Friday, August 31, 2012

Israelis prepare amid fear of Iran war

(FT) Larissa, a 66-year-old manager at an Israeli investment company, waited in line last week at a Tel Aviv youth centre to get a gas mask, one of tens of thousands of Israelis rushing to pick up such protective kits in recent weeks.

Amid media speculation that Israel may carry out a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites and possibly prompt a regional war, the number of Israelis collecting state-funded gas masks has quadrupled from 17,000 in April to 70,000 in July, according to the military.

As she prepared to take the box from the postal workers charged with the distribution of the masks, Larissa, who did not want her last name to be published, said: “I am afraid – I don’t believe an attack will happen but I’d like to have the mask just in case.”

As speculation in Israel persists about a possible air strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, Israeli citizens – who polls show do not support an attack unless it is backed by the US, the country’s staunchest ally – are getting prepared.

Israel regards the Iranian nuclear programme as an existential threat and has said repeatedly that it will not permit the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Iran insists that its programme serves only civilian purposes – a claim widely disputed by western governments. Washington has urged Israel to give diplomacy and sanctions on Iran more time. On Thursday, a UN report showed that Iran has doubled the number of uranium enrichment machines it has in an underground bunker.

Already, many in Israel are renovating bomb shelters in their apartment buildings or sealing rooms so they can provide protection in the event of biological and chemical attack.

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Anti-Obama Artist Debuts 'Obamanation' Interactive Painting

Artist Jon McNaughton explains the interactive painting he has created with 60 symbols that detail the “Obamanation” of the Barack Obama Presidency. He urges everyone to head over to his website to view the painting and click on the interactive links embedded in the symbols within the painting.

(h/t) Freedom's Lighthouse
H/t: Fox Nation

'Civil War' Among Muslims Shakes Russia's South

MOSCOW (VOA) — Three recent attacks that left 30 people dead and 15 wounded have cast a spotlight on the growing religious warfare in Dagestan, Russia's southernmost republic.

First, a border guard serving near Azerbaijan killed seven colleagues before he was shot dead himself. Superior officers said they had tried twice but failed to have him discharged because he was constantly reading about Wahhabism, a conservative form of Islamic fundamentalism.

Then Georgian special forces said they intercepted a heavily armed unit of Islamic insurgents crossing over from Dagestan. A firefight near the border killed three Georgian soldiers and 12 militants.

In the most politically significant case, a female suicide bomber attacked Sheikh Said Atsayev, a leading moderate Muslim cleric in Dagestan who had been leading peace talks with militant adherents of Wahhabism, the form of Sunni Islam that is widely practiced in Saudi Arabia. The suicide bomber, the widow of another militant, killed Atsayev and six other people, as well as herself.

Mark Galeotti, a Russian security specialist at New York University, sees an increasingly violent split among the 15 percent of Russians who follow Islam.

"There is an increasing threat that we will really see a Muslim civil war - not just in Dagestan, but across the North Caucasus," Galeotti said.

Violence in Tatarstan

The latest attack in Dagestan followed an incident in Tatarstan, in northern Russia, where assailants tried to kill two moderate Muslim leaders who were seeking the expulsion of Muslim clerics trained in Saudi Arabia. Tatarstan's deputy mufti was killed. The republic's senior mufti was wounded.

President Vladimir Putin traveled to Tatarstan on Tuesday and declared on national television: "Terrorists and militants of all kinds, whatever ideological slogans they may hide behind, always act cynically, behind one's back, and have only one aim - to spread fear and mutual hatred."

The same day, the suicide bomber blew herself up near Sheikh Atsayev.

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Brutality, anger fuel jihad in Russia's Caucasus

GIMRY, Russia (Reuters) - Little girls in hijabs peek out of tin-roof houses and boys play at "cops and insurgents" in the narrow dirt streets.

At one end of the village of Gimry men are building a new, red-brick madrassa, one of many religious schools springing up across Dagestan, a region in the high Caucasus mountains on Russia's southern fringe, in the throes of an Islamic revival.

More than a dozen young men from the village have "gone to the forest" - the local euphemism for joining insurgents in their hideouts, says village administrator Aliaskhab Magomedov.

"It's a full-fledged jihad," he said. "They don't recognize my authority. Islam does not separate the state from religion." [...]

In the first half of 2012 alone, the Caucasian Knot website recorded 185 insurgency-related deaths and 168 wounded, making Dagestan one of the deadliest places in Europe. The number of men seized by security forces as suspected militants so far this year, tracked by Russia's leading rights group Memorial, has already exceeded last year's total.

And the violence has begun spreading beyond the Caucasus to other parts of the country, like Tatarstan, long a peaceful area on the Volga river in Russia's European heartland. [...]

In the streets of the sun-drenched Caspian Sea city, government banners proclaim: "We are against terror". Residents say they have become desensitized to near daily sniper and bomb attack on police.

"Not a day goes by without the killing of either a terrorist or a policeman. We're so used to it, we think that's the way things ought to be," said taxi driver Nabib Abdulvagabov, 35.

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Malian civilians form militia to combat Islamists

(AFP) Some barefoot, others wearing plastic shoes, a ragtag group of Malians shout "one, two, three!" as they throw up their knees high during a military drill.

The motley crew of would-be fighters is made up of students, young jobless men and displaced civil servants who fled Mali's north when Islamic extremists occupied the desert area five months ago.

Now these men hope to return -- fighting-fit and steeled for battle -- to liberate the region they call home, which is in the grip of the jihadists who have enforced strict sharia law. [...]

The extremists piggy-backed on a Tuareg separatist rebellion which started in January, fuelled by former mercenaries from Libya.

Together, the militants overwhelmed Mali's poorly-equipped army, which then launched a coup in the southern capital Bamako that only heightened the chaos and sped up the rebel advance.

The Islamists soon pushed out their erstwhile Tuareg allies and have since enforced strict Islamic law while sparking regional and international fears of a new centre for radicalism in Africa.

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Egypt oppressive regime says Syria's oppressive regime must go

This from a regime under which "conspiring" against its "ruling imam" is conspiring against Allah.
DUBAI/AMMAN (Reuters) - Egypt called on Thursday for intervention to halt bloodshed in Syria, telling a meeting of 120 nations it was their duty to stand against the "oppressive regime" of Bashar al-Assad, prompting a Syrian walkout.

President Mohamed Mursi, elected two months ago after a popular uprising toppled Egypt's long-standing leader Hosni Mubarak, said Assad had lost legitimacy in his fight to crush a 17-month-old revolt in which 20,000 people have been killed.

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U.N. Human Rights Council to Add Genocidal Warlord

Hey, he only killed 1/4 million people. Obviously, he needs to be rewarded.
(Judicial Watch) Funded primarily with U.S. tax dollars, the famously corrupt United Nations has hit a new low, awarding a genocidal warlord indicted by an international court for crimes against humanity a seat on its laughable human rights council.

