Overnight Music Video - Sister Sledge - We Are Family

Emails show Obama Admin involvement in killing Non - union Auto Pensions.

Emails show Obama Admin involvement in killing Non - union Auto Pensions.(HE).By: John Hayward.Matthew Boyle of the Daily Caller reports that internal emails show Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was “the driving force” behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 non-union retirees from the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company, as part of the government’s bailout plan for General Motors. Union workers, on the other hand, “saw their pensions topped off and made whole.” This decision was supposed to be made by the independent Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is meant to be free of political influence, so it can represent the interests of private-sector pensioners. Instead, the Daily Caller unearthed a string of emails that show extensive involvement by the Treasury Department and the White House.
In one email, PBGC staffer Joseph House told his associates that he had just spoken with Treasury official Matt Feldman, who said he had “made progress discussing our proposal with a number of key folks in Treasury and at [the] White House, but he has not yet wrapped up his coordination. He indicated that there is an 8 AM call tomorrow that he’ll use to close the communication-loop, and he’s confident he’ll have a fully-vetted Treasury view after that call.” This is problematic not only because of appearances, but because Treasury officials have testified under oath that the PBGC terminated those pensions, not the Administration. It’s tough to read the correspondence between PBGC and Treasury without concluding that Administration officials were running the show. Especially troubling is a series of emails that show PBGC staffers were actually disinvited from a key early meeting of the Administration’s auto bailout team. The meeting was clearly intended to include a discussion of the pension situation, but Joseph House told other staffers that the Treasury department had “uninvited” them. This is more than merely controversial, because as Boyle notes, “without a PBGC representative in the room, Treasury officials were legally prohibited from making decision about pensions – or even from moving toward them.” Despite this effort to save money at the expense of non-union employees, the GM bailout remains a titanic loss to the taxpayers, currently standing at roughly $35 billion with the recent dip in stock prices.Hmmmm......."Impeachable acts"?Read the full story here.

Obama: 'I'm not the president of black America'.

Obama: 'I'm not the president of black America'.(Politico).By Byron Tau. President Obama addresses the criticism that he hasn't done enough for the black community in an interview with Black Enterprise magazine:
How do you respond to criticism that your administration hasn’t done enough to support black businesses?

My general view has been consistent throughout, which is that I want all businesses to succeed. I want all Americans to have opportunity. I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of the United States of America, but the programs that we have put in place have been directed at those folks who are least able to get financing through conventional means, who have been in the past locked out of opportunities that were available to everybody. So, I’ll put my track record up against anybody in terms of us putting in place broad-based programs that ultimately had a huge benefit for African American businesses. The resurrected financial services industry hasn’t stepped up in terms of providing adequate capital to small- and minority-owned businesses. There is no doubt that American taxpayers stepped in and pulled the banking industry out of the fire. It was controversial. It was messy. Ultimately it was the right thing to do for the economy. But it is true that once banks got back on their feet they haven’t been as aggressive in lending to small and medium-sized businesses as we would like. And I’ve had conversations with the major banks about this issue. What they will say is that some of the additional regulations have impeded some of their capacity to lend. We don’t see major evidence of that.Hmmmm.....for the "Track Record": Decision to list Arab Americans as ‘minority’ postponed 30 days to late July. “Arab Americans have suffered long-term, chronic discrimination and prejudice in American society,” Read the full story here.

Scandinavians launch ship to break Gaza blockade, probably haven't heard the news: "Egypt lifts 5-year Gaza blockade".

