Thursday, June 14, 2012
"Arab Spring" becomes Egypt's 'Long Hot Summer?Egypt court says whole parliament unconstitutional, dissolution is likely.
"Arab Spring" becomes Egypt's 'Long Hot Summer'?Egypt court says whole parliament unconstitutional, dissolution is likely.(AlArabia).Egypt constitutional court on Thursday ruled the whole Islamist-dominated parliament illegitimate, the official MENA news agency reported. “The constitutional court affirmed in the details of its verdict that the parliamentary elections were not constitutional, and the entire composition of parliament has been illegitimate since its election,” the news agency said. The explanation was confirmed to The Associated Press by one of the court’s judges, Maher Sami Youssef. The ruling means that new elections for the entire parliament will have to be held. Members of the ruling military council were in a meeting and did not immediately issue a statement. But a military source said the court decision gave the military legislative powers. “We don’t want it (the power) but according to the court decision and that law, it reverts back to us,” the source said, according to AFP. Meanwhile, the head of the constitutional court Farouk Sultan told Reuters by telephone that the ruling means that the whole of the lower house of Egypt’s parliament (People’s Assembly) will be dissolved and a new election will have to be held. “
The ruling regarding parliament includes the dissolution of the lower house of parliament in its entirety because the law upon which the elections were held is contrary to rules of the constitution,” he said after the ruling was issued. Speaking two days before another election to pick a new president, Sultan said the ruling was binding on all institutions of state, adding that it would be up to the executive to call for the new election that he said would take place. Rulings by Egypt’s constitutional court that dissolve the Islamist-dominated parliament and allow Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister to continue in the presidential race amount to “a complete coup,” a former presidential candidate said on Thursday. In a statement on his Facebook page, Abdul Moniem Abul Fotouh said that a government decree issued on Wednesday granting military police and intelligence services the power to detain civilians was part of the same action. “Keeping the military candidate (in the race) and overturning the elected parliament after granting the military police the right to arrest is a complete coup and whoever thinks that millions of youth will let it pass is deluding themselves,” he said. He was referring to Ahmed Shafiq, the former prime minister who was once head of the air force. Shafiq’s right to run for president had been contested by a law passed by parliament which the court declared on Thursday as unconstitutional.A senior Muslim Brotherhood politician said Egypt would enter “a dark tunnel” if the Islamist-dominated parliament was dissolved as required by a ruling from the constitutional court on Thursday. “If parliament is dissolved, the country will enter a dark tunnel -- the coming president will face neither a parliament nor a constitution,” Erian told Reuters by telephone. “There is a state of confusion and many questions.” Another senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm in Egypt said the court’s ruling that parliament was unconstitutional was a “military coup,” in a statement on his Facebook page. A series of measures, including giving the military powers of arrests, and then the court ruling were “a complete coup through which the military council erases the most honorable period in this nation’s history,” said Mohammed al-Beltagui. Beltagui is a senior lawmaker with the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which dominates the parliament that the constitutional court ruled was illegitimate.Hmmm......And just now that Hillary and Barack were to become BFF with the Muslim Brotherhood.Read the full story here.
Exposing Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of US public schools!
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Exposing Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of US public schools!(IC).By Aaron Klein.A flurry of news media reports last week highlighted a Harlem public elementary school that will become the first in New York to require students to study Arabic.
Entirely unreported is that the organization that co-created and funded the Arabic language program for the New York school, KleinOnline has found, maintains close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood while the group’s founder also started the Al Jazeera television network.The Qatar Foundation International, or QFI, a nonprofit group financed by the government of Qatar, gave Harlem’s Hamilton Heights, a K-5 public school school, a $250,000 grant to support the Arabic program for three years. The school’s Arabic language program was reportedly developed by QFI and the the Global Language Project.
In addition to the Harlem school, KleinOnline found that the QFI just awarded “Curriculum Grants” to seven U.S. schools and language organizations to “develop comprehensive and innovative curricula and teaching materials to be used in any Arabic language classroom.” Those schools include Bell High School, a Los Angeles public school, and Safford K-8 in Arizona’s Tucson Unified School District.
QFI, based in Washington DC, is the U.S. branch of the Qatar Foundation, founded in 1995 by Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani. Thani is still the group’s vice-chairman, while his wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chair’s the organization’s board. Thani also launched Al Jazeera in 1996 and served as the television network’s chairman.
The Qatar foundation is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. This past January, it launched the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics under the guidance of Tariq Ramadan, who serves as the center director.Ramadan is the grandson of the notorious founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna. Ramadan was banned from the U.S. until 2010 when the Obama administration issued him a visa to give a lecture at a New York school.