The worst part is that this madness is funded by Americans to the tune of 7-plus billion dollars a year. The American cash keeps pouring in even though the U.N. is pillar of corruption, fraud and mismanagement. Its so-called human rights council is a huge joke with members that are famous for oppressing their citizens and, in many cases, committing atrocious human rights violations. Cuba, Iran and Venezuela are among the offenders.

Now the U.N. is allowing Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir, the last person on earth you would go to for anything related to human rights, have a seat on its human rights council.

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Obama administration joined the UNHRC (after years of the US refusing to be part of the charade) ostensibly so that we could change it for the better.

Looks like yet one more failure of policy.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

'Hitler' clothing store stirs anger in India

(AFP) The owner of an Indian clothing store said Wednesday that he would only change its name from "Hitler" if he was compensated for re-branding costs, amid a growing row over the new shop.

The outlet, which sells Western men's wear, opened 10 days ago in Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat with "Hitler" written in big letters over the front and with a Nazi swastika as the dot on the "i".

"I will change it (the name) if people want to compensate me for the money we have spent -- the logo, the hoarding, the business cards, the brand," Rajesh Shah told AFP.

He put the total costs at about 150,000 rupees ($2,700).

Shah insisted that until the store opened he did not know who Adolf Hitler was and that Hitler was a nickname given to the grandfather of his store partner because "he was very strict". [...]

The row evoked memories of a controversy six years ago when a Mumbai restaurant owner called his cafe "Hitler's Cross" and put a swastika on the hoarding, claiming Hitler was a "catchy" name.

The restaurant owner eventually agreed to change the name after protests by the Israeli embassy, Germany and the US Anti-Defamation League.

Hitler attracts an unusual degree of respect in some parts of India, with his book "Mein Kampf" a popular title in bookshops and on street stalls.

Gujarat schoolbooks issued by the Hindu nationalist state government were criticised a few years ago for praising Hitler as someone who gave "dignity and prestige" to the German government.

A wrap up of today's leftist racism

India Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Mumbai attacker

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of a group of militants who attacked the country's financial capital, Mumbai, in 2008 killing 166 people.

"The Supreme Court has today dismissed the appeal of Mohammad Kasab," Gopal Subramaniam, a lawyer for the prosecution, told reporters after the verdict.

Kasab, a Pakistani national who said he belonged to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was found guilty on more than 80 charges in May 2010, including murder and waging war on India, and was sentenced to death by hanging.

He was filmed walking through Mumbai's main train station carrying an AK-47 and a knapsack on his back during an attack in which nearly 60 people were gunned down.

It was part of a series of coordinated strikes on key landmarks in the city, including luxury hotels and a Jewish centre.

The three-day rampage led to an increase in tension between India and its nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan, causing a temporary suspension of peace talks.

Caucasus suicide bomber named as Russian Muslim widow

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An ethnic Russian woman, who was both wife and widow of Islamist militants, was named on Wednesday as the suicide bomber who killed a moderate Muslim cleric in the North Caucasus just as President Vladimir Putin was pleading for national unity.

Tuesday's assassination of Said Atsayev, 74, a prominent Sufi sheikh in the troubled province of Dagestan who had spoken out against violent Islam, heightened tensions which Putin, visiting another Muslim region, had been trying to calm.

Police said Aminat Kurbanova had posed as a pilgrim to the cleric's home and detonated an explosive belt packed with nails and ball bearings, killing Atsayev, herself and six others, including an 11-year-old boy visiting with his parents.

More...

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Red Cross halts most Pakistan aid after beheading of staff doctor

Hospital staff and rescue workers carry the casket of Khalil Rasjed Dale, a British doctor working with the International Committee of the Red Cross, to an ambulance at a hospital in Quetta April 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Naseer Ahmed
GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday it was halting most of its aid programs in Pakistan due to deteriorating security and the beheading of a British staff doctor in April blamed on Taliban insurgents.

The independent agency, which had already suspended operations in three of Pakistan's four provinces in May pending a security assessment, said it would carry on working in the country "but on a reduced scale".

"All relief and protection activities are being stopped. All projects of rehabilitation, economic projects, have been terminated," said Jacques de Maio, head of ICRC operations in South Asia, on one of the organization's blog.

"We have closed a number of offices. We are also terminating all visits to detainees in Pakistan," he added.

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Russia: Female suicide bomber kills Muslim cleric; 12 killed elsewhere in Dagestan and Ingushetia

BOLGAR, Russia (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber killed an influential Islamic cleric and six of his followers in Russia's southern Dagestan region on Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin visited another mainly Muslim province and called for an end to religious violence.

Said Atsayev, 74, a popular Sufi Muslim spiritual leader also known as Sheikh Said Afandi al-Chirkavi, was killed when the woman entered his home disguised as a pilgrim and detonated an explosive belt around her waist, police sources said.

In a separate incident in another part of Dagestan, a border guard shot and killed seven other servicemen at a frontier post and was killed by return fire, the federal Investigative Committee said. [...]

Also on Tuesday, the Investigative Committee said security forces in Ingushetia killed four suspected militants. Itar-Tass news agency cited local Federal Security Service officials as saying they were involved in the assault on police and had been planning attacks on the first day of the school term on September 1.

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Left-wing militia members arrested for double homicide and plotting to overthrow US Gov't and kill president

(Fox News) Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed with the intention of overthrowing the U.S. government and killing the president, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in a civilian court in Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group was serious enough to kill two people -- former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York -- by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.

"This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. "Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans."

One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Pfc. Michael Burnett, also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to cooperate with prosecutors against the three other soldiers.

Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members it had.

Burnett, 26, said he knew the group's leaders from serving with them at Fort Stewart. He agreed to testify against fellow soldiers Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia's founder and leader, and Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.

All are charged by state authorities with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled Thursday.

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Syria: Warplane attacks on Damascus suburbs kill 60

AMMAN/ALEPPO (Reuters) - Syrian fighter planes made rare sorties on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, killing at least 60 people in its eastern suburbs, the same day a Syrian military helicopter crashed while under rebel fire, activists said.

They said aerial attacks by at least two fighter planes late on Monday had targeted the neighborhood of Zemalka and the more easterly suburb of Saqba where Free Syrian Army fighters had attacked and overrun several army roadblocks earlier in the day.

Both suburbs are poor and inhabited predominantly by Sunni Muslims, who make up the majority of Syria's population and have been at the forefront of fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.

Video footage seen by a Reuters reporter of the aftermath of an attack by one of the planes firing rockets at an apartment building showed people running away with their children and the six-storey building collapsed like an accordion.

Syrian authorities have banned entry to most foreign media, making it impossible to verify accounts by activists and residents of activity in the capital.

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Remember how in 2006 the outraged media demanded access to Gaza? No happening in Syria. What gives?

Monday, August 27, 2012

Ramadan Spring: Muslims riot in Kenya after radical Islamist cleric shot dead

(Mombasa) After each and every Islamic terrorist outrage in the West, all we hear from the government, Muslims and the human rights brigade is that this may cause a backlash against Muslims.

However, have you noticed the outrage expressed against non-Muslims when the victim (or victims) is a Muslim?

