June 2010 Archives

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704638504575318850772872776.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad.

The cash--packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes--is declared and legal to move. But U.S. and Afghan officials say they are targeting the flows in major anticorruption and drug trafficking investigations because of their size relative to Afghanistan's small economy and the murkiness of their origins.
[AFMONEY]

Officials believe some of the cash, if not most, is siphoned from Western aid projects and U.S., European and NATO contracts to provide security, supplies and reconstruction work for coalition forces in Afghanistan. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization spent about $14 billion here last year alone. Profits reaped from the opium trade are also a part of the money flow, as is cash earned by the Taliban from drugs and extortion, officials say.

The amount declared as it leaves the airport is vast in a nation where the gross domestic product last year totaled $13.5 billion. More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide. "It's not like they grow money on trees here," said a U.S. official investigating corruption and Taliban financing. "A lot of this looks like our tax dollars being stolen. And opium, of course."

http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2010/06/17/western-understanding-of-muslim-turkey%e2%80%94same-recepe-for-disaster/

Just as Western European leaders of the 19th and early 20th centuries often chose to ignore Ottoman Turkey's brutal imposition of dhimmitude in their misguided, when not morally cretinous "understanding" of the "Eastern Question," present era US and European leaders ignore both the overt Jew hatred, and ongoing relegation of the vestigial remnant non-Muslim Christian populations in Turkey to de facto dhimmi status, under Erdogan's Neo-Ottoman Turkish government.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/06/day-68-of-gulf-oil-spill-as-oil-slick-threatens-gulf-states-there-are-no-oil-skimmers-off-mississippi-coast/

It's Day 68 of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster-
The oil continues to leak- The Obama Administration and federal government continue to fail.

** The feds have only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignore oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ's and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

Now, we find out that there are no oils skimmers off the coast of Mississippi either.
McClatchy reported:

http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic300c.asp

Thomas Jefferson On Universal Military Training

On June 13, 1813, in the midst of the disasters of the War of 1812, former President Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend James Monroe, then serving as Secretary of State, on the subject of military preparedness in a republic.

It is more a subject of joy that we have so few of the desperate characters which compose modern regular armies. But it proves more forcibly the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier; this was the case with the Greeks and the Romans, and must be that of every free State. Where this is no oppression, there will be no pauper hirelings. We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, an make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. We can never be safe till this is done.

While Jefferson's sentiments were in keeping with the republican principles earlier enunciated by men such as George Washington and Henry Knox, though without the jibe at regular troops, the "Sage of Monticello" failed to realize that the man-in-the-street was less committed to the notion of universal military training in practice than he was in principle. Virtually from the formation of the Republic, citizens were generally loath to fulfill their militia.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20100625.aspx

While German counter-terror efforts have largely been concentrated on Islamic radicals, there has been another threat that has been growing larger, year by year. Last year, there were 1,115 acts of violence perpetrated by radical leftists. That was a 59 percent increase over the previous year. Unlike their predecessors in the 1970s, the current leftist violence is less intense. Few people are killed, but there's a lot of property damage and non-fatal injuries. Leftist politics is very popular and fashionable in Europe, but most leftists try and distance themselves from the violent fringe. Most of the leftist violence is caused by groups calling themselves anarchists.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/203056.php

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202938.php

A new report by One Law for All has found Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals to be in violation of UK law, public policy and human rights (see report here PDF).

The report is being launched to coincide with a 20 June 2010 rally on the issue of Sharia law.

Based on an 8 March 2010 Seminar on Sharia Law, research, interviews, and One Law for All case files, the report has identified a number of problem areas:

- Sharia law's civil code is arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular. With the rise in the acceptance of Sharia courts, discrimination is being further institutionalised with some UK law firms additionally offering clients advice on Sharia law and the use of collaborative law.

- Sharia law is practiced in Britain primarily by Sharia Councils and Muslims Arbitration Tribunals. Both operate on religious principles and are harmful to women although Muslim Arbitration Tribunals are wrongly regarded as being of more concern because they operate as tribunals under the Arbitration Act 1996, making their rulings binding in law.

- Sharia Councils, on the other hand, claim to mediate on family issues but in practice often this differs little from arbitration: they frequently ask those appearing before them to sign an agreement to abide by their decisions; they call themselves courts, and the presiding imams, judges. Their decisions are then imposed and regarded as having the weight of legal judgements.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Tanker-Crash-Creates-Fiery-River-of-Flames-96558024.html

A tanker truck caught fire and spilled thousands of gallons of burning fuel into the street Wednesday night, sending people nearby running for safety.

The truck was on its way to an Arco station when the rear tank suddenly flipped on its side, sparking an inferno shortly before 6 p.m. on Palm Avenue near the intersection of Interstate 805 near the community of Otay Mesa south of San Diego.

Fluid leaking out of the second container of a dual tanker truck burned in the container, in a trail down nearby gutters and in the storm drains for quite some time until firefighters put all the flames except those inside the tanker.

"There were explosions all in the storm drains, and at different places where there were gutter openings and manhole," said Maurice Luque with San Diego Fire Rescue.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6463/pub_detail.asp

A new Islamic propaganda campaign called 'Inspired by Muhammad' [1] has been launched, and advertising posters are now going up in London featuring slogans such as 'I believe in social justice. So did Muhammad' and 'I believe in women's rights. So did Muhammad'.[2] It's hard to tell if this campaign is run by sadly deluded people who actually believe the slogans are accurate or if this is an example of dissimulation for a kufr audience.

Either way, the idea that Muhammad 'believed in women's rights' in the sense in which we in the 21st Century understand that concept is utterly absurd, as anyone who has taken an honest look at the Qur'an should be aware.

The readership of the Qur'an is clearly presupposed to be male, and this is a book for men, by men. We find numerous examples of the audience being given information and instructions about women, in texts that speak of women in the third person.[3] Women are not directly addressed, but rather men are directed as to what they should tell their wives (plural).

While men and women are said to have equal rights in Islam, looking at the Qur'an we find that men are still presented as being superior to them: 'And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable; but men have a degree (of advantage) over them' (2:228).

The testimony of a woman is worth only half that of a man: 'get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women' (2:282).

Men are in charge of women and women should be 'obedient' to men. If they are not, they must be beaten (2:223).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9QN9fXX5TlA

Mexican soldiers confronted an armed group today in the city of Taxco, killing as many as 15 people, the state attorney general said.

"They're verifying between 14 and 15 people killed in this clash," Guerrero state Attorney General Albertico Guinto said, according to an audio recording of his remarks e-mailed by his office.

He said the soldiers were carrying out a search operation in the town, which is popular with tourists for its historic role in the silver trade.

Separately, a police chief and his 26-year-old son were killed early this morning in Cuernavaca, about 50 miles from Mexico City, from gunshots to the head, according to an e-mailed statement from the Morelos state attorney general's office.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said he won't back down from his strategy of confronting drug cartels with army and police personnel, even as violence spiked this month. In a letter dated June 13, Calderon defended his four-year war on organized crime, saying the fight is a necessary sacrifice and an "ethical obligation."

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202866.php

Yes, Most Terrorists Are Morons

Must read in the Atlantic. Good points, all.

But let's not forget that sometimes morons get lucky. And all it takes is one lucky moron to ruin our day.

But the takeaway quote?

One video, captured recently by the thermal-imagery technology housed in a sniper rifle, shows two Talibs in southern Afghanistan engaged in intimate relations with a donkey. Similar videos abound, including ground-surveillance footage that records a Talib fighter gratifying himself with a cow.

