Overnight music video - Mr.President Coco Jambo

Video - Ezra Levant : " Accumulate Omar Khadr knowledge "

Jacqui Delaney and I talk about the life of Omar Khadr and how some media outlets have portrayed him.
HT: EzraLevant.

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 Vanuata 5.8 - 5.5 ; Peru 5.7 -  5.5  !More info here.

• What Obama really wants to do in Iran.(IsraelMatzav).What if I told you that Barack Hussein Obama really wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon? What if I told you that what he really wants is to replace the Saudi Sunni dominance of World oil supplies with Iranian Shia dominance? What if I told you that Obama wanted Hosni Mubarak to fall and wanted to destroy Libya's supply of Tomohawk missiles that could have reached Iran? Mark Langfan claims all that and more, and he sounds pretty plausible.Crazy you say? The Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim, attending at a recent Gulf security conference with US diplomats, “undiplomatically” for over 18 minutes calmly stated, in essence:

1) “US Policy is the Number One threat” to the Gulf States;

2) America “has realized the dreams of Iran in Iraq;”

3) the US has “adopted the path and ideology of Khomeini;” and

4) the US “is no longer an ally” of the Gulf States.

Why does Obama constantly refer to the ragtag, disjointed, barely-existing Sunni al Qaeda as the "greatest threat to the US" when the Shiite Iran and its Hizbullah and Iraqi based proxies have killed many times more US soldiers and US civilians in the past 20 years than al Qaeda has, - and Iran is nearing the acquisition of nuclear bomb and constantly claiming Israel is a "cancerous tumor" that needs to be "cut out" of the Middle East?The answer can be found in Obama’ first documented foreign "policy" speech in 2002 dubbed the "Iraq War Speech" where Obama unambiguously declared:“You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality. . . .” - Barack Obama’s Iraq Speech dated Oct. 2, 2002.From Obama’s very first recorded words on US foreign policy, Saudi Arabia, and not Iran, was to Obama, America’s Number one enemy.Read the full story here.

• ObamaCare Costs Up $111 BILLION DOLLARS!(OFB).Who's ready for some more bad news about the skyrocketing costs and predictably epic mismanagement of ObamaCare?Cost estimates for a key part of President Obama's health care overhaul law have ballooned by $111 billion from last year's budget, and a senior Republican lawmaker on Friday demanded an explanation. Administration officials say the explanation lies in budget technicalities and that there are no significant changes in the program. The revised numbers, buried deep in the president's budget, stumped lawmakers and some administration officials for most of the week. At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is in charge of carrying out the health care law, indicated she was unaware of the changes. At issue are subsidies that will be provided under the health care law to help middle class people buy private coverage in new state insurance markets that will open for business in 2014. Last year's budget estimated the cost of the aid to be $367 billion from 2014-2011. This year's budget puts it at $478 billion over the same time period. "This staggering increase ... cannot be explained by legislative changes or new economic assumptions, and therefore must reflect substantial changes in underlying assumptions regarding the program's ... costs," Camp wrote Friday in a letter to Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Republicans say they're concerned that either the estimated cost of the insurance has gone up, or that the administration has determined many more people will be losing employer coverage and going into the new government-subsidized markets, which will be called exchanges. Administration officials say the big increase from last year's estimates is no cause for alarm and that the administration is not forecasting an erosion of employer coverage or higher insurance costs.Read the full story here.

• Spain will extradite Salem to Egypt.(BM).CAIRO: Egypt’s State Information Service has reported that he office of the attorney general of Spain told Egyptian Ambassador in Madrid Ayman Zain el-Dine that the Spanish court, which heard an Egyptian request on the extradition of fugitive Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, agreed on handing over Salem and his son to Egypt, said official spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Amr Roshdi. The court is still considering the extradition of Salem’s daughter, added Roshdi.Salem is wanted on charges of corruption and looting funds from Egypt.Salem is an Egyptian businessman, co-owner of the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), and was an advisor to former president Hosni Mubarak. He is also the chairman and CEO of HKS Group, a hospitality company that operates Maritim Jolie Ville Resort in Sharm El Sheikh.Salem absconded from Egypt during the 2011 revolution. A warrant for his arrest was issued by Interpol. He was later arrested at his home in Madrid, Spain. Salem is currently under investigation for corruption, on charges he bribed Mubarak and his family to gain a monopoly on the sale of gas to Israel, and for squandering public funds by selling Egyptian natural gas to Israel at below market prices. The gas-to-Israel issue was a big story, when it broke in Egypt, and caused nothing short of rage on the streets of Egypt.Read the full story here.

