Saturday, March 31, 2012

Pic of the day

US President Barack Obama smiles during a campaign event at the Southern Maine Community College in Portland, Maine, on March 30, 2012. Obama is on a day trip to Vermont and Maine to attend campaign events. (Getty Images)

At request of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), FBI removes 876 pages of agent training material related to Muslims for being offensive or inaccurate

WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI review of agent training material critical of Islam uncovered 876 offensive or inaccurate pages that had been used in 392 presentations, including a PowerPoint slide that said the bureau can sometimes bend or suspend the law.

The bureau has not released the material, but Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois described a few pages of it in a letter asking FBI Director Robert Mueller to institute five changes so that inappropriate FBI training on Islam doesn’t happen again. On Friday, the FBI confirmed the number of inaccurate or offensive pages and presentations.

The bureau also said the documents that are either offensive or inaccurate have been taken out of training presentations.

Every trainer was identified and interviewed by an FBI inspection team and the team determined that the problems were performance-related — poor judgment or inadequate training — rather than intentional misconduct, said FBI spokesman Michael Kortan.

As a result, instructors were counseled and in some cases removed from training positions.

Durbin said he’s disturbed that the FBI doesn’t plan to produce a written report on the six-month review. He said he wants the agents who received the bad training to be retained. [...]

In his letter Tuesday to Mueller, Durbin said another PowerPoint slide used by instructors and entitled “Control and Temper” stated that the “Western Mind” is “even keel” while in the Arab world, outbursts and loss of control are expected, adding, “What’s wrong with frequent Jekyll and Hyde temper tantrums?”

Durbin’s letter said he wants the FBI to turn over the offending training material to the Senate Judiciary Committee and wants unclassified versions of the material to be released to the public; wants instructors responsible for the inappropriate training reassigned; and wants to retrain agents who received the bad training. Durbin also wants the bureau to undertake a review of FBI intelligence analyses of Islam, American-Muslims and Arab-Americans; and wants a detailed training curriculum on Islam that has been approved by experts on Islam.

Earlier this month, the FBI posted on its website a set of training principles which said that training must emphasize that religious expression, protest activity and the espousing of ideological beliefs “are constitutionally protected activities that must not be equated with terrorism or criminality” in the absence of other information about such offenses.

Fatah claims PFLP planning to assassinate Abbas

Ah, yes... The world famous "Palestinian unity".
(JPost) The leader of a Syrian-based radical Palestinian PFLP group is planning to assassinate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah claimed on Saturday.

The claim followed statements made by Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, in which he strongly denounced Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, for signing the Oslo Accords with Israel.

"Ahmed Jibril is a hired agent," Fatah said in a statement released in Ramallah. "He is operating on instructions from his handlers in the region who seek to eliminate President Abbas."

The statement did not name the "handlers." However, a Fatah official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the statement referred to Syria and Iran.

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Mexico: Woman and 2 boys killed as human sacrifices for Santa Muerte

Mexico City (CNN) -- Authorities in the northern Mexican state of Sonora have arrested eight people accused of killing two boys and one woman as human sacrifices for Santa Muerte -- the saint of death -- officials said Friday.

The victims, two of whom were age 10, were killed and their blood was offered at an altar to the saint, according to Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for state prosecutors. The accused were asking the saint, who is generally portrayed as a skeleton dressed in a long robe and carrying a scythe, for protection, he said.

Santa Muerte is a favorite among criminals and the country's drug traffickers. The saint, though not recognized by the Catholic Church, has taken off in popularity in recent years.

Details of the case were laid out in a statement from the Sonora State Investigative Police (PEI), which described the cult as a "Satanic sect."

The first of the three victims was allegedly killed in 2009; the last this month. Their bodies were found in the small mining community of Nacozari de Garcia, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Hermosillo, the state capital.

Many of the accused belong to the same family and one is just 15 years old, the PEI said. Authorities said they began looking into the case when one of the victim's families reported him missing.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before in the state of Sonora. And it's not something we're going to allow," said Guillermo Padres Elias, state governor.

Muslim convert who targeted Australian nuclear plant held in France

(ANN) A man convicted five years ago of planning an attack on an Australian nuclear plant is said to be one of the suspected militants held for questioning after a series of raids across France.

A police source in Paris told Reuters news agency that Willy Brigitte, a French Muslim convert, was arrested on Friday at his home in a suburb of the French capital.

Authorities found no weapons, but seized his computer and a mobile phone.

Brigitte was deported from Australia to France in 2003 after he breached his tourist visa.

In 2007, a French court convicted him of plotting an attack against the Lucas Heights nuclear research facility in Sydney's south-west and sentenced him to nine years in jail, with six years non-parole.

It's not yet clear why he was free when arrested on Friday.

Silence in face of hate: Swedish blogger says European society becoming blind to Jew hate, must wake up

A view from Europe.
(Ynet) It gets dark very early here in Stockholm in the winter. Some young men are crossing the square where some Jews are dancing, speaking in Arabic amongst themselves, perhaps with a Libyan accent. They already know what they plan to do.

I can hear them mentioning Israel. They are looking for trouble. Suddenly one of them approaches a stand with a couple of Israeli flags on it. One grabs a flag forcefully and the other Arab men are following him, running. People pretend like nothing really happened - but it did happen.

The Arabs are trying to put fire to the Israeli flag, their prey. They are suddenly approached by a Swedish guy who asks them what they are doing. They answer that Israel killed a brother and ask the Swede if he has a problem with their actions. He says: "No, I am neutral."

With a burning Israeli flag they rush down the stairs to the square, screaming "Fuck Israel!” This can be seen in a recent clip on YouTube from Stockholm, Sweden, my country. I am disgusted. I found the clip by chance a few days after the horrible, racist murder of Jewish children and a father outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.
To me, there is no doubt that burning an Israeli flag under any circumstances, killing Jews and Israeli citizens are all signs of racism and of a society in decline.

But I hope Sweden and Europe will wake up soon. I hope, but I'm skeptical.

All over Europe, anti-Semitism is on the rise. In Eastern Europe we have the right-wing extremists representing the face of Jew hate, but in the West it is a different, new racism we cannot talk about openly. At least not in Sweden. If you do, you lose your face or your friends.

'Jews deserve it'
It already happened when a Swedish politician tried to characterize the threat to Jews in the city of Malmo. Speaking on television, he nervously uttered the words ”extremist Muslims” to define the perpetrators. And so, one who defends Jews and Israel has been labeled as a racist and hater, when in fact it is completely the other way around.

I faced cold hate myself when I brought up the situation in Malmo during a discussion with a former Arab friend and human rights activist. Jews ”deserve it,” he proclaimed. I was shocked but not surprised, and with those words our friendship ended forever.

I don’t claim all immigrants from the Middle East are racists, far from it, but too many bring their irrational hate towards Jews and Israel into our democracy. This hate is also imported by religious and political satellite TV channels from the Arab world. Aid to Mideastern countries allowing this to be produced must end.

Moreover, disinformation from aid associations and Swedish "human rights groups" like Palestinagrupperna feed hate towards Israel and Jews here. Swedish aid organization SIDA has to stop giving pro-Palestinian groups like Palestinagrupperna financial support for projects as long as they keep spreading disinformation about Israel.

I believe anti-Israeli propaganda is at the root that gave rise to the murderer in Toulouse. It makes our politicians change their behavior towards Jews. Step by step it makes the society blinder to hate when we see an Israeli flag burned in the streets, when we hear the words "death to the Jews" or "Jews are infidels" in Arabic, and when racist war chants are chanted in our squares while politicians are present and silent.