In defense of the Taliban, I hear that cow was really hot!

http://islammonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3528%3Aconning-the-world-veiling-the-truth-with-bedazzling-burkas&catid=203&Itemid=59

As I was driving today I happened to listen to Jason Morrison's 'Drive' show at around 3 pm. He mentioned the story of the Sydney policeman who happened to stop a veiled lady recently because he had a well founded suspicion that she was not driving well and that her 'P' plate sign was not affixed properly to the car. This policeman asked to see the lady's license. Of course to check her license the policeman had to see the lady's face and you know what that means for a Muslim feminista. Instant outrage. This lady did what any oppressed victim who has been asked to show her diriver's license would do .She went straight to the media and complained that the policeman was a racist, shouted at her, grabbed her veil and wanted to pull it off. Not a shy little hyacinth, this lass went to Channel 7 and told her tearful story aided and abetted by her Muslim handlers.

Thing is, she forgot she is in a western country and that not all the media have lost their marbles. As Jason Morrison related, Channel 7 contacted the policeman in question after she gave her tearful opera buffa version of events. And guess what? The policeman had filmed the entire proceedings with the lachrimose lady. And then guess what the filming revealed? THE TRUTH. And the truth differed significantly from what the dodgy Muslim lady driver said.

First - it appears the policeman spoke very politely to the lady from beginning to end.

Second - it seems the would be abused victim had not been abused at all. The policeman did not touch or grab her veil. He simply asked her politely to show her face so he could do his job and identify her with the driver'' photo on her driver'' license.

http://www.debka.com/article/8841/

Osama bin Laden's hiding place was pinned down for the first time Monday, June 7, by the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassa Monday, June 7, as the mountainous town of Savzevar in the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, 220 km west of Mashhad. He is said to have lived there under Tehran's protection for the last five years, along with Ayman Al-Zawahiri and five other high-ranking al Qaeda leaders.
debkafile's intelligence sources disclosed Monday night that Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan and his intelligence chiefs are well aware that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are hiding in Iran. The leak to the Kuwait paper was intended to show the Obama administration that the Turkish leader's ties with Iran had grown intense enough for him to be fully in the picture of Iran's secret sanctuary for the authors of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Savzevar, a small town of about a quarter of a million inhabitants, is connected by road to Tehran and Mashhad and has a small airport. A center for producing grapes and raisins, its location is remote and difficult to access because it is enclosed by lofty mountains and a salt desert 50,000 square kilometers in area.

On May 13, American intelligence sources reported in detail that senior al Qaeda operatives living in Iran had been allowed to leave the country through Syria to orchestrate terrorist attacks on American targets. Among them was Saif al-Adel, who is believed to have been assigned with planning an attack on the world soccer games opening in South Africa on June 12.
Those sources noted that Saif al-Adel had received his instructions directly from Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri but did not reveal knowledge of their presence in Iran.
debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose that the purpose of airing their precise whereabouts at this time, aside from implicating the Turkish leader, was first, to warn al Qaeda's leaders that their hideout was blown and they had better move on - which would make them easier to catch; and, second, to nudge US president Barak Obama into a decision to go after them.

A rare opportunity may now be building up to capture the world's most wanted terrorist, debkafile's counter-terror sources report. Last December, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the United States has not had any good intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts in years. Until recently, the elusive master-terrorist was generally thought to have gone to ground in the wilder parts of Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20100612.aspx

Last month, China made an official protest to Japan, complaining that Japanese aircraft and ships harassed Chinese warships training in international waters (the East China Sea). Japan rejected the protest and reminded the Chinese that anyone can watch anyone on the high seas, and it's been that way for everyone, for a long time. The Chinese don't agree with this custom, and have become increasingly aggressive at keeping foreign intelligence collecting ships and aircraft away from its coastal waters, and from Chinese warships training far out in the ocean. This unique Chinese interpretation of intelligence collection at sea puts it at odds with the rest of the world.

China is becoming more active at sea. While there are plenty of places the Chinese Navy can send its ships for training, dispatching them to international waters near Okinawa has the added advantage of reminding Japan that China could use force to assert its rights over small islands Japan also claims. Some of these islands have oil and natural gas deposits nearby. Chinese leaders are very concerned about energy supplies, because China has to import nearly all its petroleum, and consumption is growing rapidly.

China is also still very concerned with Japanese military and economic power. Add to that the smoldering resentment for Japanese occupation and atrocities from the 1880s to the 1940s, and you have potential for war that is little appreciated outside the region. In fact, China has tense relationships with all its neighbors, in addition to a long history of Chinese aggression. The growing economic power of China is seen, by Chinese neighbors, as another weapon the Chinese will use against them.

Over the last three years, Japan has increased anti-submarine patrols in international waters, just outside Japanese territorial waters. Chinese submarines are apparently exercising there more frequently, looking for Japanese, South Korean and American warships to play tag with. The U.S. has also redirected more of its space based naval search capabilities to assist the Japanese.

Over the last two years, it's been more common for Chinese Song class diesel electric and Han class nuclear powered boats to be detected and tracked by American and Japanese warships and aircraft. Some of these Chinese subs have been found to be stalking American and Japanese warships.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/67466

The State Department's counterterrorism coordinator told members of a Senate panel on Tuesday that there is "no credible information" to indicate that the international terrorist organization Hezbollah has an "operational presence in Latin America."

However, as CNSNews.com has reported, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) says the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hezbollah is linked to drug traffickers in South America's tri-border region, which includes Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, and is using the proceeds from trafficking cocaine into Europe and the Middle East to finance its operations.

"In the Western hemisphere, Hezbollah has tapped into Muslim communities to raise funds ... we do note, however, that we have no credible information to indicate that Hezbollah has an operational presence in Latin America," testified Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.

Benjamin testified on June 8 before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs to assess Hezbollah.

http://www.homeland1.com/transportation-border-security/articles/829150-FBI-Mexicans-chased-away-US-agents-after-shooting/

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said its records indicate the number of Mexicans killed or wounded by immigration authorities rose from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 to 17 so far this year, which is not half over. However, two killings in such a short period is rare.

Meanwhile, the Border Patrol released statistics showing that assaults on agents along the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, were on pace to far exceed totals in the previous four years.

Since October of last year, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector have been assaulted 33 times, compared with 39 times in the previous fiscal year. Twenty-nine of those incidents were rock-throwing, compared to 31 such incidents in all of fiscal 2009.

That's what happened Monday night, when suspected illegal immigrants who ran back to Mexico began throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents detaining other immigrants, Simmons said.

At least one rock came from behind the agent, who was kneeling beside a suspected illegal immigrant whom he was holding prone on the ground, Simmons said. The agent told the rock throwers to stop, then fired his weapon several times, hitting the boy, she said. The FBI is leading the investigation because it involves an assault on a federal officer.

The agent was not injured, Simmons said.

T.J. Bonner, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents, said rock throwing aimed at Border Patrol agents is common and capable of causing serious injury.

"It is a deadly force encounter, one that justifies the use of deadly force," Bonner said.

Mexicans ridiculed that stance.

"Let's say that Anastasio and Sergio Adrian attacked the border agents, one with his fists and the other with rocks," columnist Manuel Jauregui wrote in the newspaper Reforma. "Does that mean that killing them was the only valid option?"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7148555.ece

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom's air defences will return to full alert.
Related Links

* One year on, Iran's battered opposition endures

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Multimedia

* Comment on this story on our new site

* In full: Times investigation into Helmand fiasco

"The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way," said a US defence source in the area. "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren't scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department."