The Qatar Foundation, meanwhile, named several institutions after Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many regard Qaradawi as the de facto spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.The Foundation instituted the Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi Scholarships and in 2009 established a research center named the Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal.
Qaradawi has personally attended scores of Foundation events, including conferences at which he served as a keynote speaker. Qaradawi achieved star status because of his regular sermons and interviews on Al Jazeera. Two weeks ago, Qaradawi was in the news after he told Egyptian Muslims it was their religious duty to vote for one of three Islamic candidates in the country’s presidential election, describing them as the “best for Egypt” because they will “apply the Islamic Shariah and achieve justice.”
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) documents how Qardaqi openly permitted the killing of American troops in Iraq and praised the “heroic deeds” from “Hamas, Jihad, Al-Aqsa Brigades, and others.” Reports by the London newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat repeated Israeli claims that Al-Qaradawi once served to fund “the heart of Hamas,” the Al-Islam Charity, through his Welfare Coalition.Read the full story here.
Chaplain Alliance Asks Congress to Investigate Removal of Military Bibles.
"The War On Christianity" - Chaplain Alliance Asks Congress to Investigate Removal of Military Bibles.(CP).By Alex Murashko.An atheist activist group is claiming a victory in its ongoing effort to keep religious expression and symbols out of the U.S. armed services after it was announced that the Department of Defense is removing military edition Bibles from its exchange stores. A chaplain alliance group is asking Congress to investigate whether the action taken was religious discrimination. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) said that the Holman Christian Standard Bibles editions "prominently emblazoned with exact replicas of the trademarked emblems of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force" could be seen as the official religious text of the four branches. "Once again our foundation has decisively beaten back those who would see the wall separating church and state reduced to rubble," said Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of MRFF.
"The very fact that the Pentagon – or 'Pentacostal-gon' – had allowed for the insignias of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force to be used for such a clearly evangelical fundamentalist agenda should sicken anyone with any inkling of respect for the 'sacred' principle of religious freedom as enshrined by the foundational documents of our nation, namely the U.S. Constitution."The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty expressed disappointment on Tuesday over the decision by the Department of Defense officials to remove military edition Bibles from the shelves of military exchange stores. "This is one more case of Department of Defense officials bowing to political pressure to create a 'religion free' zone in the military," said Chaplain Alliance officials. Crews questions whether the DoD's apparent alignment with the MRFF's demand is an act of discrimination and is asking politicians to investigate. "Why should these Bibles be removed because of the demands of a small activist group?" Crews asked. "MRFF must cease and desist their reckless assault on religious liberty. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty calls on Congress to investigate this frivolous threat and apparent discrimination against religious views by the DoD." Hmmmmm.........Obama: “We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”Read the full story here.
Video - Dinesh D'Souza - Obama & 2016.
Coming to a theater near you this summer, “2016,” a major film production that extrapolates what America might look like at the end of Obama’s second term.HT: IsraelMatzav.
Russian Warning Shots - Syrian Conflict Threatens to Degenerate into World War.
Russian Warning Shots - Syrian Conflict Threatens to Degenerate into World War.(VN).By Thierry Meyssan. The nature of the Syrian crisis has changed. The process of destabilization that was to open the path for legal military intervention by the Atlantic Alliance has failed. Removing its mask, the United States has publicly announced the possibility of attacking Syria without the approval of the Security Council, as it also did in Kosovo.
Washington must be pretending not to have noticed that the Russia of Vladimir Putin is not that of Boris Yeltsin. After being assured of Chinese support, Moscow literally fired two warning shots in the direction of Washington. The continuing violations of international law by NATO and the GCC threaten to unleash a global conflict. President Vladimir Putin began his third mandate under the sign of sovereignty in the face of direct threats launched against the Russian Federation by the United States and NATO. Moscow has repeatedly denounced the expansion of NATO, the installation of military bases, the deployment of a missile shield on its borders, and the destruction of Libya and the destabilization of Syria. During the celebration of the victory over Nazism on 9 June 2012, President Putin emphasized the need for Russia to be ready for new sacrifice. In the days following his inauguration, Mr. Putin reviewed the Russian military industrial sector, his armed forces and his treaty alliance system. He pursued this course of action while choosing to draw in Syria a line in the sand that must not be crossed. For Putin, NATO’s invasion of Libya was equivalent to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich and that of Syria, should it occur, would be comparable to the invasion of Poland that started WWII.
