Overnight music video - One Night in Bangkok - Murray He

Ezra levant interviews Daniel pipes on the Madness in the Middle East

HT: to blazingcatfur , EzraLevant.

Indonesia: Muslims Warned Against Observing Valentine’s Day in Sharia Controlled region.

Indonesia: Muslims Warned Against Observing Valentine’s Day in Sharia Controlled region.(TheJakartaGlobe).Ulema in Aceh have warned Muslims, the younger generation in particular, that observing Valentine’s Day is not allowed in Islam and against Shariah law that is in force in all of Aceh province.“It is haram for Muslims to observe Valentine’s Day because it does not accord with Islamic Shariah” Tgk Feisal, general secretary of the Aceh Ulema Association (HUDA), said on Monday.In Islam, he said, love should not be expressed or shown on a certain day only but every day. “Therefore, Islam’s younger generation should not participate in the celebration of a foreign festivity,” he said.Faisal Ali who is also chairman of the Aceh branch of Nahdlatul Ulama called on Muslim parents, especially those in Aceh, to instruct and supervise their children in the matter.
“We must prevent the Muslim younger generation in Aceh from being poisoned by a culture that contradicts our Muslim values. Therefore, everybody, parents in particular, should give our youth the proper guidance,” he said.
“Islamic Shariah cannot prevail in Aceh as expected if it is not supported fully by the government and other parties in authority,” he said. The government must also watch out for youths participating in Valentine’s Day activities in Aceh, he said.Hmmm.....Obama:"Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance". Read the full story here.

Sunni Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Calls to Boycott Russian and Chinese Products, States: They Are the Enemies of the Islamic Nation

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allah will punish [the Syrian regime] for what it did by means of the people. He will send it His wrath, which is never withheld from criminals. The people will soon take revenge upon it, Allah willing.
They were, unfortunately, supported in the Security Council by the Russians and Chinese, who saw Truth with their own eyes, but insisted on supporting Falsehood. They insisted upon supporting injustice over justice, Falsehood over Truth, and darkness over light. The Arab people in its entirety will oppose them.
I call upon the entire Arab people and the entire Islamic people, and upon all the honorable and free people of the world, to oppose those evil [Syrian] rulers and those who supported them.

Interviewer: In what way?

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: ... The Russians and Chinese acted unjustly towards the Syrian people. The [Arabs and Muslims] must not buy their products. They must not give them a single penny, because this penny turns into a weapon that kills the Syrians. We should not give them a single penny, which they'd use against the people of Truth.
I call upon the Syrian people, the Arab peoples, and the Islamic peoples to boycott them, to refrain from cooperating with them or helping them in any way. May Allah bring disgrace upon them.
Our nation should oppose these people and know that they are its enemies and rivals. We must know who our rivals are and who our supporters are. Source: Memri.

UK: MPs consult Abu Hamza on causes of radicalisation

UK: MPs consult Abu Hamza on causes of radicalisation.(IIE).Via the Guardian:

The MPs do conclude that there may be growing support for nonviolent extremism within the Muslim community, fed by feelings of alienation and a sense of grievance, and this is a challenge for society and the police.
They recommend that tackling Islamophobia and demonstrating that the British state is not antithetical to Islam should constitute a big part of the official Prevent strategy designed to counter the ideology that feeds violent radicalisation.The MPs talked to the radical preacher Abu Hamza in the maximum security unit at Belmarsh prison in London, who told them the main drivers of radicalisation were grievances, especially concerning Palestine and Afghanistan, a sense that the prophet was being mocked, guilt and capability.He said unemployment was not a source of grievance.Read the full story here.

Hmmm......  Abu Hamza quotes:

ON HOMOSEXUALS
Abu Hamza claimed that Aids had been sent as a curse on homosexuals. They have a common punishment amongst them and they have the virus to run after them wherever they go

ON BROTHELS
Every place of iniquity, every brothel, every video shop which is selling naked, for the victorious party is a target.

ON JEWS
We do not hate Jews because they hurt each other we hate them for their corruption on earth.
A Jew cannot look a Muslim in the eye or pass him knowing they have oppressed a Muslim or some other Jew had oppressed a Muslim elsewhere.So nation of Mohammed must regain their dignity and this dignity would not be regained unless with blood

ON WINE SHOPS
Don't go to the man who is selling a wine shop and tell him please why you selling the wine shop, come to the mosque?Make sure that the man who gave him the licence for that wine shop does not exist anymore on the Earth. Finish him up

ON FIGHTING
You must know the cause of Allah and you must help that cause in fighting, by fighting and when you fight you kill, you don't fight just to negotiate or to show off or to make videos or to make audios, fight to kill not fight to tape
ON NON-MUSLIMS (KAFIRS)
Killing a Kafir who is fighting you is OK. Killing a Kafir for any reason, you can say it, it is OK - even if there is no reason for it
ON SUICIDE BOMBERS
It is not called suicide... this is called martyring, because if the only way to hurt the enemies of Islam except by taking your life for that then it is allowed

ON THE ROYAL FAMILY
There are people now who worship Diana. After a while she will have her own Qu'ran, have mosques and churches in her name
ON DEMOCRACY
They don't want to be ruled by religion... they don't want women to cover up... they don't want the king to rule.For that they either cancel the monarchy or make the Queen like a monkey that sits in a gold cage that people look at, like a cow - and go around her and she cannot rule or say anything
ON WOMEN
Bring up your daughters to that manners [not to answer back] otherwise they going to be divorced in the first week of their marriage or slapped in the face.

Hmmm....Real 'peacefull' guy why in Gods name would people become Islamophobe?Source: BBC.

Belgian battery can power 1,400 homes.

                                          Baghad Battery - oldest known battery in the world.