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing," said one.

http://www.homeland1.com/cert/articles/829509-CERT-volunteers-in-SC-prepare-ahead-of-active-hurricane-season/

If you're trapped under heavy debris, lost inside a pitch-black building and unable to walk, they can help.

Community Emergency Response Teams are groups of volunteers trained to assist their community in the event of a disaster. When emergency services may not be immediately available, CERTs can come to the rescue.

With forecasters expecting a very active hurricane season, Lowcountry CERT is priming residents to become ready for any possible disasters.

Eighteen people from around the Lowcountry are training to become certified CERT volunteers. Each Thursday since May, residents from various professions and backgrounds and a range of ages joined to learn how to work as a team and become prepared for the worst.

They're undergoing an initial 30-hour training course conducted over an eight-week period at the North Charleston Public Safety Building.

Lydia Freilich of Daniel Island is originally from California and no stranger to earthquakes. One of the reasons she decided to take the training course was that she said she wanted to get a better idea of what could happen here. One of the big concepts she has learned so far is realizing her limitations.

"We're not professionals," Freilich said. "We provide as much assistance as we can that we have learned."

However, there has been so much to learn, she said.

In the event of a major hurricane, CERT liaison coordinator Jim Tarter said members are trained to evacuate like everyone else.

"They're trained to first help themselves, then their families and then go out into their neighborhoods," Tarter said.

CERT members aren't just trained for hurricanes. From small fires to earthquakes and even basic terrorism awareness, members can help in a variety of situations.

More important, Tarter says, volunteers are trained what not to do. "It's more about awareness and about what not to do and how to do things safely."

In almost every situation, CERT members learn to gather facts before rushing in to help. They also learn to be innovative with the tools they have at hand.

Barbara G. Holmes of Charleston learned how to leverage debris off a victim, for example, and how to carry someone out of a building with two poles and a jacket.

"There are things I didn't even think about for treating a victim," she said.

Holmes said she decided to take the course after the news of recent earthquakes. She's active in her neighborhood association in the Charleston West Side and said she wanted to do more to prepare, thinking especially about the senior citizens in her area.

"I just want to be prepared," Holmes said.

At the end of the eight weeks, students take a written exam and undergo a practical assessment to test their knowledge. As a team, they run through several scenarios with the help of volunteers role-playing as victims.

CERT was created by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 1985 and is administered through the Department of Homeland Security.

The first CERT groups in Charleston came about in 2003. Since then, more than 500 people have undergone training, with 21 response teams in 14 districts.

Lowcountry CERT is the nonprofit organization that was created in 2006 to expand the program in the tri-county area and raise funds for locally trained teams.

When not responding to disasters, members can provide first aid and control crowds at community events. When an earthquake or hurricane does come, however, members will be ready to rock.

"Most people don't think about emergency preparedness until hurricane season comes," Tarter said. "But it's always hurricane season."

Classes are offered for free through the Charleston County Emergency Management Department.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/12/dead-dozens-missing-arkansas-floods/

Floodwaters that rose as swiftly as 8 feet an hour tore through a campground packed with vacationing families early Friday, carrying away tents and overturning RVs as campers slept. At least 16 people were killed, and dozens more missing and feared dead.

Heavy rains caused the normally quiet Caddo and Little Missouri rivers to climb out of their banks during the night. Around dawn, floodwaters barreled into the Albert Pike Recreation Area, a 54-unit campground in the Ouachita National Forest that was packed with vacationing families.

The raging torrent poured through the valley with such force that it peeled asphalt off roads and bark off trees. Cabins dotting the river banks were severely damaged. Mobile homes lay on their sides.

Two dozen people were hospitalized. Authorities rescued 60 others.

Marc and Stacy McNeil of Marshall, Texas, survived by pulling their pickup truck between two trees and standing in the bed in waist-deep water.

"It was just like a boat tied to a tree," Marc McNeil said, describing how the truck bobbed up and down.

They were on their first night of camping with a group of seven, staying in tents. The rain kept falling, and the water kept rising throughout the night, at one point topping the tool box in the back of the truck.

"We huddled together, and prayed like we'd never prayed before." Stacy McNeil said. They were able to walk to safety once the rain stopped.

After the water receded, anguished relatives pleaded with emergency workers for help finding more than 40 missing loved ones.

At one point, Gov. Mike Beebe said the death had climbed to 20. But Beebe's office later revised that figure to 16, saying he had relied on an erroneous figure after talking to an emergency worker at the scene.

Still, authorities agreed that the death toll could easily rise. Forecasters warned of the approaching danger during the night, but campers could easily have missed those advisories because the area is isolated.

"There's not a lot of way to get warning to a place where there's virtually no communication," Beebe said. "Right now we're just trying to find anybody that is still capable of being rescued."

The governor said damage at the campground was comparable to that caused by a strong tornado. The force of the water carried one body 8 miles downstream.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Six-Colorado-Officers-Exposed-to-Cyanide-/1$52852

Nine people, including eight emergency responders, were rushed to the hospital Thursday morning after they were exposed to potassium cyanide.

A man made a cryptic, vague 911 call just before 9 a.m. saying he had cyanide in a glass of water. He did not give his identity, his location, nor his intention with the cyanide, said Aurora fire Capt. Allen Robnett.

However, using his cell phone number, officers were able to track down his name and learn that there was an active warrant for his arrest. The warrant had his last known address -- the Skyview RV Park, Unit 57, at 16051 E. Colfax Avenue near Laredo Street.

Two police officers went to the trailer park and talked to the man, who apparently drank some cyanide and spilled the rest as police tried to confiscate it, according to doctors at University Hospital.

Robnett added Hazmat investigators don't know how much cyanide was exposed.

At first, firefighters transported the man and two police officers to the hospital. But while decontaminating the RV, the hazardous materials team transported four additional officers and two medics as a precaution, Robnett said.

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/anger-and-grief-over-arlington-cemetery-disaster-1.106766

Veterans groups reacted quickly and harshly to news yesterday that the remains of more than 200 veterans were misplaced or lost by workers at Arlington National Cemetery, demanding immediate improvements to Amry records systems and a change in the "culture of complacency" at the hallowed site.

Shortly after the Pentagon press conference yesterday House Armed Services Committee leaders announced plans to hold hearings on the problems at Arlington. Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., noted the staff's conduct "is disgraceful and cannot be tolerated." Ranking member Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said "families demand, and most importantly, deserve to know that their loved ones are being treated with the utmost respect and decorum."

No timetable has been set for those hearings, but House Veterans Affairs committee ranking member Steve Buyer, R-Ind., said his office will also push for Arlington to adopt a new database of gravesites at Arlington (Army Secretary John McHugh endorsed the idea as well), noting that the VA's national cemetery administration already uses such a system.

Still, for many veterans groups the damage has already been done. Here's a look at reactions from across the veterans' community:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137997?sms_ss=facebook

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Israel's representatives the world over that there were never any humanitarian supplies or equipment aboard the Mavi Marmara, where Israeli commandos were ambushed by armed mercenaries posing as peace activists. The commandos opened fire and killed nine of the attackers after three soldiers had been brutalized and temporarily captured.

Of the seven flotilla ships that were intercepted by Israel on May 31 and afterward, only four were freight ships, the MFA reported to its embassies and consulates: The Challenger 1 (a small yacht), the Sfendonh (a small passenger boat) and the Mavi Marmara (a passenger ship) did not carry any humanitarian aid, and had only the passengers' personal belongings.