The Swedish media is now depicting Toulouse Killer Mohamed Merah as "a very special person" who is a victim of the burqa ban and an Islamophobic society. This is madness! We need to face the truth about the perpetrators in order to prevent the horrible crimes in Toulouse from happening again, rather than seeking excuses for the crimes!

We Swedes, and Europeans in general, need to wake up and stand up to the anti-Jewish violence and the irrational hate, and we need brave politicians, journalists and editors who really understand the Middle East - because by now, the Mideast is burning in Europe.

Arab Spring: Libya gets ready for ‘ethnic cleansing’ of indigenous black tribe by Arab tribesmen

A group of Chadian passport holders stand against the wall following their arrest on March 29, 2012 at a detention centre in the southern desert town of Sabha, where three days of clashes between Toubou and Arab tribes have killed more than 70 people, according to the Libyan government. The Toubou are black oasis farmers by tradition who also have connections beyond Libya's borders as they live in southern Libya, northern Chad and in Niger, but they have previously denied having separatist ambitions. (Getty Images)
"So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."
~George Orwell
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Six days of tribal clashes in a remote desert town in southern Libya have killed 147 people, the country's health minister said Saturday.

Fatma al-Hamroush said in a press conference in Tripoli that the fighting in Sabha has also left 395 wounded. Around 180 people have been transported to the capital Tripoli for emergency treatment, she said. [...]
TRIPOLI (Middle East Online) - The head of Libya's Toubou tribe on Friday called for international intervention to halt what he called the "ethnic cleansing" of his people after deadly clashes in the southern oasis of Sabha.

"We demand that the United Nations and European Union intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Toubou," said Issa Abdel Majid Mansur, a former opposition activist against the ousted regime of slain leader Moamer Gathafi.

He accused Arab tribes in Sabha of bombarding a power station providing electricity to several parts of southern Libya including Qatrun and Morzuk, both areas with a strong Toubou presence.

Telecommunications were also cut off, Mansur said, and added that "several" members of his tribe were killed on Friday.

Mohammed al-Sawal, the national security chief in Sabha, confirmed to television channel Libya Al-Ahrar that the power station had been hit. [...]

The Toubou say they are defending themselves against attack by Arab tribesmen in the region, and have accused the Libyan authorities of backing those gunmen as part of a campaign of "ethnic cleansing."

The Toubou are black oasis farmers by tradition who also have connections beyond Libya's borders. They live in southern Libya, northern Chad and in Niger, and have previously denied having separatist ambitions.

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A view from Israel: The end game

(JPost) Palestinian Land Day has little to do with Palestinian land.

To Palestinians everywhere and their supporters, Palestinian Land Day is marked on March 30 in commemoration of the same date in 1976 when Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinians protesting against what they considered to be Israel’s theft of Palestinian land in the Galilee.

A Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) global day of action is also taking place around the world today as anti-Israel activists seek to delegitimize the state.

Another event, the Global March to Al-Quds, is taking place today as activists in other countries “approach” Jerusalem.

On Monday, Said Yakin, one of the organizers of the march, ridiculously told The Jerusalem Post, “We believe that the international community has failed as it has not managed to force Israel to stop the Judaization of Jerusalem, the settlements and the separation fence.”

It is unfortunate that the path the Palestinians have taken to advance their cause is by attacking Israel. They should have adopted a positive approach, such as demonstrating how their future state could contribute to the global community.

PRO-PALESTINIAN supporters have clearly been duped into thinking they are fighting to free Palestinians from the chains of Israeli oppression. They naively believe a Palestinian state would act as a moral beacon for the rights of women and gays and for basic freedoms.

It appears to have never occurred to the thousands of activists marching on Israel’s borders that a Palestinian state would represent an absolute threat to those who today enjoy basic freedoms and quality of life thanks to Israel.

Arabs in Israel have more freedom than Arabs have in Arab countries.

And for those who believe that Palestinians never had a chance to determine their own fate, a mere glance at historical records would reveal numerous instances of Arab refusal to establish a Palestinian state.

Palestinians and their supporters continue to reject the Jewish historic link to the land, believing that the West Bank has always been strictly Palestinian.

In reality, much of the land had been the property of the Turkish government until it was passed on to the British Mandate government.

The Palestinian rejection of numerous overtures to establish a state on even part of the land they claim as theirs weakens their argument.

A nation so desperate to have a state of its own would surely accept whatever is available and use it as a means to further its aspirations.

Instead, years of Palestinian rejectionism has resulted in a political and diplomatic deadlock for which there appears to be no immediate solution.

Most Israelis and Jews worldwide continue to maintain that there exists a Jewish historic connection to the land, yet the focus today is on the future rather than the past.

In contrast, the Palestinians and their supporters focus on the Nakba, an annual day of commemoration of Arab displacement that followed the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, and the Naksa, the annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian people of the displacement that accompanied Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War. Their focus is on the past and its associated grievances.

An important point conveniently ignored by Palestinians is the fact that many Jewish refugees from Arab lands were stripped of their property and possessions in the countries from which they were forced to flee.

The Palestinian approach in fighting for their cause and building statehood does nothing to promote coexistence and understanding.

Today the Palestinians are preparing the next generation for war – not peaceful relations with Jews.

FOR YEARS, Jews have experienced terror as a result of anti-Semitism, hatred and radical indoctrination.

Ten years ago, Binyamin Netanyahu penned an article on the front page of the Post in response to the Passover Massacre that took place when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Netanya’s Park Hotel dining room, killing 30 Jews who were conducting their Seder.

He wrote, “What is absolutely clear is that we cannot continue, even for one more day, on a path of indecision, without a goal or a policy. We must do what any nation in our position would do: stop bickering among ourselves, fight the war that has been forced upon us, and vanquish an enemy who is determined to annihilate us.”

Palestinian Land Day has less to do with Palestinian land than it does with the intent to erase the Jewish presence on land that always held historical significance to the Jewish people.

Interesting things are happening in Africa — Entire mosque congregations convert to Christianity

Friday, March 30, 2012

Global March on Jerusalem fiasco round-up

1 Palestinian killed, dozens injured in clashes; Israeli police, border patrol arrest 34 activists during protests in east Jerusalem and Bethlehem; IDF: Real tests still to come on Nakba, Naksa, Prisoners' Days.

(JPost) One Palestinian was killed and dozens of pro-Palestinian activists were injured when protests marking Land Day turned violent in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday.

Despite the widespread clashes between Israeli security personnel and pro-Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza, the IDF expressed satisfaction with the day's occurrences overall and indicated that none of the incidents were out of the ordinary.

IDF Spokesperson Brig.- Gen. Yoav Mordechai expressed satisfaction with how the army coped with the protests, saying that "overall, none of the incidents were out of the ordinary."

He added that IDF-PA security coordination helped contain the protests. Security forces in Palestinian cities did not allow the demonstrations to spread," he said.

With an eye to the future, Mordechai said that "the real test will come during the Nakba- and Naksa- Day protests as well as Prisoners' Day, which will be very tense.

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Allah's warriors pic of the day

Afghan security forces escort Taliban militants clad in Afghan women dresses to be presented to the media at the Afghan intelligence department in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 28, 2012. Afghan Intelligence forces arrested seven Taliban militants today in Qarghayi district of Laghman province, Afghan intelligence officials said. (AP Photo)

Global March on Jerusalem FAIL

It appears France no longer views Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Qaradawi as moderate

(JPost) For many years, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, Yussuf Qaradawi, has attempted to pass himself off as a moderate Islamic authority.

