Winds of Change

Introduction To This Blog (Muslims For The Shariah)

2012-01-17T13:57:00.005+02:00

January 17, 2012
written by: Sheila Quinn
Source: Muslims For The Shariah

There is much misinformation about The Shariah through out the world. Both Non-Muslims and Muslims have tremendous ignorance about The Shariah.
Where should The Shariah be implemented? The Shariah should only be implemented in Muslim countries. The Shariah is a part of The Islamic Faith. Any leader of any Muslim country who does not implement the Shariah completely is accountable in front of Allah. In Islam,leadership is a trust from Allah-not a right!
What about Non-Muslim countries? It is clear-in The Qur'an,itself, that Shariah should only be implemented in Muslim countries. Shariah is a part of Islam. Therefore to impose Shariah in a Non-Muslim country would be, in fact, imposing The Islamic Faith on Non-Muslims. Such a thing would be making the Islamic Faith compulsory for Non-Muslims. Allah says in The Qur'an, "La ikraaha fee deen" (There is no compulsion in religion).
There is much disagreement amongst Muslims about The Shariah. What is lawful and what is forbidden? What is obligatory, and what is not obligatory? Until there is a common criterion in which to answer these questions there will continue to be divisions amongst Muslims.
The purpose of this blog is to promote The Shariah. Such a purpose includes-through necessity- promoting a common criterion for deciding these questions. This criterion is not from me, but from Allah and His Messenger through ayat in The Qur'an and hadeeth from Prophet Muhammad.

Worse than DDT: When You Eat This, it Ends Up Lingering in Your Gut

2012-01-15T13:06:00.007+02:00

January 15 2012
Dr. Mercola

Dr. Don Huber is an expert in an area of science that relates to the toxicity of genetically engineered (GE) foods.

(Alternative terms for GE foods include genetically modified (GM), or "GMO" for genetically modified organism.)

His specific areas of training include soil-borne diseases, microbial ecology, and host-parasite relationships.

Dr. Huber also taught plant pathology, soil microbiology, and micro-ecological interactions as they relate to plant disease as a staff Professor at Purdue University for 35 years.

In part one of this interview, Dr. Huber discussed the shocking discovery of a brand new organism in genetically engineered (GE) crops—an organism that has been clearly linked to infertility and miscarriage in cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry that are raised on GE feed.

In part one we began the discussion on the hazards of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, and its contribution to a new phenomenon referred to as "Sudden Death Syndrome" (SDS).

Here, we continue the discussion on glyphosate.

The "Biodegradable" Weed Killer that Wasn't…

The public's appreciation of the toxicity of glyphosate is rather limited. The fact that Monsanto marketed Roundup as "environmentally friendly" and "biodegradable" may have quite a bit to do with this general lack of insight. (In 2009, a French court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto for false advertising.)

Glyphosate is actually, in many ways, similar to DDT, which is known to cause reproductive problems among other things.

"There are some similarities," Dr. Huber says. "… I am familiar with DDT, and the fact that it's a very difficult compound to degrade. It's biologically degraded primarily by a process we call co-metabolism… [T]here are very few organisms that can utilize this as a direct nutrient source.

There are a few organisms that can utilize glyphosate as a direct nutrient source, but again, most of the degradation appears to be by co-metabolism. In other words, an organism just happens to produce the extracellular enzymes that will degrade it, rather than the organism really getting any benefit from it."

Glyphosate Persists in Soil, and Promotes Disease-Causing Pathogens

According to Dr. Huber, glyphosate can accumulate and persist in the soil for years. Persistence is determined by biological activity, soil PH, clay content, and how firmly it's sequestered or absorbed in the soil. This is bad news, because glyphosate not only decimates beneficial microorganisms in the soil essential for proper plant function and high quality nutrition, it also promotes the proliferation of disease-causing pathogens.

"The organisms that are stimulated are the pathogens," Dr. Huber says. "…all of the natural biological control organisms are very sensitive to that concentration of glyphosate. What we see with the fusaria, which causes sudden death syndrome in soybeans, is that it can be stimulated by glyphosate… so we find [up to] 500 percent increase in root colonization by this fungus. It's a very serious pathogen, not only on soybeans. Fusaria on most of our crops is a major disease organism that we have to deal with."

This 500 percent increase in root colonization of the fusaria fungus occurs even on Roundup-ready crops, because the technology does not 'cancel out' the effects of the glyphosate in the plant in any way.

"All it does is make it possible for that plant to survive and to accumulate more glyphosate. We still change the soil ecology, microbial ecology, and… our intestinal microbiology."

To quickly recap what we discussed in part one of this interview, while glyphosate promotes the growth of more virulent pathogens, it also kills off beneficial bacteria that might keep such pathogens in check—in the soil, and in the gut of animals or humans that ingest the crop.

"[W]ith glyphosate, we also see an additional stimulation of virulence, so we see increased ability to cause disease, as well as the loss of the natural biological controls," Dr. Huber says.

It's important to understand that the glyphosate actually becomes systemic throughout the plant, so it cannot be washed off. It's inside the plant. And once you eat it, it ends up in your gut where it can wreak total havoc with your health, considering the fact that 80 percent of your immune system resides there and is dependent on a healthy ratio of good and bad bacteria.

Glyphosate—The Most Abused Chemical in the History of Man

Interestingly enough, when asked which toxin he would prefer to use if he had to make a choice between two evils, Dr. Huber says he'd take DDT over glyphosate any day.

"A lot of these materials can have a very beneficial use. I'm certainly not anti-chemical. But we have to use some common sense. What we have with glyphosate is the most abused chemical we have ever had in the history of man," he says.

"… When future historians write about our time, they're not going to write about the tons of chemicals that we did or didn't apply. When it comes to glyphosate, they're going to write about our willingness to sacrifice our children and jeopardize our existence, while threatening and jeopardizing the very basis of our existence; the sustainability of our agriculture." … It doesn't mean that it's not reversible… But it means that we need to recognize what the concerns are, what's happening, and then we need to change."

According to Dr. Huber, we're now seeing the results of a massive experiment based on flawed science and failed promises. We jumped in without the basic understanding of what these products do, and this was done just to support the bottom line of a few large companies, such as Monsanto. That's madness!

Assumptions, Presumptions, and Flawed Science—All Potentially Deadly

As explained in part one of this interview, glyphosate is a strong chelator, meaning it immobilizes critical micronutrients, rendering them unavailable to the plant. As a result, the nutritional efficiency of genetically engineered (GE) plants is profoundly compromised. Micronutrients such as iron, manganese and zinc can be reduced by as much as 80-90 percent in GE plants.

Didn't anyone know this could happen? Part of the problem goes back to the fact that Monsanto's scientists were really only looking for a mechanism that would kill weeds. That's what happens when you assume and refuse to double-check your assumptions…

"As I read some of the early documents, it stated that it 'inhibits the EPSPs enzyme. Actual herbicide mode of action unknown.'" Dr. Huber says. "In 1984, it was very well-documented that the way it kills weeds and plants is by compromising the defense mechanisms, making them very susceptible to these soil borne organisms… It's a debilitating type of situation, more like AIDS than a direct killer...

Also, since humans and animals don't have the shikimate pathway, it was assumed that this is a pathway that exists only in plants and microorganisms. Therefore, it's going to be safe for us. It was also assumed that the foreign proteins – whether it's BT; the protein from glyphosate; that new EPSPs gene from the Agrobacterium – would readily be degraded in the gut… It's a flawed science."

The Unfulfilled Promises of Genetically Engineered Crops

The situation is equally disturbing with respects to the genetic engineering of the crop itself. Many experts have admitted that we really do not yet understand genetics enough to dabble in this way and release it into the wild. Because what we do know is that when you insert a foreign gene, you alter not just one feature—you're altering multiple things, and you can end up with some highly unpredictable and unforeseeable results.

Most of the biotech industry's promises have turned out to be false with respect to genetically engineered (GE) foods. For example:

* GE crops are supposed to be more drought resistant, but the opposite turns out to be true. Says Dr. Huber:

“It takes twice as much water to produce a pound of a Roundup-ready crop soybean plant treated with glyphosate, as it does with soybean plant that’s not treated with glyphosate.”
* GE crops are supposed to be nutritionally "better" or at the very least "equivalent" to conventional foods, but they're not. On the contrary, they're nutritionally inferior due to glyphosate's chelating mechanism, which blocks absorption of micronutrients. GE crops contain about 50 percent less manganese, and up to 70 percent less zinc. They also contain less copper, iron and magnesium, just to name a few. This affects the overall health of the plant, and its reproductive ability, and when you eat this nutritionally inferior food, you're not getting the micronutrients your body needs for proper function either. All animal products are similarly affected when raised on GE soy- or corn feed.

Has it Gone Too Far, or is There Still Time to Turn it All Around?

Glyphosate was first introduced as a weed killer in 1974, prior to the introduction of genetically modified crops. According to Dr. Huber, it has been so overused for the past 30 years that many essential soil organisms have been eradicated.

"Typically… when we would apply an herbicide, we would tell our growers, "You rotate the chemistry, just like you rotate the crop." Therefore, when you had an effect on a specific group of organisms, you have an opportunity for nature to rebalance and to reestablish that beneficial and functional relationship. We haven't done that with glyphosate. We just continually hammered for 30 years in one direction on those beneficial organisms… They no longer exist in the environment! We see that we have to start adding them now in order to increase crop productivity and nutritional value.

Dr. Huber has spent about 20 years researching how to remediate the damage caused by glyphosate. Fortunately, Dr. Huber believes we can turn it all around, but we MUST make changes. We cannot keep going the way we are.

"We have to start looking now at mineral supplementations and seed treatments," Dr. Huber says, "because our soil biology isn't going to provide it. The whole system has changed. If we want to change it for the better, we have to recognize what that change is and be willing to change again to compensate or to rectify."

If we continue in the same direction, dousing our crops with ever increasing amounts of glyphosate, we will soon start seeing the same effect on human health as Dr. Huber is seeing in plants and animals. In fact, we may already be seeing the effects of the genetically engineered diet.

"… [W]e're just starting to see the impact on reproductive fertility," he says. "Also the disease potential… You can hardly pick up the paper anymore without seeing that a human disease is involved… We had to recall 20 percent of our total egg production here last year or early this year because of salmonella.

You have to say, "What's changed?"

The newspaper said that when they looked at the egg-producing facilities "they had chicken manure and they had rodent droppings." … I have never seen a chicken coup that didn't have chicken drop. They have manure. Any time you have feed, even with three or four cats around and whatnot, you're going to have some rodents. That's NOT the reason."

Glyphosate May Play a Key Role in Deteriorating Food Safety

Dr. Huber goes on to discuss a German paper that shows certain pathogens such as E. coli and some others have a high tolerance for glyphosate compared to their natural biological controls. What this means is that it may not be the presence or absence of pathogens per se that determines the safety of our food supply, but rather the presence or absence of the natural control organisms, which are effectively destroyed by glyphosate.

"Salmonella, Clostridium, and a lot of these disease organisms are ubiquitous. They're everywhere. Our health is dependent on keeping them in check," Dr. Huber warns.

This is truly important in light of the ongoing war against organically-grown foods, which are often targeted first, when there's an outbreak of foodborne illness. If we can educate those in charge about this, then they would perhaps begin to understand why organic foods are FAR LESS inclined to be the culprit, because the beneficial soil bacteria present in organically farmed lands—as they do not use glyphosate or other chemicals on their fields—actually hinders pathogens in and on the food from multiplying out of control.

"If we're eliminating that check, either through residues in our food or through direct impact in our environment, we're going to continue to see what we're seeing today. Look at Alzheimer's, thyroid problems, autism, Parkinson's – any of those diseases that have a tie with either the endocrine system or the nutrient availability—we're going to see those increase."

Are Genetically Engineered Foods Affecting Your Mood and Behavior?

Dr. Huber recently spent some time in Australia, where he had the opportunity to review an ongoing study into genetically engineered foods.

"It's a continuation of a study that was conducted in Iowa with pigs and cattle. The [Australians] are doing it with mice so that they can define what the toxins are… They're using these one or two-pound, big, white rats that some people call pet rats… You can reach in to the non-GMO-fed rat cage and pull one out. Put it on your lap and it can be patted just like a cat.

But try and reach in to the cage where the rats are being fed the genetically engineered feed. Here they have limited it to one [rat per cage]. The rats are irritated. They don't get along together. They always go off into their own little world. They do backflips. They crawl up and run around the cage. They can't get any peace; can't settle down. That is very typical of what you'd see with autism. Then you start looking and say, "Well, are there any other similarities?"

Dr. Huber also recently met with a doctor in Germany who specializes in working with autistic children. Interestingly, there appear to be many correlations between the rats fed genetically modified feed and autistic children.

"[When] you look at the stomachs of the GMO-fed [animals], they have all of the severe allergy responses, the inflammation and the reddening… When they looked at the intestine, they said that the intestinal lining is deteriorating… The smell of the intestinal contents is very rank. The biology has been drastically changed.

This [German] doctor said, "That's exactly what we're seeing with our children with autism.

We need more research, but certainly, the indicators are there. The research up until very recently hasn't been done, and those who wanted to do it have been prohibited from publishing, or from doing that research. We see those that have dared to come out and raised some concerns have been very severely impacted professionally, as well as in their own personal lives, in that persecution that they've had to endure.

We've got to change.

We've got to recognize that what we have now isn't normal. We got to get back to safe, sufficient, and sustainable production and health for our agriculture community, if we're going to be healthy in that process also."

Text of H.R. 3131: To direct the Secretary of State to submit a report on whether any support organization that...

2012-01-15T12:20:00.004+02:00

Source:govtrack.us

Oct 6, 2011 - Introduced in House. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill currently available on GovTrack.

HR 3131 IH

112th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 3131

To direct the Secretary of State to submit a report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization and any actions taken by the Department of State to express gratitude to the government of Greece for preventing the Gaza flotilla from setting sail in contravention of Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

October 6, 2011

Mr. BILIRAKIS (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. CARTER, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN, Mr. YOUNG of Florida, Mr. GRIMM, Mr. DIAZ-BALART, Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Mr. ROSKAM, and Mr. SIRES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of State to submit a report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization and any actions taken by the Department of State to express gratitude to the government of Greece for preventing the Gaza flotilla from setting sail in contravention of Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) Since 1948, the United States, Greece, and the international community at large have recognized Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself and conduct legitimate self-defense.

(2) Since 2001, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and supported by Iran and Syria have launched over 10,000 rockets into Israeli civilian populations and across Israeli territory.

(3) Since the beginning of 2010, Israel has provided over 100,000 tons of aid to the people living in Gaza.

(4) Israel’s blockade is acknowledged by the United States as necessary and legal given Hamas’ control of Gaza, intention to secure greater weaponry for aggressive purposes and open desire to destroy Israel.

(5) According to sources, the United Nations-commissioned Palmer Report which was released on July 7, 2011, concludes that the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza is legal and is in accordance with international law.

(6) The Israeli Government has repeatedly indicated that any desire to provide humanitarian materiel to Gaza can be done through the port of Ashdod then delivered to Gaza by land.

(7) Recent past history has suggested that the sole intent of the flotillas is to provoke an Israeli military response in the international waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

(8) The Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of the Treasury have determined that flotilla organizers Free Gaza and the Insan Hak ve Hurriyetleri ve Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), an Islamic nongovernmental organization (known in English as the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief), have known terrorist ties.

(9) In 2010, IHH organized a flotilla that included the ship Mavi Marmara carrying 40 IHH members, including Fatima Mahmadi, Ken O’Keefe, Hassan Iynasi, Hussein Urosh, Ahmad Umimon, and others with known links to Al Qaeda, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations who were armed with 100 metal rods, 200 knives, 150 military self-defense vests, 50 wooden clubs, gas masks, and a telescopic sight for a gun.

(10) The explicit objective of the Gaza Flotilla organizers that set sail in 2010 was to breach Israel’s coastal security by breaking the lawful and legitimate Israeli maritime security perimeter around the Gaza Strip.

(11) According to a June 7, 2010, report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (known by its Hebrew acronym MALAM), based on security interviews of the Gaza Flotilla participants, at least 40 of the 500 passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel were IHH operatives who boarded the ship in an Istanbul port prior to the security checks conducted at the port in Antalya, Turkey, to which the other passengers, mostly humanitarian volunteers, were subject.

(12) According to this Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report, these IHH activists were equipped with communications equipment, flak jackets, and gas masks.

(13) The group operated with a clear internal hierarchy, with specific activists nominated as fighting commanders and who turned the upper deck of the Mavi Marmara into its headquarters, blocking it off to other passengers.

(14) In the most recent organization of a Gaza flotilla, Greece worked with the Israeli Government in order to prohibit any violations of Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza.

(15) Greece has proven itself to be a strategic partner and ally of the United States in anchoring political stability and advancing economic development in the Balkan and Black Sea regions of southeast Europe and Eurasia, in the Middle East and northern Africa, and throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

(16) Greece is an active participant in peacekeeping and peace-building operations conducted by international organizations, including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

(17) Greece acted without hesitation in prohibiting any Greek-flagged or foreign-flagged vessels from setting sail out of Greek ports into the water of the Gaza naval blockade.

(18) Pursuant to a decision by the Minister of Citizen Protection, Mr. C. Papoutsis, the departure of ships with Greek and foreign flags from Greek ports to Gaza was prohibited on July 1, 2011, and the Hellenic Coast Guard ordered that all appropriate measures be taken for the implementation of such decision.

(19) The Greek Government worked diligently to ensure the safety of even the organizers of the flotilla knowing that their reckless, irresponsible, and provocative acts against a sovereign country engaged in self-defense could result in great bodily harm or even death to themselves and other individuals.

(20) The Greek Government took more extraordinary measures to ensure that the broader maritime area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea would be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the ships allegedly participating in such an illegal campaign.

(21) Greek authorities boarded ships and took into custody several individuals, including Captain John Klusmire of the ship Audacity of Hope as it violated Greek Coast Guard orders by setting sail without permission.

(22) Greek authorities acted in accordance with the recommendation of the Quartet--the United States, the European Union, the United States and Russia--as it urged countries to prohibit Gaza-bound flotillas that would serve solely to escalate tension in the Middle East.

SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF CONGRESS.

Congress--

(1) notes the important role that Greece has played in the wider European, Eurasian, and Middle Eastern regions, and in the community of nations by promoting, peace, freedom, democracy, and security; and

(2) stands behind Israel for its sovereign right to defend its citizens and its territory, and specifically for its actions to prevent the import of offensive weaponry into the hands of Hamas, Palestinian Jihad, and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

It is the sense of Congress that the United States should take appropriate diplomatic steps to express gratitude to Greece for upholding the rule of law in preventing hostile forces from violating a legal naval blockade of Gaza by Israel and thereby advancing the security of its ally Israel.

SEC. 4. REPORT.

(a) In General- Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).

(b) Contents- The report required under subsection (a) shall include information on the following:

(1) The sources of any logistical, technical, or financial support for the Gaza flotilla ships, including the Audacity of Hope, that were set to set sail from Greece on July 1, 2011.

(2) Any actions taken by the Department of State to express support and gratitude for the principled stance taken by the Government of Greece to prevent the recent Gaza flotilla attempt to violate Israel’s lawful blockade of Gaza.

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Gaza leader promises 'difficult days' for Israel

2012-01-09T11:36:00.006+02:00

13 hours ago
By Fethi Belaid | AFP
Source: Yahoo News Maktoob

The prime minister in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday promised "difficult days" for Israel, and at a rally in Tunis urged Arab Spring revolutionaries to fight for an independent Palestine.

Ismail Haniya received an ovation from the crowd of some 5,000 men, women and children gathered in a stadium waving Palestinian, Tunisian and Hamas flags.

"Israel no longer has allies in Egypt and in Tunisia, we are saying to the Zionist enemies that times have changed and that the time of the Arab Spring, the time of the revolution, of dignity and of pride has arrived," he said to loud cheers.

"We promise you that we will not cede a single part of Palestine, we will not cede Jerusalem, we will continue to fight and we will not lay down our arms," he said, urging "the people of the revolution to fight the army of Al-Quds" as Jerusalem is known in Arabic.

"To Tunisia we say: 'It is us today who are going to build the new Middle East'."

Haniya insisted "We will not recognise Israel", as the crowd chanted: "Death to Israel", "The Tunisian revolution supports Palestine", and "The army of Mohammed is back".

Some wiped their feet on the Star of David.

Haniya arrived in Tunis on Thursday for a five-day visit at the invitation of the new Islamist-led Tunisian authorities. He has also visited Egypt, Sudan and Turkey and will next travel to Qatar and Bahrain.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by Western powers.

Haniya's visit does not sit well with representatives of the Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas, with a source telling AFP: "The Palestinians are furious."

Jews in Tunisia asked the government earlier Sunday to take steps to avoid a repeat of anti-Semitic slogans chanted during the Hamas leader's visit.

"No Tunisian should be insulted, and the government must take measures to ensure this incident is never repeated," Peres Trabelsi, a representative of Tunisia's small Jewish population, told AFP after the incident.

Islamist activists welcoming Haniya were heard chanting slogans like: "Kill the Jews, it is our duty", along with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian messages.

"There are no Zionists in Tunisia and we don't want to be mixed into the problems of the Middle East," said Trabelsi. "Tunisia is our country."

Tunisia has one of the Arab world's largest Jewish minorities, numbering about 1,500 individuals in a population of more than 10 million.

The population has shrunk drastically from the 100,000 Jews who lived in Tunisia after independence in 1956.

Ajmi Lourimi, a member of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, said the slogans were an isolated incident that did not reflect the views of the government.

Ennahda last month said Jews living in the north African country were citizens with "all their rights and duties". Those comments came in response an invitation by Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom for Tunisian Jews to settle in Israel.

UAE holds talks with Norway, Denmark, Hungary

2011-12-17T12:24:00.007+02:00

Dec 14, 2011
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS
Source;Yahoo News Maktoob

Abu Dhabi, Dec 14 (IANS/WAM) Officials of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have met representatives from Norway, Denmark and Hungary and discussed ways to expand trade and investment.

Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansouri met Ase Elin Bjerke, the ambassador of Norway, and Poul Hoiness, the ambassador of Denmark.

Al Mansouri reiterated his country's interest in expanding trade, technological and investment cooperation with the Scandinavian countries, and to tap their expertise in the telecommunications, education, technology and energy sectors.

There are over 100 Danish as well as Norwegian companies operating in the UAE.

Meanwhile, the director for Europe at the ministry of foreign affairs, Mohammed Saif Hilal Al-Shehhi, met Hungarian ambassador Janos Gonci and discussed bilateral relations.

--IANS/WAM

Jordan set to end reliance on Egyptian gas

2011-12-17T12:17:00.005+02:00

December 17th, 2011
By Taylor Luck
Source: Jordan Times

JORDAN IS SET to move away from Egyptian gas due to the growing unreliability of the country’s main energy source, officials say.

In a statement earlier this week, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Qutaiba Abu Qura announced that the ministry is intensifying efforts to secure alternatives to Egyptian gas, on which Jordan relies for 80 per cent of its electricity generation needs, adding that the resource will not factor in the Kingdom’s future energy plans.

The minister’s statement, issued during a meeting of the Lower House Finance Committee, came amidst reports in the Egyptian press that Amman has gone back on its decision to ratify a new natural gas agreement, which was approved by the Cabinet in August and has been pending Cairo’s approval.

Officials denied that Jordan has formally withdrawn its support for the amended agreement, under which Egypt is expected to triple gas prices.

“We have had no developments, either towards ending or signing the new agreement,” Farouq Hiyari, the energy ministry’s secretary general, told The Jordan Times.

Despite the denials, according to a ministry source, frustration over the unreliability of gas supplies and a lack of communication from the Egyptian side has led Jordanian officials to “give up” on an arrangement that at its peak supplied the Kingdom with some 300 million cubic feet per day.

The Egyptian ministry of petrol declined to comment.

Cairo has yet to resume pumping since a Sinai explosion cut supplies on November 28, marking the ninth attack on supply line since the beginning of the year and the third in less than a month.

The most recent attacks came amidst assurances by Egyptian authorities that an increased military presence in the Sinai Peninsula combined with the arrest of several jihadists allegedly behind the spate of attacks would lead to the security of the pipeline.

According to sources at E-Gas, one of the two firms that oversee the 400-kilometre Arab Gas Pipeline - which also supplies Israel - repairs have faced “unexpected” delays leading to the prolonged disruption, which has forced the Kingdom’s power plants onto their fuel reserves at a cost of some JD3 million per day.

Economists say the series of attacks have had a direct impact on Jordan, with the series of disruptions pushing the national energy bill to record levels - over JD4 billion - and expected to widen the National Electric Power Company’s budget deficit to JD1.4 billion by the end of the year.

“For months NEPCO has covered the difference in price between natural gas and heavy oil, but this burden has become unsustainable,” NEPCO General Manager Ghaleb Maabreh recently told The Jordan Times.

According to officials, a ministerial team is to travel to Cairo “soon” to review the issue of gas supplies with their Egyptian counterparts before Jordan formally moves to end its decade-long reliance on Egyptian gas.

Meanwhile, Hiyari said talks are intensifying with Iraq and several Arab Gulf states over the potential of importing natural and liquid gas over the next decade as Jordan attempts to develop domestic energy sources including oil shale and nuclear power.

Despite the renewed efforts to secure additional energy sources, officials say it will take up to two years from the signing of any agreement before Jordan can benefit from a new energy market due to infrastructure requirements.

Should Jordan decide to end its decade-long reliance on Egyptian gas supplies, Hiyari said the government will resort to the international energy market to maintain electricity generation in parallel with its drive to secure additional energy sources.

“We will have no problem meeting the needs of electricity plants needs with oil and diesel during this period,” Hiyari said.

Energy officials privately conceded that the move will impact electricity tariffs as heavy fuel oil and diesel are much costlier than Egyptian gas imports, which Jordan previously received at prices of less than half the international market rate.

Sources claim the government has previously hesitated to formally end the country’s gas deal with Egypt for fear of raising electricity tariffs at a time of popular unrest over a struggling economy and a stalled political reform drive.

“Officials have finally come to the decision they can no longer wait around for the Egyptian situation to improve,” said an energy official who was not authorised to speak to the press.

“They have come to the terms that Jordan can no longer rely on subsidised energy.”

While an added economic burden for citizens, industry observers say the move away from Egyptian gas will serve as a boost to Jordanian oil shale, which experts say is cost competitive with unsubsidised natural gas, and renewable energy, which advocates claim has long been neglected in favour of subsidised fossil fuels.

Despite the recent boost in investments in the alternative energy sector, Jordan will not see the production of electricity from oil shale before 2016, while the first large-scale renewable energy project, a 90-megawatt wind farm south of Shobak, is not expected to come online before 2014.

Observers say uncertainty over Egyptian gas has elevated energy from a policy concern to an issue of national security for Jordan, which currently imports 98 per cent of its energy needs at a cost of 23 per cent of the gross domestic product.

Jordan’s Islamists call for ‘salvation gov’t’

2011-12-17T12:12:00.005+02:00

December 17th, 2011
By Taylor Luck
Source: Jordan Times

THE JORDANIAN ISLAMIST movement has called for the formation of an emergency government to carry out “urgent reforms”, as the Muslim Brotherhood reiterated its demands for wider constitutional amendments.

Following a meeting of its executive branch late Wednesday, the Islamic Action Front (IMF), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political branch, called for a “national salvation government” to overcome political, economic and social “crises” currently facing the Kingdom.

Islamists urged Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh to head a government representing the interests of various political and social forces in the Kingdom to reduce the role of security services in public life, push through constitutional reform and draft a new elections law.

According to IAF politburo chief Zaki Bani Rsheid, the salvation government should be entrusted with “paving the way” for elections and wider political reforms which the movement claims have been “stalled” for nearly 11 months.

Islamist leaders claim that a recent spike in social violence and ongoing weekly protests are “warning signs” that the Kingdom cannot afford further delays in implementing political and economic reforms.

“If the government does not take immediate measures to alleviate the situation, we believe Jordan is entering a dangerous phase,” warned Hamzah Mansour, IAF secretary general.

“This is why we push for a national salvation government to restore the public’s trust in the political process.”

The demand marks the closest the movement has come to criticising the government of Awn Khasawneh, who reached out to the Muslim Brotherhood during the formation of his Cabinet in late October.

The statement comes amidst ongoing negotiations between Islamists and decision makers over its participation in the political process - widely viewed by officials and observers alike as key to the legitimacy of any upcoming elections.

Islamists have pinned their participation to a series of demands, including wider constitutional reforms guaranteeing an elected government, protecting the Lower House against dissolution, an elections law relying on proportional representation and the dissolution of the State Security Court.

According to the movement, the demand for a salvation government does not represent a break from its reform demands or criticism of the Khasawneh government, but rather a policy demand stemming from a growing “concern” for the domestic situation in Jordan.

“We are noticing that from the economy to the social sphere, the situation in Jordan is getting tenser day after day,” Bani Rsheid told The Jordan Times.

“We don’t want slogans or rhetoric, we want immediate action.”

In its statement, the movement also staked its position on the latest domestic and international issues, weighing in on issues ranging from the protection of Islamic sites in Jerusalem to the demands of disgruntled municipal employees in Jneid.

The movement expressed concerns over the minister of finance’s previously announced intentions to raise water, electricity and fuel tariffs, warning against measures that will affect average citizens which it claims are already facing the negative impact of a struggling economy.

“We need officials to find ways to raise funds other than raising the prices of basic goods that affect all citizens,” Mansour said.

The Islamist movement also welcomed the statements of His Majesty King Abdullah and Khasawneh earlier this month stressing that “no one is above the law”, urging for the Anti-Corruption Commission to refer all corruption cases to court in “transparency and justice”.

In its statement, the IAF condemned the attack on the home of MP Hamad Hajaya and the manner in which security services treated protesters who closed the Desert Highway in the Qatraneh area to demand the reclamation of wajihat - state-owned lands allocated for various tribes during the Ottoman era for grazing and habitation purposes.

The Islamist movement also called on the government to take action against Syrian embassy cadre in Amman who they claimed “broke the law and diplomatic norms” earlier this week by using physical force against Syrian nationals whom Damascus claimed stormed its embassy.