The four freight ships are the Gaza, the Sofia, the Defeny and the Rachel Corrie. As of June 7, Israel had only offloaded equipment from the Defeny. The equipment offloaded was loaded onto 26 trucks, and an additional eight trucks are waiting at the Kerem Shalom crossing to enter Gaza.

The equipment includes:

1. 300 wheelchairs
2. 300 new mobility scooters
3. 100 special mobility scooters for the disabled
4. Hundreds of crutches
5. 250 hospital beds
6. 50 sofas
7. Four tons of medicine
8. 20 tons of clothing, carpets, school bags, cloth and shoes
9. Various hospital equipment - closets and cabinets, operating theater equipment, etc.
10. Playground equipment
11. Mattresses

The equipment remaining at Ashdod Port on the three cargo ships which have not been offloaded include some 2000 tons of construction equipment - building materials and tools, and construction waste (rubble, toilets, sinks and cement) for re-use.

The MFA noted that:

The equipment does not constitute humanitarian aid in the accepted sense (basic foodstuffs, new and functional equipment, fresh medicines).

The humanitarian aid on the four cargo ships was scattered in the ships' holds and thrown onto piles and not packed properly for transport. The equipment was not packaged and not properly placed on wooden bases. Because of the improper packing, some of the equipment was crushed by the weight in transit.

The medicines and sensitive equipment (operating theater equipment, new clothing, etc.) are being kept in cool storage at the Defense Ministry base. Some of the medicines had already expired, and some will expire soon. The operating theater equipment, which should be kept sterile, was carelessly wrapped. A large part of the equipment, particularly shoes and clothing, was used and worn. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/09/la-teachers-students-arizona-protest-road-trip/

Standing in front of a wall-to-wall mural featuring a who's who of revolutionaries, including Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and boldly displaying the motto Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!!! (Fatherland or Death, We Shall Overcome!!!), a group of teachers, students, parents and community activists in the Los Angeles Unified School District gathered last month for an unusual field trip -- to Arizona, to protest that state's controversial immigration law.

A video posted on YouTube shows LA social studies teacher Jose Lara interviewing teachers and students on May 28 at the headquarters of an organization calling for a Mexican revolution on U.S. soil. Soon after he shot the video, many in the group left for an overnight "freedom ride" to Phoenix to protest what Lara tells the camera is a "racist and outrageous" law.

Four days later, the school board president implored the superintendent of schools to ensure that students in the district be taught that Arizona's law is "un-American" and Jim Crow-like. The law, passed in April, empowers law enforcement officials to question the immigration status of people they think may be in the country illegally.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/09/publishing-company-putting-warning-label-constitution/

A small publishing company is under fire after putting warning labels on copies of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other historical documents.

Wilder Publications warns readers of its reprints of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Common Sense, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federalist Papers, among others, that "This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today."

The disclaimer goes on to tell parents that they "might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work."

Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, says the company may be trying to ensure that oversensitive people don't pull its works off bookstore or library shelves.

"Any idea that's 100 years old will probably offend someone or other," Olson told FoxNews.com. "...But if there's anything that you ought to be able to take at a first gulp for yourself and then ask your parents if you're wondering about this or that strange thing, it should be the founding documents of American history."

The warning seems to be offending more people than the documents themselves.

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/pakistan/21375/


KHANEWAL, Pakistan, June 7 (CDN) -- The head of a Muslim village last week ordered 250 Christian families to leave their homes in Khanewal district, Punjab Province, local residents said.

Abdul Sattar Khan, head of village No. 123/10R, Katcha Khoh, and other area Muslim residents ordered the expulsions after Christian residents objected too strenuously to sexual assaults by Muslims on Christian girls and women, said a locally elected Christian official, Emmanuel Masih.

Most of the village's Christian men work in the fields of Muslim land owners, while most of the Christian women and girls work as servants in the homes of Muslim families, said Rasheed Masih, a Christian in the village who added that the impoverished Christians were living in appalling conditions.

The Muslim employers have used their positions of power to routinely sexually assault the Christian women and girls, whose complaints grew so shrill that four Christian men - Emmanuel Masih, Rasheed Masih, his younger brother Shehzad Anjum and Yousaf Masih Khokhar - sternly confronted the Muslims, only to be told that all Christians were to leave the village at once.

"The Muslim villagers came to us with the expulsion order only after Christian women and girls raised a hue and cry when they became totally exasperated because they were sexually attacked or forced to commit adultery by Muslims on a daily basis," said Khokhar, a Christian political leader.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/09/u-s-to-give-400-million-in-aid-to-help-loosen-gaza-embargo/?hpt=T2

U.S. to give $400 million to help loosen Gaza embargo

The United States will contribute $400 million in development aid to the Palestinian territories and work with Israel to loosen its embargo on Gaza, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

Obama's announcement came after White House talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The money will be used to build housing, schools, water and health care systems in both the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank and Gaza, which is ruled by the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.

Obama called the situation in Gaza "unsustainable," and said the United States would work with its European allies, Egypt and Israel to find a "new conceptual framework" for the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

"We agree Israelis have right to prevent arms from coming into Gaza," Obama said. But he said "new mechanisms" were needed to allow more goods to reach the territory - and he repeated that the long-term solution was a permanent deal creating "a Palestinian state side-by-side with an Israel that is secure."

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13827

"In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she said. "See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service,"-- Michelle Obama.

We were wrong.

Michelle Obama, as we reported on July 7, is not served by twenty-two attendants who stand by to cater to her every whim.

She is served by twenty-six attendants, including a hair dresser and make-up artist.

The annual cost to taxpayers for such unprecedented attention is approximately $1,750,000 without taking into account the expense of the lavish benefit packages afforded to every attendant.

Little did American voters realize the call for "change" would result in the establishment of an Obama oligarchy.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_8545/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=7sAFDYPI

South Carolina's Democratic Party has asked its own Senate nominee to withdraw after learning the man has been charged with a felony, but the newly minted candidate say he won't budge.

Chairwoman Carol Fowler said she asked Alvin Greene to withdraw from the campaign against U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint Wednesday after The Associated Press reported Greene had been charged with a felony.

Court records show Greene was arrested in November and charged with showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student. The felony charge carries up to five years in prison.

Greene told AP he's the people's choice and will not step aside.

On Tuesday, Greene stunned state Democratic Party leaders by defeating a former state lawmaker, despite having no organized campaign.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/67405

The diplomat chairing a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting Tuesday allowed a Syrian delegate to call Israel "a state built on hatred, discrimination, oppression and a paranoid feeling of superiority," but a few minutes earlier scolded another speaker for referring to the Burmese "regime."

During her statement in Geneva condemning Israel, Syrian envoy Rania al-Rifai also accused Israelis of teaching their children to hate Arabs, and cited what critics said amounted to a "blood libel."

"Hatred [in Israel] is widespread, taught to even small children, who are taught to use weapons, and who are taught to sign missiles that will be fired at Arabs," she said. "Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school. And I quote, 'With my teeth I will rip your flesh, with my mouth I will suck your blood.' End of quote."

Alex van Meeuwen, the Belgian ambassador who holds the HRC presidency, made no comment during, or after, Al-Rifai's presentation.

Minutes earlier, Van Meeuwen chastised the Canadian delegate for using the term "regime" in his comments about rights abuses in Burma.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3005443/Taliban-using-HIV-bombs.html

TALIBAN fighters are burying dirty needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The Sun can reveal.
Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices.

The heroin needles are feared to be contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. And if the bomb goes off, the needles become deadly flying shrapnel.

Deadly ... needles become flying shrapnel
Deadly ... needles become flying shrapnel
The tactic, used in the Afghan badlands of Helmand, was exposed by Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer.

