.

• Obama on Leno: As nation's pain deepens, president plays TV talk-show quipster.(BaltimoreSun).By David Zurawik.Almost midnight in America ...As citizens camp out on the streets of American cities to try and express their anger and frustration at the way the country and his administration have failed them, President Obama goes on TV to trade scripted quips with the always-safe Jay Leno.But first, he hops into San Francisco on Air Force One to pick up a cool million at a campaign fund raiser.A few months into Obama's presidency, I wrote two things about his media behavior that have only become more pronounced in recent months.

The first: When the going gets tough, the president goes on TV.

The second: The Obama White House has more contempt for the press and less respect for freedom of information and expression than any administration since that of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

These troubling tendencies have only become more acute as Obama's popularity plummets, the nation's economic woes deepen and the 2012 election draws near.As for contempt for the press, check out this story from San Francisco Tuesday about local reporters being barred from pool coverage of the $7,500 a plate campaign fund raiser.When I first compared Obama to Nixon in early 2009 for his lack of respect for the role of a free press in a democracy, I caught holy hell.Well, now others are saying much the same.And check out this scripted video exchange about GOP challengers between Obama and his NBC straight man, Leno.I used to be merely annoyed by the way some of my colleagues in the press who were so savvy on so many other political matters fell for such phony TV scripted interplay designed to let the president score political points and reach a mass audience free and clear with his message.But, you know what, with all the pain that so many millions of Americans are experiencing these days, it is way past annoying. It's outrageous for our president to be playing these calculated, dippy, little TV games when so many of us are in such need of real leadership.We have no shortage of airbrushed, phony-talking, TV talk-show guests in this country. In fact, they grow like weeds in our media-saturated soil.What we need is someone to make an honest, committed, passionate effort to try and lead us out of this darkness. Bouncing from crosscountry fund raisers to TV appearances with yuk-yuk, fawning courtiers like Jay Leno is how you take care of your own political career, not the nation you were elected to serve.I can't wait for the college basketball season to start so I can see our president focusing his attention on working those brackets and showing off his jump shot on CBS and ESPN.Am I wrong to think media critics should be watchdogs, too, trying to explain to citizens the ways in which our elected leaders are using media as a political tool.Hmmm.......Snake oil salesmen....you know one when you see one.Read and see (video) the full story here.

• Jordan’s King Abdallah on how no one trusts Obama’s government.(DailyCaller).Earlier this week, The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth interviewed King Abdallah of Jordan. Here’s how King Abdallah responded to Weymouth’s question, “Do you and other leaders in this area believe you cannot rely on the U.S.?”“I think everybody is wary of dealing with the West. … Looking at how quickly people turned their backs on [Egyptian President Husni] Mubarak, I would say that most people are going to try and go their own way. I think there is going to be less coordination with the West and therefore a chance of more misunderstandings.”This is devastating. I’m not shocked he thinks that way, but I am shocked that he says so openly. That’s how far things have gone. Jordan is now turning to Saudi Arabia for protection.For more than 40 years, Jordan has been the most consistent ally of the United States in the Arab world. Yet the king can no longer trust the White House. The Obama administration dumped Mubarak, and it might dump him too.Because no one in the Middle East trusts the U.S., no one will stick his neck out on behalf of U.S. interests or requests. Moreover, they are going their own way. While Washington officials extol Islamist forces or things that benefit them in Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Turkey, they don’t seem to care at all about Israel, Jordan or Saudi Arabia, the scattered survivors of recent developments and Obama’s pro-Islamist policies.This also partly explains Iraq’s lack of interest in a continued U.S. troop presence. Likewise, the Afghan government knows that it cannot depend on a U.S. government that is not only withdrawing its troops but has subverted the Kabul regime, proven powerless in dealing with Pakistan and openly talks of political negotiations with the Taliban and even al Qaida-linked terrorist groups (the Haqqani Network).The longstanding U.S. policy of allying with moderate Arab monarchies and nationalist regimes has been undone by the Obama administration. When the king of Jordan openly complains about it, you know that U.S. credibility among pro-Western Arabs is pretty close to zero.Read the full story here.

• Report: Grapel deal includes several US F-16's for Egypt.(Ynet).The Palestinian Maan news agency reported Thursday that the United States has agreed to sell Egypt several F-16 fighter jets in order to facilitate the release of Israeli-American Ilan Grapel. Israel had opposed similar sales in the past. Grapel, who was arrested in June on espionage charges, is slated to be released later on Thursday. Israel will release 25 Egyptian prisoners in return.Maan quoted General Sameh Sayf al-Yazal as saying that Washington was instrumental in negotiation the 27-year-old's release, and helped Egypt "get the best possible deal for Grapel's release."Grapel, who at some point faced charges of espionage, sedition and attempted arson, will be debriefed by defense officials once he arrives in Israel, after which he is expected to fly back to the United States.The deal was sanctioned by the High Court, which rejected several petitions asking the deal be suspended until further review.According to several Egyptian websites, the Grapel deal may also pave the way for the release of Ouda Tarabin, an Israeli Bedouin who is currently serving a 15 year sentence in Egypt. Tarabin was convicted of espionage in 2000 by a military court that triad him in absentia.Hmmmm.....Poor excuse to arm The Muslim Brotherhood even more, Abram's tanks and F16's , why not throw in a submarine while he's at it?Merry Christmas ....Muslim brotherhood from Barry With love?Read the full story here.

