Ambassador Michael Oren addressed an overflow audience on US-Israel relationship and global affairs at the Univ of Calif Irvine. He discussed the Zionistic element (support for the return of the people of Israel to their ancestral homeland) within America's founding and maturing, from John Adams, through Abraham Lincoln, to Harry Truman. He discussed Americans' widespread spiritual and social support for democratic Israel, the only land where rule of law guarantees free-speech in the Middle East. He discussed the evolution of the multi-faceted ties between the US and Israel- which strategic relationship began towards the end of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Amb. Oren noted the U.S. and Israel's shared values - spiritual and democratic, and their shared interests- economic and political - from allying to resisting Communism, to resisting Islamic-extremism, today.
He discussed the state of the current relationship between Washington and Jerusalem, vis a vis the Obama's administration's pressure to force the creation of a state of Palestine. He discussed Israel's considerations regarding the conditions of Palestinian sovereignty and prioritizing it over stopping nuclear proliferation within the Islamic world - which would extort the West with threats to leak nuclear-weapons into Islamic-extremists' hands.
U.C. Irvine, with a large Muslim enrollment, has been criticized for fomenting a climate of aggressive anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism through its Muslim Students Union. The M.S.U. organized a stream of students disrupting through the speech, ignoring appeals from Chancellor Paul Drake and Political Science Dept Director Mark Petraca. Police Chief Paul Hensley chose not to position a uniformed police deterrence between the disrupting Muslims' seating sections and the Ambassador at the podium following repeated outbursts- and Muslim students continued to disregard faculty appeals- creating 10 disruptions. At least eleven agitators were arrested. Amb. Oren walked out briefly, but Rabbi David Eliezrie reports that he elected to return on his dedication to the attendees, his Jewish perseverance, and the promise of his hosts to assert better control of the audience.
Palestinian political refugee, Ghazi Brighith, denounced the Muslim agitators' behavior as deplorable and un-Islamic.
Israel's Amb. Michael Oren delivers insight into American-Israel relations- over interference from Univ of Calif Irvine, Muslim Students Union agitators - 11 arrested
Should Fox News Register as a Saudi Agent?
I kept thinking about Alwaleed -- his stake in News Corp., his stakes in Georgetown and Harvard -- and realized that as a leading scion of the so-called House of Saud (q: how many countries are named for their rulers?), a totalitarian theocracy whose foundational documents -- the Koran, the Sunnah, the Hadiths -- place it in direct ideological conflict with the US Constitution, he operates not just as a billionaire businessman, but also, inevitably, by virtue of who he is, as an agent of Saudi influence.
News Corp. wants to do business with him? Fine. But shouldn't News Corp.'s Fox News thus be required to register with the State Department as a foreign agent of Saudi Arabia? That's the question posed by this week's syndicated column:
Christians terrorized by Hamas in "Palestine" / Gaza
True accounts of terrorism against the Christian civilians in Gaza by Hamas.
(Video courtesy Operhok)
Former CIA Director, James Woolsey, on the importance of western-allies' alliance with Israel
Former CIA-Director James Woolsey answers - Would the West's sacrificing defense of it's democratic ally, Israel, improve conditions from oil-producing, imperialist Islamists?
Filmed at the Herzliya Policy Conference, Feb 2009.
Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and Bibi Netanyahu to address 10th annual Herzliya Policy Conference
Monday 8:30 am - 21:30 Israel time, 10:30pm Sunday - 11:30 am Pacific time
Tuesday 8:30 am - 21:30 Israel time, 10:30pm Monday - 11:30 am Pacific time
Wednesday 8:30 am - 20:45 Israel time, 10:30pm Tuesday - 10:45 am Pacific time
Watch Live Video from 2010 Herzliya Conference during session hours. Highlights are available here a short while after the session finishes. Full archived sessions should be available a the day after they air.
Videos from 2009 Policy Conference
Survivors and PM Netanyahu mark Auschwitz death camp 65th anniversary of liberation by Soviet Army
Commemorating the icon of how Europe's Nazi's and Fascists exploited Christian anti-Semitism for their political power. (ABC Australia Video)
(AP Video)
A remarkable documentary resource exploring the phenomenon of WWII concentration camps, particularly Auschwitz, should be viewed on DaMoosebelly's Channel on YouTube
This BBC-aired video is the sixth and final volume of "Auschwitz- The Nazis and the Final Solution" in a series that examines the Auschwitz death camp from conception to implementation of the "final solution" which resulted in the execution of over 1,100,000 people. This portion gives an overview of the further atrocities suffered at the hands of Soviet "liberators" as well as some people who took justice into their own hands. Also touched on is the appalling failure of the Allies to prosecute some of the worst war criminals...and even help some of them evade prosecution
Atlas Shrugs has an interesting article about the recently discovered Auschwitz blueprints (allegedly hidden by Amin al-Husseini- Hitler's Mufti) and the Mufti's importing Nazi ideology and techniques for demonizing and annihilating of Jews (as a power-technique) into the Muslim world.