Any interpretation that what is currently happening in the Levant is the result of an internal dynamic of revolution/repression within Syria is not only false but a distortion of the real stakes involved, and simply amounts to more political maneuvering. The Syrian crisis is first and foremost a further stage in the project of "remodeling of the greater Middle East"; a further attempt to destroy the "Axis of Resistance" and the first "war for gas" being played out .
What is actually at stake in Syria is not whether Bashar al-Assad will be able to democratize the institutions he has inherited or whether the Wahhabist monarchies of the Gulf will succeed in destroying the last secular regime in the region and impose their sectarianism, but to determine the lines of separation between the emerging power blocs of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization). Some of our readers will be startled to read the preceding phrase. Indeed, the Western and Gulf media have been hammering the point day after day that President El-Assad is a sectarian dictator working to the advantage of the Alawite minority, while the armed opposition to his authority is portrayed as the incarnation of democratic pluralism. Just a glance at recent events is enough to belie this version. Bashar al-Assad has successively convened municipal elections, a referendum, as well as legislative elections. All observers unanimously agreed that the elections unfolded in a transparent manner. The degree of popular participation was more than 60% even while the West was denouncing the electoral process as "a farce" and while the Western-backed armed opposition was preventing citizens from getting to the polls in the four districts under its control. At the same time, the armed opposition stepped up its attacks not only against security forces but also against civilians and all the symbols of national culture and of Syria’s multi-confessional character. They assassinated progressive Sunnis, then randomly killed Alawites and Christians in order to force their families to flee. They burned more than fifteen hundred schools and churches.
They proclaimed an ephemeral Independent Islamic Emirate in Baba Amr where they instituted a Revolutionary Tribunal which condemned more than 150 felons, who were then beheaded in public one by one by an executioner. It is certainly not the woeful spectacle of some vagrant politicians, meeting up at the exiled Syrian National Council and erecting a facade of democracy having no relation to the reality of the crimes being committed by the Free "Syrian" Army, that will prevent the truth from coming out much longer.
In the circumstances, who can believe that the secular Syrian regime, whose exemplary character was celebrated not so long ago, would have turned into a confessional dictatorship, while the Free "Syrian" Army, supported by the Wahhabist dictatorships of the Gulf and obeying the injunctions of Takfirist preachers would conversely be advanced as a paragon of democratic pluralism? The announcement by U.S. leaders of a possible international intervention outside a U.N. mandate in the same fashion as NATO dismembered Yugoslavia elicted both apprehension and anger in Moscow. The Russian Federation, which until now held itself in a defensive position, has moved to take the initiative. This strategic shift flows from the urgency of the situation from Russia’s point of view and favorable shifts on the ground in Syria .
Moscow proposes to create a Contact Group on Syria that would bring together the ensemble of concerned states, meaning Syria’s neighbors as well as both regional and international powers. Its purpose is to put in place a forum for dialogue to substitute for the current bellicose approach imposed by the West under the Orwellian rubric, the "Friends of Syria Conference." Russia continues to support the Annan Plan—which is in fact the scarcely modified plan submitted earlier by Sergei Lavrov to the Arab League. Russia deplores that the plan was not implemented, assigning responsibility for that failure to the opposition faction which took up arms. According to A.K. Lukashevich, spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, the Free "Syrian" Army is an illegal organization according to international law. It is assassinating twenty to thirty Syrian soldiers each day yet is publicly supported by NATO states and the GCC in violation of the Annan Plan. Positioning himself as a peacemaker confronting NATO warmongering, Vladimir Putin has demanded that the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) ready itself to deploy its "blue chapkas" in Syria, to both separate the belligerents and combat foreign forces. Nicolai Bordyuzha, secretary-general of the CSTO, has confirmed that he is ready to deploy 20,000 men trained for this type of mission and immediately available.
This would be the first time that the CSTO deploys a peace force outside of former Soviet territory. Cut to the quick, Ban Ki-Moon attempted to sabotage the initiative, countering with his own sudden effort to organize a Contact Group. Convening in Washington the Sanctions Working Group of the Friends Of Syria Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defied the Russian proposal and raised the ante in favor of regime change. In Turkey, opposition legislators have visited the Syrian refugee camps. They have confirmed the absence of more than one thousand refugees registered by the United Nations in the main camp and noted, by contrast, the presence of an arsenal in the camp. They have also demanded in Parliament that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reveal the rising amount of humanitarian aid being given to phantom refugees. The deputies maintain that the refugee camp is a cover for a secret military operation, sheltering in reality combatants, principally Libyans who are using it as a rear base.
