Soldier Connects Muslim Terrorist in Kentucky to Slain Brothers in Arms

(ABC) Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Hedetniemi couldn't believe what he was hearing: Two al Qaeda terrorists had been arrested in a small town in Kentucky, right in America's heartland.

But it wasn't the 2011 arrests that caught the combat veteran's attention, but the offhand mention in a press report of a town in Iraq called Bayji, where the terrorists had operated before slipping into the States.

"It's an extremely small town and not very well-known," Hedetniemi told ABC News. But Hedetniemi knew it all too well.

He was just south of the town in 2005 when another group in his Pennsylvania National Guard platoon was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) and attacked by small arms fire. The Americans managed to fend off the attack, but four soldiers died.

"So once I actually read the bulletin [about the Kentucky arrests]… the more research I did on it, I realized that these guys were operating in the same area that we were at the time we were attacked," Hedetniemi said. "It was more than a coincidence, I think it was fate that the news broke."

Hedetniemi called the FBI to alert the Bureau to the possible connection, as did several other soldiers, according to a March 2012 report from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

He later learned, as ABC News reported in an exclusive investigation Wednesday, that FBI technicians had lifted fingerprints from parts of an IED recovered near Bayji at the time of the attack that belonged to one of the men who had resettled as a war refugee in Bowling Green, Ky. – some 750 miles from the Pennsylvania National Guard headquarters.

Though investigators could not conclusively prove that the terrorists had killed the Guardsmen in Iraq so many years ago, the U.S. attorney's office in Louisville eventually placed the surviving soldiers in its victim notification system for the case– officially linking the specific attack to the terrorists, who later pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges and are now behind bars.

"It's impossible to put a face to the enemy in that kind of situation, especially on a night ambush… [and] you kind of want closure for yourself and the guys, and especially for the families who lost their loved ones," Hedetniemi said. "[Now] you're actually putting… a face to the enemy who was attacking you. That makes it more personal and much more real."

"It's still amazing. I think it's incredible that they were able to do that," Dan South, the only soldier in the Humvee struck by the IED to survive the 2005 attack, said of the FBI's sleuthing. "I kind of wish that we could have smoked him when it happened, but we didn't have that opportunity. So I guess this is second best."

Pfc. Nathaniel Detample, Spc. John Kulick, Spc. Gennaro Pellegrini and Sgt. Francis Straub were killed in the 2005 attack near Bayji. South remembers each of them, quirks and all – the fast eater, the practical joker, the bad driver (South claimed 19-year-old Detample, reportedly an Eagle Scout and wrestler, crashed the Humvee more than once "not even outside the wire, but just going to get something").

"It's hard not to be close," South said. "It gets to the point where you could look through night vision goggles and look at someone's shadow and just tell by their mannerisms and the way they walked who they were. There are probably a lot of people who could say that about their spouse, so that just kind of shows you how close everyone is."

"Just remember, these guys were somebody's sons, and somebody's brothers and somebody's father and these guys murdered them," South said. "There's definitely some sense of justice. They [the men arrested in Kentucky] went from being free men to now they live in a federal penitentiary."

Iraq attacks kill 48 as 2013 toll tops 5,800

Baquba (AFP) — A market bombing north of Baghdad was the deadliest in violence that killed 48 people on Thursday, as the year's death toll topped 5,800 amid a surge in unrest.

The flare-up has prompted Baghdad to appeal for international help to counter the worst bloodshed since 2008, just months before its first general election in four years.

Officials have voiced concern over a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria which has provided the jihadist network's front groups with increased room to plan operations in Iraq.

Thursday's attacks came a day after a spate of violence, mostly car bombs targeting Shiite districts of Baghdad, killed 59 people and wounded more than 100 in the highest death toll of the month.

Shootings and bombings struck in and around Baghdad and in north Iraq on Thursday.

In the deadliest incident, a car bomb exploded at around noon (0900 GMT) in a fruit and vegetable market in the town of Saadiyah, part of the restive ethnically mixed province of Diyala which has seen some of the worst bloodshed.

At least 32 people were killed and 40 wounded in the blast, officials said.

Saadiyah is populated mostly by Faylis, or Shiite Kurds, and is in territory Kurdish leaders want to incorporate in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of the central government.

Militants frequently exploit poor communication between Kurdish and central government security forces to launch their attacks.

On November 14, a suicide bomber targeted a group of Shiite pilgrims in the town on the anniversary of the death of a venerated figure in Shiite Islam, killing 32 people.

Shootings and bombings elsewhere in Diyala, as well as in and around Baghdad and the main northern city of Mosul, left 14 others dead while security forces killed two militants.

Bodies thrown in river

Authorities in Diyala also found the bodies of a dozen residents snatched by kidnappers purporting to be in the security forces.

The 12 were executed and their bodies thrown into a river, reminiscent of targeted killings that were rampant during the worst of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007.

No group has claimed responsibility for the violence, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda often carry out such attacks, ostensibly to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government and security forces.

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[Video] An Alternative Take at the One-State Solution: Give the Middle East to the Jews

In an effort to bring peace to the Middle East, President Barack Obama has proposed that Israel should return to its 1967 borders in exchange for being annihilated by its enemies. PJTV's Andrew Klavan has a better idea.

Evolution in Action: Obamacare Then, Affordable Care Act Now

Al-Qaeda suicide bombers hit Syrian troops near Lebanon, killing at least 7

Beirut (AFP) - Four suicide car bombs struck Syrian regime targets Wednesday in the Qalamoun region near Lebanon, killing at least seven soldiers, a monitor and state news agency SANA said.

The attacks come a day after troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad made gains in the Qalamoun area north of Damascus.

The attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, two Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, came after rebels were driven out of nearby Qara village on Tuesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More...

Obama regime begins political persecution of Conservative organizations

Political terrorism in Wisconsin: The American Police state begins.

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2013 – Cops are bursting into homes, seizing computers and other “evidence” while groups are being hit with subpoenas that require them to turn over voluminous and sensitive information - including the names of political donors.

The crime of being conservative is being prosecuted with vengance.

In Wisconsin, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz is going after conservative groups that were involved in the fight over the recall of Governor Scott Walker and Walker’s union reforms. Subpoenas are requesting “all records of income received, including fundraising information and the identity of persons contributing to the corporation.” They are seeking lists of conservative donors.

These “John Doe” subpoenas are alarming as, under Wisconsin law, when someone receives one of these subpoenas, the only person they are allowed to discuss the subpoena with is their attorney. Not only does this inhibit First Amendment rights, it stops groups from being able to create a unified defense to allegations.

Among the groups that have been targeted are Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin, The Republican Governors’ Association, The friends of Scott Walker, American Crossroads and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

The subpoenas, which have been leaked to the media, demand all kinds of internal records, including donation information and the identity of individual donors.

This is political terrorism at work and the special prosecutor in this case is a political terrorist.

More...

UN's Palestinian terrorist welfare organization, UNRWA, can't pay wages in financial crisis

Isn't that a shame...

(INN) 'Palestinian refugee' aid organization will not pay wages next month due to $36 million deficit, criticizes lack of Gaza building materials.

On Tuesday the UN announced it will not pay wages next month to thousands of workers in the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) due to a growing financial crisis.

The cancellation of wages comes as UNRWA is in a $36 million deficit according to AFP.

UNRWA was founded in 1950 to aid "Palestinian refugees" that left Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. All other refugees in the world are handled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNRWA currently serves roughly 5 million people as Palestinian refugee status is passed down from generation to generation under the organization's framework.