Scandinavians launch ship to break Gaza blockade, probably haven't heard the news:"Egypt lifts 5-year Gaza blockade".(JPost).OSLO - Scandinavian activist groups are launching an aid ship destined for Gaza on Tuesday, hoping to challenge the Israeli blockade and draw international attention to the conflict in a move reminiscent of the 2010 "Freedom Flotilla", organizers said. "We have the same goal as the previous flotillas, to put an end to the blockade of Gaza by challenging the Israeli navy," said Torstein Dahle, the leader of the Norwegian section of the activist group "Ship to Gaza". "This time around it will be an easy task for the Israelis to stop us because we will be so few and strictly non-violent," Dahle told Reuters at Oslo harbour. In May 2010, several aid ships trying to run Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip were halted by Israeli naval commandos, who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard one of the vessels. A second convoy, planned a year later, did not sail after the organizers said they had been sabotaged. In November 2011, the Israeli navy boarded two yachts in international waters, one Canadian and one Irish, carrying pro-Palestinian activists and medical supplies and heading for Gaza to challenge the Israeli blockade. The SV Estelle, a 53-metre vessel backed mainly by Swedish and Norwegian groups, will sail from Oslo on Tuesday, and organizers hope several other ships will join it during its journey before it reaches waters off Gaza in October. Israel says it blockades seaborne approaches to the Gaza Strip to prevent arms smuggling to the Palestinians.Read the full story here.

Video - Tarek Fatah joins Ezra Levant to discuss Islam's War On Women.

"The War on Christianity" - 16 Syrians, mostly Alawite and Christian, die in attack: NGO.

"The War on Christianity" - 16 Syrians, mostly Alawite and Christian, die in attack: NGO.(PJ).Beirut: Anti-regime gunmen killed 16 civilians, mostly Alawites and Christians, in an attack on Tuesday on a housing compound for power company employees near Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "Armed men stormed the Jandar Residential Compound, firing indiscriminately and killing 16 Syrians, among them six Christians, six Alawites -- including the compound director -- and four Sunnis," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. Abdel Rahman said the Jandar Power Station employs Syrians, as well as foreigners, mainly from Iran and Japan, who live with their families at the compound in Jandar village, about 30 kilometres from the central Syrian city of Homs. "The village and its surrounding areas are Sunni," he added. The majority of Syria's population is Sunni Muslim, while the ruling clan of President Bashar al-Assad belong to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Rights watchdogs have expressed fears that the Syrian uprising -- in which more than 21,000 people have been killed since March 2011 -- is becoming increasingly sectarian.Hmmmm......As we all predicted the Christians will be 'butchered' by the 'friends of Syria's henchmen'.Read the full story here.

Convoy of Turkish military forces briefly enters Syrian town of Jarablos.

                                      Don't Worry Just go Ahead "I've Got Your Back".

Convoy of Turkish military forces briefly enters Syrian town of Jarablos.(PressTV).Turkish military forces have briefly crossed the border with a Kurdish region in Syria with the backing of armored vehicles and helicopters. More than 100 Turkish troops armed with thermal rockets and sophisticated weaponry on Tuesday entered the town of Cerablos in the Kurdish region of Kobani. The contingent of Turkish soldiers reportedly left for their bases after an hour. Meanwhile, Turkish media are reporting that about 40 Turkish troops have been detained inside Syria. A spokesman for the Kurdish militias in the border towns of Kobani and Efrin accused the Turkish forces of supplying arms and ammunition to insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The Turkish foreign ministry has denied reports of cross-border incursion into Syria. Last week, the Turkish Army staged tank exercises in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, just two kilometers away from the Syrian border. The NBC News also reported on July 31 that nearly two dozen MANPADs (man-portable air-defense systems) have been delivered to the insurgents in Syria by Turkey. Ankara’s intervention in Syria’s internal affairs has drawn criticism from Turkey’s opposition parties. The leader of the Republican People’s Party warned the government last month against dragging the country in the “Middle Eastern quagmire” by its aggressive stance against Syria.Read the full story here.

Video - Leaked Pentagon Video - Flu Vaccine Use to Modify Human Behavior.

HT: BlacklistedNews.

New Facebook tool may turn friends into enemies ~> for the Democratic cause !!!

New Facebook tool may turn friends into enemies ~ for the Democratic cause !!!(BarracudaBrigade).Here’s one you may not “like.”