Arkansas recruitment shooter confesses motivation Pentagon report omits: killing U.S. servicemembers domestically is a 'Muslim obligation for Jihad'
The Pentagon's report about the motivations of Ft. Hood shooter, Palestinian-American Army Major Dr. Nidal Hasan, omit reference to Islamic religious dogma for Muslims killing of American service-members.
But Carlos Bledsoe, (pictured right) who attacked an Arkansas, Army-recruitment store, answered for the public what the Pentagon report refused to acknowledge. His motivation for shooting to kill white 23-year old Army Private William Long and wounding an 18-year old African-American Army recruiter private wasn't racial. It wasn't political opposition to the war, it was his Islamic religious beliefs. He confessed to the judge in his case that he is commanded, as an American Muslim, to fight those who wage war on Muslims.
(CNN - Jan 22) A Tennessee man -- accused in a fatal attack at a military recruiting center in Arkansas in June -- wants to plead guilty and claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen in a letter he wrote to the judge presiding over his case.
In the handwritten letter dated January 12, Abdul Hakim Muhammad said he did not want a trial and insisted the shooting was "justified" under jihad.
Mr. Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe,(pictured left) is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23 (photos left, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18 (photo right). The attack happened on June 1 at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. In his letter to the judge, Muhammad claimed he had links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, a group that has claimed responsibility for the attempting bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
(End CNN article) (Photo right) Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula
To what degree do Muslims living in the West (especially as citizens) have dual-allegiance? Where Islamic law contradicts Western law, how often will Muslims prioritize Islamic law (shariah)? And to what extent should Western society involve itself to insure allegiance to its laws among those with a propensity to subvert its laws, or with an allegiance to promoting a conflicting political system?
A report delivered to the French parliament recommends restrictions on the use of the full face veil for Muslim women in public. It suggests banning the veil in public facilities including hospitals, universities and mass transit. (AP, Jan 26)
Time Magazine publishes: "Face Veils: Bans in Europe Fail to Take Hold in U.S."
Politics Daily publishes this op-ed by Bonnie Erbe: "France's Proposed Burqa Ban: Why Americans Might Want to Consider It Too"
Israel's humanity revealed in Haiti; Who has been misleading us about the Israeli nature?
The Muqata Blog posted and translated (from Hebrew) this letter from an Israeli soldier serving in Haiti to his parents:
The Delegation to Haiti
In the lifesaving IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, doctors prevent disabilities. They administer aid to the sick, provide warmth, love, and a human touch. They love the wounded.
In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents located in the middle of a hell, every complex medical case has an ethics review board.
In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, the chances of success are debated whether to amputate the entire leg of a child: the chances of a premature infant to survive while on a ventilator in a preemie unit in the tent.
In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation which came from Israel in the Middle East to Haiti, there are American volunteer doctors. They have no other useful installation in which to work in. A doctor and nurse from Germany came. They heard this is best hospital in Haiti. An emergency room team from Colombia arrived with all their equipment and asked if they could set up next to us to be part of our hospital. England is the enlightened country in Europe, the one which has an academic boycott of Israel; twenty British doctors and nurses asked to work with us.
All these people, without exception, stand together at the morning formation at 7 AM in the flag square. The flag of Israel. The flag of a country which was established after the USA was already superpower. After the British left a land under their control. After Colombia was already an established country. After the Holocaust against the Jewish people.
In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there are equal rights among all. Equal rights in Haiti, which was a nation of slaves, where even today there exists a great social divide between the rich and the poorest of the world's poor.
The IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents is the embodiment of ultimate human ethics. Brotherhood at its best. The epitome of the verse from the Biblical portion of Kedoshim, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Obama Admin places Haiti relief in hands of overdue-USAID appointee, Rajiv Shah, 36, (instead of military); medical supplies logistics snafus cause havoc, overburdening (even TV) doctors with needless casualties
The Haiti humanitarian aid operation, recent Obama appointee Rajiv Shah, 36, said, is being conducted in close coordination among USAID, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, other U.S.-government organizations including the Defense Department, and civilian agencies.
The Obama Administration has been criticized for critical delays caused by taking authority for the rescue mission away from the Pentagon in order to put in in the hands of the uninitiated State Dept appointee, Dr. Shah, who they hadn't appointed until 5 days prior to the Haitian earthquake.
“I think it has been a tremendously positive effect” Secretary of the State Ms Hillary Clinton is thrilled that Mr. Raj Shah is on board,” Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Mr PJ Crowley, told reporters at the daily State Department news conference yesterday.
()
CNN's Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta confirm the dearth of medical supplies and stabilizing resources are disillusioning the overtaxed surgeons, physicians, and nurses on location in Haiti.
National Public Radio criticizes TV medical correspondent physicians are putting themselves into the story at the expense of the patients.
