A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt

A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt:

While anti-Israeli attitudes are not uncommon in Egypt, they are becoming more virulent after the revolution so much so that 54 percent of Egyptians prefer annulling the peace treaty with Israel, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center.

The point of interest here is not to morally judge these attitudes, but to examine whether or not their underlying assumptions are logically justified. Three myths about Israel appear to continue dominating Egyptian public opinion:

1. Israel works to weaken Egypt
Common among conspiracy theorists in Egypt is the notion that Israel wants an Egypt that is weakened, divided, and torn by sectarian violence. Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal stands out in expressing this notion while in office, though a considerable number of intellectuals and former high-level officials do not hide their belief in it. Typifying this view is the editor of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram who argued that Israel supports the counter-revolution forces in Egypt, citing the rumor that Israeli former chief of military intelligence confirmed his success in sowing seeds of division within Egyptian society.

In fact, a stable Egypt is in Israel’s interest. A divided Egypt might turn into another Iran, where organized Islamists took over a shattered state after a democracy-seeking uprising. Alternatively, it might turn into another Lebanon, where state weakness allows actors like Hezbollah to attack Israel at will. Would Israel be interested in creating a similar situation in which Jihadists join Hamas and operate from Egypt? Of course not.

At best, a chaotic Egypt might turn into a Mexico (or a Pakistan?) where another weak state fails to stop cross-border illegal immigration, drug and weapons trafficking. Thousands of African illegal immigrants enter Israeli territory from Sinai each year, despite measures taken by Egyptian authorities. Skyrocketing numbers of African infiltrators, drugs, let alone explosives, would reach Israel in case the Egyptian government loses control, or is domestically too busy to control borders.

None of these scenarios are good for Israel, and therefore it would certainly be interested not in undermining Egypt, but rather in an in-control, stable government in Cairo to keep the peace, and maintain order on the southern border.

2. Israel wants to occupy Egypt
The conventional view that Israel plans to occupy Egypt or re-occupy Sinai is part of a broader myth that Israel’s long-term strategic objective, out of Jewish religious beliefs, is to rule from the Nile to the Euphrates. Alleged “evidence” maintains that over the Knesset’s entrance hangs a map asserting that “the Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates,” and that the Israeli flag’s two horizontal blue lines represent the Nile and the Euphrates rivers. Yet the truth is that there is no such a map in the Knesset, and the lines in Israel’s flag are derived from the design of the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.

The “Greater Israel” claim is as true as the contention that Muslims plan to establish a world-ruling Islamic caliphate. Some ultra-extremists might want to, but the vast majority does not even think of it. First, it would take a fairly insane Israeli leadership to bear the massive military and economic burden of invading a country of Egypt’s scale. Note that occupational experiences have exhausted Israel in areas as small as the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and even the West Bank. Second, paradoxically, this claim contradicts another generally accepted view by the Egyptian public asserting that Israel is militarily superior and enjoys full, unconditional US support. Why, if this really is the case, has Israel not attempted an invasion? The answer is simple: Israel is satisfied with the current status-quo — in which, it perceives, Israel is the one deterring its neighbors and not vice versa — and is not interested in a territorial expansion that would go far beyond its capabilities.

3. Israel is all-powerful
Most Egyptians apparently believe that the premises of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, displayed in an Egyptian TV series titled “A Horseman without a Horse” in 2002, are true. Within this framework, obviously inflated notions — such as that Israel exploited agricultural cooperation with Egypt to either cultivate cancer-causing products in Egyptian soil or export these products to Egypt, and that the Mossad stood behind the December 2010 fatal shark attacks to hit tourism in Egypt’s Red Sea resorts — are easily accepted. Notwithstanding that such allegations have no factual or logical grounds, no one stops to ask why should an Israel facing serious security challenges (Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.) busy itself with that kind of stuff.

On a larger scale, Israel, or the Jewish people (as people hardly distinguish between Jews and Israelis), is viewed as a mighty force that rules the world through Jewish communities. It follows that any Israeli (or Jewish) economic or cultural activity in Egypt is seen as part of a “grand plan” to penetrate the society and gradually pervade all walks of life. While the Israel lobby in the US and elsewhere is truly powerful, the claim that the Jewish state controls the world provides, unfortunately, a tool to cover up one’s own failures than a realistic proof.

That these misconceptions are shared by a large part of the Egyptian public, which in a representative democracy will significantly influence the foreign policy agenda, is disappointing. That is because the revolution against the old regime has not yet removed old myths which deny the public opinion credible and informed judgments, regardless of whether a democratic Egypt would see in Israel a friend or a foe.


Amr Yossef is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo

Muslims want second mosque in Sofia

 

byThe Sofia Echo staff

Photo: Reuters

The leadership of Sofia's mosque have said that the temple is now too small to hold the capital's Muslim community during Friday prayers and that the authorities should authorise construction of a second mosque.

In order to avoid future tension with other residents, and to prevent rallies such as that staged by Ataka members on May 20, they have also vowed to "reconsider" their policy of allowing worshippers to pray outside, hoping to reduce obstruction to pedestrians during prayer time.

They have also promised to reduce the sound on loudspeakers to the "bare minimum" so that the noise does not disturb the surrounding area.

read more: http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/05/27/1096358_muslims-want-second-mosque-in-sofia

Saudi Arabia calls for sharply lower oil prices.

 

 

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said an oil price of $70 to $80 a barrel is in the best interests of Saudi Arabia because it diminishes the urgency in the U.S. and Europe to develop alternative energy sources.

“We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives,” Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, said in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” scheduled for broadcast today. “The higher the price of oil goes, the more they have incentives to go and find alternatives.”

The rebellion in Libya, political turmoil in Bahrain and speculative buying are responsible for driving oil prices to more than $100 a barrel, Alwaleed said. Crude for July delivery rose 36 cents to settle at $100.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange May 27. Prices have increased 35 percent in the past year.

Alwaleed, who owns Citigroup Inc. (C) shares and ranks 26th on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest billionaires with a net worth of $19.6 billion, said he continues to invest in the U.S. and that the nation is “down, for sure, but it is not out.” Standard & Poor’s lowered its U.S. credit-rating outlook on April 18 to negative, citing the widening budget deficit.

Saudi Arabia needs to enact laws that allow for greater public participation in government, Alwaleed said. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is seeking to encourage pro-democracy movements inspired by those that ousted longtime leaders in Tunisia and Egypt as part of the so-called Arab Spring to create broader, regional changes.


http://yourjewishnews.com/6904.aspx

Newt: In the 1990s, Who Cared About the 10th Amendment?