Under secretary general Jeffrey Feltman said "UNRWA will be unable to adequately fund its core services...and will be unable to pay December salaries of its 30,000 teachers, medical personnel and social workers."

While announcing its financial woes UNRWA criticized Israel's stance towards Hamas controlled Gaza.

Since Israel suspended building materials to Gaza in October after discovering the materials were used in building terror tunnels, 19 out of 20 UNRWA construction projects in Gaza have been halted, putting "thousands of people out of work" according to Feltman.

On Tuesday UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi said "the Israeli blockade -- which is illegal -- must be lifted." The same day Hamas spokeswoman Israa al-Mudallal said the situation in Gaza is "on the verge of explosion," calling on the international community to send materials, presumably building materials.

However Gaza's shortage of supplies has been proven to be because of Egypt's blockade, not Israel's.

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that no peace deal would be reached unless the 5 million "Palestinian refugees" are allowed to repatriate into Israel, effectively erasing Israel.

Some analysts have previously suggested that the US should place conditions on its financial aid to UNRWA given that its schools use the PA curriculum which rejects Israel's existence and encourages the "Palestinian right of return" along with "armed struggle."

The organization has shown strong bias against Israel in the past, such as in May when UNRWA director in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, was photographed holding a map showing all of Israel as "Palestine."

Meanwhile in August the Foreign Ministry condemned the UNRWA for misrepresenting facts in an incident at Kalandia, north of Jerusalem.

Beirut: Suicide bombing followed by car bomb kill at least 25 in embassy that also serves as a Hezbollah headquarters

Iran blames Israel; Syria blames Israel and Saudi Arabia.

BEIRUT: Iran’s foreign minister voiced concern over the two deadly suicide bombings that targeted Tehran’s embassy in Beirut Tuesday, saying the attack should be an “alarm for all of us.”

"The tragedy today ... should be an alarm for all of us that we need to deal with and unless we deal with it seriously, it will engulf all of us," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Rome after talks with his Italian counterpart, Emma Bonino.

Earlier Tuesday, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Israel of being behind the attack outside Tehran’s embassy in Lebanon.

“[The bombings are] an inhumane crime and spiteful act done by Zionists [Israelis] and their mercenaries," Marzieh Afkham told IRNA news agency.

The morning attack, carried out by two suicide bombers in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Bir Hasan, killed at least 25 people including an Iranian diplomat, security sources told The Daily Star.

The Syrian government, one of Iran’s main allies in the region, also deplored the attack.

"The Syrian government firmly condemns the terrorist attacks carried out near the Iranian embassy in Beirut," according to Syria’s state television.

“The odor of petrodollars is rising from the attacks in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq,” the agency added. Syria accuses Gulf states including oil-rich Saudi Arabia of funding and arming rebels seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Speaking to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television, Syria's Information Minister Omran Zoubi also accused Saudi and Israeli intelligence of being behind the attack.

Israeli minister hints at Israeli military action against Iran in CNN interview

(WJD) Jewish Home party chief Naftali Bennett broadsided anti-Israel journalist Christiane Amanpour in a CNN interview Monday night, warning that an inadequate agreement with Iran will lead to war.

Hitting Amanpour, who has long despised Israel, right where it hurts, Bennett was defiant and unapologetic about Israel's policies.

"There’s no one who wants a war less than us," he said. "However, it’s one of those cases where a bad deal will lead to a war, and a good deal with actually prevent war."

While Bennett did not specifically mention Israeli military action, Prime Minister Netanyahu has pledged that Israel will not be bound by any deal that does not completely end and dismantle Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

In addition, Netanyahu has said that Israel will never allow Iran to have nuclear capability, even if these military action will have to be taken.

Purging the military: Over 200 top military leaders forced out since Obama took office

Sectarian violence spreads in Pakistan after days of unrest

Sunni Muslims carry the casket of a fellow Sunni who was killed in Friday's sectarian clashes
during a Muharram procession, at Laiquat Bagh in Rawalpindi November 17, 2013.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Sectarian violence spread in Pakistan on Monday after clashes between minority Shi'ite and majority Sunni Muslims near the capital Islamabad prompted the government to impose a curfew and block mobile phone services over the weekend.

Clashes confined to areas in and around the capital at the weekend spilled over on Monday into two towns in the volatile northwest.

Tensions are high this month as Shi'ites mark Muharram, an annual period of mourning which has often sparked bouts of violence.

Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, remained under curfew and tight security for three days after a Shi'ite procession on Friday degenerated into sectarian clashes which killed at least eight people.

On Monday, a mob set shops on fire in a predominantly Shi'ite district in the northwestern town of Kohat in clashes that killed a policeman and a civilian, police said.

Tensions were high in the northwestern city of Hangu, also subject to a curfew, local media reported.

More...

Obama to make personal appeal to senators on Iran sanctions

It's always reassuring to see a US President act as a lobbyist for the mullahs.

(Fox News) President Obama is preparing to meet Tuesday with key senators as part of a full-court press by the administration to ensure that hawks on the Hill hold off on any new sanctions for Iran while delicate talks are under way.

More...

Students suffer ObamaCare sticker shock as premiums soar, plans get cut

(Fox News) While millions of Americans are watching their individual polices get canceled due to ObamaCare regulations, the new health care rules are also having a major impact on college campuses.

For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies. But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.

The new rules affect a broad swath of American schools, especially the small ones.

At Bowie State University in Maryland, the cost of student health insurance policies went from roughly $100 a year to $1,800 a year.

The cancelled plan offered $5,000 worth of medical coverage to students for just $54 per semester. University administrators said an acceptable replacement under the Affordable Care Act would have cost $900 per semester, a 1,500 percent increase. [...]

"Bowie State University has suspended offering health insurance for domestic students for the 2013-2014 academic year," according to the school's official website. "Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year."

More...

Al Jazeera America fails miserably to attract US audience

No need for Al Jazeera here. When Americans are in the mood for propaganda, they choose MSNBC.

(NYP) After just two months on the air, Al Jazeera America is losing ground in the US.

The US offshoot of the Mideast news outfit managed fewer than half of the viewers who tuned in to its predecessor, Al Gore’s Current TV.

Al Jazeera America has averaged just 13,000 viewers a day since its Aug. 20 launch — on par with a public access channel. In the 25- to 54-year-old audience sought by advertisers, it drew 5,000 viewers.

The ratings are so low, they are considered a “scratch” and aren’t reported by Nielsen.

“We are making large investments in programming and marketing,” an Al Jazeera America spokesperson said Sunday.

By comparison, 31,000 viewers tuned into Current TV a year ago.

More...

Chicago Tribune calls for repeal of Obamacare

(Chicago Tribune) As Friday dawns, here's what a health insurance crisis looks like to many millions of Americans: Barely six weeks shy of 2014, they do not know whether they will have medical coverage Jan. 1. Or which hospitals and doctors they might patronize. Or what they may pay to protect themselves and their families against the chance of medical and financial catastrophe. How much, that is, they may pay in order to satisfy the Democratic politicians and federal bureaucrats who are worsening a metastasizing health coverage fiasco.

For perhaps 5 million of those Americans thus far — estimates vary — the Washington-ordered cancellation of their policies is especially maddening. In the past these people took responsibility for their coverage and bought policies that balanced their needs, finances and personal choices. Congress and President Barack Obama, by enacting the Affordable Care Act, in effect ordered insurers to dismantle many of those individual plans — and cancel those policies.