Pakistan PM seeks to dispel rumors of army rift

2011-12-17T12:03:00.004+02:00

4 hours ago
By CHRIS BRUMMITT - Associated Press
Source:Yahoo News Maktoob

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's prime minister dismissed speculation of a rift between the government and the military over a secret memo sent to Washington seeking its help in averting a supposed military coup, saying the country was committed to democracy.

Political tensions have soared in recent days as the Supreme Court begins a hearing into the circumstance surrounding the memo. The absence of President Asif Ali Zardari, recovering from a likely "mini stroke" in his Dubai home with no word on his return, has only added to rumors that the current civilian administration is in possible fatal trouble.

Zardari's plentiful critics are hoping the scandal will lead to his ouster, and delighted in portraying his trip to Dubai on Dec. 6 as a flight from the fallout from the memo. The president's aides have denied that, and most independent analysts believe the veteran politician, who has outlasted numerous predictions of his demise since taking office in 2008, will ride it out.

Late Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to discuss the memo.

Gilani said in a statement he rejected the nation of a "standoff" between the army and the government.

"The government of Pakistan and its institutions remain committed to their constitutional roles and obligations to a democratic and prosperous future for Pakistan," he said.

Tensions between the army and the government could complicate American attempts to rebuild ties with a country seen by many U.S. officials as key to shepherding peace in Afghanistan. A raid by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan in late November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, hammering relations already strained by American suspicions that Islamabad is playing both sides in the Afghan war and virulent anti-U.S. sentiments inside Pakistan.

Pakistan has a long history of army coups or behind the scenes meddling by the generals to engineer pliant regimes, often with the support of the judiciary. That has left the country's 180 million people specially receptive to the idea that the collapse of the government is just around the corner.

Arab League sees 'positive signs' from Syria

2011-12-17T11:31:00.005+02:00

1 hour 32 minutes ago
By Sezayi Erken | AFP
Source:Yahoo News Maktoob

The Arab League expects the Damascus regime to sign up "soon" to an observer mission intended to monitor the protection of civilians, the bloc's number two Ahmed Ben Helli said on Saturday.

"There are positive signs... I expect the signing will happen soon," Ahmed Ben Helli told AFP ahead of a meeting of an Arab League ministerial commission in Qatar.

"It will not be today," he said, before the meeting, which had originally been scheduled to take place in Cairo alongside a now indefinitely postponed emergency foreign ministers' meeting.

Announcing the postponement late on Thursday, Ben Helli said negotiations would continue with the Syrian government to try to convince it to implement an Arab plan to end bloodshed which has raged for nine months since it unleashed a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

The Arab League approved a raft of sanctions against the Damascus authorities on November 27 to punish their failure to heed an ultimatum to admit the observers but Syria said on Sunday that it would allow the mission in on certain conditions.

In a letter to the bloc's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem set a number of terms, notably the withdrawal of the sanctions package.

Ben Helli said on Thursday that the League was still holding talks with Syria on its offer.

On Friday, hundreds of thousands turned out across Syria for rallies called under the slogan: "The Arab League is killing us -- enough deadlines," in protest at the bloc's failure to take a tougher stance.

Tunisia president asks for six-month political truce

2011-12-17T11:18:00.005+02:00

Dec 15, 2011
By Tarek Amara | Reuters
Source:Yahoo News Maktoob

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's new president on Wednesday asked for a six-month political truce and a moratorium on strikes and protests, warning that otherwise the country would be committing "collective suicide."

Tunisia electrified the Arab world when it overthrew its autocratic leader in January, but since then the caretaker authorities have been buffeted by social unrest, political turmoil and rows over the role of Islam in the political system.

"I appeal to all the Tunisian people to give us a political and social truce, just for six months," Moncef Marzouki, a former political prisoner installed as president this week, said in a interview on state television.

"A political truce including all the political parties ... (and) a social truce by immediately stopping all sit-ins and strikes," said Marzouki. "If we continue like this, it will be a collective suicide."

"If things aren't working out within six months, I will submit my resignation," said Marzouki.

In Tunisia's first ever democratic election in October, voters handed victory to the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. Its nominee, Hamadi Jbeli, will be prime minister, the most powerful post.

Other top positions will be shared out among Ennahda's two junior coalition partners, Marzouki's Congress for the Republic and the left-wing Ettakatol party.

The new leaders will hold power for a year while a new constitution is drawn up and fresh elections are prepared.

A cabinet line-up is expected to be announced in the coming days. Three sources within the coalition said the finance ministry would go to Khayam Turki, a businessman who was put forward by Ettakatol.

IMPATIENT FOR CHANGE

Since its revolution, Western leaders have hailed the former French colony as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, but the new authorities are struggling to appease Tunisians who are impatient for change.

There have been hundreds of protests in the past few months, most of them over poor living standards and high unemployment. Some have turned into riots, forcing security forces to fire into the air and impose curfews.

There has also been mounting tension between hardline Islamists, who want to ban the sale of alcohol and the mixing of the sexes in public places, and secularists who believe their liberal way of life is under threat.

Turki, the man tipped to become finance minister, was educated in Tunisia and France and studied at business school, his friend Jamel Touri told Reuters.

And though Ettakatol is known for its socialist foundations, Touri, who is also an official in the party, said the 40-year-old diplomat's son was an economic liberal.

"He is for economic openness and he is in favor of economic reforms to promote openness," Touri said.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Ben Harding)

Special Report: The maverick behind Merkel

2011-12-15T11:57:00.006+02:00

Dec 14, 2011
By Noah Barkin and Erik Kirschbaum
Source:Reuters

(Reuters) - It was approaching midnight at a yacht club on the French Riviera, down the road from a G20 summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was telling reporters about her decision to block a loan to Greece, when suddenly her finance minister interrupted to set the record straight.

Wolfgang Schaeuble told the journalists that it had been his idea to stop the flow of aid to Athens. That move had helped convince Athens to drop its controversial plans for a referendum on new austerity steps, calming financial markets. Schaeuble had personally delivered the news in a phone call to his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos, in hospital at the time with stomach pains.

"Yes, indeed it was the finance minister who stopped the payment," a somewhat startled Merkel acknowledged. "He was the one who reacted first."

Reporters glanced at each other in surprise. Here was Europe's most powerful leader being called out in public by one of her ministers. Instead of rebuking Schaeuble, Merkel had deferred to him, admitting he was right.

The unusual exchange in early November gives a glimpse into the complex relationship between Merkel and Schaeuble. Once his deputy, Merkel is now Schaeuble's boss. Their bond has survived two decades of slights and reversals -- and it is now central to the euro-zone debt crisis.

Germany is Europe's pre-eminent power, and France is No. 2. For months, markets and the media have focused on the link between Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as the key to saving the common currency from a breakup. The media have dubbed the pair "Merkozy."

But an examination of the relationship between the German leader and her outspoken minister -- whose contrasting views on Europe mirror tensions in the broader electorate -- suggests their give-and-take may be just as crucial to the continent's future.

"The chancellor can count on my loyalty," Schaeuble said in an interview with Reuters. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to keep quiet, that I'm going to be easy. I have the freedom to do what I think is right."

Schaeuble, a 69-year old political veteran, has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot by a deranged man a week after German reunification. Long committed to the cause of European unity, he has heavily influenced Berlin's response to the crisis. Some European insiders say he is perhaps the only politician capable of pushing Merkel, a risk-averse politician from ex-communist East Germany, to adopt the policies which may be needed to save the currency bloc.

"I think Schaeuble will be one of the key architects of a solution for the euro zone crisis in the coming weeks," said Klaus Tschuetscher, the prime minister and finance minister of Liechtenstein. "He is renowned and respected for tossing out ideas without worrying what the political reaction might be. I don't think the value of that should be underestimated."

IDEA FACTORY

Since the euro zone's troubles erupted just over two years ago, Schaeuble's finance ministry has been a veritable factory of ideas. His fingerprints are on many of the big decisions taken by the broader bloc.

At the heart of the crisis are huge debts racked up by euro-zone governments and a spreading belief that investors in those countries' bonds won't get paid back in full. In the early stages of the crisis, Schaeuble proposed creating a "European Monetary Fund" to shore up weakened members. At the time, the idea sounded radical. Merkel quickly overruled it, insisting the Washington-based International Monetary Fund should be involved in any euro-zone rescues.

But a year and a half later, the bloc has created a permanent rescue facility -- the European Stability Mechanism -- that in the end looks likely to closely resemble Schaeuble's monetary fund. Funded by euro-zone governments, the European Stability Mechanism will provide loans to members in financial trouble.

In June, Schaeuble made waves by writing to his euro-zone colleagues to demand that private holders of Greek bonds make a substantial contribution to a debt relief package. He suggested this could be achieved by a bond swap that would reduce the amount of debt the Greek government had to pay back. Many dismissed the idea as unrealistic, but the debt-swap idea has now been adopted by the euro zone.

Although Merkel was warned ahead of time that Schaeuble was sending the letter, she did not see it beforehand, her aides say -- a sign of just how much freedom the finance minister has, especially compared with other ministers.

"Merkel knew from the beginning that if she made him finance minister, her control over him would be limited, that he would have his own ideas and speak out on them," one of Merkel's top advisers said. "He is an anomaly in the cabinet."

To politicians and investors outside Germany, Schaeuble's proposals have sometimes been a source of confusion: It's not always clear whether they have the backing of the Chancellery.

In March, for example, the finance minister struck a deal with his euro-zone counterparts on funding for the European Stability Mechanism, only for Merkel to veto it and re-open negotiations days later.

But Schaeuble's freedom also works to Merkel's advantage. He can float ideas while she gauges how euro-zone partners and markets react before committing to them. It's also part of the "bottom-up" structure of the German government, where ministries are encouraged to come up with proposals for the cabinet to consider.

"Everyone in the government has a role," said Schaeuble in his spartan office in the finance ministry, a Nazi-era structure that housed Hermann Goering's aviation ministry during World War Two. "I've been in politics for a long time, I'm relatively old, and that gives me a certain amount of independence."

KOHL'S HEIR APPARENT

In some ways Schaeuble's freedom is made starker by his obvious physical limitations. The assassination attempt nearly succeeded. A little over a year ago, complications from two decades in a wheelchair were forcing him into hospital on a regular basis, and his doctors told him to slow down. In September 2010, after missing crucial summit meetings, he told Merkel he may need to quit because of his health. The chancellor told him to take a month off but urged him to stay.

Now he says he feels better. He has gained weight and resumed two-to-three hour handbike workouts in Grunewald Forest in western Berlin to stay fit.

"I was sicker in parts of 2010 than I wanted to believe," Schaeuble said. "She said she wanted me to keep on doing the job if that was possible. She told me to get better and stay in my post."

Merkel and Schaeuble first met in the months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. A lawyer by profession, he was heir apparent to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and considered by many to be the greatest political talent of his generation. She was a shy 35-year-old from the other side of the Wall, working as a press spokeswoman for Lothar de Maiziere, East Germany's caretaker leader in the run-up to reunification.

Within half a year of their first encounter, Schaeuble's world was turned upside down.

It was October 1990 and the newly united Germany was in a buoyant mood. West Germany had just won the soccer World Cup. The country was months away from the first pan-German election in more than half a century. As the 20th century entered its final decade, a nation that had been weighed down by two world wars, hyper-inflation, a murderous Nazi dictatorship and decades of Cold War division could finally look forward with optimism.

Schaeuble, then interior minister, was leaving a campaign stop at a tavern in the town of Oppenau, near the French border, when a 37-year-old man pulled a gun and fired three shots, hitting Schaeuble in the face and spine.

"I can't feel my legs anymore," he is reported to have said before losing consciousness.

He was flown to a university medical centre in his birthplace of Freiburg, where doctors worked through the night to save his life. Kohl visited his right-hand man in the intensive care unit. At an impromptu news conference a few hours later, the burly chancellor choked back tears.

Schaeuble not only survived but he returned to his job in Bonn a few months later, despite appeals from his family that he quit politics. He looked frail, but Kohl kept faith in his loyal ally. To Germans who questioned whether a paraplegic could run the country, Kohl would often reply that Franklin Roosevelt had led the United States from a wheelchair through the Great Depression and World War Two.

His trust paid off. After Kohl scraped into office again in 1994, it was Schaeuble who worked behind the scenes to keep his narrow centre-right majority intact.

"He kept the coalition majority together," recalls Peter Hausmann, Kohl's spokesman in the 1990s and now editor of a newspaper in Bavaria. "It was a slim majority but he kept the discipline up and everyone in line."

FROM SCANDAL TO POWER

If Kohl had stepped down before the 1998 election and allowed Schaeuble to run against Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, the feisty lawyer from Freiburg might have become chancellor. But Kohl was intent on leading the country into the single currency, an ambitious project that he had pushed over the objections of many compatriots, and ran for an unprecedented fifth term.

Kohl lost to Schroeder, and Schaeuble took his place as head of the conservative Christian Democratic Union. Schaeuble named the up-and-coming Angela Merkel as his deputy.

It was a pairing that would last less than a year and a half. By December 1999, Kohl was caught up in a campaign finance scandal. Merkel penned an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper which hit German politics like a tsunami. In it, she urged the party to move on "without its old war horse" Kohl.

The godfather of the Christian Democrats could not believe the cautious young protégée he had plucked from obscurity could have written the article without the approval of her boss, Schaeuble.

Kohl launched a withering behind-the-scenes campaign to undermine the man he had once anointed his successor. Less than two months later, after discrepancies emerged in Schaeuble's story about a party donation, he was forced to resign.

Merkel was left standing. Hailed as the "clean face" of the Christian Democrats, she was catapulted into the party leadership.

"It was an extremely difficult situation for Schaeuble," said a former minister in Kohl's government who witnessed the drama at first hand and knows both Schaeuble and Merkel well. "At the time there was a strong yearning in the CDU for something new, for someone who wasn't in the Kohl orbit like Schaeuble. She profited from the Kohl scandal."

In "My Way," a 2004 book of interviews with Merkel, she confirms that Schaeuble did not know about the article before it was published. One reason for writing it, she says, was to give him the freedom to run a party over which Kohl still cast a long shadow.

Schaeuble said he does not believe Merkel set out to topple him when she wrote the piece. He describes their working relationship as good, while making clear the two are not friends. He played down the significance of other slights over the years, such as Merkel's refusal to back him for the German presidency in 2004.

In his 2010 biography of Merkel, Gerd Langguth describes how Schaeuble waited in vain for weeks to speak with her about the presidential post he coveted, only to get the cold shoulder. During a joint trip to Turkey at the time, the book says, Merkel made sure she was never alone in a room with Schaeuble to discuss the matter.

A year later, Merkel unseated Schroeder to become the first woman chancellor in German history. She named Schaeuble interior minister, preferring to lock him into her government rather than

give him a role outside the cabinet, such as parliamentary floor leader, where he might have proven dangerous.

When she was re-elected chancellor in the autumn of 2009, just as the first wave of the global financial crisis receded, Schaeuble was Merkel's surprise choice to run the finance ministry. His mastery of financial details during coalition talks convinced her he was the right person for a post that had been expected to go to her coalition partner, the Free Democrats, or her close Christian Democratic ally, Thomas de Maiziere.

"IMPOSSIBLE BECOMES POSSIBLE"

Since then, Schaeuble has emerged as Merkel's most important minister and a respected shaper of policy in Europe at a time of unprecedented financial turmoil.

He is a French speaker who maintains excellent ties with France and knows President Nicolas Sarkozy from their days as interior ministers. At the Cannes summit, when Merkel could not make a crucial meeting of euro zone leaders because of a previously arranged meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Sarkozy pressed her to send Schaeuble in her place. She agreed.

It was Schaeuble who pushed hard for the Christian Democratic Union to demonstrate its commitment to Europe at a party congress held in Leipzig last month under the banner "For Europe, For Germany." In a crucial vote in parliament in late September, he also helped convince party allies to back enhancements to the euro zone's rescue fund, averting a government crisis for Merkel.

But the differences between Schaeuble and Merkel on Europe are sometimes hard to hide.

While Merkel seems focused on limiting the damage to Germany from the debt crisis, Schaeuble sees the crisis as an opportunity to complete the political integration of Europe that was missing when the euro was launched.

In public, he sticks to the party line on controversial crisis-fighting proposals. When asked last month whether he could envision common euro-zone bonds -- an idea Merkel staunchly opposes -- Schaeuble's initial reaction was: "Now I need to be careful to say the same thing as the chancellor." He then went on to say it was too early to consider such a step.

But people who know him say Schaeuble would probably be ready to back such ideas, if the alternative was a breakup of the currency bloc.

"He's for euro bonds," said the former Kohl cabinet minister who worked with both for years. "He can't come out and say that, but if you look carefully at what he's been saying he won't exclude euro bonds like some of the others. He's dropped some clear hints with his language."

EU leaders agreed at a summit meeting in Brussels last week to press ahead with forming the "fiscal union" Schaeuble has long favored, under which euro-zone members relinquish control over budget policy. They also freed up more funds for the IMF to help troubled euro states like Italy and Spain, and decided to bring forward the launch of their permanent rescue fund by a year.

But these steps may be insufficient to stop the rot. And pressure on Germany to take bolder action could rise in the coming weeks.

If a euro-zone breakup looms, Schaeuble will again have to decide whether to speak up and challenge Merkel, as he did light-heartedly in Cannes. Like Dick Cheney under U.S. President George W. Bush, he has nothing to lose, no higher post to shoot for, only his vision of what needs to be done.

"When things get really difficult ... suddenly solutions which seemed impossible become possible," Schaeuble said.

"Because of this, the crisis represents an opportunity. I'm not saying that I enjoy being in a crisis, but I'm not worried. Europe always moved forward in times of crisis. Sometimes you need a little pressure for certain decisions to be taken."

(Editing by Sara Ledwith and Simon Robinson)

Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end

2011-12-15T11:49:00.004+02:00

Dec 11, 2011
By Lucia Mutikani
Source: Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.

At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.

A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.

Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.

Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.

He has tried to market his management skills in manufacturing and the fast-growing field of health care, but has found them already overcrowded.

"It's really getting tight," Parks told Reuters. "The ability to provide is really diminishing and it becomes more the ability to survive."

Parks is collecting $500 a week in unemployment benefits, a far cry from the $80,000 a year he made in his last job as a project manager in architecture and construction.

Although his wife still has her teaching job, they are stretching to cover their monthly expenses, which include a $480 monthly car payment.

Last month, they combined and refinanced their mortgage and home equity loan, lowering their payment to $1,600 a month from $2,175. Gone are the vacations and gym memberships.

"Savings are pretty much gone, we are now into our 401(K) (retirement) money. I haven't bought any clothing in a year and a half; my wife does buy stuff occasionally to be presentable at school," said Parks.

"We have taken no vacations. I just spoke to the gym about volunteering some of my time instead of having to pay for the gym membership."

Jones, who is married and has one child, used to make about $40,000 annually teaching . His wife has an hourly paid job. He declined to say how much he was collecting in unemployment benefits.

"Before I lost my job we could go out and buy extra things for the house. Right now we do not have that option. We have to watch everything that we're spending and buying," said Jones.

That includes foregoing dental check-ups.

"Our savings are about gone and the benefits will be running out fairly soon," Jones added.

BENEFITS RUNNING OUT

The Obama administration estimates that through the course of 2012, about 6 million people would lose federally funded unemployment benefits if Congress does not act.

Currently, federal money ensures that the unemployed receive benefits for up to 99 weeks in states where joblessness is high. Ending the program would mean the newly unemployed would have to rely on state programs that usually last for only 26 weeks.

Extended benefits have been renewed several times as the economy struggled to mount a vigorous recovery from the 2007-09 recession, the worst since the Great Depression.

According to Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, the average unemployed worker receiving extended benefits gets just $296 a week.

"That represents only 50 percent of the income needed to cover the most basic necessities of food, housing and transportation," she said.

The extended federal benefits have become a target in the fight over budget policy between Republicans and Democrats, and renewal is uncertain. Analysts warn that removing that cushion from the millions of unemployed would dampen the still-fragile economic recovery.

"If the unemployed do not have money to spend, then spending in the economy is going to decline. Providing unemployment benefits is one of the effective ways to create jobs," said Lawrence Mishel, head of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

Analysts estimate that not extending benefits for the long-term unemployed could chip away as much 0.3 percentage point from GDP.

NO STIMULUS FROM JOBLESS BENEFITS?

Those opposed to extending the benefits, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, argue that they have failed to stimulate the economy and are instead encouraging recipients to continue seeking jobs that do not exist.

Half the jobs lost during the downturn were in manufacturing and construction. Most of them are not going to be recovered. That is bad news for Brian Krady, another Lancaster County resident, who lost his job in August after 20 years in manufacturing.

Krady, 47, is collecting $500 a week in jobless benefits that will extend for several more months.

The Heritage Foundation says raising benefits to 99 weeks has increased the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage point.

"People are trying to find jobs similar to what they had previously, when those jobs completely don't exist, so they will spend a good portion of their period unemployed looking for jobs that they are unlikely to find," said James Sherk, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

"The only sound arguments for extended unemployment benefits are humanitarian."

DESPERATE TO WORK

Jones and Parks bristle at the suggestion they are contributing to the high unemployment rate by staying on benefits for a long time.

Both men have been actively looking for work with the help of the PA CareerLink of Lancaster County. The unemployment rate in the county is 6.1 percent, 2-1/2 percentage points below the rate for the nation as a whole.

Jones said he has applied for more than 100 jobs since being laid off, and some of them outside education.

"Most people don't respond. I have gone to visit places, trying to get a job and you can't even get past the front desk," he said. "You can't make a pitch, they just don't want to talk to you. Right now I am looking to work. I don't care what it is in."

Parks believes his age puts him at a disadvantage.

"I believe I run into some age discrimination when I get an opportunity to interview. Things go well into the interview, it sounds like it will progress to the next stage," he said.

"In one case they asked for a background check and they just disappeared. This has happened three times," said Parks. "You can't blame the employer, if they can find somebody younger and cheaper, and there is a glut of employees there, why should they choose to go with an experienced, expensive worker?"

The longer Parks and Jones remain unemployed, the dimmer their prospects of getting a job become as they lose skills and connections.

About 43 percent of the 13.3 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks and more.

"Most of the long-term unemployed are people who had pretty good jobs and these jobs were permanently eliminated," said Harry Holzer, professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington.

"If they exhaust their benefits ... what are their options?"

Already, the labor force participation rate -- the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one -- is at 28-year lows.

While many experts advocate retraining, especially for those who lost their jobs in construction and some sections of manufacturing, Holzer warned that will not necessarily help older unemployed workers like Parks.

"For people who are in their 50s, it's hard to go back and retrain. A 55-year-old with a brand new degree is less attractive than a 25-year-old with the same degree," said Holzer.

Analysts say some of the long-term unemployed could end up settling for lesser-paying jobs, but even those are in short supply. For every one job opening, there are about 4.6 people.

"It means there are simply no jobs available for more than three out of four unemployed workers," said the Economic Policy Institute's Mishel.

"In a given month in today's labor market, the vast majority of the unemployed are not going to find a job no matter what they do." (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Libya leaders send U.N. new appeal to unfreeze funds

2011-12-15T11:39:00.007+02:00

Dec 11, 2011
By Ali Shuaib
Source: Yahoo News Maktoob

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Senior figures in Libya's new leadership have written a letter to the United Nations asking it to release funds still frozen three months after the country's civil war ended, the central bank chief said on Saturday.

When a rebellion broke out in February against the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, the U.N. Security Council froze Libyan assets estimated at $150 billion, but the bulk of that sum remains beyond the reach of the new Libyan rulers.

Frustration at the delay has been growing inside Libya, where the interim government says it urgently needs the cash to pay the wages of public sector workers and to start re-building state institutions.

The letter, sent on Thursday, was meant to offer reassurance to U.N. member states which had expressed doubts the new Libyan leadership was united and cohesive enough to be trusted with the cash, Central Bank Governor Saddeq Omar Elkaber told Reuters.

Elkaber said he had signed the letter along with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib and Finance Minister Hassan Ziglam.

"We need this money to manage the country," the central bank governor said on the sidelines of a conference.

INSUFFICIENT FUNDS

The freezing of Libyan assets was part of a package of sanctions intended to put pressure on Gaddafi's administration to stop attacking civilian protesters.

Gaddafi's 42-year rule ended when his forces fled Tripoli in August, and the last of the fighting in Libya ended in October when the former leader was captured and killed. All major powers recognize the NTC as Libya's legitimate representative.

Yet by late November only about $18 billion of the $150 billion in seized assets had been released by special dispensations of the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee. Diplomats said last month that of the $18 billion, only about $3 billion had been made available to Tripoli.

Diplomats said they were concerned that Gaddafi or his family could be the legal owner of the assets, not the Libyan state, and had expressed worries about the legitimacy of the unelected NTC.

Libya can generate substantial revenues from oil exports, but these were halted by the conflict and are taking time to restore, leaving a hole in the NTC's finances.

A senior Security Council diplomat said last month the council was working to speed up the flow of unfrozen assets to Libya.

A Global City and Street Gangs

2011-11-29T16:26:00.008+02:00

November 29,2011
written by: Sheila Quinn
Source: A New Era

It upsets me when I see good websites on the internet publish articles that support tyrants. A few such websites include: "Intifada Palestine", "Global Research" and "Prison Planet".

Today I read an article which promotes the lies of a tyrant known as Assad. It is the purpose of "Intifada Palestine" to have articles about Palestine. Such articles are excellent. But several times this website has published articles that are nothing more than pro-Assad propaganda. It has described itself as being a website that is about Palestine-yet it publishes articles which has nothing to do with Palestine. The editors of this website are acting contrary to its purpose.

There are a number of different street gangs in the city known as "Earth". The global oligarchy is one of the gangs. Pro Qaddafi people are another gang. Those who are pro-Assad are yet another gang. Why did the global oligarchy get involved in Libya? Well, one of the obvious reasons is because their agenda and Qaddafi's agenda clashed. The global oligarchy's agenda is to rule all of humanity. Qaddafi's agenda was to be emperor of Africa. The agendas of these two gangs clashed, so the global oligarchy went after Qaddafi.

As far as Assad is concerned both he and his father have been terrorizing the people of Syria for decades. Both the Assad gang and the Qaddafi gang are terrorists who have been terrorizing the people of their countries for decades. Both gangs have treated popular dissent the same way- through brutal oppression of the people. When demonstrators come out to the streets they are shot at and murdered by police and military personnel. Both gangs have been some what successful in promoting themselves as Pro-Palestinian activists. They are using the Palestinian issue to promote themselves.

It angers me that some anti-oligarchy groups are so ignorant about what is going on that they support tyrants who are massacring civilians -just because the global oligarchy is being hostile towards such tyrants. The public in general should be aware of the global oligarchy, but they also should be aware that there are others-other than the global oligarchy- who are involved in tyranny.

Canadian activist says he was Tasered by Israeli forces

2011-11-08T20:14:00.005+02:00

By Wendy Gillis Staff Reporter

Canadian activist says he was Tasered by Israeli forces

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1082227--canadian-activist-says-he-was-tasered-by-israeli-forces

Wendy Gillis Staff Reporter

The family of David Heap is “outraged” after the London, Ont. man claimed Sunday he was Tasered and roughed up by Israeli forces that had seized a vessel bound for Gaza.

The 45-year-old was aboard the Tahrir, a Canadian owned vessel, when it was seized along with an Irish ship as both attempted to carry medical aid to Gaza.

Israeli officials said the ships were intercepted peacefully — but Heap said in a statement released by the group “Canadian Boat to Gaza” that he was brutally taken off the ship.

Calling the seizure an “assault,” Heap said he is now bruised and limping after being forcibly removed from the boat, but is “basically ok.”

Danny Heap said the family is outraged, adding his brother’s teenaged sons were “scared and worried.”

“It seems that, since all the people on the Tahrir had sworn to be non-violent, that the Israeli army was just brutal,” he said. “It’s pretty shocking … when what was on the boat turned out to be medical aid for Gaza.”

Israeli officials were not immediately available to respond to Heap's claims. Officials from the country have said the navy took action only after repeatedly ordering the vessels to turn around.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement Saturday that Canadian diplomats were “liaising with Israeli authorities” to provide consular assistance. There was no reaction from Canadian officials to Heap’s claims of being roughed up by press time Sunday night.

Heap, two other Canadians, and about 20 other activists were arrested by Israel, which has indicated it intends to deport them this week. Danny Heap said his brother will demand he be deported to Gaza.

Heap’s partner spoke with him briefly Sunday morning. Heap told her he has received a visit from a lawyer and from a Canadian consulate official but he is not allowed to speak with others who were arrested Friday.

David and Danny Heap are both sons of Dan Heap, a renowned Toronto activist and retired politician who has been in the news recently as he and his wife struggled to find a spot in a long-term care home.

Shortly before David was born, the senior Heap was protesting discrimination against blacks in Selma, Alabama, alongside Martin Luther King — something Danny said had inspired David.

“He feels like he’s doing the same thing, many years later.”

One of the other Canadians detained, Montrealer Ehab Lotayef, was imprisoned with Heap, his statement suggested. The third Canadian, Karen DeVito, was apparently held separately.

With files from The Canadian Press

Freedom Wave riders beaten, denied access to family; organizers demand accountability

2011-11-08T19:46:00.007+02:00

November 5, 2011
Source:Canadian Boat to Gaza

Freedom Wave riders beaten, denied access to family; organizers demand accountability

Freedom Waves to Gaza organizers have not yet had any direct communication with the delegates from the ships Tahrir and Saoirse. Organizers are demanding that Israel immediately free the remaining people they have kidnapped and are illegally detaining; that they be able to speak with their families; that they receive immediate medical attention for all injuries inflicted by the Israeli military and that they are not harmed further.

“We have heard indirectly from our governments' ministries of foreign affairs (in Canada and Ireland), but that is simply not good enough. We want to speak with our people directly,” says Wendy Goldsmith, organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza. “Why will our governments not demand the delegates be able to speak to their families? We do not trust the Canadian government on this - as they have shown time and time again that they are complicit in Israel's violations of international law and gross human rights abuses.”

The last direct contact that organizers had with any delegate on either boat is this text message, from Trevor Hogan (from aboard the Irish boat Saoirse) at 10:08 PM Nov 3, 2011 Palestinian time: “Kidnapped, being held against our will by Israeli Army in international waters. Boat nearly destroyed. Need government to press for immediate release.” Trevor then called girlfriend moments later and said, “Did you get the text? Send it out.” Then the phone line went dead.