By David Weigel

 

I've been working on other stuff today and couldn't keep track of the buffeting Newt Gingrich is taking even if I wanted to. Politico's scoop about the Gingriches' debt to Tiffany's is the kind of detail, like John Edwards' haircuts or Dan Quayle's spelling, that lends itself so easily to Jay Leno monologues that it might never fade. It's like watching a Street Fighter II character get flurry-slapped by E. Honda. And it's all happening to a fascinating candidate whom no one would call the frontrunner.

Phil Klein has a solid recap of Gingrich's air-clearing conference call, which succeeds in clearing very, very little. He's a prisoner of his record, which stretches back to times when Republicans entertained the idea of carbon caps, or health care mandates, or when they experimented with entitlement reform and got burned. He's failing litmus tests left and right. On the mandate:

It's nonsense to start a conversation by going back 18 years and playing "gotcha." I was explaining the position of conservatives who were trying to defeat HillaryCare. In 1993, you had nothing like the current focus on the 10^th amendment. You had nothing like the current desire to get power out of Washington. And you didn't have the sense of radicalism that Obama has injected into the system, in the sense of drifting toward a socialized bureaucratic structure that runs the whole country.

read more: http://www.slate.com/BLOGS/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/05/17/newt-in-the-1990s-who-cared-about-the-10th-amendment.aspx

Will Islam Destroy Itself?

In his address to congress, Netanyahu said that militant Islam threatens Islam. As if there were any such thing as a non-militant form of Islam. An ideology that was militantly expansionistic from birth. And yet that expansionism does threaten it.

It's not mere militancy that threatens Islam, but its own lack of proportion. Had the Nazis satisfied themselves with a round of domestic purges and only a little territorial expansionism, today they might still be running a bankrupt decaying state. And news stories from the 1970's and 1980's might carry reports of popular protests against the disastrous economics of National Socialism. But Hitler and his cronies lacked a sense of proportion. When they capped off an invasion of Russia, war in Africa and an air campaign against England, with a declaration of war on America-- they were done. And their ideology went down with them.

If an ideology fighting a simultaneous war on nearly every continent sounds familiar, it should. The new Islamic crusade is just as arrogantly overextended. Just as certain that it can win every battle because it's destined to. That its inherent superiority makes it unbeatable. And that its enemies are cowards who are easily tricked and even more easily beaten.

Petrodollars and Jihadis are being rushed to conflicts around the globe. And Muslim countries are racing to acquire nuclear weapons, even though it puts their own populations in the firing line of a nuclear war. Muslim terrorism is turning immigration into a national security issue. And Sharia is raising hackles even among many liberals. The arrogance and hubris of the Islamic crusade for a new caliphate has made too many enemies, too fast. And it relies on Western complicity and money. That remains its weak point.

Had Muslims focused on domestic revolutions, most of the world would have let it go. Western countries have lost their enthusiasm for armed interventions on behalf of tyrants. And if foreign businessmen can learn to live with Dubai and Saudi Arabia, they would have accepted similar transformations in Egypt and Syria. Muslims could have assembled a Caliphate with hardly an objection from abroad. But instead they spent more time focused on conquest, than on revolution.

Like an amateur gambler flush with his winnings, the Imams and Mullahs swelled with pride and decided they couldn't lose. They wouldn't just bring down their own countries, instead they would tie everything together and pull it all down. Use terrorism to blackmail and intimidate the West. And then use that as a lever for regime change. It's working quite well so far. But then again most battle plans work, when the enemy is hardly fighting back.

The Islamists are assembling too many enemies too fast, to consider what would happen if those enemies united against them. They have spent too much time gloating over the Western dependency on their oil and their immigrants to think about what will happen the day the oil pipeline and the immigration pipeline are cut off.  Like the Nazis, they are spending too much time moving pins on a map to note all the places where they are advancing, all the wars they are fighting and all the mosques they are building, to take the time to realize how vulnerable that makes them.

Fortune rewards the aggressor who takes the initiative. But that's only until he overreaches. And then the other side takes the initiative. 

Hitler thought himself quite clever for taking the Rhineland, seizing Austria and carving up the industrial riches of Czechoslovakia with the consent of his old enemies. Then with bombers flying over London and tanks deep in Russia, the Third Reich and its allies seemed unstoppable. But then a few years later, enemy troops were closing in on Berlin. That's the problem with believing you'll win because you're destined to. By the time you realize how badly you screwed up, it's too late.

By the end of 1941, Hitler was actually taking the initiative against America, which last time around had decisively turned the tide. There's hardly a more clear cut case of completely forgetting the lessons of a war that you had actually fought in. But the Nazi drive to power had been built on denying the real political, military and economic lessons of WW1. The assertion that Germany lost because it was betrayed, doomed it to lose a second time.

The Islamists suffer from the same problem. Their denial of history dooms them to repeat it all over again. Their assertion that Islamic states are immune from the social and economic problems of secular states means that their aspirations for a Caliphate will fall apart into bickering and civil war.  And their belief that Islamic warriors are any better than ordinary tribals armed with machine guns and RPG's has been disproven on countless battlefields. The myth of the suicide bomber is the last resort of a delusional ideology trying to deny its own human vulnerabilities.

Racial and religious doctrinal purity does not equal omnipotence. And Islamic expansionism is due to relearn the same lesson that World War II meted out to the aggressors. The Caliphate and Third Reich are the vision of maniacs and demagogues trying to turn back the clock to a mythical past. Building castles in the sand by a bloody shore.

The obsessive petrodollar construction projects of Dubai have something of Albert Speer about them. Huge tasteless buildings constructed to show the grandeur of a regime, even while revealing its lack of taste and creativity. And its underlying insecurity. The Nazi, Communists and now Muslims obsession with constructing gargantuan inhuman structures reveal some of the insecurity behind the violence. Giant concrete and steel security blankets by vicious men terrified of their own mortality.

Insecurities lead to grandiosity. The tilting shots of Leni Riefenstahl depicting the Aryan man as more than human, or the Muslim martyr who willingly kills himself for the Jihad, share a common contempt for humanity. And beneath that contempt a craven fear of being merely human.

The ambition of the Caliphate conceals its own rot. The graffiti portraits of martyrs on walls turn them into museums of fear. The grandiosity of a worldwide Jihad is not the work of strongminded men, but of weak ones.  The Jihad is not on the march because it is strong, but because it is unable to offer any real solutions to domestic problems. All that Islamic groups do is offer subsidized services and bribes in exchange for popular support. The same cheap trick that every Muslim and even non-Muslim government does.

