Why he's falling apart - The foundations of Obama's campaign are not nearly as strong as they once seemed

(NYDN) A presidential reelection campaign needs three key elements: a defense of the incumbent’s record, a successful effort to define the opposition and a compelling vision of a second term.

President Obama may well celebrate a second term in Chicago next month, but the conventional wisdom underestimates the difficulty he faces, as his campaign has distinct problems with all three elements.

His defense of his record is exceptionally weak, his effort to define Mitt Romney is nearly exhausted, and his vision for the next four years — perhaps the most important — has been largely missing from his effort this year.

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Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East

(CST) [...] Lara Logan, a correspondent for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” delivered a provocative speech to about 1,100 influentials from government, politics, media, and the legal and corporate arenas. ...

Her ominous and frightening message was gleaned from years of covering our wars in the Middle East. She arrived in Chicago on the heels of her Sept. 30 report, “The Longest War.” It examined the Afghanistan conflict and exposed the perils that still confront America, 11 years after 9/11.

Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back.

“I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .” Logan declared in her native South African accent.

The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban.

“There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!”

Logan stepped way out of the “objective,” journalistic role. The audience was riveted as she told of plowing through reams of documents, and interviewing John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a Taliban commander trained by al-Qaida. The Taliban and al-Qaida are teaming up and recruiting new terrorists to do us deadly harm, she reports.

She made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.”

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She knows Koranimals.

Israeli forces and Gaza terrorists exchange fire (bonus: bike swarm pic)

Associated Press/Eyad Baba - Palestinians gather a round the wreckage of motorcycle following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012. Israel's military says it has fired on two Gaza members of an al-Qaida-inspired group identified as having been involved in rocket attacks and an infiltration from Egypt. Palestinians say one man was killed. [...]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire on Monday in the most serious flare-up in months along the border with the Gaza Strip, officials said.

The latest exchange came after Israel targeted two men in an airstrike into southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing one and wounding the other. Israel said they were militant jihadists responsible for attacks.

Then, militants of the Islamic group Hamas that rules Gaza and a smaller hardline offshoot, Islamic Jihad, fired some 30 rockets toward Israel's southern border on Monday morning, causing some property damage but no casualties, said an Israeli military spokeswoman. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing military rules.

Gaza's interior ministry said Israel's military launched around 20 tank shells and an airstrike, mostly toward targets around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said five people were injured after a strike near a mosque. Another mosque was targeted nearby and a factory was targeted in east of Gaza City, according to the interior ministry.

The Israeli military spokeswoman said the houses of worship were used as "Hamas posts" but did not offer more information.

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Turkey shells Syria for sixth day

But who are we to tell them to restrain themselves?

BEIRUT (AP) — The Turkish military retaliated with artillery fire for a sixth straight day Monday after a Syrian shell hit its territory, and Turkey's president warned that "the worst-case scenario we have all been dreading" is unfolding in Syria and along its borders. [...]

In the latest cross-border incident, a Syrian artillery shell fell on Turkey's border province of Hatay on Monday, the provincial governor's office said. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the round landed in a cotton field near the town of Altinozu. People were working in the field but no one was injured, Anadolu said.

Turkey retaliated Monday, as it did on five previous days, the governor's office said. Last week, after deadly cross-border shelling, Ankara warned Assad that it will respond to each shell or mortar round that hits Turkish soil.

Turkey also sent more artillery to hotspots along the troubled border on Monday, Turkish media reported.

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France boosting security at religious sites after blanks fired at synagogue in Paris suburb

PARIS (AP) — France is boosting security at Jewish and other religious sites after blanks were fired at a synagogue and police accused a suspected cell of radical Islamists of ties to a grenade attack on a kosher grocery.

President Francois Hollande sought Sunday to allay tensions between Jews and Muslims aggravated by a recent series of violent incidents in the country.

Hollande singled out hateful extremists for criticism and urged respect for all religions in a country that is officially secular, but which has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities.

He said that authorities "in the coming days, in the coming hours" would increase security at religious sites so they won't be subject to the kind of attack that targeted a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil on Saturday night.

A synagogue representative said witnesses heard what sounded like a weapon being fired and that police said blanks had been fired and empty bullet casings found. Local police would not comment on the incident to the AP. Services were canceled at the synagogue Saturday night because of the incident, the representative said on condition of anonymity because a police investigation is under way.

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Al Shabaab bans Muslim agency's aid to 1.3 million Somalis

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab militants said on Monday they had banned Muslim aid agency Islamic Relief from areas under their control, a move that would deprive 1.3 million people of food, clean water and health care. [...]

Al Shabaab accused the humanitarian organization of working with other relief groups it had already expelled.

"Islamic relief was found to be covertly extending the operations of banned organizations, particularly WFP," al Shabaab said on Twitter, referring to the United Nations' food agency, World Food Programme.

An al Shabaab spokesman confirmed that the Twitter messages were authentic.

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Ship of Fools Carrying Pro-Terror Activists Sets Sail From Naples To Gaza

(Ynet) A Swedish ship with activists from several countries aboard sailed from Naples on Saturday in the latest bid to break Israel's blockade against Gaza.

A crowd of well-wishers saw off the sailing vessel Estelle as it left the Italian port as part of the "Freedom Flotilla" movement. [...]

The 17 activists from around the world on board include passengers and crew from Canada, Israel, Norway, Sweden and the United States.

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Quote of the week

From Ricochet.com:

The cracks in the Acela Corridor's Barack Protection Protocol are showing because Obama's most compelling attribute was the belief that his intellectual prowess is unmatched by any President, perhaps any mortal. A cornerstone of their faith in him was always that Barack Obama's intellectual firepower could be deployed at will, and destroy Mitt Romney at a time and place of the President's choosing.

What they saw Wednesday night wasn't the demigod they've protected like so many cultural Myrmidons, but a stammering, detached, utterly outclassed man hoisted on the petard of his own laziness and incuriousity.

Philippines government strikes deal with Muslim separatists to create autonomous Muslim region in the south

But Muslims vow to continue fighting for independent Islamic state.

Some people never learn.

MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The Philippine government and Muslim rebels agreed on a deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, President Benigno Aquino said on Sunday, paving the way for a political and economic revival of the country's troubled south.

The agreement begins a roadmap to create a new autonomous region in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country before the end of Aquino's term in 2016, giving the Muslim-dominated area greater political powers and more control over resources.

Expectations are high that after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, both the government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group will keep their pledges in the agreement, to be signed on October 15 in Manila and witnessed by Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

"This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices. It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past," Aquino said via a live broadcast from the presidential palace.

The new entity, whose exact size will decided by plebiscites ahead of elections in 2016, will be called Bangsamoro -- the term for those who are native to the region and which Aquino said honored "the struggles of our forebears in Mindanao".