Imagine having a friend on Facebook who matches up your privately shared data to a public voting record -- then flags you for more frequent campaign calls and contacts.

That’s exactly what the Democratic party is doing. The upcoming presidential campaigns are eager to get their hands on the treasure trove of voter data that 900 million users have voluntarily posted on Facebook. Enter Social Organizing, a new tool developed by Democratic activist group NGP VAN. Using it, your friends can log in to Facebook and tell the service about you. You can then be added to a caller database, pinged for ads and harassed during the entire election.

Many users think the information they post to Facebook cannot legally or ethically leave the site’s confines, noted Roger Kay, a technology analyst with Endpoint Technologies. They may be in for a surprise.

“[Facebook] was born on the idea of taking information about people and making it available to others … With political information, this sharing has become a notch more like selling out your friends,” Kay told FoxNews.com.

To use the tool, supporters log in at a campaign site. Social Organizing lets them connect to Facebook and locates friends. The supporter can then choose the relationship for those friends, such as co-worker or business partner.

Supporters earn badges and points as they flag these friends. The data is then matched to voter records.

For example, a supporter might have 500 friends, but the tool might know that 300 of those friends are already identified as donors or loyal to the campaign, based on voting record. The supporter can then focus attention on calling or e-mailing only the 200 friends who still need persuasion.

President Obama tapped this company, which describes itself as “the leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations” and only works with the Democratic Party, to gather voter data in 2008.Hmmmmm..........Seems like the East German Communist 'Stasi' model has just been improved.Read the full story here.

Video - Sikh Massacre: "One Of The First Cops On The Scene Told The Mayor To Prepare For A Mass Shooting WEEKS AGO."

You might be a psychopath if you don't join Facebook? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is 'suspicious'.

You might be a psychopath if you don't join Facebook? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is 'suspicious'.(DM).Facebook has become such a pervasive force in modern society that increasing numbers of employers, and even some psychologists, believe people who aren’t on social networking sites are ‘suspicious.’

The German magazine Der Taggspiegel went so far as to point out that accused theater shooter James Holmes and Norwegian mass murder Anders Behring Breivik have common ground in their lack of Facebook profiles.
On a more tangible level, Forbes.com reports that human resources departments across the country are becoming more wary of young job candidates who don’t use the site.

Normal: Facebook has become so pervasive in this culture that not having a profile is considered ‘abnormal’

The common concern among bosses is that a lack of Facebook could mean the applicant’s account could be so full of red flags that it had to be deleted.
Slate.com tech reporter Farhad Manjoo wrote in an advice column that young people shouldn’t date anyone who isn’t on Facebook.'If you’re of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn’t have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag,' he says.
Manjoo points out that these judgements don't apply to older people who were already productive adults before social media became widespread.
The tech news site Slashdot summed up Der Taggspiegel's story about social networking as 'not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.'Hmmmmm......Is Obama or the rest of the family on facebook?Read the full story here.

The "War on Christianity" - Gunmen open fire on Nigerian Deeper Life Bible Church service, kill 19.

