From Iran Focus:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Monday called Iran the “single biggest threat” to peace in the Middle East ahead of a visit to the region centered on celebrations of Israel’s 60th anniversary.

“To me it’s the single biggest threat to peace in the Middle East, the Iranian regime,” because of its nuclear programme and its support of groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, Bush told Israel’s Channel 10.

“Their funding of Hezbollah—look what’s happening in Lebanon now, a young democracy trying to survive,” Bush said in excerpts of an interview to be broadcast in its entirety on Tuesday.

In recent days Lebanon has been driven to the brink of civil war after days of deadly sectarian street clashes between the Shiite Hezbollah and its allies and Sunni Muslim supporters of the US-backed government.

“By the way it’s in Israel’s interest that the Lebanese democracy survives. You need to be concerned about Iran and you are concerned about Iran and so are we,” Bush said.

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From Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, May 12 – Iranian authorities have hanged five men including a teenager in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, state media reported on Monday.

The men were hanged in a prison on Sunday, the state-run daily ‘Iran’ wrote.

They were identified only as Hadi, 24; Hossein, 19; Javad, 24; Mehdi, 24; and Morteza, 21.

They were accused of rape and murder.

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From Fox News:

DETROIT — A teenager convicted of killing a man, then beheading him and setting fire to his body in what prosecutors called a thrill killing was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.

Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 18, didn’t speak before being sentenced to the mandatory term.
“I am grateful that you are going away for the rest of your life, because in my view I believe you will kill again,” Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry said.

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From Fox News:

AMMAN, Jordan — A man who is suspected of drowning his 22-year-old sister for having an extramarital affair was charged Monday with premeditated murder, a judicial official said.

The unidentified woman’s brother beat her with the help of his family Saturday and then took her to the Dead Sea where he drowned her, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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From the DesMoinesRegister.com:

By NIGEL DUARA and WILLIAM PETROSKI

Postville, Ia. – At least 300 people were arrested today at the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant, federal officials said.

The operation, which targeted people who illegally used other persons Social Security numbers and were in the U.S. illegally, was the largest of its kind in Iowa, said Claude Arnold, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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From ACT! for America:

One of the projects one group of our chapters has undertaken is collecting public school textbooks and reviewing their treatment of Islam with the ultimate objective of taking their findings to the State Board of Education and demanding changes be made.

A new report by the American Textbook Council reveals why such a project is so necessary. This is an excellent illustration of how research is necessary to expose the facts, but follow-up action is necessary to ensure that the research leads to changes.

The fawning, distorted version of the history of Islam in these textbooks can be summed up from this question and answer found in one book:

“Q: How did the caliphs who expanded the Muslim Empire treat those they conquered? A: They treated them with tolerance.”

What utter nonsense! This would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic and dangerous. To completely re-write history so as to ignore the 270 million who have died at the hands of Islamic subjugation is unconscienable.

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
WorldNetDaily Exclusive

History textbooks promoting Islam
New report says Muslim activists ‘succeeding’ in expunging criticism

By Bob Unruh

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=63872

WorldNetDaily

History textbooks being used by hundreds of thousands of public school students across the U.S. are blatantly promoting Islam, according to a new report by an independent organization that researches and reviews textbooks.

WND has reported several times on issues involving the promotion of Islam in public school texts, including a recent situation in which California parents complained their children were being taught that “jihad” to Muslims means “doing good works.”

The new report is from the American Textbook Council, which was established in 1989 as an independent national research organization to review social studies textbooks and advance the quality of instructional materials in history.

In the two-year project, whose report was authored by Gilbert T. Sewall, the ATC reviewed five junior and five high school world and American history texts, concluding:

“Many political and religious groups try to use the textbook process to their advantage, but the deficiencies in Islam-related lessons are uniquely disturbing. History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security.”

Read the full article at http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=63872

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From Global Security Newswire:

The head of the Russian air force on Saturday accused NATO member states of practicing attacks against long-range strategic bombers from his nation, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 1).

“Regularly as our flights are fulfilling combat patrols, we are tracked by planes from the patrol forces of both NATO and other countries,” Interfax quoted Gen. Alexander Zelin as saying. “Over the waters of the Arctic Ocean we are regularly attacked by F-15, F-16 and F-22 aircraft. I did not use the word ‘attack’ lightly, as our partners, so to speak, practice combat maneuvers, up to the threshold of an attack.

“I can tell you this is not very pleasant, even dangerous. Naturally we practice countermaneuvers,” Zelin said.

Russia has no plans to stop sending strategic bombers far outside its territory, the general added. Russia resumed the bomber missions last August for the first time since the end of the Cold War, when the flights were conducted routinely by the Soviet Union (see GSN, August 9, 2007). The planes are not armed with nuclear weapons, according to Russian officials.

