The coming Obamabomb: While the president dissembles, Iran assembles its nuclear program

(WT) President Obama’s infamous Obamacare lie that “you can keep your doctor, period” is clearly not the exception — it’s the rule. The pattern is especially worrisome with respect to his practice of what amounts to serial national-security fraud.

Consider, for example, the latest on the Iran nuclear-weapons front. Mr. Obama insists that his interim deal “freezes” the mullahs’ nuclear program for six months. He may be the only one who believes that whopper. Certainly, the Iranian regime does not, and neither should we.

Yet the president insisted at a Brookings Institution symposium on Saturday that, “There’s nothing in this agreement or document that grants Iran a right to enrich.” In fact, as the Iranians have noted, the United States and the other so-called “P5+1” members (Russia, China, France and United Kingdom, plus Germany) clearly accepted in two different places in the so-called interim accord that Iran would continue the enrichment of uranium.

Whether we call this arrangement an acknowledgment of an Iranian “right” or not is beside the point. What matters is that the long lead-time item in Iran’s scheme to acquire sufficient nuclear weapons-grade uranium has been legitimated by Mr. Obama’s treacherous diplomacy.

The magnitude of the treachery being exhibited by a man who continues to profess that he will not let Iran get the bomb is evident in another comment made in the course of his remarks at Brookings. Mr. Obama floated for the first time the idea that the final agreement, which supposedly will be fashioned in the next six months, will allow Iran to enrich uranium in perpetuity: “It is my strong belief that we can envision an end state that gives us an assurance that, even if they have some modest enrichment capability, it is so constrained and the inspections are so intrusive that they, as a practical matter, do not have [a] breakout capability.”

Forget about the weasel-word caveats and the president’s empty platitudes about “the military option” remaining on the table. He has thus cleared the way for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, probably on his watch. Just as his health care fraud is properly known as Obamacare, the fruit of the mullah’s nuclear-weapons program he has just green-lighted should be known as “Obamabomb.”

It seems that the real purpose of the interim deal was less to “freeze” Iran’s burgeoning nuclear capability than it was to block the one military option that may actually remain viable: Israel‘s.

There is no small irony to the fact that Mr. Obama chose as the venue for his latest lies about his commitment to the security of the Jewish state — which he described as “sacrosanct” — the Brookings event sponsored by Israeli billionaire Haim Saban. In response to questions posed by Mr. Saban, the president insisted, for example: “Our support of Israel’s security has never been stronger . And that’s not just my opinion; I think that’s something that can be verified.”

Actually, it can be readily verified that no president has done more to jeopardize Israel’s security. The bill of particulars may start, but does not end, with Mr. Obama clearing the way for Iran to have the capability to act on its threats to “wipe Israel off the map.” Even before the interim deal, his administration had acted to impede, if not foreclose, Israeli options to prevent that existential danger. For instance, it compromised, and thereby ended, a secret bilateral arrangement with Azerbaijan to provide post-strike recovery airfields for Israel’s jets.

Insult was added to injury when the president lied to Israel’s Mr. Saban: “Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and I have had constant consultations on these issues throughout the last five years.” The truth is that Mr. Obama completely blindsided Mr. Netanyahu about his secret negotiations with Iran over the past year.

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Obama has also bludgeoned Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians that would be perilous for the Jewish state. He declared that Israel must withdraw to earlier, indefensible boundaries correctly described as the “Auschwitz borders.” He has publicly demeaned and humiliated Mr. Netanyahu. Secretary of State John Kerry has encouraged European boycotts of Israel and threatened “a third intifada” (or Palestinian terrorist war).

Most recently, Team Obama has let it be known that the United States would “impose” a solution on Israel next year if the Jewish state does not make the concessions necessary to satisfy the Palestinians. Mr. Obama nonetheless lied to Mr. Saban: “What I’ve consistently said is that the only way this is going to be resolved is if the people of Israel and the Palestinian people make a determination that their futures and the futures of their children and grandchildren will be better off with peace than with conflict.”

The people of the United States, and the futures of their children and grandchildren, are being imperiled by a president whose disastrous national-security policies are being exacerbated by his lies about them. These constitute high crimes, and should be treated as such by the Congress.

Lawmakers see ‘false narrative’ of Obama as a terrorist fighter

(WT) A growing clutch of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle is publicly countering the Obama administration’s portrayal of al Qaeda as an organization on the run, saying that an evolving network of the terrorist group’s affiliates now may pose as grave a threat to the U.S. as its predecessor did a decade ago.

While some have outright accused President Obama of pushing a “false narrative” to protect his reputation as the man who got Osama bin Laden, others focus on fears that a new breed of decentralized al Qaeda-style groups may control more safe haven territories in the Middle East and North Africa than the original did in Afghanistan prior to 9/11.

Growing evidence, meanwhile, that Syria’s civil war has emerged as what some officials now describe as a “magnet” for al Qaeda-linked fighters from as far away as Russia, Western Europe and the United States, seems only to be fueling an increasingly heated debate in Washington about just how successful the Obama administration has been at fighting terrorism.

Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, became the latest to sound alarms about the state of al Qaeda on Sunday, when he told CNN that the terrorist network’s overall ideology is “spreading like a spider web, like a wildfire through Northern Africa and the Middle East” and that the threat to the U.S. “has become greater, not lesser” in recent years.

Mr. McCaul went on to accuse Mr. Obama of having attempted to paint a rosier picture than the reality of America’s successes against al Qaeda — particularly during speeches the president made while campaigning for re-election last year.

At the time, Mr. Obama told audiences across the nation that al Qaeda’s original core was “decimated” and that the organization as a whole was “on the run” — two sloganlike phrases that, according to Mr. McCaul, amounted to “a false narrative” promoted by the president.

Several members of Congress and various intelligence community sources, during interviews over the past several months with The Washington Times, have noted that Mr. Obama publicly corrected his pre-election assessment of al Qaeda during a major speech on terrorism in May.

In the speech at the National Defense University, Mr. Obama went into more detail to say that while “the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat,” the U.S. is indeed facing an “emergence of various al Qaeda affiliates.”

“From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with al Qaeda’s affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula — AQAP — the most active in plotting against our homeland,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “while none of AQAP’s efforts approach the scale of 9/11, they have continued to plot acts of terror, like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.”

As debate over the issue has increased, some Democrats have defended the president by saying that while the overarching narrative surrounding al Qaeda has changed, the threat now facing the U.S. homeland is considerably lower than it was a decade ago.

“I think vis-a-vis the kind of attack we had on 9/11, we are much safer than we were,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “We have seriously degraded the core of al Qaeda, their ability to organize that kind of a massive attack.”

Mr. Schiff, appearing opposite Mr. McCaul on CNN, said that while there may be “a proliferation of these spinoffs,” as well as “very threatening” lone-wolf-style terrorists on the horizon, the U.S. is “safer from the big attacks.”

It is, however, clear that not all Democrats agree with the way the Obama administration has characterized the evolving threat.

Mr. Schiff and Mr. McCaul, for instance, engaged in a back-and-forth just one week after the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees appeared together to claim that — despite the killing of bin Laden in May 2011 and a relentless cascade of U.S. drone strikes aimed at al Qaeda’s leaders — the Obama administration has lost ground in the global war on terrorism that began under President George W. Bush.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, and Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican, told CNN that Islamist terrorism has been particularly resurgent in the past two years.