The south's volatile and often violent politics could still hamper the plans. There is a risk that radical Islamic factions could split off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and carry on fighting in a region that has a history of links with al Qaeda militants.

Shortly after the announcement, a breakaway group said it would continue to fight for an independent Islamic state.

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Pospartisanship: Obama Campaign Releases Record Number of Attack Ads Following Debate

(RAP) In the weekend following President Barack Obama’s terrible debate performance, the Obama campaign released 18 videos on their YouTube channel, 10 of which are attack ads against Mitt Romney, in an effort to rally their campaign back to success.

This extreme meltdown of Obama advertising focused especially on the debate, calling Romney “Dishonest,” “Misleading,” Untrustworthy,” and a, “Liar.” Most of them have specially selected footage from the debate. One even talks about, “Romney’s debate performance,” calling it “mostly false.”

Well, when your candidate swings and completely misses in a disaster of a debate, there is not much left to do but relentlessly try to draw attention away from the extent of the failure.

Clearly, the Obama campaign is grasping at straws, trying to come up with a reason why Obama couldn’t pull it together on Wednesday.

“After the debate Romney didn’t tell the American people the truth,” one ad claims. “Because his real plans would hurt the middle class.”

“Mitt Romney claims he wants more teachers. Not true,” another ad says. “He has been saying for months that he doesn’t want more teachers. If we can’t trust him on the debate stage, how can we trust him in the oval office?”

Keep the ads coming, Obama, but your debate performance speaks for itself.

Check out the most desperate one where the Obama campaign says that Romney misled the American people about Obama’s green energy record. Really, you’re going to defend Solyndra?

IAF Takes Out 2 Senior Terrorist Operatives in the Gaza Strip

(IDF Blog) In a joint IDF- ISA operation, IAF targeted Tala’at Halil Muhammad Jarbi (b. 1989), a Global Jihad operative from Rafah, and Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai (b. 1988), a member of the Ashora Council of the Martyrs of Jerusalem, a Gaza-based Global Jihad affiliate. For many years Tala’at was involved in extensive terrorist activity, targeting Israeli civilian and security forces, including rocket firing, weapon manufacturing, and other terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip. He was a senior operative involved in the planning and execution of an attack along the security fence on 18.6.12, during which an Israeli civilian was killed. He had also been planning an complex attack intended to take place along the Sinai border.

The IDF will not tolerate any attempt by terrorist groups to target Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and will continue to operate against those who use terror against the State of Israel. The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.

French cops kill convert jihadist who firebombed Jewish store, arrest 11 others

Yabba-Dabba-Doo! Jeremy Sidney, the Muslim convert thug who fire-bombed a kosher grocery in Paris, has been killed by French police.
— Terror Palooza (@TerrorPalooza) October 7, 2012

Feel-good story of the day.

(Newser) – French police arrested 11 suspected terrorists and shot one dead today in a nationwide sweep aimed at breaking up terror networks and responding to a strike on a Jewish store, AFP reports. The man killed was Jeremy Sidney, 33, whose fingerprints were identified on a grenade tossed into a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, police said. He reportedly opened fire with a .357 when police entered his house in Strasbourg, lightly wounding three officers before being killed.

Like three other suspects, Sidney was carrying a will—a sign that "you foresee that extreme outcomes may take place in relatively short order," said a prosecutor. Police say the sweep targeted a possible Salafist network that played a role in the Paris attack, which hurt one person and shocked the Jewish community. The suspects were "often common criminals who set out on a path of radicalisation toward Islamist jihadism," said a police spokesman.

Obama’s College Classmate: ‘The Obama Scandal Is at Columbia’

By Wayne Allyn Root at The Blaze

I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia- and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since graduating Columbia.

Obama and his infamous strategist David Axelrod understand how to play political hardball, the best it’s ever been played. Team Obama has decided to distract America’s voters by condemning Mitt Romney for not releasing enough years of his tax returns. It’s the perfect cover. Obama knows the best defense is a bold offense. Just keep attacking Mitt and blaming him for secrecy and evasion, while accusing him of having a scandal that doesn’t exist. Then ask followers like Senator Harry Reid to chase the lead. The U.S. Senate Majority Leader appears to now be making up stories out of thin air, about tax returns he knows nothing about. It’s a cynical, brilliant, and vicious strategy. Make Romney defend, so he can’t attack the real Obama scandal.

This is classic Axelrod. Obama has won several elections in his career by slandering his opponents and leaking sealed documents. Not only do these insinuations and leaks ruin the credibility and reputation of Obama’s opponents, they keep them on the defensive and off Obama’s trail of sealed documents.

By attacking Romney’s tax records, Obama’s socialist cabal creates a problem that doesn’t exist. Is the U.S. Senate Majority Leader making up stories out of thin air? You decide. But the reason for this baseless attack is clear- make Romney defend, so not only is he “off message” but it helps the media ignore the real Obama scandal.

My answer for Romney? Call Obama’s bluff.

Romney should call a press conference and issue a challenge in front of the nation. He should agree to release more of his tax returns, only if Obama unseals his college records. Simple and straight-forward. Mitt should ask “What could possibly be so embarrassing in your college records from 29 years ago that you are afraid to let America’s voters see? If it’s THAT bad, maybe it’s something the voters ought to see.” Suddenly the tables are turned. Now Obama is on the defensive.

My bet is that Obama will never unseal his records because they contain information that could destroy his chances for re-election. Once this challenge is made public, my prediction is you’ll never hear about Mitt’s tax returns ever again.

Why are the college records, of a 51-year-old President of the United States, so important to keep secret? I think I know the answer.

If anyone should have questions about Obama’s record at Columbia University, it’s me. We both graduated (according to Obama) Columbia University, Class of ’83. We were both (according to Obama) Pre-Law and Political Science majors. And I thought I knew most everyone at Columbia. I certainly thought I’d heard of all of my fellow Political Science majors. But not Obama (or as he was known then- Barry Soetoro). I never met him. Never saw him. Never even heard of him. And none of the classmates that I knew at Columbia have ever met him, saw him, or heard of him.

But don’t take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2008 that Fox News randomly called 400 of our Columbia classmates and never found one who had ever met Obama.

Now all of this mystery could be easily and instantly dismissed if Obama released his Columbia transcripts to the media. But even after serving as President for 3 1/2 years he refuses to unseal his college records. Shouldn’t the media be as relentless in pursuit of Obama’s records as Romney’s? Shouldn’t they be digging into Obama’s past–beyond what he has written about himself–with the same boundless enthusiasm as Mitt’s?

The first question I’d ask is, if you had great grades, why would you seal your records? So let’s assume Obama got poor grades. Why not release the records? He’s president of the free world, for gosh sakes. He’s commander-in-chief of the U.S. military. Who’d care about some poor grades from three decades ago, right? So then what’s the problem? Doesn’t that make the media suspicious? Something doesn’t add up.