The Americans manhandled by this exercise in government arrogance now find themselves divided into warring tribes: Those with chronic ailments who have found new plans on Obamacare exchanges and are pleased. Those who don't want or can't afford the replacement policies Obamacare offers them. Those whose new policies block them from using the health providers who have treated them for many years. The estimated 23 million to 41 million people whose employer-sponsored plans are the next to be imperiled. And on and on.

Most of these tribespeople only wish their big problem was a slipshod Obamacare website. On Thursday, their plight grew more frightful. With even Democratic members of Congress storming the White House over the cancellations, Obama declared — by what legal authority is unclear — that he would overrule the law he signed in 2010 and allow insurers to extend those canceled policies for a year.

If, that is, insurance regulators of the 50 states permit this potential distortion to risk pools inside and outside of Obamacare. The regulators, including those in Illinois, had better put protection ahead of politics: Within two hours of Obama's announcement, Mike Kreidler, insurance commissioner of Washington, a Democrat-leaning state, rejected the president's notion, citing "its potential impact on the overall stability of our health insurance market. ... We will not be allowing insurance companies to extend their policies."

Note that these are the same insurance companies that have done what Obamacare demanded of them, while they often were being vilified by politicians and bureaucrats who haven't done what Obamacare demanded of them: Create workable, economically sustainable, insurance markets. A spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, said Thursday that Obama's decree could further drive up prices: "Premiums were set based on assumptions about people transitioning to the (Obamacare) marketplaces," Robert Zirkelbach told The Washington Post. "Changing the rules in the middle of the game could dramatically change who actually signs up. If the exchanges become nothing more than a high-risk pool, that's going to result in massive premium increases for consumers."

So, what Obama presented Thursday as a favor looks like one more mess for state governments, insurers and ... American citizens. Under the policy Obama articulated, the states and insurers aren't required to do anything. The American citizens? Under Obamacare, they're still required to have health insurance. Or pay a government fine.

Note that the president's intent to enable the extension of policies his administration deems inferior also contradicts a key tenet of Obamacare: the guarantee that (almost) every private health plan in the nation must offer a lengthy list of mandated benefits.

On some level, then, the president plainly agrees with critics of Obamacare, this page included, that the law needs to be rewritten: He and his administration keep rewriting its major components — remember the mandate that sizable employers offer coverage in 2014? — as practicalities and politics demand.

But in this country we don't change bad laws by presidential fiat. We change them by having Congress rewrite them or by starting from scratch. Obama doesn't want to reopen this law for fear that Republicans and some Democrats will substantially rewrite it. But that's what has to happen.

We understand why the president and leaders of his party want to rescue whatever they can of Obamacare. On their watch, official Washington has blown the launch of a new entitlement program ... under the schedule they alone set in early 2010.

What we don't understand is their reluctance to give that failure more than lip service. Many of the Americans who heard their president say Thursday that "we fumbled the rollout of this health care law" would have been pleased to hear him add: So we're admitting it. This law is a bust. We're starting over.

Socialism in Action: European Civil Unrest is Now Widely Expected by EU

(Armstrong Economics) In France, an internal secret report of the French government warns of nationwide civil unrest as the economy simply implodes with rising taxes and higher unemployment. The French people are reported are simply “full of tension, frustration and anger” all because their purchasing power decreases (deflation) in the face of ever increasing tax burdens reported the Deutsche-Wirtschafts-Nachrichten.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum is also warning of a major “social explosion” throughout Europe. The crime rate is jumping off the charts, the economy is spiraling into a deflationary and stagnate trend as unemployment exceeds the US Great Depression high of 25% overall (60%+ for youth) causing the social fabric to tear apart at the seams all because of socialism that failed in China and Russia.The more government thinks it can control society, the worse it is becoming. This scenario described at the World Economic Forum has acknowledged that if the European countries fail to curb youth unemployment, there will be a “social explosion” of civil unrest reports the Deutsche-Wirtschafts-Nachrichten.

Video: ObamaCar commercial

A mind-bending video produced to promote ObamaCar, described as "the transportation breakthrough America needs."

Iranian Resistance to Reveal a new Secret Nuclear Site in Iran in a Press Conference in Paris on November 18

Hmmmm...

(PRNewswire) The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) announced it will expose a new secret nuclear site of the clerical regime in a press conference in Paris on Monday, November 18.

According to the NCRI, specific details of this site-including exact location, its latest status, organs, and companies involved in construction of the site-that have been compiled by the resistance sources inside of Iran in the past few months, will be revealed in Monday's press conference.

Mehdi Abrichamtchi, chairman of the Peace and Security Committee of the NCRI, who will conduct the press conference, will also provide the latest information on the mullahs' nuclear dossier and its attempts to conceal its nuclear activities prior to new round of negotiations in Geneva.

Throughout the last decade, the NCRI has revealed scores of sites and centers involved in the Iranian regime's clandestine nuclear project. These include Natanz and Arak (August 2002), Kala-Electric (February 2003), Fordow (December 2005), the Center for Command and Control of nuclear weaponization in an area known as Mojdeh (February 2008), and subsequently the new center known as SPND (July 2011). In July 2013, it revealed a new site near city of Damavand.

The revelations at this press conference will take place at a time when Iranian regime claims to permit inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but not of all the sites related to its nuclear program.

Report: Senior Hezbollah operative killed in Syria

More, please!

(Ynet) Al-Arabiya reported Saturday that senior Hezbollah operative Ali Shabib was killed in rebel fights in a Damascus suburb. According to reports, he we was injured days ago and died of his wounds on Saturday.

More...

The killings in Syria are so common that most news sources don't even bother to report them

31 Syrian soldiers killed by rebel bomb blast.

(AFP) At least 31 Syrian soldiers have been killed by a rebel bomb attack yesterday [SUN] on an army base near Damascus.

The blast comes amid a major regime offensive against rebel positions all around the capital and on second city Aleppo in the north.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three generals and a brigadier-general were among the 31 killed after a building in the army transport base in Harasta was completely levelled by the explosion.

The explosives appeared to have been placed "either inside or beneath the building in a tunnel", Mr Abdel Rahman added, suggesting rebels may have infiltrated the base.

A rebel group, the Direh al-Aasmeh (Shield of Damascus) brigade, claimed responsibility for the attack. [...]

More than 120,000 people have been killed in Syria's brutal war, and millions more forced to flee their homes.

Israel solidifies realignment with France amid Obama's hostility

(WJD) An extraordinary turnaround in international relations will be solidified on Sunday with the arrival of French President Francois Hollande in Israel for a three-day visit.

Hollande is expected to receive a hero's welcome in Jerusalem, due to France's sudden realignment with Israel on the Iranian nuclear issue. Defying the U.S. and explicitly citing Israel's concerns, France scuttled a capitulatory deal with Iran pushed by the Obama administration.

Sensing Obama's hostility, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly leaned toward France on the issue, as well toward France's Arab allies, such as Saudi Arabia, which also being intensely discontented with its U.S. alliance.

The rapprochement between Israel and France is especially stunning as it comes after decades of mutual hostility and an intensely pro-Arab policy on the part of numerous French administrations.

At the same time, however, Israel once shared a strong alliance with France during the late 1950s and early '60s. It is widely believed that Israel acquired nuclear technology from France that led to its still undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal.

Is Obama stupid enough to allow the Russians to place GPS monitor stations on US soil?