The Qatar-based figure’s calls for dialogue with the Christian world and condemnation of al-Qaida violence allowed some in the West to turn a selective blind eye to Qaradawi’s open support for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and his ambitions for a European continent dominated by Islam in the future.

Today, however, the doors to Europe are being slammed shut in the 86-year-old’s face. In 2008, Qaradawi was banned from entering Britain despite having received a red carpet welcome four years earlier from London’s former mayor Ken Livingstone.

This week, in the aftermath of the horrific terror attacks on a Jewish school in Toulouse – in which Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, Arieh, five, and Gabriel, three; and Myriam Monsenego, eight, were killed – and the killing of three French soldiers by radicalized French citizen Mohamed Merah, French President Nicolas Sarkozy banned Qaradawi from arriving to take part in a conference organized by an umbrella Muslim group.

“There are certain people who have been invited to this congress who are not welcome on French soil,” Sarkozy said during a radio broadcast. Qaradawi was at the top of the no-entry list.

Sarkozy’s move was applauded by both of his rivals for the presidency, from the Socialist Party and the Front National.

“Qardawi is an important spiritual leader, maybe the most important, [hence] the message sent by Sarkozy is very important,” said Professor Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. “A major, important European state makes the point that it does not see the Muslim Brotherhood as a moderate movement. The French signal to the West [is] to slow down its attempt to launch a dialogue [with the Brotherhood].”

Inbar argued that dialogue is the “preferred liberal modus operandi” of Western liberals when it comes to dealing with the rising force in the Arab world, which is the Muslim Brotherhood.

The movement has seized power in Egypt and Tunis, and is poised to increase its standing across the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring. Its offshoot, Hamas, controls Gaza.

The new anti-Muslim Brotherhood message being sent out from Paris will also negatively affect Hamas’s attempts to gain legitimacy, Inbar added. “It shows strategic clarity on part of Sarkozy,” he said. [...]

“The problem with Qaradawi is that his concepts are based on a vision under which Europe will become Islamic. He declares this openly. It’s not the only thing he talks about, but this is one of his concepts, that European Muslims are on a mission to gradually convert the local population,” Webman said.

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Israeli forces clash with Palestinians during the provocation called "Global March on Jerusalem"

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up small groups of Palestinian stone-throwers on Friday as annual Land Day rallies turned violent around Jerusalem.

Medics in the Gaza Strip said the Israeli army also used live fire to prevent protesters from approaching frontier barriers in the small coastal territory, wounding nine people, including one seriously.

Palestinian activists called for a "Global March to Jerusalem" to mark the day when Israeli Arabs protest against land confiscation, and although there were many rallies, Israeli police said crowd numbers were relatively small.

"We are dealing with a number of disturbances, but in general the situation around the country has been relatively quiet," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Israeli forces were put on high alert on the frontiers with Lebanon and Syria, but there were no reports of anyone nearing the border fences, unlike last year when several demonstrators were killed in separate protests.

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Hamas gets the Israeli message that it will be responsible for any deaths during the protests, beats up Gaza protesters, prevents them from reaching Israel's border.

Members of the Hamas security forces prevent Palestinian protesters from reaching the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip, after a protest marking Land Day in Beit Hanun, on March 30, 2012. [...] (Getty Images)

France arrests 19 suspected Islamists, Sarkozy eyes more raids

PARIS (Reuters) - French police commandos arrested 19 people suspected of radical Islamist activity in Friday morning raids in several cities including Toulouse, scene of the killings of seven people by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman earlier this month.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is waging an uphill battle for re-election, said more raids would follow.

"There will be further operations, allowing us to expel a number of people who have no business in the country," he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio.

Gunman Mohamed Merah was killed by police snipers just over a week ago after shooting dead three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in attacks around Toulouse, turning internal security into a bigger campaign issue ahead of the presidential election.

Polls showed that more than 70 percent of voters approved of Sarkozy's handling of the Toulouse shootings, which reduced his chief rival, Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, to the role of bystander ahead of the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.

A police source said about 20 had been arrested in raids in Toulouse in the southwest, Nantes in western France and also in the Paris region and southeast France. Sarkozy put the number of arrests at 19.

Several television channels showed images of the early morning raids. Commandos were seen bashing down doors, smashing windows, and taking suspects away with handcuffed and with their faces covered

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said five rifles, three Kalashnikovs, four automatic handguns and a bullet-proof vest had been found among other items.

"These are people who ... claimed they were acting for an extremely violent, jihadist and combat ideology," Gueant told reporters after meeting Muslim associations in Paris.

"They had a paramilitary type of training," he said without confirming if those arrested were preparing attacks.

The swoops, carried out by the RAID police commando unit and anti-terrorist specialists, were not directly related to Merah's killing spree, according to the police source.

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Dozens of Taliban killed in fighting in west Afghanistan

Feel-good story of the day.
KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Taliban fighters were killed in U.S. air strikes and a gunbattle in western Afghanistan after an insurgent attack on an Afghan army patrol, NATO and Afghan officials said on Friday.

A spokesman of the International Security Assistance Force said the patrol came under attack in Gulistan district in western Farah province on Wednesday, prompting a call for air support.

"Numerous insurgents were killed, and several motorbikes were damaged or destroyed" following two strikes by coalition aircraft, he said.

Abdul Raoof Ahmadi, a police spokesman in western Afghanistan, said 30 Taliban were killed and another 15 wounded in the fighting in the remote area.

Officials have warned of a hard summer ahead as the fighting season resumes and Afghan national forces assume responsibility of security in more parts of the country from NATO combat forces set to leave by the end of 2014.

Taliban are active in parts of Farah including Gulistan, which falls on a desert highway connecting both Kabul and Kandahar to the western city of Heart.

Mohammed Yunus Rasouli, the deputy governor for Farah, said five vehicles of the Afghan national army came under attack when they were crossing Gulistan and three soldiers were burnt inside the vehicle.

"In response, ISAF, the national army and police started a joint operation which still continues," he said, adding he could not give a number of the militants killed.

A Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said in a text message to reporters that its fighters had killed 40 guards in the attack in Gulistan which he said was carried out on a convoy carrying supplies for foreign troops.

Only a month ago this was celebrated as Obama's "major diplomatic breakthrough"

February 29, 2012: U.S. announces diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea
The United States announced a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea Wednesday.

Under an agreement reached in direct talks in Beijing last week, North Korea has agreed to allow the return of nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, and has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities, the State Department said. In return, the United States will provide North Korea with a large food aid package.
March 30, 2012: Obama's North Korean leap of faith turns to ashes

What an incompetent asshat. He must be genuinely surprised that the North Koreans screwed him.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Brutal week for Obama, the worst of his presidency

(WT) The past seven brutal days will go down as one of the worst weeks in history for a sitting president. It certainly has been, without any doubt, the worst week yet for President Obama.

Somehow, Mr. Obama managed to embarrass himself abroad, humiliate himself here at home, see his credentials for being elected so severely undermined that it raises startling questions about whether he should have been elected in the first place — let alone be re-elected later this year.

Consider:

• Last Friday, Mr. Obama wandered into the killing of Trayvon Martin. Aided by his ignorance of the situation, knee-jerk prejudices and tendency toward racial profiling, Mr. Obama played a heavy hand in elevating a tragic situation in which a teenager was killed into a full-blown hot race fight.