• Obama wants to sell helicopters from US arsenal to Turkey.(IsraelMatzav).There's just one small problem: Congress is holding up the deal because of Turkey's behavior toward Israel. Under the administration's plan, the Marines would get two new, late-model Textron Inc Bell AH-1Z SuperCobras in exchange for the three AH-1W aircraft that would be transferred to Ankara from current inventory, a congressional official said.The officials declined to be identified because of the matter's sensitivity and because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The idea to take weapons from the U.S. arsenal was rare, they said.The proposal has been held up amid lawmakers' questions about increasingly distant relations between Muslim-majority Turkey and Israel, a key U.S. ally, among other matters.The AH-1W has sold previously for about $10 million. Turkey bought 10 of them in the 1990s. The larger, twin-engine AH-IZ may sell for about $30 million, according to industry sources.Under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, the executive branch must provide 15 days' formal notice to Congress before going ahead with significant arms transfers to a NATO partner. It was not immediately clear when such notice might take place, with informal congressional consultations continuing.The source of the Z helicopters is not clear to me. I think it means that Congress would allow the Marines to use the money received from Turkey to purchase the Z helicopters.Turkey has more than 20 earlier models of the Cobra family, all produced by Bell Helicopter Textron. These earlier attack helicopters, however, have single engines and their performances are very limited compared to those of the AH-1Ws.Bell Helicopter Textron began production of the AH-1Z, the latest member of the Cobra family, in recent years and delivered the first batch to the U.S. Marine Corps in January. Turkey’s efforts to obtain more attack helicopters have been continuing since the late 1990s. Bell Helicopter Textron won Turkey’s first tender with the AH-1Z in 2002, but the U.S. company and the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), Turkey’s procurement agency, were unable to agree on the gunship’s features and price for three years.As a result, SSM cancelled tender contracts and opened a new bidding process, which was boycotted by U.S. manufacturers. Eventually, Turkey selected the Italian AgustaWestland’s T-129, a Turkish version of the A-129 Mangusta International, over South Africa’s Denel, maker of the AH-2 Rooivalk.Presently, AgustaWestland and Turkish Aerospace Industries, its Turkish partner, are manufacturing a total of 59 T-129s, worth billions of dollars, for the Turkish Army. The first deliveries are scheduled for late next year while the gunship is expected to enter service in the Turkish Army in 2013.“The Super Cobra matter is another reason why the relations between Turkey and Israel should be warm. Otherwise, any pro-Israeli senator may kill it,” said one Turkish defense analyst.Hmmm........Reuters mentions $10 Million a piece, there of them would be $30Million, so why is Hurriyet talking about $75Million for the choppers, unless different or more choppers are being sold under the nose of Congress?Read the fulll story here.

• Turkey - Journalists under pressure, RSF.(Firat).Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that pressure is mounting on journalists in Turkey as the fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) intensifies. As well as a spate of trials and cases of prolonged detention, journalists are now the target of government directives. Journalists who cover Kurdish issues critically continue to be accused of supporting the separatists by officials who cite the war on terror as their overriding imperative. And concern is growing that the government is trying to control coverage of its offensive.The Turkish judicial system continues to treat the publication of interviews with PKK members as terrorist propaganda, even if they are accompanied by commentary that stops far short of praising the PKK.Nese Düzel, a journalist with the liberal daily Taraf, and his editor, Adnan Demir, for example, are being prosecuted for two April 2010 reports containing interviews with former PKK leaders Zübeyir Aydar and Remzi Kartal. A prosecutor asked an Istanbul court on 14 October to sentence them to seven and a half years in prison. The next hearing in their trial is to be held on 9 December.Prosecutors at the same court are preparing to try the journalist Ertugrul Mavioglu over a report in Radikal in October 2010 that contained an interview with Murat Karayilan, one of the leaders of the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), regarded as PKK’s urban wing.A seven-and-a-half-year sentence has also been requested for Recep Okuyucu, Taraf’s correspondent in the southeastern province of Batman and editor of the local newspaper Batman Medya. The prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Diyarbakir claims that he connected 53,848 times to the Firat News Agency website (www.firatnews.org), which the authorities have blocked because they accuse it of relaying PKK propaganda. Okuyucu’s defence is that, as a journalist, he has to check a wide range of websites every day.Tayyip Temel, a columnist and former managing editor of the Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, was detained and taken into custody on 4 October in Diyarbakir. He was questioned for 15 hours by special prosecutors, who also questioned 35 other people suspected of belonging to the KCK.Charges were finally presented at the end of September against two journalists with the pro-Kurdish news agency Diha (Dicle Haber Ajansi) – Kadri Kaya, its Diyarbakir bureau chief, and Erdogan Alkan, its Batman correspondent – who have been held since 15 April and will appear in court for the first time on 2 November in Diyarbakir.They are facing a possible 20-year jail sentence on charges of collaborating with the PKK and publishing propaganda on its behalf in their coverage of Kurdish demonstrations and Turkish army operations. Alkan is also accused in connection with his coverage of the trial of a “village guard” (member of a militia that supports the army) on a charge of sexually abusing a minor in Batman. According to prosecutors, his coverage aimed to “denigrate the security forces in society’s eyes.”Diha’s correspondent in Mersin, Aydin Yildiz, was arrested on 1 October as he was leaving the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem. He was transferred to Gaziantep for questioning and then placed in detention, as was Özgür Gündem editor Kazim Seker, who was arrested on 4 October in Istanbul.The newspaper’s publisher, Eren Keskin, who is also a lawyer, was meanwhile given a warning by the Istanbul bar association for referring to “Kurdistan” in a lecture she gave in 2004. The warning was issued following a May 2010 decision by Turkey’s highest court of appeal upholding the 10-month suspended prison sentence and fine of 3,000 lira (1,200 euros) that she had received from a court in the southeastern city of Urfa.In an interview for Radikal on 11 October, the minister in charge of negotiations with the European Union, Egemen Bagis, said that the government was concerned about the judicial system’s excessive use of pre-trial detention and that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had asked officials to look at how it was used in Europe and to draft recommendations.“Limiting the use of pre-trial detention has long been one of our leading recommendations to the Turkish authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We hail this initiative by the government, which could mark a turning point. The promises must now be followed by action, action that affects all of Turkey’s regions.”After 10 months in pre-trial detention, Emine Altinkaya, a Diha reporter in Ankara, was released at the end of September pending trial. She was arrested on 27 November 2010 while covering a demonstration in the capital.Two Diha correspondents in Istanbul, Safiye Alagas and Olcay Kizilpinar, are also due to be tried soon on charges of collaborating with the PKK. They were arrested during a march on 30 July that was organized by Sirri Süreyya Önder, the candidate of a legal pro-Kurdish party, the BDP. Cameras, mobile phones, SIM cards, USB flash drives and a laptop were confiscated from them at the time of their arrest and are still being held as prosecution evidence.Several Turkish journalists’ organizations have voiced strong criticism of Prime Minister Erdogan’s meeting with national media owners and executives on 21 October, at which Erdogan urged journalists to show restraint in their coverage of the conflict, to take account of its consequences and to avoid relaying PKK propaganda.Even more disturbing is the communiqué that five leading Turkish news agencies – AA, AHT, ANKA, CIHAN and IHA – issued jointly on 24 October announcing that, “Common principles have been adopted concerning the coverage of terrorist incidents.”They said they had undertaken to “take account of public order (...) keep a distance from interpretations that encourage fear, chaos hostility, panic or intimidation (...) not include propaganda for illegal organizations” and, above all, to “comply with the publication bans issued by the competent authorities.” The communiqué also said: “Account will be taken of social utility and solidarity when selecting reports and photos for transmission to subscribers.”“We had hoped that the era of government directives telling the media how to cover the most sensitive subjects was long over in Turkey,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The very vaguely formulated undertaking by the leading news agencies to toe the official line now poses a serious threat to freedom of information. Will these agencies, whose job is to provide content to all the media, willingly participate in a news blackout? Minimizing the scale of human losses or choosing not to report certain operations will just increase mistrust of the media. Complete and objective coverage of developments in eastern Turkey is an essential precondition for reaching a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue.”Reporters Without Borders also voiced concerns about the security agreement which France and Turkey signed on 7 October and which, according to French interior minister Claude Guéant, “goes much further than the agreements that France usually signs in the security domain.”“We hope that the French authorities will be much more discriminating that their Turkish counterparts as regards combating terrorism,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge them not to be sucked in by Ankara’s indiscriminate and repressive approach, which causes many collateral victims, including journalists.”Read the full story here.