• FIFA to decide on headscarf and technology in July.(AA).By Mike Collett.FIFA deferred a final decision on whether Islamic women can play in a headscarf, or hijab, until July when they will also make their long-awaited decision on what goal-line technology system to employ.The annual meeting of the game's ultimate law-making body, the International Football Association Board, decided on Saturday to test the specially designed headscarf further before a final decision is taken in a special meeting in Kiev on July 2.Two systems of two companies, Hawk-Eye and GoalRef, will be tested again.In other decisions, proposals to introduce a fourth substitute in extra-time in Cup matches and limiting the severity of the triple sanction punishment on goal-scoring opportunities, by which an offender can concede a penalty, receive a red card and then a suspension, were withdraw.Read the full story here.

• Bodies of Western journalists killed in Syria arrive in France.(BM).Paris (dpa) – The bodies of the two Western journalists killed in Syria last week arrived in France Sunday, AFP news agency reported.A plane carrying the remains of American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, who were killed in a rocket attack on the rebel Baba Amr district of Homs on February 22, arrived in Paris from Damascus shortly after 6 am (0500 GMT), AFP said.Relatives of Ochlik were at the airport to meet the regular Air France flight, the report added.On Saturday, officials from the Syrian Red Crescent handed over the bodies of Ochlik and Colvin to French and Polish diplomats.Syrian rebels had buried the two journalists in Baba Amr to preserve their remains during days of regime bombardment.They were disinterred after government forces entered the area and brought back to Damascus.Ochlik’s family plan to bury him in France, AFP reported. The final destination of Colvin’s remains was unclear.Born in the United States, she worked for many years as a reporter for Britain’s Sunday Times.Read the full story here.

Did North Korea test a Nuclear Warhead for Iran?

Did North Korea test a Nuclear Warhead for Iran?(SD).By John Galt.North Korea detonated two secret tests of atomic warheads with highly enriched uranium in 2010 according to a German press report. The newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported with reference to western security circles, as some secret services assumed that the government in P’yongyang at least one of these tests had carried out for the Iranians.This would mean that Teheran, with North Korean aid, has constructed and already tested an atomic warhead. According to the newspaper Welt am Sonntag this assumption is based on data of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Accordingly, the Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik De Geer is based on data from monitoring stations in South Korea, Japan and Russia believe that North Korea instead of the two secret uranium tests as in two earlier tests in 2006 and 2009 used plutonium. In January, this was reported in the journal “Nature” in advance of de Geer research results.The longtime director of the Policy Planning Staff in the German Defense Ministry, Hans Rühle, writes in Welt am Sonntag that “some of which now confirms intelligence that North Korea has actually conducted a nuclear test in 2010, at least for Iran.” This would mean that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which also provided a document, “which was that it was the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini himself, who decided in 1984, to resume nuclear weapons program after the overthrow of the Shah.”
This means the meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama on Monday is probably a final notification that events are now in motion which will occur with or without U.S. support.Hmmmm...................As i said before:"In 1991, Deputy President Ayatollah Mohajerani stated that Iran should workwith other Islamic states to create an ‘‘Islamic bomb.’’Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani,characterized today as a pragmatist, in contrast to hardliner Ahmadinejad, in 1988 explicitly called on Iran to equip itself both in the offensive and defense use of chemical,bacteriological and radiological weapons.’’ By then, as then-Speaker of the Majlis and Commander in Chief, Rafsanjani had already won Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s approval to resume the Shah’s nuclear program and to begin secretly importing material and conducting experiments in violation of Iran’s safeguards agreement with the IAEA.Read the full story here.Original source here.(Google Translate).

"Basket cases" - New welfare regulation for laying hens drives the price trough the roof.

