Iran and Syria threaten to retaliate for Israeli air strike

The story comes from The Telegraph.

Iran and Syria threaten to retaliate for Israeli air strike


US officials said Israel launched a rare air strike inside Syria on Wednesday. The target was a convoy believed to be carrying anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hizbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group allied with Syria and Iran.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said Damascus "has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation."

In Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the raid on Syria will have significant implications for Israel.

Hizbollah condemned the attack as "barbaric aggression" and Syrian ally Russia said it appeared to be an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.

In Israel, a MP close to hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped short of confirming involvement in the strike. But he hinted that Israel could carry out similar missions in the future.

The Syrian ambassador said he could not predict when Damascus would retaliate. He told Hezbollah's al-Ahd news website that it was up to the relevant authorities to prepare the retaliation and choose the time and place.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi condemned the air strike on state television, calling it a clear violation of Syria's sovereignty. Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided President Bashar al-Assad's government with military and political backing for years.

Russia, Syria's strongest international ally, said Moscow is taking "urgent measures to clarify the situation in all its details."

"If this information is confirmed, we have a case of unprovoked attacks on targets in the territory of a sovereign state, which grossly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Whatever the motives, this is not justified."

Hizbollah, closely allied with Syria and Iran, said it "expresses full solidarity with Syria's command, army and people."

Hizbollah did not mention any convoy in the statement but said the strike aimed to prevent Arab and Muslim forces from developing their military capabilities.

The Syrian military denied the existence of any weapons shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit by the Israeli warplanes. It said the target was in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus and about 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who became in December one of the most senior Syrian army officers to defect, told The Associated Press by telephone from Turkey that the targeted site is a "major and well-known" centre to develop weapons known as the Scientific Research Center.

Al-Shallal, who until his defection was the commander of the Military Police, said no chemical or nonconventional weapons are at the site. He added that foreign experts, including Russians and Iranians, are usually at such centres.

Regional security officials said on Wednesday that the targeted shipment included sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which if acquired by Hizbollah would enable the militants to shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

Israeli MP Tzachi Hanegbi, who is close to the prime minister, said pinpoint strikes are not enough to counter the threat of Hizbollah obtaining sophisticated weaponry from Syria.

"Israel's preference would be if a Western entity would control these weapons systems," Hanegbi said. "But because it appears the world is not prepared to do what was done in Libya or other places, then Israel finds itself like it has many times in the past facing a dilemma that only it knows how to respond to," he added.

He was referring to Nato's 2011 military intervention in Libya that helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

"Even if there are reports about pinpoint operations, these are not significant solutions to the threat itself because we are talking about very substantial capabilities that could reach Hizbollah," he added.

Syria's civil war has sapped Assad's power and threatens to deprive Hizbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran. The two countries provide Hizbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria's "deadly weapons," saying the country is "increasingly coming apart."

The same day, Israel moved a battery of its new "Iron Dome" rocket defence system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hizbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move "routine."

The Israeli army will not say whether Iron Dome was sent north in connection to this operation. It does note that it has deployed the system in the north before.

Syria and its allies, including Hizbollah, deny there is an uprising against the government and say what is happening is part of a conspiracy against Damascus because of its support for anti-Israeli groups.

Hizbollah said the attack is part of that conspiracy "that aims to destroy Syria, its army and vital role in the line of resistance" against Israel.

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Big Surprise - Russia Stands With the Butcher Assad, Condemns Israeli Airstrikes On Syrian Chemical Weapons

The Russians continue to tell the West and Israel to get screwed as their true colors become more vivid with each day and with Israel being threatened by a move of Syrian chemical weapons into Lebanon where Hezbollah could effectively use those weapons on hundreds of thousands of Israelis, Russia steps up and condemns the attack.  So, let me get this straight - Russia says that Israel is the bad guy for entering Syrian airspace to conduct these operations but Russia is fine with entering Chechnya and Georgia with troops to conduct THEIR operations?

The Russians are a loose cannon in a world right now that can't stomach loose cannons.  How different it might be if we had an American President who would put Putin in his place instead of Mr. MomJeans in the White House who ignores every thing the Russian bear does.

The story comes from DAWN.

Israel strike on Syria ‘unacceptable’: Russia


MOSCOW/ BEIRUT: Russia said Thursday it was checking reports of an Israeli air strike against Syria but would condemn the “unprovoked” attack if the information proved true.

The foreign ministry said it was “deeply concerned” by Syrian claims its military research centre had come under Israeli fighter jet attack and other reports of bombs being dropped on a convoy near the Lebanese border.

“If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked strikes against targets located on the territory of a sovereign state, which brazenly infringes on the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motive used for its justification,” said a ministry statement.

Russia added that it was taking “urgent measures” to clarify the situation.

“We once again call on the end to all violence in Syria, underscoring the inadmissability of any type of intervention from abroad, and the start of inter-Syrian dialogue based on the Geneva agreements of June 30, 2012,” the Russian statement said.

Russia has outraged Western and Arab nations by refusing to join international calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down and continues to supply its Soviet-era ally with weapons.

Moscow has for its part repeatedly expressed concern at foreign intervention in a country that is its last major ally in the Middle East.

Russia has strongly backed a pact bickering world powers agreed to last year in Geneva a bid to form a transition government.

That accord defined no specific role for Assad and proved to be unacceptable to the armed opposition because of its demands on him to step aside.

UN-Arab League crisis envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has used urgent shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks to push the Geneva accord on all parties in a bid to halt the escalating violence.

But Brahimi told the Security Council this week that the pact could not be saved in its current form and needed to be altered to work.

“I’m not calling on the Security Council to take action because the Geneva declaration that contains, indeed, a lot of elements that would provide for a reasonable solution to the conflict cannot be implemented as it,” Brahimi told the Security Council in published remarks.

“It needs action from the Council and I have suggested a few ideas to them.”

A top Russian official quickly rejected the idea of the Security Council taking action because “the Council has already made a number of important decisions” on Syria.

“I do not think that in current conditions, the UN Security Council will start work on a new resolution,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

“We are not talking about that yet,” Gatilov said.

Russia has vetoed three Security Council resolutions sanctioning Assad for violence that UN estimates say has killed more than 60,000 people since March 2011.

Hezbollah condemns raid

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group also condemned Israel’s air raid on Syria. The Thursday statement said Hezbollah ”expresses full solidarity with Syria’s command, army and people,” and called the strike ”barbaric aggression”.

US officials said the air strike targeted a convoy believed to contain anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah.

The Syrian military denied the existence of any such shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit by the Israeli warplanes.

Hezbollah did not mention any convoy in the statement but said the strike aimed to prevent Arab and Muslim forces from developing their military capabilities.

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Israel reportedly strikes convoy of Syrian weapons

I just saw this and don't have time to verify any new updates but this is pretty huge news.