• Related - Germany lifts RojTv broadcasting ban.(Firat).The Federal Court in Leipzig, on the basis of the decision issued before by the European Court of Justice has lifted the broadcasting ban on RojTv that has been prevented to broadcast within the German territory. German Federal Court of Justice finalized the case of Roj TV by lifting the ban on the channel’s publications and activities within the borders of the country. While the Federal Court in Leipzig ruled the decision on the basis of the decision made earlier by the European Court of Justice, the court concluded that Roj TV didn’t instigate hate and grudge among peoples, as argued by prosecution, noting that the prosecution’s ban on the contrary was against the brotherhood of peoples. The European Court of Justice ruled on September 22 that the closure of Roj TV could only be ruled by the Danish authorities responsible for the supervision of broadcast. The Interior Minister of Germany also banned the activities of Roj TV and linked Mesopotamia Broadcast Company in 2008 on the grounds of “preparing programs contrary to the harmonization among peoples”. The ban was followed by the suspension of activities by Kurdish production company Wiko GmBH studios raided for providing program to Roj TV. While Roj TV objected to the decision in an appeal to the Federal Court, the court asked the European Court of Justice for opinion.Read the full story here.

• Turkey - Savagery on 24 bodies claimed to be of HPG guerillas.(Firat). Demanding to see the 24 bodies at Malatya Hospital, BDP, IHD and MEYADER delegations were only shown photos of the unidentified bodies. “Violence isn’t enough to tell what was applied on those bodies. I am ashamed of humanity”, said Bitlis MP Hüsamettin Zenderlioğlu who told that the bodies were all burnt and fractionated. While a delegation of BDP, IHD and MEYADER executives met with the Public Prosecutor of Malatya where the bodies are held at Forensic Medicine Institute since October 24, the Prosecutor argued that the bodies-12 men, 11 women and one other with the foot part alone- belonged to HPG guerillas who allegedly lost their lives in Çukurca (Çelê) district of Hakkari. Giving information about the meeting with the Prosecutor, Bitlis MP Hüsamettin Zenderlioğlu stated that the Prosecutor refused to give the identity information of the casualties who-he claimed-weren’t carrying identity cards. Commenting this argument as implausible, Zenderlioğlu remarked that autopsy isn’t allowed on unidentified bodies. Having difficulty in expressing the view of photos shown to them and families of two guerillas, Zenderlioğlu remarked that the bodies, dressed in military uniforms, were entirely burnt and fractionated. “I can’t find a word to express how a person can do this to another”, said Zenderlioğlu and noted that they called BDP Co-Chair Gültan Kışanak with the intention of meeting the Minister of Justice concerning the issue.Hmmm.....The laws of War.The killing of captives and abuse of corpses are war crimes. Regarding the treatment of dead bodies:

Rule 115. The dead must be disposed of in a respectful manner and their graves respected and properly maintained. [IAC/NIAC].Read the full story here.

• Austrian Judge: Europe Will Be the Battlefield for New Religious Wars.(IVE).There is an astonishing article about Islam in "Kriminalpolizei", an Austrian magazine for professionals from various branches involved in dealing with criminality: police, judges, academics, etc. It is written by Alfred Ellinger, founder of the "Vereinigung österreichischer Kriminalisten" [Association of Austrian Criminologists], which publishes the magazine. Ellinger is also a criminal judge and vice-president of the Eisenstadt Regional Court. Titled "Between Dialogue and Jihad", the article goes over the doctrines and history of Islam with unusual candour. It concludes with a resounding wake-up call for Europe.Let us indulge in no illusions. Europe will be the battlefield for a major struggle between the order of Islam and its enemies. 40% of the population in Arab countries is under 14 years of age. 15 million Muslims are already living in Europe today and the ageing of Europe is unmissable. The Muslim threat was beaten back in Castile, Southern France and, finally, in front of Vienna. But today the border between Europe and the Islamic world is porous, and the threat to Europe is clear. ...If Europe does not very quickly abandon its utterly failed immigration policy, the vision of a "multicultural society" and a misguided tolerance in dealing with hate-filled Islamists, the constantly repeated calls for "dialogue" and "tolerance" will lead to undreamt-of problems and new politically-motivated wars of religion in our cities.Read the full story here.

• Pope benedict's Naivety towards the Evidence from the Assisi Gathering.(IVE).Pope Greets Other Religious Leaders at Assisi Gathering.Although the Pope's private views are known to be very different, in its official policy the Vatican continues to display the same old naivety and self-deceit about the threat Muslim immigration poses to Europe.

Today, the Pope hosts an interfaith dialogue "for peace" in Assisi.