Like Nazism and Communism, the Islamic utopia is unsustainable. A fool's dream overseen by greedy thieves and guarded by vicious butchers. And like them it gains credibility only from extending the conflict. From positioning itself as the force of light standing against the darkness. And like them, Islam destroys the societies it takes over in order to continue a war that has no purpose except to disguise the foolishness of its doctrines and the incompetence of its visionaries.

The inherent social instability of Islam necessitates its expansionism. Just as the economic instability of National Socialism made Kristalnacht and the invasion of Poland necessary for the Nazi elite. Or the economic failures of Soviet Communism made its own expansionism inevitable. A strong warlike country's ideology doesn't fail internally, until it also fails externally.

The Islamic Jihad is a social instability disguised as brute force expansionism. Weakness trying to pretend it's strength. Events in Iran have shown that Islamic regimes are no more stable than secular ones. Eventually the greed of the ruling oligarchy and the fanaticism of its clerics runs into the barrier of public frustration and rage. Exporting the same instability and fanatical violence to Western countries through immigration may topple the free world. But it's more likely to lead a backlash. And that is exactly what's starting to take place now.

Western socialists need immigrants, but even they have their limits. And that limit will be reached when they realize that Islamic immigration and violence makes their dream of a new Europe and a world united under international law null and void. Even without that, their welfare state utopias have a limited lifespan. And when those utopias collapse, they won't have much use for immigrants. Or for the violence they bring with them.

Islam is overreaching badly. Its political successes have inflamed its sense of destiny. But politics turns. And unlike a high tech society or a competent military-- the political advantage and wealth that comes from an addiction to oil are both vulnerable to sudden change. The wheel of history is turning. And while Muslims are confident that it is turning in their direction, they would do well to remember that the glorious days of mastery they are trying to recapture came to an end for a reason. That the ruler of history raps hardest the knuckles of those who refuse to learn its lessons. And that they have now become its worst pupils.

 

 

 

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/05/will-islam-destroy-itself.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews+%28from+NY+to+Israel+Sultan+Reveals+The+Stories+Behind+the+News%29

 

Jerusalem Arabs ask Israel to remain in control

 

Ryan Jones

The Israeli Knesset's Interior Committee met on Monday to discuss future control of Jerusalem as pressure mounts for Israel to surrender the city's eastern half to the Palestinian Authority.

Among those slated to address the committee were Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem who want to continue living under Israeli sovereignty.

That these Arabs would risk their lives to come forward and request to remain part of Israel debunks the international misconception most recently enunciated by US President Barack Obama that the Palestinian Arabs cannot reach their full potential or live dignified lives while under "Israeli occupation."

It also provides further evidence for the conclusion of Israel Today's recent cover story revealing that many Palestinian Arabs do not want an independent state, and already live in peace and prosperity with their Jewish neighbors.

Monday's Knesset gathering was called by lawmakers who are growing increasingly concerned over how parts of eastern Jerusalem are slowly falling under the de facto control of the Palestinian regime.
"Signs of Israeli sovereignty are disappearing in parts of Jerusalem that are behind the partition fence and their place is being taken by hostile elements," wrote the lawmakers. "This, despite the lack of any decision by the Knesset or the government on the matter."

They warned that this "impotence leads to the de facto division of Jerusalem."


http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/22808/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Has Obama Lost Middle East Credibility?

 

What's the Latest Development?
Longtime Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk says President Obama has missed many opportunities to promote pro-democratic reform in the region while maintaining alliances with some of its most repressive regimes. "Obama's failure to support the Arab revolutions until they were all but over lost the U.S. most of its surviving credit in the region. Obama was silent on the overthrow of Ben Ali, only joined in the chorus of contempt for Mubarak two days before his flight, condemned the Syrian regime...but makes it clear that he would be happy to see Assad survive..."

What's the Big Idea?
While State Department officials talk openly about cultivating goodwill in the Middle East by supporting pro-democratic reform, have decades of double talk made American foreign policy Orwellian? And to what degree will Obama support a Palestinian state? "Obama says no Palestinian state must be declared at the U.N. But why not? Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says? Not even, it seems, the Israelis. The Arab spring will soon become a hot summer and there will be an Arab autumn, too. By then, the Middle East may have changed forever. What America says will matter nothing."

Read it at The Independent

Gaza: Sheikh Yassin's house declared heritage site

Hamas to open home of spiritual leader killed in 2004 to visitors, turning location into historical landmark

The Hamas government decided to open the home of its former spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated in 2004, to visitors. 


A Hamas official announced the decision will allow visitors to learn more about Yassin's "Jihadist career" as well as his activities against the "Israeli occupation."


"The goal is to commemorate his image in a place which saw him devote his life to the distribution of Islam," the official remarked.


Sheikh Yassin's wheelchair


Hamas prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh gave his blessing to the project, saying: "It will help us revive the memory of the Sheikh amongst the Arab and Islamic population."


Visitors will be able to see the many pictures hanging in Yassin's living room, including photos with such leaders as Former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The wheelchair he used to get around the house and his conference room will also be on display.



The house. Books and photos


Abu Bilal Yassin, the person tasked with maintaining the site, said the home embodies "the history of the Palestinian people's resistance as well as Yassin's life."


Hamas made sure to preserve and display, for the first time ever, the wheelchair Yassin sat on when he was assassinated, as well as the blanket he covered himself with that day.

"We've transformed the house into cultural and intellectual reference points to show how modestly he lived. We'll open the house for visitors so they will learn about the Jihadist life of the Sheikh," Abu Bilal said.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4075509,00.html

Elior Levy

Published:  05.29.11, 19:46 / Israel News

When Memorial Day Bleeds Across the Calendar

 

By Alex Horton

As the Stryker rumbled around a corner, I began to drift out of consciousness. Having rolled into Baqubah only a few hours earlier—and still unsure of our surroundings—we were confident our armored vehicles would intimidate the enemy here as they did in other areas. Though it was only mid-March, the temperature was flirting with triple digits as we strained under the weight of armor and ammunition. My eyes grew heavy as the radio squawked about conditions outside the windowless green truck.

The streets were suddenly desolate, except for a group of kids sitting on the courtyard wall of a school. In seconds, the radio chatter followed, as it began to mirror the sense of foreboding that swept over the men in the hatches. No cars were on the roads and shops and cafes were empty. The ghosts of the city watched silently as we passed concealed roadside bombs and abandoned houses rigged to explode. As we approached the school, the kids on the wall plugged their ears and grinned in depraved anticipation. They had been waiting for us all morning.


The blast that killed Brian Chevalier tore through armored steel like a bull colliding with a thin red sheet. His Stryker took flight for just a moment, corkscrewed through the air and landed on its side. Broken bodies poured out the back and were loaded onto other trucks as machine guns fired on rooftops lined with insurgents. The last time I saw Chevy was when he was placed gently into a body bag as the school courtyard wall was being eaten by monstrous Bradley guns. The kids either ran away or lay dead in the compound. Chevy was not the only one who slipped into darkness that day.