The answer is yes.

WASHINGTON (NYT) — In the view of America’s spy services, the next potential threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or secrets gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now in Moscow.

Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States.

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said.

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

More...

US allies will not stay properly under the bus: Israel said to be working with Saudi Arabia on Iran strike plan

Riyadh reported to give Jerusalem okay to use Saudi airspace on cooperate on other tactical support, according to Sunday Times.

(Times of Israel) Israel is working on coordinating plans for a possible military strike with Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh prepared to provide tactical support to Jerusalem, a British newspaper reported early Sunday.

The two countries have both united in worry that the West may come to terms with Iran, easing sanctions and allowing the Islamic Republic to continue its nuclear program.

According to the Sunday Times, Riyadh has agreed to let Israel use its airspace in a military strike on Iran and cooperate over the use of rescue helicopters, tanker planes and drones.

“The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs,” an unnamed diplomatic source told the paper.

The report comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the midst of a blitz to lobby against a deal and cobble together an international alliance opposed to an agreement that allows Iran to continue enriching uranium.

On Sunday, Israel will welcome French president Francois Hollande, who a week earlier put the kibosh on a deal between six world powers and Iran that would ease sanctions in return for initial steps toward curbing enrichment.

Netanyahu on Friday urged France to remain firm in its pressure on Iran ahead of a new round of talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in Geneva, kicking off Wednesday.

After meeting Hollande, Netanyahu will head to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and lobby against the deal.

Iran’s bid for the bomb “threatens directly the future of the Jewish state,” Netanyahu told CNN recently, in a short preview clip of an interview broadcast on Saturday. As the prime minister of Israel, he stressed, he had to care for “the survival of my country.”

CNN reported that Netanyahu also said in the interview that he would do whatever it was necessary to do in order to protect Israel. The full interview will air Sunday morning.

Should a deal be reached, according to the diplomatic source, a military option would be back on the table. Saudi tactical support, in lieu of backup from the Pentagon, would be vital for a long-range mission targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim country across the Persian Gulf from Iran has long been at odds with Tehran, and fears a nuclear weapon would threaten Riyadh and set off a nuclear arms race in the region.

John Wayne on liberals

5 Pig Heads Found At The Site Of First Mosque To Be Built In East Germany

(DPA) German police said on Friday they were looking for suspects who left severed heads of five pigs on the building site of a mosque in the eastern city of Leipzig.

Police spokeswoman Birgit Hoehn said a fire brigade reported the incident Thursday after being called to the site to extinguish a fire in a refuse skip.

There have been right-wing protests for weeks against construction of the mosque, which will have minarets.

The house of prayer, which is funded by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, has been welcomed by the Leipzig city council as a sign of the university city's cosmopolitan style and tolerance.

It will be the first mosque outside of Berlin to be constructed in Germany's formerly communist eastern states.

At least 43 killed, 460 wounded as Libyan militia fires on protesters

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Hundreds of people gathered Saturday in Tripoli's Martyrs Square to mourn the victims of fighting in the capital a day earlier. At least 43 people were killed and 460 others wounded on Friday in the bloodiest day of fighting here since the fall of Tripoli in 2011, the state run Libya News Agency LANA reported. The fighting broke out after protesters arrived at the Tripoli headquarters of militias from the coastal city of Misrata. Protesters and witnesses said militiamen opened fire on the protesters who marched on Gharghour, a southern district of the capital where Misrata militia are based, in an effort to evict the armed groups. TV footage aired on the privately owned al-Nabaa channel showed militiamen, in a truck equipped with what appeared to be an antiaircraft mounted on the back, opening fire directly at protesters. The armed confrontation lasted for hours as protesters returned with weapons and militiamen from different parts of the capital. The sound of heavy gunfire, artillery and explosions echoed across Tripoli on Friday night and clashes erupted Saturday east of the city. Libyan officials said fresh fighting broke out in the district of Tajoura, an eastern entrance to the capital, where heavily armed militiamen from Misrata were trying to enter Tripoli. At least one person was killed and eight other were wounded in the early morning fighting, LANA reported. More fighting was reported in the area in the afternoon. Prime Minister Ali Zaidan warned Saturday in a news conference that the arrival of any forces from outside Tripoli would lead to a serious escalation. "The coming hours and days will be decisive for the future of Libya," Justice Minister Salah Marghani told reporters. Tensions were running high Saturday on the streets of Tripoli as militiamen fortified parts of the city, setting up roadblocks and closing off some roads leading into the capital. More...

How To Deal With 'Islamists': Russian Manhunt Ends as Bus Bomber’s Husband Is Killed

MOSCOW (NYT) — Russian officials said Saturday that they had killed the husband of a suicide bomber who blew up a public bus last month in the city of Volgograd, ending a monthlong manhunt in Dagestan, a violence-plagued republic in the North Caucasus.

The bus bombing in Volgograd, which is about 900 kilometers (559 miles) south of Moscow, had unnerved the authorities because of its randomness and because instances of Muslim insurgent violence outside the Caucasus are relatively rare.

The bomber, Naida Asiyalova, blew herself up on a crowded No. 29 bus in the center of the city, killing six other passengers in a fiery blast that was recorded by the dashboard camera of a car traveling behind.

Ms. Asiyalova, who was four days shy of her 31st birthday, had been suffering from a grave, perhaps terminal, illness. After the bombing, investigators said they were searching for her common-law husband, Dmitri Sokolov, 21, whom they had identified as a demolition and explosives specialist for a rebel group based in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

Russian officials said that antiterrorism forces found Mr. Sokolov, along with four others, just outside Makhachkala, where they engaged in a standoff. During a prolonged negotiation, investigators put Mr. Sokolov on the phone with his mother, who apparently pleaded with him to surrender, according to local news agencies.

Officials told news agencies that during the negotiations Mr. Sokolov admitted to making the explosive belt used on the bus in Volgograd, though there was no way to verify the claim.

The men refused to surrender, and all five were shot and killed, officials said. A woman and child in the house where the men had been blockaded were rescued unharmed, officials said, and a stash of weapons and ammunition was discovered.

Ms. Asiyalova and Mr. Sokolov apparently met as students in Moscow.

Russian security forces have been aggressively trying to suppress Muslim separatists ahead of the Winter Olympics, which will be early next year in Sochi, and the bombing in Volgograd was seen as demonstration of the ability of rebel fighters in the Caucasus to carry out attacks despite the crackdown.

IDF Treats Hundreds in Philippines; NBC Correspondent in 'Awe'

IDF delegation in Philippines has treated over 300 wounded; NBC reporter impressed, publishes report praising IDF humanitarianism.

(INN) Since the IDF delegation to the Philippines landed last Thursday, the unit has treated over 370 wounded - 150 of them children - in a hospital in the city of Bogo.

IDF doctors at Bogo's hospital have performed operations, used advanced medical equipment, and overseen 5 births - including one Cesarean section and one birth where the mother went into labor en route to the hospital.

Provincial governor Hilario Davide III visited the hospital Saturday to tour the grounds, meet the medical staff, and thank Israel for sending the medical team to the country, which was hammered by Typhoon Heiyan last week. Heiyan has been estimated to have killed up to 10,000 people and has left hundreds of thousands wounded or missing.

In addition, large meetings were conducted Saturday afternoon with Cebu officials to determine the local population's needs in the wake of the typhoon. The IDF worked with officials to determine the most efficient ways to aid Cebu residents so they can return to a normal life as fast as possible.