And it's good to see Israel taking a stand to protect her people.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

Israel reportedly strikes convoy of Syrian weapons


The Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out an airstrike on a Syrian weapons convoy last night. While some accounts have suggested that the convoy may have been carrying chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Associated Press reports that the primary target was Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which were likely destined for Hezbollah.

It is currently unclear whether the strike, which was confirmed to Reuters by four sources, took place in Syrian or Lebanese territory. A high-ranking Lebanese security source told the Daily Star that "[n]o strike took place on Lebanese soil." Haaretz reports that a Lebanese source has said the strike took place near the city of al-Kassir in western Syria, which is approximately 15 kilometers from Lebanon's border.

While Israeli officials have not confirmed the strike, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon reportedly told Israel Radio on Wednesday that Israel will "not compromise on the security of the northern front."

On Wednesday evening, the General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces said that Israel had struck "a scientific research center responsible for raising the levels of resistance and self-defense in Jamraya area in Damascus Countryside," according to state-owned Sana. According to the Syrian news agency, two workers were killed and five others injured.

Over the past week, Israeli officials have expressed increased concern with regard to the situation in Syria. On Sunday, Israel deployed Iron Dome batteries in the north, including near Haifa, although an IDF spokesman said the deployment was "not related to any current situation assessments."

The following day, Israel's National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror was sent to Moscow for a "lightning visit" in an attempt "to convince the Kremlin to take steps to prevent Syria's stockpiles from falling into the hands of terrorist groups." On the same day, the New York Times reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "had [recently] been in marathon meetings for several days with military and intelligence chiefs and senior ministers, with unusual strictures on secrecy."

On Tuesday, Al-Monitor reported that IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi was meeting with officials at the Pentagon, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey.

Also on Tuesday, the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Amir Eshel, said that "[t]he weakening governance in neighboring countries heralds greater exposure to hostile activity - Syria is the best example of that. We must deal with a wider array of enemies and adversaries than ever." Eshel added: "We work every day in order to lessen the immediate threats, to create better conditions so that we will be victorious in future wars."

He also warned that "[i]f a threat appears in the long, medium or short range, the Israel Air Force has the ability to exercise force almost instantly, and [implement] almost unlimited options at almost any location."

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'I feel like a stranger where I live’ - How the Muslims Have Changed London

The story comes from Family Security Matters.

'I feel like a stranger where I live’


As new figures show 'white flight' from cities is rising, one Londoner writes a provocative personal piece about how immigration has drastically changed the borough where she has lived for 17 years.

"When you go swimming, it's much healthier to keep your whole body completely covered, you know." The Muslim lady behind the counter in my local pharmacy has recently started giving me advice like this. It's kindly meant and I'm always glad to hear her views because she is one of the few people in west London where I live who talks to me.

The streets around Acton, which has been my home since 1996, have taken on a new identity. Most of the shops are now owned by Muslims and even the fish and chip shop and Indian takeaway are Halal. It seems that almost overnight it's changed from Acton Vale into Acton Veil.

Of the 8.17 million people in London, one million are Muslim, with the majority of them young families. That is not, in reality, a great number. But because so many Muslims increasingly insist on emphasising their separateness, it feels as if they have taken over; my female neighbours flap past in full niqab, some so heavily veiled that I can't see their eyes. I've made an effort to communicate by smiling deliberately at the ones I thought I was seeing out and about regularly, but this didn't lead to conversation because they never look me in the face.

I recently went to the plainly named "Curtain Shop" and asked if they would put some up for me. Inside were a lot of elderly Muslim men. I was told that they don't do that kind of work, and was back on the pavement within a few moments. I felt sure I had suffered discrimination and was bewildered as I had been there previously when the Muslim owners had been very friendly. Things have changed. I am living in a place where I am a stranger.

I was brought up in a village in Staffordshire, and although I have been in London for a quarter of a century I have kept the habit of chatting to shopkeepers and neighbours, despite it not being the done thing in metropolitan life. Nowadays, though, most of the tills in my local shops are manned by young Muslim men who mutter into their mobiles as they are serving. They have no interest in talking to me and rarely meet my gaze. I find this situation dismal. I miss banter, the hail fellow, well met chat about the weather, or what was on TV last night.

More worryingly, I feel that public spaces are becoming contested. One food store has recently installed a sign banning alcohol on the premises. Fair enough. But it also says: “No alcohol allowed on the streets near this shop.” I am no fan of street drinking, and rowdy behaviour and loutish individuals are an aspect of modern British ''culture’’ I hate. But I feel uneasy that this shopkeeper wants to control the streets outside his shop. I asked him what he meant by his notice but he just smiled at me wistfully.

Perhaps he and his fellow Muslims want to turn the area into another Tower Hamlets, the east London borough where ''suggestive’’ advertising is banned and last year a woman was refused a job in a pharmacy because she wasn’t veiled.

On the other hand, maybe I should be grateful. At least in Acton there is just a sign in a shop. Since the start of the year there have been several reports from around London of a more aggressive approach. Television news footage last week showed incidents filmed on a mobile phone on a Saturday night, in the borough of Waltham Forest, of men shouting “This is a Muslim area” at white Britons.

The video commentary stated: “From women walking the street dressed like complete naked animals with no self-respect, to drunk people carrying alcohol, we try our best to capture and forbid it all.”

Another scene showed hooded youths forcing a man to drop his can of lager, telling him they were the “Muslim patrol” and that alcohol is a “forbidden evil”. The gang then approached a group of white girls enjoying a good night out, telling them to “forbid themselves from dressing like this and exposing themselves outside the mosque”.

Worse, though, is film footage from last week, thought to have been taken in Commercial Street, Whitechapel, which showed members of a group who also called themselves a “Muslim patrol” harassing a man who appeared to be wearing make‑up, calling him a “bloody fag”. In the video posted on YouTube last week, the passer-by is told he is “walking through a Muslim area dressed like a fag” and ordered to get out. Last Thursday, police were reported to have arrested five “vigilantes” suspected of homophobic abuse.

There are, of course, other Europeans in my area who may share my feelings but I’m not able to talk to them easily about this situation as they are mostly immigrants, too. At Christmas I spoke to an elderly white woman about the lack of parsnips in the local greengrocer, but she turned out to have no English and I was left grumbling to myself.

Poles have settled in Ealing since the Second World War and are well assimilated, but since 2004 about 370,000 east Europeans have arrived in London. Almost half the populations of nearby Ealing and Hammersmith were born outside the UK. Not surprisingly, at my bus stop I rarely hear English spoken. I realise that we can’t return to the time when buses were mainly occupied by white ladies in their best hats and gloves going shopping, but I do feel nostalgic for the days when a journey on public transport didn’t leave me feeling as if I have only just arrived in a strange country myself.