Secondly, if he had poor grades at Occidental, how did he get admitted to an Ivy League university in the first place? And if his grades at Columbia were awful, how’d he ever get into Harvard Law School? So again those grades must have been great, right? So why spend millions to keep them sealed?

Third, how did Obama pay for all these fancy schools without coming from a wealthy background? If he had student loans or scholarships, would he not have to maintain good grades?

I can only think of one answer that would explain this mystery.

Here’s my gut belief: Obama got a leg up by being admitted to both Occidental and Columbia as a foreign exchange student. He was raised as a young boy in Indonesia. But did his mother ever change him back to a U.S. citizen? When he returned to live with his grandparents in Hawaii or as he neared college-age preparing to apply to schools, did he ever change his citizenship back? I’m betting not.

If you could unseal Obama’s Columbia University records I believe you’d find that:

A) He rarely ever attended class.

B) His grades were not those typical of what we understand it takes to get into Harvard Law School.

C) He attended Columbia as a foreign exchange student.

D) He paid little for either undergraduate college or Harvard Law School because of foreign aid and scholarships given to a poor foreign students like this kid Barry Soetoro from Indonesia.

If you think I’m “fishing” then prove me wrong. Open up your records Mr. President. What are you afraid of?

If it’s okay for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go on a fishing expedition about Romney’s taxes (even though he knows absolutely nothing about them nor will release his own), then I think I can do the same thing. But as Obama’s Columbia Class of ’83 classmate, at least I have more standing to make educated guesses.

It’s time for Mitt to go on the attack and call Obama’s bluff.

North Korean soldier kills 2 superiors and defects to South Korea across border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said.

The soldier shot his platoon and squad leaders before crossing the western side of the Demilitarized Zone at around noon, a Defense Ministry official said, citing the soldier's statement after he was taken into custody by South Korean border guards.

The official, who declined to be named because questioning by authorities was ongoing, had earlier said one of the killed North Korean troops was a company commander but later corrected it, saying the information was mishandled in the first couple of hours of the development.

He said South Korean guards heard six gunshots before the North Korean soldier crossed the border. He also said the soldier used a loudspeaker to let South Korean guards know his intention to defect after the killings. The official said the motive behind the defection was unclear.

No unusual military movement was detected from the North Korean side of the border after the crossing, but South Korea immediately instructed its border troops to step up their guard, a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. He also declined to be named, citing office rules.

There was no immediate comment from communist North Korea's state-run media.

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Iraq: Roadside bombs kill 5 in and near Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities say roadside bombs have killed five people in and near Baghdad.

Police officials say that the first explosion went off around noon on Saturday, targeting an Iraqi army patrol in the Sunni town of Taji just north of the capital, killing one soldier and wounding three others.

Meanwhile, another bomb exploded near vendors selling vegetables and fruits in a main street in Baghdad's southwestern neighborhood of Saidiyah, also a Sunni area, killing four people including a woman, the officials said.

Eleven others were wounded including three women, they said.

Health officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties.

Violence has dropped in Iraq since the height of the insurgency a few years ago but deadly attacks still take place almost daily.

Turkey and Syria trade artillery fire for 4th day

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey and Syria traded artillery fire for the fourth day in a row Saturday as rebels clashed with President Bashar Assad's forces near the border, heightening fears that the crisis could erupt into a regional conflict.

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Israel shoots down an intelligence gathering drone after it crossed into its territory

(Fox News) An unmanned aircraft was shot down by the Israeli air force Saturday after it crossed the southern region of the country, Reuters reported.

The report said it is unclear where the aircraft originated. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tells Fox News the unmanned aircraft did not depart from the Gaza strip.

The aircraft flew over Israel for less than thirty minutes and did not carry any explosives on board, sources told Fox News. IDF spokesperson Yoav Mordechai said the aircraft was monitored and accompanied by fighter planes throughout its flight and it was possible to shoot it down at any stage.

Israel radio reported that it appeared to be an intelligence gathering drone.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said Israeli systems on the ground alerted the air force to the drone Saturday morning.

Leibovich said the operation was successful and the military was in control throughout.

"We had monitoring contact from the ground and from the air. We alerted jet planes that escorted the unmanned aerial vehicle and due to some operational considerations we decided to intercept the unmanned aerial vehicle in the northern Negev area, which has no population," Leibovich said.

It's not the first time that Israel has shot down drones entering its airspace, but such cases are rare. The Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has launched several such aircraft into Israel over the past few years.

In the 2006 war, Hezbollah launched an Iranian-made drone capable of carrying explosives into Israel that was shot down. Another drone two years earlier crashed in the Mediterranean.

Israel and Iran are bitter enemies and tensions are high over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West believes is intended for atomic weapons. Tehran insists its atomic program is for peaceful purposes only.

Israel has hinted that military action should be taken to prevent Iran from getting nuclear bombs.

Leibovich would not elaborate how the unmanned vehicle was brought down. She said troops were searching for debris from the drone.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak congratulated the military.

"We view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later," he said in a statement.

Racist teacher compares 16-year-old girl wearing a Romney/Ryan T-shirt to KKK

(CNBC) Many Republicans can’t help but wonder if a student wearing a pro-Obama T-Shirt in a Philadelphia school would have been subject to the kind of humiliation that Samantha Pawlucy was forced to endure.

The 16-year old sophomore, who attends Charles Carroll High School, told Larry Kudlow, that she was humiliated by a teacher for wearing a T-shirt in support of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

She said the teacher compared her to the worst racists in history – the Ku Klux Klan.

Events unfolded last Friday. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until the student arrived at her geometry class – before that time the shirt didn’t raise any objections.

However, the offending teacher saw the Romney / Ryan shirt "and told me to get out of the classroom, I said no," Samantha explained on The Kudlow Report.

When she stood her ground and refused to change, Samantha said the teacher pulled her into the hall and encouraged others to make fun of her. And according to news reports, the teacher attempted to scribble on the shirt.

“She did it because she’s against Mitt Romney,” insisted the Samantha.

Samantha also admitted to Larry Kudlow that she was so embarrassed by what happened she hasn’t returned to class. “I don’t want to be threatened and I want the teacher to be fired.”

Samantha’s father Richard Pawlucy is beside himself. He told Larry Kudlow that he wouldn’t tolerate his daughter being bullied by anybody let alone a teacher.

Although they’ve met with school officials about the incident, neither Samantha nor her father are satisfied. “The teacher told us it was a joke. That she jokes around with students. There’s nothing funny about what she did.”

The school district confirmed to CNBC that an incident occurred and it is conducting an investigation to determine whether disciplinary action is necessary.