Belgian battery can power 1,400 homes.(Yahoo).Chemicals giant Solvay hailed Monday the successful entry into service in Flanders of what it said was the largest fuel cell of its type in the world.
A super-battery that produces enough electricity to power nearly 1,400 homes, the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell has been producing clean electricity at a "steady rate" for weeks at a SolVin plant part-owned by Germany's BASF in Antwerp, northern Dutch-speaking Belgium.
SolVin is a market leader in vinyl, or PVC production.
The fuel cell converts the chemical energy from hydrogen into clean electricity through an electrochemical reaction with oxygen, and "has generated over 500 MWh in about 800 hours of operation," Solvay said in a news release.
The company said this equates to the electricity consumption of 1,370 families over the same period.Fuel-cell technology is tipped by developers as a future power solution for everything from cars to ships.Hmmmm.....GM Volt developers seen crying in the Hallways?Read the full story here.

Agenda: The Arab Spring Revisited

HT: StratFor.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Philipines 6.9 - 6.8 - 6.2 - 6.0 - 5.7 - 5.6 - 5.2!More info here.

• Obama’s bogus jobs data - Congress should investigate cooked employment books.(WT).The White House hyped the news Friday that January payrolls had risen by 243,000. The hitch is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also dropped 1.2 million from the calculated workforce. Somehow this net loss of a million workers in a single month was transformed into an improvement in the unemployment rate. As the old saying goes, figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.“Job growth was widespread,” the BLS reported, but most Americans sense that something isn’t quite right with the numbers. The most important change was the deep decline in the workforce. While the overall population jumped an 1.6 million in January, the workforce declined a record-setting 1.2 million. This figure represents those who out of sheer frustration or for other reasons have dropped out of what the government defines as the active labor pool. They are worse than simply unemployed; they are both jobless and hopeless.The participation rate is a subjective measure and highly subject to manipulation. The lower it goes and the more people are dropped from the unemployment equation, the better the numbers will look for the White House. This figure has been dropping sharply since Mr. Obama took office. Last month, an analysis at the Zero Hedge financial website noted that by extending the logic of reporting progressively fewer labor-force participants, “America will officially have no unemployed when the Labor Force Participation rate hits 58.5 percent, which should be just before the presidential election.” Maybe that’s the plan.A year ago, there were 99 million people either officially unemployed or otherwise not working, and the official unemployment rate was 9.1 percent. Now, unemployment reported by the government is down to 8.3 percent, but the number without jobs has topped 100 million. The disconnect between increasing joblessness in America and the rosy White House official statistics should be the subject of a congressional investigation. Something does not add up.Read the full story here.

• Obama extends sanctions to Central Bank of Iran.(JTA).President Obama expanded Iran sanctions to include parties dealing with Iran's Central Bank.The executive order made public Monday and issued by the White House on Sunday cuts Iran's economy off from the United States' entirely by expanding existing sanctions to include those who deal with Iran's Central Bank, forcing interlocutors to choose between the two countries.The intended effect is to isolate Iran from much of the world's developed economy.A letter to Congress accompanying the order notes that it comports with the enhanced sanctions law passed by Congress in December and underscores its expansive intent, targeting entities determined "to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order." The Obama administration had issued a warning in November that such sanctions were forthcoming. A key factor in timing the sanctions was the effort to coordinate with other nations to avoid a spike in oil prices.Hmmmm....Now lets see if Iran will keep it's promise of closing the strait of Hormuz if America sanctioned their Central Bank?Read the full story here.

• Iran Unveils Several Military, Technological Achievements.(Fars).Iran on Monday unveiled 21 new home-made achievements and projects in defensive and technological fields.The projects were unveiled on the occasion of the Ten-Day Dawn, celebrating the victor of the Islamic Revolution back in 1979. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that nine production lines have been inaugurated, which include those for advanced laser-guided systems of a cannon type, guiding systems of an anti-armor missile, a warning apparatus of a laser defense system meant to protect sensitive and important areas in the country, three advanced radars and a powerful microwave lamp. He added that eight other products including thermal cameras, laser systems, air-defense, and electronic communications for submarines were delivered to Iran's Armed Forces. Vahidi also noted that four research projects in the field of electronic warfare have been completed, which will enter the phase of industrial production in the near future.The minister reiterated that the achievements would considerably increase Iran's defense powers.Hmmm.....That powerfull microwave lamp will help to throw popcorn at the great Satan.Read the full story here.

• How Israel Keeps Us Safe.(AT).By Karin McQuillan.We have a president who has a problem with Israel. According to a New York Times column, "Don't Do It, Bibi," Obama called Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in mid-January to demand a promise that Israel would not bomb Iran in the next few months. Obama doesn't want a spike in oil prices before our presidential election. The threat of unhappy voters is more important to Obama than a nuclear Iran. He is more concerned about his re-election than he is about a dirty bomb in the hands of a terrorist that could waste one of our cities, a destabilized Middle East, or a nuclear attack on Israel.Obama's indifference to Israel's safety is a moral problem, but it is more than that. It poses a grave threat to our national security.Israel's blessings don't stop with the gifts of individual Jews advancing high tech and medical care. Israeli inventiveness in those fields is of the greatest military importance to us. As a country, Israel does more than any other country in the world to keep the U.S. safe -- literally. This would be part of the foreign policy equation of our White House and State Department, if they didn't suffer from Arabism.Read the full story here.