Palestinian Israeli Majd Kayal, delegate aboard the captured Canada Boat to Gaza and recently released from Givon Prison, confirms the IDF’s “peaceful” take-over of the Tahrir was anything but peaceful. An IDF video clearly shows the Israeli military firing a water cannon at the Tahrir on rough seas, endangering the lives of those aboard. Delegates offering non-violent resistance to the takeover of the civilian ship in international waters were threatened and then beaten by soldiers. One delegate, 45-year-old David Heap, professor at the University of Western Ontario, was particularly badly beaten. Israeli prison authorities are continuing to prevent Heap’s family from contacting him by phone.

“As a Palestinian, I was not surprised at how the IDF treated us,” said Kayal, after his release, noting this kind of abuse is a daily reality for the 1.5 million people of Gaza, who are indefinitely detained in an open-air prison. “However, for the Canadians and other Westerners onboard, it was a complete shock.”

As of now, family members are still being prevented from having telephone contact with their loved ones. Lawyers were able to visit briefly with some of the delegates being held at Givon Prison in Israel. But for family members, it is the not knowing that is the hardest. Said the wife of one of the delegates, “We just don’t understand why Israeli officials are acting as they are. My husband’s youngest is putting a brave face on it, but I know that he is very upset and worried about how his father is doing.”

“I am sorry to hear about those that were roughed up which of course is always the way when it comes to the Israeli sentiment towards any human being,” said Kathleen Newton, mother of Jihan Hafiz, a Democracy Now journalist still being illegally held by Israel after her abduction from the Tahrir. “I stand proud to be the mother of a daughter that wanted to stand up and make a difference in this otherwise very unfair world.”

Family members who have been able to speak with Canadian Consular staff have been told that several delegates showed varying degrees of visible bruising when Canadian Officials visited them. Nevertheless, Consular staff said they felt that everyone was “O.K.”

Canadians are urged to contact Foreign Affairs Emergency Hot line in Ottawa at 1-800-387-3124 .

The UN Human Rights Council Inquiry Report of September 2010 concluded that the blockade is illegal and Israeli policies in Gaza are a form of collective punishment. There is no legal justification for stopping or in any way impeding the passage of the totally peaceful Freedom Waves boats from the international solidarity movement with Palestinian people.

This situation is developing. For updates, stay tuned to: Twitter (@CanadaBoatGaza and #freedomwaves), Facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza, tahrir.ca, ustogaza.org, freegazaoz.org , and irishshiptogaza.org.

Canadian Boat to Gaza organizers call for Baird to resign

2011-11-08T19:34:00.010+02:00

November 7, 2011
Source:Canadian Boat to Gaza

With several Canadians still languishing in an Israeli prison, organizers of the Canadian Boat to Gaza are demanding Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird step down for failing to do his job.

“Our friends have been assaulted, tasered, beaten, kidnapped, robbed, and imprisoned and we have now learned that the Department Foreign Affairs is telling them they have to pay for their deportation flight,” says Wendy Goldsmith, an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza.

“If Minister Baird wants to put the interests of a far-right Israeli government before Canadians, he should apply for the job of Israel’s ambassador,” adds Goldsmith. “Otherwise he should demand the immediate release of the Canadian political prisoners in Israel and an immediate end to Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. Unfortunately, when it comes to Israel, Baird is soft on crime.”

The Canadian Boat to Gaza organizers say the Minister has failed to seek the immediate release of the Canadians and internationals who have been political prisoners of Israel since Friday. Instead, they say, the Minister has been spreading misinformation in an attempt to justify Israel’s illegal actions.

“Canadians are still imprisoned by Israel because they refuse to sign documents that falsely claim they entered Israel ‘voluntarily’ and ‘illegally’,” says Dylan Penner, an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza.

“The fact is they were kidnapped and taken there against their will,” says Penner. “But Minister Baird is trying to create the impression that international waters are Israeli waters. He should really look at a map and stop misleading Canadians about international law.”

Two tweets from the Department of Foreign Affairs last week advised Canadians to “"avoid all travel" to regions of #Israel surrounding the #Gaza Strip”. However, there are no Israeli waters “surrounding” Gaza. There are Gaza’s coastal waters beyond which are international waters. The Israeli Navy captured the boat in international waters (approximately 50 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza), not Israeli waters. This is a violation of international law.

Baird has publicly discouraged Canadians from participating in flotillas aimed at breaking the illegal blockade of Gaza. The Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign views Minister Baird’s statement as an attempt to abdicate the Canadian Government's obligation to ensure the safety of the Canadians and to justify any crimes Israel may commit against peaceful unarmed civilians from Canada and all over the world.

Canadian Boat to Gaza organizers say it is also an attempt to enable the Harper government to maintain its complicity in Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza by providing political cover.

-30-

For updates, stay tuned to:

Twitter (@CanadaBoatGaza and #freedomwaves), Facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza, www.tahrir.ca , www.ustogaza.org , www.freegazaoz.org , and www.irishshiptogaza.org .

Are You Eating This All-Time Favorite "Cancer-in-a-Can" Snack?

2011-11-08T19:25:00.006+02:00

November 07 2011
By Dr. Mercola
Source:mercola.com

To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way.

The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against "luxury foods" like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips.

So if they're not made of potatoes, what are they exactly?

The process begins with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape.

This dough-like substance is then rolled out into an ultra-thin sheet cut into chip-cookies by a machine.

According to io9:

"The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they're pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another.

Those molds move through boiling oil ... Then they're blown dry, sprayed with powdered flavors, and at last, flipped onto a slower-moving conveyor belt in a way that allows them to stack.

From then on, it's into the cans ... and off towards the innocent mouths of the consumers."

I suspect nearly everyone reading this likely enjoys the taste of potato chips. However, they are clearly one of the most toxic processed foods you can eat—whether they're made from actual potato shavings or not.

Potato Chips are Loaded with Cancer-Causing Chemical

One of the most hazardous ingredients in potato chips is not intentionally added, but rather is a byproduct of the processing.

Acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, whether baked, fried, roasted or toasted. Some of the worst offenders include potato chips and French fries, but many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 212°F (100°C) may contain acrylamide. As a general rule, the chemical is formed when food is heated enough to produce a fairly dry and brown/yellow surface. Hence, it can be found in:

* Potatoes: chips, French fries and other roasted or fried potato foods
* Grains: bread crust, toast, crisp bread, roasted breakfast cereals and various processed snacks
* Coffee; roasted coffee beans and ground coffee powder. Surprisingly, coffee substitutes based on chicory actually contains 2-3 times MORE acrylamide than real coffee

How Much Acrylamide are You Consuming?

The federal limit for acrylamide in drinking water is 0.5 parts per billion, or about 0.12 micrograms in an eight-ounce glass of water. However, a six-ounce serving of French fries can contain 60 micrograms of acrylamide, or about FIVE HUNDRED times over the allowable limit.

Similarly, potato chips are notoriously high in this dangerous chemical. So high, in fact, that in 2005 the state of California actually sued potato chip makers for failing to warn California consumers about the health risks of acrylamide in their products. A settlement was reached in 2008 when Frito-Lay and several other potato chip makers agreed to reduce the acrylamide levels in their chips to 275 parts per billion (ppb) by 2011, which is low enough to avoid needing a cancer warning label.

The 2005 report "How Potato Chips Stack Up: Levels of Cancer-Causing Acrylamide in Popular Brands of Potato Chips," issued by the California-based Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), spelled out the dangers of this popular snack. Their analysis found that all potato chip products tested exceeded the legal limit of acrylamide by a minimum of 39 times, and as much as 910 times! Some of the worst offenders at that time included:

* Cape Cod Robust Russet: 910 times the legal limit of acrylamide
* Kettle Chips (lightly salted): 505 times
* Kettle Chips (honey dijon): 495 times

Beware: Baked Chips May Be WORSE than Fried!

If you think you can avoid the health risks of potato chips by choosing baked varieties, which are typically advertised as being "healthier," think again. Remember that acrylamide is formed not only when foods are fried or broiled, but also when they are baked. And according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on acrylamide levels in foods, baked chips may contain more than three times the level of acrylamide as regular chips!

Interestingly, the same trend holds true for other foods, too, which suggests that baking processed potatoes at high temperature may be one of the worst ways to cook them. For instance, according to the FDA's data, Ore Ida Golden Fries contained 107 ppb of acrylamide in the regular fried version and 1,098 when baked. So remember, ALL potato chips contain acrylamide, regardless of whether they are natural or not; baked or fried. Likewise, they will ALL influence your insulin levels in a very negative way.

Acrylamide is Not the Only Danger

Acrylamide is not the only dangerous genotoxic compound formed when food is heated to high temperatures.

A three-year long EU project, known as Heat-Generated Food Toxicants (HEATOX), whose findings were published at the end of 2007, found there are more than 800 heat-induced compounds, of which 52 are potential carcinogens. In addition to their finding that acrylamide does pose a public health threat, the HEATOX scientists also discovered that you're far less likely to ingest dangerous levels of the toxin when you eat home-cooked foods compared to industrially or restaurant-prepared foods.

Additionally, the HEATOX findings also suggest that although there are ways to decrease exposure to acrylamide, it cannot be eliminated completely.

According to their calculations, successful application of all presently known methods would reduce the acrylamide intake by 40 percent at the most—which makes me wonder whether chip manufacturers have really succeeded at this point in reducing acrylamide levels to within legal limits... There's no updated data as of yet, so there's no telling whether they've been able to comply with the 2005 settlement.

For more in-depth information about acrylamide, I recommend reading the online report Heat-generated Food Toxicants, Identification, Characterization and Risk Minimization. In general however, just remember that cooking food at high temperatures is ill advised. A few of the most well-known toxins created in high-temperature cooking include:

* Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs): These form when meat is cooked at high temperatures, and they're also linked to cancer. In terms of HCA, the worst part of the meat is the blackened section, which is why you should always avoid charring your meat, and never eat blackened sections.
* Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): When fat drips onto the heat source, causing excess smoke, and the smoke surrounds your food, it can transfer cancer-causing PAHs to the meat.
* Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): When food is cooked at high temperatures (including when it is pasteurized or sterilized), it increases the formation of AGEs in your food. When you eat the food, it transfers the AGEs into your body. AGEs build up in your body over time leading to oxidative stress, inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.

The Search for a "Healthful" Chip Continues...

Like a modern-day search for the Holy Grail, chip manufacturers keep searching for methods to improve the image of their health-harming but profitable snacks. For example, by the end of 2011, about half of Pepsi's Frito-Lay brand snacks will be reformulated with all-natural ingredients. The switch is part of PepsiCo's master plan to tap into the healthy foods market share. The Wall Street Journal recently reported the company hopes to boost their nutrition business from $10 billion to $30 billion by 2020.

The company will remove dietary hazards like monosodium glutamate (MSG), replacing it with natural seasonings, such as molasses and paprika. Artificial colors will be replaced with beet juice, purple cabbage and carrots. All in all, about different 60 snacks are scheduled to get an all-natural makeover.

This is certainly a good example of how consumer demand can alter the direction of food manufacturers in a positive way.

The reformulated chips may end up being less bad for you than the original formulations. However, chips will never be truly healthful. All-natural chips may be the lesser of two evils, but if consumed regularly, they will still push your health in the wrong direction... There's no getting away from the fact that modern plagues such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes have a dietary component, and potato chips and French fries will always be a losing bet if you want to avoid becoming another disease statistic.

How to Avoid Heat-Induced Toxins in Your Diet

Ideally, you should consume foods that are raw or minimally processed to avoid these types of toxic byproducts—the more raw food, the better. My nutrition plan emphasizes the need for at least one-third of your foods to be consumed raw. Personally, I consume about 80 percent of my food raw, and I find it is one of the most important factors that help keep me healthy.

It may take you awhile to switch over to a less processed diet, but throwing out the most obvious culprits would be a great start.

These would include:

* French fries and potato chips
* All sodas (both regular and diet, as artificial sweeteners may be more problematic than fructose)
* Doughnuts

Healthy Eating Made Easy

Aside from creating potentially toxic byproducts, cooking and processing also depletes the food of valuable micronutrients, which is another reason for eating as much raw food as possible. This includes protein sources such as eggs. Raw whole eggs from organic, pastured chickens are an incredible source of high-quality nutrients that many are deficient in. Raw milk is another good example of a food that is beneficial in its raw state but becomes harmful after it is pasteurized.

By opting for foods that will benefit your health, such as raw, preferably organic and/or locally-grown vegetables, organic grass-fed meats, healthy oils, raw dairy, nuts and seeds, you can change your health for the better. These are the foods that are truly natural, and quite easy to prepare once you get the hang of it.

For a step-by-step guide to make the transition to a healthier diet as simple and smooth as possible, simply follow the advice in my optimized nutrition plan.

Remember, eating fresh whole foods is the "secret" to getting healthier, losing weight and really enjoying your food. It's unfortunate that so many are under the mistaken belief that it's "next to impossible" to create a meal without processed foods. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough tackle this issue head-on in their book Real Food Has Curves, which is a great starting point to "relearn" the basics of how to enjoy and prepare real food.

Once you get used to it, you'll find you can whip up a healthful meal from scratch in the same amount of time it would have taken you to drive down the street to pick up fast food. The main difference will be greater satisfaction, both physically and mentally, and perhaps even financially, as processed foods typically end up being more expensive than cooking from scratch.

Egypt Islamists vow mass protests over ‘declaration of basic principles’

2011-11-08T19:20:00.005+02:00

2011-11-02
Source:Middle East Online

CAIRO - Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood threatened on Wednesday to bring its supporters out onto the streets over the military government's plans to set out the basics of a new constitution ahead of an elected People's Assembly.

The Brotherhood and other smaller parties, most of them also Islamist, said that one million people would protest nationwide on November 18 if the plans to pre-empt the promised People's Assembly to be elected early next year were not abandoned.

The Islamists were reacting to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Salmi in Wednesday's edition of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram in which he said the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was "carefully considering" a plan for a "declaration of basic principles."

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, called for Salmi's resignation.

"We call on Ali al-Salmi to step down and, if the government presses ahead with its plan, for all of its members to quit, because (this proposal) is a threat to Egypt's security," the party's vice chairman Saad al-Ketatni said.

"The national forces will not allow a small minority to impose its will on everyone," he said, reading a statement in the name of the party and its electoral allies.

He said that the government should "remember what happened to the system of the corrupt, all-powerful tyrant," a reference to the mass revolt which overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak's regime in February.

According to Al-Ahram, the declaration of principles being considered by the military government would state that "Egypt is a civil, democratic state which unites all of its citizens without distinction under the rule of law."

The clause is intended as a safeguard for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority which makes up between six and eight percent of the 80 million population.

The basic principles would also state that "sharia (Islamic law) is the main source of legislation," but not the sole one.

Islamists step up reform demands

2011-11-08T19:13:00.010+02:00

November 6th, 2011
By Taylor Luck
Source:Jordan Times

AMMAN - The Islamist movement rolled out new reform demands on Friday, urging a series of changes to the Kingdom’s political and economic institutions.

In a speech delivered at the Islamists’ first public rally since turning down Cabinet posts last month, Islamic Action Front (IAF) Secretary General Hamzah Mansour unveiled a list of demands to change the “politics” of the Kingdom.

The speech was widely viewed by observers as the Muslim Brotherhood’s response to Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh’s overtures, built upon previous conditions set by the movement for its participation in municipal elections.

Mansour reiterated the movement’s calls for constitutional amendments ensuring “the right of the people to form governments on the basis of a parliamentary majority” and protecting the Lower House against dissolution or early elections.

During the rally, held near the capital’s Interior Ministry Circle, Mansour also called for the release of all “political prisoners” and all citizens being held without charges along with the dissolution of the State Security Court.

The Islamist movement demanded an end to security services’ “intrusion” into public life, reiterating claims that “interference” has marred the political process in the Kingdom.

“We say enough of the security services’ interference in political and public life,” he said.

Mansour also demanded an immediate end to “political thuggery” - referring to the spate of attacks and threats against pro-reform activists that have increased since the beginning of the year and have largely gone unprosecuted.

On the economic front, the Islamist movement called for increased budget oversight and transparency in the use of public funds.

In addition, the IAF secretary general urged authorities to combat poverty and unemployment, linking citizens’ difficult living conditions with the need for tougher anti-corruption measures.

The former MP insisted that the demands are not Islamists’ pre-conditions for future cooperation with authorities, but rather the standards by which the current and future governments will be judged.

“These are not only our demands - these are the demands of the Jordanian people,” Mansour told The Jordan Times.

National unity was a common theme in Friday’s event, attended by some 1,000 independent activists and Islamist supporters, as speakers stressed that Jordanians from cities, camps, villages and the badia would all benefit from greater democratic reforms.

Ghaleb Abu Summaqa of the Tribal Coalition for Reform - a grouping of activists from the Bani Hassan, Bani Sakher, Daaja and Ajarmeh tribes - said calls for political and economic change are not restricted to single segment of Jordanian society.

“Many people say tribes are against reform, but we are here to say that they are wrong: we want change and we want change now,” Abu Summaqa told The Jordan Times.

“We are the foundations of this country, so we believe reform should start with us.”

Abu Summaqa dismissed any ideological or social barriers preventing tribes from partnering with the Islamist movement, claiming that independents, Islamists, leftists and conservatives are united in their pro-reform demands.

“We are all Jordanians and we will gladly work with anyone to improve the situation in our country,” he said.

The two-hour rally, which also featured speeches by Rahi Suleimat of the Bani Hamida tribe and Hamzeh Issa of the Popular Youth Movement, was noticeably devoid of Islamist rhetoric, with speakers choosing to focus on domestic issues rather than regional or moral concerns.

According to observers, the tone of Friday’s rally is in line with a strategic shift within the Islamist movement to distance itself from its traditional focus on the Palestinian cause and concentrate on local social, economic and political issues.

The event ended the Islamists’ three-week absence from the streets, which according to sources was prompted largely by an internal debate within the movement over its stance on the new government.

Pro-reform protesters single out security services

2011-11-08T19:07:00.007+02:00

November 6th, 2011
By Taylor Luck
Source: Jordan Times

AMMAN - As weekly pro-reform protests entered their 11th month on Friday, activists across the country hit the streets to reject what they claimed as security services’ “hold” on public life.

In a demonstration at Al Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman held under the slogan “no reform under the grip of security agencies”, dozens of youths and leftist activists called for an end to “interference” by intelligence agencies in political life.

Fakher Daas, head of the Wihda Party youth branch and protest organiser, said the demonstration aimed to send the message that although the head of the government may have changed, obstacles facing reform efforts remain.

“Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh is just one person, we are here to change the whole system - and that starts with rolling back the influence of security services in all aspects of life,” he said.

“Until security services exit from all aspects of public life, reform in Jordan will be impossible,” Daas added.

Activists insisted that ongoing weekly demands for reform are an indictment of the way the political system operates, not a referendum of a specific government’s performance.

“We never had anything against Marouf Bakhit or Samir Rifai personally, and we are not against Awn Khasawneh,” said Amjad Qasawneh, a member of the Popular Youth Movement Coalition for Change.

“What we are rejecting is the political system itself - it is broken and until we fix it, we cannot tackle corruption or ensure public freedoms,” the Al al Bayt University student added.

Amjad Ouran, a member of the Hay Al Tafaileh Freedom Movement, said activists are driven by frustration over a stalled economy, limited transparency and a lack of progress in tackling corruption.

“Who really profited from the privatisation process? Where are all the public funds going? Why haven’t any senior officials been brought to justice?” he remarked.

“The same questions we had 11 months ago still haven’t been answered, so we are going to keep pressure on decision makers.”

A few metres away from Al Husseini Mosque, some two-dozen so-called government loyalists staged a counter-demonstration, rejecting calls for elected governments and labelling pro-reform activists as “Iranian agents”.

Ibrahim Taher said he was driven by a “patriotic duty” to brave rainy weather and raise banners denouncing the reformists’ demands.

“I have no money, I have nothing to eat - the only people who will look after me is the Hashemite leadership and I will die before anyone threatens them,” he said.

Both the sit-in and the counter-demonstration, which lasted less than a half-hour, ended without incident.

Not all in downtown Amman were impressed with Friday’s civic activism, pro-reform or otherwise.

Saleh Zawahreh, a sweets vendor located across from Al Husseini Mosque, said traders have grown wary of weekly demonstrations which they claim have driven away customers in droves.

“When people think of downtown Amman, now all they think of is two words: marches and protests.”

Traders questioned the wisdom of activists’ selection of the Friday ahead of Eid Al Adha, one of the major shopping days of the year, to make their voices heard.

“Why this Friday? This is the one day that the whole of downtown comes to life,” Zawahreh remarked.

Ibrahim, a garment vendor stationed next to Al Husseini Mosque, which has served as the launching point for weekly demos, claimed sales have plummeted over the past several months, adding that this holiday season’s revenues pale in comparisons to past Eid Al Adhas.

“I can’t afford to make a sacrifice this year and they are stopping traffic to demand economic reform,” the 24-year-old said.

Meanwhile in Karak, three separate pro-reform marches were held across the governorate while tens of activists hit the streets in Jerash and Tafileh, demanding the dismissal of the Lower House and Senate and the formation of elected governments.

Friday’s protests, the second since the selection of Khasawneh as prime minister last month, were marked by a lack of slogans calling for the government’s ouster.

Jordan’s pro-reform movement dates back to a small-scale January protest in the town of Theeban, south of Madaba, calling for economic reforms and the resignation of the Samir Rifai government.

Eleven months and two governments later, the protest movement has branched out across the Kingdom along with the rise of so-called popular movements, adopting various causes ranging from municipal services to an end to privatisation.

With participants often numbering in the hundreds, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful; the vast majority of the some 700-odd protests and marches that have taken place in the Kingdom this year have ended without incident.

Jailed for Sailing to Gaza, Challenging the Blockade

2011-11-08T18:59:00.007+02:00

November 4, 2011
By Medea Benjamin and Robert Naiman
Source:AlterNet

Two boats full of courageous passengers were on their way to Gaza when they were intercepted on Friday, November 4, by the Israeli military in international waters. We call the passengers courageous because they sailed from Turkey on November 2 with the knowledge that at any moment they might be boarded by Israeli commandos intent on stopping them—perhaps violently, as the Israeli military did in 2010 when they killed nine humanitarian aid workers on the Turkish boat named Mavi Marmara.

The boats—one from Canada and one from Ireland—were carrying 27 passengers, including press and peace activists from Ireland, Canada, the United States, Australia and Palestine. They were unarmed, and the Israeli military knew that. They were simply peace activists wanting to connect with civilians in Gaza, and the Israeli military knew that. Yet naked aggression was used against them in international waters—something that is normally considered an act of piracy.

The passengers on the boats were sailing to Gaza to challenge the U.S.-supported Israeli blockade that is crippling the lives of 1.6 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza. They were sailing to stand up against unaccountable power—the power of the Israeli government—that has been violating the basic rights of the 5.5 million Palestinians that live inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders or in the Occupied Territories. They were sailing for us, civil society, who believe in human rights and the rule of law.

The Arab Spring - which has now spread to cities across the United States in the form of the "#occupy" movement, and has been echoed in protests against economic injustice in Europe and Israel as well - has fundamentally been a challenge to unaccountable power. Some countries experiencing this protest wave are dictatorships under military rule or ruled by monarchies; others are generally considered "democracies.” But in all instances the majority feel that they have been shut out of decision-making and have been harmed by policies benefiting a narrow elite with disproportionate power.

The blockade of Gaza's civilians is an extreme example of unaccountable power. Palestinians in Gaza aren’t allowed to vote for Israeli or American politicians. But due to political decisions taken in Israel and the United States, Palestinians in Gaza are prevented from exporting their goods, traveling freely, farming their land, fishing their waters or importing construction materials to build their homes and factories.

We have been to Gaza before, where we have seen the devastation firsthand. We have also been to Israel and the West Bank, where we have seen how the Israeli government is detaining Palestinians at checkpoints, building walls that cut them off from their lands, demolishing their houses, arbitrarily imprisoning their relatives and imposing economic restrictions that prevent them from earning a living. We have seen how Palestinians, like people everywhere, are desperate to live normal and dignified lives.

A UN Report released in September found that “Israel’s oppressive policies [in Gaza] constitute a form of collective punishment of civilians”, that these policies violate both international humanitarian and human rights law, and that the illegal siege of Gaza should be lifted. The International Committee of the Red Cross also called the blockade of Gaza a violation of international law because it constitutes "collective punishment" of a civilian population for actions for which the civilians are not responsible. The Red Cross is a neutral humanitarian organization. It doesn't usually go around making pronouncements on matters of public policy. The fact that it has done so in this case should be a strong signal to the international community that the blockade of Gaza is extreme and must fall.

History has shown us again and again that when political leaders decide it's in their interest, then peace, diplomacy, negotiations are possible. Recently, Israel and Hamas - with the help of the new Egyptian government - successfully negotiated a prisoner exchange that had eluded them for five years. In speeches, the Israeli government "opposes negotiations with Hamas," and in speeches, Hamas "opposes negotiations with Israel.” But when they decided it was in their interest, they had no problem sitting down at the table and hammering out an agreement.

If Israel and Hamas can negotiate an agreement to release prisoners, then surely Israel and Hamas can negotiate an agreement to lift the blockade on Gaza's civilians.

But the people of Gaza can’t wait for political leaders to decide it’s in their interest to negotiate, so it’s up to us—as civil society—to step up the pressure. That’s what these waves of boats are doing. That’s what the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is doing.

More than a year ago, President Obama called the blockade unsustainable. "It seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza," he said. That hasn't happened. Why not? Why shouldn't it happen now? What does blocking Palestinian exports from Gaza to Europe or keeping people from getting medical treatment abroad have to do with arms shipments?

The Israeli military stopped these two small ships carrying peace activists to Gaza, but they won’t stop the Palestinians who are demanding freedom, and they won’t stop the solidarity movement. We won't stop challenging the blockade on Gaza's civilians—by land and by sea-- until the blockade falls. And we won't stop challenging the denial of Palestinian democratic aspirations until those aspirations are realized.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:Women for Peace.

Robert Naiman is the Director of Just Foreign Policy.

Eilaboun massacre

2011-10-30T16:58:00.005+02:00

A terrifying massacre happened, with memories that hardly exist in our minds a massacre was forgotten by people who tried to describe those horrified days.

In the early morning of 30.10.1948 which started as every morning, the sun shining over the world turning that day to a deep red day in the memory of everyone.

The people refused to leave in spite of the horrible news about the Israeli army that was about to invade the village in any moment.

The army entered the village and found the people inside the church holding white flags. The army took the people out of the church and killed 14 young men and the rest were kicked out towards the north heading to Lebanon, and in order to terrify the people and erg them to leave as quickly as possible they shot another person turning the number of victims to 15 added to tens of injured people who survived miraculously.

The return

After 50 days out of Palestine people started to return from the refugee camp towards the village.

People of Eilaboun were allowed to return after great efforts that were made by a local priest called Morcous Mouallem. He sent many letters to many generals and different ministries asking to let the people of his village to return he also was helped by the mandate of Lebanon in the United Nations.

As a result, a committee of observers from the United Nations arrived to the village in order to see the remains of the massacre.

In the 20th.11.1948 the priest sent two men to Lebanon to ask the people to return.

The massacre of the Mawassi

The Mawassi tribe lived nearby Eilaboun and it had good relations with the people of Eilaboun.

On the massacre day (2.11.1948) some soliers met two of the mawassi who were looking after their cows so they were shot, one of them was 13 and the second was 16.

In the next day the army invaded the tribe and chose 14 men to be shot down, one man called Saaed Mouhamed Eldeeb saw everything and told the story to other people most of the tribe escaped to Syria.

Eilaboun was like other Palestinian villages that were put under the Jewish authority, those villages suffered from ethnic cleansing.

My grandmother told me this story with tearful eyes:-

" on the black day we all gathered inside the church when we knew about the coming of the Israeli army with his blooded hands. By entering the village and forcing all people to gather in neighborhood yard which was used to celebrate weddings and it turned it into the yard of martyrs.

One of the soldiers named " Hayem Batata" chose 12 young men randomly by pointing at them with one hand while the other hand was holding a rifle, which was used to shoot those guys.

Meanwhile tens of men were arrested including my husband and the other people old men, women children , were moved in front of the tanks towards Mag'ar village.

At the entrance of the village two men tried to escape so they were shot immediately.

People were hungry and thirsty passing the village of Mag'ar reaching KufrEnan junction another man from the village was shot and many were injured and 40 men were arrested. The Israeli army intended to kill 50 men but one man named Ebrahim Hawa paid the army 100 Palestinian Liras as a ransom.

I walked holding my new born baby in one hand and a two year old baby in the other hand and followed by my two daughters. I was desperate and helpless for a minute I thought that I should leave the baby behind in order to save the other children, but my mother held the baby while she was dragging her injured mother at the same time , so she held the baby in her teeth by her diaper.

Those were hard days, we looked for food in the cow dung and drank dirty water which was put for pigs it drink in the village of Elberthiaa.

I saw many women leaving their newborn babies behind under the trees in order to save the other children in the family. The ones who survived reached the refugee camp ELmeyee Wemyee in Lebanon with no shelter or food they started a new life away form home. We stayed without a shelter for 70 days suffering and starving. So some families decided to give in their kids to Monasteries and orphanages.

Finally we were allowed to return home an we did, but our properties were gone, clothing, food, cattle, nothing was left.

But we over came those hard days with our strong will and determination.