Flights are scheduled to continue over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as the Black and Mediterranean seas, Zelin said (Agence France-Presse/NASDAQ.com, May 10).

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From Global Security Newswire:

North Korea used layers of middlemen and front companies to purchase equipment that ended up in a Syrian nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel last year before it could become operational, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, May 8).

The supply network was headed by North Korean businessman Ho Jin Yun, who attracted the attention of U.S. intelligence services as he traveled throughout Europe in the early 2000s buying esoteric equipment such as gas masks, steel pipes, vacuum pumps and aluminum tubes, according to the Post.

Yun’s firm — Namchongang Trading, or NCG — served to coordinate activities between North Korea and Syria while acquiring key materials and technology through firms in China and Europe, according to U.S. officials, European intelligence officials and diplomats.

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From the Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media:

For fifteen years, (1993-2008), Charlie Bernhaut of Americans for a Safe Israel has been sending Open Letters to the staff at the New York Times. Charlie loves Jewish cantorial music and Jewish jokes. He is an amiable, sociable man. So, what has driven him to launch such a lonely, one-man crusade?

I doubt he can stop himself. Perhaps the Biblical bush burned for him too, perhaps, like Moses, he could not refuse the mission-which consists of documenting and protesting the newspaper’s contemporary “use of photographs to prejudice their readers against Israel.” He was at this long before CAMERA, MEMRI, or HonestReporting saw the same burning bush. The Times has never acknowledged Bernhaut’s letters-nor have the Jewish media and organizations who also received copies.

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From Doug Giles:

By Doug Giles

“One of the most salient features of our culture is there is so much bull——.”
Harry G. Frankfurt, Princeton philosophy professor

How many of you have met the book smart 4.0 magna cum laude lady who, in regard to street smarts, is a magna dumb loopy chick? What about the poor honey who is neither book nor street smart? What a shame, eh? My goal for my girls is for them to own the twain. My wife and I push our daughters to academic excellence; we insist that they strain their brains so they won’t sound like Paris Hilton when they open their mouths.

That being said, as much as I want my little rays of sunshine to have a high GPA (not that a jiffy GPA means squat anymore given the bogus bunk being taught in school) I want them to have an equal or higher level of street smarts: what some would call a sixth sense, an otherness, a discerning spirit, a fourth dimension, or what I call a well-honed and greased BS Detector (BSD).

Street smarts will give our kids the shrewdness to see through the veil of crap most guys, governments, gimmicks, gadgets, gurus and evil girlfriends live behind. Being the helpful guy that I am, I want to help you help your kids whet their BSD and overcome any proclivity they have to becoming as sharp as a sack of wet rats and assist them to discern that which is detrimental to their lives—even if it’s all dressed up as the greatest thing in all the world.

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From Bob McCarty Writes:

In much the same manner as Al-Qaeda is said to have highly-trained agents in position on American soil and awaiting orders to launch strikes against the United States, a recent news report leads me to conclude that Republican Ron Paul’s presidential campaign appears to have “sleeper cells” ready to wage the mother of all convention floor battles against the nomination of John McCain.

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Good… They should have to prove citizenship. If you are obeying the law, you have nothing to hide. From the NYT:

By IAN URBINA

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

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From Reuters:

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday almost told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to go to hell, but stopped short of insulting the woman leader on Mother’s Day.

Instead he called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler and German fascism.

“Ms. Chancellor, you can go to …,” he said, pausing for effect and eliciting giggles from the audience, a group of military officers, cabinet ministers and government officials. “Because she’s a woman I won’t say anything else.”

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From BREITBART.com:

An Egyptian government-owned Internet service provider has blocked the website of a leading opposition movement, a rights group said Monday, in the latest crackdown on the country’s cyber dissidents.

“The website for the Egyptian Movement for Change – Kefaya has been blocked in Egypt (for) users who have access to the Internet through TE-Data … since May 4,” the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a statement.

TE-Data, a branch of Telecom Egypt and the largest Internet service provider (ISP) in Egypt, is controlled by the Egyptian government.

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From BREITBART.com:

PHOENIX (AP) – Fifty-three illegal immigrants found Sunday had been held against their will in a fortified home by suspected smugglers demanding more money, authorities said.

The group of rescued immigrants included two 13-year-old girls, three women and a mentally disabled man. The rest were men, Department of Public Safety spokesman Harold Sanders said.

Authorities began investigating Saturday after getting a tip that immigrants were being held captive. Sanders said the smugglers wanted an average of $2,500 for each person’s release.

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From Family Security Matters:

Steve Emerson

A Fairfax County Police sergeant who admits tipping off a terrorism suspect that he was under FBI surveillance also helped kill what had been a successful intelligence and terrorism-related training program within his police department.