Roughly 200 spiritual leaders are expected to take part in the Assisi event. Christians are scheduled to include Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion; and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, “first among equals” in the Orthodox world. Leaders from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Confucian, Baha’i and Taoist traditions will participate, along with indigenous religions from Africa, Latin America and Asia.The Muslims include Prince Ghazi Bin Talal of Jordan, who will sit next to Benedict at lunch. Ghazi is a leader in interfaith dialogue, and was among the signatories to a letter from Muslim leaders to Benedict after his controversial September 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany, which some took as linking the Prophet Muhammad with violence.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Al-Azhar university, the leading religious authority within Sunni Islam (the overwhelmingly dominant strain of Islam in the world), has declined to attend however. It is still miffed by the Pope having had the audacity to speak out about the murder of Christian Copts in Egypt last year.In a signal of ongoing challenges in the Catholic/Muslim relationship, the Al-Azhar University and Mosque complex in Cairo, Egypt, sometimes referred to as “the Vatican of the Sunni world,” has reportedly declined to send a representative. Al-Azhar announced in January that it was breaking off dialogue with the Vatican after a speech in which Benedict called for greater protection for Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which some saw as interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Complaining about the murder of Christians is interference in the country's internal affairs! That really ought to be a sign to the Vatican that this whole interfaith dialogue thing isn't going to work out. But no. It seems the Vatican now officially regards mass Muslim immigration into Europe as a good thing - seeing it as "An Opportunity For The "New Evangelisation". De-Evangelisation followed by Mohammedanisation is much more likely.Hmmm......."With Age comes wisdom but in many cases it also leads to blindness."Read the full story here.

• The Netherlands - Kurds ask for protection from Turks.(IIE).About 40 Kurdish organizations asked the Turkish community Thursday to respect them. They also ask the authorities to proetc the Kurdish population and to take judicial steps against "any form of aggression by Turkish rioters"."We respect the Dutch state and its legal system, and ask the Turkish community and the Turkish organizations in the Netherlands to respect the fundamental rights of association, assembly and freedom of expression of every citizen, as well as the Kurds in the Netherlands."Ever since the Kurdish separatist movement PKK cilled 24 Turkish soldiers last week, tensions increased also between Kurds and Turks in the Netherlands. An anti-PKK demonstration in Amsterdam Sunday got out of hand when a group of Turks - ultra-nationalists according to insiders - attacked a Kurdish center, resulting in injured and vandalism.Read the full story here.

• Report: Hizbullah Preparing Military Arsenal to Occupy Galilee.(DocsTalk).Hizbullah is preparing its military arsenal and fighters to launch an operation to occupy the Galilee area in Israel, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.The party’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s on February 16 sent “military notification… declaring that preparations to occupy the Galilee is ongoing,” a source close to Hizbullah told the daily.“Hizbullah began preparing after the 2006 war for any new confrontation with the enemy,” the source said. Nasrallah called on the Resistance fighters in a speech on February 16 to stand ready to occupy the Galilee area should another war "be imposed on Lebanon," in a response to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s threats to invade Lebanon once again.Al-Akhbar daily also reported that Nasrallah has warned that Tel Aviv will be the first target in any war Israel decides to launch against Lebanon.Security sources told the daily that “the resistance leadership was secretly on high alert after receiving reports that Israel will probably launch a war on Lebanon.”“Obtained information confirmed these reports, showing that it was supposed to take place in August, however, changes occurred at the last minute,” the source said.Sources told al-Joumhouria that the “resistances’ military preparations are ongoing.”According to information obtained by the daily, a delegation from Hizbullah military experts visited areas in Bekaa and the South to check on the resistances’ positions, while 727 fighters from Hizbullah finished their military training in Tehran.“Israel will be surprised by attacks from within the Israeli towns via the Palestinian resistance cells,” sources told the daily.They added that “the battles will be on the Israeli grounds; therefore targeting the Galilee is a definite option.”The sources didn’t rule out Syria’s participation in the war “especially if the interior situation deteriorated further more.”Iran’s Fars news Agency reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned that he would “set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces launched a military strike on his country and would ask for Hizbullah’s help to attack Israel.The party, established nearly 30 years ago to confront Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.Israel and Syria are technically at war, but their frontier had been calm since the war in 1973, when Israel repelled a Syrian assault to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

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

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

• Obama: "We're Not Even Halfway There Yet"(RealclearPolitics)."It's been a long, tough journey. But we have made some incredible strides together. Yes, we have. But the thing that we all ought to remember is that as much as good as we have done, precisely because the challenges were so daunting, precisely because we we were inheriting so many challenges, that we're not even halfway there yet. When I said 'change we can believe in' I didn't say 'change we could believe in tomorrow.' Not change we can believe in next week. We knew this was going to take time because we've got this big, messy, tough democracy," President Obama said at a campaign fundraiser in Chicago on Wednesday night.Hmmmm......."Because we've got this big, messy, tough democracy"so we want dictatorship do we?Read and see the full story here.

• White House Says Taxpayers Will Pay For Obama’s Bus Tour Of Battleground States To Talk About Jobs.(WZ).President Barack Obama’s upcoming bus tour through the Midwest states typically viewed as swing states during presidential election years will be paid for by the taxpayers, the White House says.Obama will start the tour on Aug. 15 and will talk about strengthening jobs and the economy, the White House announced on Tuesday.“He is very happily getting out into the country again after a very sustained period here in Washington and he looks forward to talking to folks about growing the economy, creating jobs,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. “We will have more details, as I said, about the specifics of the trip.”Carney indicated he did not know now precisely where the president would go or what he might be announcing.Hmmmm.......$ 2.2 Million price tag for the buses if not more.Read the full story here.

• Barack Obama feasts while Rome burns. Do America’s ruling liberal elites think they are the new emperors? (CNSNews).I don’t think anyone will begrudge the president for celebrating his 50th birthday. It’s a big milestone in life that deserves to be marked. But does he need to do it in such an extravagant and insensitive style at a time of tremendous economic turmoil when tens of millions of Americans are hurting financially and nearly one in ten are out of work? Barack Obama is not a Hollywood celebrity or corporate mogul. He is a public official, paid for by the American people, and is expected to lead the country by example.Is it really necessary to host a $35,800 a head campaign fundraiser in Chicago as the United States faces towering debts and the possibility of a double-dip recession? Details of the event emerged today in several US papers, including this report in The Washington Post: Good thing that debt-ceiling tussling is over. Now begins President Obama’s 50th-birthday week, with lots of fundraising fun and plenty of recruiting for the 2012 reelection campaign.There is the gala fundraiser Wednesday night in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom featuring stars from that city — maybe Jennifer Hudson , Herbie Hancock and others. There’s also a dinner fundraiser planned for some high rollers for only $35,800 a person. (Must be serving some really good grub.)For America’s ruling liberal elites there is clearly no age of austerity, but there is undoubtedly an air of impunity with a rather vulgar let them eat cake mentality. I very much doubt the British prime minister would even dream of holding this kind of ostentatious bash on his upcoming 45th birthday while at the same time telling the British people they must be prepared to make historic sacrifices to restore the economy. And undoubtedly there will be significant costs to the American taxpayer with the intense security involved in these large-scale presidential events.With 75 percent of likely US voters believing the country is heading in the wrong direction, and with a job approval rating scraping 40 percent, this should be a time for humility from the White House. There is instead a great deal of imperious arrogance on display, coupled with increasingly bitter and nasty attacks on political opponents – witness vice president Joe Biden’s astonishing outburst against the Tea Party earlier this week.After 30 months of staggering levels of public spending, massive failed bailouts, rising unemployment, declining consumer confidence, and a collapsing housing market, the American economy is literally on its knees. This is no time for grand celebrations Mr. President, but should be a moment for pause and reflection, as the world’s only superpower heads towards the economic abyss under his leadership.Hmmmm....... “People who worship only themselves get a slick, polished look -- like monuments. Too bad they had to go so soon.”Vanna Bonta.Read the full story here.