The victims of Eilaboun

Fadel Fadlo Eilabouni

Foad Nofal Zureik

Melad Fayad Sliman

Michyel Mitri Shami

Naeem Gantous Zureik

Mouhamed Khaled Asaad

Abdullah Simaan Shoufani

Badee Jeries Zureik

Raja Michyel Haleel Nakhly

Jeries Shibli Hayek

Ziki Moussa Nakhly Skafi

Hanna Ibraheem Khouri Ashkar

Azar Salem Mousalam

Simaan Jeries Shoufani

Impressions of Israeli Executions in the West Bank

2011-10-30T16:50:00.012+02:00

January 7, 2009
Vijay Raghavan
Source: If Americans Knew

Much planning had gone into our family vacation in Israel-Palestine. We could spare only the last two weeks of 2009, and so had developed an uncompromising itinerary for each day, allowing a mere half-day to recover from jet lag from our trip from California. After devoting most of the first week to visiting holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jericho, we were, in the words of our 17-year-old, quite “churched out.” We are a typical American family in at least one regard: we have two other children (ages five and two), and we are all blessed with limited attention span. Absorbing detailed references to the Old and New Testaments in the places we visited was beyond our capabilities. Our hired tour guide and driver, Issa Habash1, had long ago taken notice of our monumental ignorance and had given up on reciting chapter and verse from the Bible

On December 26, 2009 we headed north from Bethlehem, where we had celebrated Christmas. Entering the city of Nablus, we stopped briefly at Jacob’s Well, just enough time to use the facilities and for a photo-op of my wife drawing water from the fabled well. Our plans for the rest of Nablus were somewhat vague; Issa suggested we take in an ancient Samaritan synagogue, but everyone else rebelled against this idea. My wife was more interested in seeing a soap factory or a store with the legendary spices of Nablus. As a former academic, I was keen on touring the an-Najah National University, which is the largest one in Palestine. I had even made a tentative arrangement with a local, Ala Abdessalam, to show us around. Ala is affiliated with the university but also functions as a coordinator for human rights groups and youth exchange programs operating in Nablus.

When we left Jacob’s Well, it was a little after eleven in the morning. We called Ala on his cell-phone and were told that he was no longer available for the tour. Apparently the Israeli Special Forces had killed some people in a pre-dawn operation in the Old City, and Ala was busy taking pictures and interviewing people. However, if we were up to the challenge, we could tag along while he went about his business. He said that it might even help him to have international observers with him.

We agreed to this proposal, albeit with some nervousness. Until that point we had not encountered any trouble in the Palestine Territories—to the contrary, the people we had met were extremely friendly and ready to debate political issues involving Israel, Palestine, and the United States quite openly. Still, we were uneasy about visiting the neighborhood where people had been killed that very day.

Ala met us at the outskirts of the Old City. He was accompanied by two other volunteers. All of us, including Issa, got down from the van and set off on foot. Our intrepid five-year-old led the way, taking his stuffed toy cat along for security (see Figure 1). Soon, a mentally challenged man joined the group and started yelling at us. Ala assured me that the man was harmless (“Isn’t there someone like this in every village?” was his comment.) Noticing my wife’s anxiety, one of the volunteers linked arms with our five-year-old and the two marched along happily.

Ala explained that there had been three distinct “termination” operations conducted by the Israeli Special Forces. The operations had been well coordinated, taking place between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, in three different houses within 2 kilometers of each other. Ala had already taken down preliminary testimony from the neighbors. In accordance with Muslim customs, the funerals had to be done promptly, and so Ala had to break off his interviews. He warned us that there would be a lot of mourners in each house that we visited.

At the first house, we were met by two neighbors, a young man and an older woman. Ala rattled off questions and translated briskly from Arabic to English for the benefit of my wife, our 17-year-old and myself. I asked an occasional question.

The man who had been killed was named Ghasan Abu Sharakh. He had been living in the house with his mother. At around 3:00 AM, the neighborhood was awakened by commotion in the streets. A convoy of about 30 jeeps had appeared suddenly, along with a Hummer and a bulldozer. Some 70 soldiers and at least one dog had spread around and a few soldiers had quickly entered the house.

“Nobody took pictures?” I asked. It seemed remarkable to me, in this age of ubiquitous cell-phone cameras, that it had not occurred to anyone to film the whole thing.

Ala explained patiently to me that if you were anywhere near an Israeli raid you did two things. First, you made sure that you did not have a camera; if the Israelis found one on you they would beat you senseless. Second, you visited a toilet as soon as you could—if you were rounded up you might not get to use the potty for a long time.

The old lady continued the story. Ghasan had been sleeping upstairs when the door of his house had been blasted open (see Figure 2). When he came downstairs to the door, he was immediately shot in the face. His mother, who was right behind him, had watched her son’s head explode and spill blood all over the room (see Figure 3). The old lady was sure that the Israelis would have shot the mother too if she had been the one to come to the door first.

I took some pictures and tried to think of meaningful questions to ask. My wife held on tightly to the two-year-old. The old lady asked us to enter the house and go upstairs to the living area. Ala assured my wife that it was alright for her as a foreigner to not wear a hijab; he told her to simply pay her respects to Ghasan’s mother when we met her.

There were many people inside the house. A local TV station was interviewing the mother. A groan emanated from the assembly when the mother related something (see Figure 4). Ala translated for us: “... the soldiers kept putting bullets into my son’s body even though his face was completely gone.”

Somehow a path opened up as people made way for us to reach Ghasan’s mother. Holding on to the two-year-old, my wife kneeled down and held the woman’s hand. Ala moved up to translate, but my wife was having difficulty forming words. It did not matter—grief has a universal language and whatever needed to be said by one woman to another in this situation had already been communicated.

Outside the house, Ala informed us that the mother had also lost her elder son in a similar way three years ago.

“Will there be an investigation?” I asked. “An autopsy?”

Ala shrugged. “What’s the point? Everyone knows the cause of death and who did the killing.”

“Still—”

“In any case Muslims do not like autopsies and embalming. Martyrs are to be buried in their own clothes soon after death.”

I took out my notebook and scribbled in all the details I could remember. A Scottish youth volunteer joined us at this point. He already knew Ala and also seemed to be familiar with the neighborhood. He said that he had been living in Nablus for a month. I asked him if he kept a diary or a journal. He glanced at my notebook said that it was best not to keep a written record: “The Israelis will read it at the airport and put you on a black list if they see any pro-Palestine sentiments.” Really?

Only a few details differed in the second killing. Raed Surkaji had been an activist some seven years before, and had been sent to an Israeli prison. He had been released eleven months ago, as part of a negotiated arrangement between the Palestine Authority and Israel. Since that time he had been living in Nablus. This fateful morning he had been sleeping with his pregnant wife when the Israeli soldiers arrived and knocked down the door of his house. He too had been shot in the face through the glass (see Figure 5) when he went up to the door.

Raed’s wife told Ala that she had pleaded with the soldiers to stop, but they kept shooting her husband long after he had died. They told her that she should be happy that they were letting her live. The commander came running up from the alley and pumped more bullets into the chest of the corpse. Then they had all left, laughing and shouting victorious slogans. Ala said that he had come to the house earlier that morning. At that time, the room had not been cleaned and there was flesh and brain substance all over the place. He pointed to two soap bars that still had some grisly matter on them (see Figure 6).

When I approached Raed’s wife, she pointed to her foot. Ala told me that when she walked out of the room glass shards had pierced her foot. She was unable to walk and had to be carried to the hospital for treatment. I had composed something to say to her, but when I looked into her eyes, I too found that I could not speak, just like my wife in the previous house. I touched her foot silently. But this time my wife managed to get out some words: she told Raed’s wife that she was sorry for her loss. Ala translated and the woman said “she was honored that we cared.” We were quite overcome with sadness when we left.

Outside, Ala wanted to go to the third house right away. He told us that this case was different—the man who was killed had worked in the Palestine Authority security service. Therefore he had had a pistol with him. He had hidden himself in the cellar when he heard the noise outside, but it had mattered little; he too was killed as swiftly as the others.

“How far is the house?” I asked Ala.

“Only a kilometer away.”

I looked at my wife, and she shook her head. We had seen enough.

We discussed the day’s events over a late lunch. The first and most obvious question was why the three men had been killed. On this question, Issa and Ala had different opinions.

Issa thought that the operation was Israeli retaliation for some crime that the three men had committed. An Israeli settler, Meir Avshalom Hai, from the nearby settlement of Shavei Shomron had been killed in his car on Christmas Eve. The al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade had already claimed responsibility for the killing. Issa was positive that the Israelis would have had evidence connecting the three people to the killing of the settler.

Ala was skeptical. He said that neither Ghasan nor Raed was armed, and even the Israelis would not claim that they possessed deadly weapons. According to the family and the neighbors, the men did have active links to al-Aqsa. “These killings were random,” Ala declared. “These guys were simply no use alive to the Israelis,” he said.

I could not accept the idea of random killings by the Israeli government. Since December 26, I have read all I could find on the Nablus operation, though I am handicapped by having to limit myself to English sources. News reports in Israel and Palestine are susceptible to the spin from the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, which makes it difficult to piece together even simple aspects of the truth. For example, Ala had told us that a “large number of people” had attended the funeral of the three people on December 26, but estimates of this large number varied from “a few thousand” to “about 10,000” to “well over 20,000,” depending on whether you read the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Al Jazeera, or the Ma’an News Agency. (The first one is pro-Israel, the last is pro-Palestine, and the other two are somewhere in-between.) Another detail on which there is no agreement is the spelling of the names of the people killed. This may well be a problem of transliterating Arabic names; I myself have rendered the names the way Ala spelled them out for me.

Much more disconcerting than these discrepancies in inessential details is the wholesale disagreement among the news sources on crucial facts, such as: the location where the men were killed (inside the house, upstairs, downstairs), whether they had been armed, whether they had been given a chance to surrender, whether taking prisoners was an option, etc. The following is a small selection of key points in the news reports I read.

The Ma’an News Agency2 mentions that the second man, Raed, was shot not only in front of his wife but also in front of his two children. This detail did not emerge in our meeting with Raed’s wife, but perhaps it was true and she did not consider it important to mention her children. The new report also indicates that the first man, Ghasan, was taken outside his house and shot. This does not match the physical evidence we saw in the house and I have puzzled over how the report could have gotten it so wrong. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing; could it be that the downstairs area where Ghasan was killed is not considered to be part of the house proper?

Al Jazeera3 notes that “the three men targeted by the Israelis had been disarmed under security measures taken by [the Palestinian Authority President] Abbas's police force.” The inference we are asked to make is that this was a cold-blooded execution of unarmed men.

The Jerusalem Post states4 that the Israelis soldiers came from the Judea and Samaria Division’s Special Forces unit and the Kfir Brigade’s battalion under the command of Col. Itzik Bar. The Post is unequivocal that the three men killed were Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade operatives, and claims that the Israelis recovered two M-16’s and two pistols in the third man’s hideout, contradicting the Al Jazeera version. It also claims that Raed “left his house holding his wife in front of him” and the IDF troops “acting on information that he was armed, opened fire, killing [Raed] and wounding his wife in the leg.” This certainly does not match the physical evidence of destruction in the house that we saw ourselves, nor does it match Raed’s wife’s testimony. If I had to guess, I would say that this version of events is an Israeli attempt to spin the killing as an operational decision rather than a pre-meditated execution. Also according to the Jerusalem Post, “the troops entered Ghasan’s home, which was filled with other family members, located him and shot him dead as well. No one else was hurt.” In these sentences one can see only the mildest form of retrospective rationalization—it seems more humane than the account we ourselves had heard of Ghasan being shot dead in front of a single person: his mother.

Western sources such as BBC5 are disappointing; they simply stitch together reports based on what the Israeli forces or the Palestinian Authority said, without any attempt at independent verification. Fox News6 is an exception: it gives a revised Israeli version offered for American consumption: “The forces surrounded the homes of the three ... Lerner, the army major, said all three turned down a chance to surrender. Lerner confirmed that none of the wanted men returned fire, including Subeh [the third man], who had two pistols and two assault rifles on him ... Asked why soldiers opened fire, Lerner said troops "had to operate under the assumption that they (the suspects) are dangerous."” However, Fox makes it clear that it has not bought this explanation. It notes that “the relatives of [Ghasan] and [Raed] said they were killed without warning.”

Where does this leave us? My wife and I have talked about this experience over and over, and have been led to a modest but inexorable conclusion: whatever we heard in translation in the two houses was the simple truth. We may be gullible American tourists, but there is a different, more compelling reason for our conclusion—real grief is difficult to fake. We cannot conceive of a reality in which Raed’s wife and Ghasan’s mother would be so depraved as to portray the deaths of their loved ones other than how they actually happened, just in order to suit some twisted ideology. Therefore we believe that the Israeli forces did execute two unarmed men in cold blood and keep putting bullets into them long after they had died.

This conclusion is troubling when combined with what the news sources actually agree on. All reports generally accept that the “termination” operation had been authorized at the highest levels of the Israeli government. Indeed, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, had praised the commando operation in Nablus, and said that Israel would “continue to defend aggressively and respond to every attack against Israeli citizens and every rocket strike.”7 This high-level sanction makes the operation more chilling. Even if Netanyahu had conclusive evidence linking the three men to the killing of the Israeli settler, there should be better accountability and due process in a law-abiding nation. The three men could easily have been arrested, given the overwhelming force that the Israelis had against them. Why was it necessary to raid the houses and kill unarmed men with great brutality in front of their family, and then walk away with impunity? Surely this cannot be the way of civilized countries.

As we continued our travels through other cities in Israel, I discussed the Nablus killings with various people. When I brought up the disturbing question mentioned above, I was surprised by the similar answer that I got independently from two persons who occupy relatively high positions. Disclosing their job description will be tantamount to disclosing who they are, so I will avoid that; in any case, it is their response that is revealing. One of them put it this way: “It’s important for the Israeli government to show that it’s always in control. It’s not so important to be right. It’s not so important to kill the real perpetrators, but it’s very important to send a message. The message is that retaliation for any aggression will be swift, overwhelming, and precise. It’s irrelevant if the real culprits in the killing of the Shavei Shomron settler got away.”

Al Jazeera and Haaretz mentioned that the US government has “questioned” Israel over the operation. As American citizens, my wife and I intend to offer our account to the State Department and to our Congressman, along with the photographs I took. We will do this as a matter of civic duty, but we are not good witnesses. What we saw and heard came after the fact, and may have lost many details in translation. The best witnesses are people like Raed’s wife and Ghasan’s mother. If the US government or UN observers or human rights organizations wish to interview them, they will find a compelling story. From our experience, they are not afraid to talk. Whether it will help in bringing about peace is a different matter.

Israel to extend Ahmad Saadat’s solitary confinement, breaking agreement with Palestinian prisoners

2011-10-30T16:45:00.007+02:00

October 29, 2011
by Adam Horowitz
Source:Mondoweiss

Shahd Abusalama reports that Israel has extended the solidarity confinement of Ahmad Saadat. Saadat, the secretary-general of the PFLP, was rumored to be included in the recent prisoner swap, but Israel nixed it. The fact that Saadat is going to be kept in solidarity confinement breaks the agreement Israel just reached with Palestinian prisoners in order to end their recent three-week hunger strike.

Abusalama writes:

A friend of mine who had the sit-in tent as a shelter during the hunger strike of our prisoners and who himself joined the hunger strike in solidarity texted me that Ahmad Saadat, the PFLP secretary-general, is bound to serve one more full year of pain in isolation. They have ignored the worrying health condition of Saadat as a result of the carelessness of medical care along with his solitary confinement which started since March 16, 2009. Saadat was not allowed any visitations and even denied his right to write or receive letters from his family during his solitary confinement.

Saadat was sent to court ignoring his lawyer, who never received a notice regarding this court session. The Ad-Dameer, one of the human rights organizations, stated that by sentencing Saadat to solitary confinement for an additional year, the court violated promises by the Israeli Prison Administration to receive treatment that is guaranteed by the International law. No justification for this criminal and illegal decision has been provided.

My internal conflict and my worries reached its peak as I remembered when I was sitting with Loai Odeh, one of the released prisoners in Shalit’s swap deal and who participated in the hunger strike, and said that “the mental health of the prisoners who are in isolation should be expected to be in jeopardy after two or three years of isolation and that was the first motif for us to take that step; hunger striking till solitary confinement is no more.”

“It would be difficult for a prisoner in a normal jail to pass through his imprisonment without suffering psychological problems or at least depression, so imagine how difficult it would be for a prisoner in the solitary confinement for long time.” Loai continued. No wonder that is true; the mankind is a sociable creature, and if one is totally isolated from the outer world in a very narrow cell in which light could barely sneak, psychological and mental problems are hardly avoidable.

Don’t tell my mother that I have become blind

2011-10-30T16:26:00.007+02:00

October 26, 2011
Source; Palestine From My Eyes

Mohammad Barash is a disabled political prisoner inside Nafha Prison; one of 85 prisoners who are either physically or mentally disabled. On the 17th of February, 2003, he was arrested after he was badly injured, and despite his disability, which resulted from his injuries, he was given three life sentences plus 35 years. He is still continuing his struggle with pride inside a cell paying a double price; his precious years of prime and the consequences of zionist entity’s crimes.

Mohammed Barash wrote a letter to his mother from Eichel prison in Beersheba, in title “Don’t tell my mother that I have become blind”:

‘Don’t tell my mother that I can no longer see. She can see me but I can’t see. I fake my smiles when she shows me the photographs of my siblings, friends, and neighbors as she doesn’t know, that I have become blind after illness spread in my eyes till the darkness filled me.

Don’t tell her that I waited for several years to have a surgery to plant a cornea. But the Israeli Prison Service kept on procrastinating and procrastinating providing my eyes all reasons to leave me.

Don’t tell my mother that the shrapnel of bullets and the bombs which managed to hit me is still settling in my body, and that my left leg had been mutilated and replaced by a plastic one. Don’t tell her that the other leg rotted and dried of blood and life.

Don’t tell my mother that the prisoner’s emotions got stripped of the most basic elements of human life as he is sentenced to see only ashes and iron, lightless life and hopelessness.

Tell her that I am alive and safe. Tell her that I can see, walk, run, play, jump, write and read. Don’t tell her that I am shouldering my pains on my walking stick, and I can picture every martyr as a moon souring in the sky and calling me with the power of lightning, thunder and clouds.

Don’t tell her that I suffer from sleepless nights, and that I live under the mercy of the pain killers till it drugs my body. Don’t tell her that I keep twiddling my stuff till I barge into the iron beds or another prisoner sleeping close to me, to wake him up to help me reach the bathroom. Don’t tell her that wakefulness always hurts me and sleep never visits me.

Don’t tell her that a piece of lead entered my eye in that bloody day in the camp streets. They aggressively shot me until my leg was cut off, and my eye was gone. And before I fainted I saw a little kid running toward me waving the Palestinian flag while screaming: a martyr, a martyr.

Tell her that my dream is not enough. My nostalgia for her is too much and her soul never leaves me. I still have from her my language, my purity, my symbols stuck on the wall, all of which heal my pain every time the light disappears around me.

Tell her that I always embrace her holy prayers, to survive from the dark cloud that surrounds me after my body has tortured me. I might get back to her or I might not, but I left the answer to this question open, although I’ve chosen spiritually to be close to her heart, as if I chose my future, of which I have officially no control.

Don’t tell her that Israel, a country in the 21st century, has turned the prisons into places where diseases are planted and bodies are ruined slowly; and slowly, it turned to be fields of trial for living people whose death is inevitable sooner or later.

Don’t tell her that I have become knowledgeable of all names of horrible illnesses and strange medications, along with all types of pain killers, while I’m witnessing my friend Zakariyya diving into a coma, with an ending unknown to me.

Don’t tell my mother about the sick prisoners whose diseases launched an insane war against their bodies: Ahmad Abu Errab, Khaled Ashawish, Ahmad El-Najjar, Mansour Mowqeda, Akram Mansour, Ahmad Samara, Wafaa El-Bis, Reema Daraghma, Tareq Asi, Mo’tasim Radad, Riyad Al-Amour, Yasir Nazzal, Ashraf Abu-Thare’, Jihad Abu-Haniyy. The merciless Israeli prisons slaughter them; illness and carelessness of a country that enjoys slow death sentences and funerals for others.

Tell her that I am still 30 doors away from you and I get closer every time a bird flies and a fire flames up my eye, and barbed wires wound me, carrying me to your arms and to your prayers.’

his was Mohammad’s letter to his mother which unveils the inhumane nature of Israel which claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East while violating the most fundamental human values. I meant to share with you those powerful words he wrote in Arabic to help you picture the torturous conditions that the prisoners endure inside the Israeli cells, especially the disabled.

The core of their shameful crimes which offend any sense of propriety in any heart with any shred of conscience, were done under the banner of maintaining security. However, in this case where those disabled prisoners can hardly threaten their holy safety, how would they justify this?

Israel censors Palestinian textbooks in East Jerusalem

2011-10-30T10:43:00.009+02:00

10/25/2011
by Jalal Abukhater
Source: Electronic Intifada

In this article previously published on +972 magazine, I discuss the censorship of material in Palestinian textbooks in East Jerusalem schools — a clearly illegal and dangerous move by the Jerusalem Education Adminstration (JEA).

Israeli authorities are attempting to impose new censored textbooks in Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem. Jalal Abukhater provides a sample of the changes and argues that censorship of Palestinian heritage and history is illegal, ineffective and dangerous. Students and parents are mounting protests.

While the mainstream media has been dominated by big stories, others are not getting enough attention. For example, Israel’s Jerusalem Education Administration (JEA) recently decided to enforce the use of new, censored textbooks in all private schools in East Jerusalem. The JEA is a joint body of the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education. At present, public Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem administrated by the JEA are already forced to use Israel-issued censored textbooks, and the JEA is trying to force private schools to use them too, despite the fact that it has no authority over them.

The decision was an initiative of Knesset Member Alex Miller from Yisrael Beiteinu, who is also head of the Knesset’s education committee. Miller stated (Hebrew) that in East Jerusalem “the whole curriculum should and must be Israeli.”

At the start of the 2011-2012 academic year, students and parents protested against the decision to impose the new censored curricula upon their schools. Students and parents have threatened to escalate their protests if the JEA keeps up its pressure and have said they will not attend the schools if the school administrations comply with the JEA decision. This action by the Israeli Education Ministry is completely illegal under international law, which considers East Jerusalem to be occupied territory; as such the move is yet another direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, specifically Article 13 of the ICESCR. The move aims to deform Palestinian identity; the changes in the textbooks are dangerous and cannot be ignored.

I have obtained a copy of a report that highlights the modifications made by the JEA to the Palestinian textbooks that have been used since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993. The report lists most of the changes made to textbooks used from first to tenth grade.

1. The logo of the Palestinian Authority that has been printed on all book covers has been removed and replaced with the logo of Jerusalem Municipality.

2. In the censored textbooks, every mention and picture of a Palestinian flag has been removed, even in the coloring books for six-year olds.

3. Also in the first grade textbooks, a story about a female prisoner returning home, and a poem about the “dawn of freedom” were deleted from the censored versions.

4. All mention of the terms Nakba (meaning “catastrophe,” referring to Palestinian dispersion/exodus in 1948) and Palestinian right of return have been removed, including poems by exiled Palestinian poets expressing their longing for their beautiful homeland. Poems and songs about the beauty of Palestinian landscapes or poems that mention Israeli checkpoints have also been deleted.

5. Earlier history – from hundreds of years ago – is being equally censored. In the fourth-grade textbook, a story about Saladin and the Battle of Hattin was deleted from existence for no apparent reason. Similarly a story about the Siege of Acre during the Napoleonic invasion has been deleted.

6. In fact, all mentions of the city of Acre have been removed including a poem which calls Acre “the bride of the sea” and a story about students visiting the city for the first time. Additionally, all mentions of Jerusalem as “Al Quds” have been removed; a story in the second-grade textbook about a field trip to the Old City of Jerusalem has also been removed.

7. Any mention of Israel as an occupying force or East Jerusalem as an occupied city have been removed. This aims to assert Israeli control over occupied Palestinian lands behind the 1967 armistice lines. Furthermore, Palestinians inside Israel are not referred to as Palestinians anymore, anywhere.

8. Stories, songs, and poems about of the first and second Palestinian uprisings have all been deleted. Here is a sample the report cites from a deleted song that the JEA accuses of inciting to violence, translated: “Jerusalem is waiting for the dark occupation to wither away and for the bright day of freedom to arrive.” This is the only part of the song cited in the report.

9. In the geography textbooks of eight-grade students, the issue of pollution in the Palestinian environment addresses the waste sewage water dumped by settlements in the West Bank onto Palestinian villages; this whole lesson has been deleted. Also in all geography textbooks, facts about the Palestinian water crisis – such as in the Jordan Valley where roughly 8,000 settlers receive 20 times more water than almost 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank – are entirely deleted, in the newly censored textbooks.

10. In ninth and tenth grade history textbooks, almost the whole book has been deleted. Whole units that address the Palestinian issue from the time of the Balfour declaration (1917) until the Nakba (1948) have been deleted, leaving blank white pages for students to stare at.

David Ben-Gurion once said in a conversation with Nahum Goldman: “That is natural: we have taken their country […] Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations’ time, but for the moment there is no chance.”

We have not forgotten, and we will never be forced to forget.

This issue is dangerous beyond description, and such illegal acts must not be allowed to pass unnoticed. People must act quickly and support the schools that have refused to deal with such misleading textbooks. The JEA has now threatened to cut funding to those schools, which are in need of support.

Everyone has the right to preserve his or her identity, heritage and history. All people have the right to receive proper education at schools they attend; no one deserves to receive censored, politicized propaganda that aims to control the minds of young people in any way. We will not be forced to forget nor will we be forced into ignorance about our own identity.

Al-Aqsa Foundation Warns against Demolishing Mosque Passage

2011-10-30T10:38:00.005+02:00

26/10/2011
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency - WAFA

JERUSALEM, October 26, 2011 (WAFA) – The al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage in Jerusalem Wednesday warned of dangerous repercussions if the Israeli municipality proceeds to demolish Magharbe Gate passage to al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
If implemented, it said, it would lead to the demolition of a section of the Mosque itself.

The Foundation called in a press release on the Arab and Islamic world to take immediate action to save al-Aqsa mosque from the Israeli occupation plans.

It said the Israeli decision to demolish the passage, which is in the shape of a wooden overpass that connects the yard of the Western Wall below to al-Aqsa compound, clearly shows Israeli determination to demolish a section of the mosque rather than what it claims that it is simply demolishing a temporary wooden bridge.

“We have repeatedly unveiled through maps, documents and pictures the dimension of the Israeli plan to demolish Magharbe Gate and to build another one in its place as it aims to build a fortified bridge for military reasons to facilitate large scale incursions of fully equipped Israeli forces, settlers and Jewish groups into the Mosque area,” it said.

It considered implementing such a decision as part of targeting al-Aqsa Mosque to assume full control over it through building tunnels and synagogues, which are part of a comprehensive plan to turn it into a Jewish site.

It added that the demolition of the gate could cause damage and cracks in the structure of al-Aqsa Mosque, especially in its western wall, similar to what happened several years ago.

The mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, also warned of the consequences of demolishing the passage.

“This Israeli aggression aims to control all entrances to al-Aqsa Mosque thus allowing the occupation forces and herds of settlers to break into the Mosque as they want, leading to serious complications which affects the security of the Mosque and the Muslim worshipers,” he said.

He added that the passage, which the Israeli authorities have tampered with several years ago, would not have become in danger of collapse if it was not for the ongoing Israeli digging underneath the Mosque.

“Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to Muslims in all parts of the world and no one else has the right to manage, supervise and take care of its affairs,” he said.
The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem claimed that Magharbe Gate passage was in danger of collapse or fire and must be demolished within 30 days.
T.R./M.S.

Tenn. protesters defy curfew a 3rd time

2011-10-30T10:24:00.007+02:00

10 mins ago
By KRISTIN M. HALL - Associated Press
Source:Yahoo News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Occupy Wall Street protesters chanted slogans, danced to stay warm and defiantly protested into the early hours Sunday near Tennessee's Capitol building, squaring off for the third consecutive night against state authorities.

"Whose plaza? Our plaza!" about 50 demonstrators chanted early Sunday in defiance of an official curfew.

Capitol police sporadically made their rounds and a state trooper occasionally walked past the protest in the pre-dawn hours, but authorities signaled no immediate attempt to make arrests as law enforcement agents had done on the two previous nights.

Elizabeth Sharpe, 20, took part Sunday and said she was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement after seeing a 2003 documentary called "The Corporation." She said she felt the need to be an activist in the movement that expresses opposition to perceived greed on Wall Street and across corporate America.

"How can I as an individual change this?" she asked, speaking with an Associated Press reporter. With the Occupy moment's far-flung reach across American cities, she said she felt there was strength in numbers, adding, ""I got for the first time a glimpse of hope."

Some danced to keep warm on a chilly morning and others shivered in the frosty air, huddling under blankets.

The protesters have been galvanized by the friction between state officials and the local magistrate. Several new demonstrators showed up at the state-owned plaza near the Capitol for the first time earlier in the day.

As many as 75 people initially remained after the curfew that started at 10 p.m. CDT and runs until 6 a.m. But by early morning only about 50 people remained and police did not make any immediate attempt to disband the protest.

On previous nights, the defiance had triggered arrests. Earlier Nashville arrests came after a week of police crackdowns nationwide on Occupy Wall Street activists. Clashes have occurred in other cities, including Oakland, Calif., Denver and Atlanta.

In Oakland, Calif., an Iraq War veteran was seriously injured during a protest clash with police Tuesday night. In Atlanta, helicopters hovered overhead Wednesday as officers in riot gear arrested more than 50 protesters at a downtown park. In San Diego, police arrested a similar number of people who occupied the Civic Center Plaza and Children's Park for three weeks. And in Denver on Saturday evening, authorities moved into an encampment of protesters and began arresting demonstrators just hours after a standoff near the steps of the Colorado Capitol turned into a skirmish that ended in police force, including pepper spray and reports of rubber bullets.

Nashville magistrate Tom Nelson has said recently that there's no legal reason in his city to keep the demonstrators behind bars and he has released them after each arrest. He has refused each night to sign off on arrest warrants for more than two dozen people taken into custody.

Some legal experts agreed with the judge.

The arrests appeared to be a violation of First Amendment rights that allow for people to peacefully assemble, said attorney David Raybin, a former prosecutor. He and others said the nature of the arrests, coupled with the judge's refusal to sign off on the warrants, could become ammunition for lawsuits.

"The government is exposing itself to serious liability here by doing this," Raybin said.

Nelson did not return an email seeking and a phone number for him could not be found.

State troopers had begun enforcing the curfew at the Legislative Plaza on Thursday night.

Others questioned the timing of the curfew. The protesters had been demonstrating for about three weeks before it took effect, a point that Nelson said he factored into his decision.

"You can't pass a curfew mid-protest because you disagree with this group of protesters," said criminal defense attorney Patrick Frogge, who is representing some of those arrested.

The state Department of Safety has been carrying out the arrests. Commissioner Bill Gibbons, who until he joined the Haslam administration was the district attorney in Memphis, said he didn't have a role in developing the curfew but assured Haslam his department could enforce it.