The "War on Christianity" - Gunmen open fire on Nigerian Deeper Life Bible Church service, kill 19.(AA)(SaharaReporters).Gunmen stormed an evangelical church in central Nigeria, cut the electricity and opened fire once the building was plunged into darkness, killing 19 people, including the pastor, officials said Tuesday. Residents in the town of Okene in Kogi state, where the church was attacked late Monday, reported fresh gun battles on a main commercial street on Tuesday, but the circumstances were not immediately clear. Officials said it was too early to say who carried out the church raids, but the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted Christians during worship in a series of gun and suicide bomb attacks. Kogi, southwest of the capital Abuja, has not been hit particularly hard by the Islamists, although members of the group are believed to have come from the ethnically diverse area. In mid-July, a bomb went off near another church in Okene, but caused no casualties, while in April, the military said it had discovered a Boko Haram bomb making factory in Kogi, in the town of Ogaminana. The Deeper Life Church in Okene was attacked by “unknown gunmen” at roughly 8:20 pm on Monday, said Lt. Col. Gabriel Olorunyomi, head of a military task force in Kogi. Before firing on worshippers who had come for a regular Monday evening service, two of the three assailants knocked out the building’s generator, state police spokesman Simon Ile told AFP. Mr. Jacob Edi, Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Strategy, told SaharaReporters over the phone that the assailants arrived at the church at about 8:45p.m. local time, during a late evening church service. They cut off electricity supply and began shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. He said some of the worshippers who tried to escape from the premises were captured and their throats slashed. When military personnel arrived at the scene, they “saw 15 people dead, including the pastor,” said Olorunyomi, who added that four more people later died from their wounds. Several others were injured. Ile told AFP there were no early indications regarding the culprits. “They entered the church...they just opened fire and they went away. We don’t know their motives yet,” he said. The perpetrators of the heinous crime, said the governor who cut short a Ramadan state dinner, are “wicked, devilish, ungodly and deserve no place in a same society.”Hmmmm.....Killing Christians doesn't qualify you as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" in Obama's reignRead the full story here and here, photoreport here.

Related: Fresh Attacks By Militants Kill Two Soldiers In Okene.

Related: Bomb Found In Another Church In Kogi State.

PM Netanyahu: If Iran goes nuclear, it may actually use bomb.

PM Netanyahu: If Iran goes nuclear, it may actually use bomb.(JPost).If Iran gets a nuclear bomb it may actually use it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday, rejecting the notion that Tehran would act responsibly if it became a member of the world’s nuclear “club.” Netanyahu, in a meeting with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, spelled out five things that would likely happen, were Iran allowed to go nuclear:

1. There will be nuclear proliferation in the Middle East as various other actors will then want to have a bomb; 
2. Iran will have a firmer hand on the “choke point of the world’s oil supply,” namely the Strait of Hormuz; 
3. there will be a magnification of global terrorism because the terrorists under Iran’s sway will believe that they have immunity;
4.  and Israel’s cities will be rocketed even more because those firing the rockets will feel that they enjoy a nuclear umbrella. 
5. That the Iranians might actually use the bomb is a reality that cannot be denied, Netanyahu said. 

“This is a regime that has broken every rule in the book,” he added. “They very likely could use weapons of mass death.” Netanyahu said there was an illusion among many in the world that if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, it would behave responsibly like the world’s other nuclear states. The prime minister, during the discussion dominated by the Iranian issue, said Iran is governed by a “fanatical regime” that sees itself on a sacred mission of global Islamic domination, and destroying Israel was just one step toward its larger vision.Everyone talks about the cost of stopping Iran, “but they shouldn’t ignore the cost of not stopping Iran,” he said. Netanyahu’s comments come a week after he said that the decision to attack Iran would be taken by the country’s elected political leadership, and not by the defense and security establishment. Those remarks followed media reports of Israel’s top security officials being opposed to an Israeli attack without US backing. In a television interview last week, Netanyahu said that he sees “the regime of the ayatollahs declaring what it has etched on its banner – to destroy us. It is working to destroy us, and is preparing atom bombs to destroy us. As much as it is dependent on me, I will not let that happen.” Hmmmmmm......"Pour les vaincre, messieurs, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace et la Patrie sera sauvée!" ~ Danton. Read the full story here.

Mohamed Bassiouny: Treaty allows unlimited police deployment on border with Israel .

Mohamed Bassiouny: Treaty allows unlimited police deployment on border with Israel.(Imra).

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It should be noted that the treaty in no way sets limits on the experience of the Egyptian police deployed in the border area near Israel.] 