In Kenya, radical Islamic Mullah Aboud Rogo Mohammed, who is in everybody's books as not a nice person, was shot dead as he drove in a car with his family. Most likely, he was shot dead by followers of his own warped faith. Yet for some strange reason, Muslims in Kenya have gone on the riot attacking churches and killing one person.

The thing is, this behaviour is commonplace when Muslims feel slighted, be it a little 11-year-old girl collecting rubbish in Pakistan, a cartoonist drawing a picture of a primitive paedophile, or even a man walking his dog in a park in Canada. In each and every case, Muslims lash out.

So much for equality then?

Ramadan Spring: Pakistani authorities examine Downs syndrome girl to see if she can be killed for Allah

(Islamabad) In the Islamic paradise which is Pakistan (run by Muslims and for Muslims), the case of how an 11-year-old Christian girl arrested for blasphemy (she was carrying a rubbish bag containing paper on which somebody had written Allah) took another step towards the bloody ludicrous when the authorities had her examined to find out if she is mentally handicapped and thus be given an excuse not to stand trial.

Yes, folks, the so called religion of peace and understanding has no problem putting in the dock an 11-year-old Christian girl because Islam to the contrary has no problem oppressing non-Muslims, little girls and the mentally handicapped.

Meanwhile in the West, Muslims demand we bend over backwards so as to allow these very same discriminatory mores to be put in place in our midst, as it is their human right to do so.

Ramadan Spring: Taliban behead 17 people for having a party

(Afghanistan) Released from the so called restrictions imposed on them during their so called Holy Month of Ramadan, the Taliban have returned to the way of killing for Allah by barging into a private party and executing 17 people. They deemed that having invited 2 women to the party they had broken the code of Allah. So after torturing the people, they, like the Queen of Hearts, said:
"Off with their Heads"
And people still try to tell me that Islam is a religion of peace.

IAEA Evidence Shows Israel, Not Obama, Talking Sense About Iran

The handling of Iran has been a disaster for Obama. The problem is that we will not see the extent of that disaster until the day Iran detonates a nuclear test. Then it all changes.

It will be a religiously fanatical state with the the ability to launch "Allah's wrath" whenever a vision strikes the appropriate nut cases that the Mahdi coming is due.

The sanctions have been worthless, the talks are a joke, and all because Iran has no fear of any military action under Obama. In fact, what they note is the extreme pressure Obama puts on Israel to stand down.

It's a colossal f*ck up.
(Commentary Magazine) The latest report being prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran appears to be a sobering retort to those who have spent the summer trying to claim that Israel’s warnings about the need to act should be ignored. The report, which has not yet been released but whose contents have been leaked, says that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and is devoting its efforts to refining uranium to a level of greater than 20 percent, a sign that it is working on a nuclear bomb and not, as it disingenuously contends, on medical research. Of equal concern is that all of this new equipment has been installed in facilities near the holy city of Qum and buried so far under underground that they may be invulnerable to attack.

This evidence would mean the alarms being sounded in Israel in recent months were entirely justified. If the Iranians have dramatically increased their stockpile of refined uranium and are now transferring more of their work into hardened bunkers, they may be close to what Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak have called a “zone of immunity”: the point at which their program can no longer be halted by force. But rather than taking this as a sign that their complacent attitude toward Iran needs to be revised, the Obama administration remains in denial. Despite the obvious failure of the P5+1 talks and Iran’s determination to run out the clock on its nuclear program before the West acts, a White House spokesman said Friday there is still “time and space” for a diplomatic solution to the standoff. Indeed, as the New York Times noted, the administration seemed more intent on trying to undermine Israel’s stance on the nuclear peril than it was on actually doing anything about the problem.

President Obama has pledged to stop Iran from going nuclear, but his priority throughout the last year has been to stop Israel from acting on its own to deal with the problem. No serious observer has any confidence that the sanctions on Iran that were belatedly adopted (and loosely enforced) by Washington will force the ayatollahs to back off on their nuclear plans. The P5+1 talks led by the European Union’s Catherine Ashton got nowhere despite several tries. Any revival of these negotiations would only serve Iran’s purposes as they string Western diplomats along while their centrifuges keep spinning.

But despite the evidence of Iran’s progress, the administration is doing its best to downplay the crisis. An “administration official” speaking without attribution to the New York Times — the White House’s favorite outlet for leaks — confirmed the latest intelligence gleaned from the IAEA report but pooh-poohed it as “not a game changer.” The argument from the source was that a “breakout” that could convert the existing Iranian stockpile to weapons grade could be rapidly accomplished. But the source said the U.S. would find out about it and still have time to deal with it. The upshot of this statement was that the world should ignore Israel’s fears and trust President Obama to deal with the problem in his own good time.

Yet how can the president be trusted on the issue if his whole focus seems to be on kicking the can down road until after the presidential election in November? It is one thing to accuse the Israelis of alarmism or of trying to exert pressure on Obama to pledge to act. But if the Iranians are able to compile enough refined uranium and store it in places that can’t be attacked, a U.S. policy rooted in a predisposition to delay action is a formula that is certain to fail.

Time is running out not only on the countdown to the day when Iran will be able to quickly assemble a bomb but until the point where it will no longer be possible to use force to prevent them from doing so. Four years of Obama policies toward Iran have shown the administration to be willing to do nothing but talk about the need to avert this danger. The latest information from the IAEA is more proof that despite the media campaign orchestrated from the White House intended to undermine Israel’s appeals, it is Jerusalem, and not Washington, that is talking sense about Iran.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Syria: Assad's forces accused of massacre near Damascus

Any word on a "world community" outrage?
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces on Sunday of committing a massacre of scores of people in a town close to the capital that the army had just retaken from rebels.

More than 200 bodies were found in houses and basements around Daraya, a working-class Sunni Muslim town to the southwest of Damascus, according to activists who said most had been killed "execution-style" by troops on house-to-house raids.

Due to restrictions on non-state media in Syria, it was impossible to independently verify the accounts.

"Assad's army has committed a massacre in Daraya," said Abu Kinan, an activist in the town, using an alias to protect himself from reprisals.

"In the last hour, 122 bodies were discovered and it appears that two dozen died from sniper fire and the rest were summarily executed by gunshots from close range," Abu Kinan told Reuters by telephone.

The activist said he witnessed the death of an 8-year-old girl, Asma Abu al-Laban, shot by army snipers while she was in a car with her parents.

"They were trying to flee the army raids. Three bullets hit her in the back and her parents brought her to a makeshift hospital. Nothing could be done for her," he said.

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Arab Spring now a Christian nightmare

(Toronto Sun) In the 1990s, western democracies stepped forward to stop ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia by dispatching NATO forces in support of UN peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia precipitated ethnic strife, and like all such struggles anywhere in the world, the Balkan conflict was complex and layered with history of grievances, identity politics, and religious bigotry. If one reaches back to the early years of the last century, this region was a cauldron of ethno-nationalism that ignited the First World War.

Some 16 years later, the so-called Arab Spring mirrors the conflict that ripped through the Balkans.