Even as a young kid, I reflected on my distant relative killed at Gettysburg, and the men my grandfather and uncle knew in Korea and Vietnam who came home in flag-draped transfer cases. But a turn down a trash-strewn road fundamentally changed the concept of love and loss for many in the platoon. We were young soldiers and unaccustomed to death. It was no longer something only our grandparents had to worry about. Suddenly we were eulogizing our brother who never had a chance to grow old and live a full life.

Memorial Day is meant to remind folks of the sacrifice borne by those who fell in battle in defense of the country, as well as their families. But once you lose someone in combat, Memorial Day bleeds across the rest of the calendar. Chevy’s name is written across the steel bracelet I wear on my wrist, and it’s as indelible as any memory of him that I have. It would be unconscionable to keep his memory constrained to one day a year, and the same goes for the other men we lost. The anniversaries of their deaths have become somber rallying points for the platoon. We call each other, share stories and catch up on old times. We toast and drink over the phone. The guys get back together across telephone lines and Facebook walls.

I hope civilians find more solace in Memorial Day than I do. Many seem to forget why it exists in the first place, and spend the time looking for good sales or drinking beers on the back porch. It’s a long weekend, not a period of personal reflection. At the same time, many incorrectly thank Vets or active duty folks for their service. While appreciated, it’s misdirected. That’s what Veterans Day is for. Instead, they should take some time and remember the spirit of the country and the dedication of those men and women who chose to pick up arms. They never came home to be thanked, and only their memory remains.

Chevy’s death sent shock waves through our unit and took a soldier from his men, and a father from his daughter. It was the moment we realized we weren’t invincible or young anymore. We grew up on that schoolhouse road. Memorial Day has simply become another day to think about him. But for those who haven’t lost anyone in battle, I hope they can, at least for a moment, share in the sorrow and incredible pride I feel for after having served with him. He remains forever a soldier.


http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/?p=3181

How to Achieve Energy Security and Fair Gas Prices

---

How to Achieve Energy Security and Fair Gas Prices Posted: 28 May 2011 12:08 AM PDT THE FOLLOWING email was sent to ACT! for America members by Kelly Cook, ACT's National Field Director. We at Citizen Warrior fully support ACT's commitment to this issue, and we urge you to help make this happen. The stakes could not be higher. And now, Kelly Cook's message: Face it. We’ve been played. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is playing a deadly game with America. Their oil price fixing mechanism is legendary in the unjust world of anti-trust schemes. The fact is that oil prices in the $15 to $20 a barrel range provide plenty of fair and reasonable profits for any oil exporting nation. Then why are oil prices today over $100 per barrel? OPEC is laughing all the way to the bank. Here’s the game: OPEC, through the willingness to price fix among its 12 nation partners, gradually ratchets up the price of oil through secretly agreed-to reductions in supply. They don’t care if they’re not producing as much oil. The skyrocketing prices on the oil they do produce are more than enough to provide for their lavish lifestyles and...their generous donations to worldwide Islamic jihadist operations. As soon as the American public starts to really feel the pain at the pump and begin to lobby their members of Congress to do something about it, oil supplies “magically” increase and the price of gas settles down just enough to prevent the outrage that was about to boil over. And so the cycle goes — by design! We at ACT! for America are tired of being played in this deadly game of supplying the enemy with the resources to attack us. This is why we are fully supporting the Open Fuel Standard ACT of 2011. We are calling for Members of Congress to enthusiastically co-sponsor this vital legislation. Why the Open Fuel Standard Act? Imagine you’ve got a flex fuel car — a car that has been retro-fitted to accept at least 2 different kinds of fuel. You notice the price of regular gas just hit $4.10 per gallon. Because you can also run on methanol (or electricity, natural gas, etc), you check the current price for methanol which is approximately $1.65! Now that you’ve got “Fuel Choice,” you fill up with methanol! Methanol can be produced from natural gas and biomass (common trash, plant wastes, landfill materials, etc). Therefore, it’s a potential environmental winner as well. What happens when tens of millions of consumers start taking advantage of fuel choice and switch to other fuels? OPEC is forced to bring down its prices in order to compete. Game over. The price of oil per barrel would plummet down to its natural market trading range of $10 to $25 per barrel. How can we be so sure of this? Brazil has already done it — back in the 80’s and it’s still working for them! Do you know that two of the major car suppliers to Brazil’s flex fuel market are GM and Ford? Brazil’s proven success demonstrates that a single nation can employ this strategy successfully as a solitary nation against the forces of worldwide markets. Why shouldn’t the U.S. and other major oil consuming countries follow suit? The transition costs are minimal when compared to the tremendous savings and security we all will enjoy through fuel choice! I know some of you are asking: “What about Drill Baby Drill”? We are enthusiastically in favor of developing all strategies to disarm OPEC and their deadly allies. We need to develop all forms of energy, especially our unfathomable supplies of oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy technologies. Encouraging fuel choice through the Open Fuel Standard ACT of 2011 will only enhance these and other needed developments. ***Action Items*** 1) Invest 5 minutes to support fuel choice for your gas tank and for the nation! Contact your member of Congress and urge them to be a co-sponsor for H.R. 1687, the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011. We are starting to pick up real momentum in this process! Please make sure your member of Congress is a co-sponsor. Click Here to complete this simple process. 2) Check out the amazing new website dedicated to the passage of the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011. Please sign up for email updates and find out the many reasons we need to actively promote this bill. The resources this site has amassed are considerable. There are many factors involved that we just don’t have the space to cover in a single email. Please avail yourself to this vital information. Click Here for this creative new website!

The Arrivals pt.35 (The Temple of Solomon)

Terrorist we cannot deport faces new charges

 

The full extent of the danger posed by a Muslim terrorist protected from deportation by the British courts can be disclosed.

British courts have protected the unnamed Muslim terrorist from deportation Photo: PA

By David Barrett

Forgery equipment and "high quality" fake documents used in terrorism were discovered by police buried in the back garden of his Manchester home and the man - who cannot be named - is facing a retrial overseas on terror charges.

Italian security services bugged the Tunisian's conversations, found him to have "intricate knowledge of terrorism" and are likely to seek his extradition for a second time, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

This newspaper reported exclusively last week how Home Secretary Theresa May's order to keep the man out of Britain because he was a threat to national security had been overturned by judges in the Court of Appeal.

He is accused of playing a key role in a Europe-wide terror cell which recruited Islamic extremists to fight jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan, possibly against British and American forces.