"What disturbs me about the media doctors is that they are basically pulling telegenic people out of the queue and giving them exceptional resources," says Dr. Steven Miles, a medical professor and bioethicist at the University of Minnesota.
Miles served as the medical director of the American Refugee Committee for 25 years, and he has overseen relief efforts in places such as Cambodia, Laos and Banda Aceh, Indonesia. He says doctors who largely have experience working in highly advanced civil societies, including the U.S., may not understand the extreme choices facing those addressing catastrophes such as the one in Haiti.
If reporters who are also physicians want so badly to step out of their journalistic role to help, he argues, they should volunteer instead with relief agencies in Haiti — and set aside an hour a day to grant interviews to their network employers.
The Fort Hood Report "Why No Mention of Islam?" Time Magazine cover-story challenges aversion to acknowledge Islamism
U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission.
The Congressman whose district includes Fort Hood agrees. "The report ignores the elephant in the room — radical Islamic terrorism is the enemy," says Republican Representative John Carter. "We should be able to speak honestly about good and bad without feeling like you've done something offensive to society."
The report lumps in radical Islam with other fundamentalist religious beliefs, saying that "religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor" and that "religious-based violence is not confined to members of fundamentalist groups." But to some, that sounds as if the lessons of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq, where jihadist extremism has driven deadly violence against Americans, are being not merely overlooked- but studiously ignored.
Read more.
Israeli trauma surgeon in Haiti allows a crack of emotion
By Catherine Bremer PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The key to working in a disaster zone hospital, where casualties pile up faster than patients can be discharged, is to avoid getting emotionally involved, says Dr. Ofer Merin, an Israeli army trauma surgeon working in the earthquake-shattered Haitian capital.
Dr. Merin, heading a fully equipped hospital brought in by the Israeli military, said the hardest job was triage -- deciding which casualties were most likely to live with quick treatment or most benefit from intensive care without blocking up beds.
It also is vital not to fret about what will happen to orphaned children with limbs in casts who have to be discharged to free up needed beds, Merin said.
"These are ethical decisions we're not used to taking," he told Reuters on a break from his around-the-clock schedule.
"You try to have almost no emotional connection with the patients, which is so different to what we do back home. You just cannot get emotional in a disaster this big."
He breaks into a grin, though, over four babies born at the camp hospital. One of them is a tiny girl named Sourire -- French for "Smile" -- whose two-months-premature birth may have been triggered by the trauma of Tuesday's massive earthquake.
As Merin shows off the facilities, a skinny 6-year-old girl called Jessica is carried in, plastered with grime, dust and flies, and is scrubbed from head to foot with disinfectant.
Six days after the quake, she has just been dug out of the rubble of her collapsed family home. She is too weak to stand so her aunt, who cannot stop repeating "Thank you, God," holds the trembling girl upright for a nurse.
"When they lifted her out we could not believe she was alive," the aunt told Reuters. "She opened her eyes wide and said, 'My name is Jessica Chatain and I am hungry and thirsty.' She didn't cry but her parents wept a human sea."
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 people and has left countless victims with horrific injuries.
Foreign governments and aid agencies have flown in medics from around the world but they were only able to get to work in the past couple of days. Some are working in dilapidated hospitals crammed with wailing patients in insanitary conditions.
HARD NOT TO CRY
Set up in green army tents on a soccer field near the airport but equipped to treat even complex injuries, the Israeli military hospital is strangely quiet and scrupulously clean. Patients are identified with bar codes and their progress is tracked on a computer network.
Within hours of the surgeons, paramedics, nurses and soldiers landing late on Friday, people on makeshift stretchers with crushed, gangrenous limbs were lined up outside for beds in the intensive care, pediatric, orthopedic and other wards.
More than 300 patients have been treated and discharged.
In intensive care is a woman whose arm was cut off at the rescue scene to free her. In the operating theater another woman is having her leg amputated above the knee to save her from a potentially lethal infection.
Experts say that with earthquakes, trauma to the head often means instant death and chest trauma can mean dying a day later. With damage to limbs victims can survive a few days before the infection of an open wound or broken bone sets in.
"That's why at this stage most of what we're seeing are orthopedic cases," Dr. Merin said.
He tries to stick to his ban on sentiment but wavers at the sound of nurses cheering on another woman in labor in the maternity ward tent.
Jessica was buried alive because she tried to hide under stairs when the rest of her family jumped out of the window of their home. Now she lies contentedly in the pediatric ward with a drip in her arm and Dr. Merin cracks a little bit.
"Six days underground and look at her now," he mutters. "She's going to be fine. These are the times it's hard not to cry."
CBS and CNN online news editors downplay Israel's role in reporters' stories
Though CBS' Dr. Jennifer Ashton and CNN's Dr. Elizabeth Cohen's video news stories feature Israel's prominent M*A*S*H field hospital, you'd never know it by the omission of any reference to Israel or their field hospital in their story descriptions or blurbs. Why not? Because Israel doing a visibly humanitarian act contradicts their vilified casting of the country, culture, Army, and ethics?