• Congressman King warns president not to go soft on Islamic extremists.(TheHill).Rep.Peter King (R-N.Y.) cautioned President Obama not to go too soft on U.S. communities that aid terrorists, as the president implements his administration’s latest strategy to combat violent extremism.The strategy, titled “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States,” was released Wednesday after more than a year of preparation.The nine-page plan puts forward the administration’s goal to forge lasting partnerships with local governments, law enforcement and communities, which are frequently best equipped to identify radicalized individuals and the causes behind their extremism, according to the strategy.“The federal government will often be ill-suited to intervene in the niches of society where radicalization to violence takes place, but it can foster partnerships to support communities through its connections to local government, law enforcement … and many others who can help prevent violent extremism,” the plan states.But King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, while supporting Obama’s new strategy, warned the president about any need to engage in “politically correct feel-good encounters” to avoid treating the Muslim-American community with delicate hands.The report stipulates that al Qaeda and its supporters are the largest looming threat to the U.S., but it recognizes that terrorists and violent extremists have come from many different ideologies and cultural backgrounds over the years.“My concerns are with language in the report which suggests some equivalency of threats between [al Qaeda] and domestic extremists and also with the politically correct inference that legitimate criticism of certain radical organizations or elements of the Muslim-American community should be avoided,” King said in a statement.“While I certainly support community involvement and initiatives, we must ensure that these do not become politically correct feel-good encounters which ignore the threats posed by dangerous individuals in the community.”Read the full story here.

• Mexican Kingpin Says U.S. Autorities Protected Cartel.(laht).CHICAGO – A Mexican man charged with smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States told a federal judge in Chicago that U.S. authorities protected his outfit, the powerful Sinaloa cartel, in exchange for information on rival gangs.The defendant, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, is the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, reputed right-hand man of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and played an important role in the organization until his March 2009 arrest in Mexico City.Zambada Niebla was extradited to the United States in 2010 and will go on trial this week in Chicago.In legal pleadings submitted to U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, Zambada Niebla said the collaboration between the Sinaloa cartel and U.S. law enforcement arose from the 1995 drug indictment of Mexican attorney Humberto Loya Castro, “a close confidante” of Chapo Guzman.Loya subsequently became a U.S. government informant, according to the pleading.“Sometime prior to 2004 ... the United States government entered into an agreement with Loya and the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, including Mayo and Chapo,” the document says. “Under that agreement, the Sinaloa Cartel, through Loya, was to provide information accumulated by Mayo, Chapo, and others, against rival Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations” to U.S. authorities.“In return, the United States government agreed to dismiss the prosecution of the pending case against Loya, not to interfere with his drug trafficking activities and those of the Sinaloa Cartel, to not actively prosecute him, Chapo, Mayo, and the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, and to not apprehend them,” the pleading claims.Just hours before his March 2009 arrest, Zambada Niebla said, he met at a Mexico City hotel with U.S. agents who assured him the arrangement was still in effect, but that he would start communicating directly with the Drug Enforcement Administration, rather than through Loya.The deal stipulated that Sinaloa bosses would be “informed by agents of the DEA through Loya that United States government agents and/or Mexican authorities were conducting investigations near the home territories of cartel leaders so that the cartel leaders could take appropriate actions to evade investigators,” the pleading says.U.S. officials also pledged, according to Zambada Niebla, not to “share any of the information they had about the Sinaloa Cartel and/or the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel with the Mexican government.”Federal prosecutors responded to the pleading by asking the judge to order Zambada Niebla to produce “evidence that a specific American official or officials with actual or apparent authority expressly authorized” him to import cocaine and heroin into the United States or assured him “that these acts were not criminal.”Hmmmmm......Why does the term 'gunwalker' come to mind?Read the full story here.

• Secretary Clinton Supports UN Islamic ‘Defamation’ Resolution?(Answersforthefaith).Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apparently is supporting the UN resolution 16/18 introduced by OIC and plans to hold meetings on how it can be implemented:During the next few months, Washington plans to host a coordination meeting to discuss with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) how to implement resolution no. 16/18 on combating defamation of religions, and how to prevent stereotypes depicting religions and their followers; as well as disseminating religious tolerance, which has been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council last March, in agreement with Western countries. The resolution was adopted after lengthy discussions held between the OIC and countries in which the phenomenon of Islamophobia is in the rise.The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had announced the intention of the U.S. State Department to organize a coordination meeting during her participation in the meeting which she co-chaired with the OIC Secretary General, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Istanbul on 15 July 2011. The meeting issued a joint statement emphasizing the dire need for the implementation of resolution 16/18.Response: Incredible! This resolution actually restricts religious conversation and regulates what one might say about Islam, the Quran, and it’s founder Muhammad. How can a representative of our government like Sec. Clinton encourage or support this in any way. The resolution is called ‘defamation of religions’ but Islam is the only religion specifically sanctioned for special protection by the resolution. Islamic nations put forth this resolution to protect Islam from Western ‘Islamophobia’ including offensive Muhammad cartoons and Quran burnings.How this could ever be implemented in the USA is beyond me. It will actually restrict free speech and freedom of religion rather than protect it.Meanwhile, it is still open season on Christianity, Christians, Churches, and the Bible in the very same countries supporting this resolution.Read the full story here.