Sgt. Weiss Rasool was sentenced to two years probation on April 22nd after pleading guilty to illegally accessing a police database to run license tag numbers for a friend who thought he was being followed. Those tags traced back to FBI agents who had Rasool’s acquaintance under surveillance as part of a terrorism investigation.

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From Family Security Matters:

Walid Phares

As many among us have warned several times over the past year, and many articles later, Hezbollah has indeed waged its expected blitzkrieg against the democratically elected Government of Lebanon. Within 24 hours, the pro-Iranian super-militia blocked all accesses to the Beirut International Airport, established an exclusive security zone around the organization’s headquarters in south Beirut, deployed its forces into several Sunni neighborhoods in the capital and erected check points across the country. Within 48 hours or more the “Party of Allah” may be in control of large areas of the Lebanese Republic. In short, this could mutate into a slow motion coup d’Etat. What’s behind the blitz?

The big picture was very predictable. The Syro-Iranian “axis” which is flaring up various battlefields in the region, from Basra to Gaza, has instructed its local “force” on the Lebanese battlefield to surge against the pro-Western Government of Fuad Seniora. Hezbollah is a disciplined Iranian asset on the Eastern Mediterranean. All of the arguments advanced by its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in his last press conference and grievances against the Government have always been raised since the summer of 2005. These criticisms of the cabinet are invoked when a large scale action is ordered by the Tehran strategists. The local “issues” are part of the greater puzzle, but in Lebanese politics, they seem to be “the” issues at hand. What are they?

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From RightBias.com:

By: Nancy Morgan

The day following the crucial Indiana and NC primaries that seemed to end Hillary’s presidential aspirations, a strange thing happened. The media started releasing bits and pieces of Hillary’s seldom reported, nefarious doings. Doings that have been in the public arena for years but never followed up by the media.

The Washington Times headline Once-Secret Memos Question Clinton’s Honesty appeared Wednesday. The article outlined the decades old information that federal prosecutors had assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury. Information that has long been available but, curiously, never reported in depth until now.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled, The Clinton Divorce, in which they actually mentioned nine of the most well known Clinton scandals. This was followed on Saturday by a current (potential) Hillary scandal, U.S. Criminal Probe Eyes Clinton Donor.

Monday we see another headline from the Washington Times, Clinton’s Records Vanished After Warning, about the billing records of Hillary’s Rose Law Firm. The billing records that disappeared 14 years ago, and were found by Hillary two years later.

These articles may come as a shock to many voters, especially young students, who weren’t around during the era of non-stop Clinton scandals. They, along with many voters, believe the unchallenged statements by Hillary and legions of pundits that Hillary has been thoroughly vetted. Even McCain and many other conservatives echo this false statement and accept it as truth. Its not.

The Clinton scandals, both Bill’s and Hillary’s, have never been reported to the American people. Or were reported in such a way as to convey the impression they were fantasies motivated by hate filled members of the right wing conspiracy. They were one or two day stories which were then swept down the old memory hole. Despite iron-clad evidence of malfeasance, perjury, cover-up, blackmail and conspiracy.

As one of the only three journalists that dared cover the Vince Foster supposed ‘suicide’, I remain perplexed to this day how solid evidence of conspiracy, cover-up and numerous documented illegalities by team Clinton managed to be kept from public view. I have seen the actual evidence. The evidence that was never made available to the American public. Whether Vince Foster was murdered or committed suicide is not known. The evidence, however, clearly shows that his death did not occur in Ft Marcy Park, as most Americans believe.

Most Americans would be shocked to know that the Monica Lewinsky scandal served Bill Clinton quite well. It diverted attention from the more serious charges concerning Chinese cash that coincidentally flowed to Bill Clinton at the same time his crony, Ron Brown, in the Commerce Department was approving the export of our nuclear technology to China. This Chinese cash was instrumental in Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996. These two scandals are merely the tip of the Clinton iceberg but they set the reporting standard for the many scandals that followed.

Whether conservatives were honestly unaware of the available facts, or whether they were afraid of losing their credibility by reporting the unbelievable shenanigans of the Clintons is a question I can’t answer. What I do know is that every article I have written about the Clinton’s malfeasance over the last 13 years, has been rejected. By liberals and conservatives alike.

The timing of these articles raises a red flag. Why, after all these years, is it now acceptable to point out the reality surrounding the Clintons? Will the public finally be made aware of the extent and scope of team Clinton’s illegalities, scandals and cover-ups? Will the media finally let the American public know about Hillary’s supporting and leading roles in the numerous documented cases involving corruption, perjury, blackmail and intimidation? If so, why now?

No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, every American has the right to enough information to make an informed decision when casting their vote. We should all question why all this information was never made available to the public when it actually mattered.

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From Iran Focus:

By Lin Noueihed

ImageKHASAB, Oman, May 12 (Reuters) – Smugglers pile boxes high on their speedboats, covering them with tarpaulin before zipping off into the sunset on the short but dangerous journey across the strategic Strait of Hormuz from Oman to Iran.