Gibbons developed a reputation as an able and tough prosecutor in Memphis, where gang and drug violence have been problems for years. He ran against Haslam for governor in the GOP primary, touting his law-and-order credential and sharply attacking his multi-million-dollar opponent for refusing to divulge how much income he gets from the family-owned chain of Pilot truck stops.

Sharia law declaration raises concerns in new Libya

2011-10-25T17:30:00.008+03:00

Oct 24, 2011
By Simon Martelli, AFP

TRIPOLI (AFP) - The announcement that Islamic sharia law will be the basis of legislation in newly liberated Libya has raised concerns, especially among women, despite Islamists insisting moderation will prevail.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Sunday, during his speech to the nation in Benghazi to formally declare the country's liberation from the ousted regime of Moammer Kadhafi, that sharia would be Libya's principal law.

"Any law that violates sharia is null and void legally," he said, citing as an example the law on marriage passed during the slain dictator's 42-year tenure that imposed restrictions on polygamy, which is permitted in Islam.

"The law of divorce and marriage... This law is contrary to sharia and it is stopped," Abdel Jalil said.

His comments have provoked criticism and calls for restraint both in Libya and in Europe, amid fears that the Arab Spring may give rise to a potentially intolerant Islamist resurgence.

Many Libyans awaiting Sunday's historic speech expressed surprise at the decision by the National Transitional Council leader to mention the role of sharia law in the new country before addressing such important issues as security and education.

"It's shocking and insulting to state, after thousands of Libyans have paid for freedom with their lives, that the priority of the new leadership is to allow men to marry in secret," said Rim, 40, a Libyan feminist who requested anonymity.

"We did not slay Goliath so that we now live under the Inquisition," she told AFP.

In his speech, Abdel Jalil also announced the introduction of Islamic banking in Libya in keeping with sharia which prohibits the earning of interest, or riba in Arabic, that is considered a form of usury.

Adelrahman al-Shatr, one of the founders of the centre-right Party of National Solidarity, launched just last week, said it was premature for the NTC leader to speak about the policies of the new state.

"It is a subject that should be discussed with the different political groups and with the Libyan people," he said.

"These declarations create feelings of pain and bitterness among women who sacrificed so many martyrs," in the eight-month battle against Kadhafi loyalists, he added.

"By abolishing the marriage law, women lose the right to keep the family home if they divorce. It is a disaster for Libyan women."

Western leaders also responded swiftly to Abdel Jalil's comments, with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying on Monday Libya's introduction of sharia law must respect human rights and democratic principles.

Abdel Jalil, a respected former justice minister of Kadhafi who distanced himself from the old regime, is seen as a pious man and a Sufi follower of Islam who is at odds with extremism.

He has already said that the new Libya would not adopt any extremist ideology, and sought to reassure the international community by stating on Monday that Libyans were moderate Muslims.

Nevertheless, Libya's Islamists are a rising force in the country's political arena, some of whom, such as Abdelhakim Belhaj, the founder of the Al-Qaeda linked but now-disbanded Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), are expected to hold prominent positions.

After suffering decades of persecution by Kadhafi, they are also working hard to present themselves as proponents of tolerant, democratic values and policies.

"The rules and laws (in new Libya) should take Islam as a basic reference," Islamist leader Sheikh Ali Sallabi, a supporter of Belhaj, told AFP.

He insisted that freedom, justice, equality and respect for human dignity should be enshrined in the new constitution, along with the peaceful rotation of power.

"We believe in the rights of others to show their programmes to the people, and to let the people decide," said Sallabi, who was jailed for eight years during the 1980s in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison.

"We also believe in the freedom of the press and the right to self expression. We believe that our religion accommodates these rights," he added.

The second American revolution has begun

2011-10-25T16:43:00.007+03:00

October 25, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Source: Natural News

(NaturalNews) There's a sense of desperation in America today. Their jobs are being exported out of the country, their health insurance is being dropped by employers, their dollars are becoming increasingly worthless with each passing day and their futures don't look very promising. They're angry, frustrated and desperate, so they take to the streets and protest. Occupy Wall Street! Occupy The Fed! Take to the streets!

It's the right thing to do, but what most protesters -- and nearly all Americans -- don't fully grasp is that nearly every powerful institution is a criminal racket. It's not just Wall Street that's operated like a criminal mob, folks: It's the U.S. Congress. It's the health care industry. It's conventional agriculture, the mainstream media, the processed food manufacturers, the government regulators and of course the entire military industrial complex.

Nearly everything around you is a criminal operation. The banks openly steal your homes while laundering money for global drug lords. The U.S. government runs illegal guns into Mexico while allowing cocaine and heroin back into the USA to be sold at pumped-up black market prices. The mainstream media broadcasts outright lies and complete fabrications as if they were fact. Much of modern medical "science" is complete quackery or fiction, funded by corporations for the purpose of expanding corporate power. The local water supply is intentionally contaminated with toxic poisons known as "fluoride," and the local food supply is tainted with other dangerous chemicals like aspartame, MSG and BPA.

Your local hospital is almost certainly involved in a medical racket that seeks to insert high-profit medical procedure charges onto patient bills, and your local nursing home most likely throws granny in the hospital for a few days in order to get triple billing from Medicare upon their return. Doctors prescribe antibiotics because they get kickbacks from the drug companies, and the medical journals are little more than science whores who have been bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. And don't forget vaccines, which have become the pathway through which infectious disease is actually spread among the population using live viruses injected into innocent children (http://www.naturalnews.com/033447_I...).

Wake the heck up, people! Most of modern society is a giant con. Nearly every institution, every mega corporation, every government and nearly every politician or bureaucrat is really just a criminal mobster trying to steal your wealth or gain control over your actions and thoughts. Most institutions actually cause the very things they claim to be fighting against!

Why does the cancer industry promote cancer?
The cancer industry actually promotes cancer, didn't you know? The DEA runs drugs! The ATF runs guns (http://www.naturalnews.com/032934_A...). The FDA keeps deadly drugs legal while trying to outlaw safe, affordable natural remedies.

The EPA openly allows deadly toxic chemicals to be dumped into the environment (like mercury fillings from dental offices). The CDC actually promotes complete falsehoods about infectious disease in order to scare people into thinking everybody needs to get vaccinated. And then the vaccines are intentionally contaminated with live viruses in order to spread disease and make the CDC look even more important! (http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html)

Meanwhile, the President is actively destroying the economic base of America, aided by feds who threaten business owners like Gibson Guitars which are only trying to manufacture quality American-made products. The purpose of all this? To destroy America's economy from the inside out. It is intentional. It is being engineered. The U.S. economy is supposed to collapse by design, get it?

Beyond the economy alone, the entire "war on terror" is a complete and utter hoax, having been fabricated from the very start by government insiders. From 9/11 to present-day terror, it has all been a pathetic and cowardly string of fabrications and staged events for the sole purpose of destroying freedom in America.

Most of what you're told from "official" sources is flat-out false
Are you getting this? Nearly everything you've been told is a lie. Everything you hear on the mainstream news is either a complete fabrication or a wild distortion of reality. And the things you don't hear on the evening news are the things that really matter -- things like the fact that your money is being quietly stolen from you by the Federal Reserve.

Nearly everything you are told by the White House, or the FDA, or the EPA -- or any government regulator -- is a complete and total lie. There is no room for truth in a system of outright tyrannical lawbreaking. That's what we have today instead of government: A cabal of criminal thugs who operate with impunity while violating laws with complete disregard for human rights or the Bill of Rights.

Did you know, for example, that the Obama administration runs a secret death panel that decides which Americans to add to a "kill list?" This kill list is then handed over to the President who decides which Americans to simply assassinate or murder. Think I'm making this up? Then why was it openly reported by Reuters? (http://www.naturalnews.com/033835_W...)

Watch this astonishing interaction between ABC News reporter
Jake Trapper and White House Spokesperson Carney, who completely excuses the Obama administration's outright murder of an American citizen with absolutely zero evidence, no due process, no trial and no proper legal justification whatsoever:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1E3C8...

Why things are the way they are - the honest truth
Do you wonder why so many people are sick and diseased today? Because the health care system is designed to make you sick!

Do you wonder why so many people are bankrupt today? Because the financial system is designed to keep you bankrupt!

Do you wonder why voters have so little power versus the corporations today? Because the political system is designed to keep the corporations in power while keeping you enslaved.

Do you wonder why you are still paying $3 or $4 per gallon of gas? Because the energy industry is designed to keep you enslaved to high-profit energy sources while oppressing free energy technology.

Do you ever wonder why the best innovations in medicine, free energy and human consciousness are always suppressed? Because the system is designed to destroy or censor any technologies that would lend themselves to longevity, freedom or increased awareness.

Do you wonder why America remains in perpetual war with an unseen enemy? Because the whole system is designed to operate in a state of perpetual warfare so that the people can be kept in a state of constant fear while being denied their freedoms.

Join the revolution
This is why I invite you to join the revolution in whatever constructive way you can. Now is the time to make your voice heard, just as all those protesting right now are doing.

My only bit of wisdom to pass along in this regard is to make sure it's your OWN voice and don't let yourself be played by some organized globalist agenda that now wants to hijack the protests for their own nefarious purposes.

The essence of freedom is LIBERTY, honest money, private property rights and a system of law that applies to everyone.

YES, the globalist bankers are crooks. They probably deserve to be strung up in a public square somewhere, but even such actions should never be taken without due process and a proper trial. What's really wrong with America today is that the criminal elements are running the show, from the White House to Wall Street. And it's time the People demanded that EVERYONE abide by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. After all, didn't the President swear to protect it when he became President? So why does he now selectively ignore it?

The revolution happening right now is a revolution borne out of frustration, and although it seems to lack focus in the mixed messages heard on the street right now, it will soon coalesce into a call for justice and an end to the systems of tyranny that dominate the American landscape today.

The transition out of freedom and justice will be fraught with violence, I fear, and there will soon be Martial Law declared across our land. Be prepared for what's coming, and have no illusions that the second American revolution is now at our doorstep. I only ask: What will you do with this opportunity? Will you stand for liberty and justice when it really counts?

Keep reading NaturalNews for more coverage of all this. And if you want to learn the latest preparedness information, I've just released a new course with Daniel Vitalis called The Surthrival Series (http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Surth...).

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033974_American_revolution_Occupy_Wall_Street.html#ixzz1bnzAJT6b

OCHA: Israel Cuts Access to 85% of Gaza Fishing Waters [ 82423 ] -

2011-10-25T16:38:00.006+03:00

October 19, 2011

(WAFA) – A recent report published Tuesday by the Untied Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) showed that 35% of Gaza’s farmland and 85% of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures.

The report said that the population of Gaza is 1.6 million, with over 50% under 18, and 38% of the population live in poverty.

OCHA showed that the average wage in the Gaza Strip declined by over 20% in the past six years, while 26% of the Gazan workforce, including 38% of youths, is unemployed, leading to 54% of Palestinians in Gaza are food insecure while over 75% are aid dependent.

The report showed that 50-80 million litres of partially treated sewage are dumped in the sea each day, while over 90% of the water from the Gaza aquifer is undrinkable.

About one-third of the items in the essential drug list are out of stock, as well as 85% of schools in Gaza run on double shifts.

Since the beginning of 2010, 64 Palestinian civilians have been killed and 621 injured by Israeli forces; over 60% of casualties occurred in the access-restricted areas. Another 60 civilians were killed and 137 were injured in tunnel-related accidents.

The report said that the Israeli blockade on Gaza (through the land, air and sea) is a denial of basic human rights in contravention of international law and amounts to collective punishment. It severely restricts imports and exports, as well as the movement of people in and out of Gaza, and access to agricultural land and fishing waters.

Gazans are unable to provide for their families and the quality of infrastructure and vital services has deteriorated.

Despite measures taken to ease the blockade in June 2010 the humanitarian situation has remained extremely fragile. While imports have increased, they are still at less than 40% of the pre-2007 levels. Exports remain tightly restricted and are limited to agricultural produce to Europe, and Gazan businesses cannot access their traditional markets in Israel and the West Bank. Access to land and sea remains highly restricted.

Only a minority of the projects aimed at improving housing and vital services in Gaza, submitted for approval by the international community, have been approved by the Israeli authorities, said OCHA.

Implementation of approved projects is impeded by funding shortages affecting the operating agencies, as well as by the limited capacity at the single crossing for goods. The internal Palestinian divide is an additional factor undermining the quality of vital services.

Lack of respect for international humanitarian law has continued to result in civilian casualties, particularly during escalations in armed clashes and while enforcing access restrictions to border areas.

"Thousands of people, many of them children, risk their lives smuggling goods through the tunnels under the border with Egypt every day. The thriving tunnel industry is a direct result of ongoing restrictions on the import of construction materials, the lack of employment opportunities, and the huge reconstruction needs in Gaza," said the report.

Gazans remain isolated and cut off from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory. Entry into the West Bank, either via the Israeli Erez crossing or via Jordan, is prohibited for all Gazans. The volume of people allowed through the Egyptian Rafah Crossing remains limited, with hundreds denied passage each week.

R.Q./F.R.

Iraq rejects US request to maintain bases after troop withdrawal

2011-10-25T16:26:00.011+03:00

21 October 2011
by Ewen MacAskill
Source: The Guardian

Obama announces the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq but fails to persuade Nouri al-Maliki to allow US to keep bases there

Obama presented the troop withdrawal as the fulfilment of one of his election promises Link to this video

The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday when Iraq finally rejected its pleas to maintain bases in the country beyond this year.

Barack Obama announced at a White House press conference that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of December, a decision forced by the final collapse of lengthy talks between the US and the Iraqi government on the issue.

The Iraqi decision is a boost to Iran, which has close ties with many members of the Iraqi government and which had been battling against the establishment of permanent American bases.

Obama attempted to make the most of it by presenting the withdrawal as the fulfilment of one of his election promises.

"Today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," he told reporters.

But he had already announced this earlier this year, and the real significance today was in the failure of Obama, in spite of the cost to the US in dollars and deaths, to persuade the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to allow one or more American bases to be kept in the country.

Obama was formally told of Maliki's final decision on Friday morning in a video conference.

Speaking later to reporters, Obama glossed over the rejection, describing it as Iraq shaping its own future.

He told reporters that the "tide of war is receding", not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan and in Libya.

"The United States is moving forward to a position of strength. The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year. The transition in Afghanistan is moving forward and our troops are finally coming home," he said.

Obama rose to political prominence on the back of his opposition to the Iraq war.

"Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home," he said.

"The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops," he said. "That is how America's military efforts in Iraq will end."

But Republicans criticised the failure to secure a deal with the Iraqis, describing it as a setback for the US.

John McCain, one of the leading foreign affairs specialists in the Senate and Obama's Republican opponent in the 2008 White House race, said: "Today marks a harmful and sad setback for the United States in the world. I respectfully disagree with the president: this decision will be viewed as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."

Mitt Romney, front-runner in the race to take on Obama in the 2012 White House race, said: "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."

One of the sticking points in the negotiations with Iraq was a US demand that American forces remaining in the country after December would enjoy the same immunity from prosecution as they do now. The Iraqi government, conscious of public anger over many controversial incidents involving US troops and defence contractors over the last decade, refused.

The Pentagon had wanted the bases to help counter growing Iranian influence in the Middle East. Just a few years ago, the US had plans for leaving behind four large bases but, in the face of Iraqi resistance, this plan had to be scaled down this year to a force of 10,000. But even this proved too much for the Iraqis.

Denis McDonough, the White House deputy national security adviser, speaking to reporters after Obama's press conference, denied that the withdrawal was a sign of growing Iranian influence.

"You see an Iran that is weaker and more isolated," he said, noting various incidents such as a sense of international outrage over an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Although the US is pulling out all troops, it will keep its embassy in Baghdad and two consulates. There will also be about 4,000-5,000 defence contractors, White House aides said.

Since the invasion in 2003, 1 million members of the US military have been deployed to Iraq, of whom 4,482 have been killed and 32,200 wounded.

Obama said there were 180,000 troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office in January 2009, and that number has been halved and will continue to fall.

A few US military personnel will be based in Iraq temporarily from time to time, just as they are in other countries with links to the US such as Egypt and Jordan, White House aides said. These would primarily be trainers helping out with new equipment bought from the US, such as F-16 fighters Iraq purchased last month.

Maliki, though he has been criticised in the past for being too close to Iran, had wanted to keep some US troops in Iraq to help train Iraqi security forces and to help in the event of a resurgence of sectarian violence. But he had to bow to pressure from pro-Iranian politicians and others in his coaliton government who wanted all US troops out.

Obama was ambivalent on the issue, seeing a total withdrawal as a good sell to a US public tired of war. But the Pentagon had wanted the bases, and the president reluctantly sided with the military staff.

It will be a major logistical exercise, moving not only the remaining 39,000 US troops but mountains of equipment from bases that are the size of small American suburbs, complete with coffee-shops, bowling alleys and cinemas.

The Pentagon is wary of a final attack as the final pullout gets under way.

• This article was corrected on 23 October 2011 because it described Nouri al-Maliki as Iraqi's president instead of as its prime minister, and at one point said he had wanted to keep some US troops "in Iran".

The Relationship Between: Taqleed, Mathahab (Madthabs), and Fatwa

2011-10-21T09:42:00.002+03:00

October 20, 2011
written by: Sheila Quinn
Source: The Ummah Times

Qur’an:
“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures), in the Taurat and the Gospel:-for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil: he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure);: he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the Light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper.”
(Sura: A’raaf (The Heights); ayah #157).

“…This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as you religion.” (5:3)

“Say who hath forbidden the beautiful (gifts) of Allah, which He hath produced for His servants, and the things, clean and pure (which He hath provided) for sustenance?...”
(Sura: A’raaf (The Heights); ayah # 32.

“Oh ye who believe! Make not unlawful the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you,…”
(Sura: Maida (The Table Spread); ayah # 87.

Hadeeth
“Verily, I have left amongst you the Book of Allah and the Sunnah (Traditions) of His Messenger which if you hold fast, you shall never go astray.” (Sahih Muslim)
(Source: “Ar- Raheeq Al – Makhtum” (The Sealed Nectar; chapter: “The Farewell Pilgrimage”)

What is the relationship between these three? All three are contrary to The Qur’an and the Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad, and all three are misguidance. What is haram or forbidden in Islam? What is haram is that which The Creator, Himself, has forbidden in The Qur’an or in the Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad. Everything else is halal. Islam is the guidance of The Creator. It was completed during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad.

What is Taqleed? What is Mathahab? What is Fatwa?

Taqleed is a Muslim form of personality cults. Anyone who is involved in taqleed perceive and treat a scholar/or a group of scholars as if he/they were a Prophet(s) of God. And therefore they follow that scholar or group of scholars. Anyone who is involved in taqleed is following a certain scholar/or scholars, and therefore is not following Prophet Muhammad.

Mathahab is plural for Madthab. Madthab is a certain "school" of Islamic Jurisprudence. There are four well known and accepted "schools of jurisprudence". Their function is to say if something is lawful or forbidden. Yet, it is Allah, Himself, who makes things lawful or unlawful. He made things clear in The Qur'an and in The Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad what is unlawful. He also made it clear in The Qur'an and The Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad that everything that He didn't make unlawful is in fact lawful. There is no need for the Mathahab. Allah knows everything. He knows what is in the future, as well as, what issues would come up in the future. Mathahab is a product of Taqleed-and therefore like Taqleed-it is a form of Shirk (giving partners to the One God).

Fatwa is the personal opinion of an Islamic Scholar as to the lawfulness of an item or behavior. Allah, Himself, is The One who makes things lawful and unlawful. He made it clear in both The Qur'an and The Sunneh what is unlawful(forbidden). Only Allah makes things unlawful. It is totally unacceptable for anyone else to say that something is unlawful when Allah did not make it unlawful.

Why are these three contrary to The Qur’an and The Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad? The Islamic Faith consists only of The Qur’an and The Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad. Anything else is not part of the Islamic Faith. Neither the personal opinions of this Sahabee or that Sahabee, nor the opinions of the Ulema (Scholars), are part of The Islamic Faith.

All three of them are misguidance. Every time that Allah sends guidance to humanity, He allows misguidance to follow. The misguidance that He allowed to follow after the death of Prophet Muhammad includes: Taqleed, Mathahab, and Fatwa.

Such statements are contrary to what is taught to Muslims by many scholars. But, why am I making such statements? Because, they are the truth! As slaves of Allah, we are obligated to speak the truth no matter what others might think or say. Such statements are based on The Qur’an and the Sunneh of Prophet Muhammad.

“ ‘And if you were asked about me , what wanted you to say?’ They replied: ‘We bear witness that you have conveyed the message and discharged your ministry.’ He then raised his forefinger skywards and then moved it down towards people while saying: ‘O Allah, bear witness.’ He said that phrase thrice….As soon as the Prophet had accomplished delivering the speech, the following Qur’anic verse was revealed to him:
‘…This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.’ (5:3) Upon hearing this verse ‘Umar cried . “ What makes you cry?, he was asked. His answer was: ‘Nothing succeeds perfection but imperfection.’ “ (Source: “Ar-Raheeq Al Makhtum” (The Sealed Nectar) chapter: “The Farewell Pilgrimage”)

Guidance is perfection, whereas misguidance is imperfection. ‘Umar obviously was aware that after guidance from Allah was completed that misguidance would be allowed to come. Taqleed, Mathahab, and Fatwa is amongst the misguidance that came. The guidance of Allah was completed before the death of Prophet Muhammad- and misguidance was allowed to come after his death.

The following is some of the evidence from The Qur’an and the Sunneh:

“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures), in the Taurat and the Gospel:-for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil: he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure);: he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the Light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper.”
(Sura: A’raaf (The Heights); ayah #157).

“…This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as you religion.” (5:3)

“Verily, I have left amongst you the Book of Allah and the Sunnah (Traditions) of His Messenger which if you hold fast, you shall never go astray.” (Sahih Muslim)
(Source: “Ar- Raheeq Al – Makhtum” (The Sealed Nectar); chapter: “The Farewell Pilgrimage”)

Egyptian PM: Deadly riots a setback to transition

2011-10-10T13:36:00.006+03:00

53 mins ago
By MAGGIE MICHAEL - Associated Press
Source: Yahoo News

CAIRO (AP) — Deadly clashes between angry Christians, Muslims and security forces have dealt a serious setback to Egypt's transition to civilian rule, the country's prime minister said Monday, hours after 24 people were killed in the worst violence since the February ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said the violence, which also left 272 wounded, was part of a "dirty conspiracy" and called on Egyptians to unite in the face of what he called meddling by foreign and domestic hands in their nation's affairs.

"These events have taken us back several steps," Sharaf said in a televised address. "Instead of moving forward to build a modern state on democratic principles, we are back to seeking stability and searching for hidden hands — domestic and foreign — that meddle with the country's security and safety."

A military council led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, defense minister of 20 years under the former regime, took over after an 18-day popular uprising forced Mubarak to step down. The military initially pledged to hand back power to a civilian administration in six months, but that deadline has gone by, with parliamentary elections now scheduled to start in late November. According to a timetable floated by the generals, presidential elections could be held late next year.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million people, blame the country's ruling military council for being too lenient on those behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks since Mubarak's ouster. As Egypt undergoes a chaotic power transition and security vacuum in the wake of the uprising, the Coptic Christian minority is particularly worried about the show of force by ultraconservative Islamists.

Sunday's violence will likely prompt the military to further tighten its grip on power. Already, it said it had no intention to lift the widely hated emergency laws in place since Mubarak first took office in 1981. Tension also has been growing between the military and the youth groups that engineered the uprising, with activists blaming the generals for mishandling the transition period, human rights violations and driving a wedge between them and ordinary Egyptians.

The European Union condemned the violence, with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton saying it was for Egypt "to protect your people, whoever they are, wherever they come from or whatever belief or faith they have."

Egypt's official news agency, meanwhile, reported that dozens of "instigators of chaos" have been arrested following Sunday's violence, sparked by a recent attack on a church in southern Egypt.

The MENA news agency did not say whether those arrested were Christians or Muslims, but security officials said most of the 24 killed were Christians and that they may have included one or two Muslims. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Egypt's state television said authorities on Monday stepped up security at vital installations in anticipation of renewed unrest, deploying additional troops outside parliament and the Cabinet. Riot police were also stationed outside the Coptic hospital where most of the victims' bodies are kept. Funeral services are due in the afternoon at the main Coptic Cathedral in Cairo.

The rioting in downtown Cairo had lasted until late into the night, bringing out more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the Nile-side state television building where the trouble began.

The clashes spread from outside the TV building to nearby Tahrir Square, drawing thousands of people to the vast plaza that served as the epicenter of the protests that ousted Mubarak. On Sunday night, they battled each other with rocks and firebombs, some tearing up pavement for ammunition and others collecting stones in boxes.

The clashes did not appear to be exclusively sectarian.

State TV, which has increasingly become loyal to the military, appealed on "honorable" Egyptians to protect the army against attacks as news spread of clashes between the Christian protesters and the troops outside the TV building. Soon afterward, bands of young men armed with sticks, rocks, swords and firebombs began to roam central Cairo, attacking Christians. Troops and riot police did not intervene to stop the attacks on Christians.

Throughout the night, the station cast the Christian protesters as a violent mob attacking the army and public property. At one point, Information Minister Osama Heikal went on the air to deny that the station's coverage had a sectarian slant, but acknowledged that its presenters acted "emotionally."

At one point, an armored army van sped into the crowd, striking several protesters and throwing some into the air. Protesters retaliated by setting fire to military vehicles, a bus and private cars, sending flames rising into the night sky.

The Christian protesters said their demonstration began as a peaceful attempt to sit in at the TV building. Then, the protesters said, they came under attack by thugs in plainclothes who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.

"The protest was peaceful. We wanted to hold a sit-in, as usual," said Essam Khalili, a protester wearing a white shirt with a cross on it. "Thugs attacked us and a military vehicle jumped over a sidewalk and ran over at least 10 people. I saw them."

Khalili said protesters set fire to army vehicles when they saw them hitting the protesters.

Ahmed Yahia, a Muslim resident who lives near the TV building, said he saw the military vehicle plow into protesters. "I saw a man's head split into two halves and a second body flattened when the armored vehicle ran over it. When some Muslims saw the blood they joined the Christians against the army," he said.

Television footage showed the military vehicle slamming into the crowd. Coptic protesters were shown attacking a soldier, while a priest tried to protect him.

In the past weeks, riots have broken out at two churches in southern Egypt, prompted by Muslim crowds angry over church construction. One riot broke out near the city of Aswan, even after church officials agreed to a demand by ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis that a cross and bells be removed from the building.

Aswan's governor, Gen. Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, further raised tensions by suggesting to the media that the church construction was illegal.

Protesters said the Copts are demanding the ouster of the governor, reconstruction of the church, compensation for people whose houses were set on fire and prosecution of those behind the riots and attacks on the church.

Egypt cabinet in crisis talks as 24 die in unrest

2011-10-10T13:24:00.006+03:00

Oct 10, 2011
By Jailan Zayan, AFP
Source: Yahoo News

CAIRO (AFP) - The Egyptian government was set for crisis talks on Monday after clashes left 24 people dead, raising fears of widespread sectarian unrest that threatens to widen the cracks in an already fragile transition from Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was to convene an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon, state television reported.

The meeting came as at least 40 people were arrested in central Cairo overnight after a demonstration by Copts in the Maspero district degenerated into deadly clashes that left more than 200 people wounded, a security official told AFP.

It was not immediately clear how many of those detained were Muslim or Christian.

A curfew was imposed overnight in parts of the Egyptian capital following the clashes.

Coptic Christians had been holding a demonstration to protest against a recent attack on a church in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan when the clashes started, sparking further fighting later near the hospital housing the mortuary.

In a late night address, Sharaf called on Egyptians "not to give in to sedition", warning that Egypt is "in danger."

At least five of the dead were mown down by a speeding army vehicle, a priest from the minority Coptic community said, while an AFP correspondent saw other bodies with gunshot wounds.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Tayyeb called for crisis talks between Muslim and Christian leaders later on Monday "in a bid to contain the crisis", state television said.

"A black night for Egypt's revolution," thundered the independent daily al-Shorouk in its front-page headline.

The independent Al-Masry al-Youm simply wrote "Egypt", with the letters bleeding into pictures of clashes and destruction in central Cairo.

Some warned of an all-out civil war if the root causes of the clashes were not addressed.

"There needs to be serious action from the leaders to resolve the root causes. Otherwise this could lead to civil war," said Fuad Allam, who headed Egypt's security services for two decades.

He told Al-Arabiya satellite television that discriminatory religious laws had to be amended.

But others say the clashes were not merely sectarian in nature, but fuelled by the anger towards security services and the ruling military council.

Some activists blamed government-backed provocation for the bloodshed which has triggered fears of worsening sectarian strife.

Users of social networking sites such as Twitter said the earlier clashes were provoked by "thugs" at the scene, while state television was accused of fanning anti-Coptic sentiment.

As the military police gave assurances that calm had returned to the capital, Sharaf warned on public television that Egypt was "in danger" following the most serious clashes since Mubarak was ousted in February.

Sharaf, appointed by the military council that took power after mass protests led to Mubarak's downfall, heads a caretaker government ahead of elections the council has pledged will be democratic.

A 2:00 am (0000 GMT) to 7:00 am curfew was declared in the area from Maspero to Abbassiya Square, while security was stepped up around parliament and other official buildings in central Cairo.

"These events have brought us backwards... instead of moving forward to construct a modern state on a healthy democratic basis," Sharaf said.

The protesters clashed with anti-riot police and soldiers guarding the state television building, after thousands took part in a protest march from the Shobra district.

A standoff degenerated as the demonstrators started hurling stones and set fire to two cars, an AFP correspondent said. The television channel said that an army vehicle was burnt.

Security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd, and dozens of people fled.

"Down with the marshal," the demonstrators chanted on the march to Maspero, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council.

On Sunday night, amid scenes of mayhem at the hospital which was filled with grieving relatives, a priest named Daud told AFP at least five of those killed were mowed down by an army vehicle.

Other bodies bore gunshot wounds.

State television reported that three soldiers were shot dead and dozens of their comrades wounded.

Later on Sunday night, hundreds of Muslims and Coptic Christians exchanged blows and threw stones at the hospital treating the wounded from the earlier clashes, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The hospital mortuary housed the bodies of those killed.