The deputies are asserting that the combatants are those who were introduced in the district of Houla when the massacre was being perpetrated. These revelations confirm the accusations of the Russian ambassador to the Security Council, Vitaly Churkin, according to which the Special Representative of Ban Ki-Moon in Libya, Ian Martin, had used U.N. funds destined for refugees to bring al Qaeda combatants into Turkey.
In Saudi Arabia, the fracture between King Abdullah and the Sudairi clan has reappeared. At the invitation of the monarch, the Supreme Council of the Oulema issued a fatwa stipulating that Syria is not a land of jihad. At the same time, however, Prince Faisal, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been calling to arm the opposition against the "Alawite usurper."
Thursday, June 7 was a day of many significant events. While Ban Ki-Moon and Navi Pillay, respectively Secretary General and High Commissioner of Human Rights, were pleading their case against Syria before the U.N. General Assembly, Moscow proceeded with two test-launches of its intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Bulava missile draws its name from an ancient Slavic mace used as a baton by the Marshall of the Cossack Armies. Colonel Vadim Koval, spokesman of the Strategic Missile Troops of the Russian Federation (RSVN) confirmed the test of a Topol—launched from a silo near the Caspian Sea, but has not confirmed that of the Bulava from a submarine in the Mediterranean. But the firing was observed from all over the Near East, Israel and Armenia and there is no other known armament that leaves similar tracings in the sky.
The message is clear : Moscow is ready for world war if NATO and the GCC do not comply with the international obligations as defined in the Annan Plan and persist in aiding terrorism. According to our sources, this this shot across the bow was coordinated with the Syrian authorities. Moscow equally had encouraged Damascus to liquidate the Islamic Emirate of Baba Amr once the authority of President al-Assad was confirmed by constitutional referendum, as it also encouraged the president to wipe out mercenary groups present in the country as soon as the new Parliament and new Prime Minister were installed. The order was given to move from a defensive strategy to offensive action to protect the population from terrorism. The national army moved to attack the strongholds of the Free "Syrian" Army. The combat in the coming days is going to be difficult, all the more so in that the mercenaries possess mortars, anti-tank missiles and, as from now, surface to air missiles. To lessen the rapidly-increasing tension, France immediately accepted the Russian proposal to participate in an ad hoc Contact Group. Washington hurried Frederic C. Hof to Moscow. Contradicting the statements made the day before by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mr. Hof also accepted the Russian invitation. The time is past to lament the expansion of combat into Lebanon, or to conjecture about the possible regionalization of conflict. Over the past sixteen months of the destabilization of Syria, NATO and the GCC have created a situation without exit that might well degenerate into global war.Hmmmm................"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." ~ John F. Kennedy. The 'Truth' will be written by the victor.Read the full story here.
Video - Muslim Scholar explains why stealth political Jihad is the best course for Muslims.
It’s a Muslim in London describing why stealth Jihad through the political process is preferred instead of using guns and bombs: It is important to understand that in Islam, all lands are Muslim lands.
It’s just that some of these lands are currently controlled by Infidels. This is how Islam’s practitioners see the world. For you leftists in the West who like to run interference for Islamists, that means your country. This Muslim scholar named Haitham al-Haddad lives in Great Britain and in this video, you will see him explain to his students that it is ok to participate in western civilization in the short run if doing so furthers Islam in the long run. You will hear him mention “Dawah.” This is a term that refers to Muslims always inviting non-Muslims to embrace Islam. In this regard, he comes across as a student of top Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who teaches Muruna, which is exactly what al-Haddad seems to be advocating.
"Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others. ... The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." ~ Alexander Hamilton.
Russia Warns War Is Coming To Syria.....How far will it spread?
Russia Warns War Is Coming To Syria.....How far will it spread?(WND).Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is preparing a major offensive in the coming days against the opposition targeting his regime, an informed Syrian government source confirmed. The source told WND yesterday Assad was warned by Russia that if the coming counterinsurgency targeting the opposition is not successful in the next 4-6 weeks, Syria should be prepared for a war. The source did not say whether the possibility of war referred to a Russian expectation of international intervention in Syria. The information comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday accused Russia of sending helicopter gunships to Syria for use in crackdowns on rebel positions across Syria. “We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria,” said Clinton. “They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry – everything they are shipping is unrelated to their [the Syrian government's] actions internally. That’s patently untrue.” Continued Clinton: “And we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”
Also yesterday U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed concerns by UN envoy Kofi Annan that a so-called massacre is being organized against the Syrian opposition. “The United States joins joint special envoy Kofi Annan in expressing deep alarm at reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre,” Nuland said. “People will be held accountable.” A previous attack against civilians in the Syrian neighbourhood of Houla saw 108 people, including 49 children, reportedly executed at close range on May 25. The international community quickly blamed Assad’s forces for the massacre. This past weekend, Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter “Allgemeine Zeitung,” quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants.But underscoring the gap of information on the ground, many news media reports at first claimed the civilian deaths in Houla were caused by mortars and shelling by Assad’s forces.