The rotten structures of Arab states were primed to crash once the people set aside their fear of despots. But not unlike the Balkans, the death knell of Arab dictatorships has been accompanied by predictable conflicts among people divided by religion, sect and ethnicity.

There is one stark difference, however, between the Balkans and the situation in the Arab-Muslim world.

In the Balkans, the minority most seriously hurt by the conflict were Bosnian Muslims.

It was in part to protect Bosnian Muslims that the West intervened with force and, eventually overseen by President Clinton’s administration, the parties agreed to abide by the Dayton Agreement of November 1995 reached in Dayton, Ohio and formally signed in Paris a few weeks later.

In the Arab-Muslim world, the so–called Arab Spring has hurt most seriously the dwindling Christian minorities of the Middle East. While Arab despots in the name of secularism paradoxically provided some protection to Christians, the situation has worsened with Islamists taking power.

William Dalrymple, the well-respected historian and author of From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (1998), recently wrote, “Wherever you go in the Middle East today, you see the Arab Spring rapidly turning into the Christian winter … The past few years have been catastrophic for the region’s beleaguered 14 million strong Christian minority.”

The decline, probably disappearance, of Christians from the Middle East is an ominous sign of a tragic future for the region.

And such an eventuality has precedence.

Jews of the Arab-Muslim world from the pre-Christian era, with their rich heritage and long historical presence in ancient cities across the region — Alexandria, Algiers, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Constantine, Damascus, Fez, Oran, Sana’a, Tripoli, Tunis and more — were compelled to leave lands conquered by Arabs in the name of Islam following the establishment of Israel in 1948.

There have been numerous anti-Coptic riots with attacks on Christian churches in Egypt. From Gaza reports have come of forced conversions among Christians reduced to a miniscule presence.

Iraqi Christians fled in large numbers following post-Saddam sectarian strife, and they found refuge in Syria.

This safe-haven for Iraqi Christians is in jeopardy as the sectarian conflict in Syria has intensified, and Syrian Christians are endangered.

While Christians flee from their ancient homes in the Arab-Muslim world, the West’s failure to respond effectively, unlike its response in the Balkans, is more than an immense moral failure.

It is another sign of the West scandalously appeasing Islamist totalitarianism that might well be as catastrophic as when Europe’s major democracies appeased Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s.

Libya 2.0: Armed Salafis bulldoze second Sufi mosque in 2 days in central Tripoli for being un-Islamic

Libyan Salafis Muslims use a bulldozer to raze a Sufi mosque in central Tripoli August 25, 2012. [...] (Reuters Pictures)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Attackers bulldozed a mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves in the center of Tripoli in broad daylight on Saturday, in what appeared to be Libya's most blatant sectarian attack since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Government officials condemned the demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque and blamed an armed group who, they said, considered its graves and shrines to Sufi figures un-Islamic.

It was the second razing of a Sufi site in two days. Ultra-conservative Islamists wrecked Sufi shrines with bombs and another bulldozer and set fire to a mosque library in the city of Zlitan in the early hours of Friday, an official said.

Libya's rulers have struggled to control armed groups who are competing for power in the north African country a year after Gaddafi's fall.

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Three Things Islamists Don't Want You To Know About Jerusalem

Bienvenidos a México: 2 US Embassy Employees Wounded in Ambush on Mexican Road

MEXICO CITY (NYT) — The circumstances were all too typical in a drug war in which roadside ambushes involving armored sport utility vehicles are a staple. But in an ambush on Friday, the vehicle belonged to the United States Embassy, the wounded were two American employees and the assailants included federal police officers.

The embassy employees were traveling around 8 a.m. on a road 35 miles south of here to a Mexican Navy base. The State Department declined to identify them or the agency or department they worked for — nearly every branch of the federal government is represented here — though the Drug Enforcement Administration said they were not its employees.

Their vehicle carried diplomatic plates. That might seem adequate to provide protection from hostilities, but not in Mexico, where last year a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another was wounded when they were ambushed on a highway by an armed group who, the authorities said, mistook them for rivals.

In the ambush on Friday, the Mexican government conceded that the circumstances remained murky. In a statement, it said the police officers were still being questioned about what happened. A preliminary account issued by the government described a running gun battle.

The embassy vehicle was also carrying a Mexican Navy captain, who was taking the Americans to a training facility at the Mexican base. The S.U.V. was on a side road near a major highway when gunmen in another vehicle approached, showed their weapons and opened fire. The embassy vehicle was then pursued by three other vehicles

At one point, shots rang out from those three vehicles and the embassy S.U.V. The statement does not make clear which, if any, of the pursuers was a federal police vehicle and when the officers might have opened fire.

The driver of the embassy vehicle called the Navy base, but the help it sent arrived after the shooting.

The government statement said the embassy vehicle was hit by police gunfire, but it did not say if the wounded American employees, who were being treated at a hospital and were expected to survive, had been struck by bullets from the police. State Department officials said they were working with the Mexican authorities on the investigation.

United States Embassy personnel are not usually targets in the pitched battles involving drug and organized crime groups — battles that have killed more than 50,000 people in the past six years.

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“Republican” In Obama's Anti-Romeny Ad Is A Registered Democrat

BuzzFeed: “Republican” In Obama Ad Is A Democrat

CIA drone strike may have killed Haqqani network leader

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A CIA drone strike in Pakistan may have killed the operational commander of the Haqqani network, the insurgent group behind some of the most high-profile attacks on Western and Afghan government targets in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials and militant sources said on Saturday.

The officials said Badruddin Haqqani, who is also believed to handle the network's vital business interests and smuggling operations, may have been killed during a drone strike this week in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan region.

One senior Pakistani intelligence official said Badruddin had fled a compound that he and other militants were in after it was hit by a missile, then was killed by a second drone strike on a car that he was in.

There was no official word on Badruddin's fate from the Haqqani network. Other intelligence officials were more cautious.

"Our informers have told us that he has been killed in the drone attack on the 21st but we cannot confirm it," said one of the Pakistani intelligence officials.

If Badruddin's death is confirmed, it could deal a major blow to the Haqqanis, one of the United States's most feared enemies in Afghanistan.

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Pic of the day

A group of protesters display placards as US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's motorcade arrives in Minnetonka Beach, Minnesotaa, on August 23, 2012. President Barack Obama clearly leads his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the battleground of Ohio but the race has tightened considerably in two other key states ahead of the November 6 elections, a new poll said August 23, 2012. (Getty Images)
Note the guy wearing a T-shirt with a huge coat of arm of the USSR, the socialism central, standing next to a woman wearing an Obama 2012 T-shirt.

Lebanon: At least 3, including Sunni cleric, killed in sectarian clashes

Shiites are now sniping Sunni clerics.
(BBC) Three people, including a Sunni Muslim cleric, have been killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli amid renewed sectarian clashes fuelled by the conflict in Syria, officials say.

Sheikh Khaled al-Baradei was shot by a sniper as fighting erupted between gunmen in the Sunni district of Qobbeh and the Alawite area of Jabal Muhsin.

