Saudi Arabia - Report: Power Struggle Getting Critical in Saudi Royal Family.

Saudi Arabia - Report: Power Struggle Getting Critical in Saudi Royal Family.(Fars).News reports from Saudi Arabia revealed that the country has been practically divided into two parts reigned by the sons of King Abdallah and the sons of former crown prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who plan to rule the country after the king's death.Informed sources in the Saudi royal family said that Mutaib bin Abdullah, the son of the king, is now ruling important religious cities of Saudi Arabia like Medina, Mecca, Taif and Abha, and is preparing for the days after the death of his father. This is while Mohammed Ibn Nayef, the son of former Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, is controlling Riyadh and has an eye on the Eastern coasts and the oil-rich areas and wants to play a decisive role in the future of Saudi Arabia, said the sources, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information.
According to the sources, while the Saudi rulers are trying to conceal the power struggle inside the royal family, the second generation of the Saudi monarchs has now started a tough power rivalry which can lead to the country's collapse in future. Also earlier other sources inside the Saudi ruling family had warned that the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, a hard-line conservative, in June ignited an internal war in the Al Saud dynasty. Political observers believe that if the Saudi King defense Prince Salman, the existing differences inside the royal family will further widen. Earlier, a London-based analyst had also warned that whenever a Saudi prince dies or nears death, internal power feuds start in Riyadh which sometimes push the Arab country into crisis. "Since long time ago, a great dispute has been underway for starting a hereditary monarchy to transfer power to the younger members of the al-Saud family," Jaffar Hessabi told FNA in 2011 after the death of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. The Saudi ruler has so far picked his crown prince from the al-Saud family, including his aged brothers and nephews and not from his sons or grandsons. Hessabi pointed to the unpopularity of the Saudi dynasty among the people both inside Saudi Arabia and in the region, and stressed that the ongoing conditions in Saudi Arabia indicate the start of an uprising against the country's rulers similar to the popular uprisings in the other Arab states. Saudi Arabia has also been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months with demonstrators demanding rights reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners. Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom. Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years and attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents. According to the Saudi-based Human Rights First Society (HRFS), the detainees were subject to both physical and mental torture.Hmmmmm........"Arab Spring" Anyone?Read the full story here.

Egypt's Pres Mursi to Visit Iran - "Iran-Egypt relations are expected to witness an eye-catching growth in coming weeks".

Egypt's Pres Mursi to Visit Iran - "Iran-Egypt relations are expected to witness an eye-catching growth in coming weeks".(Fars).Lebanese daily, al-Saffir, said the Egyptian president is due to pay an official visit to Iran in August to discuss bilateral ties and cooperation and attend a summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Egypt currently holds presidency of the NAM and Mursi will deliver his chair to Iran in the August meeting in Tehran as Iran is due to chair the movement for the next three years. "The Iran-Egypt relations are expected to witness an eye-catching growth in coming weeks," the daily said. In an interview with FNA late last month, Mursi underlined his enthusiasm for the further expansion of ties with Iran, and said resumption of formal relations between Tehran and Cairo would create a strategic balance in the region. "The issue will create a strategic balance in the region," Mursi told FNA on Sunday, hours before the final results of the presidential election was announced. Mursi stressed his eagerness to further develop ties with Iran, and said, "It is part of my agenda (as the first post-Mubarak president of Egypt)." Ever since the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's regime, the Iranian and Egyptian officials have voiced their interest in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his former Egyptian counterpart Nabil Al-Arabi in a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, which took place on the sidelines of a NAM ministerial meeting, conferred on ways to promote the bilateral relations between Tehran and Cairo, and stressed the need for continued consultations in this regard.Hmmmm.....Aren't you glad Obama helped remove that 'evil dictator' Mubarak?Read the full story here.

Clinton:" “Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee," the U.S. will 'only' release about $1.1 billion to Pakistan's military.

Clinton:" “Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee," the U.S. will 'only' release about $1.1 billion to Pakistan's military.(AA).Pakistani Taliban threatened to attack trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan after Islamabad and Washington reached a deal to re-open the lines. “We will attack NATO supplies all over Pakistan. We will not allow anyone to use Pakistani soil to transport supplies that will be used against the Afghan people,” the group’s spokesman told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan and the United States reached a deal to reopen land routes that NATO uses to supply troops in Afghanistan, ending a seven-month closure imposed after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed by NATO aircraft last November. The United States has said it will release about $1.1 billion to Pakistan's military as part of the deal. Prior to the closure, Pakistani Taliban carried out dozens of attacks, disrupting supplies for 130,000 U.S.-led NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, and have repeatedly warned of more if Pakistan reopened supply routes. Following the official announcement NATO truckers said they feared more attacks and demanded security guarantees before the resumption of the supply routes.
Islamabad has long demanded that Washington apologize for the deadly air raid before it would reopen the NATO routes, closed in anger after the U.S. attack. “Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives,” Clinton said in a statement. “We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again.” Earlier, Pakistan’s new prime minister acknowledged that keeping up the seven-month blockade would damage relations with the United States and other NATO member states. “The continued closure of supply lines not only impinge our relationship with the U.S., but also on our relations with the 49 other member states of NATO,” Raja Pervez Ashraf told a meeting of top civilian and military leaders.The border blockade has forced the United States and its allies to rely on much longer, more expensive northern routes through Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus. The cost of ferrying supplies by air and over northern railways and roads has cost the U.S. military about $100 million a month, according to the Pentagon. Initial hopes of a deal on re-opening the routes had fallen apart at a NATO summit in Chicago in May, amid reports that Pakistan was demanding huge fees for each of the thousands of trucks that rumble across the border every year. But Clinton said Tuesday: “Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee in the larger interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region. “This is a tangible demonstration of Pakistan’s support for a secure, peaceful, and prosperous Afghanistan and our shared objectives in the region.” Reopening the routes will help the United States and NATO to complete its planned withdrawal of troops and equipment from Afghanistan “at a much lower cost,” Clinton said. The U.S. commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, who held talks in Islamabad twice in the last six days, praised the decision as “a demonstration of Pakistan’s desire to help secure a brighter future for both Afghanistan and the region at large.” While Islamabad has demanded a formal apology for the deaths of its border troops, a U.S. and NATO investigation said the killings were the result of mistakes made on both sides. The United States also has indicated it will free up funds for Pakistan that are supposed to reimburse Islamabad for counter-insurgency operations, officials said.Hmmmm.........."free up funds"...How much are we talking about?Read the full story here.

UAE more than 175,000 'spinsters' Emirati gov wants to marry them off, sparking criticism.