Two days later, much of the news media changed its tune, parroting a U.N. report that says most of the 108 victims of the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and entire families gunned down in their homes.Survivors and witnesses cited by the U.N. blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha.Largely unreported is Syria’s claim that an armed terrorism element is behind the massacre.
Middle East security officials told WND Syria has sent information to the U.S., U.N. and other international bodies indicating the house-to-house slaughter was carried out by a group affiliated with al-Qaida that came from North Africa.
According to Syria, the jihad organization entered Syria via Turkey, where the militants were first armed. Syria did not blame Turkey directly for the massacre, the security officials said. The Syrian report stated Turkey likely believes the al-Qaida elements were going to fight Assad’s regime.For months now, Turkey has been hosting the Syrian opposition and agitating for international military intervention against Damascus.Two weeks ago one Egyptian security official told WND there is a growing collaboration between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaida as well as evidence the opposition is sending weapons to jihadists in Iraq.An Egyptian military attaché detailed the alleged collaboration between al-Qaida and the U.S.-aided opposition in Syria that operates under the banner of the National Free Army.
The purported cooperation extends to recent suicide attacks and bombings in Damascus and in the embattled Syrian city of Homs.The military official told WND that Egypt has reports of collaboration between the Syrian opposition and three al-Qaida arms:
•Jund al-Sham, which is made up of al-Qaida militants who are Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese;
•Jund al-Islam, which in recent years merged with Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group of Sunni Iraqis operating under the al-Qaida banner;
•Jund Ansar al-Allah, an al-Qaida group based in Gaza linked to Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria.
The Arab League, which has condemned Syria, previously privately recognized an armed terrorist element agitating against Assad’s regime.A leaked Arab League dispatch, posted in February by the Anonymous group, said Arab League monitors on the ground in Syria several times witnessed an “armed entity” provoking Syrian forces and placing civilian lives in danger.
That section of the classified report read: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity that is not mentioned in the protocol. … In some zones, this armed entity reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government to respond with further violence. In the end, innocent citizens pay the price for those actions with life and limb.”Hmmmm..........Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaida, Turkey......Erdogan......Barack Hussein Obama.Read the full story here.
Exposed: The Formula for Islamic Takeover.
Exposed: The Formula for Islamic Takeover.(Shoebat).By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack.The word “Democracy” has become increasingly and deceptively powerful. It has come to be seen as something on par with “freedom” and “justice.” It has been the fuel for the very inaptly named ‘Arab Spring.’ Democracy and freedom are not synonymous terms. They don’t mean the same thing at all. The forces at work that support the ‘Arab Spring’ know this but they don’t want the world to know it. After all, war is deception.
As Bill Wilson explains at the Daily Jolt, Islamists have a formula that follows a consensus that Democracy is inherently and exclusively good. We have inserted a couple of steps into Wilson’s formula. Ours are in bold:
- Muslims begin protesting their evil leader
- Evil leader cracks down
- Muslims gain worldwide sympathy
- Evil leader is deposed
- US leaders suggest democracy
- Muslims use Muruna to suggest the Turkish Model of Islamic Democracy
- US / Western leaders oversee the transition to Islamic “Democracy” (moderate Islam)
- Islamic Sharia Law leaders are elected
- Democracy is abandoned
- Sharia Law is established
'Flame' can Steal Data Even When Computers Are Not Connected to the Internet.
'Flame' can Steal Data Even When Computers Are Not Connected to the Internet.(AP).By Susanne Posel.Experts specializing in malware from Bitdefender have uncovered a special capability in Flame’s code that allows the virus to steal data from computers that are not connected to the Internet or networked machines.
Flame can move stolen data to a USB memory stick plugged into an infected harddrive. Bitdefender asserts that this ability has never been witnessed before.
This cyber-espionage virus will move stolen information to an USB outlet, then seemingly wait for the chance to upload it to the malware controllers once the infected computer links to the Internet.
Bogdan Botezatu, malware analyst from Bitdefeder, said:
It turns users into data mules. Chances are, at some point, a user with an infected flash drive will plug it into a secure computer in a contained environment, and Flame will carry the target’s information from the protected environment to the outside world…It uses its ability to infect to ensure an escape route for the data. This is is somewhat revolutionary for a piece of malware.Eugene Kaspersky, of the Russian Kaspersky Lab, uncovered Flame under orders from the UN.