The deaths bring to 15 the number of people killed in Tripoli since Monday.

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Obama regime asks eurozone to keep Greece in until after US election day

Regime officials are worried that if Greece exits the eurozone, it will damage Obama's election hopes.
(Independent) The Obama administration will pressure European governments not to let Greece fall out of the eurozone before November's Presidential elections, British Government sources have suggested.

Representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission are due to arrive in Athens next month to assess Greece's reform efforts.

They are expected to report in time for an 8 October meeting of eurozone finance ministers which will decide on whether to disburse Greece's next €31bn aid tranche, promised under the terms of the bailout for the country.

American officials are understood to be worried that if they decide Greece has not done enough to meet its deficit targets and withhold the money, it would automatically trigger Greece's exit from the eurozone weeks before the Presidential election on 6 November.

They are urging eurozone Governments to hold off from taking any drastic action before then – fearing that the resulting market destabilisation could damage President Obama's re-election prospects.

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Obama is willing to drag the EU down just for his election. He thinks the whole world should revolve around his election. How f'n arrogant is that?

Fierce fighting in Syria swells refugee exodus, 21 killed on Friday

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops forced rebels to abandon a battered Damascus suburb on Friday in the latest battle of an intensifying civil war that the U.N. refugee agency said had prompted more than 200,000 people to flee the country.

Hundreds of soldiers and dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles pushed into the centre of Daraya after a small group of defenders withdrew, opposition activists said.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces had subjected the Sunni Muslim township to a three-day bombardment from artillery, tanks, mortars, rockets and helicopter gunships in which at least 70 people were killed, 21 of them on Friday they said.

"There are lots of bodies trapped in destroyed buildings and civilians are trying to flee towards Damascus," an activist in Daraya, who gave his name as Abu Kinan, told Reuters by phone.

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2 killed, 9 wounded in economy-related shooting in Manhattan

(Yahoo! News) Nine people were wounded and two people were dead Friday after a shooting outside the Empire State Building in the Midtown area of Manhattan. The two victims included the gunman, who was shot and killed by police near the tourist entrance of the landmark skyscraper.

The shooting occurred at 9:03 a.m. ET at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. The gunman, a 53 year-old women's accessories designer named Jeffrey Johnson, was fired from his job during a corporate downsizing at Hazan Imports and returned to his office Friday morning to target his 41 year-old boss.

The shooter followed his coworker down 33rd Street, and shot him outside of Legend's Bar, according to the New York Post. It is unclear if he fired into a crowd of pedestrians outside of the Empire State Building, or if pedestrians were caught in crossfire, reported the New York Daily News.

More...

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Top German politician calls for EU to ban Hezbollah

BERLIN (JPost) – Hezbollah should be placed on the European Union’s terror list, Philipp Missfelder, Bundestag foreign policy spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, wrote The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Missfelder’s call to outlaw Hezbollah is the first statement from a prominent and senior European politician since the United States and Israeli intelligence agencies asserted that the Lebanese group Hezbollah – in a joint project with Iran – murdered five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver in July.

The Christian Democratic Union deputy Missfelder wrote, “It is long overdue to place Hezbollah on the EU’s list of terror organizations.”

He stressed that Hezbollah “threatens the security of our alliance partner Israel and is involved in countless terror activities and receives protection from the Iranian regime.”

Missfelder added that “the EU should not allow any more time to elapse” regarding the ban of Hezbollah, because “an organization that agitates against our friends in Israel cannot be accepted in Europe.” He appealed to Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country holds the presidency of the 26-member EU, to take action against Hezbollah.

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ICE agents sue to stop Obama’s non-deportation policy

(WT) Saying they're fed up with being told they can't do their jobs, 10 immigration agents on Thursday sued the Obama administration to try to halt the president's new non-deportation policy and an earlier memo instructing them not to go after rank-and-file illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Texas, adds a legal controversy to the political fight that has been brewing over President Obama's immigration policies, which have steadily narrowed the range of immigrants the government is targeting for deportation.

The 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and deportation officers said Mr. Obama's policies force them to choose between enforcing the law and being reprimanded by superiors, or listening to superiors and violating their own oaths of office and a 1996 law that requires them to put those who entered the country illegally into deportation proceedings.

Upping the ante, the agents are being represented by a high-profile lawyer, Kris W. Kobach, secretary of state in Kansas and the chief promoter of state immigration crackdowns such as Arizona's tough law.

"ICE is at a point now where agents are being told to break federal law, they're pretty much told that any illegal alien under age of 31 is going to be let go. You can imagine, these law enforcement officers are being put in a horrible position," Mr. Kobach said.

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Unnoticed by the West, al-Qaeda is seizing a golden opportunity

There are no good guys. But the real concern now is that the jihadists will have the world's largest supply of chemical and biological weapons once Assad goes down.

And that will be a real nightmare.
(NRO) Our collective excitement at the possibility that the Assad regime will be destroyed, and the Iranian ayatollahs weakened in the process, is blurring our vision and preventing us from seeing the rise of al-Qaeda in Syria. In March of this year, jihadis mounted seven attacks against Assad. By June, they had led 66 “operations,” and over half of these were on Syria’s capital, Damascus. The Syrian opposition is benefiting hugely from the terrorist organization’s determination, discipline, combat experience, religious fervor, and ability to strike the Assad regime where it hurts most.

The territory in the Middle East that al-Qaeda covets most is of course Saudi Arabia, but Syria is next on the list. Now, Syria is not Syria to jihadis, but part of Bilaad al-Shaam, what the region was called when when borders did not divide the lands we now call Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and, crucially, Israel and the Palestinian territories. To al-Qaeda, these modern-day countries are based on artificial borders created after the First World War by the British and French, descendants of the eleventh-century Crusaders who occupied Jerusalem. Yes, al-Qaeda has a long historical memory, but it also has plans for its future. And in Bilaad al-Shaam, the future is looking good for al-Qaeda.

As long as Assad governs Syria, brigades of Arab and other Muslim fighters will continue to gather in Bilaad al-Shaam to support the jihad of the Sunni Muslims against an Alawite infidel, as they see it. Assad offers them a rallying point. In the process, al-Qaeda’s local franchises will win support and create alliances with Syria’s tribes and Sunni religious leaders. In the event of Assad’s falling, al-Qaeda will probably gain de facto control of parts of Syria to serve as a new strategic base for jihadis in the Middle East, or at least enjoy tribal protection in the broader regions with Iraq and Jordan. A new government in Syria not only will be indebted to these fighters, but also will be in need of their cooperation to minimize the potential of militias fighting each other.

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The face of the Democrat party

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) gestures as she talks to supporters during the visit of First Lady Michelle Obama at the War Memorial Auditorium Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo)

Pic of the day

A supporter of US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shows his T-shirt during campaign event at Watson Truck and Supply in Hobbs, New Mexico, on August 23, 2012. Romney is in New Mexico to unveil his energy plan, which aims at energy independence for North America by 2020. (Getty Images)

Syria: Military hits town near Damascus; 300 killed in 2 days nationwide

ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Troops and tanks swept into a town near Damascus on Thursday in an assault aimed at crushing opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's increasingly bloody civil war.