UAE more than 175,000 'spinsters' Emirati gov wants to marry them off, sparking criticism.(BM).DUBAI: Manal enjoys here life. She is single, working her way up at a Dubai-based real estate firm and lives alone. But the United Arab Emirates is looking to marry off women over 30, like Manal. “It’s funny, really, but in many ways it is scary that the government is trying to get involved in our personal lives here,” she told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday, following reports that Abu Dhabi was “concerned” over the rising number of spinsters in the country. “It isn’t like I don’t want to get married, but I have other priorities at the moment and haven’t really found a man worth my time,” she added. But then her criticism of the “fear” of spinsters became sharp. “The government has no place to tell us to get married or not. This is a personal decision and it angers me that they would even talk about our rights to choose our own life,” she continued. In the Arab world, women over 30-years-old who remain single are seen as pariahs, outside the cultural traditions that want women to marry no later than their early 20s. For women like Manal, work has become more important, and recent studies have shown that in the UAE in particular, more and more women are foregoing and early wedding in favor of focusing on their profession. According to new statistics released by the UAE government, some 60 percent of women are like Manal, pushing back marriage, which has become a cause for concern for government officials and has led to a debate in the country over marriage and women’s rights. The Federal National Council, the country’s appointed consultative body, has seen members in recent weeks looking to find a “solution” to what they believe could be a serious demographic problem. Emiratis are already a minority in the country, with the vast majority of residents being foreigners, who have arrived to work in the wealthy Gulf country. “This is very worrying,” FNC member Said al-Kitbi told AFP, adding that there are now more than 175,000 Emirati women who are over 30 and unmarried. Though he conceded that being a “spinster” is “not a bad thing in itself,” he argued that the demographic consequences of these women not having children are the real problem. 
Home to some 8 million people, less than one million are Emirati citizens, and the rise in the rate of locals marrying foreigners has led the government to question, even issue a report saying foreigners are “detrimental” to UAE society, is seeing the already tiny minority get smaller. Despite the fears from government officials over the rising number of “spinsters” in the country, they are still uncertain as to what is causing the decline in women wanting to get married. Manal said it is simple: “We want a life, we want to live and make something for ourselves before we get married, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.” The UAE planning ministry statistics revealed that in 1995, only 20 percent of women over 30 were unmarried. By 2008, it had risen to over 50 percent.
The latest survey by the UAE Marriage Fund, a government institution that provides financial assistance to those who want to marry but cannot afford to, showed that 87 percent of respondents blamed high dowries for low marriage rates among Emirati women. The government has imposed a $14,000 ceiling on dowries, but many families still demand much more—in some cases over $135,000. To address the rising costs of marriage, the government has ordered that each Emirati man who wants to marry be given $19,000 – on the condition that it is his first marriage.
However, the Marriage Fund will make an exception for men who married women who cannot conceive. In this case, the fund will give the man money to take a second wife. But Manal and others are not worried. They believe the effort to push for women to get married is misinformed. “We will marry, I am sure, but no government is going to push us to do it,” she added.Read the full story here.

Assessing the Maldives

Assessing the Maldives.(TheMidleEastForum).

By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Gatestone Institute
July 2, 2012.

The Nasheed Government and its Islamist Opposition

Mention the Maldives, and you think of vacation brochures, beaches and coral reefs. But as a country whose citizen body is completely Muslim, how does it compare politically to the rest of the Islamic world?
The Maldives did not have its first democratic elections until 2008, and then only thanks to gradual reforms introduced under the rule of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the midst of civil unrest in 2003 and 2005.
Those elections were won by the pro-democracy activist and former political prisoner Mohammed Nasheed, in partnership with Mohammed Waheed Hassan. As part of a left-of-center coalition, they defeated the incumbent president Gayoom and his Maldivian People's Party (DRP).
Nasheed, as the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), aimed to implement a reformist agenda to secure the democratic framework. As Freedom House noted, Nasheed "introduced draft bills guaranteeing freedom of expression and press freedom that remained under consideration by the parliament at the end of 2010."
Also underlying the plans for liberalization was an economic motive: Gayoom had bequeathed a legacy of financial ruin to Nasheed that included Gayoom's failed Air Maldives venture which, after suffering losses of $50 million, declared bankruptcy in March 2000.
In June 2010, several cabinet ministers resigned in protest over what they said were the opposition's hindrance of plans for reform. This opposition, which consisted chiefly of the DRP, had won a plurality of seats in the 2009 in parliamentary elections generally deemed free and fair; together with the judiciary, they then put a stop to Nasheed's initiatives to expand the tourism sector. According to the current tourism minister, Ahmed Adheeb, Nasheed's government tried to bypass the tourism ministry in the allocation of some islands that were to be developed for tourists.
While Nasheed was able to survive that, political opposition to him, most having a Islamist flavor, was escalating. As he began to lose allies in the coalition government, protests by both the opposition and the NGO-organized "street" started to strengthen.
Feeling pressure from the demonstrations, the government announced at the end of December 2011 plans to impose on the Maldives a complete ban on alcohol and pork, a ban on Israeli airlines from operating flights to and from the islands, and a ban on massage parlors, widely equated with brothels.
The tourism industry, however, ignored these restrictions; Nasheed was apparently against imposing them as well.
A few weeks later, in early 2012, the government reversed its stance. The Supreme Court, although rejecting requests for an opinion on whether the Maldives could import pork or alcohol without violating its constitution, rooted in Islamic law, nonetheless declared that there was regulation in the legal framework of the Contraband Act to import both products -- so the practice was not illegal.
Nasheed made his sentiments clear in the wake of this about-face; he affirmed that "the silent majority woke up and they wanted to reverse the ruling…Such extreme calls do not really quite find the resonance with the majority of the people in the country."
Further, Nasheed expressed concerns in January of this year over the revival of the custom of female genital mutilation [FGM, or "female circumcision"], for which countless religious groups had campaigned, along with barring girls from attending school.
The Sydney Morning Herald, which interviewed Nasheed, quoted Shadiya Ibrahim, of the Maldivian women's rights organization the "Gender Advocacy Working Group," as saying, "Being a woman is harder now. The religious Wahhabist scholars preach more forcefully than anyone else can."
Although there is perhaps some blame to be placed on an influx of Wahhabism, the revival of FGM is said to be particularly strong on the outlying islands, where, as the SMH notes, "local imams hold significant influence."
The Maldives, like parts of East Africa and Lower Egypt, mainly follow by tradition the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, which rules that female circumcision is obligatory. It is therefore to this tradition, and not Wahhabi ideology, that local Maldivian imams appeal.
As protests gained momentum throughout January, the foreign ministry affirmed that it was "extremely concerned" by the growth of Islamist rhetoric. A leading member of the opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party, Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, was arrested on charges of hate-speech.
Jameel was said to have accused Nasheed of acting under the influence of Jews and "Christian priests" to undermine Islam in the Maldives; the first charge a reference to Nasheed's policy of trying to normalize relations with Israel. The reports on Jameel's words against Nasheed seem probable: note, for comparison, this anti-Nasheed pamphlet released by Jameel's Dhivehi Qaumee Party.
Accusations arose of authoritarianism on Nasheed's part; these only intensified the protests. On January 16, Nasheed ordered the military to arrest the Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Abdulla Mohamed, on charges of corruption and obstruction of justice against the friends and family of the former president Gayoom.
Whatever one thinks of Nasheed's claims that "Gayoom is running the judiciary," Nasheed's subsequent defiance of the Supreme Court's calling for Abdulla to be released certainly did not help.
Although it would not be fair to describe Nasheed as an autocrat by nature, he seems to have misstepped in lashing out in his frustration at the judiciary at a time of political crisis. His actions only led many of his allies to turn against him, as opposition activists tied Abdulla's arrest to the fact that Abdulla had deemed Jameel's detention illegal.