There are other “cultural differences” that bother me, too. Over the past year I have been involved in rescuing a dog that was kept in a freezing shed for months. The owners spoke no English. A Somali neighbour kept a dog that he told me he was training to fight, before it was stolen by other dog fighters. I have tried to re-home several cats owned by a family who refuse to neuter their animals, because of their religion.

In the Nineties, when I arrived, this part of Acton was a traditional working-class area. Now there is no trace of any kind of community – that word so cherished by the Left. Instead it has been transformed into a giant transit camp and is home to no one. The scale of immigration over recent years has created communities throughout London that never need to – or want to – interact with outsiders.

It wasn’t always the case: since the 1890s thousands of Jewish, Irish, Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Chinese workers, among others, have arrived in the capital, often displacing the indigenous population. Yes, there was hateful overt racism and discrimination, I’m not denying that. But, over time, I believe we settled down into a happy mix of incorporation and shared aspiration, with disparate peoples walking the same pavements but returning to very different homes – something the Americans call “sundown segregation”.

But now, despite the wishful thinking of multiculturalists, wilful segregation by immigrants is increasingly echoed by the white population – the rate of white flight from our cities is soaring. According to the Office for National Statistics, 600,000 white Britons have left London in the past 10 years. The latest census data shows the breakdown in telling detail: some London boroughs have lost a quarter of their population of white, British people. The number in Redbridge, north London, for example, has fallen by 40,844 (to 96,253) in this period, while the total population has risen by more than 40,335 to 278,970. It isn’t only London boroughs. The market town of Wokingham in Berkshire has lost nearly 5 per cent of its white British population.

I suspect that many white people in London and the Home Counties now move house on the basis of ethnicity, especially if they have children. Estate agents don’t advertise this self-segregation, of course. Instead there are polite codes for that kind of thing, such as the mention of “a good school”, which I believe is code for “mainly white English”. Not surprising when you learn that nearly one million pupils do not have English as a first language.

I, too, have decided to leave my area, following in the footsteps of so many of my neighbours. I don’t really want to go. I worked long and hard to get to London, to find a good job and buy a home and I’d like to stay here. But I’m a stranger on these streets and all the “good” areas, with safe streets, nice housing and pleasant cafés, are beyond my reach. I see London turning into a place almost exclusively for poor immigrants and the very rich.

It’s sad that I am moving not for a positive reason, but to escape something. I wonder whether I’ll tell the truth, if I’m asked. I can’t pretend that I’m worried about local schools, so perhaps I’ll say it’s for the chance of a conversation over the garden fence. But really I no longer need an excuse: mass immigration is making reluctant racists of us all.

Pakistani Fighter Jets Pound Taliban, 40 Dead In Airstrikes In Orakzai and Khyber

Typically, when the Pakistan government decides to take a little heat off of themselves for doing nothing to control the Taliban forces in the northwestern territories, they will pound the shit out of Orakzai agency and the past two days are no different as fighter jets were scrambled and Taliban compounds targeted for airstrikes that have killed about 40 Taliban jihadis.

The story comes from DAWN.

Jets blitz suspected militant hideouts in Khyber, Orakzai; seven killed


PESHAWAR: At least seven suspected militants were killed early on Wednesday when army jets pounded militant hideouts in the northwestern tribal regions of Orakzai and Khyber.

Upper Orakzai’s assistant political agent Muhammad Rafique told Dawn.com that three militant hideouts were destroyed in the bombardment, adding that seven militants had reportedly been killed in the strikes.

The jets struck suspected militant hideouts in the Ublan area of Orakzai tribal region and near the Khyber tribal region’s border with Orakzai.

Earlier on Tuesday, security agencies had claimed to have killed 33 militants affiliated to the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in multiple jet strikes conducted in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber and in the Mamozai area of Orakzai.

Khyber and Orakzai are among Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown insurgents and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

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Saudi Arabian Scholar Convicted of Torturing 5 Year Old Daughter To Death Gets Off With Paying a Fine

A Saudi Arabian scholar (oxymoron, if you ask me) has been sentenced to nothing but paying a "diya" (blood money) for the murder of his five year old daughter.  This man and his new wife systematically broke the bones of this little girl, even fracturing her skull to the point that doctors could not even save her life.

But hey, when you are a scholar and know about the ways of Mohammed...you're good to go in Saudi Arabia.  Good thing they don't have a war on women there.

The story comes from Emirates 24/7 via The Religion of Peace.

Scholar accused of killing daughter ordered to pay diya


A Saudi court ordered a well-known local scholar to pay diya (blood

money) after he was convicted of torturing his five-year old daughter to death. His wife quickly reacted by saying she would appeal to demand her husband’s death.

Newspapers in the Gulf Kingdom said the unnamed scholar is still in jail until he pays diya to his wife over the death of his daughter.

The woman said she had not appointed a lawyer during the trial to demand execution of her husband on the grounds she is “ignorant in the law.”

“The body of my daughter has been in the morgue for nearly four months.. I have just received a court permit to bury her,” she said.

In a report in late 2012, the Saudi Arabic language daily Alyoum said the scholar often appears on a local satellite TV channel to deliver religious lectures.

The paper said his daughter Lama died in hospital after spending several weeks suffering from broken arms, skull fracture and head bruises.

It quoted the girl’s mother as saying her daughter had been systematically tortured by her father and his new wife before she was admitted to hospital in a serious case.

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Executed Bodies of 68 Men and Teen Boys Found In River In Syria, Toll Could Reach 100

A grim discovery in Syria's city of Aleppo where, so far, 68 bodies of men and teenage boys have been pulled from the river there, all executed with a single shot to the back of the head or neck...and it appears that the final tally of dead bodies may reach 100.

Like we have said here before...Bashir Assad doesn't mess around but hey, don't forget that it's the Israelis in the Middle East who are the bad guys.

The story comes from DAWN.

Bodies of 68 executed young men, boys found in Syria


ALEPPO: The bodies of at least 68 young men and boys, all executed with a single gunshot to the head or neck, were found on Tuesday in a river in the Syrian city of Aleppo, a watchdog and rebels said.

A Free Syrian Army captain at the scene said at least 68 bodies had been found and that many more were still being dragged from the water, in a rebel-held area.

The bodies were found in the Quweiq River, which separates the Bustan al-Qasr district from Ansari in the southwest of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Until now we have recovered 68 bodies, some of them just teens,” said Captain Abu Sada, adding that all of them had been “executed by the regime.”

“But there must be more than 100. There are still many in the water, and we are trying to recover them,” he added.

A volunteer said as he helped load one of the bodies on a truck: “We don’t know who they are because there was no ID on them”.

At least 15 bodies could already be seen on the truck, with others continuing to arrive.

Abu Sada said they would be taken to the hospital at Zarzur where relatives could seek to identify them.

“Those who are not identified will be buried in a common grave,” he added.

Welcome To the New America...Now Your Son Gets To Have a Homosexual Boy Scout Leader

The article comes from USA Today.