Judges also banned naming the Tunisian - identified in legal documents by the initials MK - who was first extradited from Britain to Italy in 2008 to face terror charges but was acquitted last year.

A senior officer with the Genoa carabinieri special operations unit, one of Italy's main counter-terrorism teams, said MK was the subject of a three year investigation which involved monitoring telephone calls made from Italy to him in England.

"When he was arrested in Manchester a significant amount of material used for forging documents was found in his house and buried in the garden - the forged documents were of a very high quality," said the marshall, who declined to be named.

"We remain convinced he was in touch with people who had contacts in Iraq and Afghanistan with terrorist cells.

"From my experience of him and the investigation he certainly had an intricate and particular knowledge of terrorism but as I say after four years it is difficult to say now if he was dangerous but at the time he was and so that is why we are appealing.''

And an Italian security source said: "During the investigation we bugged some private and public premises and we are now developing transcripts of those Arabic conversations that were bugged.

"Some of those conversations were bugged in the immigration detention facility during the case in court. The latest ones involve MK and we intend to use them as evidence in our appeal."

He said MK was believed to be a "key figure" in the terror organisation which was under investigation.
"MK was eventually convicted of being with false documentation and a number of rubber stamps, false paperwork and items to make forgeries were found in the garden of the house where he was arrested in England.

"We were disappointed that he was acquitted along with the others but we are in the process of appealing that sentence. I strongly believe that at that moment in time MK was a significant terrorist figure," he said.
Italian prosecutors will allege MK was involved in an extremist group inspired by a secret militant branch of the radical international Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

MK, who is in his 50s, was arrested in a dawn raid by Greater Manchester Police in November 2007, along with 17 other suspects in Italy and other European countries.

Poisons and ignition devices were seized at addresses in a number of northern Italian cities.

MK was acquitted of terrorist charges in a Milan court in July last year but convicted of falsely procuring a document. Because of time spent on remand he did not have to serve a further sentence and was arrested at London City Airport the following month.

Judges ruled he had a right to stay in Britain to appeal against the Home Secretary's decision.
A preliminary hearing in the Italian prosecutors' appeal was heard last week and a full hearing against MK is due to take place at the Corte d'Assise d'Appello in July.

The operation of the Italian legal system means the court can not only overturn MK's acquittal but also convict him of the charges.

Upon any conviction, Italian authorities will apply for a new warrant to extradite MK to Italy from Britain, where they believe he is currently located, although the Home Office refused to discuss his whereabouts.

The development raises significant questions about the British Court of Appeal's handling of MK's case, and whether the Home Office and British security services have liaised adequately with their Italian counterparts.

The appeal judges' ruling made no mention of a possible retrial in the Italian courts. And because it is not known whether MK is under surveillance by MI5 and Special Branch, it is difficult to predict how easily British authorities could trace him if Italy requests his extradition for a second time.

The first extradition of MK took 12 months to complete after his lawyers brought a lengthy appeal under human rights laws. They claimed his removal to Italy would place him in danger of further extradition to Tunisia where he would be at risk of torture and ill-treatment.

A second extradition request would be likely to see MK's lawyers repeating their arguments under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Last night a Tunisian human rights lawyer said the Jasmine Revolution in January, which led to the ousting of the country's long-time dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, had cleared the way for MK and others to return to Tunisia.

Samir ben Amor, secretary of the Tunisian Association of Political Prisoners, said all political prisoners had been freed and their convictions set aside.

“This is a different country now. He can come back without any risk,” said Mr Ben Amor. “Hundreds of Tunisians in the same position have already come back from England and elsewhere.”

Mr Ben Amor’s statement significantly undermines MK’s claim to the British courts that he would face ill-treatment or persecution if deported from this country.

The Sunday Telegraph knows the identity of MK but has been prevented from disclosing it by the courts because he is an asylum seeker.

He came to Britain in 2001 and lived in Manchester with his wife and daughters. He had earlier been convicted in his absence of terrorist offences by a military court in Tunisia.

But his claim for asylum is likely to be based on being a member of an Islamist party in Tunisia which was banned before the regime was overthrown by this year's popular uprising - meaning it would have no grounds for success.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual cases, but public protection is the first duty of government and there are strong measures in place to ensure national security."

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8543920/Terrorist-we-cannot-deport-faces-new-charges.html

 

Michigan U.S. reps call for Congress to reaffirm civil rights of Muslims

Rep. John Conyers (Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

 

By Eartha Jane Melzer

 

Detroit Congressmen John Conyers and Hansen Clark, both Democrats, have asked Congress to counter a general climate of bias against the American Muslim community by passing a resolution affirming the civil rights of Muslims.

“We believe that this sense of Congress is a logical step toward sending the message that the American Muslim community should be able to enjoy the rights guaranteed under the Constitution to the same extent as all other Americans,” said Conyers and Clarke.

“Communities should be protected from the threat of violence and suspicion that, for example, was at the heart of last January’s thwarted attack against the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan. They should also be able to rely on law enforcement’s fundamental integrity and respect for First Amendments protected rights.”

“Ultimately, the American Muslim community should be able to rely on the federal government to lead the effort in fostering an open climate of understanding and cooperation. Only through a balanced examination of the challenges facing the nation will we establish a strong policy framework for protecting security, while respecting the Constitution and the interests of affected communities.”

This month the Department of Homeland Security announced it was opening an investigation into reports that federal agents have improperly detained and harassed Muslims at U.S.-Canada border crossings in Michigan.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations told the Detroit Free Press that Muslim Americans are questioned about their religious practices, subjected to humiliating searches, and kept in jail cells by border patrol agents for no legitimate reason.


http://www.americanindependent.com/186007/michigan-u-s-reps-call-for-congress-to-reaffirm-civil-rights-of-muslims

Pakistani Muslim rapist admits women have no rights or opinions in Islam

 

 Acharya S Contributing Writers - Acharya S

A practicing Muslim man raped and threatened a young Norwegian girl for several hours. Numerous rapes in Sweden over the past several years have been committed by "non-Western men," e.g., Muslims. In fact, in the past year, all rapes in Oslo have been committed by non-Western men.

"He said that he had the right to do exactly as he wanted to a woman. Why? Because that is how it was in his religion. Women did not have rights or opinions. He was in charge."