The Coup

Nasheed was finally ousted on February 7, forced to resign, as he claimed, ''under duress'' in a de facto coup d'état; and replaced by Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who had been Nasheed's partner in the 2008 elections. There is much evidence that vindicates Nasheed's account of events on February 7.
First, Abbas Adil Raza, an official of the Jumhoory party that was in opposition to Nasheed at the time, claimed that Nasheed and his supporters were aiming to implement a "devious plan" to "massacre" their opponents on the night of February 6, but only the police and army prevented it. This is, in effect, an admission that there was a coup against Nasheed, albeit justified as a preventive measure. There is nothing to suggest that Nasheed or his supporters were planning any sort of 'massacre.'
Second, the former Environment Minister, Mohamed Aslam, and the former National Security Advisor, Ameen Faisal, both members of Nasheed's MDP party, recently co-wrote a report claiming that the help of police and army officers had been sought to bring about the overthrow of Nasheed.
Rather than trying to answer the allegations of the report put out by Faisal and Aslam, the current government under Mohammed Waheed Hassan has simply called the release of the report, with its list of names of army and police officers as alleged conspirators, an "act of terrorism."
Despite initial denials, the police arrested Chief Superintendent Mohamed Hameed and other officers who cooperated with the report issued by Faisal and Aslam.
For now, Hameed has been released on the orders of the Criminal Court, but on June 19, the police affirmed the existence of an ongoing investigation against Hameed that includes accusations of leaking information to stir up discord among the ranks of the police.
In short, the ousting of Nasheed came about because members of the army and police sided with the growing and increasingly violent protests at the beginning of the year.

The Aftermath

Although Mohammed Waheed Hassan may be telling the truth in his insistence that he had no role in the planning and execution of the coup, what is clear is that he was chosen as Nasheed's replacement because he is less willing to confront Islamism in the country, as revealed in an Islamist mob attack in the wake of the coup on the country's national museum. Although this rampage destroyed 99% of the Hindu and Buddhist artifacts associated with the islands' history, dating from the pre-Islamic period prior to the twelfth century, so far, no arrests have been made.
Mohammed Waheed Hassan's response has been to deny any problem with Islamism. As he told reporters, "I can assure you there is no extremist violent action in this country."
Even though there had been incidents of Islamist violence, and Islamist sentiment became more and more overt under the government of Nasheed, at least he recognized the problem and tried to push a program of reform.
In contrast, the current president prefers to be acquiescent and pander to Islamists, incorporating them into his cabinet.
According to Nasheed, Mohammed Waheed Hassan has called his supporters "mujahideen" [holy warriors], and has urged them to defend the Maldives against "the enemies of this country."
What then of the country's future? Nasheed recently announced his intention to stand for the presidency next year, but it is doubtful if he can reclaim the position. Although Nasheed has his supporters, the coup against him was not simply a conspiracy by a few sinister individuals.
Rather, the military and police, facing increasing civil unrest, sided with the opposition against him. Nasheed's liberal views did not sit well with a considerable section of the population; in the 2009 parliamentary elections, the MDP did not even win a plurality of seats.
Even now, apparently many of Nasheed's opponents in government are aiming to have him jailed before the next elections: the parties that opposed Nasheed's government had a recent motion passed in the parliament to set up a committee to investigate allegations of illegal conduct on Nasheed's part: in particular, the possession of containers of alcohol at his residence and the arrest of Abdulla Mohamed. The deputy leader of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) has already expressed his confidence that Nasheed would be imprisoned by the time of the next elections.
As in Indonesia, the trends on the ground point to the growing influence of the Islamists, who clearly have sympathizers and supporters in the army and police. They also indicate the acceptance of the current president based on how unwilling he is to tackle Islamism head-on, or perhaps even in any fashion. The possibility of an Islamist president after next year's elections seems to be on course.
Update from July 3, 2012: One journalist - Judith Evans - has written to me claiming that Nasheed "worked closely with Islamists." It is of course true that during Nasheed's tenure there was the Islamist Adhaalath party in the MDP-led coalition. However, that does not amount to a close working relationship. While the Adhaalath party may have believed it could get its way following the appointment of Dr. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari as Minister of Islamic Affairs (who pushed for the proposal to ban Israeli flights to and from the Maldives in December 2011), it is notable that the party was frequently at odds with Nasheed and the MDP throughout his presidency. For instance, in October 2009, the party strongly criticised Nasheed for saying that the death penalty and punishment of amputation should not be incorporated into the penal code: As the leader of the Adhaalath party put it at the time, "Islamic Shari'a is Islamic Shari'a. Things cannot be omitted from it."
The tensions between the MDP and Adhaalath party grew such that in September 2011, the latter decided to break off its coalition agreement with the MDP, citing the policy of normalising relations with Israel, a proposal to make Islamic studies and Dhivehi optional subjects in higher secondary education, concerns expressed by officials in the Nasheed government about Maldivian students who were travelling abroad for Islamic education, regulations permitting sale of alcohol to non-Muslims on inhabited islands, and a lack of cooperation with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs (which was created in 2008) to shut down alleged brothels, alongside complaints such as corruption in government. The rhetoric at this point was notable, with accusations by the Adhaalath party that Nasheed's government was allowing Israel to "influence the country's education curriculum."

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Islam vs. History

Islam vs. History.By Daniel Pipes

July 2, 2012
Cross-posted from National Review Online: The Corner.