• The Military Is Now Telling Catholic Chaplains What They Can And Can't Say About The Obama Administration.(BI).The emerging conflict between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration may have a new front: in the U.S. military itself.The Catholic Church is fighting mad about an HHS ruling that would have them buy insurance for things they consider sinful–contraception, sterilization and abortion. All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church "cannot-and will not-comply with this unjust law."Even Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is in charge of Catholic military chaplains sent out the same letter.  But after he did, the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding Catholic priests to read the letter, in part because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience, and could be read as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief. More than one Catholic chaplain who spoke to us off the record confirmed that many chaplains disobeyed this instruction and read the letter anyway. Others sought further instructions from their Archbishop. Now after much behind-the-scenes bureaucratic wrangling, a new version of the letter will be read, one that was edited of the language about "unjust laws."The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict". ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the full story here.

• Turkey rules out military intervention in Syria.(BM).Istanbul (dpa) – Turkey on Monday ruled out the possibility that it might consider military intervention in neighboring Syria if the situation in the country does not improve.“We will do whatever is necessary, but military intervention is not an option for Turkey,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as saying by the state news agency Anatolian.Pointing out that Turkey was bound by decisions made by the United Nations and the Arab League, Arinc was deeply critical of the rejection by China and Russia of a UN resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign.“This was wrong,” he said adding that he was also deeply critical of both Iran and Lebanon for failing to criticize the actions of the al-Assad government.Anatolian also quoted Arinc as pointing out that is almost 30 years to the day since al-Assad’s father and predecessor as president, Hafez al-Assad ordered the military to bombard the central city of Hama, killing an estimated 20,000 people.Hmmmm....Turkey doesn't want military intervention At first in Libya then Egypt...Iran and Syria.But will be the first to call for Military action against Israel.Read the full story here.

• The Perversion of the Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the Sinner Barack H. Obama.(RedState).Posted by Erick Erickson. I’m afraid we need a little Sunday morning theology. Hopefully someone at the White House will read this and realize just how ill advised the President was to do what he did this week and we should be praying hard for him to see the error of his ways on this.Unfortunately for the nation, we have a President who claims to be a Christian who is willing to take God’s Holy Word repeatedly out of context, subsume God’s commands for individuals in their conduct with each other and with Him, and try to make the case for the government’s fiscal policy with that perversion.The President, through the Department of Health and Human Services, has ordered religious organizations — targeting more specifically the Catholic Church — to offer health plans that cover the costs of contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. I started this post with, unlike the President’s use of Luke and Proverbs, un-perverted scripture Christians use to show their objections to abortion. But moreso, these are non exhaustive passages of scripture Catholics rely on as foundations both to their opposition to abortion and to contraception. God himself said, “Be fruitful and multiply.”The President this week chose to pervert God’s Word to make the case for a tax increase, but he also chose to ignore God’s word on life and is ordering Christians, while he claims to be one, to violate their Christian conscience on abortion — requiring Christian organizations to provide health insurance that will cover the cost of drugs that induce abortions.He is trying to have it both ways. He is trying to use God’s Word to defend a tax policy that dissuades individuals from giving gladly and charitably to the poor as God instructs and is ignoring God’s Word in order to force fellow Christians into violating their Christian conscience — something about which God cares a great deal.This cannot end well for him, particularly doing this claiming to be a Christian. And it might not end well for the rest of us either. Barack Obama has gone to war with Christians’ consciences and he is perverting God’s word in the process to get his way on public policy.Read the full story here.

• Video - Scores killed and injured as Syrian army shells Homs; shelling seen as ‘real war’.(AlArabiya).As many as 22 people have been killed and scores of others have been injured in intensive shelling of the Baba Amro neighborhood in Homs, Al Arabiya reported on Monday citing Syrian activists. “It is the most intensive shelling on Baba Amro since the start of the protests,” one witness told Al Arabiya by phone. Military helicopters are taking part in the shelling of Baba Amro, which caused a number of residential buildings to collapse, Syrian activists said.“Seven residential buildings collapsed as a result of the Syrian intensive shelling of Homs,” an activist at the Local Coordination Committees told Al Arabiya. “Homs is witnessing a real war,” he said.“The tally that we have received from various activists in Homs since the shelling started at six this morning is 50, mostly civilians,” the Syrian National Council opposition group’s Catherine al-Talli told Reuters.“The regime is acting as if it were immune to international intervention and has a free hand to use violence against the people,” she said.Assad’s troops shelled Homs overnight Friday, killing at least 260 civilians, the SNC said, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about 100 women and children were among its toll of 237 dead.The tolls could not be independently confirmed. Damascus denied responsibility, blaming the deaths on rebels seeking to swing the U.N. vote.Read the full story here.

• French official: J'lem to be capital of ‘Palestine’.(JPost).BERLIN – The head of the French Consulate in Jerusalem told French and Palestinian municipal officials late last month that Jerusalem will be the capital of an independent Palestinian state.“Welcome to Jerusalem, capital of the future State of Palestine,” Frédéric Desagneaux said at a conference in the city, the French-language online news outlet JSS wrote.A participant who contacted JSS was “shocked and surprised at the anti-Israel craze” of the attendees.When asked by The Jerusalem Post during a telephone interview on Thursday about Desagneaux’s comment, Damien Cristofari, the French vice consul, stated that Desagneaux said “Jerusalem would be the capital of two states.”Cristofari added that the consul- general’s position conforms to international and EU policy calling for Jerusalem to be a divided capital of Israel and a Palestinian state. The vice consul said that JSS “misquoted” Desagneaux.Jonathan-Simon Sellem, the author of the JSS report, confirmed to the Post on Thursday the accuracy of his source, and said that Desagneaux called for Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine. The JSS source has an audio recording of the comment from Desagneaux.Cristofari said the consulate was checking on a video recording of the January 23 conference to verify Desagneaux’s remarks. The top French diplomat in Jerusalem made his comments at a meeting on French-Palestinian cooperation in the fields of municipal construction, culture, democratic governance and water.JSS wrote that there was a total of 200 representatives from the Palestinian and French sides present. The Palestinian Authority mayors of Hebron and Bethlehem attended the event.JSS wrote that its source, who attended the event, said, “And after exchanging a few words with the assistant consul, I learned with astonishment that the consul also bears the title of ambassador of France in Palestine.An ambassador of France in Palestine whose offices are located in west Jerusalem...”Hmmm......Read the full story here.