Islam teaches utter disrespect for women, who are mere possessions of savage men, to be raped whenever the beasts feel like it. At least this rapist admitted that fact of Islamic misogyny and sexism, which should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

"Women are your fields: go, then, into your fields whence you please." Quran 2:223

"Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and forsake them in beds apart, and beat them." Quran 4:34

"A male shall inherit twice as much as a female." Quran 4:11

"Call in two male witnesses from among you, but if two men cannot be found, then one man and two women whom you judge fit to act as witnesses..." Quran 2:282

Berlusconi: "Arab Spring shows democracy compatible with Islam"

Big Pharma attempting to corner the market on medical marijuana

Veiled talk of American imperialism

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1f4876bc-8a26-11e0-beff-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1NnEro1Eo

 

Review by Christopher Caldwell

The historian Eric Hobsbawm once wrote of his fascination that fashion designers “sometimes succeed in anticipating the shape of things to come better than professional predictors”. If you could say why a few women under the influence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood began donning the veil half a century ago, just as historians, sociologists and politicians were pronouncing its obsolescence, then you could explain a lot about Islam today and about the west’s conflicts with it. This is what Leila Ahmed, an Egyptian-born professor at Harvard Divinity School, aims to do in a book that traces the meanings of the Muslim veil from postwar Egypt to the present-day US.

The hijab and the forms of Islamic dress you see on the street in Egypt are the uniform of Islamism, or political Islam – and they are an innovation. “These were not styles that the women’s mothers or grandmothers had ever donned,” Ahmed writes. She correctly poses the central question – whether women choose to dress this way or are forced to. She never, alas, arrives at an answer. On the one hand, she notes, sociologists in the 1970s gathered a lot of highly personal rationales from veil wearers. On the other, male Islamists saw the veil as vital to their political projects, and even subsidised it.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and banned by Egyptian governments starting in the 1940s, is at the centre of Ahmed’s account. It has at times been violent and at times renounced violence. But, like Sinn Féin, it has always given rise to violent groups of defectors and rivals who claim to be drawing the logical conclusions of its message. Ahmed, who has a positive assessment of the Brothers, admits to having once considered them “people who bombed places”. In exile, many Brothers wound up in Saudi Arabia, funded by a government eager – more for cold war reasons than theological ones – to subvert Egypt.

Out of that same mix of Saudi money and Brotherhood networks and doctrine grew the major Muslim organisations in the US – the Muslim Student Association and the Islamic Society of North America in the 1960s, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the 1990s. The second half of the book describes how Islamist groups, particularly Isna, evolved after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

“Whereas once working on this subject had meant burying myself in libraries and reading obscure articles, now I followed the most significant events and publications on the topic by following the news,” Ahmed writes. It shows. The Egyptian chapters draw on the accounts of historians and sociologists. The American ones recount a bunch of five- and six-year-old political squabbles. The veil drifts out of view almost completely.

Ahmed has a political axe to grind. She believes the theme of the “oppression of women in Islam” – always in quotation marks – serves an ideology, and that that ideology is imperialism. Criticisms from such feminists as Azar Nafisi, Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are a “rearticulation in native voice of the imperialist theses about the inferiority of Islam”, she believes. Deplorably, Ahmed refuses to engage these writers’ arguments directly, hiding behind accusations and epithets that earlier adversaries have flung at them.

The Islamists of Isna, Ahmed argues, have developed a better way of addressing such issues. She is struck by the Islamist background of Muslim political activists of almost all persuasions. They dominate discussions not just of religious themes but of liberation struggles – and not just of women but of gays. But mostly, she believes, by pressing for more recognition of Islam, they are making the country better. They are “assimilating into the American tradition of protest and activism” that respects the “heritage of social struggle in the name of justice”.

Ahmed has not thought this out. There is an American heritage of protest, sure. Every country has one. But by definition, protest is not the main part of any country’s identity. You might as well expect to be welcomed in France for wanting to assimilate into its tradition of regicide. What is special about the US’s protest tradition is the moral legitimacy lent it, across centuries, by the special cruelty of slavery. This is not a legitimacy to which a group of newcomers can simply lay claim. Gestures that Ahmed presents as contributions to American political culture – for example, the Isna speaker who says that the US needs the Muslim message in order that it “not be remembered in history as a technological giant but a moral pygmy” – will appear to many Americans as signs of contempt

The writer is an FT columnist

Algerian Christian Given Five Year Prison Sentence for Blasphemy

 

 

Washington -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that an Algerian Christian was sentenced to five years imprisonment for blasphemy in Oran on Wednesday after sharing his Christian faith with a neighbor. The verdict came days after authorities forced the permanent closure of seven Protestant churches in Algeria's Béjaia province.

Siagh Krimo was charged by the Criminal Court of the Djamel District in Oran, who based their decision on Article 144 bis 2 of the Penal Code which criminalizes acts that "insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means." Krimo has ten days to appeal the sentence.
Krimo, who is married with a nine month old child, was arrested on April 14, along with another Christian, Sofiane, after sharing his Christian faith with a neighbor. Sofiane was released soon after the arrest, while Krimo was detained for three days. Krimo was known to hold weekly prayer services at his home, which Algerian Christians suspect were being closely monitored by the police.

The prosecutor at Krimo's trial, held on May 4, failed to present as a witness the neighbor who accused Krimo of proselytizing and making defamatory statements against the Muslim prophet Mohammad. Algerian Christians were hopeful that Krimo would be acquitted of all charges. "Good news, the judge, after having invited Krimo to use wisdom and return to Islam, has ended the affair," an Algerian church leader in Tizi Ouzou told ICC on May 4. "We hope this will end well."

The prosecutor, doubtful he would win the case on so little evidence, reportedly asked the judge to have Krimo's sentence reduced to a two year imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Algerian dinar. However, some believe that higher authorities in the Algerian government were involved in reaching the final decision. "The judge would have normally acquitted Krimo of all charges, but I think he received an order from his superiors to strike hard," said an Algerian representative of the Association of Protestant Churches (EPA).

Krimo's sentence follows an order received by the EPA on May 22 to close seven Protestant churches in the province of Béjaia. The notice stated the churches are to be closed in accordance with Ordinance 06-03, which requires churches to obtain government permission to hold services. Though the EPA has made efforts to comply with the ordinance, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Religious Affairs have refused to register churches or to approve permits quickly.

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, "Algerian Christians have been under attack in recent weeks as laws have been increasingly enforced to discriminate against them. Earlier this week, seven churches in Béjaia were ordered to close. Now, an Algerian Christian is on the verge of being unjustly imprisoned for accusations of criticizing Islam. While Algeria professes that it upholds religious freedom, it also embraces a blasphemy law that, by its very nature, can be used to prosecute anyone who does not adhere to the religion of Islam. We urge Algeria to acquit Siagh of all charges and repeal Article 144 bis 2 of the Penal Code."

International Christian Concern

And The New Leader of the Free World Is…Saudi Arabia?