Boy Scouts may soon welcome gay youths, leaders


As early as next week, the Boy Scouts of America may announce it will allow gay Scouts and troop leaders, a spokesman for the group has told USA TODAY.

If this policy shift is approved by the national board meeting next week, it will be a sharp reversal of the Scouts' decades-old national policy banning homosexuals.

"The policy change under discussion would allow the religious, civic or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue," BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Only seven months ago, the Boy Scouts affirmed its ban on gays after a nearly two-year examination of the issue by a committee of volunteers convened by national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, known as the BSA. However, local chapters and some members of the national board — corporate CEO Randall Stephenson of AT&T and James Turley of Ernst & Young — called for a reconsideration.

The proposed new policy would leave decisions on membership and leadership up to the BSA' s 290 local governing councils and 116,000 sponsoring religious and civic groups.

"Scouting has always been in an ongoing dialogue with the Scouting family to determine what is in the best interest of the organization and the young people we serve," Smith told USA TODAY.

"The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members or parents. Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization's mission, principles or religious beliefs," he said.

While some cheered the announcement, others said it would ruin Scouting.

The announcement comes after a campaign to change the policy that lasted more than a year and garnered more than 1.2 million online signatures at Change.org, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an advocacy group.

GLAAD spokesman Rich Ferraro told USA TODAY the Boy Scouts were taking an important "first step" that he hopes will lead to ending a national ban and allowing gays to participate in an important national cultural institution.

"The Girl Scouts, 4H Clubs and the U.S. military are fully inclusive, and that's what we need from the Boy Scouts of America," Ferraro said. "Until then, there will be young people out there who are harmed by this."

"This would be an incredible step forward in the right direction," said Zach Wahls, Eagle Scout and founder of Scouts for Equality. Wahls said his group will work with BSA councils and chartering organizations across the country to end exclusion of gays.

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, said a policy change would be "nothing less than disastrous for the Boy Scouts of America."

The Southern Baptist Convention views homosexuality as sinful based on Scripture and not acceptable as normal behavior, Mohler said. Ending a national policy on gays would raise a question in the mind of every Scout's parent and require families to research the policy of each Scout troop and sponsoring organization before joining, he said.

"This is going to raise a fundamental question for the Southern Baptist Convention at the national level and in the churches" about whether to reconsider a decades-old relationship with the Boy Scouts, Mohler said.

While that decision would be up to individual Southern Baptist churches, Mohler said: "I'm quite assured that those churches will be reconsidering that relationship if this policy goes into effect."

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called the potential policy shift "a serious mistake."

In a statement Monday, Perkins said, "If the board capitulates to the bullying of homosexual activists, the Boy Scouts' legacy of producing great leaders will become yet another casualty of moral compromise."

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Israel Deploys Iron Dome To Northern Part of the Country ...For When the Israelis Need To Strike Syria

 An Israeli daily said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “urgently dispatched” his national security adviser to Moscow, where he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He is expected to ask the Russians to use their influence to try to prevent the weapons from falling out of Bashar al Assad’s control. — AFP Photo



The Israelis are plenty concerned about the situation in Syria and, unlike many in America, the Israelis know that the chemical weapons available in Syria are not safe in either Assad's hands OR the rebels' hands so they are taking measures that are needed to protect the Israeli people.


From the article at DAWN:

Israel is increasingly worried that Syrian chemical weapons could fall into the hands of extremist militants and is taking military and diplomatic steps to prevent it, local media and a security source said Monday.

Two batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system have been deployed to the north of the country in case military action against targets in neighbouring Syria or Lebanon becomes necessary, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said Israel believes Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah group has a large number of forces in Syria that are supporting President Bashar al Assad against Sunni rebels, but which are also keen to grab his chemical weapons if he falls.

“A decision to attack in Syria or Lebanon will need to be implemented immediately,” if it is taken, he said. “There won’t be time then to start deploying.”

This isn't some sort of bluff on Israel's part - the last thing they need right now is to be engaged in some sort of operation in Syria or Lebanon but the fact of the matter is that those chemical weapons, in the wrong hands, could literally be placed at Israel's northern border in a heartbeat.

Israel deploys air defence, diplomacy on Syria concerns


JERUSALEM: Israel is increasingly worried that Syrian chemical weapons could fall into the hands of extremist militants and is taking military and diplomatic steps to prevent it, local media and a security source said Monday.

Two batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system have been deployed to the north of the country in case military action against targets in neighbouring Syria or Lebanon becomes necessary, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said Israel believes Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah group has a large number of forces in Syria that are supporting President Bashar al Assad against Sunni rebels, but which are also keen to grab his chemical weapons if he falls.

“A decision to attack in Syria or Lebanon will need to be implemented immediately,” if it is taken, he said. “There won’t be time then to start deploying.”

The Israeli army played down its manoeuvres, saying that only one battery had been moved north.

“As part of the operational deployment programme, which includes changing locations throughout Israel from time to time, (an) Iron Dome battery is currently in the north,” it said.

The Maariv daily said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “urgently dispatched” his national security adviser to Moscow, where he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

He is expected to ask the Russians to use their influence to try to prevent the weapons from falling out of Assad’s control.

The newspaper said that Netanyahu met US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Sunday. Shapiro said on Monday that the two countries were closely coordinating on events in Syria.

“There is a genuine discussion between our intelligence services,” he told Israeli public radio.

“There are two dangerous possibilities,” he said. “Either the regime will use chemical weapons against the Syrian people or the chemical weapons will pass to Hezbollah or to other extremist organisations.” “We want to prevent both those possibilities taking place,” he added.

Witnesses in northern Israel reported intense Israeli air force surveillance over Syria and Home Front Defence Minister Avi Dichter said the state was watching events in its neighbour closely.

“Israel, and not only Israel, is keeping an eye, a very close eye, and trying to understand in the most precise way possible what is happening to the (weapons) stockpiles,” he told public radio.

“It’s a problem that has to be dealt with from two aspects,” he added.

“One is how to reduce what is (stockpiled) and the other is how to deter anyone intending to get his hand on it, to let them know that their hand will be badly burned if they even think about it, certainly if we’re talking about terror organisations.”

Cabinet colleague Benny Begin said Israel was already preparing for the day after Assad.

“It looks like Syria will fragment into smaller sections and there will be a measure of anarchy there for some time after the fall of Assad,” he told army radio. “We have to prepare for what lies in store, and there is a responsible government doing just that.”

According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu on Wednesday convened an emergency discussion with the security establishment and his inner cabinet on the situation in Syria and the risk of it losing control of chemical weapons.

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Hillary's Lesson in Escaping the Blame Game

If you happened to catch The Awakening on Saturday night, you'll have heard me come down on the farce of the testimony by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's at the Benghazi hearings.  I held nothing back in regards to the total disregard by this public official for giving the American people what they deserve...the truth.