• Five U.S. Senators Urge Terror Designation for Turkish IHH Group.(InvestigativeProject).Five U.S. senators called for the designation of the Hamas-tied Turkish Charity IHH as a terrorist organization in a letter to President Obama late last month.The letter states that last June, 87 senators urged the president to investigate IHH for possible designation under Executive Order 13244 and now, "one year later, we urge your formal designation of the IHH without delay."The letter notes that IHH is a member of the Union of Good, an umbrella organization formed to financially support Hamas and designated by the Treasury Department in November 2008. It is signed by Senators Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; James Risch, R-Idaho, James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill. and Mike Johanns, R-Neb.IHH's ties to Hamas have been confirmed by the U.S. government and the group is under investigation for potential designation.IHH has partnered with Viva Palestina, a UK-based group which has delivered millions of dollars to the Hamas regime in Gaza. During Viva Palestina's third convoy that arrived in Gaza last January, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told IHH members of the convoy that "The IHH has particularly delivered substantial amount of aid to the people of Gaza. IHH President Bulent Yildirim offered help and stood beside our side during the war."IHH also helped drive last year's deadly flotilla confrontation in the Mediterranean Sea which resulted in the death of nine activists and prompted international outcry.The group also has offices in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "We only work through Hamas, although we don't limit our aid to its followers," said Muhammad Kaya, who heads the IHH branch in Gaza. "We consider Israel and the United Nations to be the terrorists, not Hamas."Read the full story here.

• Giving Obama another "F".(IsraelMatzav).Despite Barack Hussein Obama's professed love for Muslims, Beirut Daily Star columnist Michael Young gives him an "F" for his handling of the Middle East. What we have is a president with undeniable intelligence, but without particularly strong convictions, whose preference for standing away from the fray often allows his political rivals to outmaneuver him, and who will raise expectations then come up short in carrying through on them. Obama is an opportunist ill adept at creating opportunities.There is disarray in Washington on the Middle East because the president has repeatedly shown that, deep down, he just doesn’t want the region to draw his energies away from addressing America’s domestic priorities. That may be defensible in a narrow, parochial way, but it also has been catastrophic at a moment of far-reaching transformations in the Arab world and beyond.What Obama has shown is that (a) he hates Israel, (b) he wants to establish a 'Palestinian state' at all costs, and (c) he will find time for that despite his greater interest in his domestic agenda (which would destroy the American economy for the next 50-100 years). So yes, Obama's current term is a failure on the Middle East, as it is on so many other issues. But a second term would be even worse.Read the full story here.

• Palestinian 'Head of State' at the U.N. -- Get Ready for the Statehood Steamroller.(Fox).By Anne Bayefsky.The United Nations showed its hand this week and sent out a provisional list of speakers for the opening session of the General Assembly in September listing the speaker from “Palestine” as “H.S.” or Head of State. Everybody knows that U.N. goings-on concerning anything Israel-related are about as crooked as it gets. But the much talked-about Palestinian statehood bid threatened for September is being sold as a test of legitimacy. So much for that bill of goods.In the past, the speaker from Palestine has been given the title in the speakers’ list “H.L.” or High Level – short for high level delegation – precisely because Palestine is not a state member of the United Nations. Though the Palestinians themselves have put a cover page on their speeches that labels Mahmoud Abbas “President of the State of Palestine,” the U.N. has, until now, resisted following suit.Not this year, however. Negotiations are out. U.N.-imposed solutions on Israel are in.The U.N. founding document – the U.N. Charter – promises the equality of states “large and small.” But in reality, Islamic states and their cronies form an automatic General Assembly majority. In 2010, for example, this meant 78% of all the Assembly resolutions condemning any of the 192 U.N. members for human rights violations were directed at Israel alone.To date, the U.N. has pretended that the parties themselves must take responsibility for recognizing each other; dozens of U.N. resolutions and the U.N. Middle East Roadmap pay lip service to the necessity of negotiations. After all, negotiations require a willingness to live in peace and acceptance of the other party’s existential rights.But that has never gone down very well in the Palestinian and larger Arab world and the U.N. has been their safety net for any and all excuses for a six decade rejection of a Jewish state.Some Palestinians put it more clearly than others. As co-founder of Hamas and member of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud al-Zahar, declared on July 29: “we are not going to accept Israel as the owner of one square centimeter because it is a fabricated state."The Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood without negotiations is most likely to play out in some combination of U.N. bodies. The guessing at this point is that the Palestinians will go first to the Security Council demanding full U.N. membership in order to embarrass the president and force an Obama veto and then will proceed to the General Assembly for a statement of support. This course will not result in official U.N. membership, since a Security Council blessing is required for that, but additional trappings of statehood will – they hope – have been endowed.Though the Obama administration is pretending they have little control of the Palestinian Authority or Mahmoud Abbas and company, it is clear that the Palestinians are proceeding apace because they have not been presented with sufficiently negative consequences. Obama isn’t leading from behind. He is hiding in the bushes.His shyness is partly a consequence of the fact that a U.N. end-run around a negotiated settlement challenges his administration’s foreign policy yardstick of multilateralism at virtually any cost. He joined the U.N. Human Rights Council and gave it American credibility knowing that half of its resolutions and decisions on specific states are dedicated to Israel-bashing. It waited for Security Council approval to do something about Colonel Qadaffi’s threatened genocide – a delay proving more costly by the minute. It has handled Syrian butchery by waiting for tepid noises from the Security Council. It put Iranian nuclear non-proliferation in the hands of U.N. entities that have no hope of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb. So U.S. objection to U.N. action to undercut Israel – yet again – presents a problem for this president.The U.N. understands that very well, as do the Palestinians. So why not jump the gun on “Head of State”? American taxpayers pay 25% of the U.N. bills and the costs in 2010 represented a whopping 21% increase over the fiscal year 2009. The Palestinians see nothing but a president unwilling to put an end to their gravy train.Without a major pushback, steamroller here we come.Hmmmm......"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• Obama: Still the Alinskyite.(NationalReview).Here’s my take on the puzzle of Obama’s leadership style. Obama is still every inch the Alinskyite organizer. He talks about uniting, even as he deliberately polarizes. He moves incrementally toward radical left goals, but never owns up to his ideology. Instead, he tries to work indirectly, by way of the constituencies he seeks to manipulate.“Leading from behind” is classic Alinskyite strategy. The idea is for the organizer to find out what the people he’s organizing want, give them enough of that to gain authority and control, then slowly and quietly push the group in his ideological direction, all the while making it seem as though the plan is what the people themselves have asked for. Obama used to literally lead from behind, by stage-managing his group’s protests from the back of the room, while the ostensible leaders took charge on stage. That is what Alinskyite organizers do.Alinskyite organizers are tough when facing down the “enemy” (their word), but subtle, stealthy, and incremental when dealing with the members of their own group. Above all, they are never openly ideological. Everything is portrayed as pragmatism.The trouble with Obama’s Alinskyite leadership style is that he’s trying to adapt it to the presidency, a role it was never designed for. When he tries classic Alinskyite polarization, he’s treating people he’s supposed to be leading as his enemies. When he tries to bring about leftist results under the guise of a neutral pragmatism, he disappoints his base, which desperately wants him to turn his eloquence to the task of persuading the country of their principles.Obama is a bad negotiator because Alinskyite’s don’t negotiate, they intentionally polarize. As for their own groups, here they try to placate all factions and hide their own goals. That about describes Obama’s performance on the debt deal, which included a dollop of both of these stances.I’ve laid it all out in Radical-in-Chief, from standard Alinskyite operating procedure, to Obama’s own use of it in Chicago, to the contradictions inherent in the attempt to apply these lessons to the presidency. As far as I can tell, Obama is still moving according to this Alinskyite template. In his own words, it was his true political education. It’s still the key to what he’s up to.True, Alinksyite polarization and ideological reticence were never designed for the presidency. On the other hand, I doubt a president this leftist could ever have gotten elected without them. From Obama’s perspective, he’s already gotten more done on health care, and plenty of other issues, than any other Democrat in history. For Alinksyites, patience is all. Obama has at least an even chance of re-election. So despite the difficulties of his community-organizer-derived techniques, he’s likely to keep to them.The Tea Party is a difficult problem for Obama. As David Bromwich notes today at the Huffington Post, Obama has almost never actually used the words Tea Party. The left yearns for Obama to take on the Tea Party in an overt ideological battle. But that is exactly the sort of thing Alinskyite organizers are forbidden to do. Bromwich asks why Obama has steadfastly refused to recognize the existence of the Tea Party. The answer is Saul Alinsky.Hmmmmm........Did Alinsky ever mention Gulags a.k.a. 're-education camps'?Read the full story here.