 

by Barry Rubin

 

Since the United States is not leading the anti-Islamist forces in the Middle East and protecting the relatively moderate Arab states, the new leader is…Saudi Arabia.

But, you say, isn’t Saudi Arabia also Islamist? Well it’s as Islamic as you can get without being revolutionary Islamist. Isn’t Saudi Arabia profoundly anti-Jewish? Yes, but it mostly just talks about it. Isn’t Saudi Arabia anti-democratic? Yes, we’d prefer the United States but President Barack Obama is busy with other things.
Obama wants Middle East Muslims to love America. There are only two problems:

1. His policy doesn’t work. They don’t love America.

2. The Muslims he keeps appealing to are those who are radical and pro-terrorist. For those who are Muslims but don’t want to overthrow their neighbors, go to war with Israel as soon as possible, throw out U.S. influence, and transform their countries into something like Iran and Taliban Afghanistan, Obama is a problem.

So the Saudis are doing what I’ve been telling the Obama administration to do for 2.5 years: Form an alliance opposing revolutionary Islamism. Of course, the Saudis won’t include Israel (at least publicly) and they won’t get Europe, but at the moment they’re all we’ve got.

This was completely predictable.

Some weeks ago, Nawaf Obaid, who speaks for the Saudi government, in an informal and deniable way, of course, voiced the Saudis’ anger and disappointment with a U.S. government that fails to fight against revolutionary Islamism and protect it from Iran.

I’ve been writing about this split for two years and now it has happened. The thing is that the Saudis are right and Obama is wrong. It helped overthrow the Egyptian regime and was ready to help bring down the government in Bahrain. The Saudis have had enough. The Jordanians would do the same if they could, as would Israel.

And there are plenty of countries in South America, Central Europe, and Asia that also feel this U.S. government has let them down.

Wasn’t this the U.S. government that was going to win over the Muslims, make the Arabs love America, and make the United States popular again?

Saudi Arabia has plenty of shortcomings. It won’t even let women drive! But at least it won’t let Tehran and the Muslim Brotherhood get in the region’s driver’s seat.



http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/05/27/and-the-new-leader-of-the-free-world-is-saudi-arabia/?singlepage=true

Syrian rebels asked Israel for help

 

Sunday, May 29, 2011 | Ryan Jones

 

Pro-democracy activists and rebels in Syria recently asked Israel, their nation's worst enemy, to come to their aid, according to an Israeli government official.

Ayoub Kara, the Likud minister for development in the Galilee and Negev regions, told a gathering in Beersheva on Saturday that he had been personally approached by the Syrian protestors.
"The Syrian opposition asked for my help because of my connections," said Kara. "They wanted me to go to the [Israeli] government for help, that we would ask the UN, the US and the EU to go against [Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad."

To Kara's disappointment, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu turned down the request, as he did not want Israel to be seen as directly interfering in the internal matters of neighboring Arab states.
If true, Kara's account reveals that even though most Arabs in the region are raised to view Israel as a hateful enemy and the Jews as bloodthirsty monsters, many of them know better.

These Syrians would not be the first Arabs to turn to Israel and the Jews for aid, espeicially when it came to fighting for their freedom.

Most famously, Israel fought alongside the Christians of southern Lebanon against the tyrannical Muslim forces in that country for 15 years. The alliances between the Israeli army and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) was an often ignored aspect of the much-maligned Israeli-controlled southern Lebanon security zone.


http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/22806/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Couple guilty of assisting terrorism

 

Hezbollah was to be cash recipient

BY ERICA BLAKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Toledoans Hor Akl and his wife, Amera, were caught trying to conceal $200,000 inside a vehicle they had planned to send to Lebanon and the terror group Hezbollah, which is pledged to the destruction of Israel. THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Using latex gloves, plastic wrap, and fragrant insect repellent sticks, Hor Akl and his wife, Amera, worked to bundle about $200,000 to conceal it inside a vehicle they planned to ship to Lebanon, an assistant U.S. attorney said Monday.
The money, he added, was headed to a known terrorist group, Hezbollah.

The Toledo couple pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Monday to charges that they conspired to smuggle money to a terrorist group overseas. As part of their negotiated pleas, each will be sentenced to time in prison.

“Two hundred thousand dollars was the initial installment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said, noting that the couple agreed to transport $1 million, of which about $200,000 would be kept by them as a fee.

Hor Akl pleaded guilty to five counts pertaining to conspiracy and interstate commerce in support of terrorism as well as bankruptcy fraud. He could be sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

His wife, Amera Akl, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. She faces nearly four years in prison when sentenced.

As part of the plea agreements, an arson charge that would have carried a 10-year prison sentence was dropped against Hor Akl, and two charges, including an arson-related charge, were dropped against his wife.

They each left the Toledo courtroom Monday without comment after the hearing.

The pair were charged in June, 2010, in a 36-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court. It alleged they “did knowingly combine, conspire, and agree” to aid the terrorist group Hezbollah. They are alleged to have sent money and supplies to a foreign terrorist organization beginning on Aug. 30, 2009.

“Money is the lifeblood of terrorist organizations, and stopping the flow is a key component to choking off these organizations,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach, who is based in Cleveland, said in a prepared statement e-mailed to The Blade.

According to court documents filed in the case, Hor Akl said that he spoke to his wife about transporting funds and that he personally had brought money to Lebanon in previous visits. Court records also indicate that he said he understood that the transported funds would go to “terrorists” targeting Israel.

In March, 2010, Hor Akl returned to Lebanon during which time his wife said she had spoken to her husband and said he would be meeting with a high-level Hezbollah official, court documents said.

The couple were arrested June 3, 2010, after an eight-month federal investigation. According to court documents, a government source entered the Akl residence with $200,000 provided by the FBI. Agents found the couple in their home wearing latex gloves and in possession of the money and automotive accessories, plastic wrap, and duct tape, while they prepared to hide the cash in the accessories.

Recorded conversations

Mr. Herdman said that evidence in the case included recorded conversations as well as details obtained by an informant.

Counts one and two, pertaining to conspiracy and interstate commerce in support of terrorism, named both the husband and his wife.

On counts three, four, and five, Hor Akl was charged with defrauding creditors, making false statements under oath, and fraudulently transferring or concealing property as it related to a bankruptcy filed in August, 2008. Count six, which will be dismissed at sentencing, alleged the two of them collected an insurance claim in early 2002 after allegedly setting a 1998 Jeep Cherokee on fire.

U.S. District Court Judge James Carr, who presided over the plea, noted that as part of the signed plea agreements, he was bound to sentence the couple within agreed upon guidelines. He set Amera Akl’s sentencing for June 20 where she faces between 37 and 46 months.