The web editor does their best to marginalize Israel's role in the print story:
Also Monday, a local community hospital with three operating rooms re-opened and just three miles from the large and sophisticated field hospital set up by the Israeli military continues to treat patients and save lives.Neither story mentions what the problem with America's field hospital is, or why the Israelis are being relied upon, but not recognized, for having to pick up U.S. slack.
In ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser's story, even though he features the Israeli Army field hospital as the saviours of his obstetric crisis, Israel is also omitted in the editors' description online. 3 TV networks news stories feature Israel favorably, 3 networks' websites omit it. Coincidence? Or journalistic-bias?
Israeli humanitarian M*A*S*H field hospital in Haiti working double-duty in America's absence - 'The only ones operating"
Israeli field hospital earns accolades as the only aid mission able to do complex surgery in devastated country. CNN reports other missions transfer patients to Israeli base. ABC reported on young woman giving birth there.
According to the report, other field hospitals contain no more than stretcher beds and medical teams who administer first aid, and they are not prepared for complex surgery.
More than 100 injured patients require surgery, but are unable to get it anywhere except at the Israeli field hospital in Port-au-Prince. The doctors are unable to meet the demand, and meanwhile the patients lie in tents, administered with painkillers, and cry for help. "They'll die within 24 hours if they don't get operated on," CNN's Medical Correspondent Dr. Elizabeth Cohen reports.
Criticism against the US mission was voiced in the ABC News item. The US had sent staff for a field hospital, but they had still not received the instruments required for surgery. The equipment was supposed to arrive by the weekend, but will get there only Monday night, it seems. Only then will the US be able to set up its field hospital. The Obama White House said that a US ship, to be used as a floating hospital, is also on the way from Baltimore to the earthquake-torn country. The ship, with 600 doctors and nurses as well as medical equipment is due to arrive within two days. (Ynet Mon 18 Jan 2010)
Harvard's Dr. Jennifer Furin treating Haiti's infectious-diseased: "No one except the Israeli hospital has taken (to save the lives of) any of our patients!" With tiny Israel from the far-side of the planet shipping, manning, and running the only humanitarian, mobile surgical hospital on the scene, another American doctor comments about their need to put-upon Israel, America's tiny, under-funded ally, "This almost makes you embarrassed to be an American." Watch CNN's Dr. Elizabeth Cohen's video news report
The Israel Defense Forces' field hospital is currently the largest operating in Port-au-Prince. It has a staff of over 40 doctors, with different specialists, nurses, paramedics and features a maternity ward, ICU, pediatrics unit, internal medicine department, a pharmacy, and operating rooms. The hospital can treat up to 500 patients a day.
Exactly one year ago, Israel established a free humanitarian hospital to treat wounded Palestinians on the Gaza border. Hamas denied ill Palestinians access to these humanitarian medical services, which operated empty for weeks.
"Beating the Dead Terrorist Horse" by Victor Davis Hanson's column in NRO
No doubt Middle Eastern poverty contributes to religious violence. But the poor in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Yemen are no more impoverished than those in the slums of São Paulo, Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh City, or Johannesburg. And the latter, despite their frequent claims against the West, do not feel a need to murder in mass in the name of their particular religion.
A Major Nidal Hasan or an Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wishes to kill Westerners not because he is poor or even on behalf of the poor, but rather out of a warped sense of pride, hurt, and anger.Such passions derive from a radical religious creed that insists that comparative failure in the modern Middle East is not self-induced — much less a product of fundamentalism, anti-Enlightenment thinking, autocracy, gender apartheid, tribalism, corruption, and statism. Instead the fact that there is no longer an intercontinental caliphate of rich and powerful believers is due to some sort of contemporary Jewish or Western oppression.
ISRAEL IS NOT THE PROBLEM
Just because radical Muslims and the Arab Street claim that a Jewish presence on the West Bank is the catalyst for terrorist outrage does not make it so — any more than Hitler’s insistence that Versailles drove him to the invasion of Poland in 1939, or Argentinians’ claims that their problems in the early 1980s originated with the British “occupation” of the Malvinas.
No Germans today are blowing up Poles for the loss of Danzig and East Prussia. Greek Cypriots are not planting IEDs at Turkish embassies to force the return of ancestral homelands. And the world is not concerned about the divided city of Nicosia or Russian occupation of the Kuriles.
No, what privileges the Palestinian question is largely three factors that have nothing to do with disputed ground:
1) The presence of huge amounts of oil on Arab lands,
2) Endemic anti-Semitism in the West and at the U.N., and
3) Fear of radical Islamic terrorism.
Take those considerations out of the equation, and the West Bank is about as important to the world as a disputed South Ossetia. We forget that there were three Middle Eastern wars well before the so-called occupation of Palestine. Gaza did not become a calm place once the Israelis left.
Should Palestinians cease the violence, welcome investment from elsewhere in the Arab world, and establish a consensual government, one transparent and free of corruption, the West Bank could become like Dubai — and deal with Israel as a responsible neighbor adjudicating a common border. And yet radical Islamic terrorism in general would nevertheless continue with fresh and always mutating grievances.
Entire list in National Review Online
Muslims near Luxor gun-down 7 innocent Coptic Christmas church-goers; Muslim pogrom destroyed 80% of local Coptic businesses & pharmacies
(Jihad Watch) Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egyptian as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.
The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded.In November, an unidentified man raped a Muslim 12-year old Qena province girl. She told police that she was only certain that her attacker wore a black jacket, nothing beyond. To preserve the girl's honor (in the face of Muslim law disregarding a woman's testimony against a Muslim men) it is alleged, a libel was concocted with a Coptic Christian perpetrator.The Copts are the unswerving, the descendants of the original Egyptians who did not, when the Arabs came, give up and accept Islam. Enduring the humiliation, degradation, and permanent physical insecurity of the dhimmi status, many Copts not unsurprisingly fell away, gave up, accepted Islam, took Arab names and thought of themselves no longer as Copts but as Arabs. They forgot their own past. But that was not enough for some Muslims, and there were episodes of mass forced conversions intermittently over the past thousand years.
Reports estimate that 10 pharmacies and 55 shops and businesses in Farshoot and several nearby villages were vandalized, torched or damaged during the few days of Muslim, anti-Copt riots which began on Nov. 21. In Farshoot alone, about 80 percent of Coptic businesses were destroyed, which translates to about over $1 million in damages.
Muslims rationalized the massacre as revenge against Coptics for the rumoured rapist's ethnicity.
ex-Pres. Jimmy Carter's sins addressed by Alan Dershowitz in documentary: "The Case for Israel: Democracy's Outpost"
While Israel works to achieve a mutual acceptance with its neighbors and enemies, the anti-Israeli criticism in the media, the universities, churches, and in the international community persists. Among the voices that defame Israel is U.S. former President Jimmy Carter. In spite of the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, and in spite of the Oslo accords with the Palestinians, the disengagement, and Camp-David and Madrid conventions these elements continue to blame Israel for the lack of solution to the conflict. The famous American lawyer and Harvard professor, Alan Dershowitz, walks us through the fundamental issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with the help of many Israeli and American political, law and academic leaders. Produced by Gloria Greenfield. (Courtesy Growchange)
"Why are we so bad at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent?" asks Christopher Hitchens
The West's failure to recognize the Islamist, theocratic ideology inciting Islamic rejection of the Jewish State revisits the West through aviation. If we recognize that Jihadists are Muslim 'holy warriors' where we fight them in uniform, when will we acknowledge who they are domestically? Christopher Hitchens writes in Slate, 28 Dec 2009
"What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets."Prof. Victor Davis Hanson explains the Islamist's war against the West in this DemoCast exclusive video:
"The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high."
Israel, the vanguard against Islamist imperialism, provides new air-security methods to allies
Islamic militantism (which the world used to disregard for being directed only against Israel) today threatens all the world. Draconian measures of invasive, full-body x-ray scans are being expanded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Will "profiling" Muslim passengers for security consideration be politically acceptable and functionally effective? Or will Islamic terrorists avoid detection by arming alternative ethnicities?
El Al Airlines' retired Chairman, Izzy Borovitch, and CEO Offer Gat, discussed the difference between airline security and airline security with DemoCast.TV earlier this year.
Isaac Yeffet, former director of El Al Airline's security and today a security consultant, explained to Fox News Israel's air-travel security techniques which, he believes, could benefit every country.
Mr. Yeffet criticizes some of the security-mania measures which the Dept of Homeland Security is implementing and offers alternatives.
al-Qaeda's Christmas gift - killing 278 civilians in a NWA jet over Detroit - narrowly fails; vigilant passengers disable burned bomber
From CBS News:
A senior law enforcement source speaking to CBS News has identified the suspect as Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23. The suspect has told federal investigators that he was sent by al Qaeda. He claims he picked up the explosive material in Yemen and was instructed to set it off on board an airplane. Those claims could not immediately be verified.
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room's Michael O'Brien writes:
The suspect in an alleged attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas was on a list "indicating significant terrorist connections," Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Friday.
King, the top Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee, described the suspect in the attempted bombing of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit as a 23-year-old Nigerian national with potential ties to al-Qaeda.
"He is a 23 year old Nigerian who is also - it's been confirmed to me - while he was not on a no fly list, his name was on a list for having terrorist connections," King said during an interview Christmas evening on CNN.
Media falsely reporting facts about Bethlehem at Christmas
Aaron Klein exposes international coverage of ancient Christian city
Like clockwork, every year at this time reporters file misleading and, in some cases, outright false reports about the state of Christmas in Bethlehem.
They claim Israeli policies have wreaked havoc on the city's economy and that Israel is responsible for the massive flight of Christians from Bethlehem. Yet the news media completely ignore Muslim intimidation and get their facts wrong on documented history and the true state of affairs in this ancient town.
As an example, Al-Jazeera's video story, "Israel's policy leaves family stranded" here intentionally distorts both history and facts.
Investigative reporter Aaron Klein debunks al-Jazeera's myths in his complete story on World Net Daily.
Right to know vs need to know- managing a free press in Israel during wartime with unscrupulous Gaza Hamas
Hamas abuses reporters, to fabricate myths of "atrocities" against Palestinians- Israel's press officer, Danny Seaman claims.
Pentagon pushes bunker-buster bomb back 6-months; Cordesman's conflict scenarios
A "bunker buster" bomb, with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, has been rescheduled for availability by the United States December 2010, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defense Department told Reuters on Friday.
Military analysts doubt Israel could disable Iran's nuclear facilities in a raid even with dozens of aircraft. Tehran has had years to build covert facilities, spread elements of its programs and develop options for recovering from an attack."Strong as Israeli forces are, they lack the scale, range and other capabilities to carry out the kind of massive strike the U.S. could launch," Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon strategist now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in September. (Reuters)
By Anthony H. Cordesman
Nov 19, 2007 - The attached briefing provides the material used in a scenario analysis and interactive game that looks at some of the consequences of a future nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran, and the possible impact of its expansion to cover targets in Syria, Egypt, and the Gulf.
Exclusive video interview: Pat Boone: 'Islamists, Iran exploit Obama's philo-Islamism, miso-Zionism - to imperil global stability, security'
At the David Horowitz Freedom Center's premiere of Muslim psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan's treatise, "A God Who Hates," Pat Boone explains how Islamists, particularly Iran's Mullah-ocracy, exploit Obama's philo-Islamism and miso-Zionism - to imperil America's stability and global security.
Mr. Boone perceives the Muslim world's campaign to capture Jerusalem as part of the movement to conquer the Jewish state of Israel. He cautions viewers of what he sees as Obama and the nations' (U.N. & EU) actions to weaken Israel through establishing an Islamist Palestinian reichlet as part of a metaphysical conspiracy against the God of Israel. His columns may be read on NewsMax and World Net Daily. Another Democracy Broadcasting News exclusive video.
Putin's Russian bear should be regarded as vicious, cautions Soviet-born, Elya Baskin, star of classic movie "2010"
The West should regard Russia as a ruthless competitor and subversive force, warns Latvian-American actor, Elya Baskin. Russia's proxy battle with the U.S. for hegemony over the Middle East involves Russia's support for Iran, its nuclear (weapons) program, and Islamist terror networks in Palestine and Hezbollah (against U.S. ally-Israel). Have Westerners, in their Iraq-war-fatigue, become complacent about the insidious rivalry from a disgruntled former-superpower?
Soviet-born star of Russia-U.S. suspense movies, Elya Baskin, explains Russia's rivalry with America, and the revived Kremlin leaders' intent to shift the balance of power by damaging America (in this DemoCast exclusive video interview).
Iranian Cyber Army
THIS SITE HAS BEEN HACKED BY IRANIAN CYBER ARMY
iRANiAN.CYBER.ARMY@GMAIL.COM
U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But They Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples To….
NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA? WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST ;)
These cyberattacks pose a dilemma for the West: what is our threshold to retaliate defensively? And if attacked by proxies, such as independent terror groups, against whom do we retaliate? This applies both in cases of physical and virtual mischief.
Pentagon Preparing for War With The Enemy: Russia by Rick Rozoff in Global Research, May 2009
Last week the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Kevin Chilton, told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast "that the White House retains the option to respond with physical force - potentially even using nuclear weapons - if a foreign entity conducts a disabling cyber-attack against U.S. computer networks...."
An account of his talk added "the general insisted that all strike options, including nuclear, would remain available to the commander in chief in defending the nation from cyber strikes."
Chilton "said he could not rule out the possibility of a military salvo against a nation like China, even though Beijing has nuclear arms," though the likely first target of alleged retaliation against equally alleged cyber attacks would be another nation already identified by US military officials as such: Russia.
In late April and early May of 2007 the government of Estonia, which was inducted into NATO in 2004 and whose president was and remains Toomas Hendrik Ilves, born in Sweden and raised in the United States (where he worked for Radio Free Europe), reported attacks on websites in the country which were blamed on Russia.
Over two years later no evidence has been presented to substantiate the claim that Russian hackers, much less the government itself, were behind the attacks, though it remains an article of faith among US and other Western officials and media that they were.
The response from American authorities in the first place was so sudden and severe, even before investigations were conducted, as to strongly suggest that if the attacks hadn't been staged they would need to be invented.
Right afterward Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne stated, "Russia, our Cold War nemesis, seems to have been the first to engage in cyber warfare."
N.Y. Times Op-Ed by Tom Friedman acknowledges the Jihad against the West; will the Left finally accept it?