Snoop Dogg Promotes Ten Reasons To Not Vote For Mitt Romney

(V-103) Snoop Dogg highlighted a list of top ten reasons to not vote for Mitt Romney as well as why one should vote for President Obama. The politically incorrect list refers to Romney as a “white n****” who looks like he “says n****” all the time.”

Snoop Dogg, who recently changed his name to Snoop Lion, revealed the list, which is not his own, via Instagram. He took a photo of a notebook with the handwritten lists in two columns: “Why I’m Not Voting For Romney” and “Why I Am Voting For Obama.” [See list here]

The number one reason cited for not voting for Romney is because “He a white n****.” Likewise, Obama will receive his vote because “He a black n****.”

Romney’s debate performance, that most polls say he won, is also a subject of discussion.

“He always interrupts and talks over people like he’s netter than them,” he wrote (No. 7). “B**** I will beat the s*** out of you.”

The list also calls Romney a “ho” (reason No. 4) and makes three different references to his name: “This mutherf***’s name is Mitt” (2,6,10)

As for the reasons he’s to voting for Obama, the list highlighted his relationship with Jay-Z (“he’s BFFs with Jay-Z”) and Beyonce (He’s hugged Beyonce before and sniffed her neck”).

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UK extradites Muslim hate preacher Abu Hamza to US to face terrorism charges

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain extradited Islamist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to the United States on Friday to face terrorism charges after the one-eyed radical preacher finally failed in his eight-year battle to avoid deportation.

The Egyptian-born Abu Hamza is accused by Washington of supporting al-Qaida, aiding a kidnapping in Yemen and plotting to open a training camp for militants in the United States.

The 54-year-old cleric, jailed in Britain for inciting followers to kill non-believers, also achieved notoriety for praising the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and running a mosque in north London that Britain said was a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.

He was taken from a high-security prison in central England in a convoy guarded by large numbers of police to a US airbase where he was handed over to US officials and put on a plane to the United States.

Earlier, two London High Court judges dismissed his request to delay the proceedings in order to allow the cleric, who did not attend the hearing, to undergo a brain scan that his lawyers said would prove he was unfit to be extradited.

Instead, the judges said, "The sooner he is put on trial, the better."

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Tribe threatens to disown Jordan's Israel envoy if he accepts the appointment the call a “provocation”

Talk about peace on out time.

(JPost) The tribe of a Jordanian diplomat who was appointed last week as the ambassador to Israel is threatening to disown him if he accepts the job.

Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood organization has also come out against the appointment of a new ambassador to Israel, dubbing it a “provocation.”

Representatives of the Obeidat tribe, one of the most powerful clans in Jordan, condemned the appointment of Walid Obeidat as “a despicable act that contradicts the positions of the tribe and its successive generations.”

The tribe’s representatives met earlier this week to discuss the issue after the Jordanian government announced the appointment of the ambassador.

Following the meeting, the tribe issued a statement in which it threatened to “disown” Obeidat for agreeing to “shake the hand of those who usurped the land, killed and displaced Palestinians and desecrated Islamic holy sites.”

The tribe warned the ambassador that he would be “crossing all red lines and bringing disgrace and harm to his nation and clan” if he agreed to take the job.

It said that the Jordanians had never accepted the peace treaty with Israel, which it denounced as a “stain of shame.”

The tribe announced that it remained committed to “liberating all Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

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Double bombing near Shiite mosque kills 5 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a double bombing near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed five people, including four worshippers.

Police say that the bombs went off outside the al-Sadrein mosque and at a nearby police checkpoint as Friday noon prayers ended in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad.

They say at least 26 worshippers were wounded.

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Bypassing Israel, French capital endorses unprecedented agreement with ‘East Jerusalem’

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the agreement reflects a ‘make-believe world’.

(Times of Israel) France’s most populous administrative zone, encompassing the capital Paris, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Palestinian district of Jerusalem, a move organizers say is designed to send a “political message” of solidarity with the Palestinians and their aspirations for a future capital in the city.

The French region described the agreement as the “first of its kind.”

The decision is a blow to Israel’s claim that the eastern sector is part of its united capital. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said east Jerusalem “does not exist” as a separate entity and that the French council was “living in a make-believe world.”

The Regional Council of Île-de-France voted September 28 in favor of a “decentralized cooperation agreement” with the Palestinian Authority (PA) district of Jerusalem, making it “the first French community to sign an agreement of cooperation with the Arab part of the holy city,” a statement on the council’s website read. The agreement is to be officially signed during the month of October.

Israel extended its sovereignty to the entire city of Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967, and does not recognize the PA’s Jerusalem district, which incorporates some 400,000 Palestinian residents in Jerusalem and its outskirts.

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Visiting US Congressman: Israel must not place faith in Obama to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive

(Times of Israel) Israel must not trust President Barack Obama to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons drive, a Republican US Congressman said on a visit to Israel Wednesday, savaging Obama’s handling of the Iranian crisis in a stark departure from the American political tradition of not attacking the governing administration while on trips abroad.

Speaking in Jerusalem at a meeting of Christian Zionists, Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona’s 2nd district, said that if Israel does not stop Iran, Obama will not prevent the Islamic Republic from gaining nuclear weapons but would merely try to contain the threat. Obama has said repeatedly that he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Franks predicted that Israel will “not trust other countries” in its bid to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and encouraged Jerusalem to preemptively attack the regime’s nuclear facilities if it felt the need to do so.

“I hope I say this the right way, but I’m convinced that Israel will not trust other countries to do what they have to do to protect their own security,” Franks said at a press conference. “The prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] has said, ‘Israel’s security must always remain in Israel’s hand’ and I’m completely for that. I understand very clearly that Israel will not be made to walk into the gas chambers silently again.”

“If Iran gains a nuclear weapon, we will need a new calendar in the world — it would change humanity that much,” Franks said. “Iran will give these weapons to terrorists the world over, and your children and mine will step into the shadow of nuclear terrorism.”

A month before US elections and on the day of the crucial first presidential debate, the congressman harshly attacked Obama — a highly unusual step for a visiting American politician. According to the tradition that “politics stop at the water’s edge,” US politicians generally refrain from partisan attacks while on foreign soil.

“As an American congressman,” Franks told The Times of Israel, “it breaks my heart to see the president of the United States reserve more criticism for Israel for building homes in their capital city than he does for [Iranian president] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for building nuclear weapons with which to threaten the peace and security of the entire free world. It is very difficult for me to understand how that could happen.”

“The president misunderstands the equation in that Israel’s timeline and their window to act against Iran is different than America’s,” Franks added. “America has some capabilities that Israel doesn’t have. And Israel cannot place their security in the hands of Barack Obama, they can’t do it… They have to act within their time frame before Iran goes into that zone of immunity that Israel talks about.”

Franks is a member of the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation.