Hor Akl faces between 70 and 87 months. No sentencing date for him was set.

Because of good time credit allotted in federal prison sentencing, each could serve less time in prison than their sentence. Amera Akl’s Detroit-based attorney, Sanford Schulman, said that the couple’s children will fall under the care of various family members while they are incarcerated. He added that the wife requested an early sentencing date so that she could begin serving her sentence and there would be less time when both parents are behind bars.

Additional details would be worked out at the sentencing, he added.

‘In the same direction’

Judge Carr noted that both defendants had to choose to enter guilty pleas or proceed to trial. He said that per conditions of the agreements, the couple were “bound to proceed in the same direction” and that one could not choose to enter a plea without the other.

Also as part of the deal, the couple would forfeit $7,140.40 as well as a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer, which was to be used to smuggle the cash, according to the indictment.

Prior to entering the plea, Mr. Schulman withdrew a series of motions that had been filed recently. Included was a motion to dismiss the charges “due to outrageous governmental conduct.”

After the hearing, Mr. Schulman said his client’s story was outlined in the 38-page motion, but she chose to enter a plea because “she wanted it over.”

“It was 40 years down to three years. I probably would have taken the deal myself,” he said.

In the motion withdrawn yesterday, Mr. Schulman outlined the months during the investigation. He said there had been no evidence that the couple previously had been involved in “assisting or even associating with a known terrorist organization.”

He added that the government had no need to send an informant to stage a terrorist transaction.

“I don’t know if they caught the bad guy today, but they got what they wanted,” he said.

Attorney David Doughten, who with Jeff Helmick represented Hor Akl, said after the hearing Monday that the plea had been “appropriate” based on the facts of the case.

“He was treated fairly by the government,” Mr. Doughten said. “… It was an accurate plea reflecting the facts of the case.”

The judge allowed the couple to continue living in separate houses on bond, but extended the time they could spend together with their three children to between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., seven days a week. Both remain on electronic monitoring and an adult custodian must be present at all times.

“This case demonstrates the continued effort by the FBI and our Joint Terrorism Task Forces to deny financing and support to those terrorist organizations that present a threat to the United States,” said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Division, in a prepared statement e-mailed to The Blade.

Contact Erica Blake at: eblake@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

Memorial Day, 2011

 

 twg2a PitBull

What is the real meaning of Memorial Day?   If you look at the history of Memorial Day you will see that it was a day of remembrance for those who died in our nation’s service. No one is really sure who exactly came up with the concept but it dates back to the Civil War, when organized groups of women placed flowers on the graves of those who died in battle. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No.11, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. Today, it is celebrated in every state on the last Monday in May as passed by Congress (National Holiday Act of 1971).  It is sad to admit that we have not done a better job of educating our young ones as to the real reason this holiday came to be. Today, Memorial Day Weekend is a three day weekend to go the lake and party, or for department stores to advertise big sales events. We need to get back to recognizing those who gave their lives for this great nation.  On Monday, May 30, 2011, please remember all of those men and women who have died serving our country in all wars since the Civil War. I would also encourage you to remember all of those who have died protecting our country here at home, the First Responders (Police, Fire and EMS Workers) who have died in the line of duty. This includes the 343 members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) who gave their lives on the morning of September 11, 2001.    Take a few moments Monday and call someone you know who serves in one of the branches of our Armed Services and let them know how much it means to your freedom for them serving our country.  Be safe and enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend. God Bless Our Troops. God Bless America. http://twg2a.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/memorial-day-2011/

Egypt, Tunisia to get Billions in Aid

 

by Maayana Miskin

 

The United States, Qatar and the World Bank each pledged to give billions of dollars in aid to Egypt this week, in order to help the country boost its economy following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.

U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to relieve Egypt of $1 billion in debt, and has offered an additional $1 billion in loans to improve infrastructure and create new jobs.

The Wold Bank pledged to provide $4.5 billion over the next 24 months, including at least $1 billion in budget support this year and $1 billion next year “dependent on progress.” The other $2.5 billion will be invested in development projects.

Saudi Arabia has pledged $4 billion in aid, and Qatar is considering projects worth more than $10 billion.

The International Monetary Fund sent a delegation to Cairo this week to discuss the possibility of a loan. Egypt is seeking up to $4 billion from the IMF. Once an IMF agreement is signed, the European Union will decide how much aid to give. EU officials are currently considering giving several hundred million euros.

The G8 is expected to approve a package including billions of dollars in aid and debt swaps.

Tunisia will get $1.5 billion from the World Bank, including budget support and money for investments.

The World Bank said in a statement, “Approximately 50-75 million jobs are needed over the next decade to absorb new labor market entrants and to bring down unemployment” in the Mideast and northern Africa. The World Bank warned, “Only 48 million jobs will be created if countries continue to grow as they did over the past decade.”

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the goal is “to try to stabilize and then modernize the economies of the region.”

The World Bank lowered its economic growth forecast for northern Africa and the Middle East to 3.6% from 5% this week, but has expressed hope that the overthrow of long-term authoritarian rulers in Egypt and Tunisia will lead to economic integration similar to that in eastern Europe in the 1990s.

 

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144552

 

Book: Vatican helped Nazis evade conviction

 

By JPOST.COM STAFF 
05/27/2011

Harvard researcher's publication claims that Catholic authorities helped SS men find exile, avoid trial, in years following World War II.

 

A new book by Harvard Research Fellow Gerald Steinacher has claimed that thousands of Nazis were able to evade justice following the Holocaust thanks to the complicity of the Vatican.

Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Europe, published this month by Oxford University Press, claims that Catholic authorities helped SS men including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele avoid detection, travel safely out of Europe, and live comfortably in exile after the end of World War II.

RELATED:
German court convicts then frees Nazi guard Demjanjuk
Demjanjuk: A powerful verdict, bitterly undermined

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, Steinacher examined a trove of unpublished Red Cross documents, which showed that understaffed and overwhelmed European human rights workers attempting to resettle the millions of displaced victims of World War II unwittingly created a network that was exploited by Nazis evading justice.

Using papers they were issued by the Red Cross through fraud, Steinacher writes, some 8,000 former SS men managed to find exile in Britain and Canada in the years following 1945.



But while the Red Cross may have inadvertently aided these former Nazis, the Vatican was well aware of the role they played.

The Telegraph wrote, "'Owing to a desire to revive a Christian Europe or out of a morbid fear of the Soviet Union, the Vatican, through its refugee commission,' said Mr. Steinacher, 'provided leading war criminals with false identity papers.'"

 

http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Books/Article.aspx?ID=222504&R=R1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter