Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Spain: "Demonstrations turned violent in Barcelona as angry young adults clashed with police"

BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 29: A riot police officer reacts in front of a fire during a university students demonstration on February 29, 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. Student associations have called upon 120,000 students to strike in protest against education cuts recently announced by the Catalan government. (Getty Images)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of students protested education spending cuts in big cities across Spain on Wednesday, and the demonstrations turned violent in Barcelona as angry young adults clashed with police.

Riot police charged a crowd outside the stock market in Barcelona, Spain's second largest city, after protesters who broke away from a peaceful rally numbering thousands threw rocks and other objects.

Video in Spanish media showed protesters setting plastic garbage containers alight with flares, causing a blaze that destroyed at least one car. They also hurled rocks at the glass front door of a bank branch. [...]

Spain is in the midst of a deep economic crisis, with the unemployment rate for people ages 16-24 at nearly 50 percent.

Many young adults fear they have no future in the country and are angry at the new conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, which is enacting widespread austerity cuts to prevent the country from being forced into a bailout such as those taken by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

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It's important to note that Obama regularly mentions Spain as the model for where he wants to take our country.
The [Obama] administration regularly mentions Spain as the model for where they want to take our country in terms of wind energy and “millions of green jobs”. Countries in Europe moved to wind energy faster so we can learn from their experience.

Very instructive is the study by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid that found for every green job you create, you can count on 2.2 lost real jobs. AND only 1 in 10 green jobs are permanent. The study calculated that, since 2000, Spain spent $774,000 to create each “green job”, including subsidies of more than $1.3 million per wind industry job. It found that creating those jobs resulted in the destruction of nearly 113,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy, or 2.2 jobs destroyed for every “green job” created. Principally, jobs were lost in the fields of metallurgy, non-metallic mining and food processing, beverage and tobacco.

“The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices,” Dr.Calzada said recently in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The Obama administration believes that tax payer monies diverted to the industries they like solar, wind, electric cars will assure success.

In reality, as shown by Spain, it doesn't.

It bypasses the normal market economy where those technologies that are useful, workable, marketable, reliable, and competitive are the ones that succeed.

It's like the Chevy Volt. A complete failure for a number of reasons — cost, maintenance, competitiveness, engineering problems (like battery fires). One review called it the 20k car you can get for 42k. It may be "the most government-supported car since the Trabant", costing taxpayers up to $250K per vehicle. Fortunately, they aren't selling many.

Obama chooses not to impose new sanctions of Iran

Surprise!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration sidestepped a congressional deadline Wednesday and an opportunity to unilaterally ratchet up economic pressure on Iran by punishing foreign firms that do business there.

Top officials instead pointed to success in persuading friendly countries and financial institutions to cut ties with the Islamic republic on their own.

The White House hopes that tough commitment to financial pressure will persuade Israel to back away from the possibility of launching a military strike on Iran, an approach the U.S. believes is shortsighted. President Barack Obama will make that case directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday when the two leaders meet at the White House.

The decision also reflects concerns over what effect those actions would have on the fragile world economy.

Some in Washington expected Obama to strengthen his position ahead of the high-stakes meeting by announcing fresh economic penalties that went into effect Wednesday. The penalties were included in a law Obama signed on Dec. 31.

But the administration chose not to immediately take action available to it to go after foreign firms.

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Syria's opposition group open to ties with Hezbollah

(JPost) The opposition Syrian National Council is willing to work with Hezbollah, the council's leader said Wednesday, provided the extremist group does not interfere with democratic change in Syria.
Right, I can see that happen.
“There are no permanent enmities in politics as there are no permanent friendships. Alliances are built on goals," Burhan Ghalioun told the Algerian newspaper Echorouk.

"If Hezbollah decided to support the democratic process in Syria, there would not be any barrier" to negotiations, he said. “We will not sacrifice Hezbollah if Hezbollah does not sacrifice us as a people and as a cause."

“Hezbollah’s greatest popularity in the past in the Arab world was in Syria because it did a glorious job when it stood against Israel,” Ghalioun added. “But the people are now having doubts about it because it has adopted a clear stance, supporting an oppressive regime that is using all kinds of violence.”

Hezbollah is closely allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime stands accused of killing at least 6,000 of its own citizens over the last year's uprising. The Lebanon-based group is a close ally of Iran, and widely viewed as an arm of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards. Syrian witnesses and activists have accused both Hezbollah and Iran of sending forces to participate in Assad's crackdown.

Ghalioun's latest remarks stand in contrast to comments he made in December that a post-Assad Syria would cut ties with the Iranian axis, including Hezbollah.

“The current relationship between Syria and Iran is abnormal,” Ghalioun told the Wall Street Journal at the time. “As our relations with Iran change, so too will our relationship with Hezbollah. Hezbollah after the fall of the Syrian regime will not be the same. Lebanon should not be used as it was used in the Assad era as an arena to settle political scores."

The new comments also contradict remarks made by council member Muhieddine Ladkani, who on Tuesday accused Hezbollah of preventing aid from reaching the Syrian people.

“Hezbollah members are present on the Syrian-Lebanese border to prevent the [transfer] of aid to the Syrians,” Ladkani told Al Jazeera television.

Writing last week for the website Salon, Middle East analyst Amira Galal wrote that Hezbollah is finding itself increasingly irrelevant, and may opt to launch a war against Israel in a bid to regain the spotlight.

"It is possible that Hezbollah may look to find solutions to its waning popularity... by pre-emptively launching a strike against Israel," Galal wrote.

Two weeks ago Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech warning, "We have arms and they are increasing [in number]. We have well-known weapons and there are others which are hidden and unknown. We are hiding them because we need to protect our country and prepare surprises for the Israelis."

As body count in the aftermath of Koran burning keeps going up, Obama says his Koran apology "calmed things down"

You just can't make this up.
(ABC) President Obama said his formal apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of Korans by U.S. troops last week has "calmed things down" after the incident sparked an outbreak of violence across the country.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Obama said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Bob Woodruff at the White House. "But my criteria in any decision I make, getting recommendations from folks who are actually on the ground, is what is going to best protect our folks and make sure that they can accomplish their mission."

The president's comments came just hours before a formal White House dinner to honor Iraq War veterans, some of whom have also served in Afghanistan and may be redeploying there to assist ongoing U.S. military operations. Woodruff was the only journalist invited to attend the dinner.

Obama said his letter to Karzai aimed to curb further danger to U.S. troops on the ground. It reportedly expressed regret for the apparently inadvertent burning of the Korans, the sacred text of Islam, on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Still, the president's critics and some members of the military have questioned the appropriateness of the move, given the subsequent murder of two U.S. military officers at the hands of an Afghan inside one of the capital's secure ministry buildings.

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Occupy, Nation of Islam hold joint rally

(WND) The Occupy movement’s Boston chapter recently held a protest event in conjunction with the Nation of Islam to oppose what they called the “racist” closing of a local post office.

Boston’s Occupy4Jobs Feb. 18 meeting was held in the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad’s Mosque No. 11 in Grove Hall, located in a predominantly African American neighborhood just a block away from the Grove Hall Post Office, which is slated for closing.

The event was co-organized by Nation of Islam Minister Don Muhammad, who is the leader of the Boston mosque.

According to a report in the communist Workers World magazine, Bob Traynham of the Occupy4Jobs Network led the crowd in the singing of the “Black National Anthem.”

Audrey Armand, a 27-year veteran worker at the Grove Hall post office, criticized the “racist targeting of this post” during a speech at the Occupy event, according to Worker’s World.