This article at Family Security Matters goes deeper into just how Hillary was able to appear and then disappear, unscathed.  Only in America at this moment in history could someone sit in front of the cameras and do what Hillary Clinton did and still be considered a viable candidate for President in 2016.

Hillary's Lesson in Escaping the Blame Game


If you thought the long-anticipated Hillary hearings were going to be a feet-to-the fire payback for Benghazigate, then maybe you should think again.

In her back-to-back appearances Wednesday, departing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left Senate and House Republicans hitless, winless and basically befuddled. Little Leaguers enjoy a 10-run rule that brings such uneven contests to merciful endings -- so the little nippers can lick their wounds and try again another day. If Congress had anything similar, Mrs. Clinton might have ended her testimony hours earlier, beaten rush-hour traffic across town and made it back to Foggy Bottom long before happy hour.

Maybe the Republicans in Congress felt sorry for the former senator from New York, bested by Barack Obama for the presidency, wounded by the Benghazi tragedy and discredited by a damning Accountability Review Board of her State Department stewardship. Republican Sens. Ron Johnson, Rand Paul and John McCain tried their best one-liners against her, slightly recycled from recent campaign rhetoric. Mrs. Clinton answered calmly, projecting an undiminished resolve to correct the security oversights for which she repeatedly assumed responsibility. When pressed too hard by Mr. Johnson, she deftly took his head off, handed it back to him and then kept right on running up the score. Of her hostile questioners, only Mr. McCain emerged with his dignity fully intact.

The House hearing would have been a rerun, except that dispirited Republicans and ebullient Democrats settled down to an utterly predictable pattern of five-minute statements thinly disguised as questions. The only action all afternoon came from watching Mrs. Clinton's head alternate between gracious nods to her oh-so-polite questioners on both sides of the aisle. Apparently, they had watched their Senate colleagues and decided a farewell coronation for Mrs. Clinton was the far safer bet. Even the Hillary Nutcracker doll atop my bookcase seemed to grin more broadly.

Benghazi was only the latest episode of a three-decade epic in which Mrs. Clinton has become one of the great survival stories of American politics. Extending back through the mists of Whitewater, Paula Jones, Troopergate and the unique challenges of being President Bill Clinton's long-suffering wife, Hillary could have starred in her own soap opera. Instead she kept reinventing herself, epitomizing one of the signature phrases of those years and evolving from first lady to New York senator to presidential candidate to secretary of state. She is the Democrats' Iron Lady, masterfully preserving her long-range ambitions and options, whatever they might be.

For Republicans savvy enough to give the devil her due, she can also teach some important survival lessons.

First, being smart is much better than the alternative. As K.T. McFarland of Fox News pointed out, Mrs. Clinton was far too shrewd to be mousetrapped into performing the hapless role of administration apologist memorably played by United Nations Ambassador Susan E. Rice. Bill Clinton famously avoided military service during the Vietnam War to maintain his own "political viability." Mrs. Clinton seems to have the same idea, and she walked out of the hearings this week with her head held high, eclipsing Mrs. Rice, once her all-but-designated successor.

Second, positioning and timing are all-important. Mrs. Clinton has a poker player's sense of knowing just when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. As a junior senator, she zealously protected defense installations in her district and became a special advocate for New Yorkers serving in uniform. Opposing the Iraq War while campaigning for president, she subsequently became a close political ally of Gen. David H. Petraeus. While such alliances are fleeting, her permanent interest as former secretary of state may be evolving into a latter-day Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson -- a long-neglected Democratic vacancy.

Third, the past usually catches up with you when you least expect it. Mrs. Clinton's announced intention of decompressing may mask another perceptive calculus about sidestepping the challenges of Mr. Obama's second term. The short list of contradictions includes a resurgent al Qaeda across North Africa, the Syrian powder keg and looming conflict with Iran. Especially with Iran, the potential fallout includes imponderables from cyberwar at your automated teller machine to suicide bombers in American shopping malls. Mr. Obama's likely successors in either party can surely appreciate what might happen if such cataclysmic events -- finally too big to lie about -- also shatter the prevailing media-Democratic consensus.

Foreseeable events can sometimes materialize suddenly, creating tectonic shifts in the American political landscape. Mrs. Clinton already understands that, together with something her Republican interlocutors should grasp as well. Benghazi was tragedy, precedent, prologue -- all wrapped into one -- and is best appreciated not as a "gotcha" but as a benchmark against daunting future challenges.

What Exactly Was the Explosion At Iran's Fordow Nuclear Site?

The Israelis aren't talking.  The Iranians aren't talking.  Did an explosion actually happen at the so-called impregnable Fordow nuclear site in Iran?

The story comes from The Telegraph.

Mystery over 'explosion' at Iran's Fordow nuclear site


A report published on Right-wing news website WND on Friday, quoting a defected Iranian intelligence officer, claimed that a massive blast had ripped through the nuclear facility, buried deep within the guts of a large mountain.

The alleged blast was said to have erupted at 11.30am last Monday – on the eve of the Israeli election – partially destroyed the nuclear site and trapped 240 people underground. Tehran held Israel responsible, the report said.

More than a week later, the report is yet to be verified by a single independent source. If true, it would be the most significant attack on Iranian nuclear capabilities to date and could spark a fierce reaction from the Islamic State.

And yet on Sunday evening, Shamseddin Barbroudi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, assured Iranian reporters there had been no explosion at the nuclear facility whatsoever.

Earlier the same day, Avi Dichter, Israel's home defence minister, had been unable to confirm the unsubstantiated reports but nonetheless, welcomed them. "Any explosion in Iran that doesn't hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome," he said.



Speaking privately, officials in Israel's foreign ministry – known to have an extensive surveillance network monitoring Iran's key nuclear sites – claimed they had no reliable intelligence of an explosion at Fordow.

One theory put forward by Shlomo Aronson, an expert in Israeli foreign security policy at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, is that Tehran had deliberately leaked false reports about a blast to prevent international inspectors from entering the site.

"They [Tehran] are more than capable of inventing such a story – although if it's true, a damaged Fordow would definitely benefit Israel," Mr Aronson conceded.

"Israel would do anything within its power to stop the Iranian nuclear programme. This includes tactics that fall just short of, or substitute, a direct attack, such as the cyber war that has been raging for the past few years or acts of sabotage on Iran's nuclear facilities."

Buried 300 feet underground, the nuclear fortress at Fordow is immune to air strikes or bunker bombs. It is thought to contain more than 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to more than 20 per cent. But unlike Natanz, which has more than 10,000 centrifuges, it is not a nuclear reactor and therefore not as valuable to the Iranian nuclear programme.

Tehran has repeatedly blamed Israel for a string of explosive disasters that have hit Iranian nuclear targets, including the death of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, one of Natanz's top nuclear scientists, killed when his car exploded in January last year.