The move has left NBC reporter Nancy Snyderman in 'awe' of Israel's humanitarian work.

In a special report, Snyderman noted her previous positive experiences with IDF teams, when she reported on the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquakes. She remarked that Bogo is "the place we least expected", as the city had not received as much media attention as other Philippine areas affected by the typhoon.

Snyderman also praises the IDF's medical technology, which documents each patient by preserving digital copies of their medical files to prevent problems with filing mix-ups, language barriers, and a barrage of information flowing during a time of crisis. Also noting the IDF's emphasis on security, she sums up her impressions of the IDF as being "Smart. Sophisticated. Secure."

This time, says Snyderman, she was blown away by an additional factor: the IDF's choice of Bogo. More than just remote, Bogo was poverty-stricken before the typhoon; the IDF delegation is not only attempting to help in the aftermath of the crisis, but also to enact long-term change in one of the Philippine's poorest urban centers.

"As I left, I walked away in awe of this group of doctors: physician humanitarians, and medicine at its very best," she concludes.

Chaos ensues after insurance cancellation reversal

(USA Today) David Isenstadt has spent the past six weeks working 12-hour days, seven days a week, trying to reach all of his insurance clients with canceled policies to switch them to new policies. Now this.

President Obama's announcement Thursday that consumers can keep insurance plans that don't meet the Affordable Care Act for a year will only create chaos, insurance brokers, regulators and carriers say.

"To make a possible change like this now will only cause more confusion and compound the problems that the ACA is causing" on Jan. 1, says Isenstadt, who owns New England Insurance Group in Guilford, Conn.

The insurance industry is none too pleased that the onus is now on them to satisfy consumers who are outraged about their policies being canceled. Insurers and insurance commissioners don't have to let people extend their plans, but "it will no longer be implementation of the law that is forcing them to buy a new plan," the White House said in a fact sheet.

The head of the insurance industry's trade group says extensions could lead to higher premiums, just the effect Obama's announcement was intended to prevent.

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Do note this part:

"it will no longer be implementation of the law that is forcing them to buy a new plan," the White House said"

Which was the intent of this "fix" — to shift the blame from Obama to the insurance companies. If they can't reverse... in 45 days... what they planned on for 3 years in order to comply with Obamacare... it's now going to be all their fault.

At this point, the bullshit is neck deep.

"Obama's March to War"

Emergency Committee for Israel to run new US TV ad highlighting reasons to doubt Obama's promises to stop a nuclear Iran.

(INN) Concerns over US President Barack Obama's push to reach a potentially disastrous deal with Iran on its nuclear weapons program led the Washington-based Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) to release a one-minute TV ad Thursday entitled "Obama's March to War."

The ad is scheduled to run multiple times this week and next week on CNN, MSNBC and FoxNews, and highlights why Americans and US allies have cause to doubt Obama's promises to stop a nuclear Iran.

Noah Pollak, ECI's executive director, said Obama's "administration may be able to fix a broken promise on health insurance, but it won't be able to fix a world in which Iran has nuclear weapons."

The TV spot can be seen here:

Fears that Obama will rush into a bad deal with Iran on its nuclear program were strengthened by recent reports that his administration has already been easing sanctions on Iran for the past 5 months without Congressional approval.

Those reports follow earlier analysis that Obama is hurrying to sign a deal and in the process sell out US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Friction between the US and Israel has only grown as US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told Senators Wednesday to "ignore anything the Israelis say" about Iran. Meanwhile new polls show Israelis don't trust the US to ensure their security in talks with Iran.

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home/Bayit Yehudi) is currently in Washington to convince American policy makers not to support any deal that doesn't completely dismantle Iran's nuclear program.

Obama and Kerry are complete morons. Letting Iran off the hook is the stupidest foreign policy decision in American history.

UN interpreter apologizes for saying the truth on hot mic

(Atlantic Wire) A United Nations interpreter didn't realize her microphone was on whilst being candid with her colleagues on Thursday night during a General Assembly meeting. The slip came as the body was adopting nine resolutions condemning Israel, and none addressing issues in other countries.

According to UN Watch, here's what the interpreter said:

“I mean, I think when you have five statements, not five, like a total of ten resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there’s gotta be something, c’est un peu trop, non? [It’s a bit much, no?] I mean I know… There’s other really bad shit happening, but no one says anything, about the other stuff.”

Here's video of the incident (skip to 1:56).

Backpedaling Bam is fumbling and bumbling

(NYP) On Thursday, President Obama conducted the “Springtime for Hitler” of press conferences. He came out at noon and proceeded to blather his way through an hour of self-justifications and evasions and apologies and complaints.

And as he went on, you could almost see America reacting as the audience in “The Producers” did to the happy-talk number about Adolf romping at his retreat in Berchtesgaden — with gaped-mouth astonishment.

First, he said he had not been “informed directly that the Web site would not be working.” What on earth does that mean? Was he somehow informed indirectly? In an affronted tone, the president said he wouldn’t have been so stupid as to have promised a great Web site if he’d known it was lousy.

Which makes you wonder: Did he ask?

Oh, and how about that now-infamous lie The New York Times hilariously dubbed an “incorrect promise” the other day? Here the president squirmed: “With respect to the pledge I made that ‘If you like your plan, you can keep it,’ I think — you know, and I’ve said in interviews — that there is no doubt that the way I put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate.”

So he wouldn’t say he lied, which is understandable. He did say — three times — that the ball was “fumbled,” and that he’s been doing some “Monday-morning quarterbacking” on himself.

The only problem is that if he gets benched, Joe Biden has to come in from the sidelines, and nobody wants that.

But look, he went on to say, this Web-site thing isn’t easy! See, it has programs and things in it. “The Web site itself is doing a lot of stuff,” he explained, because, you know, other Web sites don’t do a lot of stuff. “There’s just a — a bunch of pieces to it that made it challenging.”

Yes, so challenging, they spent 1,100 days and $600 million on it, and it still couldn’t serve more than six people at a time!

Your average porn star has a Web site more functional than that. She’d have to, you see, because she’s in the private market and is out of business if her site goes down.

And you know what else is hard? “What we’re also discovering,” said the man who has completely overhauled the insurance industry, “is that insurance is complicated to buy.” That this might have come as a surprise to him is mind-boggling.

“And another mistake that we made, I think, was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and shopping for a lot of options with a lot of costs and lot of different benefits and plans.” Really? People do that with airline tickets every day. The only difference there is that those Web sites work.

The president then ruminated on this point: “Since I know that the federal government has not been good at this stuff in the past, two years ago, as we were thinking about this, you know, we might have done more to make sure that we were breaking the mold on how we were going to be setting this up.”

Good thinking. Because, you know, when you’re taking effective control of one-sixth of the economy, you might consider the fact that you might have to pay attention.

He talked and talked and talked, and his garrulous incoherence was deeply painful to watch. The only comparable squirm-inducing moment I can remember in politics came in 2011 when Texas Gov. Rick Perry went silent for 53 seconds during a Republican presidential debate trying to think of the name of a government agency . . . and then said, “Oops.”

Rick Perry, we now know, was doped up on pain meds for a bad back. What’s Obama’s excuse?

He has none. You’re only as good as your material, they say in showbiz, and Obama’s material is his health-care plan.

And if his press conference was like “Springtime for Hitler,” ObamaCare is the “Heaven’s Gate” of big-government programs — the one that’s such a flop, it calls into question any and every potential project remotely like it.