Mohamed Bassiouny: Treaty allows unlimited police deployment "According to the treaty, Sinai is divided into three areas, namely West Sinai (A), central Sinai (B) and East Sinai (C), where the clashes took place. This last region along the border line with Israel includes Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Rafah, the gate to the Gaza Strip. According to the treaty, the Egyptian armed forces secure sections A and B with 26,000 equipped soldiers, while section C is secured by police. And despite the fact that the treaty allows Egypt to put any number of police personnel in this section, they are poorly armed, lack military experience and may make mistakes. This allows the Bedouins, who are better armed and more familiar with the region, to infiltrate the border." Mohamed Bassiouny, Egypt's former ambassador to Israel from 1986 to 2000 interviewed by Al-Masry Al-Youm Former Egyptian ambassador to Israel: Peace treaty should be modified Omar Halawa Al-Masry Al-Youm Thu, 25/08/2011 - 17:14 http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/489796.Read the full story here.

Turkey slams Iran on eve of Salehi’s visit

Turkey slams Iran on eve of Salehi’s visit.(HD).Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned comments by the top Iranian army officer blaming Ankara for the bloodshed in Syria and warning Turkey it would be next, as baseless and inappropriate, on the eve of Iranian foreign minister’s snap visit to Ankara for talks on 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria. “We strongly condemn statements of baseless accusations and inappropriate threats against our country by some Iranian officials,” Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said. “Turkey’s foreign policy acts in the guidance of its own goals and principles and it has a big state tradition,” the ministry said, adding that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was set to convey to his Iranian counterpart later today to Turkey’s unease over the Iranian officials’ remarks. Turkey will be next in line for violence after Syria if it continues to work on behalf of Western interests, Iranian Chief of General Staff Hasan Firuzabadi has said. Ankara is following the Western lead in the region, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and is responsible for the bloodshed in the Arab republic, Firuzabadi said. “If these countries continue with their existent approach to Syria, they should know that Turkey and the others will be next in line,” Firuzabadi said. Kazem Jalali, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, had previously said that “Turkey and those who support and arm terrorists [in Syria]” were responsible for the safety of Iranians kidnapped in Syria. “Considering that the Free Syrian Army, which claims to have abducted the Iranian pilgrims, is backed by Turkey, the visit by the foreign minister aims to warn and remind the Ankara government of its responsibilities in this matter,” the ministry said. In a phone conversation on late Aug. 5, Salehi asked Davutoğlu for assitance to rescue 48 Iranian pilgrims. Yet, Turkish officials are pessimistic, since the pilgrims were abducted in Damascus, where Turkey even does not operate its embassy at the moment. The meetings came as Iran revealed its plans to host a meeting of regional and other countries that have “realistic stances” on Syria on Aug. 9 to find ways to resolve the country’s crisis, the official IRNA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying on Aug. 6. Davutoğlu also met with representatives of Syrian Turkmen yesterday.Read the full story here.

Video - PA libel: Israel using chemicals to ruin Al-Aqsa Mosque's foundations and plans Temple in its place

PA TV news host: "Experts on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem issues warned that there are traces of chemicals under Al-Aqsa, which the occupation authorities are using in intensified excavations around the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to dissolve them." Narrator: "Israel's policies and schemes have never stopped and will never stop in Al-Aqsa's courtyards and surroundings in order to harm [the Mosque's] Arabness and holiness. What is new this time is the discovery of traces of dangerous chemicals in the Al-Aqsa foundations and [the discovery of] other solvents used to cause the foundations to crumble and collapse in accordance with [Israel's] step-by-step plans." [PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 3, 2012].HT: PalWatch.

Assad ‘determined’ to crash uprising, U.S. warns against sending ‘proxies’ to Syria.