They return in the early morning, their empty fibreglass boats ready to pick up more cargo at the small Gulf port of Khasab, in Oman’s isolated northern peninsula of Musandam.

Trade with Iran is as ancient as the settlements overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, gateway for a third of the world’s oil shipments. In 2005, Iran’s police chief said some $6 billion worth of goods such as computer parts, tea or cigarettes were smuggled into the country each year from the Gulf.

Now, tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic have added new dangers to the age-old journey across the Strait of Hormuz.

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From Iran Focus:

The Washington Times

THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL

ImageMake no mistake about it, the quick, brutal display of raw military power by Hezbollah in the past six days is a window into the grim future of Lebanon and the broader Middle East: a future in which Iran and Syria are ascendant and have lost much of their fear of the United States and Israel. It sends a message to President Bush, who arrives in Israel Wednesday to commemorate that nation’s 60th birthday: that Tehran and Damascus can project power whenever they want in places like Lebanon, and the United States and it’s allies can’t do anything about it.

At least 44 people were killed and another 128 wounded in the fighting — the worst outbreak of sectarian violence inside Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war. Although domestic Lebanese issues played a role in the violence, they are inseparable from the larger geopolitical issues. Ever since the Feb. 14, 2005, assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which eventually forced Damascus to remove its occupation troops, Syrian President Bashar Assad has wanted to reclaim power in Lebanon. So, on Friday, after several days of street clashes between pro-government forces and opposition forces, all-out warfare broke out between street gangs loyal to Hezbollah and gangs funded by Saudi Arabia and loyal to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni Muslim. In less than seven hours of fighting, Hezbollah forces routed the pro-government side, occupied much of Western Beirut, and plastered walls with pictures of the Syrian dictator. Government security forces, equipped and trained by the United States but paralyzed by sectarian differences, stayed out of the fighting.

Lebanese newspapers are filled with pictures of bound, blindfolded members of the defeated loyalist forces who were captured by the Hezbollah side and masked Hezbollah gunmen swaggering through Beirut, boasting how they had forced members of the losing side to beg for their lives. After capturing West Beirut, Hezbollah relinquished the area to the Lebanese Army — for now. Hezbollah (and by extension, its backers in Tehran and Damascus) have demonstrated that they and not the Lebanese government control Lebanon. Do not be surprised if very soon, an emboldened Hezbollah steps up its harassment of the United Nations peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon, laying the groundwork for another battle with Israel.

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“Lebanon to West: Wake Up Fast!” Especially Obama the appeaser!

comment by Jerry Gordon

Barry Rubin has issued a thundering jeremiad against the incredible sloth and appeasement by the West in permitting Hizbollah to take over Lebanon creating a de facto victory for the Syrian and Iranian puppet masters. Both he and the Beirut to Beltway blog that he cites blast at another piece of [...]

“Another meatpacker/Somali love story”: JBS/Swift & Co. in Greeley, Colorado

comment by Jerry Gordon

Swift & Company has US headquarters and a meat packing plant in Greeley, Colorado. Swift was purchased by Brazilian meat packer JBS in a buyout deal for $1.5 billion in July, 2007. In late 2006, Swift was charged by the federal government with employing illegal immigrants. Sounds familiar to us, like Tyson [...]

Khalid Yasin, internationally-renowned Islamic hate sheikh and 9/11-denier, speaking in Dayton on May 16th

comment by Jerry Gordon

Watch this important CBN video story on Hamas supporters and cells in Hillyard, Ohio. View interviews with our allies Patrick Poole of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism and Steven Emerson of The Investigative Project Against Terrorism discussing Sheik Sultan, formerly from Hillyard and barred from the US for appearing at a [...]

What!! U.S. Solidiers learning Arabic at Saudi Wahhabi Institution ISA in McLean, Virginia

comment by Jerry Gordon

A tip of the chapeau to Pamela of Atlas Shrugs for this story. It is about the ‘bad penny’, the Saudi Embassy funded Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in McLean, Virginia training US soldiers from Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia in Arabic language and “Middle Eastern culture and traditions.” We had [...]

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From the DEBKAfile:

DEBKAfile reports: In the second winning round of its war on the pro-Western Siniora government, Hizballah pounded the Druze strongholds of anti-Syrian Walid Jumblatt in the Mt. Lebanon hills east of Beirut all day Sunday, April 11. When the Druze leader asked his rival Talal Arselan to broker a truce deal, Hizballah laid down an ultimatum: Druze militias must turn in their heavy weapons to the Lebanese army and disarm their troops or the attacks go on.

In the northern town of Tripoli Hizballah allies continued to fight pro-government Sunni loyalists.