Continued the communist magazine: “Keynote speaker Larry Holmes, national coordinator of the Occupy4Jobs Network and First Secretary of Workers World Party, stirred the crowd with his descriptions of the beginnings of the global revolution against capitalism. He said that it started in Tunisia and Egypt, is expanding in Greece, Spain, Italy, Britain and elsewhere in Europe, and has arrived in the U.S. with the Occupy movement.”

“Holmes stressed that capitalism has no solutions for youth worldwide other than to build more jails,” added the magazine.

Muhammad, meanwhile, served on the transition team of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and is also a member of Patrick’s public-safety advisory team.

Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan was in the news earlier this week when he claimed that racism in America creates such a negative political climate it could lead to assassination attempts on Obama.

During the period of Obama’s attendance at Trinity United Church, which preaches the controversial black liberation theology, the Chicago church was openly allied with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

Obama’s pastor of some 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave Farrakhan his 2007 Empowerment Award. Farrakhan delivered guest lectures at the Trinity church.

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Syrian troops readying for final assault on Homs

A man walks next to a wall damaged during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and President Assad's forces in Sarmin, north of Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. According to residents of the city, at least fourteen people were killed yesterday during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the government forces. (AP Photo)
"Well over 7,500" people have been killed Syria since protests against Assad's regime erupted in March last year.
(AFP) Syrian ground forces were mopping up the last pockets of resistance of Homs on Wednesday, a security source said, even as Washington worked on a UN Security Council draft demanding humanitarian access.

A human rights watchdog and an activist in the central city denied that troops had moved into the rebel neighbourhood of Baba Amr, pounded by regime shelling for 26 straight days, insisting that clashes were continuing on the outskirts.

"The area is under control," the security source told AFP in Damascus, requesting anonymity.

"The army has started combing the area building by building and house by house. Now the troops are searching every basement and tunnel for arms and terrorists.

"There remain only few pockets" of resistance, the source added.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that rebel forces were "preventing an attempt to storm" the neighbourhood.

The Britain-based watchdog said gunfire could be heard in several districts of the city.

Homs-based activist Hadi Abdullah reported clashes and heavy shelling of Baba Amr but insisted that ground troops had not entered the neighbourhood.

"Regime forces did not enter Baba Amr until this moment. They are surrounding the district, while clashes are concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Inshaat and Malaab," he told AFP.

Abdullah said activists were "evacuating families because shelling has been targeting places that were considered safe in the past."

Earlier on Wednesday, activists on the ground in Syria's third-largest city said that elite troops of the Fourth Armoured Division under the command of Assad's brother Maher had taken up position with their armour around Baba Amr.

Abdullah told AFP by telephone that it was a likely prelude to a final assault.

Access to Homs has now been completely sealed off, according to rebel commanders, who said the regular army had also blown up an underground aqueduct that had been the last viable route for smuggling in desperately needed supplies.

Abdullah said power had been cut to most of the city, a measure he said was another sign of possible looming attack.

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Interpol says suspected Anonymous hackers arrested in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain

All these countries lean strongly to socialism and have huge entitlement programs.
PARIS (AP) — Interpol said that 25 suspected members of the loose-knit Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in a sweep across Europe and South America.

The international police agency said in a statement Tuesday that the arrests in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain were carried out by national law enforcement officers working under the support of Interpol's Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology Crime.

The suspects, aged between 17 and 40, are suspected of planning coordinated cyberattacks against institutions including Colombia's defense ministry and presidential websites, Chile's Endesa electricity company and national library, as well as other targets.

The arrests followed an ongoing investigation begun in mid-February which also led to the seizure of 250 items of IT equipment and mobile phones in searches of 40 premises in 15 cities, Interpol said.

In Chile's capital, Subprefect Jamie Jara said at a news conference that authorities arrested five Chileans and a Colombian. Two of the Chileans are 17-year-old minors.

The case was being handled by prosecutor Marcos Mercado, who specializes in computer crime. He said the suspects were charged with altering websites, including that of Chile's National Library, and engaging in denial-of-service attacks on websites of the electricity companies Endesa and Hidroaysen. The charges carry a penalty of 541 days to five years in prison, he said.

Jara said the arrests resulted from a recently begun investigation and officials do not yet know if those arrested are tied to any "illicit group."

"For now, we have not established that they have had any special communications among themselves," he said.

Jara said authorities were continuing to investigate other avenues, but gave no details.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Secret memo suggests White House ignored SOS from Iranian opposition


The Iranian uprising was the only anti-Islamist uprising. It was also the only one the Obama administration did not support.

From Washington Examiner:
Documents obtained by The Washington Examiner suggest the Obama administration missed at least one major opportunity to help opposition groups in Iran that has not previously been reported. In November 2009, leaders of the Green party, which had staged a revolt on the streets of Tehran in June of that year, sent a long memo through channels to the Obama administration that some analysts said was a clear call for help.

"So now, at this pivotal point in time, it is up to the countries of the free world to make up their mind," states the opposition memo dated Nov. 30, 2009. "Will they continue on the track of wishful thinking and push every decision to the future until it is too late, or will they reward the brave people of Iran and simultaneously advance the Western interests and world peace."

The eight-page memo describes the current regime under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a "brutal, apocalyptic theocratic dictatorship."

The memo warns that Iran "with its apocalyptic constitution will never give up the atomic bomb, nor will it give up its terror network, because it needs these instruments to maintain its power and enhance its own economic and financial wealth."

The administration claimed in 2009 that the Green party in Iran did not want American help. And the State Department repeated that this week. "Most leaders in the Green movement made clear they did not desire financial or other support from the United States," a State Department senior official said. "As an organic movement, it was concerned that taking outside support would discredit it in the eyes of the Iranian people. We respect that and do not provide financial assistance to any political movement, party or faction in Iran."

But the memo tells a different story, some critics said.

"It's clear that the administration was not being asked to stay away," said Michael Ledeen, a scholar with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who worked as a senior official for Republican administrations. "The opposition represented the best option for the West."

The Obama administration did not respond to the secret memo, officials said.

But during the same period, the administration was conducting nonofficial discussions with the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that have never been reported. One of those discussions occurred in February 2011, when U.S. and Iranian representatives met just outside Stockholm, Sweden. "Discussions centered on everything from nuclear proliferation to Afghanistan, but the meetings didn't accomplish much," said a former U.S. official with knowledge of the meetings. That ex-official said there were other private meetings with Iranian representatives later in 2011 that were never reported by U.S. media. [...]

AP Source: Israel Won't Warn U.S. Before Iran Strike

WASHINGTON (AP) – Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential attack. The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered the message to a series of top-level U.S. visitors to the country, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House national security adviser and the director of national intelligence, and top U.S. lawmakers, all trying to close the trust gap between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu delivered the same message to all the Americans who have traveled to Israel for talks, the U.S. official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic negotiations.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment, and the Pentagon and Office of Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, as did the Israeli Embassy.

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Another reason is that they simply know that Obama would screw them up.

Occupy London parasites evicted from their camp outside St Paul's Cathedral

(Sky News) Occupy London protesters have vowed to launch fresh anti-capitalist demonstrations - just hours after their camp outside St Paul's Cathedral in London was brought to an end by bailiffs and police.

Protesters staging Occupy London were refused permission by the Court of Appeal last week to challenge orders evicting them from the cathedral steps, where they had been living in tents since October 15 last year.

The City of London Corporation called on protesters to remove their tents voluntarily, but around 50 or 60 refused to budge - with some creating makeshift barriers out of wooden shelving units as police moved in to help bailiffs clear the camp.

Police said 20 people had been arrested but the operation was largely peaceful.

And a statement issued by the 'Occupy London Press Team' suggested further protests could be imminent - and that a assembly of demonstrators would be held at 7pm today.

"In the medium term, it is only right that people will need time to rest, reflect and recharge, to take stock and learn the lessons of the past four and a half months," the statement said.

"But be assured that plans are already afoot: plans of some ambition, employing a diversity of tactics and delivered with the aplomb you would expect from us.

"All will be revealed in time. May is one of our favourite months. This is only the beginning."

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Israeli round-up

Courtesy of the Strategy Page website, here is a most informative piece on what has happened around Israel for the past few weeks:

February 27, 2012: Islamic radicals and Palestinian nationalists in Gaza have a plan, which involves starting a war between Egypt and Israel. The idea is to increase Gaza-based rocket and mortar attacks on Israel and goad Israel to invade Gaza again. This would enrage the new democratic government of Egypt. The Palestinians believe that all the factions in the new Egyptian parliament will try to outdo each other in calling for an armed response to Israeli army operations in Gaza (to reduce the Palestinian attacks on Israel). If Egypt went to war with Israel the Palestinians would benefit. Obviously, these folks have ignored the lessons of history. If the Egyptian army goes after Israel the Egyptians will be defeated. Gaza, caught in the middle, will be seriously damaged. But all that would be declared another Palestinian victory and that's what really counts.

The ceasefire with Islamic terror groups in Gaza is not working out too well. In the last two months over fifty rockets and mortar shells have been fired from Gaza into Israel. Increasing the attacks is difficult, as Israel has put more UAVs and other surveillance on northern Gaza (where the rockets are fired from) and this is causing more casualties among the rocket launching crews.

Peace talks with the Palestinians continue to go nowhere. Palestinian Arab language media still concentrates on the need to use terrorism to destroy Israel. Worse, the divisions within the Palestinian community continue to disrupt efforts to deal with corruption and poor management of Palestinian finances and diplomacy. Increasingly, other Arab nations criticize the Palestinians openly over this. But little changes. Hamas was supposed to be the vanguard of effective reform but instead they got bogged down in Islamic political correctness (lifestyle rules and strict religious orthodoxy) and battles with other Islamic radical sects accusing Hamas of not being militant enough. Fatah is as corrupt as ever and the people they rule in the West Bank despair of that ever changing.

Meanwhile, Israel has its own problems with Jewish extremists. Religious conservatives (about ten percent of the population) increasingly demand that less-religious Jews adjust their lifestyle to conform to religious law. Jewish nationalists push to making bits of the West Bank part of Israel. These Jewish extremists are becoming increasingly violent but not nearly as deadly as Islamic terrorists. Not yet, anyway.

The 20,000 Druze (a heretical Islamic sect) living in the Golan Heights (captured from Syria in 1967) have, for the first time, openly turned against the Syrian government. More and more Druze join demonstrations against the Syrian government (which has long treated the Druze well, as long as they supported the minority Alawite dictatorship that ruled the country). The increasing violence against demonstrators in Syria has turned normally pro-Syria Druze and Hamas against the Assad dictatorship. Israel will probably gain from a new Sunni government in Syria. There will still be border disputes but the Iran connection will be gone.

Israel has discovered another large offshore gas field but it's even closer to the maritime border with Lebanon. With all that gas so close Lebanon is complaining to the UN that the maritime border should be changed, so Lebanon can own the gas fields. Israel has increased its reconnaissance efforts over Lebanon, sending in UAVs and manned recon aircraft. Turkey says it will back Lebanon but so far there's only talk.

Rumors that Jewish hardliners were planning to enter the al-Aqsa mosque (on the Temple Mount, the site of the last Jewish temple in Jerusalem) caused several violent demonstrations near the mosque in the past week. Young Israeli Arab men and teenagers are also more frequently gathering near roads, in Arab neighborhoods, and throwing rocks at cars believed to contain Jews. This is leading to a growing number of arrests. There are also some attacks with firebombs.

February 26, 2012: More rockets from Gaza landed in Israel.

February 25, 2012: Israeli aircraft hit targets in Gaza in retaliation for a recent rocket attack on Israel.
More rockets from Gaza landed in Israel.

February 24, 2012: In the West Bank, Palestinian terrorists threw five fire bombs at Israeli troops. There were no injuries.

February 23, 2012: More rockets from Gaza landed in Israel.

February 22, 2012: Israeli police raided a location in the West Bank and arrested three terrorism suspects.

February 21, 2012: Egypt announced a new deal to supply fuel for the power plant in Gaza. This is a direct attack on Hamas, which cut off fuel supplies from Israel last year and relied instead on fuel smuggled in (via tunnels) from Egypt. This Hamas heavily taxed and that became a major source of income. But then Egypt cut the smuggled supply on the 14th and that led to blackouts. Hamas refused to accept fuel from Israel. But the popular discontent was so strong that Hamas could not block the Egyptian offer of free fuel. Hamas has been losing popularity in Gaza for several years now. This has forced Hamas to back away from imposing strict Islamic lifestyle rules. Hamas also started to condemn the government violence in Syria. This angered Iran, which has long been a major supporter of Hamas. Egypt is seen as pro-Fatah, despite insistence that Egypt will treat all Palestinian factions the same.

Iran threatened to attack Israel first if it appeared that Israel was going to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. The Iranian government wants the Israelis to attack as this will unite the Iranian people behind an increasingly unpopular religious dictatorship.

Mortar shells from Gaza landed in Israel.

February 20, 2012:

An Israeli anti-smuggling patrol along the Egyptian border ran into a man carrying a terrorist bomb. The man escaped and the bomb was defused.
More rockets from Gaza landed in Israel.

February 19, 2012:

Israeli aircraft hit targets in Gaza in retaliation for a recent rocket attack on Israel.

February 18, 2012: An Iranian destroyer, accompanied by a supply ship, entered the Mediterranean and steamed past Israel on its way to the Syrian port of Tartus. After a few days the Iranian ships headed back and entered the Suez Canal on the 21st.

February 15, 2012: More rockets from Gaza landed in Israel. Israeli warplanes retaliated.

February 14, 2012:

In Bangkok, Thailand three Iranians fled a house after bombs they were building exploded. One man came out of the house with two of the bombs and tried to attack a taxi (for refusing to take him and his bombs downtown) but the bomb went off after it bounced off the cab, blowing off his legs. Three Iranian men were arrested, one after flying to Malaysia. A fourth man successfully fled to Iran as did the fifth member of the group, an Iranian woman. It took about a week for the police to discover that there were five suspects and that they were all Iranian.

February 13, 2012: In Georgia and India attackers used magnetic bombs to try and kill Israeli diplomats. The attacks failed. Iran accuses Israel of using such tactics in several successful attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists. Iran and Hezbollah denied any participation in these attacks.

February 11, 2012: Egyptian police found and seized several tons of explosives and several shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles in the Sinai desert. Local smugglers were apparently preparing the get these weapons into Gaza.

Israeli aircraft hit targets in Gaza in retaliation for a recent rocket attack on Israel.

I bet these Syrians are happy that Golan Heights are "occupied"

QUNEITRA CROSSING, GOLAN HEIGHTS - FEBRUARY 27: Rania Miki and Adnan Miki walk past the Israeli-Syrian border into Israel after Rania left her family in Syria to reunite with her husband, on February 27, 2012 at the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights, Israel. The Syrian Israeli couple were married two years ago in Jordan but have have not seen each other since. Rania has now left her family in Syria with the possibility she will never see them again. The couple plan to live in a place named Ghajar on the Israel-Lebanon border. (Getty Images)

25 killed as Syrian army pounds rebels; British journalist wounded

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian forces shelled opposition strongholds, killing at least 25 people, on Tuesday and a wounded British photographer was smuggled out of Homs into neighboring Lebanon.