• Iranian Parliament's Website: Attack Israel this Year.(INN).The Iranian parliament's official website has published an article calling on the government to attack Israel before the end of the year.According to Israeli TV Channel 2's veteran Middle East expert, Ehud Yaari, the article cites three reasons for the call.First – a religious fatwa allowing such a strike. Second – threats from Israel regarding a planned strike on Iran. And third – Iran's alleged military capability to carry out such an attack.The article specifies that the area between Lod and Jerusalem should be targeted, as well as Tel Nof Air Force Base.The article seems to be part of a recent trend in Iran to step up the rhetoric regarding a possible attack on Israel. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Friday that Israel is a “cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut.”“We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hizbullah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-day war” between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, Khamenei was quoted as saying.He added, “From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this.”On Saturday, press outlets in Iran also widely quoted a blog post by Alireza Forghani, a computer engineer, who called upon Tehran to "wipe out Israel" by 2014.Forghani called on his leaders to target Israeli sites using land-to-land missiles. Ballistic Sijil missiles should be launched at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, he suggested, as well as power stations and other vital infrastructure. Then, Shahab 3 and Ghader missiles should target the rest of Israel's population centers. Nine minutes would suffice for "total annihilation," he predicted.Read the full story here.

• Fool me twice.(JPost).By Caroline Glick.Former US congressman Robert Wexler is a man worth listening to. Wexler served as then-senator Barack Obama’s chief booster in the American Jewish community during the 2008 presidential campaign. He appeared everywhere and said anything to convince the American Jewish community that the same man who sat in the church pews listening to Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s anti-Semitic vitriol for two decades, and listed among his closest friends and associates a host of Israel-haters as well as former terrorists, was the greatest friend Israel could ever have.Once Obama was elected, Wexler continued to serve as his Jewish shill. Wexler traveled to Israel multiple times in the early months of Obama’s presidency, to pressure Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to submit to Obama’s demand and embrace the cause of Palestinian statehood. After Netanyahu finally announced his support for Palestinian statehood at his speech at Bar-Ilan University in September 2009, Wexler returned with a new demand – that Netanyahu enact a moratorium on Jewish property rights in Judea and Samaria.Given Wexler’s close ties to Obama, it is reasonable to assume that his suggestion that Israel cease exerting its national sovereignty over its sovereign territory in the interests of the peace process is not simply his personal view.There is much to criticize about Wexler’s suggestion. But more important than its arrogant, insulting absurdity, and more disconcerting than Wexler’s own hypocrisy, is what his suggestion tells us about the dangers inherent in Netanyahu’s current negotiations with the Palestinians.Netanyahu is obviously under great pressure to continue with these talks. A day doesn’t go by without some US official or European leader talking about the need for talks, or a leftist politician or political activist at home blaming Netanyahu for the absence of peace. But none of this pressure can justify the damage that is done to Israel’s position by continuing to engage in these negotiations. As Netanyahu’s own experience with Obama (and Wexler) shows, concessions never bring a respite from the US leader’s pressure. They only form the baseline for demands for further concessions.Beyond the narrow confines of Obama’s personal hostility towards Israel, Netanyahu’s current engagement in negotiations with the Palestinians is devastating to Israel’s position in two ways.American “friends” like Wexler and Obama play Israel for a fool again and again.In truth, we should thank Wexler for coming here this week and reminding us of his bad faith, and the bad faith of the president he serves. But it is up to Netanyahu to draw the appropriate lessons.Read the full story here.

• From potentate to puppet?Is embracing the Islamists the only way Abdullah can preserve his rule? Is preserving Abdullah the only way Islamists can prevent ‘Jordan’ becoming ‘Palestine?’(MartinSherman).The eternal potential for perfidy – or at least the impermanence of loyalties – in pursuit of interests, personal or national, is being illustrated by the events unfolding in Jordan today.Crumbling of conventional wisdom?It has long been a pillar of conventional wisdom in the Middle East that the Hashemite kingdom is a bastion of moderate pro-Western stability. Accordingly, it has been held that the relationship between the monarchy and radical elements in the Arab world in general, and among the Palestinian in particular, will inevitably be adversarial. Consequently, the assumption has been that, by their very nature and the nature of their goals, these elements necessarily are an existential threat to the regime in Amman.Furthermore, with the eruption of the Arab Spring, the dominant view has been that the popular waves of support for resurgent Islam are a grave menace to the rule of incumbent autocrats, monarchical or military.After all, Islamic regimes have risen in the wake of deposed dictatorships in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, while other are under siege in Syria and Yemen. The same scenario was presumed valid in Jordan.However, here it seems the Palestinian question might be disrupting – even reversing – this pattern, at least for the time being.For as the recent visit by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to Amman (his first official one since his 1999 expulsion) shows, a surprising, even counter-intuitive, truth seems to be emerging.Rather than radical Palestinian Islamic elements threatening to overthrow the monarchy, they appear to be articulating a rationale for sustaining it. At least in the medium term and at least as far as appearances are concerned. This may have dangerously deceptive consequences for Israel.As some analysts have noted, the public protests in Jordan have been subtly but qualitatively different from those in, say, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.Rather than being focused on revolution, they have centered on reform; rather than clamoring for forced removal of the autocrat and his regime, they have centered more on consensual transformation of the regime and the transfer of some powers of royalty to other institutions of government.This anomalous moderation in the tenor of public protest is intriguing and significant, particularly in light of Mashaal’s statement made during the meeting with the king, in which he affirmed Hamas’s concern “for Jordan’s security and stability.”As The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh observes, the message was clearly “aimed at reassuring King Abdullah that Hamas does not challenge his monarchy.Hmmmm.....”Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same– Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849.Read the full story here.