                                                Syrian Muslim Brotherhood

Assad ‘determined’ to crash uprising, U.S. warns against sending ‘proxies’ to Syria.(AA).Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Tuesday to crush the uprising against his regime and cleanse the country of “terrorists,” the state news agency reported. Meanwhile, The United States has warned against “proxies or terrorist fighters” being sent in to Syria following the abduction of dozens of Iranians allegedly helping the Assad’s regime there. “The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight terrorism without respite,” Assad told Saeed Jalili, visiting envoy of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Jalili said Tehran will continue to back Syria under Assad, which acts as a pillar of an Iran-led regional alliance. “What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other,” said Jalili, a top aide to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the crisis in Syria must not be allowed to descend into sectarian warfare and she warned against “proxies or terrorist fighters” being sent in to join the conflict. “We have to send very clear expectations about avoiding sectarian warfare. Those who are attempting to exploit the situation by sending in proxies or terrorist fighters must realize that will not be tolerated,” Clinton said at a news conference in the South African capital Pretoria. Clinton’s statement came a day after Syrian opposition forces said 3 abducted Iranian were killed in government shelling and vowed to kill dozens of other Iranians being held in Syria. Iran has its citizens who were abducted in Syria were pilgrims. The Syrian opposition insists they were army officers fighting with the Assad’s regime forces.Read the full story here.

Coming soon "The Muslim Olympics?"

Coming soon "The Muslim Olympics?".HT: IsraelMatzav.Turkey is bidding to host the 2020 Olympic games and Michael Rubin asks whether it's appropriate for a Muslim nation to serve as the host.

Now Erdoğan has rooted Turkey’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics in religion. “No country with a majority of Muslim population has ever hosted the Olympics,” he said while visiting London last week. “Istanbul has bid to host the Olympics five times but has never been handed the rights. This is not a fair approach.” The Istanbul 2020 logo features not the bridge between civilizations, but rather minarets and mosques. No previous Olympic emblem has featured religious symbols.

If Erdoğan advocates viewing the world through a religious prism, then perhaps he can also embrace the Tel Aviv Olympics in 2024 and Bombay Olympics in 2028. If it is time for a majority Muslim state to host the Olympics, it would make sense if the first would be a country like Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country and one noted for its relative moderation compared to the rest of the Islamic world. Qatar certainly has the resources, both to bribe the International Olympic Committee and to stage the games, and certainly Arab states would like the honor. Morocco is as much a bridge between civilizations as Turkey but, in recent years, has been far more tolerant. As regions go, neither Africa nor the Caribbean has ever hosted the Olympics.Turkey should one day host the games. Istanbul is a beautiful city. But Turkey should only have that honor when it lives at peace with its neighbors, withdraws from Cyprus, and shows it can manage basic infrastructure like its highways and bridges. It needs to release its journalists from prison, and reach a settlement with its Kurdish population. Let’s hope the International Olympics Committee will choose a country on that country’s merits; they should not implicitly endorse Erdoğan’s desire to see the world through a religious lens.Hmmmm........“Minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks, and the believers our army.” Read the full story here.

Munich widows slams IOC over no moment of silence.

Munich widows slams IOC over no moment of silence.(AA).Widows of two of the 11 Israelis killed at the Munich Olympics in 1972 lambasted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president at a London commemoration on Monday. The two, Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, representing family members of the athletes, coaches and officials who were killed, say they have tried for four decades to persuade the IOC to organize an official commemoration. They vowed to continue their efforts get their wish at future Games. Senior international figures including U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have called for a tribute to the 11 men who were killed in a standoff in Munich with Palestinian gunmen. A German policeman was also killed. Monday’s commemoration was hosted by Israel’s Olympic Committee at London’s impressive Guildhall, with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, top British politicians, Israel’s sports minister and Germany’s foreign minister present. Israel has organized a commemorative event since the Sydney Games in 2000 and Rogge has participated as IOC president since the Athens Olympics four years later, but the two widows said it should be the IOC that organizes the ceremony, not Israel. Lamenting what she said was Rogge’s refusal to hold the minute’s silence,
Spitzer said the “call was heard all over the world, (and) only the International Olympic Committee remains deaf and blind.” “They were killed on Olympic soil and the appropriate place to remember them is at the opening ceremony,” Romano said in her speech to the hundreds of invited guests, who stood for a minute of silence. Rogge said everybody remembered the “horrific events of 1972” even if they had not yet been born, and he described the killings as “the worst days of the Olympic movement.” “We are all here today because we share a duty those innocent victims and to history to make sure the lessons of 1972 are never forgotten ... we are here to speak with one voice against terrorism,” he said. Rogge held a surprise tribute in the athletes’ village on the Monday before the opening ceremony but that low-key event failed to satisfy the victims’ relatives. In her speech, which won her a standing ovation, Spitzer accused the IOC of having priorities that did not allow it to heed the call for the tribute at the Olympic opening ceremony. “Is the IOC only interested in power, money and politics (that) they have forgotten what they are supposed to promote: peace brotherhood and fair play?” she said.
Spitzer also said the refusal involved the victims’ nationality and religion.