France said the U.N. Security Council was starting work on a draft resolution on the violence in Syria and the need to gain humanitarian access to Homs and other embattled areas.

"We hope Russia and China will not oppose the proposed resolution," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "Given the emergency, it's time that all the council members, without exception, put a stop to this barbarity."

Russia and China vetoed a draft resolution a month ago that would have demanded an end to the bloodshed and backed an Arab League call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Activists said Assad sent units of an elite armored division, which is led by his brother Maher, into Homs overnight. Tanks with the words "Fourth Division Monsters" painted on them moved close to the besieged Baba Amro district.

British photographer Paul Conroy, of London's Sunday Times, was spirited safely out of Homs into Lebanon. "He is in good shape and in good spirits," the newspaper said.

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Pakistan bus attack leaves 18 dead

(Kohistan) Yet again, in direct contradiction of its so called status as the religion of peace, fine, outstanding members of Islam boarded a bus in darkest Pakistan, removed those passengers who belonged to the branch of Islam they don't. Escorting them off the bus they then in cold blood shot dead 18 Shia Muslims.

Isn't it strange how while the Islamic world can go ballistic over so called holy books found ready for burning (not burnt, but ready for burning), yet the actual murders of real people don't even register on the conciousness of the world's Muslims?

Yet the very same people, who are remaining silent on these murders, are the same ones who demand inquiry after inquiry if a Muslim was refused entry onto a bus in the West. Even when the Muslims are in the wrong. Funny that.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Report: 135 dead across Syria, including 64 fleeing embattled area of Homs

In related news: Iran objects to holding UN rights debate on Syria.
BEIRUT (AP) – A Syrian activist group said Monday that 135 people have been killed across the country, including 64 who died while fleeing an embattled area in the central city of Homs.

The group did not say whether all 135 died on Monday or were killed over the past few days.

Central Homs has been under siege for nearly four weeks, making it difficult for rescue workers to get to the wounded and for families to bring their injured and dead to the hospital or aid stations.

The high casualty figures reported by the Local Coordination Committees, one of the main Syrian activist groups, demonstrated the increasingly bloody toll the conflict is taking on Syria where President Bashar Assad is trying to suppress an uprising of Syrians demanding he step down.

The group said 64 of those who died were trying to flee shelling in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr when they were killed at a security checkpoint in the city's Abil area.

The dead included three women, three children and four soldiers, the group said. It did not specify whether the soldiers had defected to the opposition.

It said 47 of the bodies were found between the villages of al-Ghajar and al-Tanouna, and that 17 others were found north of the village of Sid al-Shindakhiyeh. All of those villages are located in central Syria, near Homs, which has taken a central role in the Syrian uprising.

A second activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 68 bodies had been brought to the hospital in Homs and that they were found between the villages of Ram al-Anz and al-Ajriyeh.

The group said it had unconfirmed reports that the dead were families that been killed by security forces while fleeing the city and called for an investigation.

The two accounts could not be immediately reconciled, and the death tolls could not be independently verified.

Media Matters boss paid former domestic partner $850,000 'blackmail' settlement

The irony is that this is the man who's been pushing to hire private investigators to look into private lives and finances of Fox News personalities in order to destroy them.
(Fox News) Media Matters chief David Brock paid a former domestic partner $850,000 after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization’s donors and the IRS – a deal that Brock later characterized as a blackmail payment, according to legal documents obtained by FoxNews.com.

In an acrimonious lawsuit settled at the end of last year, Brock accused William Grey of making repeated threats to expose him to the "scorn or ridicule of his employees, donors and the press in demanding money and property." Brock claimed in legal papers that he sold a Rehoboth Beach, Del., home he once shared with Grey in order to meet Grey’s demands, which he called "blackmail" in the lawsuit.

Brock, 49, heads the non-profit Media Matters for America, which bills itself as a watchdog of the conservative media but has recently come under fire for allegedly coordinating with Democrats in what could be a violation of its tax-exempt status.

Brock’s bitter legal battle with Grey, who is described in a Sept. 14, 2010, police report obtained by FoxNews.com as his domestic partner of more than 10 years, began after Brock began dating Washington, D.C., restaurant impresario James Alefantis about five years ago. For the next three years, Brock and Grey traded angry accusations, which were documented in the police report and were the foundation of a pitched legal battle replete with charges of blackmail, theft and financial malfeasance.

Read the police report detailing the lawsuit

Alefantis was also named as a defendant in Grey's lawsuit.

In his response to Brock's lawsuit, Grey "denies that he committed any "acts of blackmail.""

Grey threatened to go public about Brock and Media Matters' finances after he accused Brock in a civil suit filed in Washington of taking $170,000 in possessions, including an $8,000 Louis Vuitton suit bag, paintings, a rug, a chandelier, a painted bust of a Roman soldier and a pair of carved wooden chairs upholstered with purple fabric. Those possessions were displayed in the Washington townhouse where the couple entertained liberal movers and shakers in happier times.

Brock took Grey’s threats seriously and called police in 2010. In the police report, filed by Metropolitan Police as a stalking incident, Brock accused Grey, also 49, of attempting to blackmail him with a series of emails threatening to "release specific derogatory information about [Brock] and his organization to the press and donors that would be embarrassing to him and cause harm to the organization …"

Brock took Grey’s threats seriously and called police in 2010. In the police report, filed by Metropolitan Police as a stalking incident, Brock accused Grey, also 49, of attempting to blackmail him with a series of emails threatening to "release specific derogatory information about [Brock] and his organization to the press and donors that would be embarrassing to him and cause harm to the organization …"

Some of those emails came out as the lawsuit, filed by Grey on Jan. 28, 2011, wound its way through Superior Court of the District of Columbia last year.

Read the complete lawsuit filed by William Grey

"Please finish this today so I don’t have to waste my time emailing anyone – Biden, Coulter, Carlson, Huffington, Drudge, Ingraham," Grey wrote in a 2008 email.

Nearly two years later, Grey accused Brock of "financial malfeasance" and threatened to undermine Brock’s fundraising efforts.

"Next step is I contact all your donors and the IRS," Grey wrote in an email dated May 19, 2010. "This is going to stink for you if you do not resolve this now."

Brock said in court papers that he paid Grey "under duress."

On March 8, 2011, Brock filed his own suit against Grey for more than $4 million, demanding Grey return the $850,000, plus pay millions more in punitive damages. The two settled two months ago under terms that remain confidential.

More...

Canadian store owner defeats anti-Israel boycotters

Boycott on Vancouver store owner who insists on selling Israeli goods backfires following Ynet story. 'People won't stop calling and ordering products,' she says.
(Ynet) The story of Shani Bar-Oz, a Canada-based Israeli facing venomous protests outside her Vancouver soap products store, elicited a huge wave of support and generated new business, the shop owner [t]old Ynet.

"I received a huge embrace and plenty of support," Bar-Oz said, after an article about her plight appeared on Ynet. In the story, the store owner, who insists on selling Israeli products, shared her fears of contending with anti-Israel protesters targeting her business and shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

However, it now appears that the boycott campaign against Bar-Oz has backfired, with new orders pouring in as result of the story.

"There were Israelis who came into the store and said they saw the article and want to support and help me; I expressed my heartfelt thanks to them," she said. "People won't stop calling and ordering products on the phone and online, and this is truly touching and making me stronger."

"I'm now preparing for the boycotts of 'Apartheid Week,' but at least I understand that there are so many supporters behind me," she said. "I feel that I'm not forgetting where I came from and helping my homeland."

More...

Report: Suspected Islamists arrested in plot to assassinate Putin

Well, there is a 50/50 chance that it's true.
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian and Ukrainian security services have foiled a plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin after next week’s presidential election, Ukraine’s SBU counter-intelligence agency said on Monday.

Russian pro-government Channel One television said Ukrainian special services in the Black Sea port of Odessa had held two men linked to a group seeking an Islamist state in Russia’s North Caucasus.

“I can officially confirm that they were preparing an [assassination] attempt on Putin,” said Marina Ostapenko, a spokeswoman for the SBU.

Ostapenko said two men were under arrest. One was seized in Odessa after being wounded in an explosion at an apartment in the city on January 4 which also killed another alleged plotter.

The second man, who was on the international wanted list, was arrested a month later after initially escaping, she said.

“We found him in an apartment and detained him without a single shot being fired on February 4,” she said.

Some Russians reacted with skepticism, making clear on social network sites that they did not believe the report or suggesting the timing of the announcement was intended to attract sympathy for Putin before the March 4 election.

More...

Egyptian Jihadi Spring: Islamists win 80% of Egypt's upper parliament vote

(JPost) Islamist parties won more than 80 percent of seats in Egypt's upper house of parliament, the country's election board announced Sunday.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party took 58 percent of the seats in contention, while the harder-line Salafist Al-Nour party came in second with a quarter of all seats. The nationalist Wafd party came in third with just 7 percent of the vote.

The upper house, or Shura Council, has no legislative powers and fulfills a largely ceremonial function. Two-thirds of its 270 are elected, and the rest filled by government appointment.

Voter turnout was low for the upper house, which will hold its first session Tuesday.

Islamists also dominated voting for the lower house of parliament, with the Brotherhood taking 38 percent and Al-Nour 27 percent.

Afghanistan: Taliban suicide car bomber kills 9, wounds 19 near Jalalabad airport

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed nine people in an attack on a military airport in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, the latest bloodshed since copies of the Koran were burned at a NATO base last week.

There was no official indication the explosion at the gates of Jalalabad airport was linked to the deadly protests, but the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack as "revenge" for the Koran burnings.

Nineteen Afghan civilians and law enforcement officers and four NATO soldiers were wounded in the blast, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, said.

Jalalabad airport is almost exclusively used by NATO and the U.S. military.

Anti-Western fury has deepened significantly since the desecration of the Muslim holy book at the main NATO Bagram air base in Afghanistan. NATO described the incident as a tragic blunder.

The U.S. Embassy warned of a "heightened" threat to American citizens in Afghanistan and many Westerners are on "lock down", meaning they are not allowed out of their fortified compounds.

Riots have raged across Afghanistan over the past week despite widespread apologies from U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama and military commanders.

Seven U.S. military trainers were wounded on Sunday when a grenade was thrown at their base in Afghanistan's north.

Chants of "Death to America!" have come to characterize the protests and some demonstrators have hoisted the white Taliban flag.

More...

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Qatar, billed as moderate and an ally of the West, calls for for the creation of a commission of inquiry at the UN on the Judaization of Jerusalem

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (C) arrives at the opening of the International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha on February 26, 2012. Qatar called for the creation of a commission of inquiry at the UN on the Judaization of Jerusalem and warned that the country's Arab Spring no longer accept the occupation of the holy city by Israel. (Getty Images)

Israel: New Palestinian Intifada Gains Upper Hand on IDF Restraint

In the wake of the Gulf War, Kuwait, which employed large numbers of Palestinians but denied them citizenship, expelled more than 300,000 of them. “If people pose a security threat, as a sovereign country we have the right to exclude anyone we don't want,” said Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US, Saud Nasir Al-Sabah (JReport, 06.27, 1991).

During the events of Black September in 1970, King Hussein of Jordan moved to quash the militancy of Palestinian organizations and restore his monarchy's rule over the country--thousands of Palestinians died, PLO terrorists were expelled to Lebanon.

Today, violence by Arabs from Haifa to Be’er Sheva has grown into a full-blown Intifada, but so far the IDF is holding fire despite near deaths.

It's high time to revoke the Israeli citizenship of Palestinians participating in the Intifada.
(INN) Violence by Arabs from Haifa to Be’er Sheva has grown into new full-blown Intifada, but so far the IDF is holding fire despite deaths in the recent past in the same circumstances . The increasing violence is forcing the IDF to heighten its presence on the highways, and terrorists, already used to de facto control, may escalate their attacks.

Dozens of daily rock-throwing attacks on highways in Judea and Samaria were recorded the past week, causing massive damage to cars, light injuries and near death. In Haifa, two solders in civilian clothes narrowly escaped with their lives in a brutal attack that police are claiming was not nationalist and was a case of “mistaken identity.”

However, the assailants asked the two men if they were Jews before they began viciously assaulting them with clubs.

In the area of Be’er Sheva, the village of Tel Sheva has become a Hamas enclave where Israeli police rarely dare to enter. The government provides armed escorts for Jewish social and health workers who enter the Bedouin-populated area.

In Judea and Samaria, Palestinian Authority Arabs have terrorized women drivers by staging fake car accidents and then stealing their cars.

Two more Jewish residents narrowly escaped death Sunday morning when a rock ambush cut off the highway under the eyes of IDF soldiers in a “pillbox” tower on the side of the road.

The soldiers fired bullets in the air at the rate of only one minute and without any effect, Rivka Nir told Arutz Sheva. She was in a car driven by another woman on their way from Beit Haggai, immediately southwest of Hevron, to Efrat, the largest community in the Gush Etzion bloc along Highway 60.

Faced with the alternative of being attacked while standing in a lane of other cars whose drivers did not want to take the chance of failing to succeed to pass harmlessly through the maze of boulders, the two women decided to "run the gauntlet."

Nir said she encouraged the driver to try to escape, and “she pressed the gas pedal and zig-zagged her way to safety, when an IDF jeep finally approached from the other direction.”

Rock-throwing attacks, intended to cause fatal accidents, are the most violent since the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, with over a thousand Israelis killed by terror acts. It never really ended, with sporadic violence that has worsened since the Palestinian Authority has failed to force Israel to accept its diplomatic and political demands. These include surrendering large areas of Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, declaring Jerusalem as a divided capital, sovereignty over the Temple Mount and Old City, and the immigration to Israel of five million foreign Arabs.

The IDF’s former policy of keeping a low profile in order to avoid provoking Arabs has left a vacuum that terrorists have exploited, particularly on Highway 60, a main artery which stretches from northern Samaria to Gush Etzion south of Jerusalem, and to Hevron-Kiryat Arba and the southern Hevron Hills. Another hot spot has been the main highway connecting Kfar Saba, on the northern edge of metropolitan Tel Aviv with central Samaria communities.

The writing was on the wall late last year, when rock-throwing terrorists scored a direct hit on the windshield of Kiryat Arba resident Asher Palmer, who lost control of his car and crashed on to the shoulder, causing his own death and that of his baby boy.

The police initially concluded that the deaths were due to a routine traffic accident until Arutz Sheva published photographic evidence proving that the car had come under attack by rock-throwing terrorists.

The IDF apparently has carried out of strategy of minimal interference, allowing virtual anarchy on the roads, which already are dangerous due to wild driving by local villagers. Many of them drive without licenses and with cars that have no permit to be on the roads.

OWS Street Art: The Bomb n' Change Edition


Check it out at Urban Infidel.

Nigeria: Christian Worshipers Catch the Jihadi Who Bombed Their Church, Club Him to Death

The second jihadi was blown to pieces in the blast.
(Times of Nigeria) Angry worshippers at the headquarters of Church Of Christ In Nations (COCIN) in Jos on Sunday killed one of the two suspected bearers of the explosives that hit the Church in the morning.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bomber and one other, who both wore army camouflage, drove into the Church and beat the security before hitting the building.

NAN correspondent, who was at the scene, reports that the suspect appeared to be in his early 30s.

The suspect, who wore a neatly carved moustache, looked well-fed.

But probably afraid of dying, the bomb carrier jumped out of the vehicle just before the blast went off and attempted to run but could not move as he was affected by the blast.

The angry worshipers, however, descended on him and clubbed him to death.

An eyewitness and a worshipper in the Church, Joyce Dalyop, told NAN that there were arguments among the worshipers over what to do with the bomber before he was finally killed.

``Immediately they (bombers) entered the Church, one of them jumped out of the black jeep but luck ran out of him as the explosion affected him and so he could not run very fast before he was caught.’’

``Some people even pleaded that he should not be killed; they suggested that he should be handed over to Police for further investigation, but others argued that the police could not be trusted and opined that the suspect may be released,” she said.

Another worshipper in the Church, Elder Bulus Haruna, said that the other bomber, who drove the vehicle, was blown into pieces together with the vehicle that was reduced to only the engine.

``His (bomber) body parts were scattered everywhere – the legs and hands were charred and had become roasted by the fire from the explosion,” he said.

Pennsylvania Judge Who Converted to Islam Rules that Muslims Are Allowed to Attack People for Insulting Mohammed

Judge Mark Martin - rules that Sharia law trumps the US Constitution
(Yahoo! News) Jonathon Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, reports on a disturbing case in which a state judge in Pennsylvania threw out an assault case involving a Muslim attacking an atheist for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Judge Mark Martin, an Iraq war veteran and a convert to Islam, threw the case out in what appears to be an invocation of Sharia law.

The incident occurred at the Mechanicsburg, Pa., Halloween parade where Ernie Perce, an atheist activist, marched as a zombie Muhammad. Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim, attacked Perce, and he was arrested by police.

Judge Martin threw the case out on the grounds that Elbayomy was obligated to attack Perce because of his culture and religion. Judge Martin stated that the First Amendment of the Constitution does not permit people to provoke other people. He also called Perce, the plaintiff in the case, a "doofus." In effect, Perce was the perpetrator of the assault, in Judge Martin's view, and Elbayomy the innocent. The Sharia law that the Muslim attacker followed trumped the First Amendment.

Words almost fail.

The Washington Post recently reported on an appeals court decision to maintain an injunction to stop the implementation of an amendment to the Oklahoma state constitution that bans the use of Sharia law in state courts. The excuse the court gave was that there was no documented case of Sharia law being invoked in an American court. Judge Martin would seem to have provided that example, which should provide fodder for the argument as the case goes through the federal courts.

The text of the First Amendment could not be clearer. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof-" It does not say "unless somebody, especially a Muslim, is angered." Indeed Judge Martin specifically decided to respect the establishment of a religion, in this case Islam.

That Judge Martin should be removed from the bench and severely sanctioned goes almost without saying. He clearly had no business hearing the case in the first place, since he seems to carry an emotional bias. He also needs to retake a constitutional law course. Otherwise, a real can of worms has been opened up, permitting violence against people exercising free speech.

It should be noted that another atheist, dressed as a Zombie Pope, was marching beside the Zombie Muhammad. No outraged Catholics attacked him.

Lebanese Columnist Jihad Al-Khazen: [Unlike Islam], The Jewish Religion Is a Fairy Tale; The Jews Have No History and No Archaeological Remains in Jerusalem or in Egypt

And we are supposed to take these people seriously...

From MEMRI:
Jihad Al-Khazen: In Jerusalem, there are no archeological remains of the Jews or any of their prophets. They have no history. People forget that during Yitzhak Rabin's first term in government, in the early 1980's [sic]… I was in America at the time, studying history at Georgetown University. Rabin excavated under the Haram Al-Sharif, and uncovered the remains of an Umayyad palace. There are no [Jewish] archeological remains. There is no Solomon's Temple or any other temple.

They did not enter our countries, nor did they leave them. They were never in Egypt or in the Sinai. Ask Dr. Zahi Hawwas if he has found any Jewish archeological remains in Egypt or in the Sinai. Modern historians, including some Jews, call these "Torah fairy tales."

The Islamic religion was delivered in the light of history. Divine inspiration would come to the Prophet Muhammad, and he would put it on record that same day. The Christian religion was recorded by Jesus' disciples 40 or 50 years later. They were all still alive. The Jewish religion was recorded after 1,000 years. It's like you and me discussing family tales about the Crusades. The Crusades took place 800 years ago, not 1,000 years.

This religion is a fairy tale. We must sever Islam's times with [the Jews]. Their Prophets are not the prophets of the Muslims. Islamic scholars must have the courage to show that these people are frauds. That religion cannot possibly be true.

[…]

Family of Slain Hezbollah Terror Mastermind 'Imad Mughniyah, Encourages His Grandson to Follow in His Footsteps

From MEMRI:
Interviewer: Leaders do not die because their path lives on forever. With us in the studio is little 'Imad Mughniya, grandson of the martyr 'Imad. Good morning, 'Imad. How are you?

Grandmother: Say: "Good morning."

'Imad Mughniya: Good morning.

Interviewer: Good morning. Don't play with the microphone, 'Imad. What would you like to say to your grandpa, 'Imad?

'Imad Mughniya: I love you.

Interviewer: What's your name?

'Imad Mughniya: 'Imad Mughniya.

Interviewer: Who are you named after?

'Imad Mughniya: After grandpa.

Interviewer: What are you wearing, 'Imad?

'Imad Mughniya: Military fatigues.

Interviewer: What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to be when you grow up?

Family members: He will be in the resistance.

'Imad Mughniya: I will be in the resistance.

Interviewer: Like who?

Father: Say: "like grandpa."

'Imad Mughniya: Like grandpa.

Grandmother: Whose gun is this?

'Imad Mughniya: Grandpa's.

Grandmother: That's right. Who wants to hold the gun?

Interviewer: Hajj 'Imad entrusted little 'Imad with this.

Grandmother: Little 'Imad is taking the big gun. Go on.

[Lets 'Imad Mughniya play with the gun]

Interviewer: That is what Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah said, [Mughniya] left behind thousands upon thousands of soldiers… We would like to think little 'Imad.

Grandmother: Clever little 'Imad is now going to mama.

['Imad gets up and leaves the studio]

[...]

Egyptian Presidential Candidate Tawfiq Okasha Predicts that Egyptian Army Will Open Fire on "Its Enemies" – the US, Germany, and Israel – Within Three Months; States That If Not for the Holocaust, the Jews Would Have Annihilated the Germans

From MEMRI:
Tawfiq Okasha: Hitler's principle was that the best race must become master of the world, and must spread worldwide. Hitler established German Nazism on this, in order to rule and own the world. On the other hand, we find that this is precisely the same philosophy as that of the Israelites and the Jews, who say: We are the Semitic people, we are the best people in the world, and we must rule and own the world, because the Semites are the kinds of the Earth and all that is upon it.

[…]

Hitler knew that the Jews upheld the same ideology. They shared the same ideology. Hitler believed that the Germans were the masters of the world, whereas the Jews believe that they are the masters of the world. Thus, a battle ensued – either the Jews would destroy Hitler, so that they would be able to continue pursuing their goal of ruling the world, or else Hitler would annihilate the Jews, and realize his own goal of ruling the world. This led the Jews to play a very important role in World War II, which brought about Hitler's defeat.

What all the intellectuals and all the people believe is that the reason for Hitler's defeat in World War II was that he moved his forces into Russia at a time of heavy snow. The temperature in Russia reached minus 7, 10, or 12 degrees Celsius, and the German soldiers and officers were not used to this climate. On the other hand, Hitler sent his forces to North Africa in June, July, and August, when the weather was very hot, and there too, his soldiers were unable to cope with the weather. People believe that these two fronts were the main reason for Hitler's defeat. That is what historians have written. But no. That is a mistake.

The truth is that a secret battle was conducted between Hitler and the Jews, and Hitler launched this battle with the Holocaust. All the Jews and all the historians say that Hitler burned the Jews in the Holocaust. Nope. Hitler gathered all the Jews that he could, and all the depraved people that he could… In other words, people who were unable to work – people with polio, people with special needs, and the elderly… He rounded them up and burned them. He said that they were non-productive and were a burden on the German economy, and therefore, let them enter the Holocaust.

The Jewish Holocaust was not only for the Jews, but for everybody who was "depraved," in Hitler's view. These included Muslims and Christians – everybody.

[…]

Hitler was defeated in World War II because the Jews conducted a clandestine battle against him, by planting one… Two of Hitler's advisors were working for the Jews. They were the ones who advised Hitler to mobilize his forces to Russia and to North Africa. Hence, the Jews managed to get close to Hitler, by means of his closest advisors.

[…]

See how long the Jews have been conspiring against the world? Since the end of World War II. They struck the Soviet Union, and it collapsed. They entered Eastern Europe through NGO's, under the pretext of promoting democracy, and so on. They divided all the countries. Yugoslavia was divided. In the Balkan countries, wars were waged and massacres carried out, and they conducted revolutions on rivers of blood, while claiming that this was non-violent, peaceful change. Get it? They conducted close to twenty bloody revolutions in order to achieve this goal. Why did Germany join all these NGO's? Because each party has its own interests. Germany is getting ready to rule the world once again.

[…]

I say this to the Jews: Brothers, do not lie to yourselves. You have played around with German demography as best you could, and you have managed to get the Germans to abhor marriage. This was in order to prevent births. But what is happening now in Germany? For the past five years exactly, marriages have sky-rocketed, and so has the birth rate in Germany today.

[…]

America, Israel, and the European Union are planning to destroy three institutions in Egypt with exceptional malice: the Egyptian general intelligence agency, the Egyptian armed forces, and the Egyptian military intelligence.

[…]

As of today, the war effort of the people has begun. This is essential. A war effort! People, we are waging battle against the greatest country in the world, and against the second greatest country in the world. America is the greatest country in the world, and Germany is the second greatest country economically. We are fighting two superpowers. There are eight great industrialized countries in the world, and we are fighting two of them. We are currently at war with two of them – an official, declared war. The movement of the armed forces today means a real war, but worse is still to come.

[…]

Either the country is wide open, with holes like sieve, or else they call us enemies of democracy. What's that supposed to mean? That's what is written in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

[…]

This is a fierce and bitter battle, which began without any shooting, but will end with shooting. I say this here and now. The Egyptian army will open fire on the armies of the enemies. While you are talking to me right now, the battle with tanks, cannons, and airplanes is near.

Interviewers: I said at the beginning of the show that the war that Egypt is undergoing is not a war of shooting, of missiles, and so on. When will Egypt wage such a war?

Tawfiq Okasha: Within three months. Armed war will begin within three months.

[…]

Syria: 57 (41 civilians and 16 soldiers) killed on Sunday, 98 (72 civilians and 26 soldiers) killed on Saturday

All in all, 155 killed in 2 days, more than 7,600 killed since the beginning of the uprising.
(Naharnet) On Saturday, 98 people were killed, 72 of them civilians, the Observatory said.
(Sky News) Regime forces killed 41 civilians in Syria on Saturday, while 16 soldiers died in explosions and clashes with rebels, a monitoring group said.

Among the civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 were killed in the flashpoint city of Homs, as a rebel stronghold there was shelled for the 22nd straight day.

Regime artillery targeted the rebel-held district of Baba Amr, and opened fire on the inner city quarters of Khaldiyeh and Hamidiyeh, as well as Bab Dreib and Bab Tadmur, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The Local Coordination Committees opposition group said security forces fired mortars at Khaldiyeh, and posted footage on the internet showing damage at the landmark mosque of Khaled bin al-Waleed, in the centre of Homs.

Meanwhile, 16 soldiers and members of the security forces were killed in clashes with rebels and by explosions in the provinces of Aleppo, Homs, and Idlib, the Observatory said.

Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances had entered the besieged district of Homs on Friday and evacuated seven wounded Syrians, as well as 20 women and children.

But the ambulances did not evacuate two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two others, said Saleh Dabbakeh, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A medical official in Lebanon told AFP that seven wounded Syrians from Baba Amr crossed the border illegally.

The Free Syrian Army usually transports wounded people to Lebanon using traditional routes and avoiding border guards.

The latest group crossed into eastern Lebanon and has been taken to a hospital in Tripoli, in the country's north.

More than 7600 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011, according to monitors.

Pic of the day

A supporter of the Human Rights Network group wears a mask of U.S President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck while holding the U.S flag during an anti-American rally in Karachi February 26, 2012. About 20 supporters gathered to protest and condemn the burning of copies of the Koran at NATO's main base in Afghanistan on February 21, 2012. (Reuters Pictures)

Seven U.S. soldiers wounded after Afghan NATO base attacked in Koran burning protests

This is what happens when 7th century baboons hear an apology of a weakling for something he should've never apologized.
KUNDUZ/KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Seven U.S. military trainers were wounded on Sunday when a grenade was thrown at their base in northern Afghanistan, police said, as anti-Western fury deepened over the burning of the Koran at a NATO base.

Despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama, riots raged across the country for a sixth day on Sunday against the desecration of the Muslim holy book at a NATO air base at Bagram. Some protesters hoisted the white Taliban flag.

The Afghan Interior Ministry identified one of its employees as a suspect in the fatal shooting of two U.S. officers in its headquarters a day earlier, an attack that prompted NATO to recall its staff from ministries.

One civilian was killed, 15 more were wounded and three policemen injured in riots near the NATO base in northern Kunduz province, where the blast that wounded the Americans took place, regional police chief Samihullah Qatra told reporters.

NATO confirmed there had been an explosion outside one of its bases in northern Afghanistan, but declined to comment on casualties.

The protests have killed 30 people and wounded 200, including two other U.S. troops who were shot dead by an Afghan soldier who joined rallies in the country's east.

More...

Pakistan: 100s of Korans fished out of a sewage-filled canal every year

(Moonbattery) Imagine the rioting and sniveling apologies if an infidel were to use the Koran for toilet paper. Yet Muslims in Pakistan seem to be doing just that. They must be getting tired of using their hands; how else do so many Koran pages wind up in the sewer?

Fishing Koran pages out of the sewer — now there’s a job not even Mike Rowe would take on.

On a tip from Tatersalad.
In any case, the Koran in finally getting the treatment it so richly deserves.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Another 'green' company gets $390M subsidies, lays off 125

(Washington Examiner) A123 Systems, an electric car battery company once touted as a stimulus "success story" by former Gov. Jennifer Granhom, D-Mich., has laid off 125 employees since receiving $390 million in government subsidies -- but is still handing out big pay raises to company executives.