• U.S. Admits “Dramatic Increase In Violence” Along Mexican Border.(JudicialWatch).While the nation’s Homeland Security secretary repeatedly assures Americans that the southern border is more secure than ever, a separate U.S. government agency has quietly issued an alarming report warning of “recent violent attacks and persistent security concerns” in the area. It’s like the Abbot and Costello version of government, where one agency can’t even coordinate with another to provide the country with a consistent story. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims the Mexican border region is “as secure as it has ever been.” In fact, she embarked on a publicity tour to the area, using sound-bite opportunities to specifically deny that it’s infested with drug-cartel violence that often spills into the U.S. It’s all a mistaken “perception” because the area is in fact a “secure and prosperous” region, according to Napolitano. During a trip to El Paso Texas a few months ago, she claimed that “misinformation about safety” is negatively impacting border communities by driving visitors away and hurting local business. She proceeded to say that “some of America’s safest communities are in the southwest border region.” The media was invited to tag along and Madame Secretary’s proclamations appeared in newscasts worldwide. No such promotion of what appears to be a more accurate assessment, issued this week by the State Department, of the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike Napolitano’s rose-colored glasses version, it mentions a “dramatic increase in violence” and nearly 30,000 narcotics-related murders in the last few years. The State Department report bluntly says that “the security situation along the Texas border has changed markedly from a year ago.” The culprits are sophisticated and heavily armed drug cartels competing with each other for trafficking routes into the U.S. In fact, a war between two notorious cartels has led to a “dramatic increase in violence” in two northern border regions, according to the State Department report issued this week by the agency’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Large-scale gun battles often occur in broad daylight on streets and other public venues and U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area, according to the OSAC assessment. Using the term “narcoterrorism,” it goes on to say that “continued concerns regarding road safety along the Mexican border have prompted the U.S. Mission in Mexico to impose certain restrictions on U.S. government employees transiting the area.” Local authorities aren’t helping because “police corruption and police involvement in criminal activity continue to be a problem in Mexico.”As a result the violence is increasingly flowing north, even as the nation’s top Homeland Security official denies it. Just last summer a myriad of bullets fired into El Paso, striking City Hall and a public university building. The local sheriff said the gun battles are breaking out everywhere but his hands are tied because he’s legally forbidden from intervening in another country’s war. The disturbing incident inspired Texas’s Attorney General to send President Obama a letter saying his state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border.Hmmmm..........'Narcoterrorism'......A Hezbollah operative with a ton of drugs?,Read the full story here.

• Obama regime their 'peacepartners' the Palestinian media Urges Breeding Next Generation of Mujahideen.(InvestigativeProject).Palestinian media continue to disseminate messages glorifying militancy, as a Palestinian researcher encouraged Palestinian women to raise their children to be jihadists.Preparations should begin before the women even get pregnant, instructed Khaled Al-Khaldi, head of the Center for Palestinian Historiography and Documentation. His July 10 article, "How did the Sahabiyat Rear their Sons," was published on the website of a Gaza newspaper and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).Palestinian women, he wrote, should follow the example of the sahabiyat in hopes of raising mujahideen. Sahabiyat were considered "pure, virtuous crusaders of Islam" during the life of the prophet Muhammad."The women who lived in the time of the Prophet reared their sons with a religious and jihad-based education, raising a generation that defeated two empires - the Persian and the Byzantine - and led [the Muslims] out of the darkness and into the light." Al-Khaldi wrote. "The education they gave their children began even before conception, as even prior to pregnancy, they would resolve to give birth to mujahideen for the sake of Allah."Using hadiths to support each claim, al-Khaldi provides additional instructions for Palestinian mothers. In order to raise children who could physically bear the burden of jihad, mothers are told to watch what they eat during pregnancy and ensure they breastfeed long enough for their sons to grow strong.On a spiritual and psychological level, al-Khaldi advises teaching one's children the military exploits of Muhammad as examples to be emulated as well as ensuring children can keep secrets and live a disciplined life free from pleasure and temptation."These women taught their children Muhammad's life story and war [exploits], so that they would follow in his path of jihad," claimed al-Khaldi. "They taught [their children] good values... and to keep secrets...So that their children would be mujahideen who were stronger than the infidels, they raised them to live a hard life and distanced them from pleasure and luxury."Al-Khaldi concludes by appealing to the Palestinian mothers as essential to the effort of raising "a new generation that will liberate the [Muslim] lands and holy places."Hmmmm......."The religion of peace".Read the full story here