The Islamist destruction underway in Timbuktu (including the tomb of Sidi Mahmoudou, d. 955, and the doors of the Sidi Yahya Mosque, ca. 1400) raises a question: What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony? Consider some examples:

• The doors of the Sidi Yahya Mosque, built ca. 1400, which were only to open at the end of time, smashed apart today by Islamists.

  The destruction of Hindu temples in medieval India.
• The Mamluks using the Great Sphinx of Egypt as target practice and the Great Pyramid as a quarry.
• The Turkish destruction of churches in northern Cyprus since 1974.
• The Saudi destruction of antiquities in Mecca since the 1990s,
• The Palestinian sacking of the Tomb of Joseph in 2000.
• The Taliban destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha in 2001.
• Al-Qaeda's bombing of Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia in 2002,
• The pillaging of Iraqi museums, libraries, and archives in 2003.
• The destruction of an historic Malaysian Hindu temple in 2006.
• The destruction of L'Institut d'Égypte in 2011.

In addition, some intentions to destroy antiquities (Khomeini contemplated razing Persepolis, a grand mufti of Egypt banned exhibiting statues) might yet be realized. (On the other hand, the story about Muslims burning the ancient Library of Alexandria appears apocryphal.)
Although these examples include both non-Muslim and Muslim artifacts, motives differ in the two cases: eliminating infidel remnants establishes the superiority of Islam, while eliminating Muslim ones establishes the superiority of Islamism. In both cases, the motive is foul and the results are, historically speaking, tragic. (July 2, 2012)

Islamists in the process of destroying a centuries-old Timbuktu shrine.

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Iranian Gov't, Parliament to Set Up Joint Committee to Counter Oil Sanctions, control oil flow trough Hormuz strait.

Iranian Gov't, Parliament to Set Up Joint Committee to Counter Oil Sanctions, control oil flow trough Hormuz strait.(Fars).The move comes after the EU enforced a set of sanctions on Iranian oil supplies on Sunday despite Iran's repeated warnings. The joint committee will comprise oil ministry officials, members of the parliament's energy commission and the national security and foreign policy commission. A day after the enforcement of the new EU sanctions, the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission drafted a bill requiring the government to stop oil tankers from shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz to the countries that support sanctions against Iran, a commission member said on Monday. "This project is a response to the oil sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Islamic Republic," Ebrahim Agha Mohammadi said. "This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union's oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
"In line with this draft law, the government has the right to stop the transit of tankers (through Hormuz) carrying oil to countries which have imposed oil sanctions on Iran," he added. Parliament would be asked to approve the draft law and consider it a double-urgency priority, he said. Agha Mohammadi said that 100 parliament members had signed the bill as of Sunday. Tehran has repeatedly cautioned that such measures will hurt talks with world powers over its nuclear program. Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the oil-rich Persian Gulf if its nuclear program is targeted by air strikes that Israel and the United States reserve as an option.Read the full story here.

Iran IRGC war games: Dozens of ballistic missiles fired.

Iran IRGC war games: Dozens of ballistic missiles fired.(Ynet and Fars).Iran has test-fired dozens of surface-to-surface missiles Tuesday, as part of its three-day war games. Iranian state-run media hailed the ballistic test as successful. The Revolutionary Guards' maneuvers, dubbed "Great Prophet 7," are designed to show Iran's ability to retaliate if attacked, Tehran's media said. During the exercise, held in the Kavir Desert, Iran fired the medium-range Shahab-3 missile – which has a range of up to 2,000km. Shahab-3 is believed to be one of the missiles theoretically able to hit Israel. The Revolutionary Guards also tested its short-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles, which have a range of 300km and 500km respectively. "Dozens of short, medium, and long-range missiles have been fired from different parts of Iran at a single target in Kavir," the Fars news agency reported. The growing frequency of Iranian war games and naval maneuvers is believed to be meant to ward off Israel and the United States, as talks of a possible strike against the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities become more prevalent. According to Iranian reports, the missiles targeted "a replica military base made to look like a foreign facility… similar to those the United States has in neighboring countries such as Afghanistan." Read the full story here.

What the Crude Oil Market is telling us.

What the Crude Oil Market is telling us.(EM). Crude oil prices, along with world stocks, surged on Friday after euro zone leaders reached an accord on directly recapitalizing regional banks as well as measures to cut soaring borrowing costs in Italy and Spain. Brent crude jumped more than 7% in one day to close at $97.80 a barrel, while WTI also settled up 9.36% to $84.96 a barrel on NYMEX. However, for the quarter, spot Brent and U.S. oil futures still fell 20.4% and 17.5% respectively--their steepest quarterly percentage drops since the fourth quarter of 2008 post financial crisis. Looking ahead, we believe this little 'Euro pop' will soon fizz out weighted down by the reality of basic market fundamental factor. 
First of all, the Euro accord bandaid does not fundamentally change what's causing the current crisis to begin with--high sovereign debt, out-of-control government spending, and insolvent regional banks. Add to this scenario is a slowing of European demand, parts of Europe are in a recession, and this not only affects less oil being consumed in Europe, but backs all the way up the supply chain from Ford automobiles being sold and needing to be manufactured, to Chinese factories needing to ratchet manufacturing cycles down to account for less demand out of Europe.
Macroeconomics aside, the oil inventory picture in the U.S. is also quite interesting these days, to say the least. 
For example, On 1/27/2012 there was 338,942 Million Barrels in US storage facilities, then on 2/24/2012 it started slowly rising to 344,868 Million, then Inventory builds started accelerating as on 3/23/2012 there were 353,390 Million on hand, then we jumped dramatically to 375,864 Million Barrels on 4/27/2012, with another sizable increase to 384,740 on 5/25/2012, and on 6/22/2012 the number stands at 387,166 Million Barrels in US Storage facilities, way above the five-year range.
This is taking place despite the domestic refinery run rate has increased from 85% in January to 92% in the week ending June 22 (See Chart Below). As of June 1, 2012, crude oil inventories held at Cushing, OK were 47.8 million barrels, the highest level on record, according to the U.S. Energy Dept. These are historically high numbers, but the magnitude of the rise over what is generally the stronger part of the US business cycle each year is the more compelling story.
With record refinery runs, we still cannot make a dent in the oil Inventories, which implies that there is a lot of oil in the market. In fact, if this trend continues, even just for the next three months, we are going to shatter previous storage records here in the US. At current rate, the inventory number could smash through the 400 Million Barrel level over the next quarter.
This does not bode well for the oil market when the slow part of the year comes around in August and September, where Gasoline demand drops off rather sharply, and is usually the slowest part of the year in terms of fuel usage, demand, and prices typically drop significantly each year. Technically, WTI could easily blow below $70/b with no major support till $60/b comes this August/September, and prices would remain challenged in the short to medium term.
What are the reasons for this glut of oil in the US? There are several, China has slowed manufacturing and exports, i.e., their economy has pulled back considerably. India is having all sorts of credit worthiness concerns, and is also growing at a slower rate. So in short, the emerging market economies are using less oil.  
The demand picture in the U.S. is also quite dismal. EIA data show in the first quarter, total U.S. liquid fuels consumption fell 3.7% YoY due to high prices and record warm weather. For the second half of 2012, and 2013, EIA expects a YoY increase of only 1.2% and 0.6% respectively in liquid fuels consumption. Internationally, the Libyan oil is back on line, and other oil producing countries pumping more oil out of the ground compared to the last 5 years during this era of elevated oil prices. The Saudis are producing at the high end of their range as well. In a recent report, U.S. EIA noted that global company held oil inventories in industrialized nations will be sufficient to cover 57.7 days of demand at the end of 2012, the highest level in 15 years.
Basic economics plays a role in this story as well. Just ask this one question--Where are the high margin business opportunities over the last 5 years? It sure isn`t in the Banking Industry with deal-making and large scale private equity deals falling off a cliff. It hasn`t been in the real estate market either.
Market dynamics 101 stipulates that high oil prices leads to higher margins, which leads to more investment resources being directed to this sector which ultimately rebalances the market, and oil prices come back down. This is why there is often a boom and bust cycle that plays out in many investment sectors, and historically the energy and oil sectors have been the poster kids to this rule.
So essentially, five years of really high prices--higher than the actual fundamentals of the economy should dictate--have caused an artificial market scenario where longer-term demand was being stifled by currency concerns, inflation concerns, while commodity investment in general has served as a case of over investment in this area in relation to true, actual Global demand.
Throw in the fact that it seems everybody (governments as well as consumers) is in debtnobody has any money, credit issues are becoming increasingly burdensome to deficit financing to artificially stimulate growth via the government intervention route, all these factors are forming a perfect storm for the oil market to face some major headwinds for the next 5 years. Hmmm.........Things would look bleak for the oil business..................unless you start a war in the oil region of the Middle East.Read the full story here.