Senior backbencher Mr Mercer said yesterday: "Are there no depths to which these people will stoop? This is the definition of a dirty war."

Razor blades are also being used. All Royal Engineer and Royal Logistic Corps bomb search teams have been issued with protective Kevlar gloves.

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/surveillance-detection-monitoring/articles/828297-at-nevada-lab-us-prepares-response-to-nuke-terror/

In an unremarkable building a short drive from the Las Vegas strip, government analysts hover over computer monitors, watching waves of color sweep over a map of a city.

The city is Washington, D.C. The hues represent the fallout from an imagined nuclear bomb.

It is from here, in a laboratory on the edge of the vast Nevada desert, that U.S. officials would gather some of the first critical information that could affect the lives of millions in the aftermath of a nuclear terrorist attack in an American city.

Normally concealed from the world within the high fences of Nellis Air Force Base, the doors were opened last month to provide rare tours for officials from 26 countries. A reporter from The Associated Press was also invited along.

The tours were part of efforts by the National Nuclear Safety Administration to coordinate international responses to nuclear or radiological catastrophes in the United States or abroad. The visiting countries included China, Russia and Israel.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202795.php

Student Union chairman Boaz Torporovsky, who has been leading the reverse flotilla charge, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, "Hundreds of people have volunteered for the flotilla, and many more are contacting us all the time for ways they can help.

"Our plan is to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the Kurds of Turkey, who by the way outnumber Israelis and Palestinians combined," he said...

Another sea-bound venture is being organized in an effort to draw attention to Turkey's own controversial policies - this time to Cyprus, to "call for an end to the Turkish occupation" of the island's northern half - and is being organized by Meretz activist Pinchas Har-Zahav, and his son Haim, who has also signed on for the voyage...

Har-Zahav added that the ship's passengers were not looking for a violent confrontation and if told to turn back, they would.

"But we feel that it's important for us to show and remind the world that Turkey is not a righteous country, but a near-rogue state, and that we, the Israeli people, are not suckers."

Read the rest.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/does_abbas_support_for_black_g.html

Rather than being driven away by the rhetoric of Chicago extremists, Obama consistently gravitated to them, reportedly going on to hire members of the NOI cult as Senate staffers. He continued to embrace Rev. Wright well into 2008, seemingly unconcerned that the church newsletter praised Hamas and supported Hezbollah while these terror gangs were supporting Sudan's genocide of blacks as enthusiastically as they support a future genocide of Jews.

The influence of these mentors might be an underlying reason why Obama cannot be expected to express concern over Abbas' support for the murderers of black Africans. As author Kenneth Levin points out, "those in the Muslim world whose good opinion he is most seeking to win are not the Muslims of Darfur but rather Darfur's oppressors and their supporters."

And if Abbas' connection to black slavery and genocide does not stir his outrage, Obama is likely to remain oblivious to other concerns: the PA's death penalty for selling property to Jews; the Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, on PA television, calling for the murder of every last Jew and American (would Obama meet them halfway on that demand?); a Fatah official admitting that terror on a grand scale will resume when Fatah is "capable," and that "our goal has never been peace ... the goal is Palestine." (That's Palestine by the Helen Thomas definition, meaning all of Israel.)

What Abbas revealed at the Arab summit is that he is not simply a Palestinian nationalist terrorist who would stop killing after achieving the goal of land and nationhood, but rather an international Islamic supremacist, an eager participant in the quest to establish a caliphate that subjugates or eliminates Jews, black Christians and Muslims, Egyptian Christian Copts, Iraqi Kurds; in short, all non-Arabs living on land previously conquered by Arabs.

If Obama's father had never left Africa and were alive today, and if both he and Barack had ended up within reach of Bashir's militias, both would be at risk of being enslaved, tortured, and murdered by jihadists backed by Arab leaders, with Abbas being among the most vocal. Where is our president's outrage? Where is his compassion? And -- if it's not too politically incorrect to ask -- where is his racial pride? At a time when millions of blacks and Jews (among others) face the same lethal threat from Islamic extremists, the president's handling of the Darfur genocide provides insight into how he might respond to an emergency in which Israel is fighting for its life.
19 Comments on "Does Abbas' Support for Black Genocide Offend Obama?"

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/does_abbas_support_for_black_g.html

Unlike Prime Minister Netanyahu, who reportedly caused President Obama to become "livid" over the timing of an apartment-building announcement, Palestinian President Abbas comes to the White House this week knowing there is nothing he could possibly do that would offend the President.

The Palestinian Authority's terrorist-atrocity celebration coinciding with Vice President Biden's visit triggered no rebuke. Nor does the PA's crude anti-black racism seem to bother our allegedly thin-skinned president.

Shortly after PA-controlled media depicted presidential candidate Obama as an ape in the summer of 2008, Obama rewarded Mahmoud Abbas with a meeting in Ramallah (so much for his opposition to "racial profiling"). One week earlier, Abbas and his Fatah Party had celebrated the freedom and the deeds of released serial killer Samir Kuntar, whose murder victims included a 4-year-old girl, whose head he bashed in.

Obama had every reason to feel offended, even sickened, by these two "badly timed" insults to him -- one as an African-American, and the other as the father of two young girls. Yet it apparently never crossed his mind to cancel the meeting or at least express anger by keeping Abbas waiting ninety minutes. Six months later, immediately after being sworn in as president, Obama gave Abbas the unique honor of calling him before any other world leader.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202789.php

Kuwaiti Journalist: The Flotilla Was Violent; Israel Has a Right to Defend Itself

MEMRI

In a June 3, 2010 article in the daily Al-Watan, Kuwaiti journalist 'Abdallah Al-Hadlaq supported Israel's decision to stop the Gaza flotilla, saying that the outcome of the Israeli navy's operation was "in direct proportion to the violence" of the flotilla activists, and that the flotilla organizers are known to have ties with global and regional terror organizations.More...

In ending the article:

"The protests and demonstrations that broke out in various capitals are without meaning or value, as are the emergency summits [convened by] the Arab League, the E.U. and the U.N. The wave of protests will not change a thing, but a full and immediate investigation of the events will reveal all the details of what really happened... and [then] everyone will know the truth about the Hamas movement..."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obama-brings-Nixonian-twist-to-oil-spill-95733059.html

as the thick black crude and natural gas continued to erupt into the Gulf waters and public exasperation with BP's futile attempts to stop it piled up one after another, Obama dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to Louisiana to proclaim that "we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law. We will not rest until justice is done." Shortly afterward, Obama blasted BP for "lawyering up" in response to the government's threats. As ill-timed as it was, Holder's announcement nevertheless clearly confirmed what was plainly suggested by Obama's Pittsburgh speech: His top priority is not to stop the spill, but to shift blame away from himself and to forever tar his opponents with responsibility for a catastrophe made far worse by his own spectacular mismanagement.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06/07/israeli-navy-fires-palestinian-divers-gaza-medics-say-killed/

Israeli naval forces shot and killed four men wearing wet suits in the waters off the coast of Gaza Monday, and a militant group said they were members of its marine unit training for a mission.

The attack was the latest escalation in tensions over the 3-year-old blockade of Gaza. It came a week after Israel raided a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian supplies and hundreds of activists protesting the closure of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. Israeli soldiers killed nine activists in a clash on one of the flotilla boats, bringing fierce international condemnation and new pressure to ease the blockade.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202760.php

Turkish Freedom Flotilla: Images Of Israeli Commandos Attacking Innocent Passengers

Oh wait, sorry, misleading headline. Used it for people wanting to see images of how innocent the passengers were, such as Intellectual Wan, our resident spammer.

From Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/satellite-photos-support-testimony-that-iraqi-wmd-went-to-syria/2/

He said that Sabri's position would make him aware of any such deal between the two countries. However, in his book, Duelfer said that Sabri had nothing to do with any of Iraq's WMD efforts at any time. "His statements on WMD from an intelligence perspective would have been irrelevant," Duelfer wrote.

"Someone among the people we interviewed would have described this," Duelfer said. However, such testimony does exist. Don Bordenkircher, who served as the national director of jail and prison operations in Iraq for two years, told me that he spoke to about 40 Iraqis, either military personnel or civilians assigned to the military, who talked about the WMDs going to Syria and Lebanon, with some claiming they were actually involved. Their stories matched and were not contradictory, he said. Another military source of mine related to me how an Iraqi intelligence captain in Al-Qaim claimed to have witnessed the movement of suspicious convoys into Syria between February and March 2003.

I also asked Duelfer if he was aware of the intelligence provided by the Ukrainians and other sources that the Russians were in Iraq helping to cleanse the country shortly before the invasion. His facial expressions before I even finished the question showed he genuinely had never even heard of this.

As explained in detail in Ken Timmerman's book Shadow Warriors, high-level meetings were held on February 10-12, 2004, involving officials from the U.S., the UK, and Ukraine. Among the attendees were Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw, the head of MI6, and the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Ihor Smeshko. The Ukrainians provided all the details of the Russian effort, including the dates and locations of meetings to plan the intervention and even the names of the Russian Spetsnaz officers involved. Shaw also worked with a British source that ran an intelligence network in the region and provided substantiation and additional details.

The former head of Romanian intelligence during the Cold War, Ion Pacepa, has provided supporting testimony. He says that he had personal knowledge of a Soviet plan called "Operation Sarindar" where the Russians would cleanse a rogue state ally of any traces of illicit activity if threatened with Western attack. The plan's purpose was to deny the West of any evidence incriminating Russia or its ally. The presence of Russian advisors in Iraq shortly before the invasion, some of whom received medals from Saddam Hussein, is a strong indication that this plan was followed.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htchem/articles/20100604.aspx

We Can Help
NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS

June 4, 2010: Yet another UN investigation of North Korea concludes that North Korea is continuing to export weapons, despite sanctions, and efforts by many nations to interfere with this illegal trade. This includes selling technology for nuclear and chemical weapons, which turns out to be the most valuable, and easiest to transport, weapons export the North Koreans have.

Two years ago, the UN passed resolution 1874, which sanctioned North Korea for its recent nuclear weapons test, and prohibited North Korea from trading in weapons. The new reports states that the eight companies and five individuals identified, and sanctioned, for participating in the North Korean effort, are but a few of the many companies and individuals involved. The report indicates that Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma) have become new bases for those facilitating North Korean arms exports. There have been several recent incidents that made it into the news, demonstrating how the North Koreans are operating.

Israel: The Tactical Details of the Rachel Corrie Seizure
June 5, 2010 | 1830 GMT
Israel: The Tactical Details of the Rachel Corrie Seizure
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images)
An Israeli navy boat escorts the Rachel Corrie aid ship (L) as it enters the military port of Ashdod in southern Israel on June 5

At approximately 12:15 p.m. Israeli time (0915 GMT) Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) boarded the MV Rachel Corrie - an Irish ship working with the Free Gaza Movement to deliver aid supplies directly to Gaza -- after it refused a request to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod June 5. No one was injured in the quick daylight seizure that was substantially different from the infamous MV Mavi Marmara incident May 31. The Rachel Corrie, which has now arrived in Ashdod, is approximately one quarter the size of the Marmara and was carrying 11 passengers and nine crew members who made the prior decision to offer no resistance, creating a very different situation that allowed Israeli commandos to board by sea.

Israeli naval vessels began following the aid ship 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Gaza, in an event media outlets followed closely after nine people were killed in the May 31 boarding of the Marmara. But their communications were jammed by the IDF as they made the decision to board the ship. The 1,200-ton boat was asked four times to change course for the port of Ashdod, according to IDF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich. Shortly thereafter, the smaller of three Israeli boats directly approached the Rachel Corrie and boarded the ship. The Israeli military claimed the crew or passengers offered a ladder to the boarding vessel, which Free Gaza spokesperson Greta Berlin denied. The passengers were found huddled in one part of the ship, a move Leibovich said was to avoid violence.

Even the simplest visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations can be tactically challenging. Helicopter insertion and boarding by fast roping is often the preference, but is also limited by many circumstances, including the size and stability of the vessel and the availability of space that is free of masts and antennae. Opposed boarding from small watercraft can be difficult because of the vulnerability entailed in getting up to the deck of the target vessel.

But ultimately, the most important differences between the June 5 boarding and the Marmara boarding are scale and potential for violence. The MV Mavi Marmara was a 4,000-ton cruise ship overloaded with some 600 activists, and Israeli video of the initial boarding shows aggressive opposition by activists wearing gas masks and carrying weapons. They had evidently planned to use violent tactics in response to the IDF operation.

The Rachel Corrie, though still sizeable, is a much smaller vessel and carried only 11 activists and nine crew members. Boarding operations conducted against the five other ships in company with the Marmara on May 31 (Challenger 1, MS Sofia, Sfendoni, Defne Y and Gazze) were far more comparable to those against the Rachel Corrie, all of which succeeded without loss of life. Though there may have been some resistance in some of those boardings, the situation was one a small VBSS team could manage far better than the small riot that appeared to take place on the Marmara. In the case of the Rachel Corrie, activists clearly chose to protest nonviolently, which limited the security challenge to the IDF operation.

So this latest boarding does not demonstrate a major shift in Israeli tactics (though the Israeli commandos may well have been armed quite differently). It was a tactically manageable VBSS operation in which there appears to have been no resistance by the passengers or crew.

How Israel might deal with another large ship overloaded with activists is another question entirely. It remains to be seen if such a ship is dispatched, for the tactical challenges of the Marmara boarding could not be easily addressed should they arise again.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dc_turkish_denial_j3JmVrSXVlSdMsgy9nhbTN#ixzz0pzprRXKA

Fourteen months ago, President Obama made his first stop abroad in Turkey, where he told his hosts that "Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership."

Now our "partner" has stage-managed a cynical -- but brilliant -- public-relations debacle for Israel. And Washington's hiding in the wings, unwilling to face an unruly global audience.

To his credit, Vice President Joe "Look, Ma, no hands!" Biden did come out to defend Israel's right to block the flow of arms to Gaza's terrorists. But our president only called for an Israeli investigation of Israel's guilt.

Nobody's asked for a study of Turkish involvement. But if the National Security Council won't do it, I will.

In underwriting a terrorist-linked Turkish NGO's mission to Gaza, the Turks had a strategic goal and a domestic goal -- both of which they accomplished.

In the foreign-policy sphere, where the Islamists in charge in Ankara have delusions of grandeur, the mission was to position Turkey as the new champion of the Palestinians.

The Turks never took the least interest in "Palestinian suffering" in the past. They regard all Arabs as fit only to be ruled by a Turkish hand. But the Palestinian cause is not only the tool of choice to harvest applause in the Middle East; it also plays well with the Islamist base of the Justice and Development Party.

Domestically, Turkey's devout Muslim premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wanted to further isolate and reorient his country's military -- which, for all its faults, has for decades defended the secular constitution that was Ataturk's great legacy.