Shiite gunmen continue to man roadblocks on Beirut highways including the airport road even through Hizballah agreed Saturday, May 10, to take its armed men off the streets after the army surrendered to its two key demands.

DEBKAfile’s sources report that Hizballah fighters mingle with Shiite Amal men in order to camouflage their continuing street presence. Lebanese soldiers still do not venture into the districts conquered by Hizballah in four days of fierce fighting. The crisis which has claimed 44 dead and 128 wounded is therefore far from over. Arab League foreign ministers met Sunday in emergency session called by Saudi Arabia and Egypt Sunday night. Damascus, which sent a low-level delegate instead of its foreign minister, vetoed the proposal to send an Arab peacekeeping force to hold Hizballah in check.

Israel’s deputy defense minister Vilnai said the Lebanese situation is worrying but there is no cause for Israel to intervene.

In obedience to Hizballah demands the Lebanese army revoked two government measures Saturday: the Shiite group’s independent telecommunication network will not be shut down and the pro-Hizballah Brig. Gen Wafiq Shqeir would keep his job as Beirut international airport head of security. The general was accused of waving through illegal Iranian arms shipments for Hizballah.

In a broadcast speech, Saturday, May 10, the pro-Western prime minister Fouad Siniora asked the army to defuse the crisis after Hizballah seized control of western Beirut, besieged the government center and attacked pro-government Sunni centers across Lebanon. Government loyalists found no support from Sinora’s powerful backers, the United States, France or even Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The pro-Western government was therefore forced to back down.

This meant its acceptance of Hizballah’s communication system in central, southern and eastern Lebanon and its direct link to Syrian and Iranian command centers in Damascus; and the Shiite group’s Beirut headquarters online communications link to its Revolutionary Guards bosses in Tehran.

Triumphant, the Hizballah chief Hassan Hasrallah will be a more dangerous enemy than ever. The army rather than the government laid down the condition that Hizballah withdraw from the Sunni districts of Beirut and the rest of the country and remove its armed men from the streets.

Even so, a government minister remarked that the deal awaits approval by Hizballah leaders and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut. It is far from certain that the Shiite terrorists will give up the territory they gained in the last four days.

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From the DEBKAfile:

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that in the last 48 hours, Damascus has broadcast new, intransigent policy positions through diverse channels under the influence of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s legal plight and the swift victories its ally, Hizballah, has achieved in Lebanon:

1. Leaders in Olmert’s position are only capable of making war – not peace, according to leaks from Damascus to Arab media. For this reason, Syrian officials claim after the fact that they exposed the secret meeting scheduled to take place between Israeli and Syrian officials in Turkey for sabotage, knowing it would go nowhere.

2. The Israeli prime minister’s offer to give up the whole of Golan for peace was likewise leaked by Damascus to discredit the prime minister at home.

3. Another message informed Jerusalem that any accommodation with Damascus was contingent on a peace deal with Beirut – or rather the real masters of Lebanon, Iran-backed Hizballah.

4. Israel must rescind the disputed Shebaa Farms enclave on Mount Hermon.

5. Syria’s relations with Iran are none of Israel’s business. This is a reference to the demands for the Assad regime to cool its ties with Tehran as a prerequisite for a peace deal.

6. As for the American-Israeli demand that Syria stop hosting terrorist headquarters, Damascus advises Israel to make do with the Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal’s last statement. He said that Hamas is prepared to accept – though not recognize – Israel within the pre-1967 war boundaries and offer a long-term informal truce. Syria finds nothing further to discuss with Israel on the subject of Hamas.

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A Conservative Rabbi’s CUFI Invocation and a Love Offering for Israel

by Jerry Gordon, Israpundit, May 10, 2008

Thursday was Yom Ha’aztma’ut (Israel Independence Day). There were festivities and commemorations across North America, Europe and in Israel. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) held a Night to honor Israel at a regional gathering in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Pastor John Hagee, founder of CUFI was there and according [...]

Score One for The State Department: they pulled a Refugee Agency contract in Waterbury, Connecticut

By Jerry Gordon

Today’s Waterbury, Connecticut Republican American has a follow up to a story we posted on back in March about the squalid conditions of housing and related resettlement services for 64 Burmese Keren Christian refugees. Our State Department had contracted services from with a volunteer agency (VOLAG)-the International Institute of Connecticut (IIC) an [...]

Official Hezbollah Websites Hosted in US/Canada: Oh no, really!

by Jerry Gordon

With all the news about a possible coup in Beirut by Hezbollah, in comes some ‘news’ that several Hizbollah websites are being hosted in….the US and Canada. This Jawa Report listed several ones. Here’s the list as of today. Note how many that the Jawa cyber troopers have smacked down and how many [...]