• Latest from Iran: "The Regime Will Demolish Ahmadinejad".(EAW).Mohammad Reza Khatami, the prominent reformist and brother of the former President, was careful not to say "boycott", even as he said true reformists would not participate in March's Parliamentary elections. This, however, was almost the only caution he displayed.Khatami said the result of the vote would be fixed before people went to the polls, and then he turned on the pretence within the system by savaging Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:  We do not say that we want to be President, but we are saying that a wise man should be the president. Today in our country, Ahmadinejad has no authority; those who made Ahmadinejad “Ahmadinejad” must be held responsible towards people. Khatami said the "deviant current" --- a label placed on Ahmadinejad's advisors by his critics --- was made by the very same people who made Ahmadinejad "Ahmadinejad", so they can control the President. Khatami claimed that the regime will bear and tolerate Ahmadinejad for two years, until the end of his second term, and "after that they will demolish him".Khatami's was not the only troublesome voice on Sunday. Former Minister of Interior Mostafa Tajzadeh, in his most recent message from Evin Prison, has criticised the Supreme Leader for Friday Prayer and asked him to apologise to the people. Tajzadeh said Ayatollah Khamenei had continued his policy of "threat against threat" and thus endangered Iran's security.And reformist MP Masoud Pezeshkian, commenting on the Friday Prayer, said, "An atmosphere has been created in the country which does not allow reformists to be active, let alone for the reformists to be able to compete with others in the election."Amidst the criticisms, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani's four conditions for a successful Majlis seem rather tame: 1) maximum participation in the election; 2) care and accuracy by officials in holding a healthy election; 3) a lenient approach by the Guardian Council in approving candidates; 4) healthy competition among the candidates in which they do not insult and accuse each other.MP Mostafa Reza Hosseini has said the plan to interrogate the President has been submitted to Speaker of Parliament Larijani. The MP said Ahmadinejad has one month to appear before the Majlis.Read the full story here.

• China orders airlines not to pay EU carbon tax.(BM).By Bill Smith.Beijing (dpa) – The Chinese government on Monday ordered its airlines not to pay a carbon tax imposed by the European Union, saying the EU’s move had breached international civil aviation rules.Chinese airlines must not pay the carbon tax to the EU and were banned from raising prices or adding fees without government permission, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.The EU’s announcement of charges for carbon emissions for flights using EU airports was “contrary to relevant principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the international civil aviation regulations,” the CAAC said.“China objects to the EU’s decision to impose the scheme on non-EU airlines,” it said, adding that the government would “consider adopting necessary measures to protect the interests of Chinese individuals and companies.”It said China wanted to negotiate a solution to the dispute over the charges, which the EU introduced from January 1 under an emissions trading scheme.Read the full story here.More here .

• Jewish American Paul Auster and Erdoğan controversy grows.(HurriyetDaily).A row between U.S. author Paul Auster and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that began after the writer said he would not visit Turkey due to the number of imprisoned journalists is continuing to grow. According to daily Radikal, lawyer Turgut Kazan has contacted Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk to invite Auster to Turkey. Kazan and Pamuk were among the team who invited authors Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter to come to Turkey in 1985. The dust-up began when Auster gave an interview to daily Hürriyet last month in New York after his most recent book, “Winter Journal,” was published in Turkey. Auster said he refused to come to Turkey because of the number of imprisoned writers and journalists.In response, Erdoğan criticized Auster for having previously visited Israel. “Israel is supposedly a democratic, secular country, a country where freedom of expression and individual rights and freedoms are limitless. What an ignorant man you are. Aren’t these the ones that rained bombs down on Gaza? The ones that launched phosphorus bombs and used chemical weapons. How can you not see this?” he said.Hmmmmm.......There are even people who don't see the Armenian Genocide.Read the full story here.

• Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Hossein Salami Vows to Hit Source of Threats against Iran.(Fars)."The point of origin of an enemy offensive against the Islamic Republic will be attacked by IRGC military units," Salami said on Sunday. Salami made the remarks during the ongoing IRGC military drills in Iran's Southern province of Fars. The drills, codenamed as Hamiyan-e Vellayat (Supporters of Religious Leadership) are underway in Jahrom general zone. Iran has warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, it will target 32 American bases in the Middle East and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. Iranian officials have recently warned enemies that Iran is entitled to the right to close the strategic oil lifeline as a defensive option against foreign invasion or sanctions on its oil exports. The United States said it would not allow Iran to block the Strait, calling it a "red line" for the US military. In reply, Salami dismissed the US warning over the closure of the strategic strait, and stressed that powerful Iran acts on its own and never asks for anyone's permission to carry out what it desires. "The US is not in a position" to affect Iran's decisions, Salami told FNA late in December. "Iran does not ask permission to implement its own defensive strategies." Read the full story here.