Americans, he admonished, need to do some “soul-searching.” And then, utterly inexplicably, he veered off into this bizarre tangent about how he and the poor dead kid look so much alike they could be father and son. It was election-year race-pandering gone horribly wrong.

• By the start of this week, Mr. Obama had fled town and was racing to the other side of the planet just as the Supreme Court was taking up the potentially-embarrassing matter of Obamacare. While in South Korea he was caught on a hidden mic negotiating with the president of our longest-standing rival on how to sell America and her allies down the river once he gets past the next election.

• Meanwhile, back at home, the Supreme Court took up the single most important achievement of Mr. Obama’s presidency and, boy, was it embarrassing. The great constitutional law professor, it turns out, may not quite be the wizard he told us he was.

By most accounts, Mr. Obama and his stuttering lawyers were all but laughed out of the courthouse. They were even stumbling over softball questions lobbed by Mr. Obama’s own hand-picked justices.

• Mr. Obama closed his week pulling off a nearly unimaginable feat: He managed to totally and completely unify the nastily-fighting Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Late Wednesday night, they unanimously voted — 414 to zip — to reject the budget Mr. Obama had presented, leaving him not even a thin lily’s blade to hide behind.

So, in one week, Mr. Obama got caught whispering promises to our enemy, incited a race war, raised serious questions about his understanding of the Constitution, and then got smacked down over his proposed budget that was so wildly reckless that even Democrats in Congress could not support it.

It was as if you lumped Hurricane Katrina and the Abu Ghraib abuses into one week for George W. Bush. And added on top of that the time he oddly groped German Chancellor Angela Merkel and got caught cursing on a hot mic.

Even then, it wouldn’t be as bad as Mr. Obama’s week. You would probably also have to toss in the time Mr. Bush’s father threw up into the lap of Japan’s prime minister. Only then might we be approaching how bad a week it was for Mr. Obama.

Not that you will see any trace of embarrassment in the face of Mr. Obama. He has mastered the high political art of shamelessness, wearing it smugly and cockily. Kind of like a hoodie.

Obama Administration Won’t Prosecute Saudi It Claims Threatened to ‘Blow Up White House’

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration says it will not prosecute a Saudi Arabian national who the administration claimed in congressional testimony entered the United States on a student visa and then was arrested after threatening to blow up the White House.

On March 6, top officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security in both written and verbal testimony that DHS had arrested a Saudi national who was “threatening to blow up the White House and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the United States.”

A U.S. anti-terrorism law--18 U.S.C. 113B--says that a “person who, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction … (3) against any property that is owned, leased or used by the United States or by any department or agency of the United States, whether the property is within or outside of the United States; or 4) against any property within the United States that is owned, leased, or used by a foreign government, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, and if death results, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”

The statute says “the term ‘weapon of mass destruction’ means … any destructive device as defined in section 921 of this title.” Section 921 says: “The term ‘destructive device’ means— (A) any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas—(i) bomb, (ii) grenade, (iii) rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces, (iv) missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce, (v) mine, or (vi) device similar to any of the devices described in the preceding clauses.”

In a written statement provided to CNSNews.com, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS division responsible for enforcing the immigration law inside U.S. territory, said it has had the Saudi national in custody since Jan. 10 and that he is undergoing deportation proceedings. The statement said that “federal and local authorities declined criminal prosecution.”

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Obama's flexibility - First Term vs. Second Term

Video: Allen West slams Obama and Obamacare

Turkey: Man stabs his 18-year-old wife to death 15 times after having a dream that she was having an affair

After the murder, being a good follower of Allah that he is, he fled the scene.
(Today's Zaman) Two men on Monday assaulted their wives, whom they claimed were having extra-marital affairs.

Mehmet Gezen of İzmir had a dream Sunday night that his 18-year-old wife, Fatma Gezen, was having an affair with another man in their neighborhood, Son Dakika reported on Monday. After returning home from work on Monday, he got in an argument with his wife over the dream. Out of jealousy, he said, he took a knife from the kitchen, stabbed Fatma Gezen 15 times and then fled the scene.

Neighbors heard Gezen's screams and alerted the police and paramedics, who took her to Tepecik Training and Research Hospital. Gezen was severely injured and remains in critical condition. The İzmir Police Department has launched an investigation into the incident and continues to search for Mehmet Gezen.

In İstanbul, a woman was beaten so badly by her husband on Monday that she required hospitalization.

Çetin K. assaulted his wife, Ayfer Boz K., during an argument that began Sunday night and lasted until early Monday morning, the Cihan news agency reported Monday afternoon. Ayfer Boz K. was able to call her mother, Hatice Boz, who contacted the police.

Police arrested Çetin K. and paramedics took Ayfer Boz K. to the hospital. Boz told police that the argument had begun after her son-in-law accused her daughter of having an affair. According to Boz, Çetin K. regularly beat her daughter.

Legal and sociological experts and activists stress that there is no justification for gender-based violence, a pressing issue in Turkey.

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Report: Obama is "not happy" about Azerbaijan granting Israel "access to airbases for Iran strike"; UPDATE: Azerbaijan denies the report

(JPost) Azerbaijan has granted Israel access to airbases in its territory along Iran's northern border for potential use in a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, a report published Wednesday in Foreign Policy magazine quoted senior US officials as saying.

"The Israelis have bought an airfield," an official said, "and the airfield is called Azerbaijan."

Even if Israel doesn't use the fields for a direct air strike on Iran, Azerbaijan could still prove useful for Jerusalem's interests in the region. The bases could be used as a jumping point for IDF search-and-rescue units, the report quoted a US intelligence official as saying.

According to the Foreign Policy report, the Obama administration believes the Jerusalem-Baku relationship is raising the risk of an Israeli strike on Iran. Senior US officials have said that Israel's military expansion into Azerbaijan is complicating US efforts to defuse Israeli-Iranian tensions. "We're watching what Israel is doing in Azerbaijan. And we're not happy about it," one official said.

The relationship between Israel and the predominantly Muslim country on Iran's northern border is believed to be robust. The Foreign Policy report quoted a 1995 article in The Jerusalem Post as saying bilateral relations started in 1994 and have blossomed ever since. "Strauss ice cream, cell phones produced by Motorola's Israeli division, Maccabi beer, and other Israeli imports are ubiquitous [in Azerbaijan]," the Jerusalem Post article stated.

The unlikely bilateral relationship has taken center stage in the media this year.

In January, Azeri authorities implicated an Iranian citizen in a plot to kill Jewish teachers at a Jewish school in Baku.

A report published last month in The Times of London said that Azerbaijan is teeming with Mossad agents working to collect intelligence on the Islamic Republic of Iran, quoting an unnamed agent as saying that Baku was "ground zero for intelligence work."

Later in the month, Israeli officials confirmed a $1.6 billion defense deal with Baku that will see Jerusalem supplying the former Soviet state with unmanned aerial vehicles and missile defense systems.

Earlier this month, Azerbaijani police arrested 22 people, including one Iranian citizen, suspected of plotting attacks against US and Israeli targets across the country. Baku tied the plot to Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
Update (Haaretz):
"This information is absurd and groundless," the AFP reported a defense ministry spokesman, Teymur Abdullayev, as saying, while citing a senior official at Azerbaijan's presidential administration as saying that the allegations were "aimed at damaging relations between Azerbaijan and Iran."