Artillery and helicopters hammered the Sunni Muslim town of Daraya, killing 25 people and wounding 200 over the last 48 hours, opposition sources said. Soldiers moved in and raided houses.

"Artillery is firing from Qasioun Mountain in regular bursts of heavy barrages. I wonder what is left of the town," said one woman watching the shelling from Damascus.

At least 100 people, including 59 civilians, died in violence across the country, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 200 were killed on Wednesday.

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Navy SEAL's first-hand account of bin Laden raid to hit stores on 9/11, to set the record straight

(Fox News) The author of a recently announced insider account of the raid that killed Usama bin Laden has been identified to Fox News as a 36-year-old former Navy SEAL Team 6 member from Alaska who also played a role in the high-profile rescue of an American captain kidnapped by Somali pirates.

The book, "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden," is set to hit shelves on Sept 11. It is penned under the pseudonym "Mark Owen," according to the publisher, but multiple sources told Fox News his name is in fact Matt Bissonnette, 36, of Wrangell, Alaska. Bissonnette could be exposing himself to legal trouble, as the Pentagon has not vetted the account.

The tell-all book also has apparently upset a large population of former and current SEAL members who worry about releasing information that could compromise future missions. One Navy SEAL told Fox News, "How do we tell our guys to stay quiet when this guy won't?" Other SEALs are expressing anger, with some going so far as to call him a "traitor."

According to a press release from his publisher, Penguin Group, "Owen (Bissonnette) was one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader's hideout and was present at his death."

In the book, Bissonnette writes "it is time to set the record straight about one of the most important missions in U.S. military history."

An experienced member of the elite Navy SEAL special operators, Bissonnette also participated in the highly publicized rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean in 2009. That mission involved a daring rescue that ended when SEAL snipers shot and killed three Somali pirates with direct shots to the head.

Bissonnette received the rank of chief before he retired.

The book is co-authored with Kevin Maurer, author of four books, many of which were based on Special Operations.

Along with using the pseudonym "Mark Owen," Bissonette protected his fellow SEAL Team 6 members by changing their names in the book.

Both the Pentagon and CIA said Wednesday that the book was not in any way vetted by either department to prevent unwanted classified information from being released. When asked about the book, officials in both departments said they were unaware of the SEAL's true identity, but described co-author Kevin Maurer as a well-respected journalist.

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Out of desperation, team Obama breaks precedent to try to spoil Romney’s convention

(The Hill) Bucking protocol, President Obama and the Democrats are planning a full-scale assault on Republicans next week during their convention.

Presidential candidates have traditionally kept a low profile during their opponent's nominating celebration, but Democrats are throwing those rules out the window in an attempt to spoil Mitt Romney’s coronation as the GOP nominee.

President Obama, Vice President Biden and leading congressional Democrats have all scheduled high-profile events next week to counter-program the Republican gathering in Tampa, Fla.

Even first lady Michelle Obama is in on the act, scheduling an appearance on the “David Letterman Show” smack in the middle of Romney's nominating bash.

Political historians say the high stakes of this year's elections — combined with the rise of today’s 24/7 media culture — have forced leaders on both sides of the aisle to get more aggressive.

"Traditionally, there was a kind of courtesy extended to the party having the convention — the [other] party would basically stay out of the public eye," said Ross Baker, political scientist at Rutgers University.

But that "gentlemen's agreement," Baker said, has been largely abandoned as "a consequence of the polarization of American politics." He characterized the old tradition as a "quaint code of etiquette" destined to become a "remnant of the 20th century."

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Toronto: "Walk your Dog In front of Mosque Day" planned after man was arrested for walking his dog near Muslims during anti-Israel rally

TORONTO (Sun News) - A Facebook event has been launched inviting people to walk their dogs outside an east-end mosque during Islamic prayer sessions.

The call to action was launched to protest a man being arrested while walking his English mastiff at an anti-Israel rally at Queen's Park last Saturday.

The Facebook page encourages people to bring dogs "of all colours and breeds" to the Salahuddin mosque in the city's east end on Sept. 14.

On Saturday, a Jewish man was arrested while his dog near a rally held outside Queens Park by an Islamic group marking Al-Quds Day, a yearly event calling for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Allan Einstoss, a Jew who opposes the Al-Quds doctrine, showed up at the rally with his big-yet-friendly English mastiff, Cupcake. After Einstoss was allegedly told by an Al-Quds demonstrator to keep the dog away, he claims to have been punched in the chest by another. When Einstoss pushed back, he was handcuffed and held by Toronto police.

Cupcake was also reportedly kicked by one of the Al-Quds demonstrators.

Some devout Muslims believe dogs to be unclean and vehemently avoid the animals.

As of midday on Wednesday, five people had signed up for the mosque dog-walk and 253 others had been invited to the event.

One of those who signed up for the event is Brampton resident Walter Sapienza, a 58-year-old owner of two Yorkshire Terriers.

"I thought it was pretty disgusting, the way (Einstoss) was arrested," Sapienza said, adding if Al-Quds demonstrators have a right to call for the destruction of Israel, than others should have the right to walk a dog while they do it.

Daycare staff charged with running toddler fight club in Delaware

(Sun News) Three daycare workers in Delaware are accused of ordering toddlers to fight each other at the centre so they could watch.

Dover police said a cellphone video showed the female employees encouraging the three-year-old children to punch each other.

In the video, police said a child is heard crying and yells,

"He's pinching me," before a daycare worker says, "No pinching. Only punching."

"Clearly one of the children is crying and does not want to continue on and he is pushed back into the fray by one of the adults," Capt. Tim Stump told CBS Philly of the footage taken in March.

Police did not release the video.

The employees from the Hands of Our Future Daycare have been arrested and the business licence of the daycare has been suspended.

Tiana Harris, 19, Estefania Myers, 21, and Lisa Parker, 47, are charged with assault, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

More terrorists visiting Obama White House: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president Morsi to visit US next month

Yes, this is the guy under whom crucifixions of Christians are re-instituted in Egypt.
(INN) Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is expected to visit Washington D.C. in the United States next month, according to official reports in Egypt. This will be Morsi's first visit of to the United States since he was elected. From 2000 to 2005 he was a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Pic of the day: Obama presidency in a nutshell

A teleprompter obscures U.S. President Barack Obama as he speaks during a campaign event at Capital University in Cleveland, Ohio August 21, 2012. Obama is on a two-day campaign trip to Ohio, Nevada and New York. (Reuters Pictures)

Tampa police find ‘suspicious’ bricks, pipes on rooftop just days before Republican convention

TAMPA, Fla. (WaPo) — Tampa police said Tuesday that they confiscated pipes, bricks and other “suspicious” items from the rooftop of a downtown building located about a mile from where next week’s Republican National Convention will be held.

Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said she believes the items were put there by protesters for use during RNC demonstrations. She added that some RNC-related graffiti was also found at the building, but wouldn’t elaborate.

Tampa will host the RNC at a downtown stadium from Aug. 27-30.