“I see more groups; more fundamentalist, more jihadist, more determined to kill to get to where they want to get,” said Mrs. Feinstein, who cited concerns that terrorist groups may have access to increasingly powerful bombs.

Mrs. Feinstein told CNN that on four occasions, terrorists had attempted to introduce a new generation of powerful bombs to the U.S. “There are new bombs, very big bombs, trucks being reinforced for those bombs,” she said. “There are bombs that go through [metal-detecting] magnetometers.”

Mr. Rogers said a surge in the number of al Qaeda affiliates worldwide has exposed the inaccuracy of Mr. Obama’s claims last year that the terrorist network was decimated and on the run.

“Al Qaeda as we knew it before is metastasizing to something different,” Mr. Rogers said, adding that while the group may no longer be focused on executing an attack like 9/11, its newly decentralized nature is likely to make it more difficult for U.S. authorities to counter whatever plots may be in the making.

Mr. Rogers for months has maintained that Mr. Obama understated that threat posed by al Qaeda while running for re-election last year. During an interview with The Times in September, he said that assertions made by the president on the campaign trail last year were “not consistent” with the overall counterterrorism assessment being provided by the U.S. intelligence community at the time.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, told The Times in September that “we need to evaluate statements, by the administration or anyone else, in the context of when they were made” during an election.

Other sources familiar with the U.S. intelligence assessments of global terrorist activity have suggested that American politicians are scrambling to understand the increasingly complicated and rapidly evolving story of al Qaeda.

“You’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Is al Qaeda closer today to getting a safe haven as they had in Afghanistan before 9/11?’” said one source, who spoke with The Times in September. “That’s a difficult question for the administration to answer.”

At Mandela's funeral, Obama shakes hands with Castro, Mugabe

(NBC) Briefly laying aside differences hardened over decades, President Barack Obama on Tuesday shook the hand of the president of Cuba at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. [...]

On his way to the rostrum, Obama also shook the hand of Robert Mugabe, the strongman ruler of Zimbabwe, and hugged Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, who has stridently opposed spying by the National Security Agency and criticized the U.S. government.

More...

One suspects he is jealous of people like Mugabe and Castro. So much easier to rule with none of that pesky democracy around...

Hey, Let's Keep a Fair Perspective on Israel

(WSJ) It is heartening to see for once ("The Real News From Israel," Review, Nov. 30) acknowledgment of what Israel has achieved despite the never-ending threats. It is also instructive to compare how Israel's forward-looking absorption of refugees contrasts with the zero-sum game still played by Palestinian leaders and the broader Arab world.

In the decades following the failed 1948 Arab invasion of Israel, over 900,000 Jews fled or were expelled from Arab countries. Their descendants form roughly half of all Israelis. They came to Israel penniless and were initially housed in pitiful tent camps. Yet they looked forward and rebuilt their lives.

Imagine what could have been achieved if the Arab world, with its vast land and oil resources, had similarly uplifted the Palestinian refugees.

Doron Lubinsky

Atlanta

Whatever Israel's faults, it is the only fully functional nation in the Middle East that lives by and respects Western freedoms and values. How can Israel, surrounded by states that want it destroyed and lacking any of the natural resources that sustain the region's authoritarian regimes, thrive while neighbors are consumed by sectarian wars, civil strife, abject poverty and hatred

Israel's existence is a miracle. Unless U.S. leaders want to be on the wrong side of miracles, values and history, there should be no moral ambiguity when it comes to helping secure an Israeli beacon of light in a very dark and hostile part of the world.

David Wilson

Washington

Iraqi FM warns of jihadi 'emirate' in Syria

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Iraq's top diplomat warned Saturday that the "toxic" proliferation of extremist groups among Syria's rebels raises the prospect of a jihadist-ruled territory at the heart of the region.

The comments by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari reflect Iraq's fears that the Syrian conflict is imperiling its fragile domestic security, as well as growing international alarm about the risk posed by waves of foreign fighters bolstering the ranks of armed groups fighting to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Zebari told attendees at a security conference in small Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain that the increase in radical fighters among the Syrian rebels is leading toward the creation of an ungovernable "Islamic emirate" that the world will have to deal with down the road.

"The most important danger coming out of the Syria conflict for Iraq ... and for the region is the mushrooming of terrorist groups and fronts in Syria," Zebari said.

"These are armies of recruits," he continued. "They're not all Syrians. There are European nationals. Some of them have come as far as from Australia, from Canada, and from many other countries. This is really toxic."

The 11 western European countries with the biggest contingents in Syria are estimated to have some 1,200-1,700 people among rebel forces, according to government and analyst figures compiled by The Associated Press. Many others are thought to come from Arab and other Muslim countries.

The Iraqi arm of al-Qaida has muscled into the Syrian conflict too, pushing into rebel-held parts of the north of the country. It earlier this year renamed itself Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in an effort to highlight its cross-border ambitions.

It has recruited significant numbers of foreign fighters and has repeatedly clashed with more moderate groups within the Syrian opposition.

The cross-border movement of fighters is believed to have contributed to a months-long spike in bloodshed in Iraq, blamed largely on al-Qaida's local franchise, with more than 8,000 people killed in car bombings and other violent attacks since the start of the year.

Zebari warned that extremist groups could eventually consolidate areas under their control inside Syria.

"The day will come, God forbid, when they will have another Islamic emirate" outside the effective control of the government. "Then we have to deal with that threat later on. These are facts. We are not creating stories."

More...

Obama takes up new agenda item after battering on healthcare

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, battered by weeks of turmoil over the malfunctioning HealthCare.Gov website, turned to a fresh item on his agenda on Saturday as he pressured Republicans in Congress to extend benefits for jobless Americans.

Almost year six of the Obama recovery...

It was a sign Obama may be slowly turning the corner from one of the worst crises of his five years in office, emerging bruised and weakened from the troubled rollout of his signature healthcare law, even as big challenges remain.

More...

He's running out of things to fuck up.

I feel bad for the jobless, he'll probably end up passing a law requiring them to live in the sewers so they don't count against the unemployment figures anymore.

Why doesn't Barry just bypass Congress and pass a bill that if you enjoy leeching off people, you can keep on doing it, forever?

Hezbollah threatens to retaliate against Israel for assassination for which Sunni terrorist group already took credit

Brilliant logic.

(JPost) A Lebanese newspaper reported on Thursday that Hezbollah blames Israel for the assassination of Hassan al-Laqqis and will respond.

Ibrahim al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which tends to support the “axis of resistance” of Hezbollah, Iran and Syria, stated in an article titled “Hezbollah will respond” that all signs point to Israel for the assassination.

“All indications are that Israel was behind the assassination, with a slim possibility that another party was involved. That’s why it did not take long for Hezbollah – based on its long experience with the Israelis – to point the finger at Tel Aviv, even though the occupation’s Foreign Ministry was quick to deny its involvement,” Amin wrote.

He said that the assassination could be seen as an Israeli response to the Iranian nuclear deal made with the West that it was not happy with, and that because of the deal, Israel could not attack an Iranian target, such as a nuclear scientist.