• Report: S. Sudan at greater terror risk than PA.(Ynet).Somalia is most at risk from terrorist attack, followed by Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan and the new nation of South Sudan, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft, published on Thursday. South Sudan, which came into being last month on secession for the north, replaced the Palestinian Territories at number five due to the high average number of people killed per attack in violence there.The consultancy's latest Terrorism Risk Index said 20 states were at "extreme risk". Apart from the top five, the list includes Yemen (6), Palestinian Territories (7), Democratic Republic of Congo (8), Central African Republic 9, Colombia (10), Algeria (11), Thailand (12), Philippines (13), Russia (14), Sudan (15), Iran (16), Burundi (17), India (18), Nigeria (19) and Israel (20). A Maplecroft statement said increased dangers seen in Yemen and Uganda were caused by al-Qaeda associated violence, those in Iran stemmed from attacks by Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah and those in Egypt and Libya originated in terrorist and criminal attempts to exploit Arab Spring political unrest. Nigeria is beset by militant raids in the Niger Delta, by sectarian violence and by radical Islamist attacks in the north.The top four rankings were unchanged from Maplecroft's previous survey issued in November 2010 but The UK-based company's index rates 198 countries on the number, frequency and intensity of terrorism attacks, plus the likelihood of mass casualties occurring. While based on historical data, it is intended as a forward-looking assessment. South Sudan got its rating "primarily due to the intensity of terrorist attacks, with an average of 6.59 fatalities per terrorist incident, almost three times that of Somalia at 2.23." At least seven rebel militias are fighting the new government's forces which are trying to establish stability after winning separation as part of the climax to a 2005 peace deal ending decades of civil war with Khartoum. Hmmmmm.......The fact that South Sudan is Christian has nothing do do with it , all other top ranked countries are purely by coincidence Islamic.Read the full story here.

• France - Police Afraid to Set Up Police Stations in Muslim Housing Estates in Marseilles.(IslamVersusEurope).A new prefect for public safety, Gilles Leclerc, has just been appointed in Marseilles. His predecessors admitted that Marseilles was a "violent city, everywhere" and the state prosecutor even compared it to the "favelas" in Rio. Police stations were moved out of the Muslim-dominated public housing estates because the police were under constant siege there. La Provence newspaper interviews him."I can't solve on my own all the problems associated with being a poor city, one that has suffered from 50 years of immigration and a tradition of banditry".

La Provence: Why not put police stations back in the housing estates?

Gilles Leclerc: "It's not on the agenda and I don't think we'll come back to that. We have to think of the safety of the police officers! Nevertheless, I would like us to come back there..."Hmmmmm......."Interfaith dialog in it's natural habitat"?Read the full story here.

• Palestinian Authority distortion:Jerusalem, Hebron, Atarot, Shechem, Ashkelon and Tel Aviv originally had Arabic names.(Palwatch).An important aspect of Palestinian Authority policy, documented by Palestinian Media Watch, is to claim that the Jewish nation has no history in the land of Israel and at the same time claim an ancient Palestinian-Arab history in the land.As part of this rewriting of history, a regular columnist on religious affairs in the official PA daily recently made the false claim that the Jews changed the original Arabic names of places in Israel into Hebrew names. Is'haq Feleifel cited six cities that he said originally had Arabic names, when in fact all of those names appear in the Hebrew Bible long before Arabic names were given:

Jerusalem, capital of the nation of Israel/Judea (1000 BCE - 70 CE), mentioned 670 times in the Hebrew Bible. First reference: Joshua 10:1;

Hebron, first capital of the tribe of Judah, mentioned 73 times in the Hebrew Bible. First reference: Genesis 13:18;

Atarot, mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible. First reference: Numbers 32:3;

Shechem, capital of Israel after the nation divided [922 BCE], mentioned 64 times in the Hebrew Bible (including a small number of references to two people of that name). First reference: Genesis 33:18;

Ashkelon, a Philistine city, mentioned nine times in the Hebrew Bible. First reference: Judges 1:18

The sixth city he mentioned, Tel Aviv, is also mentioned in the Bible [Ezekiel 3:15] as a location in Babylon where Jews settled after being exiled from Judea in 586 BCE. That name is the source for today's Tel Aviv. All these Biblical names predate by many years the names the PA religion teacher claims are the original Arabic names.Read the full story here.

• Tajikistan bans Muslim youths from praying in mosques.(HurriyetDaily).Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon has banned youths from praying in mosques and churches, prompting a local Muslim leader to call the move "a gruesome gift" for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Rakhmon, in power since 1992, signed the bill on "parental responsibility" on Wednesday. He has said tough measures are needed to stop the spread of religious fundamentalism in his country of 7.5 million people, 98 percent of whom are Muslim. All people under 18, except those studying at religious schools, are banned from worshipping in the Central Asian nation's mosques, churches or other religious sites, said the law which came into force on Thursday.It also bans girls from wearing jewellery except earrings and prohibits people under 20 from getting tattoos, going to night clubs and watching films or reading material which "disseminates pornography, violence, extremism and terrorism".It is not clear what the punishment is for breaking the ban."During the month of Ramadan and just a month before the 20th anniversary of [Tajikistan's] independence, the authorities made a gruesome present to all believers," prominent Muslim theologist Akbar Turajonzoda told Reuters. "Prior to the adoption of this law, the authorities had already become too distant from their people and their needs, and now they turn this gap into an abyss of estrangement."Rakhmon, whose Moscow-backed secular government clashed with the Islamist opposition during a 1992-97 civil war, has ignored requests from the United States and European Union to respect the freedom of conscience.Rakhmon, who enjoys vast powers in the poorest of the former Soviet states, last year brought many Tajik students home from religious schools abroad and clamped down on a growing trend for Islamic dress.A total of 158 people were jailed for "religious extremism" in Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan and China, in 2010, five times more than in 2009."The president must have forgotten that the law of God is superior to the earthly law," said Turajonzoda, a former opposition leader. "This is why I doubt that under fear of fines young people will stop paying respect to Allah by praying."Read the full story here.