The N.Y. Times Op-Ed page published a Tom Friedman-penned piece entitled www.Jihad.com (although he didn't mention the word Islamism. Will that be enough for the Left to accept that Islamism is a real political threat?
So please tell me, how are we supposed to help build something decent and self-sustaining in Afghanistan and Pakistan when jihadists murder other Muslims by the dozens and no one really calls them out?
A corrosive mind-set has taken hold since 9/11. It says that Arabs and Muslims are only objects, never responsible for anything in their world, and we are the only subjects, responsible for everything that happens in their world. We infantilize them.
Arab and Muslims are not just objects. They are subjects. They aspire to, are able to and must be challenged to take responsibility for their world. If we want a peaceful, tolerant region more than they do, they will hold our coats while we fight, and they will hold their tongues against their worst extremists. They will lose, and we will lose — here and there, in the real Afghanistan and in the Virtual Afghanistan.
"Liberals' prejudices restrict conservative themes from popular entertainment" - Cheers' John Ratzenberger
America's ability to defend its society against Islamist and other ideological subversion is being undermined by liberal entertainment creatives' prejudices - limiting conservative themes in TV and filmed entertainment.
TV sitcom, Cheers star, John ("Cliff") Ratzenberger, explains how conservative themes and values are prejudicially excluded from popular entertainment media.
Mr. Ratzenberger contends that Hollywood and New York entertainment workers' strive to dominate the culture with Liberalism by excluding conservative perspectives - thereby placing the society at risk. The media centers of NY and L.A., he ironically contends, would be the most attractive targets for enemy attack.
Evidence Iran building nuclear bombs; Congress to add petrol to sanctions - will Obama enforce - or force Israel to strike? Dennis Prager on potential backlash
In November, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said in Washington that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel.
Adm. Mullen said he would prefer that the U.S. work diplomatically to keep the country from acquiring nuclear weapons, but hinted that should such efforts fail, the U.S. air force and navy could be put into action as well. ("U.S. Top Brass: Nuclear Iran is existential threat to Israel"; Ha'aretz; Nov 8, 2009).
Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times (published Dec 14, 2009) show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.
(Catherine Philip in Times of London Online "Secret document exposes Iran’s nuclear trigger" Dec 2009).
The Israeli government's single-minded focus on Tehran has caused friction with the Obama administration, which is seeking to engage Iran and to promote a deal with the Palestinians. Publicly there is no rift: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he supports efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program diplomatically, as long as harsh sanctions are imposed if no progress is shown. But the threat of a unilateral Israeli attack remains on the table—and while that threat may give the Americans leverage in talks with Tehran, an actual attack might well invite Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia.In an exclusive interview with Democracy Broadcasting News, radio host, Dennis Prager, says that if the US and UN strategy to enforce sanctions sufficient to thwart Iran's nuclear weaponizing in time, a potential Israeli pre-emptive strike could be perceived in different ways, according to how President Obama chooses to spin it. Watch exclusive interview with Dennis Prager here.
The Wall St. Journal published US military expert, Anthony Cordesman's, analysis of how effective an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear development program might be. "No one knows what specialized weapons Israel may have developed on its own, but Israeli intelligence has probably given Israel good access to U.S., European, and Russian designs for more advanced weapons than the GBU-28. Therefore, the odds are that Israel can have a serious impact on Iran's three most visible nuclear targets and possibly delay Iran's efforts for several years."
Last year, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both endorsed the gasoline restriction, and this year, House and Senate leaders reintroduced the gasoline sanctions bill as the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, now headed by Congressman Howard Berman and our coalition of 343 congressmen and 76 senators behind the bill. (Slated for voting on before the Christmas break).
After four years and six months, Congress will finally consider our gasoline restriction legislation this week. While this bill could emerge as the key tool to peacefully end our standoff with Iran, it will prove meaningless if the president keeps gasoline sanctions locked in his diplomatic toolbox.
Our Petroleum Sanctions Act would add a ban on the provision of gasoline to Iran under the old 1996 Iran Sanctions Act, a law that already makes it illegal to invest more than $20 million in Iran's oil and gas sectors.
Under this old law, our president must declare someone in violation before sanctions take effect. Few realize that no American president has ever enforced this provision. According to the Congressional Research Service, at least 20 companies are currently violating the 1996 law.
For the threat of sanctions to change Iran's decision-making, Iranian leaders must believe an effective gasoline sanction is credible. If President Obama, like his predecessor, lacks the will to enforce the 1996 Sanctions Act, we should not expect Iranian leaders to believe a new threat of additional sanctions.
For the House's new 2009 Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act to succeed, the Iranians must believe the president will enforce it. Otherwise, we will continue down a failed path of diplomacy in the absence of effective sanctions.