Whilst pleading ignorance of last Monday's alleged blast, a senior Israeli official conceded that penetrating a fortified facility such as Fordow would be neither impossible nor without precedent for Israeli's intelligence services.

"Anything man-made, we can penetrate," one Israeli official told The Daily Telegraph.

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Muslim who raped girl, 13, not jailed because his “religion doesn’t teach that sex with a child is wrong”

From Family Security Matters.

Muslim who raped girl, 13, not jailed because his “religion doesn’t teach that sex with a child is wrong”


A muslim who raped a 13-year-old girl he groomed on Facebook has been spared a prison sentence after a judge heard he went to an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless.

Adil Rashid, 18, claimed he was not aware that it was illegal for him to have sex with the girl because his education left him ignorant of British law.

Yesterday Judge Michael Stokes handed Rashid a suspended sentence, saying: ‘Although chronologically 18, it is quite clear from the reports that you are very naive and immature when it comes to sexual matters.'

Earlier Nottingham Crown Court heard that such crimes usually result in a four to seven-year prison sentence.

But the judge said that because Rashid was ‘passive' and ‘lacking assertiveness', sending him to jail might cause him ‘more damage than good'.

Rashid, from Birmingham, admitted he had sex with the girl, saying he had been ‘tempted by her' after they met online.

They initially exchanged messages on Facebook before sending texts and chatting on the phone over a two-month period.

They then met up in Nottingham, where Rashid had booked a room at a Premier Inn.

The girl told police they stayed at the hotel for two hours and had sex after Rashid went to the bathroom and emerged wearing a condom.

Rashid then returned home and went straight to a mosque to pray.

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Taliban and Rival Group Battle It Out in Kyber in Pakistan...52 Dead So Far In Power Struggle

I'm not exactly sure how you have a "pro-government" militant group in Pakistan but apparently a group of militants who aren't quite as "militant" as the Taliban has been standing up to the Taliban and what has been waged is a mini war in Khyber and there's a lot of dead on the ground.  52 to be exact.  And it ain't over.

The story comes from DAWN.

Fighting rages between militants in Tirah valley


PESHAWAR: At least 12 more militants were killed Sunday as intense gun-battles continued between two rival groups in Pakistan’s restive tribal region of Khyber agency, officials said.

Fierce clashes erupted three days ago when members of the Tariq Afridi faction of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched an attack in the Bagh-Maidan area of Tirah valley on Friday, capturing a building belonging to the pro-government Ansarul Islam (AI) militants.

“The Ansar-ul-Islam group re-took their centre after intense fighting,” said another senior local administration official.

The approximate number of deaths from three days of fierce clashes has now reached 52. A senior security official confirmed the approximate death toll and said fighting was ongoing.

The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers so it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.

The Ansarul Islam, led by local commander Munsif Khan, opposes Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam and the TTP, who frequently launches attacks on Pakistani troops.

Sadat Afridi, a spokesman for the pro-government AI, says his group has vowed to flush out TTP militants from Tirah valley as they “carry out attacks on mosques and public places, which is against Islam.”

Khyber is among Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents and home to religious extremist organisations including the al Qaeda and Taliban.

The remote Tirah valley holds strategic significance for militant groups. On one side, it shares a border with Afghanistan. On the other it leads to the plains of Bara, which connect the agency to the outskirts of Peshawar.

Khyber also links several agencies to each other, serving as a north-south route within Fata. The region has been long fought over by a mix of militant groups, including the TTP, the Ansarul Islam and Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam.

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ISAF Troops In Afghanistan Target Al Qaeda Yet Again In Kunar Province - Hey Wait, I Thought Joe Biden Said We Only Had 100 Left in the Country

Remember when Vice President Biden made the claim that al Qaeda in Afghanistan was down to about 100 fighters and any remnants could easily be handled with some drones?  Well, ISAF forces in Afghanistan, especially in the province of Kunar, continue to target and conduct raids on al Qaeda and al Qaeda-linked Taliban as they did the other day.

The fact of the matter is this - the Taliban are well poised to hit Afghan forces hard when American troops leave Afghanistan and we don't even have to worry our little heads over whether or not the Taliban will then extend an invitation to al Qaeda to come back in....THEY'RE ALREADY THERE!

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

ISAF launches another raid targeting al Qaeda in Kunar


On Jan. 25, the International Security Assistance Force reported another operation in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province targeting a Taliban leader associated with al Qaeda. This follows a report three days ago of a similar operation on Jan. 23 in Kunar province that targeted an al Qaeda-linked Taliban leader.

According to the Jan. 25 report, Afghan and Coalition forces succeed in locating the target and killing him on Jan. 24. Alhough it is not clear if he was the same leader targeted in the raid the day before, ISAF identified him as "Wali," a "Taliban leader and al-Qaeda facilitator." He was killed in Dangam district, as opposed to Ghaziabad district where the previous raid occurred. Apart from being the second operation targeting al Qaeda in Kunar province in two days, it was also the second this year.

ISAF said that Wali "coordinated activities between the Taliban and al Qaeda within the province." He also "organized attacks against Afghan and coalition forces" in the district and "oversaw the movement of weapons and suicide vest components." ISAF revealed to The Long War Journal that Wali was of Pashtun descent, meaning he likely originated from somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The previous report said that a joint Afghan and Coalition force conducted an operation in Ghaizabad district, Kunar province on Jan. 23. This raid did not locate the targeted al Qaeda-associated Taliban leader, however, but did kill two unidentified insurgents.

Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, has emerged as one of the most active areas of operation for al Qaeda in Afghanistan. According to The Long War Journal's investigation of ISAF operations targeting the group within Afghanistan, there were 16 raids targeting members of al Qaeda, or insurgents linked to the group, in Kunar province in 2012. That is more than double the number of raids against al Qaeda in the province that were conducted prior to the surge of NATO forces, according to The Long War Journal study [see LWJ report: Al Qaeda-linked Taliban commander targeted in Kunar raid, for more details on al Qaeda's continued presence in Kunar province].

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10 Sharia cases in U .S. & outcomes

H/T Dorrie:
http://publicpolicyalliance.org/faq/ten-american-families-and-shariah-law/
Below are ten cases of American Muslim families that have encountered conflicts between the Equal Protection under the Constitution they should have received, and legal discrimination imposed on them by Shariah law in American Courts (excerpted from “Shariah Law and American State Courts“). [There are many more, but these are interesting. The ALAC bills in the TX House and Senate should be filed by next week.]
In cases 1-3, the Appellate Courts upheld Shariah law; in cases 4-7, the Trial Courts upheld Shariah, but the Appellate Courts reversed (protecting the litigant’s constitutional rights); in cases 8-10, both Trial and Appellate Courts rejected the attempts to enforce Shariah law.