At the Global Media and Technology Summit, Kaspersky’s team made the connection between Flame and Stuxnet and the cyberattack on Iran by the US and Israel.
The US and Israel came together to attack Iran; along with the European Union and a wide range of employed experts to guarantee that the worm would perform as planned.
This virus attacked and damaged Iranian centrifuges used to enrich uranium at the Natanz facility.The Obama administration claims to be “launching an investigation into Flame, which is a highly classified project.
Independent researchers have long attributed Stuxnet and Flame to the same cyberattacks and even claimed they are the same virus. Kaspersky’s lab has hard evidence of this fact.
The Pentagon, through a report in 2011, assessed that the US is involved in cyberespionage, but claims it is a defense to the thefts of industrial and defense secrets of other cyberspies.
Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, commented:
We are now 100 percent sure that the Flame and Stuxnet groups worked together. The fact that the Flame group shared their source code with the Stuxnet group shows they cooperated at least once.These two viruses share the same pieces of code at their based developmental stage, making them virtually identical; and most likely created by the same entity.
Alexander Gostev, Kaspersky Lab’s Chief Security Expert, says: What we have found is very strong evidence that the Stuxnet/Duqu and Flame cyberweapons are connected.Read the full story here.
Russia - Medinsky: "Lenin should be buried.A body should be interred in the earth,".
Russia - Medinsky: "Lenin should be buried.A body should be interred in the earth,".(Guardian).When the writer and former dissident Yuri Khariyakin told the Soviet parliament in 1989 that Lenin had expressed a wish to be buried alongside his mother in St Petersburg and that his embalmed body should be removed from the Red Square mausoleum, he encountered incredulity and anger. Lenin's niece, Olga Ulyanova, even made a public statement to the effect that it was a bare-faced lie that her uncle had wanted to be interred with his mother. Ever since the Soviet Union began to break apart there have been repeated attempts to put the founding father of Russian communism six feet under. But no political leader has yet dared to take the step many Russians regard as sacrilege. So, Lenin lies to this day, looking more waxy with each passing year, in the constructivist red marble mausoleum in Moscow beneath the Kremlin's walls, an object of curiosity for tourists whom humourless guards forbid from speaking above a whisper or putting their hands in their pockets. But the return of Vladimir Putin for a third term as president of Russia in May, could pave the way for Lenin's removal. This week, Russia's new culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, re-ignited the controversy when he told the radio station Ekho Moskvy that Lenin should be buried. "A body should be interred in the earth," Medinsky said, who added that he was in favour of making it a state occasion. "I would observe all the appropriate ceremonies. As [Lenin] was a senior public figure the funeral should happen with all fitting state rituals, distinctions and a military salute in a suitable place."
With this observation, Medinsky was drawing a comparison with the treatment of Stalin, whose embalmed corpse was spirited away from its place beside Lenin one night in 1961 on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev and buried by the Kremlin's walls. The famous mausoleum where Soviet leaders stood to review military parades, should stay, said Medinsky. "It must remain," he said. "It would be possible to turn it into a museum of Soviet history that would be very well visited and could have expensive tickets." But the comments created such a furore that Medinsky had to clarify his position. "It remains exclusively my personal opinion as a citizen," the culture minister, whose appointment Putin approved last month, later wrote on his blog. While some parts of society, including the Orthodox church, support the idea of a burial, others are vigorously opposed.Hmmmm......Medinsky.....who....what.. ..where.Read the full story here.
Michelle Obama's Obesity War: Millions Wasted To Bring Fresh Produce To Poor Areas.
Michelle Obama's Obesity War: Millions Wasted To Bring Fresh Produce To Poor Areas.(JW).The Obama Administration keeps funding questionable programs to combat obesity by bringing fresh produce to poor areas, even as health experts concede the efforts are wasted—right along with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Consider this south Florida newspaper article focusing on how local nonprofits are spending federal money to bring fresh produce to poor areas to combat obesity. One county alone, Miami-Dade, got nearly $15 million from the feds and a chunk of it was used to bring fresh produce to areas considered “food deserts,” or low-income neighborhoods that lack markets with fresh produce found in more affluent areas.
The allocation is part of a $370 million stimulus-funded program to fight obesity in low-income neighborhoods. It’s also part of a much larger initiative, Michelle Obama’s outrageous $4.5 billion law to revolutionize the inner-city diet by providing fresh produce and grilled lean meats as alternatives to greasy, fried foods that tend to be more popular in low-income neighborhoods. As part of this effort the U.S. government spent $830 million to study obesity in 2011 and justify the creation of restrictive policies to control what Americans eat.