Amin suggested that Israel wanted to send a message to the West – that it would remain independent and maintain its deterrence against its enemies.

Hassan al-Laqqis, who is believed to have commanded Hezbollah troops fighting in Syria’s civil war, was shot in the head from close range outside his home in the Hadath district of the Lebanese capital in a killing that the Shi’ite group immediately blamed on Israel.

A previously unknown group, Ahrar al-Sunna Baalbek Brigade, claimed responsibility for the attack.

More...

Syrian jihadists kidnap 51 Kurds, including children

Beirut (AFP) - Jihadists in northern Syria have kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days, in the second such case of mass hostage-taking since July, a monitoring group said Thursday.

The kidnappings come months into major battles for control of several parts of northern Syria that have pitted Kurdish fighters against jihadists, chiefly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"In the past three days, ISIL has kidnapped at least 51 Kurds in the towns of Minbej and Jarablus," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the hostages were nine children and a woman, said the Britain-based group, adding that there was no information on where they had been taken.

More...

Egypt reportedly to declare Muslim Brotherhood ‘terrorist organization’

Mullahs, Turkish Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian terrorists, Syrian jihadists - all good friends of Obama.

You couldn't have dreamed this up on 9/12/01.

(JPost) Egyptian media reported Thursday that the government is preparing to deem the Muslim Brotherhood “a terrorist organization,” as pro-Morsi organizations sent out a call for protests to be held over the weekend.

The Egyptian El-Watan newspaper, which tends to support the military and oppose the Muslim Brotherhood, reported that interim Prime Minister Hazem el- Beblawi discussed in a closed meeting with a number of ministers a detailed directive that declares the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

The government blames the organization for violence and terrorism that has taken place since Mohamed Morsi was removed from power on July 3.

More...

Gaza is well on its way for another sewage flood

There have been heavy rains and the sewage system is not working because Hamas does not want to pay for diesel fuel. Some families already have had to be evacuated on Wednesday due to sewage flooding their homes.

430 workers are using 250 donkey carts to collect garbage off the streets.

Hamas is refusing to pay the tax that Fatah is demanding in order to send them diesel fuel.

There is a real danger of disease and epidemics spreading in Gaza.

GAZA CITY, Dec 5 2013 (IPS) - The garbage trucks of Gaza city are at a standstill due to an ongoing fuel shortage affecting all aspects of daily life, including garbage collection, sewage and waste disposal and other vital services. But the local donkeys are here to help.

Abu Hesham on his donkey cart won’t be able to clear all the streets of garbage. In Gaza’s Barcelona neighbourhood, trash bins are overflowing – a common sight since fuel for motor vehicles became scarce – and as the 33-year-old donkey cart owner approaches the garbage dump, there is no space left and no option but to throw the trash out on the side of the road.

“What else can I do?” he tells IPS as he carries sacks of waste at 7:00 AM through Gaza’s misty weather.

The smell of rotting garbage is getting worse and worse. The people in Gaza attempt to burn the garbage to reduce the quantity and minimise the risk of infection, so the air is filled with black smoke too. Right now, breathing fresh air is not an option for most people in Gaza, whether children or adults.

More...

Pax Islamia (December 5, 2013)

Gunfire echoes across C. African Republic capital
December 05, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Heavy gunfire is echoing across the capital of Central African Republic amid reported clashes between the mostly Muslim armed fighters who control the country and Christians who support the ousted president.


Suicide Bomber, Gunmen Attack Yemeni Defense Ministry
December 05, 2013

(VOA) In Yemen, a suicide bomber and gunmen have attacked the heavily guarded Defense Ministry compound in the capital, Sana'a, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more.


Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Iraq attacks
Thursday, Dec 5, 2013, 21:00 IST | Place: Baghdad | Agency: IANS

(DNA India) Two other suicide bombers stormed the Jawahir mall and continued the attack until Wednesday midnight, when they blew up their explosive vests when security personnel entered the mall.

Al Qaeda on Thursday claimed responsibility for attacks on police headquarters and a shopping mall in Iraq's Kirkuk city, in which 10 people were killed and 75 injured.


7 killed in car bomb attack on military convoy in Somalia
By Omar Nor, CNN
updated 9:45 AM EST, Thu December 5, 2013

Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) -- A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a military convoy in the northeastern Somali city of Bosaso on Thursday, killing at least seven people and injuring 37 others, regional health minister Abdullahi Warsame said.

Robber Pulls Gun On Iraq Vet… Gets Met With A Gun To The Face

Jon Lewis Alexander is a Veteran who served four tours in Iraq and now lives in Missouri and works at a store where a dude that looks DRUNK came in to rob him… MISTAKE…

Sunni Group Claims Responsibility for the Assassination of the Top Hezbollah Commander

(INN) A Lebanese Sunni Muslim organization assumed responsibility for the assassination of senior Hezbollah leader Hassan Hawlo al-Lakiss in Beirut. The "Free People of Sunnah Brigade" made the claim in its online Twitter account. Hezbollah is the Shiite Muslim terrorist organization that have several elected officials in the Lebanese parliament. The group is also responsible for numerous deadly terrorist actions against both Lebanese and Israeli civilians in addition to engaging in the Second Lebanon War against Israel. Some speculated that Israelis were behind Wednesday's assassination.

It also appears that

During the late 1990s, Lakkis was in charge of a group of operatives who shopped for equipment in Vancouver and shipped it to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Following a joint investigation by CSIS, the RCMP and FBI, several suspected Hezbollah members were arrested in the U.S. and Canada.

Top Hezbollah Commander Assassinated Outside His Home in Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) - Gunmen assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander outside his home Wednesday in southern Beirut, a major breach of the Shiite militant group's security as it struggles to maintain multiple fronts while it fights alongside President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria.

The overnight killing of Hassan al-Laqis, described as a founding member of the group and one of its top commanders, was a huge blow to the Iranian-backed group that dominates power in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's heavy-handed and very open involvement in the civil war next door has enraged the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels seeking to oust Assad, and those sectarian divisions have spilled over into Lebanon and exposed the group and its Shiite supporters to retaliatory attacks.

Hezbollah strongholds have been the target of deadly car bomb attacks and suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut last month, killing 23 people.

The militant group quickly blamed its main enemy Israel for the assassination. Israeli officials denied any involvement.

Al-Laqis' killing came shortly after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah ended a three-hour interview with a local television station, in which he accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the Iranian Embassy bombings. He indirectly blamed an alliance between Iran's rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia for trying to strike at the group.

The group announced his death Hezbollah in a statement, saying al-Laqis was killed as he returned home from work around midnight.

"The brother martyr Hassan al-Laqis spent his youth and all his life in this honorable resistance since its inception up until the last moments of his life," the statement said.

An official close to Hezbollah said al-Laqis held some of the group's most sensitive portfolios and was close to Nasrallah.

A Lebanese security official and the official close to Hezbollah said al-Laqis was shot with a pistol equipped with a silencer at close range after he parked his car in the ground floor garage of his apartment building in the Hadath neighborhood, just southwest of Beirut.

He was struck by five bullets in the head and neck, the Lebanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Al-Laqis was rushed to a nearby hospital but died early Wednesday from his wounds, officials said.

The parking lot was stained with muddied footprints that led to a small olive grove nearby. Yellow police tape blocked off the area and Hezbollah investigators were at the scene.