Ten American Families and Shariah in American State Courts
Cases 1-3
1978 Parveen Chaudry v. M. Hanif Chaudry, M.D., (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=155 ), Shariah law of Pakistan, New Jersey, 1978: Appellate Court upheld foreign Shariah law, overturned Trial Court. Wife denied support and child support and division of property; prenuptial agreement signed by parents giving her only $1,500 from marriage upheld by Appellate Court.
.
1986 Laila Adeeb Sawaya Malak v. Abdul Latif Malak (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=77 ), Shariah law of Lebanon/UAE, California, 1986: Appellate Court upheld foreign Shariah law and denied mother custody, reversing Trial Court.
.
1996 Joohi Q. Hosain (FKA Malik) V. Anwar Malik, (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=124 ), Shariah law of Pakistan, Maryland, 1996: Trial and Appellate Courts upheld foreign Shariah law and denied mother custody. She lost custody because going to custody hearing in Pakistan would have risked prison, torture or execution.

­­­Cases 4-7
1988 Pamela Tazziz v. Ismail Tazziz (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=133 ), Shariah law of Israel, Massachusetts, 1988: Trial Court upheld foreign Shariah law of Israel (which has parallel Shariah court system ) requiring mother of four children to bring family to Shariah hearing; Appellate Court reversed.
.
1997 In re the Custody of R., minor child. Dato Paduka Noordin v. Datin Laila Abdulla, (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=228, Shariah law of Philippines, Washington, 1997: Trial Court upheld foreign Shariah law of Philippines (which has parallel Shariah court system) granting father custody; Appellate Court reverses, allowing mother to contest Philippines Shariah court custody decision.
.
2009 Saida Banu Tarikonda, v. Bade Saheb Pinjari (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=139 ), Shariah law of India, Michigan, 2009: The Trial Court accepted a “talaq” divorce (the husband says “I divorce you” three times, no prior notice to wife required). The Appellate Court reversed.
2010 S.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. M.J.R., (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=197 ), Shariah law of Morocco, New Jersey, 2010: Pregnant mother is beaten and raped by her husband, Trial Court refuses restraining order citing foreign Shariah law. Appellate court reverses and grants restraining order.
.
Cases 8-10
2001 Magda Sobhy Ahmed Amin v. Abdelrahman Sayed Bakhaty (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=114 ), Shariah law of Egypt and Lebanon, Louisiana, 2001: Mother convicted under foreign Shariah law of Egypt for leaving Egypt with child for U.S. without husband’s permission; Under Egyptian Shariah law, father files for divorce and custody; Trial Court and Appellate court do not grant comity.
.
2005 Bita Donboli, Respondent, and Nader Donboli (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=236), Shariah law of Iran, Washington, 2005: Mother is dual citizen of U.S. and Iran, alleges beatings, not allowed to leave Iran with son without husband’s permission, and refuses to comply with foreign Iranian Shariah law custody decree. Trial and Appellate Courts uphold her position.
.
2007 Irfan Aleem v. Farah Aleem (http://shariahinamericancourts.com/?p=126 ), Shariah law of Pakistan, Maryland, 2007: Trial Court rejected argument permitting a foreign Shariah law “talaq” divorce to prevent community division of property; Appellate Court upheld.

US Southern Air Defense being shut down

H/T Wilson: This is interesting.  I guess I would like to know what excuse they are giving for this action?  Because seagulls are trying to mate with the balloons?  What?  We need the money for food stamps?  Excuse me but I be getting back to my food storage program.


what else is new…

Obama to Shut Down Southern Air Defense Systems: “It Will Be Open Season for Terrorists Flying In With Nukes, Low Altitude Missiles, Or Even Full Scale Invasion of America
As the U.S. government continues to expand surveillance and monitoring systems to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars within the borders of the United States, a recent announcement regarding the country’s southern air defense systems is raising eyebrows.
Our southern border is, in part, protected by the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), which utilizes moored balloons hovering at about 15,000 feet to identify low flying aircraft and missiles that may penetrate the border and cross into U.S. airspace.
The system is utilized by the U.S. Air Force, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD),  and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for a number of missions including detection of drug smuggling and preservation of the air sovereignty of the continental United States.
According to Exelis Systems Corporation, the company that built and jointly maintains TARS with the U.S. Air Force, the government has ordered a complete shutdown of Aerostat flight operations:

The government also indicated its intent that aerostat flight operations will cease on March 15, 2013, and that the remainder of the fiscal year will be used to deflate aerostats, disposition equipment, and prepare sites for permanent closure. We are currently reviewing all the details of the RfP and evaluating the possible impacts on the program and our workforce. We continue to communicate with the government on this matter, and we will have more information in the coming days and weeks.

more…

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/obama-to-shut-down-southern-air-defense-systems-it-will-be-open-season-for-terrorists-flying-in-with-nukes-low-altitude-missiles-or-even-full-scale-invasion-of-america_01232013

Twelve Bloody Years After the 9/11 Attacks and His Khalid Sheik Mohammed Going To Go Free?

The fact that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks on America, is still sucking oxygen on this planet is one of the biggest outrages in the history of Man and now, with a bunch of liberal judges and military court prosecutors doing their best to be politically correct, it appears that KSM and his gang of Gitmo slugs are going to see a trial that is going to pussy foot all over some of the most aggregious charges.

From the article at The Telegraph:

However, Brig Gen Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said the charge of conspiracy should be dropped because it was no longer "legally viable" following a court ruling that conspiracy – a charge that seeks to punish suspects for association with al-Qaeda – was not a recognised war crime under international law. This meant it could not legitimately be brought before a war-crimes tribunal such as Guantánamo.

The ruling by an appeals court in Washington DC overturned the conviction against Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, and has also undermined the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, who made al-Qaeda propaganda films.

I have a simple question.  What in the sam hell does international law have to do with how the United States of America deals with the prosecution of the murderer of 3,000 of our people?  KSM's plot was committed on American soil against American citizens - the only law that matters is American law and if our laws state that an affiliation of someone with al Qaeda makes you a conspirator, then you are a conspirator.  And I could give a shit less what some liberal hippie judge has to say in Washington, D.C.

Fry this motherfucker.

September 11 trial threatened by legal dispute


The US defence department is at loggerheads with the chief prosecutor at Guantánamo Bay over what the charges should be. The five men, whose pretrial hearings reconvene at the naval base next week, face eight different charges.

However, Brig Gen Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said the charge of conspiracy should be dropped because it was no longer "legally viable" following a court ruling that conspiracy – a charge that seeks to punish suspects for association with al-Qaeda – was not a recognised war crime under international law. This meant it could not legitimately be brought before a war-crimes tribunal such as Guantánamo.

The ruling by an appeals court in Washington DC overturned the conviction against Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, and has also undermined the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, who made al-Qaeda propaganda films.

Gen Martins said retaining the conspiracy charges against the September 11 suspects could leave the prosecution open to "legal challenge" and cause "uncertainty and delay". However, Guantánamo Bay's "convening authority" – a branch of the Pentagon – said it would be "premature" to drop the conspiracy charges, hoping that the Supreme Court might reinstate their legality.