• Analysis: Pilot over Auschwitz - maybe Iran too?(JPost).On September 4, 2003, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel served as the lead pilot in one of the Israel Air Force’s most memorable missions – a flight over the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.Under the agreement with the Polish government, the IAF F-15s were supposed to fly high above Auschwitz, and way out of sight.The day of the flight though, Eshel convened the other pilots and announced that they were going to fly below the clouds so they could be seen by the IDF officers who would be holding a ceremony along the train tracks below.“We listened to the Polish for 800 years,” Eshel was quoted as telling the other pilots at the time. “Today, we don’t have to listen anymore.”The picture of the three F- 15s over Auschwitz – a demonstration of Israel’s might and independence – can be found in hundreds of IDF offices these days.Most of the pictures were given out personally by Maj.- Gen. (res.) Elazar Shkedy, the former IAF commander who stepped down in 2008. Shkedy wrote on all of them: “To remember. Not to forget. To rely only on ourselves.”That message resonates even louder today as Israel faces a daunting dilemma – to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, or to embark on possibly one of the most difficult military operations in its history and try to bomb its nuclear facilities.Contrary to some media reports over the past month, the opinions of Eshel and his main contender Maj.-Gen. Yohanan Locker on Iran were irrelevant in the debate over who should be appointed the next IAF commander. Whether they view Iran as an existential threat or not is not something that played a role in deciding who would be tapped for the job.What is important, though, is what Eshel thinks about the viability of such a strike and whether it can succeed. One former IAF commander recently recalled the internal military and political debates ahead of Israel’s 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.Eshel’s term as IAF commander will be marked by the way Israel deals with Iran, but his challenges will not end in Tehran.The Middle East is in the throes of a historic upheaval and from April, Eshel will, once again, be Israel’s lead pilot.Read the full story here.

• Former German president to honor anti-Semitic pastor.(JPost).BERLIN – Roman Herzog, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1994 to 1999, is slated to deliver a speech next week in honor of Reverend Mitri Raheb, a fiercely anti-Israel Palestinian Lutheran leader in Bethlehem who has argued that Jews have no right to be present in Israel.The decision by Herzog and Media Control, a German NGO, to praise Raheb has sparked criticism from US and Israeli NGOs. In a statement on Sunday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Herzog to cancel his keynote address at the event.According to a letter sent to Herzog from the center’s associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, “Pastor Raheb consistently has used theological garb to cover an extremist political agenda to demonize the Jewish people.”Media Control, the German group, justified the award to Raheb because his “acts are a symbol of humanity.”The Wiesenthal Center, however, wrote, “In speeches given to various religious symposia and church summits (including the infamous 2004 US Presbyterian assembly that approved a boycott and divestment campaign against Israel), Raheb promoted a ‘Palestinian Theology’ that purports that Jews are not the Chosen People and therefore have no right to the Holy Land.”According to the Wiesenthal Center, Raheb said in a March 2010 address that “actually, the Palestinian Christians are the only ones in the world that, when they speak about their forefathers, they mean their actual forefathers, and also the forefathers in the faith… So, that is the reality of the peoples of the land. Again, they aren’t Israel. This experience I’m talking about, it’s only the Palestinians who understand this, because Israel represents Rome… It was our forefathers to whom the revelation was given.”According to NGO Monitor, “The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb represents the antithesis of building peace and mutual understanding in the Middle East. He is a board member of Kairos Palestine, whose guiding document calls for BDS [boycotts, divestment and sanctions] against Israel, advances the Christian theological doctrine of supercessionism and denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel. The document also ignores the extreme harassment and violence committed against Palestinian Christians by Palestinian Muslims.”The organization added that “Raheb is a board member of ICCO, an intermediary funding channel for the Dutch government. As part of its support of radical projects related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, ICCO funds the anti-Semitic Electronic Intifada, which supports BDS and repeatedly uses anti-Semitic rhetoric that demonizes Israel. ICCO also funds Badil, an NGO also involved with anti-Semitic incidents, as well as demonizing language such as: ‘Israel’s colonial apartheid regime,’ ‘state-sponsored racism’ and ‘systematic ethnic cleansing.’” Both Badil and ICCO had their funds slashed because of their opposition to the Jewish state.“It is an outrage that the organizers of the German Media Prize would bestow their highest honor on a religious bigot who is re-introducing Replacement Theology to delegitimize the Jewish people and its right to pursue its spiritual and national destiny,” said Rabbi Cooper.Read the full story here.

• Iran warns neighbors not to facilitate strike.(JPost).TEHRAN - Iran will attack any country whose territory is used by "enemies" of the Islamic state to launch a military strike against its soil, the deputy head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards told the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday."Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran, will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces," Hossein Salami said, during military maneuvers.The Revolutionary Guards began the two-day ground exercises on Saturday as a show of military might as tension rises between Tehran and the West over Iran's disputed nuclear program.Iranian media said it was a small-scale exercise in southern Iran.The United States and Israel have not ruled out a military strike against the country if diplomacy fails to resolve the standoff. Iran says its nuclear program is purely peaceful, rather than aimed at developing weapons.Iran has warned that its response to any such strike will be "painful," threatening to target Israel, and US bases in the Gulf, along with closing the vital oil shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz.Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia blocks Iranian leader’s website.(E24/7).Saudi Arabia has blocked the website of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei for security reasons, a newspaper in the Gulf kingdom said on Monday.The Telecommunications and Information Technology Authority (TITA), the country’s telecom regulatory body, blocked access to the website, which is titled “The office of the supreme leader.”“TITA moved to block access to this website as part of its ongoing efforts to protect internet users against sites that promote vice or seek to destabilize national security,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at political and ideological loggerheads for several years.Hmmm...."Promoting vice"?Read the full story here.

• Swiss investigate Turkish minister for denying 'Armenian genocide'.(HD).A Swiss prosecutor has launched a probe into Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış for saying "the Armenian genocide doesn't exist," Hürriyet reported."There is no Armenian genocide. Let them arrest me," Bağış said last week following a question from a French reporter on the 1915 killings.Zurich public prosecutor Christine Braunschweig confirmed the probe and told Doğan news agency that they were looking into whether or not Bağış had said the words."We will look into Minister Egemen Bağış' immunity," Braunschweig further said. "If there is anything illegal and if he does not have the diplomatic immunity, then we will file the lawsuit."Bağış has refused to speak on the matter until the initial probe ends, daily Hürriyet reported.Hmmm....Erdogan"I will not go to Switzerland Anymore in 3..2...1?Read the full story here.