Assad to Kremlin: I can finish the revolt in two months, replaces army chiefs

Assad to Kremlin: I can finish the revolt in two months, replaces army chiefs.(Debka).In a phone call to the Kremlin Sunday, July 1, Syrian President Bashar Assad said he needed just two months to finish off the revolt against his regime. “My new military tactics are working,” he said in a secret video-conference with Russian intelligence and foreign ministry officials who shape Moscow’s policy on Syria. Reporting this exclusively, debkafile’s intelligence sources also register the fleeting life span of the new plan for ending the Syrian war which UN envoy Kofi Annan announced had been agreed at a multinational Action Group meeting in Geneva on Saturday, June 30. Within 24 hours, the principle of a national unity transitional government based on “mutual consent” was rejected by the regime and the Turkish-based opposition leaders alike, as the violence went into another month. On the first day of July, 91 people were reported killed in the escalating Syrian violence after a record 4,000 in June. The new military tactics to which Assad referred are disclosed here:
1. The sweeping removal of most of the veteran Syrian army commanders who led the 16-month bloody assault on regime opponents and rebels. They were sent home with full pay to make way for a new set of younger commanders, most of them drawn from the brutal Alawite Shabiha militia, which is the ruling family’s primary arm against its enemies. The regular commanders had shown signs of fatigue and doubts about their ability to win Assad’s war. Their will to fight on was being badly sapped by the mounting numbers officers and men going over to the opposition camp in June. One of the tasks set the new commanders is to stem the rate of defections. To keep the veteran commanders from joining the renegades and reduce their susceptibility to hostile penetration, the officers were not sacked but retired on full pension plus all the perks of office, including official cars.
2. But a higher, unthinkable level of violence is the key to Assad’s “new tactics.” He has armed the new military chiefs with extra fire power - additional tank and artillery units, air force bombers and attack helicopters - for smashing pockets of resistance and unlimited permission to use it. Already the level of live fire used against the rebels has risen to an even more unthinkable level which explains the sharp escalation of deaths to an average of 120 per day.
On the Syrian-Turkish border, tensions continue to mount. Monday morning, Turkey was still pumping large-scale strength including tanks, antiaircraft and antitank guns, artillery, surface missiles and combat helicopters to the border region.
In Tehran, Brig. Gen. Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran’s IRGC Aerospace Division, warned Ankara that if its troops ventured onto Syrian soil, their bases of departure would be destroyed. The threat was made during Hajizadeh’s announcement of a three-day missile exercise starting Monday in response to the European oil embargo. He reported that long-, medium- and short-range missiles would target “simulations of foreign bases in the northern Semnan Desert,” without mentioning any specific nation except Turkey.Hmmmm.......Let the 'carnage' begin?Read the full story here.

F.B.I. warning :"You may not be able to connect to the internet after July 9".

F.B.I. warning :"You may not be able to connect to the internet after July 9". HT: IsraelMatzav.On July 9, 2012, there is a chance that many computers will cease to be able to surf the web because of malware that proliferated among millions of computers starting in 2007. You can find out if your computer is among them.
Starting in 2007, an Internet fraud ring running out of Estonia infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus to manipulate internet advertising. The way they did this was by redirecting users to rogue DNS servers which gave the cyber thieves the ability to manipulate users’ web activity by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fraudulent ones.
US authorities seized the rogue servers and replaced them with legitimate ones in order not to disrupt victims’ access to the web. However, those servers have been funded by US taxpayer dollars since November 2011, and of course this cannot go on indefinitely. The planned date for turning off the servers is July 9, which means that computers that have been accessing the web via these rogue-turned-legit servers, will lose that ability.

How to check if your computer is using rogue DNS servers

To find out if your computer is clean, or is using the rogue DNS servers, take the following steps:

1. Find out what your computer’s IP address is. You can do this by visiting this site: WhatIsMyIP. Your IP address is the 10 digit number that looks like this: 12.123.12.123. Copy it down somewhere.
2. Visit the following page on the FBI site: https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS. Paste your IP address in the tiny field that appears towards the top of the page.
3. Click on Check Your DNS. If your computer is clean, you’ll see the message: “Your IP is not configured to use the rogue DNS servers,” and you can breathe a sigh of relief.
If your computer is not clean, then you’ve got quite a job ahead of you. Visit this page on the DNS Changer Working Group site to see the steps you should take to clean your computer.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem.
After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

Will : I've posted on April 21 - 2012. a story on this before. It can be read here.