"Basket cases"- New welfare regulation for laying hens drives the price trough the roof.Belgian Egg processors sound the alarm bell.(SD)While American citizens bitch and moan over $4 gasoline, the Europeans have found that Environmentalist Lunacy and Socialism (also known as ELS or Obamasitis) is about to create shortages at not just the breakfast table but across the entire European Union and United Kingdom, but in the very goods they take for granted to bake or flavor other foods. The European Egg Processors Association posted the first warning shot by the UBP (Union for Belgian Egg Products) via their press release of February 22, 2012.
Since the new welfare regulation for laying hens came into force on 1 January 2012, farmers in many member states are busy adapting their production conform the legislation, or stopping their activities.Furthermore the consumption of table eggs increased due to the cold weather.
All these elements have resulted in a situation where the supply cannot satisfy the demand. Many egg processors have difficulties in supplying the contracted quantities as there are simply not enough eggs.
What further complicates matters is, that this scarcity of eggs has made the egg prices shoot sky-high which makes the situation financially unbearable for many egg processors.
Uh, what about mayonnaise, baked goods, breads, etc? Think those prices will drop with higher fuel prices, a possible war with Iran, and this insanity?
The problem consumers are about to discover is that they are bidding against large multi-national food manufacturers who need eggs also to make their products.
So the average schmuck will unwittingly be cast into a bidding war against a Unilever or Nestle to obtain their favorite breakfast food. This will obviously cause the retail price to shoot up dramatically as the wholesale price is up over € 4 per kilo per the article above.
“It’s now no longer a question of price, it’s a question of supply,” said one industry source who asked to be anonymous. “I estimate that within three to four weeks some companies will be at breaking point.” It’s these kind of regulations and insanity along with the price consequences coming here soon.Hmmmm......"An egg, an egg my kingdom for an egg?"Read the full story here.

Who needs 'Enemies'?Turkish politician: "“Any attack on Iran will bring an end to the United States."

Who needs 'Enemies'?Turkish politician: "“Any attack on Iran will bring an end to the United States."(A).The leader of Turkey’s Democrat Party, Namik Kemal Zeybek, told Press TV in an interview on Saturday that those who threaten to launch a war against Iran should remember Islamic Republic’s eight-year defense against Iraq from 1980 to 1988. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, even at its earliest days after the Islamic Revolution, when it did not have an organized military, managed to defend its territory against a fully equipped and well-trained army of Iraq that was supported by the US and the West,” Zeybek stated.
“Any attack on Iran will bring an end to the United States. It will lead to the disintegration of the US because its states are not that much united as it may seem. Some of its southern states are annoyed by such [warmongering] policies and want to get separated from the US, and one day this will happen,” he concluded.
On Friday, March 2, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said Ankara is opposed to any form of military intervention aimed at putting an end to Iran's nuclear energy program. "The problem over Iran's nuclear [energy] program has to be resolved through diplomacy…. Any method other than diplomacy would have grave consequences for the region and even for the world,” he said during the Aspen Bosporus Dialogue Conference in Istanbul.
Emphasizing on the necessity of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 - the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany - the Turkish deputy premier advised the world powers to “really focus on a diplomatic settlement and sincerely work to that end."
The US and Israel have frequently threatened Iran with the possibility of a military strike against the country’s nuclear facilities claiming that Tehran seeks to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran has denied Western allegations about its nuclear energy program and has promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country. Tehran has also warned that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.Read the full story here.

Nasrallah calls on Muslims, Christians to 'liberate' J'lem

Nasrallah calls on Muslims, Christians to 'liberate' J'lem.(JPost).Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were doomed to fail, and called onMuslims and Christians to take Jerusalem from Israel.“Every Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Christian has a national, popular, and ethical responsibility towards Al-Quds. It needs from all of us seriousness and action," Nasrallah said at a forum entitled “Declaration of Al-Quds as the capital of Palestine, the Arabs and Muslims,” according to Hezbollah media station Al Manar.
Warning that Israeli settlers were "Judaizing" and "desecrating" Jerusalem, Nassrallah said, “We are not responsible for the occupation of Al-Quds, but we bear the responsibility for the continued occupation of Al-Quds, and every faction and people should be prepared for questioning on the Judgment Day over what actions he took towardsAl-Quds's liberation."
Any sort of peace Negotiations, the Hezbollah leader said, are bound to fail. “The choice of negotiations to return Jerusalem to the Palestinians is not realistic because Israel considers the city to be its permanent capital - something being adopted by the West - and this is what US President Barack Obama indicated in his ‘holy commitment’ towards Israel’s security.” Read the full story here.