• Iranians bemoan sanctions hardship as vote approaches.(AlArabiya).Each day that he struggles to buy food for his family, vegetable seller Hasan Sharafi shoulders part of the burden of Iran’s defiance of the West over its nuclear program. He can hardly bear it.“Prices are going up every day, life is expensive. I buy chicken or meat once per month. I used to buy it twice per week,” the father of four said in Iran’s central city of Isfahan.“Sometimes I want to kill myself. I feel desperate. I do not earn enough to feed my children.”With just a month to go before a parliamentary election, Iran has been hit hard in recent months by new U.S. and European economic sanctions over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West says is aimed at making a bomb.In conversations in towns and cities across Iran, people complained of rapidly deteriorating economic conditions, likely to be the main issue in an election that exposes divisions between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and hardline opponents.“My father lost his job because the factory he used to work for 30 years was closed last month. I am so pessimistic. Why is this happening to us?” lamented mathematics student Behnaz in the northern city of Rasht.“I don’t know whether the prices are rising because of sanctions. The only thing that I know is that our lives are ruined. I have no hope for the future.”Such rhetoric resonates with some Iranians, who say they are willing to endure pain to defend a nuclear program that has become a symbol of national pride.“America uses the nuclear issue as an excuse to replace our regime with a puppet regime to control our energy resources. But we will not let them. Nuclear technology is our right and I fully support our leaders’ view. Death to America,” said student Mohammad Reza Khorrami in the northern town of Chalous.But the West is hoping sanctions will turn ordinary Iranians against their leaders, and there are clear signs of discontent. When you ask Iranians about the nuclear issue, many seem to see it as a distraction from the real question of economic hardship.“I am not a politician. I don’t care about the nuclear dispute. Soon, I might not be able to afford food and other basic needs of my children,” said Mitra Zarrabi, a schoolteacher and mother of three.Read the full story here.

• “Lady Bitch Ray” writes doctor thesis about headrag.(CriticalAnalist).(SheikYerMami) The mullahs would have fun with this one: She wears bright red dresses that sport graffiti-like writing with “F*kc Sarazzin” and “C*nt Power” and she gets attention: (Thanks to Politically Incorrect) An Alevite Turkish female who calls herself ‘Lady Ray Bitch’ aka Reyhan Sahin claims she is being misunderstood. She wrote, supported by the deeply red Rosa-Luxemburg foundation, a dissertation titled ”The Meaning of the Islamic Headscarf – a dress-emotive inquiry into Muslim headscarf wearers in Germany”. Next month she wants to attain a doctorate at the deeply red university of Bremen. She already established a publishing firm called “Vagina-Style-Pussyjuice” to publish her ‘work’. Dr Bitch then plans to move on to become ‘professor’ Bitch. So much for successful integration….. Back in the US of A: Hezbo-b*tch in the dock for drunk driving: Ex-Miss USA, Rima Fakih, Meets the Judge For Driving Under Influence. Good thing she’s in the United States and just facing an irate judge rather than a public lashing…Read the full story HERE.

Breitbart Has Dinner With Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn

Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn auctioned off an evening for dinner in their home in Chicago and Tucker Carlson of "The Daily Caller" took advantage of the opportunity. For $2,500 Tucker and a few of his friends secured an evening with the radical couple. Tucker invited along Andrew Breitbart who called into Stephen K. Bannon's "The Victory Sessions" and gave a play-by-play of the meal. HT:HAPBlog.

Egyptian TV Debate on the "Invasion" of Israeli Products into Sinai: Jeans from Israel Contained Secret Magnets Causing Infertility

Muhammad Al-Mane'i, Sinai Bedouin: There was a time when they would bring us jeans. These pants used to have belts. If you looked at these belts from the front, you'd find a secret compartment, and when you opened it, you would find a magnet inside. When we asked what these magnets were, we were told that they cause sterility.

Interviewer: In other words, it causes infertility.

Muhammad Al-Mane'i: Exactly.

Interviewer: There was a time when these jeans with belts would invade us from Israel, and we used to take the magnets out and chuck them away.
Interviewer: Israeli products contain lethal poison. You might not feel this poison now, but you will in the future. Israel will remain an enemy lying in wait for Egypt, no matter what happens and regardless of the agreements, because Israel has its eye set on Egypt.Source Memri.


Hmmmm.......Why bother buying contraceptives just buy Israeli made Jeans!

Turkish Political Analyst Ibrahim Aqaqba: Turks Sympathize with Holocaust Victims because the Latter Were Turks who Immigrated to Germany from Iran Centuries Ago

Interviewer: Under the title of the Holocaust myth – or the so-called Holocaust – the Israeli entity occupied Arab and Islamic countries, and plundered the lands of other countries as well. It has tormented many nations, and is almost ruling the world by evoking the sentiment of the West, claiming that a certain injustice was done to it. I'd like to ask about the response of the Turkish public to the official distribution of this production.


Ibrahim Aqbab: I don't think there is any support among the public for this film. But as I've said, there are documents that show that the Jews who were annihilated in Germany were Turkish Jews who immigrated from Iran to Germany centuries ago. There was a Turkish race that was annihilated among them. That's why Turks sympathize with [the victims of] this annihilation in Germany. This I cannot deny.Source Memri.

North Korea 'Developing Kamikaze Drones' ?