Who Rules Egypt? It's Still an Open Question But Probably Not for Long.

Who Rules Egypt? It's Still an Open Question But Probably Not for Long.(RR).By Barry Rubin.It is impossible for the moment to say what’s going to happen in Egypt. But there are two basic scenarios:

--The armed forces, which have declared martial law, will continue to control the real power and use the Muslim Brotherhood leader who has become president, Muhammad al-Mursi, as a figurehead.

--The armed forces will impose a sweet deal on al-Mursi letting him do pretty much what he wants as long as he doesn’t touch the military’s economic wealth and the army as an institution. The armed forces will determine who becomes defense minister and set their own budget. Perhaps the generals will also insist al-Mursi doesn’t go too far in threatening Israel or antagonizing the United States (placing U.S. aid to the military in jeopardy).

I suspect the second alternative may be more likely but am awaiting further evidence. The details of any such deal are all-important. Is the military only saying "hands-off" toward its economic empire and autonomy, or will it also effectively restrain the Muslim Brotherhood from possibly provoking war with Israel? Since presumably it will take at least six months to elect a new parliament and another six months to write a constitution, the nature of Egypt's new regime will only gradually become clear.

The other political forces in the country are more openly tipping their hands. The radical Salafists will try to outflank the Brotherhood in militancy but are likely to cooperate with it on lots of things; many of the moderate "liberals" are also supporting the Brotherhood.

The radical Salafists will try to prove their militancy compared to the Brotherhood, allowing the Brotherhood—along with Western media and governments—to portray the Brotherhood as moderate. For example, the al-Nour party says it would ban the sale of alcohol, both to Egyptians and tourists, while banning the resorts that cater to Westerners. Almost certainly, al-Mursi will oppose doing anything to hurt Egypt’s tourist industry. He’s doing it for financial reasons; the West will interpret this as showing he is a pragmatist.

There are other things that might go unnoticed which are far more important. For example, will al-Mursi interfere in Egypt’s official religious hierarchy, trying to replace the two highest officials, the qadi and the head of al-Azhar University. While the relative moderation of establishment figures is often hypocritical and inconsistent, it would nevertheless play some role in limiting the Brotherhood’s extremism.

Lenin once reportedly said that he would get the capitalists to sell him the rope with which to hang them. But Egypt is a far clearer case of such a situation. Will the dhimmis finance the consolidation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s power in Egypt? It sure looks like that will happen though they probably will be cheap about it.

Never forget that since any economic program in Egypt is doomed to fail, the ultimate outcome will probably be a government having to decide between repression at home, hysterical hatred and foreign adventures abroad, or both.

Moreover, Egypt is already throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars from natural gas sales to Israel. Indeed, five former high-ranking officials have been sentenced to imprisonment of between three and fifteen years for signing a deal to discount the prices to Egypt. They were also fined $2.3 billion—which of course they don’t have—an amount that is triple the alleged losses to Egypt caused by the discounting.

Now there is plenty of corruption in Egypt, but they are not being accused of pocketing the money but negotiating a contract whose terms were dictated by market conditions. Will this discourage Westerners from making business deals that might also turn into alleged criminal acts when political conditions require that? Shafiq also has left the country ahead of corruption charges. He might well have been corrupt but remember that corruption charges can be used by the Brotherhood to destroy the opposition systematically (coupled with charges of being Zionist and American stooges; bad Muslims; or not Muslims at all).

As for the reformers, forget it. The alleged Facebook kids are turning into Brotherhood satellites, supporting al-Mursi and campaigning against the army limiting his power in any way. In Tahrir Square, some of those demonstrating against the military explained that they expect the Brotherhood will reward them for their support.

And in what should be a very important lesson and a huge media story, a Brotherhood leader has spilled the beans about Wael Ghonim. The Google executive was portrayed as the very model of a moderate liberal Egyptian during the “revolution.” Ghonim publicly announced that he voted for al-Mursi in the presidential election.

Now, the veteran Egypt-watcher Raymond Stock points out, Essam el-Erian said that Ghonim had been a Brotherhood member for a while. Equally significant, el-Erian added that Abdel-Rahman Mansour is still a Brotherhood member. As Stock explains, “These are reputedly the two most important figures behind the famous social media side of the revolt.” The Brotherhood has frequently praised both men, though it has made clear they should not be given any real authority or influence.

Stock adds: “This information completely destroys the fiction that there is a clear separation between the "secular-liberal youth" cadre and the Islamists. Essentially, El-Erian is bragging none too subtly that the Muslim Brotherhood played a key role in launching the uprising,” though it left the initial leadership and planning to others for the first few days.

Meanwhile, the third leading “secular” activist who led the revolution, Asma Mahfouz, who always wears a burqa, often sounds like an Islamist as well. In her latest interview—though the reporter and viewers are given no hint of this—she is standing in front of a poster that has a scorpion on it. The head is that of Ahmad Shafiq, the presidential candidate who opposed al-Mursi, with overthrown President Husni Mubarak as the sting, and an Israeli Star of David imposed on Shafiq to present him as the puppet of the evil Zionists. There are certainly dissenters, truly anti-Islamist, anti-totalitarian liberals but they have little power. The Wafd Party, largest of the non-Islamist groups, is directionless and often ready to sell out. The democratic liberal Free Egyptians' Party is limited by the fact that it draws most of its backing from the Christian minority.

Given all of this, one can understand the fear of Tariq al-Homayed, a courageous liberal and editor of al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based, Saudi-owned newspaper, who writes (MEMRI translation):

“Anyone who feels optimistic... and thinks we are watching a movie that is sure to have a happy ending, is mistaken….Some might claim that the military will be Egypt's guarantee, along with the country's strong judiciary. This is true, but we must remember that Egypt's president is now from the Muslim Brotherhood; in other words, the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling the country.

“Anyone who says that the Muslim Brotherhood is the reality, so we must deal with it and not criticize it, and other such talk, is mistaken [Note: A probable reference to U.S. policy--BR]....It is always permissible [to criticize them]....The current political coup by the Islamists is no less dangerous than a military coup.”

While in theory waiting and insisting that the Brotherhood prove to be moderate, in effect Western policy has already concluded that the Brotherhood is okay and prefers it to the Egyptian military. That also tilts the scales toward Brotherhood rule.Read the full story here.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press.Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.