Illinois Undersheriff apologizes to CAIR for ‘fake Mosque’ terror drill

comment by Jerry Gordon

We knew it was too good to be true. When we posted the story about an Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System drill using a fake ‘mosque’ for a security drill to free ‘hostages’ that appeared in PipeLineNews.org we noted the complaints by the Chicago area CAIR director. Now, it turns out that [...]

“Hezbollah’s Beirut Blitz”-prelude to a Lebanon coup by the Iranian-Syrian Hezbollah axis?

comment by Jerry Gordon

When we posted on the evident takeover of West Beirut by Hezbollah, we likened it to the opening round of a Second Civil War akin to that which ravaged Lebanon from 1976 to 1990 with a Jihad perpetrated by the PLO-Fatah, until pushed out by Israel in 1982 and then supplanted by [...]

Obama sacks adviser Robert Malley who met with Hamas

comment by Jerry Gordon

Obama has a problem. He lies down with dogs and picks up fleas. The latest episode is the fiasco of his campaign shedding ties with Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group, after a London Times article revealed that the Obama foreign policy adviser has held regular meetings with the Palestinian terror [...]

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From Citizen Outreach:

By: Chuck Muth

PROFILES IN POLITICAL COURAGE

“Republican Chairwoman Sue Lowden showed great political courage in standing up against mandatory vaccinations in the state Senate a few years back. That brave stand gave the Culinary union all the ammo they needed to bring her down, absurdly claiming the young mother was ‘in favor of childhood disease.’ And (Nevada GOP) convention chairman Bob Beers is as close to a lower-tax, smaller government Republican as this state party has produced in a long while.”

- Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Vin Suprynowicz

SAGE ADVICE

“Here’s a fiscally responsible use of the Governor’s Mansion. Rent it. Surely it’s an idea that will intrigue the newly formed Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission. Drop the pretense and just rent out the mansion to the highest bidder. Use the income to help chip away at the state’s $913 million budget deficit.”

- Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith

MORE SAGE ADVICE

“The Spending and Government Efficiency Commission—or SAGE —is intended to root out government waste. But unless the panel decides to kill entire programs, the amount of cost savings won’t help the state much.

“There are some parts of state government that the average Southern Nevada would willingly put on the chopping block. How about the Alfalfa Seed Advisory Board? Maybe the Board for the Education and Counseling of Displaced Homemakers or the Nevada State High School Rodeo Association? Of course, one person’s agricultural promotion is another’s Yucca Mountain fight.

“Even a cursory look at state government through its Web site would get the average person frustrated. There is, for example, no valid link to the Nevada Literacy Coalition of the state Cultural Affairs Division. And the signature senior prescription drug program, paid for largely with tobacco settlement funds, doesn’t even have a waiting list in these horrendous economic times. Some conservatives, who have never liked the program, may wonder whether Senior Rx should be covering those who aren’t seniors, for example. Of the roughly 5,500 people currently enrolled, about 480 are younger Nevadans suffering from a disability.”

- Las Vegas Review Journal columnist Erin Neff

SEEDS OF DOUBT

“His administration already beset by a litany of missteps, scandals and investigations, some are questioning whether Gov. Jim Gibbons can survive the political fallout of a drawn-out divorce long enough to see a second term.

“Many of Gibbons’ supporters are putting up a strong public front, refusing to acknowledge a possibility that Gibbons would be too weakened to make it through a re-election campaign in 2010. Gibbons himself has repeatedly said he will seek re-election, and his political consultants say he’s given no indication that isn’t the case.

“But others say his decision to divorce his wife of 22 years, Dawn Gibbons, midway through his first term could undermine what support he has left in a strong base of voters who put him in office despite the embattled end of his 2006 campaign.

“’It has gotten to the point that some folks close to Gibbons and firm supporters are starting to wonder, is he going to run for a second term?’ said Chuck Muth, a conservative activist and Gibbons supporter. ‘A seed of doubt is starting to creep up in their minds that maybe they better start considering the possibility and find somebody else.’

“No one, Republican or Democrat, has publicly stated they will challenge Gibbons in 2010. Political strategists said that probably will be the case at least until the end of the next legislative session. And Republican strategists see that session as Gibbons’ chance to redeem himself.

“.(Republican political consultant Ryan) Erwin said that he hasn’t counted Gibbons out for a second term. ‘He may have water up to the chin, but it’s not up to the nose and eyes yet,’ he said. Erwin and others are confident Gibbons can revive his administration in the remaining two years of his term.

“The political lifeline Gibbons has clung to is his no-new-taxes pledge. So far it has acted as a shield, keeping him popular with his base. With scandals plaguing his first term, Gibbons’ approval rating ticked up after holding the line on taxes as state revenues began to deteriorate.

“...’I think the tax pledge is the only thing keeping a lot of people on the reservation with him,’ Muth said. ‘A lot of folks will say this is the one thing he has to do. They can look past the divorce, the Warren Trepp thing and other stuff, but if he breaks the tax pledge, that’s just the cardinal sin.’