Copts complain of systematic discrimination, but since Mubarak's fall, tensions have also mounted between the military -- initially hailed for not siding with Mubarak -- and groups that spearheaded the revolt, which say the army is reluctant to carry out genuine reforms.

Jordan opposition: Govt ‘unserious’ about reforms

2011-10-10T13:17:00.007+03:00

Oct 4, 2011
By ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA | ARAB NEWS

AMMAN: A coalition of Jordanian opposition parties on Tuesday accused the government of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit of being “not serious” about political reform and pledged to continue struggle to achieve the required change.

“There is clear slowdown and lack of seriousness on the part of the government toward the accomplishment of real political reform that ensures the required transition of society,” the Higher Coordination Committee of National Opposition Parties said in a statement.

The panel, which comprises the Islamic Action Front (IAF) and seven other Pan-Arab and left-leaning political parties, detected the government’s “lack of will for reform” that found expression in the new election law and the municipalities law due to govern the municipal elections set for the second half of December.

The Muslim Brotherhood movement, the country’s main opposition group, has decided to “suspend” participation in the municipal polls pending the government’s meeting of several demands, including a constitutional amendment that limits the king’s powers, foremost his appointment of prime ministers.

The Jordanian opposition parties also held the government responsible for recent attacks on opposition figures, including Saturday’s attack on prominent activist Leith Shbeilat, who was stoned as he addressed a rally in the Jerash area, 30 km north of Amman.

Sources In Washington Say IMF’s Pot Of Cash Could Be Expanded From $350 Billion To $3.5 Trillion

2011-10-10T11:01:00.008+03:00

Oct 5, 2011
Source:The Daily Bail

It is no secret that IMF head Christine Lagarde wants a massive increase in the size of the IMF's bailout fund. She's been lobbying publicly along those lines for the past month. What is new is the dollar figure now being floated. Keep in mind as you read this story that U.S. taxpayers contribute roughly 18% of all IMF funds, so the $3.5 trillion headline figure means $700 billion from the United States.

Any IMF funding increase would have to be approved by Congress, and judging by the blistering response below from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (the leading U.S. anti-IMF advocate), it will not be an easy sell.

---

NOTE - In the excerpt below we have changed all figures to U.S. dollars.

Source - Daily Mail

Sources in Washington said the IMF’s pot of cash could be expanded to $3.5 trillion.

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said the current war chest of around $350 billion ‘pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries’ and needs to be expanded to deal with ‘worst-case scenarios’.

Following crisis talks in Washington at the weekend, Mrs Lagarde said: ‘The Fund’s credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-case scenarios. Our lending capacity looks comfortable today but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders. It will be useful to discuss, soon, the needs and contingency options.’

---

Now for some sanity on this issue:

U.S. Has Already Contributed $100 Billion + to Bailouts

“We Cannot Take the ‘Too Big to Fail’ Philosophy to a Global Level”

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, released the following statement today after International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Christine Lagarde distributed a document at an IMF steering committee meeting warning that the IMF’s growing participation in European bailouts means the organization will likely need to increase its global bailout fund – a fund to which U.S. taxpayers have already contributed over $100 billion:

“At a time when the federal government is borrowing $5 billion every day on top of a $14 trillion national debt, we should not be funneling billions of dollars through the IMF to bail out Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and other European countries. The European Union was set up to be an economic competitor to the United States, and therefore, any bailout funds should come from the E.U., not the U.S.

The global debt crisis was caused by too much spending and borrowing and that crisis will not be solved by more spending and borrowing. We cannot take the ‘too big to fail’ philosophy to a global level. The only thing ‘too big to fail’ is America itself.”

The U.S. is the leading contributor to the IMF, providing the organization with 17.3 percent of its funding.

Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich & Chomsky: "End The Left-Right Delusion, Corporatism Is The TRUE Enemy"

2011-10-06T12:28:00.008+03:00

Oct 3, 2011
Source: The Daily Bail

Kucinich:

* "Wars cost the U.S. $30 million per hour..."

Excellent short clip with comments from leaders across the political spectrum. Interesting that in the past week, Ralph Nader has announced his support for Ron Paul, who himself announced in a recent speech that he would consider Kucinich for his cabinet as Secretary of Peace. The brightest and best thinkers are starting to understand that corporate control over Washington and both parties is the real enemy, a point which Dylan Ratigan has been making for months.

Ralph Nader seems to understand the endemic corporate cronyism better than any recent candidate outside of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.

Republican special interests include corporations, wars, and the wealthy.

Democrat special interests include corporations, wars, and the wealthy.

At least we have political choice.

Egypt parties want Mubarak allies barred from vote

2011-09-30T17:43:00.006+03:00

Sep 14, 2011
By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters
Source:Yahoo News

CAIRO (Reuters) - Political parties have called on Egypt's military rulers to ensure that figures associated with the government of ousted President Hosni Mubarak cannot run in parliamentary elections expected this year.

The military council that took over from Mubarak after street protests forced him to stand down in February has said it will hold a parliamentary vote this year, although a statement earlier this week announcing plans for voter registration did not mention any dates.

"The members of the coalition insist on changes to the parliamentary elections law and a law that would prevent the return of remnants of the former regime," a coalition of 17 groups, including the leading Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

A member of the military council was quoted in the daily Akhbar newspaper as saying meetings were being conducted to set an election date, and its timetable will be set in the last week of September.

The council member, General Mamdouh Shaheen, said the council would consider some amendments to the election rules, which include a complex system of proportional representation that some political groups say could allow Mubarak loyalists to run as individuals.

Mohamed el-Beltagy, senior figure in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, said the voting system needed to be streamlined and clear rules laid down to keep out Mubarak allies.

"We need a law that would only let party candidates or known independent candidates run for elections and nominations should be based on a clear electoral program and background including a candidate's history of public work," he told Reuters.

Egypt held parliamentary elections last year that were viewed by many observers as the most rigged of Mubarak's 30 years in office. His ruling National Democratic Party has been dissolved.

Many activists are worried that the military will delay the elections. The government said this week it would toughen implementation of emergency laws after protesters stormed the Israeli embassy last week, embarrassing Egypt abroad.

Some analysts think the military is worried that Islamists will come out strongest in this year's vote.

"I think the military council is hesitant to hold an election for fear that the Muslim Brotherhood could secure a majority," said political analyst Mustapha al-Sayyid, adding such a parliament could try to alter the constitution to increase the influence of Islam.

Some voices in the Brotherhood, which has avoided strong criticism of the council in recent months, are threatening to take to the streets to prevent an election delay.

The Brotherhood is "ready to offer more martyrs in protests" if the elections are put off, official Hassan al-Prince said at a conference in Alexandria on Tuesday night.

(Reporting and writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Andrew Hammond and Peter Graff)

Muslim Brotherhood bloc threatens Egypt vote boycott

2011-09-30T17:30:00.005+03:00

Sep 29, 2011
By Mona Salem, AFP
Source: Yahoo News

CAIRO (AFP) - The credibility of Egypt's first elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak was thrown into question Thursday after a coalition led by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood threatened a boycott.

A statement late Wednesday by the Democratic Coalition said its members would not stand in November's legislative elections if a controversial article in the new electoral law was not amended.

They objected to Article Five of the electoral law, which bans political parties from running in a third of the seats in parliament, which are reserved for independent candidates.

The measure has already been rejected by more than two dozen political parties, who object that it could help return old regime figures to parliament.

"We refuse to take part in elections if Article Five of the electoral law is not cancelled," said the Democratic Coalition statement.

The coalition comprises more than two dozen groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the liberal Wafd party.

Egypt's interim military rulers -- the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces -- announced on Tuesday that the first stage of parliamentary elections would be held on November 28.

But in an amendment to the electoral law, it said two-thirds of parliament would be elected through a party list under the proportional representation system.

The rest would be elected through a simple majority, which only independent candidates would be allowed to contest.

The Democratic Coalition said they were "astonished" at the Supreme Council's position.

They had, it argued, "refused the request of the political forces to elect all members of parliament by the closed, proportional lists system."

Under Article Five, it argued, a third of the seats would be exclusively for "independents and candidates from the old regime."

The Democratic Coalition and many other political parties have already called for a pure proportional representation system.

They also want to see the activation of a law that would ban corrupt politicians from running for office.

Under the old system, hundreds of candidates ran as independents if they did not make it onto Mubarak's National Democratic Party lists, only to join the party after winning seats.

Under Mubarak independents affiliated with his party used patronage or pressure to garner votes, something that the proportional list system would help avoid, the parties say.

Article Five of the new electoral law specifically forbids those elected as independents from joining a parliamentary bloc once elected -- on pain of losing their seats.

The military had promised that it would not conduct the election under a state of emergency, which was widened in scope this month after protesters ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo and clashed with police.

The controversial emergency law -- which has been continuously in place since Islamists assassinated president Anwar Sadat in 1981 -- had been regularly extended under Mubarak's regime.

A military official has told state media the emergency law could stay in place until mid-2012, although the military wanted to end the state of emergency as soon as possible.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she hoped Egypt would lift its emergency law before June 2012, speaking at a press conference in Washington with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr.

She added that Washington supported the steps Egypt has taken toward democratic elections following Mubarak's overthrow in February.

London-based advocacy group Amnesty International, meanwhile, said that based on a video posted online, detainees "are still being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Egypt."

"The uniforms may have been replaced with new ones but the behaviour of the security forces seems to be the same," Amnesty said in a statement.

"The army and security officers in the video must immediately be suspended pending the result of the investigation."

Amnesty said the "deeply disturbing video' appears to show members of the army and security forces beating and electrocuting detainees.

German parliament passes expanded euro fund

2011-09-29T14:23:00.009+03:00

43 mins ago
By MELISSA EDDY - Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund, a major step toward tackling the sprawling debt crisis, in a vote that also helped strengthen Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government.

The measure had been largely expected to pass the lower house of parliament, but a lively debate ahead of the vote reflected how divided Germans remain over their role as Europe's economic power.

Of 611 lawmakers present, 523 voted in favor, while 85 voted against it. Only three lawmakers abstained, meaning that Germany in the future will be guaranteeing loans to the bailout fund, the so-called European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, of up to euro211 billion, rather than euro123 billion so far.

The vote had highlighted tensions in Merkel's center-right coalition that was strained by threats of dissent from many members who balked at the cost of propping up the eurozone's strugglers.

Opposition leaders had said going in that if Merkel's coalition has to rely on their votes, it would be a sign that her strife-prone and increasingly unpopular government is finished.

Yet after a night of intense lobbying, a majority of coalition members — 315 — voted in favor of the measure, enough to have ensured its passage even without opposition support.

"This shows the clear determination of the coalition on this issue," Rainer Bruederle, parliamentary leader of Merkel's junior partner, the Free Democrats, told n-tv broadcaster after the vote. "We have made an important decision for Europe."

Yet Frank Schaeffler, also of the Free Democrats, argued that bailout measures have worsened Greece's economic situation.

"Despite all arguments, the first bailout did not make the situation for Greece better, but worse," Schaeffler said. "Expanding the fund will make the situation even worse."

The lawmakers — under close scrutiny from jittery markets — were voting on European leaders' decision in July to increase the effective lending capacity of the fund to euro440 billion ($595 billion) and give it new powers, such as buying the bonds of shaky countries or lending money to governments before they get into a full-blown crisis.

Though Merkel described the euro ahead of the vote as "our common future" and said approving the beefed-up bailout fund was "of the very, very greatest significance," discussions went deep into the night Wednesday, in an attempt to win over dissenting members of her governing coalition.

On Wednesday, Finland voted in favor of expanding the fund's powers despite earlier threats to pull out of a rescue plan for Greece.

The fund expansion has to be ratified by all 17 eurozone nations to take force.

Germany's upper house of parliament is expected to pass the measure on Friday.

______

Geir Moulson contributed to this story.

Students Forced to Pledge Distance from Political Parties

2011-09-29T14:13:00.005+03:00

2011-09-27

AMMONNEWS - University students receiving 'Makruma' scholarships were asked to sign a pledge not to join memberships of any political parties and not to conduct any political activities on university campuses.

The Higher Coordination Committee of the Jordanian National Opposition Political Parties on Monday blasted the move to force students to sign such pledges, stressing that such a stipulation violates principles of freedom and obstructs the development of democratic and political life.

Students who receive 'Makruma' scholarships allocated for underprivileged areas noted that they were asked to sign a pledge not to participate in political activism inside university campuses.

A statement issued by the Opposition Political Parties' Coordination Committee on Monday cited receiving notice from the 'National Campaign for Students' Rights' noting that Makruma students were asked to sign the pledge.

The Committee requested clarification from Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit during a meeting last Saturday, at which Bakhit noted that he had no knowledge of such a decision.

Journalists to Protest Controversial Article at Senate

2011-09-29T14:09:00.006+03:00

2011-09-28

AMMONNEWS - Journalists and activists will stage a protest Thursday evening before the Upper House of Parliament against the approval of a controversial article in the Anti-Corruption law which they view as curbing press freedoms.

The protest is scheduled to take place at 4 PM in front of the Senate to coincide with the final session to be held in parliament before it adjourns from the extra-ordinary session.

The Senate will convene on Thursday to deliberate on the 2011 Anti-Corruption Law, which was approved by the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday.

Representatives of political, youth, and nationalist movements announced partaking in the protest, in addition to Jordanian professional associations and opposition political parties, in a stance aimed to defend freedom of the press and the media's role in exposing corruption.

Journalists and advocates went in uproar on Tuesday after lawmakers passed the law containing the controversial Article 23, which includes provisions that any person or party that charges another of corruption without providing lawful evidence with the purpose of slander or defamation and character assassination will be subjected to a fine of a minimum of JD 30,000 to a maximum of JD 60,000.

Observers and several MPs who opposed the controversial article blasted that the stipulation aims to 'fortress corruption and corrupt officials,' and contradicts the reform principles publicly propagated by the legislative and executive branches.

Parliament criminalises reporting on corruption

2011-09-29T14:01:00.006+03:00

2011-09-29

AMMONNEWS - The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemned the recent adoption of Article 23 (A draft law for the Authority of Anti-Corruption presented by the executive power) by the Jordanian Parliament, which criminalizes publishing information about corruption with a fine of 30,000 to 60,000 Jordanian Dinars (approx. US$42,000 to US$84,600). The article was approved by 56 members out of the 96 who attended the session, which was held on the morning of 27 September.

Under Article 23, "Whoever unlawfully spreads, publishes, refers or helps in the publication of news by any public means about any person accused of the crimes of corruption which is mentioned in Article 5 of this law and that leads to defamation, impacts on his dignity or targets his personality, will be punished by a fine not less than 30,000 Jordanian Dinars and not more than 60,000 Jordanian Dinars." This means that journalists, bloggers and activists in Jordan will risk prosecution and a steep fine for publishing any news or information about corruption.

ANHRI pointed out that "the adoption of this article by the Parliament is not only considered to be an attack on freedom of expression and gagging of journalists, but is also a violation against the rights of citizens to circulate information on corruption, which must be shared with public opinion as it affects all classes of people directly."

"This oppressive article that was adopted by the Parliament is considered to be an endorsement for corruption in Jordan. It does not provide any benefit to the people in Jordan. On the contrary, it aims to protect some people in power and could provoke suspicions of corruption against them," said ANHRI

"The adoption of this article by the Parliament is shocking, particularly since the main role of the Parliament is to represent the people and express their interests, limit corruption and curb it. This legislative addition makes us wonder because by adopting this article, it went from guarding against corruption to condoning it. The Jordanian authorities must reevaluate the issue of adopting and applying these arbitrary legal restrictions," ANHRI added.

Opposition parties and Activists to protest next Friday

2011-09-29T13:51:00.003+03:00

2011-09-22

AMMONNEWS – different demonstrations and Sit-ins will be stage next Friday in Amman, and other governorates, carrying different slogans.

The Coalition of youth and popular movements for change will hold a protest in front of United Nation’s headquarter to stress the Palestinian right of return, even though Palestinian Authority submitted to the UN membership bid.

Under banner “ right of return is a sacred right” the protest will be held after midday prayer, a statement issued by the coalition on Tuesday.

At the same place another protest will be staged calling for supporting Palestinian Bid to UN to grant international recognition, and UN membership as independent state.

The protest will be organized by ‘ students Unity’, and they call on Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, to keep going on and not to submit to the western pressure about Palestinian bid.

They denounce U.S president, Barak Obama speech in the UN general assembly meeting and his support to Zionist movement.

The Islamic Movement will hold pro-reforms demonstrations in different governorates, including Amman to protest what they called ” injustice and Corruption’’, demanding real and genuine constitutional amendments and compacting corruption .

The sit-in in Amman will be staged in front of Great Nazzal mosque in Nazzal neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the youth movement in Dhiban district Madaba will hold a protest under banner “ It’s over!! Casino lawmakers ”.

They criticized the government and called for dissolving the 16th parliament, a statement says.

March 24th youth movement will stage a protest in front of the Lower House of Parliament building next Saturday.

King Abdullah: Jordan Needs 'Stable Middle Class'

2011-09-28T13:37:00.011+03:00

September 22, 2011
by NPR Staff
Source: www.npr. org

The protests of the Arab Spring have made it a risky time to be a ruler in the Middle East. But King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is among the world leaders at the United Nations this week, also sees opportunities.

"In certain countries, you're going to see revolution after revolution, until it calms down," the king tells Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep. "What we're trying to do in Jordan is [to] do evolution."

In Jordan, street protests have been limited compared with other nations in the region, but they prompted Abdullah, 49, to promise changes in the constitution that will allow his subjects to elect a prime minister and other officials.

During his visit to New York City, the Jordanian monarch spoke about the Arab Spring and the increasing calls for the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state.
Interview Highlights:

On Israel, and Palestinians' Push for Statehood

"The bid by the Palestinians for statehood [as recognized by the U.N.] came out of desperation and frustration, because nothing was happening on the negotiation table. We could see this coming from several months ago. Obviously, certain countries had raised their concerns about the Palestinian bid. Our response has been, 'Well, let's then make an effort to get the Israelis and Palestinians to sit around the table.' That hasn't happened. So we only have ourselves to blame for this crisis."

On Turkey's recent downgrade of relations with Israel, and whether Jordan may follow suit

"We have, as you mention, peace with Israel. We're actually the last man standing. So, there is going to be immense pressure and people asking, 'Why are we having this relationship, when it's not benefiting anybody?' Obviously, my answer is, you always benefit from peace. But ... we have seen no intention from the other side to try and move the process forward ...

"There are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country but across the Middle East: Is Israel going to continue to be 'Fortress Israel' — or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood? Which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony. And no matter what's happening in the Middle East — the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment — the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one."

On the Arab Spring

"What bothers me in a lot of countries is [that] society is being led by the street, as opposed to the light at the end of the tunnel. But we have got to remember that the Arab Spring began — and there's challenges all over the world, including your country — because of economic difficulties: unemployment, poverty. We have the largest youth cohort in history coming into the workforce in the Middle East. And that is how the Arab Spring started. I mean, Tunis started because of the economy, not because of politics.

"What keeps me up at night is poverty and unemployment. We have, in the past 10 years, managed to establish a credible middle class. But any shifts in oil prices, economic challenges, that middle class becomes very fragile. ... You really need a strong, stable middle class."

On the role of the king today

"My job is to put food on the table for people. And what I meant by that is, basically, creating a middle class, knowing full well — and looking again at the European model, the United States in particular, also — the stronger you have a middle class, the easier I think political transformation happens.

"So it's a two-edged sword: The more I support with my economic plans the building of the middle class, the quicker they're going to turn around and say, 'Hey, we want a bigger say in things.' So, I knew what I was getting into right at the beginning. It's the right thing to do. This is bigger than Jordan. We want to be an example for the rest of the Arab world. Because there are a lot of people who say that the only democracy you can have in the Middle East is the Muslim Brotherhood. And I don't think that's the case."

On the future of Jordan's monarchy

"The monarchy that I hand over to my son is not going to be the same one that I have inherited. ... There is a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king. And it's about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people. Because today, if you're appointed by the king, they don't feel that they're responsible for the people. If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work — because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open."

On holding elections in Jordan

"We're announcing municipal elections at the end of the year, and national elections at the beginning of next year. The challenge that we have — and this brings concerns, but also excitement — is trying to get a democratic mentality. For all the town-hall meetings that I have ... there's one question I now ask on purpose, because the first couple times I asked it, the answer surprised me. I say, 'Where do you stand on health, education, taxes, services, et cetera?' — and 99 percent, I get blank looks."

On Jordan's political climate

"As an American colleague said to me several months ago, he said, 'I think the challenge in Jordan' — again, this is for the rest of the Middle East — 'we need to define what "center" is. Once we can define what "center" is to a Jordanian, then we can decide what's left and what's right of that.' ... That takes time, for people to look along those lines."

On the future of the Arab Spring

"No expert in the world now can predict what's going to happen in the Middle East. Things are happening too quickly, and the area is changing so rapidly that we really don't know. ... A very senior European politician said that when they saw the Israeli Embassy in Cairo being attacked, that was like taking a bucket of cold water and pouring it over a lot of heads of states' heads in the West. So, there is concern of where is this Arab Spring leading to in many countries. But the only way that we can help is all of us pitch in and try to support those countries go through these tough times."

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, host: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: And I'm Steve Inskeep.

The man we'll hear from next has a very personal stake in dramatic events across the Middle East. King Abdullah of Jordan is one of many Arab rulers facing protests this year. He has responded by promising his people greater democracy over time.

GREENE: But that's not his only challenge. Abdullah's nation is a neighbor of Israel and it's also home to millions of Palestinians. So he's directly affected by this week's meetings at the United Nations, where Palestinians plan to make a bid for statehood.

King ABDULLAH: I think everybody is being backed into a corner. So we're working desperately to find a mechanism that is acceptable to all sides. So there's been a lot of late-night meetings between Palestinians, the Israelis, the Americans, et cetera.

INSKEEP: King Abdullah was talking at a New York hotel, sitting beside a table decorated with a photo of his family. He's 49 years old with a brisk walk. He wears a Western-style suit. His government, unlike most in the Arab world, maintains diplomatic ties with Israel. But now the king says something must happen within days to push Israel toward a settlement with Palestinians.

Given the state of negotiations, is it acceptable to you to walk away from this U.N. meeting this week, with something less than recognition of Palestinian statehood?

King ABDULLAH: Well, the bid by the Palestinians for statehood came out of desperation and frustration, because nothing was happening on the negotiating table. And we could see this coming from several months ago. And obviously, certain countries had raised their concerns about the Palestinian bid. Our response has been, well, let's then make an effort to get the Israelis and Palestinians to sit around the table. That hasn't happened. So we only have ourselves to blame for this crisis.

Having said that, I have to commend the role of the European Union, trying to find a mechanism that pleases everybody. We've had - every six hours it seems to change. So I think until the last minute, which is Friday when the Palestinians make the decision, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations to find something that's acceptable for everybody.

INSKEEP: Meaning something short of statehood that pushes a vote on statehood down the road, but gets negotiations started with...

King ABDULLAH: Well, I think what the Europeans are looking at is asking for statehood in a way that then there is a technical process that gives some time to allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table and re-launch negotiations on final status issues.

INSKEEP: As you know, King Abdullah, Turkey has downgraded the state of its relations with Israel. Your country, we'll remind people, has relations with Israel.

King ABDULLAH: Yes.

INSKEEP: Have you considered downgrading your relations with Israel?

King ABDULLAH: No. But, you know, it's funny that you should mention this issue, because again, if we have a very negative impact coming out of the United Nations, in other words, that the Palestinians are really shorthanded on this issue. You saw recently what happened in Egypt with the attack on the Israeli Embassy. Turkey downgrading its relationship, Egypt having a problem with Israel. We have, as you mentioned, peace with Israel. We're actually the last man standing.

So there is going to be immense pressure. And people asking, why are we having this relationship when it's not benefitting anybody?

INSKEEP: You're saying you could be forced to take steps against Israel.

King ABDULLAH: I'm not a person that is forced. But having said that, there are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country but across the Middle East. Is Israel going to continue to be Fortress Israel? Or, as we all hope, you know, become accepted into the neighborhood? Which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony.

And no matter what's happening in the Middle East - the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment - the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.

INSKEEP: I'm glad you mentioned the Arab Spring. What is it like to be a king of an Arab state at a time of a revolution like this?

King ABDULLAH: Well, actually quite exciting. I think that, you know, we have been trying to push reform. There has been a lot of pushback by the more conservative elements. And what the Arab Spring or the Arab Awakening did was bringing the subject front and center. As a result, in Jordan we've created a national dialogue committee. We went on outreach with everybody. We're announcing municipal elections at the end of the year, and national elections beginning of next year.

INSKEEP: Given the realities in other countries, how do you keep a lid on - if that's the appropriate way to put it? How do you avoid an explosion for a year here?

King ABDULLAH: Well, again, you know, what's happening today, now - as long a people are - benchmark understand what needs to be done. I think the challenge that I have is managing people's expectations. Even if we have parliamentary elections in 2012, you're not going to have those new political parties. So we can have a new parliament next year. But until we get right, left and center, there's going to be a delay for that. That's the challenge.

INSKEEP: When you talk about left, right and center, you're basically talking about laying out a democratic political landscape in your country...

King ABDULLAH: Exactly...

INSKEEP: ...what do people stand for and what do they believe.

King ABDULLAH: In short terms, I announced last year - I mean the beginning of this year, and I've been speaking to everybody, saying, look, my vision of Jordan is two to five political parties, representing left, right and center, as quickly as possible.

INSKEEP: Does it bother you that one of the implied and often explicit messages of these protests across the Arab world, is that, if I may say, people like you should have less power or perhaps no power?

King ABDULLAH: No, it - you know, it depends if you have an ego issue, which I - particularly it's not a problem of mine. And since I've been pushing this from the start, I mean, the first interview I ever had after my father passed away, said, you know, my job is to put food on the table for people. And what I meant by that is basically creating a middle class, knowing full well the stronger you have a middle class, the easier I think political transformation happens.

So it's a two-edged sword, the more I support, with my economic plans, the building of a middle class, the quicker they're going turn around and say, hey, we want a bigger say in things. So I knew what I was getting into right at the beginning. It's the right thing to do. This is bigger than Jordan. We want to be an example for the rest of the Arab world. Because there are a lot of people who say that the only democracy you can have in the Middle East is the Muslim Brotherhood. And I don't think that's the case. I think if a monarchy, as you said, can show a new democratic platform, then I think we'll be a symbol for other countries.

INSKEEP: Do you expect there to be a monarchy that you would pass on to your heir, and if so what power would remain to the king?

King ABDULLAH: Well, we're obviously going through some tremendous changes today. I think we've said this in interviews before over the past 10 years, that the monarchy that I hand over to my son is not going to be the same one that I've inherited. There's a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king and it's about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people.

INSKEEP: What troubles you most about the protests of this year?

King ABDULLAH: Well, what bothers me in a lot of countries is, you know, society is being led by the street, as opposed to a light at the end of the tunnel. But we've got to remember that the Arab Spring began - and there's challenges all over the world, including your country, because of economic difficulties: unemployment, poverty, we have the largest youth cohort in history coming into the workforce in the Middle East - and that is how the Arab Spring started. I mean, Tunis started because of economy, not because of politics.

What keeps me up at night is poverty and unemployment. We have, in the past 10 years, managed to establish a credible middle class. But any shifts in oil prices, economic challenges - that middle class becomes very fragile.

INSKEEP: Are you also worried about who ends up ruling Arab countries?

King ABDULLAH: Well, you know, you have to always hope, in humanity, that the people will make the right choices. I think that when your stomach is full and you're secure, you can make better choices. And I think that's what we're trying to do in Jordan. But we are looking around our part of the world. There's lot of instability. I mean we miss, sorely, the strong role that Egypt played regionally. It's a regional powerhouse.

And today, with all the internal problems, unfortunately, they're not going to be on the scene for several years until this all settles. And I'm sad to see that, because we desperately need a strong, stable Egypt.

INSKEEP: And then there's Syria, your neighbor. What worries you most about the protests against Bashar al-Assad, the leader there?

King ABDULLAH: Well, from what I can see, I don't see much changes in the immediate future, which means that demonstrations will continue for quite a while. You know, there's nobody - no expert in the world now, can predict what's going to happen in the Middle East. Things are happening too quickly, and the area is changing so rapidly that we really don't know.

INSKEEP: King Abdullah, thanks very much.

King ABDULLAH: Thank you, sir.

INSKEEP: He is Abdullah II of Jordan, the namesake of his great grandfather, Jordan's first king in the years after World War I. He spoke with us in New York where meetings continue at and around the United Nations this week.

You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

Two Words You Should Never Utter to Your Doctor

2011-09-27T12:51:00.008+03:00

September 24 2011
By Dr. Mercola

You may recognize Jim Navarro from the documentary film Cut Poison Burn, which I recently posted. You can watch the entire film for free. If you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to take the time to view it now.

Jim is the father of Thomas Navarro, who at the age of four was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer. The family ended up in a protracted battle against the medical monopoly after objecting to the conventional treatment, choosing instead to seek out less invasive, less damaging, and less life threatening approaches. However, the medical system's response was swift and callous.

In fact, in the months that followed Thomas' diagnosis, the family went into hiding to keep their son away from the authorities who threatened to take him into custody, charging Jim and Donna Navarro with child abuse and neglect.

The Navarro's wanted to use Dr. Burzynski's non-toxic, highly successful antineoplaston treatment instead of conventional chemotherapy and radiation. However, the FDA went to great lengths to prevent Thomas from receiving the therapy, and only after extensive legal wrangling, great expense, and being forced to submit to conventional treatment first did the family finally receive approval to use Dr. Burzynski. Unfortunately, at that point it was too late. The damage from the chemo was too great, and he lost his battle with cancer at the tender age of six. His death certificate states the cause of death as:

Respiratory failure due to chronic toxicity of chemotherapy.

Since the death of his son, Jim Navarro has been championing a patient's rights act to prevent this tragic injustice from occurring again.

Did You Know: As a Parent, You Don't have the Right to Choose Treatment for Your Child?

Chemotherapy is a cytotoxic poison, and radiation is devastating to the human body, particularly to young children who are still developing. Jim's wife, a military combat medic, began doing research in an effort to find some other alternative that would keep their son alive. Jim soon delved into research as well. He learned of Dr. Burzynski while scouring chat rooms and forums on the internet.