OK, I’ll stop now before I mention “Gigli.”

Obama's Gettysburg Bypass

Obama snubs the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

(WSJ) The White House recently whispered out the back door that President Obama would not appear in Pennsylvania next Tuesday at the ceremonies for the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The political betting had been that this was a big-speech venue whose glow Mr. Obama would not want to miss. The higher-road expectation was that this particular Civil War anniversary required the presence of this particular American president. It's not happening. The administration's official attendee will be Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

The White House offered no explanation beyond Jay Carney's bloodless reply to a reporter: "I think Americans will take the appropriate time to consider the speech that was delivered there. I would simply say that I have no updates on the president's schedule."

What was he supposed to say? Once the president—or whoever—decided he wouldn't attend, no possible explanation was going to suffice for the Gettysburg no-show.

There is no inclination in this quarter to second-guess the White House's rationale for not attending. And maybe it's just as well we won't hear Mr. Obama's thoughts on the Gettysburg Address. Those words were about a renewal of the nation's unity, and five years into the Obama presidency, the United States is about as politically divided as it can get. The division is so intense that Americans paint their political beliefs in one of two colors: blue or red.

That this division exists in 2013, 150 years after Lincoln wrote those words, is ironic, to say the least. So it is unavoidable that any reflection on the anniversary of the ceremony at Gettysburg Cemetery in 1863 has to occur inside the context of the nation's current presidency and what that presidency stands for.

At Gettysburg, Lincoln described the nation's origin, its civil war and its future with a poetic concision not heard since the first chapter of Genesis. We do not call his words a speech, as in a farewell speech. It was an address delivered to all the American people at a pivotal moment to describe what he hoped would come after the war. He spoke of "unfinished business."

All will agree that the unfinished business included Nov. 4, 2008, the day the American people elected a black man into their presidency. This came 54 years after the judicial branch decided in Brown v. Board of Education that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 43 years after the legislative branch passed the Voting Rights Act. "All men," Lincoln said in the address's first sentence, "are created equal."

What Lincoln said next matters most for those living in the here and now, and who are so at odds over the nation's direction and governing ideas.

In the moment before he spoke the address's final, famous words—that government of, by and for the people "shall not perish from the earth," he uttered what may be its most potent phrase. "This nation," Lincoln said, will have "a new birth of freedom."

Lincoln's phrase, "a new birth of freedom," suggests a radical freedom. The Civil War had shaken the nation out of its unfree state, and Lincoln was asserting that America would now pursue an even higher state of freedom. But what would be the shape and content of this radical American freedom?

The clue may be found in the one word favored in all presidents' speeches—"we." There is general agreement that "we" is shorthand for "We the People" of the U.S. Constitution's Preamble. There is less consensus on what that phrase was intended to mean.

We know what President Obama thinks it means. In every speech given during his presidency, and in virtually every policy direction he has proposed in those speeches, it is clear that when Mr. Obama says "we," he means the federal government acting at its seat of power in Washington, D.C.

For Mr. Obama, and many others, "We the People" means not the Union of sovereign states, the Union for which a civil war was fought, but the single political agency of the national government. Had he decided to show up Tuesday in Gettsyburg, Mr. Obama would have repeated his belief that American freedom flows forward from acts taken by one national government, itself defining and administering the collective will of some inchoate force called "we."

It is impossible to imagine that Lincoln thought that the "new birth of freedom" made possible by the sacrifice at Gettysburg would become almost solely the result of choices made by modern America's hugely aggrandized unitary state.

Lincoln was not "anti-government" and obviously not averse to federal power. But surely Lincoln, the Illinois frontier lawyer who spoke of a nation "conceived in liberty," would be aghast to see the piling up of laws, rules, must-dos and must-not-dos that pervade the American workplace, judicial code, commerce, health care, education, and even, of all things, common speech.

Lincoln's purpose in reuniting the nation was to elevate, not diminish, freedom for "men," for individuals. Barack Obama's election to the presidency personifies Lincoln's purpose. We will wait for some future president to renew the full meaning of Lincoln's ideas at that Gettysburg battlefield.

Al-Qaeda apologizes and asks for forgiveness after cutting off head of wrong person

(Iraq) Islamic terrorists in Syria linked to al-Qaeda have asked for "understanding and forgiveness" for cutting off and putting on display the wrong man's head.

In a public appearance filmed and posted online, members of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, one brandishing a knife, held up a bearded head before a crowd in Aleppo. They triumphantly described the execution of what they said was a member of an Iraqi Shia militia fighting for President Bashar al-Assad. But the head was recognised from the video as belonging to Mohammed Fares, a member of Ahrar al-Sham, a Sunni terrorist group that often fights alongside ISIS, though it does not share its al-Qaeda ideology.

Mohammed Fares, left, who was mistakenly decapitated by Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham terrorists

I'm sure the victim and his family are more than happy to accept this honest mistake. I mean, it's nothing to lose your head over, is it?

Veterans Day

Saudi police clash with foreign workers after visa raids, 2 killed, 68 wounded

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian police clashed with foreign workers in a poor district of Riyadh on Saturday, nearly a week into a visa crackdown in which thousands have been detained and one man killed by police.

Security forces in riot gear fired into the air and used truncheons to disperse large crowds as scores of men ran through the streets, some throwing stones and other objects at cars and police, according to Reuters witnesses.

Two people were killed of which one was a Saudi while the other one was unidentified, the Saudi police said in a statement late on Saturday after it detained 561 people involved in the disturbances in the Manfuhah neighbourhood of southern Riyadh.

The police added that 68 people were injured.

Most of the foreign workers involved in the clashes appeared to be Africans.

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Russia jails 4 Chechen Muslims over Moscow airport bombing

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court jailed three men for life and one for 10 years on Monday over their role in a suicide bombing which killed 37 people at Moscow's Domodedovo airport nearly three years ago.

Chechen warlord Doku Umarov says he ordered the attack on January 24, 2011, as part of an Islamist insurgency against Russian rule of the North Caucasus and has urged supporters to attack the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Brothers Islam and Ilez Yandiyev, Akhmed Yevloyev and Bashir Khamkhoyev were jailed for offences including commissioning an act of terror, murder and attempted murder.

Only Yevloyev did not receive a life sentence from the Moscow regional court, Russian news agencies said. Prosecutors had asked for a shorter term for him because he was a minor at the time of the attack.

State prosecutors said the four had helped the suicide bomber travel from their native region of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus to Moscow and providing him with an apartment, an explosives belt and transport.

Vladimir Putin sent troops to Chechnya to halt a separatist rebellion in 1999, when he was prime minister, but Russia still faces almost daily violence in the North Caucasus in his third term as president.

Umarov, the leader of Russia's Islamist insurgency, has urged his fighters to use "maximum force" to sabotage the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February.

Syria: No one cares about Palestinians

Meaning that in reality, the so called "Palestinian issue" does not exist.

(RT) The Palestinian issue has been uniting all Muslims for 65 years. Syrian rebels succeeded in their mission – they made the world forget about the Palestinian issue.

The militants pulled Palestinians out of refugee camps; they are killing them or using these people as human shields. And the media are silent about it, while the Syrian opposition keeps screaming about the “oppressive Assad regime.”

It’s been a year since Syrian rebels raided the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria – Yarmouk, near Damascus. Up until recently it was the duty of Israeli soldiers to persecute Palestinians, now this is done by Syrian rebels with their Muslim slogans. The media are not saying anything about it.