“An ongoing FBI investigation is looking into Gibbons’ relationship with Trepp, owner of Reno software company eTreppid. Erwin, however, contends Gibbons is going to have to do more to stand the line on taxes to reinvigorate his administration. ‘The lifeline may keep him from drowning, but he’s not going to be able to win a race on that,’ Erwin said.”

- Anjeanette Damon, Reno Gazette-Journal, 5/11/08

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“You know, government isn’t always the answer for people. The private sector and Christian organizations like (Habitat for Humanity) have to be there.”

- First Lady Dawn Gibbons, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/11/08

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From Citizen Outreach:

By: Chuck Muth

NAACP FIGHTS FOR BUSSING

The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Washoe County is in contract talks with the Teamsters this week at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks. And what cataclysmic issue is of such monumental concern in the negotiations that it warranted a full-scale press release this morning? Wages? Benefits? Working conditions? Safety? The cost of a gallon of petro? Nope. The Martin Luther King day bus schedule. Huh? Yep. Read all about it HERE on Muth’s Truths.

IT’S CALLED CHECKS AND BALANCES

The Founding Fathers were geniuses. They knew the executive branch nor the legislative branch nor the judicial branch of government could be trusted implicitly, so they set up a system of checks and balances to keep any one branch from taking control of the government from the people. I mention this because a lot of folks have been hammering Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons over his “no new taxes” pledge to the point where, if stories yesterday were accurate, he might be starting to buckle under the pressure.

As you may recall, the gaming industry and the teachers union are reportedly close to a deal whereby the union will abandon its effort to gather enough signatures on a petition to hike the gaming tax some 44 percent (an indication that they might not be on target to get enough signatures by the May 20 deadline) in return for the Legislature putting an “advisory question” on the ballot asking the people if it’s OK for the Legislature to raise the hotel room tax instead – which would primarily hit out-of-state tourists who will have no vote on the tax hike.

In other words, taxation without representation. But that’s another argument for another day.

But here’s the thing: Because of the system of checks and balances we enjoy in this state, the ultimate decision on whether or not to raise taxes lies with the Legislature, not the governor. Indeed, even uber-liberals such as Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie (D-Reno) acknowledge, as she is quoted in this morning’s Reno Gazette-Journal as saying, that “we do not live in a monarchy and the legislative branch is equal to the executive branch.”

In reality, however, when it comes to raising taxes the legislative branch is actually MORE equal. You see, the Legislature, not the governor, gets the final word. The Legislature, by a 2/3 vote, can approve any tax hike, including one to jack up the taxes on our already beleaguered tourists. And the governor, honoring the promise he made to the people, could and should then veto any such bill. But the matter wouldn’t end there. The Legislature, you see, could then over-ride the governor’s veto by the same 2/3 vote it needed to pass the tax hike in the first place.

So those who want to raise taxes, rather than cut spending and lay off non-essential government workers, should really get off the governor’s back and instead hammer the Legislature. After all, Gov. Gibbons campaigned for office promising not to raise taxes; the same can’t be said for most legislators who steadfastly refuse to make such a bold fiscally conservative commitment to voters and then run on it.

And instead of buckling and trying to find “loopholes” to get around his pledge – like this ill-advised and pledge-breaking “advisory question” scheme – the governor should simply tell everyone over and over and over again that if it wants to, the Legislature should go ahead and pass a tax hike with a 2/3 majority, he’ll then veto it like he promised, and then they can over-ride his veto and impose yet higher taxes on Nevada’s “working families” (isn’t that the term the Left always uses?). The governor can then run for re-election in 2010 as having kept his word not to raise our taxes and campaign against the 2/3 of the Legislature who did.

And may the best protector of the taxpayer win.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Chuck Muth doesn’t understand the concept of the single-front war. Muth, the former Republican but solid conservative, has three targets in his sights. He is running ads against the teachers’ attempt to raise the gaming tax for education – Muth hates taxes more than Jim Gibbons does, which I’ll get to in a moment. Muth also is going after government employees and their travel, submitting requests for information to state folks. That will be something to see. And, finally, he is going after the governor for not being tax-pure, for contemplating support for a room tax increase if it goes on the ballot first. Muth says that violates a pledge Gibbons signed. If Muth isn’t careful, he may have to leave the state. Again.”

- Flashpoint, 5/10/08

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Columbia’s Catastrophic “Nakba” Conference

comment by Jerry Gordon

The new Palestinian ploy is to trash Israel on the 60th Anniversary by trying to focus the media’s attention on ‘Nakba’- the Disaster referring to the Arab defeat during Israel’s War for Independence in 1948-1949 and the flight of refugees. Of course there were several more ‘nakbas’ meaning the Wars that Israel [...]