Republicans critical of Navy's 'Great Green Fleet', $26 a gallon fuel

Republicans critical of Navy's 'Great Green Fleet', $26 a gallon fuel.(Fox).The Navy is steaming ahead with an initiative to power ships with biofuel, despite criticism the so-called “green fuel” costs nearly seven times more than conventional fuel. This month marks the first time the Navy is using biofuel in an operational setting -- sending five ships to a multi-nation exercise off the coast of Hawaii. A Navy official told FoxNews.com on Monday that sailing the so-called “Great Green Fleet” this month on the 50-50 blend of alternative and conventional fuel is part of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ plan to have half the Navy fleet on alternative fuel by 2020. The spokesman also confirmed the fuel -- which does not require engine modifications -- costs $26 a gallon compared to $3.60 a gallon for conventional fuel. However, he pointed out the cost was for a one-day supply and that prices will drop when the Pentagon, among the country’s biggest fuel users, buys more. "I don't believe it's the job of the Navy to be involved in building ... new technologies. I don't believe we can afford it," said Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Reuters. The so-called "drop-in" fuels are derived from seeds, algae and chicken fat.Read the full story here.

Video - The newly found 'Bowing Culture' by some U.S. Politicians - Newt Gingrich Bowing to the Leader of an Iranian Terrorist Group.

When Newt Gingrich arrived in Paris last week to speak to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exile umbrella group that's been based there since shortly after the 1979 revolution, he seemed to know exactly who Maryam Rajavi is. He praised Rajavi and her work several times in his speech, which he delivered as the prominent exile stood at his side. Before the speech, as he neared the end of a long line of attendees who stood in the rain to shake his hand, he turned to face Rajavi, smiled, and at approximately 1:02 minutes into the above video, folded at the waist and bowed solemnly. Rajavi, clothed head-to-toe in green, handed him a bouquet of flowers as the crowd cheered.Read the full story here.


Who, what and where on MEK :

Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK (a.k.a. Iranian Mujahedin Khalq, or IMK, and Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization, or MKO) is an Islamic-Marxist sect that has been trying to topple Iran's governing regime since 1981. (It is most commonly known by the acronym MEK.) MEK was classified as a terrorist organization by President Bill Clinton in 1997, and five years later the European Union followed suit.

MEK is led by the husband-and-wife team of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi. Massoud Rajavi heads the organization's military forces. Experts say that MEK has increasingly come to resemble a personality cult that is devoted to Mr. Rajavi's secular interpretation of the Koran and is prone to sudden, dramatic ideological shifts. Mr. Rajavi was last known to be living in Iraq, but his current whereabouts are unknown. His wife Maryam, who hopes to become President of Iran someday, is MEK's principal leader. Born in 1953 to an upper-middle-class Iranian family, she joined MEK as a student in Tehran in the early 1970s. After relocating with the group to Paris in 1981, she was elected its joint leader and later became deputy commander-in-chief of its armed wing.

MEK has a network of sympathizers in Europe, the United States, and Canada. The group's political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, maintains offices in several capitals, including Washington, DC. MEK's membership has dwindled since about 2001, and the organization is currently believed to have some 10,000 members in its ranks; one-third to one-half of these are fighters.

MEK, whose name means "People's Combatants," was established in 1965 after a split in a Marxist-Leninist movement that had waged a guerrilla action in northern Iran. Its founders were college-educated Iranian leftists opposed to the country's pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Its ideology emerged as a mix of Islam and Marxism, with influence as well from the Iranian religious sociologist Ali Shariati, who advocated an "Islam without a clergy." With KGB help, MEK engaged in a campaign against the Shah and sent cadres to Cuba, East Germany, South Yemen, and Palestinian camps in Lebanon to train as guerrillas.

Vladimir Kuzishkin, a former KGB head in Tehran, reveals in his memoirs that MEK became a major source of information on Iran for Moscow. It also helped Moscow in its efforts to thwart U.S. influence in Iran. In 1970 and 1971, MEK murdered five American military technicians working with the Iranian army. An MEK team tried to kidnap U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur III in Tehran. The attempt failed and the MEK leader, Massoud Rajavi, was given a death sentence, later commuted thanks to a plea to the Shah from Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny.


New MEK recruits, many of whom are relatives of people once executed by the Khomeini regime, traditionally have been indoctrinated and prevented from developing normal relationships outside the organization. Their children are not permitted to attend school, but must be educated at home.

During the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. forces cracked down on MEK's bases in Iraq, and in June of that year French authorities raided an MEK compound outside Paris and arrested 160 people, including Maryam Rajavi. These authorities accused MEK of conspiring to finance and carry out acts of terrorism from the organization's French base. All the suspects, including Rajavi, were subsequently released.

Acts of violence linked to MEK over the years include:

• The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran's chief of staff.
  
  
• The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammad Khatami's palace in Tehran
  
  
• The February 2000 "Operation Great Bahman," during which MEK launched 12 attacks against Iran
  
  
• The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran's armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi
  
  
• The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran's prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi
  
  
• The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in 13 countries
  
  
• Assistance to Saddam Hussein's suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings
  
  
• The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar
  
  
• Support for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries
  
  
• The 1970s killings of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran.Source.

Secret Service shuts down ‘Fire Holder’ protest outside White House

Secret Service shuts down ‘Fire Holder’ protest outside White House.(DC).Secret Service agents shut down a protest outside the White House on Monday where about 30 young protesters demanded President Barack Obama fire Attorney General Eric Holder. Agents on scene claimed a backpack abandoned on a sidewalk was a “suspicious package,” closing the Pennsylvania Avenue pedestrian mall in front of the White House, and the adjoining Lafayette Park, from protesters and tourists. All pedestrian traffic, including media, was forced to retreat to side streets. Officers roped the streets off with bright yellow crime scene tape and brought in bomb-sniffing K-9 dogs. After waiting on the sidewalk behind the police line for about half an hour, a middle-aged woman came forward to claim the backpack, telling agents that she had put her small bag on the ground so she could take a photograph with her family. She declined to be interviewed. The protesters had a National Park Service protest permit from 10 a.m. to noon. Agents began clearing the crowd at 10:43 a.m., giving little information to protesters and tourists as they forced them out of the area. Organizer Oliver Darcy told The Daily Caller that he didn’t believe the protest’s premature end was an accident. Darcy noted that he and others were demanding the president fire his attorney general over a scandal the White House doesn’t want to talk about. “To me, it seems like a bit of an overreaction to evacuate the entire — like — I don’t know. Was the White House evacuated?” Darcy said. “On Pennsylvania Avenue, they shut the entire block down, you know? From my judgment, it seemed like an overreaction, but I don’t work for the Secret Service and I know they take this stuff very seriously.” “It did seem very odd that during a protest of Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama in front of the White House that all of a sudden there was a mysterious bag left — accidentally, right?” Darcy continued. “I really don’t know, but she [the backpack's owner] looked like she was pretty sincere that she left it accidentally, but I’m not a secret service agent so I don’t know what the protocol is. … I’ve taken part in multiple protests in front of the Supreme Court, in front of the Capitol Building, in front of the White House. Never have I seen anything like this before.” Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary told The Daily Caller later that law enforcement was not trying to chill protesters’ free speech rights. “We had an unattended package, and we cleared it for public safety,” he said.Hmmmm.......Remember: President Obama signed bill H.R. 347 (also known as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011) into law.Read and see the full story here.