Police have been preparing for the event for nearly two years. Castor said she’s studied other protests surrounding political events, most notably the RNC in St. Paul in 2008, where authorities were taken by surprise by an active minority of demonstrators who smashed cars, punctured tires and threw bottles in a confrontation with pepper-spray-wielding police. Hundreds were arrested over a few days, including dozens of journalists.

Castor said she is determined not to preside over a repeat of St. Paul.

Within the past two weeks, downtown Tampa has changed from a slightly sleepy urban core to a patchwork of barricades, gates and even boarded-up windows. Many federal, state and local buildings are surrounded by barricades because Castor said that some protesters — especially anarchists — are known to target government property.

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Yeah, but all you hear from the left is that Tea Party is, like, really violent and stuff.

Lebanon: 7 killed as fighting spills over from Syria

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Seven people have been killed in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli as clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, fuelled by tensions over the war in Syria, continued for a second night, security and medical sources said on Tuesday.

Around 100 people have also been wounded since the fighting erupted on Monday evening, they said.

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How about that peace process? Abbas again denies Jewish connection to Jerusalem

The quote above is from 2011 and serves as a background story for Abbas' latest statement.
(JPost) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denied the Jewish connection to Jerusalem on Tuesday, the same day he spoke by phone with both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho.

Abbas issued a statement Tuesday, marking the 43rd anniversary of an attempt by deranged Australian Christian Denis Michael Rohan to set fire to al-Aksa mosque, saying that Jerusalem’s Arab and Islamic identity was a Palestinian red line.

Highlighting the necessity of the protection of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites, Abbas said “the fire, set by a criminal under the eyes of the Israeli Occupation Authorities, was the first [attack] in a series aiming to demolish al- Aksa mosque and build the alleged Temple in order to uproot its citizens, Judaize it and eternalize its occupation.”

The statement read that all Israeli excavation work in Jerusalem, and tunnels underneath the mosque, “will not undermine the fact that the city will forever be Arabic, Islamic and Christian.”

Abbas’ statement warned against what it called “the dangers surrounding Jerusalem and its al-Aksa mosque by the Israeli government and municipality which aims to steal more lands and enact unfair legislations against the Palestinian institutions.”

The statement concluded “that there will be no peace or stability before our beloved city and eternal capital is liberated from occupation and settlement.”

Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev said in response that he hoped the Palestinian leadership was not denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, which goes back 3,000 years. “Ignoring that connection is to ignore reality,” he said, and will do nothing to advance peace and reconciliation Regev said he was “disappointed” to hear the mainstream Palestinian leadership “echo outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the Temple Mount, conspiracy theories that are the usual domain of extremist elements.” He added that only under Israeli control has Jerusalem enjoyed a period of unparalleled growth and development, under which the religious rights of all, and the holy sites, were protected.

“This is in stark contrast to the reality before 1967,” Regev said.

The tone of Abbas’ statement dispelled the notion that a series of phone calls recently might lead to a slight change in atmosphere.

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Egypt's ruling Salafists: Conspiring against Mursi, who is the "ruling imam", is conspiring against Allah

Good thing the Obama administration played a vital role in forcing Mubarak out and reassured us that Muslim Brotherhood is a "largely secular" and "non-violent" group and that there is no need to be afraid of them.
(allAfrica) Salafi (ultraconservative) leader and member of the constituent assembly, tasked with rewriting the constitution, Saeed Abdel Azeem, said that conspiring against Egypt's ruler (President Mohamed Mursi) is equal to conspiring against God.

Describing Egypt's president as the "ruling imam", Abdel Azeem argued that as Mursi may be unable to apply the law of God fully at this point, the nation must overcome political differences and rally behind him.

He added in his Eid speech on Sunday in Alexandria's Shohadaa Square that Egypt will return to being ruled by Islam and Prophet Mohamed's Sunnah and not democracy, socialism or nationalism.

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Madeleine Albright campaigns for Obama: We're going to blame Bush forever

(Washington Examiner) Reveal Politics snags some video from an Obama campaign rally in Highlands Ranch, Colorado featuring former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

In the video, Albright is seen telling a story about an exchange with a man during a Truman Foundation event, as he asked her how long Democrats would blame the previous administration for their problems.

"All of a sudden this man gets up and says, 'How long will you blame the previous administration for all of your problems?'" Albright recounted. "I said, 'Forever.'"

The story prompted laughter and applause from the crowd.

Illegal immigrants protest 'illegal' label, because it hurts their feelings

(Newsday) A small group of immigrants gathered in Woodbury Monday to protest the use of the word "illegal" to describe those who have entered the United States without documentation.

"By saying illegal, they're assuming that we broke a criminal law," said Jackeline Saavedra, 27, of Bay Shore, a Touro Law Center student who identified herself as undocumented. "Not everybody enters illegally."

Coordinators said they prefer the phrase "undocumented immigrant." [...]

[T]he word "illegal" makes Elias Llivicura, 18, who described himself as undocumented, feel "uncomfortable."

"We also have feelings too," said Llivicura, of Bellport, who came to Long Island from Ecuador at age 8. "It makes me feel like I'm different from everybody else," he said. "It makes me feel like really bad inside."
In the spirit of not hurting anybody's feelings, we should rename other criminals as well.

Rapist: surprise sex specialist.

Burglar: wealth redistribution worker.

Murderer: life suppressant agent.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Occupy Admits Its Real Goal: Communism

(IBD) The Left: An Occupy organizer admitted over the weekend that the goal of his protest group was to "overthrow the capitalist system and build communism." So the cat's out of the bag again on this bunch. Where is the outrage?

The true agenda of the Occupy movement has been revealed — it's a totalitarian one. Billing itself as a spontaneous people's revolution and embraced by the media and Democrat political establishment, Occupy is really a destructive band of thugs whose goal is the violent demise of democracy.

Speaking at a "People's Assembly" in Washington, former Amalgamated Transit Union local 689 president Mike Golash told Occupy members his goal was to "make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism."
The Occupy organizer added that he was "trying to learn something from the examples of the Soviet Union, Red China and Castro's Cuba. ... What can we learn from them so we can build a more successful movement to transform capitalist society?" he asked.

This attachment to the miserable failure of communism — an ideology that left 100 million people dead in the 20th century and met its demise as an idea after millions rose up in 1989-90 to repudiate it — is insane.

Remarks like Golash's were common among the Occupy mobs who filthied up Los Angeles and other cities last year — perfectly representative of Occupy thinking.

Such talk never fazed anyone at the "People's Assembly" either. Maybe that's because it's of a piece with the thinking of Occupy master planner, SEIU boss Stephen Lerner, who in 2011 said he wanted to bring down the stock market and destroy banks such as JPMorgan.

Occupy flourishes because it draws support and legitimacy from the media and like-minded Democratic politicians who pitch a fit anytime someone accuses them of supporting the destruction of democracy.

Not long ago, Democrats pounded Rep. Allen West for pointing out that Congress is loaded with soft-core communists who sugarcoat themselves as the "progressive caucus." They are Occupy's loudest supporters.