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Six Things the $450 Million Aid to Egypt Will Pay For

RadicalIslam.org: Six Things the $450 Million Aid to Egypt Will Pay For

Obama: "Uh"

Report: More than 67 million people watched Romney pounding Obama without his speechwriters and trusty teleprompters

(USA Today) An estimated 67.2 million people watched the first debate Wednesday night between President Obama and Mitt Romney, exceeding the TV viewing audience for each of the three 2008 presidential debates.

Nielsen, the TV ratings company, said viewership for the first Obama vs. Romney battle was up 28% from the first debate four years ago between Obama and John McCain.

The largest audience for the 2008 candidates came in their second meeting, which attracted an estimated 63.2 million viewers.

Romney was aggressive and focused on Wednesday night, while Obama at times appeared listless as they sparred over the economy, jobs, health care and the role of government at the University of Denver.

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Watch and enjoy - Presidential Debate 2012 (Complete) Romney vs.Obama - 10/3/2012:

NY Democratic Politician: “Let's get this straight for all Democrats across America: The President does not like the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. That is a fact that you cannot deny.”

(INN) “Let's get this straight for all Democrats across America: The President does not like the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. That is a fact that you cannot deny,” New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind told Fox News in a recently televised interview that has shocked his fellow Democrats around the United States.

Hikind's blunt warning to Jewish voters came just prior to the first scheduled debate between President Barack Obama and GOP presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

"The fact is that Prime Minister Netanyahu, head of the only democracy in the Middle East, he was elected by the people,” Hikind pointed out. “But [President Barack] Obama has had a problem with him for years,” he underscored.

The fact that Israel's survival is being threatened by Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly declared that he intends to “wipe the Zionist State off the map,” should have been enough to motivate Obama to meet with Netanyahu at his request, Hikind contended, when the Israeli leader came to the U.S. to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. Obama refused to meet with Netanyahu on the sidelines on the UNGA gathering, as he did with other heads of state, opting instead for a talk show and then returning to the campaign trail.

His contention that he had no time to meet in New York led Israeli officials to suggest a meeting in Washington D.C. instead, with Netanyahu offering to fly to the White House for a quick round of talks. The American president refused that proposal as well -- but the ensuing negative publicity that resulted prompted him to at least make a call to Jerusalem.

But Obama's hour-long phone call with Netanyahu, held in lieu of a meeting, did not assuage Hikind's concerns in the slightest, he said. "Absolutely not. The bottom line is, I do not trust the president of the United States with regard to the security of the State of Israel,” Hikind said.

Jerusalem – a fundamental issue – was taken out of the platform of the Democratic party” at the recent national convention, he noted. “My fellow Democrats chant overwhelmingly when they try to reintroduce Jerusalem; They said, 'No!'" Hikind told the interview, outraged.

"I would ask the Democratic Party to listen to the majority of the Democrats who don't want Jerusalem in the platform. Something is wrong in my party when an issue as fundamental as Jerusalem …" Hikind paused, "but we don't get it … something is wrong … this is our one ally in the Middle East.”

Merchants bring down shutters in Tehran bazaar after clashes

DUBAI (Reuters) - Shops in Tehran's Grand Bazaar stayed shut and police patrolled the area on Thursday as authorities struggled to restore normalcy a day after security forces clashed with anti-government protesters angered by the collapse of the currency.

Traders from the bazaar, whose merchants supported Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, told Reuters by telephone that most stores were closed because their owners had stayed away for safety reasons.

On Wednesday, riot police scuffled with demonstrators and arrested money changers in the area during protests triggered by the plunge of the Iranian rial, which has lost about a third of its value against the dollar over the past 10 days.

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Video: The Smirk (at Denver debate)

Yemen: 4 al-Qaeda terrorists killed in US drone strike

ADEN (Reuters) - Four al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in an apparent U.S. drone strike on Thursday in a remote part of the south of Yemen, a security official and residents said.

The security official and residents said the militants were killed in an air strike on their vehicles in the isolated area of Maqbala in Shabwa province. They said it was a drone strike.

The militants were heavily armed, carrying weapons and explosives, said the official, who declined to be named. Two militants were wounded and another fled the scene after the strike, the official added.

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"Perilous Times" — Short documentary showing how hostile Obama is to Israel

Iranian riot police clash with protesters over currency plunge

DUBAI (Reuters) - Riot police clashed with demonstrators and arrested money changers in Tehran on Wednesday in disturbances over the collapse of the Iranian currency, which has lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar in a week, witnesses said.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, angered by the plunge in the value of the rial. Protesters denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "traitor" whose policies had fuelled the crisis.

In a clampdown on the unofficial foreign currency market, a number of traders selling dollars were arrested after authorities ordered security forces to take action against those they see as speculators.

The rial has hit record lows against the U.S. dollar almost daily as Western economic sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear program have cut its export earnings from oil, undermining the central bank's ability to support the currency.

Panicking Iranians have scrambled to buy hard currency, pushing down the rial whose increasing weakness is hurting living standards and threatening jobs.

"Everyone wants to buy dollars and it's clear there's a bit of a bank run," said a Western diplomat based in Tehran. "Ahmadinejad's announcement of using police against exchangers and speculators didn't help at all. Now people are even more worried."

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Turkey strikes back at Syria after mortar kills five

Turkish police officers try to help a wounded comrade after a mortar bomb landed from Syria in the border village of Akcakale, southeastern Sanliurfa province, October 3, 2012. The mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in a residential district of the southeastern Turkish town of Akcakale on Wednesday, killing a woman and four children from the same family and wounding at least eight other people. A Reuters witness saw three police officers among the wounded being taken to hospital. REUTERS/Rauf Maltas/Anadolu Agency

AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish artillery hit targets inside Syria on Wednesday after a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory killed five Turkish civilians, while NATO called for an immediate end to Syria's "aggressive acts".

In the most serious cross-border escalation of the 18-month uprising in Syria, Turkey hit back at what it called "the last straw" when a mortar hit a residential neighborhood of the southern border town of Akcakale.

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FBI offers $50,000 reward for Ahmad Abousamra wanted on terrorism charges

(LAT) The FBI is offering a reward up to $50,000 and using a variety of social media platforms in a quest for information it hopes will lead to the arrest of a Massachusetts man charged with helping international terrorists.

Being sought is Ahmad Abousamra, a dual U.S. and Syrian citizen, who authorities believe may be living in Aleppo, Syria, with at least one child, a daughter, and an extended family. He uses several aliases.

Abousamra, 31, fled the United States in 2006, shortly after being interviewed by the FBI. He was indicted in 2009, charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to Al Qaeda. He was accused of taking several trips to Pakistan and Yemen in 2002 and 2004 to seek jihad training. He also traveled to Iraq with the hope of joining forces fighting against Americans overseas, the FBI said.