N.Korea 'Developing Kamikaze Drones'?(Chosun).The North Korean military is developing unmanned "suicide" attack aircraft to target South Korean troops on the northwesternmost islands, a South Korean Army source claimed Sunday. The South Korean military in turn plans to procure all-weather unmanned tactical dirigibles capable of carrying out reconnaissance missions even in bad weather to deploy on the islands. The source claimed the North is developing unmanned attack aircraft "using high-speed U.S. target drones imported from a Middle Eastern country." This is presumed to be Syria.A high-speed target drone is used as a target for testing surface-to-air missiles. The target drones the North imported are believed to be MQM-107D Streakers. The jet-powered Streakers can fly at up to 925 km/h with a fuselage 5.5 m long and a wingspan of 3 m. They are used by Egypt, Iran and Jordan, as well as Sweden, Turkey, Australia, and Taiwan. South Korea has also used them to test anti-aircraft missiles and conduct missile target training.The drones the North is trying to develop would be equipped with a small bomb that can carry out a suicide attack on a target up to 250 km away. Intelligence agencies speculated the development is not complete.They "are less sophisticated than up-to-date unmanned attack aircraft that the U.S. used in the Afghan and Iraq War," a military expert said. "But our military could suffer damage if development succeeds and the North launches kamikaze-style attacks."Read the full story here.

Tell Congress: No Backroom Deals to Regulate the Internet

Tell Congress: No Backroom Deals to Regulate the Internet.(Deeplinks).
Right now, representatives from nine countries including the United States are secretly meeting in a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a trade agreement with the potential to contain intellectual property provisions that go beyond ACTA. These secret meetings could create over-reaching new rules and standards that will choke off the online speech of individuals, websites, and platforms accused of copyright infringement.
But because the meetings are held behind closed doors and the text has not been released to the public, the citizens who will be affected do not know the details and don’t have a voice.

Click here to join EFF in demanding a Congressional hearing so lawmakers can learn what’s in the TPP and hear from all affected stakeholders, not just the content industry.

Yesterday, EFF International Rights Director Katitza Rogriguez checked in with protestors outside ongoing TPP meetings in Los Angeles. Katitza reported:

The energy at the rally was intoxicating. And the people were right to protest: TPP is one more in a long line of global copyright initiatives that are putting Internet users last. All over the world, people are saying enough is enough.

This week of negotiations in Los Angeles is a crucial moment for the TPP. Please contact your lawmakers today and let them know that we will not be left in the dark. Demand to know what's in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.Hmmmm......MPAA head Chris Dodd would welcome a summit meeting between Internet companies and content companies, maybe convened by the White House, to look for a compromise on the much-discussed anti-piracy bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.“The perfect place to do it is a block away from here,” Dodd told the New York Times, pointing from his office in Washington to the nearby White House, the paper said.Read the full story here.

Update: The Obama Administration subverted the legal necessity of allowing to US Senate to ratify the treaty by unconstitutionally declaring it an “executive agreement” before the President promptly signed it on October 1^st, 2011. As a touted constitutional lawyer, Barack Obama is fully aware that Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution, mandates Congress in dealing with issues of intellectual property, thus voiding the capacity for the President to issue an executive agreement. The White House refused to even disclose details about the legislation to elected officials and civil libertarians over concern that doing so may incur “damage to the national security.” While some may hang off every word of his sorely insincere speeches and still be fixated by the promises of hope offered by brand-Obama, his administration has trampled the constitution and introduced the most comprehensive authoritarian legislation in America’s history.

China Rejects Genetically Modified Rice in Opposition to GMO Crops

China Rejects Genetically Modified Rice in Opposition to GMO Crops.(AcP).
By Andre Evans.As awareness of genetically modified food and the dangers associated increase, actions are being taken to eliminate the issue entirely.
With countries destroying their GMO crops, scientists showing the facts, and individuals voicing their discontent on the matter, there is a large and growing contingent across countries that are taking action to preserve the integrity of our food supply. China is the latest nation to take a stand against GMO crops.China recently suspended the distribution of genetically modified rice within its commercial food supplies.
Rice, being perhaps the most common and prominently used food within Chinese diet makes its safety and reliability very significant. Acting as a staple food for over 1.3 billion Chinese people, any compromise to the integrity of their food supply should be accordingly assessed and acted against based upon the interests of the population.This action helps to preserve the sovereignty and safety of their food supply, something that largely must still be addressed in our own country.
The United States GMO foods are not only accepted by loose regulation standards, but are not even labeled appropriately.
The dangers of GMO foods are so great that they are still not — and may never be — fully assessable. With a large number of documented negative effects on its consumers, GMO foods are a highly dangerous threat to individual health alone.If this weren’t enough, genetically engineered crops actually threaten the integrity of the food supply altogether by devastating the environment with powerful superweeds and mutant bugs. The nature of genetic engineering is so volatile that unless properly handled, the integrity of the entire world food supply could be ruined.
As such, any form of action that a government takes to prevent or eliminate GMOs from the equation is significant. Reassessing the nature and scale of the threat in light of new evidence should compel even more action in even more locations around the world.Read the full story here.

Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold

Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold.(Guardian).A US trade adviser appointed by Barack Obama orchestrated a deal to buy gold worth millions of dollars from a wanted Congolese warlord, according to a UN report.Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born US oil tycoon, transferred millions of dollars to the notorious rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda between December 2010 and February 2011 as part of the deal, the report by the UN’s Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) states.If true, this would be a contravention of UN resolutions banning individuals or organisations from financing illegal armed groups in the wartorn eastern DRC.The UN report says Lawal, the chairman and chief executive of the Houston-based oil firm Camac, was aware he was paying Ntaganda.Obama put Lawal on the US advisory committee for trade and policy negotiations in September 2010, just months before the deal with Ntaganda.
According to the report, while Lawal was initially under the impression that he was buying gold from an owner in Kenya, he did not abort the deal when he learned Ntaganda was the true owner.
Instead, the UN report says Lawal merely “appeared relieved to finally be engaging directly with the true owner of the gold”.Read the full story here.