 “Shame on you International Olympic Committee because you have forsaken the 11 members of your Olympic family, you are discriminating against them only because they are Israelis and Jews.” 

 Obama sent a greeting to the gathering which was read by U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman. “While the United States supported a moment of silence in their honour, we welcome any effort to recall the terrible loss that was suffered in Munich and the lives of those who were lost,” Obama wrote. British Prime Minister David Cameron who attended the ceremony at its start, said the events of Munich were “a sickening act of terrorism that betrayed everything the Olympic movement stands for and everything that we in Britain believe in.” Spitzer said she was “overwhelmed” by the amount of international support the campaign for a commemoration and that the efforts to gain the moment’s silence would continue. “We will be back because until we hear the words you need to say because you owe it to them,” she said.Read the full story here.

Veiled French Muslim woman charged with inciting riot.

Veiled French Muslim woman charged with inciting riot.(AA).A French Muslim woman has been charged with assault and inciting a riot after she refused a police ID check because she was wearing a banned full-face veil, a police source said Tuesday. The 18-year-old is to appear in court in the northern city of Lille on October 30 charged with assault, insulting police and inciting a riot after police tried to take her to a station for refusing to provide identification. A French law passed in 2011, the first of its kind to be enforced in Europe, banned the wearing of the full-face-covering Islamic veil. The law came into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority − the largest in Europe − with then president Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatizing Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right in this year’s election. Supporters of the law have defended it as a measure aimed at supporting women’s rights although the text makes it clear that a woman cannot choose herself to cover her face in public. The woman, arrested on Saturday, was stopped by officers in Roubaix, outside northern France’s largest city of Lille. She allegedly said she did not have time and did not want to show her ID card and covered herself up with another veil as she walked away, the police source said, asking not to be named. When police tried to take her to the station, she allegedly grabbed hold of a vehicle and started kicking, punching and screaming, the source added.Read the full story here.

Overnight Music Video - Queen - Princes of the Universe (Highlander).

U.S. responsible for hostages’ lives in Syria: Iran

U.S. responsible for hostages’ lives in Syria: Iran.(AA).Iran said on Tuesday that it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria, following an unconfirmed report by a Syrian rebel group that three of them had been killed by shelling. The foreign ministry, which transmitted its message through the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles U.S. interests in the absence of Iran-U.S. diplomatic relations, insisted the 48 were pilgrims, not Revolutionary Guards as the rebels claimed. “Because of the United States’ manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the United States is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian quoted the letter as saying. He told the official IRNA news agency that “we expect the countries that are in a way responsible for the events in Syria to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and lives of the Iranian pilgrims and their return to Iran.” He stressed that Iran had appealed for help from both Turkey and Qatar, two governments it accuses of arming the Syrian rebels. Iran’s message was issued after a Syrian rebel group, Al-Baraa Brigade of the Free Syrian Army, claimed on its Facebook page that “three of the Iranian prisoners were killed in fierce shelling” by the army in Damascus on Monday. The page said the group’s leader, Abdel Nasser Shmeir, was threatening to “execute the prisoners who are proven members of the Revolutionary Guard if the shelling continues.” The Iranians were taken hostage on Saturday as they travelled in a bus in Damascus. The rebel group posted a video online on Sunday alleging the Iranians were elite Revolutionary Guards on a “reconnaissance mission.” But Tehran insists they are some of the hundreds of thousands of Iranian Shiite pilgrims who visit the revered Sayyida Zeinab shrine in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus each year. Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said on Tuesday that “the United States and certain countries of the region are responsible for the deaths of the Iranian pilgrims, and they will receive an appropriate response at the right time.”Read the full story here.