But the focus of the administration’s costly anti-obesity campaign has remained to tackle the “epidemic” in low-income neighborhoods by claiming that the poor are more likely to be obese because they have no access to healthy foods.
This theory is wrong, according to experts quoted in the Florida newspaper article. “The idea of food deserts has nothing to do with obesity,” according to one researcher who authored a study that’s backed up by a series of others.The study involved 13,000 children and found no correlation between kids’ obesity and access to fresh produce. In fact, the best predictor was the parents’ weight. This brings to mind that old cliché about the fruit not falling far from the tree. “You’re just not going to change behavior by offering more vegetables,” the expert, a highly regarded researcher, assures.Read the full story here.
Islamic Jihad’s Kindergarten Graduation: Where’s the Cake and Cookies?
Islamic Jihad’s Kindergarten Graduation: Where’s the Cake and Cookies?(IDF).On Monday, June 11, 2012 Gazan kindergartners celebrated their graduation ceremony in an Islamic Jihad fashion.
“At every graduation ceremony, it is our obligation to educate the children to love the resistance, Palestine and Jerusalem, so they will recognize the importance of Palestine and who its enemy is,” stated the kindergarten’s director.As part of the graduation, Palestinian kids dressed up as Israeli prison guards and played the exaggerated role of torturing Islamic Jihad’s military wing’s (Al Quds Brigades) prisoners.
The kids who participated in the ceremony expressed their feelings after the event:
“I love the resistance and the martyrs and Palestine, and I want to blow myself up on Zionists and kill them on a bus in a suicide bombing.Kindergarten graduations are not the only channel in which Gaza’s youth are indoctrinated with hatred towards Israel. Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV also has a say in this propaganda effort.
When I grow up I’ll join Islamic Jihad and the al-Quds Brigades. I’ll fight the Zionist enemy and fire missiles at it until I die as a shahid and join my father in heaven.”
The television station produces a show called, The Pioneers of Tomorrow, that teaches its youth audience the desire to grow up and carry out future martyrdom operations.
Source: Ynet.
For more information on how Gaza’s children are educated:
'Palestinian prisoner and
Israeli guard'
"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us." ~ Golda Meir.
Saudi Arabia - New Opposition Movement Urges Rapid Overthrow of Al-Saud Monarchy.
Saudi Arabia - New Opposition Movement Urges Rapid Overthrow of Al-Saud Monarchy.(Fars).Tehran - A newly declared Saudi opposition movement called 'Ikhwan al-Mo'menoun (Faithful Brotherhood) for Freedom of Hejaz' described the al-Saud family reigning over Saudi Arabia as infidels, and called for their removal from power. "At this sensitive moment that nations have decided to determine their fate and while a wave (of determination) has risen to change their bitter situation, we grab the string of faith brotherhood and announce that it is now the time to start change (in Saudi Arabia) and declare existence of our Islamic movement," a statement by the group said on Wednesday. "Since our movement and move is based on Islamic change, the real point of change in our dear homeland is the overthrow of the criminal al-Saud, which is the underlying cause of division in the Muslim world, so that the Muslim people can take the power and infidels are fired from Hejaz," it added. "This is the start of our secret activity and there is no return on this path," the statement stressed. Saudi Arabia has already witnessed popular uprisings in some regions, specially its oil-rich province in the East. Saudi Arabia's east has been the scene of anti-government protests since February 2011, with demonstrators demanding human rights reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners. Qatif has for months been a central point for protests by the Shiite minority who have called for political reforms in the ultra-conservative Sunni-ruled kingdom, where protests are illegal. Several demonstrators have been killed and dozens of activists have been arrested since the beginning of the protests in the region. Riyadh has intensified its crackdown on anti-government protesters since the beginning of 2012. Saudi Arabia has the worst human rights record according to both Western and Islamic norms.Read the full story here.
Egyptian court is considering whether to disqualify Shafiq from presidential race.
Egyptian court is considering whether to disqualify Shafiq from presidential race.(AA).An Egyptian court is considering whether to disqualify one of Egypt’s presidential candidates, just two days before the country is due to vote in the final stage of the historic election. Egyptians are due to head to the second round of polls beginning on Saturday but they remain on tenterhooks as the Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to decide on the validity of the law passed by the Islamist-led parliament that sought to bar Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, from the vote pitting him against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi. The court will also review the legality of rules that governed a parliamentary election earlier this year in which Islamists swept up seats. A judicial body has already recommended that both laws be overturned, allowing Shafiq to continue his bid and possibly dissolving the parliament.