Democratic leaders such as then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed Occupy as "spontaneous," while President Obama himself heaped sympathy on the group, even intervening in a local police matter to keep Occupy Portland members from being arrested.

It's a disgrace. Occupy is nothing but a far-left group, learning nothing from the past yet drawing support from the left. Is communism the agenda they really stand for? From Golash's remarks, it looks like it.

"2016: Obama's America" beats Batman, Bourne in earnings

(Washington Examiner) Surging popularity in the anti-Obama movie "2016: Obama's America" has dramatically boosted the number of theaters showing it, making the film the second biggest money-maker per-theater behind the the "Expendables 2," the nation's No. 1 flick.

Having opened last month in just a single Texas theater and facing complaints from the president's supporters, the "2016: Obama's America" was shown in 169 theaters last weekend is slated to be in 800 this weekend, producers tell Secrets.

Just as shocking: Over the weekend it earned $7,391 per theater, topping huge hits like "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Bourne Legacy," and "The Campaign." Last weekend, it earned $1,249,000, a 293 percent one-week surge. "Expendables 2" earned $8,670 per theater, tops in the country. What's more: It was the 13th overall money maker last week, following a movie that was showing in over 1,100 theaters.

"2016: Obama's America" is based on the conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's book "The Roots of Obama's Rage," and suggests that the president wants to downsize the influence of the United States.

Producer John Sullivan told Secrets that it is popular because "people are looking for a different narrative on Obama than they are getting from the mainstream media."

Sullivan added that the movie isn't just doing well in conservative markets. He said that the highest-grossing showings have been in Manhattan and Los Angeles.

The timing of the movie's expansion and popularity isn't good for the president, though critics have suggested that it is preaching to those already opposed to Obama.

Counter Al-Quds Day demonstration in Berlin

BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 18: Participants take part in a counter demonstration against Al-Quds Day as the event is held across the street on August 18, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Al-Quds Day, named after the Arabic word for Jerusalem, began in Iran in 1979 and is held there annually on the last Friday of Ramadan. It is intended to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, including rallying against Israel's control over Islam's third holiest city after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and has been criticized as a 'hatefest' against 'world Zionism.' The motto of the Berlin variant of the event, versions of which have been held since the 1980s, is 'Together Against Zionism and Antisemitism.' (Getty Images)

Pics of the day from Pakistan

Pakistani Shiite Muslim children hold toy guns as they stand on a US flag during a rally against Israel and the United States to mark the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) day on the last Friday in the month of Ramadan in Karachi on August 17, 2012. Shiite Muslim protesters rallied across the country against the United States and Israel and prayed for the liberation of Palestine. (Getty Images)

Pakistani Shiite Muslims shout slogans beside a burning Israeli flag during a rally against Israel and the United States to mark the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) day on the last Friday of the holiest month of Ramadan in Peshawar on August 17, 2012. Shiite Muslim protesters rallied across the country against the United States and Israel and prayed for the liberation of Palestine. (Getty Images)

Israel: Shin Bet uncovers PFLP cell plotting terror attacks

They weren't plotting terror attacks, no, they were preparing... peace gestures.
(JPost) The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF uncovered, and the IDF prosecution indicted, a cell of four terrorists alleged to be planning attacks in east Jerusalem and on Route 443 and belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Shin Bet released for publication Monday.

The statement said that the terrorists were suspected of planning shooting and kidnapping attacks, while they were indicted only for conspiracy to plan shooting attacks and illegal possession of weapons.

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At least 8 dead, 50 reportedly wounded after car bomb explosion in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — A car bomb explosion in Turkey has killed at least 8 people and wounded 50, according to reports from Turkish media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. Kurdish militants are active in the area, and the fight between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels, who seek autonomy in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, has intensified in recent weeks.

Television footage showed firefighters attempting to douse a fierce blaze that gutted several vehicles. Medics assisted a wounded person on a stretcher, and ambulance sirens wailed as bystanders gathered to survey the wreckage.

Eyewitnesses say a man was seen running away from a parked car outside a police station minutes before the blast.

The car bomb was remote-controlled, Gaziantep’s Gov. Erdal Ata told Turkey’s Dogan News Agency, according to Reuters.

Police officers were among the wounded, the agency reported.

NTV television said eight people died and as many as 50 were wounded.

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Gaza Children Deliver Sweets to Islamic Jihad Terrorists

Isn't that special?
(INN) In Gaza, young children were sent Monday to approach the border with Israel to bring sweets, cakes and chocolates to Islamic Jihad terrorists stationed at various strategic outposts.

The little boys brought the candies and other goodies to the terror organization's fighters in celebration of the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

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Pic of the day: IDF women off duty

Report: Over 60 Killed in Syria Monday

The media simply states it as a fact, with no righteous outrage, like in the case of you know who.
(INN) Reports Monday afternoon said that more than 60 people were killed in battles between rebels and troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the morning. A report on Al-Jazeera Monday afternoon said that another senior Syrian army official had defected, and joined the rebels.

In an interview with a Saudi newspaper, a leader of the Syrian rebels said that Assad's fate would be no different than the fate of Libya leader Muammar Qadaffi. Qadaffi was killed as he attempted to hide from Libyan rebels, but had he been captured alive, he would have been tried for genocide. Assad, too, had a great deal of blood on his hands, and would either be killed in battle or put on trial, the rebel leader told the paper.

Looks like the media wants a divorce from their messiah — Newsweek's cover: Obama’s Gotta Go

As Business Insider puts it,
Basically that Obama has failed on the economy and failed on the deficit, and that the vision of Romney and Ryan is the only thing that can save us now.
Read the whole thing here, it's well worth you time.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

UN Secretary General finally condemns Ahmadinejad's genocidal racism

(WJD) The United Nations has rarely been a friend to Israel or the Jewish people, but this weekend proved a welcome exception. At long last, the organization's Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has condemned the Iranian regime for its genocidal and racist anti-Israel rhetoric.
“The secretary-general is dismayed by the remarks threatening Israel’s existence attributed over the last two days to the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] and the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the UN press office said, and he “condemns these offensive and inflammatory statements.”
The Secretary General's remarks came after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unleashed another of his regular psychotic rants, in which he referred to Israel as an "insult to humanity" and a cancer. He further pledged to annihilate all "Zionists" in the Middle East.

The U.N. has long been seen as unremittingly hostile to Israel and its interests. With a large number of Arab and Muslim member states, which further multiplies its power through alliances with other Third World nations and the threat of the oil weapon, the U.N. has been a forum for hatred and unabashed anti-Israel racism since at least the early 1970s.

Today's statement, however, may indicate that the Iranian regime has finally gone too far, and that the international community is facing up to the fact that Ahmadinejad's genocidal rhetoric both violates international law and makes an Israeli military strike on Iran more likely.

This may also indicate that the recent media coverage regarding a possible Israeli strike is having an effect. The international community is now genuinely scared that Israeli will act unilaterally, and may now be trying to assuage Israeli fears by condemning Iran.