Dearborn Muslim charged with Nine Counts of attempted Murder (against Christians)Outside the Islamic Center of America.

Dearborn Muslim charged with Nine Counts of attempted Murder (against Christians)Outside the Islamic Center of America.(AM).By David Wood.I heard about this when I was still in Michigan, but I didn't want to post anything until I had some documentation. I waited for the Detroit Free Press and other local media to report the story, but I gave up after more than a week of searching. Fortunately, Gadi Adelman (GA) interviewed Ruben Israel (RI) and posted the disturbing news over at Front Page Magazine.

On Sunday, June 17th, 2012, Ruben Israel's group of street preachers went to the Islamic Center of America (the same mosque I had visited two days earlier). While the group was preaching, a Muslim emerged from the mosque, got into his SUV, and tried to run them over. Mosque security naturally blamed the preachers for provoking him.

Everyone should take note here. Ruben Israel's presence at the Dearborn Arab Festival was national news. The media jumped at the chance to show images of intolerant Christians harassing Muslims (check out Niraj Warikoo's coverage over at the Detroit Free Press). While I have no objections to calling attention to (and criticizing) the actions of Ruben Israel and his associates, we should all be horrified to realize that nine counts of attempted murder by a Muslim targeting Christians isn't even considered newsworthy by local media in Michigan.

Here's an excerpt from Adelman's interview:

GA: Now give me the exclusive; what happened on Sunday?

RI: We were at the Arab fest on Friday. On Sunday we went to the mosque in Dearborn.

GA: Were you on mosque property or out on the side walk?

RI: What mosque doesn’t have a sidewalk, but we stood by the street where the side walk would be. Of course the Dearborn Police showed up instantly. We were able to use our megaphone. We were able to fly our banners and there was no problem. The officers said everything was fine and we’re doing good. There were 2 squad cars and they flanked us just to make sure we were safe. Some of the Muslims came out and were screaming at us and we yelled back and forth and we did not go on their property, and according to police it was fine.

Unfortunately, one of the Muslims got in his SUV, drove up over the hill, accelerated and came right at us where we were standing. This guy came directly at us and we had to jump out of the way and he came screaming by us. Both of the police cars stopped him, pulled him out and cuffed him and he showed no remorse. The police actually have it on video because both police cars had there dash cameras on, so it’s not like it’s my word against his.

Then mosque security came out and said that they knew this guy and that we provoked him and the Dearborn Police officer yelled at the security guard and told him if he didn’t back off he would also be arrested for hindering a police investigation.

GA: Did the guy in the SUV pull over or was he forced to?

RI: They had to block him in. Once he was on the street they were headed his way and he was blocked in. They threw him against the car, cuffed him, frisked him, checked his car and again. It’s not like we can make this up. He is now officially charged with 9 counts of attempted murder.

GA: This never hit the news, not even in Dearborn?

RI: No, of course not, but if I had attempted to run down a Muslim that would be the head news on CNN, CBS, NBC, but when a Muslim wants to take out 9 Christians. We were the visiting team. This guy may walk; he has the potential to walk. At the very best they may take away his library card for a few weeks, but he’s out on bail. He’s out on high-dollar bail and from what I was told by the detective in charge, he does have a high-dollar attorney, so he’s not going to go down easy. He’s going to fight this thing.

Hmmmm..................Just try to imagine if a Christian would have done this to a Muslim.....Every MSM paper would have it as front page news! Obama: " “We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”Read the full story here.

Video - Allen West - Obama Wants Americans To "Be His Slave".

"He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning, and having that title of American. He'd rather you be his slave," Rep. Allen West.

Overnight Music Video - RINGO by LORNE GREENE

UNESCO reaffirms Jordan as custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim, Christian sites.

UNESCO reaffirms Jordan as custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim, Christian sites.(AN).The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the UN agency’s highest executive body, on Sunday adopted the Jordanian decision regarding Jerusalem and its walls and the decision on the Bab Al Magharbeh pathway. According to a statement by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, in the decision, issued after a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, UNESCO “expressed its deep concern over the continuing Israeli excavations in and around the Old City and its walls”. “UNESCO also expressed deep concern regarding Israel not providing the World Heritage Centre with information about these excavations.” “UNESCO also asked Israel to immediately desist from these acts and excavations,” the statement said. “The World Heritage Centre [WHC] asked that in its annual reports, the UNESCO WHC should highlight all the obstacles that Israel places in regard.” According to the statement, the Jordanian decision succeeded in expanding and enhancing the mechanism through which UNESCO can monitor the situation to “include the entirety of the Old City and its walls”. These mechanisms, which were stipulated in previous decisions, were formerly restricted to the Bab Al Magharbeh pathway, which leads into Al Aqsa Mosque. Bab Al Magharbeh Bridge is the largest entrance for non-Muslim visitors into Al Aqsa Mosque complex. “The decision also expressed UNESCO’s regret that Israel refuses to cooperate with WHC and abide by UNESCO’s decisions,” urging Israel “as the occupying force” to facilitate the execution of the WHC decisions, which demand that a joint mission from the WHC and UNESCO’s technical advisory bodies be sent to monitor and inspect the Israeli excavations in and around the Old City and its walls. The Jordanian decision adopted by UNESCO also addressed some of the basic concerns regarding the Bab Al Magharbeh pathway, which is adjacent to Al Haram Al Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and leads into it. The organisation expressed its regret that Israel submitted its unilateral plan and design for the bridge before the WHC meetings. The UN body welcomed Jordan’s plans and designs, which were submitted to UNESCO, to reconstruct and maintain the pathway, the statement said. “UNESCO also emphasised the fact that Jordan is the legitimate authority in charge of maintaining and protecting the site, and that the Kingdom is the custodian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem,” according to the statement. The decision also reaffirmed the need for UNESCO to coordinate the next moves on renovating Bab Al Magharbeh Bridge.Under the decision, Israel should not undertake any unilateral actions at the site and alter it in any way, while Jordan must pre-approve any work, action or reconstruction work related to Bab Al Magharbeh pathway, which partially collapsed in 2004 as a result of Israeli action at the site.Read the full story here.