Ali Hasanov, a presidential official, also told reporters in Baku, "We have stated on numerous occasions and we reiterate that there will be no actions against Iran... from the territory of Azerbaijan," according to the AFP report.

Algeria refuses Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah's body for burial; Merah to be buried in Toulouse

A sign on the ground marks the place for municipal workers to dig, March 29, 2012, in Cornebarrieu cemetery, a Toulouse suburb, southwestern France, in the muslim unit where the body of Islamist extremist Mohamed Merah should be buried. Merah, branded a 'monster' by French leaders after the killing of three Jewish children and a teacher and three French paratroopers, died in a hail of police bullets on March 22, after a 32-hour siege on his Toulouse flat. The body was expected to be repatriated to Algeria, his ancestral homeland, but Algeria refused it for security reasons and despite the family's objections. (Getty Images)
PARIS/ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian authorities have refused to allow the body of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman who killed seven people in France this month to be sent there for burial, an Algerian government source and an official at a top French mosque said on Thursday.

Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin who was shot dead by a police sniper last week following a more than 30-hour siege at his home in the southern city of Toulouse, will instead be buried there, Abdallah Zekri told Reuters.

Zekri, an adviser to the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris who was in Toulouse dealing with the funeral arrangements, said the mayor of the Algerian village of Bezzaz, where Merah’s father wanted him buried, had declined the request for security reasons.

“The mayor of Bezzaz gave a negative response,” he said. “He should be buried within 24 hours, probably in the Toulouse region, but it will be kept strictly private.”

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15 killed after Syria adopts peace plan and vows to reject any initiatives from the Arab League

The empty seat of the Syrian President Bashar Assad is seen during the Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March, 29, 2012. The annual Arab summit meeting opened in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday with only 10 of the leaders of the 22-member Arab League in attendance and amid a growing rift between Arab countries over how far they should go to end the one-year conflict in Syria. (AP Photo)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fighting between Syrian security forces and rebels killed at least 15 people on Thursday as Arab leaders gathered at a summit in Baghdad to press Damascus for rapid implementation of a peace plan that President Bashar al-Assad has said he can accept.

Arab leaders, who appear to have backed away from their call on Assad to step aside and hand over to a deputy, remain split over how to deal with the continuing violence.

Pre-empting the summit, Syria said on Wednesday it would reject any initiatives from the Arab League, which suspended Syria in November, and said it would deal only with individual Arab states.

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Baghdad Arab summit begins with a bang: Rocket explodes next to Iranian embassy

Smoke billows following a blast near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital's heavily-fortified Green Zone on March 29, 2012 as a landmark Arab summit opened. The blast came despite strict security measures by the Iraqi government, which had 100,000 security forces members on alert in Baghdad, and effectively locked down the city. (Getty Images)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A rocket exploded on the edge of the fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital on Thursday, where an Arab League summit attended by nine heads of state was taking place, a senior security source said.

The rocket was fired despite a security clampdown in Baghdad, where 100,000 extra security forces have been deployed, streets closed and a curfew imposed on vehicles.

"The blast happened close to the Iranian embassy. The windows of the embassy have been shattered, but there are no casualties," the source told Reuters.

Two more rockets hit the western district of Washash and Rahmaniya in central Baghdad, the source said.

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Muslim taxi driver remanded after driving into 8 people

(Cardiff) Yesterday, a taxi driver in a fit of anger decided to teach whitey a lesson by driving his black cab into 8 people in the centre of Cardiff. 8 very seriously injured people later saw 28-year-old Majid Rehman being arrested and remanded in custody until the 10th of April.

I wonder if he uttered the words "Allah Ackba" as he drove his car into his victims.

Mohammed jailed in Scotland for having his brother murdered

(Scotlandistan) 42-year-old Mohammed Siddique has been jailed for a minimum of 25 years over how he ordered the murder of his brother (also called Mohammed Siddique) after they had a falling out.

Hiring three Bulgarian hit men, Mohammed (the victim) was lured to a flat in Glenrothes on 24 October 2010 with the promise of cheap contraband cigarettes and alcohol. Instead of downing a shot, Mohammed instead was shot in the face and then, as he laid dying on the floor, he was shot again.

For their parts in this murder, Buglarians Tencho Andonov and Deyan Nikolov were also given life sentences and were ordered to serve at least 29 and 18 years respectively.

Anybody else notice how the name Mohammed appears to be synonymous with murder nowadays?

France bans 4 Mullahs from entering the country

(Paris) It seems that the fall-out from the recent killing spree of Mohamed Merah has started to hit the ground as France has decided to ban the entry into the country of four Muslim preachers to attend an Islamic conference, saying their "calls for hatred and violence" were a threat to public order.

Looks like Saudi clerics Ayed Bin Abdallah al-Qarni and Abdallah Basfar, Egyptian cleric Safwat al-Hijazi and a former mufti of Jerusalem Akrama Sabri are going to have somewhere else to strut their stuff. It seems that France has woken up to the fact that Islam has no place in a democratic society.

Expect a deluge of protests over how the so called respected scholars are being denied their basic human right of spreading hatred in a kaffa land.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

WOW: House Rejects Obama's $3.6 Trillion Budget in Unanimous Vote: 414-0

WASHINGTON (Fox News) – The Republican-run House has overwhelmingly rejected President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget for next year after a vote forced by GOP lawmakers to embarrass Democrats.

Republicans have opposed Obama's budget all year, criticizing its tax increases on the wealthy and saying it lacks sufficient spending cuts.

Democrats have defended Obama's budget priorities, but they largely voted "no" Wednesday night.

Republicans said Democrats were afraid to vote for Obama's proposed tax increases and extra spending for energy and welfare. Democrats said Republicans had forced a vote on a version of Obama's budget that contained only its numbers, not the policies he would use to achieve them.

The vote was 414-0.

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Supreme Court Likely To Overturn ObamaCare As Unconstitutional After Hearings

(IBD) After three days of listening to the government make its case for ObamaCare, one thing is clear: The individual mandate has no constitutional basis or justification, and the entire law should be struck down.

We almost felt sorry for Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general who had to defend the constitutionally indefensible. Over three days of intense interrogation by nine Supreme Court justices, Verrilli failed to muster a single coherent, reasonable argument in support of the ObamaCare law's constitutionality.

Instead, his shambling, unfocused talking points left the government case in disarray — underscoring what a poorly conceived, badly designed law this was in the first place, and why it must be overturned.

In Verrilli's defense, we don't think even Clarence Darrow could have defended a law that runs so afoul of the Constitution's clear limits on government power.

From the very start on Monday, things went badly for the defense. Justices actually laughed at Verrilli as he tried to argue that penalties imposed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act weren't taxes — but rather something new called a "tax penalty."

If it's not a tax, it could be subject to the Anti-Injunction Act, which could delay or even invalidate parts of the health care law. If it is a tax, it blows away all pretense of ObamaCare preserving private insurance.

"General Verrilli, today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax," joked Justice Samuel Alito. "Tomorrow you are going to be back, and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax." Even liberal justices laughed.

Tuesday went no better. The government asserted the Constitution's Commerce Clause lets it regulate or control virtually anything, including health care — especially if it has a broad economic impact. Thus, a first-ever individual mandate to buy health care is acceptable.

But sharp questioning by justices on both sides of the political spectrum splintered that argument. At one point, Chief Justice John Roberts wondered aloud, if the government can make you buy health care insurance, can't it also make you buy a cellphone?