Rochester (NY) Yemenis charged with money laundering for Hezbollah

comment by Jerry Gordon

A tip of the chapeau to Barbara T for this story. Yesterday in Rochester, NY it was the matter of the Muslim woman 911 operator hit with felony charges on misuse of state police and FBI databases. Today, it is the arraignment of three Yemenis for money laundering-they sent $12.3 million in [...]

Olmert and Israel Agonistes

by Jerry Gordon

The blood sport in Israeli politics has turned serious. Knesset Members increasingly cry out for Olmert’s resignation as the gag order is lifted and more revelations come out about the Talansky dealings. NU-NRP M.K. Arieh Eldad and his colleague Uri Ariel had these telling comments in today”s Jerusalem Post article, MK’s Call for [...]

Vatican Flypaper May Entrap Shia Iran

by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast, May 8, 2008

Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein, noted theologian, distinguished university professor of comparative religion and former University president is among the few academics who ‘get it’ about the threat of radical Islam. He sent a number of us an interesting article about a recent Vatican encounter with Shia clerics [...]

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Happy Mother’s Day from NoisyRoom.net! We hope that this day is a very special one for each and every Mother out there…

Happy Mother’s Day from our new home near Hauser Lake, Idaho…

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From Fox News:

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes and artillery units have hit Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, following a rebel raid on a military outpost in Turkey, the military said Sunday.

Targets in Saturday’s raids included an area just across the border where rebels had allegedly gathered after attacking the military station in Hakkari province, near the Iraq border, the military said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Six soldiers and 19 rebels were killed in that attack and military airstrikes that followed, the military said. The rebels denied suffering any losses.

In its statement, the military said artillery units and attack aircraft “intensely and effectively” struck rebel targets in the Avasin-Basyan area in northern Iraq on Saturday.

read more…

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From the DEBKAfile:

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that three weeks before Hizballah seized western Beirut, the Shiite terrorist group took delivery of 35 fast speedboats for use with explosives from Iran. The craft can threaten US Sixth Fleet and Israel Navy shipping close to Lebanese shores, reach Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod Mediterranean ports and raid its coastal oil installations.

The speedboats were tailor-made for Hizballah by Iranian Revolutionary Guards shipyards at Bandar Abbas as the only marine terror fleet operating in Mediterranean waters. Our military sources report the boats are capable of carrying chemical, biological and radiological weapons systems.

They were delivered in mid-April by an Iranian freighter at the Syrian port of Latakia and trucked to Naimah port south of Beirut. There they were hidden in the subterranean hangars belonging to Ahmed Jibril, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front-General Command. Today, the PLF-GC is financed and directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The hangars were constructed in the seventies by East Germany engineers with a protected Mediterranean anchorage and made virtually impenetrable by sea or air.

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From Iran Focus:

By Tom Bergin

ImageLONDON (Reuters) – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a planned gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from U.S. lawmakers who were concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme.

A spokeswoman said on Saturday that the world’s second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field but may yet join later stages of the field’s development.

Shell, Spain’s Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to be known as Persian LNG.

read more…

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From Fox News:

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah TV says that Hezbollah-led opposition forces will withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with an army request.

An opposition statement says the move comes in response to an army order, but the statement said that a “civil disobedience” campaign will continue until its demands are met.

read more…

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From Yahoo! Finance:

ANB Financial banks closed by federal regulators over ‘unsafe and unsound’ practices

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP)—Federal regulators says they’ve closed ANB Financial National Association banks after discovering “unsafe and unsound” business practices there.

David Barr, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says many customers served by the bank’s nine locations had accounts under $100,000, which will be fully insured by the government. Barr says customers can continue to write checks and draw money from ATMs through the weekend.

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From Iran Focus:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated his warning that the Jewish state will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, but expressed hope the international community would be successful in checking Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Yes, Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map. Why should we?” Olmert asked in an interview with The Washington Post.

The newspaper plans to publish the interview in its Sunday issue, but it posted the text on its website late Friday.

At the same time, the prime minister held out hope that diplomatic efforts by the United States, the European Union and Russia aimed at ensuring the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program would bear fruit.

“I hope they will be successful,” Olmert said.

However, he sharply disagreed with findings contained in last year’s US National Intelligence Estimate, which argued that Iran’s military nuclear program had been halted in 2003.

“Based on the information we have, the military program continues and has never been stopped,” Olmert insisted.

“If this program continues, at some point they will be in possession of a nuclear weapon,” he warned.

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From Iran Focus:

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The EU presidency on Friday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” anti-Israeli remarks made by Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called the state of Israel “a stinking corpse”.

Ahmadinejad’s comments, delivered Thursday, “are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised,” the European Union’s Slovenian presidency said in a statement.

The EU presidency “condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent statements made by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran… Such statements are improper for representatives of the Iranian authorities,” the statement said.

read more…