Popular, political talk-radio hosts Michael Medved & Larry Elder anticipate New Year's developments before a sold-out audience in Hollywood
DemoCast.TV exclusive: Talk-radio star Larry Elder jokes with Michael Medved, after appearing with Salem Communication's talk-radio stars - Dennis Miller, and Dennis Prager at the KRLA-LA TownHall 2009 - about their experiences and aspirations together.
Evidence of incredible Palestinian "facts" of "militant" casualties actually "civilian" exposed by bloggers
Our results so far show that at least, if all armed police are counted, 426 of the 1180 people who PCHR classifies as "civilians," were, in fact, militants.
That means 660 people were legitimate combatants under IHL and therefore legitimate targets.
Why, then, did the PHRC classify so many known militants as civilians? One can only conclude that the reason is to deceive the media.
Such a high number of Al Qassam members among the police killed indicates that Hamas itself does not distinguish between its so-called civilian and military wings. Effectively, Hamas considers its police to be the same as its military force. If Hamas does not make such a distinction, why shouldn't everyone else conclude that its entire police force is a legitimate target?
We have identified 355 militants in addition to the police, of whom 157 were identified as civilian by PCHR.
Video courtesy Elder of Ziyon
Elder of Ziyon's team cross-checked the names listed by PCHR with lists of "resisters" compiled by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, lists of "martyrs" published by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and other militant groups in Gaza, as well as from the Ma'an News Agency, Palestinian Arabic discussion groups and other sources.
Our preliminary results show that at least 342 of the people killed, that PCHR classifies as "civilians," were, in fact, militants. The PCHR's statistics are deceptive and slanted towards creating a false impression of IDF brutality.
Islamists & their advocates re-directing US security, policy on Iran, Israel, and Middle-East
Islamist-regime advocates are infiltrating Washington through the Obama Administration and are undermining U.S. security policy, former counter-Communist intelligence expert, Prof. Clare Lopez cautions.
In "Rise of the Iran Lobby", a white-paper which she published earlier this year through the Center for Security Policy, Ms. Lopez illustrated how a network which includes well-known American diplomats, congressional representatives, figures from academia and the think tank world - with ties to the clerical regime in Tehran - would be co-opting America's foreign policy in the Middle East, and specifically towards the dangerous Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is imperative to recognize the role being played by what amount to their (CAIR, NIAC) interlocking (or at least overlapping) boards of directors, donations from the same foundations and growing access to some key members of Congress and top levels of US policymaking circles. Of special concern is the growing penetration of the Obama Administration by a number of individuals with such associations.Today, the former counter-Communist CIA agent's predictions are manifesting visibly. The State Department's chief Iran chair, Dennis Ross, has been replaced by a close supporter of the mullah regime, John Limbert. Ed Lasky at American Thinker wonders who is directing these changes:
To be sure, efforts at influencing U.S. decision-making are common among a host of legitimate interest roups, including many foreign countries. But in this context, where the guiding force behind such influence operations emanate from the senior-most levels of a regime like Iran’s – which holds the top spot on the State Department list of state-sponsors of terror, makes no secret of its hatred and enmity for the United States and its ally, Israel, and acts in myriad ways to support those who have assassinated, held hostage, kidnapped, killed and tortured American civilians and military personnel over a 30-year period – such operations must be viewed with serious concern.
Specifically, the de facto alliance between CAIR, one of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates named by the U.S. Department of Justice as an unindicted co- conspirator in the 2007 and 2008 Holy Land Foundation trials, and groups such as NIAC and its predecessor, the American-Iranian Council (AIC), which long have functioned openly as apologists for the Iranian regime, must arouse deep concern that U.S. national security policy is being successfully targeted by Jihadist entities hostile to American interests.
The controversy regarding the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) - whether it violated US law by not registering as a lobbying group, whether it's views are too closely aligned with those of Tehran, whether it is too close to George Soros, and the problematic views of its founder and head, Trita Parsi - has raged over the last week or so.
One of the most startling developments was produced by a discovery motion that took place as a result of a defamation suit the NIAC filed against one if its critics.
This was a plan to maneuver Dennis Ross out of the Iran chair at the State Department because the NIAC thought he would not as supportive of outreach towards Iran as the NIAC. The NIAC got its wish and then some. Not only was Ross pushed out and into the netherworld of the National Security Council (where he has not been heard of since) but he was replaced by John Limbert, who serves on the Advisory Council of the NIAC itself.
Who did the dirty deed of dumping Dennis? ...
All these positions echo those of the National Iranian American Council and certainly comport with the wishes of the Tehran regime. Former Congressman Lee Hamilton's speeches regarding Iran were so highly thought of by the NIAC that the group posted reports of them on its website. The NIAC approved of the Iraq Study Group (the Baker-Hamilton product) report that advocated engagement and working with Iran, and downplayed the value of sanctions.Ms. Clare Lopez' "Rise of the Iran Lobby" is proving to be prophetic - and therefore deserves a fair reading - and heeding.
(Hamilton also wrote a positive blurb for a book that glowing depicted the Iranian-supported Hezbollah terror group ).
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