By Wednesday, the government's case was in tatters. A Los Angeles Times headline said bluntly: "Justices Poised To Strike Down Entire Healthcare Law."

Indeed, the justices spent 91 minutes Wednesday considering what to do if the 2,700-page law was struck down in its entirety. Based on comments, at least five justices now appear to support doing that.

And they should. Contrary to White House assertions, our Constitution strictly limits government power over us. It's the great genius of our system.

But for over a century, American progressives such as President Obama have worked to undermine those constitutional limits — opting instead for a "living," ever-malleable Constitution that lets an omnipotent government define individual rights.

Overturning ObamaCare would be a big step toward reclaiming sovereignty over our own lives and restoring the rule of law in America.

Imam jailed for touching up little boys. Guess whom the community blames?

(England) 24-year-old Yazeid Osama Aqqad was brought over from the Islamic paradise of Jordan in which to teach British Islamic children about the religious mores of Islam. Well, that he certainly did, which is why he has been jailed for 3 years for touching up little boys while teaching them about the love Mohammed expressed for children when he was in his 50s.

However, instead of expressing outrage over how a so called holy man decided to take out his sexual frustrations on little boys, the Islamic community of the city of Nottingham decided to take it out on the mother of the boys in question for reporting the dirty bastard to the police. Which is why she saw her car and home vandalised and currently has the status of persona-non-grata amongst the Islamic community.

Sums up Islam to a tee when it comes to evil bastards found in their midst. Cry out that "Islam is a religion of peace" and blame the victim.

Amnesty International accuses US of protecting its border with Mexico on account of it's being a discrimination against Hispanics

(Reuters) - U.S. policing along the Mexico border discriminates against Hispanics and Native Americans and contributes to the deaths of illegal immigrants, according to a study by the human rights group Amnesty International USA.

The report, titled "In Hostile Terrain: Human Rights Violations in Immigration Enforcement in the U.S. Southwest," identifies what it says are systemic failures of federal, state and local authorities to enforce immigration laws without discrimination.

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Open Mic Treason Night? Obama's Secret Message to Russia

(PJM) Obama was overheard on a microphone delivering a secret message to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev regarding the US missile defense. What is Obama up to, and what does his secret message mean for allies like Israel? Is Obama about to hang Europe out to dry? Is this message treasonous? Find out.

Analysis: Arab revolts bring Islamist regional vision closer

Obama's crowning foreign policy achievement.
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood has quietly spread its influence far beyond Egypt in its 84-year history, but Arab revolts have opened broad new political horizons the group hopes will reflect its founder's vision for the Arab and Islamic world.

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You gotta love how Arab "peace plans" work out, especially when they are accepted

"Blasts and bullets after Syria accepts peace plan"
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces kept up heavy weapons fire and siege tactics against opposition strongholds on Wednesday despite President Bashar al-Assad's acceptance of a peace plan calling for the army to withdraw to its barracks, activists said.

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Fun times in Yemen: Gunmen kidnap Saudi diplomat

Yemeni security forces secure a main road in the southern port of Aden following the seizure of Saudi Arabia's deputy consul by unknown gunmen outside his home in the southern city on March 28, 2012. Yemeni police were reported to have launched an investigation into the kidnapping and are actively searching for the diplomat as insecurity has plagued Yemen's mostly lawless southern region in the past year, with Al-Qaeda-linked militants overrunning several towns in Aden's neighbouring Abyan province in May. (Getty Images)
ADEN (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped Saudi Arabia's deputy consul from outside his residence in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Wednesday, a Yemeni security official said.

The gunmen snatched Abdallah al-Khalidi as he was about to get into his car and they sped off with him in another vehicle, police in the city's Mansoura district said.

Security in the country's second city, and in southern Yemen generally, has deteriorated during the political turmoil that began with mass protests against then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh in early 2011, and saw fighting among pro- and anti-Saleh factions of the military as well as tribal militias.

A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the kidnapping, saying: "It happened this morning. The embassy already contacted the highest security authority in Yemen. They are investigating and trying to find out the reason."

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Afghan soldiers arrested over planned mass suicide attack on Defense Ministry

(Reuters) - More than a dozen Afghan soldiers suspected of plotting to attack the Defence Ministry in Kabul were arrested after 10 suicide vests were found inside the ministry, the New York Times reported, citing Afghan and Western officials.

Security across Afghanistan has worsened after a string of incidents that have enraged Afghans in recent weeks, including the shooting deaths of 17 civilians in the volatile south more than two weeks ago blamed on a U.S. sergeant.

The New York Times reported that the Defence Ministry went into "near-total lockdown" on Tuesday after the vests, which have pouches which suicide bombers pack with explosives for use in attacks, were found inside the ministry.

The building is in one of the most heavily fortified areas of the Afghan capital and is less than a mile from the presidential palace and the headquarters of the NATO-led foreign force in Afghanistan.

The news paper said possible targets included commuter buses for government employees as well as the ministry.

More...

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Spain arrests al Qaeda member for inciting attacks

A man believed to be suspected member of al-Qaida is led out of a apartment block with a jacket covering his head, by civil guards in Valencia, Spain, Tuesday March 27, 2012, after his arrest. The suspected member of al-Qaida, identified only by the initials M.H.A. , is thought to have been a key to the terror group's Internet propaganda and recruiting operations, officials said. The Jordanian-born with Saudi citizenship suspect arrested in the eastern city of Valencia "administered one of the world's most important jihadist forums", dedicated to recruiting and indoctrinating Islamic terrorists, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said. (AP Photo)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested a suspected al Qaeda member on charges of broadcasting videos on the Internet to incite militant attacks, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement said police arrested the man, identified as "M.H.A.", in the eastern city of Valencia after an investigation launched in February 2011.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez said the man was suspected of working with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as well as al Qaeda North African branch al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM).

"He was known in the heart of the terrorist organization as 'al Qaeda's librarian'," Fernandez told a news conference.

Fernandez said the suspect worked full-time from home to recruit potential extremists and arrange for them to travel to Afghanistan, as did an al Qaeda-inspired gunman who went on a killing spree in France last week.

"The training of people like Mohamed Merah, the Jihadist killer in Toulouse, arose through acts with such characteristics," Fernandez said.

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Toulouse gunman’s father plans to sue France over his terrorist son's death

His motive? "France is a big country that had the means to take my son alive," Mohamed Benalel Merah claims.
(AFP) The Islamist gunman whose murder spree shocked France will be buried in his ancestral homeland Algeria, his father told AFP Monday, adding that he planned to sue France over his son’s death.

"(God willing), I have decided to bury my son in Algeria," Mohamed Benalel Merah said, referring to his son Mohamed Merah, 23, who was shot dead by French police on Thursday in Toulouse at the end of a stand-off after his shooting attacks that killed seven.

"Mohamed has an Algerian passport and has been listed with the (Algerian) consulate in Toulouse since his birth," the elder Merah said.

He also hit out against France for having shot his son instead of taking him alive at the end of a 32-hour siege at his apartment in Toulouse.

"France is a big country that had the means to take my son alive. They could have knocked him out with gas and taken him in," he said. "They preferred to kill him."

"I will hire the biggest named lawyers and work for the rest of my life to pay (their) costs. I will sue France for having killing my son."

It takes a jihadi village

(National Post) In the immediate aftermath of the recent bloodbath executed by Mohamed Merah in Toulouse, leaving three French paratroopers, a Jewish teacher, his two sons and another Jewish child dead, a number of observers were quick to label Merah a "psychopath" and a "lone wolf."