Richard Kammen, the lead counsel for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was convicted in Yemen over the bombing of USS Cole but is also facing conspiracy charges at Guantánamo, said the government had seriously undermined Gen Martins's position as chief prosecutor. "The sub-context of this is, 'Who's in charge?' And to what extent does Gen Martins have any real authority in this case, other than to give speeches?" said Mr Kammen.

He added that preserving the conspiracy charges could open the door to an appeal against all the charges being faced by the September 11 co-conspirators and al-Nashiri. "If one of the main charges was conspiracy, and that was reversed, you would expect the appellate court to recognise that so impacted the rest of the trial that any other conviction would have to be reversed as well," he said.

Gen Martins has indicated that he plans to press ahead with his request by petitioning the military judge in the September 11 trial to strike out conspiracy as a separate charge.

That would present the judge, Col James Pohl, 61, with the unenviable choice of either denying the requests of both defence and prosecution lawyers, or overruling his court's own convening authority.

Col Morris Davis, a former Guantánamo chief prosecutor who resigned in 2007 in protest at the Pentagon meddling in the tribunals, said the dispute between two major government departments undermined the credibility of the tribunals.

He suggested that the government was clinging to the conspiracy charges because they were needed in cases against many of the detainees.

"They don't need conspiracy charges in the major cases like the September 11 attacks, where they are just a safety net or fallback charge," he said. "The problem is that for a lot of lesser cases, that's about all you could ever charge with."

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Libyan Prime Minister Agrees With Hillary Clinton Regarding Benghazi Attack...What Difference Does It Make?

The Prime Minister of Libya just can't seem to understand what all of the fuss is about the Benghazi attack...he called it all an "exaggeration."  You know, do 4 Americans were murdered in an al Qaeda plot and terror attack, so what?  Yes, the American ambassador was killed but what is the big deal?

So let me get this straight - America invested the money and risked the lives of our military in freeing that country from Ghadaffi and when it's all over, the Libyans can't even help protect the lives of our embassy people and when those embassy people end up dead, the response from the Libyans is ....what is everyone so damn upset about?

The story comes from CNS News.

 

Libyan PM Calls Reaction to Benghazi Attack an ‘Exaggeration’

(CNSNews.com) - The prime minster of Libya called the reaction by countries around the world to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi an “exaggeration.”

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan added that everything that is being said at this point about the attack is “just guesses.”

“What happened in Benghazi, I think there was exaggeration on behalf of some countries who took some preventive measures and we can understand that,” Zeidan said through an interpreter during a discussion Friday at the 43rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“They asked their citizens to leave, but the reality is that these people of foreign nationality live very peacefully in Libya, and there are security measures to protect them” he said.

Discussion moderator Fareed Zakaria of CNN then asked Zeidan, “Do you have an al Qaeda presence in Libya?”

Zeidan responded, “It is said that that is so. There are some Islamists whose beliefs are close to those of al Qaeda but the reports we received from our security apparatus show that there are a few people who have come who are known to be affiliated with al Qaeda but there are not many.”

However, Zakaria pressed further: “So you do not believe the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi was an attack by al Qaeda?”

Zeidan replied that the Libyan government’s investigation into the attack is ongoing and “We have not reached any final conclusions.”

“We have to talk to all of the witnesses and all of the accused and then we will draw conclusions,” Zeidan said.. However, everything being said now is really just guesses.”

The attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, which took place four months ago, left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stephens.

The State Department received information to indicate the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility.

On Thursday at a Pentagon press conference, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said of the attack in Benghazi, “If we find out who the perpetrators were, we’re going to go after them.”

He added: “Americans were killed and we don’t stand by when Americans were killed and not take action.”

Russian Operations In Chechnya Kill 11 Muslim Terrorists Including 2 Islamic Caucasus Emirate Leaders

 Khuseyn Gakayev [center], the deputy commander of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate's eastern front.

It's been awhile since the Russians have put this kind of hurt on Chechen Muslim terrorists but the latest operation netted two high ranking Islamic Caucasus Emirate leaders among a total of 11 dead jihadis.


I rarely cheer for the Russians but when they kill off these scumbags, I'm there waving the "Go Russia" banner.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

(Hat Tip:  Hal Bregg)

2 Islamic Caucasus Emirate leaders reported killed in Chechnya


Russia Today reported that Khuseyn (or Hussein) and Muslim Gakayev, two senior leaders in the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, were among 11 terrorists killed during a Russian military operation in Chechnya:

Two men, wanted for at least 5 terrorist acts, have been killed in a special forces operation in Chechnya. The Gakayev brothers were deemed more dangerous than militant Doku Umarov, by Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The two brothers, Khuseyn and Muslim Gakayev, are said to be responsible for the deaths of many law enforcers and civilians and were on Russia's wanted list for 11 years. The pair were killed during an operation on Thursday in the Vedeno district, one of the regions hardest hit by fighting in the area.

"Two Gakayev brothers, were on the federal wanted list for involvement in the terrorist acts and the murders of law enforcers and civilian" the press center of the Russian Interior Ministry told the media.

Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, noted that the two men were more dangerous than terrorist at large Doku Umarov. Umarov has been linked to a spate of deadly terrorist attacks targeting Russian civilians...

The Gakayev brothers made several high-profile attacks, most recently a suicide bomb attack on an interior ministry vehicle that killed four last August. They were also blamed for an attack on the Chechen parliament in 2010 that killed at least six people, and an assassination attempt at the residence of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. After this, Kadyrov announced a reward for information on their activities.

While the Islamic Caucasus Emirate has not confirmed the deaths of the Gakayev brothers, Kavkaz Center, a mouthpiece of the terror group, confirmed that "heavy fighting is taking place in the mountains of Vedeno district " in Chechnya, and said Russia forces "have surrounded a group of Mujahideen by the will of Allah."

The nature of the statement at Kavkaz indicates that important leaders were present in Vedeno:

Killed and wounded are reported among the Mujahideen. The exact number is not known. The situation for the Mujahideen is serious, but invaders and puppets also incurred losses. More 15 enemies of Allah have been reported eliminated and wounded.

We ask all Muslims to do prayers for the Mujahideen. Ask your children, as well as patients from friends and relatives to do prayer, as Allah answers the prayer of the Muslims of this category.

Your tahajjud (night prayer) prayers would be very helpful. It is hard time for the Mujahideen and they in need of prayers of the Muslims, who, Allah's willing, will find their words of help for the Mujahideen on the balance of the Judgment Day!

Khuseyn Gakayev is one of several senior leaders who attempted to oust Doku Umarov as the Caucasus Emirate's emir in the summer of 2010. Umarov reconciled with Khuseyn in July 2011, and named Khuseyn the deputy commander of the eastern front [see LWJ report, Internal divisions resolved, claims Caucasus Emirate].