More...

Detroit Meltdown: Romney Was Right About Detroit’s Bankruptcy

(WT) Another day and another of President Obama’s campaign boasts bites the dust. While out on the hustings last year, Mr. Obama pummeled Mitt Romney for writing a 2008 op-ed column in The New York Times titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

The Republican nominee sensibly argued that bankruptcy would force the city to go through a drastic — and necessary — restructuring of its finances. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, boasted, “We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers … and that bet is paying off.” Until Tuesday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes cleared the way for Detroit to do exactly what the president promised would never happen: file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. It’s as though the president had told Detroit, “If you like your budget and spending plan, you can keep it.”

Politicians tend to think the public treasury can be endlessly tapped without consequence. This has never been more true than in Detroit, which now owes nearly $20 billion to creditors. Insatiable desire to impose yet more taxes chased away business so that the city that once had 296,000 manufacturing jobs counts less than a tenth of that amount today.

Public-sector unions can take much of the blame for driving up municipal expenses to line their own pockets. Detroit, for example, still employs a “horseshoer” for $56,000 in pay and benefits, even though the department paying his salary doesn’t have a horse. As The Detroit Free Press reported, the unions will fight to preserve obsolete jobs and pad paychecks. Unions ensured retirees would receive a “13th month” of checks every year at a cost of $1.9 billion. Even as the city stared at its fate at the edge of the financial cliff, union bosses kept pressing for more. They asked the bankruptcy judge, with a straight face, to reinstate the 13th-month check.

The decline of the city goes well beyond financial mismanagement. What was once one of the world’s greatest cities is a hollow shell of its former glory. Anyone who saw the writing on the wall has long since run as far as possible away from the decaying town. Despite tax revenues in a deep decline, government spending to placate the unions hasn’t slowed.

“It is indeed a momentous day,” Judge Rhodes declared at the end of his ruling. “We have here a judicial finding that this once-proud city cannot pay its debts. At the same time, it has an opportunity for a fresh start. I hope that everybody associated with the city will recognize that opportunity.” That’s exactly what Mr. Romney said in 2008.

Can the United States survive 3 more years of destruction by this arrogant,deceitful,Marxist,Alinsky-loving,manipulative,relativist,tyrant?
— Kris Held,MD (@kksheld) December 4, 2013

Harry Reid leads by example: Obamacare is so bad that he exempted his staff from it

Washington (CNN) -- Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of Obamacare's architects and staunchest supporters, is also the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the law's new exchanges.

Reid is the exception among the other top congressional leaders. GOP House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have all directed their staffs to join the exchange, their aides said.

More...

These aren't staff assistants answering phone calls from constituents or doing case work in the state. They are his top aides. Outrageous.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) December 4, 2013

Keep in mind, there are Hill staffers being shoved into Obamacare, who may lose cancer doctors, needed drugs. But hey, not Reid's problem!
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) December 4, 2013

Girl, 11, told not to sell mistletoe, but begging is fine: "I would rather work than beg"

(KATU) An 11-year-old Oregon girl who wanted to help her father pay for her braces by selling mistletoe over the holidays, found herself embroiled in city bureaucracy. On Saturday, Madison Root went to the downtown market to sell fresh mistletoe she cut and wrapped herself from her uncle’s farm in Oregon.

She told KATU News, “I felt like I could help my dad with the money.”

However, a private security guard hired by Portland Saturday Market blocked her path to a straighter smile by telling her to stop selling the mistletoe, citing city rules that ban conducting business or soliciting at a park without proper approval and documentation.

Specifically, Chapter 10.12 of the Portland city code states that soliciting or conducting business includes the display of ”goods, or descriptions or depictions of goods or services, with the intent to engage any member of the public in a transaction for the sale of any good or service.”

The guard reportedly told Madison she could set up shop outside the boundaries of the park…or she could simply ask for donations. Her father, Ashton, told ABC.com, “The guard told her she can beg if she wanted but she can’t sell the mistletoe.” He went on to say that his daughter “does not want to encourage begging and wants people to earn their living… She is so keen on high work ethic.”

Madison confirmed this, “I don’t want to beg! I would rather work for something than beg. I wouldn’t think I’d have any problems because people are asking for money, people are selling stuff, this is a public place.”

The young entrepreneur also seemed confused that vendors could openly sell pot while her mistletoe business was shut down: “There are people next to me that have big signs that say ‘Got Pot?’ They’re raising money for pot.”

Hamas must be bored: Man found tortured to death in Gaza

Ramallah: Investigations are underway after a man was found tortured to death in the Jabaliyah Refugee Camp north of Gaza. The family of 41-year-old Eyad Al Madhoon accuses Hamas of being involved. The Interior Minister of the Hamas government, Fathi Hamad, is personally leading the investigation.

More...

That's how stuff is done in the Obama administration, too.

Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?

Bob: "Hey Jim, did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?
Jim: "You mean the Mexican gun running?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean SEAL Team 6?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Obama saying the avg family would save $2,500 on their premiums?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Forcing businesses to violate their religious beliefs by paying for drugs that abort the unborn?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Violating the rights and sanctity of our Churches?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Spending $634 million on a website that doesn't work?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Obama calling for an increase in our debt when he lambasted Bush for the very same thing?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Obama having NSA spy on 124 Billion Phone Calls in One Month?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Saddling our kids with $17 trillion in debt of which they can never get out of and will not have as good a life as we have?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Bailing out Detroit after decades of corrupt Democratic management?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean voter fraud?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Intentionally trying to hurt Americans during the sequester?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Blocking veterans who secured our freedoms from their monuments but giving the green light for Illegal’s to use Monument Mall?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Denying school kids the ability to tour the White House but still spending lavishly on his parties?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean Obama saying we can keep our insurance and doctors if we wanted to?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the military not getting their votes counted?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The NSA monitoring foreign diplomats?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the use of drones in our own country without the benefit of the law?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million and right after it declared bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?"
Bob: "No the other one.
Jim: "The IRS targeting conservatives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The DOJ spying on the press?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean Obama spending $3.7 Trillion on Welfare Over Last 5 Years"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving Solyndra $500 Million and 3 months later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything else?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Millions of Americans losing their health care coverage?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Forcing Americans to include coverage in their insurance policies of items they do not want?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons, and falsely blaming the sequester?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Denying Arizona the right to protect its borders?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Providing weapons to Syrian rebels many of whom apparently are Al Qaeda"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate's advise-and-consent role?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The President using nearly $1 trillion dollars of stimulus money to fund his cronies?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean Fast & Furious?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "I give up! ... Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters who don't pay taxes and get free stuff from taxpayers and stuck us again with the most pandering, corrupt administration in American history?"
Bob: "THAT'S THE ONE!"

Nasrallah is blaming the Saudis for the embassy attack

BEIRUT (AP) - The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has accused Saudi Arabia of being behind last month's two suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's comments mark the first time Hezbollah has openly accused the kingdom, and marks a sharp escalation in the Shiite Muslim group's rhetoric.

An al-Qaida linked group has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 19 attack that killed 23 people, saying it was in response to Hezbollah and Iran's involvement in Syria.