Even though he claimed to be working for al-Qaeda, his words were brushed away as the delusions of an irrational obsessive. Friends of Merah said his Algerian background in France had alienated him and that he eventually "snapped." His lawyer said he was completely cut off from reality.

Over the weekend, the French police charged Merah's brother Abdelkader with involvement in the crimes. If the charges hold water when tested, that would handily deflate the theory of crazed spontaneity on the killer's part and, hopefully, embarrass the pundits who leaped to deny any direct link between the killer's actions and a well-known strain of Islamic revanchism.

In my experience, the words "lone wolf" are code for a warning: If you interpret such horrific events as the work of a sane man under the influence of radical Islamism, you will be considered an Islamophobe.

Major Nidal Hasan, who perpetrated the 2010 Fort Hood massacre, was also hastily labelled a lone wolf, a man responding to idiopathic urges, in order to pre-empt accusations that his rage was directly linked to Islamism. As it turned out, even though his actions themselves were not dictated by specific orders from al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, Hasan's rage against those he identified as enemies of Islam did not spring from psychological derangement, but from a long marination in jihadist propaganda.

And so, it would seem, is the case with Mohamed Merah - he may not have been acting as part of an organized group or within a larger plot, but he was very much a product of the modern European jihad machine.

Ignorant of Merah's personal background, I was at first inclined to take the lone-wolf theorists at their word. Then my knowledge gap was filled in by an op ed in the March 25 Wall Street Journal by Jytte Klausen, a professor of politics at Brandeis University and author of the 2009 book, The Cartoons that shook the world. Klausen is also the founder of the Western Jihadism Project, which tracks and analyzes the development of jihadi networks in the West.

According to Klausen's article, Merah's rampage was not the product of an unhinged mind. Far from being alienated, Klausen writes, "Merah was practically a prince in French jihadist circles." His mother is married to the father of Sabri Essid, a senior member of a radical Toulouse cell. Essid helped run an al-Qaeda safe house in Syria for jihadists in transit to Iraq. He and several others were eventually convicted in France for conspiracy to terrorize.

Klausen says that according to Le Monde, Merah was trained in killing by the Uzbek Islamic Movement. For this and other grounds for suspicion, Merah was under periodic surveillance by the French police.

The murders were engineered for maximal publicity. Nothing was random or unplanned. It was performance theatre at its most gruesome. Self-videoed, the graphic spree was intended for global viewing on multiple websites. At one point Merah can be seen holding his young victim by her hair as he reloads his gun, after which he calmly shoots her. His martyr's death - flinging himself out the window while being mowed down in a hail of bullets - followed "the jihadist textbook."

Like other modern terrorists, Merah was addicted to the Internet (and media in general: Klausen notes that two hours before the police came to his apartment, Merah called a French TV station). One of his last tweets said (in French), "I have changed my life - on video." His Twitter account ID has a black knight on a horse bearing the flag of jihad aloft. (His Facebook and YouTube accounts have been removed).

Merah's last tweet was signed "Mohamed Merah-Forsane Alizza." Forsane Alizza refers to "Knights of Glory," a France-based jihadist media organization, banned in January because their members were found to be in training for armed combat. The ban has been ineffective in quashing their marketing; content has been put on new sites and a website bearing the Forsane Alizza brand is still active through a web-hosting company based in Washington state.

All this information effectively rebuts any assumption that Merah's meticulously planned, coolly executed crime was a freak aberration from normalcy, a case of social alienation run amok or an outcome of mental illness. Mohamed Merah may have hunted alone, but he killed in the shadow of the wolf pack who suckled and trained him.

American Crossroads: "Individual Mandate: Obama vs. Obama"

Monday, March 26, 2012

Epic

Best part starts at 0:49.

Insanity: Convicted Muslim terrorists released in the UK this week ahead of Olympics

(Telegraph) Two convicted terrorists, including one involved in the “liquids” plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets, will be back on the streets this week after being released from prison.

Their release, which officials cannot prevent, will add to growing concerns over the number of jailed terrorists and extremists who are being freed in the run up to the Olympics.

Nabeel Hussain was jailed for eight years in 2009 for his part in the 2006 plot to blow up aeroplanes using hydrogen peroxide disguised in soft drink bottles.

He assisted the main plotters, including fund-raising, and was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism.

He was also said to have acted as a link between two of the key plotters – ringleader Ahmed Ali and Adam Khatib.

He is being released having served half his sentence, including time on remand.

In a separate case, Tariq Al-Daour, a former law student, will also be released have served half his time.

He was jailed for ten years in 2007 after inciting terrorism against non-Muslims over the internet.

His trail heard he had close links with al Qaeda in Iraq and he, along with two others, were the first men to be convicted of inciting murder over in the internet.

At one point, a chat room set up by co-accused Younes Tsouli, attracted a message from a purported group of 45 doctors who wanted to use car bombs and grenade rockets to launch attacks in the US.

Last year, research by the think tank the Henry Jackson Society, warned as many as 15 convicted terrorist were due for release ahead of the Olympics.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, said: “By the summer, the vast majority of people convicted in the last decade (of terror offences) will have been released.

“These two will be placed in hostels and kept under close scrutiny to maximise public protection.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman refused to confirm the releases but said: "Public protection is our top priority. Serious offenders on licence are subject to a strict set of controls and conditions and can be recalled to custody if they breach them.

"When released from prison, all terrorist offenders on licence are managed through Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) will be risk assessed, monitored and supervised by Probation, Police and other agencies.

"Terrorist offenders subject to statutory probation supervision may also be required to comply with additional licence conditions to better manage any risk they pose."

He could've been Obama's son

Screen grab of Trayvon Martin Facebook page
SANFORD (Miami Herald) -- As thousands of people gathered here to demand an arrest in the Trayvon Martin case, a more complicated portrait began to emerge of a teenager whose problems at school ranged from getting spotted defacing lockers to getting caught with a marijuana baggie and women’s jewelry. [...]

In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area “hiding and being suspicious.” Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with “W.T.F” — an acronym for “what the f---.” The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a “burglary tool,” according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald. Word of the incident came as the family’s lawyer acknowledged that the boy was suspended in February for getting caught with an empty bag with traces of marijuana, which he called “irrelevant” and an attempt to demonize a victim.

Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.

Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.

“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.

More...
Bottom line - every time Obama butts in on an issue, he ends up making an ass of himself.

London 2012 Olympics: Muslim terrorists 'plotting cyanide poison hand cream attack'

Muslim terrorists linked with al-Qaeda are plotting a cyanide poison attack on London Olympics by mixing chemicals with hand cream, it has been reported.
(Telegraph) Extremists have posted “detailed instructions” on a website with links to the terror group on how launch an attack this summer’s games in the capital.

One member, called Abu Hija Ansari claimed the cyanide should be mixed with an unidentified hand cream so it could be absorbed through human skin, according to The Sun.

Writing in Arabic, he said anyone planning such an attack should wear "medical gloves" as they produce their lethal mixture.

"Through skin: 1 – cyanide, 2 – skin cream,” he reportedly said.

“Mix the ingredients. The skin cream will open the pores in the skin and speed up the absorption and effectiveness of the poison."

The newspaper said they were able to access the website, which has 17,000 members worldwide and known links to six al-Qaeda terrorists, using a false identity.

A second extremist, who has not been identified, also wrote on the website: "It is a good idea and you need to plan well."

Writing under a logo of the 2012 Games, she said: "It's time to prepare for the event, as once again they are interfering with innocent Muslims."

Britain's security services are on high alert for any form of attack on the Olympics, which start on July 27 in the main stadium in Stratford, east London.

Last week Jonathan Evans, the MI5 director-general, briefed the Cabinet on the terrorist threats facing the UK in the run-up to the London Olympics.

Also last week it emerged that two convicted terrorists, including one involved in the “liquids” plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets, were back on the streets after being released from prison.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP for Essex North and chairman of the all-party homeland security group, told the newspaper: "I hope the individuals are identified so action can be taken.

“Those who believe there is no terrorist threat are living in cloud cuckoo land."

Neither the government, Scotland Yard nor the Security Services have commented on the reports.

The Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman media deception

England is gone to the dogs

Iran: U.S. Will Suffer Regardless of Involvement With Israeli Strike

Obama's outreach to Iran works real wonders.

From WJD:
The Islamic regime in Iran issued a warning Saturday, promising that any attacks on the Persian state will lead to retaliations more complex and devastating then ever before, the Daily Caller reports.
The [Fars news agency] analysis, titled “The Secret War Against Iran’s Nuclear Program Will No Longer Be Unanswered,” quotes the Islamic regime’s supreme leader, Khamenei, who said in his Iranian New Year message last week that while Iran does not want a nuclear bomb, any attack on Iranian nuclear sites will spark the same level of force against the attacking country. That statement is in line with what Iran’s defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said recently — that Iran has “secret weapons yet unknown to the West that will be used in response to any attack on Iran.” Vahidi is on Interpol’s most-wanted list for the Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people and injured hundreds more.
The report indicates that America will be considered as bearing equal culpability if Israel strikes Iran, regardless of the U.S. stance. It appears that Iran is attempting to “drive a wedge” between Israel and the U.S., in hopes of keeping America out of a conflict Iran knows is cannot win.

In the meantime, Iran continues to claim it has no intention to weaponize its nuclear program.

The Fars news agency declared the stance a “new strategy” by the Mullah dominated regime. But what it really boils down to is the same Islamist driven, strong-arm terrorist tactics that Iran has always used in its attempt to assert its dominance in the region and around the world.

Israel cuts all ties with UN Human Rights Council

It was long overdue.
JERUSALEM, March 26 (UPI) -- Israel decided to cut all contacts with the United Nations Human Rights Council because of its plans to investigate West Bank settlements, an official said.

A senior diplomat said Monday the Foreign Ministry decided to suspend Israel's membership at the U.N. body in response to the council's decision last week to send a fact-finding mission to the West Bank, Israel Radio reported.

The ministry said it will would bar the entry of mission members planning to investigate the settlements, the report said.

Israel's ambassador to U.N. organizations in Geneva has been instructed not to appear before the council, answer phone calls from the council or cooperate with members in any way, Israel Radio said.

The ambassador will remain in Geneva and continue cooperating with other organizations there, The Jerusalem Post said.

A decision had not been made concerning punitive action against the Palestinian Authority, which asked the council to investigate the settlements, The Post said.

The English-language daily said Israel plans to ask other countries to also cut contacts with the council.

Video: Hitler discovers his new website "ATTACKWATCH" is the joke of the internet after only 24 hours

Insanity: Obama: US Has 'Moral Obligation' to Disarm

President Obama called nuclear disarmament as "a moral obligation," as he suggested that the United States is leading by example to bring about "a world without nuclear weapons."

"American leadership has been essential to progress in a second area -- taking concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said yesterday during a speech in Korea. "I believe the United States has a unique responsibility to act -- indeed, we have a moral obligation."
H/t: Fox Nation

During missile defense talk, Obama tells Medvedev he'll have 'more flexibility'

Meaning that he believes he would be able to do whatever he wants.
(Fox News) President Obama assured Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Monday that he'd have "more flexibility" after the November election, during a conversation that appeared to focus on the touchy issue of missile defense.

Obama, during a sit-down with Medvedev in Seoul, urged Moscow to give him "space" until after November. The conversation was relayed by a TV pool producer who listened to the recording from a Russian journalist.

"This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility," Obama told Medvedev.

Obama appeared to be asking Medvedev to relay this point to Vladimir Putin, who recently won election to return to the Russian presidency.

"On all these issues, but particularly missile defense ... this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space," Obama said.

Medvedev told the president he understood the "message about space. Space for you ..."

After Obama noted he'd have more flexibility in the future, Medvedev told him: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."

More...

Jasse Jackson calls Trayvon Martin a martyr, calls for war on whitey

(USA Today) Jesse Jackson told people at a church in Eatonville, Fla., on Sunday that slain teen Trayvon Martin is a "martyr," the Orlando Sentinel reports. [...]

"How do we go from a moment to a movement that creates fundamental change?" Jackson asked the crowd. "If it's a moment, we go home. If it's a movement, we go to war. Movements are made of serious substance. ... There is power in the blood of the innocent."

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Obama's $5 billion bullet train "insanity"

VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) — On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.

Privately held DesertXpress is on the verge of landing a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to build the 150 mph train, which could be a lifeline for a region devastated by the housing crash or a crap shoot for taxpayers weary of Washington spending.

The vast park-and-ride project hinges on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area, pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the famous Strip. [...]

"It's insanity," says Thomas Finkbiner of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. "People won't drive to a train to go someplace. If you are going to drive, why not drive all the way and leave when you want?"

Construction cost projections have soared to as much as $6.5 billion, not including interest on the loan. Some fear taxpayer subsidies are inevitable.

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H/t: Fox Nation

Sarkozy to bar radical imams from entering France

Youssef al-Qaradawi
Shuttering the barn after the horses have left?
PARIS (Reuters) - France will bar radical Muslim preachers from entering the country to participate in an Islamic conference next month as part of a crackdown after shootings by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday.

Sarkozy, who has announced plans to punish those viewing Islamist Web sites and going abroad for indoctrination, said he would block the entry of some imams invited to a congress organized by the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF).

The UOIF, one of three Muslim federations in France, is regarded as close to Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

"I have clearly indicated that there certain people who have been invited to this congress who are not welcome on French soil," Sarkozy told France Info radio.

He cited Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar who is one of the most prominent Sunni Muslim clerics in the Arab world and a household name in the Middle East due to regular appearances on the Al Jazeera news channel.

A former member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi is independent of the group but remains close to it. Sarkozy said the situation was complicated because the imam holds a diplomatic passport and does not require a visa to enter France.

"I indicated to the Emir of Qatar himself that this person was not welcome on the territory of the French republic," Sarkozy said. "He will not come."

Qaradawi was denied a visa to visit Britain in 2008 on grounds of seeking to "justify acts of terrorist violence or disburse views that could foster inter-community violence", a Home Office spokeswoman said at the time. The cleric had defended Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel and attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

AP withdraws story of Gaza power cuts-related baby death after learning it occurred 3 weeks earlier and had nothing to do with power cuts

Maybe if the AP did a little investigation before rushing to publish the story, there wouldn't be the need to retract it. But then again, the eagerness to implicate Israel trumps professionalism.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about a 5-month-old baby who was said to have died Friday after the generator powering his respirator ran out of fuel, the first known death linked to the territory's energy crisis. The timing and reason for the death were confirmed to the AP by a man identified as the baby's father and a Gaza health official, but the report has been called into question after it was learned that a local newspaper carried news of the baby's death on March 4.

A substitute story will be filed shortly reflecting the new information.