Since taking office in 2003, Erdogan has worked relentlessly to neuter the military, casting private conversations as coup plots and trumping up charges to arrest popular generals. Faced with an upcoming Turkish-Israeli-US naval exercise, Erdogan saw an opportunity to sever the long-standing links between his military and Israel's. The timing of that "aid" flotilla was no accident.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202747.php

Feds Seize Texas' Air Permit System

Apparently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must act for the sake of Gaia.

On Tuesday, for the first time in any state, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seized control of Texas' jurisdiction over granting a clean air permit.

Presumably, any Texas law related to the environment (and what, pray tell, isn't?) has now been trumped and made obsolete by federal regulators. Say goodbye to state sovereignty.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/06/obama-administrations-bum-advice-put-israeli-soldiers-in-extreme-danger/

The courageous Israeli soldiers who landed on the Mavi Marmara mercenary ship on Monday opened up to the press about the horrific ambush.
The Jerusalem Post reported:

When St.-Sgt. S. fast-roped down from an air force Black Hawk helicopter onto the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship on Monday morning, he did not expect to be landing in what he called "a battlefield" and facing off against a group of "murderous mercenaries."

The 15th and last naval commando from Flotilla 13 (the Shayetet) to rappel down onto the ship from the helicopter, S. said on Thursday that he was immediately attacked by what the IDF has called "the mob of mercenaries" aboard the vessel, just like the soldiers who had boarded just before him.

Looking to his side, he saw three of his commanders lying wounded - one with a gunshot wound to the stomach and another with a gunshot wound to the knee. A third was lying unconscious; his skull was fractured by a devastating blow with a metal bar.

As the next in the chain of command, S., who has been in the Shayetet for three and a half years, immediately took charge.

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/wars/articles/20100601.aspx

Worldwide violence continues to decline, but most people are unaware of this because the mass media will feature whatever wars and disorder they can find. This is an old journalistic technique, and it's good for business. But not so helpful if you are trying to keep track of what's really happening out there. Oddly enough, the most bloody conflicts (like Congo) get the least media coverage. Reporting tends to be distorted by how accessible wars are, as well as how easily your viewers could identify with the combatants. The media also has a hard time keeping score. For years, Iraq was portrayed as a disaster until, suddenly, the enemy was crushed. Even that was not considered exciting enough to warrant much attention, and that story is still poorly covered by the mass media. Same pattern is playing out in Afghanistan, where the defeats of the Taliban, and triumph of the drug gangs, go unreported or distorted. If you step back and take a look at all the wars going on, a more accurate picture emerges.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20100602.aspx

Hezbollah remains a close ally of Syria, which makes most Lebanese nervous. But most Lebanese are hostile to Israel, that hatred being the only thing that unites Lebanese (who are otherwise divided by religion and politics). Yet most Lebanese also fear Israel. It's taken for granted that the Israelis could conquer the country if they wanted, and certainly demonstrated, in 2006, that they could destroy much of the country from the air. But despite the threat, Israel pleas for Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah have been brushed away. That is largely because most Lebanese are eager to avoid another civil war. Damage from the 1975-90 conflict is still being repaired. But Israelis make it clear that, if Hezbollah attacks again, all of Lebanon will suffer, and quickly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304287.html

the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

http://www.paltoday.ps/arabic/News-64161.html


وكالة فلسطين اليوم الإخبارية - عدسة "فلسطين اليوم" تلتقط مشاهد استعدادات الغزيون لعيد الاضحى المبارك

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/22783/who-are-huwaida-arraf-adam-shapiro-gaza-flotilla-leaders-sheltered-mikes-bar-homicide-bombers-islamic-jihad/

A giant fact about the HAMAS Gaza Flotilla continues to be kept quiet by the mainstream media:

Terrorists Adam Shapiro & Huwaida Arraf Led, Organized Gaza Flotilla

Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf-the leaders of the "Free Gaza Movment" and the organizers of the HAMAS Gaza flotilla-and their organization harbored several Islamic terrorists and homicide bombers, including those who blew up a Tel Aviv Bar. They founded and head up the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

In April, 2003, Shapiro and Arraf's group, ISM, brought two Pakistani British Muslim terrorists into Gaza from Jordan under the guise of a fake travel and tours company. The men, Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, spent the night with ISM and the next day at ISM's Gaza office. Then, they blew up Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv. Three Israelis were murdered and fifty were wounded in the attack. Some sources believe that their martyrdom videos may have been shot by ISM or at ISM's offices. Shapiro, Arraf, and their ISM should have been prosecuted and put in prison for life at the very least for harboring the men who perpetrated the attacks, but nothing happened to them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/opinion/03oren.html

In the recent past, Israeli forces have diverted nine such flotillas, all without incident, and peacefully boarded five of the ships in this week's convoy. Their cargoes, after proper inspection, were delivered to non-Hamas institutions in Gaza. Only the Marmara, a vessel too large to be neutralized by technical means such as fouling the propeller, violently resisted. It is no coincidence that the ship was dispatched by Insani Yardim Vakfi (also called the I.H.H.), a supposed charity that Israeli and other intelligence services have linked to Islamic extremists.

The real intent of breaking the embargo is to allow rockets to be transported to Gaza from Hamas's suppliers in Syria and Iran. Israel has already intercepted several such ships laden with munitions. Since Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at our civilian population. This week, two Hamas rockets exploded near Ashkelon, one of Israel's largest cities.

Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself from Hamas and its backers. Our struggle is not with the people of Gaza but only with the radical regime that overthrew the legitimate Palestinian Authority and has pledged to seek Israel's destruction. Each day, Israel facilitates the passage into Gaza of more than 100 truckloads of food and medicine -- there is no shortage of either. We, too, want a free Gaza -- a Gaza liberated from brutal Hamas rule -- as well as an Israel freed from terrorist threats.

Israel will scrupulously review the events surrounding the Marmara's interception. But Israel will also persist in denying advanced weaponry to Hamas. At the same time, the Israeli government will vigorously pursue peace with the Palestinian Authority, which shares our need for defense against armed extremists. The real peace activists are those who support our vision of a two-state solution, not those supporting the terrorists bent on destroying it.

http://apps.facebook.com/opinionbattles/canvas/vote.php?battle=914&mode=related&q=90&index=2

I am not even going to link to this trash, but I wanted my readers to see how the Muslims are all calling for murder and praising Hitler. Religion of Peace? Peace for whom? They can't even keep peace in their own lands. Look at how many Muslims die at the hands of Muslims! Morons think that if they kill each other they can blame it on the Jews, not on the thugs who control them.

Barbarians think that way. Ignorant barbarians.