The court is not bound to follow that advice, but it is a likely indication of the ruling. Analysts say that the election drama only two days before the Saturday and Sunday run-off is emblematic of the tortuous and messy transition overseen by the council of army generals since Mubarak was ousted 16 months ago. “This sort of overhang is a reflection of our current state of affairs. Only days before the election and there is legal uncertainty,” Judge Mohamed Hamad al-Gamal, a former head of the state council, told Reuters. Seeking to derail presidential bids by senior Mubarak-era officials, parliament approved the law on April 12 to strip political rights from anyone who served in top government or ruling party posts in the last decade of Mubarak’s rule. That law initially prompted the election committee to disqualify Shafiq. But he was let back into the race on appeal and pending the constitutional court ruling. In a security message its website, the U.S. embassy in Cairo said any decisions from the Thursday’s court session may lead to protests. “These court decisions may further raise the level of tension as Egypt heads to the polls to elect their first democratically elected president,” it said. The election pits Shafiq, who is running on a tough law-and-order platform, against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mursi, whose movement has vowed to uphold the goals of the uprising that propelled it to the forefront of Egyptian politics. Mursi came ahead with 24.7 percent, against Shafiq’s 23.6 percent, in the first round of voting in May, which saw 13 candidates compete for the top job. The race has polarized the nation between those who fear a return to the old regime under Shafiq’s leadership and those wanting to keep religion out of politics and who accuse the Muslim Brotherhood -- which already dominates parliament -- of monopolizing power since last year’s revolt.
“It’s the worst possible scenario,” said Hassan Nafea, professor of political science at Cairo University. “If Shafiq is elected, this means the revolution has been aborted. If it’s Mursi, the country will be run according to the Muslim Brotherhood program, which most Egyptians reject,” he told AFP news agency. The difficult choice has garnered support for the boycott movement, largely ignored in the first round of voting. Now high-profile activists and celebrities are calling on the 50 million registered voters to abstain or to void their ballots, highlighting the fact that the very same judiciary that issued the controversial Mubarak verdicts will oversee the election. Legal experts say they expect Shafiq will be allowed to run. The court could avoid a verdict saying the election committee was not the competent authority to refer the case, but the experts thought that unlikely. On parliament, an administrative court said in February that the election rules were unconstitutional. In that vote, two-thirds of seats were allocated to parties and the rest to individuals who were supposed to be independent of any party. The administrative court judge said political parties should not have been allowed to run for the individual seats, although they did. He also said half rather than a third of the seats should have been apportioned to individuals. “If it is proven that the election rules were flawed or unconstitutional, then the entire election process is void,” Judge Gamal said. “It would mean that this parliament is unconstitutional, illegitimate and must be dissolved.” Some judicial sources say the constitutional court could delay a ruling on parliament until after the presidential vote.Read the full story here.
Eurozone critical mass: How it could all go down this Summer
Eurozone critical mass: How it could all go down this Summer.(Guardian).European Banks will be wiped out: Few large eurozone banks would be left standing and the banking sector could face a €370bn (£298bn) loss if the euro crisis results in the single currency bloc breaking apart, according to one of the first indepth analyses of what might happen if the eurozone disintegrates. The analysis by Credit Suisse estimates that up to 58% of the value of Europe’s banks could be wiped out by the departure of the “peripheral” countries – Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain – from the eurozone.
Even if the single currency remains intact some €1.3tn of credit could be sucked out of the system as banks retrench to their home markets, unwinding years of financial integration, the Credit Suisse analysis warns his represents as much as 10% of the credit in the financial system. “We find that a Greek exit could be manageable … but in a peripheral exit, few of the large listed eurozone banks would be left standing,” the Credit Suisse report said. The banking sector could need capital injections of as much as €470bn if the three scenarios considered by the Credit Suisse analysts – a Greek exit, an exit of the periphery countries and a situation where banks retrench domestically – happen at once. The UK’s banks will not escape unscathed, although they are better insulated than those in the eurozone. In the event that the peripheral countries leave the eurozone, Barclays faces losses of €37bn and bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland some €26bn. If only Greece were to leave the single currency, the Credit Suisse analysts calculate that losses for Europe’s banks would be limited to some 5% of the stock market value of banks across the eurozone with French banks and investment banks being hit hardest. Credit Agricole would be worst effected by a Greek exit. The Credit Suisse analysts insist they are not expecting the euro area to break up – or for Greece to leave – but they believe it is likely there will be a dramatic reduction in cross-border business – leading to less loans for businesses and individuals. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that some €2tn of credit could be lost through a eurozone break up and the Credit Suisse analysts point out they have only analysed the impact on banks they research.Read the full story here.
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