Abousamra’s alleged co-conspirator, Tarek Mehanna, was convicted of terrorism charges by a federal jury in December 2011 and sentenced last April to 17.5 years in prison.

“Both men were self-radicalized and used the Internet to educate themselves,” said Special Agent Heidi Williams, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston who has been working the case since 2006.

“They came to it independently, but once they found each other, they encouraged each other’s beliefs,” Williams said in a prepared statement.

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Fearing Israeli strike, Iran’s military drilled attacks on Haifa, Dimona, shot down own civilian airliners

An Iranian military passenger jet which crashed near Tehran in 2009. A newly leaked US report described air defense mishaps in the country in 2007 and 2008 (photo credit: AP)

(Times of Israel) Fearing an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Iranian military drilled attacks on the Israeli port city of Haifa and the nuclear reactor at Dimona, according to a classified Pentagon report.

The American intelligence assessment, reported Wednesday by the New York Times, also reported that skittish Iranian air defense teams mistakenly targeted civilian airliners and military jets in Iran’s skies in 2007 and 2008.

In 2008, Israel’s air force carried out a large exercise over the Mediterranean that was identified by some observers as a rehearsal for a strike against Iran.

Less than two weeks later, according to the 2008 US report obtained by the Times, the commander of Iran’s air force instructed pilots to carry out “daily air-to-ground attack training (GAT) at firing ranges resembling the Israeli city of Haifa and the Israeli nuclear facility at Dimona.”

Iran’s anti-aircraft batteries also targeted civilian airliners on at least two occasions that same year and the previous year, the report said. In other incidents, batteries fired on a reconnaissance drone and an Iranian F-14 fighter. Military jets were also scrambled to intercept civilian airliners because of concerns they were Israeli aircraft heading towards Iran’s nuclear sites.

It was unclear if aircraft were downed or damaged in any of the incidents.

“Iranian air defense units have taken inappropriate actions dozens of times, including firing antiaircraft artillery and scrambling aircraft against unidentified or misidentified targets,” according to a quote in the Times article from a 2008 Pentagon report, titled “Operational Mishaps by Air Defense Units.”

The incidents were the result of an inadequate command-and-control structure, according to the report, which noted that Iran’s military communications and training methods are poor and as a result “misidentification of aircraft will continue.”

In 2009, two passenger jets belonging to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards crashed mysteriously outside Tehran within months of each other. It is unclear if those crashes were related to the failures detailed in the Pentagon report.

Iranian fears were reportedly spurred by Israel’s September 2007 bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, as well as by threats from Jerusalem and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program.

Syria: Suicide car bombers strike in heart of Aleppo, killing at least 48

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Three suicide car bombs and a mortar barrage ripped through a government-controlled district of central Aleppo housing a military officers' club on Wednesday, killing 48 people according to activists.

The coordinated attacks hit just days after rebels launched an offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria's biggest city, leading to heavy fighting and a fire which gutted a large part of its medieval covered market.

The state news agency SANA said suicide bombers detonated two explosive-laden cars in the main square, Saadallah al-Jabiri, which is lined on its eastern flank by the military club, two hotels and a telecoms office.

The explosions reduced at least one building to a flattened wreck of twisted concrete and metal, and were followed by a volley of mortar bombs into the square and attempted suicide bombings by three rebels carrying explosives, it said.

Another bomb blew up a few hundred meters (yards) away on the edge of the Old City, where rebels have been battling Assad's forces.

State television showed three dead men disguised as soldiers in army fatigues who it said were shot by security forces before they could detonate explosive-packed belts they were wearing. One appeared to have a trigger device strapped to his wrist.

Another pro-Assad station, al-Ikhbariya TV, broadcast footage of four dead men, including one dust-covered body being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building and loaded onto the back of a pickup truck.

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Biden: Middle class 'has been buried' past 4 years

Gee, I wonder who's been burying it these past 4 years?

(CSM) Joe Biden on Tuesday said the middle class “has been buried the last four years,” words Republicans trumpeted as evidence that even President Obama’s veep doesn’t believe the incumbent administration has been good for the country.

The man who would replace Mr. Biden, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, said at a campaign stop in Iowa that Biden’s words show that the nation needs to “stop digging” by electing the Mitt Romney/Ryan ticket.

“Of course the middle class has been buried. They’re being buried by regulations, they’re being buried by taxes, they’re being buried by borrowing,” said Mr. Ryan. “They’re being buried by the Obama administration’s economic failures.” [...]

Speaking to a crowd in North Carolina, Veep Joe repeated the administration’s claim that if elected Mr. Romney will have to raise taxes on the middle class in order to make the math of his tax proposals work.

“This is deadly earnest. How they can justify, how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years? How in the Lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes? We’ve seen this movie before....“

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House: U.S. Embassy in Libya asked for extra security, request denied

(Washington Examiner) Vehicle damaged in attack on British Ambassador / House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

House investigators warned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to expect a hearing into their finding that that American staff at the U.S. Embassy in Libya had their request for additional security denied by Washington officials.

“Based on information provided to the Committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and subcommittee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, wrote Clinton today. They dismissed out-of-hand the suggestion that the attack ever could have been regarded as a spontaneous protest gone awry.

“In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi,” Issa and Chaffetz added (my emphasis). “The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”

The committee noted 13 “security threats” in Benghazi, including an attempt to assassinate the British ambassador to Libya.

Obama Increased Foreign Aid 80%; Spent 76% More on Foreign Aid Than Border Security

(CNSNews.com) - From fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2011, according to the U.S. Treasury, the federal government increased spending on foreign aid by 80 percent and, in fiscal 2011, spent 76 percent more on foreign aid than it did securing the borders of the United States.

In fiscal 2008, the government spent a total of $11.427 billion in international assistance programs, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. In fiscal 2011, according to the statement, it spent $20.599 billion—an increase of $9.172 billion, or 80 percent, from 2008.

Prior to President Obama taking office, international assistance spending had been trending down for three years, according to the Treasury. In fiscal 2005, it was $14.787 billion. In fiscal 2006, it dropped to $13.914 billion. In fiscal 2007, it dropped again to $12.764 billion. And, in fiscal 2008, it dropped yet again to $11.427 billion.

Since 2008, international assistance spending has increased each year. In fiscal 2009, it climbed to $14.827 billion. In fiscal 2010, it jumped to $20.038 billion. And, in fiscal 2011, it climbed again to $20.599 billion.

By the end of August, after the first eleven months of fiscal 2012, the federal government had already spent $20.058 on foreign aid in that fiscal year. That was well ahead of the $18.439 billion the federal government had spent on foreign aid through August of last year. The Treasury has not yet published the final amount that was spent on foreign aid in fiscal 2012, which ended on Sunday.