Hamas Preacher from Khan Yunis, Gaza: Al-Aqsa Cannot Remain under the Control of "Apes and Pigs," "Asses Carrying Books," and "Panting Dogs"

Preacher: We say loud and clear: The struggle for Palestine is not a political struggle. It is a purely ideological struggle. It is a clear religious struggle between Islam and Zionism. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, between Islam and heresy, between light and darkness, between good and evil.
We cannot possibly accept [Al-Aqsa] remaining under the control of those whom Allah described as a bunch of apes and pigs, the scholars of whom Allah describe as asses carrying books, or as a dog that pants when you beat it and pants when you don't. After all these descriptions of the base position that befits them – these contemptible people cannot lord over the great people, these slaves cannot lord over the masters. The masters today are all the Muslims. Source Memri.

Muslim Brotherhood forms party in Libya..... Kudos to 'Hussein'.

Muslim Brotherhood forms party in Libya..... Kudos to 'Hussein'.(AJ).Islamist group declares the creation of Justice and Development Party to be led by a former politcal prisoner.Mohamed Sowan, a former political prisoner, was chosen to lead the Muslim Brotherhood Party [AFP]
The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya has announced that it formed a political party after six decades in the shadows of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
The Islamist group declared the creation of the Justice and Development Party on Saturday in the absence of laws laying out a formal process for the establishment of political parties.
Mohamed Gaair, the Brotherhood's spokesman, said the group has representation in more than 18 cities across the country, and that more than 1,400 members attended a meeting in Tripoli a day earlier to declare the formation of the political party.
They chose as party leader Mohamed Sowan, a native of the city of Misrata, which saw some of the worst fighting in the civil war that brought down Gaddafi and has since become distrustful of authority based elsewhere in the country.Sowan worked as a hotel manager and was a political prisoner under the Gaddafi regime for eight years until 2006.Gaair said that the Brotherhood has had a presence in Libya since 1949, but that many of its leaders were jailed under Gaddafi or exiled.
Several prominent former rebel leaders fighting to oust Gaddafi were associated with the movement, but the group does not have any officials in the transitional government.Now, the Brotherhood is considered the most organised movement in Libya to have nationwide support. Supporters include wealthy businessmen who returned to the country after last year's civil war ended, opening up civil society groups and charitable funds throughout the war-ravaged country.
Gaair said the group aims to establish a just and developed society based on religious values.“Our first main goal is to work on security and stability,'' he said.“We are still a new founded party, but we will work on the basis of Islamic principles and that doesn't mean the shallow meaning of religion most people think of like banning women from leaving home. This is not rational.''In October, Libya's rulers said that Islamic law would be the main source of legislation.
The influence of the Brotherhood and related Islamist groups has surged following last year's Arab Spring uprisings. In Egypt, where the movement was founded in 1928, its affiliated political party has taken around half the seats in parliament.Elections have swayed heavily in favour of Islamic movements in Tunisia and Morocco as well.Hmmmm.........Countdown for 'installing the Muslim Brotherhood' in Syria.........."America we got a problem".Read the full story here.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.(BM).LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a “war” on Christians in the next few weeks.
According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”
Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.
But the spokesman said the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come.”He said, without giving specific details, “we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”
On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.“This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate,” said the spokesman.
The explosion in the Kaleri suburb of the northern city on Friday destroyed a house and dismembered the three Islamist sect members, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed of the special military unit in Maiduguri said.Other items recovered at the scene included remote control devices, wrist watch timers, metallic drums and copies of the Qur’an, he said.The sect converts homes into bomb-making factories for attacks, the spokesman said.
As well as in Maiduguri, there have been accidental and fatal explosions in suspected Boko Haram bomb-making factories in the northern cities of Damaturu and Kaduna in recent months.
Violence blamed on the militant group, whose goals remain largely unclear, but has called for an Islamic state in Nigeria, has since mid-2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to rights groups.Hmmmm........In its early years, the group was popularly known as the "Nigerian Taliban" due to its shared anti-Western ideology and its willingness to use violence in an effort to impose a strict form of Shariah law.Read the full story here.

"The AUDACITY of OBAMA " now compares Himself with Mandela, Gandhi.