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6615.
Mustafa Akdeniz
(2 minutes ago)
0
Offensive Spam
TERRORIST ISRAEL
[Turkey] [Israel]
6614.
Furkan Ünüvar
(2 minutes ago)
+1
Offensive Spam
ARKADAŞLAR ÜYE OLDUĞUNUZ SAYFALARDA ÖNERİN FARKLA BİRİNCİ OLALIM
[Turkey] [Israel]
6613.
Linda Baharier
(2 minutes ago)
-2
Offensive Spam
It seems to me all this is doing is a lot of hate & vitrol - just remeber who everdies=d was some ones child and all this does not help solve the situation
[Turkey] [Israel]
6612.
Mutlu Seyhan
(3 minutes ago)
+4
Offensive Spam
Frequently ARMENIAN We do YOU have/ ERMENİLERİ SİKTİK SIRA SİZDE :)) LIVING HITLER:))
[Turkey] [Israel]
6611.
Recep Tayiib Erdogan
(3 minutes ago)
+4
Offensive Spam
The sixth commandment of the torah, "you shall not kill". The israeli government is living that commandment clearly. (Y)(Y)..LOL jks they killed 6348 palestinians since 2000 and they just stormed a Turkish ship boarding humanitarian aid, commercial goods, and innocent people willing to help the needy in Gaza.THERES NOTHING 2 B PROUD ABOUT YOU GUYS, U'S ARE FROM NATION THAT KILLS INNOCENT PEOPLE, live to the creed of the star of david!, dnt let blood dirty it. THIS IS NOT WHAT MOSES tought u's!
[Turkey] [Israel]
6610.
Nael Said
(a moment ago)
+2
Offensive Spam
stop israeli terrorism anyone uses military force is a criminal to me !
[Turkey] [Israel]
6609.
Esma Işıl
(2 minutes ago)
+2
Offensive Spam
@ sagit asayag... can anyone kill with stick another people who are very armed and attacked with guns?? and WHAT ARE YOU DOING IF YOU WERE IN THIS SITUATION, DURING THE MILITARIAN ATTACKED YOUR COUNTRY??
[Turkey] [Israel]
6608.
Erkan Kanaatlı
(2 minutes ago)
+2
Offensive Spam
I love Hitler...
[Turkey] [Israel]
6607.
Samantha Ozalp Yazici
(2 minutes ago)
+2
Offensive Spam
FUCK YOU ISRAEL
THE JEWS SHOULD HAVE DIED A LONG TIME AGO !!
GOD BLESS HITLER
THE ISRAELIS ARE FUKING SHILDREN KILLERS!!!
[Turkey] [Israel]
6606.
Ahmet Demirli
(2 minutes ago)
+2
Offensive Spam
http://www.nt-lf.com/
[Turkey] [Israel]
6605.
Airpsycho Musa
(2 minutes ago)
+3
Offensive Spam
Armenian genocide; you have to see lots of mass graves of turkish people who was killed by armanian gangs at the first world war. some stupids are talking about that without searching history and evidences... About the Flotilla raid israil attacked to civil ships and civil people. not only muslims. there were christians (protestants and catholics), jewish people, atheists, hindus... and there were not only turkish people. there were Greece, USA, Eng,German and others. CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
[Turkey] [Israel]
6604.
Kerem Bilgin
(3 minutes ago)
+4
Offensive Spam
Glaser, Roy! So what do you want to do? Torture you dishonored checks Durupta ship do you want your soldiers? So you have to attack the Palestinian people. They could not do anything for you. What happened in the end. Children without a mother, a father was. Why? Because they do not do anything. Why? Because the dishonesty of Israel! Unarmed and innocent people are holding guns to people. ISRAEL DISHONEST!!!!!
[Turkey] [Israel]
6603.
הילה בן נון
(4 minutes ago)
-8
Offensive Spam
stop terror.....
ISRAEL have the RIGHT to DEFED it self!!!!!
[Turkey] [Israel]
6602.
Ercan Akar ❷❽
(5 minutes ago)
+5
Offensive Spam
filistine oy verin bos gecmeyin!!! I love you hitler =)
[Turkey] [Israel]
6601.
Lepori Joël
(5 minutes ago)
-6
Offensive Spam
Fuck Islam, Hamas Hezbollah and the Turkish

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137863

A perusal of The Helsinki Principles on the Law of Maritime Neutrality, a basis for international law on the subject, shows that Israel was well within its prescriptions in forcibly stopping the Gaza-bound flotilla.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202718.php

"Hamas has refused to allow those trucks to go in," the official said, "and if the aid is so urgent, my question is, why are they not allowing it into Gaza?"

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2010/06/meet-the-humanitarians-who-was-on-the-ga/

Bishop Hilarion Capucci
Aboard the Mavi Marmara
No known affiliations
Convicted and imprisoned in the 1970s for smuggling weapons from Lebanon to the PLO
An article in The Daily Telegraph from 2009 described him as a 'veteran Palestinian rights campaigner', without mentioning his conviction

Muhammad Al-Baltaji
Ship unknown
Deputy secretary-general, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc
'[We] will never recognize Israel and will never abandon the resistance'

Sheikh Jalal Al-Sharqi
Ship unknown
Head of the Association of Islamic Scholars in the GCC Countries
Signed a clerics' petition calling to acknowledge Hamas's legitimacy, and to not prevent it from obtaining weapons.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Supreme-Court-Expands-Miranda-Rights-Limits/1$52621

Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You'll have to speak up.

In a narrowly split decision, the Supreme Court's conservative majority expanded its limits on the famous Miranda rights for criminal suspects on Tuesday - over the dissent of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans' rights of protection from police abuse "upside down."

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, said a suspect who goes ahead and talks to police after being informed he doesn't have to has waived his right to remain silent. Elena Kagan, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to join the court, sided with the police as U.S. solicitor general when the case came before the court. She would replace Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the dissenters.

A right to remain silent and a right to a lawyer are at the top of the warnings that police recite to suspects during arrests and interrogations. But Tuesday's majority said that suspects must break their silence and tell police they are going to remain quiet to stop an interrogation, just as they must tell police that they want a lawyer.

This decision means that police can keep shooting questions at a suspect who refuses to talk as long as they want in hopes that the person will crack and give them some information, said Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan law professor.

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2010/06/video-gaza-flotilla-thugs-use-stun-grena/

In some of the clearest video yet, we see some of the weapons used by the Flotilla passengers against what can only be described as a highly restrained IDF, including clubs, chains, and a stun grenade. These are not the actions of passive civilian peace activists. This is more video evidence of a planned violent resistance against a disciplined force willing to take a beating before causing any casualties:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsf/articles/20100530.aspx

Despite the massive stand down of British ground troops in Northern Ireland since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1997, British special forces have been back to Ulster, starting in March of 2009. The British Army operations in Northern Ireland, dubbed Operation "Banner", ran from 1969, when the insurgency in Northern Ireland started, until 2007, when the province was deemed safe enough to withdraw military forces. "Banner" was the longest continuous deployment of the British Army in history.

With the peace agreement in place and the primary combatants, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defense Association, standing down, many people assumed that there would no longer be a need for the military to step in clamp down on terrorism. Many also assumed that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) would be able to keep a lid on any dissident republican violence.

However, smaller Irish terror groups like the Real IRA have been more active over the past year, with two British soldiers murdered in an attack on an Army barracks last March. The problem of dissident republicans, and their potential to turn Northern Ireland once again into a war zone, has had the British government taking no chances. Thus, the SRR (Special Reconnaissance Regiment) has been working in Ulster over the past year to keep tabs and gather intelligence on groups like the Real IRA and Continuity IRA.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202697.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/01/storm-agatha-hole-guatemala

Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed up a three-storey building.

The first named storm of the 2010 Pacific season dumped more than a metre of rain in parts of Guatemala, also hitting El Salvador and Honduras. At least 113 people were reported killed, with around 50 missing in Guatemala alone as rescue workers searched through the rubble.

The 30m-diameter sinkhole opened up in a northern district of Guatemala City, with residents blaming the rains and substandard drainage systems. Local reports said one man was killed when the building was swallowed. In 2007, three people died when a similar sinkhole appeared in the same area.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202688.php

Gaza Flotilla: Bringing Some Of The Videos Out Of The Fold

Misunderstanders of what unarmed means:

Note: Peace activists don't want this shown even though they filmed it. It's being flagged like crazy..

Can't let the truth get in the way now can they? Feckers