While foreign aid spending has climbed over the past four years, spending on border security peaked in fiscal 2009 and has since declined. In fiscal 2008, the federal government spent $9.984 billion on customs and border protection, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. In fiscal 2009, that increased to $12.122 billion. But, in fiscal 2010, that dropped to $11.376 billion. In fiscal 2011, it increased slightly to $11.698 billion—still less than the $12.122 billion spent on customs and border protection in fiscal 2009.

Through August of fiscal 2012, spending on customs and border protection was $11.259 billion, ahead of the $10.656 billion on customs and border protection spent through August of fiscal 2011.

The $20.599 billion spent on foreign aid last year was 76 percent more than the $11.698 billion spent on customs and border protection.

Included, among other things, in the $20.599 billion spent on foreign aid last year, according to the Treasury, was $5.717 billion for the Economic Support Fund, $5.322 billion for the Foreign Military Financing Program, $3.177 in multilateral assistance, $4.248 billion for the Agency for International Development (including $1.210 billion in operating expenses for AID), $395 million for the Peace Corps and $125 million for international monetary programs.

The foreign military sales program, which Treasury includes in its accounting of international assistance programs, took in $23.947 billion in fiscal 2011 and paid out $23.947 billion. Thus it had no impact on the net outflow of aid from the United States to foreign interests.

Below in billions of dollars is the annual spending on international assistance and customs and border protection over the past nine fiscal years. (The figures for fiscal 2012 include only the first eleven months of the fiscal year.)

Foreign Aid		Customs & Border
FY 2012 (first 11 months)	$20.058	$11.259
FY 2011	$20.599	$11.698
FY 2010	$20.038	$11.698
FY 2009	$14.827	$12.122
FY 2008	$11.427	$9.984
FY 2007	$12.764	$7.948
FY 2006	$13.914	$7.069
FY 2005	$14.787	$6.278
FY 2004	$13.788	$6.660

Report: Jihadists Warned U.S. on Facebook that Ambassador Stevens Was a Target

Jihadists twice set off explosives at the consulate prior to the incident that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, and announced threats on Facebook about escalating attacks on Western targets in the run-up to the 9/11 anniversary, according to whistleblowers reaching out to House Republicans.

(The Daily Beast) In the five months leading up to this year’s 9/11 anniversary, there were two bombings on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and increasing threats to and attacks on the Libyan nationals hired to provide security at the U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Details on these alleged incidents stem in part from the testimony of a handful of whistleblowers who approached the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the days and weeks following the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The incidents are disclosed in a letter to be sent Tuesday to Hillary Clinton from Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight committee’s subcommittee that deals with national security.

The State Department did not offer comment on the record last night.

The new information disclosed in the letter obtained by The Daily Beast strongly suggests the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the late Ambassador Chris Stevens were known by U.S. security personnel to be targets for terrorists. Indeed, the terrorists made their threats openly on Facebook.

For example, following a May 22 early-morning attack on a facility that housed the International Committee on the Red Cross, a Facebook page claimed responsibility, and said the attack was a warning and a “message for the Americans disturbing the skies over Derna.” That reference was likely to American surveillance drones over a city that provided fighters to al Qaeda in Iraq in the last decade.

In June a Facebook page associated with militants linked to the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi posted a threat to Stevens based on the route he took for his morning jog. The Facebook page also posted a picture of Stevens. The letter to Clinton notes that “after stopping these morning runs for about a week, the Ambassador resumed them.”

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Hezbollah commander killed in Syria “while performing his jihadi duties”

Feel-good story of the day.

BEIRUT (AP) — A Hezbollah commander and several fighters have been killed inside Syria, a Lebanese security official said Tuesday, a development that could stoke already soaring tensions over the Lebanese militant group’s role in the civil war next door.

Hezbollah’s reputation has taken a beating over its support for the Syrian regime, but any sign that the group’s fighters are taking part in the battle raises fears that the conflict could expand into a wider fight engulfing the region. [...]

It was not immediately clear how the Hezbollah militants were killed or whether they had been fighting alongside the Syrian army. But Hezbollah’s newspaper al-Intiqad said Hezbollah commander Ali Hussein Nassif, who is also known as Abu Abbas, was killed “while performing his jihadi duties.” It did not say when or where he was killed.

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Welcome to Mali, now under new management

(Mali) To avoid being whipped, mutilated, and jailed, women in Timbuktu now have to wear black veils and loose-fitting clothing. Radical Islamists, who took control of the city months ago, are laying down their law – Sharia law – and for the first time since they’ve arrived, they’re specifically targeting women.

Over the past few weeks, Islamists from two armed groups – Ansar Dine and Mujao, who took over northern Mali in April – have increasingly made use of corporal punishment against the local population. This includes whipping, amputations, and even stoning people to death who do not obey Sharia law.

In Timbuktu, the first amputation-as-punishment took place on September 16. Islamists cut the hand of a man suspected of having committed theft. Two months earlier, a man and women accused of having had an extra-marital affair were whipped in public.

"A woman was forced to give birth on the sidewalk because the Islamists wouldn't let her into the hospital without a veil"

Mahaman Dedeou works at Timbuktu’s town hall.

Four days ago, in the markets and at the hospital, Islamists began to ask women to cover their heads entirely [Editor’s Note: many women wore light veils that showed some of their hair]. In a message broadcast on the radio on Thursday, they also announced that women were no longer allowed outside after 11 p.m. Since then, the Islamist fighters that patrol the streets have been monitoring the women, and they hit women who don’t obey this new rule with their sticks.

Until now, many women in Timbuktu wore light veils that covered part of their hair. But the cloth, often white, was quite transparent. The Islamists have decided women should wear a much larger veil that covers their ears, and that it has to be black. They also banned tight clothes that many of the young women wear. Now, they’re all wearing large flowing dresses or “toungous”, which is a 12 metre long piece of cloth that is traditionally worn in the Sahel desert, on top of regular clothes.

"The Islamists announced that any woman who disobeys their rules will have her ears cut off"

The Islamists announced that any woman who disobeys their rules will have her ears cut off and be sent to a new, all-female prison. Though they haven’t gone that far yet, they are still quite strict: on Thursday afternoon, as I was visiting a friend at the hospital, I saw a very pregnant woman arrive. She was wearing a white veil, so the Islamists asked her to go home and change. She explained that she was going into labour, and that she lived two kilometres away, so she couldn’t go back. She ended up giving birth outside, on the sidewalk [Editor’s note: another one of our Observers in Timbuktu also witnessed this. According to him, the woman and her baby were in good health after the birth.]

Since they had arrived in Timbuktu, the Islamists were rather lenient with women. They mostly targeted men, by for example forcing them to go to the mosque every Friday at noon. However, despite their violent ways, the Islamists haven’t been able to get everyone to obey them. By targeting women, they’re trying to hit the men where it hurts the most.