Nasrallah said the claim was credible but accused Saudi intelligence of providing backing and support. He also said Saudi intelligence was behind daily terrorist attacks in Iraq.

Nasrallah spoke in an interview Tuesday with Lebanon's private OTV network.

HealthCare.gov: Log On, Get Hacked

(NRO) The Obama administration has avoided informing lawmakers of HealthCare.gov’s security problems and this is just another incidence of the White House’s incompetence we’ve seen since the health-care law’s rollout, according to House Intelligence chair Mike Rogers (R., Mich.).

“They could not even provide someone — CMS and HHS, the two folks responsible for the HealthCare.gov website — in a classified setting to come up and talk about the breaches that they know have happened,” Rogers said on Fox News on Monday. “That’s just unconscionable.”

He warned that there is currently no coordinated effort within the administration to test the website’s newly-written code which was completed over the past two months of repairs, leaving it vulnerable to breaches. “You’re encouraging people to go to a site that our own government knows doesn’t meet safety standards when it comes to security of private information,” Rogers said.

Oh, and if your information gets hacked, the government is under no obligation to even alert you.

French autopsy reveals Arafat died of natural causes, NOT polonium poisoning

I didn't realize AIDS was a natural cause...

(Daily Mail) French experts have ruled out a theory that Yasser Arafat was killed by poisoning, according to a source close to the investigation into the Palestinian leader's 2004 death.

'The report rules out the poisoning theory and goes in the sense of a natural death,' the source told AFP.

The French experts' findings differ significantly from those of Swiss scientists, who said last month that their research offered some support for the suggestion Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning.

Rumours and speculation have surrounded Arafat's death since a quick deterioration of his health saw his passing at a military hospital near Paris in November 2004 at the age of 75.

French doctors were unable to say what killed him and an autopsy was never performed, at the request of his widow.

Both the prosecutors' office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, which is conducting the French probe, and a lawyer for Arafat's widow Suha refused to comment on the investigation's findings Tuesday.

More...

Insurers say ObamaCare site producing flawed forms

(Fox News) So you think you've succeeded in making it through the ObamaCare website maze, and now you have health insurance? You might want to think again.

Despite the Obama administration's claim that HealthCare.gov is "vastly improved," insurance companies are still grappling with error-riddled files fed to them from the flawed website. The lingering glitch could cause major problems weeks down the road, resulting in people thinking they've signed up when insurance companies have no record of them doing so.

More...

Report: Hezbollah being targeted by mysterious website

Spies gossiping about who is behind the website, which aims to uncover information about Hezbollah leaders. Could the source be Israel?

BEIRUT—A mysterious website offering financial rewards for information about alleged members of Hezbollah’s international operations wing has become a major topic of conversation in intelligence circles around the Middle East, with operatives wondering who is behind the effort.

The site, which appeared without fanfare, claims to be the work of an alliance of Western intelligence agencies. But two Western security officials familiar with the project said it is likely an Israeli operation to gather data on one of the world’s most secretive organizations.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim movement, has long been the focus of Israeli and Western intelligence agencies. It has been accused in a long string of terrorist incidents.

The site, which can be found at www.stop910.com, says its mission is to bring attention to Hezbollah’s so-called “Unit 910.” The site accuses it of being Hezbollah’s international operations unit tasked with conducting intelligence gathering and performing operations around the world.

The site contains photographs of dozens of alleged operatives along with requests for readers to submit any information on the men, who range from suspects known to authorities to dozens of apparently unidentified Hezbollah members. In many cases, the site shows a picture and no further information and offers rewards for phone numbers, real names and even home addresses of the men.

Although it purports to be a multi-country effort at battling the Lebanese Shiite group, two Western intelligence officials familiar with both the site and Hezbollah’s international operations said the site is maintained by Israeli intelligence services.

More...

Palestinians violently attacked in Jerusalem by other Palestinians after being misidentified as Jews

Rashuan Salman, wife (Photo: Courtesy of family)

(Ynet) A Muslim family from east Jerusalem was attacked two weeks ago by three Arab youths near the road of Sur Baher. Only after the group learnt that the family was in fact Palestinian did they leave them alone.

Rashuan Salman, his wife and their baby daughter were making their way from Umm-Tuba to Jerusalem, using the same road used by the family of two-year-old Avigail Ben Zion who was moderately after being hit in the head by a rock, when they were attacked.

"They tried to pull us out of the car and hit us, it seemed they were intent on lynching us. They tried opening the doors and my wife begged them to leave us alone. She spoke to them in Arabic and only then did they understand that we ourselves are Arabs, and left us alone. I hit the gas and drove away as fast as possible."

According to him, the youth clearly mistook them for Jews: "Me and my wife look Jewish, even the police officer who arrived said 'at first sight I was sure you were Jews.' He told us that these types of things happen all the time."

Unlike the aforementioned case of Avigail Ben Zion, which prompted quick and harsh response from security forces, Salman said the police told him it would take a number of days until something would be done.

"Maybe, if they would do something, than the little girls injury could have been prevented. If they would have acted – maybe there would be some deterrence and things would have gone differently," he says.

According to him, the police has all the tools necessary to stop at least one of the three. "My wife used to live in Umm-Tuba, she studied and lived in the area all her life. She identified one of the three, and gave the police his name and they even showed us his image in the computer. But as far as we know nothing has yet happened."

In response, Jerusalem District Police said that "a complaint was lodged and immediate afterwards an investigation was opened in a bid to find and capture an escaped suspect. We believe that we he will be arrested soon."

Caught on Video: Arab Rock Ambush

Jewish victim's car cam catches young Muslim in the act of hurling a large rock at his car as he drives by him.

(INN) A Jewish resident of Mahane Yatir, in southern Mount Hevron, was ambushed by a rock-wielding Arab youth Friday as he drove toward the community of Carmel, not far from the Zif Junction.

The event was caught on video by the man's car cam. This may be the first time such an attack is caught on video in real time, although rock attacks are common in Judea and Samaria, and have become regular occurences in Jerusalem as well. A large rock thrown into a car hurtling down a road can easily kill or maim the driver and passengers, or cause the driver to lose control of the car.

A two-year-old baby suffered serious head injuries Thursday at southern Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in a similar attack. Her condition has improved markedly in the days since the attack.

Three-year-old Adelle Biton suffered serious head injuries as the result of a rock ambush in Samaria in March. Baby Yonatan Palmer and his father, Asher, were killed in such an attack in 2011.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed to catch the “criminals” who targeted the baby, Avigail Ben-Tzion, and security forces recently rounded up 21 suspects in “road terror.”

However, the rock ambushes reflect a growing brazenness on the part of the Arab enemy, which is constantly being incited to violence by the Palestinian Authority, and since the attacks cost nothing, require no planning, and are usually carried out by minors, it is hard to see how the arrests will put an end to the phenomenon.

A recent video explained how rock ambushes are used to deadly effect by Muslims against Jews in the Land of Israel.

Rouhani: Iran to start building 2nd nuclear plant in Bushehr

(JPost) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said construction will soon start construction on a second nuclear power plant in the country's southwest Bushehr province, Iranian Tasnim news agency reported.

“The first nuclear power plant is in operation in Bushehr province, and the construction of the second one will soon kick off ; development of new atomic power plants in the country will start in earnest and there will be nuclear reactors in most parts of Bushehr province,” Tasnim quoted him as saying.

In reference to the recently-signed deal in Geneva with world powers on the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program, Rouhani said the airs in the international arena were less tense.

However, the Iranian president stressed that "our enemies and rivals will not give up their hostility and rivalry."

Under the Nov. 24 interim accord, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

More...

Al-Qaeda offshoot claims Judea and Samaria (West Bank) foothold after Israeli forces kill 3 of its members

Al-Qaeda now freely operates in the Arab-occupied Judea and Samaria.

(The Telegraph) A radical jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda has said it is operating in the West Bank, supporting Israel's assertions that three militants shot dead in the Palestinian territory in recent days were hardline Salafists intent on carrying out "terror attacks".

"By the will of God Almighty, the global jihadi doctrine has reached the bank of pride, the West Bank, planting its foothold after all attempts to thwart its presence," said a statement by a group called Majles Shura al-Mujahideen [Holy Warriors' Assembly] posted on an Islamist website.

Condemning the on-going peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, the group added: "We call on every sincere person to cut off what is called 'negotiations', which causes one's nose to turn away with its foul stench of collaboration. We are serious about fighting the aggression against religion by the blaspheming Jews and the hypocritical collaborators."

The statement came after the Israeli military said three Palestinians it shot dead near Hebron on November 26 were members of a Salafist cell planning attacks and kidnappings.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Israeli army, called the cell's discovery the "first substantial indication" of violent activity by jihadi Salafis in the West Bank.

Two of the men were shot dead when they opened fire at Israeli troops who tried to arrest them after shooting out the tyres of their car, the army said. Handguns and explosives were reportedly found in the vehicle. The third man initially escaped but was later killed in a hide-out several miles away.

Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service, said the men belonged to a cell that was preparing explosive charges and kidnapping attempts of Israeli and figures connected with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited control over the West Bank.

Thousands of mourners attended the three men's funerals, which were followed by clashes between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli forces firing tear gas.

More...

Syrian helicopters drop 'barrel bombs' on rebel town, killing 50

Damascus (AFP) — A two-day wave of regime air strikes on a north Syrian town has killed 50 people, a monitor said Sunday, while in Damascus a mortar round struck the French school without causing injuries.

On the political front, Syria's deputy foreign minister insisted that no solution to Syria's conflict proposed at a January 22 peace conference in Geneva would be implemented without President Bashar al-Assad's approval.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that helicopters on Sunday dropped explosive-laden barrels on the rebel-held town of Al-Bab in northern Syria's Aleppo province, killing at least 24 people, including two women and four children.

Their deaths in a market area of Al-Bab came a day after similar aerial bombardments on the same town that killed at least 26 others. [...]

Syria's war has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes.

(Reuters) The Observatory said 212 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, bringing the death toll since Thursday to over 600.

Obama's new Iranian friends: Quran has marked Israelis as ‘rabid dogs and pigs’

(TheDC) In the wake of news that Israel will send a delegation to Washington, D.C. to influence the Obama administration’s international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the Islamic Republic is stepping up its attacks on the Jewish state.

“This vicious temperament of dogs and pigs is you (Israel),” said Ayatollah Mohammad Imami Kashani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body that appoints the supreme leader, at Tehran’s interim Friday prayer. “The Quran has marked on your foreheads that you will be humiliated. The Zionist officials are like animals, and truly as rogue thugs they do whatever they want, killing people, creating bloodshed and destroying whatever they want.”

Kashani said at this week’s Friday prayers sermon in Tehran that whenever Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears on television, “all of the world hates you. You are hated, humiliated and despicable and,” the ayatollah added in a putrid insult to make to a Jew, “have been immersed in the flesh of rabid dogs and pigs.”

Kashani also had harsh words for the Obama administration: “Nations of the world are the enemies of the Zionists and (America’s support of Israel) will have you share the misery of the Zionists.”

“What is visible is that Obama has agreed to include the fake Zionist regime [Israel] in future negotiations,” said Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts. “However, we firmly believe [Israel] must be wiped off the face of the earth and we don’t recognize [its existence].”

More...

Leftist professor wants to do away with presidential term limits because... Obama

(Yahoo News) The time has come to end presidential term limits, because continuing the restrictions on how long one can serve in the country's highest office is bad for the United States, a university professor argued this week.

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Jonathan Zimmerman, a history and education professor at New York University, says deciding whether a president deserves a third, fourth or more terms should be left to the American people, not the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which placed a two-term limit on the position. [...]

With President Obama's job-approval numbers down sharply, Zimmerman indicates that the nation's chief executive is perhaps being hampered by the fact that he's in his final term, giving GOP opponents and even Democrats little incentive to support him on issues that might hurt their own re-election chances.

More...

Iraq: Jihadists behead 7, stuff their heads with explosives

Allah made them do it.

Tikrit (NINA) – Police in Salaheddin province found 7 beheaded bodies in Tikrit.

Police source told NINA that the bodies found in various parts of Qadisiya neighborhood, northern Tikrit; they are bearing bullet shots.

He added that earlier in the day, the bodies' heads were found, and been identified; they belonged to workers of an Italian firm the the Tirkit Stadium; 5 of them are residents of Tikrit while the remaining 2 are from Baghdad.
Earlier in the day, police found 5 heads filled with explosives in Qadisiya neighborhood in Tikrit, the explosive been deactivated and taken to the city morgue.

Market bombings, attacks across Iraq kill 29

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three car bombs exploded at outdoor markets and on a street full of shops near Iraq's capital, the deadliest of a series of attacks across the country that killed at least 29 people Thursday, officials said.

The deadliest attack took place Thursday afternoon in the city of Hillah when three separate car bombing struck two outdoor markets and a line of shops, killing nine people and wounding 21, police said. Authorities said that all the blasts happened in a five-minute period.

Hillah is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

That night, police said a car bombing killed seven people and wounded 12 in the southern city of Najaf, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

In the town of Suwayrah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, a car bomb ripped through a commercial area, killing five civilians and wounding 14, a police officer said.

A suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in the town of Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital, killing three officers, authorities said. The blast wounded four officers and five civilians.

A roadside bomb struck a patrol of a pro-government, anti-al-Qaida Sunni militia, killing three and wounding seven in Tarmiyah, a Sunni town and former insurgent stronghold about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Militants consider members of the group, known as the Awakening Council, as traitors since they were formed by U.S. forces during the height of Iraq's insurgency.

A bomb also went off in Baghdad's Palestine Street, killing two civilians and wounding eight, police said.

More...

A Message from Below: Iran Earthquake Kills Seven, 60 km from Bushehr Nuclear Plant

(INN) A 5.7 magnitude earthquake on the Gulf coast near Iran's sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr has killed seven people and injured 30, according to a preliminary tally given by emergency response chief Hassan Qadami.

Al Jazeera reported that the quake's epicenter was near Borazjan, about 60 kilometres northeast from Bushehr, where Iran has its Russian-built reactor.

"So far, there are seven dead and 30 injured receiving hospital treatment," the official IRNA news agency quoted Qadami as saying on Thursday.

Iran stands on several seismic fault lines. A massive quake in December 2003 struck the southern city of Bam, killing 26,000 people and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.

More...

London mayor Boris Johnson: Some people are too stupid to get ahead

(National Post) Economic equality will never be possible because some people are too stupid to get ahead in the modern world, said Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, in a speech that is igniting a wave of criticism.

Nick Clegg, Britain’s deputy prime minister, accused Mr. Johnson of “unpleasant elitism.”

In the speech honouring the work of former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Mr. Johnson said natural differences between humans will always mean some will succeed and others fail.

More...

That is some inconvenient truth there.

Key Democratic senator says White House 'fear-mongering' on Iran

(Fox News) The Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the Obama administration Wednesday of using "fear-mongering" rhetoric in urging Congress to delay new sanctions against Iran as world powers try to secure nuclear concessions from Tehran.

Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said he would continue to push for fresh sanctions in the wake of a nuclear deal brokered in Geneva, in which Iran agrees to a six-month pause in its nuclear program in exchange for eased sanctions worth $7 billion.

Menendez, speaking on the National Public Radio program "All Things Considered," cited White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's remarks at a recent press briefing about Americans not wanting a "march to war" with Iran as over-the-top rhetoric.

"What I don't appreciate is when I hear remarks out of the White House spokesman that ... if we're pursuing sanctions we're marching the country off to war. I think that's way over the top, I think that's fear-mongering," Menendez said, according to Reuters.

Many in Congress are skeptical, if not outright hostile, to the deal reached in Geneva. Menendez and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., are working on on legislation to reinstate the full force of sanctions and impose new ones if Iran doesn't make good on its pledge to roll back its nuclear program.

"We have to worry about the hardliners in Iran," Menendez said Wednesday. "And it seems that the Iranians get to play good cop-bad cop, (Iranian President Hassan) Rouhani as the good cop, the hardliners as the bad cop."

Menendez and Kirk hope to have their bill ready for other lawmakers to consider when the Senate returns Dec. 9 from its two-week recess, according to legislative aides.

More...

Petulant manchild asks Netanyahu to please stop criticizing him on Iran deal

(WJD) Apparently unable to either take the heat or get out of the kitchen, U.S. President Barack Obama has personally asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop criticizing him on his deal with Iran.

YNet and the Washington Post reported on Thursday that Obama complained about Netanyahu's 'clamorous criticism' of the deal, which allows Iran to retain its nuclear infrastructure and continue enriching uranium. Netanyahu opposes any deal that does not completely end Iran's nuclear program.

Obama apparently continued the administration's official line - already rejected by Iran itself - that the deal is much better than initially reported, and asked Netanyahu to send a diplomatic team to Washington in order to clarify the issue.

Netanyahu's reaction to Obama's request has not been reported, but it is widely expected that the prime minister will send at least one personal envoy to the White House.

Egypt: Heavy prison sentence for Islamist women

CAIRO (AP) — Nearly two dozen Islamist women and girls, some as young as 15, were handed heavy prison sentences Wednesday for protesting in a court ruling that came a day after police beat and terrorized prominent female activists in a crackdown on secular demonstrators under a tough new anti-protest law.

The harshness of the sentences and the scenes a day earlier were new signs that the military-backed government is becoming bolder in silencing dissent, turning to abuses reminiscent of the Hosni Mubarak era. Authorities have been justifying tougher measures as needed to fight terrorism and bring stability — while they also appear to be exploiting divisions among secular democracy activists.

The crackdown is rearranging Egypt's political map after months when authorities were focused on crippling the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist backers of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

This week, security forces have moved against secular youth activists opposed to the military and police. Some government supporters warn that its actions are widening the base of the opposition and could bring together Morsi supporters and the secular activists, though they bitterly oppose the Islamists and Morsi as equally authoritarian. The crisis is fragmenting the loose coalition of liberal and secular groups that supported the military in its July 3 removal of Morsi.

In a Mediterranean city of Alexandria courtroom, the 21 young female defendants flashed defiant smiles to the media, standing handcuffed in white head scarves and white prison uniforms in the defendants cage. They were convicted on charges related to holding an Oct. 31 protest in the city demanding Morsi's reinstatement.

Among them were seven teenagers aged 15 and 16, who were sentenced to prison terms until they turn 18. The rest — most aged 18 to 22 — were sentenced to 11 years in prison. Six other Brotherhood members were sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting the demonstrations.

"We thought they will get a month or something but we were shocked with the 11 years," defense lawyer al-Shimaa Ibrahim Saad said.

More...

France reaffirms limits on Muslim headscarves, veils

PARIS (Reuters) - A French appeals court, ruling in a hotly debated religious rights case, on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a Muslim daycare worker for wearing a headscarf at a crèche that demanded strict neutrality from its employees.

The Paris court's decision was announced at the same time as French lawyers defended the country's ban on full-face veils in public before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The two cases have divided French public opinion for years, with the bans enjoying wide support in public opinion but being denounced by many Muslims as discriminatory.

More...

As opposed to Islam being tolerant and all inclusive?

Next on the list of Obama's new fiends — Hezbollah

(JPost) The US and Hezbollah are in secret indirect talks managed by London dealing with the fight against Al-Qaida, regional stability and other Lebanese political issues.

Senior British diplomatic sources, quoted in a report in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai on Wednesday, said British diplomats are holding discussions with leaders of the Lebanese organization and transferring the information to the Americans.

The discussions “are aimed at keeping tabs on the changes in the region and the world, and prepare for the upcoming return of Iran to the international community,” according to diplomatic sources in Washington.

Because the US, unlike the UK, recognizes both the political and military wings of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and refuses to distinguish between them, US officials cannot legally meet with any member of the party. But according to the sources, the US is willing to hear the views of the party and “warm up to a direct relationship in the future.”

More...

"Horrendous" violence by Muslims edges toward genocide in Central African Republic

(Yahoo News) Central African Republic is a resource-rich but impoverished country, located where its name implies. To the northwest lies Chad, to the northeast Sudan. Rebel groups from these countries crossed the borders of CAR and formed an alliance called Seleka and ousted the president. However, Seleka’s rebel-turned-president, Michel Djotodia, has lost control of the country. The primarily Muslim Seleka attacked the CAR’s Christian majority, which in turn sought revenge. France and other countries are seeking to prevent more insurgents from crossing over into CAR from Cameroon.

[...]

France's U.N. ambassador called the situation in Central African Republic "horrendous." Other human rights observers, diplomats and government officials use similar terms to describe the African country, where armed Seleka rebels from neighboring countries have engineered a near-civil war between the country's dominant Christian population and minority Muslims. "The state has collapsed, and this country is now simply plundered, looted, the women are raped, people are killed by thugs," French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said earlier this month. U.S. State Department officials have used similar language. France and Rwanda, which has had its own history of genocide, are trying to organize intervention, but the situation is considered so volatile no one is sure how to make a definitive move. More than 400,000 people have been displaced, and reports of child murders and grotesque violence are prompting fears that genocide may be inevitable. Yahoo News examines the resource-wealthy but broken country and the complicated political situation that has led to deadly chaos.

More...

Rights watchdog: Syrian refugee women sexually exploited in Lebanon

BEIRUT (AFP) — Women who have fled Syria's civil war for Lebanon face sexual harassment by employers, landlords and even faith-based aid workers, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

"Human Rights Watch interviewed a dozen women who described being groped, harassed, and pressured to have sex," the New York-based group said in a statement.