"[T]he company has laid off 125 employees and had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011," the Mackinac Center for Public Policy reports, observing that the company's primary customer, Fisker Automotive, is also struggling financially. "Yet, this month A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise for [Chief Financial Officer David] Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced the U.S. Energy Department had cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received."
This month has seen significant pay boosts for other A123 executives, as well:
Robert Johnson, vice president of the energy solutions group, got a 20.7 percent pay increase going from $331,250 to $400,000, while Jason Forcier, vice president of the automotive solutions group, saw his pay increase from $331,250 to $350,000. Prystash’s raise was 8.5 percent, going from $350,000 to $380,000.
"It looks like they are trying to pad their top people’s wallets in case something really bad happens," Paul Chesser, associate fellow for the National Legal Policy Center, suggested.

The Department of Energy gave the battery company $249.1 million in grant money, while the Michigan government provided A123 with another $141 million in tax credits and subsidies, according to the Mackinac Center.

Pic of the day

Buttons showing Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer and US President Obama are displayed outside the Arizona Federation of Republican Women's Luncheon on February 22, 2012 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The political organization brings together women to positively impact the direction of the US. The Arizona and Michigan primaries are scheduled to be held on February 28. (Getty Images)

Iran: Only burning White House can make up for burning Koran

Commander of Iran's Basij force tells Fars news agency that Muslims worldwide should reject Obama's apology following the burning of the holy Muslim text in a U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Still not a word about hundreds of Korans destroyed in the fire in a Shiite mosque burned down by Sunnis in Iraq.
(Haaretz) The Muslim world should not accept an apology issued by U.S. President Barack Obama over the burning of Korans in an American base in Afghanistan, a top Iranian military commander said on Saturday, adding that nothing short of "burning the White House can relieve the wound of us."

Obama's Thursday apology in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to quell spiraling furor among Afghans, who have been protesting the act for five straight days, after Afghan workers found charred copies of the Muslim holy book on a military base near Kabul.

According to White House spokesperson Jay Carney, while the apology was "wholly appropriate given the sensitivities" about treatment of the Koran, he said Obama's primary concern was "the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there."

Responding to Obama's apology on Saturday, the commander of Iran's Basij force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqd claimed that the holy book was burned by U.S. forces over the heavy slap it has been given by Islam," urging Muslims worldwide to reject the American apology.

"Nothing but burning the White House can relieve the wound of us, the Muslims, caused by the Burning of Quran in the US," he said adding: "Their apology can be accepted only by hanging their commanders; hanging their commanders means an apology," he was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying.

Naqd's comments came after, earlier Saturday, a gunman killed two American military advisers inside a heavily guarded government building in the heart of Kabul.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for the Koran burnings, and the NATO commander recalled all international military personnel working in Afghan ministries in the capital.

More...

Analysis: Syria and Hamas - end of a honeymoon

(JPost) The honeymoon between Hamas and the Syrian regime is now officially over.

Since the eruption of the uprising against the Bashar Assad's regime nearly a year ago, Hamas had refrained from taking sides in the conflict.

Hamas's declared policy was that the movement does not interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

But for Hamas, Syria was not just another Arab country.

Syria was the only country that agreed to host Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and some of his top aides after they were expelled from Jordan and stripped of their Jordanian citizenship more than a decade ago.

Syria's decision to allow Hamas to set up base in Damascus was mainly designed to undermine the PLO, and not out of love for the Islamist movement or the Palestinians.

Syria's efforts to undermine the PLO go as back as the early 1980's, when Hafez Assad supported and later hosted senior Fatah officers who led a revolt against Yasser Arafat in southern Lebanon.

Since then, at least 10 other radical Palestinian groups have been given shelter in Syria, where they formed a "rejectionist front" opposed to Arafat and the PLO.

The "Arab Spring" has put the Palestinian groups, including Hamas, in a delicate situation.

On the one hand, the Palestinians have enthusiastically supported demands for regime change and reforms in the Arab world.

On the other hand, Hamas and the other Damascus-based Palestinian groups could not afford to be seen as supporting an Arab dictator who is massacring his people.

The first sign of tensions between Hamas and Assad surfaced a few months ago, when the Syrian authorities demanded that Mashaal follow suit with Hezbollah and publicly declare his backing for the Assad regime.

Mashaal's refusal to comply with the request turned him into persona non grata in Syria and forced him to start searching for a new home.

In recent weeks, Mashaal and most of the top Hamas leaders and their families have moved to Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the Gaza Strip.

Until recently, Hamas had been careful not to come out against Assad in public as long as its leaders and offices were still in Damascus.

Hamas did not want to end up like Hezbollah, which has lost many points among the Arab and Muslim masses for siding with Assad in his bloody war against his people.

But now that Hamas has left Syria, its leaders are finally able to voice their true feelings about Assad.

Last Friday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh chose Cairo as the venue for expressing his movement's support for the Syrian people's efforts to get rid of Assad's regime.

Haniyeh said that Hamas "lauds the Syrian people who seek freedom, democracy and reform."

This one sentence was enough to signal the end of a long honeymoon between Assad's regime and Hamas.

Pakistan begins demolition of bin Laden's compound

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan on Saturday began demolishing the three-story compound where Osama bin Laden lived for years and was killed by U.S. commandos last May, eliminating a concrete reminder of the painful and embarrassing chapter in the country's history.

Pakistan was outraged by the covert American raid because it was not told about it beforehand. The country's powerful military faced rare domestic criticism because it was not able to stop U.S. troops from infiltrating the country by helicopter from Afghanistan under the cover of darkness. The compound was located next to Pakistan's equivalent of West Point, the elite U.S. military academy.

Three mechanized backhoes began demolishing the compound in the northwest town of Abbottabad after sunset on Saturday, said two local residents, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were afraid of being harassed by the government.

Authorities set up floodlights so they could work after dark, the residents said.

The demolition team conducted its work under heavy security. A large team of police set up an outer cordon around the compound to keep spectators away, said an Associated Press reporter who managed to get close enough to see the demolition work under way. A ring of army soldiers set up an inner cordon and warmed themselves against the winter chill by lighting a bonfire.

The backhoes broke through tall outer boundary walls that ringed a courtyard where one of the U.S. helicopters crashed during the operation to kill the al-Qaida chief. They then began to tear down the compound itself.

A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that the demolition was in progress but declined to say why the government chose to do it. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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Iran: Israel's military strike on Iran will somehow lead to 'collapse' of Israel

Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Vahidi (loves flowers)
(JPost) An Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities will result in "the collapse" of the Jewish state, Iranian state-run Press TV quoted Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying on Saturday.

“The Zionist regime is on the verge of dissolution… a military attack by the Zionist regime will undoubtedly lead to the collapse of this regime,” the Press TV website quoted Vahidi as saying.

Press TV's characteristically awkward translation continued: “Israeli officials’ remarks about launching an attack against Iran are ridicules [sic].”

According to Press TV, Vahidi made the comments on Thursday, a day ahead of the UN nuclear watchdog's latest report on the Iranian nuclear program.

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Video: Apology to President Karzai on Behalf of Americans (inspired by Obama's apology)

Yemen: Suicide car bomber kills 26 after new president takes oath

ADEN (Reuters) - A car containing explosives blew up while trying to attack a presidential palace in southern Yemen on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring several others, according to witnesses and medics.

The attack, apparently by a suicide bomber, happened in Hadramout, far from the capital of Sanaa, where Yemen's new president took an oath of office on Saturday.

Yemen's south is a turbulent region where secessionists are seeking to revive a socialist southern state and where an active wing of al-Qaida has taken root.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

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