"My focus was on the fact that they said there are no known survivors [of medulloblastoma]," he says. "The first thing I Googled was 'survivors of medulloblastoma.' As I found these chat rooms, the common denominator was always a mention of a Dr. Burzynski...

I called, and the very first thing they told me was, "I'm sorry but you can't bring your son here." I was like, "What?" They said, "You don't understand. The FDA won't allow us to treat him. According to the protocols, he has to first go through radiation and chemo and fail, and have recurrent tumors. Until then, he can't qualify."

It took 18 months of legal wrangling with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to get Thomas approved for treatment by Dr. Burzynski. By then he had already had his second brain surgery, and had already been forced to undergo chemotherapy, and had already suffered recurring tumors—likely induced by the chemotherapy itself. After all that, he finally fulfilled all the requirements to be allowed to try Dr. Burzynski's treatment—a treatment, which by the way, has a success rate that far surpasses chemo and radiation...

"What people don't know is once he began the antineoplaston therapy with Burzynski, before dying, it not only extended his life another seven months but he also had a 33 percent reduction of tumors," Navarro says. "A father's hope is, had he not been polluted and poisoned with chemotherapy, had we not been stopped, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would be alive today."

Who Decides What's Best and Right for You or Your Child?

This kind of perversion of justice poses as the best care available. And there are four primary organizations that are responsible for this travesty: the FDA, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the child services system. These are the white-collar bureaucrats making life and death decisions about people they've never met or cared for in a medical capacity. Their primary objective is to protect the profits of Big Pharma and the cancer industry itself.

Navarro describes the Child Protective Services (CPS) as "the thugs of the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies, and the FDA," and it's easy to see why, when you hear his story.

"When we began, we were completely uncomfortable with everything and we wanted a second opinion. The minute those words are heard: 'second opinion,' CPS is brought into it," he explains. "You're charged with child abuse and medical neglect automatically. The charges go up from there depending on your level of resistance. They will kick in your door; come in armed. They will attempt to kidnap your child, which we had gone through several times with Thomas. By any means necessary they will get your child.

It didn't used to be that way. Doctors sadly have gotten to the point where they don't even threaten you with CPS, they just contact them when you don't know about it.

... Donna and I had a hearing on the first [CPS] case, because there were actually two; one in Arizona and one in Texas, and I said, "Child abuse? I don't think so. Medical neglect? I don't think so. I am spending approximately $12,000 to $15,000 a month on my son's well being. I have him continually checked by doctors and nurses. He's got a health regimen, which includes a change of diet, vitamins, supplements. I'm doing all the right things, plus I have a wife that is by profession a caregiver. She spent many years in the emergency room, ER and trauma. I've got a sense that she knows what she's doing.

... [T]he first thing they try to do is make you feel guilty when you don't comply... [T]hey also hold control over whether or not you get to stay at Ronald McDonald House, or you get your wish from Make-A-Wish..."

And You Thought Your Donations Went to ANY Sick Child in Need...

This may surprise some of you who dutifully donate money to charitable organizations like the Ronald McDonald House and the Make a Wish Foundation. These organizations do not use that money to provide services to just any sick child who might want or need it. Their services are to a large extent exclusive to patients who participate in the conventional system of standard care.

"[W]e initially were not allowed to check in at the Ronald McDonald House," Navarro says. "Why not?... "[B]ecause his doctor in Arizona withdrew his recommendation and without the doctor's recommendation you can't come here." ... So everyone is giving to this place, for children with cancer to stay, and now you're telling me because [the doctor] said no, there's a difference between him sick then and sick today?"

The doctor also pulled his recommendation for Thomas' application with the Make-A-Wish foundation. They got the call that it had been retracted on the day Thomas was scheduled to actually receive his wish.

"The attitude is, "Unless I have your child; unless I get to treat him, he's not sick. It's like the FDA... In the eyes of the FDA...He doesn't have cancer. Why doesn't he have cancer? "Because you're not doing our treatment and until he does our treatment we will not deem him sick."

The Navarros filed six appeals to the FDA after the initial paperwork to do a compassionate exemption, but the agency rejected all of them.

"The FDA plays God and tells you when you're sick, because they're not going to say you have cancer until they have guaranteed you have it, with no recovery through Cut Poison and Burn. I see that as a crime against humanity," Navarro says.

Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Rules Cancer Industry. Who Pays?

Unfortunately, the patients do—usually both with their life and everything they own. Part of the system that creates corruption and conflict of interest is that a large portion of the FDA's income is generated through fees paid by the drug companies. And there's probably no other disease that has a higher profit level than cancer treatments. Navarro tells the story of meeting a member of Congress who warned him to back off, saying:

"Son, you can't go up there. You're going to cost a lot of people a lot of money; put a lot of people out of work, and they're just not going to take kindly to that. We've been receiving death threats in the night—you'll never live to see him treated. Back off."

He didn't then and he still won't "back off." ... But threats aside, the financial price has been just as devastating as any emotional and psychological price the Navarro's have paid for being unwilling participants in the current system. Thomas' disease and subsequent forced treatments resulted in what Navarro calls "a financial tsunami."

"We were living a very normal average life. The refrigerator was always full. Two cars in the driveway. The cost of keeping Thomas alive for those 26 and a half months was about 1.6 million dollars... The chemotherapy in those little bags is $43,000 a bag... They prescribed 10," Navarro says. "That doesn't include the doctor, the nurses, the anesthesiologist, the pharmacist, the room, the meal... He left us an additional $550,000+ in debt... I'm approaching 60 and no one would hire me because I hadn't worked in 2-1/2 years. We didn't have a home. The same with Donna... You have to start all over. The college funds went... Everything went...

[W]hen Thomas died, it left us with a four-year-old son, $4, and we lived in our van. We were homeless."

Not only that. With just four dollars in their pocket, they also couldn't afford to give Thomas a proper burial. He would have gone into an unmarked county grave had it not been for a man named James Earthman, co-owner of Earthman Funeral Homes. The Navarro's case had gotten a lot of media attention, and the funeral home graciously donated the entire funeral, including casket, flowers, gravestone and services.

It's hard to fathom a medical system that threatens you and abuses you, and forces you to undergo toxic medical treatments against your will, while raking in massive amounts of money for these forced treatments; bankrupting you to the point you can't even afford a simple funeral once the toxic treatments fail—which they usually do.

But what about their insurance, you may ask. Didn't they have any? Yes, they did, but as so many other Americans have come to find out, medical expenses incurred by families WITH insurance is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US.

"They have a cap on cancer," Navarro explains. "I didn't know that. They capped everything, which isn't a lot because again they're in bed with each other; insurance, pharmaceutical. I won't get started on that because that makes my blood boil but a lot of it was on us after the cap was reached..."

Having the Freedom to Choose Just Might Save Your Life

In a somewhat ironic twist, when an acquaintance, also named Thomas, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he asked Jim for advice. He ended up going to Dr. Nick Gonzales in New York—another alternative cancer treatment center that I've written about this past spring that uses a three-pronged nutritional approach. Pancreatic cancer is typically terminal within months, and Thomas had been given about 60 days to live. At the time of this interview, Thomas is still alive, nine months after starting his treatment.

"I want people to understand they have been lied to for a very long time, and that they don't need to ask for options. They need to demand them," Navarro says when asked about what message he wants people to take home from the film.

"They work for us. We don't work for them. I come to you and I'm sick; you work for me. I'm not your employee going, "Well doctor, can I get well now?" That's what is topsy-turvy all the way up to government. We keep forgetting who's the boss in that scenario. ... I want them to get out there and say, "Stop. No more. You will not poison my family. You will not poison my kids and you will be held accountable. You will provide that which will preserve life instead of destroy life."

Thomas' death is shocking in that it wasn't necessary. If the FDA and the oncologists had simply given them the opportunity to exercise freedom of choice to seek whatever therapy they thought appropriate, he may still be alive, and the Navarro's might not be financially ruined either, as alternative treatments typically end up costing a fraction of their conventional counterparts.

"The horror to us was that in the United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave, you have no legal right as a parent to select the doctors or the treatment for your child," Navarro says.

The Death-Knell...

The Navarro's were actually able to administer an alternative remedy that seemed to work prior to Thomas being prescribed chemo. It was a concoction made by a Tibetan doctor.

"A lot of people don't understand that in Tibet they practice medicine for 30 years before they are allowed to have a real patient. After his MRIs, after his surgery, Thomas had 11 inoperable tumors in his head, neck, and spine. They [the Tibetan doctor] gave him what they refer to as "the jewel." It looked like a jaw breaker. They ground it up until it was just like dust and then you brew and steep it as a tea... He had one cup a day. It took 10 weeks... no more tumors, no cancer. It was gone! Done!

The hospital freaked out. Who are these guys? What are they doing? And that's when they went after the chemo. "Sorry, hospital policy. Got to have the chemo, 10 cycles, blah, blah, blah." There wasn't going to be a chance to get in there with something that worked. They had to make bloody sure that they dispatched it."

In the end, it was the chemo that killed Thomas NOT his brain cancer...

Support the Navarro's and Other Cancer Patients by Buying the Film

The film, Cut Poison Burn, is available to view for free. However, if you want to help the Navarro's pay off Thomas' medical bills, I urge you to purchase a copy of the film. The film is being sold on a 'value-priced' basis, meaning you can download a copy of the film for $1.99 and up, depending on how much you're willing to pay. You can also purchase a DVD copy for $9.99.

A percentage of the proceeds from the film will go to cancer organizations that donate 100 percent of their proceeds to families fighting cancer—not the American Cancer Society. Jim and Donna Navarro are also currently working on creating a Texas-based organization called Cancer Busters.

"The good news is we're almost done... The bad news: We don't make anything. In fact, if we have a mailer or a flier or need stamps, it's coming out of your pocket... [I]f you thought it was a job; it's not. It's all about helping," he says.

I'm also making the DVD available on my site. Of these proceeds, 80 percent will go to the producers and Jim Navarro's family. I'm giving the remaining 20 percent to the Grassroots Health's Breast Cancer Prevention Project. All monies donated to them from the sale of Cut Poison Burn will be used to enroll women 60 and over in a project aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of vitamin D in breast cancer prevention. More information about this project can be found at here.

What Else Can You Do?

So, what can you do to address this kind of medical injustice and stop it from happening to you or someone you love? Navarro suggests:

"First of all on a local level, become familiar with your representatives. You need to become familiar with their voting record, and if they really want to help, to be honest, buy their representative a copy of the DVD and give it to them as a gift saying, "This is my concern. Tell me as my representative you won't let this happen to me." And then they need to educate themselves.

... They can form groups and get together once a month, one every two months and talk. What are our needs in our community? What are the laws in our community?"

Local action works as Utah was actually able to get legislation passed to prevent the abuses of Child Protection Service Agencies to cause the type of harm they did in this case. For more ideas of how you can help promote much-needed change, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript. There's much more to this story than can be included in this summary.

Navarro is still working on legislation to protect patients' rights.

"The original bill, which was the Thomas Navarro Patient Rights Act is actually being matured," he explains. "It's gone from 3-1/2 pages; we're now at 14 pages and counting. We're going to be reintroducing it, Lord willing before this session is over, and it's an expanded version. The beginning starts with the original premise of the 3-1/2 pages but now we're kind of forcing everyone to get into lock-step 2 – that insurance can't discriminate and so on and so forth.

... It's already been in two [Congressional] sessions and again, I hate to say it, it is a left-right issue. It's not an up and down issue like most everything else we have. Henry Waxman killed it the first time. Kennedy killed it in the senate. We're doing it all over again. The difference now is people, generally, are so angry with government whether it's left or right, that it's back to up and down, good thing/bad thing."

... There is a web in there... [But] I'm not afraid. Until I draw my last breath, I'll keep fighting for whoever needs help... And the battle starts all again when we go back and reintroduce the bill. I encourage people get busy, get educated and start with your local government."

Source: Video Transcript
Related Links:
Cancer Breakthrough: 50-60% Success Rate, Cures the Incurable
Burzynski, the Movie
The Cancer Treatment So Successful - Traditional Doctors SHUT it Down

Good News Dentistry for Reversing Dental Decay

2011-09-27T12:42:00.008+03:00

September 24 2011
By Dr. Mercola

Most people regard a cavity, or even a root canal, as a minor inconvenience. But if your tooth has begun to decay to the point that a cavity is evident, this is a major sign that disease-causing bacteria has begun to overpower your immune system and your body.

In fact, your teeth are constantly under attack from the foods you eat, the beverages you drink and bacteria, so much so that your body constantly works at repairing small amounts of damage to the enamel of your teeth. If you're healthy, this should be enough to prevent cavities from forming, but if the bacteria overwhelm your system, dental decay can result.

Specifically, cavities form on your teeth when the acid-producing bacteria in plaque dissolve the mineral in your teeth. While microscopic at first, the cavities can increase in size and number until the decay must be drilled out and repaired with a filling or crown, a root canal performed, or the tooth removed. But now researchers have developed a paste that may actually stop and even reverse this dental decay process, helping your body to rebuild your teeth from the inside out.

Is This the End of the Dentist's Drill?

Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a peptide-based fluid known as P 11-4. When applied to a decayed tooth, P 11-4 forms a gel-like scaffold that attracts calcium to help rebuild your tooth. As the University of Leeds reported in a press release:

"In practice, this means that when applied to the tooth, the fluid seeps into the micro-pores caused by acid attack and then spontaneously forms a gel. This gel then provides a 'scaffold' or framework that attracts calcium and regenerates the tooth's mineral from within, providing a natural and pain-free repair."

When the fluid was tested on a small group of adults with early tooth decay, results showed P 11-4 successfully reversed the damage and regenerated tooth tissue. This is the latest data from what appears to be a promising new dental strategy. Similarly, in 2008 scientists were also able to rebuild dentin and remineralize some parts of the teeth with the help of a calcium-containing solution of ions.

Regenerating your tooth from within is a far superior option to the "drill-and-fill" model currently used today, and it appears to be a technique that may soon be widely available in dentists' offices. Aside from the obvious benefit of tooth regeneration while sparing people the pain and fear of having a tooth drilled, this new procedure could virtually obliterate the use of toxic mercury fillings (if our efforts don't get them banned first!) …

If You Have a Cavity, Resist This Archaic Dental Procedure

The very process of "filling and drilling" a cavity is a rather outdated practice, but so far there has been no other practical solution to remove the damaged areas of a tooth and "repair" it. But, adding insult to injury, about 50 percent of U.S. dentists are still using mercury to fill cavity-ridden teeth -- even though exposure to mercury, the most toxic and more vaporous of the heavy metals, can harm your kidneys, permanently damage your child's developing neurological system, and even kill your unborn child in the womb!

To implant amalgam, a dentist drills out healthy tooth matter in order to carve the crater necessary for amalgam placement -- a primitive process that irreversibly weakens tooth structure. With a damaged tooth structure and with a metal-based filling that expands and contracts with temperature changes, teeth with amalgam are much more likely to crack years later, necessitating additional dental work.

Amalgams are quick and easy. Dentists make more money per chair per day implanting mercury. For factory-style dentistry, where teeth represent dollar signs instead of part of a human being, dentists drill, fill, and bill. The term "drill, fill, and bill" is a joke aspiring dentists learn in dental school. But when it comes to mercury - it's no joke. Please realize that mercury vapor from amalgams passes readily through your cell membranes, across the blood-brain barrier, and into your central nervous system, where it can cause psychological, neurological, and immunological problems.

Yet, even though it may be a few years before P 11-4 and other tooth-regenerating fluids are widely available, there are solid alternatives to mercury fillings available right now. One of the most popular is resin composite, which is made of a type of plastic reinforced with powdered glass. Unlike amalgam, resin composite does not require the removal of significant amounts of healthy tooth matter. Over the long term, composite preserves healthy tooth structure and actually strengthens teeth, leading to better oral health and less extensive dental work over the long-term.

A lesser-known alternative is atraumatic restorative treatment (also called alternative restorative treatment or ART), which relies on adhesive materials for the filling (instead of mercury) and uses only hand instruments to place the filling, making it particularly well-suited for rural areas of developing countries.

Preventing Cavities 101: The Secret to Healthy Teeth

Tooth regeneration is certainly a step up from using toxic substances like mercury to fill your teeth. But do you know what's even better than tooth regeneration? Protecting your teeth and preventing cavities in the first place.

When it comes to oral hygiene and preventing cavities, there's a virtual war going on. If you listen to conventional health agencies' and your dentist's advice, you may still believe that fluoride is the answer.

Think again!

The only way you can believe this misguided advice is if you completely ignore the science. Good oral health and strong, healthy teeth are NOT the result of drinking fluoridated water and brushing your teeth with fluoridated toothpaste. Rather it's all about your diet.

Dr. Weston A. Price, who was one of the major nutritional pioneers of all time, completed some of the most incredible research on this topic back in the 1900s, and it is still very much relevant today. What he found, and documented in his classic book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, is that native tribes who were eating their traditional diet had nearly perfect teeth, and were almost 100 percent free of tooth decay -- and they did not have toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, or root canals and fillings.

But when these tribal populations were introduced to sugar and white flour, guess what happened … their health, and their perfect teeth, rapidly deteriorated. By avoiding sugars and processed foods, you prevent the proliferation of the bacteria that cause decay in the first place.

Most people whose diet includes very little sugar and few processed foods have very low rates of tooth decay. So the simple act of limiting, or eliminating sugar, and avoiding processed foods -- along with regular cleanings with your natural mercury-free dentist -- will ensure that your teeth and gums stay healthy and cavity-free naturally.

Source: Popular Science August 24, 2011
Source: Mother Nature Network August 24, 2011

How 1 MILLION Pounds Of Organic Food Can Be Produced On 3 Acres.

2011-09-27T12:36:00.008+03:00

Source: Wake Up World

UPDATE 26th July 2011 -The response we have received from this short story is amazing, but created many questions from subscribers who needed further information. We have since looked into this and are happy to share with you detailed information on this amazing organisation called Growing Power. It would appear that there are many subscribers of Wake Up World who have been tasked with a similar project in their local community (though perhaps not on this scale) and we trust that the new article will be of use to those who required further details.

Original Story

I came across this video of a man who has figured out a system to grow 1 million pounds of food on 3 acres each and every year. How are they doing this?

* By producing 10,000 fish

* Using 300 to 500 yards of worm compost

* By utilizing vertical space

* Having 3 acres of land in green houses

* Using 1 simple aquaponic pump

* Food is grown all year by using heat from the compost piles

A packed greenhouse produces a crop value of $5 Square Foot! ($200,000/acre).

Can you imagine if places like this started popping up all over the world? It would be one giant step towards self-reliance. Food self-sufficiency is a major step towards being sovereign. If you are not able to start your own garden, consider finding a community garden or hooking up with a small local farm.

Pakistani commanders meet after US criticism

2011-09-27T12:10:00.008+03:00

September 25, 2011 — ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's army chief convened a special meeting of senior commanders Sunday following U.S. allegations that the military's spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.

The government also summoned home the country's foreign minister early from a trip to the United States to attend a meeting of all major political parties to discuss the American allegations of support for the militant Haqqani network.

Senior Pakistani officials have lashed out against the allegations, accusing the U.S. of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its troubled war in Afghanistan. The public confrontation has plunged the already troubled U.S.-Pakistan alliance to new lows.

Pakistan's leaders have shown no indication they plan to act on renewed American demands to attack the Haqqani network in its main base in Pakistan, even at the risk of further conflict with Washington, which has given the country billions in aid.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action to defend U.S. troops if Pakistan's spy agency continues supporting militants who are attacking American forces.

Unilateral U.S. raids into Pakistan could have explosive implications in a country where anti-American sentiment is widespread. Pakistanis were outraged by the covert U.S. commando raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad in May. The U.S. did not tell the Pakistani government about the operation beforehand for fear bin Laden would be tipped off.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik warned the U.S. on Sunday against sending troops into Pakistan. "Any aggression will not be tolerated," Malik told reporters in Islamabad. "The nation is standing united behind the armed forces, which is the front line of Pakistan's defense."

The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, last week accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting Haqqani insurgents in planning and executing a 22-hour assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan on Sept. 13 as well as a truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, widely considered the most powerful man in Pakistan, has dismissed the allegations, saying they were baseless and part of a public "blame game" detrimental to peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Kayani presided over Sunday's commanders meeting but would not provide detail on the discussions. Later in the day, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office issued a statement saying Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was summoned back to attend a meeting of all major political parties on "threats emanating from outside the country."

Pakistan claimed to have severed its ties with Afghan militants after the 9/11 attacks and supported America's campaign in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have long suspected it maintained links. The comments by Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were the most serious yet accusing Pakistan of militant ties, although he didn't cite any specific evidence.

Despite the seriousness of the U.S. claims, which appear to accuse Pakistan of state-sponsored terrorism, Mullen and other U.S. officials have said Washington needs to keep engaging with Islamabad, a reflection of its limited options in dealing with the country.

Around half of the U.S. war supplies to Afghanistan are trucked over Pakistani soil, and even as it accuses Islamabad of complicity with Afghan insurgents, Washington knows that it will likely need Islamabad's cooperation in bringing them to the negotiating table. Washington is also concerned about the danger of further instability in the nuclear-armed state.

The head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. James Mattis, called for continued cooperation after a meeting with Kayani in Islamabad. In a statement issued Sunday by the U.S. Embassy, Mattis emphasized "the need for persistent engagement among the militaries of the U.S., Pakistan and other states in the region."

Afghan officials have also accused Pakistan of stoking instability in Afghanistan. The Afghan Defense Ministry accused the Pakistani arm Sunday of firing more than 300 artillery and rockets into the country's northeast during the past five days.

The provinces of Kunar and Nuristan are a haven for hardcore insurgent groups fighting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and have relatively few Afghan or foreign forces. Pakistan has complained that militants from the area have staged repeated cross-border attacks that have killed Pakistani security forces and civilians.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said he had asked security officials in the northwest about the Afghan allegations and was waiting for a reply. He said those officials were surprised by the accusations since no activity had been reported in the area.

"I assume this is not correct news," said Abbas, referring to the Afghan allegations.

Source:www.mail.com

Egypt's democratic transition lags amid confusion

2011-09-20T18:11:00.008+03:00

Sep 20, 2011
By Samer al-Atrush, AFP
Source:Yahoo News

CAIRO (AFP) - It took 18 days of democracy protests to end Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's 30 years in power. It may yet take at least 18 months after his overthrow to see off the generals who succeeded him.

The military, in charge since Mubarak was toppled in February, has said it will not hand over power until presidential elections are held. According to a timeline announced this week, that may not happen until August 2012.

The head of the electoral commission said this week a three-stage parliamentary election will start on November 21 and end on January 3. A senate election will begin on January 22 and end on March 4.

The military had said that, after the election, a panel will create a constitution to replace Mubarak's, which was suspended after his ouster. It has six months to finish its work and then Egypt will vote for a new president.

Back in February, perhaps only a few of the hundreds of thousands who braved riot police and regime thugs to demand democracy would have imagined that Mubarak's end would usher in prolonged martial rule.

A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the military, which is headed by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, is not to blame for the delays.

"There were many demands to delay the elections," he said. "And there is lack of stability in security."

The country suffers from sporadic unrest -- such as deadly clashes between protesters and police this month after activists stormed the Israeli embassy -- and the police have yet to recover from the February revolt.

The military official said a decision this month to split the parliamentary and senate elections, which will prolong the transition, was made at judges' requests because they would not have the manpower to monitor simultaneous elections.

The transition so far has been beset by tangle of confused demands from a plethora of activist groups and political parties and sometimes equally confused responses by the military and the caretaker cabinet it appointed.

Protesters who helped topple Mubarak now demonstrate against military rule, merely switching Mubarak with Tantawi in their chants. One of their main demands is an end to the military trials of thousands of civilians after Mubarak's ouster.

Yet many secular groups want a delay in parliamentary elections, fearing their well-organised and financed Islamist rivals would snap up the seats.

"There are conflicting demands, and that is the result of the weakness of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet," said Nabil Abdel Fatah, an analyst with the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

"It is the result of the absence of a clear roadmap for transition," he said.

An agreement on a transitional plan has so far eluded the political players. The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best organised movement, insists on quick parliamentary elections.

The Brotherhood, and other Islamist groups, also organised in July a massive rally in Cairo to protest demands by secular groups for a declaration of constitutional principles before elections.

The government has said it is working on drafting such principles, although a senior Brotherhood official insisted to AFP that, privately, the cabinet has assured them it was not.

Such a declaration, Abdel Fattah said, could allow for the election of a president, who would take over from the military, before a parliamentary election.

The Brotherhood says it is not running a candidate for the presidential election, but it will contest up to half of parliament.

#OccupyWallStreet: Searching for Hope in America

2011-09-20T17:56:00.018+03:00

September 20, 2011
by Allison Kilkenny
Source: Common Dreams

Adbusters, the non-profit, anti-consumerist organization, made the first call for an occupation of Wall Street back in July when they posted an article on their website titled, “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET.” The rallying cry proposed a massive occupation of Wall Street – some 20,000 individuals – a “fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain.” The group declared: “It’s time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY."

Adbusters latched on to the idea of an American Tahrir, also adopting the concept of new media protest at the genesis of the movement, even opting to include Twitter’s now famous hashtag in its branding campaign.

Two months later, the protest came to fruition. A hallmark of leftist activism is the amalgam of diverse movements present at protests. Alexa O’Brien, a spokesperson for US Day of Rage, one of the groups participating in the protest, says they are focused on reinforcing the first amendment: the rights to peaceably assemble and to free speech on public sidewalks.

Other protesters carried signs in solidarity with Troy Davis, while another group, The Platypus Affiliated Society, explained it’s an educational group focused on problems and tasks inherited from the old Left. But all parties agreed that Wall Street, and particularly the class divide, are bad for America.

“Corporate greed is bankrupting America,” says Chris Priest, a representative from US Uncut. “Wall Street is the pinnacle of corporate greed that bankrupted the country, and is imposing severe cuts on the middle- and working-class. They’ve seen no consequence for the financial depression they caused.”

A protester named Larry says that he joined the movement to protest the pitiful conditions of workers, particularly black and Hispanic employees. He fears the budget cutbacks will disproportionately affect the poor majority. “Wall Street makes its money off of exploitation,” he says. “We’ve sacrificed enough. That’s how they’ve got their billions.”

Spurring a Tahrir or Spanish revolution was an incredibly lofty goal, and all told, about a thousand protesters made it down to Wall Street. It seems some element –some unseen ingredient—is missing from America’s climate to spur the great cultural revolution seen in the Arab world. Of course, everyone has a different diagnosis for why the anti-establishment mass protests haven’t hit America’s shores yet.

Austin Mackell, an independent journalist stationed in Egypt, explains that the Arab Spring was a mixture of urban youth and traditional industrial activism. “Many credit the general strike that took place in the last few days before Mubarak’s ouster as critical in amping up the pressure on him.” Basically, he explains, a country needs the newer, sexier image of a young revolution, but it also needs the basic tools of organized, older labor to keep things focused.

Mia Foster says she was curious to check out the Wall Street protest because she was present at the ongoing massive Spanish protests that began in May. RTVE, the Spanish public broadcasting company, estimates that between 6.5 and 8 million Spaniards have participated in the protests thus far. Often compared to the Arab Spring, the Spanish protests demanded radical changes in Spanish politics, and are being waged in response to high unemployment, welfare cuts, Capitalism, and what is perceived as a two-party political duopoly.

“It was organized through Facebook. Then the people decided to stay in [Puerta del Sol] square. We were inspired by the Arab Spring,” she says. “We want real democracy now. It’s a very radical demand. Eighty percent of the population supported the protests, even the right wing. We have worse labor conditions, we don’t have access to houses, and we have twenty percent unemployment.” Incredibly, 125 days later, the protests and occupations in Spain are ongoing.

Of course, Occupy Wall Street didn’t live up to the legacy of Tahrir or Spain. Mia glances around the square where a group of protesters have now gathered to do some yoga and half-heartedly smiles, “I am sure in Spain there are more people in solidarity with this action than are here.”

Matthew Prowless says he doesn’t mind the mixture of causes and affectations –what he calls “window-dressing”– for a far more serious cause. Unlike the majority of the college-aged activists, Matthew is a 40-year-old father of two who says he is attending the protest because he had no other recourse.

“My home has been seized, I’m unemployed, there’s no job prospects on the horizon. I have two children and I don’t see a future for them. This is the only way I see to effect change,” he says. “This isn’t a Progressive issue. This is an American issue. We’re here to take our country back from the corporations,” adding he fears for the future of the United States where corporations can now spend unlimited, anonymous dollars to elect the candidates of their choices.

As for activist yoga, Matthew laughs, saying he likes it. “I’m not here to change every aspect of the world. I’m just here to change the most important part of the world, and that’s elections. The yoga people bring attention to it, and they support our cause.”

Of course, it’s become a cliché to pine for an American Tahrir. Nowhere is it written that a revolution must follow a specific formula in order to be effective. Perhaps America’s revolution won’t happen with a bang as it did in the case of the Arab Spring. It might have already arrived in the form of a gradual drip that began in Wisconsin, and then Ohio, and will arrive tomorrow as a flood in 48 other states.
Copyright © 2011 The Nation

Reform of Egypt's police hits a wall: The police

2011-09-20T16:18:00.008+03:00

Sep 19, 2011
By HAMZA HENDAWI, AP
Source:Yahoo News

CAIRO (AP) — A gang that broke out of prison during the revolution was killing people and robbing merchants in the town of Abu Teeg. So the chief of detectives gave his officers their orders: Do nothing.

"The revolution let them out, so let the people have a taste of their revolution," he said, according to two of the seven officers at the meeting, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals.

For the next four months, residents in the southern Egyptian town say, they appealed repeatedly for help, but were rebuffed by a police force still bitter about its humiliation in the uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak's rule. The gang went on to kill at least seven people, officials and residents believe.

The Egyptian police force has long been hated for its corruption and use of torture, and many Egyptians saw the downfall of the police state as a critical goal of their 18-day uprising.

But current and former officers say some members of the force are thwarting any attempt at change, and in many cases are avenging their fall from power by refusing to do their jobs.

These alleged sanctions are blamed for a surge in crime. According to Interior Ministry figures, there were 36 armed robberies nationwide in January but the figure rose sharply to 420 in July; murders went from 44 to 166, kidnappings from three to 42.

Midlevel officers have "an attitude that borders on mutiny," says Lt. Col. Mohammed Mahfouz, who left the force in late 2009 and now advocates reform.