Border Patrol agent shot dead, another wounded in Arizona

(Reuters) - One U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead and another wounded while on patrol early on Tuesday in Naco, Arizona, the Border Patrol said.

The wounded agent was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening wounds following the shooting at 1:50 a.m. local time, the Border Patrol said in a statement.

Officials withheld the name of the dead agent pending notification of family.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cochise County Sheriff's Office were investigating, the Border Patrol said.

Obama Lied After People Died

(Center for Security Policy) Suddenly, the President's new clothes seem embarrassingly transparent. The contention relentlessly promoted by Team Obama, to the effect that the Commander-in-Chief's performance with respect to foreign policy and national security was simply unassailable, is being seen for what it is: an utter fraud.

The deal-breaker has been the accumulating evidence that President Obama and his subordinates disinformed the American people - to put it charitably - about a present danger: the outbreak of violence against our diplomatic personnel and facilities and other interests in more than 30 countries around the world. Specifically, they denied that a carefully planned and executed jihadist attack against our consulate in Benghazi was responsible for the murder of the Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his colleagues on September 11, 2012.

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'Fast and Furious' guns provided by Obama and Holder to Mexican drug cartels tied to 2010 Juarez massacre, other murders in Mexico

(Fox News) For the first time, Mexican victims of crimes tied to the botched Operation Fast and Furious are being identified, including teenagers killed in a 2010 massacre.

A new report finds dozens of weapons recovered in Mexico have been connected with the ill-fated and ill-conceived anti-gunrunning program. While some Mexican authorities estimate 300 of their citizens have been injured or killed by Fast and Furious guns, little has been known about those weapons south of the U.S. border until now.

Through the Mexican Freedom of Information Act, Spanish-language network Univision and Fox News obtained a list of 100,000 weapons recovered in Mexico in 2009 and 2010. The guns were then compared with the serial numbers of the 2,000 guns sold in Fast and Furious.

Univision identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings and other actions by Mexican hit men and drug cartels.

In an investigative special that aired Sunday, Univision revealed one such massacre that was later found to be linked with Fast and Furious.

It happened in January 2010 in Juarez, Mexico, where cartel members burst into a home killing 16 people -- mostly teenagers -- at a birthday party. While the gunmen were targeting members of a rival gang attending that party, some of the victims were innocent bystanders.

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At least 14 killed, 37 wounded in Taliban suicide attack on NATO patrol in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 14 people, including three NATO soldiers and four police, and wounded 37 in Afghanistan's volatile eastern Khost province on Monday, a NATO spokeswoman and local officials said.

A U.S. official in Washington confirmed the three soldiers killed were Americans serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Six civilians and an Afghan interpreter also died in the attack.

A witness told Reuters a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform struck as U.S. soldiers patrolled the city of Khost. A NATO spokeswoman confirmed only that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

Provincial Governor Abdul Jabar Nahimi said the bomber had been riding a motorcycle packed with explosives and 37 civilians were wounded in the blast.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility, although Afghan insurgents are quick to claim any successful attack on foreign troops as their own.

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Report: As college student, Eric Holder participated in ‘armed’ takeover of former Columbia University ROTC office

(The DC) As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed — and if so, with what sort of weapon.

Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed the “Malcolm X Lounge.” The change, the group insisted, was to be made “in honor of a man who recognized the importance of territory as a basis for nationhood.”

Black radicals from the same group also occupied the office of Dean of Freshman Henry Coleman until their demands were met. Holder has publicly acknowledged being a part of that action.

The details of the student-led occupation, including the claim that the raiders were “armed,” come from a deleted Web page of the Black Students’ Organization (BSO) at Columbia, a successor group to the SAAS. Contemporary newspaper accounts in The Columbia Daily Spectator, a student newspaper, did not mention weapons.

Holder, now the United States’ highest-ranking law enforcement official, has given conflicting accounts of this episode during college commencement addresses at Columbia, but both the BSO’s website and the Daily Spectator have published facts that conflict with his version of events.

Holder has bragged about his involvement in the “rise of black consciousness” protests at Columbia.

“I was among a large group of students who felt strongly about the way we thought the world should be, and we weren’t afraid to make our opinions heard,” he said during Columbia’s 2009 commencement exercises. “I did not take a final exam until my junior year at Columbia — we were on strike every time finals seemed to roll around — but we ran out of issues by that third year.”

Though then-Dean Carl Hovde declared the occupation of the Naval ROTC office illegal and said it violated university policy, the college declined to prosecute any of the students involved. This decision may have been made to avoid a repeat of violent Columbia campus confrontations between police and members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1968.

The ROTC headquarters was ultimately renamed the Malcolm X lounge as the SAAS organization demanded. It later became a hang-out spot for another future U.S. leader, Barack Obama, according to David Maraniss’ best-selling ”Barack Obama: The Story.”

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Muslim bloodlust roundup for Sunday, September 30, 2012

Afghan inside attack kills 2 Americans, 2 Afghans, marking 2,000 US troop deaths:

(AP) An Afghan soldier turned his gun on American troops at a checkpoint in the country's east, killing two Americans and at least two fellow members of Afghanistan's army in a shooting that marked both the continuance of a disturbing trend of insider attacks and the 2,000th U.S. troop death in the long-running war, officials said Sunday.

String of Iraq car bomb blasts kill at least 32:

BAGDAD (Reuters) — Coordinated bomb attacks killed more than 32 people across Iraq on Sunday, the latest violence in an insurgency the government has failed to quell more than nine months after the last U.S. troops withdrew.

Muslims torch Buddhist temples, homes in Bangladesh:

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — Thousands of rioters torched Buddhist temples and homes in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday over a photo posted on Facebook deemed offensive to Islam, in a rare attack against the community.

Kenya: Muslims kill a child in church grenade attack, shoot dead 2 policemen near Somalia border:

GARISSA, Kenya (Reuters) — Two police officers were shot dead in Kenya on Sunday in the northern town of Garissa close to the border with Somalia, police said, hours after a child was killed in a grenade attack on a church in Nairobi.

Bomb explodes near Islamic school in Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen detonated a bomb Sunday near an Islamic boarding school in northern Nigeria and later exchanged gunfire with security forces, causing unknown casualties in the region's latest round of violence, officials said.

Grenade Attack on Fair in Thailand Wounds 30:

PATTANI, Thailand (AP) — Thai police believe Islamist insurgents fired grenades at a fair in southern Thailand, injuring 30 people, in anger over government efforts to win over local Muslim religious leaders.

Suicide car bomber kills 4 in Syria:

DAMASCUS (AFP) — A suicide car bombing in Qamishli, a Kurdish city in northern Syria, killed at least four people Sunday, state television reported, but a human rights group said that eight members of the security forces died in the blast.