Russia's Gazprom 'mulls joining Israel's gas boom'

Russia's Gazprom 'mulls joining Israel's gas boom'.(UPI).Russia’s Gazprom, the world’s biggest energy conglomerate, is reportedly sending top executives to Israel to discuss a partnership in the country’s offshore gas fields, a move likely to heighten tension over an energy bonanza in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ynet, the English-language Web site of Israel’s Yediot Ahronot mass-circulation Hebrew daily, said a Gazprom team has scheduled meetings with the consortium that made major strikes in 2009-10 and expects to make more.This consists of the Noble Energy Inc. of Houston and Israel’s Delek Group headed by tycoon Yitzhak Tshuva.
The Russians reportedly are interested in a partnership in the Leviathan field, the biggest gas zone found so far in Israel’s exclusive economic zone. It contains an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of gas. The next biggest field is Tamar, which contains an estimated 8 tcf.Officials in Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office say the discoveries could contain double the volume currently listed. They said the known reserves are worth $100 billion-$130 billion.
Israel’s gas fields account for only a fraction of the energy riches believed to lie in the Levant Basin that stretches from Syria through Lebanon, Israel, the Gaza Strip and Egypt and includes the waters of the island of Cyprus.
The U.S. Geological Service reported in 2010 that the region contains around 122 tcf of natural gas as well as 1.7 billion barrels of oil.
Ynet said the team from Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, which produces 94 percent of Russia’s gas, was headed by the company’s managing director of its global liquefied natural gas division, Frederic Barnaud.
Gazprom officials visited Israel in 2011 and in two days of talks examined three partnerships options in the Leviathan field.
According to Ynet, the first involves a partnership in the Leviathan license, contributing to the development costs estimated at $6 billion-$8 billion, a deal that would probably accelerate development and production.
The second option involves buying Leviathan gas to sell in the Middle East and Far East, where Gazprom wants to consolidate its position to compensate for anticipated losses in recession-hit Europe.
Under the third, Gazprom would become a license partner involved in production and export through liquefaction terminals and shared exports.
Russia has gas deposits of 1,680 tcf, the world’s largest, with Gazprom controlling 25 percent of the planet’s known gas reserves.
Acquiring an interest in Israel’s boom could be lucrative for Gazprom and extend its international reach. But Gazprom could also be buying into a hornet’s nest of energy conflicts between regional rivals that could seriously impede development of gas fields that could transform the economy of the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey, determined to become the region’s paramount power and at odds with Moscow over Syria, wouldn’t look kindly on Russia muscling into its backyard on such a strategic level.
Such a development could further complicate disputes triggered between the region’s states by the energy bonanza, heightening tensions from long-running conflicts in the volatile zone that until the big strikes off Israel was considered poor in natural resources.
Lebanon is at odds with Israel, with which it is technically still at war. Beirut claims Leviathan extends into its waters north of the Jewish state.
Turkey, which broke a long-running strategic alliance with Israel in 2010, insists the Greek Cypriots have no authority to conduct a gas exploration program.
Israel and Cyprus, whose EEZs adjoin one another, said they plan to cooperate on gas production, jointly exporting to energy-hungry Europe via Greece.The gas boom has meant a strategic geopolitical realignment in the eastern Mediterranean, with Israel seeking to base combat aircraft in the Greek sector of Cyprus to counter Turkey’s deployment of F-16 fighters in the TRNC.
Israel has stepped up military cooperation with Greece, Turkey’s ancient rival, while expansionist Turkey has vowed to send in its navy if Ankara feels threatened by Greek Cypriot exploration.Hmmmm......Erdogan going in orbit in 3....2.....1.Read the full story here.

French president Sarkozy nixes halal meat in schools for Muslims.

French president Sarkozy nixes halal meat in schools for Muslims.(AA).The issue of France’s Muslims moved front and center into the presidential campaign with the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, excluding on Saturday any special indulgences for halal meat or separate swimming hours for Muslim women in public pools.Echoing his 2007 campaign, Sarkozy insisted that French civilization must prevail in France. He created France’s first Ministry of Immigration and National Identity after being elected, but has since done away with it.
Muslims, and immigration, are constant themes in recent French presidential races, but the topic is rising to the fore with vehemence as the April 22 first-round vote nears - 50 days from now. The final round is May 6.Critics say Sarkozy is ogling supporters of extreme-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who is third in polls after front-runner Francois Hollande, a Socialist, and the conservative president. Le Pen, who succeeds party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father, has worked to erase the image of the party as anti-Semitic - but now castigates what she says is the profile of Islam in France.
There are an estimated five million Muslims in France, the largest such population in Western Europe, and the latest generation is making increasing demands that the country accommodate needs set out by their religion or their customs.“There is no place in the republic for xenophobia, there is no place for racism ... There is no place for pools with hours for men and hours for women,” Sarkozy told a rally Saturday in Bordeaux.The team of Hollande, the Socialist candidate, castigated as “sickening” a remark Friday by Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who said that giving foreigners the right to vote in local elections would open the way to halal meat in school canteens and burqa-style bathing suits in public pools.Sarkozy makes “scapegoats, stigmatizes” Muslims, said Manuel Valls, communications chief for Hollande’s campaign.
Hollande has proposed allowing all foreigners residing in France legally for five years to have the right to vote in local elections. The Socialist candidate has made it a policy to avoid implicating himself directly in divisive issues, leaving responses to his lieutenants.
“There is no taboo subject,” Sarkozy said, suggesting that it is not in the nation’s interest to be politically correct about immigration or about what some Muslims seek to conform to their religious beliefs or cultural mores.He said issues like halal food in schools or special hours so that Muslim women can swim out of view of men are in contradiction with the French principle of secularism.
Such issues “should be considered not as religious facts, but as facts of civilization,” he said.Read the full story here.

Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman says failure in Syria shows world cannot protect Israel.

Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman says failure in Syria shows world cannot protect Israel.(AA).Israel’s foreign minister says the international community’s failure to stop the violence in Syria shows it cannot keep Israel safe.
Avigdor Lieberman says the inability of international leaders and aid workers to alleviate “systematic murder of innocent civilians” in Syria “challenges all the promises of the international community that they are responsible for our security.”
Lieberman spoke Sunday on Israel Radio. His comments come as the United States tries to convince Israel to rely on global economic sanctions and diplomacy to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions before resorting to a military strike.Israel is worried Iran is developing nuclear weapons that could be used against it. Iran claims it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and medical research.However, ahead of key talks with Israel on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear aspirations, U.S. President Barack Obama says that he and Benjamin Netanyau share “a common vision about where we want to go.”
But when the Israeli leader meets Obama in the White House on Monday he will want to be convinced that the two also have a common view of the road to be taken.
During a weekend stopover in Canada ahead of the Washington talks, Netanyahu warned that the west’s favored route of diplomatic pressure and sanctions to force Iran to abandon what both Israel and the U.S. believe is a nuclear arms program could well turn out to be a blind alley.“Everyone would like to see a peaceful solution, where Iran abandons its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said during a visit on Friday to the Canadian parliament, for talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“In fact it’s done the very opposite and could do again what it has done before; pursue or exploit the talks as they’ve done in the past, to deceive and to delay so that they can continue to advance their nuclear program and get to the nuclear finish line by running the clock,” he said.“I think the international community should not fall into that trap.”Israel says that at a yet undefined point the sanctions route must be deemed to have failed and military action against Tehran will become inevitable.Officials have said that while the Jewish state would prefer that the U.S. lead such an attack, Israel will go it alone if it feels its back is against the wall.During a visit to the White House last May, Netanyahu scolded Obama for a Middle East policy that he called “based on illusions” and gave the president a lecture on the historic struggles of the Jewish people.Read the full story here.

Dutch 'Right-to-die' organisation offers 'euthanasia on wheels'.