Their attitude, he told The Associated Press, is that "Egyptians must be taught a lesson before the police come back to the streets. They want people to suffer without effective policing so they realize the prestige of the state is a red line that must not be crossed again."

As far back as the 1952 coup that put the military in power, the police force, now one million-strong, has been a sworn enemy of reform and its advocates.

From street cops to agents of the daunting State Security Agency, policemen were untouchable and intimidation kept order on the streets. Talking back to a policeman could earn a slap on the head or worse. In 2006, in an incident that was filmed and posted on YouTube, a Cairo minibus driver who annoyed an officer was dragged to a station and sodomized with a wooden pole.

Torture was a basic investigative tool. If a car was stolen, police would often round up suspects and beat them until someone confessed. Bribery was common. Rarely was a policeman investigated, much less prosecuted.

And then there was the State Security Agency, an arm of the police that operated at the political level but was seen by the public as just another instrument of police oppression.

The agency was involved in election-rigging to keep the ruling party's in power. It weighed in on the running of universities, trade unions, the media, and even had the final word on appointments of Cabinet ministers, governors and ambassadors.

It also suppressed and spied on the opposition. After Kareem el-Behery, a 27-year-old blogger, helped organize a protest against corruption in April 2008, he was arrested, taken to a basement in a State Security compound and tortured through the night, he said.

It was the casualness of the scene that stunned him, he said. He recalled how his tormenter listened to recordings of recitations from the Quran, Islam's holy book, even as he inflicted electric shocks, then took a prayer break.

"How can you do this to me while listening to the Quran, and then just go and pray?" el-Behery says he asked the officer.

"I'll go and give God what I owe him, then I'll come back and give you what you deserve," the officer replied. "You think I'm an infidel like you?"

The anti-Mubarak uprising shattered the fear barrier.

On Jan. 28, the deadliest day, tens of thousands of protesters withstood water cannons, tear gas and gunfire until overwhelmed police broke and ran.

The next dramatic move came in March, when protesters stormed the main Cairo headquarters and several branch offices of the State Security Agency, aiming to stop the shredding and burning of secret documents.

"It was sweet revenge for all those who have been tortured there over the years," said el-Behery, who was among the protesters.

Since then, momentum has faltered.

Interior Minister Mansour el-Issawi, who heads the police, dissolved the State Security Agency and replaced it with a new body called the National Security Authority, which he vowed would not be involved in politics. However, it has kept on nearly half the staff of the outgoing agency.

Protesters have handed back most of the documents they seized lest they embarrass the victims of State Security's spying. There has been no public airing of the agency's abuses since.

Prosecutors have put 140 police officers on trial for killing protesters during the uprising, and in July, el-Issawi sacked 700 senior officers from the various police branches, including the State Security Agency and the notorious Criminal Investigation Department, but most of them were near retirement anyway.

Many State Security officers whom activists and victims have identified as being involved in torture have simply been transferred to other posts. El-Issawi says their experience is still needed.

He acknowledges that some police were reluctant to shoulder their duties, but denies it's a conspiracy.

He also says police are wary of acting to restore order, because some of those being prosecuted for using lethal force did so to fend off dangerous mobs.

"People who were shot dead while trying to storm police stations are counted as 'martyrs' just like the protesters killed in cold blood," el-Issawi complained in a TV interview.

One group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, has put forward a detailed proposal for reform, starting with a widespread investigation of officers suspected of abuses.

It calls for monitoring police stations for abuses and appointing a civilian as interior minister instead of a career police officer. It says police should get better salaries and crime-fighting technology to blunt the efficacy of bribes and beatings.

So far, the group says, the ministry has shown no interest.

"Many in the police force are filled with a desire for revenge," said the group's head, Hossam Bahgat. "They are convinced that for them to be an effective police force again, fear of the police must be reinstalled in society."

Mahfouz, the former officer, keeps in touch with his colleagues on the force and says most police know no way other than intimidation. "They can only work in a climate that does not respect human rights."

Lt. Col. Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, a serving officer who also heads a reformist group, says that even though Mubarak is ousted and on trial, senior officers have been helping pro-Mubarak businessmen hire thugs who attack pro-democracy demonstrators. The charge, in many variations, has been widely reported by the media and sometimes repeated by officials, but no investigation is known to have taken place.

In Abu Teeg, a farming and trading town of 300,000 people some 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, the five escaped criminals went on a rampage for months. They smuggled drugs and weapons, carried out robberies and settled old blood feuds.

Brig. Mitwali Abdou, who headed Assiut Province's Criminal Investigations Division at the time, denies the charge that he told the seven district chiefs of his division at the Feb. 15 meeting in his office not to pursue the criminals.

Speaking to the AP, Abdou praised the anti-Mubarak uprising, saying "the revolution is a glorious thing."

One of the two officers who described the meeting, a major, said he opposed the order but did not speak up, since that would have meant "swimming against the current."

"It is a decision that saddened me, a decision whose consequences we'll have to live with for years to come," the major told AP.

Desperate residents went to police in Abu Teeg and the nearby provincial capital Assiut, but each time were told to just protect themselves, said a local resident, Younis Darweesh.

Eventually, it was the army that took action, capturing two of the five criminals.

Abdou has been moved to the post of general inspector in October 6 Province, near Cairo. Three of the seven district chiefs at the Feb. 15 meeting have been transferred to the central police headquarters in Assiut following repeated complaints from residents that they were using criminals and thugs to protect police stations.

Abdel-Rahman, the officer and reformist, said the police force's "job has been to protect the (Mubarak) regime, not the people. ... Only a genuine purge of the force will bring reconciliation between the people and the police."

Israeli settlers plan marches on Palestinian towns

2011-09-18T13:08:00.008+03:00

3 hrs, 2 mins ago
Source:JMCC

RAMALLAH, September 18 (JMCC) - Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank say they will "take the initiative" by marching on Palestinian towns, reports Ynet.

The activities planned by nearly 300,000 Jewish settlers living among 2.5 million Palestinians are to start on Tuesday when discussion opens at the United Nations in New York over a Palestinian state. Marches will target Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron.

The settler rallies are set to begin Tuesday afternoon, as participants plan to make their way towards the IDF District Coordination and Liaison Command. A protest is also slated to take place on the streets of Tel Aviv. In addition, right wing extremists are expected to head in the direction of Palestinian communities in order to shift the conflict into PA territories.

The West Bank regional and settlers' councils planned to hold the marches in three separate locations: From Itamar to Nablus, from Beit El to the closest IDF District Coordination and Liaison and from Kiryat Arba to Manoach Mountain.

Tens of thousands of Israeli flags will be distributed by the West Bank regional councils and hung from the settlers' cars.

Gershon Mesika, head of the Shomron Regional Council, remarked that he was not flustered by the Palestinian diplomacy concerning the UN. "Most of the decisions made by the UN during the past decades were against the State of Israel. The entire world has come to realize it's an automatic majority. As Ben-Gurion said, it doesn't matter what the non-Jews say, it only matters what the Jews do."

Hilltop Youth leader Meir Bertler expressed his hope that Israel would annex the West Bank settlements. "As far as we're concerned, we're going to feel right at home in the West Bank, and this week we'll hold marches, begin construction and show our presence in order to make it clear to everyone exactly who this country belongs to."

Far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir stressed that his counterparts will not be "waiting at home so the Arabs might get close to their fences."

"We're going to go out and make it clear to the Arabs who the home owners are. We're going to take the initiative and march towards Palestinian towns."

Could THIS Be the Hidden Factor Behind Obesity, Heart Disease, and Chronic Fatigue?

2011-09-18T10:36:00.013+03:00

September 17 2011
By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a senior scientist at MIT and has been conducting research there for over three decades. However, she also has an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT, and a minor in food and nutrition. She's affiliated with the Weston A. Price Foundation and will be speaking at their November Dallas conference, and so will I. Dr. Seneff has a wealth of information in an area that many are not very knowledgeable about, and that is the importance of sulfur.

Sulfur deficiency is pervasive, and may be a contributing factor in:

* Obesity
* Heart disease
* Alzheimer's disease
* Chronic fatigue
* And more

She also believes conventional medicine is seriously confused about cholesterol, which is closely interrelated with sulfur. Furthermore, healthy cholesterol and sulfur levels are also highly dependent on your vitamin D levels! Here, she discusses the importance and the intricate relationships among these three factors.

Heart Disease May be a Cholesterol Deficiency Problem...

Considering the fact that conventional medicine has been telling us that heart disease is due to elevated cholesterol and recommends lowering cholesterol levels as much as possible, Dr. Seneff's claims may come as a complete shock:

"Heart disease, I think, is a cholesterol deficiency problem, and in particular a cholesterol sulfate deficiency problem..."

She points out that all of this information is available in the research literature, but it requires putting all the pieces together to see the full picture. Through her research, she believes that the mechanism we call "cardiovascular disease," of which arterial plaque is a hallmark, is actually your body's way to compensate for not having enough cholesterol sulfate.

She explains:

"The macrophages in the plaque take up LDL, the small dense LDL particles that have been damaged by sugar... The liver cannot take them back because the receptor can't receive them, because they are gummed with sugar basically. So they're stuck floating in your body... Those macrophages in the plaque do a heroic job in taking that gummed up LDL out of the blood circulation, carefully extracting the cholesterol from it to save it – the cholesterol is important – and then exporting the cholesterol into HDL – HDL A1 in particular... That's the good guy, HDL.

The platelets in the plaque take in HDL A1 cholesterol and they won't take anything else... They take in sulfate, and they produce cholesterol sulfate in the plaque.

The sulfate actually comes from homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine is another risk factor for heart disease. Homocysteine is a source of sulfate. It also involves hemoglobin. You have to consume energy to produce a sulfate from homocysteine, and the red blood cells actually supply the ATP to the plaque.

So everything is there and the intent is to produce cholesterol sulfate and it's done in the arteries feeding the heart, because it's the heart that needs the cholesterol sulfate. If [cholesterol sulfate is not produced]... you end up with heart failure."

So, in a nutshell, high LDL appears to be a sign of cholesterol sulfate deficiency—it's your body's way of trying to maintain the correct balance by taking damaged LDL and turning it into plaque, within which the blood platelets produce the cholesterol sulfate your heart and brain needs for optimal function... What this also means is that when you artificially lower your cholesterol with a statin drug, which effectively reduces that plaque but doesn't address the root problem, your body is not able to compensate any longer, and as a result of lack of cholesterol sulfate you may end up with heart failure.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: How Sun Exposure Impacts Your Sulfur Status

According to the conventional view, high LDL is correlated with heart disease, so the idea is that you can take a statin drug to artificially reduce the LDL and you'll be fine. However, as Dr. Seneff explains, if you have high LDL, it's because your body probably needs it to produce cholesterol sulfate, which your heart requires for optimal function. Hence, when you simply remove the LDL, you also remove your body's "backup" mechanism to keep your heart as healthy as possible, and as a result you get heart failure.

But high LDL is correlated with cardiovascular disease (please note that cardiovascular disease is an entirely different disease category from heart failure, which explains a lot of the confusion on this issue), so how can your body produce cholesterol sulfate without the harmful LDL?

How is it produced under normal, healthy conditions?

This is where sun exposure enters the picture. When you expose your skin to sunshine, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water soluble form can travel freely in your blood stream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport.

Her suspicion is that the simple oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D likely will not provide the same benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate. This is yet another reason to really make a concerted effort to get ALL your vitamin D requirements from exposure to sunshine!

"[S]ulfate actually inactivates vitamin D," Dr. Seneff says. "The sulfated form of vitamin D does not work for calcium transport, which I find very intriguing. And in fact, I think it's the sulfated form for vitamin D that offers the protection from cancer. It strengthens your immune system. It protects you from cardiovascular disease. It's good for your brain. It helps depression. I think all of those effects of vitamin D are effects of vitamin D sulfate."

For those who are still under the mistaken impression that sun exposure is the primary cause of skin cancer, the following explanation may be of great help. In a Weston A. Price article on sulfur,

Dr. Seneff states that:

"Both cholesterol and sulfur afford protection in the skin from radiation damage to the cell's DNA, the kind of damage that can lead to skin cancer. Cholesterol and sulfur become oxidized upon exposure to the high frequency rays in sunlight, thus acting as antioxidants to "take the heat," so to speak. Oxidation of cholesterol is the first step in the process by which cholesterol transforms itself into vitamin D3."

As I've stated before, your body was designed to be exposed to the rays of the sun, and your skin contains all the necessary mechanisms to extract or produce beneficial nutrients from it while simultaneously shielding itself from harm. When you circumvent this natural process, either by using sunblock or staying out of the sun entirely, you lose all the health benefits, and give a variety of disease processes free reign.

Cholesterol Sulfate—The Link Between Obesity and Lack of Sun Exposure?

Furthermore, your skin also produces huge amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is also water soluble and provides a healthy barrier against bacteria and other potentially disease-causing pathogens that might otherwise enter your body through your skin. And, due to its polarity, it can enter both fat cells and muscle cells with equal ease. Dr. Seneff proposes that, because of this, cholesterol sulfate may be able to protect fat and muscle cells from glucose and oxygen damage.

She also argues that when you're deficient in cholesterol sulfate, your muscle and fat cells become more prone to damage, which subsequently can lead to glucose intolerance; a condition where your muscles cannot process glucose as a fuel. As a result, your fat cells have to store more fat in order to supply fuel to your muscles, and excess fat accumulates as damage increases.

Sulfur also plays an important role in glucose metabolism. She hypothesizes that if sufficient amounts of sulfur is available, it will act as a decoy to glucose, effectively diverting it to reduce the sulfur rather than glycating and causing damage. This would have the beneficial effect of reducing inflammation, as sugar (glucose) is highly inflammatory and wreaks havoc in your body.

The Many Roles of Sulfur

Overall, sulfate appears to be a highly underestimated molecule with vast health implications. Dr. Seneff discusses her findings in great detail, but offers the following analogy:

"[I]f you breakdown the sulfate you will release energy, which means that the sulfate is actually absorbing the energy from light... I think of the skin as a battery – or solar panel you might say – taking in the sun's energy and saving it in the form of the sulfate molecule storing the energy in the sun."

It seems logical that humans would have some capacity to absorb energy from the sun directly, but this is the first time I've heard of a molecular explanation for this capacity!

"I have a lot of thoughts about what sulfate does," Dr. Seneff says. "One thing I'm quite sure of is that cholesterol sulfate is highly protective against bacterial and virus invasions. That's why sun exposure protects you from infection. It strengthens your immune system. That cholesterol sulfate is incredibly important to immunity."

Sulfur also plays a vital role in the structure and biological activity of both proteins and enzymes. If you don't have sufficient amounts of sulfur in your body, this deficiency can cascade into a number of health problems as it will affect bones, joints, connective tissues, metabolic processes, and more.

Other areas where sulfur plays an important role include:

* Your body's electron transport system, as part of iron/sulfur proteins in mitochondria, the energy factories of your cells
* Vitamin-B thiamine (B1) and biotin conversion, which in turn are essential for converting carbohydrates into energy
* Synthesizing important metabolic intermediates, such as glutathione
* Proper insulin function. The insulin molecule consists of two amino acid chains connected to each other by sulfur bridges, without which the insulin cannot perform its biological activity
* Detoxification

Sulfate—Essential for Babies

Cholesterol sulfate is also essential for babies in utero. A woman has about 1.5 units of cholesterol sulfate normally in her blood. When she gets pregnant, her blood levels of cholesterol sulfate steadily rise, and it also begins to accumulate in the villi in the placenta—which is where nutrients are transferred from the placenta to the baby. At the end of pregnancy the cholesterol sulfate in the villi rises to levels of about 24 units!

Colostrum also contains high levels of sulfur, even more than the breast milk itself. So clearly, nature seeks to provide the baby with plenty of both sulfur and cholesterol at the time of birth. Interestingly enough, when a mother has high serum cholesterol, the baby's levels are typically low.

Why?

Dr. Seneff explains:

"[Because] it can't get through. The mother has high serum cholesterol I think because she has low serum cholesterol sulfate. I think the two go together. The way to bring down your LDL in a healthy way is to get sunlight exposure on your skin. Your skin will produce cholesterol sulfate, which will then flow freely to the blood—not packaged up inside LDL—and therefore your liver doesn't have to make so much LDL. So the LDL goes down.

In fact... there is a complete inverse relationship between sunlight and cardiovascular disease – the more sunlight, the less cardiovascular disease."

Now, when a baby is born of a mother who has high cholesterol and low cholesterol sulfate, the baby's cholesterol will be low, but will also have fatty deposits in its arteries...despite the fact that fatty deposits are supposed to be associated with high cholesterol.

"The deposits are there, I think, to start this cholesterol sulfate program that's replacing the one that isn't happening..." Dr. Senneff explains. "Children who have adequate cholesterol sulfate delivered from their mother do not have fatty deposits... It's bizarre, but the high cholesterol associated with fatty deposits in the adult (that's causing heart disease) is a solution, not a cause."

This is a complete turnaround in thinking compared to the conventional paradigm!

Furthermore:

"The worst thing you can do is to clobber the LDL... because you're going to end up with heart failure," Dr. Seneff says..

Dietary Sources of Sulfur

Sulfur is derived almost exclusively from dietary protein, such as fish and high-quality (organic and/or grass-fed/pastured) beef and poultry. Meat and fish are considered "complete" as they contain all the sulfur-containing amino acids you need to produce new protein. Needless to say, those who abstain from animal protein are placing themselves at far greater risk of sulfur deficiency.

Coconut oil and olive oil also contain sulfur (and are ideal sources of healthful saturated fats too). Other dietary sources that contain small amounts of sulfur IF the food was grown in soil that contains adequate amounts of sulfur, include:

Organic pastured eggs Legumes Garlic Onion
Brussel sprouts Asparagus Kale Wheat germ

Any diet high in grains and processed foods is likely to be deficient in sulfur, because once whole foods are processed, sulfur is lost. Additionally, soils around the world are becoming increasingly sulfur-depleted, resulting in less sulfur-rich foods overall. Hard water also tends to contain more sulfur than soft water, which, according to Dr. Seneff, may be why people who drink soft water are at greater risk of developing heart disease.

In addition to making sure you're getting high amounts of sulfur-rich foods in your diet, Dr. Seneff recommends soaking your body in magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) baths to compensate and counteract sulfur deficiency. She uses about ¼ cup in a tub of water, twice a week. It's particularly useful if you have joint problems or arthritis.

As for supplements, methylsulfonylmethane, commonly known by its acronym, MSM, is an option. MSM is an organic form of sulfur and a potent antioxidant, naturally found in many plants.

A Parent's Horrid Nightmare: Coming Soon to YOUR State?

2011-09-17T11:53:00.008+03:00

September 16 2011
By Dr. Mercola

The state of California has just passed bill AB499, which will permit minor children as young as 12 years old to be vaccinated with sexually transmitted disease vaccines like Gardasil without parental knowledge or parental consent. This means that if you live in California, school or medical personnel would be allowed to vaccinate your child against an STD without your ever knowing it.

At issue, of course, is whether 12-year-olds are mature enough to fully analyze the benefits versus risks of vaccination (or any medical treatment for that matter), or recognize the alternatives to STD prevention, such as abstinence. Meanwhile, a child could suffer a vaccine reaction and the parent, not knowing the child had been vaccinated, could mistake it for the flu or another condition, delaying getting help until it is too late.

But, perhaps the greatest issue of all is whether this law violates your basic right to be involved in important decisions regarding your child's health.

How Can Parental Consent be Completely Ignored?

As Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) has stated, informed consent is a human right.

"The right to voluntary, informed consent to a medical intervention, including use of a pharmaceutical product such as a vaccine that can injure or kill you or your child, is a human right. While the State may have the legal authority to mandate use of vaccines, nobody has the moral authority to FORCE you to get vaccinated or vaccinate your child without your voluntary, informed consent," she says.

We as parents, who know and love our children better than anyone else, we, by U.S. law and a larger moral imperative, are the guardians of our children until they are old enough to make life and death decisions for themselves. We are responsible for their welfare and we are the ones who bear the grief and the burden when they are injured or die from any cause.

We are their voice and by all that is right in this great country and in the moral universe, we should be allowed to make a rational, informed, voluntary decision about which diseases and which vaccines we are willing to risk their lives for -- without fearing retribution from physicians employed by the state."

Not only does AB499 remove a parent's right to give their informed consent, but parents will not even have the right to be informed if their child is vaccinated. As Age of Autism recently reported, this could be disastrous for the child's well-being for a number of reasons:

* “A child will most likely not know his or her family history of allergies, autoimmune diseases, or adverse reactions to other vaccines or medications, all of which are essential to consider before the administration of any vaccine.
* A child is not capable of weighing the risks and benefits of vaccination, and under this bill, a parent will not be present to ask the appropriate questions to elicit this important risk/benefit information.
* A child can be easily swayed by a person of authority, his or her peers, and by misinformation
* ... Who will determine if the child falls within the category of those who should not be vaccinated on the label (especially in the absence of the child's medical records and the child's parent)?”

Informed consent is especially important when it comes to vaccination, because there is no way for you or your physician to predict if your child will be one of the children who has a devastating vaccine reaction, such as brain inflammation, immune dysregulation, or even death.

AB499 More About Profits than Health

Pharmaceutical and medical lobbyists were heavily involved in pushing AB499 through the state legislature. After all, by stripping parents of their right to make informed decisions about medical procedures that could harm their children, they have tapped a new market for their Gardasil vaccine. And, at a cost of $108 per dose to the government, Merck, the vaccine's manufacturer, stands to profit handsomely.

Meanwhile, California taxpayers will likely foot the bill for the multi-millions of dollars this law will cost to implement. Parents are NOT responsible for the costs (how could they be if they're not even informed that a vaccine was given?), so the bulk will come from the government (i.e. the taxpayers). As Fisher states:

"This proposed law would cost the cash-strapped state of California multi-millions of dollars to implement. Most of that money will go to Merck and other vaccine corporations to pay for multiple doses of each vaccine that will be aggressively promoted to young children, who are not yet physically, mentally or emotionally mature enough to make fully informed decisions about risk-taking, including whether or not to take a medical risk."

Further, has anyone considered who will be held responsible if a child is permanently injured or killed from receiving a vaccination without their parents' consent? Neither physicians nor drug companies have any legal liability, so the parents will ultimately be the ones who will have to carry the financial burden if their child suffers damage from the vaccine.

If You Live in California, Talk to Your Child About Gardasil Risks!

You have the legal right to know the risks and complications of vaccines BEFORE you make the choice of whether or not to allow your child to be vaccinated. If you live in California, this right may soon be taken away, unless you ACT NOW to stop the Governor from signing it into law. Still, it would be prudent to discuss this issue with your child now, before they are given the opportunity to receive this vaccine, so they will be able to make an educated decision when and if the time comes.

In the four short years since Gardasil came on the market, there have been more than 21,000 reported incidents of adverse effects and death, despite the fact that only two out of every 10 women in the approved age group have gotten the vaccine so far.

Add to this the fact that an estimated 90 to 99 percent of all adverse effects are never reported, and the abnormally large risks of the HPV vaccine compared to other vaccines should give most people reason to pause. Further, you and your child should know that:

* Gardasil is NOT a cancer vaccine. It is simply a vaccine for two strains of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) that in some instances can lead to cancer in some women (Gardasil's other two HPV strains are for genital warts, which don't cause cancer). There is absolutely no proof and no clinical trials that show Gardasil protects against cancer in the long-term.
* Since there are at least 15 HPV strains that can lead to cancer, Gardasil-vaccinated girls can still get cervical cancer from the other 13 HPV strains not contained in the vaccine.
* The vaccine doesn't work if you've already been infected with the HPV strains in the vaccine.

In the United States, infection with HPV is very common, and it is estimated that about 20 million Americans have an HPV infection at any given time. In fact, HPV is so common that most sexually active people will get it at some time in their lives.

The important thing to know about HPV is that in almost all cases, it clears up on its own without any adverse health effects within two years in most healthy people. So not only is the HPV vaccine one of the most unnecessary vaccines on the market, it is also the most dangerous! If AB499 is not vetoed, it's important, if you live in California, to arm your children with these facts in advance.

Urgent Action Alert for ALL Parents

If California parents can be stripped of their legal right to make informed medical decisions for their minor children, so too can parents in any state. I encourage you to get involved with the work that NVIC is doing to protect your right to choose which vaccines you want your children to get, including the legal right to use all, some, or no vaccines at all.

Register for the free NVIC Advocacy Portal that educates you about how to communicate effectively with your elected state representatives and protect vaccine exemptions in your state. Stay informed about what is happening in your state and make your voice heard.

Go to www.NVICAdvocacy.org and register today to take action.

For those of you who live in California, it is imperative that you take part in NVIC's urgent action alert. If Governor Brown does not veto AB499, vaccine exemptions for sexually transmitted disease vaccines become NULL and VOID in California. Please take just 5 minutes to help support this cause by:

* Forwarding NVIC’s Urgent Action Alert to everyone you know
* Posting the link to this alert on Facebook, blogs, or other social media sites:

http://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/VetoAB499.aspx
* Contact Governor Jerry Brown and ask him to VETO AB499. The most effective way is to call the Governor’s office. They’ve already added a simple voicemail button for a "yes" or "no" vote on the legislation.
o Call: (916) 445-2841
o Fax: (916) 558-3160
o Email Web Form: http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php
* Register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal so you can receive updates

The more people who get involved, the better chance there is that California will get the message that parents will not lie down while their parental rights are removed. Together we can make a difference and keep this legislation from standing, and influencing the right to informed consent in the rest of the United States as well.

Our entire country needs to come together and send the state government of California the strong message: Keep your hands off our kids!

Israel's Lieberman 'plans to punish Turkey'

2011-09-11T14:56:00.005+03:00

10/09/2011
Source:maannews.net

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israel's foreign ministry has prepared a series of "harsh measures" to "punish" Turkey's leadership for diplomatic slights, Israeli media reported Friday.

Israel will facilitate cooperation with the Armenians, Turkey's historic rivals, and may even lobby for international recognition of the Armenian holocaust, the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is also planning to meet with Kurdish rebels in Europe in order to “cooperate with them and boost them in every possible area,” Yedioth's English website said.

"We’ll exact a price from Erdogan that will prove to him that messing with Israel doesn’t pay off," Lieberman was quoted as saying. "Turkey better treat us with respect and common decency."

Another means in Lieberman’s “toolbox,” according to the news site Ynet, is a diplomatic campaign where Israeli missions worldwide will be instructed to report Turkish moves against minorities.

The diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel that was sparked by the flotilla raid took a turn for the worse in the last week, following publication of a UN probe into the incident, which found Israel's naval blockade to be legal although it chastised Israel for using "excessive" force in the raid.

Israel has so far refused to apologize for the bloodshed and called the report's conclusions a vindication of its stance, deeply angering Turkey.

Turkey responded to the report by expelling Israel's ambassador, suspending military agreements with Israel and warning it was considering lodging a legal case against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, vowed to accompany any future aid flotillas to Gaza with naval warships, Al Jazeera television quoted him as saying Thursday.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak played down the diplomatic crisis, saying the dispute "will pass."

But he reiterated his government's line that Israel would not apologize for the operation, which targeted a flotilla of ships trying to break Israel's naval blockade on Gaza, and cost the lives of nine Turkish nationals.

"The current wave will pass, I am sure that we will get over all this," he told public radio just days after Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended all military ties and defense trade.

"Turkey is not an enemy of Israel."

"Both we and the Turks know the reality: our two countries are very important to the West. The real problem for the West in this region is Syria, and what is happening in Egypt and Iran, not Turkey," he added.

The minister admitted once again that "errors may have occurred in the way in which force was used" when naval commandos boarded the Turkish ferry leading the flotilla.

But Barak stressed that Israel had already expressed its "regret" over the loss of human life without making the formal apology that Turkey has demanded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday insisted he wanted to mend the split with Turkey but also praised forces who took part the naval operation.
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Israel evacuates ambassador to Egypt after embassy attack

2011-09-10T21:56:00.011+03:00

10 September 2011
David Batty and agencies
Source:guardian.co.uk

Israel has evacuated its Egyptian ambassador after crowds stormed the embassy in Cairo, plunging Egypt's ruling army deeper into its worst diplomatic crisis since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian prime minister Essam Sharaf is holding a crisis cabinet meeting and a state of alert has been declared as protesters remain on the streets following the violence on Friday, burning tyres and chanting slogans against the governing military council.

A senior Egyptian official says at least three people died and more than 1,000 were hurt during street clashes with police and army troops after an angry mob attacked the embassy building.

Deputy health minister, Hamid Abaza, says one of the three fatalities in the violence late on Friday was a man who died of a heart attack.

Abaza told The Associated Press on Saturday he doesn't know the cause of the other two deaths. He says at least 1,093 people were injured in the clashes.

The protesters pelted the police and the military with rocks, prompting the troops to fire tear gas and shoot into the air. Only 38 of the injured remained in hospital.

Earlier, the protesters tore down a security wall outside the Israeli mission and stormed the embassy's offices.

Police fired shots in the air and teargas to disperse the crowd. Early on Saturday morning around 500 demonstrators remained near the embassy, which overlooks the Nile, and a few threw stones at police and army vehicles. But police gradually pushed them back and secured the area.

An Israeli official said the rampage marked a further deterioration of diplomatic ties between Israel and Egypt since the fall of Mubarak.

The Israeli ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and most of the staff and their dependents some 80 people were evacuated out of the country by military aircraft overnight, the official added. Only the deputy ambassador remains in Egypt.

"That the government of Egypt ultimately acted to rescue our people is noteworthy and we are thankful," the official said. "But what happened is a blow to the peaceful relations, and of course, a grave violation of accepted diplomatic behaviour between sovereign states."

The incident was the second major eruption of violence at the embassy since five Egyptian border guards were killed last month during an Israeli operation against gunmen. That incident prompted Egypt briefly to threaten to withdraw its envoy.

"This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers," Egyptian political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah said.

Israel is already embroiled in a diplomatic feud with Turkey, formerly one of its closest allies, over Israel's armed assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine people were killed.

Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy called for the army to take a "serious stance matching the public anger" towards Israel but said violence sullied the image of Egypt's uprising.

Last month a man climbed up a flagpole on the Israeli embassy and took down the flag, replacing it with the Egyptian flag. Protests continued until Friday's violence.