What is the life of Palestinians like, now that the Syrian conflict made them refugees again?

'Nobody is helping us – neither Europe, nor the UN'

Abu-Badr, head of Beirut’s Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp People's Committee, gathered representatives of all Palestinian parties. They all keep regular contacts with camps in Syria.

A year after Palestinian camps and Palestinians were attacked, the heads of these organizations are saying that the Syrian war is a staged conflict, and its goal is to distract everybody from the Palestinian problem.

A total of 760,000 Palestinian refugees lived in Syria before the war, and about 550,000 in Lebanon. Palestinians had equal rights in Syria, and virtually no rights in Lebanon. For example, they were not allowed to work in 72 professional capacities.

Abu-Badr says, “There are over 1,000 Palestinian families from Syria in our camp. Nobody is helping us – not Europe, not the UN. The Red Cross came twice. The refugees are renting housing on their own.”

To rent a place to live is a big problem for a Palestinian, especially at the camp. And to pay rent, they have to find a job, which is extremely difficult in Lebanon.

He says that according to the authorities, there are about 120,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria living south of Tripoli. So every tenth refugee is a Palestinian.

Turkey and Jordan don’t accept Palestinians.

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Hmmm that's odd. Well, I guess it means no flotillas with knife-wielding Turkish humanitarians for them.

Islamic convert arrested after trying to murder non-Muslims on the streets of London

(England) Police were called to an incident in Battersea, South London, around midday yesterday when it was reported that a knifeman, armed with four blades, was trying to smash his way into a fire station.

It transpires firemen confronted the 26-year-old after seeing him throwing bottles at neighbours and threatening passers-by with kitchen knives. But he went berserk and chased the firemen back to the station where he attempted to batter down the doors.

Within minutes more than 20 police officers had arrived at the scene, blocking off the road as the man sprinted up and down smashing police car windows and screaming that he wanted to 'kill Kuffars' (derogatory term for non-Muslims).

Well, after getting zapped by a couple of Tasers, the man was arrested on charges of attempting to murder a policeman.

Funny enough, Battersea is around 5 miles away from where 2 Muslims beheaded a British soldier earlier on this year.

British police arrest journalist for handing out photos of on the run terrorist

(London) With egg still covering their faces from how an Islamic terrorist gave them the slip by dressing up as a woman, the police haven't done their public image any good by arresting a reporter who was handing out photos and a reward for information regarding said terrorist outside the radical mosque where he did a runner. It seems that the nice, peaceful followers of Islam who hang out at the mosque where "Kill the kaffa!" is a regular affirmation, objected to a reporter asking questions and called the Old Bill. They, in turn, faster than you can utter "Allah Ackba" nicked the reporter and his photographer and took them to Acton police station on suspicion of “racially aggravated public disorder” where they were quizzed under caution by detectives for four hours before being released.

Got to love the British police, what with their penchant for murdering innocent people, openly lying and their inability to catch criminals.

Lebanon: Hezbollah Goes Apeshit After Nasrallah Lampooned on National TV

But what else is new?

(INN) Supporters of Hezbollah reacted angrily on Friday after the group’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, was lampooned on a national comedy show, Al-Arabiya reports.

The Basmat Watan parody show included an actor playing Nasrallah this week. The program mocked Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria, which has become a very touchy subject within the movement.

The show’s “Nasrallah” lamented his group’s involvement in Syria. When the interviewer agreed, “Nasrallah” clarified that he was upset because, “Our participation came too late. We should have been there from day one.”

The show’s “Nasrallah” also expressed regret over Hezbollah’s extensive weaponry, another controversial topic. The regret: that Hezbollah’s massive arsenal does not include submarines and an air force.

The interviewer then asked about Iran’s control of the Lebanese group, leading “Nasrallah” to quickly conclude the interview.

Nasrallah’s supporters took to the streets following the program, burning tires and blocking roads in various Lebanese cities. The group reacted similarly following a previous “Nasrallah” appearance on Basmat Watan in 2006.

Producer Charbel Khalil responded to the controversy on Twitter and said that the show has mocked religious figures in the past. Nasrallah is a political figure as well as a religious figure, he noted, and as such is a target for parody.

Hezbollah has faced heavy criticism from within and without over its involvement in Syria, where it has sustained heavy losses in fighting alongside Bashar Assad’s army.

The group has also faced recent challenges in southern Lebanon. In September, Christian villagers successfully protested an attempt by Hezbollah to wiretap their town. Later that month the Lebanese government announced that it would send the national army to secure Hezbollah-dominated suburbs – effectively limiting Hezbollah’s power in its traditional strongholds.

Iranian general: No doubt Israel and America will be attacked

Or "peace in our time", as Obama would like you to think of this, as he is tripping over himself to appease them... if not for France.

(TheDC) Even before the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 world powers ended in Geneva early Sunday with no deal, an Iranian general lashed out at America Saturday and warned both the U.S. and Israel that they will be attacked.

According to Fars News Agency, the regime’s outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said “America’s interests and all of Israel are within the range of the Islamic Republic and there is not the slightest doubt among Iran’s armed forces to confront the American government and the Zionists (Israel).”

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Palestinian comedy hour: Fatah, Hamas quibble over Arafat memorial ceremony

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian movement Fatah has accused Gaza's rulers Hamas of banning it from commemorating Monday's ninth anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death and arresting several of its members.

"We condemn the summoning and arrest of some of our members and demand to stop them immediately," said the Ramallah-based Fatah party, which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Arafat died in Paris on November 11, 2004 at 75 after falling sick a month earlier. Doctors were unable to specify the cause of death and no post-mortem was carried out at the time.

Palestinian society has long given currency to the rumour that he was murdered, and following the findings of Swiss scientists which "moderately" supported the notion Arafat was poisoned, Palestinian officials openly accused Israel of "assassinating" him.

Israel flatly denies killing Arafat.

Its statement on Sunday, Fatah also called on Hamas "to end the division and achieve national unity" and appealed for it to reverse its ban on the commemoration of Arafat, "the symbol of Palestine and all liberation movements in the world".

But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri blamed Fatah for thwarting efforts of his Islamist movement to hold a joint ceremony.

Fatah "insisted it should be only a Fatah ceremony" and decided to not attend a joint meeting that would determine the factional representatives of a memorial ceremony, he wrote on his Facebook page.

Tensions between the two sides have been high since 2006, when Hamas trounced Abbas' long-dominant Fatah in Palestinian legislative elections, and boiled over into vicious street battles between gunmen from both sides later that year.

The ferocity of the violence shocked Palestinians, splitting them into rival camps and the occupied territories into two separate entities, with Hamas unchallenged in Gaza and Abbas's power base limited to the West Bank.

Philippine typhoon deaths climb reaches 10,000

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) — As many as 10,000 people are believed dead in one Philippine city alone after one of the worst storms ever recorded unleashed ferocious winds and giant waves that washed away homes and schools. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and water.

Officials projected the death toll could climb even higher when emergency crews reach areas cut off by flooding and landslides. Even in the disaster-prone Philippines, which regularly contends with earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan appears to be the deadliest natural disaster on record.

Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippine archipelago on Friday and quickly barreled across its central islands before exiting into the South China Sea, packing winds of 235 kilometers per hour (147 miles per hour) that gusted to 275 kph (170 mph), and a storm surge that caused sea waters to rise 6 meters (20 feet).