While some of the women described repeated assaults, they said they did not report the incidents to the authorities "due to lack of confidence that (they) would take action and fear of reprisals by the abusers or arrest for not having a valid residency permit."

Syria's nearly three-year civil war has generated the worst refugee crisis in two decades, with more than two million people having fled the country and millions more internally displaced.

Lebanon, with a population of just over four million, is hosting more than 800,000 Syrian refugees, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

According to the United Nations, 75 percent of refugees fleeing Syria are women and children, and face heightened vulnerability in neighbouring countries where services are scant and overstretched.

HRW tells the story of Hala, a 53-year-old from Damascus, whose husband is detained by the Syrian government and who cleans homes in a Beirut suburb to support herself and her four children.

"She told Human Rights Watch that she suffered sexual harassment or attempted exploitation in nine of the 10 households in which she had worked," said the group.

"Male employers tried to touch her breasts, coerce her into sex, or procure her 16-year-old daughter's hand in marriage," it said.

Zahra, a 25-year-old from Homs, said her employer in northern Lebanon "grabbed her from behind, touched her breasts and pressured her to have sex. She left the job but said she was sexually harassed by two other shopkeepers for whom she worked."

She stopped working after the repeated assaults, though her family had relied on her income to pay the rent, the group said.

The human rights monitor urged the Lebanese government and the United Nations to "improve mechanisms for submitting sexual abuse complaints and ensure that refugees are not punished for filing complaints."

Ben Stein: Obama Should Be "Charged With Criminal Fraud" for the Repeated Lies

Iran, North Korea Secretly Developing New Long-Range Rocket Booster for ICBMs

(WFB) Iranian missile technicians secretly visited North Korea as part of joint development of a new rocket booster for long-range missiles or space launchers at the same time nuclear talks took place in Geneva, according to U.S. officials.

Several groups of technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), a unit in charge of building Iran’s liquid-fueled missiles, traveled to Pyongyang during the past several months, including as recently as late October, to work on the new, 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Koreans, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.

The booster is believed by U.S. intelligence agencies to be intended for a new long-range missile or space launch vehicle that could be used to carry nuclear warheads, and could be exported to Iran in the future.

Recent U.S. intelligence assessments have said that both North Korea and Iran are expected to have missiles capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear warhead in the next two years.

The Iranian cooperation reveals that the nuclear framework agreement concluded Sunday in Geneva has not slowed Tehran’s drive for missiles that can deliver a nuclear warhead to intercontinental range.

One official described the new booster as a thruster for a “super ICBM” or a heavy-lift space launcher.

“It is completely new from what they have done so far,” the official said.

The official said the missile cooperation was disseminated in multiple intelligence reports over the past several months. The official suggested the reports were suppressed within the government by the Obama administration to avoid upsetting the talks in Geneva.

More...

Suddenly, the Obamabomb: US allies learn Iran can keep its weapons program

(WT) The president who promised us that his health care legislation would allow us to keep our insurance plans and doctors now insists that his agreement with Iran will not allow it to keep a nuclear-weapons program. What the two pledges have in common is that they are both lies. No matter how many times such statements are repeated and seconded by President Obama’s partisans and the press, they amount to fraud — serial, intentional and potentially fatal fraud.

Here’s the difference: Thousands of Americans may die as a result of Team Obama’s domestic policy misrepresentations concerning Obamacare, which former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy has correctly described as “criminal fraud.” However, many times that number are at risk as a result of the Obamabomb deal with Iran that amounts to national security fraud.

For starters, there is no reason to disbelieve the Iranian mullahs when they whip crowds into a frenzy with the phrase “Death to America.” To the contrary, there is plenty of evidence that they are intent on achieving their stated goal of “a world without America.”

Among the most alarming such evidence can be found in the series of steps the Iranian regime has taken to operationalize its capability to deliver without warning a devastating, strategic electromagnetic-pulse attack upon this country. Tests involving the launching of missiles off barges in the Caspian Sea confer an ability to fire them from vessels off America’s coasts. Other experiments included the simulated delivery of a warhead to the missile’s apogee — precisely the scenario a congressional commission warned could be used to unleash an electromagnetic pulse from high above the United States, inflicting catastrophic damage on the highly vulnerable electric grid and society below.

We are told that all that is missing is a nuclear warhead to place atop such missiles. Far from pushing that ominous day into the future, let alone foreclosing it altogether, Mr. Obama’s deal with Iran can only make its arrival more certain, and probably more near-term.

More...

Egyptian army kills jihadi leader in Sinai

(JPost) The Egyptian army killed a jihadist leader and his son in Sinai on Tuesday.

The killing of Mohamed Hussein Muhareb, also known as Abu Mounir, took place in his Nissan truck during an exchange of fire, according to a statement on Facebook by military spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali.

Mounir was a prominent member of the jihadists and is believed to have been behind the killing of Egyptian security personnel.

The army killed three other jihadists and arrested four, Ali said.

Mounir came from Sinai’s Beduin Sawarka tribe and was a preacher favored by jihadists, according to a local resident quoted by Mada Masr, an Egyptian news website.

“Since the ouster of [president] Mohamed Morsi in early July, there have been more than 250 reported attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, most of which were carried out against Egyptian security forces and assets,” said David Barnett, a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a contributor to the Long War Journal website, told The Jerusalem Post.

More...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims victory for nuclear program

He should claim victory. Iran played the West for idiots and was proved correct. UN Resolutions were issued demanding Iran cease its enrichment program, and Obama went more lenient than the UN and legitimized their enrichment.

(TheDC) Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed victory over the United States Sunday shortly after a historic nuclear agreement was reached in Geneva between the Islamic Republic and the 5+1 world powers.

Fars News Agency, the media outlet of the Revolutionary Guards, reported that Khamenei in a statement thanked President Hassan Rouhani and his negotiating team for their achievement in Geneva.

“I thank God that… the new government… was able to legitimize the Iranian nation’s nuclear program on the international stage and take the initial step in a way that the nuclear rights and the enrichment rights of the Iranian nation are acknowledged by world powers where before they had tried to deny them, and (the agreement will) open the way for future big strides in technical and economic progress,” Khamenei said.

Rouhani, speaking at an event for families of “martyred” Iranian nuclear scientists, said Iran will continue its nuclear progress. “No matter whether the world wants it or not, this path (to nuclear capability) will, God willing, continue to the peak,” he said.

More...

Iranian deal: Saudi Arabia joins the 'we were lied to' club, warns it will strike out on its own

(The Telegraph) A senior advisor to the Saudi royal family has accused its Western allies of deceiving the oil rich kingdom in striking the nuclear accord with Iran and said Riyadh would follow an independent foreign policy.

Nawaf Obaid told a think tank meeting in London that Saudi Arabia was determined to pursue its own foreign and policy goals. Having in the past been reactive to events, the leading Sunni Muslim nation was determined to be pro-active in future.

Mr Obaid said that while Saudi Arabia knew that the US was talking directly to Iran through a channel in the Gulf state of Oman, Washington had not directly briefed its ally.

"We were lied to, things were hidden from us," he said. "The problem is not with the deal struck in Geneva but how it was done."

More...