                                      Dutch Association for voluntary life termination

Dutch 'Right-to-die' organisation offers 'euthanasia on wheels'.(MSN)(BBC).
Six specialised teams, each with a doctor, will criss-cross the Netherlands as of Thursday to carry out euthanasia on patients at home whose own doctors refused to do so, a pro-mercy killing group said.But the plan by the Right-to-die NL (NVVE) has raised eyebrows by one of the Netherlands' largest lobby groups for doctors, who questioned whether "Life-end clinic" doctors would be able to form a close-enough relationship with a patient to correctly assess if their life should be ended.
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia in April 2002 and yearly some 3100 mercy killings are carried out, NVVE spokeswoman Walburg de Jong told AFP.
"From Thursday, the Levenseindekliniek (Life-end clinic) will have mobile teams where people who think they comply to the criteria for euthanasia can register," she said.
"If they comply, the teams will carry out the euthanasia at patients' homes should their normal doctors be unable or refuse to help them."
Made up of a specially-trained doctor and nurse who will work part-time for the Life-end clinic initiative, teams will be able to visit patients all over the Netherlands, De Jong said, adding the procedure would be done free of charge.
The NVVE said the teams were expected to receive around 1000 assisted suicide requests per year and have already been phoned by 70 potential patients since the plan was announced in early February.Strict criteria exist in Dutch law for patients who request mercy killings.
These include that patients must be fully mentally alert when making the request to die. Families, for instance, cannot request a mercy killing for relatives.
Patients also have to face a future of "unbearable, interminable suffering" and both the patient and the doctor - who also has to get a second opinion from another doctor - before euthanasia is carried out, must be in agreement there was no other cure.
The assisted suicide is then performed by infusion or injection of a sleep-inducing drug, followed by a barbiturate to stop a patient's heart and breathing, De Jong said.
“Some of them start crying on the phone,” De Jong said.“They seemed happy that, finally, someone is listening to them,” she said.
But the Royal Dutch Society of Doctors (KNMG), which represents 53,000 doctors and medical students in the Netherlands, said it was sceptical whether Life-end clinic doctors could form a close-enough relationship with a patient to decide whether an assisted suicide should be done.
"We are not against euthanasia if there is no other alternative," KNMG policy advisor Eric van Wijlick told AFP."But euthanasia is a complicated process. It comes from the long-time treatment of a patient based on a relationship of trust.""A holistic view of the patient's treatment needs to be taken, including whether another alternative to euthanasia exists," he said."We have serious doubts whether this can be done by a doctor who is only focused on performing euthanasia," he said.
In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia. Every year there are between 2,500 and 3,000 procedures carried out, accounting for about 2% of deaths annually. Belgium also legalised euthanasia in 2002, and assisted suicide has been allowed in Switzerland since the 1940s. In the UK there have been discussions about changing the law for many years, and a recent report published by the Commission on Assisted Dying, funded by campaigners who want to see a change in the law, recommended the legalisation of euthanasia in the UK.Hmmmm......With the sporadic mention of 'deathsquads' in the Obamacare discussion this is perhaps the moment to address this topic before the 2012 U.S. elections and ask where Obama stands on this.Read the full story here more here.

'Go to hell Barack': Row over Washington Metro ad

'Go to hell Barack': Row over Washington Metro ad.(Yahoo).In the heat of a US presidential election year, with Americans immune to the polarized and bitter nature of political discourse, it takes a lot to shock them, especially in Washington.
But one ad at a DC Metro station -- which starts off criticizing Obama's health care reforms and ends up telling the president to "go to hell" -- goes beyond the pale, says Jim Moran, a Democratic congressman from Virginia.
The advertisement is for "Sick and Sicker: When the Government Becomes Your Doctor," a documentary that interviews Canadian doctors and patients in the hope of showing how dangerous "Obamacare" is for the American people.
"Barack Obama wants politicians and bureaucrats to control America’s entire medical system. Go to hell Barack," the ad says.Moran wrote a letter to Metro general manager Richard Sarles calling for the removal of the advertisement."The ad is deeply disrespectful of the President of the United States and does not belong in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) network," he wrote.
It turns out that such language is within the accepted limits of American law and such advertisements are protected under the First Amendment of the US constitution, guaranteeing free speech."WMATA advertising has been ruled by the courts as a public forum protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we may not decline ads based on their political content," the Metro authority said in a written statement.
"WMATA does not endorse the advertising on our system, and ads do not reflect the position of the Authority."Read the full story here.

Attorney General Eric Holder names Al Qaeda Defense Atty. No. 3 At Obama DOJ.

Attorney General Eric Holder names Al Qaeda Defense Atty. No. 3 At Obama DOJ.(JW).
In a scary development, a major Obama fundraiser who defended a convicted al Qaeda terrorist will become the third highest ranking official at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which, ironically, is charged with defending the interests of the United States.
Northern California lawyer Tony West has been named Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, making him the No. 3 guy at the agency.
In 2009 West, who helped Obama raise tens of millions of dollars as finance co-chairman of his first presidential campaign, was appointed to help run the DOJ’s civil division which represents the government, Congress and presidential cabinet officers and handles cases dealing with significant policy issues.
In a statement announcing the promotion this week, Attorney General Eric Holder says West has served the department with “professionalism, integrity and dedication.”
Holder also mentions West’s work before coming to the DOJ a few years ago, including a stint as a Special Assistant Attorney General in California and a lengthier career at a large San Francisco law firm.
Conveniently omitted in the press release is that West represented convicted al Qaeda terrorist John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Lindh was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 while fighting against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance as a member of the Taliban army. He actually pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while fighting U.S. troops in the region.Read the full story here.