It wasn't until Sunday that the scale of the devastation became clear, with local officials on hardest-hit Leyte Island saying that there may be 10,000 dead in the provincial capital of Tacloban alone. Reports also trickled in from elsewhere on the island, and from neighboring islands, indicating hundreds, if not thousands of more deaths, though it will be days before the full extent of the storm's impact can be assessed.

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Obama's foreign policy fails yet again

(Cairo) You've got to love the present incumbents of the White House who have gone out of their way in which to attack their allies (UK, Israel, Germany, Saudi Arabia) while getting into bed with those who hate it: North Korea, China, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan.

Well, the US can add another one of its friends to the former list, as angry over how the US has thrown its support with the (now disposed) despotic Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the military government there has decided to have talks with Russia about getting back into bed with them. Yeah, way to go, Obama.

US Navy Christens Next-Generation Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)

(US) Since Pearl Harbor, the primary instrument of US power projection has been its aircraft carriers. The current iteration (the Nimitz class) first saw service almost 40 years ago, and the last in its class, USS George H.W. Bush, was taken into service 4 years ago. (The class weighs approximately 100,000 tons when fully loaded, is capable of steaming faster than thirty knots, self-sustaining for up to ninety days, and launching aircraft to strike targets hundreds of miles away. However, the biggest problems facing the Nimitz class are the limited electrical power generation capability, the upgrade-driven increase in ship weight and erosion of the center-of-gravity margin needed to maintain ship's stability.)

However, no matter how many times you tweak things, the class is 40 years old and to that end the US Navy implemented plans to replace the current carrier fleet with a new and improved model. Which is where the USS Gerald R. Ford class super carriers come in.

Designed from the go to rectify all the issues that have cropped up with the previous design, it is equipped with a phased array radar, an island that is shorter in length, which is 20 feet taller than that of the Nimitz class, it is set 140 feet further aft and three feet closer to the edge of the ship. Electromagnetic catapults (EMALS) will launch aircraft, eliminating the need to store water and heat it for steam catapults. The Ford can accomplish 25% more aircraft launches per day than the Nimitz and requires 25% fewer crew members. The U.S. Navy estimates it will save $4 billion in operating costs over a 50-year lifespan.

Anyway, the Navy christened the USS Gerald R. Ford on Saturday with the traditional smashing of a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow of the ship. This time, honoured act was carried out by Ford's daughter, Susan Ford Bales. The ship is set to join the fleet in 2016. Here is the link to the official USS Gerald R. Ford website.

With Chavez long dead, the madness still continues in Venezuela

(Caracas) One thing that is a proven fact is that communism, no matter what its form, simply just does not work. We saw this in Eastern Europe, we saw this in Russia, we saw this in China and we definitely saw it in Cambodia. Every state which adopted the all for one and one for all mantra of the various little red books have found that actually as in the book 'Animal Farm' only the first half of that statement became fact - "all for one", and that the latter half didn't apply to the rest, especially poor Boxer. Which is why they all got rid of communism. However, there are people who haven't learned from history and still proclaim to the masses that communism is the way to go. (British trade unions for example.) And they wax lyrical from the pulpit that if we all do as they say then everybody will be alight. Which brings me to Venezuela.

Venezuela is an oil rich country, it is also a fertile country blessed with everything it needs to be self sufficient. However, in 1999 military strong man Hugo Chavez came to power and adopted the way of the little red book, and we find 14 years later that under his leadership Venezuelans have to suffer power, water, food, fuel and even toilet paper shortages. He clamped down on free speech, he promoted anti-Semitism, he has destabilised the region with his support for terrorist groups and by importing enough Russian and Chinese weapon systems to start a small arms race in the region. But Chavez died in March this year. You'd think whoever took over would try to rectify his mistakes, alas no, his successor President Nicolas Maduro continues the left-wing polices of Hugo and instead of looking in the mirror for the reason why Venezuela is a basket case, he blames anybody and everybody. (Usually the US and the Jews).

Well, with a crumbling support base, El Prezidente has hit on a plan (like all South American despots) to win the support of the people. He started off with the creation of a new Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness. This he followed by declaring an early Christmas, and now he has accused a electrical chain store of inflating the prices of the goods it sells, so he's nationalised the five-store, 500-employee Daka chain, sent soldiers to occupy the shops, and forced the company to start selling products at cheaper prices.

Wow, I wonder what he will do next, declare war on a smaller neighbour? Isn't it great how communism only delivers on paper and never the real world?

Car bomb detonated outside hotel in Mogadishu, kills 11

(Somalia) You can always tell when it's Friday (the Islamic holy day), as it's also the day when people are murdered in the name of Allah. Today was no different when a bloody idiot detonated a vehicle IED outside hotel Makkah Al-Mukarama in the capital, killing 11 people and injuring 16. No doubt some idiot will find an excuse for the bloody carnage carried out in the name of their god.

Why do we accept what Muslims tell us as the truth?

(Manchester) How many times have you heard some idiot say that Muslims can't do this, that or the other because it is against their faith and because they are talking about Islam they are allowed to get off scot free?

For example, did you hear about the chef who tried to sue the (London) Met Police because he was forced to fry bacon, which was against his faith? He took 6 months off on stress leave before he signed his lawyers up. Problem is, it came out in the wash that he (the chef) liked nothing more than to sit down with a cup of tea and... a bacon sandwich, and he lost the case.

It's the same with this POV that all Muslims are uber pious and that they cannot go near alcohol. Funny enough, each and every Islamic grooming gang in the UK has been found to have piled their victims with... alcohol. Which brings me to 29-year-old drunk driver Mohammed Yasin, who crashed into a bus shelter while under the influence with his 4-year-old son in the back. In court, his defence claimed:

“Yasin was curious what alcohol tasted like because of his culture. He purchased half a bottle of vodka and mixed it with coke – and his son was present when he bought it.”

So let me get this straight: this man wanted to know what vodka tasted like and not only bought a bottle while out driving but bought some coke in which to flavour it with. Please. Even a blind man wearing sunglasses in a darkroom at midnight could tell you this man is lying out of his arse. For his so called lapse in judgement, Mohammed was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail, suspended for a year and banned for two years. He was also ordered to attend a drivers’ impaired by alcohol programme, along with £85 costs and £80 surcharge. Anybody else would have had the book thrown at them, but when it's a Muslim, well, we all know that they cannot lie. The thing is, this isn't the first time drunk Muslims have got it lightly while being intoxicated. Take for example when 4 drunk Somali Muslim women attacked a white girl in the centre of Leicester and during the attack were screaming "Kill the white bitch!" All 4 walked free from court because their defence claimed

"[t]hat as Muslims, the women were not used to being drunk."

When will people wake up to the fact that for all their so called pious religious demeanour, Muslims have all the vices the rest of us have? If anything, more.

Gaza News

How the bBC has become Islam's bitch

(London) For those of you who come here often, you will know that I have no love for the bBC over its pro-Islamic terrorist stance. Some of you may think I am being petty and that I am wrong.

Well, here is a letter published on the Muslim Council of Britain's (MCB) website where they complain about the use of the term 'Islamic terrorists' in regards to... Islamic terrorists. The letter gives a party political broadcast about how the MCB sees things in Kashmir, that the people of Kashmir wish to belong to Pakistan and that India is a nasty, nasty country for not handing over a part of it to anybody who demands it, and that, as per usual, the only people who are victims are... Muslims.

But what is worse is the weasel response by the head of editorial policy at the bBC. Sorry, did I say weasel? I meant spineless.