'Number of threats from Sinai growing'

'Number of threats from Sinai growing'.(YNet).Defense officials told Ynet Monday that the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence collaboration and intelligence gathering tactics have proven effective in thwarting a potentially devastating terror attack Sunday. A GOC Southern Command inquest into the events of Sunday night derived that the IDF had intelligence indicating an imminent threat of terror from the sector, including a Shin Bet alert suggesting that Sinai terror groups were planning a combined attack against Israeli and Egyptian forces. The information prompted increased IDF deployment near some of the more vulnerable points of the Sinai border, and allowed the military to prevent the terrorists' armored vehicle – taken from Egyptian patrolmen after killing 16 men – and a truck carrying half a ton of explosives, from reaching their destination – Israel's Gaza vicinity communities.The area along which the terror attack took place – from the Rafah crossing up to Gate 380 near the Kerem Shalom crossing – was considered "intelligence assets poor" until about six months ago. MI sources said that over the past year several terror cells have been identified in Sinai, some comprised of young Bedouins who defy the sheiks and act as hired guns or are motivated by their own radical views. Several indicators support the theory that militants forming a virtual "terror state" in Sinai have been able to outwit Gaza's bigger terror groups and carry out massive attacks. Another angle explored by Israeli intelligence is that Sunday's attack marks another direct hit at the heart of Cairo's new regime. Defense sources told Ynet that it is likely that Iran or Hezbollah were not part of this attack. Still, MI sources added that the number of threats from the sector is growing, at times exceeding the threats coming from Gaza. Hmmmm......Take back the Sinai, they never should have allowed the Egyptians in.Read the full story here.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood blames Israeli Mossad for Aggression Against Rafah Border-Guards, wants review the terms of Sinai accords with Israel.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood blames Israeli Mossad for Aggression Against Rafah Border-Guards, wants review the terms of Sinai accords with Israel.(IW).Since the Egyptian people erupted in their glorious January 25 revolution, many ‘special interests’ were threatened, private calculations were upset, and dubious equations were disrupted on all levels, all around. This brought together many forces, at home and abroad, against the revolution, united in an increasingly desperate and relentless war seeking to abort the revolution and halt the march to true democracy, away from despotism and repression.
Yesterday, a group of criminals and terrorists attacked an Egyptian security checkpoint in Rafah, killing nearly twenty of our brothers, our sons, and stole one car and one truck, and tried to crash their way into Israel.

Immediately, Israeli media linked these attackers to the people of Gaza. Nevertheless, this ‘operation’, at this particular time, aims to achieve several goals:

• Create a major border problem for Egypt in its current critical circumstances, to be added to the many internal problems plaguing the homeland after the collapse of a corrupt system that subverted the country’s interests for decades.

• Endeavor to prove the failure of the new Egyptian government, formed just three days ago.

• Attempt to disrupt the new President’s reform project.

• Drive a wedge between the Egyptian administration and the Egyptian people on the one hand, and between the Palestinian government and the people of Gaza on the other.

Evidently, this crime may well be the work of Israel’s Mossad, which has sought to abort the revolution ever since its launch, and which issued instructions to Israeli citizens in Sinai to leave immediately, just days ago. It is clearly noticeable that every time a warning like this is issued, a terrorist incident takes place in the Sinai.This crime also draws our attention to the fact that our forces in the Sinai lack the personnel and the equipment to protect the region or guard our borders, which makes it imperative to review the terms of our accords with Israel.Hmmmm......How 'original' Blame the Jews.Read the full story here.